Pretence

by Kapuchu

Chapter 14 - Uncertainty

Octavia opened the door to find Vinyl, ears and cheeks red. She was standing absolutely stock still, like a deer in front of a speeding carriage. It was actually quite adorable, in a way, but what in Equestria had her so confused? She remembered her mention of someone she knew getting hurt, but that was a long time ago, and she hadn’t mentioned it during their time in the hospital. No, she doubted it was that.

She twitched one of her ears, trying not to let them lay down and betray her mounting uncertainty, felt one fall to the side instead. “Vinyl?” She asked, taking a step closer and out onto the patio. The other mare didn’t react, still standing as if frozen in place. She pressed her lips into a thin line, and was almost about to start prodding and shaking to get a reaction when, finally, Vinyl uttered a single word.

“Hi.”

It was said so simply and delicately, and so completely opposite to everything she had expected of Vinyl, that it forced her half a step back, both ears erect once more. She blinked and, after the momentary confusion, found her uncertainty evaporate and merriment taking its place.

“Hello, Vinyl,” Octavia said. Stepping back inside, she held the door open for her friend to enter. “Want to come in?”

She looked almost surprised at the question, her lips parting just enough to show her teeth. It took her a moment to remember herself. “I—Yeah. I’d like to,” she said nodding, and smiled awkwardly. She walked in cautiously, getting close enough to brush coats with Octavia’s bandages.

The sensation brought an uncomfortable mix of both a shiver down her spine and a dull throb of pain, causing her to briefly stiffen before closing the door. She shook her head, forcing the shivers away and turned to face Vinyl.

“That’s a nice picture,” Vinyl said, having stopped in the middle of the hallway, looking up at a framed picture of a blank-flank Octavia, flanked by two adult mares. “Looks like nice ladies. Your parents, right?” She asked.

“My mothers,” Octavia said, following Vinyl’s gaze. She remembered the day. It was back when they had thought it a good idea to buy her one of those mane-accessory sets for foals. The result had been a hundred different coloured beads and mane-clips, colourful strings tied into braids and more, covering so much that you could see barely half of her actual hair. “Or Mum—” she pointed at the light blue pegasus with the two-toned blue mane, then the pale lavender pegasus with the cornflower mane “—and Mother, to be precise. They often complained about being confused when I called both ‘Mum’, so I started calling the stiff one Mother.”

Vinyl snickered, covering her mouth with a hoof. “Now I know where you get it from,” she said, grinning at Octavia’s indignant exclamation. “Relax, I’m kidding… Wow, you really looked grumpy in that picture.”

Octavia didn’t reply immediately, instead silently noting the change in behavior. She seemed so much more at ease now, discussing something casual like an old picture. What had been the cause of her jitters earlier? One could be excused for assuming that she was frightened of something, or nervous. Those kinds of emotions tended to evoke such behavior, after all. She remembered all too well how it felt to be introduced to her new classmates way back when.

“You have no idea,” she said at length and sat down in the hallway. Thinking back on it, that episode in particular made her chuckle. “It was maybe half a year after they had adopted me. I wasn’t very trusting of them yet, and them… let’s say ‘prettying me up’ made me downright furious.” She paused, Vinyl failing to stifle her giggling beside her. “You’re having fun now, but back then I was closer to punching an adult than I had ever been.”

Vinyl waved a hoof, holding the other in front of her mouth. “No, no. I get it. I’m not making fun of you. It’s just… I don’t know. You look cute, I guess?”

Octavia blinked, looking at Vinyl. “Cute?” She looked up at the picture again, brow furrowed.

“Yeah.”

“Really?” She looked at Vinyl again, this time meeting her eyes. She blinked again. Vinyl had taken off her glasses. “Oh wow. I forgot how beautiful your eyes were.”

To her credit, Vinyl blushed but didn’t look away. She set the glasses behind her horn, holding them up while she turned to fully face Octavia. “Yeah, you are.” She said, and Octavia could only just detect a quiver in her voice. She did an admirable job at hiding it. “And, I guess, that’s partly the reason I visited you?”

Octavia didn’t reply. It was as if she was rooted to the spot. Captivated by a magic no horn could produce, and still the things as of yet unsaid, and those ruby-like eyes, managed to bind her like no spell could. She slowly dipped her head in a shallow nod. A silent invitation to continue.

