Catch & Release

by Closer-To-The-Sun

Rating: everyone
Tags: Anthro, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Yona, Young Six, Romance, Comedy, Sandbar, Slice of Life
Length: 3737

Sometimes, the perfect pillow is a close friend.

“Come and see,/How the wind in your hair will feel differently,/Catch and release,/The lure above.” -Silversun Pickups, ‘Catch & Release’

After a long week, Yona is exhausted and just wants a quick nap before dinner. However, in her sleep, the yak has made herself comfortable against Sandbar, who is unsure of what exactly to do in this situation.

Cover art commissioned from LateCustomer.
Pre-read and edited by a friend who wishes to remain anonymous.

Published 2024-03-25 20:30:01 UTC
Last updated 2024-03-25 20:30:01 UTC

Catch & Release

In the common room of the dormitories, a green pony was sitting on the couch. In his hands was the latest Power Ponies comic that he had just gotten. It was finally Friday, he had finished all of his homework, and Sandbar had all the time in Equestria to just relax.

A towering figure entered from the doorway, having to duck a little to make sure her horns won’t accidentally brush the frame. It was the yak that he knew very well. She looked a bit different than how her classmates normally recognize her. First, her hair was not braided and into the two loops that was her trademarked style. Instead, her hair cascaded down from her head and reaching down to her waist. Additionally, her clothing was far more casual than expected of her. Around her torso was a physical education shirt that appeared to be maybe a size smaller than what was needed, and on her bottom were a pair of black short shorts that Sandbar had never seen the yak wear before. And to top it all off, the yak looked absolutely exhausted.

“Oh, hey there, Yona,” Sandbar greeted his friend, “Are you alright?”

“Yona tired,” she answered as she made her way toward Sandbar. “Yona just finished cheerleading practice and it exhausting.”

“I believe it. Professor Rainbow Dash can be a bit of a drill sergeant,” Sandbar said. He scooted to the left end of the couch, “Come on, take a load off and sit for a bit.”

It was obvious that Yona was a fan of this idea, as she took a seat on the opposite end of the couch from Sandbar. She lounged back on the couch as she let out a sigh with her eyes closed.

“Did you get all your homework done for Professor Rarity’s class?” the pony asked to his friend.

The yak didn’t want to think about anything, “Yona not want to worry about that right now. Yona just want to rest until dinner.”

Sandbar smirked a little, “I get that. Go ahead and take a nap, Yona, I’ll make sure you’re up when it’s time for dinner.”

A small smile appeared on Yona’s face, “Thank you, friend Sandbar.”

A few minutes of silence passed between the two friends. During this time, Yona’s body started to lean to her left. Sandbar didn’t notice this until he felt something resting against his right shoulder blade. He turned his head to see Yona was leaning against him. He let out a quick yelp in surprise.

“Uh….Yona?” Sandbar spoke, trying to get her attention.

There was no response from Yona. Upon closer inspection, it appeared she was still asleep.

Sandbar started thinking to himself, ‘Well, I guess this is okay. She is tired and all.’ He then blushed as he continued his thoughts, ‘Besides, I don’t exactly hate this.’

While he tried to continue reading his comic, Sandbar kept being distracted by the resting yak next to him. Yona’s long hair was brushing against parts of his right arm, almost playfully tickling him. He had never seen her hair out of their braids before. It surprised him how flowy and wavy it was. In fact, he thought it was a very adorable look for her.

Yona’s head was resting against his shoulder. She seemed comfortable with her new makeshift pillow. It took a moment for Sandbar to realize exactly which other parts of Yona were pushing against him: parts of her torso and chest. At this realization, Sandbar’s face became extremely flushed in his face.

Wiggling his shoulder a little, Sandbar tried to gently wake the yak again, “Y-Yona….?”

The moving of his shoulder caused Yona to slide from her shoulder-pillow. Yona’s head slid down Sandbar’s arm, causing her to land square in his seated lap. The sudden movement caused the pony to throw his comic out of his hands in surprise.

Quickly, Sandbar tried to wake Yona again, “Uh….wakey-wakey, Yona….” He even moved his leg a bit to help wake her.

Yona didn’t wake. She did, however, adjust her position on Sandbar’s lap. The yak turned her body to lie on her stomach and moved her left arm to support her head as a pillow, which was still on top of the pony. Her left leg hung over the opposite end of the couch while both her right leg and left arm draped off of the couch and to the floor, along with a large portion of her hair. Despite all the repositioning she had done for comfort, Yona was still sound asleep.

