That Pain to Miss

It should scare me how easy it is to write conversations between Eds & Els, considering how recently they became buddies, even with respect to 1pen's and my grand old scheme. But it doesn't, because it's just far too much fun.

Also I may have overdappled Timp. Whoops.

Previously on:



"A mighty pain to love it is,
And 'tis a pain that pain to miss;
But of all pains, the greatest pain
It is to love, but love in vain."
--Abraham Cowley



Manit was fat.

And he already had a mountain of muscle on him, so the fat really wasn't flattering. Plus, he had his first race of the year coming up at the end of the month. Ellie sighed as she got a leg up on him; there was a lot of work to do on this colt.

She passed by Tom's office on the way to the track, and saluted the four people in the doorway with her whip. Instantly Laurence and Frankie set to reminding her again just how fat her horse was, and Ellie shot back that maybe Frankie's girlfriend should stop giving him sugar cubes, and Chloe complained that it wasn't her, it was Tom, and Tom just turned and disappeared in his office. Ellie laughed, a real, free laugh. She'd been doing that more since Eddie had taken her out on Valentine's day; there had been a kind of relief in the companionship of someone closer to her age, and the few times June had been mentioned she'd been ecstatic to hear that Eddie's opinion of the journalist was no more flattering than her own. It was like... gaining an ally. Possibly a friend.

Ellie honestly hadn't thought of Eddie as the person-to-be-friends-with type too long before that day.

When Manit caught sight of the open racetrack, he eagerly jumped into the bridle and set off at a trot, while Ellie steered him left, clockwise around the outer rail. When she felt the tension drain from him, felt his muscles warm, stretch, loosen, she tapped his flank with her heels and he moved forward into a canter. They repeated the exercise; slowly, surely, the bulky island of horseflesh fell into his rhythm, gradually turned liquid beneath her. Then she took him to the finish line, waited for an opening, and set him to a real gallop closer to the rail. On the backstretch, she angled him all the way in and loosened her grip on the reins.

The acceleration was not instant. It was more like waiting for the Titanic to fire the last engines; you knew there was speed there, but there was so much weight to move that you had to be a bit patient.

Ellie just hoped the metaphor ended before the unfortunate iceberg bit. Though possibly after the scene with Kate & Leo in the car, with the hand, and the glass, and the steam, and...

Work. Right. Manit, running. It was frighteningly easy to let her mind drift on top of him; he knew his job well, and he would do it regardless of how long it took him to warm up. And in fact, now that he'd straightened out on the backside the red colt was picking up quite a pace. She glanced to her inside, measured the passing of the poles with the clock in her head she was still refining with experience. A twelve-clip, she decided. Perfect. A good one-minute five would be right on Chloe's target.

Manit rumbled into the Gulfstream stretch, spraying dirt all around him as his bulk thudded into the earth. His pace faltered a little as he struggled to keep his speed under the extra weight, but Ellie waggled the bit in his mouth, kissed in his ear and he accelerated just enough to hit the wire running quite as well as he'd been doing on the backside.

Ellie was a little disappointed with Manny's gallop out; he slowed significantly after the finish line and seemed all too eager to get back to eating and sleeping, so she kept him cantering a bit longer than he wanted to before turning him toward the gap on the backstretch.

And then she stopped dead.

Because who was guiding a hesitant little grey colt into that very gap but Santa Castillo-Reyes? Ellie was just about to nudge Manny forward, to catch her up and gush, when she saw something a little remarkable.

Laurence was walking out of the gap with the Imp when the black filly reached over and took Timpanac's saddle cloth in her mouth. Then the two jockeys recognized each other: Ellie watched Laurence's face light up too quickly for it to have been a premeditated response. Suddenly his body language underwent a complete makeover; he relaxed, his movements were free and unguarded. Ellie goggled at him from a distance, unafraid that he'd notice her, because his attention at the moment was utterly undivided.

Then she looked at Santa and almost fell off her horse. A blush had crept up her neck and into her cheeks as she sat on the grey colt. Santa's eyes were bright, her expression almost shy, and she looked so much like an enamoured schoolgirl that Ellie had to put some serious effort into not squealing. As it was, she couldn't suppress the words "Oh, my god," which flowed softly from her lips. And then: "Hell yes."

Ellie inched closer, curiosity overtaking her as she strove to hear what was being said to make the two of them so animated.

Imagine her surprise to hear the word sexy being traded. A bark of laughter bubbled up into her throat and she quickly converted it into a cough as her delighted eyes flashed between them. This time, they noticed her. Damn.

