Keep Me Up

by Meteor_Mirage

Don't let me go

It was a fairly average summer day in Ponyville, which was exactly what Rumble needed after spending weeks cooped up in his room. Only a few steps out his front door, the teen took a deep breath of fresh air and immediately felt more relaxed than before. It was only then that he knew he’d made the right decision to leave.

The only thing that gave Rumble the smallest of halts was the dark, ominous looking clouds that hung in the sky in multiple places above the town, being swiftly added to by the Weather Team in preparation for the impending storm.

There was the briefest of moments where he considered turning himself around and grabbing the umbrella his brother had tried to gift him with, but he was a stallion who was stalwart in his decisions, no matter how poor they may be, so the only turning he did around was to lock the door behind him before embarking on his journey.

Even at a slow trot, Rumble’s walk to the park only took a few minutes of weaving through the streets of Ponyville. On his way, he was surprised to see that the bustling streets he’d seen not an hour before had fallen away to a near-emptiness with only a few ponies paying him no mind as they rushed to where they needed to go. Or perhaps just a place to wait out the oncoming storm.

As the skies grew darker around Rumble upon his arrival to the park, he began to consider that he may have made a mistake.

But he’d be damned if he was going to take a walk of shame back to his home, where Thunderlane would surely be to ridicule him. After his nap.

Continuing onward, Rumble’s first plan was to find some shelter inside the park. Fortunately for him, Ponyville’s park came well equipped with multiple gazebos for just this purpose. This way he could be protected by the rain while also still taking in nature as was his plan all along.

Unfortunately for Rumble, he wasn’t the only one in the park with this plan. No matter which of the structures he approached in any of the corners in the park, he always found them packed with ponies. Normally he’d be fine with sharing space with any of the Ponyvillains, but he came to the park to relax and think, and that was much harder done when surrounded on all sides no matter which gazebo he picked.

Well, aside from one.

It is said that deep in Ponyville Park there was a small area of hidden away overgrowth that went unnoticed by those who weren’t told of its existence. Those who were made aware of it, usually through word-of-mouth from those who came before, were only sent that way due to needing somewhere out of the way to bring a prospective partner to for a number of reasons.

It was why Rumble knew of it, though he had chickened out before actually making use of his newfound knowledge.

However, the secluded space also sported a structure that could act as a place of refuge for the teenage stallion, and one that would almost certainly allow him to relax and think for a while. So, Rumble made his way towards the more dilapidated side of the park with as much hurry as he could muster.

And yet, despite the usual lack of equine presence in that section of the park, Rumble still saw a familiar figure looming on the edge of the small circular clearing he’d entered.

Drawn out of his work by the sound of grass crunching behind him, Pipsqueak spun around in place and, in the process, accidentally watered a quarter-circle of the grass around him with his watering can. The water poured out for a half-second longer before the tall, pinto stallion managed to right it.

He stared out into the distance before him, tilting his head as he tried to figure out what had just caused the noise that distracted him from his work.

His eyes soon fell on Rumble, staring at him from the distance.

It only took moments for the watering can to hit the floor, forgotten by the large stallion as he barreled towards his friend at a full gallop. “Rumble!” He squealed with a wide grin, preparing to give the hug to end all hugs.

Knowing better, Rumble took a step back to let Pipsqueak’s momentum take him much farther than he initially planned, instead skidding past the pegasus as he attempted to slow his acceleration to a halt. Surprisingly, however, the earth pony didn’t take even a small tumble as both stallions expected he would. He just stopped, stood as tall as he could, and looked around for a moment.

“You’re getting better at that.” Rumble said, yet again startling Pipsqueak who, again, spun around to face him.

The large stallion, easily standing over a head taller than the smaller than average Rumble, immediately flushed red with a blush nearly as large as he was while scratching the back of his neck. “I’ve been practicing." He took a very small moment to look over his smaller friend, then he quickly scooped Rumble up into the hug he had already prepared to give.

Immediately, Rumble was squished against the chest of his very large friend, the pinto earth pony’s hooves wrapping around him tightly enough to constrict his breathing a bit as Pipsqueak drew him closer.

“Rumble, I missed you!” Pipsqueak squealed yet again. His hug grew ever tighter as he practically bounced with joy at seeing his best friend after spending so long away.

