No one would ever believe me if I told them that I didn't enjoy what I do. I don't love flying – I mean of course I did, but every time I was in the air the world got a little bit darker. Everyone always wanted to know what it was to have wings and I was one of the lucky ones to find out. I was gifted. Maybe too gifted for my own good. Maybe just lucky, but I like to look on the bright side.

Talent only ever came with misery. Everything was either for my own good or there was some other reason that kept me latched to a grim reality.

I didn't get into dragon hunting to hurt people.

Hell, I didn't even do it to hurt dragons.

Matthias was the only one who braved the world with me. He was my companion when I had none. Something of a brother, or maybe a father...hell, at least a friend. Together we were the eye of the storm, so beautiful and dangerous; it was like the purest form of invincibility. In the sky away from the world, who out there could dare bring us down?

Of course, I loved dragons.

I wanted to save them, every single one of them. I wanted to take them to a better place – somewhere free of humans.

Ironically I wanted to send them back from the place they were ripped from in the first place. That world had no humans and that world was the world they were meant to be in.

I never did find out why portals were opening between our world and theirs – I was only ever the cleanup crew.

I never wanted to hurt anyone.

I never wanted to hurt anyone.

I never wanted to hurt anyone.

I.

Never.
Wanted.

To hurt.

...

I had turned my brother into a scene kid by the age of seven. He was a very loud person by that time; opinionated and tired of the world – as if he had lived through the great depression and had a thing to say about work ethic. Sometimes I half expected him to up and tell me how to do my taxes or take out another mortgage on our old house to pay the medical bills. I knew from very early on that he would be the death of himself – one way or another.

"Hiya, milkboy," I grinned whilst pulling back the curtains by his hospital bed to throw a stuffed lobster at his head. Lait shielded his face with his hands and laughed easily, his large eyes and crooked smile lighting up the grim hospital interior. He picked up the lobster and set it on his lap – he would have put it on the side table, but the spider web of tubes in his arms restricted him from moving too much. "What did the Doctor say about getting yourself all tangled up like this?"

Lait narrowed his eyes at me even though he knew he was pinned. "Don't be smart with me."

"At the rate you're going I won't be able to keep up." I replied and pulled my coat off to sit on his bedside. "So they said you can blow this joint tomorrow –" He sat up quickly but I pushed him right back. "—uh uh uh, but—"

I could see the scowl slowly burning into his soul as he sensed hinderances to his freedom.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. "When the doctor says you must stay in bed for a few days, you have to do it. Okay? Please."

His smile immediately dropped and his eyes followed a second later. "I'm tired." He said quietly. "I just want to go outside again."

His voice was so small, it sounded as if he could lose a fight to a small mouse. "I know Lait, but you're –"

"I'm not SICK," he insisted and tugged at his wires. "I'm – I'm –I just need some glue, to keep me together for a... while. I'm not – I feel –" He looked away pointedly and crossed his arms. "I –"

I raised my arms and scooted closer to him. Usually I would have been able to the feel the heat off his body, but this time his skin was cold, even with the heated blankets. He shied away, refusing to look at me as curled up into himself. 

"C'mon, look at me." 

He refused to budge. 

"Look at me, please."

He kept his eyes turned away.

"Fine." I smiled reassuringly at his back, making wide eyes and a goofy face even though he couldn't see it. His thin body laid curled up on the bed almost like a bag of skin and bone. Fact of the matter was, he was weak, and getting weaker all the time – but all hope was not lost. I had to remind myself that every moment. Everything we did. Every night we hunted. We were chasing hope like a firefly in a cloudless savannah sky.

"You are sick, Lait." I whispered as a rubbed a hand up and down his back. "You know that."

"They're lying to you, ya know," he sniffled. "I'll be fine."

I stared at him silently for a moment. "You're way too young to be saying words like that," I murmured.

"What?" He glanced over his shoulder.

"You are going to be fine." I continued on and gave him a steady smile. "I promised, remember? Everything will turn out okay. You'll get better and then you, me and Matthias can go off do whatever we want."

He sniffed and stared into his hands. "Video games and take out pizza with extra sauce?"

I laughed quietly and placed a palm on his shoulder. "That's a good start."

He sat up and stared as if he were looking right through me. His eyes were empty of emotion and the circles around them looked worn as paced by an inmate. "They're lying to you, bro. Everything is wrong, why can't you see that?"

There was an unmissable beat of silence as I briefly considered the possibility that he knew. About the dragons, my job, everything. I rustled a hand through his hair, trying to cover up my shock. "You're too smart for this place, you know that?"

He looked at me with the single most bored expression I had ever seen. He wasn't buying any of my shit; not for a moment. "And you're too young to look as tired as you do."

There was a pause as I let that sink in.

"Hey!" I exclaimed and shoved him away from me, his brown eyes glistened evilly. "I'm not the one in the hospital bed, mister –"

"Well, you look like you could use one –"

"Oh, you piece of –"

"At least I've actually used a bed in the last 48 hours."

"That's it!" I grabbed him by the sides causing him to squeal like a pig, squirming aggressively as I attacked his tickle spots. He smacked me in the head with the stuffed lobster, the stress gone from his eyes briefly as his face lit up with laughter. I stopped when his heart monitor started spiking as he struggled to get away – no need for the doctors to yell at us again today.

"You stay in bed this time." I told him as I reached inside of my coat to produce a book. "Look, the more you actually listen to these guys, the less often we have to be here. Okay?"

He made a face as he accepted the book. "They're all full of shit."

I crossed my arms. "Where did you learn those kind of words from?"

He gave me a knowing glance. "The best," he whispered.

I couldn't help the smile that slowly spread across my face. "Yeah well, don't use those words too much okay?" My phone buzzed in my pocket like a trapped fly, causing my heart to sink a bit. I rose to my feet, not even bothering to read the message. There were only three people in the world who texted me, and one of them was sitting in a hospital bed right in front of me. My brow furrowed as I raked my hair away from face with both hands and got to my feet. "I have to go."

Lait's eyes tightened. "Oh."

"I'll be back as soon as I as I can," I promised. He reached out his arms and quickly wrapped him up in a hug. "Please be alright while I'm gone. I'm sorry I can't be here all the time."

"No, you." he said quietly into my shoulder. "You need to be alright."

"What?" I pushed him away to see silent tears gathering into the corners of his eyes.

"Every time I see you, you're in more pain," he whispered. "You're the only one I have. One of these days, I'm afraid you'll collapse in an alley somewhere." Lait gulped and ran his arm over his eyes quickly. "And you won't have a robot nanny to call an ambulance for you."

"Oh." Fuck.

Lait may have been the frail one, but all at once my body melted into the hug as if I had been struck in the back with a boulder. His arms clung to me desperately and I squeezed my eyes shut. I wanted to tell him to not worry; that he was way too young to be thinking about me that way. He was too mature for this world. Nothing got past him, even at his weakest states. "I'll be fine," I told him even though my mouth was almost too dry to speak.

He looked at me with a look of disbelief. "I've heard that one before, try again."

"I gotta go." I chuckled under my breath and turned to leave.

"Hey –"

I turned to look at him.

"We'll be flying home tomorrow, right?" Lait queried. "With Matthias."

"As long as it's not raining, yeah."

"You promise?"

"I'll see you soon." I shot him a cheeky grin before dipping out of his little corner of the ER with a double fingered salute.

The walk back outside was quiet, a bit too quiet for my liking – and there was a part of me that wondered, if I should have taken that, as a sign.