Common Indecency

It was the last class of the day, at the end of the very first week of school, Rainbow Dash was talking about herself again, and Gallus was bored.

He was reclined as far back in his desk as he could without tipping over, his arms were placed restlessly on the edge of the table, and his face was pitched up toward the ceiling. He wasn't the kind of bird who counted ceiling tiles, but he was starting to get close.

Hard to believe Dash's class was the one to finally drain all the colour out of him.

His neighbour, a unicorn pony Gallus didn't recognize, reached over and gave him a nudge. “Um, could you stop tapping, please? It's a little distracting.”

The griffon blinked and looked down at his talons. Sure enough, all six of his talons were thudding rhythmically against the wooden surface. He paused for a second and felt the pent up energy in his talons immediately.

He turned to the pony and rolled his eyes. “Sorry, can't. Predator instincts, you know? If I don't wear them down on wood then I'll have to stick them into nosy ponies instead.”

The unicorn's eyes widened and he jerked back, nearly sliding right out of his seat.

Gallus glanced at the clock—still almost an hour left in the day—and then went back to staring off into space. His eyes slid from object to object, across the backs of a dozen heads, until his gaze landed on Sandbar.

The earth pony sat in the front row and seemed to be paying about as much attention to whatever Rainbow Dash was saying as Gallus. He was looking out the window, a dumb smile on his face. His ears twitched every now and then. Daydreaming, probably.

He was cute, Gallus thought. Dumb, but cute. And pretty good as far as roommates went, even if he did cringe a bit whenever they ate together. Ponies and their weak stomachs, unable to handle even the thought of eating fish. Maybe if Gallus was feeling up to it he'd try to find some decent middle ground there. Ponies liked to ferment things, right? Maybe that was something. If he was going to share a room with such an appealing stallion, he should at least try to bridge the species gap.

Gallus rolled his eyes again and sighed. He felt creatures turn to look at him, and he paid them no mind. Fuck, why wouldn't this class end already so he could be bored somewhere else?

“Sandbar, are you paying attention?”

Sandbar jolted as the real world suddenly asserted itself and he found himself staring down the barrel of Professor Rarity's sights. She had one eyebrow raised, her glasses perched on the tip of her snout, and not much patience in her expression.

“Oh, um, yes, ma'am. Just thinking about something you said earlier.”

Rarity blinked. “Really? It must have been something quite profound then. What was it?”

Sandbar felt himself warm up a bit. “Ah, I don't really remember. It was something about… no, that was…” He struggled to trace his train of thought back to its origin and came up blank.

Rarity sniffed. “I suppose it was a while ago, then. Please stay with me, everycreature, we're almost through this section, and then you can all start on your assignments.”

She carried on with the lecture while Sandbar silently berrated himself. Why couldn't he follow a lecture for more than ten minutes without his attention getting completely derailed? At least this time he hadn't started humming or mumbling to himself. That had happened earlier in the day during Pinkie Pie's class. Thankfully Pinkie was pretty tolerant of that kind of stuff.

He sheepishly glanced around to see if anycreature was still looking at him, but it seemed like the moment had passed. He let out a breath until he noticed one set of eyes that was still trained on him. He suppressed a gulp. He should be used to catching Gallus' gaze by now. They'd been roommates for months, been on more than one adventure together, and yet he still always felt like he'd been caught when he noticed the griffon looking at him.

It may have had something to do with Gallus being just about the most attractive creature he'd ever met. In a strange, griffony way, sure, but that didn't make it any less nerve-wracking. It was a good thing their dorm was nice and roomy, so Sandbar had space to deal with what was very quickly building up to quite the crush.

He turned back to the front of the class and tried to listen to Rarity's lesson, but his mind was full of fantasy again. Going on another adventure with his friends—and with Gallus. Getting separated, maybe? And then he and Gallus would be stuck together trying to find the others, high on adrenaline and stress, right on the emotional razor's edge…

His eyes glazed over as his imaginings seized him.

If Rarity noticed, she didn't say anything.