#the last question for the blossoming romance prompts will keep me busy a bit longer 🙈

[wonda-ch]

For the blossoming romance prompt, 16--naturally gravitating closer together?

For the blossoming romance prompts, a nice day in the air.

On a cloudless day, Tishlia and Daeran laid snuggled together on the grass in their garden. Silently, they watched the majestic dragons being carried high into the sky by the winds.

This day was too beautiful to spend on the ground, they had said, and so they flew, just to feel the wind under their wings. They spiraled higher and higher until they were almost out of sight, only to dive back and be caught by the next updraft.

After a while, they flew side by side in harmony, moving in great curves around the estate. They flew so low that the observers on the ground could see the individual scales of the magnificent blue and gold pair.

Satisfied with this perfect moment, Jax turned his gaze to his companion and let his wing sweep completely over Midnight in the moment of glide. Surprised by the unexpected touch, Midnight twitched his wing, shifting his flight path slightly to Jax's side. In an attempt to regain some distance, Jax's wingtip got caught between the dark blue spikes on Midnight's back.

On the ground, Daeran and Tishlia stood up when they noticed the unusual movements in the sky and watched attentively.

The jolt on his back finally unbalanced Midnight, and he bumped his shoulder against Jax, who was much too close to him. In a last attempt to free his wing, Jax grabbed Midnight with his large claws and held him tight. He managed to free his wing and regain control, but they were too low to stabilize their flight.

They were able to slow their fall a bit, but still they hit a nearby bush with a loud crash. Daeran winced when he heard the impact. "This is the fourth time now. Dragons should be able to learn from their mistakes. Why can't they just keep their distance in the air?"

"I think it's a form of natural gravitation. But it would be enough if they didn't try to make out while flying." Tishlia chuckled and went to help her friends out of the broken brush.

[rorykillmore]

okay so it’s @propheticnightwing‘s birthday today!!  she didn’t really ask for anything because her family’s keeping her busy but i wanted to make sure she got a little gift anyway, so i wrote a little bit of rp fic!

this is... in honor of ratchet/naruto, a panfandom ship that she and jay have working hard to build up to and that has been a long time coming. i figured with me potentially dropping sara soon, we might not get a whole lot of time to have her react to it, so i did this instead. i hope you enjoy it fate <3 ratchet and the legends have become so important to me over the years

It’s the morning after Valentine’s Day, and some of the glow is finally starting to wear off. Sara guesses she’s never been particularly good at allowing herself to be happy for too long, even here. The years she’s spent in this world still feel surreal in plenty of ways, least of all this one: the fact that she gets a shot at a stable relationship with Nyssa.

It’s something that would’ve been about a thousand times more complicated (if not impossible) at home. They both know that. So there’s always a lingering ‘but’ hanging over even days like yesterday, although Sara has gotten better at not lingering on them until mornings like this one.

Speaking of days like yesterday, though.

She hears someone come padding into the Waverider’s galley from where she sits at the table, sipping her usual morning coffee. Just instinctively (it’s an ex-assassin thing) Sara has trained herself to distinguish between the footfall patterns of everyone currently living on the Waverider, so she doesn’t even have to turn around to place the soft, almost silent feet as Ratchet’s.

“Morning.”

Much to her bemusement, she hears something skitter and crash, and turns to see that Ratchet has collided with the counter out of apparent surprise at seeing her. The crash had resulted from the two clean coffee mugs he had just knocked onto the floor -- now broken. Sara raises her eyebrows. 

“Uh -- shoot, sorry!” Ratchet stammers, looking slightly aghast at the mess he’s made.  “I wasn’t -- I didn’t see you there. Sorry.”

Sara sips at her coffee noncommittally. “It’s like I don’t even have to try to sneak up on you these days. Careful with the broken glass.” His weird Lombax feet are barefoot this morning, after all.

“I’ll just... go find something to clean this up with,” Ratchet mutters, half-turning to exit the room.

