"...Swimming? Everypony can swim, Caramel. Why do ya look so nervous?"
Caramel can't swim, and with summer almost arriving, and a holiday with Mac to look forward to, it's up to Sassaflash to change that. Can the shy guy learn to swim without looking like a drowning chicken in just a week? Will Sassaflash pocket a substantial amount of money from a bet with Thunderlane? Can the author ever learn to write comedy? Read and find out!
A young, 20-ish man named Caramel woke up, his hair a disaster and the covers of his bed presently residing in a ball on the floor. As usual. Said covers were decorated with small apple motifs which had almost faded away, but Caramel couldn't bring himself to replace them or, at the very least, buy some newer ones - a) because he'd had them since he was a small boy and if anyone were to catch a full-grown man such as himself buying bed covers for a child he'd never live it down, and b), because they reminded him of - *sigh!* - his...his...oh! His boyfriend!
Caramel blushed profusely and smiled shyly. He still turned red at even the very thought, but that was only because he was shy. Even better to have a guy like Big Macintosh, since the two were both so very quiet. At first it had been rather awkward, but then they had learned how to fill the silences with light conversation, cuddles - another blush - and, eventually, kisses. Among other things...
He sighed happily and tumbled off the bed, falling face-first in a pile of duvet, and quickly got up. As much as he wanted to spend the whole day thinking about the fun and laughter they'd had together, he had things to do, like, for starters, actually getting out of his bedroom.
Caramel stood in the kitchen of his small Ponyville home and stared blankly at the pot of stew in front of him, one tan hand resting against his chin and the other tucked into the pocket of his much-too-long apron.
"This can't be right," he muttered, "it's more soup than stew. I can practically-no I can see the bottom of the pan! Why do I bother..."
Still muttering, he plucked the phone from its holder on the wall and dialed Mac's number.
"Pick up the phone, pick up- oh, hello?"
"Hiya! Izzat Caramel callin'?" It was Applebloom.
"Yup."
"Then, Ah'm guessin' y'all wanna talk ta Mac?"
"Yup."
"Ya know, if ya keep sayin' that ya might turn into Mac 'imself - Hello?" Mac swiped the phone from Applebloom's hands.
"Oh, hey Mac!" Caramel's tone changed immediately.
"Anythin' Ah can help ya with, Mel?"
"Well, you see, I was just cooking some stew, but it's really, er, quite see-through at the moment...It's like water."
Mac chuckled. Trust someone like Caramel to mess up a simple stew - he remembered the time he'd come to his house for dinner. A huge mistake, they'd ended up calling for pizza, but Mac wouldn't want Caramel any other way. He suggested that maybe some flour would thicken up the stew. Caramel thanked him and went to put the phone down, but Mac stopped him.
"Uh, Mel, wait. Ah was meanin' to talk to ya."
"Oh? What about?"
"Well, at the farm business has been good lately, an' Applejack suggested that maybe Ah should take ya somewhere nice for th' summer." Applejack would, he thought. That crazy orange sister of his, Mac had found at the start of his relationship with Caramel, was quite the teenage girl at heart. She'd followed them around for about a week, though her friend Rarity had tried to drag her away, insisting that she give them some privacy.
"..Oh! That sounds really nice!"
"So, ya would be up for it then?"
"Yeah...um, yes!"
Mac grinned.
"That's good, then, 'cus Ah've already booked a place."
"Oh." The tan one's voice dropped.
"We leave in a week."
"Uh-huh."
"And we'll be stayin' in a nice little hotel in Baltimare."
"Okay."
Caramel stood, staring out of the window, dazed.
"...Is somethin' wrong, Mel? Ah mean, Ah can always book another place if ya want me to."
He snapped out of his trance, realizing how uninterested he'd just sounded.
"Er-r no! No, it's f-fine, honest, I just...I mean...with you, but I...um, thanks. I love it..." He trailed off quietly, a small blush gracing his cheeks.
"Alright then. We'll be stayin' there for a week, and the room's got a nice view o' the beach, so we might be able ta go swimmin' if the weather's nice enough. I'll be goin', then. Love ya, bye!"
A dead tone sounded from the phone, and slowly Caramel put it down. Flashes of the conversation they'd just had danced around in his mind. Nice view of the beach. Might be able to go swimming. Near the sea...near the water. His face drained of color.
Mac has said they might go swimming. In the sea. In water...
Sassaflash awoke to find herself balanced precariously on the diving board in the pool in her garden, wearing a dangerously low number of clothes and all of 2 inches away from tumbling into the water below. Slowly, she oh-so-carefully shifted onto her stomach and gripped the board with both of her turquoise hands, and shimmied rather ungracefully backwards, until her feet met the metal rungs of the ladder and she was able to climb down to safety. She knew from numerous past experiences that it never did any good to try flying in a morning - not when you had a headache like this and could barely feel your wings, let alone use them.
