It was Valentine's and the mall was filled with the signs of Hallmark Love. No matter where you turned and looked you were sure to find some sort of red or pink decoration and a lot of hearts. For the people in the mall this was hardly a bother to them, as everyone and anyone seemed caught up in the romance.
Most of all, Flash.
While Flash was normally not one to care for this so-called "holiday", he found this year to be something different. He hadn't told anyone in the gang yet, but, he had a crush on someone. None of them really expected much from him though, since normally he was interested in little else than his skateboard and whatever other shenanigans he was getting into with the other guys. However, he was at a loss. He had no idea how to approach this looming holiday and his feelings that were festering inside of him.
Which was why he was barely listening to the conversation that was going on at the Lemon. His chin rested against the table, eyes blurring as he continued to go over the possible scenarios in his mind over and over again.
"So what are you guys doing for Valentine's day?" he heard someone ask. He looked up from his spot toward Rarity who was answering the question.
"I actually have a date this year," he was saying before he took a sip of his coffee. "You guys haven't met her yet though."
"Who is it?" Applejack asked excitedly.
"Rene, she's the newest clerk at Spin This," Rarity explained. The boy's eyes lowered slightly to the seemingly sedated blond boy sitting next to him. "Uh, Flash? Are you alright?"
"Yeah, you look really down, Flash," Pinkie Pie peeped from the Lemon. "Is something wrong?"
"Guys...," Flash began, sitting up in his chair, "I think I'm in...love!"
He said it with such distress that, for a minute, the gang had to keep from getting giddy at the prospect of seeing Flash together with a new crush. Clearly, this was something more than just that.
"Flash, that's great," Applejack said.
"I know."
"So, what's wrong?"
Flash bit his lip slightly, not knowing how to exactly explain this to his friends. "I don't really know what to do about it," he said, attempting to avoid all conversations about who his prospective love was.
"Flash~!" Pinkie Pie squeaked excitedly from the Lemon. "That is so cute! I can help you, I am a master at all things crush-related. I'll help you tell her how you feel! Trust me, I have magazine credentials." She held up the latest Teen Magazine with much gusto. She immediately began flipping through the magazine, heading directly to the crush advice section.
"Eh... I don't know, Pinkie Pie," Flash began, "I just kinda... I 'unno. I want to forget."
"I hear you, dude," Twilight said, leaning back in his chair, "the chicks can be great most of the time, but on days like this, they just go crazy!" He flailed his arms in the air to emphasize his point.
"I guess with Rainbow Dash out of town you don't have any plans for tonight, huh?" Applejack asked.
"None, except maybe watching Rarity tank on his date."
"Hey!" Rarity whined.
Twilight smirked. His eyes lowered onto his friend who, once again, was resting his chin against the food court table. "Hey Flash," he said, watching as the boy's eyes perked up slightly, "if your whole crush thing backfires or whatever, want to sleepover at my house? We could have an anti-Valentine's day party. I just got the brand new Rock Band game. You, me, Diego and Fluttershy could kick some serious ass."
"Oooh, that sounds like fun!" Pinkie Pie said as she poured a glass of lemonade for a customer.
"Sorry, Pinkie Pie. No chicks, just us guys," Twilight grinned.
"That's okay, I have a date anyway. You guys know Brian? He works at Belts, Belts, Belts. We're going out tonight. I know it might be soon, but I really think he may be th—."
"The One?" Flash muttered, his voice echoing in melancholy.
"Aw, Flash. You sure you're okay?"
"I think I'm going to go get some grindage. Catch ya later, guys," Flash said getting out from his chair and skateboarding off. Once he was gone the remaining members of the gang turned and looked each other somewhat worriedly.
"He must really be in love," Applejack muttered, "I hope he'll be okay."
"He'll be fine," Twilight muttered dismissively with a wave of his hand.
"How can you say that? Did you even see him just now? He's totally in love!"
"Who do you guys think it is?" Pinkie Pie wondered as she flipped the page in her magazine. "Do you think it's Starr?"
"Nah," Rarity said shaking his head, "that can't be it. They've been broken up for months now."
