//------------------------------//
// Chapter Eleven 
// Story: Lasting Memories 
// by Boopy Doopy 
//------------------------------//

The two got back in the house just as it started to rain, Charley sighing in relief that they didn’t get caught in it. They entered to the sight of Rumble hanging out with another pony and playing a handheld– hoofheld– game with him. He looked up at both stallions entered, smiling at the sight of Thunderlane but quickly changing to a scowl when he saw Charley.
“Whoa, who stepped in your hay fries, Rumble?” Thunderlane asked, chuckling a bit. “Turn that frown upside down.” The colt eyed Charley as he said it. Thunderlane turned to Charley, too, who only shrugged his shoulders, not knowing what was up.
"Charley wasn't the one who stepped in your hay fries, was he? Because you're looking at him like you despise him. It's not cool."
“Whatever. I’m going down to Ponyville to spend the night with Button Mash. Come on, Jetspeed.” The two left with that, the colt sending another glare Charley’s way. What did he do to him?
“Did something happen between you and Rumble today?” Thunderlane asked, raising an eyebrow. “He never acts like that to anypony.”
“I dunno. I only saw him for an hour today before I left. He didn’t seem happy to see me then, either.”
Charley remembered the interaction with him that morning, and thought about how Rumble said he was running around and hurting Thunderlane. That wasn’t true, was it?
He knew it was, and he was only going to hurt Thunderlane even more the more time he spent with him. It was going to hurt himself to spend time with him, too, that he knew. It was such a rough spot for him to be in, and he hated it. What was he going to do?
Calm down. He already said he wasn’t going to pressure you into staying. Hell, he even said he’d convince you to not be an idiot if you started to act like one. Just chill out. Everything’s going to be fine. He hoped it would be anyway.
“What do you want to do with the rest of the night?” Thunderlane asked. “I have books here if you wanna read now before we go to the library. Nothing on stars and planets and stuff though, but a few fiction novels. Or we could play a boardgame.”
“No, I’m fine.” There was a long pause before Charley asked, “I assume you wanna talk?”
“Not if you don’t want to,” was the reply. “But what about dinner? I can cook some more fish if you show me how to do it.”
“I’d really rather not cook,” Charley said flatly. He saw the pleading look on Thunderlane’s face however, almost begging to do something with him, and quickly added, “but I guess I can, if only to show you how to do it right.”
“That sounds nice,” Thunderlane smiled. “Wanna get started now?”
“Sure, let me just take a shower real quick. I feel grimy after so long without one.”
“Okie dokie. Mind if I join you?”
“Uh… what?”
“In the shower. Can I join you? That way we don’t waste water, or time either.”
“Uhhhhh is that a normal thing?” Charley asked, feeling uncomfortable by the proposition. “I know I said we can flirt and stuff, but that’s not the same thing as flirting. I mean, I didn't say we could flirt, but still.”
“What are you talking about? Ponies shower together all the time. Haven’t you ever been to a communal shower? There are like three or four of them in Ponyville. Less common here in Cloudsdale though, since we have a limitless supply of water, but we still have one or two.”
"That sounds extremely weird, but, I mean, I guess…? As long as you’re serious about the communal shower thing and aren’t using this as an excuse to try something. I want a guarantee that it's something everyone does.”
“I’m serious. It’s a big thing.” Thunderlane raised an eyebrow, asking, “Where are you from where you use the phrase ‘everyone’ and don’t know how to fly and haven’t heard of communal showers?”
“An alternate universe,” Charley mumbled, shaking his mane out of his face. “But whatever. I guess if it’s a normal thing, it’s fine. It’s not like people here have clothes anyway.”
“Seriously, where are you from?” the stallion pressed. “I know you don’t wanna talk about it, but can’t you at least tell me that?”
Charley sighed at the question. “I’ll tell you about it later. I’m gonna go shower now.”
Charley got the water running and stepped in, Thunderlane joining him a few minutes later. He expected the stallion to try to make it weird, but apparently, it was a completely normal thing. Hardly a word was spoken as Charley stood under the water, watching Thunderlane quickly lather up his body and rinse himself off. He was extremely efficient, but for someone so fast in the air, he expected as much. He kept his eyes on him as he worked, taking in his masculine body with a faint blush, but it wasn't something that lasted long. The black pony was done inside of three minutes, leaving Charley once again in the water by himself.
