• Published 13th Dec 2015
  • 10,688 Views, 428 Comments

The Days Passed - SilverEyedWolf



A poor break-up sends Spike to the most understanding of the Six. She sends him to bed.

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Twenty Five Days Later, The Morning

Fluttershy walked down her stairs, a bed-sheet and pillow resting on her back. Turning the corner, she smelled the air and smiled at the sweet scent of dark chocolate. After stopping in the living room to slide the bed-clothes to the couch, she turned to the kitchen.

“That smells wonderful, Spike.”

The dragon dipped his head, smiling as he stirred.

“You should really thank Twilight. She's the reason I know how to make this at all.”

Fluttershy pulled two chairs away from the table, sitting in the one facing the stove.

“I suppose I'm not really surprised by that. She's sort of the one who taught you everything, isn't she?”

“In a roundabout way, that could be true,” he muttered, sipping from the ladle he was stirring with. “If she didn't teach me herself, I learned it for her.”

Fluttershy shifted, her mind swamped with uncomfortable ideas.

“She… well, she's always treated you decently, hasn't she?”

Spike turned his head to stare at her, his face blank.

“Fluttershy, what exactly are you insinuating?”

Shifting in her seat, she stared into the living room, attempting to slow her racing thoughts.

“Well, I know that you were her assistant...”

“No 'were' Fluttershy, I still am.”

“Oh, right. Well, I've just… None of us are really sure about what that entails, really. Rarity and I have wondered about it a couple times, and Applejack was curious for a bit after the timberwolf incident...”

Reaching into a nearby cabinet, Spike grabbed two large mugs. Lifting the cocoa from the stove, he poured in the hot liquid.

“Well, I can understand why you didn't ask,” Spike said slowly as he walked over to the table. “But Rarity could have asked me, and I think we both know how shy AJ can be about stuff like that.”

With a nod, Fluttershy took the mug between her hooves, warming their soft undersides on the cup. “I'm not sure why neither of them asked. Maybe AJ forgot?”

“Yeah, maybe. Rarity, though?” Spike shook his head. “More than likely she was afraid of offending me by accident. She can be pretty thoughtful if she thinks she needs to be.”

There was a lull in the conversation.

“You still haven't answered...”

Spike smiled, nodded. “Collecting my thoughts.”

Fluttershy waited, sipping at her cocoa. There was no cinnamon this time, just a bit of crushed mint floating in the depths.

She found it refreshing.

“I have taken a literal approach to my job,” Spike said, startling his host. She fumbled the ceramic container to the tabletop, adopting an expression of stern attention.

“I was told that a good assistant helps their partner in any way asked of them, but the excellent ones don't need to be asked.

“When I was little, Twilight only ever asked me to play with her. Hide and Seek, board games, the like.”

She nodded, smiling at the thought.

“When I started getting older, she started asking me to do more things. Fetch this book, or stir this concentrate for me, things like that. When I was able to complete a task flawlessly, she moved to a more complex task.”

“Spike…” Fluttershy was frowning. “That sounds like animal training to me.”

He squirmed a bit, not looking into her eyes.

“Oh Celestia, Twilight.” She shook her head. “She was training you?”

Blushing, Spike glanced around, looking for any animal laying around the kitchen, any potential spy. Leaning forward, he beckoned her closer.

“She used to have this rubber ball, and we used to play Fetch,” he admitted.

Her eyes wide, Fluttershy whispered, “No...?”

He nodded his head, leaning back and taking a large gulp from his mug.

Fluttershy gazed at his scaled chest, her eyes glazed and her mouth open. He nearly choked on his drink when she burst into laughter, pushing her forehead into the table and wrapping her forelegs around her barrel.

He glared at her for half of a minute, his face cracking as he slowly joined in.

They took a minute or so to settle, Spike wiping his eyes on the back of a claw. The silence lasted until they both finished off their mugs.

He slowly looked into her eyes, leaning over the table and gazing at her with half-lidded eyes. Her heart took a small break, her cheeks filled with heat for a moment…

He crossed his eyes, letting his tongue hang between two of his bottom teeth.

“Borf?”

Her eyes wide, Fluttershy let out a small squeal before clapping her hooves over her snout, her sides heaving as she buried her face.

Spike, not nearly so constrained, burst into loud bellows of laughter. Fluttershy gasped and flinched away, then started chuckling at her own reaction. She eventually joined him in her own laughter, their mirth spilling over into the new day as the clock passed midnight.

