Trustfall || Sanders Sides Equestrian AU

Chapter 11 - Setting Rematch

Virgil practically launched himself into the stables when he arrived. An amused smile played on his instructor's lips as he dashed past her, barely even noting her presence.

"Someone's eager today," she scoffed.

"This place is my coffee," he responded in a flash before disappearing down the halls.

A playful breeze made its way into the stables through the cracks and blew a hello in his face as he rushed between the stalls. A couple of horses acknowledged the stable-hand with the flick of an ear before returning to their meals, allowing him to proceed.

Virgil couldn't remember the last time he felt a rock this heavy being lifted off his chest; the sight of a dark ear peeking from a nearby stall released a pressure that'd been set on his heart since the moment he'd woken up. As he came near, the rest of the horse was revealed to him, and the sight of her face seemed to have made the entire stables lit up with a new glow.

"Oh my god, Everest, I never thought I'd be this happy to see your skittish little face," Virgil let out and wrapped the horse in a hug, the end of the sentence getting muffled by her fur. Everest jerked back for a heartbeat, before relaxing into his embrace. Progress? He thought yes. "School is a nightmare, home is a nightmare, please let me stay here with you in our little bubble and never come out again. I'll bring the snacks, you get the DVDs?"

The mare blew into his ear, sending a tickly sensation prickling through it. Virgil wished he could spend every moment of his life with horses instead of humans. It was bitterly amusing, the way humans could understand every word that he said, yet could never understand him to the extent a horse could.

Everest followed him with her dark gaze as he made his way to the other side of the stall and slumped onto his regular spot on the hay bale. He could practically hear every last muscle in his body sigh in relief; despite having been sat on a chair most of the day while he studied, he felt as though he'd been up on his feet for hours. Perhaps because he never sat comfortably but tense and stiff.

But now, away from any human social situation looming above him, Virgil could finally relax. His friend gave him a long look from where she stood before flicking her tail and walking over to rest her nose by his chest. Her eyelids slipped down halfway in a sign of relaxation.

"School was awful," Virgil grumbled, letting his fingers trail down the horse's face. "I don't get how people can stand being in the presence of so many human beings at once and for so many hours. Everything was loud and saturated and stressful and I felt like I was drowning. You know what I'm talking about, right? Urgh, not to mention that I had an attack in front of a person."

With each word he allowed to slip out of his lips, a microscopic piece of the weight left as well. So Virgil spoke. And Everest listened.

"And then I went back home and home was rough, too. So you could say I didn't really have anywhere to escape to."

Everest blinked in the comfort of his voice, earning an unintentional smile from her rider.

"I don't know... it's just a little hard to look at my sister right now," he murmured, a lump of iron settling at the base of his throat. "I think it's hard for mom, too. She's been coming home late recently. Well, later than the usual. The only reason I even get to hear her walk in is that I don't go to sleep at the appropriate time for a healthy human being. Which also means I can't greet her when she arrives, because I need to pretend to be asleep."

It wasn't until he uttered the words aloud that they first sank in.

Wow. His life really was a mess, wasn't it.

"But- but it's fine now," he said stubbornly, almost as though trying to convince himself. "Because I'm back here with you now. I'll finish work real quick and we can go walk the paddock or something before our lesson. How does that sound?"