Welcome to Hickstead, home to both Seven Oak Stables, and Blue Acre - two rival stables. Both offer opportunities for their clients to reach the highest level of excellence. Each stable differs from the other, so choose wisely and never forget, loyalty is everything... Meanwhile as the stables battle it out, there's trouble brewing at the university. Be careful, if you don't pick a side you may get caught in the cross-fire...
This is an chilled out rpg with a super friendly and relaxed atmosphere! Remember to sign up with your characters full name in all caps and don't forget to do your claims! Thank you and Welcome, we've been established since 10th March 2009 but unfortunately have had to close guest view of our boards due to multiple sites ripping off our hard work, such a shame! Come chat to us in Discord before joining if you like!.
Mik didn't want her to leave, ever, but he couldn't tell her that, especially when he'd already said that she was free to leave whenever she wanted to. "I love you too," He gave a soft smile. "I know." He said as he ignored that nagging voice in his head that was telling him to keep his distance, and he closed the gap between them, wrapping an arm around her waist as he tucked her head under his chin. "Sleep." He whispered. "Now it's my turn to keep watch over you, like you've watched over me since I got out of hospital." The pills had dulled the pain that had been in his chest, and even with the hot shower, he was now wide awake.
He drew in a breath and blew it out, wondering if he'd ever be able to draw deep breaths again, but pushed that thought to the side as his thoughts turned to more pressing matters, like the woman he was holding. He knew that she blamed herself for what was happening, and he could understand her emotions, he just needed to work out how to convince her that they were stronger when they worked together, and that he didn't hold her responsible for anything that was out of her control. Him being attacked was because of his own stubborn pride, which he had been lectured for, and now always had one shadow when he left the flat. His lips twitched with a grin and he wondered if now was a good time to tell Amber that she now had a shadow at night, he needed to make sure she was safe too, as he wasn't sure what he would do if she were attacked like he had been, and Neil's job was to make sure that nothing happened to her when she was going too and from work.
"I'll make sure they know it's because of me." Mik smiled softly and nodded, knowing that telling her it wasn't her fault was going to nothing right now, but he'd make sure to mention that she was in no way to blame, when he spoke to his bosses.
Since his chocolate drink had cooled down while he was in the shower, he used his finger to childishly stir the cream into the liquid and quickly downed it, before taking the tray back to the kitchen and filling the mugs with water so that they could be dealt with properly in the morning. Making sure the oven and everything was off - even if nothing had been used - he flicked the lights off and returned to the bedroom.
He Paused at the door as he watched her for a moment, trying to work out the perfect thing to say that might help sooth her mind, but his mind was completely blank. Anything he could come up with sounded cliché, or could be taken as condescending. Shaking his head, he flicked the lights off and headed over to the bed. "I think this is the time when I'm supposed to say some crap about going to sleep, and that everything will look brighter in the morning." He slid under the duvet, wanting to pull her against him, but held that urge in check. "I love you." He said softly.
"No, I didn't know." Mik smiled and shrugged. "Shows they were doing their job properly then." Now, if he'd continued letting them be his bodyguards, then he wouldn't have been attacked and things would probably be a little different right now, and he'd probably still feel as suffocated as he did while growing up and his mother was sure that he needed his shadows.
"It's my fault that you were even in the hospital, Mik." He pressed his lips together, knowing that telling her not to blame herself was not what she needed right now, nor was the comment about all the time he got of work. "I'm alright though." He said softly.
Once he'd finished making the drink and heated up the brownies, he arranged everything onto a tray and headed back to the bedroom. He placed the tray on the ground beside where she was sitting and then grabbed the blanket from the end of the bed, shook it out and placed it over her shoulders. "I'm going to go and have a shower." He kissed the top of her head before he grabbed a clean t-shirt and sweat pants and headed into the bathroom for a quick shower, so he'd at least smell clean. "I'll need to go and have a talk with Moses." He said as he came out, towel drying his hair. "If nothing else, I need to make sure he's not buying into anything that's being said about me."
