24.
Two sets of books were scattered across the floor of the dormitory bedroom. The rain outside the window beat hard against the glass and obscured most of Trotsworth from view. Unlike the girls’ dormitories, Caramel had his own bedroom and so did the three guys who shared the dormitory with him. Redheart had only had glances of them before but never cared much for them except for the bright blue pegasus who was always nice enough to let her in to see Caramel.
Redheart had come in an hour and a half ago. While she was quite near to a perfect score in their business mathematics class, Caramel was falling behind and wanted help. And so, on a rainy afternoon in the middle of March, they had agreed to spend some time at Caramel’s dorm for a study session. The door was closed and preventing the other stallions from barging in on them, but they never really bothered Caramel anyway.
The session covered the most recent section they had covered in class. Caramel was by now starting to get the problems and had done a few of them on his own. Redheart smiled at him with more than just approval; for a while she thought her kiss had done it for their friendship and it had in a way. They weren’t just friends anymore, which was quite apparent when they found themselves meeting each other at restaurants, skipping a class or two just to meet in private sections of the Academy, or conversations starting with lively talk and eventually degrading to silent adoration of each other that almost inevitably ended with a kiss.
It had gotten to the point that when Caramel had asked Redheart to come and help him study, she questioned him as to whether he had meant something else. To be fair, Caramel so far hadn’t been one to insinuate things, and it turned out to be a relatively standard study session with Redheart tutoring Caramel on what she deemed simple things like multiplying decimals and adding fractions and the various things you could apply them to.
“Thank you so much for coming over and helping me with the assignment,” Caramel said as he finished the final problem. “I feel like I should have known it before, but thanks for coming over and helping out.”
“It wasn’t a problem, really,” Redheart responded. “Besides, it was good to get out of my own dorm what with students not allowed to leave campus with the rainstorms.”
“I heard there was heavy flooding around Whitewater Ridge. The bridge got so damaged they’re not risking trains over it for a few days. Which means we’ll be hanging around here this weekend.”
“Damn. I was hoping to be able to head into town for my father’s birthday. I suppose I could always send a letter.”
“I’d say ask the Academy. They might be able to arrange a carriage to take you home.”
“Yeah, but it would take longer and there’s still the issue of getting over the river.”
“True, true… Well, I suppose we know what that means.”
Redheart raised her eyebrow as Caramel grinned. “Let’s compare interpretations, shall we?”
“We’ll be in the library working on our next few assignments. Seriously, that’s what I was thinking all along.”
Redheart giggled. “I would have thought you would suggest something else.”
Caramel grinned even bigger. “And you thought I had a dirty mind. Do you want to?”
“No. I’m fine with it being right where we are.”
Caramel’s grin lessened but didn’t disappear. “Fine by me.”
The two worked on a few more problems before Redheart started packing up her books and supplies to go. She had gathered all of it into her saddlebags before standing up from the floor and heading for the door of Caramel’s bedroom.
“Well,” she said. “Should we meet up?”
Caramel nodded. “Friday we have nothing going on. If the storm’s still going we can head for the cafeteria for lunch then head over to the library for work. And maybe a little something on Saturday…?”
Redheart blushed. “Oh, I might be interested by then.”
Redheart was reaching for the door when the lights went out. She screamed and jumped backwards. “Caramel!” she exclaimed. “Is this some sort of joke?”
“I didn’t do anything!” Caramel said. “The lights went out by themselves!”
Gradually, Redheart’s eyes became adjusted to the dark grey light coming through the lone window of the room. The rain was beating harder and harder against the glass to the point where they couldn’t even see past the Academy gates into Trotsworth. Squinting her eyes, Redheart could see that the switch was still in the ‘on’ position, but the lights remained out.
Caramel stumbled over to the door and knocked on it. “Any of you guys out there?”
“Yeah!” came a voice from the other side of the door. “Campus admins are coming around saying there’s a downed power line. They’re going to try and get the backup generators running and want everyone to stay inside whatever building they’re in until they get the generators going and the lights back on.”
