The Man Behind The Tan
Ken x GN!Reader
Summary: He's so good at Beach!
Soundtrack: I'm Just Ken by Ryan Gosling
Requests: Sure.
Warnings: Patriarchy.
"Hey!"
You look up from your latte to see someone you're only sort of familiar with doing a light jog towards you, a man with similarly bleached blond hair trailing behind. You tnink maybe he's dying? Weird that they'd be coming to you for that.
"Oh, hey, Barbie," you say as they get closer.
You know Barbie -- Barbara -- through a mutual work friend. The man, you've never seen or met before but you are assuming he's either her brother or boyfriend. He has to be one of those two things and there is absolutely no in between, of that you are certain.
He looks weirdly surprised to hear the name Barbie -- so probably not a relative. Surely a boyfriend would call her Barbie, though? Maybe they're not as close as you thought. Part of you wonders if maybe she just happened to find an uncannily similar stranger.
Did she kidnap this man!?
"What... what's up?" you ask, motioning to the poor guy. Despite having an Adonisian body, it seems like he had a lot of trouble keeping up with Barbie.
"Oh! Right," she says, moving back and pushing him closer to you. "This is Keeeen."
"Hi, Keeeen."
She giggles, then takes a few steps back, giving him an encouraging thumbs up and a radiant smile.
"Uh... hey," he replies, trying to cooly and casually lean against something. There's nothing to lean against, though, so he just ends up almost taking a tumble while looking weirdly adorkable.
"To what do I owe the pleasure?" you prompt, looking between the two of them.
"Barbie, uh... tells me you have horses."
"Oh! Yeah, I have a few."
"That's so cool."
You blink in surprise as he sits down way too close to you, leaning in with an intense stare. "I love horses."
"O-oh."
You look up and notice that Barbie has disappeared.
Son of a bitch, you've been set up.
"What are their names?" Ken asks, and to his benefit he does seem genuinely interested.
"Well, um... there's Lightning, and Cookie, then there's Panda, and finally Critical Failure."
You can see him process the names and know the exact moment he realizes one of those names is not like the others.
"You named a horse Critical Failure? Why would you do that?"
Laughing a little, you explain: "Well, he started off as a foster but I fell in love so I ended up adopting him. Normally we call that a foster fail, but that's not a good name for a horse so I named him Critical Failure. Everyone calls him Crit, though. And I'd never ever call him a failure for real. He's the best horse I've had -- but don't tell the others."
It is odd, almost, how attentive he is. Normally when you talk to people about your horses, they get bored or annoyed. Even when they're the ones who asked.
But he is enraptured. He asks so many questions, all of them exactly the right thing to ask at the moment. Your conversation goes far longer than your conversations about your horses normally do. In fact, when you look at your phone to see the time, you are smacked in the face with it. Somehow, you've been talking to this stranger about your horses for over an hour.
"Damn, I'm so sorry, but I have to go."
"Oh... well.... okay. Yeah. That's cool. Me too..."
There is a pang in your heart at the sadness in his voice.
"But, hey, I can give you my number --"
"I'd really love that!"
You giggle at his enthusiasm. He immediately takes it to mean you're laughing at him and goes back to his nonchalant facade.
"No -- no, I'm so sorry, I wasn't laughing at you," you reassure him. "I'm just... not used to people being so enthusiastic. It's really nice."
"Oh,” he says, before he beams at you. "You're really nice."
And now you're blushing. Stupid hormones. You can almost feel them flooding you.
As a distraction, you pull out a pen and piece of paper from your bag and jot down your name and number.
"There you go," you say as you hand it over.
"Sublime," he says, smiling that radiant smile at you.
You want to melt. "Maybe we can arrange for you to meet the horses sometime."
"Wait, you'd let me meet them? Oh my God... I've never met a horse before..."
"Oh? The way you talk about them, I would've thought you have a ton!"
"We don't have horses where I come from."
He looks sad. It makes you sad, too, to think of someone who loves them so much not being able to have them. But also, what the fuck kind of place doesn't have horses!? Definitely not a place you'd ever want to be.
On a whim, you lean in and give Ken a soft, comforting peck on the cheek. He's blushing when you pull away.
"It's okay," you tell him with a smile. "You can visit me -- mine... pretty much whenever you'd like. They love people. They'll love you. And, I mean, um... I think you're pretty nice."
He blushes, but this time recovers quickly with a smirk. "Do you think I'm cool?"
"I... yeah. Yeah. You're cool. Really cool."
"Hell yeah." He holds up the piece of paper with your name and number with a wink. "I'll definitely call you... as soon as I get a phone."
He starts backing away, looking less cool and more ridiculous, but you can't help but watch as if it's the coolest thing you've ever seen. At some point, Barbie reappears and leads him away, and you're left wondering what they're talking about as they leave.
You know what you're going to be thinking about all day...
















