They scrambled into the vacant office, making sure to be absolutely silent as they slid the door opened and closed. Umber didn't know how much time Jet would give them, but they couldn't waste a single second of it.
Zephyr's office was an amply lit space with large windows that overlooked the gardens. Some clouds had passed over the sun, casting the space in a washed out grey light that did not compliment the orange-toned furniture. Zephyr's room was bigger than Starfish's, Umber noted, and the SkyWing Healer had filled every extra inch with file cabinets and scroll racks. A few large cabinets were placed on either side of her desk, though the majority were lined up along the opposite wall.
Flame was the first to venture deeper into the room. The deep red dragon made for the window and began to pull back the half-loose curtain.
"No!" Umber whispered fiercely. He rushed forward, stumbling over both of the floor pillows that rested before the desk. He swatted Flame's talon away. "Don't touch anything! We have to leave everything like we found it."
To prove his point, Umber made a show of fixing the pillows he had kicked asunder, and silently hoped they looked the same as before. Umber took another look around, his rib-cage shaking with every pound of his heart. Focus. No time to hesitate. Umber tried to sooth himself by remembering the plan. Step one: Locate the letter. Jet mentioned a few places to look, I hope she's right.
According to Jet, the form could be filed under 'L' for Legal, or 'R' for Request, or even under 'O' for Official Legal Request. That would have been manageable – except she also said that if they couldn't find it under those letters it could also be under 'F' subsection 'L'.
Or was it 'L' subsection 'F'?
"I'll take the A to M cabinet," Umber continued to whisper. He wasn't sure how well their voices would carry but he didn't want to risk it. "You take the other one."
Umber went to the cabinet on the right side of the desk and was already pulling it opened when he heard a loud thwump at his back. This was followed by a string of vibrant cursing and the sound of claws scraping on furniture. Umber whipped around in time to see Flame grab onto the filing cabinet for dear life in an attempt to stop his fall.
"Are you OK?" Umber rushed over to help Flame stabilize. The SkyWing merely growled and shot an accusatory glare towards the floor where Umber could see Flame's claws tangled in the fibers of a carpet. Umber gave Flame a teasing grin. "Some superhero you'd make; getting foiled by a mere rug." He flicked Flame's snout with his tail tip. "Remind me to fill my evil liar with them."
"Yeah, well, Starfish doesn't have a carpet in his office," he hissed, as if having a rug was a character flaw and morally deplorable and would, indeed, be part of a villain's choice of décor.
Umber nodded reassuringly. "Yes, that rug should be ashamed of itself, but we need to hurry. Start looking." Before returning to his cabinet Umber straightened the carpet as best he could. So far they weren't doing so great with the whole 'leave no evidence' thing.
With nervously clumsy talons Umber managed to pull open the top drawer of the two-leveled cabinet. He flipped through the list of letters until he found the 'F' folder, and wow was it big. The papers were wedged so tightly in that he couldn't even sneakily browse. He tried to grab ahold of the smooth paper but it was like pulling on wet ice; he couldn't get a good hold. Desperate, he grabbed the thick folder with both talons, his claws piercing the paper, and yanked with all his strength.
It flew out of its administrative prison in an elegant arc and landed a short distance away, the file folder splayed open on the floor like a bird that had dive-bombed into the ground. Umber's jaw hung open as he watched the paper leaflets flutter to the ground like ash from a forest fire.
"Found it!" Flame raised a sheet of parchment above his head and waved it like a flag. He turned to look at Umber and the grin immediately fell as he eyed the carnage. "Yikes." He shoved the form into Umber's talons. "Here, you handle this. I'll clean up the mess."
"Wait, no." Panicked, Umber tried to shove the paper away. "You deal with it."
Flame shoved it back. "I don't know how to write like Zephyr!"
"Well, neither do I!"
"Yeah, but you're nicer than me, and Zephyr is nice, so therefore you're more qualified."
"But – "
"Thanks Umber, you're the best!" Flame didn't even wait for a reply. He began collecting the papers and shoving them back into the cabinet with no attention paid to their order or if they got bent and torn. Umber suppressed a sigh. He hated when Flame complimented him into doing something; it was his one weakness – other than food, gossip, and good tea of course.
He sat down at Zephyr's desk and tilted the sheet toward the window to better catch the light. He had just begun skimming the first section when the sound of raised voices from the hallway made his heart shoot to the roof of his mouth. They were getting closer – time was running out.
"Hurry!" Flame materialized behind Umber, nearly making his scales jump off. "Hurry hurry hurry!"
