It's Always the Quiet Ones

Rainbow Dash flinched as Fluttershy rubbed some sort of ointment onto a gash on her shoulder.  The goo stung worse than the actual cut itself, but she managed to stay still as her caretaker tried to be as gentle as possible.

Fluttershy must have noticed her cringe, and quietly apologized. “Sorry... I should have warned you.”

Rainbow couldn’t help but start to regret choosing Fluttershy over an actual doctor.  Sure, she was very capable and had a gentle touch, but she said sorry too often.

“Could you stretch your wings out for me, please?”

“He got my wings too?” Rainbow Dash groaned, but obediently stretched them out.

“No, he didn’t, I think.  I’m just making sure there are no cuts that I missed.”

Well, that was a relief.  At least one part of her body wasn’t scraped or bruised.  Normally, she would know better than to get into a fight, and especially with Dumbbell, who was much bigger than her… but her temper had gotten the best of her.  How could she have sat there and done nothing while he called her a lesbian, right in front of her?  At this point, she wished she had just sat there, since she had gotten beat up…

“You know, he had lots of injuries too.”

Rainbow frowned.  Fluttershy was too perceptive for her own good.

“This will all heal quickly, you’ll see.”  Fluttershy had stopped ruffling Rainbow’s feathers to look for injuries, and moved so she was standing opposite her seated friend.  “Would you like me to make us some dinner?”  Rainbow Dash looked prepared to reject the invitation, so Fluttershy quickly added, “And then you can get going.  I just want to make sure you’re up to getting yourself home.”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “Fine…”

She wasn't usually in such a terrible mood, but being beaten up and publicly humiliated was taking a toll on her.  Fluttershy seemed happy to have the company though, and Dash didn't bother hiding a smile as she watched Fluttershy walk into the kitchen, a slight bounce in her step as she did.

Like most of her kind, Rainbow usually wore a type of shirt that lacked an upper back portion to it, so her wings weren't constricted, but the shirt had been removed so Fluttershy could properly tend to her wounds.  All she had been wearing on her torso during Fluttershy's treatment was a strapless bra, and she was happy to put her shirt back on, despite the few dirt stains here and there.

“I hope you don't mind something vegetarian,” Fluttershy called from the kitchen as Rainbow finished the final clasp on the back of her shirt. “Oh, I know! I'll make you my vegetable minestrone soup.”

How could she have forgotten that Fluttershy didn't eat meat?  She had already agreed to stay, so Dash held in her complaint as she walked into the kitchen, and tried to mask her distaste with an unenthusiastic, “Sounds good.”  Vegetable whatever soup sounded far from good, but Fluttershy was already happily dicing up some tomatoes, humming away as she did.

Rainbow Dash pulled out a seat from the kitchen table and turned it around, sitting on it backwards as she watched Fluttershy get more vegetables from the fridge and start chopping them up.

“What song is that?”

“Hmm?”

“I mean, what are you humming?”

“Oh, it's not an actual song,” Fluttershy looked over her shoulder as she continued to chop veggies, which made Dash nervous.  “I just made it up, since I like to hum while I cook.”

“You should probably watch the knife,”  Rainbow pointed out, although it seemed like Fluttershy knew what she was doing.  Regardless, Fluttershy smiled and looked back at the cutting board.

“Sweet of you to worry.”

“I wasn't worried,”  Dash frowned, “Was just looking out for you.  They did call you Klutzershy in school...”

Fluttershy laughed at that comment, and retorted with, “I wasn't the only one with a nickname, Rainbow Crash.”

Rainbow couldn't help but smile.  Her mood was starting to brighten already, thanks to her friend.

The two continued to chat while Fluttershy cooked, and Rainbow found herself glad she had accepted the dinner invitation.  Fluttershy had joined Rainbow at the table while the soup simmered, which was starting to smell delicious, despite it's lack of meat.  It apparently had to simmer for half an hour, but talking with Fluttershy made her forget she was waiting on her food, and before she knew it, Fluttershy had placed a bowl in front of her.

