Harley

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"Okay, so, run this by me again." Roundabout hopped sideways towards Chrys on the platform, keeping his eyes fixed on the tussling Mirrors. "They are together or they aren't together?"

Chrys turned towards him, irritation clear in the flare of her nostrils. "What are you— oh." She caught sight of Harley and Riad just as Harley bit down on Riad's crest and started to make little hatchling growling noises that, frankly, sounded ridiculous coming from an adult Mirror. "Pustules and rot, you two, can't you at least do that where you're not going to fall off the platform?"

Riad looked up. Harley didn't; he was too busy playfully gnawing on his friend. Riad didn't say a word, but as he looked Chrys dead in the eye, he shoved to the side in one powerful motion and knocked Harley clean off the platform. Harley yelped, and for a moment there was silence.

Then a blur of yellow shot back up onto the platform and landed on Riad with a yell as Riad started laughing too hard to fight back.

Roundabout looked at the renewed tussling, at the way Harley and Riad twined around each other, and then looked pointedly back at Chrys. He held out one leg towards them, claws tipped up. "My point."

"Well, don't look at me. They've always been like this," Chrys grumbled. She flopped back down and settled her head on her claws. "I mean, not always always. Harley was my friend first, but then he met Riad when Riad's family came back from the Viridian Labyrinth and my eardrums have never been the same since!"

"Hmm, I see," Roundabout said sagely. He scooted towards her, then climbed up onto her good wing, ignoring her surprised hiss. They were good enough friends that he could do this without getting swiped at anymore, he thought. Also, she was warm. Strange how Plague dragons had higher body temperatures than Fire dragons if you thought about it, but that was just the way things were, he supposed.

"Why does it even matter, anyway?" Chrys, rather than shaking her wing, rolled over like the spiteful dragon she was. Roundabout flew up before she could crush him under her side. "Were you thinking of asking one of them out?"

Roundabout gave that comment all the credit it deserved, which was a disdainful silence that he'd learned from much cooler dragons, like Rako or Liminal. For good measure, he gestured again to the tussling pair. Then, in case his silence and his gesture hadn't gotten through, he added, "No! Also, I'm pretty sure anyone who wanted to date one of them would end up dating both of them. Which brings me back to my first question, which you have never answered."

"Because I don't know! Nobody knows!" Chrys groaned and covered her muzzle with her claws. "Look, go bother someone else, okay? I was trying to sleep."

"In the middle of the day? With those two going at it?" Roundabout hopped over to her side again. Maybe that heat wasn't just the natural magic that Plague dragons gave off. Maybe she was really sick! He should bring her to Verethi! Or, no, Verethi never listened to him, and he could hardly carry Chrys himself. Maybe he could get Harley and Riad to stop roughhousing long enough to help her— No, that seemed equally improbable. He would just have to go and get Hazan to help—

"Whatever you're thinking, stop." Chrys slapped out at him with her bad wing. It would have been less intimidating if she hadn't still been wearing her brace. Roundabout dodged the metal a little indignantly. "I stayed up too late with Akshi, okay? We went for a midnight walk with Anisha."

"Ah." Roundabout nodded sagely. For one glorious moment, he understood. Then logic hit, and he didn't understand anymore. "Wait, and you chose to try to nap with these two around?"

"Yes! Because those two are my friends, and I'm used to them being jerks! At least they're not coming over to start conversations with me!" Chrys opened her mouth as though she were going to continue berating him for his very natural curiosity, then raised her head like she'd just seen something. "Oh, thank the gods. Shadow! Come over and distract your friend, he's being annoying again."

"Rude," Roundabout scolded. "I'm your friend, too."

"Denied until you let me get some sleep."

Roundabout had just decided that she would probably be more logical about this after some sleep when Shadow landed beside them, his head tilted to the side in curiosity. Roundabout immediately balanced on his hind legs to pick Shadow up and cradle him in a gentle hug. "Shadow! Hi! Where have you been? What have you been doing?"

"Things," Shadow said in that Shadow way of his. He peered down at Chrys, then settled his neck back so he could look at Roundabout from a proper distance. "You can help with the next part."

"Next part? Next part of what? What are we doing?" Roundabout set Shadow down carefully as he felt himself start to coil in anticipatory excitement.

"Cleaning bones."

Oh, never mind, he wasn't coiling anymore. Roundabout flopped to the floor of the platform beside Chrys with a groan. "Shadow!"

"I know you don't like dealing with corpses, so I didn't invite you before." Shadow reached out and patted his hand, which made Roundabout instantly feel better, even if Shadow did make the gesture a little awkward by tapping rhythmically with his long fingers. It felt a little like he was feeling for the bones under Roundabout's skin. "Come help anyway."

Roundabout opened his mouth to refuse. After all, Shadow had only asked because Chrys had told him to, and eugh, who liked cleaning bones, anyway? Bones were something that sat creepily inside you until the day you died and they started to rot you from the inside. He'd explained this to Shadow before, and Shadow had said that was "not science," but what did Shadow know? He was a Wind dragon. Wind dragons didn't have science.

But before he could say anything, Shadow's crests all drooped at once, and Roundabout froze. That… that was either genuine sadness or the best manipulation Roundabout had ever seen. Either way, it was a recognizable emotional expression, and Roundabout couldn't just ignore it. What kind of friend would he be?

"Okay," he said instead. Shadow's crests instantly perked up.

Chrys snorted a laugh behind them. "You know," she said, raising her voice so that it followed them even as they flew off towards wherever it was Shadow had been doing his grisly tasks, "next time, you could just take a good hard look at yourself instead of bothering me with questions."

Roundabout had no idea what she meant. He'd ask her when she woke up, if he remembered, but most likely she'd just been half asleep. That did funny things to you sometimes.