[Vol. 4 pt. 25]

There were some valuable tips among Fred’s advice for me on how to fuck the dragon into submission, but—honestly, I already had most of his ideas in mind. There were, however, a few that I wasn’t thinking of which I would be sure to incorporate into my plan, so I was still able to come up with a better plan thanks to him.

But there were a few things I needed to do before I could actually fuck the dragon.

The first of those things included meeting up with Wally at the town center after asking him to craft a special something for me. Now, while Wally sounded normal over text when I sent him a message, I could tell that something was bothering him from the distance before I even got close to him. He had a pretty gloomy aura. By that, I mean he was slouching his shoulders and sighing.

That meant his guard was down as he clearly wasn’t paying too much attention to his surroundings.

So, I snuck up from behind Wally, waited until he was right in front of me, and then… attacked! And by attack, I mean I grabbed onto his sides and squeezed, causing him to jump and let out a pretty adorable noise of panic. The noise that left his lips made me think of the noise a small animal would make when playing.

“Un—unhand me!” Wally shouted, smacking at my hands before even realizing that it was me. Once he turned his head to look at me, though, his eyes widened and his cheeks developed a light blush on them. Then he kept smacking at my hands.

“What’s up, Wally?” I asked, finally letting go of his sides.

“What do you mean? You should know exactly why I am here.”

“I mean, aside from that. What you’re here for isn’t how you’re doing. How are you doing?”

“Does that matter?”

“I mean, you seem to be in a pretty bad mood now that I’m looking at you, and I consider us on relatively good terms, so if there’s anything I can help with, let me know.”

“It is nothing you can help with.”

“Even if I can’t help with it, you could still talk to me about it. If you want. No pressure.”

“Well, I will pass. I have no interest in,” Wally paused for a few moments before sighing and continuing, “I… may take you up on that.”

“Come on, let’s go sit down.”

With a small nod, Wally let me lead him over to one of the empty benches where the two of us could sit.

We didn’t exactly have privacy, but we—or at least I and most people I knew, could feel like we had privacy while sitting in the city. Nobody really paid attention to anybody else. Everybody there was there for a reason, and the people who wanted to be looked at were very blatant in their attempts at grabbing attention. It was easy to feel invisible no matter how many people were around.

Then, right before I could ask Wally what was wrong again, he opened up like dam that just broke open. “I did not want to talk about this since I would rather forget the situation entirely, but try as I might, it keeps coming back to my mind. It started several weeks ago. You see, I have a… complicated relationship with my roommate. The two of us have been friends for years, but a bit… more than just friends. We often shared our beds with one another, but it was never anything too serious. At least, not serious in a romantic way. It was more like we used each other’s bodies for relief whenever we were both in the mood. That being said, he recently told me that he wished to… try being more than only friends with benefits. I was not sure how to feel about that. While he is a very handsome man, and I would be lying to say I did not have such an interest in him when we first met, that interest died over the years as I was sure he never cared for anything but casual companionship.”

He paused, so I took that moment to say something myself. “Ah. These kinds of situations either have happy endings or… very awkward, not-so-happy endings.”

Wally let out another sigh. “Indeed. I… accepted his offer. After thinking about it, I thought the spark may return if I gave us a chance, and so we went on a few dates and everything seemed to be going… splendidly, honestly. After a week, we were sharing a bed every night, but then… he revealed to me that he has… certain… fetishes, that he then tried to pressure me into performing with him. When I refused, all of that progress we made together… vanished in an instant. I have no idea how I am supposed to feel. I opened my heart to him only for him to go back to acting like nothing more has happened between us all because I refused to engage in his fetishes?”

“I’m sorry you have to go through that.”

“It’s just—what was the point? Was he only acting interested in me beyond friendship because he was hoping it would help convince me to do what he wants?”

“It’s possible, but he’s the only one who can know for certain.”

Wally lowered his head and raised his hands up to his head, pulling on his hair out of frustration for a few seconds before letting go. “I am not a stranger to being used for my body. It has happened ever since I was a teenager. Men meet me, use me for my body, and then toss me aside when they have grown bored of it. But this… we… we were friends.” His voice cracked. “Why… I trusted him. But in the end, he—he turned out to be the same as everybody else. Despite everything I do for him,, doing his laundry, cleaning his dishes, cooking for him—I’ve enabled him to be his best because I have never wanted anything but success for him, and this is how I get repaid? Had he decided to cut things off then and there and move out, I would have preferred that over… this return to the status quo. He made me feel more special than I ever felt in my life during those weeks of us dating, and then went from that to just… like we were before. I can recognize when I am being used, and that is exactly what he is doing now. I just… cannot understand why.”

