Prologue: Departure
"Are you sure you can handle him? Do you want me to get somepony else?" Joel asked worriedly, picking up a small brown suitcase with his teeth.
"It's fine," Amber assured, taking a small step forward and nuzzling his cheek. "I've done it before, and he's never a problem. Don’t worry.”
"Yeah, but I'm usually around with you two," he said, putting the bag back down by his leg before adding, "Besides, when you aren't around, he's the biggest shi---"
Breeze, Joel's younger brother, who was reading a book in the living room, cut him off mid-sentence, asking, "Don't you have somewhere to be?"
Joel peered around the corner. "What're you talking about? I've got plenty of time."
Amber smiled at him, adding, “You know, my father told me once; If you’re on time, you’re late.”
It didn't make much sense to him, but Breeze still laughed as he said, "He's gonna be late either way."
"Shut it!" Joel yelled, followed by another round of laughter from the other room.
Amber prodded him lightly with a hoof.
"Yeah?" Joel asked, bringing his attention back to her.
"He...he may actually be right about this,” she said, looking at the clock over his shoulder. “What time did you say you wanted to get going?"
Joel chuckled as he said, "Around seven, but I've got plenty of time. Come on, you two."
"Look at the time, smartass!” Breeze yelled.
"Language!" Joel snapped. He knew that both he and his brother could swear like sailors, but he tried to keep it at a minimum whenever Amber happened to be around. He put a hoof over his mouth almost instantly, then let out a weak laugh as Amber gave him a disapproving look. Joel quickly straightened up though.
He closed his eyes, then turned to the clock, saying, "Fine, if it'll make you both feel better, I'll check th---"
7: 26 P.M.
His eyes widened, and Amber couldn't help but giggle a bit at her coltfriend's mad dash to pick his things back up.
"Would you like some help, honey?” she asked, trying to suppress more giggles as he almost trips over his own hooves.
"What? Me? Ha! No, no, no, I'm great! Thanks!"
Over in the other room, Breeze mumbled "Dumbass" before smiling at the mental image of his brother looking like a pony who had just finished three barrels of the Apple Family's extra spiked cider.
Finally, after almost a minute of scrambling, Joel managed to compose himself. He already had one hoof out the door, but stopped when Amber cleared her throat and tapped a hoof against the floor.
To say he was worried he did something wrong would be an understatement. He cared for the mare behind him with all his heart, and tried his hardest to make sure that he could be the stallion she deserved, so the last thing he wanted happening was to leave Amber, who's supposed to be watching over his younger brother, on a sour note. The second or two that it took for Joel to turn back around were extremely tense. Even Breeze put down his book to look around the corner and watch.
"Y-yes, dear?" he choked out.
Amber took note of her special somepony's strange behavior, and tilted her head slightly when she asked, "Aren't you forgetting something?"
"Dammit! You let your guard down! Maybe if you keep it cool, she'll think you're fine," he thought to himself, a small bead of sweat rolling down his snout.
"No, ma'am."
"Why's that?" she asked, starting to make her way over to him, swinging her hips from side to side as she went, a devious smile on her face. Breeze, meanwhile, felt this whole thing was like a trainwreck; he wanted ever so badly to look away, yet he couldn't, as his eyes were currently locked on the swaying flank of his older brother's marefriend.
"No reason, just got the pre-trip j-jitters, you know?”
Amber stopped right in front of him, pushing her forehead against his. He closes his eyes, preparing for the worst, and she whispers, "Are you absolutely positive you aren't forgetting something? Anything at all?"
Joel feels as if his head's about to burst. He doesn't know what the mare wants, and even if he did, he wouldn't know how to do it. Why couldn't the opposite sex and their cryptic messages be easier to understand? He'd just barely been able to take the time to begin thinking on that question when his marefriend's head moves itself, followed quickly by lips pressing themselves against his.
