When Arro repeatedly fails to contact their mate, Rangavar needs to take things into his own paws. Although he also has to deal with work, which has been getting worse and worse for him lately.
Arro worries about his ongoing stress eating, and is pretty sure he could reverse his weight gain with a strict diet. Yeah. Sure. Definitely. If only it had worked the other hundred times...

I wanted to upload this sooner but there was a paragraph I was mad at
CW for intense drama lol

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Chapter 16


Rangavar picked a quiet bench where he could sit and focus on his wristband for a moment. Fortunately, it was a nice day out. He didn’t want to make this call inside the house, where Arro might barge in. Or overhear.

He pulled up his contacts. There were only a few. He pressed the new icon.

Jade’s icon.

Then he sat back and listened. It took a long while for anything to happen, but he was persistent; he knew she’d either have to reject the call or pick up eventually. He pricked his ears when he finally heard the line open.

“Hello?” It was Jade’s voice.

Rangavar took a deep breath, getting ready to speak.

“Hello? Who is this?”

He let his breath out through his nose. “Hi, Jade?”

“Yes?”

“It’s Rangavar.”

Silence.

Rangavar wondered if he’d already fucked up. She could just hang up on him if she wanted to. He wouldn’t even get to explain himself.

“…Rangavar..?”

He drew his wings in more tightly and curled his tail around his ankles. Everything felt more cold suddenly. “I… I know I’m not supposed to contact you,” he began. “I don’t—”

“I’m sorry, I can’t do this,” Jade’s voice said through the band.

“I just, please let me—”

“I don’t even know how you got this number. I didn’t want you to contact me. I thought I made that clear when you left.”

“I got the number from Arro,” he said quickly.

There was silence for a moment. “Arro?”

It wasn’t exactly how he’d pictured the conversation going. But there was no going back. “We’ve, uh…” He wondered where to even start. “I told him to tell you, and I thought that he told you months ago, and I only found out recently that he didn’t. So I told him I’d call you if he didn’t, and he said he would, but then didn’t again. So now I’m calling—”

“Tell me what? How did you run into Arro?” Great. She sounded upset. “You two only met one time when you came to see me before we, uh… split ways.”

“We’re companions,” he blurted.

There was more silence. This time it was longer.

Finally, Rangavar said, “I told him that if he didn’t tell you, I would. You, uh, needed to know. You deserve to know.”

Still silence.

“Jade? Hello?”

“So you’re Arro’s companion?”

Rangavar rubbed the side of his face and stifled a groan. This was hard. Dammit, Arro. “Yeah. He was supposed to tell you.”

“I… see.”

This time, the silence dragged on long enough that he wondered if she’d hung up. He tried to picture what she might be doing, but wasn’t sure. Would she be angry? Throwing things? Would she be crying? Maybe she was just feeling confused. That would make just as much sense; it was a pretty odd situation.

“Rangavar?”

He startled. “Yeah?”

“What’s yours and Arro’s address?”

Confused, he slowly rattled it off to her. He supposed she might just be testing to see if he really did live at the same address as Arro, since it made sense she’d already have it. Still, he asked, “Why?”

“To compare it to the one Arro gave me,” she admitted. So he’d been right. “And he and I have to have a talk.”

Rangavar nodded before remembering she couldn’t see it. “Yeah…” He took a deep breath. “I just, I know you didn’t want to hear from me, but I had to let you know.”

“Thank you.”

There was nothing passive aggressive about her voice or anything, so he nodded again. Wait. She still couldn’t see him. “Sure. Uh, go easy on him though?” he said more tentatively. “I already talked to him. He feels awful.”

“Oh, it’s a conversation he can be prepared for. You can tell him it’s coming.”

The longer the conversation went on, the guiltier Rangavar felt. He tried to push it away. Arro had done all of this himself.

“I’m sure you’ll end up being there, too.”

“I don’t have to butt in.” He frowned at his wristband. “I’m not— I know what goes on between you isn’t my business.”

