Touch You In Real Time (OPEN)

[houndish]

Cash had an easy pace picked out as he ran with Misty at his side. The girl was his whole world, and she had to be kept healthy. They were a perfect pair, both with an easy loping gait. She was a black mountain cur dog, a pretty find at that. Her face was cute, and one look from her big amber eyes was enough to melt your heart. The blonde's singing voice was strong as they belted the lyrics to a song he knew well, Long After I'm gone by Big Kenny. It was nice to finally have some alone time.

In the temperate but still muggy Kentucky air, Cash could feel a pang of homesickness shoot through his chest. It was strange to be on a run and not know exactly the path he would take, not know that he could be struck blind and know how to get back. The feeling of insecurity was something that the lean young man wasn't accustomed to, and it was the most awkward thing he'd felt in ages.

He was zoned out, tuned in on how their six feet made a rhythmic patter on the paved trail. No ipod was plugged into his ears, but he broke into Nobody's Hero by Rush in his even tenor, belting it and not really caring who heard. None of it mattered any more, except for his horse, his dog and his guitar.

[sepia]

Cash wasn't the only Blue Ridge student currently at the Reserve, taking advantage of the time to give his own dog a bit of a run. Ethan, surprisingly alone, having left Daniel back at the school riding Miles, took a good look around before unclipping the leash of the enthusiastic ball of fur bouncing at his side. There didn't look to be anyone around, and Kumiho always did enjoy a run off the lead. The black and grey pup, as soon as he heard the tell-tale click of the lead, was off like a shot, straight into the nearest bush.

Ethan grinned, and kept walking, idly twirling the lead around his hand and reveling in the unusual solitude. Ever since moving to the Academy, he'd been almost continuously in the presence of other people, mostly his brother. And while he utterly adored his elder sibling, there was definitely something to be said for some alone time every once in a while, just bonding with his dog. Said dog who was currently rooting around in the undergrowth for all he was worth.

The silenece was broken, somewhat abruptly, by a smooth, tenor voice belting out a song it took Ethan several moments to identify. Nobody's Hero? Or something like that, anyway, he concluded, as the singer came into sight, pounding along the path Ethan was currently on, black dog loping along at his side. Resolving to not interrupt, Ethan removed himself from the path, to give the boy plenty of space to run on. But, the best laid plans of mice and men, and all, and his neat little not-interfering routine was broken when Kumiho took matters into his own paws.

The dog, excited by the sight of company, burst out of the bushes he'd been concealing himself in, and bounded up to the boy's canine companion, tail wagging and ears flopping as he barked, once, brightly, utterly ignoring Ethan's scandalised shout of "Kumiho, no!" as he did his level best to make friends.

[houndish]

Cash was sure his pretty little brindle cur would take off, the way her tail was wagging. It was one of her little quirks, whenever she got excited it would work around in a high powered circle. Instead of carrying on another Rush tune, it broke into a brassy laugh as she let out a bright bay. The lanky, four year old girl and his sophomore companion were still moving evenly as they came upon the other running pair.

“Misty Mae, leave it!” Cash recognized Ethan right away, inclining his head and unclipping her lead once he realized it was a lost cause. The female dog let out another string of short woofs, friendly. She tackled the smaller puppy, grunting, but with her ears pricked and her tail beating a mile a minute.

“Hi sweetheart.” The boy went down on one knee, rubbing the puppy behind the ears, grinning. Ah, how he missed the cuteness of the puppy stage. Still, it had taken forever to get through it with Misty, and it had gotten real ugly real fast.

“What’s up, Ethan?” His blonde hair was flopped in front of his face, making him look about nine. It pissed Cash off, especially with his natural highlights. He rose to his feet, watching the dogs play and pushing the sleeves of his grey V-neck farther up, to his elbows.

Outfit? Hell yes!

[sepia]

Ears flopping and overly large paws flailing all over the place, Kumiho managed to stand still enough long enough for Cash to give him a rub behind the ears before he was off again in an explosion of movement, darting back to Misty again in an enthusiastic bound. Play with me, play with me! his demeanor shouted as he bounced around the older dog, Ethan giving up on trying to restrain him when he saw that neither owner nor canine seemed to mind, and letting out a laugh, instead.

"One day, Kumi, we'll figure out this whole discipline thing," he sighed, then turned his attention to the human, whom he now recognised as Cash - he got there in the end with recognising people... eventually. Usually. Not having really talked to the other teen before - it wasn't like two people with reserved personalities were exactly going to seek each other out for - and not having Daniel around to do the talking for him, meaning that his usual retreat into a helpful backup silence wasn't going to work, it took him a few moments to formulate an answer.

"Well, the usual," he said, with a shrug, watching as his puppy frolicked merrily. "Enjoying the air, walking one's insane dog..." There, that sounded suitable casual, right? "How're you?" Heh, he could totally do this talking thing! Though usually preferring to take a back-seat role, when on his own, Ethan could actually carry a conversation; his main problem was that he tended to over analyse everything, wondering about minor inflections, and worrying whether certain word choices might be offensive, or just not get his point across properly.

[houndish]

Cash took a second to appraise the situation. His girl was happy, he was happy, for now at least. The boy’s ribs ached from where he had fallen off a few days previous, aggravating an injury from earlier in the summer. The doc had said no rough stock for three months, but had he listened? Of course now. Now, he was regretting not staying off the bulls and broncs he loved. Still, if he had, his last shred of sanity may have said adieu.

