//------------------------------// // Playing With Fire. // Story: Unexpected Roommate. // by Ditz //------------------------------// Twilight opened her eyes to an interesting sight. John was laying down on the bed with his eyes closed, not saying anything, earplugs of some sort in his ears, she quickly deduced it was a type of sound emitting object by the way he bopped his head in rhythm, and took a note of it for later. Then, her sight fell uponthe books that sat right beside her, the temptation of grabbing one was strong in her, but decided against it, waiting for John to notice her first, wanting to apologize for the earlier event. “So, you are awake,” John said simply, catching her by surprise, he removed his headphones, and began mouthing something, keeping it at the inaudible level, as if he was fighting to say something. “I’m sorry John.” Twilight quickly began, quickly noting that it had to do with the morning’s incident. “I should have t-” John raised his hand at that moment, stopping her in her tracks. “I’m the one who is sorry, I overreacted and would like to let you try again, please?” before she could reply, he laid down on his back, giving her the thumbs-up. "O-okay," she said, slowly approaching him, and as before, putting a hoof over his back, this time around not saying anything to repeat the morning events. Her horn began to, and she lowered it to his back, causing John to flinch a bit at the touch of her magic. “That kinda tickled.” John explained giving a sheepish grin. “Some ponies tend to feel that way.” Twilight replied without thinking, focusing on the spell. “Done! This was very basic first-aid but you should feel a bit better, while I was at it, I also removed some of the stress on your muscles.” John got on his feet and moved his body, twisting it one way or another and gave Twilight an astonished look. “That’s some first-aid! This is better than painkillers!” he added happily. "It's no problem, I'm just glad I was of help," she replied bashfully. "And well, thank you for cleaning my room as well, I mean, how did you even throw the trash away?" John asked with curiosity. “I, well, kind of just burned it in a way, made it disappear completely, you can say, and I have to say, this is the first real smile I get from you.” Twilight said with a slightly mocking tone. “Of course I’m happy! You didn’t only fix my back, but cleaned my room, and trust me, I didn‘t want to do that!” he said while looking around, and then stared at a single spot, his pupils dilating as if something terribly done had been done. This can’t be good… Twilight thought, as she realized what might be next to come. ~~~~~ John just stared in shock at what was in front of him, or rather, what was not. “My… My…” John began. “Y-your what, John?” Twilight asked timidly. “My money, the green paper that I had left in that very corner,” he said while pointing at the place in question. Twilight began shivering a bit, but quickly seemed to have found her ground and said with a determined face. “I’m sorry, I thought it was trash, I shouldn’t have thrown it away…" She apologized, and John relaxed a bit, or at least he would have if she hadn’t added. “It’s just money thought, it can be replaced with some old fashioned work..” the wording simply made something in John snap. “Oh, I see, so $200 dollars isn’t much to a pony, in fact, seems you don't really care about money much, do you? Probably because your job isn‘t quite as difficult as mine I bet!” he then walked to her and asked. “May I?” he asked, pointing at Twilight's bag, getting a weak go-ahead. John wasn’t a cruel person, but he wasn’t going to let the comment go, and rummaged trough the bag’s contents till he found a book, the one he had seen Twilight read the day before, she just stared, looking terrified and twitched as he looked it over. PERFECT. John thought as his eye gave a small twitch of his own, and moved over to his drawer. “Hey Twilight, this wouldn’t happen to be your favorite book, would it?” John asked giving Twilight an odd smile. “N-n-no, but it belongs to the town's library, and I haven‘t finished reading it, actually.” Twilight replied shivering a bit. 'Town? Libraries? So they have villages and libraries over there as well, of course,' he thought and filed it for later, he would ask about her world soon enough. “What would happen if I did…” John began opening his drawer, grabbing something and closing it. “Well… This!” he finished as he pulled out a lighter and lighted it. Twilight’s face looked horrified, and the stomach churning in his guy brought shame to him. 'She needs to learn,' John thought on his defense, and pulled the book closer to the flame. “Don’t do it!” Twilight snapped as loud as she could muster without being heard outside and her horn began to glow. “Ah, ah, ah!” John warned her moving the lighter closer to the book. “We wouldn’t want an accident, now would we?” Twilight just stared and her horn stopped glowing, her face seemed to be switching moods, for a moment she looked mad, then another moment she looked desperate, it was rather cute, and if he had seen her faces before properly meeting her, he would have thought she came from a cartoon, a very girly cartoon for that matter. “Ok! I’m sorry! I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” Twilight blurted with falling tears that seemed more befitting of a child trying to get her favorite toy back, which in a way could be compared to this situation. “I understand what you are doing, I promise I will ask before throwing stuff away!” Then said way too loudly."Please don't hurt it!" John couldn’t help but burst out laughing at her last line, she was obviously exaggerating, but he quickly felt it was due to her love of books, and finally felt the guilt sink in, but being down two-hundred bucks helped ease that pain a little, Twilight just stared angrily, at him and he put the lighter in his pocket, he had made his point. “I think we are even now,” John said smirking and handing her the book. “For all that is worth, I’m sorry, and I promise I won’t do that again.” She quickly snatched it with her magic and hid it behind her. Twilight simply stared, a pout on her face. “Yes, we are even,” and wiped her tears. “You sure cry a lot don’t you,” he said, and patted her head a bit causing Twilight to flinch, the odd thing was that he had also flinched at the contact. “Oh, I’m sorry," he said with regret. “No, that's okay.“ she replied, but he was already lost in his thoughts. 'Did I just pat her head? We’ve only known each other for less than two days and I’m touching her willingly? Wait, I just went through her stuff and didn’t mind, and I even got her books, what is wrong with me? I barely know her! Why do I feel so comfortable with someo-pony I barely know! And why does she…?' He looked at his book, noticing it was still early, attempting to avoid the topic, he pushed the books he'd brought to her, grabbing his own to read. “Go ahead and read, that’s what I brought the books for," he said with a somewhat unstable tone. “Very well,” she replied, a look clearly showing she had more to say, thankfully, she didn't say anything, moving towards the nearest book. Good choice, he thought as she got up on the bed, grabbed a book with her magic, and inspecting it, after a few seconds, she opened the book, and simply, made to read it, entering into s sort of trance. Nothing interesting happened that day as they both kept to themselves, with only Twilight taking her time to read the book, something that he noticed and found odd, but didn't comment on. "Sorry," Twilight groaned. "But may I use the restroom?" "Um, sure, go ahead," he simply said -he didn’t really want to know how she used the restroom and he had no plans to ask- he tried to concentrate on his book. but his thoughts kept going back to his strange roommate, his mind currently analyzing her. She was an obvious nerd, that’s for sure, but she also had some charisma to her nerdiness, that he had never seen on anyone else. Later that night, as John lay on his makeshift bed, he began thinking of a way to combine those two attributes into one word.