who ? max davies and chloe pucey when ? saturday morning, 30th september where ? a field? what ? horseriding! status ? complete
Chloe was sure she’d been on a horse before. She wasn’t sure when or really, even why, but she did know she’d ridden before. If for no other reason than the fact that she was actually doing quite alright on a horse. His name was Albert and Chloe had developed instant friendship with him. He’d even let her take some pictures so she could show him off to Arran later. “This is fun!” Chloe announced as she led the horse after Max’s. Max was definitely much better on a horse than Chloe, but she didn’t think today was about competing and rather just nice going riding. Because Max was so good, they hadn’t required someone else to come with them, for as long as Chloe had promised that she wouldn’t do stupid things on a horse (like stand up, which frankly, Chloe hadn’t even known was a thing until the trainer had told her of it).
“Have you ever stood on a horse?” Chloe asked pulling Albert’s lead (or whatever it was called) so he’d steer closer to Max and his horse, in order for Chloe to chat with Max. “Do they do that in the circus? I think maybe I’ve seen it in the circus. Have you been to the circus? I used to love the circus when I was a kid but my mums said I couldn’t be an acrobat because--well, I’m not really sure why, I think they thought I’d just break my neck.” Which, to be fair, Chloe wasn’t sure they would’ve been wrong. Still all that jumping and falling looked super fun. “What did you want to be when you were little? I wanted to be a pomeranian.”
--
Max smiled, pleased that Chloe was enjoying herself. She hadn't needed to be shown how to ride a horse, for which Max was grateful because he wasn't convinced he'd be a very good teacher. "As fun as riding a bike?" he asked, still convinced in his own mind that riding a horse was preferable. He'd never ridden a bike, but he couldn't imagine he'd enjoy it more than he enjoyed riding a horse. Especially, if he was honest, when the objective was just to ride and appreciate some nice scenery, rather than chasing down any small animals that happened to cross their path.
"I have never stood up on a horse," Max answered, pulling Josie's reins to guide her head away from a particularly tasty looking hedge. "I think they do it at rodeos, and probably the circus." Max had never been to the circus, but he'd definitely had a book on horses that had included images of people standing on them. "No," he said, "I've never been to the circus." His dad wasn't exactly the kind of father to take his kids on outings, and even when they'd been sent with tutors it had always been educational. "I doubt I would have wanted to be an acrobat, even if I had." He paused at Chloe's question, not sure he really had an answer. He had wanted to be a lawyer, and a Hogwarts student, but now he could recognise that he'd only wanted those things because his dad had expected them of him. "I suppose I wanted to be a good son," he answered, with a shrug. He didn't remember ever wanting to be anything else. "And I wanted to own horses."
--
"Different kind of fun," Chloe observed. Riding a horse was fun, but she wasn't sure she'd really compare it to riding a bike. Given, Chloe also liked mountain biking, which was high speed and sharp corners. She imagine you could do that on a horse, too, but certainly not at her skill level. "This is more companionable," she observed. "Albert and I are getting on super well, aren't we, Albert?" Chloe said patting the horse's neck. He made a horse sound and Chloe grinned, assuming it was agreement.
A rodeo sounded super fun, so Chloe made a mental note to randomly remember that. Perhaps her and Arran could go and see a rodeo. "You've never been to circus?" Chloe asked genuinely surprised. "We should go! The woman who was teaching circus skills to Kip and I, she's part of a performing troupe, we could go see them?" It was, as far as Chloe was aware, mostly acrobatics, which was obviously the best part of circus. Max's reply how he'd only wanted to be a good son and own a horse made Chloe frown. "Obviously you're an excellent son, so you've achieved that. Why don't you own a horse? I haven't achieved my dream to be a pomeranian, but Arran assured me that there's an alternative universe in which I am one, so that's cool. What animal would you be in an alternative universe? Arran and Roger are dragons," Chloe informed Max like this was true.
--
"It is quite companionable," Max agreed, that was part of why he liked riding. That and a horse never expected you to be particularly interesting or eloquent. Max found it very relaxing, and there weren't really a lot of things Max did find relaxing, which made it all the more special. "I think Albert and Josie are getting on very well," he observed, as Josie turned her head to whicker at Albert. Obviously, the stable wouldn't have picked them two horses that didn't get on.
