Agent Fox Mulder (i_want_2) wrote in multi_fiction, @ 2010-03-04 14:37:00 |
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Entry tags: | dead like me, gen, magnificent 7, rated: teen, x-over |
Fic: Killing Time 5/7 The Magnificent Seven/Dead Like Me
Title: Killing Time
Author: Lopaka Tanu
Disclaimer: I do not own The Magnificent Seven or Dead Like Me.
Characters: Josiah, Ezra, Nathan, Chris.
Words: 775
AU: Dead Like Vin.
Prompt: Huntersglenn suggested a 'Ghost Town' like fic.
Fandom: The Magnificent Seven/Dead Like Me
Pairing: N/A
Rating: Teen
Warnings: Casual Discussion Of Death.
Summary: How do reapers spend their time off?
Author's Note: The casual dead...sheesh!
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"They say you never really forget the first time you kill a man." Fingering the shotglass in tight circles, Josiah refused to take his eyes off the amber liquid inside. It was precious out here, where this particular label was rarer than gold. "For me, men have all lost there faces. It's the children that trouble me, their voices...I can hear them in the wind some times."
With a roll of his fingers, Ezra flipped a card from his jacket cuff. "Please, may we not stroll down this dreadful memory lane yet again? It is far too hot for another of your melancholy ruminations." The Ace flipped between three fingers before he tucked it back up his sleeve.
Josiah glanced up. His gaze fell across the round table upon the younger man's face. The fading evening sun highlighted him from behind. This brought a smile to the dour man's features.
That made Ezra's eyes narrow. "If you care at all for your tongue, keep it securely locked behind your lips." Seemingly without having been distracted he began to deal with cards. "Aces are wild."
"Aren't they always?" Nathan glowered at the first card to land in front of him. It was a low card. "I don't mind the children. They always seem so grateful just not to be sick any more."
Ezra sighed. The next round of cards came out sharper, faster. He practically threw their next two at Nathan and Josiah. The last round he dealt quickly too, but lingered on their blank-faced forth member. "Mr. Larabee, care to open?"
All eyes were suddenly drawn to Chris.
Hearing his name dragged the man from his thoughts. He blinked a couple times then stared at the others. For a moment he blinked in confusion. "What did you say?"
"I asked if you cared to open?" A little less patiently than he had the first time, Ezra raised his eyebrows slightly.
Looking down at the cards as if he had noticed them for the first time, Chris swallowed. "I don't..."
This caused Ezra to sigh. He turned to Josiah. "Your decision, my good man."
"Thank you." Reaching down, Josiah crossed the cards twice before closing his eyes. He whispered something under his breath before he looked back to Ezra. "The good lord is not talking to me today, I believe that is a good sign. Two bits." He grabbed a few coins from the stacks beside his glass and placed them in the center of the table.
Nathan folded his cards with a disgusted sigh.
With a quick movement, faster than most eyes could track, Ezra snatched up a quarter dollar from his stack and tossed it on the center pile. He watched it spin a couple times before settling down. "Mr. Larabee, your turn."
Through all of this, Chris had only sat there watching them. His emotional daze left him bereft of all motor functions it seemed.
'Not for the first time,' Ezra thought. His eyes went to the loose stack of dimes in front of the blond. "If you require more time to examine your cards, we can spare a century."
Josiah and Nathan quietly snickered. After sharing a look, Josiah nodded in acknowledgment.
Their reaction brought a frown to Chris' features. He didn't reach out for the cards but pushed his chair back instead. Standing up, he pushed the brim of his hat down on his forehead.
Ezra watched him head for the bat doors with a calculating expression. While he wasn't the only one, the others weren't going to interfere on this one. That left the decisions up to him.
"How long do you reckon it will be before he comes around?" Checking his cards, Josiah tossed in three coins. They all knew that there was no other choice, the man would have to face their mutual burden and accept it.
"I'm guessin," Nathan reached out to pick up his own shotglass, "two weeks. Buck said it was four years ago that his family was murdered. Took him two years to climb his way up from the bottom of a bottle." Not bothering to examine the contents, he tossed the amber liquid back.
Josiah frowned at the action, but only shook his head. It was sippin drink! "Two weeks sounds good. That will be before the Judge works his way back around again."
"Barely." The decision was his to make. Ezra did not relish what needed to be done one bit. "I'll see your thirty centavos, Josiah, and raise you another fifty, American."
"I was in old Mexico last week," he shrugged in reply. That had been a busy trip, forty souls.
THE END........................