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Spike sat upright, wondering for a second where, exactly, he was. A mouse near to him chattered softly, and the end of the previous day returned to him.

With a large yawn, he scratched at one of his ear frills and dug through his thoughts to find out why he was awake.

His leg twitched, jostling his body, and a full bladder made itself known.

Swinging his hind legs off of the couch, he attempted to right himself. The blanket Fluttershy had loaned him had other thoughts, and his attempts at straightening his front legs only caused his back ones to give out, spilling him across the floor.

“Yay,” he muttered, crawling his way out of the large quilt. Finally finding his feet, he yawned again as he stood up, staggering his way into a wall.

As graceful as ever, Spikey-wikey.

Growling softly at the thought, he let the wall guide him towards the bathroom; he eventually found the way up to the second floor.

But I know there's a bathroom down here…

Shrugging, he plodded up the stairway, treading the sides of the stairs and attempting to not stumble quite so much.

Curiously enough, the door to this particular bathroom was closed, dull red light streaming from the crack beneath the door.

He looked down the hall towards Fluttershy's room, and saw the door was open. Thinking, he sluggishly remembered hearing the door shut in the half-hour it had taken his stupid brain to stop thinking about

Her

that always followed his attempts at sleep.

And of course, it didn't work, his mind just kept circling like a drain, feeding itself its own thoughts and revisiting the stupidest moments it could dredge…

The toilet flushed, and Spike snapped his attention back to his bladder. Standing across the hall from the door, he tried to make himself as visible as possible.

The door opened, and his sleepy host blinked at him, the red night light turning her normally cerulean eyes a striking violet.

“Hi,” he muttered. “Sorry if I startled you, but nature...”

Fluttershy interrupted him, swaying closer and smiling sleepily. She reached a hoof up and, gently, pulled his snout down to hers, kissing him.

He froze, all thoughts obliterated by a calm panic. White noise filled his ears, low and steady. All feeling seemed to flood into his face, every other sensation replaced by the slightly chilled lips pressing against his.

Fluttershy pulled away, a gentle smile pasted below a pair of glazed eyes.

Mumbling in sleep-talk, Fluttershy slurred, “Go to th' b'thrum an' go'da bed.” Then she smiled up at him and pushed her nose against his for a moment, before turning down the hall and swaying towards her bed. When she reached the doorway she entered the room, and a second later the door closed.

Does she keep a nightcap in her room or something?

Spike blinked, wondering if he was awake or asleep. Deciding not to think about it too hard, he walked into the bathroom. It was still lit by a small red lamp sitting on the sink's edge.

Extinguishing the lamp after he finished, he walked back down the hall, descended the stairs, laid on the couch, and stared at the ceiling for a few minutes.

He snagged the blanket off of the floor and spread it over himself again. He was asleep within a minute.

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Fluttershy walked out of her bedroom, passing a hoof through her now brushed mane one last time as she descended the stairs. A low rumbling drifted up to her, resonating from the living room. Giggling, she entered the room and looked over to the source of the noise.

Spike lay curled around the pillow she'd lent him, a hint of the fluff poking over his back. Spines were the only thing of him that was visible, sticking out of the blankets towards her. The rest of him was covered by her blanket, making a plush doughnut on the couch.

Smiling, she walked into the kitchen and quietly pulled out a couple of pans. Passing the icebox, she grabbed a spatula from a drawer before returning to the machine. Pulling out some of yesterday's eggs, she moved to the stove.

Spike's snout poked out from beneath the blanket a few minutes later, the edges of his nostrils twitching as he sniffed at the air. Sampling it with a tongue, he stretched out more of his neck, pushing his head into the sunlight with slitted eyelids. Yawning, his jaw crackled as it opened to its fullest extent.

He stretched out his limbs, tilting himself until he fell onto his paws. After a moment of popping his back, he marched into the downstairs bathroom, borrowing one of Fluttershy's cotton swabs as a toothbrush.

He smiled at his host as he walked into the kitchen, sitting in the same chair she had used last night. After he glanced at the table for a moment, he stood and walked over to her cabinets, pulling out two plates and placing them onto the counter near the stove.

Neither of them spoke at first, Fluttershy busy with the stove and Spike engaged with keeping his eyes open. He broke the silence first.

“Flutters… Do you have any coffee?”

“I… may have some coffee beans...” She gently tapped the cupboard beneath the counter the plates rested on. “They'd be in here if I do, along with the grinder.”

“… You have a coffee grinder?”

“… Yes?”

With a small laugh, Spike drug himself back over to the counter, settling onto the floor to root through the space. Pulling out a small bronze gadget first, he set it next to the plates.

