Spike sat on the edge of his bed with a scowl, gently tapping a claw against his light-grey bed sheets. He had been sat like this for a few minutes now, his emerald green eyes scanning back and forth across his room in search of anything to occupy his time with.
Despite being Spike’s main residence since Twilight’s castle generously gifted it to him just five years before, his bedroom was still sparsely decorated of anything to distract himself with. His bookshelf, while large and filled to the brim, was only full of filler and comics he’d read hundreds of times, while his favorites had been moved to the second Tree Library or, in the case of his Ogres and Oubliettes sourcebooks, the basement under the Treebrary to await its grand reopening.
Across the room from him sat a desk that was similarly full, though he was doing his level best to ignore the papers stacked upon it. There were many things Spike would have rather done than look over the homework twilight forced upon him to grade during his confinement.
As his eyes settled on one of the remaining fixtures of his room, his currently locked door, Spike considered the very terms of his confinement.
He was grounded, as simple as it sounded, and that really limited his options even more than he was comfortable with. He could still traverse the entirety of the Castle of Harmony, but there seemed something objectively wrong with leaving the warm, wooden walls of his bedroom for the cold, crystalline labyrinth of the castle.
That, and running into one of his captors would be awkward at this point.
So Spike threw himself back onto his bed with a sigh, feeling that perhaps a nap to pass the time was the answer to all of his problems. At the very least it would help him pass the time and keep him energized to mope about his imprisonment later.
So, with another heavy sigh, Spike lounged back against his pillow and closed his eyes, layering an arm over them to stop the lights of his room from preventing a thorough rest. He didn’t even bother to cover himself in a blanket as he did, preferring to be embraced by the unyielding cold of winter as he slept.
Tap tap tap.
Of course, distracting him from his slumber was the sound of very light tapping coming from across the room, located near or around his window. Not to be deterred, Spike just squeezed his eyes tighter shut and rolled onto his side. He briefly considered donning a blanket, if only to pull it over his head to further ignore the sound.
Tap tap tap.
The tapping only grew louder as Spike worked harder to ignore it. He tried to write it off as the castle settling around him, though he had no idea why a magically formed building would need to settle. Either way, it helped him to ignore it for the time being.
Tap tap tap.
Spike was suddenly reminded why he didn’t draw his thin blanket over his head very often. It didn't do much in the way of sound dampening, and it just rubbed his headspines in all the wrong ways. Still, another barrier did manage to help him feel safer from whatever was assaulting his window.
Taptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptap
Finally fed up with the sound as it reached its fever pitch, Spike shot up from his bed and stormed his way over to the window, stomping his feet with a scowl deeper than the one he wore before. As he approached, he considered what he’d do to the rude creature distracting him. The scoundrel stealing his sleep away from him.
The handsome, light grey stallion staring back at him as he opened his curtain, being battered by the snow flurry outside.
Spike tilted his head in confusion as Rumble waved at him, shooting him a grin much warmer than he was at the moment. He tapped his hoof against the window again, then mimed warming up his hooves.
While frozen for a moment, though nothing compared to Rumble’s being frozen for several minutes now, Spike finally opened up his window and took a step back.
The gust of wind that followed Rumble’s speedy entrance was almost enough to knock Spike back, and the cold chill that followed was more than enough to make him wish he’d just stayed in bed. However, as he looked over to Rumble, who was currently unspooling the scarf from his neck and shaking himself free of snow, he didn’t wish that for long.
He made his way over to Rumble in almost an instant, wapping his lithe arms around the colt to ‘warm him up’, though perhaps the forehead nuzzling was more for affection than comfort.
“Well hello to you too, Spikey.” Rumble said with a giggle, happily reciprocating and wrapping his hooves around Spike as well. “I guess you missed me?”
“Miss you? Of course I did!” Spike squeaked quite loudly. He flinched moments later, realizing that telegraphing he had a guest while grounded probably wasn’t the best idea.
Pulling back from the hug with just one more nuzzle, Spike looked at Rumble curiously. “But what’re you doing here? I know you know I’m grounded. Twilight’d kill me if she knew I had a ‘friend’ over.”
