Thank you for waiting.

Chapter Twenty-Four

She finally played through it, proud of herself for only having made a handful of mistakes. She had pulled these lyrics from deep inside her, it seemed, as if they predated her, and she was here just to sing them. Lying on her back, she stared up at the planet Premiere, taking a deep sigh. She had never seen a 'dawn' before. She didn't even really know what 'midnight' was. But they made her feel a certain way, certain ways that she felt meant something. They had something to do with the sun, which she tried to imagine.

Sitting out here alone, working on a song, staring up into the sky, this was her. It had only taken her two weeks to figure it out, but whatever this was felt priceless. She didn't want to be distracted. She wanted desperately to remain still.

Flapping. She sat up, noticing the shape of a dragon in the distance. It was Ali. Taking a deep breath, she stood up and began to play her accordion as loud as she could, singing atop it. It was the song she had been working on earlier, of course, nothing else would do. He seemed to notice, because he flew towards the sound as fast as he could, finally crash-landing on the invisibly dark rock and huffing for air.

"I... I..." he began, shifting back to an exhausted human form.

Flor walked up to him, sporting her accordion, and waiting for him to finish his sentence.

"I'm sorry," he said, finally catching his breath, "I totally, totally misunderstood that whole situation."

"I am not sure how you could have. I feel as if there's more."

He put out his hands defensively. "Y'know that thing girls do, where, like, they want you to keep going, but they do it by pushing you away, so you gotta keep going until they say yes?"

"I was not aware that girls do that."

He groaned. "Right. And then I thought you wanted some space, and, I... uh... I realized that was a mistake when I flew away, but then I lost you, and I didn't want to have to explain it to dad because then he'd get mad at me..."

"You left me stranded on top of a mountain because you were afraid your dad would get angry at you?"

He had begun to rub the back of his neck, grinning anxiously at her. "Uh... yes?"

"I appreciate your apology. It means a lot to me. However, I don't want to talk to you."

"Yeah, of course. I'm sorry. Really."

"Thank you. Please take me home."

"Right. One second..."

Ali transformed once more into his dragon form, anxiously letting down one side of his torso. Flor put Midnight Rose back into her identification card and climbed onto his back.

"I mean," he said, "In retrospect, that was a stupid choice not having him take the identity card because you were gonna come home and tell everybody everything anyway-"

"Just fly home, please," asked Flor.

"Right..." And at that, he took off, leaping into the air and flying high over the city.

Flor held tight to his back. She closed her eyes, letting him take her away. She knew she didn't want to trust him – not after that – but for now, she could at least trust him to take her home. He kept apologizing profusely through the air, but she knew he wouldn't hear her if she replied right now, so she kept her mouth shut. It annoyed her that her heart softened with time, but a piece of her didn't mind its softening, especially if what he was saying was true.

They finally landed, and Flor got off. She had begun to recognize his neighborhood well, the houses decently spaced apart but tight enough to remind her that these weren't castles. Ali ran up and opened the door for her, and wordlessly she stepped inside, taking a good, long smell of his living room.