Recovery was a long road, there were no doubts about that. And while Blue Skies still hadn’t recovered enough to fly, his mood had slowly improved to the point where he was almost the same as he had been before the accident. Sunup suspected that his efforts in keeping the apartment clean and tidy were helping the gray pegasus feel more comfortable.
Sunup had gotten up early, just before Celestia’s sun had peeked out from beyond the horizon. He was standing in the living room, dressed in his hospital uniform and waiting for his roommate to come out of his room. Today was an important day, after all, since Blue was finally allowed to go back to work at the weather factory.
There was one problem though… he still couldn’t fly.
“Hurry up, you’ll miss the carriage!” Sunup shouted.
“I’m trying!” Blue Skies shouted back as the door to his room flew open, his voice sounded slightly muffled.
The gray pegasus had his factory jumpsuit wrapped around his head as he struggled to pull it over himself with just one wing. Sunup snorted at the sight as Blue stumbled into the living room, tripping over himself.
“Come here,” Sunup said, walking up to the pegasus.
“No! I can do it myself!” Blue shouted.
Sunup cocked his head and raised an eyebrow, stepping back and watching as the pegasus continued to struggle with his clothing. Blue grew increasingly frustrated, at first he simply tried to pull the jumpsuit over his head, but he quickly got desperate and started tugging at it violently.
“Okay… help me…” The pegasus admitted, panting.
The bat stallion smirked and walked up to Blue, pulling the jumpsuit off his head. The pegasus´ eyes dropped to the floor as Sunup straightened out the jumpsuit with his wings.
“Okay, come here,” He said, holding out the clothes.
Blue slipped into the jumpsuit slowly, fitting his forelegs into the sleeves before Sunup zipped it closed around him. His left wing popped through one of the two holes on his back easily, but the right one only flopped weirdly underneath the clothing. Sunup’s ear twitched as he heard Blue grumble before the wing started flapping wildly.
“Stop, you’ll hurt yourself,” Sunup said, putting one of his forehooves on the pegasus’ side to hold the feathery appendage still.
“Just let me-” Blue started, but Sunup cut him off.
“No, you need to take care of yourself,” The bat pony stated, opening the jumpsuit slightly, “Take the left wing out and start with the right one instead,”
The gray pegasus huffed in annoyance, but they followed the advice. His left wing popped out of the jumpsuit, letting Sunup stretch the jumpsuit further on the right side. The purple stallion carefully took the tip of Blue’s wing and guided it into the jumpsuit hole.
“There’s nothing wrong with that wing,” Blue protested as Sunup repeated the same process on the left side.
“Just making sure you don’t hurt it too,” The bat pony said, chuckling, “You’ll need a sling for the right one though,” He added.
“Do I really?” Blue asked, annoyed.
“Yes, you do, at least until you can hold it closed on your own,” Sunup explained.
“I can hold my damn wing closed, Sunup!” The pegasus shouted.
The bat stallion raised an eyebrow at Blue and cocked his head to the side, looking at the pegasus’ partially drooping right wing.
“Uh huh…” He said, unamused.
Blue looked at him with confusion for a moment before following his gaze and looking at his droopy wing. He grunted and strained slightly, pulling the wing up and tucking it on his side.
“See?” The pegasus said, gritting his teeth slightly.
“I’ll go get the sling,” Sunup deadpanned.
Blue Skies sighed in defeat.
“Fine.” He relented.
The bat pony smiled and walked towards the table, where he had left the pegasus’ wing sling. He brought the sling over to him and sat on his haunches, bringing his hooves up to grab the wing and place it into the sling.
“Thanks…” Blue Skies admitted as he looked at his immobilized wing.
“Don’t mention it,” Sunup said, “Come on, I’ll take you to the sky terminal,” He added, gesturing toward the door.
Blue Skies furrowed his brow and opened his mouth to complain, but Sunup quickly walked up and covered his mouth with a forehoof.
“We’re already late, just let me take you to the terminal,” The bat stallion said.
The pegasus tried to say something around Sunup`’s hoof, but it was nothing more than a muffled mumbling.
“Let’s go,” Sunup said, taking his hoof off the pegasus’ mouth.
Blue Skies looked down with a hint of blush on his freckled cheeks.
“Fine.” He huffed.
