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Friend of a Friend

Nalz sighed and leaned on the couch's armrest, putting his snout in his hand. Beyond the TV, out the windows, the world was bathed in inky darkness. It was the end of September and the sun had disappeared hours ago, leaving behind the cooling night of fall. In the daylight the trees were just beginning to turn their colors from shades of green to the myriad colors of autumn. He found it morbidly amusing that the leaves were celebrated for their beauty only as they dried out, died and fell to the earth. Then, once they were a carpet of decay, they were merely a nuisance to be unceremoniously disposed of.

The TV was on, but he wasn't watching it; it was white noise to his occupied mind. His friend had gone upstairs to sleep for work in the morning thirty minutes ago. With him gone, Nalz was left to his thoughts. Earlier he'd packed most of his things and triple-checked his flight itinerary; his plane flew out the next day around noon. The week he'd spent staying with his buddy had gone by far, far too fast. Leaving the small apartment in Pennsylvania for a barracks room in Virginia meant the end of a month long leave and the start of the next chapter of his Marine Corps career.

December 2010 was the last time Nalz had been home. Now it was nearly October 2012 and he was preparing for three more years overseas, away from home. Three short months prior he had been coming back from a nearly 8 month long deployment to Afghanistan, and before that, traveling across the globe for pre-deployment training from his home base in Japan.

Earlier in his week-long stay, Nalz had tried showing his buddy and one of his roommates pictures from Afghan, but they hadn't seemed very interested. There were no pictures of combat, no action and no immediately exciting imagery. He had been disappointed at first; nobody had asked any questions about his time there. When the slideshow ended it was as if they had seen another novelty and forgot about it. The conflict was a world away and none of them had any exposure to the military.

He didn't fault them, but the disinterest had stung. The military had been his life for over two years. Part of him wanted to talk about his experience, perhaps find a shoulder to cry on for the two lost Marines, let out the feelings bottled up inside that he couldn't explain. They hadn't seen the caskets draped in the Flag, didn't hear the hollow echo of 21 brass casings bouncing off an unforgiving concrete floor, and didn't witness the bereaved families stagger by, crying, close enough to touch as they left the funeral ceremony. No, it would be a long, long time before he found that shoulder.

Nalz blinked and rubbed his eyes, realizing he didn't know how long he'd been staring at the TV, seeing the images but not recognizing any of them. The tic-tac of claws on a keyboard caught his attention. He lazily rolled his gaze over to the right side of the room. Schism's (his buddy) roommate sat tapping furiously away at his computer. The fluffy dragon sat awkwardly in his cheap desk chair. His feet were on the seat with his knees spread out to either side as if he was stretching. Nalz hadn't spent much time talking to the male other than short conversations. Most of the time he was still asleep by the time Schism and Nalz left, or he was at work. All he had really learned about him was that he was an artist, his name was Eyrich, and he was very sarcastic and didn't seem to ever wear anything besides sweat pants and ill-fitting t-shirts or sweatshirts. Eyrich also didn't seem to do much to manage the mop of hair between his ears, it was always a mess. Nalz considered that Eyrich's clothes didn't fit because he looked like he weighed 100lbs soaking wet and stood several inches shorter.

Still, Nalz thought he was cute and the boy's shy demeanor was endearing.

The four-armed lizard considered playing a game on his recently purchased laptop, a post-deployment reward he'd got himself for a job well done, instead of poking at the worn edges of the torn faux leather armrest, but nothing he had sounded the least bit entertaining. Being honest with himself, what he really wanted was companionship, and he really didn't want to spend the last night of his vacation-his last for nine months-playing a game by himself, nor was he tired enough to go to sleep. Again, Nalz's attention turned to his buddy's bespectacled roommate. Maybe he could get a conversation out of the shy dragon.

"Hey, Eyrich," there was an extended pause before the fact somebody said his name registered and Eyrich turned his head.

"Yes?"

"What are you drawing?" Nalz asked, turning his head from the direction of the TV to the dragon's cute face.

"Oh, nothing really," he replied, turning away from Nalz's curious, attentive gaze, "just practicing coloring techniques, nothing special." Nalz leaned forward so he could see the monitor better.

"For being nothing special it certainly looks great."

"Meh, it's merely passable. There are all sorts of things wrong with it."

"I suppose. Well, for what it's worth, I think you have a strong base," Nalz could sense that Eyrich wasn't quite sure how to accept compliments and leaned back into the couch. He could tell the male had the same tendency to be self-depreciating of his skills, just as he was with his own writing.

