(Make sure to read chapter 18 first.)

He managed to get to the airport with a decent amount of time to get through TSA. The only problem? 

Ashy, please! 

He now had scales again and his dragon was wearing his clothing and tugging his luggage along with its tail!

I was only wearing flip-flops so I'm not too upset about losing those, but there's no way they're going to let you just walk through the checkpoints!

His words didn't seem to deter his dragon in the least, however, as it calmly sauntered up to the baggage check-in counter and stood in line patiently. 

Everyone was staring at him, but there was nothing Ash could do! 

So embarrassing. 

Adults normally had perfect control over their shifts, but his dragon had a mind of its own. In fact, Ru was the only other adult he knew that didn't have a good handle on their other halves. 

When it was finally his dragon's turn Ashy tugged the suitcase over to the weight scale and somehow managed to fenagle it up onto it, then sat back and looked up at the lady gaping down at him in bewilderment. 

She seemed to snap out of her daze after a moment, then quickly checked the bag's weight. 

"It's good, do you have your boarding pass, ma'am?" 

Pink dragon... can't fault her for that one. 

He figured that Ashy was finally going to change back since there was no way he was going to be able to get his I.D. out of his carryon bag pocket, but his dragon surprised him, again, and slid the bag from its shoulders, then easily used its claws to remove his wallet from the mesh pocket. 

This... is impressive and frustrating. 

Ashy picked up the item with his mouth and offered it to the lady with a little snort of steam. 

I thought mom was just pulling my leg when she made me add a picture of Ashy to my license, but now...

"Ah! I'm so sorry, sir," the woman quickly corrected herself as she checked him in, then tagged his bag before gesturing for someone to put it on the correct plane. 

Once that was all done she tucked his I.D. back into his wallet and returned it to Ashy, who somehow managed to slip it back into the pocket it had been in before lifting his carryon bag up onto the scale. 

"Easily light enough. You're all set, sweetheart," the woman said, now seemingly a little giddy at having just checked in a literal dragon for a flight. 

Ashy grunted his gratitude before slipping the bag back across his shoulders and heading toward the next part of the check-in process. He continued to completely ignore the looks he was getting as he confidently walked through the airport, then got in his second line. 

That one moved a bit faster, and pretty soon it was his turn again. 

The huge guard looking down at him seemed stunned, but Ashy didn't even bat an eyelash as he slid his bag off again, then lifted it up onto the conveyer belt. 

As it slowly rolled forward Ashy stepped calmly through the metal detector, then stood still as the man waiting on the other side waved his metal wand over him. 

Glad I didn't put on anything big today. 

Especially when concerning his southern region. His dragon had internal genitals, so at least it wasn't walking around with its piercing, and dick, in everyone's view. 

"You're all set, ma'am," the guard said, making Ashy snort as he retrieved his bag and maneuvered it back over his shoulder. 

With the hardest tasks done, he wandered up to the large TV monitors displaying all the flights, then fidgeted. 

I understand, you can't read that great and this is usually pretty confusing, even to me. 

Ash went through the lists carefully, eventually finding their flight. 

It's boarding now. We need to get over there, he thought to Ashy as he gave the dragon directions. 

Thankfully, Ashy didn't dawdle and arrived at their departure point while the line was still being checked-in. 

Perfect. Now just go give that lady your I.D. and we should be set.

Ashy hurried forward and waited in line, but got distracted after a minute as a little girl in front of him inched closer. His dragon was normally reasonable with children, but it didn't really like being grabbed at. 

The girl was thankfully cautious and, after a few moments, her mother seemed to notice that she was looking at something and turned around. Then jumped a little, startled. 

"Oh my, what an amazing shift you have, ma'am. Don't worry, Tili, you can go pet," she said, making Ash fidget. 

Why would you just tell your daughter to go pet a random dragon? 

It didn't matter that he was clearly a shift, he could already feel Ashy giving uncomfortable warning signs as the girl stared at him. 

