FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

So, this is an idea I had that was just silly, and I figured it would be a good one to ease back into the swing of things. I hope you enjoy it.

Let me know what you think.

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Debbie walked down the corridors of the research complex, the sheer number of labs she passed with white coated PhDs and research assistants still intimidating despite the months she had worked for Drakagene Labs. Looking to the side, into the nearest lab and the scientists that were digitally teasing apart double helixes, the copper haired woman shook her head, wondering once again if this internship was worth it. True, Drakagene Labs was literally THE top rated biotech firm in the world. And true, having this internship on her resume made her a shoo-in for any grad school she wanted to go to. But, being the only twenty year old undergrad on a research campus was NOT the sort of thing that was worth only four credits per semester. And she still couldn’t figure out why her application had been chosen, out of everyone who had applied. She wasn’t even a biotech major…

“Ah, Miss Connors, back to pick up your pet?” The security guard at the internal checkpoint asked with his characteristic snarky attitude. He wasn’t a bad guy, and in the first couple months of her time here, the pair had bonded over their shared lack of higher education credentials. She couldn’t quite call him a friend exactly, but he was a close enough, considering her schedule hadn’t exactly given her a whole lot of time for socializing.

“No, I thought I would just wander the halls for a while; you know, see what trouble I can get into.” She replied, matching his snark with her own as she swiped her badge through the scanner and waited for it to chime acceptance.

“Well, you know, I am off duty in another hour, so if you could hold off on causing trouble until after that, I would appreciate it.” He commented as she walked past the desk and on into the high security lab section.

“I make no promises.” She replied over her shoulder, grinning to herself. Her grin didn’t last beyond the next corner in the hall, her stride faltering as she saw the first lab in that section. In that lab were rack upon rack of transparent, climate controlled containers. Inside each one was a rather large reptilian egg, not that different from those of dinosaurs, each one of a different color, and a few here and there held swirls and speckles of other colors in addition to the primary. She frowned, seeing that aside from the green indicator on each container, the equipment was shut down, the lab deserted. Which of course brought to mind the reason why she was here today. Drakagene’s most ambitious project, and one that was about the worst kept secret in the world, was the creation of honest-to-god, dragons.

Why exactly they were doing that was way above the clearance of a lowly intern, and honestly, she wasn’t exactly sure if she wanted to know. She figured it was some sort of proof on concept or something, but the project hadn’t been the most successful thing in the world. As a matter of fact, only one of the many eggs they had created had apparently been viable, and the scientists were still trying to figure out why. Which, of course, explained why the embryonic production lab was practically shut down at the moment. Fortunately, her internship had nothing to do with that part of the project. Picking up the pace once more, she headed for the last lab in the hall, the largest one in the building. Despite the lack of repeatable success, Dr. Francis Cicero, the lead scientist on the project, had decided to move on to the next phase. Badging open the door, Debbie walked into the lab, shaking her head at the rhythmic sounds that filled the room.

“A little more, Alpha, then we will be done.” Dr. Cicero said, tapping notes onto his tablet. The dark, pine green reptile on the giant size treadmill that divided the main part of the lab in half gave the scientist a glare out of the corner of its yellow reptilian eye while it slackened its pace slightly. “Come on, Alpha, I know you can do better than that…” Debbie covered her mouth to hide her smile as Alpha slowed even further in response, barely trotting along now, the dragon glancing in her direction while he did so. Though the scientists all swore Alpha couldn’t really understand or mimic the facial expressions of humans, she would swear that the reptile was smirking. The scientist heaved a long suffering sigh and shook his head. “Damn dragon...never listens.”

“Well, Doctor, I never seem to have that problem.” Debbie commented, and the scientist looked up from his notes with a rueful smile.

“Well, clearly, he plays favorites.” Dr. Cicero stated as the dragon immediately hopped off the massive treadmill and hurried over to her as if the scientist wasn’t even in the room.

“Rerrh.” Alpha replied, seemingly in agreement as he bumped his forehead against her stomach affectionately, almost knocking her over as she scratched him behind his jaw with her fingernails. He could be surprisingly gentle for a creature that was a solid seven feet long without his long tail, but even his gentle movements were powerful. Laughing at the expression on the scientist’s face, she gently pushed the dragon aside so she could continue on into the lab.

