Unexpected love; The devil in the next room

Arbok is woken up restless by an angry knocking on the door. The male dragon grumbled, his world-shaking and a pounding headache in his head. The knocking on the door did not help, nor did the darkness. Angerly he kicked something out of the way when he stumbled over it, trying to find the light button.

With his vision still foggy, he turned the lights on and made his way to the door, opening up to an exhausted Rytha. The golden dragoness gave a small smile when she laid eye on Arbok. "Hey, how are you holding up" she spoke softly. Wasting no time to embrace him in a hug, pulling him close into touch, he did not know he longed for.

"Not great, just woken with a splitting headache" He holds on to the embrace for a good while, finding comfort in the touch she provided.

"Well, I have some goods with me. My mother will ship the rest of my belongings overnight." She broke the touch and placed a hand on his shoulder for emotional support. Letting him guide her into the house.

"I just passed out after I called you. I don't know what happened" Arbok's shoulders let out an uncontrollable contraction of the muscles, drawing them together in a stomach sickening shiver. His vision narrowed into a tunnel and blurred. He gasped out and collapsed onto the floor, fighting back the urge to throw up.

"Easy, Arbok," Rytha said. "Don't stress yourself. I am here for you. Sit for as long as you want." She placed herself on the ground next to him, putting a wing around him and pulling him close.

They sat on the floor for a good while. Arbok couldn't remember for how long. The dragon only focussed on his stomach, how it prevents the acid from escaping. Rytha said nothing, just keeping him close and soothing him. When it took too long, she started to sing a little song about three young dragons on an adventure. An old story for kids from her culture about betrayal and how everything will be alright. Listening to the story with closed eyes helped his headache. Removing the blur from his vision.

"Just tell me what is the issue with your right now, not what is causing it but what you are feeling right now", She cooed when the song was over.

"Headache, sick, I don't know everything, nothing." He grunted in discomfort. He felt her contact break and heart her shuffle around. Eventually, he could feel her stomach pressed against his back. Placing his neck in between her breasts.

"Just tell me when it hurts," She said before starting to touch his head and massaging it with force, working through the muscles. While the touch was not always pleasant, it did not quite hurt as well. Slowly she worked down his head and neck until she reached some kind of point just behind his horn and put pressure on it. Like a fog clearing in the morning, his headache ebbed away quickly.

"What the..." he started, feeling a lot better. His stomach followed the example of his headache disappeared. "How did you do that?"

"Massage therapy learned it a few months ago. Helps with tension headaches; now let us get you comfortable." She slowly helped him stand on his leg and walk to the sofa.

"Where are the glasses," She said, walking to the kitchen that was adjunct to the living room.

"Second upper cupboard from the right", he entrusted her, rubbing his temple in disbelieve that she could deal with headaches in such away. The next thing he knew was that he was presented with a glass of water with a pill.

"Painkiller", she smiled. "So you can have a nap without headaches" She started to unpack her backpack and unrolled a small self-inflating mattress.

"We have beds here. I can make you one," Arbok said, laying his head down again. Sleep overcoming him, the kind of sleep that will knock you down.

"tomorrow is another day", she started. "This will do. For now, I am tired from the trip. You are tired from the emotions. You have to talk with your mother tomorrow, so please rest."

She did not have to say much. Arbok has just fallen asleep, asleep that was without a dream. An empty sleep that did not leave you well-rested as you would have liked. Besides, the sofa gives a lousy sleeping spot. Trough she was correct, he did indeed wake up with a clearer head. The emotions he felt did not die down, but he had the clarity to think about the situation. He kept lying on the sofa, looking at how the living room changed with the rising sun.

His eye was drawn by the blinking of a light on his mother's phone. She had unread messages, and his stomach turned to think what it could have been. He did not dare to open the phone to look if perhaps the egg-breaker and succubus send those messages. He noticed his own phone also had messages waiting to be read. For some reason, the barrier to open his own phone where less. After all, he used it to get help. He slowly reached for the phone.

"Arbok, Do you wish for me to read the messages?" Rytha said, tired in a yawn. She was still lying on the uncomfortable inflatable mattress trough she was looking with a keen eye.

He stopped mid-air. "I don't know..." he confessed. "I have a few friends who can contact me, and my phone is private...I mean, I sorry, it's not that I..." that damned smile, that damned disarming smile of hers, made him stop.

"I know your personal messages, your rules. I only offer it." She slowly set up with her blouse messy and revealing. With the soft belly scales during a stretch. "trough, I think you should wait a bit before answering your messages."

Arbok agreed to that extent, perhaps first check up on his mother and then a shower. He slowly stretched himself to stand from the sofa.

"I am going to check up on my mother," He said with a yarn. His voice had grown cold yet again. Tension was brewing throughout his body in anticipation of the day ahead.

"you do that. I will raid the fridge and see if I can make some breakfast for you two. Emotions drain. You need some nourishment."

