Deathbringer was in a pretty good mood today, all things considered.

Even if he wasn't exactly sure how much he was looking forward to picking fruit with Jambu for an indefinite amount of time. He had agreed to do it, though; and he was a dragon of his word.

He sort of hoped it wouldn't take too long. He was looking forward to seeing Glory again. As soon as possible, preferably. Yesterday, he had finally gotten to tell her all about the little dragonets he'd been getting to know for the past few days. Which he'd been very happy about, for a couple of reasons.

One of his reasons was quite simple: Deathbringer loved his home, and the prospect of nurturing it was of utmost importance to him. The Rainforest Kingdom was honestly just about the most perfect place Deathbringer could imagine residing in for (hopefully) the rest of his life. And Jambu's students, particularly Sundown and Dartfrog, instilled more confidence in him about that the more he learned from them. Confidence he wanted to share with his queen.

Granted, yes — he had firstly had their relationship in mind, hoping as well that his report would serve to brighten his mate up a bit, aaaand perhaps lead to a pleasant afternoon with her... (which, much to his own satisfaction, had worked out rather nicely).

But no personal endeavor would change the fact that he was ever a loyal and proud protector of his kingdom. Even if said endeavor was also, of utmost importance.

Despite living in, and caring as much as he did for the rainforest, however... Deathbringer had certainly never been fruit-picking before.

Must be a RainWing thing, he'd said to himself, when Jambu had first invited him to go yesterday. And now, as he lay comfortably in a patch of shade below the sun time platforms, waiting for his charge to finish napping, the same thought danced around in his mind.

A long yawn from above brought Deathbringer back to the present: the RainWings were starting to wake up.

He lifted his face to peer up at the platforms just as a dragon stretched herself to her feet and spread her wings, startling a few ruby red birds that had been sitting nearby. Others soon joined her, bringing the treetops to life in a shimmering spectrum. And eventually, one of those dragons, was Prince Jambu.

Bright and pink as ever, Jambu beamed down over the edge of his platform when he spotted Deathbringer waiting below him. Liana's sapphire head popped into view a second later, and she grinned as well. She turned to nudge her best friend until he laughed and leapt from his perch; he spread his wings and glided gracefully down to meet Deathbringer on the ground.

"Hey," he said when he arrived, stifling another laugh. "How long have you been waiting for me?"

"Not too long," Deathbringer answered. He offered a smile back to Jambu's toothy grin.

Jambu ducked his head a bit, and brushed at the floor with one of his front talons. "Heh. That's good." He paused, then peeked back up into his attendant's eyes. "So, uh, you wanna get going?"

The NightWing nodded, rising to his feet. "Lead the way."

The place Jambu took him wasn't far from the RainWing village, but it was quietly tucked away in its own charming little grove. Several different types of trees and vines adorned the space, each offering their own flowers and fruits of many colors and shapes. Deathbringer noticed right away how tidy the undergrowth was, as if it was tended to on a regular basis. He also noticed that while there was far from a crowd here, they weren't alone.

A number of RainWings had already arrived — either in pairs, or small groups of three or four. Deathbringer observed for a moment as each group drifted around, talking and laughing softly as they picked the fruit around them. A few of the partakers nibbled on their fruits as well, but many seemed to be more interested in simply being together.

Interesting... They must really enjoy this activity. That thought unfortunately did nothing to change his own skepticism about trying it out for himself, buuuuut at least it was exercising his natural curiosity.

When he turned his attention back to Jambu, the magenta-pink dragon had his own tail in his talons, fidgeting with it a bit. His gaze was directed downward, but shortly he met Deathbringer's eyes with a shy smile. Deathbringer couldn't help but notice how uncharacteristically reserved he'd been since they'd left the sun time platforms. Which was a little odd. But then again...it wouldn't be the first time Jambu had surprised him.

Perhaps it was nothing.

Perhaps all RainWings preferred their fruit-picking quietly. Perhaps it was even something they did to relax, the way NightWings sometimes read their scrolls. That would certainly be interesting.

"Would you like to begin?" Deathbringer broke the silence.

Jambu giggled softly. "Yeah, sure," he said. He then led Deathbringer to one of the nearest vines, which bore clusters of bright blue, oval-shaped fruits. As Jambu reached out to pick the first one, he looked over at his attendant with another small smile.

Deathbringer forced a smile back. He gingerly glanced up at a neighboring group of three dragons, who didn't seem bothered at all that a NightWing had joined their little soiree. Then he too reached out to pick one of the blue fruit clusters. He stared down at it in his own black talon, blinking once. Now what?

