//------------------------------//
// Chapter 41: Reconciliation 
// Story: Rosa 
// by awf 
//------------------------------//

Morning rolled over and the first rays of the rising sun poked right into Rosa's eyes. She was not ready to wake up yet, so she turned around and pressed her muzzle into the seat. She didn't even want to know how late she had came to bed the previous night. Perhaps 'last night' was even the wrong label there, Rosa decided after becoming aware of the taste in her mouth. She had waited at the abandoned factory for as long as she dared before her nerves gave out, then she sneaked back. The van was dark and quiet, so Rosa came closer. Whatever Sky Light and Terry had been doing, it seemed to be over. Rosa had gratefully crawled in the empty cabin and flopped on the seat. She hadn't even bothered with a blanket, since the night was warm enough with just her fur.

Things were back to normal, she guessed. Sky Light had accepted her apology, more or less, and now everything would go back to the usual routine. Except - was there even such a thing as a routine on the streets? No two days had been alike so far. A part of Rosa missed the schedules and structure of her days back at the School.

In either case, sleep was impossible now that Rosa had woken up and started thinking, so she rolled to her back and stretched her hooves above her head. The motion brought out a yawn, which was covered by a sudden noise as she inadvertently kicked the van's passenger door. Rosa froze for a moment and listened for any angry yells from the back. She hadn't meant to wake up Sky Light and Terry, but she also wouldn't be awfully sad if she had. Rosa was getting hungry and she was anxious for news about Lillian. Unfortunately there were no sounds from the pair, so Rosa sat up and carefully opened the door. Her hooves clopped against the ground, but it was not overly loud. Now that she was upright, Rosa stretched again, focusing on each leg in turn as she pushed them out as far as she could.

She made her sleepy way to the back of the van, but paused when she saw that the door was open. Surely Terry would have gotten back in his clothes after... well, after, right?

With almost exaggerated care Rosa peeked around, biting her lip all the while to keep herself quiet if she happened to see something she shouldn't. She nearly sighed with relief when it was just Terry and Sky Light, cuddling. The man was fully dressed and the mare was almost hidden as the small spoon. As Rosa watched, Sky's hind hoof, which was sticking out from under Terry's coat, twitched.

The mare murmured something and jerked her wing with a rustle of feathers, but didn't wake up. As if responding, Terry reached up and patted her muzzle, after which Sky licked his fingers. Then they were still again.

It was actually kinda cute. "Aww," Rosa couldn't help saying. Luckily it was quiet enough not to wake the pair up.

There was nothing else to do, so Rosa decided to go get a drink of water and use the bathroom while she waited. She was very worried about Lillian, but neither her thirst nor the pressure in her bladder would help the girl. Maybe Rosa could get a newspaper or something at the truck stop - if Sky Light would take her, Rosa added mentally. She might still be cross with her for a while longer until Rosa could properly make it up to her. Anyway, she was not going to the truck stop alone. Those teenagers last night had put a fear of getting... abused in Rosa and the mare couldn't help being afraid of Butch. She wondered why the others even hung out with him. That pony was trouble if Rosa ever saw it.

Almost halfway up the canal stairs she heard hoofsteps behind, so Rosa stopped and let Sky Light catch up to her. "Morning," she greeted her pegasus friend.

She seemed to be in a better mood. The mare was yawning and Rosa couldn't help but adore the way Sky's tongue poked out and curled at the end just when her mouth was open the widest.

"Aahhh!" Sky Light concluded, then blinked at Rosa. "You didn't have to wake me up, you know?"

"I didn't- I'm sorry."

Apparently Rosa had not been not as quiet as she thought she was, which made her blush a tiny bit. She really should remember that other ponies around her could hear just as well - if not better - than her. Rosa had gotten too used to the human hearing acuity.

Sky reached Rosa's step and prodded her rump with her muzzle. "Keep walking. I really have to go."

