A Boy and his Dragon

"Trust me, okay? They will love you as my friend." Tan said, because it was true. He went over to Jiro and put his hands either side of the boys face and stroked it softly. "I know them, as my boyfriend they will be so weird. But as my friend, as someone I'm helping, they know you're special already or they wouldn't have let me leave, would they?"

Jiro looked into Tan's eyes. "I'm missing something here," he said quietly. But he didn't know what it was. And he wasn't sure he wanted to find out just yet so he pushed it out of his mind and took a deep breath. "If you say that it will be okay then I will trust you."

"You're missing my lips against yours," Tan said with a smile he would go that way with it, rather than confuse Jiro more. He leaned in and kissed him so softly and sweetly.

And that's when it happened.

Knock knock.

"Aw, man... Their timing is fail." Tan said with a small sigh as he pulled away from Jiro, which was always difficult. He went over to the door and grinned real big as he answered.

He didn't get a chance to say hi, or to greet his twin before his dad grabbed him up and stepped inside the small place crushing him to near death. "Oh gosh, dad. Your hair is white..."

Jiro stayed sitting on the counter when the Tan went to answer the door. He knew how much Tan was missing his family. He felt the same pain inside his own heart. But he wouldn't see his family ever again. If he could, he knew he'd want a moment, so he was giving that moment to Tan and just watching from afar. For now.

"Really?" Ermes asked, laughing as Ryuu squished the heck out of their son. She hadn't expected that out of him. Not completely. He was hard to predict.

Seiichi chuckled quietly. "Figures," he said, amused. He wanted to grab up his twin and give him a nice hug. "Don't squeeze the soul out of him," he said quietly.

"How selfish of me," Ryuu chuckled softly as he clung to his boy. He had missed him so much, so much that it had hurt. He'd stopped dying his hair, hence why it was white. He let go, "hug your mother before you hug your twin."

" Sure, dad." Tan said, he did go and hug his mum, but he'd had a lot of time with her recently and right now all he wanted was Seiichi. "Twinner," he said and tackled him for hugs too.

Ryuu had been watching Jiro hang back. He wasn't surprised. "It's so nice to see you," he said as he walked over, because he didn't care for awkward. Jiro would be comfortable soon enough, he had been only a little older than this when they had first met. "I hope that Tanjiro hasn't been too much trouble," he said as he got close. He might have shook Jiro's hand, but instead he embraced him too.

Ermes was not going to be selfish and try and keep her son to herself right now. She wanted to as she missed him dearly and it was hard having him away from home. She was happy to get her hugs from him but she let him go to his twin easily and went inside to watch Ryuu with Jiro.

Jiro stiffened in surprise. He was shocked by how familiarly Ryuu treated him. He didn't say "nice to meet you" but nice to see you. He didn't think anything of that even if he did notice the wording. "Nice to meet you, Sir," he said in response, giving him a quick and awkward hug because he didn't feel comfortable doing more. "He's not been trouble."

Seiichi laughed. He hugged on tight to his twin. "Hey," he said happily. " Miss me much?" He could tell that Tan did and he was happy for it. He would have been insulted if he wasn't missed as much as he missed his twin.

"And you, but please. Call me Ryuu, we are not a formal family. This is my wife, Ermes." Ryuu said and brought her closer. He wasn't sure how she was going to feel about all of thisthis.

"I cry myself to sleep some nights," Tan said almost seriously so that Seiichi wouldn't know if he was being truthful or not. "It's really weird for me to be away from other half so much. Like a part of me is missing."

Jiro looked at Ermes. He thought that Tan looked a lot like his mother with his blue hair. He could see where the dragon and such came from. "Hello," he said quietly to Ermes.

"Hello, sweetie," Ermes said with a smile. It was definitely weird and hard on her. It would be for husband too but it was a different sort of struggle. He'd lost his friend through this. She'd lost a friend and lover. She couldn't be happier than she was with Ryuu but there was still a pain in her heart seeing Jiro like he was now.

"Yeah I know the feeling," Seiichi said. "I don't cry for you," he added and looked seriously but then grinned. "I don't like it though," he added. "It's weird not having you about. But you do what you gotta do and I'll do the same. As long as you're happy."

"I'm glad to hear it. Shall we sit down and eat then?" Ryuu asked, he tried to not pay attention to his wife and however she would be feeling right now or it would make him pissy as fuck.

"Bitch." Tan said and shoved Seiichi for being rude. "I'm just lonely sometimes. That's all. But I'm glad I'm helping rather than being a butt head and living off our parents," he smirked but then dragged his twin to the dining room table.

"Yes," Jiro said. He went over and sat at his usual chair. He knew which one would be his. He still felt a little strange and odd.

Ermes gave her husband a little kiss on the cheek to keep him calm. They were both having a hard time and they were both trying. This was supposed to be a happy thing and she wanted it to stay that way. They got to see their son and Jiro. Should be a win/win.

"Excuse me," Seiichi said in protest. "I am not a leech!" His brother was such a little jerk sometimes. In a fun way most of the time though. He sat down in the chair he'd been guided to and just waited to see how his parents were going to handle all of this.

