Rangavar, Arro, Jade, and Kraz have some things to resolve; repairing relationships, coming to terms with the events they've been through, and figuring out how to move on. Now that the nightmare of the research facility is over, nothing is holding them back.


Here it is!!! :) This has been a really fun story to write and I hope everyone enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

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_{Special secret bonus (although not a secret I guess)}

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Hive Mind
Final

Rangavar had moved to the side of the bed by the time Jade appeared, his legs dangling off the edge. He was still rubbing his eyes and flexing his wings behind him. He didn’t feel ready.

The sound of the gaming console followed her up the stairs as she appeared in the doorway, slightly confused, somewhat amused, and a bit intrigued. “Arro strongly hinted that I should come up here.”

Rangavar snorted. Subtlety wasn’t one of Arro’s strong suits.

Jade came over and hopped up on the bed at his side. “What’s up?”

He looked away slightly, not sure how to break into the topic. He wished he’d had some time to prepare. Fuck Arro. It was fine when the fat Faerian took a year to talk to her, but Rangavar only got three minutes’ notice? “It’s about, uh… the living situation.”

“Because Arro doesn’t like Kraz?” She rolled her eyes a bit. “I think if anyone should take it up with Kraz, it should be one of you two. I’ve known him for all of three days.”

“I know.” Rangavar drew in a deep breath through his nose, and sighed. “This is something else.”

She tilted her head at him curiously, absorbing every one of his emotions like a sponge. “Yeah?”

Rangavar caught himself fidgeting and spread his fingers across the tops of his thighs to still them. “What do you want me to do?”

She stared at him blankly for a long moment.

“Now that you’re here, and you’re with Arro again.” He looked away. “What… what happens to me?”

She almost seemed taken aback. “What are you talking about? You’re not going anywhere. Unless you want to, I guess.” She pressed her lips together. “What, are you still mad at me?”

“Mad at you?” Rangavar scoffed. “We had this conversation. I’m not ‘mad’.”

“You’re hurt,” Jade amended.

He opened his mouth to reply, but he couldn’t think of anything to say. She could hear lies.

“Rangavar.” She tentatively reached out and lay a paw on his shoulder. He tried not to react at the touch. It had once been so familiar to him, but he’d had very few chances to get used to it again. “I’m not holding a grudge against you and Arro or anything, if that’s something you’re worried about.” She gazed at him softly. “I came to Karraden to be with you two.”

Rangavar’s brow furrowed. “You really mean to be with ‘us two’? Both of us?”

She rolled her eyes. “Is that so hard to believe?” She shook her head at his continued expression of confusion. “I told you, I was mad that nobody told me. I’m not mad that it happened.”

“I thought you still felt awkward around me,” Rangavar finally blurted. Then he felt his cheeks grow warm. “I mean, I thought it was me. I thought since you picked him, you didn’t, uh…”

“What, love you anymore?” She wrinkled her snout. “Really?” Her emotions were almost amused at the thought. “You know why I ‘picked him’, as you put it? Because it wouldn’t have been fair to him to find out I still had other ‘obligations’ he didn’t sign up for. And you know how sensitive he is.”

Rangavar sighed. He did know how sensitive he was.

“I didn’t want him to feel like he was in some sort of ‘competition’ with you,” she said more gently. “See, if only I’d known that you two would get along great. Well, ‘more than great’.” The corner of her mouth quirked up.

“You think we can make it work?” he asked.

She tilted her head. “Make what work?”

He stared awkwardly at his paws, not really sure how to word his thoughts. “Well, like… all of us.” He noticed her emotions turn to confusion again and looked back up at her. “Like, the three of us. Together.”

She put a paw on her chin as she pondered the suggestion. “I’m guessing you mean more than just ‘living with each other’.”

Carefully, he nodded. “I mean, living together has been working out. I’m just wondering if, like… you really can connect to two mates.” Normally when two dragons mated, they were bonded forever, but instances of a dragon mating multiple others had never happened before. Well, other dragons who had been cursed on Glitara were probably going through the same thing, but whether or not ‘rejoining’ each other was actually possible, Rangavar didn’t know.

“Unless you don’t want to, of course,” he added quickly, suddenly feeling embarrassed. “I wouldn’t want to just assume—”

Jade leaned over and kissed him.

