#catch her wearing cowboy boots and hats yeehaw

[achliegh]

Golden

(Sorry if this Chapter is lack luster :/ )

Yeehaw Leo… it's all because this song came on one day (I don’t even really listen to country anymore so it really is fate). Leo is based off that song, each chapter is going to be based off a yeehaw song too.

Characters belong to @lumosinlove

TW/CW: Smut, terrible yeehaw sayings and jokes, injuries, mentions of past death, minor character death, underage drinking, mentions of past arrests, cringe

Chapter Songs (listening in order is recommended):

Ladies Love Country Boys

Bonfire Playlist: Spotify, Youtube

Watching Airplanes

Chapter 2:

Cowboy Sweet Ass sent you a Location

New Message from Cowboy Sweet Ass

See you there ;)

Finn was nervous, he wasn’t gonna lie, Logan and Him are leaving tomorrow for Gryff and this is the last night they can see Leo. Who, neither of them will admit this, has kindly wiggled his way into their brains for every minute of everyday. Sometimes to break a long silence between the two of them they will talk about Leo. How they were going to cope when they can’t see him again is unknown and something he didn’t want to think about.

They hadn’t actually seen Leo in the past five days, with their training schedule and Leo helping set up a charity arena for the thing they were supposed to meet him at tonight, it was just late night calls that were still kinda awkward at times. But always had them smiling as they fell asleep.

Walking up the dirt path, where the uber had dropped them off, Logan and Finn weren’t sure they were in the right place until they saw the huge crowd gathered around a tall metal fence with bleachers and an announcers corner that's up on a hydraulic lift, speakers set up so people can hear the quick talking of the men commenting on whatever was happening.

Horses and people on them were everywhere. This causes Logan a lot of stress, as someone who is terrified of horses… This is not ideal. Especially when one is trotting toward them at a scary fast speed.

Finn recognized Clayton immediately, trotting over at a leisurely pace on a cool looking horse he waves. He notices Logan hiding himself completely behind Finn’s back. Finn held his hand out for Logan to take and squeeze if everything got too much for him. Logan wasn’t good in big crowds.

“Well look who it is!” Clayton hops off his living vehicle and patting her neck. “Let me introduce you to my babe, This” He gestures towards the mare, “Is Leroy, she is a Blanket Appaloosa! Have you guys met Peanut yet? He’s chilling with Eloise, Leo’s mom, you better hope he likes you or else… yeah, or else.” Clay flashes them his slightly crooked but stupidly white smile as he absentmindedly pets Leroy’s neck.

Feeling a squeeze of his hand he looks back to see an absolutely terrified Logan, not knowing about his fear of horses Finn is just confused. So, he goes into a ‘ get Logan alone’ mind set.

“We will find you in a minute, we’re gonna explore!” Finn smiles back and Clayton nods as he swings his leg back over Leroy and clicks his tongue so she struts back towards the group of other yeehaws on their own horses, they all had numbers pinned to their backs which was weird but Finn guessed Leo would explain later. Claytons was CR243, and it looked like it was about to fall off. He notices how someone would go in real fast and then come out after a minute or two. The announcer talked too fast for him to catch.

Leading Logan to a more open area he turns to face him and raises an eyebrow.

“Okay, what's wrong?”

“Ummmm, J'ai peur des chevaux….” Logan isn’t looking him in the eyes and has an embarrassed flush to his face. Finn, having no clue what he said, gently grabs his chin to make him look at him, Lo hasn’t run his finger through his hair yet so that means he isn’t nervous around Finn at least. Fixing Logan with a slightly irritated but still worried look, Logan sighs and tries to say something but instead what comes out is a terrified yelp as something takes his hat off his head and pulls some of his hair at the same time, then drops it at his feet.

Whipping around and jumping into Finn’s arms bridal style Logan shrieks as he is met with a blonde horse that almost looks smug. The little splotchy white stripes on its snoot may make it look kinda cute but Logan knows what can happen if you get on a horse's bad side. It happened to Sydney, he didn’t need it to happen to him too.

“Peanut!” A very tall and beautiful older woman walks over to them laughing a little, she has a hearing aid in her left ear and soft blue eyes bright with amusement stare them down. “Sorry Y’all, he likes to find new people to mess with.” She smiles and there is just something so familiar about those deep dimples and sharp cheekbones. She is wearing tight jeans with knee high army green cowboy boots, a white button up with a black cowboy hat contrasting the golden curls falling out from under it. She is wearing a sash with the words ‘Miss Louisiana 1971’ the wrinkles on her face didn’t make her look old and crinkly like people like to think, but more like a gracefully aging woman. She holds her hand out to Finn for him to shake, Logan is still in his arms so it is as much of an invitation to him as Finn. “I’m Eloise, this is my son’s horse.” She looks them up and down after shaking both their hands. “He would like you two.” She smiles one last time, giving them a giant wink and leads Peanut away from them back to the bullpens where they spot Leo sitting on the top of a fence talking to a couple of people.

Finn looks at Logan and sets him down.

“So.. horses?”

“Shut up”

“You go for a cowboy and are afraid of horses!” Finn is bent over laughing and clutching his stomach while Logan crosses his arms and looks around annoyed after he dusted off his hat and put it back on his head.

“What’s so funny?” they look over to see Leo in full get up. Smiling bright, showing off his chipped tooth. His hair was flattened by a black sturdy cowboy hat, his blue button up vibrant under his black vest. The vest had a couple of logos stitched into it for Absolut Vodka, Mt. Dew, and Ariat…. Leo was sponsored? He was also wearing some jeans that fit him just right around his booty that they could see through his assless black chaps that had iridescent tassels on them, with his black boots and belt to match. His silver buckle stood out with the light reflecting off it.

“Wow… you look great.” Logan just melts into Leo’s side when Leo wraps an arm around his shoulders. “But tell Finn to stop being a jerk.” Logan put on his best pout when looking up at the taller man, who looked at him with a look that made his heart feel like it was about to jump out of his chest. It didn’t alarm him though, it was nice to feel like this. But it can’t last forever.

“What's he doing that's so mean.” Leo turns his attention to Finn who is smiling at them like he's watching two kittens cuddle into each other. His eyes bright with happiness, his smiles wide.

“He’s making fun of me because I’m scared of horses.” Logan wraps his arms around Leo’s waist and squishes his cheek into his chest to look as cute as possible, so Leo will be on his side. Which… fails.

“You’re afraid of horses!” Leo hugs Logan as he starts laughing, smacking a kiss on the top of Logan’s annoyed forehead and squeezes him. “You’re so cute.” Suddenly they hear numbers coming over other speakers and Leo perks up. “Oh I’m up soon! I hope y’all are gonna stay and watch because I would love to take you to the bonfire tonight.” He pulls Finn into the embrace and gives them both a quick peck on the lips, smiling when they chase his lips. “There should be an open spot in the bleachers or, you could watch from Peanut.”

“Bleachers!” Logan gets out of Leo’s arms and starts pulling both the boys towards the crowd without horses. Leo helps them find a spot next to some girls who flirt with Leo but he has no fucking clue. He is just focused on getting Finn and Logan a good spot.

“Alright, my number is BR11710, so when you hear that you’ll know I’m up! I think Clay might come and find you, he had a good run earlier wrangling those troublemaking claves, so keep an eye out for him.” He smiles and climbs down the bleachers gracefully until the last small step where his spur gets caught and he has to yank it out of the cevous it got stuck in. Looking back up at Finn and Logan his cheeks were red as he shrugged and sauntered off towards the chutes.

“Hola losers!” Clayton plops down above with and slaps a hand on their shoulders. “Excited to see him ride? Or have you already? Actually I would know because we overshare way too much.” Smiling, Clayton is covered in dirt and his cowboy hat has been traded out for a ball cap and his button up taken off to be just a white tank top. A tall pale girl sat down with Clayton and was scrolling on her phone looking uninterested. Clayton sits up and wraps an arm around her waist. “Oh this is Ashley, my girlfriend.” She looks up and gives them an irritated wave before going back to her phone.

“Ride? What’s he doing?” Finn looks at him confused after sharing a look with Logan about the irritated girlfriend, then they hear the announcers call Leo's number.

“Alrighty ladies and gentlefolk! We have something special for y’all! One of our very own PBR riders is here to ride the roughest toughest bull of the day! Ole Forty Days!” The crowd cheers as a confused Finn and Logan look at Clayton who whoops and hollers for his bestie. Whistling with his thumb and forefinger in his mouth.

“Alright Jimmy lets get in some commentary before the ride starts, Leo Knut is a 19 year old Professional Bull Rider, his Mother is Eloise Knut also known as Miss Rodeo of 1970 and Miss Louisiana of 1971. His father was Wyatt Knut, Air Force Veteran who was also Leo’s biggest role model.”

“Was?” Logan whispers and gives a sad look to Finn who is busy watching Leo, he is on this tank of an animal, large, white, horns the size of his whole forearm. Leo was adjusting the way he is sitting and has an underside grip on the rope around the bull, wrapping it around his palm to make sure there isn’t a tether that can be stepped on and yank him off.

“Ole Forty Days is the only PBR bull here today, worth millions he is undefeated 32-0 in his career this year. Will Leo who is 30-2 this year be able to stay on those eight seconds.”

Leo hits the challenge button and the gate flies open, Ole Forte days is wild! Finn is automatically on his feet as he watches Leo with his hand up in the air, eyes hard from focusing and counting in his head. Forte turns a 45 degree buck and just about tosses Leo but his grip is so tight that he lasts those eight seconds. The announcers went crazy the entire time.

As he dismounts the still bucking bull his wrist gets caught in the rope he was holding earlier because of the way his glove is falling apart. The rodeo clowns distract the bull fast enough for Leo to get himself detached, falling on the ground. The bull tosses Leo onto the ground and just misses stomping on his ankles. Leo hops onto the fence, the adrenaline is pumping through his veins and his eyes are bright as he searches for the boys in the stand watching him with fear etched into their faces. When his eyes met Logan’s the fear turned into relief and Leo felt the adrenaline making his heart beat even faster.

After Forte is corralled back into the pen to have the rope around his hips removed Leo jumps off the fence and takes his hat off bowing to the crowd, and they love it, whistling and whoops are heard. He points to Finn, Logan and Clayton. Clayton is so excited and starts dragging the other two down the bleachers leaving Ashley behind. Leo doesn’t like her at all so it's fine. Leo turns around and walks towards sports medicine and lets them take a look at his wrist. As his adrenaline starts to fade away the tweak in his wrist starts to bother him as the medic wraps it up.

“You just ruined Forte’s career!” Clay hugs him from the side and picks him up all excited, his girlfriend who decided to join looks at them unapprovingly. Finn and Logan basically tackle Leo to the ground once Clay puts him down. One on each side of him, balanced.

“Are you insane! That could have killed you!” Finn is shaking a laughing Leo by his collar as Logan examines the way his wrist is wrapped.

“I know, I technically wrecked at the end but I still got my eight seconds!” He smiles and takes his hand from Logan, cupping his cheek and rubbing his thumb over the soft skin.

“You never told us you rode bulls! Leo, a little heads up would have been appreciated!” Logan whacks him on the back of the head after they stand up.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. How can I make it up to you?” Leo puts an arm around them and kisses their temples. They had an idea. Where to do it was the question.

The rodeo ended not long after Leo’s ride, the charities the winners chose would be given a five thousand dollar check courtesy of the Knut’s. After Leo was done taking down the arena, a large pile of wood was set up with large equipment. Leo pulled a Clayton and took off his chaps, vest, button down, and hat off so he was wearing a white shirt and a ball cap.

Leo made up for scaring Finn and Logan by pulling them into the back seat of his truck. Leo sitting in the middle of the seat with Finn straddling one leg, hunched over and sucking on Leo’s neck. Logan straddled Leo’s other leg and kissed him with a ferocity that made them both groan. Leo rested his hands in Finn’s hair and on Logan’s hip. Pulling away Leo turns his head to face Finn, guiding him from his neck to lips. He feels Logan push his hand underneath his shirt and smirks into his kiss with Finn. Moving his hands to squeeze both of their asses, causing Logan’s breath to hitch and Finn to moan. He is about to suggest something spicy when a knock on the window alerts them that the party has started.

Why does Clay always have to stick to his word? Leo asked him to let them know when it was time to move his truck to have the tailgate facing the fire, and now was that time. Leo’s head thumps back onto the seat as he lets out an annoyed sigh.

“Well, I guess we have a party to attend… I’m gonna get so drunk.” He smiles and gives his boys one last kiss before he ushers them out of the truck so he can get out of the backseat to move it.