He'd meant what he'd said yesterday about probably not eating any — the idea of fruit was nice, and Deathbringer was pretty fascinated by the way these plants had evolved to entice creatures to eat from them and spread their seeds...but he still much preferred meat.

"I'll take it," Jambu piped up, catching Deathbringer's attention. When he looked his way, the prince was holding an empty talon out towards him. He continued, "Whatever you don't want, I mean. I'll eat all the fruits."

Jambu finished his words with a very sincere grin that Deathbringer couldn't help but return.

"You will, will you?" he chuckled as he dropped the blue fruit he'd picked into Jambu's hand.

The RainWing nodded happily, tossing it into his mouth. "Mm-hmm! I could eat this stuff all day." He swallowed, and sighed. "If only my stomach was bigger."

"I suppose that's pretty convenient for me," Deathbringer said.

They moved to a tree with round, reddish-purple fruits next. Jambu stared up at the high branches for a moment, then lifted himself up on his hind legs as he tried to reach up to them. He swiped at one of the fruits, barely missing it, and then lowered himself back down on his haunches with a disappointed snort.

Deathbringer stifled a quiet laugh before taking matters into his own talons; he reached up the same way Jambu had tried to, his bigger build taking him further, and snatched a few of the fruits from the branches. Once he'd lowered himself, he held them out to his companion.

"Here you are," he offered kindly.

And for a moment, Jambu only gazed back at him with large sparkling eyes of gratitude — almost as if he couldn't believe it. Deathbringer blinked, in waiting. Finally, slowly, the prince lowered his gaze to the fruits in Deathbringer's talons. He reached out to take them, very gently.

"Th-Thanks," he breathed. He cradled the fruits close, smiling warmly down at them.

...Alright.

Deathbringer cleared his throat.

As they moved on to the next tree, Jambu munched on one of his new fruits. Deathbringer looked around again, taking notice of a pair of dragons that picked from a vine with their tails wound together. And a group of three that giggled as they fed raspberries to one another. He found himself wondering, for a brief few seconds, if this was significant; but only a few groups seemed to be enjoying their time so intimately; so Deathbringer shrugged it off, and returned to his own picking.

He continued giving any fruits he picked to Jambu, and Jambu continued smiling at them, and eating them.

They had loosely circled around the grove when Deathbringer started absent-mindedly passing him star fruits. But he stopped short as Jambu let out a rather helpless noise that sounded somewhere between a yelp and a laugh. When the NightWing turned to look at him, he was surprised to see how big Jambu's collection of fruits had gotten. Some of them had even spilled over onto the ground.

"Three moons!" the prince giggled over the pile in his arms. "I think I might have enough for dinner and breakfast tomorrow!"

Deathbringer blinked. "Oh dear... My apologies, Jambu — I thought you were eating them."

"I was! But then I got full," Jambu explained with a cheerful wing-shrug.

"Hmmm." Deathbringer nodded thoughtfully. "Well, if you have enough, shall we stop?"

Jambu grinned. "Sure, that's fine."

"What would you like to do with the rest?"

Jambu said, "I can just take them to my hammock for now; you can help me carry them there, if you want! It's not too far."

"Alright," he agreed.

Deathbringer took half the fruits and followed Jambu out of the grove. Chittering monkeys and squawking birds accompanied the two dragons as they dipped and ducked through the forest in the direction of Jambu's alternate sleeping spot.

After a few moments, Jambu veered upward and landed on a large tree branch with a traditional RainWing hammock attached to it. Deathbringer landed beside him, watching first as the prince traveled nimbly down the branch to the spot where it connected to its enormous tree trunk. When he followed suit, Deathbringer quickly spotted the cozy, dark little hollow above the branch, and observed as Jambu dumped his fruits into it.

Jambu then turned back to his attendant with a smile and held his empty arms out. Deathbringer passed him the remainder of their harvest. Once Jambu finished storing his next few meals away, he turned around again, and settled into a comfortable seat. Then he sighed happily.

"That was a lot of fun," he said. He hesitated before softly adding, "I'm really glad you went with me."

"Of course. I'm glad you enjoyed it," Deathbringer told him with a nod.

Hurriedly, Jambu asked, "You did too, right? E-Enjoyed it, I mean? You've probably never been fruit-picking before, have you? ...Well, until now."

Deathbringer chuckled. "You would be correct." He paused. "It was certainly...different. But yes, I enjoyed it."

