What Happens In Manehattan...
When You're Done Running, Say 'No'
Featherweight reluctantly stepped in through the doorway, watching as the world went dark as the door behind him slammed shut and any chance of him changing his mind disappearing behind it. He stared at the door, his hooves shaking slightly.
Before him was a short hallway, silhouetted by a faint red glow with the distant sounds of giggles and gasps muffled in the distance. An audible gulp from was the only sound before he began my dissent further down the hallway and deeper into the ominous red glow. He finally stepped up to the second door, a tiny sign faded by time read 'watch your step' stared right back at him.
With a shuttering breath, he reached out and opened the door, and was instantly hit in the face by the pungent scent of alcohol and other toxins. The site before him was one I've heard Snips describe of his dream house, childish illusions of mares across his lap, cigar smoke tinting and tainting the air around you with a sick grey.
Other than the obvious whorses, whom made no haste to ignore Featherweight following his entrance, Snips and Snails sat on one of the dark couches holding drinks and scandalously appearing mares.
"Hey, hey!" Snips cheered, raising a glass. "Look who finally decided to show up!"
Featherweight could taste the foulness of the air, walking over towards his friends and shying away from the sitting mares reaching out to him with their socked hooves. "Y-Yeah...here I, uh, am." His confidence as visible as the air freshener in the room, his face a turning a deep crimson.
"This place is awesome!" Snails said, followed by the giggle of the mare on his lap.
Awesome. I show up with the only two shameless colts I know and some how that exclamation is still lost on me.. Featherweight grinned, nervously.
"Say..." Snips grinned, turning to the mare in his lap. "I think our friend here needs some company."
The only company that I needed had left nearly minutes ago, that or the bed I slept in the hour before.
"Why don't you two find yourselves someplace nice and uh-" He pulled out a bag of bits, placing it in the hooves of the mare. "-quiet?"
"No problem, cutie." Her perky voice, shrouded in the filth of her profession brought Featherweight no comfort as she stood away from Snips and approached him. She reached out and held a hoof to his chin, her strong scent leaving his throat a desert wasteland. "No need to be shy...follow me."
Her hoof left Featherweight's bright red face as she passed, allowing him to release the breath he didn't know he held.
That's when something tugged at his hoof. He turned back to the couch, Snips reaching into his coat and placing an item in his hoof.
"Ya know, just as a safety precaution." He winked, nodding towards the direction the mare went.
The condom burned in Featherweight's hoof, setting fire to his already inflamed face and his final opportunity to leave. "Now don't just stand there!" Snips urged him. "Or are you just a wimp?"
Featherweight turned to where the mare waited by the hall, his stomach tied into a slipknot as he trudged over to join her and further down the hall.
His mouth was as dry as a desert, the lump in his throat refusing to go down and threatening to choke him as the mare led Featherweight down the lone hallway. They passed doors baring numbers, the stallion from the door came down the opposite end of the hall. As he slipped by them, he took a second glance at Featherweight, tutting and shaking his head.
They rounded a corner and she him into a darkly lit room. Featherweight yelped as he was tossed onto the lone bed as the mare turned to close the door. Cold silk met his fur as the mare's figure moved in the darkness. He jumped when he felt a hoof press against one of his hind legs, then again when the mare crawled on top of him and stroked his chest.
She let out a sigh in the darkness. "You're a shy one, I can tell. Well there's no need to be."
Her voice, sultry and soft she leaned down and nuzzle Featherweight's neck. Her hooves seemed to have minds of their own as they slid up to the neck of his jacket and licking the zipper into her teeth. In a slow motion, she slid down his body, groping him and unzipping the only barrier between his body and hers.
This is messed up... Featherweight paced in his mind, his eyes shut tight. This. Is. So. Messed up!
Once finished, she pulled opened Featherweight's sweat jacket and rubbed his chest. Featherweight grimaced at the sensation, his limbs frozen under the mare's acts.