Umber almost sent the ink bottle flying off the desk when he reached for it. He had to hold onto the wrist of his writing talon to keep the words steady as he wrote. He filled out all the sections as best he could. He was so focused on speed that he didn't even have time to check his spelling or if his sentences were complete. While he wrote, Flame rummaged through Zephyr's desk (yet another probably illegal activity) and pulled out a different kind of document that Zephyr had been working on. Luckily it had her signature on it and Umber attempted to mimic it. He failed horribly.
"Jet, I think we've seen enough art now." Zephyr's voice, muffled by distance and a door, was unmistakable. "Let's return to the office and get this meeting underway."
Umber and Flame locked their panicked eyes together. Flame hurried to open more drawers and pulled out the first envelope he saw. Umber frantically flapped the form around in the air to dry the ink and went to stuff it in the envelope, but Flame stopped him.
"Wait, the stamp. Don't forget the stamp!"
At this point even Umber was beginning to lose his cool. "Arg! By all the Moons, could this be any more convoluted?"
At the edge of the desk stood a single wooden stamp resting on a little metal box that was about as large as Umber's foot. He took the stamp in his right talon and opened the box. Inside were three metal slots that each held an ink soaked sponge of different colors: blue, red, and green.
"Which one do I use?" Umber hissed.
"Red," Flame answered without hesitation.
Umber used up a precious few seconds to give Flame an amazed look. "How did you know that?"
He shrugged. "I don't. Red is just the best color."
Sometimes Umber really wanted to smack him. He used the red ink anyway and folded the paper into the envelope. Flame had found a stick of golden wax from Moons-know-where and began melting it with a small spark of fire-breath. A few drops fell onto the envelope and Flame pressed the Healing Center's seal into the pool of cooling gold goo.
Umber granted himself a second to breath. They had done it. Now they just needed to sneak out…
"The first thing I'd like to discuss – " Zephyr's voice was now just on the other side of the door, " – is what theoretic principals you used to develop your curriculum."
The door began to slide open and Umber's lungs flattened against the back of his chest. Oh no! Please no. We are so dead!
Flame and Umber clung together, which was an absolutely useless act but it was comforting to know that, if he was going to die, at least he was going to be in arms of his boyfriend.
"WAIT!" Jet's outburst echoed through the corridor, and Umber guessed she was still all the way down next to the art exhibition room. Wow that girl could yell.
"Before you go inside…"
Her sentence ended with a sound that Umber could only describe as a scaly leather sack filled with boulders and spare change being thrown to the ground. No one said anything for a moment. Umber's thundering heart beat filled his ears in those milliseconds that seemed to drag on.
At last, Tsunami said, "Did she just faint?"
Pandemonium erupted once again, but now the voices were moving down the hall and away from the door. Umber didn't dare move. He felt like his scales had become stone and his bones glass. Moving a single muscle would shatter him and bring everyone running back to the office.
Flame had no such problems. He grabbed Umber's arm. "We have to go. NOW!"
Umber let himself be dragged to the door. Flame peaked out through the miniscule gap that Zephyr had made. "They're all surrounding Jet; it's safe to leave."
"Do you think she's OK?" Umber hoped she hadn't actually fainted. He was pretty sure it was just a trick to help them escape but, then again, she had been looking pretty tired.
Flame waved away the question as if he had just sniffed someone's bad perfume. "She's fine. Let's go." He slid the door open ever so gently and they hustled out.
Now Umber could clearly see the excitement occurring down the hall. Jet lay strewn across the floor, her arm resting across her forehead dramatically. Poor Zephyr was at her daughter's side, her normally serene face creased with every sort of worry imaginable. A shard of quilt embedded itself in Umber's chest. He hoped this plan wouldn't cause Zephyr more trouble.
Flame slid the door closed and Jet must have somehow been watching them, for at that moment she groaned and sat up. "Sorry sorry," she mumbled, "It's just been… a long week."
Just as Umber was beginning to doubt it had been an act, Jet met his eye and winked. Umber was overwhelmed with relief.
It did not last long.
At that moment Starfish glanced up (perhaps catching Jet's wink) to see Flame and Umber standing in the middle of the hallway. Luckily they were not right next to the door, but this was still very very not good.
Throwing away any pretense of non-suspiciousness they made a dash for the staircase. In the periphery of his attention, Umber heard Starfish mumble something to the group. Seconds later, the heavy slap slap slap of SeaWing talons sprinting down the halls sounded from behind.
Starfish reached the stairwell entrance before Flame and Umber could safely disappear.
