Noah and Fluttershy had gotten back to the cottage as the sun was setting in the sky, turning it a night time purple to blue. Fluttershy held the tickets with her good wing, reaching for the door with her. Of course, the Blue Ranger grabbed the knob before she could, opening up the door.
The nice gesture caused her face to bloom, grinning at him, stepping inside, setting the tickets somewhere, where they know where they are. “I cannot believe I asked you to be my plus one.”
“Me neither. Normally a guy would have to ask a girl out on a date,” Noah replied, going over to the couch, removing the saddlebags off of him, as he got on the furniture. He pulled the book out, setting it next to him. “Except it isn’t a romantic date,” he had to add in.
The mare nodded. “I know. It’s nice though, anyway. Twilight did say that this plus one thing is a friendly date, not a lovey dovey one. I think Rainbow is glad it’s that way. She may be a tomboy, but she isn’t big on lovey dovey stuff.” She looked up at the clock. “I’m gonna make dinner. How do you feel about veggie soup?”
Noah beamed. “Sounds great. I’ll help you out.” He got off the couch, following the pegasus to the kitchen. “You aren’t gonna feed me this, are you?” A jokingly smile came over him. “I held my weapons, keys, and morpher, so I bet I could have it without any problems.” He raised his eyes to his horn. “Troy and I do need to learn how to use these things that are on our foreheads.”
Pulling out a good size pot, Fluttershy filled it up with water. “You and your friend can be taught by Twilight someday.”
“What?” The running water is too loud for the unicorn to hear her, due to her soft, gentle voice.
“I said…” Turning the water off, Fluttershy placed the filled up pot on the stove, turning it on. “...you and your friend can be taught by Twilight,” she repeated, going over to the fridge, opening it up, and pulling out some vegetables. “Wanna help cut these up? The knives are over there.”
Noah went over to the counter where a knife block is at, filled with knives, the handles facing up while the blades faced down for safety measures. Grabbing one of them, he carefully walked with it, facing the sharp part down on the floor. Fluttershy placed the vegetables on the other counter with a cutting board next to it.
It’s when Angel came hopping in, looking up at the vegetables. As Noah was about to cut up the celery, the bunny got on the counter - and stole it, hopping away. Noah was left standing there, watching the little rabbit.
Fluttershy saw this, and was about to go get it back when she was stopped. “It’s fine,” Noah halted. “He can have it. By the way, when do the animals get fed?”
Going over to one of the cupboards, Fluttershy pulled out some animal food. “They get fed now. I doubt Angel will eat this. He prefers his bunny food over this. Luckily, he got a celery,” she said, looking at her pet who is chomping down on the green vegetable. “It seems like he ate all of the carrots,” she observed from afar, seeing how empty the basket is that was once filled with carrots.
“Looks like it,” the Blue Ranger agreed, chopping up a new celery, cutting it down to bite size pieces. “Want me to help you feed your critters?” he offered while standing on his hindlegs, pulling a cupboard door open. There inside is a bowl and he took it down off the shelf, shut the door, and set the dish on the counter.
Fluttershy denied his offer. “Nah, I’m good. I’ve been doing this a long time ever since I was a filly.” Then, she went into the living room, calling out to her animals. “Dinner time!” she announced. “Come get your food. Yum, yum, yum.”
All the small animals came out from their hiding holes while the birds flew in. The little animals made squeaky noises. The birds flapped and chirped, getting on the floor as everyone waited patiently for their owner to feed them.
Everyone but Angel. He had already eaten up the celery and is now stomping his foot on the floor where Noah is at, wanting more celery.
Noah noticed, placing the knife down. “No, Angel.” He used his hoof to gently push the rabbit away. “This is for the soup Fluttershy and I are making. Go eat the food that she’s giving out.” Due to his failure of shooing this bunny away, Angel got on the counter - and took a potato. “Hey-!” The unicorn made a quick swift to take it away from him, missing him by inches.
Angel hopped back on the floor, bouncing backwards with the potato in his tiny paws. He blew a raspberry at the stallion.
“Angel.” Angel stopped with his spitting, seeing his owner looking down at him with angry eyes. Fluttershy’s eyebrows are raised, eyeing at her pet. “You don’t need any more veggies. I laid each pile of animal food for each of you to have.” She held out her hoof. “Give back the potato and go eat.” Angel shook his head, refusing to give it back to her. “Please?” She gave him a smile - a cute smile in Noah’s opinion. That didn’t work for Angel stuck out his tongue at her, leaving her to sigh. So with a firm and gentle swift of her good wing, she took the potato out of his grasp. “Go eat with the others,” she firmly ordered.
Wow, Noah had thought. For being such a shy pony, she isn’t afraid to assert herself. She may not be a good fighter, though she’s good at standing up for herself. She may be able to stand up against the rich couple he tried getting help from.
Due to this, this got Angel mad because he began throwing a fit. “No, Angel,” the pegasus stated boldly, placing the potato with the other vegetables that are still left to be chopped. “Shoo!” she commanded in a gentle voice, but also continued to be firm with him. “There’s plenty of animal food for you and your friends to have right in there.” Her hoof directed to the living room where all the woodland animals and birds are eating, gobbling down the food like there’s no tomorrow. Noah watched as her bunny kept up his act. “You don’t wanna eat? Suit yourself. You won’t get any dessert tonight.” It wasn’t a bribe. She wasn’t bribing him one bit. It did get him to stop throwing a temper tantrum. “Good boy,” she praised, her frown turning upside down. “Now, please go eat.”
Although he wasn’t happy being told what to do, he rolled his eyes, hopping to the living room. Fluttershy watched, making sure he doesn’t do anything except eat the food with the others.
