He twisted the handle, before slamming the door behind him as hard as he could. A loud bang shot through the air, rattling the entire house around him.
His heart was racing, not after what he did, but because of the condition he finally realized Umber was in. That realization shook him to the core, panic slowly making its way into his head every time he thought about him.
As much as he wanted to go back to that hospital and kiss Umber on the forehead and tell him that everything would be okay, he couldn't bring himself to even think about going back there, especially after what he had done to Turtle.
He was surprised Turtle hadn't done anything in retaliation, like claw him back, or cast some sort of spell on him. Maybe he didn't want his cover blown in front of an entire hospital room? The others being mad at him wasn't going to stop him from seeing Umber though, so why didn't he want to? Did he somehow feel bad about it in some way?
No, he's a lying animus! he retorted in denial that deep down, he maybe believed that Turtle might not be all bad.
If Umber wasn't in the hospital, we would've gotten as far away from him as I could! …Right? Gah! Who cares?! He deserved it and I know it!
He hadn't been home so long that it almost felt weird; he had been so used to moping around in the hospital room as he sat next to Umber, that moping around at their house felt foreign as if the hospital was his home instead of his actual home.
As he looked around, he saw that the table had a thin layer of dust at the top, as with their box of graphicolls under the table.
Home didn't feel like home anymore, not without Umber. Home would never feel like home, ever again.
Umberwas his home. But he couldn't stand seeing him anymore, not after finally realizing what he knew would be the outcome of this whole ordeal.
The shock of the situation was still setting in, and the world he was living in hardly felt real; like a dream — he wished it was a dream anyways, and he would wake up any second to Umber shoving his wing off of himself.
We'll see each other again eventually, Umber. That I can promise.
He walked over to their couch and sat down, his talons resting on the brown oak table. He was looking down at the box of graphicolls, scenes of the past replaying in his head over and over.
If only I was just a minute faster… he thought to himself once again. He couldn't stop thinking about what could've been, knowing the inevitable fate he knew Umber would come to.
Then, he remembered something: a promise he had made to Umber right before he was forcefully pulled out of the dreamvisit, and it was a promise he intended to fulfill until only a little while ago.
I'll be back, I promise! his head raged.
But now, his heart began racing every time he thought about seeing Umber again. He guessed he would go somewhere between full panic, and sobbing uncontrollably if he was in the same room with him for even a second longer.
And the realization was just setting in that Umber would be alone with his nightmares of Crane, instead of cuddling with him in whatever world they chose.
But the thought of the feeling of Umber's scales rubbing against his woke up fear deep inside of him, where it would normally make him want to fantasize about it forever.
"FUCK!" he yelled as he slammed his talons into the table a few times. The slam shook the whole living room floor, and it made a loud shaky sound as there was some space between the table and legs. This didn't make him feel any better though, and only made him feel angrier.
He took his talons and gripped the underside of the table, before flipping it with all of his strength, unable to stop himself even if he wanted to.
The table spun in the air, before landing near the middle of the room, making a loud pound that he was sure the neighbors could all hear clear as day.
Which he was right about because the laughs and screams of the dragonets playing outside immediately fell silent for a few moments before starting back up again as if nothing had happened. Dust scattered through the air in a cloud.
His eye caught the box of graphicolls sitting on the floor as it was uncovered by the table. Memories of him and Umber were already playing in his head, like anything even mildly related to Umber set off alarm bells.
"E-Expon… Exponentially?" Umber tried, a bittersweet memory from the past. Or in this case, just a bitter memory that made him want to curl up and cry on the floor.
"No! Go the fuck away!" I don't want to think about him! He kicked the box across the room, sending hundreds of his graphicolls flying all across the rotted wooden planks, reaching each corner of the room and a few even going into the kitchen.
He could feel his heart start to pick up in speed, obviously triggered by Umber appearing in nearly everything.
I need to distract myself with something! Flame thought desperately. Maybe I can cook? Something I've never cooked Umber before!
For a minute, he thought through all of his recipes. And though he's made Umber just about everything, there had to be something that didn't remind him of Umber.
