Krel is five keltons old and waiting for zir sibling to get home from zir first day at school. Ze doesnt see why Aja has to leave to go to school and why ze can't go with zir. It's lonely without Aja. Ze follows Uncle Val around in zir lab, and Uncle Val explains what he's doing in words Krel doesn't quite understand yet. That's okay. Ze will. Ze thinks Aja is missing out – ze's learning way more from Uncle Val than ze is at school.

Uncle Val picks Krel up and sits zir on the table, patting zir head with a fond smile. "Enjoying your book?"

"I finished it!" Krel chirps. "I'm a good reader. Mama said so."

"Well, you must be," says Uncle Val. "I'll have to find you another."

"Yes, please!" Krel laughs as Uncle Val ruffles zir hair. He always gives Krel the best books, interesting stuff about science that's really for older kids, but Krel's very smart – Mama said so – so ze gets to read books even Aja can't understand. Ze thinks if anyone should be in school right now it's zir, but that's okay. Ze's learning plenty at home.

Uncle Val pulls up a screen full of images and writing Krel doesn't really understand. Ze crawls forward and points to the biggest image, some kind of machine.

"What's that?" ze asks.

"Just a project I'm working on," says Uncle Val.

"How's it work?"

"That's what we're still working on," says Uncle Val. "Maybe one day when you're older we can work on it together."

Krel perks up. "Lively!"

Uncle Val chuckles. The sound of the door opening draws Krel's attention away from Uncle Val's project, and ze beams at Mama as she walks in and picks zir up off the table.

"Have you had fun with General Morando?" she asks.

"Yeah!" Krel exclaims. "He was showing me his project!"

When ze turns to look, the project is no longer on screen. Ze tilts zir head in confusion as Uncle Val smiles at Mama and refuses to acknowledge his project. "Krel is always a delight to watch, your majesty."

"None of that, Val," says Mama. "How many times do we have to tell you we're still friends and you don't need to put on a show like that in private?"

"More times than this, Coranda," says Uncle Val.

"Your sibling is home," Mama tells Krel.

Krel squeals delightedly and claps zir upper hands together. "Aja's home!"

"And what do you say to Uncle Val?" prompts Mama.

"Thank you, Uncle Val!" Krel says.

Uncle Val pats zir cheek and smiles. "I don't know what I'd do without my favourite assistant."

Krel puffs out zir chest proudly – take that, Aja, ze's an assistant, which ze thinks is something very important – and waves goodbye to Uncle Val as Mama carries zir out of the room.

"School was amazing!" Aja tells zir that night, the two of them sitting cross-legged on Aja's bed in their shared room. There are plenty of rooms, they don't have to share, but Krel sleeps better knowing zir sister is across the room. "We didn't learn a lot today, but I made some friends!"

Friends. Krel has heard that word before – earlier, Mama had called Uncle Val her friend, and ze thinks ze's heard zir parents say it about Zadra and Uncle Varvatos too.

"What does that word mean?" ze asks.

"What, friends?" asks Aja. "It's like… people you like and spend time with! I think."

"Like you," says Krel.

Aja shakes zir head. "No, I'm your sister. That's different."

"Oh." Krel frowns and tries to think of a better example. "Like Uncle Val!"

"No, he's our uncle," says Aja.

"Oh," Krel says. Ze wraps zir arms around zirself and shrugs. "I guess I don't have any, then."

"That's okay," says Aja. "You will next kelton, when you go to school."

"Yeah," Krel agrees, except ze kind of wants friends now, not next kelton when ze goes to school. "I guess."

"My friends and I played warriors!" Aja exclaims, punching two fists forward and giggling. "It was lively. Hey, maybe you can play with us sometime!"

Krel brightens. Aja's friends could be zir friends, too, right? Then ze won't have to wait a whole kelton just to make zir own friends. Ze and Aja share lots of things. They can totally share friends.

It turns out they totally can't share friends. Aja and zir friends only want to play warriors, and Krel's not any good at that. Also, they called zir a baby and Aja agreed. Ze's not a baby. Ze's barely that much younger than Aja. It's not zir fault Aja was formed first.

Maybe ze can make zir own friends in the palace. Uncle Varvatos is supposed to be watching zir right now, but Uncle Varvatos is really easy to get away from. Ze's small so it's also really easy to hide from people walking around. Apparently, older people don't want to be friends with babies, or maybe Aja's friends are just mean, but ze avoids the adults anyway. There aren't any kids here, though.

Ze's crawling through the vents – ze's not supposed to be in the vents but Papa doesn't have to know – when ze runs into the skeltegs. The idea hits zir and ze grins and carefully sneaks over to them.

"Hello," ze says. The skeltegs look at zir. "My name's Krel. What are your names?"

One of the skeltegs makes a chittering noise. Krel mimics it delightedly, but it doesn't sound quite right. The other one makes a screeching noise.

"Skreeeee," Krel echoes, before giggling and crawling closer. "I can't find any Akiridions to be friends with. Do you want to be friends?"

More chittering. Krel thinks that means yes. Ze beams at them.

