The note.
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Rain,
I have to be honest with you.
You've been pissing me off. But not in the way you usually do.
I've tried to move on a hundred times over. But I can't. So just to give myself some peace of mind, I'll do the one thing I know I can't fail at: Telling the truth.
And if I can't say it, I'll write it.
I know this isn't really our sort of thing, but it's worth a try, and I'm ready.
Will you let me take you on a date to Everfree?
Love,
AJ
(Ps. Yes, that kind of date. I'll bring cider ♡ ˙ᵕ˙)
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Rain read it once. And then again. Thrice.
Rain read the note until she could practically recite it like some ritualistic, ceremonial speech.
And yet with each read, the words made less sense.
Initially, the page within her grasp sang a familiar, candied flitter into her chest, as if Dashie could augment and soar atop it across the globe at AJ's side. But soon thereafter, the contradictions of her current circumstance weighed down on the paper like an assemblage of rocks.
As the athlete's heart accelerated from an unpretentious melody to an anarchic drum, the characters collapsed and jumbled with its rapid rhythm until there existed no more itinerary; until the phraseology was no longer coherent, but reduced only to an optic screening of her incredulity.
"But AJ told me..." Rain croaked through her disorientation.
"Ah told you what?" AJ sounded intimidated. Angry? Dashie couldn't tell. "What is that?" she tested.
The brunette endured her own frigidity, remaining still as she continued to study the note. Then, reluctantly, she turned to view AJ's confounded expression. The cowgirl's emerald orbs flickered with an evident perceived perfidy, sparking above her eye-bags (which were swollen from a much-anticipated hangover). Rain had never seen someone this taxed become so quickly enlivened with revelation. She couldn't tell whether AJ was about to pass out or scream. She held up the note to face the blonde before her, shielding her own visage behind its snow.
AJ inhaled through a half-shaky breath, and delivered a drawn out sigh, blinking slowly with apprehension.
"Ya snooped through my bag?" AJ reproached coldly. Rain began lowering her hands, but in seconds, the cowgirl had covered the space between them and seized the wrinkly sheet from her grasp before bending down to retrieve her knapsack, gracelessly shoving the paper inside.
"I didn't!" countered Rain, "I didn't go in your bag. But are we just not gonna talk about--"
"Don't lie to me Dash!" the blonde interrupted. Hurt glazed her eyes as she glared daggers into the shorter lass. Rainbow retreated a single pace, jarred by AJ's aversiveness. Her face twisted in frustration, mirroring the pique in her friend's viridescent blaze. She held her ground as she repeated, "I did not."
Rain couldn't do this all over again: contest against the farmer over some conversational fallacy. "The note fell out. I didn't want to read it but..." She hated fighting with AJ, and she could see it in her eyes that AJ hated it, too. She abhorred the idea of doing what she was about to do, but for the sake of their friendship, she was willing to risk anything.
The athlete's lip quivered. "I-I just..." She watched AJ's tension allay marginally as she wrestled against her own trammel. Rain breathed a trembling sigh, releasing the air of emotion before uttering three terrifying words:
"I like you."
She could practically see the blonde's vexation seep away and singe out through the window at the statement, as though Rain's vulnerability was the water to her fury's lapping flames. But it could not dapple forth in a mere droplet, so Dashie's words began to flush out in a tempest of rain:
"That's why I wanted you to come to my game so bad; why I always want to be around you, and why I've been acting so fucking...weird all the time. It's why I read the note."--AJ's lips formed a small 'o' and her eyes widened, but Rain couldn't stop--"Because no, love isn't my kind of thing, and maybe it isn't yours either, but with you I..." she trailed off into incertitude.
AJ approached the shorter woman, but she turned away. "If you don't want to do this, I can handle it. But what I just don't understand is why you would lie to me..." Rain's pitch elevated slightly in pain and her vocables quieted at the latter of her second sentence. "You don't lie. So why would that change when it came to me?"
AJ appeared puzzled at the jock's verbal postulation. She furrowed her brows as her pupils darted between Rain's in search of resolution to her intrinsic quandaries. "Ah haven't lied to ya, Rain."
Rain's hazel gaze fell to the hardwood surface beneath her before she returned her attention back to the cowgirl. "But the note said--"
"And I wasn't lyin' when I wrote it," AJ broke in. She twiddled her thumbs in waits for the proper way to articulate her explanation. "Ah really did think I'd be ready, Rain. But ah wrote that note a long time ago," she elaborated, "Ah was gonna slip it to ya that day you first grabbed it in class. But then, I panicked. Ah'd planned to give it to ya another time, when I felt more up to it, but so much happened."
