Work Text:
The floor felt so cold against Royal Margarine’s feet that he had to run into the bathroom. In fact, the whole room was cold now that he wasn’t in bed with Blue. Well, Blue and Pitaya . The dragon was like a space heater. The realization that they’d brought someone else into the bedroom was hitting Marge like a freight train. It had been fun in the moment, but he wasn’t entirely sure how he felt about it. Blue had… had a lot of fun with Pitaya. Would she leave him now that she’d experienced someone else? The anxiety welled up inside of him so much so that it made the cookie nauseous. He cleared his throat to try and make the feeling go away, finished his business, and hurried back to the bedroom of the inn.
The sight of the bed didn’t quell his thoughts. There was Blue, out cold and adorably drained of all energy after their tumble. Pitaya dragon lay curled up around her– their face nuzzled into her shoulder and their arms wrapped around her from behind. Even their tail made its way around one of her legs as they slept. Royal Margarine’s heart felt like it had stopped cold in his chest. Blue was his girlfriend, yet he suddenly felt as though he didn’t belong.
Did he even deserve her?
The intrusive thoughts made his insides physically hurt. For a long moment, he felt rooted to the spot. It was a struggle to get himself to climb back into bed. When he finally managed it, the movement roused Pitaya from their slumber. The dragon clutched Blue tighter. Their eyes flew open, and they gave a possessive growl so fierce that Marge flew back with a yelp of fright. His body tumbled to the floor, and only then did Pitaya relax.
“Oh, it’s you,” the dragon noted, giving a yawn. “I didn’t feel you leave.”
“I had to pee,” Royal Margarine whined as he climbed up enough to sit beside the two of them.
Blue hadn’t moved. It was adorable that they’d exhausted her to the point that nothing would wake her. Usually, she was a light sleeper. Pitaya settled back into place, resting their face against Blue’s shoulder, but pulled their stomach away from her enough that the blond cookie could wrap his arms around her again.
“Hurry up,” the dragon muttered.
Again, Marge found himself hesitating. He looked over their bodies, then his own, unsure of how he even fit into the puzzle. Pitaya opened a single eye, looking up at the other.
“What’s the holdup?”
Royal Margarine stiffened, averting his gaze from the other.
“I…”
Pitaya sighed in annoyance, adjusting themself so that they could look up at the other fully.
“Spit it out. Speak your mind,” they commanded.
“Do you think she’ll even want me after this?” Margarine asked, feeling stupid the instant the words left his mouth.
Pitaya’s eyes widened, looking over him to make sure he was serious before they softened. The look surprised the cookie. He wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting, but it wasn’t that . Even with the softness, there was a hint of amusement.
“Are you afraid I’m going to steal her?” Pitaya asked.
“W-well, I–”
Marge wanted to be confident. He wanted to say he wasn’t worried, but he couldn’t help the unhappiness that crossed his features. The mere idea of Blue leaving him to run away with Pitaya struck a nerve inside of him that made him feel like his entire body was about to crumble in on itself.
“I’m not… uh…” He stopped himself, unsure of how to continue. “How long… are you sticking around for?”
Oh boy . Pitaya blinked a few times, trying to figure out exactly how to answer the other’s question.
“Dragons mate for life,” they finally said, deciding bluntness was the correct course of action.
The look that flashed across Royal Margarine’s face concerned them. He looked as though he was about to be sick, scream, or perhaps both at once. In fact, they were so worried that they slowly slid their wing over Blue to shield her, just in case. However, Royal Margarine panicked and reached out to keep them from covering her face. He needed to see her. If he lost sight of her, he was sure he would be ill.
“I apologize for not making that clearer before we did this,” Pitaya said, allowing Marge to move their wing. “However, you don’t need to worry. We dragons do things differently than you puny little cookies do.”
“And what is that supposed to mean?” the blonde asked, trying to ignore the way his own voice cracked.
He wasn’t sure if he should be insulted or relieved. Pitaya paused to think about their words carefully before they answered. The last thing they wanted to do was send Royal Margarine into hysterics.
“Do you know of the mating habits of lions?” they asked.
Royal Margarine’s brows knit together in confusion, but he nodded.
“One male, many females,” Pitaya continued. “Dragons do the opposite. One female will often have four to five mates. Usually male, but other females are not excluded.”
Which probably sounded confusing considering the fact that all dragons seemed to go by gender neutral pronouns. Thankfully, Royal Margarine was keeping up.
“You see, not all baby dragon eggs hatch. I’m sure you remember our little friend Snapdragon,” Pitaya said, motioning out the window as though the memory were right there within their grasp. “Females often have multiple male mates in order to make sure they get the strongest genes and the most eggs possible to make sure dragonkind survives. We are immortal in lifespan, but we can be killed. Therefore, we need to make sure there are enough eggs to re-populate.”
“Okay, I suppose that makes sense,” Margarine said with a nod.
“The mate bond is intense, but we dragons are also creatures who need our freedom,” they continued. “After a day or two, I’ll wander back out into the world. I’ll keep returning to Blue, but you don’t have to worry about me being here at all times and stealing all of her attention away from you.”
The dragon reached to run their claws along her hair. The woman made a soft noise in her sleep, and a smile pulled at Pitaya’s lips.
“All I ask is that whenever I do return, I am given my due time with her.”
Royal Margarine stayed silent. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to answer the other, but he was still processing the information. Pitaya watched him out of the corner of their eye. They could see the gears still turning in his mind and didn’t rush him. Somehow, the strange group had wound up in a polyamorous relationship without properly communicating it. The dragon recognized that part of that was on them. They didn’t stop to think about the fact that cookie customs might be different than dragon customs. Even still, they didn’t think the cultural difference would be too much of a gap to overcome.
