Lateral Movement

by Alzrius

56 - Lines of Communication

The sun was setting when Sonata finally returned.

“Hi honey, I’m home!”

Sonata grinned as she walked into Lex’s office, amused by actually being able to use that line. Of course, city hall wasn’t really “home,” but who cared? She had someone that she could say that to. That was what mattered.

Lex glanced up at her and grunted in acknowledgment before turning his eyes back to whatever it was he was reading, instantly making her smile diminish. She waited for a moment to see if he’d notice his blunder, but after several seconds it was clear that there was nothing else forthcoming from him. Rolling her eyes, Sonata walked around his desk until she was next to his chair. “Ahem. I said, ‘I’m home.’”

“I heard you the first time,” responded Lex, not even bothering to look up at her as he spoke. Frowning now, Sonata glanced at what he was reading, seeing a lot of numbers and some charts. The sight made her huff; he was ignoring his hot girlfriend in favor of some boring ol’ math?

Fighting the urge to feel insulted, Sonata decided to try a different tack. Lex, she knew, was totes brilliant in a lot of ways, but she’d been with him long enough to realize that, as smart as he was, he didn’t know much at all about how to talk to other people. That was why she’d come up with the idea of being his spokespony in the first place. It also meant that he probably didn’t realize how he was acting right now.

“Okay, hold up a sec,” she said as she put a hoof over the page he was reading, blocking his view of it. When he turned an annoyed glance towards her, she continued. “That’s like, totes the wrong way to greet your girlfriend after you haven’t seen her all day.”

Lex blinked, his expression turning blank. “It’s not?”

Sonata closed her eyes and shook her head, a serious look on her face. Despite that, she was grinning inwardly, pleased that he seemed eager to learn. “Nope. What you’re supposed to do is tell her how much you’ve missed her. Or even better: show her instead of telling her. Like, with a kiss.” She tilted her head just slightly, waiting to feel his lips against hers.

And waited.

After several seconds, she cracked one eye open, wondering what was wrong. What she saw was Lex giving her a look that was a mixture of skepticism and incredulity. “Every time?” he asked, disbelief evident in his voice. “Isn’t that a little perfunctory?”

“…whatever,” sighed Sonata disgustedly. All of a sudden she didn’t want to try and walk him through what he was doing wrong anymore. Walking back around his desk, she sank into one of the guest chairs opposite it. “Can you just hurry up with whatever it is you’re doing so we can go get some dinner? Not everyone likes to skip meals the way you do.”

Lex looked at her with a frown, silent for a moment as he compared her current disposition to how she’d been acting before. It took only a few moments to come up with a tentative conclusion, which he verbalized a moment later, hoping that she would clearly confirm or deny it so that he could build on that knowledge. “You’re upset.”

Sonata rolled her eyes. “Wow, there’s that whole super-genius brain of yours again,” she replied sarcastically, looking away.

Lex paused to consider her response, turning it over in his mind before deciding that it constituted affirmation of his premise. Putting his papers down, he went to stand in front of her. “I don’t think your indignation is called for.”

“Oh well excuse me for my ‘indignation,’ Mister Mayor sir,” she drawled, laying on the sarcasm thicker. “I guess I just don’t like it when my boyfriend doesn’t want to kiss me because it’s too ‘perfunctual.’”

“Perfunctory,” corrected Lex.

“Whatever!” She jumped up and headed for the door, still not looking at him. “Can we just go?”

“No!” snapped Lex. He was trying to hold his own anger in check, but it was beginning to crack in the face of her recalcitrance. “We’re fixing this right now!”

Now she did look at him, giving him a cold glare over her shoulder. “What’s to fix? You made it very clear that you don’t want to kiss me, and that’s totes your choice, so just-”

“I do want to kiss you,” interjected Lex, marshalling the last of his patience to keep his voice level.

“That’s, like, not what you just said!”

“That’s not correct!” Lex snapped. “What I said was that your rule about kissing you as a greeting was excessively cursory. That is what I don’t want to do.”