"Well, who is it then?" Applejack piped. "Twilight! You're going to find out tonight right?"
"Sure, I can try. I better go though, I've been on my coffee break for the past hour," Twilight said as he left the table.
Applejack shook her head. Why weren't the guys more curious about this new crush of Flash's? It was clearly bothering him, and the fact that it was bothering him meant that it was bothering her. "Pinkie Pie," Applejack began.
"I'll keep you posted," Pinkie Pie answered, knowing what Applejack was about to say.
"Great, I'll text you later. See ya."
Rarity watched Applejack leave the table and head back to the Penalty Box with a raised eyebrow. "How come all girls seem to have some sort of telepathic link?" Pinkie Pie shrugged her shoulders, mumbling something about it being a 'gift'. "If you say so," Rarity remarked submissively.
Flash sat at the fountain. He was gloomily munching down on fry after fry as he pushed his skateboard back and forth with his foot. As he sat there, he thought back to the time where he and Starr had agreed to go out after watching Stanley fall into the fountain. That was a long time ago though, and now she was "Nebula". His current crush felt a lot worse than the one he had for her back then, which was probably why he had no idea what to do about it.
The truth was he hasn't felt anything like this before, and no matter how hard he had tried, he couldn't get the feeling to go away. He was in love with one of his best friends, and while that was bad enough he knew that who it was made it even worse. They couldn't be together, he knew that, but... did that mean he shouldn't even mention it?
"Whoa," Flash muttered as his phone vibrated in his pocket. He reached in and flipped it open, not even checking to see who it was. "Yo?"
"Hey Flash, it's me." It was Rainbow Dash.
"Oh hey, bra."
"Applejack texted me saying you were kinda down, so I was just calling to check in on you. You okay?"
"No, not really, bra," he answered truthfully. "I'm kind of... in love."
"Oh yeah?"
"And the worst part is, it's one of us!" He flung his arms up dramatically, showering the elderly couple behind him in French fries. "Hehe, sorry...," he said sheepishly.
"You're not going to tell me who, are you?"
"Nuh-uh."
Rainbow Dash sighed slightly. "Well Flash, I think you should be honest with them. You never know what might happen, I mean, look at me and Twilight."
"I don't think that could ever happen," Flash muttered.
"Well, you never know, so, don't give up. You might be surprised. I have to go though, but, let me know how it all works out, alright?"
"Alright."
The two of them said their goodbyes and Flash snapped his phone shut. He sat there for a moment, mulling over what it was that he should do next. Although it was the most difficult route to take, he believed that Rainbow Dash was right. He needed to tell them... but how?
Pinkie Pie was still nose-deep in her many teen magazines, hoping to find a gem among them that would better her understanding of Flash's situation. Of all the ways to tell your crush how you feel, there weren't that many that were really Valentine's specific surprisingly.
"I knew I should have picked up the special V-Day issue when I had the chance," she grumbled to herself. She looked up briefly from her magazine to see if there were any customers, but instead found Flash hiding on the other side of the mag. "Oh, Flash!"
"Pinkie Pie... I need help telling someone how I feel about them... and stuff."
Pinkie Pie clapped her hands together, dropping the magazine into the blender accidentally. "Hee hee! Flash~! You came to the right place, I can definitely help you tell her how you feel."
"I don't think I can tell them in person, bra..."
"No worries! Gifts left from a secret admirer are so in right now. I can help you get the perfect gift, C'mon, let's go."
Pinkie Pie shut the Lemon down and grabbed Flash by the wrist, taking him to the nearest candy store. "What kind of stuff does this girl like?"
Flash shrugged his shoulders. "I 'unno."
"Well, you can never go wrong with chocolate. Simple rule of girls: we all like chocolate." Pinkie Pie held her finger up matter-of-factly. "Still not going to tell me who she is?" Flash shook his head.
"I think it's better if I told them myself first, y'know?"
"Aww, that's so cute, Flash. Well, definitely go with the chocolate then, you can't go wrong, promise."
Flash looked at the heart-shaped box of chocolates questioningly. He simply shrugged shoulders once more and paid for the chocolates. "Thanks, Cate," Flash said with a weak smile.