“So this doesn’t bother you at all?” Royal Margarine asked. “Us sharing her?”
Pitaya shook their head.
“More often than not, females need more care than males do,” they said, as if this were the most common knowledge in the world. “They can be more emotional and more delicate, but there is no shame in that. It is not a fault. One thing you silly cookies never seem to get through your heads is that emotions are not weakness. Perhaps this is why we dragons do things the way we do. Of course, this isn’t to say that some males don’t need extra attention as well.”
The side-eye the dragon gave him had Royal Margarine puffing up his chest and swatting their wing.
“Hey! Don’t you give me that look,” he said, pouting so deeply that Pitaya chuckled.
“Our partners are like… roses! ” they continued, almost as if the exchange had never happened.
“Roses?”
“Mhmm. They begin needy . They crave attention, or they will wilt easily. But when the right gardener comes along, who is patient, who nourishes them, who takes care of them with all the love they have, they turn from a rose into a weed.”
The dragon rider gave a dramatic gasp, grasping his own chest.
“A weed ? She’s not a weed!”
Weeds were always something gardeners tried to get rid of, as far as he knew. They were never wanted. But when Pitaya shook their head, curiosity spread through him.
“You misunderstand me,” they said, once more raking their claws along Blue’s hair. “Weeds are resilient . They’ll grow anywhere and defy all odds. Then, you’ll go from being her gardener to her sun . You become the storm that feeds her. You become the very soil that nourishes her, and she’ll grow everywhere . She’ll flourish .”
Had the woman in their arms not been sleeping, Pitaya would have grown quite passionate about their speech. Even now, Margarine could see them trying to hold back the urge to be loud and boisterous in an effort not to wake her. Still, their words rang in his heart loud as a bell. He could understand what they meant, and admittedly, it made him feel quite a bit better. He didn’t have to fight them for her. That much he knew, and that was all he needed to know. The two of them could love Blue together.
“She is rather sensitive,” he said, reaching to caress the sleeping woman’s cheek. “She worries she’s too much for me… It’s hard to convince her that I’m not going anywhere, but it’s worth it just to see her smile. And… as selfish as it may be, I kind of enjoy the fact that she’s worried about losing me. It makes me feel needed.”
He felt terrible for thinking such things, but it did no good to hide it. Especially not from Pitaya, whom he supposed he needed to open up to more at this point. They were in this together, after all. The dragon seemed to understand. They knew him well enough to know how needy he was. They’d witnessed his actions firsthand during the Battle of the Red Dragon. More than anything, it surprised him to see no judgment in their eyes. Instead, their gaze fell back down to Blue.
“I think our girl may have been born in the wrong body,” Pitaya noted. “She has so many emotions that her little cookie body can’t handle them. I think she should have been born a dragon.”
Our girl. That was cute. The more he mulled it over in his mind, the more Royal Margarine found himself liking it. He couldn’t help but chuckle.
“You know, you may be right,” he agreed.
The three of them stayed like that for a long time. Royal Margarine kept stroking the woman’s cheek while Pitaya savored the warmth of her body against their chest. It seemed everything had finally fallen into place, and everyone was happy. That was, until a sudden realization hit the blonde man.
“So, uh…” he said, his voice cracking once more. “We’re going to have to have a serious talk in the morning.”
“What now?” Pitaya groaned.
“You know that I’m her boyfriend, right?”
“Obviously.”
“And I know you’re her mate, now.”
“Yes.”
Royal Margarine’s eyes flicked from Pitaya, to Blue, to Pitaya again.
“Does… she know that?”
A small noise of surprise and discomfort left Pitaya’s body, and their expression became unreadable. At least, they thought it was unreadable. They hadn’t even considered the fact that Blueberry Blitz might not be aware of the fact that they’d claimed her, nor the fact that she might not want them to . They sat up quickly, looking down at the bite mark on the back of her shoulder, then to Royal Margarine in panic.
“Do you think she’ll reject me?” they asked, their voice louder than they meant it to be.
“I don’t know,” Royal Margarine replied, feeling a cold sweat on the back of his neck.
“Will she be mad at me?” Pitaya asked, more panic filling their voice.
“I don’t know!”
The cookie’s voice was starting to match their own in both volume and levels of panic. What was supposed to have been just a night of fun had turned into something far more complicated than any of them had signed up for. The two made noises of distress, unsure of what to do.
Until suddenly, Blue sat up . Both of them went completely silent, both afraid to upset her. The woman groaned, reaching to rub her eyes.
“Bluey, sweetie, I’m sorry, did we wa– AAKE .” Royal Margarine’s words were interrupted by a loud squeal as the woman’s arms shot around him to yank him back down against the bed.
He had to blink a few times to comprehend what had just happened. Then his gaze flicked up to Pitaya, who seemed to be just as confused. The woman reached around behind herself, giving a sleepy noise of frustration, until finally her hand found Pitaya’s own. She grasped it tightly and pulled on it to bring the Dragon back down against her as well. While she snuggled into Royal Margarine’s chest, she brought Pitaya’s hand to her cheek to nuzzle into their touch.
Even in her sleep, she somehow found a way to make them both see how much they were wanted. Margarine held back a laugh. The dragon felt themself melting at the motion.
“You still worried?” he asked.
“No,” Pitaya replied softly, letting their hand caress her cheek as they nestled into her back. “Not anymore.”