Candy Quackenbush can walk on water. (toitshour) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2013-08-19 20:51:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, candy quackenbush, wrex |
Who: Candy and Wrex.
What: Candy visits Wrex at the Wranch. (See what I did there?)
When: Saturday, 8/17.
Where: Urdnot Ranch.
Rating: PG.
Status: Complete!
Wrex was taking a walk around the ranch , checking on the animals and on some of the students. He leaned on the fence to watch the doctor and a couple of the kids ride horses.
Behind him, a girl shimmered out of invisibility and into the light. “Hey, grampa.” Candy couldn’t help but smile as she tapped him on the shoulder.
He jumped. “Careful, you’re gonna give this old man a heart attack. Then you’ll have a very upset Kroger on your hands.”
“You’re a grocery store chain?” Candy couldn’t help but laugh before giving him a hug. “Sorry. I forget sometimes when I’m invisible. It just makes flying easier.”
“Uh..Krogan. I had a hard time accepting what it was for awhile. I keep it up as a joke. That’s okay.” He turned to look at her. “Everything okay with you?”
“Oh, I’m fine, just thought I’d visit. Got hitched, got back from the honeymoon, thought I’d come visit you.” She smiled up at him, waggling the fingers on her left hand.
“Congrats!” Wrex hugged her back and then took a step back, eyeing the ring with apprehension. Talk of marriage always made him nervous.
“Oh, thanks. Why do you look like my ring is going to strangle you?” She cocked her head to the side, laughing. “Was it the ‘m’ word?”
“I think it’s the M-word,” Wrex said, grinning sheepishly. “I’m allergic to marriage.” He held out his ring finger, with ‘no’ promintately tattoo’d there.
“Why?” She looked up at him. “It’s reversible. I mean, I’m not planning on getting divorced from Remy, but it’s less scary than say, sky diving.”
“I got burned really bad.” It was all he could really say on the matter, but his ex-wife had ruined his trust in any sort of relationship. That he was as close to Kasumi as he was was a small miracle.
“Ex-wife?” Candy moved to wrap her arms around him again.
“Yeah. I couldn’t give her kids. She still emails me updates about her current family and kids. Like she’s rubbing it in.”
“She’s an idiot if she thinks that kids make a family. And if she wasn’t willing to adopt. And come on, she’s missing out on you. Any woman would be nuts to let you go. If I weren’t with Remy and you weren’t with Kasumi, I’d hit on you, old man.” Cand smiled.
Wrex shrugged a shoulder. “I don’t think my job at the time helped, I wasn’t home much.” He gave her a lopsided grin. “And I wouldn’t know what to do with you hitting on me.”
“You’d hit it and quit it,” Candy shrugged. “What were you doing?” She moved so she was floating near him, seated with her legs under her body.
“checking on the animals.” He nodded towards the horses. “And taking a break to watch. I didn’t know Dr. Hussain could ride.”
“You have horses?” Candy’s eyes went wide. “Can we ride?” She’d grown up in a small town in Minnesota. She’d started riding when she was four.
“This is a ranch. Sure.” Wrex laughed. “You weren’t here the day everything got loose, were you.”
“I wasn’t, no.” Candy smiled and bounced toward the horses, letting herself hit ground en route. “Do you need any help with them?”
“We’re pretty good with them.” Wrex led her to the stables, where a couple of horses were still located. “The horses are pretty popular.”
Candy moved up to one, showing her natural affinity as she approached the animal from the side, murmuring quietly. It whinnied, and she chuckled, clucking her tongue. “Hi, pretty girl.”
Looking back at Wrex, she smiled. “Do you ride?”
“Not in a long time.” Wrex darted his eyes. “Something I keep meaning to get back into doing.”
“Well, come on.” Candy went to find a saddle, eyeballing the size girth she’d need for the horse she’d had the best connection with. “You probably ride Western, right?”
“Yeah.” Wrex was starting to get into the idea. He liked horses. He prefered a big vehicle, but horses were good too.
Candy started to tack up her horse, smiling and petting the animal, chuckling when it nuzzled at her neck. “You should ride the big one. Turtles are heavy and all.”
“Yeah, I’ll ride this guy right here.” He said, patting a mare on the rump.
“That’s a girl,” Candy grinned. She slid the bit into her horse’s mouth, rubbing her nose gently and cooing to her. It was rather like riding a bike.
“Right. Not something I’m used to looking for.” Wrex got the horse ready, and then mounted her.