"That would mean having to bring someone else in on it.. he'd notice if it was one of us." He gave her a soft smile. "Did you know I was being shadowed when I first arrived here?" Sure, he'd run away from his parents, but his bodyguards had trouble not being what they were, and no one paid attention to the regulars at the bar, as long as they didn't cause trouble. "Is getting a tracking device possible? And putting it in the bag?" He thought about her suggestion and nodded. "We could attach one to the stacks, as well as putting one on the inside of the bag." Then again, if the bag was ditched, they could relocate the bag and still track the money.
"You're a g-grown ass m-man. Y-you'd be fine." He rested his chin on the top of her head and gave a tiny nod. "Yeah, a grown ass man who would have ended up back in the hospital if you hadn't been here. You keep me grounded. We keep each other grounded." He didn't need her to look after him, he'd been doing that all his life. Her presence stopped him from being so tunnel visioned when he wanted to do something. Life wasn't just about what he wanted anymore.
He kissed the top of her head again as he shuffled back a little and closed his eyes before pushing had hands against the floor and standing up, biting back a hiss as his ribs protested. "I'll be right back." He grabbed the packet of painkillers from his bedside table and headed into the kitchen to make the drinks. At least he could make these without having to think about what he was doing and it just all went together with ease, topping the drinks with whipped cream and marshmallows.
"We'll need to know where he takes it. If he fucks off and disappears, he'll still win - he'll have taken the money and be long gone." It was on the tip of his tongue to say that it was only money, but he knew those words would just set her hackles up again, and he didn't want to do anything to send her running now that she seemed to be calming down. "We could continue with the wonderful movie plot and have him followed?" He suggested, only half joking.
"It's not." He pressed his lips against the top of her head, knowing that trying to convince her that it would all work out just wasn't worth it, not while she was in his arms. "No, the idea was that I left, not you." He hummed his agreement. "If you left though, who would make sure I take care of myself?" Amber had been such a big part of his rehabilitation after the attack, she'd made sure that he took it easy, had been cross with him, and rightfully so, when he pushed himself. "How about I go make us a hot chocolate and then we go to bed? If you still feel you need to go in the morning..." A good dose of sugar right now seemed like a great idea.
"That sounds too simple. Give him money with some spray on it, and then what.. call the police?" Mik quirked an eyebrow. Okay, when she said it back to him like that, it sounded way too simplistic and like some stupid movie plot. It would have been easier to explain if he had the likes of his saddle and the reader for the dots on him so he could show her. "In short, yes, that's the plan... Well, more I go to the police and tell them that a large sum of money went missing from my vehicle the night I was attacked." His brows rose again though as he pulled a face, it sounded dumb!
His brows shot up as she burst into tears, and he dropped to the ground beside her, ignoring his ribs at the moment, and pulled her against him, kissing the top of her head. "It's okay, love." He soothed as he rubbed her back. "We'll get through this. We could both leave this place behind, move somewhere new, start over again." Of course, them both running away wasn't going to sort out their current problem, but it would at least put it aside for now.
Mik watched her with the bag, there was a part of him that wanted to take it again, the caveman in him wanted demand that she didn't leave, but the rational side of him knew that would be the stupidest idea he could come up with and he remained where he was, the words 'please don't go', on the tip of his tongue. He'd asked her to move in to keep her safe, not keep her from leaving.
"I know you have a sense of humour, it's one of the things I love about you, but this isn't a game." He scrubbed his hand through his hair again. "I know it's not a game, love, and I'm making a mess of trying to explain my method of handling things to you." He closed his eyes and blew out a breath, shaking his head, as he didn't want to make this about him. "I'm sorry. I am taking this seriously, I just have a warped way of demonstrating that."
"I don't understand, how are you going to get it back?" He gave a small smile. "You know how they use microchips on animals so that they can find their way home if they get lost? Well they have something a little like that for personal property too, they're called DataDots, invisible to the eye and unique, like DNA, to the owner. All we'd have to do is spray some on the bag you hand to him, and on the money itself because we both know he'll ditch the bag the first chance he gets." Sure, it would mean having the tell the police everything about himself, and why he'd been carrying that much cash in his vehicle, but that would be easy enough.