His heart raced, the excitement getting rejected physically by his body as the mare crawled back up to face him. Her warm breath hinting nicotine and cider greeted Featherweight's nostrils and his stomach turned.
"Shh...is this your first?" She asked, a hoof stroking his now pale cheek. Featherweight gave no response, his jaw clenched tight refusing to shake. "Now now, it's alright...I think its quite cute."
Her words didn't matter and had no effect on me. I could feel part of myself dying as she groped and nicked my innocence away.
My face was hot, I bit my bottom hard as she went on. "I promise to be gentle...just go with it."
As the mare's rouge lips touched Featherweights, a snapshot image invaded his mind.
And that's when he knew what he had to do.
Featherweight's eyes shot opened, his hooves extending out and pushing the mare off as he sat up and rolled off the bed, gasping for air.
"Oh my!" He heard her exclaim, leaping off the bed and running to his side. "Are you alright? I wasn't too much was I?"
I've got to get out of here... He thought, panting quick before standing to his hooves and running out of the room. He flinched as he heard the door slam against the wall, bolting back down the hall and through the room where Snails and Snips still sat.
"Whoa, whoa!" Snips stood up, rushing over. "What the hay happened, did ya kill her?"
Featherweight barred his teeth, turning to Snips. "I'm not doing this."
"Are you really bitching out?" Snips asked, annoyed. "We came all this way for what, Rumble getting you to back outta this?"
Featherweight narrowed his sight on the unicorn. "What did you just..."
Snails tutted, waving a hoof. "Can you believe he tried to get us to back out of this, man?"
Snips sighed. "I know, saying all this crap about how its bucked up or whatever. He's just mad that there aren't any stallions that work here."
"W-What?" Featherweight stared, nearly dropping the condom.
Snips shook his head. "What, he didn't tell you himself yet? Wow, and after all the fuss about not telling you about this."
Snips shrugged. "Dude's gay, Feathy. And by my guess, he didn't want us to take you here because he's gay for you."
A shattering plate of glass fell a hundred flights in Featherweight's head, a freeze frame of Rumble flying away from him, hitting him in his core. "You threatened to tell-"
"Tell everybody." Snips said, waving a hoof. "But that doesn't matter right now." He said, standing up and placing a hoof on Featherweight's now shaking shoulder. "What is important is that mare waiting in the back with your name all over her."
Featherweight's eyes narrowed, swatting Snips's hoof away from him. "Whoa! What's your problem?"
"Guess!" Featherweight snapped, pushing the unicorn back against the couch and Snails as he stormed off towards the exit.
"Featherweight?!" He heard them call, but his hooves and wings wouldn't stop. His heart pounding in his chest, Featherweight burst through the front door of the brothel and turned back down the street towards the hotel.
Featherweight flew as fast as he could down the streets of Manehattan, his throat and stomach burned as he looked up and down the streets. His eyes scanned the many ponies still walking the sidewalks late into the night, the bright lights of the street lamps, shops and buildings proving difficult to find his friend
Eventually, he finally found him. Featherweight spotted Rumble standing outside a restaurant a few blocks from the hotel alone, unaware he was closing in on him. Featherweight landed right in front of him, causing Rumble to jump back against the wall and yell.
"Whoa!" He screamed, earning weird looks from passing ponies. "What the-" He took a closer look at the panting pegasus. "What the hay happened back there?!"
"You didn't tell me?!" Featherweight stomped. "Much less talked to me about it!..."
"Tell you what?" Rumble asked, holding Featherweight up.
Featherweight stopped to catch his breath. "Snips told me...everything. How you didn't want me to go through with it, because you..."
Rumble stopped, slowly realizing what had happened. "Alright, alright." He pulled Featherweight off the sidewalk and into a nearby alley away from onlookers.
He turned to Featherweight, crossing his hooves. "Okay, so I probably owe you an expla-"
"Why did you run off that night?!" Featherweight snapped. "Why, after all the time I've known you up to this point, all we've been through, did it take Snips trying to whore me out to a whorse for you to tell me how you feel?"
