Handful of Rain / Open

[reiji]

He was a late sleeper... Even when he had an early-morning appointment, he hardly ever managed to make it on time. In fact, his usual waking hours were between nine-thirty and ten-thirty AM, never earlier unless he absolutely had to. Now, at a significantly late eleven-fifty-three AM, Reiji was slowly dragging himself out of bed.

He yawned, feeling the pressure release as his jaw cracked and rubbed a hand over his face as he stumbled through the bedroom to the bath. Fifteen minutes later he was back in his room, a bit more awake, but not totally, and searching through his closet with jerky movements. With the same jerky movements, he pulled on a pair of dark blue Levi’s and a black muscle-shirt, over which he opted to wear a dark green t-shirt and dark jean-jacket.

After grabbing a pair of simple black-framed sunglasses from the dresser, Reiji, still half out of it, stumbled his way into the kitchen and set about making coffee and toast, his usual breakfast. As he worked, he slowly became aware of a drizzling sound against the window and glanced out, a frown crossing his face as he caught sight of the raindrops streaking the glass. Damn...

No less than six cups of black coffee and three pieces of heavily buttered toast later, Reiji felt much more awake and alert. The rain had slacked down to a drizzle, so it was with a small smile that the twenty-two year old pulled his boots on, grabbed his truck keyes, and hightailed it out the door.

It was only a short drive to the stable, and Reiji made it in even shorter time as he tended to drive a bit over the speed limit most of the time. When he finally pulled in and cut the engine, it was, sadly enough, still raining... though not much, just enough to hamper anyone’s ideas of riding for a little while. In short, it sucked.

Rej exited the truck and slipped his hands inside his jacket pockets as he jogged to the barn. A short whistle blasted from between his lips as he entered the dryness, and he just stood still for a moment, breathing in the smell of horse before his mind focused back on his task and he forced his legs to move forwards.

Outlaw, Delilah! He called out to his horses as he walked, occasionally pausing to stroke an outstretched nose as the other boarders horses poked their heads over the half-doors, hunting attention. Rej came across his Kiger mares stall first. He entered the enclosure and gently rested a hand on the shy mares’ neck, grinning as she turned her head to lip at his hair.

Rej batted her away and walked around her, looking her over critically. She wasn’t gaining too much weight from her pregnancy yet, but she did appear to be gaining a little bit of weight. Soon she’d have a ‘baby bulge’. Reiji wasn’t too happy at the prospect of her having a foal at three, but he wasn’t about to interfere... he was rightly excited about the idea of an Outlaw foal, as he’d been planning on breeding the filly to his stallion... just not so soon. Delilah had had other plans about that, though, and had changed them to suit herself. Atta girl. Take care of yourself now. With those words, Reiji slipped out of the stall and latched it behind him before continuing on down the aisle a few stalls until he found his stallion’s stall.

Hey boy. He let himself into the stall and rested a hand on the buckskin Kiger’s forehead. The Mustang was surprisingly tall, standing at exactly 16 hands, and had no white markings at all. He was a beautiful specimen of the mustang breed, and Reiji was more than proud of him.

Up! The command was soft, yet strong, and Outlaw complied with his owners wishes and lifted the leg, allowing Reiji to examine the hoof and shoe. It looked fine. Reiji moved around the stallion, picking up each leg and examining the shoes. All looked fine until he reached the opposite foreleg. Reiji could see that there was a problem even before he asked for the leg, and when it was given, he immediately zeroed in on the problem. It looked as though the buckskin had caught the back on the shoe with his hind foot and ripped it loose. Luckily it was just loose and warped, nothing was ripped out or cut. Reiji sighed. Love causing me problems, don’t you? Sit tight, let me go get my stuff.

It took two trips before Reiji had all of the stuff to reset a shoe set up... it would have just taken one trip, but the anvil and its stand was pretty heavy, so he’d had to make the extra trip for just that. The young man walked towards the tack room slowly, not watching where he was going as he was buckling his shoeing apron around his waist and legs. Inside the tack room, he snatched Outlaw’s leadrope and, after thinking about it, picked up Delilah’s as well... may as well check her hooves after he finished resetting the stallions’ shoe...

