The days seemed to pass in minutes, every second being an hour of the day. Flame let out an audible sigh as he rested his head against his talons, bored from the same schedule every day — just like last time. But at least Umber's doing okay, were the only words keeping him happy.
At least after his healing session and his boring job, he got to go back to his room to find Umber and spend time with him before he went to sleep and started it all over again, it felt like clockwork.
If it weren't for cooking the same dishes every day, at the same times, and in the same way, he wouldn't be nearly as bored as he was. At least his old boss would let them make different dishes, instead of yelling at them whenever they made something that wasn't strictly on the menu.
And Aquatic, of course, had only been getting better at cooking. He was getting better at recognizing how much to cook a hotdog without timing it, perfectly toasting a bun blind, how to make fluffy scrambled eggs, and even how to cook a burger with reasonable consistency.
Umber had been coming in to see him every couple of hours as well, and every time he swore Umber only looked happier. And whenever Fennec wasn't around to yell at him, Flame would let him stay in the kitchen with him for the day instead of being alone in the garden or their room. Before that, though, Umber had his healing sessions. And to say they were going well was an understatement
Every day he would go to his sessions, and every day he would come back happier than before. Whatever Nighthunter was doing with him was working, to say the least. But that won't last, Flame thought. As soon as she starts dabbling with Crane is when everything will start to change.
Umber knew that just as well as he did — she couldn't just avoid the only reason he was there in the first place and have a friendly chat every day.
It would need to be talked about, and soon.
"Flame," a familiar blue SeaWing said, pulling his attention away from his thoughts with one hard tug. "Are you listening to me?"
Flame looked up to meet Starf's eyes from the other side of his desk. He was holding his clipboard in his talons — as usual — with his talons covered in ink. If it weren't for Queen Ruby getting rid of pencils almost entirely to save the trees in the area, writing would be a lot easier and a lot less messy. "Uhm…yes?"
He sighed. "Did you do your assignment?" he asked, scribbling away at the clipboard. "Or did you 'forget' again?"
"Yeah, yeah, I did it." He put his talons back to his cheek as a strange cold feeling arose where his talons once were just a few moments prior.
"Okay, then what did I tell you to do?" Starf challenged, peaking at him from above his clipboard.
"Gah! My assignment was to go a whole day without thinking about whether Umber was safe or not." He looked back up at Starf. "How much longer do we have?"
Start looked at him, puzzled at his response. "What's gotten into you today, Flame? Are you okay? Is there something going on that you want to talk about? You're usually happy to be here, especially after Umber proposed."
Something was wrong. Actually, many things were wrong, so many he couldn't even begin to start listing them all off. "I'm fine," Flame retorted.
Then a deafening silence chirped in the room where Start looked at him, unconvinced that he was 'fine'. "Flame, remember what we talked about?"
Talk about your feelings, echoed angrily in his head. "Fine, can I go if I tell you?" Starf stayed silent, and he took that as a maybe. He groaned. "Where do I start? From my boss that makes my job — that I once loved — fucking miserable because I said some oh-so-mean words to him, to the SeaWing that I have to correct daily, to the fact I only get to see Umber for a few hours every day before I go to sleep and do it all over again!"
Starf stared at him for a few moments, thinking. Thinking through all of his weird therapist techniques that will make me feel better. "Well, Flame, it sounds like you're overworked and being put through some stress at the moment."
"Oh, you think?" Flame added sarcastically, light annoyance plaguing his voice. He looked over at the wind-up clock above the door. Ten thirty-four AM, he read, the imaginary pendulum swinging and slowly cutting his wire of patience thin as each tick echoed throughout the room. Millimeter by millimeter, the string frayed.
Tick, tick, tick.
