Chapter 8: Reunion
Sketch awoke in his bed to the sound of birds singing outside his window, the sun shone through the shutters casting thin rays of light onto the bed. He squinted and stretched his legs out a bit, yawning as he did so. He relaxed his limbs and sighed with content. There was a soft, sleepy moan behind him. He turned his head to see Lyra, Mint-White mane and all, sleeping happily a few inches away. It had been only a few days before he had been sleeping out on the overstuffed chair in his living room.
After that night he had found her in the rain, and confessed his love, Lyra had seemed to become more comfortable around him, more open. She had seemed to get happier and more interactive than previously. Although he hadn’t thought this possible as she already had been very outgoing. Lyra had grown to trust him; he knew this and intended to do everything to be worthy of her trust.
It had been just the previous night Lyra had asked him to come and sleep in the bed. Of course, it was completely innocent, and he was perfectly ok with that. The most that had happened was some cuddling; he was perfectly happy with this and didn’t intend to push on the matter. Lyra trusted him and like he would tell himself, he needed to be deserving of this trust.
Lyra twitched slightly in her sleep and let out another sleepy moan as Sketch turned back over to look towards his window. It was a Saturday, as he laid there he found himself suddenly excited, not only had he gotten to wake up with Lyra next to him, but his brother; Gears, was supposed to be coming to live with him soon. He smiled slightly as he thought about it, he was looking forward to seeing his brother, he had missed him terribly and would enjoy having him around, and he would have to get re-acquainted with the inevitable sound of Gears’ tinkering and working on inventions however. He wondered how well Gears would get along with Lyra, if his brother would be incredibly shy and keep to himself, or if he would be as comfortable around Lyra as he was around his older brother.
Gears had a tendency to only talk to ponies he liked right off the bat, and it was hard to get him to try to make friends if he didn’t get a good first impression from somepony. Sketch only hoped it would go well, but he didn’t want to waste time worrying about it.
A soft yawn came from behind him, followed by a slight nudge as Lyra stretched, he turned slightly to see Lyra had awoken, and had one eye open, her mane was messy and almost wacky looking, and her hurt eye had completely healed. It looked as if it had never been hurt in the first place.
“Well, isn’t this just the greatest way to start the day?” She said sleepily, eliciting a smile from Sketch.
“It is.” He replied.
Lyra hummed and moved over closer to Sketch, allowing him to embrace her. She settled in and sighed happily. He could feel her chest rising and falling as she breathed; hear her breath leave her nostrils softly.
“Maybe, we should just stay in bed all day, and cuddle just like this.” She said, nuzzling his neck as she spoke.
“I didn’t know I was that good at giving cuddles.”
Lyra giggled.
“Sketchy, you’re the best at cuddles. I taught you everything you know, so of course you’re good at it.”
“I did learn from the best…”
“Damn straight…what time is it?”
Sketch chuckled.
“I have absolutely no clue.”
“Well, should we be like…I don’t know. Getting ready for your brother to show up or something?”
“Ah, don’t worry about it. He said nonchalantly.
“You’re sure?” She looked up at him as she spoke.
“I’m sure. You shouldn’t worry so much, you’ll age faster.”
Lyra scoffed and playfully pushed him away, although her attempt at doing this did more to push herself away than him. They both laughed a bit and Lyra rolled onto her back with a sigh, she ran a hoof through her messy mane and a hint of concern came across her face, something Sketch picked up on immediately.
“What’s on your mind?”
Lyra let out a bland sigh before she spoke.
“Is it…weird, that I’m anxious about meeting one of your parents and your little brother?”
“No, not at all.” He said with a low chuckle.
“Like, what if your dad doesn’t like me, or even worse, what if your brother doesn’t? I mean from what you’ve told me he is a rather…eccentric little guy. What if we don’t get along?”
Sketch moved over and cuddled up against Lyra, she nuzzled his nose as he laid a hoof over her side.
“You and Gears are going to get along great, don’t worry about it.”
“You’re….sure?” She said, still worried.
