Because of a decision to re-log in and a certain Fanwing, I decided to write another chapter. I'm somewhat irrelevant now, but hey, why not right? Anywhoozle, on with the story. Also this is a very dialogue-heavy chapter, so beware and try to not get bored.
She stared intently at the door, refusing to tear her eyes away for a moment.
"You know you could go in, right Parraya?" Azalea cocked her head at the scarred Icewing, "I'm afraid you'll set the door on fire if you keep this up."
"Well he's sleeping still. I'd hate 'o wake him." The Icewing glanced over at her.
"I don't think you need to sit outside either. I don't think safety's an issue, and if it is, bring it up with-"
"Did someone call me?" Tarsier appeared behind Azalea, who winced.
"Speak of the devil," Azalea rolled her eyes
"Aw c'mon Lea, aren't you glad to see me? I'm finally back from that mission!" The male nudged her affectionately.
"Wait, you left?"
Parraya watched the couple bicker back and forth for a minute before injecting herself, "ANywho, I don' think security is an issue either, but YOU may wake him up with your constan' squabblin'."
(From this point forward, I'm not gonna write Parraya's accent, it's annoying to write out)
As if on cue, rattling could be heard within the room. Azalea moved toward the door, "Don't worry, I got it,"
Tarsier moved toward her, "Are you sure?"
Azalea rolled her eyes, "He's my kid isn't he?" She entered the room, shutting the door behind her.
The small dragonet was in the corner, rattling the bars of the toy container. Azalea approached him, but he immediately turned to her.
She jumped back as his eyes met hers. She took a deep breath and continued forward, "Are you ready to come out?"
He couldn't speak yet, but showed his affirmative by standing and walking towards the door (bruh I don't know how dragonets work I'm rusty let's pretend he's like, idk less than a year)
Azalea opened the door as he walked out. He hasn't spoken a word since he's been in his new home. But Parraya said that's normal, he's adjusting.
"Hey, Hyacinthus, come here." He turned to her, those unnerving blue eyes locking with hers. He didn't move any closer. He just watched as she reached for him, "Oh, uh ok. Nevermind." She expected him to want to be held, but she couldn't blame him.
He continued into the hallway, where Tarsier swept him up into his arms, "Hey kiddo! How'd you sleep?" Hyacinthus started to giggle as Tarsier tossed him up and down.
Azalea sidled next to Parraya as she watched her mate with their adopted son, "I swear he hates me. He never even smiles when I speak to him,"
Parraya giggled, "Dear, you are treating him like he's 3 or 4, but he's not even old enough to understand words. You forget he's a baby, he doesn't understand you. You need to understand him."
"But how? And how does he make it look so easy?" She narrowed her eyes at Tarsier, who was drawing circles in the dirt with the dragonet.
Parraya nudged her, "He grew up around other dragons and dragonets younger than him. He has some practice. You don't. Give yourself a break. You'll get it."
Azalea sighed, "I just don't want him to grow up not knowing me."
"Like that'll happen," Tarsier appeared next to them, Hyacinth under his arm, "You're not exactly easy to ignore. Parraya, can you watch him for a bit? I need to talk to Lea about something important."
"Uh, sure? We'll be in the courtyard. C'mon kiddo," Parraya waved her wing as he hopped over to her and they left.
"What's going on?" Azalea followed Tarsier into Hyacinth's room.
"So while I was gone, I was thinking-"
"Well that's dangerous." Azalea chuckled
"No, this is serious. How are we meant to raise this kid? What do we tell him?" He pinched the bridge of his snout.
"What are you talking about? What do you mean 'tell him'?"
"Azalea, our jobs are… complicated. Yes, we do a lot of humanitarian work but we still are assassins."
"Ok, so we tell him about our jobs? You're overcomplicating things. We can just be honest?" Azalea looked at him quizzically.
"Yeah, what a great idea: Tell the kid we're assassins, that'll be great for his development, learning his parents kill people." Tarsier rolled his eyes.
"Well then what should we tell him?"
"We are diplomats."
"Are you serious? That's your master plan? To lie?"
"Is it really a lie? We do other things."
"But that's part of who we ARE. That's how we know each other. I don't understand why we need to lie to him. I get being worried to bring up that part, but to completely lie about our whole job description? We have an important job keeping Pyrrihea from going back into war, and that REQUIRES death."
"So we should tell him? That his parents kill people? Do you have any better ideas?" Tarsier threw up his arms, exasperated
"The full truth?"
"Ugh. Listen, I love you, but I don't think that's the best approach. Can we at least wait till he's older? You know where this kid came from, I don't want him to think-"
"No, no, I get it." Azalea sighed, "We won't tell him. I don't like it, but I understood. We'll tell him when he's older." She sidled up next to him and put her wing around him, "I trust you. And I love you too."
He leaned his head into her, "Thank you Lea."
Oof. I am very rusty at writing. I'm gonna be very sporadic so I appreciate patience. Let me know if there's still demand for this story and I'll keep it going if I can! Thanks y'all for reading!