Dash blinked, bathing in realization and guilt for having misunderstood her dearest friend all over again as the freckled blonde went on, "First, that day we raced and stopped for slushies at the gas station, you told me ya thought romance was 'lame.'"--she laughed through a single nose-breath before continuing--"I thought ah might still give it a try, but then the whole barn thing...it made me realize ah might not be as cut out for that kind of thing as I thought I'd be."
Abashed, Rain nodded, slow and solemn, staring dejectedly at the floor. AJ was right. She had really fucked things up for the both of them. There was no going back now.
"But..." the jock's amber oculars inched back up steadily in curiosity when the farmer started again, "...then, you took me up to the roof. When ya started askin' all of this...gobbledygook about crushes and whatnot,"--Rain smirtled at the use of terminology, cracking a contagious grin onto AJ's lips--"well ah, ah started to wonder about...ya'know...us. So ah kept the note, in case I changed my mind."
Dashie smiled further, bewildered and solaced by the farmer's sheer openness. It took three words to get herself rolling and--in turn--AJ to fess up. Three words. The athlete chuckled to herself over her own idiosyncratic stupidity. Why had she made everything so problematic instead of just telling the god damn truth? They both had. This whole time.
Rain's grin fell suddenly into seriousness. Fuelled by the surreal divulgence of the morning, she probed, "Did you?" AJ's fern-hued gaze linked to Rain's instantaneously at the query, her mind muddling with complex calculations, attempting to untangle the answers right then and there. Dashie bided her time for the flaxen-haired farmer, but was only met with a persistent, confounded stillness. She longed to grip the girl's shoulders and rattle a response out of her like a shaker; it would undoubtedly pacify her own impatience to obtain some form of certitude. But she valued only one thing more than any form of instant triumph. AJ's comfort was her priority.
"Nevermind..." She simpered bittersweetly at the farmer. "You don't have to tell me. I get it." Rain was astonished by her own reply, though it seemed AJ was more so. "When and if you're ever ready for..." The athlete hesitated briefly before continuing, "...us...just know I'll be here."
AJ's expression ventured into pellucid disposal, though of what emotions, Rain could not decipher. How a face could exhibit so much, and yet so little all at once, the jock hadn't the faintest clue. She even started to wonder if the blonde had gone mad and assumed she harboured time-manipulation abilities, pausing the clock whilst forgetting that Rain was still in the loop. Why was she taking so long to respond? Was it something I said? Rain panicked.
She prepared to interrupt the silence, but AJ was quicker.
"Rain," she addressed the shorter woman, inching forward so placidly that Rain hardly noticed it until she was only about a single pace away. Green fastened to hazel in an intimate trance of enthralling, sylvan mysticality. Deja-vu carried Rain through a familiar sensation as she parried against her intrinsic desires, her pupils darting from eyes to lips many times over. Only this time, the farmer's mossy globes remained unmoving. And this time, Dashie's subconscious was not alone in its doting; she knew she wanted to kiss AJ. But she wouldn't make that mistake again. Initiating what was to be rejected was swiftly discarded as an option. AJ wasn't ready, and that was that.
As if shamefully forfeiting an impassioned staring-contest, Rain swept her gaze back to the floor, but was surprised to feel AJ's warm touch gently redirect her by the cheek so that their souls optically linked once more. Dashie's chest tightened and her face grew hot.
"Can I kis-?" AJ began, but the space for any response was decimated instantly as Rainbow held the sides of the cowgirl's face and pulled her in. When their lips touched, Dash could practically feel the thrumming of AJ's accelerating heartbeat as it rhythmically danced alongside her own. She felt the flutter in her chest--of which she had encountered and asphyxiated on many occasions--finally snap free and soar. Passionately, they held one another, separating soft brims and finding only unabated yearning between breaths whilst AJ's grasp ventured down to Rain's hips so that she could bring the athlete closer, reigniting Dashie's fervour as her fingertips curled into the blonde strands and instigated more. The tension of months--possibly years--of swelling, piteous, requited longing could not be avenged through one mere kiss, so subsequently, many more accompanied their first few.
Rain felt through her own lips the smile which peaked at the edge of AJ's mouth as the cowgirl raised one arm and--without visually seeking it--felt for the wall. In understanding their closeness to the vertical surface, she put a palm to Rain's shoulder and guided the jock's body fervently into it, sharing a playful giggle.
Suddenly, a knock startled the two tomboys, lurching them back into a world they seemed to have (in the midst of their heartfelt entwinement) forgotten was cohabited by more than just their intermeshing souls.
AJ's freckles disappeared into the flush of her cheeks and the whites of her eyes expanded comically whilst she hopelessly attempted to fix her messy, flaxen hair; if Rain hadn't directly empathized with the current state of alarm, she'd have cackled at the sight.
