Dragonpool: Friendship is Violence

Ocellus trotted through the halls, her levitated bouquet of roses in aura. Her hoofsteps echoed lightly throughout the quiet hallway, and it was afternoon bordering on evening time, so the halls were generally pretty silent.

"Watch'a got there?"

Ocellus squealed, coming to a nearly skidding halt as she heard an familiar, sinnocent voice. Knowing full well what was about to happen next, she quickly hid the curious item behind her.

Silverstream hovered over to her, still looking mischievously inquisitive, so Ocellus sighed, bringing the wrapped flowers from behind her back. The griff smugged, twiddling her claws together as if she were about to do something wickedly evil.

"I-It's not that serious," Ocellus tried, hanging her head and hiding her face down in the small patch of roses before her. She didn't even need to look up to see that Silverstream remained undeterred.

"Who's the lucky guy," she asked, and Ocellus could hear the smile in her voice. She shook her head, daring to look up and face her floating friend.

"Y-You wouldn't believe me."

Silverstream scoffed, "No way I wouldn't believe you! You're my friend, Ocellus! I'd believe anything you said, even if you didn't believe yourself!"

"I-It's..."

Another door opened, not giving Ocellus the chance to finish.

"What's up," Smolder asked, leaning awkwardly against the wall outside their dormitory.

Ocellus sighed in relief, happy that the dragon bailed her out of any explanation. She bit her lip in realization that the dragon just asked her a question as well, and Silverstream wasn't going to quit prying.

Sighing, she said, "Someone gave me flowers today- look, it's nothing, you guys."

Silverstream scoffed, her tail swaying in time with Ocellus' increasing heart rate. "Oh, yes it is! You know it!"

Ocellus blanched, stepping back from the two and preparing to flee by all means necessary. Her wings buzzed when Smolder stepped in.

"Leave her be, Silver," she sighed, clearly understanding the bug didn't want to talk at the moment. Silverstream pouted, crossing her arms.

"B-But... b-but Ocellus..."

Smolder huffed, "Ocellus doesn't want to talk, okay? We'll talk later, but only if she's comfortable." She looked over to their bug friend in question, giving her a small nod of reassurance. Ocellus smiled gratefully.

"Okay...." The hippogriff frowned, hovering back into her dorm with an expression Ocellus couldn't place. Still, she saw Smolder open the door to theirs, calmly letting her in.

The changeling didn't bother hiding the flowers this time, knowing that Smolder probably already saw them as she walked into the hall before.

"Listen, if you don't wanna talk about it, that's okay."

Ocellus blinked as she unwrapped the flowers, sticking them into a vase freshly filled with water. Smolder batted an amused eye at the flower vase as her friend sat them down at their study desk. With a small flap of her wings, she hovered up to her bunk and sat with her legs hanging over the foot of the bed.

"No, I wanna talk about it. You seem quite interested anyway," Ocellus grunted, narrowing her eyes at the dragon sitting above her. Smolder looked away.

"No! Never, I just... I mean... yeah..."

Ocellus huffed, taking in deep breaths and deciding to spill. Everything.

"You know that creature I told you about earlier?"

Smolder swung her legs a bit, nodding and tilting her head forward for Ocellus to continue. "Totally."

The changedling continued, plopping herself down on the carpet. "...And how I wanted to get some fresh air earlier today, too?" She paused, looking up at her draconic friend as she nodded again, prompting her to go on. Still, Ocellus stood up and began to pace around. "So," she sighed, "I was on the roof today, and then I saw the creature, and they-"

Smolder smiled fondly, already seeing how this played out. "...Gave you a bouquet of roses?"

"If I see 'bouqet of roses' one more time in this chapter, I'm gonna fucking explode."

Ocellus' eyes widened as she turned back to Smolder, her hooves practically burning holes in the floor below her. She had gotten that from the dragon. "R-Right... Yes. H-How'd you know?"

Smolder's smile turned into a wide smirk as she said, "You're pretty predictable when it comes to this lovey-dovey gunk."

"It's not lovey-dovey," Ocellus hissed, her cheeks burning in an endless sea of cherry red. "I-It's romanticism..."

Smolder chuckled, "Yeah, good luck with that."

Ocellus sighed in frustration, making her way over to the study desk again. She sat down in the chair and glanced up at the flower vase. Sighing, she rested her chin in her hooves.

Smolder didn’t get it.