Starf sighed, setting his clipboard down to the side. Flame could clearly see all of the writing on it, lines of ink to a piece of paper. Same format as every time. Same mess every time. Same cleanup every time. "I'll talk to Fennec and see what I can do. Don't expect too much, though, he's a bit of a-"
"Asshole?" Flame finished for him. "Yeah, I know." If only he knew what happened just a couple of weeks ago, he thought. He could still remember the look on Fennec's face as he stared him down, about ready to set him on fire. He wasn't scared though — Fennec couldn't touch him in terms of where he was in his job.
There was a pause for a few moments. Tick, tick, tick. More cut threads, fraying out, cutting through the air in one, lightning-fast motion before going still. Thread by thread, slowly.
"You may go now," were the words that finally freed him, giving him the last twenty minutes of the hour to spend with Umber. Now to hope that he's out before I am.
He wasted no time springing out of his seat and racing all the way back to their room. So fast, in fact, that he hadn't even given Manticore's sudden change to begin playing in the lobby again a second thought; all of his focus was getting to their room and spending as much time as he possibly could with Umber before having to go to work.
Within what felt like seconds, he was back at their room. Sitting on the table where Umber usually read one of his own, new graphicolls when he got back, was Umber doing exactly that.
The sunlight bleeding into the room reflected against his new, more pale-colored scales that replaced his old ones. Dark brown against light brown, looking similar to the cows Umber would eat growing up. It wasn't exactly an unexpected change, as he noticed a few scales around the base of his legs had a similar result — not enough for him to notice when sweeping a glance past them.
Surprisingly, it didn't bother him much that Umber would be walking around with all eyes on him at all times; Starf's sessions had been going well, and he could tell he was making noticeable progress. Enough to where he had Umber stop checking in with him altogether.
He still couldn't fly, though — that would be another month of healing at least. But they could still walk around more than before, and faster than before too.
No more accidentally walking ahead of Umber and awkwardly waiting for him to catch up, no more taking breaks when they're in the middle of walking with no benches in sight, forcing them to sit in the middle of the grass. No more changing his bandages daily, smearing his talons against his burnt, pink skin, and Umber wincing at every touch. No more having to be careful when laying next to him at night as to not pull his bandages, and no more sticking out like a sore talon as much as he did before.
The smile on Umber's face when he turned around to look at him was enough to take away all of his worry and stress that had been building up for the last few days. Tick by tick, his rope was breaking, and he was down to the last string. "Back so soon, MudWing?" Flame asked him, mirroring his smile. "How'd it go?"
"Good," he smiled. Flame came up slowly and sat on his bed beside him. "We talked about the Jade Mountain Academy and some stuff I did there. She said that if it ever gets more space, she'll send her dragonets there if she has any by then. What about you?"
"Same old," Flame sighed. "Vent to Starf about any of the minor inconveniences lately and tell him about whatever task he wanted me to do for the day."
He looked up at Umber once again, his face lighting up in the spotlight that is the sun. Right then, he was happy. As long as Nighthunter served as a distraction, he was happy. As long as Umber was happy, he was happy.
But something was off about him — the smile that usually arced from cheek to cheek didn't quite reach, creating a smile that only looked half real. Something was wrong, but he didn't know what.
Tick, tick, tick.
"Umber, are you okay today?"
Flame could see his facade crumble slightly, a crack in the vanity mirror. "What do you mean?" he asked, trying to keep his fake smile on as if nothing had happened.
He leaned over, taking Umber's talon in his palm and placing his other on top, before guiding Umber's face to look at him. "You know you can tell me anything, right? Anything. I'll never judge you, just like our healers have already sworn to do," he said softly.
That's when his facade came crumbling down, the vanity mirror shattering into a million pieces. Shards of glass all over the floor, the remnants of his mask. He looked down, hesitant, but willing. A start from when his walls were strong, reinforced with titanium. But as Nighthunter rained down on them, they were rusting.
"Nighthunter brought up Crane today," he said in a low, weak voice. His talons were still in Flame's, gripping tightly.