“Lyra Heartstrings, you and Gears will get along fantastic, I am sure of it. You have nothing to worry about ok?”
Lyra sighed happily and scooted a bit closer.
“If you say so…”
Lyra hummed softly as she laid her head on Sketch’s chest, he ran a hoof through her mane as they both laid there enjoying the company of one another. After a moment Lyra spoke up again.
“We probably should get up though…”
“Yeah…I know it.” Sketch said with a sigh. “It’s probably almost noon…”
He rolled over and looked at the wall clock on the far end of the room; it read ten in the morning.
“Come on then, get up.” Lyra said from behind him, Sketch rolled over to see Lyra had already gotten out of bed; she was standing at the edge looking down on him.
“Well?” she said, raising one eyebrow.
“You’re the one who said we should stay in bed all day you know.”
“That was before your brother was going to be here in a few hours, now come on!”
Sketch adopted a fake pout and put on his best puppy dog face, trying to sway Lyra, she stared at him blankly and expressionless.
“Wow, nothing?”
“Nope.” She said flatly.
He sighed. “Oh fine…why’d you have to be all reasonable and stuff…”
He crawled out of bed and stretched a bit, yawning as he did so, Lyra seemed to not be able to decide to be anxious or excited to meet Gears, so he decided to just go along with her and comfort when comfort was needed, and be happy with her when that was needed. He hoped that would work as he had absolutely no idea how else to handle it.
“I’m going to shower, so you go do…whatever it is smelly stallions like yourself do in the morning.”
“Hey!” He called out, as she trotted into the bathroom.
“Kidding!”
He shook his head with a smirk, Lyra did enjoy her teasing.
After another bout of yawning and stretching, he made his way into the living room, everything was the same save the ladder to the attic room had been left down, over the past few days Sketch; in preparation of his brothers arrival, had not only cleaned it out, but he and Lyra had managed to fix up the air vent, which turned out to be filled with a stash of old newspapers, a long shred of orange cloth, and some very weird journals containing ranting about things such as. “The cake being a lie and burning life’s house down”.
“I guess the previous owner was loopy or something.” Lyra had said.
In addition to this, He had gone and bought a small bed, for Gears, Applejack had been nice enough to give him an old workbench, some tools, and a chest with multiple drawers after she had heard Gears would be coming to live in Ponyville. After that word had gotten around rather fast that there would be a new arrival, Pinkie Pie had begged to hold a surprise party in honor of Gears, and after ten minutes of convincing and enlightening her that Gears both didn’t handle surprises well, nor was he a fan of large crowds, she decided she would have to just give him a present.
In addition to this, Twilight, upon hearing about Gears coming to stay, had stopped by the previous day and tried to “educate” Sketch on how to care for a colt who is in her words “Anti-Social” Although after assuring her that he could handle it, Twilight gave him multiple books on mechanics and automatons, saying she wouldn’t be around when Gears got here as she was traveling to Canterlot on business.
All in all, everypony had been really nice and generous, Applebloom had seemed almost more excited than Sketch was, or anypony else for that matter, upon hearing that Gears would be coming to live in Ponyville, she had literally started dancing. Even though Gears already had his cutie mark; a small grey gear, Applebloom said he could be an honorary member of her club and give helpful advice on how to discover cutie marks.
Sketch really hadn’t needed to buy too many things for his little brother; due to the generosity of others the attic had become rather cozy.
The sound of the shower running floated into the room, Lyra was getting clean most likely, whilst she did this, Sketch took it upon himself to make breakfast for the two of them, he trotted over to his fridge and opened it to find it well stocked, he and Lyra had gone shopping a while back and even managed to buy a new toaster
He pulled out a box of pancake mix and got to work on cooking breakfast.
&----------&
After a series of Trial-and-Error mishaps with the pancake batter, Sketch eventually managed to not burn breakfast, and had just set his creations on the plates as Lyra trotted out of the bedroom.
“I smell…pancakes!” She said, still drying her mane a bit.
