Twilight lifted the tall, thin glass and drank until there was only a last couple of inches to the 'tea' that sat beneath the pillar of ice cubes, letting out a thin sigh as the tingle worked its way down her slender neck. She glanced across the table, a small smile crossing her muzzle as green eyes reappeared after copying her motions.
"Why d'they call this stuff tea anyways?" he muttered, swirling his own ice around the bottom of his glass. "Tastes like the bartender just threw everything on the middle shelf together until the shade was close enough for him to say 'eh' and move on with his life."
"Y'think he's serving us stuff from the middle shelf?" Twilight asked, glancing over at the bar they sat some distance from. "I've seen the price of these things, he better not be..."
Her companion snorted, and she felt herself smiling ever so slightly.
"You and I both know the bottom shelf's where it's at," he said, plucking the ice cube from the top of his stack with a talon and tossing it into his maw, crunching on it noisily for a moment. "Top shelf is all about taste. Creatures like you and me would be here well into the morning just trying to feel a buzz."
Twilight's turn to snort. Still, she couldn't actually argue with him, so she spent her energy turning to the bartender and raising her empty glass with a raised eyebrow and a bit of a smile.
A pitcher crossed the room, encased in emerald magic, refilling their glasses before floating away.
Twilight took a small sip, dipping her head to the bartender before turning back to the dragon across her table. He seemed to be cupping his drink and staring at the amber pool sitting on top of his ice again. After a moment he sighed and sipped, before glancing back up into her eyes.
"Think this is my last one," he said to her. "Getting..." He trailed off before waving a claw roughly around his head and face.
She nodded, knowing what he was talking about without him needing to say it.
They were quiet, keeping silent vigil over their dying drinks for a time. They were about halfway through when the first sizzle startled Twilight out of her reverie. Frowning softly, she pulled a piece of cloth from her mane and held it across the table.
Spike's digits wrapped around her hoof as he drew away from the table and lifted his head. He gently took the cloth and rubbed it across his eyes, the cloth darkening under his boiling tears.
"Thanks," he murmured, his voice nearly nonexistent except for the rumbling depth that tickled the short fur inside her ear. "Guess I should have called it last glass," he said, slightly louder and with a stilted half-smile.
"It's okay Spike," she whispered, holding her hooves out across the table and grasping the paw he settled on them. "That's what today is about after all."
He chuckled weakly and finished wiping at his jaw, where the last of his tears had trailed.
"I mean, it's been a year," he tried to continue, but he let the thought trail off when Twilight shook her head.
"You and I both know that grieving isn't about time," she said, squeezing his left paw and smiling at him. "Besides, it was, what, seventy years?"
"Sixty-eight," he confirmed, pressing the cloth to his eyes one last time before flipping it over one shoulder to come down to room temperature. "And hey, it wasn't a surprise like Fluttershy was, so that's something."
Twilight's ears flicked at the reminder of that particular scab, still not fully scarred over and maybe never to be.
"Ah, I'm just a lonely old fart," Spike said dismissively as he sniffed heavily, lifting the corner of the cloth to scrub roughly at the end of his nose. "Listen here at me, blubbering over someone who left me as gently as a leaving ever could be, still surrounded by friends and supporters."
She let him trail off for a moment before saying, "But they're not her."
His muzzle trembled for a moment as he took a deep breath, before shaking his head. "They could never be," he affirmed.
She let out a soft, small noise of assent, before draining her glass and making to stand up. "Alright, enough of being not at home," she said, blinking as her mind tilted for a moment before snapping back to where it was supposed to be. "Let's ditch this place."
He chuckled for a moment as he stood as well. His smile fell as he looked down at his own quarter-full glass, and he seemed to think for a minute as Twilight found her legs again. When she looked up at him, he smiled and walked around the table to her, leaning gently on her with a paw in the middle of her back, leaving the amber liquid where it was.
She tilted her head up a bit, looking up at the dragon that stood with his hip to her shoulder. His paw was warm between her shoulders, and reassuring.
"You ready?" he asked, and she frowned before taking a hesitant step forward.
She deliberated for a second before saying, "I think standing up was a poor decision."
