Playing With Fire | Rewritten

by Fluskie

Chapter 1: Tea and Consolation

A gentle breeze blew through an open window to a desk showered in moonlight and papers tossed about. Manuscripts and messily written drafts lay unorganized on the small wooden desk propped up near a bookshelf. The seat in front of the unorderly mess remained vacant until a strong breeze picked up and threatened to knock over a stack of hard work. A dark blue hoof reached out at lightning speed to catch the papers before they descended below, carefully rearranging them to be more stable on the desk.

The unicorn mare breathed a sigh of relief before seating herself down at the desk. She levitated a cold glass of water to the farthest side of the desk, careful to not put any of her recent work in its potential splash zone and directing her attention to the writing in front of her.

A snowy feather dipped itself in a newly opened bottle of ink before gliding across the pages silently, leaving behind a trail of letters. The mare mumbled to herself and sounded out the sentences under her breath as she continued to cover the page with pieces of her imagination and creativity.

And then, a knock sounded from the other room. The sudden noise startled her and she dropped her quill, making a tiny ink splatter in between a paragraph of words.

"I've fixed that scene at least five times now," She sighed in frustration, flipping the page over. "Who would have the nerve to knock at this time of night?"

She slipped out of her seat and quietly made her way out of her bedroom. Her trots were barely audible as she quickly switched on a lamp and found herself standing in front of the entrance of her home. The thought of somepony needing her so late frightened her a little. Normally only crazy ponies would pursue someone during this period, especially those who were alone and suffered from an awful sleep schedule as she did. Was it safe to open her door and see who was outside it? She had no idea, she wouldn't know until she did.

A harder knock sounded on the door and she jumped, her heart pounding in her chest. Her breathing quickened as irrational scenarios appeared in her head and so many reasonings for not opening that door. The poor mare's anxiety was practically driving her mad.

"Flusk, are you awake? Hello?"

"Wait, Drizzle?"

"Yeah, sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up. I understand if it's a bad time."

Flusk's anxiety immediately dissipated as she threw open the door. Her best friend Drizzle Dots stood at the steps of her door looking anxiously up at her. Despite being relieved that it was only him, she took notice of his appearance the moment she saw him. Dark circles that outlined the bottoms of his eyes, messy mane, his pear green eyes even seemed to lack their normal luster as dejection clouded them.

"What happened to you? You look rough. Where's-" Flusk asked worriedly before she was interrupted.

"It's kind of a long story. I came here because I was wondering if you'd let me stay the night or something until I can figure out where to go," Drizzle turned his gaze downwards in embarrassment. "I hate to ask this of you, I just didn't know who else would be willing to let me stay. Although, I understand if you can't…"

"No, no, of course, you can stay. You're always welcome here. Come on in!"

Flusk pushed the door open wider, allowing Drizzle access into her home. He proceeded to settle himself on her couch as she double-checked that her door was locked out of concern for her previous fretful thoughts.

"Would you like anything to drink or eat? I just went out yesterday and stocked up."

"Just a coffee would be good right about now, thanks." Drizzle yawned, laying his head on the arm of the couch.

"Oh, I don't drink coffee so…" Flusk smiled sheepishly.

"Oooh, right. Sorry, I forgot about that. My mind's kind of fucked up at the moment."

"I do have some apple juice or milk if you'd prefer those instead. Or, well, water of course."

"Nah, it's alright. I'll just stick it through."

Flusk approached the couch Drizzle had positioned himself on, his physical form instantly reminding her of the blatant rejection he had made to his self-care.

It was common for Drizzle Dots to look this way after something depressing or debilitating had occurred to him or somepony dear to him. If it was enough to affect his mental health, it was enough to affect his physical health too. This wasn't Flusk's first rodeo in seeing him like this and it certainly wouldn't be her last. However, it would be fruitless to try and get him to do anything at the moment, especially in this state. Prying into the source of his sadness would be the only thing she could do, even if it wasn't the most respectful thing to do.

"So you never did explain why you look so exhausted and had to find a place to stay. And now that I let you in, I think it's only fair that you let me in on the situation here."