"I'm sure whoever she is, she's perfect for you Flash." Pinkie Pie looked down at her watch. "Aw, shoot! I have to go get ready for my date. I'll see you later!"
Flash watched Pinkie Pie leave, and once she had, he returned to their table in the food court to leave the chocolates for his crush. "I sure hope this works," he said to himself.
Rarity and Twilight were heading to the food court, talking amongst themselves. Twilight was giving Rarity some tips on his date that night, assuming of course that he didn't screw it up.
"I'm telling you, Rarity, play your cards right and you might just get a homerun tonight."
"Twilight, I'm barely even in the stadium at this point, it's our first date!"
"First date, pfft. That didn't stop me from scoring with two chicks in one night once!"
"And you actually went all the way with them?"
"Well, no, but, you get the picture. Anything could happen—hey where is everyone?"
Their table was empty and the Lemon was closed. The two guys shrugged their shoulders and sat down in their respective chairs.
"Hey, there's something in my chair," Rarity grumbled as he pulled up a heart-shaped box of chocolate. He stared at it curiously for a long moment before reading the tag on the box. "Uh, Twilight... it's for you."
Rarity slid the box of chocolates across the table to his friend who looked at it just as curiously as the other one had.
"But Rainbow Dash's out of town... See what I mean, Rarity? Play it right, and all the girls would be leaving you candy, taken or not!"
"Uh, Twilight, I don't think that's from a girl..."
"What?!" Twilight looked at the tag, his eyes widening... "Dude... it's from Flash!"
"What are you going to do, Twilight?"
Twilight's eyes were still wide and plastered to the name tag he saw in front of him. It was almost like he walked in on his grandmother naked or something that was how shocked and bemused he was at that moment. But there was no mistaking it: that was Flash's handwriting. He could recognize those scribbles anywhere.
It was Flash's handwriting on a tag on a box of chocolate on Valentine's Day and it was addressed to him—Twilight.
Twilight was still having a hard time processing just what that meant. He had tried to file that into his brain repeatedly over the past few minutes but it just kept coming out as gibberish to him.
Flash. His best friend. His best friend since kindergarten. His best friend since kindergarten that he's kissed before. His best friend since kindergarten that he's kissed before and that now has a crush on him.
"Dude...," was all that Twilight could say, and it left his voice so dull and shell-shocked that he almost thought someone else had said it to him.
"What're you going to do about tonight?" Rarity repeated, his eyes filled with concern: constantly darting from his friend to the box of chocolate that lay on the table tauntingly.
"Forget about tonight, man," Twilight said throwing his arms into the air, "what am I going to do about the rest of my life?!"
"I think you might be overreacting," Rarity commented, taking a sip of his coffee.
"Am I? Think about it, this is Flash we're talking about, and he has a crush—on me! ME."
"Maybe it won't be so bad...?" Even as he said it, Rarity knew that would have no bearing on Twilight. This was definitely a tricky situation and even he had no idea what to do about it. A small part of him was almost glad he had a date tonight; otherwise he was sure he'd be caught up in the mess as well.
"But I'm not gay!" Twilight said his arms up in the air once more, nearly falling off his chair in the process.
"I didn't mean it like that," Rarity replied, pausing only to think of his next attempt at piss-poor advice, "maybe just... let Flash down easy?"
"Hey, what are you guys talking about?"
The two of them looked over to find Pinkie Pie and Applejack approaching the table, shopping bags hanging from their wrists. Pinkie Pie was wearing a nice fitting pink dress for her date. Twilight's eyes were still just as wide as before, and his mouth was open in the astonishment over the entire Flash fiasco.
For a moment, Pinkie Pie thought the jaw dropping was for her.
"Oh, you like it? It's for my date with Brian tonight," she said, clapping her hands together gleefully.
"Is something wrong, Twilight" Applejack asked as she dropped the bags onto the table, the contents nearly spilling out altogether. Her eyebrow was peaked as she watched the stone-faced boy in front of her, and then suddenly, his arms were in the air again and he was exclaiming loudly:
"The gang as we know it is over! LIFE as we know it is over!"