Normally, he'd welcome such an action, but it scared him this time. His eyes shot open, only to see Amber's half-lidded ones staring right back. It took a few seconds, but he eventually submitted, almost melting into the embrace. Joel tilted his head to the left in an attempt to make things just a bit more comfortable for both of them, and caught a rather red-faced Breeze watching from a few feet away. He wanted to pull back and tell his brother off, but all thoughts left his mind as Amber ran her tongue against the back of his teeth.
She was the one that pulled away, licking her lips and staring him down as she did. She leaned back in and whispered, "There's more where that came from when you get back."
He tried say something back, but could only stutter.
"Go on, get outta here. I've got this. Everything's going to be just fine."
With that, he wasted no time in turning back to the open door, and made his way outside. Before he was able to close it, Amber called out, "I love you!"
Joel, however, did not return the sentiment, instead slamming the door shut and taking off.
Amber waited for a few seconds after it closed, wondering why Joel didn't take the extra few seconds to say goodbye. She shook her head, then turned and made her way over to the stallion she had to watch for the next two weeks. Well, he wasn't really a stallion, but he wasn't exactly a foal either. Actually, if she remembered correctly, Breeze was only sixteen years old. She made it over, then sat down beside him.
“Whatcha readin'?" she asked, tilting her head to look at the small book in his hooves in an attempt to catch a glimpse of the cover.
Breeze didn't look up from his page when he answered, "A book."
Amber rolled her eyes. "He's definitely Joel's brother," she thought to herself, trying to think of a different way to word her question.
“Ok...what’s it about?”
“Stuff,” he answered simply, continuing to read.
“Fine, smartass, be that way," she mumbled, folding her hooves across her chest.
Breeze dog-eared the page, then closed his book. If anything, he was confused by how Amber was acting. Fortunately, he quickly realized why, and was able to right his wrong.
"What? You asked, I answered.”
She turned her head away from him. It was his turn to sigh.
"How can Joel possibly put up with this?" he wondered, but then answered his own question with, "Oh, yeah, love or whatever."
“Alright,” he said, putting the book down beside her. He took a deep breath, wondering if he actually should tell her. It was either that or spend time with an unhappy Amber, and knowing about the consequences of the latter from Joel, he picked the former.
"It's the third Daring Do book," he practically sighed, then looked down at his crotch in embaressment(?).
Amber took a moment to turn back, but when she did, she had a smile on her face. “I know, dude. I saw the cover a while ago."
Breeze quickly pulled the book back to himself as Amber delivered a light hit to his side.
"Besides," she said, "aren't you a little old to be reading this kind of thing?"
Breeze tried to hide the light blush that had formed on his cheeks.
“Heh, n-nah...you can never be too old for an adventure," he said, raising a hoof in the air, weakly waving it around in a circular motion.
Amber gave him a few good pats on the back, laughing as she reassured, "Come on, I’m just messing with ya.”
Breeze chuckled nervously as he slowly slid the book off and under the cloud couch. The room fell silent, and the two pegasi stared at the fluffy wall in front of them, neither wanting to say anything until the other spoke first.
Amber coughed twice, prompting Breeze to ask, "What?"
"What?" she replied, looking at him out of the corner of her eyes.
He shook his head. "Sorry, thought you said something."
Breeze waited a second before moving to get his book back, getting as far as leaning forward, but he snapped back when Amber cleared her throat.
"So, uh, weren't you two going to do a bit of rearranging...or something?" she asked, looking around the room, trying to see if anything had changed after what Joel told her last week.
Breeze nodded, answering, "Yeah, but we couldn't decide on what to do. I liked the way it looks now, but Joel kept talking about 'feung shui', or something like that."
The room fell silent again as Amber rolled her eyes. Breeze obviously didn't pick up on what she was trying to do, but she couldn't blame him too much. He was, after all, still just a teenager, and had probably never spent much time with a---
Amber stopped, putting a hoof to her chin. Had Beeze ever actually spent time with a pony of the opposite gender? He was more than old enough, but had she seen him with any mare other than herself?
