#this is basically the actual experience of watching the untamed as is huh

[toilethamster]

if you like rewatching tv shows an ungodly number of times, may i recommend doing a rewatch of only episodes a particular character is in

especially fun if they’re properly missing (in a coma, dead, out of town, in another dimension) from the show for any significant period

(you get to see the character arc without gaps and you can get randomly dropped in the middle of series like wow this would be weird without context huh)

[sundaynightlive]

True Blue (Klance)

Live, laugh, stream Boygenius.

Disclaimer: I mention autism in this and that Keith might be on the spectrum. I'm not neurotypical but I don't believe I have autism, so if the way I did it was in any way insensitive, PLEASE lmk so I can rectify this. My roommate (and best friend) is autistic and while I don't necessarily know their experience I have spent a ton of time with them and have had long, in depth discussions about their experience which is why I felt comfortable writing it. It's a little in line with my own experience, which is why I think it might be slightly off? If it rubs you the wrong way, for sure drop a reply. Peace and love, sweetpeas <3

Also, can y'all tell I'm in a secret relationship? That obvious, huh.

It’s when everybody has dispersed back to their rooms, Shiro giving one last worried glance over his shoulder, that Keith finally walks up to the healing pod, pressing his forehead to the glass (or whatever clear, Altean material this thing's made of) and heaving a deep, shaky breath.

“Idiot,” he whispers.

Lance isn’t usually the kind of guy to be in the midst of the action. Keith’s sharpshooter tends to stick around the high ground and well-covered edges, but today has been an exception. The hallway of the ship had been tight, with little cover and little room to move. He found himself right there in it at Keith’s side, and for the most part he’d held his ground—blocking with his gun, tripping enemies, watching Keith’s back.

For a moment, a fleeting moment, Keith had actually felt incredible fighting at his boyfriend’s side.

And then that moment passed, and everything came to a screeching halt.

It’s a deep flesh wound in the meat of the shoulder, a puncture in the right thigh, and a broken rib. Not enough to kill, but enough to send Lance crashing into Keith’s side, out like a light—and more than enough to give Keith an absolute heart attack.

He sighs heavily, and crumples in on himself to the floor. He’s tired, bruised, and worried. Lance is going to be fine, he knows (he does), but that doesn’t stop the ache that crawls up and through his feet and hands and lungs. 

He never wants to see Lance unconscious like that again.

A few hours later, Allura peeks in and tells him they’re having dinner. Keith isn’t the slightest bit hungry—actually, he’s rather comfortable, back pressed against the pod, drifting in and out of sleep and distant memory. 

“I’m okay.”

She frowns.

“You should come eat, and change,” she says. Keith shakes his head. No way. Absolutely not. He’s not going anywhere until Lance can come with him, and if it gets too dire, there’s a bathroom a few feet away. A shower, even. 

That’s good enough for him.

“He’s alright, Keith,” Allura tries, “Just a few days in there and he’ll be—”

“I know,” Keith interrupts. She regards him for a moment, a long look of concern and confusion, and then relents with a heavy sigh.

“Alright. If you need anything—”

“I know,” Keith repeats.

She hesitates a few moments, and then leaves. Keith closes his eyes, and rests his head back against the pod that contains his boyfriend.

-

8 months earlier Lance McClain had entered Keith’s room, unannounced, and miraculously ducked out of the way of a boot flying towards his head with worrying accuracy.

“If you’re here to gloat, get it over with,” Keith hissed in his direction, a wild, untamed anger alight in his eyes. He’s… frustratingly beautiful, Keith, with his mullet of dark hair, indigo eyes, and lean muscle. He’s half-dressed, the top part of his flight suit hanging from his waist. Lance tries not to look down at his chest, and fails miserably.

He swallowed that away.

“Keith—”

“Actually, you know what?” Keith basically charged at him, which was terrifying for the first few moments. A finger pressed firmly into Lance’s chest, and he took a deep breath to try and calm his nerves. He really didnt' want Keith to hit him—that would be a worst case scenario. “Fuck you. Every other mission you’re the fuck up, so I don’t want to hear—”

“I’m not here to gloat,” Lance said, shame and embarrassment burning something fierce in his gut at being called a fuck up. It was difficult, but he swallowed that away, too. “I wanted to see if you were okay.”

That's when Keith faltered.

The finger retracted, and so did the boy, stalking over to sit heavily on the edge of his bed, and then burrying his face in his hands. There was a few moments of silence, and then Lance followed, sitting gently down next to him, putting a warm hand on his back.

He wanted, then, to smooth his hand down porcelain skin, but he refrained.

“I… know what it’s like for someone you look up to to chew you out like that,” Lance explained softly, “And Shiro’s not really a big brother to me, or anything, but I know if Marco or Luis were that hard on me… especially for something so stupid—”

“It wasn’t stupid,” Keith argued, rubbing his face and then looking up at him. Lance swallowed again—Keith was so pretty it was fucking with Lance’s head. Damn this stupid crush he had—it was interfering with his ability to be an effective teammate. He wanted this to be more than that.

Which was so not cool, at least not now.

“I fucked up. Big time.”

“That doesn’t mean he should yell at you like that in front of the whole team. Especially when the whole issue was communication.”

“I should’ve known better.”