Applejack and Pinkie Pie exchanged confused expressions, before turning to the boys again and saying, practically in unison, an all encompassing, "What?"
"Flash!" Twilight exclaimed, as if that was all that needed to be said about the matter for everyone involved to understand coherently. It wasn't.
Applejack turned to Rarity who was shaking his head slightly. "Uh, Rarity?"
Rarity took a deep breath. "Twilight found out that Flash has a crush on him."
"What?!" Applejack and Pinkie Pie said in unison again.
"Yeah, Flash left this for him," Rarity said, pushing the chocolates over to the girl's side of the table.
"Oh, the chocolates," Pinkie Pie said, her voice almost sorrowful as she looked down at the candy that she had helped Flash pick out. She and Applejack sat down at the table, looking at the tag together in silence for a while, almost as if they were communicating telepathically a bunch of possible plans to deal with the situation.
Rarity and Twilight watched on eagerly, waiting for the big reveal of how they were supposed to go about dealing with this situation.
"So, what are you going to do, Twilight?" Applejack finally said breaking the silence.
Twilight nearly fell out of his chair in dismay. Regaining his composure he yelled, "I thought you were going to tell me!"
"I really don't know what to do," she replied, sinking back slightly into her chair. "I mean, it's Flash. He's our best friend. I don't want him to get h—."
"You think I want to hurt him?!" Twilight interrupted defiantly.
"No," she said sternly, "I just mean. We have to come up with some kind of plan..."
"You're telling me," Twilight said, crossing his arms and looking away from the group. His mind still couldn't wrap around it, even though they had been talking about the very thing for a while now. How could Flash like him? Him, of all people. Never mind that, how could Flash like any guys? Flash was straight after all! How else would you explain that whole thing with Starr?
"Rarity, maybe you should go to the sleep over with them? It might... defuse awkward tension until we can figure out a better plan of action," Applejack suggested.
"I can't, I have a date tonight."
"Come on, man! You can't leave me alone with him!"
"It's Flash; you guys have hung out alone before."
"Yeah, but that was before," Twilight said, adding an immense amount of emphasis on the last word before pleading once more, "Come on! You can get turned down by a girl any day of the year!"
Rarity's eyes narrowed. "Sorry, Twilight."
"Oh man!" Twilight cried, his arms dropping by his side. He let his head fall, knocking it hard against the table, as he stared at nothing but darkness. This was turning out to be one of the worst Valentine's Days ever.
"It'll be fine, Twilight," Pinkie Pie said, talking for the first time in a long while, "Just let him down easy. Things will be okay."
"But it's Valentine's Day!" he yelled, his voice being muffled slightly by the table. "It's like national hook-up day."
"You don't have to do do just want to be friends!" he yelled against the table's most likely unsanitary top.
"Right...," Pinkie Pie said, placing her magazine down on the table, "I think this might be a problem not even the Magazine Gods can answer."
Twilight knew then, as if he didn't know already, that this meant it was serious. Pinkie Pie never admitted the Gods of Teen Advice Magazines could be wrong, but here it was. Everything was already changing, and it stung Twilight to even think about it.
"Why is your head like that, dude?"
Twilight shot straight up in his spot, eyes wide. "Uh, nuh-no reason." He could feel his heart bouncing around his chest like it was on Speed as he looked up at Flash's confused blue eyes. In that moment, he felt like everyone's eyes were on him especially Flash's.
Applejack took advantage of this opportunity and shoved Flash's chocolates into one of her many bags. Flash was too busy with his own thrashing heart to have noticed the chocolates were ever there at all, and for a moment there was nothing but silence.
"So, Flash, excited for your guy's night?" Applejack asked, displaying that normal sense of pep that was always with her. She figured it was best to play it cool, like none of them knew anything about anything. All she could do was pray that she wasn't completely obvious.
"Yeah, I guess...," Flash said solemnly, plunking down into his own seat at the table. He looked briefly around the area for the chocolates he had left for Twilight, only to see that they were nowhere in sight. Figuring someone had stolen them and that none of his friends had seen who it was for, he released a sigh of relief. He had been fretting over the chocolates ever since he left them and now he didn't have to worry about it. He could just enjoy a night with Twilight like nothing had happened.
