Finally, Astro gently knocked on the door. Astro anxiously waited for any sort of encouragement to open to door, but there wasn’t any. After a minute of silence, Astro actually thought of giving up, but then he heard a quiet “Come in.” The prince gulped before he smiled nervously and opened the door. There was his brother, hunched over his desk, looking deep in thoughts.
“Hi, Percy.” Astro said gently, watching as the dark purple colt turned his head slightly, making eye contact. Percy nodded but didn’t give Astro any other greeting. That’s fine, Astro really wasn’t expecting this to be easy. The young colt took a small step closer to the other, lifting the plate of cookies higher with his magic. “I just noticed you didn’t really leave your room this week, so I figured you had a lot of work.” Astro said, rambling. Percy nodded slowly.
“Yes, I had quite a lot of work.” He said simply, still holding the eye contact. For someone as socially awkward as Percy, he really didn’t have that much problem with eye contact, Astro thoughts with a grimace.
“Right. So I just thought I would bake you a cake!” Astro told him.
There was a beat of silence before Percy pointed at the floating plate. “I don’t think that is a cake, Astro.” He pointed out. Astro let out a small chuckle, still a bit nervous, but Percy actually talking to him calmed the younger brother down. “Yeah. I… tried to bake a cake.” Astro said, rubbing the back of his neck with his hoof. “The cake looked horrible, I really didn’t want you to see that disaster. So I made you some cookies instead!” Astro continued.
“You made them for me.” Percy said slowly, lifting one of his eyebrows.
“Yeah!” Astro smiled.
“Why?
That question took Astro by surprise. Why wouldn’t he? They are siblings, they do nice things for each other, right? It’s just a small act of kindness, everypony does them for their friends and family. It’s normal…..so then why was Astro having trouble answering. He opened his mouth, before he closed it again, thinking. Percy never stopped watching him.
“Well, why not?” Astro finally replied, avoiding eye contact. Percy didn’t say anything, he just turned back to the paper on his desk.
Astro sighed, before he put the plate on Percy’s desk, “If you want more, there are a lot in the kitchen. It would be nice to see you out of your room again.” He joked, but there wasn’t any reaction from Percy. The young prince sighed again before he smiled at his brother. “Well, see you later?”
Percy was silent for a second, looking lost in thoughts again before he slowly nodded. “Yes, see you later.” Astro took that as a win, his smile widening. Astro went to the door.
“Bye, Percy.”
“Goodbye, Astro.”
As Astro was making his way to the kitchen to have dinner with his parents, he couldn’t help but keep smiling. Percy never replied to him so much. He had an actual conversation with his brother. It was nice.