Often Hershel opted to sit on the ground, for a few reasons. One, most of the furnishings in the Belfry Bookstore were not scaled to his draconic figure. Two, with the girth of his thighs, anything more than a couple cushions under his backside would bump his lap right into the table. On this day in particular, he was leaned forward so that his soft midsection gently bumped and conformed to the edge of it through his sweater. With one elbow propping up his head by his palm nestled against the side of his throat, his eyes traced back and forth along the open book beneath his snout. 

       Occasionally he'd slide his other arm along the tabletop to turn the page. His tail rested on the rug behind him in the nook, taking up much of the floorspace. In its resting state, the powerful limb's cross-section settled somewhat trapezoidal, base splooted out on either side all the way down to his plush spade. 

       It was this sight that greeted Caudle as he returned to the nook with his freshly brewed tea. The bat looked down at his boyfriend's fifth (or perhaps seventh, depending on if his wings were out or not) appendage. With his large ears, he could tell that Hershel hadn't even reacted to his arrival, perhaps too engrossed in reading to notice just yet. The steady filling and expelling of his lungs, the subtle waltzing lilt of the massive male's heart he could just make out if he was keeping totally still... 

       Silently, the chiropteran set his tea down on a shelf in the entry of the nook. He carefully stepped over the spade and walked over to the right side of the relaxed rear appendage and knelt, looking over its girth. Especially with how its ventral side spread under its own weight, it was wider than any one part of the bat.  He trailed his eyes along it back to its owner's ample hips. The spot he chose was far enough that he could lay down in that direction and only his ears would meet the dragon's body proper.

       Caudle decided to act on his impulse at last. Placing his fingers against the floor, wing-palms up, he slid them forward and under like a double peel for a particularly large pizza. A very thick pizza indeed. It was heavy, though the smooth scales meant he had little resistance apart from the pressure to scoop. In one single motion, the bookseller had gotten his elbows against the side of his boyfriend's tail. He flexed at the hip, lugging the serpentine limb up to his chest and scooted forward to get his knees under all that weight.

       Hershel's ear-fins spread at that initial touch, the chains on his piercings swaying afterward from the motion. He raised his attention up and away from the book, sitting more upright as his tail was lifted. He felt something pressing into the topside of his tail as well within a mere moment. Twisting slightly, he looked back over his shoulder curiously. 

       There was the small bat, nuzzling into the top of his tail with his whole face. 

       The dragon's bemused expression melted into a warm smile as he recognized this. As the chiropteran relaxed and merely rested his head upon the powerful limb, Hershel spoke. "Did you get your tea?"

       "Mmmhmm..." Caudle didn't look back towards his boyfriend just yet, his fingers starting to knead into the soft underside of the girthy length in his grasp. The supple, banded scales of the ventral surface gave lightly, letting his free digits work into the relaxed muscle. The bookseller momentarily thought of the way gummies and sugarplums give when squished between thumb and forefinger. 

       "Getting awful clingy on my tail back there..." Hershel commented playfully. His spade was starting to curl and slide along the rug near the entrance of the nook, coinciding with the dragon's hips gently shifting his weight from one cheek to the other.

       The bat kissed the top of the tail mid-travel of his snout turning towards his boyfriend, resting his cheek and the side of his jaw on the giving surface. "Why, did you want it back any time soon?" Caudle smiled, giving the girth in his grip a little squeeze, playfully performing possessiveness.

       A caramel-colored flush of color came to the normally milk-chocolate tone of the dragon's cheeks. A blush, as the bat had learned to recognize. It was rare that he was able to fluster the much larger male, but when he did... The bookseller savored those moments. 

       Hershel's blush didn't fade, but the corner of his mouth tugged up into a smirk. He pressed one foot against the floor underneath the table, using the leverage to shift his hips and turn away from his book and towards the nook. The motion had the side-effect (or perhaps, totally intended effect) of tugging his tail, getting the bat off-balance.

       The wave of motion undulated down the serpentine appendage, coinciding with the relaxed, almost melted appearance of its mass firming up into a more ovular shape. The muscles had engaged, twisting and curling the limb in on itself until Caudle felt the familiar touch of the spade at the end of his boyfriend pressed to his back.

       "I dunno." The dragon affected the same casual tone the bookseller had used. "Did you want you back any time soon?" Before more of a reaction could escape the bat than a flush of color to his own cheeks and up into the dishes of his ears, Hershel had dug his other foot into the floor and shifted his hips along again, pivoting on the opposite cheek to get his seated position a rear-width further away from the table. 

       The motion traversed along his tail, curling the opposite direction to start to spool the smaller male up. Caudle was spun around by the spade pressed to his back rather than that tip sliding around him as it usually did, disorienting the bat as his body was encased loop by loop in that familiar length. In the midst of it, the bat discovered that the doppler effect on rotational echolocation makes the bookshop very difficult to parse. 

       At the squeak, Hershel dug both heels into the floor and gave himself another scoot back, jutting his hips and sending another wave through the twirling limb. The motion carried along, extending the coils, before rapidly reversing them. 

       The chiropteran had very little time to grasp that he was experiencing life in a way similar to a yo-yo, before he came to a halt. Dizzily, he looked around. He was bundled up on top of the dragon's lap, facing his boyfriend. There was ample room for all that coilage between his belly and the table now, room enough to keep the bat there for quite some time.

       Hershel leaned down, eyes lidded, and planted a light kiss on the bookseller's lips.

       The flat-cap which had miraculously stayed on throughout all the twirling promptly popped off of Caudle's head with a puff of steam. At the same time, his bowtie spun, blush surging all the way to his eartips.

       "Gotcha." The dragon rumbled, before reaching forward to pick up his book.