"We are really sorry to hear about your family, Jiro." Ryuu said as he sat down, he didn't mean to bring it up to upset. But make sure he knew they cared. "I hope than having Tan around has made the grieving process easier?"

"uh huh," Tan said to his twin, he was just playing though. He was watching Jiro to make sure he wasn't too upset. "I made your favourite." He said to Seiichi and pushed the plate of whatever his favourite was.

"Oh..." Jiro said quietly because he'd expected them to say something about it. Everyone did. His parents had been well known on their own. The incident was something even most people were still talking about on top of that. No surprises. "He has," he added.

"We're very happy to hear that," Ermes said. Not about his parents of course but about their son helping him through the process of grieving.

"You can't bribe me with food," Seiichi said to his brother with a look. "Much," he added as he glanced down at the food and caught a whiff of how good it smelled.

"Especially as that's why he is here at all, so long as he's looking after you, that's what matters." Ryuu said with a small smile. As much as it hurt for them to not have their boy, this was important.

"Liar, I so can." Tan said and laughed, but he was worried that Jiro was going to get upset. He was sat next to him so he just squeezed his knee softly.

"Okay," Jiro replied. He didn't understand what was going on fully. He didn't know why Tan had decided to pick him to keep him company when he'd had a perfectly normal human ish life going on. It didn't make any sense to him at all. But he didn't want to say anything and insult them. He glanced at Tan and then looked down at his plate.

Seiichi was perfectly content to just sit there and watch his parents. He remembered about as much as Tan did about their uncle. It was kind of odd. And there was tension but with Ermes there things couldn't get too out of hand.

"So, Tanjiro says you enjoy art? He actually gave me one of the paintings you did of him, it's wonderful." Ryuu said, trying to avoid that awkward. It was so difficult for him.

Tan said nothing, he hoped he wasn't in trouble for doing that. But he'd just have to wait and find out in fairness.

"You took it?" Jiro asked as he looked at Tan. He wasn't angry. He was just surprised. "You can keep it if you want to. I have a lot of paintings and drawings." And he didn't have enough space to keep them all so it was just as well.

"It was a very pretty sketch," Ermes said, happy that Jiro wasn't angry that it had been given away without his permission. "What do you like to draw?"

"Just things I see," Jiro replied.

"Yeah, I did. It was just something I thought dad would like is all, hope you don't mind." Tan said, he didn't think that Jiro was mad, but you know. Manners.

"I love your work, actually. So if you have others that Tan can send home, I wouldn't mind." Ryuu said, he didn't make a big deal about seeing things. Because he knew. Then he realised he shouldn't so he sipped his drink and swallowed. "What things do you see? Like trees and flowers?"

Jiro had never been open with his gift because his parents had told him to keep it quiet. They were too high profile of a family and such a useful gift could have caused multiple kidnapping attempts or something. He'd only half paid attention to their reasons.

So he didn't comment. "Just things," he said quietly. "You can have which ever ones you want. I'm not attached to most of them." He wouldn't care. He'd let Tan pick some out and give them to his parents.

"That's very kind of you, we love art." Ryuu said, really he meant that he loved Jiro's art, they had many. "Perhaps we shall make sure you have easels and canvases to paint on?"

"Cool, can I have some?" Tan asked, he liked art. Not as much as Jiro, but he did.

"No, " Ryuu said jokingly.

Ermes smiled a little bit at that. She knew that Ryuu was just kidding. The boys surely did as well.

"Don't worry; I'll smuggle you some," Ermes said with a little grin. Like his dad could stop him. He could fly. Ryuu couldn't.

Jiro just watched this exchange. "You don't have to do that," he said to Ryuu then after a moment. "My parents left behind plenty to provide for me. I don't need you to buy anything."

"I know, Jiro. But if you're painting for me, then I would like to provide the tools and such so that you don't have to use your own things." Ryuu said, he gave no shits if Jiro's pretend parents left him million upon millions. He'd do what he wanted.

"Nice," Tan said to his mum with a grin. "Just accept them, Jiro or they'll pile up in the corner and get wasted and it'll be a sad day when art materials are left to gather dust."

Jiro looked between Tan and Ryuu. "Yes, all right. If you wish then." There didn't seem to be much reason to fight it. Not when it appeared that it was going to happen anyway.

"I do, thank you." Ryuu said, he smiled happily. He continued to eat. "How is school, Jiro?" He was still or an age that required schooling.

Tan snorted and just silently ate his food. He wasn't going to pipe in on that one. Jiro was so smart but didn't like to apply it in the right places

Jiro shrugged. "The classes here are smaller than in my previous school." That was really all he had to say about it. "Tan is tutoring me."

"You have the patience for that?" Seiichi asked. Tan might have liked learning but he'd been a hyper baby. He couldn't picture him as a tutor even if he was smart.

"And how is that going?" Ermes asked her son. She assumed they studied in this cute little tree house. There were lots of books and all.

"Honestly? I have little patience when Jiro is being annoying, he doesn't like to apply his intelligence but I've learned how to bribe him, with apples." Tan shrugged, it was about the only way.

"Hm," Ryuu chuckled, he couldn't really say more than that. He knew how difficult Jiro could be.