373 - More Than Friends
When Lex woke up, Nosey was staring into space with a shocked look on her face.
The return to consciousness had been as abrupt and jarring as it always was, leaving him fully aware in an instant, and he immediately tensed when he saw her expression. “What’s wrong?”
The question made her jump, springing back from where she’d curled up next to him so quickly that she nearly went tumbling off the edge of the bench. “Huh?!” Gulping, she tried to calm down, licking her lips as her eyes darted between him and the place behind him where she’d been looking. “I mean, um…how are you feeling?”
Lex didn’t bother answering, instead turning his head to see what she was staring at. But even that motion felt like a monstrous effort, and the best he could get was a quick glance out of his periphery before he had to lay his head back down, breathing heavily. He started to try again, but Nosey was by his side in an instant, gently pressing her hoof against him to stop him from making the attempt. “Lex, don’t,” she said, and he couldn’t figure out if she was begging him or warning him. “You’re still hurt really bad.”
“Then tell me what’s happening.” He couldn’t put much force into his voice, but there was enough there to make it clear that he wasn’t asking.
Even so, Nosey bit her lip, her eyes again flickering between him and whatever was behind him. “Don’t freak out, okay?” she started. “You have to promise me you won’t get upset or try to do anything. You’ll only hurt yourself worse if you do.”
“Nosey…” His eyes changed colors then, flashing green-and-purple.
“Severance is gone,” she admitted, wincing preemptively in anticipation of his reaction. “It was just hovering there, doing nothing, and then all of a sudden it spun around, and…” Her voice failed her for a moment. “And I thought it was going to k-kill you. But it swung around and it…there was this…” She waved a hoof, as though trying to gesture the words into existence. “This rip in the air, and inside the rip it was all dark, and then it just floated into the tear it made. Then the rip just sort of closed up, like it had been sealed with invisible stitches or something, and it was just…” She shook her head, helpless to come up with a better explanation. “Gone.”
But Lex’s only response was a sigh of relief, laying his head back down. “Good.”
Nosey’s eyebrows rose. “Good?” she echoed, her voice incredulous. “You’re okay with that?”
Lex snorted. “You’re the one who said you didn’t want me to ‘freak out.’”
“Yeah, but I didn’t think you’d actually listen to me!” she admitted. Lex didn’t answer, and several seconds passed in silence, with Lex already thinking about what to do next as Nosey simply stared at him, before she finally spoke again. “You knew that it would be gone, didn’t you?” she said at last. “That’s why you’re not upset that Severance isn’t here, even though it killed somepony. You were expecting it to vanish like that.”
Lex’s eyes shifted, glancing at the newspaper and magnifying glass that was her cutie mark, knowing that this was her special talent manifesting itself. But there was no reason to keep the nature of Severance’s departure a secret; quite the contrary, announcing its banishment would help restore public order after what had happened. “I returned Severance to the Night Mare,” Lex admitted. “That thing doesn’t belong in Equestria after what it did.”
Now it was Nosey’s turn to give a sigh of relief. “Good,” she announced, before realizing she’d just echoed Lex. Smirking a little, she laid back down, giving him a warm smile. “Maybe next time do that before all Tartarus breaks loose?”
Lex didn’t answer. He couldn’t. The sight of her lying so close, smiling like that, sent a sudden rush through him, and Lex suddenly found himself remembering all of the intimate contact that the two of them had shared over the last few days. Waking up to the feeling of her pressing herself against him the morning after he’d saved her from Xiriel. Softly caressing her, making her breath catch and her body shudder when he’d been examining her magical pathways. Confirming his attraction to her when he’d imagined how he’d have felt if he’d had a liaison with her instead of Aria.
Suddenly embarrassed, Lex looked away from her. “How long have I been asleep?” he asked gruffly.
Confused at his change of attitude, Nosey blinked. “Huh? Oh, I don’t know. I don’t think it’s been very long, but there’s no clock in here and the sun, you know, isn’t moving,” she finished awkwardly. But she kept going, nodding toward the door. “Sonata came back with everypony else a little while ago. I heard her passing out food before. I think she’s probably finishing up now.”
“I should oversee her progress,” muttered Lex, still not looking at Nosey as he tried to get his legs under him. “If she passes out too much before more farm ponies arrive, we could have a crisis on our hooves.”
Nosey’s reaction was immediate. “What? No! Lex, you need to rest!”
“I’m fine,” hissed Lex, but the tension in his words was from exertion rather than anger, his breathing already labored as he tried to step down from the bench. Just that action required intense concentration, and the mere act of shifting his weight between his legs without losing his balance threatened to overwhelm him.
