I'm back at it again! This one's literally just a couple of conversations, so. Yeah.
Wednesday afternoon, Baxium and Ryan were hanging out in their apartment when they heard an unexpected knock at their door. They looked at each other with confusion, clearly neither of them expecting company.
"I'll get it," Ryan said. When he opened the door a complete stranger stood in front of him. She gave him a smile.
"Hi, you must be Ryan," her voice was familiar to Baxium. "I'm Ashley, Mira's best friend. Is Baxium here?"
Ryan looked back at Baxium with wide eyes, wondering how badly he had to fuck up for his girlfriend's best friend to come looking for them. Baxium gave him a shrug and gestured for him to let her in. "Uh, yeah... Come on in."
"Thanks, I just wanted to talk to him."
Her continued smile was offputting to Ryan, who wanted to leave before he caught any of the coming roast. "I'm gonna head down to the store, let me know if you need anything," Ryan said as he put on his shoes.
Ashley was grateful for him leaving as she nervously thought of how to bring up what she wanted to talk to Baxium about. Baxium asked her to have a seat, knowing there wasn't anything recently he had done to warrant an angry best friend. When Ryan had left and Ashley sat down, she gave a small sigh.
"What's up?" he asked nervously. "Everything okay?"
She nodded, sitting nervously with her hands clenched together in her lap. "Everything's fine, I just need to talk to you."
"What is it?"
"It's about you and Mira. You guys are fine and everything's good, but you sort of fucked up a little bit."
Her words contradicted themselves and he was only more confused. "What do you mean? What'd I do?"
She shrugged. It wouldn't be easy to bring it up, so she figured she should just be straight with him. "Listen. If you want to sleep with Mira you're seriously going about it all. Wrong."
Baxium was taken aback, but she continued talking. "I know this is a weird conversation to have, but I think I can really help you out."
"Help... me do what? Sleep with her?"
Ashley nodded, avoiding eye contact. "Yes."
Baxium scratched his head while also avoiding eye contact. "...Why?"
She let out a frustrated sigh. "Do you not want my help? Cuz I think I have really valuable input to give you that could help you go further with her but if you aren't interested then-" as she started to stand up Baxium stopped her.
"No, wait, wait... What were you saying I fucked up?" With a sheepish expression he sat back in his chair.
Ashley gave him a look before averting her gaze to continue talking. "While I respect your ability to be bluntly honest about your feelings and discuss sex in a similar way, that isn't the way to approach it with Mira. Mira's uh..." she paused to think for a moment. "She's shy. And prefers action over talking."
Baxium thought for a moment. "So, what are you suggesting I do instead of talking to her about it? That sounds... not right."
"You're misunderstanding me," Ashley started. "I'm not saying you can't like get consent cuz that's absolutely necessary. What I'm saying is that when you haven't done it with her before you can't just outright tell her you want to have sex with her, you gotta be smooth with it."
"Explain, please. I still don't understand," he said with a shake of his head.
"Okay," Ashley started. "For instance, don't snuggle up to her and say, 'I want to have sex with you,' instead say something like 'I wanna get more comfortable,' and have your arm around her. You know, say stuff softly in her ear, caress her arm, oh! Grab her booty."
"What?"
"Grab her butt!" Ashley repeated. "You're her boyfriend and as her best friend in the whole world who talks to her about things like this I can tell you that you should grab her butt at least once."
"Wait, you've talked to her about having sex with me?"
Ashley closed her eyes and shook her head. "You're missing the point Bax. Sweet talk her, touch her butt, and just be more sensual instead of being all verbal all the time. Mira likes physical contact. You don't need to say anything until it's right before y'all are gonna do it. Like yeah, ask her if you can touch her tits or take off her bra and then make sure you get a confirmation that she does wanna do it with you, but don't be upfront about it. It's not like you're trying to buy something in a store y'know."
Baxium nodded absentmindedly as he thought about it. "So I just... touch her a lot?"
Ashley nodded. "Yeah, touch her hips, her arms, her butt, her legs, scratch her head or something, just things that make her wanna be closer to you, then start getting more intimate until you gotta ask her if you can do something more."
"Okay," he said thoughtfully. "You're sure that's all I have to do? Cuz it's not really what I'm used to doing."
Ashley nodded. "I dunno how you typically treat sex, but for most humans I know it's more about intimacy and physicality. Communication is important and necessary, but you gotta be smooth with it. If there's something you wanna do tell her you wanna do it. Like, 'I wanna take your shirt off," in between kisses and if she encourages you to do it, then do it! You'll be fine and hopefully get it."
Ashley stood up, her cheeks red as she tried to fight off the embarrassment from talking to Baxium about it. He gave her a confused look. "You still didn't tell me why you came all this way to tell me that. Why are you so worried about what we do?"
"Because she needs to get laid, Baxium," Ashley replied bluntly. "She needs to go to pound town with someone that genuinely cares about her, can be gentle with her, and won't be a huge asshole. And even though you're a giantass Triceraton that could kick my ass seven ways to Sunday, I'll still find a way to cut off your tail and shove it down your throat if you hurt her."