Spike snorted and let his paw slip forward, giving her long mane a ruffle before taking a step ahead of her. "Just pretend you're on a ship again, and we're walking to our cabins to get out of a storm."
Twilight stopped for a moment, her eyes creased in concentration, before her cheeks took on a green tint. "Bad idea," she said, taking another uneasy step forward. She pressed on, her steps chaining to become an only slightly wobbly walk.
"G'night," said the ivory pony behind the bar, dipping his head to the duo as they wound their way between empty tables and chairs towards the door.
"Good night, Keys," Spike called back, nodding towards the pony and listing his way for a couple of steps before righting himself with a small laugh. "See 'ya later my colt, later..."
Keys smiled softly as he watched the two old friends duck out of his bar, completing the emptiness that they had kept from the room for the last six hours. With his horn, he flicked the sign on the door over, and blew out the candles he'd been working by.
Spike heard the clattering of the thin board behind the door that he shut behind him, and turned his head to blink at the word that had appeared in the window. "Hey Twilight, I think we left just before he closed up shop."
"How convenient," she murmured as she swayed where she stood, looking up at the stars blinking in the sky.
They both jumped a bit as a clattering rang up the street, and they turned to watch as a carriage pulled up to them. The door opened, and Lavender stuck her head through the opening. "Hey dad, Auntie," she said with a tired smile. "I thought that I may catch you trying to walk back to the castle tonight, so I ordered you a ride."
Twilight looked up at the purple kirin, smiling gently at the mulberry eyes that greeted her. "Thanks, dear, but you didn't have to wait up for us," she said, stretching out to nuzzle Lavender.
She snorted and placed a paw on Twilight's nose, pushing her gently away. "No offense, but you stink of cheap booze," she giggled.
Twilight frowned up at her niece, putting on her fiercest pout, but Lavender merely laughed it off and pulled her neck back into the carriage.
Swaying for another moment, Twilight stared at the single step up into the coach before looking at Spike.
"When'd they install rockers on these things?" she asked, retaining her earlier pout.
"About three drinks ago," he said, nodding to himself as he tilted back and forth on his paws. "You going up, or waiting on me?"
"Waiting on the street to cut it out," she mumbled before taking a step forward. Slowly she raised her front leg and placed her right hoof on the step. Bolstered, she raised her left leg and placed it on the step as well.
She took a break there, sighing and looking into the cozy interior of the carriage.
"C'mon your highness," she heard from behind her, and she giggled as she felt a couple of paws press into her flanks and try to push her in. "I'm ready to be spinning in my own bed, instead of disco dancing on the street."
Flicking her tail, she gave her best attempt at lascivious tone as she said, "Try again, but with your paws closer together this time."
She laughed as she felt a gentle swat across one of her flanks. "That works too," she giggled before tilting herself forwards and into the coach. Scrambling her hooves beneath her, she hoisted herself into one of the benches and laid on the cushions, her ears twitching as her head swam pleasantly.
She frowned as the pleasant swimmy-ness turned turbulent as the carriage rocked and a small thud sounded from beside and below her.
"Dad, that's not a seat, silly. That's a floor."
"Ah," she heard his muffled muttering. "That does explain some things."
She closed her eyes and focused on her breathing as Spike settled into the seat across from her, just letting her mind whorl and wheel gently between thoughts and feelings.
She heard the door close, and a couple of sharp, soft taps on the wall, then they were moving smoothly through the streets and up the mountain, to the castle she'd inherited all those years ago. She wondered idly about Celestia and Luna, smiling when she remembered the last letter she'd received from Silver Shoals, and the one she'd sent back that said she would not be doing anything whatsoever about the ex-princess's behaviors and that they deserved their fun.
Even if that one pony had died from a heart attack that one time.
He'd been a hundred and eight. It had been bound to happen sometime.
And besides, the last time she'd let them visit her fur had ended up bleached and one of her cuter secretaries pregnant. She was still trying to figure out the trick to that one.
"Twilight?"
"Hmm?" she responded, opening her eyes and looking over at Lavender.
She sighed and smiled. "I asked you if you were feeling okay? You've had your eyes closed for the last ten minutes."
"Have I?" she said shallowly. "Just lost in thought."
"What about?"