He froze up for a moment. Then it was as if his body suddenly recognized the feeling. Recognized her. He relaxed, almost disappointed when she pulled away.

She stared at him, searching his face. “Did that feel right?”

“What do you mean?”

She smirked at his confused expression. “It felt right to me. I think we could make it work.”

“Oh, uh, yeah,” he said quickly. Of course it had, after his initial surprise. “It felt great.” Then he slapped his forehead and winced. He could have gone without adding that.

But she just snorted slightly in amusement, and pulled his paw away from his face. She held it tight. “Then I’d like to try.”

When their paws fit together, he found himself squeezing back, their fingers interlocking. Slowly, he nodded, staring into her eyes. “Me too.”

~

When he descended the stairs a short while later, he was struck by a very confusing sight. Arro was playing videogames. But, also, Kraz was playing videogames. They were playing videogames together. At the same time, in the same room. Voluntarily.

Rangavar shook his head slightly, pretty sure he was hallucinating.

Arro heard him on the stairs and craned his head around to look at him, causing the thick layers of pudge on his neck to bunch up. “Oh, hey. Did you and Jade talk?”

Rangavar stared back. “What are you doing?”

Arro had returned his gaze to the game so that he didn’t lose. He stared at the screen, the buttons twitching beneath his thumbs. “What do you mean?”

Rangavar gestured briefly at the scene before him before realizing Arro was no longer paying attention.

“Oh, did you want to play or something?” Kraz offered. He didn’t tear his eyes away either.

Rangavar shook his head. “No, that’s alright.” Apparently, while he and Jade were having a heart-to-heart over their future, Arro and Kraz had found a way to get along, at least for now. Today was just full of surprises.

He went into the kitchen for a snack. Since he’d slept the day away when he and Arro finished their ‘activities’ earlier, he wasn’t sure what time it was, but it was dark out and he was hungry. He noticed Arro already had a couple of bags of chips at his side while playing video games, so there didn’t seem like much of a point to making dinner or anything in particular. He was glad to see Arro eating in front of Kraz. Even if it was less than his usual feast.

Jade came downstairs a few minutes later to find him pulling an apple out of the cupboard. She watched him stretch to reach the shelf with an odd expression as she came over and waited for him to move out of the way, probably to grab one for herself.

“Can I hug you?”

Rangavar paused with the apple in his paw. “What?

Jade cast a glance at the two oblivious gamers in the living room. “I kind of want Arro to see us, after talking,” she admitted. Then she started to look amused. “Although we technically haven’t shared a real hug in centuries, so I suppose we’re also way overdue.”

He realized she was right. They hadn’t even hugged when he’d first reappeared from Glitara. He cast another glance at Arro and Kraz on the couch. “They’re not paying attention to us.”

She shrugged. “I could telepathically draw Arro’s attention over here. He wouldn’t have to know it was me.”

Yeah, she could do that. Vaugh, it was so convenient to know a Gemian. Rangavar put the apple on the counter.
“Alright. How do you want to do this?”

“Did you seriously just ask me how to hug?”

Rangavar scowled. Before he could muster a reply, she wrapped her arms around him tight.

At first he was tense at the touch, but he almost immediately relaxed. Just like the kiss upstairs. It wasn’t as if he’d stopped loving her or something anyway, he just needed to get used to her touch again. He held her too, resisting the urge to cast a glance back over his shoulder at the living room.

“I see you two are getting along.” Arro sounded amused. It had worked.

Rangavar and Jade finally parted so that the Darkal could look over at the two Faerians on the couch. Arro had turned their way slightly, his brows raised.

Jade gave a slight shrug and a smile. “What? We’re doing that thing you said. ‘Making it work’ or whatever.” She suddenly gestured away at him with a paw. “Anyway, you don’t have to stare.”

Rangavar wasn’t sure how out of the loop Kraz was, but right now, he didn’t seem to be paying attention. Perhaps it had been part of his conversation with Arro and Jade the day he first came over. The day when… well, everything. It felt forever ago now.

“It looks like you two are getting along,” Rangavar mimicked back to them, taking a bite of his apple.

Arro blushed.

