the changed verse
The Dragon

 

Barney was in the middle of a business meeting when his phone rang. He’d long since set Robin’s signal to ‘Let’s go to the mall’ – he’d switched a few times to ‘Sandcastles in the sand’, but honestly, as great as the video was, was there any question about why that song had tanked? – so that he’d always know to answer. He excused himself and left the room.

“Go for Ba—”

“Barney!” Robin sounded panicked and out of breath. “I need help.”

“My help?” He smirked despite the fact that she couldn’t see it. “Got a new boytoy and you’re out of exciting new ideas to try?”

“No, Barney!” There was shuffling on the other end; it sounded as though she was running. “Dragon!”

He frowned. “Dragon?”

“Yes! Dragon! Chasing me!” she gasped. “It’s pissed off and I need help.”

He was off running before he’d had time to fully process her words. “Where are you?”

“Channel 12, the roof.”

“The roof?” He made a face. “Is the roof really a great place to be when there’s a dragon around?”

“It wasn’t like I had much choice!” she said. “I was in the studio and all of a sudden—you know what, just get here!”

He switched to serious mode in an instant, because she was in actual danger. From a dragon, yes, but well, that was just the way the world was these days. “I’ll be there as fast as I can.”

“Hurry,” she said and then she snapped the phone shut, ending the call.

He was up on the roof of GNB, panting after rushing up the stairs, but pressing on. He had to get to Robin and flying was much, much quicker than going down to the streets of New York and try to ride a cab over to the Channel 12 building. Besides, Robin was on the roof there.

He ran across the GNB roof and threw himself off, basking only for a second in the sensation of free fall before unfolding his wings and spreading them to their full size. It always felt so good to unfold them after keeping them tight together for work and while walking around, pretending to be normal-ish. Soaring down, like a hawk just gliding on the air, he took a few moments before he started beating away, because he knew that he’d lose speed rather than gain it otherwise.

It wasn’t far from GNB to Channel 12. Barney hadn’t flown the distance before, but he knew the way there by foot and heart so it wasn’t like he had any great difficulty going via the sky.

When he caught sight of the building, his heart nearly stopped.

Black smoke was pouring out of the side of the building from a huge, gaping hole. Wild fire was spreading from inside the building and he could hear distant cries for help. He pushed down the fear and panic for Robin – she wasn’t in there. She was on the roof which admittedly wasn’t that much better, but at least she wasn’t getting burned to a crisp just yet.

Suddenly, a screech interrupted him. It was loud and piercing and hurt Barney’s ears.

The dragon came out of nowhere to breathe on him, fire shooting from it’s mouth. It was green and scaly and absolutely huge.

Barney dodged, barely, feeling the heat from the flames. “God, could you be any more stereotypical? I mean, breathing fire?”

He had to talk, even if it was just to the dragon, to keep the fear away. With his mouth running, he would be too busy to be afraid.

The dragon responded with another round of fire. It followed Barney, angrily twisting and turning in the air. Barney flew all the way around a skyscraper and the dragon followed, still spitting fire.

‘Let’s go to the mall’ rang out again and he fumbled with the cell phone, hands shaking. “A little busy right now.”

“Yeah, I can see you. Barney, don’t make it angry!”

Barney was back over Channel 12 and he looked around best he could for Robin, all the while continuing to dodge the furious dragon. He couldn’t see her, which was probably a good thing because then hopefully the dragon couldn’t either.

“It seems plenty pissed off already,” Barney said, swooping away to avoid getting grilled. “Where are you? Are you okay?”

“Just a few burns, I’ll be fine,” she said. “But the building is on fire and I really want to get away from here.”

“You and me both.” Barney panted, hiding for a few seconds behind one of the other skyscrapers. The dragon wasn’t the smartest thing; if it lost the visual, it didn’t know immediately where to look. “What did you do to get it this mad?”

“I didn’t do anything!” Robin hissed. “I just—you know what, let’s get out of this situation alive and then we can talk about who did what!”

“Happily!” Barney said, a bit agitated from dodging fire. “Got any bright ideas?”

The dragon caught sight of him and he fled again, criss-crossing the sky. At least the dragon wasn’t focused on her. No, it was looking at Barney like he was going to be dinner. Medium-to-well-done kind of dinner. It let out another screech and another round of flames.