It was a half-truth. Or something akin to that, at least. Deathbringer could easily think of a few less enjoyable things. He also didn't see any point in hurting Jambu's feelings with a full description of his thoughts.

In the filtered sunbeams from the canopy, the prince's big brown eyes seemed to glitter right along with his widening smile.

"That's great," he breathed. "Maybe we can go again sometime, if you want to."

"Perhaps." A brief silence passed between them. Then Deathbringer said, "In any case... if you don't mind, I'd like to go check up on the queen. Would you like to meet us back at the royal pavilion in an hour or so?"

"Sure! I can do that," Jambu happily obliged.

Deathbringer smiled. "Excellent. I'll see you then."

He spread his black wings and bowed low before taking off in that direction, leaving Jambu with his fruits.

As Deathbringer slipped past the last few hanging vines and emerald leaves approaching Queen Glory's pavilion, he couldn't help but overhear the rather emphatic conversation she was having with one of her other guards.

"Those two again!?" the queen demanded in a frustrated tone. "What is this, the fifth time now?"

"Um...the third, Your Majesty." Deathbringer immediately recognized Heliconia's voice.

Glory growled. "That's still too many times for me." She snorted, and sighed. "Alright. Take Banana and the others, get down there as fast as you can, and see if you can settle the issue. And tell those dragons they are not going to want to be around when their queen shows up in the next half hour."

"At once, Your Majesty," said Heliconia. She hurriedly bowed and took off towards the NightWing village with Banana and a few other RainWing guards close behind.

Deathbringer stepped out onto the pavilion silently, and waited. A few seconds later, the queen heaved another big sigh and swiveled around to face him with a start.

"Deathbringer!" she breathed.

He smiled, and bowed his head. "My queen."

Glory blinked. Then narrowed her eyes.

"How long have you been silently judging my management skills?" she asked.

"Only a moment," Deathbringer admitted with a small laugh.

Glory stifled her own laugh, and to his surprise, she also softened a bit. "It's just Cashew and Fireclaws. Again. I swear I don't know how they find so many ways to stay mad at each other. But I'm about to take my own tail down there and sort them out for good." She ended her explanation with a peachy smile. "How are you?"

"I'm well," he told her. "I can always come back a bit later, though, if you need to focus."

The queen shook her head. "No. I just need a moment to cool down, actually." She sat back on her haunches, and motioned with her wing for him to join her. "Come tell me what you and Jambu have been up to today. I'm sure that will be much nicer to hear about than intertribal squabbling."

"Alright," he said.

Deathbringer obliged without hesitation, coming in closer and taking a seat nearby. He was careful to leave some space between them, and ready to stay with her as long as she needed him to. Though he honestly wasn't very sure where to begin.

"Well," he started, and Glory looked his way. "Jambu's class went well this morning. The dragonets appear to be learning sufficiently." He paused. "Jambu and I went fruit-picking after sun time. A rather odd ritual, that one; but he seemed to enjoy it a lot. And now I'm here."

Glory only stared at him after he finished, silent.

She blinked.

"Fruit-picking?"

"Yes. Don't you know of it?" he asked.

For another moment, Glory was silent. She blinked again, and averted her eyes as she tilted her head down slightly.

Shortly, she directed her gaze back to him, and in a rather skeptical tone, she asked, "You and Jambu went fruit-picking together?"

Deathbringer wrinkled his brow. "...Yes?"

Glory opened her mouth, and closed it again. Deathbringer felt a prickle of awkwardness beginning to creep up his spine, that grew as he took notice of the bright yellow bubbling up in Glory's ruff. She hid a smile.

"Deathbringer," she very hesitantly said. "Did you go out on a date...with my brother?"

Every muscle in the assassin's body froze at once.

For a second, Deathbringer couldn't even speak.

"I-I beg your pardon!?" he finally sputtered out.

His mate's smile slowly peeled up into a grin.

And then she collapsed into a loud snort that sent her giggling in ways he didn't even know she could giggle. Explosions of yellow attacked her dark green scales as the queen laughed and laughed. Deathbringer could only wait for her to stop, speechless.

"O-Oh, talons and tails!" Glory choked. "I-I'm so sorry! I-I just — I can't —" She coughed, lowering herself to lie down and breathe. "What am I going to do with that dragon!?"

Deathbringer felt warmth rushing to his face, and immediately averted his eyes, shuffling on his talons. The embarrassment that flushed over him made him want to disappear into the darkest shadows of the rainforest. Every confusing piece of the puzzle was coming together now, but he still could hardly believe it.

