the bathroom window

Morning was damp and dim, with the sun only a hazy bit of light through the clouds. Wade was awake from his watch when Dan rolled himself out of his blanket and stretched out the night's cramps and knots. He could feel Wade watch him as he lurched upright and limped closer to the campfire, where coffee was waiting.

"I've been thinking about what you said last night," Dan said over the rim of his tin mug. He'd done more thinking than sleeping, harassed all night by fears for William. Having Wade across the fire hadn't helped, had made Dan feel twitchy, but the outlaw had silent all night, too occupied with his own thoughts to try to pluck at Dan's. He swallowed a bitter mouthful of the coffee and continued, "About murders rather than killings. If they're not random killings, then there's got to be a reason behind them all. And if there's a reason, there's a pattern in 'em. If that's true, all of that, then how come no one else is paying attention to all of them?"

"Like the army, you mean."

Dan nodded. "Seems to me that this should interest someone. But we haven't run into anyone else on this trail."

He'd accepted Wade's idea, sometime after his watch ended but before the moon had set. The outlaw was the expert of the two of them on murdering and killing and otherwise ending of lives. There was that, but there as also the way the bodies were, the wounds the bodies had, the sense of it that lingered long after they left the corpses behind. This wasn't Indians out for revenge, or gang fights turned inward and turned fatal. And so Wade had been right. Accepting that had been easier than Dan had expected, but from it sprang up a thousand more questions, bleeding through Dan's mind.

Wade's voice was husky when he spoke, worn rough from his own sleeplessness. "Either they don't know or they're pretending that they don't."

The body had to be days old at least. Piss, blood, rot - The air was thick with the stench of decay, making Dan's stomach churn. Wade dismounted without a pause and crouched at the corpse's side before shoving it onto its back.

Dan climbed down reluctantly, tossed the horses reins over a branch, and stood over Wade. The man'd been shot three times in the chest; any of the shots could have killed him: one in the stomach, one near the heart, one under the throat. They were big holes, like brown badges on the man's stained vest.

Wheeee! Time for another round of PORN BATTLE! I submitted some 3:10 to Yuma prompts - I've been on a cowboy-high over the past week. I uploaded my Yuma prawns to AO3 the other day, and that inspired me to re-read those and then all the stories posted on threetentrain.

Regarding my own crap, I think 2007 was actually the peak of my writing ability. I haven't written much since then, certainly no real porn. I've been working on it, though; I drabble bits and pieces of stuff in my journal, but I haven't written anything that other people can read. So! Stoked for a new porn battle!

I was organizing my journals today - tagging, titling, etc - in preparation for copying them to DW when I started re-reading the entries and their comments. baggyeyes, I am so grateful to have you as a friend! Your comments made me so incredibly happy. And you're an amazing author to boot! I love your Charlie so very very much. He's impossible for me to write, but you master him with such ease. <3 And Sebastian - Wow. He slides perfectly into the Yuma canon. It's hard - damn near impossible - to insert original characters into an established world, but Sebastian fits right in like he's always been there.

In conclusion! Here's a drabbly-majigger about Ben and Dan. No real point to it, I was just inspired to jolt something down about them. Hope you like it!

Title: Two Aces
Fandom: 3:10 to Yuma
Characters/Pairing: Ben, Dan
Summary: Ben and Dan gamble.
Rating: PG
A/N: A drabble for baggyeyes! You are continually awesome and your stories blow me away. You rock!

( I could teach you how. )