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"Thanks, Clay!"
"Wh- Hey! Peril! Give that back!"
Clay shouted over a hill as he chased after Peril across the terrain outside Jade Mountain. The couple had decided to go on a picnic together on their day off, and Peril, feeling a bit mischievous today, yoinked the last cow leg right out of Clay's talons just as he was about to take a bite out of it. She wasn't actually going to eat it herself, of course. She was just messing with her boyfriend.
"Catch me if you can, Swamp Sifter!" She hollered back.
As she sprinted away with Clay hot on her heels, she thought about how crazy it was how close she was with him. Just a moon ago she wouldn't have dared to treat Clay like this, but after they became mates they got more and more attuned to each other's presence. To an outsider it might've seemed like their relationship had regressed, but the fact that they felt comfortable enough to poke fun at each other proved otherwise.
Regardless, Clay still wanted his cow leg back.
Peril was a fast sprinter, but Skywings were built for flying, not running. As the two kept up their chase, Peril began to tire and Clay started catching up, having natural Mudwing endurance. Once he got close enough, he sprung forward and body tackled Peril. She yelped, lost her balance, and the two tumbled down the hill. When they came to a stop, Clay ended up on top of Peril, pinning under him so she couldn't escape. Not that she was complaining. You wouldn't believe how hard she was trying not to blush furiously in this position...
"Nowhere to run, Peril," Clay started. "Give me my cow leg back!"
"Aaaaand what if I don't want to?" Peril teased.
Clay deviously smirked.
"Then I'll be forced to use... Drastic measures."
Peril could only wonder what that meant before Clay grabbed for the cow leg. She averted it from his grasp and swept it over her head, out of his reach, but that's exactly what Clay wanted. Reaching her arm above her head left her ribs exposed, and so, Clay commenced his attack: He dug his claws into her ribs.
Peril shrieked like a dragonet. At first she thought Clay stabbed her, but of course, he was Clay. Logically and morally, he would never do that. But if he wasn't stabbing her, what was he doing to her then? Why did it feel weird? Why did she feel the need to escape his claws if they posed no threat to her?
But most importantly, why was she... Laughing?
"EEEEEEEEEEK!!! C-Clahahay! Stohop it!" Peril squirmed and squealed as Clay dug his claws into her ribs, but he refused to let up unless he got his meal back.
"Not until you give me back my cow leg!"
"AAAK!!!" Peril kicked in the air and tried to twist away, but it was no use with a Mudwing bigwings pinning her down
"Nehehever!"
"Okay then, suit yourself!" Clay moved his claws over to her sides, causing Peril to shriek harder. She didn't last much longer until her grip around the cow leg went limp and she dropped it. Clay stopped his ticklish assault to retrieve his prize.
"Haha! Victory!"
Peril was still lying on the ground catching her breath as Clay heartily chomped into his retrieved cow leg.
"Clay... Wh... What was that?" Peril gasped between breaths.
"What wash what? Didn't like my 'drashtic meashuresh?'" Clay teased with his mouth full.
"No, what was... How did you make me do that?" Peril asked meekly.
Clay stopped chewing his cow leg. He felt a flicker of worry. Peril didn't seem as amused as he thought she'd be. Had he taken their playful scuffle too far?
"What do you mean? Make you do what?" Clay questioned.
"With your claws;" Peril stared. "It almost felt like you were stabbing me, but none of my scales were pierced. I don't know why I thought it was funny either..."
Clay was even more confused now, but as he thought about it more and more, he slowly put the pieces together. Peril watched him work through it in his head in real time. Like cogs turning in a machine.
"Peril, have you never been tickled before?"
Peril blinked. "Tickled? What in the three moons is that?"
Clay sighed in realization. "Of course... It all makes sense. How would you have known what it is, with your firescales and all?"
"I'm confused, Clay," Peril states. "How would I have known what what is?
"Uhh..." Clay thought long and hard. How was he supposed to explain what tickling was? To his GIRLFRIEND of all dragons?