"I told you, it's a long story."

"And we have all the time in the world for you to tell it now that you're here," Flusk smirked.

"I hate when you do that. You purposely try to trap me in a way that you get what you want." Drizzle glowered.

"It's not because I necessarily want this for myself, it's because I want to be able to understand why you're like this so I can help you. You know I'm not someone with cruel intentions."

"Yes, and that also should mean that you respect that I don't want to talk about it."

"I would respect it in a normal circumstance but seeing as how urgent the situation appears to be, I need to know. I can't just sweep it under the rug because you're not feeling it at the moment."

Drizzle went silent, turning his gaze towards a pink feathered dream catcher in the corner of the room. Flusk could feel his anger rising, especially in the way he turned his head away from her and how he spoke. But she refused to be deterred by his emotions.

"She kicked you out, didn't she?" Flusk queried wistfully.

He didn't answer and that was enough to let Flusk know she was right on the nose.

"I knew it. I can't say I'm surprised though, we all weren't that fond of her in the first place. She's always had this strange vibe about her that seemed fake and entitled."

When she was met with his stillness once again, she sat down on the couch beside him and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, giving him a shoulder hug. He didn't respond negatively to it thankfully, he just stared down at the floor emotionlessly.

"I'm sorry…If there's anything I can do to help you feel at least a little better then let me know, alright?" Flusk said gently.

"Yeah…" He replied quietly.

She held onto him for a moment longer before releasing her arms and allowing him some space. The stallion hunched over before lying down again while Flusk approached the lamp in the entryway of her home. She glanced at him once more and saw the unicorn shutting his eyes, preparing to doze off on her couch. She figured he would be pretty exhausted after the fiasco he had experienced earlier. Not that she minded of course.

"Would you like me to turn this off?" She asked.

He nodded and she flipped the switch off on the lamp. The room was shrouded in darkness and she could only see the tip of his blue horn where the luminance of the moon shone into the still room.

"Goodnight, Drizzle…"

He didn't reply but she assumed he had drifted off to sleep already so she headed back to her bedroom.

By now, midnight had already passed and Flusk decided it was time for her to retire for the night as well. She cleaned up her drafts into a tidy pile on her work desk before slipping under the covers and resting her body on her mattress.

Perhaps with a good night's sleep, Drizzle would be in more of a better mood tomorrow to talk to her in detail about what occurred. She already knew the basics of what happened with his marefriend but she didn't know why or what led to this. Hopefully, it would be just a misunderstanding that would blow over soon…Or maybe this was what he needed.

---

The next morning, Flusk was giddy to get up out of bed and see Drizzle. She didn't normally have guests over for the night, especially not her own best friend as he always was with his significant other so it made her exuberant to have a friend staying with her.

"Good morning, Drizzle! Did you have a good sleep?" Flusk called excitedly as she made her way into the living room.

She stopped when she saw Drizzle at her front door holding something in his hoof. He stared down at a sealed envelope with scribbled writing across the front. His expression appeared to be serious as he caressed it with his hoof, furrowing his brow.

"Oh, did the mail pony get here already? That's strange, usually it's a bit later before anything arrives. Is it a letter for me?" Flusk questioned, grinning.

Drizzle shook his head as he used his magic to lift the seal off the letter.

"It's a letter for you? Who's it from?"

"Just hold on a second…" Drizzle mumbled.

He turned his back to her as he unfolded the letter, reading to himself in his head. It seemed private and something that Drizzle didn't want her to see. But why would a letter addressed to him show up at her doorstep? It wasn't like anypony knew he had been here last night.

"Are you sure it's not mine? You know you can get in huge trouble for opening somepony else's mail. Especially if it's mail from any big corporation."

"I told you it's not for you, now shh, I'm trying to read."

Flusk finally left him alone as she simply watched him, waiting for him to finish. It felt like an eternity before he was done reading the letter but once he was, she saw it softly drift to the ground like a feather floating through the air. Her focus moved to the back of his head as she saw his ears fold over.

"Drizzle?... Are you okay?"