“I guess we are done for the day.” Francis said, shaking his head at the dragon’s antics as it followed the intern, almost in step with her.

“Sorry Doctor Cicero.” Debbie said apologetically, holding open her hands helplessly as the dragon leaned against her side, looking up at the scientist as if daring him to give him more orders. “Did you at least get some of the data you needed?”

“Its alright, Deb.” The doctor replied, waving off her concerns with a smile. “We got everything we absolutely needed. I was just hoping we could get some extra physical endurance testing done today, but Alpha seems to have had other plans.”

“Erf.” The dragon stated in what Debbie had learned to take as an affirmative tone, and the doctor laughed, coming over and patting the top of the dragon’s head.

“Well, the project’s testing is still ahead of schedule, so it isn’t a big deal.” He said, waving towards the huge sliding door in the opposite wall. “I just have to get a full body scan and a blood sample and we will be done. Why don’t you go get your car? By the time you get backed up to the door, we should be all set.”

“Is that ok with you, Alpha?” She asked and dragon looked up at her with an expression she might have taken as a ‘do I have too?’ look if Alpha were human. Finally, after a few moments, the dragon seemed to shrug and plodded reluctantly over to the scanner platform, dragging his feet like a little kid told to go sit in the corner. Shaking her head in amazement, she walked over to the large door and swiped her badge once more, unlocking the controls so she could tell the huge loading door to open.

As she walked down the series of ramps that went down to another huge door, one that led into the lowest floor of the research complex’s parking garage, she thought about the scientists’ insistence that Alpha was capable of human emotions and she shook her head. How could they possibly know that? It wasn’t like anything like this had been done before. Besides, she might have been a lowly undergrad intern, but she certainly had more experience with the dragon than anyone else, including Dr. Cicero. When Drakagene had contacted her to tell her that they were offering her the internship, they had said it was to ‘assist in the care of laboratory subjects and perform acclimatization testing’. Of course, she had come to find out that that basically was just a fancy way of saying, ‘find out whether it is possible to live with a dragon in your house.’

As she understood it, one of the many possibilities for marketing the currently hypothetical production line of dragons to the public that Drakagene was exploring was as ‘companion animals’. Or, as her security guard friend had remarked, a really, really impressive pet. Of course, nobody would even come close to thinking that was a good idea unless it had been thoroughly tested. Which is where she came in. After undergoing all the tests that the scientists had originally been able to come up with, the very young dragon they had christened ‘Alpha’ had been assigned to her, or rather, she had been assigned to him. She assumed that the rest of the test line would have been paired up with other interns when they had reached the same age as Alpha, but of course, none of them had ended up developing fully, so Alpha remained one of a kind.

Shaking her head, she got into her SUV and pulled it around to the loading zone near the door she had come out from, finding Dr. Cicero waiting with Alpha sitting patiently beside him. As weird as her unpaid internship had been thus far, it did have some definite perks. The SUV she was driving was one such perk, being brand new when her internship had begun. The fact that it had been modified without a passenger seat or back bench didn’t make that much of a difference to her appreciation of it, considering she had been driving an old beat up sedan while at university. Stepping out of the car, she came around and opened up the back gate, giving a smile to the scientist as she passed.

“Well Deb, we were originally planning to do another testing series tomorrow, but the developmental research team has a new theory about the viability problem, so my staff has been tasked to help with that instead.” Dr. Cicero said, grinning as Alpha eagerly hopped up into the car before the back gate was even open all the way, talons clattering on the hard plastic of the modified flooring. “Why don’t you take a long weekend and be back in on Monday?”

“Really?” Debbie asked, surprised. She hadn’t had a three day weekend since she started her internship and it would certainly give her a chance to finish up some work for school. “Are you sure that is ok?”

“Sure.” Francis Cicero replied, waving off her concerns. “If you two came in, you would just end up sitting around, being bored. If we need you, we can always call, right?”

“Rrrrerar?” Alpha questioned from inside the car, his ear fins perking out straight from his head, clearly picking up on Debbie’s surprise and pleasure and she smiled at him.

