Silent Fractures

"Friends? That's not usually how I like to do things..." She ignores the outstretched hoof, "...but if you're saying you'll be close by to keep me from getting eaten... or whatever else... then that could be alright."

"I will." He lowers the hoof. "I promise." He waits a moment more before asking, "Do you want me to spend the night or will you be all right?"

"Oh... uh." Heart glances at a clock, still not ready for bed. And then she glances at the door,and is reminded of before. "If you want to stay... that would be alright."

"Okay then." He notices her glance at the clock. "Not tired? Is there anything you want to talk about?"

"Not off the top of my head." Heart notices that he's been more or less standing this whole time. "Do you want to have a seat?" She scoots over on the bed. "I don't know what else ponies talk about in these situations."

Wormwood nods and climbs up onto the bed, sure to give her enough space to herself. "Well, we've been talking about you the whole time. I could talk about myself if you'd like."

Heart watches him climb onto the bed. "Sure, I guess that's fine. Do you..." She trails off, unsure of what questions to ask.

"I..." he thinks for a moment, then sighs. "I'm actually kind of boring. I might have said that my special talent was nature, right? Well, it's more than that. I can sense things in nature, from the thoughts of plants to the feelings of the very ground itself. I can connect to the land itself on a fundamental level and talk with it, if that makes sense." He looks a bit downcast for a moment. "And that's basically all I'm good for."

He perks back up. "You'd be surprised. They pay attention to everything that goes on around them, even if they can't interact with it. If a tree falls in the forest, and nopony's around, every plant in the forest will know about it."

"That sounds really useful. You could know things nopony else does, you could know everything about a place." Heart seemed almost uncharacteristically upbeat about this. "And...at the very least you'd always have someone to talk to."

He turns to her, smiling a little. "Yeah... you're right about that. I can understand animals, too, so it's not like I have no one to talk to." His smile faded. "I just... well, I'm really shy with ponies, so I don't have many pony friends. So I do get a little lonely at times..."

"Ponies are overrated. Plants and animals probably don't care what you look like or how you act... I mean, some ponies are ok..." Heart blushes a bit, looking at her hooves.

"Well, you're right about that. I find plants and animals easier to get along with than ponies. But there's always a few ponies who're worth knowing." He smiles.

"Yeah, I know... I wish I knew a few more, but I guess just one is good enough for now." She slides a little bit closer to him, then asks. "So have the plants ever told you anything really interesting?"

He blushed a little at last at the implications of her statement. "Well... the trees can be really old, so they tell me about things that happened. I remember a few times they told me about secret meetings in the forest... sometimes between lovers. I remember one tree that had a really raunchy story and just would not stop talking." He blushed a little more.

Before she could stop herself, Heart let out a giggle. "Oh... that must have been nice. I bet you really enjoyed hearing all about it." She shoots him an accusing look, but with a small smile.

Wormwood keeps blushing. "I...! Well, okay, maybe just a little." He rubs the back of his head with a hoof nervously. "But I only let the tree talk because, well, it'd have been rude to interrupt."

"Oh, of course, certainly. Wanna tell me about it? I like a good romance story." Hearts tone is rather casual, but she adjusts her position so she's laying on her belly, closer now.

"What? But you're-" He stops himself. He was about to say "too young" but she'd earned her cutie mark, she was old enough to know this stuff. Besides, she'd volunteered for this mission. She could handle a raunchy story. Before she could address what he was about to say, he continues, "It was a while ago, and I don't remember all the details, but it went something like this..."

TOTALLY SAFE FOR WORK, NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG MODS:

By the end of the story Wormwood is blushing furiously. "...I learned a few new things that day."

Heart furtively looks at her hooves, clearly not expecting to have heard the whole story. "So that's...wow. I didn't realize what all- I mean, I knew some of that stuff, totally, but, like..." She shifts again, rolling onto her back, nudging against Wormwood as she does. Staring at the ceiling, she continues. "I wonder what that's like."

Wormwood's blush doesn't ebb as she nudges against him. A part of him wants to put some distance between the two of them for her sake, but there's no more room on the bed. "I've wondered too... but you'd need a pony to help you out with that..." He suddenly turned away. "Not that I'm... volunteering or anything, but that's just how it is."

"No... of course not." Heart closes her eyes with a subdued smile. "I'm not that interesting." She stretches and yawns. "Well... don't go anywhere yet...I'm not..." And then she's asleep.

At her silence, he looks over back at her to see what's up, and finds that she's asleep. He smiles a little. "But you are," he said quietly, and closes his own eyes to go to sleep.

After a few moments, Heart cocks an eye open and peeks around. Seeing that he's gone to sleep as well, she sighs. She rolls over a bit, allowing herself to be as close to him as possible, and sleeps.