Hey, it's me again!

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THE CHARACTERS IN THIS FANFICTION; THEY ALL BELONG TO THE WONDERFUL TUI T. SUTHERLAND.

Hot and Cold: A Blacier Oneshot

Blaze burst into Glacier's royal chambers. For a second, she wondered how she had gotten there, and vaguely remembered that she had convinced a guard to smuggle her in using a bag.

This was forgotten as she saw Glacier.

The Queen of the Icewings laid on a bed of polar bear furs. If the circumstances were different, she might have been sleeping, but as Blaze watched, she stirred, then coughed blue blood into a little basin.

A few guards were standing behind Glacier's bed. They had been talking, something about Queen Glacier dying and somebody named Narwhal being too sick to take over, but she had only caught snippets of the conversation and she didn't want to hear more anyway.

Glacier couldn't die. Not after Blaze had just decided that she would tell the queen everything that she had ever thought about her. Not before Blaze could tell her how much she had loved her.

Blaze realized that she had used "had," and stopped thinking about it.

"May I please come closer?" she whispered. She wondered why she whispered, but it seemed appropriate, so she went with it.

A guard nodded.

Blaze approached Glacier cautiously. She had intended to just say goodbye, but she was Blaze, so it wasn't a surprise when she enveloped Glacier in an unexpected hug.

"Stop!" one of the guards barked, before collapsing in a fit of coughs. "You may not-" another cough, "touch the queen-"

Glacier's eyes opened, but instead of the bright, alert, navy blue, they were cloudy and unfocused. "Why are there guards here?" she asked Blaze in a quavering voice.

"They're watching you," Blaze replied, a little startled and relieved.

"Why are they watching me? I'll be fine. You're dismissed," Glacier murmured, waved a claw at the guards. She didn't actually wave in the direction of them, and her talon was more of waving at the bookshelf in the room, but the guards got the general meaning of it and left.

Blaze sat, still kneeling at Glacier's bedside. "Wait, you're not surprised I'm here?"

"I knew you would come for me," Glacier said, a small smile on her face. Her eyes were closed now, but Blaze hoped that if they were open, they would have been looking at her.

"So it's okay that I'm here?" Blaze asked. Her voice wobbled a little, and a tear trickled down her cheek. When did she start crying?

"Yes," Glacier breathed, her voice all but lost in the deafening silence. "Of course."

"I love you," Blaze said, not realizing she had said it until the words escaped her mouth. "Then, now, always, forever."

Glacier opened her eyes. "I love you too," she whispered. She lifted one shaking talon and cupped it around Blaze's face.

"Not because you're dying?" Blaze asked. She was sobbing now. "Not because I gave you so much land?"

"Because I love you," Glacier repeated. She closed her eyes as another round of coughs racked her body.

Blaze sat there for a long time, accompanying Glacier, until a fit of coughing shook Glacier's feeble frame. "This is the end," she murmured between coughs. "Tell the guards that my last words are that I thank them for their service. Tell my subjects that I cherished being their queen, and that I hoped I was the best. Tell my daughter not to fear for her life." She coughed again. "In the ivory cabinet in my office there is a locked compartment. The key is with Snowfall, who knows to give it to you." Glacier smiled. "And remember that I will always love you, through this life and into the next."

And then Glacier went still. "Goodbye," she whispered, and fell silent.

Blaze's scream shattered the silence in the room. She crumpled to the floor, tears flowing down her face. "Glacier! Don't leave me!"

But Glacier did not wake. Blaze knew she wouldn't.

She stepped outside. The guards were waiting, and she knew what she had to say.

"The Queen of the Icewings is dead."

A few days later…

Blaze curled up in the hammock, high above where the other Sandwings were, crowded into the stronghold because of a sudden freak sandstorm. She peeled another banana, her fourth one since everyone had been locked in.

Her mind drifted back to yesterday, when she had finally decided that she would go see what Glacier had left her.

Blaze's trembling talons almost dropped the key to the cabinet, but she held it firmly. It wouldn't do any good for her to lose it now, although someone could probably just break the cabinet for her.

Snowfall had met her at the Great Ice Cliff, a sack in her claws. It turned out that if the Ice Cliff couldn't see any non-Icewings, it would leave the Icewing accompanying it alone. After being smuggled in again, Snowfall had given her the key. "First door on the right," she had said.

Blaze shivered in the traveling cloak she was wearing. She usually wore the white one that was attractive and matched the white of her scales, but she remembered all the times that Glacier had told her that it was too cold for her inside the kingdom.

Glacier would've liked it, she reminded herself. This one is more practical.

Glacier's office felt colder than the rest of the palace. Was it because nobody had used it?

She wondered if Snowfall would use this office, or if she had a different one. She felt weirdly protective of this space. Glacier had been here.

A tear trickled down her face.

She found the locked compartment easily. It was quite large, and she wondered what was inside. She twisted the key until she heard a click, and the drawer opened a little.

Blaze opened it all the way.

There was a single white box, tied with a beautiful silk ribbon. It had a tag, which read, in Glacier's handwriting, Blaze.

She hugged it close, another tear falling to the floor. This was the last thing she had of Glacier.

When she was back home in her room in Thorn's palace, she finally opened it.

Inside was a white, polished tiara, cushioned by some soft cloth. She picked it up, turned it around, and gasped.

It was the crown that she had given Glacier after Sunny had dream-visited her to tell her to meet at Burn's Stronghold to fight for the title of Sandwing queen. It was made of silver, with sapphires in the front.

A note was attached to the tiara, and she read it aloud.

"For Blaze, even though it does go horribly with your scales."

Blaze smiled through the tears. She put it on. The sapphire didn't match with her beautiful gold and white scales, but for once, she didn't care. It looked nice, actually, an interesting highlight.

The cloth turned out to be the most beautiful cloak she had ever seen. It was white and gold, with blue details that went well with the gold somehow. The back had an etching of the Kingdom of Ice and the Kingdom of Sand, and the gold clip was in the shape of a scarab, inlaid with a big sapphire for the beetle's body.

"It's perfect, Glacier," she whispered. "Thank you so much."

If Blaze listened carefully, she thought she heard Glacier say, "You're welcome."

More Blacier fluff uwu

I needed Blaze to be able to get into the Ice Kingdom without making up something like "well she's 1/12974595120680632th Icewing!" Technically, I don't know if the Ice Cliff will let the Icewing holding the bag or the bag alone, but it works just GO WITH IT LEAVE ME ALONEEEEE *Throws "creative liberties" sign at everyone*