She felt a shuffling against her left side. She turned her head towards the origin of the feeling. Upon seeing nothing, Aqua shook her head. I still do that... "Yeah, Sunny? You good?"
Sunny hummed questioningly. "I am yes. Why do you ask?"
"Ah, nothin'. Probably just you adjusting how you're sitting or whatever. I felt you move and wondered if you were good."
Aqua heard Sunny hum to herself as she shuffled once more, though Aqua couldn't feel it.
Deciding to be playful, Aqua levitated the ball a bit away, still in her magical grip. Getting better at holding the ball steady from the small bursts of wind... Aqua leaned in, ducking her head and looking up at where the voice sounded from. "Nodding, are you? Without me..?" Aqua shook her head. "For shame, Sunny..."
Sunny began to stifle a giggle.
"I thought you were better than this. Better than nodding to a blind child." Another shake of the head, "For shame..."
"You are perceptive enough to notice, little Aqua."
"Damn right, I am. Hell, I'm even able to tell who's walking based on just the sound of them walking. Like their cadence or whatever. Or even just hear someone's breath and know who it is..." Aqua's head dipped slightly and her eyebrows felt heavy. Reminds me of hanging out with friends...
"Aqua?" Sunny sounded concerned. "Are you... good?"
"I... Yeah." Aqua nodded lightly before a corner of her mouth twitched upwards. "And hey, I noticed that! Glad you're starting to learn how to talk like the rest of us. Congratulations."
"It is a very slow process." Aqua could hear the smile in her voice.
Aqua raised a hoof and leaned further into Sunny's side. "Well, Let me help you with some tips. The first thing to make you sound more hip-." Aqua snorted. Yeah, that's the perfect word for it. "First thing to make you sound normal is definitely to use contractions..." Aqua turned to the side for a second, "I think that's the word." Turning back, she continued, "Anyway, the things you put between two words that become combined or whatever. Things like the word- phrase, my bad- I am to the word I'm. Like, in writing, when you use the apostrophe between the I and the m after it."
Sunny giggled. "I will endeavor to practice that. Do you enjoy the study of language, Aqua?"
Aqua shrugged. "Eh, not really. There's a thing here or there that I find interesting, but that's about it."
"Are you able to think of one thing?"
"Oh. Uh..." Talking with my brother at night would work, I guess. "Yeah, alright I got something. So back when me and my brother lived together, we'd be on different bunks. Me, being the younger one, I was spoiled and chose the top bunk. Though, I think he preferred the bottom bunk. Anyway, bed time came by and we'd do all the normal getting ready for bed stuff, but when it was actually time to fall asleep, we'd start to talk. Normally nothing of substance, but just talk. Talk in the way that siblings often do. Sometimes it'd be nice, other times it'd be a miniature fight. But when-." Aqua heard a particularly unstable breath from Sunny. "Sunny?" Aqua bumped a hoof into Sunny's side. "You- you good?" Did I say something fucked? Aqua felt her eyes twitch upwards and shook her head, stabilizing herself. Not now. Gotta focus on Sunny.
Sunny took a while longer than usual to respond after the pegasus shuffled. "Yes. I am fine. Continue."
Aqua's eyebrows furrowed upwards and she spoke softly, "Are you sure?"
Aqua felt a wing wrap lightly around her back. "Yes, little Aqua. I am fine."
She's lying. "You really didn't sound fine, but alright. I won't pry... Do you want me to continue the story?"
"Yes. I would like to hear it."
Slowly, Aqua continued, "Alright... I think I was talking about me and my brother's late night talks..." Think I just gave context... "Okay, so we'd talk after bedtime, but when we were having an argument or a debate, whatever you want to call it, there'd be some misunderstanding. Like we'd be arguing about something about something, and like after wasting half an hour to an entire hour of us talking in circles, I'd realize that there'd be one critical word we'd completely misunderstand. Not exactly that one of us had the meaning wrong in our head, though that was also sometimes true, it was a thing of I'd know the word to mean a certain thing and set of things connected to it that'd be adjacent or work in close to the same context... Anyway, I'd realize how we understood the word was different... I ended up finding that really, really interesting. But like only that. Pretty much nothing else about language really grabbed my attention. I just like knowing about those differences in word meaning to different people..."
Sunny was still slow to respond. "I... Understand."
Aqua spoke up once more. "I- uh..." I shouldn't give them more... "You know what? Never mind." Aqua shook her head. Hearing shuffling to her left, Aqua spoke up again. "Look, Sunny." I sound old saying that... Aqua leaned further into Sunny's side and put a hoof on her shoulder. "There's something on your mind, and while I don't want to be pushy... Are you sure you're okay? Is there any way I can help?"
Aqua stayed still in that position for what felt like a whole minute before Sunny spoke up, "In the future, yes. But not now, Aqua."
Fuck. Aqua slowly nodded and tried rubbing Sunny's side, though it was hard considering how much larger and taller Sunny was. "Alright... Sunny just remember. We're friends, even if fairly new ones. You can say what's on your mind to me. I promise that I won't tell anyone... And if I can help, even if it's only just listening, hit me up... While I'm not a therapist, my mom was one." Shouldn't have said that. Too late now. Works as sharing trust. Aqua feigned a chuckle and a tiny smile. "She almost wanted me to become one. Last time I talked to her I think she still did... Anyway, my point is that I picked up some insights, if you ever want to just vent."
Sunny hugged Aqua closer with her wing and spoke up, "Maybe soon, Aqua..."
"Alright." Aqua nodded and faced the larger person as her mind raced. She's not okay. Maybe..? No. Maybe it's a sibling problem..? That might be it... It would make sense.
The two sat in the late afternoon breeze in silence, though Aqua was focused on Sunny.