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Flame is oh so rudely awoken by the sound of a shrill shriek right in his ears.
Sitting up, he glances around his room frantically looking for the source of the sound only to deflate when he sees the shit eating grin on Mane's face along with the infant dangling in the lion's grip. Holding the infant like he's swimming, whos arms and legs continue to wiggle and bounce. His tiny tail flicking rapidly back and forth while he continues to coo and squeal.
“Happy birthday dude.” Mane chuckles while handing Wemmbu over to Flame to pacify the sleepy cat. The tiger taking him with a bewildered expression. Wemmbu is dressed in a black onesie with flames around the wrists and feet. He squeals when Flame holds him, trying to hold his head up but ends up face planting into flames collarbone. But that doesn't stop the sea of noises. It’s like wemmbu just realized he's the one making the sounds and he can't stop.
“...what time even is it?” Flame yawns, rubbing his eyes. Mane takes a seat on the edge of Flame’s bed and stretches, itching his chin as he closes his eyes.
“Around 10.”
“10?! That late??” Flame sits up quickly, shifting Wemmbu so the baby dragon is held against his chest facing Mane. Supporting him so he's sitting on Flame’s other arm.
“Bro it's your birthday. Of course I'm gonna let you sleep in.” Mane snicker, reaching over and ruffling Flames dreads.
“Plus you gotta go get Lomedy so we can celebrate later today.” Mane offers while standing back up, cracking his back with a groan.
“Give me the gremlin. You go have fun, but make sure you're back with Lomedy before 4.” Mane takes Wemmbu back from Flame, who dribbled a bit against Flame. Leaving a small wet patch in his pajama shirt.
“And then there were two.” Mane mumbles to himself, watching Flames retreating figure down the path to the treehouse. He looks to the infant cradled in his arms, meeting Wemmbu's eyes. The infant just yawns around the pacifier in his mouth, blinking at him. His golden eyes staring right into Mane's.
“Sleepy already? You still need to help me decorate.” Regardless of what Mane says, he heads towards the nest in the living room. The one placed next to the crib for when wemmbu refuses to go back to sleep at night. It's not the best place for an infant to nap during the day, but it's the best they got. There isn't really a confined space in the treehouse lacking natural night. Unless you count the bathroom.
The solution? A fan and a black comforter.
He bounces Wemmbu a bit, rocking back and forth while rubbing his back, being careful of his wings. Before long Wemmbu yawns again, this time his little head rests against Mane's shoulder as his eyes slip closed. He rocks him a bit more before careful and slowly transferring him into the crib. Supporting his head as he sets him down. Stepping back once he's down, his hands still held out as he holds his breath.
Mane makes eye contact with two yellow irises.
Damn it. Try again.
When he eventually gets Wemmbu down for his nap, Mane makes his way over to the kitchen to get started on everything. The food, decorations and his gift. While they don't have a lot of people they know, Mane’s still happy Flame at least has one friend.
Which in reality just means Mane can make even more food and not get called out on it.
What? Leftovers are good. Especially when it's 4 in the morning and he's giving Wemmbu his bottle.
Mane stands in the kitchen, looking in the pantry while rubbing his chin in thought.
“...I should of asked what Flame wanted for dinner.” He sighs.
Flame stands with his back pressed against the stone wall of the center fountain. His arms crossed over his chest as he leans casually against the cool stone. His covered gaze watching the sea of people come and go through the market. No one here is giving him more than a passing glance. They’ve all seen him around here before, they all know he's here for the deer hybrid that can be seen running around during the farmers market. While it's not the closest village to the treehouse, not by a few hundred blocks. It is the one that Lomedy lives in with his parents.
And well, Lomedy is unfortunately Flames one and only friend.
Now that he's thinking about it, the way they met was absolutely by chance that day.
Flame was around 12 years old when they met. He was out in the woods around the treehouse with Mane practicing his navigation skills when they got separated. Flame tried to find his way back to the tree house but ended up actually farther away, which isn't that ironic. When he finally emerged from the dense bushes of the forest, he stumbled out onto a farm. He walked around for a bit before running into Lomedy. With his round cheeks and shaggy hair at the time, regardless of being a prey animal, offered to help the tiger cub.
