A Piece of Meat

A Piece of Meat
by Shivered Timbers

Chapter 6

After the quiet ride to Sunset's apartment, Fluttershy helped bundle her out of the car. She waited patiently as Sunset fumbled with her keys and unlocked the front door. Once they were inside, Fluttershy sat her down on the couch, folded a blanket around her, and got her a glass of water from the kitchen sink.

Then Fluttershy sat on the couch beside her and started to cry.

Sunset wasn't exactly sure what to make of that.

The whole time spent with Fluttershy fuming quietly in the car, Sunset hadn't known what to do, either. Fuming wasn't a normal Fluttershy thing to do. Crying was. But the timing, the abrupt change from unspoken anger to outpouring emotion, threw her expectations completely off kilter.

"I'm so sorry, Sunset!" Fluttershy wailed.

That at least was something she could react to.

Moving as though she feared Fluttershy might explode if jostled too hard, Sunset crept her arm around the other girl's shoulders, just as she had done minutes ago for Sunset. Fluttershy buried her face against Sunset's chest, and Sunset stroked her hair gently.

"Why?" was all she could think to ask.

It took a minute for Fluttershy to calm herself. Wiping tears from her eyes, she said, "I only heard the tail end of what you said to the girls. B-but, I'm so sorry, I had no idea you hated your penis so much! And all this time, I've just been using you for sex and never thinking about your feelings, and... And I said you were mine, and that's just awful, and I'm the worst friend ever!"

"Whoa, whoa." Sunset pushed herself back, so she could see the pain in Fluttershy's eyes. "Number one, don't compare what you did to what our friends did. I mean--" she tried to chuckle, but it wasn't very convincing-- "come on, if I didn't like what we were doing, I would've said no, right?"

Fluttershy nodded.

"And you'd have stopped?"

She nodded again.

"Well, that's one thing you have over our friends, then."

Sunset didn't like feeling this much resentment toward them. She would have to give herself some time. Healing a blow like that wasn't going to be instantaneous.

"You know," Sunset said wryly, running a hand across Fluttershy's hair, "I've actually been afraid that I was the one using you."

"You were?" Fluttershy hiccuped and turned over on her back, looking up at Sunset through the tangle of pink waves. "But... I mean, I would have told you if I didn't want to, um, do sex things with you."

Sunset nodded. "And I'd have listened, too. It's just... I don't know, maybe it's dumb, but I kind of thought I was taking advantage of..." She let out a long breath. "Your naivety and teenage hormones. And I'm sorry."

"It's okay." Fluttershy sniffed and smiled a little, reaching up to touch Sunset's cheek. When her fingers made contact, Fluttershy froze and slowly retracted them.

Something had been building inside Sunset the whole time since Rarity's. Now it rested in her stomach like a lead weight. Her mouth went suddenly dry, and she straightened herself, searching Fluttershy's eyes for any hints of reticence.

"If I'm being honest," she began quietly, "I really like what we've been doing together. I mean, yeah, it feels good, but it's nice having something that intimate to share with someone." She was struck by how Fluttershy's eyes widened, just a touch, letting her bask in their naked vulnerability and... was that a tinge of hope?

"And I like you," she continued, barely keeping her voice from cracking. "You stood up for me against our friends. Not a lot of people would be that brave."

Fluttershy blushed. Sunset pressed onward, building momentum.

"You're perfectly gentle in everything you do. And you're so pretty! Not to mention graceful. Just watching you walk sometimes is wonderful. I couldn't get that kind of feeling if I paid to watch professional dancers. I love seeing you get excited about animals, and I even like your taste in music.

"Maybe it's backwards to start a relationship with sex, but..." She reached down and touched the side of Fluttershy's face. "Would you maybe want to go out sometime? Like on a date?"

Fluttershy let out a soft 'eep'. She grasped the long ends of her hair and brought them up to cover her face, which was quickly blossoming into a shade of deep crimson. Sunset boggled at her.

"Wait... You've been sucking my dick for the past month--"

"Six weeks."

Sunset snorted. "For over a month, and you've been keeping track of the time, and asking you on a date makes you blush?"

"W-well..." Fluttershy took a deep breath in and let it out. Hair fluttered above her lips. "When it was just, um, sex, it was... safe? Like, if it was just a hormone thing because we're teenagers, then it didn't have to mean anything. N-not that it couldn't! I just mean..."

Fluttershy brushed her hair aside, just enough so that Sunset could see her eyes once more. "You liked it. I liked it, too, and it didn't need to be anything more than that. We never really, um, defined our relationship. It was just this secret no one else knew about, just for us, and it didn't affect our friendship with the other girls. But when you start dating, and talking about relationships... A-and love..."

She went quiet. While hardly uncharacteristic of her, there was a weight behind the silence, as though it were at the crest of a gathering storm. Sunset resisted the urge to prompt Fluttershy for more, just watching the way Fluttershy's fingertips squished against each other as she tapped them together.

"I've never been in a relationship before."

Fluttershy said it with more confidence, or perhaps honesty, than Sunset had ever heard.

"Is that okay?"

"Yeah." Sunset punctuated her word with a smile. "It's okay."

Letting out a long breath, Fluttershy moved her hair completely out of her face. "I really like you, too, Sunset. And I hope you don't think it's just for your, um, package..."

Sunset gave her a wry smile. "Well, I don't just like you just because you swallow."