Vinyl, for her part, took a deep breath and held it for several moments, hoofs fidgeting. She let out her breath and steeled herself, then opened her mouth. She paused again. She frowned deeply for all of a second before she wiped it away, once more focusing entirely on Octavia. This time, it seemed, she didn’t give herself time to hesitate. “Do you want to have dinner with me?”

The words hung in the air for what seemed like ages. Octavia’s eyes widened and her lips parted. Before her Vinyl shuffled in place, her gaze flickering left and right between Octavia’s eyes. Vinyl has asked her out to dinner, but what did that mean? Was it platonic? A friendly gesture? She forced herself to blink and closed her mouth, looking off to the side, suddenly uncertain. No one had ever asked her out for dinner before. No one had ever cared enough, at least not until she had met her parents for the first time. It reminded her of a time when the question of ‘why’ had been so prevalent, and now it returned. It scared her. She had had a few friends before, acquaintances as well, but she had never truly been tight with any of them. Harpo was the closest, a friend for life she dared to call him. He had been there for her for well over ten years, never hurt her, never asked for anything in return. And now Vinyl was… No. She wasn’t asking for that. Vinyl was asking for something more, wasn’t she?

Dared she read that far into it? Did she—

“Octavia?”

The hesitant tone with which Vinyl said it brought Octavia out of her daze. She blinked several times and looked back at Vinyl who, contrary to everything she knew of her, looked scared. Her red eyes were wide and bright, ears flat against her head, but to her credit she stood tall with squared shoulders. Her entire stance was strong and secure, even if her expression wasn’t.

“Yes?” Octavia said quietly, for a moment feeling her mind muddled and slow. What had the question been?

“I was wondering if you, y’know, wanted to have dinner with me? At my place? Not really a date or anything just, y’know, dinner. Between friends… Maybe? I understand if you don’t want to, but…”

Octavia used that pause to her advantage, holding up a hoof to stall any further rambling of Vinyl’s. She has invited you to dinner, Octavia. Don’t read too far into it. Don’t let your—my—insecurities get in the way. “I would like that, I think,” Octavia said, forcing a pleasant smile to brighten her expression. “I’m sorry about my sudden lapse in attention, I’ve just been rather preoccupied lately. The painkillers, you know. I may be discharged but… the wound still hurts.” She nodded towards her side where the bandages still covered her middle.

Vinyl, however, didn’t seem to buy it. Not entirely at least, what with how her ears still lay flat. “Are you sure?” She pressed cautiously. “I just thought that, y’know… All things considered after that day, it would be nice to let that be in the past, and not let it be a ‘last time I ever saw her we got attacked!’ Kind of thing.”

The way Vinyl made her voice deepen, when she mimicked an older version of herself did manage a small chuckle out of Octavia. It wasn’t much, but she wasn’t able to suppress it had she wanted to. She briefly inhaled through her nose, blowing the air out through her mouth and felt her uncertainty expelled with it. She didn’t know how long it would last, but right now she felt a little more at peace. Vinyl’s sentiment made sense, and she certainly didn’t mind spending time with a friend.

“As mum always said, free food is the best food.” She met Vinyl’s eyes, the smile she had previously forced on now more natural. “I’m sure, Vinyl.”

Ears erect and a near jubilant grin on her lips, Vinyl stood up and, had she had wings, would have extended them as far as they would go. “Great! And I agree with your mum, but,” she looked up at the painting again, “which one was it again?”

“Blue one,” Octavia supplied, pointing. “Her name’s Ivory Rose, if you’re curious.”

“For someone called Ivory, there’s not a lot of white on her.”

Octavia looked at her. “Much like how you don’t look like a phonograph record, Vinyl,” she stated flatly, and fought to keep her expression just as deadpan.

Vinyl met her deadpan stare, offering a lopsided smirk in return. “How do you know? Maybe I’m a shapeshifting vinyl record!”

Sighing in mock defeat, Octavia rose and walked into the kitchen, and called back to Vinyl, “If you want to make bad jokes, at least do it over some hot chocolate.” She heard the sound of Vinyl following her within a second of hot chocolate being mentioned, and thought to herself that it, in some way, was rather cute that she acted so much like a puppy when offered something tasty.