“Technically, I think it is, now.”

He thought about that. He supposed it was true, in a sense.

“This is a conversation I think you probably should be there for.”

“Well if that’s the case, do you want to know when we’ll next be home at the same time?” he offered.

“No need. I’ll find you either way. I’m on my way to Karraden.”

She hung up.

Rangavar stared down at his wristband in shock. He spent a few moments processing their conversation before he tried to call her back. She ignored it, of course. He had a feeling she wasn’t about to pick up any future calls either.

He put his head in his paw. Fuck.


When Arro came home, Rangavar had no idea what to say to him. Not because he hadn’t been thinking about it all day long. He just happened to be paralyzed with indecision; there was no ‘good’ way to deliver his information.

Arro already seemed a little tense for whatever reason, which certainly didn’t help.

“Hey. How’d your day off go?”

Rangavar turned away from what he’d been doing at the counter, leaning back on it. “Not great, honestly. I have something to tell you.”

He supposed Arro could see from his face that it wasn’t a good thing. “Okay?”

Rangavar sighed and looked away. “I called Jade.”

He felt Arro become very, very still. He was silent a long moment as he stared at him. Rangavar didn’t glance back.

“You… you did? Already?”

“You were supposed to call her already,” Rangavar pointed out.

Arro pressed his chubby index fingers together. “I know, but…”

“But you didn’t think I’d actually do anything?” Now Rangavar pierced him with his stare. “You really think I’m that useless?”

“What? No, I—” Arro was cut off as Rangavar headed for the living room. Not that it entailed walking very far, since for the most part, the bottom floor was an open plan. He could feel Arro start following, but didn’t turn back around, instead dropping tiredly to the couch.

Without looking up at him, he heard Arro take a deep breath and start over. “I just… that was fast.”

“I told you I was going to do something and followed through with it.” Rangavar hoped his tone said what he wouldn’t.

Arro seemed to get the hint. Rangavar saw him out the corner of his eye holding his forehead, looking adequately distraught. “Look, I’m sorr—”

“She’s coming to Karraden.”

Arro looked at him for a long moment. “Huh?”

“When I told her what was going on. She said she wanted to talk to us about it. Which is understandable,” Rangavar grimaced, leaning back on the couch slightly, finally looking up at Arro’s face. Arro looked concerned. Rangavar could sense he was feeling much more than that. “Then she said she was coming here in person.”

Now Arro had the same ‘oh shit’ look that Rangavar had earlier. “But… why?”

The much smaller dragon shrugged. “Dunno.”

Arro turned away, rubbing his face, letting out a long groan. “Fuck.”

Rangavar stared away at nothing. “Fuck,” he agreed.

“What does she want to say in person that she couldn’t just call us about?” Arro went to the counter and began digging out some boxes from underneath. Ah, yes, here came the stress-eating. Rangavar watched from the couch.

For a long moment, he didn’t say anything. He didn’t know what to say. Well, there was one thing. “Maybe if you’d told her back when it started, we could have avoided—”

“Seriously?” Arro threw up his paws. “Yeah, I fucked up, but right now does that even matter?” He spun around and grabbed a box of donuts off the counter. His favorite. His belly bounced heavily as he turned, a testament to that. “You think if we told her a year ago, she would have reacted differently?”

“I mean… yes? She’d probably be less angry.”

Arro groaned again, popped open the box, and shoved one of the donuts in whole. “Guess we’ll never know.” For a moment, it filled his pudgy cheeks. Then he chewed and swallowed. Automatically popped another donut in his mouth.

Rangavar just looked away again. He didn’t want to look anywhere.

He heard Arro rustling around in the box for the next donut already. The Faerian spoke around a full mouth. “Well when she gets here, we’ll be ready. We’ll explain ourselves and she’ll understand.”

“I hope so.” Rangavar sank back farther into the couch. “I really do.”



The next morning, Arro was in the middle of frowning at the mirror in the shower room when he heard Rangavar start to stir upstairs. He knew that meant he should hurry up his routine a bit, but he supposed the dark gray dragon would just have to wait.