As he thought, he was constantly pushing distractions of Umber out of his mind. Until he finally landed on a recipe seemingly out of nowhere.
That garlic bread steak recipe!
It wasn't a complicated recipe by any means, anyone could make it — even Umber… No, even Chromis! Not Umber! Stop thinking about him you fucking idiot!
He jumped up to his feet and began tiptoeing to the kitchen, making sure not to step on any graphicolls. Excitement was already flooding his body because he was about to make some more food for Umber, especially since it's been so long.
He's going to love this! he thought. It's been so long since I've made him food!
"Umber! I'm-" he cut himself off.
He looked around, realizing that there was no Umber in sight and that he had somehow just tricked himself into thinking he was making food for him, even after everything that's happened today.
A frown formed on his face after being forcibly pulled away from his delusion that he was still alive — that's what Flame considered him to be already. Dead.
He thought it'd hurt less if he considered him dead before he actually died, so when he actually died, it'd hurt much less than if he didn't.
"Umber…" his voice faltered, tears beginning to make their way down his face. His legs felt like they were going to give out any second now, and that they did.
He fell to the floor and curled up in a ball, just like he wanted to earlier. His light sobs could be heard throughout the whole house — though that wasn't surprising, as it was only three rooms.
I can't do this without you! Flame thought as he cried, a migraine already creeping its way up on him. I'm such a mess! Why am I thinking you're here when you're not?!
In an attempt to make himself feel better, he slammed his talons against the floor a few times as hard as he could. And for a gracious few seconds, it did make him feel a tiny bit better, but that was short-lived as he couldn't try and not think about him anymore.
Right now, he was lost, unable to grasp a future without Umber by his side anymore. He didn't know what he'd do without him.
Maybe he'd just lock himself in this house forever and never leave again, not even when he…passed — even thinking about those two words made him sob even harder now that he was finally allowing himself to realize what those words really meant.
He covered nearly his whole body with his wings and whether we liked it or not, the warmth made him feel better, as if Umber was hugging him from the dream world.
He assumed the others would set up a funeral for him, one that he would definitely not be attending, and he'd instead be inside doing anything that would keep his mind off of him. Something like trying something like origami for the first time, or spending time trying to solve that cube he bought for Starf a while ago.
Though, he knew there still was one thing that could save Umber — or one dragon at least. And that dragon was someone who he never wanted to see again, and certainly didn't want anywhere near Umber, and that dragon was Turtle.
He'd never save Umber! If he really wanted to, he would've done it the first time! How hard can it be to make up a fucking healing spell?!
But he forcibly pushed that thought aside, not wanting to give himself any false hope. And instead continued sobbing, starting to daydream that he and Umber were cuddling in their bed right now, tails intertwined and arms wrapped tightly around each other under the covers.
He didn't know how long had passed, all he knew was that he had been laying on the couch long enough that the sun was beginning to go down. He had been staring at the ceiling and reliving memories with Umber all day.
After a little while of sobbing, his tears finally ran dry and he propped himself up on the couch, grabbed one of the blankets they had hanging on the back of it, and covered himself, using one of the throw pillows to lay his head on.
The table was still laying upside down in the middle of the floor, as with the graphicolls scattered all along the floor.
What am I going to do without you? he thought with the same stabbing pain in his chest that he had been experiencing for the last afternoon. I can't even make fucking garlic bread right now!
He continued delving into that thought, covering himself fully with the blanket, his tail hanging off of the couch.
I can leave the Sky Kingdom, right? I can go somewhere else! I can move back to Possibility, back with my mother and Chromis! There's nothing there that would ever remind me of Umber! Or I could live outside of town, hunt my own food, build my own house! No, that'd just make me think about him- his thoughts were cut off by an unexpected knock at the door.
Gah! Will they ever leave me the fuck alone?! He assumed it had to be someone from the hospital, most likely Zephyr or Qibli since they probably had the best chance at getting him to do whatever they came here to do.
"If you're here to yell at me about Turtle, then you can go fuck yourself!" Flame yelled, his face already beginning to turn red in anger.
