Evolution

Volt - Chapter 66

We ran to get back to the house, jumped up the stairs, and quietly pushed our way inside once we were there. We decided to put the flowers and Ribbon's gift in my bag, where we would keep it until we got to the festival. "I can't believe today... I started out just planning to have a nice date with Ribbon, now not only do I know I have a brother, but it's my best friend?! Today is just crazy." Cinder said, seeming to zone out for a minute. "I didn't think this much chaos in one day would be possible."

"Yeah... at least we'll still get a nice night out with them, though." I agreed, finishing carefully placing the flowers in the bag. "Do you think they're ready yet?" I asked as we slowly got up and stepped through the house.

"Well, let's find out." Cinder said, cracking the door to the spare bedroom that they'd be in the whole time. "Are you two ready yet?"

"Uhm... give us just a minute, okay?" I heard Ribbon reply, meaning we'd have to sit around even longer before we could go. We decided to look around the house a bit more while we got the chance, peeking into different rooms and looking for anything that we could pass the time with.

While we explored through the rooms, I was able to pick up on the sound of quiet sobbing. I motioned for Cinder to be quiet, and once he was he heard it as well. We found that the noise was coming from a nearby room that we hadn't checked out yet, but we figured it was one of the bedrooms.

We slowly opened the door to see what was going on inside, and we found our mother sitting inside on her bed while crying. We immediately ran to her and hugged her, asking what was wrong. "I... I've been a horrible mother, haven't I?" She muttered, moving her paws to look at us. "I lied to you, Cinder, and I abandoned you as a child, Volt... I've caused so many problems for you two because of it... You've grown into such nice boys even without me, and I don't know what I did to deserve you two when I've hurt you so much..."

"Mom..." Cinder muttered, hugging her tighter. "We all make mistakes, we both understand and still love you."

"Yeah, mom... I don't want to leave if you're going to be at home crying alone. I might have missed out on a lot of life with you, but I can promise that the years I did spend with you were the greatest of my life. I promise that you've been a good mom." I comforted her, hugging her as well.

"B-but even then, I've still done things that no parent should do. I left you to die, Volt, and I wasn't even able to find you myself afterward. How can I be a good parent after that?"

I stared into her teary eyes, feeling something I had never felt before. I didn't know how to describe it, but I felt like even though what she had said was true, I still knew that I had to forgive her. There was no way I could be mad at her after all of this. I knew she was trying her best, and I just couldn't hold it against her.

"Mom, the past is the past. I forgive you for everything that happened because we both made mistakes. I would be stupid to hold what you did against you. I love you, and I want our first moments together to be the best we've ever had." I explained, smiling into her glimmering eyes.

"You really... forgive me?" She asked, staring right back.

"Without a doubt." Both Cinder and I replied in unison.

"I... I really struck gold with you two..!" She cried, finally hugging us back. "You're the best children ever..!"

I shared a proud smile with Cinder as she hugged us, both of us knowing we did the best we could in trying to help. We hugged her back for a while until she seemed satisfied, then she let us go. "Okay, well are you two done preparing to go?" She asked, looking us over.

"I think so, we got everything we needed to be done a little while ago. Now we're just waiting on the girls." Cinder stated, looking back at me.

"Here, let me help you some. You can't just go with them how you normally look!" She said, using her paw to mess with the fur on our heads in an attempt to style it. When she was done me and Cinder were forced to hold back a laugh as we looked at each other, seeing how little it fit us. She chuckled a bit too, smiling at us. "You two do whatever fits you. Just have a good time and be back here before it gets too late, okay? I don't want to worry about the four of you all night long."

"Okay, we'll do that." We both agreed, smiling and still laughing as well left the room to meet back with Frost and Ribbon. We walked back to one of the guest bedrooms to find them waiting on us, though they both burst out laughing when they saw what had been done to our fur.

"What happened to you two?!" Frost cried, not being able to contain it.

"U-uh, don't worry about it." Cinder said, both of us ruffling our fur until it was back normal again.

"You two are seriously nutjobs." Ribbon added, both of them walking towards us. It wasn't until then that we actually got a moment to look at them, both of us being amazed by them. Frost's fur had been cleaned and looked much more soft and shiny than usual, and she had done something to her face as she looked even more beautiful than before. She had a pink bow tied around her right ear, while Ribbon had an aqua one tied around hers. I couldn't stop looking at how amazing she was, and even though my eyes tried to take in every bit of her I just knew there was no way I'd be able to.

"You're embarrassing me, Jolty..." Frost whispered with a giggle as she approached me. "...but how do I look?"

"Amazing." I simply replied, nuzzling her cheek.

"Aww... Volt, you're so sweet..." She murmured, hugging me. "You look really cute as well. I always get nervous when guys look at me like that, but... I kinda like it when you do..."

I blushed a bit and smiled at her, realizing that by the end of the night I would ask her out. I was nervous, but I pushed it out of my mind for the time being. For now, my only goal was to make sure she had the best time possible at the festival. "So, ready to go?" I asked, extending a paw to her.

"Absolutely, let's get going!" She agreed as I grabbed my bag, all four of us stepping out the door. We walked through the paths of the town until we reached the path we'd taken before, where all of us began the trek back together. "So, are you excited about this?" I asked Frost as we went.

"Mhm, I can't wait!" She exclaimed, nodding her head. "This is going to be a lot of fun! We never got to do things like this at home!"

"Yeah, I think this is going to be one of the better things we've done since we met. Just a night away from all the stress of this fighting and preparing, a night where we can finally just be normal teenagers. It should be great." Ribbon added, looking towards Frost.

"I'm sure we'll all have lots of fun." Cinder stated, still focusing on the path ahead. "We need to get going, though, or else we won't get there in time. Would you all be okay with taking a run?"

"Aww, don't make us run! I don't want to get my clean fur all dirty with dust!" Ribbon cried, Frost agreeing. "You don't understand how long it took us to get our fur like this!"

"I will never understand how all of that works." I joked, shaking my head. "I swam in a pond to clean up, not doing of all... whatever you two did."

"Well, are you really going to complain? We did it all for you, after all." Frost murmured, blushing a little bit. "You like it, right?"

"Of course, I'd like you no matter what," I replied, loosely hugging her as we walked. "You're pretty even without trying," I added, blushing a bit as I said it.

She smiled but blushed as well, hugging me back. "Aww, thank you, that's really sweet. You always make me feel so good about myself~"

"You should feel good about yourself. You deserve it," I added, smiling as I looked at her. "You're a really nice girl. Just remember that I'll always care about you."

She quickly looked away, but I could tell her face was deep red. "Aww, stop it... You're embarrassing me so much, Jolty..." I chuckled a bit, letting go of her. "We can't be too far by now, right?" She asked Cinder.

He nodded, still calming walking down the trail while he chatted with Ribbon. "Shouldn't be too long now. We've been here for a while, after all." We Walked for a bit longer until we saw a clearing, which revealed itself to be the small town we'd visited before. Now it was strung with streamers and paper flowers decorating the town, making it look magical.

"Wow, this looks awesome..." Ribbon commenting, looking around. "I can't believe this."

"Yeah, it's really cool." Frost agreed.

Even while they talked, though, only one thing was on my mind. This was it. It was my time to tell her.