Hot Coco with Marshmallows
Don’t Burn Your Tongue, Darling
“You know, we can always go someplace else,” Magnum said, the slight frown on his muzzle almost completely hidden by his mustache.
Rarity waved her father off. “And force you to miss out on seeing those two dashing Germane stallions and their white chimeras? I couldn’t ask you to do that and still call myself a lady.”
Rarity smiled at Magnum as she paused in the doorway of the Boutique. Her mother and sister waited outside in a carriage, her mother fussing as Sweetie Belle bounced excitedly in her seat.
“I still feel guilty,” Magnum said, even his moustache drooping a little.
“It’s not your fault air travel doesn’t exactly agree with me.” Rarity gave her father a hug. “Now off you go. And try to not get in a gunfight this time.”
Magnum scowled. “That was one time.”
Rarity gave him a look.
Magnum’s moustache twitched. “Fine, six times.” he smiled. “Okay, I’ll try to not get in a gunfight.”
Rarity smiled and gave her father another hug before he dashed to the carriage, getting in as it began to clatter off.
“Have fun you three!” Rarity called, waving at them as they vanished into the sunset.
Once the carriage and her family vanished from her sight, Rarity pulled the door of the Boutique closed and double checked the sign, making sure that the side that spelled out ‘closed’ faced the street. With that finished, she swept into the main room.
“Hm, Sweetie Belle off to Las Pegasus, no dress orders due, and no super powered evils scheduled to return this week? Whatever will I do to occupy my time?” Rarity chuckled. “For starters, I should probably stop talking to myself.” she looked around the room again, just to make sure she was alone, before saying, "I shall curl up with a delightfully raunchy romance novel, of course!”
After another check to make sure nopony had heard that, Rarity retrieved the aforementioned piece of literature form its hiding spot behind a very large chest of cloth and gems.
She smiled at its title: Spring Time for Twilight. She had no idea who the author really was (Because who honestly would allow their name to be Butterflush?), but she knew it had to be somepony that lived in Ponyville; it would explain the surprisingly accurate portrayal of dear Twilight. Although, whomever they were, they certainly had a few rather adventurous ideas about the librarian’s relationship with Princess Celestia.
Rarity fluffed up the pillows on her couch, preferring to read there because she could snack all she wanted without fear of crumbs in her bed, and opened the book to where she had left off.
A few hours later, she was jarred from her reading by a sudden knock at the door.
Rarity looked up from the book and looked to the door with a quizzical tilt of her head. Who would come calling now, especially at this time of night and with the sign on the door clearly saying ‘closed’?
For a moment, Rarity thought she might have imagined the knock - it was raining outside and it very well could have been thunder, but just as she was shrugging the sound repeated itself. The unicorn tucked her book beneath a pillow and trotted over to the door. Clearly somepony was having some sort of fashion emergency to act so uncouth, and Rarity certainly couldn’t just ignore that.
But when she opened the door of the Boutique, she was rather surprised to see not a mare with a soaked dress or a stallion with a rumpled suit, but rather a cream colored mare clad in a garish yellow raincoat with a light blue mane slicked back by the rain, looking as nervous as a filly on their first day of school.
“Coco?” Rarity said, not sure if she wasn’t somehow mistaking somepony else for the mare she met in Manehattan.
“That’s me,” Coco said with an awkward smile.
Once her initial surprise dissipated, Rarity remembered her manners. “Come in, come in,” the unicorn said, ushering the mare inside.
“It’s very nice to see you again, Coco,” Rarity said as she closed the door. “What brings you to Ponyville?”
Coco removed her raincoat and ruffled her wet mane before answering. “Oh, just some business. And the want to see an old friend,” Coco said, eyeing the small puddles made by her coat with something akin to embarrassment. “Sorry, I’ll-”
“No need, dear,” Rarity said, using a nearby towel to sweep up the water. “See, no trouble.”
Coco gave her another awkward smile. “Thank you, Miss Rarity.”
