Macaw was out of ideas. He'd tried everything. He'd sucked up to Joy for years, and she'd done nothing but repeatedly send him to various infirmaries. She hated him. Her friends hated him. Kelp would kill him if he went anywhere near her again, especially now that Joy had married that idiot.
He had lost. He knew it, but he refused to accept it. Surely there was some angle he could work at from afar to get Joy on his side.
He stormed through the forest, slapping at the leaves that hit him in the face and glaring at the plants. He couldn't help it. He was mad. He had devoted his life to Joy, of all dragons, and the kindest thing she'd ever done was to spit in his face. The fact that she was one day going to be queen made Macaw shudder. The poor rainforest.
He shoved his way past a bush of some kind and paused at the sound of someone talking.
"Stupid Nightflyer....." A female voice was complaining. "He has NO IDEA what he's missing." Macaw walked closer until he spotted a shockingly beautiful Nightwing sitting before a small stream, glaring at the water and occasionally throwing rocks in the stream out of anger as she ranted about how stupid Nightflyer was.
Macaw knew Nightflyer. Of course he did. Until they had gone to JMA, he had thought Nightflyer would be his competition for Joy. He hadn't expected Kelp to swoop in and steal the princess from him. But Nightflyer was Joy's good friend. If this Nightwing had problems with him.... Maybe he could think of something that could benefit them both.
He stepped out from the bushes, the Nightwing whipping around to face him.
"Hey," He offered. The Nightwing narrowed her eyes.
"You look familiar," She said suspiciously. "Have we met before?"
"No.... I'm Macaw."
"Macaw...." She echoed. "Ah. So YOU'RE the dragon I'm always getting compared to." Macaw crinkled his snout.
"Why would ANYONE compare you to ME? We definitely look nothing alike."
"Oh, I know." She grinned. "I'm much prettier."
"Don't remind me," Macaw muttered, sitting down next to her. "I couldn't help but overhear that you were complaining about Nightflyer?"
"Do you know him?"'
"I know OF him. We're not friends."
"Well then you're probably great. Nightflyer befriends all the wrong dragons."
"So does Joy."
"Joy? As in Princess Joy?"
"Yep."
"Isn't she a psychopath?"
"Well-" Macaw paused. "Yes. Yes she is."
"She told Nightflyer to kill me once."
"She hog tied me and played tether ball with me as the ball once."
"Oh my gosh! You poor dragon!"
"It was rough."
"Who DOES that to someone?" Macaw shrugged.
"Joy." She looked at him.
"I'm Faithbringer, by the way."
"Well it's nice to meet you." Macaw studied her for a moment. "Say.... what if I told you I knew a way we could get back at Nightflyer AND Joy? It seems like we're in the same situation here, after all." Faithbringer scoffed.
"The same situation huh? Unlikely. I'm completely in love with Nightflyer, but he's too stupid to notice. He's with some weird Skywing hybrid instead."
"His loss, but still. Same situation. I'm hopelessly in love with Joy, but she's being tricked by some stupid Seawing who just wants her to get back at the Seawing Queen."
"You don't say."
"It's true."
"Huh." Faithbringer thought for a minute. "So what's your plan then? I don't particularly want to get back at Nightflyer- I want him to like me back."
"Exactly. Same with me and Joy. So, here's the idea, and roll with me on this." He began. "What's the most effective emotion to make dragons do crazy things?"
"Rage?"
"No."
"Grief?"
"Not quite. Jealousy."
"How does that factor in? If anyone's jealous here, it's us."
"But what if it weren't? I'll give you a hypothetical situation. You're clearly prettier than Joy is. If you pretended to be my girlfriend, and we hung out in a place where Joy could see us, she'd get jealous that I've moved on from her and am seeing someone that's above even her. Not wanting to upset her seawing lover with her jealousy, she rants about it to her best friend, who happens to be Nightflyer. Nightflyer recognizes you name, and freaks out because he knows you can do better than me. They both get jealous that they're missing their chances with us, break up with their respective significant others, and come begging at our feet, dying for us to love them. We pretend to 'break up' and start dating who we want. Everybody wins, and we part ways as friends, taking our secrets to our graves." He could see her thinking it over.
"You know, that's actually a great idea."
"I know. So are you in?" Faithbringer grinned.
"I'm in."
********
And thus, the fake relationship began. Faithbringer and Macaw would hang out every day in places they thought Joy would see them. Talking, laughing, kissing, the works.
But after a few years, Faithbringer noticed that she was starting to care less and less about Nightflyer. She'd heard through the grapevine that he was now married to Air, and instead of boiling with jealousy and rage at the thought, she'd been...happy for him.
She was actually starting to like being with Macaw. He respected the boundaries they had set up for their fake relationship, and he was kind to her. He certainly wasn't much to look at, but she saw past that.
So she broke a few of the boundaries they had set. Macaw hadn't minded, seeing as a way to make Joy even more jealous. He didn't realize that the fake relationship wasn't fake to Faithbringer anymore. Not until he messed up, and he messed up big time.
They were adult dragons. They had desires. One thing had led to another, and Faithbringer hadn't minded, so it had continued. They were just having fun, Macaw had thought, until the day Faithbringer told him, actually excited, that she was going to have a dragonet.
She looked so thrilled about it, too. Macaw had only stared. Things weren't supposed to go this way. Everything he had with Faithbringer was fake. He was only using her to get to Joy, and she was only using him to get to Nightflyer, right?
