The truck crawled to a stop on the sand as the engine slowly turned off. Lyra fully sunk her head into the rim of the steering wheel as she tried to blink her eyes awake, Bon reaching her hand over and placing it onto her girlfriend’s from the passenger seat.
“Alright guys, guess we gotta make camp here for tonight. Vinyl’s in no state to drive and my poor Lyra is about to pass out. So get your butts outta the truck and let’s set things up!”
Bon tried to motivate everyone with her positive attitude, but with the state most was in, it only really seemed to work on Dixie and Haven.
“Brilliant idea, Bon! I shall attempt to get things together for a fire!”
“Ooooooo, and I’ll get some blankets out!”
Octavia looked at Dixie, confused.
“I don’t think many of us brought blankets, Dixie.”
“Oh, I knew that! That’s why I brought all ten of mine!”
“O-Oh, that’s very thoughtful of you, Dixie.”
She beamed with happiness as she left the truck, grabbing the large pile of blankets from the back. Haven was already wandering off to get wood, which was going to be difficult given their savana-like surroundings. Bon left her seat with Lyra slowly getting out of her seat.
“Bon Bon and I will get some food ready. Hey Octavia, how’s V holding up?”
The girl in question was leaning against her seatbelt, resting after the afternoon she just went through. Octavia was at her side, making sure the girl didn’t hit her gash while sleeping.
“She’s alright, after some trouble I finally got her to sleep. If it’s all the same to all of you, I might stay here with her for now”
Lyra nodded and went to the back of the truck, Dixie quickly taking her place.
“Hey! I found some first aid thingies in my stuff! Maybe you can use them?”
The blonde girl smiled and leaned in to hand Octavia a small zipped up bag with a red cross sewn into it.
“Thank you, Dixie, I appreciate you looking out for us like this.”
The girl beamed and slightly bounced in place.
“It’s no problem! I don’t like seeing friends hurt. I’m gonna help Bon with the food as it seems Lyra is…”
She leaned to the side and pointed behind her to a certain green-haired girl having already crashed on one of Dixie’s fluffy blankets. Octavia chuckled at the sight.
“Sounds good, I’m going to properly cover Vinyl’s wound and help her out.”
Dixie enthusiastically nodded and skipped off to help Bon. Octavia sighed and opened the small bag, lucky for her it had what she needed. Bandages, swabs, tissue, cotton, antibacterial wipes, everything that would help out with an injury. She looked over at the sleeping blue-haired girl. There was something about seeing her like that- all relaxed and peaceful- that brought a smile to her face. She grabbed the wipes and slightly tilted Vinyl’s head, removing the cloth that covered the wound. Luckily it wasn’t too deep, so it should be healed soon enough. She tried to hold her head still, but the wounded girl’s head kept sinking back into the seatbelt.
Octavia sighed and grabbed the other girls’ head with both hands to keep it still. At that moment, there was something that struck her. Vinyl’s hair, it was so…..soft. Octavia found her hands running through her hair, feeling each blue strand between her fingers. Just the feeling made Octavia’s chest flutter. She looked at Vinyl’s sleeping face, as her thumb brushed a strand of hair off of the other girl’s cheek. Something else occurred to her, Vinyl’s face felt soft to the touch as well, in a different way. Her hands wandered to the girl’s cheeks; they were warm. She had completely forgotten about her task at hand, lost in the moment. She might have not noticed it before, but Vinyl certainly wasn’t harsh to the eyes like some others at their college thought. She was so close to Vinyl- practically on her lap- their faces mere inches apart. A part of her wanted to close that distance. She pulled her hands back and shook her head, trying to get her thoughts straight.
‘Why am I getting like this? Why is my chest feeling like this? And god why can’t I get my heart to stop racing!?’
Octavia took a few deep breaths and looked back to her friend, still sleeping away. Octavia shook her head again and tore open the small pack of wipes. She fetched one out and started gliding it over the wound. Vinyl jolted awake with a small grunt of pain, catching Octavia by surprise. The girl blinked her eyes open and managed to focus her vision on her helper.
“T-Tavi? What are you doing?”
