Flame hefted a squirming Chromis under his wing and pointed a talon at the firescales dragon. "You!" he yelled in a mix of shock, confusion, recognition, and a little fear. It was a very loaded 'you'.

"Don't you 'you' me," Peril shot back and pointed her talon at him. "I'm 'you-ing' you!" Peril blinked a few times and then whispered to the small dragonet at her side, "Wait, who is this?"

"Who is this?!" Flame repeated with outrage. He lowered his talon and lifted his chin, trying to hide his wounded ego. "You don't remember me?! I was harassed by you and the rest of that Jade Winglet back at the Academy. You forgot me?"

"I didn't forget you!" Peril sat back and swished her tail aggressively. "I just forgot your name, that's all. You can't expect me to remember stuff like that! I'm busy remembering other important stuff and that was, like, a year ago so don't get all yelly shouty at me. Besides," she glanced at Umber, "I forgot his name, too."

"It's Umber," Umber said pleasantly as if she had asked him how the weather was.

"And this is Flam," Chromis supplied and patted Flame's arm proudly.

"Yeah, I'm Flam – shit – Flame! I meant Flame."

Peril snorted and Flame glared, but then stopped himself once he realized that, one, Peril was immune to glares and, two, glaring at a firescales dragon was not a very good self-preservation choice.

"Did you hear me sing, Flam?" Chromis suddenly asked, obviously bored with the conversation that wasn't about him. "I is good?"

Flame reflected on this, remembering what had propelled him up the stairs in the first place. "You mean the screaming?"

"Singing!" Chromis and, surprisingly, Cliff said at the same time.

The prince of the SkyWings flared his wings out dramatically. "We were practicing a duet I wrote all by myself." His eyes brightened and he said, "Wanna hear us sing it?"

"NO!" Peril stood up like a startled bird, a layer of smoke peeling off her scales. "I mean – no thanks. It's not that I didn't LOVE listening to you two sing for the past hour but the song is just… so good. Yeah, it's TOO good. If I listen to it anymore I'll probably explode and die and get guts all over the place and that would be yuck."

Cliff seemed to give this due consideration. "Hm. OK. No explosioning would be best I think." And with that they were all spared an explosioning by song, which suited Flame just fine.

"Well, thanks for watching my brother or…whatever the hell was going on here," Flame said and began to push Chromis gently towards the exit. "Wish I could stay and chat but… I really don't want to. Come on, you two, let's go," he said to Umber and Chromis.

But Umber and Chromis stayed firmly rooted in place.

"Noooooo!" Chromis wailed and flung himself on the ground. "I don't wanna go! I wanna play with Cliff and sing and jump on Queen Ruby's bed again!"

"And I want to ask Peril about Clay," Umber said. "She sees him more often than I do, and he's kind of terrible and remembering to reply to my letters."

"Clay?" Peril perked. Carefully she glided down to the lower level and Flame felt the temperature of the air around him spike. "Yeah. Sure. I can talk about Clay. In a normal way. I'm guessing that means you don't want to hear about his beautiful eyes and sweet smile and how good his hugs are. You probably want to hear stuff like, what he eats for breakfast or how he almost caught a moose once but then got distracted by a goat and caught neither and cried about it…or maybe I should just let you ask the questions."

Umber let out a genuine laugh. "I mean, you can tell me whatever you want. How are his eyes?"

"Dreamy," Peril supplied wistfully. "Thanks for asking. Also one time I was worried that he needed reading glasses because he kept squinting at a scroll for what felt like FOREVER but it turns out he was just trying to spell 'gorgeous' so it was fine all along.

Flame began to zone out of the conversation. He wrapped his tail around his talons to prevent it from lashing in irritation. He didn't want to be an impatient jerk if Umber wanted to stay and talk, but of all the dragons Umber could choose to chit chat with, why did it have to be Peril?

Flame didn't hate Peril, at least not anymore, but that was the problem. Hate was one of those emotions that you didn't need to think about or wonder about or even question. It made things simple, and now that Flame no longer hated Peril, it made things more complicated, which made him annoyed. Even worse, ever since he had been confronted by Peril and the rest of Umber's friends a year ago, he found himself relating to Peril. He knew Peril felt this way too and that made everything suck even more because it just made them both embarrassed. It was like sharing the worst secret ever with the person you least wanted to share it with.

A yelp from behind pulled Flame out of his thoughts. He quickly spun around to see Cliff and Chromis wrestling on the floor, or more specifically, he saw that Chromis had the Prince of the SkyWings caught in a pretty vicious looking headlock. Say what you will about his little brother's stubby legs, but they were muscular stubby legs.

Flame quickly stuck a talon between them and pried his brother off the red dragon. The small hybrid whirled towards Flame. "Hey! Why you do that? I was winning!"

"No!" Cliff gasped from the floor. He wobbled back to his feet. "I was winning."

"Nuh-uh!"

"Yeah-huh!"

The two dragonets collided with each other again in what would have been a gory claw-gouging grapple between two grown dragons, but at this age there was just a lot of slapping. Normally Flame wouldn't have been such a tight-ass about his brother scuffling with another dragonet, but this was the Prince for Moons' sake. He had already thought his brother had been arrested once today and he didn't want to make it a reality. In fact, he was done taking chances. He wanted Chromis back in his room safely, and he wanted him there thirty minutes ago.

He pulled the two apart again and this time kept his talon gently pressed against Chromis' chest.

"Chro, we should go back to my place. Mother won't like that you've been running around the palace without me – which, uh, we shouldn't tell her about.

"Aaaarrgg!" Chromis growled and began to stomp his talons in what Flame knew be to be first warning signs of a tantrum. "But me is having FUN. Me don't WANT to go ANYWHERE!"

"I don't want him to go either!" Cliff had little pillars of smoke curling from his nose. A few paces away he heard Peril and Umber's conversation fall away as the dragonets' whines picked up volume.

Flame forced his rising frustration down with a firm mental shove. Now that he knew Chromis was safe, the hours of tight muscled panic began to decompose into weariness that sunk into his scales like rot in wood. Not only did he feel the blunt ache of exhaustion pressing into the backs of his eyes, but it was chipping away at his already low patience level. He sighed, which wasn't the sound he wanted to make but he figured Peril would have burned his face off if he had cussed in front of two dragonets.

"Well, we don't have to leave right away, do we?" Umber asked. He looked at the two dragonets with amusement. "Besides, Chormis is having way more fun with Cliff that he ever would have had with us."

Chromis nodded and Flame frowned. "What? But – but I'm great at dragonet-sitting! I had this whole day planned out and everything and – "

Umber held his talons up to halt Flame's tumbling montage. "I'm not saying you're not. You're a great older brother, but trust me, nothing beats having someone your own age to play with." The MudWing got a wistful look on his face and Flame wondered if he was thinking of his sibs.

In Flame's opinion, the opposite was true. Growing up in the Talons of Peace camp, the only other dragonets his age had been the false dragonets, and they had made him miserable. To be fair, he probably made them miserable as well. He could admit that now, painfully. He pinched his forked touch between his fangs and, for the first time in a while, thought about Viper.

She had been the closest he had come to a best friend.

He didn't want to think about her right now. He looked down at his brother who had dropped the angry, whining act and was now looking up at him with big, wobbly eyes and talons clasped together in a begging formation.

Flame growled and looked out the window at the sun, gauging time. "Ugh. Fine. We'll stay for another half an hour, and that's it!"

Chromis cheered as if Flame had just revealed a hidden doorway to a room filled with endless chocolate. He wrapped himself around Flame's arm in a hug. "Thank you thank you thank you I love you!" he gasped in all one breath. "And when we done play, Cliff can come over and make cookies with us?"

"Yeah!" Cliff said.

"Wait, I never said – "

The two didn't wait for an answer. They ran off towards a pile of cushions and began building a fort.

Flame sat silently stumped for a moment as an image began to take shape in his mind: Chromis in the kitchen as he made cookies – he could handle that, so long as Umber was there. Cliff in the kitchen with him – less than ideal, he'd rather not. Chormis AND Cliff in the kitchen with him – oh no.

