Gravity

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The walk from my café to the restaurant was probably the longest walk I had ever suffered through in my life. In actuality, we were probably only walking for ten minutes. At most. But with Fluttershy at my side, her arm occasionally swinging alongside mine, brushing my jacket-sleeve with hers in the barest of moves, it seemed like I was walking for days.

Weeks even.

And I had nothing to talk about. I was hungry, yes. But other than that, I could think of nothing good to say. Nothing piqued my interest. It was maddening, and the fact that Fluttershy followed me without complaint didn't really help to assuage my awkwardness.

We eventually arrived at the place I had in mind, one of those small, open-all-night deals, and I nodded stiffly as Fluttershy stepped ahead of me to open the front door.

The restaurant was nearly empty – big surprise there – and after looking around for a moment, Fluttershy pointed to a table on the far side of the room.

"A booth?"

"Sure," I nodded stiffly.

At my acceptance she walked towards the seat in question and filed in, setting her purse next to her atop the table. She then looked back up, blinking her large eyes at me. After a moment I followed, sitting across from her.

Fluttershy pulled a couple of menus from the far end of the table and handed me one. I mumbled my thanks and, instead of finding something to settle my stomach, I sat and watched the woman across from me, her eyes travelling down the laminated pages slowly. After a few moments, her hand traveled up and she brushed a strand of hair hair from her face. I fidgeted in my seat, not sure if what I was doing could be called staring or not.

"See anything you like?" she asked me, not taking her eyes off the page in front of her.

Feeling as though I already shamed myself enough for one night and I couldn't do much worse, I leaned back and dusted off one of my cheekier smiles. "I think some scrambled eggs sound pretty good."

At that she looked up, an amused look flitting across her face. "I see," she said, and tilted her head to the side after sliding her menu back to the far end of the table.

"And… yourself?" I asked softly. I had the distinct feeling that she and I were having two different conversations, disguised as one. And everything we said could be taken in different ways, depending on the connotation. I had never been very good with being coy, but I used to be good at leading conversations the way I wanted them to go, and yet, for all my subtleties at subterfuge and leading people on in my younger years, I got the feeling that Fluttershy was miles ahead of me. Leading me decidedly by the nose.

I clenched my hands together under the table as the corners of Fluttershy’s lips pulled up into a delighted grin. "I’ll have a milkshake," she finally said, and there was so much emotion, so much meaning behind the word that I knew for certain she didn't mean just a frozen drink with ice cream and milk.

"What… um… what flavor?" I asked, feeling the tell-tale signs of a blush creep across my cheeks. At that moment, with her lips all I could focus on as she smiled at me, I would have given anything – anything – to know what she was thinking at that moment.

"Banana," she declared, her voice barely above a whisper. I nodded slowly, using a herculean amount of effort to drag my gaze from her mouth and back down to the table. Holy shit… what was this woman doing to me? Where the fuck was our server? They couldn't really leave us to our own devices, could they? I would only last a few more minutes until I combusted into a pile of warm goo. And Fluttershy…

Who knew what she was thinking?

Clearing my throat, I brought my hands out from under table and placed them in front of me, lacing my fingers together. "So… what have you been up to since Canterlot High?" I asked. Good, an easy conversation to have.

If anything, Fluttershy seemed almost disappointed in my not-too-subtle attempt to shift the topic to something so mundane. But she didn't comment on it, instead leaning back in her seat and peered around the restaurant.

"Oh… this and that," she said softly, her eyes shifting around to watch the pair of men around our age as they stood up to leave. "I never ended up going to university."

I blinked, trying to remember what exactly Fluttershy had been interested in back in the old days. As far as I could recall, she had spent most of her free time volunteering at the local animal shelter. Had that changed? Didn’t she want to be a vet, or something? I could imagine so. But why hadn’t she gone back to school? I opened my mouth to say something, anything, when she beat me to it.

"I do still work with animals, though, if that's what you’re thinking."

My mouth fell open at that, sheer surprise winning over politeness at that piece of news. Back when we were kids, animals were all she ever talked about. All she ever wanted to do was take care of animals that were sick and in need. I remembered actually been impressed, if I was perfectly honest, in her drive and forethought to her future. But on the other hand, she seemed just as adamant of getting a college education to help with that. And now, hearing that from her mouth, I was at a loss for words.

"I know, it's a shock." Fluttershy shrugged her shoulders. "But college just wasn't for me."

"I… what, um, what are you doing, then?" I managed to choke out.

