Jet rolled over, looking out for Delta’s pack of cigarettes. He’d awoken with the first filtering rays of light cutting through the motel’s cheap window blinds. He’d always been an early riser.

The sticky air stank of sex. The rattling air conditioner had done little to pull the humid musk out of the air. Though the smell of sweat and pussy soaked his senses, it wasn’t turning him on like it would have the night prior. Maybe he’d really managed to scratch that itch. Jet pushed up on his elbows to get the reach needed to snag the carton of Marelboros.

Immediately he felt his flaccid penis dislodge itself from where it had been stuck between Delta’s sticky thighs, before it quickly shrank back into his sheath. He grunted to himself, the two must have slept connected for much of the night. His left hoof snagged the carton and tapped out a single white cylinder of premium tobacco. He used his wing to flick the lighter twice, trying to get the flint to catch, before drawing against the cigarette in front of the orange flame, thick smoke filling his lungs.

“Hmmm… that better not be the last one.” A scratchy voice came from his right.

“You’re up, too?”

“No. But you’re being so damn loud.” Delta grumbled, still turned away from him. “If I don’t get my beauty sleep after a solid night of drinking I get the worst hangovers.” The blue pegasus shifted the blanket, pulling it tighter against her shoulder.

Jet sighed, a small smile forming on his lips. She’d always been able to outdrink him, but it would always be him who’d get off scot-free when it came to hangovers. Maybe it was just a stronger liver. Maybe it was Equestria’s cosmic metaphor for their lives… Delta always had trouble with the consequences of her actions.

“It’s not the last.” Jet breathed, blowing smoke through his nostrils. “And don’t worry, I’ll go get some aspirin and dragonade before you wake-up.” Jet automatically let his right hoof pat Delta’s blanketed hip comfortingly, unthinkingly. As soon as he realised what he was doing, the hoof was froze in its location. His eyes widened slightly, looking down at Delta, unsure of what to expect. Would she slap it away, or start getting furious with him for acting familiar? He wanted to pull the hoof away but doing so too quickly could be just as bad.

But Delta didn’t react.

“Hmm… that’d be nice, thanks.” Delta rolled onto her back, tired eyes staring up at the ceiling.

Jet let out a second breath of relief, bringing his hoof back to his side. He took in the environment once again. The empty bottle and discarded cups, his phone on the table red LED pinging incessantly with what was probably a hundred messages. The soaked, damp, uncomfortable sheets. The painful pinch of sticky fur on his chest, groin and legs whenever he shifted.

Yes, last night really did happen.

He looked down and to his right at Delta, still staring up at the ceiling, her eyes heavy and lidded.

He knew that he shouldn’t say a damn word. That he should shut his muzzle, wait for Delta to drift off, take a shower, get her some aspirin, then go home and pay the damn babysitter and pretend that this evening had never happened. Certainly, that’s probably what she would demand for him to do… but Jet had never been good at resisting what he wanted.

“Hey.”

“Hm?” Delta blinked flat on her back, head burying into her pillow, not moving her head but looking over at Jet, his back propped up against the headboard.

“How are you doing?”

Delta let out a long, slow breath. “Jet…” her tone was one of annoyance, like somepony unhappy that they had to take the trash out. A chore done so many times before, but which you never felt like doing again. “...you know that this doesn’t change anything between u-”

Jet scoffed, a short laugh escaping his mouth, around the teeth clenching the cigarette. “Don’t worry about that, I’m not some dewy-eyed romance screenplay writer. I know last night was just about, well… whatever it was about. I know we’ll be back to hating each other’s guts by mid-morning.”

Delta tilted her head to the left, staring right at the stallion. She was too tired to start getting angry now. “So?”

“So, I’m seriously asking… how are you doing these days?” Jet’s tone was full of care and compassion. Maybe for once they could actually talk for a few minutes like decent ponies. Maybe this was the only way they could talk.

