Chapter Text
“So, I found this waterfall…”
Midnight blinked, looking up at him. Cobra had been gone for about half an hour making sure the place they had chosen to camp for the night was safe and that they wouldn’t be disturbed by anything. Half an hour seemed excessive, so Midnight had been wondering what he was up to.
“And? You seem pretty excited about it, what’s the catch?”
Cobra grinned, reaching his hand out to pull Midnight up from the rock they were currently sitting on. “I’ll show you when we get there, it’s not far from here I promise.”
Midnight made a small noise of discontentment at having to get up, they were tired and didn’t want to walk anymore today, but the dragon slayer seemed so excited about his discovery that they couldn’t say no. They grabbed Cobra’s hand and he pulled them up with ease, already starting to drag Midnight towards this waterfall.
Cobra yelled something in Jellal’s general direction letting him know they were leaving for a few minutes, and Jellal waved his hand to acknowledge he heard. He continued leading them through the trees like he’d been here a hundred times before, still not letting go of Midnight’s hand.
They made it to a wide open area and Cobra finally stopped, gesturing towards the waterfall he had found with a smug look on his face. “Well? Worth the walk right?”
Midnight was quiet for a few seconds, and then looked him dead in the eyes. “You’re an idiot and you made me walk all the way out here for nothing.”
Cobra sputtered, a look of complete betrayal on his face. “Hey, that was uncalled for! I wouldn’t have dragged you out here for nothing, you know that, ‘specially when you’re this tired,” he said, lightly smacking the back of Midnight’s head. “Look closer.”
Midnight grumbled something under their breath about how not everyone has heightened dragon senses, and looked back at the seemingly normal waterfall. They squinted a bit, and finally realized what had caught his attention.
“It’s going the wrong direction.”
“Weird, huh?” Cobra started moving towards it again, motioning for Midnight to follow him. “I wanted to see if I could figure out what was causing it, and turns out there’s this whole underground cavern beneath it.”
Vaguely interested now, Midnight followed him behind the waterfall and was surprised to find that there was a well-worn path leading down into a cavern just as Cobra was saying. There was water clinging to the sides of the path, running upwards just like the waterfall was. It looked as if something was purposely deflecting the water to make the path visible.
Cobra was already halfway down, and he gestured for Midnight to continue following him. “The best part’s down here, I could hardly believe it when I saw it.”
Midnight was still slightly skeptical, but they knew Cobra would’ve triple-checked that there wasn’t anything dangerous happening here. They headed down into the cavern, stopping right behind Cobra. They peered around his shoulder, and their eyes widened at the sight before them.
There were hundreds of crystals lining the cavern, shimmering brightly despite the darkness and lighting up the whole area. There was a myriad of color, seeming to form a rainbow across all the surfaces of the cavern. A calming magical power radiated from the whole area; it was a truly beautiful place, and now Midnight understood the other’s excitement over this discovery.
“Pretty, huh?” Cobra smirked, looking over his shoulder and clearly enjoying Midnight’s reaction. “Am I still an idiot or was this worth the walk?”
“Hm, still an idiot but it was worth the walk,” Midnight said with a soft smile as they continued taking in the scenery. They felt Cobra shift his position, wrapping his arm around Midnight and running his fingers through their hair. They sighed in contentment, leaning against Cobra’s shoulder and closing their eyes.
“Just don’t tell Solano about this, she’s gonna be pissed if she finds out I only showed you,” Cobra muttered, sounding somewhat embarrassed. Midnight laughed, opening their eyes slightly.
“Yeah she probably wouldn’t let you hear the end of it for at least a week, you’re taking a major risk here.”
“It’s one I’m willing to take, seeing you get all starry eyed like that,” Cobra said, placing a small kiss on the top of Midnight’s head. “That’s something I haven’t seen in a while, it was worth every second. Even if somehow Angel finds out and bitches me out for the next week.”
Midnight closed their eyes again, leaning further into him. “But now you have to carry me back to camp ‘cause I’m falling asleep as we speak, too comfortable.”
“You just don’t wanna walk back,” Cobra joked fondly, already in the process of picking them up. Seconds later he heard a soft snore, and he found himself still astounded at how fast the other was able to fall asleep. He smiled softly, placing another kiss to Midnight’s forehead.
“Definitely worth it.”