Note: Posted with Permission
Summary: In a post-apocalyptic world Nico di Angelo is searching for somewhere to call home, tired of the always being on the move. But, he gets so much more when he meets an unexpected travelling companion and he remembers what it's like to be around people. It scares him in a way he has never known! This is the story of youth. This is the story of how Nico stopped trying to live his life as a loner and just started living. This is the story about Nico finding not only himself but that special person he had been unwittingly looking for. This is the story of how Nico discovered love.
Chapter Eleven: Green-Eyed
Working at the Camp was a task in and of itself. "Doing your part" for the community was a lot harder than I thought it would have been. Cleaning out all the huge cabins, dusting and beating the rugs, washing laundry by hand, tending to the gardens, keeping the animals fed and watered, there was a lot to do. Of course, it didn't fall on one person's shoulders to do every day, schedules were interchanged, people had days off, but generally there was a work ethic all around and everyone seemed much happier for it.
Today I was on kitchen duty, which meant that I, along with a few others, made food for the entire camp. Luckily the time spent with my grandparents had gone to learning how to make stuff that tastes good, the only problem up till now was that I hadn't really known where to get the ingredients and even had I got them I wouldn't have had the proper setting to actually cook. Then, when I finally did start finding places with working ovens I was a bit too distracted to do any real cooking. The kitchen itself was comprised of two stoves, two large refrigerators, a deep freeze, prep tables, and a huge island in the middle, one that had pots and pans, spoons and ladles, and a lot of bowls hanging from hooks and placed on shelves.
My distraction Percy had it harder than I did, Percy looked like the kind of guy who enjoyed spending his time cutting fields and baling hay, waking up at dawn to retrieve eggs from the hen house and travelling to the water treatment facility to help regulate the camp's clean drinking water, and so he had been doing. Of course, I say he had it worse just because I would have hated to do any of that but he didn't seem to mind.
"Nico, watch your sauce its starting to boil," I looked at one of my saucepots, the red pasta sauce with the cilantro and other spices in it was indeed beginning to boil. I turned it down and then did the same with the others, putting them on a low simmer. I looked over at my co-cooks; Carter Kane was the one who had informed me just a moment ago that I was about to overcook the sauce. Carter was an attractive guy, mixed with Black and White his hair was a mess of short tangles that stopped at the back of his neck. His warm black eyes were full of intelligence; he had a sort of fiery passion for knowledge that seemed to burn with his every little motion as if he could simply absorb education through touch. He had been asking me all sorts of things since we began and they found out I sort of knew what I was doing. I was trying my best to recall time spent in the kitchen with my mother and grandmother, it wasn't going horribly so far.
"I'm bloody tired of kneading this," His sister, Sadie, was making the noodles per my instructions. She was kneading the dough, flouring it lightly, then we would flatten it, shape and cut the noodles and let them dry. Of course, when my grandmother did it she had flair; I can remember her stretching the dough and twirling it, and making so much pasta that there would have been leftovers for weeks. Except, in Italy if you have more than enough you share with your entire neighborhood. I looked over at her, she was a pretty girl. Where Carter had skin that was the same color as walnut Sadie's was almost a vanilla mocha. Her lightly colored hair was a mix of blonde and brown, streaks of blue ran through several strands giving her almost a glam-rock appearance in my opinion. She had the brazen attitude for it.
"It's not that hard, we've already made a ton of noodles, that's the last batch," Carter answered her. The two of them were night and day, not to mention Sadie's English accent. I hadn't asked about it but it didn't sound fake, I could honestly believe she was from London, or York, or Worcestershire, or anywhere in England really as I wasn't the best at picking out dialects.
"Well, brother dear," She said the endearing term almost as if it were an insult to Carter's intelligence, "if you're so adamant about how easy it is why am I doing this while you're simply buttering bread?" It was true that her brother was buttering freshly risen garlic bread, but considering that he'd just made the bread from scratch as well I didn't see such a problem with it. Carter sighed in the way that only an older brother with a very demanding younger sister could and he switched places with her. I watched on, a small smile on my face. These two were very easy to get along with, Sadie in smaller doses but I'm sure she always meant well. I had met quite a few of the campers, there were a lot of people. More than I had first imagined and I had no idea how anyone could keep up with so many people but I would try, even if I really didn't talk to them much. "Oi, Angel-boy," I looked over at Sadie who was obviously trying to get my attention. When she asked me about my last name I told her the translation of it from Italian, which was 'of Angels' and the nicknames had subsequently followed. "What are you smirking at?"