“Y-yeah I missed you too buddy!” Rumble squeaked out with the air that was quickly rushing out of his lungs. He gave Pipsqueak’s side a rapid tap with his hoof, trying so hard to indicate his struggle, as he utilized the last of his breath in what could be his final cry for help. “Pip! Too tight! Can’t breathe!”

It took only a moment before Pip realized what had happened, and he released the small, fragile pegasus from his grasp as soon as he could. He stepped away from Rumble with a wild blush on his face, paired with a look of concern as he made sure he didn’t actually hurt him.

Despite coughing and sputtering as he drew in a breath of fresh air, Rumble waved his friend’s concerns away with a hoof. “I’m fine, just didn’t expect you to crush the life out of me like that. Damn, did you spend your entire vacation in the gym or something?”

“Nah, just spent some time working for my uncle.” Pipsqueak said as he looked his forelegs over, flexing them just the slightest bit before continuing. “I guess spending a couple months lugging cider barrels around is gonna help me bulk a bit.” He shot a proud grin towards a very distracted Rumble before looking him over curiously. “You sure you’re alright, mate? Did I get you on the head a little?”

It took Rumble’s brain a moment to register that as a question, and even longer to shake his head and turn his attention elsewhere for a moment. “Nope, totally fine! I’m just, uh,” there was another small moment of hesitation before he looked back up at Pipsqueak’s concerned face, “hey, what’re you doing here anyway?”

Pipsqueak perked up immediately, a wide grin forming on his face as he completely dropped what had happened moments before. “Oh, Roseluck wanted me to come check on the flowers over here. They looked a little dry so I figured I’d give them a little water.” He looked to his side, intending to indicate to the watering can he assumed he was still at his side, but becoming confused at the revelation that it wasn’t there. “Huh, I coulda sworn I had…” The tall pinto stallion trailed off, proceeding to do a small circle in search of his missing gardening implement.

As Pipsqueak did this, Rumble looked to the edge of the clearing where Pipsqueak had approached from. Seeing a small metal spout sticking out of the ground, he elbowed the still spinning stallion to get him to cease his rotation. With his attention now gained, Rumble pointed a hoof towards the fallen watering can without a word.

“Oh!” Pipsqueak said as he gave another large blush. After a few seconds’ pause, he shot Rumble a wide grin. “Aw, thanks mate. Where would I be without you?” He said with a chuckle, giving the tiny pegasus another hug, though much smaller and less intense than the one before.

Rumble couldn’t help but chuckle unison, lightly wrapping a hoof around his friend’s neck. The two parted soon after, though both stallions still shared a chuckle between themselves.

Still, Rumble breathed a small sigh as he shook his head. “Well I guess you’d be watering plants in the middle of a rainstorm. Don’t you see the storm rolling in?” He asked as he pointed up towards the sky, towards the clouds that looked close to bursting and the weatherponies that looked ready to kick the show off at any moment.

Pipsqueak followed the gesture and tilted his head questioningly. “Huh, when’d all that get up there? I coulda sworn it was clear a couple minutes ago.” He squinted at the sky for a few moments, almost as if attempting to force a change in the weather. Finding that, much like the rest of his ground-bound brethren, he was unable to part the clouds, Pipsqueak instead looked back to Rumble.

Before the large lad was able to say anything, however, he was distracted by a single solitary droplet splashing against the tip of his nose. Soon, one droplet became two, and two became very many more as the sky opened up around the two stallions. Just not in the way that Pipsqueak was hoping moments before.

Before Rumble could even begin to think of a sarcastic quip, he was distracted from any form of thought as Pipsqueak lifted him off the ground with his immense Earth Pony Strength, along with the mass amounts of strength he naturally possessed, and held him under his foreleg like the purse of a very fashionable stallion.

“Let’s get you outta this storm.” Pipsqueak said as he rushed for the dilapidated gazebo in the center of the clearing, free of any equines as Rumble had hoped.

It was only moments later that Rumble was placed as gently as possible onto the wooden floor in the center of the gazebo, left blushing from the closeness and the kind gesture. Looking up at Pipsqueak, he found the stallion searching around the rain drenched seats of the gazebo.

Rumble tilted his head questioningly at this, cocking a small wry grin as he did so. “”What’re you looking for, dude?” He asked before patting the ground beside him, the only other moderately dry spot in the structure due to a very leaky roof. “Come on and lay down. You’re gonna get soaked like that.”

