Chapter 7: Responsibility

It was the first time that Soarin woke up without Vinyl after making love to her the night before. He was used to being the one who left the one night stand first and having the mare beg for him to stay, but it was hard for him to compare the situations since it technically wasn't a one night stand. He opened and rubbed his eyes and saw only a mess of flipped-back sheets beside him.

He had to think for a moment and recollect his thoughts to remember what went down and why he was alone and once he did, his confusion and concerns drifted away. He didn't have the right to question or intersect the relationship between Vinyl and Octavia and he knew just how close the two were after multiple visits in the past.

He groaned and stretched his stiff body under the sheets and when he came to rest again, he almost drifted back off. Though, the sudden alert tone on his phone beside him sent a tiny amount of adrenaline through his body, snapping him out of it. He was glad that he remembered to set an alarm on it the night before so he wouldn't ruin his relatively irregular militaristic sleep cycle.

Sitting up in bed, he closed his eyes and rubbed them again, cursing himself mentally for staying up so late. Going back to his normal morning practice routine would prove an issue for him. He found himself naked and after not locating his clothes from the night before, searched around the room with his eyes for any kind of non-womanly clothes he could use to cover his morning wood that was warmly and eagerly pressing against his belly. With a grunt and a groan, he managed to lean over and open her clothes drawer and locate a decent pair of gym shorts. There was no indication of whether or not they'd fit or whether they were deemed manly enough to wear, but he was too tired to care. They slipped on and hugged him tightly around his waist, but not too tight to be uncomfortable. Any stallion with a slightly overweight midsection would've made a muffin-top with them, but thanks to Soarin's chiseled and muscular core, he never worried about it even with the tightest of clothes. He slipped his phone into one of the pockets before getting up.

The informality of the home he was blessed to be a guest of caused him not to care whether or not there was a clean shirt for him to wear; he slid out of bed without one since he had no self-consciousness of his looks from the waist up. A faint thought in his head told him to put one on anyway for the sake of Octavia, but he figured it would be better to not wear a shirt at all than wear his old shirt that stunk to high heavens. A fleeting thought of putting on one of Vinyl's shirts was shook from his head; he was used to his tight leather uniform, but he wasn't a crossdresser.

Soarin rubbed his face and in stumbled drowsily to the door, giving his mane a quick pass-through with his fingers to make sure it was the least bit acceptable. He could tell without looking in a mirror that it was messy.

Octavia was usually up and going at the time he awoke, about seven in the morning, but he couldn't be sure. He kept trying to remember her rehearsal schedule each time she mentioned it, but it always slipped out of his mind somehow. Still, he strolled casually through the hall and into the kitchen only to find it empty. It wasn't until he felt a gentle breeze tickle his chest fur that he realized that the sliding glass door to the outside patio was cracked open. He placed his phone down on the kitchen table and decided to investigate.

It was rather chilly thanks to a small cold front that followed the rain and storms the day before, but it had cleared up quite nicely and the direct sunlight warmed him just enough to not go back in and find some more clothes. The few yards of stone that separated the patio from the lawn didn't benefit from it at all and it sent a shiver up his spine when his bare feet stepped onto it.

"Good morning." He heard a soft eloquent voice at the small patio table outside and instantly connected it to Octavia's.

"Mornin'." He said in a low, raspy tone, noticing as he looked at her that she was focused on his body rather than eye-contact. She had a hot pink cozy robe on and her mane was damp from a recent shower. "Sorry, I uh... Don't have any clean shirts left. I went to the store yesterday but..."

"No problem. I washed your clothes when I woke up; you'll find them in the dryer over there." She gestured to the washer and dryer in the back of the kitchen.

"Oh, thanks. Geez, you're a lifesaver." He smiled and made his way back through the kitchen, bending down and opening the dryer to find his tee-shirt that he wore when he first arrived. He quickly slipped it on his torso and rolled his shoulders as he joined her outside again. He thought to himself how much more efficient the Wonderbolts would be if they all held the same level of responsibility and agency that Octavia did.

