Umber hated fighting.

He hated disagreements and confrontations of all sorts. Within his sibs he was usually the one to even out the tides of opposition when it came to arguments, and never ONCE had he chosen a side and joined the fray. His place was in the middle, making sure both debaters had their voice heard and that everyone left as friends, even if it meant holding back his own opinions. That was always how things had been…

…until today when he had been the absolute worst boyfriend ever and told Flame to leave. Umber had regretted it instantly and he hadn't even made it to the playing field before he had turned around to apologize to Flame, but the red dragon had already left.

Stupid Umber! Stupid stupid stupid stupid!

Every time he thought about it his stomach soured and his guts became anxious, guilty knots. He wanted to go find Flame this instant and talk to him, and if he couldn't do that then he wanted to wack his head against a tree until he was no longer stupid.

"Hey, Umber! Did you want to play side field or – Umber?" the small voice of his brother Marsh found him. "Are you OK?"

Umber lifted his head from where it was buried beneath his wings. While his sibs and Jet prepared the playing field Umber had retreated to the side to mope but it appeared he wouldn't be able to hide forever. Not that he WANTED to hide forever, he wanted to be with his sibs…but he also felt terrible and wanted to die…but this was supposed to be a fun reunion AARRG where had it all gone wrong?!

"Do you think it was mean of me to send Flame away?" Umber blurted out. If there was one good thing about this mess it was that he at least had his sibs to talk to. There were no secrets between them.

Marsh bit his lip, his wings askew behind him as he sat. "Um…I…I don't think I'm the best person to ask but," he shrugged, "maybe it would for the best. Pheasant told me he was being a jerk."

Umber bristled. "But Pheasant was being just as rude!"

Marsh twitched his ears in that classic way that indicated he was uncomfortable. He stole a glance over his shoulder and Umber followed his gaze to where Pheasant was situated in the center of a muddy meadow some ten meters away. The grass was withered and flattened down from the frost leaving a perfectly flat arena for their game. Using tails and claws Reed and Clay carved out the boundaries of the field as Pheasant directed them.

His brother twisted back around to give Umber a nervous look. "You know how Pheasant can be. She just wants what's best for us." Marsh didn't sound very convicted or convincing as he spoke.

Umber winkled his snout. "Was she like this when you introduced her to Coconut?"

"A little, although I didn't have to separate them. She seemed OK with him after a bit." A big sigh wooshed out of Marsh's snout. "I'm sorry, Umber, but Pheasant's just as much of a mystery to me as she is to you. Maybe we can talk to her about it later." Marsh stood and pumped his wings several times. "You still up to play?"

Umber nodded and lied through his teeth by saying, "Of course!" but when Marsh gave dry him a look he knew he had been caught in the act. Marsh knew him too well.

"Don't you dare give me that fake enthusiasm, mister!" Marsh gave him a playful cuff over the ears and Umber bit back a smile. Why did Marsh have to be so good and making him happy?

"Well, I do want to play," Umber stated, "but you'll have to forgive me if I excuse myself mid-game to die."

The larger dragon rolled his eyes but he was smiling. "Don't be so dramatic. Couples fight all the time, it's completely normal. If Flame is as great as you say he is then he'll come around."

Umber groaned. He knew Flame would come around but that wasn't what he was worried about. He felt so bad he wanted to vomit. How was he supposed to enjoy the day with his sibs when he had this thundercloud in his heart? As if to give further insult to injury, a shower of sunlight began to break through the dense clouds as if it had the right to bring joy to the world. Couldn't it see Umber was despairing? A sympathetic rain shower would have been more appreciated.

Marsh, however, spread his wings wide as the golden air touched his scales. "Aaaah, that's better. See? The sky wants you to be happy!" Umber pouted and shrugged an 'I guess so' with his wings. Marsh gave him a heavy lidded glare. "Alright, I see how is gonna be." He stood and stretched his neck out. "I didn't want to have to resort to this but I see no other choice."

"What do you mean – AAAAAAH!" Umber could only wiggle in defeat as Marsh belly-flopped on top of him. He squished Umber's face between his talons and shaped it like dough into a smile.

"Theeeere we go! Finally I get to see you smile."

Umber really didn't want to laugh. He wouldn't. He refused to. He didn't deserve joy.

