everybody knows i'm a king without a crown

better get to diggin' while my body's getting cold.
i keep tryna fight it so just promise when i go, you'll bury me low

Despite it being juvenile and childish, it’s enough to keep Sunjata from thinking about everything else. Enough that he sticks his tongue out at her once he’s grabbed a hold of her, despite the way they’re tangled with only the boon of his orca tail to keep them both upright and the rocks that dig at his spine. And when she reaches to grab his tongue, she misses only by a hair, but not before he partially shifts it to the forked, thin tongue of his cobra shift, wagging each individual end at her as if to say nope, gotta be quicker than that, before it disappears into his mouth again.

“You did.” He agrees, his smile shifting a bit softer, his arms around her growing less tight as the realization sinks in, that they’re both happy and carefree, and being absolute fucking idiots but having fun, and he can’t really remember the last time he felt so distracted from everything else going on to fully enjoy moments like these.

She’s quick on it, though, because the second that the thoughts start to creep back in, taking in her appearance with the way her gilded hair sticks to her pale skin, the way she fits so easily in his arms, the way there’s that bidden bit of regret that burns after everything he’s done to her – she sags into his arms dramatically, causing him to tighten his grip back up, shifting slightly to lean over her as if he’s losing his grip – it’s all pretend, of course, he isn’t going to drop her or let her go, not when he has her so well in hand right now. But he preens for her with the grin shot her way, his next words overtly cliché, but he can’t help it when they fall from his lips. “Well, I am a dragon.” And what were they typically found doing? Guarding the damsels in their towers.

SUNJATA