Finn wanders over to Clayton who has Ashley under his arm, she is tall and very skinny. Her long brown hair was in a French braid, she was wearing short shorts, boots and a crop top. He has a very sour look on her face as Finn walks over to them. Logan on the other hand, goes to take a piss in the porta potty. Something he is not fond of doing.

Leo moves his truck and gets out to put the tailgate down so people can sit on it, climbing into the bed of the truck he opens the cooler in the back and takes out two budlights, Leo doesn't really care for budlight but they need to be drunk.

“CLAYTON!” He shouts as the three walk over to the truck, chucking the beer at his friend; they both take out their keys, puncturing the cans and shotgunning the beers.

A few hours and a lot of drinks later Leo was singing to Finn, standing between his legs as Finn sat on the tailgate next to Logan who was filming.

“You can train 'em, You can try to teach 'em right from wrong. But it's still gonna turn 'em on!” Finn can’t help but laugh and wrap his arms around Leo’s necklaces he sang, every once in while facing Logan's phone and singing into the camera as he filmed. Taking a drink of his beer he smacks a sloppy kiss on Finn's cheek and skips away to Clayton to dance like idiots as Luke Bryan sang about shaking it for birds and bees.

The two drunken best friends wrap and arm around each other hips with their drinks in the other hand, putting left side to right side they swing back and forth to the beat as they scream out the music.

Later on Leo picks Logan up so his arms are around his neck and his legs are around his waist and spins around while humming to a song about wheels and Finn looks so smitten that clayton takes a picture to show him and laughs as he send it to Leo, who has managed to misplace his phone… for the millionth time.

Setting Logan down he wraps his arms around the shorter man's shoulders and rests his chin on top of his head as he bounces to the beat. Logan leans his forehead to rest on Leo’s chest and uses his hand that isn’t holding his water to loop his finger into one of Leo’s belt loops he wishes he could take a screenshot in his brain.

Hours passed, singing and horrible dancing, more drinking for Clay and Leo until it sounded like a good idea to see who could crush a folding table by jumping off Clayton’s truck. Finn managed to lead them away before they actually tried it by telling them’ Leo could def dance better than Clayton’. Which turned into the worst dance battle ever seen. Two drunk teenagers and country music make for terrible dancing but a lot of laughs. Eventually, the fire dies down, the drinks run out and the boys get tired. Finn wrangles Leo into the back seat of the truck after lifting the tailgate, moving to go to the drivers seat because Logan might be to short to drive and they are to dumb to figure out how to move the seats, Leo latches onto him and pulls him into the backseat with him.

“Hey! How do you expect me to drive back here!” Finn pokes Leo’s nose and Leo catches his finger in his mouth biting him. Finn squawks and pulls his finger away. Looking at Leo offended, laughing a little as Leo is looking at him with this tiny smirk. “That was rude.” Leo narrows his eyes playfully and flips them so Finn is laying on his back with Leo snuggling into his chest.

Logan gets in on the passenger side and looks up to see Finn in the back seat being snuggled by an oddly cat like Leo who is rubbing his face on Finn’s soft t shirt, when his eyes meet Logans he blushes so vibrantly pink and has the shyest smiles as he hides his face in Finn’s chest again. Logan looks at Finn who looks like he's dying from cuteness overload. Logan moves over to the driver's seat and sits all the way on the edge of the seat to be able to touch the petals. Logan doesn’t have a clue where Leo lives… but he does remember how to get back to the hotel.

Trying to get a clingy 6’3” cowboy into a hotel room while he is intoxicated is a lot easier than you would think. He was tired, stripping down the second they walk into the door he lands on the bed in his boxer briefs and spoons Logan and grips Finn’s arm as he falls asleep.

They all slept incredibly well that night, warm, close, and together.

The next morning was the morning The Lions leave to go back to Gryffindor. Leo was up before the other two, showered and dressed when he woke them up with peppering kisses all over their faces.

“Good morning, Honey Bees. Y’all need to get up and get ready to leave, you go home today.” Leo runs his hand through Finn’s hair as he greets them with a sad smile. He doesn’t want them to leave, but he knows that this isn’t some fairytale where two princes will give up their dreams to be with him. That’s not what he wants anyway. The other two finally get up, Finn goes to shower as Logan changes and packs his bag. Glancing at Leo every once in a while, like he wants to say something.

“Leo, what are you still doing here?” Logan drops his bag by the door and turns around to face the taller man, crossing his arms and giving Leo a cold look. Leo is a little taken back by this, Logan has never looked at him like that, and he wasn’t expecting it from how nice yesterday was.

“I was to see you two off… is that okay?” Leo starts to feel uncomfortable under the harsh eyes he found so pretty, he starts picking at the wrap around his wrist, breaking eye contact with Logan as a sinking feeling seeps into his chest. He never expected anything to actually come from this but he ached for it.

He knows where this is going.

“I don’t know what you think is going to happen after we leave, but we aren’t going to be fawning over you when we are busy with our own careers. You are just… a guy who we had a fling with. Finn and I aren’t even together so don’t expect anything.” Logan's voice stayed low in volume but echoed in Leo’s ears.

“I wasn’t expecting anything. I just wanted to see you guys leave, say goodbye, maybe…” Leo didn’t finish his sentence when he looked up at an annoyed and frustrated Logan. “What did I do?” He hears the bathroom door open and Finn walks into the room whistling in fresh clothes as he dries his hair with a towel.

“You don’t mean anything to us Leo'' Finn hears Logan and knows exactly what’s going on, Logan has done this to him many times. This is Logan’s way of cutting off something he wants in a way he knows won't bring the person back, even though he always feels horrible eventually. Finn has been a victim of Logan’s lashing out many times, and he hasn’t left, because he loves Logan. He really really likes Leo, he gives his heart a similar jolt that Logan does. From what they have discussed, Logan felt the same. Logan doesn’t allow himself the luxury of feeling like this though.

Leo looks absolutely shattered after Logan’s words sank in. He looks over to Finn who looks like he’s in his own head, then back to Logan. “I really really like you guys-”

“Stop being a fucking child Leo! This isn’t something we can continue after we leave, we would get torn to shreds by the league! Not everything is about you and we don’t want you! So just go back to your fucking farm and forget us.” Logan grabs his bag and walks out the door slamming it shut, going to be the first one on the bus that just pulled up to take the team to the airport.

Leo stares at where Logan was when red catches his eye, Finn stops and gives Leo a sad smile, tucking a piece of hair behind his ear. Finn then turns his back to Leo and follows Logan out the door. Leaving Leo alone in the hotel room… He reaches in his pocket and pulls out the hotel keycard, standing up he goes to leave it on the table of the room, he stops just before he sets the key down.

He takes the card and walks out of the room, Climbing into his truck that was horribly parked, he finds his phone on the floor of the passenger side. Picking up his phone, he calls up the only person he knows who would be willing to hang out even if he was sick from last night.

“Clay? Can you meet me somewhere?”

A half hour and some McDonald's hash browns later. Clayton and Leo were sitting on top of Leo’s truck hood watching the airplanes take off, sipping on soda they got with their food. They watched in a comfortable silence as planes brought people in and took people away.

Logan and Finn were on one of those.

#leo knut #logan tremblay #finn o'hara #james potter #thomas walker #Clayton Bruss #o'knutzy #o’knutzy #lumosinlove #sweater weather #coast to coast

[notmrskennedy]

Eight Seconds

Howdy! I’m honestly freaking out bc this the first Spencer Reid anything I’ve written and bc I try not to out myself as country too much bc well the world right now. (I honestly wish there was more people out there who had a thing for cowgirls/boys as I do.) I hope at least one person enjoys it as much as I liked writing it. 

Summary: Spencer Reid meets the cowgirl of his dreams...

Warnings: I think I swear like twice? other than that it’s fluff

Word count: 4.5k

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He doesn’t think that it would be Penelope Garcia to catch him. Sure, she’s a genius and a tech wizard and an overall queen at gathering gossip. But she  isn’t around him as much as JJ. Or Emily. Or Morgan.

What gave him away to her and not everyone else?

Because he knows he’s given something away when she texts him. Urgent. Batcave now! He’s hopeful. Optimistic. Maybe Penelope’s got some burning question about Star Trek. Or Doctor Who. Or when the next convention is. Maybe it’s a serial killer.

But he isn’t that lucky. Spencer Reid never is.

He knocks hesitantly, worried for exactly what’s to come. Her gaze snaps up from her tablet. Snaps to him in an incessant kind of ‘I know what you did’ way. It’s a look for scolding children. Not a pleasant, let’s have a tea time chat, gaze.

Spencer settles into the extra chair and waits. There’s a storm brewing behind her eyes and when she finally speaks, she doesn’t disappoint.

“What’s her name?”

And he can’t stop it. Lovesick smile, starry eyes—Penelope doesn’t have to be a profiler to see it before he sobers up. Her mouth opens into a toothy grin. An insufferably contagious grin and he knows he’s caught for sure.

He leans back in the desk chair, stares up at the ceiling and breathily whispers, “Shawn.”

“Oh!” Penelope gasps. He can hear the mental scolding. There’s backtracking with no end in sight. “Well, I didn’t mean to presume and it’s—it’s okay if Shawn is—or you’re—and I just didn’t know—you never said anything—“

“Relax,” he chuckles and grins at her softly for good measure. “Shawn is a girl. Her legal name is Shawna if you’re that curious.”

And he knows Penelope is curious. She’s grinning and waiting and listening. He can tell she wants to prompt. To ask questions. To dig through every tiny detail she can. Is it bad to make her wait? To not want anyone to know about the girlfriend he’s kept hidden for so long?

“Tell me more,” Penelope buzzes, bouncing in her seat, monitors—work—forgotten. “Where did you love story begin?”

He smiles to himself. It’s not a matter of when, but how long.

It took eight seconds. All of eight seconds.

#

At first, he wasn’t even sure it was eight seconds. He’d been running, running harder than he ever had. Chucks flapping against the hard packed dirt. Horse trailers flying by him as he jumped hitches and slipped through patches of mud.

It was five minutes of burning lungs and dust caked nostrils before those eight seconds. Quick glances between trailers. Got to keep moving, Reid, got to keep up. Because Morgan’s chanting was getting distant, too distant. The last time they’d split up—

Five minutes of a maze he hadn’t learned. Five minutes of being utterly lost, following the sound of Morgan’s thundering boots and desperation. They were all desperate. It was a desperate move to keep running, not to find solace in an empty horse trailer on the killer’s part. The bastard thought he could lose them, shake the FBI agents off his tail.

Reid knew better, but he was getting desperate too. His lungs were burning. It’d only been five minutes.

“FBI! Stop!” Morgan shouted from behind him. Reid skidded through a patch of horse shit into the main thoroughfare. Thank god. No more trailers. A walkway, a solid walkway, a clear line of sight. The man was running. Why do they always run?

Reid picks up his lungs in his desperate hands and pushes on. Grits his teeth, clenches down on every spare inch of fortitude left. Morgan catches up easily but doesn’t surpass. They’re both tired. They’re both panting. They’ve both got weapons drawn, but who could make a shot at 50 yards with a moving target?

Not Reid. He knew better.

But Morgan tried one more time. Shouted and called and screamed. The man didn’t look back. Prison was on his heels and he was desperate enough to keep running. A coward. There wouldn’t be a standoff. Smart enough to not get cornered, not smart enough to keep from getting caught.

They both pushed harder. This was their eight seconds. They were getting close, they reasoned to themselves, hearts panting to the same rhythm. They could keep it together for these last seconds. He’d get tired—they were getting tired—he had to be tired by now.

He was racing in snakeskin cowboy boots. How could he be keeping that pace in those shoes?

Reid hoped his lungs would give out. Save the heroic work for Morgan. Morgan could get the bad guy. Morgan could get the girl. He could have anything he wanted. Reid just wanted to fall face first into the dirt and let the fresh mud extinguish the flames in his lungs. In his throat. In his mouth.

But then the eight seconds came.

In the first second, he realised his heart didn’t gallop. It didn’t have the imprints of hooves. It wasn’t the two thousand pound animal gaining momentum behind him. His heart was clogging his ears that badly. Thankfully, with his wits about him, he looked back.

In the second second, Reid saw the animal. Mid-step, perfect stride. A plastic figurine of a race horse, nostrils wide at the end of its long face. It took only the second second to see the crazy in the horse’s eyes. How they focused and blinked and bled the insanity. How it was more beast than domesticated pet. Reid was convinced the black stockings on its legs were dripping grease from its gears. He could see the muscle in its shoulders and flanks. Muscle groupings bigger than him. An animal that could crush him. A machine running with a single thought: faster.

