Looking at Applejack’s hands was so much easier. After everything she said. everything they said, Fluttershy couldn’t even think of looking in her eyes. But her hands were warm and strong and comfort and home, and even just looking at them, Fluttershy could feel them just as surely as if they were wrapped around her.
 
So maybe, Fluttershy wondered, her hands would be the easiest place to start.
 
Fluttershy reached out and held them in her own. She squeezed them and felt them squeeze back. She stroked the backs of Applejack’s hands with her fingertips and felt them shudder. And slowly, gently, lifted them up to her lips and left a kiss on her right hand.
 
When Applejack gasped, Fluttershy met her gaze without thinking, and when Applejack smiled, Fluttershy couldn’t look away anymore.