The day had passed just as slowly as any other in Astrid's life.

She was basking in the late evening sun, curled up in front of her cave as she did he best to not purr. Because yes, she did purr and roll around in field of flowers but since she had a guest she couldn't do that.

She thought it would dent her picture perfect dragon image.

Try as she might, she couldn't ignore the stench of death emitting from Bucky or Buckaroo as she liked to call him in her head.

She sighed, realizing there was no way they could go on like this. It was nearing the end of their first 24hours together and as they had 29days more to go, it needed to be addressed.

As she archer her neck to face him, she realized he was already staring. He seemed to be racing himself, making her snort with a small puff of smoke and purple sparks.

"You need to change, you stink. By this rate the stench will suffocate all wildlife and not just me."

He seemed to relax, a spark of amusement shining in his eyes.

"I'm sorry, I didn't think to bring my overnight bag with me."

The reply made Astrid shuffle her wings and stand up, so much for hoping he wouldn't become a brat the second day.

"Well, there's the option of just washing your clothes."

"And what, walk around naked until they dry?"

Realizing that was exactly the response the dragon was waiting for make Bucky almost choke.

"I wouldn't mind, I'm just a dragon."

Astrid said in sing-song voice, what? She hadn't had the chance to ogle a good-looking man for decades.

Bucky narrowed his eyes. "No."

Astrid grumbled under her breath turning to walk down the cliff again, realizing he wasn't following he peeked over her shoulder, lowering her wings a little.

"Well? Are you coming? You don't think I'm going to choose you a pair of pants that fit?"

He scrambled up and went to follow her although he seemed a bit worried as he eyed her slowly healing wings still.

He was smart enough not to comment about it as he followed her. The two carefully made their way down, and he went to walk beside her, using her as a sort of a sun shield.

"Should I be worried of your friends coming to blow up my castle to save their callant soldier in distress?"

Once again, Bucky was taken aback by the snarkiness of the dragon.

"No, no. I'm sure Tony explained everything. The rules are rules."

They trudged through long grasslands towards a dark forest filled with fern, spruce and alder trees.

"Tony was the maskin-mann?" machine-man, Bucky was thankful that he spoke somewhat Swedish and Danish, making Norwegian understandable to him as well.

"Yes, the red man in a suit." the dragon hummed in response.

"So why did you volunteer? Was it for your girlfriend or are you simply an idiot with a hero complex?"

He realized she had raised one of her wings to cover him from the scorching sun.

"No girlfriend," he shook his head, oddly enough it was easy to relax in her presence. Not once had she threatened him in any way. He had expected to be fighting for his life of the next 30 days but so far they had mostly slept in silence, bathed in the freezing river and smoked fish.

"You could say I'm just an idiot." she studied him with that unceasingly large eye of hers before turning back towards the nearing forest.

"You don't strike me as one, Hunken."

"Are there more dragons around?"

Bucky couldn't help but ask, he hadn't voiced another reason for staying behind. Curiosity. He didn't think any history books spoke of finding dragon bones so how old was this one and are there really more of them? And if there are, how come no one has spotted them?

"Do you think there are more of us?"

He felt as though it was a tricky question, so he didn't answer, he wasn't going to take that bait again.

"Well, no. But if you meet someone, send them over. I have some board games and a good view."

"You have board games?"

"Not right now but I could carve something out of the stone."

"You've done it before?"

"Can't say I have but have you seen these?" She said, proudly wiggling her sharp talons in his face.

"So, your plan is to carve out a board game out of stone even though you've never done it before?"

She stopped, narrowing her eyes and snapping her wings close to her body so the glare of the setting sun hit him right in the face.

"Are you judging me?"

"As much as you're judging me."

The hostile expression melted, the low thrumming sound from her chest dying out as she nodded.

"Fair point, Kjekken. Fair point."

They reached the forest, the sweet smell of foreign plants making him want to bask in the eerily calm woods.

Bucky kept a careful eye out, even though the dragon seemed completely at ease he didn't believe in the calm facade of the forest.

He followed her closely, watching out for the tail that kept sofly swinging behind her after every surprisingly silent step.

"Relax, the forest is not your enemy, soldier."

Her voice had taken a sweet undertone, it seemed to emit the same cooling effects the sweet smell of pine and moss did.

"You can never be too safe."

Astrid looked over at him lazily, slowing down a little to give him time to sweep the premises with his super soldier senses.

"You're in Norway deep in the forest, the town we're heading to is no big city but a village at best. There aren't even any trail cameras anywhere nearby, trust me I know. And the planes don't fly overhead here. Sure there might be a couple of hunters here in October but that's about as dangerous as it gets. And you can usually see them from a distance with their cute orange vests and obnoxious elkhounds."

Astrid explained, hoping to ease his worries a little.

"Besides, you're walking next to a mighty dragon. No one's gonna attack you."

"Yeah, that's what I'm worried about."

Now she was confused.

"You want someone to attack you?"

He pulled a face, "No, but I'd rather they attack me than you. You're... A dragon. A first in this world, can you imagine what they do to you if you were caught?"

If dragons could blush, Astrid would be as red as strawberries from Greece. This man was worried for her safety, it was flattering really.

"I haven't been found for fifty years, I'll be fine for the next thirty. And so will you, relax, enjoy the scenery and trust my nose."

"Youre fifty?"

"That's what you got from this conversation?"

"Well, yeah."

"Okay, I'm a little more than fifty. Was born in 1923."

She mumbled, not too happy about her age. And for the first time, she saw a ghost of a smirk on his face as he lowered his weapon a little.

"So, still younger than me."

"What!?"

Astrid stopped, eyes widening comically as she looked him up and down.

"I was born in 1917."

He was being so smug about it. Her unnerving galaxy eyes still washing over him in shock.

"well, you age well."

They continued walking and Bucky was oddly satisfied to have caught off guard a damn dragon. Who would've thought.

"So how did you come to be?" he decided to ask carefully.

"Ah you know, when two people love each other very very much, there's a flower and a bee-"

"Really?" he gave her a bemused look.

"Yes, and then the bee-"

"Okay okay, I won't ask about it again."

She looked mighty pleased with herself now.

"But why... Why thirty days?"

She shrugged, she was not going to tell the man that she was most likely going to die after the thirty days. It was just a deal, and she was selfish when she came up with it. But she decided that these were her last days so she should do something other than hide away in her safe little cave and look at the sunsets alone.

"You know, I never expected a dragon to be so..."

"Pretty?" she said, fluttering her ripped wings and shaking her head a little, her scales letting out a soft tingling sound at her movements.

"Friendly."

"Excuse you, I'm a real dangerous beast with real sharp teeth."

"Never said you weren't."

"Good, it's best you not forget about that."

Yes she wanted company but she would still keep him at arms reach. Because after all that, he would just walk away anyways and go back to whatever it was that he did daily.