"Hmm, cookies," Umber said. "Can we make those chocolate ones? With the macadamia nuts? Those are good… OH WAIT, I also like those soft chewy ginger flavored ones… and I also like those maple ones with the pecans… and those – "

"Okay, we get it! You love cookies," Peril exclaimed, though her tone was light. In fact, she even smiled at Umber, her sharp blue eyes sparkling with a bubbly mirth that Flame had never seen in them before. "Clay loves cookies too, it's like you two are related or something."

For the briefest of moments, Peril met Flame's eyes and they exchanged a mischievous look – it was the kind of look that can only be shared between two dragons who are dating adorable MudWings.

It occurred to Flame then that the similarities between him and Peril were really stacking up.

"Yeah… I suppose I do," Umber agreed, then shot a tender smile at Flame. "Especially when Flame makes them. His food is soooo good."

Flame tried to keep his stern expression in place, but felt it slipping off under Umber's attention. He smiled and tried to hide the flush on his scales by turning his head away and shrugging. "I just follow the recipe. It's nothing special."

"No way!" Umber insisted passionately. "You definitely do something special to them, I just know it. Peril, you have to try them."

The firescales dragon cocked her head to the side, her expression skeptical. "Hmm, maybe. I'm sure they're great cookies or whatever, but it would be wasted on me. They'd just turn to ash before I could taste them."

Umber thought for a moment. "What if we threw them at you and – "

"No!" Peril flared her wings and Umber flinched back a bit. "No no no. Turtle already tried that and I ended up getting hit in the face with a fish. No throwing."

Umber took another moment to think. "Alright, what about if I took a pair of tongs and held the cookie to your mouth and you ate it that way?"

"You are not using my good tongs!" Flame said. "Those things don't come cheap and she'll make them all melty."

Peril glared at him, no more MudWing boyfriend bonding moment. "Maybe I'll make YOU all melty! Wait I'm not supposed to say that….uh… I'll melt your – um – ARRRGH I can't threaten to melt ANYTHING without sounding all CRAZY!"

"We'll put the tong idea to the side for now," Umber quickly said while he fanned away the clouds of smoke wafting from Peril's scales. "Because I had this other idea that involves a piece of string and a really long stick…"

Umber's explanation faded from his ears as a thought came to him. Peril….was going to be in his kitchen. Worse still, Peril was going to be in his apartment! He had things in his apartment that were flammable. With a horror most profound he imagined his pristine collection of graphicolls going up in flames.

For the remainder of the thirty minutes, Umber continued to explain various ways to get a cookie in Peril's mouth while Flame figured out how he was going to prevent his apartment from being incinerated.

As promised, half an hour later Flame told Chromis to get his scales moving as they were going home, and everyone took this as an invitation to join. Apparently you didn't argue when the Prince of the SkyWings said he wanted to go to your apartment to make cookies.

They took to the sky with Flame in the lead, or rather, trying to be in the lead. Peril kept flying ahead of him which forced him to faster which then forced her to fly faster until they both had to turn around because they had left Umber and the dragonets far behind.

Normally Flame would have just taken a short cut through the palace, but with such a large group that also included the world's most combustible dragon, he decided against the short-cut.

Later, Flame would wish they had just taken their chances and gone through the palace. He would wonder if everything would have been easier had he made a different choice, but for the moment he was glad to feel the wind skimming along his scales; happier still to now have his brother safe and sound. Or, safe-ish and sound-ish. Peril was still a fire hazard after all.

They had just descended past the thick cloud layer when Flame saw Umber bank towards him.

"Flame! I think I see Jet. She's flying below us!"

Flame followed the trajectory of Umber's pointed talon and saw a red dragon flying close to the mountain's sides. It was hard to see facial features at this distance, but Jet was pretty easy to spot. She had those distinctive black ribbons of scales down her neck, and indeed, the dragon below them had those exact marks.

Flame would have been happy to just let Jet go about her business, but Umber cupped his talons to his mouth and shouted her name. It bounced along the mountain walls and startled Jet, who nearly collided with a bush hanging from the mountain.

Once she was safely away from the offending bush she turned around and approached the group.

"There you are!" she said by way of greeting. "I was looking for you!"

"Why?" Flame asked a bit sharply. "Is something wrong?"

Jet hovered in the air to speak and the other dragons copied her, the beating of so many wings creating a weak wind tunnel with each wingbeat. "Well that's what I'm asking you," she explained. "Did the letter work? Did you find…" her sentence cut off when she saw the little hybrid dragonet flapping furiously beside Flame. "Chromis!" Jet shouted in delight. "I can't believe the letter worked! I mean, I was pretty sure it would work. Like, 50% sure. Hmm, OK maybe more like a 40% probability of success."

"What's a probabitally?" Cliff asked.

Jet turned to answer the question, but then did a double take at the young SkyWing as if he had just appeared out of thin air. She then seemed to notice Peril, who waved politely, wisps of fire dancing off her claws. Jet's wings stilled for moment and she dropped in the air, but quickly caught herself.

"Holy thunderbolts! That's Prince Cliff! And you're Peril. The Peril!"

The Peril seemed neither happy nor pleased to be recognized. Flame supposed she was used to being recognized, though that probably hadn't always been a good thing. Maybe it still wasn't.

"And I'm tired!" Chromis added. The small dragonet was flapping hard and looking worse for it. He may have had good strangling arms but his wings were no match for Cliff's.

Flame spotted a small outcrop near the bottom of the mountain and led a panting Chromis there to rest. The others followed, though when they landed on the ridge Peril took a spot further away from the group and eyed Jet, and some nearby shrubs, with warry hesitation. Jet was not helping the matter since she kept looking at Peril with a huge, delighted grin on her face.

"This is so amazing! I've heard about you, well, obviously, who hasn't, but now I'm actually seeing you!" Jet was practically bouncing on her talons. Peril didn't seem to know what to do with all this positive attention, though Flame noticed her wings had relaxed a bit.

Jet glanced at Flame and Umber. "This is so cool! It almost makes up for all the trouble you nearly got me into."

Flame snorted. "What are you even talking about?"

Jet delighted grin turned into a scowl. "Flame, when I helped you sneak into my mother's office I told you to not leave any evidence behind. Remember that? Because the place was a MESS!"

The memory of that disastrous stealth mission washed over Flame. He exchanged a guilty look with Umber.

"We're sorry, Jet," Umber mumbled.

"I almost had to pretend to faint all over again just to keep her from noticing. Luckily she didn't need to look at any of her documents, but I'm going to have to do overtime just to fix everything before tomorrow morning."

Flame usually liked to give Jet a hard time, but right now he felt that the chiding was deserved. "It was harder than we thought it would be. Sorry. Really."

She huffed out a cloud of smoke. "I hope you at least destroyed the evidence." At their blank stares she clarified. "The letter!"

"Oh!" Umber took out the letter from under his wing. He had been alternatively holding it in his claws or tucking it under his wing as needed. "Uhm….no we still have it."

Jet tsked at them. "Amateurs. Hand it to Peril and that should be that."

Peril perked in that way that dragons do when they aren't paying attention and suddenly hear their name. "Huh? What? Me? What do you want me to do?"

Jet wiggled her talons at the letter and Umber passed it to he, which Jet then passed to Peril. Or rather, set it on the ground a foot from Peril then backed away. "Could you please destroy that?"

"Sure!" Peril said with maybe a smidge too much enthusiasm. Before her talons could even make contact with the scroll, the paper caught fire in a glorious burst of heat and light. Chromis and Cliff oohed and aahed loudly, and Jet did the same but under her breath.

When the letter was nothing more than a sad pile of ash on the ground, Jet finally seemed to relax.

"We really are sorry for causing so much trouble," Umber apologized again and then smiled. "Would it help if I told you I overheard Eskar and Starfish in the stairwell right after we left your mother's office?"

