Flame shot up, nearly tripping over his talons. "Chromis!" he shouted again. No answer. He whipped his head around frantically, scanning every angle possible. Cold dread rooted in his stomach as if he had swallowed a bucket of ice. The bag he had brought with him to hold his scrolls pinch painfully between his scales as he tried to bend his long neck around his body. Shit, I should have been paying attention! Stupid, stupid me! After giving himself a proper berating his thoughts become consumed with finding his brother. Or, more accurately, he could only think of the horrible fate that had befallen the small dragon.

His brain conjured images of Chromis dangly from a cliff above a bottomless pit; of Chromis eating some random plant in the gardens and getting poisoned; or what if he had found the kitchens and crawled into the ovens? Not to mentioned how Avalanche would react. He very much doubted she'd be pleased.

"Flame… you're looking a little crazy-eyed right now," Umber helpfully commented. He raised his talons in an attempt at a pacifying gesture. "I know this is scary and you want to run off in every direction at once but we have to be smart about this."

"Smart?" Flame repeated in disbelief. His heart was pounding and he was having trouble getting air into his lungs. That couldn't be good. "We don't have time for that!" he snapped, "We need to find him as soon as possible. Maybe if we split up and… and we just look everywhere and… he'd have to be somewhere it's not like he can fly…."

"Flame," Umber repeated his name curtly and his voice was like a boulder being dropped into the turbulent river of Flame's thoughts. Umber placed his palm against Flame's cheek and without thinking Flame leaned into the touch. He took in a deep breath, though it felt harder than usual with his heart pounding in his throat. He continued to stand there, just breathing, while Umber tenderly stroked the line of tiny scales that encircled his eye. It took a few moments, but eventually his pulse settled into a rhythm that was only slightly worrisome.

"Good," Umber announced and dropped his talon. Flame felt eased by the surety in Umber's voice, but wished he could still feel the MudWing's warmth.

"OK, boss, now what?" Flame half joked, shaking his wings out. He was still too jittery to think straight and hoped Umber wouldn't mind acting as his brain for a little while. Umber took a moment to think, his gaze drifting past away from Flame and to somewhere behind him absentmindedly. Whatever he saw though made him perk.

"Look," he said and pointed to the bush behind Flame. The SkyWing took a look but wasn't too impressed. It was a pretty dull bush, all things considered. Whatever blooms it might have had were long gone. It was just kind of green and, well, bushy. They had chosen to rest beside it mostly because it was tall and provided a little nook away from the other patients as they ambled around the gardens. He wondered if maybe Umber had suddenly become a scrub enthusiast, but when he followed the direction of Umber's pointing talon he saw what was actually interesting.

"A … hole?" Flame asked, making sure he was getting it right. Indeed, at the base of the plant was a ragged gap that looked like someone had punched through the leaves and twigs.

"Yes!" Umber confirmed. He stepped towards the small area of destruction and sniffed. "And it has his scent. He must have gone through here." Umber cocked his head to the side. "How did we not hear him do this?"

"To be fair, you were being very distracting," Flame explained. Umber look at him with an expression that was a perfect mix of offended and bemused.

"If I remember correctly, it was YOU who was being distracting," Umber shot back.

Flame was about to respond with a defiant 'nuh-uh' but stopped when he realized they were doing the exact same thing that had gotten them into this problem in the first place.

"Arrg! See, you're distracting me again! This argument will have to wait, we have to stay focused." Which was exactly what Flame wasn't doing. He was half wondering why Chromis always had to choose the path of most destruction while also wondering if they would get in trouble for defacing public property. He knew a few of the dragons who maintained the gardens and he decided it would be best if they didn't know he was involved with this.

"You're right," Umber murmured and got to his feet. "Come on, we should hurry."

Flame lept up, ready to follow Umber who was already dashing to the other side of the bush, but before he did he took off the bag of scrolls he had strapped across his chest. It was heavy and annoying and would slow him down. He wedged it into the hole that Chromis had made for safe keeping, promising he would remember to pick it up later.

The rest of the garden opened up before him as he joined his boyfriend in the sun.

