“Hey, why are you trying to cut?!”
“Sorry! Friend’s up ahead, I swear!”
Adam Caro trudged through the chatting crowd of ponies gathered in a line on the Manehattan street’s sidewalk. Despite the apologies constantly flying out of his mouth, the slim man couldn’t help but feel the beginnings of a slight frustration gnawing at him. For one, he currently wore a finely-tailored tuxedo—a piece of formal clothing more foreign to Adam than astrophysics were to a four-year-old—and the thing made movement much more difficult than usual. He wasn’t about to doubt the skill of the mare in Ponyville who had tailored the suit for him, but restricted movement was a pain regardless.
Another reason was the ponies themselves.
These fuckers just don’t want to cooperate, I swear, thought Adam with a frown as he edged around yet another stallion. It’s like they can’t tell I have somewhere to be tonight….
“Watch it!”
“Pardon me, my man! Just tryin’ to get through here.”
“What in Equestria did you just call me?!”
At least at this point, he wasn’t too far from his destination. Said location was one of the most grand, and fancy restaurants throughout all of Manehattan: the Éclipse Lunaire.
...he had been told it was one of the fanciest, anyway.
Really, it didn’t look too astounding to him. The establishment’s exterior was of a modern design, by equestrian standards. Windows taller than him almost completely lined the building’s front, and where there weren’t any windows, the walls were a white marble. Above every other window hung a soft, yellow light shining down onto the pavement below. It was these, along with a curtain of red velvet on the inside of each window that just about completely blocked off any view that Adam might’ve had of the building’s interior.
“Excuse me, but would you mind not bumping into me?” asked a snotty feminine voice from in front of him. “I’d prefer not getting dirt on my dress.”
Adam froze in his step, taking a sharp intake of breath through his nose as he glanced down at the glowering mare. If this earth pony wasn’t only up to his waist, then maybe he would have been at least slightly unnerved by the glare she was giving him. And, if he hadn’t had to deal with this exact situation three times already, then maybe he would’ve just simply apologized and moved on. But fuck that.
“Not at all, ma’am!” chimed Adam, putting on an overly-fake smile. “Just couldn’t see you there under the fifty layers of perfume and makeup.”
A certain satisfaction came to Adam’s face as he saw the mare’s astonished expression, and he stepped around her. As frustrated as having to deal with the city folk had made him, a voice in Adam’s head lamented that last retort. Perhaps that was a little harsh...but he had had just about enough of these stuck-up ‘high class’ ponies to last him several years. And he had only been in the city for a few hours at this point.
“How rude….” whispered a beige, monocle-wearing stallion to his right.
Resisting the urge to shoot back with a shake of his head, Adam rolled his eyes and continued pushing closer to the front of the line. “Rude? How about PRUDE….” he mumbled to himself.
His friend had warned him a lot of the folk would be like this once they got inside the restaurant, but having to deal with them outside of it? If it wasn’t for the fact that he’d be going here with that friend, then he wouldn’t have even bothered. The things one does for friends, right?
“Caro! There you are!” came a familiar voice.
Speaking of that friend….
Making one last step around a particularly plump gryphon, Adam came face-to-face with the sole reason he had come out tonight—his dear roommate, musical partner, and friend Vinyl Scratch. Adam flashed her a lopsided toothy grin, one which she didn’t return in kind.
“Where in the hay have you been...?!” whispered Vinyl Scratch in a harsh tone. She anxiously glanced over her shoulder towards the ever-nearing restaurant, then glared back at him. “I told ya’ to leave early and everything so you’d get here on time, dude!”
Adam rubbed the back of his neck, eyes averted to avoid having to see her ice-cold stare. “My bad….” he replied. “Not sure if you noticed or not, but traffic here’s kinda rough tonight.”
The entirety of the line moved forward a pace.