“Yep! Hurry before they get cold!” He replied.
“I also smell….burnt pancakes…” She said as she set the towel down. “Sketchy did you catch the food on fire?” Her look was playful and portrayed an “Oh you!” mood.
“It’s possible there were a few mishaps. Still, I made food!”
With a smile she trotted over to him and kissed him on the cheek before taking a seat across from him.
“Thank you very much, it looks wonderful.”
“You’re very welcome.”
Lyra looked at the pancakes and eagerly took a bite, her eyes seemed to light up as she bit down, she looked at Sketch as if to say something, but stopped herself in order so that she wouldn’t spray food everywhere.
Sketch noticed this and smirked a bit.
“Oh shut up!” She said playfully, after she had swallowed her food. “Anyways these are fantastic!”
“Eh, all I did was pour some pre-made batter into a pan.” He said modestly.
“Well you poured the batter wonderfully then, I can taste the…masterful way in which you poured it, in every bite.” She giggled a bit and then took another bite.
“Well thank you.” Sketch said before taking another bite himself.
After a few moments of silent eating, Lyra spoke up again.
“So, your brother, you’ve told me what his talent is, and his personality and all that jazz…but what about his inventions? Should I expect any robot servants to be rolling out of the attic?” She giggled a bit as she finished.
He chuckled a bit. “Honestly, Lyra I don’t know what to expect half the time, Gears is probably one of the smartest ponies I have ever met; I wouldn’t be surprised if he actually did create a robot. It wouldn’t be the first time he’s made something that complex.”
Lyra raised an eyebrow.
“You’re kidding, really?”
Sketch nodded.
“This one time, Nightmare Night I think it was, Gears had decided he wanted to be some…futuristic character from a comic book or something, I don’t even remember the name. He sat up in his room and tinkered away for Celestia knows how long, and didn’t come down except to eat, until Nightmare Night.”
“Well what had he made?”
“Ha, he had made a full body suit! Like it had this helmet on it with a visor so you couldn’t even see it was him, the helmet had a flashlight that would pop in and out of it, the suit itself had all sorts of designs on it, and it had this little tiny pack on the back made to look like a rocket, it held batteries that powered this little glowing thing on the front! He had made a launcher for a little foam rocket that would pop out of the arm and zoom off, Gears told me it was just a prototype though, he’s probably still working on it…”
“Wait, so he was allowed to use electricity?”
“Yep, he'll he probably has a better knowledge of that stuff than both my parents and I put together, he’s extremely gifted, it just takes some getting used to being around him…” Sketch’s voice trailed off and he smirked a bit.
Lyra cocked her head and looked confused. “What?”
“Just…expect him to make bad jokes, and be a bit noisy up in the attic sometimes, trust me you’ll see.”
Lyra shrugged and finished off her breakfast, after she had finished, Sketch got up and cleared the table. He had just started to do the dishes when Lyra stopped him.
“I’ll do them.”
“What? No, no it’s fine I got it!” He protested.
“You made breakfast, and I need to pull a bit more weight around here. I’m doing the dishes.” She jabbed a hoof into his chest gently with each word.
“Oh fine…” He said eventually, giving in to her jabs.
While Lyra did the dishes, Sketch took it upon himself to get clean, he had already showered the previous day, but his father was a stickler for cleanliness, especially around mares, if he saw Sketch looking even the least bit dirty around Lyra, there would be many a stern word.
As he sat in the shower, Sketch realized something. His Father had no idea about Lyra, or anything that had gone on since he moved to Ponyville! He hadn’t contacted his father or mother in any way since he got there! He silently reprimanded himself, how could he have forgotten this? Would his father be mad, or would he just be nonchalant about it like he was about most things like this?
Then another thought hit him as he got out of the shower, he realized why Lyra had been worried. Meeting the parents was kind of a big deal! Of course Sketch had next to no experience with this situation, as he really had never been in this type or relationship before, especially one that had gone as far as he and Lyra had, which wasn’t far at all from what he had gathered.
