Hello and welcome to a Spyro one-shot! So this fic is part of a challenge of a Spyro Fanfiction Discord I'm in and the prompts were either a slice of life with Spyro or Cynder and one of the Guardians or an alternate ending of DOTD with Malefor. I chose the slice of life one, so let's have fun with this one.
Anyway, Spyro and all related characters belong to their respective owners. Enjoy!
It was about late morning in the city of Warfang; many of its civilians were making their way to work, socialise or just to take in the fresh, clean air. This, however, wasn't the case for Spyro, who merely was lying on his bed and looking at the ceiling with only one thought on his mind.
Cynder.
After defeating Malefor a few months ago, the two teenage dragons had been living in the Dragon Temple since they weren't old enough to have a place of their own. During the time that was spent exploring the vast majority of the city, Spyro had begun to feel something different every time he laid his eyes on the black dragoness.
At first Spyro wrote it off as a sign of a healthy and strong friendship but as soon as he noticed that he was staring at Cynder's sleek yet curvy body when she wasn't looking, it didn't take him long to realise that he was beginning to fall in love with her. After that, Spyro had become really awkward every time he and Cynder met. Spyro would lose all train of thought when he stared into Cynder's emerald green eyes; it got to the point where Spyro would stutter all over the place and be forced to run away from sheer embarrassment.
Spyro had faced many challenges, killed a lot of bad guys and even somehow survived a gauntlet of gladiator battles at the age of thirteen. But when it came to the concept of love, he was completely clueless.
He needed help more than anything, but he wasn't sure who could give it to him. As far as he knew, none of his friends had a romantic partner.
Spyro remained still on his bed, his eyes moving around to keep track of a fly that was flying around as his thoughts lingered through his mind like the pages of a book. Sparx, who was keeping Spyro company, flew into Spyro's eyeline which caused the purple dragon to jump slightly.
"Still thinking about the she-devil, Spyro old buddy?" Sparx wondered.
Spyro sighed, annoyed at Sparx's nicknames but decided to let it slide for now. "I don't know what to do, Sparx… I can't exactly tell Cynder how I feel. What if she doesn't like me in that way? What if she's dating someone else? I mean, I've seen her talking to that fire dragon who works in the markets… she could be on a date with him already as we speak!" Spyro started to ramble, getting more panicked as he went.
Sparx folded his arms. "Spyro, have you actually tried talking to Cynder about all this?"
"Talk to her?!" Spyro exclaimed, his eyes widening as he sat up. "Are you insane?! I can't talk to her; I get nervous every time I see her. I might mess up and say something I'll regret!"
"I'm just saying… if you don't say anything to our resident Terror now then you'll lose her forever." Sparx said. "Ask the Guardians… heck, ask anyone and they'll tell you the same thing."
Spyro mentally slapped himself, why didn't he think of that before? Why didn't he just talk to the Guardians about this? Surely one of them had been through what he's going through at the moment, right?
Spyro quickly shot up from his bed and went to walk towards the door where Sparx flew in front of him and spread his arms, pretending to block Spyro from the door. "Woah, where are you going now?" Sparx inquired.
"Going to talk to the Guardians, well… one of them at least." Spyro answered. "They might know something more about this love situation."
Sparx scoffed. "What would they know that I haven't already said?"
"How to actually be in a relationship?" Spyro smirked, raising his eyebrow.
Sparx's eyes narrowed. "You got me there..."
Spyro chuckled. "Come on, we can catch the Guardians before their morning lessons with the hatchlings."
Spyro headed closer to the door and opened it. What he didn't expect to be behind the door was Cynder, who was about to knock. When Spyro laid eyes on the black dragoness, his heart almost stopped as he stared there wide-eyed, shocked that Cynder was in front of them.
Cynder?! What's she doing here?! Spyro panicked in his thoughts. Unfortunately for him, his voice out of his thoughts wasn't that clear.
Spyro yelped. "Gah! Cynder?!" He then tried to gain as much composure as possible before continuing. "Uh… hi Cynder. Hello Cynder. Um, h-hey… w-what b-brings y-you h-here?" Spyro greeted, blushing intensely as he attempted to sound more calm and collected but failing miserably.
Cynder looked completely weirded out by Spyro's rambling. "Um… hi Spyro. I just came over to see if you were okay." She said. "I haven't seen much of you lately."
"Well y-you know… I've been b-busy… doing p-purple dragon stuff and… s-stuff." Spyro replied nervously, frantically moving between leaning against the doorframe with one of his forelegs and back to sitting on his haunches. Sparx, meanwhile, face-palmed in irritation behind Spyro so that Cynder couldn't see him.