He was used to awkward silences with Octavia over the few times he met her in the past and as he sat down at the table across from her, he didn't try to awkwardly start a conversation until he remembered some more details from the night before. His chair leaned back and his arms crossed as he thought of the right way to bring about the topic. He tried to address it tactfully since he wasn't sure how much she knew about what happened. She was staring out at their back lawn with a gentle smile on her face and her hair carelessly drifted with each passing breath of wind. Her small elegant fingers laced around a steaming mug and he couldn't help but admire how beautiful she was in the setting.

"Hey, so... Vinyl told me she was gonna talk to you about something last night?" He initiated awkwardly. Octavia didn't respond for a few moments and it only made him more concerned. "Everything alright?"

"Hm?" She reacted late, presumably from zoning out and she perked her ears up. "Oh, it was... Nothing."

"Come on, I've dated enough mares to know that excuse." He got up from his chair, noticing that there was obviously something she was worried about, and sat down in one of the chairs closer to her, which seemed to make her either uneasy or flustered to his perception. "I know I don't talk to you a lot, but you can tell me if anything's going on."

He didn't know, but him getting closer to her just made what she was thinking about more intense. A faint blush grew on her cheeks as she looked down into her coffee mug, but he was still too drowsy to make any inferences as to why she was acting sheepish.

Due to her social introversion, she found it difficult to bring up to him just what was bothering her, especially since it was such an intimate subject that only she and Vinyl knew about. Though, after remembering a bit of a pep-talk from her roommate the night before, she finally mustered up the courage to let him in on a small portion of her issues.

"I was just... Feeling down about... Relationships." It felt like punching through a brick wall to even say something like that to anyone except Vinyl and she felt as if she were breaking new ground by doing so.

"Relationships?" Soarin turned a little more towards her with his interest peaked. He didn't know how a mare as foxy and gorgeous as her would ever have issues with relationships.

"Y-yes. I..." She paused to gather what she'd say, tactfully taking a sip of her coffee to give her an excuse to think for a moment. "I've had issues in the past with stallions and trying to find someone who respects me enough to..." She stopped to ponder again. "Not treat me like a piece of meat to mate with."

"Oh." Soarin was surprised at how far she went into her reply since he rarely had such deep conversations with her. "Well, if it counts for anything, I think you're a very beautiful and elegant mare. Both inside and out." He knew he probably could've come up with something more thought-out if he wasn't so drowsy, but judging from how Octavia reacted from his response, he figured that it was good enough.

She held onto her mug with both hands and stared down into it with a calm sweet smile that reminded him of Fluttershy: one of his lieutenant's friends that he encountered on seldom occasions.

"Thank you..." She said politely and swirled her hot beverage a little. Soarin was starting to wake up more and more from the conversation. "I only wish more men thought that way."

"Plenty of men think that way. Heck, I could list three Wonderbolts off the top of my head that that would-"

"But you Wonderbolts are trained to respect and appreciate people for what they're worth, correct?" Octavia cut him off, not in a rude way, but instantly felt guilty for it. She also changed her tone suddenly from calm to inquisitive, which threw him off. "I- I apologize, I..."

"No, no. You were saying?" Soarin took a passive tone and gestured for her to continue with a tired smile on his lips as he rested his head on his hand against the table, his elbow propping it up.

"Well... I'm sure men like you are used to treating women as such, but..." Octavia sighed. "Most men in Ponyville... And Canterlot especially, they don't seem to value the same things. I suppose."

"Hm..." Soarin needed a minute to process what she was saying. "I guess most men are assholes, then. Excuse my French." He said frankly and his retort made Octavia giggle. "I mean, you could say the same thing the opposite way; a lot of mares just want a rich guy with a two story house and a fourteen inch-"

Her cheeks grew a little brighter and her giggles continued. "Yes, yes. I understand."