“How?” Lance deadpanned. Keith’s eyebrows scrunched up, and he turned to study the wall, as if he was really contemplating. Here’s what had happened—

They planned to infiltrate from different points of the ship, and take it quietly so as to not alert any other nearby patrol ships or junkers. Then, with free range of the ship and a hostage situation, Keith and Pidge would be free to search through databases and stockpiles to see what tech or resources the Galra had been laundering through—a fairly simple endeavor.

What they had not accounted for, however, were the Galra mercenaries posted in certain sectors of the ship. When Shiro had gone to warn Keith of this over the comms, Keith had taken that as—the plan has changed, we’re pursuing action against these mercenaries, and upon following that mindset, had landed him and Pidge in the middle of combat they had not been prepared for, and alerted the ship’s staff before Shiro had gained full control of the hull. This made for a spiral of chaos that was swiftly quelled, but apparently got on Shiro’s nerves, even though the mission had been overall successful.

He was always so worried about unnecessary casualties. Fair, Lance supposes, but they are in the middle of literal war.

“I… don’t know,” Keith admitted finally, “I could have… hesitated?”

“And gotten you both killed?” Lance asked. Keith sighed. He flopped back and Lance followed suit, stretching a little bit. Keith was so close Lance could feel the body heat wafting off his torso. He tried not to think about it too much.

Too much was a relative term.

“Whatever, I’m over it. Let’s talk about something else—what are Marco and Luis like?”

And the rest is history.

They spent the next two months connected at the hip, or at least, sneaking into each other’s rooms late at night to talk about everything and nothing. If Keith needed to vent, he went to Lance, and vice versa. If they were bored, they found each other in an empty part of the castle and found something to entertain them. If Hunk or Pidge were being shitty, or Shiro was being too much, or Allura was being especially pushy, they would give each other matching looks, and go giggle about it elsewhere. 

It was wildly beneficial, for Lance, at least. He stopped feeling lonely, and he stopped feeling useless. Not only did Keith convince him vocally he was a necessary addition to the team, but just being friends with him made Lance feel like if nothing else, Keith needed him. Keith liked having him around.

And that was more than enough.

-

Lance was Keith’s first real experience having a friend. He had a dad, he had a brother, but Lance was a friend. He chose. 

Keith could never have avoided falling in love with him.

Being with Lance was easy in a way that’s hard to explain if you don’t already know what he means. Like the way breathing is easy. Keith didn’t even have to try to do it, he just did it.

That, for him, was love.

He’d never really been good with people, or at reading people, or at understanding arbitrary social rules and expectations. It just didn’t… click for him. But with Lance, it didn’t have to click.

“That… kind of upsets me,” Lance said.

Keith started. He looked up from where he was sprawled on the floor, perplexed.

“What?”

“What you just said,” Lance explained, “That I’m the “comic relief” or whatever.” Keith furrowed his brow. His first instinct was to defend himself, and explain why it didnt' make sense that Lance was offended by that, but he stopped himself. They’ve talked about that--getting defensive about other people’s feelings instead of listening to them. 

Lance was looking at him expectantly.

“I’m… sorry,” Keith said, finally, “Why?” A distant cousin of a smile passed over Lance’s features for a moment, and then he shrugged.

“I don’t know. I guess it makes me feel like… a joke to you guys.” Keith’s eyes widened. That was not even remotely what he’d meant by it. He was fairly certain that’s not what anyone meant by it, but he supposed he can see that side.

Jeez, had Lance thought that the whole time?

“Of course you’re not a joke to me—us,” Keith corrected, feeling a bit of warmth creep into his cheeks, “I’m… sorry.”

“Getting better,” Lance praised, “What did you mean, then?”

“Well,” Keith said slowly, because what did he mean? “I thought we were just saying you’re good at lightening the mood, you know? It would be… really quiet and depressing without you.” Lance nodded, but he didn't look entirely convinced.

“Well… thanks, I guess.”

“I won’t say it again,” Keith said firmly, because how could he? Lance thinking he was a joke was just about the last thing Keith wanted—he felt bad enough about calling him a fuck up a few weeks ago, even worse now. Damn it, had they all been operating under the assumption Lance got that these were all jokes? Less than jokes, even.

Fuck.

“Thanks, man. That means… a lot.” Keith laid back down, flat on his back, staring up at Lance’s ceiling. The glow in the dark star stickers weren't glowing because it wasn't dark, but he still felt a little warmth at seeing them there. Ironic that Lance could just go to the hull and stare at a hundred-billion real ones, but incredibly endearing besides.

His insides twisted up.

Fuck number two.

“Hey, Lance?”

“Mmhmm?”

“Thanks for telling me.”

“Telling you what?”

“That what I said upset you,” Keith explained softly, staring up at those stars, hoping Lance wasn't looking at him. He was pink—very pink. “I don’t really… get when I’ve said something shitty. And most people just get offended and stop talking to me.” Lance laughed a little at that.

“My niece, Nadia, is on the spectrum. You know, autism? She’s just like that—she struggles with social cues, so we walk her through it just like I did with you. It’s really no problem—actually, it’s the least I can do.” 

Keith tried to work out what he meant by that, but he couldn't, so he just stared up at the ceiling for a few quiet moments, contemplating. He wanted to live in Lance’s space forever. He wanted to stay in this room with him, silently existing near each other, no words necessary. Nothing necessary.

God, what did that mean?

“Do you think I could be on the spectrum?”

He heard Lance’s shrug against the mattress.

“Maybe.”

And nothing more was said about it.

