It only took three more days of 'but what if we did?' for you to put your foot down. Timing be damned, there were only so many pairs of pants you could send to the cleaners before deciding to move forward. It wasn't like either of you was happy about waiting, either. Glimmer Wing would send you little love-notes at night, flitting about your window and hanging upside down with a cute little cut-out heart-shape in paper hanging between her teeth, her fangs poking out over the top and shimmering in the moonlight.

You'd open the window, and want to let her in, but she'd always stay just outside, hanging there, your lips again pushed into proximity, the air between lighting up with scattered electricity.

"We shouldn't," you said as you leaned out the window towards her mouth.

"I know," she said, leaning back away from you, wiggling her tongue playfully. "But what if we did?"

You decided to ask her about it the next day.

"I think we should talk to your parents," you said, sounding more sure than you felt. The cafe where you'd had lunch with Rarity and Spike served as a kind of out-of-the-way recouperation area, somewhere you could sit away from the eyes of prying ponies, because they were mostly interested in their sandwiches, and maybe even hold Glimmer Wing's hoof under the table, though that meant you had to keep her from moving her hoof along your leg and down to your crotch below the table...

Glimmer Wing tilted her head at you like you'd suggested reading a salad for breakfast.

"You know they're not a fan of us being together, right?"

You nodded.

"I know that. But I also feel like they're going to have to get used to it eventually. We can't keep sneaking around all the time. I wanna be able to hold your hoof in public, or kiss you..."

Glimmer Wing blushed and fell silent. Maybe she was thinking about kisses.

"They're not gonna be happy," she said after a while. She looked up at you with her soft, innoccent eyes, making you wonder if there were better words in the dictionary to describe somepony who was simultaneously delicate and fiery, supple but strong, somepony who seemed not to fit into the simple sorting between ponies willing to do what it took to get what they needed, and the other kind. Glimmer Wing didn't seem like the type of pony to run away just because there was something scary at the end of the cave. Maybe she was the something scary at the end of her cave. Her fangs poked out as she was looking at you, and you felt a shiver run up your back and settle in your stomach, finding it hard not to stare at the little pointed teeth leering in your direction. How do teeth leer? They gaze. They point. Certainly they can leer. They have eyes, don't they?

"I know," you said. You put your hand on her hoof, overtop the table, and let it rest there, even though both of you could feel the urge to pull away, to hide what was in front of you.

"They're also kinda... weird."

Raised eyebrow.

"'Weird' how?"

Glimmer Wing sighed.

"Maybe you'd just better see for yourself..."

And, like that, the pieces on the playing board moved a single square forward.

Sometimes, all you have to do is ask.

"Can you meet me at my place tomorrow night?" Glimmer Wing asked. She took a sip and finished off her glass of water, and a tiny few beads of moisture ran down her lips and chin and sparkled in the sunlight.

"Uh," you said, rubbing the back of your head. "I don't exactly know where that is yet."

"I know," she said, smiling. "I didn't tell you because... well. I thought we might get into trouble."

"What makes you think we won't anyway?"

Both of you grinned in the summer sunlight.