Soarin digressed, pausing to give her time to settle down into serious mode. "Anyway, Vinyl's not most mares just like I'm guessing you think I'm not most stallions." He sighed and rubbed his forehead a little, trying to take an implication from her body language and tone. "You usually ask out stallions or the other way around?"

"The... Former." She admitted with some hesitation, knowing that it wasn't how she was supposed to go about relationships. "I know, just wait for the right guy to come to me." She answered for him, but in a way that told him that she had heard it before and was only repeating what someone else had told her on multiple occasions.

"Yup." Vinyl's tired yet distinct voice came from the sliding door behind them and it made both of them snap their heads up.

"Hey, we're having a heart-to-heart here?" Soarin teased her with a smirk and Octavia quickly went to looking down into her coffee mug again.

Vinyl rolled her eyes. "Oh, so sorry to interrupt."

Her roommate was already afraid that her open discussion was going to be interrupted and downsized by Vinyl the second she sensed her presence, but she had some resemblance of hope after remembering how supportive she was the night before.

Vinyl, who was up much earlier than either of them expected, walked past them with the last bit of coffee from the pot in her styrofoam cup and stared out at the lawn, her highlighter blue hair radiating against the sun.

"So anyway, you should just wait for the right guy to ask you out. I know from experience that if you go around looking for dates yourself, you're gonna make mistakes in judgement and stuff." He decided to carry on the conversation rather than put it off until later and tried to explain in the best way he could even though he was almost certain that Octavia was at least a couple of years older than him and that she had heard something similar before. "That way you can kinda pick and choose what's best for you. I know it sounds cynical, but it's really the best way to keep your heart from being broken. I mean, us guys are kinda expected to initiate relationships anyway." He spoke openly even though Vinyl was still there, but she didn't proceed to pick on either of them like they both assumed she would. She simply poured a couple of sugar packets into her coffee and stepped onto the grass with her bare feet. She stared forward at the lawn for a moment, but then looked behind her.

Thankfully to him, Octavia seemed to take in what he said and the two mares shared a quick glance that he was oblivious to; another subtle gesture that went past him.

"Oh, goodness. I've let time slip." Octavia got up after checking her small watch on the bottom of her wrist. "I need to get ready for rehearsal. But... Thank you, Soarin." She bent down and gave him a one-armed hug that was polite yet sincere at the same time. He felt her warm cheek press against his and was glad that she was familiar with him enough to show him that kind of affection. "I truly appreciate your help."

"Hey, no prob." He felt slightly disappointed at not being able to help her further but was courteous enough to let it go for the time being, gently hugging her back around the waist with one arm as well before she quickly retreated back inside. He wasn't sure if it was perfume or shampoo, but her lovely scent lingered with him for a moment.

Vinyl sipped on her coffee whilst giving him a sly glance from the corner of her eye after she disappeared.

"What?" Soarin smirked as Vinyl took Octavia's vacant chair in order to sit closer to her boyfriend.

Vinyl shrugged with her cup to her mouth and pretended to be oblivious.

"What?" He repeated and nudged her shoulder gently and somewhat affectionately, but only after she lowered her cup as to not risk causing her to spill anything.

She leaned in. "Wait till Tavi leaves..."

"You didn't care about her being here last night." Soarin teased and it nearly caused Vinyl to choke on her coffee that she recently sipped.

It was met with a quick punch to his upper arm.

"Ow! Hey, that hurt..." He chuckled but winced in pain and nursed his bicep by rubbing it repeatedly, being able to discern that it was out of her embarrassment rather than frustration.

Octavia was different than most mares in the sense that it took her a relatively short amount of time to get ready in the morning, which only added to Soarin's impressions of her given that she still looked as beautiful as ever after only fifteen minutes of absence. He tried to examine her briefly through the glass doors to see if she even bothered putting makeup on, but he couldn't tell. A closer look would've revealed that she was wearing some light eye shadow and lipstick, but since he was still sitting so close to Vinyl, he didn't risk appearing to ogle her for too long.

