The bathroom door of the apartment 304 slammed shut with a definitive, violent thud that rattled the cheap fixtures in the hallway. Kaelan, dripping, shivering not from cold but from sheer incensed rage, leaned against the wood, eyes closed, struggling to pull air into his lungs. He was utterly livid. The feeling of the tentacles, the forced intimacy, the public humiliation—it was all an unbearable violation that superseded even his initial fury at Ignis.
Tamsin and Marcus were still dealing with the rapidly de-shifting, ashamed Ryuu in the bathroom, their muffled, annoyed voices a constant, irritable drone in the background. Kaelan ignored them. He was beyond the point of polite conversation or even coherent thought. He needed to act.
His entire body was tense, coiled with outraged energy. The fluffy cat tail—still wet and heavy—whipped against the back of his knees, a constant, physical reminder of the magic he had scorned, the vulnerability he now possessed, and the invasion he had just suffered.
He pushed off the door and marched to his desk. He stripped off his soaked clothes and threw them into a corner, wrapping himself tightly in his largest, driest bath towel, securing the tail firmly beneath the cloth, trying to smother its presence.
Kaelan's mind, usually a fortress of cynicism and logic, was now a dangerous landscape of pure, crystalline fury. He wasn't scared; he was too enraged for fear. He was going to find the source of his torment and end it. He had a focus now, a target: Ignis.
He plunged his hand into the pocket of his jeans, searching for the only solid clue he possessed. His fingers closed around the warm, slick, polished surface of the crimson scale.
He pulled it out, holding it up to the dim light of his lamp. It wasn't just a pretty trinket; it was a part of the Dragon King. A focus. A weakness, maybe.
"You," Kaelan whispered, his voice dangerously low, staring at the perfect, miniature scale. "You started this. And I'm going to use your own damn skin to finish it."
He sat down at his desk and began to work, his movements jerky, precise, and completely focused. He didn't know anything about magic, but he knew about research, patterns, and logic. If Ignis was a Dragon King, there had to be folklore, there had to be an inherent connection between a creature and its scales.
He powered up his laptop and ignored the noise from his bedroom out the hallway. He scoured the internet, his search queries evolving from "lizard scale symbolism" to "Draconic magic counter-spells" and finally, "Dragon King's heart scale myth."
Hours passed. The noise from the hall faded as Tamsin and Marcus eventually managed to expel Ryuu and his overwhelming heat. The apartment fell into an uneasy silence. Kaelan worked through the night, fueled by black coffee and his simmering indignant fury.
He finally hit upon an obscure, heavily guarded, and completely unreliable magical forum. It detailed a single, rarely-used, and highly dangerous piece of lore: A piece of a Dragon King's outer shell, when used as a focus, can act as a single-use nullifier against an external enchantment placed by the Dragon King, provided the caster's intent is driven by an overwhelming emotional counter-force.
Kaelan didn't care about "overwhelming emotional counter-force." He had enough resentment and livid rage to power a small city.
His plan was simple: He needed to force a confrontation with Ignis, aim the scale at him, and channel every ounce of his outraged desire for the curse to be broken. It was reckless, insane, and exactly what his short temper demanded.
He finally stood up, his body exhausted but his mind sharp and cold. He was going to confront the Dragon King right now.
Across the hall, in apartment 303, Ignis was not asleep. He was sitting in a perfectly normal leather armchair, watching the simple wooden door of Kaelan's apartment with an unnerving, predatory intensity.
He had felt the sudden, explosive spike of Kaelan's emotions when Ryuu's full-shift had occurred—a visceral shockwave of panic, disgust, and pure, untamed fury that had momentarily made the Dragon King's own golden eyes flash like heat lamps.
Ignis had immediately recognized the signature of an octopus Shifter's heat-shift and Kaelan's reaction. He smiled—a small, sharp, terrifying curl of the lip.
"Unwanted touch," Ignis murmured, swirling the amber liquid in his glass. "A powerful trigger. He is so carefully guarded, so opposed to invasion. That boy is a tightly coiled wire."
Ignis was, in a strange and bizarre way, pleased. The incident, while abhorrent, had achieved one thing: it had broken Kaelan's stasis. The extreme violation had pushed him past mere annoyance and exasperation and into a state of active, single-minded vengeance.
