Why Did Gallus Take Sandbar to Dinner?
It was about half past seven when Yona and Silverstream entered the busy restaurant, looking around the dining room to see what ponies and other assorted creatures were there. So far, there was no sign of their targets, which was unfortunate, because it was wholly possible that they were there, they just weren't visible. The amount of life that had crowded into the place was insane, and the two of them felt a little intimidated. Luckily, however, despite the crowding it was very quiet. They could, if they listened carefully hear every word that was said from any table in the restaurant. This would be useful for the night ahead.
Silverstream wasn't entirely sure whether or not they were doing this for the sake of helping out good friends of theirs or simply to sate their own insane curiosity about the state of affairs between Gallus and Sandbar. At the end of the day, it hardly mattered. One way or another they were doing this, and they weren't going to leave until they got the information they were looking for. In this crowded, yet somehow intimate little restaurant it should be easy for them.
This all started a few days ago when Sandbar was feeling very bothered about something. Gallus had gone out of his way to find out what was weighing so heavily on his mind. He launched a thorough investigation into what was going on, and eventually he had found out. It turned out that Sandbar's grandfather had died some time ago, and he had been unable to leave to go visit his grave with the rest of his family. Gallus soon came up with the idea of having Sandbar tell the rest of the group about the wonderful times he had had with his grandfather while he was still alive. At that point Ocellus had noticed something. She kept tight lipped about it for the first day and a half. She kept repeating the mantra "It's none of my business," over and over again. Silverstream and Yona had decided to let her get the secret off of her chest. Mostly because it was killing them almost as much as it was killing her. They cornered her and talked her into talking about what she had been feeling since that meeting. Ocellus said that with Sandbar and Gallus sitting next to each other, and talking the way they were. Her channeling instincts kicked in.
Ocellus described the feeling as "delicious." At that point Silverstream's jaw had hit the floor.
Delicious from a channeling meant one thing. Somepony was in love with somepony else. And the fact that she was feeling that between Gallus and Sandbar was next level adorable. They decided that they were going to help in any way they could. They were already off to a good start, though. After ducking into a hallway and eavesdropping on a conversation the two of them were having, they found out about a dinner the two were planning to have. It was at a very fancy, very romantic little restaurant in the middle of town. They both seemed very nervous about how this would all turn out, so Silverstream and Yona decided to go and help them out by lending them invisible moral support. Either that or they were being incredibly nosy. One or the other. Either way, they were there now. No turning back.
Eventually they were lead to a booth in the corner. The perfect vantage point both visually and acoustically. They looked around to make sure that Gallus and Sandbar hadn't arrived yet. They hadn't. It was close.to time however, and they were starting to get worried. Maybe they had gotten the restaurant wrong? Maybe the day? No, Silverstream went over the information in her head one more time. They were definitely at the right place, at the right time. So what was taking the boys so long to get there.
Soon after they had gotten comfortable a complication arose. Something they hadn't even considered before now, but felt stupid that they hadn't. Namely, the waiter arrived with two menus. "Here you go," he said. "I'll be back in a little while to take your orders, in the meantime you look over the menus. Thank you for dining with us."
Silverstream's eyes widened. "Yes! The menus!" she said , beginning to panic at the sudden, frankly unfair hitch in her plans. "Because that's what we're here to do! Order food! We certainly didn't come here for any other reason! That would be utterly nonsensical! And if course, since we are ordering dinner we also definitely brought money to purchase it with! Because that's what happens when you plan ahead! You... You think of these things!"
Silverstream's eye twitched a few times as the waiter have her a strange look and backed away from the table.
"Hippogriff forgot to bring wallet?" Yona said dryly, raising an eyebrow.
"No! I didn't forget my wallet! I have it with me!" Silverstream protested, taking out her handbag to show to Yona. "I just kind of completely forgot that we would need to order dinner in order to maintain cover. There's no money in here. I kind of used it all to buy enough Cotton Candy to put myself into a diabetic coma."
Yona raised a hoof and took out her own handbag from under the table. "I will cover bill," she said modestly. "Do not quite understand pony money yet, but think I have enough."
Silverstream felt a wave of relief wash over her. "Thanks a lot, Yona," she said, brushing some sweat from her forehead. "You really saved the mission there. That was very generous of you."
"Of course," Yona said, looking very proud of herself. "Yaks are the most generous."
"And modest too, no doubt," Silverstream added sarcastically.
"Yaks are best at being modest," Yona said, not even caring to notice the irony in that sentence. "Not that yak like to brag."