The three casually waved goodbye as she left from the front door of the house with her cello case on her back and the door clicked shut behind her. She still had a mouthful of toast as she left. He couldn't help but take an extra glance at her attractive formal clothing that almost looked like a cliche schoolgirl outfit from the kitchen window.

"So what was all that about?" He didn't waste time and finally resumed the conversation from earlier, curious as to what hidden motives there might've been from Vinyl's body language and her text from the night before right before he fell asleep. He sat up straight in his chair out of habit from his months and months of training.

"She gets like that sometimes." She drank down the last of her coffee." Sometimes it's just because she's in heat, or... Because she's just lonely." Vinyl was thinking of a way to bring up the offer that the two roommates came up with, but she was smart enough to not just come out and say it without proper context. She was a blunt mare, but most who knew her would say that she wasn't that socially inept. She crossed her legs and leaned back in her chair, tilting it on two legs, and put her hands behind her head.

"Yeah, but I mean... Is she alright?" He switched his tone to a more serious one, leaning in a little and lowering his voice out of instinct even though he knew that they were the only two left in the house.

"Dude, come on. I've known her for like, ten years. She always vents to me about stuff she needs to vent about."

Soarin knew when it was time to fold, realizing that Vinyl knew her more than he possibly could. He sighed and smiled a little, noticing how relatively silly he was being.

"Sorry." He closed his eyes and massaged his forehead with one hand while propping his head up with his other. "I just have a soft spot for mares with emotional problems."

"Yeah, no shit." Vinyl said with thick sarcasm and expected Soarin to just smirk and brush it off, but his reaction was sober and he hardly reacted. In fact, Vinyl almost thought he didn't even hear her until she realized that it wasn't the right time for jokes and he just wasn't biting at the humor.

"Uh... My bad." She awkwardly followed up with a lowered tone with her ears a little flatter than before and sat down normally again, scooting a little closer to him so their shoulders were touching. It was a subtle way of apologizing for being insensitive.

"It's alright." Soarin sensed that she felt guilty and put an arm around her waist. He was beginning to find a silly irony about her. Even though she always seemed to be spot-on with physical cues and social gestures with Octavia, she still seemed oblivious to them when she was with him. He tried not to overthink it, though, chalking it up to the amount of time Vinyl had to get to know Octavia compared to him.

"Thanks for caring about her so much, though. She really needs more friends like you." Vinyl admitted, cutting her normal sly attitude, avoiding being jealous, and rewarding him for being the compassionate man that he was.

"I can tell. I mean, honestly she really is a beautiful girl; she doesn't deserve to feel like that." He had a feeling that Vinyl was mature enough not to conflate his compliment about Octavia to jealousy since it was a serious topic.

"I know." Vinyl sighed and leaned against him. "I've been trying to hook her up for years, but... I guess she just has specific tastes?" She pondered.

Vinyl glanced down and spotted his stiff morning wood poking out through the gym shorts he borrowed from her and decided it was time to try and lighten the mood. Thinking too long about serious things tended to depress her easily.

"I see you've acquisitioned a pair of my shorts." She smiled.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. Sorry, I-"

"Nah, it's cool. They look better on you anyway." She joked with a slight innuendo.

"Is it me, or the shorts?" Soarin joked back, not being able to resist her occasional sexual teasing. He figured that he wouldn't be able to hunker down at her place for too much longer; he'd already stayed more than he expected to. He thought it best not to get bogged down in serious topics for the time being and enjoy her company like he had been.

"Ah, ah." Vinyl picked her eyes off the shorts he was wearing, realizing that it would've turned into an early morning fuck-fest. "You save all that for later, Lieutenant."

"Save it?" Soarin perked his ears up and made a cute confused face at her, surprised that Vinyl would hold him back after how many times they fucked yesterday. "Uh... Okay?"