But if by help, Lomedy meant go eat lunch. It was successful.
Mane eventually found Flame a few hours later. But by then it was already decided. Lomedy was going to be Flame’s friend whether he liked it or not.
Speaking of the deer hybrid, where is the guy? He's half an hour late already.
Flame sighs, glancing at the clock tower off in the distance, his eyes reading 11:32. He grumbles to himself before shifting his gaze back to the sea of people moving about their late mornings. As he looks, a group of players cut through the crowd. All of them geared to their teeth. Most of them are in diamond armor but there's a few in netherite. Flame watches as they push through the crowd, disrupting the usual flow of people browsing the market stalls. Stopping to question a few people and shoving a white piece of paper into their faces. Some of them getting aggressive when they're ignored.
A tug on his sleeve brings his attention back, turning to the side he's met with Lomedy's smile. But the grin on his lips drops when his attention is dragged to the growing disruption.
“Finally bro. What took so long?” Flame groans, slumping against the wall with his arms crossed.
“Mom needed my help with the laundry. What’s going on?” Lomedy turns his gaze to the commotion building in the center. There's a clear circle of people around the armed players. It hard to ignore them when one of the players is getting physical with some stall owner.
“No clue. They just walked in.”
“Weird.” Lomedy purses his lips. It's then that one of the players catches sight of them watching. The guy splits off from the others and approaches them. Flame feels his spine straightening as he approaches. Sizing the guy up. It's an older gentleman with a nasty scar running across his forehead, through his brow and down his cheek.
“You. deer hybrid.”
“...-me?” Lomedy asks, pointing at himself. The man rolls his eyes, adjusting his posture with an air of arrogance.
“Who else?” He snarls before holding out a wanted poster for them both.
“Have either of you two seen this player?” Flame goes to take the paper from the guy's hands but the guy moves it to the side, closer to Lomedy. Flame clenches his hand but chooses to stay silent. Lomedy takes the poster but hands it to Flame. Giving the guy an unimpressed glare.
Flame takes a sec to really look at the poster. It's a man, a bit on the younger side with long bright white hair. The upper half being pulled back with two twin golden clips sitting near his temples. There's a soft smile on his face and the photo looks like it was cropped out of a group photo based on how he's standing. He has two matching white moles that sit right under his eyes. Along with a pair of white headwings. Near the bottom it reads, “Wanted alive! Saparata, age 22, last known location, Capital City.” Flame narrows his gaze.
He's never seen the guy before. The name doesn't ring a bell either. He goes to say such. “Never seen th-” “So, have you seen him? He should be traveling with a child. One probably around 2 to 3 years old.” The guy cuts him off. Not even looking at Flame or acknowledging that he exists. Flame feels the muscle in his jaw twitch.
The urge to throttle someone has never been stronger.
“No. we haven't." Lomedy responds sharply. Annoyed at the guy, especially when he scoffs and rips the poster out of Flames hands and storms off without saying much else. He mutters something under his breath. But Flame’s hearing isn't like most players.
“...-wheres a muzzle when you need one…”
His jaw clenches as his hand drifts to the handle of his blade.
“What are you doing?” Flames attention is snapped back to the main crowd when someone new enters the rift.
Jesus. That guy is huge.
It's a voidling, probably around 7 or 8 feet tall. He approaches the group of people with a scowl on his face. Standing before them with his arms crossed.
“Im going to have to ask you all to leave. We want no part of your business here.” They both watch the commotion for a bit longer before Flame catches sight of something else. In the alleyway behind the voidling, there's another younger voidling hiding and watching the other closely. Standing around the corner and peaking out. He's dressed in a t-shirt with a bright rainbow graphic on it and a pair of khaki shorts, but he doesn't have any shoes on at all. Flame makes what he thinks his eye contact with the kid before the kid sticks his tongue out at flame and vanished into the dark of the alley.
“...what the fuck?… let's just go.” Flame sighs while grabbing Lomedy’s arm and dragging him along. Ignoring the guy's protests.
