The box had chocolate chip cookies in it.

My brother and I were given one. They tasted freshly made and wonderful. He tore into his like an animal while I ate mine slowly.

When he finished his he licks up the crumbs on the table his way of eating dropped.

That white dragon, who I assume is my dad's brother based on appearance, who I will call uncle, is watching us. Or more like watching me.

He is looking like i'm some sort of puzzle as he sits at the kitchen island with my parents.

My brother nuzzles my side and I could tell what he wanted. My half eaten cookie. I give it to him and he takes it, eating it greedily.

I make eye contact with my uncle again and stare. If he is going to be weird like this then two can play at this game.

.

.

.

Uncle's puzzled expression begins to change into confusion.

Is he onto me? I can tell I'm not acting like I should. A clueless and carefree hatchling. I can tell what he is thinking, "why is this hatchling showing so much awareness?".

But I'd never tell him why. He will just have to assume I just hatched smart or something.

.

.

.

His expression changes from confusion to discomfort. What? Why? Is it a dragon thing?

He looks away and returns to the conversation with my parents.

Maybe that was an animal thing. I've heard about how eye contact was a way to show dominance or something. At least I think that's what I heard. I could be wrong.

I turn my stare to my brother to see if it would effect him.

My brother just looks at me and then nuzzles my face. I put a paw on his face and gently push his muzzle away.

No touching the merchandise, brother.

My brother growls lightly and I quickly let go. I didn't want to have him think I wanted to play right now.

My body still hurts…

-

Our parents fed us and then we had another round of learning.

"Apple."

Its my mom this time. She points at the card she had already taught me earlier. Did she forget we did this one or is she seeing if I remembered?

Should I say the wrong thing just to mess with her?

Hmmmmm…

No. But maybe i can get something out of doing something like it. I don't know what my parents names are so maybe i can get them to tell me.

I point at my mom. "Apple."

She shakes her head and points at the card. "Grff, grrf. Apple."

I point and say apple again. Come on.

"Apple."

Pointing at mom still. "Chair."

She huffs and points to herself to correct me.

"Gerllfggh."

Victory!

"Gerffgg." Like usual I screw it up but after a few more times I pronounce it correctly. I'm not sure if it means mom or her real name but either will work fine. I'll just assume it means mom.

I then point at dad who is busy teaching my brother.

"Mom."

She smiles at me calling him that and points to him.

"Hggllrrf."

Uncle is sitting on the couch and has been looking at an odd black glass rectangle making quiet noises in his claw. Now he is looking at me and what is going on with that puzzled look again. Is me wanting to learn my parents names really that abnormal?

After a few tries I get it right. Once again assuming its dad.

"Dad."

I then get my brother and my uncle.

To confirm I got their names right I point at them and repeat what I learn.

"Dad, mom, brother, uncle."

My mom looks surprised but very proud of me and my uncle is looking utterly bewildered at me.

He then says something that makes my mom look at him with a frown.

Old man needs to learn to not curse in front of kids. Im tempted to make a guess at which one of his words was the curse and say it but I'll let is slide. Not next time if it happens again.

"Firrggff!"

My brother exclaims something. He had all his attention on dad but now he is looking at uncle. Now my dad is looking at my uncle with a frown. Mom looks less happy than before.

How do kids do that? They always end up hearing the one word you didn't want them to hear.

I give uncle a look as if saying 'you messed up.'.

-

After a bit longer of learning, my mothers tail wraps around me and I am lifted up. I can see my dad do the same with my brother and follow. Mom brings me to the hallway and into the bathroom.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

She puts me down into the tub and dad sets my brother next to me. Mom then turns a metal lever on the wall and water starts flowing out of a spout.

This stuff just keeps surprising me. I've never seen working water pipes before. It had been such a rare thing that only the rich had. Is this normal for this world or is my family just rich?

Water slowly begins to rise under our paws and dad adds soap to it. Bubbles form and my brother bites at one as it floats by his claws. He spits it out at the taste.

The water is turned off when it gets halfway up our legs.

Then came the brush.

Mom, with a soapy brush in her claws, scrubs the top of my head. I close my eyes so the soap doesn't get in them. The brush feels nice against my scales and I could feel the dirtiness of egg hatching come off.

I hear my brother letting out little growls as he gets a scrubbing from dad. Our parents giving little laughs and talking as they scrub us clean.

Then the laughs and talking suddenly sounded worried just after pain flared from my side from the brushes scrubbing.

Mom quickly stops scrubbing and I look at what happened. Some of my scales had come off of my side. Some blood is coming from my side and dripping into the water.

I know my body is weak due to [Bad Genetics] but I didn't think my scales would be so soft and easy to pull out. Its not like its because I had recently hatched either since my brother's scales are hard.

I don't think exercising is going to fix the toughness of my scales.

Mom picks me up again and quickly carries me out into the hall. Knocking on the door uncle went in he opens it.

The two speak a few words and he lets her in.

It's a guest bedroom? Or its uncle's room, except it isn't decorated or had any belongings other than some piled next to the bed. It feels more like a guest room than a bedroom, so uncle is just staying over?