"Flame, it's me, Zephyr!" she said. The concern in her voice ricocheted off of the walls, each word making him want to scream at her even louder. "We want to know if you're okay!"
"Fuck off, I'm fine!" he retorted. "Leave me the fuck alone already!"
"We're worried about you!" a new voice said, one he's been hearing extremely often ever since they all came to the hospital.
Moon's here too?! Are all of them out there?! he thought angrily, already feeling like going out there and forcing them to leave.
"We know you're angry, but we just want to make sure you're okay," Moon explained. "...We're the only two here if that's what you're worried about, the others are still at the hospital. So can you please just open the door and talk to us for a minute?"
Talking to them face to face was probably the last thing he wanted to do right now, as he had already made a comfortable spot on the couch where he had been lying since this morning. But he knew that they probably weren't going to give up any time soon.
"Will you go away if I do?" Flame asked hesitantly.
They better!
"Right after we make sure you're okay, we promise," Zephyr said. "We're just worried about you after earlier is all."
"Fine!"
He reluctantly lifted himself off of the couch, pushing the blanket on the floor. Normally he'd throw it back on the couch to avoid the mess, but he was probably going to be going back there in a couple of minutes, and avoiding a mess was already off the table.
He stepped around the graphicolls scattered everywhere and made his way over to the door. The air felt much colder against his scales, but it was probably because he had been under the blankets for so long.
He reached his talons and twisted the door handle, before opening it to the sight of Zephyr and Moon standing at his front doorstep. He noticed that Moon didn't have Qibli's pouch around her neck anymore, but didn't really think too much of it because it was probably some love ritual bullshit.
"Make this quick, I don't want to talk to you two fuckers any more than I have to."
Moon looked past him, to what he assumed was the mess inside the house. "Is everything okay in there?" she asked in concern.
"Yea, everything's fine! Now ask me whatever stupid questions you came here for and fuck off!" He could feel even more anger brewing inside of him, already tempted to slam the door in their face and ignore any attempts they make at trying to talk to him.
"We're just worried, we know you aren't okay, especially after what happened earlier," Zephyr said. "Turtle doesn't hate you for what you did either. You made a mistake, and that's okay-"
"What I did wasn't a fucking mistake!" Flame interrupted. "I don't give a shit if he hates me or not, he deserves everything that I've done to him and more!"
The look of surprise on Zephyr's face was well worth the outburst, as it probably woke up a few of his neighbors and maybe their dragonets.
"What happened between you and Turtle?" Zephyr asked. "You two seemed fine when you first got to the hospital, so what happened?"
He shot a glare over at Moon, whose face was already starting to go into a panic. Let's see how you wiggle your way out of this now, he thought.
"Uh-" Moon blurted. "I-It's just a personal grudge from a long time ago is all!" He could sense the panic in her voice as she spoke.
Ohhh, so they really do care about keeping his secret. He probably cast a spell on them just to make sure.
"Alright, well I didn't come out here so you can talk about me and Turtle, so I'll be going back inside now!" Flame said angrily.
He turned around and began walking back inside when he heard Zephyr call him back. "Flame, wait!" she said eagerly, stopping him in his tracks. "We can't force you to come back to the hospital, but Umber wants for you to dreamvisit him again."
Did they dreamvisit him again? he wondered.
This set him off. He didn't know why, but something about them telling him what Umber wanted made him angrier than before. As if they fucking know what Umber wants!
He whipped around. "And how the fuck do you know what Umber wants?!" he yelled. "How the fuck do you know that he wants me to dreamvisit him?!"
There was a moment of silence.
"No, I'm not dreamvisiting him," he said calmly. Though he was just putting up a façade in hopes that they would just leave already, and he really wanted to set them on fire right then. But somehow, he was able to contain his anger.
"But Flame, Umber-" Moon tried.
"I SAID NO!" he screamed in a burst of anger. Hearing Umber's name tipped his anger over the edge.
"Can we please just talk ab-"
"WHY THE FUCK DO YOU THINK I LEFT?! TO THINK ABOUT HIM MORE?" He shot a glare at Moon, who put her talons up to her head as if she was in pain and took a step back.