Rumble’s offer went ignored for now as Pipsqueak continued his search. “I just remembered leaving a,” he paused for a second to duck his head under the last bench, “towel out here when you invited me that one time.” Now standing up on the bench, Pipsqueak began to search the ceiling for his discarded cloth, perhaps hoping that it was thrown up there rudely after he’d lost it.

While Rumble did remember inviting Pipsqueak along, then spending the rest of the day with him at the lake, he was mostly caught up on the memory of the most embarrassing moment of his young life. That being the very reason he’d invited his friend along in the first place.

Just the memory caused a blush to engulf his face.

But Rumble was quickly drawn out of his remembrances as Pipsqueak flopped down beside him, the absolute size of the lad causing the gazebo to shake for just the briefest of moments.

“Welp, looks like I couldn’t find it.” Pipsqueak said as he looked down at Rumble with a grin. “I guess you’re just gonna have to dry off the natural way, huh?” He nudged his friend with an elbow, though misjudging his own strength had him land his nudging implement right into Rumble’s ribs.

Rumble jumped, looking up at his friend and opening his mouth to say something, but quickly becoming distracted by something much different.

Pipsqueak was drenched in water at this point, unlike Rumble who had already begun to dry from his brief, chance encounter with the rain before Pip snatched him up. He hadn’t noticed due to the short bite of pain, but even the elbow he was jabbed with was absolutely soaked, setting that part of his coat’s drying cycle back by a few moments.

“How did you get so wet?” Rumble asked as he looked over his friend.

Pipsqueak took a moment to respond, using that moment to look over his body, think, and then give a small shrug. “Huh, must’ve happened while I was looking for something to dry you off with.”

“Dry me off with? What’re we gonna do about you, you big dork?” Rumble chuckled as he shoved Pipsqueak with a hoof. Though, due to his small stature in comparison to Pipsqueak, the blow was glancing at best.

“Hey!” Pipsqueak still squeaked, brushing his side off with a hoof. “C’mon, I’m only back in Ponyville a day, and you’re already gonna hit me?” He gave a gentle chuckle of his own, grinning down at his friend.

The question, rhetorical as it may have been, was left unanswered as a quiet formed between the two, leaving the silence and calm that Rumble was looking for from the structure. And yet the stallion still felt that he couldn’t focus on his problem.

Perhaps it was due to the stallion that was essentially pressed up against him, grinning widely as he stared out at the rainstorm happening around them. Rumble couldn’t help but stare up at the large lad, unable to stop himself from grinning along with him. There was something infectious about that stallion’s smile, something that always gave the lithe pegasus a strange sense of peace.

And it was in that peace that the two stallions found themselves laying in, each watching the rain and enjoying the company of the other.

It may have not been the relaxation that Rumble was looking for, but it was seemingly what he needed.

It was nice.

And it would have continued to be a nice, calm moment. That is, until Pipsqueak jerked upwards slightly. As Rumble looked up to the pinto stallion, he saw a look of pure thought on his face and a figurative lightbulb above his head.

It was only seconds later that Pipsqueak looked down to Rumble, a quirk in his lips as his thinking continued. “Hey, could I ask a really really tiny favor?”

All Rumble could do was respond with a nod, unable to read anything about the question aside from the thought that was put into it.

Pipsqueak’s face brightened in an instant, forming a wide grin as he chuckled softly. “Aaaalright well I sorta didn’t finish fixing up that essay thing Cheerilee told us to do.” His grin grew a bit bashful as he scratched the back of his neck. “I did it in a rush on the train home so it’s probably not great, but you’re a pretty good writer so I was hoping you could help me edit tomorrow?”

It was now Rumble’s turn to be bashful, a soft blush crossing his face as he looked away from his friend. He hummed for a moment, tapping his hoof against the ground, then he let out a long sigh. “I’m, uh, actually grounded tomorrow.” He admitted without looking back at Pipsqueak. “And the next day. And the next few after that.”

Pipsqueak blinked, taking an instant to process that, before laughing again. “Aw, what’d you do this time. Were you out popping clouds again?”

Rumble rolled his eyes. “No, I just didn’t finish my essay either! Or, you know, start it for that matter.” He sighed, leaning a little against his larger friend for comfort. “Thunderlane found out so I’m not gonna be let out of the house for a few months at the best. And I’ll be writing all day tomorrow. With supervision.”

