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CH4. Swimming Though Troubles

The ringing of a small alarm broke through Alex's sleep as the horse let out a groan and pushed his hips forward and gave a big stretch but paused when he pushed up against a warm body. The horse looked down to see the boy now pushed up against him, Alex smiled as he reached over and grabbed the boy's phone to turn the alarm off. The horse looked back down at the boy and wanting to lay back down and try to cuddle with the human but knew better so he ended up setting the phone down before giving George a light shake to wake him up. George gave a low groan as he rolled onto his back and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. The horse propped himself up onto his elbow and gazed down. "How did you sleep?"

"Really good." The boy said with a smile, events of last night coming back to memory. George blushed a bit and scooted a little away while sitting up. "So still want to go for a run?"

The horse chuckled while lying back down. "Not really but we should." Before the boy could react the horse took the sleeping bag and threw it off them, the boy had to quickly averted his eyes after getting a glimpse of the tip of the horse's pink cock still flopped out through the flap of his boxers. George blushed while moving to his bag and rummaged though it till he got out a tank top and shorts. He got dressed and glanced over to see Alex just sliding on a pair of shorts.

After rolling up the sleeping bags and placing them to the side of the tent George unzipped the tent and climbed out followed closely by the horse. The boy gave a big stretch and looked up to the sky to see the light barely breaking through the night sky though he was interrupted from rustling from the tent across from them as his sister hurried out and went up to them.

"Ready..." She said while tying her hair back into a ponytail.

"Alright." The horse looked at the boy. "How do you start your workout?"

George though for a sec. "Usually a light stretch, followed by some pushups and lunges or any other exercise before the running."

"Sounds good to me." Alex said. "When we get back to your place though I'll have to show you a good workout routine."

"That'd be awesome." George said.

They all started to stretch out on their own but both Alex and George did the exercises while his sister watched. Both men didn't want to bother asking why and just continued in silent. Once they got their hearts pumping they both took off in a light jog but once George had pointed out which trail they were taking the horse started to pick up the pace. George had a little hard time keeping up with the horse especially after they started to go up hill but George didn't complain that he was lagging behind slightly since he now could look at the horse's ass as he moved.

After a couple miles Alex came up to a clearing that was the perfect spot for a break, the spot had a fence where people wouldn't fall down the steep part of the hill and they could oversee the lake and campsite from the location. The sun was just starting to rise over the horizon by the time George came up and leaned onto the fence. The horse went up and patted George on the back before leaning on the fence himself.

"You're not bad, kept up pretty good." Alex said.

George gave out a small huff and nodded. "Still a little out of shape though."

"Well keep up like this you won't be in a few weeks."

"That's the goal." The boy chuckled.

Now that the horse knew what kind of shape the boy was in he could try and push him a little more to help the boy out but when Alex gave a small glance down at the boy and seen the light of the sun shining off the sweat on his forehead the thought of how romantic it would be to hold the boy in his arms and kiss him on the cheek, just the two of them with no one else around as they watched the sunrise together came flooding into his mind. George was thinking the same thing and smiled at the thought of having the horse hold him close, both their worlds shattered from a voice they were wishing wasn't there.

"Isn't it...beautiful...Mr. Stampede?" Kayla blurted out between breaths.

The horse looked away and gritted his teeth. 'Can I just toss her down the hill from here god, please?' Alex thought while standing up and looked at the girl with a forced smile. "Sure is." He rolled his head and popped his neck before clapping his hands together to get the two young one's attention. "Ready to head back down?"

"Yeah." George said, Kayla just nodded through. With Alex starting off in a jog the two followed with Kayla falling behind more than the others. On the way down they passed a few people that gave the horse a curious glance before continuing on their own walks. Alex stopped at the bottom of the hill and waited for George to catch up, when the boy got close by the horse started to jog side by side the boy before he yelled sprint. Forcing himself faster George took off in a sprint but wasn't near as fast as the horse. Alex took off way ahead of the boy as he crossed the road and stopped in front of their tents. Marry and the others were sitting at the picnic table sorting out some of the food for breakfast as George came up and while breathing hard, held his hands above his head trying to catch his breath. The horse chuckled and patted the boy's back.

"Didn't push you too hard did I?"

