Word Count: 1,577
Archive: DarkMagick.net, Apollymi’s Grimoire, and Archive of Our Own. Anyone else wanting it, please ask first. I’ll probably say yes, but ask first…[endsection]
“I ain’t too sure I like this plan,” Joshua said for the third time in twice as many minutes.
This plan being, Sam and Billy strolling in through the main road to town while their new Comanche companion Red Harvest—who, unless he was sorely mistaken, was the long-missing third to his old friend’s triad that had already lost their second a decade prior—was to take to the rooftops and Jack Horne, Joshua, Gabriel, and Goodnight himself were to slip in quietly by the lesser traveled back roads.
Horne and Red Harvest were already making their way to their positions, while Joshua was still scowling in annoyance. Gabriel didn’t look much inclined to argue with the young man, and Goodnight really didn’t much care for this plan either but was willing to give it a shot.
“There’s only twenty-three Blackstones in town,” he reminded his two newest partners. “Young Teddy and Miss Emma confirmed that before we arrived. It won’t really require all of us to take them down, plus we need to leave someone alive to deliver the message back to Bogue.”
“Well,” Joshua groused, “I don’t like that you’ve gotta cover everyone the way Chisolm wants.”
Frankly, Goodnight didn’t like it either. But he had his Winchester, and it hadn’t let him down before today. Hopefully things would continue on that path, even if he hoped that he wouldn’t need to fire a single round. He’d already had one nightmare on the way here, only keeping from waking the whole camp by virtue of Billy wrapping around him during the night and waking him with soothing words and reassurances that they were all okay.
“It’ll be fine, mon coeur,” he said instead. “I’m positive that neither you, Gabriel, nor Billy’ll let anyone even get close to me.”
“Es verdad,” Gabriel said sharply, moving to split off down his alleyway. He paused for a moment then caught Goodnight’s chin and pressed a firm kiss to his mouth. “Buena suerte, mijo,” he murmured before repeating the gesture on Joshua, replacing mijo with guerito then slipping away.
“What he said,” Joshua remarked, grinning brightly and moving to drop a quick kiss of his own to the corner of the older man’s mouth. “I’ve got your back, Goody.”
Goodnight smiled wanly and watched as Joshua slipped quietly across the street to the saloon and stepped carefully up onto the walkway before ducking down the small side street between the general store and the livery. He quickly checked to make sure the rifle was loaded—yep, and one round in the chamber—and waited for Sam’s signal.
When it came, he wasn’t entirely surprised that the Blackstones decided to escalate the situation. And as he’d suspected, once the shooting started, the closest any of their enemy got to him was ten feet away, with both Joshua and Gabriel taking extreme exception to those who opted to rush the sniper.
It was a damn good thing, because once shots were fired, he found himself thrown back into the darkest days of the War, and he couldn’t entirely trust his eyes or his ears.
Once it grew silent again, Goodnight was able to wrestle himself back to the present, only to be startled as the Blackstone leader nearly ran him down on his desperate ride out of Rose Creek. Instinct had him taking aim with the Winchester, but the old fear held him frozen.
“Goody, take the shot,” Joshua’s voice came at his shoulder, and he tensed as his hands once again wouldn’t do what he wanted. There was a beat, as the Blackstone rode further away, then one of his coeur’s arms slipped around his waist. “Aim for me, babe,” he said, voice practically a breath in his ear, and Goodnight knew immediately what his partner had planned.
Still holding his aim true, Goodnight let his finger slip the guard… and Joshua’s hand replaced it and pulled the trigger.
Five hundred yards out from Rose Creek, the Blackstone agent lurched forward on his horse but managed to remain in place. He seemed to kick the horse to go faster, but one hand had moved up to grip his right shoulder.
“Damn it,” Joshua muttered. “Thought we had the bastard.”
Goodnight leaned back into his coeur’s chest and sighed. “It’ll still let Bogue know we mean business.”
Then Billy was there, taking the rifle carefully from both of them and clasping Goodnight’s face into his hands. He searched his eyes for a moment before leaning in and kissing him breathless, pulling back to finally ask, “Are you okay?”
At his shaky nod, Billy gave him another, softer kiss before redirecting to kiss Joshua just as fiercely in thanks. Goodnight chuckled and let himself relax between the two of them for just a moment before tapping them both on the shoulder to remind them that there was still work to be done.