Just when she was about to open her back door (thank heavens it was unlocked) and was seemingly safe from any sort of ridicule, she heard a voice behind her.
"Nice plot."
Turning sharply behind her, Sassaflash saw her boyfriend Thunderlane lying on a deckchair in the corner of her garden, wearing sunglasses and an open light blue Hawaiian shirt, topped off with grey shorts and flip flops, his dark grey wings spread either side of him. She blushed heavily and quickly looked down to see that she was wearing the shortest, tightest pair of shorts she owned. Of course. Then the pounding in her head came back and she dropped to her knees with a jerk.
"Oooh...how much did I drink last night?" Sassa's voice sounded like a bag of rocks in a tumble dryer and her throat felt as smooth as sandpaper.
"I don't know. You passed out before I got to ask. Lucky that everyone went home before I found you, huh? But, oh what a shame that they missed out on - well, that." He pointed to her butt, barely bothering to conceal the amused smirk on his face. "Seemed like the party was a success, though." He lay back a little further and put his hands behind his head, focusing on soaking up the rays.
Sassaflash was about to question what the party was even for, but then she felt it trickle slowly back into her brain. Thunderlane watched his girlfriend as she sat there with a rather cute, dozed expression on her face. It had been their friend Noteworthy's 25th birthday, and they celebrated with a large party and plenty of booze. Thunderlane still didn't know how the normally cautious musician had managed to stay, no less fall asleep, on one of the white-painted rafters in their tall house. Even with someone to lift him up, only pegasi could get up there. Someone must have flown him up - and he had seen Blossomforth leave with her lipstick smudged. Nice catch, he thought.
"How can you not be hungover? Last thing I remember was you doing shots with Noteworthy - you looked completely smashed!" She stumbled to her feet again.
"Well, either Noteworthy's a lightweight, which he is, or I was less smashed than you, which I was. It doesn't matter." He got up and hugged Sassaflash gently, burying his face in her blue wings and nuzzling them gently. "Morning, Sassy." Thunderlane said with a smile in his voice. All of the emotions between them evaporated and instead were replaced with a single fuzzy feeling.
"Morning."
"What are your plans for today? Gonna keep wearing those lovely, lovely shorts of yours?" He pulled back slightly, still smiling.
"Maybe I would if it was just you and me, but I've got some shopping to do." Thunderlane groaned. "Still - maybe later." This time she adopted a sultry expression, before licking his nose and announcing she was going to take a shower. He stood, dismayed for a moment, before smiling fondly.
"So, let me get this straight."
"Uh..."
Two people stood still among an ever flowing gush of others trying to get at the bargains of the day. They stood there, in the middle of the market, one getting increasingly confused and the other increasingly nervous.
"You booked a holiday..." the blue one took a step forward, wings flaring slightly.
"In Baltimare, seaside city of paradise..." Meanwhile, the other person - red in color - nervously stepped back slightly. He wasn't easily intimidated, but in this case he made an exception. The rather irate-looking woman stood before him had a knack of shattering the most resolute of people, him especially. She knew exactly where to push and how hard to make him uncomfortable, knew all of his weak spots. How, he'd never know.
"With no regard whatsoever as to Caramel's deathly fear of water?!" Sassaflash took a larger step forward, one of her hands on her hip and the other poking Mac in the chest, with a shopping bag. To an outsider it would have been comical, such a small woman weighed down with several shopping bags intimidating the tallest guy around for miles, but to Mac, it was scary.
Very, very scary. He opened one eye with tremendous courage and immediately closed it again. She was staring straight at him with those fierce orange eyes, and he was sure that if he opened his eyes now, he would see them staring into his soul.
"Ah...ah didn't know...he neva said he didn't like th' water!" Mac tried, opening his eyes just a teeny weeny bit.
She stepped back. "You didn't know...huh...when do you leave?" Her attitude changed so quickly from beyond angry to completely calm, Mac wondered if it had all been a guise. But then again, he reminded himself that Sassaflash was very protective of Caramel, almost motherly. To her, Caramel was as close as the brother she had never had.
Mac stood up straight again, internally sighing that she wasn't about to burn his house down, and replied that they would leave in a week.
"A week, huh...well, you know there's only one thing for it."
"...An' what would that be?"
"I'll have to teach him."
"Pardon'? For a second there Ah thought you said that-"
"I'll teach him, yes."
"Wha-? Bu-"
"Over the holidays I teach kids to swim at the local pool, and you won't find anyone else who he'll be comfortable with, nor will you be able to book anyone, and I'll do it for free, so why not? You leave in a week. I've taught hundreds of kids to swim. Caramel shouldn't be a problem at all."