Pipsqueak began to laugh at Rumble’s joke for an uncomfortably long time before realizing it wasn’t. “Oh.” He said as he looked at the lithe pegasus seriously. “So what’s the problem then? Spending too much time out and about with our favorite Crusaders?”

“No, I’ve been cooped up in my room all summer. Still trying to figure out what in Celestia’s name to write about.” Rumble said as he shook his head, sighing mournfully. “I feel like I’ve tried everything! I’ve tried my first flight, I’ve tried the funeral, I’ve even tried that stupid trip to Apploosa with my brother!” He cradled his head in his hooves, rubbing his eyes as mental exhaustion began to grip him. “I’m all out of ideas.”

Another bout of silence, this time filled with enough tension that it could kill an ape. As Pipsqueak began to inch himself closer to his friend, patting him on the back with a large hoof for comfort, he tried to figure out how to begin to respond.

But it was Rumble who broke the silence first.

“I’m sorry, Pip. I’ve just been trying to figure this out for a while now.” Rumble said as he dipped his head, resting it on his hooves crossed in front of him. There was a second more of silence, then he turned his head to look up at Pipsqueak, the other stallion still wearing his concern on his face. “What’d you end up writing about?”

Though Pipsqueak was taken a bit aback by the sudden change in tone, his expression grew less serious as he wrapped a hoof around Rumble. For comfort. “I… wrote about my first Nightmare Night. The first time I got to meet everyone and make real friends. And meet Princess Luna too, which was cool, but it’s mostly about the friends.”

“It was a pretty unforgettable night.” Rumble agreed, breathing a soft chuckle. “I honestly figured that you’d be writing about your cutie mark or your stargazing, but instead you’re writing about the time you were dressed as an adorably dorky little pirate.”

“I wasn’t that dorky!” Pip squeaked, a blush growing on his face as he dipped his head low, almost level with Rumble’s still resting head. “Did you really think I was adorable?” He smiled softly and, as Rumble looked back up at him, he saw a smile on the tiny gray pegasus’ face.

“Everyone thought that. You had a cute little eyepatch and everything.” Rumble sighed as he leaned even more against Pipsqueak, finding the hoof around him more comforting than he was expecting. “Totally stole the show away from my custom fitted, hundred percent accurate Wonderbolts costume.”

“Custom fitted? Is that why it ripped at the rear half through the night?” Pipsqueak chuckled as he pat Rumble on the side briefly.

“Maaaaybe I had a few too many snacks between the fitting and the day, but it was you who poked me in the butt with your absurdly sharp sword!” Rumble responded as he elbowed the large stallion to his side.

The elbowing had no effect, but the words caused Pipsqueak to snicker at the memory.

His snickering quickly blossomed into chuckling, and it quickly drew Rumble into his fervor. It wasn’t long before they were giggling openly and loudly, Rumble leaning harder against Pipsqueak to keep his balance and inadvertently nuzzling his neck in his fit of laughter.

Whether the large stallion noticed or not, he said nothing about it. Instead as Pip began to wind down, he gave a deep sigh and leaned equally against Rumble, who let out a sizable sigh of his own.

As they settled down from their jubilance, they returned to resting as they were before. Just staring out at the rain, still snickering every now and then as Pipsqueak’s hoof grew tighter around Rumble. Still just for comfort, or at least he told himself.

The rain continued to fall as hard as ever, but Rumble found it just wasn’t as loud as it was prior. Instead, all he could hear was Pipsqueak’s slow, heavy breathing and his powerful heartbeat while they leaned against each other.

It was soothing.

And even more soothing was the warmth of the stallion, both in temperature and emotion. With just the hoof wrapped around him, Pipsqueak was fully able to keep the cold rain from coming close to bothering him. Instead there was no bother, because he was at peace.

It was strange. For the slightest moment, Rumble felt a rough pull towards his best friend. Usually he ignored things like this, but there was something that inspired him to follow the instinct to its fruition.

So somehow there was no hesitation as he raised his head high and pressed his lips against Pipsqueak’s cheek.

It didn’t last very long, just a few seconds, but felt absolutely electric to him, leaving him wondering why he didn’t do it years ago as he pulled away from the stallion.

