5 days later, the day before the party.

Flame opened his eyes to the bright, morning light beaming through the window. He could hear the screams and roars of young dragonets playing outside. He always loved waking up to it since it made him feel good knowing that they had a better dragonet-hood than he did.

As his eyes adjusted to the light, he could make out the bumps on the popcorn ceiling above him. Sometimes when Flame had trouble falling asleep, he would look up and count each of the tiny dots on the ceiling until he dozed off. It usually worked, but sometimes it didn't and he would have to wait out his energy until he was tired enough to go to sleep. One thing that encouraged him to sleep though, was the thought of seeing Umber the next day, conscious and moving around.

He turned his head, now looking over at Umber while he peacefully slept. He took a glance at his neck and realized that his necklace was gone. Quickly, he popped his head up and looked past Umber's shoulder and saw it sitting on his nightstand. The chain was carefully placed down as if it was on display. The brown gem rested on the wood, sparkling as it usually did whenever light dared to touch it.

He tried getting up and realized that he had his wing around Umber still and was surprised that he hadn't moved it all night. It was a habit of his to wrap his wings around him. He loved doing it since it always made Umber feel better, and it made him feel closer to him.

He gently lifted his wing, trying not to wake Umber up so that he could make him breakfast in bed. Umber would never let him so he always had to wake up before him to do it.

He slowly got up out of bed and walked to the door. He had done this so many times that he knew exactly where every single creaky floorboard on his side of the room was by heart. Step by step, he made his way to the door, missing every floorboard on the way, and successfully made it without a sound. He closed the door gently and walked to the kitchen, trying to think of the things he would make Umber.

Eggs? No, too easy. Pancakes? Nah, too generic, he thought. After a moment of thinking while standing at the door, he finally figured out what he would make. What if I make him those breakfast burritos? I've never made him that before! And we have the ingredients!

Walking through the living room now, he looked around and wondered why it was so clean. Last night, the living room was a mess with graphicolls scattered on the table, bowls of food on the couch, and crumbs all over the hardwood floor.

Umber must've cleaned it before getting in bed last night, Flame thought. He did come in pretty late.

Last night when Umber came to bed, Flame was already half asleep and hardly recognized that Umber snuggled up next to him. That's when he habitually put his wing around him. It was like an instinct to him whenever he was close to him; an instinct that screamed

Keep. Umber. Safe.

He was in the kitchen now and started washing his talons in the sink. He took out a pan, a bowl, a whisk, salt, and pepper from the cupboard. He then opened the fridge and took out eggs, sausage, avocados, salsa, tortillas, and butter and then set them all down on the countertop neatly.

The fridge was a clever design that had a block of ice at the bottom, surrounded by some sort of insulating material that kept it cold. The block of ice only needed to be replaced once every couple of weeks and was extremely cheap, which Flame was grateful for. Things that needed to be frozen would go near the bottom and things that needed to be kept cold would go near the top. He often wondered what he would do without something like this.

He cracked enough eggs for two burritos into the bowl and whisked them and set the pan on the stove at the same time. He turned the handle and blew out a small plume of flames to light the stovetop. The stove lit and immediately began to heat the pan.

He scooped out some butter and added it to the pan and started crumbling the sausage in his talons as he watched the butter melt. Once he was done and the butter was melted, he threw it in the pan and watched until it got brown and crispy.

He added the eggs to the sausage in the pan and mixed them in once he was sure the sausage was cooked enough. He stirred them and mixed them until the eggs were fully cooked and the sausage were little brown chunks in the eggs.

He looked over at the tortillas, grabbed one carefully, and threw it in the air with a spinning motion as if he was tossing pizza dough and blew a tiny bit of fire in the air, perfectly warming and cooking the tortilla. He did it again and now had two perfectly cooked tortillas. He had done this so many times in the past that it was muscle memory to him now and he could pull this trick off perfectly every time. Umber was amazed by how exact his movement was whenever he did this in front of him.