It's his big day and there's a few things he wants to do before they both have to return to the treehouse for dinner. One of the things being the fact Flame wants to visit Lomedy’s uncle’s farm.
And that's for one reason and one reason only.
“Ashlyn!” Flame’s back meets the dirt as he's pounced on by the huge Bearded Collie. He laughs as the dog boofs in his face and licks his cheeks in greeting.
“...Geez. you'd think the dogs your best friend and not me.” Lomedy crouches down next to them. But that proves to be a bad idea when he becomes Ashlyn's next target. Knocking him over into the dirt as well.
“Ack- Ashlyn! Ha- Bad girl!” Lomedy shouts while trying to protect his face from the onslaught of dog slobber and fur. Flame rolls over onto his back laughing. Clutching his stomach as he watches Lomedy struggle to get Ashlyn off. The dog decides to lay on his head, smothering Lomedy's face into a blanket of dog fur.
“-c-nt br-at-e!! F-lm he-p!” Lomedy's muffled voice calls out. Flame watches Lomedy flail and try to push the large dog off of him. Failing horrible.
“Pfft- ok ok! Ashlyn, come here girl.” Flame stands up, holding his hand out which Ashlyn prances right over to. Her tail wagging as she bumps her face into Flame’s open palm. Plopping down as he starts to scratch at her ear. “Oh who's a good girl! Yes you are!” Lomedy rubs at his face and spits into the dirt. Trying to get all of the dog fur off his cheeks and out of his mouth. Eventually he gives up when Flame offers him a hand. Taking it, he's pulled back to his feet.
“You would think it's her birthday with how excited she is to see you two.” A voice calls out from behind them. Ashlyn sneaks out behind Flame’s legs and prances over to the voice. Taking a seat next to him.
“Uncle Dustin!” Lomedy calls out surprised.
Dustin is Lomedy's uncle on his moms side. Being his moms older brother. Lomedy has been visiting the guy every weekend since he was old enough to walk. Helping out at the farm whenever he got the chance. The two look uncanily similar in many ways. The only main difference being the fact lomedy has antlers on his head and Dustin is fully human. He has longer brown hair pulled back with a bandana and a plaid shirt overtop of his dirty jeans. He looks exactly how you would imagine a farmer would look.
“Hey loms. Hey flame. Happy birthday kid.” He calls out, squeezing lomedy and ruffeling Flames hair.
“Thanks dude.” Flame responds back, swatting Dustin’s hand away with a grumble. Dustin chuckles a bit.
“So. what brings you out to the farm?”
“We were hoping we could have lunch here. And.. -” lomedy says while rocking back and forth on his feet. His hands clasped behind his back. “-you know what else.” He leans over and stage whispers the last bit to Dustin.
“Yo- what's with the secrets?” Flame nudges Lomedy with a smirk, raising his brow.
“Sh sh sh, you'll find out eventually.”
They end up in the kitchen of the farm house. It's a smaller building with navy blue siding and dark oak trim. But it's beautiful in its own right. The three of them sitting at the table. There's a pile of board games off to the side that the three of them have slowly been making their way through after they had lunch. Right now they're deep in a game of Monopoly and Flame is losing horribly.
“-You don't get to do that! Just because you're the banker doesn't mean you can take from the bank!”
“-unless you're not caught!”
“That's not fair bro!”
“...just roll the dice Flame.” Dustin sighs watching the two teens squabble back and forth.
“...fine.” He rolls the two dice, carefully aware of the only bill in his hand. It's his only $200 bill left. He rolls a two and a four, moving up six spaces with his small silver car.
“Fuck!”
“HA! 200 Bucks! Pay up Flame!”
“NAH NAH ACTUALLY SCREW THIS GAME!” Flame shouts, slamming his hand down on the table and storming off out the back door, visible smoke floating off the top of his head as he angrily storms towards the barn out back.
Pushing open the wooden door with his shoulder he flops down on his back into the pile of hay. Huffing a big sigh he pulls the blindfold off his face. Rubbing his eyes as he takes a second.