“Yeah, yeah—whatever, dude…” grumbled Vinyl Scratch. She shook her head, and shifted in her stance to be side-by-side with Adam. For a few, lingering seconds she simply stood there, still as a stone, staring straight ahead of them with an angry frown. A cool wind blew against her, lightly shifting her mane and her red dress, custom-made for the night. For the longest time before now, she felt she was overdoing it to get a dress made for the night—it was just dinner with a friend, after all—but after seeing how dressed-up he was himself, that worry dissipated. Out of the corner of her eye, Vinyl Scratch found herself looking back up at the fidgeting man. She noticed something. Something was...different, about him tonight.
Indeed, it was a little weird seeing him wearing such formal clothing, with him having usually worn jeans and a variety of t-shirts—but that wasn’t it. Moving up to his face, she noted that the thin layer of stubble that had dotted his chin and jaw was gone. But it had been like that since this morning. What was so different, then?
It was when she had panned up past his face, and looked at the top of his head that she realized what was different.
“...you cut your hair?”
Adam’s eyebrows raised as he looked up and tried in vain to see the aforementioned brunette hair. “Hm? Oh, uh...yeah,” he answered, running a hand through the new ‘do. “That was actually the other thing I wanted to mention. Decided I would get rid of the ol’ jewfro, you know?”
The mare laughed, bumping her elbow into him. “Dude, you know ya’ didn’t have to do that, right?”
“You got your hair stylized!” Adam shot back.
As the line moved forward again in loose unison, Vinyl Scratch retorted with, “Yeah, but I didn’t get it cut.”
With a roll of his eyes, Adam huffed, but smirked. He reached a hand out to ruffle the unicorn’s mane out of habit, but upon remembering that she had gotten it specially styled for the night, pulled the hand back to hang limply by his side. His gaze followed the hand’s trajectory, and was eventually met with the sight of his friend.
“Ya’ know, not to sound cheesy or anything, but…”
Vinyl Scratch gave him a sideways glance. “But…?”
Adam shrugged and stated, “You don’t look too bad in a dress.”
“Psh, well...don’t get used to it. I only had this thing made because we had coupons for this place.”
“I’m just sayin’.” Another shrug.
“And ya’ know what? You don’t look horrible in that suit, either, Caro.”
Despite having given the initial complement, Adam was actually caught off-guard by her courtesy. He raised his eyebrows and said, “Well thanks—”
“But don’t think for one bucking second that I’ve forgiven you for being late,” finished Vinyl Scratch, mockingly turning her snout away from him.
“Christ…” mumbled Adam. His hand made a soft slap as it impacted his forehead. “Come on! I was only late by like four—maybe five minutes at best! We still have time to spare, even.”
“Still laaaate~”
Adam stared down at her. “Barely.”
“Maybe this time, dude,” admitted Vinyl Scratch. “But you’re late so often I’m starting to think that if you made an appointment with the princess herself—you’d still be late.”
Wincing slightly, Adam hesitantly replied, “Ya’ know...I think that’s pushing it a little.”
“Okay, better yet? Pretend there’s this villain that’s gonna end the world and shit, right? At midnight.” Vinyl Scratch rambled on, completely ignoring the strange looks thrown their way by some of the surrounding ponies. “If the Elements were gone it was somehow up to you to stop him, then ya’ better hope he actually meant 12:45.”
“Vinyl, I get it—”
“And dude, if a doctor said you were gonna die during Hearth's Warming Eve, you’d probably be just croakin’ by the time Hearts and Hooves Day rolls around.”
“Christ, Vinyl!” exclaimed Adam with an exasperated chuckle. Once again, he stopped himself from tussling the mare’s tidied-up mane. “I get it, man. Jeez. You’re killin’ me here.”
As the line stepped forward once more, Vinyl Scratch snorted. She turned to him with a smirk. “Yeah, I know. Just buckin’ with ya’ is all, dude.”
“Ahem.”
Startled, both Adam and Vinyl Scratch spun around to face the sudden third voice. Apparently, they had finally reached the line’s front.
A uniformed mare stood before them in front of the restaurant’s double doors, clipboard levitated near her by a pink aura. She inspected Vinyl Scratch, then, when she lazily looked over to scan Adam—she actually had to tilt her head up a bit to see his head. Surprisingly, she didn’t look all too put off by his appearance.
“Names?” she asked, her monotone voice laced with a heavy prench accent.
