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Fluffy Fever

by Eyeswirl the Weirded

Chapter 2: Chapter 2: Check-Up

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Adagio came back with the quilt, resting a knee on the bed to lean over and maneuver it behind Sunset as a big, soft super-pillow. It was almost like Sunset had Adagio's hair! Despite feeling a little cozier, Sunset frowned, looking away.

"Uh... I should probably say 'sorry.'"

Humoring her, Adagio raised an eyebrow. "Why is that?"

Sunset took a breath. "When you first got here, I kinda thought you were gonna do something... not nice. Possibly painful." The sudden, incredulous, possibly annoyed look made her defensive. "Part of it is your face, I mean, I-I can't help it if that slasher smile you're always sporting looks a little threatening," realizing that that was a not-nice thing to say, she quickly backpedaled, "I mean, not that I'm saying you look scary all the time, or that there's anything wrong with your teeth, what kind of toothpaste do you use? Because, they're actually very nice, no matter how you smile!"

In response to Adagio's increasingly bewildered look, she found herself grinning sheepishly. What the Hell am I saying?!

Unfortunately, her mouth didn't slow down where her brain did. "It's like I said back in Fatbear's; you still have your face going for you because you're good at smiling and that's good for dealing with people, even when you're threatening them! Not that I think you're threatening me now, but when you walked in you looked a little mua-ha-ha about it," her voice started going squeaky as she ran out of breath during the stream of verbal vomit, "so I kinda-sorta might have jumped to conclusions -which I'm sorry about- in thinking you were gonna duct-tape me to the ceiling or something as part of that 'revenge' you warned me about last week while I wastooweaktodefendmyselfsosorryaboutthat?" She sucked in a deep breath.

There was a pause as Adagio stared at her wide-eyed. "...If I understood that correctly; I scared you a little when I first got here, you're now aware that I mean no harm, and," there was a tiny smirk, "you can't get enough of my smile?" She took Sunset burying her face in the covers as a collective "yes," which drew a chuckle. Then, thinking about it, she frowned. "You've really been expecting some kind of revenge for the last week or so?"

Peeking out from the covers, Sunset nodded, her reply partly muffled. "Sorry. I know I shouldn't expect so little from a friend-" repaying favors or not, the word didn't feel like a stretch anymore, "-but, I guess..." She shrugged. "I don't know, something about the idea of you trying to get one over on me gets me all paranoid, like it's a game I really don't wanna lose."

Adagio tilted her head a little. "Is this why you acted so strangely around me for the duration of our deal? Sitting a few seats away from me at lunch, giving me odd looks in hallways, and just generally staying out of arm's reach?" She blinked, talking quicker than necessary herself for a moment. "Not that I wanted you in arm's reach or anything, but it does seem like strange behavior, more-so for someone that supposedly wanted me, Aria, and Sonata to attend classes."

To all of that, Sunset just nodded. "I guess this is something I do with all my friends at first; expect them to pull some kind of prank on me, be ready to dodge it and get them back as soon as possible, and feel like a complete tool when it turns out they never had anything like that in mind. So, again, sorry I didn't trust you."

Adagio stared back at her for a moment, then snorted, covered her mouth with a hand, and turned away in a thin attempt to hide her giggles.

Even if it was possibly at her own expense, Sunset smiled a little too. "What? Did I say something funny?" She had to wait until the giggling siren could compose herself enough to reply.

Adagio offered a shaky smile. "Ih-hit's j-just, I can relate, you know?"

Memory of their discussion following the heist hit Sunset like a shovel to the face. "Ohh!" She giggled, little prickles of pain reminding her of her fever. "Yea, I guess you would. Still no hotsauce pans or thumbtack surprises, I hope?"

"Electrified thumbtack surprises, but no, thankfully no pranks. Well, not directed at me, anyway." Sunset's raised eyebrow urged her to go on. "Sonata tried to get Aria to stub her toe on a brick by leaving it just outside her bedroom door the other day, but to measure where exactly to leave it for the best chance of that, she tried dropping it half an inch in front of her foot. Three guesses how that turned out."

Sunset rolled her eyes and smiled. "Do Aria's pranks ever backfire?"

"Sometimes. The most recent was about a month ago, when she tried to leave a bucket of glue over Sonata's door and somehow got her hands stuck together, palm-to-palm." Sunset was already snickering, but there was more. "It actually turned out pretty well for her, once she decided to own it, put on a heavy robe, and go around acting like she was a monk until we could get the glue off."

Howling with head-pain-inducing laughter for all of four seconds, Sunset quickly fell into a coughing fit, but she didn't lose her smile. "I-I'm gues-" she cleared her throat, "I'm guessing you had to 'patch them up' both times?"

Adagio let out a mock-beleagured sigh. "And many times since. On that note, do you need anything right now?"

"Umm..." She couldn't think of anything, but the prospect of being left by herself again wasn't an appealing one. "I don't think so," she said with a hopeful smile, "but, somebody to talk to would be nice."

Taking the hint, Adagio nodded, leisurely sitting on the bed. "You know, it's funny that you should worry about revenge. Shortly after the Battle of the Bands, all three of us were completely on board with making your lives Hell. Then, a week later, we found our throats had healed nicely and we were able to speak normally again. As that was actually a bigger problem for us than losing our magic, avenging ourselves felt a little less... urgent? The benefits to our new situation had started to sink in by then, you see."

That she was saying all of this with her pleasant expression unchanged was a little disconcerting, but more notable to Sunset was her word choice. "Wait, you guys couldn't talk normally at all after the Battle? It wasn't just your singing voices?"

