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A Couple Days Later.

Courtney joins Rebecca in the study once again. A smidge less awkward, this time.

Rebecca is lounging on her bed of pillows once again, flipping through another book. As Courtney steps in, she lowers the book and smiles. "Oh, have I lost track of time again?"

Courtney smiles as she pushes the cart, this time loaded with a huge bucket of chicken nuggets (sized up for dragon consumption). "Perhaps a bit, but no harm no foul I reckon. I got all my duties done for now." She leaves the cart next to the lounge's table, talking as she does: "You know, I have never done anything like this before."

Rebecca sets her book down on an end table, motioning for Courtney to join her once again, "Like this? Meaning... being a maid? I know it's not what most humans want to do..."

Courtney nods: "Yeah, I... well I did have a short gig as waitress, but there must have been something else your Uncle saw, why I got chosen from all those more qualified people." She shrugs as she sits down at the table.

Rebecca makes an odd face and sighs, "Knowing him, maybe he just thought you wouldn't cause problems. Still, whatever it was, you've ended up being the best choice, don't you think?" She smiles warmly, clearly not talking about Courtney's maid skills.

Courtney giggles softly: "Maybe. Possibly. I certainly don't mind the results." She gives Rebecca a bit of a demure smile, not exactly having forgotten some earlier revelations about how the two maybe possibly feel about each other as well...

Rebecca grins back, still a bit awkward, but trying to be more open with Courtney after that talk. "Do you need anything else to help with that stuff?"

Courtney hums, then shrugs: "Nothing we can immediately fix, I guess. Get the ball rolling on having the permission for the few kitchen appliances I mentioned."

Rebecca nods, "That might take some time, but at least we've started it." She pauses, squirming a little as she considers how to phrase this, "And... is there anything I can do for you?"

Courtney blinks in the middle of putting a piece of chicken in her mouth. She hesitates, then opts to eat the nugget before replying. "Well, um... if we... if we both think the other is... kind attractive... guess we can't just ignore that. Can we?"

Rebecca chuckles awkwardly again, "Well... I'd rather we didn't ignore it... Because, yeah, we do. I do. "

Courtney nods, smiling: "Yeah... I don't really want to pretend nothing is... well, nothing. I do think you are beautiful, Rebecca. Even if it's probably all kinds of wrong of me to think of a dragon like that."

Rebecca lowers her head shyly, "I think you are too. I don't know if I really care if it's wrong... Maybe that's wrong, but I want to encourage it. I like you being here, being close."

Courtney gets up from the table and picks up a piece of fried chicken from Rebecca's bowl. She smiles as she steps next to the dragon's head, offering the chicken. "Perhaps, then, we can be wrong together. I... maybe I would want that."

Rebecca blinks, watching Courtney, then leans her head in closer, extending her tongue to take the chicken nugget with a little laugh, "Maybe... I would too? Besides... if I learned anything from my family it's that 'dragons are never wrong'. Right?"

Courtney blushes, giving a small giggle: "I guess when you put it that way... a-and I guess no one is up here to really care if what we do is wrong... if we don't think it really is..."

Rebecca pulls her tongue back in and swallows, her voice getting a little lower. "So um... what does that actually make us?"

Courtney hesitates, before touching her hand on Rebecca's cheek. "I don't know. But... perhaps we can f-find out, together. We have time." She reminds herself that pretending to be just an obedient servant maid might have just become a lot more difficult...

Rebecca tilts her head to nuzzle at Courtney's hand. "I'm... open to it. Just, unsure. Well, unsure about myself?" She sighs.

Courtney smiles and swallows: "Well... that makes two of us." She brushes her hand on Rebecca's snout: "But well.... now you've done and made me curious."

Rebecca chuckles, "Guess we're more alike than not, at least in how we feel about all of this... Cautious steps forward, hm? ...Curious?"

Courtney blushes: "Well um... I'm... well okay now this is really embarassing. But like... dragons. You. I don't actually know anything."

Rebecca perks up, "Oh! Oh, well... I do know a few things! Feel free to ask anything. I uh, I might do the same about you. I've read a lot of human history but... I don't actually... I um... I've not met very many. And I'm usually too shy to ask anything."

Courtney blinks as she rests her hand on Rebecca's snout. "Well. Huh." She smiles after a moment of thought: "...as said, we have time. For now I guess I just want to be with you. Touch your scales without it being weird." Pause. "...er."

Rebecca laughs quietly, "Well, then, consider it not uh, weird. I guess it makes you one of the few. I've only had a few humans so close to shiny my scales like you did before. Never to just... touch."

Courtney brushes her hand on Rebecca's cheek. "It's... it feels fascinating. Hard and smooth to touch, but also a bit coarse and I can feel your warmth."

