A/N: Hello! While this is far from my first story, this is my first fanfic, so please be kind.

The next chapter is already, like, half done, so look out for that :P

Chapter 1: Under the Juniper

Jesse was out of the door the moment his ma let him. It was well past high noon, and Jesse had things to do. A Super Secret Cowboy Hideout wasn't going to build itself.

The sun was hot and bright, and the dry grass cracked under his worn out sneakers. His dad's old cowboy hat, much too big for Jesse, bounced on his head as he ran towards the small thicket of trees, the juniper grove.

His Hideout leaned against the largest tree, an ancient oak that was probably more dead than alive. He'd taken all the fallen juniper branches and teepee'd them against the trunk, creating a space just large enough for him and his box of toys. As he made his way towards the Hideout, Jesse gathered up suitable sticks from the ground, specifically looking for ones that still clung to their leaves.

He carefully balanced the new sticks against the old ones. Some had fallen inside, so he carefully pulled out the old, woven rug he used as a floor and shook it. Spreading it back out, he climbed inside, and pulled out his toy box from the hollow in the tree's roots.

The first toy was a horse figurine, missing one of its ears. The next was an old toy car, from back when cars still had wheels. There was a black-clad action figure with a bat-like cape. Jesse's pa called him Batman, which Jesse thought was a stupid name. The cape made it hard to get the figure on the horse.

Jesse spread the rest of his toys out and turned the box over to be a plateau. Yesterday, his ma had called him in just as Batman was about to find his old friend who had been kidnapped by the evil cowboys. Cowboys were rarely evil, Jesse knew, but this one was the exception.

"Kapow!" Jesse yelled as Batman punched the evil cowboy. "You ain't a real cowboy, dummy. Real cowboys don't hurt people," Batman said.

"Oh no, how did you find me?" said the evil cowboy.

"That ain't your bid'ness! Where is my friend?"

"You'll never find 'im."

"WHAM! Batman knocked 'im out!" Jesse said.

"OW!"

Jesse froze. He stared at his toys and dropped them. That hadn't been him.

He peered out of his Super Secret Cowboy Hideout. Outside, there was another boy who Jesse had never seen before. He had long, dark hair cascading over pale skin, and weird clothes that looked like Jesse's ma's bathrobe. The boy was holding his foot, which was bare.

"Hello?" Jesse called out.

The boy jumped and his eyes snapped to Jesse and widened.

"Where are your shoes?" Jesse asked.

The boy blinked at him, and then said something Jesse couldn't understand.

Jesse crawled out of his Hideout, still holding Batman. He took a step towards the boy, and the boy shied away. "Did ya step on somethin'?" Jesse asked. The boy didn't say anything, so Jesse reached out his hand, and pressed the other hand to his chest. "Jesse," he said.

The strange boy looked him up and down and reached out his hand until their fingers barely touched. "Jesse," he mimicked. Jesse grinned, and the boy smiled back.

The boy's eyes flickered up to Jesse's hat, and Jesse's hand followed the movement. "Cool hat, huh?" he said. "It's a cowboy hat. I mean, not a real one, because it's from my pa. But it looks like a real one."

"Cowboy hat," the boy repeated in a heavy accent. Jesse nodded enthusiastically. He pulled the hat off and placed it on the boy's head. It didn't fit him either, and it nearly slid off the boy's silky hair.

"Now you can be a cowboy, too. Even though you're so pale," he said.

The boy ran his fingers around the hat and gave Jesse another smile. Then his eyes went to the Batman figure Jesse had put down. "What?" he asked.

Jesse picked up the figurine and handed it to the boy. "This is Batman. My pa says he's a superhero from a really long time ago. Not a real one, though. His name is kinda dumb, and so is his cape."

The boy turned the figurine over and over in his hands. "Cool," he said.

"No," Jesse said with a shake of his head. "He ain't cool, he has that dumb cape."

