The Pony Express

By: Atsureki

Disclaimers : Just borrowing them! Don't ask, don't sue.

Warnings : AU, Shonen-ai, OCC, more warnings in later chapters

Notes : Stuff in Italic are thoughts as usual. Like I said before I've given the boys new last names but you'll see them when they appear. Later I'll prolly list them up here so there's no confusion. However, I've decided to let Ran stay half-japanese. Why? Well the plot would just be too weird if I didn't. So Ran has a japanese mother but an american father *nods* This also means that his last name will remain the same and so will his tendensy so answer things with Hn or Aa. From what I've read there were quite a few chinese people in USA back in those days so why not a few Japanese too? And since this is AU pasts has been changed and stuff but most of it should be familier. Oh and about the shonen-ai. I didn't even get through chapter 2 before my wicked brain got into that. *shakes head* So well this is now shonen-ai so there you go. And Jin this one is for you *winks*

Chapter 2. First Encounters

Sweetwater was a small town, almost sleepy but not quiet. The Pony Express station was located about half an hour's ride to the east of town and the one in charge there was a strange man called Tin-pot. He walked around the house chewing on an onion while he pondered over his job. Picking out riders was a pest. Most of the boys had no idea of what they got themselves into and didn't understand that everytime they headed out there it could mean the end of their lives. He had already turned down ten of them. Shaking his head Tin-pot finished his onion and dried his fingers on his pants. He was 50 years old and his face was wrinkly and hard just like the sun that constantly pounded on his balding head. Annoyed he paced back and forth when a young woman stepped out on the porch.
"Hey Dad!" she called and waved at him. "There's a rider coming in." Tin-pot narrowed his watery blue eyes and spotted a horse.
"Got it Clair." His daughter went back inside. The rider was a kid, a small skinny kid with huge blue eyes and enough bruises to make Tin-pot wince.
"Is this the Pony Express station?" the kid asked with hesitation and almost fell off his horse.
"That's right kiddo. I'm Clive Adams but most people just call me Tin-pot. Are you looking to join us as a rider?"
"Yeah, my name's Omi." Tin-pot nodded and eyed the kid.
"How old are you Omi?"
"16."
"Family?" The company prefered riders without families since they expected to lose a kid or two along the dangerous route.
"No," Omi mumbled and it was obviously a lie.
"Parents?"
"Dead."
"Brothers, sisters?"
"No." Well that didn't sound like lies at least. Tin-pot spat out a brown jet of chewing tobacco.
"Well then Omi take care of your horse and join me inside."

An hour later a second rider approached the station, cursing loudly. He was seriously pissed off and was covered with enough dirt to grow plants on him. Tin-pot eyed the lanky blonde with amusement. With another curse the stranger jumped of his horse and started yelling at it.
"You god damn bastard! One of these days I'm gonna turn you into a steak you fucking piece of shit!" The horse ignored its angry owner.
"Bad day?" Tin-pot asked sweetly and was glared at by jade green eyes.
"No bad horse! I'll shoot his useless ass one of these days, I swear!"
"I'm Tin-pot and who might you be?"
"Yoji Keller," the lanky blonde muttered still glaring at his horse.
"You here to become a rider?"
"Yeah but not on that damn beast!" Tin-pot let out a low chuckle. It was rather obvious that Yoji had gotten thrown off, probably several times.
"It's a mustang ain't it? Those are usually a bit difficult." The blonde huffed with disgust.
"I won him in a poker game. He's a mean son of a bitch," Yoji muttered sourly and tied his horse to the rail.
"I think we can pick out another one for you later if you're good enough to be a Pony Express' rider." While he talked Tin-pot watched as a third rider came up to them. This one smiled and gracefully slid down from his horse.
"Hiya I'm Ken Higgins and well I wonder if this is the station for the Pony Express."
"G'day Ken I'm Tin-pot and you're at the right place." The three men headed towards the house.

