Cowboy Romance | Dakota

[Dakota King]

Ash was looking forward to their little ride? That made Dakota feel a little bit better, but the butterflies in her stomach were fluttering away. If he was looking forward forward to this.. she couldn't think on it more when he started talking about her clothes. She laughed lightly as she shook her head. "I don't know if I can picture a cowboy hat on you," she teased a bit. "I know those things give me really bad hat hair. But you got to remember I did a lot competition circuits so I have a lot of clothes that I might as well use while I'm out here."

She glanced down at the ground to see they were over the forest and her eyes scanned to see where he would take them. "Is that where we're going?" she asked as she moved a hand to point to one of the clearings in the forest.

[Ashley Bates]

“I’m a Texan.” He said simply. “I wouldn’t be a good one without a hat. Boots too.” He smiled a little at her laugh and he watched her out of the corner of his eye. She was teasing him but he didn’t really mind that much. Still, he thought the two of them would look pretty good riding out together like that but he supposed he could keep that little tidbit to himself. He might surprise her one day by wearing them for her.

Ash reluctantly looked away from her and followed her gaze to the spot in the forest she had picked out. “Good eye.” He said as he gently tugged back on the reins and began to descend. “If it’s the sunset you are looking for I haven’t found a better spot. I’ll often stop there to eat something when I’m out hunting and not many people know about it.” In Ash’s opinion that was most of the appeal. Sunsets were nice but when you lived in the Apollo cabin having a nice quiet retreat was a blessing from the gods. Hopefully Dakota would agree.

[Dakota King]

"Just because you're Texan, it doesn't mean I still can't picture a cowboy hat on you. Maybe the boots." Dakota tried to picture Ash as some stereotypical cowboy from Texas. She could picture everything on him, except for the hat. It might have stemmed from the fact that they gave her really bad hair and she really only wore them when they required. She smirked a bit. "Maybe you need to show me this cowboy hat of yours or do you have a collection?"

Once she pointed out to Ash where she thought they were going, she moved her hand back to the place around his torso. She smiled a bit as she nodded her head. "I know I haven't made it that way before, but I usually try to avoid the forest or only go as deep as I have to." She rested her chin again on his shoulder as she looked over at him and raised her eyebrows. "It must be nice having a quiet retreat," she said with a bit of a smile. "Because I know how your siblings get, especially the younger ones."

[Ashley Bates]

Ash shrugged non-committally at her. Maybe the only reason she disliked them was because she had never had a real cowboy hat or maybe she just needed a good reason to like them. Maybe he could be that reason. In any case he was now decided on the fact that he would at least surprise her with it as she had done with her own cow girl look. "You only need one but I'm sure you'll get to see it if you stick around long enough."

Her comment about his siblings seemed seemed to echo his own thoughts perfectly but he kept his tone even as he said. "It has its benefits I assure you." As they began a circling descent towards the ground Ash wondered what it was like living in the Aphrodite cabin. He could only imagine what Dakota went through with her siblings being the cabin leader but supposed they were just as serious as his own occasional struggles with his brothers and sisters and the idea of boring her with talk of his cabin's problems wasn't that appealing when there were better ways to spend their time. "But I suspect you probably have your own interesting cabin problems too. Fortunately," He said as they touched down in the clearing and came to a stop. "I don't think we will have to worry about them tonight."

[Dakota King]

If you stick around long enough. Dakota couldn't explain it, but the butterflies were acting up once again in her stomach. Ash was doing something to her that nobody else had done to her before. What made him different from all the other boys she'd seen in the past? It had to be the cowboy hat. Dakota was pretty dead certain that had to be the reason why butterflies decided to invade her stomach.

And they started circling and making their descent and the butterflies in her stomach really started to act up. She'd be alone with Ash and Blue Sky on an isolated hill in the forest. For a moment, that seemed a little too intimate for her. She tried to ignore the flutters in her stomach as she tried to concentrate on what Ash was saying. She chuckled for a moment. "Oh trust me, there's a lot of problems in my cabin." Natasha. Mickey. The list could go on and on.

But they touched down on the hill and Dakota reluctantly pulled away from Ash as she hopped off of Blue Sky. She walked away a few steps as she put her hands on her hips and looked around. "This is a really pretty place," she commented.

[Ashley Bates]

There seemed to be more stories than they had time for in that comment about her cabin and Ash supposed that he was right in his assumption that there was at least one person in every cabin who couldn't get with the program. That was just one of the burdens of leadership and why Ash didn't personally think he would be very good at the job. He was more of a lone wolf but he guessed even wolves could find companionship sometimes. Maybe this was the chance for him.

