Thanks for waiting! Hope you enjoy the new chapter

It was the second day of their vacation, and still the two dragons had not yet arrived at their destination. Compared to rushing around the continent on urgent missions to end a war, the change in pace was a welcome one for Glory. Traveling, wandering about with her least-favorite too-tantalizing NightWing bodyguard. Yesterday, they had slept together in the clearing, shamelessly sunning their scales until they lost sense of time.

The vacation was both a blur and a rush. Tree gliding, bathing under a waterfall, testing new exotic fruits and even catching themselves some unusual prey. Though she had spent two months in the Rainforest already, suddenly it – and the world – began to seem so vast. It proved better for her mood than a thousand suntimes, but a venomous thought still lingered in the back of her mind. Most of the time, she chose to ignore it.

As they pushed on through the rainforest in more noteworthy silence, Glory found herself distracted by the change of scenery. The clustered vines and claustrophobic canopies had opened up to knee-height flowering bushes, rocky outcrops, and patches of grass. It had rarely still occurred to her how muddied and busy the rainforest had felt. She sat down and ran a claw over some star-shaped violet flowers. "Hm. Nice to see something pretty around here."

Deathbringer's familiar shadow continued on until the assassin caught her words and rushed back. With a subtle yet undeniable grin, he butted in next to her snout. "What, my scales?" He didn't wait for her response before closing his eyes and bobbing his head in understanding. "I know, I shined them last night with you, remember?"

She blew some hot air at him then grumbled. "No, you idiot, the flowers."

"Flowers!?" He exclaimed. His expression didn't shift an inch. "This vacation must be doing more than I realized. Grumpy Queen Glory, getting an eye for the beauty of nature."

She was just so tired. Without thinking, she lunged at a response. "You don't have to be such an insolent jerk about it. You wanted me to take a breath and enjoy things. Well, here I am."

Deathbringer's snout dipped under hers as his flank brushed tenderly against the base of her wing. That stupid smile stared her right in the face. "And you're welcome for that."

If that was what he wanted of her, then why keep up his act? She had to duck away and take a step back. He didn't let her, nudging forward to keep himself on the verge of too-close. "It gets tiring sometimes, Deathbringer." He looked like he'd been hit by one of their paralysis darts. "Your attitude."

That look in his eyes bore a familiar guilt. A playful guilt, one that didn't do much to wipe the smirk off his snout. "Being so clever can have its downsides, right?"

This was absurd. She just wanted to enjoy a flower for once, a rare chance to be sentimental for two seconds.

"You aren't nearly as clever as you think," she said. Before he was able to get any words out of his open maw, she added, "and you aren't as smooth a talker either."

"You seemed to like my smooth talk yesterday, hmm?"

She couldn't tell how he felt, nor did she want to know. Frustrated, annoyed, she pushed the flowers aside and padded right past him. Unknown to her, her scales flickered through a range of colors, confused on what pattern to settle with.

"Glory?" He sounded worried.

"Deathbringer, you are…" Confounding? Absurd? Ridiculous? She believed all of those, but that wasn't what she wanted to say. The right words stubbornly hid from her. "You're fun, and I'll agree that you are clever."

She wasn't done yet, though. Her voice rose, and she stood tall in front of him. "Then sometimes you do this, and it gets hard to actually find a conversation anymore. I thought I would at least have Sunny around to talk to but it's impossible to get any time to myself with these 'Queen Glory' duties. I almost wish I left the RainWings alone."

Not even Glory herself knew whether she meant that. On one talon, there was her duty to them and her decision to prove she could have a real impact on this dysfunctional tribe, prophecy or not. On the other, the world out here was so different from the one she grew up with. She wished Deathbringer knew.

For once, the NightWing didn't seem to know what to do. There was always this glow in his eyes, something she connected to his tail-tying schemes. He looked down at his talons, riddling her with guilt. He spoke slowly and carefully. "I… I thought you needed someone to let some of that frustration out on, honestly. Aren't our chats fun for you?"

"Let out frustration?" She hadn't meant to show her long fangs with that, but she couldn't help that snarl. "Fun, sometimes, but hardly a 'chat,' Deathbringer. It's you desperately pining for my attention for hours and sometimes that's just as exhausting as managing those two tribes."

