Chapter 1
Introduction
This story contains coltcuddling. Thou hast been warned. I mean literally, it contains colts cuddling. Also, this is deep-voice Caramel from the Grand Galloping Gala.
Candied Apples
By Butterscotch Cream
The soft clattering of hooves on the front porch pulled Braeburn out of his dozing. Shortly after, he heard the front door quietly groan open and squeak shut again with a crisp click. His eyes wanted to drift shut again, but the colt argued them open and dragged his head up from the couch to see who had come in - though, at this time of night, there wasn’t much guessing to be done. Sure enough, his roommate Caramel was scuffing his hooves on the doormat.
“Evenin' Caramel – aren't ya home a lil' later than normal?” Braeburn tried to shake the sleepy haze out of his head and glanced over at the clock: it was a little after nine, at least an hour or two past his friend's usual curfew.
The tan, chocolate-haired pony looked up in surprise, seeming almost startled, before grinning a moment later. “And here I thought you were asleep. Sorry if I woke you up,” he chuckled in his deep voice, “And I suppose I am. I had to pick up some things on the way back.” It was only now that Braeburn noticed Caramel had an awkwardly large package tied to his saddlebag, which he was in the act of pulling off to lay against the wall. “Why haven't you gone to bed yet anyway?”
Braeburn, still bleary-eyed, shrugged a bit before yawning again and pulling himself up from the couch. “The fire was jus' so comfortable, I guess I jus’ kinda dozed off. I should prolly git' on to bed...” He stretched himself out for a few indulgent seconds, then uselessly swiped a hoof at his mane to get the forelocks out of his eyes. They just bounced back onto his forehead, and he was too tired to bother a second attempt. Instead of responding, Caramel took his package into the kitchen and, from the sound of the rustling paper, began to unwrap it. Idle curiosity had already turned Braeburn's hooves in that direction when Caramel's voice called out to him.
“Hey Braeburn, before you head off, could you come take a look at this and tell me what you think?”
This took the yellow pony a little off-guard, but the summons only sharpened his curiosity and he trotted all the quicker. A few steps later he entered the kitchen to find Caramel by the table, meticulously arranging a somewhat ruffled bouquet of yellow and orange roses in a glass vase. Sitting beside them was what looked to be a box of chocolate tied with matching ribbon.
The moment he heard Braeburn, Caramel stepped out of the way and adopted a slightly sheepish expression. “I might as well tell you, uh... I got someone in mind - an Apple - I plan on breaking my feelings to, and I thought this might be a good way to do it. But... I'm not really ready to say who it is yet. It's kind of a personal thing, you know?”
This news really took Braeburn by surprise, and a wave of confused emotions crashed over him. The other colt had become one of the best friends- no, the best friend he had since they'd met a few years ago. Caramel had gotten a job in one of the local orchards and came around looking for room and board. They'd hit it off almost immediately, Caramel had moved in, and almost every day since had been spent in each other's company when they weren't at work. When Caramel took trips back to Ponyville, Braeburn found himself sitting up at nights feeling restless and lonesome. And this... this meant things were changing. He was happy for his friend of course. What kind of jerk wouldn't be happy his friend found a love-interest? But... somehow, somewhere inside of himself, Braeburn felt he was losing something.
“Braeburn? Are you with me?”
“What? Oh! Yeah, sorry 'bout that. I guess I'm still feelin' a mite groggy an' all. Uh... lemme take a gander here.”
Braeburn briskly stepped up to the table to make up for the blunder and began inspecting everything. As he did, he caught a wiff of the candy box and his eyes popped a little. Chocolate-covered appletarts! One of his favorites – and they smelled so wonderful; he almost had to slurp to avoid drooling.
“Woo-wee Caramel! Them candies sure smell delicious. An' the flowers, well...” Braeburn stopped and looked over the roses again. They'd been scented with some kind of perfume that smelled just like Granny Smith – the apple that is. “I think they're pretty fer sure but, I ain’t no florist or nothin' so my opinion ain't worth much for ya there. But, I gotta say she's a hard mare to please if she ain't at least flattered! Ya got yer pick of the Apple family with this get-up!”
Hearing this made Caramel grin as though his gift selections had just been given a blue ribbon, obviously feeling proud of his success. “I sure hope so, and don't you worry – I trust your opinion. You know the Apple family better than I do, so I figured you'd know if this would work.”
Braeburn laughed and clapped a hoof over his friend's back. “Why sure buddy! I'm glad to help in any way I can! Now, I know ya didn't wanna go blabbin' her name jus’ yet, but maybe I can help a little more! Ya know, prime the pump and git' her prepared an' all?” He leaned over to Caramel with coaxing grin, giving his friend's shoulders a bit of a shake. Then something dawned on him and the smile dropped from his face.
“Wait just a minute! ...Aren't ya bein' a bit premature, Caramel? I know yer prolly anxious, but you should'a waited on the flowers at least till tomorra' or whenever you were gonna break it to the filly! These are gonna wilt before too long!”
His friend shook his head a bit and chuckled, “Nah, you don't understand Braeburn. I got the mare I'm after right here.”
“What!? Ya brought yer fillyfriend here? At this hour? What'd ya do!? leave her standin' outside?”
Caramel just grinned silently at the colt with a twinkle in his eye. Braeburn wasn't quite sure what to make of it really. There he was, staring as if there were something obvious he was supposed to know. Braeburn glanced behind him once to see if the mare had followed Caramel in, but nope, it was just the two of the-...