As Dakota hopped off of Blue Sky to explore the place where he had brought them to Ash watched her admiringly. He dismounted in his own time and busied himself with unpacking and setting the pegasus to crop grass close by but he thought the image of her standing on the hill in the dying light with her hands placed on her hips would be burned in his memory forever. Daughter of Aphrodite, beautiful girl in the sun light. He definitely wouldn't be forgetting the sight any time soon no matter what she thought of him.

"I thought so as well though I doubt it has ever been as pretty as it is now." He left that open as to how she wanted to take it but for himself he had meant it precisely how it sounded. Ash felt alive in ways he hadn't known existed and it was all because of Dakota. He just didn't know how to tell her that. "I hope you're hungry." He said though food was one of the last things on his mind. He had gotten a saddle blanket for them and laid it out in a good spot for then to catch the sunset. "I packed plenty of food but I wouldn't be able to eat it all."

[Dakota King]

Dakota glanced over her shoulder at Ash's words. She might have been reading into things a little too much, but she swore there was more than one meaning to his statement. As pretty as it was now? Her face heated up again as she turned back to look at the sky and the forest. Basically anything to keep her mind off of what he just said. She took deep breaths as the butterflies just seemed to kick back up in her stomach again. She tried to remind herself that it was just a ride and they were getting food because she was running late from the infirmary. But the thing was, it didn't feel like just a normal ride. It felt more.

She turned around and pushed a stray hair hair behind her ear as she smiled slightly at Ash. Honestly, food was the last thing she was thinking about at that moment, but she knew she needed to eat after pulling a shift in the infirmary. She nodded her head as she slowly made her way towards him as she eyed the setup. They were doing it all picnic style in the sunset. Dakota took another deep breath as she tried to fight down the butterflies. "I am," she lied as she got a little closer. "What did you pack? The mess hall's finest foods?"

[Ashley Bates]

The comment about the mess hall’s food brought one of those rare, real smiles to his face. He felt bad offering her the food that they could have gotten just as easily at the mess hall but at camp they didn’t really have much of an option. He could cook reasonably well, well enough to survive in any case and probably better than most of the boys here but he didn’t think this was the time or the place for campfire cooking. Maybe one day if they stayed out a little longer than an evening ride...but no, he definitely didn’t need to let his thoughts drift down that route.

“The finest I could find.” He said trying to shake those thoughts out of his mind. “Unfortunately my cooking skills are a little lacking if it involves anything other than a trail meal. We should be able to find something we can eat though. I brought sandwiches and some fresh fruit.” As it had a habit of doing the smile vanished almost as quickly as it appeared when he took a seat on the blanket and began rummaging through the food he had brought. He picked out a sandwich and some strawberries but suddenly found his appetite had disappeared. Instead of eating he sat looking off into the distance at the fading sun. He let his thoughts drift as he sat there waiting for Dakota to join him and went quiet as his thoughts turned to other things.

[Dakota King]

Dakota smiled to herself as Ash smiled again. It was a rare thing for him to smile, since he was always so serious all the time. But the fact he smiled made him younger, more handsome. And that just seemed to encourage the butterflies more. And just like anything else rare, it was gone before she could truly cherish it. She made her way over to him on the blanket and she almost hesitated for a moment before she took a seat right next to him on the blanket. She looked down at the food he had brought and really felt her appetite disappear. It wasn't like he didn't bring any yummy looking food, but there wasn't really any room for food as it was mostly filled with butterflies.

But she wanted to be courteous and she picked a sandwich and an apple from the pile he brought and rested them on her lap. She risked a glance over at Ash to see he was focused on the skyline. She turned her attention there too and watched the sunset change into different colors. "Wow," she said after a moments as she turned to look at him. "You were right. This is the best place to watch a sunset."

[Ashley Bates]

Ash was so lost in his thoughts that he hardly noticed when Dakota set down beside him and picked out a few things for herself from the food that he had brought. It wasn’t until she spoke up again that the boy glanced over and noticed her looking out at the same sunset he had been staring at. Unfortunately he wasn’t sure if he had caught exactly what she had said to him but he gave a little nod, thoughts still elsewhere, and turned his attention back towards the sky because it seemed like the safest place for his attention to be.

In that moment of silence that followed her words Ash was almost torn apart by his desire for her. He floundered for the right thing to say and ached with feelings both desperate and deep. All of which is to say that he stared at the sunset for a while, looked towards her again, watched her with a sort of helpless fascination and then looked away once more. He had never been good at expressing himself in the best of circumstances. Here, now, it was almost impossible.

He knew in some deep part off his mind that he should say something but words slipped from his grasp leaving him feeling empty and foolish. Still, when faced with a difficult situation where the correct choice was unknown he had always been taught that the only wrong decision was to do nothing. It was always better to choose a course of action and go with it than to spend your time in the limbo of not knowing. It was this one bit of logic that eventually broke his paralysis and caused him to speak. "Dakota, have you ever had something to say but not known how to begin?"

