“Sonata.”
“…mmph…nngh…”
“Sonata. Wake up.”
“…huhn…don’ wanna…”
“Sonata!”
“Huh!” She jerked her head up at that, blinking her eyes as she glanced around blearily. “I can’t…I can’t go to school now…” she mumbled, trying to put her thoughts in order. “I put my homework on backwards and my lunch ran away…”
“Sonata, it’s almost dawn. You need to head into Vanhoover now if you’re going to be at the docks by the time that boat arrives,” urged Lex.
Sonata stared at him for a long moment, blinking several times before her brain finally started to reboot. “Boat…right. The boat. I’m going down there because…” She paused as a large yawn escaped from her mouth. “Because I’m totes going to…” Another yawn. “To charm the pants off of ‘em.” As if to punctuate her remark, she tilted her head to the side, leaning over as she stretched one hind leg up to scratch her ear, closing one eye as she rubbed it back and forth in short, rapid motions.
A pained look crossed Lex’s face at the display. “If you don’t feel confident that you can do this-”
“Of course I do,” she grinned as she finally climbed to her hooves, groaning as she stretched. Climbing down from the bench where she’d been snuggled with Lex, she let out a deep breath, finally awake. “I totes got this!”
“Oh, I don’t know,” came a sibilant whisper. A moment later, Aria’s head draped across Lex’s flank, taking the spot Sonata had just vacated. “Our stallion here can be charming enough when he wants to be.” The words were sent toward Sonata with a smug smile, before she turned her eyes toward Lex. “If I’d been wearing pants last night, you’d have gotten me right out of them.”
Sonata clenched her jaw, watching as Lex turned red and struggled to come up with a reply. But as much as she wished he’d have just pushed her spiteful sister away and told her to quit hanging off of him from now on, it wasn’t his attitude that bothered her; she knew him well enough to know that flirting was far outside of his comfort zone. Rather, it was the knowledge that Aria wasn’t acting that way just to be mean. Oh, she was playing it up like she was, but Sonata could see through the façade now, since Aria had slipped up night before last and accidentally revealed how she really felt.
She likes him. The thought made Sonata feel like she’d eaten a whole tray of ice cubes, a cold feeling spreading through her gut. She likes him the way I like him. That was a million times worse than if Aria had just been flirting with him out of spite. If that had been the case, then it would have been annoying but nothing to really be concerned about. But now…now Sonata couldn’t help but be genuinely worried. It was that worry that made her lurch forward and shove Aria off of Lex. “Knock it off! I’m his girlfriend, not you!”
Despite the rough treatment, Aria’s lip curled in a mocking smirk. “Well, I think he’s too masculine for only a single girlfriend,” she grinned. Turning her eyes back to Lex, she gave him a coquettish look. “What do you think? You’re stallion enough to handle all three of us, right?”
Ordinarily, Lex had no trouble deconstructing an interrogative statement and examining its underlying premises, context, logical structure, and grammatical formation in order to come up with the optimal response. It had become so second-nature to him that it required no conscious thought, happening instantaneously while the other person was speaking. But at that particular moment, struggling to parse the social variables of multiple interpersonal dynamics even as he tried, futilely, to ignore his instinctive reactions to what Aria was saying, Lex found himself unable to formulate an answer. “I…um…”
“That’s not fair and you know it, Aria,” sighed Nosey, abandoning her attempt to ignore the arguing and go back to sleep. Instead, she opened her eyes from where she was lying her head on Lex’s middle, giving the Siren a reproachful look. “And this isn’t helping anypony right before Sonata’s big mission.”
“Yeah!” added Sonata, sending a grateful look toward the other mare.
“Hmm.” Aria leaned her head down to nuzzle Lex, her eyes flitting between the other two. “Neither of you seemed worried about that last night when he was having fun with us again.”
Now Lex spoke up, turning to glare at the troublesome mare. “That was purely for research purposes,” he snapped, his voice defensive. “I told you that I was examining the magical channels-”
“So you didn’t enjoy touching us?”
Lex’s silence in response to Aria’s question spoke volumes.
“Whatever!” snapped Sonata, turning around and starting for the door. “I’m out of here!”
Unsure of what sort of response was called for in this situation, Lex simply watched her go, barely registering the triumphant look on Aria’s face or of Nosey lifting her head from his side. But a moment later he felt hooves nudge him, glancing at the blonde mare. “Go after her!” whispered Nosey.
