The Exes Club

by MarvelandPonder

3: Head for the Tall Timber

Flash Sentry hadn’t ever met a person who could tease him relentlessly without ever opening his mouth. The most annoying part was that it worked, and Spruce seemed to know it worked. Flash guessed he had to entertain himself somehow, but did he really need to do it in the most obnoxious, irritating way possible?

He didn’t even particularly get what exactly was so insufferable about him. It wasn’t like the dude was hitting on Flash’s pet peeves—being rude to people in service jobs or picking their teeth after a meal. And as much as Flash didn’t love his tone with everything that had gone on today (tonight? It was hard to tell how much time had passed without windows or clocks), Timber had stuck around.

Maybe that was just it. What was he still doing here if he didn’t take any of this seriously? He wasn’t dating Twilight anymore, either, and he clearly knew there was no room left to give it a second try.

He better not give anything a try.

Flash studied the guy, throwing a few small, inconspicuous glances at him, barely a flick of the head. Was Spruce up to something? Would he really be that low, to come and meddle with things on a day when the girls landed themselves in the hospital in urgent conditions?

Flash scoffed quietly. Okay. Now I’m just getting paranoid. This isn’t a witch-hunt.

Timber picked up on the scoff, though, and quirked an eyebrow. “Mind sharing with the class?”

Flash froze, red hands in his hoodie pockets. “Uh?”

“It’s just you keep looking at me like you think I don’t notice you checking me out. I know I’m what the kids call ‘a looker’ but you gotta work on your sly-eye game.” His eyebrows performed an overly sensual mating dance.

Flash let his eyes take a whirl around as if in the spin-cycle. “Ha ha.”

Spruce shrugged. “I could teach you if you want. I’m what the everybody calls ‘an expert.’ For example, I’ve been checking you out for half an hour now and you didn’t notice once.”

He stared at him. “Wait, for real?”

“See? Didn’t. Notice. Once.” He flourished his hands like a stage magician and made a noise mimicking his astounded crowd. “Magic.”

Flash frowned, trying to work that one over in his head. “But... if you weren’t checking me out, I also wouldn’t notice that because there’d be nothing to notice.”

“Exactly, and you can’t tell whether I was or not. Shrödinger’s flirt!” Timber looked entirely too proud of himself, which was why Flash refused to let him think he was even slightly impressed. People who called attention to how clever they were was officially his third pet peeve. Or maybe just Timber Spruce.

But catching onto that, it was Timber’s turn to roll his eyes. “Oh, c’mon. I’m just trying to lighten the mood, Morticia.”

Flash shifted away, planting his cheek firmly into his hand. He muttered under his breath, “I wish you wouldn’t.”

“Huh? What was that?” he prompted, tilting his tousled hair to the side. It was a cute move, which irked Flash since Timber probably knew it was cute and did everything in his power to be downright adorable just to spite him.

Flash didn’t take the bait. He refused to take the bait. He blinked heavily, but that was the extent of the rise Spruce would get out of him.

Even still, it ate at him until he couldn’t take it anymore and had to raise his head out of his hand to glare at him. “Dude, why are you really here?”

Timber’s stupefied face had the tiniest bit of a pout to it. Of course he would pout, the bastard. “Uh, I dunno. Why are any of us here on this tiny floating space rock? I didn’t choose it.”

Flash groaned, pinching the space in between his thick eyebrows. “Does everything out of your mouth have to be sassy, quotable quip?”

“No, but I do aspire to a certain level of greatness,” he said, almost automatically, but right after he did seem to wilt. “Is there something wrong with me being here? I told you, Twilight texted me herself. I don’t know why she would, but she did. I think that means something. Unless it was a butt-dial in the ambulance or she thought she was messaging someone else, she wants me around right now. You think that’s weird, too, right?”

Flash didn’t know how to argue with that, but that didn’t mean he didn’t want to. Instead, he shook his head. “Forget it.”

“Alright, fine. Forgotten. Why are you here?” Flash stared at him and Timber shrugged. “No, really. Were you there when it happened? Did you need to get patched up, too? Should I be taking your temperature?”

“No, but I wish I’d been there. I don’t know what I would’ve done. Maybe I would’ve just gotten in the way, but I don’t know, I could’ve been there. I could’ve been with them. I could’ve helped! Or maybe not helped, but y’know, even just cheered or, like, gotten them out of there quicker. Maybe all I’m good for is a getaway car, but that would’ve been something, wouldn’t it?” His hands collected his arms over his chest, hugging close. He bit back his tongue before it could get any looser. He felt like he’d given Timber a boatload of comedic ammunition. What a joke, right? “I guess it doesn’t matter. It’s not like either of us really belong here anyway, right?”