Tagged: Open
Muse: Quite active...
Weather: Currently drizzling cold rain
Time of Day: Around one-thirty in the afternoon

[Hayley Mackenzie Wyatt]

- -H.ayley M.ackenzie W.yatt

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The alarm woke her up with its screaming persistence early in the morning and with a groan she reached out and smacked a hand on the little digital thing, knocking it off the bedside table, but not succeeding in turning it off. Giving a very verbal groan she rolled over onto her tummy and reached blindly onto the floor until her fingers connected with the small, annoying device. Cursing the creator of all alarms she pulled it up and finally got her fingers onto the snooze button and switched it off, putting it back onto the bedside table, shuffling it sideways and snuggling her head back into her pillow with a huff. A grunt and a dog-ish yawn made her turn her head toward the sound and smiled with amusement at the collie stretched out on the bed beside her. ”What happened, to sleeping in your own bed?” she said with a laugh, shoving the dog with her knee, one eyes popped open lazily and then shut with another huff as he rolled over and stretched out. Grinning she dragged herself out of bed and moved with a yawn to her drawers and pulling out her jogging clothes. Pulling herself into her clothes she wandered to the curtains and pulled them open, frowning in surprise and regret at the rain pouring against the window, it was days like this she hated her exercise routine. Reaching for a hair-tie she pulled her dark hair up and into a bun, turned to her cupboard and dragged out a rain coat from its depths. Pulling it on, she grabbed Lou’s leash and headed for the door, whistling for him as she went; her dog shot off her bed and after his owner, his tail wagging, he didn’t care if it was raining, he just loved going for a run. Clipping the leash on she headed out into the rain, happy to be out of the apartment but annoyed by the on and off pouring rain.

Coming home puffed but feeling satisfied that she’d dragged her lazy ass out of the house and off for a run, rain non-with standing. Lou was soaked through too, his tongue hanging out and doggy grin on his face. Shaking her head as Lou shook himself off too, causing Hayley to laugh merrily and skip up the stairs with him to their apartment. Inside she dried her dog off with a towel and fed him, finding her way to the shower and then finding herself some clothes, a pair of track pants and a loose t-shirt. Her hair wrapped in a towel she found her cereal and crashed down in front of the TV, switching on the DVD in the player and settling down to a cozy morning on her day off with a couple of episodes of “Bones”. Crunching her way through her cereal then a box of cookies she wasted the rest of her morning in contented solitude.

It was coming to be later in the day and Hayley was reluctant to leave her cozy nest and head out, but knew she wanted to go to the barn today as it was her day off, rain could be ignored and Addy needed the work; not to mention Jack as well. Switching off the TV, she moved back to her room and found some dark grey jeans and a blue t-shirt that was loose but not baggy. Finding a black jumper as a bit of warmth she found her keys, wallet and cell and headed again for the door, picking up Lou’s leash, she clipped him up and headed back out the door down the stairs and into her truck parked in the car park, opened the door and turned to Lou ”Up,” she said tilting her head through the open back door. Lou leapt up nimbly into the truck and chucked the lead in after him, shutting the door and rounding the car to the driver’s side she jumped in, inserted the key and started the car with a roar, pulling out and starting the 25 minute journey from her apartment to the barn.

Finally pulling into the stables car park, she negotiated her way through the residents parks to the boarders parking spots and pulled into one as close to the barn as she could get and turned to her dog, lying on the backseat, ”No freaking out the horses, ok?” she said, rubbing his ears and climbing out of the car, letting him out too and heading toward the door, ”Stay close,” she said to Lou, pulling open the barn door and slipping inside. Heading down the aisle toward her horses stall she heard someone fumbling around with purpose in the tack room. Curiousity crept up her and Lou, hearing the noise, headed off in that direction with a small ruff and tail wagging, ”Lou!” she called in surprise as she noticed his tail disappearing through the door. Shooting in after him, forgetting that a moment ago she’d heard someone in there and ran smack into the person buckling on his farrier apron, giving a startled squeak she keeled over backwards hitting the concrete floor with a puff of air then burst out laughing as her dog lunged at her face and started licking her madly. ”I’m so sorry! I didn’t look where I was going,” Hayley choked out finally, stilling her laughter and looking up at the man before her, a silly grin on her face. Trying to figure out why the hell she’d burst out laughing, ”Lou get off me bud, sit!” she added, pushing the Border Collie off her and he planted his bum beside her, his tail still wagging madly. ”Sorry,” she said again, looking up at the guy again.

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Wordcount: ^{9 6 0}
Condition: ^{f i n i s h e d}