They both stood there for a few minutes, looking at the necklace that Clay left for Umber. Flame was holding the necklace in his talons, admiring its beauty. The silver chain glimmered in the bright sunlight and the brown gem sparkled around Umber's neck. It was the perfect shade of brown and it matched Umber's scales almost perfectly.

"Hey, at least now I look expensive," Umber joked.

"You'll always look expensive to me," Flame said affectionately with a smile forming on his face. Umber gave him the same expression back.

He took Umber's talons in his and brought him inside. Sometimes, Flame thought about how he would be without Umber. Umber made him feel whole. Without him, he imagines that he would be dead, or everyone wishes he would be dead anyways, so he might as well be.

Once they were inside, Flame let go of Umber's talons and sat down at the table where they were reading before Clay showed up.

"Do you want to keep reading, Umber?" Flame asked.

"Oh, sure! We didn't exactly start reading in the first place, though," Umber responded.

Umber walked over to the table and sat down next to Flame. He leaned next to him and Flame felt the warmth of his scales against his.

The way Flame would teach Umber now that he could read, was by letting him read himself and point out any words he got wrong or couldn't figure out. Umber enjoyed the way Flame taught him but Flame figured he would enjoy any way he taught him, as long as they had each other.

"After the defeat of Lord Evil, the dragon heroes c-celeb…" Umber stuttered out. He was having trouble reading the word and took a minute, trying to sound it out in his head.

"Celebrated," Flame finally spoke up.

"I was totally about to say that!" Umber said

"Sure you were," Flame chuckled.

Umber made a sarcastic scoff and continued reading.

"They threw a giant party for the whole city as part of the c-celebration. Most of the town showed up. They were praised as the heroes of the town..."

Flame was staring at Umber, smiling with his palm on his cheek while he read and started getting lost in his handsomeness. The sun was beaming through the window, making Umber's brown scales shine even brighter than before. The rustling of the scroll, the way he spoke as he slowly stuttered out words, the dragonets playing outside, all fading away as he admired him.

Every move Umber made only made Flame love him even more. He loved the way he would sound out each word, the way his tail would sometimes flick in excitement, the way his gaze was so focused on reading, the way he leaned against him, the way he kissed… To think how easily he could have missed out on all of this if he kept pushing Umber away.

After a few minutes of staring, Umber finally noticed his gaze.

"Flame…? Flame…? FLAME!" Umber yelled, immediately pulling Flame out of the trance he was stuck in.

"Are you there?" Umber said.

"Oh, uhm, yea just…thinking," Flame said.

"Thinking about…?" he questioned.

"Uhm, just things," Flame said, avoiding the obvious answer.

"Flame, you were just sitting there staring at me for who knows how long, with your talons on your cheek, smiling," Umber paused with a moment of realization. "You were checking me out, weren't you?"

Flame began profusely blushing and started stuttering out words.

"Oh I-I-uh, I wasn't…uhm..."

"Oh don't worry you giant goofball!" Umber interrupted. "I'm just joking with you!"

He gave Flame a quick kiss and then stood up, rolled the scroll up, put it back in the box, and tucked it back under the table.

"I thought we were reading?" Flame said in a confused tone.

"You can't even keep your eyes on the scroll," Umber pointed out. "Besides, we need to get cleaned up to meet up with Avalanche anyways."

"You mean YOU need to get cleaned up," Flame protested. "I saw you in that mud puddle earlier!"

"Well, I am a MudWing," he said. "and you haven't bathed in at least 3 days!" he protested back.

"We can agree to disagree," Flame said.

There was a river behind their house that seemingly flowed downstream forever. Whenever Flame and Umber went to the river, they almost always saw dragonets playing in the water. There were a few times when they were approached by the dragonets and were asked questions about their relationship. Questions like how they met, how long they've been together, and such. They were always happy to answer the questions since the dragonets seemed to be only two to three years old and have probably never seen anything like it before.

Something Flame noticed quickly is that a male/male relationship isn't something seen very often. Especially when that male/male relationship is intertribal. In the 2 years he's been with Umber, he has only seen a similar relationship a few times. He sometimes wonders if they're the only dragons like this in the Sky Kingdom. Except for Sora and Jet, of course.