Timber looked like someone had activated seat-warmers beneath his alien-head pajama pants and set them to broil. Suddenly, he didn’t have anything to say.

Flash threw his hands up and dropped them back onto his lap. “I’m taking a walk. I need air.”

His face felt hot and itchy, but if he was going to cry, it wouldn’t be in front of Timber Spruce.

---

Wet pavement reflected the lights from around the circular garden bed in the middle of the cul-de-sac. The rich, earthy smell of petrichor lifted off the ground, or drifted in from the sea of pine trees walling off the night. The steps leading up into the hospital were wet from the rain, too, but Flash didn’t care. He sat and hugged his knees the way he used to when he was little and waiting to be picked up from preschool.

A shadow fell on the steps beside him. Flash didn’t know how to say he wanted to be alone without sounding pathetic or anti-friendship about it, and he also didn’t know how to say he didn’t want Timber to leave. He settled on: “Sorry if I made things weird.”

Timber didn’t sit so much as squat down, both hands in his jacket pockets. It didn’t look comfortable, but neither did Timber. “It’s okay. I don’t know about you, but I have yet to make things normal, so at this point it’s starting to feel like I’m the common denominator in that equation.” He flinched and then chuckled, but this time Flash could tell it was one hundred percent at himself. “Wow, I still sound like Twilight. I’d say I spent too much time around her, but that’s not true. I didn’t spend nearly enough.”

As Timber shifted to sit cross-legged, Flash watched him carefully. “I didn’t mean to go off on you, man. I get it, being Twilight’s ex. Kind of. In a way.” He shook his head before he could spiral down that road some more. “All I meant is the girls really need us right now and, I mean, I guess they don’t need us, but—” He shoved a sigh out of his mouth that had been building up inside him all day, and in the breaking free, it tore him up. His eyes stung, and it surprised him. “I don’t get you.”

Timber raised an eyebrow, but let him go on.

“I don’t get how you’re not terrified by all this,” he said, gesturing around to Amnesty Hospital’s beautiful grounds.

Timber’s eyes glanced around the clearing and ambulance bay, as if searching for an unseen threat. The wind shifted the trees, but that was about it. He shook his head as he pronounced, “All what?”

“All of it?” Flash stood up, turning away from Timber and hugging himself. There was nothing he could do to stop the night breeze from tearing straight through his hoodie. “The magic? The girls putting themselves in a danger we don’t even understand? I feel so stupid because I thought they could handle anything, like they were invincible, but they’re not and I don’t know if my friends are going to be safe! They made it out of today, but what if they don’t make it out of the next time?”

Flash laced his fingers together behind his head, stumbling back as if coming across a car crash and taking in the enormity of the consequences. “I don’t know how any of this works or where to start and I didn’t know what to do or say or how to help—I could barely keep from falling apart in front of them!” His throat burned and as a result his voice came out charred and singed. “How are you even remotely okay?”

“... Whoa,” Timber said too softly, laughed, and laid a tender hand on Flash’s shoulder. “You really think I’m not freaking out?”

Flash turned. He saw a different boy than he had inside. He could see past the smile to the stressed, sleepless eyes. The strain. With his arm outstretched to Flash, he noticed the patch on the jacket’s arm: Everfree’s Pride, Forest Ranger and Aerial Firefighter. And realizing this wasn’t Timber’s jacket originally, he saw a panicked kid wrapping himself in a security blanket to wait out the storm. He wondered if Timber looked like anything like this the night he lost his parents in a forest fire.

He’d heard the story from Twilight once, but he hadn’t thought about how Timber must have been utterly terrified.

“I knew you were oblivious, but dude.” His sea green eyes sparkled over a brave smile. “I’m barely keeping it together over here.”

Then Timber’s smile fell and he shoved his other hand into his pockets, as if for fear of what they might do. “I’ve been scared for months. Ever since I saw my sister become a spooky campfire story. I guess I’ve been scared ever since I met Twilight and the girls.”

“Then you’re definitely smarter than me,” Flash admitted, smearing the butt of his palm into his eye, even though he could feel how flush his face was and knew there was no pretending anymore.

Flash expected Timber to riff off of that, but Timber shook his head. “Nope. I’m even dumber than you are: I fell in love with a hero.” He held his forehead. “I didn’t mean that. Twilight’s great, the girls are great, Equestrian magic’s great—”

“But loving them means holding your breath every time they rush in,” he finished, whether Timber would’ve said it or not. His heavy blue eyes met the sea green waiting for him.