"So... Um... Tickling is basically where one dragon uses their claws non-threateningly on another dragon, to get them to... Laugh, basically? Yeah, that's it. It's just supposed to be a sorta... Playful, thing between dragons."
Peril processed this. "So that's why I started laughing when you dug your claws into my ribs?"
"Yeah. That must be where your tickle spot is." Clay observed.
"My tickle spot?" Peril questioned.
"Where you're the most sensitive to being tickled." Clay explained. "Being tickled there makes you laugh the hardest. Every dragon has a different one."
"Huh." Peril remarked. "Weird."
"A bit." Clay agreed. "It makes sense you've never been tickled before since anyone who tried would've..."
"...Gotten their claws melted."
"Yeah..."
The two stayed where they were for a moment, lying on the side of the hill together watching clouds drift by. Peril rested herself snuggly in Clay's arms, the two just enjoying each other's company.
Eventually Peril broke the silence with a smug comment. "So... You said every dragon has a tickle spot, right?"
"Yeah." Clay confirmed. "Why?"
"Oh, no reason..." Peril answered, her voice dripping with false hospitality. "Just needed to make sure I could... GET MY REVENGE!!!"
Peril suddenly turned herself over in Clay's arms and dug her claws into Clay's sides. However, instead of hysterical laughter and pleas to stop, she was met with no reaction.
"W-What? Why isn't this working? Am I doing something wrong?"
"Oh, my apologies," Clay started, definitely not apologetic at all. "There's one thing I forgot to mention. The more you get tickled as a dragonet, the less ticklish you'll be as a grown dragon. Fortunately for me, us Dragonets of Destiny were a tight-knit group that would NEVER lay claws violently on each other, so we resorted to... other ways to settle arguments."
"Hmph," Peril pouted. "That's not fair! You can just tickle me at any time and I'll be powerless to stop it!"
"You're right, I could..." Clay started. "...But I won't. Don't worry, I'm a firm believer that fairness is a virtue to be respected in the battlefield that is tickling."
Peril breathed a sigh of relief.
"Which is a shame, since I really love hearing your adorable girly laugh." Clay teased.
Peril's wings flared up and she scoffed at Clay's remark. "Wh- My laugh is NOT girly!"
Clay chuckled, having riled her up. He decided to press further. "Yeah, you're right. It isn't girly. It's SUPER girly."
"Oh, I bet you're the manliest of all the manly dragons, aren't you," Peril teased.
"You said it," Clay replied smugly.
Peril giggled at his remark, blushing bashfully.
"Ugh, you're such a... Male." Peril snarked.
"Well.. You're such a female then." Clay dragonetishly shot back. Peril opened her mouth to retort, but stopped as Clay bent down to her level and looked her dead in the eyes with a roguish smirk on his face.
"A flaming hot female."
Peril had to fully turn away from Clay, as her face was now absolutely, embarrassingly crimson. It only spread across her face even more as Clay wrapped his arms around her and the two lied down together on the hill.
"MY flaming hot female."
Now, Peril was an orange Skywing, but with how red her entire face was right now, she could've easily claimed her scales were naturally that color and no one would've batted an eye.
"Clay!? W-When... When did you become so... Forward?"
Now it was Clay's turn to turn a little red.
"Ohh, hehe... Um, the last time I visited Glory in the rainforest I asked Deathbringer for some tips on how to be more... Romantic. 'Smooth-talk' was number one on his list of tips he gave me."
Peril gave him an indecipherable look. Clay felt a bead of sweat roll down his neck.
"...Is it working?"
"Well, a little, but..."
Peril turned herself around in Clay's arms so she could face him.
"I didn't fall in love with some smooth-talking Nightwing assassin. Or a witty Sandwing outlaw, brooding Icewing prince, or a masterclass Seawing writer!"
"I fell in love with a kindhearted Mudwing hero, who was the only dragon in the entire world to give me a chance."
Clay didn't give a reply back. He only squeezed a bit tighter. Peril let out a little squeak in response.