"I don't completely disagree, but thank you." Eyrich said with only a quick glance over his shoulder. Nalz wasn't sure if he was embarrassed or annoyed by the interruption. Silence settled back over the room. Only the white noise of the TV and Eyrich's quiet music remained.

Nalz put his snout back in his hand. His first attempt at conversation didn't go as well as he had been hoping. Instead of getting lost in his thoughts again, he decided to try sparking another conversation, this time with a topic he felt guaranteed to work. "I noticed you have Steam. What kind of games do you play?" Eyrich stopped typing and the Steam window popped up on his monitor a moment later.

"Not too many, mostly adventure or the like; I used to play a lot of Minecraft, but it started consuming too much time so I don't as much anymore."

"Haha, my roommate in Okinawa did nothing but play that. I tried it but never got into it. I'm not very good at those open-ended, goalless games." Nalz smiled when Eyrich turned his chair to face him. That was a strong confirmation that he had his attention, finally. "I saw you were playing the new Torchlight too. I'd suggest that we should play together, but my copy isn't, uh, legitimate."

"Oh, that would have been fun. It's pretty good, but I haven't played it long."

"Ever play the first one?" Nalz asked.

"No."

"What about Diablo 2?"

"Never played that either."

"Really," Nalz said in surprise, "well, Torchlight is like it but not as good and Diablo 2 came out forever ago. I spent at least a year in middle school playing nothing but Diablo with my best friend."

"I'm not that big of a gamer, to be honest, but I enjoy them. What about you, what do you play?" Eyrich asked as he put his hands on his feet, unintentionally being cute.

"Lots of stuff really, but mostly first person shooters, racing games, some RPGs and action-adventures, etcetera; I've been gaming a lot since I was a kid. Maybe not for the best, growing up, but oh well," Nalz finished with a shrug.

"And that's what the fancy new laptop is for?" Eyrich asked, looking over at the dining room table where the ominous, black monolith sat silently.

"Yeah," Nalz said with a smirk, "My old laptop survived Afghanistan with me, but it's too slow for me now and it was having some issues. I would prefer to build a new desktop, but, with all the traveling in my future, a laptop is much more sensible." Nalz carefully put his feet up on the rickety coffee table, not wanting to break it more than it already was.

Eyrich nodded and slinked out of his worn, cat hair coated chair into the recliner adjacent to the couch. He was now closer to Nalz and sat improperly in the squishy-cushioned, time-worn recliner so he could face the lizard. Before they resumed talking, Nalz pulled the remote from where it protruded between two cushions, nearly lost into the infinite abyss that lies beneath the cushions of all couches, and turned off the TV. He felt it was rude to try and hold a conversation over a distracting, noisy TV. Eyrich scratched his head and didn't seem to notice.

"You showed Schism and I your pictures from Afghanistan, but I don't recall if you said what it was you did in the Marines," Eyrich asked and leaned against the back of the recliner, alternating between making eye contact and staring at random things in the apartment.

"Well," Nalz started, sliding his fingers through the stubby crimson spines that covered his head, "basically I fix guns. I'm an armorer. Generally, I count guns and do paperwork more than I actually fix them. I liked being in Afghan because I got to do my job more than I ever did in Oki. If I could have, I would have gone back instead of volunteering to go where I'm headed." Eyrich nodded.

"Get to shoot all of them?"

"Hah, I wish! No, I've shot several of the weapons I had back in my old armory, but I never got to shoot the sniper rifles or handheld grenade launchers. I did get to shoot a box of high-explosive dual purpose through the 40mm grenade launching machine gun though. That was kind of fun," Nalz said with a nostalgic smile. Eyrich smiled back before looking away again. The reptile's smile was infectious. "What about your work?"

"You know I work at the same place Schism works, the gas station down the road. There is nothing interesting to say about that job," Eyrich huffed with a shake of his head, "not after hearing about what you do and the things you've done. You've been around the world and I've never left the States."

Nalz chuckled and nodded. He couldn't pretend that Eyrich's job was all that exciting. It wasn't like he pretended his own jobs before the Corps were at all special. The only one that was mildly interesting was being a valet at a big hotel in downtown Seattle, but only because of some of the nice cars he'd been able to drive. "I was a valet for a couple of years before I went to boot camp. All I had to do was run around, park cars, retrieve cars, and load luggage into them. Getting to drive nice cars was the best part of the job, well, and I made a decent amount of money in tips."