Her scales had flashed red. She wrangled them under control and took a step back, doing her best to keep a more stoic face.

"Pining?" He sounded terrified "I'm not desperate, am I?"

"You could definitely work on your cleverness, less you trip over your talons." A year ago, Glory would have stopped things there, but she couldn't stand to see this particular dragon so dejected. With a softer tone and nudge of her snout, she added, "it's nice, I just need a breath of fresh air."

Even with her reassurance, she wondered if she had pushed him away. I've always had a habit of that, haven't I? The other dragonets had understood, or at least they learned to understand.

Deathbringer had turned around. His wings drooped, his tail barely moved. He padded away, back towards that flowery bush and poked his claws at the ground for a few moments. She hoped that he would turn around and laugh, smack her with one of his moronic teases, and bring everything back to normal.

Was she stupid? If this changed things, she couldn't do this Queen nonsense alone. She needed someone like him with her. Since when have I felt like I needed another dragon? Let alone someone like him. For all the moments he could be so tiring, he was also fun, charismatic, and at least smart enough to recognize how screwed up everything about the last two decades was.

What if she lost that? She would be alone again.

It was a tense moment. The forest grew quiet, and she could hear her own heart racing.

Deathbringer soon dipped his snout in front of her, unable to meet her eyes. "I never meant for things to go that way, Glory. I respect you, and I like you."

She let out a sharp breath, though her expression remained stern. "But you were like this from the start."

"I meaaaan," he said, regaining some of both his glow and smile, "I respected you and liked you then, too."

A raise of her scaled brow and a gesture of her talon told him she wasn't convinced. "When I pretended to be an IceWing? When you wanted to kill me?"

She should have felt relief that he was finally not trying to invoke her ire just for his own smug satisfaction. Instead, she couldn't stop from pushing now that he seemed to finally want to give some answers.

He thought for a moment. That pause, as subtle as it was, encouraged her. "Well, no. I respected that you spoke your mind. That you had actual opinions and fire, unlike every other dragon out there. I respected that you thought there could be a better answer than us all killing each other back and forth for 20 years. Of course, I thought that too, but no one else listened."

Was she really all that to him? She couldn't help how stupid so many of the other dragons were. She didn't grow up in one of the tribes, she didn't get stuck with this war, even if it was a part of their life from when they hatched. It was always just an idea, something crazy with the madness-stricken world that they were supposed to solve.

She narrowed her eyes. "You shouldn't forget your role in that. You were an assassin, dragging it all along. You know, killing the leaders when they got too much of an advantage."

"My role… that's not the point, Glory. I wanted to do better, I even tried to do better, but I was in over my head. Someone else would have had that role if not me."

Why did it have to be me to change things? She thought. A dragon didn't have to be worth their weight in gold to decide that things had carried on too far. Though, she didn't exactly choose all this herself, did she? That inane prophecy unfortunately had a hand. So, maybe, just maybe, she could understand.

She relented, relaxing some of tension, giving him a weakened smile. "I don't blame you." Deathbringer, as she spoke, stepped forward and placed his talons of hers. She felt something on her palm. "What's this?"

A flower? When had he picked that?

"You said they were pretty." Was he blushing!? She swore he was.

She tried to keep her chuckle graceful until she wheezed. "Deathbringer… you're such a hopeless romantic."

With a flutter of his wings, he shuffled his claws awkwardly. "Ahaha, I try, you know."

She had never seen him like this. Even when freeing him from his cage, he had never appeared so… vulnerable. Beside him, she felt taller and more confident now, enough to give him an encouraging, affectionate nuzzle. "Sometimes too hard."

"Sorry, by the way." He looked back at her, touching his snout to hers. Unsure, not wanting to push him away, she returned the gesture. After he broke away, he said "I didn't realize how much I was bothering you earlier."

"No, no, it's not you." It was. At least, it was partially his fault. Everything traced back to him, but he was always a bastion of common sense (ironic, given his lack thereof) compared to those excessively complacent RainWings.

"What is it?" He perked up, peeking close. "You can share with me, Glory. We're in this together, you know."

She sighed, rubbing at a faint ache near her frill. "I have too much in my head. I wandered in on hundreds of years of mistakes for both NightWings and RainWings. This kind of job was always someone else's problem." She rolled her eyes. "Only the moons would know why Tsunami dreamed of wrangling petulant dragons together all day. I never wanted to be a Queen."

