sixthiterationlogs | [MINGLE] One-Man Show

The scrubs at least work well for nightclothes, and Joshua is glad for that. The fireplace keeps the room less than frigid, but not warm enough. In that moment though, finding himself standing in the middle of a town, one that he knows well, and yet thought long behind them.

The scent of gunpowder is so thick, a low, sickly haze that had been second nature to his life and is now a scent that causes his gut to twist up. He thinks for a minute of the day that they had sent a message to Bogue by killing his men in Rose Creek. Then he sees himself and Chisolm hunkered down beside a wall. They're talking, and Joshua stares at himself, at a him that he's never been. Not that he remembers. A him that is bleeding, gripping his side to try and staunch the flow of blood, and he realizes what he's here for. This isn't anything he's ever lived through, and he's not going to live through it now.

Watching as Faraday, as he, races for Jack and pulls himself up onto the horse's back, the horse he had come all this way to win back. Chisolm covers him, firing rapidly, and he whips the horse hard, leaning down low over Jack's neck, spurring him on.

Above where he still stands Joshua hears a shout, a yell. Looking up and seeing glimpses of Billy and Goodnight from the church steeple. All around him there is shouting, gun shots, the smell of smoke from the building burning, burning over where the children were hidden. It all comes together for him in an instant. Even as he races across the plain, bullets flying all around him, watching as his body jerks from a bullet, and he knows. He's already dying. He was dying when he got on Jack's back, and he won't let everyone else die with him. For the first time in his life he's doing the right thing, and to save the men he had ridden into this town with, and who would ride out without him.

Except not all of them would.

Seeing the glint of sun on the Gatling gun as it was turned, reoriented, and then he isn't even aware he's screaming. Screaming as wood and dirt and bullets rain down around him, and he watches as Goodie and Billy die trying to protect him. Together, having come here with them and now never leaving.

The gun, that horrific, monstrous gun, stops. The silence is almost more deafening than the hundreds of bullets that had torn apart a church already destroyed by fire. Turning, feeling as if he's underwater as he watches himself fall from Jack, tumbling into the dry brush and red dirt as his horse, the horses of men dead in the field behind him, rush away. Even then he's pushing to his feet. Another bullet. Crumpling. Even from the distance it's as if he's right there, watching as he pulls out one last cigarette, tries to light it. A light offer. The mercy of a gun. Watching himself fall over, face first into dirt, and he knows. He knows in that moment exactly what is going to happen. Knowing what it is he would have done in that moment.

"I've always wanted to blow something up," he mutters, watching as they try and scurry away, but it's too late. Dirt and metal and body parts burst outwards, the Gatling gun gone. And so is he.

Vasquez sleeps in two layers and a blanket. He's always freezing, even when pressed up against Faraday, but when he's suddenly in a different place, he's more grateful than ever for the warmth he's got around him, even though warmth is his last concern when he sees what's happening.

His stomach turns like when he's drank too much, seeing Faraday nearby. He knows exactly what happens, here, and he hates to have to watch it again. Is it better or worse that Faraday didn't see McCann shoot him? Better to not see who did it. Worse, because Vasquez still feels a vengeful pride in being the one to have killed that son of a bitch.

The trouble is, Vasquez had been in the church when all this happened. He'd heard the sound, he'd seen the blast, but not this. He's been falling in love with this man for a year and watching him die, first-hand, is one of the most awful things he could ever witness. His stomach twists viciously and he reaches for Faraday, needing to touch him, hold onto him, and remind himself that he's still alive, no matter what they're seeing.

Yet, isn't it a reminder? They're on borrowed time. Once they leave here, Vasquez lives.

Faraday won't.

"Querido," he pleads, needing to hear Faraday, his Faraday say something, and prove that he's still here, that he isn't like the one he's just witnessed. "Say something, tell me you're still here."

Joshua should be cold, and maybe after the shock and the pain wear off, maybe then he'll feel it but right in that moment all he feels is emptiness, a hollowness that comes from telling himself it's not real, and knowing it is. He knows because he's seen the look on Vasquez's face when he tries not to talk about this before the illness caused it all to spill out.

He feels that touch, and there's no hesitation at that single word. Not caring if anyone can see them, is there with them. Not caring about the nerves he feels about carrying on with a man in ways that would have a pastor crying out and likely dousing him in holy water. He doesn't care about any of that as his hand catches in that blanket, pulling him close.

"I'm right here," he murmurs, turning into the other man as he hauls him against him. Wrapping an arm around his shoulders, pulling him in tight.