"So… see anything that Chromis would be drawn to?" Umber asked. Flame slowly scanned the scene, trying to put himself in the mind of Chromis. It was a distressing place to be. He tried to think of what he would do if he were the size of a fruit cake and had no sense of self preservation. For some reason that made the thought experiment harder. He did his best to focus, though. His eyes travelled over the gardens, and while he appreciated the floral views, he guessed Chromis' tastes were not yet as refined as his own and therefore would be of no interest to the dragonet.

Something did catch his attention though, and as soon as he saw it he knew instantly where Chromis had gone.

"There!" Flame announced with a flap of his wings. About a dozen dragon lengths away was a burbling triple-teared water fountain. It was definitely more on the opulent side, looking like a strange sculpture where the artist was trying to emulate a tornado made up of metal fish, flowers, and some birds. Some of the merry metal creatures were spitting out elegant arcs of water that crisscrossed each other like dancers before landing into the body of water below. Oh yes, Flame thought, this is definitely Chromis' favorite kind of fountain.

Flame ran ahead with Umber close behind. He reached the fountain and eagerly leaned over the stone boundary to inspect the clear blue water. The lack of a flopping dragonet inside disturbed him. He lifted into the air to check the higher tiers in case Chromis had crawled into them, his wing beats causing the water to spray onto Umber.

He huffed in disappointment when he saw that they were empty, save for a few bathing pigeons that squawked at him. From this angle, though, Flame could see dark patches on the rim of the stone basin. Seeing as how the fountain's numerous water spouts followed a perfectly clean arc through the air, Flame was willing to bet the damp patches had been splashes made by a particular water-loving dragonet. He landed back down beside Umber, who was shaking the water off his wings.

He quickly told Umber what he saw and the MudWing nodded, inspecting the fountain. "We must have just missed him. On a day like this, it should only take a few minutes for the stone to dry off."

Indeed, while the warmest days of the year were a fast fading memory, the weather was still sunny with a cloudless sky, though it hadn't rained in several weeks. The air felt overall like a dry cough. And that meant they didn't have much time. Whatever trail Chromis was making was probably fading just as fast.

"I don't see any other tracks," Flame said, his tongue flicking to taste the air. "I – I can't pick up his scent. Can you?" Flame normally had a pretty astute nose. This ability had gotten even better since he started cooking more. He could tell how fresh a clove of garlic was, or if someone had added too much sage to a dish. Ninety percent of the time while blindfolded he could guess the ingredients of a dish by scent alone. But right not he was struggling. Maybe the water had diluted Chromis' sent. Dammit, why do SeaWings have to like water so much!?

Umber tilted his head while his nostrils flared a few times. His forehead creased. "I think he went towards the cafeteria but… it's hard to tell. There are a lot of dragons in there… and food."

His face went a little dreamy when he said the last word. Flame snapped his talons in front of Umber's face. "We'll have to snack later. Right now we need to find my brother."

Umber shook out his wings and gave a solemn nod. He closed his eyes and put his talons to his temple. "Right. No snacks. I'm going into Chromis finding mode." Without warning Umber shot off, leaving Flame startled and fumbling after him as close as he could without stepping on the MudWing's tail. They ran through the gardens, jumping over flower beds and dodging meandering dragons that hissed their displeasure.

They eventually reached the stone pathway that connected the major buildings together, and in this particular area the talon traffic was heavy as dragons plodded to and from the nearby cafeteria building. As he watched the bustling activity, Flame pictured poor little Chromis getting trampled beneath the steady stream of very large dragons that seemed more focused on getting their lunch then looking where there talons landed. The tightness in his chest ramped up. Stop it! Stop thinking like that! You won't be any help to Chromis if you have another panic attack. He felt Umber nudge his shoulder with his snout. "Flame, look."

To their right on the stone path was a blobby muddy patch the size of a river stone. Flame took a closer look and saw it was actually a blobby muddy outline of a small webbed talon. There were a few of them in fact, decreasing in muddiness until completely vanished, but they were unfortunately going in the direction of the cafeteria.

"Oh crap, Chromis probably went looking for a snack," Flame said in dismay. Working as a chef and all, much of Flame's brain space was filled with the weekly menu options offered at the Healing Center. He knew today's special was fried catfish… Chromis' favorite. To be fair Chromis had many favorite foods including, but not limited to, chocolate ice cream, unfried catfish, fish of any kind, chocolate covered fish, chocolate cake, chocolate muffins, chocolate covered double chocolate chunk brownies… you get the picture. Either way, Chromis was very food motivated. The biggest obstacle now was the swelling crowd of dragons that churned inside the building.

