Date with the Delivery Mare

Brisk didn't bother opening her eyes. She could tell by feel, and mostly by memory. She had fallen asleep, his fault, he was comfy. She was comfy. She felt safe. At peace. Brisk felt at home. Usually when she woke up, it was a list. Figure out what to do first, methods, usually there was work. She didn't to waste her time on earth, so she prioritized. Maybe she was a little neurotic about it, but that wasn't the point.

The compulsion to keep moving was quiet.

Brisk didn't feel the need to get up. She laid there, under his arms. He'd fallen asleep holding her, she wasn't sure when. She remembered him talking about microwaves. It was a long night. She'd woken up due to the sun coming up over the horizon. Morning light bounced around the car, she wasn't certain how he'd stayed asleep, since the sun was basically pointing into his face. She got to tell her Earth side pony friends that she'd slept with a human now though. That would be amusing when she got around to it.

Emanuel was pretty. Sleeping in the sunlight, she just looked over him; his features, while he wasn't actively managing them, had a sense to it. His face sagged around the edges where the ghost of a smile had slowly disappeared off his face as he slept. His eyes were pressed closed, it almost looked like he was awake, or in pain. The subtle signs of stress appearing on his face the more Brisk looked at him.

She also didn't necessarily help... Last night. She'd been a bit too forward, confused his trepidation for anxiety rather than what it actually was. Brisk still wasn't sure what exactly happened, but she backed off and he was okay and she should probably just talk with him when he woke up, rather than stressing over it without anything to do about it at the moment. Brisk took a deep breath and snuggled closer. She put her head back down and closed her eyes again. She could bask in the sun for a little bit longer.

Her mane would need to be fixed. It had the tendency to puff out for no reason.

Brisk was chugging away on the inside. She was just thinking about him, rather than her day. She'd found something else to focus on, and was deeply debating waking him up so she could talk to him. With him. Maybe at him, if he wanted. Those few hours of just talking back and forth were everything she'd every wanted in a relationship. Call it the snap response of an overtly lonely mare who had found something close enough to companionship that...

She looked over him again.

I'm going to cling to you and never let you go. Brisk felt his heartbeat. She'd probably have to work on reigning herself, rather than defaulting to excitable filly with a schoolyard crush. Mature, real, domestic connection. Real connection. She'd found genuine connection. It was baffling. She wanted it. It felt great to want something, to be okay with wanting something she actually liked.

He wasn't nice, just like she wasn't nice. They just were and-

How can you ramble in your head. Brisk hit the metaphorical breaks. Slowing her mind down from trying to piece together every tiny little emotional and contextual nuance of the past seven or so hours. She was going to enjoy this moment damnit! She had nailed a date with a person from another dimension. It ended with snuggles and long conversations into the night.

Functionally, and arguably, Brisk was The Best.

She held off chuckling to herself. Mostly because she was talking to herself and it made her seem a little crazy. Which was the wild part. She liked that. She liked being a little crazy. Emanuel liked her crazy. Maybe being crazy was the answer the whole time, and maybe she should stop calling herself crazy. Probably no good for me. Goodness she hoped he'd wake up soon.

Along side that wish came reality. Emanuel stirred gently. His face changed, and he visibly got younger as he adjusted to being awake. She was going to greet him, but watching him go from being asleep to awake, back to how he looked when she met him shook her slightly. They'd deeply connected over their inability to connect with others, and she just got flashbanged by the fact that she didn't know him, or why he felt the need to hide his face from her. It was a stark reminder that relationships take work. Not spontaneous meetings with compatible extraterrestrials, despite how helpful that was to moving things along.

Emanuel's eyes blinked open, and he cut his stretching out as he realized there was a mare laying on him. Looking at him for something she wanted to say. She wanted to make him feel like she did, extend the comfort, so to speak. Then the memories of his very short cut panic fit reminded her that he'd need time. It was a good reason to go slow, to let someone else lead. That was another first. Opening up, exhilarating. Slowing it down, grappling with the nuances as she stared at him.

"Hey."

Brisk smiled. "Hey."

Emanuel inhaled, moving Brisk up slightly as his chest extended. He blinked wearily, and continued his stretch. "So I take it... Date successful?"

Brisk let her chuckles out. The tension slipping out. "Yes."

"Locked down a second?" He ventured.

"Yes." She answered, meaning it.

He raised a sarcastic brow. "Sticking to singulars then?"

Brisk giggled, naturally, immediately enjoying his company. His sarcasm, wit. It was jus a few words Brisk. Goodness filly, calm down. She kept the giggling. "Yes." She settled on, having not focused enough on her words to come up with anything other than continuing the joke. Worth it, in her opinion.

"Ooohboy- what am I gonna do with you." He looked her over, "And your mess of a mane. Jeez, did I do that?"

Brisk levitated her beanie up and off her head. Shaking up her poofy self. "No, it just gets like this when I sleep. Every. Single. Morning." She grumbled, "I don't suppose you have a-" Brisk's rhetorical request was interrupted by Emanuel extending his shoulder sideways into the backseat and sticking his hand into the passenger seat pocket, he pulled out a wet-brush, leaned back over, and silently handed it to her. "Thanks... You just have a brush?"

"I keep a spare of essential toiletries in whatever car I'm driving around. Jamie is fine with it." He clarified, reminding Brisk that this wasn't technically his car. "There's a comb in there too, mouthwash."

Brisk telekinetically raised the brush to her mane and started working at it. Emanuel had handed it to her. She was sure he knew she might want him to brush her. He'd done more the night before. She trusted that he'd thought about it, that he'd wanted to simply let her do it herself. Another reminder to slow down. Relationships were fundamentally easy to irrevocably and permanently screw up. She didn't want to do that. She brushed her mane herself. He watched her though, filing how she did it for later. "What's next?" She asked, pressing her head against the weight of the brush and the tangles.

"Breakfast?"

Brisk snrked, "I said second date, I didn't mean right now."

He smiled and booped her on the nose. "I didn't hear a no."

"'Cause I didn't say no. Silly. Where'd we go?"

He shrugged. As well as he could from a laying position, with his arms over her. He had yet to move them, only repositioning when he reached over for the brush, and as she moved around to talk. "Dunno yet. I was just gonna drive until I found something."

Brisk internally reeled from the reality of the comment. Something she'd only thought in part a long time ago. Run away, until you find something worth staying for.

"That sounds nice."

And it was.