Lex frowned. “I’m not certain-”
“I am!” she insisted. “Go after her! Right now!”
For a moment he hesitated, just looking at Nosey. For her to act so pushy was more like her usual self, particularly since she was sending him away without Sonata having used any calming magic on her first. It was, he decided, a good sign. Taking that to heart, Lex turned and galloped after his girlfriend.
“Sonata!” came Lex’s voice from behind her. “Sonata! Stop!”
Sonata ignored him, pushing out the door and marching onto the train platform. She’d almost reached the big pile of food when Lex managed to get ahead of her, blocking her way. “I said stop!”
She came to a halt, but gave him a sour look. “I’m, like, supposed to go smile and make nice with whoever’s on that boat, remember?” Idly she noted that he was breathing heavily, clearly having strained himself in order to catch up with her, but she refused to take that into account. “You should just go back inside and do more ‘research’ with Aria and Nosey, since you’re so masculine that you can have a whole bunch of girlfriends.”
It took him a few moments before he could speak, getting his breathing under control. “Aria was wrong to say that.”
“Really?” Sonata lifted a brow, giving him a look of mild interest.
He nodded. “Masculinity is a conglomeration of attributes which are all qualitative, having no quantifiable metric-”
“Right. Got it,” sighed Sonata, rolling her eyes. “Look, how many more times are you going to have to do that?” she asked, unable to keep the irritation out of her voice. She’d been half-expecting him to make some sort of romantic gesture, to let her know that she was the one – the only one – that he loved, and now she felt like a dimwit for having gotten her hopes up. Of course he’d try and explain the whole thing away. That was who Lex was.
The worst part was that she knew that this whole thing wasn’t his fault. It wasn’t even Aria’s fault, although Sonata still wanted to punch her right in her big dumb face. This had all happened because Lex was trying to fix Aria’s voice, and Sonata had no problem with that. Just the thought of having to go through life without being able to sing was horrible, and she hated the idea that she might be partially responsible for that… I just wish his way of fixing her wasn’t so sexy!
And it was sexy. Incredibly so. Last night had been the second night of Lex’s research, where he had to examine her, Nosey, and Aria together. Sonata had felt deeply conflicted about doing that again, and she hadn’t been the only one: Nosey had hesitatingly asked him if he could at least check each of them separately, out of sight of the others. Sonata had started to voice her support of the idea, at least until she realized that he’d be alone with the others while getting so close to them. But it had been pointless: Lex had shot down Nosey’s request, saying that he needed them all there for the sake of comparison.
When they’d gotten started, it had initially seemed like the steamy atmosphere from the first night might be gone. Lex had quite clearly been uncomfortable now that he knew what it was like for them, and when he’d approached Sonata he’d been hesitant, his motions mechanical. He’d apparently known it too, because after a few seconds he’d stopped, taken a breath, and told all three of them to close their eyes. When Aria had asked why, Lex’s only response had been “because I said so.”
Once they had, Lex had started again…and then things had rapidly become hot and bothersome. Keeping her eyes closed had put all of Sonata's senses on edge, making every touch a surprise. From the feeling his breath tickling her neck to the way his hooves had trailed over her flank, every sensation had been magnified. Nor had it all been touch. She'd heard herself, her breath catching or a low grunt escaping her lips as he'd touched her all over. It had been incredibly sensuous.
It hadn't ended when he was done with her either. When he'd finally released her, things had been quiet for a moment...and then she'd heard Nosey. With nothing else to focus on, the other mare's sounds had filled Sonata's thoughts. Where had Lex touched her to make her breath catch like that? What had he done to draw that groan from her? At one point Nosey had softly called Lex's name, her voice sweet but strained, and Sonata had bit her lip at the sound, wondering just what her best friend and her boyfriend were doing.
Despite that, she'd never even thought of opening her eyes.
When Lex had gotten to Aria, it was obvious that the Siren had gotten into the mood. Where Nosey's breathing had been suggestive, Aria's was unreservedly erotic. Her breathing had been fast and rough right from the beginning, and had frequently caught her breath only to release it, heavy and shuddering, a few seconds later. She'd even let a whisper of “yes!” or “there!” slip a few times. Sonata had been sure, mostly, that she was doing it on purpose; it wasn't like Lex had used that pleasure-touch spell. But the way Aria had sounded, he might as well have.