"Oh, just Celestia and Luna," she said warmly. "Wondering what they're getting up to now. I don't think I've received any letters about them recently, and that usually means they're saving up their trouble."
They were silent for a moment, before she felt a warm and slightly damp cloth flop onto her muzzle.
"Your turn," said Spike.
She lifted the cloth, starting to ask what he was talking about, before she felt cool air on her cheeks. Lifting a hoof she pressed her frog to a cheek, surprised when she pulled it away wet.
"Thanks," she said quietly as she mopped at her fur.
The rest of the ride was mostly silent, but for the gentle sound of hooves across cobblestone.
They moved quickly out of the carriage and into the castle once they arrived, the duo sobered by the atmosphere and the cool night air. They barely noticed when they'd arrived at Twilight's room, Spike having followed after her mechanically.
"Oh, uhm, I'm across the castle," Spike chuckled, raising his claw to scratch the back of his neck. "Uhm, good night, then."
"Wait a second," Twilight said, shaking her head. "You can sleep here. I've got a nice couch in the drawing-room. Even have some shelves dedicated to your comics if you don't feel like sleeping right away."
Spike wavered for a moment before he nodded, smiling down.
"Yeah, alright."
She smiled up at him and nodded to the guard by the door, who pushed it open easily. "Water in the morning?" the armored mare asked with a tempered gaze.
"Oh Celestia, please," Twilight said with a laugh as she moved through the doorway.
The mare nodded, waiting for all of Spike's three-foot-long tail to clear the door before she closed it.
He looked around the front room a little glassily, taking in the warm fireplace and the multitude of shelves set with all sorts and forms of books. He took a step towards the plush couch, teetering, but paused when he felt Twilight's magic grip his paw.
"Hey, help me out of this," she said with a yawn, flicking her head up at the tiara she still wore.
He reached out for it, but missed as she moved towards her bedroom.
Snorting, Spike followed her all the way up to her bed, where she stopped and swayed in place.
She smiled at him when he whisked off her crown, dipping her head forward as he pulled away her torque and shaking her head to get her fur settled again. She lifted each of her hooves as he knelt unsteadily in front of her, moving each golden cap in front of the dresser where she kept her other ornaments.
After another minute he took to his feet again, nodding at the undressed princess. "The emperor is in her finest robes," he cracked, smiling at the mystified look she gave him. Gently pushing, he toppled her onto her bed.
"Night," he said with a yawn, before moving to the base of the bed. A wave of dizziness gripped his head as he moved away, and he ended up sitting heavily to keep himself upright.
After a moment he fell backward, his legs still hanging off the end of the bed as his head hit the blankets Twilight was now snoring on top of.
After a few long, slow blinks, his eyes closed, and he joined her.
^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^
Twilight awoke to a comfortable warmth between all four of her legs, and she smiled through the barbed cotton that stuffed her head. She ran a hoof down the long neck settled on her chest, and paused as she felt scales instead of fur.
Did I grab one of Spike's bros last night?
She let out a quiet groan as a claw on her flank flexed, squeezing and pushing her more into the warmth on her torso.
Nice.
She smiled as she felt her tail flicking on the bed, fanning a flame she wouldn't mind quenched.
First, though, she stretched out with her magic, grabbing a full glass from the table beside her bed and taking a long drink, emptying half of it and sighing as she felt the thorns in her head retract into the thick cotton.
Having taken at least the edge off of her hangover, she smiled as she wriggled in her bed partner's grip, finding both of their arms wrapped around her hips and a paw apiece on her flank. She stretched a leg out into the air, loosening the tendons for a moment before she gently slid the hoof down their belly.
And with a giggle, she discovered the dragon was a him, as her frog was tickled by a point that was quickly becoming a pole. She'd had dragons in the past, both sexes, but found herself impressed as his rapidly growing cock made it's way up her leg.
She lowered her other rear leg and gently clamped them over the dick she was playing hoovsies with now, letting her silky fur run up its undersides as she measured the knotted base with her hooves.
By Luna he's girthy, she thought as she returned to gently stroking him with her rear legs.
She froze when he moaned gently into her chest, her heart hammering as she recognized the deep voice that tickled the fur in her ears in that certain way only he did.