“There,” Fluttershy released, happy to see him gobble up his pile. She looked over at Noah, the smile glued to her face. “Let’s continue on making our dinner. I’ll help you cut up the vegetables considering how slow you are.”
“Slow!?” She let out a laugh when Noah gave out his reaction after what she had stated. “I’m taking my time, here, ya know.” He pretended to get mad, defending himself in such fakeness. It isn’t easy for him to get mad at her for real for how pretty and cute she is. “I’m sure enough you won’t cut all these up.”
Knowing he was teasing her, she chuckled. “You wanna see who can cut these up the quickest?” she challenged, grabbing a knife from the knife block. “I know I can cut up more than you,” she bet, and at first it seemed she was flirting with him, but she wasn’t, was she? She hadn’t called him handsome or anything.
She stood next to him, helping herself to a carrot, and began chopping away.
“Careful, I don’t want you-” Noah began to say when the girl let out a squeak. “Are you alright?” he asked when the knife clattered on the floor when Fluttershy released it. His answer came to him when he saw a small streak of red leaking out of the tip of the yellow pony’s left hoof. “You seemed like you cut yourself…” He knew it sounded lame, except he couldn’t help it.
“I can see that.” Luckily, she didn’t give him a sarcastic response to his observeness. She went over to the sink, turning the water on. Placing her hoof under the warm water, it turned red as she began cleaning her cut.
When it seemed like it was done bleeding, she turned the faucet off, only for the small cut to start leaking out the red crimson.
Ripping off a piece of paper towel, Noah handed it to her. “Where are your band-aids?”
“In the bathroom cabinet,” she told him. “Though you don’t have to-” She hadn’t finished when Noah trotted out of the kitchen. She put on a small smile, rolling her eyes, waiting for him as she gently pressed the paper towel against her cut.
The cut doesn’t hurt. It stings a little, but all in all it doesn’t hurt that much.
Patiently waiting for him, she went over to the vegetables, seeing that she only chopped a few pieces of the carrot before hurting herself.
Her ears caught the sound of Noah coming back, and she turned to see him carrying a box of band-aids and a small bottle of ointment.
Placing the two items on the counter, far from the vegetable plants, he had her come over to him. When she did, she showed no signs of hesitation. It seemed like she trusted him already - and they had met since yesterday. Is it possible for her to gain his trust too early? Maybe? She hadn’t really trusted a lot of ponies, let alone stallions. But Noah is different from the other stallions, minus his friends who are boys in the Ranger team, not excluding his other teammates.
“Place your hand- I mean, hoof - on the counter, please,” he requested nicely, opening up the box of bandaids. Fluttershy did as she was told. “Boy, you got a lot of band-aids.” Shifting through the ban-daids, he pulled one out. “This one suits you well.” He showed it to her. “You’re adorable like a bunny.”
Fluttershy’s face turned a shade of pink, biting her lower lip in the process. Noah laughed at her reaction, with her laughing with him. He put a tiny amount of the ointment on the cut, placing a band-aid over top of it after peeling the white pieces off the sticky part off the ends to keep it in place.
It was a little awkward, Fluttershy had to admit. A good type of awkward.
The two stared right into their eyes, and Fluttershy shook her head. “Um, let’s finish up dinner,” she broke the deep silence with Noah agreeing with her.
“Yeah, and be careful this time. We don’t want you cutting yourself again.” Taking the items in his hoof, he began to walk out the kitchen. “I’ll put these away.” He went back upstairs to put the box of bandaids and ointment away, returned, and the two finished up cutting up the vegetables.
Fluttershy dumped the vegetables into the boiling water that has been sitting on the stove for awhile.
When it was done, she poured the soup into two bowls, got two spoons, and set the bowls on the table. “It’s ready!” she announced ever so softly, though loud enough for Noah to hear her, for he sat on one side of the table while Fluttershy sat on the other side.
While the two ate, Noah kept looking at the yellow pony. He spoon fed himself with the warm liquid with the vegetables floating around. But his attention was on her and only her.
She noticed this. “What?”
Noah snapped out of his trance. “Huh?” He shook his head. “Oh, uh, nothing. Nothing.” He stirred the spoon in his soup. “What do you wanna do for Nightmare Night?” he asked, changing the subject.
“I’m not sure…” Fluttershy shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know what I want to dress up as. Definitely not anything scary.” She shivered - with fright.
“You can be a butterfly,” he suggested, except she shook her head. “You can be a caterpillar,” he said, coming up with another option for her.
“A caterpillar costume won’t do. Neither would a butterfly costume.”
“Hmm. How about a ladybug?”
Thinking about it, she thought it’s a perfect costume to wear this year. “Sure. I like ladybugs. They’re really cute with their red wings and black spots.”
Like you, Noah thought, keeping the words to himself.
After they finished, they headed upstairs for bed. “Goodnight, Fluttershy,” Noah said, getting ready to go into the guest room. “I’ll see you after you’re done at school, right?”
“Mhm,” Flutteshy responded. “Or you can go to school with me,” she offered.
“Sure, I’m down for it. Even though the school is different from the one back at home, I’m sure my friends and I would like it,” he assumed with no second thoughts. “See you in the morning.”
Fluttershy waved. “Same goes for you.” The two headed into their own rooms.
Noah got underneath the covers, taking his glasses off, setting them on the small table next to the bed he’ll be sleeping in.
He wanted to tell her his feelings - his true feelings around her. It’s too early for that. He needs to wait for the right moment. He knows that Gia likes Jake. He knows that for a fact, even though she hadn’t admitted it yet.
Placing the back of his head on the pillow, he shut his eyes, waiting for sleep to get to him.