save a horse, ride a cowboy

thanks for everyone who reviewed and asked me to continue and a special thanks to my darling karin for helping me get over my writers block! love you angel!

*indicates thoughts*

The next day found Bam packing a suitcase with old skating t-shirts, baggy jeans and shorts while his friends tried to convince him that he was making a huge mistake.

"Seriously, why are you letting him get to you this much, it's not like you're ever gonna see him again if you don't go back." Dunn pointed out as Bam tried to pick a jacket to sacrifice to mud and farm life.

"He didn't get to me." Bam denied. "I'm just doing it to prove a point, to prove that he doesn't have a fucking clue what he's talking about."

"Yeah, he didn't get to you at all." Novak muttered sarcastically. "He's a good looking guy though, don't you think?" He added in a normal tone.

"Is he? I hadn't noticed." Bam said, a light blush staining his cheeks.

"Bullshit. Even Dunn noticed and he's as straight as a ruler. The guy's hot as hell and you know it."

"Well, so what if he is? He's still an asshole." He replied petulantly. "And as soon as he admits he was wrong, I'm out of there."

Shaking their heads in dispair, Dunn and Novak left him to continue packing. He'd told his parents he was staying with a friend for a week and he'd bribed everyone who'd been with him with beer so they wouldn't tell anyone where he was really going, knowing that Ape would have a bitch fit if she knew the truth.

He finally had everything he needed packed and he lugged the large, heavy suitcase down the stairs and into the trunk of the newly fixed hummer. As Bam went into the castle to say goodbye to everyone, he found it amusing to see how his parents reacted to him leaving for the week.

Phil was his usual laid back self, patting Bam on the back and wishing him a good time and Ape alternated between worrying about what her youngest son was going to get up to and being thankful that without their ringleader, Bam's friends would be calmer which meant a more relaxing wek for her.

He took his time saying goodbye to all of his friends individually and both Dunn and Novak tried once again to convince him to stay even to the point of running off with his car keys, completely forgetting that Bam kept a spare set hiden ever since Don Vito had stolen the hummer. He kept trying to find reasons to put off leaving despite his bravado about not not caring what the other man thought of him but eventually he knew he had no choice but to go.

The journey was a two and a half hour drive at minimum, and Bam took his time doing it, actually sticking to the speed limit and stopping halfway there for a bite to eat and a drink. Despite trying to make the journey last as long as he could, it seemed to take very little time and Bam still hadn't fully prepared himself by the time he arrived at the ranch. Pulling into the driveway, he parked right in front of the cottage before taking a deep breath and knocking on the door.

When nobody answered, Bam knocked again impatiently, not used to being made to wait. It soon became obvious though that Ville wasn't in the house to greet him as Bam had expected him to be. His face twisting into a scowl, Bam stomped back down off the porch and started to search the grounds for the missing cowboy, already irritated by him even though he hadn't even seen him.

After wandering round almost the entire ranch, a tired and very disgruntled Bam finally found Ville outside the stables apparently just flicking straw around with a giant fork. He opened his mouth to complain about the way he was already being treated but quickly shut it again after actually taking in the sight of him.

Ville was shirtless, sweat slowly dripping down a toned, tattooed and remarkably pale chest and disappearing as they reached the waistline of a skin tight looking pair of black jeans. He'd forgone the cowboy hat and instead his chin length brown curls were kept out of his face by a black bandana. Bam choked out a gasping breath as the cowboy bent to pick up something he'd found on the floor and he was given the treat of seeing the crease of the top of Ville's gorgeous firm ass making it blatently obvious that he wasn't wearing any underwear under the form fitting pants.

Dragging his eyes away from tempting sight, Bam attempted to convince himself that he didn't find him attractive despite other parts of his anatomy strongly disagreeing with him. Thankful that he was wearing baggy jeans, he made his presence known by clearing his throat loudly and smirking as the cowboy spun round in shock.

"Oops, did I scare you?!" Bam asked, his eyes wide with fake innocence that was slightly ruined by the smirk tugging at the corners of his mouth making Ville glare at him for a few moments before composing himself enough to speak.