She moved her neck, wincing and giving it a stretch and a pop as she made to look down.
There was his sleeping face, Spike's jaw flat on her chest as she embraced his neck, his arms squeezing her needfully as he was gently humping into her pasterns now, his eyes creased as his body moved in his sleep.
Celestia, did she need to think right now, but between the cotton padding of her brain and the warmth between her legs she found herself merely squeezing and stroking with her hooves, running the soft pads under her hooves across his knot and trailing up to the pointed tip.
Buck it, I'm sure it's been months, if not years.
Sighing, she laid her head back and closed her eyes, letting her hooves explore the cock between themselves, squeezing gently and stroking, to the audible delight of the dragon on her chest. She teased the tip with the frog of a hoof, using the other to squish the hot flesh up onto his belly and running the fur up and down his length.
He shuddered and murmured something into her fur, and she felt his knot pulsing and tensing as he squeezed her flanks hard enough to pull her cheeks away from her cunt, making her shiver at the blast of warm air from under the blanket caressed her.
She couldn't stop a moan as she felt a splash of thick, warm cum streak its way up her leg, and she gave the knot a gentle squeeze as he flexed his hips up and into her hooves. She squeaked when the next rope shot further, all the way onto her burning snatch, as though attempting to douse her fires by pouring oil on them. She couldn't stop a couple of her own humps into Spike's chest as he finished messing her legs, biting down on her pillow as he ruined her bed and covered her thighs in wet heat.
She lay there for a minute, panting and squirming, pressing her legs together to spread that heat all across her mound, rubbing her thighs together and wondering if she could squirm down onto that hot dick still twitching between her hooves...
"Uhm, thanks," said a breathless voice down on Twilight's torso, and she froze. Slowly she lifted her head and opened her eyes to look down into the heavily blushing face of Spike.
"I, uhm, I'm sorry, I guess I just collapsed here last night," he rasped, speaking into her breastbone even as his arms loosened from around her ribs. "But that was, uhm, a nice way to wake up..."
"Yeah," said Twilight lamely, and, before she could stop herself, "Anytime."
Spike froze, his eyes darting up to look into hers, before he snorted and buried his muzzle into her chest.
"Wow Twi, way to take the lead place in the awkward race," he said, chuckling into her fur. "Did you really say that?"
Snorting herself, she raised her hooves and pressed them into her face with a groan.
"Right?"
With a sigh, she ran her hooves down her face before levitating the water glass over to them. Spike took it when it was offered and drank it greedily, draining the other half of the glass and offering it up with a sigh.
Taking it in her magic, Twilight blushed before using her field to scrape up the mess on her legs, thighs, and cunt. Floating the orb up out of the blankets, she let it plop into the glass, raising an eyebrow when it filled up quite a bit of the tall crystal.
"You were pent up," she quipped, hovering the glass back over to her side table as he buried his face in her fur again.
"Yeah," he whispered.
They were quiet for a while, before he pulled his head away and looked up at her.
"Breakfast?"
^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^
After a shower they had a very red-faced and quiet breakfast before each went on about their day, Twilight heading down to the courts to compile and look over paperwork in between her public meetings and royal such-and-such; while Spike had headed to the library to do his own bit there, most of the day taken up with his own series of paperwork.
Twilight wasn't surprised when he didn't show up to dinner but instead chose to have it taken to the library. He'd cited the forty forms he had full of late patrons, but Twilight knew that the awkward morning had been the cause.
She spent the rest of the day repeating this pattern, feeling more and more out of place as Spike always found some reason to not show up around her. It was at the end of it that she was jostled away from a book by a gentle knocking on her door.
"Hello?" she called, rubbing an eye and checking the clock on the mantle. Who was coming around at half-past eleven on a Thursday?
"It's, uh, me Twi."
Twilight sat bolt upright, almost tipping over the chair she was on, before she jumped for the door, flapping her wings once to deliver her to them.
Spike leaned away when she wrenched the door open, both of their gazes meeting before they both turned scarlet and looked away.
"I, uhm, have a question Twilight."
"Oh, yeah," she said, breathless and nervous. "C'mon in, I'll get some tea ready."
