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Title: Test. Fandom: Teen Titans. Pairing(s): Pedro West/Johnny Daniels, hints of Johnny/Miggy and Addy/Pedro. Word Count: 1,636. Warnings: Extreme idiocy. Disclaimer: Pedro West belongs to me. Johnny Daniels is property of Fan. Summary: Pedro and Johnny try a little test whilst out camping on the trail of a group of wild mustangs.
The daily maintenance of a vast, thriving ranch was a b***h to overlook, and Pedro Ian West debated, for the third time that night, untying Sota from the tree stump he and Johnny had tied their horses to for the night and riding back to check that everything was alright. It wasn’t like he didn’t trust his older brother – he did, far more than he trusted his twin, for instance, but it was just that a rancher’s job was difficult, gruelling work and Miggy just wasn’t up to all that heavy lifting and hay hauling. He had the muscles of a two-year-old. The next best thing would have been to leave Spirit in charge, but she was slightly promiscuous and he feared the rebound of having her down there… alone… with his ranchers. Addy was there too, he reminded himself, and dragged onto the cigar he’d lit a few moments earlier, right after a sparse dinner of bread, butter and something rumoured to be corned beef. Addy knew what to do, and she was, more or less, stronger than Miggy. A hand slapped at his shoulder, and had he been a weak man, the sheer force of the friendly gesture would have sent him tumbling head-first over the fence. As it was, he merely jolted out of his mother-hen thoughts and shot his companion a look from beneath the wide bill of his cowboy hat. “Boss, those things’re gonna kill you.” Johnny commented easily, and nipped the cigar out of Pedro’s lax fingers, tossing it into the campfire. “And y’know Addy doesn’t like it when you smoke.” Pedro didn’t even bother to voice a protest at the display, and merely shrugged his wide shoulders. “Addy ain’t here right now, though, is she?” “She smells the smoke on your breath, boss, and she’ll know.” Johnny warned, and crouched down, poking at the dwindling fire with an available twig. Pedro was his best friend, if such things actually existed, and he cared for the younger man like a brother. The fact that he was dating Miggy West, Pedro’s older brother, had impacted hard on their friendship, but he thought it was well on its way to getting back to how it used to be. At least, Pedro no longer tried to shoot him with his deer rifle. Far as he knew, the cowboy didn’t even take it out of the box anymore. Pedro anchored his foot on the bottom rung of the fence, and looked out at the beauty, the majesty, that was Chanhassen, Tennessee. The wild patchwork of sun-dried rock and grass, of tree and animal and flower, spread out in front of him in a frozen sea of textures. Somewhere in that sea, a coyote crooned to the fat moon flowing in the sky and, from behind him, he heard one of the horses whinny in response. This was the nature, the land, he’d grown to love, to cherish, to seek. There was no trace of the city in the man’s blood, and despite his family having lived in the suburbs, he now scorned those foolish city-slickers for never seeing the absolute wonder that was wild and uninhibited nature. He turned his head now, almost absently, towards the sound of Johnny’s endless rummaging and watched his partner through feline-green eyes, a solemn expression dominating a face of weathered and craggy good looks. He was sure, quite sure, that he had no interest whatsoever in the lean, rangy male. What he had was curiosity, a deep-seated need to find out why so many people assumed they were… well… lovers would be the correct term, he supposed. Surely he didn’t have feelings for him, and was somehow transmitting those feelings to the people around him… right? Nah. That didn’t even make sense. … Still… “Boss? You okay?” Johnny straightened up, brushing ash off his jeans with a careless hand. It wasn’t often that Pedro, a self-proclaimed loner, was so quiet. He assumed it was a sort of West thing – the ability to talk, that is. Miggy talked plenty, especially in the early mornings. When he was all rumpled from sleep, with hay in his hair from an afternoon romp and looking so delicate and fragile, a teardrop would be able to split that perfect harmony in half. Because thinking about Miggy would end up very much like the hospital incident, Johnny shifted his attention to the rocky drop of the valley below, watching the moonbeam coat those rough rocks with alabaster. Pedro inclined his head in the barest of nods, and mimicked Johnny’s stance; hands in pockets, shoulders loose and relaxed, gaze fixed on an unknown point in the distance. “Y’know how people talk, right?” He ventured after a