Clay leaned against the railing as he watched the shoreline slowly pass by. A pair of mudwings walking past stopped to wave at him as they passed, he waved back. He had a lot of confusing thoughts he'd been trying to sort through. Not least of which was the pink scaled rainwing slumped on a chair not too far away, asleep, practically dead to the world and trying to soak up as much sun as was physically possible. Jambu just looked so peaceful during suntime.

That was one thing he was trying to sort through, him and Jambu, dating. He didn't have any negative feelings about it or anything, really it was kinda nice, especially all the kissing, Jambu was really good at that. He just assumed no one would really be all that interested in him. He wasn't exactly the prettiest dragon, unlike say all of the other Dragonets of Destiny. Well there was Peril but even she eventually realized she still had a lot of things she was working through so a relationship probably wasn't the best idea there and oh wow he was going to have to tell her about Jambu at some point wasn't he. A cold shiver ran down his spine, something for later…much…much later.

Jambu stirred slightly but Clay knew he wouldn't actually be waking up for at least a few more minutes, so he sat quietly and tried to enjoy the riverboat ride. Which had been one of Starflight's suggestions when he had asked the nightwing for help planning the little tour of Pyrrhia he and Jambu were now taking. Starflight had actually been really helpful planning everything out. Not that Clay would have doubted that for a minute, Starflight was the best at that sort of thing. According to Starflight the riverboat, called the Marsh Pearl, was a major point of interest for this part of the Mud Kingdom.

He'd been given the entire history of the boat by Starflight but in all honesty the story had dragged on so long he only caught about half of it. Something to do with a Mudwing who fell in love with a seawing that lived by the river. All that being said, the food served on board was supposed to be amazing, not that Clay or Jambu had actually gotten to eat any yet, They'd boarded, got their rooms, and then Jambu curled up for suntime. Not that Clay was going to complain, suntime was important for rainwings, not that Glory seemed to agree. Glory seemed almost happy for Clay and Jambu to take off on their trip, something about finally getting the two to stop trying to micromanage her sleep schedule.

Clay almost jolted as he felt something curled around his tail, only to relax as he recognized it was Jambu's tail wrapping around it in his sleep. It made his stomach feel like it was full of butterflies when Jambu did things like that. Jambu was rather physically affectionate, and he was still getting used to that too, but living with Sunny for so long meant he had practice with that at least, little sandwing was a hugger. And that was another dragon he really needed to get around to telling about his relationship, so far Glory and Starflight were the only ones who actually knew.

"Now that's a pleasant sight to wake up to." Jambu yawned as he stretched out pecking a kiss on Clay's snout that caused the mudwing to blush deeply. "Did I miss anything interesting?"

"Not really." Clay said, hesitating before kissing the rainwing back. That wasn't completely the truth, Clay had heard a band playing somewhere else on the boat at one point, and that seemed pretty interesting. He was sure that'd happen again eventually though.

"Well we have a while before dinner, so how about we find something to do?" Jambu said, several scales turning a bright yellow before returning to their normal pink. Jambu grabbed and tried to drag him out of the room, only really moving the larger mudwing when Clay moved to follow.

They had ducked into a theater room that was currently putting on a show. A show that much to Jambu's delight had turned Clay into an embarrassed mess. The play was incredibly awkward for the mudwing, after all it wasn't every day you saw four mudwings and a seawing pretending to be you and your siblings on stage. The seawing wasn't even playing Tsunami, they were Sunny.

They had just gotten to the part where the dragonets went to the Summer Palace and Clay thought he was going to die of embarrassment. When he got a chance, he was going to….write a strongly worded letter to Tsunami's mother, because Queen Coral had to be the one who wrote this. Clay's face turned a deep shade of red, trying to sink into his seat and disappear. Every exaggerated line of dialogue and dramatic gesture only added to his embarrassment.

Jambu glanced at Clay, little specks of green forming in his scales. "You alright?"

"Just..kinda embarrassing is all."

"We can go somewhere else if you want?" Jambu said, smiling sympathetically before curling his tail around Clay's. Clay simply nodded and the pair stood up and quietly made their way out of the room. "The mudwing playing you isn't nearly as cute as you are anyways." Clay almost stumbled as Jambu spoke, blush growing brighter all the while.