Indeed, the fact that Caramel was repeatedly telling himself was correct; the thin wooden structure before him was, in fact, just a door. Its primary use was to open and close, allowing people to travel under its frame with ease. Its unofficial secondary use was, in its owner's case (its owner being his friend, Sassaflash), as a cushion for anyone who just so happened to have the misfortune of irritating her should they happen to be inside her house at the time. How many times he'd seen this happen, Caramel couldn't count.
It's just a door. Open it.
To this thought he sub-consciously added an instruction - open it. It was simple enough for even the youngest child to understand, yet why could he not act upon these few words? What was blocking him?
Ah, yes. He gulped. Fear.
He thanked Celestia herself that his friend's house was on the edge of town, because if anyone was to see him stood there, shaking and slightly pale under his tan skin, they would surely laugh. It wasn't the door that scared him, oh no, it was the thought of what lay beyond the door, of what would come if he were to open the door. And then, the door opened.
Caramel snapped out of his thoughts, and a spike of fear shot through his brain.
Thunderlane leaned against the door frame and internally sighed. Poor guy. He looked pale, he was trembling and was staring a rather large hole in the ground.
"I figured I'd open the door, since you didn't look like you'd be doing it."
"...hello..."
Thunderlane sighed. His friend could be really silly sometimes.
"C'mon, Caramel. You'll be fine. She ain't gonna tease you." He said in a softer tone, abandoning the small smile on his face when he saw that the person before him was starting to shake harder and looked as if he'd burst into tears. Why he was so afraid of the water, he couldn't even begin to guess, but if it was tearing him apart this much Thunderlane knew he'd need as much support as possible.
And maybe a hug.
Caramel almost yelped in surprise as he was pulled tightly into Thunderlane's chest, his strong grey arms wrapping around his body with ease.
"S'okay, Caramel."
And with that, the smaller of the two stretched to put rest his head on Thunderlane's shoulder, sobbing rather violently and not really caring about the mess he was making on Thunderlane's T-Shirt. Owner of said T-Shirt did his best not to think of what his girlfriend would say later when it went in the wash and focused on comforting his friend. They stayed there for a while, just standing and hugging, until Caramel finally opened his eyes and gave one, final sniff. And then he saw Sassaflash, standing behind them and leaning against the wall, watching.
"You damn stupid couple!" She cried.
"Aah! I-I mean-no it's-you see-!" Caramel spluttered, jumping away from Thunderlane, blushing and waving his hands about frantically as he tried to explain. The overall effect was really adorable.
"You were watching?" Thunderlane said casually above Caramel's frantic spluttering.
"Yeah. You guys are cute together. I'll write-"
"Don't you dare write creepy fiction about us. I'll burn it."
"Not before I show it to Mac." She walked past him with a smile and gave Caramel a crushing hug, instantly shutting off his rambling and also his airways.
"Caramel, so good to see you! Come in, come in. Coffee?" The two house owners before him laughed charmingly, and, without waiting for a response, the poor man was whisked away into the house of the two stood before him, helpless to do anything but wave his hands frantically as he was hurried towards what would surely be his inevitable demise.
"So, I trust you brought swimming trunks, yes?"
The sudden question broke the silence and made Caramel jump a little, causing his coffee to almost spill. Why am I so jumpy today?
"Er - I didn't have any..."
"Hm. I thought as much. You can borrow some of Thunderlane's - they shouldn't be too big."
The two chatted amiably for a while, though while Sassaflash's side of the conversation was natural, Caramel was trying his hardest to kill as much time as possible. Perhaps there was a storm planned today? He sneaked a glance outside. Nope. The sky was clear and Celestia's sun was reflecting beautifully off the water of his friends' swimming pool. Curses. He continued to stall the conversation as much as possible.
Sassa began to notice that Caramel looked to become increasingly nervous as time went on. His face drained a little more with every sentence, and he began to stammer a little more. She decided right there and then to end the conversation and get on with the task at hand - teaching Caramel to swim a little more than a couple of meters before next week.
"Right. To the pool, huh?"
She tilted her head and smiled.
Caramel gulped.
"Okay."
Caramel looked up to the sky, seeing a few winged figures flitting about here and there, beating the clouds out of existence, as if to say, Oh no, you are GOING to learn to swim. Despite the pleasant weather, he was still hugging himself, being too bony to hold any significant warmth. And another thing - the shorts he'd had to borrow. They were miles too large! He'd had to use several safety pins to pull them in enough so that they stayed on his waist, lest they do otherwise...
He sat himself on the edge of a deckchair, too nervous to relax properly, and waited for his friend to come out. However, mere moments later she emerged from the back door, wearing a plain white swimming costume that contrasted brilliantly with her blue skin and orange eyes, though Caramel could not see them well for the sun's glare. Her wings seemed to glisten lightly, and Caramel assumed that she'd rubbed them with oil to help keep them waterproof. She sat down by the edge of the pool and began to swirl her feet around in the water, looked at him, smiling, and patted the space beside her with a hand.