“What do you think, Alpha?” She asked, “Want to stay home tomorrow?”

“Rawr.” He stated, rising up on his hind legs a little to grab the strap attached to the tailgate with his teeth, swinging it down so it latched, making the scientist laugh.

“Well, I guess that is that.” He said and Debbie chuckled, shaking her head at her scaly companion’s action. That just about proved it in her book. He might not have had the ability to speak like a human, but he certainly could understand what humans were saying. “Enjoy your weekend Deb. See you Monday.”

“You too doctor.” She said, waving as she climbed back into the car and drove off, heading out of the garage. The second the automated gate lifted up to let them out, Alpha came up and put his paws up on the dashboard, staring out the front eagerly. “Well, what say we celebrate our extra time off with a special meal tonight?”

“Erf.” Alpha said again, leaning over and nuzzling her ear, his breath on her neck making her giggle.

“I knew you would like that idea.” She said, then almost served into the other lane as Alpha licked under her ear, startling her. “Ack!! Alpha! Not while I am driving!” Looking over at the dragon in surprise, she saw him looking out the passenger side window, his tail tip twitching, obviously feigning innocence, though she could see in his reflection that he had the same playful, almost-smirk on his face as he had when he was pretending to misunderstand Dr. Cicero’s instructions in the lab. Shaking her head, she returned her focus to making sure she didn’t crash the car on the winding road away from the research campus.

Drakagene had made a name for itself with gene-moding crops and had built the massive complex on land it had bought up, completing it just in time to snag the first contracts for medical gene therapy, which, of course, had made them billions, allowing them to expand the campus three times since its original construction. The fact that the entire campus was in a rural area, a solid twenty miles from the nearest town was probably because of security, rather than pleasant working conditions, but all the same, it was better than being in the middle of a city like her university was. A click immediately proceeded the radio turning on, shattering her thoughts and she looked over to see Alpha nosing the preset buttons until the local classic rock station began playing through the speakers and she laughed when the green dragon began bobbing his head along to ‘Sweet Home Alabama’. He looked back at her with an unmistakable grin, clearly pleased with himself and she chuckled, reaching over to scratch his head.

When Drakagene had moved into the area, the town had been in trouble, suffering like a lot of places in recession. But, the huge corporation moving nearby had turned things around in a hurry. Construction to support the facility with housing alone would have done it, but the entertainment and services industries that came with an increasing population had added even more, which probably was the reason why most of the people she passed as she drove regarded her company vehicle with nonchalance, despite the dragon sitting beside her. Of course, she reflected as the driver of a car with out of state plates in the next lane did a double take and nearly got into an accident upon seeing her passenger, not everyone could take such things in stride. Pulling into the parking lot of the grocery store, she parked in the shade in one of the rows pretty far from the entrance and cracked the windows.

“Now Alpha,” She said, the dragon looking at her attentively. “Behave yourself while I am shopping. I shouldn’t be long.”

“Erf.” He agreed and lowered his head to his paws, flicking his tail in annoyance. She knew that the dragon wanted to go everywhere she did, but that was out of the question, at least until Drakagene figured out how to make more of the creatures. Besides, she had no idea how he would react to being in the presence of so much food, and not being allowed to just eat it as he pleased.

Getting out of the car and clicking the lock, she jogged across into the store, picking up a basket on her way. Walking through the produce section, she picked up eggplants, roma tomatoes, garlic cloves, and a bunch of herbs for her dinner and then made a detour to the section where the premade packages of salad were. Since she had become a vegetarian in high school, she had learned that while making salad from scratch was worth it most of the time, the premade ones weren’t bad in a pinch, and she didn’t feel like going through the trouble this weekend. After all, three day weekends were for being lazy, not going through extra trouble. Then, as she passed the butcher’s counter on the way to the rest of the store, she reminded herself to take a detour. Technically, she was breaking the rules of the project doing this, since the scientists wanted Alpha on a strictly controlled diet, but he wasn’t a machine, and having to eat the same food every single day had to get boring; especially considering it was mostly what she and Dr. Cicero had half-jokingly taken to calling ‘dragon kibble’.

