"...And then..." Spike gulped down what he had been chewing. "...and then she asks me "Hey, did you bring the book?""
 "What book?" Starlight kept cutting patterns into a paper sheet with small, sharp telekinetic pulses, drinking coffee distractedly.
 "Exactly! I asked her, and she started going on about how the polyamorous relationships of Equestrian griffons could be tracked from pre-classical pegasi colony of yffradael" he took another gem and threw it to his mouth. "And how this book she had never mentioned -and never mentioned again- was important to prove it to the professor" he shifted in the sofa.
Starlight took her gaze from the paper to him, eyebrow raised, and back to the paper.
 "You are a walking dictionary, did you know that?" she changed the paper for another, leaving the last in a table besides the sofa. "Iftha- ibdha..." she paused for a moment "How did you pronounce it?"
 "It's "ei-fhtd-ra-daaril"" he said nonchalantly.
 "Huh"
Spike waited silently for her to say something else for a moment, but she kept cutting the paper.
 "Well, we didn't have the book, so she got worked up and started-" [i]you are a walking dictionary[/i]. "-extrapolating from history books that covered the colony and how it influenced griffon migration-"
Twilight walked in, and Spike made gestures for her to get out. She smirked knowingly and walked out silently.
 "What was with the professor?" asked Starlight nearly a minute later, refilling her coffee cup from a pot in the small table.
 "The- Oh, Twilight started extrapolating from a bunch of books, getting more and more worked up and making her flowchart larger," he took another gem from his bowl and started moving it from hand to hand anxiously. "she ended up filling four chalkboards"
 "That sounds like her" she gave a look to the clock, took the paper pages and piled carefully them in different angles, and used a simple light spell in them. The pages vibrated for a second, and with a snapping sound a floating image of a mare watching a tree appeared above them, "How is it?"
He squinted at it, taking in the small details -insects in the tree leafs, a small flower in the mare's ear, the shadows of twilight- with a sense of wonder. The fact that it was bicrome, only two shades of turquoise plus empty spaces, only made the level of detail stand out more.
 "Cool," he nodded in reverie "Really, really cool"
 "Thanks!" she smiled faintly and teleported it away to wherever she stored her light sculptures "I have to work, see you later" she teleported away.
Spike was tense and still for a moment, his mind busy with a intense process of cataloguing, summarizing, and qualifying every instant of the past hour.
 "Alright" he let himself relax and put his back against the sofa. "Alright" he repeated, his eyes still unfocused and deep in thought.
He was still in the sofa staring at the ceiling when Twilight walked into the room nearly an hour later. Upon noticing him in the shades of the descending sun, she stopped and watched him quietly, her face a mix of curiosity, amusement and -had Spike bothered to look deep enough into her features- a tinge of worry.
 "So?" she asked when Spike made no sound other than a barely verbalized Hi
 "I think I like her" he admitted reluctantly.
 "You think?"
 "I could be wrong. Maybe. I guess"
 "You casanova," she jumped up to the sofa. "You'll get all of the mares at this rate"
 "Hmmm," he didn't move a muscle. "I am not doing very good"
 "Oh, you'll learn"
Spike took a moment to answer, "I'll ruin this too. I didn't make a move on Rarity and now she is convinced I was just some kid with a crush"
 "When you met her you [i]were[/i] a kid"
 "But I am eighteen now. I am not a kid anymore" he said, realizing immediately that it didn't sound quite so decisive out of his head. In fact, it sounded like the past seventeen iterations of the phrase. "Shinning is the only one of us who'll ever be married, isn't he"
Twilight ignored the -she guessed- unintentional slight, "You are more mature than most ponies realize," she covered him with a wing. "What do you like about her?"
 "I guess..." he played with the gem that, he realized, still was in his claws. "...that-" he cut himself, but decided to say it anyway. "That she isn't like you? Does that sound weird?"
 "Hey, of us both you have the most experience in romance" she pulled him a bit closer. "And romance is supposed to be weird, I guess. But could you be more specific?"
 "That she's... wild? I mean, I grew up with you and Cadance and Celestia and Velvet and Moonlight near. Its still kinda weird to see a unicorn who doesn't go nuts about books" he threw the gem -a ruby- from hand to hand like a ball. "What she knows of magic she's learned on her own. She told me that's why she has so much magic, because she had to learn the hard way"
 "And?" Twilight urged him on. "I can heard an and" she insisted when he remained silent.
 "And she has nice flanks" He muttered. "But why would I tell her that? "Hey, I'd totally pound you"" he added in a faux masculine voice.
 "That's... that's more of a question for Rarity or Cadance. Maybe Pinkie and Rainbow too" she cringed slightly at the subject.
 "Rarity?" he cringed at the name instead. "That'd be-"
 "Awkward? Supremely so" nodded Twilight. "But she's the romantic one," she nudged him softly and jumped from the sofa. "I have to go, but if you want to talk I'll be back by the morning" when she was nearly out of the room, she turned back to him, her face unreadable in the shadows. "If I will you something, can you promise me to not get mad?" she asked hesitantly.
 "Sure" he nodded without a moment's pause.
 "Starlight..." she paused. "I don't quite trust her yet. Can you promise me to be careful? That if you... [i]do something[/i] with her and something about her worries you, you'll tell me?"
 "Uhm, sure. I'll try to"
 "No, Spike," she walked closer to him, and now he could read worry in her face. "Don't just try. I know you can defend yourself. I know you are a tough bo- guy, emotionally and physically, and more mature than your years, that's why I let you go with her in the Empire. But if she does anything that worries you in any way, please tell me of it, alright?"
He was taken aback by her expression, but managed a nod.
 "Thanks" she nodded curtly, already forming the mask that he called Princess Sparkle. "I am late for the meeting, see you"