“Adam Caro,” the man stated, lightly patting his chest. “And my friend here is—”
“The most popular, most skilled dubstep artist this side of Equestria—the one and only—Vinyl Scratch!” announced said mare, grinning in a sort of mock pride.
To say the doormare’s reaction to this introduction was underwhelming was...well, an understatement. Her face retained its bored expression, eyes half-lidded and mouth in a subtle frown. The only parts of her that moved as she looked down to the clipboard were her dull eyes. She flipped a page. Then another.
“Oh, here you two are,” the doormare droned. She quirked a brow almost unnoticeably. “Perfectly on ze scheduled time.”
She stepped aside, allowing them entrance to the restaurant. “Ze waitress will show you to your seats. Have a good night.”
“You too,” replied Adam and Vinyl Scratch in unison.
Almost immediately upon entering the building, Adam’s previous opinion on it changed. He quickly saw just why Vinyl had called it the most grand restaurant in all of Manehattan, and now that he had actually seen it firsthand—he figured it was likely the most beautiful restaurant in all of Equestria, even.
The ceiling was high enough up that the restaurant’s ground floor was nearly twice as tall as an average building’s, with the windows he had seen outside still towering like before. 20—maybe 25 cloth-covered tables were set neatly about the room, with a couple of high-class ponies occupying each and every one. The large room was surprisingly quiet for its occupancy; the soft notes of a classical piece could be clearly heard over the low chatter.
“Holy fuck…” whispered Adam in awe.
Beside him, Vinyl Scratch couldn’t help but also be filled with a sense of awe. It was her first time in this restaurant, after all. Along with that, however...she also felt some other irksome feeling building in her gut. This place sure is...something, thought Vinyl Scratch, her eyes soaking in the sight of the place in its entirety. Really buckin’ fancy, for sure. Just look at all the other ponies here right now! The Éclipse Lunaire was a common wine-and-dine spot for the more ‘upper-class’ folks, and from the sight of it alone—she could certainly tell. To the point to where she actually felt out of place just standing there. It was at that moment that a waitress approached the two of them.
“Good evening, madame and mo—” the pony began her greeting, then, upon setting eyes on Adam, froze. Her jaw almost made a muffled clack upon hitting the carpeted floor.
Said man quirked a brow. Glancing down at Vinyl Scratch, he cupped a hand around the side of his jaw and silently mouthed to the mare, “What in the living fuck is her deal?”
In response, Vinyl Scratch could only shrug. “No clue,” she mouthed back.
“By Celestia’s beard,” the waitress blurted out after a few seconds of pause. “No offense, monsieur, but—you’re as grande as blue cheese is moldy.”
A loud snort left Vinyl Scratch as she tried in vain to hold back her laughter. She doubled over slightly, holding a hoof out to the waitress as she fruitlessly tried to cover up a chuckle with a faked cough.
“No—hehe—no offense taken, ma’am,” replied Adam, awkwardly grinning.
“A-anyway, I’ll be taking you two to your seats, now,” stated the waitress, a visible blush to her cheeks. “Follow me, s'il vous plaît!” She turned and quickly started trotting away, mumbling under her breath something along the lines of: “...probablement une expérience intéressante dans le sac….”
Following the waitress up quite a few tall flights of stairs, they eventually came to the restaurant’s top floor. While he didn’t really say anything about it, Adam had to admit that climbing all those stairs actually made his legs ache a bit. And they have to carry food and drinks up those things? he wondered. The thought alone brought a pang of pity to him. Hopefully they have like a staff elevator or something...otherwise these ponies might be more fit than the damn Wonderbolts.
There were slightly fewer ponies up on this floor, though a majority of the tables were still occupied. The waitress lead them to an empty table right next to a window in the room’s corner and set a couple menus down. Adam and Vinyl Scratch promptly took seats across from each other.
“I’ll be back in a few minutes for your orders, oui?” the waitress assured them. “Now before I go—would either of you two happen to know what drinks you want for the night?”
