Outside the storm got steadily worse. Caramel followed Twilight upstairs, to the children’s section, it was a colorful little area towards the rear of the library’s second story a little way away from the living area for the librarian. Caramel smiled, the floor around the lines of shelves had been painted with tall blades of grass. He could see little ladybugs sprinkled around the painting. The shelves were short, the perfect size for a foal to reach their first book.
“Here we are!” Twilight said, smiling broadly. “The Foal’s section. admittedly it’s not as big as I might like, but I’ve got all the bases covered. Spike would normally help me with this, but he’s helping Rarity today.”
Caramel nodded. “It looks really nice, did you do the painting on the floor?”
Twilight shook her head. “It was here when I arrived in Ponyville a little over a year ago. The Princess said it was done when the library opened, way back near the founding of Ponyville. Besides,” she chuckled. “I can’t paint to save my life, of the two of us, you’re the artist.”
Caramel’s face got a little warmer. “O-oh...well I wouldn’t really call myself an artist, it’s more of a hobby.”
Twilight tilted her head. “A hobby? Caramel, your hobby just sold more apples in a few hours than you usually manage in a month.” She smiled encouragingly at him. “You’re an artist.”
He opened his mouth to protest, then paused. Why was he protesting? He did like to paint, and apparently ponies thought he was good at it. He’d made money from doing it, and gifts, not to mention he’d like to do more painting in the future. Didn’t that make what she was saying true? Didn’t that make him an artist?
He gave up and nodded. “Fine, I’m an artist.” He couldn’t help but chuckle as he said it, they felt good in his mouth, those words. He felt his lips curl into a grin, which made Twilight smile a bit brighter.
“Told you.” Twilight looked over the shelf and then back to him. “So,” Her smile grew into a grin. “Alphabetizing?” The purple unicorn actually bounced as she said the word.
I’m not sure whether that’s odd or adorable, he thought. It might be a mix of both... and then he realized it didn’t matter, because if it was a mix of both that only served to make it more adorable.
He nodded, smiling. “Alphabetizing.” He looked at the colorful books on the shelf, squinting at the words. “You’ll have to help me a bit, I think the last thing I alphabetized was a bushel of apples. It was very easy.”
Twilight laughed sidling up beside him to playfully bump him with her flank, Caramel’s coat momentarily looked like Big Macs.
“I can teach you I’m sure, it’s rather easy, all you need to do is look through a shelf, they’re marked with what letter they’re supposed to be under, just look at author's name and see if it matches the letter. If it’s out of place, take it out and put it in it’s proper place.” She scanned the J shelf. “Ah! Here we are, J.K Rowdy.” Her horn glowed as she removed the book from its shelf, Caramel still hadn’t quite gotten used to dating a unicorn, he thought magic looked rather beautiful, though he was too shy to say. She continued explaining as he tried to stop staring. “You see the little colts and fillies get confused sometimes, while J is indeed the first letter in the author's name, we don’t arrange the books by first name, we arrange them by last. This book would in fact go under R. not J.” She nodded to herself sticking it back on its correct shelf. “You see, this is why this section needs so much more attention. If it‘s left to its own devices soon it’d be impossible to find anything!”
Carmel blinked, fairly certain that impossible was probably a stretch but, looking at her, she seemed genuinely distressed by the idea that any book would be out of place on her shelves for long. She’d already started scanning the R. shelves for any books that might have been out of place there. He just smiled and shook his head, then started looking himself.
Since she’d started so low on the alphabet, he decided to look through the A’s, Twilight had been right. He found quite a few authors whose first name started with A, but whose last name started with something else. He had to use his mouth, since he wasn’t a unicorn, but he tried to be as gentle as possible with books he did find. He and Twilight often had to walk past each other to get a book to its correct shelf. At first it was awkward, both of them a touch shy to get too close on accident, but as they fell into a rhythm of work, the wide breadth they gave one another got smaller and smaller, till there was barely one at all. They worked side by side, occasionally flank to flank. Both of them did indeed blush whenever that happened, but Caramel found that Twilight didn’t seem to mind, and he most certainly didn’t either.