The look on Pipsqueak’s face as he pulled back, a mixture of frozen shock and confusion, reminded him exactly why he’d hesitated.

Rumble’s next moments were filled with anxiety, fear and shame as he leaned away from Pip, putting distance between the two of them and yet again cradling his head in his hooves. “Oh Celestia, I’m so stupid. And sorry. I’m both stupid and sorry. And hot. Did it get hot all of a sudden?” He asked as he fanned himself with a hoof, the atmosphere of the gazebo becoming absolutely stifling and only slightly because of the large blush on his face.

With Pipsqueak still frozen and rebooting, still staring at Rumble with wide eyes, the grey pegasus was left only to ramble on.

“I just thought that, well I wasn’t thinking, but I thought that you were sending some signs or something and…” He trailed off, still fanning himself furiously as his large blush grew massive enough to trail to his ears. “I don’t want this to make things weird between us, so can we just-”

As Pipsqueak finally reloaded, his first instinct was to press his lips against Rumble’s while the smaller stallion began to give his heartfelt plea. It was just a small peck, much briefer than the one Rumble gave him, but it was still as electric, if not moreso.

It was now time for Rumble’s brain to break, his lips still pursed to either continue his rambling or his kiss, but far too frozen to accomplish either in any meaningful way.

And now that he was thoroughly shut up, it was up to Pipsqueak to keep the conversation going. And he did so by first closing the distance between the two of them, going back to wrapping a hoof around Rumble, but this time far more tenderly.

“You’re not bright, but there’s not a damn stupid thing about you,” he said as his hoof trailed across his frozen friend’s side, “and the only thing you’ve gotta be sorry about is not kissing me like that earlier! The last one is pretty true though.”

Rumble blinked once, twice, three times before he was able to open his mouth and respond. “Huh? ...what?” He asked with an extraordinary amount of confusion. It took him a great deal of effort to put the broken bits of his brain back together and, when he did, he gave a tiny and very shy smile as he stared up at Pipsqueak.

“Oh, that’s what I love to see. Your smile is absolutely lovely.” Pipsqueak said with a soft giggle, leaning down to give Rumble another small peck, but this time on the cheek. “I’ve been waiting so long to do that. Ever since you got me here and tried to confess that first time.”

“You knew‽” Rumble squeaked loudly, though the blush on his face was much louder than his voice.

“I knew, but I didn’t wanna say anything. Didn’t wanna ‘make things weird’, you know?” He grinned, nuzzling down on Rumble’s fluffy mane with another gentle giggle. “But I’d like to think that this is a very good kind of weird.”

Somehow, even as Pipsqueak continued his soft, little nuzzling against his mane, Rumble still managed to keep his brain from splitting in two again. Instead, he just lifted his head to press against his friend’s muzzle, extending a wing to wrap itself as best it could around Pipsqueak’s large form.

“So what now?” He asked as his much larger friend stopped his loving nuzzle and instead began to just hold Rumble closely.

Pipsqueak thought for a moment as he looked out at the storm that, while steadily becoming less of the torrential downpour that it was earlier, wasn’t going to let up completely any time soon. “I dunno.” He finally decided after a long while of being hypnotized by the falling droplets. “I guess after this all passes, I can walk you home. Unless you wanna go now get soaked on the way.” He continued as he shot Rumble a cheeky grin.

“No I meant-” Rumble began before interrupting himself, trailing off as he shook his head and gave off a sigh. Despite how moderately annoyed he was, there was just no way he could hold onto those feelings with Pip grinning at him like that.

So instead he resigned himself to leaning against him, sighing again before he continued. “I mean, what are we now? What comes next?”

“I’d like to be your boyfriend if you’d let me.” Pipsqueak responded immediately, without a hint of hesitation or indecision as he said it. His hoof moved from stroking Rumble’s side, up to his head to ruffle the pegasus’ dark grey mane. “As for what’s next, how about you come over to my place tomorrow so we can hang out. Just like old times, with a few extra benefits.” He gave another cheeky grin and a quick kiss to Rumble’s forehead before popping back up seconds later. “Parents are still away for work, so pizza and a movie?”

Rumble lay his head down as he groaned mornfully. “I caaaaaan’t! Grounded tomorrow, remember? I’ve gotta work on that stupid essay.”

