Adhesive Stamp was the first to get out, holding the carriage door open for Circuit and politely thanking the drivers hooked up at the front. The building before them was obviously designed with French theme in mind. It was rectangular in shape, with white paint and pale gray brick surrounding the foundation of the building. A small overhand was held up by pillars and adorned with the name in curly cursive letters. Windows ran the entire length of the building, swirling and folding in on each other. The whole outer building was covered in crown molding that boasted a classic feel.
The place really was fancy, with mares wearing jewelry and dresses and the stallions wearing suits and some even wearing monocles.Circuit swallowed nervously as he followed Stamp out, shuffling his hooves along the sidewalk.
“Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever been somewhere so upscale before…” He let out a nervous chuckle, smiling over at the other stallion. “Shall we head in?” He nodded before walking up to a small podium where one of the waitstaff was looking at a book. The waiter was a unicorn with a trimmed moustache that was twirled on the end and dressed in a very solid looking suit. Almost as if it had been bathed in starch.
“Bonjour monsieurs, do you have a reservation?” Adhesive Stamp nodded before clearing his throat.
“It should be under the name ‘Stamp’.” The unicorn nodded before looking at the book.
“Oui, ‘ere it is! Romantic table for two…” The waiter looked between the two stallions before shrugging and walking off with two menus in his magical blue aura.
“Right this way monsieurs.” Circuit felt a shy smile creep across his face as he glanced at Adhesive before following the waiter. Ebony had been right after all, it was a date. He felt a little bit bad about doubting her before, but he knew he could make it up to her by giving her all the details of the date later. She’d probably con him into dressing in drag for her again, but the more it happened the less he was starting to mind it. He quickly shook that thought out of his head, deciding he’d ponder over that later when he wasn’t on a date.
Adhesive on the other hoof, was absolutely excited, and quite nervous. His confidence had been boosted when he had found out that Circuit Heart was indeed gay. The reservation would’ve been hard to explain if he wasn’t. The waiter showed them to the table and gave a polite smile.
“Enjoy your meal monsieurs, le serveur will be with you shortly.” He left just as the two began to look around and sit down. The table was tucked in a corner and one wall jutted out to cover the table even more, this wall wasn’t really a wall. More of a half wall with more beams in a cross hatch pattern that was strung with vines. The whole area had a cozy feeling of intimacy that was quite impressive. Stamp smiled and came over to pull out Circuit’s chair for him.
“Thank you.” Circuit smiled warmly at him as he sat down, letting out a low whistle as he looked at the little area around them. “You really went all out huh? Are you trying to impress me?” He raised an eyebrow at the other stallion, letting out a soft chuckle. “If you are, then it’s definitely working.” As Stamp sat down he smiled in a little bout of victory.
“Well I’m glad, took me a day to get this reservation but I wanted this to be nice for you..” The white stallion’s face began to heat up a bit as his pure white face turned a slightly rosy pink while his blue eyes looked to the side in embarrassment.
“That’s so sweet…” The ‘pegasus’ let out another chuckle, quickly picking up the menu and using it to hide his rather delighted smile. The smile didn’t last for long though, as he looked over the menu and realized it was all in French. ‘Oh crap…’ He thought to himself, wishing he’d paid more attention to his French classes in high school. Adhesive on the other hoof, was reading it over easily. He’d made sure to brush up on French before coming to make sure he wouldn’t make a fool of himself.
“I’m thinking about the hay fillet with chopped onions and a red wine sauce, what about you?” The neon green maned stallion asked.
“I’ll er...Have the same. But without the onions.” He quickly shut the menu, relieved at not having to worry about trying to read it. At least, for now he didn’t. Adhesive nodded just as their waiter came up to the table. It was another unicorn, this one was pale blue with dark blue mane and tail that was slicked back. His face was adorned with a scoff and an expression that practically screamed ‘I’m better than you’.
“Bonjour monsieurs, welcome to Chez Jour, can I start you off with drinks?” The waiter asked with the most boring, monotone voice you could ever imagine.
“Just water for me, thanks.” Circuit forced himself to smile, despite the sudden urge he had to sock the waiter. He’d only exchanged a few words with him and already he felt an instant hatred. “What about you Stamp?”
“I’ll do the same, water but with lemon for me thanks.” Stamp didn’t like him either, though he didn’t say anything and there was no urge to hit the stallion thankfully. The waiter nodded before walking off haughtily with his tail flicking in annoyance.
