//------------------------------// // Gallus x Ocellus // Story: 2G // by Bysen //------------------------------// He rounded the corner and immediately stopped. Leaving wasn’t about going somewhere so much as making a point. What that point was Gallus didn’t exactly know. But he made it. What he found around the corner was enough to make him want to leave again. “Sooo... how’d it go?” Sweetie Belle asked. She, Scootaloo and Applebloom where predictably still hanging around. “How much of that did you hear?” Gallus immediately asked. “Nuffin’. That’s why we asked.” “Are you SURE?” “Yeah… pretty sure. Why?” Scootaloo returned. “Nothing. Forget about it. But on a completely unrelated note, do you know where…” Gallus hesitated. If he just asked where Ocellus was they’d figure it out. “... Sandbar, Ocleous, Yona, Smolder and Silver Stream are?” “Uh… not really. I’d’ve thought if onepo-body would know it would be you.” answered Sweetie Belle. “And is that really unrelated?” “Yes. And you’re right… she-they’re probably at… gotta go. Seeyas.” “He was acting weird right?” Scootaloo asked. “I bet Gilda knows what’s what.” Applebloom followed. “Great… so can we just talk to her now?” Sweetie Belle continued. “Hmm...” “No.” “Of course not…” Meanwhile, back with blue bird boi This time of day Ocellus would be one of three places. The school: studying. The school: reading. Or the school: just hanging out. Some way to spend a friday afternoon. But, while not his idea of a great time, he could picture her doing any of those three and being perfectly content with it. Slight smile, relaxed posture, glazed eyes… a-dork-able. It wasn’t even a minute before he arrived at the school. Library was his first destination and surprise to no one, she was there. So was Smolder. The orange dragette was sitting on a table, one leg dangling off the side and the other with her foot on the table and a hand supporting her as she pointed towards something that Ocellus was flying up to. They hadn’t seen him yet. How he was going to do this, he hadn’t figured out yet. Seperate them, talk to them both, wait for one to leave… he had no idea which. That wasn’t helped by Yona rounding a corner and yelling in her usual volume of voice. “Yona can’t find book on bipeds. What biped even mean?” Smolder said something in response but from Gallu’s distance he couldn’t make out what. She did make a doubled hand gesture over herself. Then pointing her thumb over her shoulder to her wings and shrugged. “Uhh… great. Next thing you know Silver Stream will show up as well he said as around the opposite corner no one came. “Huh… I was kinda expecting that to happen…” then Silver Stream continued to not be in this story [yet]. “Haaa…” Gallas sighed as he walked in. “Hey guys. What’s happening?” “Hey Gallus.”: called Smolder. “Ocellus think there’s something called a ‘Big Foot’ in the forest.” “I’ve seen it. Twice. On my way to the Treehouse of Harmony I-” “We’re calling it that now?” Smolder asked but was ignored. “-saw it standing by a tree. Its fur mixed in with the tree really well but I could sense it. I think it’s looking for a mate. But, they’re rare creatures. So finding one even by another must be quite difficult.” “Yona not know what Big Foot look like. Tell Yona.” Author’s note: I didn’t want to spend another paragraph of just talking describing it so this minus the pants. Also I haven’t actually seen Gravity Falls [but it’s on my to watch list] I just know of this design. “Oh, Ocellus mean Yeti. Yak have Yeti in Yaklands.” “Sounds more like a Yowie to me.” Silver Stream added. “Uh… Chupa-thingy?” Gallus jokingly contributed. There was a slight pause from Ocellus after she heard Gallus’ answer. She stared at him for a few seconds more before saying “Well, maybe it’s all three.” Ocellus answered. “We just have different names for it in our different homes.” and she continued to stare at him. ‘Changelings can sense love…’ Gallus thought to himself. ‘Oh Gryph she already knows!’ and even in his silent thought, his dilated eyes portrayed his expression. Well, for a second at least. ‘Wait… does that just make it easier then?’ “Are you alright Gallus?” asked Ocellus. She had to ask… which means she didn’t know. Or maybe she was being polite, like how ponies aren’t meant to look at each others junk just flopping around everywhere. Gryph he was glad all the non ponies had cloacas… or long, shaggy, all-covering yak hair. “Uh, yeah. I just… gotta go find a book.” He left and headed down the aisle. For some reason ponies arranged books in alphabetical order rather than duodecimal. Not that Gallus understood the duodecimal system anyway. He walked into the aisle enough that he was out of sight. If Ocellus could sense it from him, she’d probably follow. At least that’s what every teen drama he’d ever seen told him. Not that he watched those of course! She didn’t. Instead he just grabbed a book off the shelf and stood just by the end of the aisle, peeking around the corner. “Yona not scared of big hairy monster.” she yelled in her best library voice. A brief moment passed and, obviously egged on by Smolder, continued with “Yona is not big hairy monster. Yona just big and hairy. Not monster part.” Blah blah blah “I’ll keep reading up on Big Foot here.” Ocellus called out as the author couldn’t think of what to right that