Rarity returned the smile as she put the towel in a bucket to dry. “Like I said, no trouble. Sweetie Belle comes in wet all the time, so I’ve learned to prepare.”
“Sweetie Belle?” Coco asked with a tilt of her head.
“My little sister.”
“Your sister is here?” Coco asked, suddenly sounding nervous.
Rarity shook her head. “Not today. She’s off on a trip with my parents, so it’s just me here.”
Coco let out a sigh of relief. “Oh, I was worried for a moment.”
“Whatever for?”
Coco reached into her bag and brought out a large glass bottle full of dark red liquid. “It would be irresponsible to drink this with a filly around.”
Rarity’s eyes widened in surprise. “Is that…?”
“Celestia’s Private Reserve 927? Why yes,” Coco said with a note of pride.
“Wherever did you get something like that?”
“A gift from a client,” Coco said, her previous blush finally vanishing from her cheeks. “Share it with me?”
The next hour was a bit of a blur for Rarity. Once she had retrieved her wine glasses from the cupboard and offered Coco a seat beside her on the couch, the wine had flowed like very expensive wine often does. For you barbarians out there, that means it was slow when they began, but soon it was being poured in very generous servings.
Coco, who was by nature a very tightly wound mare, became looser as the night wore on. And not just her posture, as she all but laid herself on the couch like she was presenting, but also her mannerisms. At first her speech was slow and careful, but soon she was babbling like a brook and tittering excitedly at every little joke, especially her own. Yet when Rarity spoke she seemed to hang onto every word.
“…and once I realized that there was no conceivable way Pinkie Pie could handle another drink, I did the first thing that occurred to me.” Rarity was saying. She paused, allowing for Coco to ask:
“What did you do?”
“I smashed a bottle over her head.”
Coco stared wide-eyed at Rarity for a few heartbeats before the beginnings of another giggle started in her. The giggle rapidly grew into a chuckle and then into a high-pitched fit of laughter. Coco rolled backwards, almost dropping her currently empty wine glass in her mirth. Rarity allowed herself a few chuckles as well, taking a few sips from her glass before realizing there was little point in keeping up an appearance after that and downing the remainder in a single gulp.
“You-you smashed a-a bottle over her head?” Coco managed to get out between laughs.
Rarity felt herself flush and not just from the wine, “Yes, dear. I really didn’t know what else to do!”
Coco’s laughter pattered out as she reached for bottle to refill hers and Rarity’s glasses. She made a sound of disappointment upon finding the bottle empty.
“Was that the last of it, Coco?” Rarity asked.
The crème colored mare nodded sadly. “Looks like it,” she said. This was followed by an adorable hiccup, which in turn made Coco turn scarlet and cover her mouth.
Rarity giggled as Coco fumbled to put away the bottle in an effort to hide her embarrassment. But it was only after a moment that Rarity realized Coco was trying to stuff the bottle beneath the couch pillows.
“Coco, darling,” Rarity said, pointing to where Coco’s bag was beside her on the floor.
Coco mumbled thanks as she pulled the bottle away from the pillows and put it in her bag. However, something that had also been among the pillows had become dislodged and fell to the floor with a barely audible ‘fwumph.’ Coco reached down and picked the object up, holding it up so she could see it properly.
Rarity, who had been preoccupied with gathering up the wine glasses and the small tray she had been using for snacks, glanced over to see Coco holding a book. It was but a moment before she realized it was the book she had been reading before Coco had arrived.
The fashionista suddenly felt her own cheeks burn as Coco looked over the book.
“I, uh, didn’t know you were into this sort of thing,” Coco said, looking from the book to Rarity.
“Well, uh, as much as the next mare, I suppose,” the unicorn said, chuckling nervously and waving a hoof. “Who doesn’t like a cheesy romance every now and then?”
“I, um, meant being into… mares,” Coco squeaked out, reminding Rarity of Fluttershy.