He saw the rider in the third second. One he didn’t expect. Maybe it was his own memories of cowboy movies, but cowboys weren’t supposed to be dipped in glitter. Weren’t supposed to be such overtly female. But there she was. Her dark curls billowing behind her. Sun glinting off the gold of her hat. Glinting off the impressive amount of glitter on her eyelids. And the rhinestones on her black button-down. She was stunning. Furrowed in her concentration. Elated in her grin.

The rope came in the fourth. It was twisting in her hand, coil and reins held precariously in her other. It loops over her head, slack enough to swallow her whole. Slack enough to get caught on her. Get caught on the horse. She keeps perfect control and the hand comes around and around until she—

In the fifth second, the rope releases and Reid slows his feet to watch it. The horse has gained on the man, so close that teeth could get involved. The man doesn’t seem to know, or is too desperate to change direction. Because he’s gone straight and the horse has followed and the rope is sliding through her hand like it’s meant to be there forever. It goes and goes and goes. He thinks the loop is bound to catch her foot, a hoof, something. But it doesn’t. It never does.

With six seconds down, the man finds he doesn’t have feet anymore. The loop of the rope tightens around his legs and he’s falling. He doesn’t have feet under him. Barely hands to save his face. Reid hopes the fall is harder than it needs to be. But he’s not focused on the man, he’s focused on the girl. The girl who expertly catches the rope in her hands. Who expertly ties the end around the saddle horn. Who’s horse pulls the rope taut and the man goes down.

At seven seconds, the horse is still backing. It knows. It’s practiced. Reid can see the elation on both rider and animal. Their pride is palpable. He doesn’t know it, but this is the best run they’ve done together. Not the fastest, but the best.

Eight seconds is when the girl turns to them. Grinning, hollering, hands up in the air. Reid watches as they catch up, slowing down to match the horse’s speed. The man tries to flip himself over, dragging on his back towards the federal agents. Reid can feel his heart and he wonders if it’s beating harder from the run or the thrill.

He’ll never admit it but he’s always wanted to be a cowboy. This girl has his other dream in her hands, wearing it as her favourite belt buckle.

Eight seconds later and she’s smiling down at the agents, still hollering some form of yeehaw! Reid grins, dragging his aching limbs forward to help Morgan flip the man onto his stomach and cuff him. The dragging discontinues and the horse knickers his anger that the trial is over.

Reid loosens the rope from the man’s feet, working the fray between his fingers. He moves to hand it to the cowgirl but she’s already snapping it from him and coiling it back up. She latches it back to her saddle, chest heaving with the excitement of it all.

“Bitch!” the man spits as Morgan hauls him to his feet.

The girl just smirks and tips her hat back. Reid can’t help but watch her pretty red lips as she says, “I’ll stick my foot so far up your ass, you’ll taste my good leather if you don’t shut your goddamn mouth.” Vulgarity has never sounded better off of anyone else’s tongue. She’s got the first sermon he’s ever wanted to listen to sitting on her lips and he wonders if this is why people believe in God. If pretty girls have always made men believe in things they shouldn’t.

Her drawl is thick, sticky, and unsweet. She’s got more threats bubbling up in her chest, sitting precariously close to her heart. She comfortable in sliding off her horse, landing softly in the dirt.

He won’t admit it, but he can’t ignore how round her ass is in those tight jeans.

She pats her horse, sliding her rough hands under its harnesses and it’s mane. Reid knows enough about horses to distinguish several muscle groups and bone structures from others. He feels out of his depth. He’s drowning being so close to a dream he can never have. He wonders if he should ask her to stay. Tell her there’s reports. Witness statements. Paperwork. Anything to get her to stay longer, to prolong the closeness to the dream. The closeness to her.

The horse gives a bleated scream as Morgan passes with the handcuffed man, both human males looking equally frightened of the animal. It settles into a role of domestication as the girl lets the horse throw its head into her shoulder begging for pats.

Spencer knows he supposed to follow Morgan, but he can’t move. She’s everything in that moment. And just as he gets the courage to thank her, thank her for stopping the burning, she meets his eyes and drops her jaw.

“Well as I live and breathe!” she shouts. It’s too rough for a squeal, more of a whistle of her words. “Spencer Reid, not even a day’s difference. How in the hell are you?”

Is he breathing? He doesn’t think he’s breathing. She knows him. She knows him. She knows him. And he has no idea who she is. He searches her beautiful face. Running over the ruby lips. Over the pink blushing cheeks. The glittered eyelids and the long eyelashes.

She’s so unfamiliar it hurts.

Morgan stops in his tracks. There’s blood in the water for the first time in ages. The last time these waters were chummed was a bartender who called him exactly once.

And it gets worse. Her face falls. Emily and JJ are rounding the corner. Everything in him sinks to the floor. Every details about himself becomes apparent. He’s gangly and uncoordinated. His hair’s too long and he’s got circles under his eyes darker than the grease stains on her horse. He’s so unperfected and this girl reminds him of the girls in high school he could never have.

He wonders for a moment if she’s from high school. She can’t be though, he thinks as he fights the bile in his throat. She’s younger than me.

“You know boy genius?” Morgan asks, handing the killer off to Emily. He’s strutting. Ever the first impressionist. The girl barely glances at him, still studying Reid with a crestfallen little smile perched on her perfect lips.

“Not really,” she settles on, getting a better grip on the reins she’s holding. Getting a better grip on herself. “We met once. In Vegas. I was 15 and I’ve done my growing up since.”

Reid still hasn’t moved. He’s not sure he can. His feet are putty from the run. Putty from her smile. Just ask for her name, he screams at himself, but he can’t. There’s no guarantees. There’s no ‘of courses’, only ‘what ifs’. The what ifs can consume you and he’s worried he’s going to let them.

Morgan extends his hand in the stretching pause. And she shakes it. All crimson lips and pearly teeth. “I’m Agent Derek Morgan. You obviously know, Dr. Reid.”

Her eyebrows raise for half a second. She’s surprised. And impressed. And Reid’s heart warms for no longer than she answers. “I’m Shawn, Shawn Healy.”

“Shawn? That’s an interesting—“

Everyone pauses at the sound of hoofbeats. Whips around to see another girl, a blonde in even more glitter, ride up on her own horse. Shawn swings back onto her horse and spurs him off, following the other girl. Spencer doesn’t see the flags they’re carrying until it’s too late. Until she’s already apologising for leaving. She’s late.

Spencer wonders if he’ll ever see her again. Black curls bouncing over her shoulders. Stained lips. Sun glinting off every inch of her.

In another eight seconds, she’s gone. Eight seconds to win his heart. Eight seconds to ride off with it.

#

He gives Penelope some condensed version of the story that she’s hooked on anyway. She’s leaned forward, elbows on knees, perched on every word that leaves his mouth like it’s from God himself. It’s comical, he thinks. Spencer’s never really been invested in anyone else’s drama, not for longer than five minutes.

Penelope’s going to be invested, heels sunk in, holding on for dear life. She’s invested for life.

“So, how’d you get her back?” she asks. Starry eyed. Concerned. This is her white whale and she’ll go down with this ship. “She could’ve been anywhere! How’d you two get together?”

And he knows this part isn’t complicated. And it’ll be enough to tide her over.

#

The quick answer is that he googled her. Read every newspaper article, column, and paper mentioning her. Shawna Healy had been mentioned more times for winning rodeo competitions than he had papers published. She was accomplished in her culture, in her part of the world. She’d won up to regionals while in college. Even boasted to being the first girl on the UT Dallas Rodeo Team. Currently employed at Montgomery’s Cattle Ranch just outside of DC. The same ranch who was hosting a For-Charity Bull-riding Competition.

Spencer hadn’t known what to do with the information so he sat on it. For a month. Until he couldn’t wait any longer. The competition was that weekend. He had to go.

He just kept repeating to himself, this is for academic purposes. This isn’t stalking. You might not even see her. This is for—

And he stops thinking. There’s no reason to think anything other than: I’m sorely underdressed. He’s sinking to the bottom of the deep end of the pool, lead weights tied to his ankles. Every man, woman, and child here is nothing sort of their earned Country label. There’s boots and buckles and ball caps. There’s dust and dip and drawl.

And he’s in a cardigan. Why was that a good idea? He doesn’t know, but he’s tempted to shrug it off and disappear. To run right back out of gates. To get swallowed by everyone staring at him. Gawking at him. He’s back in high school again and he wants to drink bleach.

He’s almost to the bleachers, past the makeshift bar, just at the corner of the dirt arena. Spencer knows he should just go home, shake it off, and dissolve into wishing the world takes pity on him. He’s too out of his depth. These other people belong. He most definitely does not.

And just as he’s about to turn tail, pussyfoot out of every bit of confidence he’s ever had, when he sees her.

She’s on a different horse. One not quite as beastly as the other. This one’s mellow, waiting on the edge of the arena, while she’s chatting absently with another man on horseback. She looks different. She’s far, but there’s no glitter. No outstanding colours. No glinting under the fluorescents. She’s in a cowboy hat, tipped forward over her loose braids. She’s traded her button down for a flannel, rolled up to the elbows and he finally understands why Penelope said it was such a turn on.

There’s no words as the announcer suddenly comes on and a bull bursts from the chute. It’s one of the most terrifying things he’s ever seen. A tiny man holding onto a two ton absolute beast with one hand—it’s absurd! But he can’t stop watching. Can’t stop being impressed. Waits on bated breath for the man to get bucked off after his nearly eight second run.

He does and Spencer has had falls like that. They aren’t pleasant.

The bull bucks and kicks for another few seconds. Shawn and her friend lazily canter forward, guiding the animal back to the other side of the arena and through a gate. She whistles and the gate closes behind it.

The pair retreat back to their corner and the process starts all over again.

“You look a little lost, honey,” a sweet voice chirps beside him. He startles, head caught up in Shawn and every single perfect What If. This girl reminds him of a movie star he can’t remember the name of. Big blonde curls. Big eyelashes. Big smile. Tiny waist.

She’s amazingly beautiful. Amazing doll like. Amazingly…not his type.

Spencer still nervously smiles and clears his throat. “I kind of am.”

“Cardigan gave it away,” she giggles, turning him towards the edge of the stadium seating, dropping them onto the bottom row seat. “I’m Kaley Montgomery. My brother and my sister are this shift’s pick up riders.” Spencer nods along like he knows what she’s saying. “I tell ‘em I’m here to support them and my daddy—he put this whole thing on you know—but I’m just here to pick up cute cowboys.”

“I’m not a cowboy,” Spencer blurts. Her laugh is slick like the sugar in a Venus fly trap. He tries not to get drawn in, but she’s all encompassing. Bright perfume. Colourful clothes. Soft skin and warm empathy. There’s nothing uninviting about her and he wants to move back.

“No, honey, you aren’t.” Kaley pauses to look him over. Whatever she sees makes her softly grin. “Why are you here anyway?”

There’s no judgement. She’s safe and alluring and exactly the opposite of what makes him nervous at that moment. The confidence surges for a moment and he answers, “I’m actually trying to find this girl I met a while ago.”

“Must be a special lady. What’s her name?”

“Shawn Healy,” Spencer sighs. It’s wistful. It’s longing. It’s half desperate. It’s been a month since he’s seen her. A month since he snuck back to see if he could catch her at the rodeo one more tine.

Kaley snorts. Her lady-like instincts kick back in and she covers it was a giggle. “Honey, you met the right girl. Shawn’s like my sister. Her shift ends in a few rounds, and she’s meeting me here if you just wanna stick around for a second.”

And he does. Kaley keeps him laughing, has him singing the high praises of Rodeo sports by the end. It’s maybe another ten minutes. Ten minutes of calming down, easing into the world. Kaley looks like she has whiplash with all of the questions he’s asking. And she’s a little dazed when he blinks at her sheepishly.

“Told he was smart, didn’t I?” a voice says behind him and Spencer jumps out of his skin. He’s desperate to slip it back on without seeming desperate. Without seeming nervous. But it all melts. Shawn’s in front of him. Shawn’s grinning. Shawn’s even more beautiful without the glitter.

“How did you recognise me?” he blurts. There’s stumbling as he tries to backtrack. Shawn’s eyes are green this close up and she smells like leather and oats and apples. His sentences lose traction as she peels her hat off, and sits down next to him.

There’s nothing soft about her. She’s callused. Rough. Nothing like any other girl he’s ever had the pleasure of meeting. Spencer doesn’t need more than ten seconds to know that Shawn’s never worn glitter more than the one time and never will again. To known that Shawn is simple and complicated and every grey area he’s ever wanted to explore.

