#timflash

“So then this robot burst through the gymnasium wall and the girls were thrown onto the soccer field! I realised Sunset had dropped her pendant when she was the only one who didn’t transform, and I did this super cool-” Flash cut himself off once he finally looked toward his boyfriend, who stared at him with half-lidded eyes and a dopey smile. Flash scratched at his reddened cheek sheepishly and looked askance. 

“S-sorry. I know I tend to ramble. The girls are just super cool. You probably didn’t want to spend all afternoon talking about them, huh?”

Timber’s smile widened and he sat back from holding his cheek in his palm to clasp his hands behind his head. “God, I love your face.”

Flash squeaked, cheeks burning in a fierce heat. “H-huh?”

“When you talk about things you care about, your nose wrinkles and your eyes brighten. When you get nervous, your eyebrows twitch.” Timber sighed, dreamily, “Don’t get me started on your dimples.”

“I-” Flash’s breath hitched as his brain malfunctioned. He tried so desperately to concentrate on doing both- speaking and talking- but it was so hard with the way Timber flashed him a toothy grin of his own. “Thank you? Uhm-”

“It just sucks, y’know?” Timber heaved a sigh, the forced smile on his face too heavy to hold on any longer. “I really-...” he swallowed, “I just really care about her. I just want her to be happy.”

“Yeah. I know.” Flash nodded and gripped the chains that held up his swing before he glanced up at the frame. “I didn’t... You never met her, but there was another Twilight.”

Timber tensed and peeked at the other boy over his hands with a curious brow.

“She’s from Sunset’s home dimension. You know, the pony one.” He sighed and dropped his eyes to his shoes before he kicked at the gravel. “We used to-... Well, I mean, we almost-...” He chewed at the inside of his cheek as he did his best to find what he was trying to say. “I liked her a lot, and I thought she was into me too. She was really cool and smart, like your Twilight. But...”

“But?”

Flash sighed with a pained smile and offered up a shrug. “Turns out she was a Princess back home. She couldn’t stay here since she had all that responsibility back home. We never even had a chance, honestly.” Flash flattened his soles against the ground to stabilise himself. “When I met Twilight-” he paused to correct himself, “erm, your Twilight- it was just...”

Timber didn’t need him to finish. He just nodded and dropped his elbows to rest against the top of his thighs, crossing the tips of his fingers to twiddle his thumbs. “There wasn’t any closure, huh?”

“Yeah.” Flash blew out a breath and raised his head. “So, I understand. Like, wanting to see her happy, I mean. She might not be my Twilight, but that didn’t mean I didn’t want to see her happy.”

The taller boy mulled the words over, eyes wandering as if reading them out in his mind. He sat back and gripped the chains of his own swing, and stretched out his legs to draw himself backward. “Yeah.” Timber chuckled and gave a half-smile in Flash’s direction, pushing the chain links as far apart as he could under the tension. “I guess you do get it, huh?”

Flash chuckled and returned his smile, watching quietly as Timber pulled up his legs and let himself swing a bit. The blue haired boy nibbled at his lip and dropped his eyes before he focused his stare at the profile of the other boy’s face as he continued to swing back and forth.

“Would it help if I stayed?”

Timber was quiet for a while; content with purely feeling the wind against his face. The sting of cold air was a comforting respite from the stinging he worked to suppress behind his eyes.