“Paper bag?”

“Waxed paper, yes.”

“Ah, that's what that is.” He pulled out a small yellow-paper bag and closed the cabinet.

Opening the grinder, Spike stared at it for a moment. Looking inside the bag, he inspected the beans inside. “Fluttershy?”

With a laugh, she set down her spatula and took the bag, pouring enough beans into the grinder for a potful of coffee. “Could you grind them while I set up the coffee pot?”

He nodded, and she dug into the cabinet to pull out a metal kettle, filling it with water and setting it on the stove.

Grabbing the rotating ball on the handle, Spike rapidly turned the mechanism, his mind free to wander. Slowly, he stopped spinning his arm.

“Do you remember going to the bathroom last night?”

Making a face, Fluttershy shook her head. “Not really. I had a dream I was walking around, though, so I might have sleep-walked there. Did I leave the light on again?”

Spike slowly nodded, thinking hard about whether or not he should tell Fluttershy about last night.

“There's another thing, as well,” he blurted, feeling the flush on his cheeks. “I'll tell you over breakfast though, it's not pressing.”

Fluttershy cocked her head to the side he was on. “It's not important?”

“Well, it's not pressing,” he muttered.

She gave him a bewildered look from the corner of her eye, but focused on the potatoes she was frying.

Spike finished grinding the coffee and dumped the fresh grounds into the built-in mesh filter. Leaving her to the rest of her cooking, he retreated to his chair and into his thoughts.

His mind galloped in place, running circles in an attempt to figure out where to start the conversation, lines to try and lead the topic, anything to make the coming talk less awkward. He dug so deeply that he didn't notice the pegasus approach the table.

“Here you go, Spike.”

He flinched away, blurting out, “You kissed me.”

She dropped the plate, luckily only inches from the tabletop. A bit of the eggs flew from the side, disappearing over the edge of the table.

Her face paled for a second, before turning a deep red. She averted her eyes, biting her lip as her wings extended a tiny bit from her sides.

Knowing exactly what that meant, Spike joined her blush.

“Oh, uhm, I'm really sorry,” she murmured, shrinking away. “I, uhm, had a… vivid dream last night, uhm, about… I must have gotten carried away when I was sleepwalking…”

Spike smiled awkwardly, reaching out with a paw. “No, really, it's all right...”

“No, of course it's not,” she snapped, making Spike flinch away.

“You must hate me...” Fluttershy muttered, still curling in on herself, letting her legs fold under herself as she balled up on the floor.

“Whoa, hey,” Spike said, surprised. He slid from his chair and onto the floor in front of her. “Hey, of course I don't hate you, why would I?”

“Why wouldn't you? We're becoming really good friends, and now I've made it weird, and you'll think I'm weird, and…”

Spike reached out and snagged her in his paws, pulling her forward and into his chest, his arms circling her and squeezing gently.

“Shush, shush, it's alright, shh…” he murmured, rocking her slowly.

She froze at first, pushing away, but as soon as he started speaking she relaxed into him, leaning into his embrace. Her ear ended up pressed to his chest, and she couldn't help but listen to his heart beating heavily.

Breathing, she slowly realized what had happened, and her face flushed again.

“Oh Spike, I'm sorry,” she said, raising her trembling forelegs and hugging him back. “I haven't had an attack like that in ye-years...”

“No worries,” he murmured back. “Twilight had pretty bad anxiety for a while in her teens. Don't worry about it.”

Fluttershy gave a weak chuckle, a precursor to a shiver. Spike tightened his grip until the shaking stopped, then slowly started to pull away from her.

Her forelegs clamped down on his, pinning his arms down.

“Spike,” she said quietly. “Is this going to change our friendship?”

“It won't chase me away,” he assured her, pulling the rest of the way away and standing. “I'm not going to stop being your friend just because you kissed me. And besides,” he said, looking down and grinning at her. “It was a really good kiss.”

Her cheeks regained a rosy hue.

She started to stutter a response, but he shook his head.

“Deep breaths, calm your shaking first.” He walked over to a cupboard, pulling it open and frowning at the view inside. Walking over to the sink, he fished a mug out of it, turning on the water and cleaning it as Fluttershy took large, theatrical breaths.

“Spike, was it really…” she started, stopped by the heavy curiosity pushing her to ask. It held her back even as it drove her forward, and she wanted nothing more than to batter it away like a…

“It was,” he answered, blushing himself.