She turned and pranced over to the small kitchenette she'd place in a corner, nothing more than a cabinet and a sink with a piece of metal that got hot enough to fill the kettle there with boiling water.
"Any preference on the blend there, Spike?" Twilight asked, starting to rattle off the boxes she kept in the cabinet while she filled the kettle.
"Did you mean it?" he asked, suddenly interrupting her.
"Mean what?" she asked, still turned away from him and fiddling with the kettle.
"Did you mean it when you said, 'anytime'?"
She dropped the kettle.
Taking a breath, she turned off the water flowing from the sink and turned to him, his face a deeper red and studiously blank. She slowly moved over to the couch and sat on it, facing him.
"I've been having... dreams, the last couple of nights," he said, leaning back against the closed doors. "I was just going to try and forget it, the whole thing, but then I... I had a dream, about you and me, and then I had the same dream last night, and..." He breathed out, pressing his paws to his face. "And I wanted to know if you meant it, or if it was a slip of the tongue, or-"
"Spike," Twilight said, levelly.
He peeked out from between his claws, and she motioned him over. He slowly moved to the couch and took a seat beside her. He shifted a bit when she leaned against him, but settled against her with a soft noise in the base of his throat.
"Why don't you tell me about the last couple of days, Spike?"
Taking a deep breath, Spike nodded.
"Uhm, well, three days ago we had that... The morning incident," he said, blushing heavily.
^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^
Spike left the breakfast hall early, no longer able to ignore the uncomfortable aura between him and Twilight. He made it a few halls away before remembering the gentle 'always' Twilight probably hadn't meant to say. That didn't stop his dick from stirring, and he had to find an abandoned room to stop and concentrate for a hot second to force the arousal from his head. Heads.
Celestia, had it been a bit since he felt another's pelt against him.
He pushed that away before it could trail much farther, sighing and motioning with a paw as though to physically dismiss the mounting depression that was at the end of that particular train of thought.
The vague feeling of guilt did much to curb the prickling heat in his head, and he made it to his particular wing of the library without needing to stop again.
Nodding to the two scribes he'd hired as assistants, he made his way to the large desk and settled into his custom chair before pulling out several stacks of paper from the drawers.
He lost himself in the world of print and ink for the next few hours, taking a few minutes to eat his customary lunch from the kitchens somewhere around noon and taking a couple of breaks to walk the library, replacing returned scrolls and materials.
He blinked rapidly when one of his aides cleared their throat in front of his desk.
"Sorry, Lord Spike," she said with a smile, "but it's getting on in the afternoon. I believe the kitchen will be serving dinner soon?"
Rubbing at one of his eyes, Spike glanced over at the silent standing clock and winced at the time. A brief glance at the paperwork in front of him and an errant thought of the morning wormed through his head.
"I think I'll be taking dinner in here today," he said with a sigh, berating himself for his cowardice and thankful still for the excuse. "I still have reams of these to get through. Will you let a runner know?"
The mare frowned slightly, nodding still. "As you wish. Careful not to overwork yourself?" she added to the end.
Spike chuckled and smiled at her warmly. "I'll still be eating, no worries. Just want to get through some more of this before heading to sleep, is all. Not even thinking of pulling an all-night-er or anything."
She looked at him for another moment, before nodding and smiling slightly.
"Alright. Watch after yourself," she said in parting, dipping her head before trotting out the door.
He kept the soft smile on his face for a couple of moments after she'd left, glancing over the sheet in front of him and scanning half of it before the memory of a pair of hooves flashed through his head again, dropping the smile and pulling a sigh from his lungs as he pressed a pair of paws over his eyes.
"Aughghghghghghghg-" he mumbled softly, slouching in his chair and massaging his face as he tried to rid his imagination of a set of soft flanks.
"Uhm, my Lord?"
Spike perked up and spread his claws to look at the guard poking his head into the library, looking conflicted and contrite.
"I am sorry my Lord, but I was wondering if you would like tea tonight, or perhaps coffee?"
Spike gazed at him, flipping through his mind only to find every page blank.
"Brandy," he said. "A quarter of a bottle, with tumbler and ice, please."
The guard saluted smartly and pulled his head from the doorway before closing it.