Twilight couldn't though.
"Oh, shoot, I better go. Brian said he'd meet me at the fountain for our date!" Pinkie Pie squeaked excitedly. She stopped mid-way from getting up from her chair, her eyes darting toward the two boys momentarily. "Hope you guys... have a good night," she said, trying her best to sound nonchalant and supportive at the same time.
"G'luck on your date," Flash smiled weakly.
"You too—I mean,"—Pinkie Pie turned pink—"have fun..."
"Fill me in on the deets," Applejack said to her as she left with a grin. Pinkie Pie nodded and with that she was off.
"Actually, I should probably get going too," Rarity said, excusing himself from the table, and the situation. They said their goodbyes and soon it was just down to the three of them.
"So... when are you guys going to...," she paused, trying to think of the proper way to end the sentence, "go."
Twilight's eyes narrowed. "I'm in no rush," he said crossing his arms.
"The mall's closing in half an hour...," Flash added.
Twilight kept his stance for a full minute longer before finally breaking. "Fine, Flash. Let's go. See ya, Applejack."
"See ya," she said—her voice cautious. As she watched the two leave the food court she couldn't help but get a sick feeling in her stomach. She definitely needed to talk with Rainbow Dash about all of this.
"Get out!" Twilight yelled.
He pushed his brothers out of his room, shutting the door behind them with a slam. In his hands was a bag of popcorn (they were out of popcorn bowls, so he opted for large paper bags... classy). As he shut the door, finally ridding them of Diego and Fluttershy he leaned against the wood. He shook his head slightly.
"What, you guys going to make out or something? C'mon man!" Sunset yelled from beyond the door, turning Twilight pink in the face.
"Nuh-no, we just want some privacy okay?!"
"Yeah, for gay sex," Fluttershy added.
"Can it you twerp," Twilight called back.
He waited a minute before they had left the hallway outside of his door before turning to his blond friend who was sitting on his bed. Twilight was flustered but as he looked at Flash, sure that he could understand why, the boy simply blinked at him.
"Got some grindage?" the boy finally said.
Twilight blinked.
"Uh, yeah. Popcorn," he said, "we're out of bowls, so..."
"No worries, dude," Flash replied, motioning for Twilight to bring the food, and himself, over to the bed. The other boy sat down beside his friend, keeping the bag absentmindedly on his lap as he stared off at his DVD collection on the other side of the room, trying to figure out what would be the best distraction.
It was then, while he was deep in distractions of his own, that Flash reached into the bag of popcorn. Trying to grab a large enough handful to sustain him momentarily, he dug deep into the bag and, consequently, rubbed against Twilight's crotch. The boy shot straight up, the popcorn nearly flying out of his lap. If it weren't for Flash's hand still deep in the bag, its contents would have scattered across the room.
Twilight managed to make his sudden startled jump seem like nothing more but an overly enthusiastic dash to the DVDs as he was quickly on the other side of the room pretending to pick through the collection.
Holy, he thought to himself, trying to comprehend what just happened. Was Flash just... grinding me... through a popcorn bag?!
"Dude, are you alright?"
"Ye-yeah, Flash," Twilight lied, "juh-just excited to start the movie."
Flash's face contorted into one of confusion as Twilight popped a DVD into the player and pressed play. He dimmed the lights and, somewhat cautiously, joined Flash back on the bed, rejecting popcorn when offered. The two of them sat together on his bed, watching the movie Twilight had picked.
He had picked it because he wanted to be distracted from what was going on but all he could think about was what was going on! Not even the gore of 300 could take his mind off it; in fact, all it did was cement his mind to the idea of Flash liking guys. During the entire battle scene, all Twilight could think about was whether or not Flash was turned on by all the bare male chests and package highlighting costumes. It was driving Twilight crazy the entire movie.
Flash on the other hand thought the gory battles were pretty kickass.
When the movie ended, it was getting rather late and both of the boys were pretty tired, though, for completely different reasons. Flash stifled a yawn as he stretched his legs out on the bed the two of them would be sharing that night. "You want to,"—he paused to yawn—"play some RockBand or something?"