"NO! I LEFT SO I CAN NEVER THINK ABOUT HIM AGAIN! I LEFT BECAUSE I CAN'T FUCKING STAND LOOKING AT HIM ANYMORE! HE'S DEAD, AND THERE'S NOT A THING ANY OF US CAN DO ABOUT IT!"
He thought he heard one of them try and speak up, but he had already whipped around and slammed the door behind him as hard as he could.
He was boiling over with anger — so angry that it was as if his body moved for him when he began punching their hard wooden walls as hard as he could. YOU MOHTERFUCKERS! WHY CAN'T YOU EVER JUST LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE?! he thought in between punches and smashes.
"Flame, stop!" Zephyr begged from the other side of the door.
"GO THE FUCK AWAY! LEAVE ME ALONE!" he screamed in retaliation.
He got so lost in anger that he stopped paying attention to how much he was punching the wall, and completely ignored the pain of his bleeding knuckles.
It was only when he began splintering the wall did he realize that he was still going, and stopped. The pain began setting in, and he fell to the floor and cried and rested his head against the wood as tears stained his scales — not because of the pain, but more because of the loneliness he was feeling right then without Umber.
I can't do this anymore without you! he sobbed. I can't live without you anymore!
He sobbed there for the next hour until the mental exhaustion from the day had finally caught up to him and he was about ready to fall asleep.
He reluctantly stood up from his spot on the floor and made his way over to his room without even realizing, before creaking open the door.
His bed was the same way it was when they had left for their anniversary; it wasn't made and the blanket drooped off of the side of the bed.
He walked over and laid his head down on his side of the bed, and covered himself with the blankets. It felt good to finally lay in a comfortable bed for the first time in over a week — not like he had much of an issue with it in the first place.
He closed his eyes and got ready to fall asleep when a familiar scent hit his nose again.
He shot his eyes awake and looked over at the vacant side of the bed where Umber used to sleep, surprised that his scent was somehow still so prominent after all this time.
He already wanted to cry again, but his tears were long dried up; he hadn't had any water today, so they were probably going to stay like that.
Without hesitation he lunged over to Umber's side of the bed and grabbed his pillow, hugging it tight as if he was desperately gripping onto Umber himself, trying to keep him from being pulled away by death itself.
I'm going to miss you so much… Flame thought with a stab in his heart. Once I somehow recover from this, I promise, I will never forget you, I swear.
And with that, he buried his head in Umber's pillow, wishing he hadn't cried so much earlier so that he could now, his scent making him feel more relaxed than he has in weeks, but also making him hurt more than ever at the same time.
It had been nearly a week since she had talked to Flame last, and all of Umber's sibs had arrived at the hospital a few days ago. Most of them were out looking around the markets because they didn't like the hospital food the most, but Marsh was in his room with Clay.
The only reason she hadn't visited sooner was because Zephyr said it was probably best to give him some space for now. But she hoped that he was ready to talk and listen to her instead of screaming in rage after a week.
He thinks Umber's dead, and that's why he doesn't want to think about him, Moon thought. But Umber's alive, and I just need to convince him that everything will be okay as long as we have Turtle. But first, I'll have to convince him that Turtle isn't an evil animus planning on killing everyone.
During their last visit, whenever they talked about Turtle she could feel that he was on the edge of beginning to trust Turtle, and completely hating him at the same time. All she had to do was nudge him in the right direction slightly.
She stood up from the hospital chair and sighed. Even though her and Zephyr's visit ended in disaster, she wasn't going to give up on him, no matter what she had to do.
When Flame first left the hospital, they had tried to dreamvisit Umber again to tell him about it, but every time they did, he was locked in a nightmare and nobody could pull him out. Except Flame…
So the only way she could ever find out how Umber truly felt was by taking off Qibli's skyfire and digging deep into his emotions. She needed as much as she could to convince Flame that Umber wasn't going to die and that they would make sure of that.
And I'm the only dragon who can do it.
