Button entered the changing rooms with the stopwatch in his right hand and had one single, solitary thought.

“I have made a huge mistake.”

After all, who likes the gym above anyone else? Who will spend the most time honing their bodies? Well, for the most part, early adults and barely not-teens like himself who want to look good for others, or housewives with either too much time on their hands or desperation. So on the one hand you had, for the most part because this isn’t the biggest town in the world, almost every girl that went to his highschool as a possibility to be in here, and on the other you had every single one of his mother’s friends who tried to help the woman whose husband walked out on her. Even if he didn’t really interact with all of these people, he knew them all in one way or another and suddenly being confronted by the fact that he was about to see some number of them like this was both exhilarating and deeply horrifying.

He shook his head, calming himself as he breathed in deeply. After all, what was the worst he could do? No, he just wanted to check it out. Look around. He had no reason to really do that much.

Button’s hand was warm.

He took a few steps forward, glancing around the corner of the lockers and breathing out a sigh of relief. He still recognized the girl, but it was barely as she belonged to the one other high school in the town than the one he graduated from. Her name was… Lemon Zest! Yeah! He mostly could tell from the large, pink headphones she looked to be in mid jam with. Well, that and her wildly dyed green and green-yellow hair. If he remembered right, she liked to come to their dances and help with the music.

She was also in a loose t-shirt and yoga pants which helped him out. After all, there was a good chance that most of the girls in here would be mostly clothed. Not that he was against the view as he leaned against one of the lockers, admiring her more lithe body for a moment before pushing himself away from it. After all, while she looked good, he also remembered how snotty the other school could be and so didn’t want to dwell on her, especially if he wasn’t really going to do anything.

Black smoke tendrils came out from Button’s clenched hand.

The next set of lockers made him stop far harder in his tracks. After all, he had been right with his thoughts at the beginning. So far he had gotten a girl close to his age, and now two of his mom’s friends. One who was almost a second mom to him with how much support she had given them over the years, and the other one being, well… a clutz.

His eyes stuck on the latter much faster, but not just because she was pretty much naked. From what he could tell the two blondes had probably been getting ready to swim, with the other being in a tight, blue wetsuit, but Derpy… Well, Derpy had done what she always did. Fell, her bikini bottom entangled around her legs as she careened towards the floor.

Button reached for her for a moment, his hand drifting first past her shoulders as he looked at her thicker hips. After all, for all of Derpy’s quirks, she was quite, um, filled out and seeing her naked like this made that all the clearer. However, to him, it was almost like walking in on a trainwreck. As much as you may want to watch or laugh, you just felt bad for even thinking bad for not having done anything to help.

So, instead, he gently pushed her through the air and bopped her onto the bench between the lockers. That way she would just fall on that instead of possibly hurting herself. That felt… better, even as something felt like it was burning in his brain for him to have done more. He… He just couldn’t. Not here he supposed, not with her.

Button’s hand was burning with heat.

He stopped to wave his mother’s other friend farewell, stopping to look at Samus’s face. She was always so serious and even now she looked like she was ready to scold someone so hard that they’d enter a convent afterwards. She had helped get him outside more than he would have with just his mom, in part because she was a gamer too, but Samus hadn’t come around too often recently. It probably had to do with recent events but…

Button shook his head, used one hand to try to lift her lips up to see her smile, shook from how terrifying it was, and reset it before he went to the last set of lockers.

And then turned around, his blood as cold as ice. After all, his three best friends were, well, I mean, he had seen them in swimsuits before, but in less…

No. He wouldn’t do it. As much as something screamed at him to look. To drink in their bodies, he wouldn’t, even as his head throbbed with resistance. He wouldn’t take advantage of those he lo- “Ah!”

Button put the stopwatch next to his head, not noticing the heat or licks of fire that slipped between his fingers as his mind began to try to fracture. To go in the two directions he really could with this ability. To play with the world and its people, or to take out his-

Button shoved himself away from the wall, panting as sweat ran down his body. He needed to find something that he could focus on. Something to appease the thoughts. To distract him from others. To give him release.

That release came in the form of a flyer advertising a yoga class run by… Run by one of his mom’s friends who commonly complained about wishing she could find someone to be with. She would… She would probably like some of his hi-jinks. Yeah. Yeah that would… That would be fun.

Button took in a long breath as he stepped around the lockers, moving sluggishly now as he slowly made his way towards the exit of the locker rooms. He had spent plenty of time here already and he wanted out. Plain and simple.

Or, maybe not as he took a few steps back and looked at the entrance to the pool. The showers were to the right, but to the left stood a girl in a bikini, water dripping off of her as she headed for the door. Her magenta hair with a single blue streak running down it made him immediately tell who it was. After all, of all the snooty jerks from the other school she was the only one who ever really bothered him. Made her think she was his friend before dropping him like a rock as she showed her true colors and teased him for every bit of weakness he had shown.

Yeah, he could do something to her.

======+++++======

Sour Sweet strutted out into the pool area with a confident smirk. After all, she had a new bikini that made sure to really emphasize her chest as it lifted it up for all to see. Add to that the fact that her bottom was barely more than a thong that was wedged between her legs and she expected every eye to be on her. And, with every swing of her hips, every eye was indeed on her as the sound in the pool came to stop as they all lost their breaths.

Perfect. She put her hands behind her head, pushing her chest out for them as she winked to one of the more muscle bound idiots in the water. She could probably twist him tight around her finger by the end of the hour and have him grovelling at her feet by the end of the day. Oooh, today was going to be-

“Miss, what do you think you’re doing?”

Sour blinked for a moment before her eyes narrowed and she glanced over, her eyes now open wide as she brought her hands down and clutched them in front of her, squishing her breasts in the process. “Why, I just wanted to swim. Is there something wrong with that?”

The lifeguard coughed, his cheeks bright red as he glanced away from her. Of course, the prude couldn’t handle her swimsuit. It was going to be fun to destroy him in front of all these people for it. She continued to play along though as he said, “Well, I mean, that’s fine. The problem is what you’re wearing.”

Sour gave him a bright smile as she brought her hands up to squeeze her breasts. “Oh, but sir, I’m surely not breaking any rules unless bikinis were outlawed, so-” she said just as she was about to turn her act ninety degrees while she also gripped her chest.

Her very bare chest.

Her eyes widened as she looked down, her face pale as she tried to tell herself that she had to be wrong.

She was not. She very much so was not wrong as not an inch of fabric covered her. Her head snapped behind her, knowing she’d had it on back at the door, but now saw both pieces scattered at the door to the pool.

She glanced back at the pool, glanced back at her swimsuit, and then ran back. As she panted on the other side of the door, clutching the swimsuit to her chest, she consoled herself with the fact that she had indeed caught everyone’s eyes. She would fucking hope she could when she’s naked. Yeah, she had succeeded in what she wanted and the idea of all those eyes on her while she’d been exposed…

She bit her lip, her cheeks burning before she decided she should probably head home. It was only because she didn’t want everyone teasing her about what she’d done while she swam. Yeah, that was the only reason she wanted to be in private. Totally.

All while a young man at the pool side rolled on the ground, laughing as the watch in his hand cooled itself, at least a little.

Author's Note

Okay, NOW the plot should take a backseat for a few chapters while Button himself doesn't want to focus on it. And again, if you are surprised by the sudden plot here, you are obviously new to my writing.

Also, before someone says anything, I only remembered that Derpy was seen in Canterlot High midway through writing this and I liked her being one of his mom's friends too much to take it out so... *shrug*

Edit: And please keep sending in suggestions. I just already know which comments I'm using for the skeleton of the next chapter, hence why it's set up here.