Chicken Long Rice

It wasn’t like Hunk to be late, and especially not for their morning walk to chemistry class. While he and Pinkie liked to meet up early to trade breakfast treats and take their time walking to class together and chatting, at this rate they’d have to jog to make it to lecture on time. Professor Rodríguez was excitable and friendly, but with her mile-a-minute teaching style every minute was vital to hear.

Pinkie pulled out her phone and tapped out a quick text.

Morning Hunk! <3<3<3
Are you almost here? It’s getting pretty late.

It took a few minutes- during which Pinkie worried he might’ve gotten kidnapped or something- but then it showed there was typing on the other end of the conversation, and eventually a reply.

morning
yeah ill be theer
kinda slow this morning sorry
you go on ahead i dont want you to be latte
*late

That… didn’t sound too good. Hunk’s texts were usually a lot neater than that. Still, at least he responded. And he shouldn’t be too far behind if he was texting her right then.

Okey-dokey-lokey, if you’re super duper sure. (I like walking with you better though. =C)

im sure see you soon baeb

I’ll save your spot then, love you~ <3<3<3

Pinkie made it to class just fine with a good run, just before the professor started talking. But still no Hunk. And it was so hard not looking back towards the door every ten seconds, only barely restraining herself to looking back every thirty seconds instead. And forget focusing on the lecture, her mind was focused on making sure Hunk was all right. He’d responded to her texts so he hadn’t been kidnapped or anything (she hoped, she hoped), so where could be possibly be?

Sixteen head turns and a handful of seconds later, the door behind them began to creak open, and Hunk snuck-- actually, maybe lumbering or staggering would be a better verb for how he approached the chair next to Pinkie’s, steps too heavy and breathing way too hard in between the hoarse litany of “excuse me, sorry about that” to be stealthy. When he finally sat down, the smile he gave her wasn’t just sheepish but weak as well, and his face was pale and coated in a good sheen of sweat even with how chilly this morning was.

“H-hey, Pinkie,” he whispered, even that being weaker than usual. “Sorry about the wait. What’d I miss?”

“Just some talking stuff, but geez, Hunk, what’d I miss? You look like a zombie that just ran a marathon!”

Hunk gave a very soft laugh as he bent down to unpack his materials, hands slow and even shaking a bit.

“Okay, okay, I’m really am sorry I’m late, I had a hard time getting up and out the door this morning. No need--” he cut himself off to cover a cough with his elbow, “sorry, no need for the insults. Now seriously, where are we?”

Her face scrunched up, and the next second she was standing up and packing her stuff.

“Right now, we’re in Melvin Hall Auditorium, but I think we should head back to your dorm. Come on, I can help carry your stuff.”

“What? Come on, Pinkie, I just got here, we can’t just skip--”

Pinkie moved in front of him and leveled him one of her most serious faces, all 5’2” of her saying “no buts, mister."

“Ikaika Garrett, you were eight minutes and six seconds late for class, missed our breakfast walk completely, you can’t even text straight so I have no idea how you’re going to write notes down, you’re pale, you’re sweating when it’s about 60 degrees Fahrenheit out there right now, you’re so hot I could feel you from just sitting next to you, you sound like you just gave a death metal concert, at this point your cough’s just the cherry on the sundae, and being sick is the worst sundae ever. Either we walk back to your dorm together, or I’m texting Applejack so she can help me drag you there since you’re way too big to do it myself without hurting something.”

Well… after a speech like that there wasn’t much Hunk could do other than gulp (which also helped the itch in his throat for a sliver of a second), nod, and meekly start re-packing. That made his girlfriend’s expression soften a bit.

“Don’t worry, I’ll help get you back on your feet in no time, sweetie.”