The two stallions walked out of the apartment, where Sunup spread his wings open and stretched, feeling his back pop. He flapped into the air, hovering slightly before moving above Blue and reaching down, wrapping his forelegs around the pegasus’ shoulders. With a grunt, the bat pony pulled himself and Blue into the air. The added weight made his wings strain, but he still managed to take to the skies.
Wheezing with effort, the bat pony carried Blue towards the sky terminal. This was made slightly easier by Sunup’s impressive wingspan, which allowed him to glide most of the way. They got to the terminal just in time, one of the last carriages was about to depart.
“Thanks…” Blue Skies said before shaking his head slightly and running to catch the carriage.
Sunup smiled and took off. He was planning on following behind the carriage, but he was already running late. Instead, he took off into the air and whirled around to face the direction of the hospital before launching himself towards it like a purple missile.
He landed in front of the building and rushed inside just to be met with a… slightly disappointed set of eyes.
“Minty! Did you get put on the day shift again?” Sunup asked, smiling at the green unicorn.
“No shit, Sherclop. Why are you so late?” The unicorn demanded.
Sunup chuckled at the green stallion.
“Had to fly a friend to the sky terminal, I’m not even that late!” He told Minty.
The unicorn’s glare softened, replaced instead with a smug grin.
“Helping your friends? Who are you and what did you do with Sunup?” Minty said, chuckling.
Sunup gave a half-hearted chuckle at the unicorn’s tease. Had it been that much of a change…? Or had he just been that much of an ass to his friends before?
“Real funny, come on, let’s get to work,” The bat stallion said.
The day shift was a far cry from the night shift, Sunup noted. Gone was the peace and quiet of sleeping patients, replaced by the buzzing of dozens of ponies. The day flew past in a whirl, with Sunup barely managing to keep up.
One of the patients he was instructed to care for was a light gray pegasus mare. Her coat was lighter than Blue Skies’ but it was still close enough for Sunup to become unable to get the pegasus stallion out of his mind. He wondered how Blue was doing up in the clouds, hopefully he wasn’t having too much of a hard time. Sunup trusted that the sling was just tight enough to keep his wing tucked while not being uncomfortable.
“I’m uhh… I’m actually here about my leg…?” The pegasus mare in front of him said, looking at him with a curious stare.
Sunup shook his head and looked down at the gray wing in his hooves. He let the mare’s wing go and chuckled nervously.
“I’m sorry, got you mixed up with another patient,” The bat stallion explained.
Sunup finished his shift without much issue, still unable to get Blue Skies out of his mind. He stood outside the front door for a few minutes, waiting for Minty Trails to walk out as well. Right on cue, the unicorn’s magic wrapped around the door and pushed it open.
“All done?” The purple stallion asked.
“Yeah, wanna go get some drinks?” Minty asked.
Sunup brought a forehoof up to think for a moment before replying.
“I’d love to, but I should probably go pick up my friend from the terminal,” He said, looking up at the sky to try and gauge what time it was.
Minty Trails snorted loudly.
“Damn, since when are you that thoughtful?” He asked, chuckling, “Don’t tell me… is it some cute mare?” He added, playfully hitting Sunup’s shoulder.
The bat pony felt his cheeks burn slightly, but he just shoved Minty back with a wing before responding.
“No they’re not!” He grumbled, “See you tomorrow.”
Sunup spread his wings and took to the skies, heading directly towards the sky terminal.
“Have fun on your date!” The unicorn shouted at him from below before breaking down into laughter.
Sunup closed his eyes and shook his head as he flew, trying to get the damn blush off his cheeks. He tried to focus instead on the terminal ahead, he just had to pick Blue up and… fly him back home, it was that simple…
“Get it together, Sunup,” The purple stallion grumbled to himself, trying to bite down the strange fluttering sensation in his stomach.
As he approached the station, he immediately spotted Blue Skies walking away from one of the carriages that had just landed, his head was cast low. Sunup tucked one of his wings slightly and spiraled down to the ground, landing next to the gray pegasus.
“Blue!” He exclaimed, causing the pegasus’ ears to swivel around towards him.
“Sunup? What are you doing here?” Blue asked, his voice clearly tired.
“Came to take you back home,” The bat stallion answered, chuckling.
