Just why Brio Nerano thought he needed to reproduce was beyond Frux's comprehension. Brio didn't even like children, and it was obvious that Frux himself would be the one looking after his offspring -- not that he really minded more children to look after, if he were honest with himself. He just didn't think it a particularly responsible thing to do on Brio's part. To be honest, he thought that maybe Brio's reasons were more focused the attention he thought he'd get out of it or that he thought it was the "cool" thing to do -- especially at somewhere as well-respected as the Abstract Destiny -- than out of any actual desire to procreate.

But then, others of Frux's "children" has surprised him with their parental maturity in the past. Perhaps Brio would rise to the occasion.

He'd certainly risen to the occasion of the flight, itself. For the past two months since he originally secured a spot in the Abstract Destiny's line-up, he'd had his wings out -- even with his self-healing ability, bringing them out was a messy and painful sort of thing -- and had been practicing every chance he got. He'd even gone up to the station at least once a day, since the conditions up there -- where the flight would be held -- were quite different than planet-side. For someone who usually stuck to the ground, he was actually turning into a decent flier, just for this event.

On the big day, Frux followed his grown-up ward up to the station. "Fruuuuuux," Brio complained at him. "Nobody else ever has their parents around for these k-kinds of things! That's just weird!"

"Considering I didn't actually sire you," Frux replied irritably, "I don't see how that applies here. I'm coming, and I'm immune to your whining by now -- and the kicked-kitten eyes," he added when Brio tried them, "so you might as well give up and stop annoying both of us."

Brio pouted, instead, but Frux was immune to that, too. When the dragonesses who had signed up for his flight started arriving, however, he promptly forgot about pouting and perked right up cheerfully. Human-formed Frux was introduced only once, to the first two ladies to arrive, and with an off-hand comment that he was a room-mate of unspecified type. Since the awkward exclamations of "but you don't look like you could be Brio's father" would only have spoiled Brio's excitement and made Frux even more irritated, he didn't correct anyone. He was quiet happy to fade into the background and be forgotten.

The first to arrive was Spera Diemicana-Pariyani. Frux had met her mothers once or twice, in passing, and had seen a couple of their other children, also in passing. He thought that the trio of horns were probably new, given no one else had them. Spera was a cheerful, spritely thing, white with an Askan's highlighting in yellow. Frux expected she would have been adorable as a kit. Her bond was less so, being one of the undead dragons the Destiny had created not much after the Askan-Piralan clutch, but he was friendly, anyway, dropping by to give the prospective mate a once over before taking his leave. There wasn't anything for him here, anyway, with Brio unbonded.

On Spera's heels was one Vatales Sislen-Oranato, a lady even more fiery than Brio himself, with other points of interest being her single-digited wings, black rams horns, and dark paws. Quite honestly, if it hadn't been for knowing who she was ahead of time, Frux might have mistaken her for a male: even the limited telepathy she used to communicate had a masculine flavor to it. She seemed like she had the confidence Brio pretended to have, and even more of an ego, and Frux had no idea why the boy was flirting so outrageously with her. She would have driven Frux, himself, insane before an hour was out.

Next come were Sceyr and Sykanaya, the former fiery-colored with an extra set of wings and the latter gray and striped like a cat. At least Sykanaya was different, not fire-colored or Piralan-born, though she seemed the only one that Brio wasn't obviously warming up to, as well, with her impatience and cynicism. Sceyr was less abrasive, but she was just as much of an attention-lover as Brio was, and within a few minutes of interaction it was obvious that she and Brio would clash in their desire for the limelight more than share it. At least Brio wasn't likely to take a permanent mate, here.

The five of them were chatting away -- well, flirting away, and Brio was eating up every minute of it -- and waiting for the last chaser, and it was something of an eye-opening experience. Frux hadn't had many chances to watch Brio with younger dragons -- dragons who weren't himself, his siblings, or class-mates -- and he was a little surprised. The whiney, pouty, immature brat he'd raised turned into a charismatic, chatty, even likable sort of person when in the company of people he wanted to impress. It was interesting to watch the transformation, and wonder which was the "real" Brio.