"What?" I asked.
"You're smiling, like you've just heard a joke or something, out with it, then." She was washing her hands now, removing all the dusty flour and trying desperately to get it out from underneath her fingernails.
"Oh," I felt my face fall, how did I explain that I simply found their little exchange amusing? "I don't know, just smiling I guess."
"Right." She said as if she didn't believe me. "The only time I've ever really seen you smile was around that other bloke, the tall, good looking one."
"Good looking?" Carter asked, looking up from his kneading.
"Oh come off it Carter, you've seen him." Sadie smiled. "He's tall and he's got those eyes," She looked over at me as if I understood. The thing was, I did. Oh, how well I understood.
"I've got eyes," Carter said, clearly not getting it. "Everyone's got eyes,"
"Nico, you have to figure that my brother is rather dense. He had no idea you and Percy were an item, even after we saw you snogging underneath that tree;" At this I blushed rather fiercely, she and Carter had caught us. It had been almost after hours and the Summer rain had taken us by surprise. Percy, being Percy, thought it the perfect opportunity for a little "snogging" as Sadie had put it. Of course, there just happened to be a group of people walking by at the exact same moment. "Not to mention," She continued, "the only girl Carter's ever liked still treats him like their just friends even after the hell we went through to get here and if he would ever find the courage to ask her out I'm sure he would do a bloody good job of botching that all to pot,"
"Sadie!" Carter's face darkened, which made me chuckle slightly.
"You're in love with Zia, Carter, you know it, I know it. Everyone on the whole planet knows it but her because you won't tell her!"
"I think it's time to flatten and start chopping the noodles," I decided to give Carter a small reprieve from his embarrassment. He gave me a very thankful glance and pulled out a rolling pin. When we finally finished making lunch it was almost time to start serving it. We had already prepared breakfast earlier that morning and that felt like it had only been a few hours ago because in truth it had only been a few hours ago. Cooking for an entire camp of people took a lot of time and effort, and there was still dinner to be made.
After a while we had something that resembled pasta and I wiped the sweat off my eyebrow. The kitchen always got hot when there was a lot of activity going on in it. Carter pulled out the golden brown garlic bread he had been working on since we'd decided that it would be a spaghetti night, it looked really good. Sadie took the lid off the saucepot and the smell of deliciously boiled tomato sauce filled the air. My stomach growled and I remembered that I hadn't even eaten the breakfast we'd cooked. I had to brown some meat to put in the sauce to give it more flavor and texture but I swear I wanted to pick that pot up and just drink it down in a very barbaric sort of way.
Staving my Neolithic desire I grabbed a frying pan from the rack and sat it on a hot eye, then I went over to the station we had the ground meat unthawing at and set to work on making sure that it was thoroughly defrosted.
Now, this might all seem pretty common but you have to remember that we didn't have very much to work with. I didn't have very much to season the meat with and it wasn't deli-store quality but it was edible, it probably wouldn't taste half bad either. I brought the meat over, as it was in a big metal bowl, and dumped it into my huge pan where it quickly began to sizzle and fry.
"Smells good in here," I turned around to see three men coming in, Chiron, Percy and a rotund man named Dionysus—or "Mr. D. to you, punk." as he put it so eloquently. Mr. D had run this place back when it really was a Summer camp but had been placed under rank of Chiron once the outbreak had begun to spread. He didn't seem to mind his inferior position, if ever anyone had a question they went to Chiron not Mr. D., if ever there was something that needed special attention or if supplies were running low it was not Mr. D. but Chiron who oversaw and handled the situation.
"Hey, babe," Percy came over and I felt myself smiling when he pulled me close, it was an involuntary reaction when he was around sort of like blinking and breathing. "What's this?"