-

Lance kissed Keith for the first time two months after that day in his room, and when Keith melted headfirst into it, he nearly broke away to jump for joy. He didn’t read the signs wrong—this was happening. He and Keith were happening.

“I like you,” Lance said when the kiss broke, “I like you so much.”

“Got that,” Keith replied, pressing his forehead into Lance’s. Lance felt giddy and warm and buzzed all over. He felt like he could fly—like he could launch Blue a thousand feet in the air and jump off and soar. He dragged his fingers over Keith’s neck and through his hair and across his cheeks, almost like he was checking to make sure this was real.

It was real.

“Kiss me again,” Keith breathed, and so Lance obliged him. He’d do anything the boy asked. Forever.

“Did I say stop?”

“No, sir.”

-

Keith stays in the infirmary for the next 72 hours. Shiro worriedly brings him a change of clothes and Hunk drops by with the occasional meal. They keep insisting that he leave, that Lance is fine, that it wasn’t his fault—he knows that. He didn’t stab Lance, that’s obvious. 

They don’t understand when he tells them no.

At first, keeping their relationship a secret was just a means of making sure when they did tell everyone, they’d have a few months under their belt as proof that this was serious, and not a terrible, Voltron-ending fling. 

Then it became second nature.

Just as their friendship had been, it became familiar and meaningful to keep their personal relationship to themselves. They were each other’s safe space, and as such, it didn’t feel right to go around announcing to the world that they found comfort in each other. Hell, it felt invasive to even think about.

It feels invasive even now. That’s why he doesn’t explain himself—he just let’s the team think he’s gone completely nuts, and makes himself comfortable at the base of the cryopod, occasionally gazing up at his beautiful boyfriend, looking so peaceful.

In the 74th hour, Lance wakes up.

“I seriously think that shit is bad for humans,” is the first thing he grumbles as Keith helps him out and down onto solid ground, “God, it feels like I have the worst hangover.” Keith can’t help but laugh a little, and Lance grins over at him. “Let me guess—you slept in here on the floor like a dumbass.”

Keith’s smile turns sheepish.

“I couldn’t leave you,” he explains softly, and Lance sighs, shaking his head.

“I’m okay. You, on the other hand, should’ve been sleeping in bed.”

“You were really hurt,” Keith argues as long tan arms slip loosely around his waist, “I was worried about you.”

“You’re not getting rid of me that easy,” Lance replies. Keith melts. He wraps his arms around his boyfriend and holds him close, careful to keep his face above Lance’s shoulder, no matter how badly he’d like to press his nose in it. Lance’s hands smooth over his back softly, and he almost shudders at how nice it feels. It’s so good to be back in Lance’s arms after the past three days of watching him in that pod, so close and yet impossibly far.

Lance presses a kiss to the side of his head. He feels at home.

They stay like that for a while, safely inside each others’ embrace, breath intermingling, and bodies coming loose—Lance from the stiffness that comes with being inside that stupid tube for many hours, Keith from stress.

“Hey, Lance?”

“Mmm?”

“I love you.”

Lance presses another kiss to the side of Keith’s head. He had said it long before this, absolutely ages ago. Not even two months into their relationship—

I love you. Don’t say it back—I wanna watch you fall.

And here Keith is, at the bottom, resting safely in Lance's arms.

“I know, mi amor. I know.”

[canary3d-obsessed]

Restless Rewatch: The Untamed Episode 09 first part

(Masterpost) (More Canary Funsies)

Warning: Spoilers for All 50 Episodes!

This episode features so many eternal minutes of zombie shambling that I thought I could fit everything into a single post. HA HA HA HA nope. 

Zombie Temple

The trio do their best to fend off the not-zombies in the temple. Lan Wangji tells Wei Wuxian that he can’t go carving them up because they’re not actually dead, and drops a callback to their very first meeting at the gate of Cloud Recesses, when Wei Wuxian caught his attention with his pillowy lips comment on the not-dead cultivator. 

Lan Wangji: You said it in that golden moment that will be seared into my memory for eternity, where I heard your voice and laid eyes on your angelic face and lost my heart forever, remember? Come on, babe, it was our very first zombie! How baked were you?

Wei Wuxian: I jerk off to the sword-fighting memory, not the zombie memory, you weirdo.

Nie Huaisang’s fear of the definitely not undead has apparently gotten him the rest of the way over his fear of Lan Wangji, because he’s now yelling “Lan-Xiong!” right along with “Wei-Xiong!” as he struggles. Note that although he later mentions that his fan is made of some fancy metal, we don’t see any evidence that he wants to fight with a fan any more than he does with a blade. I don’t hate anyone’s fan-fighting NHS headcanon, but my take is that he just isn’t a physical fighter, and that’s ok. 

This is a good time to remember that our entire experience of the Nie clan so far in this story is 1. Clever but hopelessly combat-unready tiny artiste Nie Huaisang 2. Quietly helpful, absurdly pretty sidekick Meng Yao. 

We don’t know yet that Nie Huasang’s gege and Meng Yao’s sugar daddy is literally the toughest motherfucker in the entire cultivation world. But his friends do! Which makes me love these dynamics even more, because not one of them criticizes Nie Huaisang for being the person he is. 

(more after the cut!)

Never Let Me Go

This scene is where Wei Wuxian gives his tacit consent to being used as the eventual agent of Nie Huaisang’s vengeance....ok not really.