Oh ancestors, I'm blowing it. Spyro thought, buckets of sweat pouring on his face as his heart beated intensely.
"W-well, would y-you look at the t-time?" Spyro quickly said, quickly darting over to the window to look at the sun before looking back to Cynder. "I-I need to go. The G-Guardians need me for s-something… I don't k-know what y-yet but I'm s-sure it'll be n-nothing." Spyro then excused himself, brushing past Cynder to get out the door with Sparx trailing behind him.
"Oh, okay. I'll see you later then?" Cynder called out in an almost disappointing tone as Spyro and Sparx headed down the corridor.
Spyro turned around to answer her. "Yep. T-Totally. It's a date." He then blushed and became even more nervous. "I-I mean n-not an a-actual d-date but y-you know what I-I m-mean…" Spyro stuttered as he slowly shuffled away from Cynder's line of sight.
As soon as Cynder was nowhere to be seen, Spyro mentally face-palmed myself. He made his way to a nearby wall and rested on it, groaning at his failure to talk to Cynder without making a fool of himself. He banged his head against the wall a few times, slightly clenching his teeth in frustration.
"Dude, what the actual hell was that?" Sparx questioned, surprised at his brother's lack of confidence.
"Fuck off Sparx..." Spyro muttered, only making eye contact with the floor.
(-)
After Spyro regained his confidence, he and Sparx made their way out of the temple and began to walk through the packed streets of Warfang. Spyro had gotten used to seeing Warfang's many citizens looking at him in bewilderment and amazement, some of the smaller dragons jumping around and attempting to pull their parents' tails in his direction so that they could meet him. Spyro was the purple dragon after all; there was no way that he could blend in thanks to his purple scales making him stick out like a sore thumb. Being stared at like he was some sort of celebrity was just something that Spyro had to accept.
Eventually Spyro and Sparx arrived at the Warfang Academy, which had finished being renovated a month ago. The Warfang Academy was put on the priority list for renovations after many young hatchlings had arrived in the city after the war ended. The Academy itself was quite small compared to the rest of the buildings in Warfang but it was large enough to take in a decent amount of pupils. It was split into two sections: one was the building that contained the classrooms and other learning facilities, while a dojo the same width as the Academy was placed right next to it. It was covered by fencing so that any stray elemental attack wouldn't hit any passerbys.
Luckily for Spyro, the hatchlings were currently playing outside before their morning classes, which allowed him to enter without being swarmed by excited little younglings asking for his paw print or to demonstrate one of his elemental breaths. As much as he enjoyed making the kids happy with his demonstrations, Spyro was on a mission and that's all he could focus on at the moment.
"So who are we going to talk to exactly?" Sparx wondered, darting around the corridors. "We can't just wait for one of them to show up out of the blue, can we?"
Spyro thought about it for a minute before answering. "I think I should talk to Terrador… from what I've heard, he and Volteer actually have mates…"
Sparx raised his eyebrow. "And the fact that Volteer is hard to keep up with?"
"That too…" Spyro murmured, frowning slightly.
Spyro continued to walk down the corridor, hoping that Terrador's office or his classroom was around here somewhere. Eventually he came across a peculiar dark green door, which was slightly faded with age so it could be considered as a lighter green now. There was no indication that this was the door to Terrador's office, no plaque or sign was seen anywhere. But something in Spyro's gut told him that this was the right one, even if his head didn't think so.
"I think this is it…" Spyro said, approaching the door.
Sparx looked at Spyro with uncertainty in his eyes. "What? You think the green dragon is behind the green door?" he said.
Spyro turned to Sparx and shrugged. "It's worth a shot…" he said before knocking on the door.
He didn't have to wait long as the door opened to reveal Terrador, who looked completely surprised to see him. Spyro didn't blame him, he doesn't visit the Academy as much as he should.
"Spyro?" Terrador said. "This is certainly a surprise. What brings you here?"
"Hi Terrador." Spyro greeted, bowing his head slightly. "Could I come in for a minute? There's something I need to talk to you about, it's quite important…"
Terrador nodded, reading Spyro's emotions in his face and saw that something was bothering him. "Certainly young dragon, come in," he said, moving aside to let Spyro and Sparx in.
Spyro stood in the middle of the room as Terrador retreated back to his desk, Sparx flying around and gazing at the two paintings that were hung on the wall. Terrador's office was quite spacious; his desk was placed near the centre in front of a large window that supplied the light for the room. A small bookcase was to Terrador's left and it was so close to him that he could literally grab a book from where he was sitting.
"Now… what seems to be the trouble, Spyro?" Terrador wondered once he got behind his desk.