He took a plate out of the cupboard and laid the slightly charred tortillas flat on it and started scooping the cooked sausage-scrambled egg mixture into the middle of each of them.

He went over to the avocados and started slicing them into thin slices with his talons. He took the avocados and spread the slices evenly on top of each of the piles of egg and sausage on each tortilla.

He looked over at the salsa, grabbed it, and started carefully pouring it on top of the avocado, eggs, and sausage before folding in the sides of the tortilla and rolling it up tight. He did this one more time and they were ready to serve to Umber.

He grabbed the plate and started walking towards their bedroom. Right before he got to their door, Umber came walking out, yawning, and almost bumped into Flame and knocked the plate of burritos out of his talons.

His necklace was on and brighter than ever in the morning light that was beaming through the windows. The brown gem clinked and clanked against the silver chain when he abruptly stopped. Immediately, Umber grabbed onto the gem so it didn't scratch.

"Umber!" Flame exclaimed in a surprised tone. "Get back in bed! I made you breakfast for you!"

"Flame, you know I hate it when you wake up early just to make me breakfast!" Umber said. "I can find something to eat mys-" he trailed off when he finally smelled the burritos and his eyes locked onto the plate full of food.

"On second thought, I can get back in bed if you really want," he said with excitement in his eyes.

"Nah, it's fine," Flame said. "You've already seen them now anyways. I wanted it to be a surprise."

"O-Okay," Umber said. "I guess I'll just be taking these then," he said hesitantly, looking over at Flame waiting for a nod of approval.

"Wha-, oh, yea take 'em," Flame said. "I made them for you anyways."

Umber took the burritos and sat on the couch, still admiring how good they looked. He took a massive bite of one of them and could taste the blend of the many different flavors. He could taste the blend of avocado, salsa, egg, and sausage. Once he finally finished his first bite of the burrito, he looked up at Flame who was watching intently.

"So, do you like it? I haven't made you that before and I thought I would since we had the ingredients and I assumed you wouldn't mind if I use-"

"OF COURSE I LIKE IT!" Umber interrupted. "This is probably one of the best things you've ever made for me! Why haven't you made this sooner?!"

Flame didn't know what to say, so he just smiled instead, hoping it was a good enough response.

Umber eventually took his second bite of the burrito, except his second bite was his last bite of the first burrito. He liked the first bite so much that he stuffed the rest of it in his mouth, getting little crumbs of egg and sausage all over the table.

"You're cleaning that," Flame said.

"What's the point of having a SkyWing boyfriend if he can't clean up my mess?" Umber joked.

They both looked at each other with straight faces for a few seconds before bursting out into an uncontrollable laugh at the same time. After a few minutes, they both calmed down.

"Seriously though, you're cleaning that," Flame said.

"Yeah, yeah, hold on. Let me finish this first," Umber said.

Umber continued eating the second burrito, digging his talons into each side of the wrap while shoving it down his maw. It had only taken him a few bites before the second burrito was completely gone. He picked the plate up and licked it clean of all the things that fell out before.

He looked over at all of the other crumbs of egg on the table and swiped them into his palm with one fluid motion. He made his way over to their garbage in the kitchen and quickly dumped the pile in his palm into it.

"We've still got a couple hours before we leave to go visit Sora," Flame said. "You wanna read?"

"Oh! Sure! We didn't even get the chance to read yesterday and we were just getting to the good part!" Umber smiled.

They walked over to the living room table and Flame pulled out the box of graphicolls from underneath. He opened the box and grabbed the same graphicoll they were reading yesterday and spread it out across the table. They started reading from where they left off before.

The dragonets were playing outside, the sun was shining through the window as usual, and Umber's calm, soothing voice was reading. At this moment, he felt like his life was perfect. Like this is where he should've been all along. Like nothing could separate them now.


A few hours later, they were both sitting on the couch leaning against each other, enjoying the warmth of their scales in silence. Flame would always gently caress his talons against Umber's back whenever they were huddled together like this and Umber loved it. It gave him a strange sense of extreme calm.