“Well, what she doesn’t know won’t kill you.” Rumble said with a shrug and a cheeky grin. “Besides, can’t a guy break all the rules just to spend time with his boyfriend? I thought you liked stories like that.”
In response, Spike rolled his eyes, though he was unable to hide the soft blush forming on his cheeks. “Usually that’s only when the guy isn’t the reason for the rules in the first place.”
“You wound me.” Rumble said with a shake of his head, pressing a hoof to his chest. “I go through so much to see you, and you wound me.”
“It’s great to see you, but I don’t want you getting into more trouble with your brother.” Spike said with a soft sigh, leaning in to press his lips against Rumble’s cheek. “If you get caught then I got grounded for literally no reason, and you’re off to that fun flight academy you told me about.”
Rumble shuddered as a cold chill ran down his spine, but he shook it off moments later. “Weeeell, luckily for both of us, I can’t get caught!” He exclaimed, shooting up with a wide grin. “Thunderlane is out of town for an event and won’t be back until tomorrow, so-”
“Someone could still catch you here and Twilight could tell your brother later.” Spike interrupted, stopping Rumble’s joy in its tracks.
The colt responded to that by sinking back down, sighing softly as he pressed his head against Spike’s chest. There was a short bit of silence as Spike felt very bad for killing the vibe that he was so clearly setting up. So, he wrapped an arm around Rumble and kissed his forehead ever so gently. “But she did leave to go antiquing with Sunburst in Canterlot for a while, so I guess we do have a bit of time, so long as we keep it quiet. Don’t want the guards to get suspicious, you know?”
The headbutt that followed, though gentle, caught Spike off-guard and knocked him onto his back.
“You’re a dork. You coulda told me that earlier.” The culprit said before standing up, brushing himself off, and taking a look around Spike’s room. “Well, if we’ve got the time, then maybe we can finally roll up that O&O character you wanted me to.” Rumble approached Spike’s TTRPG-free bookcase and began to poke through it, though his face grew confused after a few moments. “Hey, where’d you put your books?”
“I’d love to help you make a character, but I moved those books over to the library, like, a week ago.” Spike said before sitting up from his supine position, then standing and brushing himself off. “I kinda thought that I’d be moved in by now, but then the whole grounding thing happened, and now Twilight wants to put the opening off until next week.” He sighed forlornly through his nose, emitting quite the plume of smoke as he did so.
“Sorry.” Rumble said while rolling his eyes. After a beat, he caught himself, shook his head, and glanced over Spike with a bashful look on his face. “Right, uh, I seriously am sorry about you taking the fall for me. I promise.”
“It’s fine. It’s easy to blame the dragon when something gets burnt anyway.” Spike said with a wave of his hand. “I’m just glad the fire didn’t spread out much farther than the flower patch.”
“Yeah, but who knew a fire could spread that fast?” Rumble said as his head fell in despair.
“Much faster than a grease fire, huh?” Spike asked with a sly grin.
“Shut up!”
“Hey, I’m just happy you still have a job, and nothing too big got hurt.”
“Nothing but my eardrums, you mean?” Rumble asked, still poking through Spike’s selection of books with one hoof while trying to clear the tinnitus one ear with the other. “I swear, I can still hear Flambé screaming about throwing water on a grease fire.”
“And I bet you’ll never make that mistake again.”
Rumble let out a groan in response. “Yeah, not when I’m stuck washing dishes for the next millennia. Instead of chasing my passions I’m getting soaked for eight hours, then I get to go home for another night of nothing but homework and sleep.”
“Tell me about it.” Spike giggled, pointing over to his desk where, still, a pile of papers sat to taunt him. “At least there’s a split between work and home on your end. I’ve still got a stack of essays to look over before next week, and tomorrow I get to teach a class at the school because Fridays are when Twilight has to go to Canterlot for princess things. Then I get to spend all weekend helping Roseluck replant her garden.”
Pure silence followed. Even the sound of Rumble poking through the books had stopped as both boys let the moment embrace them.
“Well,” Rumble said after a few more seconds of the silence, “I was gonna complain about Thunderlane a little bit, but I think you’ve got me beat.”
