-Disclaimer: I do not own American Dragon: Jake Long.

-This story is post Hong Kong Longs. This is a Jonathan and Jake bonding fic.

-Jake is 15 years old in this story and is slightly different than from the show.

Chapter: 1-Body Features

Since coming back from the trip to Hong Kong and learning about his family's true magical nature, Jonathan started paying closer attention to Jake. He had no problems spending time with his little girl. Haley always sought him out at least sometime during the day for attention—sometimes multiple times if she was telling on her brother. But, he always had trouble with his son. Jake and he were just not as close. Jake always seemed to be off with his friends or grandfather, and the times he did get to spend with Jake were awkward nervous most of the time, especially since he was 13 (Jake had told him a few months ago that his dragon powers fully awaked when he turned 13). Jonathan realized that the awkwardness and nervousness was from Jake trying to keep his secret from him. Ever since he found out that his family was a bunch of dragons, Jonathan's relationship with his son took a turn for the better; they spent much more time together.

And for that, Jonathan was happy.

So since he started spending more time with his son, he started noticing things about Jake he had not noticed before. One of the main things Jonathan noticed about Jake was his body features.

Now that he paid more attention to his son, one of the most prominent features that came to his mind was Jake's eyes. Being of Chinese descent, Jake had naturally dark colored eyes like his mother and grandfather. Or at least, that's what Jonathan thought. Jonathan remembered the day when he first noticed his son's different eye color. On a lazy Saturday when he did not have to go to work and Susan had taken Haley to go shopping, Jonathan decided to spend the whole day with Jake. They mostly hung around the house, not feeling the urge to go out and do something. Unfortunately boredom kicked in, causing them to just laze on the couch…doing positively nothing.

That was when Jonathan had a brilliant idea.

He sat up straight and grinned at his son. "Hey Jake-a-rooni, I know what we can do!"

Jake looked up at his father and arched an eyebrow. Jonathan took that as an initiative to continue.

"We should have a staring contest!"

Jake's other eyebrow quirked up in surprise. "Now, why should we do that? That sounds boring and silly, dad."

"Aw, come on Jake. Sometimes doing silly things can be the most fun," Jonathan said excitedly. Jake looked at his father for a few more moments before he sat up straight and turned his body to face him. "Alright," he said as a small grin tugged at the corners of his mouth, "but you do know that I'm totally gonna' win, right?" Jonathan did not answer, but smiled as a determined look passed on his face. "We start on the count of three; one…two…three!" And the staring contest had begun.

That's when Jonathan got a really good look at his son's eyes.

Since the day he was born Jake always had dark brown eyes, like chocolate. It was trait that he got from his mother; Jonathan had green eyes that neither Jake nor Haley received. But, now that he was looking closely at Jake's eyes, he saw that they were not the chocolate brown he had always seen but were a bright, fiery amber color that seemed to hold their own fire within them. The pupils of his eyes were also unlike a human's normally round ones; his were slit pupils, akin to a cat or reptile. Jonathan was so surprised that he shot back off the couch and blinked repeatedly. Jake took that as his win. "Oh yeah! Told you that you couldn't beat me!"

After his little bout of victory related happiness, Jake noticed that his father was still looking at him with a wide-eyed, peculiar expression and he stood up as well. Jake's face contorted in confusion. "Uh, dad? What' cha looking at me like that for?" Jonathan seemed to get out of his stupor.

"Jake," he asked slowly, still looking a little wide-eyed, "what's with your eyes?"

Jake hand immediately flew to his eyes. "What? What's wrong with them?" He tried to feel around his eyes, as if he would find something wrong with them on the surface.

Jonathan interjected, "Jake, calm down. I was talking about your eye color and pupils. Your eyes, they're…" he trailed off, swallowing thickly. Jake's eyes widened as realization hit him. "Oh," he said as he scratched the back of his neck, "that's what you mean. Yeah, they kind of changed when my dragon powers fully emerged."

