Chapter 26:
Stars and Secrets

Fortunately for OC (and the plot of this story), Hopekiller was too concerned with teaching to attack her just yet. He pulled out map and began explaining recent NightWing history with nuance and empathy that Webs, their actual teacher, could never match.

OC, of course, was too worried about her own precious, perfect, relatable life to listen to the lesson. She fidgeted for a few minutes, wishing with an aching heart that she could talk to Hotness. Then she came up with a brilliant, thought-out plan to escape the evil teacher's clutches.

She raised her wing and said, "Excuse me, sir!" Her mind relatably blanked on what the dragon equivalent "bathroom" was, since dragons don't really take baths (unless they're SeaWings - then I guess they're always taking baths). Did "restroom" work? She finally just said, "Can I, uh, take a... a personal break?"

Hopekiller stared at her with a mixture of evilness and confusion, trying to figure out what her weird euphemism meant. "Oh!" he hissed when he figured it out. "Yesssss, but make it fassssst." He muttered creepily to himself as he turned back to the board to continue lecturing.

OC used her beautiful, rainbow eyes to cast a meaningful glance at Hotness, Expendable, and Muddy. Hotness and Expendable both nodded back at her, but Muddy seemed to be legitimately engrossed in the history lesson. Instead of feeling frustrated by this, OC was relatably glad that her boring MudWing friend had found something to be passionate about.

Just a few seconds after OC had rushed out of class, Hotness, who she was very passionate about, joined her in the hall.

"OC," he said, his warm voice brimming with attractive worry, "what's going on?"

"I, uh, I..." OC stopped, relatably confused.

Had she told her friends about her secret mindreading powers yet? She had so many secret powers, it was hard to keep them all straight. They knew about her prophecy powers, of course, but did they know she was listening in on their innermost thoughts, violating their privacy at every second? Was she ready for the morally gray debate that would ensue if they found out?

The agony, the angst of it all - as well as the serious threat to her life, which she was also vaguely aware of, suddenly overcame her. Wilting like a beautiful but relatable flower, she fell into Hotness's wings. He gasped attractively and caught her, holding her so close that she could hear his heart pounding in his (literally) hot chest. "OC!" he cried. Scenes from his own tragic backstory flashed through his head. Scenes so tragic that they just had to be crucial to his whole character arc.

"Oh, Hotness," whispered OC, "I can't hide it from you any longer. It's time to tell you my secrets."

Hotness gasped again. This time he was so shocked that he dropped her.

"Oof!" OC hit the ground with a thud, her magical scales swirling in colors of confusion and fear. Can I trust him with my deepest, darkest secrets? With my love? she wondered. Then, gazing up into his dark, attractive eyes, she decided, I've known him for like three days. Of course I can!

Meanwhile, Hotness was thinking, She's so mysterious and powerful, and yet somehow shy and relatable. And she seems to be hurt like me. All that sadness and pain in her eyes... Oh, wait, that's probably just because I dropped her on the ground.

"Meet me on the roof tonight," she begged him. "When all the stars are shining." Then, remembering why she had fled the classroom in the first place, she added, "Also, I think Hopekiller wants to murder me, so I'm going to go hide for the rest of the day."

Their heartrending romance had distracted her from her own impending doom! She was just so relatably forgetful sometimes.

Hotness's jaw dropped. "Wait, what?"

He clearly wanted to come with her, to attractively protect her, but OC had already rushed off in a blur of beautiful, scintillating tears.


The roof of Jade Mountain Academy turned out not to be the best place to have a secret, dramatic rendezvous. The school's fantastical, vaguely gothic style had called for a bunch of towers and steeply-slanted sides, so there were few placed where OC and Hotness could land. Their meeting simply had to be on the roof, though. Where else could they stare up at the stars and then stare into each other's eyes and then feel their hearts connecting? And they had to have a good view, somewhere to gaze longingly off into as the scene wore on. This just had to be the place.

So, with their wings spread wide for balance, OC and Hotness perched precariously at the top of the school. There were, of course, no guards at all, which was deeply troubling for all of the vulnerable young students, some of which were royals with plenty of political enemies, but was great for OC and Hotness's personal privacy.

"Okay, Hotness," OC said shakily, her multi-colored eyes wet with tears again, "before I tell you this, I just want you to know that I..."

She trailed off dramatically, looking up at the stars and weeping.

"Wait, OC," Hotness interrupted. "Before you say what you want me to know before you tell me something, I just want you to know that I..."

He also trailed off dramatically, and also looked up at the stars and wept. It was incredibly attractive.

Then they turned back to each other, gazing deeply into each other's eyes. Their hearts and minds were perfectly in sync. Which, considering that OC could read his mind, was not that surprising. But it was still extremely romantic.

"I love you!" they both cried at the exact same time. They held each other's talons and twined tails, which are the closest that dragons can ever get to kissing, since they have no lips.

Whatever her secret is, thought Hotness, I don't care. I'll love her no matter what. From now on, all my character development will be tied her. This is a completely healthy model of a relationship!

Her love finally declared, OC let her crazy, shocking, completely unexpected secrets out. All of them. "Hotness," she whispered, "I'm an animus. Also, I can read minds. Also, I'm a hybrid from a secret tribe nobody's ever heard of. Also, I shipped Winter and Moon, and I never liked Peril; I think she's overrated. Also, I have a tragic backstory. It all began when I was just an egg, in the dark confines of the..."

"Hey!" came a sharp shout from above.

OC and Hotness sprang apart, both nearly falling of the roof in surprise, and a familiar flash of white landed between them.

It was Subzero, looking particularly irritated and thinking some very unromantic thoights. "Oh, grumbling glaciers," he growled, "you two aren't sharing tragic backstories, are you?"

"No!" OC cried, a little too quickly. "No, no, definitely not!"

"How did you find us?" Hotness exclaimed, attractively embarrassed.

Subzero rolled his eyes. "First of all, you two both shouted 'I love you!' at the top of you lungs. I think even the Ice Kingdom could hear that. I'm also your roommate, Hotness. I literally live with you."

"Oh." Hotness nodded. "Yeah. That makes sense."

"Anyway." Subzero shivered, desperate to get the image of OC and Hotness's sappy romantic scene out of his head. "While you two were doing... that, Muddy, Expendable, and I broke into Hopekiller's study and found a hit list. He's the killer. Obviously. Can we go kill him already?"

"Subzero -" OC was about to launch into a heroic, hopeful speech about how killing was wrong and friendship could surely save the day, but then a dramatic rush of darkness fell over her vision. She stumbled forward, her wings flapping wildly. Luckily, Hotness shoved Subzero off the roof and caught her, romantically saving her life. "A vision!" she cried as she fainted. "I'm having another vision! Oh, Hotness!"

The last things she heard before everything faded were Hotness calling out, "OC! I love you!" and Subzero groaning, "Great timing, Oceancurse."