"Nah," Twilight said, honestly too nervous to even think about spending more waking hours with Flash in this awkward-as-hell situation. "Let's just kick it, call it a day."
"Mmkay," Flash mumbled as he pulled off his shirt. He tossed it aside on the floor by the bed, and then undid his pants, kicking them off as well. He lay there, stretched out on top of the bed's covers in nothing but his boxers, looking completely innocuous despite this fact.
"Dude! What are you doing?" Twilight said, turning his eyes away from the boy, as if he was covered in sick boils or something.
"What?" the boy replied, confused. "We always sleep in our boxers."
"I know, but...," Twilight began only to stop. He was going to say but this is different but he realized how much that would probably hurt his friend, and if there was something he agreed on with the girls earlier, it was that the very last thing he wanted to do was hurt Flash.
"Do you... want me to get dressed?"
His voice sounded so confused, so lost, almost as if he was expecting that he did something wrong, even though he had no idea what it was. And it was that tone, that sound that gave Twilight a sick feeling in his stomach, like he was the one who did something terribly wrong. He didn't know why he was letting this go on, when he should have just addressed Flash's feelings right away. But he was scared, scared of ruining what they had.
"No, don't worry about it," Twilight said, and then, as if to prove it didn't matter, he too pulled off his shirt and pants, wearing nothing but a thin pair of boxers. He flashed Flash a weak smile, who still only looked confused.
And there was that feeling again; the one that felt like he swallowed a cinderblock and it was just resting in his stomach, uncomfortably.
The two boys got under the covers. Without though, Flash was lying rather close to Twilight, their skin lightly touching one another, causing shocks to run through Twilight's skin. They had always slept like this during their past sleepovers, but for some reason, only now did it feel weird.
"Flash, can you give me some space?" Twilight said, it coming out harsher than he had wanted to. The boy was looking at his friends eyes as he said it, and the minute the words left his lips he could see them register on Flash's face. The blond boy's eyes looked hurt, confused, and lost, like he was a dog Twilight had just decided to drop kick. It was painful to see, and even more painful to know that he was the cause of it all.
He had made a grave mistake leaving things unresolved.
Flash, however, reluctantly moved as far away from Twilight on the bed as he could, even turning on his side so his back was facing his friend. The blond boy didn't know what he had expected, he thought that without the chocolates having been found that things would be normal but, for some reason, they weren't and he couldn't understand why.
"Flash," Twilight began, in almost a whisper, "I know."
Flash said nothing.
"I know that you... like me."
Twilight was scared for this moment. Scared for what would come next, for what it meant for him, and Flash and the rest of the gang. Something like this could so easily turn into a giant mess, and that was the last thing Twilight would ever want. He just knew they couldn't keep going on like this. They needed to address it, no matter the circumstance.
"I found the chocolates," Twilight explained. "I—I—uh—I didn't want to tell you. Because I... Everything felt like it was changing, and I didn't want to admit it, but I'm... scared. I don't want to lose you, Flash. You're my best friend."
Flash said nothing.
"I can't—we can't—I'm... I'm with Rainbow Dash... I would never want to wreck our friendship, Flash. You mean a lot to me, a lot, man. You're my best friend. I just... don't know what to do anymore. I wish things would just...," Twilight stopped, thinking that wouldn't help anything.
Flash said nothing.
"Flash? Say something?" Twilight pleaded. His heart was racing, thumping, thrashing, anything just to be heard. He knew it, he had crushed his friend's heart, destroyed it even. There would be no going back. This was the end of everything. Wasn't it? Flash was ignoring him. He probably hated his guts. Never wanted to see him again. Twilight could feel his eyes beginning to well up, tears forming along the edges, threaten to break through. "Flash... please... talk to m—."
Twilight was cut off by Flash hugging his naked chest. The blond boy's face was buried against the other boy, wet tears landing on the Hispanic's skin. He was shaking slightly, as muffled sobs left his lips.
"I'm sorry, Twilight," the blond boy said through his tears.
"It's okay, Flash," Twilight whispered, awkwardly patting the blond boy's head, holding back from crying himself as all of that fear, all of that dread, left him completely.
"It's okay."