Eventually he hears the door of the barn open again and Lomedy's face pops into his vision.
“I think that's a record. You lasted almost 2 hours without getting pissed.” Lomedy muses while flopping down into the hay next to Flame.
“Bro, only because you and Dustin cheat all of the time.”
“Its literally in the rules that if you get away with stealing you can keep the money-”
“Memememmeemememe-”
“-oh real mature Flame!” Lomedy smacks him on the shoulder and they stare at each other for a second before both dissolving into giggles. As the laughs level off, they both sit in silence for a few moments. Enjoying each other's presence before Lomedy sighs and sits up.
“It's almost 4 already. Come on, I wanna show you something.” Lomedy says as he stands up and dusts the hay off his pants. He holds his hand out to Flame with a smile. Flame scoffs but takes the hand anyways. Reaching over and pulling a few pieces of hay out of Lomedys hair. He ties his blindfold back on before nodding his head.
“Lead the way.”
Lomedy leads them out of the barn and around to the back where they have a pretty large shed that's connected to Ashlyn's dog house. Lomedy opens up the fence gate and flame follows him through as they head towards the shed. Closing the gate behind them both. Lomedy pushes open the shed door, Flame follows Lomedy inside before stopping in his tracks. There, on a pile of blankets fenced off with small gate lays Ashlyn surrounded by a pile of sleeping puppies.
“Ashlyn had puppies?” Flame whispers to lomedy, his voice sounding a bit star struck.
“Yep! And as my gift to you - with permission from uncle Dustin of course - you can pick one of them to take home.” Lomedy smiles to Flame, stepping over the gate and into the puppy pen. All seven of the puppies waking up to the sound of his footsteps. It's like a bell went off as a sea of puppies start woofing and weaving in and out of Lomedy's legs. He sits down next to Ashlyn and tries to pet her head but he gets covered by the puppies jumping on his lap and licking at his face.
“Ah- ew puppy breath! Yes yes hi im back!” Lomedy laughs. Flame watches for a second before stepping into the pen himself and taking a seat by the wall. Instead of being swamped by a sea of puppies, Ashlyn gets up from her spot in the blankets. She grabs one of her puppies by the fur on their neck and walks over to flame. Placing the one in his lap and laying down next to Flame.
“Aww look at her, she's so proud!” Lomedy coo’s. He wishes he had his camera to take a pic. Unfortunately he left that at home. Flame pets the puppy in his lap who growls and jumps out. Barking at flame before pouncing on his hand. Playing with the tiger hybrid.
“Feisty little one.” Flame tickles the puppy’s belly as it growls and play bites his fingers. He laughs. Running his fingers through the gray curly fur coat. Looking close enough he notices that the pup has two different eye colors. He snickers before picking up the pup and setting him with his brothers and sisters. Watching as they all dive into a big dog pile, growling and chasing each other around the pen.
“You're serious tho? I can choose one?” Flame looks at Lomedy, watching the deer laugh and nod his head.
“If you wanna ask uncle Dustin to be sure, you can. But they're old enough to be away from Ashlyn now.” Flame hums before his gaze is drawn back to that pup from earlier. Watching him chase his siblings around before tackling them into a play fight.
It almost feels like fate.
“What’s his name?” Flame asks as he separates the pups and hold the one out in front of his face. The pup boofs and tries to nip at his nose but Flame just laughs.
“We haven't named any of them yet. I've just been calling that one stinker because he's always getting into trouble.”
Flame thinks for a second, holding the puppy to his chest before looking down at Ashlyn next to him. She has her tongue out as she watches both Flame and Lomedy play with her pups. If Flame could speak dog, he would think she would sound like the proudest mama around. That gives him an idea. He takes another look at the pup in his arms before deciding.
“Ashen.”
Admittedly they are a little late. When they last looked at the clock before they left Dustin's house it read 3:43. Which isn't their fault but they definitely should have managed time a bit better. Trying to get a collar and leash on ashen along with some dog food definitely took up a big chunk of the time they had left. But the walk was going to take even longer with the fact that Ashen had never been outside of the shed before. Let alone walked on a leash. So a majority of their time when walking back to the treehouse has been them chasing a run away pup.
