Ride'em Cowboys

Chapter 1

Giddy up!

A large and very old grand father clock rang softly in the three story house. With a freshly poured cup of coffee nestled snugly in his hands, Marco waited for his friend, Armin to come do the stairs and get the day going. It was only 4:30 in the morning, and many people would still consider it night time, or sleep well pass the early morning hour, but when it's only a friend and yourself working on a farm of three acres of land, plus live stock, the earlier the day started the earlier it was over.

The young freckled teen leaned against the kitchen counter as he watched the sun slowly start to rise in the east from the window, and then took a small sip of coffee. It wasn't long until he heard over sized boots coming down the stair way and bedheaded blonde slouch into the kitchen. Of the five years the two have owned the farm, out of the two of them, Armin defiantly had the most problems in waking up at such an early hour, and within those five years Marco learned not to talk to the blonde until he had had his coffee.

Marco poured him a cup, handing it to the younger one and was a bit surprised that the other mumbled a 'thanks' underneath his breath. Normally he was very crabby in the morning, so maybe it was a good sign? Either way once both had finished their coffees and dumped whatever they didn't want into the giant tub of a sink, they headed outside.

Usually the day went as followed, both boys would get up and get ready for the day early and then ended into town for any new news, since they didn't have TV's back home. It wasn't as if they couldn't afford one, but with working on the farm all day long, both were too tired to move and didn't see the point of it. They also stacked up on any supplies that they needed, and sometimes chat with a few townsfolk before heading back home and started to work. Marco was mainly in charge of everything that had to do or deal with plants, with his natural green thumb, the farm's crops always came in plentiful and stayed ripe very, very long. While Armin on the other had was more so suited with the live stalk that the farm raised. Despite being short, and not as muscular as Marco, Armin was great with any kind of animal, big or small, and was never afraid of any wild stallion or bison that ran in the near by plains.

Both teens hoped inside the stale, washed out blue pick up truck and started the twenty minute ride into town. Marco was the one to usually drive since Armin was still half asleep by the time they got in. Marco turned on the headlights, since it was still pretty dark out at the moment. He quickly glanced over at the blonde who was resting his head against the rolled up window. The freckled teen noticed how the other's shirt was messed up, caused by the misplace of one button; it sent his motherly instincts over the edge but fought the nerve to take his hands off the wheel to fix it.

After a few minutes of seeing nothing but flat lands, Marco saw the twinkling neon lights of the town's bed and breakfast coming up quickly. With one hand he nudged Armin awake, and the blue eyed teen raised his head and rubbed his eyes, trying to look more awake than he actually was. Marco pulled into the bed and breakfast's parking lot, towards the back, and turned the truck off.

"I made a list of all the things you said you needed for King." Marco spoke, handing the other teen a slip a paper of medical supplies and other item the teen usually needed. "Oh, thanks...King's leg didn't seem as swollen as it was before when i checked in on him last night." Armin said as he took the piece of paper. The two of them walked out of the lot and down the main street of the town. King was the first horse Armin ever helped deliver on his own, since Marco had been away plowing the fields, he was the only one there to help. Though sadly the mare passed away due to complication shortly after, so Armin practically raised King all by himself.

The town hall's clock struck 5 a.m. on the dot as the teens walked into the hardware store. Marco needed some supplies for a new flower bed he was planting near the house, and Armin needed better chicken wire for the coop because a fox has been hanging around the area and got one of the hens last week. After a few more stops at other stores Armin wet off towards the town's local doctor's saying he'd meet him by the truck when he was done.

Marco was carrying two armfuls of bag when he walked back to the bed and breakfast, and struggled a bit when he tried opening the door. Just as he got it open, he felt a bag slip from his grasp and fall. He waited for the sound of impact but never heard it. The freckled face teen turned to see Bertolt Braun standing there in all his height with his bag in his hand. "Sorry about that." Marco said, giving the other man a shy smile. "Nah, don't worry about it." Bertolt said, helping Marco place all the bags safely in the back seat. Bertolt and Marco had been good friends with each other ever since Armin and him started working on the farm, he normally stopped by every other week with baked goods for them. He'd always tell them that kitchen staff at the bed and breakfast made to may and didn't want them to go to waste, but the two knew that he had baked them himself.