"I guess I just feel like I'm not as romantic as I should be," Clay lamented. "I'm finally at that age where all my friends are getting mates. Tsunami with Riptide, Glory with Deathbringer, even some of my own students too, like Moon with Qibli or Winter, however that plays out. Kinkajou and Turtle, Anemone and Tamarin, now that the war is over I'm not bound to just a Mudwing anymore. Intertribal relationships are more common now, and because of that I feel like I need to... Step up my game."
"Why do you feel that?" Peril asked.
"Mudwings were never the most romantic dragon tribe," Clay explained. "Any family time is spent with sibs, since parents aren't really a thing, so neither are long-term relationships. Since I envisioned myself just leaving for the Diamond Spray Delta for the rest of my life after I escaped the mountain, I never thought I would NEED to be romantic, since that's not really a Mudwing thing."
"Did your guardians never explain to you what romance was?" Peril questioned.
"No, they didn't." Clay answered.
"I actually found out because of... Tsunami of all dragons."
...
"WHAT!!!???" Peril exclaimed.
"Yeah, that's a moment of my life I'd like to forget," Clay cringed. "She had a FAT crush on me when we were dragonets under the mountain."
Peril had to suppress every muscle in her body to not fly over to the principal's office right now and incinerate her.
"I dunno why," Clay continued. "Maybe it was all the romance scrolls she read, or how limited her options were, but I remember her just suddenly being super... Affectionate, one day. It started with her offering me her dinner that night, but then she started talking to me. Like all day. Every minute of every day. And then nuzzling my side while walking."
Clay was thankfully too busy unhappily reminiscing to notice a giant plume of smoke emanating off of a (literally) fuming Peril.
"Eventually, I asked Glory about it, and she explained what a crush was to me, and I was... Kinda mortified. I saw all of my fellow Dragonets of Destiny as siblings, including Tsunami, so mating with her just felt wrong to me. I eventually had to tell her that I didn't like her in that way, and she was heartbroken. That was one of the few times I've EVER seen Tsunami cry. She wouldn't talk to me for a week after that..."
"I guess I should've expected that," muttered Peril. "Even now, you're SUPER popular with the dragonesses."
"What? Really?" Clay exclaimed. "With who?"
"Pretty much every female Mudwing at Jade Mountain," Peril explained. "And a few dragonesses from other tribes too. They're always talking about how buff and handsome you are."
Clay was stunned. Apparently he was considered attractive to a LOT of dragonesses? "Wow... That's... A surprise."
"You have looks, Clay," Peril swooned. "A muscular build, a charming smile, I could stare at just your face for weeks..."
Peril positioned herself on top of Clay's chest so she was doing exactly that with a smitten look on her face. Clay flushed a bit.
"You have looks too, Peril." Clay stated.
"Oh please," Peril disagreed. "Not to anyone at Jade Mountain with how they run off screaming when they come within 30 feet of me. It makes sense given... Well, me."
"Hey, don't say that about yourself," Clay comforted. "You have such pretty scales, a funny personality, and your eyes. I love your eyes, Peril. They're the most beautiful blue I've ever seen. They make me imagine an endless sky I could happily fly around forever in."
"R-Really?" Peril blushed. "I always thought they looked creepy..."
"The day I find your eyes creepy is the day I give up cows forever!" Clay reassured.
Peril giggled. "You really are hungry. Maybe I shouldn't have stolen your cow leg..."
"Oh yeah, the picnic!" Clay exclaimed. "I almost forgot about it. There's still so much food to eat!"
"We can head back now," Peril suggested. "Sorry for making you chase me so far..."
"It's ok," said Clay. "You already paid the price at my talons. Clay deviously waggled his talons in the air menacingly.
Peril nervously backed away. "If you don't tickle me again, I'll... Roast the lamb we have stored in the basket for you!"
Clay perked up in carnivorous delight. "Really!? That'd be awesome!"
Peril breathed a sigh of relief.
"Whew! Dodged that one..." She muttered under her breath. "Let's head back then!" She turned around, heading for the picnic basket to finish the food the two had brought. Clay giddily followed suit, already imagining the impeccably cooked meal that awaited him. All thanks to his girlfriend. Clay smiled.
"Thanks, Peril."