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Time tends to weave itself. Most of the time, she wouldn't need to pay attention. Time was it's own complex to solve, she was simply there to moderate. Observe it work its own beautiful magic, allow it the beauty of doing things itself. That was what everyone needed, after all. There was no joy in always having to observe and help. Thankfully, she had found hobbies in time travel. Which included visiting a good friend of hers.
The TBD didn't understand why she had suddenly left Croissant Cookie in charge. She had left, and the only notice of it was a note on the door to her office.
"'CROISSANT IN CHARGE. GOOD LUCK. WINKY FACE.' You have to be kidding me." String Gummy Cookie cursed as they read the note, rolling their eyes as they crumpled it beneath their foot.
A voice was loud as it shouted to them, seemingly out of nowhere. "Really? Maybe we can have Taco Wednesday now!"
"We will not be doing that— where in the world are you?"
And then they screamed as Croissant fell on top of them from the ceiling. She had apparently been climbing in vents to find a non-existent issue, but that was neither here nor there.
"You seem to enjoy visiting this frail dimension."
Their voice was thick with disdain, their arms crossed as they looked down at her. She looked up at them, smiling in an almost taunting manner. They had half the mind to destroy her, but they knew all was useless in the long-run. One living being was better company than the ruins surrounding the two.
She sat atop a small stack of bones that they had set up for her. She was undeserving of a throne, they had said. But she had half the mind to think that they would make her a throne if she so wanted. Truly, they were a lot sweeter than they let on. Snark would be in their tone as they gave a back-handed compliment here and there, but they were far too genuine for it to be rude.
"What can I say, my job gets awfully boring." She chuckled, kicking her feet as they looked around the cave. This was their meeting spot, a lousy cave. She found it a little funny on how they were already here when she arrived.
They scoffed, crouching down and looking under the rocks scattered by the walls. "How fortunate for you."
"And unfortunate for you."
They hummed in response, almost agitated but not quite there. Grunting, they seemed to finally find something suitable, grunting as they lifted up a box. Partially see-through, but not quite there. The box seemed hand-made, judging from the fact it was barely sticking together if not for the dry jam in it.
"Is that your own?" She asked as she pointed to the box.
"No better box than one made entirely of me."
Entirely of… she stared at the box. "Is that your skin."
They did not reply.
She held her hands out as they gifted the box to her, hands clasped in front of themself as they watched. They seemed almost eager for her to open it. She was not very eager, but it would be rude to decline. Plus, it was always fun to have a surprise. She just hoped this one was a good surprise.
Carefully, she grabbed her embroider and poked a random side of the box. Longan winced, stare sharpening as they glared at her. It was clear they wanted her to be careful. For their sake, she was a little more cautious as she opened the box.
Staring for a long while, she seemed dumbfounded. Then looked right back up at them, eye blank and mouth gaping. "Longan?"
"Do you like it?" They asked with an almost hopeful tone. Hope was seldom for them nowadays.
"What in the multiverse is this?" She lifted the object out of the box.
It was firm and hard, but the appearance of it was very patchy. Even she could not tell what they were trying to do. Surprises were nice, but this one was not. It would be nicer if it didn't reek.
"I tried my hand at taxidermy. I… had not known you were not supposed to skin it."
She stared at it for a long while, trying to figure out what kind of animal it was. It looked like a simple rat, judging from the… judging from it. "So you put the fur back on…?"
They nodded, expecting praise. Sighing, she played along. If they wanted praise, they would get praise. "This is very… adequate! Very taxiderm-ish!" Timekeeper smiled, putting it back in the box and setting the box down on the ground. If she had to hold that for another second, she was going to break it. Common courtesy told her to at least put it on a shelf in her office.
Longan stared at her for a long while before a small smile built onto their scarred face. A purr escaped their mouth as they approached her, footsteps echoing as they knelt before her. "Allow me to see your hand." They held their own out expectantly.
Holding hands? How sweet of them. She held her hand out, and they took it into their own. She almost blushed as they stared at it, so very cold compared to her warming dough. This was the most romantic thing she had ever experienced.