Ken was nervous. He didn't exactly know what he was getting into but it didn't really matter. Perhaps sweating away hours in the saddle could help him with his problems? Carefully he observed the two other boys around the table. One was a short blonde with impossibly large blue eyes and the other was was a tall lanky darker blonde with green eyes. Neither one of them had said a word since Tin-pot had left them and it was making Ken rather uncomfortable. Squirming slightly on his chair he turned to the smaller blonde.
"You've done anything like this before?" he asked sounding like a complete ass. Huge blue eyes stared at him with unease. The kid had bruises across his face and almost looked scared. He shook his head but didn't say anything. "Me neither."
"Boys," a soft female voice said from the other side of the room. They all turned around and looked at the young woman standing there. "My name is Clair and I do the cooking around here. Now go outside and wash up, lunch is almost ready." Obediently the three young men rose from their chairs and trotted outside.
"By the way I'm Yoji," the lanky blonde suddenly said.
"I'm Ken."
"Omi." They looked at each other and nodded. Yoji pull off his shirt to wash up. The tall blonde made a number of showing off his lean body. Ken frowned slightly, he hated letting strangers see his back because they always stared. But these two boys might become a part of his life so he decided to ignore his hesitation. Just as he thought two pairs of eyes eyed the scars on his back.
"Wow that had got to hurt," the lanky blonde whistled and followed the scars with his jade eyes. Ken shrugged. Being whipped like some damn horse had hurt but that was nothing compared to the pain he had felt inside. Shuddering he pushed away the memories.
"Yeah." The green eyes left his back to stare even harder as Omi shakingly pulled off his shirt. The small blonde's body was completely covered with bruises and cuts.
"Jesus Christ! What happened to you?" Omi swallowed and took a few steps to the side. It was obvious that the small blonde didn't want to talk about himself.
"N… nothing," he croaked out and quickly splashed some water over himself before he pulled his shirt back on. With a frightened, or perhaps it was just an uncomfortable, glance at Ken he turned around and left.
"Strange kid," Yoji shrugged and washed himself. "So what's your story?" Ken raised an eyebrow.
"I don't have a story, do you?" the brunette answered flatly. At that the lanky blonde shook his head.
"This is great, an abused kid and a brunette with an attitude," he growled to himself and walked away.
"And don't forget a blonde full of himself," Ken muttered after him.

Omi tried to stop himself from trembling. How could he have forgetten about the bruises and cuts? It was probably because he was so used to being all black and blue from head to toe. Swalloing hard he tried to keep himself from crying. Ken and Yoji seemed to strong and sure while he was nothing but a scared little kid who had spent most of his life getting beaten to a pulp. What on earth was he doing there? Omi whimpered quietly and walked up to Daisy to seek some comfort in her warm being. His four-legged friend seemed happy to see him at least. With his skinny arms he hugged his horse and buried his face in her golden coat. He felt so lost, like he didn't belong anywhere. When his parents had left him with his uncle they had condemned him to a life of abuse and they hadn't even cared.
"Is this the Pony Express station?" a deep smooth voice suddenly asked. Omi jumped and turned around. A tall redhead glared down at him with cold amethyst eyes.
"Um yes." He was given a bland look before the other boy got off of his horse. Without another word he wrapped the reins around the rail and stalked off. "Well he could have said thank you," Omi muttered to Daisy and followed the rude redhead.

Ran heard the blonde kid follow him but didn't look over his shoulder. He didn't care who it was he just wanted a job and a place to sleep. With his callous mask in place he walked up to an older man.
"Another boy who want's to become a rider with the Pony Express?" Ran nodded. "You can call me Tin-pot. My daughter is about to serve lunch so you better wash up." The redhead nodded again and turned around. "Hey what's your name?"
"Aya, Aya Fujimiya," Ran answered blandly without looking back. He was tired, dusty and a bit sore from riding for so long. As he turned to walk around the house he crashed into a brunette.
"S… sorry," the slightly shorter boy studdered and looked at him with chocolate colored eyes. Ran eyed him up and down.
"Hn," he muttered and frowned slightly. Why was that brunette staring at him like that? "Watch where you're going."
"I said I was sorry didn't I? And besides you watch where you're going yourself!" the other boy growled. Ran's temper flared at that. He was tired and had been under a lot of pressure lately so he could do without bickering with strangers. With a huff he turned his back to the brunette.
"Idiot!" A strong hand grabbed his arm and swirled him around.
"What did you call me?"
"Idiot!" Ran repeated coldly and pulled his arm free.
"Jerk!" Amethyst eyes narrowed dangerously. The redhead snorted and started walking away again. "Rude stuck up bastard!" Enraged Ran shot back to the brunette and aimed a punch at him. The other boy ducked it easily and raised his fists. Moments later they were lying on the dusty ground fighting like maniacs.

