☆…..♡…..☆
The No Touch rule had turned apartment 304 into a high voltage pressure cooker. For the first two weeks, Ignis had attempted to play the role of the perfect human roommate with a level of narcissistic intensity that was almost more annoying than his physical presence. He cleaned the baseboards with divine precision, he organized the spice cabinet by the molecular weight of the herbs, and he stayed exactly six feet away from Kaelan at all times—looking like a starving man watching a feast through a thick sheet of glass.
But a Dragon King's obsession was never designed for distance , never ever.
By the third week, the rule began to crumble into a series of creepy, desperate infractions. Kaelan couldn't brush his teeth without sensing a golden gaze boring into the back of his neck. He would look up into the vanity mirror only to see the bathroom door creaking open by a fraction of an inch, Ignis's glowing amber eye visible in the crack.
"Ignis! I am literally using the toilet! Close the door, you power generator!" Kaelan would shriek, his black panther ears flat against his head in a mix of livid embarrassment and alarm.
"I am merely...ensuring the structural integrity of the tiles," Ignis would rumble from the hallway, his voice sounding physically pained. "You look...especially radiant in the morning light, Kaelan. The curve of your neck is...a provocation."
"It's a neck! Everyone has one! Go organize the socks again!"
But the tension reached a breaking point on a rainy Thursday evening. Kaelan was trying to navigate the kitchen with his ever expanding belly, his oversized hoodie now stretched so tight it barely covered the rounded slope of his stomach. He felt heavy, nauseous, and perpetually irritated.
As he reached for a glass of water, Ignis was suddenly there. The air smelled of scorched ozone and ancient musk. Before Kaelan could retreat, Ignis lunged, his hunger overriding every healer's warning.
"No! Ignis, back off—"
Kaelan's protest was cut short as Ignis slammed him against the refrigerator, pinning both of Kaelan's wrists above his head with a single, massive hand. The power radiating off the King was suffocating, a wave of pure, concentrated desire.
"I have been a saint for twenty days, Kaelan," Ignis hissed, his face inches from Kaelan's. "My blood is boiling. The seed is calling for me. I can hear it screaming through your skin."
"It's not calling you, it's probably complaining about the lack of personal space!" Kaelan snapped, his slit pupils vibrating. "Let go, you idiotic, impulsive—"
Ignis silenced him with a kiss that tasted of solar fire and desperation. It wasn't gentle,it was a possessive claim. Kaelan's knees went weak, his furious resolve melting against the sheer heat of the Dragon.
That night, the No-Touch protocol didn't just break—it disintegrated. Ignis was a force of nature, his power flooding the room. When he finally released his essence, the energy didn't just dissipate. It was pulled into Kaelan's stomach like a magnet. The egg absorbed too much, drinking the King's raw divinity until the golden light was visible through the fabric of Kaelan's clothes.
The reaction was instantaneous.
Kaelan woke up the next morning not with a hangover, but with a premature nesting instinct so violent it felt like a psychological hijack. His brain was screaming at him to gather every soft thing in the apartment and build a fortress.
"I am not...doing it..." Kaelan whimpered, his hands shaking as he clutched a silk pillow. He tried to throw the pillow across the room, but his body betrayed him, his arms pulling the fabric back to his chest with feral protectiveness.
He was in a state of total panic. His nausea got worse each time he tried to resist the urge to pile up the blankets. He felt like he was losing his mind, his panther spirit warring with the Draconic commands of the egg.
"Ignis! You scaly, selfish, over sexed monster!" Kaelan shrieked from the middle of the living room floor, where he was currently—and against his will—arranging his sweaters into a perfect circle. "Look what you did! I'm a financial analyst! I don't nest! I have a 401k! I have a career! I am not laying an egg in the middle of my living room! With my *ss that hurt!"
Ignis leaned against the doorframe, looking restored, his skin glowing with a fresh, arrogant vitality. But as he saw Kaelan's puffed up eyes and the way he was scolding the air while frantically smoothing out a pashmina, Ignis felt a pang of guilt.
"The healer did say the growth would accelerate," Ignis murmured, stepping forward.
"The healer said intimacy, not nuclear meltdown!" Kaelan wailed, his ears twitching. He suddenly felt a sharp, heavy pressure in his pelvis. The rapid growth had made the egg reach the size of a large melon in a matter of hours. "It's coming, isn't it? It's going to happen today because you couldn't keep your lizard brain in check for one more week!"
Kaelan's panic peaked. He wasn't ready. He didn't know how to be a mother to a dragon. He didn't even know if dragons had mothers.
"I hate you," Kaelan sobbed, even as he instinctively reached out to grab Ignis's hand to drag him into the center of the nest. "I hope this egg hatches and immediately bites your nose off. hope it's as freak as you so you have to deal with yourself for eternity."
Ignis sat in the middle of the pile of hoodies and pillows, pulling Kaelan into his lap. He held him through the waves of nausea and fury, his large hand resting on the now glowing dome of Kaelan's stomach.
"I'm here, Kaelan," Ignis whispered, his voice dropping into that obedient, soothing tone. "The nest is ready. I am ready. You don't have to be anything but mine."
"I'm going to...kill you... the second this is over," Kaelan gasped, his head falling onto Ignis's shoulder as the first true Draconic contraction rippled through his body. " f*cking dragon and their f*cking never ending energy!" Kaelan cried out .