Discord wouldn’t stop staring at Fluttershy. Her face felt warm and the pace of her heart quickened as she sensed the motion of him taking another look at her. This was an ongoing process each night that they would eat together at her table fit for two.
Maybe it wasn’t her that he was looking at. It could have been anything over or to the side of her head. This was a possibility that she liked to think was the reason he kept raising his head in between pokes at his food.
That was another weird habit of his lately. It consisted of him poking around his plate with his fork, and every five or so jabs he would make a rather loud sound which was the annoying clink of his utensil meeting the china. This irritated her quite a bit—well, in the back of her mind it did.
Ruining her beautifully crafted porcelain along with her silverware was not something she tended to be necessarily happy about.
“Discord,” Fluttershy said, giving him a soft smile, “are you feeling okay?”
He looked up and furrowed his brows in confusion. She was not sure what he seemed to be confused about, though.
“I’m…fine,” Discord cleared his throat, oddly still looking at his plate.
“Okay…” she mumbled. “Are you not hungry?” This was a question she had to repeat for the last couple of weeks.
“It’s not that…I'm just a little tired,” he admitted and yawned with the usage of his best acting—along with a few mouth smacks.
“How can you be tired?” Fluttershy thought to herself. “All you have been doing is sitting on the couch and twiddling with your claws…”
Discord could hear this, he could hear everything that she was thinking. Whether it was a mumble, sigh, utter, and even a thought. Of course she did not know of this and was oblivious to this unknown sense of his.
“Discord you haven't been acting like yourself lately, what is wrong?” Fluttershy asked him.
“Well…” Discord began, but couldn't manage to get the words out for a few moments. “Are you angry at me, Fluttershy?” To this, she did not respond but simply turned her head away and her eyes were not filled with worry—they were vacant. Nothing from her mind or eyes revealed any emotion that could have been a hint for her mysterious unsaid response. He needed an answer from her, but there was not a possible way to get it from her if she kept staring blankly off into space.
He flicked his tail a couple of times and it eventually brushed up against Fluttershy’s side. She jumped up in surprise and made a small squeal. She covered her mouth to hide her hysterical smile. Her glare at Discord made him a little discouraged but he tried being more persistent with his attempt to get something out of her by flicking his tail once again towards her side.
“S-Stop!” Fluttershy demanded with a shaky voice that had a hint of uneasy laughter.
“Stop what?” Discord inquired innocently.
“I don't find this very amusing,” Fluttershy hid her face, mumbling.
“I don't think you find me very amusing either,” he sniffled and spawned a handkerchief with a single snap. A droplet of saltwater appeared in the corner of his eye and he dabbed it generously. Fluttershy got caught up in his little hoax and couldn’t bear to see him this way.
“I’m sorry, Discord,” Fluttershy apologized and gave him a kiss on the cheek. His cheeks flushed and he felt his tail whip on instinct. It seemed to have hit her somewhere on accident and he saw as a few strands of her pale yellow fur fly past him. “EEK!”
He wore an amusing look and took his tail as it flew back into his paw. It was very odd that his tail would do something like this at an oddly placed timing, but it definitely seemed like it was appropriate for his tail. Discord wouldn’t have had it any other way, but Fluttershy most likely could have.
Her face turned beet red and tears began to well up inside her emerald green eyes that were starting to turn glassy. A single sob escaped her mouth. Discord bared his teeth and felt a sliver of remorse as she turned around to storm off. A single red slash had been marked upon her once-unblemished behind. He rubbed his temples with a claw and banged his head on the table.
***
Fluttershy whimpered as she looked at the fearsome slash mark on her rum. A single touch with the tip of her finger and she felt a whole series of unbearable pain that made her want to scream into a soft pillow. Maybe that was what she needed. To sleep on all of this thinking of Discord and his bizarre attitude business with a comfortable pillow to rest her head on.
She could also think about it: what he was up to and why he was acting the way he has been for the last couple of weeks. There was one thing she knew for sure, and that was it had something to do with the encounter with Tirek. He had even asked her if she was still upset about his betrayal towards their friendship.
To be honest, she wasn’t sure what to think of it. Her heart had shattered into a million pieces when those cucumber sandwiches had fallen to the ground. It was because she knew. That look in his eye was something she had seen before and dreaded that she would see again one day.
Fluttershy had seen it coming but didn’t listen to the tiny voice in her head, the one that was the second opinion and rested in the back of her mind. She thought it was meaner and more brutally honest than her first opinion. It was why she did not use this often and tried her best to avoid it.
She shook her head and slapped her cheeks with water. This was something she would not want to ever think about again, but the voice in the back of her head told her different, as usual.