She looked over at Qibli, who was sitting in one of the chairs in the hallway outside of Umber's room beside her. "Alright, I'm going to try and talk to Flame again," she sighed. "I'll try and convince him that Turtle isn't an evil animus.
"Are you sure he won't try and hit you? I mean, look at what he did to Turtle the other day," Qibli argued in concern.
"He won't, I've seen into his mind. As much as he wants to hit us, or "set us on fire", he won't." She made quotation marks with her talons around those words.
Looking at Qibli, she could tell that he was definitely worried about what Flame might do to her, and she didn't blame him. She wasn't quite telling the truth about Flame and not hitting her, she just wanted to make him feel better — he was tempted, but he probably wasn't going to.
There was a moment of silence. "Alright, I'll get going now," she said. "Here." She took the skyfire pouch from around her neck and handed it to Qibli.
Everyones' thoughts immediately began assaulting her mind, but she had been practicing her methods of keeping them away since the other day.
She imagined the raindrops like she usually did, trapping all of the thoughts inside. Then imagined them hitting the ground and sinking into the soil where the sun would then shine brightly, clear skies.
And then everything was silent, just as if she was wearing the skyfire.
What a relief.
"I'll be back in an hour," Moon said, turning around and walking down the hall.
She was really hoping that Flame would listen to her, even when everything from their last visit said otherwise. It had been six days since they last spoke though, so maybe he's thought about it more?
"Moon, wait," Qibli said. She turned around to look at him. "One last thing before you go."
"Yeah, yeah, of course," she said sincerely. "what is it-"
She was cut off by Qibli lunging forward to meet her lips, his eyes closed making for the perfect kiss. It definitely caught her off guard, but she wasn't going to deny a nice kiss from him, so she began kissing back.
Their lips stayed mated for the next few seconds, all reminding her about why she fell in love with him in the first place; the way he was able to find the perfect time for everything. Then they both pulled away, left to stare at each other. "For good luck," he said with a smile.
She smiled back, her heart already pounding from those few seconds. "Thanks," was all she said with a smile and a blush spread firmly across her face like glue.
She finally turned around and began heading down the hall, down the stairs, through the lobby, and out through the front door and launched herself in the air in the direction of Flame's house.
She went over her plan in her head one last time before she got there. Alright, convince him Turtle isn't going to kill us all, then convince him that Umber's going to live, she thought. No big deal, right?
She sighed, knowing that whatever was about to come next probably wasn't going to be easy — not that she expected it to be, but she wasn't the most excited about it.
After a few minutes of flying, she saw Flame's house in the distance. She thought it was so strange that you could look at any house, and no matter how bad or nice it looked, the dragon living in it could be going through so much without anyone even knowing.
She landed down on the path in front of his house, her heart pounding in anticipation of facing Flame after all this time. Would he be mad? Happy? Sad even? She didn't know.
She walked up to the door and hesitated for a moment, before holding her breath and knocking three times. "Flame?" she called out.
Is it this bitch again?! Flame thought in anger. Just fuck off already!
It had been long enough without her mind reading that she completely forgot she could be reading Flame's mind right now and trying to help him more. In her mind, she took Flame's raindrop out from the ground and let his thoughts roam free.
Something she could instantly tell was that his thinking was all over the place; vastly different from how it was before. Something wasn't right.
"Flame, it's me, Moon," she called. "I know you're in there, can you please just open the door so we can talk?"
Gahhh! he thought in annoyance. I'll just open the door and tell her whatever she wants to hear, then she can fuck off, just like last time.
She heard angry talonsteps making their way to the door, the creaking floorboards being a clear indicator of it.
The doorknob jiggled a bit as he unlocked it, she could feel her heart racing a thousand times faster than before. Once he finally opened it, she saw a sight that she'd expected last from Flame, out of all dragons.
He was a complete mess, from the way he wobbled slightly as he stood, to the way he looked at her with his expression full of slight confusion and disorientation. His scales were disheveled as if he hadn't taken a proper bath in days, or even left his house for that matter.