“Huh, never expected the waitstaff to be such jerks…” Adhesive whispered under his breath, just loud enough for Circuit to hear.
“You picked up on that too?” He let out a soft snort. “Glad to know I’m not the only one who thought that guy was a jerk...Still...Even if the waitstaff is terrible, I’m still glad you invited me out.” He looked away, his cheeks reddening with embarrassment.
Thought his own cheeks began to heat up Adhesive didn’t turn away, only smiled at Circuit.
“Yeah, me too. I’m glad I did, really glad actually…” Circuit chuckled softly, reaching across the table to gently grasp the other stallion’s hoof. He still didn’t turn to look at him though, too flustered for that.
“Let’s just ignore the awful waiter and enjoy ourselves, okay?” Stamp blushed a little darker and squeezed Circuit’s hoof gently in return.
“That sounds like a plan to me! Well, since we don’t know too much about each other maybe we should talk you know?”
“Right...Let’s see..Um...Favorite color?” He finally turned back to the other stallion, asking him the first question that popped into his mind. Wasn’t the best question to start with but, you have to start somewhere.
“Hmm, my favorite color would have to be amber actually. I just always liked it, kinda like a warm fire or a forge. I don’t know, it just seems pretty to me.” Adhesive shrugged with a soft smile. “What about you? Favorite color?”
“Well...I’d have to say blue. I always thought it was such a pretty, calming color. I especially love the color dark blue...Kind of like the color of your eyes, actually.” He let out a flustered cough, looking away again. Stamp chuckled lightly at this before nodding.
“I get the feeling, I like your eyes too, they kind of remind me of a forest, or electricity. But I guess that one doesn’t really make sense, green electricity?” He let out a soft laugh before biting his lip. The earth pony cleared his throat before continuing.
“Um, well you know I’m a mailpony, what do you do for a living?”
“Oh well, I ah..I build things. I guess that’d be my career...Though I only occasionally sell the things I make. Usually I just make things for myself or my friends. My latest work was actually making these.” He extended one of his mechanical wings, showing it off to the other stallion before folding it against his back again.
“You… made those? That is so cool on so many levels!” The mailpony cried happily, inspecting the hoof made wings. His green orbs glossed over the wings with obvious interest and awe,
“How long did it take you? And did it hurt, when you attached them?”
“Oh it took me months to finally get them to work right. The first couple times it was extremely painful when I attached them, but as I made them better it got more comfortable. Flying though,” he let out an amused snort. “That was a completely different story. I’m still not completely confident with it.”
“But at least you can fly though. And that’s really cool, along with the whole part about you making them, I’d say you’re pretty badass honestly.” Before either of them could say more, their waiter returned with a tray that carried their drinks in his magical grasp.
“Sorry, ssssirs, the chefffff has been busy lately.”
“It’s fine.” Circuit grit his teeth as he took the drink, forcing himself to be polite. He’d much rather punch the waiter in the face, but since they were in a fancy restaurant he figured that wouldn’t be very proper. Adhesive gave the waiter a slight look of annoyance, which was not noticed by the waiter in the slightest, whose nose was up in the air haughtily.
“Now then ssssirs, ssshall I take your order?” His face was upturned as a notepad and pen floated in the air in his magical grasp.
“I’ll have the hay fillet with no onions please.” He forced a smile onto his face, gesturing to Adhesive. “He’ll have the same, but with onions please and thank you.” The waiter nodded, writing it down before leaving, again flicking his tail in annoyance.
“Remind me to leave him a very very low tip.” The white stallion said in annoyance as his ears splayed back in annoyance. Circuit let out a soft snort, rolling his eyes.
“I wouldn’t bother leaving a tip, he doesn’t even deserve a low one.’ He sighed, shaking his head. “No more concentrating on the bad waiter, remember? Let’s get back to questions. Um...Any siblings?” Stamp nodded in agreement.
“No, not siblings, I’m an only child. And I’m pretty sure because of that I want a lot of kids. Which is pretty crazy since I’m gay. But then again, there are always orphans right?” He chuckled and smiled at his date warmly. Circuit cringed slightly at his words, forcing himself to try and keep smiling.
“I….I see...I’m ah...Not a huge fan of kids myself...I mean, if I absolutely had to I’d keep one but er, I’ve never really been too keen on adoption or anything.”
“Well, we all have our opinions, not a big deal, anyway, what about you? Do you have any siblings or family?”
