Pacific Glow's Gaze

by Scribblesheet The Scribe

Oh Crap I Screwed Up Today!

Two PM saw Lemon Tart and Glowy sitting in the corner booth of a small café that was a favorite of the yellow stallions. Pacific was browsing through a menu while Lemon sat comfortably his mind already made up.

"I don't know what to get. What would you recommend?"

"I usually just get pourage and a cup of Pict tea."

"What's Pictea?"

"No not Pictea it's Pict Tea two words."

"Oh ok so what is it?"

"It's type of tea traditionally brewed by the Pictony. It's made from leaves native to Gaullop."

"Where's Gaullop?"

"It's what Prance was called a long time ago...Like forty three hundred years ago give or take a decade or few, historians are still trying to figure it out."

"Wow."

"Yep."

"So it's east of Griffonstone?"

"Well boarders change a lot over time but most of Prance was part of Gaullop though some of the land south was part of it as well. Now it's owned by the dragons."

"How do you know all of this?"

"I'm two fourths Coltic the other two fourths are Pegasus and Unicorn. I researched my ancestry that's all."

"So the Pictony were earth ponies?"

"Yes and no they considered themselves separate from the three tribes but not a lot is know about them. The ancient clans didn't leave many records behind and most of what's left of them live in the Grittish Isles now."

"Huh your nerdy."

"When you have no friends and a lot of books you tend to learn things."

"All right, so what then?"

"Huh?"

"What should I get?"

"Oh well I'd get the tea and pourage but if you don't want oats then you should try their broccoli pot pie. It's pretty damn good."

"All right I'll get that then."

After a few more minutes the waiter came over with a notepad and two water glasses in his horns blue glow. He was a lanky colt who likely was working his first job and it showed in his poor note pad writing as he scribbled down their orders. Once he had collected their menus he went about preparing the two tea's they had ordered while the chef worked on their food. Once the tea was delivered they had nothing to do but sip at it and chat.

"So..." Began Glowy.

"So...?"

"Umm..."

"We seem to be making a habit of this huh?"

"Ya." She giggled.

Silence.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"You just did."

"You jerk."

"I know. Anyways ya sure."

"Why do you care about other ponies so much when you don't want to spend any time with them?"

Lemon sighed and looked at the celling briefly before speaking.

"I guess because of my dad." He sighed. "He was an optimist and always looking for the best in ponies. He wanted to bring it out in others but when he died I started putting up walls. I had no interest in making friends but honor was something he valued. Dad thought that honorable ponies try to put others before themselves because he thought it would make Eques better. I guess I just wanted to do right by his memory and let him live on through me but keep my privacy too."

"That's..."

"Cheesy?"

"No...sweet. I think your father would be proud of you."

"I'm a collage drop out with a dead end job in a night club." He said near monotone.

"I see his optimism didn't rub off on you though." Said Glowy frowning humorously at him.

"Not even a little."

"Haha!"

Lemon gave a small smile as he sipped his tea absent mindedly. He almost immediately regretted his decision.

"Ouch hot hot hot!"

He hissed in pain as his quick recoil from the drink resulted in some of it falling out of the cup onto his chin burning it.

"Oh come on Lemon don't be a foal."

"Hey that's easy for you to say! You didn't just burn your taste buds off!"

Giggling at his display Glowy took a napkin and dipped it in her ice water before pressing it to his burn with a hoof. Lemon froze up for a moment but relaxed a bit as the pain died down.

"What are you doing?"

"You burned yourself so it seemed like the thing to do."

"Ok then thanks mom." He said sarcastically.

"Don't get snippy with me! Your the one crying over spilt tea!"

"You sounded like a Zebra I met in ponyvile just now."

"How so?"

"She always talks in rhyme I don't know why but she does."

"Odd. So you've been to ponyvile?"

"A year ago, I have family there."

"Who?"

"My aunt, uncle, niece and nephew. They own a small bakery and coffee shop business called sugar cube corner there."

"Sounds nice."

"It is though their choice in employee's and baby sitters is a bit..."

"What?"

He tapped his chin in thought.

"Strange is about the most polite word that comes to mind."

"You? Polite? Don't make me laugh."

"Hey!"

"I'm kidding you dumby."

There was a brief pause as Glowy stopped dabbing at his burnt chin with a napkin. Neither one had noticed she was still doing it until she stopped though neither seemed to care. Their eye's met and again Lemon felt himself being pulled into her orbs of bright sky blue. As the moment continued a small smile spread across Lemon's face as did Glowy's. It was one of those moments where nopony wanted it to end but sure enough the waiter came back and placed a steaming pot pie in front of the pink mare and a bowl of ground oats in front of Lemon.

