The first thing to come to Gallus as his consciousness was firing up the engines and reconnecting his senses was the smell of bacon. As if a spell being cast to make him rise for the dead, he opened his eyes to the bright sunlight that flooded his room. For once, the very act of it was very welcoming, if not strangely refreshing. He shifted over to where Sandbar was – on the floor eating pancakes while a covered plate, complete with a glass of orange juice and silverware was waiting for him.
Sandbar was in the middle of chewing when he noticed his husband was looking at him. A quick swallow later, he got up to hug him. “Gallus! You’re finally awake!”
“Huh?”
“I was hoping you’d be up like yesterday.”
“Yester…” He pushed Sandbar out of the hug. “Hold on… How long was I out for?”
The young stallion did a quick calculation in his head. “After the whole ritual, you’ve been sleeping for… about thirty-six hours. I mean, after keeping off the ground for that long, you needed all that time snoozing.”
“So… I passed?”
“Yep!” Sandbar smiled. “You’re finally an adult! So get up, I’ve brought us a victory breakfast.”
The griffon rolled off the bed and went over to take off the lid from his plate. He nearly busted into tears at the meal he saw. Eggs benedicts on salmon and toast, caramelized bacon, smoked sausage with hash browns. With tears forming in his eyes, Sandbar had to ask if something was wrong. “No…” He sniffed. “This is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen!”
“You can thank Canvas for it.” The young stallion sat back down to his pancakes. “I was gonna give this to ya yesterday, but you were pretty much comatose. Still, I’m glad you’re awake.”
“And I feel great too!” Gallus said, stretching a little before picking up the plate. On Sandbar’s end, the only way he could describe what happened in the next few seconds was that at one moment the food was there, and the next, the griffon made that food disappear.
“So… what now?”
“Huh?” The griffon asked, his tongue licking the plate.
“I mean… you’re free now. An adult. So… what happens next?”
The griffon paused for a moment. “Well… Apart of me pretty much moving to Equestria, live at the school until I graduate, I’d figure that maybe I could temporarily move in with you and your folks temporarily until I get a job that’ll make me stable.”
“Okay, but… what about us though? Do you really want a divorce?”
Gallus frowned as he set his plate down. “Do you? I mean, from what I could pick up from the roof that night, something tells me that you’ve changed your mind.”
Sandbar sighed. “Well…” He trailed off, trying to find the right words. “The thing is, yeah, when all of this started, I wanted this to be temporary to have this be the end goal. So that you can have that freedom without anyone telling you what to do. Ya know? But then…” His cheeks turned pink. “I started to like you more and more. At the wedding you asked me out, then Grandpa Gruff said that we can’t really get divorced and… There is a part of me that’s okay with it.”
“Because you love me.”
Sandbar nodded. “Could you blame me?”
“No, I guess I really can’t.”
“But what about you? Do you still have doubts?”
“If you mean that I think I might be falling for you back? I think that kiss on the roof answered that question. But if we should be married still…? That I don’t fully know.”
“Do you remember what Grandpa Gruff said during your ritual?”
“You mean besides being an ass? Not much. Why?”
“Well…” Sandbar rubbed the back of his neck. “Dad told me that since you’re officially an adult, to the griffons, we’ve made ourselves more or less open for any other griffon to hurt us.”
“What? Why?”
“Something about that you, an adult, are married to someone who’s considered… well… not.”
Gallus blinked. “How does that make sense? We’re practically the same age!”
“I know. But to their eyes, if any other griffon found this out about us, they would see you as a pedophile. Come to think of it, I think even ponies wouldn’t exactly be that open-minded to it either.”
The young griffon sighed. “Maybe… we should get divorced after all.”
“What!”
“Dude, listen. I don’t know if us being in love has any relevance now. If Grandpa Gruff has come to this conclusion, then there will be others that’ll follow. Even if we never run into a griffon ever again, I doubt the ponies would tolerate having me, an adult, having someone who is underage as a spouse. I mean, what if one of us gets hurt, or worst? I don’t think I’ll be able to forgive myself for you having to free me only to put yourself in danger.”
“But we’re not in danger. All we have to do is lay low until I’m old enough-”
“For the next five years? That’s absurd dude!”
“No, it’s not. I mean, not everypony needs to know we’re married.”
“Sand, being married isn’t something that you can hide. Newspapers would already put out a notice that we’ve just got hitched. Your family might let this little fact spread in open gossip. And not to mention that Grandpa Gruff has a bit of a loud mouth when he a griffon to complain to. We could deny it all we want, but this sort of thing can only spread. And I’m afraid that this piece of news might land onto someone that might use it to target one of us. Probably me most of all.”
“Are… Are you saying that you don’t want to be-”
A loud exhausted sigh escaped his beak, followed by his talons covering his face. “And you wanna know what the most damning thing of all is? As much as I worry about our safety, I don’t know if I want to get divorced. I can go on with all the stuff that you’ve done for me. That you’ve reached out to me when no creature would. It’s tearing me apart that I have to choose between staying married and risk being lynched, or somehow divorce you so that you wouldn’t be harmed.”
Sandbar got up from where he was sitting and walked around to Gallus, wrapping a hoof around him to embrace him in a hug. “We’ll work something out.”
“You can’t promise that.”
“But I can try. We’ll figure something out.”
Gallus suddenly got up, picking up the plate and glass of orange juice. After downing the drink, he told him that he’ll take the dishes back to the Clawston’s.