Cloudchaser You Foal
It was midafternoon when Soarin strolled into Thunderlane’s apartment like he always did and perched himself on the end of the couch. He crossed his legs at the ankle, and folded his forelegs over his chest only to unfold them as he reached for the bowl full of assorted sweets on the table. Nothing new about that, Thunder told himself, and yet he’d become a whole lot more aware of what his friend did lately. More importantly, he’d become more aware of his reaction to Soarin. Thunder settled himself into his wheely chair in front of his desk full of papers, some scattering along the floor as he sat down.
“So what are you and Cloudchaser doing this weekend?” Soarin asked while unwrapping the candy bar. “Anything interesting?”
“No.” Thunder’s answer was clipped. He didn’t know what to do with his eyes. He could stare at the paperwork needed for Rumble’s next race entry, but his eyes refused to focus. For some insane reason, they wanted to stray…over to Soarin. He surged to his hooves, his chair crashing to the floor with the awkwardness he felt. He turned his back to his best friend and stared out the window at the street below. “She broke it off.”
“Aw dude,” Soarin responded. “Sorry about that.” He laid a hoof on Thunder’s shoulder, making him stiffen. “She say why? You weren’t a foal enough to take the Cloudsdale slut up on her offer from last week, were you? I would think you’d share that tidbit with your best bud if you did.” He nudged his friend playfully in the side.
Thunderlane rolled his eyes at Soarin’s teasing. That and Soarin’s refusal to take himself or life seriously was what kept Thunderlane together at times. He would never have said that out loud of course. Their friendship was that of complicated matters and made Cloudchaser’s assertion all the more unacceptable.
“No, of course not. I wouldn’t cheat on her.” He couldn’t tell Soarin the real reason Cloudchaser, who had been friends with Soarin longer than him, had broken up with him yesterday. He’d had all night to think it over, especially since he couldn’t get to sleep. He’d yelled at her and told her she was just making excuses. Their relationship had gone stale over the last year, and he wouldn’t blame her if she just wanted to move on. But to say what she did about Soarin was ridiculous.
If he had any sense, he’d dismiss the thought. He should tell Soarin what she said, and then they could laugh about it over a couple Apple Jack Daniels after one of Soarin’s Races. That’s what they always did to ease the stress. They were both had different lives but still managed time to spare for each other. Thunder always following Rumble around with school and his Junior Wings races and Soarin busy performing for adoring fans as co-captain of the Princess’s Royal flying team, The Wonderbolts. Soarin’s place suited him, being so creative and outgoing he even found a way to create a thundercloud trail while they performed. Thunderlane was more settled down. The fact that he tended to stick with what he knew and play it safe which was being the best big brother he could possibly be, was another bone Cloudchaser had picked with him on. Her final words to him last night had been, “If I don’t do this now, then you’ll never make a move.”
Turning, he found Soarin too close, and he worked his shoulder to dislodge Soarin’s hoove. “Damn it, would you stop crowding me? It’s not a big deal.”
Soarin backed off with hooves raised. “Sorry, I guess you’re hurt and all.” His green eyes were wide, his expression understanding. Soarin didn’t take offense easily. The fact that Thunderlane was noticing Soarin’s eye color pissed him off even more.
He stomped back to his chair. “I’m not hurt, just surprised.” Examining himself, he found that it was true. He wasn’t heartbroken. He cared about Cloudchaser, so it did hurt not to be with her when they’d dated for a couple years. But crushed wasn’t what he felt. Confused, annoyed, and angry was closer to the mark. Something else stirred inside, something raw and new, but he rejected taking a closer look. If other feelings were there, he figured Cloudchaser’s stupid assertion was the cause. She made him like this around his best friend whom he shared everything with.
“Well,” Soarin said, “since you’re not hanging with her this weekend, I figure I can come over and cheer you up.”
Thunderlane stared at him like he’d lost his mind. Soarin peered right back, blinking as if Thunder had lost his. “Why would you do that?”
Soarin placed a hoof on Thunderlane’s forehead. He ducked to get out of reach. To his further surprise, in his lower regions he felt something stir.
