Here's my first Dragon Booster oneshot story! Based off the episode The Mouth That Roared (episode 35). So spoilers for that!

There's anxiety and other feelings in this, so a warning for that. And also there's a panic attack too I think. I've never written one before so I hope it isn't miscategorized.

But I tried to focus on their brotherly love, so hope that shone through!

This bounces around from points of view at times, I think. I tried to do a thing, going from brother to brother to try and show the emotions flying around. And maybe be like a movie, with tension rising and their conversation not really cohesive. Plus, I tried to make their scenes more emotional. Don't know if I succeeded, but I like it!

Oh and ignore canon where their father is back. In this AU, he isn't. They don't even know that he's alive or where he is. Artha and Lance are the only members of the Penn family left.

I don't own Dragon Booster. That belongs to Rob Travalino and Kevin Mowrer, Nerd Corps Entertainment, The Story Hall, Alliance Atlantis, ApolloScreen, Filmproduction, and any other companies too.

Oneshot #1 - It Will Be Alright

Lance was lying on his side, alone in his bedroom. He thought about all that transpired the previous day. Sure, everything turned out fine…eventually. But something still felt off to Lance. He couldn't place it though. Like a niggling at the back of his mind.

Maybe he needed to de-stress and unwind a bit? He glanced over at his Battle Ground Dragon video game. Yeah, that was it! He tensed his muscles, ready to spring up off the bed and go get it.

A knock on his door jolted Lance out of his musings.

There was only one person that would enter his room. Well technically three people, but Parmon and Kitt hadn't been in the house-portion of Penn stables yet. So yeah, only one person came to Lance's mind.

Relaxing, he forgot about his game for a bit.

Lance called out for his brother to come in.

Artha immediately stuck in his head. His blue eyes looked nervous about something.

Lance had confusion on his face.

"Artha, you know you don't gotta knock."

His socks scuffed the floor, as he nervously moved his foot back and forth before digging his toes into the carpet a bit.

"Yeah, I know. I wanna talk with you."

Lance heard his voice go softer and knew that whatever was on his older brother's mind, it was serious. He wondered what this was about.

Artha rubbed the back of his neck, yet slowly entering anyways.

"Lance?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry."

Artha took a seat on the bed next to his little brother. He knew the conversation he wanted to have would be hard, but he had to power through. He had to get his feelings and thoughts off his chest. And Artha decided earlier that it would be best to talk with Lance rather than continuing to stew by himself.

It took a beat before Lance remembered all that happened. He suddenly felt all the negative emotions rushing back.

"That's not good enough. You didn't believe me. Why, Artha?"

Artha could feel his mouth open to what would probably be a automated defensive statement, but then forced it shut. He then mentally berated himself.

He had to be open to Lance. No matter if he wanted to have this conversation or not. His brother deserved it from him.

"I don't know why my first reaction was to think you were lying, ok? That was my own fault."

Artha was quiet for a bit, competing thoughts swirling in his mind for attention. His chest felt heavy with the pain of guilt, sorrow, and regret. A lot of them which made his chest ache.

Earlier after the incident when Lance had seemed back to his usual self, Artha had relaxed thinking they had no issue. But after the two had gone home and Artha had time to really ruminate on the day's events, he realized it wouldn't be so easy to put behind them. At least on his part until they both hashed it out.

As much bad emotions he had, Artha felt a tiny shard of hope still lingering in his body. He and Lance could get past this.

Artha just had to get through to Lance.

Lance didn't respond to his earlier comment, so Artha kept going.

"I know it's a general rule that older siblings are supposed to know more, but that's not true. I really messed up today by not believing what you were saying."

Lance's mouth turned down.

"That's the thing though, Artha. You know I'd never lie about real life stuff. Especially if what Moordryd does could hurt you."

Blue eyes looked into his own blue ones. Artha's shoulders tensed as he felt another layer of guilt pile on him.

"I know. Especially now. It was just…I guess I was upset that you had cheated earlier. I let that carry over and cloud my thoughts later, when you told me what Moordryd was doing."

Lance stayed quiet, but the hurt in his eyes remained.

"But that's no excuse. There's none for my actions."

Artha grabbed his hair in frustration at himself. The teen's muscles tensed even more now, and he curled in on himself a bit. Though he remained sitting facing his brother on the bed next to him.

"Argh, I'm just so sorry I didn't trust you. I never meant to hurt you, Lance."

His younger brother was still frowning up at him.

"I know I'm young, Artha. But you should know when I'm serious and joking by now. You know me better than anyone."

At this, Artha scooted closer to Lance on the bed. By now the two of them were sitting near the wall and Lance's pillows.

"I'm sorry. I believed you were making up stories. Which I shouldn't have. I should do better than what I've done today. I should be better."

"How come you didn't change your mind when Moordryd was trying to take you down on the track?"