Nevertheless, he was intent on trying anyway, at least until Nosey grabbed him. “You’re going to hurt yourself again!” she protested, pulling him back toward her.
Already having been teetering precariously, Lex tensed as he felt himself start to fall backward. “Nosey! Let go!”
“NO!” Her shout filled the lobby as she yanked at him with all of her might, sending the two of them falling back onto the bench in a heap. Landing on top of Nosey, Lex heard her let out a whoosh as his weight drove the air from her lungs, and he immediately scrambled to get off of her, more worried that he was hurting her than concerned with going outside. But he’d barely managed to turn so that his chest was pressed against hers when she wrapped her legs around him, trapping him as she held him close. “Just stop it already,” she whimpered, and Lex was surprised to see tears at the corners of her eyes. “You don’t need to do everything by yourself all the time. We can help. I can help. Even if I don’t have powerful magic, I can at least do little things for you. So please…just stay here and let me go check outside, okay?”
Lex heard what she was saying, but couldn’t bring himself to respond, captivated by how she looked right then. Lying on her back, eyes moist and mane disheveled, her voice filled with the soft lilt of a girl who was begging as she clung desperately to him, Nosey had never looked more attractive than she did at that moment. All of a sudden Lex didn’t feel embarrassed anymore, his earlier discomfort completely gone as he looked at the mare under him.
His feelings had to have been written all over his face, because Nosey suddenly turned red, her eyes widening before she looked away. It was like she’d taken the embarrassment he’d just discarded, and Lex felt her legs around him suddenly slacken and fall away, feeling her wriggle slightly as she tried to move out from under him. “So, uh…I should go,” she murmured.
“No.” That one word arrested her movement completely, and she looked back up at him timidly. “I want you to stay here with me.”
He saw her breath quicken then, her tongue darting out to run over her lips. “I-”
He managed to raise one hoof up and gently place it over her lips then, stopping her from speaking. Barely noticing the strain the motion caused him, he let it move over to caress her cheek. The touch was gentle, but it was enough to make her breath shudder, and he felt her shaking lightly beneath him. But she didn’t utter a word of protest, didn’t try to escape from him as he slowly leaned his head down towards her. Instead, her eyes fluttered closed, tilting her head upward in anticipation of what was about to happen. Lex did the same.
And then their lips touched, and it was right.
What Lex felt then wasn’t the deep affection that he felt for Sonata, nor the wild lust that Aria had somehow roused in him. Rather, it was an abiding sense of certainty, as though kissing Nosey was the most natural thing in the world. And, he realized belatedly, it was. He’d already decided what he wanted from her, and she’d accepted it. He just hadn’t known it before.
Nosey had been there with him almost from the beginning of his return to Equestria, slowly inserting herself into his life despite his every effort to push her away. Selfish and straightforward, she’d nevertheless stuck by him in complete defiance of how his personality pushed everypony else away, an incomprehensible act that only Sonata had previously pulled off. It had only been when he’d been about to lose her that Lex had realized just how much Nosey’s presence had meant to him. That she was his friend.
But he wanted more from her than that, and as he felt her forelegs reach up and wrap themselves around his neck in a gentle embrace that was nothing at all like the way she’d grabbed him a minute ago, he could tell that she felt the same. He wanted more than just being comfortable around her, he wanted her to be a source of comfort for him, the way he had been for her after he’d rescued her from Xiriel. He wanted her to be a part of his life in every way imaginable, to be with him permanently. And as he heard her moan softly against his lips, Lex felt absolutely certain that she wanted that too.
That was when the door suddenly burst open behind them, a cheerful voice ringing out to the sound of hooves trotting in. “Okay!” announced Sonata with a cheery whoop. “I’ve passed out food for every-, WHOA!”
"S-SONATA!" Her eyes shooting open as she broke their kiss, Nosey surged to her hooves in a panic. This caused Lex to be hurled to the floor, a pained grunt escaping his throat as he landed on his back. But Nosey barely noticed, shaking her head frantically as she looked at Sonata with wide eyes. "This, this isn't why I said I'd stay here with him while you were out there! I swear, I didn't mean for this to happen! We were just talking and then Lex was trying to get up again and then I grabbed him and pulled him on top of-, I mean, I pulled him back and he just kinda landed on me and then, then w-we, we kind of maybe started, you know-, but I w-wasn't-"
"It's okay."
Sonata's words, delivered in a resigned voice, made Nosey freeze in place. "It...it is?"