They had ended up finding the band that Clay was listening to earlier, playing at the front of the ship where a not insubstantial dance floor had been set up. Clay wasn't sure if Jambu knew how to dance, at least not how the various mudwing, skywing and seawings that were on the floor were dancing. Clay did, at least mostly, Kestrel had decided to teach them at some point, said it was good for coordination or something, Tsunami thought it was a trick to make them embarrass themselves. Starflight and Glory were always better at that than he was though and he hadn't actually practiced since they left the cave.

Jambu looked more amused than anything at the dragons dancing. "This is almost nothing like in the rainforest." He said, head bobbing along with the music. "Really pretty music though." Clay couldn't help but agree as he caught himself watching Jambu's scale slowly turn a soft sunny yellow. Jambu pulled him out onto the floor and they danced together, badly all things considered, but they were too busy laughing and enjoying themselves to care.

They eventually pulled to the side of the dance floor, collapsing into a pile sitting against the railing.

"That was so fun." Jambu panted breathlessly, laying a quick peck onto Clay's forehead. Clay draped a wing over him and returned the kiss.

"Think we should rest here for a moment."

"Hmm, I don't think I'm any good at this." Jambu said, picking up one of the little circular red painted wooden pieces. They'd gone back to their cabin and were now playing a board game that Clay had found, seemingly left behind by the last dragons to stay in their cabin. Which was a shame it was a really well made set, and he was planning to take it with them when they finally left.

"It's fine we're only playing for fun, I'm only as good at this as I am because I was the only one who would really play with Starflight when we were younger." They'd built their own set after Starflight had read about the game in a scroll, Kestrel had wanted to get rid of it but Webs had convinced their guardians to let them keep it.

"Is that something you did a lot?" Jambu asked, setting his piece back on the board.

"Oh yeah, well when we had actual free time anyways, it made Starflight happy." Clay said. He remembered Starflight's face would always light up anytime he suggested they play. It was a nice sight, far better than seeing the nightwing being mopey because Tsunami said something or the like.

"So you and Starflight are pretty close then?"

"Well I was pretty close with everyone, but yeah pretty much." Clay scratched at the back of his head sheepishly.

"Oh oh, do you have any fun stories about Glory?" Jambu asked excitedly, scales changing to a mix of gold and blue.

Clay paused to think on that for a moment, idly moving a piece on the board before coming up with a fun story. "Well, there's the time when we were really young when she turned her scales blue and pretended to be Tsunami for a week before anyone realized she was doing it." Jambu's laughter brought a smile to Clay's face.

It was later in the evening, and they were sitting around a table in the dining hall. Which was probably a good thing, because Clay was getting hungry enough to eat a whole cow…or two. Jambu seemed excited, barely keeping still, sitting across from him as they waited for their food to be brought to them.

"So have you ever eaten shrimp?" Jambu asked. Music drifted through the room as the band from earlier, sat at the far end of the room, began to play soft relaxing music. Jambu's question caught him by surprise.

"Not really, you?" Clay asked. He'd not eaten much in the way of seafood, that was more Tsunami's thing, though like everything food related he'd never say no to any.

"There's this little mudwing village, on the border of the rainforest." Jambu started, eyes closed, a slight smile on his face. "I used to go there with a friend, real friendly dragons and didn't mind two more mouths to feed, pretty sure I heard 'oh they're so skinny give them an extra helping' from every dragon living there at least once." He laughed and it made Clay smile.

"That sounds really nice." Clay said. He hesitated for a moment before curling his tail around Jambu's. The rainwing's eyes widened for a moment, his scales showing little spots of yellow and white before returning to normal.

"We should go there sometime, they'd probably love you." Jambu said before shaking his head. "But yeah, that's how I know we're gonna eat something really good." That got Clay excited to try whatever it was they were supposed to be eating, which was great timing on Jambu's part as mudwing carried a large metal pot and placed it on the table between them before walking away.

Jambu lifted the lid from the pot and they were assaulted by one of the most wonderful thing's Clay had ever smelled. Shrimp and sausage, rice and spices he didn't even know the names of. Clay didn't hesitate to try some. warm, a little spicy, it reminded him of Peril in a way. From the look on Jambu's face as he tried his own he liked it just as much as Clay was. It was delicious.

They were back in their room, the sun had fallen and the moons were rising. Jambu was curled up in a hammock that swayed with the motions of the boat while Clay spread out on the bed barely able to keep his eyes open.

"Hey Clay?" Jambu whispered as he swayed back and forth.

"Yeah?"

"I'm glad we're doing this, it's already been a lot of fun."

"It really has." Clay said, eyes drooping closed.

"I love you."

"I love you too."