Perfect, Ignis thought, sipping his drink. A passive cynic is boring. An enraged, fluffy warrior is captivating.
He knew Kaelan would try something. He had seen the light burning in Kaelan's room all night. He knew Kaelan was researching.
Then, Ignis felt the faintest magical ripple across the shared wall—a tiny, almost imperceptible surge of focus aimed at a single piece of Draconic essence. Ignis smiled wider, his lust and anticipation building. Kaelan had found the lore.
He's going to use the scale, Ignis realized, completely amused by the sheer, magnificent arrogance of the little human. He thinks he can nullify the King's spell.
Ignis stood up, smoothing the casual, grey hoodie he wore. He wasn't going to make this easy. He was going to make this moment a pivotal lesson in the reality of magic, power, and, most importantly, the futility of defying the Dragon King.
He moved to his door, anticipating the sound of Kaelan's furious approach. He wanted to be caught in the act of waiting—calm, collected, and utterly prepared.
Kaelan, wearing only the towel and his furiously twitching cat ears, finally threw his door open. He stalked across the hall, the crimson scale clutched in his left hand, aiming his pure, cold contempt directly at Ignis's door. He didn't knock. He simply raised his foot and kicked the door open with a resounding CRACK.
Ignis was standing right there, leaning against the frame, holding two mugs of steaming coffee. He looked up, his golden eyes filled with an expression of mild, almost bored curiosity.
"Morning, neighbor," Ignis said, his voice maddeningly placid. "Rough night? I was just making some coffee. I thought we could—"
"Shut up," Kaelan hissed, his eyes burning with livid fury. He held the crimson scale forward, pointing it at Ignis like a weapon, channeling every ounce of his outraged energy toward the small piece of dragon shell.
"Take this off me! Now!" Kaelan commanded, his voice shaking with absolute infuriated power. He drove his enraged intent into the scale, aiming for the Dragon King's heart, praying the nullification spell would work.
Ignis didn't flinch. He simply set the mugs down on a nearby table, his eyes locked on Kaelan's furious face. He raised an eyebrow.
"Ah. The heart scale lore," Ignis observed, completely unflustered. "Very good research, Kaelan. You're clever."
He took a slow, deliberate step closer, closing the distance between them. Kaelan felt the intense, oppressive heat radiating from the Dragon King. His towel, already precarious, felt loose.
"However," Ignis continued, his voice dropping to that familiar, deep, dangerous rumble, "there is one crucial detail you missed in your exhaustive research, little cynic. A Dragon King's scale only nullifies the magic if the caster's intent is to break the King's hold."
Ignis was now mere inches away. He reached out and, with breathtaking gentleness, took Kaelan's wrist, turning the hand holding the scale inward, toward Kaelan's own chest.
"But your deepest, most primal emotion right now isn't just about breaking the curse," Ignis murmured, his golden eyes flashing with triumphant desire. "It's about dominance. It's about taking the power back and proving you're stronger. And that, Kaelan, is an act of assertion, not rejection."
Before Kaelan could react, Ignis used the momentum of Kaelan's own rage, pressing the crimson scale directly against Kaelan's sternum, he felt chain gripping around his heart.
A shockwave of intense, burning heat exploded through Kaelan's body. He gasped, falling forward against Ignis's strong, muscular chest. He could feel the familiar, overwhelming sensation of magic—but instead of being nullified, the spell was re-anchored, deeper and stronger than before.
Ignis's arms wrapped around Kaelan's towel-clad body, securing him in a firm, possessive embrace.
"The magic is now permanent, Kaelan," Ignis whispered into his ear, his voice rough with satisfaction. "And your fearlessness has finally made you mine."
Kaelan pushed back, livid and defeated, his tail whipping behind him in a final, futile gesture of outrage. He had failed. And the Dragon King knew it.
"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU JUST DO! I TOLD YOU TO TAKE THIS OFF ME , NOT MAKE IT PERMANENT ,FOOL!,WHY ARE YOU MAKING MY LIFE SO HARD AM I BEING PUNISHED FOR MY PAST LIFE MISTAKES?!" Kaelan scream his cat ears flattening hardly , his claws extend , then he let out an angry hiss and mewl.
" hehe my beautiful angry cat boy!" Ignis face got closer.
Kaelan was going to have an irritated heart attack.