As for Sandbar, he still had his arms raised up in a worried panic. He was blushing fiercely as he looked at the sleep yak that lay in his lap. He was frozen and unsure of what to do. And it wasn’t the only thing Sandbar was worried about. For the last year, he and Yona had been spending quite a bit of time together. As he described to his friends a couple of times, both he and Yona had been unofficially officially together, or officially unofficially together (he forgot which one he personally used to describe it). But while both Sandbar and Yona might be a couple, Sandbar was unsure what would be okay. They never did have a discussion about their relationship, especially since it just sort of happened. So now, this was the first time anything like this had happened between them, and Sandbar was panicking about what to do and what was okay.

He looked at Yona sleeping on top of him, from horn to hoof. He noticed that even if he wasn’t Yona’s makeshift support for sleeping, she still wouldn’t have much room to lie down on the couch in this fashion. The yak had a calm and steady breathing, with her body raising with each breath.

Still looking, taking note of Yona and her position, Sandbar noticed that her horns were right in front of him. He never did get to seem them up close before. They had two shades of gray to them and were filed down to a dull point. If he were to get poked by one of them, he believed he would be okay (though he still wouldn’t want to be jabbed by one). Upon looking at them, Sandbar thought for a moment about the anatomy of horns and how it's actually bone from Yona. As he continued to examine, he believed it to be smooth to the touch. Lowering one of his hands, he went a little closer to one of the horns. However, he stopped short of making contact, feeling bashful at the thought of touching the horn and retreating his hand.

One of Sandbar’s hands lowered toward the flowing hair that came from the top of Yona’s head. It was something he had never seen from her. Normally, Yona’s hair was carefully and neatly put into braids that were looped back up and secured with ribbons. It was the only style Sandbar had ever seen from her (outside the first time they met, when the braids reached downward to around her waist). But now, the hair cascaded from the top of her head and spilled all around as she laid down upon Sandbar’s lap.

Carefully, Sandbar used his left hand to move some of Yona’s hair away from the front of her face. He then placed his left hand on a pillow of hair. He felt bashful in doing so, but the pony was surprised with what he was greeted with. It was soft to the touch, almost plush. The texture was lush and tousled, and even fluffy. Any creature could tell that Yona put great effort into caring for her hair.

He then looked elsewhere on the sleep yak’s body, he then took notice of Yona’s small tuft tail. It stuck out between the gap between the top of her shorts and the bottom of her shirt. The brown tail shaked a little every so often as she slept. Sandbar thought it looked cute, even jokingly thinking she might be a dog the way it wags.

‘Hmm….I wonder what she’s dreaming of,’ the pony quietly thought to himself.

Sandbar’s gaze traveled back up Yona’s body, looking at her back. It was still steadily and peacefully rising and lowering with her breathing. For a moment, Sandbar thought maybe he could rest his right hand on Yona’s back, thinking maybe that would be okay given their relationship. After all, Yona was known to give hugs to all her friends. Backbreaking hugs, but still hugs.

However, thinking about that, Sandbar quickly pieced together the idea that the front of Yona’s body was now pressed up against both the couch and his body. His face turned a deep red at the thought of what body part of Yona was touching him. To say he was flustered would have been an understatement.

‘Think about something else, think about something else!’ Sandbar repeatedly thought to himself as he raised his hands back up, trying to get his mind off the awkward thought.

The pony got his wish as he caught a whiff of something. He sniffed around a bit before he realized what it was: the aroma was coming from Yona herself. It took a few more sniffs for him to pinpoint it, but Sandbar noticed that the yak had a scent of lavender coming off from her. Yona had showered and refreshed herself after her cheerleading practice, and the hair product she must have used was lavender based. It relaxed the pony and even brought a small smile to his flushed face.

Finally giving in, Sandbar placed his right hand upon Yona’s back. He figured since it should be okay, especially since he couldn’t keep his hands up the whole time she rested upon his lap. He gently placed it on Yona’s lower back, not too far from her tail. Almost immediately breaking the stillness of the entire atmosphere in the common room, a mumble came from Yona. Her voice was both soft and sweet and she mumbled in content, “Sandbar….”

Despite his cheeks burning and feeling absolutely embarrassed, Sandbar smiled. It was at this moment, Sandbar accepted his fate. “If this is how I die, then so be it,” the pony quietly said to himself.

Not even a minute passed until another figure appeared at the door. It was their friend Ocellus. The blue changeling was entering, with her nose in a book. “Oh, hey there, Sandbar,” she said, quickly glancing at him for a moment before looking back down at the page, “do you happen to have a copy of that book we’re supposed to read for Professor Applejack’s literature class? Silverstream still has m-” she cut off her sentence as when she looked up again and noticed Yona lying down the couch, with her head in Sandbar’s lap.

Ocellus’ face quickly turned bright red in panic. Shielding her face with her book, she ran back to the door in embarrassment, “Ahhh! I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to intrude on anything!”

“Wait, Ocellus! It’s not what you think!”

