Thread by @SpicyFateCharms

Another #TGCF AU because I can. This'll have dragons and magic and nsfw scenes so if that's not your taste, this is your warning!

Ships: Hualian, Shuangshui, SQX and (real) Ming Yi, YSH and LW

Also, there's no gods. Now, without further ado!

It had begun with little things. Magic unraveling during the casting, or magical creatures leaving the area suddenly.

Then there was the sight of the white ghost.

A dragon whose scales had lost all color, a creature neither alive nor dead. A beast in mind and body.

A dragon whose only desire is bring ruin and destruction to everyone and thing it can. To rend the fabric of nature asunder and revel in the raw magic it can then consume.

After it was sighted over what was once a grand and sprawling city, magic erupted from the very earth.

The ground split open, raw power pouring from the cracks into the sky. As Bai Wuxiang, the white dragon, took off into the sky and disappear the city fell to chaos. Citizens, those without magic, /changed/.

Where a human once stood, a magical beast took their place just after.

It was a calamitous event, and it had cost an entire city their world. In the aftermath of the change, many began to lose themselves, and those few who survived did not live long out in the wilds by themselves.

He hadn't escaped unscathed either, despite being a mage.

Magic flows through mages like rain through air. It permeates their body, taken in with every breath and cycled with every exhale. To live is to be filled with magic for a mage.

Xie Lian, ever since the calamity that took his home, has struggled to cast correctly.

Xie Lian used to be the greatest mage in his kingdom, with skill that was unlike any other in his generation. What's more, is he had done it all without a familiar.

He was seventeen when he finally made a pact. A little hatching with dull red scales and a dark mane.

And when that little creature looked up at him, he saw a pair of eyes he'll never forget. One a gorgeous honey gold, and the other a vibrant fiery red.

He made the pact to save the hatching, a creature that did not yet know how to take in magic on its own, and he helped.

But without his familiar, a being that can regulate magic, Xie Lian finds his spells always going awry.

He never /means/ to turn anyone into a mouse or bird, or to set something on fire. He just can't cast what he's intends to.

The calamity had taken that from him.

He, of course, isn't the only one who's bee affected by the calamity. It's rippling effects have changed many things, and now the Shi siblings, two powerful mages, must also have their familiars with them.

Of course, this was merely to ensure they do not get weave sickness.

Shi Wudu is a well known mage, often seen with his troublemaker of a familiar around his neck. His skill with weaving spells pertaining to water are unmatched, but nausea strikes if he tries any other elemental magic.

Shi Qingxuan, however, excels at manipulating the winds.

Shi Qingxuan can also change his form with a quick incantation, thanks to his familiar- a finch that stays perched on his shoulder as often as possible.

Like most mages, they live at the congregation. An institution for mages to stay and practice their craft unbothered.

Most mages live here, or close by. Xie Lian lives in a quaint little town not too far away- in case he needs to call for help from a spell backfiring- but it's a recent development.

And he lives alone, having lost his familiar in the chaos during the calamity, but it's okay!

The villagers are kind, and he travels around some to make a living since he can't practice magic as he once did. Not to mention, his little butterfly friend keeps him company now!

---

"I'm hungry."

"I'm busy, He Xuan."

"I'm hungry."

"I heard you the first time."

You see, Shi Wudu has a problem.

"I said," He Xuan hisses, from his perch on Shi Wudu's shoulders, "I'm /hungry/."

That problem is that his familiar is an unrepentant /asshole/.

Shi Wudu curses when the magic he'd been steadily infusing into his newest creation goes wild.

The snake draped over him slips off, transforming from reptilian into a man. Black hair, golden eyes, and pale skin all covered in varying shades of gray and blue.

"You selfish brat!" Shi Wudu snarls, snuffing the wild magic with a snap of his fingers. "You couldn't /wait/?!"

He Xuan shrugs, twirling his finger and making a small whirlpool in the air idly.

At least he's converting the lingering magic in the air.

"Well since you have your own hands and feet, why don't go and get your meal yourself." Shi Wudu snaps, turning back to his work.

"No."

"He Xuan, if your hungry, go and get it yourself, you selfish lizard!"

The familiar huffs, "Fine then."

Just when Shi Wudu thinks he'll get a moment of peace, there are hands on his hips and a body pressing against his back.

"I'm just getting my meal, surely this is okay..."

And that's what people tend to forget about familiars.

"He Xuan, I'm /working/..."

The more intelligent of them are tend to have stronger personalities and will bend the rules. they will try to pull one over their mage.

He Xuan is a repeat offender.

"You can do it later..."

Hands slide up Shi Wudu's sides, hooking under his arms to feel at his chest while a tongue licks a stripe up the column of his throat.

"He Xuan... it's important."

"And I'm hungry..."

"I fed you just a few hours ago."

"That was then. This is now..."

Shi Wudu sighs. "Fine."