She obeyed and Sky Light followed right on her heels, while Rosa tried to come up with something to say. "Did y-you have... f-fun?" she ventured.

"Mhm!" the other mare confirmed: "Every now and then you just need a good rutting, y'know?"

Rosa didn't, not really, but Sky's comment made her think of Paolo for some reason and she felt a light tingle down her belly. "Okay..."

The pegasus chuckled and nudged her rump again. "You'll understand once you've had it a couple of times. Don't worry about it."

Part of Rosa wished Sky would stop talking about it and embarrassing her, but at the same time she was extremely curious. "Um, did you ever- y'know... with a pony?"

Her friend didn't even need to think about it. "Yeah. Sometimes you need something a bit larger. Now your average human can go for a while - which is great, don't get me wrong - but it's not as... umm," she said and paused to think. "It's not as filling," she finally finished. "Sometimes you just wanna feel it right up there, right?"

It was a good thing Rosa was walking in front, so Sky couldn't see how red her face was. She should probably have stopped her friend, but listening to what Sky Light was saying was giving Rosa a weird kind of guilty, tingly pleasure. "Okay?"

"Now the important thing is," the other mare went on, as if teaching Rosa vital life lessons, "stay away from stallions when you're in heat. Have you had your first heat yet?"

Either Sky couldn't see how flat Rosa's ears were, or she was purposefully ignoring them. Rosa considered not answering - those topics were incredibly impolite to discuss in company - but the mare had been a good friend! "Y-Yes..." The memory itself made her feel guilty when Rosa thought back on how she had acted. It had been very lucky that the School staff had enough experience to know what to do about it. They had locked her in a cell and didn't let her see any of her friends for a week.

That was good, because otherwise Rosa might have asked her roommates to do something very inappropriate. Later on, in Mr. Greiner's class, she had found out the real reason. Pheromones. If a colt had smelled it they would be very... discomforted. If one of them had approached Rosa that fateful week they would have done something incredibly stupid. Solitary confinement had been a bit harsh, but Rosa had all the desserts she could eat and books she could read. She had even been excused from homework and the Maths test which was the following week. She didn't tell Sky Light any of that, though. It was almost too shameful even to just think about all the things that had gone through her mind during those few days.

"Well, then you know what it's like."

Rosa swallowed a lump and nodded. "Y-Yes."

"Don't worry, I'll look after you," Sky Light promised. She fell silent for a few steps, then added in a lower, calmer voice: "If you still want me to, of course."

That sounded just a bit too passive-aggressive, and Rosa didn't want that sort of thing to build up between the two, so she turned around to face the mare. "I do!" she said quickly, "I'm sorry about storming away. I was stupid."

Her friend watched her warily for a moment, then she nodded. "Yes. You are."

Rosa lowered her ears and her gaze, trying not to sniffle. What hurt the most was that Sky Light was right, but before Rosa could even open her mouth to say she agreed, Sky tilted her head back up with a feather under her muzzle. "You're my little idiot, okay? Just- please trust me from now on. I'll go see Hoover today and that'll be the end of that, understand?"

Rosa gave her as bright and cheerful a smile as she could. Then she remembered another detail. "Um, I lost the money... last night," she admitted.

The other mare cocked her head to the side. "Oh yeah, I've been wondering about that. What made you come back so fast?"

Rosa gulped in fear and lowered her voice: "I was gonna sleep at the bus s-stop," she explained. "I thought could get sup-supplies from the machine. But there were these guys..."

Sky Light nodded sagely. "Oh, right. It's nearly summer. Pot heads. They come out when it gets warm enough. It's either the park or the bus stop."

"Pot heads?" Rosa remembered a very stern lecture from Instructor Martha. "Oh! Weed? They smoke weed?!" So that was what she'd smelled!

"Mhm," Sky Light confirmed. "Stay away from those guys. Who knows what they might get it in their heads to do once they're stoned. Did they see you?"

