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The sleeping caves in Jade Mountain Academy we're eerily quiet, a lack of sound that was only found in the early hours of the morning, when awake dragonets went to class, and those who wanted to skip stayed asleep.
There was however, a single sound that had repeated over and over for aproximately fifteen minutes, the sound of a particularly overthinking Sandwing... being left without words.
"what the fuck just happened what the fuck just happened what the fuck just happened"
TWENTY MINUTES EARLIER
The dragonet's shouting was so loud that Qibli was pretty sure even Stonemover would be aware of the hot new gossip
"LET ME GO YOU CACTUS-LICKING SANDSNORTER!!"
Qibli layed on top of his bed, waiting paitently for his clawmate's patience to run dry, and for him to try whatever he can in order to escape the Sandwings antics. All the while he stayed comfortably hugging his newly acquired pillow.
"Never, my beautiful igloo-for-brains"
It just so happens that said new pillow was a very angry and VERY flustered Icewing. Really, who even knew these shades of blue forming in his snout even existed? He was pretty sure this could count as his homework for Sunny's "Dragon Anatomy" class.
"For your information..." Aaaand there we go! Winter has officialy entered the Bargaining phase. "...We are going to be severely late for Tsunami's class, and I dont feel like being on the wrong end of those words coming out of her snout before breakfast"
"I can put something else in your snout if you want~"
Winter made a face of angered frustration upon processing the Sandwings words, one that Qibli would give anything to see upon waking up every day.
"Come ooon, just five more minutes?"
"NO!" He said, the ice in his face almost melting with how perplexed he looked
"Three?" Qibli tried giving his best puppy eyes, and by the looks on Winter, it seemed to be working "Just a single minute?" He asked
".... im gonna mount your head on stake, SURE QIBLI ILL GIVE YOU A MINUTE MORE OF TORTURING ME"
The Sandwing's grin was by now bigger than the scar that covered his snout, having completed his task, and managing to get Winter to suffer being basked by the heat of his scales for an entire minute. THIS was what life was about.
"Just for you..." Qibli started whispering "... I'll even count down the seconds. That way you know im a dragonet of my word"
"Shut up, Sand-snorter" The Icewing declared coldly.
"Make me~" Qibli replied before starting the countdown, completely ignoring the myriad of emotions that single statement brought onto his clawmate.
Aah, how good it felt to have Winters cool scales right next to his so early in the morning. Qibli had always had a hard time waking up before coming to Jade Mountain, the hot, cramped up air of the Scorpion den left a permanent stain in his brain. But being met with striking cold was a really effective way of yanking those thoughts out of his mind. Better yet, said cold also came with teasing his crush and getting him extremely flustered.
The 45 second mark passed by in a flash. Having a crush on Winter felt so easy, because not only was he an extremely easy dragon to stun, but a bonus of him being an Icewing was that there was no way he would ever try making a first move. After all, that tribe does its hardest to "mantain purity". Though Qibli wasn't sure if Winter would accept a first move from someone else, or if his reaction would be to throw his clawmate off a cliff, but both options sounded appealing to him.
The two dragonets we're officially halfway done with their weird cuddling session. To be honest, Qibli wasn't sure why no one had taken the risk of declaring themselves for the Icewing yet. I mean, he would most definitely reject them all, but still. He was just so... beautiful. The way the sun shined off his pristine scales, the confidence he put into his every step, the glow in his eyes when he talked about his personal interest. And I mean, theres no way this gem of a dragon wouldn't be a good kisser, there we're probably classes for that in his royal upbringing. Maybe he would even be decent in be- NO STOP RIGHT THERE QIBLI YOU AREN'T WEARING SKYFIRE. You do NOT wanna have to explain yourself if Moon hears any of this.
Only a measly 15 seconds remained, which corresponded to about a billion heartbeats with how fast those things we're going. Really, one can't help but wonder.... wait did Winter's eyes just hover over our snouts? No, surely he was just looking at the scar, right? Oh, or it was probably the smell from something Qibli ate last night, after all, they we're so close that the scent of their maw's were merging together... but it wasnt like Qibli minded this, of course.
And with only a few seconds left, it was only a matter of time before this very forced embrace came to an end. Qibli wished they could stay there a bit longer, but now it was any moment befo-
Instead of pulling away, Winter pulled IN, and very quickly gave his clawmate a peck right in the middle of his snout, before pushing himself off the bed and standing up, seemingly perplexed even by his own actions, the blue in his snout practically becoming glow-in-the-dark. Not that the Sandwing looked any more composed.
"Winter... w-what was that...?" He very brokenly asked.
A few seconds passed before the Icewing gave a proper response. "What you deserve, of course" He proclaimed, before storming out of the cave, bumping into a scroll rack on his way out.
A FEW MINUTES LATER
The mutually agreed upon silence was no more, as the halls now filled with the thumps of a rapidly aproaching dragon, ready to punish one of her students for not showing up to an "all day long learning trip" or whatever Sunny decided to call these. Of course, as any dragonet who had spent even a second inside the academy, everyone knew these steps belonged to none other than Princess Tsunami of the Seawings. Every student made sure to duck and hide out of her sight, in case they we're the target of the fury of the sea. Sadly said target was too busy wallowing in his confusion to notice the situation he was about to be in.
"QIBLI FOR THE LOVE OF THE GREAT DRAGON IF I CATCH YOU SKIPPING MY CLASSES ONE MORE TIME I WILL PERSONALLY MAIL QUEEN THORN EACH OF YOUR TALONS AS A DECLARATION OF- oh what in the fire spitting sea cucumbers happened HERE?!?!" Tsunami's expression rapidly changed to one of concern upon seeing what a mess the sleeping cave was in, but just as fast went back as she saw that Qibli was, in fact, not in any danger.
"Hiiii Tsunami, just... re-organizing the entire room over here?"
"...by throwing every single scroll on the ground and squashing them all with your body?" She said, very clearly not convinced
"I find that my scrolls are best read with a few wrinkles and holes here and there" He responded, hoping his natural confidence and charm broke through the Princesses walls.
After a few seconds and an awfully long sigh, she gave her answer: "Look Qibli, you look like you've been through a lot, so I'll spare you the broken ribs. You'll just get a write up, but you have five minutes to clean this cave and be in the main hall, or else the clean-up in here is gonna be a lot harder"
"...yes ma'am" The dragonet muttered. As she strolled out of the room, Qibli was left alone, with a lot of things to ponder on.