Nodding, Adam took the menu in hand and unfolded it. It had been an unanimous decision between him and Vinyl that, since they were eating at a place as fancy as this; they might as well drink and eat fancy, too. The restaurant’s wine selection was on the back of the menu, and he flipped over to see it.
“Uh, yeah, I’ll have the”—he quickly scanned through the items until he found one that sounded good to him—“The Automne?”
“L'automne,” repeated the waitress. “Got it. And you, madame?”
“Uh…” Vinyl Scratch trailed off as she stared down at her menu, her eyes scrolling down the various items listed. “Hm....”
After a good minute or so of this going on, Adam’s patience finally wore thin. He rolled his eyes and groaned, “She’ll just have the same thing as—”
“Wait-wait-wait-wait-wait,” chanted Vinyl Scratch, not taking her gaze from the menu as she waved Adam off with a hoof. “Just give me a moment, I’m still looking….”
The waitress still just stood there at the table, politely smiling. Or at least she was trying to. Said polite smile became more and more forced as time went on, and several minutes passed in a painfully awkward silence. At some point, her eyes had begun to frantically dart between Adam, and the still searching Vinyl Scratch. Time droned on; grains of sand dropping continuously, harmlessly to the bottom of the never-ending hourglass. Several decades came and went, and by the time Vinyl Scratch finally came to a decision about what she wanted to drink—it was actually the waitress’ identical-looking great granddaughter serving them.
“On second thought, yeah. I’ll just have what he’s havin’—it sounds pretty good,” Vinyl Scratch answered, giving the waitress an apologetic grin.
There was a very evident twitch in one of the waitress’ eyes as she slowly nodded, and trotted away to go retrieve their drinks (and regain some of her sanity). Several of the patrons also eating on that floor looked after the mare in pity.
Vinyl Scratch watched the mare until she disappeared behind a corner leading downstairs, then turned to look over at Adam. “So...what do ya’ think of the place so far, dude?”
“Its atmosphere is fancy as hell,” replied Adam, giving the place another impressed once-over with his eyes. “Looks just gorgeous, and although the music isn’t exactly MY thing, really—it’s pretty okay!”
“This classical shit makes me wish I brought my headphones,” admitted Vinyl Scratch. “Other than that, yeah, it’s pretty cool looking. ...just like I told ya’ it would be!”
“I never denied that, ya’ know.”
Adjusting her mane with a hoof, she continued, lightly chuckling. “True. To tell ya’ the truth, what I’ve told you about this place is actually all stuff I’ve heard from OTHER ponies. Never actually been in here myself, because, well”—her smile lessened a few degrees—“I don’t much fit in with crowds like these.” She subtly gestured to the other customers seated nearby.
Adam quickly glanced around, then leaned in toward Vinyl Scratch over the table. “You? Not fitting in with a bunch of snotty assholes?” he sarcastically asked in a whisper. “I don’t believe it for a second.”
The smirk on Vinyl Scratch’s muzzle returned with full force. “Ya’ know what I don’t believe?”
“Let me guess...” Adam started with rolled eyes, leaning back into his chair.
This time it was Vinyl who leaned across the table. In a whisper, she said, “How buckin’ LATE you were today, dude!”
Exasperated, Adam threw his arms into the air. “Yep! I should’ve known.” A hand dragged down his face. “Should’ve fuckin’ known...”
“I agree—you should have known!”
“But you know what?” asked Adam suddenly, turning the tables on her. “That unicorn at the door? She said we arrived right on ‘ze scheduled time’ ”—he spoke this part in a terrible prench accent—“So—HA!” His voice reached a volume level louder than normal speech, attracting quite a few looks their way from some of the surrounding customers. Noticing the gained attention, Adam and Vinyl nervously laughed to themselves.
“Hm…. Not much a place for active conversation, eh…?” asked Vinyl Scratch as she slinked back into the seat, her voice especially hushed after receiving those glances.
Fingers lightly tapping on the table cloth, Adam shrugged. “I...did get kind of loud.”
“Psh, what are they gonna do—kick us out for being noisy?” A cocky grin.