He was completely surprised, yet at the same time he was not. He was surprised at the fact that his own child's appearance had changed (who wouldn't be?); he was not surprised due to the fact that since he found out that his own children were dragons, he was expecting something else weird to happen. Even so, he was still baffled by this. "H-how?" he asked, bewildered. Jake winced slightly and stuck his hands in his pockets. "I'm not really sure. I asked Gramps about it when my dragon powers fully emerged. He said that dragon traits start bleeding through once a dragon begins using his or her powers actively. It just happens. It's different for every dragon."

Jonathan was quiet for a while, absorbing this new information. It was in this silence that he noticed that his son was not looking at him but was looking at the floor, fidgeting in place. Was his son ashamed of himself? Did his reaction affect Jake that much? No, Jonathan would not have that. He bent down slightly toward Jake and put a finger under his chin, tilting it so he could see his face. "Ah, there are those handsome eyes," he said softly. "Now tell me, why are you hiding them? Why aren't you looking at me?" Jonathan was being quite serious which contrasted to his normally upbeat and peppy attitude.

Jake was clearly uncomfortable as he tried to answer. "Well…from your reaction, you were really freaked out. I thought…I-I just didn't want to freak you out more I guess, so I stopped looking at you. Then you wouldn't see my eyes." Jonathan placed a hand on his shoulder and said, "Oh, Jake, I wasn't freaked out. Sure, I was a little surprised, but I wasn't freaked out at you, son. You know how weird I can act Jake when I get surprised." Jonathan was happy that he elicited a small smile from Jake. It was very odd to see him so unsure of himself, especially with his own family.

"Now then," Jonathan chirped as he stood up with a smile and he said excitedly, "Care to tell me what else has changed, Jake-a-roo? Any cool stuff?" Jake's face split into a big grin as he outright laughed at his dad's usual quirky behavior.

"Well, my hair matches the scales on my head in my dragon form, which you've already seen," he said as he raked a hand through his green tinted spiky locks. He tugged on his ears. "My ears got all pointy. I don't mind, though." Then he held up his hands for Jonathan to see. "My nails changed, too." And indeed they had changed. Jonathan could see that in the place of blunt clear nails that would normally be on human hands were pointed claws. They were only about a centimeter or two the normal length a guy would keep his nails at and were pointed at the tips; they were black as onyx, reflecting a bit of light from the room.

"I can honestly say that I never noticed that before," Jonathan muttered.

"Yeah, but you don't go looking at people's hands all the time, dad, so I'm guessing that's okay. Plus, if you just glance over them, they look like I just painted my nails black. But don't let that fool you, they're wickedly sharp," his son grinned, showing his teeth. Jonathan did not doubt him. As Jake smiled, Jonathan saw that Jake's canines were a lot longer than an average person's. "How did I not notice all these changes in my son before?" he asked himself sadly. He was disappointed with himself. At least now he was making it up to Jake.

An idea suddenly came to his mind (again).

"Jake," he said suddenly.

"Yeah, dad?"

"Vampire!" he exclaimed as he pointed to his son. "You're a vampire-dragon!"

Jake spluttered, making one of the most ridiculous faces Jonathan had ever seen. "N-No I'm not! What are you talking about?"

"You have pointy teeth! Pointy teeth!" shouted Jonathan comically as he ran into the kitchen, away from Jake. Jake stood there in muted shock before he ran after his father. "Wait! Dad, get back here!"

And that's how his wife and daughter found him when they came back an hour later—chasing his son around the house holding out a clove of garlic, yelling, "Pointy teeth! Vampire, be gone!"

Jake knew he wasn't being serious; although, telling him so probably would have prevented Jake from retaliating by putting cloves of garlic in his shoes. Jonathan did not really mind (it was the pair he was throwing way anyway). He knew that he enjoyed that Saturday a lot.

And he had a feeling Jake did, too.

A/N: Published 3/28/12

Woo! This is the first chapter of Observation while Bonding. I hoped you liked it. I honestly think that Jake's dragon features should bleed into his human form. I would make him look so much cooler! This story was inspired by two pictures on deviant art: http:/ shelziru . deviantart . com /art/ american-dragon-jake-long-12412033 and http:/ sujk0823 . deviantart . com/ art/ American-Dragon-Jake-Long-139898726 (just remove the spaces!)

I hope you all like this chapter! Please Review-it might make the next chapter come sooner~!

Next Chapter: Behaviors