The mage steps away from his work table, letting his familiar paw at him, and turns towards his bedroom. He doesn't bother waiting to see if he'll be followed, frankly he knows he will be.

Once he's behind closed doors, this strange little game they play comes to an end.

Shi Wudu finds himself laid out on his bed, his clothes cast aside, and his familiar looming over him, taking in his form. He Xuan is always so slow, careful. As if he doesn't want this to end too soon. A need to prolong this moment in time, to savor his master and mage.

As if, gorging himself would make Shi Wudu stop indulging him.

And that /is/ what it is. An indulgence. A game to see who needs the other more.

Shi Wudu could issue a command as easily as breathing.

He never does. He sinks into the lavish bed, hands above his head, and waits.

He waits because He Xuan will take him apart, will make him see sights no one else can. The familiar /relishes/ in the soft sounds of ecstasy he can draw out of his mage, his slitted pupils dilating until gold is swallowed by fathomless black. He Xuan likes to /give/ pleasure.

He gives it so fully and easily, careless with his own need despite how this /always/ begins. He takes Shi Wudu apart, sounding more and more ragged with every cry of pleasure that falls from the mage's lips. He revels in it, chasing his need so slowly it must be agony.

And don't be mistaken, it really must be agony.

He Xuan rises over Shi Wudu, a smattering of black scales forming around his eyes, panting raggedly.

Dragons feel much more strongly than any other magical creature, with some rare exceptions, which makes them more primal.

When He Xuan first wanted to share Shi Wudu's bed, the mage had expected to be ravaged. He'd done his research.

But that night was the same as today.

It's slow, with He Xuan wrangling his form as he works the mage open slowly, sucking marks- biting is forbidden- into pale skin.

It's a slow process that's complimented by the exciting feeling of claws digging into plush and powerful thighs.

But never powerful enough to kick the dragon away. Not that he would try.

It's always maddening when He Xuan is like this. When his control over himself falters.

It's so easy to forget that He Xuan is a dragon sometimes. Not because he doesn't exude /power/, because he does. He Xuan simply doesn't behave like a dragon does. He's lazy, greedy, and demanding.

And, much to Shi Wudu's torment, he's so good at making this seem like love.

It's not /entirely/ unheard of for mages and highly intelligent familiars to grow close, to be intimate. Sometimes real relationships bloom from the contracted familiar and mage pairs.

But not He Xuan and Shi Wudu.

This is part of the game Shi Wudu never signed up to play.

It had been a complete accident. He didn't think it would get this far.

How could he, when He Xuan seemed to hate him at all other times of the day.

But when they're alone like this, when He Xuan and sink his claws into Shi Wudu's flesh to hear him gasp and moan?

It's as if He Xuan lives only to breathe pleasure into Shi Wudu's trembling form, to make him sing the songs of pleasure and ecstasy.

It's easy to think that, behind these closed doors, the dragon is showing the true color of his scales.

Then the Shi Wudu wakes in the morning.

He wakes to He Xuan curled around his bed in his draconic form, all sleek black scales with the faintest sheen of gold and blue, and things go back to how they were.

But here and now, when he's laid bare like this, he can close his eyes and believe.

I love you, his thinks.

It was so sudden, the first time that thought crossed his mind.

Now it comes as easily as the rain falls.

I love you, Shi Wudu thinks as his familiar /finally/ begins to press into him.

I love you, he thinks when his pleasure begins to crest.

Three words he doesn't dare say.

I love you.

He Xuan is so gentle with him, rocking into him slowly.

I love you.

Shi Wudu pulls at the sheets, choking on his pleasure now.

I love you.

The dragon above him is losing more of his control, being rougher than normal.

I love you.

It feels so /good/.

I love you, he thinks in the words unspoken. The ones that hang in the air, waiting to be made real with simple breath and desire.

The ones Shi Wudu has never been able to say.

I love you, he says in his mind. The only place where it's safe.

"...love you..." he breathes.

A fleeting dream, a want he cannot voice.

Then the wave crashes through him, dragging him out to sea. To drown in the depths, the domain of his dragon who could so easily keep him. Who could gift him with breath is a world where breath is the sea itself.

"... Love you..."

When he comes back to himself, it's to He Xuan curled around him. He's warm, the scales alight with the ambient magic in the air, and he's smaller. Enough to cocoon the mage without damaging the bed frame.

Shi Wudu keeps his eyes closed, just so he can pretend a little longer.

It's safer here, in this pretense of domesticity, than it is to acknowledge the ugly truth.

That he wants something He Xuan isn't willing to give.

So, after another hour of laying within the dragon's embrace, Shi Wudu rises. He doesn't linger, doesn't give in to temptation.

He pulls himself free of his bed, from the dragon now waking upon it, and puts on his robes. He slips out of the room before He Xuan can call him back, before he can be dragged back into the unspoken dream.

But he's watched.

The dragon lifts his head and he watches in silence.