"I don't really know anything about cars or care about them," Eyrich said with a small shrug. "Mine just gets me to the places I want to go."

"That's fine though. I love cars--cars and motorcycles. Not everybody likes them as an experience. I can't draw for shit, but I'm pretty handy with mechanical things," Nalz smirked, feeling a little bit proud of himself.

"Oh good, I need a friend that can fix things for free for me."

"I didn't realize we were friends now," Nalz retorted and Eyrich stuck his tongue out in response.

"So, where are you going from here?" Eyrich asked after a brief, awkward silence.

"Down to Virginia to attend a school to train to be a Marine Security Guard; basically, I'll be standing guard at embassies across the globe. The Marines at them are the security and the first line of defense." Eyrich nodded.

"That sounds pretty neat, getting to travel around even more and all."

"Yeah, we'll see how it goes. I've heard mixed things about it, good and bad, so I'm hoping it doesn't end up sucking."

"Hmm, I'm sure it will end up being fine," Eyrich replied optimistically.

"Yeah, I'll found out soon enough," Nalz said. He was unsure of whether or not that would be the case.

Eyrich nodded and looked away, past Nalz and into the kitchen at nothing in particular. He couldn't think of anything else to talk about. For his part, Nalz couldn't think of anything either. He didn't want Eyrich to go away though, that was for sure. Having the company was wonderful. What he really longed for was closeness and he hadn't found anybody for that in the three weeks he'd spent back at home.

"Hey, why don't you get your sketchbook and sketch me something?" Nalz asked quickly. It was the only thing he could think of. "I'd like to watch you draw."

"Oh, okay," Eyrich said, somewhat surprised, and stood up, "like what?" He asked as he moved things around on his desk, digging his sketchbook from beneath a pile of detritus.

"I hadn't actually thought of anything," Nalz replied sheepishly.

"Hmm," was Eyrich's simple response. He picked up his black, hardcover sketchbook, a pencil and an eraser. Before he had a chance to sit back in the recliner, Nalz interrupted him.

"Sit on the couch with me."

"Okay," Eyrich said. Nalz wasn't sure what to think at the fluffy dragon's lack of hesitation. He figured that Eyrich assumed everything was perfectly innocent with no ulterior motives lurking in the shadows. Unbeknownst to Nalz, Eyrich did think Nalz was friendly and nice, but he hadn't thought about it much beyond that. Whether or not he found Nalz attractive hadn't even occurred to him to ponder.

The dragon dropped onto the couch heavily next to Nalz, leaving a small gap between them. He flipped through the pages of the sketchbook as Nalz looked on interestedly. A few of the sketches he stopped at to show and talk about with the reptile and others Nalz stopped him so he could get a better look. By the time Eyrich reached a blank page Nalz had shifted close enough that they were almost touching. Nalz could feel the warmth radiating from Eyrich and it was extremely comforting.

"Think of what you wanted me to draw for you yet?" Eyrich inquired with the tip of his pencil hovering above the cream colored paper, oblivious to Nalz's shifted proximity.

"No," Nalz chuckled nervously. Eyrich glared at him. "What? I dunno, draw me something cool!"

"Like what!" Eyrich shouted in exasperation.

"You're the artist, aren't you supposed to be creative and shit?" Nalz finished the sentence by poking Eyrich in the side with his claw. Eyrich twitched so sharply he almost threw his pencil.

"Don't do that you...dumb lizard!" Eyrich snapped, pulling his arms into his sides protectively. Nalz's lips pulled back into a mischievous, toothy grin. The poor, smaller, arm-disadvantaged male could see what was coming in the reptile's dark green eyes. He held up his sketchbook as a shield, but the defensive display was utterly futile.

Nalz snatched the sketchbook out of Eyrich's hands; delicate enough to not damage it, but strong enough to avoid a struggle over it. With the fluff dragon defenseless, Nalz could see the fear in his eyes. He would show no mercy; after all, he had called him dumb. "No means no," Eyrich shouted as Nalz grabbed his wrists, but the reptile wasn't listening.

The tickle attacked was vicious. With only two arms to Nalz's four there was nothing Eyrich could do to stop the assault. What few words he managed to blurt out between uncontrollable laughter sounded more like yelps and did nothing to help his plight. Nalz left nowhere untouched that was within reach. He tried every place most people were ticklish and he was not disappointed by any of his choices. Eyrich's neck, underarms, sides, belly and thighs were all prime targets of opportunity.

