"Jack, ya' gotta give up!" AJ's little sister pleaded at her older sister's leg, tears threatening to release, "It just ain't worth it!"
"Bloom's right, AJ..." hand planted firmly to AJ's shoulder, Mac tried to sway her sister as well, "This here's a losin' battle..."
Jack ignored both of her siblings as they spoke, her face collected in the shaking palms of her hands as she sat in a wooden chair in the farmhouse living room. The hat she treasured to wear had been thrown off to the side, leaving her hair a dishevelled mess; but perhaps that was also caused by her fingers raking and plucking through them for the past hour in frustration. Her siblings watched with both pain and shame as they saw her drop her hands back into her lap and looked a steely glare out before her. "No... ah ain't backin' down, no sir," both her brother and sister moved away from her as she took a steady breath between her lips before she spoke in a calm but tired voice, "Okay... We're gonna try this again..."
Across from her, sitting in the same sort of wooden chair was Vinyl, her expression as nonchalant and unassuming as you would expect from her. Jack lifted her own shoulders once and let them drop as a breath moved through her nose. "When ya' go back home... What're ya' gonna do?"
"Say sorry," Vinyl replied quickly, as if rehearsed.
"After that?"
"Sit her down on the couch. Not the bed."
"Why not the bed?" AJ fed Vinyl on, trying to set her up for what they practised.
"So I don't pressure her," behind AJ, Mac and Bloom let out a relieved sigh.
"Good... Then what're we gonna do after that?"
"Get on one knee and take out the ring."
So close... After two hours of hammering the process into Vinyl's head, the Apple Family finally did it! AJ started to smile excitedly and picked herself up in her chair. "Righ'! And then...?"
"If I could rearrange--"
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" AJ nearly pounced right for Vinyl before Mac threw his arms around her and pulled her fighting back into her chair. "Let me at 'er! Let me at 'er! Gonna' knock some--!" AJ, along with the chair she was sitting in, was slowly dragged out of the living room with her fighting and clawing at Vinyl the entire way.
Left there nearly alone, Vinyl blinked once before slumping her shoulders as falling deeper into her seat. She knew she wasn't doing it right, it was pretty obvious. And yet... She felt it hand to be that way. For the past two hours, Vinyl had been sitting in this house listening to AJ, Mac, and little Bloom hammer into her that if she wanted to keep Octavia, she would have to be willing to change. At one point, they had even called in a friend of Jack's, Rarity, to try and teach Vinyl edict... Currently, Rarity was sobbing in Jack's room upstairs and questioning her belief that anyone could learn manners. Vinyl appreciated all of this effort they were putting in... But it just didn't seem right.
"I don't know..." she groaned aloud, fixing herself to sit up right, "Maybe I should -you know?- go home and say I messed up... Maybe she'll take me back and we can still be friends, right?"
The only person left in the room was Bloom, the youngest of the Apple Family. She had only gotten home a few minutes ago after some delivery run with her team of friends. The little girl only looked at Vinyl for a second before shrugging and moving to follow where her sister had been dragged off to. "Maybe's a baby word. Yer' a big girl," Bloom flatly put it and left the room.
"Maybe's a baby word...? Hm..." Vinyl put a hand to her chin, tapping it as she started to contemplate a meaning, "If that's so... And if the idea that maybe is also a baby that just needs to be taken care of until it turns into a yes... And if I'm a big girl, that means I'm not a baby... So if I'm not a baby, then I grew up... Which means I was taken care of... So that means if I'm saying maybe and I've been taken care of-- OF COURSE!" Vinyl punched one fist into the palm of her hand.
She snatched up her coat that she was using as a cushion and put it on with a hurried pace. "I know what I must do!" She declared with a triumphant tone.
In a blur of speed, Vinyl broke out from the living room and out into the cold winter night, sparing not a moment to wave even a farewell. All together, the three Apple siblings poked their heads out from the room they took shelter in to collect themselves. "...Is she gone?" Jack asked.
"Eeeeyup..." Mac confirmed with a sigh of relief following from each of them in unison.
"Zen. Calm. Breath in and breath out. Everything shall be fine. You simply need to keep a level head in this matter." Octavia ran her mind through a set of reminders as she felt her heart thumping wildly against her chest.
The first thing she did when she got back to their home was sweep up the mess Vinyl left in her rage. A few glass shards, some chipped plastic, a penis-clock hand... And a simple box holding a band she would not look at again until it was time. Once it had all been cleaned, Octavia rushed to her room and threw on a new change of clothes; the more she could distance herself from earlier's mishap, the better. However, she regretfully found no clothes of her own fitting enough. In the end, she decided to settle on wearing a discarded set of Vinyl's clothes that had been strewn across Octavia's otherwise clean room. They stunk of Vinyl's unique scent of sweat and sex that seemed to cling to everything she put on; but it would have to do.
Octavia hurried through every action to get the house set for Vinyl's arrival while trying to keep her air of calm. To her, there was no telling how this would go; even no way for her to know that Vinyl would accept her apology. But, that was a matter she would cross when it came...