“Oh! I was just uh….helping your wound, cleaning it out before re-wrapping it.”
Vinyl slowly nodded, rubbing her head as she looked around the empty truck.
“That explains why it stung like a bitch. Where’s everyone else?”
“Dixie and Bon are preparing some food, Haven is off to get wood for a fire, and Lyra is currently passed out on a pile of blankets.”
She chuckled at hearing her friend’s state, before focusing on the wipe in Octavia’s hand.
“So uh, I guess I should let you finish cleaning this gash.”
“O-Oh! Right…”
Octavia leaned in and applied the wipe to the wound, causing Vinyl to slightly wince at the pain.
“Don’t worry, I won’t hurt you”
“I know…”
The closeness of her crush to herself was almost too much for poor Vinyl, trying to minimize the blush on her face as they worked away.
“....I still cannot believe you did that, Vinyl.”
“Did what?”
“Throwing yourself at him! He had a bloody gun and you still tried to punch him!”
“I had to! He was-”
“You could have gotten hurt a lot worse than this! I was worried sick about what state you were in, or what he might do to you! What on earth possessed you to just.. lunge at him?!”
“He was threatening you.”
“I know he was threatening us, but you should have thought-”
Octavia paused her lecture and froze.
“W-What did you say?”
“He was threatening you, and I guess I just.. did the first thing that came to mind when I heard that.”
She had to take a moment to process that, it wasn’t just that her friends were in potential danger, but Vinyl fought back when she was the target. She slowly returned to cleaning the wound, tossing the soaked wipe away when she was done.
“Y-You are an idiot….”
Octavia sighed and looked up at Vinyl, just now realizing how close she had gotten while she was cleaning the gash. She stumbled back a bit and awkwardly rubbed her hands together.
“S-Sorry for getting so close….”
She reached into the bag and pulled out a small bandage roll, undoing it to wrap around Vinyl’s head.
“I...don’t mind.”
“Don’t mind what?”
“...You being close.”
Octavia’s cheeks suddenly felt hot as they blushed a deep red. She shook her head; she just needed to focus on helping with the wound. She slowly leaned in and began wrapping the bandage around Vinyl’s head.
“Hey, Tavi? Do you remember the first time we met?”
She was taken back by the question- not that she couldn’t answer- it just felt odd to ask at the present moment.
“Of course I do. Bon was showing me around Canterlot High and was about to end the tour-”
She tightened the bandage, to make sure it would stay in place as she continued.
“-when she wanted to introduce me to her friends. So we entered the music room to find you and Lyra playing air guitar to some metal song on top of a stack of chairs.”
Vinyl chuckled at the memory, herself and Lyra had just got done with a science test and were just happy to be free from that stress.
“You two saw us enter shortly after, and you were so surprised by the sudden intrusion that you fell off the chair stack, taking Lyra right down with you.”
Octavia couldn’t help but let out a small laugh at the scene in her head. She hadn’t expected the polite tour guide’s friends to be loud, dyed haired pretend rock stars for one thing, and her first time being around them had her witness Vinyl bringing Lyra down a stack of chairs.
“I-It wasn’t that funny!”
“It was pretty funny, Vinyl. I thought my experience at that school was going to be dull and then you lot quite literally fell in to prove otherwise”
“Yeah yeah, well I’m glad it was funny to someone, cause I remember Lyra not being too happy about those bruises.”
“Gosh yeah. But Vinyl? While it’s funny to think about, why bring it up now, if I may ask?”
“Well uh! Cause uh…”
‘I didn’t fall in surprise, I fell because I couldn’t believe the most beautiful girl in the world just walked through that door.’
Vinyl wanted to say that, they were alone with no interruptions, closer than they have ever been before, she could just come out and say it. A lump got caught in her throat, fuck.
‘Come on nerves, now’s not the time to get like this on me! She’s right here! This is a perfect time!’
She couldn’t help but seeing the strangeness that being on the run and injured someone presented itself a chance to let Octavia know how she really felt about her for all these years, but she just couldn’t seem to get the right words out.
“Oh you know, I remembered it just now and thought to talk about it.”