Her heart beat harder for a moment, and she had to return to her breathing exercises.

Spike finished cleaning the cup, walking over to the stove and pouring the steaming coffee into it. “Sugar or anything?”

“I-I'm not sure caffeine is a good idea…”

He frowned at the now clean mug in his claw. “Yeah, sounds pretty bad, when you think about it… Would you like some milk or anything?”

I think I'd like a chance at that kiss I missed out on, Fluttershy thought, blushing at the mental fluff that had sprinted through her head.

“Tomato juice?” Spike asked with a smile, his teasing tone and implications about her blushing just turning her redder. “I'll see if I can't find any.”

“O-O-Orange juice, p-please…” She murmured, a tiny smile lighting up her features at Spike's teasing. “Maybe some grape, if I have some?”

Spike's tail stiffened, and he frowned at her over his shoulder.

“Wow, Fluttershy,” he deadpanned, “That must be the first time I've ever been compared to a grape. First time ever. Must be.”

He broke character when she reddened again, gentle laughter flowing around him as he hunted through the icebox. Pulling out a pitcher of pulpy orange juice, he poured her a glass and put the pitcher away, carrying over both of their drinks.

Looking between her and the table, the drake raised an eyebrow in question.

“Oh, right…” Fluttershy stood up quickly and sat in the chair next to the oven. She then turned around, sheepishly grabbing her breakfast off of it. Spike set their drinks down, and they were finally ready to do something besides just stare at the food.

After a minute, and a paper towel, Spike raised his head and smiled; he made it just in time to see Fluttershy take a larger bite of her potatoes, her cheeks slightly puffed from the food. Her eyes met his, and she looked away as the biggest smile enveloped the dragon's face.

“I was about to compliment you on the food, but I see that you're well aware of how good it tastes.”

She started to mumble something around her food, but caught herself and covered her mouth with a hoof, quickly chewing and swallowing the mouthful she had… and then it was Spike's turn for an awkward blush.

Shut up, brain. You're just excited at the closest thing to action you've had for a month, you're not even thinking specifically about Fluttershy…

His thoughts endeavored to prove him wrong.

“I eat like this because of the other herbivores,” Fluttershy said, pulling him away from those thoughts. “If I'm not as quick to eat as they are, they start to… encroach. You know?” she asked, looking up at him with a small smile and half-closed eyes.

He looked away, taking a small bite of his own food. “Yeah, Shining Armor could be like that sometimes,” he muttered.

“Spike?”

He looked back to her, her eyes oozing concern.

“You've been joking since you actually woke up, but you haven't really looked me in the eye all morning,” she said, a sad line working its way between her eyes. “Are you really okay?”

He froze for a second, his flight muscles twitching, before he sighed and forced himself to relax, his eyes closing and a claw rubbing the spot between them.

“I've been having… let's call them, Rebound Thoughts. I've been having Rebound Thoughts all morning.”

“How do you mean, rebound… Oh, like…” Her eyes shifted to his, and his shifted away. “What do you mean, rebound thoughts?”

“Well, you know, like… When a couple breaks up, and one of them go and have a one night stand or something dumb like that, where they hook up just to not be alone?”

“That's a rebound thought?”

He shook his head, cradling it in his paws. “No, that's a rebound relationship, or just a 'rebound'. A Rebound Thought is just thinking about going into a relationship with somepony like that.” He scratched the back of his neck, nails rasping over his scales. “Or, that's how I'm defining it. It's not really a thing, I just kind of… made it up. On the spot...”

“Oh.” A brief pause, some munching of toast. “Who have you been thinking about?”

He flinched a bit, still not meeting her eyes. “Well, the pony I've been spending most of my free time with, recently. Besides Twilight,” he said, seeing her stunned look.

“Oh,” she said, breathing out with a small giggle. “For a second, that's exactly who I thought you… were talking… about...”

She was frowning, moving her lips slowly in thought. “But… I can't think of anyone else you've been spending a lot of time with…?”

Spike stared blankly at her, wondering for a moment whether she was messing with him or not.

Then he remembered who he was talking with, and smiled gently.

“I think that if she thought about it a little, she'd realize it easily,” he teased, giving her a meaningful look as he leaned his head on an elbow propped by the table.

She cocked her head to the side, frowning. “So you've told her as well?”

His chin slipped from his palm, landing on the crook of his elbow.

“I'm talking to her now, Flutters.”

“But I'm the only one…” she trailed off, looking up into his grinning eyes. She breathed out slowly, the blush growing as the air left her lungs. “O-Oh.”

