Title: Centaur
Pairing: Luck
Related Chapter: none
Word Count: 1761

Sanghyuk watched at Hakyeon lead Taekwoon into the arena, a glare quickly forming on his face as he turned to Wonsik.

“Hongbin hasn’t even been injured a week,” Sanghyuk scowled, “and you’re already getting me a new rider? And Taekwoon of all people?”

“This isn’t a replacement or anything,” Wonsik quickly said, knowing all too well the dangers of upsetting his fellow centaur and best friend, “you need someone to help you train until we know if Hongbin can come back or not. And if he can’t.....well, maybe Taekwoon could be your new rider.”

“Yeah right,” Sanghyuk scoffed before turning back to the approaching humans, “he’s an abysmal rider, always making simple mistakes. Jaehwan could be winning competitions like us if he had a different rider.” Sanghyuk didn’t completely mean that, but he was a little too angry over his current situation to care about the harshness of his words.

“Sanghyuk,” Wonsik tried to scold him, but by this point the two humans were in ear shot and he couldn’t allow Taekwoon to know about Sanghyuk’s harsh words.

Even if they were kind of true.

“Don’t glare so much, Sanghyuk,” Hakyeon sighed, “you know you need to train each day if you want to be ready for that competition next month. Hongbin can’t train with you with his injury, so Taekwoon has to step in.” Hakyeon paused, “unless you’d like to pass on the competition.”

Sanghyuk glared at the human. Hakyeon just had to press that button, didn’t he? He knew the affect it would have, knew that Sanghyuk would never pass on winning an important competition he’d won for the last three years. He knew and he was using that to his advantage to get his way. Not that Sanghyuk should be surprised, Hakyeon had been doing this since they were young.

“Whatever,” Sanghyuk hissed before heading off to retrieve his saddle.

“He’s beautiful,” Taekwoon couldn’t help remark when Sanghyuk was out of ear shot.

“He is,” Hakyeon nodded, “I’ve already said he could have easily gone into the show category and won everything with those kinds of looks.”

“It’s part of the reason why he and Hongbin fit so well together,” Wonsik nodded with a small chuckle.

It was true, the handsome rider and beautiful centaur were quite the match from a visual standpoint. The fact that they worked so well together, almost like they shared the same mind at times, just made them a perfect fit when it came to winning riding competitions.

“He doesn’t like me, though,” Taekwoon sighed, not even trying to hide how much that hurt him.

Even if he did try to hide it, Hakyeon and Wonsik both knew his real feelings. Taekwoon had always had a crush on Sanghyuk. Ever since he’d come home with Hakyeon for the first time in grade six and seen Sanghyuk playing out in the field with Wonsik and Hongbin, he’d been in love with the centaur. Sanghyuk, however, never noticed Taekwoon or his feelings until the human decided to become a rider.

Even then, Sanghyuk only seemed to notice his mistakes.

Taekwoon didn’t fault Sanghyuk for it, though. The other had always been so focused on winning for a very good reason; it brought money in for Hakyeon and Hongbin’s family. The family had never really had too much money and around the time Sanghyuk started to compete they’d been thinking very seriously of selling everything since they were having so much trouble paying the bills.

Once Sanghyuk started competing and winning, that changed. The money he and Hongbin won was more than enough to pay for everything. It was something both took great pride in as proved by the shelves of ribbons and trophies they kept in the house and barn that were easily spotted once you entered either.

However, being the main source of income was a very stressful position for both Sanghyuk and Hongbin. They were only thirteen and being that kind of position was far too much stress for kids so young. It was why they were so grateful when Wonsik started to compete with Hakyeon a few years later. Having the two fifteen year olds winning competitions took a lot of stress off.

Taekwoon knew Sanghyuk had been looking forewords to Jaehwan joining them on the leader boards when he turned thirteen and was able to compete, been so relieved at the idea of having someone else working to bring in money for the family that owned them. It didn’t matter that Jaehwan had only been eleven at the time, that Sanghyuk would have to wait a couple of years, he’d still been so happy about Jaehwan competing.

And then Taekwoon was assigned to be Jaehwan’s rider.

Jaehwan hadn’t started competing until he was sixteen and Taekwoon was twenty.

They’d been competing together for five years.

They had only placed in the top five once in the past three years.

--

“Focus,” Sanghyuk hissed, annoyed about having to say the same thing five times already, “you know where your hands should be, so why aren’t they there?”

“Sorry,” Taekwoon quickly apologized before fixing himself.

“You are improving,” Sanghyuk sighed when he glanced over his shoulder and caught sight of Taekwoon’s hurt expression, “and you have the skills to do very well. What you lack is the focus to actually do things correctly.”

“I’m sorry,” Taekwoon hung his head slightly, earning himself another tried sigh from Sanghyuk.

“Get off,” Sanghyuk said, “take five or something. You aren’t going to be able to do anything if you’re like this.”

“I’m--,” Sanghyuk cut him off.

“Stop apologizing,” the centaur huffed, “it started to grate on my nerves after the tenth apology in as many minutes.”

“I just want to be good for you,” Taekwoon sight, carefully dismounting, “to make up for Hongbin not being here.”

“You can’t be Hongbin level,” Sanghyuk told him, “no one can be at Hongbin’s level unless the train as long and as hard as he does.”

“Right,” Taekwoon sighed, hating how inept he was compared to Hongbin.

“You’ve got talent, Taekwoon,” Sanghyuk lightly smacked he human’s shoulder, “you can be a great rider if you just focus and remember what you’ve been taught.”