He worked his way down to the M’s, scanning when his nose bumped into something warm. He froze, and so did said warm thing. He looked over to find his vision filled with a familiar eye. Her eyes were lovely as always and he was distracted once again before he realized that the reason their eyes were so close was because they were cheek to cheek over a copy of Marial Mare’s: If You Give a Parasprite Anything, a recent book sent from Fillydelphia.
They both seemed to realize this at the same time, and jumped back, looking like a pair of raspberries. Both stuttering monosyllabic words like “I” and “Uh” and “Well: before Caramel finally broke the pattern.
“Um...I guess in that case...we’re finished?” he chuckled awkwardly. Twilight had done about half the shelves, and so had he. They stood in front of a perfectly alphabetized bookshelf.
Twilight chuckled as well, looking it over from afar one last time. “Well, I guess we are.” She smiled. “Thank you for the help, that was fun.”
He paused. Fun wasn’t the word he’d have used to describe what they’d just done, but at the same time, he couldn’t say he hadn’t enjoyed doing it, because he’d done it with her. So he just nodded. “Yeah, I’m happy to help, any time, Twi-”
He was interrupted as lightning struck unnervingly close, the room filling with white light before thunder rattled everything that wasn’t fixed down in the room.
Carmel found himself a foot in the air, he was falling clumsily to the ground by the time he realized the sound had made him jump.
“Woah...” He breathed trying to get his heart to slow down. “That...was close.”
Twilight’s face clouded, looking out the window. “Hmm, normally it doesn’t strike quite that close....I have a magical lightning rod. Living in a tree and all, it’s a precaution that’s altogether too necessary.” She put a hoof to her chin. “I suppose that was just a freak bolt from the clouds, lightning magic is quite unpredictable.”
Caramel tried to stop his legs from shaking as he walked over to her. “Are you sure it’s safe in here? Lightning won’t strike any closer?”
Twilight shook her head. “I’m fairly certain it won’t I’ve had problems with lightning before. Last time a tree fell through my window, so I widened the protection radius of the arcane spell matrix within the construct of the lightning rod. It should render any electrical discharge harmless.”
Caramel came to the conclusion that it was best to just trust the sciency sounding words and nod.
Twilight’s face still carried lines of worry, but she seemed placated by her own logic, and turned to him. “Well, since that’s done, and it’s obviously...well...” thunder shook the tree they stood in once again, they both flinched. “A bit too stormy for you to head home safely...is there anything you’d like to do now?” She smiled with a light blush.
Caramel paused, and decided he really wouldn’t mind spending a bit more time with Twilight. Oh no he wouldn’t mind that in the least.
“I-”
His stomach growling interrupted him before he could get any other words out. He felt his cheeks heating up.
Twilight chuckled. “Well I guess that’s our answer...come to think of it...” Her own cheeks began to redden, her ears folding back a marginally as she smiled. “You do still owe me a dinner.”
Caramel blinked...oh yeah, he had missed their first dinner date. The one with his family had quite frankly ended in disaster, so in a way he did owe her. One nice dinner...alone...in her house...
He tried to keep his expression rather neutral, and probably failed horribly.
“O-oh certainly, that sounds great.” He couldn't stop himself from grinning. “I...I could cook for you. I’m not a great cook, but I know a few dishes...just so long as you don’t mind apples...apples...or apples,” he chuckled.
Twilight’s smile curled up with a small laugh. “I think I wouldn’t mind apples. I’m rather fond of them. You know, I once met a very nice pony while shopping for Apples...” She took a step closer to him.
Caramel stiffened, he wondered if the smile currently spreading its way across his face like a wildfire through a wheatfield was goofy looking, he really didn’t care much though. He stepped a little closer and, unable to resist, he nuzzled her cheek. He felt her stiffen a touch at the contact, but he could feel the smile on her face as he pressed close. Her cheek was soft and warm, and as usual she smelled of books.