“I think you might be in shock, buddy,” Soarin said. “We’ve always held onto stallion’s night when we’re dating or not dating. We drink and read comics all weekend, or have you forgotten about that?”
“No drinking!” Thunderlane all but shouted. He couldn’t help the thought of him and Soarin getting drunk together and the possibilities that could occur. He got a grip on himself with supreme effort. He was behaving like an ass, and if he didn’t get control, Soarin would suspect something, if he didn’t already. Thunder couldn’t let that happen. Everything between them would remain just as it always had. If Cloudchaser wanted an out, she got it. He hoped she found somepony special that would be all she wanted. Since Thunderlane knew he wasn’t a bad-looking stallion—he kept himself in shape, and more than one mare in public had let him know she was available—he had no reason to think he wouldn’t have Cloudchaser replaced, and soon. “Beer and comics sounds great. We’ll do what we always do. No problem.”
Now he sounded like a blithering idiot, but at least Soarin was appeased. He grinned but didn’t move from the spot he occupied. Every other time he sat there, Thunderlane didn’t mind. Today, the entire apartment was too small, and the couple of feet between them had a hint of intimacy. Thunder grunted, searching his mind for a solution. Damn that Cloudchaser.
Soarin’s crystal phone rang in his pocket, ever since the crystal empire had been rediscovered so had all assortments of electronics but Thunderlane had yet to get a Crystal television but he did own a cheap crystal phone. Soarin finally managed to get the phone out of his bag. He answered. “Soarin, here. Oh hey, Cloudchaser.” His friend met his curious gaze. “Yeah, he’s here, crying his eyes sappy out.”
Thunderlane punched him in the gut. Soarin let out an oomph and went back to his conversation with Thunder’s ex, his old friend. When he grew quite, a sickening feeling came over Thunder. Cloudchaser wouldn’t take her silly assumption too far, would she? No, she had better sense than that, surely.
Soarin’s widened gaze met Thunderlane’s again. His face had gone red, but he wasn’t saying anything in response to whatever Cloudchaser said on the phone. Thunderlane resisted snatching the flimsy piece of crystal technology and crushing it under his hoof. He gripped the sides of his chair until his hooves ached. With everything inside of him, he willed someone to come to the apartment to disturb them, or for a phone call, an emergency, anything. Nothing happened.
After some time, Soarin ended the call and put his phone back into his saddlebag. He didn’t move or look up. Thunderlane sighed. “I guess the weekend’s off, huh?” He had no idea why he would ask that, and be disappointed about it.
Soarin straightened and walked to the door. He paused with his hoof on the knob with his back to Thunderlane. “No, it’s still on. I’ll talk to you later tonight after practice.” And he was gone, snapping the door closed quietly behind him.
Thunderlane ran his hoof through his short mane. He imagined it stuck up in points. His mane was beginning to grow out too far, he needed to visit his barber soon. No matter how much he replayed Soarin’s last words, he couldn’t get into his friend’s head. Soarin had been subdued. His usual bouncing off the walls, driving Thunder insane, was missing after that conversation with Cloudchaser. Maybe he was waiting until later to end their friendship.
“Damn it to the moon!” Thunderlane spat and began pacing around his small living room. He could replace a mare with ease, but a buddy—a best buddy?—no, way. He’d see Soarin later and deny everything. Yeah, that was a good strategy, he hoped.
* ♥ *
Soarin stood on the sidewalk a decent twenty minutes outside Thunder’s house before he decided to go in. He had the comics, all superstallions and super editions. Stuff stallions enjoyed. Why he felt the need to choose that type had everything to do with what Cloudchaser had said to him.
“Quick, without thinking, who’s the person you love the most, the person you want to be with for the rest of your life? Don’t say anything. Just think it,” she’d said.
That was easy. Thunderlane. But then he did think about it. He thought about how she’d worded her questions. The person he loved most? There was nothing wrong with admitting that he loved his buddy. Celestia, they were like brothers. Brothers love each other. Not a big deal. But then her second question hit him between the eyes, and he’d known he was blushing on the phone. The person he wanted to be with for the rest of his life. That sounded… No, he couldn’t even think it, let alone say it.
