—
“You can go in, if you want to,” Greg offered.
Zac shook his head. He was a funny dragon. Greg knew a few dragons, and though they were all different, Zac seemed different from them. He’d declined to join his boyfriend in fucking Grey Rain, for one. “No,” said Zac. “I’m okay out here.”
He was also wearing clothes and knitting, which weren’t things that Greg thought of dragons as doing. He was really friendly and not very aggressive, but that wasn’t as unusual as dragons liked to make it seem. The fact that he seemed to like clothes so much was interesting to Greg, who also liked wearing clothes. “Okay,” Greg said. “What are you knitting?”
“A hat,” Zac said, shifting in his chair. His wings and tail must make it hard to sit in chairs. Greg wasn’t sure he’d ever seen a dragon sit in a chair, now that he was thinking about it.
It didn’t seem like he wanted to talk, so Greg just nodded. “I’m sure it’ll be very nice when it’s finished,” he said, looking back down at his drawing.
“Thanks. What are you drawing?”
Oh, he did want to talk. “You and Silver,” he said, embarrassed. “It’s not very good, though.”
“I’m sure it is,” Zac said. He got up and came over, peering at the drawing. “It looks just like us!”
Greg was pretty sure it didn’t and not just because he hadn’t drawn the faces yet. “Thank you. I didn’t know dragons could knit.”
“Dragons can do whatever they want,” Zac said, and Greg couldn’t help but smile. That was a very dragon-like thing to say. “I taught myself.”
“That must have been very hard,” Greg said. He didn’t know how to knit but it looked hard.
“It was. I had some knitted stuff and I just looked at it until I figured out how it worked,” Zac said smugly. “But now I’m great at it. I make lots of clothes. I can sew too.”
“That’s really cool,” Greg said. “Is it fun?”
“I guess so. I like being able to make things for people I like. Is drawing fun?”
Greg wasn’t sure. “It’s relaxing,” he said, which was probably a bad answer.
A yelp came from Grey Rain’s bedroom, and Greg briefly looked up. So did Zac. “I guess they’re having fun,” Zac said.
“I guess so,” Greg agreed. “Are you sure you don’t want to go in?”
“Nah, I’m fine. Don’t you?”
“Maybe later,” Greg said. “Should I draw you wearing your hat?” The drawing was for Zac, but Greg hadn’t told him that yet.
“Uh…well, it’s for you, actually.”
“Oh.” Greg blushed a little. “That’s very kind of you. This drawing is for you.”
Zac went a little red too. “Thank you,” he said.
Greg nodded. Being different from other dragons made Zac really nice to be around.
—
How Best to Use a Sword 