All of a sudden he was extremely worried, what if his father didn’t like Lyra…what if he disapproved! As much of a jerk his father could be, and as much as he just did not care most of the time, he was still his father; he still valued his opinion a little bit.
As he toweled off he wondered if he should even tell his father about what he was doing for Lyra, granted his father wouldn’t go shout it to the universe via some fancy messaging device, but still, he felt odd telling somepony else about it, even if it was his father. He would have to ask Lyra about it, it was her problem after all, not his.
“Lyra?” He said as he trotted out.
As he looked around she was nowhere to be found. The dishes had been done and were stacked neatly and drying, he decided to see if she had gone outside. He trotted up to the door and opened it slightly, poking his head out and looking around.
“Lyra?”
“Huh…I wonder where she went…” He pulled his head in and turned around as he spoke.
“BAM!”
Sketch yelped and jumped almost a hoof in the air. Lyra had somehow managed to sneak up behind him and was currently on the floor laughing her flank off.
“V-very funny…” He said, smiling a bit.
“Y-Your face was…” She laughed a bit “Your face was priceless!”
Sketch tried incredibly hard to not laugh as well, however eventually he gave in and chuckled a bit with Lyra.
“S-Sorry…” She said after calming down, “I guess maybe scaring you wasn’t the best way to loosen you up…”
“No…its fine I just…I’m really nervous about you and my dad getting along. On top of that, Lyra, I haven’t told him or my mother about anything that has happened since I moved here!”
“Oh”
“Do I look alright?”
Lyra let out an awkward chuckle.
“W-what?”
“Do I look ok? I’m not like…dirty or anything?”
“Sketchy you look great; don’t worry about it, please. Everything is going to be perfectly-“
Lyra was interrupted by a knock at the door. Sketch’s stomach turned and he looked at Lyra, a lump formed in his throat and he almost felt as if he would start sweating at any moment.
With an affirming look from Lyra, he made his way to the door and slowly opened it, revealing his brother and his father. As always Gears had a grayish coat, his mane was spiky and a black-sandy color like his older brother, his eyes were a deep green, surprisingly enough he seemed to have grown a bit since Sketch had last seen him.
Sketch’s father was tall, and heavy, not fat though, just heavy. He had always been big and surly, the kind of big where it could have been fat or it could have been muscle, but either way he was incredibly strong. His father’s coat was brown and his mane was a jet black, his deep green eyes were intimidating, yet somewhat knowledgeable looking. He was easily a hoof taller than your average stallion.
“Uh…Hey guys!” He said nervously.
“Sketch!” Gears adopted a large goofy smile and hugged his brothers’ leg.
“Hey buddy! It’s great to see you!” He patted Gears on the back and stepped aside to allow his father in.
“Hey dad.”
“Hey bud. Uh, who’s this?” His father motioned in Lyra’s direction.
Sketch nudged Gears off his leg and stood over by Lyra.
“This is Lyra, she’s uh…”
“His Marefriend, I’m his marefriend. It’s great to meet you sir.” Lyra shook hooves with Sketch’s father and smiled warmly.
“Nice to meet you too Lyra.”
“Sketch….you have a Marefriend?” Gears’ face was one of amazement and shock.
“Don’t look so surprised Gears. I’m not that bad.”
“You are.” He said.
“I’m Lyra. It’s nice to meet you Gears.” She held a hoof out towards Gears.
Here it was, that moment he had feared. Sketch watched as Gears sat and stared at the hoof Lyra held out. Would he shake it and be happy, or would he freeze up, say something inappropriate or foolish, and then hide behind his brother?
Gears stared at Lyra for a moment; very obviously calculating if he liked this mare or not, all Sketch could do was watch and hope for the best.
Gears stuck out his hoof and shook Lyra’s. Sketch and Lyra both let out a hushed sigh of relief just as his father spoke up.
“Gears, get your things, I need to talk to Sketch for a moment alright?”
“Alright dad.” Gears turned and happily bounced out the door to get his things.