But he does make it clear what Nie Huaisang should do when he’s in a pickle. And NHS doesn’t forget things.

Priorities 

Meanwhile, Lan Wangji isn’t nearly as patient as Wei Wuxian, and he drops a silence spell on Nie Huaisang basically out of annoyance. It’s not like they’re trying to be sneaky. 

Lan Wangji: How about you have an exquisitely crafted ceramic cup of shut the fuck up?

Flute Girl

Wen Qing comes to the rescue by summoning all of the not-zombies, who happen to be her extended family, to come toast some marshmallows. 

She’s another person who unwisely demonstrates, where Wei Wuxian can hear her, the power of flutes over zombies. 

This move doesn’t seem to do anything important but it looks cool. 

Brother Dynamic: Bad. Really Bad. 

Jiang Cheng shows up in the temple and trolls everyone, because this is a great time for childish antics. Wei Wuxian is super happy to see him and runs over to hug him, which earns him a shoulder slam. 

This is a regular part of their body language with each other. Wei Wuxian covers his hurt reaction very, very quickly, with a smile that doesn’t involve very much of his face. 

Ow

Wei Wuxian is so good at pretending his feelings aren’t hurt, he probably convinces himself. 

Then he gives a too-honest answer when Jiang Cheng accuses him of...daring to enjoy himself, basically.

That’s more truth than Jiang Cheng was looking for, and he raises a hand to Wei Wuxian, who hides behind Nie Huaisang. This move is interesting because on one level it’s just clowning; obviously Nie Huaisang can’t protect WWX from anything, and WWX doesn’t need protection from Jiang Cheng. 

WWX can easily beat JC in a fight, as he’s let us know before. On another level, this retreat signals WWX’s harmlessness, his childlike-ness, in a semiotic dance that has been playing out for over a decade between the brothers.  NHS is taking on Jiang Yanli’s role in the choreography, this time.   

All of this troubling hostility doesn’t make Jiang Cheng a bad person. He’s young and he’s still under his parents’ control and subject to their abuse at home. It takes time to develop mindfulness about this stuff and learn to treat people beneath you differently than the way you are treated. 

Jiang Cheng isn’t ready for that yet, any more than he is ready to say out loud that he cares about his brother. 

Leave My Boyfriend Out of It

This interaction is noteworthy for Wei Wuxian defending Lan Wangji to his brother, before Jiang Cheng even has a chance to blame Lan Wangji. 

Wei Wuxian says that following Lan Wangji was his own idea, and then gives LWJ the sweetest, warmest smile.

Lan Wangji also gets a pair of totally unearned, delighted smiles of thanks from his two besties when he lifts the silence spell on Nie Huaisang. 

Being mildly dickish all the time works out fine, I guess, if you only make friends with people whose brothers are legendary grouches.

Grilling Wen Qing

Wei Wuxian finally decides he’s had enough of Wen Qing’s crap, and gets slightly aggressive in questioning her.

He’s not actually roughing her up but he is approaching her as a near-enemy for the first time, rather than as someone who wants to be her friend. Once Wen Qing tells him what’s up and agrees to a sort of temporary alliance, he goes back to being his normal slightly awkward self with her. 

I don’t romance-ship WQ and WWX, except maybe as corpse-mountain era FWB, but I do like their chemistry. And their friendship is really refreshing and interesting, based on sharing goals and working together, not on emotional intimacy. It’s nice to see people with a lot of barriers around their hearts, building a strong, trusting bond without having to actually open up very much.

The idea of perfect sharing between people is a nice one, but it’s pretty alien to many of us who are recovering from trauma, or people who just aren’t wired that way, and it’s good to see other models of friendship and love. 

Wei Wuxian, at Lan Wangji’s direction, parts the Red Sea drops a cage on the other 3 cultivators before going to hunt the dire birdy.  

Jiang Chang is, predictably, pissed off about it, in spite of Wei Wuxian’s “you’re good at this” parting words, and says, according to the subtitles, “you bastard!”

“Bastard” is a pretty specific epithet, in English. In the current century, it’s generally used to mean “asshole,” more or less. But it still does carry the meaning “of illegitimate birth,” and since The Untamed is often concerned with legitimacy it seems pretty strong for JC to use with someone who is rumored to be his own Dad’s by-blow. 

Let’s have a look and see what he really is calling him... 你混蛋 =  Nǐ húndàn = “you bastard” per Google translate. Wow, Jiang Cheng, you really went there, huh. 

Wen Granny

Wen Qing and the others in the golden cage watch as the not-zombies try half-heartedly to get to them. Wen Qing is super sad about it, as opposed to the two guys who are just annoyed (Jiang Cheng) or scared (Nie Huaisang).

The first time I saw this, it was just - oh, Wen Qing sympathizes with this poor random woman, she feels bad about what's happening, this is to show us she has a heart.

Now though --  that's HER granny. Maybe not her bio-grandma but clearly a granny of her clan, who she knows well, who later cares for A-Yuan when he's a child, so may very well have cared for A-Qing and A-Ning when they were small, too. Owie.

Dire Bird Hunting

Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian run off to hunt the smoke bird together. They are quickly trapped in cool-looking fog. Kudos to the Director of Photography.

They spend some time being confused and also being peak Wangxian 1.0 as they help each other out. 

Lost in the fog and unable to summon talismans, Wei Wuxian is mainly about checking on Lan Wangji, making sure he’s ok, making sure he’s near.  He doesn’t spare any worry for himself.