The obese Faerian in the mirror was mocking him, staring back with its round, pudgy cheeks and drooping belly. He gave the belly a little slap, watching the force ripple through the fat. When he pressed his fingers against it, they sank pretty far into the tub of lard. He wasn’t entirely sure how this had happened. Well, he certainly KNEW, obviously, but he hadn’t always been this size. He’d always been ‘fat’, but he certainly hadn’t been this fat when he’d come to Karraden.

Would Jade even recognize him?

He shook his head. That was a stupid thought; of course she would. He was just being dramatic at the sight of the thick ring of fat around his neck, and his middle, and… everywhere else.

He turned sideways to inspect how far his belly hung off his frontside, and wasn’t surprised to see how heavy the collection of blubber looked on his figure, too big around for him to hold all of it in his pudgy arms. When he tried, he got his fingers near the overhang closer to his sides, while the rest overflowed into the generous bulge of blubber on front. All of his working out at the gym meant little in the face of the food he stuffed himself with, the two contradictory activities constantly at war. He knew in the back of his mind that a strict diet would help, but… well… in the past, he’d met with enough failures to be put off by the idea.

He turned to the other side—and Rangavar was in the doorway, watching quietly while rubbing sleep from his eyes. Arro startled. “I, uh.” He felt a blush creep onto his cheeks. He didn’t need the mirror to know it was there. “I was about to shower.”

“Sorry. Take your time,” the other dragon yawned.

Before he’d fully turned out the door, Arro stopped him. “Rangavar?”

Rangavar leaned on the doorframe. “Yeah?”

“How…” Arro wasn’t even sure what to really ask. “How long do we have until Jade gets here?”

“I mean…” Rangavar looked away. “I guess that depends on when she leaves and the type of ship she takes. A few weeks, maybe? Unless ships got faster in the few centuries I was stuck on Glitara.”

Arro shrugged, the pudge on his shoulders bunching up. He couldn’t remember if ships had changed in the last few centuries. Probably not. “Alright.”

When Arro was done, they traded places in the bathroom and he heard the shower turn on. If Jade made good on her promise to come to Karraden and took a few weeks to arrive, he supposed he would get to spend plenty of time stressing over it. Apparently, stressing over Zark’s recent behavior hadn’t been enough for him. Life needed to keep beating him over the head.

He went to the cabinets, poked around a bit, and eventually placed a large box of cinnamon buns on the counter. He always had pastries of various kinds tucked away in the kitchen. It wasn’t that the kitchen wasn’t packed with other food—he would know—but he just loved pastries. Couldn’t get enough of them.

Rangavar came out a short while later, the thick fur on his wings standing up in places. He was the one that had to go to work this morning. When he came into the kitchen to grab a piece of fruit out of the cabinet, Arro tried to use his much thicker claws to comb some of the tousled patches out of Rangavar’s fur. He almost thought the Darkal would reject the help, but Rangavar reluctantly let him.

“I hope you have a good day at work.” Arro couldn’t think of anything else to say, but felt like he couldn’t just say nothing.

Rangavar nodded distractedly, almost like he was affirming something to himself. “I’ll try. And you too.”

Since Arro had the afternoon shift, they would barely cross paths until they both ended up home tonight. “I’ll try too, then,” Arro promised. Although the ‘Zark dilemma’ lurked at the back of his mind.

If Rangavar picked up on it, he didn’t say anything. Or maybe he didn’t want to bother; Arro feeling anxious wasn’t glaringly unusual. The smaller dragon gave another brief nod as he turned away and left through the front door.

Arro stared after him before trying to decide how he’d spend his own morning. He wasn’t sure yet. He figured it would probably involve food.



Roughly three weeks later, a layer of frost coated the ground outside, and the wind rang hollowly through the leafless trees. By comparison, the inside of the research facility felt closed off and cozy, even despite the stale air and stark, plain hallways. Most everyone was working indoors this time of year, including security, which Rangavar was relieved about. Taking on more duties downstairs hadn’t excused him from his original job, but he’d definitely prefer being an indoor security guard over an outdoor one in this weather.