"I didn't think you'd have the guts to turn up."

"I told you I would, I don't lose especially not to someone like you."

"Well that's just great princess." Ville sneered. "I'm pretty much done here so wait for a few seconds and I'll show your royal highness to your quarters."

Bam rolled his eyes at Ville's names for him and his heavy sarcasm but decided to let it slide for the time being. Instead, he concentrated on watching the muscles in the cowboy's back ripple as he broke up one last bale and spread it around before putting the pitchfork away and checking that all the stable doors were shut and locked.

Once he was happy with everything however, he simply walked off without a second glance at Bam, obviously assuming that he knew to follow him. They walked in silence back to the house, Bam's irritation growing by the second especially when Ville walked straight into the house without even offering to help him with his bags.

Huffing and puffing dramatically to get his attention didn't work so Bam finally pulled his suitxase and duffel bag through the screen door, letting it slam satisfyingly behind him. Not seeing Ville anywhere, he looked through into the lounge and was suprised and a little relieved to see that it had been cleaned. It still wasn't up to the standard he was used to but it was enough that he didn't feel like he had to scrub his hands clean every time he touched something. He jumped slightly as Ville came up behind him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Oops, did I scare you?" He mocked, mimicking Bam's earlier words and despite himself, Bam felt a small smile tugging at his lips.

"You cleaned." He pointed out lamely, unable to think of anything else to say to him.

"Yeah well, I always do when I have guests, even if I don't like them. Come on, I'll show you where you'll be sleeping."

Once again, the cowboy wandered off ahead and Bam was left to haul his luggage up the rickety staircase. When he finally reached the top, Ville was standing in the doorway of the most basic room Bam had ever seen. The room was painted beige with a pale wooden floor. Dirty white blinds covered the windows and the only two pieces of furniture in the whole room were a metal framed double bed and an old dresser that had most of the paint peeling off it.

"This is where I'm staying?" Bam asked in disbelief.

"If you don't like it then you can always go and sleep in the stables with the horses." Ville replied with a scowl.

"No, this is fine." Bam said quickly, sure that the cowboy wouldn't hesitate in making him sleep outside with the animals.

"Good. Then I suggest you go to bed now and get some sleep because you'll be awake early tomorrow morning and it's a long days work that you're obviously not used to."

"Now? It's only 10pm. You don't seriously go to bed this early?" Bam protested.

"Yes I really go to bed this early. It's up to you if you do or not but no matter how much sleep you've had you'll be ready to leave the house at 4am."

"In the morning?!" Bam yelped in shock.

"That's usually what AM means." Ville said dryly, smirking inwardly at Bam's expression of horror. "if you can't handle it....."

"I can handle it." Bam snapped. "I just didn't expect to have to get up so early, I was a little suprised so if you don't mind, I'll be going to sleep now."

He netered the room, pushing past Ville as he went and shutting the door in the other man's face as he tried to regain some of his dignity. As soon as he heard Ville's footsteps fade away down the hall, he was straight on the phone to Dunn.

"Hello?"

"Hey dude, it's Bam."

"Hey man, how's it going? Have you knocked out the pretty boy yet?!" Bam could hear the laughter in his best friend's voice and he allowed himself a small smile.

"No, but I've been tempted, trust me. Do you know what time I have to be ready to work? 4am, can you believe that? Who the hell starts work at 4am?" Bam ranted, not giving Dunn a chance to speak. "I'm usually just going to bed at that time."

"Then give up and come home dude, you're the only one losing here. I mean, he gets free labour for a week and a chance to make you do all the shitty jobs he hates. What do you get out of it?"

"I get the chance to prove that I can do all this stupid country shit just as well as he can."

Dunn sighed heavily down the phone in resignation. "Whatever man, I'll see you soon." He hung up, leaving Bam standing in the middle of his cold, bare room listening to a dial tone.

It took Bam a long time to get to sleep that night, it felt weird sleeping in a house that was completely quiet, there was always someone awake and making noise at his place so the silence seemed deafening. He finally fell asleep despite the hard matress making his back ache where he'd broken his tailbone, only to be woken again after what felt like minutes rather than hours by a pounding on his door and Ville's deep accented voice drifting into the room.

