Title: Sugarcube
Author: Micayasha
Summary: Gippal's afraid of horses—what will it take to get over this fear?
Rating: K+
Word Count: 557
"Come on, Gippal, it won't be so bad," Baralai insisted, tugging on Gippal's hand in the direction of the barn. "There are some mean ones, but they're behind closed doors and you won't go near them! Ginger's a real sweetheart, you'll love him, I promise!"
Gippal stood his ground, his mouth tight as he regarded the large blue building. "I did tell you how I lost this eye, right?" he said, fingering the eyepatch over his left eye with his free hand.
"You said yourself you liked the look of the eyepatch, Gippal, and anyways—that horse was probably just bad-tempered. It gave you a nice scar to bring in the ladies, didn't it?"
"And some of the men," Gippal replied, smirking at Baralai (who scoffed and rolled his eyes).
"Right, so you shouldn't be so scared. I told you, Ginger's getting on in years—he's too lazy to kick anything right now. And he's very good-natured, I haven't had trouble with him yet."
"Baralai, I am not getting on one of those monsters."
"Oh, yes, you are!" Baralai dropped Gippal's hand and stormed off, huffing—
--only to return five minutes later, leading an enormous gray horse, all ready for a ride. Leather straps were everwhere, and Gippal wondered how on earth Baralai had managed to do all this in five minutes. There were even what looked like plastic cuffs from ankle to knee on the creature's legs. When Gippal could do nothing but stutter, Baralai brought the horse a little closer to his boyfriend, who was frozen on the spot, and shoved a handful of sugarcubes into his hand.
"What the hell is on its legs?" was the first thing that came out of Gippal's mouth. Irrational, considering he was standing in front of a ten-foot giant, but his mouth had run away from him.
Baralai blinked in surprise, but answered, "He tends to collect too much on his trot sometimes, so the boots stop his legs from banging together."
This made absolutely no sense to Gippal, so the only thing he could think to say was, "He's huge."
A chuckle answered him. "He's only sixteen hands and your too tall for anything below that." More horse-talk. Seeing the look of incomprehension on Gippal's face, he added, "Just give him a sugarcube, Gippal, he'll love you for it."
"He's going to bite my hand off!" His cry was appalled—was the man crazy?
"No, he won't, not if you hold your hand flat so he can eat from your palm," Baralai explained patiently. "Here, put it right one right in the palm of your hand, hold it completely flat, and stick it under his nose."
Gippal squeezed his eyes shut as he obeyed, sure that he was going to get a second scar to match his first and maybe lose the other eye. But when he dared to open his eyes again, soft whiskers were tickling his palm and warm air rushed over his hand as the horse whickered, nudging the cube of sugar. Seeming to decide that it was edible, the giant mouth opened and lips brushed his skin, a ridiculously big pink tongue darting out.
And then the sugarcube was gone, and Gippal was left staring in wonder at his completely intact, unharmed hand.
"Ready to get on?"
"Only if we're riding double."