Shawn’s eyes are still and focused. She follows Kaley as the girl stands and leaves. Returns the gaze to Spencer with a glint he can’t categorise. There’s a pause. Lead up to another eight seconds of life changing to be done.

“You were sitting by yourself at a sorting event at the South Point,” she breathes, brushing a piece of dirt off the hat in her hands. Setting it beside her on the bleacher. She gives him plenty of time to stare. To appreciate her.

There’s plenty of time, Spencer thinks and he keeps her gaze with a nervous grin.

Shawn brushes a hand over the frazzled bits of her hat hair. “I came and sat next to you because you looked so lonely. You were so afraid.”

His brain fires and spits and roars to life. He can remember the strange girl who came to sit by him, a sea of empty spaces around him. He’d just committed his mom. Was just about to leave for MIT. He’d been swimming in a sea of self-hatred when he’d been greeted by braces and pimples and too much dark hair. She’d explained every second of the calf sort, almost unprompted, and sussed out every single one of his questions.

It had been as close as he ever dared get to being a cowboy. A decade later and she was every introduction to this world he’d ever had.

Shawn’s got two seconds left on the clock and she doesn’t disappoint. Her fingers are delicate as she places a precarious hand on his knee. There’s a soft pressure to his patella. Shawn’s touching him and he can’t help the shock.

“I had one of those day long crushes. You were the smartest man I’d ever met.”

And no words are suddenly good enough. He wants to tell her that he’s fallen in love now. That he can’t help it. That all he wants is to listen to her drawl on for the rest of his life. That she’d made that last week in Vegas bearable. That she’d been everything. Still was.

But there’s no good way to articulate that. And maybe she knows that. Maybe Shawn Healy was a profiler in a different life because she lets go of his knee and switches subjects. Leans back against the seat behind her, stretching out into the spot of sun.

“It’s my lunch break,” she announces, her boots drifting closer to touching his chucks. The eyes don’t matter as the bleachers stare. What matters is Shawn’s tricky smile. “Have lunch with me.”

He nods and doesn’t think he could bear to disagree with her. Shawn disappears for a moment long enough that he’s worried she isn’t coming back, but she plops french fries into his lap not a second later than the worry begins to fester. Shawn’s not one to back out of commitments, he learns, and ends up hearing enough bad stories that Spencer isn’t sure how they’re getting along so well.

Because they’re getting along so well. Too well. Like they’ve never stopped talking since she was 15 and he was 18. Three hours is too early to say I love you, but he’s thinking it as she talks through a basket of french fries. As she sneaks them to some tiny kids in even tinier cowboy boots.

He’s thinking it every time she laughs.

He’s thinking it as she shoves his shoulder and demands to know why he doesn’t own a pair of jeans.

He’s thinking it even as she stands and apologises and stuffs her business card in his shirt pocket. “We’ll get you cowboy’d up one of these days, Dr. Reid. Now, don’t you forget to call—I’m late again.”

She runs off and he can’t stop thinking I love you so much as she waves at him over her shoulder and once again when she’s in the arena, back on a new horse.

#

Penelope is near tears at the end of Spencer’s story. He relaxes into the new world he’s entering. The one, two years later, where he’s wondering exactly how much he can keep to himself. How much Garcia will suss out and how much he’ll tell her himself.

Penelope folds her arms and suddenly frowns. She’s got a bee in her bonnet and Spencer’s afraid of what it means.

“Shawn,” she murmurs to herself. “Spencer Reid is shacking up with a cowgirl. I can’t—I’ll see it when I believe it.”

This is her attempt to get Spencer to show her pictures, or call Shawn, or even bring her around. But he doesn’t. He just smirks. No matter how much he actually can’t work the phone in his hands, he doesn’t want to. Shawn’s worried enough about meeting the team, she doesn’t need one Penelope Garcia tracking her down and tackling her.

“How ever much I love this chat we’re having, I have to get back to work,” Spencer announces. He stands. Walks off before Penelope can ask more questions.

And despite all of her yelling and protests and shouting for him to just come back here and tell me if she’s your girlfriend, Penelope knows she won’t get anything more. She’s determined anyway, and plans to corner JJ later on.

She finds doesn’t have to ask JJ, cornered or not. Because not four hours later, does Penelope find one Dr. Spencer Reid admiring the diamonds on the wedding ring he’s holding up between him and the coffee pot. He’s quick to shove it in his pocket as Penelope enters the little kitchenette. Quick to stir sugar in his coffee like nothing’s happened. Like Penelope definitely didn’t see the ring he’s waiting to give Shawn.

“When did you get the ring?” she asks, quietly opening the box of tea.

“Promise not to think I’m crazy?”

Penelope nods, turning just enough to see just how love stricken the poor boy is. “I’d even pinky promise, my love.”

He smirks and softens and says almost so quietly she doesn’t hear, “It was about two weeks after our first date. It took about eight seconds to find the right one.”

#pls I'm doing my best #i've also got anxiety to the moon and back #spencer reid #oc #criminal minds #dr spencer reid

[coltonslim]

SAVE A HORSE, RIDE A COWBOY → COLCEY

TAGGING → Colton Slim & Lacey J  L'Horloge ( @laceyjean )

TIMELINE → September 1, 2021

SETTING → The ASU stables

SUMMARY → The adrenaline starts pumping during a simple horseback riding lesson when the student, Colton, goes headfirst into a river, leaving his teacher, Lacey J, to try and make sure he doesn’t die. They get wet, will they get wild too?

"Yee haw!" Colton yelled, his hands gripping the reins of the horse he was as they trotted a little behind Lacey J and her horse at a leisurely pace as she guided them around the stables. He knew that Lacey J was probably rolling her eyes fondly at the cowboyism but he couldn't help himself! He was too excited to be there, actually on horseback. It made him feel like even more of a cowboy, which wasn't easy to do since he was constantly wearing a flannel and jeans and boots and his signature hat. How lucky he was to have a friend who knew how to ride horses and didn't mind teaching him. Learning didn't come the most natural to Colton, but Lacey J was a smart lady and that made him feel like she couldn't steer him wrong.

"How do I get this here pretty boy to go even faster?" he asked her, adjusting his hat to shade his eyes from the sun better. "Come on, little lady, I survived getting on the horse and getting him to listen to me! It's time to step on it!"

Lacey J quickly glanced down at her watch as soon as Colton started to yell. She’d been making predictions on how long it would take for him to yee his first haw ever since they’d agreed on riding together and Colton had actually outlasted her earliest prediction by a good couple of minutes, mostly because she’d guessed that he’d have started up as soon as his butt hit the saddle but after he’d managed to do that without screaming head off, she was surprised to hear him do it before they could even move on to the fun part of riding.

Even though Lacey J took her teaching seriously and wanted to make sure Colton knew what he was doing on his horse before they moved past a trot, she hated going slow more than anything in the world and was more than eager to speed things up. So when Colton asked how he could make his horse go even faster, Lacey J didn’t even bother to think about it before turning her horse around to show him what he was supposed to do to make the horse speed up.

“I know I’ve told you not to call me little lady.” She reminded him as she maneuvered her own horse to be right next to his so that Colton could see everything he was supposed to do. Once she was finished demonstrating what he was supposed to do, Lacey J looked over at Colton looking to see if he seemed like he understood what she had been talking about. “You got all that, right? Because if you fuck up so bad that he ends up throwing you and then trampling all over your head, I’m just going to laugh because you’ll deserve it.”

The fact that Lacey J could expertly maneuver her horse right next to his wasn't lost on Colton. He found it mighty impressive, the way she'd clearly tamed something so untamable. He was admiring it so much in fact that he almost missed her calling him out on not using her name or whatever and he shrugged, a big smile on his face. "My apologies, ma'am. You're lucky I'm not calling you 'cowgirl' with how natural you look on that filly."

With that, he focused himself on actually paying attention to what Lacey J was trying to teach him instead of just appreciating her on general, and he nodded, not because he was sure he'd understood it all, but because he wanted to get it right on the first try and impress her. "Got it! Don't worry yourself over my pretty head, ma'am. I'm a cowboy, after all." Colton winked at her as he said that, screamed out a YEEHAW, and lifted his hat before following her instructions to make his horse know it was time to run!

It was something that would've been infinitely cooler if he clearly didn't do it wrong. The horse sped up, all right, but erratically, as if being chased by a serpent or something equally insane! Colton held on to the reins as tight as he could, his thighs clenching onto to the horse in a desperate attempt not to fall as his YEE HAW had trailed off into a wordless yell. He was enjoying himself still though, almost, despite it all. He was still smiling as he spotted an upcoming river and he pulled the reins as tight as he could to avoid a watery fate.

Unfortunately, all that did was cement it as the horse finally had enough and bucked Colton off into the rushing body of water, his cowboy hat not serving as much of a helmet as his head hit the rocks.

Lacey J could barely finish rolling her eyes at Colton’s stupid cowboyisms and yeehawing before realizing something was terribly wrong. She tried to take off after him, but even as she started to catch up, she knew the best thing she could do for him would be to make sure he didn’t die when he inevitably did get thrown off. A thought that instantly made Lacey J feel a sharp pang of guilt as she recalled the last thing she’d said to him before he took off. Even though Colton never took her mean words seriously, it wouldn’t matter that much if he actually died.

But before Lacey J could dwell on that thought even longer, Colton was going head first into the river. Dismounting as quickly as possible, Lacey J made sure her phone was out of her pocket before jumping in the water after him.

It was a rough rescue considering that it was a quickly moving river and  Lacey J didn’t have any real rescuing experience outside of the lifeguard certification she’d gotten freshman year of high school as a class requirement, but she’d remembered enough about head injuries to hope the entire time she pulled Colton (and his stupid hat) out of the water that maybe having one would be the least of his worries. Lacey J wasn’t confident enough in her head splinting abilities to think that if his injuries extended down to his neck or  his spine, he wouldn’t be completely screwed.

Once she got him on land, Lacey J checked for breathing before going into what she hoped would pass for effective CPR because at some point between chest compressions and breathing for him, she’d started to panic cry and could barely see him through her blurred vision. “God Colton, just fucking wake up already.”

Colton had grown up with a dad who hit him on the head any time he said something stupid, which according to his dad was basically every time he talked, so the sensation of his head hitting the river was nothing too crazy or new. It did make him feel weaker though, and it was already hard enough keeping up with the rushing water; he'd never learned to swim, so it wasn't long before the river pushed him down and held him down until he couldn't really see or think anymore. Even that didn't feel so bad. It was almost like falling asleep, to sweet dreams about horses and cowgirls and candy and riding into a giant sunset, before it all just kind of went dark.

And then it was light again, all at once. There was still water weighing his eyelashes down but he saw a blurry Lacey J above him, rising up and away from his face, and for a split second, the memory of everything they'd done that day so far came rushing back to him and a smile washed over him. Then the water he hadn't realized he'd swallowed came back up and he turned as fast as he could to the side so he could cough it all out without getting any of it on her. It took a while but when he was done, he wiped his mouth with his soaked sleeve, not realizing that didn't make a huge difference, since he was covered with water everywhere.

It wasn't the first time Colton had lost consciousness because of some accident or another, not by a long shot, so he wasn't too freaked out by it all, but Lacey J didn't seem as cool and collected as she usually did, so he wondered if it was her first time dealing with something like that. He reached out almost without thinking to grab one of her hands, kind of as a way to thank her, kind of as a way to calm them both down, and smiled. "Well now, who knew you were some kinda superhero, Miss Lacey Jean?" he almost laugh, his voice hoarse still from coughing. "Something tells me I did that last part wrong, huh?"

Lacey J’s relief over Colton’s survival only lasted about as long as it took for him to be able to talk again and basically confirm that he wasn’t a quaddruplegic since he could at least grab onto her hand. Something about his ability to joke about it so quickly made Lacey J really angry and kind of embarrassed for getting so upset, which only made her even angrier.  Lacey J wrenched her hand out of Colton’s before picking up his soaking wet hat and starting to hit him in the chest with it repeatedly, her rage completely replacing her previous concern for his spine.

“SOMETHING TELLS YOU? You’re kidding me right? You literally almost drown in front of me because you just couldn’t listen to me and do things right and now you can make jokes!” Lacey J was mostly missing more aims at Colton than making any actual contact, so she was mostly just splashing him but she wasn’t actually that concerned with the violence so much as just making her point. “What is wrong with you!?”

