That Time We Swapped Spit

"Bye Rumble!" A trio of fillies squeal as Rumble waves them off. Rumble continues to wave and smile until all three swooning fillies are over the hill and out of sight before turning to his downtrodden looking friend.

"How do you do it Rumble?" Button asks, wistfully rocking in his swing.

"Do what?"

"Y'know, have pretty much every filly in our class falling all over you." Rumble shrugs far too noncommittally for Button's liking.

"To be honest I don't know why they like me so much."

"It's not fair" Button whines. "You've got every filly in our class practically eating out of your hoof and I can't get a filly to look at me let alone talk to me." Button's eyes leave the rivet underneath the swing and meet Rumble's with a longing that makes Rumble uncomfortable. "What's your secret?"

"Secret?" Rumble blinks owlishly; Button frowns.

"There's gotta be something you're doing that I'm not." Rumble looks up thoughtfully for a few moments before coming to a admittedly ham-fisted conclusion.

"I guess there was this one time where I showed Scootaloo what I know about kissing." Button's mouth falls open and his eyes go wide and unbelieving.

"You kissed Scootaloo?"

"Yeah," Rumble scratches the back of his head with a hoof and turns away in hopes of hiding his blush. "She wouldn't leave me alone for like two weeks."

"Like grown up kissing?"

"I don't know if its how the grown ups do it but I think we got close."

"Aww man," Button whines." How am I supposed to compete with that? I don't know how to do anything grown up like that."

"I can show you if you want." It is nearly impossible for Rumble to hide his embarrassment now, even Button is a little flustered at the prospect; so flustered in fact that he cannot will his brain to form a coherent response.

"C'mon," Rumble motions with a hoof, and like a mindless drone with no free will to speak of, Button follows. The duo wedge themselves in the alcove underneath the slide, away from the prying eyes of both classmates and teachers. Rumble briefly pokes his head out to make sure they are truly alone before he lets himself relax.

"Alright," Rumble starts after taking a steadying breath and squaring his shoulders. "I think we're alone."

Something clicks in Button's head and he is subsequently freed from whatever cosmic force is rendering him unable to formulate coherent speech. He opens his mouth to voice his concern but is cut off by Rumble.

"You sure you still wanna do this?" Rumble's voice is serious as the slits of his eyes, and for the first time since they'd retreated to the sanctity of the plastic housing underneath the slide, Button realizes just how uncomfortably close he is to Rumble. Button breathes a stifled "yeah" and rolls his shoulders to loosen them.

"Okay," is all Rumble says before he begins to erase what little distance remains between them.

Button doesn't realize his eyes are closed until they shoot open as Rumble's snout comes into contact with his own. Parts of his brain tell him that he should be putting as much distance between himself and his friend as possible; but other, more incipient, more persuasive parts of his brain wish to revel in the new, exciting feeling.

The alien tingle in his spine and the fluttering of his gut pulling for his attention at the same time give Button a feeling he can't quite place. His open eyes stare unblinking into the face of the colt across from him who looks as though he's practically melting into the kiss and he gets a strange a strange mixture of contentedness he can safely say he's never felt before; almost like he could stay in the exact position he's in forever. However, just as he feels he's getting accustomed to their chaste meeting of snouts, Rumble pulls away, a string of saliva connecting the two that both he and Button make a face at.

"Wow," Rumble pants. "That was way better than kissing Scootaloo." Rumble looks to Button to gauge his reaction but finds his friend too red faced and flustered to say much of anything.

"Sorry," Rumble offers, averting his eyes and folding his ears like a frightened animal.

"It's OK, I actually kind of liked it."

"Really?" Rumble perks up almost immediately, Button spreads his blush out with the smile that creeps onto his face.

"Yeah; it felt kinda weird but I liked it." Rumble's wide, goofy smile persists as a cumbersome silence fills their temporary hideout.

"Button, I gotta tell you something." Almost immediately Rumble's face returns to being serious and contemplative.

"What?" Rumble fills his lungs with air, Button watches the rise and fall of his chest with intrigue.

"Button..."

"Button sweetie!" A strong, matronly voice cuts through the air and effectively cows Rumble into silence. "Where are you, I'm here to pick you up!"

Button pokes his head out from underneath the slide.

"Right here mom!"

Buttons mother smiles warmly at her son. "Hurry up Button, you don't want to be late for lunch."

"OK mom!" Button turns back toward Rumble who looks exceptionally sad.

"What's wrong Rumble, what did you wanna tell me?" Rumble shakes his head slowly.

"It's nothing Button, not important." Button moves to exit the housing, but he stops just short to look back at his friend who is wearing a smile that looks dim even to Button.

"See ya around Rumble."

"Totally." With that, Button steps out of the housing and trots to meet up with his mother. Rumble watches the pair until they disappear over the hill before he retreats back inside and bangs his head against hard plastic.

Way to go Rumble…