Beauty And The Geek

"Ah," Fluttershy winced almost silently as Band touched her wound lightly with a puff ball covered slightly in rubbing alcohol.

"Sorry, but that should help to clean the wound," Band grabbed Fluttershy's right hand and placed it under his hand holding the puff ball and she held the ball and he took his arm back.

"How old?" She asked.

Band saw that that was a strange question to ask him, but he answered still feeling a little weird about the question, "Um... I'm 21."

Fluttershy giggled because of Band's obvious discomfort and misunderstanding about the question, "No, not you. How old is your dragon?"

He had never noticed the issue that had emerged in his mind, but he found it a little shameful as well. He looked to the dragon laying on Band's bed and now snoring. Band took a deep breath and sighed, "I don't know."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, he's been my bud for about three and a half years now, but..." He stopped and glared at the sapphire carpeting at their feet.

Fluttershy then felt scared, but she wondered why. She was fine throughout the whole conversation, but once she heard Band's tone weaken from full confidence to complete self pity and despair, her shoulders tensed up a bit and she wondered why his emotions affected her and her thinking so greatly. As she pondered this question of why does she feel strange, she had realized she'd forgotten to comfort him. How could she have forgotten to comfort a pony in obvious need.

As Band focused on each strand of hairs on the carpet, he suddenly was covered in a blanket of warmth, then hearing Fluttershy assure him, "It's okay."

He didn't look to her, he only felt strange that she was comforting HIM. Even after he was the one who had brought her to his home so politely and helped her with her wound. "I'm being selfish," He thought. He gently pushed Fluttershy away and looked at her with a small smile on him.

"Sorry," He said.

"For what," She wondered.

"I shouldn't feel bad for myself. It's not very helpful either. I'm just... Sorry."

Fluttershy looked at him and his body language. She looked at him closely without moving. "Who is he?" She asked herself in her head, "I mean, I know WHO he is, but... What kind of person just gets ran into, apologizes to me, and takes me to his home, somewhere to him that is very personal, and helps me with my wound and injuries? It's just... Just so... Strange. Does he really TRUST me, a total stranger who had collided into him out my pure stupidity? But wait... I did trust HIM. Isn't that why I'm here in the first place?"

"What was that?" She heard Band ask with a confused look.

"Huh?" She said coming back from her thoughts.

"You said, 'It's just so strange.' What's so strange?"

Fluttershy's milky yellow tone turned red all over her face. Now she had to confront him with her questions, but she didn't want to! "This is so confusing! Him being nice to me after me slamming him to the ground. Him taking me to his home. Him helping me with my wounds. Giving that look on his face now. The look of pure comforting. The look that says, 'It's okay. You can tell me.' The look that..." She paused in her mind. She processed through the events in her mind again, but now she looked through every single detail of the situations. Did he even want tell her about himself, other than his name? "No. He didn't, but then what would we talk about? All my conversations with people always includes the needs of that certain pony. No pony really has ever cared about what she had to say about anything, other than her friends. Wait. Twilight was a lot like this, but, for some reason, this feels a bit more... Instance. What was this feeling in me?"

"Fluttershy?" Band said now looking worried and concerned.

Fluttershy lets out a shuddering breath and almost faints, falling forward toward the floor until Band quickly catches her.

"Fluttershy, what's wrong?" Band asked anxiously, sitting her up again to look at his eyes.

"Those eyes..." She thought, "What did he see in me with them? Does he not understand that I can take care of myself?"

She began to tear up out of her own confusion.

Then she got out the most important questions she had for him, but in a sob, "Why do you care about me so much? Why do you trust me so much? Why don't you want me to just care for myself and you just walk away like nothing happen?"

"Fluttershy," Band said to let her stop. He held her quivering shoulders. She was now balling with her her head down. He moved his right hand under her chin and brought her head back up. She looked like she was in pain, but he had dealt with her injuries and her wound. She told him she was fine. Then he realized. She's not in physical pain. She's in mental pain. She looked at him with tears rolling down her face.

"Why?" She whispered through quivering lips.

Band couldn't think of anything to do to answer her, except one thing, but is that the right thing to do? Will she embrace it, or will she be frightened even more? He thought about the percentage of the two possibilities out of one hundred.

"Fifty, fifty."

"What?" She asked even more confused, but Band quickly pushed her head to his and pressed their lips together. She gasped through her nose with wide eyes from the sudden aggression. He held the kiss. Not daring to look at her expression, but soon he felt her hands, that he placed on his lap earlier, go limp and she began to lean into the kiss even more. Band opened his eyes and saw only bliss in the lovely mare's eyes. Her eyes were closed now, showing that she wanted to take in the sweet kiss.

Band sensed a sweet scent coming from her. It smelled like violet flowers he'd enjoyed while he was a little colt. He hadn't smelled the scent since he had left home, and now he reminded him of home which gave him a sense of comfort and felt like this was the right person to kiss.

Knowing, but regretting, that he was about to kiss her for a bit too long, he pulled away his face from Fluttershy's, making a little smack from the parting of their lips. He smiled at her, seeing that her face once full of sadness now was looking back at him with an expression of pure love. With his right hand, he moved his thumb over her left cheek wiping off her tears.

Fluttershy was at a loss of words. She had never experienced affection anywhere close to that. Mostly because that was her first kiss. She never really planned out how her first kiss would've gone, unlike her friend Rarity, but if she wouldn't change one thing about how it did go.

She then realized she had forgot to breathe and felt her lungs begin to burn. She let in a satisfied breathe.

Band looked back into her eyes with a face full of pure passion, "That's why I care so much about you. That's why I want care about you, but the reason I trust you is because when I first looked into those eyes I saw innocence."

She blushed and placed a palm on his lap, "Not to be rude, but..." She looked down to the black watch on his wrist, "I think I should be getting home."

Band kept on his soft smile, but Fluttershy noticed his ears lower just a bit out of disappointment.

"Yeah," He said. They both stand up and Fluttershy does what feels right, and grabs Band's hand. He doesn't resist and escorts Fluttershy out of the room, passed the kitchen, and to the door.

There, the two stop for a moment to look at each other. After a moment of awkward silence, Fluttershy daringly stood on the tips of toes and gave Band a peck on the lips and said, "Maybe... Um... We could... We could see each other again, sometime?"

It took Band a moment to realize she was asking, "Y-Yeah."

With that, Fluttershy slowly let go of Band's hand and turned to the now open door. As she walked out, Band asked, "Where do you live?"

She answered, "I live in a cottage near the Everfree Forest."

"Okay," Band said and slowly closed the door.

He walked back to his bedroom and saw Blue Ray still sleeping on his bed. His dear friend had no idea what had just happened, and neither of them knew what laid ahead in Band's future.