Arbok gave a snicker through the coldness. She managed to elevate some of the apathy that he felt. "Thanks, mom," he said in a half-hearted attempt to joke.

He could feel her smile even though he had turned his back towards her. She just eradiated that calm warmness from her that made everything seem alright. By the ancients, he was happy that he called her. He was lucky to have such a close friend.

Opening the door to his room, he looked at his mother lying on his bed. Curled up in a half ball. "Mom, are you awake?" He asked.

"Yes..." he received from his mother. Her voice sounded hollow. Her typical cheer and love she carried in her voice were gone. Even for him, she was cold now. Heck, he could not blame her. He felt what she felt just being in her presence.

"Mom", he started again ", I have called someone to help me, us. Her name is Rytha, she is from my university."

"Oh," she sounded, slowly getting up. Her clothing, scales and face were a mess. "Is that girl you told me about, the one you rooming up within an apartment from her father?"

"yes, mom, she is a psychology major. Her father is a lawyer. She offered to help and came over."

"I see." She moved to just sit on his bed. "I think I owe you an apology for..."

He shushed his mother by sitting down next to her. "You owe me nothing. I am here for you, Rytha also if you allow her." He paused what he wanted to say, nearly wanting to call his sister everything wrong in the world before swallowing his words for his mother's sake. "I can understand how you feel. I kind of feel partly the same."

"The same?" she gave an angry growl. "You mean you feel like your heart is ripped from your body and stomped on by the one you raised with love and kindness!" her teeth flared, and smoke came from her yaws.

"Mother", He soothed softly. "No, I do not. But I feel backstabbed. I feel betrayed for what my sister has done to you" he carefully placed a wing around his mother. Allowing her to feel some warmth so her heart would not freeze over.

"Thank you..." his mother said softly, "For not putting me in my own bed...I think I can not face...." She broke down in tears again.

"Just let it go," He said, feeling his own tears form in his eyes. Maybe he did not feel what his mother felt in her heart. But looking at her made him feel all the emotions; she felt like she pulled him into a black hole. Sucked into an emotional dullness until she stopped crying.

"Rytha is downstairs making breakfast. If you feel up to it, you can go downstairs to eat something. If not, I can bring you food. I think I have to shower, I reek."

His mother hugged him close before he stood up, almost crushing his body and whispering in his ear. "Thank you, son. Your heart is the only thing that is keeping me alive right now."

Arbok kept his best not to stiff up when the gravity of the situation hit him. "Mom," he said while holding onto her ", Are you thinking about ending your own life." He let the weight of words hit the ground, allowing them to shake him to the core. His heart started and stopped its beat with each spoken word.

His mother paused for a long, long time. He was almost sure she just stopped breathing in the time like she wanted to end it there and then.

"What is the point in living" she finally said. "When the man you loved for so long...runs off with your damned daughter."

Arbok pealed himself from her and kissed her forehead. "If not for that eggbreaker, do it for me. Hell, show him you are too good for him. He doesn't deserve your love anyway."

His mother gave a pained smile. He got some reaction from her. Trough, he now did not dare to leave her alone at all, not even for a shower.

"I think..." She started, "I will go downstairs and meet this girlfriend of yours."

"She is not my girlfriend, mom."

His mother sighed. "Well, friend then. It sure seems like a girlfriend if she came all this way to help."

Arbok walked with his mother until he heard that Rytha had spotted his mother and introduced herself to her. Well, that was sorted; he could now have his shower. The hot water always seemed to soothe his mind a bit.

He allowed the hot water from the shower to smooth his scales the least. He couldn't shower as hot as his mother or the succubus of a sister. He was no fire drake. After all, no, of course, he took after his egg-breaking father. There was this saying about toxic dragons he remembered, that they were constantly backstabbing and unsavoury. Properly because most known assassins were all poisonous dragons who used their acid for assassinations. He felt that his father only added to this sin. Thinking about it suddenly gave him the feeling he was dirt to the core. He took most of the soup in the shower and started to scrub him down, trying to be away from the sin that his father caused.

It did not help. It felt like he was rotten to the core from the blood he shared with his father. Looking at the bottle of scale shampoo, he had an urge, a call of the void to just swallow it. Trying to clean him from the inside, purge himself. No, the shower was not a relaxing one like he hoped it was.

He stopped trying. He could not be alone for long in fear of what his thoughts were going on about his father and sister. What they were doing, what he would do when they came back. He feared that right now, he would make a stupid mistake that would end his law career before it even started.

"I know it is not my place", Arbok could hear Rytha say to his mother. He got the middle of what looked like was an ongoing conversation about her being here. "But I have been asked for help by a friend. Also, I can connect you to some people you want. For example, my dad is a divorce lawyer. He might be able to help."

"Child, why to think I need one...He would turn around right. After all, whoever would love their daughter. He must be insane. She must be insane." Her tone was filled with a strange kind of hope, a hope that it was all a dream.