"Here," I grabbed a large wooden spoon and dipped it in one of the saucepots, blowing on it I handed it back to him. He took a sip of it and his eyes lit up, which made me smile a bit wider.
"You made this?" He asked looking as if he were about to dip the spoon again, which would have been very unsanitary. I quickly grabbed it from him and beat his hands away.
"We all did," I said motioning to Sadie and Carter, the prior of which was doing her best imitation of the tomatoes we had squashed not too long ago.
"Well it's good," Percy smiled. "Hey Carter."
"Percy," They grinned at each other. Carter and Percy had met not too long ago when we had been exploring around the campgrounds. Carter had an affinity for basketball, well, he played about as well as I did—which was not well at all—except that he could sink some pretty impressive shots if he was trying hard enough. He and Percy had played a pick-up game together and he'd gotten pretty close to actually beating Percy with some last ditch effort throws.
"Hi, Sadie," Percy turned his attention to her, the girl was a few years younger than us but I could tell she had trouble around boys—not me or her brother, obviously, but boys. You know what I mean, not guys like me who she was the same height as, and who she outweighed by about ten pounds but boys. Tall, brawny, handsome and slightly rugged. Of course, Carter was all these things but they were brother and sister and in such relationships it's very difficult for the younger sibling to do little else but taunt, she mistook Carter for a hilariously unattractive individual—which, in her eyes he was because he was her brother. It was funny though because the opposite was true in my opinion.
However; Percy was not her brother.
Now, you may be thinking, Nico how could you not get jealous of Sadie when you got jealous of Silena? The answer was pretty simple, Silena was more…developed in some areas than Sadie, she was older and looked more experienced. Silena was well on her way into womanhood while Sadie was just reaching that awkward phase for girls. It might sound horrible because I compare them based on just looks alone, but I'm human. I can't help where my subconscious goes and I definitely can't help but thinking that Silena could imagine a lot more than just holding hands with Percy—something I'm pretty positive that Sadie, as brash and brazen a girl as she was, would fluster and back out of given the opportunity. Just standing in the same room as him she was silent, something I'm guessing did not happen often with her, I also knew that she was like this around quite a few of the older guys, one named Walt especially.
"H-hi," She managed out, blushing down to her neck and looking as if she were upset at herself for acting like she was, Sadie seemed like the kind of girl who preferred to be the conqueror not the conquered.
"Mm, I think I might put all three of you on permanent kitchen duty if this is any indication of your culinary skills," Chiron said after spooning a small helping of sauce into his mouth. I flipped the cooking meat and began browning the other side.
"I don't think we could handle that," I replied, hoping we didn't sound taxed and undeserving of his subtle praise.
"Besides," Carter interjected, "Nico did most of the cooking; he just told us what needed to go in what." I was about to say that it was pretty much just remembering what I'd learned from being in the kitchen with my mom and grandma but Chiron looked at his watch and alerted us that it was just about time to start serving.
"You guys are free till about an hour after lunch," He said with a small smile. "And don't worry; I was kidding about the kitchen duty for life business," I'm not exactly sure who breathed a bigger sigh of relief, me or Sadie, but she looked positively done with her role of chef for the day.
"Thank you!" She shouted, then she made a mad dash for the door.
"Where are you going?" Carter called after her but she didn't so much as look back at him. The tall young man sighed and shook his head in a gesture that meant he was used to his sister's flippant behavior. I heard Percy's rich laughter in my ear the next moment she was gone; I looked over at him.
"What's so funny?" I asked wondering what could have caused such a mirthful response from Carter's obvious brotherly suffering.
"She kind of reminds me of Annabeth," He said with a fond smile. "She doesn't take nothing from nobody," He grinned, I reined in a sudden flare of envy. Sadie, like I said, was years younger than us but so that comment shouldn't have rubbed me the way it did. But, when Percy compared her to the love of his life like that I was quite quickly reminded of the little green monster that lives inside all of us at times. My head began imagining things, things I knew would never come to pass, but I didn't like the images in my head of Percy and Sadie snogging, nor did I like what came next of her and Silena both entertaining him at the same time.