Colton blinked and all but missed the split second it took Lacey J to start hitting him, but he didn't mind it too much. He knew that scared people acted out more than non-scared people did, like his dad who felt all small and weak once he was put on the Isle, and Lacey J had definitely been scared just now. He'd seen it in her eyes. And besides, it's not like it hurt; it was mostly having water sprinkled on his face and a few hits, and after almost drowning, it really felt like nothing.

It did start eventually getting annoying though, and he didn't quite feel like using his voice to tell her to stop, so one of Colton's hands shot up and gripped Lacey J's wrist. "Nothing's wrong with me!" he said maybe a little too loudly, looking right at her face. "Nothing's wrong with me because of you! You saved me and I was just trying to make you laugh because I didn't want you to be scared. After you made sure I was okay, me making sure you're okay is the least I could do, ma'am. My apologies!"

Lacey J was a little taken aback by Colton grabbing her wrist and then a LOT aback when he started talking. When Colton started joking as soon as he regained consciousness, Lacey J had taken it as another stupid boy thing. Like Colton was just being so dumb again that he couldn’t even take almost dying seriously. She hadn’t considered at all that he had been joking to make her feel better. After all who does that? Almost DIE and immediately try to make someone else less afraid? But it wasn’t that hard of a question to answer. Of course Colton would do that! As empty as his head always seemed to be, it was exceedingly obvious that his heart was more than big enough to make up for double the space.

Lacey J opened and closed her mouth a couple times to try and formulate a response to that, but after the third time of trying and failing to produce one word, Lacey J did the next best thing her brain could come up with and leaned down to press her lips against Colton’s. She didn’t know if she was doing it as a thank you, an apology for trying to beat him with his own hat, a weird amount of latent and rather inappropriate horniness or some bizarre combination of them all but she wasn’t trying to figure that out now.

Once she’d finished, Lacey J hopped up, wiped some of the excess river water off of her mouth and semi calmly walked back to where the horses were waiting without trying to help Colton up too. “I think we should just walk them back. I don’t really have time to save you from the river twice, Okay?”

Colton didn't usually yell at people, and Lacey J seemed like she got mighty mad at him even when he was being his regular pleasant self, so he kind of expected her to slap him or something, especially with how much her heart was probably still racing after that rescue. What he definitely didn't anticipate was a kiss, but just because he didn't anticipate it didn't mean it wasn't welcome. He was a healthy, hot-blooded Auradonian young man, and Lacey J was prettier than a cow's eyes, after all. He'd have been hungry for this kiss even if he hadn't almost just died. It took no time at all for him to drop his grip on her wrist and move his hand to the side of her face, guiding them both into a deeper kiss.

He let her pull away, his head almost as light again as when he'd originally been pulled from the river, as a wide smile cracked over his face as she started walking away. Colton pushed himself to his feet and wondered if there was something wrong with him for being semi-hard after nearly meeting the reaper, but then cut himself some slack as he followed her. "Sounds good to me. I'm thinking I've done enough riding for one day anyway," he chuckled, nearing the kind critter who'd bucked him off earlier and stroking her mane before gently grabbing the reins and leading her away. "Though if that's how you save my life every time, it's not that bad," he added, unable to help himself.

“That is not how I’ll save your life every time.” Lacey J rolled her eyes even though she was blushing hard enough to give away that she wasn’t as unaffected by the kiss as she was trying to pretend she was. She led the way back to the stables in silence for a little while before speaking again. “As nice as that last part was, I don’t want to have to save you again. We’re going to have to practice a lot more before I let you attempt so much as a trot.

"Mighty shame," Colton drawled, trying not to get too cocky and failing miserably. The truth was he was all hopped up on adrenaline and whatever other chemicals were released from kissing a girl that was finer than a hog's hair split four way, and her being all pink in the face got him blushing too. He walked after her quietly, which just let him hear how hard his heart was pumping blood all over his body. He wondered if Lacey J could hear it from where she was and found himself hoping she could. Maybe then she'd know how much he liked all this.

"Yes, ma'am," he complied, all but glowing from her calling that last part 'nice'. Nice. It was such a short word but it went such a long way with him, and Colton was sure he'd be smiling all day after this till he fell asleep and maybe even after then because of it. "I can handle a lot more practice, so long as it's with you. Don't know if you've noticed, but I really like you, Lacey Jean. Being round you's a treat and a half for me, no matter what we do... or don't do."

Lacey J did not expect Colton to say anything that came out of his mouth other than the first ‘Yes, Ma’am’ and it practically took all the strength in her body not to let her jaw drop in response. She had NOT noticed that Colton really liked her. She knew he liked her fine enough to let her teach him things and not be completely put off when she was being bitchy to him and she knew he liked her enough to kiss her back without complaint after she basically jumped him. But enough that hanging out with her was a ”treat and a half, no matter what they did”  and he had to specifically spell it out for her? That was enough to send a thrill through Lacey J that was strong enough that she was sure she actually shivered a little.

“I really like you too, Colton.” She answered back with an ease that genuinely surprised herself. She didn’t usually admit to liking anyone much outside of like her best friends, Neil deGrasse Tyson and any animal ever. “And um.. when I said I wasn’t going to save your life like that again, I didn’t mean I don’t want to kiss you again. I just meant we could do that without you having to die first, if you actually were interested in doing that again ever, I mean. If you didn’t, I’m more than fine with not doing things ever again too!”

If she couldn't hear his heart before then, Lacey J probably could now, because when she said she liked him too, that damn organ started pounding like a drum. Colton knew in his heart that she had to like him some to spend time around him or talk to him at all -- he wasn't the brightest or best at nothing, so anyone who chose to be around him had to appreciate something -- but he never thought she'd say so, especially not so openly. It made it impossible not to smile wider than a buffalo's backside. "Woooooooo doggie!" he whisper-shouted to himself in celebration, biting his grin so it didn't grow so big that it swallowed his face.

There was no way to avoid the pain of a too-big smile though once Lacey J continued. The red on his face deepened as the blood rushed back up to his head and he had to hold himself back from dropping his horse's reins and taking Lacey J in his arms right then and there. "Lacey Jean, I couldn't be more interested in doing that again. Now, I meant it when I said I'd be fine never doing that again, because hanging with you is good regardless. That said, I also mean it when I say I'd do that or even more anywhere, any time with you if you wanted. Matter of fact, I haven't quit thinking bout doing that or more since we stopped."

If Lacey J could’ve blushed even harder, she absolutely would’ve when Colton whisper shouted like she wasn’t close enough to have heard him clearly. It was such a shockingly nice moment that Lacey J just had to surreptitiously pinch herself just to make sure she hadn’t fallen off her horse and knocked herself out somehow while they just had been trotting around the stables and had been dreaming everything since then.

Even after the pinch it felt so unreal that all Lacey J could offer as a response to everything Colton said was a stupid grin and an even doofier sounding “Good to know!” before she said anything else that would probably make her feel like even more of a simp over a boy that had literally just gotten himself thrown into a river for riding improperly.

As they approached the stables Lacey J felt strangely electric as she anticipated what might happen after they were no longer holding on to their respective horses. Now that she knew that Colton hadn’t stopped thinking about kissing or more since the kiss had ended, Lacey J couldn’t stop thinking about it too. Especially the more part.

Colton felt a surge of confidence rush through his body, warm and prickly like lightning, at that smile of hers. Dang, that smile. Pretty girls were going to be the death of him but damn it if he wasn't going to die a happy man. "Good to know," he echoed, letting it sink in that she didn't seem to have any problems with where his mind was. Maybe that meant hers wasn't too far off from there too. Now, Colton didn't consider himself a smart man by any means, but one thing that he thought he was pretty good at was knowing if the mood was right, and right now it definitely wasn't wrong.

Once they were both in the stables, the fun thick tension between them got even stronger, and he was full of a real jittery energy as he walked his horse back to their stall. It was the kind of energy that came from possibilities and knowing anything could happen. He couldn't just rely on that energy though, not if he wanted to give Lacey J the experience she deserved.

"So..." Colton started, "when I said I'd do that again anywhere, I meant anywhere. A stable included. So unless you'd rather save it for somewhere else, let me know right now, or else as soon as I let go of this critter, I'm picking you up and I'm not putting you down for a good, long time."

Lacey J’s jaw really dropped that time. She was about three thousand percent sure that she’d never heard anything sexier in her entire life and considering she wasn’t above reading all kinds of erotica, that was really saying something.

“Fuck, that was so hot. Why was that so hot?” Lacey J spluttered, as she tried to quickly unsaddle her horse on weakened knees. “But yeah, here works. Here would be great!” As eager as she was to let Colton make good on his words as soon as possible, she could never let a poor horse get neglected in the meantime.   Besides, it didn’t actually take THAT long to do, it just felt long because she was much more interested in undoing Colton’s pants than the buckle of the horse’s reins.

Before Colton could tell her that it was so hot because she was so hot, Lacey J had already agreed and it made him speed up the process even more. He'd never unsaddled a horse before but it was almost like a horniness-induced super power that his fingers were able to work fast enough and make quick work of it. In what felt like both no time at all and too much time, he'd left his horse comfortable in her stall with the door closed safely behind him, which meant he was able to focus on more urgent matters. He'd genuinely loved riding the horse but he had a feeling there was about to be an even better kind of riding happening any second.

The horses were both taken care of, which meant he and Lacey J were ready to go. He looked at her and really took a moment to appreciate her as she stood in front of him, all wet and wild and beautiful, before tossing his hat to the side and rushing up to her, confidently recapturing her mouth in a kiss. It felt like it'd been forever since he'd been this close to someone, and his hands worked their way down the curves of her body, relishing in the feel of her and the sparks flying between their bodies as he pulled them closer together.

He pulled back for a breath and started kissing down Lacey J's neck instead as he reached between them to unbutton and remove his flannel he'd been wearing on top of his tank top. He wasn't sure exactly how far they were going to go but he knew he wanted to let her know that if she wanted clothes to come off, that'd be more than fine with him. "Reckon it's a good time to get out of these wet clothes," he sighed against her skin.

With all the time she felt like she’d been taking, Lacey J was surprised to find that she and Colton had finished with their horses in roughly the same amount of time, but she didn’t have much mental bandwidth left to figure out out how that happened because the way Colton looked at her before rushing up to kiss her quickly pushed any thought that WASN’T about how much she wanted him into the background.

Even though she had to stand on the absolute tips of her toes to meet his lips now that they were kissing standing straight up, Lacey J easily melted into the kiss and the feeling of his hands on her body. Colton was such a good kisser and she really could’ve spent the entire afternoon right where she was in his arms, but before she got too comfortable Colton stopped kissing her to make a suggestion that was much more exciting than what was already arguably the best kiss of her life.

“Oh yeah.” She agreed, nodding like it was the most casual thing in the world and her heart wasn’t absolutely leaping from her chest with anticipation at what might come next now that clothes were coming off. “Cold water drains body heat up to 25 times faster than cool air and paired with the fact that you almost drowned in a river with who knows what kind of germs in there, you’d be lucky if you don’t wind up dead anyway.” It wasn’t the sexiest thing in the world she could’ve said, but it was definitely on brand. But before she could completely kill the mood, Lacey J pulled her wet t-shirt over her head, revealing her simple green bralette before she started working on the buttons on her shorts. “But I can think of one way to get you all warmed up before you croak.”  

Colton's brain had a hard enough time keeping up with someone as smart as Lacey J on a regular day, but right now, with all the blood rushing down south, she could've been saying damn near anything and it would've sounded hot. He thought she said something about being lucky though, and he chuckled against her neck at what an understatement that was. They pulled apart long enough for her shirt to come off and his eyes widened at the sight of it. "Shoot, lucky's right" he whistled lowly, shaking his head as he peeled off his wet tank top, his muscles beneath glistening with leftover river water. "Look at you. I'm the luckiest boy in the world!"

His fingers fumbled with his belt buckle, hurrying to get it off so that he could pull his pants down as quickly as possible. He couldn't be more excited to be ready to kiss every part of Lacey J his mouth could reach, hold her tight, and show her exactly how wild she drove him. "If that's the way I go, I'm going to die a happier man," Colton promised, reaching down and lifting her up as easily as if she weighed nothing, holding her high and tight as he ravenously kissed her again, fully determined to stay attached to her in one way or another for the next however long he could.

#para #lacey j #para: lacey j #para: save a horse ride a cowboy

[oozmart]

Dance Till You Die

I wrote a oneshot fic for my OC Dahlia.  Hope yall enjoy it :)

Dahlia leaned over the order window of the food truck.  No customers, finally.  The dinner rush hit and now everyone was out enjoying the music, dancing, laughing, having fun.  