Wally tried his best not to cry, but the tears still came out, so I wrapped an arm around his shoulders. My arm was accepted as he leaned his head against my shoulder to let the tears flow out. “It’ll be alright,” I said, unsure of what else I was supposed to say. “I’m here for you.” Now, while it was easy to feel invisible when just sitting and talking, that changed when somebody was crying. Seeing or hearing crying was always attention grabbing.

“I thought he was different. The way he held me—I felt so… secure. Everything was going perfect until he asked me to—should… should I have said yes? Would I still be happy if I said yes, even if it was to something that made me uncomfortable?”

“We both know the answer to that.”

“I just… I want to feel happy. I want to feel loved, but… perhaps I am not worthy of such affection. Everybody only ever wants to use me. I am only kept around for as long as I have a use, and then I am discarded when that use runs out. Even to you. The only time you ever reach out to me is when you need something.”

“I—”

“Don’t. I know that is not your intent. But… it does hurt in regard to how I am always treated by others.”

“You know, if you ever want to hang out, you’re always welcome to drop by the dungeon or send me a message.”

“I know, but I have always been the one reaching out to others. I want somebody to reach out to me first for a change. And now that I have told you this, it wouldn’t mean anything if you bother to do so because I will think you are only doing it out of guilt or pity. I would rather you keep our relationship as it has been. Let me know when you need something, annoy me while we are together, and then compensate me for my services before you leave. I have already had enough of somebody trying to change my relationship with them lately and would rather you keep our status constant.”

I couldn’t blame him for how he felt. When somebody was like that—when somebody just wanted to feel like the genuine, first choice of another person, trying to be more active in wanting to hang out with them sounded like a good idea… but usually just made them even more insecure. At least, after confessing everything like he did.

It made me wish that I would have invited him to hang out more often before hearing all of that. If I did so after hearing that, he was just going to think I was pitying him and probably decline any invitations.

And he knew it was going to turn out that way. By telling me everything he did, he made the choice to keep our relationship as it was, laying the foundation to doubt any actions from me outside of the usual for the sake of protecting himself from getting hurt again.

It was self-destructive behavior that would only alienate him from those who wanted to help him, but I had no doubt that he knew that already. “Just know that you can come and talk to me whenever you want or need to. About anything.”

“I’m aware,” Wally replied. A trade window opened up next to give me the item that I reached out to him for. “In exchange for having to deal with me, I will not charge you anything.”

“Then consider this a tip.” I entered the exact amount of money that he asked for originally into the trade window.

“Damian—”

“Just take it. You want things to stay like normal between us, right? Then that means you’re a greedy bastard who always charges me the absolute highest amount that you can get away with without it being a clear case of ripping me off. So, take it.”

At least I was able to make him smile as he accepted the trade. “Thank you. Now, I feel rather ashamed, so I am going to leave now.”

“Alright. Just remember my offer. I’m always available.”

“I know. You spend far too much time online when you already have two girlfriends and a dungeon to be managing. Or are you up to even more girlfriends now?”

“There’s… kind of a third now.”

“Of course there is,” Wally said while standing up from the bench.

With that, our conversation was over. It felt pretty awkward on my end, but he seemed to be in a better mood than the one I found him in, and that was more important than however awkward I might have felt.

A part of me was extremely curious about what he was asked to do that he turned down, but I wasn’t going to ask something that was none of my business, especially not during a conversation as serious as that.

But I was a very curious person—or rather, it wasn’t that I was particularly curious, I just always wanted in on the drama and secrets. Being curious was more respectable than what I was.

So, to take my mind off of the answers I wanted, I checked my friend’s list to see if Sophie was online and sent her a message to ask her if she made what I wanted. She replied back almost instantly with a positive confirmation.

And then I had an idea.

Inviting Wally to hang out or anything like that after what he told me would make him feel like I was pitying him and inviting him out of guilt, but… that would probably only really apply if I invited only him to something.

If I did something like throw a huge event at the dungeon where I invited everybody I knew, then he would just be another person in the crowd. Inviting him wouldn’t be anything special and he wouldn’t feel like I was singling him out.

Then, if I could introduce him to some potential new friends at the party, maybe he would make some friends who he never opened up to who might invite him out to do things.

Alright. That settled it. I added “throwing a party which is actually an excuse to try and make Wally more friends” onto my list of things to do. It was going to be pretty silly if he refused to show up, but at least we would still have a perfectly normal, functioning party even if he didn’t fall for my bait.

That was going to take some time, though. Couldn’t do it too soon without it being suspicious.

So, it was time to get to Sophie’s place to gather the last item I needed for my dragon fucking operation. After all, I wasn’t going to be able to fuck a dragon on an empty stomach.