“Huh?” Sonata’s anger began to be diluted by confusion. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means that I don’t like the thought of kissing you for the sole purpose of fulfilling some inane social obligation,” explained Lex. He had to struggle to keep his voice down, trying hard not to lose his temper with her. “I don’t want to take something special between us and cheapen it like that. When I kiss you, it’s because the spirit moves me to do so. Anything less than that isn’t a good enough reason.” He waited for her response, feeling himself tensing in anticipation of whatever incomprehensible reaction she’d have next.

For her part, Sonata was stunned. While she was glad to hear that this was all just a big misunderstanding, she couldn’t help but be shocked at how literally he’d interpreted what she’d told him. That anybody could have seriously thought that there was some sort of rule about when to kiss somebody was mind-boggling!

It was crazy enough that she had to double-check. “Lex,” she said slowly, “you do know that I wasn’t being serious before, right? All that stuff I was saying about how you’re supposed to greet me when you haven’t seen me in a while…that wasn’t, like, a rule or anything. I was just trying to say that I wanted you to kiss me.”

The look of confusion on his face was almost funny, his brow furrowing as he tilted his head, clearly struggling to process what she’d just told him. “But that’s…” he trailed off, obviously going back over the last few minutes in his mind.

“Oh. My. Gosh,” Sonata said slowly, shaking her head in amazement. She knew she wasn’t the brightest bulb in the pack by a longshot, but even she knew that his assumption had been seriously out there. The reminder of just how quirky her boyfriend could be sometimes was enough to completely dispel her anger, and she found her smile coming back as she went over to nuzzle him. “I totes forgot just how awkward you can be sometimes.”

He gave her an unhappy look at that, but didn’t push the issue. This wasn’t the first time he’d misunderstood her – the situation where he’d thought Fireflower had been attacking her came to mind as a prominent instance of that – and the reminder of his deficiency, especially with regard to somepony he loved so much, was enough to make him want to find a hole to curl up in, looking away from her in mild mortification.

Sensing his embarrassment, Sonata gave him a soft smile. “Aw, don’t be like that. Here.” She reached a hoof under his chin and turned his head towards her, leaning her head forward. This time her meaning was clear, and he met her halfway, feeling some of his discomfort vanish as they kissed.

When it ended, Sonata was all smiles again. “Okay,” she grinned, pleased with how everything had worked itself out so quickly and without too much drama. “Now, let’s go have some dinner.” She started to the door, Lex following her, when a thought occurred to her. “Oh, and you’re buying.”

Lex paused at her pronouncement, wondering whether he should inquire as to what had led her to say that or if he should point out the flaw in her reasoning. Deciding on the latter, he gave her a wry look. “I seem to recall giving you the last of the money we withdrew when we left Canterlot.”

“Oh, yeah, I still have that,” she acknowledged, “but you’re the one with all of that loot from the dragon.”

“I gave that to Ribbon.”

“Yeah, but…all of it?”

Lex nodded. “After I convinced the manager of the local bank to exchange the coins in the portable hole for Equestrian bits, I sent Ribbon to collect the money and begin procuring the necessary materials. That’s going to require a significant amount of capital, so it wouldn’t have made sense for me to withhold any of it.”

Sonata rolled her eyes, but was laughing softly as she did. “Alright, I’ll buy us dinner, and you can make it up to me afterwards.”

Lex tilted his head, wondering if this was another area where he was supposed to be able to intuit what she wanted. Better to ask than to risk another misunderstanding. “Make it up to you how?”

She grinned, leaning in to whisper in his ear, her voice turning husky. “Use your imagination.” She punctuated her statement with a soft nip, drawing a gasp from him that was equal parts understanding and delight.

He was blushing slightly as they exited his office. Noticing that Lucy was still at her desk, Lex paused to call out to her. “Lucy, I’m done for the day.”

“Yes sir, Mister Mayor. Oh! I almost forgot,” she added as she pulled out a notepad and pen. “The Interim Deputy Mayor asked if you could write down where you’re staying while you’re here, just in case anything came up and she needed to contact you.”