George shook his head. "Nope not at all." The boy headed to the tent and climbed in to get to his bag. Alex walked over to one of the coolers that had water bottles and got himself one just as Kayla was walking across the street. The horse didn't have to look at her to tell she had a really hard time with the run, her breathing was very ragged. Out of the kindness of his heart he grabbed one more bottle and took it to the girl.

"Thanks." She said between breaths as she took the bottle and rested her hands on her knees.

The horse snorted. "Don't lean over, you breath better standing straight up." The girl nodded and did as the horse ordered.

"See told you, you need to run more." Marry said to her daughter.

"I get that."

Alex smiled as he walked over to the picnic table and sat down while taking a swig of his water. While trying to strike up a conversation with his manager, the lion let out a big sigh. "There's something you might want to see." sliding his phone over to the horse, Alex picked it up and didn't even take a few seconds to see all the emails that Jack as accumulated over night. He scrolled down the list with his thumb and seen most was from reporters.

Alex let out a small chuckle. "Well we knew that they were going to contact you." Till something caught his eyes.

The lion shook his head but didn't smile. "That's not really what I'm talking about at the moment. Look at the one with the title 'important, old high school friend.' Should be down quite a ways." The horse was already looking at the email and had an ill gut feeling that was clearly on his face. "Not going to be asking why your old buds are trying to get ahold of me and not directly to you, none of my business so I didn't even open up the message, I know form what you told me that you had a bit of a rough past."

"Yeah, haven't checked my emails since we left my place." The horse stated as he handed the phone back to the lion. "Sorry about that, I'll be sure to see what's goin on and make sure to let them know to not message ya."

"Appreciate it." Jack said as he pressed 'delete all.'

The horse just smirked as he gazed around while taking a drink of his water. Seen George had already changed into a pair of shorts and a different shirt, Alex thought that he should do the same and let out a snort while standing up and moving to his tent, he stripped off his shirt and shorts to trade it with a clean pair. The thought of his old ex popping in and out of his mind. Alex grabbed his sunglasses and phone before exiting the tent and began walking up the path that he and the kids recently took. The horse found a bench to sit at and took his phone out of his pocket and looked at the screen. He decided that when they were taking off to go camping that he had the phone on airplane mode, he contemplated rather or not to turn it off. Deciding he mind as well get it over with he gave a deep sigh and slid his figure up the screen to get more options and turned the airplane mode off. It took the phone a while to finally show a weak signal before all the miss calls and messages started to pop up. He found that he had a few messages from the dragon. It wasn't hard since they were titled along the line of 'hey babe' and 'talk to me stud.' The horse ran his hand through his mane just before he opened the first message.

Hey stud been a while. Know you and I didn't have a good departing back in high school but we also had good times back in the day as well, been trying to get a hold of you for some time and wanted to catch up for old time's sakes.

_ _

My new number is 555-619-6767 so hit me up.

_ _

Zack <3

_ _

Alex stared at the message for a bit, the thought of the dragon that hurt him so badly came rushing into his head. He thought he was over this but as he leaned back to slouch in the bench and looked up at the sky, a tear slowly came from behind his sunglasses and down his cheek. The horse heard someone walking close so he quickly whipped his face and turn off his phone. Figuring he needed a walk to clear his head before heading back to the camp, Alex turned and continued up the path.

...................................................

George watched Alex start to walk away from camp, the way the horse looked he could tell that Alex could use the time alone for whatever reason. The boy went to his mom and started to help with breakfast while occasionally glancing at the trail.

"So how did you sleep?" George heard and jumped when his mom poked him in the side while taking the plate of hotdogs out of his hands. "I said how did you sleep?" She gave him a smile.

"Oh...um, I slept alright." He blushed at the thought of the horse snuggled up to him.

"Really? You didn't wake up Alex did you?" Marry asked.

"Umm...yeah I kind of did." The boy admitted.

The woman let out a sigh. "Maybe it'd be best if you slept with your dad, I don't want you keeping Alex up all night."

"It wasn't a problem mom, I fell asleep pretty quickly after I got in a comfortable position." The boy defended.

Marry pondered on the idea of him switching with Jack for a moment. "Alright, I'll talk to Alex a bit later about it and see what he wants." She got the tripod set up over the fire pit, it didn't take long to get the fire going from the hot coals from the previous night and already got the hotdogs onto the grill that hung over. "After we eat you and your sister can head to the lake if you want." Marry stated to her son.

George smiled. "Is dad and Jack going to come?"

