Drama (a Qinter fanfiction)

Confessing

Winter PoV:

(Sorry y'all, I ran out of things to write so I'm doing a time skip)

~one week later~

The sun had long since set, but there was still one dragon who wasn't asleep. Winter was lying awake on his ledge, pouring over his homework in the fading torchlight, trying to scrape something together that made sense. Tiredness tugged Winter's mind, but he refused to give in. I can't sleep. Winter thought. I have to finish my homework anyway. He blamed it on his homework, but that wasn't the real reason he wouldn't let himself sleep. He knew that if he went to sleep, the nightmares would come back.

On his second night back, he'd started having nightmares. Well, not nightmares, plural, but the same nightmare over and over again. One of Darkstalker rising out of the mountain, smashing his huge talons on Moon and Qibli and throwing them off the mountain to their deaths. Then Tundra, Narwhal, Icicle, Hailstorm, Lynx, Snowfall, and Queen Glacier all surrounding Winter, deadpanning that he was an awful, useless waste of space and that they were disgraced to have him as a family member. Then Turtle, Moon, Kinkajou, and worst of all, Qibli, joined them, glaring down at him and chanting about how useless he was and that he was a horrible friend and that they hated him.

But going without sleep was affecting how he acted in and after class. He kept finding it even harder to pay attention to Webs's droning on about history or Clay's rambling about dragon anatomy. He was even losing focus in Tsunami's self-defense class, a class that he used to be able to pay attention in and had been very good at. Now he kept tripping over his own claws and bumping into other dragons as he tried to perform the move which Tsunami had demonstrated to him three times. For the past three days he kept getting lectured or yelled at by the teachers, and though he tried not to show it, it was really wearing on him.

 His mind wandered to earlier that day, when he had tripped on Coconut's tail during Tsunami's defense class and fell on top of Deathflight, messing up the move he had been practicing for the fourth time that day.

"Winter," Tsunami snapped, flicking him with her tail. "Focus. You can't fight properly if your head is taking a trip to the moons." Winter bowed his head, shame washing over him. She sounded uncomfortably similar to Winter's parents, pointing out and mocking how weak he was. He felt Tsunami's gaze burning on his scales, but he didn't look up. He didn't want to show everyone how much this hurt.

"I know I'm about to sound like Sunny, but are you alright?" the SeaWing had asked him. "You used to be one of my best students, and now you're acting like a sca- er - chicken with its head bitten off."

"I'm fine," Winter had mumbled, his wings drooping in shame.

Winter shook himself, recalling his conversation with Tsunami wouldn't help him write his history essay. He turned back to his scroll, trying to scrounge up another sentence. Oh, what's the point? Winter sighed. He rolled up his paper and quietly set it on the scroll rack by the entrance. As he turned around to head back to his ledge, his tail accidentally ran into the scroll rack, knocking it to the ground with a loud clatter. Oh no - Winter thought. Qibli jerked up, blinking awake.

"What are you doing awake?" Qibli asked, slipping up in front of him.

"I was writing my essay," Winter whispered back.

"Why weren't you sleeping?" Qibli asked softly.

"I can't sleep," Winter hissed, talking more to himself than anyone else. Qibli looked at him for a long moment, then glanced at the sleeping form of Flame.

"Come with me," the SandWing murmured, stepping out into the hallway. He led Winter all the way to the entrance cave and out into the moonlight, sitting down on a moss-covered rock off to one side.

"What's going on?" Qibli asked gently, sounding genuinely concerned.

"Nothing, I'm fine," Winter answered, not meeting his gaze.

"No, you're not," Qibli insisted, reaching out a talon and setting it gently on top of Winter's. "You've been acting spacey for the past three days, not to mention jumpy for about a week. You keep failing your tests and not paying attention in class, and Tsunami's yelled at you for it at least twice.  What's wrong?" Winter closed his eyes over the emotions threatening to overwhelm him.

"It's okay," Qibli breathed. "You can tell me." Suddenly Winter couldn't hold back the tears any longer. He sniffed, and he felt Qibli wrap a warm wing around him gently. Winter leaned into the embrace, wrapping his arms around Qibli and resting his head on the SandWing's shoulder.

"On our s-second n-night back," Winter sobbed, not even trying to stop the tears from running down his face. "I h-had a n-nightmare when D-Darkstalker came back and k-killed you and M-Moon, then m-my family and L-Lynx and G-Glacier all s-started telling me h-how useless I am and s-said that they w-were ashamed to c-call me family. T-then y-you c-came back and s-said that I w-was a t-terrible f-friend and t-that you h-hated me. I k-kept h-having it over and o-over again, s-so I s-stopped s-sleeping so I w-wouldn't h-have it a-again."

"Shh," Qibli soothed, stroking Winter's head comfortingly.

"And t-then when I'm not s-scared or sad, I'm c-confused," Winter went on. He paused, not sure how to go on.

"Confused about what?" Qibli prompted gently.

"How I s-should act on m-my f-feelings for y-you, i-if I s-should act on t-them at a-all." Winter admitted, pulling back and finally meeting his friend's tired and concerned gaze.

"Me?" Qibli asked. Winter was too exhausted to read all the emotions in the word and on his face.

"Y-yes. I r-really like you," Winter told him.

"I love you too," Qibli said, resting his chin comfortingly on top of Winter's head. "Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere." Well, I guess that's one thing dealt with. Winter thought. Taking a ragged breath, he settled himself comfortably beside Qibli, tears drying on his snout. They sat there for a few long and peaceful moments before Qibli broke the silence.

"I've been kind of nervous about Darkstalker too." Qibli told Winter softly, pulling back and looking into his eyes. "It almost makes me wonder if the founders split us up so then it wouldn't be exactly the same as last time, so then maybe it would be easier to handle and live past." Winter nodded, then yawned. Qibli smiled tiredly at him.

"We should probably go to bed," he said. Winter felt a twist of sadness about leaving; he had to admit, he liked sitting here under the stars with Qibli.

"Maybe we could stay here?" Winter suggested. "I mean, it's kind of nice out here, and we're not in the way."

"Works for me," Qibli murmured, lying down beside Winter. A sudden breeze hit them, and Winter noticed Qibli shiver slightly, so lay down beside the SandWing, covering him with one wing to shelter him from the wind. Qibli sighed and leaned against Winter, gazing at the stars. Not a moment later, Winter found his eyelids begin to droop, and this time he allowed sleep to take hold of him. He drowsily lowered his head, nuzzling his snout underneath Qibli's and closing his eyes. This is what I've been missing for my whole life, Winter thought before he fell asleep, feeling safer and happier than he'd been his whole time back at Jade Mountain.

Hey y'all! Hopefully that made sense, I know I kind of jumped around toward the beginning, and closer to the end I think it was a little confusing about perspective, but I can clear things up a bit if need be. If you've got any questions, ask away, I'll answer as best I can. Welp, I think that's all for this time. Thanks for reading! =D

- Star