Fluttershy took a seat at the other side of the table, and started blowing on her own steaming bowl of soup in an undeniably cute fashion. Rainbow smiled  at how dainty her friend was.  Well, how dainty she was most of the time.  She did sometimes let slip another side of herself that Rainbow was unfamiliar with, and she wondered if there was some kind of battle for dominance going on inside Fluttershy’s mind, between the assertive, intimidating Fluttershy, and the sweet, kind Fluttershy that all of her friends knew and loved.  That would be pretty awesome, now that she thought about it.  What if that battle was raging right now?  Whatever was going on in her friend’s head, it was a mystery!

“Um… Rainbow Dash? Why are you staring at me?”

Mystery solved, she was thinking, ‘Why is she staring at me?’

Rainbow turned her gaze to her soup, “No reason, I just zoned out.”

“Um… okay.” Fluttershy had turned a little red, but after a brief silence, pushed through the embarrassed feeling and tried to start up a conversation.

“Do you mind if I ask you something?”

Rainbow had started taking her first few sips of soup, but stopped to answer Fluttershy.  “Yeah, sure.”

“Why did you and Dumbbell start fighting?”

“He called me a lesbian, and wouldn’t shut up about it. He had it coming, if you ask me...”  Fluttershy looked like she suddenly felt uncomfortable, and Rainbow Dash didn’t quite understand why.  “Fluttershy?”

Fluttershy placed her hands in her lap and looked at the table, across the room, at the floor… anywhere but at Rainbow.

“You… you think I’m a lesbian!”

“No, I don’t!”

Dash had already started to storm out of the kitchen, and Fluttershy quickly followed after her.

“Everyone thinks I like women!”

“I don’t think you like women, Dash! That’s the problem…” Fluttershy nervously averted her gaze as Rainbow turned on her.

“How is that a problem?”

“I-It isn't...”

Rainbow Dash turned around again and stomped her way out of Fluttershy's house, slamming the door behind her and rousing more than a few animals out of their hiding places in the process.

By the time Rainbow had reached her cloud home, the sun had almost disappeared, just barely peeking out across the horizon.  She was still frustrated with the whole situation, and her heavy, less than graceful landing at her doorstep revealed that her mind was still focused on other things.  She realized her accusation against Fluttershy had been a bit uncalled for, and the way she had acted afterwards was downright rude, but it wasn't entirely Rainbow's fault, was it?  Fluttershy shouldn't have brought up the fight, or acted so.. strange.

Still, I shouldn't have yelled at her.  And did I really need to slam the door?

Rainbow sighed as she made her way through her house, headed towards her room.  She needed to sleep, that was all.  She was exhausted and her body ached all over.  Rest would definitely be a good thing.

She changed into a pair of sweatpants and a tank top, then crawled into her cloud bed, but she didn't fall asleep right away. Rather, she tossed and turned for a while, her restless mind keeping her awake.  Fluttershy was a sensitive little thing, what if Rainbow had really hurt her?

After a while of hard thinking, Dash sat up and got off her cloud, then started to put her shoes back on.  She needed to apologize to Fluttershy, it was going to bug her all night if she didn't.  Nothing fancy, just something simple should do the trick.  Then she could get some rest.

She quickly made the trip back to Fluttershy's cottage, and ignoring the fact that it was in the middle of the night, she knocked on the door.  “Fluttershy, you in there?”  She called after a long pause.  All the lights were off, it was entirely quiet... maybe she was asleep.  Rainbow honestly wasn't aware of the time, but she needed to get this off of her conscience... but she didn't want to wake up her friend.  With a sigh, she turned and started to walk away, but turned back around at the sound of the door opening.  She was prepared to greet Fluttershy, until she saw that it wasn't her who had answered the door.  “Angel?”

The little white rabbit was standing in the doorway, and gestured for Rainbow to come inside.  “Thanks little guy,”  She said as she walked by him, closing the door behind her.

There was no sign of Fluttershy in this room or the kitchen, so Rainbow assumed she was asleep.  She stood there for a moment, deciding if she should wake her up or not... but she eventually decided it wasn't  important enough to interrupt Fluttershy's rest.

She tried to take a step back towards the door, but her foot didn't lift all the way, and she tumbled forward, landing flat on her face.  “What the hell?”  She flipped over onto her back to see what had happened to her feet, and quickly figured out the problem.  Her shoelaces had been tied together, and there was Angel, looking resentful.  “You little...!”  Rainbow Dash scrambled for him, but he quickly ran out of her reach and into one of the miniature houses built around the cottage.  So, instead of giving chase, she sighed and started to fix her laces.