Adam returned the grin, his fingers still tapping a rhythm. Right when he was about reply, though, their drinks arrived. The waitress trotted over to them, the glasses and a wine bottle balancing on a tray held in her mouth. Setting the tray down in between Adam and Vinyl Scratch, she then retrieved a cork puller from seemingly out of nowhere. Within seconds, the wine bottle was open. The waitress poured an even amount of the amber liquid into each glass, then gave both of them to their respective owners.
“Thank you,” chorused Vinyl Scratch and Adam to the waitress, who gave them a curt nod before walking away with the now-empty tray in her mouth.
Adam was the first to pick up his glass. He held it up to the light, gently swishing around its fiery-looking content. “Looks pretty...tasty,” he hesitantly mumbled, bringing it up to his nose. A spicy scent hit his nostrils—a smell heavily reminiscent of fall. Guess that’s where it gets its name.
Satisfied, he brought the glass to his lips. Peering through its surface to his friend’s distorted image, Adam smiled and made a toast. “Bottoms up!” He tilted the glass back. Almost immediately after the first gulp, a burning sensation slammed the back of his throat and he broke into a coughing fit.
“AUUUUGH!” cried Adam through coughs, his fist clenching. “I’M DYING.”
“Bucking hay, dude—you okay?” asked Vinyl Scratch, her face twisted in a mix between amusement and concern.
The dying man leaned forward in his chair, supporting himself on the table with an elbow. The coughs started growing less and less frequent over the next few seconds. When they had finally slowed to the point where Adam could at least kind of breathe, he straightened up, red-faced.
“Jesus Christ—cough—what the hell is—cough—in this stuff?!” Adam croaked, tenderly rubbing his throat.
Laughing, Vinyl Scratch picked the bottle of wine up with her magic and brought it over to her. “I think that might be the Automne’s 20% alcohol content,” she read from the label.
“What?” Adam snatched it away from her, deciding to see for himself. He rotated the bottle in his hand until he found just exactly where his pal had seen that. “Tryin’ to kill me, I swear....”
“There’s that,” began Vinyl Scratch. “AND the fact that you’re not supposed to just chug wine. It’s a fancy drink, so you have to drink it like you’re—ya’ know—fancy. Sip it. Like, that’s beginner’s stuff, dude.”
Plopping the bottle back down between them, Adam leaned back in his chair. “I’m startin’ to think you fit in more with the fancy crowd than you think,” he sighed.
The white mare snorted, rolling her eyes. “Nah. Octa’ told me that one.”
“You took advice from her?”
Vinyl shrugged. “She heard we were going out to the Éclipse Lunaire—”
“And how jealous was Octavia when she heard that?” interjected Adam, his mouth stretching into a devilish grin.
A pause. Then, a similar smile formed on Vinyl Scratch’s muzzle as she answered, “Like ya’ wouldn’t believe.”
“HA!” Adam slammed a hand on the table, rattling both glasses and the bottle of Automne. “Heh. Oh, I would have loved to see that exchange. But, uh...as you were saying?”
Still smirking, she continued. “Well, like I was saying—Octa’ heard we were going to the Éclipse Lunaire, and since she knew that I wasn’t really the high-class mare like she was, she assumed that I would need some pointers—”
“Which, for once: she assumed correctly.”
“Surprising, I know.” Vinyl said. “She took it upon herself to give me, and I quote, ‘proper dining etiquette.’ ”
“Lucky you,” mumbled Adam, looking down in contempt at the glass of wine in front of him. Maybe it’ll taste better when it’s not burning the shit out of my throat. He shrugged, then hesitantly picked up the glass.
Horn lighting up, Vinyl Scratch mirrored the man’s action and levitated her glass up next to his. She looked over at Adam, giggling. “Bottoms up!”
Adam rolled his eyes, but returned the laughter and cheered, “Bottoms up!”
Their glasses came together with a soft clink. Then, they each took a sip.
Vinyl Scratch’s eyebrows instantly shot up in surprise at the deliciously smooth, yet contrasting spicy taste of the drink. Like a spell had just been cast over her, one sip of the Automne brought with it a deep feeling of warmth. She stared down at the glass in sheer awe. “Holy shit.”