Rumble opened his mouth to speak, but he was cut off by Featherweight's continued ranting.
Not only that, you go ahead and avoid me!" He poked at Rumble chest, watching him flinch. "You know how that made me feel? If you were confused, fine but at least show me that you aren't just dropping me so you can go hang out with your marefriend-"
"It's not like that!" Rumble stomped. "Yeah, how I've acted towards you the past few days held no merit but..." he stopped, rubbing his forehead. "It's-"
"Don't you play the bucking complicated game again!" Featherweight stepped away, shaking his head. "Did you say yes?"
"Feath-"
"Did. You. Say. Yes?" His gaze narrowed, Rumble shrinking under his sudden change from the weaker pegasus.
Rumble's guard failed, taking a step forward. "Feath, I-"
"Don't bucking Feath me, either!" He shouted. "Back on the cloud, I...I..." Featherweight fell back on his haunches, his head bent forward. "Why didn't you tell me?"
...And silence. Painful, bitter, weighted silence. The two pegasi stood alone in the alley, a flickering light above spotlighting the shattering stage Rumble then found himself, standing before his broken friend.
Just before Featherweight could even look up, the distance between him and Rumble was closed save the few inches as he was brought lifted up on to his hind legs, Rumble holding him against himself.
"I'm sorry." Rumble choked, holding the broken down pegasus in his hooves. "I'm sorry, okay? I was confused. After Scootaloo asked me out, I..."
Featherweight's heart was going crazy, the warmth of Rumble's breath on neck sent shivers down his spine. "I don't know how to say it." He sighed, pulling away from Featherweight, bringing them muzzle to muzzle.
Featherweight shuddered as he looked into Rumble's eyes. "Just...when we leave here, from back on the cloud...what are we?"
Rumble gazed into Featherweight's hazel eyes for what he felt was years, the pale pegasi's brown mane hung off to the side. He breathed in deep, taking in his friend's scent and closing his own eyes before he spoke. "No."
Featherweight blinked, stray tears sliding down his cheeks. "Wha..?"
Rumble smirked. "No...Actually, the words I think I used were-" He mock cleared his throat. "-I couldn't, because there was something I had to know."
Featherweight shook his head, disbelief filling his mind with his hooves at Rumble's shoulders and his eyes lost in his. "W-What?"
Flash. Like a picture being taken, Featherweight's mind was in complete whiteness as Rumble closed the distance between them and kissed him.
His heart was on fire. The warmth of Rumble wrapping his hooves around him, the overall nirvana that had washed over him in the moments of the kiss, the forcefulness of it causing a shiver to run up his spine. Featherweight wrapped his hooves around Rumble's neck and pushed back into the kiss, opening his lips and pushed Rumble's tongue back with his own.
He was Featherweight's first and then second kiss. And hopefully every after.
Every laugh we shared, every hoof bump, every joke, every single occasion or time they shared together came together and morphed into each other like a puzzle piece. Any skip of heart beat and pit in Featherweight's stomach, it was all made clear to him in that moment.
Both were out of breath when they pulled away from each other, their lips separating and leaving a trail of saliva between them.
He grinned, panting. "And now I do."
Featherweight, blushing and breathless, could only laugh. He leaned in and rested his head on Rumble's shoulder, nuzzling his chest.
Rumble tightened his hold on him. "We should probably get back to the hotel..." He pulled away, looking his friend in the eyes. "Ya know, before we get in even more trouble than we already are in?"
Featherweight sighed, laying a hoof on his chest. "I...alright."
Featherweight laid motionless in his hotel bed, under the covers with hooves atop each other resting on his chest. He watched them rise and fall with his breathing. Finding sleep had become a challenge, his mind proving difficult to slow down as the night's events played itself on rapid loop.
He sat up, hearing a light tapping on his window. Featherweight stood up and out of bed and walked over to the window, opening the curtains and staring wide eyed back at the flying Rumble, holding a bottle of what looked like discount soda from his hotel room.