Jet's eyes lit up like a burning scroll. "For real? Oh my Moons', I knew something had must have happened when he showed up to the meeting with Eskar! Did something romantic happen?"

Umber nodded excitedly. "Oh yeah, and it's super juicy too."

"Ahem, excuse me," Peril butted in, "who are these dragons and why should I care? Also, did someone mention pretending to faint or did I just imagine that?"

Before Flame could even attempt to explain the course of events that had led to Jet pretending to collapse on the floor as a distraction, he felt two small talons pulling on his wing.

"Flaaaaaam," Chromis whined and shook Flame's wing as if he were shaking out a blanket, "I want cookies! You said we would have cookies."

"Yeah," Cliff joined in. "Can we go to the cookie party now?"

"You can tell me about Eskar and Starfish later," Jet said to Umber, who nodded sagely in response. "And…what's this about a cookie party?"

"There's no party," Flame insisted, dropping his tone to insure everyone knew he was serious. "There never was one, and there will never be one, and if anyone shows up to my place thinking they can just waltz into my apartment and loiter around like they own the place, then I will personally bite them."

"It's gonna be the most bestest party ever!" Chromis squeaked, completely undermining Flame's authority. "There will be cookies and candy and games and Peril and more fire!"

Jet looked at Flame, surprised. "I didn't think you would be the sort to throw parties."

"I'm not!" he insisted again.

"It's not a party," Umber clarified in his soft voice. "We just thought we'd invite Cliff and Peril over since Cliff and Chromis are getting along so well."

As if to demonstrate their getting-along abilities, Cliff tackled Chromis and the two began grappling on the ground. Flame nodded in approval; he knew true friendship when he saw it.

"We should go," Flame said to the group, "the sooner I get Chromis back to my room the better."

"And the sooner we get cookies!" Cliff said, once again in a headlock.

Jet looked worriedly at the little prince, probably hoping she wasn't watching him suffocate to death. "OK I guess I'll be on my way, but save a cookie for me and Sora."

Umber's face went aglow with joy. "Sora's back?"

"Yep! She literally just showed up before I came looking for you two. I think she's speaking with Zephyr now down in the garden."

Flame tried to remember what Umber had told him about Sora's absence. Apparently, Sora had been summoned by Queen Moorhen and had returned to the Mud Kingdom for a few days. Umber had desperately wanted to go with her, but Sora had insisted Umber stay here, telling him that their other sibs would be there to support her if needed. Sora had only been gone a few days, and during this time Umber had been doing a good job at pretending not to worry, but Flame knew Umber better than that, which is why he didn't even have to look at his boyfriend to know what he needed to do.

"OK fine, Umber and I will go find Sora and SHE is allowed to join us for some cookies," Flame stated, then added sharply, "but no one else! Everyone else wait here until we come back."

Which is how Flame found himself on his way to the gardens with Peril, Umber, Jet, Chromis, and Cliff.

As they approached the Healing Center, Umber flew in beside Peril, though he still kept a safe gap between them. "You OK with flying down with us, Peril? There will be a lot of dragons there; I don't want you to feel stressed."

Even though Umber was talking to Peril, Flame's heart began feeling all oozy and mushy with warmth. Umber was such a sweetheart.

"The gardens should be spacious enough. You won't have to worry about getting crowded in or anything," Jet cut in, swooping over them. "But it's up to you."

"I've actually never been down to the Healing Center before," Peril admitted as they altered their course to fly towards the facility. "I kinda figured they didn't want me down there because of, you know, the whole AAAH SCARY DRAGON thing that might ruin the whole healing vibe they have going on. And… I guess I just worry about, you know, if there are some dragons down there who knew me from my arena days. I just - I just don't want to bother anyone."

Peril looked abnormally subdued as she spoke; maybe even a little nervous. It took a moment for Flame to recognize the emotions hidden in her clenched jaw and unfocused eyes. Unlike the others, he could see it because he had felt those very same emotions before. It was exactly what he had felt when he had returned to Jade Mountain Academy. That feeling of stomach twisting dread and shame that comes with confronting those you had hurt when you had been at your lowest point. He hated seeing that look, even if it was on another dragon's face.

"So uh, look…" Flame began, speaking loud enough for Peril to hear him, "…don't quote me on this or anything because it could be complete bullshit, but word spreads pretty quickly around the Healing Center when a new dragon shows up, and in the whole year that I've been there I've never heard of anyone who had been in the arena, so I'd say you're fine." He thought for a moment and then added, "And if someone doesn't want you there then screw 'em. If they don't like it then that's their problem."

"I think it's a bit more nuanced then that," Jet said with a stern look at Flame, "But I know my mother would still want you to feel welcomed there, Peril." Jet flipped in the air so that she could give Peril a smile.

Peril was silent for a moment, and then said, "Alright, I'll go down with you… but if anyone starts screaming at me then I'm gone."

"Fair enough," Flame answered.

As they drew closer to the gardens the sweet aroma of the flowers and upturned soil reached them first. Shortly afterwards the green carpet of the gardens came into sight, adorned with swirling beds of dahlias that were preparing to bloom in the late summer sun.

Umber was the first to spot Sora. She was sitting next to the stone walkway, close to the fountain that Flame and Umber had inspected earlier that day while searching for Chromis. She was speaking solemnly with Zephyr and Eskar, but when Umber called out his sister's name the group of dragons stopped their murmuring.

Sora broke into a wide smile as if she hadn't seen her brother in years. The process of landing was made a bit difficult as Umber dropped right in front of Sora to give her a hug; Jet landed by her mother and pointed at Peril and began to speak quickly while Peril decided the safest bet was to seat herself on the stone path. Cliff and Chromis landed awkwardly on the grass and Chromis immediately began to head towards the fountain again. Flame put a stop to that right away by landing in Chormis' path and directing him back towards the group of adults.

Flame stood a bit apart from the gathering of dragons, but his eyes immediately found Umber's shape in the crowd. He was speaking with Sora, a sober expression on his face. His forehead was so creased in thought that it looked like a row of tally marks you would find on the wall of a prison cell; one line for each problem he was thinking about. Flame couldn't make out what the sibs were saying since Jet's booming voice overpowered everything within a five mile radius. The black-striped SkyWing was excitedly introducing Zephyr to a rather nervous looking Peril.

Flame inched closer to the other SkyWings and got within earshot just in time to hear Zephyr's soft voice say, "It's nice to meet you, Peril. I've heard a lot about you."

Peril held her wings in tight against her body, her back hunching over in an effort to make herself as small as possible. "Oh…OK well I don't know what you heard but I promise I'm not evil and I don't want to cause any problems here and I'm trying really hard to not destroy anything on purpose but sometimes things just burst into flames if they get to close to me and dragons also remember me from when I was in the arena and they start screaming and it makes things awkward and – "

"Not to worry," Zephyr gently put a stop to Peril's ramblings. "You are welcomed here, and of course I know you're not evil. Sorry, I should have been more specific and said that I've heard a lot of good things about you. Queen Ruby has nothing but praise for you. "

Peril sat straight, her blue eyes narrowed. "Really? Praise? For me? I mean – yes, of course she does. I only helped saved the whole kingdom, that's all."

This got a laugh from Zephyr. "Yes Peril, she had nothing but good things to say. We're both very impressed with you, but not just because of your service to the kingdom. Ruby has told me what it was like to grow up with Scarlet as a parental figure; I can only imagine the kind of mind games she must have put you through. It's hard enough to deal with that kind of manipulation from strangers, let alone from someone who convinces you it's out of love."

Peril shuffled her wings and resettled herself on the stone pathway. She looked a little like a bewildered bird. "I – yeah I guess it's pretty hard. Was hard, I mean. I'm doing great now, though! Never better! All I had to do was realize how evil she was and then destroy an enchanted necklace and then help kill her and the problem was solved." Peril gave a little self-satisfied smile. "Not a big deal, really."