She leaned back, he could hear the storm outside, but inside the library, for that moment, he couldn’t have been happier.
The moment wasn’t long, they leaned away from each other, both smiling and shifting about with a kind of joyful nervousness. It reminded Caramel of the sparrows he’d seen outside his window as a child in the spring. Was this how they felt in the trees?
“Apples it is then,” he said softly.
And with that, she led the way to the kitchen.
Caramel insisted that she stay in the dining room as he made his way around the kitchen, seeing where everything was and getting a bit familiar with the layout. He was no where near as good a cook as his sister, but when he was a little colt his grandmother had shown him a thing or two, and Toffee had continued to do so over the years, so he wasn’t completely inept in the kitchen...
I’ve only ever started the occasional fire...and most of them were quickly put out...and no one could even prove that fifth one.
Twilight did have apples, a small basket of them in one of the many cupboards of the library kitchen. He sat them on the counter and contemplated them for a moment. They were Fugi apples, sweet, but a little tart. Not the best apples for a pie, and pie wasn’t the best dinner-food anyway.
Something nice and simple would be the ticket...
He looked around some more until he found a head of lettuce and cherry tomatoes, Twilight had a little bit of feta cheese in the refrigerator. Caramel smiled as he figured out what he’d make. A simple cold apple salad would be perfect for dinner, and he could make something sweeter for desert...but what? It would make sense to get it in the oven now, so when they were done with the salad it would be hot and ready.
Pouring through the cabinets once again he found a small bag of granola, along with various other spices and a pan. He grinned wider, he knew what he would make.
----
The door to the kitchen opened shakily as Caramel walked backwards through it, holding a tray in his mouth. It trembled as he tried to keep his balance.
Steady...Steady... He chanted internally.
Twilight sat behind him, looking a touch worried. He turned to face her, his cheeks perked up around the tray. In two little bowls lay the cold apple salad he had prepared. It wasn’t anything resturant quality, and it looked a little messily prepared, but he had to say he was a bit proud of it.
“Mere ,mouh mho,” he said cheerfully with a mouthful of tray carefully setting it down on the table.
Twilight smiled with apparent relief, looking down at the prepared dish in front of her, then back to Caramel. “This looks very good, I didn’t know you could cook.”
He grinned, feeling some pride welling up in his chest. “Well, I’m no great chef, but when you’re an Apple, you tend to learn a thing or two about being in the kitchen. I can handle myself pretty well I think.”
As long as you don’t consider the fires.
He shook that thought away and sat down across from her with a bit of a bounce in his movements, feeling rather good about himself, it had been a fairly nice day, and he’d had too few of those in his life. He smiled wider as he noticed the trend between his good days and Twilight’s immediate proximity. She smiled back, a faint blush on her cheeks as they began to eat.
The salad was crisp and flavorful, he was relieved he’d managed to get the balance right. There was just the right amount of sweetness in the apples to offset the slight vegetable tartness of the other ingredients. He internally wondered what Toffee might think of it as he took another bite. He couldn’t help but steal glances at Twilight. He didn’t want to seem as though he was staring. Then it might seem as though he was self conscious about whether she liked it or not...which he admittedly was, very much so, but, if she knew that, it might make her self conscious about eating it...which he didn’t want. He wasn’t quite sure what was the proper etiquette for a, mental air quotes, ‘Chef’. There happened to be a spoon on the table, which happened to have a reflection of the window, which happened to have a reflection of Twilight in it. He figured staring at that shouldn’t be too awkward....Unless she happened to look into the window and see the reflection of the spoon, which he supposed had a reflection of him staring at the reflection o-
Ahhh! Stop overthinking and just eat!
They ate in relative silence for a moment, which Caramel took to be a good sign. In the Apple family there was an old saying, that a quiet table is a happy table, mouths too full of food to flap fulla gossip. He pushed his worries aside and focused on eating, from the sound of Twilight’s chewing, he could only guess she was enjoying it.