Spike let out a quieter breath, before picking up the sheet before him and plying his concentration to it.
^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^
Spike woke slowly that next morning, grunting softly a couple of times in protest at the warm light poking him in the eye before he tilted his head the other way, sighing quietly when he heard the tinkling of glass on the ground that followed his movement.
Lifting his head, carefully this time, he blinked slowly and stretched his neck to look down beside his desk, glaring darkly at the shattered inkwell and the luckily enchanted ink that had dried as soon as the well had shattered.
Glancing across the room, he smacked his lips together for a moment before blinking at the upstanding arm on the face of the clock.
"How long have you been here then?" he asked, sighing at the giggle behind him.
"Only a couple of hours," said the melodic voice, his heart twinging longingly at her voice. "Late night again?"
"Not on purpose," he muttered as he stretched his arms above his head, shrugging heavily as his spine cracked. "I meant to stick around until eleven at the latest, but I think I conked out before then."
He forced himself to remain relaxed when he felt a hoof on his side.
"You always work so hard," she said gently, running her hoof up and down his scales.
"So did you," he whispered, looking down at the stack of papers and scrolls jumbled across the top of his desk.
He jumped a bit when the large doors in front of him opened, one of his aides poking her head inside and glancing around the room.
"Sir? I heard some conversation, I hope I'm not interrupting?"
Sighing, he turned his head and looked over his shoulder at the empty stacks behind him.
"No, no," he said, smiling at his assistant. "Just me."
She peered around the library slowly before nodding and walking over towards her desk, pausing beside his and raising an eyebrow.
"Late night again?"
He couldn't help the flinch at those words, and he blew the air from his lungs through his nose before standing and cracking his lower back.
"Too late," he agreed, looking down at the mare staring at him. "Think I'm going to take a walk, grab a bite to eat and maybe a nap. Look over the place for me?"
She nodded, still giving him a concerned gaze as he moved from around the desk.
"Later then," he said, striving for flippancy as he strode from the room, away from her pitying eyes and the memories of his morning conversation.
He quickly made his way to the kitchens, grabbing a couple of fried eggs and some leftover oatmeal before making his way to a silent area of the royal gardens, nibbling absently on the toast they'd doctored with fruit jam before tossing beside his cholesterol bomb.
He thought as he ate, mind focusing on the tiny tryst he'd been involved in a day ago now. He stopped attempting to not think about it, instead trying to figure out how he felt about it.
Unsurprisingly, his libido called hungrily, an almost aching pang shooting through his guts as he smirked at himself.
His heart? His heart ached as well, though in a guilty, wanting way. It still wanted his wife, the jewel of his life... But it was beginning to understand what his mind had been telling it for a year now, and its cries had been getting less and less specific and turning more into just a need, a need for anyone that would hold him.
He could admit that he'd been lonely for a while now; he had no delusions otherwise.
As to his mind? He understood that everyone needed someone, someone deeper than family, to love. And hell, he wouldn't kid himself about what had happened yesterday. He'd been given a happy wakening by an extremely attractive mare that had been his best... Well, his second-best friend, for most of his life.
The only real hang-up he had was that when he'd been littler, he had definitely seen Twilight as a sister. But now? They'd remained close over the years, but each had grown and flourished apart from each other, and he could come to his mental table and admit he could have some extra-familial feelings for her.
He stewed there for nearly an hour, turning this over in his head as he ate his breakfast.
As he dipped the spoon into the bowl that had contained his oatmeal, the clinking of empty dish roused him from his thoughts long enough to process he had no more food, and his stomach was satisfied anyways.
Taking a deep breath and shaking away the fog of deep investiture from his brain, he blinked and stood up, gathering his dishes.
There was only one pony whose opinion still mattered to him on these thoughts, and he headed towards the courtrooms after dropping off his plates to speak with her.
She snorted when he gave her a brief rundown, skimping over the exacting details of what had occurred that morning before and focusing more on the moving on of his heart.
"If you need to get some, then get some," Lavender muttered beside him, scrawling on the scroll she had in front of the massive set of doors before she called out a name. Waiting for the stallion to pass the duo, she let the door close before turning more fully to her dad. "You need to unwind anyway, and mom wouldn't want you pining forever."