Featherweight pushed opened his window, smiling at the pegasus. "What are you doing here?"
Rumble shrugged. "Not star gazing, let me in."
Featherweight stood aside as Rumble came in through the window and landed beside him, grabbing the pale pegasus and pulling him towards the bed. "Whoa, wait a minute!"
Rumble chuckled, sitting on the edge of the bed with Featherweight besides him. "So...I wanted to tell you something."
"O-Okay." Featherweight said, scooting to sit closer to his object of affection. "Shoot."
"I talked to Scootaloo." Rumble grinned, only to grimace seconds after. "She's kinda...upset."
Featherweight stared.
"Miffed."
"..."
"Okay, she's pissed." Rumble sighed. "So If you don't mind, I'm just gonna hide in here for a bit." He grinned, wrapping a hoof around Featherweight's shoulders.
Featherweight blushed, leaning against Rumble. "Not at all...wait." He said, turning to Rumble. "What did you tell her?"
Rumble shrugged. "Just that I wasn't interested and what I wanted to know turned out true." He said, a smile growing on his lips. "So now I'm taken."
Featherweight started to sweat. "Did you tell her who would be taking her spot?"
"Maybe."
When Featherweight responded with silence, Rumble stopped. Slowly but surely, the realization came to him and a look of horror grew on his face. "...She doesn't know what room you're in, does she?"
And in the silence that followed, there were three knocks.
The End...?
What Happens In Manehattan...
"What's wrong, Rumble? You're acting weird."
"It's complicated."
A snort involuntarily left my muzzle and my hoof snapped to it in an attempt to prevent its escape, only for Rumble to give me a stare. "What's so funny?"
I tried a smile. "N-Nothing! Heh, it's just...that's lame."
He rolled his eyes, laying back onto the cloud. "Whatever, I never thought your problems were lame."
"Come on, man. I didn't mean it that way...I never said your problems were lame."
He let out a breath, closing his eyes. "It's about Scootaloo, alright?" He finally said.
I rose my head from the cloud, laying beside him. "What about her?"
He grimaced, placing a hoof over his eyes. "She...she asked me out after you left."
My heart skipped a beat. "Did she?"
He scratched his head. "Yeah. Like...she was saying how I don't really go out and she doesn't go out, and thought 'hey, maybe we should go out'."
I laid there, simply staring at him as he stared off towards the sky. "That's like the worst way to ask someone out."
"That's not the point, Feath!" He groaned, rolling over to face me. "It bothered me, like-I mean, it's not that I don't like her-"
"Do you like her?"
"I mean I never said that."
"But you said it's not as if you didn't like her."
"Yeah I said that, but that doesn't necessarily mean I do!"
I rolled over, facing the sky and closing my eyes. "Did...did you say yes?"
I turned back to him to see an unsure expression growing on his face as I looked into his eyes. My stomach was a fire pit, my breathing somehow grew shallow since being up there. His eyes burrowed into mine as my hoof extend from my side and reach up to his. He leaned in, muzzle bumping mine as I closed my eyes...
Our lips so close...
Knock, knock, knock
Featherweight's eyes fluttered open, the sweat clinging his fur to the bed sheets underneath the covers. He was holding a pillow tightly to his chest.
The knocks he had heard in his dreams repeated on the hotel door. Featherweight rolled over in my bed towards the digital clock on the night stand, blinking back at him in bright red thirty to eleven.
He was on the senior field trip to Manehattan. Featherweight's class had left Ponyville nearly a whole day before, having arrived just after sunset and leaving them all exhausted from the traveling. Rumble didn't sit with him or his friends, having sat with Scootaloo and her friends on the train. He hardly glanced in his direction, a small piece in him laid in hope he would come to at least explain. But Featherweight knew he didn't need to.
It had taken him so painfully long, but Rumble had finally moved on from their little group.