That second answer had also been Thunderlane. Who did he go to whenever he had a problem? Thunderlane. Who knew him better than anyone else? Who did he spend most of his time with and who he made sure to visit every time after he finished a race? That was all normal, but then Cloudchaser had expounded on her claims. She’d asked him who he thought of in the morning when he woke up, and who was on his mind the last thing at night. Even when he was dating or Thunderlane was dating, they ended their days, every single night talking to each other. And the truth was Soarin had initiated each of those calls to his buddy, he had even thought about buying him a new phone so Thunder wouldn’t lose signal all the time.
He gritted his teeth as he walked up the path to his friend’s apartment for the second time today. Celestia sun was beginning to set and Luna’s moon began its climb into the soon to be starry night. He dug around in his saddlebag until he found his keys, Thunder had given a set to Soarin. Just in case Soarin ever needed a place to crash if he was racing in the neighborhood. That was no big deal, but Soarin had been surprised that he knew Thunder knew him so well. Now the full impact of that knowledge hit him as he rang the doorbell.
While he waited to be let in, he made a resolution. Whatever dumbass notions had gotten into him regarding his buddy, he would deal with them. He wasn’t going to lose his best friend because he’d gone all…
“Hey, snap out of it,” Thunderlane barked and turned to walk farther into the apartment, leaving the door open. Soarin sighed and followed. He picked up the scent of pizza and figured Thunder had ordered his favorite—extra cheese, pineapples, and mushrooms. Thunder liked his with just hay bacon.
They settled on opposite ends of the couch. Soarin tossed the comics on the table and grabbed a slice of pizza. Neither of them moved to grab a comic. When Soarin had stuffed down four slices, he decided he couldn’t put off talking about what Cloudchaser had said. She’d probably told Thunderlane he had a crush on him, so he needed to make it right.
“Look, about what Cloudchaser said,” he began.
“Forget it,” Thunder interrupted.
He was still grumpy, and he hadn’t eaten a thing. His mane which Soarin had always envied him for because it was brighter and straighter than his fluffy fair hair was wild on his head. Soarin had a sudden urge to try fixing it, and mentally bucked himself. His self-disgust went further when he noticed how hazel Thunder’s eyes were. They were always a richer, darker color when he was upset. Soarin groaned and dropped his head in his hooves.
“It’s not what you think,” Thunderlane shouted, jumping to his hooves. “She’s wrong.”
“No, it’s not what you think,” Soarin countered.
They fell to arguing, each trying to top the other. Soarin didn’t have a clue as to what his friend was saying. He was determined to get his point across. Years ago, they’d each learned that they had an affinity for debate and had been decent at it in flight school, of course that sort of thing was useless there. Soarin knew his friend wasn’t going to give an inch, but damn it, neither was he. He stood up.
“Stop being stubborn and listen to me, Thunder,” he shouted.
“Who’d listen to you yelling?” Thunderlane told him.
Soarin didn’t know who pushed who first, but they were suddenly in a shoving match. They’d fought before like two colts, wrestling each other to the floor and knocking over furniture. They were both big and muscular, having spent a number of hours in the sky together. They were each other’s opponent trying to beat each others times over and over again. Thunderlane thumped him in the chest, and Soarin pushed right back. They got up into each other’s faces, shouting. Someone knocked against the table, and the pizza box went flying, landing upside down on the carpet.
“You’re going to pay for that,” Thunder ground out.
Soarin sneered. “Why should I? You knocked it over.”
Thunder grabbed his arms with his hooves pushing back. Soarin twisted and knocked Thunderlane’s hold away. He charged his friend, and their chests met, mouths less than an inch apart. All the air left Soarin’s lungs in an instant. He stopped pushing, but so did THunderlane. He told himself to back off, to get some space between them, but he didn’t move. Then again, neither did his buddy.
