Wednesday Morning - Alison & Sam

[x-dazzler.livejournal.com]

Alison & Sam go out for that ride and talk about Paige. They dance around another subject, and still manage leave a whole lot left unsaid.

You ready for a nice long ride, Al?

Saddling up Gorgeous wasn't much of an issue. She'd kept the tack that had come along with the horse on the trip back from Asgard - if it wasn't broke, don't fix it... even if it was a bit outlandish and a flimsy hackamore wasn't the usual gear one saw on a horse, it was still only for the school grounds. At worse, she'd get accused of being a RenFaire fan or something. She led him out and wandered outside, leaving the reins looped around his neck and secured to the saddle, letting him have a go at the grass while waiting for Sam.

Sam strolled up, wearing a well-worn flannel and jeans, and a comfortably broken in set of hiking boots. He smiled at seeing Alison and Gorgeous. "Hey, Al. Hey, Gorgeous," he greeted the pair.

"Hey yourself," she replied with a cheerful smile, despite the reminder of what the greeting used to be, the previous year. Of course, the horse hadn't been named Gorgeous back then, so it only left one person to call that way. Gyah. Quit that. With that, she wandered over to Gorgeous to check on the girth and other leather straps, while Sam saddled up his own horse.

Sam was prepared and out quickly, and he smiled again. "You ready for a nice long ride, Al?"

Oh, thank heavens she'd been looking at Gorgeous' gear when he said that. Trust Sam to say things like that and not have a clue. "Yeah," she answered a bit airily and without any laughter in the least, thankfully. She gestured towards one of the trails - not the 'usual' one. She wasn't ready for that level of reminders. Or maybe she was just a coward.

Secretly, Sam was a little thankful that they weren't taking the 'usual' trail himself. He was still struggling with his resurgent feelings for Alison, and too many reminders might cause an awkward declaration to slip out. Gracefully mounting, he gestured gallantly. "After you, fair lady."

She'd done the usual dance-around-can't-catch-the-bad-horse-nyah routine with Gorgeous and was on by the time Sam was, unaware of the evil glares the animal was giving her riding companion. After a small crow-hop of frustration at seeing a nice target to chew on being taken out of sight, Gorgeous moved forward towards the trail. There were no dragons on these trails - he sort of liked them for that.

Once she reached the edge of the wood Alison pulled her horse back a bit, waiting for Sam to catch up. "So... how did things go?" His email hadn't said much, but considering he hadn't been very hopeful when he'd set off to talk to his sister, Alison felt justified in worrying about them both.

Sam brought his horse alongside Gorgeous, though keeping just outside of easy biting distance. As the horses proceeded forward at a walk, Sam shrugged slightly. "Not that well. She didn't seem all that interested in forgiving me, as far as Ah could tell."

Alison winced. And she'd been the one to encourage him to just go and dive into that discussion too. "I... I'm sorry." She fiddled with the reins, drawing a muffled snort of annoyance from the horse. "D'you want to talk about it more or...?" She trailed off, leaving him the choice.

Gorgeous sidled closer, eyeing the leg on the other horse's side with great consideration. He could bite that. It's make nice chomping on material. Yep. A moment passed and the horse reconsidered - this was the one who was always in the stables. He wasn't sure he wanted to chew on this one today. Maybe he'd chew on him tomorrow.

Sam had kept an eye on Gorgeous as he sidled closer. But when the horse apparently decided against taking a chunk out of Sam's leg, he relaxed a bit. "Ah dunno, Al. Ah...was pretty sure she'd react like she did. Ah said some wrong, untrue, hurtful things about people she loves. That's not somethin' a body can just forgive like that."

Gah. It was Sam? How could anyone not forgive him? Okay, maybe she was still a lot biased there. Shaking her head, she offered him an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry it turned out like that," she tightened her grip on the reins, belatedly noticing that Gorgeous was within biting reach. And then relaxed the reins again. Huh. No attempt at biting. That was odd.

Sam shook his head. "Ah know what you mean, Al. Ah'm sorry things are the way they are myself. And...Ah dunno if maybe part of me thinks that Ah don't deserve to be forgiven. Ah mean, hell, Al, Ah hurt you pretty bad, and Ah'm not properly sure why you've forgiven me. And Ah didn't come out and pretty much call your boyfriend a whore."

She managed not to fall off her horse, which was a Good Thing. They'd never come close to discussing things since the breakup and this was something of a surprise, to say the least. But it wasn't what this talk was about. "...you said what to Paige?" She'd had no clue the argument with Paige at the time had degenerated quite that badly.

Sam stared at his hands. "Yeah. Ah don't even know why Ah said it. Ah just...didn't even really give Angelo a chance. Ah was hypocritical, and overprotective, and..."

She felt like a heel. And oh heaven help her Sam had that look and it generated a deeply ingrained 'hug the man silly' reflex which just wasn't wise considering her horse might attempt to gnaw his leg off at any moment. "I-," she reached out with one hand, which was relatively safe and rested it on his arm, giving him a sympathetic look. "Maybe if you spoke to them and cleared things up?" she hazarded, wondering if she should just shut up and not try to help people for a while.

Sam nodded sadly, hyper-aware of the touch of Alison's hand on his arm. "Ah owe them both apologies, but Angelo especially. Ah...hell, Al, why should Ah expect anyone to forgive me for the things Ah said?" He sighed.

"Hey... we're getting along just fine, right?" she smiled tentatively at him, patting his arm lightly. Gorgeous remained deceptively quiet, leading Alison to wonder what evilness the animal might have in mind. "Might not work out right away but if you give it time and effort, maybe Paige will come 'round?"

Sam smiled sadly. "Ah told her that Ah owed Angelo and Jono apologies, and she said Ah ought to get to work on them, and then maybe she'd give it some thought."

That - sounded like Paige, actually. Alison smiled back at him fondly, and with a touch of wryness. "Well. She can be as stubborn as anything when she wants to. A lot when she thinks someone she cares for was wronged." She took a deep breath. "I know you, Sam. If anyone can make this right, you can."

Sam snorted. "Ah...why do you have such faith in me, Al? Ah don't even know that Ah have faith in myself right now. Not to mention how Ah messed things up with you and me."

"Takes two to mess something up, Sam." The words were softly spoken, her hand falling from his arm to rest on the reins again. "I've got my share of responsibility in that too." She took a deep breath and smiled at him though - this wasn't what they were here to talk about. "And I know you can do it. She's your sister and I've never seen you quit on her before."

"Al, Ah..." he stopped, the words sticking in his mouth. No, it wouldn't be right to talk about the feelings he still had for her. Not now. "Ah ain't quittin' on her, Ah'm just worried whether she's quittin' on me," he admitted quietly.

"Naw. She hasn't quit on Jono, she's not about to quit on her big brother," Alison chuckled, flashing him a reassuring smile. And now Sam needed to be cheered up and she knew just the way. "So? What do you think?" She tilted her head, looking ahead of them. "Race you?"

Sam chuckled and smiled despite himself. Al always knew how to get him out of a funk. One of the many things he still loved about her, if he was being honest with himself. "You're on," he replied, bending low over the neck of his horse and booting it softly in the side, knowing from experience that Alison had already likely done the same to Gorgeous.