Wrong.
"I don't care about Nightflyer anymore," Faithbringer confessed to him. "He's been married to Air for years- they've got dragonets that are grown already. Joy's been married to Kelp for over a decade. She wasn't jealous of us when we first started this, and she's not jealous now! Who cares about those two when we have each other?"
"What are you TALKING about?" Macaw demanded. "Joy and Nightflyer were the whole point of this! If you knew it wasn't working, then why the hell didn't you tell me? We could've ended this charade ages ago, before any of this happened!" Faithbringer had stumbled back a step, like he'd slapped her.
"You mean to tell me that after all this time, you really still feel NOTHING for me?" She asked quietly. Macaw nearly laughed.
"Of course I don't! We were in a FAKE relationship. Everything we did in it was FAKE. Did you really think any of that was real?" Faithbringer looked near tears.
"Well, not ALL of it," She whispered. "But SOME parts-"
"Well you were wrong." Macaw shrugged. "Not my fault if we weren't on the same page."
"So what happens now?"
"What do you mean, what happens now? If Joy doesn't care, then we're done."
"I thought there was never a WE to begin with," She snapped at him, growing mad. How could he really not care at all?
Macaw thought for a minute. He had really screwed himself over. Not only did Joy not care, but now he was going to be stuck with a stupid dragonet too. Faithbringer wouldn't let him run from that one, he could tell already. His father was going to kill him.
Unless.....
The goal was ultimately to get someone from his family on the throne. If he had a dragonet, he could shape them the same way his father had done for him. Joy and Kelp had dragonets. They'd see it as an ironic Arctic and Foeslayer type relationship if his dragonet fell in love with one of theirs. Sure, there was an age gap... Maybe he'd have better luck with one of their granddragonets, but there was no telling when one of those would show up. He guessed soon, though, seeing as the gossip loving forest was already spreading rumors that Joy's son had secretly been married, and everyone knew her one sane daughter slept around. Accidents did happen, hell, that's how he was in this situation in the first place.
But it could work. He could mold the next generation, just like his father had done when he had failed. Third time was the charm, wasn't it?
"Macaw," Faithbringer's voice wavered, and he knew she was terrified. "Please just say something."
"I'm not in love with you," He declared. "But I'm not the type to run away from an innocent dragonet, so I will stay and I will help you raise them. Who knows. Maybe I'll learn to love you. That's all I can offer you." Faithbringer held her head high.
"Fine." She agreed. "Then that's what we will do."
****
Macaw knew he was a great actor. By the time their son, a dark little dragonet named Crow, hatched, he had Faithbringer fully believing that he loved her. They weren't married (he'd never make that mistake), but she truly believed that he cared for her. What an idiot.
Unfortunately, it seemed to Macaw that Crow had inherited his mother's lack of intelligence. He was quite a stupid dragonet. So he'd made up some sob story to Faithbringer about how he thought all dragonets should have a sibling and how he felt so deprived, never having one of his own, and they'd agreed to have another dragonet, one they named Raven, who had thankfully inherited his mother's looks, not her mind.
Or so Macaw thought.
He began training the two boys almost as soon as they could understand him, behind Faithbringer's back of course. They knew their purpose, but Faithbringer had no clue. She didn't know what Macaw's family goal was. She was just happy to have a loving family.
And Macaw was shocked to learn that, yes, she indeed was no longer in love with Nightflyer. She never mentioned him, not once after Crow had hatched. From that day, everything had been about her dragonets, especially Raven. She babied him in a way Macaw hated, but it kept her distracted, so she didn't really care. Crow was more eager to learn about his plans anyway.
But then the day came when it all fell apart once more. Raven, little stupid Raven, had told his mother about Macaw's plans, how he and Crow were to marry rainforest princesses and one of them would be King. He had complained to Faithbringer that he didn't want to marry a princess. He didn't like any of them.
Faithbringer had put together the plan faster than Macaw would've liked, and she exploded on him. It had all come undone. The lying, the plot, the fact that yes, they'd only had Raven because he thought Crow wasn't cut out for the job, that yes, he still didn't care about her at all, that he didn't care if she lived or died, that yes, it was still about Joy. Everything was still about Joy, and he had plans to do unspeakable things, both to her and her family for all they had done against him over the years.
It sickened her. Macaw wasn't sure why he had thought it wouldn't. Faithbringer had screamed and screamed at him, so that all of Pyrrhia could hear the things she called him. She cried too. She had cried for hours while Macaw took their sons to continue their training. Crow had gone willingly, not wanting to stick around her anymore, but Raven didn't want to. He kept babbling like the baby dragonet he was about how he wanted to stay with Faithbringer, he didn't want to leave while she was crying. Macaw nearly left him there, but he knew Crow wasn't going to be able to do what needed to be done when they were older. He needed Raven. He needed the smart one, so he took Raven too, yelling at the dragonet as he shrieked his protests at leaving.
When they came back late that night, Faithbringer was gone.
She hadn't left a note, so Macaw assumed she'd just gone to blow off some steam, and she'd return the next day.
He was wrong.
Faithbringer never returned, and Macaw never bothered to seek her out. Why would he, when he never cared in the first place?
Where she had ever ended up, Macaw didn't know, and he didn't care. He got the feeling too, that Faithbringer didn't care where he was either.
It was better that way.