I did the only thing I could think to, do afraid he could see what was going on in my mind, I grabbed him by the front of his shirt and pulled him into a hungry kiss, one of which the three other men in the room diverted their eyes.
"Kid, you gotta do that right here?" Mr. D. asked with a bit of disgust, but I ignored him and his sass, directing all my attentions on Percy. I let my hands dip low beyond his back and settled my hands around his buttocks, then I imagined myself grinning deviously and tried to make it come to match the expression earnestly though I felt nothing devious at all.
"Feeling frisky today, Nico?" Percy said, his eyes shining darkly now sending a shiver down my spine all the way to the soles of my feet. I had to keep control, not just of how his words could make me swoon all too easily but of my apparent jealous nature. I had never had a real reason to be envious before, never had anything to exactly call my own and selfishly I thought of Percy as mine. The fact that in the past few days he had shone interest in two girls (well, not really, but still) was enough to drive me to the extreme.
"Maybe you guys can head back to your cabin?" Carter's polite voice broke my lusty, and yet slightly panicked, haze; the egocentricities of thinking that Percy was solely mine had just caused not only me but Percy public embarrassment.
"I—" I began, an apology quickly forming on my lips.
"If you're headed that way, Percy, please make sure the two of you get here within the next few hours if you miss lunch. There are still a few horses that need shoeing and Nico's kitchen party has to start on dinner." Chiron consulted his ever handy clipboard, Mr. D. walked over to a refrigerator and pulled out a homemade bottle of wine, if there was anything he was good at it was fermenting grapes. He opened the bottle and tipped it to his lips slightly, he had obviously grown uncomfortable very suddenly, his drinking one of the many faults that were looked over since Chiron seemed empathetic about having taken over control of the man's camp—not that Mr. D. really minded.
"No, guys, I'm sorry," I said. "I don't know what came over me," I looked over at Percy, he was smiling stupidly. "Go shoe your horses,"
"It's not actually scheduled for another two hours," Chiron interjected before Percy could answer.
"But," Percy replied, pulling me into the circle of his arms. "I can show you the stables, if you want? You haven't been up that way yet have you?" I shook my head, aside from the occasional walk around coaxed out of my from Percy, the bathhouse, and the cafeteria I never really left the cabin.
"No," I said. "I haven't," I divided the meat up and put it in the four different saucepots, I then turned the eyes of the stove off and Carter came to help me stir it all together well.
"Well, Nico," Percy said after I put the spoon down, "I'll just have to teach you how to ride," Oh, that was real subtle, no one, especially not the scholarly and Ivy League taught Chiron, was going to catch that. Alright, so I had forgotten that Percy did not believe in public embarrassment. At least he was saved from that much.
He grabbed my hand, I didn't fight it as he dragged me from the kitchen much to the amusement of the three other men standing there. It wasn't till we were safely on the campus with the sun brightly overhead and the bright green forest surrounding us did I actually try to say something, "Percy—"
"I know, I know," He chuckled. "I shouldn't have said that, but you're the one who kissed me like that," Even admitting this he did not stop our sudden trek towards the woods where a glen held a small, fenced in area that kept the horses separate from the rest of the camp a barn-house like stable was connected just to the right of it. "What was that about, anyway? Usually you don't get like that till after I suck your—" I clamped my hand over his mouth, cheeks burning.
"Yes, Perseus, I know when I usually get like that," I seethed, barring the fact that a group of people were passing us on our way to the horse pen I would have really preferred they not know my more private eccentricities.
"And you're not a PDA kinda guy," He observed, moving my palm away from his mouth, a smirk on his lips, one that said he was searching for something and that he was going to find out what he wanted. "So what was that about?" I sighed as we moved more away from the more populated part of Halfblood and the crunch of twigs and leaves under my feet became a testament to the fact that we were moving through the woods. I remained quiet, Percy grabbed me by the waist and pulled me against him causing me to stumble a bit as we walked but he kept us steady. "Let's see," He continued to deduce. "What was going on in there, Carter was trying to call after Sadie, she ran out of the room I said she reminded me of Annabeth…"
I swallowed quietly, what would he say if he knew the truth? That when he mentioned her I became horribly insecure, that with all the girls around I was beginning to feel like he was putting me on the backburner of his mind to ogle them. I mean, I suppose I felt a bit jealous when he looked at some of the guys too, especially when they played contact sports, but it was different with girls. I mean I don't think that Percy had any particular preference in guys, Grover had been his best friend before they had actually done anything, and that was under the most extreme of circumstances…and thinking about it I was an extreme circumstance as well.