He took one of his talons and lifted Umber's head up with two claws, forcing him to stare deeply into his eyes. Flame did the same, gazing into Umber's amber eyes, enough to where he could see his reflection. With one movement, he pulled Umber's face into his, exchanging a quick kiss that even he was surprised about.
They pulled away, still gazing at each other. "You have to be strong, alright? If not for you, then for me — for anyone. For your sibs, for your friends, for…her — she would at least want that for you."
All Umber did was silently nod his head, but Flame wasn't done. Umber really needed to know he was there for him whenever he needed. So instead of pulling him in for a hug, he pulled him in for a second round, gripping the side of his head with his talons.
Umber placed his talons firmly against Flame's head, mirroring what he was doing. Time felt like it was passing in slow motion, and every few seconds he felt his heart skip another beat.
Except all good things must come to an end, and when he heard a voice in the doorway he hadn't even realized was opened, that was the end of their kiss. "Uhm…Umber?"
Flame almost instantly pulled away, as did Umber, a thin line of saliva connecting between them. His head whipped to the side, looking at whoever was standing in the doorway. The looks of the massive build that narrowly fit through the doorway, and the dark brown scales gave it away almost instantly.
Clay.
What he was doing here? He didn't know, but what a horrible time he did come. The one time they left their door open, and Clay walked in on them kissing. What perfect timing.
"C-Clay!" Umber stuttered out, wrapping up his scroll and stuffing it in his new personal box of graphicolls. It was as if he was trying to convince Clay he was doing something different, even though Clay had just been staring at him. "W-What are you doing here? How long were you standing there?"
He knew Umber was more scared of the fact that Clay had overheard their conversation than the kissing part. Flame held his breath, scared of the exact same thing. Just in those few moments, Umber had taken a step forward, and if Clay heard it that would be two steps back. Two steps closer to the edge.
Tick, tick, tick.
"Long enough," Clay admitted. "Enough for me to never come over unannounced again."
So he didn't hear, Flame realized, an audible sigh of relief escaping his maw. "A-Anyways, when did you get free time?" Umber asked, walking over and giving Clay a nice big hug. Or rather, Clay was the one giving him the big hug, smothering him from the looks of it.
"Tsunami's filling in for me today. She had to move around her whole schedule for it," Clay said happily. "Anyways, how have you been doing? Is the Healing Center good? How long have your scales been healed?" he asked, admiring his newly regenerated scales.
In a way, they suited Umber best. A way to stand out in the crowd so that everyone would look at them, knowing that Umber's scales weren't the only thing 'peculiar' about him, especially with Flame by his side.
Progress, Flame realized, replaying that thought in his head again. If it were a week prior that he was thinking about it, he would've gotten angry just thinking about dragons' eyes gazing upon Umber's imperfections. Now, he wanted the world to know — they weren't scared of other dragons' opinions. They were in love, and all they needed was what they had then.
"I've been great! It's amazing here!" Umber admitted. "Ever since Flame got back in the kitchen, the food has gotten better, too! My scales have been healed for a couple of days now, and basically all of the feeling in them is gone — I'm still getting used to that part."
"Speaking of the kitchen," Flame interjected. "I have to get going to work." Saying it was painful, as he had just got talking to Umber. An hour is all the time he had to be with him for the first three-fourths of the day, and that would be even less that day. "You two have fun today, I'll be in the cafeteria if you need me."
In a way, it hurt that he wouldn't be able to properly talk to Clay for more than a few minutes, the first time he had come over in forever. As he was walking through the hall, behind him he heard, "Sora should be coming over soon, too. I just left early because I couldn't wait to see you."
Great, more of Umber's sibs that I won't be able to talk to because of my job.
One grumbly step at a time, Flame made his way through the halls and into the cafeteria. He assumed Aquatic was already there by the smell of it, along with a few other coworkers of his: Alpine, Massif, Gila, and Sienna.
