Work Text:
--------
The gods were very famous even after all the priests were burned and with fame, festivals came with it. The group oftenly would stumble upon a village that was celebrating a good harvest and give some offerings to the gods, especially the dragon gods. This made it easy for the group to get food for the night without hunting and a night of fun to relax. Although everyone was excited whenever they would stumble upon this, two of the group weren’t quick to fall in line with praising the gods.
Jae-ha stood leaning against a tree watching the large fire and the group of people surrounding it, paying tribute to the dragon gods. He scoffed before turning away, looking around for others of the group. Gija was telling tales that he heard from his village to the kids and to Shin-ah as Yona, Yoon and Hak were helping the villagers place the food and wheat down on a stone slab with a dragon statue in front of it. By the look of the smile on their faces, they were having fun but there was one member missing which wasn’t unusual. He scanned the area to try and find the missing member until-
“Not to your liking, Green dragon?” He startled as his gaze met the blonde sitting next to the tree trunk where Jae-ha was standing. The moonlight shining off that golden medal he had hanging from his head and as usual a big smile on his face
“No, I don’t believe I owe anything to the gods. They definitely haven't shown reasons I should"
“That's okay! Zeno will stay next to you so you don’t get lonely” This piqued Jae-ha’s interest, it wasn’t like Zeno to not jump at the chance of free food, Jae-ha raised his eyebrow looking down at the kid Zeno. It was hard to make that difference ever since they learned of his true power.
“Oh? For me not to get lonely or just so you have an excuse not to participate” The yellow dragon rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly
“Zeno has already asked the dragon’s something before and they didn’t help. He doesn’t have anything else to ask”
“So we’re like two peas in a pod”
“Mhm” Zeno nodded as he absently watched the festivals in front of him, Jae-ha noticed that he kept reaching down and scratching his arms. What made it even more worrying was that his arms were red. Jae-ha grabbed Zeno’s arm and raised it up as he crouched down to look at it
“Uh-? Green, what are you doing?” He didn’t answer just looked at the scratched which were deep enough to start to draw blood before the redness and the fast dripping blood closed up quickly
“Y’know if you keep doing this, your scales are going to show” Jae-ha plopped down next to Zeno letting go of his arm carefully
“Zeno knows, he just-.. There's an itch he feels underneath his skin every time there’s a dragon god festival. Zeno can’t stand it”
Jae-ha goes quiet and looks at Zeno who stopped speaking to try and stop scratching so much, it was obvious by the way he was squirming, “I have to ask, if you don’t like the Gods so much then why do you carry around that gold dragon medal?”
That caused Zeno to stop squirming and instead dig his fingers into the soft dort near him, it was clear to see that it was a touchy subject. Sometimes he thought of Zeno more as a puzzle than a person. Jae-ha liked to brag he had good perception especially when it came to people, how they acted and how they walked and talked helped him tell what kind of person they were. Zeno was a mystery in that aspect. He did things differently and most often than not hid what his real goal was to the point even Jae-ha didn’t know what he gained for certain actions. Maybe Jae-ha was thinking Zeno was too selfish than he actually was. Of course, he knew that some people just did things without thinking but, it still intrigued him. He couldn’t help but poke on it when he had the chance.
Jae-ha glanced back at the now statue next to him, Zeno hadn’t moved much if he was right, the yellow dragon hadn’t blinked yet. The glassy look in his eyes showed that he was probably thinking about the past
“..it's very important to Zeno. It doesn’t mean the gods, it means one god.”
“One god?”
A small smile split across Zeno's face, one you would see on the elderly when they thought of their childhood, “The crimson dragon king”
Jae-ha rolled his eyes, “Then you're about the same as Gija over there”
“No, you don't understand. When Zeno was first given the blood, it was him that connected all of us. He wasn't our ‘superior’ he was a friend and family. He gave me this to remind me that he's always with me. Zeno think he knew what his fate was”
“....” Jae-ha just looked at Zeno and then back at the golden trinket
“Ah-” Zeno waved his hands around in dismissal, “not that Zeno doesn't care about the miss! It's just in my heart you guys are the kids of my very first brothers and she is the child of him even if they aren't blood related”
Jae-pa poked Zeno in the side, “You don't have to explain, old man.”
Zeno laughed before yanking the golden crest out of where it was hanging and handed it to Jae-ha, “Zeno doesn’t think he's ever actually shown any of you what it looks like”
Jae-ha looked at the crest in his hand, tracing the dragon. It was heavier than he thought. It had to have been real gold. He felt almost drawn in on it but, he shook his head and handed it back to Zeno
“How lucky am I then to be the first”
Zeno took it back and tied it back where it originally was, “it's Zeno's turn for a question”
“Hmm? Fire away, I mean you shared with me”
“When you made it to Awa, why didn't you just take a boat and sail away. The miss wouldn't of been able to find you”
Jae-ha stopped to think before looking back at the fire, “Maybe I still had a sense of duty or maybe I didn't want to run away that far”
Zeno seemed content with that answer and hopped up to his feet, dusting his clothes off. He looked down at Jae-ha with a knowing smile.
“Are you sure it isn't because you tried and kept falling in the water?” As soon as Zeno said that he ran off to join the others at the meal, laughing with a smile on his face
“I never told you that- ZENO!” Jae-ha sighed and stood up looking around. It was time for him to join the others as well and he got a bit of a treat from a story from Zeno's past.
He looked up at the moon with a small smile, this night wasn't too bad.