"I can't say your names very well," ze says. "So I'll call you Skree and you Chichi. Is that okay?"

Skree makes a hissing noise and starts scuttling away. Chichi follows. Krel decides this is a game, so ze laughs excitedly and follows after them.

"Hey, don't go too fast!" ze calls. "I'm not as fast as you!"

Ze's not entirely sure the skeltegs are listening to zir – or can even understand zir – but ze pretends that they are. Hey, ze should show them to Aja. Maybe the skeltegs won't want to be friends with zir because ze's too old. Ha, take that, Aja.

Skree turns a corner. Chichi turns another corner. Krel stops in the middle in dismay that zir friends have split up and now ze has to pick one to follow. Ze shakes zir head.

"Sorry, Chichi, we can play tomorrow!" ze calls, before turning and following Skree. Ze doesn't make it very far – a section of the vent gives out under zir and ze shrieks as ze falls. Someone should fix that. That isn't safe.

Unfortunately, ze lands on a table in the middle of a room full of adults, including Papa. So much for Papa not knowing. Ze shrinks and offers Papa zir best innocent smile. Papa's fingers pinch the bridge of his nose.

"Krel," he says, "what were you doing in the vents?"

"Making friends?" Krel gestures upwards. "Skree and Chichi! They're skeltegs."

Papa sighs. "Skeltegs are pests, Krel, not friends."

"But–"

"But nothing," says Papa. "Why aren't you with Varvatos?"

"Uncle Varvatos is boring," complains Krel.

Papa closes his eyes and shakes his head. "Loth, can you–"

"I will take zir, my liege," Loth says. Krel groans. Loth Saborian is even more boring than Uncle Varvatos – at least Uncle Varvatos yells a lot and makes funny faces. Loth picks zir up and starts walking out of the room. It isn't fair. Krel just wants to make friends. If ze could just go to school with Aja maybe ze could make zir own friends.

Fine. Krel will wait a kelton.

A few delsons later, Mama and Papa pull Aja and Krel into a room and tell them they have a surprise.

"We were thinking," says Mama, while Papa leaves the room, "that maybe you might want a friend around the palace."

Krel perks up. Aja tilts zir head interestedly. Papa returns to the room, holding something small and purple in his upper hands and smiling. Krel gasps. Aja's upper hands fly to zir cheeks and ze squeals.

"A PUPPY!" Aja yells.

The puppy barks and Papa sets it down. "He doesn't have a name yet. We thought you might like to think that up."

Aja launches forward and hugs the puppy. Krel walks forward more cautiously and sticks out zir hand for the puppy to sniff. The puppy leaps forward and tackles zir, licking zir face. Krel laughs.

"He's so cute!" Krel says. "Hey, hey, get off!"

"What do you want to name him?" asks Mama.

"Uh… we could name him Puppy," says Aja. "We could name him… Riri! Aja Junior!"

The puppy makes a noise. Krel giggles and mimics him. "Ruuuug."

"We can't name him that," scoffs Aja.

"How about… Luug?" says Krel.

Aja hums. Mama chuckles. "I think Luug is a wonderful name."

"Hello, Luug," coos Aja, petting the puppy on the head. Luug licks Krel's face again and ze laughs wraps zir arms around him. "Welcome to the family."

Krel's not sure if Luug counts as a friend, then, if he's part of the family, but ze's ecstatic to have him anyway. Aja lifts Luug off of zir and holds him in the air. Krel pulls zirself into a sitting position, grinning widely.

Papa leans down to ruffle his hair. "He's not a skelteg, but I think he'll be more fun anyway. He can keep you company while Aja's at school."

Krel beams up at him. "Thank you."

"Go play with your new friend," says Papa. "And no more running around in the vents."

"No more running in the vents," Krel promises, although ze doesn't promise not to walk in the vents. Ze runs to join Aja and Luug. It will be good to have Luug around until ze can go to school and make zir own friends to play with.

Just one more kelton. Ze can wait that long.

A/N: Listen, the second I thought up this fic I knew I had to write it. I know it isn't Legacies but I'm working on that too, promise. This first chapter turned out way more fluffy than expected, but don't expect the rest of them to be fluffy.

So, as for some need-to-know related headcanons! I headcanon that Fialkov and Coranda and Vex and Morando were all friends, once upon a time, and this first chapter is before Morando got banished. I got frustrated with that never being explained in canon so I'm gonna be explaining it in Legacies. Yeet.

The reason we're starting out with ze/zir pronouns is because my headcanon for Akiridions is that they just don't have a gender up until they're old enough to say what their gender is. Their language would probably have a pronoun for this, but I'm using ze/zir. I've made up a lot of world-building for Akiridion-5. Fight me.

And, finally, I know school didn't work the same way but like, there's probably something and I want to use it so... we're just calling it school.

I hope you guys enjoyed this first fluffy chapter! Got a few more coming at some point. I'm not doing like my big fics, this'll just be updated as I go, so it'll be a lot less consistent. Thanks for reading! 3 Come chat with me on tumblr ( akozuheiwa) if you want, we all need some people to chat with while we're stuck at home.