Disclaimer: Obviously, since I'm posing on I don't own something. That something would be the characters from Fushigi Yuugi. The others… yeah, they're mine.
Author's Notes: Lo, and behold, I'm freakin' back! Can ya believe it? I know, I know. Losing your job and having all the free time in the world will do that to a person. So… here's hoping I'll actually be able to finish this one!
Chapter 3: Genrou and Serah?
Ryuuen did more laughing than actually helping with the grooming of the horses. Kishuku had his revenge on Genrou when the spazzy youth tried to clean Pepper's hooves, and ended up getting kicked in the chest.
"Not so damn tough, now, are ya?" he'd asked the red-head.
"Yeah, well at least I don't have a black eye! Wahahaha!" Genrou shot back. The laughter died on his lips when Kishuku threw a brush at him and hit him in the head.
"And now, you have a lump."
Genrou snarled and leapt at Kishuku, knocking him off his feet. The two rolled around on the floor, startling the horses, until Byrne went over to separate them. Ryuuen relaxed when the two stood up, laughing.
"You're a weird one, Gen," Kishuku said, offering his hand.
"And you're ugly," the other replied, shaking it.
Whew, thought Ryuuen, crisis one averted. Colt was already groomed and stabled, as was Ghost, Tay, and Nikki. The four were sedately munching on their hay, ignoring the clamor outside their stalls.
Byrne made his way over to where Ayuru was brushing Honey. "It goes a lot faster if you use long strokes," he told him, grabbing the hand that held the brush and demonstrating.
Ayuru jerked his hand away, kept his eyes on Honey. "Thanks."
"You're awfully quiet," Byrne told him.
"Is that a problem, too?" His voice was hard, and he was doing everything in his power to not look at Byrne.
"No, no problem," the other said, "just unusual around here, unless you try to talk to Buck before his coffee."
"Is that why he was so grumpy this morning?"
Byrne grinned, catching the attention of Ayuru's eyes. The cold, ice blue ones held the gaze of warm, glittering green. "Actually, he'd managed a cup, so be happy."
Ayuru snickered, half a smile forming on his lips, before turning back to Honey. "Is that good enough?"
The deeply tanned man shifted his attention to the horse. "Yeah, that's great. All she needs now is led back to her stall."
Ayuru held the halter, led honey down through the barn to her stall. When he closed the door, he leaned against it and watched the horse eat her hay.
Ryuuen came up behind Byrne. "Ah, I see he's taken a liking to Honey."
"That he has."
The shorter man looked up. "And I see someone else has taken a liking to him."
Byrne smiled, flushed pink. "Aw, hell, he's probably not even gay. That's the way my luck goes."
Ryuuen grinned, then clapped him on the shoulder. "Have faith, Byrne. You never know."
Ten minutes later, the grooming was done, the horses were content, and the six men were filing into the house, washing up one at a time at the sink. Red and Buck had already eaten, and were now sitting at the table, talking about the ranch.
"Those posts and the wire are gonna have to be fixed if we ever want to let those horses out to pasture again," Buck was saying. "It ain't right, keeping them cooped up in that barn in this weather."
"Yeah, you're right. Well, we can start that after lunch. We have some extra hands now," Red said, taking a long drink of his iced tea.
The others sat down at the table, and dug into lunch. Ryuuen noticed they ate much more than they had at breakfast, and there was more talking. He was sitting next to Saihitei, who was remaining quiet.
"Are we going to be fixing the fence?" he asked Red, keeping his eyes on his plate.
Red turned to look at him, surprised. "Yeah, we're going to tackle that after you all eat."
Genrou paused in his shoveling of food to fix Red with a stare. "You mean manual labor? Aw, fuck!"
"Did you think it'd be all fun and games?" Buck barked. "You're here to work, and work's what you'll do."
Genrou scowled, then went back to his eating.
"Is the fence electric?" Saihitei wondered.
"No," Red said, shaking his head. "It's barbed wire. Keeps the horses in, and one bump on the nose and they stay away from it. There's too much fence for it to be electric, plus I don't like it."
"Gen, you're such a pig," Kishuku remarked.
The yellow-eyed boy looked up at him, his fork hovering at his mouth. "What?" he asked, spraying him with food.
The other boy merely laughed. "Never mind."
Trudy clucked her tongue as she set more food down on the table. "I'm glad to see you're all in much better moods this afternoon," she said, grinning. She looked at Ayuru and Saihitei, "and hungrier." She shot Ryuuen a wink, then went back to the stove to begin clean up.
Serah came bustling into the kitchen, her blue jeans drenched from the knees down. "Red, the washer broke. It's gushing water all over the basement floor."
"Dammit," he swore.
Genrou looked up. "Washer? I can fix that."
Everyone stared at him. "What do you mean you can fix that?" Red asked. "How in the hell do you know how to fix a washer?"
"Because before I ran away from home, I used to do it all the time. It was my father's job and I used to help him."
"Good," Serah gripped him by the collar, hauled him out of his seat.
"Hey!" he protested.
"If you can fix it," she started, pushing him toward the door, "then you're going to. I'll get him out to you when he's done, Red."
Ryuuen started laughing out loud the minute Genrou's complaints faded away.
"Why are you laughing?" Saihitei asked him.
"Because he's gonna have Serah towering over him the whole time, trying to help, and he'll end up either punched in the nose or drowned."
Saihitei smirked at the mental picture, took one last gulp of iced tea.