The girl, unfortunately, didn't seem to read his unease, and her mom was simply cheering her on so that she could get a good picture to post on social media!

Ashy, walk out of line if you have to. We can always wait until they board...

Of course, his dragon didn't really want to, but it did take a step to the side... then another, trying to avoid the girl's reaching hands. 

"Marge? Why are you letting her bother that young woman?" a man said as he promptly stepped forward and picked up his little daughter, making Ashy give out a little puff of steam in relief. 

The mother scowled as she lowered her camera phone, then pointed at Ashy as she glared at her evident husband. 

"What do you mean? She's perfectly fine. I almost had the most adorable shot!" 

The man just shook his head and began giving his daughter attention, easily distracting her from the dragon she'd been coaxed to grab at. The mother, on the other hand...

Ash side-stepped a swipe from the woman as she tried to grab for his thick pink mohawk of hair. 

"You're clearly a shifter, so what the hell are you doing not letting others just get a picture or two? You're a pink dragon for crying out loud and you're clearly an adult since you're waiting here by yourself! Are you just trying to piss people off by flaunting your shift and not letting people touch you?" 

She tried to grab him again, and this time Ashy really was getting mad. His dragon scoffed out a deeper warning growl, its third one in less than a minute, but it seemed to fall on deaf ears. Or, really...

"Oh, shut up! You don't get a choice when you're intentionally teasing people with that shift," the woman said. 

Ashy glanced over the woman's shoulder at her husband, but he was trying to distract their daughter from the mess her mother was creating, so he couldn't really blame him for not stepping in. Besides, he'd already asked her to stop, and yet it only made her get more aggressive. He couldn't very well restrain her with their daughter in his arms.

In that split second the woman tried to grab him again, and before Ash could rein his dragon in, Ashy reared back, then opened his mouth to let a tiny stream of fire shoot out to singe the woman's chin!

Shit. Shit shit shit!

The woman, of course, started screeching at the top of her lungs for security, but when they walked over a moment later, they didn't seem nearly as troubled by the situation as she, herself, was. 

In fact, they told her to calm down and explain things without yelling or she was going to have to go somewhere to cool off for a bit. 

She managed to calm down enough to hiss out what had happened... in her own words. 

That's not fair. I can't talk. Ashy didn't attack her just because he wanted to, and he honestly hadn't done much of anything. Her chin will be fine with just some basic antibiotic cream. 

Once the woman had finished speaking the security guards looked at him. Ashy simply sat on his haunches, steam coming from his nose due to his previous frustration. 

"Do you... uh, do you have an I.D., ma'am?" one of the guards asked awkwardly. 

Ashy gave a quiet grumble as he noticed the check-in line now completely empty of people, but did as requested and got out his wallet. He handed it over so that the guard could take out his I.D.. 

"O-oh, I'm sorry, sir. The pink color..." the guard stuttered, apologizing for assuming he was a female. 

Ashy just grunted and looked towards the check-in desk, clearly getting flustered that they might miss their flight. 

"Ah, don't worry about that. We can hold the flight for a few minutes while we sort this situation out," the guard said, nodding towards the hostess, who, in turn, nodded back her agreement to wait. 

The man eventually handed his wallet back after returning his I.D. to its rightful place. Ashy took it gently, then settled it back into the pocket of his bag before returning his attention to the group. 

"I would ask if anyone else saw the altercation, but I was stationed right across from this terminal and watched just about all of it. I only have one question..." he said as he looked over to the woman who had checked in everyone else. 

"Who started it?"

The woman immediately pointed to the seething lady that had tried to grab at his dragon. Said woman's face turned so red so quickly that Ashy was actually a little worried that she was about to breathe fire!

"Ma-am, I suggest that you keep your words to yourself, unless you want to make things worse," another guard said to the woman before the group returned their attention to Ashy. 

"Sir, what would you like to do with the situation? She was accosting you to the point where you felt you had to defend yourself. Do you want to press charges?" 

