Hopelessly Devoted ~ Garroth x F!Reader

Ch 83: Impeccable Timing

Chapter Eighty-Three: Impeccable Timing
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Your cheeks flushed. "Your timing is impeccable . . ." you mumbled, but apparently loudly enough for Garroth to hear, who was now sauntering over.

"Don't worry, it's cute." He smiled sincerely.

            If he thought that was helping your case, he'd be wrong. All it did was turn your insides weightless and force your cheeks to contain all emotion in your body.

          "I was talking to my horse," you tried to clarify, like that would make the situation any better.

         "Yeah, I figured that," he said, guiding Blanco over to your half of the pasture. Once he was finally back by you he held a bucket of oats for his horse to munch on. "Jeez, is there a reason you feed your horse so far away from the others?" he asked lightheartedly.

If there was any bit of tension Garroth felt towards you for shutting him out for a week, he didn't show it.

            "(Horse Name's) a bit of a social outcast. I thought horses were all gregarious, but not this one," you said awkwardly, trying your hardest to fill any possible silence.

       "(Horse name) sure is something. I've never seen anything like (him/her)." At the mention of its name, your horse's ears flickered.

         "And I've got Aaron to thank for getting me stuck with (him/her)," you said, cranking the cold handle of the pump one last time before stopping to check the water levels of the trough.

          (Horse name) neighed in protest, offended at the word stuck.

        Garroth had his back turned, brushing Blanco's white body. "Jokes on him, because you and (horse name) seem to be getting along just fine. You're doing a great job."

         "You know, I swear (horse name) can understand everything we're saying," you spoke your mind, reaching into a saddle bag that had been strewn across a bench and grabbed a brush.

Garroth gave Blanco a pat on the back. "Horses are smarter than you think."

         While you were walking back to start grooming your horse, a scrawny white blob followed by a worm-like pink tail scurried across the rotted wooden planks. Your horse neighed sharply, stomping (his/her) hooves sporadically, swinging (his/her) head directly into you. You were sent tumbling into Garroth's well-built brick wall of a back.

         He had already began turning around in the same split second he had heard your horse go berserk. "Woah, are you okay?"

        You began stepping away from such close proximity to your crush. "Uh, yeah. I'm so sorry, let me just-" Blanco nuzzled his head into your back, urging you closer to Garroth. You jolted, then tried to sidelong around so that you wouldn't hurt Blanco.

       "I'm so sorry, (Horse Name) saw a mouse . . ." you trailed off, too embarrassed to explain further. "This is the first time something like this has ever happened. (Horse Name) isn't dangerous."

            Garroth walked over to the now calm (Horse Name) and rubbed (his/her) coat soothingly. "Hey, (Girl/Boy), it's okay." He turned to you with a cheeky smile. "To think, such a proud animal could get so spooked by just a tiny creature."

          You smiled shyly back. It was like this for the remainder of the horse care session; you never fully recovered from that incident. You could only blush and look away while imagining what it would be like to get a little closer to Garroth.

           You didn't say a word; not because you didn't want to, but more like you couldn't. Your tongue had been hexed to tie itself in a knot if you so much as dared to open your mouth. For someone who rather enjoyed silence, you sure weren't thriving in this one.

          At one point, you bumped hands with him, which turned the both of you into a stuttering mess. Afterwards, Garroth insisted on walking you home—said it would make up for acting strange just then. You didn't protest.

         He cleared his throat, "You know, I'm technically supposed to be patrolling this area right now. I'm walking the perimeter with you, so that counts, right?"

          While strolling alongside him, you purposely nudged him with your shoulder. "Garroth? Bending the rules?"

        He tucked his hands into his hoodie pockets. "Yeah, I'm actually quite the rebel."

You couldn't help laughing; it felt natural. "Sure you are."

A silence fell over the two of you. He smiled. "I'm glad we're talking again."

       Ditto for you—hanging around Garroth brought a light to your life that couldn't have shone without his company.

           Before you could say anything, you noticed a crowd of people bunched around some fixed point, but you couldn't see what at first. The longer you stood peering around on your tippy toes, the closer you got to the heart of the flock of people.

         At the center was a messenger on horseback, passing out letters. He was totally being swamped. Poor newsboy was just doing his job. So was his horse, who seemed to be trained to put up with this situation fairly well. "Poor baby," you said to yourself.

         Garroth didn't ask. He had already learned to accept statements like that as normal.

           On the opposite side of the messenger, swimming through the crowd, was Aaron. He held a letter at his side. "There's Aaron," you narrated out loud.

        Soon, Aaron emerged, lifting up an envelope towards you that was addressed to the Lichens. "It's from Mom and Dad."