He walked through the door and into the kitchen to the usual sight of overworked and underpaid employees. Aquatic was making the sausage-bacon rolls — as he usually did —, Massif was making the normal breakfast items with Alpine, Gila was working on the pastries, and Sienna was working on her special, aka something she made when she was bored out of her mind and has stuck with it since.
It consisted of a pancake all wrapped up in bacon and with maple syrup on top. Needless to say, MudWings were the only ones taking them. It also was more of a race for them because she was only able to make so many before Fennec would yell at her that she was wasting supplies and blah blah this and that; he couldn't remember, he had developed his natural mental block for his voice again after just a few days of work.
They were so busy with their dishes that they hadn't even noticed that he had walked through the door. Flame was the only one who actually went to the Healing Center, the others just picked up a job there.
He took his card out from the holder, wrote his name on it, put it into the strange, complex machine beside it, and spun it until he heard it click. He looked up at the gauge, the little arrow low, almost at zero. Looks like someone forgot to crank it, Flame thought angrily.
So for the next five minutes, he sat there cranking the machine until the gauge was full.
During the time he spent zoning out, he thought about how the machine worked. He assumed that it worked on some sort of clock, and when you put your card in it would just print the time on it and put it into some storage area. Fennec had even gone as far as to memorize everyone's handwriting to make sure anyone who clocked in had actually clocked in on the days he wasn't there.
He looked back over through the kitchen, glaring over the things they needed to get done. Dishes needed to be washed, for the most part, so that's what he immediately got to work on.
One dish, two dishes, three dishes, all felt like they went by in a heartbeat. It didn't take long for him to zone out, thinking about being back in their room with Umber or going outside with him, Clay, and Sora to play whatever game they were playing.
Tick, tick, tick.
Of course, they'd have to eat eventually, and the thought that within the next hour, he would be able to catch up with them was the only thing keeping him focused on the crowd of dragons before him. He found himself constantly checking each door, waiting to see a barrage of brown scales walk through.
If he was right about Umber's eating habits — which he usually was — he would be coming to eat at around forty minutes from then, possibly sooner. The perfect amount of time to make something for them.
The dish he ended up coming up with was something that wasn't exactly breakfast, but it was food — lots of food. Food that he could make quick and easy, while also making it taste good in the process like he usually did. Something fun amid an entire ocean filled with nothing but boredom.
He could make something unique; something creative, instead of recreating the same dish, no twist, no cool moves or tricks in the process like he usually did. Just making it up as he went like he used to.
So on he went. First a massive pot filled with water, then some dehydrated noodles they had stored in the back into a pot of boiling water. If it weren't for his time constraints, he would've made the noodles himself. Surely there was a noodle press somewhere around, especially when he was the head chef.
And if Fennec had a problem with him making food that wasn't on the menu, then he could go complain to Zephyr about it so she could laugh in his face.
When the water just started boiling, he threw in some vegetables: carrots, peas, baby corn, green beans, ect. It didn't take longer than twenty minutes for all of the noodles to finish boiling, and he scooped all of them into a separate bowl. In the pot of water, he added some broth, and just in case there weren't enough vegetables, he added in some mushrooms and some frozen chicken and let it boil for the next fifteen minutes.
And by the time that finished cooking, he turned around to face the doorway, where the now-dry noodles were sitting in a bowl. Perfect timing.
But there was something else — or rather, someone else, a few someones, at that. More someones than he would have expected. Not only were Umber, Clay, and Sora there, but there was also a familiar NightWing he had only seen a few times when Umber first started his sessions.
Walking alongside them, chatting as if she knew them like a sibling, was Nighthunter.
He didn't exactly have a problem with it, he just thought it was strange. Not only did Clay and Sora hardly know her, but it was also strange to see her interacting with Umber as a friend, rather than a professional healer.
He stared for a few moments, and Umber stared back, lifting a talon and gesturing a wave towards him with a nonchalant smile. He mirrored, before looking back down at the noodles and dumping the broth into them, stirring them around until everything was fully mixed.