“Hey, go ahead and complain anyway.” Spike said as he sauntered over to the bookshelf. Not to look through any of the books he was barely interested in, of course, but to wrap his arm around Rumble and nuzzle him gently. “If it helps, it helps. And I’m always here to listen.”
Rumble grumbled for a few moments, yielding to Spike’s attention and nuzzling him back with eagerness, then exhaled quite loudly as he let his shoulders fall. “I dunno, I guess it just feels like he’s always a little mad at me.” He said with a soft, dejected expression on his face. “And it’s not even the mad where he yells at me anymore. He’s so tired from Wonderbolt training these days that all he can do is passive-aggressively clean the house at me.”
“I dunno, there’s nothing more effective than a good passive-aggressive clean.” Spike said with a mild grin, wrapping his arm tighter around his boyfriend. “And if you have a problem with that, you sure are in for a surprise when you move into the library.”
“Well, so long as you don’t interrupt my naps like Thundy does. I swear, I don’t know how he can make dusting loud enough to keep me awake.” Rumble said before trailing off into a yawn. He shifted his weight slightly, resting even more against his companion. However, this resting ended and his tiredness was briefly abated after a moment of realization, his head whipping to look quite seriously at Spike. “W-wait, move in?”
“Oho, are you telling me you had an ulterior motive for tapping on my window tonight?” Spike asked with a sly grin, ignoring Rumble’s question and supplanting his own. “And here I thought you just wanted to hang out and make an O&O character. Instead you’re just using me for my bed.” The dragon shook his head, his face solemn with a forced expression of shock.
Rumble rolled his eyes, leaning harder against Spike’s side with a huff. “Yep, that’s all its been this entire time. Just a scheme to get at your bed and O&O books. You caught me.”
“Well you coulda said so before.” Spike said before standing himself up, nearly knocking Rumble over in the process. As the colt caught himself, Spike approached him from behind and wrapped his arms around his waist. Without a moment of hesitation he lifted Rumble with all the draconic strength he had at his disposal, picking him up into a semi-bridal carry.
Rumble squeaked very loudly as he was lifted from his seated position, wiggling slightly as Spike slowly wobbled the short distance to the bed. “Wait, c’mon, I can walk on my own!”
“H-hey, stop moving around.” Spike squeaked along as well, hefting his bundle of colt and slowing down to a snail’s pace to prevent both from tipping over. He stumbled for a few more moments, managing to work up more of a sweat than he expected to.
Rumble was deposited onto the bed moments later, Spike doing his best to do it as gently as possible despite the feeling of fire set into his arms. With his job done well, and his body much more tired than when he was first intending to take a nap, Spike flopped back onto his bed and wrapped an arm around Rumble.
“You suck.” Rumble said lovingly as he pulled himself closer to Spike’s body. “At least ask me first before you-”
Rumble’s complaints were quickly halted by the sound of a loud knocking on Spike’s door, shocking both boys and causing them to jump.
Spike looked over to Rumble warily and silently, pressing a finger to his own lips to hush him before he revealed his position. He then ruffled the colt’s mane, pressed his lips against his forehead, and then stood himself back up with a loud, almost forced, grumbling groan.
There was another, more urgent knock as Spike was just about halfway to the door, to which he responded with another groan. “I’m coming!” He said with a huff. “I swear, no one has any patience around here these days.”
As Spike opened the door, he made sure to only open it a few inches and use his body to block his room from any prying eyes. Said prying eyes belonged to Flash Sentry, the Captain of the Ponyville Royal Guard, who stood in front of him.
The orange stallion looked Spike over with a stern look on his face, though he seemed to be doing a lot to force it. “Is everything alright in here? I heard some yelling, and I’m pretty sure it didn’t sound like you.” He craned his head up to peer over Spike’s shoulder, narrowing his eyes as he attempted to inspect the room.
“Oh, haha, yeah that.” Spike raised an arm, seemingly to scratch the back of his head but really only to block the doorway further. “I was just, uh, practicing my character voices?” He gave a very short nod, trying to agree with his own clear lie.
Flash eyed Spike with a raised eyebrow, slowly nodding along with him. “Well, if that’s all there is, then I guess you won’t mind me taking a look?”