"Was that it? You didn't like the comparison?" He asked, sometimes because of his easy way of speaking, that relaxed Southern drawl, I forgot how smart and perceptive Percy really was. Before I could answer we broke through the trees and the whinny of a horse caught my attention.
"He-yah!" I looked, Silena Beauregard, as Beauregard was her last name, was whipping the reins of a gigantic brown and white spotted horse, which was running around a makeshift course of barrels and poles at breakneck speed. Watching I felt my mouth fall open because not only was she handling the brute-of-a-steed like he was nothing but she looked like she was enjoying herself. Her button down plaid top and her ever present, incredibly short shorts gave her the appearance of someone who knew what they were doing; especially when that was all topped off by the leather boots she was wearing.
We had been here for a good week now, long enough to get to know people better—well, Percy got to know people, I was present at the time those people were introduced—and still I had not completely gotten over my possessive nature when she was around. I watched as she jumped a limbo pole, and pulled back hard on the reins as soon as they landed. "Whoa, girl," She said, clicking her tongue with her teeth bringing the horse to a slow canter and then stopping completely. She looked over at us and unintentionally I gripped onto Percy's hand. He leaned down and I felt his breath in my ear before he could actually whisper.
"You're jealous," His voice was singsong, if not hushed and breathy. I would have protested if Silena hadn't swung her long, long legs over the saddle and jumped down with a soft plop. Her boots plodded forward and she came to lean on the fence.
"Hey boys," She grinned prettily, with the sunlight overhead shining as brightly as it was there was an ethereal glow around her, highlighting her already blonde hair nearly white. Her baby blues were shimmering with humor and exhilaration and even with her sweating forehead she somehow managed to make attention drawn to the slightly unbuttoned area of her shirt where sweat was rolling down her soft, golden skin in beads. "Glad you made it back, Percy,"
"I wanted to show Nico the horses," He said walking past me, before he passed however his hand made solid contact with my backside causing me to jump and effectively breaking my reverie of Silena's near angelic quality.
"Oh?" She asked. "You ride, Nico?"
"I—no," I answered, in truth before we came I had never seen a horse this closely before. Percy grinned and grabbed my arm pulling me forward again.
"My stuff's still in the barn?" He asked and she nodded.
"Right where you left it, hombre," She giggled. I watched the exchange; it occurred to me that she was the one assigned to work with Percy today. They still had to shoe the horses later on after lunch, which meant they would be spending more time together. Percy pulled me along and I was quiet as I thought how much they seemed to have in common.
The next thing I knew I found myself on the side of a wall as we came upon a large shed, fingers were thrust through my hair and a hot mouth pressed against my lips. I blinked, surprised, but quickly melted into the kiss as if I hadn't been thinking depressingly only ten seconds before. I felt a throaty moan escape my lips as Percy ground down on me, my head swam suddenly; my vision was bleary, the only thing I could really see were the small freckles dotting his face because he was so close. He kissed me again and in one breath I lost all of my air, roughly my neck was bitten, then my collarbone. I fisted my fingers through his hair, grasping at him and rasping for breath as my entire body was so completely set on fire.
Lazily his tongue dragged up my neck, where he sucked and nipped and left little purple bruises otherwise known as hickeys on my easily impressionable skin. Now, you might think I was the submissive type from the way I reveled in his touch over the last few months but lately I had become adventurous, I was learning how I could use my near helpless, and contrastingly innocent sensuality to my advantage. I could harness the expressions on my face to facilitate my every need to take charge of certain situations, expressions that had certain affects on Percy. If I held my neck to a certain angle, half-lidded my eyes, and jutted out my bottom lip slightly it generally warranted lusty touches, if I bit my lip and closed my eyes while managing a throaty moan really I could get away with anything, even being jealous of certain peoples.
