I had made an effort to look somewhat decent today, as I couldn’t help but think I had a crush on Erina. She seemed just so...alive? Which is sort of an attractive thing to an undead it seems, plus she seemed more than happy to accept me. I was dressed in a short grey skirt, leggings, and a pink polo shirt. I messaged her that I’d meet her out at the front of the dorm building to save her getting lost trying to find my room. Which is where I currently am, leaning against one of the pillars.

It was a little past 10 when she made her arrival, descending from the sky with a flutter of her scaly wings, bending her knees on touchdown before returning to her full height, which was only a little taller than me. She was wearing a long coat over a black sweater and a leather skirt with buttons running down the front. She brushes herself off before giving me a little wave and trotting over to me. I was a little shocked by her entry, I hadn’t seen her at her full wingspan before.

“Hi Sylvie?” she giggles slightly at my slack jawed expression. “You’ll catch flies like that. Understandable though, I never quite get over surprising people like that”

“Your wingspan is so impressive! I thought they were smaller” I dart around her back, admiring the dark red sheen to them. “Can I touch them?” She blushes slightly.

“Ye-yeah, I can sorta shrink them” I place my fingertips on the back of her leathery wings. They were warm to the touch, with plenty of muscle and a bit of bone.

“Shall we go inside? If you’re anything like Colin you probably don’t like the cold”

“Colin? And yes, not a fan of the cold. I can certainly stand it but it makes me feel..” she shivers “lethargic”

I move forward and hold the door open. “You’ll meet Colin very shortly” I smile at her as she retracts her wings and walks in.

After a brief ride in the lift we reach the top floor of the dorm building and she follows me to my room, she pauses briefly at the painting as I fumble with my card. The door buzzes and the locks disengage. I hold the door open for her, smiling gently.

“Sit wherever you want” I run over to Colin’s enclosure and lift the guy up. He’s hiding in his shell, probably asleep. I present him to Erina, who had sat down on the edge of my bed. His head pokes out sleepily, staring right at her.

“Omg he’s very cute” she gentle puts her hand forwards and scratches at his underside lovingly. “This is Colin?” I nod vigorously and place him down on her lap.

“Yup! He was around before I kicked the bucket too, and he’ll be around a good while longer. You know how tortoises are” She gives me a knowing look.

“Us dragons have pretty long lifespans ourselves. We’re nearly immortal, its kinda sad though really” her mood seems to dip momentarily. “Anyway! Hows your first week back been?”

“Pretty good, the music teacher is still the same person from before. That girl...Cadence, she doesn’t seem to like me though”

“I’m not sure she likes anyone, except Leo but he is also a bit of a loner”

“You don’t say? He doesn’t seem hateful to anyone though. Just quiet, although I did notice a few odd things”

“Oh? Such as?”

“He seems somewhat skittish, his attention was everywhere in the music class”

“Hmm, he might have some kind of diagnosed thing, like a mental thing you know? Could just be general anxiety”

“Perhaps, but something tells me its more, well anyway we’re not here to talk about Leo. I’ll put on a film. I have a lot of catching up to do on pop culture”

“Damn right you do” she laughs “What’ve you got?”

“These” I dump a stack of DVDs on the bed. She ruffles through them and pulls out a shiny looking case.

“Always good to start with Disney” I place the DVD in the DVD player and grab a couple of bean bags that we had taken from my old room at home, she peers over my shoulder into the closet. “Thats a lot of plushies..” she says, eyes wide as saucers.

“Yeah, used to collect them” I place the bean bags in front of the bed, opposite the TV.

“I wasn’t allowed much like that, my parents are strict minimalists and shit”

“You can grab one to hug if you want”  ...or you could hug me but I left that unsaid.

“I will! Thank you! If my Mum had it her way I’d be living in a cave, she’s surprisingly not the dragon in the family, although you’d think she was”

“Sounds rough, I’m not sure Guy has even told our parents about me yet, they split after I died” I shrug. “We’ve both had it pretty bad I guess, I’m glad to be here rather than six feet under”

“Ditto” and with that we sat down and I hit play on the remote.

***

I must admit, I hadn’t gotten much sleep the night prior. I was pretty excited to have Erina over and to talk a bit more, I hadn’t taken into account the fact that it meant I fell asleep during the film. I woke up and shot straight up, and the world was still on the wonk.

Erina is giggling uncontrollably at me, my head is stuck at a 45 degree angle. I crack it back into place with a slightly gross sounding squelchy crunch. “What happened?”
“You fell asleep against my shoulder, it was quite cute” I blush up a storm, or at least I think I do.

“Why didn’t you wake me up!!” I pout.

“You were too cute, can you blame me?” She’s losing it again. “Sorry sorry. I poked one of your cheeks and you made a little moan and it was great” She flops onto her back giggling whilst I sit there pouting indignantly.

“Fine, but I at least get to poke you as well” I crouch slightly, ready to pounce.

“Yea-wait wa?” I jump on her, poking her right on the nose with my index finger. “Gah” she lets out a flicker of flame like a snake’s tongue. I recoil back.

“I didn’t know you could do that? How many secret little talents are you hiding?” I grin.

“Well I am half dragon” she smiles, recovering nicely from my finger attack. “I can do a bit of fire magic and naturally I can somewhat breathe fire. I’m a very arthurian type of half dragon”

“I guess so, thats a really cool talent”

“Not useful though unfortunately, any more than what I just did would set off the fire alarm, I paused the film for you”

“Ah right thank you lets continue watching”

After a couple of minutes, I couldn’t help but reach for the tablet again. The film wasn’t boring me, but something she had said was bothering me.

“You really think I’m cute?”

“...uh uuuh yes?” She looked confused.

“Even though I’m like a zombie. I’m dead and horrible looking?”

“You’re not horrible looking, just a little green around the gills haha” she giggles at her own joke.

“Are you sure? Lots of people still stare at me”

“We’ll just have to show them all how cute you are as well” She points at me and grins. “We must find a way for you to be out and about without that mask though. It certainly does you no favours”

“I agree…                                                   ...Thank you”

“No problem Sylvie!” I think she might be into me a little, I’m totally into her. But I repress those emotions for the moment. I don’t want to ruin what I have here. I settle back into the beanbag

***

The film turned out pretty decent, I came from the period where 3D CGI still looked sorta crap, so seeing how far that technology had come was really impressive, even if Erina moaned a little about the size of the screen and the quality. I was making do with what I have.

“Next time you’re coming around mine, you can see what a proper TV looks like this time” she says as we walk out onto the balcony where I suggested she take off from.

“Sounds cool. Oh, before you go I just remembered something. Leo looked like he had some kind of fascination with the forest in the back of the college, perhaps we should go explore it at some point?”

“Oh right, I haven’t been there myself ever. Sounds fun. Right, I’ll be off then” she salutes me as her wings grow and start fluttering about “See ya!” she runs towards the balcony ledge and jettisons herself into the air, shooting off like a winged missile. It was just as spectacular as when she had landed in front of me. I stood there and watched her disappear over the rooftops of the surrounding buildings, before turning around and heading back into my room. I gotta prepare for tomorrow’s class.