Nodding at Ribbon’s sensible precaution, Lex scribbled down the address of their hotel before turning to leave. As he did, Lucy called out, “Um, should I make breakfast for you two from now on?”

“Yes!” interjected Sonata quickly.

Lex frowned at her. “Sonata, we don’t need her to do that. Now that I have access to sacerdotal thaumaturgy again, I can create food for us.”

“Oh no, no way.” Sonata shook her head. “I remember what that was like from when you did it back on Everglow, after that train crash. It was all plain water and gruel. No thanks.” She turned to give Lucy a smile. “I’d rather have Lucy’s breakfasts instead.”

Putting aside her mild alarm at the two of them having been in a train crash at that "Everglow" place, Lucy smiled at the show of confidence. She had no idea what kind of food “sacerdotal thaumaturgy” was, but she could sympathize with anyone who wanted to eat more than water and gruel in the morning. “It’s no trouble at all. I’ll have it ready when you come in.”

Lex frowned. “That’s-”

“Totes sweet of you!” Sonata refused to let Lex ruin this, steering him firmly towards the door as she waved goodbye to Lucy. “Night!” As they reached the stairs, Lex gave Sonata a glare, to which she responded with a guilty smile.

Wanting to change topics before he dug his hooves in, Sonata quickly spoke up. “So, where do you want to go?”

Knowing what she was doing, Lex nevertheless let it slide. “Anyplace that doesn’t serve pasta. Ribbon and I had that for lunch.”

“Hmm, you were stepping out on me with another mare, huh?” teased Sonata. She stuck her tongue out at him as she said it, wanting to make sure that he knew she was being playful and not seriously accusing him of cheating on her. “Well, Nosey and I got hayburgers for lunch, so those’re out too. How about a salad place? I saw one when I was out earlier, and it looked pretty tasty. Like, it covers them with cheese and those crunchy little bread cubes and stuff.” Lex nodded, and the two set off at a leisurely pace.

As they approached the restaurant, Sonata spoke up again. “By the way, I almost forgot to say congratulations.”

Lex raised a brow. “For what?”

The smile she gave him then made his heart skip a beat. “For your first day of governing other ponies.”

Author's Note:

The real challenges, and joys, of a relationship are found in the little things.

Luckily, Lex and Sonata seem to be figuring out how to navigate them.

Comments

[Booster Spice]

Congratulations on making it through your first day and haveing a day to end at the end of it.

[James Fire]

This isn't his first day, he was the leader of that group from the train crash.

And no typos...

[Alzrius]

7811339 That was leadership, which is distinctly different from governance per se.

But I'm glad that I'm still typo-free like I want to be! I chalk it up to the fact that I've had time to go over what I wrote and change some initial mistakes before you had a chance to pounce on them.

[Not so New Brony]

Lex getting flustered is quite an amusing sight to behold but his statement made me think about all the 'I love you's and 'Miss you's that couples tend to tell each other. They tend to lose their meaning after a while so Lex has his heart and mind in the right place as usual.

Heh, seems Nosey managed to mooch off another meal courtesy of Sonata. Wonder how many more mealtime 'interviews' she'll pull before ponies catch on...

[Alzrius]

7812929 Lex definitely wants to do the right thing, but as is so often the case with him he's misapplying - or rather, miscommunicating - his intentions. His desire to not cheapen his relationship with Sonata is romantic, but in this case he didn't realize that she was being coy. Luckily, he's found a girl who won't hold that against him (at least, after she finally figures out what he's going on about).

As for Nosey...well, we'll come back to her very shortly.

[David Silver]

Lex shows off his special brand of social ineptitude, but no real harm is done. Let's get din din.

[Sidetrack]

“I heard you the first time,” responded Lex, not even bothering to look up at her as he spoke. Frowning now, Sonata glanced at what he was reading, seeing a lot of numbers and some charts. The sight made her huff; he was ignoring his hot girlfriend in favor of some boring ol’ math?

images7.memedroid.com/images/UPLOADED124/54c9074d5f8c2.jpeg

[Alzrius]

11675231 That about sums it up!