They ended up going back to the river and the sun was reflecting off of the perfectly clear water. The streams water was flowing considerably slow today, making it perfect for young dragonets to swin in. There were a few dragonets in the river that were mostly SeaWings, but there were a few SkyWings and MudWings as well. Umber went in first and ended up having to pull Flame in with him after he felt the water and started complaining about it being too cold.

They splashed around in the river for a bit before getting out and drying off in the hot sun, laying next to each other on the grass.

"We should probably get going soon," Flame suggested. "Simoom can't babysit Chromis forever."

"Yeah, you're probably right," Umber agreed. "Avalanche is going to have to start paying extra for the amount of time she babysits him," he joked.

Umber and Flame both stood up and took off into the air heading straight towards the place Avalanche and Shrimp told them they would be.


They were in the air now, flying high above the clouds. Flame had been getting better at flying slower and staying at Umber's pace. They would always talk about the different kinds of trees and plants they caught a glimpse of sometimes while flying.

"Think fast, MudWing!" Flame said and quickly barreled towards Umber.

What is he-

Before he could finish his thought, Flame took him out of the sky and he was now in a freefall with Flame on top of him. His red wings were fully wrapped around Umber's body already and he could feel the wind all around his face. Adrenaline was pumping through his veins as they locked eyes. Flame gave him a mischievous grin for a few seconds before Umber knocked him off and opened his wings, leaving Flame to fall about one-hundred more feet before he opened his wings as well and quickly caught up to Umber. They were now significantly closer to the ground than they were before Flame decided to pull that stunt.

"That wasn't fair!" Umber exclaimed once Flame was close enough to hear him. "I didn't even get time to react!"

"Life's not fair MudWing, you'll live," he grinned.

"I am so going to get you back for that!" Umber said playfully.

"Oh yeah? Well, we'll see about that," Flame chuckled.

After a little while of flying in silence, Umber noticed that they were nearing the point where they agreed to meet Avalanche. There was a grassy patch in the middle of a forest beside a massive lake. The water was blue, but cloudy at the same time. There were beautiful flowers and bushes all around the lake. There were also loads of SeaWings, MudWings, and SkyWings all swimming together. They could both hear the echoes of splashing, laughing, and sometimes even roaring from the lake from all the way up in the sky.

They ended up spotting Avalanche under one of the trees who was reading a scroll. They both slowly descended towards her before finally landing in the grassy patch a little ways away from her.

After they landed, the two began walking towards Avalanche. She ended up spotting them before they got over to her and smiled. They both wondered where Shrimp was, but they soon got their answer when he shot out of the water behind them and glided down towards Avalanche after noticing them.

When he landed, he opened his wings and shook them off. The water went everywhere and got all over Avalanche and drenched the scroll in her talons. Flame and Umber couldn't help but laugh while seeing this.

"SHRIMP!" Avalanche yelled. "WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!"

"Sorry," Shrimp apologized.

She threw the soaking-wet scroll down in anger.

"Well now that's ruined," she scoffed.

By now, Flame and Umber finally reached Avalanche and could see the water dripping from her scales and the scroll, which was now a sloppy mess in the grass.

"So, what do you think we should do?" Flame said, trying to ignore what happened.

"I thought you were going to have some ideas," Avalanche said while wiping the water off her face.

"Well, we were kind of busy today," Umber pitched in. "I mean, we cleaned the house, Clay came over, and Flame almost drove me into the ground on the way here."

"I did not!" Flame protested. "You know I wouldn't do that!"

Avalanche noticed the silver and brown necklace around Umber's neck at this point and her attention immediately shifted to it.

"Where'd you get that, Umber?" Avalanche pointed at the necklace, interrupting them.

"Oh, this?" he said, lifting the brown gem on the necklace. "It was a gift from Clay. Apparently, one of the students at Jade Mountain gave it to him and he gave it to me instead."

"It looks pretty...and expensive. Are you sure someone at Jade Academy just gave it to him?" Avalanche asked.

"I mean, I guess," Umber paused. "He didn't steal it if that's what you're trying to say. I know Clay and he wouldn't do that," he finished with an unamused look.

"I'm just saying, you never know when it comes to dragons," Avalanche explained.

"Okay, let's get to discussing where to celebrate, you two," Shrimp interrupted.

There were a few moments of silence until Flame spoke up.

"What if we kept it simple and celebrated it at our place?" he said.

"Your place is far too small for us and Chromis's friends," Avalanche reminded him.