All this made it even more frustrating when he burst out laughing. "Fine! You win! Get off me you smelly lump of scales!"

Marsh complied with triumph. "That's what you get for trying to be sad around your sib." He winked. Despite it all Umber did feel a little better. He was still mad at himself but it was hard to be completely depressed with your sibs nearby. Marsh gave him a nudge. "Now come on! Let's join the others."

Umber nodded absently. He was feeling a little better about his situation with Flame, Marsh was right; it wasn't the end of the world if they had a fight, but there was still something bothering him. One thing he had made note of that kept coming back to his attention. Keeping his voice low he pulled on Marsh's arm to get him to slow down and murmured, "I just want to know…earlier Pheasant said you were the one that told her all that stuff about Flame. Why?"

Umber had never known Marsh to be a gossip. It was just so unlike him to go around giving out information about people he barely knew.

Marsh sighed and came to a stop, his talons sinking into the sodden soil. "Because she asked me about him."

"She did?"

"Well he's your boyfriend and she's your sister," Marsh said with a sniff and a shrug. "It makes sense she would be curious about him."

"I…suppose." Umber's mind still itched but he figured he should drop it for now; the most pressing reason being Pheasant was galloping towards them.

"Thought you could sneak away, eh?" The sunlight swirled in her light brown eyes like drifting sparks from a cozy fire. "WELL GUESS AGAIN! HA!" Without warning she swung a wing around Umber and Marsh and they had no choice but to be pulled inwards. She gave them a tight squeeze, lifting them off the ground before dropping them like lumps of mud. To anyone else it might seem like rough play, but for MudWings this was nothing. Throwing each other ground, squashing each other, tackling them to the ground…that was gentle play.

In fact, despite his conflicting feelings, Umber began to chuckle and snort alongside Marsh. A part of him was mad at Pheasant for the role she had played in upsetting Flame, but it was work to stay upset. She was his sister. Every time he heard her laugh or breathed in her scent he felt calm and relaxed, as he did with his other sibs. If anything he was just getting frustrated with himself for not knowing what to feel.

With a string of her own laughter abound Pheasant reached down and helped them to their feet. She gave Umber a nuzzle to the head before pushing them along. "Alright get your tails in gear! The games about to start and I want you two on my team!"

"Who's the other team?" Marsh asked, visibly excited.

"Reed, Clay, and Sora," their sister answered with a growing smirk. "Clay may not know how to play but he's the biggest so that'll definitely be an advantage for their team. Reed and Sora are fairly large too, but we have speed," she slapped Marsh on the back, "and agility," at this she gave Umber an affectionate jostle.

Umber masked a frown. "What about Jet? Is she playing?"

Pheasant's tail gave a harsh flick that nearly distracted Umber from the quick curl of her lips. "She's refereeing." Umber didn't like that tone at all. He was on the brink of commenting on it when the moment was lost by Clay coming to greet them at the center of the field.

"Hey guys! Ready to play?" He seemed tense but his eyes were bright with glee. "I've never played before, heh, but I told you that already. Are you guys nervous too? Probably not. I hope I don't mess things up for my team."

Umber hated seeing Clay so nervous. He sidled up to his larger brother just below the wing. "You won't mess anything up, Clay." He wound their tails together and grinned. "Besides, we're all a little rusty. We haven't played in years."

"Yeah," Marsh agreed with mild embarrassment colouring his cheeks, "I'm not sure I even remember what a walby is!"

"Well you better relearn," Pheasant gave her sib a clip on the ear with her tail, "because you're the one that'll be guarding it!"

"I am?" He looked completely astounded. "Oh croc-spit! W-what is it again?"

"Oh I know that one!" Clay's own surprise at himself outweighed his sibs'. "Reed said it was the invisible line before the goal post, right?"

"Indeedily-do," Pheasant approved. "Ten meters up and five meters wide. In the air or on the ground, you can't let the enemy get past, got it?"

Marsh slowly nodded. "Yeah…I think it's starting to come back to me now."

She gave his ear a playful tug and said, "I knew it would. Umber, you know your role, right?"

"Yeah yeah, don't worry I do." Umber's role was the courier. With such a small teams his role would be easy; all he had to do was be ready to receive the ball from Pheasant and pass it back to her when she was ready to score. And also not to be smashed into the ground by the other team's courier.