It was too late as Ocellus was already out the door. Sandbar’s face was blushing even more compared to before. A million thoughts went through the pony’s head, trying to think of what Ocellus might have thought she saw. He shook his head, trying to not dwell too much on it. Instead, he turned his gaze back down to Yona to see if she had woken up. However, Yona was still blissfully napping.

Closing his eyes too, Sandbar figured he could get a little shut eye too. Another mumbling sound came from Yona as she slept. This time, it wasn’t coherent words that Sandbar could understand, but she still seemed very peaceful and content.

After a moment, another sound was audible. However, Sandbar took note that it wasn’t the resting yak. He opened his eyes to see that a dragon and a hippogriff were standing not too far from the two on the couch. Both of them seemed to be snickering quietly to themselves while the dragon had their phone out.

“Wha?! Silverstream? Smolder? How long have you to been here?”

Smolder answered first, “We got here like a minute ago.” She continued to snap photos of both Sandbar and Yona.

“You two are just so adorable!” Silverstream commented, squishing her face with her talons in a cute expression. “Did she just fall asleep like that?”

“Well, kinda….” Sandbar explained, “She sorta just leaned on me and then fell onto m-, would you stop taking photos Smolder?!” The pony asked the dragon holding her phone.

Snickering, Smolder refused, “Nah, this is just too funny. And I can use this as leverage against you later.”

Sandbar narrowed his eyes toward Smolder, “I don’t like that sound of that.”

Smolder stopped taking photos and started fiddling with her phone for a bit. “Yeah, don’t worry about it.” She finished typing on her phone and then put it away in her pants pocket.

Silverstream spoke up, “I knew Yona was tired after cheerleading practice, but I didn’t think she was that wiped out.”

“What do you expect from Professor Rainbow Dash?” Smolder shrugged.

“I expect her to know that all of us aren’t tireless robots,” Sandbar stated.

“Well, that ain’t happening,” Smolder said, “Anyway, Silverstream and I were gonna hang out in here until dinner, but since you and the napping princess are in here, we don’t want to intrude on your private time.” She gave another snicker at Sandbar’s expense.

Sandbar blushed at the statement, “It’s nothing like that!”

“Sure,” Smolder smirked.

“But you both are just so cute together!” the hippogriff gushed.

“Not helping, Silverstream!”

Both Smolder and Silverstream snickered a little more before leaving the common room. As they left, Sandbar let out a big sigh of relief.

If he wasn’t already tired, the last two visits from his friends certainly made him more exhausted. He looked back down toward Yona. She was still seemingly resting peacefully, completely unaware of anything that had transpired.

Sandbar was pleased about that, at least. Yona seemed to still be sleeping peacefully. He wasn’t sure exactly how much Yona had going on on her end, but he knew that she probably could use the nap. He gently started to rub Yona’s back where his hand was resting. He might have imagined it, but Sandbar thought he heard a happy sigh from the yak.

To his own surprise, Sandbar spoke softly, “Hey, Yona. I know you’re asleep right now, but I just want to say I hope you’re resting well. You looked absolutely wiped out when you came in earlier. With all your homework, studying for finals, and cheerleading, you really do it all, don’t ya?” Sandbar had a small smile on his face as he spoke, “But just remember that I’m always happy to spend time with you. Even if it’s just something like this.”

Yona didn’t react to his words. To be fair, Sandbar wasn’t expecting any sort of response.

The pony’s words and expression dropped a bit as he spoke again, “Honestly, I don’t know how you do it, Yona. You’re just so amazing, you know that? You’re in the top three of our class in all subjects, you're on the cheerleading squad, unbelievably strong, always so positive, and just a living legend on campus. I don’t know what I did, but I’m lucky to call you my friend, Yona. And I will always be, no matter what.” Sandbar became a little flustered as he paused and added, “And maybe…I hope, one day, maybe….we’re able to be….more….”

Yona still didn’t respond to Sandbar’s words. It was probably the best for the pony, as he would die from embarrassment. However, as she still slept, Sandbar did seem happy with what he said to the sleeping Yona. Maybe one day he would be able to say what he just did to an awake Yona, but not any time soon. Carefully, he moved a few strands of Yona’s hair from her sleeping face again. He might have imagined it, but Sandbar thought he saw Yona give a small smile as a thank you.

Taking a deep breath and finding some courage within him, Sandbar softly spoke from his heart, “No matter what happens, I promise I will always be there for you, Yona. To protect you, to support you, to….to lo-“

Sandbar cut himself off the second he heard a noise coming from the hallway. Not a moment later, a blue griffon appeared in the doorway. He looked like he was about to enter, however he stopped when he noticed the pony.

“G-Gallus!” Sandbar quickly said in a flustered panic, “I swear, this is not what it looks like!”