As Glowy dug her knife and fork into her meal she began to notice that her cheeks were flushed pink. Shrugging it off as a side effect of laughing and smiling too much she cut the pie open so it would cool a bit faster. As Lemon ate his pourage across from her she took a sip of her now cooler tea. Her muzzle scrunched up at the taste. It wasn't bad just bitter. When she looked back across from her she saw the yellow pony giving her a knowing look.

"Too strong?"

"A little ya."

"Pass me your cup."

She did as he said and Lemon proceeded to dump a few spoonful's of sugar from a near by pot and a little of the milk that came with his meal. Once stirred he passed it back to her.

"Try it now."

Glowy took a sip again and found the taste completely different. She still could taste traces of the leaves but now it was smooth and sweet too. Quickly she took another larger drink.

"I could get used to drinking this!"

"My mother used to tell me tea is the answer to all of life's problems."

"Really?"

"Yep. Headache tea, got beaten up tea, too cold, hot tea, too hot, ice tea she had a tea for every problem you could think of."

"What about a broken heart? I bet she didn't have a tea for that." Glowy said jokingly.

"She probably did I just never got to that one."

"Ya right you liar! everypony has a broken heart after their first break up or at least they think they do."

"I wouldn't know."

"What do you mean?"

"I've uh...never had a special somepony."

Glowy looked up from her food with a shocked expression and folded ears.

"You're kidding?"

"Umm...no I'm not, I spent my free time with books and cult classic TV shows. Firefly, Pony Trek stuff like that."

The stallion had stopped eating and now was just poking at his food casually with his ears drooped. His eyes were focused on the pourage like he thought the number 42 was in there somewhere waiting to be found.

"So...you've never had anypony ask you out?"

"No."

"You never went to a school dance?"

"*Ehem* no."

"Have you even had your first kiss?"

No answer. Glowy slumped in her seat with wide eye's, Lemon was twenty three years old and had never even kissed anypony special to him. The stallion was no longer poking at his food now he was simply staring into it with a bright red face and a look of shame on his muzzle. Glowy too had lost her appetite upon this revelation. Even she had her first kiss and several special someponies over the years but lemon hadn't even had one! She felt incredibly guilty all of a sudden as she realized she had embarrassed and humiliated her friend with her questioning.

"I'm sorry Lemon I shouldn't have brought it up." She said red faced.

"It's fine it's not like I haven't tried. There was a waitress at a coffee shop once and a few mares at collage but none were really...interested."

"Well they doesn't know what they missed it's their loss. Your a great stallion Lemon."

"Ya." He made a light scoffing noise. Thanks..."

He went back to casually eating his meal though any sense of enjoyment he had shown prior was gone. If anything he was eating to conserve fridge space. Glowy was now doing the same, her food was good but the flavor died on her tongue. She felt incredibly sorry for him and angry with herself for not having the sense to shut up. Thirteen or more hearts and hooves days with nopony to share it with, No awkward School dances, no getting scolded for sneaking out to see his marefriend, no hoof holding in the theater. It was enough to make her feel sick for bringing it up. The rest of their meal was spent in an awkward silence as she scolded herself and Lemon frowned at his food.

/l\---)O(---/l\

After lunch Lemon brought Glowy back to his (now their) apartment and had promptly fallen asleep for a few hours of rest before work. He left shortly after telling Glowy she had run of the place and the fridge as long as she promised not to use the stove. She had readily agreed not wanting to burn his home down and now found herself starring at his computer screen watching The Princess Bride on Neightflix. She was still mad at herself for humiliating Lemon at their meal and was sulking at herself more than watching the movie. She was interrupted by the loud ringing of her phone and soon saw that Azure must be checking up on her.

"Hey Glowy how are you doing?"

"I'm...fine." She sulked out.

"Huh then I'm princess Luna. Tell me what's wrong?"

"A lot of things."

"I've got time."

"Well first I'm worried about getting Lemon kicked out of his apartment because he's only supposed to live here himself. Oh and also I'm broke now so I'm just the littlest bit terrified for my future."

"So that covers the obvious but there's something else too I can tell, what else is wrong?"

"I embarrassed Lemon in public today."

"Well friends do that to each other all the time, as long as you didn't go to far or apologized it should be fine."

"That's not what I meant Azure. The subject of special someponies came up and I said some really stupid stuff that upset him."

"What does he still have his V card?" Azure chuckled out.

"Azure it's not funny! He hasn't ever even had a special somepony! He hasn't ever even been kissed before."

The line went silent.

"Well I guess there's nothing wrong with that though I admit I'm surprised even for him that's well..." Azure's words drifted off.

"The part that bugs me was the look on his face. I should have shut up but I just-I couldn't I don't know I just kept asking questions and he kept answering and now I feel like a jerk because the look on his face was..."

