//------------------------------// // PinkieCode // Story: Pink Skies at Sunset // by Luminous Comet //------------------------------// Sunset put her water bottle down next to her setup and got comfortable at the desk, before launching her stream client. She'd been letting her gaming channel slide lately, between all the extra time she was spending with Pinkie and a lot of other projects she was pursuing, but she still held herself to the promise of at least one stream every weekend. Her audience was limited but consistent and she could count on most of them to show up whenever she was doing impromptu streams within the week as well. She cleared her throat before turning on her microphone and giving access to her camera feed. "Hey, everybody. Welcome to ShimmerCode. And thanks for showing up, I know I haven't done any surprise streams in a while. But I'm free tonight and Halls of Unity just went into early access, so I was going to give it a look regardless." She leaned back as she booted up the game while looking at chat messages on her second screen, making small talk for a few minutes before starting her run. She acted a little extra confident, playing up her denial about the game's difficulty for comedic effect, but settled into a more honest appreciation for a while. "Okay, that's enough Fs, guys. I'll get it next time, for sure, if I build for damage they'll die before they can kill me." She took a sip from her bottle and was about to start her next attempt when her doorbell rang. She glanced at the time and frowned. It was a little late for random visitors and she wasn't expecting anyone. Hopefully it wasn't her upstairs neighbour, to complain about 'noise' again. "Sorry, guys, give me a minute." She muted her mic and set her headphones down to head over to the door. She took a peek through the spyhole, directly meeting Pinkie's eye on the other side. She scoffed a quiet laugh and unlocked the door. "Hey, bestie." "Hey~" Pinkie put her arms over Sunset's shoulders and leaned up to press a chaste kiss on her lips. "I was bored." "Why am I not surprised?" Sunset pulled her inside to close the door again. "Aww, I meant for it to be a surprise, though!" Pinkie dropped her purse and turned towards the room. "So, what'cha doin'?" "Well, I was streaming," Sunset said with playful accusation, walking back to her desk and sitting down again. "Ooh, fun!" Pinkie followed her and sat on her lap in plain view of the camera. Sunset sighed and put her headphones back on, unmuting the microphone. "Hey, guys. Guess this is a collab stream now! I'm just as surprised as you are." "You just said you weren't surprised." Pinkie narrowed her eyes at her. "What's the lie? Why are you lying to me?" Sunset returned her look for a second, before they both broke out into giggles. "So, she's been on the channel before, but this is my..." She hesitated for just a moment, but bit down her uncertainty. "My girlfriend, Pinkie." "Hey, guys!" Pinkie waved at the camera, one arm wrapped around Sunset's shoulders. Sunset straightened her back when the chair suddenly creaked warningly. "Okay, this isn't gonna work like this. I'm gonna switch to the couch setup." After just a few minutes, they were settled on the couch, Pinkie's legs stretched over Sunset's lap, both of them holding controllers as they cycled through the games installed on Sunset's console. "Okay, chat, I'll play more Halls of Unity on Saturday. For now, we're entertaining Pinkie, because she gets extra annoying when she's bored." "And I'm already annoying as is!" Pinkie added cheerfully. Sunset booted up a minigame collection and after some messing around on the menu screen, they started playing a few, Pinkie's energy quickly taking over, making her goof off right alongside her. "Ah, shit," Sunset said quietly as she made an obvious mistake. "You don't see that." "I see that," Pinkie said with a smirk. Sunset quickly reached down, trying to block her view with one hand. "You don't see it." Pinkie sat up partway, then ducked and weaved, trying to make her move while Sunset kept trying to cover her eyes, finally slotting her game piece into the correct spot to win. She sat up and leaned up close to Sunset's face, only to stick out her tongue and blow a raspberry. "Ugh, disgusting!" Sunset laughed, shoving her face away, making her collapse in a pile of giggles. "Okay, you pick the next one, I'm gonna read my donations." She leaned closer to her laptop, which she was using as a second screen for her stream setup, to scroll through the messages she had received attached to small donations. "Is Pinkie high? No, she's just like that." "I'm high on fun!" "Um... how long have we been together?" She looked down at Pinkie, who had shifted onto her side and slid closer, one leg lightly hooked around Sunset's waist. "Like, a month?" "Um..." Pinkie paused and furrowed her brow. "Thirty-three days." "There you go. Honestly, we didn't change that much about how we act around each other." "Uh, wrong!" Pinkie sent an accusatory look. "We make out and stuff! And--" Sunset quickly put a hand over her mouth. "Not in ways we're going to advertise on the internet." Sunset took a deep breath to recover from her laughing her fit, while Pinkie was clinging to her, snorting and giggling into her shoulder. "Okay, I think we're unravelling. Thanks for sticking around, guys, it's been fun." "Bye-bye," Pinkie managed to squeeze out, waving towards the camera, before Sunset ended the stream and turned off the microphone. She sighed and leaned back, putting her arms under Pinkie to adjust her a bit on her lap. For several hours, even sitting on the same spot on the couch could get tiring. "You good?" Sunset finally asked when Pinkie's giggling still hadn't stopped almost a minute later. "Y-yeah, hang on..." She snorted again and was rocked by another aftershock of laughter, before she finally calmed down, slumping away from her and sprawling out on the couch. "That was fun." "Yeah. But maybe shoot me a text first next time?" "But I like surprising you!" She reached her arms up towards her. Sunset lifted Pinkie's legs to pull her own up onto the couch and lie down next to her, pulling her in by her waist to return her squeezing hug. "And I was actually kinda lonely today... you said I could always come by." "And I mean that. Thanks for coming to me when you need someone." Pinkie huffed quietly and pulled away a few inches, looking into Sunset's eyes. With the TV off and the laptop screen on standby, the only light came from the fairy lights on the far wall, leaving the two of them mostly in darkness. Yet, so close, Sunset could make out every single one of Pinkie's lashes. Her eyes moved subtly as they looked at each other, in warm silence. "What's up?" Sunset asked quietly after a while of just watching her and trying to make out her heartbeat. "Your freckles. They're still there." She moved one hand from Sunset's back and lightly poked her cheek. "Boop." "Yeah, they come out better in the sun, but they don't go away." "Do you have freckles as a pony?" "Sure, but they're really hard to see." Pinkie chuckled softly and leaned in again, nuzzling into her shoulder. "I bet you're cuddly." "Maybe you'll find out," Sunset said quietly, closing her eyes and slowly caressing her back.