As Flash asked this, Spike looked back into his room with a lot of worry, his eyes meeting with a very shocked looking Rumble, before looking back to Flash with a very forced shrug. “Huh, I dunno, dude,” he said slowly, dragging his words out very slightly to buy Rumble some time, “My room is still kind of a mess, and I’m kind of busy working on the next O&O session.”
“Spike, I’m not Twilight. My house is probably way worse than whatever you could have in there.” Flash said, breaking his guard facade with a soft grin as he gestured past Spike. “Just a quick in and out, and I promise not to snoop and spoil myself for our next game.”
Spike sighed and groaned under his breath, realizing that he really didn’t have a leg to stand on. He hesitated for a few moments, hoping that Rumble would have had a gameplan figured out by this point, before haltingly stepping aside for Flash to gain entry.
“Thank you, sir. I promise this won’t take too long.” Flash said as he entered the room.
The lack of reaction from Flash let Spike breathe a sigh of relief, closing his eyes and finding a bit of peace in the chaos that his day had somehow turned into.
The peace, of course, didn’t last very long.
“What in the heck?” Flash asked, probably a bit more loudly than he should have. “Spike, are you kidding?”
The seriousness of the tone made Spike flinch, his entire body clenching up into a ball of nerves as he very slowly turned himself around to face the music. He slowly opened his eyes up to look at Flash apologetically, ready to do anything he could to unscrew himself.
Instead of looking back at Spike with anger, like he had expected, Flash Sentry was busying himself with warming up his hooves while staring at the snow fluttering in from the open window. After a few moments, he turned around to look at Spike with a curious, almost scared look on his face. “You know these windows close for a reason, right? How can you live like this?” He asked, continuing to shiver up a storm.
Spike’s eyes flitted between the bed that he’d left Rumble upon and the newly opened window for a few moments before, with a nod of understanding, he shrugged playfully. "Well, you know how dragons are.” He said. “Sometimes we just get overheated and need to cool off for a little bit.”
Knowing nothing about dragons, but knowing that Spike had an unmatched love for ice cream, Flash couldn’t help but nod in agreement and pretend to know what he was talking about. “W-well I guess it can stay open then.” Trying to stay as far away from the harbinger of winter, he quickly made his way back to the bedroom door and overlooked the rest of the room from there.
“Well, I don’t see anything, or anyone out of place.” He said as he scanned the area with all the focus of a Royal Guard Captain. His focus quickly became unfocused, however, as he began to stare at an item he saw on the ground.
Spike followed Flash’s gaze, fighting back a groan as he too saw the item of clothing strewn about carelessly.
Rumble’s scarf lay on the ground, unmoved from right where the colt had left it.
Flash immediately walked over to inspect the strange strip of fabric, and Spike took a moment to consider what sorts of things he could get up to for his next century of grounding.
Maybe he could take up writing.
“Huh, new scarf?” Flash asked after a few moments of inspection, picking it up to look it over further. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you wear it, but it’s already on the ground?”
“Oh, that?” Spike struggled to find a response as Flash began to figuratively pull at the thread. He hesitated for a very long five seconds, staring daggers at the scarf in Flash’s hooves, before offering up a very noncommittal shrug. “I guess Rumble must have left it behind last time he was here.”
Flash’s nod in response was equally as noncommittal as he hung the scarf up off of Spike’s bookshelf. “Well, hopefully you can get it to him once you can actually go out again. “ He said, then began his walk back to the door. “I swear, I’d kick myself if I left a scarf like that at my boyfriend’s house. Though I guess I’d have to get a boyfriend first.”
“Well there’s always time.” Spike said as he rushed ahead of the stallion, opening the door for his forced exit.
Immediately recognizing what Spike was doing, Flash gave a small sigh. “Alright, I guess I’ll get out of your scales.”
As Flash finally made his exit, Spike figured that his crisis was finally over and he could finally get back to Rumble.
“One more thing.” Flash said, halting his exit just outside the door to spin around to face Spike.
As Spike fought back a cringing, annoyed look, Flash tilted his head and gave a questioning look.
“Will we be seeing Dorgax The Eternal again?”