Spyro rubbed the back of his head, now nervous to approach the subject all of a sudden. "Well… I, um… you see… I need some advice."
Terrador raised his eyebrow. "Advice? What kind of advice?"
"Well…" Spyro paused for a minute to think about what he should say before carrying on. "I have this friend named Flame and he really, really likes this girl named Ember. They have been friends for a very long time and ever since a few months ago, Flame has developed feelings for her and now every time he tries to talk with her… he can't. He tries to but every time he opens his mouth, it's all stuttering."
Spyro sighed. "What should I do? Eh, I mean… what should he do?" he asked, his eyes darting from side-to-side as he blushed slightly from his little slip-up.
"I see…" Terrador muttered. "Tell me Spyro, this doesn't have anything to do with Cynder by any chance?"
Spyro's eyes widened. Damn, he was caught out. "What? No… I'm talking about Flame and Ember," he replied, his tone of voice telling Terrador all that he needed to know.
"I know what you're trying to do, young dragon, and I'm not falling for it." Terrador calmy scolded. "Just tell me what's really wrong..."
Spyro sighed once again. "Okay… It's not about Flame and Ember, I made them up. It's about Cynder and I… I'm in love with Cynder," he then admitted. While Spyro felt some relief when he finally said that out loud, there was still something that troubled the purple dragon but he couldn't figure out what.
"Why didn't you just say that before?"
Spyro shrugged, looking down at the ground. "I don't know… I've been hiding my feelings for so long, I guess I'm used to covering it up."
Terrador paused for a minute, gathering his thoughts together. "Spyro, have you considered telling Cynder about how you feel?" he then suggested. "She might feel the same way…"
Spyro quickly glanced to Sparx, who gave him a 'told-you-so' look. Spyro then returned to glance at Terrador. "I don't know, Terrador… what if she doesn't feel the same way?"
"You won't know if you don't talk to her about it." Terrador said. "You two have a special bond, I'd be surprised if she didn't have any feelings for you."
"There's something else…" Spyro muttered in a sad tone. "I've seen her talking with this fire dragon in the markets…"
Terrador frowned. "I see… did it occur to you that she could just be acquaintances with this fire dragon? You can't just assume these things…"
"I know… but I really like her, Terrador. I should be happy that she's finding friends but I can't help but feel… what's the word?"
"Jealous?"
"Yeah, that."
"Jealousy is a normal thing to experience, Spyro. I should know…" Terrador said.
"You do?" Spyro wondered, raising his eyebrow.
Terrador nodded. "Oh yes. Many years ago, long before you came along, I was head-over-heels in love with a dragoness while I was in the Academy…" he started to explain.
Sparx scoffed. "You? Head-over-heels?" he interjected, trying to hold back a laugh.
"Sparx…" Spyro gave an annoyed glare to his brother before giving an apologetic look to Terrador. "Sorry, Terrador… please continue."
"Right." Terrador cleared his throat before continuing. "So this dragoness, Eden her name was, was someone I knew ever since I was a little hatchling and over time I began to develop feelings for her. I remember all the embarrassing times I've tried to impress her. But little did I know that she had eyes for someone else… if only I told her sooner."
"I'm sorry to hear that, Terrador…"
Terrador chuckled. "No need to apologise, young dragon. I'm perfectly happy with Mira and I wouldn't change anything for the world. Eden wasn't even my type anyway…"
Suddenly a loud ringing sound blared from outside Terrador's office, causing both Sparx and Spyro to jump in surprise and turn towards the noise. Terrador, however, didn't seem fazed.
"There's the bell. I'm afraid I've got to go, Spyro…" Terrador said as he left his desk.
"Wait!" Spyro exclaimed, stepping in front of Terrador to prevent him from going further. "You didn't tell me how to confess to Cynder…"
Terrador bent down slightly so that at a closer eye level to the purple dragon. "Spyro, all you need to do is to walk up to Cynder and tell her how you feel and if she doesn't feel the same way, you'll just have to respect that. But, at least you'll have closure…" he advised calmly.
"I'll try…" Spyro murmured, looking down at the ground again. "Thank you, Terrador."
"Always happy to help…" Terrador said with a warm smile as he went past Spyro to open the door. "Now you better get going before the children surround you."
Spyro nodded as he and Sparx left the office and literally sprinted out of the building to avoid the younglings. One goal became clear in Spyro's mind: tell Cynder how he felt and hopefully she felt the same way.
And Spyro knew just where to find her.