She looked past him and saw enough empty bottles to cover his entire table, which was put back in its original spot that wasn't in the middle of the floor. She wondered what was inside of them, but that was quickly answered the second Flame spoke.
"Wwhat the ffuck do you want?" Flame slurred, his breath reeking of alcohol.
"F-Flame, are you drunk?" she asked nervously. If he was tempted to do something to her sober, she could only imagine what he'd do while drunk.
"Yeah? And?" he retorted, his patience slowly wearing thin.
She could already see that the conversation was going nowhere and didn't want to get too off track like last time and make him mad. "Can we go inside and talk for a few minutes?"
Flame hesitated, thinking through all of the options. Gah! Just fuck off already! This went on for another few seconds where he was mixed between telling her to "fuck off and never come back" and letting her inside to get it over with.
"Fine!" Flame finally agreed. "As soon as you do whatever ssstupid welfare check you're doing, you get the fuck out and leave me alone!" He jerked his head forward during that sentence, almost causing him to lose his balance and fall over.
How drunk is he? she wondered. Sure, at least forty or fifty empty bottles were laying on the floor, but he seemed like he hadn't left his house in days, so surely they couldn't have all been from today. If they were, he would probably be passed out drunk on the floor, or even dead.
Flame turned around and began walking inside, walking straight past all the bottles on the floor as if he knew where they were by memory. He stumbled a few times and he stepped, displaying to her just how drunk he really was.
He walked over to the table and sat down on the couch, which was surprisingly clean compared to the rest of the living room; there were only a few spots where he had obviously spilled some alcohol.
"Well? Are you coming?" he asked Moon, who was still cautiously standing at the doorway.
"Oh- of course," she responded hastily, forgetting that she had been standing there the whole time. She began making her way through the door, closing it behind her and stepping over many glass bottles, just so that she didn't slip or break any.
The entire house smelled more of alcohol than his breath did, an unfamiliar smell that almost made her sick. But she had a dragon to help here, and she wasn't going to leave until she was done.
She sat down next to him, an awkward string of silence strung between them. And as if he cut it with his own talons, Flame finally spoke up. "Well?" he said angrily, his tone threatening and scary.
"I just came by to tell you that Umber will be okay, you know that right?" Moon tried. She could already pick up a mix between anger and sadness coming from Flame. And almost as if they canceled each other out, Flame spoke up.
"He's already dead," he said, defeat rippling throughout his voice. "He's been dead ever since the day he was caught under that beam. All they're doing there is keeping him alive to suffer."
She felt a sense of remorse for him. He was obviously hurting right now more than she could ever imagine; more than her mind reading could ever pick up. Subconsciously, Flame's mind was juggling between "What will I do without him?" and "I can't stand to look at him anymore."
"I'm so sorry…" Moon said lowly. She tilted her head to look down at the table, which had many beer bottles stacked on it. "...But I can promise you that Turtle will heal him, the spell is nearly ready-"
"No!" Flame interrupted, a jolt of anger surging through his mind causing her to flinch. "He's not going to fucking live! If he wanted to heal him, he would've done it the first fucking time!"
"He's not trying to kill Umber! He's trying to do the opposite!" Moon argued.
"How would you know?!" Flame screamed, standing up from the couch and staring at her. "For all you know, he could've implanted that in your fucking head! Moon, do you not understand just how powerful animus magic is? For fucks sake, did you see what Darkstalker did?!"
"He wouldn't do that!" Moon retorted. "He's the entire reason Darkstalker is gone! He's the one who spied on Darkstalker for days using his magic!"
She sensed a pause in Flame's mind, anger emanating in pulses from him. He's fucking brainwashed her too! He probably implanted those memories in her head!
"...Get out."
"What?"
"I SAID GET THE FUCK OUT!"
He lunged at her, grabbing her wrists and forcibly pulling her off of the couch. He began dragging her through the house and toward the front door. "Flame stop! Let go of me!"
"No! You're fucking leaving! There's no way you could ever know Turtle was never lying to you, and you sure as fuck aren't going to put those ideas in my head!"
