Glory woke up with a slight gasp as the lightning cracked outside her treehouse. It was dark outside, but she could clearly hear the rain pounding down around her. She saw Dearhbringers eyes fly open next to her as thunder boomed. His eyes were black, but they had other beautiful colors in them too, greens and purples that made them look like galaxies. They lay next to each other, not quite touching, but close enough to feel the heat off each other's scales.

She tried to shake the feeling. But she had to give in. I'm not in love with him. Stop it, Glory, stop loving him. But she was.

Sometimes she thought he loved her, too. But she didn't want to get her hopes up, didn't want to risk losing the friendship they had. She was pulled out of her thoughts as he spoke to her.

"Glory," he said like a whisper. Her name sounded so beautiful when he said it, like wind chimes.

"Glory, why are you awake? It's the middle of the night."

"I'm listening to the rain. It sounds so beautiful," like you, she wanted to say. But she was afraid. She had always swallowed her fear, but she couldn't do this.

"All that water, pouring down at once. It's like hundreds of dragons running." He sat up and looked at her.

"Glory, I-" he stopped, screwing his eyes shut and taking a deep breath.

"Glory, I need to tell you something." Fear bolted through her. What if he knew? What if he knew she loved him, but he didn't love her back and was trying to let her down softly? What if-

"Glory I love you." He said quietly. It was like an explosion inside of her. She couldn't stop the colors, and now her scales were as bright pink as Jambu's. All this time, he had loved her. All this time.

"Me too." She said. And the space between them closed, his snout on hers. Glory was so pink she lit up the whole treehouse. Their eyes were open, they stared at each other. When they broke apart, she leaned into him, and he onto her.

"I love you," they said together, and stayed in that position until the rain stopped.