Jumper

by lollipopchica

Chapter 39

Justinian laid in his bed staring up at the ceiling with a thoughtful expression on his face.

He could hear his wife in the shower.

He and Cadence had gotten back from Canterlot that afternoon and soon as the two were alone his wife had jumped him and bedded him with a zeal that was as enjoyable as it was concerning.

There was a vulnerability in her that he didn’t see often.

The man in him loved had tightly she’d clung to him and the urgency she needed him.

But the husband in him knew better.

His wife was capable of great chasms of emotion and could express it in a way that often left him breathless. Moments like that were to be cherished as she only allowed herself that release when she needed his reassurance.

He’d heard the water turn off and moments later a dry and naked Adelpha crawled up and settled into his arms. “Do you still think I’m an awful mother?”

“No, sweetheart.” He kissed her wet hair, inhaling her scent. “I should’ve never said that.”

“But you meant it.”

“I was scared, Adelpha.”

“I am too.” She confessed softly as she nuzzled into his chest.

“Did something happen while we were gone?” Justinian asked carefully.

She thought of Chryssie curled in a ball on the floor in the arms of that boy drenched from seawater and shame. Even in her drunken state, she’d never forget the scene she’d stumbled onto after hearing what ailed her daughter.

She clung tighter to her husband. “I accepted that I’m an awful mother by pony standards.”

“No you’re not,” Justinian kissed her with all the love he had to offer. “You’re not...” Pony women didn’t use spells on their daughters, she thought.

“Say it again,” she moaned against his lips. “Tell me you love me.”

Afterward, as the two lay in bed wrapped around the other, Adelpha looked her husband in the face. “You know that I’d do anything for our family, don’t you?”

“I know,” he assured, and for a while that was enough.

She gave him a tight smile before kissing his brow and dressing.

*-*-*-*

Sonata Dusk leaned into the scarred boy who’d become an important part of her life.

“This is good,” she was saying trying to assure him about the upcoming party.

“Cops call this entrapment,” he sighed as he returned her comforting embrace.

The two were tucked away in the upperclassmen’s car idling a block away from school.

It would look bad if anyone saw them together.

Ardent, with Sonata’s coaxing had eventually agreed to host Luna’s party and ‘reconcile’ his friendship with Regal. “He needs to be stopped,” She had appealed to him. “And he still has those pictures.” Ardent softened as he thought of what he’d walked in on and ultimately stopped.

“The fuck?!” He’d exclaimed disgusted by the body appendages flopping about the unconscious and naked girl. “Her sisters are fucking livid threatening to call the cops! Get her dressed you idiots!” With a few more urgent and panic-filled expletives, he’d managed to convince them of his bluff and was able to get Sonata back to her sisters. It helped that twenty minutes later cops showed up to shut down a rowdy teen party.

But as the saying goes, ‘no good deed goes unpunished.’

When Regal found out about Ardent’s deception he made sure to make a statement that the other boy would never forget.

“Why can’t you just tell someone?” He thought aloud, hating that he had to pretend to get along with such awful people.

“Who would believe me?” Sonata sounded sad. She and her sisters weren’t known for being model citizens. They were notorious for quite the opposite. “We need to catch him dead to rights. I wish there was another way, but he needs to know what it feels like to not be in control.”

Ardent sighed wondering how best to break to her the differences between justice and revenge.

Besides, he couldn’t blame her, he supposed. He hadn’t volunteered to anyone how he’d really gotten that scar.

Comments

[The Voice in the Water]

That latter half really boils my blood. I hope Regal gets dragged out before the world and shown for the monster he is.