“You see that?” Drayton asked.

Dahlia didn’t even blink, she knew what he was about to say, “They’re all out there workin up a sweat and an appetite, they’ll be back for seconds in no time!”  She rolled her eyes.  Drayton was all work, no play.  He didn’t understand, he’d never had real fun before.  He was busy taking care of his brother’s, his family.  Dahlia respected him for being a devoted family man, but she never liked his bossy attitude.  

Dahlia was a rebellious teen, akin to that guy from Footloose.  That was one of her favorite movies.  Any movie that had dancing was her favorite movie.  She wanted to go out and dance with the crowd more than anything.  One night of fun.  All play, no work.  

“I know what you’re thinkin, lil missy…” Drayton accused, wagging a finger at her, “You’re gonna stay right here and help me prep for the after-dinner rush.”

“There’s no such thing as an after-dinner rush.”  Dahlia retorted, not moving from her spot.

Drayton groaned.  She was stubborn, that was one of her worst qualities, but she was the only one who could come help him with the food truck when it got busy at events like this.  These outdoor concerts are some of their most successful sale days.  This was for two reasons: For one, they sold a lot of sandwiches.  For two, a lot of people from out of town would come to see these bands play, which meant more prime meat for the Sawyer’s to catch.  

“Come on now,” Drayton began, “everyone’s workin today.  Bubba and Chop are out there waiting for meat, and you’re here helping me sell it.”  He couldn’t see her face, but he knew her eyes were rolling.  

Dahlia turned quickly, leaning back on the counter, “What if I just went out and danced a couple of songs?”

“NO!”

“AW, COME ON!!!  I never get to go have fun!!!”  She whined.  

Drayton stayed quiet, he wouldn’t hear anymore of this nonsense.

Dahlia creeped up behind him.  “One song?” She asked with a pouty face and a gentle tone.  He didn’t budge.  She had to appeal to his business side to win this battle.  “How about this,” she bargained, “I go out and dance with some people, and I tell them ALL ABOUT Drayton Sawyer’s AWARD WINNIN’ chili?  Hmm?”  

She grabbed his hand and pretended to dance with him.  He stood still and furrowed his brow.  This child was bizarre.  “This music is GRROVY!” She acted out the scenario, “Sure does make me hungry…” She squeezed his hand, “I got an idea!  Why don’t we go get some chili from that there truck?  Ya, that one!”  She sniffs the are, “MM, I can smell that choice meat from here!”  

Drayton was the one rolling his eyes now.  He had to admit, this wasn’t a horrible idea.  “Fine,” he caved, much to Dahlia’s delight, “you dance a couple songs and round up some customers.  If you don’t come back with a line of people you’re gonna be on dishwashin’ duty for a month for slackin off!”

Dahlia beamed, “THANK YOU!!!!”  Still holding his hand, she pulled her older-brother-figure in for a hug.  Drayton was not a touchy person.  He shoved her off and brushed off his suit.  He mumbled something under his breath, probably about the plight of small business owners, but Dahlia was already out the door and down the steps.  

She hopped outta the truck and ran out to the dance floor, a square of dirt surrounded by 4 beams suspending fairy lights and American flags.  She was wearing her old cowboy boots, high-waisted bell bottom jeans, and a crimson red blousy tank top.  She was so excited she thought she’d just explode.  The music was blasting from a small DJ on the North side of the dancing area, from its speakers played Elvis Presley’s classic, “Jailhouse Rock.”  Dahlia didn’t care that she didn’t know anyone out there, once the music hit her ears she lost herself to the sound.

Nearby on a hill, looking down at the festivities, Chop Top and Bubba sat in the back of he truck.  During big events like this, they’d keep an eye out for anyone leaving alone or drunk and if they looked like a good target they’d take’em out.  While exciting in theory it was a lot of waiting around.  They’d already been sitting around for over an hour and no good targets left the festivities.  People probably wouldn’t be leaving till well after midnight.  

“This blows,” Chop Top complained to his mostly silent brother, Bubba, “we should be home listenin to that radio lady and havin ourselves a well-earned break!”  Bubba nodded as his older brother yammered on about how bored he was, until something down below caught his attention.  He quickly shook his brother’s arm and pointed down to the dancing square.

Chop Top squinted, “What?  Someone finally leavin?”  Bubba shook his head and kept pointing to a specific person.  “WAIT A MINUTE?  IS THAT…..?”  Bubba nodded excitedly, as he got his point across.  “DAHLIA GETS TO HAVE FUN AND WE DON’T??!?!?!!”  Chop Top whined.  Bubba shrugged, he thought seeing his girl out there would cheer him up, but it only seemed to rile him up more.

Dahlia danced like her life depended on it.  Between songs, some people applauded her, she didn’t think anything of it.  She was in the zone.  

“Howdy,” a tall, burly man approached her, tipping his cowboy hat, “you’re a mighty fine dancer!”  His compliment made her smile.  She thanked him, and before she knew it, he was offering his hand and they were dancing together.

With his purple rounded glasses atop his head, Chop Top looked through a pair of army binoculars he kept in the truck, stunned at the sight of his own lover taking the hand of someone, a stranger!  “What game you playin…?” He muttered to himself.  He looked the cowboy up and down through the lenses.  He was probably about his height, but much heftier in the arms.  Strong.  Chop Top gave a small huff as he put down the binoculars.  Bubba picked them up and began to watch the dancers with curiosity.

An old fashioned square dance began, and Dahlia and the stranger partnered up.  He spun her around and picked her up by the hips above his head, she squealed with excitement when her feet left the ground.  When the dance ended, his hands lingered on her waist.  She suddenly remembered the promise she made to Drayton, “Oh!  You know what we should do right about now?”

“Oh, I know what we should do… Come on.” He took her hand and pulled her away into the darkness.  Bubba gasped, and urged his brother to look through them himself.  Chop Top didn’t budge, still upset about the sour night he’d been having.  

Bubba acted quick and hopped out of the bed of the truck and into the driver’s seat.  He didn’t drive often, but he knew how.  To Chop Top’s surprise, the vehicle started moving.  He rolled around in the bed before climbing through the back window to shout at his baby brother, “WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!?!?!!??!”   Bubba let him yell, he didn’t care right now.  He had to go save Dahlia.  She always looked out for him so he had to do the same for her.

They twisted and turned through dirt roads until they stopped to a grinding halt, down behind some trees near the festival.  Bubba frantically turned off the lights and hopped out of the car to get his chainsaw.  Chop Top was on his heels going off still, “YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU’RE DOIN DO YOU?!?!?!  THIS AIN’T THE WAY SHIT WORKS!!!!”

Bubba saw by the line of porto-potties, the stranger pulling Dahlia behind him.  Bubba quickly shushed Chop Top and pointed.  When CT turned his head his face flushed at the sight.  The stranger’s hands were on her waist, he was trying to whisper sweet nothings in her ear.

“Whats back here?”  Dahlia asked, cluelessly.  She got an unfortunate sniff of the air and reacted, “BLEH, it smells like shit.”  The man began to lean down to kiss her, but she leaned back and turned her cheek, causing his lips to land in the wrong place.  

He chuckled playfully, “Aw, come on, lil mama… The way you were dancin had to mean something.”  Chop Top’s blood boiled when he heard his nickname for her crawl out of someone else’s mouth.  That was his lil mama.  

Dahlia was offended on his behalf as well.  Someone else calling her by that pet name felt dirty. “It meant I like dancing.” She snapped, “If I wanted something I would have asked.”  She took his hands off her hips, but he held on to her hands.  “Please…” she tried to pull away, but he insistently held on.

“You sure?  Dancin gets tiring, don’t it?”  He was determined to get her to say yes.  In his experience, pressure usually wore women down.

Dahlia attempted to promote the business again, as a means to avoid any physical conflict, “Uhh, i’m hungry! Aren’t you?  We could talk about this over a bite of homemade, award-winning chili?  And Drayton Sawyer makes it the best!”  

The man scoffed at the idea.  “That Sawyer guy?  He’s a hack.  Nothin homemade about that shit.  I hear its all canned and processed.”  

Dahlia wasn’t Drayton’s biggest fan, but she respected him and loved him.  He was family, and they protected each other.  With that she was done with this fool.  She raised her knee to his crotch with a hearty thrust and he went down without a fight.  

Chop Top saw the man go down and took this opportunity to burst from the forest and swing his hammer at the fucker’s head.  “YEEHAW!” he shouted as he went ham.  The music was so loud, and the shadows of the porto-potties kept them hidden from any passerby’s sight.  Bubba didn’t dare rev up his chainsaw in though.  He still kept it on him as he ran to Dahlia’s aid.  

She was stupefied by their sudden arrival, “What are you boys doin down here?  Yall are supposed to be watchin for meat.”  She put her hands on her hips.  

“WE’RE SAVING YOU, BABES” Chop Top announced proudly with another swing of his hammer to the man.  His body spasmed as blood poured from the cracks in his skull.  This was normal for the Sawyer boys and Dahlia to see, it didn’t faze any of them.  Rather she rolled her eyes, “I saved myself just fine, thank you very much.  

“Its the 80’s for god’s sake I dont need a man to save me.”  She crossed her arms and shook her head.  She felt a weight on her head.  Looking up she saw Bubba leaning his head on her as gently as he could.  He was so much taller than her it was an awkward position.  Whenever they’d sit around at home he’d lean on her like this, so he thought it would be a comfort for both of them in this moment.  

Dahlia could never stay mad at baby Bubba.  He was like a little brother to her.  She put a hand on his cheek and patted, “I do appreciate you both comin though.  Now Drayton can’t be mad at me cause I helped catch some food.”

Bubba blushed under his leather face and proceeded to take care of business.  He bent down and picked up the legs of the now dead man, whoever he was, and dragged him back to the truck.  Chop Top stayed back with Dahlia, “Ooh, I bet he’s pissed right now!  Why’d  you ditch him?  Dangerous to play hooky on his watch.”  He slouched over slightly and scrunched up his face, “You idiots are always slackin off leavin me to slave over a hot stove!  I gotta do ALL the work ‘round here!!!” he imitated his older brother perfectly.  

Dahlia laughed, she always loved his silly impersonations.  He was good at them.  “Well I didn’t ditch him,” she explained, “he said I could go dance so long as I brought in some customers.”  She paused and shrugged, thinking about it, “Don’t know if I did that, but I guess did something.”  She suddenly realized she’d have to go back to the truck for that fake after-dinner rush thing Drayton kept going on about.  He was going to be upset for sure.  “I better get back before he makes me wash dishes for the rest of my life.”  

As she began to leave, Chop Top snatched her hand. “Uh, i- if you had to do dishes for a year…”. He felt a nervous itch on his scalp and pulled his wire hanger out of his vest and began scratching under his wig, “I- I- i’d help you every day.”  He pulled the hanger out, but before he could nibble at the skin bits he scraped, Dahlia picked at the end of it and stole them, eating them herself.  Chop Top was turned on, but kept it low-key by just giving her a toothy grin.  She winked at him with a cheeky smile.  She knew how she made him feel.  She squeezed his hand before letting go, and proceeded back to the food truck.

Chop’s hand slowly came down to his side as he watched her walk away.  He wanted her to come back.  He wanted to kiss her.  Sure, he could do it later when they got home, but he wanted to do it now out in the open while his heart was beating with excitement and adrenaline was pumping through his veins.  He wanted to grab her by the arms and kiss her with a fiery passion.  Alas, she was already far out of sight.

His thoughts were interrupted by the grunts of his brother from the truck.  He leaned his head back in frustration before joining him to hoist the heavy body up into the bed of the truck.  “Bubba what have I always told ya?!?!?  Dont lift by yourself you’re gonna throw out your back!!!”

Back at the truck, Dahlia paused in surprise.  A line of people!  She didn’t see that coming.  She quickened her pace and ran up the steps of the truck.  Drayton didn’t look away from his work at the grill, “THERE YOU ARE!  I think you got enough customers for the night, good job.”  

Dahlia blinked.  “Good job.”  It didn’t seem like much, but from Drayton that was a lot.  She felt a tinge of pride in her chest and a smile crept onto her face that she couldn’t hold back.  

“Well?  What are you standing there for?!?!  GET BACK TO WORK!!!”  

#tcm #tcm2 #tcm 2 #texas chainsaw 2 #texas chainsaw massacre #texas chainsaw massacre 2 #texas chainsaw massacre part 2 #drayton #drayton sawyer #chop top #chop top sawyer #bubba #bubba sawyer #leatherface #dahlia #talking about ocs #horror #oneshot #fic #my writing #classic movie monsters

[achliegh]

Golden

Yeehaw Leo… it's all because this song came on one day (I don’t even really listen to country anymore so it really is fate). Leo is based off that song, each chapter is going to be based off a yeehaw song too.