A cheeky smile, almost a smirk, made itself known on her lips, and I couldn't help but think I had never, ever, seen that kind of expression on her face before. It did things to me, somewhere deep down inside, and I squirmed slightly in my seat.

"Oh… about the same thing you are doing, I'd wager," she finally said, solemnly.

I highly doubted that. But I didn't comment, instead turning my attention to the older woman that approached our table, a heavy frown set on her features. I inwardly winced in sympathy, knowing what it felt like to get customers at this time of night, even at a twenty-four hour dive like this.

"What'll it be, ladies?" she asked, not bothering to hide her annoyance.

"I…" My eyes darted towards Fluttershy, who simply smiled her placid little smile and shrugged. Pursing my lips with a tired sigh, I pushed my menu away on the table. "I'll have scrambled eggs, and my friend will have a banana milkshake."

The woman jotted down our order and walked away without another word and I leaned back in my seat again, feeling the wear from the day catch up with me. I peered at Fluttershy, who continued to stare at me. I matched her gaze until I felt the familiar discomfort with being stared at loom over me, and then averted my eyes.

"What about you?" she finally said to me, leaning forward in her seat to rest her elbows on the table. "What have you been doing the past seven years?"

Oh, are we doing this now? I felt annoyance at her deflection creep into my mood and I glared at her. "Oh, this and that," I said snidely. "About the same thing you are doing." I immediately regretted my tone, as something in Fluttershy’s face darkened. I held up my hands in apology. "Sorry, I didn't sleep well last night and I was tired all day."

The woman stared at me intently for another few moments, and then nodded, her face softening. "Why didn't you sleep well, Sunset?"

"I think you know why," I said softly, looking towards the window beside our table. It was dark outside, and all I could make out was some dull pinpoints of light from streetlamps, and our muddled reflection in the glass.

Fluttershy was silent for a long time after that. She simply sat there, idly working her fingers and flicking through the items on the table. A container of sugar packets, small leaflets advertising similar eateries, and an unused package of utensils left on the table from a previous customer.

Eventually, I couldn't stand the silence anymore, and I exhaled softly.

"After finishing Canterlot High I immediately tried for university. After a few semesters I..." I shrugged listlessly. "I don't know. I just… fell into a funk. I suddenly didn't what I wanted to really do anymore. I got a part-time job and an apartment in the city, and have been doing this—" I gestured around me. "--since then." I took a deep breath, and let it go in a scoff. "What a life, huh?"

Fluttershy blinked, simply taking in my words. After a second or two she nodded in understanding. "I can sympathize. My parents weren’t too pleased when I dropped out of school, and for a while I thought I knew what I wanted to do. I worked here and there in animal shelters in different towns, but aside from that, nothing really stuck. Since then, I have been doing… well, this." She matched my gesture with her own hand, flicking her fingers between the two of us. "Much the same as you."

My lips pulled into a frown, and was about to ask why she suddenly dropped out, what could have possibly made it so she was unsure of her whole future, one she had known about for years and years, all for what… this? This kind of life? I knew I wasn't really happy listlessly milling around, working nights until I found my calling. And I knew she couldn't really be happy either. I wanted to tell her so, and as why she did this to herself, when our pleasant little waitress shuffled her way back over to us, depositing my eggs, her milkshake and our check on the table without ceremony. She left without a word, which was just as well.

Fluttershy reached for her frozen yellowy drink with a gleam in her eye, and her expression changed, her lips twisting up into a pleased smile.

As she picked up her straw, I blurted, "you have a nice smile."

The woman blinked once, twice, and then laughed. She leaned back in her seat, her eyes crinkling in humor as her voice tickled into my ears, sending shivers down my spine. Fuck, that kind of laugh should be illegal. She was laughing so hard, her whole body vibrated, and I could almost taste the pleasant feeling radiating off of her. She was happy to be paid the compliment.

Relieved at her reaction to my words, I leaned forward. "You're happy to see me."

Still giggling, Fluttershy nodded. "Yes, I'm happy to see you."

"You missed me." I said simply, a slow smile spreading across my lips.

At that, her laughter died down and she regarded me with her typical serine grin. After a few moments, she shrugged with one shoulder. "Perhaps I did miss you."

I narrowed my eyes towards her, my gaze uncharacteristically steady. "You waited for me outside my café tonight." At her lack of response, my smile stretched even wider. "You're a stalker."

Something in her eyes changed then, and for a moment I was worried I had gone too far, that she would finally revert to her typical shy attitude and hide behind her hair like the old days, but the look as gone as soon as it had come, and Fluttershy raised an eyebrow curiously. "Why would I stalk you, Sunset, when I could just come up and talk to you?"