Joshua cleared his throat and began walking back to the center of town, one arm wrapped firmly around Goodnight’s waist. The gesture was both possessive and protective, and he appreciated it more than he could honestly say at the moment. Gabriel turned a searching look onto the three of them, only relaxing when he realized they were all unscathed. It was obvious to anyone that he wanted nothing more than to fuss over all three of them, but he was holding himself in check as yet.
“How’d everyone do?” Sam asked once they were all in the same spot again.
“I got five,” Billy noted absently, his gaze falling onto Goodnight’s left hand and frowning.
“I got six,” Joshua added, following his partner’s eyes. At the sight of red dripping steadily down Goodnight’s fingers, he pulled his bandanna off and handed it to Billy silently. “Goody sniped one who was headed out of town, but he still managed to ride off. Hopefully he’ll bleed out between here and Sacramento. Gabe, how’d you do?”
“Six,” Gabriel replied, gaze already shifting to where Billy was cleaning up Goodnight’s hand and tensing with worry.
“I got seven,” was the Irishman’s immediate response, complete with holding up seven fingers and making their Mexican scoff in amusement. “Wanna even it up, babe?”
“Say when, guerito.”
Goodnight let his attention waver when Sam stooped down to coax out Bogue’s bought and paid for sheriff, although now he was just going to be their second method of delivering the message. He gladly suffered through Billy’s fussing over him, smiling softly once the blood had been cleaned away even as he knew that his triad was going to thoroughly check him over to see where, exactly, he’d been shot or grazed. He made his way to the hardware store once Billy let go of his hand, even though the Korean man followed close behind, and found a chair to drop himself into.
He would be the first to admit that he was still shaken, and all he really wanted was to fall into a bed and sleep for the remainder of the day. He wouldn’t be opposed to his partners coming along and wearing him out first, quite honestly; it might even help him sleep more easily. Goodnight was particular about his pleasure, and despite how often Billy accused him of bossiness, he had yet to deny his mate’s whims. And before they left Volcano Springs, Joshua had proved to be just as willing to let Goodnight be more than a little… demanding in bed.
And while they’d had to try to be a bit… discreet during their journey to Rose Creek, Gabriel had proved himself to be quite happy answering to Goodnight’s demanding nature. Hell, he’d let the Cajun talk him into a quick and dirty fuck while they were supposedly checking to see which way the stream was running but was just a flimsy excuse to spend a little time alone with his newest mate. That had been a fun way to spend a half an hour, but even more how safe he’d felt while they were cleaning up afterward. If anyone aside from Billy and Joshua guessed what they’d really been up to, it had nothing to do with clothing being mussed or out of place, that was for damned sure.
The widow and widower Cullen rode into town just then, calling out to everyone to come out, and it was a sight to see when Miss Emma berated the other residents for their cowardice. Hell, if she turned that temper towards him, Goodnight was like as not to apologize to the lady and slink away hoping to go otherwise unnoticed.
As the good folk proceeded to head back to their homes, he noted that his triad had settled themselves around him, half-forming a wall between Goodnight and the rest of the immediate world. The gesture was much appreciated, and he looked at each of them evenly before pushing himself to his feet.
“I think I’m gonna go find us a room,” he said, a sidelong look revealing that Sam, Red, and Horne were headed for the saloon.
Joshua was beside him in a heartbeat, arm slipping around his waist again. “I think I’ll come help you with that.”
The two of them set off across the street, Billy and Gabriel moving to speak quietly with one another for a moment—and unless he missed his guess, to determine which of them was going to hit up the general store for petroleum jelly or Macassar oil—before the former fell into step right behind them. The latter trotted down the way to the general store, and Goodnight couldn’t help but smile a bit to himself.
Looked like he might be getting what he wanted after all.
[section=Footer Notes]06 February 2017From Katsuko: On the end segment there… yes, Adora did a shit tonne of research on what would be used for lube back in the 1870s. The research turned up… more than we expected, quite frankly. She did a snap on Tumblr to show just how much research was actually done for the whole of the stories we’ve been working on.
Trust me, y’all: it’s a lot.
Translation Notes:
(All translations are taken from Google Translate or Adora’s shaky remnants of French)
French:
Mon coeur – My heart
Spanish:
Es verdad – It’s true.
Buena suerte – good luck
Mijo – used here as “sweetheart”
Guerito – affectionate variant of “whitey”
~Adora [endsection]