Chapter 54
Of Horses, Binders, and Celebrities
Todd was half asleep when he felt the breeze through his and Pyro's bedroom window. It must have been early morning as he could hear the animals outside on the ranch make sounds. All that was missing was a classic rooster…. He spoke too soon. He turned over and covered his ears. He felt hot breath on his ears and froze, hoping it wasn't Pyro… again. However this fear was short lived as something began to lick his ear; he jumped up to see a large brown horse leaning through the window. Todd yelped as he backed off the bed and fell to the floor. The horse began chewing on the pillow as he heard someone open the door. He tore his vision away from the large animal to see Zodiac and Candy swing in the door followed by Pyro coming out of the bathroom brushing his teeth.
"Oi, mate… I don't mind antics and insanity but trying to sneak a horse in through a window's a little out there… It doesn't work… now a kangaroo," shrugged Pyro as he headed back into the bathroom.
"You okay?" asked Zodiac as she walked in the room and towards the horse, "Don't eat that."
"She's talking to the horse, isn't she?" asked Todd as he walked over to where Candy stood chuckling in the doorway, "Why are you laughing? That's not funny; you get woke up by a horse licking you."
"Come on sleepy head, get dressed. Nature's making breakfast," laughed Candy as she patted the side of his face, "You smell like horse."
"No comment," said Todd as Candy headed back out the door, he closed it and sighed as he went to get dressed, he froze, "Hey, Z?"
"What?" asked Zodiac as she sat in the window sill petting the horse, "Did you need something?"
"Ohm, can you…. Leave the room?" asked Todd as he held up some clothes.
"First you try to get the horse in and then you want the horse out, stop toying with it feelings, mate," said Pyro walking by in a towel, "Mornin' Zodiac."
"Morning, Pyro," said Zodiac as she climbed out the window, "I'm leaving, come on girl."
"That wasn't an ideal wakeup," said Todd as he turned around to see Pyro towel-less and picking out clothes, "Neither is that, yo."
Todd stared at the very horse he'd been woken by, or the horse he was supposed to ride. He was hoping that if he stared at her long enough everyone would leave and he, Fred, and Scott would just stay back at the ranch. The X-men, consisting of Rogue, Kitty, Kurt, Jean, Scott, and Bobby had joined them for the day. Scott had a broken leg and was pretty heavily medicated at the time and after Kitty convinced Lance not to 'take care of Scott' and instead go riding, Fred had volunteered. He looked at the group around him, Lance had attempted to show off his onetime riding skills, much to the giggling amusement of Scott and the embarrassment of Kitty; Lance was not doing a good job. Pyro apparently had some background experience with horses just like Kurt as they were prancing around waiting with Zodiac. William and Henry, the older native ranch hand, were currently trying to instruct the others. Todd jumped as a horse nuzzled his hair from behind, he looked up to see a giggling Candy, and he gave her a halfhearted dark look.
"I didn't do it," said Candy, Todd glared at the snickering Zodiac, "She's practicing."
"Can we trade horses," said Todd as his tried to lick him again.
"Looks like she likes you, that's good…. Maybe you should switch with Pietro through," said William as he glanced at where Pietro's horse was spinning in circles without him doing anything.
"What is it doing?" asked Pietro.
"Trying to spin enough for you to pass out and fall off," said Rogue, watching this happen.
"Make it stop," said Pietro, Henry sighed and grabbed the reigns, the horse stopped, "I don't like this horse."
"Hey, no… No," said Wanda as he horse took a few quick steps and then would halt, "Why's it doing this?"
"Ohm, okay," said William as he headed over to switch horses.
"This is going to take a while, isn't it?" asked Kurt as he pranced by with his horse.
"Show off," mumbled Todd.
The next thirty minutes were a blur as Todd flopped under a large tree. His horse had decided his hair was her new favorite thing and he now smelt like horse. Lance had finally managed to stay on his horse, but Kitty had panicked when her horse jolted and had phased off spooking Rogue's horse. Pyro had managed to get his horse to do tricks that Henry and William had been confused at, and Wanda accidently throwing a hex bolt at a tree when she'd been trying to stay on had spooked her horse which resulted in the last twenty minutes of trying to find her and her running horse. Needless to say, horseback riding was not a good choice for some of them…. Okay most of them. Candy flopped next to him as they looked down at the ranch from their tree.
