Tangelo's First Kiss

BY KITTY, FOR AVI
When Tangelo walked into the GASP/Techwatch joint consortium dance, he had no idea what was in store for him. He sure wasn’t expecting to get kissed by a total stranger. He sure as heck wasn’t expecting to be chased out of the building by a knife-wielding assailant.
But he got both anyway.
Oh, wait. Rewind. If I’m going to tell you the grand tale of how exactly our poor Tangelo got himself into such a Moons-awful mess, I’d better at the beginning.
Let’s see…
I suppose it all started with Phi.
Oh, don’t fret, the little NightWing in the wheelchair wasn’t the one doing the kissing. Or the knife-wielding - though I must admit that she would cut a terrifying figure with a carving knife in each paw and murder in her eyes. No, sadly, that role isn’t for her to play - it’s reserved for a certain… other… dragon tonight.
Who is this other dragon, you ask? Shh, I won’t tell. That’s for you to find out… eventually.
***
When Tangelo entered the ballroom, the first he did was to trip, fall down the staircase and land - SPLASH - in the punch bowl.
The purple punch cushioned his fall a little - it was a very large bowl indeed - but all in all it was a very painful and embarrassing experience. And not really the way you want to make your entrance at a formal dance.
Everyone turned around to gawk - and I mean everyone. Even the string quartet in the corner stopped playing for a moment to take in the sight of Tangelo, sprawled wings-up in the giant bowl of grape punch.
Once he had dug the lemon wheels out of his eyes, he looked up. There, at the top of the stairwell, was a large, fat gray cat - the cat that he had tripped over. It blinked at him, beady yellow eyes sharp and accusative. This is all your fault, the cat seemed to say, flattening its ears. And then it curled right back up into a ball and continued its nap as if nothing had happened.
Tangelo sighed and picked himself up out of the bowl, shaking drops of grape juice out of his wings. His clothes were ruined, for sure - it felt like they had absorbed five pounds of dark purple punch. He was purple from head to foot. But he had hardly rolled out of the bowl when a shriek tore through the music of the string quartet.
“HOW DARE YOU?” 
He whipped around. There, at the top of the staircase, was a petite NightWing dragoness in a wheelchair. She was snappily dressed in a black pantsuit with a blue collared shirt, but her eyes glittered with the cold light of murder. With one lunge she scooped up the fat gray cat, which mewled pitifully and buried its face in her wings.
A little sticker nametag at the NightWing’s shoulder read “Hi! My name is Phi!”
Which was a pretty nifty rhyme, but it hardly seemed like the time to point that out.
Phi the NightWing cuddled the cat close, holding it almost like one would hold a crying newborn dragonet. She narrowed her eyes at Tangelo, as if he had committed some deadly sin, and wheeled away, still cradling the cat. One last glare - and then she turned the corner and was gone.
“Sorry about that,” laughed a voice from behind Tangelo. He turned around, a little startled. A dark blue male SeaWing was making his way towards Tangelo through the crowd, a drink in his paw and his face alight in a gamine smile. His name tag read - Cobalt. The SeaWing extended a paw to help him up, grinning all the while - Tangelo could not be entirely sure whether Cobalt’s humor was in sympathy or at his expense.
Still, he had bigger problems to worry about.
He stood and cried out in pain when he tried to put weight on his left hind ankle. Although he had barely felt it earlier, the pain came full force. He must have sprained it when he fell down the staircase. “My ankle…”
Cobalt’s smile faded a little, to be replaced by an expression of mild concern. “Are you alright?” he asked. “Can you stand up?”
“I… I don’t think so,” Tangelo grimaced, holding his injured hindleg. Of all the rotten luck! Now, not only was he dripping wet, stained purple, and embarrassed, he was also dragging a busted ankle. Insult to injury - quite literally.
His SeaWing companion pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes, and Tangelo got the impression that he was thinking hard. “Wait right here,” the SeaWing instructed. “I have an idea.”
He disappeared into the crowd for no more than minute, then came back, wheeling a chair in front of him. “Here, you can use this for now,” Cobalt suggested, parking the chair in front of him. “It’s one of Phi’s extras. This way, you can still enjoy the party.”
