All of me, you take now, like criminals and shakedowns

[assassinwithahairpin]

It had been a hard past few days, far from anywhere. They were in Colorado now, some mining town that made it a little easier for Billy to blend in because of the number of Chinese workers for the mine and the railroad. They'd decided to stay for a few days, long enough for the horses to get a good rest, and to have a bed under them for longer than a moment.

Their room at the hotel was relatively large. There was a tub--they'd both used it--and a balcony. They'd smoked. Billy had gotten them marijuana and opium this time, to roll with his tobacco, carefully marking the cigarettes with which was which. Tonight, it had been opium, and Billy felt a lovely, warm haze in him; half the smoke, half the gin they'd been drinking since dinner.

He was laying on the bed, watching Goodnight, when it struck him. For all the world, he didn't know why it had taken him quite so long. But looking at Goodnight, out of his jacket and waistcoat and with his sleeves turned up to show strong forearms, Billy was suddenly keenly aware that he could spend the rest of his life with this man.

He smiled softly at the thought.

Comments

[goodnight_robicheaux]

When Billy brought up staying for a few days, Goodnight couldn't find any reason not to. It wasn't a bad little town, they could both stand to keep their heads down for a while. Part of him worried that hearing explosions from the nearby mine might set him off if he was caught too far off guard, but these days he trusted Billy to bring him back down. Somehow he knew just what to do.

Fresh from a bath and in laundered clothes, Goodnight sat in bed reading, still nursing a glass of gin; they'd made off with the entire bottle after dinner. Soon enough he noticed he was being watched. The look he caught on Billy's face as he lifted his gaze from his book made something in him catch.

Goodnight put his book aside, face soft as he looked back at Billy. "Got something on your mind, cher?" Usually he could get Billy to be more talkative after smoking.