Horse Sense

By: CrystallicSky

Disclaimer: I don't own Xiaolin Showdown, or any of the characters in it.

Warning(s): Not really much of anything; I think its just men loving men and...yeah. o.o

Jack hated storms.

No, seriously, he did, and he had totally valid reasons for it.

Reason One, he hated being wet: his hair got all drippy and in his eyes, and that was just plain annoying.

Reason Two, lightning was beautiful, but thunder was always loud and hurt his ears, and besides that, it scared the hell out of him.

Reason Three, it made the ground muddy, and it sucked like hell when his hooves occasionally got caught in the thick muck.

Reason Four, it generally ruined any plans he might've had for the day and forced him to instead retreat to the small but dry cave within trotting distance of wherever in this big, relatively empty field yet untouched by human influence he happened to be.

And Reason Five, the biggest and most recent of his reasons, it had separated him from his lover.

It had been a sudden storm, completely out of nowhere, and the next thing the white colt knew, he had no idea where Chase was.

Thankfully, he had managed to keep his wits about him instead of panicking and had gone straight to this cave, where the much older stallion would be sure to find him, but unfortunately, he hadn't seen him yet, and that was worrying.

Of course, Chase Young would not be done in by a little storm, but his lover still worried.

I mean, what if he was still out there in that mess because of him and something happened? What if he'd been confronted by a predator or something? What if he'd been struck by lightning? What if a tree near him was struck by lightning and crashed on top of him? What if-

A soft, agitated whinny caught the centaur's attention, soon followed by an equally annoyed stomp of hoof on stone, and fixing wide red eyes at the mouth of the cave as another bolt of lightning hit the earth miles away, Jack smiled in relief to see the figure of his lover briefly illuminated, wringing his long, wet mane of water.

"Chase," he sighed, "you're okay."

"Of course I am, you twit," the stallion snorted at him, in an obviously bad mood because of his ruined hair, "it was you I was out in that for in the first place!"

"I was here the whole time," the colt grumbled, making sure to keep his legs tucked beneath him to avoid giving the impression of presenting any kind of challenge to his already pissed off beloved, "I figured you'd check here first."

"Well, then, pardon me for drawing on years of experience living with you and concluding that you never act logically in crises the one time you do," he huffed.

Jack sighed at this. "Look, I don't wanna fight with you right now, just..." he held out his arms in pleading invitation, "c'mere..."

Chase saw the hint of fear in his love's eyes from the noisy crashes of thunder and torrential rain and chose to obey, moving closer to the pale centaur and laying beside him.

The cave was so cramped that by necessity, they had to be incredibly close, chest-to-chest, but neither really minded; it was dry, warm, and above all, with the one they cared for.

Both males lay in comfortable silence for awhile (excluding, of course, the sound of the storm outside), but eventually, Jack spoke, "Chase?"

"Yes, Spicer?"

"Thanks for looking for me: you didn't have to."

"Yes, I did," his lover said simply.

At this, Jack took the time to look the half-man over: the human part was beautiful, muscular chest, stomach, and arms, a face with high cheekbones, a sharp, chiseled jaw, lovely almond eyes of purest gold, and of course, the flawless, smooth skin. Even his mane, water-ratty now with the unrelenting rain, was still as gorgeous as it'd ever been, luxurious black with the slightest tint of green should it be given the right light; lightning, it seemed, was fabulous at this task.

The equine part of his body, however, was divine: a tan, flesh-colored coat which he knew to be soft as silk over a sinewy, well-muscled body, no other word to describe it but 'perfect'. Chase's was truly the body of a powerful stallion in his prime and, as Jack knew, this was a prime that would last forever due to his heritage.

Speaking of which, his eyes drew to the magnificent horn protruding from Chase's forehead and his fingers automatically went to the diamond-hard point, slightly curved for maximum damage infliction and with the appearance of gold-plating, marking the centaur to all who saw him as what he truly was: a ruthless king of horses.

"Spicer," the unicorn frowned at the sudden inspection of him, "what are you-" he was cut off with a grunt as his head was suddenly yanked down, allowing the other to place a reverent kiss to the very tip of his horn.

Chase pulled himself away from the grip, demanding with a scowl, "What has gotten into you, Spicer?!"

Jack looked up at his lover with soft, almost mournful eyes. "You're perfect," he said, "I don't deserve you."

The stallion's eyes widened only marginally before he snorted derisively and forced the white youth close to him, his dark mane of hair blocking his vision. "Stupid foal," he scoffed, "you still don't understand."

"Understand what?" Jack asked quietly.

"That it is you that I want," Chase told him, "that I l...that you are precious to me."

Luckily, the younger was smart enough to decipher what Chase was saying (or rather, 'not saying'), and he smiled, feeling really warm inside as he replied, "I love you, too..."

Jack moved his arms under his lover's to cross them over a strong back, keeping his cheek to the crook of his neck while Chase did similarly, draping his arms over white shoulders and nuzzling his nose into fire-red hair.

The unicorn and the colt were soon asleep, entirely heedless of the rain and thunder beginning to slow outside their little cave.

A/N: So, this was vaguely inspired by RedLioness' XS ponies over on deviantART, particularly the concept of Chase being a unicorn, and was mostly written in a Driver's Ed class in which nothing was happening and I didn't recall what the next word of Anthology's 63rd chapter meant, forcing me to start another story entirely.

This is that story.

Basically, though, I figured I've done mermaids already (well, technically, I've done just about everything these days, I think o.0) so I thought, "Why not centaurs?" and so I did it.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you guys liked it! :)