“What, dicks? Horse dicks are kind of unavoidable, you know.” Candy swung herself up into the saddle and tied her hair back. “Do you want me to cast a spell on you so you won’t break anything if you fall off?”
“Yeah, that.” Wrex gave her a look. “I’ll be fine, I’m not going to break anything but the ground. Krogers have hard heads.”
Candy smiled and shrugged. “Thought I’d make sure.” She murmured a few words and soon she shimmered a bit, then things looked normal again. If she fell off the horse, she’d clang, but she wouldn’t break anything.
Wrex nodded and patted the horse’s neck as he started to guide her out of the stables.
Smiling, Candy clucked her tongue and guided her horse out of the stable and to the grass. “Want to lead, Wrex?” She couldn’t help but grin. “How’s your lady friend anyway?”
“She’s going good.” Wrex took the lead.
“Good. I wondered if you guys got affected by that body switchin’ nonsense.” Candy wrinkled her nose. “When Remy and I have our wedding party slash reception, I know we’re going to invite you and Kasumi.”
“She did, I didn’t. That week sucked.” He shrugged a shoulder, increasing their pace to a trot. “Give me some heads up. I need to make sure someone will be here.”
“Ugh, no sex for a week, I’d die.” Candy shook her head. “All right, I’ll come with you.” Candy gently coaxed her horse to follow the mare Wrex was riding.
“I know the feeling. I very nearly died too.” Wrex smirked to himself. “I want to check out my cabin. Should be almost done by now.”
“Oh, you’re going to live here with Kasumi?” Candy smiled at the idea, and she moved so she was a little closer to him.
“We did before, then there was an incident.” Wrex felt a pang of sadness. He missed Alma something terrible.
Candy noticed that. “I’m sorry.” She wondered if he was always going to be sad. To make him smile, she bit her lower lip and summoned an imp onto his saddle in front of him. It giggled and took hold of the reins as well, making a ‘wheee’ noise.
He stared at the imp, then squinted and made a shooing motion. “Shoo. Shoo. Let go of the reins!”
“Ne path!” The imp blew him a raspberry.
Candy couldn’t help but giggle. “You don’t speak Old Abaratian, I don’t think he knows what you want. Or he does, and just doesn’t care.”
“What is it?” It was almost kind of cute, if he would consider anything cute. Wrex didn’t like cute things.
“It’s an imp. Pet him.” Candy grinned. “I think he likes you.” She smiled at the imp, cocking her head. “Krogan nepas araethi sowzana heai?” The imp nodded firmly, clinging to one of Wrex’s arms.
The Kroger looked at him dubiously, and then patted him. Awkwardly. “If you say so.”
“Sowzana HEOO.” The imp nodded firmly, then crawled up Wrex to sit on his shoulder. “He’s smart, you could probably teach him English.” Candy smiled and shrugged. “Little taste of my dream world. They’re part of me because the magic is, but they’re partly Abaratian.”
“He ain’t stayin’ around, he’ll frighten.. someone.” Him. Not that he was ever afraid of anything. Nothing made him scared. Nothing.
The imp’s ears went down and it sniffled. Clearly it didn’t speak English, but it understood. “Don’t make him cry, Wrex. It just wants to stay for a little while.”
Wrex sighed, and patted the imp on the head again. Gruffly, he said, “Sorry.”
Candy couldn’t help but laugh when the imp raised its hands over its head, miming what Wrex was doing. “We don’t have horses in the Abarat. I’ve heard of people riding wyrms, but riding dragons is ... well, risky.” She smirked when the imp leaned down to give Wrex a big kiss on the cheek.
“Makes me think of a Thresher Maw,” Wrex said. “Big worm thing, could eat all of and the horses whole. Damn I’d love to ride one.”
“I can fly, that’s plenty for me.” Candy smiled when the imp disappeared, slipping back into the ether, back to the Abarat. “And we had big worm things too, the Requiax. Never saw one, but they’re supposed to be big enough to eat stars.”
“That’s pretty fucking big!” A reaper was big enough, for him. Living skyscrapers. He couldn’t imagine one as big as the sun.
“Yeah, that’s why I was trying to prevent them from getting free.” Candy shook her head. “I saw some of the stuff from your dreams in Vegas. It was ... yeah.” She shook her head. “I’ll fight for you again.”
“I hope you don’t have to,” Wrex said seriously. “I hope we never see that again.”