"Just trust me, babe." Vinyl pecked his cheek affectionately. "Now, are you gonna make us breakfast, or what?"

Soarin admired just how adorable Vinyl looked with a pony-tail and white cooking apron on in front of the stove and he was having trouble not fantasizing about her being naked and only wearing said apron. Despite his best efforts, it was hard not to think about sex with her after doing it so many times in such a short period.

"I uh... Oh, shit." Vinyl cut herself off and quickly turned her attention from the eggs to a bit of bacon that was getting too crispy on one side. Soarin would've helped her, but he was on a mission to make her a little more self-reliant. It was a favor to all three of them; It'd help Vinyl if she ever lived on her own again, Octavia so she wouldn't take on one hundred percent of the housework, and Soarin for a similar reason if he and Vinyl ever got a house of their own. It was hard watching her struggle but they both knew it was for her own good.

"I don't claim responsibility if the bacon comes out a little..." Vinyl continued, her eyes glued to the bacon and eggs sizzling.

"Charred?" Soarin chuckled.

"Hey, it's not my fault I never cook. Octavia always does it for me before I can even offer." Vinyl fussed but in a non-aggressive way and her ears flattened when she pulled off her bacon and it ended up covered with black burned spots.

"Eh... Actually it kinda is your fault." He continued to tease her and she looked behind her and gave him an unamused glare.

"I could burn your bacon a little more, you know." She pulled the rest of the food off before taking off her apron which she was happy to remove.

She gave him his plate and she looked at him closely to judge his reaction when he saw it. Oddly enough, he didn't look too disappointed even though half his bacon was nearly black.

"Hmm... I might've had to punish you for that..." He raised an eyebrow and smirked, cutting into his fried egg and finding it a tad overdone. Still, it was infinitely better than most breakfasts they served at the mess hall on base. There was a reason their morning cook's nickname was 'Crunch'.

"Hey, I said save it for later, Cassanova." Vinyl lightly kicked his foot under the table after joining him. He had asked what she meant by it a dozen times while she was cooking, but she still wouldn't give him a single syllable of a hint.

She cringed a little when she heard him crunch loudly into his bacon, showing just how well-done it was.

"So what happened last night with you and Octavia? After... You know." He spoke with his mouth half-full of bacon and shifted the subject.

"Oh, that?" Vinyl stuffed some eggs into her mouth to keep her from having to answer for a moment or two so she could come up with a reply. Soarin kept eye contact with her while she gulped her mouthful down and chased it with some water so she'd know he wasn't about to lose interest so easily.

"Yeah. I was all cold and lonely in your bed." He picked on her a little but she affectionately brushed her legs against his under the table.

"My bad... She, uh..." Vinyl sighed, wondering how much information would be appropriate to share. "Uh... Well, you remember last night when you were saying all that stuff about her watching us?" She lowered her voice a little and inched closer to him even though they were alone with a small nervous smile.

Soarin was smart enough to put two and two together and didn't bother with any follow-up questions before assuming what she was getting at. His face flushed and his ears flattened in embarrassment.

"W-Wait, seriously?!"

"Yeah..." Vinyl took a small bite of her bacon and didn't hide the fact that she thought it wasn't good whatsoever. Soarin heard her teeth crunching it like potato chips, but his concerns were elsewhere.

"Celestia..." He looked down and exhaled through his nostrils, holding his forehead. "Vinyl, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to..." He was too flustered to form complete sentences.

"It's cool." Vinyl swallowed her bacon casually. "She kinda enjoyed it, actually." A laugh or two escaped her throat but Soarin didn't seem to share her carefree attitude.

He was much more embarrassed about it than he thought he'd be, but remembering his brief talk with her that morning set him at ease a little more. She didn't seem too awkward talking to him, so he assumed she didn't think differently about him because of what she saw.

"So, you were saying?" He realized he interrupted her and cut up his fried egg, giving her time to explain.