"Oh, I think it is a big deal," Zephyr said. The matron leaned a bit closer to Peril, probably out of friendly habit. If the heat bothered her she didn't show. "It takes a lot of courage to stand up to those who have hurt us. You should be immensely proud of yourself, but should you ever feel the need for more help, or even just talk to someone, my doors are always opened to you."

The temperature around Peril spiked, making the mildly warm mountain weather feel more like high noon in the Kingdom of Sand. Flame tried to hide a smile as Peril fiend disinterest, but Flame knew better. If Zephyr had a super power, it would be demolishing the inner walls that dragons build around their deepest emotions. Would that be a kind of telepathy? Flame would have to think about it later.

"I – uh, I'll think about it. Maybe," Peril mumbled, "I mean – I'm usually at the academy and only really come back here a few times a month. Plus, when I am here my time always gets sucked up by a certain little SkyWing prince that needs to follow me around all the time and be watched, so you're going to have to book way in advance for a chance to see me."

A jolt went through Flame. He was also supposed to be watching someone. Flame whipped his neck around so fast he heard one of his vertebrae crack. Turns out all that trashing had been unnecessary. He saw Chromis a short distance away speaking with Starfish and Eskar. Flame decided he should be doing a better job at this 'watching a child thing' and went over to sit with his brother.

At the same time he saw some other dragons approaching Starfish from the opposite direction. Flame's quick trot slowed into a reluctant stagger. It was Sunny and Tsunami approaching, and tagging behind them was Stonemover.

The four dragons reached Starfish at the same time. Flame felt a little smug satisfaction when SeaWing healer smiled at Flame first.

"I'm glad to see you found your brother!" he said, gesturing to the little blue dragonet at their talons. "And he's certainly full of stories…he was just telling me there are going to be cookies, is this true?"

"Uh," Flame stammered but couldn't come up with a convincing lie, "yes?"

"YES!" Chromis decided for him. "There are gonna be a hundred BILLION cookies and maybe some appley juice maybe."

The little hybrid looked up at Flame for confirmation and Flame shrugged and said, "Sure, why not."

"OH MY GOSH!" Sunny materialized beside Flame, her excitement like a bomb of confetti detonating by his ear. She looked down at the little dragonet as if his adorableness was melting her brain. "Is this your baby brother? He's soooo cute!"

"Me not baby!" the baby insisted. To prove his point he spread his wings as wide as possible as if saying See? Would a baby be this big? I don't think so, ma'am.

Sunny smiled, obviously trying to hide her laugh. "Oh yes, I see now. Sorry, no baby here. My mistake."

Chromis gracefully accepted the apology with a nod.

Tsunami inspected his brother with interest. "I didn't know your brother was part SeaWing. Nice."

"And what is this I hear about cookies?" Stonemover asked. His deep voice piqued with curiosity. "You always do make the best cookies, Flame."

Damn it. Flame couldn't resist the sincere kindness in the NightWing's eyes. It made it impossible to be rude around him, and he had REALLY been hoping to rudely tell Tsunami and Sunny that there were no cookies for them. But THAT plan had been ruined thanks to that NightWing and his evilly nice complements.

Flame sighed; resigning himself to the grave he knew he was digging for himself.

"It's an informal thing really," Flame started with all the reluctance of a dragonet eating steamed broccoli. "You probably wouldn't be interested; it'll be super boring and miserable and also Peril might burn the place down which would suck."

"Great, so what time should we show up?" Tsunami asked, genuine excitement pulling her smile wider. She was giving off a lot less aggressive energy right now. That surprised Flame. He had been hoping that Tsunami would maybe be put off with the idea of hanging out near Peril. He didn't know the intricacies of their relationship but he always had the sense that they weren't BFFs.

Maybe Zephyr had worked her magic superpowers on Tsunami too.

"It won't be till much later. Waaaay late, in fact. You guys probably have to get back to the academy and all, and I still have to do all the cooking and, now that I think of it, I should really clean my apartment so that's going to take a while…" he let the sentence fall away in hopes that they would catch his drift. They did not.

Sunny waved off his concerns. "Oh, don't worry about rushing. We're not going anywhere for a while; I still need to catch up with my father." The golden dragon smiled up at her father and it was amazing how much love she could put into one look.

"Besides," Tsunami added, "Starfish and I have some scheduling arrangements to finalize." She looked at Starfish and something like a competitive glint flared in her eyes. "And I don't care what you say; you only get a few weeks to train my teachers."

Starfish looked at Tsunami as if she had just asked him to turn into a whale. "A few weeks!? You expect me to condense years of training into just a few weeks? It will take a month just to skim the surface! Sunny said you take several months off between the school years."

The SeaWing princess lashed her muscular tail. "Just because we don't have any students around doesn't mean we're any less busy! We use the summer to plan and prepare for the next year. We can't spend ALL of it listening to you lecture on and on about sharing circles."

"It's not just sharing circles," Starfish hissed. The light green SeaWing took on an agitated shade of red. Starfish puffed out his chest and inhaled deeply as if he were about to say something long-winded, but a gentle touch on his wrist from Eskar was enough to calm the usually unflappable SeaWing.

"We can discuss this more later," Starfish managed to say serenely. Flame's heart went out to Starfish; for whatever reason Tsunami was one of the few dragons that could get under Starfish's scales, though Flame suspected it had something to do with Tsunami's reluctance to accept what the Soul Healers did as legit. If Flame was in Starfish's talons, he'd be a lot less serene about it.

"Flam," Chromis whispered, catching Flame's attention by pulling on his arm. "Can we go home now? Can we make cookies now yes?"

Flame's mind screamed "YES. OH MOONS LET'S PLEASE GO HOME!" but a small part of him was hesitant to say yes. He knew that once he started baking he'd be at it for hours. He didn't know if he was in the right mind set for a marathon like that, but his mind changed when he looked down at his brother and noticed how bedraggled he was. He looked ready for a nap and Flame couldn't blame him one bit. It had been a wild, terror filled day and if it were up to Flame, he'd spend the rest of the afternoon napping as well.

But noooo, instead of getting to spend a quiet night with his brother and Umber he was now throwing a party for some reason. Flame wondered if he had done something particularly nasty recently to deserve all this negative karma.

He looked down at his brother, the hybrid's sleepy wings beginning to droop and he sighed. "Yeah, let's head back. You look like you need a nap, and I got a shit ton – I mean, a bunch of baking to do."

The SkyWing looked around for Umber and saw that he was still speaking with Sora. There was a troubled look on the MudWing's face but when Umber saw Flame approach he smiled, though it didn't reach his eyes.

"Am I – uh – interrupting something?" Flame asked. He felt that maybe he shouldn't have intruded but he really needed to get Chromis back and hadn't wanted to leave without letting Umber know.

It was Sora who answered. "No no, you're fine. I was just filling Umber in on what happened in the Mud Kingdom."

"Oh," Flame began. He was getting conflicting messages between Sora's placid smile and Umber's worried frown. "Everything OK back home?"

Sora rolled her eyes. "For Moons sake, yes! Don't let Umber's anxious face throw you off. Nothing bad happened, but I spoke with Queen Moorhen and we talked about some stuff, but really it was nothing bad." She directed those final words at Umber, whose worried features didn't budge an inch.

"I know, I know. Still... I don't think it's going to be as simple as we think," Umber intoned in a mildly stern voice. Flame's eyes widened. Umber was hardly ever mildly stern.

Sora sighed at this, her shoulders sagging just the slightest. "I don't want to argue with you about this. We can talk about it more after the –cookie party, is it? Assuming it's still happening?" she directed this last question at Flame, which Flame appreciated. Nonetheless, it was no longer up to him anymore.

"Unfortunately yes," Flame confirmed. "And speaking of which, I really need to go back and make enough cookies to keep people quiet and stop them from bothering me. You wanna come, Umber?"

To his immense relief Umber nodded, and the heaviness that had weighed down on the MudWing seemed to lift. "Well, duh! Cookies plus spending an afternoon with my super handsome boyfriend? If I ever say no to an offer like that then you'll know I'm an evil doppelganger or have been possessed by a demon."