"It was from her…She sent me a letter." He replied faintly.

Without any hesitation, Flusk swept up the letter with her magic and began to read it. Her eyes darted across the words as the situation started to become more clear. It was a very harsh letter written out of anger by his marefriend, or rather, old marefriend. It consisted mostly of her telling him she wanted nothing to do with him anymore and that he was abusive and an awful partner to her. He wouldn't be allowed to return to her home and she wished to never see him again. That was all that was said before the letter abruptly ended. She also noted that the letter was covered in watermarks as if somepony had been crying on it, before closing it.

"I'm so sorry…" She said suddenly, unsure what else to say to remedy the situation.

There was a minute of silence before Drizzle broke down onto the ground, sobbing loudly and startling Flusk. Her ears folded at the extreme distress of her friend as she too felt rather heavy and perturbed over his strong emotions. She did the only thing she could think of and embraced him into her arms, allowing him to let it all out.

A little while later, Drizzle sat quietly on the couch again, left to his own devices. Flusk assumed it would be best to let him relax and come to terms with things by himself.

Meanwhile, Flusk was attempting to bake a cake but struggling to follow the directions. What would be the second knock at her door in a short span of a few hours alarmed her and she dropped the cookbook she was previously peering into.

She made her way to the door, her social phobia plaguing her mind once again as she lifted the door open. She was pleasantly surprised to find another one of her best friends, Zozer standing at the door. They were a tall draconequus with fluffy violet hair and glasses. She was a hybrid of many different animals which normally would be pretty terrifying to somepony who had never met a draconequus before but Flusk was quite used to them. She had been introduced to a few of them already and found them to be quite intelligent and astounding creatures who behaved just like ponies. Besides, why would she fear one of her friends?

"Hey, Flusk!" Zozer greeted her happily. "Sorry to drop in so suddenly, I was just curious what you were doing today."

She saw Zozer's tail wagging behind them like a dog and it put a small smile on her face.

"Hey, I'm not doing anything at the moment. I was trying to bake a cake but that's sort of uh…A disaster at the moment. I'd recommend not looking at my kitchen." Flusk looked to her right, seeing the flour-covered counters and spilled milk everywhere, cringing internally.

"Oh, do you need help with that? I'm good at baking." Zozer grinned.

"No, no, that's alright! I'll just take care of it after." Flusk waved her off.

"Well, if you're sure," Zozer replied. "To be completely honest, I came here because I wanted to ask if you wanted to join me, Whisper and Meadow at The Flying Beans Cafe this afternoon! We all wanted to have a little get-together and thought we should invite some friends too."

"The Flying Beans?" Flusk chuckled at the name. "Is that the new cafe that just opened up?"

"Yup! We wanted to try it out and see if it's good. Of course, we'd love it if you came along."

Flusk gazed behind her to where Drizzle sat on the couch reading an old spell book he borrowed from River Breeze Library earlier, one of the most monumental libraries of their state Ifera ByFlame. He was always very intrigued by anything to do with powerful magic…

Should she invite Drizzle to come along? It would be sort of rude for her to just leave without asking him if he wanted to join. But she wasn't even sure if he'd be up to it considering how he had reacted previously.

"Oh, I'm not sure if I can. I have Drizzle staying over right now."

"Wait, Drizzle's here?" Zozer asked before sticking her long neck through the door. "Hey, Drizzle!"

Drizzle looked up from his book and waved at them, clearly being oblivious to Flusk and Zozer's conversation from before.

Zozer exited their neck from out of the doorway. "Well that's okay, he can come along if he wants to! I was going to go to his house after I came here."

"Yeah but…" Flusk lowered her voice. "He's not really…Himself right now."

"What do you mean?" Zozer adapted her voice to be quieter as well.

"He's going through something right now and I don't think it's the best idea for him to be going out and about."

"Ahh, I see. Well, you never know! Maybe you should ask him first and see what he thinks."

"Hmm, alright."

Flusk rotated around to face Drizzle. "Hey, Drizzle? Zozer wanted to know if we wanted to come to check out that new cafe that just opened in town. Meadow and Whisper were going as well and I thought you might want to go too. Although, you don't have to if you're not up to it yet."