‘Ms. Vinyl Scratch, that the worst speaking your feelings attempt, ever, of all fucking time’
Octavia simply hummed as a response, finishing wrapping up the bandage around Vinyl’s head.
“There you go, that will take care of any leftover blood and allow it to heal up.”
She sat back and admired her handiwork, it would be no time at all till it was all nice and healed up. All they had to do now was exit the truck and join the others.
Exit the truck.
And join the others.
And end this alone time with Vinyl.
Octavia felt her chest flutter again, she didn’t want to leave this moment, she didn’t want to join the others yet.
‘Come on, Octavia, we just have to join the others. But, why do I not want to? I just, want to be here….’
Vinyl noticed her friend and what to her seemed like panic, she leaned forward and placed a hand on her shoulder.
“Hey, it’s all cool, it’ll heal up all fine and junk. You did a great job.”
Octavia couldn’t help but calm at the touch- there was always something about Vinyl that had that effect on her- when she wasn’t being the cause for her worry of course.
‘Why am I getting like this? Am I freaking out? No that’s not it. I feel actually really good, so why do I feel like my heart is about to burst out of my bloody chest?’
Vinyl smiled, still trying to calm down the seeming panic in her friend.
“You did awesome, Tavi. There’s no one I would have wanted more to patch me up. Trust me, okay?”
She thought about brushing her hands through that blue hair again, and the feeling of Vinyl’s head in her hands. She thought about being so close.
‘God, I feel like how Bon described the way she gets around Lyra-’
Octavia froze, that last thought bouncing around in her mind. She moved quickly, opening the door to the truck.
“W-We should get moving! I think we’ve k-kept everyone waiting long enough!”
Without waiting for a response, Ocativa climbed out of her seat and out to meet with the rest of the group, leaving Vinyl still sitting there in shock.
‘Was it something I said? Shit, maybe. Fuck..’
Vinyl sighed, before rising from her seat as well to join the rest.
-----
Somehow, someway, Haven had managed to find enough wood from the very few scattered trees to make a pretty big fire, and with some sticks leftover too. Dixie was warming herself next to the flame while he poked at it, trying to keep it going for as long as possible. Bon sat nearby with Lyra’s sleeping head in her lap. Vinyl took her seat next to Lyra while Octavia paced around.
“Holy shit Haven, how the fuck did you manage to get enough wood for this?”
“I have my ways, Vinyl, it wasn’t that difficult. Dixie helped me light it too!”
Dixie nodded as she tried to get comfortable on the sand.
“I used a bit of gas to kickstart it, so it went off fine!”
Vinyl looked at the height of the flame and let off a whistle.
‘So that’s why it’s so tall then’
“So how’s the food situation?”
Bon poked at some open tins of spaghetti and beans near the fire.
“We don’t have all the tools to actually cook these, so we’re just letting the fire heat these up.”
“Better than nothing, I guess.”
Octavia suddenly went up to and crouched near Bon, making sure to speak quietly.
“Bon, may I please have a moment of your time? In private?”
“Huh? Oh, sure thing! Vinyl, mind watching over Lyra for me?”
Vinyl picked up a stick and poked Lyra’s backside with it, causing her to sleepily try to whack it away.
“She’s fine, I got this.”
Bon rolled her eyes and stood up, following her friend a distance away so that the others wouldn’t hear.
-----
“So what did ya need, Octavia?”
Octavia had led her friend a bit away from the rest of the group, her mind a mess of different thoughts and emotions, and she didn’t want the others to hear something she may regret saying. She rubbed her arm, slightly shaking from the cold and her own nerves.
“Geez, are you okay? You’re shaking like a buzzer.”
Octavia had turned and looked at her friend, not able to meet her eyes.
“B-Bon, do you remember you talking to me about how being around Lyra m-makes you feel?”
Bon raised an eyebrow, confused at the question asked.
“Yeah? I do remember that, why do you ask?”
She tried to control her breathing, taking in large breaths to try and calm herself, but the suddenness of said breaths only made her nerves worse.
“W-Well, I… I-I…”
“Woah, Octavia, breathe, you can talk to me”
“I…. Bon…”
She finally looked her in the eye, Bon seeing the confusion and slight worry in her eyes.