Which led them to now.
“Ashen! Come back!” Lomedy yelled out, chasing the runaway pup deeper into the bushes. The only sign that they're keeping up being the long yellow leash acting like a trail for them to follow. Ducking under a branch quickly, lomedy continues to chase before both of them stumble into a clearing in the trees. Lomedy places his hands on his knees as he tries to catch his breath. Flame emerges from the trees a second later, looking around the clearing before spotting Ashen up ahead. But who Ashen’s with make’s flame freeze for a second.
It's that younger voidling from before. Flame watches as the voidling giggles, having been knocked off his feet, while ashen climbs all over him. Sniffing him and licking his face. “-ack! Puppy! Hi hi hi!!!” The voidling giggles and rubs at Ashen's fur aggressively.
“Ashen. Come.”
Flame calls out, watching as Ashen's ears perk up and he turns back around to Flame. Leaving the voidling and rushing back to Flames side who grabs the loose leash and hands it to Lomedy. Flames gaze meets the voidlings who looks young. A very prominent pout stuck on his face after Ashen left him to go back to Flames side. He stands there frozen for a second before flipping both of them off, his form flickering for a second before vanishing into thin air.
“-wha- Hey!” Flame shouts, rushing forward where the voidling was. But it's too late. The kid is gone.
“...rude.”
Flame turns back around to face lomedy who's picked Ashen up and is holding the squirming pup in his arms. Lomedy shrugs before his communicator dings in his pocket. Pulling out hes met with a message that makes his stomach not necessarily drop, but definitely twist.
<ManePear> bro wya? Its almost 4:30?
Fuck.
“Mane? Dude where are you?” Flame cups his hands around his mouth as he calls. Walking into the empty treehouse. All of the artificial lights turned off leaving just the late evening light spilling in from the openings in the walls. There's streamers dangling from the branches up above along with balloons taped to the walls. lomedy follows closely behind him as he walks around the house. His brows furrowed.
Something doesn't feel right.
Walking into the living room he spots Wemmbu's crib with the blanket cover on and the fan running. Pulling black the blanket he sees wemmbu laying on his back, green pacifier in his mouth. His little fists having slipped out of his swaddle as he naps away. Not a care in the world. Flame huffs, pulling the blanket back overtop.
Walking into the kitchen, him and lomedy stand side by side as mane's absence coats the treehouse in an aerie silence. Even Ashen has stopped squirming in Lomedys arms.
“boo.”
“AHH-?!!” Flame jumps so hard out of his skin, whipping around while Lomedy’s ear piercing scream rings in his ears. Mane's smug face meets them both as he stands with his arms crossed.
“You sure took your sweet time.” Flame groans, rubbing his face and he feels his heart beat wildly in his chest. Lomedy not doing much better as he tries his best to hold onto ashen while catching his breath. The dog whining and barking wildly at Mane.
“...whered you get the dog?” Mane asks with a raised brow but before flame and lomedy can answer the sound of a baby crying fills the treehouse. Lomedy's scream having woken Wemmbu up from his nap. Mane sighs, reaching over and ruffling Flames hair before turning around and heading back towards the living room.
“Come on, let's get this party started.”
Both of them followed Mane out into the living room. Lomedy places Ashen on the ground as the pup races forward to the sound of Wemmbu’s crying. Lomedy meets Flames gaze with a tight smile. Feeling sorry for waking up the baby.
“...sorry.”
“It's fine. It was time for him to get up anyway.” Flame shrugs, flopping down into Mane’s nest that's been growing in the living room. He watches Mane pull the little wiggly dragon out of the crib, shushing him once. Flame watches in real time as an idea appears in Mane's head. Holding the screaming and wiggling baby, mane turns to lomedy with a smirk on his lips.
“Here. He's yours now.”
“-wha?” lomedy sputters, taking the baby that was practically thrown at him. Holding him stiffly under the armpits while Wemmbu hiccups. Fat crocodile tears sliding down his red face as he squirms and wiggles. Mane just straight up leaves the room as well. Heading towards the kitchen. Flame guesses he's finishing up dinner.
