The Big Brilliant Book Of Emon One-Shots

Horse Ride

-A/N At The End-

"Surprise!"
Simon lifted his hands off Ethan's eyes, who opened them quickly and surely.
The barn smell filled his nose, and he blinked slowly. It was a warm day, and Ethan had woken to Simon nudging his side. He'd told him he had a surprise for him, and so Simon had drove him somewhere an hour away and still didn't say what they were doing.
He heard a noise, and began to blink. Wait. He knew that.
Again. The nose was a 'neigh' and before Ethan could squeal, an animal with a black coat and a long black mane butted his head in Ethan.
"Well?"
Ethan ran a hand along the horse's nuzzle, and felt a tear slip out of his eye.
"I-I..."
Ethan turned to look at Simon, and the horse butted his nose into Ethan's back to push him into Simon's inviting arms.
"Simon what are we doing here?!"
"You know as you said you always wanted to ride a horse?" Ethan nodded. "Well I talked to Tom, and he invited us over to ride for free."
Ethan began to cry, and squeezed his arms around Simon.
"Thank you so much! You're amazing!"
Simon kissed Ethan's forehead, and squeezed Ethan back.
"It's ok. I thought I needed to treat you, since it's our three year anniversary soon."
Ethan jumped up on his toes to plant a small, yet meaningful kiss on Simon's lips.
"You're the best!"
"Thank you Sweetheart."
"Can you two lovebird stop being sappy and look at me?"
Ethan looked at Simon, before turning to look at Tom.
"Hey! Long time no see, Tom!"
Tom laughed, and walked over to bro hug the pair.
"How has life been?" Tom asked, eyeing down the pair.
"Good, but I really need to ride a horse."
"Don't worry Ethan, Simon got everything covered with me a week ago."
Ethan looked at Simon and smiled. He hadn't actually seen Tom for months know, the last time he'd seen him was at the Sidemen Only party, in which even the honouree Sidemen were not allowed to. That was the reason why they hadn't record the party, in order to keep Tom, the eighth Sideman, a secret.
"Wow! That's incredible!"
"Yeah," Tom laughed, stroking the black horse's head as it butted into him. "Your boyfriend's amazing."
"I know." Ethan giggled, looking at Simon and fluttering his eyes.
Tom disappeared down the end of the barn, moving all the horses up to the front so Ethan could pick one. Tom had promise complete safety, and had added the weights of the pair, and had allowed Ethan to ride with Simon, so long as Simon held on with a tight grip.
"Which one would you like?"
Tom pointed a finger at the white horse, with a long main, a black nuzzle and he looked strong and overpowering. He looked at Simon, who he could see was already aching to get over to the powerful horse, because Simon had been here a couple of times and this horse was obviously his favourite.
"Ivory."
Tom pointed at the horse in the middle, who had a cream coat and black mane and tail. She was really cute, and her ears twitched at Tom. Here they could see that this horse liked Tom the most, and Tom probably liked her the most too.
"She's called Hazel."
Finally, the black horse. His emerald eyes stared at Ethan, and glittered, and Ethan already felt his heart melt.
"And he's Ebony."
Simon walked forwards, and Ivory looked up, watching as Simon patted his neck.
"Hello Ivory. I haven't seen you in a while."
"He missed you." Tom smiled, stroking Ivory's thick mane. "He'll want you to take him."
"I would, but it's Ethan surprise, and so he gets to choose."
Ethan blushed as they both looked at him, and pointed a finger at Ebony.
"I like him."
Ebony trotted forwards, his horse shoes clipping on the floor, and he neighed softly, nudging Ethan's arm.
"He likes you too, Ethan!" Tom laughed, making his way over to Hazel.
Ethan grabbed Simon's hand and dragged him over to Ebony, who knocked his head into Simon's arm.
"Look at him! Look how cute he is!"
Simon giggled, and wrapped an arm around Ethan's shoulder.
"Bit like you then."
Ethan smiled.

"Wooohohoooo!"
Ethan began to laugh, loosening the grip on Ebony's rains. He felt Simon's hands rubbing against his stomach, and the wind whistling through his hair. After some time of being taught how to ride the two had been allowed to gallop around the meadows as long as they didn't go to far.
"Don't you just love this?!"
"It's brilliant!" Simon screamed, moving as Ethan's hair licked at his face. "Come on Ebony, you incredibly beast!"
Ethan stroked a hand down Ebony's mane. He wasn't going to snap the reins, because Ethan liked Ebony and wasn't intending on hurting him.
"Ebo! Left!"
Ethan pulled on the reins, steering Ebony left, and giggling with excitement.
"Oh my God this is so exciting!"
"Told you I'd do you something exciting, didn't I? Told you!"
"Yeah, thanks a lot!"
"No problem."
Simon patted Ethan's stomach, and watched as his boyfriend steered the horse off and deeper into the field.

-Tom Taylor is a character from one of my other books 'Smoke And Cigars' and I really grew to like him when writing it. He'll be appearing more as the secret eighth Sideman. He was born on the 4th of May (ha Star Wars) 1993 in Manchester, has blonde hair and blue eyes, is Simon's best friend and is the biggest Rolling Stones fan in the world. His favourite colour is green and he supports Leicester City FC. He's the one with the blonde hair in the picture (sorry if my drawings are a little bad!)-