They had finished reading about an hour ago at this point. This is what they had been doing for the last half hour, cuddling and almost sleeping. They did this often when they didn't have much of anything else to do. They both loved it and would find any excuse to put things off to do it.

"C'mon Umber," Flame said in a soft voice, breaking the silence. "We've got to go."

"Just five more minutes," Umber pleaded, half asleep on Flame's shoulder.

After a moment of silence, Umber suddenly heard something that would pull him out of his drowsiness almost instantly.

"Wake up, mud muffin," Flame said.

He took a moment to process the words that had come out of Flame's mouth for a moment before immediately shooting his head up, almost uppercutting Flame with his horns.

"Flame! You know I hate it when you call me that!" Umber exclaimed.

"It worked, didn't it?" Flame said. "I woke you up, so we can leave now before we're late."

"Gah! I guess you're right," Umber said.

They both walked outside and saw the dragonets from earlier outside, playing some sort of game that included throwing a ball at each other.

Dodgeball maybe? Umber thought. Maybe dodgeball ta-

His thought was cut off when out of nowhere, one of the balls came hurling towards him and hit him in the face. He stumbled a bit but didn't fall over thanks to his massive build and the fact that over time in the war, he learned to take hits. Of course, a ball probably wouldn't even phase him normally, but he wasn't expecting it.

Immediately, the young SeaWing who threw it came running over to them and started profusely apologizing.

"Oh my gosh. I'm so sorry! I'm so, so, so sorry! I didn't mean to hit you!" the little green SeaWing said.

"Oh-, uh, it's fine," Umber said. "You learn to take a hit or two when you're in war-"

Oops… He thought. Probably shouldn't be mentioning the war around dragonets this young.

"Uh, sorry…I probably shouldn't have said anyth-"

"You were in the war?!" the SeaWing interrupted. "That's so cool! I wish I was in the war!"

"No! No you don't," Umber exclaimed. "Trust me. My brot- I mean Cla- I mean the Dragonets of Destiny ended it for a reason."

Flame looked over and him and shot him a look that Umber could only decipher to mean "Shut up!"

Umber could see the realization in the dragonet's eyes and realized he screwed up. He talked with their neighbors a few times before, but never got into the war and that his brother was a Dragonet of Destiny. He didn't want to be asked questions or to be praised or to be treated differently because of it, so he never would've said anything anyways.

Oh no.

"Y-your brother is a Dragonet of Destiny!?" the SeaWing said. "I've heard so many stories about them! Do you have fireproof scales too? Does he ever visit you? Oh! Is it true that scary flaming SkyWing almost killed him?"

"Uhm-, no, yes, and not exactly?" Umber said. "I don't really want to talk about it right now…"

Umber thought of asking him to not say anything but he realized that it would be pointless. Why would a dragonet his age not tell his neighbors that his brother was a part of the Dragonets of Destiny?

Gah! Why did I have to say anything? Now I'm going to be constantly bombarded with questions from them, he thought. Or maybe their parents will tell them not to? Maybe their parents will join in on asking… Flame, please do something.

He knew it was unlikely Flame would be able to do anything in this situation, but he still hoped that he could come up with some sort of non-violent way of resolving this. He shot a look over at Flame to help him regardless

"Hey- uh… Why don't you go back and play with your friends?" Flame said politely. "And maybe don't say anything about this? Please?"

The little SeaWing nodded and began walking over to where the ball landed after hitting Umber and then back over to the group of dragonets. He watched them and saw that as soon as the SeaWing got back to the group, he called them all over and started whispering something and pointing at them.

"So much for that," Umber said. "Now they all know my brother is a Dragonet of Destiny and we'll be bombarded with questions about it."

"I did the best I could, Umber. Dragonets don't listen," Flame said.

"Well, you'll have to endure it with me at least," Umber said, looking over at the group of dragonets who were now walking over to them.

"I think it's time to go, Flame," he said, grabbing his talons and pulling him not far behind as he ran.