(We get a rare instance of seeing an actually glowing sword here, instead of just having a character say “I saw the beams of swords!” to save money on VFX.)

Lan Wangji, meanwhile, understands the mental attack they are under, explains it to Wei Wuxian with only a little snark about Wei Wuxian’s overly busy mind, and teaches him how to handle it.

Lan Wangji is super disciplined in mind, body, and sword - his fight moves don’t change, really, throughout his life, but he gets better and better at execution. Wei Wuxian isn’t exactly undisciplined, but he’s super creative and busts out a new skill in nearly every encounter. Lan Wangji sees this and is learning to make use of it.

After Lan Wangji helps Wei Wuxian overcome the confusion that is blocking his talisman use, he tells him which talisman to use. 

This isn’t a talisman that LWJ uses himself, it’s just that he’s paying very close attention to WWX’s battle moves, and has a great memory, so he knows which ones will work. In a pretty short timespan he’s moved from thinking like a solo swordsman to thinking as part of a team with a broad range of battle skills. Very soon, he’ll be starting to use Wei Wuxian’s talismans himself. 

WWX takes a hit from the flying death chain, but uses it to his advantage, as in so many encounters. He’s not just self-sacrificing--he is definitely that--but he’s also a chess player, knowing how to use a sacrifice or an injury to his advantage. Cue Lan Wangji being worried for the entire rest of his life.

Part Two is here!

[coltonslim]

SAVE A HORSE, RIDE A COWBOY → COLCEY

TAGGING → Colton Slim & Lacey J  L'Horloge ( @laceyjean )

TIMELINE → September 1, 2021

SETTING → The ASU stables

SUMMARY → The adrenaline starts pumping during a simple horseback riding lesson when the student, Colton, goes headfirst into a river, leaving his teacher, Lacey J, to try and make sure he doesn’t die. They get wet, will they get wild too?

"Yee haw!" Colton yelled, his hands gripping the reins of the horse he was as they trotted a little behind Lacey J and her horse at a leisurely pace as she guided them around the stables. He knew that Lacey J was probably rolling her eyes fondly at the cowboyism but he couldn't help himself! He was too excited to be there, actually on horseback. It made him feel like even more of a cowboy, which wasn't easy to do since he was constantly wearing a flannel and jeans and boots and his signature hat. How lucky he was to have a friend who knew how to ride horses and didn't mind teaching him. Learning didn't come the most natural to Colton, but Lacey J was a smart lady and that made him feel like she couldn't steer him wrong.

"How do I get this here pretty boy to go even faster?" he asked her, adjusting his hat to shade his eyes from the sun better. "Come on, little lady, I survived getting on the horse and getting him to listen to me! It's time to step on it!"

Lacey J quickly glanced down at her watch as soon as Colton started to yell. She’d been making predictions on how long it would take for him to yee his first haw ever since they’d agreed on riding together and Colton had actually outlasted her earliest prediction by a good couple of minutes, mostly because she’d guessed that he’d have started up as soon as his butt hit the saddle but after he’d managed to do that without screaming head off, she was surprised to hear him do it before they could even move on to the fun part of riding.

Even though Lacey J took her teaching seriously and wanted to make sure Colton knew what he was doing on his horse before they moved past a trot, she hated going slow more than anything in the world and was more than eager to speed things up. So when Colton asked how he could make his horse go even faster, Lacey J didn’t even bother to think about it before turning her horse around to show him what he was supposed to do to make the horse speed up.

“I know I’ve told you not to call me little lady.” She reminded him as she maneuvered her own horse to be right next to his so that Colton could see everything he was supposed to do. Once she was finished demonstrating what he was supposed to do, Lacey J looked over at Colton looking to see if he seemed like he understood what she had been talking about. “You got all that, right? Because if you fuck up so bad that he ends up throwing you and then trampling all over your head, I’m just going to laugh because you’ll deserve it.”

The fact that Lacey J could expertly maneuver her horse right next to his wasn't lost on Colton. He found it mighty impressive, the way she'd clearly tamed something so untamable. He was admiring it so much in fact that he almost missed her calling him out on not using her name or whatever and he shrugged, a big smile on his face. "My apologies, ma'am. You're lucky I'm not calling you 'cowgirl' with how natural you look on that filly."

With that, he focused himself on actually paying attention to what Lacey J was trying to teach him instead of just appreciating her on general, and he nodded, not because he was sure he'd understood it all, but because he wanted to get it right on the first try and impress her. "Got it! Don't worry yourself over my pretty head, ma'am. I'm a cowboy, after all." Colton winked at her as he said that, screamed out a YEEHAW, and lifted his hat before following her instructions to make his horse know it was time to run!

It was something that would've been infinitely cooler if he clearly didn't do it wrong. The horse sped up, all right, but erratically, as if being chased by a serpent or something equally insane! Colton held on to the reins as tight as he could, his thighs clenching onto to the horse in a desperate attempt not to fall as his YEE HAW had trailed off into a wordless yell. He was enjoying himself still though, almost, despite it all. He was still smiling as he spotted an upcoming river and he pulled the reins as tight as he could to avoid a watery fate.

Unfortunately, all that did was cement it as the horse finally had enough and bucked Colton off into the rushing body of water, his cowboy hat not serving as much of a helmet as his head hit the rocks.

