Though Flash wasn't exactly unhappy to be here, there was nevertheless a hesitancy to his presence. Derpy was his friend, he knew that, and yet, as he approached her front door, something about being here put him off. Like a sense of intuition to something he had no real way of describing. But, as was often the case, he dismissed such thoughts, figuring that it must have just been his mind playing tricks on him. Drawing closer to her door, he balled his hand into a fist, before promptly knocking upon it three times. Afterwards, he waited for about a minute, until he finally started to hear somebody on the other side. The door creaked open, and the smiling face of that blonde girl was there to greet him on the other side.
"Hey, Flash."
The boy smiled back to her.
"Hi, Derpy."
The girl stepped aside, allowing him entry, and she closed the door moments afterwards. Once inside the house, Flash looked around for a bit before turning his gaze back to his host.
"How's Dinky?"
Derpy's smile widened slightly.
"She's fine. I just put her to bed."
Flash nodded to that, watching as Derpy began to walk through the door that, from memory, he knew led to her living room. He followed, watching as she took a seat on the big sofa that stood to one side of the room. When she'd done this, she patted the side next to it, and while Flash once more felt that uncertain feeling at seeing her do this, he nevertheless accepted the silent invitation, sitting himself down beside her.
"So...what's up?"
Derpy, hearing that question, hesitated for a moment, then perked up slightly as she reached over to a table beside her end of the sofa.
"Oh! Before I forget...this is for you!"
She handed him a plate, upon which was a large muffin, which caused Flash to raise an eyebrow. This, in turn, prompted Derpy to giggle slightly.
"I made it myself earlier. Go ahead."
Flash smiled, accepting the gift and, rather carefully, took a single bite of it. Derpy watched him, seeing him nod and smile after having swallowed.
"It's good," he remarked.
Again, she giggled, and for a time, there was a pleasant silence between the two of them. However, after a few moments, that silence started to feel just the tiniest bit uncomfortable, as Flash looked to his friend, wondering to himself if something was bothering her, given the few occasions where her smile would fade slightly. Eventually, he just came out and said it.
"Derpy...is something wrong?"
She avoided his gaze for a time, but, after being stared at for a while, looked back to him.
"Flash...we're friends, right?"
Though taken aback, the boy nodded.
"Y...yeah, of course we are."
She turned to have her whole body facing him.
"It's just...I need you to promise me something."
Flash said nothing, waiting for her to say something further, which she did soon afterwards.
"I need you...to promise...not to get mad."
Naturally, such words caught him off-guard, and before long, he looked to her with utter confusion.
"Mad? About what?"
Derpy looked away again, her tone more quiet than before when she next spoke.
"Well...it's...it's about Turner."
Hearing that, Flash raised an eyebrow.
"Dinky's Father? What about him?"
Then, his eyes widened, and he started looking around.
"Wait...where is he anyway? I don't think I've seen him for a few days."
Derpy grimaced, showing obvious hesitation when speaking again.
"He's...not here. And...you probably won't see him again for a while."
Flash looked back to her.
"Why? Where's he gone?"
Derpy, as before, avoided looking to him, as though ashamed of what she was about to say. And when she finally did speak, Flash understood.
"He's...gone home."
Flash's eyes widened, and his expression became one of seriousness. But, before he could say anything, Derpy finally looked to him, seeing that look he bore and knowing deep down what he must have been feeling.
"It's not what it sounds like!"
But Flash's anger was clear as he spoke to her.
"He's gone, Derpy! What exactly am I supposed to think about that?!"
Taking a deep breath, Derpy answered.
"...I asked him to."
That stopped Flash dead in his tracks, his anger subsiding almost immediately, replaced instead by confusion and uncertainty.
"You...you what?"
Derpy sighed, leaning back into her side of the sofa.
"It's something I've been thinking about for a long time. With the baby, he...he always said that he'd stay. That he'd help to look after her. But...by doing that he made it so he wasn't going home. And that...that always bothered me more than it bothered him."
She closed her eyes.
"He was never meant to be here for the rest of his life. He was an exchange student. And I...I know he and I made this mistake, but..."
Slowly, she looked back to Flash.
"...I don't want him to spend his whole life here because of that mistake."
After a long quiet, she carried on, her tone a thoughtful one.
“When we first got together...it wasn’t love. It was a moment of passion. Even after the baby came...there was just friendship. We tried to make it more, tried to make it love, but...we couldn’t.”
Briefly, sadness flashed in her eyes.
“We were never going to be what people always say...the happy loving family. We both loved our daughter...but not each other...no matter how much we considered each other friends.”
But Flash, understandably, did not seem happy with that notion.
"Derpy...he's your child's Father. That girl should have him in her life!"
Derpy nodded.
"And she will."
As had happened before, Flash waited while she explained herself.
"In truth...Turner was as unhappy with this idea as you are when I talked to him about it. He kept going on about his responsibilities to her, and helping me support her. So...he's going to keep being a part of her life."
After looking away briefly, she looked back to Flash.
"He'll be back to visit her as often as he can. He has no intention of just abandoning our daughter. And he's going to keep helping me whenever and however he can. He just...won't be here all the time."
Though it was obvious to anyone that Flash was still upset over what had been said to him, he nevertheless recognised that Derpy, at the very least, was accepting of this whole situation. Sighing, he raised a hand to his temples rubbing them slightly before speaking up to his friend again.
"And...you believe him when he say's he'll come back?"
Derpy nodded.
"I do. He could've run the moment he found out about me being pregnant...but he didn't. He could've left a hundred times and more by now...but he didn't. And when I talked to him about this...he said no. Trust me, I really had to persuade him to go along with this."
Flash nodded, albeit slowly, before looking back to her.
"Well...at least he's got his head on right on that count."
Derpy smiled a little.
"I know what I'm doing, Flash...and so does he."
She reached over, placing her hand on his.
"I wanted to tell you first...because you're probably my best friend."
To that, Flash returned the smile.
"Th...thank you for that, Derpy. I'm not happy about this...but if you say it's what's best...I guess I can go along with it, for your sake if nothing else."
Derpy's smile widened.
"Thank you, Flash. It's nice to know you're there for me."
The boy nodded, and in the moment that followed, he took another bite of her muffin.
"This really is a good muffin."
The girl giggled.
"Well...I figured I'd need it...if only to keep you from chasing Turner down and throttling him."
Flash chuckled.
"Nope, not me..."
Slowly, he turned to her, a sly smile on his face.
"...at least...not unless you give me permission first."
The two laughed together, only for Flash’s smile to disappear soon after, replaced with a look of seriousness.
“No, seriously, I’d destroy him over this.”
Derpy sighed.
“Yeah...I kinda expected that.”