Bertolt was also the only other person, besides Reiner, who knew that both teens were gay. In a town as small as the one they lived in and as Midwest you could go, not many people were open to the idea. Though it wasn't only them, Bertolt and Reiner were actually married and Bertolt took his last name. When they came here, when people asked they simply told them that were cousin's, because if anyone were to find out about them they know that they'll be run out of town.

Unlike the older duo, Marco and Armin weren't in that kind of a relationship, did they help each other out when either had that kind of problem? Yes. But the two had made it clear to one another that they only saw each other as friends, with a bit of benefits. The two males talked back and forth for a while, as Marco waited for Armin to be done with his shopping, when he noticed a rather expensive looking car parked in the bed and breakfast's lot. Bertolt noticed Marco's gaze shifted to behind him and followed it. "Oh yeah, some big city business men came into town late last night. I don't really know why they came all the way out here, but when I asked they simply said it was for business." He explained to the young boy. "Who in the world here would have business with some high end business men?" Marco pondered out loud. Bertolt simply shrugged his shoulders. "Beats me, but one of them looked like he was going to bite my head off if I asked any more questions." Bertolt said. "I'm sure they aren't that scary." Marco told him, giving him a warm and hopeful smile. "At least I have Reiner when things get bad, but to be honest I'm a bit worried about you and Armin out so far away on your own." Bertolt told him, his round brown eyes looking down at Marco with concern. "Don't worry about us, you know how Armin can be a little spit fire when he wants to be." Marco laughed a bit, and Bertolt chuckled as well knowing how true that could be, but he still was concerned for the two young males.

"And this isn't for drinking." The doctor said as he handed Armin a tall bottle of alcohol.

"Just because I'm eighteen doesn't mean I'm a stupid unruly teen." Armin said as he took the bottle of rubbing alcohol from the doctor. After he paid the man Armin headed outside in the slowly warming air. Though instead of a fresh breath of air, he was met with a nice gulp of cigarette smoke in his lungs instead. Armin gave a hacking cough, and waved his hand in front of his face to get rid of the smoke and looked around to see where it came from. There, the shadow of the movie parlor, casted by the rising sun, stood a man decked out in a black suit, wearing an expensive looking watch on his wrist smoking a cigar.

Armin stared at him for a moment, the blonde male look so out of place in the run down town in his high class attire. The taller and older blonde noticed his stare and glance over to look at the boy. Armin reeled back a bit from his intense gaze before shifting the bags in his arms to point at the sign right next to the man. "This is a no smoking zone for a reason. This is a doctor's office." Armin told him. The business man looked over at the sign then back at the boy with one of his blonde eyebrows raised up slightly. "Well I'm certainly not going waste a good smoke." The man spoke, his voice sound sooth and was very low in tone. "Then you better get moving." Armin said, narrowing his baby blues at him. The other man stood there for a moment longer, looking at the younger blonde up and down before moving along down the street.

Walking back to the parking lot, Armin mumbled angry words under his breath about how people from the city were ignorant. He picked up his head and saw Marco talking with Bertolt, who called out a 'good morning' to the teen and returned it with a small smile. Armin packed all of his supplies in the trunk of the truck and placed the medical supplies in the front seat with him.

The two teens said goodbye to Bertolt and started to make their way home. By the time the got to the drive way it was close to six o'clock, and the two started to get to work.

Marco went to go start work on the fields and Armin walked into the barn where the horses were. With the medical supplies in hand he went over to King's stall and opened it up. "Hey big boy, I got you some medicine for that leg of yours." Armin spoke to the grey stallion, who gave a short snot in response. He placed the items down on one of the hanging baskets and knelled down in front of King to take a look at the upper part of his left leg. Armin was glad the swell had gone down even more, and he hoped very soon King would be back to his old self.

Armin got some water and started to wash the area around the swelling, humming to himself softly. He heard a loud whine from the neighboring stall, "Whelp, we now Howler's ready to start the day." Armin chuckled to himself as he got the ointment the doctor had given him and rubbed it on the area, and then wrapping it so King would lick at it. He then started his daily routine of cleaning out the all the stalls and feed all the animals in and around the barn.

