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Alex wasn’t afraid of horses. He wasn’t.
It’s just – well, it’s been a while.
There wasn’t really a lot of horses in D.C. or N.Y.C. and despite Henry’s best efforts, he’s avoided getting anywhere near Henry’s horses when they’ve been at Kensington over the years.
Yet, when they bought this farmhouse and their wedding was now over, Henry’s first order of business was to fill the barn with horses. Not many horses, but certainly a few.
His second order of business was to get Alex on a horse-riding date.
Which is how he’s standing in the doorway of their barn watching Henry buckle the saddles for Melody and Zane, the two horses he’d decided would be perfect for this date.
Their first date as a married couple.
… yay.
“Alright, love,” Henry says as he leads the horses towards Alex. “I know it’s been quite a bit of time since you were astride a horse, but you don’t need my help to get on Melody, do you?”
Alex bristles at the implication. The challenge. Henry knows just what buttons to push to get him on that horse, even if he’s nervous. “I’m perfectly capable of riding a horse, Hen.”
“I never said you weren’t,” Henry offers. “Just thought that you might like your husband to help you up like the princess you are.”
He’s teasing and smiling and damn it Alex should never have made a joke about being Princess Alex nor gotten the online world all a flutter teasing about when he’ll officially be a princess. It’s not his title – he’s technically a duke (though some people joke about duchess) – but everyone always teasingly calls him princess and well, he can’t quite help the way he actually enjoys the joke coming from Henry.
He coughs as he flushes. “Well, I suppose if my prince charming really wants it, I should probably let him help.”
Henry brightens, absolutely delighted that he gets the of prince charming to his princess Alex.
So, Alex dons his helmet and lets Henry help him up into the saddle and hands him the reigns.
“All set, love?”
He shifts a bit being back up on a horse who knows how long feels weird, but he smiles. “All good, baby.”
“Good,” Henry says as he gets himself onto the Zane. “Then, our date awaits.”
“Let’s go.”
***
Alex wasn’t exactly sure where this date was meant to take them, but a random field near a pond of some sort hadn’t actually topped the list of ideas that he had.
Although, he can’t say that he’s all that surprised. Of course it was more than just a ride through their land, chatting about how excited they are to fully get settled in their new home in Texas.
Texas is a far cry from New York or England, but it’s… home.
“I never really thought that I would miss it as much as I have,” he says, as Henry helps him down from his horse in this cute, random field.
There’s a post to tie horses to right by the pond, so clearly, they aren’t the only ones that have come here (or plan to come here). Maybe it had been the reason that Henry had chosen this place to stop.
As Henry pulls the basket that was attached to his horse, he says, “Perhaps you miss the life you used to have. The freedoms that you lost when your mum became the front-runner for President.”
Alex hums. It’s true. Unlike normal eighteen-year-olds who were let out into the world to explore and be their own person without parental oversight, Alex had ten times more oversight on his activities. He shudders a bit thinking about paperwork on his sex life, commentary on his behavior in public, and the whole entire leak.
But… “You do realize that I’ll always have people watching me now that I’m your princess.”
Henry hums as he lays out the blanket for a cute little picnic. “Yes, but you see, with us married now, people will lose interest, especially as we become your typical boring couple in Texas.”
Alex can’t help laughing as they sit on the blanket and pull out drinks and snacks. “Yeah, we’re totally going to be a typical boring couple.”
“We could be,” Henry offers, grabbing his hand and kissing his ring. “At least to outside world. The world that has waned somewhat in their interest in us.”
He makes a good point. They’ve done their best to be a normal uninteresting couple – not for the sake of his ma’s presidency or his dad’s surprise hat-in-the-ring-can’t-believe-they-have-a-mexican-american-divorced-single-president, but for their own privacy desires – to the rest of the world for years after what happened with the Leak. It seems to be working. Other people causing drama has managed to avert their interest and it’s only the chaos of the wedding (and so many people asking if Phillip intended to ruin their wedding cake) that caused the interest to uptick again.
His father, despite becoming president (and hadn’t that been a weird inauguration), hadn’t reinstituted the first son nonsense. Stating plainly that his children have a right to their own lives and privacy and enough had been taken from them (from him) already. It was not a surprise when that caused a huge fight between Oscar and Ellen, but Alex appreciated that he was finally being the dad that Alex needed.
“True,” Alex admits. “I can appreciate that somewhat disappearing to Texas will likely help.”
“As will focusing on what we want to do rather than anyone else,” Henry states. “Like this picnic. Our first picnic as a married couple, no one around, just you, me and our steeds.”
Alex laughs as he watches the horses happily munching on some grass. “Yeah, I hadn’t exactly thought much about a farmhouse and getting horses after all this time, but I think I’m going to like regular horse-riding dates to this random field where no one can find us or see us.”
It’s peaceful and relaxing and he’s definitely not going to complain about that.
Henry grins. “I like the sound of that, love. You, me and regular dates with our steeds. Sounds like a great plan for the start of our marriage.”
Alex laughs with a devious smile. “You know what might be an even greater start to our marriage?”
“Packing this up and taking a ride home to have a little more fun with your new husband?” Henry says with a glint in his eye, but a completely straight face.
Alex grins. “Absolutely.”
He leans forward and gives him a kiss. “Race you there, love?”
“Gladly.”
“Good.”