"Hold it," Starfish gasped. The two younger dragons stopped in their tracks. Umber supposed that any smart dragon would just have kept going, or pretended not to hear. But even in a situation like this Umber couldn't imagine being so rude, especially to a dragon he knew and liked. Flame must have felt the same way based on the expression of frustration and resigned guilt smeared all over his face.
"Now what – whew just gi – give me a moment," Starfish sputtered between deep breaths. He slowly climbed down the steps until he was a mere tail-length away from them. It took another minute for his speech to return to normal. "I can't remember the last time I had to sprint like that – anyway, what were you two doing outside of Zephyr's office? Did something happen?"
His question was mostly worried but also a little suspicious.
"Well, uh," Umber began, but his jaw locked as he scrambled to think of something to say. Should he lie? He was a terrible liar, Starfish would see right through him!
"We just wanted to ask Zephyr something," Flame smoothly supplied. Not for the first time, Umber was thankful for Flame's quick tongue. "But we saw that you were busy so we'll just come back another time." He flashed Starfish his nicest most 'I'm not causing any trouble at all' smile.
Starfish studied them for several heartbeats, clearly not falling for Flame's well used tactic. His eyes flicked down to the envelope that Umber was accidentally crushing in his talons. "What's that?"
Umber winced. Well, we had a good run.
"My my, isn't this place popular," a new voice came from the bottom of the stairs. Umber turned around to see an IceWing with glittery pale blue flecks along his sides and down his legs. His eyes were the sharp grey of a gathering snowstorm – a complete contrasted to the warm smile glowing on his face. He peered over the rim of his glasses with an expression that was equal parts kind and amused. "Do I need an invitation to join this party?"
"Eskar!" Starfish gaped. The Healer's face took on a shade of red that Umber didn't know was possible for a SeaWing. No one said anything for a moment. Starfish was too busy staring; Flame was sizing the IceWing up in a way that reminded Umber of how Avalanche used to look at him when she first found out they were dating.
As for Umber, well, he may or may not have been taking mental notes so he could gossip about this later with Jet. While he would never admit this out loud, Umber couldn't deny he had developed something of a vice for gossip during his time at the Healing Center. He blamed Jet and her contagious excitement over secret flings and messy breakups.
Not to mention Jet had done them a massive favor, so gathering info about her new favorite pairing was the least he could do.
Eskar, naturally, looked rather uncomfortable as three pairs of eyes watched him from the darkness of the stairwell. He touched his face self-consciously. "D-do I have something on my face? Is it spaghetti sauce? Blossom told me I didn't have any on my face but she always pranks me like that –"
"No, it's nothing like that," Starfish rushed to assure him. "You're perfect."
Based on the vibrant shade of violet that spread over Eskar's snout, Umber was pretty confident that he had figured out the mystery of Eskar's feelings.
"Oh, that's very kind of you to say, Starfish." Eskar ducked his head shyly. He glanced quickly at Umber and Flame before addressing the SeaWing. "Um, my monthly subscription to 'Healing Minds, Healing Bodies' just arrived today. Maybe you'd like to join me in reading some of the articles? After your meeting, of course."
The smile on Starfish's face was wider than the ocean. "I'd love to!" Then, more urgently, he added. "Oh, the meeting! Right. Yes." The SeaWing's wrung his talons together. "I suppose Zephyr will want to hear the presentation I prepared. Oh, I do hope they like the poster board I made. I – I should go get my presentation cards… what if I choke up and forget everything?"
Eskar stepped forward and touched his wing to Starfish's. "You'll do great, Starfish. You've been practicing that presentation with me all week and it's fantastic." He placed a talon on Starfish's upper arm and the SeaWing shivered from more than just the chill of the IceWing's touch. "Can I go with you and help you set up? Maybe Zephyr will even let me sit in! I could be there for moral support."
Starfish smiled timidly. "I'd like that."
The two Healers hurried away up the stairs, completely forgetting about Umber and Flame. The silence they left in their wake was even more pronounced than the absolutely stupefied expression on Flame's face.
Finally the SkyWing gathered himself and uttered, "What the hell?"
Umber could barely contain his glee. "I can't wait to tell Jet about this. Starfish has a date!"
Flame wrinkled his snout further. "Look, I like Starf, I think he's a great guy, but please don't tell me his idea of a date is reading journal articles."
Umber gave Flame a playful wing-tap. "Says the dragon who thinks reading graphicolls together counts as a date." Umber turned and climbed down the last few steps to the ground level. Flame stumbled after him.
"B-but you like those dates, right? You enjoy them?"
The MudWing slowed so that Flame could catch up, and once he did Umber touched their noses together. "Of course. Now let's get your brother."