lengthy pause. “About us?” “I’m familiar with it, yes.” Johnny grinned, good naturedly. “Y’got the hots for me or summert, boss?” “I don’t think so.” Pedro answered truthfully, and had the wry joy of watching Johnny’s face shift from amused to horrified. “Still…” “C’mon, boss. I was jokin’. You can’t seriously be sayin’… …” Johnny shook his head, and still, he thought, why would Pedro be pondering over something like this? Everyone knew he was deeply, truly in love with Addy. They could all but see it shining out of his eyes. “I’m not!... Not really.” An awkward silence accompanied Pedro’s words. It was a while before he spoke again. “I just, y’know… was wonderin’ if I gave off a sort of… telepathic message or something. I’m gay and in love with my partner... or something like that.” “Boss, you make things a lot more difficult than they sound.” Because he’d thought, fleetingly, of this as well, Johnny tilted his head back to look at him, and frowned. Pedro’s lips twisted into a mirthless smile. “It’s a gift.” He mused absently, and pushed himself away from the fence to stand in front of Johnny, his hands shoved into the pocket of his jeans. “… I got an idea.” “… Uh-oh.” “What?” Pedro asked hotly, and glared at Johnny, his mouth set into a mutinous line. “Anytime y’say you got an idea, it ends up being bad. You need schooling in good ideas.” “… Since when are you so opposed to bad ideas, Mr. Rodeo?” “Since it has somethin’ to do with me.” “How d’you know it has anythin’ to do with you? The idea could have been for me to dance the fertility dance bare-assed naked.” At Johnny’s arced brow, Pedro hunched his shoulders and flushed. “Somethin’ I read in one of Addy’s books.” “… Of course you did. If you plan on dancin’ naked, tell me so I can go into the tent.” “The idea was for us… … I don’t know, what do men couples do?” Perplexed, Pedro dragged his hands through his hair. Johnny couldn’t resist teasing him, even if this whole conversation was surreal. “You’re gonna need to lose the jeans for that, boss.” “… Something that doesn’t involve losing any clothes.” Pedro corrected, and rested a hip against the sagging fence. Johnny was silent for a moment, his hands absently twisting the edges of his frayed shirt. “… Like, a kiss sort of thing?” “… … Uh…” It would be better than anything skin to skin, Pedro decided, and jerked his shoulders. “Sure.” “… You’re gonna have to get closer, boss.” Johnny rubbed a hand over his jaw in careful thought, resolutely refusing to move from his position. He had control, at least, on this part of the turf. If things got weird, he could always grab that low branch and whack him one over the head with it. Pedro moved stiffly, like a doll that needed oiling, and stood close enough so that the tip of his nose brushed Johnny’s. His eyes, that pale green, gleamed like a cat’s in the dark. Awkwardly, Johnny tilted his head to the side, and loosely set his hands on Pedro’s hips. Equally awkwardly, Pedro slung his arms around Johnny’s neck, fighting for the control not to break the poor man’s neck in half by accident. He had never, up to this current date, been so close to another man. “Um… Maybe…” Johnny wondered where the hell his apt skills at kissing had retreated to. He had no problem with Miggy or with any of the girls. This was so mortifying, though. Any moment now, he expected his head would pop off his shoulders. “I don’t… think…” Pedro jostled the bill of Johnny’s hat up, the rim of his own whacking the older cowboy firmly in the forehead. “Ow.” “Well, you want to do the ********’ work?” “It’s kissin’. The work is pretty minimal.” “Oh, for-“ And then, Johnny’s mouth was on his, cutting off his words with a muffled noise he wasn’t sure if it was a retch or a curse. Well… this was… sufficiently odd. And ill. The time ticked by, one minute blending slowly into the other until he had to pull back or risk smashing his fist into Johnny’s face. For a moment, the two cowboys eyed one another in distrust and slight suspicion. Then, Pedro’s lips twitched into a smile. The laugh escaped him before he could stop it. Johnny let go of Pedro, and watched with a slight satisfaction as the man was sent hurtling to the ground. And still, he laughed. And Johnny, gradually, started to see the fun side of the insane experiment. When the laughs had withered, Pedro pushed himself up on an elbow, and grinned at Johnny, giving his hair a friendly tug. “You won’t mind if I don’t do that again… ever.” “I’d deck you if you did.” Johnny assured him, a grin curving his mouth. “I’d rather get kissed by the horse.” “******** you, Daniels.” “Just as long as you ain’t doin’ the ********’, boss.”
[ ~ Hope ~ ] · Sun Dec 02, 2007 @ 07:11pm · 0 Comments |
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