Fluttershy's shoulders shook as let out a devilish giggle, though she caught herself a moment later. The aggravation from the earlier dramatic scene with their friends still lingered in the back of Sunset's mind, for all that the tension was lifting; it would be no surprise if Fluttershy felt it, too. Squeezing her hand, Sunset let herself laugh, and soon Fluttershy was laughing too, and the room suddenly felt much cozier.

"I've never seen myself as brave, but you are," Fluttershy said with quiet calm. "I've always been really proud of you for coming as far as you have from, um, where you used to be. You never let your tough girl image get in the way of being a good friend. I like how much you enjoy playing guitar. I mean, watching you play it, anyone can see how much it means to you. And you're really good." She smiled. "You're really pretty, too."

The smile collapsed and the mood darkened. "I just..." Fluttershy sighed. "I know that relationship things can hurt people. And mess with friendships. The closest I've ever gotten to being in one is..." She lowered her voice. "Running away from guys at school who wanted to ask me out."

"It's okay," Sunset cooed, taking Fluttershy's hand and squeezing it. "Look, you don't want to hurt me, right?"

"Nn-nn."

"And do you believe that I don't want to hurt you?"

"Y-yes." Fluttershy squeezed back.

"Then I think you can do this." Sunset smiled down at her. "Being in a relationship with someone else, all you really have to do to make it succeed is be open and honest about your feelings. Which is what we've been doing since we got back here, so maybe we're already on the right course."

Fluttershy licked her lips. Her tongue was tiny and pink, and it darted in and out of her mouth so quick: timid and delicate, just like everything else Fluttershy did.

"It's still scary," she whispered.

"Scary bad?" Sunset whispered back.

"Maybe not? Like, about to dive into the ocean scary. So, maybe a little thrilling, too?"

"Well, it's scary being perched on the edge of a big life change." Sunset smiled. "But we're friends first. So this doesn't have to be scary." With a wry snort, she added, "And my relationship with our other friends is already a little damaged, so you don't have to worry about that."

She nudged Fluttershy with her knee and helped her sit up against the back of her couch, steadying her against the head rush.

"What d'you say, Fluttershy? You wanna try being my girlfriend?" Now that she'd said it, that leaden weight inside her blossomed all at once into some kind of lifeforce, a new source of energy. "You won't have to worry about being possessive then."

She winked at Fluttershy, who toyed with a lock of her own hair, casting small, demure smiles at Sunset over the course of a minute. Finally, she tucked the lock behind her ear and said, "Okay."

Sunset smiled from ear to ear.

"Should we, um..." Fluttershy licked her lips again, and Sunset watched her eyes track down her face. "Should we kiss or something? To make it official?"

"If you want to, sure."

Fluttershy nodded. She placed one hand on the couch cushion and leaned in toward Sunset, closing her eyes. Sunset kept her eyes open, placing one hand on Fluttershy's leg and the other around her shoulders, pulling her in.

Since the invention of the kiss, there have been five kisses that were rated the most passionate. The most pure.

This one didn't even rank in the top million.

Their noses met at first, then their lips. Their faces flopped against each other like a couple of fish dying on shore. Fluttershy at one point nearly stuck her tongue up Sunset's nostril. When they parted, it was with mutual looks of bemusement.

"I guess I'm not a good kisser," said Fluttershy as her cheeks grew red.

"It's not like in the movies after all," Sunset said with a laugh.

Fluttershy's eyes got wide. "Wait, but... Didn't you... I mean, with Flash Sentry, you never?"

A rueful grimace pulled at the corner of Sunset's mouth. "Yeah, uh, Flash was... Let's say a trophy boyfriend? We never actually did anything." She cringed. "Kind of why I haven't been trying to get into a relationship since. Don't want to hurt anyone again."

Before Fluttershy could say anything, Sunset took her hand, brought it up to her lips, and kissed it gently. "But I'm glad we fell into this. I wouldn't have known I could open up to you, I mean really open up, if we hadn't seen so much of each other to begin with."

Fluttershy gave her a soft smile. "I guess we can practice kissing on our date, huh?"

"Yeah." Sunset grinned back at her. "I guess we can."

They sat like that, holding hands, staring at one another, for quite some time. Fluttershy finally broke the silence with another blush.

"So, uh, what do we do now?"

Sunset sucked at her lower lip. "Uh, I dunno. Would tomorrow be good for our date? Like... how about a picnic lunch in the park. Something simple?"

"Oh, yes." Fluttershy nodded. "Do you want me to help with anything?"

Scratching at her shoulder, Sunset said, "Well, I mean, I guess you could bring drinks or something? And I'll get the food." She laughed nervously. "Oh boy, I didn't plan this out too well."

"It's fine." Fluttershy squeezed both of Sunset's hands. "I mean, we're not performing for anyone else, right? So long as it's just the two of us, I think we'll be okay."

Fluttershy's eyes sparkled, and in their depths, Sunset found strength, courage, and a sign that things would, indeed, be okay. They could do this, together.

"Um," said Fluttershy. "So, the whole time my head was laying in your lap, I, uh, couldn't help noticing you had a pretty major erection. Do you..." Fluttershy's hips wiggled against the couch. "Want some help with that?"

Now it was Sunset's turn to blush.

"Uhh, maaaayb--"

The apartment's front door buzzer sounded, and with it came the voice of Rarity, rendered tinny through the decades-old intercom system.

"Sunset? It's us, your hopefully not-former friends. Could we talk? We're here to apologize, darling!"

"--BE NOT!" Sunset finished in a yelp.