“I’ve got to say,” started Adam, smacking his lips. “This stuff is pretty...pretty damn good when it’s not burning my throat like literal acid.” He took another slow sip, savoring the taste.
Right when Vinyl Scratch was about to take another drink herself, she paused, looking down at the menu in front of her. “Ya’ know, dude, we should probably try and make this stuff last until we’ve at least got our food.”
Letting out a content sigh, Adam nodded and set his glass down. “Yeah, you’re right,” he admitted. “Whatcha getting?”
“That’s just what I was about to see….” She exchanged her glass for the menu, then opened it up to appetizers section. “Say, you in the mood to get any hors d'oeuvres?”
“Any what?”
“Appetizers.”
“Oh! Uh...no?”
“At least check your damn menu, dude.”
Adam grunted, but picked up his menu regardless. After but a moment of searching, he glanced up at Vinyl and said, “I stand by my decision.”
“Well, that’s awesome,” stated Vinyl. “Because I agree. Skip all the bullshit and get to the point, right?”
“It’s like you read my mind.”
“Yeah, right. I’d probably go crazy if I did that.”
“With a friend like you, Vinyl,” began Adam, pointing a finger. “I would be fucked if I had any actual enemies.”
The two of them spent the next minute or so looking through the menu to find what they wanted to eat. Vinyl Scratch decided on a simple, but tasty salad. And much to Vinyl (and the waitress)’s disgust, Adam chose to have some duck. Minutes passed before said waitress finally returned to the table, quickly took their orders, then trotted off again with their menus.
After Adam watched the mare turn the corner to once more head down the stairs, he turned to look out the window next to their table...only to find it completely covered by a curtain. Immediately, he raised a hand to move the curtain, but then paused. “Mind if I open this curtain, Vinyl?”
“Go for it,” replied Vinyl Scratch simply, shaking her head.
The curtain was quickly slid aside, giving the two of them a surprisingly beautiful look of the city below. They weren’t that high up, being only about eight or so floors from the ground, but most of the non-skyscraper buildings in Manehattan weren’t even that tall. The night sky was an indigo—nearly black—tone, illuminated by both Princess Luna’s moon, looming high up above the skyline, and the numerous lit-up windows dotting the buildings.
“Wow…” gasped Vinyl Scratch.
Adam was silent as he looked out to the city, dropping his chin down to rest in his hand. Something about the sight was immensely familiar to the man—he had grown up in the city, after all—but at the same time, it also looked just so...so alien to him. It was like if you walked into somebody else’s bedroom, only to find that they had rearranged everything in there to make it look like your room. It looked similar, sure, but...deep down you knew it wasn’t your room. So even though it reminded him so much of his old home in New York, Adam knew that he was nowhere near that home anymore.
A cold pit formed in Adam’s stomach as the realization finally dawned on him. The good mood that he had been in previously disappeared, replaced by a startlingly sudden sense of loneliness. He closed his eyes to block out the view, unable to take it anymore. How have I seriously not thought about this before…. The only human on this whole damn planet, thought Adam, swallowing what felt like a stone. So far from home.
Alone.
He opened his eyes again. As Adam looked at the window again, though, he saw something different than before. The city was still there, but it was out of focus as Adam saw the image of something reflected in front of it. His noisy roommate. His talented musical partner. His dear, dear friend. Vinyl Scratch.
For a moment, the two of them sat there silently looking out (and at) the window. Then, Vinyl Scratch noticed that Adam had a somewhat distracted expression on his face, and as far as she could tell he wasn’t actually looking out at the city. She frowned, and with her magic she turned his head so they were facing each other again.
“Dude,” she whispered, leaning across the table. “You okay?”
Adam blinked. Then, he quickly nodded and said, quite loudly: “Yeah! Yeah, I’m fine.”
The attention of a few of the ponies at other tables around them had been caught by the man’s raised voice. Some even stopped eating to look at the two of them. This time, though, with how preoccupied they were—it didn’t bother either Adam or Vinyl.
“Caro.”
“Nothing’s wrong.”
“Caro.”