“Dude, he's not a bomb. Chill.” Flame nudges Lomedy's leg with a snicker.
“Bro! I-I’ve never held a baby before!” Flame watches lomedy panic for a second longer before sighing.
“Dont hold him so far away, make sure to support the head.” Flame says half distracted, his gaze drawn to Ashen who's rooting around in mane's nest. Pawing at the blankets and mattresses with the boundless energy a puppy can hold. Flame reaches out and scratches behind Ashen's ears, who melts into the pet. When Flame stops he shakes his head aggressively before his tongue drops out of his mouth and he pants.
Lomedy snorts before sighing. Adjusting his hold on Wemmbu to bring the baby closer to him and cradle him carefully to his chest. Rocking back and forth in what he's hoping is a soothing gesture. Wemmbu quiets in almost an instance, his head laying snug against lomedys collar bone as he yawns.
“See? Easy.” Flame snickers at lomedy.
Mane walks back out of the kitchen by now, shaking a bottle in his hand. He hands it to Flame without saying anything. Flame takes the cold bottle, feeling it rapidly warm up in his hand. Shaking it a few times so it heats evenly before handing it back to Mane. The lion tests the temp on his wrists before handing the bottle to Lomedy.
Ashen finally hopped up and laid down in the nest. All wrung out from his exploring of the new place.
“Im training you for when you babysit.” Mane says casually while adjusting lomedy’s hold of Wemmbu so he can feed the infant properly. Wemmbu latches on instantly, his eyes staring directly into lomedy’s as he eats. Not breaking eye contact for a second.
“...why is he looking at me like that?”
“That's just what he does bro.”
“ok, get up.” Mane grabs Flames arms, pulling him up and out of the nest. Flame groans once before shouting in surprise when Mane leans down and throws Flame over his shoulder.
“Mane! Put me down!” Flame shouts while flailing around rapidly.
“Nope!” Mane says while popping the p. Heading to the kitchen where the table is set up. Mane contemplates just throwing Flame down on the ground for laughs, but decides against it. Choosing to spin a few times with Flame on his shoulder before placing him down with a cackle.
“Why would you do that!” Flame smacks mane on the shoulder before gripping him tightly for balance as the world around him continues to spin.
Eventually taking a seat at the table where Mane has all of the food he prepared set out. Lomedy joins them seconds later, walking so carefully like one misstep might make Wemmbu just instantly die.
“Ok I’ll take him back, you two dig in.” Mane holds his arms out from Wemmbu, lomedy takes the bottle from the baby and places it on the table before carefully handing the little dragon back to Mane. Taking a seat next to Flame and they both start to dish themselves up.
Lomedy's mouth waters at the sight of all the food. A spaghetti bake sits on the table, still steaming from the oven. Covered in golden and crispy mozzarella cheese. A salad bowl sits next to it with a few different dressings lined up, bright round tomatoes sitting on top of fresh crispy lettuce with carrots, bell peppers, finely chopped cabbage and oddly enough dried cranberries for a pop of color. Along with that he sees a fruit bowl filled to the brim with a mix of raspberries, chopped strawberries, blueberries, oranges and slices of golden apple. Along with a pot of rabbit soup still steaming, chunks of carrots and celery floating in the broth.
“...bro…how much food did you make?” Flame looks at Mane, a bit overwhelmed by the spread in front of them.
“Enough.” Mane says while rubbing and patting Wemmbu’s back to burp him. The little dragon's tail whips around before he lets out what sounds like a hiccup. Mane walks out of the kitchen and pulls in the little bouncer, before setting Wemmbu in it and sitting down at the table himself and dishing himself up.
Flame chooses to ignore the amount of food piling up onto Mane's plate. Instead keeping his attention on his own. They eat in silence for a bit, occasionally talking to one another every so often. By the time they were done eating, Wemmbu was wide awake and bouncing in his rocker. Kicking his legs out and cooing to no one in particular.