Lyra seemed to sense some tension and decided to go help Gears bring his stuff in.
“What’s up?” Sketch said after being led into the kitchen by his father.
“So she’s kinda cute, huh?” So much for seriousness.
“Dad!”
“Well?”
“Yeah, she really is.”
“Well how did you meet her?...I don’t know I haven’t gotten a letter or anything since you moved here. How are things?”
“Well…I can answer both those questions at once…”
“I’m listening.”
“Ok so I moved here right? And there is this huge party and everything-“
“Party?”
Sketch waved it away.
“Anyways, I met Lyra there and we…hit it off. I didn’t see her for a few days, and when I do finally meet up with her, I find out her roommate has been hitting her.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, one thing led to another, Lyra ended up staying with me till her roommate cooled down a bit…she didn’t. The other day she showed up at my door screaming profanities and threatening to kill me.”
“Oh wow.”
“Yeah, I know”
“At first I don’t think she was too into me…but over the last few days...we have gotten rather close. I don’t know, I think she’s fantastic.”
“Well, son I think it’s great you met somepony. Did you get a job?”
“Yep, I help out around the apple farm in Ponyville.”
“Oh so you didn’t get on the weather team?”
“No dad…I didn’t apply at all. I told you I didn’t want to be on the weather team.”
His father sighed. “Alright…I guess…you have two other ponies to provide for now, essentially you are providing for a family. So please, if it ends up where the weather team is what brings in money, do that. If it was anypony but you or Gears I wouldn’t give a damn but it is you and Gears, and your new Marefriend as well.”
“I know it dad, thank you.”
By now Gears’; With Lyra’s help, had brought in his multiple bags of things, over half of which were most likely tools and bits of electronics.
“Alright well, I have to go, if I don’t get to the Pony Express in the next hour I won’t get to Canterlot on time.” His Father said. “Gears buddy, come give me a hug, I gotta go.”
Gears trotted over and hugged his father, tears welling up in his emerald eyes.
“D-daddy…I don’t want you to go though…”
“I know it buddy, but you’re going to stay with Sketch and his friend ok? You’re going to have so much fun! I’ll come visit you on the weekends when I can alright, I love you bud.”
“O-ok…I love you too daddy…” Gears sniffled a bit.
“Hey Sketch walk out with me.” He motioned to the door. “Lyra, it was great meeting you. Try and keep Sketch out of trouble alright?”
“I will sir!” She smiled at him as he and Sketch walked out.
Sketch’s father shut the door and turned to his somewhat worried looking son.
“Listen I think it’s fantastic, you met this mare and that you like her, but you said her roommate is making death threats right?”
“Uh…yeah?”
This was not what he was expecting at all. His father was actually showing concern.
“Listen, just…be careful alright? You have Gears now, and I love you both to death, I would hate to see something happen to you. You’re on your own now, you are quite obviously…rather good at it.”
His father looked over at Sketch’s house.
“Be careful, don’t get into something that could end up getting you hurt, and if you do. Be careful about it ok? Just…be careful.”
“I…I understand dad. Thank you.”
His father turned and reached into a small saddlebag he had not noticed before, he rummaged around for a moment before pulling out a small brown box, and some, bulky object wrapped in cloth.
“I want you to take this.” He said.
Sketch took the strange item from his father and stared at it curiously; he gently took part of the cloth in one hoof and pulled it off the item. What he saw surprised him incredibly.
The cloth had been wrapped around a gun and old looking revolver type gun, it appeared to hold six rounds and the sights on it were iron, and slightly bent to one side. The stock for it had been built like most other revolver type weapons, with a long brace that wrapped over the shooters front leg for stabilization reasons, the trigger was big, as was usual for these weapons, big enough a hoof could be slipped in and used to fire.
“D-dad…what am I supposed to-“
“I wasn’t sure if I would give it to you or not, my father gave it to me when I moved out and went off on my own…he said I should always have something to keep me safe should I need it…I trust you still know how to shoot?”
