Pas(sade) de Cheval

Corner

"Mr. Ryan Ross?" One of the officials addressed him. Ryan broke apart from Brendon and nodded his assent. "Can you come with me, please?" Ryan gave Brendon's hand a squeeze before he followed the woman off in the direction of the stables. The woman didn't give off an air of bearing good news, and he found his heart was suddenly pounding for a different reason.

"Can I ask what this is about?" Ryan asked, having to jog to keep up with her quick stride, despite his legs being much longer than hers. 

She answered without looking at him. "You were selected for the random drug testing. Congratulations." Her voice was monotone, and struck an intense juxtaposition to the reaction it caused in him. He felt like all the blood drained from his face and his life flashed before his eyes. He tried to keep his feet moving, but the shock hit him like a brick wall.

Almost as an out of body experience, he heard himself asking, "What exactly does that entail?" He was surprised that his voice came out calm and disinterested, even though he'd broken out into a cold sweat.

The official looked at him like he was the stupidest person she'd ever met. "Your horse pees in a cup." 

Ryan nodded slowly, the blackness that had been encroaching on his vision starting to fade. "Right. Of course." He followed her into a different stable than Betty's stall was in, and he saw Zack already there, holding Betty and looking a little smug. Ryan narrowed his eyes at Zack, but otherwise didn't acknowledge him. He took Betty's lead and walked her into a stall where the official proceeded to collect a urine sample in a cup at the end of a stick. When she said he was free to go, he almost sighed with relief. He felt like he'd narrowly avoided a heart attack.

He and Zack silently walked back to the other barn where Brendon was nervously pacing up and down the aisle. He whipped around and stalked up to Ryan when he saw them. His hands raised as if to grab onto Ryan, but instead they opened and closed on thin air before he shoved them into his pockets. "What was all that about?" He immediately questioned. 

"Drug testing," Zack interjected before Ryan got a chance to. "Close call, kid," he said with a little more condescension than Ryan was expecting. 

Zack disappeared into Betty's stall with her as Ryan glowered after them. Brendon rocked onto the balls of his feet, and the motion drew Ryan's attention back to him. "Did you, uh," Brendon started, his gaze focused steadily at a spot over Ryan's shoulder, "want to go pick a place on the course to see Spencer's ride?" 

Ryan let a little of the anger drain out of him and smiled at Brendon. "Where were you thinking?"

Brendon screwed his face up in thought before announcing, "I know the perfect place."

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Brendon had lead them to a spot between fences seven and eight, and the way the course looped back around made it so they could also see the riders go over jump ten and disappear into some trees. 

One of the jumps for a lower level, which wasn't being used in this event, was in the shape of a giant bench. They were sitting on it, Ryan with his legs curled up beneath him, Brendon with an ankle resting on his knee, foot bobbing with excess energy. There was only a couple of centimeters of space between them, but Ryan felt like he was aware of every atom.

A horse and rider came into view, and Ryan recognized them from the day before in dressage. They seemed a lot more confident on the course than they had in the ring, and Ryan wondered why people who weren't well rounded decided to do eventing. Eventing really required you to be good at everything, and that was why he loved it so much. 

Brendon spoke then, expressing essentially the same thought he'd been having. "They look way happier jumping than they did in dressage." Ryan smiled sideways at him as Brendon looked down at his watch. "Spencer was supposed to start around now, right?"

Ryan leaned closer to see the time on his watch, even though he could have more easily checked his own. "Yeah, we should be just in time." His shoulder was now pressed against Brendon's from when he'd leant in, and he figured it was more comfortable to stay there than to sit upright again. 

Another horse went over jump seven, but when they approached jump eight, the horse notably started to back off and tried to run around it. The rider did a good job stopping that, but instead the horse slammed to a halt right at the base of the jump. The rider fell forward in the saddle, but managed to stay on. She circled and reapproached, succeeding in making it over the jump on the second try with a very determined look on her face. Brendon grinned like a proud parent, even though Ryan was pretty sure he didn't know the girl. 

As the rider cleared jump ten, a silence fell between them. Ryan wasn't sure why it suddenly felt like he was waiting for something to happen.

Brendon looked sideways at Ryan and hesitated a moment before speaking. "Can I ask you a question?" 

"Of course. Always," Ryan responded. He wanted to hear what Brendon was thinking more than anything, and he didn't even consider that he could ask a question Ryan wouldn't want to answer.

Brendon swallowed, considering his words before he spoke them. "Was that your first kiss?"

Ryan tried not to react, but he hadn't expected that to be the question. His mind filled with uncertainty. Was Brendon asking because he'd been a bad kisser? Had he done something wrong? Instead he somehow chose to just be honest. "Yeah, it was," he replied, not able to look at Brendon for fear of blushing more than he already was.

There was another moment of silence, and when Ryan finally chanced a glance over at him, he seemed to be fighting to keep a huge grin off his face, but when he noticed Ryan looking, he couldn't contain it anymore. His eyes shone with happiness as Ryan smiled back at him, all of their doubts dissolving. 

Brendon flinched a little bit. "Do you feel rain?" he asked, looking up at the overcast sky.

Ryan held a hand out palm facing upwards, and just as he was about to say no, he felt a drip hit his hand. "Oh, shit, yeah." He managed to say, just before a light rain started. 

Brendon let out a disbelieving laugh as he grabbed Ryan's hand and ran to the closest batch of trees. The cover was sufficient enough that they only felt the occasional drip snaking its way through the leaves over their heads. The rain got heavier, and they could barely see the riders that were still going past. Apparently it hadn't been deemed severe enough to stop. 

They saw a larger horse go by, and Ryan tried to decide if it was Spencer or not. He turned to Brendon to ask his opinion, but his mind went blank when he saw how Brendon was staring at him. "What?" he asked, suddenly self-conscious.

Brendon shook his head, seeming to snap out of the daze he was in. "Oh uh," he suddenly blushed a deep shade of red, "I was just remembering that one summer where we rode the horses through the sprinkler. Your hair was about as long as it is now." He absent-mindedly reached out and touched one of the pieces of hair that curled softly by Ryan's face. It was damp with rain, but the shiver that ran up Ryan's spine didn't seem to be caused by the weather.

"That was a good day," Ryan replied, his voice barely above a whisper. Brendon nodded, his gaze still focused on the lock of hair between his fingers.

"Hey," Brendon's hand slid down to his neck, and the warmth it gave off was felt through Ryan's whole body, "are we really doing this?"

Ryan's brain felt foggy as he studied the flecks of colour in Brendon's eyes. "What do you mean?"

Brendon kissed him softly, just a chaste press of his lips on Ryan's. "This. Us."

Ryan could sense the nervousness that Brendon was trying desperately to hide. He tried to smile in a way that was reassuring. "Fuck, I sure hope so."  He laughed before kissing Brendon again.