Lacey J could barely finish rolling her eyes at Colton’s stupid cowboyisms and yeehawing before realizing something was terribly wrong. She tried to take off after him, but even as she started to catch up, she knew the best thing she could do for him would be to make sure he didn’t die when he inevitably did get thrown off. A thought that instantly made Lacey J feel a sharp pang of guilt as she recalled the last thing she’d said to him before he took off. Even though Colton never took her mean words seriously, it wouldn’t matter that much if he actually died.

But before Lacey J could dwell on that thought even longer, Colton was going head first into the river. Dismounting as quickly as possible, Lacey J made sure her phone was out of her pocket before jumping in the water after him.

It was a rough rescue considering that it was a quickly moving river and  Lacey J didn’t have any real rescuing experience outside of the lifeguard certification she’d gotten freshman year of high school as a class requirement, but she’d remembered enough about head injuries to hope the entire time she pulled Colton (and his stupid hat) out of the water that maybe having one would be the least of his worries. Lacey J wasn’t confident enough in her head splinting abilities to think that if his injuries extended down to his neck or  his spine, he wouldn’t be completely screwed.

Once she got him on land, Lacey J checked for breathing before going into what she hoped would pass for effective CPR because at some point between chest compressions and breathing for him, she’d started to panic cry and could barely see him through her blurred vision. “God Colton, just fucking wake up already.”

Colton had grown up with a dad who hit him on the head any time he said something stupid, which according to his dad was basically every time he talked, so the sensation of his head hitting the river was nothing too crazy or new. It did make him feel weaker though, and it was already hard enough keeping up with the rushing water; he'd never learned to swim, so it wasn't long before the river pushed him down and held him down until he couldn't really see or think anymore. Even that didn't feel so bad. It was almost like falling asleep, to sweet dreams about horses and cowgirls and candy and riding into a giant sunset, before it all just kind of went dark.

And then it was light again, all at once. There was still water weighing his eyelashes down but he saw a blurry Lacey J above him, rising up and away from his face, and for a split second, the memory of everything they'd done that day so far came rushing back to him and a smile washed over him. Then the water he hadn't realized he'd swallowed came back up and he turned as fast as he could to the side so he could cough it all out without getting any of it on her. It took a while but when he was done, he wiped his mouth with his soaked sleeve, not realizing that didn't make a huge difference, since he was covered with water everywhere.

It wasn't the first time Colton had lost consciousness because of some accident or another, not by a long shot, so he wasn't too freaked out by it all, but Lacey J didn't seem as cool and collected as she usually did, so he wondered if it was her first time dealing with something like that. He reached out almost without thinking to grab one of her hands, kind of as a way to thank her, kind of as a way to calm them both down, and smiled. "Well now, who knew you were some kinda superhero, Miss Lacey Jean?" he almost laugh, his voice hoarse still from coughing. "Something tells me I did that last part wrong, huh?"

Lacey J’s relief over Colton’s survival only lasted about as long as it took for him to be able to talk again and basically confirm that he wasn’t a quaddruplegic since he could at least grab onto her hand. Something about his ability to joke about it so quickly made Lacey J really angry and kind of embarrassed for getting so upset, which only made her even angrier.  Lacey J wrenched her hand out of Colton’s before picking up his soaking wet hat and starting to hit him in the chest with it repeatedly, her rage completely replacing her previous concern for his spine.

“SOMETHING TELLS YOU? You’re kidding me right? You literally almost drown in front of me because you just couldn’t listen to me and do things right and now you can make jokes!” Lacey J was mostly missing more aims at Colton than making any actual contact, so she was mostly just splashing him but she wasn’t actually that concerned with the violence so much as just making her point. “What is wrong with you!?”

Colton blinked and all but missed the split second it took Lacey J to start hitting him, but he didn't mind it too much. He knew that scared people acted out more than non-scared people did, like his dad who felt all small and weak once he was put on the Isle, and Lacey J had definitely been scared just now. He'd seen it in her eyes. And besides, it's not like it hurt; it was mostly having water sprinkled on his face and a few hits, and after almost drowning, it really felt like nothing.

It did start eventually getting annoying though, and he didn't quite feel like using his voice to tell her to stop, so one of Colton's hands shot up and gripped Lacey J's wrist. "Nothing's wrong with me!" he said maybe a little too loudly, looking right at her face. "Nothing's wrong with me because of you! You saved me and I was just trying to make you laugh because I didn't want you to be scared. After you made sure I was okay, me making sure you're okay is the least I could do, ma'am. My apologies!"

Lacey J was a little taken aback by Colton grabbing her wrist and then a LOT aback when he started talking. When Colton started joking as soon as he regained consciousness, Lacey J had taken it as another stupid boy thing. Like Colton was just being so dumb again that he couldn’t even take almost dying seriously. She hadn’t considered at all that he had been joking to make her feel better. After all who does that? Almost DIE and immediately try to make someone else less afraid? But it wasn’t that hard of a question to answer. Of course Colton would do that! As empty as his head always seemed to be, it was exceedingly obvious that his heart was more than big enough to make up for double the space.

Lacey J opened and closed her mouth a couple times to try and formulate a response to that, but after the third time of trying and failing to produce one word, Lacey J did the next best thing her brain could come up with and leaned down to press her lips against Colton’s. She didn’t know if she was doing it as a thank you, an apology for trying to beat him with his own hat, a weird amount of latent and rather inappropriate horniness or some bizarre combination of them all but she wasn’t trying to figure that out now.