Umber tried to imagine fitting all those dragons and dragonets in their house. The more he thought about it, the less likely it seemed to become.

That many dragons. They would never be able to fit in our house. Even if they did, there wouldn't be enough room for them to play around. Umber thought. They probably wouldn't even be in our house most of the time. They would probably be outside playing in the river anyways.

"What if we went to that one island? You know, Flame's favorite place in all of Pyrrhia," Umber said. "We go there all the time whenever we want to get away from...well everything," Umber suggested.

"That's too long of a flight for a SeaWing, like Chromis," Flame said.

"He's half SeaWing half SkyWing," Umber said. "Shouldn't he be able to fly long distances?"

"He has the wings of a SkyWing but has the stamina of a caterpillar Umber," Flame joked.

There was another moment of silence while everyone thought of ideas.

"Oh! I know!" Shrimp said, breaking the silence. "What if we go to the beach? There would be plenty of space for Chromis to fly around and swim!"

"Are you just saying that because you want to swim, or because you actually think it's a good idea?" Avalanche said.

"Actually," Umber spoke up. "I think that would be great for Chromis! Me and Shrimp could play underwater with him while you two…can do whatever you two want to do."

"I'm glad you could come up with such an original idea like that," Flame commented sarcastically.

"Well, I'm sure Chromis would want to go to the beach, so, majority wins," Umber said.

"I guess that settles it then," Avalanche said. "We're going to the beach."

They all took off and started flying in the direction of the beach, leaving the behind the screams of joy from young dragonets.

After a while of flying, they eventually found the beach. The water was shallow enough near the shore for younger, non-SeaWing dragonets. Shallow enough to the point where the water would probably only go up to Clay's neck. There were more adult dragons and dragonets playing in the water and Umber guessed that many of the older dragons were probably the younger dragonet's parents. Some of them were splashing with the older dragons, some seemed to be playing with other dragonets, and some were on the beach, probably watching their dragonet swim. Umber could see that there were loads of SeaWings on the floor of the ocean, sleeping and looking up at all the others.

"We should probably find a more secluded area than this," Avalanche said. "Chromis doesn't like playing with dragonets he doesn't know."

Chromis wasn't very good at making friends, so he didn't often like to hang out with other dragonets outside of his small friend group. His friend group consisted of a two-year-old SeaWing named Atlantic and a one-year-old NightWing named Endwatcher. Chromis would play with them all the time and it was probably one of his favorite things to do besides swimming. Sometimes, they would play a game where Chromis and Atlantic dove in the water and would tell Endwatcher to come catch them. Umber watched this happen more than once and he has never seen the NightWing catch either of them before.

They started flying up the beach more until the distant echoes of dragons and dragonets went silent.

The water was shockingly clear on the beach. It was clearer than it was before which Umber thought was odd. The light reflecting off of the water was fading as the sun was slowly lowering into the horizon. They could smell the sharp smell of salt water and could hear the waves crashing against the sand at similar intervals each time. If you looked out, the water seemed to stretch away forever.

I wonder what's on the other side. Maybe another continent? Ooh! Maybe more food! Umber thought

Umber's talons sank into the soft, golden sand as he landed, causing many different multicolored shells to fly in the air. The sound of the crashing waves was even louder now, and the smell of salt water was even stronger than before. Umber sighed in relief as he felt the wind along the shore against his scales, immediately making him want to fall over and lay in the sand forever. He could also hear the many different seagulls squawking in the air above him. He thought about going back in the air and grabbing one as a snack for a moment, but then decided not to and finally fell over into the sand, exhausted after a long day.

After a moment, he stood up and started looking around the beach, admiring its beauty. He looked down at the necklace that Clay gave him and realized there was sand all over it. Quickly and gently, he started brushing the sand off of it in fear that it might get scratched.

"So, this is the place we're celebrating it?" Umber asked.

"Yep," Avalanche said, plunging a stick into the sand. "This is the place. Let's just hope that nobody else is here when we celebrate."

"UGH FINALLY," Flame exclaimed. "I'M EXHAUSTED! Can we go home now? I just want to go to sleep!" he finished, falling into the sand just like Umber had done.

"Yes, Flame. You and Umber can finally go home now," Shrimp said sarcastically.

"Thank the moons!" Flame responded.