“Ah, well I-” His words were abruptly cut off as the waiter arrived with their food.
“Your meals ssssirs.” The unicorn practically sneered as he set the plates down. “Enjoy..” He shot a condescending grin at them before turning to tend to other patrons.
Adhesive Stamp had had about enough of this and took a deep breath before picking up a fork and taking a bite of his meal.
“Not bad, but before we leave I think I’ll have a word with the manager about our, waiter.”
“Yeah, definitely do that.” He wrinkled his nose as he picked at his food. “Of course, he forgot that I asked for no onions.” He sighed as he began the painstaking process of picking out all the onions from his dish.
“Here, I’m not going to have you not get what you ordered.” Adhesive looked out of the booth and caught the eye of a young pegasus mare who was dressed as a waitress. She had a pale purple coat as well as deep purple mane and tail that were pulled back into an elaborate ponytail of curls.
“Oui monsieur, can I ‘elp you?” She asked sweetly, a great improvement from the waiter they had before.
“It’s fine Stamp, I can just pick the onions out, it’s no big deal…” He huffed as he narrowed his eyes at the other stallion. While he was flattered that he was willing to cause such a fuss for him, he really didn’t think it was necessary. Stamp gave him a small frown but his eyes were kind and displayed affection before turning towards the mare again.
“Yes hi, my companion here ordered his meal with no onions but the waiter must’ve had a mix up…” He strained on the last words in a bout of annoyance. The mare blinked before replying.
“Was your serveur un pale blue avec blue mane et un very bad attitudé?” She asked with a tilt of her head. Stamp blinked, before replying.
“I-uh, yes, how did you know?”
“Zis is zhe third time zhis week somepony has complained about him, I will ‘ave your order fixed and I shall tell zhe manager about zhis. I am so sorry about this monsieurs.” She took Circuit’s plate gently, careful not to spill it on him and gently flapped her wings and moved off to take care of it.
“Thank you miss.” Circuit called after her as she left, letting out a soft huff once she was gone. “You know you didn’t have to stir up that much of a fuss over some onions, even if that guy was a jerk.” Adhesive stamp let out a small chuckle before reaching across the table and grasping Circuit’s hoof.
“Well yeah, I could’ve just let it slide, but then it wouldn’t have been what you wanted. I want this to be fun and for us both to enjoy it not just one of us.” The stallion smiled warmly, giving his companion’s hoof a small squeeze. The stallion let out another sigh, though he couldn’t keep a shy little grin from spreading across his face.
“Let’s just get this meal over with so we can enjoy the rest of our date. I believe I was promised a walk? I think there’s a park not too far from here, maybe we could go walking there?” The mailpony nodded with a grin adorning his features.
“Yeah, I’d like that.”
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
After the two had finished their meal, the two left the restaurant after paying only to see their horrible waiter yelling in French to the poor mare from before who was hiding behind the manager. Circuit tutted softly, shaking his head a bit.
“Poor mare. Hopefully that jerk’ll get what he deserves...C’mon.” He gently nudged Adhesive as he let him out of the restaurant. They both continued on down a path that lead towards the park when they heard their waiter storming off after the manager had quite loudly yelled ‘You're fired!’
And just like that, the now fired stallion stomped past them before turning to them.
“You! You’re the reason I got fired!” He roared angrily with a very angry scowl.
“You got fired because you’re a jerk, now move it. My date and I are trying to have a nice walk.” Circuit glared at the stallion, shoving past him so he and Stamp could continue on. The angry stallion whipped around and raised a hoof to punch Circuit in the face before Adhesive got in the way and took the hit instead. Straight to the jaw, he didn’t fall down, but Stamp did stumble and hiss in pain. Circuit blinked in shock for a few moments, his brain taking a few moments to process what’d happened. When it finally dawned on him he simply raised on of his hooves, punching the former waiter straight in the nose. He smirked slightly as his hoof connected with a rather satisfying crack.
The blue unicorn reeled back in pain, blood dripping from his nose, but before he could raise another hoof to strike, a gold and crimson blur erupted from the bushes and tackled him to the ground. It was Ebony, the hybrid had tackled the unicorn to the ground and was currently giving him a menacing smile.
“Bad idea, hurting my friend, now I’m gonna have some fun~!” The mare giggled insanely and the stallion shook with fear.
“Celestia what have I done…?” Circuit opened his mouth to say something before shutting it, deciding he’d rather not know where in Luna’s name Ebony had appeared from. He figured it’d be better to just continue on with his date and let the mare do her thing.
