Chapter Text
Tawny slowly walked towards the SeaWing who was busy tossing raw meat into the ocean, “Mola... are you... trying to talk to the sharks again?” He winced and looked at her tail... or, rather, lack thereof, and back at the overly enthusiastic SeaWing.
“Oh, absolutely. They’re intelligent! I know it!”
Intelligent enough not to bite off your tail? The MudWing had his doubts, but did his best to keep them hidden, forcing a soft smile. “Well, just be careful, then.”
She nodded, turning back to the waters and throwing another animal carcass into the shallower end with a wild smile he could see even from here. He felt so obvious sometimes, but then again, Mola never seemed to notice.
“Oh, well, looks like no sharks today.” Tawny let out a breath of air as Mola turned away from the water and shrugged. That... is probably for the better. “You wanna go flying?”
He did want to go flying. With her. “...what about your tail? Since it could... make flying harder for you.”
“It’ll be fine,” she replied brightly. “You complain about this every time, anyways, and nothing has gone wrong before!”
That... was also true.
The MudWing scratched his left leg with his right talon, a bit anxious. “If you say so. Just... tell me if something feels off?” Dear stars my snout probably looks ridiculous right now.
“No problem. Let’s go!” Just like that, Mola was already in the air, taking off towards the mountains of the Sky Kingdom. “Hurry up, slowpoke!”
He sort of stood in a dazed moment before shaking himself off, taking to the sky. It was kind of hard to talk to her even once he’d finally caught up. The sun glinted on her scales, shining through her blue-white wings, coloring his own scales below as he flew in the filtered light. There were many things he wanted to say, but he couldn’t seem to-
“-anythin’ on your mind? I know you’re not thinking about nothing in there. Or are you?” Mola’s voice had a sort of teasing lilt to it. She looked down at the MudWing who was regaining awareness of the moment. "I hope you're not thinking nothing."
“Wh-? No, I-“ Tawny tried to regain his ‘footing’ on the situation, figuring out what she’d just said. “Nothing much.”
“Oh, come on. You’re quieter than usual, and that’s no fun.” Mola flew sideways in the air, going next to him in order to look at his face from a weird angle. “Wazza?”
He blinked in confusion for a moment. “What?”
“It’s ‘what’s up’. Never heard it before?”
Tawny shook his head in mild confusion. “...no?”
Mola just shrugged. “Wow, it’s like you’re old without even trying to be old. You’ve never heard anyone say that before?”
His voice was somewhat quiet as he turned away. “Think that’s just a you thing, Mola.”
“No, no, I don’t think it is.” She smiled that fearless grin he loved so much. “I think you just need to catch up with the times. It’s 4997 A.S. Basically a new millenium already! And with a new millenium comes new dragons, and new words, that you seem to be a bit left behind on.” Mola stuck out her tongue for a moment, as if to drive her point home.
The words processed for a moment. “I, um... suppose so.” The MudWing nodded along. Sometimes it was a bit hard to keep track of everything she’d said, as much as he tried. They were quickly approaching the mountains.
“Anyways, I think I’ve been making progress with the sharks! They only tried to bite me two-thirds the usual amount!”
“That’s still a lot,” Tawny pointed out. “Of- of biting.”
“Wellll, yeah, but it’s less! Progress!”
dear moons how do i tell her
Any further thought on the matter was shoved away. Later is always an option.
...
She was trying to lure a shark in that was already very close in with some raw steaks. “Mola, please don’t-“ Habitually, the MudWing tensed up in case anything went wrong.
“It’ll be fine! See, he’s even-“
It lunged. Tawny jumped at it faster.
Almost in an instant, the creature was flopping in the too-shallow water, slowly suffocating. He panted as the creature tried and failed to get out of the water. Mola was... still. “Oh, um... that didn’t turn out so good, did it?” Her expression was sheepish as she turned towards him.
“N-no...” He winced. The tooth marks on his right shoulder would definitely scar from that. An awkward silence fell between the both of them for a moment.
The MudWing looked up at her, at her beautiful gray scales, in all of her glory, even as her expression looked uncomfortable. “I... care about you a lot. A... lot a lot. So... don’t get hurt on me, if you can help it? Please?” His face heated up. Out of habit, he turned away from Mola’s baffled face.
You know, I thought you weren’t interested. We could’ve skipped, like, two whole months of pining if you’d said something sooner!” Her expression broke into a wild smile as she took his talon, practically dragging him into the sky.
“R-really? You also...?” Out of every worst-case-scenario Tawny had planned for, this was not one of them. “That’s... uh, really nice.”
“Aw heck yeah! Well, today looks like a good day, then. Hey, you even got us dinner. How romantic-“
“-sure, sure.” He looked away with a growing feeling of something fuzzy. “I’ll... get it prepared.”
Mola just shrugged, still with a wide smile uncontrollably on her face. “Awesome! I’ll... do something. Very productive.” Tawny stifled a laugh. “Ahaha... I’m not convincing you, am I? Fine, fine, okay, I’ll stay away from sharks... for now.”
He nodded and sighed in relief. “Thanks, Mola.”
“No problem! Anyways, need any help with that?” She gestured towards the now-shark-carcass.
“I think... you should stay away from any and all sharks, dead or alive”
She just made a sad "aww" before they both laughed.