Goodnight died for him. For them, sure, but protecting him. Giving him that chance. A man he had fought with and pushed and treated almost lower than he had the men of that town, and he hadn't hesitated in moving up to the edge of that steeple and dying to protect him. Billy who had given his life to, Joshua sees now, the man he loved. He never really thought about it before but now? Now with him and Vasquez in this village and how they've become? He knows all of it for what it is. What they felt for one another.

And then he'd watched them die together, giving him cover so he could turn the tide in this war.

"I'm okay," he says, probably with the worst poker face he's ever had, his tone cracking softly as his arm tightens around Vasquez's shoulders. "I'm okay."

Vasquez clings so tightly to Faraday that he worries he's going to hurt him, but he doesn't think he can let go. He's alive and with him so close, he can feel Faraday's heart beating. It's more than he ever had, back in that field. "I went out there. I found you, I told you. I found you, then I found Jack, and I brought him back to town."

He kisses Faraday's temple hard, not wanting to let him go, never wanting to let him go, because if he does, then he goes back to that world and has to live that life.

Vasquez opens his mouth to make more promises, but he hears new voices now. His own and a white asshole, the ranger. He feels himself drifting from Faraday, only because he knows what this is. He hears the ranger demanding more things. He wants Vasquez to do his work, even though he's not being paid. He's being pushed around.

Then, when Vasquez refuses to do it, that's when there's a gun being drawn. It had all happened very fast that day, but it had been a culmination of so much disrespect. Months of the ranger being an asshole and treating him like shit, all leading up to him thinking he could kill Vasquez and just walk away.

Only, Vasquez got there first, and put two right through his heart, leaving a corpse there on the ground, and Vasquez, an outlaw as a result.

"Dammit, Alejandro," he whispers, hating that he had seen whatever remained of him in that field. Suddenly so much of the looks Joshua received after finding himself in this place suddenly make sense. No wonder it had hurt Vasquez so much, and why he still looks at him suddenly, with such sadness. Because in the end, they both know what is going to happen in the end.

Knowing you die and knowing you are blown into pieces giving your life to save others? It's definitely something else entirely.

Whatever though they might have said between themselves in that moment is lost. Lost in the voices of a demanding man, voices that he knows as well. Frowning, both at the behavior of the ranger, and of Vasquez moving away. Reaching for him, hand lifting, and then the sound of oiled metal on leather and his hand going to his hip before he can stop himself. Reactions ingrained into everything he's done and everything he is.

Except there is no gun, and there is no threat. Not in that moment. Nor was there in the memory that shows a dead man and Joshua knows what comes after this. A man on the run, hiding in a cabin, and tracked down by one of the greatest bounty hunters, offering him his freedom in many ways. Freedom from one of the greatest in the business finding him and turning him in.

"Vasquez," he says softly, knowing how he feels about what he's seen, but wondering how he's handling it.

Vasquez has been glancing around them, his mind on high alert again. He's trying to track who might have seen, who could have figured out his past, and anyone who might think his head is still worth something. Relief comes quickly, though, because there's no one but Faraday here with him.

He's still not pleased that Faraday is seeing how weak that he is, how he'd given in to the ranger right up until the last point, grimacing and scowling when the video ends. "It's fine," he says, annoyed. "He was an asshole, he deserved it, this, I already knew."

What he's wary about is what Faraday thinks. Does he agree? Or will he be angry at Vasquez for killing someone like this?

"It's not fine."

He snaps the words before he can stop himself. It's not fine. None of it is. Not that Vasquez has gone through that. Not that this place is broadcasting it somehow, that they've shown this moment of his pain to the rest of them.

"But you're right in that. He deserves it," he says, tones fierce, meaning it. Leaning back slightly, needing to try and meet Vasquez's gaze. "Listen to me. I don't know how they did all of this, but I wish there was someway to show this, to..." He sighs, shaking his head. "Never mattered to me why you'd done it."

But it does matter to him now. Because he just never cared if he was a killer or not, but now he cares that he's been framed and hunted for things he hadn't done. Not in the way they make it seem.

He sighs, shaking his head. "Wish he was alive. Just so I could shoot him again for you. In the gut." Leave him to suffer.

Part of him wishes that he'd had Faraday with him when the ranger had done all this, but he knows if that had been the case, then Faraday would have been on the run with him. Maybe good, but then they probably both would have gone out in a blaze of glory.

All he cares is that Faraday agrees that the son of a bitch deserved it, because now he can rest easy knowing that he's not going to be judged for what he did.

Then again, the both of them are killers. They never hid anything to do with that, instead boasting about it. "It's very romantic, you offering to kill someone for me." He wraps an arm around Faraday's neck to kiss his cheek. "I'm only sad you didn't get to see me shoot McCann for you."