"Of course I care! It's why I have to do this... we're just going around in circles now." Mik bowed his head in agreement. "If I go to pick that up are you going to throw it again?" He slowly lifted his hands up, palms toward her. "I just wanted to talk it through." He said softly as he took a step backwards, and throwing the bag out of reach seemed to make a hell of a lot more sense than playing tug-of-war with it.
"He's gotten what he wants so far, he's been a step ahead the whole time." He nodded, it was strange how Tristan knew as much as he knew. All Mik would need was five minutes in a dark alley with Amber's ex, and he'd have all the answers he needed, but then Mik didn't really want blood on his hands, it wouldn't help the situation any. "Why do I feel like you're not taking this seriously at all? Is this just a joke to you? My feelings are a joke??" It was his turn to drag a hand through his hair. "Call it a knee-jerk reaction." He sighed. "When I was growing up, situations never seemed as dire, or punishments as painful, if I acted like it was all a game I was part of. Your feelings have never been a joke, even before I admitted to my own." It was also easier to hide his emotions behind a smile.
"I care. Because you're only doing this because of me. This hasn't come off the back of your own choice." He nodded, knowing that reminding her that this wasn't on her wasn't going to win him any arguments, he'd already put his foot in it enough. "I told you, I can't take your money." He drew in a deep breath as he tried to work out what he needed to say, and closed his eyes when his ribs protested. "We can get the money back though." He said and then pressed his lips together. She'd said it herself, they were going in circles, and he had a feeling that no matter what ideas he put on the table, she was going to leave to protect him.
"You are different. You wouldn't be thinking about leaving the person you love all the time." Mik gave her a soft smile. "You may have thought about it, but this is the first time you've acted on it." He said softly. "And the fact you were in the process of doing it, tells me how much you care."
"You're laughing at me now?" He pressed his lips together as his eyebrows shot up and he shook his head. "Because you're the shining star, the one that can do no wrong. If you think he doesn't realise they'll be camera's... he'll have found some way around it. He's not as stupid as he looks." He pulled a face. "I think the jury's still out on him being as stupid as he looks." He shrugged. "I'm just saying that with the cameras, even if he's wearing a cap and hides his face from all the cameras, our body shapes are different enough that it will be enough proof that's it's not me." He was confident enough about this that it was already sorted in his mind. "Yes, it is. He would never have come here otherwise, and he'd never have targeted your life." He grinned and kissed the tip of her nose. "He targeted me because I have something he wants." He wiggled his brows. "We could almost take it as a compliment, that he feels so threatened by us."
"No, see if you go and do that, then I've fucked up your life again." He released her hands, the last thing he wanted was for her to feel trapped right now. "You haven't told anyone else that secret, and you didn't intent to, doing that will just ruin everything, and it'll be all my fault. That's why this is the only way. I have to leave." He shrugged. "I haven't told anyone who I am, because I'm hiding from my parents." He said. "Who cares if they know where I am? I'm an adult, it's not like they can tell me I have to come home." He looked at her and arched his brows. "This could have actually been the push I've needed for a while now." He rose to his feet again, as sitting hurt more than he wanted to admit. "Why the hell would I do that?" He gave a dark grin. "Because, love, you're going to offer him a good sum of money. I was thinking somewhere around five grand, cash. Maybe the idea that you could throw the ring he is so keen on reclaiming into the offer too could tempt him. Yes, I know you've sold it, but can you describe the ring enough so that we could get something made?" Sure, no one kept that much cash on them, but it could be plausible that he had a bag of cash in the back of his car, and that was taken on the night of his attack, which Mik had only remembered about now as he was sorting out his new vehicle.
"The fact that you knew that... what kind of person does that make me?" Mik arched a brow, waiting for her to finish. "A not very nice one, clearly." He grinned with a shrug. "I've been ready to run at a moment's notice since I moved in here. We aren't that different." Hell, he had a go-bag in the boot of his vehicle at all times.