A chair scraped against the floor behind her, as Vinyl settled herself by the table, ready and waiting for the hot chocolate. It wasn’t long before she had a couple of steaming mugs of chocolate on a tray. Vinyl helped them along on their path to the kitchen table, using her magic to float them over.

What followed was a sight that was endearing. Vinyl, in her eagerness to drink, seemed for a moment to have forgotten that steaming things were usually hot. The result was a hiss as she burnt her tongue, and a frantic attempt to alleviate the pain by batting at it with her hooves. It reminded her of someone from… long ago. She snorted, pushing the thought back, and instead offered a glass of milk to Vinyl, which she took eagerly.

“I didn’t expect to need to remind you that hot chocolate is, well, hot,” she said and took her place across from Vinyl, blowing at her own mug to cool it down.

Vinyl set down the now-empty glass of milk, smacking her lips. “Didn’t think so, either,” she said, now also blowing at the hot chocolate, “but it turns out you did.”

“At least you learned your lesson,” Octavia said, motioning for Vinyl’s mug which she was still trying to cool down.

Vinyl lifted the mug and attempted a tentative sip, her entire expression brightening when her tongue didn’t get scalded again. “I’m a slow learner,” she said between careful sips, “but I do learn.”

“That’s good,” she said, shuffling into a more comfortable position but, winced a little when her movement caused the sutures to stretch a little. She peered at Vinyl over the mug as she brought it to her lips. Those red eyes were earnest, she thought. They mirrored the pony they belonged to.

As someone who had few acquaintances, and yet fewer friends, the fact that she could spend time with Vinyl like this was very near extraordinary. She felt calm and at ease around the unicorn, free of everyday worries. She was one of the few ponies she felt like she could trust, in spite of how short the time they had known each other. But then again, sharing a near-death experience like they had, often created very tight bonds, or so some ponies said. It reminded her of that phenomenon, where someone experienced fear, or had a large influx of adrenaline, but it felt like love or lust to them. Was the whole “friendship built on harsh experiences” thing, a branch of that very thing? Even if not, it was an interesting thought.

Very relevant to this line of thought was Vinyl’s recent behaviour. Octavia wasn’t so dense as to not have noticed the odd way in which the DJ acted. The way she froze when she first opened the door, and the way the words seemed to tumble out of her mouth, when the topic shifted to the invitation itself. Vinyl had divulged the fact that she was bisexual, back when they had spent the day at the recording studios, and her recent actions had been rather strange, a bit off from her usual behavior. Then again, it did make sense that she was also just wanted them to not part ways on a bad note.

She swallowed a mouthful of the cocoa and set her mug down. Now wasn’t the time to jump to conclusions. It might as well be, that the explanation was a simple “I am nervous to ask you to dinner because it seems more intimate than it is.”

“Vinyl?” She asked.

The unicorn looked up from her half-empty mug. “Yes?”

“In regards to that dinner you invited me to, will there be a dress code?” She leaned back in her chair and fiddled with her scarf for a moment. “And, I suppose this is important as well; when will it be?”

Vinyl’s eyes widened for a moment at the reminder of the promised “date”. She held the mug between her hooves, and looked down into it thoughtfully, her brows furrowed. “I didn’t decide on a date yet, but maybe tomorrow night? As for dress code, I’m not some big-shot like Fancypants. Wear something nice if you like, but I’m not gonna say you have to.”

Octavia shook her head slowly, and felt a tendril of guilt wrap itself around her core as she witnessed Vinyl’s expression wilt. It felt like she had just shot down a proposal, so she hurried to explain. “Tomorrow is when I usually go train my martial arts. Normally I could just skip due to my…” she pointed at the bandages covering her middle, “but I promised Harpo I would get him formally introduced to the club, and help him sign up as a member, and then do a little bit of exercise myself.”

Vinyl seemed to pause at that, leaning ever so slightly to the side and looked at Octavia’s bandages. The way that her brows furrowed, as she stared at where her stitches would be was all Octavia needed to predict the coming questions.

