//------------------------------// // Favors // Story: My Little Caboose: Blue is Magic! // by DarkWing //------------------------------// Grif woke up the next morning and rolled off the couch onto the floor. "Why can't I just be asleep forever..." Grif moaned. Haley jumped off the couch and stood next to Grif, sniffing him curiously. "Think you can bring me to the kitchen?" Grif asked. "I don't feel like getting up." Haley let out a low growl that sounded suspiciously like a groan of annoyance. Haley then grabbed on to one of Grif's wings and started to drag him to the kitchen, but it took her five minutes to drag him much more than an inch. "Fine I'll do it myself." Grif said as he got off the ground. Grif slowly stumbled to the kitchen and saw Fluttershy feeding the group of birds from the wedding. "Good morning Grif." Fluttershy said quietly. "Mornin'." Grif grunted. "What are you doing?" "They had a really long day yesterday so I am making sure they are well rested." Fluttershy said as she pet one of them on the head. "How was your sleep?" "Pretty good. The worst part was waking up." Grif chuckled. "I'd do anything for a smoke right now." "Smoke?" Fluttershy echoed. "Something told me that you wouldn't know what that is." Grif muttered. "So what are you doing later?" "What do you mean?" Fluttershy asked. "I don't know, I was sort of thinking we could hang out or something." Fluttershy's cheeks went a deep shade of red and she broke eye contact. "D-don't we already hang out?" Fluttershy asked bashfully. "Well... technically I guess. But you're always worrying about something or other." "I am?" "Yeah, you are." "I'm sorry." "See what I mean?" Grif asked. "Yes. Sor-" Fluttershy started but stopped when she looked in to Grif's eyes. "And you did promise that you would take a day off after I went through that whole wolf ordeal." "Okay." Fluttershy said. "Hanging out sounds... fun." "Great." Grif laughed as he clasped his hooves together. "Let's get started." "Get what started? I thought we weren't going to do anything." "Congratulations, that was the first test and you have passed!" Fluttershy started to laugh softly with Grif. Grif looked out the window and saw a place where the trees were fairly close together. "Say, you wouldn't happen to have a large net or a spare blanket, would you?" "I think I might have another spare blanket." Fluttershy said, turning to go out in to the main room. "Why do you ask?" "I have an idea." Grif said. "Grab the blanket and meet me out back." "Okay." Fluttershy said, growing curious about what Grif was planning. Fluttershy went up to her room to find a blanket while Grif went in the backyard to look around. He walked up to one of the trees and bucked it lightly, barely managing to shake the tree. He hit it a bit harder with the same result. He went to the next tree and bucked it, this time the tree didn't even shake. "This should work." Grif smiled. Fluttershy came out of the house and walked up to Grif with a blanket folded over her back. "I have the blanket." Fluttershy said quietly. "Awesome." Grif said, grabbing the blanket off of Fluttershy and unfolding it. "This should work." Grif went to one of the trees and started to tie two corners together on the opposite side of the tree. "What are you doing?" Fluttershy asked as Grif went to the other tree. "I'm making a hammock." Grif chortled. "Oh." Fluttershy said quietly. "This seems like a lot of trouble just so you can sleep." Fluttershy stated. "You know the saying work hard, play harder?" Grif asked to which Fluttershy nodded slowly. "Well I prefer the saying don't work, rest indefinitely." "That's... a nice saying." Fluttershy said slowly. "It's a work in progress, but you know what I mean." Grif said as he finished tying the other two corners together. Grif backed away from it and eyed it happily. "Can't wait to test this baby out." Grif said, getting ready to hop on it. Then he heard a voice call out. "Grif are you there? I need to talk to you." "Dammit Simmons." Grif muttered. "I'll go see what he wants. Meanwhile why don't you make sure that this thing won't tear when anything sits on it." Fluttershy nodded as Grif walked around the house to see Simmons. "Whoa, what are you doing outside?" Simmons asked with mild surprise. "Don't patronize me. What do you want?" "Well I was just going to ask you for that suit since I doubt you will use it anytime soon." "Why do you want it?" Grif asked. "Well knowing you you'll either tear it or use it as a napkin." Simmons said. "Hell who am I kidding, you would probably eat it." "Hang on I'll get it." Grif grunted. He went to the couch where the suit had been tossed and picked it up. Grif went back to the door and threw the suit over Simmons. "Anything else I can do for you?" Grif asked, clearly beginning to get bothered. "Well I can't really expect you to do more than two things in one day, can I?" Simmons asked as he took the suit off of his face and folded it onto his back. "You know me all too well." Grif said sarcastically. "So what were you doing outside anyways?" Simmons asked after standing in silence for a small amount of time. "I was putting together a hammock up." "You're the only person I know who will go outside just to sleep." Simmons said, placing his hoof on his face. "You know what a wise man once said?" "You can't teach an old dog new tricks?" "No. If I didn't wake up, I'd still be sleeping. Now go away." Grif said, slamming the door shut. "Might as well grab something to eat while I'm in here." Grif went in to the kitchen and whipped up a sandwich and poured himself a glass of water. He quickly ate the sandwich and downed the water in a few seconds. After he put the plate on the counter he walked to the backyard to see Fluttershy asleep on the hammock with Angel curled up on her side. "I'll make a layabout out of her yet." Grif smiled.