Given the offer to take Chloe horseriding had started with her realising Max had never ridden a bike, Max couldn't help feeling it shouldn't be that surprising that he'd never been to a circus. It was probably safe to assume he and Roger had missed out on a great deal of traditionally childish things. "I think we went to a zoo, once," he offered. "But there's no educational value in a circus." He did smile at Chloe's desire to introduce him to all the 'fun' things he'd missed out on. "We can go to a circus," he promised. "Maybe we can take Roger and Arran, too. I assume Roger hasn't been to one either." Max frowned slightly, because he really wasn't an excellent son, as far as his dad was concerned. He certainly wouldn't be if Maximilian ever learned the truth. He pushed the thought aside, though, not seeing much profit in talking about it. "Because the negatives and responsibilities of owning a horse outweigh the positives," he answered. He'd made a list, he was sure. "I can ride whenever I want without a horse, so why put myself on the hook for stabling fees and blacksmiths and food?" He turned to give Chloe a puzzled look at her question about alternate universes. "My patronus is a mink," he offered. "Perhaps I'd be that."
--
Albert and Josie did seem to be getting on very well, which was definitely different from bikes. Bikes didn't really tend to get on or not get on with each other, what with being bikes and all. "It's fun, it's like we've made new friends," Chloe observed. "Well, horse friends, but horses are pretty smart right?" At least Chloe was sure she'd read that somewhere. "Raleigh, my brother, he rode elephants in Tanzania. Would you ride an elephant?" Since Chloe assumed it was safe to guestimate that Max hadn't ridden one so far in his life, especially not if he'd never even been to a circus.
"You should make a list of all the things you haven't done," Chloe informed Max. "Maybe we can do some of them! Or you can do some of them with Siobhan and Terence? Arran says we're all having dinner together, that's exciting." Chloe was looking forward to their dinner. She did give Max a look when he suggested they take Roger and Arran to the circus. "Or we could leave the kids home," she told Max with a small grin. Max's answer of why he didn't own a horse was mostly too reasonable and logical and Chloe made a sad face at him in turn. He was, she was sure, not wrong in estimating that looking after a horse would be expensive and unnecessary when you could just rent one like how they'd done with Albert and Josie.
Max then reasoning that perhaps in an alternative universe he'd be a mink because his patronus was a mink, made Chloe sigh. "But what animal would you want to be?" She asked. "A pomeranian isn't my patronus, but I'm still one in an alternative universe. I don't think either Arran or Roger's patronuses are dragons either, but they're dragons in an alternative universe. Gay dragons, I think. Like gay for each other dragons?" Chloe offered and then frowned. "Can dragons be gay? I suppose they can, because like bears can be gay so why not dragons?"
--
Max wasn't really sure where horses fell on a scale of animal smartness, but for once he recognised that Chloe probably wasn't looking for accurate information. "Horses are quite smart," he agreed, while wondering how smart an animal could be that let itself become domesticated by humans. On the other hand, sharks were very undomesticated, but also didn't have much in the way of intelligence. "I didn't think riding elephants was very good for them," Max said, with an apologetic shrug. He didn't mean to suggest that Raleigh shouldn't have, but he was sure he'd read that riding elephants had been discovered to be bad for them. "Maybe that was if more than one person is riding, though," he offered, both because it could be true and because it offered a way to excuse Raleigh's behaviour.
"All the things I haven't done?" Max asked, raising an eyebrow. That would be quite a long list, and he was sure there were many things he didn't want to do, like skydiving. He shook his head, knowing Chloe meant things he'd missed out on as a child. "I wouldn't know where to start," he admitted. "I would never have thought about bike-riding or circuses if you hadn't brought them up." He gave a thoughtful hum as he guided Josie around a bend in the hedge. "I could look through Siobhan's family albums, see what she did as a child. I'm sure she'd be happy to do those things again." Terence, too, would probably readily agree to do things that Max wanted to. He frowned slightly, but if Chloe didn't want to take Roger and Arran to a circus of course he wouldn't push it. He could always take Roger on his own, if that was even something Roger was interested in.