I am set on the table and my uncle comes over with a white bag with a red cross on it.

Knowing how this works I turn to let him see my side, damage to him. Mom looks worried even though I feel fine. Sure I'm in pain but I've had much worse.

White scaled muzzle comes close as he assesses the damage. Feeling the need to hold him back I put a paw on the front between his nostrils. Is uncle a doctor? He's got that look that doctors have, very clean and sharp.

After a moment I feel myself start to growl at him. You're a little too close to my personal space, doc. I don't say it out loud of course.

He moves his face away once done examining the damage and my paw returns under me. Uncle tells my mom something and she nods before coming closer.

Her large yellow paw with white claws reaches for me. I felt the need to jump or dodge or run but i stay still. If I wanted to live my new life with these dragons then I'm going to have to trust them. I'm going to have to love them just as much as they love me.

Mom's paw comes close and grabs me by the chest before moving me to lay on my side. Her claws hold me down, not rough but just enough to do it without hurting me.

I lift my head to watch them.

I already know what he was going to pull out of the bag he is digging in. Uncle pulls out a disinfectant spray and approaches. Pointing it at my wound he looks to mom.

Do they think I'm going to freak out? I mean i am a kid to them so it made s-

*Tsshhhhh*

Stinging pain like electricity shot through the wound and I watched as it foams up. I didn't flinch or anything because of my [Tough as Nails] passive.

Uncle did not look like he found it good that I didn't react and mom looked worried. He puts the spray down and puts the cube from before in front of me. It had been on the desk im on.

_—_

NAME: Kyn Kere (Jack N Rosemary)

LEVEL: 0

TITLES:

None

ABILITIES:

[Double Trouble] You don't deserve this. Be thankful I can't take it away.

ACTIVE EFFECTS:

[!AFFLICTED! Stage: 0] A parting gift for a failed gift.

[Bad Genetics] Your body has the disadvantage of being physically weak in many ways. Being weak might not be the only thing physically wrong with you.

PASSIVES:

[Injury Unhinderance] physical pain no longer gets in your way.

[Tough as Nails] physical damage cannot confuse, daze, flinch or knock you out. You're not afraid of pain either.

[Danger Sense]

SKILLS:

None

–__–

I close my menu when it is forced open. They talk about my passives and uncle even points at them.

Mom lets me go and I sit up.

Uncle slides the cube to the side and wraps gauze around my middle, to cover the wound. Once done i jump clumsily to the floor and leave the room.

Out in the hall I could see the living room window. Night. Has it been that long? I then realize how tired and sore I felt. Maybe I should go sleep? The beds meant for me and my brother pops into my head and my legs carried me in that direction.

The door is open, inside is dad laying my brother down on the left bed.

Dad heard me come in and he looks at me with a smile that turns into less of a smile at the sight of the gauze.

Dad says something to me as i get on my bed and lay down. It feels so comfy.

Mom is in the doorway now and dad joins her out in the hall. They look at us lovingly before turning off the light. The room goes dark and dad closes the door.

I lay my head on the bed and relax. Thoughts of what happened today go through my head.

This all feels so different from what im used to.

I don't have to watch my own back anymore. No more worrying what the people around me could try against me.

I feel like a broken record. Realizing the same things over and over again. But I can't help it. It's been ingrained into my brain not to trust or feel safe, how could I just drop all that like it is nothing?

I lay there for a while. I feel so tired but i had on my mind.

Looking over I see my brother. He's looking at me. Suddenly I feel something come from him.

It feels like fear.

How do I know that that is what it is? Is this a dragon thing again? It had a taste. How could it have a taste? I don't know how to describe what it tasted like but it tasted… good?

No. It does taste good but it also tasted very wrong. I don't like this. I don't like tasting my brother's fear.

I get up and the fear coming from him rises. I can see he is frozen in place from it.

Why is he scared of me? Why not before then? What changed? Maybe he is just afraid of the dark?

He shouldn't be afraid. I won't let anything hurt him on my watch.

I make my way towards him.

His fear rises the closer I get. By the time I'm standing over him, looking down at him, he is whimpering and shaking.

"Geez… am I really that scary? I promise I'll make sure nothing hurts you. Not while I'm still breathing."

I am alone with my brother so I didn't feel the need to stay quiet. I feel like I can trust my brother not to tell anyone that I can speak english. Is he even aware I'm speaking a language? Would he even remember by tomorrow? When he grows up would he think about it?

He couldn't stay scared of me every night. He had to face his fear and realize there is no danger.

I nuzzle his side, making him flinch and shiver more.

I then lay on top of him. Nuzzling his neck i feel him twitch and they fear starts to rapidly fade away.

Giggling. He starts to giggle at my tickling.

The fear is gone now and he isn't looking at me with fear anymore. Instead there is curiosity. Why is everyone so curious about me? Am I really that weird?

I get off him and lay with him. Sides touching.

I watch him slowly fall asleep. And soon i follow him in the realm of dreams.