“Bon… why do I feel those things when I’m around Vinyl?”
“... What?”
Octavia walked up closer to Bon, trying to form words to explain the conflicting waves of thoughts in her head.
“T-Those feelings, wanting to hold them, feel their touch. Wanting to run your hands through their hair, wanting to block out everything, and just be there with them! I-I feel those things when I’m with Vinyl and I’m just! I-I’m just confused! And s-scared! Why is this happening to me!? Bon I don’t know what’s going on with me…”
Octavia was heavily panting by now, shaking wildly as she let all her panicked thoughts out. Bon took a moment to process what that was blurted out.
“Oh, Octavia, how long has this been going on?”
That was a question that caught Octavia off guard, this recent panic was because of what happened in the truck, but now that she thought back on it, as she peeled back the layers of memories, more and more came to her. She often stared at Vinyl, caught up in her features. She always found herself playing her heart out with her cello even more if she knew she was watching. She was always happy around her. Even when Vinyl did something dangerous or stupid, she could never stay mad at her.
‘H-How long has this been going on with me!? Why did I never notice until now!?’
“I-I don’t know! I-I was with Vinyl in the truck and my chest just felt like it was filled with butterflies! My heart felt like it was beating a million times per minute! I-I want to be around her! I… I don’t know what’s happening with me!”
“Octavia….Do you feel safe around Vinyl? Do you want to always be close to her?”
“Y-Yes! A-And I don’t know why! I’m just… so confused.”
Bon walked up to Octavia and placed her hand on her shoulder, causing the panicking girl to calm down a bit. Bon tried to give her the best reassuring smile she could.
“I can’t speak for you, but Octavia? Everything you’ve told me leads me to believe that you might have fallen hard for our little Vinyl.”
Octavia froze, her shaking stopped as she tried to understand Bon’s words.
“F-Fallen? Like, fallen for her?”
“It seems that way to me, you remind me of myself when I first developed feelings for Lyra.”
“B-But that’s… impossible! I-I’m not…”
“Not what?”
“L-Like you and Lyra. I’m not… gay”
“Oh, I mean, I don’t mean to be pushy but are you sure about that?”
“O-Of course! I was raised that way! I’m only meant to like men.”
“.....Raised? Meant to? Octavia that doesn’t really sound like you’re even sure about that. I mean, I thought I didn’t like girls until Lyra. Have you ever been with a guy before?”
“No, no I can’t say I have. I focused on my music, and I just… never really saw the point in that. All that… hand-holding and kissing them didn’t really appeal to me.”
“Oh, honey. I think you might not be as straight as you thinkt.”
Octavia let that thought bounce around in her head. It was true, she never really went out with any men. She just had too much work with her music, but was that really the reason?
“Octavia, I’m going to ask you a question and I want you to answer as honestly as possible.”
“O-Okay.”
“If Vinyl came up to you, right now, and said she wanted to kiss you, would you let her?”
That thought was certainly new, it made her head spin. Her parents always expected her to come home with a nice young man one day, and she thought that would always be the case too. But Bon’s question just shattered all that at once.
‘If she wanted to… kiss me… would I let her?’
She felt dizzy. The thought burned into her mind. She pictured it: Vinyl leaning forward, herself leaning in, and having their lips meet. It sends her on a spiral of thoughts and emotions. She couldn’t just kiss a girl like that, hell she didn’t even know people could like other genders until she came to Canterlot High! Sunset and that Twilight girl from Crystal Prep being the school-wide famous couple made sure that Octavia couldn’t not hear about it. She supported people like that- she saw nothing wrong with it- Bon and Lyra for example were one of the happiest couples that Octavia had ever seen. But she wasn’t like that. Was she?
“I…”
She kept imagining it, the image of Vinyl’s lips against hers not leaving her mind. She kept thinking of every answer she could give, but one answer was being screamed at her much louder than the others. it made no sense to her, so why was it the answer she wanted to give? Octavia gulped, hard, forcing all of her energy out to give an answer.
“I…I think I would happily let her..”
The words escaping her lips had stopped all the buzzing in her mind, like time just, stopped around her as she looked down at the sand.
