between you and me, and her
"This is so cliché," Gallus said, wings beating against the silence of the empty corridor.
"You're welcome to at any leave any time," Ocellus mused, continuing her pace towards the library.
Gallus rolled his eyes—they both knew he wasn't going anywhere if it wasn't with her—and he couldn't sleep regardless, so breaking into the library at half past midnight beat tossing and turning in a bunk bed.
"So I can miss you crash and burn at your first break-in? Please. You cant get rid of me that easily."
He continued to flap behind her and as she walked on hoof, looking up at the large fuschia doors.
The changeling turned and grinned. "Who said this was my first break-in?"
Gallus beamed.
The griffon landed on the cold stone floor as he thought of the irony—breaking into the place he actively despised—and extended his arm, pulling on the handle.
Locked. Obviously.
Before he could make a quip, he quickly realized Ocellus seemed to have vanished from his sight entirely, turning to no one.
"Cel?"
The tiniest squeak came from the space next to his talon. Ocellus had shrunk herself down to the size of a breezy. She waved.
He cocked a brow. "I know you're working through the whole size kink thing you accidentally uncovered in your Intersectionality and Sexuality study, but... "
Even from so high above her, Gallus received a tidal wave of sass as Ocellus rolled her eyes. "I would so shapeshift into Grandpa Gruff and say something traumatizing to you right now, if I was a worse person."
He snorted at that—not because he didn't believe her, but because he did—and made sure to let some of his gratitude for her flow freely within him. So she could feel it, hold it in her chest, and remember that she was kind of his best friend, even if it hadn't felt like it lately.
(He didn't need to remind her, even subconsciously. Ocellus knew. Ocellus knew everything about him, always—his love tasted like a pot of something home cooked and nostalgic. She felt lucky to taste so much of it so often.)
She then began to slink beneath the door and open it from the inside.
Finally, one of the doors flung open, and the changeling was engulfed in fire as she assumed her natural form.
Gallus couldn't help but smile. "Nice work. If I didn't know any better, I'd say you're getting pretty good at being bad."
She shrugged. "I learned from the most crooked griffon I know."
He followed her lead into the library, despite not entirely knowing what they were doing here. All he knew was that neither of them could sleep, and their late night walk had led them here.
Ocellus seemed to be on a mission, marching through the aisles with a purpose.
Gallus flopped down on a bean bag chair and messed with his feathers as he idly watched her sort through book after book.
His mind drifted to working on homework with Smolder just the day before, the dragon falling asleep on her textbook and snoring, leaving the edges of her pages singed and smoky, a little drool spilling down her chin.
It was kinda gross. He probably could've stared at her forever, heart beating out of his chest.
Eventually, Silverstream came up to him and broke him out of his daze. But obviously he couldn't make it seem like he was doing anything other than messing with her, so they took turns tickling her snout until she sneezed so hard she not only woke herself up, but took out the entirety of the table they were seated at.
This led to an intense game of chase, which ended with Gallus pinned to the ground, trying really hard not to smile at Smolder's rough housing. It was hard when her eyes were so vibrant and full of fire.
He had probably been grinning like a maniac, retrospectively. Smolder made it really hard not to smile all the time, even when she was threatening to end your entire bloodline.
Gallus swallowed thickly as he pulled himself back to reality, remembering who he was here with, and how his feelings must've permeated from him.
He was aware that emotions were much more tangible to changelings. Ocellus could probably see the force of his crush peeling off of him like a fresh molt.
"You can relax," Ocellus assured. "We both know I know."
Gallus didn't even wince, because she was right. He did know she knew.
"Yeah but it's..."
He trailed off, but didn't take his eyes off of the insectoid.
She hummed in agreement, despite his incomplete sentence. The elephant in the room could wait a little longer.
The changeling shuffled her hooves as she finally pulled out the book she was looking for.
Gallus scooted over and made room for her, swishing his tail to the side as she settled in, and then flinging it over her chitin.
Between them laid a poetry book that he vaguely recognized.
"Oh, this'll put me to sleep for sure, great thinking Cel."
Gallus smirked as she shoved him so hard that he nearly fell off the beanbag chair.
It was funny, especially when he remembered that three years ago she wouldn't have been comfortable enough to do that.
He put on a pout and rubbed his arm as he cuddled up next to her.
"Drama queen," she muttered, a smile gracing her face as she flipped through the pages.
"What're you looking for?"
She hummed in reply again pressing her side against him.