It was clear Kraz felt a bit awkward too at the comment, but his lips parted in the beginnings of a grin. “Arro doesn’t completely suck at video games, so we decided to play a few rounds before I go home.”

“Shut up,” Arro grumbled, leaning back on the couch to watch the screen again, his belly heavy on his lap. It wasn’t quite bloated, but Rangavar could see from where he was standing that all the chip bags surrounding Arro on the couch had been hollowed out. “I’ve won plenty of times.”

Kraz gave a little smirk and returned his own attention to the screen.

When they were thoroughly distracted again, Jade leaned a paw on the counter, watching them. “Interesting.”

“I’m glad Arro is giving Kraz a second chance.” Rangavar kept his voice low to avoid drawing attention, although the volume on the TV was pretty loud anyway. “Well, maybe his second chance hinges on who wins this game right now, but at least they’re in the same room and having fun at the same time.”

Jade gave a tiny snort. “Arro’s finally eating in front of him, too. That’s a good sign.” After a moment, she turned her attention back to Rangavar, a slightly smug expression on her face.

Rangavar frowned. “What?”

She looked him up and down. “You’ve been eating well too.”

Rangavar felt his cheeks grow a shade darker. That had been happening to him a lot since Jade came home. Blushing was usually Arro’s job. “So?” He cast a glance into the living room to see if the two Faerians would have anything to say, but they were too focused to hear their conversation.

Jade crossed her arms, the hint of a smile on her muzzle. “It’s cute. I’m guessing it’s from spending time with Arro.”

Rangavar moved out of her way with his apple, paying a great deal of attention to it instead of meeting her eyes. His face still felt hot. “Yeah.”

She finally grabbed an apple out of the cabinet for herself. “I noticed it when I first got here, but wasn’t positive at first, so I didn’t want to say anything. And that night Arro and I… fed you,” she smirked, “I could tell you’d ‘filled out’, but Arro explained all of the exercise you’ve been trying, and that you were trying to get stronger. I thought maybe that’s what I was seeing.”

“I really have been,” Rangavar spoke up, his cheeks still warm. “I’ve been exercising more than Arro even knows about. He thinks I just go running.”

She took a few steps closer to him so that he finally looked back up. Now he could sense her feeling mischievous. “Oh, I know—I could tell you have muscles when I just hugged you.” She slightly grinned again. “Under all of the pudge, of course.”

He rolled his eyes.

She suddenly reached over and gave his side a little pinch. Unlike Arro’s fat fingers, her slender ones easily sank into the flesh and made him jolt. He quickly grabbed her paws with his own to move them away. Was this how Arro normally felt? “It’s not a big deal.”

“It’s just amusing to see you not look starved.” She took one of his paws in her own and started to pull him towards the stairs. “Let’s leave Arro and Kraz alone for now. I feel like we’ve barely talked at all since I got here, and we have some catching up to do.”

It was true. Rangavar found himself looking forward to it as they darted up the stairs.

~

Both wristbands lit briefly as the info was transferred.

“You should get Rangavar to play,” said Kraz.

Arro stared down at his own wristband, now that it had Kraz’s contact information. He snorted. “Don’t tell him I said this, but he’s not very good at gaming.” He was well aware that Rangavar could probably hear him from upstairs anyway. “I’ll ask him, though.”

The other dragon nodded. “I’d be excited to play him.”

Kraz’s skill level far surpassed Rangavar’s, but Arro wasn’t sure whether or not he’d warn the smaller dragon first. “Sure.”

They stared at each other a moment, neither really knowing what to say. Arro could tell Kraz was trying really hard to befriend him—being nice to him, making small talk with him, playing games with him—and Arro didn’t want to be the stick in the mud to shut him down. He wasn’t sure he was ready to forgive Kraz yet, but he was willing to try.

“I guess I’ll head out.” The buff dragon grabbed his coat off the chair at the other side of the room. “Can you tell Rangavar I said ‘bye’? I don’t want to bother him while he’s with his, uh, I mean with your… well, both of, uh—”

“It’s confusing, I know.” Arro watched Kraz easily pull up his winter pants next. He tried not to be envious of it. “I’ll tell him.”

Kraz nodded. “I guess I’ll just see him at—” His face fell as he suddenly seemed to recall that they’d no longer be going to work together.