Finally the last chaser, Urnaess, came bounding up breathlessly. "I'm not too late, am I?" she cried. She was an interesting creature, obviously with xenodragon heritage, but also a whole collection of other things that Frux couldn't put a name to. In sharp contrast to most of the group, she was also a cool purple-blue color, for the most part, with black and silver highlights.

"Of course not," Brio smiled winsomely at her. Frux didn't know whether she saw it or not -- she didn't exactly have eyes -- but she beamed back at him, anyway. "We were waiting on you."

"Oh, good. I'm sorry, I got held up...."

A couple of the other dragonesses gave her looks of politely veiled impatience, though Spera, at least, smiled brightly back at her.

"That's all right, that's all right," Brio waved the apology off. Frux could tell by the way he spoke and held himself back just a little that he was trying very hard to control his stutter. Even if he was a brat most of the time, Frux couldn't help but find him cute when he was excited, in that indulgent-parent fashion that he had yet to shake, whether they were adults now or not.

"But now that you're here," Brio continued eagerly, "we can get going!"

"Looking forward to this, are you?" Vatales said with a superior sort of smile.

"How could you tell?" Brio grinned back.

"Well, then, get flying," Sykanaya suggested.

"Unless you want us to pounce you now," Vatales added wickedly.

"I think we can dispense with the pouncing," Brio said loftily, then launched off without warning, leaving his lady-chasers temporarily in the metaphorical dust.

There wasn't much that was faster on the wing than a lady with mating in her mind, but Brio hadn't been practicing so hard for nothing, and he wasn't going to be an easy catch. There were the usual tricks on the part of various intelligent dragonesses, and the usual counters to those tricks on the part of their quarry. Brio was obviously enjoying being vied for, as well as enjoying his newfound and hard-earned ability in the air, and didn't want it to end too soon. Frux even thought that, unlike most females, Brio didn't even have a preference which one finally caught him as long as he enjoyed the experience.

The two most athletic ladies spent most of her time neck and neck with each other, the masculine Vatales and the surprisingly fit Spera -- hadn't she said she was a dancer, or somesuch? At any rate, Brio was hard-pressed to avoid the two. Sceyr and Sykanaya were next in the running, both trying to get past the leaders without much success. The former seemed almost as pouty as Brio could get, even from a distance, at not simply winning him over on charm alone, and the latter positively affronted at her own lack of success.

Circling around below was little Urnaess, conserving energy and, apparently, not bothering to try and get closer. Brio seemed to have forgotten about her, as had most of the other chasers, but Frux hadn't, and was watching curiously. To his surprise, she lofted down to land lightly on one of the many odd walls on the floor of the flight deck, her sightless muzzle pointed up as if watching the flight. She'd seemed like a sweet thing, from what little he'd seen over her so far, soft-spoken and cheerful, and he supposed it was possible she'd given it up as a lost cause and was just watching for the fun of it, now. Perhaps that's what the other chasers had assumed, given their lack of attention.

Thus, Frux was the only one laughing when, just as Brio was aiming for a spot somewhere well above her, forgotten Urnaess launched herself off and very nearly bowled the larger, stronger Vatales and Spera out of the sky, shooting up between them and literally tackling Brio mid-air. Vatales made an attempt at snatching her tail to pluck her away, looking indignant, but Spera swatted at her paw lightly.

"Hey, that's not very nice," she scolded amiably as Brio, now laughing, too, wheeled away from them with a purple-blue xeno-mutt clinging to his shoulders and giggling. "She's won fair and square."

"How is that fair?" Sceyr complained, panting as she caught up with the two leaders.

"Fair or not," Sykanaya said sourly, "nothing to be done for it now."

Given the fact that Brio was no longer paying attention to any of them, she was probably right.

As the other four headed to the nearest landing platform to go their separate ways, Frux headed further inside, as well. He wasn't particularly interested in playing the voyer with his own adopted son, after all. Besides, now he had other things to think about: planning for new "family", seeing about bringing the kits up from the planet and taking some time off around hatching time, wondering whether Brio's get would have eyes....