The sudden turn she took made his eyes grow wide and he awkwardly looked away from her. Out of all the times he had met Ashley, she never seemed like the threatening type. "Well, of course I'd never hurt her on purpose," he said.
Ashley nodded. "Good. I mean if it doesn't work out between you guys then it doesn't work out and that's life. But if you one-night-stand her or fuck her then never talk to her again, I will actually hurt you, got it?"
He nodded. He was at least two and a half times her size and seriously doubted she'd stand a chance against him, but he wasn't sure how dedicated she was to seeking revenge for a brokenhearted friend. At least she wasn't completely unreasonable with her demands. "I understand Ashley. I'll take your advice into consideration. You do know Mira better than I do."
"That's true," Ashley said. "But, that's really all I came over for. I just care a lot about her and I don't want her shyness to keep her from having the relationship she wants. Cuz I know she really does love you. It makes me happy for her."
Baxium smiled and stood up to see her to the door. "It means a lot to have approval from her best friend," he noted. "I really love her, too."
Ashley smiled at him with a nod. "Good. I like you Baxi, don't fuck this up alright? Let me know if you have any troubles I can help with."
He let out a small laugh before opening the door. "I'll be sure to do that. Get home safe, okay?"
"Yeah, thanks. See you around!" Ashley waved goodbye as she walked away.
/
While Ashley had her conversation with Baxium, Mira was on a walk with one of the dogs on her route. The route was close to her apartment and inadvertently occurred while Mikey began his stroll to work. Mira didn't even notice him until he called out to her and rushed up to pet the fat golden retriever on her leash.
"What're you doin here?" she asked him as he stood up, the dog trying to jump onto his plastron for more pets.
He gave a smile and gestured down the street. "I'm heading in to work. You should stop by for a slice later. And bring Ashley!"
"Oh yeah, I forgot you work at that pizza place," Mira mused.
"Yeah, don't think I don't know all the times you order pizza on the weekends when Ashley's working." He gave her a sly grin as she responded with offense.
"What I do drunk on the weekends in my apartment alone is none of your god damn business," Mira quickly replied with a finger pointed at him.
Mikey held up two hands and they continued walking. "Hey, I'm not judging! Just... making an observation."
"Like I said," Mira started. "What I do drunk on the weekends is my business."
They walked for a minute with the dog on Mira's leash trotting lazily in between them. "It's good to see you again after so long. I didn't think we'd ever see you again."
"Aww, that's cute," she said. "And, also foreboding..."
"What do you mean?"
"I dunno, the way you said that just kinda made it seem like one of us was gonna go off to war and die or something."
"Oh," he said with an amusedly uncomfortable expression. "Well I didn't mean I was thinkin about you every day or something, just that it was really surprising to see you again. In a good way, you know, you're looking good!"
"Was that supposed to be an outside thought?" she asked, watching as the dog stopped to sniff a fire hydrant before relieving himself on it.
"I just thought you should know is all. Don't worry, I know you have a boyfriend," he said with a smirk. "And even if I could take him, I wouldn't want to."
"Okay what do you want?" Mira asked with a roll of her eyes.
"What?"
"Yeah okay. Whattaya want, money?"
Mikey put up his hands in defense. "Hey you got it all wrong, sister! I meant what I said."
"Uh-huh," Mira replied, unconvinced.
"But if you're offering," he said as he moved closer to her.
"I'm not."
Mikey took a step away and put his hands in his pockets. "Alright, but don't come to me if you're ever in need."
"Are you in need?" she questioned.
"No," he said with a shrug. "Not financially at least." There was a pause as he thought for a moment. "Did Ashley say anything about our date the other night?"
Mira avoided showing any emotional response to his question, figuring he was just trying to get something out of her. "Well duh she said something to me, we only tell each other literally everything. That doesn't mean I'm gonna tell you though."
"Aw c'mon," he complained, stopping outside his work. "At least tell me if I'm doing everything wrong."
"And why would I do that?" she asked, continuing to walk. Without much of a choice, he followed her.
"Because you want your best friend to be happy and she's really quiet so I have no idea what she's thinking at any given time."
"Nobody does really, she's just quiet when she doesn't know you," Mira explained. "If she's being overly quiet it's because she's uncomfortable." Upon seeing his look of concern she added, "but in the shy way, not the bad way, because she does really like you but that's all you're getting from me, no more freebies. Cough up if you want anything else."
Mikey felt hopeful again, but curiously continued their conversation before going into work. "Cough up what?"
"Something of value."
He thought for a moment as she stopped with the dog again. "Like dirt on Raph?"
"Tch, if you actually have something on him that's worth noting."
"I'll get back to you on that," Mikey said with a smile. "But I think I have something good." He started to head back to work as they said their goodbyes and Mira went on her way walking her dogs. It was a good, sunny day.
Beep boop.