Drizzle shut the magic book he was deep into and slid off the couch. "Sure, I wouldn't mind going. At least now I can get that coffee I wanted."

Flusk wasn't expecting that answer from him but was delighted to know he would follow them. It was always enjoyable to hang out with friends every once in a while and she had a feeling their company would brighten his spirits.

"Alright, well show us the way, Zozer!" Flusk said.

---

The sound of a tiny bell rang as Zozer pushed open the door to The Flying Beans Cafe. It was a cozy little cafe that had the powerful smell of fresh coffee beans the moment the three walked indoors. A buttermilk colored stallion was grinding down a fresh batch of beans at the counter, his backside to the group. To his right, there were two pegasi seated together chatting at stool seats with their beverages in hoof.

A hazelnut-colored pegasus with a long pink and chocolate-colored mane shyly cradled a warm cup of rose tea in her hooves, listening to her companion beside her chat away. The one who was presently speaking was a light green pegasus with a curled blue and green mane. Her two pink bows tied into her hair swayed idly as she was deep in conversation about an interest of hers.

Flusk watched as Zozer waved at them enthusiastically, ecstatic to get their attention.

"Whispy, Hazey!" Zozer called.

They both turned and grinned when they saw the cheerful draconequus and waved back. Zozer sprinted up to them and launched themself into a group hug. The hazelnut pegasus almost spilled her tea from the sudden action but Zozer was swift to save it with her dragon tail, being rather observant of their surroundings. Zozer planted a small kiss on her cheek before pulling away and perching herself on a stool alongside them.

"I'm back! And I see you two ordered without me." Zozer pouted jokingly, putting their paw and claw on her hips.

"O-Oh, I'm sorry…We thought you wouldn't mind…" Meadow Hazel stroked her mane anxiously, a small blush moving across her face from the affection she received earlier.

"I'm just teasing, dear. You can order if you'd like." Zozer smiled warmly.

Flusk and Drizzle made their way over and Meadow perked up upon seeing the two familiar guests Zozer brought along with them. However, the pony next to Meadow caught Flusk's eyes and the pegasus averted her gaze immediately when they approached.

"Hi, Flusk, Hi, Drizzle," Meadow's gentle voice traveled to them, the mare smiling shyly. "It's nice to see you both again."

Flusk scooched herself onto an empty stool, about to reply to Meadow when she nearly tipped herself over onto Drizzle who was presently positioning himself onto a stool at her side.

"Woah, watch it!" Drizzle snapped.

"Sorry…" Flusk apologized, startled by his overreaction.

An uncomfortable silence passed over the group as the three watched Flusk and Drizzle bewildered. Zozer narrowed her eyes at Drizzle before eyeing Flusk and finally gazing at their partner, Meadow to see her reaction. Meadow politely glanced away out of worry she might have accidentally caused this while the pegasus beside her resorted to guzzling down her tea to distract herself.

Flusk cleared her throat and briskly changed the topic. "So, what did you both order?" She motioned to both Meadow and the pegasus beside her. "I've never been here before so maybe I could get some suggestions."

"Oh, well I just ordered some rose tea. It's my favorite tea," Meadow turned to the mare beside her. "And I think Whisper ordered earl grey tea."

"Whisper? I don't believe we've met before."

"Oh right! This is Whisper Heart," She rested her head on Whisper's shoulder and smiled softly. "We've been together for a little while now."

"And I'm more than happy that our Meadow is so loveable that she has room for both of us in her heart," Zozer added, wagging their tail gleefully and nuzzling Meadow.

"Aww, I'm so glad to hear that!" Flusk replied.

Drizzle nodded in agreement with Flusk, although he didn't utter a word. He remained quiet while the small poly group excitedly chatted with one another about their different interests. While Flusk herself didn't feel fully a part of it, she couldn't quite understand why Drizzle was more short-spoken. He wanted to be here to feel better and there was no way of accomplishing that if he at least didn't try to engross himself into the conversation.