After a while eating in silence, Twilight paused to look at him for a moment, her large purple eyes seeming to consider something.
“Caramel, may I ask you a question?”
He stopped eating, looking back at her, tilting his head slightly. “Oh, well sure, if you want too.”
Twilight seemed to think for a moment, before looking off to the side, her ears folding ever so slightly. “Well...and tell me if this is too personal, but...You’ve mentioned her a few times...and your grandfather brought her up at dinner...besides those brief mentions...I don’t really know much...Could you tell me about your grandmother?”
Caramel’s ears stood straight up at the question before folding back a little, his hoof rubbing idly against the surface of the table.
“Oh...well...I suppose...if you’re interested.” He looked off to the side, a slight frown playing over his features.
Twilight waved a hoof in the air, eyes widening. “I-if you don’t want to talk about her it’s fine! That’s alright, I shouldn’t have asked...”
He looked back to her, taking a deep breath. “No...no it’s okay...really, I just...Have I mentioned her?...I remember Grandpa bringing her up, but I...” He thought for a moment, she had been crossing his mind more and more lately it seemed.
Twilight nodded. “When you gave me that gift...with the paintings from the book.” She gestured to the little wooden cube she had placed on a nearby shelf. “The Secret Tree? You mentioned your grandmother used to read it to you...”
Caramel nodded, thinking back. “She did...I loved that book when I was a foal...” He gave a little laugh, looking down at his hooves at the memory. “I remember she’d do funny voices for the filly and the colt...”
Twilight smiled lightly. “That sounds lovely.”
He nodded. “It was...” He was quiet for a moment, the rain pattered against the window. “You’re very smart...I’m guessing you’ve picked up that she’s not around anymore...Grampa made it pretty clear at Dinner...”
She opened her mouth to say something, but closed it and nodded.
Caramels sighed. “You’re right...she’s not...she hasn’t been since I was very small, maybe a bit younger than my cousin Applebloom.” His ears folded slightly. “I’m not sure I quite remember what she looked like, but I do remember her voice when she read to me...she liked doing that, she was a very happy mare, a little shy if I remember her right...odd for an Apple.” He chuckled softly. “Great gardener...Grampa mentioned that...” He grew quiet again. “...I think she always understood me just a little better than he did...though she wasn’t there long. She didn’t mind when I messed up, didn’t yell or punish, just smiled and told me I’d get it another day.” He swallowed, taking a deep breath. “Another day...”
Twilight looked concerned, leaning a touch closer to him, her hoof reaching out to touch his as it continued to rub against the table. “Do...do you want to stop? We can talk about something else.”
Caramel shook his head, his mouth settling into a hard line for a moment before it melted into a softer smile. “No...it’s alright...it’s nice to talk about it.” He took another deep breath. “Haven’t in a while...” He was quiet for a moment before continuing. “Anyway...she got sick...I don’t quite remember with what...she wasn’t a very strong mare, physically, always a bit wispy and thin...We do have a few pictures...so I know I have that right.” Thunder rumbled outside the tree as the branches shook in the wind. “She just kind of...wasted away...she gardened until she couldn’t anymore... I have a memory of her struggling in the field while my Grampa watched...whenever he tried to help she’d just smile at him for a moment, and he’d know to let her do it on her own...” Lines formed around his mouth, he let his breath out in a sigh. “She was out there every day, and no matter how sick she got, the trees and the flowers never so much as turned brown...” He lapsed into silence again before going on, looking at his hooves. “She was bedridden for the last of it...but she still smiled..still seemed happy to see me...until she couldn't any more. She...she seemed far away, I think she said something to me, but I can’t quite remember what it was...” His face scrunched as he thought on it, but nothing came. ”The...her bed was empty. I came by and her bed was empty...That was the end of it.”
He felt a coldness, as he finished telling that part of the story, it was familiar, like an old wound aching in the rain. Sudenly he felt something warm at his side. He stiffened with a little gasp, looking up to find Twilight beside him, leaning on his shoulder, her cheek pressed to his. He didn’t push her away. He leaned back, closing his eyes. “I miss her sometimes...”