"Most likely we all are." She glanced at the two men at the table laughing about a prank they done back in college. "Just be sure to be ready to head down there after you eat."

"Will do." The boy got a few buns ready on some plates while waiting for the food to be finished. The first couple hotdogs went to Mike and Jack. Before he and his mom sat down and started to eat. His sister was just climbing out of her tent and was trying to straighten out her hair.

"Ugh, why couldn't we use a camper or something with an outlet so I can use my hair iron?" She complained, she waved her hand at a bug that flew next to her face as she made her way to get herself some food.

"Because it's not really camping if you're not roughing it a bit in the outdoors." Mike laughed.

"She's not much of an outdoors person is she?" Jack chuckled.

"She is somewhat, she just likes to make herself look good." Marry stated but gave George a glare when she heard him snort and tried to not laugh.

The boy pounded his chest a few times and coughed. "Sorry wrong throat."

"Well drink some water then, god." Kayla said as she passed him.

The three men didn't look at the girl while they tried to not laugh as they all knew she didn't get what was really going on. Marry was about to take a bite of her hotdog before setting it down and gave them all a disapproved look. They all didn't make eye contact with the woman and continue to eat.

Marry finished up and went over to the car to get out a big black trash bag to toss her trash away, she tied it to the side of the picnic table. "Hurry up and get ready after you eat so we can head to the lake."

Kayla stopped in mid bite. "We're going to the lake?"

"Yep." Mike was the next to stand up and toss his things out.

"But I just did my hair." She complained.

George laughed, "Well whose fault is that."

The boy tossed he stuff out before heading to his tent. The only reason that it took them a while to get to the lake was the fact that they had to wait for Kayla to get her things to head to the beach. Jack let out a sigh of relief as they came up to the sandy area where they would be swimming at the lake and seen that it wasn't that crowded. They found a place to lay out some towels and set up a few umbrellas, Kayla quickly laid out her towel and lay down while Marry handed the sunscreen to George, the boy squeezed some in his hand before messaging it into his arms and legs.

Jack just smiled. "Lucky me, I don't need sunscreen."

Marry huffed and went over to her son and took the bottle, she put a tiny bit on her index figure then made her way to the boasting lion. Before he could react she put some on the tip of his nose. "Don't want that to get burned." She grabbed him by the ear and pulled him closer so she could message it and make sure that the only exposed skin was taken care of, much to the lions protest.

George just grinned at the sight of his mom disciplining the old lion. Once he was done getting his chest and much of his back as he could the boy kicked off his sandals and started to make his way to the water before he was quickly lifted up by Jack. The lion was laughing as he headed to a dock nearby that had other kids jumping off of it. When George realized what the lion's intention was he started to protest and squirm but it didn't help at all as Jack got to the end and jumped in with the boy. George broke the surface just in time to see his dad land right next to him. The boy laughed and splashed his dad as soon as he came up.

"You little shit." he yelled as he swam at his son. George tried to swim away but his ankle was grabbed and was yanked back to his father before he was pushed under the water. Before Mike could react Jack came up behind him and shoved the man under as well. After a while of splashing and fighting a losing battle with the two adults George started to make his way to the shore as Kayla finally started to head out. The boy got to their spot and grabbed his towel to lay it down so he could sit on it and watched as the others enjoyed themselves but he looked around to see if the horse was near but he didn't see him anywhere he got a bit disappointed.

"Enjoying yourself?" The boy heard from his mom, he looked over to see her turn another page of her book.

"Yep." The boy said with a smile.

"Good." They all heard a scream and looked up to see Kayla breaking the surface and both Mike and Jack were laughing. "Don't worry too much about Alex, just give him some time and he'll be here."

"I know. He just looked a bit upset when he left."

Marry chuckled. "Life of a pro athlete."

George couldn't help but smile at his mom's humor, so he lay back with his eyes closed.

...................................................

Alex came back to a deserted camp site, he looked around and found a plate with a few wrapped up hotdogs on it and underneath was a small note. He picked up a hotdog and unwrapped it before picking up the note and started to read it while biting into his food. He found out that they were all at the lake and he decided to catch up with them. Marry left in the note that they had a towel for him so all he had to do was change and head over. Alex shook his head at the thought that the woman was always thinking ahead, he went into his tent and climbed in to change into his trunks. After putting on his sunglasses, he snagging his last hotdog to eat on the way over.