“Uh….yeah.”
“Good, keep that safe. I wasn’t sure if I would give it to you or not…but you telling me about some mare screaming death threats at you sealed the deal. I want you to keep that alright? You have others to protect now. I hope it was as useful for you as it was for me.”
“Did you ever…”
“No, I never fired it outside of some practice shots; you shouldn’t need to clean it or anything. That box has extra ammo should you choose to go and practice.”
“Uh…thanks dad…”
“Alright, I got to go. I love you. I’ll see you…next weekend hopefully alright? This is the only weekend I have to work for a few more months.”
“I love you too dad.” Sketch hugged his father as he spoke; he tried to sound as if his father hadn’t just given him a gun.
“Hey uh…what about mom? Will we be seeing much of her?”
His father frowned and there was a pent up anger welling up in his eyes, but he contained it.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if you never saw her again bud…I really wouldn’t.”
“Oh…” His heart sank a bit.
“Ok then….I’ll see you later alright?”
“Alright dad…thanks for everything. Bye!”
“Bye Sketch!” He called as he trotted rather quickly down the street, bustling off to catch his train.
Sketch looked down at the shiny revolver again; his father really had maintained it rather well. He heard his door open and turned to see Lyra.
“You alright?”
“Uh…yeah.”
“What is-“Lyra gasped a bit.
“Where did you get that?”
Still staring at the weapon, Sketch responded.
“My uh…my dad gave it to me…”
“Oh…”
Both ponies stood there in solemn silence as they stared at the gun, both seemingly unsure what to do. The fact that Sketch had a gun, was slightly comforting, it meant he knew he could defend his brother and Lyra if need be, but the fact he had a gun also scared him, guns weren’t exactly common around the Ponyville-Cloudsdale area, so coming across one was rare. However as comforting as it was to have a gun, it was also very scary, this thing could kill somepony, it was dangerous, very dangerous, he hoped he would never have to use it.
“Let’s go inside…Gears wants to see you…”
He shook himself out of his thoughts and wrapped the gun back up in its cloth; he followed Lyra back into the house to find Gears, dragging his bag up the staircase that came out of the ceiling.
Gears looked up from his bag and smiled as he saw his brother.
“You got me the attic room! That’s so cool!”
As if suddenly imbued with the strength of ten ponies, Gears hauled his bag up the stairs and was at his brothers’ side a minute later.
“There’s an electricity outlet, and an air vent and everything! This is going to be awesome! Now I can finish my experiments!”
Sketch and Lyra both looked down at Gears with a look of both curiosity and worry.
“What experiments?” They said almost in perfect unison.
“Oh I can’t tell you. It’s a secret.” He said with a cheeky look in his face.
“Is it going to burn the house down?” Lyra asked.
“What? No…I got past that phase of it like…two weeks ago.”
Lyra stifled a giggle and Sketch chuckled and sighed.
“Alright, just be careful please.”
“Pfft, Sketch, when am I ever not?” Gears said proudly, and with an air of confidence marched up to his room to unpack his things.
Sketch and Lyra both watched him climb the stairs with another one of his many bags on his back; Sketch wondered just in fact what it was Gears was working on.
“He really is something…” Lyra said.
“That he is…I’m going to go and put this gun in the side table by the bed, I’ll be right back.”
He turned and trotted off into the bedroom to stash the gun away, he unwrapped it fully and got a good look at it, before he hadn’t seen the full gun and now that he really looked at it, he found it to have many small engraved designs on it, all intricate and as delicate as could be. He slipped the brace over his front arm and looked down the sights, the sights really weren’t bent at all, it had just been the angle at which he had been holding the gun.
He sighed and flicked the revolver to one side, the cylinder flipped out, it was empty as expected. He thought maybe he should load it, Gears knew about guns; his father had made sure of that. So that wasn’t an issue, Lyra had the common sense and maturity not to mess around with it, and if somepony broke in, he wouldn’t really want to waste time loading it.