"I….want to kiss a woman."
Octavia stared at the ground, not moving an inch as her mouth spoke without any input from her.
"I want to kiss Vinyl Scratch."
Octavia collapsed to her knees, not even being able to hold up her own weight was the reality of her words set in, Bon quickly going to her side to comfort her.
“Oh, Octavia. I know it’s a lot to process, and no one said that you had to figure everything out right now. This is just the first step on that.”
“I… didn’t even know I… felt that way about her. I’ve never even thought of anything like that before.”
“It’s a big shock to the system, isn’t it?”
She silently nodded her head, her mind was shockingly blank of all buzzing thoughts, just the echoes of what she said.
“Do you need some time alone?”
“I….yes, actually.”
Octavia stood up, finally managing to compose herself. Bon placed a hand on her shoulder and smiled.
“No problem, I’ll be over with the group if you need me.”
“I’m sorry, I don’t mean to offend, I just-”
“No I totally get it, it’s a lot to discover and think about all at once. And don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone until you feel comfortable about it.”
“Not even Lyra?”
“Not even Lyra, promise.”
Octavia threw her arms around Bon and brought her into a hug, breathing a sigh of relief.
“Thank you, Bon. You’re such a good friend.”
“Awww look at you, getting all sappy.”
Bon gladly returned the embrace, just happy that her friend seemed to be in a better headspace now.
“You’re one pretty awesome friend yourself, and I’m sure all the others would say the same.”
Bon pulled away from the hug with a smile before walking off to join the rest of the group. Octavia took a seat on the sandy floor as she looked at the distant image of her friends. Vinyl and Dixie were busy trying to stack things on top of the sleeping Lyra while Haven was trying to keep it from falling. She giggled at the sight, even if they were in danger and on the run, her friends would always somehow find a way to make it an enjoyable experience. She found herself focusing on Vinyl, her giggling face as she stacked yet another tin of beans onto the pile.
‘Of course. If there was anyone to come into my life and throw everything I knew about it out the window, I should've guessed it would be you, Vinyl’
-----
It took about an hour before Octavia worked up the courage to walk back to the group. She tried thinking about everything she and Bon discussed but she just ended up trying to not focus on it in the end. She had a lot of conflicting thoughts and feelings in her head, and sitting out in the cold wasn’t going to help. She would figure things out, eventually, but right now wasn’t that time. She looked at her friends, Haven and Dixie were now talking around the fire. Haven was waving his arms around, no doubt explaining some sort of scientific theory. Lyra and Bon were laying in the back of the truck, just enjoying each other’s company as they rested. Lastly Vinyl for whatever reason was sitting on top of the truck roof, looking into the night sky.
“What on earth are you sitting up there for, Vinyl?”
“Oh, hey Tavi, took you long enough to find a place to piss.”
“I wasn’t….what? No, I was just resting you idiot.”
“Ah, well I feel stupid. So what’s up?”
“I was asking what you were doing up on the roof of the truck, doesn’t strike me as being the most convenient seating around.”
Vinyl just shrugged and smiled back.
“I like being on top of things, gives off the vibes, ya know?”
“N… No, I can’t say I do know. Are… you stargazing?”
“Yep, was bored and there was nothing else to do.”
“I had no idea you even knew anything about constellations, Vinyl.”
“Oh, no, I know fuck all about those! I like making new ones up, though.”
Vinyl pointed to a vague set of stars up in the night sky.
“See, if you look closely, that one is shaped like an ass.”
Octavia let out a long laugh at the immature comment of her peer, before looking up to the set of stars, and shockingly if you looked at it just right it did kind of look like someone’s behind.
“Oh my god, it actually does.”
“It sure does. Hey, come up here, there’s plenty of room and I can show you more constellations I made up.”
She looked up at the blue-haired girl, seeing the moonlight shine down and highlighting the colored streaks. Octavia gulped. Not even an hour ago she was panicking over her feelings for this woman, and now she was being invited to watch the stars with her. She sighed and climbed up the front of the truck.
‘You know what? I’m not thinking about that, right now, I just want to have a nice moment with her.’