“What can I get you, Miss?” The butcher behind the counter asked when she walked up. “Well, I am not sure exactly.” She said, looking at the display of meat with hesitation. “I think some steak would be good, but I am not sure what to get.”

“How are you going to prepare it?” He asked and she frowned.

“I was thinking I would grill, or maybe pan sear it?” She replied and the man nodded.

“Well, we have some prime cuts, fresh just this afternoon, that will take to it well. How marbled do you want it?” He asked, pointing to the right rows of cuts, and she swallowed, the sight a little upsetting to her stomach. She had never been a huge fan of beef even when she ate meat, and seeing it raw had always turned her stomach. Still, this was a special treat for Alpha, so she would put her discomfort aside. “You alright, miss?”

“Oh, Yes.” She replied, realizing she had been looking disgusted at the meat laid out in the case. “I just don’t eat much meat.” At his questioning look, she explained. “It’s for a friend.”

“Ah. I see.” He said, giving her a wink that she wasn’t sure how to take. “I have just the thing.” Reaching into the case, he took out a large slab of red meat and laid it on the scale. “Prime ribeye, as tender as you could like. Guaranteed to please even the most discerning palette. Just the one?”

“Yes, I think that should be ok.” She replied, watching as he wrapped it in butcher paper and stuck a price tag on it. “Thanks.”

“Enjoy your evening.” He said, handing it over. Putting the wrapped parcel into her cart, she headed for the bakery for a loaf of bread before heading to the cash register, pondering the look the man had given her. He must have thought she meant a date, which was rather silly to her, considering, but it was an innocent enough suggestion from a stranger. Shaking her head she paid for her food and headed out to the car once more, waving to a couple of other Drakagene employees she knew as she passed. When she was out of the store, and heading towards the car, she was not at all surprised to see what looked like a small family clustered around her car. When she had first brought Alpha out shopping with her, she had parked near the entrance to the store, not even thinking about it, and it had taken exactly five minutes for the car to be swamped with curious people. It had taken almost an hour to get clear of the crowd and on her way back home, during which anything frozen in her groceries had thawed and been wasted. While she got a stipend from Drakagene for living expenses, she still didn’t like wasting food, not to mention the hassling from the PR department she had had to deal with the next day at work.

“Is that a real Dragon?” One of the two kids standing with his nose pressed to the window of the car asked to no one in particular when she was in ear shot.

“No, it can’t be.” His mother replied, shaking her head and noticing Debbie, making a move to usher her kids back from the car at her very obvious approach, her keys in hand. “It has to be a model or some kind of animatronic.”

“Oh, Alpha is very real.” Debbie said, answering the kid’s question. Hearing her familiar voice, Alpha lifted his head and looked at her, then regarded the delighted kids with a curious expression. “And very alive, as you can see.”

“But...that’s...” The mother started to say as Alpha licked the window with his long tongue, making the kids gasp at the view of his sharp teeth, stumbling back in surprise and almost knocking each other over. “How..?”

“You will have to ask Drakagene Labs about that.” Debbie replied, interrupting the woman before she could start quizzing her. “Anyway, we need to get going. Make sure you stand back.”

“But...” The woman started to say again, reflexively grabbing her kids by the shoulders and moving them back from the car as Debbie pointedly unlocked it with the remote.

“See? Told you I would be back soon.” She said to Alpha when she opened the door, pointedly ignoring the baffled woman and the green dragon thumped his powerful tail on the flooring. When she set the paper bag on the floor beside the gear shift, Alpha immediately stuck his head inside it, sniffing noisily at the contents, setting the little kids to laughing. “Hey, wait until we get home at least.” Alpha dutifully pulled his head out of the sack and looked up at her, cocking his head to the side with a questioning expression.

“Reewr?” He questioned and she grinned, starting the car and waving to the kids and their still stunned mother.

“Yes, I got something special for both of us.” She said, the dragon pulling at the edge of the bag with his front paw, as if resisting the urge to go back into the bag and investigate. “I got an entire cut of beef, just for you.”