Santa unfortunately took it as her cue to make a hasty exit, so Ellie had to settle for pinning Laurence with her raised-eyebrow stare. He looked anywhere but at her for a few seconds, and when he finally did make eye contact, the best thing he apparently could think of was, "Quoi?"

Ellie couldn't help giggling a little, and she wordlessly nudged Manit through the gap and toward the barn, a smug grin threatening to bloom on her lips. That was when she spotted Himeros's famous son dancing toward her. She looked to Subversive's back, was delighted to find Eddie on it, and briefly steered Manit off course so she could catch his eye.

"You," she said, pointing to him. "Me," pointing to herself. "Later. Talking. Do not attempt to flee or I will find you." She put two fingers to her eyes and turned her hand to point them slowly at him. "Get me?"

Eddie looked slightly puzzled, but saluted nonetheless before setting off for the track on the thundering buckskin.

-----

Normally, Ellie liked to stick around after working her last horse of the morning and watch him or her cool out. Watching the mellow cadence of a post-exercise walk calmed her, let her loosen up her mind before a long day. Today, she broke her habit to camp out by the Mana barn and wait for Eddie to come back with Subversive.

He dismounted, and was apparently curious enough to walk straight to her. She wasted no time before launching into a tirade which had been simmering for close to half an hour.

"I cannot believe I didn't see it before, Eds. I'm such an idiot! With... with the chemistry, and the swearing, and the furtive glancing and now the blushing and the body language and seriously how did I not see it before??" she burst, and was suddenly interrupted by Eddie's hand on her breast. Ellie was surprised enough to stare at it for half a second before swatting it away. "What the hell was that?" she demanded, folding her arms firmly over her chest.

Eddie smirked his infuriating smirk. "I thought you were just realizing how perfect we are for each other, baby," he purred.

"Remind me why I even like you a little bit."

"I'm sexy and you know it."

"And also an asshole. Now, shut up and reinterpret everything I said in the context of Santa Castillo-Reyes."

Eddie's face went from smirking to blank. He looked down at his wristwatch, and then wordlessly turned and started to walk away. Ellie snatched him by the vest before he'd taken two steps and pulled him back too fast for him to resist very effectively, and imposed eye contact on him (which he didn't seem to appreciate).

"Well?" she demanded.

"Well what?"

"You know what I'm asking."

"Maybe I don't."

"It's plain as day. Santa's in love with--"

"All right, all right," Eddie snapped, effectively cutting her off. "Look, Els, I know your heart's in the right place and all, but you gotta be careful with this. I don't want her to get hurt."

The defeated, almost pleading expression on his usually suave, emotionally closed face completely deflated her. Ellie searched his eyes, set her jaw, and was suddenly faced with the realization that she could do flat nothing with her newfound knowledge without potentially hurting somebody who wasn't June. With a groan, she launched herself at the nearest barn and softly beat her head against the wall.

Eddie chuckled and leaned on the wall beside her. "Hey, now, don't mess up that pretty face over this."

She grunted, but stilled her head against the wooden siding. "You're right," Ellie muttered. "Wouldn't want to get all ugly so that stupid superficial people with Y chromosomes wouldn't want me." She turned her head and leaned her cheek on the wall instead, pouting at Eddie. "Or maybe I should mess up this pretty face. Then I wouldn't have to deal with men ever again."

Eddie snickered. "Wasn't your face I just grabbed, baby," he teased.

She stuck her tongue out at him, but couldn't suppress a brief smile. "Life just sucks, doesn't it?" she asked, turning and mirroring his posture beside him. "We can't win."

He shrugged. "Depends what game you're playing, I guess."

Ellie snorted. "Never figured you for a deep talker, Eds," she chirped at him.

"Deep talker, no," he countered with a grin, the emphasis on the second word making his allusion almost painfully obvious.

Ellie cackled and swatted his shoulder. "That's better," she said. "Can't have Eddie all serious when what I need is some good, strong memory bleach."

"June who?"

"Exactly. The world would be so much better without her."

"Girl, again we are agreed."

Shown:
Name: C'est Impossible
Barn name: The Imp, Imp, Impie, Impsie, Impster, The Impster, etc.
Gender: Filly
Breed: Thoroughbred
Age: 3
Height: 15.2hh
Color: Jet Black
Genotype: EE aa
Markings: Star, half-stripe; LF stocking
Temperament: A darling and a schmooze, the Imp is kind, gentle, affectionate and completely unflappable. Despite her age and breed, she behaves as though she's seen and done everything.
Discipline: Racing
Preferred distance: Unknown
Running style: Unknown
Bloodlines: Mr. Tseng x Supercharger
Offspring: N/A
For stud/lease: Unavailable - too young

And also *1pen's Timpanac