"Who the hell could that be? Everyone left ages ago!" the jock cavilled as AJ broke towards the door. The cowgirl exchanged a skeptical look with her as Dashie approached and stood at her side. Reluctantly, AJ twisted the handle and dragged the thin, dividing rectangle ajar. The hinges squeaked in unison with Rain's surprise as Gilda came into view. Her ex-friend's eyebrows raised, and she smile-frowned sheepishly in noticing AJ, casting Dashie a muted, 'Look what we have here...' through her round oculars.
"Uh...Hi Gilda," uttered AJ half-critically. Rain struggled to recall when the last time the two blondes had interacted was. Though she was aware that AJ knew the girl had formed a casual (but still not particularly chummy) peer in Rain since the drama back in highschool.
Gilda acknowledged AJ with a nod and welcomed herself in, passing between the duo while surveying the area. "Oh don't look so scared," she jollied, "I just forgot something here. I'm not staying." Once she breached the kitchen, her nostrils flared subtly as she inhaled thrice through sniffles. "Wait a minute," she paused to huff a brief laugh, "Were you guys...drinking? As in, celebrating?"
While yeah, Rain didn't dislike her most recent roommate nearly as much as she used to, she still really did not want to do all of this right now. However, she, rather abysmally, had a go at stepping into an attempt at politeness despite her irritated qualms. "Yeah...some people came over. Sorry we didn't invite you, Gilda." Gilda didn't appear to mind at all; she was evidently still most intrigued by AJ's solo presence within her prior place of residence. But if she had queries about it, she didn't ask them.
"What are you looking for anyways?" Dashie tried not to sound rushing, but her urgency must have betrayed itself, because AJ stepped in to add, "...So we can help ya find it. Three sets of eyes is better than one after all." Rain subtly admired the cowgirl's ability to smooth out the lumps that her aleatory obtrusiveness had left behind.
Gilda smirked. "Sure," she spoke teasingly, "I just need my inhaler, have you seen it?"
Rain squinted at the floor in reflection, trying to necessitate any recollection of spotting the medical device. But under the lingering sensations of her and AJ's roused contact from minutes earlier, she failed to muster forth anything useful. "No," she admitted, sneaking another glance at the alluring cowgirl, "but I'll find it." Just as she started forward, AJ remarked, "Ah think ah recall seein' that actually."
The freckled farmer waved a contemplative finger as she decisively padded through the narrow hall-space between the two bedrooms. I hope you're right, mused Rain impatiently, peering sideways at Gilda, who jabbed a pointer in the air and exaggeratedly mouthed, 'AJ!!' through a wicked grin. Rain pierced her with a scolding glare, causing her to titter. Winks later, AJ curled out of the bathroom and reappeared before the pair of ex-roomies, dangling the object sought by Gilda betwixt her digits.
Gilda retrieved the inhaler from the cowgirl's grasp and thanked her as she sauntered towards the door. "Well then, I'll leave you guys to it!" She smirked and made for a brisk exit, leaving Rain and AJ in an airy awkwardness. A returning silence began to skulk through the apartment space, until the farmer remarked, "Ah guess she knows then, huh?"
Rain nodded, keeping the longitudinal nature of the fact under wraps for the time being. She turned to face the taller with a mischievous snicker. "How the hell could you not tell how I felt if all of Canterlot could?"
"Ah could ask ya the same thing," AJ riposted through a smile, infecting Rain with a wind of ardour. Introspectively campaigning impartiality against disgust for the cheesiness of the feeling, the jock searched for a quip, and eventually settled on, "You're a stupid drunk by the way."
Shock rippled across AJ's fern-hued gaze, stirring humour throughout the brunette at her side. "What makes ya say that?" the cowgirl quizzed with a genuine curiosity.
"You don't remember?" asked Rain, and when she was met with a persistent befuddlement from the blonde, she added, "Nevermind. Just remind me to keep you away from vodka." AJ playfully glared and shoved the shorter lass away with a palm to the head, heightening Rain's jocularity.
Dash felt her spirit cavort into the authentic song of the forenoon atmosphere, drawing forth a re-blooming boldness. "Still up to that date at Everfree?" she asked.
AJ's prolonged smile answered for her a thousand times over, and Rain soaked in its rays.
___
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
YEUPPPP IT HAPPENED!!!! Sorry for not divulging further in the spiciness, but I couldn't let it surpass the self-rating of 14A ;) (Just in case!)
As always, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! If you did, it would mean a lot if you could leave a vote and/or a comment to help me out <33
I WILL be continuing this fic, BUT I may take some more time in between, as there are other projects I am working on :)) Thank you for being so patient with me thus far<33
HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY/NIGHT, AND PLEASE TAKE CARE OF YOURSELVES!!!