Characters belong to @lumosinlove

Beta: @the-most-slyterin-hufflepuff & @punkkkboi

TW/CW: Smut, terrible yeehaw sayings and jokes, injuries, mentions of past death/suicide, minor character death, underage drinking, mentions of past arrests, cringe

Chapter Songs (listening in order is recommended):

Chapter 14:

Holiday Playlist

Sold (Dance)

Leo was freezing, shivering in the car with the heated seat under his ass and heat blowing on him. He changed his pants from the ice soaked ones earlier and his ankles were sore from his skates but he was happy. He made a good impression on Logan’s sisters, his mom texted him to let him know the sale went through, and he watched Clay face plant on the ice.

All was well in the world.

He was smiling to himself as he leaned back into the heat of the seat with his arms hugging himself, teeth only chattering a little bit. He is listening to Logan chat with his sisters in the back in fairly fast French-Canadian French, he knows Finn is confused. But Leo is listening to him tap on the steering wheel to whatever song was playing in his head. The radio is off because Leo doesn’t want to overwhelm Finn with too much noise in a small confined place. He would be miserable the rest of the night.

They pull up to Pascal's house and the Trembly siblings are the first out of the vehicle, leaving Leo and Finn in the dust. Finn kisses Leo’s temple after shutting off the car.

“Ready?” Leo smiles and nods, he is honestly a little tired but he’s excited to get a little drunk and just relax with the team plus the team’s families.

Leo grabs onto the handle to push open the door when it is suddenly flung open and he topples out face first first into the ground. Hearing someone gasp from above him he rolls over to his back and blinks a few times.

“I think… I broke my teeth again.” Leo runs his tongue over his two front teeth and feels the chip in his tooth is suddenly much larger, but still less than half his tooth so he doesn’t really care.He has broken his teeth way worse before. Ma will get a kick out of it. “That's fun.”

“Oh my gosh I’m so sorry! Are you okay?” Aubry is helping him sit up and is grabbing his still dazed face and looking it over to make sure he’s okay. She looks over to her left and sees Logan looking at her and she can feel the anger rolling off of him. His arms are crossed and his hands are gripping his arms, Sydney takes one look at Logan and steps back a couple of feet.

“Can you let go of my face?” Leo mumbles, causing her to look back at him and smile a little at his squished cheeks. “Also I break my teeth all the time, 90% of my front two teeth are fake so…” He shrugs and smiles at her. She lets go of his face and Finn helps Leo up.

“Again I’m sorry Leo!”

“I feel like I look like Jason Derulo after he tried eating corn off the cob with a power drill.” He laughs at himself as he looks in the side mirror of the car. Rolling his bottom jaw a bit, popping his neck from side to side, then rolling his shoulders. He notices a scrape on his chin and his cheek. “Not gonna lie, I kinda look rugged.”

“Let’s go inside, get you a drink and an ice pack, yeah?” Logan takes his hand and smiles up at him, taking note of his scrapes and his chipped tooth when he smiles back.

“Yes please!” They all make their way inside to find families just chatting on the couches in the living room, people drinking wine and eating little horderves that Celeste and Adele put together. Leo is led to the kitchen where the two chefs were.

“Oh Leo, did you fall on the ice after we left?” Celeste looks at him as she hands him an ice pack wrapped in a paper towel.

“Non, Aubry opened my door with me attached to it and I landed face first on the concrete. Broke my teeth some more but.” He shrugs and his nose scrunches as Logan dabs at his scrapes with a wet paper towel. “Okay! Okay! I’m Okay! OW!” Logan sighs at Leo’s dramatics and goes to throw the paper towel away.

“So you’re the man with the terrible singing.” Adele looks up at Leo from where she is cutting pinwheels. “I wondered if you were ever going to appear.”

“You don’t like my singing?” Leo smiles at her and she smiles back. “Wait, when have you heard my singing?” He absentmindedly starts helping her put pickles on sticks. He remembers catching a glance of her the first time he visited Pascals’ but he doesn’t remember singing when she was around.

“When Logan was really sad after Louisiana, he would only fall asleep to these videos of you singing in front of a fire pit. It was really annoying for a while.” Leo is silent for a moment, Adele looks up at him and notices how he is trying to keep his face blank but the frown lines are still ghosting. “He is better than ever now that you are with him and Finn though, he blabs about you two all the time.” That makes him smile a bit.

“No! Alex! Let go!” Leo and Adele turn around to see an older version of Finn keeping Logan in a headlock. Leo hides his smile by sucking in his lips and holding them between his teeth. “Ah!” Logan is suddenly on the ground with Alex laughing from above him, asshole kicked his feet out from under him. Glaring Logan takes his hand and gets helped up. “Jerk.”

“Hey! You can’t be mean to me or I’ll tell Finn.”

“He would be on my side!”

“He would laugh at you and give me a high five and you know it.” Logan thinks for a moment and then signs knowing Alex is right.

“Why do my boyfriend's siblings bully me?”

“Because we are family, shortstack.” Alex gets punched in the stomach for that nickname everytime. Yet he still calls Logan that any time he gets the chance. After a moment of catching his breath, Alex looks up to see Logan’s face buried into another man’s chest. He was tall and had a couple scrapes on his face but he looked young. Maybe in his early twenties. His hair was barely sticking out from under his.. Cowboy hat… he was wearing sweatpants and a sweatshirt… with cowboy boots. Who was this guy!? Does Finn know about him and Logan?

“Leooooo, I got some people I want you to meeeet!” Finn walks into the kitchen with his mother and Father trailing behind and bumps into Alex who is just staring at Leo like he's a ghost. “I promise he doesn’t always dress like that.” Taking a few steps towards his boys he gives Adele a fist bump and then leans his head on Leo’s shoulder. “Mom, Dad, this is Leo. The cowboy I have been talking about for…. A good year now. He is Logan and I’s boyfriend.” He smiles.

Leo feels his heart pick up a bit as the nerves of meeting parents that have authority makes him feel like he shouldn’t be there. He shakes the fathers hand after Logan goes to help Adele take out more tiny foods. He goes to shake Finn’s mother’s hand but is pulled into an aggressively tight hug that reminds him of his Mama’s hugs. He smiles and hugs her back. Already starting to feel at ease.

“I’m Alex.” Alex pats Leo on the shoulder.

“Leo, Finn talks a lot about you. He has your pictures up all around the apartment. I was convinced you two were twins for a while.” Leo smiles and continues to relax as Alex bursts out laughing.

“I’m not surprised, when we were younger people swore we were twins, and I think Finn would let people believe it when he was in elementary.” Alex ruffles Finn’s hair.

“So, Finn tells us you’re a Professional Bullrider. Correct?” Finn's dad looks to have the exact same face as his boys, same eyes as well. But he is much more tan and doesn’t have a single freckle that Leo can see, his hair is dark brown and curly, his eyebrows were so thick that Eliose would have the time of her life shaping them, his nose is also quite large and protrudes from his face with a little crook in the bridge making him subtly look like a bird.

“Yes, I do ride professionally. I actually leave in a couple of months to go travel the country to do it all again. My best friend Clayton ropes calves as well and my Mother was crowned Miss Rodeo when she was younger. So, it’s interesting when Finn tries to talk about rodeo stuff with us and he just has no idea. He’s getting better though.”

“I always had a dream of riding bulls or just being a cowboy in general but I’m from upstate New York! Not many cowboys there.” He laughs in the loud way most older fathers do and pats him on the shoulder just like Alex did. His smile was large and inviting, it reminded him of Finn.

“Country is Country wide, Sir. I have rode with people from New Hampshire and Massechusets. If you want I could teach you some things! I do train children in the two weeks before I leave to compete.”

“Don’t give him any ideas, he may be young at heart but his body is becoming old and crepid.” Finn’s parents share a kiss and it gives Leo’s heart a small painful yank. He can’t help but wonder if his parents would look that happy if his dad was still alive. He takes a sip of the Jack and Coke that Finn made him and swallows it along with his own self pity.

Now is not the time to mope.

He chats with Finn’s family some more until the doorbell rings. That would be his mother.

“Hello, who are you?” Pascal is looking directly into the sharp blue eyes of a woman who is either the same height as him… or taller. SHe is holding two milk crates, both filled with jars full of clear liquid. Odd. She is dressed in a tight red long sleeve shirt with a pair of dark wash jeans that flare at the bottom with matching red boots poking out from the jeans. Something flashes light into his eye and he notices the giant buckle on her belt.

“Oh excuse my manners! I’m Eloise Knut! My son Leo should be behaving here. This is Pascal’s house, yes?” She smiles and her teeth are so blindingly bright that Pascal has to look away.

“Oh yes of course come in.” He opens the door all the way and she struts in. Clayton was the first person to run up to her, Marc is on his back laughing loudly as they were just pretending Clay was a horse.

“Ma! It’s about time you show up! I’ll take this.” Clay has Marc hop off his back and takes the crates from Eloise, walking away lifting them over all the peoples heads who are sitting down or children.

“Ma! I want you to meet my brother. Sirius, this is Eloise. Eloise, this is Sirius.” Reg is looking between them with this excited glint in his eye, his two favorite adult figures in his life are meeting.

“Ravi de vous rencontrer.” Sirius shakes her hand and kisses her hand. Eloise smiles and pats his cheek.

“Si gentil de ta part.” Sirius smiles, cheeks turning a bit pink as she pinches them a bit. “You are just adorable! You and your brother have the most beautiful hair. I would love to just sit down and play with it all day.”

“Mama, stop hitting on Reg’s brother. Hit on his boyfriend instead.” Remus laughs from his spot next to Leo as they walk up with plates piled high with food. Leo’s vegetarian, Remus’ not. “I mean look at him, he is exactly your type! Short brownish hair, giant brown eyes, probably a bottom- Hey!” Remus swats at his plate of food to try and knock it over, making Leo barely have time to balance it out again.

“Leo, you’re gay. I thought you would have been better at seeing who is top, bottom, or a switch in relationships. It’s pretty obvious if you ask me.” Eloise smiles at Remus. “Since you have your hands full I will just give you a wave, Deary.” She waves at him. “I’m Eloise, Leo’s mother. I hope you haven’t heard anything bad about me, Leo likes to tell stories of when I was younger.”

“I can’t help it Mama, you were just so interesting!” Leo speaks with his mouth full and Reg, Remus and Elosie all give him a look.

“Don’t speak with your mouth full!” They all manage to say at the same time, catching Leo off guard. He laughs and swallows the food in his mouth.

“There are so many mothers around me. I’m going to see who Clay has rounded up to try the shine.” He stands up and leaves his plate on the little table in the middle of them, Reg grabs a few pieces of his food and eats them as he listens to Sirius and Remus talk about how they will be celebrating the holidays.

“I’ll go with you, I should probably meet the rest of the boys.” Eloise follows him into the kitchen to find Clay behind the kitchen island with two jars of moonshine in front of him, explaining to the team what it is. Leo walks over beside him and takes the lid off one and smells it.

“I think this one is watermelon.”

“Thanks for interrupting me. Anyway, moonshine is technically illegal because… honestly I don’t remember but we have been drinking it since we were like 13 I think.” Eloise walks up behind the two, reaching over them to grab the other jar, Clay and Leo move out of the way to let her in the middle.

“You two make me look like a terrible person, you know that? Letting my child drink moonshine at 13. I could get arrested.” She is examining the jar as the boys back track their statements about drinking so young even when they are still under the drinking age. She has a little half smile on her face when she looks through the clear liquid straight into a set of eyes that are staring right back.

Dark hazel eyes surrounded by the longest eyelashes she has ever seen. Dark smooth skin wrinkling around the eyes as this person smiles. Her mouth was very dry all the sudden, her stomach had a pit in it as well.

“Leo why don’t you let me have that, Y’all can keep all the rest.” She puts the jar she is holding down and takes the open one from Leo who was about to take a sip. She leaves the kitchen without another word. Clay and Leo share a confused look as they watch her leave.

Timmy follows a few minutes later.

The music played in the house after all these kids left to go spend the night at other houses, leaving the Dumias house open for adult activities like swearing. Leo, Reg and Clay had all moved the furniture around, with permission from Dumo and Celeste. There was just enough room for people to dance.

No one was really drunk persay but a couple swings of moonshine definitely got people tipsy. Elosie was talking with Ollie, Andrew, and Timmy. Who leo was keeping an extra close eye on, because he just felt like he should. He knows a lot of people find his mother attractive, that's why Eloise always wore her ring, to get people to back off, but she was almost… flirting back with Timmy.