"You smell," said Candy snuggling next to him, "How many times did your horse lick you?"
"I'm sure somewhere in the world we're married," said Todd, Candy snorted, "Speaking of marriage I take it the backpack has this binder.
"Yup," grinned Candy as she pulled out a large blue binder out of her bag, he raised a brow, "It's just ideas, calm down."
"Nah, I'm just shocked it's blue," said Todd as Candy leaned against him and flipped through it, "You swear you only started working on this after I left?"
"…. I'm gonna plead the fifth," said Candy after a long pause.
"Hey guys, mind if we join you?" asked Kitty as she and Lance walked around the tree, "Tabitha and Pietro are scheming."
"We're trying to stay clear and out of sight until they find a victim," said Lance as Todd and Candy moved over, "I'm voting Summers or Drake… or both."
"Oh my god, you have a binder too?" asked Kitty, "I left mine back at the mansion."
"There's a binder?" asked Lance, "I thought there was just a notebook."
"No the notebooks just for dream houses," said Kitty off-handedly, Lance made eye contact with Todd and they both shrugged.
The next few hours consisted of Kitty and Candy plotting over binders and eventually causing Lance and Todd to wonder off towards the fence near the edge of the hill they were on. They could see the small ranch the X-men had coveted or rather abandoned as it was doubtful they would spend any time there except for sleeping. They'd been watching Pietro, Bobby, and Tabitha begin whatever chaos that was going to be unleased on Scott and Jean until they'd lost sight of them. Whatever had happened had resulted in a few yells, an optic blast, and those three and Jean fleeing the area.
"Did you know about the binder?" asked Lance as he looked over at the two girls.
"Yes, I've only ever seen it today and I'm pretty sure it's been in the works before we were engaged… so I'm sure yours has been around even longer," said Todd shaking his head, "When are you two getting married?"
"Well Pietro grave us a date but we've never really sat down the talk about the date… we talk about the wedding and where to have it and what to do… but now when we're doing it… Why do you have a date?" asked Lance, he looked horrified, "We need to step up our game."
"No idea… she wants to get married sooner rather than later but no date," said Todd, "Yo, should we … should we be doing something… there glancing over here."
"Pretend to check the fence otherwise we'll get roped into dress talk and one can only hear about the evils of tulle so much before you want to burn all tulle in the world," said Lance quickly, as her swung to look and nearly flipped over it."
"What the hell is tulle?" asked Todd, he remembered a conversation about it a few times with Candy.
"Never… ask.. that," said Lance, "It's a trap."
"There's a whole new world to this engagement isn't there?" asked Todd.
"I fear the actual wedding," said Lance, he looked to be vocalizing to himself if anything, Todd was a little nervous.
"Maybe that's…." Todd was cut off by a shriek from Kitty, they both looked over.
"Oh my god! I can't believe it's her!" yelled Kitty as she stood up with wide eyes and excitement they looked to see Zodiac and Nature leave the porch towards a blonde women exiting a white a blue car.
"She had breakfast with her…." Said Todd, a little concerned.
"I thought she was.. oh," said Lance as a young women with a blonde pixie and blue streak in it got out and gave their two friends a hug, "That… whoa?"
"What?" asked Todd as Kitty was headed down the pathway already, Lance ran after in hopes of stopping whatever was about to happen, "Whose that?"
"Stab in the dark," grinned Candy giddily, "Dazzler!"
"The singer?!" asked Todd, judging by the look on Candy's face, that's exactly who it was, "A fan I see."
"Don't tell Zodiac," grinned Candy, and she was gone and heading down the path the other two had gone on.
"Right…." Said Todd, he stared for a moment and then grinned as he looked down the hill, "Guess who's getting there first."
TO BE CONTINUED
