Arkose

You hold your breath as Coal sprays the fine mist over you, the moisture tickling your scales. As you exhale, Coal snorts.

"You know you won't be affected by the sanitizer." He says as he returns it to its place in one of the many cabinets. "It is completely safe and nontoxic towards dragons. The most you would feel would be a slight tingling in your throat."

"I know," you reply politely. "But I just feel more comfortable doing it."

Coal sighs, shaking his head ever so slightly. Avis suddenly comes out the doors of the detoxification chamber, his lemon-lime scales wet and shiny, like a leaf fresh with dew. He shakes out his wings, stretching. He then comes to sit near you on the other end of the room, where Coal brings you and Avis your shares of vitamins. You feel a pang of fear when you see one of the green pills being dropped into your talons.

"Coal," You whine, before he cuts you off.

"I know, I know, you don't like the green pills." He says. "But the next batch of additmite balls are still forming, and I don't have any for your dose at the time."

You whimper, when you feel a larger wing nudge your own. You turn towards Avis, his blue-purple eyes twinkling. "Just do it all at once." He says with the smallest of smiles. "Works for me." he adds with a shrug.

You sniff nervously, before puffing out your chest, tossing the medications into your mouth. You swallow regretfully, letting out a small cough before looking up to Avis. "I-I guess it works." You say in a shaky voice.

He chuckles, before the alarm blares above your heads. Trained instincts snap into all of you, and you zoom towards the cafeteria. You see the other crewmates coming into the room.

Navy, Thrip, and Micah are already at the table, Navy's talon retracting from the large button.

"We have important news." Micah's voice growls as you all seat yourselves. "An alien has infiltrated our ship. We strongly advise to be on constant lookout until further notice."

You all nod, murmuring amongst yourselves. "That's all we have to say," continues Thrip. "You may continue to your tasks."

As you leave the room, heading down to Storage to finish the rest of your tasks, you notice Avis, staring outside the large window on the side of the cafeteria. "A-Avis...?" You say, taking a small step towards him.

"Hmm?" He whips around, his eyes seeming to flicker from black to white and back. He shakes his head, looking back up with his normal purple-blue irises. "Yes?"

"Oh," you flush, though you don't know why. "I-I didn't know i-if something was wrong, or, uh, yeah..."

"O-Okay," he stutters back walking up alongside you. "Thanks I g-guess. Um, well, see you later." He walks down the hall, his green tail slipping around the corner towards Admin.

"Good God," you murmur to yourself. "A-Am I... no, we're just friends. I-I ugh, come on, Arkose get it together."

You snap back into reality, trotting down the hall into Storage, smiling and bumping wings with Mirror as you proceed to work together to continue your tasks. However, all you can think of is Avis, beautiful, sweet Avis.