“So. Where'd you get the dog?” Mane asks Flame, giving him a raised eyebrow.
“It was a gift from me and my uncle for Flame.” Lomedy says while munching on a slice of golden apple. Mane hums, gazing into the living room where the puppy is conked out in his nest.
“A gift huh.”
“His name is Ashen.” Flame leans back in his chair, watching as Mane continues to munch on some of the fruit left on his plate. Ashen must have heard Flame talking about him because he comes flying into the kitchen. His claws scraping across the hardwood floor as he slides. His furry body knocking into the leg of the table, rattling everything on it.
“Woof!!” Ashen makes his presence well known as he weaves between everyone's legs under the table before he sets his eyes on Wemmbu rocking in his bouncer.
“He seems energetic.” Mane muses. Holding out his hand for Ashen to smell it, but Ashen brushes right past him barreling into the bouncer. He doesn't knock it over, but he seems very intrigued by Wemmbu who seems just as curious about him.
“...He's still learning how to behave.” lomedy scratches the back of his neck. Mane watches Ashen closely, the puppy’s multi-colored eyes tracking Wemmbu’s swaying tail closely. Wemmbu’s golden eyes looking right back at Ashen. His face completely blank. Mane jumps in when he sees Ashen pounce, nipping at Wemmbu’s tail softly. Mane grumbles, leaning down and shooing the puppy away from the little dragon.
Wemmbu squeals before giggling softly.
Basically it was a big old meet fest. Lomedy met Wemmbu. Mane met Ashen. And Ashen met Wemmbu. And tried to eat his tail, but that's besides the point.
Once they had dinner cleaned up and Wemmbu strapped properly into his bouncer this time, Mane tells Flame to have a seat on the couch before he disappears down the hall.
“What is bro even doing..?” Flame mumbles to lomedy who just shrugs and goes back to playing with Wemmbu. Holding the infants hands up and shaking them in the air before using them to cover his own tiny eyes in a weird game of peek a boo.
“Ooo where's Wemmbu? There he is! Ohh where's Wemmbu? He's right here!” Wemmbu just stares at lomedy, not laughing, not cooing. He just watches, almost as if he was looking right though lomedy.
“Ok, close your eyes.” Mane's voice echoes from around the corner. Flame rolls his eyes, but does as he's told. His ears twitch as he listens to <anes approaching foot steps. Something heavy being set on his lap causing him to jump slightly.
“You can open them.” Glancing down into his lap he's met with a long wrapped box. The wrapping paper is a striped pattern of both orange and red. The same colors that cover the end of flames dread’s.
He glances at Mane then back at the box before ripping it open, revealing a very nice looking display case with a magnetic latch and top. Prying open the latch he gasps at the sight.
Inside the box lays a brand new custom enchanted netherite sword with beautiful engravings up the side and in the hilt. Near the handle, engraved in white text reads the name “Fragger”. His eyes snap to Mane.
“..you didn't."
“3 stacks of diamonds. You better take good care of it.” Mane answers with a smug look.
Flame looks at the sword, then Mane before pulling Mane into a tight hug. His voice cracks quietly as he squeezes his big brother tightly. Mane hugging his cub back just as tight.
“...thank you…”
“Of course bro. You deserve it.”
Mane pulls away, patting Flame on the back. He laughs out loud when he sees Flame wiping at his eyes.
Flame picks the sword up out of the box and gives it a few swings. Feeling how it fits almost perfectly into his grip. He smirks before looking at Mane.
“Yo, we should lowkey test this out bro.”
“Oh you're on.”
“Look at them Wemmbu.” Lomedy points at the two sparing brothers from across the training grounds. Wemmbu held tight to his chest as they both watched the spar. Or if you could even call it that. It's more like a free for all.
“They look deranged.”
“ooooooaaaa-”
“See? At least someone here has some brain cells.”
“Oooooooommmmm maaaaaa-”
“...ok… which one are you talking about? You're pointing at them both right now bro.”
“woof.”
“Oh god, not you too.”
“Aaaaaaaaammmmmoooooo- AAAAAAA-”
“...my ears bro…”