Immediately, Alpha seemed to light up, his eyes going wide, mouth opening to show his teeth, though it looked less like a smile than a snarl. Before she could even put the car in gear, the dragon had brushed aside her hand on the shifter and nuzzled her under her chin, letting out a low, almost sub-sonic growl as he rubbed his head against her.

“Alpha!” She exclaimed in surprise, trying to push him down so she could get the car in gear. “You goofball. Why are you being so affectionate today?”

“Rerf.” He remarked, giving her one more nuzzle before returning to his original position, curling up on the floor, though Deb noticed that he curled up with his head beside the bag with the steak in it.

The drive to the house where she was living was actually longer than the trip to town from the research complex had been. The house was the other big perk that came with the internship. It had been built on the edge of the Drakagene property, right up against the national forest land that was nearby, and unlike the small apartment she had shared with roommates off campus at university, it was a decent sized house, and all hers. Well, hers and Alpha’s… It was a solid thirty minutes from town, and, from the florescent construction tape laid out on the land around it, it was supposed to be the first in a subdivision for the project. But, with the project stalled for the moment, construction hadn’t been started on the other houses yet, which wasn’t bad at all, despite the fact that it could be a little lonely out there without neighbors. As she drove off the main road and into the two mile drive out to the house, Alpha again put his front paws on the dashboard, looking out the window eagerly, recognizing the area. Another few minutes driving later, and they were home again, pulling into the garage. Letting Alpha out the tailgate before retrieving the groceries and heading for the broad door into the house, which Alpha opened with his teeth, Debbie once again marveled at the oddities of her situation.

Technically, the house didn’t belong to her, and the second her internship was over, she was going to have to go back, giving up the car, the house and her companion. And granted, one of the stipulations of her internship was that she was currently taking all her classes online, away from her friends, which she didn’t like. But still...this beat the internships the other people she knew were doing, or had done, which seemed to consist of glorified make-work. Dropping the bags on the counter in the kitchen, she felt more than saw Alpha trot on past, out into the living room. Peering around the corner, she saw the dragon sprawl on his back on the thick, plush carpet, stretching out broadly with his paws stretching out towards the ceiling, before slumping over onto his side and looking at her upside down, his tongue lolling out the side of his mouth.

“I know how you feel, Alpha.” She called, ducking back into the kitchen to start prepping dinner. “It’s good to get home after a long week.”

It wasn’t until the eggplant was frying in its skillet for her eggplant parmesan and she was unwrapping the steak that she realized she hadn’t quite thought the dinner all the way through. She had originally planned to cook the steak, since of course that is what you used steak for, but would it be better to give it to Alpha raw? Logically, cooked meat was easier to digest, but would a dragon even want it? Considering for a moment, she decided to test it, taking out another skillet and starting it heating on the stove. Cutting off a bite sized piece of the steak and dividing it in half, she checked her own food before dropping one half into the pan. When it started sizzling, releasing the scent of charring meat into the air, she was not at all surprised to hear the distinct click of Alpha’s talons on the floor as the dragon came to investigate the new smell, his nose twitching. Grinning as the reptile came up to her, she took the cooked bit out of the pan and held both it and the uncooked piece out to her housemate, one in each hand.

“What do you think, Alpha?” Debbie asked, as the dragon looked at her in surprise, licking his lips with his long tongue. “Raw or cooked?” The dragon sniffed each piece carefully, then gently licked the raw piece, then the cooked one in turn, before picking the cooked bit out of her hand with his long tongue, and chewing it noisily. He didn’t even look at the raw piece until he had swallowed, then licked the juices of the cooked bite off her palm, making her giggle at the sensation. Only when he had made sure her palm was clear of steak juice did he look back at the raw meat in her other hand, looking at it with a disappointed expression on his face. “Well, I guess that settles it then. Cooked it is.”

“Erf.” He confirmed, backing up to watch while she finished cooking, putting the whole steak in the pan along with the raw bite and letting it sizzle while she put the finishing touches on the sauce for her eggplant. When she flipped the steak over in the pan, the kitchen full of the smell of cooking beef, she felt Alpha pointedly nudge the back of her legs and she almost stumbled against the stove.

