Maybe some fun found family stuff with pitaya and snapdragon?
sorry gonna put holly in there too lol
it/its snapdragon, snapdragon lore headcanons, dragontongue headcanons (i made up a few words + language rules), hollytaya if you squint really hard. this got a little bit emotional instead of silly, my bad. hope you enjoy it anyways!
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"What are you staring at me for?" Pitaya Dragon Cookie asked, ignoring the tiny dragon climbing on their head.
They had parted from Royal Margarine and Tarte Tatin upon reaching Dragon City. With their agreement to help in the upcoming war, Pitaya was following Hollyberry and Wildberry back to the Hollyberry Kingdom. She really hadn't expected to return with one dragon, let alone two.
"Nothing, I just- I never took you for the parental type," Hollyberry finally said, watching Pitaya scramble to catch Snapdragon when it fell, babbling happily.
"Parental type? Is that some kind of cookie concept I don't know about?" Pitaya asked, but they apparently weren't really looking for an answer as they turned their attention down to the dragonet in their arms. It babbled something in dragontongue, and they responded in dragontongue as well, the words clearly gleeful despite her inability to understand them.
"Yes," Hollyberry said awkwardly, turning her gaze to Wildberry. He gave her an impassive look, but she was good at reading the little twitches of expression in his face. She dug this hole for herself, he was saying, don't drag him into it.
Snapdragon babbled behind her, and Pitaya laughed.
"Parenting is when an older cookie, or more, takes care of a younger cookie with the intention of helping them grow up into an older cookie," Hollyberry explained, awkward and stilted, and realized she hadn't really been a very good parent herself. "With how well you're getting along with that little fella, we'd call cookies like that the parenting type."
"Well, there's only one problem with that," Pitaya said, finally looking up at Hollyberry. The depths of their eyes would never cease to astound her. "Neither of us are cookies, and Snapdragon and I are around the same age."
"Bwuh- huh?" Hollyberry said, elegantly. Even Wildberry looked confused, as much as he was attempting to avoid engaging in the conversation. "But it- How? Didn't it just hatch?"
"That's also two problems," Wildberry muttered, and was promptly ignored.
Snapdragon babbled again, little paws batting at a lock of Pitaya's hair draped over their shoulder from the rest of their mane. Pitaya shrugged, and let the little dragon do what it liked. "Yes," they answered Hollyberry, "it did. But it has been conscious for... about as long as I have existed. Its egg was laid in ancient times, back when I was still a little dragon myself!"
"Daond ahor?" Snapdragon asked, blinking up at the other dragon as cutely as it could manage. Pitaya laughed.
"Needy little thing," they cooed, petting Snapdragon's head. The little dragon babbled happily at the attention.
Hollyberry was still reeling, but if she didn't think about it too hard, she could somewhat wrap her head around it. "I still think it counts," she said, gazing at the two dragons. "Even if it is near in age to you, it still just hatched, and it certainly still needs guidance. You could be its parent."
"Eghk," Pitaya voiced their discomfort, looking down at Snapdragon. They held the little dragon away from themself, giving it a scrutinizing look. "Cookie family. What do you think?"
"Clann!" it shouted, dissolving into a fit of giggles. Curiously, the look of disgust had faded from Pitaya's face, replaced by something indescribably soft.
"Okay," Pitaya said softly. Hollyberry resisted the urge to double-take; she'd never heard them speak so quietly before, and they continued speaking in a murmur. "T'ihn clann wyit, tilt'hend."
Snapdragon squealed. "Tilt'hend!"
The Berry Forest came into view, but they didn't continue their conversation until they'd returned to the Hollyberry Kingdom. News of their victories had already spread, and they were greeted back as heroes, even with Pitaya among them. Immediately, there was a grand celebration; Hollyberrians were nothing if not expert party planners.
The night approached quickly, and they gradually retired from the celebration. As the Queen Mother of the realm, Hollyberry had a room set aside for her draconic guests. This didn't happen to matter much to Pitaya however, as they let themself into her chambers and threw their entire weight onto her bed with a groan in the early hours of the morning.
"Finally," they complained, laying face down. Hollyberry promptly set aside her book and glass of wine. "I just convinced Snapdragon to try to sleep. It's been in that egg for so long it didn't want to, and with all the excitement, it was so wound up..."
"Parenting troubles?" Hollyberry teased in amusement. Pitaya gave another groan, pulling themself up slightly to rest their face on their arms.
"Yes-" they started to complain again, but stopped short. Lifting their head a bit more, they fixed her with a slit-eyed glare. "Clann is not 'parenting troubles'."
Hollyberry laughed. "Seems a lot like it to me."
Pitaya rolled their eyes, muttering. "Of course, as a cookie, you wouldn't understand. Clann is like... a pack bond. To use cookie terms, it's a family you choose, where all within it are valued as equal, whether partner or blood or neither."
"Snapdragon asked you to be clan," Hollyberry realized, trying her best approximation of the dragontongue word. Pitaya nodded with a shrug.
"Yes, it did. Snapdragon is..." Pitaya trailed off, seemingly realizing something. They sat up now, wings flapping slightly in their scramble. "Dammit Hollyberry, this is parenting troubles!"
She laughed at them. She couldn't help it, and their distraught expression only made her laugh more.
"What are you laughing for?" they demanded, a slightly desperate look on their face. "Stop that, this is serious! I've never had a child before!"
"Oh, I'm sorry my friend," Hollyberry said through snorts of laughter, "I'm afraid I'm just finding all of this quite amusing."
"You've had children, right?" Pitaya asked, and the wisps of lingering desperation in their tone nearly set her off again. She managed to calm herself. The dragon cookie perched at the foot of her bed looked so genuine.
"Yes. Only one though," she answered, her laughter fading away. As she thought about her son, her smile fell away as well. She really hadn't been a very good parent to her son at all. It was one of the things in her past that she regretted the most. "Truth be told, I wasn't very good at the whole parenting thing. I'm afraid I won't be of much help if you're looking to ask me for advice."
Pitaya deflated, slumping back down on the bed and stretching out like a cat. "Ugh," they muttered, "I just don't want to mess this up. Snapdragon's been unhatched for so long and I've been without clann for so long-"
"Hey, none of that now," Hollyberry admonished them, her voice soft despite that. "You're the Greenish-Red dragon! Besides that, I can tell you already care a lot about it. So long as it knows you care, and keep caring about it, I think that's all you need. I wasn't very good about either of those things with my son, and its something I regret quite a bit."
Pitaya gave her a scrutinizing look. She met their gaze, unflinching at the depth of their slit-pupils and the black of their sclera. After a long moment, they sighed, and rolled themself off her bed.
"I'd better go check on it," they muttered, but they sounded better now. Less desperate.
"Have a good night, Pitaya," Hollyberry called after them, watching as they paused at the door.
"I never said this," Pitaya said, their hand on the doorknob and not turning around, "but thank you, Hollyberry. I feel better about Snapdragon, now."
"You're quite welcome," she responded with a smile. Pitaya huffed out a laugh, turned the knob, and left her chambers.
She had no doubt they would be good for the little rascal.
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