(-)
As quickly as possible, Spyro made his way to the marketplace with Sparx struggling to keep up with him. Spyro had to get there before this fire dragon could make his move on Cynder; that's even if the fire dragon even felt that way. Still, Spyro wasn't taking any chances. Unlike Terrador, Spyro wasn't going to wait to express his feelings. Spyro had to tell Cynder now.
The marketplace was emptier than usual due to it being a weekday. Still, there was a decent amount of dragons much older than Spyro that were walking around. Spyro slowed down to a fast walk as he traversed down the street, ignoring some of the dragons that were quietly muttering his name when he walked past them.
"You sure our killer queen is here?" Sparx wondered as he looked around the marketplace.
"Hopefully…" Spyro replied. "She sounded disappointed when I left so maybe she came here to talk to the fire dragon…"
"Does this fire dragon have a name or are we going to keep referring to him as 'the fire dragon'?"
"I don't know actually, I'd usually leave before we had an actual conversation…" Spyro answered.
"Ooh! I found her!" Sparx shouted, pointing to a stall not too far from where he and Spyro were.
Spyro darted his head around to where Sparx was pointing and immediately stopped in his tracks. There was Cynder, sitting on her haunches and talking to the fire dragon who seemed to be running one of the stalls. Spyro went stiff and was unable to move, his confidence suddenly washed away when he stared at the black dragoness. He couldn't do it, he couldn't talk to her.
"Hello? Spyro?" Sparx flew in front of him and waved around, trying to get Spyro's attention. "What are you waiting for? Go and get her!"
"I can't do this…" Spyro muttered, his gaze still on Cynder.
"Come on man, she's right there!"
"But-" Spyro tried to say until Sparx grabbed him by the snout.
"Listen to me, Spyro. Do you love Cynder?" he asked, his eyes staring into Spyro's surprised ones.
"Yes."
"You wanna hold her?"
"Yes?"
"Please her?"
Spyro blushed, his eyes widening. "Uh…"
Sparx started shaking Spyro's head back and forth. "Then you've got to tell her! It's now or never!"
Spyro stumbled a little bit from Sparx shaking him around before he regained his balance and took a deep breath. "You're right. I'm going, I'm going…" Spyro said as he walked off. "Wish me luck."
"Just don't come back in a fit of tears, okay?" Sparx shouted out.
Spyro slowly approached Cynder, who hadn't seen him thankfully. With every step, Spyro's heart beat increased and butterflies started fluttering around in his stomach. Every part of his brain was telling him to stop and turn back before he makes a fool of himself. But Spyro shook off every thought that came into his head, mustering enough courage to get closer to Cynder.
Once Spyro got close enough, he nervously tapped the black dragoness on the shoulder to get her attention. "Cynder?" he murmured, trying so hard not to stutter.
Cynder turned to look at the purple dragon, a surprised but happy look on her face. "Oh, hello Spyro! What are you doing here?" she wondered.
Spyro sat on his haunches as he rubbed his neck in a nervous manner. "I came to find you actually. There's something I want to tell you…" he replied, before he noticed that the dragon behind the market stall was staring at them. "Um… who's this?" Spyro asked in an awkward tone, not even looking at the dragon.
"Oh sorry, Spyro… this is Azar. Azar, this is Spyro." Cynder introduced the two dragons, waving her paw between the two of them so they know who's who.
Azar was around the same age as Spyro and Cynder, possibly a year younger than them. He was scrawnier compared to some of the other dragons that Spyro had seen, possibly because of his age. His red scales were darker than Ignitus' scales, ranging more on red rather than the lighter orange tone that the former Fire Guardian had. His underbelly was a mustard yellow that surprisingly complimented Azar's red scales. Something that piqued Spyro's interest was Azar's light orange horns, which were curved towards the top of his neck much like a ram. A little horn could also be seen on the tip of his nose.
"A pleasure to meet you." Azar spoke up.
"Same here." Spyro said, staring suspiciously at the young fire dragon. "You seem young, shouldn't you be in school or something?" he pointed out, his tone sounding much harsher than he intended.
"I'm home-schooled by my dad." Azar replied, returning Spyro's glare. "Why aren't you?"
"Spyro and I plan on enrolling next year." Cynder answered before Spyro could say anything else. "We wanted to get used to the city first, right Spyro?"
"Yeah." Spyro nodded, his glare reverting into a slight smile when he looked at Cynder. He then took a deep breath. "Listen Cynder, I really need to talk to you."
Cynder looked concerningly at Spyro. "Why? Is something wrong?" she queried.
Spyro was about to answer when his eyes flickered towards Azar then back to Cynder. "Can we go somewhere private first?"