They stayed quiet under the weight of that moment and sat back down on the front steps of Amnesty Hospital, an ambulance siren sounding off in the distance.

“... I’ve still got you beat,” Flash said.

Timber looked at him.

“I had a crush on a princess from another dimension, genuinely thought it could go somewhere, and started to fall for her human counterpart, all before I realized I never knew either of them.” He turned his cowlick up to the stars, looking toward the mended dimensional crack in the sky that at this point looked like a scar. He guessed that’s what it was. A scar across space-time. Is that permanent? Are people going to know about magic now?

Timber joined him, and his voice stayed quiet in a low and rumbly tone only for one other person. “Astronomy lessons at camp are going to be really different if I have to explain that.”

Flash chuckled, just a deep, warm sound in a vast, cold, and inky night, but it made Timber beam. “Hey! Look at that! I finally got you to smile today!”

Flash might’ve forced down his smile if it didn’t feel so good to share it with Spruce. Timber’s smile made his eyes a little smaller, but also a lot brighter. He liked how real it was, right down to the slight laughter lines around his eyes. Looking at Timber’s lips, Flash bit his own. “Guess you did. Don’t know how you managed that on the worst day of my life so far, but you did.”

“So far?” In a measured movement, Timber bumped his shoulder up against Flash’s. “What’s with the optimism, sunshine?”

His heart felt lighter in his chest, but not just lost-weight lighter. Anti-gravity lighter. Lightheaded rush lighter. And he didn’t stop smiling. “We’re up against monsters, mayhem, and magical catastrophes so preposterous I probably can’t even conceive of them. Take your pick of what happens next.”

“We? We don’t belong here, remember? Team human beings? The exes club?” Even though he had a vague smirk on his lips, Timber’s eyes dropped down to where his hands rubbed either one of his knees. “You were kind of right about that. I rushed out here so fast I didn’t even put on clothes, but it’s not like anyone needs me. I think Twilight was panicking when she called me because she was hurt, and the others were hurt, and she didn’t know where Sunset was. If Sunset could’ve been there by her side in the ambulance, she probably wouldn’t have even picked up the phone. I wouldn’t have even known anything bad happened today.”

Crickets creaked in, hidden away in the bushes and the trees. Flash opened his mouth to say something, because he wanted to say something, he wanted to make everything okay, but it took him time to find the words and even then, he didn’t know the order.

He placed a hand over top of Timber’s and felt how rough and worn his knuckles were as he did. All Flash’s hands were was sweaty. And a little calloused at the fingertips from playing guitar.

Timber looked startled, but not uncomfortable. He didn’t take back his hand, at least. In fact, he smiled.

Flash did, too. And he kept smiling. “I want you here, if that helps at all.”

“Yeah,” he told him in a campfire voice. “It helps.”

They stayed quiet again, also under the weight of the moment, but inside Flash couldn’t keep still. The instruments in his head rushed and swang and boomed so loud and to a tune so awesome he wished he could take the song in his head and either sing it to everyone he knew or record it onto his phone and never let anyone else hear a note. The music of a moment like this made him wish he could play better to capture it. But then again, it was kind of alright that no one but him got to be here to hear it. And maybe, if he was lucky, if he could get good enough, he could share it with Timber someday.

And in the meantime, he realized he hadn’t said anything in a while and hey, maybe he wouldn’t. Maybe he’d lean in and kiss the guy, but that didn’t matter, because Timber’s eyes flew open. “Is that—are we…? You have magic?!”

“What?” he asked, and his eyes dropped to their hands which were glowing like fireflies. The tingling warmth that Flash had just attributed to touching the other boy’s skin evidently had another source; and it made no earthly sense whatsoever. “What?! Dude! How are we doing this? We don’t have Equestrian magic!”

“Tell that to my glowing hand! For all I know it can speak, too, so you may as well talk to it.”

Flash laughed, cracking a smile. “What?”

“I don’t know! It’s a joke! I don’t do crisis situations well! You know that!”

Flash observed their hands, lacing his fingers through Timber’s and bringing them up to eye-level. If he looked hard enough, he could see the glow was blue-green, and a fairly pretty blue-green at that. And if he concentrated on what Timber’s hand felt like it was… smokey. Like holding his hands out over a campfire, a feeling so strong Flash swore he could smell campfire. “... Is it a crisis? Because it kind of just looks like we just acquired superpowers.”

“Okay?” Timber asked, and a nervous laugh squeezed out of him. “What does that mean? What powers do we even have? Glowing? Glowing’s a lame-ass power, man. That’s like the worst one.”