"What?"

"He was lonely, I think it's the first time I've ever seen him look like that. I've seen him get mad and sad even happy but I've never seen him lonely even when he told me he didn't have a single friend he seemed fine but when I asked if he'd ever had a marefriend or anything he just looked...depressed."

"That's, harsh."

"The poor colt never had anypony to spend a single hearts and hooves day with even you and me hung out when we were dateless and ate Ice cream and stuff but he was always alone just him and his books."

"Shit Glowy that's pretty heavy stuff."

"I feel terrible for asking those questions now it was really dumb of me."

"Everypony does stupid stuff from time to time. Don't beat yourself up. Maybe he just doesn't want a marefriend?"

"No that's not what I saw in his face and he said he'd tried to ask a few different mares out but they all shot him down."

"well that might explain a little bit. He never had a marefriend and the only times time he even so much as tried to put himself out there he got rejected. From what I've seen of him he seems the type not to really say things unless he really wants or needs to so I'm guessing getting shot down wasn't easy for him. I mean it never is for anypony but I bet it was a bit more difficult for him since he's well, Lemon."

"I'm such an idiot." Mumbled Pacific as she buried her face in the nearest pillow.

"No your not Glowy you just made a mistake."

"Ya a big one."

There was silence over the line for a moment before Azure spoke again.

"How would you describe Lemon?"

Glowy sighed before pulling her face from the cushion and replying.

"I'd say kind, Sweet, funny even if he's not necessarily trying to be in fact sometimes that's when he's funniest."

"You like him?"

"Ya he's a great friend."

"Is that all he is to you?"

"Well what else would he-wait Azure what are you getting at?"

"Maybe you should think a little bit about what he means to you in a bit more detail. Who knows you might be pleasantly surprised at what you realize."

"Azure I'm not sure that-"

"Oh I'm sorry your breaking up! How inconvenient that as soon as I get some thoughts into your head the line starts to die."

"Azure I know that just paper!"

"I'm-sorry-can't-here-you!"

"And when the line drops you shouldn't be able to hear full sentences!"

"Bye bye!"

"Azure!"

The phone turned to a dial tone as Glowy set it on the table after ending the call. Usually when Azure called and she was in a bad mood it helped now she just felt pissed at her friend. But as the night went on the effect she was sure Azure meant to have seemed to set in. The more she tried not to think about it the more she did. Lemon had been kind to her, he'd opened up his home to her, he was funny and in a way kind of cute even if he was a little pudgy. She liked spending time with him and she hated seeing him sad or upset. Finally she arrived at a conclusion, she liked Lemon, and as more than just a friend. She actually found herself enjoying the idea of sitting down next to him at diner and holding his hoof under the table to see the inevitable blush that would occur. She even smiled broadly when she thought about being his first kiss.

"Maybe I should talk to him when he gets home from the club and see if he likes me too? It's not the middle ages anymore a mare can ask a stallion out."

She nodded thinking it was a good Idea. Lemon was a nice colt and she cared about him. With a faint smile on her muzzle she reclined on the couch and continued to watch her movie with a bit more peace of mind.

/l\---)O(---/l\

When lemon returned home in the early morning to his small apartment he found Glowy was asleep on the couch with the computer having shut itself off. The flat looked a bit cleaner so she must have done some tiding up at some point for which he was grateful. That said he was also glad she had kept her promise and not burned his home to ash.

"She must have fallen asleep watching some TV. Well I can't let her sleep on the couch she'll break her back by morning."

Quietly he trotted over towards her sleeping form and gently prodded her to semi consciousness.

"Come on Glowy lets get you to bed." He whispered.

"Leave me here." She mumble out nearly inaudibly.

"No you won't sleep well here come on."

Gently and trying his best not to rouse her more than necessary he guided her to the bed and helped her in. Once she fell onto it he used his teeth to pull the blanket over her before tucking in the edges so she would be warmer. The idea was a bit spur of the moment but he thought it a good one since she had mentioned her mother never doing it. Once the sheets were well tucked in place he made his way over to the couch before falling down on it.

"Sweet dreams Glowy." He said to the mare across the darkened room.

Author's Note:

Muhahahahahaha! I bet I had you thinking it was gonna be this chapter that something happened towards the end there huh? Nope! As Silver Quill would say..."SING FOR ME YOUR SYMPHONY OF TEARS"

Comments

[AngelDCS]

We need fan service!! Give us the fan service!

[Scribblesheet The Scribe]

7390653 Muhahahahahahaha!!! -Does the doctor evil pinkie smile-

Please Lemon give the poor cute strawberry cutie love

Better get dibs on that I'm tempted to steal it!

[AngelDCS]

7390712 Just more fan service. You can steal it