When he was done with that he moved onto refining the chicken coop's defensive system, but not before making a quick trip into the house for a handy tool when it came to keeping the fox at bay. As he started taking down the fencing around the coop, many of the chickens made their way out of the coop and all around the backyard of the house. Armin sprinkled feed along the ground so that they'd stay close while he worked.

By late afternoon Armin was drenched in his own sweat and was almost done with the chicken wire when he heard an uproar of clucking behind him. Without wasting a moment Armin grabbed his hunting rifle and spun around, aiming for whatever was scaring the hens. The blue eyed teen stayed still as he didn't see anything for a few heart beats. When was just about to lower his gun, he saw movement towards the side of the house, within it's shadow he saw the white tip of the fox's tail fluttering low against the ground.

Armin pulled the trigger and shot at the ground next to the fox, scaring it away. "Good riddance." He mumbled and placed the rifle back down on the ground with the safety on and went back to finishing the fencing. When he was done and going into the house for a break and to cool off he saw Marco come running around to the back, worried look on his face.

"Whoa, Marco you alright?" He asked the taller teen as he bent over and placed his hands on his knees trying to catch his breath. "I was taking a break and heard the shot gun-I...Armin I saw a wolf and I thought the worse-" "Wait you saw a wolf, where?" Armin asked, and quickly looked Marco up and down to make sure that he was in fact okay.

"Over near the river. He was alone and i didn't hear any howling so I think it's only the one." He told Armin as he finally found his breath. "They aren't suppose to be heading down the mountains at least for another month, the leaves have barely started to change color." Armin said, very shocked. "I know and when i heard you firing your gun I thought the fox might have turned on you so i ran over here as fast as i could." Marco said, and suddenly hugged him tightly. "Especially since it's going to be getting colder, i don't want a repeat of last year." Marco muttered.

Armin blushed the slightest, but understood his friend's worry was pure and good-hearted, so he let Marco hug him. "Wait a second...you said you heard me firing my gun, right?" He asked Marco, pulling back a bit so he look at his face. The freckled teen nodded his head. "Marco i only fired off my gun once."

"But i heard five gun shots."

The blonde knew that Marco always counted the number of shots he heard, it always made him uneasy that their was a deadly weapon in the house and doing that just made him calm down just a little bit.

"We should go inside." Armin spoke after a moment and Marco agreed and both went inside. The fact that someone else was out there with Marco and had a gun with him...or her, scared both of them very much. It wasn't hunting season just yet, at least now around the area where they lived.

The two eighteen year old settled themselves down in the living room, after having made sandwiches, and flipped on the radio for some background noise as they ate.

It was around four o'clock in the afternoon when the land line phone to the house started to ring. Both males look at each other, since no one really called them unless it was Bertolt or Reiner checking in on them. Either way Marco was the one to get up from the love seat and go answer it. "Arlert and Bodt residence, Marco speaking." He said as he picked up the phone. "Marco, it's Bertolt. This is serious you know those men I was talking about earlier?" He asked him. The other's voice seem very worried, more so than usual and it even had himself worried about what was going on. "Yes. I do remember them."

Armin, being curious as to what was going on, placed his half eaten sandwich down on the living room table, brushing the crumbs off of his lap as he stood and walked into the kitchen, where the phone was.

"W-Well they were asking questions about Armin and you, and I didn't really wanna say anything because they were being very scary but they kept pressuring me, I'm so sorry." Marco stood there very confused at what the other was saying. "What were they asking you?" Marco said, as he brought his hand up to his mouth and softly chewed on his thumb nail. Armin had placed himself on the kitchen counter, swinging his legs back and forth as he waited for Marco to relay the information to him.

"They were asking who you guys were, what you were like, history with the police, and where you lived." Bertolt explained to him, and it sounded as if the other was on the verge of tears. "Whoa, Bertolt calm down, everything is alright here. Me and Armin are fine." He told him, hoping that the other will settled down a bit.

"I know but after that they paid for there rooms with a lot more money than was billed, and then they left and i think they might be heading your way." Bertolt told him.

Armin by now, had lost half of his curiousness than when he first heard the conversation, but his attention was brought back when Marco hung up the phone. "So...?" Armin trailed off, raising an eyebrow at his friend.

"It looks like we'll be having guest tonight."