His frown deepened at Chloe's question about what animal he'd want to be. "I don't think I have enough imagination for this line of questioning," he said. The first answers he thought of were a human or a horse, neither of which he thought Chloe would be very pleased with him for offering. It was honestly a struggle for Max to come up with anything else, and he rejected half a dozen answers before he sighed, frustrated with himself. "I don't know. A beaver?" He felt a familiar pang of worry at Chloe's description of Arran and Roger as gay for each other dragons, but pushed it away. Roger was straight, and even if he hadn't been, there was nothing wrong with that. "I didn't know there were any recorded instances of bears being gay," he admitted. "But I don't see why dragons couldn't be."
--
"Well, not all of them," Chloe shook her head. She rather agreed that a list like that might be hard and also a bit unnecessary to make. "Things that sound fun!" Chloe informed Max instead. "Or I can make a list? Of fun things I did as a kid? And Arran can do one! And we can ask Terence, too," Chloe offered. Looking through Siobhan's albums also worked. There ought to be lots of different fun things between them all that they'd done as kids. It might be quite exciting to revisit those.
Chloe made a sad face at Max when he said he couldn't imagine being animals in alternative universe, but then Max offered 'beaver' as an answer and Chloe gave a delighted giggle that somewhat startled Albert. "Why a beaver?" Chloe asked curiously. "Is it because they're bitey? Or because they engineer dams? Dams are pretty cool. I was reading about a dam in China, like the biggest dam ever to... dam? That was cool," Chloe said and then shrugged. "There wasn't a lot of fun things to read in the hotel," she explained, before humming when Max said that he hadn't heard of gay bears. "Or maybe it was ducks," Chloe said like the two were very easy to mix up.
--
Max smiled, mostly at Chloe's enthusiasm for making him lists of fun things to do. "I'd like a list, very much," he told her genuinely. "And you can put stars by the ones you'd like to do again, so I can be sure to invite you to them." He was supposed to be trying new things, after all, so why not have some of those things be childhood experiences he'd missed out on. "Will Arran want to make me a list? I would think he'd rather re-experience fun things with you than have you do them with me." They were going to have dinner together, but somehow Max did not anticipate Arran would spend a great deal of the evening talking to him, not when he had a choice of Chloe, Higgs and Siobhan. "I'm sure Siobhan and Higgs would make me a list, too, if I asked them." Max did quite want to share the list with Roger, or at least some of the things on it. Maybe the ones Chloe wasn't interested in.
"Well, I like the water," Max said. "Swimming, sailing, rowing, so I tried to think of an animal that lives near water, but an otter seemed too… playful." Max did not think of himself as a playful person, and he was quite sure nor did anyone else. "Beavers have something to do, beyond just surviving and eating, so I think that appealed to me. I didn't know they were bitey." But, really, most wild animals were some degree of bitey, so that was hard to avoid. "I've heard of gay swans and gay penguins," Max said. "But that doesn't mean there aren't ducks. Or bears."
--
"A list it is, then!" Chloe confirmed happily. "And I can definitely do stars. And little smiley faces," because she was capable of producing both. As for whether Arran would want to make a list for Max, Chloe shrugged. "I can do things more than once," Chloe pointed out. There was nothing that would stop her from going to the circus with Arran, too, if he wanted to. Chloe just also liked the idea of having fun things to do with Max. The horse riding so far was a lot of fun, so there was no reason not to think other things wouldn't be, too. "And if Siobhan and Terence make you a list, too, then we can always mix and match. Maybe there'll be things on their lists I haven't tried either." It was certainly possible.