...She had never missed that clock so much in her entire life. She would have given anything to hear the rhythmic ticks and tocks it gave you give her some semblance of a system. As for now, everything seemed so off set to her. Octavia looked to the small box she put on the coffee table in front of her, letting that be the stationary center of her calming mind. One breathe in, and one breathe out. Calm... She could do--
The door to the apartment rattled and the knob turned; forcing every last nerve inside of Octavia to shrivel up and die. She couldn't do this! She was by no means ready for this! As the front door cracked open bit by bit, Octavia's heart was giving strong, agonizing thumps against her chest in a failing attempt to get out while it still could. Octavia tried to still her heart and relax her mind, keeping her eyes now fixed on the front door as it revealed Vinyl entering. All at once, as Octavia collected Vinyl's presence to her eyes, her heart and mind went into a calm. Perhaps nothing moved in that moment except Vinyl as she stepped one foot in front of the other and walked into their home. It didn't take Vinyl even a second to see Octavia sitting on the couch and wearing her clothes. Normally, she would've made a joke... But this wasn't a time for that she thought.
Instead, Vinyl shut the door behind her and walked herself over to Octavia, keeping her expression poised along with her stature. Octavia on the other hand clambered to her feet and went to meet Vinyl halfway across the room. When they met, they just stood before one another in an awkward silence. Octavia put her hands folded behind her back as she rocked on the balls of her heels back and forth; Vinyl kept her gaze away from Octavia as she picked a finger at her shades, mentally debating if she should take them off or not. Finally, in one split moment, Vinyl look her shades off and Octavia stopped rocking, both looking right into the other as they spoke at once.
"Look, I'm sorry." "Look, I'm sorry."
"I was out of line, and--" "I wasn't thinking about you--"
"--I reacted on instinct without--" "--and how this would mess with you--"
"--giving either of us a chance to--" "--or your career. I was stuck on--"
"--discuss it like a real couple is--" "--me, me, me. Just like every--"
"--supposed to do. You are--" "--time this stuff happens. Tavia--"
"--so much to me and I just--" "--I just want you to be--"
"--was not thinking clearly." "--happy being you."
"What my point is..." "What I'm tying to say is..."
"I love you!"
For a moment, just one moment, they both were put to a stun looking at one another. Their feelings had been thrown out before one another and were left to hang there for each of them to see but not take back. As that moment of silence between them remained, Octavia made a step back and grabbed the box from off of the table. When she offered it to Vinyl, her entire face flushed to the reddest it had even been. "...Ask me again..." Octavia whispered.
Vinyl took hold of the box and turned it in her hand before scrambling with it and dropping to one knee. Getting to her knee, Vinyl used one of her hands to stroke back her hair and get the few snow flakes that collected in it out while she raised the wedding box up to meet Octavia. "Alright, uh... Octavia... Fffffff, uh... Will you...?" Yes... "...I don't know, maybe..." Yes... "...Marry me?"
"Yes..." Octavia opened the box with a single finger, getting a fresh look at the black gem and golden wedding band snugly held between a soft clutch inside. Octavia held out her wedding finger, prompting Vinyl to take the ring out from the case and slide it onto the finger, making Octavia smile a great love and hold in a welling tear, "...Yes... I will very much marry you, Vinyl."
"ALRIGHT!" Vinyl jumped to her feet and threw a fist into the air, letting out a shout of pure, unbridled joy as she started hopping around the entirety of their home. The only point she stopped her jumping and cheering at was at the window facing out towards the town. Vinyl swung the window open, too burning with love and joy to even feel the chilling wind against her primarily naked body as she stuck her head out into the midnight air. "She said yes! Let me hear ya' people! She said yes!" Vinyl continued to shout out her own joy over the entire city's night, receiving a few heated curses from previously sleeping citizens.
At the same time, Octavia sat back onto the couch and looked at her hand, gazing with the utmost love at the ring adorning her finger now. All of her doubts were washed away and put aside as she looked at the ring. "You know... Once we get married, I will have so much more to do. I may have to find a new job, perhaps localize a new career entirely; I may even lose status among the elite..." Octavia told herself out loud, still looking at the ring and smiling blissfully, "But... Life has dealt me a fair enough hand already... It is about time I take a risk myself," as she smiled, she noticed Vinyl slam the window shut after getting into an argument with someone across from their apartment.
Vinyl flopped herself down next to Octavia and put an arm around her, pulling her to a forceful embrace and placing her head on top of Octavia's. In their embrace, Octavia breathed softly and nuzzled sweetly into her beloved home. A home she felt safe inside of above anywhere else. However, as she snuggled into Vinyl, she couldn't help but feel something tugging at her. "...Vinyl?"
"Yes, soon to be Octavia Scratch?"
"...How did that line you were saying end?"
"OH! It's a great one. Here... If I could rearrange the alphabet... I would put 'I' inside 'U'..." Octavia looked up to Vinyl once, seeing her wink at her with the most cocky smile she had ever seen.
Octavia just shook her head and laid herself out against Vinyl with an embarrassed groan. "This is the woman I'm marrying..."