Pheasant rubbed her talons together in anticipation. "Excellent. Shall we get to our position?"

"Sure," Clay agreed but paused for a moment. He looked left, then right, then all around. "Hey wait a minute, where's Flame?"

Umber winced, all those awful feelings rushing back, and Pheasant visibly stiffened.

"Oh, uh, well he – um – he's – "

"Who cares?" Pheasant interrupted Umber with a toss of her lumbering head. She ran her talons over the crest of her head and sniffed with displeasure. "It's not like he'll be missed."

"I care, actually," Umber snapped in tones so cold it chased away the sun. Pheasant's words had rubbed him the wrong way. His stomach churned like an angry sea and heat began to flush across his face. "And I miss him." Again the guilt hit him in thunderous strokes of lightening that made his heart weak. His wings fell limp to his side. "I should have never told him to leave."

Coiling his tail Umber glanced at his sibs apologetically, coming to a decision. "I'm sorry guys but…I need to go find him. I need to make sure he's OK and…talk to him about something." Now a whole new guilt sat in his stomach. "I…I know you guys came so far to see me but I just….I have to do this…"

The first reassuring wing to reach him was Clay. "Go for it," the largest sib began, "I completely understand; dating cranky, crazy SkyWings is something I know waaaay too much about. The sooner you can talk things through the better."

"We won't wait up," Marsh said with a saucy wink that made Umber want to swat him.

"I don't know what you could possibly mean by THAT but I'll be back as soon as I can. Jet can take my place!" He spread his wings to take off but Pheasant appeared before him, all angry eye-brows and frowny mouthed.

"You can't be serious right now. Please tell me you're joking."

Umber was thrown. "I'm…sorry?"

Pheasant ranked her claws through the wet dirt and sat down with a prompt growl. The dappled patches of rusted gold along her shoulders and wings swayed in the sun. "Umber," she started, "you're really going to leave your sibs for some SkyWing? We've been planning this reunion for MONTHS…don't you care?"

"Of course I care!" Umber couldn't believe Pheasant would ask him such a thing, but lingering on his horns was the way she had called Flame a SkyWing like it was a dirty word. His feelings jumbled and jump behind his eyes like an army of disorganized frogs all trying to catch the same fly. He shook his head and pushed past Pheasant. "But I love Flame and I really hurt his feelings, I need to talk to him." He didn't bother mentioning right now how Pheasant should be apologizing as well. That probably wouldn't go over well.

"Fine," Pheasant snapped, her voice fraying like silk, "I see how it is. You love that SkyWing more than your own sibs!"

Umber stopped in his tracks and he heard Marsh gasp behind him. He whirled around. "I – I never said that!"

Pheasant glowered at him as though he had skewered her with a sword. "There was no need. This entire time he's all you've been thinking about."

"Well YEAH! It's our fault he's upset. What am I supposed to do, ignore him?"

"YES!"

Umber drew in a shaking breath to calm the trembling in his talons. The pancakes he had had this morning were threatening to make an appearance all over the ground. He HATED fighting. It was like his insides were full of writhing worms and wriggling centipedes and just that image alone brought on another wave of nausea. Why didn't Pheasant understand that he could love Flame AND his sibs! "Pheasant…what's your problem? Why do you hate Flame so much?"

She didn't answer, at least not right away. The dragoness turned her head to glance back and Marsh and Clay with the same accusatory glint. The males stood frozen as if turned to stone. "Have any of you thought about the consequences of taking on partners?" She spoke to all of them now, her head rearing this way and that to keep them all in view. "We're MudWings; we might be able to separate for a while but we need each other. We're sibs! What's going to happen when it's time to come home, hm? Will your partners want come back with you to the Mud Kingdom?" She snorted. "I doubt it."

Umber opened his mouth then closed it with a snap. He…hadn't thought about that. When he imagined the future he saw both Flame and his family. In fact he saw a lot of things. He saw himself back at Jade Academy studying alongside his friends, he saw him and Flame prowling the SkyWing night markets for food stalls as they did every weekend before going into a food coma and cuddling, and he saw himself wrestling with his sibs on sunny afternoons and sleeping together in big piles, breathing in the air rich with earth-scent and breathing dragons.