She simply nodded, and in that moment he gained a new appreciation for her. She wasn’t just book smart...she knew that quiet comfort, was sometimes better than empty words. She simply stood with him as he thought about something that had been hovering around the edge of his mind for a long time. He hadn’t thought about her that way...for quite some time...not really and truly, but he felt good for doing so, it was sad but...necessary, he thought.
They enjoyed the moment until they smelled the burning.
Caramel went stiff.
“The apple sticky!”
He suddenly bolted to the kitchen, leaving Twilight blinking in the dining room. When he reappeared he was holding a rather charred tray with a pot holder in his mouth. His ears pinned themselves back as he walked forwards and set it on the table.
“Um...desert?” he said lamely.
Twilight eyed the dish for a moment, blinking a few times, as the world seemed to return to normal. She took a deep breath. “It...it doesn’t look that bad, I think I will try a piece.” Her mouth stretched open in what seemed to be an encouraging smile as a fork floated over to the pair of them. She pressed it down into the dish, where it promptly bent against the crust. Her eyes widened as she stared at the warped silverware. “Um...maybe we can save it for Spike when he gets back?...He likes most things...”
Caramel looked at the smoldering desert, crestfallen.
Twilight paused, then threw the fork in some random direction before stepping up beside Caramel, she nosed his head up a bit, nestling under it. “It’s the thought that counts.” she said softly, looking up at him from beneath his chin. Caramel went stiff for a moment, before a smile broke through his frown, he nestled his chin down against her, pressing close.
“Well...In that case...” He wrapped a hoof around her. “I think about you a lot...”
She smiled in turn, nestling against him warmly. “You too...”
And at least it wasn’t a fire this time.... he thought absently, before letting that thought drift off and enjoying her closeness once again.
Caramel wasn’t quite sure how long they stayed like that, the rain pounded against the windows and lightning flashed over them, but he didn’t feel like it was even a concern. She felt warm and soft against him and he wanted to hold her forever, if only he could. But eventually, it was time to disconnect and clean up. They shared a smile as he collected the dishes and headed to the kitchen putting them in the sink, running a bit of water over each before scrubbing it clean. He couldn't leave her with dirty dishes, he even managed not to break any as he placed them back where he’d found them. He shot the Apple Sticky dish a look, but he had a feeling that that one dish in particular would never quite be clean again...he’d have to look into getting her a new one.
As Caramel, with no small measure of embarrassment, quietly slid ruined desert into the trash he heard a knock at the door. He walked back into the dining room, making his way to the main room when he heard it open. His ears flicked, he heard an urgent voice alongside Twilights, his blood ran cold, how late was it? Could it have been his grandfather? Oh that was the last thing he needed right now. He quickly trotted the rest of the way to the front door, only to find Toffee standing in the middle of the room, looking around wildly. As her eyes locked on him she closed the gap between them in a flash, racing past Twilight, who looked worried and confused.
“Toffee!?” he said his eyes wide with surprise.
“Caramel! Have you seen Grampa!? Please tell me he’s here...” Her eyes looked frantic as they searched his for an answer.
“W-what? Grampa, Here? Why would he be here?” He paused. “Toffee...what’s wrong...tell me.”
She took a deep breath. “He went looking for you as few hours ago, before the storm hit, he wanted you to come home, said he felt bad, but then this storm hit...and I haven’t seen him...And...I...I don't’ know where he is, Caramel. I thought you might be here, I was hoping he was too...I don’t think it’s rained like this in Equestria for years...He should have been back by now...”
Caramel’s eyes widened. “You think he’s out in this!? Right now!?”
Toffee nodded. “There’s nowhere else he could be! We have to find him, quickly!”
Caramel nodded, looking back to Twilight. “I’ve gotta go!”
She nodded. “I’m coming with you.”
He opened his mouth to protest, but her eyes brokered no argument.
“Both of you just come on!” Toffee yelled.
And without another word, they charged out into the howling wind.