Misty obliged the puppy, allowing her inner puppy to show through and letting out a playful snarl. The girl had a tendency to play rough, but still play. She went for his neck, but more with her nose than her teeth. It was a chasing, joyful, youthful. Cash hadn’t seen his girl like this since they were at home. She had been pretty toned down since they made the trip out here, especially without her normal “muttley” crew, the ones that raised hell all over the ranch.

“Oh believe me, they never grow up. Never learn.” Cash watched his girl play with an affectionate look on his face. It was almost like a proud father, with his daughter that had just taken the biggest gold buckle at the rodeo. Or won a spelling bee, but the practical part of him was the last thing in his mind.

“Hell, insanity at its best.” The blonde man turned his eyes on the pups, romping like they did. “Not too bad, now that I get to be back with the horse and without the stepfather and half sisters.” Cash allowed a grin to play at his lips, hands shoved into his pockets. It was great to be back in a world of equestrians, a world that wasn’t as… he didn’t know. Equestrians were special people.

[sepia]

Kumiho had decided that Christmas had come early; not only had he found a new friend, but she was a friend who was willing to play with him! Scrabbling away from Misty's mock attack, he took the opportunity to scamper off, tail wagging and head half turned over his shoulder in a clear come and get me! gesture. Managing to stumble over his own paws as he did so, the combination of not looking where he was going and general klutziness proving too much for him, he righted himself with a wobble and kept going.

"Ah," Ethan commented, not sure if this was his cue to inquire more deeply about these halfsisters and stepfather. This was where he ran into problems in conversations - he was never quite sure what the etiquette was when people casually dropped such things. He wasn't sure if he really knew Cash well enough, given this had to be about the first time they'd spoken beyond casual 'Hellos' in corridors, to inquire further... unless he was supposed to inquire further, which was why Cash had mentioned it - and, argh, this is why he always got confused when he was required to talk to people. With the best will in the world, he just wasn't very good at it.

"Horses do tend to make everything better," he said, eventually, feeling that that was a safely neutral comment. "You ride Western, right? I've seen you in the paddocks a couple of times." Horses were good things to talk about, yes they were. Almost always a safe choice of topic...except when they weren't.

[houndish]

Misty half reared up on her hind legs, swatting her gangly paws in the air and propelling herself across the path, straight at Kumiho. It was a sight to be seen, but she batted the younger dog around with her face and front paws, teeth bared but in more of a smile than an aggressive gesture. The bee with an itch was trying to get one of her front paws over his shoulder, the other grounded so she could drag him down and chew on his ears and the scruff of his neck.

When Cash had spoke of his custodial family, he hadn’t really been thinking. It just came out along with the rest of his words. There was no hint, there was no social cue. The boy ran his hand through his bangs, turning to study Ethan’s face. It wasn’t hard or cold, and that reassured the young Texan. Something about his demeanor was… well, Cash could stand to see more of it. Then again, this social crap wasn’t his hand of cards.

“Yeah, my love and life. Easy Tattoo is my older mare, who’s actually shaping up to be a good riding horse. Then there’s Summer, who is a piece of work. She’s hardly even halter broke as a three year old. You ever heard of BLM mustangs?” Cash still couldn’t pull his eyes off Ethan’s face, and he didn’t really care if he was making the other boy uncomfortable. It was something that he did pretty subconsciously, just the study of people.

“I’ve seen you with that red Morgan mare. She’s d**n pretty.” The boy was still trying to fix both his hair and his sleeves, which were both pissing him off and slipping around. Ethan’s company was starting to feel… odd. But it was a good odd. Cash wasn’t one for sticking around people, but this was a strange shade of different. Maybe it was being with someone who usually spoke as much as he did.

[sepia]

Doing a convulsive little wriggle as Misty leapt towards him, Kumiho managed to avoid half of the older dog's mock attack, but still found himself born the ground underneath her, twisting his head as she went for the ruff of his neck. Tail wagging and paws a-flail, he shook himself, on the ground as he was, trying to dislodge the female, though the doggy grin on his face showed that he was just as about as serious as the other dog in his aggressive movement.

Feeling himself beginning to relax, somewhat oddly, in Cash's company, Ethan wasn't perturbed by the direct stare being leveled at him. Perhaps it was the feeling that he'd found a kindred spirit, here, someone else who wasn't the life and soul of the party and was the type to lurk around at the edges of social gatherings and slip away as quietly as could as soon as possible. Apparently it was easier to talk to someone who had similar problems with being social as he did, and he was less wary of making some kind of awful social gaff, feeling that Cash probably wouldn't realise he had either. Ah, the safety of being with one's own kind...

"Can't say I have, actually," he admitted, searching his memory for any inkling of the phrase, and failing to find any. "Working with a mare that young must be... interesting, to say the least. How is she coming along?" He didn't think he'd seen Cash working with that mare - though given that he'd normally run into him in the arenas, that wasn't that surprising. His buckskin, though, had caught Ethan's eye when they'd both been working together in one of the arenas, Ethan always interested in the other ways in which people rode... and Western did look wonderfully comfortable. Maybe he'd have to try it some time - though not with Flay, she'd throw a fit. Miles, though, might be amenable to the idea...

"And with an attitude to match." Ethan shook his head, but the smile on his face showed how he appreciated the compliment - fastest way to any rider's heart? Say nice things about their horse. Worked every time. "She has her moments, though." Eying Cash as he continued to fiddle with his sleeves, Ethan couldn't resist saying, in a tone half-confused and half-joking, "Clothing trying to eat you?" Or maybe he was just a compulsive fiddler, in which case bringing it up probably wasn't the politest thing to do...