The corner of Arro’s mouth turned up in a half-smile. “If I can ever convince him to come to the gym, maybe he’ll end up seeing you then.”

Kraz brightened. “So, you do want to go to the gym with me?”

“That’s not exactly what I said.”

Kraz’s ears flattened slightly, but he nodded. “Sorry. I’m really not trying to make things awkward, I swear.”

“I know.” Arro glanced at the stairs. “I’ll let him know you left, and pass on the gaming information.”

Kraz nodded again. “Thanks.” He took a deep breath and sighed. “Alright. I can’t put it off any longer. I have to deal with… going home.” He made his way to their front door. “But thanks for all the help. Letting me stay, and, uh, the stuff when we were in the basement. All of it.”

“Sure.” Arro went to the front door with him, holding it open. Icy cold air blasted in. Arro didn’t try to hurry Kraz out the door or anything, but the other Faerian was also obviously eager to get the ride home over with, and he hopped up quickly on Zark’s hovercycle. They’d gone back afterwards to retrieve it from outside the research facility.

The pale gray Faerian gave a small wave. “I’ll talk to you and Rangavar online.”

Arro waved back slightly as the other dragon sped off. He quickly shut the door, rubbing his paws together after withdrawing them from the cold metal doorknob. Then, he let out a massive sigh of relief. The awkward tension was finally gone.

He shut off the TV and started to clean up his pile of snack wrappers. At least they’d found some common ground, and agreed to meet halfway. Rangavar would be happy about that, Arro hoped. It was progress.

He thought about it as he climbed the stairs. Kraz was doing his best to be less judgmental, and seemed really genuine about getting along. Arro wondered if… maybe he would eventually be happy about it, like everyone else.

When he reached the top, he peered shyly into the room, wondering exactly what he’d find. Both Rangavar and Jade turned to look at him, and he felt awkward beneath their stares. They were both sitting on the bed, facing each other. The bed looked massive with only the two smaller dragons. “Am I interrupting anything?” He took the last several steps into the room slowly, his gut jiggling as his legs pressed up underneath.

“Not at all.” Rangavar glanced at Jade. She looked at Arro and shot him a brief smile.

Arro looked for someplace to sit on the bed, and ended up perching on the side while turned towards them, his belly spilling off the side of his lap and the rolls bunching up over his wide hips. “Kraz went home.”

Rangavar nodded. “We heard.”

Jade smiled. “Glad to see you’ve come to some sort of understanding.”

“I… yeah. I guess.” Arro pushed his chubby fingers together. “We both like gaming, so we’re going to talk more often online. Oh, he wants you to join in, too.” He glanced at Rangavar. “He keeps going on about some match you made an agreement about a while back.”

Rangavar wrinkled his snout. “I wish he’d forget about that.”

Arro snorted. “We’ll play him together. Although he’s, uh, better than you,” he admitted.

Rangavar gave him a pointed stare. “So I heard.”

Oops.

“Since when do you play videogames, Rangavar?” Jade teased. “I can’t picture it.”

Arro chuckled. “Maybe we could all play together.” Jade always teased Arro for gaming, too, but it could be a fun group activity if she joined.

Jade picked up on the emotion. “It’ll be good for us to all start hanging out,” she acknowledged. “You’re right about that much.”

Rangavar raised his brows. “Playing videogames? Or in general.”

She rolled her eyes. “Mostly in general…”

Arro tried to think of more ideas. “We could always go to the gym, too, or something. You’re a type One like me, so you’d probably like that.”

Thoughtfully, Jade nodded. “I think I would like that,” she agreed.

Rangavar leaned forward to put his chin on his paw. “I can’t believe I now live with two people who can kick my ass.”

“Come with us.” Arro grinned. “Maybe it’ll give you a chance to see Kraz, too, since you won’t be working together anymore. That’ll be fun, right?”

“Great. I’ll get to hang out with three people who can kick my ass. That’s what I wanted.”

Jade playfully elbowed him. “C’mon. You could use the exercise.”