"I don't know what he's done, but to bring you under question? The golden boy?" He gave a snort of laughter at that. "How he's done it I can't imagine but if that's true he's not just trying to get you fired, he'd trying to get you jailed. Fuck," He pulled an amused face. "There are now enough cameras around the barn that I think they'll know it wasn't me putting the stuff in the locker. And how did I become the golden boy?" He had no worries about clearing his name at work, if nothing else, he'd just ask them to prove that it was him, as he'd been away for a couple of months. "And the only way you can do that, is if I'm not here, fucking it up anymore for you.""This isn't on you." He gently took hold of her hands just in case she started to try pulling her hair out. "I was thinking more along the lines of no longer hiding from my past. If that douche really wanted to ruin things for me here, as he obviously knows everything about me. He could have just dropped to the media who I am." Sure, it might be a bit hard to explain why he wanted to muck out stalls and be the under-dog once people knew who he really was, but it might take some wind out of Tristan's sails.
He used his thumbs to wipe away her tears. "I shouldn't be. I'm not deserving." He sat on the bed, wincing slightly as that tightness was still there to remind him the extra hours he'd worked, but he quickly pushed it away, and patted the spot beside him. "I've got an idea. You're totally going to hate it, but it's an idea." He'd bee throwing around ideas in his head since the memories of the night of the attack had surfaced, and he'd settled with a couple that might work, and one of them wouldn't get blood on either of their hands. The other was a tad messier. "You need to call him, and arrange a meeting."
Her flinch made him pause, and Mik pulled his emotions under check. He was angry, but that anger was in no way directed at her, and she didn't deserve his moodiness.
"I thought about it before." He nodded with a soft smile, the thought that he'd return home from his day job and find her gone had always been there. "This is not a light decision." That was a good thing, because then he'd have to question their feelings for each other, and that wasn't happening. He knew how he felt, and Amber's current actions made it clear how deeply she felt for him. "He's working on getting you fired, I don't know exactly what he's done but there were rumours of inquiries at work. It's bullshit, Mik. He's not just having fun, he's ruining your life! I am ruining your life." He nodded, as it made sense. "My locker key for BA was on my keyring, I wouldn't be surprised if a few expensive things that I don't own turned up in my locker." The jocks at school had done it enough times to those lower on the pecking order when they needed a reminder of their place. "Maybe it's time to take my life back." Dropping his cover would be a quick way of clearing his name.
"He can have it," He shook his head, wanting to shake her, needing to snap her out of this. His woman had a backbone, and he needed to remind her of this. Amber had helped pull him through the darkness of getting back on his feet after the attack, making sure he took his meds while not letting them control his life, and making sure he took it easy when he was supposed to be resting, not matter how much he wanted to push the boundaries. "I can't stay here and let it carry on, you don't deserve this, Mik, you deserve better. At least if I leave, it'll take him a moment but he'll move on too, he'll leave you be and you can move on with your life. I'll be fine, I've been here before. I should have known better, should never have settled in this damn town." He gave her a gentle kiss. "You are my life." He had never intended to settle in this damn town either, but here they were.
He frowned as he watched her. He knew that she knew he was there, her body language had given that away, but she hadn't stopped her packing, so he figured he'd wait it out right where he was.
"No, it's just me." He nodded, as he'd kinda been expecting that answer. "I'm going to go." His brows rose. "I need to leave, Mik. So, I'm moving out and I'm going to leave Hickstead." He gave a snort of laughter, not that he had all found her inner turmoil amusing, and stalked toward her. "No." He said as he took the bag from her hands and threw it across the room, he'd clean it up later, then took her hands and walked her over to the bed. "You aren't my prisoner, you've always been able to leave whenever you wanted. However, don't let that piece of pond slime make you run." He brought her hand to his lips and kissed her palm. "He's having way too much fun destroying you by messing with me." He gave a bitter laugh as he quirked an eyebrow. "I'm thinking he's at it again, from the looks I've had at work, and the fact that I'm not often left alone." Even while walking Shamrock, there had been someone constantly checking in on him. "However, love, if you run, you're letting him control you all over again. Don't give him that power."