"Time to get up city boy, I'm not letting you make me behind in my work. You've got twenty minutes to be ready."

Confused, Bam took a look at his clock and cursed as he realized he'd forgotten to set his alarm and it was twenty to four already. Jumping out of bed, he grabbed a clean set of clothes and ran down the hallway to have the quickest shower of his life. Running his fingers through his hair in an attempt to tame it, he headed downstairs with five minutes to spare.

"Huh, you made it on time." Ville stated, begrudging respect on his face.

"So I passed the first test?" Bam asked sarcastically, still squinting against the harsh light of the kitchen.

"Yeah but I wouldn't get too cocky about it sweetheart, you've still got a lot of work to do before I believe you can handle it."

The term of endearment had slipped out and Ville cringed, hoping that Bam hadn't picked up on it. The last thing he wanted was to be accused of being gay. He was sure that the city boy wouldn't even think twice before beating him up, not even bothering to find out if it was true or not. Thankfully Bam didn't seem to have noticed.

"Get your coat on and lets go." He said, desperate to change the conversation.

"What? I don't even get to have a coffee?"

"No, if you want coffee or breakfast before you start work then you need to get up earlier."

"You should have woken me up earlier then and not left it til the last minute."

"I'm not your fucking maid." Ville exploded, furious with the other man's statement. "You're not at home now. While you're here you work for me so learn to take orders because you'll be getting a lot of them. Now get your fucking coat on so we can get to work."

He stormed off ahead, not sure if he could be in the same room as Bam without punching him. The reason for his anger soon caught up with him when he was halfway across the courtyardand neither of them said a word to each other but out of the corner of his eye, Ville couldn't help but notice a scowl was etched onto Bam's handsome face.

*Handsome face? Where the fuck did that come from?* Ville thought, slightly panicked. He knew that he was straight, he'd never even had the slightest urge to look at another man in any other way than platonic and he wasn't about to start doing so with the annoying little rich brat that was staying in his house. Especially one who tried to hide his arrogance behind pretty blue eyes and hoped everyone fell for them.

Ville was so caught up in his inner rant that he didn't notice that Bam seemed to be walking a lot slower than an athletic young man should be, neither did he notice the slight wince of pain that crossed his face every so often. They finally came to a stop in front of an enclosure filled with Rhode island red chickens.

"Your first job is to collect all the eggs." Ville said tersely, handing Bam a bucket.

"Well, are you gonna tell me where they are? I can't collect them if I don't know where to go."

"For fucks sake Bam, they hardly leave detailed maps letting us know where they've laid their eggs do they. You have to search for them so I hope those are old jeans because you'll be spending a lot of time on your hands and knees searching for the all the eggs." Ville replied trying not to smirk.

"But the whole place is covered in bird shit and they'll flay away as soon as I open the gate." Bam protested, in a last ditch effort not to do the job.

"Birds have a tendancy to do that Bam and they won't fly away because they've all had their wings clipped but they can run so remember to shut the gate behind you once you're in there. Now, I want the job done quickly because after this you need to hose down the cattle shed." He walked away quickly, leaving Bam to gape in horror at his retreating back.

*********

Bam was in hell. It was the only explanation. He'd spent two hours practically crawling around an enclosure full of chickens that kept pecking at him viciously and getting covered in more disgusting things than he had filming jackass.

Then finally he was done and Ville came along, took the bucket of eggs into a shed next to the enclosure and directed over to what he explained was the cattle shed. A filthy cattle shed that Bam was supposed to hose down with water and clean with a huge brush. So here he was, pro skater and element's poster child, pushing water and cow shit around with a broom.

A priest had once told him that he would go to hell for being gay and Bam idly thought that maybe this was God's way of punishing him. Unusual, but definitely effective. The cattle shed was clean pretty quickly though and once again Ville appeared to give him another job. In fact, this time he was given a list of jobs so that Ville wouldn't have to keep coming back to him.