Deathbringer brought back a sly grin. "I never had dreams of loving one."

"You… what!?"

The shock took what felt like days to wear off. They stared at each other, and soon that flustered look returned a red-hot embarrassment onto the NightWing's dark scales.

Glory wasn't sure what to do with him. Moons, she wasn't sure how to process that herself. It wasn't that drastic of a leap, she rationalized, to state it outright after everything. Although, this was different than earlier, and any outrage refused to simmer back up.

He took a cautious step backward, like she had caught a cold. "Ahhh, sorry. Too much? I may have been wanting to say that for a while now."

"I'm not sure…" She wanted to give him those three words and embrace him right back.

Had she ever considered Deathbringer's attitude towards her something she could love? I mean, I could do so much worse… he was clever, frustratingly so. He was handsome, for a NightWing and wiser than he seemed. Still, did she love him? She didn't know.

She realized soon that she had left this awkward silence between the two. "Too much. For now."

He hung his head. "Sorry."

Wait… no, that had to be the wrong answer. It was how she felt, but maybe she felt wrong.

"It is too much to handle alone, so I'm glad I have you by my side." Guilt racked her until she swallowed some of her own pride and jabbed a claw at his shoulder. "If only you wouldn't be such a prat about it. This all didn't come with a manual, and I'm tearing down hundreds of years of history for both tribes in trying to figure it all out. And to figure out… us."

Her teasing tone brought some life back into him. "You're doing amazing though, Glory," he said. They were close again, and she could feel his breath on her neck. "I promise. I joke around a lot, it's just how I am, but I trust you more than anyone."

Instinctively, she tensed up at how close he was. She felt trapped – until she found a way to properly admonish him for his wealth of compliments. "You give me too much credit. Half the plan was because of Sunny."

"Oh?" He playfully batted her with the tip of his tail. "I don't see her being Queen of two tribes, do you?"

"Yes, I'm abundantly aware of this colossal responsibility weighting down my wings. Thanks." Sunny, she had learned, had nothing but good ideas and fiery compassion in that head of hers. Respectable, but not enough to handle being Queen.

"Not like that! Talons and tails, Glory, since when did you doubt yourself this much?"

"I don't doubt myself," she responded sharply then sighed. "With all your staring, I'm surprised you never realized how difficult this is. For anyone."

Deathbringer pressed his snout back against hers. "I did realize." They leaned in closer, snouts bumping together.

For a long moment, neither said a word. Together, with the sounds of the rainforest behind them, they simply waited. Streams trickled in the background, creatures chirped and chittered, birds sung. It was so peaceful here with him. She couldn't stay angry at Deathbringer. She could hold a grudge and fume for days, but Deathbringer made it all dissolve away.

They were here now. She was glad the last two months had brought them this far. Deathbringer wasn't stuck as a pawn in a war, she wasn't some lost dragonet hitched into a poorly manufactured prophecy. If anything, there was less responsibility on her shoulders. She could make any choice she wanted to, and she was certain he would be there to interrogate her about it. That made her feel warm all over without needing a hammock in the sun.

Deathbringer eventually pulled back and tilted his snout alongside a gesture she didn't understand. Once she dipped her head in agreement, his tongue flicked over her cheek. Her scales flushed pink. "Here, let's take a nap, enjoy some Suntime. It's midday, right?"

Stumbling for her words, she relished the chance to latch back onto an assertive tone. "Changing the topic?"

"Yep. I did see how exhausted this made you, I just didn't notice I failed in supporting you enough." She could tell he meant it. "Either way, vacation! We should be at the coast by tonight, I want to see it with you before sunset."

Oh, he was just a sap, wasn't he? Wanting to catch her down at the ocean as the sun set just to make his moves? Fortunately, she wasn't some lovestruck dragonet, like a mushy sponge in his claws. "I won't be letting you off the hook that easily," she warned, stepping on his talons with enough weight to make her point. "Perhaps I'll have to nag you back for all the times you've bothered me."

He laughed. "Heh, I deserve it."

Once they found a quiet, sunlit spot beyond the trees, Glory curled up against her larger bodyguard. Together, they drifted off to sleep.