It made Leo feel weird. Clay too.

Leo was staring at Eloise and Timmy when Sold (Grundy County Auction) came on over the bluetooth. He hears a gasp from behind him and sees Remus trying to get Sirius to dance with him.

“Re, I don’t know the dance.”

“It’s easy I promise!” Sirius gives his boyfriend a look and Remus sighs, giving up on trying to yank Sirius up off his chair . Leo walks over because he would also like to dance but his mom is flirting, Reg gets dizzy, his boys don’t know the dance, and Clay is laying across Thomas and Noelle on the couch a bit too drunk to really do anything but smile at them and twist Noelles hair around his finger.

“I know it, and all my dance partners are busy if you’d like to dance.” He smiles and nods his head when Sirius mouths ‘thank you’ in his direction. Remus hesitates for a moment.

“I only know how to follow really.”

“And you wanted me to dance!” Sirius tsks sarcastically and shakes his head leaning back in his chair so the two front legs were off the ground. Making sure there was something soft behind him, Re puts his foot under one of the chair legs and lifts up so Sirius falls backwards onto the pile of blankets that were thrown off the couch. “Re!”

“Well, I only know how to lead so that works out perfectly.” Leo takes Remus’ hand and leads him towards the group of dancing people on the wood floor of the living room. “Think there is enough space?”

“I think so, here.” Remus grabs his hands and they swing in a circle so people give them room. Leo just about trips over his own feet. Remus catches him while laughing, putting a hand on Leo’s shoulder and holding his other while Leo rests his free hand on Remus’ waist.

Spinning each other they are lost in the dance, not noticing the two or three people filming them. Sirius is just watching Remus move so smoothly, without a care in the world. His hair was long enough it swished with him, his laugh was loud and sweet. He didn't know how he didn’t get dizzy from dancing.

Finn was also watching them dance, as well as Logan. Finn was just enjoying his friend and Boyfriend dancing, Logan was too but a bit more… possessive. They all trust one another but Logan can’t help the little voice in the back of his head telling him to make sure Re knows Leo is theirs.

They finish the dance and just straight up sit on the floor to catch their breath, laughing a bit as people return to the dance floor. Eloise walks over to them and holds out a hand to each to help them up.

“Last Song! I want to go to bed!” Dumo announces as he turns the music down for a moment, he turns it back up before people can complain. Celeste was starting to put food away in to go containers and in tupperware to go in the fridge. Dumo walks over to help her but gets distracted when he hears someone drop a glass. He sighs and goes to help them, James, clean up.

“I am going to stay and help Celeste tonight and tomorrow morning. I will see you at the apartment and then we can go out for lunch.” Eloise smiles as Leo nods and lets her kiss his cheek. Leo and Remus make their way back over to their lovers.

“You were amazing!” Sirius hugs Remus, lifting him off the ground and smooching all over his slightly red face. “Where did you learn to dance like that?”

“My dad and mom used to go to swing classes when I was younger and my dad would always secretly practice with me so he could wow my mom.” He smiles, pushing Sirius’ hair out of his face and sighing happily. “Let’s go home, I’m tired.” Sirius and Reg follow Re out of the house a few minutes later, waving goodbye to the team.

The drive home in the uber was interesting, Leo and Logan were both sliding their hands up Finn’s thighs making his tispy brain only think about one thing. He watched those two whisper to each other before they left the house, Finn didn’t pay much attention, busy watching for the uber to pull up.

Once they enter the house Finn finds himself pinned against the door as soon as it is closed, Leo is kissing and nipping at his neck while Logan is reaching his hands under Finn’s shirt as he kisses him with maybe too much tongue. Finn lets himself be dragged into the feeling of their hands and lips on him.

“Tonight is all about you, sweetheart.” Leo whispers in his ear, Logan pulls away and tugs on Finn’s shirt towards the bedroom. Leo pats his butt to get him moving and follows the other two, stripping off his many layers and stretching his jaw a bit from his fall earlier.

“Hi, how are you?” Finn is pulled on top of Logan who has lost his clothes sometime in between the door of the room and the bed. He was beautiful; basically glowing from the yellow light of the lamp near the bed. Shadows and light contrasting on his tan skin make him look like a work of art. He can’t help but run his fingertips lightly over Logan’s chest and stomach. Smiling as the muscles move under his fingers, he feels a hand on his hand and two hands cupping his face making him look back up at Logan.

“I love you.” Logan pulls him down for a kiss as Finn feels Leo’s rough hands slide his shirt up, he pulls away just long enough to take his shirt off and then dives right back in for more kisses. Logan is very addictive, he lets Finn take over the kiss when he wants and other times he will take over the kiss just to annoy Finn into fucking him. Logan is giggling slightly as they kiss just because all this happiness is bubbling in his chest.

“I love you too, Lo.” He mumbles on Logan’s lips, feeling the bed dip behind him, Finn pulls away from Logan. Only after he is pulled into one last heated kiss that he can barely pull away from. Sitting up on his knees he turns his head to the side and has his lips met with another set of lips he loves.

Leo is almost always soft, besides his calloused hands, his skin is just perfect and makes Finn want to touch him always. He lightly nips at Leo’s lips, drawing a smile from the younger man. They pull away after a moment and Leo wraps his arms fully around Finn’s bare waist, resting his chin on Finn’s shoulder, humming a bit.

“I want to eat you out, is that okay? I mean your ass is so pale it looks like two marshmallows.” Logan snorts at Leo’s comment and flexes his legs from where they are resting on either side of Finn’s thighs, squishing Finn between them. Finn thinks about it for a moment, running his hand up and down Logan’s calf while Leo's hands run all over his torso.

“I don't know. Are you sure you want to? I mean, I just don’t want to find out I’m dirty or something… I also like never shave so… I don’t know.” He absent mindedly twirls a couple of Logan’s leg hairs together between his forefinger and thumb. Trying to ignore the feeling of an embarrassed blush that is creeping from his ears to his chest.

“Finn, you have eaten both of us out. Did you ever care if we were perfectly smooth or whatever else you are worried about?” Logan sits up, Looking him in the eyes. “We want to make you feel good, but if you don’t want to, that's okay too.” After a couple minutes of the three of them just existing together on the bed Finn starts nodding his head.

“Yeah, I want to try it. I think maybe once I get past feeling all jittery I will like it.” He kisses Leo and smiles at Logan. “I want to feel good like how I make you two feel.” He pushes Logan back onto his back and leans over him.

Leo helps Finn out of his shorts and, “Are these… my boxers?” Laughing as Finn nods, Leo also helps him slide off his boxers with fish on them. “You know Fish is a good nickname for you.” Leo starts kissing down his back.

“You named a fish after us and now you are naming me after a fish?” Finn starts to snicker but is cut off by the feeling of Leo licking over his entrance. His brows pinches together, his eyes close and he feels himself turn bright red.

“Hey” Logan kisses his cheek and nudges his cheek a bit with his nose, “Kiss me.” Finn doesn’t waste a second moving to have one hand holding him up by Logan's head and the other is gripping the back of his head with his fingers threaded into the long hair on Logan's neck. “Leo, you’re making him so red.” Logan mumbles on Finn’s lips.

Finn is losing himself in the feeling of Leo slowly opening himself up with his tongue, he knew this made his boys feel good but he didn’t expect it to make his legs shake. He has lost the ability to kiss Logan back because he is breathing so hard, burying his face in the crook of his neck. Every once in a while Finn feels Logan twitch and move under him.

Leo starts using his fingers alongside his tongue, Finn can’t help but rotate his hips in circles as the pleasure keeps flowing through his body. He feels like a soda bottle that hasn’t been opened, but has been shook. Everything was bubbling up and he felt like he was about to explode.

Leo pulls away when he feels Finn is ready. Looking at his boys, they both look blissed out. Leo notices one of Logan’s hands isn’t in sight, Finn is a complete mess. His hair is wild, his face is red, he is panting and looking more out of it than Leo has ever seen him.

“What do you want next?” Leo kisses up his back, nuzzling into the back of his neck and breathing in the smell that is strictly Finn.

“Leo, fuck me.”

“Yeah?”

“Can I get fucked too?” Logan is staring into Leo’s eyes with his pupils basically taking over his green eyes. Leo nods and leans over Finn’s shoulder to give Logan a quick kiss. Sitting back up, Finn follows his lead and sits up a few moments later. He gets handed the lube from where it is sitting next to Logan and covers his fingers. Logan grabs his hand and shakes his head.

“I already did it.” He smiles shyly at Finn who just blinks a few times.

“Loooogannnn! You know that’s like my favorite part!” Finn is pouting as he uses the lube on his hand to cover his cock. He is still mumbling his complaints as he starts to press in. He is already feeling everything more than normal, so his jaw goes slack and he pauses halfway. “Fucking Christ.” He leans down and presses his forehead to Logan’s as he pushes the rest of the way in. Their heavy breathing syncs up until Finn starts to pull out and push back in, just barely moving.

Leo is watching the whole thing, giving himself a few strokes to ease some pressure. He whispers the question to Finn who slows his thrusts to a stop. Leo slowly starts to press in and feels Finn suddenly tense up, Leo pauses and Finn lets out a noise that he knows like the back of his hand.

Finn just came. Logan moans loudly at the feeling of Finn cuming in him.

“Fuck! Finn~” Leo sees Logans hands grip Finn’s bareback digging his nails in.

“Leo- Please keep going.” Leo takes a deep breath to calm himself from just going to town on Finn. He pulls out and groans as Finn clenches around him. He presses his forehead to Finn’s sweaty back and listens to his plea to go deeper.

“Leo!” Logan calls out to him as his eyes start to roll back and his back arches, following Finn’s example from earlier and cumming between the two of them. Leo continues to fuck them as they moan his name, each others names, and grip one another as if they would lose them if they didn’t.

After finding the perfect rhythm, they all fall into a void of pleasure. Their bodies moving on their own, their voices becoming hoarse from moaning, lips raw from stolen kisses. Everything was perfectly balanced.

Logan suddenly breaks the atmosphere by falling off the edge again. He jerks himself through his orgasm and loses his voice as his vocal cords become taunt. Once the fog in his head dissipates he looks up at his boys.

“Can I watch you two?” The raspiness of his own voice catches him off guard, he clears his throat before Leo pulls out of Finn and Finn pulls out of Logan. Leo is holding Finn up as he has slumped back into Leo’s chest. They rearrange, Logan is laying on his side next to Finn who is lying on his back. Leo is between Finn’s legs and moves them so one is wrapped around his hip and the other is out to the side. With Logan wanting to still do something, he holds the leg that is out to the side and sits up to watch as Leo pushes back into Finn. His eyes wanted to watch where they met and Finn’s face at the same time.

Logan knows that Leo’s eyes when he is fucking is one of the most intense things he has ever seen, Finn tries to look Leo in the eyes but ends up turning his head to meet Logan’s.

Logan's eyes are soft and blown out, beautiful green, calming yet wild. Logan is just a walking oxymoron. He was everything. Finn looks back at Leo who is watching them look at each other. He hits Finn’s prostate just right and Finn cums again as he cups Leo’s face and stares into his eyes.

Leo swallows as he starts to slow down. Finn is still looking into his eyes, Leo kisses him passionately. Teeth and tongue are the main part of the kiss. Finn wraps his arms around Leo’s neck and his legs around his waist, pulling Leo in deeper to him. Leo gets the hint and keeps fucking him.

Finn holds on for dear life as he is fucked into the mattress. He is sensitive from earlier so it doesn’t take long to get him over the edge again. Leo is just about to cum when he pulls out as Finn’s limbs flop to the sides of him, hitting Logan on accident, Leo pulls out. Remembering that Finn doesn’t like the feeling of cum in him. So he jerks himself a few times before he cums all over Finn’s chest and stomach. Mixing with his own mess.

Logan being the impatient boy he is… Fully shoves Leo out of the way, placing two hands on his chest and shoving Leo out of the way. Not meaning to fully knock him off the bed but he does. Logan is between Finn’s legs and licks up his stomach and chest, right through the mess. Taking Finn by surprise he shoves his tongue down his throat.

Leo stands up, watching them making out with the mess and feeling himself start to get turned on again. They pull away and look at him, the softest and sleepiest smiles on their faces.

He loves them.

#leo knut #logan tremblay #finn o'hara #james potter #thomas walker #Clayton Bruss #o'knutzy #o’knutzy #lumosinlove #sweater weather #coast to coast