"Okay, troops," Buck grunted, standing up. "We're about to go do some real work."
With a groan, everyone finished what they could of their lunch, and stood. Ryuuen drained his glass of iced tea before going out the door.
"Why does Gen get to stay behind?" Kishuku complained. "What makes him so special?"
Byrne clapped the younger man on the back. "Don't worry," he said. "He's in for much worse than you."
"Goddamn it, woman! Will ya stay out of my way?"
"Well you're doing it all wrong! I thought you said you could fix it!"
Genrou eased his head out of the washer, fixed Serah with a glare. "I could fix if someone wasn't in my way!"
Serah glared back, crossed her arms over her chest. "I am not in your way, Genrou. I'm simply trying to tell you that the problem is behind the washer, not in it!"
The red-haired man growled softly, then checked to look behind the washer. He cursed softly, then stood up. "We need to move it. I can't get back there with it up against the wall."
"Then let's move it," Serah said.
They stood on either side of the washer, and began to scoot it forward, away from the wall. Genrou was still in an ugly mood. He hadn't gotten to finish his lunch, his feet were soaked from the few inches of water still on the floor, and Serah was doing little to make things better.
He'd either kill her or kiss her before all was said and done.
With the washer moved, he crouched behind it and scanned the pipes for any problems. "Aha!" he chimed. "I found the problem!"
"Really? What is it?"
"It's leaking," he answered.
Serah rolled her wide, glorious light brown eyes. "No shit, brainiac. Did you come up with that all on your own, or did the massive amount of water on the floor help you!"
Genrou's head popped up over the top of the washer. "Has anyone ever told you how beautiful you are when you're angry?" He grinned when she glared at him even harder, a light blush on her cheeks. "Can you hand me that wrench?"
She picked up the wrench, hefted it in her hand. When she reached over to hand it to him, the heavy object slipped out of her hand, landing squarely on top of his head.
He ended up on his back, in three inches of water, dazed.
Serah rushed over to him. "Good lord, are you okay?"
Genrou remained laying on the floor, but opened one amber eye. "You," he said, gritting his teeth, "did that on purpose."
"I most certainly did not!" she protested. Standing, she held out a hand to him. "Come on, up you get!"
He took the proffered hand, but instead of allowing her to help him up, yanked as hard as he could, bringing her down on top of him, and her face right into the water.
She lifted her head, sputtering and dripping. "I'm gonna kill you," she muttered, right before raising her fist to slug him. Genrou was faster and caught her wrist.
"Nah, you like me too much."
Eyes wide, Serah opened her mouth to say something along the lines of, "I do not," but the words were taken from her mouth as Genrou grabbed the back of her head and kissed her soundly on the lips. She was beyond flummoxed. She couldn't move, couldn't pull away. Hell, she wasn't even sure she wanted to. Then Genrou released her, and grinned cattily up at her. "See?"
Scoffing, she got to her feet, not before jamming her knee into his ribs, and waded away from the washer. "Get that thing fixed and then get out to the fence," she said, not looking over her shoulder.
Then he was alone. Whistling a tune, he turned back to the washer and began fixing it.
Ryuuen was sweating. The sun beat down, hot and merciless, on the seven workers as they mended the fence. All seven of them had stripped off their shirts, and Byrne had taken off his hat, replacing it with a red bandana.
The north sector of the pasture had an almost mile long area of fence that was down. The posts had long ago rotted, and an early season tornado had easily torn the barbed wire from the soft wood. Thankfully, Ryuuen thought, they didn't have to dig any post holes.
Their work was centered on clearing the old posts and wire so new could be brought in. Buck had driven the tractor out, hauling a trailer on the back to throw all the old wood and wire on.
Pausing for a moment's breath, Ryuuen looked around him. The boys were working without complaint, though their misery showed on their faces. Saihitei's, especially, looked grim. Lips compressed tightly, cheeks pale, Ryuuen wondered if he was going to pass out. He dragged a post to the trailer, and grabbed a bottle of water out of the cooler. Opening it, he took a long drag as he walked back to the group.
"Sai," he called. The taller boy looked up, just in time to catch the water as it was tossed at him.
He looked at, then at Ryuuen. "Thanks," he said. He gulped at the cold water, then, with only a moment's hesitation, dumped some over the back of his neck. He tossed the bottle back to Ryuuen, who drained the rest of it, and gave the bottle pitch to the trailer.
"Everybody!"
Work stopped as Red called for their attention. He looked up at the sky, then around at the men. "We're quitting for the day. A storm's rolling in."
The three city boys looked up at the wide sky above them, confused. Ryuuen looked behind him at the horizon, saw the dark clouds building up. "Gonna be pretty wicked," Byrne muttered, throwing a rolled up line of wire onto the trailer.
"I see nothing," Ayuru snapped. "The sky's blue."
Byrne looked at him, then pointed toward the mountains. "See that?"
Ayuru looked. The mountains were a great distance away, but all he saw were mountains. "The mountains?"
"Yeah. Can't see where the mountains end and the storm begins, can ya?"
The blond shook his head.
"Keep watching."
The others did, as well, wondering what in the world they were to be watching. When a bright blue streak of lightning descended down the clouds to the actual tops of the mountains, Ayuru's eyes went wide. "I never noticed," he mumbled.
"Takes a while to get used to seeing it," Byrne told him. "Let's load up and get to the house. It'll be here in about an hour."
As if in answer, a rumble of thunder reached their ears.