“You know, your coat’s gonna get all matted up if you stay in that water too long,” Thunderlane commented as Charley watched him dry off. “Then you’ll have to brush it out, too.”
“Eh, I don’t care. I’m only gonna be here for two more days anyway. It’s not like it matters.”
“Hey, Charley?”
“Yeah?”
Thunderlane looked down at his hooves awkwardly for a second before pushing his eyes into his friend’s. “If you’re feeling suicidal or are gonna self-harm–”
“God, no Thunderlane! I’m not gonna kill myself! Where did you come up with that idea?” He was almost angry by the assertion.
“Sorry, that’s just how it was coming across, and I wanted to make sure you know that I’m here to listen.”
“No, I’m not gonna kill myself,” Charley rolled his eyes. “I can’t believe you would even think that.”
“That’s just how it’s coming off, and I’d hate to see something like that happen if I can prevent it. Like, your attitude is kind of like that, like you don’t want to fall in love because of that.”
“I will be leaving, and it’s not gonna matter if my coat is matted, but I’m not killing myself. It’s just a complicated mess of a story that I’m not getting into.”
“I’d really like to hear it though,” the stallion almost pleaded. “I just want to know what’s going on, please.”
“Thunderlane. For the eightieth time. I don’t want to talk about it, so stop asking. You’re seriously starting to annoy me with how much you keep fucking hounding me about it.” Charley had on a glare for an expression, trying to get the point across. 
“Yeah, yeah. Sorry. Didn’t mean to upset you.” He looked at his hooves again for a moment before shaking his head to clear his mind. “Anyway, gonna get out of there anytime soon? I want to see how a real pegasus cooks fish.”
“Yeah, give me a second.”
He got out a little while later, quickly drying off and stepping into the kitchen to find the stallion already getting the food out. It seemed he was serious about wanting to learn how to cook fish properly.
“I’ll get out everything I can think of that you might need, but if I’m forgetting anything, just tell me,” he explained before turning around to Charley. “I don’t know if we… whoa.” His cheeks went bright red, something that confused Charley. He looked behind him to see if Rumble had returned and was embarrassing him, and when he saw he wasn’t, raised an eyebrow in question.
“You, um, you… n-need to preen your wings, Charley,” Thunderlane said, sounding shy. It was completely unexpected how embarrassed the stallion sounded, how deep red his cheeks were, and it had Charley nothing but confused.
“You mean like a bird?” he asked as he took a look at his wings, noticing the feathers were ruffled up. “I mean, I guess I do, but I don’t know how to do that myself,” he said. “Why are you so embarrassed though?”
“W-well, um,” the stallion stuttered, “being preened is s-something ponies normally do by themselves… or as a couple if they’re at that stage of their relationship…” Charley continued to look at the stallion with a confused expression, so he continued, “H-having ungroomed feathers is n-normally a signal to somepony that you want to… you know…” He looked up at Charley for a moment before turning his gaze back to his hooves.
“So let me get this straight: showering together is totally normal to you, but my feathers being a little bit ruffled gets you all bashful and embarrassed and makes you think I want to fuck you. Am I getting this right?”
“Well out of the shower, ponies either dry them carefully or just preen themselves,” he continued. “It’s kind of like when a mare has her tail raised while she’s in heat. I- I just d-didn’t expect you to come out looking like that.”
“You ponies are something else,” Charley said without a hint of shame as he stepped into the kitchen, looking over the ingredients he had. “Is this everything you have?”
“Yeah. I haven’t been shopping yet… do you really not know how to preen yourself?” Thunderlane asked, staring right at his wings. Charley had to admit that he was feeling a bit insecure, and made sure to keep his wings pressed closer into his sides.
“No, I really don’t. Now do you have any breading for these?” he asked. “I’m gonna show you how to make perfect fish.”
Thunderlane carefully watched him work, Charley explaining his process as he went through step by step. As he did, he could practically feel the stallion glancing at his wings every so often. He immediately stopped whenever he realized he was, but his face remained flushed red, something that made Charley embarrassed. Being naked all the time was acceptable, but his wings needing to be preened was an issue?
He tried to ignore it as he talked the stallion through what to do, eventually settling down at the table once he placed the fish in the oven. Thunderlane remained standing, still blushing and doing his best to stare into Charley’s eyes.
