#horzee

At most he had been planning to make a purposefoal stop in with the Highblood to greet them, inquiry as to their well-being since the last instance he was stable to speak with them, ask if they were enjoying the evening before leaving them to their own devices for the night. Simple, easy, neigh-thing that would give him away or impose himself too much on the clown if his presence truly was unwanted.

It had neigh been dismissed as of yet but Horuss was prepared, all the same, his previous relations, both those platonic and less-so in nature had informed him that his presence was exhausting to most. He was sure it was only a matter of time before Gamzee decided they were through with entertaining his awfoal attempts at courtship, as easing as he was trying to make them, and ordered Horuss neigh to bother them again.

It had neigh happened yet, but it was sure to be coming.

And Horuss would hoof followed through with his own self-imposed plans and restrictions, only taking up so much of Gamzee’s time before leaving them be, but best-laid plans did neigh always like to follow the path they were supposed to.

It had started normally, Horuss had approached Gamzee, ready to greet them and show that he had wanted to seek them out upon arriving at the gathering, and then the situation got away from him as so many things did with the clown in question.

Gamzee had reached out to touch him, something new and yet unprecedented, looking to Horuss with wide, curious eyes as their hand hovered just above Horuss’ arm, close enough that he could feel the chill of them, waiting for a reaction of some kind before actually touching him. It was… near overwhelming to hoof Gamzee’s claws resting securely over the pulse point in his arm, thumb absent-mindedly rubbing small little motions as if the clown were as nervous as Horuss was by their bold movement.

And then he realized that Gamzee was talking to him, saying they had hoped he would come tonight and asking him about what he had been spending his time on recently. 

That did neigh necessarily mean he knew what he was supposed to do now though. He had neigh prepared nor planned for such a turn of events, he found himself off-kilter in the most disconcerting of hays, grounded in place by only the hand on his arm and the genuinely pleased smile on Gamzee’s face.

Up until it grew nervous and shaky and the claw-tipped thumb that had been making small easing motions halted and started to pull away from him that was. Proper decorum would hoof him allowing it, waving off the bold action to neigh-ver be spoken of again, but Horuss was far mare focused on replacing the tension that had entered Gamzee’s frame with the easy grin that had been on their face not a marement before.

Which had lead to the clown theft.

Again! Neigh something he had been planning on doing, it had just been a very spur of the marement decision.

Gamzee had been mare than a little surprised when Horuss had picked them up, honking a sharp, startled sound that Horuss found himself churring in response to before he could stop himself. But they hadn’t struggled, they had in fact thrown their arms and legs around him to cling to his frame while he supported them and walked off to a quieter, private corner away from the rest of the gathering. 

A corner where he could relish marementarily in the fact that he was neigh only holding Gamzee but that the clown trusted him enough to neigh only support their weight but that he also would neigh take them anywhere dangerous to themselves.

Which he would neigh-ver! Of horse neigh!

He just… needed a marement to properly compose himself so that he could talk to Gamzee and get that awfoal shaking nervousness from their actions.

It had just been easier to put that into actions than words at the time.

He was going to be hearing about that for some time to come to be sure.

Horuss decided it was mare than worth it to hear the quiet little honk Gamzee made as he hoisted them further up in his grip to be able to hold them easier, the clown now basically able to sit in his arms, knees to either side of Horuss’ ribcage to lean over his head, giggling into the strands of his mane and letting their clawed hands fiddle with the volume of Horuss’ ponytail. 

Horuss’ friends could hay what they wished, it would neigh change how genuinely content he was with that one singular marement in time, created by a spur of the marement decision he would hoof neigh-ver thought himself capstable of.

~

“You’re smile’s all kinds a motherfuckin awful.” 

This immediately catches Horuss of guard, not only due to the words but also the fact that’d he’d believed himself to be alone again. Which was, obviously neigh the case anymare.

He turned to see the younger Makara, Gamzee he believed the troll’s name was, staring at him with a heavily furrowed brow over eyes filled in with the most noble purple. Horuss immediately did neigh like that something he had done had upset the Highblood, but he pushed that to the side to focus on putting his ‘everything will be fine; smile on just like Muelin taught him to, meeting the Highblood’s gaze as much as he was stable to.

“Ah, Highblood! How can I be of use to you toda - “

The Highblood cut him off before he could finish.

“I said that smile a yours is motherfuckin aw-FOAL.” Purple eyes narrow at him, the Highblood shifts, casting his gaze away from Horuss for a moment. “Wipe it off ya face, no use ta smile if it’s making ya a motherfuckin fake.”

Horuss’ smile turns shaky, confused and concerned as his own brows furrow. “But Muelin said - “

“AIN’T SAID I GIVE A MOTHERFUCK WHAT SHE SAID!” Horuss flinched at the sudden outburst and even Gamzee had to take a moment to just breath and resettle himself. “Ya shouldn’t be doing shit ta be making others feel better, ‘specially at ya own detriment.”

“But it is neigh to my own detriment.” Horuss did neigh like that he was directly contradicting the Highblood but it felt necessary to do so, at least this time.

Gamzee was in front of him faster than Horuss’ eyes were stable to follow, nearly sending him flinching away if not for the tight grip the clown took of his hand.

“Horse should listen to his betters,” Gamzee said, almost glaring at him now. “Let his own emotions bein know. And know that iffin I see ya with that smile again... Imma tear it off ya face for ya. Get it?”

~

“I... do neigh believe that I am suppsoed to be here, deer,” Horuss’ voice was pitched low, quiet and only for Gamzee’s ear, detailing the low thrumming anxiety building in his palemate as clearly as the shaking in the hand held securely in Gamzee’s own.

