Author's Note

Summary: Sunburst's happy thoughts after he and Starlight consummate their marriage.

Warnings: Fluff, pillow talk, and more fluff.

Notes: I almost didn't post this here, but figured it goes better here than in Bits and Pieces. I apologize since this isn't as smutty as the other chapters, I hope you can at least enjoy it.

Memories

In Sunburst's life, there have only been three occurrences that he can vividly remember.

The first was the time he levitated something successfully with his magic. It was his mother’s favorite flower vase and he broke it. He was only four at the time, and that was the year he learned to read, so his path as a devoted magic-user was cemented.

The second was the day, err, the night he had almost blown up his classroom. To make a long story short, one of the classmates he had picked up hanging around the schoolyard wanted to study something a bit less…well, unconventional and boring. Turns out a bunch of unsupervised colts practicing dangerous magic in the middle of the night went as well as expected, the spell backfired and flung Sunburst and his group across the room, shattering windows, furniture, and one of the colt's back legs. He had been lucky that all he got from the incident was a nick on his shoulder and a terrible headache. That's when Sunburst found out that magic was dangerous if not handled carefully, and it took that scar month to heal up.

The third was a bit more sentimental and not so violent, if he may say. It was the first holiday he spent without his father, and his mother in typical Stellar Flare fashion had gotten rid of all trace of him. Looking back he realized it was her way of coping with the loss, by moving on as fast as she could, but Sunburst couldn’t keep up with his mother’s pace. He waited until she had stepped out to go up to her room and look for anything, the littlest trace of his father that Stellar Flare might have missed, he dove under her bed and tucked between the wall and the leg of the bed frame was a wrinkled blue tie. He snatched it and ran back to his room, his heart in his throat, half expecting his mother to scream at him for going into her room, for holding on to something from a pony that didn’t want anything to do with them. He hid in his room and Stellar Flare never found out about it until years later, when he wore his father's tie on his own wedding day.

No, he never really understood why these three occurrences had stuck out to him. He had had many encounters in life that should've overshadowed these of less importance, but they didn't. They were pushed away; tucked in a corner for the days he was thinking extra hard. Or didn't want to think at all.

"Whatcha thinking about?"

A gentle hoof brushed his cheek, warm skin on warm skin, and the trembling her foreleg contained brought him back to the now, to her; to a memory, he would keep forever. He knew it would happen. Knew it. It would stay tucked in beside the other three; warm, cozy, and meaningful.

"You." The word dropped from his lips as he looked down. Her appearance set off the feeling that he didn't know he could feel until he met her. Even now, after they had been together nearly a year and a half, he was still discovering new and exciting things about her. Her cheeks were red and her lips swollen, her hair was disarrayed, as he imagined he was, and her blue eyes shone in the moonlight with bountiful curiosity. He had never seen anything so beautiful.

"Me?"

"You."

"Mmm." Her lips hummed against his bare chest as her hooves traced his barrel, and he closed his eyes to memorize the way she moved.

He was surprised she wasn't talking more. She was always the one to discuss and depict new and exciting things and encounters. Like when they were foals, she'd be clutching his foreleg and looking up at him with those blue eyes, asking more questions than he could answer and at a speed faster than he could keep up with.

"What are you thinking about?" He whispered, his right hoof running down her spine with a slow, meaningful purpose. Her breath traveled down his stomach, leaving a warm trail behind.

"You."

"Me?"

"You."

He chuckled, his hoof bunching up against her skin. He quickly remembered the way her dress would bunch in his grasp, when she had it on, of course. "What about me, if I may ask?"

"Your face."

"My face?"

"Mhm," she was quiet again; retreating to her thoughts. He almost felt as if he was intruding on her; as if it were an entirely private moment to herself.

"Are they good thoughts about my face?" He raised his brow at her, yet she didn't look at him.

"Of course."

