"Huh? You want to go flying?"

Lemonfriend nodded eagerly. "Don't you?"

Lemongrab blinked. He rose to his knees and peered out the window behind their bed. "Kind of late for a scouting flight, don't you think? Won't it be too dark to see anything?" He pushed aside the bonsai they kept on the sill, giving Lemonfriend a better view.

"Actually, I was thinking more of a recreational flight," the younger earl said with a wink. He tugged on Lemongrab's sleeve. "C'mooon. Don't you want to help me test out the new saddle?"

"Well…"

"Great! Let's set out while the night's still young, shall we?"

The two slipped into the pink sweaters Princess Bubblegum had given them, for it was going to be a nippy night. Wondering how he always got roped into these things, Lemongrab followed his friend to the stable where their steeds slept. He watched Lemonfriend saddle up his lemongasus with quick, practiced ease. Groggy at first, the animal perked up when its owner offered it a tasty sugar cube.

Lemongrab hoisted himself up to the back seat, but as he swung his leg into position, Lemonfriend said, "Why don't you sit in front this time?"

Lemongrab stared at him. What was with this guy tonight? "Uh… is that a good idea?"

"There's nothing to flying ol' Gussy," his friend said, patting the beast's broad haunch. "You know how mild-tempered he is. He's just a big tartie."

Lemongrab wrinkled up his nose. " …'Gussy'?"

"Hey! I couldn't just keep calling him 'Lemongasus' forever, could I?"

Rolling his eyes, Lemongrab scooted forward and helped his friend up to the back seat.

They just kind of sat there for half a minute before Lemongrab spoke up: "Now what?"

Lemonfriend gave an amused snort. "You have to tell him to take off, you know. A nudge with your heels should do the trick."

"Oh." He gave the animal's sides a light tap. It flicked its ears but was otherwise unresponsive.

"Harder than that, silly." Lemonfriend was snickering hard now.

Lemongrab shot him a withering look over his shoulder, then slammed his heels into the lemongasus's sides. Giving a startled bleat, it charged out the stable door. "TOO HARD! TOO HARD!" Lemonfriend hollered as, with a mighty thrust of its wings, the animal pitched upward into a near-vertical takeoff.

The earls could only hold on tight as the wind shrieked past, plucking at them with icy claws and nearly ripping them from their seats. Still rising at top speed, Gussy powered through a thick layer of cloud, and for a disorienting moment everything was an opaque off-white.

"Makeitstopmakeitstopmakeitst opmakeitstop makeitstopMAKEITSTOPMAKEITST OP!" Lemongrab was screeching at a pitch and volume that impressed even him.

"It's okay!" Lemonfriend yelled back. "He'll calm down on his own, I think!"

"You THINK?! Well, I think you DIDN'T think!" Why, again, did he agree to this?

WHUMPH through another cloud, WHUMPH again, and all at once the lemongasus leveled off, slowing its flight to a serene soar.

As they waited for their racing hearts to settle down, Lemonfriend chuckled with relief. "Woo! That's certainly a new record for you, Gussy," he said. "You okay up there, Lemongrab?"

Lemongrab was still clamped to Gussy's neck for dear life. Craning his own neck around to glower at Lemonfriend, he wheezed, " 'Nothing to it,' eh?"

Lemonfriend shrugged helplessly, suppressing a cackle at his friend's harried expression.

"Stupid animal," Lemongrab grumbled, "overreacting to nothing and practically killing us." A sound like breaking glass echoed up from Ooo; somewhere, someone's irony meter had just shattered into a million pieces.

As he issued a steady stream of complaints, Lemonfriend peered past him to get their bearings. His eyes widened.

"Lemongrab," he said softly, "look."

"Ehhh? What is it now?" Lemongrab looked—and took in a sharp breath at the sight that greeted him.

Before him stretched an endless expanse of fluffy cloud country, faintly luminous in the moon's glow. The stars seemed more numerous than usual, frosting the blue-black night sky in their lovely swirling constellations. Perhaps they were just easier to see without the competition from the artificial light back in Ooo.

"It's different so high up, isn't it?" Lemonfriend murmured. Lemongrab nodded mutely. Up here he felt very, very small… and somehow that wasn't a bad thing. Really, it was peaceful in a way, having that vast range of clouds between him and all the worldly worries that came with co-ruling an earldom.

His heart fluttered as he felt Lemonfriend hug his waist and press against his back, the shared warmth of their bodies dulling the bite of the chilly night air. For a time the two of them simply gazed up at the star-speckled heavens, letting the lemongasus fly where it pleased.

Glancing down to watch the beast's powerful wingstrokes, Lemongrab marveled at the way its primary feathers parted and curled, shaping the wind. Despite its size, it could glide for several minutes at a stretch with scarcely a twitch of the wingtips.

Lemonfriend followed Lemongrab's stare. "Impressive, isn't he?"