He had thought of them all as the same future but he had never stopped to think how they could all be in the same future. A snake of ice slithered its way into the throng of slimy critters already in his organs.

"You're gonna have to make a choice eventually, Umber," Pheasant said, her tones deepened with a sudden soft sympathy. "I'm just trying to make things easier for you."

Umber's felt his heart begin to splinter and hiss apart like a rotten tree struck with lightening. He didn't want to choose between them. Why should he? He loved Flame. He loved his sibs. Why did it have to be one or the other?

"Well if that isn't the biggest load of shit I've ever heard in my life than I don't know what is," a voice ragged from the sky. Moments later the lithe figure of Flame settled to the ground and Umber had never been happier in his life to see that ugly vest. The SkyWing smirked in Pheasant's direction. "It's gonna take a helluva lot more than a little argument to keep me away."

All worries and anger flew from Umber's mind; the only thing that mattered in that moment was the red dragon before him. He flung himself at Flame who barely had time to catch. "Flame, I'm so so so so so so sorry!" he sobbed, burying his face into the other's chest. The woolly fabric snagged on his talons but he clutched the garment fiercely. "I didn't mean to get mad at you it's just – I hated seeing you two fight but I felt so bad afterwards – can you forgive me I'm so sorry!"

"Umber! It's OK." Flame wrapped his wings around them and suddenly it was like being in a cocoon of warmth and silk; a pocket away from reality, free of all its tangles and pains. Here Umber was safe. He melted into Flame's scales as the SkyWing reached down to plant a kiss on his crest. "Don't tell me those tears are for me!"

Umber didn't know what Flame was talking about until he brought a talon along his cheek and felt the warm dampness of a sneaky tear. Before he could even blush the SkyWing cupped Umber's face and pressed their foreheads together. "Seriously, I'm nothin' to cry over."

Oh how very wrong he was, but Umber's protests dissolved on his tongue when Flame bent down to his ear. "And I'm not going anywhere. No matter where you go, be it the Mud Kingdom, Ice Kingdom, even that new continent – Pant-something or other – I'd follow you anywhere. Always." He smiled and then paused nervously. "I – uh – hope that sounded romantic and not stalker-y."

The anxiety bubbling in Umber's stomach flattened and the tightness in his chest relaxed. He took in a smooth breath filled with Flame's scent. "It sounded perfect."

"WHOA HEY BREAK IT UP YOU TWO!"

Thick claws pulled Flame's wings aside and the real world – and Pheasant's angry scowl – came crashing into their haven. She snatched Umber by the wings and pulled him off the SkyWing.

"Hey! Cut it out!" Umber struggled against his sister but being half her size made it a little difficult. She finally set him down a good several feet from his boyfriend.

"Didn't you listen to anything I just said?" She sent a quick dirty look over her shoulder at Flame. "He doesn't belong with us."

"I belong wherever Umber is!" Flame stated and strutted over. A growled picked up in Pheasant's throat but he ignored it. "If you don't like it then kiss my ass."

"HEEEY!" a voice bellowed from afar, making the distangled group of arguers and awkward by-standers perk up. "Are we playing or what?" It was Reed. He, Sora, and Jet were quickly walking towards them and Umber felt at ease. Reed would know how to fix this; he was the best problem solver Umber knew.

"Is everything alright over here?" Sora, as usual, was the first to offer her worry and concern.

"Yeah," Jet said, "we heard some cussing" – she shot Flame a look – "so we figured something interesting was going on."

Umber went to speak up, to tell them to tell Pheasant that she was being ridiculous and absurd but the larger female spoke before he could get a word in. "Don't worry about a thing, we're fine," she addressed Reed and Sora. "Flame and I were just having a…heated discussion but he was just leaving now so – "

"No I wasn't!" Flame flapped his wings to herald his entrance as he barreled into the small cluster of conversing MudWings. Umber noticed how he managed to sneakily slap Pheasant in the face with his wing and pull it off as an accident. "I'm not going anywhere! In fact…" He smirked most deviously, chest puffed out, "I'm gonna play wing-ball with you guys."

Author's Note:

Yeaaaah so, like Umber, I'm a big baby when it comes to conflict so of course I had to have him and Flame make up in the next chapter ;P Hope you enjoy and the next chapter is on its way soon hopefully!