Icing On The Cake

What do I say to that?

Five hundred different scenarios raced through my mind.

'Why wouldn't I be?' Noo... That one ended badly.

'Of course I wasn't!' Lying never did anyone any good.

I sat there, completely wide-eyed.

"Well?" He pressured, not making me feel any better.

Okay, I told myself I wasn't falling in love with him.

The more I told myself that, however, the less it happened, and the more it sounded like denying it.

"What?" My small voice echoed, shakier than I wanted it to be.

"Were you flirting with me?" He leaned across the table with a devilish grin painted across his face, his eyes full of...

Awesome...

Green...

Stuff.

All my logical thought processes stopped. Right in that moment. My brain went absolutely numb, I felt really stupid. I didn't care though. Time almost froze, or sped up. I couldn't tell which, all I could focus on was him.

Finally, after a long time, he giggled. Laughed, even.

My eyes went big with offense.

"Why are you laughing??" My tone wasn't quite so cheery.

He turned red, but leaned in close and whispered, in possibly the most endearing tone I've ever heard come out of someone, "Your eyes tell it all."

I froze as he backed away and giggled.

"What just happened?"

He smirked, grabbed his spoon again, and dipped it into his ice cream.

"I know your secret."

What was he talking about? I had no secrets, obviously. "I don't even know enough about myself to HAVE secrets." He grinned as he ate his ice cream.

"Hah! Honey buns, you like me, and you can't even lie!" He poked my nose with his spoon, to further his point.

"What- No-"

He smirked. "Yeah you do."

"No, I don't- why would I-"

He dipped for more ice cream casually. "Because you think I'm highly attractive in every way possible?"

Why in the world was this coming so naturally to him? This was not the awkward nerd I had met only a day ago.

And no, he was not attractive.

I scoffed. "Excuse me?? You aren't-"

"Shh, honey buns. You don't need to deny it."

"Honey buns? Excuse me?"

"Well, why not? You like me, I like-" His face froze, he just said something he probably wished he didn't.

He...

Likes...

Me...

As in, more than a friend.

My broken brain didn't know what to do with this information.

"So you pretty much insult me for liking you, then you admit doing it yourself??"

He was quick to correct himself. "I wasn't insulting you-"

"You could have TOLD me, and then not seemed so hypocritical, and maybe possibly I would actually think about you as a better colt-"

"Excuse me?" Both of us had unexpectedly gone into yelling tones, or something quite like it.

The manager of the store came up to us. "Excuse me, could you two please take this somewhere else? You're making a scene, and I do not want it at my shop."

We both looked at each other.

"Yes, yes we can. At least I'm telling you." I shot a glare at Carrot.

"Thank you." The manager left our awkward scene as quickly as possible.

We started walking, soon out of town, towards the countryside.

"Maybe if you didn't ever try deceiving me for your own personal pleasure-"

"Well I'M sorry, honey buns for trying to get a joke out of something-"

"It wasn't a very funny joke, if you even call THAT a joke! It was cynical, rude-"

"Cynical? Oh ho ho, now I'm CYNICAL?"

"If you think something like that is funny, yes!"

"And rude, don't even get me started on rude! Honestly, at least I'm not the judgmental one of us!"

"Excuse me!? Try forgetting everything you've ever known about everyone, and try NOT being a little judgmental."

Carrot looked out into the setting horizon and yelled in frustration.

It kind of scared me, but I was so filled with emotion right then, I didn't even care.

"Listen here, Cup, I've known you since before both of us were born practically. We've grown up together, laughed together, gotten our cutie marks together, and you've been my closest friend since, forever. You've always been there for me, and I've always been there for you. Through thick and thin, even when Fanny wasn't there. Like that one time that tree blocked your path in the Everfree forest, and I stayed with you even when Fanny went to go find help, and ended up being away for hours because his mother scolded him for being in there? Just like then. And we were stuck in there, and you were crying, and I held your hoof through the hole in the trunk, even though it left scratches on my hoof that are still there to this day? Yeah, that day. I looked into your pretty pink eyes, and I tried comforting you to the best of my ability." He was crying now for some reason. My angry emotions left me ages ago, all I felt for this colt was mainly a bit of pity.

I hugged him, I didn't know what else to do. I just... Wrapped my forelegs around him. First, he was surprised, but then he sooner or later got so comfortable with it, he completed it by wrapping his forelegs around me. He was surprisingly strong, more so than his lanky figure showed.

I bet we looked rather awkward, a round, short, mare hugging this lanky, tall stallion. I didn't even care what we looked like. Being in his arms was enough comfort and safety to last a lifetime.

"Hey Cup?" He finally broke up our hug and let go, no matter how much I wanted to hold on.

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry."

Oh man, I hated this rush of my emotions, but this time I let them all spill out. "I'm sorry too, I'm sorry I called you cynical, and rude, you know I actually don't feel that way about you, and okay, maybe you're slightly a little bit attractive, and I was just thinking-"

Instead of feeling the cool summer's night on my lips, it was something warmer, wetter, softer... I opened my eyes for a second, and his face was remarkably closer to mine... Then closed my eyes, it was nice, comforting...

I didn't want to leave this, I didn't know much, but I knew I wanted this. Forever, as long as that lasted.