Max's reasons for picking a beaver were pretty good and Chloe grinned. "Such good reasoning skills," she teased Max playfully. Chloe could probably be an otter. She rather be a pomeranian, though. "Pomeranian's are fluffy and excitable," she informed Max. "Though, Arran said that so are puffskeins but then we decided if he was a puffskein and I was a pomeranian maybe we couldn't be married anymore because that's like cross-species and probably not okay? Though, perhaps there's an alternative universe where that's okay, too. I'd be sad to be in an alternative universe where I couldn't marry Arran. I suppose the universe where him and Roger are gay dragons together I couldn't be married to Arran. But you're married! But then would I also have to shag Roger? I don't want to do that, no offense, I'm sure your brother's great but like if I had to fuck a Davies brother, you'd be my first choice," Chloe rambled and then shot a wide smile at Max.
--
"What would the little smiley faces represent?" Max asked, tone slightly teasing because he was fairly sure the smiley faces were just an addition to the stars, rather than an alternate system of their own. "I wonder if Arran's list would be the same as Higgs' list anyway," he mused. "Would your list be the same as your siblings'?" Max didn't think his list and Roger's list would be very similar, but he also didn't think his list of fun things he'd done as a child would be very long. Roger would probably have more to add to it, he'd certainly seemed to have more fun with Arran than Max had had with anyone until he met Siobhan. "If not, we can always look up what children do for fun in other countries," Max said. "That way I'm sure we can find something you haven't tried."
Max gave a small shrug, because of course he'd had reasons for picking a beaver. Without reasons, he wouldn't have been able to pick at all. "You're not very fluffy," he told Chloe, apologetically. "Do you want to be? You're definitely excitable. In a good way." Presumably, Chloe assumed excitable to be a good thing, but it still felt prudent to confirm it so he didn't accidentally insult her. "In a universe where puffskeins can be married at all, I don't see why they couldn't marry pomeranians," Max said. "You might not be able to have children. Biologically. You could adopt." Because, in a world where puffskeins and dogs could get married, presumably there would also be adoption agencies. He coughed, surprised by Chloe's comparison of him to a gay dragon, then chuckled. "I'm sure there's more than one way to have a relationship with three people," he said. "You might not have to sleep with Roger." He didn't know quite what to make of it that Chloe would rather sleep with him than with Roger. "I think Arran would really prefer you not sleep with either of us," he decided.
--
"Happy... things?" Chloe replied, though she didn't sound very convinced that they wouldn't just represent the same thing as the stars. But they could also just represent the same thing, nothing wrong with that. If perhaps, a touch confusing. "My list probably wouldn't be the same as my siblings," Chloe shook her head. "I liked falling out of trees and jumping off swings and I don't think Adrian thought that to be great deal of fun." Which then also meant that Terence and Arran's lists might not be the same. "We shall find out!" Chloe decided happily before nodding. "And we can also do that. All the fun kids things from everywhere!" It'd be an exciting exercise if nothing else.
Chloe gave a small, sad sigh when Max pointed out that she wasn't fluffy like a pomeranian. "Animal fluffy is much more exciting than human fluffy," Chloe informed Max. Rock was definitely much cuter in his fluffiness than Arran, no offense. "We could adopt!" Chloe exclaimed with a nod. "Maybe one of those super hairy guinea pigs? Because we couldn't adopt a puffskein or a pomeranian, because that'd be unfair. I will ask Arran what he'd want to adopt as a baby if he was a puffskein and I was a pomeranian," Chloe decided, feeling that this was not a decision she could make without consulting her husband. Chloe did also nod because she was sure Max was right in that Arran would prefer she didn't sleep with either Max or Roger in this universe. "He might mind less in an alternative universe," she informed Max seriously. "Especially if he was also shagging your brother. I feel then it'd be fair for me to shag someone else, too. Maybe in the alternative universe everyone has threeway relationships!"
--
"Smiley faces for things that also made as happy as adults, after we tried them?" Max suggested. "I'm not going to agree to falling out of a tree," he told Chloe, before she could even suggest it, or put it on a list. "I suppose I could jump off a swing." That seemed less dangerous, and jumping was more controlled than falling. "I did go to a playground." He didn't think his dad had known about the playground, but one of their tutors had stumbled upon it while taking them to something else. "I think I mostly worried Roger would hurt himself." He didn't really remember enjoying the playground very much. Roger, he was sure, had had a very different experience. "Well, you ask Arran to make a list, and I'll ask Higgs to make a list, and we can compare." And Max could also look up activities from other countries.