Mik had been so happy to be able to return to work, but he was on "light duties", so he'd had to give up his night job, for now, and once the doctor was happy with his physical fitness, they would give him less restrictions. The bad part, was that Naomi was following every guideline she had been given and was watching him like a hawk - though the way he was getting side-long glances from everyone, maybe it wasn't just his health that had her watching him.
While he was supposed to be on shortened days, when an emergency had happened, and a Thoroughbred filly that Naomi had recently purchased off the track had colicked, Mik had put his hand up to walk Shamrock around the indoor arena while they waited for the vet to arrive, and it would mean he didn't go home to an empty flat with Amber working at the club.
"Just keep walking." He said softly to the filly as the flaxen chestnut tried to swing her head around to nip at her belly and he encouraged the horse along to make another circuit of the arena. The filly's registered name was Luck O' the Irish, so Shamrock was an easy barn name, and she'd got her name due to the fact that she looked like she could have been a palomino, though without the cream gene in either parent, she was simply a flaxen chestnut, but no one was going to hold that against her. She just hadn't been fast enough for the track, and rather than her being run into the ground to see if she would get faster, her owners had sold her cheap as a possible show prospect. She'd be a very nice looking horse, once she'd grown into her legs. The sudden upheaval and change in her diet though had resulted in colic, and to her being walked in circles to keep her on her feet.
He felt like he had been walking the mare for hours, losing count of how many circuits they had done, letting the youngster rest every now and then, so she didn't get too exhausted. He looked over as the door opened and he smiled when he saw Cara standing there. "The vet has arrived, and Mrs Clarke-Thorne says that it's time for you to go home." She said with a hint of a smile. "I'll keep her from rolling." Mik pulled a face, holding back any comments he wanted to make as he held the lead out for the young woman to take. "I'll see you in the morning." He knew that once the boss had decided he'd finished, there was nothing that would change her mind, and if he admitted it to himself, his chest hurt when he breathed too deeply.
It wasn't until he walked out to his vehicle, a charcoal grey Isuzu D-Max, that he realised how late it actually was, maybe he had been walking the filly around for hours. He laughed as his stomach grumbled as he unlocked the door and climbed in. With a shake of his head, he started the engine and headed home.
Pulling into his parking spot, he frowned as he looked at the building. "My Spidey senses are tingling." He gave a half smile as he jumped out and locked the vehicle, ignoring the twinge of pain from moving too quickly, as he figured that his senses were just telling him that Amber was home, and he made his way up to their flat.
He paused at the door. It was quiet, too quiet. Letting himself in, he toed his boots off and walked through the flat to their bedroom. He leaned on the door frame, silently watching, brows dipping in worry. "Are we both packing, or is it a solo holiday?" His tone was light, slightly amused.
Mik dropped what he was holding as soon as he heard a girl cry out. There were enough young people around here that that panic was easy to tell, because young people were generally quiet around the barn, or if they weren't, it was a boisterous noise. He headed in that direction.
"that's tripps ... isn't it? tripp callahan?" Mik frowned, not a name he was familiar with, though the jersey in question had the wrong colours for it to be from one of the riders here. He frowned though, as he found it hard to believe that something like that had been overlooked before now. He looked from his fellow Blue Acres people to the Seven Oaks people, left brow arched, it had the pathological signature of set-up written all over it.
"Here you go," He gave her a smile and a nod as he took the bottle, making sure that his hands didn't go anywhere near her own, as even with the gloves on, he was sure his hands were anything but clean. "Thanks."
He stepped away before opening the bottle and drinking half of it. Heading back to his vehicle, he bent over and emptied the rest of the chilled water over his head and neck, shaking his head to remove and water from his eyes. It wasn't much, but it helped him feel a little fresher. Opening the cargo bay, he threw the ruined gloves into the back and grabbed a new pair from his box of spares and pulled them on.
Heading back into the barn, he skirted around the people carrying timber out and went back to the area he had previously been working on. He was tempted to turn on the music on his phone, but resisted the urge for background noise, as he didn't know if the others would appreciate the noise, but they needed something to lighten up the atmosphere in here, so he began to whistle as he worked.
