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The trip back to the webs after- well, after everything, is nerve-wracking and exhilarating all at once. Cricket tries not to let her eyes linger for too long on Luna and Swordtail, wings barely apart for a second as they fly. She’s beyond relieved to see Swordtail alright and Luna’s bright, joyful face, and they’re sweet together, but all it really does is serve to remind her of what’s waiting for her when they get where they’re going.
Or rather, who’s waiting for her.
And of course she wants what Luna and Swordtail seem to have so effortlessly; of course she wants to be able to brush their wings together and hear his lovely laugh and be able to wake up to his scales rising and falling against hers every morning. But more than anything, Cricket wants him to be okay. She wants to know he’s still himself, and that he’s safe enough to feel everything Wasp and the Othermind hadn’t let him feel under their clutches. She wants to be there with him as he recovers, and every day afterwards, and she doesn’t care if he doesn’t see her the same way she sees him as long as they’re both together.
All of it manifests as heart-pounding nerves and desperation. As they land, she hears Luna take a deep breath and puts a talon over hers with a smile. They both need the reassurance, right now.
Luna is the first one to move, moving expertly across the webs towards her home, her family, her brother. Swordtail is right behind her. Cricket brings up the rear, all her nerves jumping into her throat. She has the sudden, inexplicable urge to laugh.
Inside, Io and the two unfamiliar SilkWings pause when they spot Cricket, tensing. She freezes in response, wanting to introduce herself but not quite knowing how. Luna notices, stepping back to walk beside her and taking a talon in hers.
“Hello, all,” she says, in that solid, confident tone she has that dares others to disagree with her. “This is Cricket. She’s part of our family now.”
It would be a lie to say the words don’t get her choked up, but then all her attention swivels to the last person in the room, the one she’d most wanted to see. Blue looks exhausted, his shiny scales covered in dirt and much, much thinner than they should ever be, and there’s a new shadow in his eyes that sets her mind off yet again on a well-worn spiral of wondering what horrible things he’d experienced under the mind control. Yet when he hears her name and snaps to meet her eyes, none of that seems to matter anymore. He smiles, and it’s as radiant as it always was, making her own snout curve upwards to match it of its own will, and his eyes are bright again, and she can’t keep herself from running full tilt at him and throwing her wings around him as soon as she can. He responds immediately, holding her tight between his wings, and that’s when the tears really start to form.
“Cricket,” he murmurs, and the way he says it simultaneously makes her want to cry even harder and do a loop in the air.
“Blue,” she manages through her tears. “I’m sorry, Blue. I’m sorry we left you there. I’m sorry we didn’t realize sooner what it was, or what it could do. I never wanted to leave you there. I didn’t-“ her voice breaks, even as the words beg to continue tumbling out, needing to tell him how sorry she is. How much she loves him.
“I know,” he says, and she leans into the vibrations of his voice. “I know you didn’t. It’s okay. I- I thought of you. While she had taken me over. I was always wondering where you went, and if you were safe.”
“Oh, Blue,” she says, excitement starting to return. “It was amazing! There was a map to the Distant Kingdoms in the Book. It’s real, just like I thought it was! And there are other dragons there, too, so many.” She catches herself. “I’ll have to tell you about it later.”
“Later,” he echoes, and despite everything she can hear his smile. “That sounds perfect.”
Luna bounds over to them, too, fitting her wings around theirs—mostly Blue’s—and whispers, “I missed you, little brother,” prompting a shaky “I missed you too” back. Then Swordtail slots around them, too, and Cricket feels like she could live in this moment forever, where she’s surrounded by her friends, and everyone’s finally together, and safe. She knows there will be bumps later down the road—none of them know what’s going to happen to everyone now that Queen Wasp, well, isn’t the queen anymore, and they’re all going to need a lot of time to heal from what happened—but for now, she lets herself sink into the embrace and smiles through her tears.
After they eventually untangle themselves from the hug, Luna turns to the two unfamiliar SilkWings beside Io and falls into the wings of the one with green, yellow and peach scales—her mother, Cricket guesses—and Swordtail goes over to Io, both immediately starting to chatter to each other. Only Blue stays beside her, gently guiding her towards the other unfamiliar SilkWing—Blue’s mom, she guesses, and the thought sends her nerves running amok all over again.
“This is Cricket,” he says, and the way he smiles at her makes her almost sick, the onslaught of relief to have him here with her again, the nerves of such a big moment, and what feels like an inescapable amount of dizzying affection tearing through her. She stands her ground and tries not to make her adoration too obvious as she smiles back. “She saved me,” he continues, and gosh, it doesn’t feel like that at all, not when the memory still burns bright and hot in her mind of flying away and leaving him in Wasp and the Otherminds’ greedy clutches. If he thinks so, though, she supposes it can’t be too far off.
Blue’s mother smiles at her, and though it still looks hesitant, Cricket is pretty sure she can see sincerity in her eyes when she places a talon over Cricket’s and says, “Thank you.”
“Oh, it’s no problem,” she replies, a little flustered. “He saved me, too.” And she means it. Cricket has no idea what her life would have been like if she’d never met Blue, and she’s grateful she never has to find out.
Shortly afterwards, Blue’s mom goes over to Luna to properly reunite with her, and Cricket finally allows herself to lean against him with a sigh. She is exhausted, and she still needs to talk more with Luna to figure out exactly what happened, because there are some parts she definitely wants to know more about; but for now, she just drinks in the familiar feeling of his scales, the way they rise and fall with his breathing, a reminder that he’s alive, alive, alive. She hopes she isn’t imagining the way he’s leaning on her a little, too.