The griffon stood in the doorway, looking at both his pony and yak friends on the couch. He carefully assessed the situation before him. After what felt like an eternity for Sandbar, Gallus simply replied, “I believe you.”

With a sigh of relief, Sandbar asked, “What are you doing here?”

“Well, I was looking for you so we could go meet up with the girls for dinner, but now I’m more interested in what happened here,” Gallus ventured further into the common room toward his friends. He took a seat at a nearby couch.

”She just fell asleep and slid down into my lap,” Sandbar explained, “is that so hard to believe?”

Gallus raised his talons up, a bit taken back, “Hey, I never said anything.”

”Sorry, Smolder and Silverstream came in earlier and were teasing me over this,” Sandbar said as he looked down at the resting Yona for a moment. She remained undisturbed.

“You should have told them to just buzz off. Especially since Yona is trying to catch some z’s.”

”Don’t you think I tried that?”

With a shrug, Gallus continued, “Then I don’t know what to tell ya. I mean, it’s not like the two of you aren’t already an item.”

“Are we really?” Sandbar asked.

”I dunno, are you? Cause the two of you have been inseparable for a while,” Gallus said. He wasn’t wrong either, as the two had several of what their friends called ‘dates’ at least one a week for a few months.

Sandbar had a bit of a sour expression as watched the sleeping yak. “I guess. I don’t really know, we’ve never really talked about any of that stuff. We just like hanging out together.”

”Don’t worry, you’ll figure it out soon enough. Being in a romantic relationship doesn’t have to start with some giant gesture or whatever. Sometimes things can just be taken nice and slow,” Gallus mused. “But then again, what I do I know, I’m dating a hippogriff that filled our dorm with glitter-filled balloons to ask me out.”

A snicker escaped from Sandbar, “Ah, yes. How could I forget about G-Day. I still don’t think we didn’t get all of the glitter out of the carpet.”

”Probably not,” Gallus quipped. After a short pause, he spoke again, “Hey, I just thought of something: does this count as sleeping with some creature before marriage?”

A red tint covered Sandbar’s face at the question. He knew his friend was just toying with him, but it didn’t help. “Uh….well,” Sandbar tried to speak calmly, “I did have a small nap myself.”

With a wicked smirk, Gallus stood up, “So I guess that’s a yes. How scandalous. What’s next, holding hands? You sick freak.”

Sandbar rolled his eyes at the griffon.

“Well, when you’re done with your intimate moment with your beloved yak, you and Yona should meet up with the rest of us in the mess hall,” Gallus started to make his way toward, “We’ll save you both a seat.”

“Thanks, Gallus.”

Passing through the doorway, Gallus gave a wave with his arm. This left the pony and yak alone yet again in the common room.

A few moments, there was a little movement from the sleeping yak. Sandbar felt a little worried that he did something to cause it. A little sound came from Yona, as she opened her eyes and finally woke up.

Yona carefully turned her body away from Sandbar until she was lying on her back, her gaze looking up at the pony that was giving her a lap pillow. The yak seemed happy to be resting her head against the Sandbar’s leg.

“Morning, Yona,” Sandbar looked down.

“Hello, friend Sandbar,” Yona smiled up at the pony. She used her left arm to rub her eyes. “How long was Yona sleeping?”

Sandbar glanced quickly at the clock on the far wall, “Not long. Only about an hour and a half.”

“Really? Yona was so comfortable that it felt longer,” the yak commented. She gave a sheepish smile as she apologized, “Sorry for using friend Sandbar as pillow.”

“Think nothing of it, Yona,” Sandbar said, “It looked like you needed the rest.”

The moment between the two was interrupted by a soft growl that came from Sandbar’s stomach. Both of them were surprised by the sudden sound.

Sandbar was a bit embarrassed, “Oh, sorry about that. I guess it is around dinner time.”

“Yona also could eat dinner,” Yona gave a small smile and laugh. She sat up on the couch and then stood up, allowing for Sandbar to stand up as well.

Sandbar’s legs were tingling a little now that Yona was no longer resting on him.

As the pony was still getting his bearings, Yona took her phone out from her pocket to check it. She saw that she had gotten a text. Smolder had sent her an image. The picture was of Yona blissfully resting on Sandbar’s lap, with the pony blushing and appearing flustered. A caption was also sent with the image:

“You two really are a sickenly sweet pair.”

A smile appeared on Yona’s face as she looked at her phone. She tapped on her phone for a bit. Yona then locked her phone and checked the lock screen. The screen showed the very photo that Smolder had sent her, with both a panicky Sandbar and a sleepy Yona.

Sandbar noticed the happy mood, “What are you smiling about?”

”Nothing,” Yona insisted, the smile remaining on her face. She put away her phone and took Sandbar’s hand in hers, “Shall Yona and friend Sandbar head to dinner?”

END