Umber took another look up the moment he poured it, immediately sensing the change in something that most certainly wasn't on the menu. None of the others even gave a glance, and Umber was the only one looking up giving an appreciative smile — though, he was the only one with a nose strong enough to tell.
He had to admit, the smell of the noodles was certainly good, and he felt a rush of excitement discovering a new recipe he could build upon, and eventually put it up to the quality of his others. It would have to do for then, though.
He grabbed the bowl of noodles, along with four other paper bowls and forks, and walked out towards their table, into the den of bustling, noisy dragons from so many tribes it looked like a rainbow. By then though he was already used to the constant noise — another blacklist on his mental block of things to naturally ignore.
On the long table, Sora and Umber were sitting next to each other on one side, while Clay and Nighthunter sat side-by-side across from them.
Clay and Sora's eyes eventually followed Umber's, catching Flame's as he walked towards them with a big meal. Nighthunter only realized he was there moments before he set the big bowl of noodles down, passing their paper bowls out in front of them. "Dig in," he said. Immediately, Umber took a massive spoonful of them, filling his bowl almost completely.
Sora, on the other talon, took a more normal portion. More than he would eat, but far less than Umber and Clay.
Nighthunter craned her neck to look inside the massive bowl of noodles, the steam — and smell — smacking her in the face. She took a glance back up at Flame. "Are you sure?" she asked. "I can just go and get something on the menu."
"Nah, you're Umber's healer, it's the least I can do," Flame explained, gesturing a casual wave. "Besides, I made more than enough to feed three MudWIngs, I'm sure there will be some left over." He dropped his voice to a whisper. "And I don't think you want to pay for Sienna's bacon-covered pancakes anyways."
That earned him a snicker from her. He hardly noticed when she rested her talons on his, a grateful smile forming from cheek to cheek. "Thank you, Flame."
He turned to Umber as he stuffed his maw with the noodles. He noticed other dragons' stares, their eyes full of curiosity about why these dragons specifically were getting special food. But he turned away, ignoring their jealousy. "How is it?" Flame asked.
"Amazing," Umber mumbled, his mouth full of noodles. Any more words and Flame was convinced he'd spit noodles everywhere. Gross.
"Well, next time I'll use the stock I've been saving and make the noodles from scratch. If you like this, that'll really blow your talons off." He smiled. "Anyway, what have you all been up to today?"
"Well," Sora started, as everyone else had their mouths full of food. "we were going to go out into the garden, but then someone" — she shot a glance at Nighthunter — "bumped into me and dropped all of her papers. And then Clay, being the big bulky sap he is, invited her along once he realized she was Umber's healer."
"I'm not a sap!" were the words Flame could hardly decipher when they came from Clay's mouth full of noodles. Nighthunter was eating normally, unlike the others who acted like they hadn't eaten in a month.
Sora gave a disregarding scoff. "Anyway, after this, we're going out to the garden to play some games. Want to join?" she asked Flame, eyeing the kitchen behind him as if it would disappear and his job would be no more.
All of a sudden, everyone's eyes were on him, waiting for the words "Yes, I would love to," to come out of his mouth. But he couldn't, not with a kitchen full of coworkers who would most certainly be angry if he left. It made him angry, and impatient, and he then had the sudden urge to throw a pot at the wall.
Tick, tick, tick.
Snap.
He took one more glance at the kitchen behind him, before turning his head to look at the surrounding dragons. He tried convincing himself that they looked less than the day before, doing the calculations in his head as to how many dragons would be needed to serve them all easily.
Well, at least he tried. He certainly felt smart doing it, but in reality, they were all mental gymnastics, distracting him from the slight guilt he had of the thought of leaving them behind. They'll understand though, right? he thought. Gila will understand, hopefully. She usually does.
"Fuck it," he said. "Let's go."
"But Flame, your work-" Umber started. He had fully chewed his noodles at that point, so Flame could clearly understand what he was saying.