Cynder nodded. "Sure." she then turned to Azar. "I'll see you later, Azar." she said with a smile. Seeing Cynder smile at the fire dragon caused Spyro's eye to twitch slightly, thankfully it went unnoticed by both Cynder and Azar.
"Bye Cynder!" Azar called out as Spyro and Cynder headed down the marketplace.
(-)
Spyro and Cynder headed away from the marketplace in the opposite direction for Spyro just in case Sparx tried to intervene. This was something just between him and Cynder and there was no way anyone was going to ruin it… besides from himself.
The two dragons stayed silent for most of the time that they were walking. Spyro thought of many conversation starters that he could've said but when he opened his mouth; nothing came out. It was as if Cynder's beauty had an effect on his vocal chords; maybe that was why he's been stuttering all over the place lately?
Eventually Spyro and Cynder went to an empty alleyway far from the marketplace, which would be considered the busiest place in Warfang at this time of day. Spyro frowned at the mere sight of the emptiness and uncleanliness of it, compared to some other streets in Warfang. It wasn't his ideal place to confess his feelings but it'll have to do.
"So… what is it that you wanted to tell me?" Cynder wondered, sitting on her haunches.
"Oh yeah… um… well…" Spyro started to explain, starting to get mentally frustrated that he wasn't speaking clearly again. "It's a little hard to explain…"
To Spyro's surprise, Cynder laid her paw on top of his. "Hey, take your time okay? You know you can talk to me…"
Spyro looked down at the ground, the times that he had to run away from Cynder flashing through his mind. Why couldn't he say it? Cynder was his friend, it wasn't like she was going to completely lash out on him. Just three words, why was that so hard?
Would she even have feelings for him? She was formerly known as the Terror of the Skies after all; she tried to kill him… three times. Plus, throughout all that time they were tied up together, Cynder would often snap at him. Spyro didn't know if it was because of the chains themselves or because of him.
All this was causing stress in Spyro's head. Come on, just tell her. Remember what Terrador said… he thought.
Cynder looked down to make eye contact with Spyro. "What's wrong, Spyro? You're not usually this quiet…"
Spyro looked up and met up with Cynder's emerald green eyes. "It's just… I've been wanting to tell you something for so long now and I've been rehearsing it in my head but now that I'm here… I suddenly can't say it."
Cynder went deep into thought as she tried to guess what's wrong with the purple dragon. Looking into his eyes, she finally spoke up.
"Spyro, do you like me? Cynder asked. "Is that it?"
"Well… of course I do but…"
Cynder rolled her eyes slightly. "I mean… like more than a friend?"
Spyro stayed silent for a moment until he answered. "Yes." he said with a nod.
Cynder didn't say anything, she simply just stared. Every part of Spyro started to go haywire: his palms were sweating, his heartbeat was chugging along quickly as if he was running the whole length of the Valley of Avalar. Spyro's heart skipped a beat when he saw Cynder look down at the ground.
"You didn't hear what I said, did you?" she said in a sad tone. "Back in the core after we defeated Malefor?"
Spyro froze, not expecting that answer from Cynder. "Cynder.. Did you..?"
Before Spyro could finish what he was saying, Cynder suddenly pulled him closer and locked her lips with his. Spyro's eyes widened from the suddenity of the kiss, his face immediately turned red before he closed his eyes and started to relax.
After a few seconds, the two dragons separated from their kiss. The two exchanged no words for a moment, they only smiled at one another as they stared into each other's eyes.
"I guess I know what you said now..." Spyro chuckled.
"Took you long enough, bonehead."
Spyro rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah… sorry about that."
"Don't worry about it, it was worth the wait…" Cynder said, going in for a nuzzle which Spyro happily returned.
"I love you." Spyro muttered into Cynder's ear.
"I love you too, purple boy." Cynder said with a smile.
Spyro's heart swelled as he and Cynder walked together with their tails intertwined together. After a long time burying his feelings for Cynder deep down, Spyro felt a huge weight being lifted from his shoulders. He was happy and now that he was together with his true love, he felt on top of the world.
And he had Terrador to thank for that.
Well, that's one of the oneshots I've got planned for this month done and dusted. As I said before, this was done as a challenge for the Spyro Fanfiction Discord server that I'm a part of. So maybe expect more of these in the future…
Anyway, this month I'll be working on the one-shot continuation of Crazy Little Thing Called Love called 'The One' which will be set three years in the future. Then next month I'll be starting the Crossover-Verse Trilogy with Convergence, so look out for that in the crossover archives!
A shout out to my fellow Spyro writer, SKdaGamer for beta-reading this story for me. Thanks a lot, dude.
This is TARDIS1039, signing off. Allons-y!