"Yes, cool!" said the boy with a serious face.

"Nah."

"HAI!"

"Hello?"

The boy's face turned as red as a tomato and his cheeks puffed out. Jesse burst out laughing, and the boy dropped Batman instantly. "Hey, hey!" Jesse said, quickly catching the poor, mistreated superhero. "He may not be cool, but ya can't go dropping a hero."

"Hmph!" was all the boy said. His face was still red, and he looked genuinely upset.

"I, uh," Jesse started. He didn't want the boy to be mad at him; they'd only just met. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you mad." He offered Batman back to the boy. The boy stared at Batman, and then at Jesse. Slowly, he took Batman back. Jesse gave a tentative smile. "You can keep him, if ya want."

"Keep?" the boy repeated.

Jesse nodded. "Yeah, you can keep him."

The words seemed to take a moment to process, but then the boy clutched Batman to his chest and smiled back at Jesse. Then the smile turned into a sneeze, the cowboy hat toppled to the ground, and the boy disappeared.

In his place was a lizard, the size of a small boy, with wings.

Wings. A dragon.

Jesse leapt back. "Wha… what?" he stuttered.

The dragon sneezed, and the boy was back. His face was red and frantic, the pain in his foot apparently forgotten as he jumped to his feet and slapped a hand over Jesse's mouth just before he could scream. He put a finger to his own lips: "Shh!" the boy said.

Jesse stared at the boy and slowly nodded. The boy lifted his hand away, but his eyes stayed locked on Jesse.

"What was that?" Jesse asked in a hushed voice. "Did you turn into a dragon?"

The boy looked near to tears. "Don't tell," he said. "Please."

"It's a secret?" Jesse asked. The boy nodded, and Jesse grinned. "Awesome! I love secrets!" Jesses started bouncing on his heels. "Can you do it again?"

The boy looked around nervously before slowly nodding. He closed his eyes, and his whole body began to shift. A wave of scales rolled over his head and down his body, and then there was a dragon in front of Jesse.

He couldn't help but stare in awe. Now that Jesse wasn't so shocked, he could fully take in the sight of a real life dragon. The dragon-boy's wings unfolded and re-folded, his head tilting to the side, causing the pale blue scales to shimmer. His face was long, like that of a horse, but with lizard-like features. Fin-like scales started on his head and followed his spine down his back and all the way to the tip of the tail, which was long and curled around his clawed feet. The wings were like bat wings, and looked too small to lift the dragon-boy off the ground.

"Whoa," Jesse whispered. "Wicked."

The scales rolled up, and the boy was back. He shuffled from foot to foot under Jesse's wide, awe-struck gaze. "Wicked?" he asked.

"Yeah, wicked. Like cool. Really, really cool!" Jesse explained. He couldn't stop grinning, and it must've been infectious, because the boy started grinning, too.

"JESSE!"

Aw, man, of course his ma had to call him in now. Jesse rolled his eyes. The boy looked startled at the sudden yell, so Jesse gave him a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "I gotta go," he said, reaching for the fallen cowboy hat. "You keep Batman safe for me, alright?"

The boy nodded. Jesse stood up and waved before running back home.

That evening, after dinner, Jesse convinced his pa to let him run back to the juniper grove. He had to see if the dragon-boy was still there.

It was quiet and dark, and all his toys were still spread out in the Super Secret Cowboy Hideout. He'd never put them away again. The boy wasn't there, but Jesse didn't want to leave immediately, so he slowly put the toys back in the box, and then put the box back in-between the roots of the old oak.

The boy still wasn't there.

Maybe he'd be back in the morning.

Jesse spent every second of his free time the next day waiting for the boy. And the next day. And the next. He waited until his ma asked what was going on, and because it was a secret, Jesse couldn't tell her. He said he was playing with an imaginary friend, even though he'd stopped having imaginary friends a long time ago.

He stopped waiting for the dragon boy.