wasn’t Gallus angsting a ton which seems out of character so instead just skipped to when Yona and Smolder left. Gallus paced. “Ok… the others left. Now it can be just you and her. Not that being alone had stopped Sandbar from asking Yona to the Pony Cotillion. But that’s different. Sandbar has bigger balls. You’ve seen them… no homo. Just swinging all over the place. No homo. Ok… just go out there, sit next to her and read… then ask Ocellus if she'd like to go out somewhere.” “Sure, where to?” Ocellus asked as he was about to turn the corner, only for her to do so first. “AHHH!” he squealed in a rather high pitch and jumped at her appearance. “I uh… I mean… you didn’t hear that did you?” “Everyone heard you. My ears are still ringing” she chuckled. Which meant she hadn’t heard what he was asking about. “I’m done for today. So where do you want to go?” “Uh… just… somewhere. You checking out that book?” Gallus asked, pointing towards the book she was holding under a foreleg. “Yeah, I found it while putting back the book on bipeds. It’s called ‘You Know What They Say About People With Big Feet’. Although I’m not sure if it's fiction or not. Either way I’m sure it’ll be a good read late at night. What about you, I know I’m a faster reader than you but did you finished your book yet?” she said, motioning to the book on the reading top. “Oh, no. I… hadn’t even started.” he hadn’t even remembered he had put a book there. Well it had worked to make it look like he’d been back here all this time for a reason. Although, if he hadn’t read it, why was he down the aisle for so long? “It’s… for my homework. You know how I late I start that stuff.” “Oh, what class? I could probably use it too then.” It was just a random book. He didn’t even know the title. “N-no. It’s for the class we don’t share.” “There’s a class we don’t share?” “Home-ec!” he blurted. And it wasn’t even a lie. He took that class with Sandbar and Smolder but Yona, Silver Stream and Ocellus weren't. He knew Silver Stream had flight lessons at that time instead but he wasn’t sure what either Yona or Ocellus had then instead. “What do you have instead of that anyway?” “I have flight lessons with Miss Rainbow Dash. So does Silver Stream. I’m a bit surprised you’re not in that class too.” Ocellus paused in thought. It wasn’t like every pegasus was in that class so why would every/the only gryphon be? “Anywho, let’s go check out our books. Then let’s head to… um… somewhere to read?” she knew Gallus didn’t really like to just hang out and read but she didn’t really have any ideas for this late in the evening without heading out for dinner yet. “Yeah. Sure.” “Really?” “Y-yeah. Why? Is it not normal to want to hang out with a friend?” “Hmm… I guess not. But I thought you normally wouldn’t. And you feel a bit…. ‘off’ today.” “What? Na, I’m fine.” he said with a smile that betrayed him. And he knew it too. He wasn’t sure if Ocellus was the type to pry deeper into it though. When the paused became awkwardly long, which was pretty much instantly, he dropped it and added “Well, let’s go then.” and her turned and headed for the front desk. Ocellus followed. He arrived first to the empty desk. Ocelosu joined by his side a few seconds later, waited another few seconds before ringing the bell. “One moment!” called before she came out from the back office where he had been diligently pretending to work. “Ocellus. Another day, another book?” “Yes indeed HBPN” and handed her her book. “Ohh… not a bad choice. Very… descriptive.” the mare whose age put her squarely in the stereotypical demographic for Fifty Shade of Heigh readers. “Scan and… boop. Here you go.” she hoofed the book back to Ocellus. “And yours?” she reached out and took Gallus’ book. She looked at it and her face dropped. She looked up and it at him who wasn’t paying attention and instead ‘subtly’ looking at Ocellus who was re-re-re-reading the back blurb, with a slight hint of confusion on her face. Mostly at the word ‘people’. She scanned the book and gingerly handed it back to Gallus. He turned to her to take it and noticed her look. The faint smile, the eyes shifting from him to Ocellus and back. “Thanks…” he said with a hint of confusion of his own now. “Oh, don’t mention it. To anyone. Nice choice of books by the way.” she said, pointedly at Gallus more than Ocellus. “Well, have fun you too.” “Oh, we will.” Ocellus replied as she began to walk off, Gallus quickly beside her. “So Gallus, want to go to my room? Or maybe yours.” A surprised and mildly entertained snort came from back at the counter. Ocellus didn’t pay notice but Gallus looked back. “Be safe you too.” and she winked at him. What was going on? She couldn’t know…? if anygryph would know he was crushing on Ocellus it would be Ocellus. He hadn’t done anything to give it away around HBPN so how could she have figured it out? Was he really more outwardly apparent about it than he thought. While he noticed a few things he was being goofy about, there were only a few of them, otherwise he was playing it pretty cool. “What’s your book about anyway? Cooking, sowing, um… etiquiet? I don’t know what home-ec is beyond those first two. So…?” “Uh… it’s…” and as Gallus looked at the book he had just booked out, he understood how, or why, HBPN had figured out what he had been thinking about. “Interspecies Offspring."