He’d almost finished changing into his uniform when Zark appeared in the locker room. Rangavar sighed. He figured it would be too weird to take his whole uniform back off at the sight of him, so he finished buttoning his jacket as the Faerian got to work on his own uniform behind him. He would just change back out of it when he got downstairs. He didn’t need it down there for the sort of activities the female Glitarian Darkal usually required.

He quickly passed the black Faerian on his way out, who was taking forever trying to pull his pants over the pot belly that had been gradually forming on his frame. Rangavar had a flashback to catching him gorging donuts by himself in the park over a month ago. Maybe he was going through some shit. Rangavar supposed it didn’t matter, because he didn’t really care.

“The hell are you looking at?” Zark half-growled, half-grunted, as he gave another tug on his pants.

Rangavar realized he’d cast him a bit of an odd stare as he’d walked past, so he supposed the question was fair. “Nothing.”

Zark gave up on the pants for a second to glare at him. “Keep walking, then.”

“I… I was going to. I was trying to, before you stopped me.” Rangavar couldn’t win with this guy.

Zark’s snout wrinkled with disgust. Rangavar decided that continuing the conversation—if it could be called that—would serve absolutely no purpose, and didn’t look back as he dipped out the door.

He was halfway down the hallway outside when he realized that he didn’t know what to actually do with his work uniform even once he got downstairs. Fold it neatly into a storage closet? He hadn’t thought it through.

He slowed slightly. Vaugh dammit. He supposed he could ask some of the dragons in the labs downstairs to hold onto it for him or something, but… well, he still hadn’t exactly made any friends down there. Especially not after the Glitarian Darkal had singled him out to make an example of. He was pretty sure no one wanted to be associated with him, even if everyone was too polite to say so out loud.

As he stood frozen in place with indecision, he felt a familiar aura coming up behind him again from the locker room and stifled a groan. Although, he supposed if Zark and everyone else in the locker room finally left for their tasks, he could just slip back in and take off his uniform anywa—

“What are you still doing here?”

Rangavar turned towards the angry growl to see Zark headed directly towards him. He let out a long sigh. Couldn’t the Faerian just walk on by? “I work here,” he said sarcastically. He crossed his arms. He wasn’t really in the mood for this.

“You’re not funny.” Zark was puffing slightly as he finally reached the slightly shorter Darkal. The waistband digging into his soft, padded body looked painful. It wasn’t really a mystery why he was having trouble breathing. “Aren’t you supposed to be leaving me alone? I’ve noticed you hiding the past couple of weeks. You were doing a good job.” He smirked. “I don’t know why you don’t just quit already. I’m surprised to see they’re even still letting you work here.”

Rangavar wondered if Zark would ever find out who ran the place.

He sighed. “Look. I know you’re probably just in a bad mood today because you’ve outgrown your pants or whatever, but—”

“Are you making fun of me?” Zark growled. He jabbed a finger at Rangavar’s chest. Since Rangavar had been standing near the wall out of everyone’s way, he didn’t have anywhere to move, and just had to stand there and let him. “You know,” he glared down at the shorter dragon, “thousands of years ago, I could have owned you as a pet, and now you think you get to be rude?”

Rangavar bristled. Around them in the hallway, they’d also begun to attract some not-so-discreet stares from others who had paused to watch. He was quickly tiring of this. “Less than that ago, it could have been the other way around,” he snapped. “I don’t see your point.”

Zark seemed genuinely taken aback for a second, but then grabbed Rangavar by the collar of his jacket with both fists and slammed him against the wall behind him, all his teeth bared. “How dare—”

He was suddenly being dragged off the Darkal by several of the other Faerians in the hallway nearby.

“Hey, dude, chill,” a larger gray male growled as he took hold of Zark’s arm and yanked him back. Rangavar didn’t know him, but felt grateful. “Leave him alone.”