She had to think of something, and something quick. Something that would convince him that Turtle wasn't evil; something that would prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt; something that would make Flame stop in his tracks. But she only had a short time to think as they were nearly at the door.
Then it hit her. He doesn't know about the skyfire, does he?
They were stopped at the door at this point, and Flame was getting ready to twist the handle and throw her out. "Flame, wait!" she tried, but her cries went unheard as he began turning the handle.
"Get the fuck out of my house!" He continued to jiggle the door handle, struggling to open it as Moon struggled.
"Can we just talk? Please?" she tried, but the door was open now and Flame was about ready to throw her out.
It was now or never, she had no other options, as she was mere seconds away from being thrown into the gravel.
"I CAN READ MINDS!"
And just like that, Flame immediately froze there, motionless as he was about to throw her through the door. She was relieved that she didn't have to try and hide it from him anymore, but also worried at the same time; his thoughts were already racing with questions.
Questions like "Is she lying?" or "Is she reading my thoughts right now?" and "Darkstalker was the only dragon with mind reading!" But there was one question that kept crossing his subconscious over and over, and that question was "Does Umber know?"
"What?" he asked sternly in the same threatening voice as before.
"I can read minds! I can read yours, Qibli's, Clay's, Peril's, and even Turtle's!" Flame let go of her wrists and took a few steps away from her, leaving her to stand at the opened door alone.
She took a peek out to see if any dragons had heard her, as she did say those things quite loudly, but there were no other dragons outside except a few dragonets down the street. They were far enough away that she was sure they couldn't have heard her.
What the fuck? Why do all of them have some sort of crazy secret?! Flame thought. Did Turtle give her mind reading? Can she hear my thoughts right now?
"No Turtle didn't give me mind reading, I've had it since I was hatched." Moon corrected. Her talons were shaking at this point, anxiety flooding her veins as her heart pounded loud enough that she swore Flame could hear it.
"...So you've been listening to my thoughts this whole time?" She could feel anger rushing through him at this point, and that showed in his voice.
"No no! I've been…uhm," she paused as she tried to come up with a different excuse that didn't reveal the skyfire. "...I've been suppressing them mostly, it's only when you think about me do your-"
So you can read my thoughts? Well then here's what I want you to do, Flame thought. Moon mentally prepared for what was probably about to echo through her head, as she could already sense that it wasn't going to be good.
I want you to GET THE FUCK OUT!
She felt a stab of pain shoot through her head, that being the loudest anyone has ever…well…thought at her. She guessed it probably had something to do with his drunken state, but also the sheer anger he was going through.
Reflexively, her talons shot up to her forehead, trying to soothe a pain that she could never.
GET THE FUCK OUT RIGHT NOW! he continued. GET OUT AND NEVER COME BACK!
Her head gushed with pain as she stumbled through the open door and out onto the gravel, where she tripped over her talons and fell. Little rocks embedded themselves in between her scales and she didn't even notice that Flame had slammed the door.
Though Flame had stopped screaming in his head, the pain still lasted as his mind kept echoing it over and over like a scream echoing off of cave walls and coming back to you a few times before fading. But this echo wasn't fading and was keeping the same power each time it circled back.
She got up to her feet and took a few steps, before jumping in the air and flying as fast as she could to get out of range.
Now, she could feel that all the trust she felt for Turtle from Flame before was completely gone; he was nowhere near ever trusting Turtle anytime soon now and she was realizing she messed this up, badly.
But there was one more thought that crossed Flame's subconscious before she flew far enough away, making her heart ache in sadness and immediately making her worry.
Is life really worth living without him?
Author's note: Since I took such a long break, I made sure to write a longer chapter this time to make up for it. Like I said, I would start writing again by the end of the month (I started this chapter last Saturday). I feel like my writing did improve this chapter a considerable amount in this chapter though.
Also, reviews keep me motivated and I always love reading them, regardless if they're on Reddit, FFN, Wattpad (I get like 2 views a chapter there), or AO3. So if you have anything to say, good or bad, I'd really like to hear about it. My Discord is Amisgal if you'd rather say something there.
