OC Oneshots

15

OC: Cacao
Fandom: Wings of Fire
Species: Dragon (RainWing)

Cacao was in love.

By no means did RainWings mate for life, but Cacao was pretty sure he wanted to. The brightness of her scales, her gentle nature, the way her eyes sparkled when she laughed, it was all wonderful to him. Almost too good to be true. But they were here, and they were together, and everything was perfect.

Cacao felt pink start to ripple across his scales at the thought. He squished it down, replacing it with the reds and purples that he preferred.

Mango noticed, though. She grinned and brushed his wing with hers. "Pink looks good on you."

"Shut up," Cacao mumbled, which made her laugh.

Mango looked up at the canopy and sighed contentedly. A warm drizzle was dripping down from the trees - the remainder of the rain they had received an hour before. Despite that, the sun was shining, warming their scales.

Mango pointed out every interesting flower and fruit they passed. Cacao barely understood it - he didn't care to learn about them - but he listened anyway, just to hear the sound of her voice.

When she came to a pause, Cacao asked, "What do you know about plants and stuff outside the rainforest?"

Mango hesitated. "Not much," she admitted. "You'd be a lot better to ask one of the dragonets who went to Jade Mountain for that. Indigo did tell me about some sort of exploding cactus. I hope that not all plants out there are like that."

Cacao shuddered. "Exploding cacti? That's terrifying."

Mango smiled. "We don't have that here." She nudged him with her shoulder. "I'm glad Indigo's back. But how have you been? I haven't seen you much since you volunteered to help the NightWings get situated."

Cacao saw his scales get pink again. "I- uh- I've been fine, I guess. A lot of them are murderous. Several of the RainWings who they kidnapped are still recovering. Most of them are doing pretty well, though. Glory's pretty good at keeping them in line."

"That's good," Mango hummed. They arrived at a clearing where light streamed through the leaves. Mango sat down. Cacao sat down next to her, wrapping his wing around her. They had been together for several months now, but to Cacao, everything he did felt bold and premature, even though Mango was used to it by now.

"What about you?" Cacao asked as she leaned into him.

Mango smiled. "Great," she said. "I feel like after that whole thing with the NightWings, we're finally starting to get the hang of things again. It's nice."

Cacao nodded. "I like that we can have suntime now without the constant threat of the NightWings burning down the forest."

Mango laughed. Cacao's heart skipped a beat at the sound.

They sat in comfortable silence.

"There's a really good spot to get papayas somewhere around here," Mango mused. "I can go pick some."

Cacao nodded. "I'll come."

"No, it's a secret," Mango protested. "Maybe I'll show you sometime. You stay here. Your scales need it."

Cacao was slightly offended. He looked down at his scales. They didn't seem dull to him, but Mango had always been able to tell when he needed a little extra sun. He begrudgingly lied back down in the undergrowth.

"I'll be right back," Mango assured him, and jumped up into the trees and out of sight.

Cacao watched her until her yellow and orange scales disappeared into the green leaves. Then he let out a slow sigh, smiling to himself. He had felt this many times before, yet each time it was magnified like it was new. He wanted to bundle her up in his wings and protect her from everything that could ever wish to harm her. He wanted to surprise her with fruit and flowers every day. He wanted to wake up to her kind eyes staring back at him.

The next thing he heard was a loud roar of pain from the direction Mango had gone.

He scrambled to his feet, his mind racing. He needed to find her. "Mango?" he called. "Are... are you alright?"

Anxiety set in.

"Mango?" he yelled again, his voice pitched higher than it was supposed to. He jumped up into the trees. "MANGO!"

He searched for what felt like hours.

He was met with only silence.

~~~

Why... Why must I do this. Why must I turn every fluff oneshot into angst