“Are my wings really that much of an issue that it’s making you embarrassed to look at me?” he asked. “How? Don’t all pegasi have to preen themselves?”
“Yeah, but, you know…” He took a breath before continuing, “It’s like I said. P-ponies don’t normally go out with ruffled up feathers like that, and the ones who do are trying to… you, know. Advertise.”
“Well, I’m certainly not doing that,”  Charley said, rolling his eyes. “I won’t lie though, this feels like a nonissue.”
“I’m telling you, if you go out in public tomorrow looking like that, ponies are gonna stare at you.” Charley opened his mouth to say something, but before he could, Thunderlane continued, “But I know, I know. You’re gonna be gone in a couple of days, so what do you care? And you still don’t want to talk about it, do you?”
“You got it exactly right. Now let me check on that fish.”
The two of them finished cooking and ate their meal, Thunderlane smiling and commenting about how it was the best fish he’d ever eaten. It made Charley smile, and got him to offer to cook something for dinner tomorrow despite his disdain for the activity. He headed off to bed with that after they finished, somehow feeling drained of energy despite an entire day of doing largely nothing. He once again got the feeling that he wasted the entire day away and was running out of time, but he pushed that thought out of his head. Tomorrow he’d go to the library with Thunderlane and have a nice time.
He woke up early, before even Thunderlane did, and decided to surprise him with a little more cooking. He raided his fridge for eggs and pancakes and hashbrowns and got to work on making a meal. It didn’t take long, but by the time he was finished, Thunderlane was walking into the room and rubbing his eyes.
“Wow, it smells good,” he said sleepily. “How early did you wake up to… heck!” 
“What?” Charley asked as he set food out at the table, tilting his head in confusion. Thunderlane had that look he had on yesterday, one that was embarrassed, and his face was even brighter red now than it was the night before.
“You- it’s… you’re wings are even less preened than yesterday!” he said, turning away shamefully. “D-d-do you really not know how to do it? I thought you were just trying to tease me saying that!”
“Yes, for the third time, I really don’t know how to preen myself,” Charley said, now feeling a little embarrassed himself. “How is this something that’s only a problem now? Why didn’t you bring it up before?”
“They didn’t need to be preened before! You probably ruffled them up after you dried off from the shower.” There was a little pause as the stallion quickly made his way up to Charley, trying to smooth them out with a wing.
“You’re really not supposed to do this, but if you don’t know how to preen yourself, then we’re gonna have to settle for smoothing them out for now,” he said as he quickly worked over him. “You really can’t go out looking like this,” he explained. “There’s no way they’d let you in the library looking like this. It’s practically obscene.”
“I don’t see how. It’s just wing feathers. Every bird horse I’ve seen up to this point has them.”
“Yeah, well, you’re gonna have to just trust me… Celestia, this isn’t working. It’s so ruffled up.” The black stallion went to the other wing to try and smooth them out, but had just as little success working on them. As he did, Charley blushed a little bit when Thunderlane brushed up against him. He could almost feel how hard his heart was beating by all of this, something that made him blush more. Was this really as obscene as Thunderlane seemed to make it out to be?
He could also faintly smell his scent from this position, even despite the food being on the table near him. It was that same slightly salty masculine scent he smelled before while he was flying with Thunderlane during the Wonderbolts show, one that made him want to suck in deeply to inhale every ounce of it that he could get. He avoided doing so, but just barely. The thought that it was the view of his wings that was producing it on Thunderlane made his heart begin to beat with equal measure to the stallion.
“Whatever,” Thunderlane finally said, resigning himself to the fact that he couldn’t fix it with just his wings. “We can deal with this later. I- I… I’ll teach… um, we’ll put you in one of my jackets when we go out, okay?” he said quickly. “Let me see if I can find something. Hold on.”
“Thunderlane.” Charley stopped him before he could move. He turned to Charley but then blushed and put his eyes on his hooves when he saw his wings again.
“Can we eat breakfast before that?” he asked. “I don’t want it to get cold after I cooked it."
“Oh. Yeah. Yeah! Let’s eat first. Sorry.”
“It’s fine, I just didn’t think my wings would be that big of a deal.”