Out of the hundreds of ways she could've asked Breeze if he had his eyes on a certain mare, or if he was even interested in them, she blurted out, "So, what? Are you a colt-cuddler or something?", then instantly covered her mouth.
Her face burnt like the sun as Breeze turned to look at her.
"W-what?!"
"Oh, no, I didn't mean it like that! Honest!"
Breeze tried his best to form any kind of reply, defending himself with, "I-I'm not a colt-cuddler! I...I like mares!"
Panicking, she tried her best to keep calm while trying to salvage the situation by saying, "It's alright if you like stallions! I won't think of you any differently!"
"Just stop talking, dude!"
"Fine!" she said rather loudly, ending their conversation that should never have started.
Breeze huffed, closing his eyes as he leaned his head back against the couch, thinking to himself about what had just happened.
"What the hell? What could I possibly have done to make her think I'm---"
"Just remember what I said about not thinking differently," she reminded, cutting off his thought.
He groaned, lifting himself up off of the couch with the help of his wings, then hovered a few inches above the floor. He moved for the stairs, and Amber got herself off the couch as well.
"Where do you think you're going?" she asked, taking a step forward.
He didn't say a word as he ascended, leaving Amber to follow him shortly after with one thought repeating itself over and over as she reached the stairs.
"This is going to be a long two weeks," she said to herself as she walked up, making her way towards the guest bedroom, where she'd spend the rest of Princess Luna's hopefully night.
*****
Breeze twisted to the left, trying to figure out a way to get more of the small red blanket over his body without taking any from over his hindlegs. After another quick twist to the right, his frustration with the cover only grew more, and he thought that it'd be better to just sleep without it. Unfortunately, as great as the plan was, the blanket didn't even hit the ground before it was back over Breeze's shivering body.
He reverted back to laying on his back, then lifted his head up slightly before dropping it back onto his pillow, the cushion making a 'pomf' as he did so. He didn't know how to feel about being left at home like this.
"Why did she even want to watch me?" he asked himself quietly. "Like, shouldn't she have a million better things she could be doing?"
He stared at the ceiling for a moment before closing his eyes, trying his best to fall asleep, wanting nothing more than to put the day behind him.
Unfortunately, he could not. He looked over at his clock which read '7:40'. He rolled his eyes.
"You've gotta be kiding me. It's only been twenty minutes since Joel left?"
Breeze lifted the pillow from underneath his head, placing it over his face and pressing down. He felt stupid, and knew that he wouldn't be anywhere near falling asleep for another few hours, but didn't want to go back downstairs and risk another encounter with Amber. He knew he'd have to see her evntually, but he'd like to try and make the period of seperation last as long as possible.
***
Amber paced back and forth in front of the guest bed in a room just one door down the hall, worrying about what to do next.
"What was I thinking?! I mean, sure, he did get a bit defensive, but what does it matter to me if he's gay or not?"
She let out a soft whine. Now, as if things weren't already going to be a bit weird between them, there'd also be this hanging over them.
Amber thought about walking over to the other room to confront him, but thought against it almost instantly.
Her ears perked up as music began playing in another room, which was more than likely Breeze's. She couldn't tell what it was, but she could see herself listening to it later.
"Maybe I could try and start a conversation about his music, then somehow work earlier into it."
She took a step or two towards the door, then shook her head, changing her mind once again. This whoel thing was beginning to look like something that would just have to never be mentioned again, for both of their sakes.
She nodded at that plan, slowly making her way back to the bed. She knew that she was overreacting over something that was actually quite small in reality, but, as with most things, it seemed much bigger when she thought too much about it.
Glancing over at the clock and seeing '7:45', she knew she wouldn't sleep for a while, but she didn't have anything better to do, so she might as well try.
And so, with several hours still left, their first extended period of time together comes to a close, putting two weeks of Celestia knows what in front of them, and (hopefully) a sour point behind.