Despite himself, Flame snorted. "OK, I'll make sure to remember that."

"I guess we should go tell Peril and Cliff we're leaving," Umber said.

Flame arched his neck to look over the heads of the MudWings. Peril was sitting in the same spot as before, speaking with Zephyr and Sunny, with Jet and Stonemover hanging back but listening.

"Yeah fine, but maybe you should go tell her. I'll wait here."

Umber rolled his eyes. "Oh no you don't. We go together. I don't know why you act like she's some sort of diseased wild animal."

"I don't think she's diseased!" Flame argued. "I just – I don't know." He looked at the ground, pulling at the long blades of grass that sprung up between his claws. How could Flame explain the weird connection he shared with Peril? How could he explain that when he looked at Peril, it was like looking into a mirror, except instead of seeing his face, he just saw his own miserable shame looking back at him?

"We're just too much alike," Flame finally mumbled, but even to himself it sounded pathetically stupid. All he could do was shrug. "It's hard to explain, it just feels weird."

"What feels weird?" Peril asked. She was still on the path but had walked over to a section that was closer to Umber and Flame. "Oh wait, let me guess! Uuum, does it feel weird to have Tsunami yelling orders at you even though we're not at Jade Mountain? She was all like 'Peril don't step on the grass you'll burn it' and I was all like 'I'm not even NEAR the grass thank you very much' and she was like 'you're literally sitting right next to it' then Cliff came over and said 'Go talk to that scar face dragon so we can go make cookies' and by that he meant you and, oops, sorry I should have told him not to call you that."

"Uhh," Flame said. He and Umber exchanged a look. "It's fine, and yeah that's exactly what I meant."

"We were just about to head back to Flame's place. We're you and Cliff still coming with us?"

"Oh," Peril hummed, looking as if the question had taken her by surprise. She glanced wistfully back to where Zephyr and the others were sitting. "Yeah. I guess I can go. I was just – Zephyr and I were just talking about some stuff but I'm sure we can talk again later or whatever."

"Fine by me," Flame said and went to take off, but Umber stopped him with a gentle tail against his wings. Umber's gold flecked eyes were warm with thought.

"If you want to stay here Peril, you can. We can take Cliff back with us. I think he and Chromis are ready for a rest."

"Am noooooot," Cliff yawned and shook out his wings. "I is ready for cookies SO much."

Peril looked warily at the Prince, and then looked doubly warily at Flame and Umber. "Hmm, I don't know. I'm supposed to be looking after him, and, no offense, but you two have not been babysitters of the year from what I've heard…and seen."

"And we've learned our lesson," Umber assured. "I swear on all my cookies that we won't let anything happen to him." When Peril still looked unconvinced Umber added, "Also Flame's apartment is in the palace, which is full of guards, and they will definitely not let anything bad happen to him."

Flame held back a quiet growl. If he saw one more palace guard today he was going to throw someone in the oven.

Umber's line of reasoning seemed to work on Peril, however. She swished her tail thoughtfully before speaking to Cliff. "Does that work for you?"

He gave her a tired thumb up. Peril grinned at Umber. "Deal! I'll be over in an hour-ish." She turned to head towards the group of speaking dragons, but paused halfway and asked. "How will I know which place is yours?"

"I'll put up a sign or something on the door," Umber said.

"Yeah, just look for the place with balloons and streamers and a giant sign that says 'Keep out' on it," Flame added, but Peril was already walking away. Either she wasn't going to bother answering him or she had stopped listening after Umber's answer.

Some dragons were just so rude.

Nonetheless, Flame felt a bit of his stress lift now that he only had a few sleepy dragonets to take care of for the next hour. It would make baking a whole lot easier.

Wordlessly, Flame picked up a curled up Chromis and the four dragons flew back towards the palace.

Flame didn't even get the chance to feel relieved as he stepped into his apartment. The first thing he did was run to the kitchen and open the cabinets. The second thing he did was remember he had two dragonets to look after, so he whipped around and hastily fixed up his messy bed for Chromis and Cliff to nap in. Chromis fell asleep before he even hit the mat. Cliff was a little older than Chromis so his napping needs were not as urgent. He seemed content to sit next to a snoring Chromis and look around the room.

"Your room is small," the little SkyWing decided.

"Uh-huh," Flame replied absently. He didn't even have the mental capacity to tell the dragonet off for being a snob. He was in the cookie zone right now. He returned to the kitchen and began pulling out the bags of flour.

"Do you wanna hear me sing?" the prince asked cheerily. "Everyone loves it when I sing. Maybe it will make your face less grouchy looking."

Flame almost stopped what he was doing to glare at the prince. Almost. Umber stepped in before it came to that.

"I think a song would be really nice!"

And so the prince sang. It was a song Flame had never heard before and was pretty confident the dragonet was making it up on the spot, but it wasn't ear shattering so he let Cliff continue. He was too busy anyway.

Flame baked as if his life depended on it. He baked as he had never baked before. He made a batch of classic chocolate chip, a batch of snickerdoodles, a batch of oatmeal and raisin (he figured Starf would enjoy something boring like that), and a batch of coconut macaroons… basically if he had the ingredients for it, he made it.

His previous experience in the kitchen made the whole process easier. He had already worked out the perfect system of making a batch, putting it in the oven, and while the first batch baked he would mix up the batter for the next batch and then swap them out at the right time.

Cliff had stopped singing somewhere between the 5th and 6th batch of cookies and seemed to be eyeing Flame's graphicoll rack with keen eyes.

Don't even think about it, Flame warned and tried to mentally project a beam of disapproval all while grinding up a handful of pecans with his mortar and pestle.

As Flame continued to destroyed kitchen, Umber was busy destroying the living room. The MudWing had pushed all the furniture against the back wall near the bed where the dragonets were resting. Flame's apartment wasn't all that big to begin with.

It was just big enough for two dragons to comfortably hang out and have sleepovers in – at least that's what his time with Umber had shown him, but he supposed it was about time to test just how many dragons he could fit in here before someone made a noise complaint and the palace guards had to start escorting dragons out.

"I suppose Peril could sit in the fireplace," Umber said, half to himself, "if she doesn't mind crouching under a fume hood."

"It'll be fine," Flame muttered as he scooped the chocolate fudge cookie batter onto a baking sheet. "Most of the room is made of stone anyway; we'll be fine as long as she doesn't touch any of the furniture or the carpets or the curtains…or other dragons."

"Das a loooot of burny things," Cliff helpfully pointed out. He had somehow inched closer to the graphicoll shelf without Flame noticing.

Umber made a worried 'hm' noise and began piling the furniture even higher against the wall to create more floor room. Now that Flame had several dozen cookies ready, the urgency wasn't as intense. He tapped the baking sheet against the table to make sure the batter spread out a bit more before setting it down and sighing.

He watched Umber for a few moments. The MudWing was trying to stack some pillows on top of a table, which was on top of the graphicoll shelf that Cliff was dangerously close to. The pillow stack was uneven and began to wobble as Cliff ran his talons along the stacks of graphicolls. Flame wiped his talons on a dish cloth and rushed over. He caught one of the pillows just before it fell on Umber's head.

"Maybe you should let someone taller handle this part," Flame said, not hiding his smugness at all. Umber snorted and poked Flame in the chest with his tail at the exact moment the SkyWing had been reaching up to fix the tumbling stack of pillows. Flame jolted at the touch and hit the stack of pillows with his flailing talons. A big, lush red pillow fell and nailed Umber in the face.

Umber fell back onto the floor and began to laugh. He threw the pillow back and hit him on the neck.

"Hey! I wanna play, too!" Cliff grabbed the pillow and handed back to Umber. "Hit me with it!

"Thanks a lot, oh tall one," Umber teased at Flame while he took the pillow from Cliff and gently bonked him on the head.

The smell of near-ready butter-pecan cookies reminded Flame that he didn't have the time to engage Umber in pillow warfare…for now.