Even Whisper Heart was participating more than him and while that could be because she was with those she felt most comfortable with, Flusk took her as somepony who wasn't much of a conversationalist. In comparison, Drizzle was really out of his element here.

Flusk gently nudged Drizzle in the side. "Hey, why don't we go up and order something? You said something about coffee earlier, right?"

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Sure, why not."

Flusk and Drizzle made their way up to order, inviting Zozer as well to join them since she had been so enthralled in their discussion with the others that she forgot the whole reason they came to this cafe.

Drizzle ended up purchasing the coffee he had asked for before, followed by a chocolate sprinkled donut. Zozer ordered some sort of tea that Flusk could not remember for the life of her, and once it was her turn, she ended up just getting a normal hot chocolate out of fear that she was taking too long peering at the menu.

"Is that a hot chocolate?" Drizzle asked.

A question that Flusk was afraid she'd get…

"Yes?..." She answered, turning her head anxiously.

"Out of everything you could have ordered, you chose a hot chocolate? You can get that anywhere, Flusk."

"I know…" Flusk replied in a tiny embarrassed voice.

She lightly licked the whipped cream off the top of her hot chocolate, quivering with self-consciousness after being called out on her choice of beverage. On the bright side, it tasted delicious and was probably one of the best hot chocolates Flusk had ever had in her life. She didn't entirely regret her decision in ignoring everything else on the menu.

"Wow, this is so good!" Zozer exclaimed. "We need to come here again sometime."

"I agree, the atmosphere is nice," Whisper commented.

"I've learned that cafes aren't my thing but don't let me stop you." Flusk smiled sheepishly.

"At least it's a nice alternative to when Flusk lacks coffee in her house," Drizzle said. "Which is all the time."

"Hey!"

"Speaking of which, I was curious why Drizzle was staying at your house earlier. Were you having a sleepover or something?" Zozer asked curiously.

Drizzle nearly spit out his coffee. "A sleepover?! No-"

"That's kind of a long story and I don't think it's my place to speak on his behalf. It's up to you Drizzle." Flusk interrupted, glancing over at him.

Drizzle paused, setting down his coffee. He debated whether it was worth bringing up his weighty problems to his friends. Especially since they were all having so much fun together and having a nice break. Would they even care if he did? Or maybe he would just bring them all down instead.

He felt that same sick feeling in his stomach he had felt when he first read the letter. He gripped the stool underneath him as thoughts and worries swirled through his head, making him question all the things he had done in the past.

"Drizzle?" Flusk asked, noticing his uneasiness.

"Oh, sorry," Drizzle came to his senses. "I don't feel that comfortable saying."

"That's okay!" Zozer reassured him. "I'm not going to force you to say something that makes you uncomfortable."

"Thank you, Zozer." Drizzle smiled.

After that, the topic promptly swapped to something more light-hearted and Drizzle was relieved to find everypony forgotten about it as quickly as it was mentioned.

---

Late into the afternoon, the crew finished their beverages and treats and went their separate ways, Drizzle returning with Flusk to her home and Meadow, Whisper and Zozer heading back to their place.

On their way, they trotted across a stone path as the sun beat down upon them. They had idle chat every once in a while but for the most part, it appeared Drizzle was more intent on observing the things around him and listening to the light swaying of the trees above them. Flusk didn't mind but she did happen to have one question weighing on her conscious.

"Do you feel better now?" She asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I guess it's impossible to feel better so quickly but I wondered if maybe that little get-together distracted you from her."

"It did...Up until the end. But that's not to say that it was entirely ruined because that situation was brought up, I enjoyed it. It was nice to catch up."

"Will you ever tell them? I mean, they're going to notice at some point that you don't live with her anymore. It might become important that you inform them what happened."

"I need some time to think about that...I'm just not ready to face that yet. I haven't even really accepted the fact that we're no longer together anymore. I just...I just need some time."

"Okay…"

For the rest of their stroll back home, Drizzle remained mute, not wanting to speak anymore on the topic. Flusk respected his wishes but it certainly didn't make their journey home any less awkward.