“So we bring the party to your place!” Pipsqueak said, roughly wrapping his hoof back around his boyfriend and shaking him a little as he did so. “We just trade movies for homework, as boring as that is, and everything is right as rain. And, hey, look at that.” He gestured towards the outside of the gazebo.

The rain that was falling moments before had seemingly slowed down to a trickle while the two were distracted with their plan formulating.

They were free to leave now, even if they’d get a little bit wet in the process, but neither of them wanted to make the move. Rumble made a movement against it, in fact, as he nuzzled deeply against Pipsqueak’s neck, wiggling closer and closer as he did so.

“I can try and float the idea, but no promises.” Rumble decided as he pulled his head back. “Thunder likes you, obviously, so he might let it go if we focus on the homework and not on the-”

Another interruption as Pipsqueak planted another peck on Rumble’s lips. It was only a smidge longer than the last, but it still managed to daze and confuse the poor stallion to the point that he couldn’t remember what he was saying.

With a grin, Pipsqueak pulled back and pat Rumble’s side to jar him back to alertness. “I’ll try and not do that when your brother is in the room. And Thunder loves me, so it shouldn’t even be a problem. Especially if he’s all tuckered out after work.”

“He’ll just take a slice, take a nap, and leave us to do our… ‘homework’.” Rumble agreed with a sly, loving little grin.

Pipsqueak nodded along. “Yep! You can help me edit my stuff, then I can help you figure out what you’re gonna write about. Any ideas yet?”

Rumble just shrugged noncommittally for a moment, then looked up at Pipsqueak with a soft smile. “I… think I’ve got an idea that’ll at least get me a C. And it’s perfect for you to help me with.”

Pipsqueak’s face brightened immensely as he looked at Rumble with elation, his ears perking as he heard some fantastic news. “That’s great! What’s it about? How can I help?”

As Pip continued to stare with barely contained glee, Rumble just proceeded to lean against him and bark out a very poorly contained laugh. “I’ll tell you later, bud.”

Comments

[semillon]

adorable.

[Jack of a Few Trades]

Alright, that was cute! I've never read a RumblePip story before, so this was interesting to see how that dynamic plays out. Short, sweet, and competently written. Good job, dude!

But I'd be remiss if I didn't drop a couple of critiques. First of all, I plead with you to stop using Lavender Unicorn Syndrome so heavily. I think you were looking to add variety to naming your characters in the prose, so you swapped their names for "the stallion", "The lithe stallion", "the brown stallion", so on and so forth. This comes off as very tacky if you do it more than occasionally. I know it's really good to use variety when choosing your words, but when it comes to identifying which character you're speaking about, their names are exempt from that rule. You can say Rumble five times in a paragraph. It's necessary. Subbing two of those five with "the stallion" draws more attention to it than just saying their names.

I also have a few issues with the general delivery of the story's concept. Most notable was the softly defined relationship between Rumble and Pipsqueak. Pip only comes up as a casual mention in the first chapter, and even then there isn't much indication that Rumble has any feelings for him. He's not really on Rumble's mind until he pops up out of nowhere in the park, and if Rumble was already into him enough to go for a smooch, that absolutely should have been a focus early on. In fact it should have replaced a lot of the lengthy (almost gratuitous) descriptions of writer's block. It would have given a bigger sense of buildup throughout the story and made that final payoff at the end a lot more impactful.

Let me reiterate, this was pretty good. A story of merit told by an author with obvious talents, but it needed a little more oomph to really hit the readers where it counts. Keep at it, you'll be writing bangers in no time! :)

[Jake The Army Guy]

Okay, while this was adorable beyond measure, I'm afraid I have to agree with 10421470 on a few things. Mainly, the bit about not establishing any meaningful connection between Rumble and Pip. Even something little like Rumble blushing and stammering when Thunderlane mentions him, or maybe he has a picture of him and his friends in his room, and he takes just a second longer top look at Pip.

Also, I'm a bit confused at the time frame here. You mention the Cutie Mark Camp, which means its after that, and multiple times you refer to Rumble as "the teenage colt" (LUS in effect) ... but then he's still a blank flank. And it was long enough after the Camp for Mother Nature to hit the Hunk Button on Pip and make his name no longer make sense. So, how old is everyone, and when does this take place?

So yeah, this was a bit rough around the edges, but ti was super sweet, cute, and just the right kind of romantic fluff I wanted. Good job!