"Did he really not tell you what you were doing?" Glory asked.

Deathbringer quickly shook his head; he kept his gaze down. "Moons, no! I-I never would've — It sounded so casual, I just thought — Glory, I —"

"Relax, relax," she cut him off. "I'm not an idiot. I know you wouldn't have gone out with him on purpose. I just can't believe he would prank you like that." Deathbringer peeked back up at her. Glory shook her head, and stifled another laugh. "What a little jerk."

As his shocking discomfort began to fade, Deathbringer soon straightened himself back up. He eyed Glory curiously, a bit unsure how to feel about her assumption, though he didn't voice it.

After a moment, Glory continued. "I'm sure he didn't mean any real harm. He's just...a RainWing. For lack of a better explanation. They seem to think everything is perpetually hilarious."

"So I've noticed," Deathbringer said.

"Well, at least now you know what fruit-picking is," she offered with a shrug. Then she admitted, "I probably only know because it was one of the things I had to learn about when I was studying for my royal challenge. Apparently, it's a very popular courtship tradition here."

"They must pick fruit all the time anyway, though? For eating?" he asked, letting his desire for knowledge cast out any remaining insecurity.

The queen nodded. "Of course. But the context makes it quite a different experience. So I've been told."

That made sense. It made a lot of sense, thinking back on the peculiar way the pairs and groups of dragons, and Jambu, had been acting in the grove. Deathbringer hadn't really understood how anyone could be that giddy over acquiring a snack from a tree in the rainforest. Especially when those snacks were widely and readily available at all times, and these dragons ate them every day of their lives.

Glory sighed, getting to her feet again.

"Anyway, I better get going; but thank you for talking to me. I shouldn't be too long. Hopefully." She gave him a playful smile. "You'll have to start thinking of ways to get Jambu back while I'm gone."

"Do you need me to come along?" he quickly asked.

"That won't be necessary. I can handle it," she declined, in a voice that silently added a very clear "and don't follow me, either" at the end of it.

Deathbringer relaxed his muscles that had been ready to jump into action, only a little disappointed. Glory flicked her tail at him before she spread her wings and launched herself into the surrounding trees, leaving him alone with his thoughts.

Each and every one of his incredibly vastly confusing thoughts. That he hated to admit, were quickly taking precedence over how badly he already missed his mate.

A prank?

Deathbringer wanted to believe that, truly he did. But nothing about the time he'd spent with Jambu today had felt like a prank. He wanted to trust Glory's usually spot-on intuition. But he wasn't sure if he should. He wanted to tell her about all these contradicting feelings. But...for some reason, when he'd had the opportunity, he'd hesitated.

He was at a complete loss on what steps to take next from this ridiculously awkward circumstance. The only thing he knew he had to do, first and foremost, was find out the truth from Jambu himself.

He suspected Glory would probably be gone longer than she'd anticipated, and perhaps Jambu would arrive first. So he settled down on the royal pavilion platform, and waited.

And soon enough, the accuracy of his suspicions was revealed. Buuuut not in exactly the way Deathbringer had imagined.

"DEATHBRINGAAAR! I'M FALLING! CATCH ME I'M GONNA DIE! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Deathbringer's head shot up in alarm, just in time to see a grinning bright pink blur plummeting right towards him. He barely had a second to think before he instinctively flared his wings to catch Prince Jambu, who crashed into him and sent them both skidding across the pavilion.

They tumbled to an uncomfortably tangled mess of a stop, after which Jambu immediately burst into laughter. Blushing and bewildered, Deathbringer hurriedly scrambled away.

"J-Jambu!" he choked as he started shaking out his surprise.

"Heehee! Hi," said the RainWing, unfazed. He rolled over onto his tummy, curling his tail and sending a twinkling gaze up at his attendant. "I know I'm a little early...but I didn't wanna wait anymore to see you again!"

Deathbringer paused to glance mindfully at him. He cleared his throat and settled himself further, gathering his courage. He didn't have the first clue how to begin this conversation. But it needed to happen...now. Hesitantly, he took a breath, and extended a talon to Jambu.

Jambu blinked at the offer, then took it, helping himself to his feet. The two dragons held each other's gazes for a long few seconds.

"It's alright," Deathbringer began nervously. "I have something I need to discuss with you, though, before we do anything else. Something rather important."

"You do?" Jambu asked, rounding his eyes.

Deathbringer nodded, and braced himself. "Our fruit-picking earlier. Did you invite me to go as a prank of some sort?"