Another dragon had put a paw on Zark’s opposite shoulder, although he didn’t say anything out loud. Rangavar didn’t know him either.

Zark shook them both off and turned towards them, as well as the small collection of onlookers that had slowed while passing in the hallway to see what was going on. “Why are you defending him??”

“Why are you being so mean to him?” the other dragon retorted, crossing his arms. He wasn’t wearing a security uniform; he looked like he probably worked in one of the labs.

“It doesn’t matter. He’s just a Darkal,” Zark growled. “He probably doesn’t even understand half of what we’re saying.”

“I just don’t understand why you won’t leave me alone.” Rangavar tried to sound assertive, but wasn’t sure it was working. He realized he was genuinely intimidated by Zark, for some reason. Not necessarily because the chubby Faerian was larger than him, but he just had this… intensity.

Before Zark could say anything else, the other dragon interrupted, “I suggest you just get out of here, before you’re reported.”

“Reported?” Zark looked absolutely incredulous at the thought. “Are you trying to threaten me?”

The other dragon narrowed his eyes. “Do you mean, will I follow through? I could if I wanted to. There’s like a dozen witnesses here.”

It was true enough; plenty of people were walking on by, but a few others looked ready to step in and help. Rangavar kind of wished everyone would just walk on by. He wished this wasn’t happening at all.

Zark gestured around at the onlookers. “This is just stupid,” he growled. “This place is full of Darkal fuckers and shitheads.”

“I’m pretty sure that first insult was banned hundreds of years ago. And probably counts as hate-speech.” The larger gray dragon was beginning to look amused. “Anything else I should add to the report?”

“Ugh. Out of my way.” Zark growled wordlessly as he brushed by the larger dragon and finally stormed off, the small crowd that had gathered expanding to let him through. “Stay away from me,” he growled back at Rangavar briefly before disappearing down the hall.

“Hey, uh, do you want to go file a report? I can come with you. I wasn’t making that up or anything,” the gray Faerian offered. “My name’s Jax.”

“That’s, um.” Rangavar didn’t really care what he did next as long as everyone currently in the hallway stopped staring at him. Although the tension had shattered, there were dragons in the hall still casually standing around. “That’s alright. I mean, that’s very kind of you, Jax,” he amended awkwardly, “but it’s okay.”

“Do you want someone to get a supervisor?” a pink-scaled Faerian asked from his left. Her scales were slightly more pale than Arro’s.

“I’m all set. It’s okay.” Rangavar wondered if he were saying it more for himself than for everyone else. “I’m okay.” He felt unbearably warm. He was immensely grateful, but he didn’t like having so many eyes on him after getting essentially humiliated in public. “I just—I’m just going to go.” He took a deep breath. “I’m going to let it go.” He muttered the last words more quietly, more to himself.

The several Faerians who’d been helping him looked around at each other and nodded, like they weren’t convinced, but would back off. He stood up a bit straighter and brushed off his jacket, trying to look fine. Trying to feel fine. “I appreciate it.”

He was mostly just relieved when the last few people in the hallway returned to their tasks and he could dart back into the locker room to remove his uniform before heading downstairs. What he really wanted was to just go home. Although he knew that the Darkal in charge downstairs always had very different plans for him.



When he got home that night, he tossed his keys onto the kitchen counter. He didn’t even want to focus on disappearing th¬em with magic. It was a waste of energy. Everything was a waste of energy. Today was a waste of¬—

“What’s wrong?” Arro’s gentle concern snapped him out of his spiraling thoughts. The Faerian set his gaming controller on the coffee table and leaned back on the couch, his paunch spreading more freely across his lap.

Rangavar went straight to the couch, flopped down next to Arro, and groaned. “Today sucked.”

Wrapping an arm around Rangavar’s shoulders, Arro pulled him close. The large Faerian felt like a furnace after Rangavar’s walk to their house through the cold outside. “Want to talk about it?”