“Come on, Alpha,” She admonished, looking back at the dragon who was drooling and looking up at her with expectant eyes. “I know its such a pain in the tail, but you have to wait a few minutes for it to be ready.” Reluctantly, the dragon sat back on his haunches right behind her, staring at her with laser focus as she poured the sauce on the eggplant, covering it with cheese and popping it in the oven. Finally, when she cut into the steak to see if it was ready, she could practically feel Alpha’s tension and she finally grinned, reaching up to take down a pair of plates. Moving the steak onto one and her eggplant parmesan onto the other, the young woman led the way out into the living room, the dragon walking beside her, eyes glued to the plate holding the steaming meat.

When the internship had started, Alpha had only been the size of a medium sized dog, and he had quickly taken to curling up against her on the couch, usually with his head in her lap. Of course, considering the pace of his growth, that hadn’t lasted long. She could still remember with perfect clarity the day that the couch frame had broken when he had sprawled on it, leaving an absolutely mortified dragon sitting on the barely supported cushions. He had been extremely apologetic after it, but she had smiled and immediately sat down on the cushions beside him like nothing had happened, assuring him that it was okay. That had been the first time she had experienced the dragon’s low, subsonic growling that she now knew expressed contentment.

Now, instead of a couch, the living room held a giant sized, amorphous cloth bag filled with bits of foam, not unlike the sumosac one of her roommates had owned. Alpha trotted ahead of her a few paces, flopping onto the giant sack, leaving enough room for her to settle in beside him, leaning back against his warm, scaly flank, his gaze never leaving the steaming plates. But, even though his interest was pretty clear, he was polite enough to wait until she was settled before snaking his head forward and grabbing the steak with his teeth.

Grinning at her companion as he began gnawing on the piece of beef, holding it with one paw to tear a chunk off, Debbie used the remote to flick on the TV, turning on the movie she had picked out to watch the day before. When the opening titles were playing, she dug into her own food, savoring the Italian dish, a little taste of home her grandmother had taught her to make when she was young. It wasn’t until she was about halfway done with her plate that she noticed that Alpha was still eating his steak. Considering he usually ate with a speed just short of inhaling his food, she had expected him to devour it within a minute or two and then start begging for bites off her plate. But the dragon was still holding the meat gripped in his front paws and was periodically gnawing off a piece at a time, chewing it noisily before swallowing and going for another piece, his eyes on the TV screen. It was obvious to her what he was doing; heck it would have been obvious to anyone what he was doing. He was savoring the steak, like she was savoring her own special meal. Smiling at him when he noticed her watching, she returned her attention to the movie.

The movie was a romantic comedy that she had Netflixed on the recommendation of one of her friends, and while she was generally ambivalent to the genre, it wasn’t bad. Setting her empty plate on the coffee table a short time later, she settled back against Alpha’s warm flank, the dragon popping the last bit of steak into his mouth a few moments later. After licking his paws clean of steak juice, the dragon curled up so his tail was laid across her lap, his head laid on top, looking up expectantly. It was an amazingly comfortable position to be in once one got used to the weight of the dragon’s head, what with the warmth of the dragon surrounding her, and she allowed her hands to idly begin stroking his head and neck, making him give the low rumble of contentment again. All of this seemed perfectly natural to her, just seeming to fit.

The main couple in the film were just getting to the point where, after the usual sort of misunderstandings that were keeping them apart were magically being resolved, when she sighed, making the nearly asleep dragon occupying her lap perk up slightly. If only it were that easy... She thought to herself, stroking Alpha’s head again until his eyes closed once more, placated by her attentions, her thoughts wandering again.

In high school, she had gone out with a couple of guys on the usual sort of dates that teens go on, and at first she had just kind of accepted that the often awkward, and unsatisfying relationships were just sort of how things were supposed to be. That had gone out the window when she had gotten to her university and had found herself in a real relationship for the first time. She and Zane had hit it off at a freshman meet and greet and quickly started dating. And it was real dating for the first time, with real depth. But what he had sworn was a simple misunderstanding during their first summer break from college had turned out to not be a misunderstanding at all and they had broken up mid way through sophomore year. From then until her internship had started, she had had only two more dates, neither of which had done anything for her.