“Ratchet. Hang on a sec.” He pauses, ears twitching as he glances back at her, and Sara continues,  “What’s got you all jumpy this morning?”

He hesitates, and Sara feels even more inwardly perplexed. Then she remembers the note he left her yesterday.  “Is this about your little fair date with Naruto?”

Ratchet looks so startled that in the next moment, Sara wishes she’d been a little more tactful.  “Is that not what we’re calling it?” she adds, a bit belatedly.

“No, I, uh -- it’s just --”  Ratchet rubs the back of his head briefly. “I didn’t... think you knew.”

If Sara’s being honest, she’s known for a very long time. Hell, she might be willing to bet she’s known longer than they have -- if she hadn’t picked up on it back on the Woodstock mission last year, it would’ve been impossible to miss how much it had hurt Naruto when Ratchet had gone back to his world.

“I’m the Captain. It’s my job to know things,” she states simply with another sip of her coffee. “Plus, y’know, you two sneaking off to an amusement park, alone together, on Valentine’s Day isn’t exactly Guys Being Dudes.”

“Guys Being -- ?” Ratchet evidently ultimately decides not to question that any further. He shakes his head. “He, uh. He asked me to go with him. I had no idea...”

“But you like him too,” Sara prompts gently. “Right?”

Ratchet gives her a sheepish smile, and though it isn’t visible, Sara imagines his cheeks are probably heating up beneath his fur. “Yeah, I -- of course. I like him a lot.”

Well. Romance aboard the Waverider has always been a bit messy, so by their standards, Sara supposes two teens circling around their crush isn’t even that dramatic. She smiles at him a little more warmly.  “Then I’m glad he asked you. And I’m glad you agreed to go.”

Ratchet shifts his weight briefly, but his ears do what Sara has come to recognize as a happy twitch.  “You don’t think it’ll get in the way of... uh, you know. Team stuff?”

Sara makes a point of rolling her eyes.  “Trust me, this ship has seen way worse inter-team romances than you two.”  She thinks briefly of Amaya and Nate, and then how much she misses Kendra. And Snart.  “Don’t worry about that. Just, you know... take it easy. You two have all the time in the world to figure this out -- no pun intended.”

Ratchet grins at her briefly, and then finally moves from his uncertain position at the other end of the galley -- sidestepping the mess of broken glass to come sit next to her at the table.  “It’s... different with him than it was with Heather.”

“Yeah?” Sara sets down her mug and rests her chin in one hand.  

“Yeah. I don’t really know how to explain it, it just feels more like -- like I’m seeing everything better.”

Sara’s smile turns soft.

It’s February 15th. Ratchet’s birthday is tomorrow, she realizes.

He’s done a lot of growing up. She can still see in his eyes the young teenager she first met two years ago, poking around her ship without permission. But at the same time, so much as changed.

“Kara would be proud of you,” she tells him a little more quietly.  

Ratchet’s expression shifts, briefly, some of the warmth and excitement is replaced by something a little more lost and sad.  “You really think so?”

“You know she would.” Sara pauses.  “I still have a pretty good feeling you’re gonna get to tell her all about it someday.”

About a hundred different complicated things pass over Ratchet’s face in that moment, and she knows he won’t be able to put most of them into words. But when he finally smiles at her again, it’s even warmer. And strangely more confident.  “Yeah. So do I.”

Sara’s not sure she can take much credit for the person Ratchet has become. For the relationship that’s blossomed under the roof of this ship, forged by all that he and Naruto have been through together. But she still feels proud.

Leaning a little towards him, she drops some of the seriousness of the moment and favors something a little more teasing.  “In the meantime, though, I expect you to give me the deets.”

And Ratchet laughs more brightly than she’s heard him do since the rifts brought him back, and as she watches and listens to the animated way he starts to delve into the story of his date, Sara reassures herself with the growing feeling that one way or another, they’re all going to be okay.