They both leaped in the air a few seconds later, leaving the group of dragonets behind at their doorstep. Umber looked back one last time and was shocked when he saw how many dragonets there were.

Wow, there are way more than I thought, he thought.

He counted at least 9 dragonets in the group that ran over. A couple SkyWings, SandWings, IceWings, and even RainWings, which surprised him.

Their home was getting further and further away at this point and Umber could feel the warm sun on his scales. The wind was blowing in his face and he started to feel a great sense of calm fall over him. All of his worries slowly faded away and soon enough, he completely forgot about what just happened.

Zephyr's house wasn't far, but flying was faster and that's what Umber preferred. Besides, they couldn't have walked if they wanted to be there on time. Those dragonets would have probably kept them there for hours asking them questions.

They could see Zephyr's house now after only a few minutes of gliding and occasionally flapping their wings. They lived on a street that was very peaceful and quiet. The gravel path was lined with some of the nicest houses Umber had ever seen before. Most of them had brown supports on each of the corners and around the door, while the rest of the houses were painted different colors like beige, blue, and some even red. They had always come to visit Sora whenever they had free time, but it still amazed Umber how nice their house was.

Sora, you're so lucky you're dating a rich dragon's daughter, he thought.

They landed on the gravel path only a few meters away from the house. They went over and knocked on the door a few times.

"I'M COMING!" a voice yelled from inside the house.

A few seconds later, the knob turned and the door opened, and standing there was Zephyr. She looked them up and down like she hadn't seen them in forever. Well, it had been a long time since Umber and Flame last visited. They both had been extremely busy all week and Umber was helping Flame with planning with his time off of planning himself.

Umber peeked inside past Zephyr and could see Sora and Jet on the floor, playing some sort of card game. There was a deck faced upside down and he could only guess that Zephyr was probably playing too. Umber never learned how to play many card games before. He thought it would be too complicated for him.

"Oh, hey you two! You're right on time! We were just wrapping this game up," Zephyr said. "I'm whooping their butts," she added with a whisper.

"Oh, uh, no thanks. I don't real-" Umber was cut off.

"UMBER!" Sora yelled, dropping her cards making sure that they were upside-down before running over to hug him. "I thought I'd never see you again! You haven't visited in so long!"

"Oh, yeah. We've been really caught up with Chromis's hatching party and stuff," Umber explained. "How's life? I mean, you live in such a big and nice house with the dragon you love for free!"

"Oh…uh yea," she hesitated. "I've been looking for a job recently since, you know, I can't exactly live here for free."

"Take as much time as you need, Sora," Zephyr said, who was still at the door with them.

"Anyways, come in! We were just finishing up this game!" Sora said.

"Oh, I uh-, I still don't know how to play any card games," Umber said.

"You don't know how to play UNO?" Sora mocked.

"Of course I know how to play UNO!" Umber said. "That's one of the easiest ones to understand."

UNO was one of the only card games that Umber knew how to play. It was simple enough for him to learn and one of the only card games he had ever had fun playing, assuming he knew how to play. Sora had taught him how to play other card games, but he quickly forgot once he lost. He never quite figured out where the name UNO came from, but he assumed it's probably something to do with numbers since that's what you're supposed to yell once you are down to your last card.

Umber and Flame both came inside. Their eyes took a minute to adjust to the dim light in the house but once they did, they could see just how beautiful it was inside. It was even prettier than he had imagined it last time. It had only been a few weeks and he went there often, so he was confused why

The floors…they look so much shinier, he thought. And the couch, the walls, the windows. They all look so pretty.

"Did you get this place remodeled or something?" Umber asked.

"Oh, yes!" Zephyr said. "We just had the walls painted a slightly darker shade and the floors had a fresh coat of polish put on them."

"What about the couch?" Umber asked. "Did you replace that or is my mind playing tricks on me?"

"I thought that too," Zephyr said. "The walls and floor must've brought the color out more."

After a minute, Sora noticed the necklace that Umber had on.

"Hey, where did you get that?" Sora asked.