Spike blinked, for a moment confused but then nodding with the realization that he was no longer talking to Royal Guard Flash Sentry, but instead Gallantry the Bard. His anxiety abated for a short moment, he gave a shrug with a very wide smile. “All I can tell you is that you should probably keep your utility spells handy.”
Flash’s face in response quickly shifted between a mix of shock, elation, and horror. But mostly the horror, which it finally settled upon.
Spike’s response wasn’t nearly as conflicted, settling down on a cocky grin. “I’ll see you next week, Flash. Make sure to bring your dice this time.”
And with that, not waiting for any response from Flash, he shut the door and breathed a very deep sigh of relief right afterwards.
It took a long few moments for him to work up the energy to walk back to the window, mostly due to the biting cold sapping his energy with every step closer. Despite all commonly held sensibilities, he stuck his head out the window and began to speak in a whispered yell.
“Rumble? Rumble! Rumb-”
His chanting was quickly interrupted by a pair of very cold lips pressing against his own, stunning the poor dragon and knocking him back from the window as a blush grew hot across his face. Almost hot enough to warm his lips back up, but not quite.
With Spike distracted, Rumble quickly made his entrance with a large, smug grin. “Good save, babe.” He said as he closed the window and, again, shook the snow from his coat. “I thought that dork would never leave.”
“Yeah, I mean, as we know there’s a two dork limit in here.” Spike said with a shrug. “If he didn’t leave, you might have been forced to go home.”
Rumble rolled his eyes, giving a very short laugh. “Dork.” He said, then walked over to Spike’s bed and sat down on the edge of it, patting the spot next to him in hopes of company.
Never one to say no to a colt as cute as Rumble, especially if it meant a bit of cuddling, Spike took his spot right with glee. Looking down at his boyfriend lovingly, he gave him a gentle nuzzle. “Well, hey, if Flash thinks I’m alone, then I guess we have a little time to ourselves?”
Rumble leaned against Spike with a soft sigh, nuzzling him gently as he gave a slightly large yawn. “Weeeeeeell, how mad would you be if I told you I can probably only stick around for another twenty minutes?” He asked, looking up at Spike with a somewhat shameful look.
Spike tilted his head in confusion. “Wait, what happened to Thunder being out of town until tomorrow?”
“You and I both know I’m gonna find a way to screw that up.” Rumble said with a shrug. “He’s probably gonna be home at dawn, and I’ll still be here with you, oversleeping like always.”
“Well, of all the ways to go out…” Spike trailed off with a grin, wrapping an arm around Rumble’s waist. After another few nuzzles, he just rested his head on top of Rumble’s, breathing softly against his mane. “Are you sure there’s no way I can convince you to stick around longer?”
Rumble thought for a moment, bringing a hoof to his chin despite already knowing his answer. “Well, I guess there is… one w-”
Rumble found his teasing suggestion cut quickly short by Spike’s lips pressing against his own. He wrapped his arm around the colt tighter, pulling him close as he brought his other hand up to run through Rumble’s mane.
It didn’t last very long, just a few seconds at most, but as Spike pulled back he smiled with glee seeing Rumble’s brightly blushing cheeks.
“Alright, maybe I can stick around for a little while longer.” Rumble said, to which Spike responded with a soft cheer and used his hold to pull the both of them down to lay back on the bed.
After a few moments of laying there in Spike’s arms, Rumble wrapped his hooves around Spike’s waist and nestled closely to his chest. “Just remember,” he began, yawning very loudly while trying to muffle it against Spike’s scales, “Gotta leave first thing in the morning.”
“Don’t you worry. Twilight’s probably gonna wake me up that early to go over lesson plans.” He said softly, loosening his grip around Rumble to be a bit more comfortable for them both. “So does that mean it’s finally time for a nap?”
Rumble mumbled in agreement for a few seconds, sighing happily and curling deeper against his warm pillow of a boyfriend. “A nap sounds pretty great.”
“Alright, I won’t keep you then. Good night, Rumby.” Spike said with a soft smile, giving the sleepy colt a gentle kiss on the forehead. “I love you.”
“Love you too.” Rumble said with an absurdly massive yawn. “Dork.”