"My work can wait." He flicked his tail. "What's more important now is that I spend time with my healing boyfriend and his sibs. If Fennec has an issue with it, I can just tell Zephyr that he makes me work weekends."
"He makes you work weekends?!" Sora started. "Yeah, ditch him!" Nighthunter looked unsurprised, to say the least; Umber had likely mentioned that to her a few times during their sessions.
Though, Nighthunterhad to work every day, but at the very least it wasn't a lot — from his guess, a healer only had four to five dragons a day to heal, and she must have just gotten finished up by the time she ran into Sora.
One talk to everyone in the kitchen later, and they were out. Gila was the most understanding, as he expected. Aquatic was tied, as was Sienna, while Alpine and Massif were both angry — a better result than the screaming match he'd expected from them.
It didn't take longer than ten minutes for the whole bowl of noodles to disappear into thin air — mostly from the three MudWings at the table, though Nighthunter definitely had her share, and Flame may or may not have snuck some while they were looking.
By the time they were in the lobby, they were all already joking and laughing about things that were going on with Sora and Clay. Nighthunter told a story about how her brother, Cometseeker, tried to kiss another male NightWing when he was hardly a dragonet, which forced hysterical laughter from everyone in the group.
It gave Flame a little comfort knowing that even NightWings, of all tribes, possibly had more dragons like him and Umber.
He caught himself taking a glance over at Umber, checking how he was walking after healing. His strides seemed unbalanced and he was a bit wobbly, shaking as if he was a two-day-old dragonet. However, that could just be from the strange feeling of real scales replacing where bandages once were.
As they passed through the main lobby, Jet was sitting at her desk as she usually did, filing through a bunch of papers as she also usually did. She looked bored and burnt out from everything; her brow was furrowed and she may have even had a slight headache to go alongside it, judging by the way her talons pressed against her forehead as she flipped through the papers, writing away.
"Hey, Jet!" Sora waved from across the lobby. Jet looked up at her as she ran over, her eyes drooping from mental exhaustion.
"Oh, hey…all of you," she said. She turned her head back down to her work, probably wishing to be left alone to finish. But he guessed Sora knew her better because she kept talking.
"We're going out to the garden, do you want to come?" Sora was right up next to Jet, peeking her head to look over her papers as if she could help. Maybe she did from all the times she would go to work with her; he had seen her up at her desk a lot in the past few days.
"I would love to," she trailed, scribbling more text onto a piece of paper before picking up her sentence again. "but I have to finish all of this paperwork today, and there are too many distractions in the garden for me."
The look on Sora's face was disappointed, to say the least. Flame understood that feeling all too well — his lover not being able to spend time with him because he was busy or…asleep. Asleep for weeks on end, unsure of waking up ever again.
"Oh…" She turned her head down in disappointment. "Well, if you change your mind, you know where to find us." She turned around to walk away, but Jet put her talon on her shoulder just before it was out of reach. Sora turned around and met her gaze.
"Wait, before you go," she started. She tilted her head, pulling Sora in for a quick kiss before pulling away with a smile. "Have fun for me."
Sora mirrored her smile and turned back to the rest of her group, her head down in a silent blush she was trying to hide. Something told him she wasn't used to kissing Jet in front of other dragons. At least, he had never seen them kiss before then, but maybe that was because he didn't see them very often.
He took a step closer to Umber, intertwining their tails. He felt a smile uncontrollably form on his face as he looked over at Umber.
Flame finally got a day off after two long weeks, and he would be able to spend it with the dragon he loved most.
Author's notes: Going to advertise this again haha, but here's the link to my Discord server (S6cQN2RHup) where I — would if there were more people in it — talk actively. There are sneak peeks, announcements of when chapters will be posted, and upcoming breaks I may have, and even the Healed 1 creator. I'm not sure if she wants a whole bunch of messages though, so be wary of that. Also, I still haven't gotten any proof readers, so if you're interested, you can join the Discord and message me!