Silverstream rolled her eyes and opened the menu. "Thanks for coming along by the way," Silverstream said. "I don't know why, but I needed someone else here to help me process whatever information I got."
"No need to thank," Yona said, looking over the menu herself. "Yak wanted to know about Pony and Griffon too. Sort of have vested interest."
"Oh yeah," Silverstream remembered. "You and Sandbar went out once didn't you? You're not upset about this potentially happening are you."
Yona shook her head. "Was only one date," she said dismissively. "Didn't really go anywhere. But Sandbar very sweet pony, and good friend! Want for him to be happy. Same with Griffon, but not as much. Griffon can be wisecracker sometimes."
"Yeah, but that's kind of why we love him," Silverstream said and they both laughed. "Besides we... Oh... Hang on! Check the door!"
At the door their targets finally arrived. A blue griffon with a very self satisfied smile on his face, and a smaller sized stallion that looked very nervous, but not in a way that made it seem like he wasn't handling it. They spoke to the Maitre D, and he led them to a table in the middle of the restaurant. Luck was on Silverstream's side it seemed, as the table was in direct line of sight from their booth. Silverstream excitedly patted Yona's shoulder and pointed to where they were sitting. To her credit, she was being as subtle as she possibly could have been.
Yona turned to look, but almost let out a yelp when she made very brief eye contact with Gallus. She looked back at Silverstream and spoke very seriously. "Griffon saw me! What do we do?!" she whispered harshly.
"Just keep it together!" Silverstream whispered back. "They probably didn't even realize it was you! Just look at your menu, get it to cover your face, and just leave all.of the spying to me! You keep an ear out, and see if you can hear anything I can't."
Yona nodded, and they both raised their menus, confident that their cover had not been blown.
"Welp, they're spying on us," Gallus sighed, looking at the two individuals who were trying not be Silverstream and Yona but definitely were. "That's kind of adorable actually."
"You want to bounce to a different restaurant?" Sandbar asked, looking at their two friends who were never experts at the covert. "If you want to have this conversation somewhere a little more private..."
"I don't really see the point," Gallus shrugged, turning back to his date. "It's not like we're not going tell them about this when we're finished. For the moment let's just pretend that we didn't see them. Let's just... Let's just talk."
Talking. That's what they came here to do. To talk. Talk about incredibly confusing emotions that they were having for each other. They needed to put every thought they were having on the table in plain view of the world, carefully go.through them and find out what each one of them could possibly mean.
Neither of them had any idea where to start. So they pointedly did not look at each other for a little while.
Finally Gallus spoke up. "I think I consider you more than a friend, and that's kind of scaring me a little bit," he sighed looking at Sandbar. "I don't know how to handle normal relationships with friends. The way I was brought up didn't really give me enough information to handle others... And school can only help so much. I just... I have no idea where I'm supposed to go from here."
"You think I do?" Sandbar said, looking straight into Gallus' eyes. "I have tried to go on dates with girls before, and they haven't worked out, and now I'm beginning to question why. Now I'm wondering if I lied to those girls when I said I was interested. I don't think I did, but I can't possibly know that now that... Now that this is all happening."
Gallus was about to speak when the waiter arrived with two menus. He handed them to the Gallus and Sandbar and gave a friendly smile. "Hello," he said in a friendly tone. "How are you both doing today? I'll be back in a little bit, but I'm the meantime, would you like anything to drink?"
"Just a cola would be fine," Gallus said, not taking his eyes off of Sandbar.
"Diet Breezie," Sandbar said, also not breaking eye contact.
"Alright, I'll have that for you in a second," the waiter nodded, and went back into the kitchen. The two of them were left sitting in front of each other. Neither of them having a world to say. Gallus could feel himself trying to look inside of Sandbar. Just for the sake of saving himself and Sandbar the pain of the inevitably awkward conversation that lay ahead of them.
Sadly, that wasn't going to happen. One of them was going to have to say something in order to get this whole thing going. Gallus was always the one between them who was quicker to action, even though neither of them were the best with words.
Gallus took a deep breath and initiated what would be the most confusing part of the night. "Instead of focusing on what we don't know about this situation," Gallus said , formulating a plan in his head. "The total tonnage of which could probably fill Headmistress Twi's library fifty times over. Why don't we start with we do know about this? Like... Just lay everything we can get a bead on with this situation out on the table and then we can work up from there. That sound good to you?"
Sandbar thought about it for a moment. "Yeah, yeah that does sound like a good idea," Sandbar smiled, seeming to get comfortable in the groove the conversation would be talking. " Do you want to start, or should I?"