Yoji watched Ken and a redhead rolling around in the dust with a grin on his face. The redhead was taller than Ken but that didn't seem to matter. Grinning wider he walked closer.
"You think we should stop 'em?" Yoji glanced at Tin-pot who was leaning against the house with a smile on his lips.
"Nah let them fight it out."
"Yeah might as well let 'em settle this. My bet is on Ken," Tin-pot chuckled and wiped his forehead.
"So is mine, the redhead isn't as good with his fists." They were both proven correct when a very messy brunette shakingly got to his feet while the redhead remained on the ground.
"You boys quite done now?" Tin-pot drawled and moved away from the house.
"Um eh sorry about this," Ken mumbled and dried the blood from his face.
"I think you two better carry him into the barrack over there and wash him up." With that said the balding man left.
"You've done your share of fighting huh Kenny?" Yoji snickered and bent down to check out the redhead.
"Ken, the name is Ken not Kenny, Kenken or anything else!" The lanky blonde raised an eyebrow.
"Sure, sure. So Ken how about we get Red here inside? I'm hungry and I ain't gonna miss lunch just because you wanted to punch someone's lights out." Together they carried the redhead to the barracks and then Yoji left Ken to tend to his handy work.

Ken groaned inside. He had spent two hours at that place and had already gotten into a fight. Why on earth had he allowed himself to get so ticked off by that redhead? Was it because he was ashamed for staring so at him? Most likely. But it wasn't his fault that the tall slender man was so damn good-looking! Stop that, he sighed to himself. The last thing he needed was to drool over his future co-workers. But the redhead was beautiful. Ken growled at himself. Hadn't he learnt his lesson the last time? Obviously not since his body was reacting to the sight of the pale smooth chest that was found underneath the torn shirt he had just removed. There were a lot of bruises on that chest and most of them hadn't been caused by the fight that had just occured. With a sigh the brunette went to get some water and rags to clean up the mess he had caused. It was not a good start and he knew it. When he returned he carefully wiped away the dirt and blood from the redhead's face and chest. While he was doing that amethyst eyes opened to stare at him in confusion. Ken swallowed with effort and pulled away his hands.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to… to…"
"Beat the shit out of me?" the redhead suggested with his deep smooth voice.
"Um yeah. As I said I am sorry." The slender man before him gave him a strange look.
"I started it so," the redhead shrugged and winced in pain. "Damn you hit hard."
"Sorry. I got a little carried away. Um I'm Ken by the way."
"Aya." For a moment some kind of emotion flashed across the redhead's pale face.
"Nice to meet you Aya."
"Aa." So Aya was a man of few words. That was kind of bad, Ken decided, because that deep smooth baritone was beautiful to listen to.
"I think we're late for lunch," the brunette mumbled and offered his hand to help Aya up. It was ignored and the redhead rose on his own before he picked up is ruined shirt. "I'll get ya a new one."
"Don't bother," Aya said blandly and walked out. Well talk about making a good first impression, Ken muttered to himself and stalked after the redhead.

~TBC~

I know the chapters are a bit lame at the moment but I just have to get everyone into place and stuff before I start having some fun with them *L*

Tin-pot is based on Teaspoon Hunter from The Young Riders and that's why he's eating onions. Don't even ask me what he gets out of that *gross* And don't ask me where I got his nickname from *laffs* Okay so I picture him as a Tin-pottyperson, sorry…

Ah I almost forgot. The Pony Express was only active for 18 months, starting in april 1860. So this story sets out at that time meaning that our boys were among the first express-riders. As always, reviews makes me type faster! *hint hint nudge nudge* Ja/Atsureki