The likelihood is that if things had gone differently in Rose Creek, they still might not have had long together. Vasquez was still wanted, and Faraday had one helluva temper about those things he cherishes. A lot of men died for touching his cards and his guns. He didn't want to imagine how he would react to someone going for Alejandro.

But they're here, and despite these visions, and the oddity of this place, despite it all, they're not there and for now, none of that matters.

That thought gives him pause, and suddenly what he hadn't seen comes almost alive in his mind's eye. Who had shot him before he was crouching there against the wall.

"I guess... Huh. Guess I wasn't wrong then," he says, trying to sound smug about it, and succeeding fairly well. "He was killed by the world's greatest lover."

It's a stupid thing, but it's enough to make Vasquez smile. Here they are, watching each other have their worst moments in front of them, and he can't help but be fond of how Faraday can still cheer him up. Mindless of who's around them, not giving a damn right now, he pushes forward to kiss Faraday, closing his eyes as he rests his forehead against his.

"I know, back there it's bad. I'm wanted, you're gone," he murmurs, words for the two of them to hear. "Which means that here, we're going to make everything we can of it," is added, fierce and stubborn. "And they can try and take it away, but I'll fight for it, for you."

He's never put much time and thought into others, but in that moment, he just wants to distract Vasquez, to make everything okay if he can. He can't fix it but he can try and make it better. Besides, with the things that Vasquez has done to him that have left him breathless and desperate for more, he's not sure he's wrong, or just making jokes.

The kiss catches him off guard, tensing a bit with uncertainty at the act where others might see them. A moment only though before his arms wrap around Vasquez, holding him close.

Smiling then, never having anyone willing to fight for him. Not before they met one another, came together even before this place and now? Now they have a chance to have a life. With one another.

"I ain't letting them and their mind games take this away, Alejandro," he murmurs. "Come on. Let's get things together and get back home," he says, saying that single word a little slower, savoring it. He's never had a place he's called home before.

Vasquez presses one more kiss to Faraday's lips, the corner just chastely, before he disentangles from him, feeling weary and worn for what he'd seen. He knows his own past, but the exhaustion of seeing Faraday die again has left him in a bad mood.

Worse, they have no idea where they are.

"This is when we need our horses," he gripes, because now more than ever, he wants to be able to ride back home without having to worry about how long it's going to take. "You think Bobo could send the kirin?"

He wants to make things okay, but he's not sure he can think of a way to fix this. Not instantly, and not easily. And not given the mood both of them are in.

"Bet we can't get horses in one of those boxes," he says with a rough laugh. "And foals won't do us much good," he sighs, head cocking. "He... we could make him come find us. Unless he got snatched up in his sleep like we did."

Vasquez lifts up his device and as much as he hates to use it, he thinks maybe this is a very strange and dire situation and they might have to get over the fear of technology and figure it out. "Or we could walk," he offers. "Take our time, talk," he admits.

It would be a little like the ride to Rose Creek and they could get to know each other a little more. "We've been through worse, the both of us."

He glances down at his wrist, making a face. "Tried that once. Suddenly there was voices and yellin and all," he says, nose wrinkling at that and not sure what he thinks of that and the desire to use it.

He glances up, considering their options.

"Can't be that far, can it? We find water, follow it back? Means we got something to drink, and can find food." He smiles a bit though. "I like that. Talkin'." Which he liked to do, hearing his own voice and all.

Well, in that case, he thinks they can do this much easier if they stick to the basics. They're both decent in the wilderness, why couldn't they figure out a way to do this without having to worry about getting lost? Besides, it's time between them.

"It'd be nice," he admits, because it's a challenge and it's more like what they were used to. There's only one problem. "You'd better be keeping me warm, though."

His head cocks slightly, arching a brow. "Did you just ask me to fool around while our lives are in danger?"

Not that he sounds the least bit upset about that. He's just curious to know if he's reading this right.

"I meant warm as in keeping me from freezing to death, guero," he protests, like sometimes he still can't believe the things that go through Faraday's head. Then again, he's the one who decided he wanted to go and fall for said idiot.

So, it's on him then, isn't it?

"A gentleman would give me his coat," he adds, as if he's suggesting it lightly, instead of demanding.

"Well, if you thought you were dating a gentleman then you're sadly mistaken," he says with a grin, moving in a bit closer to Vasquez. "But I will do anything I can to keep you warm," he vows, his teasing expression turning fairly solemn.

"Gentleman or not, we'll make it through this. Promise."

[MINGLE] One-Man Show

Closed to Faraday and Vasquez

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