Once she’d finished, Lacey J hopped up, wiped some of the excess river water off of her mouth and semi calmly walked back to where the horses were waiting without trying to help Colton up too. “I think we should just walk them back. I don’t really have time to save you from the river twice, Okay?”

Colton didn't usually yell at people, and Lacey J seemed like she got mighty mad at him even when he was being his regular pleasant self, so he kind of expected her to slap him or something, especially with how much her heart was probably still racing after that rescue. What he definitely didn't anticipate was a kiss, but just because he didn't anticipate it didn't mean it wasn't welcome. He was a healthy, hot-blooded Auradonian young man, and Lacey J was prettier than a cow's eyes, after all. He'd have been hungry for this kiss even if he hadn't almost just died. It took no time at all for him to drop his grip on her wrist and move his hand to the side of her face, guiding them both into a deeper kiss.

He let her pull away, his head almost as light again as when he'd originally been pulled from the river, as a wide smile cracked over his face as she started walking away. Colton pushed himself to his feet and wondered if there was something wrong with him for being semi-hard after nearly meeting the reaper, but then cut himself some slack as he followed her. "Sounds good to me. I'm thinking I've done enough riding for one day anyway," he chuckled, nearing the kind critter who'd bucked him off earlier and stroking her mane before gently grabbing the reins and leading her away. "Though if that's how you save my life every time, it's not that bad," he added, unable to help himself.

“That is not how I’ll save your life every time.” Lacey J rolled her eyes even though she was blushing hard enough to give away that she wasn’t as unaffected by the kiss as she was trying to pretend she was. She led the way back to the stables in silence for a little while before speaking again. “As nice as that last part was, I don’t want to have to save you again. We’re going to have to practice a lot more before I let you attempt so much as a trot.

"Mighty shame," Colton drawled, trying not to get too cocky and failing miserably. The truth was he was all hopped up on adrenaline and whatever other chemicals were released from kissing a girl that was finer than a hog's hair split four way, and her being all pink in the face got him blushing too. He walked after her quietly, which just let him hear how hard his heart was pumping blood all over his body. He wondered if Lacey J could hear it from where she was and found himself hoping she could. Maybe then she'd know how much he liked all this.

"Yes, ma'am," he complied, all but glowing from her calling that last part 'nice'. Nice. It was such a short word but it went such a long way with him, and Colton was sure he'd be smiling all day after this till he fell asleep and maybe even after then because of it. "I can handle a lot more practice, so long as it's with you. Don't know if you've noticed, but I really like you, Lacey Jean. Being round you's a treat and a half for me, no matter what we do... or don't do."

Lacey J did not expect Colton to say anything that came out of his mouth other than the first ‘Yes, Ma’am’ and it practically took all the strength in her body not to let her jaw drop in response. She had NOT noticed that Colton really liked her. She knew he liked her fine enough to let her teach him things and not be completely put off when she was being bitchy to him and she knew he liked her enough to kiss her back without complaint after she basically jumped him. But enough that hanging out with her was a ”treat and a half, no matter what they did”  and he had to specifically spell it out for her? That was enough to send a thrill through Lacey J that was strong enough that she was sure she actually shivered a little.

“I really like you too, Colton.” She answered back with an ease that genuinely surprised herself. She didn’t usually admit to liking anyone much outside of like her best friends, Neil deGrasse Tyson and any animal ever. “And um.. when I said I wasn’t going to save your life like that again, I didn’t mean I don’t want to kiss you again. I just meant we could do that without you having to die first, if you actually were interested in doing that again ever, I mean. If you didn’t, I’m more than fine with not doing things ever again too!”

If she couldn't hear his heart before then, Lacey J probably could now, because when she said she liked him too, that damn organ started pounding like a drum. Colton knew in his heart that she had to like him some to spend time around him or talk to him at all -- he wasn't the brightest or best at nothing, so anyone who chose to be around him had to appreciate something -- but he never thought she'd say so, especially not so openly. It made it impossible not to smile wider than a buffalo's backside. "Woooooooo doggie!" he whisper-shouted to himself in celebration, biting his grin so it didn't grow so big that it swallowed his face.

There was no way to avoid the pain of a too-big smile though once Lacey J continued. The red on his face deepened as the blood rushed back up to his head and he had to hold himself back from dropping his horse's reins and taking Lacey J in his arms right then and there. "Lacey Jean, I couldn't be more interested in doing that again. Now, I meant it when I said I'd be fine never doing that again, because hanging with you is good regardless. That said, I also mean it when I say I'd do that or even more anywhere, any time with you if you wanted. Matter of fact, I haven't quit thinking bout doing that or more since we stopped."

If Lacey J could’ve blushed even harder, she absolutely would’ve when Colton whisper shouted like she wasn’t close enough to have heard him clearly. It was such a shockingly nice moment that Lacey J just had to surreptitiously pinch herself just to make sure she hadn’t fallen off her horse and knocked herself out somehow while they just had been trotting around the stables and had been dreaming everything since then.

Even after the pinch it felt so unreal that all Lacey J could offer as a response to everything Colton said was a stupid grin and an even doofier sounding “Good to know!” before she said anything else that would probably make her feel like even more of a simp over a boy that had literally just gotten himself thrown into a river for riding improperly.

