Shady Hybrids AU

BOOK 3.5: Slice of Flight

The day after Justin's transformation, Cupquake is in her base, making a cake. Her eggs are at the side, already cracked, she's mixed the flour and the sugar and she's making sure she has enough milk. She's stocking up for the bakery, and she's well aware that the people of this server will be needing it. After all, with the stressed out admin and all this transformation stuff, a little cake is a lifesaver.

Surprisingly, despite how tame she is, she's been watching and has seen a lot. She's seen what Kindness has done. She's seen the rifts she's caused. Hey, she was one of the first people here! She knows that despite this being a 'retirement' server, things aren't going great.

As she's pouring the milk into the bowl, a knock on the door scares her and she nearly drops it.

"Whoops- oh, someone's at the door! Come in!"

She puts down the bucket and runs out to the main front door of the bakery, where the door has been opened by James, who is now flying in the centre of the building.

"Heya, Tiff!"

"Hey, James! How're you doing?"

"Good, good. You?"

"Nearly spilled the milk, but I'm doing alright." The two laugh a little.

"Well, you're gonna have to clean that up, huh?"

"Yep!" She dusts herself off.

"Yeah...hey, can I ask you a favour?"

"Hm? What's up?" She looks at James with curiosity.

"So, you know how Justin...turned into a phantom and all?"

"Yeah, he was really upset about it."

She thinks back to the days. He was really not coping well, and Justin is..normally quite good at that. He gets emotional though, Tiff knows that well. And that's what's been happening recently. A whole bunch of shoved down emotion coming out at once.

"Mm. Well, when I turned into a bee, he taught me how to fly! It took a while but I got used to it. That's why I'm flying now, but it's not like I can walk."

"Oh?" She's a bit confused as to where this is going.

"Well...Justin has wings now, right?"

"Yep."

"Well, I wanted to teach him how to fly. Because he taught me."

"But your wings are very different to his, no? And he's used an elytra before."

"Well, yes, I was gonna get to that. But it's so...different, flying with these. I assume his will be similar to an elytra, but still. With all the flapping business it's different."

"Ohhh...?" She's still very confused but she decides to just let James talk.

"But there's a problem."

"And what's that?"

James sighs, seeming slightly dejected.

"It's the schedule we have. You said that Think can't leave the house if it's sunny because it burns him. He can leave at night and during the rain, that's it. But I physically cannot stay awake past sunset. I will fall asleep no matter how hard I fight back." He shakes his head. "So we can't interact. Ever. Unless I visit him, but the likelihood is that we won't actually be able to fly together if thats the case."

"Ah..." Cupquake smiles sympathetically. "There must be other ways, right?"

"I was gonna get to that! I was gonna ask you..he can go under shade, right? So...I was thinking. If me and you work together on a little flying area, fully shaded of course, for the both of us...we can sort the problem out!" James beams. It's kinda sweet. "I don't want to lose that contact, and I don't want him getting sad if he can't interact with us..soo? Is it a deal?"
Cupquake doesn't need to be told twice.