The two sat down to eat with that, Thunderlane afterward finding a jacket of his for Charley to wear. It was a Wonderbolts jacket Thunderlane normally used for performances, complete with his name and an insignia, but he assured Charley it was fine. Charley accepted it without much issue, although he still couldn’t see why his wings mattered so much. It didn't complain that he was getting to wear the stallion's clothes as though they were going out.
It smells like him, he couldn’t help but notice, a fact that made his heart flutter happily. He couldn’t help but think about the fact that he was wearing his scent, and would end up smelling like him by the time the day was done. 
Can you get that stupid thought out of your head? he told himself frustratedly. What does he have anyway? You barely know him! You’ve only been around him for a few days. Sure he taught you how to fly and went stargazing with you and you showed him how to cook fish and took you to a show of his and…
It was a whole list of things, wasn’t it? Even spending all day yesterday lying around and feeling sorry for himself, his week was still packed with stuff. It was probably the best week of his life, at least the best week he’d had in a long while. He couldn’t lie: he’d be sad when it was over.
But it doesn’t matter because every week after this is gonna be the best week ever. I’m gonna actually be able to feel like myself. It’s worth it to have a little pain if it means I can just be myself for the first time in a lifetime.
The two left the house and went to the library, walking casually through the cloud city. Charley took notice of the other ponies, all pegasi like him, walking along as well. They were all different sizes and colors and looked genuinely happy and stress free. He didn’t notice it in Ponyville when he first got to Equestria, but he was certainly noticing it now. Maybe it was the fact that below the clouds things felt busier and noisier. It felt much quieter here, as though the clouds were helping to suppress noise. Maybe it was just that bird horses seemed like they more chilled out in general. In any case, he appreciated the scene, a rare thing for him to do, even on Earth. Especially on Earth.
It’d be nice to live here… no! Get that thought out of your head! You’re not gonna be manipulated into choosing this stallion over yourself! If I choose this, it’s gonna end prematurely in heartbreak because I’m not gonna keep forcing myself to live like this.
“There it is!” Thunderlane said as the two of them made their way up to a large, mansion-like building that advertised itself as the Cloudsdale Public Library. It stood supported on multiple heavy looking beams, the entrance hanging about fifty feet in the air. For what purpose this served other than to be more complicated, Charley didn’t know.
“It has every book imaginable in there,” Thunderlane told him. “I think it’s one of the top ten biggest libraries in Equestria, and certainly the biggest one between here and Canterlot… well, except for Princess Twilight Sparkle’s library. But that one doesn't count since it was just built not too long ago.”
“I see. Well, I’ll take your word for it. Think you can fly me up there?” he asked.
“Haha, that’s a funny joke,” the stallion laughed. “You better use your wings, silly. What was all that flying for if I’m gonna carry you everywhere?”
“Aw, come on, you’re supposed to be the strong stallion sportsman between us, right? It’ll be good exercise.” Charley gave a smirk as he said it, enjoying messing around with him.
“Oh yeah? Well me flying you everywhere isn’t gonna make you the strong mare I know you can be.” Charley’s face went hot red at that remark, and Thunderlane continued, “But I’ll take you up there if only because you’re wings aren’t preened and I don’t want you to expose yourself to everypony.”
“I still don’t see how that would be considered ‘exposing myself’ when all of you have been naked the whole time, but if it gets you to fly for me, sure.” He decided not to make a big fuss about being called a mare this time since Thunderlane was doing this for him. Besides, he had to admit that it felt nice to hear.
The black stallion wrapped his hooves around him to pick him up, a move Charley was starting to get familiar with by this point. It was only a few seconds before they were settling on the steps to the library entrance, but it was a few seconds that Charley could stare into Thunderlane’s perfect eyes and feel his hooves on his body. He tried not to smile too widely as he was carried for those few seconds.
God, you’re treating him like your boyfriend, Charley chastised himself. Can you just stop? It’s like Rumble said. You’re fucking around and playing with his emotions. No wonder his brother doesn’t like you.
“Sorry. I shouldn’t be bothering you to get you to do simple things for me that I can do myself,” Charley said quietly after that thought. "I'll try and tone down my annoying attitude about getting you to do things for me."
“It’s fine,” Thunderlane said coolly. “You're absolutely not annoying me. If you were, I'd let you know. Now let’s go find some books to read about stars, nerd.”