"My necklace?" Umber said, "It was a gift from Clay. One of the Jade Academy students gave it to him apparently."

"It looks really nice on you," Zephyr added.

"Oh- uh, thanks," Umber said.

Umber and Flame both sat down on the couch, close next to each other. Zephyr sat down to where the lone set of cards was face down on the floor and picked them up. Zephyr's spot was right in front of the couch, so immediately Umber could see her deck. She only had a few cards that consisted of a red +4, a wild card, and a yellow 5.

Umber watched her as she threw down each of her cards, eventually getting down to her last card and yelling UNO. Needless to say, she won that game just as she said she was at the door. Once the game was over, Umber and Flame joined in and started talking about Chromis's hatching day, their anniversary, and Starf's birthday.

Flame and Jet had gotten along well. They joked and laughed and talked. Umber was hoping that someday soon they could consider each other friends.

"UNO!" Flame yelled, throwing down a card into the pile.

Umber looked intently at his deck. Flame had thrown down a red 9. Umber had 2 cards, a yellow 9 and a red reverse. He could win this for Flame, or lose it if he threw down his reverse and Flame didn't have a red. He could also just throw down his yellow 9 and call a UNO, too.

Hmmmm, he thought. Screw it.

He threw down the red reverse, going back to Flame. Everyone except Umber watched in dismay as Flame threw down his last card, a red 3.

"Umber! That's not fair!" Jet exclaimed. "You only did that because you're dating him!"

"You can't always win, Jet," Flame smirked.

"Gah! Whatever," Jet grumbled.

Umber looked around the room and saw that everyone was putting their cards back in the pile to shuffle them again. He looked outside and saw the sun, high in the sky.

"It's been fun, but I think we should be going now," Umber said. "We have to go drop off the decorations with Avalanche and Shrimp and then cook a bunch of food for tomorrow."

"Aww, really?" Sora whined. "You can't play just one more game?"

"Nope. We're going to be late if we don't leave soon," Umber said. "They're probably at the beach waiting for us right now."

"Yeah, he's right," Flame agreed. "We're gonna be up late enough as it is making the food, so I want to get as much sleep as I can right now."

To make the food and make sure it was warm, they would have to either stay up most of the night or go to bed early and wake up in the middle of the night to start preparing the food. They also had to go shopping to get everything for the party. Luckily, Avalanche said she would give them the money to buy everything which was going to be a lot.

Umber and Flame both hugged everyone before walking to the door, opening it, and flying away.

They started flying back to their house which only took them a few minutes to get to. To their surprise, the dragonets from before were still outside, waiting for them to come back. Not all of the dragonets were there. Umber only counted 7 this time and the RainWings were gone.

Must be sun time for them, he thought.

"Let's just go through the back door this time," Flame suggested.

"And we should also loop around so they don't see us," Umber added.

They both immediately turned to the left and flew that way for a few minutes before turning to the right again, then again. They spotted their house but this time, they were behind it.

They flew low to the ground, trying not to grab the attention of the dragonets. They were still waiting for them out front, playing with the ball. Every now and again, they would look in the sky in the direction that Flame and Umber flew off. Eventually, they landed next to the river behind their house. Umber almost fell in, but Flame grabbed his talon before then.

"Thanks," Umber said.

"Can't let you walk in the house soaking wet," Flame said. "You'll damage our already damaged floors!" he joked.

Umber snickered a little at this and then started running towards their back door before the dragonets realized they were there. They swiftly opened the door and closed it shut behind them. They avoided all the windows so that they didn't see them walking around inside.

"We can't even walk around in our own home without having to sneak under every window!" Flame said angrily.

"Welcome to the life of being the brother of a Dragonet of Destiny," Umber said.

"Yeah, but I'm not Clay's brother," Flame said. "You're his brother, so why do I need to go through this?"

"You're dating me so you share the fame with me," Umber joked.

"Mhmm," Flame hummed. "Loving the fame so far," he said sarcastically.