Rolling her eyes a little, Adagio's cheeks colored brightly. "As I said once before, having an enchanted stone broken while magically attached to you can have unpleasant side effects, like throat damage that left all three of us squeaking and chirping like rodents for about a week." She crossed her arms as she waited, but to her surprise, Sunset only gave her a sad stare. "...Well?"

She understood that Adagio was expecting laughter and mockery, but none came. "It's not funny, Adagio, and I'm sorry that happened to you. I can't imagine how difficult a simple thing like buying food must have been when you sounded like that, let alone getting a job to be able to do it."

With a quiet sigh, the formerly-squeaky siren shrugged. "We got by, Sunset Shimmer."

It was probably better not to ask exactly what they had to do, but Sunset noted in her head to be there if any of the trio ever wanted to talk. "R-right..." She managed a hopeful, if slightly nervous smile. "So, after you guys got better?"

Adagio regained a more relaxed posture. "Revenge was put on the back-burner while we scrambled to secure our living situation. I won't dwell on details, but while that was getting sorted out, I gave Aria and Sonata a chance to come up with something for striking back at your group that wouldn't obviously come back to bite us, whether it actually impacted the lot of you or not. Some of their ideas were, interesting, but that second part proved to be the sticking point."

Looking away as she twirled a lock of orange around a finger, Adagio chuckled. "I kept telling myself that I'd weave something to get our payback when I could hold a job. I think you remember things from there?"

Smiling with relief now, Sunset nodded just gently enough that it didn't make her headache worse. "So, no revenge? Because I distinctly remember that nixing the idea of getting back at anyone for the Fall Formal was an important part of moving on for me."

The siren gently shook her fluffy head. "No revenge, because between daring rescues and lending a hand when we needed it, you've already helped pay us back, most of all with the heist." Shrugging, Adagio smiled at her, unconsciously validating Sunset's comment from a few moments ago. "I think, with all that's happened in the last couple of months, we're about even. Or," she reached out to boop Sunset's nose, "we will be, once you're healthy again."

Blinking twice at the nose-boopery, Sunset giggled. "Well, it hasn't all been easy, particularly getting blasted in the gut, but I'm glad I could help." The smile faded. "What Sonata did with that drill, though..." The nightmares had stopped with Fluttershy's help, but she still shuddered.

Good-naturedly rolling her eyes, Adagio chuckled. "Yes, Sonata has proven surprisingly good with this world's technology on a few occasions. Not a genius by any measure, but give her time and she can get just about any common machinery going, hence letting her tend the drill." She thoughtfully touched a finger to her chin. "All things considered, that Tank's eyeball was as good a place as any for a drill-bit at the ti-"

Subject change, now!! "W-what got Sonata so into screwing with tech? I mean, don't get me wrong, I had a little discovery phase myself when I got here, but...?"

Adagio dismissively waved a hand. "It's not like taking things apart to see how they work is a hobby of hers, just something she's done a few-..." She trailed off, a few different rows lining up in her head. "Huh. Actually, perhaps what we used to do, breaking up comaraderie and all, does vaguely translate to a fondness for taking things apart, for opening them up and seeing what secrets they kept beneath. You recall that Aria enjoys picking locks?"

Deciding not to ask what the licking was about, Sunset just nodded.

"It might just be that the three of us are still, technically, creatures of chaos, that disrupting any sort of order is almost- but then, why don't I...?" After a minute's contemplation, she gave Sunset an almost apologetic grin. "I, I haven't exactly worked this out yet, but if there is something of the sort influencing our behavior, I don't think it's done anything to me so far."

"Have you ever asked Aria and Sonata why they do those things, respectively?"

"Sonata said it was idle curiosity, and as we were new to the realm when it began, I was in favor of letting her learn whatever she could report back to me with." She deadpanned. "As you may have guessed, this was where I learned to treat cuts, bruises, and electrical burns..."

Sunset giggled at the short series of mental images. "And, Aria?"

"Just likes lockpicking." Sunset was tilting her head in almost disappointed fashion. Adagio shrugged. "That's the long and short of it, she just really likes picking locks, ever since seeing it in a spy movie. I didn't continually ask as she developed this little quirk, so all I know is that it's a relatively serious thing for her now." She chuckled. "Want to keep Aria out of something? Put a cheap, 'easy' lock on it and she'll be convinced that whatever's inside couldn't be worth her time."

Thinking for a minute, Sunset cautiously raised an eyebrow. "...Does she just randomly break into places, or...?"

"If so, she's remained adept enough at staying out of sight that even I don't know about it."

"You gave that answer kind of quickly."

"The question has occurred to me before."

Sunset looked at Adagio, who looked back at her with a completely passive expression. Sunset smiled first, quickly transitioning to contagious giggles, which led to both laughing until Sunset started coughing again, drawing a hand to her forehead in the vain effort to hold back the brain-stinginess.

Adagio composed herself well enough to voice the question. "Feeling alright?"

Still letting the coughing fit run its course, Sunset nodded. "Y-*koff!*-yea, I'm f-fi-*koffkoff!* ...Egh. I'm fine." Ooh, come to think of it... "Well, actually, do you think you could bring me some aspirin? I might still have some in the bathroom cabinet."

Nodding affirmatively, Dr. Dazzle got up to go look, again leaving Sunset alone with her thoughts.

Author's Notes:

Experimenting a bit with short, digestible chapters... except for the next one, where I couldn't find a good cut-off point.

No, they did not have to resort to prostitution to get by, but it was a very difficult week.

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-Omake:-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-
Adagio: "Aria? How did you put that robe on with your hands glued together?"
Aria: "I don't understand the question."
Adagio: "..."
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Next Chapter: Chapter 3: Old Symptoms Estimated time remaining: 47 Minutes
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