As they approached the stables Lacey J felt strangely electric as she anticipated what might happen after they were no longer holding on to their respective horses. Now that she knew that Colton hadn’t stopped thinking about kissing or more since the kiss had ended, Lacey J couldn’t stop thinking about it too. Especially the more part.

Colton felt a surge of confidence rush through his body, warm and prickly like lightning, at that smile of hers. Dang, that smile. Pretty girls were going to be the death of him but damn it if he wasn't going to die a happy man. "Good to know," he echoed, letting it sink in that she didn't seem to have any problems with where his mind was. Maybe that meant hers wasn't too far off from there too. Now, Colton didn't consider himself a smart man by any means, but one thing that he thought he was pretty good at was knowing if the mood was right, and right now it definitely wasn't wrong.

Once they were both in the stables, the fun thick tension between them got even stronger, and he was full of a real jittery energy as he walked his horse back to their stall. It was the kind of energy that came from possibilities and knowing anything could happen. He couldn't just rely on that energy though, not if he wanted to give Lacey J the experience she deserved.

"So..." Colton started, "when I said I'd do that again anywhere, I meant anywhere. A stable included. So unless you'd rather save it for somewhere else, let me know right now, or else as soon as I let go of this critter, I'm picking you up and I'm not putting you down for a good, long time."

Lacey J’s jaw really dropped that time. She was about three thousand percent sure that she’d never heard anything sexier in her entire life and considering she wasn’t above reading all kinds of erotica, that was really saying something.

“Fuck, that was so hot. Why was that so hot?” Lacey J spluttered, as she tried to quickly unsaddle her horse on weakened knees. “But yeah, here works. Here would be great!” As eager as she was to let Colton make good on his words as soon as possible, she could never let a poor horse get neglected in the meantime.   Besides, it didn’t actually take THAT long to do, it just felt long because she was much more interested in undoing Colton’s pants than the buckle of the horse’s reins.

Before Colton could tell her that it was so hot because she was so hot, Lacey J had already agreed and it made him speed up the process even more. He'd never unsaddled a horse before but it was almost like a horniness-induced super power that his fingers were able to work fast enough and make quick work of it. In what felt like both no time at all and too much time, he'd left his horse comfortable in her stall with the door closed safely behind him, which meant he was able to focus on more urgent matters. He'd genuinely loved riding the horse but he had a feeling there was about to be an even better kind of riding happening any second.

The horses were both taken care of, which meant he and Lacey J were ready to go. He looked at her and really took a moment to appreciate her as she stood in front of him, all wet and wild and beautiful, before tossing his hat to the side and rushing up to her, confidently recapturing her mouth in a kiss. It felt like it'd been forever since he'd been this close to someone, and his hands worked their way down the curves of her body, relishing in the feel of her and the sparks flying between their bodies as he pulled them closer together.

He pulled back for a breath and started kissing down Lacey J's neck instead as he reached between them to unbutton and remove his flannel he'd been wearing on top of his tank top. He wasn't sure exactly how far they were going to go but he knew he wanted to let her know that if she wanted clothes to come off, that'd be more than fine with him. "Reckon it's a good time to get out of these wet clothes," he sighed against her skin.

With all the time she felt like she’d been taking, Lacey J was surprised to find that she and Colton had finished with their horses in roughly the same amount of time, but she didn’t have much mental bandwidth left to figure out out how that happened because the way Colton looked at her before rushing up to kiss her quickly pushed any thought that WASN’T about how much she wanted him into the background.

Even though she had to stand on the absolute tips of her toes to meet his lips now that they were kissing standing straight up, Lacey J easily melted into the kiss and the feeling of his hands on her body. Colton was such a good kisser and she really could’ve spent the entire afternoon right where she was in his arms, but before she got too comfortable Colton stopped kissing her to make a suggestion that was much more exciting than what was already arguably the best kiss of her life.

“Oh yeah.” She agreed, nodding like it was the most casual thing in the world and her heart wasn’t absolutely leaping from her chest with anticipation at what might come next now that clothes were coming off. “Cold water drains body heat up to 25 times faster than cool air and paired with the fact that you almost drowned in a river with who knows what kind of germs in there, you’d be lucky if you don’t wind up dead anyway.” It wasn’t the sexiest thing in the world she could’ve said, but it was definitely on brand. But before she could completely kill the mood, Lacey J pulled her wet t-shirt over her head, revealing her simple green bralette before she started working on the buttons on her shorts. “But I can think of one way to get you all warmed up before you croak.”  

Colton's brain had a hard enough time keeping up with someone as smart as Lacey J on a regular day, but right now, with all the blood rushing down south, she could've been saying damn near anything and it would've sounded hot. He thought she said something about being lucky though, and he chuckled against her neck at what an understatement that was. They pulled apart long enough for her shirt to come off and his eyes widened at the sight of it. "Shoot, lucky's right" he whistled lowly, shaking his head as he peeled off his wet tank top, his muscles beneath glistening with leftover river water. "Look at you. I'm the luckiest boy in the world!"

His fingers fumbled with his belt buckle, hurrying to get it off so that he could pull his pants down as quickly as possible. He couldn't be more excited to be ready to kiss every part of Lacey J his mouth could reach, hold her tight, and show her exactly how wild she drove him. "If that's the way I go, I'm going to die a happier man," Colton promised, reaching down and lifting her up as easily as if she weighed nothing, holding her high and tight as he ravenously kissed her again, fully determined to stay attached to her in one way or another for the next however long he could.