“Does Phi know that I’m borrowing this?” Tangelo asked warily. That little Nightwing had already yelled at him once tonight - he didn’t want a repeat performance.
Cobalt’s smile got wider, if that was even possible. “Maybe, maybe not,” he laughed. “What Phi doesn’t know won’t hurt her.”
Tangelo didn’t feel like he was going to enjoy the party - not after this rough start. But still, a wheelchair was better than hobbling around and wincing in pain with each step. “Okay, erm… thanks,” he said, sitting down. Even though it was built for a dragon a little smaller than him, it was not uncomfortable.
Cobalt grinned some more and snapped a salute. “No problem,” he smirked. “Just find a bathroom and clean yourself up as soon as you can. You’re so purple, you look like a NightWing.”
Then he turned on his heel and disappeared into the crowd.
Alone once more, Tangelo resolved to take Cobalt’s advice to heart and find himself a bathroom. Looking down at his scales, he saw that his once bright tangelo orange color was now a dusky mauve, stained violet by the punch. He shuddered in disgust and picked up speed, pushing his way through the crowd. Ugh, what would Adriana say if she saw him like this? She’d kick him out of Techwatch faster than he could say “Three Moons.”
Where was the bathroom, anyway?
Tangelo found himself on the outskirts of the main ballroom and headed down a side corridor, hoping to find a bathroom somewhere. The halls got darker, and soon he was alone, the music and noise of the party no more than an echo far behind him.
It got so dark that Tangelo could barely see his own paw out in front of him. He had been nursing a bad feeling in his gut for the last few hallways, but now he was pretty dead sure that this wasn’t the way to the public lavatory.
What’s more, he was lost.
He tried to double back the way he had come, but somehow all the hallways looked exactly the same. The noise of the party was far behind him now, barely audible. He tried a hallway, hit a dead end, doubled back, hit another dead end.
What a night. He was about ready to scream in frustration.
Just as he was drawing breath to call for help, the silence of the halls around him was broken by footsteps coming his way. Tangelo sighed in relief, turning around as another dragon came down the hall towards him.
“Hey, am I glad to see you!” he exclaimed, turning around. The footsteps were drawing nearer - the other dragon was coming down the hall straight towards him. “Um, can you tell me where the b-“
His words were cut off quite abruptly, as the other dragon kissed him full on the mouth.
And it was right around that point was when Tangelo’s life got really interesting for the next few minutes. Looking back, he could only remember certain vivid snapshots of it. To save us all some time, I’ve condensed his observations into bullet points.
*The dragon was a good kisser
*A VERY good kisser
*A VERY VERY good kisser
He didn’t remember much else.
Soon - a little too soon - the lights flickered on. Tangelo and the strange other dragon broke free of each other, surprised and each a little breathless. And finally, Tangelo got a good look at the dragon in front of him.
He - and yes, it was a he - was a NightWing dragon, with dark violet scales and startled eyes. A total stranger. The other dragon was staring at Tangelo, his face beginning to fade into a frown - it was almost as if he had been expecting someone else, someone who looked a lot like how Tangelo did at the moment.
His dark tuxedo was punctuated by yet another name tag. “Hi,” it read. “My name is Atomplitter.”
Atomsplitter.
And it was just about then that Tangelo realized that he was in a lot of trouble.
“Exactly WHAT is going on here?” a shrill voice broke in.
Tangelo and Atomsplitter both whirled around. A slender NightWing dragoness with amber eyes was standing in the doorway, having just turned the lights on. Now she glared down at Atomsplitter and Tangelo, her eyes filled with barely suppressed fury.
Soulbreaker.
Oh Moons, Tangelo thought feverishly. I’m a dead dragon.
Soulbreaker stepped closer to him, each step slow and purposeful, and it took every ounce of courage Tangelo possessed not to turn tail and bolt. She came closer and closer to him, her eyes menacing, and Tangelo leaned away. And she whispered in his ear:
“Run.”
Tangelo ran, his broken ankle all but forgotten.
And the rest, so they say, is history.
Category:Fanfictions (Completed)
Category:Fanfictions
Category:Fanfictions (Fanon)
Category:Content (Kittyluvver)