So without another thought on the matter, Sketch opened his small black box and put six bronze-looking rounds into the revolver cylinder. He spun the cylinder before flipping it back into place; it gave a satisfying “whizzzzzzzzz. Click.” As it spun then locked into place. He opened the side table and placed the revolver gently inside, he stuffed it way in the back where it wasn’t likely to be found accidentally should the drawer be opened.
“You sure you should load that?” A voice came from behind him.
“Aren’t you worried that Gears’ll find it or something?”
He turned to see it was Lyra; she was leaning on the doorway.
"No...he's shot much bigger guns than this. This is a peashooter compared to some other ones I’ve shot. Gears knows his way around guns, and he knows even more not to mess with them. He knows how dangerous they are, my father made sure of that. I’m not worried about it.”
Lyra shrugged and trotted over to Sketch, who had sat down on the bed. She took a seat next to him and put a hoof softly over his shoulder. He turned and looked at her for a moment, curious to why she had done this.
“Um…Hi.” He said uncertainly.
Lyra smiled warmly at him.
“What’s wrong?” She said.
“Huh?”
“I can tell it by the look in your eyes Sketch…”
He let out a tired sigh.
“My father…basically told me I wouldn’t ever hear from my mother again…that she really had run off…I’m just…processing it I guess.”
She hugged him closer to her.
“I’m so sorry.”
“I guess…as much as I didn’t like her and how she treated me…I still loved her. It’s a bit upsetting that I may not ever see her again…I mean, what am I supposed to tell Gears?”
Now Lyra looked sad, she tilted her gaze down at an angle towards the floor.
“I…I guess you just tell him. No use in trying to sugar coat it, it’ll just make it worse. Wait for the right moment…and tell him the truth.”
He sighed again.
“You think?”
“I do.”
Lyra leaned over and planted a kiss on his lips; he smiled a bit and kissed back.
“EWWWW”
Lyra and Sketch both yelped and leaped away from one another, Gears had discovered Lyra and his older Brother and was rather disgusted at the activity the two were currently engaged in. He wore a revolted look, as if he were about to vomit.
“Gears! Haven’t you heard of knocking?” Sketch said. "Well i didnt think there would be any atrocious goings-on around the house! So why would I?”
“Courtesy.”
“Yeah, I was just going to let you know. I looted the toaster you threw away. I’m using it now. So if you go out to look for it and it isn’t there…”
“Why would I be pulling things out of the trash?”
“Uh, the heating elements in the Toaster, The Thermostat that is built in, On top of that the chassis could be hammered out to sheet metal or something of the sort! You really didn’t think of that did you?”
“No.”
“Well you almost wasted a toaster. I guess I’ll leave you and Ms. Lyra to your games.”
Without another word Gears turned and trotted out of the room, most likely returning to his attic.
Sketch and Lyra both silently watched the doorway for a moment, as if unable to process what had just happened.
After a moment Sketch heard Lyra stifle a laugh.
“What’s so funny?” He said, turning over and looking at her.
“Atrocious Goings-on?” She giggled a bit.
“Oh, he was just trying to impress you, he was honestly embarrassed and that was his way of making up for it. He never talks like that for any reason other than to impress somepony he likes.”
She smiled.
“So that’s…good then?”
He nodded with a smile, Lyra’s face lit up.
“Awesome. I’m glad he likes me!”
“I told you it was nothing to worry about.”
Lyra sighed happily and lay back on the bed.
“I think…this is all going to be just fine. We’re like a family you know? Me, You, Gears.”
“Yep.” He said with a smile.
“All that’s left is marriage.”
Sketch’s heart skipped a beat.
“Wha-What did you say?”
Lyra looked him dead in the eye; he was unable to get a read on her at all. She stared back at him with icy cold eyes, for what seemed like an hour they stared until eventually Lyra’s emotionless face cracked, giving was to a devious smile.
“I’m kidding dude. Jeeze, you’re way too gullible.”
Sketch couldn’t help but chuckle; he sighed and lay down on the bed next to her
Lyra did love her jokes…