Of course, Percy had stronger suits in this game of cards we played called love, his hand was a royal flush compared to my straight. He could call my bluff if he so chose because he knew that I was only wearing the outer skin of an experienced person, then he would touch me in a way that was so new and breathtaking that every façade would drop and I would be frighteningly honest in my own skin. The terrifying truth was that I sometimes wondered if I could really satisfy him the way Annabeth had, if he could love me the way he loved her.
I would lay awake for hours wondering how I could be envious of a dead woman, how I could be so mad that she had Percy before I did, that she got to feel his love and see that special smile he gave me in the morning, how could I be so upset because even though she died Percy would always feel for her? It wasn't fair to Percy and it wasn't fair to Annabeth, nor to anyone else my mind surreptitiously put him with. Besides, I was being a hypocrite, it wasn't like Percy was jealous of the few guys who had talked to me at the camp, nor was he jealous of the girls. I just had to calm down. It wasn't them he was kissing, or waking up to, or holding. It was me.
That's why I felt so selfish, because truthfully Percy was mine, I could share aspects of him but in the long run the parts that really counted would always be mine.
He pulled back, "Guess what?" He asked, I blinked.
"What?" He pressed his lips to mine again sweetly before answering.
"You worry too damn much for your own good," Percy grinned from ear to ear. "Do you think I didn't see the look on your face when we first met her?" He inclined his head back to Silena, "or how you looked when I said Sadie reminded me of Annabeth?" I bit my lip in remonstration, knowing I was caught but not wanting to admit it. He pecked our lips together, "You're silly, did you know that? To think that after all this, after everything we've gone through that you're still not worth my love is just…it's silly." I put my head on his chest as he hugged me closer. For a long moment I thought I was going to cry, but after a few stifling deep breathes I got myself under control.
"I'm sorry," I said for what felt like the millionth time.
"Don't ever be sorry for being you," Percy grinned, then he kissed the top of my head. "We can do this a hundred more times and I wouldn't get tired of it, because it's you Nico." I thought about that, when he said it it caused something akin to confidence to well up inside of me.
I was being childish, a reoccurring thing apparently, and I couldn't keep it up, I didn't want to. "I won't get jealous anymore," I said which earned an even bigger smile.
"Yes you will," Percy laughed. "But that's okay, it just means you love me too." I felt myself blush as we began swaying from side to side.
I tightened my arms around him, "Sometimes I'm just amazed that I actually can love anyone, let alone as much as do you," I shook my head. "I'm just glad you're patient,"
"I'm going to have to be, if I want to get you on a horse today," He grinned, stepping back. "Come on," We entered into the stable, for a long while there had been a sort of foul smell in the air—albeit a distant one. Upon opening the doors I found a rush of stench so strong it was almost crippling, the stable was exclusive to horses so when the odor hit my nose I found myself quite content that before this moment I had never met (i.e. smelled) a horse before. It was almost indescribable, pure animal, and completely off putting, the smell of lathery sweat mixed with feces all blended and sun-baked for hours in a nice convection such as the stable was, holding the stench in till the most opportune moment of our opening.
I gagged, Percy seemed unfazed. Then again, this was the kid who thought it was funny to fart and then pull my head under the blankets much to my chagrin; of course as hilarious as that was I thought it lost its appeal after the first time. Percy, on the other hand, seemed to feel otherwise.
"God, it's horrible in here," I remarked.
"You get used to it," Percy smiled pulling me forward by our interlaced fingers. "I know just the guy to start you off with," After passing a few stalls with stabled horses in them I realized how intelligent creatures of the equine variety were. They watched us with their gigantic eyes, they brayed and whinnied, flat front teeth fully present for me to see. I wasn't sure horses liked me too much. We stopped at an immaculate midnight colored stallion, he stood at least five feet off the ground, tossing his lustrous same-colored mane this way and that, stamping his foot and braying almost coherently. "This is Blackjack," Percy said patting the elongated nose of the gigantic creature. "Chiron gave him to me,"
"I thought you didn't like Chiron?" I asked looking over from the horse.