Her eyes never left the page, but she could feel his stare, and see his features shift in the corner of her eye. He was warm, with both comfort and nerves, feathers grazing her coat.
Gallus studied Ocellus as she meticulously scoured the pages for what seemed to be one specific poem.
"I'm sorry," he said, finally deciding to take the leap of faith. "For avoiding you, I mean."
Ocellus paused. She waited.
Gallus ruffled his feathers and cleared his throat. "I just wanted to prepare myself for the inevitable, you know?"
She exhaled and went back to flipping. "What's the inevitable?"
Gallus scratched the side of his face, trying to mask his nerves. "You hating me for being in love with the same girl as you," he chuckled nervously. "After you confided in me."
One of her elytra twitched.
Ocellus wasn't one to lie, especially not to him. She had noticed it build and brew. It stung.
What stung even worse were the flecks of guilt resentment that threw off the taste of his love whenever he saw her and Smolder together. It was painfully sour, then thick and bitter. Like pouring tar into gumbo.
She shook her head. "I could never hate you."
He shook his back. "Correction," he said, making eye contact now. "You would never tell me you hate me. But you could. And probably do."
Ocellus turned to him. "Don't tell me how I feel," she started, holding her hoof up to keep him from interrupting. "I don't hate you. It's not like you betrayed me."
He raised his brow as she continued. "You didn't betray me. I've never seen anycreature work so hard at not feeling their feelings."
Gallus, like every other creature at this school, had gone through an intense two day camp that boiled down to trying to undo emotionally repressive habits. The lessons stuck better for Ocellus than him, clearly.
"You shouldn't have to carry that on your shoulders, you know," Ocellus remarked. "What, with you being as scrawny as you are."
Gallus shoved the changeling this time, smiling in spite of himself. "You're both weaker and shorter than me."
She took that as an opportunity to transform herself slightly, growing bulkier and a few inches taller than Gallus.
He looked up at her and frowned. He hated it when she did that. She smiled.
"My point is that you could've came to me," she said, steering the conversation back. "Because I could feel it. And that hurt way more, knowing that you thought I wouldn't be able to understand. Or that I would be so bitter that our friendship became irreconcilable."
Gallus sat quietly and played with his talons, hanging his head.
Ocellus lifted her hoof to his chin and forced him to look at her. "If you could control it, you would," she said. "I'm sure you'd control everything, if you could."
Reflexively, the griffon leaned into her touch. He tried to suppress the urge to purr, but his body betrayed him. He just felt so safe.
"This sucks," Gallus muttered.
"It's not gonna be easy all of the time," Ocellus breathed, thinking of Smolder's laugh and sharp scales and habit of pressing her forehead against her own as a substitute for hugging. "But you're not gonna lose me. We're not gonna stop being friends because of something like this. That'd be too easy."
"Oh yeah, because this is so easy," Gallus snorted, moving to place his head in the crook of her neck. "You realize that you just rejected a free out, right? You just committed to being my friend forever? You're stuck with me."
"There are worse fates to be cursed with."
They sat in silence for a few moments.
She went back to looking at the book. "Seriously, what are you looking for?"
She flipped the next page and her elytra buzzed in glee. It tickled Gallus' side.
"This," she smiled.
It was a poem in old Ponish, and he had to squint to try to make it out.
"Uh..."
"Ignore the poetry—read in the margins."
That's when it clicked. Scribbled in between the actual work, were words and doodles that he and Ocellus had made years ago. It was how she'd encourage him to study for their Equestrian Literature and The Global Canon final a while back. If he could get through it, he'd get her jokes and commentary as a reward, and she could always ask about his day.
He'd kind of forgotten about it.
"Woah."
"I care about you. I'm always gonna care about you. I wanna hear about classes and comics and buckball. Nothing's gonna change that."
He had missed walking Ocellus to class, napping while she read in his dorm, and playing shape shift charades.
"I missed you too," she said. A wave of homesickness radiated off him, but he didn't yearn for a place. Just for comfort.
"No matter what, I'm here," he said. "Uh. If you want to talk, or anything. Goes both ways."
Ocellus just hummed and placed her head on top of his.
"Did you ever think about how if we were anyone else, somebody would think we snuck in here to make out?"
A laugh rumbled through him. "Yeah, actually. I did. You're not my type though."
She smiled.
Author's Note
i haven't written about these guys in years but when the special interest rears its head...ya gotta whip something out, yk? anyway, easily my favorite duo, and i wish more people wrote about them