Misunderstood Love

Chapter 9 - Would you get your ears pierced for me?

"MOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!" Earthshaker yelled from his room. Quite a bit of time had passed, and he and his brother were a year and a half old now. He had finally perfected the art of walking, after spending so much time building leg strength, and he was now really into sports. He was loud and full of energy, but a huge pushover. "HAVE YOU SEEN MY TAILBALL HELMET?!" He called. "I NEED IT FOR THE GAME LATER TODAY!"

"Where did you put it last?" Spittlebug replied, opening the door to his room. Like always, the small space was a mess of scattered sports gear. And in the middle, a dark dragonet was poking through it. Spittlebug spotted the helmet instantly, laying half under a blanket. She picked it up.

"Well, that was a hard find," she said sarcastically. Earthshaker's flat snout, which was freckled with faint black dots, shot up instantly.

"Thanks, mom!" he said with a big smile, taking the helmet. "How are you so good at finding my things?"

"Magic. And maybe you could find everything better if you kept this room tidy," she smiled.

"Game? When? Which, uh, which of your teammates will be playing?" Cavern asked, poking his head out of his own room, right across from his brother's. Cavern was a bit of an opposite of Earthshaker. He was low energy, and would rather hang out with his many friends then so much as go for a jog. He didn't go to Earthshaker's games to watch the sport itself. It was pretty obvious to everyone but him that he had a huge crush on one of his brother's teammates, Wingspan. He was a SkyWing NightWing hybrid, with dark red scales and black stripes down his back and on his face. Spittlebug would often catch Cavern staring at him, and he would hide behind her whenever he appeared after the game, talking and joking with Earthshaker after the game. Wingspan was the only dragon Cavern couldn't be social with.

"At noon," Earthshaker replied, then he listed off some of the players of this game, Wingspan included. Cavern's eyes, which had a dark blue circle of scales around them, shone with happiness, though he hid his smile.

Noon rolled around soon enough, and the boys headed off, leaving Spittlebug with nothing to do. All her farm chores were done, and they didn't need a restock of any food. Out of boredom, Spittlebug flew into town, wandering around. She ended up in front of Meltwater and Skink's body modification shop at one point, looking into the window. The blue dragon stabbed a pin into a dragon's ear, before poking a small earring through it, while Skink was giving a different dragon, an IceWing, a tattoo on her shoulder. He was on the opposite side of her, so Spittlebug couldn't quite see what it was a tattoo of, but the white dragon's face was twisted in pain.

"Oh, Spittlebug! What are you doing here?" Meltwater asked, as she opened the door for the dragon with freshly pierced ears to leave. "You can come in if you want."

"I was just wondering around," Spittlebug said, taking her up on her offer to go in. She snagged a look at the IceWing's tattoo. A bunch of large pink, purple and orange hibiscus flowers, done in pretty great detail, was printed on her white scales, with a vine loosely wrapped around them, tying them together.

"Thats for my husband," The IceWing said through gritted teeth, meeting her gaze. "Its his favourite type of flower."

"You know, you should get a tattoo," Meltwater said to Spittlebug. She had gone right back to being her regular self after the fair. No hint of the fun-loving, childish Meltwater Spittlebug had seen that day. And speaking of that day, after getting engaged, the two had decided to hold off on their wedding. They didn't have to get married right away.

"No thanks, I'm good. She looks like she's in quite a bit of pain there, and I don't like pain," Spittlebug replied, gesturing to the IceWing.

"If not a tattoo, why not at least get your ears pierced? It's quick and practically painless. You won't feel a thing. And you get a discount. Plus, I got some new earrings- where are they?" she said, reaching into a small bin and producing a pair a moment later, handing them to her. They were a light gold colour, one shaped like a bee, and the other like honeycomb.

"I don't know..." Spittlebug was hesitant.

"Do it!" Skink called, followed with a nod by the IceWing he was tattooing.

"Okay, fine! I'll do it!" Spittlebug said, mostly just to shut them up.

"Great! So what side does which go? or maybe both on one ear..." Meltwater sat her down and started holding the earring up by her ears, showing what they would look like from all different positions. Finally, Spittlebug chose for the bee to be on her left ear, and the honeycomb on her right. Meltwater dipped a small stick into some black ink and made a dot where each hole would be poked. Spittlebug was now starting to regret her decision big time, but Meltwater had already stuck the pin in one ear. As she had said, the small HiveWing hardly felt a thing.

"Excuse me? I have a tattoo appointment with Meltwater," A SkyWing barked, opening the door. He looked grumpy, with smoke curling out of his nostrils.

"It'll just be a second. You can take a seat while I finish up here," Meltwater replied, shoving the needle in Spittlebug's other ear. the SkyWing huffed, then sat down, glaring at the two. "Now, don't touch your earring at all today, okay. And don't get your ears dirty. I'll tell you more when I get home. Thats 2 coins for my services today. I really need to get to this SkyWing, so you're going to have to leave now.

Spittlebug paid and left. She had never thought she'd get her ears pierced in her life. She had never seen a need for earrings in her everyday doings before. But she did kind of like these earrings, though her ears weren't used to having small bits of metal dandling from them yet.

The boys were going to have a lot of questions about it when she got home.