"Yeah." Giving a small, rueful smile, Sonata trotted over to where Lex was struggling to stand, moving to help him up. "You alright?"
"Sonata," groaned Lex in a pained voice. "Listen to me. I-"
"Let me guess," she snorted, maneuvering him back toward the bench. "You've decided to do the whole 'bundle of girlfriends' thing, right? Her, me, and Aria?"
Both of them opened their mouths, but Sonata beat them to the punch. "Because I'm in."
Nosey, who had been gingerly making her way toward the pair in order to help, stopped in mid-motion. "You...you're what?"
Managing to climb back onto the wooden supports of the bench with Sonata's assistance, Lex looked more skeptical than surprised. "We should all discuss this," he said slowly, quite clearly wary of Sonata's sudden announcement. "The four of us-"
"Nah, it's fine," shrugged Sonata. "I mean, you and Aria and Nosey all pretty clearly want this, and I, um...I got some advice," she threw a not-so-subtle look at Nosey then, "that I should go along with it too. And besides," she turned back to Lex, giving him a sad smile then, "I realized something while I was talking to all those camp ponies. You," she lightly jabbed him in the side, "need, like, all the help you can get to not be so unhappy all the time. Which means that I need to call in the cute girl brigade to back me up." She managed a chuckle at that, but when no one else laughed she cleared her throat instead.
"So," she continued after an awkward pause, holding out a foreleg in a helpless gesture. "Here's to the new arrangement, I guess."
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"Oh uh, Sonata!" Well now what?
9716517 Actually, no. I went back and revised the end of this chapter, since I didn't like how that cliffhanger ended up. (For those wondering, this chapter originally ended right when Sonata walked in, but I went back and expanded it shortly after releasing it.)
9716567
Denied!
Okay then. Score for Lex then!
*Insert George Takei Oh My clip here* Did not see that coming.
Still, I doubt Aria would be willing to share since she'd likely see this as Sonata letting her date Lex out of pity or at the very least, demand more time with him since both Sonata and Nosey already spent so much time together already.
Though that's before one factors in Lex's own feelings on the proposal but he's apparently so shocked by it that he can't think of what to say in response.
hum so a heard it is..
9716662 It does seem that way, doesn't it? Let's hope that for once, things don't suddenly blow up at the last moment.
9717032 With Sonata's agreement, that does seem to be where things are going now, hopefully.
9716910 Remember, the idea of the three girls sharing Lex was Aria's idea to begin with. True, she initially did that to get on Sonata's nerves, and then because of her own sense of entitlement after everything she went through, but eventually she developed real feelings for him. Given that she seems to be the most libertine member of the group, it's not surprising that Aria was even fine with Lex helping himself to Feather Duster on the side (something she said she'd enjoy watching, or even participating in), and implied she didn't mind if River slept with him too. So she probably won't be too upset with Sonata's agreeing to it, though she might very well still be ticked off about Lex having "betrayed" her by taking her voice away. Given that, there may still be some trouble in paradise (especially if Lex figures out what Aria did to Celestia).
As for Lex's response to this, I think the word "nonplussed" sums it up quite well, though I'd say it's more him not believing that things are really going well for a change where something so sensitive is concerned. After all, Sonata stormed out earlier that morning because she was upset about his having almost slept with Aria. Then again, Sonata is mercurial by nature, so maybe it really is okay now...?
9717846
i find this interesting as if my old age memory serves me wright i may have mentioned a heard at one point and was told that this would not happen.
not that i am pointing any hoves or any thing like that.
9717931 I don't remember any statements to that effect.
In all seriousness though, I don't recall ever conclusively stating such a thing. I have said that "herds" aren't a preexisting thing in this story because they're something entirely created by the fandom (i.e. "fanon") and don't otherwise appear in the source material. But that doesn't mean some sort of arrangement like that can't happen over the course of the story naturally.
9718490
tomato tommato
potato potaato .
😘
And everything was happy forever! (said no writer ever that wasn't on the Disney pay roll)
9719394 At least until Celestia and Luna let Twilight know what happened.
At the rate Lex is going, he is going to ahve to learn Indian Rope Trick, or Right Of The Cardboard Fortress, depending on how messed up the mythos and gaming engine is.
9721168 I'd need to check "Monte Cook's World of Darkness" for that latter ability, since it's the only WoD product I have.
Dammit, I was really enjoying this story so far, too..
11307985 Well, I don't want to spoil anything in case you stick with it (and I hope you do!), but it's worth noting that this isn't exactly a story where things tend to work themselves out and everyone lives happily ever after. Make it to chapter 419 and you'll see what I mean.