They were way too close, chests heaving, breath warming each other’s faces. Soarin should have glared at Thunderlane to give him a signal to move if he couldn’t find words to speak, but all he did was look down at Thunder’s lips. Strong, thick lips, the bottom larger. Beyond them, Thunder’s jaw was strong and set. Soairn shouldn’t be thinking that. He should be the first to get over his anger and tease Thunder saying that he’d won the argument and the fight. Thunder should be sulking and then switching over into his superior attitude like Soarin was beneath his royal notice. That’s the game they played.
Instead, Soarin thought about how he wanted to see what it was like—to kiss a man. No…not any man. He wanted to kiss Thunder. This was all Cloudchaser’s fault. If he touched Thunderlane in the wrong way, nineteen years of friendship would be lost, and even as he liked to deny all she’d said to him, he thought losing Thunder would hurt a whole lot more than the handful of serious relationships he’d lost with mares in his past.
Don’t do anything, Soarin. Think about the friendship. Move back, sit down, and read a comic.
Soarin leaned closer and let his lips just touch Thunder’s bottom one. The lip was warm, softer than he’d expected. What shocked him was the pleasure he felt, the excitement in his groin. His cock shifted beneath him he felt his wings stiffen. If he moved now, Thunder would see that he’d gotten a hard-on in both areas from the kiss. What was he thinking? Things had already gone too far. He’d just kissed his best friend.
He finally found the strength to move back. They both stood there in front of the couch, staring straight ahead. Soarin was still hard, still wanting to taste his best friend. He closed his eyes, angry and disgusted. He hadn’t been thinking this way before, had he? Dropping onto the couch, he thought back to the times he’d had sex in the past. One after another, he had taken mares to bed. Only a few had been more serious, but that was times when he’d been determined to just find someone he could love, someone to distract him.
Distract me from what?
“Why’d you do that?” Thunderlane asked after some time.
“It was an accident.”
To his surprise, Thunder chuckled. He sank down on the couch beside Soarin, hooves resting on his thighs.
“Cloudchaser said—” he began.
Thunderlane pushed into his chest with both hooves, and shoved him back. Before Soarin could react, his friend’s lips were on his, tongue teasing to gain entry. Soarin couldn’t think straight let alone resist. He gasped, and Thunder’s tongue darted into his mouth. They kissed rough and wild. Thunder’s hold was punishing along with his mouth. But he tasted so good, Soarin couldn’t pull away. He tilted his head, and their noses bumped. The hair on Thunder’s face brushed his.
Yet Thunder pressed in closer.
Which of them moaned, he wondered as he drew Thunder’s lower lip between his. He licked at the moist softness. Thunder let go of his chest but only to brace Soarin’s shoulders back against the chair and crush his chest into Soarin’s. Soarin’s cock was on fire to play his wings extended behind them he felt them stiffen so much it started to hurt. But maybe this was just a kissing trial. Maybe Thunderlane was just getting back at him for doing what he did.
Soarin shoved back at his friend and finally wedged space between them. Thunderlane dropped into his seat, panting. Soarin did the same as he struggled to put his wings down before Thunder noticed. He peeked at his buddy and found him running a hoof through his mane staring at his outstretched wings. Without even thinking, Soarin touched it too, letting the silky softness run across his hoof.
Soarin yelped and flew up. In two wing beats he was on the other side of the room near the windows. “I don’t know what happened just now.” Thunder didn’t say a word, so he went on. “Cloudchaser said some things to me. I think she brainwashed me with her suggestions that…”
“That I want you?” Thunder asked. “That I would welcome your kisses.”
His tone was cold and angry. Soarin faced the window and rested his forehead on the cool glass his mane covering his eyes. They hadn’t even pulled the blinds or closed the curtains. The world could have viewed what they’d done. Shame washed over him.
“No, not that you want me, but that I want you. I’m sorry, buddy. I should probably go.”
“Wait.”
Thunder’s voice came from directly behind him, and he jumped but didn’t turn around. Soarin’s entire being was aware of Thunderlane right now, and he wished he could take it all back.
“You’re saying she told you, you want me?” Thunder asked.
“Yeah.”
Thunder cursed. “She told me I want you, that she’s known it for a while, and she was waiting for me to figure it out. She said knowing me, I’d never make a move, so she had to get it going.”