Max smiled, running a hand over Josie's neck. "Do you and Arran have a lot of conversations about 'what if I was a pomeranian and you were a puffskein’?" he asked. It wasn't something Max's relationship had ever included. Perhaps later he'd ask Higgs what animal he would be, in an alternate universe. (A dog? Max thought the chance of the answer being a dog was quite high.) Max frowned slightly. "I would hope that in a universe where everyone had threeway relationships, I would still be in the one I'm in now," he admitted. Which did rather preclude sleeping with Chloe. "Would you also be a dragon?" he asked. He neither knew, nor cared to know, how dragons mated, but it seemed like it would be a more complicated undertaking to involve three dragons than three humans. At the very least, they'd need a lot more space.
--
Chloe laughed at Max's protest of falling out of a tree. "It's okay, Arran's already done that with me," she promised. "Playgrounds! We went to an adult playground a few weeks back, that was lots of fun. There were swings and slides and even a sandbox!" Chloe hadn't had enough patience for the sandbox but she had enjoyed the slides a lot, at the ball pen. Chloe hadn't worried that either her or Arran would get hurt, but they were also grown ups. She supposed she might've worried more if they had been kids. Maybe.
"Sometimes," Chloe nodded. "Sometimes we talk about what Rock's favourite animal would be and whether there's calories in cake if you eat it in the middle of the night," Chloe offered. "We talk about a lot of things," she added with a shrug. Her and Arran did talk about a lot of things, sometimes even emotions and Chloe was very proud of how well they managed. Max's question made Chloe give a thoughtful hum. "I suppose I'd have to be a dragon, too. Like I couldn't be a pomeranian if both of them were dragons, they'd probably just eat me." Which would not be very conductive for a threeway relationship.
--
"There definitely wasn't a sandbox at the playground we went to," Max said. "I might've quite enjoyed that." He could have built things, which seemed much more productive than going on a swing or a slide, even though the things would just be knocked down again as soon as he left. "I used to draw," he added, unable to remember if he'd told Chloe that or not. It had been something he hadn't spoken about for years, because it wasn't something he was good at. "I don't need you to do that with me, though," he added, since he'd been doing some drawing on his own. He still wasn't good at it, and he hadn't really showed it to anyone. "Unless you want to."
Max couldn't really imagine Chloe not having conversations about things he would have considered random, so it was good that Arran evidently enjoyed them, and was probably better at them than Max was. "Higgs and I talk about military history, and ourselves." Max liked that, learning things about Higgs. "And Siobhan talks to me about things she gets up to with her friends, and tells me about ballet. They're both very good at letting me talk about history." Max thought that, although they talked about different things they still talked about quite a lot. "You could be a fluffy dragon," Max offered. He wasn't sure reptiles were capable of being fluffy, but maybe in an alternate universe they were.
--
"There! That can go on the list!" Chloe announced with a happy smile. They hadn't even started trying to make a list yet and they already had something to put on it. She did shake her head when Max offered her to draw with him. "I'm not very patient, so I don't think you'd enjoy drawing with me. I don't think Adrian ever enjoyed colouring with me because I couldn't colour in the lines." Mostly because that had always seemed really limiting and boring. "But maybe you can draw with Roger!" Chloe suggested, assuming that they would've done that as kids together.
Chloe nodded when Max explained how him and Terence talked about military history, sure that Max had mentioned that before. And Chloe knew Siobhan used to dance ballet so that made sense. "Arran talks to me about quidditch," she told Max scrunching her nose up. "I'm very good at pretending that I get it, but I don't think I'm good enough to make him think I really do." Chloe didn't mind Arran talking about quidditch at her, though. She talked at him about a lot of things. In fact, Chloe talked at a lot of people about a lot of things. "A fluffy dragon! Oh, Max, you're a genius!" Chloe exclaimed almost startling Albert with her excitement. "That's a great idea! I will tell Arran," Chloe decided with a nod. "Until then, do you want to show me how to go faster on Albert?" Because Chloe wasn't really sure if just asking the horse would be enough.