“Rainbow Dash?”

Rainbow looked up to see Fluttershy standing at the top of the stairs, wearing a robe, and apparently nothing else, seeing as her legs were exposed up to the middle of her thighs.  Rainbow had forgotten her friend slept naked, something she only knew from waking up Fluttershy last cider season.

“Oh... hey.”  Was all she could say at first.  “I, um... Angel let me in.”

“Ah, okay...”

Rainbow realized that didn't explain much.  “I guess you were asleep...”

“I was.”

Coming inside was a really bad idea.  Looking at Fluttershy jumbled her thoughts, for whatever reason, and she felt bad about waking her up.

“You want to talk upstairs?”  Fluttershy finally asked, since Dash didn't seem keen on breaking the silence.  “The animals in here are probably trying to sleep.”

Rainbow nodded and got to her feet, then followed her friend up the stairs and into her room.  The moonlight coming through the window illuminated the room enough for her to see Fluttershy fairly well as she sat at the edge of the bed.  Rainbow stayed by the door.

“I'm really sorry about earlier.  I shouldn't have yelled at you, I just had a rough day.”  Apologies weren't her thing, but she thought that was a pretty good try.  Fluttershy, however, didn't react, looking at the floor rather than at Rainbow.  “Uh... Shy?”

“I thought you were really angry...”  She sounded like she was about to cry, so Rainbow instinctively went over and sat next to her, wrapping an arm around her friend as she did.

“I'm not mad.  I feel really bad about how I acted.  I was just pissed at the whole day, and took it out on you...”  Fluttershy still looked at the edge of tears, so Rainbow continued to try and comfort her,  “C'mon Fluttershy, don't cry!”  She playfully poked her in the side, and Fluttershy jumped and squeaked.  Rainbow raised an eyebrow, and Fluttershy merely gave the most innocent smile she could manage.

“Fluttershy, are you ticklish?”

“N-no!”

Rainbow Dash smirked, and Fluttershy shrank away, inching towards the opposite end of the bed.  Before she could get very far, Rainbow had pounced, eliciting a surprised shriek from her friend as she started to tickle her.  “Rainbow!”  Fluttershy fell back onto the bed, but Rainbow didn't stop her attack as Fluttershy writhed and laughed uncontrollably.  Rainbow was laughing hard as well, amused at how easily her friend was set off. Even through her robe, she was extremely ticklish.  Rainbow was propped up on her knees, leaning over Fluttershy, who managed to get out a few words between her laughter and gasps for breath. “Rainbow, stop, please!”

“Nah, this is hilarious,”  Dash chuckled, and kept at it, until she realized that Fluttershy's squirming had caused the bottom of her robe to roll up a little and show more skin, and her chest was now partially exposed since the robe had opened slightly.  Upon noticing this, Rainbow froze.  She was partially mortified, and partially mesmerized as she looked down at Fluttershy, who was panting from all the tickling.  Her eyes first fell on her legs, which looked soft and smooth.  Her stare moved up her body, noting Fluttershy had pretty large hips and breasts, and had something of an hour glass figure, although she never showed it off with tight or revealing clothes.  Rainbow's chest was rising and falling practically as fast as Fluttershy's, although Rainbow hadn't been the one tickled, so she really didn't have an excuse like her friend did.

Fluttershy was attractive, to say the least... and as Dash finally looked up at the face of the woman beneath her, she saw that she was watching Rainbow and blushing, yet making no attempt to cover herself.

“I...” Rainbow finally pulled her gaze away from Fluttershy, and got off the bed.  “I should go.”

She didn't turn to look at Fluttershy again, scared of what might happen.  She started towards the door, and almost made it, but was suddenly pulled back by her wings and flung onto the bed with a startled, “Oof!”

“Dash,”  Fluttershy was standing at the side of the bed, sliding off her robe, exposing herself entirely.  “I've been waiting years for you to want me,” She got onto the bed and crawled towards Dash, who was scooting away, and finally backed herself up against the bed frame.  “And the way you just looked at me...”  Rainbow opened her mouth to defend herself, but Fluttershy cut her off.  “You aren't going to chicken out and ruin it!”