[Dakota King]

Dakota smiled softly at Ash before she turned her attention back to the sunset. Her hands absentmindedly toyed with the food on her lap. She felt like she needed to say something to him, but didn't know what to say. For some reason, the silence between them was a little unnerving. She looked down at her food after a moment and starting tearing her sandwich into bite-sized chunks. She still didn't feel hungry, but she needed something to take her mind off of the she was sitting next to Ash and the butterflies weren't going away at any point.

She looked up from her food up at Ash when he started talking again. She tried looking at him in his eyes, but she couldn't help but notice his lips as well. Her face heated up again before she slowly nodded her head. "Yeah," she said with a slight smile. "What's up?"

[Ashley Bates]

Ash let out a long sigh as she asked him to continue. That wasn’t an easy thing for him to do but now that he had started he had to finish. Still, it took him another moment before he could figure out how to say what was on his mind. "This isn't easy for me. Conversation has never been a skill that I thrived on."

Taking a deep breath he looked back at her, noticed she was looking at him and met her gaze with a look of longing that was almost painful. "I thought that what I was feeling would go away but it hasn't. Dakota, I can't get you out of my head. At night the memory of you with your arms around me nearly drives me mad. When I'm awake I spend my time waiting until I can see you again and I think that when I do that it might provide some relief but then you look me and...gods Dakota I feel like I could burn up from the inside out." He shook his head and looked back out at the sunset as he went silent again. His seriousness was a little scary at times but it did give his words more gravity than they would have had otherwise. Like it or not he was pouring out his heart even if he didn't know how it was going.

[Dakota King]

Dakota could feel her heart pounding in her chest as the butterflies fluttered around more. She couldn't explain it, but she had a gut feeling that what he wanted to say involved her. And she was right, so right. Her face heated up more as she took deep breaths trying to keep herself calm. Well, as calm as she could be when a boy was admitting his feelings for her. She tried to keep his gaze, but broke it as she turned back to the food in her lap. Maybe those butterflies were completely warranted. She took a deep breath and moved the food off of her lap to the blanket beside her before she looked up at Ash.

He was looking at the sunset again and Dakota just looked at him for a moment. She wasn't really thinking as she reached up to cup his cheek and turn his head to face her. She ducked her head a little closer to his as she looked him in the eyes. "Would it make you feel better," she asked a bit breathlessly as she felt her heart really beat in her chest as her eyes glanced down to his lip, "to know that you're not the only one having those thoughts?"

[Ashley Bates]

Ash’s head was spinning from the magnitude of the bombshell he had just dropped. He understood and accepted what he was feeling for the Aphrodite girl, that he could do so by rising above his plainly logical view of life to embrace the delirium of romance was surprising to him but as unlikely as it seemed he was a romantic at heart, still, he didn’t know if Dakota felt the same way. That 'not knowing' was the hard part but he had said what he said and it couldn’t be taken back. Things were out of his hands now.

Ash wasn’t sure how long he stared out at the sunset after he confessed how he felt. The next thing he knew he felt the delicate touch of Dakota’s fingers on his cheek turning his face towards her. He let himself be turned willingly and he found himself staring into Dakota’s eyes which were much closer than they were a moment before. She spoke and when she did he felt his blood seem to heat up as his heart beat faster and faster because her words confirmed what he had wanted to hear. She felt the same way as he did.

In that moment he knew that what he had to do. It wasn’t even a question. He looked at her, her face so close to his, and a smile crossed his face that didn’t disappear in the next instant. Perhaps there weren’t any words to accurately show her how he felt but he could think of something that would. His eyes never left hers as he spoke. “It does a little…” He said softly, his voice low and seeming to matching hers for the desire he felt. “But I can think of something even better.” With that he brought a hand up to cradle her neck, leaned in and pressed his lips to hers.

[Dakota King]

Dakota knew that Ash shared the same feelings as her, but she couldn't help but feel nervous about the possibility of rejection. It was a silly thought, but it still ran through her head as her heart continued to pound in her chest. All she could hear for those few moments of silence was her heart pounding in her chest and her breathing. It was almost deafening, but it all seemed to die down when Ash smiled again. One of those smiles that was rare to catch, but it was there and it didn't look like it was going away any time soon.

And it seemed like everything went in slow motion as he moved his hand to cradle her neck and he leaned in to press his lips against hers. Dakota didn't think twice as she kissed him back as she leaned towards him. She kept the kiss soft and sweet as she moved her hand from his cheek to his side. She couldn't help but smile against his lips as she kissed him.