Author's Note: TANGENTS. STOP MAKING MY MIND WANDER!
Rivalry
There had always been rivalry between the Blue-Eyes White Dragons and the Red-Eyes Black Dragons. The larger, more powerful dragons had always been more aggressive, whether it came from territorial fights or courtship, and the black dragons had only responded in kind—unless they were carrying eggs. Then they were vicious.
Joey had always been one of the loudest in doing so, though. "Gah! Lemme go, bastard!"
Seto curled his tail around the smaller dragon and hummed. "Hush. You'll disturb the eggs."
"I gotta pee!" the black dragon whined, squirming. "Lemme go, asshole!"
"You can hold it a little while longer."
"
I'll pee on you."
The white dragon immediately withdrew his tail, frowning. "You should go before settling to sleep."
"I
did go before we settled," Joey grumbled, waddling out of the cave. "These eggs keep pressin' on my bladder weird."
Seto held back the comment that perhaps the fact that he didn't actually lay his eggs had something to do with it. He'd made that mistake before and, in a fit of rage and mood-swinging hormones, Joey had burst into tears and begun slapping him with his big claws, saying it wasn't his fault that his species of dragon were ovivipary and he would have
loved to make a nest like all of the other white dragons and lay the eggs and take care of them and heat them and cuddle them.
Seto hadn't actually realized what it meant to black dragons. He'd always figured they got more aggressive toward white dragons during pregnancy because of the hormones, not because they were jealous. But he'd seen the way Joey had stared longingly as a couple of white dragons had begun to make a nest in their den, had seen the way he nuzzled other dragons' eggs when he babysat for them. He was jealous. He
wanted to make a nest and snuggle with the eggs. He just… wasn't capable of it.
Black dragons were desert-dwellers by nature and didn't make nests, instead having their kits follow them like baby ducks as their nomadic instincts led them from oasis to oasis. Still, as the black dragons had leaked into tropic valleys and mountains rather than the arid deserts, they had been open to learning new ways.
But Joey couldn't do the things he wanted to do like nest and cuddle eggs. The eggs were inside of him and his instincts would drive him to lead them to a different den after they'd been fed their first meals, so he couldn't even make a nest for them to enjoy.
Seto lifted one of his wings and his tail as the black dragon waddled back over to him, laying his wing across his back and curling his tail around him gently. He grunted as the smaller dragon rolled over against him. "Ow."
Joey rolled onto his back and groaned. "There are only a half a dozen eggs in me, so why are they heavyyyy?" He wiggled uncomfortably. "Help!"
The white dragon sat up a little and reached over him to pull him up against his side, supporting a little of his weight. "Is this better?"
Joey whined. "A little. Seto, you never get to have sex with me during my heat again."
To say he was disgruntled was an understatement. "Say what?"
"You can have sex with me when I'm not in heat," the black dragon offered.
The larger male frowned. "…What if we decide we want more kits?" He hadn't told his mate yet, but as he'd come from a small family, he wanted lots of kits.
Lots of them.
Joey scowled. "If we decide we want more, than of course ya can have sex with me durin' my heat. Are you an idiot?"
Seto paused. "…I might be. A little."
"What if we want more kits, can I have sex with ya then, what sort of stupid are you?" the smaller dragon grumbled. He squirmed to lean more of his weight on the white scales. "'s almost enough t' make me go tell Yugi and Yami what a terrible mate ya are."
Seto frowned. "Why
don't you tell them?"
Joey hummed, lips curling up into a grin that exposed all of his sharp teeth. "'cause then they'd blabber it t' everyone, and I
like watchin' ya beat up all those other males when they hit on me, and if they knew I was taken, they wouldn't do it!"
"You like watching me beat every potential rival away from you?" The dragon pursed his lips (quite a comedic expression for a dragon, but it still conveyed annoyance). "You sadistic little bitch."
"I like watching my mate protect me from those big scary meanies that only wanna hump me and dump me," Joey cooed.
Seto was disgruntled but had to admit that knowing his mate enjoyed being protected by him gave him a rather… warm and fuzzy feeling. He liked it quite a lot.
"You're lucky you're cute," he mumbled after a moment, laying his head over the black dragon's neck. "Otherwise I'd never put up with this."
Joey purred. "I suppose carryin' your kits has nothin' t' do with it."
"I've seen a mama duck with her ducklings. I think watching them follow you around will be adorable." Seto smiled a little. "Knowing I helped make them just makes it more special."
The black dragon snuggled closer, trembling with the want to laugh at his sudden realization that Seto sometimes followed him around like a baby duck, too.
And to think their relationship had started with a bitter rivalry over who was stronger!