"You go first," Gallus said, rapidly trying to think of an excuse as to why he shouldn't go first. "I need some time to get my thoughts together. You go ahead."
Sandbar closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "I know that I really like spending time with you," he said, opening his eyes and looking directly at Gallus. "I know that I probably couldn't have gotten through that whole thing with my grandfather without you... I know that you are one of the few people who can make me laugh and I like laughing the most when it's you that is making me do it. I know that... I know that no matter what happens tonight I need you to be a part of my life. Whether as just my friend, or something else, I need you in my life. Me going through the rest of my days on this planet without you is not an option for me." He let those last few sentences hang in the air for a moment, just to let Gallus take it all in. "Your turn."
Gallus looked at Sandbar, suddenly terrified. How in the name of King Grover's flapping beak was he supposed to follow that up?! Gallus was convinced that he had to have written that speech beforehand, because there was simply no way he came up with that one on the fly! Gallus calmed down. He reminded himself that this wasn't a competition, this was about sincerity. Even if Galus's sincerity was a thousand times lamer than Sandbar's.
It was Gallus' turn to take a deep breath now. "I know you make sucky days suck less," he began elegantly. "I know that I have been instinctively looking for you when I need something to make something in my life make some sense. I know that... I know that I have never felt like anything else the same way I feel about you. And... I know its a good feeling. I know it's a feeling I don't want to stop feeling like this... I don't know... Maybe I'm not making any sense."
Sandbar gave Gallus a warm soft smile and put his hoof on Gallus' talon. He opened his mouth as if to say something and then dropped his head to the table. He made a loud snorting noise and started banging his hood on the table. Eventually the snorting noise turned into a long laugh and Gallus became more than a little offended.
"Or maybe I'm hilarious," Gallus said indignantly. "That's a possibility too, I suppose. I mean I'm just sitting here bearing my heart and soul to you, and you're laughing your flank off. I mean, I guess my heartwrenching emotional turmoil could be hilarious..."
"No, no, dude you don't understand," Sandbar said, at this point barely able to breathe. "I swear I'm not laughing at you. I swear. What I need.you to do is find a discreet way to look behind us at Tweedleyak and Tweedleespionage back there and watch in horror as they try to convince the waiter that they do In fact need to keep their menus even though they don't have anything else to order."
Gallus looked around for a bit and then discreetly turned his head so that Silverstream and Yona's table was in view. What he saw nearly made his jaw hit the floor. It took him some time to gather his wits enough to not laugh before he turned back to Sandbar. "Well, I promised you dinner," Gallus said grinning from ear to ear. "I didn't expect us to take in a show as well. Do I deliver or what?"
"Ma'am, it would be really helpful if you were to give back the menus," the Waiter said dryly, an almost desperate look on his face. "We're rather crowded this evening, and we really don't have enough menus to go around. So if you don't have anything else to order it would really help if I could take him back."
"If we were to triple your tip, would you leave the menus here until we leave?" Silverstream said, desperately attempting to keep the menus at the table. They were the only things hiding their faces so they could keep watch on Gallus and Sandbar.
"That," the waiter said, thinking it over for a little bit. "That would be absolutely fine. I'll have your food out in a minute. Shouldn't take long."
The waiter left the menus there and left the two of them behind. Both of them had unnatural smiles plastered on their faces.
"What hippogriff think she's doing?!" Yona whispered harshly. "Remember that Yak is paying for this meal! Yak barely have enough money to Yak's name to cover extra tip!"
"I swear I'll pay you back, Yona! I promise!" Silverstream said as apologetically as possible. "We need the menus to keep ourselves hidden, otherwise they're going to see us. We've been keeping cover so well so far, let's not risk ruining it now."
Yona shot Silverstream a look, then sighed and hid her face back behind the menu. "Pony and griffon still don't know we're here?"
"No way," Silverstream said confidently. "Trust me, they don't suspect a thing. We're practically invisible."
They both remained silent for a little while, just hoping that they would blend into the background. Eventually, confident that they had allayed any suspicion thrown their way, Silverstream decided to parse the information they had already collected. "You heard everything I heard, right?" she asked Yona, not coming out from behind the Menu. "It seems like things are going well so far."
"Yak agree," Yona said calmly. "Though they seem confused. Yak has never understood why other creatures have such hard time dealing with and accepting emotions. Yaks are best at handling emotions."
"Yona, your people almost declared war over a mishandled party," Silverstream pointed out. "Half of your calendar holidays are about smashing things to little pieces. You think maybe Yaks have a slight problem with excess needless aggression?"