The memory was making Rosa nervous and she shuffled her hooves. "I tried sneaking away, but I stepped in a pothole. Then I just ran for it. I don't think they chased me."

"Well, they don't come over to the abandoned factory, so you should be okay there if you have to pee in the middle of the night," Sky Light said, implying between her words that she didn't want to be woken up for that reason. "The van is also okay because of Terry. Most people stay away from the homeless."

That was a nice bonus. Rosa found herself appreciating the man a bit more. "Oh. T-Thanks," she told her friend.

"Now let's hurry up. I'm growing a second tail here!"

Just like that she was back to disgusting, which made Rosa blush, which resulted in Sky Light laughing at her. This time she didn't mind. Sky was just joking in her brash, uncultured way.

Rosa still turned toward her destination and picked up the pace, though. "Um, so you didn't find Lillian yesterday?" she started a more important topic.

"Sorry," Sky Light said and sighed. "I swear I poked into every bush between the suburb and the forest, but no sign. I also didn't see any footprints or anything. I guess she didn't go that way."

Rosa sighed sadly, but then cheered up as she remembered her other theory. "M-Maybe someone already found her? Or she went h-home?" she asked hopefully.

"Yeah, could be," Sky Light said, brightening up. "Tell you what, we'll go grab coffee at the truck stop and I'll buy a newspaper. Maybe there'll be something about her."

Rosa twirled around once again and hugged the mare around her withers. She had to flap her wings to keep her balance, but Rosa didn't care. "Thank you!"

"After that, you owe me big, kid," Sky Light continued, trying to sound serious and cold, even while she was patting Rosa's back with a wing. "We'll mooch in front of the library and then the parking meter again, okay? We really have to get that money for Viktor together." She barked a short laugh. "I'm actually more worried about him than Hoover. The guy is a psycho."

Rosa pulled back and gave the mare a tiny, hurt glare. "You sent me to him with a drug delivery!" she said accusingly.

It made Sky Light lower her gaze and rub a hoof against a foreleg nervously. "Yeah, sorry about that. I wasn't thinking."

Well, forgiveness went both ways, right? "It's okay."

Rosa resumed her much-interrupted walk. After a few paces Sky Light moved in front and increased her pace. She must have really been in a hurry. Rosa almost had to run after the lithe pegasus to keep up. As she cantered behind the mare she caught a whiff of her scent. It made her nose wrinkle when Rosa recognized it.

"Might want a shower while we're at the truck stop," she murmured.

The other mare slowed down for a few steps so she could wave a wing along her side and inhale the result. "Ugh, you're right. I guess I got used to the smell in the van."

Rosa said nothing more as the two started walking again. Sky Light broke the silence after about a minute. "That's the downside, anyway. Sticky and leaking and anyone can smell it on you until you shower. Speaking of which, you could use one, too!"

Rosa happily agreed.

"Also, we have to find you something better to wear. That thing isn't doing too good," Sky Light said without even looking.

Rosa agreed with that as well. "I know..."

"I'll have Hoover give me one of the uniforms. He generally has one or two lying around."

That idea didn't sit well with Rosa. She really didn't want to be indebted to a drug lord. "That's okay, I don't-"

"He owes me," Sky Light said firmly, overriding her objections. "After one of his goons threatened you with a gun it's the least he can do, and my final two deliveries are also off the table! I'll give that bastard a piece of my mind!"

Rosa almost whimpered in fear. She had embellished the story a lot when she wanted Sky Light to feel sorry and now it was time to pay the price. She opened her mouth to tell her the truth.

"No one treats my friends that way!" Sky Light growled and Rosa shut her cowardly trap. She would tell her later, when they had both showered and had their coffee. It was too early to go admitting to such horrible lies.

Yeah... later.

The building loomed up above them and Rosa was grateful that she was able to stop talking with Sky Light for a while. She went in to do her business first and Rosa hung around, furiously trying to come up with some other topic of conversation.