"I didn't," Percy said petting Blackjack soothingly. "Then he gave me a horse,"
"Can you be bought so easily?" I asked, but I watched the way Percy petted the creature. It was in a familiar way, his eyes were focused on the past on some event I couldn't even fathom. I knew that unlike me he missed the way things used to be, "Did you used to have a horse?"
"Yeah," He said, "raised him from a colt on the bottle. About the only thing good my Dad ever gave me." He smiled remembering. We were at two completely different places, I was always trying to forget and he never would. I touched his arm. "Had to put him down when he broke a leg though, broke my heart," He looked over at me. "Call me uncreative but his name was Blackjack, too," He said with a watery-eyed smirk, he wiped at his eyes. "Now, ahem," Clearing his throat he turned back to Blackjack 2. "This is a Clydesdale, he's a draft horse which is why he's so big," Percy patted Blackjack's thick upper leg. "He's got a lot of power in him but he was broke early so he's gentle. Here," Percy walked a short distance over to the other side of the stable and grabbed a bucket, when he got back he handed me a small pile of oats. "Hold your hand flat under his nose and he'll do the rest,"
I did, slowly. Blackjack kept his eyes on me, I could see so much personality staring back at me that it was hard to believe he couldn't talk. He sniffed the oats and raised his head, lips pulling back and mouth opening a big, pink tongue ticked the flat side of my fingers. His breath wasn't any better than the smell hanging in the air but I endured that little battle because of how fascinated I was. Percy's arms circled around me as I fed Blackjack, and for a moment everything else melted away.
I wondered why everything couldn't feel this perfect? Then my hands were licked clean and Percy opened Blackjack's stall. "You're not going to make me do this by myself are you?" I asked as he returned the bucket of oats and came back with an assortment of other things. Quickly he bridled the horse and fashioned a saddle around its waist, most importantly though was that he pulled off his shoes and stepped into a pair of brown cowboy boots, then, as if that weren't enough, he topped his head with a wide brimmed hat.
I felt a large tug at my groin, I'm sure on me it would have looked comical his entire setup, but on him it was quite nice. All the while he was doing this he said, "'Course not, sweetheart, we'll ride pillion,"
"Pillion?" I asked. He tossed his shoes over towards the same corner the oats had been, where a rack sat that I'm guessing the hat had been on.
"I'll show you," He said, a smile in his voice. Then, hoisting himself up, he swung his legs over the saddle in one fluid motion. Then he held his hand out for me. I took it cautiously, "Step in that hold," He instructed, there was a loop for me to put my foot through so I did, using it to step up Percy pulled me over to settle comfortably in front of him. "Hey, gorgeous," His breath kissed the back of my neck and I felt a stupid grin spread across my face. "Let me have the reins," His arms went underneath mine grabbing at Blackjack's reins, with one snap the horse was plodding forward slowly toward the open backdoor that led to the fenced in area I knew Silena was still practicing in.
"There you two are," She smiled when we were outside again. "I was going to send in a search team," I couldn't help but chuckle, I was in high spirits, "Mr. D. came up this way, he said there's about thirty minute left till they're going to ring the dinner bell,"
"That's just enough time to go once around, don't you think?" He asked; I could feel certain parts of his body directing the horse. His legs squeezed just so much, he pulled or slackened the reins, sat up a little or leaned back and Blackjack responded accordingly as if there were some unspoken bond between the two of them.
"If you two think you can keep up," Silena laughed.
"Well, Nicky and me are gonna take it easy, but feel free to open the thrusters up," He clicked his tongue and Blackjack started forward again, picking up a bit of speed. I bumped along slightly with his accelerated gait, the next thing I knew Silena was right beside us, her horse looked as if our slow speed bored him.
"Get better Nico, so I can kick both your butts," She grinned, then with a kick the Mustang she was riding took off with her, sending dust and rocks everywhere. I watched her go, still astounded at how well she handled the monstrous sized creature, not as big as Blackjack but still pretty big. Percy chuckled in my ear and we trotted along animatedly, he kissed the back of my neck as we weaved between barrels and I decided that slow and steady was better than "opening up the thrusters."
So far I was really enjoying life here.