Artha let out a frustrated sigh, looking up at the ceiling. A second passed before he glanced down into Lance's eyes.

"Well during the race, his actions seemed normal to me. I just expected the same sort of foul play from him that he always does in every race. He's the same piece of dragon dung we know, after all."

At this, they both nodded. They knew how the other teen could be.

"Sorry again, Lance. He could've seriously hurt me and gotten away with a lot of shady things. But he didn't. Because of you. It was a good call to get Chief Faier. I mean seriously, that was some quick thinking, little bro."

Artha then put his hand on Lance's knee. His mouth twitched as if he wanted to smile. Lance saw a hint of a smile in his eyes before it was replaced with storminess again.

Lance sat there contemplating on all that Artha said. He knew what happened that day was big. So he was glad that Artha let him take his time going through his emotions.

In the end he decided to forgive Artha. He felt that unknown tightening of his chest from earlier become smaller.

"Thanks. I just told him Dragon Booster needed help. I'm glad he stayed in the area while you were fighting Rivitt and Malto."

Artha let out a small grunt, agreeing reluctantly. Yet, he still looked distracted to Lance.

"Yeah."

Lance offered a small smile towards Artha.

"Hey Artha? I forgive you. Thanks for apologizing to me. I think I really needed it. And I'm sorry too, for hacking the vid game and cheating earlier."

His heart feeling lighter, Lance thought they were done but he saw his brother gearing up for more. So Lance prepared himself too.

"Hey, Lance? I'm sorry for one other thing too."

"What's that?"

Artha clenched his fist and growled softly.

"I broke my promise to you. A while ago I told you that I'd never leave you. And that's just what I did, and look at the consequences. You were forced to go into a dangerous situation alone!"

"But I wasn't alone! Kitt was with me and we –!"

"The point is that you felt like you had to in the first place! You're just a normal kid! I'm the Dragon Booster! I should've done all I could to prevent that situation from happening, no matter if I didn't believe you or not!"

While Lance could admit to himself that yeah Artha's actions did sting, he could understand. He learned early on that Artha's duty was to all of human-kind and dragon-kind before family. He had heard their dad tell him stories of the dragon-human war before. The man would always stress importance of dragons and humans all over the world and how there could never be that sort of distrust and tension ever again, or else the world would fall into darkness.

Lance understood those things, as much as he was able to. It didn't mean he had to like it, however.

"But Artha, you're a kid too! A teenager yeah, but still a kid. You did the best you could."

But still, he didn't want to escalate their feelings like this. He didn't want to keep being mad at Artha. He wanted to hurry up and get through this slight betrayal.

Lance took a deep breath and tried to sort out his thoughts. Trying to look on the bright side. He continued.

"Hey, it's alright. I mean, you did save me from Malto as the Dragon Booster. And everything turned out okay!"

"But it almost didn't!"

At this point, Artha got off the bed. Feeling stifled just sitting down. He needed to do something. He had to walk around. But even as he did so, the feeling wouldn't go away.

Uh oh. Artha was getting worked up again. Lance tried to interrupt, but his brother kept going.

His voice got softer, as well as shaky.

"I could've lost you."

Artha felt breathing become much harder. His lungs felt like they had a rock inside them, making it hard to swallow. He quickly scrubbed the fleshy part of his palm across his eyes, smearing the tears that flowed from them. But more tears quickly fell, making his action moot.

Everything could've gone wrong and Lance could've been killed.

Artha's shoulders started to shake.

That surprised Lance, even though he knew it shouldn't. He knew Artha loved him. But Lance hadn't really had time to digest the day until now. Things could've turned out worse. And Artha hadn't even been aware of the danger for a while. He could've died and Artha been none the wiser. That kind of scared Lance. He and Artha were all each other had now that their father was gone.

Lance shook his head a bit. It was time to get out of this funk they both were in.

The ten-year-old did so by lifting his legs up onto his bed, before crawling on his knees and into his brother's lap. His body was facing the older boy's. Lance was small enough that he had no fear of falling backward and onto the floor because of his own weight. His thighs bracketed his brother's hips, and he didn't need to do much to get comfy. Artha's head had hung down, so Lance ducked his own a bit to look up into Artha's surprised face. He then used a hand to cup a clenched cheek and gently lift upwards.

He kept his tone light and had a small smile on his face.

"But I'm here, Artha. You made sure of that."

"What?"

"Artha, you saved me. You did. So you gotta stop beating yourself up now, ok?"

What he expected was his brother to agree with him. What he got was the sixteen-year-old turning his head in shame, breaking their eye contact.

"Lance…"

Said boy puffed out his cheeks before resolutely forcing Artha to look at him once again. Lance then brought his other hand up. Using both thumbs now on each one, he rubbed Artha's cheeks.

"Nope!"

"But I put my own feelings ahead of yours! I always put Dragon Booster duties ahead of you! Ever since I had to start taking down bad guys! I gotta stop that!"