"Yaks have a tendency to wear emotions on sleeve, this true," Yona admitted to Silverstreams shock. "And while that means Take get very Angry, love is easy for Yaks! Yaks just come out and say so!"
A question percolated in Silverstream's mind that she tried with all her might to ramp down. Unfortunately, her curiosity for the better of her and she decided to ask. "Okay, Ms. Earnesty," Silverstream put down the menu and leaned in to her friend. "How exactly to breakups go down in Yakyakistan?"
"Loud," Yona said concisely in a way that made it clear to Silverstream that she should back off now, and not pursue this line of inquiry any further. Down this road lied only madness.
Silverstream leaned back and put the menu back in front of her face. She took a look over at Gallus and Sandbar's table. For some reason the two were hysterically laughing. "Well, it see!s like they're having a good time!" Silverstream said happily. "Though I wonder what is so funny that's got them laughing so hard?"
"Griffon can be funny when he isn't being big jerk," Yona surmised. "And Pony was very funny when he went out with Yak. Once pony calmed down of course. Maybe Yak could have heard more if waiter wasn't so incredibly annoying."
"Didn't print enough Menus for a full house," Silverstream scoffed, still a little peeved at the conversation she had earlier. "What kind of nonsense is tha-- Oh, hang on. They've stopped laughing. We might be going back to the serious talk. Play it cool."
Yona and Silverstream ducked quickly behind their menus and pricked up their ears. Confident in the knowledge that they were still undiscovered by Gallus and Sandbar.
The two kept laughing for quite some time before Sandbar could get out another word. "Who do they think they are kidding?" he whispered, now almost in tears. "What is the strategy here going forward? Why didn't they just get Ocellus to transform into a fly or something to spy on us. This... This has to be Yona's plan right? It has all the forward thinking we can expect from her? "
"Hey, give Yona some credit," Gallus said defensively, also almost crying with laughter. "She would just ask us what's going on, not try to sneak around. I've got to be honest, I'm a little surprised she's even here."
They finally cooled down enough so that they weren't laughing. There was a long awkward silence as one of them waited for the other to continue the conversation. It took Gallus to take the first step into the rest of their lives.
"I want you in the rest of my life, too," he said, taking a deep breath. He was about to say something out loud that he couldn't take back. "And I don't think friendship is going to be enough for me. I want... I want to start dating you. I want this to count as a date. I want to keep this going and see if we can make this work. Turn this into something... I don't know real? Sustainable? I'll tell you what I want. I want to be able to say all of this without sounding like a complete and utter idiot."
"You're not, I promise," Sandbar said, leaning closer to Gallus and giving a warm , although awkward smile. "You're making a lot of sense... More sense than I would have made saying the same thing... And I would have. I would have said the same thing. I want that too... I'm cool with calling this a date of you are... I think actually I'd like that a lot."
Gallus' heart was warmed at what Sandbar had just said. This felt like a new beginning for him. For the both of them. He smiled warmly at Sandbar, and Sandbar smiled warmly at him. Then they realized that they had been smiling warmly at each other for the past five minutes and were not in fact getting anywhere. "Okay, so I guess I'll ask the question, since one of us has to," he said, not breaking the warm smile was that he was now having with Sandbar. "How exactly do we go about doing that?"
"I have no idea," Sandbar said, shaking his head. A look of flop sweat rolling across his eyes distracting from the smile that was at this point unnaturally warm. "How are romantic relationships supposed to work? This is hard."
"Was it just me, or were you waiting for the credits to roll too?" he said, breaking the warm smile before they took on minds of their own and proceeded to destroy the restaurant and all of its patrons. "Like we both admitted that we wanted a relationship and the story should be over, but our lives just stubbornly continue without anything actually being resolved. Whoever is writing our lives needs to hurry up and end the story, because I have no idea where to go from here. Heck I don't even know how we got here in the first place. I just... I don't know, man. I'm really confused. I've never felt like this before."
"Neither have I, trust me," Sandbar said, still smiling which helped Gallus calm down immensely. "Real.life is annoying, and we have to find a way to live in it. It's going to go on with or without us being together, so If prefer us to be than not. As confusing as this feeling is, and as hard as I know it's going to be, I'd rather have it than not."
"Me too," Gallus said without hesitation. "I like the idea of us dating but that still leaves the question of how in Equestria are we supposed to start doing that? What are we supposed to do different? Other than... You know... The obvious."
"Well we'll get to the obvious at some point later down the road," Sandbar said, and Gallus found himself getting weirdly excited at the prospect, adding more physical weirdness to the emotional weirdness that he had been feeling all night. "I don't think we're supposed to do anything different. That doesn't seem right."
