Playing Their Game

She glares at you for some time before walking off. “I was just waving to her.” You catch up and walk with her. Fluttershy stays silent until she snaps.

”Why did you!?”

“It was a wave! What’s rattling your cage?”

”It’s Twilight.”

“You keep on saying it’s her but what’s so bad about it?” She stops walking.

”I’ve told you everything that’s wrong about her, do I need to say it again?”

“Sort of, you know how stupid I am already.”

"Argh, I hate repeating over the same stuff. I’m just ready to put up with my brother’s shit now.”

“Wait, you have a brother?”

”Yes!”

“How come you’ve never mentioned him, like at all?” You cross the street and follow Fluttershy.

”He’s been staying over ever since he dropped out of college. He just watches TV and leaves his junk all over the place.” She sits by the curb and rests her head in her hands.

“Need some help?” Fluttershy drops her hands and raises her head.

”There’s no reasoning with him, Anon. We’ve talked to him for days and tried to subtly nudge him up.”

“Thank goodness subtly and talking isn’t my strongest suit.”

She sighs. “Please, for the sake of my parents, don’t hurt him.”

“Not unless it’s necessary, right?”

”This is a bad idea.”

“When have I ever let you down?” Fluttershy ignores you, and continues to walk away. You follow her, leading up to her house a few streets over.

There is a women of age that is no question her mother just by the looks of her early 40’s that is pulling out weeds in her garden. She stops when Fluttershy pulls out her keys that is clumped up with plastic animals dangling on the ring. ”Fluttershy!” She joyfully says when standing up, brushing off the dirt on her jeans.

”Darnit,” Fluttershy grumbles as she is still looking for the right key. “Hey mom.”

”My, my. Aren’t you going to introduce me to your handsome friend?” You almost want to blush by her comment.

”This is Anon, and he’s here to help us with our problem.”

”Really? I do wish you the best of luck. We’ve been trying to help him up and he’s doing nothing about it. We give him options, but he just shoves it off and continues watching those foreign cartoons with subtitles on.” Fluttershy grabs the right key and unlocks the door. ”Your father is still out for another hour, so you might want to hurry. Sorry Anon, but my husband acts up when there is a guy right beside Fluttershy.”

“Understood, I won’t be here for long.” She nods and goes back to her garden. “How should we do this?”

”I don’t know yet. We’ll have to improvise.” She turns the key and opens the door. What awaits you and Fluttershy is a dark living room with the only light emitting is from the TV. You and Fluttershy follow the light to see a guy with messy hair and stubble, wearing shorts and a single stripe on his T-shirt. He lays on the couch, still focused on the television.

”Hey sis.”

”Come on, Zephyr, we need to talk.”

”Can we do it on the break? I’m in the middle of my show.” Fluttershy grabs the remote from the table and turns the TV off. ”Hey!” He pushes the bag of chips aside to stand up. From the looks of it, Zephyr is the same height as you. Fluttershy waives the remote around before giving it to you.

”It can’t wait. We need to talk about your living arrangements.”

”I’m still in a bit of a slump, it will take some time. And who’s this? You know how dad is when you’re around with guys.”

“I’m just a third party trying to help out, that’s all.”

”That's funny,” He scoffs. “What are you, her boyfriend?”

As the moment that you were about to deny his implication, Fluttershy steps up. ”Yes, he is.”

”Ohh, that explains it all. ‘Third party’ my ass.” He rubs in. “You do know how dad is going to react, right?”

”I can already imagine it, why else did I keep this a secret?”

“I can only wonder.”

Fluttershy gives you a brief glare. “Understand that if you don’t try on finding something to do with your life, we’ll do something that you won’t like.”

”Really? From the looks of things, you don’t have any sort of an advantage.” He taunts.

”What?”

”With this, dad will be focused on you like crazy.”

”So? You should be more afraid of what Anon will do to you, rather than me being afraid of dad.” You can hear her frightened voice at the end of her sentence.

”As if, what can he do?” That tears it. You get in front of him and give him a well coordinated headbutt. ”My nose!” When you look up, you see him holding it. “What the hell is wrong with you?!”

”A couch potato that won’t get off his ass and make everyone happy by getting a job or going back to school.” He rubs his nose.

”Argh, fine! I’ll do it.”

Fluttershy gets in front of him and points a finger on his chest. ”Mom and I went out to find some applications for you, how could you not send one of them in?!” Zephyr looks at a trash can. You walk over to find an empty bag of ramen noodles, old photos of himself, and a stack of applications hidden beneath it all. ”How could you give up that easily!?” She pushes him away.

”A guy needs to relax! Do you think he wants to keep on studying for the rest of his life?” He moves his hands aside to point at his bleeding nose. “And how am I going to explain this?!”

”First off, you won’t be in school forever.”

“Second, just say you rolled off the couch and landed on the remote.”

”My nose better be okay after this!”

”It will be fine, if you can get a job.” You dig out the applications and hand it over to him.