“Are you sure it’s okay?” Vinyl asked hesitantly, glancing meaningfully between the Octavia and her bandages. “Won’t the stitches just rupture?”

Rather than let her immediate, knee-jerk annoyance show, Octavia buried her muzzle in her drink. She spent the time it took to empty her mug, to let her irritation simmer down and evaporate, and only set it down when there was no more hot chocolate to be licked off the bottom. “You sound just like Harpo,” she said with a sigh, setting down the mug. “He’s also incessantly worried about my health, even when I tell him that I’m fine.” She fixed Vinyl with a look that was equal amounts defiance and stubbornness. “So please, trust me when I say that I’m fine.”

“If you’re sure,” Vinyl relented. She was obviously hesitant, something Octavia could have appreciated any other day. It showed genuine concern, but she had just about had enough of Harpo being on her tail about it for the last several days.

Octavia nodded, and offered a smile. “Thank you,” she said. “I’m not going to push myself further than is safe. I know my limits well, Vinyl… Now, how about the day after tomorrow? I don’t have any plans there.”

Vinyl spent another few moments looking her in the eyes; her gaze flitting between Octavia’s eyes as if she was trying to discern some truth from them. Whatever it was she was looking for, it seemed like she found it as she gave a shallow nod, then smiled in return. “Yeah, two days from now is fine. I’ll make sure to have everything sorted out. Speaking of, got a pencil?”

Octavia nodded and pointed towards a large mug standing on the far corner on the kitchen table, in which multiple pencils were waiting to be used.

Vinyl lit her horn and brought one of them over, using it to quickly scribble something down, then seemed to hastily cross out something else. “Here,” she said handing it over. “This is my address. If you arrive at around six in the evening, I’ll have dinner ready.” She fidgeget a little, rubbing her hooves together. “Is that alright?”

Taking the proffered note, Octavia noted with amusement that her own address had been crossed out, and below it was written an address for a house in the richer part of town, which made her raise an eyebrow. She hadn’t expected Vinyl to be able to afford that kind of house, but then again maybe she was just better off than your average DJ? “I’ll make sure to be there,” she said and put the note down on the table.

“Great!” Vinyl exclaimed, grinning. “Though I gotta ask, are you allergic to anything?”

“Yeah,” Octavia replied, “Cyanide.”

Author's Note:

I swear to Celestia I finished this chapter in February, as I promised!
There's just this tiny issue of real life being more important than ponies, so editing had to wait a bit. Still, thanks to Taranasaurus for the help!

I hope you all enjoyed a bit of... Uncertainty

Bonus points to ever finds the Game of Thrones reference.

Comments

[Dlaf rferg]

There's just this tiny issue of real life being more important than ponies, so editing had to wait a bit.

What is this blasphemy?

[Workman]

the words seemed to tumblr out of her mouth

>be Kapuchu
>make one typo
>reader makes unnecessarily elaborate comment to make fun of him about it

[Kapuchu]

8786226
In my defence, E and R are very close together on the keyboard.

[Aura Chime]

Just started reading this story and was loving it. At least until I got to today's published chapter.
When I saw there was nothing more, I wanted to cry I was really getting into this story.
I have to make sure I keep an eye out for the next chapter, thank you for a wonderful read.

[Kapuchu]

8786623
You're welcome I'm just glad that there are people who like to read what I write.

[The Hissing Fool]

8817031
You are most welcome. I certainly plan on sticking with this one, it's got a good hook. And that is what makes all the difference in a chapter by chapter story. A good hook will forgive many things, and I have no doubt that you will continue to add to your skill. It's going to be a fun ride, me thinks.

[Kapuchu]

8831561
I'm glad to hear it!
Sadly, with my Bachelor coming up, I doubt I'll be able to get a chapter out during April, as was my goal :/ So you might have to wait until May for the next one.

[The Hissing Fool]

8831808
No worries. I've actually only now picked up the story again. Hectic week, don't ask.

Just finished Chapter Eight, and I've only got one thing to say:

You clever minx.

[Kapuchu]

8833833

[The Hissing Fool]

SHAPESHIFTING VINYL RECORD?!

That explains everything!!!!

[Shadow_Quill]

“Yeah,” Octavia replied, “Cyanide.”

Yes. Take all my yes.