What seemed like hours of torture was only two minutes. The attack ended almost as quickly as it had begun, but the toll had been brutal. Finally, the horrible reptile let up enough for Eyrich to speak, "S-stop, I'm going to pee myself!" Eyrich panted heavily and his eyes glistened with tears. He lay across Nalz's lap with his head resting heavily on the armrest where he had been pulled down to facilitate the attack upon him.

"That's what you get for calling me dumb!" Nalz scolded the disheveled dragon.

"Hmph!"

Nalz chuckled and smiled down at Eyrich. Having him across his lap felt good, almost like it was where he should have been all along. The physical contact he'd wanted was finally here. There were no inappropriate thoughts going through his mind; he was simply enjoying the intimate contact with another person. And it helped that he found tickling the helpless fluff dragon immensely entertaining. "Are you sorry?" Nalz asked with a smirk. Eyrich didn't answer; instead he crossed his arms and looked away, an exaggerated frown on his cute face.

The reptile chuckled and adjusted his left arm that was holding Eyrich's far side. His forearm bumped into something around Eyrich's hips that was surprisingly stiff and the dragon froze. It only took a moment for Nalz to realize what his arm was up against, but he kept his eyes on Eyrich's face and didn't say anything. He didn't want to embarrass him, but the fur was just thin enough that he could see a heavy blush flood the boy's cheeks.

There was something about the fluff dragon's face that drew Nalz in. He wasn't sure if it was Eyrich's adorable blushing or the timid, nervous look on his face, or how his glasses had slid down his snout, lending him a studious appearance. His long, fuzzy ears were back alongside the short curved horns sprouting from either side of the short mess of hair on top of his head. Perhaps it was the way his eyes grew wider, trying to ascertain what was happening as Nalz moved his head closer, toward the thin line of the fluff dragon's lips.

Nalz didn't know-and wouldn't learn for many months-that, as he pressed his lips softly to Eyrich's, he was the boy's first kiss. He never would have guessed solely based on his performance; for never having kissed somebody, Nalz found it quite enjoyable with the boy. Later on, in hindsight, Nalz would realize the subtle signs of Eyrich's inexperience, from his slow reciprocation to his awkwardness with what to do with his idle hands; however, in the moment, Nalz was totally unaware. The kiss didn't last long and when Nalz pulled back slightly there was no mistaking the deep red of Eyrich's cheek beneath his short fur.

"I hope you didn't mind that," Nalz said quietly with a shy smile, he was nervous as well, just not to the degree the dragon was. He really hoped Eyrich didn't because he wanted to spend more time getting acquainted with the fluff dragon's soft, sweet lips. He didn't think he would get a 'yes', considering how hard the dragon's length seemed pressing against his arm.

"N-not really, just a little unexpected," Eyrich whispered, not wanting to meet Nalz's eyes.

Eyrich tensed when he felt Nalz's hand grip his length through his sweatpants. He wouldn't end up telling Nalz that this was also the first time anybody had touched him like that. There was nothing wrong with Nalz, but he wanted to tell the reptile to stop. He was incredibly nervous as it was, but Nalz seemed so happy and he felt so guilty even considering crushing that happiness. Part of him liked what was happening, but he also didn't feel ready for this yet. He'd always imagined something more romantic, something more meaningful.

"That's my penis," Eyrich said flatly and felt incredibly stupid about it. Nalz just chuckled and smiled.

"I know," Nalz said, moving his hand back and forth slightly. "Can I kiss you again?" He asked politely. The fluff dragon didn't say anything; he hesitated and battled with himself in his head. Eventually he nodded faintly.

In the end, the fear of saying 'no' and making Nalz unhappy and feeling guilty for it had won over his inhibitions and Nalz pressed his lips to Eyrich's. And he kissed back. Soon, Nalz's hand slipped past the waistband of his sweats and he felt the lizards warm scales surround his length. Despite his internal conflicts, part of him enjoyed the attention and gentle treatment. He just didn't know how to feel about it.

In the future, when all was said and done, Eyrich didn't regret his decision that night and Nalz hadn't pressed him to do anything more than he was willing. The night ended with Eyrich wrapped in Nalz's strong, warm embrace, cuddling into restful oblivion.