He got up from his spot on the chair and sat down next to her, gently placing his feet into the water, which was warm from the sun.
"So," Sassa began, "are we gonna get in the pool? Or are we gonna admire our feet all day?" There was a smile to her voice.
Caramel tried a nervous laugh. "I-I guess I don't really have a choice, huh..." However, he continued to stare at the water, making no move to do anything while Sassaflash slid gently into the water.
"Oh - there's a ladder over there." She motioned to it, and he awkwardly splashed into the water and drifted over to her side, shivering despite the warmth of the water.
"So, the first thing we're gonna learn is basic front stroke, okay? That'll teach you breathing and stuff, and then we'll go onto back stroke, and then breast stroke, but we might not fit that in so we might have to do it another time. We'll possibly learn butterfly but I doubt you'll need that for the beach. Obviously, we won't fit it all in in one lesson, but we've got a whole week so we can pick days that suit you, and-" She was suddenly cut off by Caramel.
"Sass," he looked away from her and lowered his head, speaking quietly, "i-it's not that I don't know how to, uh, swim, but...I-I just can't."
Sassaflash blinked and looked at him. "Can't?..." she softened her voice, sensing that it was some sort of personal problem that meant he couldn't swim. "why, Mel?"
"...not after last time..." he mumbled.
She didn't say anything, and there was a long pause. Caramel sighed quietly and looked up a little, facing the other side of the pool. Was is that she had never seen it before, or did his skinny body look a little more...delicate than normal? Like it might break at the slightest touch...He gulped and started to speak.
"...when...when I was 7, I went through a, a period of ill health. For the longest time I couldn't eat anything more than dry toast and water, and I spent most of my days indoors. It was about that time that the other kids in my class were learning how to swim.
"Anyway, after I got over my illness, I returned to school to find my classmates could handle the water with swan-like ease, and I hadn't even begun to learn. My teacher was...she was very helpful in the fact that while the rest of the class were doing simple lengths, she would take me aside to the shallow end of the pool and teach me herself to swim. But I only got a couple of lessons before I was expected to swim with the rest of the class, and I...I couldn't. I guess, looking back now, that it would only be expected of me that I couldn't swim with as much confidence as they had after just a couple of lessons.
"I began to dread school. I tried to find ways around the days where I'd have swimming lessons, because of the looks I'd get and the whispers I'd hear, and the fact that no-one would partner up with me for races because I was too slow and couldn't go two meters without putting my foot on the bottom. Even my friends would ignore me in swimming lessons. Eventually, it got too much, and I became ill again. I was off for about...little under a month, I guess. I heard my parents saying one night that something had to be done otherwise I'd just be ill all the time.
"I eventually became well again. And when I got back, my teacher took me aside and told me that I'd be spending my swimming lessons helping carry things or mopping up the floor. I was only too happy, but I noticed that no-one would talk to me anymore. Whatever they'd done, whatever they'd said, it had worked all too well...I-I haven't swum a length in y-years..."
There was silence for a time. Caramel felt a mental weight lift off his shoulders, and looked over to see Sassaflash sniffling into her swimsuit.
"Uh-! A-are you okay?!" She nodded and leaped at him, sniffing and sobbing over-dramatically.
"H-how awful!" She wrapped her arms around in him in a vice-like grip, but then let go a little and smiled at him. "Aw. You're so cute, Caramel. Don't worry - I'm sure you only need to brush up on your skills, so it shouldn't take that long. Shall we get started?" She asked.
Caramel smiled back at her and nodded.
"Yes."
They spent about two hours going over the basic strokes and targeting areas that needed improvement. About halfway through, Thunderlane came out and began to giggle at Caramel in his large shorts, which in turn lead to a water fight. The three spent many hours more laughing and playing under the sun, although they had to get out eventually from sheer exhaustion. It was at 5:30 that Mac finally came round to pick his boyfriend up. They stood in the doorway of Sassa and Thunderlane's home, saying their goodbyes.
"Can I not stay a little longer, Mac?" Caramel whined.
"Nope. Ah left yer dinner on the cooker, and ah don't want it gettin' burned. Now come on." He turned to face the pair in their house. "Thanks fer teachin' him, Sass, Ah really don't know what Ah'd do without y'all."
Sassaflash smiled. "No problem. Next lesson in two days, 'kay? And you better have swimming trunks by then that actually fit you." She said, remembering with a smile the sight of Caramel, as skinny as he was, looking rather swamped in Thunderlane's shorts. "Anyway, you'd better get home before your tea burns, Mel. See you in two days!"
The pair waved, said their goodbyes and walked away.
"So, are y'all ready for our holiday?" Mac asked Caramel, still walking.
The latter of the two turned towards the other, and instead of words he gave Mac a small kiss on the cheek, making him smile wider and blush slightly.