"You really feel that, Miss?" Rytha asked seriously. Her gaze was fixed on his mother, reading every movement of the scales on her body. Reading her like one would analyse a piece of artwork.

Arbok removed his attention for a moment to look at his and his mother's phones side by side next to Rytha. She guarded them against his mother not to stress her out any more. Arbok came closer with curiosity. "Could I have a look at my messages?"

"If you are sure", Rytha handed his phone to him. "Just tell me if any are wrong."

He should have known better to open his phone at the messages. Still, perhaps he was optimistic about his sister not possibly sending him messages. He was the wrong trough.

"Brother, I will be picking up some of my stuff at noon. Don't you dare to try anything? Remember that I live there. You don't."

"That fucking bitch", He swore, putting his phone down with a slam, giving the silicon phone case quite a workout to absorb the impact.

"That succubus is coming over to collect some stuff." He answered before Rytha could ask her question as to what was wrong. "She got some guts" His eyes fell on his mother, judging her nerves come to the surface.

"I don't want to see her," His mother said simply, tears rolling down her muzzle and collecting on the table. "She is my daughter...but I don't want to see her."

Rytha, the level headed in this situation, came with the solution, stay in the living room. At the same time, Arbok made sure his sister got in and out as quick as possible. After all, she was old enough that should be booted from the house by the house owner.

"My father owns the house," Arbok said somberly to that. "He owns almost anything officially. It was financially cheaper that way." He finished off with an under breath curse to his father. Through his eye moved to his mother's phone. He was tempted to read the messages there, too, hoping it was all a bad joke. Through that single phone felt more like a pandora's box, like there was still some denial left of the fucked up situation that was going on.

"Do it?" his mother said, noticing the gaze. "I can't stand to open it anyway."

And so he did, putting his mental sanity on the line to open the chats. There were ten photos in total, all of his sister in various sexual poses on top of his father's dick. The last photo was one where she held a pregnancy test. The caption simply stated, "You are going to be a grandmother. Guess who the father is."

Out of curiosity, Rytha stood next to him, perhaps to catch him in a fit of rage, possibly wanting to see the fucked up situation herself.

"Geeze", she started ", They really have no shame."

"I am going to call that egg breaker. I don't care about it all anymore. I need to speak that backstabbing demon." Arbok fumed with contained anger.

"And allow him to explain?" Rytha filled in hopefully, hopeful that there was something to be fixed.

"Well, I was going to say, curse him out for every scaled on his insidious body" He looked up at his mother, who simply nodded.

"Love put him on speaker. If anything, I want to hear what my husband has to say. Rip that Band-Aid off."

For some reason, Arbok had the clarity of mind to start a recording app on his mother's phone to record the whole conversation before he called. The phone rang three times before his father answered.

"Hello love, I assume you got the photos from this call. Well, how you like the photos, chuck."

"what kind of bloody introduction was that?" Arbok thought to himself.

"Hello, dad", he started. "Yes, I saw those photos, so why don't you explain yourself right now why you decided to be a backstabbing egg-breaking motherfucker". Arbok was not interrupted by both Rytha or his mother. Both of the dragonesses looked at him with big eyes. His mother he could understand but Rytha, she was familiar with his foul mouth. Perhaps it was because he was not speaking to a rando student but rather his father.

"Man, that is no way to speak to your father. Now give your mother. We have something to discuss."

"You know, I will not do that," Arbok said sharply. "Like what are you going to discuss, why you fuck your own daughter, why you got my slut of a sister pregnant. Those are just little things you might want to fucking tell way before sending the photos."

"Arbok Forestscale. I might take these insults against me but leave your sister out of this. You have no bloody right to judge us, young mang."

"Oh, I have rights, dad. I have every fucking right because I am here with mother to fix the pieces that you broke. I am here trying to fucking help after you stopped caring about anything but your dick. I have my right to judge you all I want. For all I care, you are no longer my father. I can't fucking believe I share a blood bond with such an egg-breaker."

"Well, in that case. "he could hear the anger in his father's voice ", We are coming home next week. You better be gone. If not, I will have you arrested for trespassing, and you can say that lovely law degree goodbye. Thinking about that, you better find some extra work. I am going to stop paying for that fancy degree of yours. Perhaps some honest work will put you in place. This is my harem. I can do what I like."

Arbok looked at his mother, her burning gaze, the flames that escaped her mouth in tiny breaths. Oh boy, he hoped that anger was not focused on him. In a split second, he saw that sorrow she had within her turned into rage. He knew what she was out for. Rytha knew what she was out for. She already took her own phone from her pocket, ready to make a call herself.

The combination made his heart pound in expectation. He knew what to do.

"I have the legal obligation to state that this conversation is recorded. All further conversations with mother or I will be recorded."

"Now listen, don't for a second that this...." He hangs up on his father before he could continue. As soon as he did, he took more screenshots, not allowing his father time to recover and remove the juicy evidence from his phone.

He looked at his mother, then at Rytha. "I think we need a lawyer," he said with finality to his voice.