“Right,” Taekwoon nodded, to really believing Sanghyuk. Not with his pathetic performances the past five years since he started training to be a rider.

“Taekwoon,” Sanghyuk scowled, “do you know what I thought when I first saw you?”

“No.” Taekwoon wasn’t even aware Sanghyuk had ever seen him until the first time he rode Jaehwan. Well, tried to anyway. Taekwoon had fallen off within seconds and Jaehwan accidently kicked him leaving a horrible bruise across his back.

“It was the first time Hakyeon brought you home after school,” Sanghyuk recounted, “I was playing in the field with Wonsik and Hongbin rushed out to join us the second he was off the bus. You and Hakyeon got off a minute later and headed for the house. I saw you stop about half way up the drive way and watch us. You looked so enthralled watching us, I knew you’d end up becoming a rider.”

“What?” Taekwoon blinked, not at all expecting Sanghyuk to say something like that.

“It goes without saying that I was disappointed when you didn’t perform as I expected,” Sanghyuk sighed, “I’ve always known you could do so much better then you have been. I’ve just never been able to figure out why you’re always so distracted that you forget things that I know you know.”

Taekwoon couldn’t answer, still trying to process Sanghyuk’s words. He’d.....he’d been watching Taekwoon practice? The human had never noticed. Sanghyuk expected him to perform well? He didn’t think Sanghyuk had even known him name until it showed up beside Jaehwan’s under the rider title.

Sanghyuk fought back the urge to smile as he watched the thoughts playing out on Taekwoon’s face. The human really was adorable. Even though he’d matured so much since the day they first saw each other, his cuteness hadn’t faded in Sanghyuk’s eyes.

“Taekwoon,” Sanghyuk finally said, “I want to know why you’re always so distracted.”

“I don’t know,” Taekwoon replied, lying through his teeth.

“Sometimes,” Sanghyuk said, “I think it’s your crush on me. Other times I have no idea what it is.”

“Yeah I--,” Taekwoon looked up at Sanghyuk, beyond startled, “you....you...know?”

“You’re rather obvious at times,” Sanghyuk nodded, “adorably so.”

“I.......” Taekwoon struggled to form words.

“Sanghyuk!!” both turned, startled by the sudden interruption of Sanghyuk’s normal rider, “guess what? I can ride again in a week!”

“Really?” Sanghyuk grinned brightly, smile matching the one on Hongbin’s face, “that’s great.”

“Just in time for the competition,” Hongbin laughed before turning to Taekwoon, “think you can look after him for another week, Taekwoon? Then you can go back to practicing with Jaehwan.” Taekwoon just nodded silently, feeling hurt and jealous that it time with Sanghyuk would soon be done.

“Hongbin!” Hakyeon snapped, rushing in a few seconds later with Wonsik close behind, “get back to the house! You shouldn’t be walking around yet, let alone running.”

“I had to tell Hyukkie the good news,” Hongbin shrugged, allowing Hakyeon to lead him out of the arena, “you know he needed to hear it from me, too.”

“Still,” Hakyeon ranted about Hongbin’s need to ensure his injury didn’t get irritated or anything like that, voice slowly fading away as the brothers got farther away.

“Congrats, little brother,” Wonsik patted Sanghyuk’s shoulder before leaving as well, “bet you’re happy to get Hongbin back.”

Alone once more, Taekwoon felt a little like crying. Not only was him time as Sanghyuk’s rider almost up, but the centaur knew of his crush and was about to reject him. The day truly couldn’t get any worse.

“Even with Hongbin coming back,” Sanghyuk finally said, “I’m still going to be working with you. We need to get you over this lack of focus so you can be as good as I know you can be. I’d leave it for Jaehwan, but he’s far too nice to push you like you should be pushed.”

“Wait,” Taekwoon frowned, “I...I thought you wouldn’t want to have anything to do with me now.”

“Adorable,” Sanghyuk smiled slightly, ruffling the human’s hair before leaning down to press a quick kiss to his forehead, “you look so adorable when you worry about stupid things. It’s one of the things I like most about you.”

Taekwoon just blushed, unable to form words. Which was find because Sanghyuk just wanted to hold the human for a moment.

A/N: wow. I did not at all expect this to turn into this. I mean, I started with one idea and then lost it part way through ‘cuz I started straying from that idea and then I just went wherever the the words took me on this and.....now I have this. I like it, even if the odd part sounds a little odd.

So a timeline/background would probably be helpful, right?

• Hakyeon and Hongbin’s family own a farm with several centaurs. Wonsik and Sanghyuk are brothers who were born on the farm and have always known Hakyeon and Hongbin. Jaehwan was purchased by the family when he was young along with his mother. Hakyeon and Taekwoon met in grade six and instantly became friends.

• Taekwoon was 11 and Sanghyuk 9 when they first met. Hongbin was also 9 while Wonsik and Hakyeon were 11 and Jaehwan was only 7.

• 4 years later, at the start of the year, Sanghyuk and Hongbin started to compete and half way through the year Hakyeon and Wonsik joined them. Both started winning pretty much from the get go. At the end of the year, Taekwoon took up riding and was assigned to Jaehwan.

• 5 years later Jaehwan and Taekwoon start competing. By this point, both the Hakyeon-Wonsik and Hongbin-Sanghyuk pairs have many, many wins under their belts.

• This story takes place 5 years after that. Hakyeon and Wonsik aren’t as into the competitions now, focusing more on teaching other human-centaur pairs, but the others are all active competitors. Hongbin injured his leg when trying a jump a week prior to the start of the story.