She shifted in her chair, looking down into her plate. She looked up into his eyes and squeaked out, “Really?”

He nodded down at his own meal, picking up a piece of toast and glancing at it, his grin fading away as he set it back on his plate. “In passing mostly, but that's still more than before…” He paused, thinking for half a minute. “Well, before twenty-four days ago.”

Her blush dropped, along with her expression. “You… count the days?”

Spike shrugged with a shrug as he nodded. “Not on purpose, but I haven't been able to stop.”

“I'm sure you know, but… that's not healthy.”

Spike opened his mouth to snap something, before closing it and nodding. “I do know, yeah. I'd say it's an unconscious thing, but… I don't even have to count them out every morning, it's just one of the first thoughts I have when I wake up. Twenty four days.”

He paused, tapping his glass as he thought for a moment.

“Except,” he muttered, looking over at her. “Except for today. I didn't think about it until just now, but I missed the reminder this morning.”

Fluttershy perked up, smiling at him. “That's a good thing, right?”

He smiled back, nodding. “Hopefully it's just been enough time, and my subconscious is letting go. I mean...”

He leaned back, staring into the space just above Fluttershy's head. “I only pined after her, what… Eight years, nine?”

“Oh, is that all it was?” Fluttershy asked, surprise twisting her mouth and sending her eyebrows up. “I'm sure it was worse for you, but for the five of us it felt like much longer.”

“Close enough to round up to a decade, is my point,” Spike said, leaning forward. “Near enough to a decade, and in less than a month I'm improving. I'll take a small victory.”

“You're still counting, though. And you actually put effort into it, today,” she pointed out. “Are you sure you're ready to give up on her?”

“Of course not,” he said, waving his paw as though to dismiss the idea from the air. “But that doesn't mean I don't want to move on with both of our lives.”

Fluttershy nodded, then blushed as she ducked underneath her hair. “Speaking of you moving on… I think we were talking about something else?”

“Of course we were; conversations are always just loosely connected tangents. Which topic did you want to get back to talking about?”

Fluttershy didn't answer beyond glancing at him. After a moment, he remembered and blushed himself.

“Ah, right, my awkward thoughts...”

Fluttershy muttered something underneath her hair.

“What was that?”

She jumped slightly, looking further down at the floor.

“I just said that… Your thoughts aren't the only ones. Being awkward right now, that is…”

“Oh,” he said, staring at her while his brain processed. “Wait, what?”

With a giggle, Fluttershy looked back up to him for a second. With a deep breath, she met his eyes.

“Well, mostly I was wondering what that kiss last night felt like,” she said slowly. “I mean, I've felt all kinds of hides and stuff with my hooves, and every now and then one of my little critters needs a kiss on their boo-boos, but...”

She blushed up at him again, unconsciously licking her lips and sending a shiver down his spines.

“Well, that's all just very different from being kissed, is all.”

“Ye-yeah, yeah it is...” he muttered, looking down at his lap and away from her.

A giggle nearly brought his gaze back to her. “Spike? Are you being… shy, right now?”

“No; shut up,” he muttered, looking away from her.

She laughed this time, something much more than the nervous half-giggles. He smiled down at the table, and then her wing was gently touching his jaw, softly pushing his muzzle up.

Their eyes met, and Spike's mouth went dry.

“Spike? Can I ask a small favor?”

He nodded, mute for the moment.

“It's been… well, the last time somepony kissed me, I was really young. Would it be okay with you if I…?”

He licked his lips, eyes forcing themselves to meet hers.

“You're being strangely bold, Fluttershy,” he dodged, his mind racing blankly.

“The anxiety sort of blocks out the nervousness.” She licked her lips again, her gaze wavering before dipping away from his. Her wing pulled back to her side as she looked away.

“Sorry, Spike. I should have known it was too early, especially with...”

His paw reached over the table, cupping her jaw and lifting her muzzle.

“Spike?”

He stood slightly, pushing his breakfast plate to the side, and leaned over the table to meet her lips, his heart pounding even as he felt her pulse pick up as well.

They stayed that way for a long minute, kissing over the remains of their meal.

Author's Note:

Well, I'm done writing this. Remember to like the story, comment on the story, and subscribe if you wanna see more stories like this.

Really though, thanks for still reading, and I am deeply sorry that it took this long to get another chapter put up. Let me know the mistakes I need to fix, I know there has to be thirty typos I didn't get on any of my sweeps. See'ya in the comments, or in the next chapter. I'm off to scribble on the Afternoon portion :yay:

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