He finally got to the lake and seen that the two adults were lazily floating in the water and Kayla was near them. It took him a while to see Marry and George under the umbrellas, he made his way around the other people on the beach to get to them but the woman gave him a hush and pointed at George that was fast asleep. Alex just grinned as he took off his shirt and slowly snuck to the boy and gently picked him up in his arms. Marry closed her book and grinned as she took out her phone and started to video tape the horse as he carried the still sleeping boy back to the docks. Alex got to the end and with a heave tossed the boy.

The moment that George left the horse's arms he woke up and before he realized what was going on was in the water. The horse laughed along with a few others that witnessed the event before diving in himself. He came up behind the boy and chuckled.

"Such a dick." George turned and splashed the horse in the face but laughed.

The horse splashed back. "Couldn't pass up the opportunity." The horse dipped down in the water a bit and gave a snort as he took a breath and went under. Moments later he came up with Jack in his arms and the lion struggling to get out.

"Not fair." The lion protested.

"Bull you had your chance." He dunked the man under the water.

They all made their way so they could touch the floor of the lake to continue their wrestling, the horse having the big advantage. They we're at the lake for some time before heading back to camp to start dinner. But afterwards George noticed that Alex was gone again, instead of asking where he went the boy decided to get a shower in before bed. He went to his tent and grabbed his soap, a change of clothes, and then his towel that was handing up on a makeshift clothesline. He made his way to the showers to find the men's bathroom had six stalls but only one was taken he placed his towel on a hanger near the stall on the very end and was about to get in when the water in one that was occupied turned off and a horse came out with a towel being wrapped around his waist.

George's heart raced in his chest and quickly slipped into the shower area. He took a moment to catch his breath before stripping and turning on the water. He quickly soaped up and rinsed off, he dried off and changed to quickly make it back to the campsite. He only saw his father sitting beside the fire still roasting his marshmallow.

"Your mother had a talk with Alex." His dad stated while George was hanging up his towel.

"Yeah?" the boy stood and looked at his dad.

"Yep, was asking if it's still alright about the sleeping arrangements. Alex didn't mind so I'm letting you know that you're still sleeping in his tent." The man said as he ate the marshmallow in one bite.

"Thanks for the heads up." The boy said and started to head to his tent but stopped and looked over at his father. "Keep eating those and you'll have a stomach ache again."

"Noted." Was all his dad said as he stuck another one on the stick.

"Night." George said and got the same response back from his dad as he made his way into the tent and zipped it shut. George looked over and seen the horse had made their bed the same as it was the previous night. The boy put his things away then and stripped down to his briefs before slipping under the blanket. He heard a deep sigh come from the horse, he looked over to see the that the light from the fire outside was enough light coming thought the tent to see the horse was awake and was staring at the ceiling with of sadness. He was going to ask what's wrong when a phone started buzzing and continued to before it stopped on its own. The boy noted that the horse didn't even make an attempt to answer the phone as a few moments later it went off again. This time after it rang the horse reached up behind him and switches the airplane mode on before reaching up and setting it back onto his bag. The boy looked at the horse and could swear that he could have seen a tear roll down his face as the horse rolled over and faced away from the boy. George felt his heart get wrenched at the sight that he horse was that depressed, even though he was happy at the lake hours earlier.

"Alex." He whispered, the only response he got was a swish of the horse's tail. "You ok?"

Alex wanted to tell him no he wasn't, that he just wanted to be left alone for the moment but he could when he felt the boy started to rub his shoulder. Alex tensed up at first but he put his face into the pillow as a few more tears started to flow. The horse did his best to control his feelings but the boy behind him wasn't helping. The horse rolled back onto his back and whipped his eyes.

"I will be." His voice croaked. "Just the past came back is all." He didn't know how to react when the boy moved closer and put his arms around the horse's neck and hugged him. Alex relaxed and rolled over to his side to pulled the boy in close as he laid his head against the top of George's. The horse took in a few ragged breaths to try and get under control.

"You can talk to me about anything if you need to talk." The boy said softly. The horse didn't say anything but just nodded and let his problems go as he felt the young boy in his arms snuggle closer. The boy was the first to fall asleep while the horse still held him. His face was still damp from the few tears that managed to escape. The thought of the boy sleeping in his arms did bring a small smile to his face, he leaned down and kissed George's forehead.

"Thank you." He softly said while laying his head down and closed his eyes.

To be continued....