Suddenly, the pieces connected and Braeburn felt a fuse fry somewhere in his brain as his jaw began sagging toward the floor. Caramel was still grinning. The appletarts, the scented roses, the yellow and orange colors – his colors... it all clicked into place.
“Do you love me, Braeburn?”
“Well a’course, b-bu-but-” His words failed him again as his eyes he kept staring dumbfounded at the gifts on the table. It wasn't until Braeburn started losing his balance that he realized Caramel was scooting over to gently pin him against the kitchen wall, and the pressure rubbing into the side of his neck was Caramel’s nose. In fact, it wasn’t till that point he realized what Caramel had actually asked... and how he'd responded.
“I don't know what to say... or do fer... fer that matter,” Braeburn stammered clumsily. “I mean, it's all lovely an' all but-” He felt so nervous his stomach was tying in knots, but he wasn't entirely sure why. It had hit him like a ton of bricks, being afraid he was going to lose his best friend to the oblivion of a girlfriend, only to find out that he was the girlfriend... well, sorta...
Braeburn had lost track of his senses as the realization settled in, feeling both dizzy and frozen in place at the same time. Had he really just blurted out he loved Caramel? Half of him felt inexplicably happy, the other half felt utterly flabbergasted and both were playing king-of-the-hill inside him, tangling into a messy knot in the middle of his stomach. It didn't help that he wasn't sure which half was which.
Reaching through his daze, though, he felt the larger stallion's warm tongue stroke soothingly over his ear a few times, before the large, pillowy nose began to nuzzle into it. Braeburn shivered softly with a groan and leaned closer as an almost instinctual draw laid hold of him. There was no desire to pull away - rather, the sound of Caramel's breath in his ear and the heat of the stallion's side against his were strangely... comforting. And then came a deep, sultry whisper in Caramel's familiar tones.
“Relax sweetheart... or, would you prefer I called you ‘sugarcube?’” Braeburn felt his heart skip a beat as the "happy" side gained a large step or two of ground. He gulped a bit and managed to turn his head enough to look into the other colt's eyes. Caramel was smiling gently, even... Braeburn was almost afraid to think it... even lovingly. His knees began to wobble as they betrayed him to gravity, and slowly he sank to the floor. Caramel settled down beside him and held his gaze, studying the colt's response.
"I won't take this anywhere you don't want, Brae, but... I wanted you to know how I felt."
At first it seemed the words were lost to the unheard, a vague echo bouncing around in Braeburn's head in the swirl of emotions, but the colt's thoughts were pulled back to the present when Caramel hooked his neck around his own and began rubbing their cheeks together. Braeburn couldn't help but blush madly as his heart fluttered about in his chest. The awkward, but happy side was definitely moving to the winning side. He'd seen others doing this so many times, and in his own lonely fantasies, he'd imagined himself doing it – and here he was on the receiving end... Caramel was handsome, he was fun and he had always been dependable... Caramel was... handsome?
Braeburn blinked a few times as something struck home. He had found Caramel attractive: in brief glances when he thought no one was looking, at night watching Caramel sleep from across the room or in passing moments where they'd laugh over a mutual joke. He'd just never let himself think on it for long... at least consciously. But the feeling... he recognized it now. The feeling had been there a long time. Care, affection... love.
"I... I love ya too... Caramel..."
Braeburn's face was blank when he said it, staring fixedly ahead as if a life-changing revelation that had just dawned on him, but right about then he felt two warm lips press a kiss against his own and his blush raged back to his cheeks in an instant. This time it was different, though. His heart raced because he liked it. His breath caught because he liked it. His entire body tingled... because he wanted... more. Before he even fully realized his own reaction, he was pressing back into Caramel's advances, whinnying softly as the tan stallion hooked a foreleg over his back and cuddled him closer there on the kitchen floor.
A smile pried itself onto Braeburn's lips as he leaned into the kiss, and suddenly the joy of it all seemed to explode like fireworks inside him. Caramel's gifts had been for him. Caramel had set this up for him. Caramel had feelings... for him. Finally, Caramel broke the kiss and nudged the yellow pony's burning cheek teasingly with his nose.
“I've been thinking about this an awful lot lately, Braeburn,” he whispered softly, just before kissing his way down Braeburn's muzzle to his neck again and nuzzling into it. Every touch made Baeburn's heart skip a beat or two. “You've been a wonderful friend to me, and I started realizing several months ago that you were the type of pony I wanted to settle down with. I got to feeling a lot more for you than just a friend... I wanted to share myself with you.” He paused a moment, chuckling slightly as a blush crossed his own features briefly, then put on his best country drawl, “What d’ya think, sugarcube?”
It took a few moments for Braeburn to find his voice again, still flushed as pink as a school-filly. “It jus’ ain't fair bringin' in those appletarts! There ain't no way I can say no to those!”
Caramel beamed a grin about a mile wide as that mischievous twinkle reappeared in his eyes. Leaning his weight comfortably against the other colt to cuddle him even closer, he began nibbling up and down Braeburn's neck in soft, tantalizing bites, just as a stallion would court his mare. Braeburn shivered a little at the feeling, panting as he felt the room get noticeably warmer. This time when Caramel's deep, smooth voice rolled into his ear, it sank straight to his heart and melted it like butter.
“I can think of a few ways to make the bribe worth your while...”
The night was quiet and peaceful, the stars were shining bright overhead. The town was sleeping.
At least... it was until there came the sudden whinnied cry of:
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAPPLE-LOOSA!”