Artha ended his exclamations with a growl.

Lance could tell it was still upsetting him. His small hand came down and grasped the larger hand that was currently bunching the bedsheets up. Lance rubbed the top of Artha's hand with his thumb, trying to help. Lance kept his voice soft and comforting still.

"Don't, Artha. Stop thinking that."

"What do you mean?"

Artha felt lost. His head felt overwhelmed, swirling with all the feelings and possible outcomes that could have happened earlier. It was like there was invisible weight pressing in on him. What was weird though was his body also felt keyed up, like there was all this energy with nowhere to go.

Artha tried to focus on Lance though. His ears were still working fine. And he could feel the warmth of little fingers around his bigger ones.

"You do think of me. You're the one person who cares about my complete safety. Heck, even when you're busy with Dragon Booser stuff, you take the time to ask if I'm with one of the others."

That was true.

"Yeah, I try. I'll make sure to do better in the future, too."

"Okay."

Lance nodded, noticing Artha mimicking the movement right after. Before the teen pulled the boy into a hug.

Ok, now this was good. Hugging like this. Well, more like squeezing tightly. But he didn't hear any complaining so he kept on doing so. Artha let out a long exhale, feeling his body start to calm down. His thoughts weren't racing anymore or filled with anxiety. In fact, he wasn't thinking at all. It was like his mind shut down and all he could do was feel.

Lance let out a smile, closing his eyes. He could feel Artha's heart beat slow and his breathing come back to normal.

They rested like that for a while before Artha's stomach rumbled. Lance laughed before blushing, when his did the same.

"I guess it's dinner time?"

"Yeah. C'mon Lance. I'll make us something."

"Ok, thanks Artha."

After they ate, they headed back to Lance's room.

He could tell that Artha was reluctant to leave so he tried to think of something to make him stay. Then his eyes spotted his game. Snatching up the Battle Ground Dragon, he waved it in front of his brother.

"Hey Artha! Wanna play with me? You know, relax and get your scales beaten by me? Promise not to cheat this time."

The teen looked at what Lance was holding and grinned. He eagerly agreed. It was nice that the tension had gone. Their warm companionability at dinner helped dissipate the small lingering feelings. Artha felt good about their talk, even if it had been rough getting through it. But by the end, they both felt better. And that was the best outcome he could have hoped for.

Artha's eyes gleamed with fire and the thrill of friendly competition.

"Oh of course. How could I forget? Lance Penn! The greatest vid game player ever!"

Lance watched as Artha rushed to his room for his own game consol. While he was doing that, the ten-year-old turned on the device and listened to the score music that went with the home screen.

Jumping on the bed, Artha let out a whoop as he landed. His heavier body bounced Lance up, who didn't even protest. The two then booted up their consoles.

A lengthy silence once again filled the room, but this time it was all focused. Each boy's eyes honed in on their individual screens as they played. Some fidgeting accompanied their hand movements too, since both Artha and Lance went all in as they played. Lance figured he got it from years of watching his brother move hid body while playing.

Soon enough a large two-legged dragon roared on the screen, signaling the end of a round.

"And hey, I didn't even cheat!"

That last sentence was said lightly, but Lance tried to pour sincerity into his voice. He could tell by the way Artha's eyes widened that he understood.

"Thanks, Lance."

The younger boy smiled a matching one.

"No problem, Artha."

Suddenly the sixteen-year-old's blue eyes became mischievous. Artha smirked.

"Now prepare to lose! It's my turn to kick a little butt!"

Then there were grunts and growls while the siblings were focused on defeating the other at Battleground Dragon.

"Aw man! I can't believe I lost again! You're way too good at this game, little bro!"

Tossing his game to the side, Artha saw Lance set his on the covers.

Growling playfully, Artha then pounced on Lance. He quickly pinned the smaller boy to the bed, the older brother being on top. He then gave the redhead a soft noogie, which Lance tried to unsuccessfully squirm out of. After a minute or two, Artha then felt Lance stiffen. Worried, he paused his fist's actions. That was a second too long, however. Because he then saw a glimmer in the little one's eyes.

Before the older teen could wonder what was going on in his brother's mind, Lance then glomped onto Artha's own head. That so wasn't fair! The sneaky little kid was using his legs to lock around the back of Artha's shoulders, meaning that his larger head was now trapped!

"Hah! Who's got the upper hand now, big bro?"

But not for long, as an idea came into Artha's brain.

"Oh no! Somebody help! I'm being attacked by Lance!"

Smirking again to himself, Artha suddenly used his core muscles to shift his upper body off the bed, feeling Lance follow after him. Artha then moved his legs up under both of them as he fully left the bed. Making sure to grab Lance's legs with his hands, even though he knew instinctively that he wouldn't let his brother fall.

After Artha's exclamation he playfully started jumping with Lance on his shoulders. Instead of being scared and tensing up, Lance started whooping and crying out in delight.