Hearth's Warming Party~

Night pouted when Indigo pulled the braid from her. But the pout quickly left her lips when Indigo pressed his lips to hers. This was much better.

Besides, as her hooves tangled into his mane she found another braid she could play with.

Minty blushed deeply, looking up at the mistletoe, shuffling her hooves. "U-uhm... Icarus?"

"M-Mmph?" Icarus grumbled, opening his eyes. "W-What's up?"

"What?" asked Intel cautiously, "Is this like the baseball thing you were talking about that one time?" He blushed with a mortified expression. "I- uh- wait, isn't that a bit quick?"

This Hearth's Warming party had officially gone off the rails of sanity, he thought. Silly hats were going to be imminent.

No, wait, he recognized this; it was flirting wasn't it? Well, this was going to be extremely discomforting. Thoughts rocketed, across his brain, but one in particular was burnt into his field of vision.

Say something

"We shouldn't rush things, should we?" Intel managed, sweating with an uneasy smile.

Shala audibly squeaked at how effective her flirt was on Intel. He took it far more seriously than she could have imagined.

Wow, he is SO gullible! I need to play this off real smooth.

She stifled her giggle as best as she could and put on her sexy poker face. "Oh come now Intel. We could do it right here. So long as we are quiet, no pony will notice." She said with a flick of her tail to add effect. She had no intention of going as far as he thought, but was happy to taunt him about it.

Indigo reached up to wrap his hooves around her neck and slowly closed his eyes. Now this was a party.

Minty blushes more, pointing up at the Mistletoe, sputtering a bit, "W-well, th-there is a, uhm... Mistletoe"

Icarus blinked, Blushed, and looked up. "... S-S-So t-there i-i-is."

The mistletoe shakes insistently.

Snap went the suspension of Intel's disbelief. The multitude of thoughts stopped shooting in random directions and all fired for the same purpose. He stopped sweating, and his smile became more relaxed. "Oh, I see," he sighed, "We're playing a completely different ball game."

Shaking his head at the now broken metaphor, he sipped more punch. A smirk grew on his face. "Well, Shala, despite your loveliness, I am afraid I will have to decline your tempting offer. Think of the scandal."

He looked over at where the mistletoe had landed. "And besides, we would miss out on something even more fascinating."

Night was never one for kissing with eyes closed, she would miss so much. Humming Night Nibbled on Indigo's lower lip before pulling back a little. "I want to see little Icarus Get his kiss." She whispered softly in Indigo's ear. She turned to see better, keeping her hooves wrapped around Indigo, It felt nice to hold somepony, and be held in return.

Disappointment was not enough to describe how Shala felt. Intel had caught on. And she would have none of that. Intel was going to squirm, and right now she wasn't feeling like being considerate or logical.

Shala appeared to think for a moment before calmly drinking the other half of her drink before setting it down before moving up right alongside Intel. She was centimeters from his face, smiling into his eyes.

"You know I'm far too blunt to say no to." Then she abruptly put a hoof around him and leaned into him to catch him as he fell back. Now with him in her hooves, she gave him a very 'exploratory' kiss.

Indigo found kissing with anypony's eyes open to be a little bit creepy. He had no idea why, he just thought that if somepony kept their eyes open, they could be trying to signal to an unseen accomplice to bash his head in or something else irrational. The feeling wasn't so profound that he didn't want to move away from Night's warmth though and turned his head to watch the two shy ponies.

"You fool! I'm going to miss them kiss!" was what Intel would have said if Shala hadn't prevented him from doing so. Instead, "Muhuu! Emungaingimis!" was what was said, and it was punctuated with frantic, but helpless, struggles.

Icarus blushed, and, knowing it's the only way they'd give Minty Peace...

Icarus leaned over and kissed Minty Right on the lips, Causing a Blush to rise up his face. He aimed for the Cheek, How did he miss?

Minty blushed deeply, blinking. She took a second to figure out what was happening before she kissed back.

"All right! I thought I'd have to push the two of you together!" Is something Indigo wanted to say, and nearly did. He stopped himself. Being a somewhat shy and most definitely reclusive pony himself, he absolutely could not stand it when other ponies tried to force him into something. He really hated extroverts for that reason. They're too caught up in putting on a show for everypony else they don't stop to think that there might actually be different personality types other than theirs. It was as if they all thought that anything other than cheerful bubblyness was inherently wrong. And that only made shy and reclusive ponies feel worse. What came out of his mouth was something more akin to:

"All right! I thought I'd... uh... oh *squee* it."

The mistletoe started to wave frantically as he started to cheer, then stopped and simply hung above them.

Even Shala looked up to get a glimpse of the kiss between Iccy and Minty. She smiled at the two, find it an adorable sight. All the while she lost her attention long enough that she lost her balance and tumbled over with Intel.

Quickly she got back onto her hooves and looked about innocently as if nothing happened.

As they Kissed Night Let out a little coo and patted Indigo on the back before untagling herself from his hooves. "Aww that's so sweet." She grinned at Icarus and Minty before picking up her punch cup and Walking over to the table for a refill.

Indigo levitated the mistletoe away from the pair and placed it in a spot he could remember for later shenanigans. He then gently took the cup from Night's mouth, "Here, let me get that for you," and refilled it with her punch of choice before bringing it back to her.

Intel got to his feet as well, cursing the fact he always ended up on the ground. However, he admitted it could have been worse. He didn't specify how, as that sort of thinking tempted fate. He smiled at the scene playing out before him. Yes, this was going to be a nice gathering. There hadn't even been one rude comment or snide remark, something almost unprecedented with these things. Admittedly, there was a lot of kissing going on, but that was preferable.

"Well, this is nice," Intel commented mildly to Shala, "So, I would ask how you have been, but it hardly has been long since I last saw you. I don't usually know what to do during these things, so I usually leave early. Can't really do that here, though."

Icarus blushed, slowly standing on his hooves. "W-W-Well, I-I-I-I... D-D-Did you w-w-w-want s-something?" He asked, bright red.

Shala smiled and rolled her eyes at Intel. "Well you not leaving. Not without me at least and there are those gift things still. If your bored, just drink." She said, quickly fetching him a glass of the alcoholic punch with her well practiced bar tending skills.

"If you really are that bored then small talk will just have to do."

Fluffing her Wings Night accepted the glass. Balancing it between her hooves.

"Thank you dear." Looking around at the rag tag group of ponies she frowned a little "I guess none of us have family in ponyville?" It was a question but the way she said it was more of a statment.

Indigo shook his head. "None here."