Chapter Text
Once upon a time, what felt like ages ago but was really only a few years, Hob had been more of a daredevil. He’d trained Ellie up to the four star level—he still thought she could have gone further, in another life—and spent his time galloping down cross-country courses like death didn’t even exist, hurtling over massive solid fences. He didn’t regret it, no matter how it had ended. He’d always craved a thrill.
Then had been the crash. To be honest, Hob could probably have come back from it, returned to competition eventually, no matter how brutal it was. But it had shaken something loose in him. Something that, no matter that he’d fallen from horses plenty of times before, had never quite been aware of the real danger of it.
Hob had shown Dream the video of the fall once. Hob had become inured to how awful it was. He mostly found it embarrassing—why had he let Ellie gain that much speed going down to that ditch? He should have judged the distance better. He knew better. But he hadn’t been quick enough on his feet and this was the result.
He wasn’t really affected by the carnage anymore. But Dream actually covered his eyes when Ellie’s front legs caught on the fence.
And… yeah, watching it again through Dream’s eyes, Hob had had to admit that it looked fucking brutal. Ellie’s knees caught and the fence didn’t break and she went head over heels and it was all far too quick for Hob to do anything except get crushed by a one thousand pound animal.
Frankly it was a miracle he hadn’t died.
His body protector had spared him some worse injuries but he’d still broken his shoulder in three places, and fractured his femur. Worst riding injury he’d ever had by far. Carried off the course on a stretcher and everything.
Ellie, meanwhile, had barely been injured. A few scrapes and bruises but she was quickly back on her feet. It helped that she was, as Hob’s mum had once put it, a tough old bitch.
Hob had been the one who required rehab. Ages of it. And his shoulder still didn’t have quite the range of motion it once did.
He still rode Ellie nowadays, jumped sometimes even. But he’d never quite gotten back the enthusiasm for upper-level competition. Or the sheer insanity needed for it. Falling that hard had made him cautious. More for Ellie than for himself. He would have never forgiven himself if he’d gotten her killed.
In any case, Dream had watched the video, through tiny gaps between his fingers, and then turned and hugged Hob. Hob had frozen, startled, but then melted into the hug, as was so easy to do with Dream.
“I am glad you’re alright,” Dream said. “And I must give Ellie carrots, in thanks for not stepping on your head.”
Hob laughed. “She’s a good lass.”
“I can’t say I am upset that you no longer ride at that level,” Dream admitted. “I wouldn’t want to worry constantly over your safety.”
“Kind of got it out of my system after that,” Hob said. “Besides, there’s plenty of other ways to almost get yourself killed.”
“I’m sure you will find all of them,” Dream agreed, though it was with a fond smile.
Hob was pretty good at that, admittedly. But he was trying to be at least a little tamer. For Dream’s sake.
Perhaps he had been more reckless as a child, but as an adult, Dream had not done the kind of fast, dangerous riding that Hob favored in a very long time. He was too wary of injuring his horses to play around with crazy stunts. And perhaps wary of injuring himself, too, though that felt secondary.
He did like to ride out in the countryside, though. And Hob was always good company. He usually came out with Dream and brought Ellie. Normally Dream brought Jessamy, though on this day, he’d conceded the necessity of getting his younger horses more experience, and taken Corinthian instead. A temperamental creature, that one.
It was lovely weather for it, the sky clear and blue all the way to the horizon. Perhaps this was why Hob turned to him and challenged, “Race you back?”
“Excuse me?”
“Race me back.”
“That seems unsafe,” Dream said.
“Live a little,” Hob said. “I’ll even give you the advantage. You take Ellie.”
Dream raised an eyebrow at him. “Are you certain you wish to ride Corinthian? He will miss no opportunity to throw you.” He’d tried it already with Dream multiple times, but Dream was not easily thrown.
“You don’t think you can beat me back even on the faster horse?” Hob teased.
Dream narrowed his eyes. “Very well.”
They swapped horses, Hob giving Dream a leg up onto Ellie’s taller frame. Dream had only ridden her a few times, when Hob was away but wanted her exercised. She was a big horse, leggy but solid, even when she was no longer in peak eventing shape.
Corinthian looked peeved to have Hob on his back. He often looked peeved, though. Dream had a tendency to wind up with horses with ‘questionable personalities’, as Hob phrased it.