"How do you mean?" Gallus asked, leaning a little closer. "I mean, there's got to be more to dating thank there is to just.friendship, right?"
"I don't think there is," Sandbar said, the content smile still not fading. "I remember something my dad said to me when I was a kid. It was Hearts and Hooves Day a few years ago. Somepony asked what got him.to want to marry my mom. He said that he married his best friend. She was just the pony he was closest to back in school. They didn't go out of their way to make anything official between the two of them. They just kept continuously hanging out until.they realized that their time together was the best part of anything they did. Starting as just friends, but realizing that they really weren't the best of themselves without each other. That's whats going on with us right now. That's what turns friendship into... "
"Love?" Gallus eagerly finished for Sandbar. That was dumb, he shouldn't have done that. That was moving way too fast and putting way too much pressure on the situation. He hoped he hadn't just ruined everything, especially since things were going so well.
There was, however, no reason for him to be worried. Sandbar put his hoof on Gallus's talon and looked right into his eyes. "Yeah," he said softly. "Something like that."
At that moment something weird happened. Gallus felt himself being drawn closer to Sandbar by some force that wasn't his own willpower. Before long he found himself kissing him. He had no earthly idea how this started, but he was perfectly fine with the position he was in now. So he decided to not ask any questions, and continue looking this gift horse in the mouth. He later punished himself for making that pun. Even just in his brain that was unacceptable.
When they broke apart, they once again were at a loss for words. This time, however, it wasn't out of confusion. That kiss had just established a new status quo, and they wanted to take some time to let that wonderful moment sit for a while. After a while however, Gallus knew it was time to break the silence and let a certain opinion of his be known. "That was fun," Gallus said, now grinning from ear to ear. "Wasn't that fun?"
"Yeah," Sandbar said, now sharing Gallus' grin. "Yeah that was a lot of fun."
"So," Gallus said, straightening up. "A romantic relationship is a friendly relationship with a few extra widgets. With that in mind, what would friends do now, in the situation we're in? For what it's worth, I have an idea."
"Okay, I'll bite," Sandbar said cheerfully. "What's your idea?"
"I think something that we would do as friends," Gallus said, intertwining his talons. "And something we should absolutely do as a couple... Is mess with our two idiot friends who couldn't let us have the privacy to work all this out for ourselves."
Sandbar looked over to Silverstream and Yona's table. His grin got even wider, and he nodded at Gallus. As quietly as possible, they both moved over there, and made sure they were unseen by the two, who were still hiding behind their menus.
They sat for a moment waiting for Silverstream and Yona to notice them, but eventually, Gallus couldn't take it anymore and decided to have a little fun. "You two are just the worst spies," he whispered loudly enough so the whole restaurant could hear if they felt like listening. "Like, in the history of ever."
"Son of a--" Silverstream slammed.the !am I down on the table and buried her face in her talons.
"Seriously if you guy s were working for the Equestrian government you would have been shot by Mall Cops," Sandbar said normally as Yona put down her menu. "I guess that means my country is safe from any kind of espionage by you two, but I weep for your nations of you guys are here to steal our secrets."
"How long have pony and griffon known we were here?!" Yona demanded.
"Like the minute we walked in," Gallus said, now laughing at the ridiculousness of it all. "You guys are about as subtle as a brick in a sick being flung face first at a clown. Why did you bother doing this?"
"Because we care, alright?" Silverstream said, rolling her eyes. "We care about the two of you, and we wanted this to go well, and we figured since you were guys you'd be tightlipped about your emotions. We wanted to see how things went. We were curious, and we care."
"What hippogriff said," Yona said. "Yak will always be there for her friends, even when they don't want her to be."
Sandbar had apparently decided that Yona and Silverstream had had enough ribbing, which was a shame because Gallus could.have gone for at least another five minutes. "Well, thank you," Sandbar said sincerely. "It's good to have friends who care, but we've earned our privacy. We should be allowed to work this out for ourselves."
There was a moment of silence before Silverstream finally said something. "Since we're here anyway," she said, getting the message that Sandbar was trying to send, but at the same time not quite. "Have you worked something out?"
Gallus smiled. "Yeah," he said with a note of contentment. "Yeah, we worked something out."
There was a warm feeling that settled over the entire table. "Well," Yona say up a little straighter. "Would pony and Griffin like to join us for dinner? Would that be problem for first date?"
It wasn't. After all, what was the pony of a new wonderful thing in your life, if you can't share it with your friends.
Author's Note
This is a long overdue commission for Parker! Enjoy yourselves!
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