Author's Note

This really won't let go of me XD

Enjoy!

Dreaming

For the next two days after that conversation, Soarin had felt awkward around his mother. She never mentioned the incident again, perhaps to make him feel more comfortable, but he was always keenly aware of it whenever he was around her. He still ended up sucking his hoof before bed anyways, but had kept it confined to that room despite his mother’s assurances that it was okay. The third day, though was the one that sparked a change in him.

His exhaustion levels were severe, even for him. Alongside regular practice, he’d been asked by Spitfire to help out at the Wonderbolts Academy that week by helping to do demonstrations. He had thought that would mean doing one demonstration per exercise. Oh no. It was several per, showing the recruits how they should do specific things. It was enough to make him feel like he’d done practice twice that day. By the time it was over, he was so utterly drained that he could feel it in his bones, and had some trouble mustering up the strength to fly home.

By the time he arrived home, he couldn’t see straight. His brain screamed sleep! At him like an alarm that couldn’t be turned off. He opened the door, vision blurred from not drinking nearly enough water under the circumstances, and not eating enough either, and he simply stumbled to the couch, too tired to make it to his room. His head landed on something soft, and he smiled, curled up, stuck his hoof in his mouth, and began to dream.

In his exhaustion, he hadn’t realized that his head was in his mother’s lap.

For Sky Streak the moment was like something out of a dream for her. This happening, however unintentional it may have been on his part, was a blessing to her. She couldn’t remember the last time her son had fallen asleep near her, let alone in her lap. She savored this moment like one savored a rich chocolate truffle. It was so sweet and completely satisfying to her. An old instinct flared up inside of her, and she couldn’t help but stroke his mane soothingly as she quietly sang to him. The old lullaby came up, as if just waiting outside of her purview for this moment to occur, and the song “Beautiful Dreamer” floated out of her lips. It only served to settle him into a deeper sleep.

She didn’t know how long they stayed that way. Time, for once her friend and not her enemy, seemed to be suspended for the pair of them. Soarin dreamed happily in his mother’s lap without care, and Sky Streak enjoyed the precious moments that seemed to almost be gifted to her by Princess Celestia herself. These small hours, these quiet moments of togetherness, would be what would carry her through the rough months of loneliness ahead of her. Her legs were absolutely numb and tingling, but she didn’t dare move, lest she break the dreamlike moment with a horrific dose of reality.

Soarin stayed asleep for a long time, but eventually, he woke up, blinking as his eyes struggled to adjust themselves to the dim lighting of the room. He realized fairly quickly that he wasn’t in his room. In all honesty the time after practice had ended had been a sort of hazy blur that he couldn’t really recall. He understood now that he was in the living room, and that he must have fallen asleep on the couch. But if he was asleep on the couch, why was something warm under his head?

He looked up before the question had any time to really sink into his mind, not realizing that his hoof was still in his mouth. His eyes were met with his mother’s own, though shrouded in darkness as it were. His smile was dreamy and certainly not lucid as he looked up at her, but hers was completely true and real. She stroked his mane with her hoof.

“Good evening my little sky sailor.” She smiled. She couldn’t help but use the old nickname with how he looked in that moment. Though perhaps only in that moment, his inhibitions were completely gone, and she would have been a fool not to take some small advantage of that.
“Mmmmm. Mama.” She almost laughed at that. Her boy had never been a chatterbox in the mornings or after naps, so she wasn’t sure if this was something that was forced out of him because of convenience and courtesy or because for a second he forgot he wasn’t a child. Still, she wasn’t about to miss a second of it.

“Mama’s here. You slept for a very long time, sweetheart. It’s nearly time for dinner.” She said, giving him a chance to awaken.

Finally, the hoof came from his mouth. “‘M not hungry. Tired.”

“I know you’re tired, honey, but you need to eat something.” Her voice was gentle but cajoling.

“No.” It was staccato, short and to the point.

“Yes. You need to eat, Soarin. I won’t have you going to bed hungry tonight. You need to get up now. You can sleep right after dinner is over, I promise.” Though she hated to break the odd spell between them with her firmness, they both needed to eat, and she needed to cook something.

The sound he made in response to that was somewhere between a whine and a groan, but he did move, though his limbs felt like they weighed a thousand pounds and were filled with lead. Sky Streak kissed her son as she passed him, and went to fix dinner. It was a quick fix tonight, some pasta with a vegetarian sauce. It was simple and easy to make, so she couldn’t have asked for anything better. She doled her son out a large bowl, knowing that by the state he was in, he likely hadn’t eaten enough, nor drunk enough water for that matter. She got out a big glass and filled it up for him, before she called him to eat.

Soarin, exhausted, trudged to the table and ate, at first slowly, and then quickly when he realized just how hungry he was. When he was done though, the short burst of hunger-fueled adrenaline ended, and though he was more awake than he had been, he was still tired.

Sky Streak was not unaware of this. “You should go to bed, honey. You look exhausted.”

Soarin shook his head. “No, no, I should stay up a while or I’ll get up too early.”

“Then will you at least take it easy?” She asked him.

“Okay.” He said, and started to move to clear his plate, but his mother stopped him and insisted on him going to relax. So, he made his way to his room. He lay on his bed a while, but every time the temptation to sleep was too overwhelming, and since his room didn’t have any places to sit up, he decided to go back out to the living room.

Sky Streak was reading a book when her son came out and plopped down next to her. She grinned brightly at him, and he had smiled back. They talked a short while, just about their days, before lapsing into silence.

Ever so slowly, Soarin found himself losing his battle with sleep, and unknowingly began inching toward his mother. Sky immediately responded by wrapping her wing around him, the way she had when he was a little boy. His hoof entered his mouth, though he wasn’t completely asleep yet, and for a time they simply cuddled. Then, finally, Soarin lost his battle completely, and his head was leaning on his mother’s shoulder.

She gave it maybe half an hour, until she was sure he was dead asleep, before she lifted him into her hooves to carry him to bed. Mercifully, since he was an athlete, he was fit and not too heavy, though it was still a struggle for her. But she wasn’t about to miss out on doing something for him she hadn’t done since he was five. She carried him to his room, and tucked him into bed, giving him a gentle kiss goodnight before she silently made her exit and left him to dream.