Aqua Equus

Wild Horses

I shook my dripping hair, pulling mud covered boots off and traipsing through the kitchen in my socks. I headed straight towards the mug cupboard, and set about making myself a coffee.

"Your socks have rainbows on them. And unicorns?"

"Shut up Arrow." I hissed, glancing at him walk into the kitchen, and make himself some toast.

"They're cute." He smiled. "You had me worried, though. I woke up, and you weren't there."

"Well, some of us have jobs to do." I retorted, downing my coffee and heading back towards the door. I passed the cork board, unpinning a shopping list from it. "Hey, you want to go riding into the town?" I asked.

"Sure." Arrow shrugged. "We can count it as training."

"Okay." I shrugged. "You good with saddle bags?"

"Not sure, let's try." He replied, smiling. He took his toast out into the yard, as he followed me into the tack room. "Why'd it have to rain?" He hissed, munching his toast quickly.

I smiled slightly, pushing him gently towards the door. "They were from Luca." I smiled.

"What were?" He asked, standing in the rain.

"My socks."
Arrow smirked, and disappeared towards the barn, head bent against the rain.

I rode into the nearest town, Arrow slick with rain, my hair and his mane both dripping. I wasn't looking forward to dealing with the damp leather when I got home, but being out there, in the rain, with Arrow, I didn't care. We clattered down the cobbled streets towards a small grocery shop, and I slipped down from Arrow's saddle. "Can you stay here of your own accord, or do I need to loop the reins round a post?" I asked, grinning. He snorted, and nudged me towards the shop. I smiled back at him, and ducked inside, out of the rain.
"You're one of Miriam's kids, aren't you?" The shopkeeper asked, when I took the things on my list up to the counter. I nodded silently. "Nice horse. Better be careful, or someone will have him off you."

I nodded again, heading back out into the rain.
Arrow had disappeared.
"Fuck." I whispered to myself, instantly worrying. What if someone had kidnapped him?
I whirled around at the sound of hooves. Behind me was the horse I knew so well, looking at me expectantly.
"Don't wander off again." I muttered. We must have made an odd sight, boy and horse, forehead to forelock, looking at each other. "You scared me." I packed the food into the saddle bags, and pulled myself up into the saddle. "Let's get home."

The next few weeks passed in a blur of training. I started to jump Arrow properly, and it was the easiest time I'd had doing so. I also finished working with Lucifer, my time working on the farm reverting back to my normal jobs, such as mucking out and cleaning tack, which Arrow insisted on helping with.
He slept in my bed every night, made me eat meals, and made me feel loved. He frowned at me when I smoked, listened when I spoke, made me laugh more than I had previously thought I could.
I let him talk me into watching crap TV with him, smiled at him talking animatedly about stuff, kissed him regularly.

New photos started to appear on my pinboard. Arrow laughing at the other end of the sofa; the two of us smiling in the rain, on the beach. A black horse nudging my arm.
Even one with Teo, sat on Arrow's shoulders, his arms holding her legs securely as she reached up with a pair of clippers to trim one of the orange trees.
A photo of Arrow in the lean-to greenhouse, smiling down at the plant in his arms.
They all seemed to feature Arrow. Smiling, frowning, smirking. Reading, laughing, riding. Lying on my bed, sitting on the manger in a stall, curled up on a bench in the corner of the kitchen.
He had become my world, similar to Luca in some ways, but so very different.