Dens

"That dragon was huuuuge!" Kuro exclaimed, hopping his way along the overgrown path ahead of them. A thick forest could be seen in the distance, but they were still close enough to the house that its edges only tickled the surroundings. He was overly excited to finally have somewhere more human-like to call his home; this thing being... a house!

A rickety old stone house that they had been told might be leaking in some places, but that wasn't any different than Kuro was used to living in. "And you'll get to sleep in bed with Grim," The baby ocean dragon whispered to him in his mane.

Stopping for a moment, they were right! There was only one bed right now, so if he aaaasked... 'You should go for, the worst he'll say is no,' the whispers continued. And oh was Kuro happy to oblige them. "Can I sleep with you?" the more dragon looking rider asked point blank as their new home was in view now. He still wasn't the best at phrasing, but his heart was in the right place. Yuu could be heard giggling from the red mane, but they soon slithered out on to the ground to go towards the house.

There were a lot of bricks to spray down with water after all, and he was still less than a foot tall.

Looking up from filling a bucket with the cold water from the spicket out front of the house, Grim had arrived first as he wanted to see what the dwelling was like. Setting the full bucket down he turned his eyes to the dragon that flew overhead. Landing in the open field closer to the breeder's sanctuary main building. Clearly one of the dragons someone was taming or had tamed to be theirs.

“Yeah, that was quite a big one. I think that was a fire dragon from what Gerold was saying. Maybe she went out to hunt for her hatchlings.” Grim recalled the white colored male saying a fire female had recently had some babies, and was doing well with caring for them.

Watching as Midnight ran out the house with Quinn in his mouth, Grim sighed as he whistled for them, motioning at the rags that were in a bag near the steps they were supposed to be grabbing to clean the inside.

“But Grim, it’s so dusty!” Midnight complained, the black cat making his big sad eyes at Grim who just shook his head.

“Well yes, it’s old and needs care. The sooner it is done the better. Now go on.” Sighing, Midnight picked up a rag and headed back in. Quinn close behind with another rag he was dragging along.

“Clean!” The small black cotton ball sized dragon shouted, hopping and climbing in to start cleaning. Or more likely more play. Shaking his head, he looked at Kuro and started bringing the bucket with him as he cleaned the steps first.

“Sure Kuro, if you want to go pick the room after you can. I was just going to set up the master bedroom though.”

Humming to himself, Yuu was happily swishing water over the bricks. It was clear and sparkly like his tail at first, but the more area he covered, the dirtier his small puddle became. Eventually he had to throw it off into the grass again to make a brand new blob of water to slap against the mud covered stone. "Swish swish swoosh!" They sang to themselves merrily, doing his best to stay out of the way while still peering at the riders every now and then to see which path they went down.

"Oooh, then I pick the master bedroom!" If it was what Grim was going to go with anyway, then they could both set up their den in that room together! He was looking forward to having someone else to live so much. Kuro felt like he was going to explode in happiness, but knew by now that wasn't going to happen. It had just been building more and more as he did his best to stick to Grai- Grim. Plus of course using the right name now! Even in his head. "I'll go sweep it right now, so don't come in first!" Wiggling his way through the doorway, a little more finangling was needed than normal as Kuro's haunches scraped against the sides. Hm. That'd be slightly annoying in his dragon form all the time but oh well. Getting a quick look at the kitchen and living room, it was a surprisingly normal house. A bit outdated, but considering Kuro lived in a cave before, all these man made shelves and ovens were like new technologies of the future to him! Not as impressive as the city. But it was more his pace.

Remember he had somewhere to start dusting with his tail, he hurried off to find the larger master bedroom quickly.

Getting down on his knees to start scrubbing, Grim could feel his tail trying to help. Moving the water around and absorbing some of the dirty water to shoot it off into the grass. Cleaning shouldn’t take too long, but it was the rebuilding part that may take time. Widening doorways not suited for medium sized dragons, rebuilding floor structures, beautifying the wood and stone. Grim knew enough about those sorts of things that it wouldn’t be too much bothering the land owners, but he wanted it to be perfect for them.

“Alright Kuro. Be careful. The floor is weak in spots.” Drying his hands off as he leaned up but stayed kneeling, he let his tail and Yuu clean for now as he pulled out the document.

A floor plan of a sort, as this house was hand built and the blueprints were left behind. There were some scribbled as it was altered, but all seemed to match up so far. 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, an attic, a basement, a large living room and kitchen, a few smaller closets, and of course the master suite located at the very top with a porch. Once it was fixed up, it was going to be perfect for them.

Watching as Midnight and Quinn ran out, covered in dust and rolling around in some of the water Yuu was discarding. Grim got up and felt a bit uncomfortable with his wet knees. Not that it could be helped and a bath for everyone was in order he suspected. With everyone cleaning (or playing) there would be tracks of dirt otherwise.

“Yuu, could you rinse these off for me once you’re done? I’m going to head inside with Kuro.” Getting that confirmation, he dumped out his bucket and headed in with a few more dry and clean rags, and the empty bucket as he would just refill it inside.

The living room appeared to be the worst floor wise. A few planks cracked and bent in. Nothing he couldn’t fix with time. As long as the bedrooms were livable everyone could huddle in one of them until the house was fixed up to livable. Following the small cat paw prints, the kitchen was actually very clean due to the pair that ran out to play in the water. The glass wasn’t cleaned, but he didn’t expect that from the small pair.