Delta’s face softened a bit, confusion on her face. “Do you really care?” She’d wanted to snarl it out, but it hadn’t quite worked. She was too tired, too emotionally overloaded, still too much on the wave of post-coital comfort to rouse her sleeping demons.

“...yes.” Jet nodded. “Apogee doesn’t tell me much.”

“I don’t tell her much.” Delta sighed, “it’s better that way. I’m… good. I’ve been clean for five years now. Finally paid off the damn piece of shit trailer, got enough cash to keep me going.” She paused, pulling her hooves from beneath the blanket and motioning toward the pack of cigarettes. “I see a few stallions from time to time. Got a nice engine refurb going on, I think I could sell a design improvement I’m coming up with. I’m living.”

Jet smiled slightly. “That’s good.” He chain-lit a cigarette and passed it over to her.

“It’s OK.” Delta took the proffered cigarette, inspecting it to delay taking a drag. “I still have no bucking idea what I’m doing with my life. Sometimes, I think I could just disappear. Like if I got hit by a spell from some super-villain out of Ponyville that annihilated me. And it wouldn’t make a damn bit of difference.” Delta pushed herself up slightly so she could take her first puff of nicotine. “Well… might do some good actually.”

Jet simply shook his head softly.

Delta’s eyes got a little bit watery, she took a small breath to steady herself. “Every once in a while, maybe every three months, I pull out a bottle of my old pills. I’ll stare at it for an hour. My mind goes blank.” A tear rolled down Delta’s left cheek. “I always put it away. But it scares the hell out of me. I tell myself that if I take one, I’ll take the whole bottle and just end it… I can’t go through that again.”

Jet’s hoof patted Delta’s knee, letting her know he was there. She wiped the tear from her cheek, then took a steadying drag from her smoke. It let her settle herself. The rattle of the air conditioner was all that filled the air for a minute, before she reached down and patted the top of Jet’s hoof.

“What about you?”

Jet’s head snapped back to Delta, that was something he wasn’t expecting. “What about me?”

“I spilled. You spill.” Delta shoved Jet’s right shoulder.

Jet grunted. “I’m a super-wealthy celebrity CEO. Who owns a company changing the world. Living my dream. I don’t think that gives me the right to bitch.”

Delta blew out a big puff of smoke. “And yet you’re just as miserable as I am.” Delta gave a weak smile in reply to Jet’s curiously arched eyebrow. “Misery can sense misery… c’mon, I’m giving you a temporary bitching pass.”

Jet had to look away from Delta. “It’s pretty shit. I’m not so much a pony as an agenda. A list of actions. I do things because I’m supposed to, scheduled to. I don’t even know if I really choose to do anything anymore. I just evaluate probabilities and pros and cons.” He paused, then stubbed out his cigarette. “At least, that’s what I’m hoping to do… I don’t want to make decisions myself anymore. I’ve fucked up really bad Delta. I’ve ruined a lot of ponies’ lives.”

Delta grimaced slightly. In her mind, she was one of those ponies. “You talking about me?”

Jet sighed. “Yes… but so many more too. Tests I’ve run. Rockets I’ve launched. Ponies are dead because of me, Delta. And when I think back to the last time I thought I knew what I was doing… when I was making decisions. I couldn’t even make us work.”

Jet’s phone buzzed on the table, another message coming in.

“Everything I’ve built, it’s like a big cosmic joke. A mistake. A college dream that turned into a nightmare. And to stop now would hurt even more ponies. So, I’ve gotta run this race until I collapse.” Jet reached over and grabbed the cup he’d just stubbed his cigarette into, offering it to Delta so she could put hers out as well. “I’d feel trapped… but I don’t even know if there’s anything left to trap.”

Delta’s hoof made its way to Jet’s knee now.

He looked at her with a wan smile. “Only thing that keeps me going is her.”

Delta’s head cocked. “That lawyer bitch?”

Jet almost choked on a laugh. “No! Pfft… you’re such an idiot sometimes. Apogee!”

Delta shrugged slightly. “I’d have thought Apogee would be part of that trapped feeling…”

Jet looked contemplatively at Delta. Like he was trying to decipher something fundamental about her that he’d missed.