“C’mon Adhesive..We should get going..Things are about to get pretty ugly and I’d rather not stick around.” The pegasus waved at her friend, a regular happy smile on her face.
“Sorry about that, just making sure you two were doing okay. Have fun! I’ll take care of this little wretch for you~!” Her eyes closed as she smiled a toothy grin, which actually revealed sharp fangs where her canines were. Sweet Celestia what had he done indeed. Circuit just shook his head, quickly tugging Adhesive away so he wouldn’t have to witness the horror that Ebony was about to unleash upon the stallion. He almost felt a little bad for him. Almost.
“You have fun with that Ebs! Let’s get going before things get violent Adhesive, you really don’t want to see this.” The stallion in question blinked as the ex waiter was dragged off by the tail, kicking and screaming in fear back into the bushes from where Ebony had come from. The mare in question, humming along and prancing happily as if she were a filly with a new toy.
“...Yeah, uh, remind me never to piss her off… ever…” And with that Adhesive turned around and followed Circuit down the path. He shook his head to clear it and began looking around. The path was well lit, with a few ever burning street lamps that illuminated the foliage slightly. Not blocking out the starlight, but making it just bright enough for the ponies to see where they were going.
“Yeah….Yeah that’s definitely a good idea.” He chuckled softly as he walked along with him, lightly brushing their flanks together. “Are you okay? It sounded like he hit you pretty hard back there.” Circuit tugged the other stallion over to a nearby bench, forcing him to sit so he could look at his jaw.
The stallion hissed slightly and winced at the sudden touch of Circuit’s hooves to his wound but quickly adjusted.
“It hurts a bit, but it’s not too bad I’m alright. I’m just glad you didn’t get hit…” Stamp smiled softly shrugging his arms. The ‘pegasus’ huffed softly, gently cupping his jaw as he felt it.
“You big sap...I’m just glad that jerk didn’t break your jaw.” He moved his hoof so he could lightly stroke his cheek, shyly meeting his eyes. He slowly began to lean closer to the other stallion, getting closer and closer till he was just inches away. He quickly jerked back however, when a drop of water landed on his nose.
“The heck?” Stamp blinked, the moment ruined for a second before he too felt a drop of water on his muzzle.
“Is that… rain?” As if to confirm that, it began pouring. Those two drops seemed to be a warning to the torrent that began to pour down on the two stallions. Soaking their attire and rendering their manes’ to stick to their necks. Adhesive jumped up and began laughing before pulling Circuit up with him and up against him in a dance pose. Circuit gasped as he was pulled up, laughing as they twirled around in the pouring rain.
“This is ridiculous! You realize we’re going to get colds from this?” He continued to laugh as he leaned against him, not seeming to mind if they got sick in the slightest.
“Too happy to care!” Adhesive laughed, his smile nearly overcoming his face. The stallion lead them in a dance, twirling and spinning around in the rain, not a care in the world. The gray stallion continued to laugh as they danced, letting his joy show for once instead of covering it up with grumpiness and sarcasm. He smiled as he tried to pull them to a stop.
“Alright, alright! Enough! I still need to do something!” Stamp instantly stopped, but remained holding the other stallion in his hooves, both were standing on their hind legs with their front hooves wrapped around each other. The white stallion’s own hooves were wrapped around Circuit’s waist as his neon mane clung to his neck and rivulets of water ran down his coat.
“Yeah? What would that be?” He asked hesitantly, a bit of confusion in his blue orbs.
“This.” Circuit leaned forward and captured his lips in a warm kiss. His lips were slightly chapped, but still warm and gentle. He gently gripped the other stallions shoulder, totally not lifting one of his back legs in the stereotypical kissing pose. Nope, not at all.
Stamp’s eyes flew open in shock before they fluttered close. His hooves, which were gently draped around Circuit’s middle, tightened slightly, pulling the gray stallion closer. The rain and the park around them was long forgotten in the mailpony’s mind. It was stereotypical, but it’s less so when it’s happening to you so shut up and read. After a few moments Circuit pulled away, letting out a happy sigh as he snuggled into Adhesive’s chest. He couldn’t remember that last time he’d felt this happy, and he honestly wasn’t sure if things could get any better. Adhesive couldn’t wipe the goofy grin off his face as he nuzzled his muzzle into Circuit’s neck. After a moment, the earth pony spoke, asking the age old question.
“..So, when can I see you again?”