Arro watched in amusement as Rangavar’s cheeks turned a shade darker. Everyone—literally everyone—had a small roll of stomach when sitting down, but he hadn’t noticed Rangavar’s getting any larger until he’d pointed it out. Now, he could see that the Darkal did look a little bit rounder. Not currently from food; soft, scaly pudge on his sides was making him look slightly wider as well.

Rangavar yelped when Jade suddenly reached over and gave the pudge a little pinch. “We’ll get you back into shape, tubby,” she grinned.

He rolled his eyes. “Ha-ha.”

Jade smirked, and reached over to squeeze him again. “Or you’ll only get bigger from here.”

“Stop doing that!”

Arro crossed his arms over his own vast midsection, brows raised in amusement. “You poke and squeeze me all the time.”

Rangavar’s blush still hadn’t disappeared when he turned to glare at the much larger dragon.

After a brief smirk of his own, Arro leaned back, his arms resting upon his belly. He pressed his index fingers together. “You know, I think I’m going to change my routine, too.”

He felt his cheeks redden as they once again turned their attention to him. Well, turn brighter than pale-red, that is. He’d been trying to think of how to bring this up.

He could sense Jade projecting confusion, and went on, “I’ve been thinking a lot about something Kraz said.” He’d already told Rangavar that earlier, although he hadn’t told him this part. He took a deep breath. “I think I’m going to stop dieting.”

It didn’t make Jade’s confusion go away. He explained, “Kraz pointed out that I spend all of my time trying to lose weight, but stay fat.” He’d been pretty hurt to hear it, but… it was true. “He asked me if I just go to the gym just to stay strong. And, uh, I do like being strong. I like the gym. But, I hate dieting.” It wasn’t a secret. If he had a list of things that weren’t-secrets, that would probably be at the top. “So, I think I might… stop.” He looked away beneath their curious stares, feeling the fat around his neck bunch up. “Stop dieting, I mean.”

Jade tilted her head. “So…” She frowned. “You don’t want to lose weight?”

“Oh, don’t get me wrong, I’d love to lose weight,” said Arro hastily. “I just… I hate making myself miserable with no results. I like food too much. I like eating.” Another few statements that weren’t secrets to anybody. “I just don’t want to feel guilty about it. I think I just want to focus my time on the gym for now. Maybe go back to dieting later, but…” He took another deep breath. “Right now, I want to focus on things I enjoy.”


Slowly, Jade nodded.

Rangavar still looked slightly confused. “You’re doing this off of something Kraz said?” He sounded doubtful. Arro knew he was thoroughly aware of Arro’s tension with the other dragon, and knew the fat dragon wasn’t very impressed by the past couple of days, either, whether they’d started getting along or not.

Arro shook his head slightly. “Not just Kraz. You.” That didn’t help the expression of confusion disappear from Rangavar’s face. Arro decided to elaborate. “Earlier, when you talked about getting fatter, you told me that you weren’t going to bother dieting or anything. Being fat doesn’t bother you. And I’d already been thinking about what Kraz said, but… pretty much decided. I’m going to try doing things I like, instead of trying so hard to do things I hate.”

“I wouldn’t call myself ‘fat’ right now, exactly,” said Rangavar awkwardly.

Arro crossed his arms and smirked. “Well, you already reached the first stage: Denial.”

“Oh, fuck you.”

With a snort, Arro picked up a pillow and hucked it at him.

“Ack!” Rangavar ducked. “What was that for?”

“You’re too far away to grab and squeeze. I had to pick something else to make up for it.”

“You don’t have to ‘make up for’ not tormenting me.”

Jade suddenly wrapped her arms around him, pulled him close, and squeezed. “I’ll do the job.”

“Jade! Don’t encourage him.” Rangavar tried to squirm away, but her arms were locked around him. Despite being slightly taller, Rangavar couldn’t hope to battle her type One powers. He growled in exasperation. “Get off!”

Arro leaned closer across the bed, ignoring the way his gut pancaked beneath him to widen across the mattress. “Hold him still so that I get a squeeze.”

“Arro!”

The larger dragon chuckled, reaching for the Darkal with one doughy arm. He and Jade shared a grin while Rangavar alternated glaring at the two of them, twisting himself as best he could in Jade’s grip to no avail. Arro was enjoying watching them together, not just as mates, but as a pair of friends finally reunited. This would definitely work out. Arro was sure of it.