“I’m just gettin’ hungry is all. Say, you seen the waitress at all? Our food should’ve been here by now!” He sat up in his chair for a second, exaggeratedly scanning the restaurant floor for any sign of the uniformed mare. After that, he slumped back down, and immediately reached over to pick up his almost-empty glass of wine, only to find his hand stopped midair by a reddish aura. Looking across the table to Vinyl, he saw her still giving him that same fierce, yet concerned gaze.
“Wha—”
“You’re a buckin’ terrible liar, Adam,” stated Vinyl Scratch. Her expression softened a bit, and she leaned even closer. “Just...tell me what the hay the problem is so I can at least try to help.”
Mouth opening, Adam briefly considered lying to the mare again. She probably wouldn’t ask again if he still insisted that nothing was wrong after that. But as he looked into those imploring magenta eyes of hers...the man’s resolve crumbled. A shaky sigh left Adam’s lips, he set his arms on the table, and slunk his chin down into the tuxedo-sleeve’s silky fabric.
He opened and closed his mouth a couple times before finally speaking. “It’s not anything huge, or really anything like...terribly sad, I guess,” began Adam, turning his head to look out the window. “It’s kinda dumb, too, really. I dunno, just...something about looking out at the city sorta...sorta messed with me, I think.”
“Messed with you?”
Adam nodded and sat up. Nothing stopped him this time as he once again reached for his glass, and within a second he downed the rest of it. The man winced slightly at the wine’s strength, but picked up the bottle of Automne and poured himself yet another serving. Taking yet another drawn out sip, he sighed and dropped his chin back down onto his arms, looking up at Vinyl as she repeated herself.
“What do you mean, ‘it messed with you’, dude?”
“I dunno, it—the sight of it kinda just reminded me of my old home, I guess. Made me a little homesick, and...I dunno...lonely?” Adam explained, a bitter smirk on his face as he looked down at the glass of wine in his hand. He slowly shook his head, chin rubbing awkwardly against his sleeve. “Yeah, yeah, like I said—it’s pretty dumb.”
Looking at how distressed the usually-upbeat man seemed at the moment, it simply broke Vinyl’s heart. She gulped and took a deep, shaking breath. Her eyes were downcast for a beat before she summoned the courage to rest a hoof on Adam’s hand. Startled, the man nearly dropped his drink as looked up at her.
“Listen...Adam,” began Vinyl, looking him straight in the eyes. “It ain’t dumb to feel lonely sometimes—everypony does. I mean, sure, it WAS a little out of the blue here, dude, but I can completely understand it, ya’ know? Can’t imagine how lonely it’d be to be the only one of my kind in the world. Really, that’s gotta suck.”
Adam stiffly nodded, not daring to move any part of his body.
“But Caro, I...fuck, I don’t want you to have to feel lonely as long as you’re here.” Vinyl leaned in closer to Adam, her gaze unwavering. “I can’t stand ya’ at times, dude, but to say I don’t have the time of my life anyway would be a buckin’ lie.”
She tilted her head forward—careful with the horn—and lightly pressed her forehead against Adam’s own. Her cheeks burned, but she didn’t care. A pleasant smile stretched across her lips. “Having you here makes my life awesome,” she whispered.
For a while after those words left Vinyl’s mouth, Adam couldn’t formulate a response. He opened his mouth, but then shut it. Open, then shut. Open, then shut. Eventually, Adam just let out a quiet laugh, turning his hand around to grip Vinyl’s hoof. He softly squeezed it.
“Christ, I...heh, I’m sorry for getting so down out of nowhere, Vinyl,” apologized Adam, shaking his head but not breaking their physical-contact. “It might not mean much, but—even though it’ll be a long time before I’m completely over being the only human here...I’m glad to be here with you, too.”
“It means the world to me, actually—”
“Ahem.”
Adam and Vinyl threw themselves back in surprise, spinning around to face the unannounced third voice. It was the waitress, a cart holding their food standing in front of her. She gave each of them a strange grin before saying, “Monsieur and madame, your...eh, your food’s ready. We apologize for how long it took.”
Faces burning a bright red, both Adam and Vinyl took a long look at the food, then back to each other.