Jambu's brown eyes somehow managed to grow even larger as he melted into a nearly comical display of worry. It was honestly a bit startling to see the clouds of blue-grey that instantly started rolling through his fuchsia scales.

"A...prank?" he stammered softly. Quickly, he covered his snout with his talons, and looked away for a short moment. Then he shook his head. "No... No, I would never do that! Have you been thinking that this whole time? Oh, gosh."

Deathbringer found himself unable to speak. Mouth agape, he only stared back at the prince.

Jambu tucked his chin, rather bashfully, before he continued. "I-I'm so, so sorry. I didn't mean for it to come off that way at all." He peeked back up to meet Deathbringer's eyes. Then he admitted, "I...I really like you. Like, a lot."

For a moment, Deathbringer still couldn't find his voice. He didn't know whether he was more stunned by the truth or the undeniable sincerity with which it'd been revealed. One thing he did know (though he wasn't sure why): he was very relieved that Queen Glory hadn't been a witness to it.

What would she even think? If she knew about this?

The NightWing finally sucked in a breath of air as he shut his slacked jaw.

"I see," he forced out the first words of his reply. He really didn't want to upset Jambu further. But he knew his own heart, and he knew what he had to say. "Well. Jambu." Awkwardly, he paused. "I do like you as well; you're a lovely dragon. But..." He coughed slightly. "I — I'm afraid I didn't realize your intentions. And I can't return your feelings. I'm in love with your sister."

Silence.

A breeze rustled the leaves around them, and a few hidden monkeys chirruped nearby.

Jambu stared at Deathbringer, frozen in time.

Another long, uncomfortable moment passed.

And then he choked, "Oh."

Deathbringer softened as a small wave of guilt passed over him. Not for his own feelings, but for his new friend's obvious pain. After all, no matter what the truth of the matter was, Jambu had seen their "date" as a sign, and therefore had assumed the best. Only to have his hopes smashed in the same day.

"Are you alright?" he cautiously asked.

It was quite discomforting to watch as Jambu forced a tiny smile, and (unsuccessfully) tried to fight back the cloudy sorrow in his scales.

"Y-Yeah!" he said, clearly lying through his teeth. "I'm fine. No problem. I get it."

Deathbringer blinked at him before dropping his gaze to the leaves below his talons.

"Well, uh," Jambu continued after a moment. "I think I'm gonna go...take a nap or something. But I'll see ya later, okay?"

Quickly, Deathbringer snapped his head back up. "Of course. I'll, um. I'll find you."

His charge nodded, and tried to smile again. He'd just about forced all his scales back to pink; but somehow, the color seemed muted, with a much sadder glow than usual. Jambu gave a small dip of the head before he leapt into the air and spiraled away into the forest.

And again, Deathbringer was left with only his thoughts. Which were now just as uncomfortably cheerless as they were still confusing.

He wished he could go after Jambu and brighten him up again. How long, he wondered, would it take before the silly RainWing was back to his normal, innocently happy self? And even if he tried to make that happen...what was there to say?

Would things be awkward between them every time they spoke now?

Deathbringer hoped not. Or at least, not forever. He couldn't do anything about his own romantic loyalties... (as strangely flattering as it was to know that another dragon might want him in the same way he wanted Queen Glory — but he pushed that thought aside — he didn't even like males in that way... Right? He never had before. Not that it even mattered — he was happily mated).

But that brought him back to another question: should he tell Glory about all this?

As hard as he racked his brain, he couldn't decide how he thought she might react to knowing her own brother had real feelings for her mate. Would she be surprised? Would she be angry with him? ...He really didn't want that, not with how upset Jambu already was. And especially since Jambu clearly hadn't known how close Glory and Deathbringer were. Surely Deathbringer personally informing him, and turning him down, would be enough to resolve the issue, without Glory's involvement.

But would he be betraying her by not telling her?

It didn't feel like a betrayal.

Perhaps he was thinking too much. As usual.

What was there to worry about, anyway? It wasn't like Jambu would give him any problems, even if his feelings didn't go away. He isn't that kind of dragon...but then again, how am I so sure? I barely know him.

Deathbringer shook himself.

He didn't want to think about this anymore. He didn't want to drag it out longer than it needed to be (or get poor Jambu into any unnecessary trouble) by telling Glory every detail, either. So he wouldn't. Simple as that.

notes:

thank you to any new reviewers i haven't been able to reply to. :) i appreciate all of you so much.

i hope everyone's enjoying Darkness of Dragons as well — it's my new fav tbh!