By the position of the sun, Flame guessed it was a little past high noon – aka the busiest time of the day for the cafeteria. Even as they stood there more dragons were piling in. Some of them were trying to enter through the sky lights on the roof; others were coming in from the gardens and pushing their way through. It was like a wall of constantly shifting tails and limbs, one scale color merging into the other like a RainWing's flank.

Flame and Umber exchanged dubious looks. "Well… shall we?" The MudWing motioned to the doors with a grand sweep of his wing as if he were showing off a roomy penthouse-cave with a view of the mountains and not a hot, cramped pit of dragons. Flame's mind filled once again with images of Chromis trampled under the talons of hungry dragons carrying lunch trays of doom.

Flame nodded grimly in response. "We must. But should we split up or stay together?"

Umber took another look at the mass of dragons and his deep brown scales turned a little grey. "Yeesh. I say we stick together. We'll just lose each other." He paused and then added. "You try to stay low and see if you can spot him from the ground. I'll stay a little bit above for a wider field of view."

Flame knew Umber's idea was tactfully good. A part of Flame didn't like to remember that Umber fought in a literal war, but he had to admit that his boyfriend could certainly strategize. There was one flaw to the plan however… why did Flame have to go low? Wasn't he taller? Sure Umber had hit a growth spirt last month and was catching up to him but Flame wasn't ready to let go of his title as the "Taller Boyfriend" just yet. Or ever.

He didn't get the chance to voice his helpful criticisms. Perhaps sensing Flame's hesitation, Umber had made the choice for both of them and was pushing Flame towards the terrible dragon wall. Flame had a few precious second to spot a gap between the talons of two different dragons. He gritted his teeth and wedged between them with all his might.

While Flame was still nowhere near his adult size, he certainly wasn't tiny. He couldn't wiggle through a crowd easily or inoffensively. He stepped on talons and tails, bumped dragons carrying drinks or fruit trays, and may have elbowed a few ribs. All by accident of course. But that also meant dragons were stepping on his talons and elbowing him aside, which he found very rude. At one point he had to pause in disgust as he simultaneously stepped in a puddle of spilled apple juice with his right talon, and what appeared to be a discarded bagel and cream cheese with his left talon. He sighed. Why did bad things happen to good dragons?

Not to mention the noise and visual clatter were overwhelming. While many dragons were fighting for room on the ground, the building was big enough for some to stay aloft in the air, and he could sense Umber hovering above him. Or at least he thought it was Umber. He didn't have the room to orient his neck around to see. He did, however, catch a glimpse of a blue streak in the crowd near the ground. His heart lurched. He hadn't been able to see it long enough to determine if it was the same blue hue of Chromis but it was worth pursuing.

"Chromis!" Flame shouted in the slim chance that his brother could hear him. The blue shape did not approach him but he saw it again, a little further away this time. With new energy Flame surged ahead, his shoulders like a battling ram. The blue streak was always out of reach but it seemed to be moving towards the exit on the other side of the room. It was exhausting work pushing through the crowd. It felt like he was treading through water while being weight down by stones and also getting stones thrown at his face. Nonetheless he could feel he was catching up. Above the heads of the crowd Flame could see the second entrance growing closer. The blue streak disappeared from view just as Flame finally reached the exit and shot out of the crowd like a geyser. He didn't give himself a chance to think before he pounced on the blue streak, feeling triumphant when he felt cool, semi-damp scales in his talons.

He lay on the ground for a few moments, catching his breath. Oh Moons, how he had missed fresh air. He heard a thud beside him and figured it was Umber landing. This was confirmed when the very hesitant voice of Umber said, "Um – Flame. You might want to let go now."

A halting chill went through Flame's body. In the heat of the moment he hadn't bothered to check who he was lunging for. He lifted his head to finally see who he had caught. His talons were firmly embedded in the tail of a sapphire scaled SeaWing. He followed the tail up to a very muscly sapphire body, up a long sapphire neck ,and finally, to the very angry sapphire face of the Head Master of Jade Mountain Academy. He had caught Tsunami.

A.N.

I can't believe I forgot to wish everyone a happy Pride Month in my last upload.

And I'd like to wish an extra happy Pride Month to my idiot gay kings: Umber and Flame.