Rebecca closes her eyes as Courtney runs her hand over the scales, making a low purr, "The thicker ones are hard to feel anything through... but the scales on my face, on my belly, they're more sensitive to touch."

Courtney glances at Rebecca: "I'm just made of soft stuff in comparison... I do wonder what it must be like to not like... feel, with your skin. Er, scales." She seems pretty fascinated now, her earlier fears receding to the background.

Rebecca chuckles, "I guess I can't really say, since it's always just felt like this. On the thicker scales at least, it's like I can feel the movement, the pressure and the sensation, but not the touch itself?"

Courtney continues touching the dragon, her hand moving towards the cheek and neck now. "I guess when it's what you've lived all your life, it's hard to imagine otherwise. Not that I can either." She looks at Rebecca's eye, smiling.

Rebecca opens her eye partially to look back, "Well... it's nice, regardless."

Courtney nods: "Yeah. We can, er... learn. I guess I'm just curious... what is it like being a dragon?"

Rebecca hums, thinking a moment. "Well... it's what I've always been, so it just sorta 'is'. I feel big sometimes... like, too big. Especially around humans and your buildings. You make stuff so tiny and intricate, I almost feel clumsy about everything. I always have a bit of doubt in the back of my head about what I'm doing, that I could be doing more or doing better. And I'm always at least a little hungry. Err... stuff like that?"

Courtney brushes her hand on Rebecca's neck, nodding slowly: "Yeah, it's... dragons have always been this huge, unapproachable, scary, distant..." She glances at Rebecca again: "You are not like that."

Rebecca purrs a little deeper, and Courtney can feel it through the scales along her neck, "I'm glad. I don't want to be scary, I just want to be me. But my Uncle and my Parents all say it's part of our job. We have to be like that or humans won't like us or respect us..." She glances around, as if about to tell some terrible secret, "I think they're just scared too..."

Courtney's eyes go wide as she feels Rebecca's purring. "Well... not entirely unfounded. Humans have a long-ass history of hating and fearing anything different... very much included other humans who look just a smidge different or have different habits." She sighs. "I don't want to be like that."

Rebecca glances at the many history books on the shelves, nodding, "I can't say Dragons are much better... I don't even know what happened to bring us here, the elders just won't talk about it, and I wasn't hatched yet. But I look at your history and see all the art and beauty there too! And you're part of that side of things, not the hate."

Courtney smiles warmly: "T-thank you. I do my best." Her hands continue touching Rebecca, like she can't bring herself to let go. "Art is what I want to do. If I can make someone happy with it, I can consider it a success."

Rebecca: "Dragons are so... secretive. Even amongst ourselves. Maybe we never had a war at our home? But maybe we never made any art either. There's not much record of either. All the great things we have here are human made. Did nothing survive? Or did we not do anything? I can't say... It's why part of me has always wanted to try to do some kind of art. But my family just never approved..."

Courtney hums: "Well... time's the first. Perhaps you can be the first dragon to pursue that." She considers: "You do have a point though... guess no one but the dragons that were alive then would know what it was like in... er, whatever the place's name is your kind came from."

Rebecca shrugs, "I've only ever heard them call it 'Home'... but it's never been that for me, so I don't exactly know what to call it." She chuckles, "Is that strange?"

Courtney considers, then shrugs. "I guess not more so than anyone else not having actually seen where their parents lived." She hums. "I don't really know what things were like before dragons came into the picture either, but human history is full of conflict..."

Rebecca hums quietly. "Well... at least we can both say we'll try to be different? I... I want to be open with you, instead of secretive and frightful."

Courtney smiles: "Yeah. Maybe we can make something of this.... I don't know. I just want this, right now."

Rebecca's wing reaches forward to brush against Courtney's neck very carefully. "Well, that I can do."

Courtney giggles, and after just a second's hesitation, she wraps her hands around Rebecca's neck, leaning close. "I think I care about you a lot. I-it's kinda crazy, in such a short time, but..." She trails off, closing her eyes.

Rebecca lets her wing drape over Courtney as she purrs at the hug. "I... I feel the same."

Courtney lets out a shaky breath: "I g-guess, then... w-what are we afraid of?" The back of her mind reminds her of several many things that could go wrong with this, but she shoos those thoughts away.

Rebecca laughs nervously, "So much... just, not this. Not right now." She is in a far better position than Courtney is, but still feels so nervous about this, her thoughts uncertain about taking advantage of her maid, but desiring the closeness of a good friend, or someone who is more than just a friend.

Courtney squeezes a bit tighter as she whispers. "Whatever happens... we'll deal with it." She had not even realized how much it might mean to have someone this close, someone who understands and cares.

Rebecca hums, "We will."

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