Reaching and pulling herself up, she took a seat next to her friend.
“I-It feels a bit rocky up here, are you sure we’ll be okay?”
“Yeah we’ll be fine, what, afraid you’re gonna-”
Vinyl began wildly rocking the truck side to side.
“Fall!?”
Octavia yelped and held on tightly before Vinyl stopped the shaking.
“Y-You’re a jerk!”
“It’s a part of my charm.”
Vinyl laughed as the other girl repeatedly punched her in the arm.
“Okay okay! I won’t do that again.”
“Hmf! Good!”
They both laid down on their backs, side to side, looking up to the night sky. Being far from any city, it was filled with so many stars, it was almost too much to take in. Vinyl lifted her arm and pointed up at the sky.
“Okay so, that one is shaped like a car….I think”
“Hmmm, well I suppose if I squint it vaguely looks like one.”
“And that one looks like a giant bong.”
“Of course you would see that! To me, it looks like a bell.”
“Bong.”
“Bell.”
“Boooong!”
“Beeeell!”
They both let out a chuckle at their little non-argument, sighing before gazing at the stars again. Octavia looked to her side, seeing just how close Vinyl was to her. All those feelings came rushing back in an instant looking at her smiling face.
‘God damn everything, it’s just been so confusing today.’
“Uh, you okay Tavi?”
Octavia snapped out of her thoughts and blinked at Vinyl.
“Hm? What do you mean?”
“You were kinda just, glaring at me, did I do something wrong?”
“Oh no no you’re fine, I’m just…..spacing out I guess. It’s been one long day.”
“Yeah it has, not even a few hours ago I was chained in some dude’s backroom.”
“You’re still an idiot for trying to punch him like that, but… thank you.”
“It’s nothing.”
“It is not nothing! You threw yourself into harm’s way to try and protect us, not knowing what was going to happen to you! That’s something, Vinyl”
“I mean….okay. It’s not a problem then, and trust me I’ll do it again.”
“Oh my lord if you actually do that again I’m going to faint!”
They both laid their heads back down. Octavia- left alone with her thoughts again- remembered Bon’s words. She basically gave Octavia a test to see how she was really feeling- and while she wasn’t going to just suddenly embrace Vinyl’s lips like that, she did have one thing she wanted to try.
“.....Vinyl?”
“Yeah, Tavi?”
“I’m getting rather cold, would you mind if I….got a bit closer for warmth?”
A deep blush covered Vinyl’s cheeks as she tried not to stumble over her own words.
“O-Of course! Y-You can get as close as you… need.”
“Thank you.”
She moved closer to Vinyl until she was leaning right up next to the blue-haired girl. She wasn’t lying, it was getting rather cold and their heat definitely helped, but this was more so to just….experience what that was like.
‘She’s….warm, she even smells nice too. This….feels okay. This feels nice.’
Octavia slowly sunk her face into the side of their shoulder, causing Vinyl’s face to grow bright red.
‘Okay okay okay, don’t panic Vinyl, you got this! It’s just….the most amazing woman you know is almost snuggling up against you. It’s no big deal, nothing to panic over. Absolutely nothing to panic over! Nothing.To.Panic.Over- NOT PANICKING WE ARE SO NOT PANICKING RIGHT NOW YEP TOTALLY FINE EVERYTHING IS A-OKAY WOOOO’
The brown-haired girl softly yawned, leaning her head more into Vinyl.
“Stay up here, for now? You’re warm.”
Vinyl’s panic was suddenly gone as she looked down at the sleeping girl. She smiled, yeah, maybe there really wasn’t anything to panic over.
“Of course Tavi, get some rest.”
“Night Vinyl…”
“Good night.”
“.....Vinyl?”
“Yeah?”
“I really like it when you call me Tavi.”
Before Vinyl could respond, Octavia’s eyelids closed as she fell into a deep sleep. Something about being around Vinyl calmed all the thoughts tumbling through her head. She wasn’t ready to think about what all those feelings could mean, but at the very least she could just enjoy this one moment. Those problems would be ready for her tomorrow. Right now though? Nothing else mattered.
Only Vinyl mattered.