Once he'd finished, Lex had curtly announced that he was done, and had practically bolted for the bench that had become their makeshift bed, not looking at any of them as he curled up and closed his eyes. Despite the fact that it was the same way he'd so abruptly left them hanging the first time, the sudden end to the experience had jarred Sonata, and she'd known without looking at them that the others had felt the same way. Silently, they'd drifted over to join Lex, draping themselves over him, not saying a word. It had been obvious that he'd still been awake, his body tensing as they'd joined him, but none of them had said anything as they'd taken what Sonata had realized were becoming their “usual” spots. The thought, like most of the rest of the evening, had been unsettling because of how much she hadn't disliked it.
Needless to say, sleep had been a long time in coming.
“One more time should be sufficient,” answered Lex, dragging Sonata's thoughts back to the present. “After that, I should have sufficient data to design a spell that can change-”
“Aria into a pony, I know.” Despite admitting that Lex wasn't at fault, Sonata still felt upset. The thought of going through that again, of knowing that her boyfriend was going to be touching her, Nosey, and Aria together in such an intimate manner was upsetting, but not nearly as much as it was arousing. And that was very upsetting. “Look, I gotta go do this thing with the boat, okay? I'll be back before noon.”
She pushed past him and started walking, only for him to call out to her a second later. “Sonata, wait!”
“What?” She stopped, but didn't turn around.
“There's a chance that you might be headed into danger...”
When he didn't continue, she shrugged. “And?”
“I don't...if you're...” He stopped talking, and several seconds passed. Sonata didn't turn to look at him, instead gazing out over the camp. It was still mostly dark, and nopony was around the train station, giving them a measure of privacy. “When I thought Fireflower was attacking you, I panicked,” said Lex abruptly.
Sonata's face screwed up in confusion. Fireflower? Why's he talking about him now?
Lex continued. “In the second it took me to see what was going on, I thought of all the things that might have happened to you, and I remembered...” He let out a breath. “I remembered that we'd had a fight the night before, and I thought...I thought that, if you had been killed, the last thing I ever would have said to you was how stupid I thought you were.” The words came out in a rush, as if he was struggling to say them out loud. When he finished, another bout of silence ensued, hanging over them until he spoke again. “I don't want to worry about that now...”
He didn't finish, but he didn't need to. Sonata knew what he was trying to say. “Oh, Lex.” Sonata turned around, smiling even as she blinked her suddenly-watery eyes. Looks like I get a romantic gesture after all, she realized as she crossed the distance between him and threw her forelegs around him. He reciprocated the gesture, holding her close.
When the hug ended a moment later, he spoke again. “If you don't want me to examine the others again, I'll make do with the data I've already gathered.”
Sonata shook her head, still smiling. “Mm-mm. It's okay.”
He gave her a skeptical look. “Are you certain?”
“Yeah.” She sniffled, wiping her eyes, before her grin became playful again. “But if you really wanna do something nice for me, how about letting me grab some grub before I go?” She nodded at the food pile.
He paused for a moment, looking between her and the provisions. “Given that the timetable of your expedition is technically indeterminate, a small amount of provisions can be justified,” he nodded. “What do you want?”
“Surprise me.”
He blinked once, then looked back at the mountain of food. After a long moment, he selected a particular item, lifting it with his telekinesis and floating it over to her. “This is largely empty calories, but in the event of a fight breaking out it should give you sufficient energy to conduct a tactical withdrawl.”
“Great! This-” She paused as she saw exactly what he'd selected, fighting the urge to laugh. “Wait, for realsies?” This had to be a joke.
But Lex looked completely serious. “Do you not like this? There are plenty of other-”
“No! No, this is great!” snickered Sonata, moving it away before he could telekinetically grab it again. “Just promise me that you'll never give one of these to another girl.”
“What?” Lex couldn't have looked more confused. “Why?”
“Just promise,” she grinned.
“...alright. I promise.”
“Great! I'll take care of everything with the boat! See you back here by noon!” Still trying to keep her mirth in check, Sonata turned and trotted toward Vanhoover.
On her back, she carefully balanced the cream pie that Lex had given her.