"Oh. Yeah. Well." She talked with her mouth full casually until she swallowed. "Long story short, she kinda has problems finding guys because of how shy she is, and... Well, you know how I used to be." She took a swig of milk. "So she started getting pretty jealous and self-conscious after I started bringing home guys every month or so and she got it in her head that she wasn't good enough, or something like that."

"So last night when you went in her room?" He tried to direct her to explain what he was worried about.

"Mhmm." Vinyl was scarfing down her food. "She got in one of those moods like she always does; kept saying 'how rubbish she was' and stuff like that. I guess seeing us last night made her feel like she was missing out." Vinyl twirled her fork around while she talked and used a silly impression of Octavia which made her chuckle after, but she could tell that again, Soarin wasn't in the mood for more jokes and noticed that he was eating slower ever since she told him about Octavia.

"I mean... I don't want to say I feel bad for her because it'd make me look patronizing, but... I dunno. You know how I get with damsels in distress." He finally showed half a grin and took a bite of the bacon.

"Yup. You're a softie." She teased, but brushed her tail against his leg a little. "But that's why I like you."

Her suddenly sweet comment made him smile a little more and look up to make eye contact with her.

"So anyways, if you want to help her, we kinda came up with an idea that might work out?"

He perked his ears up. "What's that?"

Vinyl tried to think of the best way to go about offering. "Okay, so... She hasn't gotten laid in years and-"

Vinyl was mid-sentence when the front door swung open and vomited a clearly upset and distraught Octavia who was back from practice much earlier than usual. She was always careful with her cello, but the large leather case on her back was dropped onto the couch as she passed by as if it held no value to her anymore. Vinyl could instantly infer that something was wrong when she saw how she was treating it. From a closer inspection, something about the shape of the case looked odd. Vinyl couldn't put her finger on it, but it had a noticeably different shape as if something was bending it in an awkward way from the inside.

"Tavi? What's wrong?" Vinyl got up but Soarin stayed put, knowing that even though Vinyl could be rash and unorthodox, she still knew more about how to treat Octavia than anyone else.

"It... I was just crossing the street on the way to the train and-" Octavia had her back turned to Soarin, so he couldn't see her expression, but he saw how Vinyl shifted into comfort mode instantly when she saw it. Though, he didn't need to see her face to tell that she was upset; he could hear the sadness and shakiness in her voice. "And this carriage just came out of nowhere and..."

"Geez, you alright? You aren't hurt or anything?" Vinyl gave her a brief look-over.

"No, I'm quite fine, but... M- My cello..."

Vinyl unzipped her case and opened it up and she visibly winced at what she saw. Most of the body was relatively fine with the occasional scratch here and there, but as for the neck...

"Oh, just look at it!" Octavia was slowly getting more emotional the longer she looked at her broken instrument. It would've been expensive to buy another and probably more expensive to have it repaired because of how old it was.

Vinyl's arm went around Octavia's waist as a means of comfort and Soarin was getting increasingly worried about the situation. He figured that she'd only get a little upset over it, but he was ascertaining context clues to conclude that there was some deeper pain she was feeling. He rose from his chair but stayed a safe distance away. His ears fell flat when he heard Octavia start to cry and Vinyl trying to console her. Mares crying always shot straight through his heart, especially when it was someone as beautiful as Octavia.

"Shh, shh... It's okay, we'll get another-" Vinyl said softly whilst putting an arm around her. It was a bit of a lie, though, since neither of them had the spare bits to afford one. It was all she could think to say at the moment.

"It's not the same!" Octavia said in a warbly voice, her hands clenching the back of the couch in anger and sadness. It meant more to her than money and even if it was just that, neither of them could've afforded it on such short notice. Vinyl rarely got yelled at in such a manner, but she was too unstable to apologize. She was trying not to cry in front of Soarin, but a few of her tears fell against her cello, which was only then a broken catalyst of memories.