He snorted down at her, smirking as he glanced over at the blushing guard standing beside her.
"It's not about me getting some," he chuckled, "it's about who I got it with, and if I should pursue her or not."
Lavender gave him a shallow look, accusing him just as easily as if she'd said something.
"Dad, that's none of my business," she said, her flickering towards the pony approaching them. After taking a brief summary of their complaints, she nodded to the back of the queue and turned back to Spike. "Just like who I grab at night is none of yours, for now. Twilight's the most likely pony to get hung up about it, and that's just her over-protectiveness."
Spike glanced away, scratching idly at the back of his skull. "Don't think she'd be having much of a problem with them," he murmured.
Lavender glanced up at him with a tilted glance. "Oh yeah? You grabbing another one of her friends then?"
"Nope," he said, trailing off awkwardly.
Lavender turned her full gaze up at him, looking into his eyes for a moment before her own widened.
"You boinked Twilight?" she whispered savagely.
They both jumped at a loud clattering beside them, the duo looking over at the beet colored mare in armor that way attempting to snag her spear up from the ground. As soon as she picked it up she returned to her previous position, still blushing furiously.
Spike narrowed his eyes slightly before looking back at Lavender.
"No, no, no 'boinking' happened," he said with a frown. "There was an... well, an incident, yeah, but no boinking."
Lavender looked up at him, clearly unimpressed. "And you wanted there to be?"
Spike snorted before glancing around. "Maybe," he admitted. "That's what I think I'm trying to figure out, I think, is if I should chase after this or not."
"And you wanted me to-?" she trailed off, whirling a paw at him
"I dunno, approve maybe?" he said, frustrated a bit with both her and himself. "At least know about it, I don't want to blindside you if something happens."
"So you do want something to happen," Lavender said with a smile. "As long as you know that. But yeah dad, go after those purple flanks, I'm fine with it. I might think it's a bit weird, what with her being my Aunt and all, but she'd not your blood so whatever. You're putting too much thought into this," she said with a laugh.
He blew some air through his lips, closing his eyes and rubbing over them with a paw. "Well thanks, I guess," he said, unable to keep away the small grin.
"Sure, weirdo. Go get your freak on with the lady who raised you," she said with a push.
"Hey, I never said anything about Celestia," he fired back, both of them snickering as he walked away to figure out exactly what he was going to do about Twilight.
^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^
"And then I thought about it," he was concluding, shifting a bit to lean more against Twilight, who was currently juggling tea supplies in her magic as she listened. "And then I realized I didn't know what to actually say, and you were the one I always asked about romantic stuff, even though you knew about as much as me," he said, grinning as she gently slugged his arm with a hoof, "so instead I just came here and asked if you really meant it when you said you'd give me a 'hoof' anytime," he continued as they both blushed heavily, "and now I'm rambling further about nothing. So. That's it."
Twilight nodded shallowly, trying to think about anything beyond her currently warming core. "So you came to me for another hoof-job?" she giggled, floating over a teacup to the currently spasming dragon beside her.
"Well," he coughed after he recovered, "While I won't say no, that's short-term-"
"Not that short," Twilight couldn't help interrupting, both of them blushing and giggling a bit.
"Point, I suppose?" Spike said with a chuckle. "But honestly, I came here to talk with you about something more, well, lasting? I suppose?"
Twilight sat there for a moment, her brain attempting to think about something other than what had happened yesterday morning, and what might have happened if they'd been less awkward and more awake.
She then shrugged.
"Well Spike," she said, leaning over and wrapping one of her forelegs around his shoulder, the other trailing over his nearest thigh. "Long-term, I think you could maybe repay me for yesterday. Short-term though?" She leaned her muzzle closer to his ear.
"I think maybe I could increase your debt a bit?" she murmured, tracing her hoof over his thigh and moving her hoof over to the left just a bit.
Just enough, though,
"Oh," said Spike, a little blankly.
"I think I can get behind that," he said, almost thoughtfully, before grinning down at her.
"Soon enough, you better," she whispered, before leaning forward and clamping her lips around his.
Author's Note
Hope you guys enjoy 
