quinientos | (no subject)

This isn't exactly the trip to town that Vasquez had expected.

She'd thought she would come and see these people that Robert had to deal with. True, she didn't think she was going to like all of them, but she also didn't think that she would feel this much rage and fury when she saw how they treated him. They spoke down to him, they ignored him, and they laughed at him. Dressed in her pretty frock and her hair loose, she knows she's supposed to be demure, but it's a very good thing that they'd disarmed her before she got to town. If they hadn't, she'd be in the jail cell because she would have shot someone in her fury.

As it is, they're pulling her off of Doc Holliday, while Aleja spits furious Spanish invective at him, furious at the jokes they've been making on Robert's behalf. "He is twice the man that you will ever be," she finishes, spitting at his and Earp's feet, irritated on Robert's behalf.

Forcing her arm out of the hold, she sneers at the men holding her. "I'm going," she snaps, grabbing her thick fur coat and hauling it on, shoving hat on her head and thinking it's good she came here to see this. Because now, she's not letting Robert come even close to this place after everything that she's seen. She stands in the doorway and waits for him, because she's not leaving without him.

They're never coming back to this place and Aleja is already making plans to never let him work for these two men, not when he deserves so much more.

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"Only if he kept talking shit about you, then I might have shot it off," she says with a wave of her hand, like he shouldn't care about this violent side of her because it's in defense of him. She grins, because she might not have intended to shoot the ranger, but it had felt good to defend herself and her ground.

Sometimes, there's a bit of a violent streak in her and honestly, she doesn't mind it so much.

"He can say all he wants about me. I don't care, Aleja," he points out, meaning it. He's never cared and he's not starting now. "I only care that he does these things to you. But I accept it matters to you," he says with a small smile.

"But we have winter, and let's focus on that."

She looks at him and wonders when it started, this caring about her. She's known, of course, that he looks at her with her skin and her body, but that's normal, she thinks. For him to care, though? That's new and she could use it against him, she could make herself safe.

Strange how she doesn't want to and instead is starting to think about maybe not using him at all. "Lots of time to get to know one another and care," she points out. "Maybe I'll convince you to stick around."

He wants to believe it's just that he was there for her, and that spending all this time together is just how things go. Robert knows otherwise though. She's a hellion, and she's strong in ways he's never been. What he's felt for Wyatt might be hero worship, but he knows what he's starting to feel for Aleja, even if he won't let himself truly believe in it. He doesn't want to face it, because it's madness on his part. He knows that well enough.

Though those words make his heart jump. He just can't even begin to imagine what it might be if she did truly want him to saty, but until then, he would do the best he could for as long as he could. To be near her.