He dashed back to the oven to check the cookies. They were beginning to turn gold at their edges. Only a few minutes now. The cookies would also need another twenty minutes to cool before he could put the frosting on them, so everything was going according to plan.

Flame leaned against the counter and watched Umber return to his furniture arranging while Cliff continued to look at the graphicolls. Flame tried not to freak out about it.

Instead he focused on Umber, watching as the MudWing re-arrange the same pieces of furniture over and over which was…odd. He looked a little discombobulated, and Flame got the feeling it was due to something other than being hit on the head with a pillow. Then he remembered that same confused and worried look on Umber's face when he had been speaking with Sora in the gardens.

"So…did Sora have a good time back home?" He tried to sound as nonchalant as possible, but he might as well have thrown a dagger. Umber's wings drooped, a pained expression crossing his face.

Umber picked up the candlestick he had just put down and gripped it in his talons. "Yeah. Queen Moorhen summoned Sora to the palace for a talk or something and…Sora said it went well."

"Well that's good, isn't it?"

"Yeah…"

"Then why do you look like someone kicked you in the stomach?"

Umber didn't answer right away. Flame used this time to take out the cookies in the oven and switch them with the fudge cookie batter.

Finally Umber said, "It's just that – "

"KNOCK KNOCK!" Peril yelled from other side of the door, making Flame and Umber nearly jump out of their scales. "I'M KNOCKING WITH MY VOICE BECAUSE I CAN'T TOUCH THE DOOR. KNOCK KNOCK!"

"PERIL'S HERE!" Cliff screamed with unrestrained glee that made Chromis jolt awake in the bed.

Umber gave him an I'll tell you later look and went to open the door.

While Umber handled the guest situation, Flame had to deal with being accosted by a newly awakened Chromis who was now demanding cookies. Cliff also took this has his cue to sing a song about devouring cookies. Flame, being the amazing big brother and spectacular watcher-of-dragonets that he was, let them stuff as many cookies in their mouths as possible.

As it turned out, it wasn't just Peril who showed up. Right behind her were Sora and Jet who had brought along a clay pitcher of sparkling apple juice for the occasion.

Flame was more than happy to stay in the kitchen on cookie duty as Umber played host, though it wasn't much of a hiding place since there were no doors between the kitchen and the rest of the room. Still, he didn't have to pretend to look busy since he was, in fact, very busy, and when anyone got too close with that annoying 'hey I want to talk' look on their face, Flame he would glare back with his 'some of us are actually very busy doing very important and useful things so bug off' face. He loved using that face.

After that point, it was like a beacon had been lit, alerting everyone that it was now party time and to all arrive at once.

More dragons began knocking on the door. Starfish arrived with Eskar, and based on the dopy look on Starfish's face, Flame guessed that the two Healers had just been reading romantic articles together. Umber and Jet had also noticed the Healers arriving together and were elbowing each other while Eskar and Starfish looked over the treats.

As expected, Starf loved the oatmeal cookies and claimed that "since they were so healthy" he could eat several of them, which Flame wasn't sure made sense but didn't bother correcting him. He was a baker and chef, not a personal trainer.

Then Tsunami, Sunny, and Stonemover arrived. At this point the noise in the room went from a gust to a tornado. Tsunami had a booming laugh that nearly made Flame drop several batches of baked goods. At one point Stonemover could be seen speaking with Peril, or rather, Peril was speaking to him excitedly about something and Stonemover nodded solemnly every so often.

Distantly Flame remembered Umber had said something about Peril having once been friends with a super old, flightless SkyWing that had been a lawyer or something. Maybe Peril had a soft spot for old sad dragons. Her conversation with Stonemover came to a stop when Umber approached, holding something in his talons. Shyly, he showed Peril the contraption, and Flame could see he had taken the metal fire poker that had been lying near the fire place and had tied a rope to the end of it. On the other end of the rope was a cookie tied up like bait at the end of a fishing pole.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and gathered around Umber and Peril with the same electric anticipatory energy that Flame had only witnessed once before when two dragons in the Healing Center had fought over the last ham roast during dinner. This, however, was way better than the ham fight.

Umber stood on a chair and attempted to dangle the cookie over Peril's mouth like as if he were fishing. Tsunami was laughing like a thunderstorm, her tail thwacking the floor, which made it hard to hear what the others were saying. Sunny might have been shouting encouragement while Jet was trying to yell instructions like 'No you're going to hit her eye! Pull up!'

Despite not being able to see the action, Flame could guess how it had ended. Soon enough the smell of burnt cookies and smoldering string filled the air. Umber must have tried five or six times before finally giving up, or maybe he had just run out of string. Moments later Umber pushed his way through the crowd towards Flame with a sweet and gentle smile.

"Hey Flame," he said breezily, "I know you said we couldn't use your metal tongs buuut I was wondering if maybe you had changed your mind? I promise I'll be super super careful with them and if they do end up melting, which won't happen, I'll replace them. Pleaaaaase?" He even had the audacity to bat his eyelashes

Flame put down his bowl of peanut butter cookie batter. He gave Umber a hard stare, which was mostly just for show. For all his stern talk earlier in the day, he could never say no to Umber. "Fine, I suppose just this once…"

Umber ran around the counter and gave him a hug. Without needing to be told where to look, Umber opened the top drawer at the end of the counter and pulled out Flame's favorite pair of tongs. They were about two feet long which, yes was completely unnecessary, but came in very useful when cooking in large pots or when he accidently pushed the baking pan too far in the oven and needed to wrangle it out.

"Thanks Flame, I love you!" Umber said in a rush as if those words didn't stop Flame's heart every time he heard them. Moments later he was shouting, "PERIL! I GOT THEM! TIME FOR PLAN B!" Umber disappeared back into the crowd and, seconds later, cheers erupted from the gathering of dragons. Flame guessed the tongs had worked, or maybe everyone was cheering because they liked watching things melt…he decided not to dwell on it.

As the night wore on, Flame felt like everything was happening in a fuzzy blur that his brain refused to fully comprehend. He was wondering if maybe all those cookies fumes had finally rattled his head to the point of permanent damage.

Zephyr had showed up at one point, much to everyone's surprise and delight. Even more surprising, she had brought her loot along. Flame hadn't even known she played.

"Sorry, I only know about three songs," Zephyr said shyly to the crowd, which was three more than Flame knew so who was he to judge.

By the time Flame had taken his last batch of cookies out of the oven, Zephyr was strumming a tune. Eskar even brought out his flute to join her, which left Flame wondering if he had had the flute with him this whole time and where had he been keeping it?

During this impromptu concert, he saw Umber make his way over. The MudWing didn't have the tongs with him, which normally would have sent Flame into a spiral of panic, but right now he was too tired to care.

Flame nearly slumped against the MudWing but managed to hold himself upright. They touched their foreheads together and Flame sighed in relief. He felt tired and a little anxious about all the dragons in his room and his stomach was beginning to make a fuss about all the cookies and cookie dough he had been snacking on.

"How are Cliff and Chromis?" he managed to ask. Umber turned his head towards the stack of furniture piled against the wall and Flame followed his gaze to see the two dragonets sitting beside his graphicoll shelf. They had all the graphicolls pulled out and were reading through one together.

That was certainly enough to get his panic levels up again, but Umber resting a comforting talon against his chest.

"Don't worry. I already told them that they need to be careful with them, and that they can't have juice or cookies while reading."

This appeased Flame and then he really did slump against Umber. "Whoa! Are you OK? Maybe you should sit down for a bit and have a cookie."

"Uuuugh, no more cookies," Flame mumbled into Umber's neck. Umber gasped in fake shock.

"What? No more cookies? Did someone swap the real Flame with an evil Flame when I wasn't looking? I really can't leave you alone for five minutes, huh?"

"Not evil Flame, just tired Flame," the SkyWing said. He lifted his head so that he could be heard over the other loud voices in the room. "Thanks for, you know, handling the dragon part of this thing. I'm kind of hopeless with that stuff."