Flash shrugged, and when he did, he could feel an electric shock shoot up his arm. “Don’t the girls always glow? That doesn’t mean glowing’s their power. Maybe we just have to find out what our powers are? Or maybe this is a magic of friendship thing, I dunno.”

Another few shocks shot through his finger tips, but this time, it wasn’t him. Timber blushed. “Hate to break it to you, but glowing hand-holding is kind of gay.”

The shocks exploded between them, to the point that it was almost too much good to take and Flash almost let go. He laughed, maybe because of that or maybe out of pure giddiness, and took Timber’s other hand in his, which powered up as well. “Does this mean you’re my superpower?”

“No, that would be cheesiness,” Timber countered, but Flash could feel the good vibe flowing so he probably liked that. He gave Flash’s fingers a test squeeze. “Is it gonna be awkward to be superheroes in the same team as my ex-girlfriend if our power involves holding hands?”

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “Maybe we don’t tell them right away?” He knew that wasn't a long-term solution. If normal people like he and Timber could just suddenly gain magic, the girls had to know and had to fix it. Somehow. If they could figure out why it was happening to begin with. Maybe it's because of the sky rift?

“Okay, yeah. You’re smart,” Timber said, sounding grateful. Then he bit his lip, looking directly at Flash and it made something down south heat up, too. “Gotta be honest, while I’m normally pretty fantastic at this flirting thing, magic flirting is new for me. I’m out of my depth here. Should we…?”

Flash stared until it hit him what Timber was really asking. “Oh! We don’t have to kiss or anything. Partly because if we glow when we hold hands, I don't know if we'll explode if we kiss? But also because I know things with Twilight were serious, and yeah, it’s been a while since you broke up, but trust me when I say I know how hard it is to get over a Twilight Sparkle.”

Timber giggled and the voice in Flash’s head hollered, Cuuute! “Yeah… yeah, it’s pretty rough. That genius is really oblivious to it, too. But, gotta be honest again, you definitely give me hope. In more ways than one.”

Heart beating hard enough he thought Timber could feel it through his hands, Flash grinned. “Hey, it’s okay if you say no, but do you want to go to the mall with me sometime? Preferably before the next time the world’s about to end. I figure we’ve got some things to figure out together.”

Timber smirked in the glow illuminating their faces from the dark. A mischievous glint to his expression stirred the magic between them, and Flash realized that no matter how long he knew this boy whenever he saw that face he’d never know what Timber was about to do.

Stealing a kiss would be the least of his worries.

It happened fast. Timber’s lips pressed into Flash’s before he could even close his eyes, but rather than exploding, the magic sent rippling, mind-numbing shockwaves throughout his body. Flash’s eyes fluttered to a close and he kissed back. Hard. He wasn’t sure what the music of a moment this perfect could even sound like, but he’d gladly put it on repeat. Maybe forever.

When he pulled away, the buzzing shocks between them leveled off into a hum. A heat. He hadn’t realized Timber had taken one of his hands away until he felt that hand still resting on his jaw. Breathlessly laughing, Timber said, “I really want to hang out at the mall.”

Before Flash could answer, the loud sound of the front doors sliding open startled the two of them apart. Timber hid his hands behind his back, and Flash pocketed his out of sight. Nurse Redheart sighed through ten-hour-shift exhaustion, but not in an unkind way. “There you are. Your friend Sunset wanted me to find you two. Twilight Sparkle is ready for visitors.”

Comments

[Lieral]

That happened a LOT faster than I was expecting.

Like, a lot.

Anyway, the scene was extremely well written.

[Enclave2277]

I'm enjoying the story so far but I think you should focus on establishing your characters' sexuality in a more gradual, structured manner. Just some constructive criticism for future stories.

In my opinion, Sunset/Twi & Flash/Timber's sudden shift to homosexuality comes out of left field. Mind you, I have nothing against the actual pairings themselves, it's just that you made a point to tell us, the readers, that they were heterosexual earlier in the story and did a total 360 with minimal to no foreshadowing. To me, a hanging plot point such as that sticks out like a sore thumb in an otherwise well-written story.

[MarvelandPonder]

10288915
Thanks for the constructive criticism but when did I say they were heterosexual?

A man dating a woman doesn't necessarily mean the man and woman are straight. Bisexual and pansexual people exist! In fact, while it was confirmed off-screen, Sunset was confirmed bisexual by Katrina Hadley.

[soulmates]

I hope you have a hunch about how often I come back to this story and this chapter in particular