Fluttershy’s mother holds a towel over Zephyr’s nose. ”Thank you for helping us out, Anon.” Mrs. Shy says when guiding Zephyr into a sedan.

“It’s nothing, really.”

She closes the door. ”Don’t be so modest, this is much more. I haven’t felt this relieved since my son was accepted into a college.”

“Just tell him to do the general classes since he’s still thinking about his future, that’ll give him time.”

”Will do! Can you believe that a simple fall could break his nose?”

“The human body is a sensitive one.” She nods. The moment Mrs. Shy opens the driver's seat, Fluttershy lets out a sigh of relief.

”Oh! I almost forgot,--”

”No, no, no, no.” Fluttershy mumbles to herself.

”Zephyr tells me that you two have been seeing each other?” You look over to Fluttershy as she does the same to you. Both of you are petrified and apprehensive to the current situation. ”Don’t worry, I won’t tell you father.” She winks before entering the car. The two of you watch her back out of the driveway.

”I can’t believe that worked.”

“Why in Buddha’s name did you say that!?” You begin to flip your shit.

”What? I said improvise. It’s not like you’re going out with Twilight.” You tug the collar on your shirt. She takes notice, along with you beating a sweat. Fluttershy approaches you, raising an eyebrow at your anxiety. ”Are you?”

You start to scratch your right hand. “Sort of.”

At first, Fluttershy was surprised, but she was inflamed later when she realized something. ”Sort of? What is that supposed to mean?”

You wipe the sweat off your forehead. “I told my parents that I had an interest for Twilight.” Even though that she’s still pissed, something changed. You catched the shift in her eyes and how she flinched the moment you mentioned Twilight.

”What does she have that I don’t?”

This is unbearable. You’d rather take the chance of crossing a highway rather than answering her questions. “It’s not like that!”

”Then explain yourself; why would you prefer Twilight over me?”

“Because she isn’t on a total power trip!”

Fluttershy is disturbed by more than your outburst. By what you expect, she must be horrified at the realization. ”I-it’s for the animals!”

“Is it really for them, or aren’t you enjoying this way more than you expected?” Her eyes shoot all over the place. When she stops, the right side of her face twitches. It stops before she turns around to walk back to the front door. “You’re not going to bother with saying anything else? Not even a goodbye?”

Fluttershy leaves her hand on the doorknob. She tilts her head forward, refusing to look at you. ”It’s true.” Her hand slips away. ”I enjoy this. All of it now.” Now? That explains the suspicion you made from earlier today back in the cafeteria. ”I can’t help but take it even more than I should have.” She finally looks at you. Her woeful eyes and frown shows you the Fluttershy you once knew before this bully persona. ”I didn’t mean to hurt you -- I really didn’t -- but, a part of me just took over.”

“What about wasting my milk earlier today?” She sits by the door.

”I… I probably did take it too far. I was blinded by the control and satisfaction that I had, wanting to do that to others.” You should have figured that Fluttershy had some some sort of inner demon inside, waiting to be used on someone. Sucks that the someone had to be you. You walk over to sit by her.

“If you want to talk about it, I’m here.” She rubs her left arm, somewhat skeptical on your offer.

”I appreciate it, Anon, especially with what you had to put up with for the last few weeks, but I don’t want to. Not right now, at least.” You lay back, almost hitting the back of your head on the door. ”Does it still hurt?”

“Not as much.”

”I’m starting to realize that this is possibly a mistake.”

“It’s not. You’re doing this for the animals, remember that.”

”But--”

“No; It is for them and it will stay that way, you hear me?”

She nods. It stays silent for a few moments, until Fluttershy brings up a topic that you wanted no part of right back up. ”About Twilight, why did you pick her?”

“I don’t know, I mainly said it since my parents could buy it more.”

”Huh. What did you say about her?

“It was mainly crap. Twilight being smart and the coloured streak in her hair, nothing else.”

”Ohh.” She scratches the side of her head. “So, I can still keep about what I told my brother?”

“Sure, I guess.”

”Oh thank goodness. I mean, about them thinking...”

“Don’t overcomplicate it.” Just as you said that, a thought came to mind. “But what if my parents have ‘assumptions’ about us?” Fluttershy raises an eyebrow and shrugs.

”Did they ever brought it up?”

“My mother did think that.”

”So, she’s sort of right?”

“But I already told them about Twilight, I’m not sure on how they will take it.”

”I don’t care, just figure out something. You always do when you’re around her.” Fluttershy gives you a snappy reply. Great, she’s in that sort of mood. You should just leave since you’re done here.

“I’ll see you later this weekend, okay?”

”Yeah, bye.” You stand up and start to walk down the path, leading to the pavement. ”And Anon,” You stop, wondering to what does she want now. “We did this long before she did.”

“Anything else?”

”Not really, just know that I prefer that you help me out when the time comes.” You walk away, pondering over what she meant by that.