Part Thirteen
Sam awoke early the next morning to a loud voice from the saferoom. Not this again, she groggily thought. She was running out of options, and if Aqua kept up her bad behavior, Sam was going to have to do something she’d much rather not do. She still wasn’t willing to give Aqua away, since that’d be breaking her promise to Hope, but maybe Aqua needed a real shock to fix her behavior. As much as Sam hated it, she might have to pillow the foal.
As Sam woke up more fully, she realized that the voice wasn’t angry. Maybe Aqua wasn’t fighting with the others this morning, after all. Praying silently, Sam walked to the saferoom. When she arrived, Aqua was indeed not fighting with the other fluffies, although her parents looked extremely annoyed at being stirred from their slumber so early in the morning, a sentiment Sam could empathize with.
“Mummah!” Aqua greeted her as she entered. “Aqua weggies nu wun 'way! Aqua hab weggies! Aqua am su happy!”
Maybe the previous day had had more of an impact than Sam had anticipated. Usually Aqua only acted frightened at the prospect of losing her legs for a few minutes after being warned. Sam suspected that Aqua hadn’t accepted that her behavior was bad, and this confirmed that suspicion. No wonder the collar had only had minimal impact on her behavior.
This was a marked improvement, even if Sam would have preferred if this could have waited another couple of hours. Well, now that the fluffies were awake they’d want breakfast. Sam knew that if she went back to sleep she’d end up sleeping well into the afternoon, so she might as well just stay awake.
“Mummah!” Aqua called out to her as she turned away.
“What is it?”
“Can mummah hewp Aqua gu wittewbox?”
“Sure.”
Sam picked up Aqua and carried her to the litter box. As she was about to set her down, however, the foal quietly spoke.
“Mummah, can Aqua tawk wif 'ou? Su famiwy nu can heaw.”
“What is it?”
“Aqua am sowwy fow be bad babbeh. Aqua am happy dat mummah nu twow Aqua 'way. Aqua nu wan be dummeh bad babbeh nu mowe.”
Sam gently flicked the foal’s muzzle, causing her to peep in surprise.
“Aqua, what are the rules about saying mean things?”
“Gud fwuffy nu say meanie tings.”
“That means mean things about yourself, too. Aqua, I’ll love you no matter what you look like.”
“Tank 'ou, mummah. Aqua hab qwestin, tuu.”
“What is it?”
“Smokey nu wan be awound Aqua. Aqua am sowwy, bu’ nu can teww Smokey if he nebah awound. Hao can Aqua teww Smokey she sowwy?”
“I don’t know. I’ll ask him why he’s been avoiding you.”
“Aqua nu wan Smokey git in twoubwe. Onwy wan teww am sowwy.”
“Don’t worry, he won’t get in trouble. Now, did you need to actually use the litterbox?”
The little foal nodded, so Sam set her down so she could do her business. The conversation had been completely unexpected, but she could tell Aqua was genuinely remorseful over what she’d done. Hopefully, that would be enough.
…
Smokey hid behind Hope, trying to avoid Aqua. He wasn’t particularly upset over what had happened, since he was used to worse happening on a daily basis. But he still had his reasons for avoiding her.
During the day it was easy to avoid her, since she spent half of the day in the sorry box. He felt a little sad about that, since he knew it made her sad, but rules were rules. The night was the problem, since he couldn’t really avoid her in the fluffpile, even if he was always careful to lie on the opposite side.
He was sitting and playing with blocks alone when Sam walked up to him. She sat down and gently picked him up. Recently, she’d started having to use two hands to carry the other foals, but he was still a good bit smaller than them, even if he was slowly catching up.
“Hewwo, mummah.”
“Smokey, there’s something I want to ask you.”
“Wut?”
“Why are you avoiding Aqua? I know she hurt you, but she can’t apologize if you won’t go near her. She can’t move on her own right now, so she must be lonely if you won’t spend time with her.”
“Smokey nu wan say.”
“Smokey…”
“NU WAN SAY!”
“Alright. I won’t force you. But Aqua is very sad that you’ve been ignoring her. She thinks you hate her.”
“Bu’ Smokey wuvs Aqua!”
…
Sam was confused.
“If you love her why don’t you want to be around her?”
“Smokey feew weiwd awound Aqua. Nu undastand feewing.”
Sam felt herself blush slightly. Of course, the foals were quickly growing, and they were old enough to be experiencing puberty. Really, she should have been calling them colts and fillies for days now. Still, she hadn’t really given the possibility that one of the males might fall for one of the sisters. They weren’t blood related, true, but even so…
“Feel weird how?” she sought clarification.
Smokey looked away. “Nu nu stick feew weiwd.”
Well, that didn’t leave any room for misunderstanding. It looked like it was going to be time to have the talk with the foals once Aqua was out of the sorry box. She was honestly tempted to ask Mikhael to handle it, since he was a lot more knowledgeable about fluffy development and sexuality, but she knew that it needed to come from her.
…
Later that afternoon, it was time for Aqua to leave the sorry box for the rest of the day. Unlike previously, she wasn’t crying when Sam opened the box to take her out. Instead, she looked up at Sam and made a request.
“Mummah, Aqua wan be gud babbeh 'gain soon. Pwease weave Aqua in sowwy box a wittwe wonger.”
“I’m sorry, Aqua, but I can’t do that today. I need to talk to you and the other foals. Don’t worry, your leggies should stop being angry soon.”
“Aqua nu cawe ‘bout weggies. Jus’ wan be gud babbeh fow nu huwt famiwy anymowe.”
“Aqua, if you’re willing to say that, I think you’re well on the way to being a good fluffy again. Don’t worry, your family still loves you, they aren’t mad at you anymore.”
“Den wy Smokey nu wan see Aqua?”
“Well, that’s a bit complicated. Actually, it’s what I wanted to talk to you and the others about. Let’s go so I can explain…”
Part Fifteen
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I’m really liking this story and the bit at a time pacing.
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Oh, I definitely have a lot of stuff planned for the story, but for now I’m trying to make sure it doesn’t turn into A Series of Unfortunate Events Fluffy Edition by having some lighter tone stuff between the darker elements. There’s still a definite end to the story that I have planned, but it’s still a ways off.
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I’m really glad, both for Sam’s sake and the sake of the other fluffies. Hope and Knight did everything right up to this point, I’d hate for them to suffer for what seems more like a neurological misfire on Aqua’s part.
You remove that one piece of faulty information from a fluffies thoughts early enough and the rest just tumbles into place. At least in this situation, a self made bestest babbeh is pretty rare but Aqua definitely fits.
Also, Auqa and Smokey babies would be so pretty, color-wise.
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