Redheart sighed.
“You guys need a light? Neon’s lighting up some oil lamps if you need one.”
“Yeah. It’d be nice not to trip over anything in the dark.”
The door opened from the other side and a light blue stallion with a dark grey mane opened the door holding a small lantern in his magic. He gave it to Caramel, but Redheart took it in her mouth and set it on Caramel’s dresser, where it lit up the whole room with a soft orange glow.
“There’s enough oil in there to last for a few hours,” the stallion said, “but I doubt it’ll take that long. Hey, you two want to come out and play some cards?”
Caramel turned to Redheart. “Do you want to? I mean, you are going to be stuck here until the generators turn on.”
Redheart shook her head. “I… I don’t know. I don’t know any of them very well.”
“Come on, they’re fine.”
“I know. I just…”
Caramel turned back to the stallion. “Maybe later, Neon. You guys go ahead and start without us.”
The stallion nodded and shut the door behind him, leaving Caramel and Redheart alone while the stallions started talking amongst themselves in the main room. Thunder rumbled and lightning flashed outside, momentarily blinding Redheart as the rain continued pounding outside the window. Redheart suddenly found herself feeling cold and she sat on the ground and held her hooves around her and shivered.
“You cold?” Caramel asked.
Redheart nodded.
“Right, air conditioner and heater probably went out with the lights. You want to curl up in the bed? It’s the only think we’ve got around here.”
Redheart looked over to the bed, then to Caramel. “Will it fit both of us?”
Caramel shrugged. “It’s a twin. It’ll be a tight fit, but I’m sure it will. I’ll go up against the wall; the stone can be kind of cold.”
Caramel pulled back the blankets and got in first, lying against the stone wall of the dormitory. Redheart got in afterward, putting her back to Caramel, who draped a hoof over her as he pulled up the blankets. Within minutes, Redheart felt warmer and more comfortable, the light from the oil lamp just barely casting a shadow of the two figures against the wall.
“Have you ever been in a bed with another pony before?” Caramel asked.
“Not with a stallion,” Redheart said. “I… I had a marefriend for a short while and we slept together once. Nothing explicit, but we shared a bed for a while last year.”
“What happened to her?”
“We got into an argument just before last summer. I haven’t seen her since. I’m okay with that, though; she was a little grating at times.”
“What was her name?”
“I can’t remember. She wasn’t from Ponyville, though. Her family lived about as far north of Trotsworth as we do west.”
Redheart felt lonely staring out into the room. She turned around with what little space she had and faced Caramel, her body scooting closer to him to get as much warmth as she could. Caramel wrapped his hooves around her as they continued lying in his bed, listening to the occasional whoops and whistles from the stallions in the room outside, still playing cards.
“Have you had another boyfriend before?”
“Just a high school crush. We didn’t pursue anything further after graduation and just sort of drifted apart after his family moved to Canterlot. What about you? Have you had a relationship before?”
“There was a girl who was interested in me for a while a few years ago. I got interested in her and we went on a few dates, but we never really clicked and separated after a few weeks.”
Redheart nodded thoughtfully as she wrapped her hooves around Caramel in return. “I would have thought a stallion like you would have been the star of the show back in high school.”
Caramel laughed. “I’m more average. I had some flirts but nothing serious.”
Redheart wasn’t sure what happened next, but she soon found herself pulling away from yet another kiss with the stallion.
“Are you serious now?”
Caramel pulled her in for another kiss. He tasted of sweet caramel apples. “What do you think?”
Redheart didn’t answer verbally. Instead, she pulled him in closer for another kiss. Caramel just had enough time to pull the blankets over them before Redheart was lying on her back with Caramel lying on top of her.
As the afternoon wore on and Redheart and Caramel stayed in the room with the oil lamp, the stallions outside began whooping and whistling more frequently. Redheart guessed they were no longer interested in the card game, but she didn’t care. All she cared about was being there with Caramel under the blankets and providing each other with a warmth unlike she had ever known before.