Bam honestly couldn't remember the last time he'd worked so hard. He'd always thought he was pretty fit because of all the skating he did but just working like he was, was making muscles ache tat he didn't even know he had. Unfortunately though, all the jobs he'd been given were heavy lifting or pushing things, jobs that didn't do much to help his aching back.

As he started moving the first bale of straw into the barn so it wouldn't get ruined if it rained, Bam glanced at his watch, noticing with shock that it was almost five in the afternoon and he hadn't stopped working once. He also hadn't seen Ville for a while and he wondered whether the cowboy was actually working too or whether he was sitting inside his house watching tv and laughing at the fact that he was doing all the work.

Ville, despite Bam's thoughts, had actually been working as hard as usual, stopping only when people stopped by. He'd finally finished all the jobs that he had to do that day, at least until he had to put all the animals to bed later that evening, and he decided to go and check on Bam.

He checked all the places he knew Bam could be based on the job list he'd given him and checked his work as he went. He had to admit that although the other man obviously didn't know his way around a farm, he was doing pretty well. Stopping outside the barn, he stood and watched Bam for a few minutes, shaking his head in exasperation as he saw the pain on his face every time he bent down or lifted something heavy. He also knew that Bam wouldn't admit to it unless he said something first.

"So, are you done yet?" He asked, making his presence known.

"Almost, just one last bale to get." Bam replied.

"Leave it, that one's fine. I'll use it for the horses later this evening. Come on, all the jobs are done for now, time to go back to the house."

Trying to keep the thankful look off his face, Bam tried to keep pace with the taller man as they headed back to the cottage.

"Your friend Ryan came by today." Ville suddenly said.

"Really?"

"Yeah, he said he wouldn't stay and talk, he just wanted to drop off your pain meds that you'd forgotten."

Bam only just caught the perscription bottle as it was thrown his way and he looked up into Ville's expressive green eyes as he tried to think of an excuse.

"It's...they're.... it's just for...."

"I know what they're for Bam, Ryan told me. Why the hell didn't you tell me that you're only just recovering from a broken tailbone? Are you a complete idiot? You must have been in excruciating pain today and if you'd have just told me to start with I could have given you jobs that wouldn't have aggravated it." Ville sounded angry but he didn't raise his voice so Bam knew that he was actually concerned for him and not angry that he couldn't do the work now.

"I....I don't know why I didn't tell you. I thought I'd be ok and I didn't want to seem like a pussy." Bam admitted quietly.

"You don't seem like a pussy, you seem like an idiot who won't be working at all tomorrow because you're gonna be in a lot of pain from today's stupid act of testosterone."

"I'll be fine to work tomorrow now that I've got my meds." Bam protested.

"No you won't, and as I've already said, I'm the boss. Tomorrow you'll be resting and if you get bored I might be able to find you some small jobs like washing the eggs and grooming the horses. No lifting or bending and definitely no arguing with me about it."

Bam glanced at the floor without saying a word, feeling slightly ashamed of himself so he nearly jumped out of his skin when he felt a warm arm wrap round his waist.

"Come on, lean on me because it's obviously hurting you to walk at the moment." Ville helped him back into the house without another word and sat him down in a chair. When he knelt down in front of him though, Bam had to say something.

"What are you doing?"

"What does it look like? I'm taking off your shoes because they're covered in mud and I doubt that you can do it in the state that you're in."

"Oh."

Bam kept silent as Ville removed his shoes and went into the kitchen, coming back only a few minutes later with a tray holding two bowels of steaming hot soup, a plate of crusty bread and butter and two cups of coffe. There was also a glass of water for Bam to take his tablets with.

"I have a woman who comes over during the day and cooks for me." Ville explained as he saw the confused look on Bam's face.

Giving Bam his food, Ville sat down with his own in the chair facing Bam. "Ok listen. We got off to a bad start and we've both been pretty annoying to each other but we're gonna be living and working together for the rest of the week so why don't we try to make a fresh start?

"Sure, why not." Bam said after a pause, giving Ville a small smile.

"Well in that case, lets get to know each other."

Bam sighed. This was going to be an interesting night.