“Just…” Rangavar groped around for words, but couldn’t find any that would adequately explain the problem. “It’s really hard to describe. It’s a, uh. It’s a… Darkal, thing.”

Arro raised a brow. “There are ‘Darkal things’?” He put a paw on his chin. “What, like you missed out on your light morning run?” he teased.

Rangavar groaned and buried his face in the soft folds of Arro’s side. “Never mind. You wouldn’t get it.” His words sounded muffled by the soft flab.

“Hey, I’m—I’m sorry. I wasn’t making fun.” Arro tucked a claw under Rangavar’s chin and lifted his head. “What’s wrong? What’s really wrong, I mean.”

“It’s just… ugh.” Rangavar pushed Arro’s chubby finger away and turned slightly so that he could stretch his legs up on the couch. “There’s this guy who’s just… mean to me, all the time. I ran into him again today.”

Arro frowned. “Why?”

“Why he’s an ass, or why’d we run into each other?”

“I mean—I just mean, like, what did he do?”

Rangavar sighed. “He just… he hates Darkals. It’s dumb.”

Arro radiated confusion. “Why would anyone hate Darkals?”

“Because of bullshit that happened thousands of years ago.” Rangavar finally picked up his head. “Did you ever learn history in school? Sometimes it really seems like they never taught it.”

The fat Faerian blushed. “I, uh. It wasn’t my best subject,” he admitted. He rubbed Rangavar’s shoulder and gave it a little squeeze. “I’m sorry.”

Rangavar looked away. “People who are mad about stuff, pass that on to the next generation, so then they’re mad about stuff, who then pass it onto the next.” He shook his head. “Like I said, it’s dumb.”

Arro was quiet a while. “If you ever, I don’t know, point him out to me, I’ll set him straight.”

Rangavar snorted and rolled his eyes. “Sure.”

“I will.”

His words didn’t come across as a lie, and Rangavar supposed he actually might if he wanted. Arro had been willing to commit murder at one point to protect his family, so it wasn’t a stretch. “Thanks.”

The fat Faerian nodded, making his chins bunch up and his body jiggle. He pulled Rangavar tight again and rested his chin on Rangavar’s head, being careful of his jagged horns. After a hesitant moment, he added, “You know, someone keeps making fun of me at work too. I wonder if it’s the same guy.”

Rangavar pricked his ears. “Somehow, I don’t think anyone hates you for being a Darkal,” he snorted.

“He… he makes fun of me for being fat,” Arro admitted.

Rangavar frowned. “I mean, that’s not really the same thing.” At all.

Arro was quiet a moment. “I hate being called names every day. And having shitty things said about me every day. And being… grabbed, and poked, and stuff.”

“I don’t know if it’s the same guy, but if I meet him, I’ll set him straight for you too,” Rangavar offered in turn. It couldn’t possibly be the same guy— Zark was getting quite a bit chubby himself— but this guy sounded shitty as well. The comparison to hating Darkals was way off, but maybe the research facility was just full of shitty people.

Arro nodded. “Yeah. He’s like, sort of tall, and has gray scales, and—”

“That describes everyone on Karraden, Arro,” Rangavar glanced up at him with the barest hint of a grin.

Arro wrinkled his snout. “There’s more. He’s—”

They were interrupted by a knock on the door. Rangavar had been so absorbed in conversation that he’d failed to notice anyone come up to their house.

“Who is that?” Arro said softly.

Rangavar pricked his ears towards the front door instinctively, although he almost immediately recognized the aura.

Arro had already heaved himself from the couch and was making his way towards the front door.

“Arro—”

The Faerian opened the door.

A slender Gemian with dark green scales awaited him behind the door. Her eyes traveled from Arro’s startled expression to Rangavar’s alarmed one still watching from the couch. For a moment, she didn’t seem to know which of them to address. Then her eyes narrowed as her gaze returned to the very large dragon directly before her. “Hello, Arro.”

His ears flattened sheepishly. “Hello, Jade.”