That was a good question. I pondered that for a moment, watching as she wrapped her lips around her straw and took a sip from her milkshake. My gaze lingered on her mouth, perhaps a bit too long for comfort, and I was suddenly struck with an idea.

"Well, because you're attracted to me, of course," I said smugly, crossing my arms across my chest. Let her chew on that.

But Fluttershy, true to her recent and quite surprising unflappable nature, simply chuckled, cradling her glass with her fingers. She dropped her eyes to her drink for a moment, before flicking them back up to peer at me from underneath her eyelashes.

"Yes," she finally said, leaning down to take another long, drawn out draw from her straw.

My mind halted, and I blinked, multiple times. Wait. Wait. What had she just said? "What?" I voiced, honestly confused as to what that meant. "What do you mean, 'yes'?"

Her eyes narrowed at me, and she sat back in her seat, sliding her milkshake from one hand to the other. "It means, yes, I am attracted to you," she said simply, softly. When I blinked again, she inhaled slowly, and then released it.

I think my grin widened to epic proportions, and I thumped my fingers on the table. "It's my amazing personality, isn't it?" I said, immensely amused. My heart thumped in my chest, and I thought furiously that finally – finally – life was shaping up, that fate was giving me something I could actually work with. It was about damn time. "I'll bet you missed me ever since high school, didn't you?"

"Perhaps," Fluttershy said, her eyes boring into mine as I stared back at her. "Perhaps I remember you from school, wide-eyed and repentant little Sunset Shimmer, always the friendliest and most approachable of us. The leader of our little group. Perhaps I remember you always smiling and trying to make friends as though it was second nature to you; Princess Twilight’s influence, I‘d think. Perhaps I remember you, in all your capriciousness, flitting around to do one thing, and then the next, always helping in every way you could."

She leaned forward, suddenly matching my intense expression. "Or perhaps I remember the Sunset Shimmer who ruled the school through cruelty and conniving. How she would always accost me in the hallways, stealing my homework or defacing my clothing, or simply terrorizing me in some way, shape or form. The Sunset Shimmer who, while would eventually turn around and be the best friend I ever knew, always seemed to target me more than everyone else in school. The Sunset Shimmer that would dance around with me, the both of us never quite reaching each other the way we both knew we wanted to. Every time you would get a little closer to me, I would spin away as if it were a waltz between you and I where we could not touch. And every time I reached out to you, you would inexplicably fall just out of reach, instead falling back on another insult or a reprimand. It was a dance the two of us shared, Sunset. It was a dance that never quite reached its end."

Sometime during Fluttershy’s speech, I had gone completely still, my eyes wide in alarm that she recalled everything so vividly, and so similarly to my own memories. It was a lot to process, and I swallowed slowly, as if to buy a little more time to think. "I… um… wha—yeah?" I managed.

My response had been apparently what she expected, from the pleased smile on Fluttershy's lips, and I sucked in a shaky breath. If this were chess, would this count as a 'check'?

"I did enjoy our dance as children, Sunset," Fluttershy continued, cocking her head to one side, regarding me. "In retrospect, I wish I had spent a little more time enjoying it instead of jumping the gun with you. But, as they say, 'you live, you learn'. And now it's much later, we're older and more mature, and it would seem our dance is still going."

I swallowed audibly, feeling like I was in the middle of a pair of crosshairs, and Fluttershy, dressed in an old priestess robe, was aiming a bow, her arrow nocked and ready to fly right into my chest.

"And now," she said softly, her stare boring directly into mine. I shuddered as she pushed her empty milkshake glass away, the grating sound of glass of tile louder than I ever heard it before. "Now, I am waiting to finish our dance. Will you dance for me, Sunset?"

Holy fuck. I think I died a little inside at those words. My stomach flipped and roiled in a decidedly pleasant way, and my legs clenched together as I tried to come up with something intelligent to say. After a few moments, I licked my lips, deciding that an "okay..." was the safest course for me to take.

My answer seemed to please Fluttershy, who nodded slowly. Right at that moment, as she stared into my face, I knew that if I were to die, it would be a great death.

"You want me to… dance for you?" I said slowly, carefully, as if one wrong move or word would cause this fragile house of cards that was our relationship to come crashing down.

"Yes," she said.

My lips twitched in response to her no-nonsense answer. "Okay… but I won't make it easy for you, you know? I got a reputation to maintain."

The grin that flashed over her face at that moment was equal parts alluring, and a little frightening.

"I wouldn't expect it any other way, Sunset," she whispered softly. "The best things in life are never easy, after all."

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