“Apogee’s how I’m able to make it through each and every day, Delta.” Jet’s smile was sympathetic, almost pitying toward his ex. “You should try to connect with her more, y’know. She’s bright, funny, goofy… and she’s got a good heart. She loves unconditionally. That kid is everything good about this world, Vee.”

Delta blinked.

“It’s hard to believe that she came from the two of us.” Jet started to push himself up and out of the bed.

Delta slunk back down so that she was on the pillow again, staring up at the ceiling. “That was… a nice talk, Jet.”

“You know, Delta…” Jet stretched slightly, getting out of the bed, popping his neck. “There’s nothing that is stopping you from having these talks with me more frequently… eventually all the time… permanently…” Jet grinned, knowing that he was tweaking the tiger’s tail.

“Yeah there is something, you dick...” Delta smiled, knowing that Jet wasn’t being serious, “... reality.” She pulled the covers up to her chin, scrunching into bed and shutting her eyes again.

“I don’t know how you can be comfortable in those filthy sheets.”

“Fuck off.”

“Right, well… I’m heading out to grab that aspirin. I’ll just leave it on the table, won’t wake you up.” Jet stood up and snagged his phone. He gave a brief thought to showering first, but decided he’d rather get home, first. His hoof rested on the doorknob. “You know, I’m sure we’ll go back to bitching at each other.”

“Can you just fuck off already, Jet?” Delta groaned turning away from the door and shutting her eyes tightly, her desire for sleep starting to overtake her. “You’re already pissing me off - let me sleep.”

Jet grinned, “Was just gonna say - you’re still one hell of a fuck.”

Delta rolled over to look at Jet, halfway out the door. Her eyes confused and uncertain just where the hell he was going with this.

“I can make an arrangement with the motel to have a standing reservation… now you know I’m always just a photo-text away, when you need a dose of vitamin d.” He grinned maliciously.

Delta threw a pillow at the door, which thumped against the closing door, missing the retreating, cackling pegasus stallion.

“AIN’T FUCKIN’ HAPPENIN’!” She screamed at the wall, hoping he’d hear her. But she was grinning despite herself. She didn’t mind letting him get that needling in. She’d surely get him back soon enough.

She flipped over and pounded her head against the pillow, hoping that sleep overtook her quickly. Just before passing out, the clarity of deep, pre-sleep thoughts filled her head.

She’d scratched that damn itch… and what had she found? There was no basilisk of fear to confront there. She hadn’t instantly fallen back in love with her ex, negating years of bitter hatred that she’d lived through. She hadn’t been confronted with some sort of cognitive dissonance, shattering her reality and forcing her to admit that she’d been living lies.

No… he relationship with Jet was complex, and unchanged. Well, mostly unchanged. She wasn’t wrong.

He’d hurt her, badly.

But he’d also loved her.

She knew that they were still miles apart. She didn’t even know if those were miles that she wanted to walk. The road to becoming Jet’s equal… a prerequisite before she could ever even think about repairing their relationship. The miles the two would need to walk after that: healing decades of hurt… it might not be worth it.

She let out a soft sigh as she drifted to sleep… at least she wasn’t alone.

And this little armistice… a night carved out of the flow of time… maybe it was only ever a photo-text away.

Author's Note

ALL DONE!
Comment, Like and Favorite if you enjoyed the fic!
It means a LOT to the author

This concludes the fic - again, huge thanks to the artists, my editors, and all of my readers.

I hope that I pulled off this little insight into the complex relationship that is DeltaJet, but most importantly... that I entertained you, my reader!

One day these two star-crossed lovers may find their way back together... but today is NOT that day. Delta has a lot of healing to do, and I don't think the two could ever reconcile without Delta meeting Jet as an equal, like their time spent together in college.

Nothing would make me happier than to engage with you in the comments about how you felt about the fic, be it the clop, the plot, or... well, anything! I do this for you!

Cheers, and see you all on the next fic!