He approached slowly and peeked over the couch, having a similar reaction to Vinyl when he saw it. He knew it was none of his business, but he also wasn't the kind of man to watch a woman cry without at least attempting to amend things in some way.

He didn't bother getting more formal attire on, but put on his tennis shoes and teased his hair slightly to make it harder to detect that he had just woken up thirty minutes ago. It didn't matter that he was wearing some slightly feminine gym shorts since he didn't want to be recognized in Canterlot, anyway.

"Where are you going?" Vinyl looked at him like he was insane when she saw him approaching the front door without any explanation.

"Where do you think? I'm gonna go get a new bass, er... Cello. Thing." He said casually, showing his lack of knowledge when it came to music and instruments.

Octavia pulled her face from her hands and wiped it with her sleeve. "W-What? No, I can't ask you to-"

"You're not asking me. I'm just doing it." He gave her a smile of confidence as he leaned against the door with his arms crossed. He hoped his nonchalant attitude wouldn't come off as rude or cold, but he wanted them to know that he was serious about it to the point where it didn't bother him to offer.

"Dude, you even know how expensive those things are?" Vinyl asked but immediately realized how silly it was to ask.

Soarin chuckled. "You know I hate bragging about race money, but I could probably buy two more houses if I wanted to and still have enough bits to buy ten new cellos."

Octavia's facial expression was a mix between relief, confusion and reluctance.

"Buuut... I have no clue what kind you want or where the store even is, so you better come with me." He tried his charm on her to perk her up and it seemed to work, producing a tiny half- smile on her face. There was no way she could turn down his offer even with all the modesty in Equestria and she looked down at the carpet with a sniffle as she walked out the door ahead of him, wiping the dampness off her cheeks before she went into public again. There weren't enough bits in Equestria to replace the sentimental value, but it was better than no cello at all.

Soarin gave Vinyl a little wink before waving and she gave him a sly look and a smirk. She held her thumb up, a sign of congratulations for cheering her best friend up before the door closed and she was left by herself.

She sighed and leaned against the couch with her eyes closed.

"Thaaank you, Soarin." She said to herself, glad she didn't have to deal with another one of Octavia's crying fits. She took her boyfriend from her for a few hours, but she was glad it was him going to the music store instead of her. Just the thought of the thick resin smell and ear-ringing bows rubbing against strings made a chill go up her spine. Not only that, but she felt a headache going on just thinking of all the city's noises and people bumping into her constantly.

She pinched her temples for a few seconds and sat back down at the kitchen table, unplugging her laptop from its charger and opening it up. It was the perfect opportunity to do some editing to one of her tracks she had just rough-drafted.

Soarin's phone vibrated against the table and the loud buzz made her jump a little.

"Vinyl... No." She held another conversation with the devil on her left shoulder that was telling her to peek at his phone. Yet, she was still staring at it.

She grumbled and shook her head as it vibrated a second time. This time, it was continuous as if he was getting a call instead of a text. Even if she decided not to look at it, it'd be bothering her too much to concentrate on her music. And, if she wanted to move it somewhere else, it'd be too hard for her to simply look down at it while she carried it.

"Ugh. Luna damn it." She decided before she changed her mind and picked it up, promising herself that she wouldn't hold anything against him for what she saw because of her snooping.

It took her a moment to scroll down all the notifications he'd gotten that morning and they all had the same sender; five texts and two missed calls from a contact named "Boss man."

At first, she just thought that it was Spitfire, but the suffix "man" perked her curiosity. Then, her ears flattened when she read the texts.

"Lieutenant Soarin, report to base of operations within twelve hours or you will be pronounced A.W.O.L. Don't make me court martial you, son." Was the last text he received before the missed calls.

"Uh oh..." She wasn't sure what the acronym meant or what a 'court martial' was, but neither of them sounded good.

Author's Note

If there are any grammatical or spelling errors, please send me a PRIVATE MESSAGE and let me know so that I can fix them asap. Thanks!