"Oh?" She was being awfully quiet, and he was intrigued. He wished nothing more than to be able to read that brain of hers. Not just on this occasion, either. Being the inventive and curious pony she was, he knew being in her head would be a colorful journey full of things she'd never tell him. Of which, included him, apparently.

"Yeah," she said, her voice just over a whisper. Her hooves moved about his chest as if she was painting an invisible mural on his skin. "I was thinking of the way you look at me."

He smiled, knowing full well that he looked like a love-drunk idiot when he laid his eyes on her. "How so?"

"When you see me after a long day of classes or when you wake up from a bad dream," she moved her head up, her eyes meeting his. Her lips were pulled up at the corners and her features relaxed. "You always have this look of relief. It's like I can see this huge weight lift from your shoulders."

"You make me relax."

"Why?"

Always curious. "Because I love you."

Her small eyebrows furrowed. "Just that?"

"Not exactly," he mused, taking a strand of her hair; now a mess from the way she had tossed her head and the way he knotted his hooves in it before this whole conversation took place. "I do love you. More than anything in the world. That's why we had that big old ceremony today, remember? The one where you wore that big dress and walked down that excruciating long aisle to me in front of all our friends and family?"

"How could I forget it?" she breathed. His heart skipped.

"Exactly. I did it all because I love you. And-"

"That's why we made love."

His heart skipped again, loving the way she quietly spoke the words he'd never heard fall from her lips. They dripped curiosity, determination, and a sense of newfound confidence. His hoof rubbed circles in her back as he stared at her.

"Yeah."

He could see that she wanted to talk about it, and he wanted her to. They were married now. He didn't want her to hold anything back from him anymore. She had already given herself to him in every possible form, and he wanted her to trust him.

"It was much different than I thought it would be," she whispered, her gaze not leaving his.

"Same for me." It was the truth.

Sunburst had never given sex much thought. He never saw any difference between that and 'making love'. The words were practically synonymous. The same thing was happening in both, so what was different? The way you moved? The way you spoke? He wouldn't know; he had never done either. So there was still a part of him that thought when he and Starlight gave each other themselves, it would be the same. And he was stupid for thinking that because it was completely and utterly wrong. She was his everything, his other half, and he had never felt so whole as he did when she pulled his name from her soul below him. It was completely different in every single way. He was gentle with her, his touch just heavy enough to set her on fire, and he gave her all of him. He didn't hold his feelings back. He didn't have to worry about holding out for anybody or living up to some ridiculous expectations. She wanted him; raw, real, and uncovered. And that's what he gave her.

"I didn't think I'd feel so much...so much..."

"Love?"

She looked at him, a smile breaking out on his lips. "Yeah. Love."

"What did you think it would be?" Probably the same as he did.

"Well," she blushed. He loved it when she blushed. Especially when he was able to make her do it. "Pleasure?"

He chuckled. "I'd hope there still was-"

"Oh, don't worry. There was."

He laughed out loud, and so did she, and he grinned at her. She took her lip into her mouth, between her teeth, and gazed up at him with a look in her eyes that made him shudder in all the right ways. He reached out to brush her hair out of her eyes with the lightest touch.

"I love you," she breathed, barely a whisper. Her forelegs trailed up his chest and around his neck as she pulled herself onto him. He could see the metal of her ring, her wedding ring, glinting in the low light on her horn. Her lips were above his, nearly a centimeter away, and he pressed up to kiss her with more love than he knew how to contain.

"Love you, too, Starlight."

Yes, there were only three things he could vividly remember before this occurrence. And maybe those would've been the only three he would always remember if he hadn't reunited with her. Now, as they fell back into each other, he decided it was time to let go of the past. It was time to make room for memories like this; things with actual meaning. Not some petty injury or stupid accidents that were there for entertainment. Things that he could look back on and smile at; things he could actually blush on or get flustered over. Those were things that he wanted to remember. He was now hers and so was the space in his mind. For, without her, he wouldn't be anything more than a lonely wash-out wizard. He'd be nothing because she was his everything.