His dragon considered the man's words, but in the end he nodded towards the check-in woman, trying to get the point across that he just wanted to leave in peace and get on his flight. 

"Alright, I understand. You go ahead and get on your plane and have a good rest of your day. We will hold this woman back until the next one is available and make a note on her chart," the guard said, making Ashy quite happy. 

The woman, on the other hand, was absolutely livid, but her attitude quickly simmered down into nearly nothing when she noticed her husband checking in at the desk with their daughter. 

"Wh... what are you doing?" 

The man turned around after getting confirmation to board. 

"I'm getting on the plane. You were, once again, a terrible example for our daughter and I'm not going to have us be late to see my mom in the hospital because you had to bother someone else to the point of having to be put on another plane." 

Well said. 

The woman looked stunned and confused, and like she might try to argue, but before she could get any words out a guard was giving her a look that silently warned her to not push her luck. 

So, with that situation finally taken care of, Ashy sauntered up to the check-in desk and got his confirmation to board, then walked into the tunnel with the woman's husband and daughter at his side. 

"I am really sorry about that. Things have gotten so bad with her, I just... I just have some things to think about. I'm sorry about how she treated you, though. I hope you have a good rest of your day." 

Ashy nodded to him, then stepped onto the plane and found his seat. He placed his bag where his legs would normally be, then sat down quietly at the window. 

To his surprise, the man and his daughter ended up being his seatmates. The little girl was situated on the man's lap, and an older lady took the end seat. 

As the captain's voice came over the intercom overhead, discussing their itinerary, the father spoke to his daughter, reminding her not to grab their friend during the flight. 

She seemed to understand fine, but when the plane began to taxi and rumble, her expression quickly changed to one of sheer terror. 

Ashy didn't really mind the cries and intermittent screams that soon followed, but they were beginning to make his ears hurt a little bit...  

"It's okay, Tili, we're just going to visit grandma. She is very excited to see you," he said as he tried to sooth his daughter. 

It helped a little bit, but she still continued to cry and, every once in a while, give out a loud wail. 

Be good, please. You've been so good. It's not too long of a flight, Ash said, trying to sooth his own technical baby. 

He held his breath as Ashy finally looked over at the little girl and snorted out a puff of steam about ten minutes later. The small cloud hovered in the air for about half a second before dispersing. 

The man beside them looked a little nervous, but when his toddler cooed curiously at Ashy, he seemed conflicted on what to do. 

Be gentle, Ashy. 

His dragon gave its mane a little shake before huffing out another tiny ring of steam. The little girl waved her hand at the little ring as it passed her, her tiny fingers breaking its fragile formation apart easily. 

Then there was a giggle. 

 Suddenly enthralled by her new friend, little Tili eagerly waited for each new ring of steam to be blown. In fact, as the time went on and she never seemed to get bored, Ash was honestly considering whether she was a cat shifter... until she shifted into a kitten not a moment after he thought about it. 

She ended up being a tiny little brown calico, and thankfully, she still remained in her father's lap as she lifted her front paws up to swat at the little puffs of steam. 

You have a very well mannered daughter, sir... especially considering how the mother reacts to things. 

He did honestly hope that the woman would figure out how to control her temper a little better, because she really did seem to have a responsible husband and well-behaved daughter. It would be a shame to lose them.

His mind wandered here and there as Ashy continued to play with the kitten, and after a while her father even began asking him simple questions to pass the time, too. It actually ended up being quite a relaxing flight, and by the time they landed the girl had changed back and was sleeping peacefully and the father's previous stress seemed to have diminished quite a bit. 

I'm sorry for doubting you, too, Ashy. You're a very smart dragon and you did very well today. Thank you for taking care of things. 

His dragon twitched its nose and retrieved its bag after a quick yawn, then followed the man and his daughter towards the exit, his excitement easily pushing his sleepiness to the back of his mind.  

I'm excited too, bud. Two weeks was way too long. I'm ready to be back in my man's arms.