Corinthian would simply have to cope. It would be a character-building moment for him.
“Alright!” Hob said, grinning. “Three, two—”
He took off at two, for Corinthian’s definition of taking off—which was more like an irritable bouncy canter. Dream gaped at his retreating back in offense.
But Ellie shifted under him, jigging the bit in her mouth, dancing sideways. “We’ll show him,” Dream told her. “Won’t we?”
Ellie snorted and tossed her head.
“Alright,” Dream said, and urged her onward with his heels. “Go!”
Conceptually, Dream had known Ellie was fast. But he had not understood. Not until she took off under him, hooves digging into the ground, doubling speed with each stride until she was galloping flat out and gaining quick ground on Hob, Dream just barely along for the ride.
Then he remembered that this had once been a racehorse.
Within seconds he’d caught Hob, and then passed him. Ellie ate up ground like the earth was moving backwards under her. And still Dream felt he could ask for more. He wasn’t sure he wanted to. But it was there.
Dream favored horses who were precise and elegant. Hob, it seemed, favored the equine equivalent of a bullet train.
Hob laughed behind him as Dream drew distance between them. Dream kept holding on. Now that he’d found the rhythm, it was honestly thrilling. His heart was pounding. He almost wished he wasn’t wearing a helmet so he could feel the wind whipping through his hair.
But— down at the end of the track, there was a gate crossing the path. Damn. They’d forgotten the gates separating the adjacent fields; they would have to stop to get through.
“Don’t stop!” Hob yelled from behind him. “She’ll jump it!”
“Excuse me?”
The gate must have been nearly as tall as Ellie, and she was not a modestly sized horse. Dream was uncertain he wished to jump it. But it seemed that was no longer his choice—Ellie had spotted the fence and locked on, ears pinned forward. She barreled down towards it as Dream held on for dear life.
At this point in his career, Dream was very hard to unstick from a horse. But as Ellie took off, he was nearly launched clear from the tack. Hob cackled behind him, but Dream was too busy with the landing, breathless and whiplashed, to yell anything back.
Meanwhile Ellie seemed to barely notice he was there. She kept on down the path, leaving Hob and Corinthian far behind. Dream decided not to try to stop it, he just let her run.
When they reached the farm, he finally brought her back to a walk, letting her cool out in a large circle while he waited for Hob to catch up. It was some minutes before Corinthian came cantering up the drive, clearly operating at a leisurely pace with no desire to give Hob any more effort than necessary. Hob was grinning though, when he saw Dream.
“Going to switch to eventing?”
“No,” Dream said, and Hob laughed.
“Did Corinthian behave?” Dream asked.
“Oh, no, he’s been an absolute cunt,” Hob said cheerfully. “Tried to chuck me off at least eight times. Didn’t manage it, though.”
Dream couldn’t help but smile. “That’s his way.”
“You can definitely have him back.”
Dream sighed, long-sufferingly. “Very well, if I must.”
He could swear Corinthian glared at him. Dream did love that horse, for all his quirks.
When they’d fully cooled the horses out, and put them away, they curled up by the fire in their house, drinking tea. Dream had always known his life would involve horses, but this he had never predicted. This companionship, this bliss. He could never have predicted Hob.
“You know, I think I love riding more when I am with you,” he said, leaning against Hob’s side. “I can’t remember the last time I galloped like that.”
“Borrow Ellie whenever you want,” Hob said, grinning. “She’s a firecracker but she’ll never throw you.”
“Mmm, like someone else I know.”
“Oh, I can throw you, though,” Hob said, and Dream laughed as he was picked up, as Hob carried him off and outright tossed him onto their bed.
“Be careful of your shoulder,” Dream warned, though he was still laughing too hard for the words to be clear.
“Worth it,” Hob said, crawling up the bed after him. He took Dream by the waist, turned them so Dream was on top. Bit his lip, words clearly balancing on his tongue.
Dream sighed. “You are allowed one joke about riding, only one—”
Hob pulled him down into a kiss instead. Dream laughed against his mouth, though Hob hadn’t made a joke at all. Laughing during sex. Another thing that was new about Hob. He would never get tired of it.
He threw himself into the joy of it wholeheartedly, knowing that Hob would catch him.