The bed pulled at him, his body begged for him to remain, and if it weren't for the second barrage of knocks on his door he might had considered it. He flipped the covers off and rolled out of bed, his joints popping as he stretched his limps. He walked over to answer the door.
"Who is it?" Yawning, leaning against the door frame.
"Guess."
Like a shot of adrenaline Rumble's voice brought Featherweight out of his sleep induced stupor, his hooves clumsily searching and finding the lock and handle before pulling open the door. Rumble stood in the hallway, his mane combed back and wearing a black Wonderbolt branded jacket.
He stared off down the hall, his tail swishing back and forth. "Hey."
Featherweight leaned against the door frame, rubbing his shoulder while staring at the floor. "Hey."
"So uh." Rumble said in a hushed tone. "Me and the guys are going to do the uh, 'thing'...and uh, I came to get ya."
"The 'thing'?" Featherweight asked.
Rumble sighed. "Just something Snips wants to do and..we want you to come-"
"We?" Featherweight found himself asking, his heart fluttering slightly.
Rumble grimaced, rubbing his muzzle and looking away. "I-It's cold out, so you might wanna bring a jacket."
And like that, he turned away and started walking down the hall. Featherweight watched him, a frown growing on his lips before Rumble turned to gesture the pegasus to hurry.
I should have known he still wouldn't talk to me Featherweight thought to himself, turning back into his room. Though it's nice that he was the one to stop by and get me...
He rushed to the bag he had packed for the trip and pulled out a grey stripped sweat jacket before grabbing his room key, locking and shutting the door behind him before trotting after Rumble.
What am I doing here?
The words that repeated over and over in Featherweight's head as he ventured into the city. Sweat beads crowding his forehead as his lanky hooves kept him moving behind his friends down the street, farther and farther from the hotel.
The city's buildings' casting shadows from high above while street lamps like spot lights lined the block. He thought back to hearing the field trip guide saying that if anyone were to leave under any circumstance they had to tell their chaperon, but Snips had assured him that it was fine. But it wasn't.
Always left as a victim to his nervousness, the frigid furred pale comparison of the young stallion that was laying in bed not half an hour before then. His wings fidgeted beneath his coat, he felt eyes on him the whole walk there, where ever there was. They hadn't told me at the time where we were going, none of them did.
"Hey, Featherweight!" Snips yelled back to the pegasus. Almost a half block ahead, Snips accompanied by Snips and Rumble were half a block ahead, stopped at a entrance to an alley. "Quit dragging your hooves, we're almost there!"
Trotting up and meeting them, Featherweight's first instinct was to retort, but the words died on his lips as he turned down the dark alley way. The pungent smell of garbage and sewer staining the air and rolling his stomach like a pair of dice.
A few minutes passed and he was on an bleak sidewalk. Shadows cast over the entire street, abandoned as none of the stores appeared open. Hay, few were even run down. Boards nailed in the windows and doorways, spray paint decorating the outside with shattered glass sparkling in the street lamps' artificial rays.
"Okay." Snips finally spoke, looking back to Featherweight as they continued walking. "So you're probably wondering why we're out here."
"Well, I mean sure." Featherweight said, sarcasm soaking his words. "Assuming we're not all just going for a stroll in the city."
Snips chuckled. "Right, well besides that." He stopped, Rumble and Snails standing beside him. "We got ourselves a little celebration planned...to top off these past four years of boring classes..."
"Many detentions..." Rumble continued.
"Failing grades..." Snails sighed.
"And not to mention all the failed attempts at getting some tail!" Snips finished, wrapping a hoof around Featherweight's shoulders. "So, I got a tip from a friend-He told me that there's a little place down this street that, if you have the right amount of bits, you can pay a mare to...have some fun."
Featherweight furrowed his brow. "'Have some fun'?"
"Yeah" Snips grinned. "Ya know, knock hooves? Roll in the hay?"
Featherweight stared.
Snips deadpanned. "The nasty? Coitus? The horizontal hokey pokey?"
"...What the hay are you talking about?"
