What Would You Do for a Sweet Roll?

It was one of the many nights Briggs had opted to spend in Falran's room.  The two boys had been close friends for an entire year now.  It had advanced to the point where the ten-year-olds had set up a small bed on Falran's desk in his room for Briggs.  It stayed there, even if Briggs slept with the other Liraiphes.

That night, as Briggs's eyelids grew heavier and heavier, he heard a powerful whisper fill the room.

"Briggs?  Are you asleep?"

"Yes," the Liraiphe muttered into his pillow.  He turned onto his stomach, his wings spread widely on either side of him.  He was about to nod off when the whispering came again, coupled by a nudge in his side that was impossible to ignore.

"Briggs."

"What?" Briggs whined at his friend.  He turned his head to face the Sarbithian.  Falran's head of messy, sandy blond hair filled his vision.

Falran pouted at him for a moment, but quickly recovered.  "You know the sweet rolls Mother made tonight, but said we couldn't have until tomorrow?"

Briggs pushed himself up to his elbows.  "Yeah…?"

"They won't be any good tomorrow!  They're always best to eat fresh."

"So?"  Briggs yawned.  "Your mom said no."

Falran gave him a flat look.  "Since when did you care what my mom says?"

Briggs had to concede to that point.  "What are you getting at?"

All business once more, Falran focused his gaze on his small friend.  "If I try to get one tonight, she'll hear me.  But if you go by yourself, you won't make enough noise.  The rolls are small enough for you to carry.  If you get just one, you can take however much you want off of it and I'll have the rest."

"Your mom would kill me if she caught me," Briggs countered.

"If she caught you."  Falran leaned forward.  "But you won't be caught, right?  Or are you not sneaky enough?"

Briggs's face flushed in annoyance.  "Of course I'm sneaky enough.  She'd never know I was there.  She wouldn't even notice a roll missing."

With a sigh, Falran sat back on his bed.  "I guess if you're too scared - "

"I am not scared!" Briggs stated, no longer whispering.  His eyes widened at the noise and he clamped a hand over his mouth.  He lowered his voice back down to a whisper.  "I'll prove it to you!  I'll even get two rolls, one for you, and a whole one for me."

Falran shrugged.  "If you say so," he said, flattening his mouth.  He got to his feet and padded over to his bedroom door.  Briggs was impressed at how quiet the much larger being could be.  The Sarbithian cracked the door open.  "If you think you can do it, go right ahead."

Huffing indignantly, Briggs shook the sleep from his wings and glided to the door.  He landed just inside by Falran's bare feet and surveyed the dark hallway.  The two knew that Gilrod and Shraley had gone to bed nearly an hour ago.  Satisfied that the coast was clear, he glanced up at Falran, gave him a thumbs up and a grin, and slipped out of the doorway.

It was child's play to reach the kitchen.  After the first few initial flaps to get him airborne, Briggs was able to silently glide the rest of the way, keeping low to the ground.  A glance over his shoulder told him that Falran was peeking through the crack in the doorway, watching his progress.  He returned his attention on his goal and soon entered the kitchen.  A tray full of sweet rolls sat on the counter, almost completely cool from being baked.  Briggs risked a few noisy flaps and lighted by the tray.  He inhaled the fragrant aroma of the desert and wondered why he had ever argued with Falran over it.

He chose the nearest and smallest roll.  There were plenty on the tray to mask the missing one.  Picking it up by the dryer parts of the pastry so as to avoid a sticky hold from the glaze, he took to the air once more.  His heart sped up when he crossed the hallway right by Gilrod and Shraley's room, but relaxed when he made it safely inside Falran's.

"See?" he whispered triumphantly, dropping the roll into Falran's outstretched palm.  "Told you I could do it.  You have this one.  I'll go get another."

With that, he repeated his previous steps until he had another roll tucked under his arm.  This time, he casually flew by his surrogate parents' room.  Right before he reached his friend's, he felt a gentle, but firm pressure on his right wing.

Immediately, he lost all sense of his flight pattern and he began to flail.  His head jerked this way and that, not quite understanding what was going on.

"I suspected someone would get peckish tonight," a woman's voice grumbled.  Briggs forced himself to calm his movements so he could twist around to see what was restraining his wing.  There, in a grasp so delicate, yet so strong, his wing hung from a pinched thumb and finger.  Only one Sarbithian had the skill to restrain a Liraiphe in such a way without risking injury.

"Mrs. Quent!" Briggs stammered.  "What are you doing up so late?"

A sigh heaved high above him, and he felt the roll being snatched out of his grasp.

"Hey!" he cried.  "I wasn't - "

"Sneaking around and stealing food in the middle of the night?" Shraley finished for him as she marched back to the kitchen to replace the sweet roll.  "I said these were for tomorrow, and I meant it.  I have half a mind to not let you have any after that stunt."

"But Mrs. Quent, it wasn't my idea!  Falran told me to do it."

That caused the woman to pause, but she did not release Briggs's wing.  "Let's go find out, shall we?" she said.

She swiftly made her way back to her son's room and slowly opened the door.  Falran was in his bed, his eyes closed and his mouth slightly open.  His chest rose and fell steadily as he took deep, even breaths.

"Why am I not surprised?" Shraley muttered, dropping Briggs into her palm.  The Liraiphe gave his wings a few flaps to shake off the uncomfortable feeling of being pinched, but he did not fly out of his mother figure's hand.

"He's not really sleeping!" Briggs protested as she placed him back on his bed.  "I already gave him a roll."

"Briggs."  Shraley's tone invited no more arguments.  "Go to sleep.  If you behave, I might let you have a roll tomorrow.  But I want no more shenanigans tonight, understand?"

Briggs opened his mouth in his defense once more, but realized it was a lost cause.

"Yes, ma'am," he mumbled.

He glanced over and saw the slightest smirk on his friend's face.  For the first time, Falran had outsmarted him.  As Shraley pulled the blanket over his body, he vowed it would be the last.