Flame began walking over to Umber. He was about to take off before Flame stopped him and gave him a concerned look.

"Umber," Flame said. "I know that you're going to try and go back to planning tomorrow and I think you should probably take a break from it. I mean, you've been at this for the last week! You must be exhausted after doing it everyday."

"But Fla-" Umber said before getting cut off.

"No, no buts. You need a break, especially after what happened today. I know you want to make this special, but I also think you need to relax a little bit."

Umber gave him a hesitant look but ended up reluctantly agreeing, trying to respect his wishes.

"Fine," Umber agreed. "but as soon as this party's over, I'm going right back out there and finishing it. Also, when did you start becoming such a sap?" he questioned

"I become a sap when I need to become a sap," Flame said.

Umber huddled Flame closer to him with his wing and gave him a soft kiss.

"I think we should get going home now then," Umber said affectionately, lifting his wing from Flame's side.

Flame nodded his head in agreement and they then both took off after a running start, heading in the direction of the Sky Kingdom.

While they were in the air, Umber looked over at Flame with a distrusting look. Flame noticed this after a few minutes and looked back over at him.

"Don't worry, MudWing. I'm not going to "almost drive you into the ground" again," Flame smiled.

"You better not. You scared me half to death last time," Umber said.

"You know I would never want to hurt you, Umber." Flame responded.

"Yeah, I know you would never want to hurt me," Umber said. "but that doesn't mean you can't hurt me."

There was a pause.

"Fine," Flame agreed. "no more driving you into the ground, alright?"

"Sounds good," Umber said.

After a while of flying, they finally spotted the Sky Kingdom in the distance. The sun was down, and the moons were up at this point. It was lit up with many candles along the fronts of houses that would later be put out. In Umber's experience, it probably wouldn't be long until then. All he wanted to do right now was collapse in his bed next to Flame. And of course, get something to eat before then.

After a little longer, they could see their house in the distance. Their street was silent and empty, only being lit by the few candles that were still lit. The dragonets that were playing outside earlier were inside now, probably sleeping by this time if Umber were to guess.

As they got closer, Umber could hear the river behind their house. He always found the sound of the river behind their house calming whenever it was the only thing separating them from complete silence. You couldn't hear the river in the house, but sometimes, Umber wishes he could.

They finally landed on the path in front of their house. Umber rushed in and Flame followed soon after.

Once he was inside, he walked into the kitchen, lit a candle, and started looking for something to eat. Eventually, he found some biscuits wrapped up in a bag and started eating them, getting crumbs all over the floor.

"Geez, Umber. You look like you haven't eaten in days," Flame said who was now sitting on the couch.

"It feels like it," Umber said with his mouth full of the dry biscuits. "These biscuits are really dry."

"Well obviously they're dry. They've probably been in that bag for days now," Flame said.

Umber was already pouring himself a cup of water and started chugging it. Once he was finished gulping down the glass of water, he went straight back to eating the biscuits.

"Umber, I'm going to sleep soon. Are you coming or are you going to keep eating those biscuits like a hungry scavenger?" Flame said.

"Mfhm," Umber said with his mouth full, eventually swallowing the biscuit in his mouth. "Just give me a minute," he finished after a few seconds of struggling to get the biscuits down.

Flame started to walk in the direction of their bedroom and Umber lost sight of him once he went through the doorway, being engulfed by the darkness.

He threw the bag in the garbage, put the glass of water in the sink, and blew out the candle before finally making his way into their bedroom.

Through the darkness, he could make out Flame's figure, laying in their bed waiting for him.

He made his way over to him and laid down next to him. They hugged each other close and shared the warmth of their scales. Umber closed his eyes and eventually drifted to sleep.


Authors note: I've probably spent the longest on this chapter trying to get it just right. I've edited it a lot and I think that it's been improved a bunch from what it was originally. So far, I'm having a lot of fun working on this. Also, I'll be doing these on my own from now on without Sandshadows help which I'm excited for. I did this because they have a lot to do currently that they obviously enjoy and reviewing my stuff was taking time out of it, so I thought it would be best to start taking a lot more time to proof read my stories. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this. Once again, my PM box is open for suggestions, pointing out errors, questions, or just chatting about the future of the story, avoiding spoilers, obviously. Alternatively, you can message my on discord at Amisgal#8679 which is what I would prefer.