“Oh,” a pause. “Oh.” Rarity chuckled as she sat down next to Coco, glasses forgotten. “Well, I do like stallions, but there’s nothing wrong with a mare, if she’s the right type.”
“So, you are... into mares, then?” Coco asked, the blush persisting on her face while Rarity’s faded.
The unicorn nodded. “The needle does thread both ways. You can blame a bottle of cider and a rather grabby farmer for teaching me that.” Rarity chuckled and then noticed Coco was actually growing redder, if that was possible. Rarity coughed. “Uh, Coco, are you…?”
“A filly-fooler? Yes,” Coco said rather simply.
“Oh,” A long awkward silence.
“She didn’t approve.” Coco said suddenly.
“…Suri?” Rarity asked after a moment.
Coco nodded. “Said there was no place in the business for thoughts like that and if she caught me drooling over any of her models she’d fire me.”
Hesitantly, Rarity wrapped a leg around Coco. “I’m sorry you had to go through that, dear.”
Coco blew a breath out her nose. “Don’t be. The models never interested me anyway.”
“Oh? What sort of mare does interest you then?”
Coco looked into Rarity’s eyes, perhaps thinking the question a jest of some sort. After a few moments, she looked away and said, “She would have to be smart. And creative. Inclined to fashion, so we would have something to talk about.”
“Sounds just right for you.”
Coco looked to Rarity again. “She’d have to be pretty.”
Rarity chuckled. “Of course.”
“And she would have to be very generous.” Coco leaned against Rarity, snuggling close. “A kind soul that gives to others without expecting anything in return.”
“Sounds like quite the mare. Meet anypony like that?”
Coco nodded. “Yes, I did. And she left her mark on my heart, without even realizing it,” Coco said softly.
Rarity leaned in closer so she could properly hear Coco, engrossed in what the mare was saying. “Really?”
“Yes,” Coco whispered.
“And if you saw this mare again, what would you do?”
Yet another faint blush spread across Coco’s cheeks, but it didn’t deter the mare. “If I saw her, I would go up to her, and tell her everything I loved about her. And then,” Coco swallowed anxiously. “And then I would kiss her, if she’d let me.”
Rarity smiled warmly. “I think that’s a safe bet.”
The small smile the stretched Coco’s lips was like a Hearth’s Warming tree lighting up beside her. And the sudden, deep, tongue-probing kiss that Coco planted on her was like a bucket of ice water. Startled, Rarity shoved Coco back, the surprised mare nearly falling from the couch.
Upon regaining her balance and seeing Rarity’s startled expression, Coco turned such a deep shade of red Rarity feared it was permanent.
“I’m sorry,” Coco chocked out, making to get up from the couch, no doubt to flee from the Boutique.
“Wait!” Rarity shouted, grabbing Coco’s hoof before she could escape. Forcefully pulling the mare back onto the couch, Rarity repeated herself, softer this time. “Wait…”
Coco was all but hyperventilating now, but her breath seemed to catch in her throat as Rarity leaned in close to whisper in her ear. “You startled me is all, darling. Now, let’s try that again…”
It was Coco’s turn to act surprised as Rarity planted a soft kiss on her lips. The unicorn pulled back after a few seconds, but still found herself breathless.
“There, better wasn’t it?”
Coco nodded mutely, reaching up to cup Rarity’s face almost like she wasn’t sure this was real. Rarity leaned into the hoof, smiling at Coco.
“All you had to do was say something, Coco.”
Coco let out a few breathless laughs. “Didn’t realize I was talking about you before?”
“I’m a little slow on the uptake sometimes,” Rarity whispered, leaning forward to press herself against Coco.
Coco blushed again as she was forced up against the pillows on the couch, Rarity laying on top of her.
“Don’t you, ah,” Coco licked her lips. “Don’t you want to take it slow?”
Rarity smiled knowingly. “Do you?”
Rarity found her answer in the form of Coco’s tongue being shoved down her throat.