“You’re allowed to be here.” Gamzee’s statement was firmer, confident and sure and carrying through the halls of the holy place they’d entered, carrying all the weight he’d earned to it and causing the brothers, sisters and cousins that had forgotten themselves in their looking to direct their gazes to the ground, chastised and submissive in their posturing.

“Are you....are you quite sure of that deer?” Horuss questioned again, still quiet, soft and private but colouring more and more with nervous energy. “I am amare that this is a very important matter to the Church, I can still leave, wait for you outside -”

“Quadrants are motherfuckin sacred,” Gamzee stated, a doctrine drummed into his pan over decades, engraved deep into the core of his being. Kin and Quadrants. Family. “If I can’t being sharing this with my most pale loves who can I be sharing it with?”

“I... I suppose.” Horuss agreed, casting his gaze nervously around the room again, at the clowns carefully not looking at either of them, and raised their joined hands to his mouth, lips parting until he could rest his mouthful of perfect, flesh-ripping fangs against the thrumming pulse in Gamzee’s wrist. “Proud of you, deer.”

Gamzee’s breath, already stolen from his lungs seemed like they wouldn’t return soon, still so floored by physical affection even after all this time, how pathetic of him.

~

Spattered moonlight fell across a dark floor, stray beams falling across a pile of blankets and cushions along with the stray faygo bottle and nut and bolt.

Built for comfort and safety, security and reassurance.

The open window of the room let in a cool breeze, the scent of rainfall almost drowning out the stench of the city.

Horuss didn’t know why the clown sprawled haphazardly across him would want to have the scent of pollution and grime the city carried in his noise while they enjoyed a pile but if he couldn’t bring himself to care before, then he certainly couldn’t now.

He was far too far gone at the current point in time to give anything even close to the facsimile of attempting to feel something past the fuzziness of pale contentedness within his chest. An impossible task he would not be able to tackle with his clown purring in broken, contented noises just under his chin, rising and falling with Horuss’ own breaths and threatening to choke his with his long and wild curling hair.

Truly there was nowhere else he wanted to be in that moment.

Gamzee shifted against him, yawning so wide that it might have sparked concern for the state of his jaw hinge is Horuss hadn’t seen the clown contort and bend himself in ways that should have been possible but for the power of clown belief fuelled by spite.

Horuss shivered at the feeling of odd, distinctively asymmetric fangs dragging over the vulnerable flesh of his neck. Not a fearful one, he trusted Gamzee fully with his throat and other vulnerable places explicitly, just a shiver at the sensation of danger against one of the softest parts of his body.

“Whatcha doin?” Gamzee’s low-high mumbling drew Horuss’ attention from his thoughts, humming at the feeling of the clown speaking against him. “Ain time fa movin yeah.”

“Go back to sleep.” Horuss noted that his own voice was slow and heavy from a very satisfied pale jam with his diamond. “And please move your legs if you would. I can feel your bones digging into my sides.”

“S’all bone.” Gamzee murmured, nuzzling further into Horuss’ neck but moving his leg so that his knee wasn’t digging into him so much. “Ya sleep too, yeah? Ya needin it. Mothafuckin workin’-holic.”

“Would you prefer to be the pot or kettle in this current situation?”

The had Gamzee chuckling against him, low noises pressed to his skin even as they caused shaking in his thin, too-narrow shoulders. “Stardust blessed a motherfucker with a comedian.”

“Hardly,” Horuss snorted, the sound very close to that of a hoofbeast, which pleased him to no end. “I believe the word you would find better fitting is ‘dull’ my deer.”

“Nah.” Gamzee stated, like it could be that simple the irreverent thing. “Mime most motherfuckin beloved ain’t dull none.” Gamzee yawned again, jaw stretching to show off the impressive and deadly rows of teeth in his maw. “Now s’time fa hoofbeasts ta be restin. Gotta make ya all pretty like later, yeah?”

A moment of silence between the two of them.

“Only if you wish too.” Horuss whispered back, feeling Gamzee nod against his throat.

~

“Ya know,” the words were slow and drawling, but spoken in the tone Horuss had come to recognize as the clown having spent quite a bit of time compiling all of his thoughts together. Horuss turned his attention to the clown currently sprawled on the couch in his workshop, carefully setting down his tools so that he wouldn’t have another... mishap resulting in the need to replace them as a consequence of things Gamzee said. “Ya could like... actually motherfuckin break me hands iffin ya was wantin too, couldn’t ya?”

Horuss huffed an amused sound, shaking his head fondly, unseen by Gamzee who was focusing on his hands as he clenched, unclenched and flexed his fingers in what must have seemed like the most important thing to him at that current point in time.

“I mare than likely could, yes insteed,” Horuss agreed, turning back to focus on the mechanism and mechanical pieces on the bench before him. “You are quite fortunate that I hoof neigh decided that that course of action is one I want to participate in. Why do you ask?”

“That’s kinda motherfuckin hot.” Of course he wouldn’t get a direct answer out of the other, assuming there even was a direct answer to be found and Gamzee hadn’t just plucked the thought out of nowhwere in his musings.

“I do neigh see how my hypothesized ability to crush the bones in your hands is in any hay, shape or form; ‘hot’.“ Horuss was keeping his attention focused down instead of the other troll to hopefully hide at least some of his amusement at him. A normal conversation truly was out of the question more often than not with Gamzee, wasn’t it?

“Nah, nah ya see,” Horuss heard Gamzee moving behind him but was still unprepared for the hands that covered his long, long and boney and still far too thin no matter how much he tried to get the other to eat. “S’like... ya could do it yeah? Well and truly. But ya don’t and that’s real motherfuckin hot ya know?”

“Of horse I do neigh,’ Horuss agreed, dropping his tools so he could turn his hands in Gamzee’s own, gently twinging their fingers together to empathise his words. “I do neigh want to hurt you like that. It would be awfoal.”