The first had been with a lab partner who had asked her out, and while they had had a decent time at a movie, he had seemed to expect that having taken her on a single date had earned him a free pass to her bedroom and seemed offended when she refused to invite him in to her apartment. They had changed lab partners with the consent of the TA running their lab and hadn’t spoken since. The second had been something of a misunderstanding from the start. One of her acquaintances, completely misunderstanding the reasons behind her objections to the lab partner incident, had set her up on a blind date... With someone who turned out to be a lesbian named Roxanna. Once Debbie had explained the situation to her ‘date’ they had shared a good laugh and actually had a decent evening, even if romance was out of the question for her. Debbie still counted ‘Roxy’ among her friends, actually, and it had been her who had suggested this movie. ‘Misunderstanding’ actually pretty well summed up her dating life so far.

Still, there were probably eligible bachelors in town, or on the research staff at Drakagene who would find her attractive. And it wasn’t like she exactly needed a full blown relationship while she was interning anyway. She could make do with a fling here and there now again, which would probably be satisfying enough. That had been one thing she could really say about her relationship with Zane that she missed. He was no slouch in the bedroom, and there had certainly been passion between them... Shaking her head suddenly, stopping the memories that started welling up in her head she turned back to the movie. If she was dwelling wistfully on being with that unfaithful jerk, it really had been too long. Finding that the movie had gotten entirely too saccharine for her current frame of mind, she switched it off, leaning back against her companion and flipping through channels instead to take her mind off things. Finally, finding that there wasn’t really anything on worth watching, she turned it off entirely.

“Alright Alpha, time to get ready for bed.” She said and the dragon raised his head sleepily and looked at her, yawning broadly and giving her a clear look down his gullet. That view was something else that she had had to get used to, the first time having sent such a jolt of fear through her that she had frozen up. Now, it was nothing special. While the reptile stretched, Debbie got up and walked into the kitchen, putting the plates and silverware into the dishwasher, and the pots and pans into the sink, filling them with soapy water. She really wasn’t in the mood to do the dishes right now, intending to let them soak until morning. By the time she had flicked off the lights and checked to make sure she had locked the doors, Alpha was already padding off down the hall. When she reached the darkened bedroom, she found Alpha sprawled across the king sized mattress, stretched out so he took up practically the whole thing, his glittering eyes half closed. Chuckling at him, she shut the door into the rest of the house, then switched on the reading lamp that sat on the bedside table. When the dragon taking up the bed closed his eyes and turned his head away from the light, the auburn haired woman grabbed her pjs off the top of the dresser and walked into the attached bathroom to get ready for bed. When she came back out, Alpha was still sprawled across the bed, but from the tenseness of his muscles, she knew he wasn’t actually asleep, like he was pretending to be. He always did this, treating it like a game.

“Oi, make room, you big goofball.” She said, putting her hands on her hips and the dark green reptile opened one eye all the way, giving her a complacent look as if he hadn’t heard her. Narrowing her eyes as he closed his eye once more, she suddenly pounced onto the bed beside him, reaching out with both hands and started tickling the dragon’s exposed belly.

“Rawr!!” Alpha exclaimed, flailing his limbs in the air dramatically and rolling away from her touch, over onto the side of the bed he usually occupied and she giggled, knowing that that was exactly what he had wanted all along anyway. Following the dragon as he rolled, climbing up onto the bed, she switched to scratching at his scaly hide with her fingernails and he instinctually moved to bring his favorite spots under her fingers, his tongue lolling out as he did so, clearly enjoying himself and abandoning all pretense of being in distress. Finally, when she had gotten all the usual spots, he gave a great stretch and huffed contentedly, his subsonic growl shaking the bed.

“Goodnight Alpha.” She said, laughing to herself at his obvious relaxed posture. Lying down and pulling the blanket over herself, she reached up and switched off the bedside lamp. The dragon grunted in reply and scooted his large frame over so he was lying with his back against hers, mirroring her usual sleeping position as closely as he could. Grinning to herself, Debbie yawned and closed her eyes, letting herself drift towards sleep. It was going to be a good weekend.