He wanted mostly just to grab her and get out of there, but he wasn’t sure how well he’d fly with her in his arms. For one thing, she was added weight and he hadn’t flown with anyone but Lily before. Secondly, it was Robin. And a dragon was following them. It was entirely likely that Barney would be so focused on holding onto Robin that he’d end up getting them both grilled.

But there wasn’t much to do about it. The building was on fire; she couldn’t get down that way. There would probably be firefighters coming, but like everyone else, their forces had been severely diminished since the Change. He could hope for a teleporter or someone with invincibility to come to her rescue, but he couldn’t count on it.

He had to get her out.

“You’re gonna come flying with me,” he said.

There was silence for a few moments – relative silence, because fire roared around them, the beast huffing and screeching, both their sets of wings beating rapidly in the air.

“How’re we doing this?” There was a lot of bravado in her voice.

He looked around. “I’ll fly around that building—” He pointed and hoped she could see, “—and hope I’ll lose the firecracker. Either way, when I come back ‘round, I want you to come to the edge of the roof, and I’ll grab you. Then you just hold on. Okay, Scherbatsky?”

He spied across the roof again, but couldn’t see her. Then he had to dip and dodge again as fire hurtled towards him.

“Robin?” he said when she hadn’t answered for several long moments.

“Do it.”

He didn’t need more than that, because he was running out of energy. He had flown some since growing wings, but never like this – never as fast as he could, all the while rolling and dodging and dipping in the air, not for this long.

He rounded the building as close to it as possible, trying to get out of the dragon’s line of sight. He forced himself to breathe, to gather all of his remaining strength. He’d need it.

He rounded the final corner and the roof of Channel 12 became visible once more. Robin was standing there, in the midst of black smoke rising from the building. Her hair was wild and she was sooty and burned and he just wanted to get her to safety.

Barney could see as she took a breath, steeling herself. Their gazes locked.

He didn’t land to grab her; he just slowed down and rounded her the way he’d just rounded the building. She threw her arms around his neck and he grabbed her around her back and knees.

“Hold on,” he said, and then they dove.

Her grip on him was tight enough to bruise and he felt her whole body go rigid with fear, but he couldn’t stop diving. He knew it was a matter of seconds before the dragon found them again and they had to be as far away as possible by then. He couldn’t fly as quickly with her; he could already feel the force of gravity pulling at them more than it had before.

A screech and then more fire – the dragon had spotted them again. He raced them towards the ground, because at least down there, there was less space for the huge dragon to move around in, and more people who could help them handle it. There was a crowd below, people pointing and screaming and now scattering as Barney and Robin traveled downwards with the dragon in hot pursuit.

A hundred feet from the ground, Barney unfolded his wings completely and tilted them so that they would start traveling horizontally instead. He hoped it was enough time for them to even out and land safely instead of crashing and dying.

It was enough; they sailed over the heads of people running away and continued onwards. Barney didn’t land; he knew they moved faster flying than they would running in the chaotic crowd below.

He didn’t know how long he kept on flying, but finally, it felt like his wings were about to freeze up and his arms, still full of Robin, would fall off. He had to land.

He stumbled only a little as they landed and fell to his knees. Her grip on him was still tight, even as he tried to gulp down air into his burning lungs. He folded his wings around them, cocooning them best he could.

“Are you okay?” he said, still out of breath.

He looked down at her. Her face was painted with soot and there were tracks from tears across her cheeks. He didn’t know if she’d actually cried, or if it was just the wind as they’d gone down. Either way, they’d blame the latter. There were cuts and soot all over her arms, and the rest of her body, with a bad burn going up the side of her right leg. She was missing one shoe.

“I’ll—” she croaked and cleared her voice, “I’ll be fine.”

“I’m taking you to the hospital,” Barney said. “You need to get checked out.”

Stubborn annoyance appeared on her face. “I don’t need a hospital. I’m fine. It’s just a little soot.”

“You could be suffering from smoke inhalation and that looks like a pretty bad burn,” Barney said. “Do you really want a scar on those shapely legs of yours?”

She glowered at him, knowing he was right.

“Can you walk?” he asked.

She nodded.

They stood, both quite gingerly, and Barney folded back his wings. There were people standing around them, staring unabashedly. Robin glared at them.