Soarin whirled to face him. He was close enough to step into his arms again, but Soarin resisted. “She’s wrong about you. I know you better than anyone else. I’d know if you were like that.”
Thunderlane frowned. “I’m not gay.” He looked down at the floor as if he was puzzling over the situation, and then he met Soarin’s gaze. “I need to know. Was she wrong telling me you want me, Soarin?”
“I-I’m not sure.”
“Tell me the truth, damn it,” Thunderlane insisted.
Soarin tore at his mane. “It’s natural, right? For a stallion to want to experiment? So many are doing it. I’m not weird to want to see what it’s like to kiss you. That’s all.”
“Just to kiss me?”
“Damn it, Thunder, I’m doing all the confessing here!”
Thunderlane smiled. Soarin found himself struck by those eyes again, by that handsome face. He glanced at Thunderlane’s lips. They were deep rose now from their rough kisses. He remembered the taste. He shouldn’t want anymore. They’d kissed a lot. Their chests had rubbed hard together. That was more than enough seeing what it was like with another stallion.
“She wasn’t wrong,” Thunder admitted. “I wanted to know too. But I wanted a lot more than a kiss. I’ve…” He hesitated. “At the risk of losing everything, I’ll say this. I wanted to go all the way.”
Soarin’s eyes widened. “You mean…”
He had visions of two male bodies, jutting together, one stallion with his cock rammed up the other stallion’s ass. He shivered, not sure if that excited him or horrified him. Everyone knew what it entailed for two stallions to have sex.
Thunder nodded. “Yeah, I never really admitted it to myself until she said it, and then I realized I’d been wanting it for a long time. I don’t know if I’m bi or if I want to continue with that kind of thing—I mean other than you—I just, well, I want to with you. If you don’t, that’s fine.”
“Other than me.” Soarin repeated Thunderlane’s words like a robot. A niggle of jealousy squeezed his chest. If they did this, and Thunder liked it, he might decide to take other stallions as his lovers. Soarin didn’t want that. He didn’t want any other stallion touching Thunderlane, but if he let on that his feelings went deeper than he first thought or that his friend knew about, he’d blow everything.
He hadn’t admitted as much as Thunder had. Cloudchaser had made him see that Thunderlane meant a lot more to him than just some test. The more he thought about it, the more he realized Thunderlane was everything to him. He had been running from mare to mare, forcing an occasional commitment from himself, all because what he really wanted was the stallion in front of him. He loved Thunderlane. He was in love with him and had been for years yet he had never come to that realization till now.
A shout from behind them caught their attention. They both looked, and Soarin recognized Thunderlane’s neighbor Flower Blossom. They waved, and Thunder moved away. He bent to clean up the spilled pizza while Soarin watched him.
“You’re right,” he said, “This is a big risk for both of us. Not just about our friendship either. All of your neighbors, ponies we see around town—most importantly our families might come to find out. Even if it’s one time, it’s a big decision you know?”
Thunderlane dumped the mess on the coffee table and straightened up. “True. How about we give it some more thought now that we’ve come out in the open about it.” His face colored. “Probably should look into how…uh…you know.”
Soarin laughed. “Yeah, how.”
“I guess we know how,” Thunder said, reddening even more. “A few days?”
Soarin nodded. “I should go.”
He headed to the front door with Thunderlane behind him. He’d come back later for the comics, or Thunder could return them to him later. At the door he looked back to say one more thing when Thunderlane kissed him. Soarin moved into his buddy’s out stretched arms and they held each other around the waist. Because they were about the same height, their cocks rubbed together. This time Soarin knew it was him moaning, but Thunderlane soon echoed it.
He left Thunder’s delicious mouth and kissed along his rugged jaw line. Thunder put a couple inches between them only to use it to stroke Soarin’s cock. Soarin growled with need, but forced himself to stay in control. He pushed Thunder back gently.
“Time,” he rasped. “We need to think about this clearly when we’re not all over each other.”
Thunderlane looked at the ground “You’re right. I’m sorry.”
Soarin opened the door and fled. He had to get out of there because if he knew nothing else, he knew being intimate with Thunderlane was about making love to him, not just sweaty hot sex.