Umber smiled sweetly and wiped off a smear of some mysterious batter from Flame's cheek. "We're a team, right? You handle the cookies and I'll handle the dragons."

A thunderous knock on the door broke through Flame's exhausted haze. He sat up with a rigid spine and gave Umber a hesitant look.

"Uh oh, sounds like it might be the palace guards," Umber muttered. Flamed nodded. He had honestly been expecting them sooner. He took a bracing breath, dusted off the cookie crumbs from his shoulders, and went to the door, trying to fix his face into a neutral expression.

When he opened the door, that neutral expression went flying off his face and through the ceiling. "Mother?"

"Flame?" Avalanche responded. Her eyes settled on him only briefly before being pulled to the shenanigans going on behind him. "What in the Moons is going on in there?"

"You're back early!" he stated the obvious, too shocked to say anything else. She pushed past him and Flame scrambled after her.

"A party?" she asked incredulously. "Seriously? That was specifically forbidden on that list of rules I gave you this morning…did you even read it?"

"Of course I did!"

"Then where is it? I'd like you to point out exactly where on the scroll it says that it's OK to throw a party."

A flashback came to Flame; one of him throwing his satchel full of scrolls under a bush earlier in the day in a spontaneous act of pure terror. "Uh… it's somewhere safe."

The older SkyWing glanced around the room, her face metamorphosing from shock to horror to anger and back to shock again.

"What is she doing here?" she said while pointing at Peril, then her eyes latched onto Cliff and she said with more alarm than anger, "What is he doing here?" Then she saw Tsunami and Sunny and the anger returned to her voice as she said, "What are they doing here?!"

"MOMMMY!" Chromis yelled from the other side of the room and came running. He leaped into Avalanche's arms. Flame could have kissed his brother in gratitude as Avalanche's anger evaporated, her attention now swallowed by the little dragonet.

"Mommy, I had the bestest day EVER! I had SOOOOO many cookies and I made friends and I ran around the palace and I met some nice guards that took me to the kitchen and – "

Scratch that. Flame should have locked him in a closet. He tried to catch Chromis' eye and, through a sequence of frantic gestures, managed to convey the message of WHAT ARE YOU DOING? SHUT UP!

Chromis thankfully saw and understood. "Uuuh actually forget me said any of that stuff – me had a good day. Was lots and lots of fun!" Then he smiled his sweetest smile and the tension in Avalanche's posture relaxed.

"Well, I'm glad you had a good time little fish, but I think it's time I took you home."

"What!?" Chromis and Flame said together.

"I thought he was staying with me overnight," Flame said, "He's more than welcomed to."

"YEAH!" Chromis cried in support. He wiggled out of his mother's talons defiantly. Avalanched looked at her sons with growing frustration.

"It's getting late," she told both of them, "and right now Flame, your apartment isn't the best place to put a sleeping dragonet."

"It's not that late," Flame protested. He looked behind him through the door and into the open-air hallway to see that the sun was so low in the sky that it was touching the ground. Streaks of lavender and indigo were pushing against the dimming red light from the sun and the air had lost the day's warmth.

"Well shit," Flame murmured. The day had slipped right through his talons.

Chromis looked out at the setting sun too, and it was as if the sight of the glittering stars emerging from the horizon put a spell on him. The dragonet yawned loudly. His eyelids became droopy. If Flame's sun-position readings were accurate, it had been well over five hours since Chromis' nap which was insane. Who knew baking cookies took up so much time.

"Maybe… maybe Flam and me can play again tomorrow?" Chromis looked hopefully up at Avalanche.

"Of course, we can visit him again tomorrow…once he cleans up his apartment." Avalanche looked at Flame in that way only mothers could. Flame ducked his head, embarrassed.

"Yes. It'll be back to normal tomorrow. I promise."

"M-hm," Avalanche tutted before leaning down to nuzzle Flame's forehead.

"Mother!" Flame hissed and looked around to see if anyone had witnessed this humiliating moment. Only Umber had noticed, and the MudWing had decided to react by making kissy faces at him, which Flame did NOT appreciate at the moment.

"You should also send that little prince home," Avalanche added as she bundled Chromis up in her arms. "I am certain that Queen Ruby will want him home soon."

Yeah…his mother had a good point there. Without another word, Avalanche turned and left.

Flame watched his mother take to the sky. Chromis, bundle in her arms, waved back at Flame, his little webbed talon a speck in the sky. Flame waved back and kept waving until he couldn't see them anymore.

After his mother left, Flame elbowed his way into the arena of chatting and bickering dragons, using the skills he had learned while trying to navigate the crowded cafeteria earlier that day. He found Peril where she had been sitting all night, safely beside the fireplace with Cliff nearby. Apparently with Chromis no longer around the young prince had decided that Peril was his best friend again. Peril saw Flame before he had the chance to announce his presence.

"Flame! Good, I was about to start yelling to get your attention. I'm going to take Cliff back to Queen Ruby's chambers. Now that I think about it, I was probably supposed to bring him to the royal dining hall for dinner but I forgot to do that so they might think he's dead."

"Yeaaah I think it would be best for everyone if you brought the prince back alive," Flame said, then more awkwardly added, "and I hoped you liked the food…or at least the parts of it that didn't get incinerated as soon as you touched them."

"I actually did get to eat some stuff! It's crazy, I never thought to use metal tongs…then again I guess I'd have to get someone else to use them on me. Hmm I wonder if I convince Clay to feed me stuff like that…"

"I could do it for you!" Cliff jubilantly offered with a suspiciously excited glint in his eyes. Peril snorted.

"As if. All you want to do is set food of fire."

Cliff neither agreed nor disagreed, but the mischievous smirk that he failed to hide said it all.

When the two SkyWings left, the crowd flattened themselves against the wall to let Peril pass by, a few dragons looking a bit steamier than they had before.

As Flame had hoped, everyone saw this as their cue to leave. Starfish was the first to approach him. The SeaWing gave him a hug, the big bleeding hear that he was, and thanked him for the cookies, of which he took a couple more for the flight home. Eskar, too, was very gracious and thanked Flame for letting him play his flute. He also handed Flame a small poster describing a concert happening in the gardens tomorrow at noon. Flame didn't have time to ask where the poster had come from as Eskar and Starfish vanished down the hall, chatting excitedly about music and the latest in Soul Healing research.

"Flame!" a voice sing-songed from behind, which was the only warning given before Sunny side tackled Flame in a sugar-rush fueled hug. "The party was so so so fun! I can't wait to tell everyone that we got invited to a party!"

"They're gonna be soo jealous," Tsunami boasted. She sat straighter, settling her wings in a head-masterly fashion. "They're going to regret not listening to me. I told them it would be a good idea to come but noooo. They are so closed minded, unlike me."

Sunny rolled her eyes and Flame had to admire the fact that she didn't bite Tsunami.

Umber was the next victim of Sunny's hug rampage, and Tsunami also joined in to give the small MudWing a bone-crushing squeeze.

"We'll visit again soon," Sunny promised.

"That would be nice," Umber managed to say despite his no doubt fractured ribs, "and tell Clay and the rest of my Winglet I said 'hi', if they're around." Umber put on a smile, but Flame could see his ears drooping ever so slightly.

An idea occurred to Flame then. "Wait here, I'll give you something to bring back to the school," Flame said and went to gather the left over cookies – an assortment of ginger snickerdoodles, coconut macaroons, sugar cookies, and some chocolate chip – and put them in a bag made of woven straw.

"And you can give these to Clay if you want. Or to who-ever, I don't care. All I know is that I can't even look at another cookie right now so you'd be doing be a favour." Flame's stomach gurgled ominously in agreement.

Sunny smiled warmly and even Tsunami looked impressed. "Oh, Clay is going to LOVE you for this," the SeaWing said, and then added teasingly, "but don't tell Peril I said that."

Flame certainly wasn't interested in fighting Peril for the love of Clay, but it did make him happy to know someone else would appreciate his food. And the adoring look Umber gave him was also pretty awesome.

