In the wake of the revelation, I gagged and coughed violently, soaking my new friend’s coat and face in the majority of my mouthful of apple cider.
Several feelings raced through my head at once, blending into an ostensible facial expression of chagrin and dumbfounded resignation; Soarin’ was…
He was…
…A coltcuddler too.
He looked back at me, nearly equally stunned for only a moment, but his expression changed again as quickly as it had arrived. Soarin’ turned his head to the window that shielded him from the raindrops, and started to look intensely apprehensive.
“…So you hate me too then.” He said depressingly, swallowing hard and continuing to gaze out the window to escape being confrontational.
I… felt the exact opposite. Soarin’ had just admitted an incredibly personal characteristic of himself to me, and I had promised him I wouldn’t respond with disapproval. However, that’s precisely how what I had just done would surely look like to him, and no amount of apologising or explaining that I was currently capable of in my shocked stupor would be able to convince him otherwise. I was too overwhelmed with emotion to formulate any vocal words to my thoughts.
I stood up abruptly, and did exactly what had enraged me earlier today.
I did the only thing I could think of to do right now.
I trotted forward aggressively, closing the distance between myself and Soarin’, and I kissed him.
Our lips pressed together gently, and I closed my eyes. A warm, comforting sense of romance washed throughout my mind, clearing my pessimism and passionately conveying my strong feelings of empathy, understanding, and…
…newly discovered Love?
Yes…
Love.
*** *** ***
Soarin’ and I walked side by side in the rain. We were traveling towards my home, as I had unselfconsciously soaked his mane and coat in apple cider, and rightfully owed him a shower.
However, I felt more in debt to him than just a shower; he saved my flank from a hell of a beating. Although he told me he didn’t want to impose on me by staying overnight, the thought of letting him sleep out in this rain tonight wouldn’t sit right with my morals.
I also, to my sense of justice, despised his family for kicking him out. Surely, my family wouldn’t do something that deplorable to me if they were to find out I was a coltcuddler. …right?
If so, it wouldn’t be the first time my optimism was in vain.
“On second thought,” Soarin’ announced, shaking his head and spraying me with some of the rainwater in his dark blue mane, “I think I’ll take you up on that offer of a place to stay tonight. Oh, and I probably won’t need that shower after all. I’m getting enough of one right now.”
I chuckled despite our unfortunate situation, and my the pegasus joined in the laughter too.
“My parents aren’t home tonight.” I said, still smiling from the laughter. “They’re both high-ups in the business world, and they’re down in Las Pegasus for an important company meeting right now. I need to keep the place as clean as they left it. I can trust you to not beat anything up, right?”
Soarin’ chuckled again, aware of the joke I was making in regards to him beating others up. Fortunately, I was right in assuming he wouldn’t take any offence.
“Yeah, you can count on me Scatter.” He replied, moving to stand a little bit closer and draping one of his wings over my back.
Despite my usually enigmatic mannerisms, I blushed hotly, looking downwards to try and hide it.
I could see Soarin’ smirking slightly out of the corner of my eye, and instantly turned as red as an apple. It was not the smartest choice, considering he had noticed my first blush too, but I couldn’t hold myself back; I had never experienced romance for myself before.
“You know…” Soarin said with a snide grin on his muzzle. “You’re kind of cute when you’re embarrassed. I don’t know if I’m going to be able to control myself tonight.”
Thinking it was impossible to blush any harder, I found myself standing utterly corrected.
*** *** ***
I opened the door to my home, sliding the key back into the secret compartment of the mailbox. Since leaving the café, the onslaught of the storm had significantly died down to a mere drizzle, and we weren’t in any particular rush to get inside.
“Wait here; I’ll go grab two towels.”
Only a few short moments later, Soarin’ and I had dried off… nearly.
“Scatter, I can’t reach my back and wings. Do you think you could… dry them off for me?”
I blushed again, my mouth going open a little. How the hell did he keep making me do that?
Walking over to him, I picked up the towel in my hooves, and began to dry Soarin’ off.
From my previous observations, he had a stern back and his wings were probably powerful, but upon physical prognosis, that was an understatement. Soarin’ was likely a very impressive flyer; his bodily form was muscular and aerodynamically shaped, while his wings were aggressive and powerful. I didn’t know much about Pegasus anatomy, but oddly, his wings were incredibly tense and firm. That probably wasn’t normal, was it?
As I extended a hoof hesitantly to rub the towel over Soarin’s wing, he unselfconsciously let out a low, pleasurable moan, and his wing became even stiffer.
…Oh.
Ohhhhhh. Oh, wow.
Wings were rather sensitive?
Curiously, I released the towel, letting it drape over Soarin’s back. Raising a hoof to take a hold of one of Soarin’s wings, I moved it closer to my muzzle. Extending my tongue out, I delicately and slowly took one of Soarin’s primaries into my mouth, giving it an experimental lick.
A much louder moan escaped Soarin’, and I felt him quiver in pleasure. I released his wing.
The stallion turned towards me, advancing until I had backed into the wall.
Soarin’ looked me the eyes with vehement passion, and slowly licked his lips.