Barney’s hand was around her waist, not really supporting her because she didn’t need it, but he just didn’t want to let her go. Feeling her warm flesh beneath his hand reassured him that they hadn’t both just crashed to the ground or gotten burnt to a crisp.

“Where did the dragon go?” Robin asked quietly.

He didn’t know. He only knew that by the time they’d landed, he hadn’t felt the heat of fire on him for a few blocks or four. Hopefully, someone had taken care of the dragon. If not, well, as long as it wasn’t following him, he wasn’t going to consider it his problem.

They stopped a cab and got in. Barney had started hating cabs with a passion since growing wings because he could only barely fit in them these days, but he suffered the indignity for Robin’s sake. He knew that if he didn’t make sure she went to the hospital, she’d just ignore it and go home.

They got stuck in the hospital for three hours – most of that time just waiting to see a doctor – and then a nurse cleaned the burn on Robin’s leg and wrapped it up.

The doctor who listened to Robin’s lungs was way too tall-dark-and-handsome for Barney’s liking, but there wasn’t much he could do about it.

“You sound fine,” the doctor said. “You may suffer some coughing, but it should pass in a day or two.”

“Thank you,” Robin said, gazing coyly at him. “Anything else?”

“You should keep your leg sterilized for a week,” the doctor replied. “I’ll prescribe you a mild pain killer, too.”

Robin smiled at him. “And if it hurts too much? Can I… call you and get something stronger prescribed?”

He smiled a half-smirk, as though he was perfectly aware of how irresistible he was. “I’ll give you my phone number and you can call me.” He gazed intently at her. “Day or night.”

Barney just barely resisted punching the idiot in the face. After saving Robin from a fire-breathing dragon, Dr. Douche was the one who got to sweep in and put the moves on her? Barney had risked his life and now she was going all gooey-eyed at her doctor? Seriously? He sighed. Why had he insisted on her going to the hospital in the first place?

They left, her with the doctor’s number in her pocket.

She grabbed his arm. “What’s with the surly face?”

“I’m not surly,” he said, as though the word offended him.

“Well, something crawled up your ass.”

She was stupidly beautiful even now, with her clothes all dirty and her leg wrapped up. She’d washed at the hospital, but there was still soot in her hair and smudges across her arms. He wanted to wipe them away, wanted to touch her again and make sure she was safe. He hated the feelings she brought forth – he wasn’t supposed to be reduced to some jealous nerd longing for touches.

But he couldn’t help but love her.

“I just need a re-charge. You know, I out-flew a dragon.” He did his best to add the usual ‘I’m awesome’-tone to the last bit. It didn’t work completely; she gave him a ‘you’re bullshitting me’-look, but at least she stayed silent.

He didn’t feel like cramming into another cab, so they started walking again. He was heading home, because he needed to shower, change, and quite possibly sleep for a few days too. She followed him, probably unsure of where to go now that her work building was – literally – on fire. At least she’d have something to talk about once they were on the air again.

It took half an hour to walk to his apartment. They stopped outside his building.

“I usually invite my damsels in distress upstairs, but I’m not sure you’re interested.” He leered playfully, looking her up and down.

She smiled slightly. “At least the story you’re using is true this time.”

“Lying is an art form,” he said.

“And your bimbos are stupid.” She was still smiling, though. “I should probably head home.”

“Yeah, and give Dr. Douche a call. I’m sure he’s waiting for it.” Barney did his best not to sound bitter. He probably didn’t succeed.

“He wasn’t a douche!” she protested. “He was perfectly nice.”

“He was a douche.”

She glared teasingly at him. “You’re an idiot.”

“Yeah, well—”

He stopped talking when she leaned in and hugged him. “Thank you for saving my life.”

He was frozen in her embrace for a fraction of a second, then forced himself to relax. His wings came around them again, because he liked it like that: it was them against the world. It didn’t matter that she didn’t know it yet.

She let go and he released her reluctantly.

“See you later?” she asked.

He nodded. “Yeah.” He’d need alcohol tonight, especially if she did call Dr. Douche. “Later.”

She smiled, turned, and walked away.

He admired her ass as she left and realized belatedly that she had never told him what she’d done to get the dragon to come after her in the first place. Oh well, he’d ask her later.

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