And then they licked her hand.
She ripped it away with a yelp, eye wide as she quickly wiped her hand across her shirt. Even their tongue was cold. They looked up at her, head tilted in confusion. Then they jolted back, eyes widened. "Ah, I had not even done the rites— it is so foolish of me to try— I am very sorry."
"That's just dandy. You are forgiven!" She snorted, brushing it off as just the average Longan Dragon oddity. They were unusual in every timeline she seemed to find them in.
They seemed oddly flustered as they stood up, bowing their head and allowing embarrassment to seep into their dough. Clearing their throat, they extended their hand out once more. She stared at them suspiciously as she took their hand, and they pulled her to their feet. How she hoped they wouldn't try licking her again.
"Music has been lost for quite some time. Nonetheless, I would like to dance with you."
She knew how to dance, obviously. With how much she had seen, she would have to be a dense moron to not dance. Still, she was taken aback. No Longan that she had watched had ever danced. Perhaps they were reading too much of those books she gave them with her visits to this timeline. But the oddness of it all only made the day more entertaining.
"Is there some weird dragon way to dance?"
They shook their head. "I am just going to replicate what I read about. We do not dance very often. That was for the flower dragons." A frown found its way onto their face as the words escaped their chapped lips. With a solemn sigh, they moved their hand to her hip.
She seemed almost sly as she moved her hands to their shoulders. Raising an eyebrow, they said nothing as they began to move. It was slow, something she didn't like but went along with anyways. If there were music, perhaps it would have been more meaningful. The wind whistled outside, providing enough noise to give something.
Even the steps were slow, and they didn't seem to want to separate from Timekeeper. They kept their hand glued to hers the entire time as the two swayed to the nonexistent beat. Holding their hand above her head, they spun her around before pulling her back towards them. "I do… enjoy your visits." They broke the silence as they looked down at her.
They adored her, they truly did. She was really the only company they got and liked, going as far as to move their resting spot closer to the meeting zone just so that they could hear when she arrived. Whether she knew or not was unimportant. She did not know just how much she meant to them. "But it is not enough. Selfishly, I want more of you. Your time, your voice, your touch. I treasure every second I get with you. I…" They trailed off, blushing as they looked down at her.
A confession cut off by pride. Her expression hid quite a lot of the emotion she felt, but the small blush on her face told them all they needed to know. "Perhaps I'll have to come by more. It's not as if my department will be bothered."
"I would like that."
She stepped to the side, her hand clutching theirs as she pulled them with her. They stumbled slightly as she seemed to take over the dance, making them move a little faster than before. Swiveling and twirling, the pace getting quicker as her feet tapped against the floor. Arms going out to the sides as she guided them, albeit not very well.
It was far too fast, Longan frantically trying to keep up. Alas, she had danced far more than they had. Their clawed fingers dug into her as she moved, trying to silently tell her to slow down. Vocally saying it would be embarrassing, and they still had too much pride for that.
With a sudden twist, Longan crashed to the ground, bringing Timekeeper with them. They caught her before she crashed against the rocks, pulling her on top of them. "Ah—" They were about to apologize before she started laughing.
"I appear to have gotten bored with the pace. That would be my fault!" She laughed as she sat up, looking down at them with glee. "How fun! I think we should do this more. Maybe I'll bring one of those… what do you call it… things that play songs."
They were red in the face, stuttering before nodding. "Yes, that would be… that would be lovely, sweet leof." They huffed as they pushed her off their lap. They were very salty about having fallen down in what was supposed to be a slow dance.
She got to her feet and held her hand out. They ignored it, standing up by themself and returning to looming over her. She just laughed. "Aren't you just the pettiest dragon of all time?"
They couldn't resist the smile that built onto their face. "Alas, I must go. Who knows what my department is up to at this time."
Panicked, they pulled her closer. Such good company mustn't leave so soon. "I assure they'll be fine. Let us spend an hour more. An hour would hurt nobody."
They sounded almost desperate as they held her hand. Sighing, her smile widened as she pulled them closer. "Yeah, you're right. They can hold up for another hour."