Snips face hoofed, while Rumble snickered behind a hoof. "Sex, Feather-brain!" He groaned, removing his hoof and walking back to Snails. "Intercourse, doing it, bucking geez man!"
Featherweight's eyes bulged, the confusion getting washed away under the waves of his realization.
"Featherweight?" Snails walked up to the stunned pegasus, poking his head. "Hey, ya in there?"
Of the many things Featherweight might had expected out of this field trip; a visit to a few museums, shops and theaters. Some hi-jinks with hotel staff, hanging out in the hotel room all day, to watching over the vast cityscape of Manehattan from the top of the Equestrian State Building.
Getting his v-card swiped by some older used mare was defiantly not one of them.
"Y-You're taking me t-to..." He fought for the words, panic rising in his throat. "... a brothel?!"
It was then Snips's turn to be confused. "A what?"
Featherweight started pacing in place. "A brothel! We walked all this way, to a barren street that's practically crawling with rats and trash and abandoned buildings to go to a brothel!"
Snails approached the panicky pegasus. "Easy there, Featherweight! It's no big deal-"
"What do you mean it's no big deal?" Featherweight asked, turning to him. "We just walked like, a hundred blocks away into some dark murderer's paradise just to get laid?"
Snips's lips cracked into a grin, meanwhile Rumble was rubbing the back of his head and turning away.
"What?" He snapped, his cheeks tinting a light crimson
"We're already pretty much here, dude." Snips giggled, shrugging. "And besides, we totally got the bits and we'll send ourselves from high school with a bang."
Featherweight scrunched his muzzle. "That pun was low. Even for you, Snips."
"So, what? Are you backing out?" Snips said, furrowing his brow. "This is like, a guarantee! I thought out of all of us, you'd be the most enthused."
Featherweight took a step towards Snips, causing the colt's bucktooth grin to grow even further. "What's that suppose to mean?"
Snips shrugged, Snails giggling beside him. "Hey, I'm just saying. Must be hard trying to get a mare when you're a bit on the feminine side-"
"Shut up, Snips!" Rumble stepped in between the two, startling everyone present and staring Snips down.
Snips snorted and rolled his eyes, deciding for the sake of Rumble being over protective of Featherweight to remain quiet.
"Alright dude, relax." Rumble spoke, his voice quieting down as he approached Featherweight to lay a hoof on his shoulder. "Look, it'll be...easy."
"Easy?" Featherweight stared.
"Y-Yeah." He averted his eyes, his speech breaking. "We walk in, pay some pretty mares, we...w-we do our thing, and we leave." He tried a smile, his grin wide and failing.
Featherweight's grimace only deepened.
Rumble gulped. "Simple as that, am I right?"
"Yeah, Featherweight!" Snails agreed. "Just go with it!"
Snips tapped Featherweight on the shoulder, showing him a bag of bits. "Look, we put all this money together. Rum here even payed your quarter." He mentioned, shaking the bag before the cream colored pegasus.
Featherweight froze, turning to Rumble only to find his gaze had dropped to the ground. He shook his head, the feeling of the four other eyes burning holes into him causing his muscles to tense.
Aw man...I never even thought much about sex until junior year anyway! Featherweight conflicted, turning back to the secluded Rumble. Meanwhile Rumble's probably only here because Scootaloo wouldn't let him get there soon enough...
"Look...that's very generous, but I just don't know if I can go through this." He said, putting his head down.
Snails rubbed my shoulder. "Don't say that, dude!"
Snips rolled his eyes. "Ugh, can we just get there first before you start to get cold hooves?" He groaned before turning and continuing ahead of them. "Didn't come all this way to bitch out now."
Featherweight flinched at his comment, while Rumble grounded his teeth and remained silent.
"Don't mind him, he's just so pent up he might blow before he walks in the door." Snails punched Featherweight's shoulder. "Come on, if it makes ya feel any better I didn't even wanna walk into that place until Snips had told me what kinds of things the mares would do for a bit or two."