“Kuro? You upstairs?” He called as he followed the rail to where one would enter. It looked like it may be a bit of a pain if Kuro had to climb up and down these every time. They were bigger then the doorway but barely, and Kuro had to squeeze through that.

"Sure, you can leave it to me!" Yuu saluted Grim merrily, tossing the most recent bunch of clouded water over the two playing in the quickly muddying ground. He may be small but he was still a mighty ocean dragon that had learned their magic early on! Waving his hands back and forth in front of the stairs like some sort of ritual, a steadily growing pool of water formed over the stairs. Spreading out like a thin blanket, he made sure it was covering the whole area before dropping it. Soaking everything first, he then started to swish the water around for dirt collection. Those two fluffers were sure to get a kick out of this bit of water when he was done cleaning it.

Meanwhile, Kuro had been having a much more difficult time. No matter how softly he tried to step, or how much he wiggled, the stairs creaked and squeezed him from all sides. It was more annoying than anything, plus Grim had just warned him about things possibly giving way to breaking.

Figuring the best option would be to become smaller, he gave in himself, changing into a red headed human with silver eyes that matched his dragon's colors. "Aaah so much better~" He sighed, it being much easier to scale up those stairs to what he assumed was the master bedroom at the top after peeking in the other two. Fantastically enough, his human form was much better for sweeping too as he picked up a broom to get to work. "Yeap! Airing everything out for a good dusting!"

Rolling in the mud, Quinn was a little less fond of the dirt but as Midnight dashed back and forth he quickly became dirty from the splash. It was fine though, Quinn liked bathing with Grim as he was so gentle with him. He got to cling to his fingers too! Which was nice and felt so secure for the small one.

“So much water!” Midnight told the pair so happily, rolling around and coating his thick black fur with the reddish brown mud and dirt that was rinsed off.

“Yes! But too much. Soooo much Mud. We should sit on the porch until it is bath time.” Not waiting to see if the other two agreed to this, Quinn climbed back up and sat. Of course leaving a little dirt but it was better than tracking it all inside.

Inside, Grim was following the spiral stairs up more and more. Pausing right before he went up to the second floor to look over the downstairs area before his head peered over the floor of the second floor. It was carpeted. As nice as that would be in winter, the left over carpet was worn and dirty, another thing that needed to go.

“Alright, I’m on the second floor. How does the third floor look?” As the creaking vanished to be replaced with small footsteps, Grim was curious and didn’t linger long as he followed Kuro up. The third floor was a mostly open area with the porch door straight across from the stair exit. Still holding his bucket he opened the door as he heard shuffling behind him that he assumed was Kuro.

Turning from the door as the sunlight and air poured in. He froze as he saw that familiar shape. That hair color burned into his memory from the last good time his life had, that skin color strange but pleasant to him, and those eyes. Oh those eyes, they were plain to many that seen Kuro but he just loved how the slight color difference could only be noticed if you stared.

Emotions came over him, mixed feelings of confusion and happiness that poured out. His plain face showing it as well, as Kuro turned to him with that sweet smile of his. Dropping the bucket with the rags in it suddenly, he rushed forward, hands caressing that face as they reached Kuro and a kiss placed there that he wasn’t sure if Kuro wanted, but he sure did. It was sudden, it was random, but in the moment it was all Grim knew to do with all these memories popping up.

Sweeping up the patio, Kuro was sure that this would be the perfect spot for him to enter the house into with his dragon form. It was just spacious enough for a smaller dragon such as himself to land on. The door were even wide open for his free entrance or exit. That. Or they were just sort of missing or broken off somewhere. Finally having Grim up there to help him with the cleaning, he couldn't help smiling at them like he always did. His crooked smile was simply a little more humanoid than normal in this form he had learned to take to explore the settlements better.

One could imagine his surprise when Grim suddenly dropped the bucket of cleaning water. "Ack, Grim are you al-" trying to see if the other was alright as they rushed at him, Kuro strangely enough didn't even flinch back. Staring up at his chosen partner with the most trusting wide eyes filled only with a confused worry for the other. Blinking at the caress, he made a startled noise into the kiss when they leaned into him, speechless for a moment when they finally broke away.

There was only one other instance where Graison had kissed him sort of like that. That moment when they said goodbye and they forgot which Kuro he was. So making the saddest of faces, he clutched at Grim's shirt to keep them there, "Are you going home again already? Can I come inside with you this time?"

Not sure what had overcome him in those few moments he took Kuro into his grasp, he didn’t pull away too far as he too was confused by his own actions. His... so very direct actions that Kuro didn’t pull away from or seem untrusting of. Just those sweet and trusting eyes that were sure Grim would never do anything to ever harm him. He wasn’t wrong, but Kuro didn’t know that. He didn’t know if he had changed in that time he was gone. But he trusted Grim, and that seemed to seal away his doubts.

Those wonders of did Kuro change and was he like all the others he came across now. The questions of would Kuro ever hurt him. No, he doubted that. The sweet dragon didn’t even so much as flinch as he rushed forward. It brought that slight smile to his face and he more tenderly held Kuro to him and rubbing Kuro’s cheek leaned down for a smaller and sweeter kiss.

“Of course, I am home after all. With you.”