Before leaving Sunny gave her father one last hug, and when it was Stonemover's time to leave he politely thanked Flame for the delicious snacks and promised to see him later in the week.

The final dragons to leave were Jet and Sora, of course. First to arrive, last to leave.

Jet gave Flame an affectionate punch in the arm. "Not bad, I'd say we're even now. I will no longer be fantasizing about how to murder you while I'm re-organizing my mother's filing cabinets. Now I will just think about cookies."

"That's a relief," Flame said while he discretely rubbed his arm. She threw a hard affectionate punch.

"If it helps, I was never planning on fantasizing about killing you," Sora added unhelpfully. "But I still appreciate the food. We should do this again sometime."

"NO!" Flame yelled before he could stop himself and Sora burst out laughing. She gave him a rough jab with her wing to match the ache in his arm from Jet.

"I'm only teasing. Next time Jet and I can host and you can sit in the corner and brood peacefully."

Flame smiled, very much liking the idea of being able to brood in peace. He was also a little amused to see Sora's playful side come out. Over the past year Sora had changed from a trembling wall flower to one of those thick-stemmed vines that could dig through stone and claw their way to the sun. Her time at the Healing Center had done her well, and Flame wondered if this was what Sora had been like before the war, of if she was remaking herself.

Either way, he was happy for her.

Sora gave Umber a playful jab, too, but her eyes were more solemn. "We'll talk about my meeting with Moorhen tomorrow, OK? See you then." She touched their snouts together and then she and Jet were gone.

The room felt swollen in size now that it was just two dragons. His living space had never been large by any standard but it now felt like a vast echo chamber. The sudden silence left Flame's ears feeling like they had a little bell ringing inside then.

Nonetheless, Flame took a moment to enjoy the silence before getting up and rushing over to his graphicoll shelf. He carefully inspected each one for smudges or rips before carefully placing them back in their proper place. He should really find a more secure place for his collection….maybe in a triple locked chest surrounded by a mote of piranhas.

With the last bit of his energy used up, Flame collapsed on the floor and sighed pitifully. Unfortunately there were crumps all over the floor and his face was now being exfoliated with brown sugar, coconut flakes, and crushed chocolate, which sounded a lot better than it actually was.

"You OK?" Umber asked, half amused. He had found the broom Flame kept near the door and was beginning to clean the floor. Dimly Flame considered heaving his forlorn body onto the bed so that Umber could sweep, and to this idea his body said haha nope and so he didn't move.

"Yeah, I'm good. Just, you know…" he trailed off and Umber nodded because of course Umber understood. Umber always understood him. "Are you OK?" Flame asked, trying to hide his grimace as a stray chocolate chip poked his cheek.

Umber did a few half-hearted sweeps, his brow crinkled in what might have been thought or distress. "Yeah, I'm just thinking about Sora and…and what she told me."

This made Flame lift his head. Crumbs fell off his scales like the first rocks that fall at the beginning of an avalanche. "What did she say?"

"Well… when we first came here, when Moorhen first sent us here I mean, the idea was that we stay here until Sora could comfortably return home – until she was ready to enter back into her normal life, I guess." He twisted the handle of the broom, not noticing that his claws were cutting into the wood. "Sora's visit with Queen Moorhen these last few days had been sort of like a checkup, and… well…Queen Moorhen thinks she's ready to return home now."

He looked at Flame, his eyes deep and brown and…sad. "Queen Moorhen wants us to return to the Mud Kingdom."

"Oh," Flame said and his voice sounded like it was coming from the bottom of a canyon. Umber's words began to sink in like the fangs of a dragonbite viper. "Oh." Flame sat up entirely then.

"So you – you're leaving? Are you – will you – um – when do you think you'll go?" Flame's mind was twisting in on itself like an overgrown bramble bush.

Umber is leaving? But he can't leave! This wasn't supposed to be how it ended! This isn't what we wanted, or at least I think it's not. I thought we wanted the same thing. Was a wrong this whole time? Does Umber want to go back with his siblings and forget about me?

Umber dropped the broom and held Flame's face in his talons. "Flame, calm down. You have that wild look in your eyes and I'm here to tell you that whatever is going through your head right now is wrong."

Umber's uncanny ability to peer into his brain was like a superpower. The surprise of it was enough to put Flame's running mind to a halt. Despite the building tightness in his chest, Flame smiled. "You're not part NightWing, are you? That would explain a lot."

"No, you dork," Umber teased, "I'm not part NightWing and I'm not going to let Queen Moorhen ruin what we have. When I said 'yes' to being your boyfriend, I meant it. I have no plans of making our relationship a temporary thing, and I am sure as heck not going to let this get in the way of anything."

Hope lifted in Flame's heart. "So…you'll stay here?"

The gentle wince on Umber's face was his answer. "I'm sorry, Flame. I would be lying if I said I didn't want to see my sibs. I've always imagined…hoped that one day Sora and I would go back and live with them again but…" Umber let go of Flame's face and leaned his head against the SkyWing's neck. "I thought we'd have more time to figure something out."

"We will figure it out," Flame asserted. He wrapped his wing around Umber like a silken curtain and pulled the MudWing tighter against him. "Dragons have long distant relationships all the time. It won't be that big of a deal, it would only take me, like, a day to fly there? Maybe two? And if that doesn't work I'll – I'll just move to the Mud Kingdom. There. Problem solved."

Umber pulled away from Flame and stared at the SkyWing with eyes wide in shock.

"Flame… are you sure? Do you even want to move to the Mud Kingdom? You've worked so hard to get to where you are right now – working in the palace kitchens and getting to see your brother more often… you've built a good life here."

"We've built a good life here," Flame corrected, but Umber was right. Moving to the Mud Kingdom was not to be done flippantly. It would mean leaving the Healing Center and all his friends here; it would mean leaving his position in the kitchen. If he was being honest with himself, it would be heartbreaking.

But Umber was his home. He couldn't fathom a life without him. It would be like trying to live in a world with no air.

Whoa whoa whoa, stop freaking out, Flame chided his pesky catastrophizing thoughts, it may not even come to that. I can live here and fly over to the Mud Kingdom whenever I need to. Just take it one problem at a time.

The pep talk helped to ease the panicky feeling ricocheting around in his stomach. They would have time to figure it out. They would be OK.

But a nagging voice at the back of his mind was whispering ugly truths in his ear.

Sure, Umber could move to the Mud Kingdom and you could stay here, but how long will that last? Do you really want to spend the rest of your life visiting Umber only a few times a week? It asked.

Meanwhile, a second voice, soothing like a lullaby, was easing a different set of ideas in his brain.

The Mud Kingdom wouldn't be so bad… you could still cook in the Mud Kingdom. You could still read graphicolls and see your mother and Chromis and Starf… just maybe not as frequently.

It was like being caught in a tornado, the currents of each of his emotions pulling him in different directions at once.

Flame took a stabilizing breath. He didn't know what the Hell he would do about this problem a year or two from now, but for the time being he could only take it one wing beat at a time.

He pulled Umber back to him and placed a kiss on his forehead. "We'll figure it out," Flame repeated and this time he sounded like he meant it. Umber looked as worried as Flame felt, but the MudWing said nothing.

He pressed into Flame's side and nuzzled the SkyWing's neck. Umber whispered something against Flame's scales, and while he didn't catch all if it, Flame swore it sounded like, "I know we will."

A.N.

DONE! AT LAST! And it only took…. Two years haha

I'm so glad I was able to finish this, and, of course, I just had to throw in some drama in the last chapter.

In terms of the future of Flumber stories, I'm in a bit of a pickle. I think I'm ready to expand their relationship and story in a more dramatic way, but I am nervous about the idea of taking on large projects. I don't have the manic writing speed that I used to back when I originally wrote Healed, but that is thanks to me actually thoroughly editing things and drafting.

Either way, I love these little gay idiots, and I appreciate everyone who stuck around and waited for me to finish this thing. You're the best 3