//------------------------------// // Chapter 19; Talk // Story: "Just Kiss Already!" And Other Rumbaloo Tales // by Candy-Sweets_12 //------------------------------// "Hey Scootaloo." Rumble said with a smile. Scootaloo couldn't help but blush as she tilted her ears back. "H-hey. What are you doing here?" she said, her sentence was choppy and made her blush even more. "I came to talk to you, but I saw that you weren't here, so now I'm just kind of hanging around." Rumble explained. "What did you want to talk about?" Scootaloo asked, stepping closer, she no longer felt the cold, with the warmth she felt seeing him. "Can we say this in your room?" he asked. Scootaloo felt hesitant as she stepped inside. "Um....sure." Scootaloo smiled at her dad as she walked past him, getting a small smile back. Once they were in her room, Rumble shut the door behind them and sat in her chair. "What is it Rumble?" she asked. "Well, I just wanted to talk to you." "Couldn't we have done it outside?" "I think that this conversation would be better off in private." Scootaloo tilted her ears back again, she grew worried about what he was going to say. "Then spit it out." she said, trying to keep her usual casual laid back tone. But she failed once her voice shook at the end. "This is kind of a silly question, but, what do you think you'd be doing in the future?" "That's it?" she asked, she continued without letting him respond. "Okay then, well, flying with the Junior Wonderbolts and being bumped up to the official Wonderbolts. And living in my own cloud home." "What about with me?" Rumble asked. Scootaloo tensed up and froze. Her face went completely red and her heart started beating like crazy. She didn't know what to say. Not at all. "Why do you want to know?" she asked, shutting her eyes and turning around. "I'm just curious, have you thought about it? It's okay if you haven't." Rumble said. Scootaloo sighed and cracked open her eyes until they were lidded halfway. "That's the thing though Rumble," she said quietly. "I always think about it." Now it was Rumble's turn to tense up, though he didn't blush nearly as much as Scootaloo was, her ears, cheeks, and the bridge of her nose made her coat look more scarlet than orange. "You have?" Scootaloo sighed and turned his direction, looking down at the floor. "Yes." Rumble felt eager to ask 'About what?' but he didn't want to force Scootaloo to speak. A long pause came between the two, neither of them knowing how to respond. Scootaloo fluttered her wings uncomfortably, while Rumble twiddled his hooves. "I....I'm always thinking about you Rumble. And I don't know why." Scootaloo admitted, finally breaking the forming ice. "I guess that thoughts about being with you in the future popped up once in a while." "What exactly do you see us doing together?" Rumble asked. "....I'd rather not say." "Remember our deal Scoots, you tell me something and I'll tell you?" Rumble reminded her. 'Why am I always doing this to myself?' she thought. "I thought about us living...together...at one point." she shrunk down and turned away, looking out the window as gray clouds took the place of the forming night sky. Rumble didn't know how he could respond. How do you respond to something like that, 'I do too.'? He never expected her to give that as a response. Thunderlane had warned him that girls were always thinking about this type of stuff, that it came naturally to them. He never expected Scootaloo would mention such a gigantic step in a relationship. "I...I don't know how to respond." Rumble finally admitted, the words were hard for him to choke out. "That's okay, I shouldn't have mentioned it." Scootaloo said. "I...I'm sorry." "You don't have to be." Rumble replied quickly. "I came here to ask you in the first place. Now what do I have to say?" Rumble asked, preparing himself for what could come next. "You don't have to do that this time." Scootaloo said, turning over and lying on her bed, her back facing towards him. Rumble's jaw dropped as he stared back at her. It was hard for him to say what he was thinking next. "...I...I don't?" he asked in obvious disbelief. "Not this time." Scootaloo stated. "Look, I don't want to talk about this now. I can barely understand exactly how I feel about you, I think that we should talk about this another time. You can go home now if you want." Scootaloo said quickly. "Okay then. I'll guess that I'll see you in school tomorrow?" Rumble asked, getting up and looking back to her, hoping he'd find her eyes again. "Yeah." she said softly. Disappointed, Rumble quietly shut the door and left. 'Where is she?' Rumble asked, tapping his hoof on the table. Eventually Scootaloo showed up out of the blue, holding a tray and showing no rush to get to the table as usual. "There you are." Rumble said in a relieved tone. "I didn't think you'd come." "Why?" "Well, after yesterday-" "Can we please forget about yesterday?" she interjected blush rushing to paint her cheeks. 'Why is she so defensive about this?' Rumble thought. "Okay, then tell me this, how do you plan on buying your future house?" "That's too close to the last subject." Scootaloo scowled. "Please?" Rumble replied. "I'm really curious." "Then you tell me how you'll buy your house." she demanded. "Fine, go on, ladies first." Scootaloo rolled her eyes and looked down. "Believe it or not Romeo, I had a few jobs not too long ago to cover it. I saved up a bunch of money and put it in some bank accounts a while ago, and I've got my eye set out on a few cloud homes I checked out." "My parents offered to pay for my house, but I refused. So I'm taking money out of my savings account to buy one." "And how'd you get this money?" "My parents set it up when I was born, and more money was put into it over the years. So I have a bunch of interest." "I won't bother asking how much, do you have your eyes set on a house?" "I'm looking at some. But I've got a friend of family who can help me find one." "What exactly do you have your eyes set out on?" "Basically anything that can fit my budget." Rumble shrugged. "Okay then, can we talk about something else, this is getting boring." "You want to talk about our next hang out?" Rumble offered. Scootaloo knew he meant date, but that he didn't want to say it aloud. "Go for it, what do you suggest?" she asked. "We could go house-hunting." he said teasingly. Scootaloo rolled her eyes and punched his arm. "I'll pass on that one. Can't we just, I don't know, relax?" Scootaloo suggested. "And how would we be relaxing?" "I don't know, lay down on a cloud or something?" "This is shocking news, Scootaloo doesn't want to exercise?" Rumble teased. Scootaloo rolled her eyes again. "After practice. And you earned yourself 50 wing-ups." she pointed her hoof to him with a scowl, showing how much she meant it. Rumble knew he shouldn't object to it, so he settled for a defeated sigh. 'Why do I do this to myself?' he thought. Before another word could be said between them, the bell rang, signaling the two to get to class. Without a word, they both stood up and walked to the end of the cafeteria, where they just smiled at each other and parted ways.