Quickly, Umber went over to the secret panel in their wall, opened it, and grabbed the bags. He handed a few of them over to Flame who quickly checked everything inside.

"Let me see those," Flame said. "I need to check to see if everything's there."

Umber handed him the bags and he quickly dumped everything all over the floor. He started pointing at each decoration, probably marking things off of his mental checklist.

"Alright, let's go," Flame said. "Quickly, before they figure out we're in here!" he said after seeing Umber struggle to get everything back in his bags.

After a moment, he was able to get a good grip on each bag, sealing them shut with his talons so nothing could fall out mid-flight. They both raced out the back door, locking it behind them, and quickly jumped into the air.

They looked back to check on the dragonets one last time and they were still there, playing their ball game. Umber assumed that they hadn't even noticed that they were there since they hadn't stopped their game yet and were still peering up at the sky every few minutes. Umber sighed with relief at this realization.

They could see the beach in the distance. It was empty like before and the water was still as clear as it was the last time. The only difference now was that there were chairs, tables, and 2 big poles stuck in the sand where they had marked a few days ago.

They landed on the sand, sending tiny sand particles into the air. The yellow sand was warm and relaxing now that it was midday. Since Umber was on the sand now, he could tell that the area around the chairs and tables was clear of rocks and seashells.

They probably cleared them so that it would be easier to set everything up, he thought.

He began walking over to the tables, catching Avalanche and Shrimp's eyes. Once he got to the table, he set down the bags that were in his arms on it. The bags fell over and the decorations spilled all over the table.

"Oops," Umber said.

"It's fine," Shrimp said. "We have to take them all out anyways."

"O-oh, okay!" Umber said. "Is Simoom with Chromis right now?"

"Oh yea. She loves that dragonet," Avalanche said. "I bet she would babysit him for free if she could."

"We should go now," Flame said. "We've still got the shopping and cooking to do for tomorrow."

They were both about to take off when Avalanche stopped them.

"Wait!" Avalanche yelled, immediately stopping Flame and Umber in their tracks. "You're gonna need this," she said, holding out some money in her talons.

Flame ran over to her, kicking up sand on the way. Once he got over to her, she turned her talons over and let go of the gold coins, dropping them into Flame's.

"Thank you, Avalanche!" Umber said.

Flame nodded and ran back over to Umber and took off. Umber looked back and nodded to them both and swiftly followed. Once they were in the sky, Umber turned to Flame.

"Sooooo, what are we even making?" Umber questioned.

"I was thinking we could make cooked salmon, steak, chicken, ribs, and mashed potatoes," Flame said. "OH! And we need to get some raw fish for Shrimp. He hates anything that's cooked."

Umber looked at him with shock all over his face for a moment.

"What? Did I say something wrong?" Flame said.

"I-I knew we were going to be making a lot, but I didn't expect for us to be making a whole buffet!" Umber explained. "I thought we were just going to be making a few things. Like a couple steaks, a couple chickens, some sides."

"Well," Flame said. "I wanted to make my brother's first hatching party memorable."

"It will be!" Umber said. "But you don't need to do all of that for it to be!"

He paused and looked at Flame's face and realized there was no talking him out of this. The only thing he could do now was hope that they got back early so they could get some sleep.

"Gah! Fine," Umber finally agreed. "We better hurry and get this stuff then!"

Judging by Flame's face, Umber could tell that this was the right answer. He wanted to make Flame happy and if this is what it would take this time, then he would do it.

After a couple of hours, they finally found all the ingredients, spices, and food that they were looking for. Once they got up to the counter, Flame pulled out the money that he was sitting in the shopping cart and gave it to the cashier. He had nowhere to hold the money, so he settled for the next best thing that wasn't trying to hold it in his wing the whole time.

They paid for everything and were given bags upon bags upon bags of the frozen and cold food and spices they had just bought. The bags were really heavy, so they split each one amongst each other. Umber took more bags than Flame since he was bigger and stronger.