His hoof left Featherweight's shoulder as he turned to catch up with Snips, Rumble lagging behind him leaving him to stare off after. Reluctantly he followed, his hooves then feeling heavier as his hoof steps seemed to echo in the streets, growing louder and louder.
Further down the street the four saw the front of a building that resembled an old hotel, but where a sign once hung was replaced by pink and red neon lights.
They approached the lone black door together, on its surface was a small age worn picture of a white lamp myself lagging a little behind as Snips cleared his throat before knocking on the door. Spear headed fences lined the outside while the decaying remains of bushes sat closest to the building's aged brick walls.
Featherweight gazed up a the windows above to see lights, shadows dancing against the glass in near frantic motions.
His heart leap in my throat as the mail flap of the door flipped open and revealed forest green eyes staring half lidded back at the young stallions. The pony behind the door said nothing as Snips took out the bag of bits and shook it before the mysterious eyes.
With that, the flap shut and three locks were unlocked from the other side before the door creaked open. Standing before them was a beige stallion, looking to be only a few years older then either Featherweight or his friends. He stood with spiked dark brown mane, wearing a white button up and a black tie somewhat undone around his neck.
"You four new or returning patrons?" He asked, his voice calm and smooth.
"Do we get like a discount if we've been here before?" Snips asked, chuckling.
The stallion stared back, sighing. "Right...new guys." He turned towards the inside of the building before and waved back. "Follow me."
The stallion disappeared into the building, a faint red light flickered on the inside.
Snips and Snails walked on ahead, leaving Featherweight as he took a hesitant step forward.
"Wait!"
Featherweight halted, softly sighing at the fact he could stall from entering the dark brooding whorse house. He turned to see Rumble standing against the wall by the door.
"I wouldn't blame you if you didn't do this." He said, leaning against the bricked walls of the brothel. "Don't...don't let Snips peer pressure you into something you don't think you're ready for, man."
Featherweight walked over, standing besides him. "Why didn't you tell me this is what we'd be doing?"
Rumble shrugged. Silence then came as both of them sat outside the brothel, Featherweight didn't mind finally being alone with him after all this time.
"So..." He began.
"Don't." Rumble said, with a weary sigh. "Please."
"What do you mean don't?" Featherweight said, turning to him with pleading eyes. "We've barely spoken to each other since the night before we came here-"
"There's a reason for that!" Rumble's voice echoed out down the deserted street and startling Featherweight. He face hoofed and sighed. "There's a reason for that, Feath."
Featherweight crossed his hooves, tilting his head back against the brothel. "And that is?"
He shrugged, causing Featherweight to slouch in posture and turn his attention to the ground. "It's just...awkward now, I guess." He said, sighing. "Talking...being around now. I made a mistake."
Featherweight frowned, seeing his best friend's expression turning sorrowful and saddened. He looked down and saw Rumble's hoof inches from his own. Daring the move, he twitched his own towards Rumble's.
He could feel Rumble jump slightly, but didn't pull his hoof away as Featherweight wrapped his hoof lightly around Rumble's, his cheeks warming up and his wings fluttering beneath his sweat jacket.
Rumble took in a deep breathe, turning to Featherweight. Featherweight's hazel eyes met Rumble's violet jewels and for a moment lost himself, his grip on Rumble's hoof tightened for a second. "Rum, I-"
"Hey, slowpokes!" Snips poked his head out from the building. "What's taking you two so buckin' long? me and Snips have been drowning in-"
He stopped, tilting his head as Featherweight stared back with red cheeks. "Where's Rumble?"
Featherweight turned, gasping as he saw Rumble disappear down the street in a flash. "Aw whatever forget him!" Snips said. "Now hurry up, man!"
His head popped back in through the door way, and Featherweight stood outside alone. He looked back and forth between Rumble's route and the door, he could just barely make out Snips's voice inside along with some of Snail's laughing and giggling possibly being the mares.
With a pout and a heavy sight, Featherweight turned away from the street and walked into the brothel.