Lemongrab gave a noncommittal grunt. He had to admit to himself that Gussy was surprisingly nimble in the air for such a potbellied animal, but after that needlessly terrifying takeoff, he wasn't about to compliment the brainless creature aloud.

"Here, I'll show you how to steer." Lemonfriend wrapped his legs around Lemongrab's, and the older earl went rigid. Suddenly he didn't feel cold in the least.

"You just press in with your heels—press, mind you, not kick into next Tuesday—and lean in whatever direction you want to go. Gussy'll get the idea. He's smart."

A derisive "HA!" withered and died in Lemongrab's throat as Lemonfriend leaned in to demonstrate, pressing them closer together than ever. He had to force his breathing to stay even.

Lemonfriend must have caught the pained look on his face. "What?" he asked, a bit too innocently.

He thinks this is funny! "What what?" he replied, trying to sound casual, which proved something of a challenge due to his rapidly-diminishing ability to think in sentences more complex than "DUHHHH". Lemonfriend snickered softly in his ear. "All right, all right, enough 'help' from the peanut gallery," Lemongrab growled, wriggling his legs free. "I'm sure I can manage if it's as simple as you say it is."

"Oh? Be my guest." The sheer amusement in his friend's voice was worrying. Had he made the right choice? Once again, he wondered why Lemonfriend had insisted they go out for a "recreational flight" at this time of night in the first place. Surely it wasn't just an excuse to poke fun at him for how easily flustered he was… right?

Scowling, Lemongrab directed Gussy into a gradual dive. He'd had quite enough of Lemonfriend using the freezing temperature at this altitude as an excuse to crawl all over him.

"Where to now, dear?" his oh-so-clever friend was asking.

He was about to say something less than entirely polite when a familiar sight caught his eye, just visible through the ragged edge of a cloud. The lemongasus seemed to sense his intent and obligingly angled its wings toward their new destination.

As they descended through the clouds, the Candy Kingdom—their mother's kingdom—gradually came into view, silvered by the moon's light.

"Wow," Lemonfriend breathed, speaking for them both.

They soared closer. Many candy people were still out and about, socializing or taking advantage of the cool weather by jogging.

"Oooh!" Lemonfriend sat up straight and started flailing at everyone they passed over. "Wave at the people, Lemongrab, wave at the people!"

"Do I have to?" But he did, if rather hesitantly. He felt a small smile creep across his face at his friend's bottomless enthusiasm. It was just too endearing; he didn't want to smother it.

Two or three candy people actually waved back, but mostly they just looked up at the earls in bewilderment. Still, Lemongrab supposed it was a step up from the usual running and screaming and hurling of heavy, blunt objects.

Gussy flapped past the bent tower on which Goliad and Stormo perched, locked as always in psychic combat.

"Awww, look, Lemongrab. They're in love. See how they're gazing so deeply into each other's eyes?" Lemonfriend's tone was dreamy.

Lemongrab's brow furrowed. "Uh… I'm not sure that's—"

Smiling kindly, Lemonfriend caught his eye, and suddenly they too found themselves unable to look away.

They had begun to slowly lean in toward each other when a jelly bean jogger yelled, "Get a room!"

"We have a castle, ya poobutt!" Lemongrab hollered back, and blew a noisy raspberry down at him. The guy stopped in his tracks, looking so affronted that both earls howled with laughter.

"Goodness. I've a feeling Mother's going to hear about this," Lemonfriend remarked between fits of hilarity.

"Let her," replied Lemongrab. The moment wasn't dead yet, and he wasn't going to let it die. He turned around, tugging his friend by the collar into one of their passionate squishy-nose-kiss-things. He even nudged Gussy into a banking turn to ensure that the grouchy jogger had a nice, clear view of the hot lemony action.

Approving shouts rose up from the Candy Kingdom's night life, a far cry from the way they'd once reacted to the diabetes-inducing affection between Tree Trunks and Pig. (It may or may not have had something to do with the fact that this particular jelly bean was a notorious killjoy.)

"Yeah, baby!"

"Mm-hmm, you tell that jerkface!"

"Sweet, someone left an unopened bag of lollipops on this bench! …Oh yeah, and 'woohoo' or whatever for you guys up there. You're cool too."

When the earls finally pulled apart, Lemonfriend had a huge grin on his face. "It's about time, silly. I've been waiting for that all night."

"You… huh?!" Lemongrab felt his cheeks heat up. "Ohhh." He looked away, pouting. "Y'know, if that's all you wanted, you could've just asked. No need to drag me out here at this ungrodly hour."

"But this way's so much more fun." With a massive yawn, Lemonfriend rested his head on his friend's shoulder. He nuzzled Lemongrab with his forehead. "Mmm. Guess we should be heading back, though."

"Yeah." Lemongrab couldn't hide the smile in his voice. It was hard to stay annoyed at this guy.

As the lemongasus rose into the night, the clouds parted to reveal the moon, and for a brief moment the three lemon candies' collective silhouette was printed against its bright disc.

The candy citizens who were awake to witness it thought they had seen few things so peaceful.