“Sure, whatever…” Blue muttered.
The pegasus’ attitude stood out to Sunup, he looked completely exhausted, but could he be so tired that he didn’t even want to argue with him? No matter, Sunup could always annoy him once he had rested. The bat stallion smirked at the thought of how he would never let the gray pegasus live down the fact that he carried him around for a few days.
“Let’s go,” He said, picking up Blue as he took off.
Flying after a full day’s work while carrying another pony was definitely more taxing than doing it freshly rested, but at least there was no risk of being late to get home. Sunup glided to the apartment with Blue held firmly below him, neither said a single word throughout the flight, but the bat stallion didn’t mind, he needed his breath to fly, after all.
They touched down outside the apartment. Sunup watched as Blue dragged his hooves over to the front door, keeping his head low.
“How was work?” Sunup asked.
“Shit.” Blue snapped back, opening the door and walking into the apartment.
“That bad, huh?” The bat stallion pressed, following the pegasus into the living room.
“I never really thought about how important being able to fly was for my job, the weather factory is a big fucking place when you have to walk everywhere,” He said, “I just… don’t like having everypony pity me.”
“Hey, you’ll get better in no time,” Sunup said, putting a hoof on Blue’s shoulder, “I’m gonna make dinner, want some help getting that sling off?”
Blue Skies walked towards the living room couch and flopped onto it, leaving his right side up.
“Sure, whatever,” He said.
Sunup walked up to Blue’s side, silently thankful that the pegasus couldn’t see the slight blush on his cheeks as he undid the sling and let the wing droop free.
“I uhh… I need to check this, is- is it okay?” Sunup asked, internally cursing at himself for the stutter.
“Go ahead,” Blue said, huffing.
Sunup got to work right away, placing his hooves carefully on the pegasus’ wing. He gently massaged the limb, enjoying the softness of his feathers. How could pegasus wings be so… soft? A wing hug just had to be the softest, warmest-
The bat pony shook his head. No, this was just a checkup, he just had to see if the wing was in good health, and it seemed to be the case. He pulled back, turning around quickly to hide his red cheeks.
“Aww, done already?” Blue asked, sounding almost… disappointed?
“Y- yeah, it seems to be doing well,” Sunup said in a single breath.
“You’re pretty good at massages, you could become a masseuse if you ever get tired of working at the hospital,” The pegasus said, stretching his back.
“Fuck off,” The bat pony protested, drawing a chuckle from Blue.
Sunup walked into the kitchen and pulled a box of microwave food from the fridge as he considered the stallion’s words.
“What are you cooking?” The pegasus asked curiously.
The purple stallion poked his head out from the kitchen, holding the box in his wings to show it to Blue. The pegasus took one look at it and immediately groaned.
“If you’re going to keep buying those awful microwave pizza rolls could you at least not get the mango ones?” The pegasus complained.
“Bro like… just don’t eat the mangos,” Sunup said, laughing.
“Doesn’t make the rest of the thing any more edible,” Blue answered with a frown.
The bat stallion’s mouth opened before he could finish thinking about whether or not he should say what he was about to.
“Well maybe you should learn how to cook instead of complaining so much, not like you have anything else to do,” Sunup said, immediately grimacing as the words left his mouth.
Blue’s head pulled back as if he’d been struck in the face. Sunup winced as well, he had just wanted to poke some fun at the pegasus, but that had probably not been the right joke to make considering how frustrated his friend had become at being unable to paint.
“Wow.” Blue Skies said, nodding with an unamused look.
A pang of guilt struck Sunup straight through the chest with the force of a jousting spear.
“That was not funny, I’m… I’m sorry, really,” He said, dropping his gaze to the floor.
To his absolutely incredulous shock, Blue Skies threw his head back in thunderous laughter.
“Since when do you apologize for your jokes?” The pegasus asked as he continued laughing, “Did you hit your head at the hospital?”
“Of course I apologized! I don’t want to make you feel worse!” Sunup exclaimed.
Blue Skies just continued laughing, wiping tears from his eyes with his left wing.
“That was way too funny, thanks for that,” The pegasus said, still chuckling slightly.
Sunup smiled awkwardly, not entirely sure as to how his apology had been that funny. But hey, if Blue was happy, so be it.