Once they were outside, Umber tried jumping in the air to no avail. His legs felt like they would give out any minute now and his arms were no exception. The circulation was getting cut off so he dropped the bags down to his talons.

He gave another attempt and flew in the air, except this time he put everything he could into jumping. His legs lifted off of the ground and his wings started pounding as hard as he could get them to. Flame was off of the ground at this point and looked over at Umber, who he could tell was struggling to stay in the air.

"Give me a few of those bags, Umber," Flame said. "My wings are stronger and bigger than yours, so it should be easier for me to carry them."

Umber quickly handed over a few of the bags and he watched as Flame sank down a little bit with the extra weight, but eventually was able to fly back up.

Umber felt like he was floating at this point. Flame definitely had gotten some of the lighter bags and the bags he gave him were the ones causing him most of the struggle.

"See?" Flame said. "No problem. I can carry these until we get home, then you can carry them in the house."

"Thanks," Umber smiled.


They started home. The flight was long because of all the weight of the bags and the fact his wings weren't SkyWing wings so Flame had to stay at his pace. He flew ahead a few times, but quickly slowed down and went back to Umber.

"You can always fly ahead, you know," Umber said. "You can get home before I do and not have to carry those anymore. You can leave them on the porch and I can take them inside."

"Yeah, but then I wouldn't be able to fly with my mud muffin," Flame said.

"Stop calling me that!" Umber exclaimed to which Flame shot him a smirk.

They continued flying and after a while, they landed at their house. It was dark outside and the candles were lit as usual. The dragonets from before were inside and not camping outside their house like earlier.

Thank the moons they're gone! Flame thought.

They landed in front of their house and both rushed inside and quickly set the bags of food down in the kitchen. Flame lit a few candles and the whole kitchen was illuminated immediately with bright, orange light.

"I'm so tired!" Flame said. "Let's hurry up and put these away so I can sleep!"

"I'm way ahead of you," Umber said, grabbing one of the wrapped chickens and putting it on the top of the fridge where it would chill.

They both started putting the things away, cramming them on each of their respective shelves in the fridge. Umber's arms were sore and weak from everything and all he wanted to do was lay down.

At last, they finished putting everything away. Their fridge was stuffed full of everything and their arms, legs, and wings were tired and sore from all of the flying and carrying they did that day.

They threw the bags away and both rushed into their room to go to sleep.

They both lay on the bed and pulled the covers over them and cuddled close to each other like they usually did. Flame put his wing around Umber as usual and slowly drifted to sleep as their scales touched, warming each other.

Flame woke himself up in the middle of the night, quickly sitting up and turning over to Umber who he shook awake.

"Umber, it's time to get up!" Flame said. "We need to make the food for today."

"Just five more minutes," Umber pleaded.

"Don't make me say it," Flame warned. "Mud muf-"

"Okay! Okay! I'm awake!" Umber said, shooting up out of bed as soon as he could.

They both got up and started walking to the door, the floorboards squeaking underneath them the whole time. Once they opened the door, Flame peered his head out and was blinded by the light of the candles he forgot to put out.

"AH!" he shrieked, covering his eyes with his talons as fast as he could.

Umber peeked his head around the doorway and had the same reaction as him.

Slowly, both of them opened their eyes, letting them adjust to the light as they both stumbled through the living room. Once they got in the kitchen, both of their eyes were fully adjusted to the light. Flame opened the fridge and started taking out all of the meat and potatoes. Umber opened the cupboard and started taking out all of the spices as well.

"All right, time to start cooking," Flame said. "It's going to be a long day."


Author's Note: This was a long chapter haha (6.1k+ words!). Usually, my chapters are nowhere near this long but I got sidetracked with a few things (aka everything at the beginning was made up on the spot up to the Sora and Jet visit) which made it so that I couldn't go more in detail at the end. After this, I'm going back to redo the prologue which shouldn't take long. Also, I can't promise to continually weekly upload like I have been, especially if the chapters are getting this long. I came into this eager to write and improve, but making myself update weekly burns me out pretty quickly.