Tombstone (tag: Zelos, open to the Styxlings & others)
[Arizona, October 1881]
Kray wasn't exactly happy with the way things seemed to be shaping up these days in Tombstone. But he wasn't sure how to tell his brother that he thought it was time to either step up or step out of the way, because it seemed like Zelos was missing all the cues that there was a lot of stress running under the surface. Kratos could sort of understand that, because Zee hadn't come here looking to get involved in local politics. He'd come to do some gambling and have some fun, and at first, Kratos had been happy to go along with that and have a good time.
But that was before the stagecoach robberies last month. It wasn't that Kratos felt uncomfortable about that happening, since it seemed to happen here and there all over the American west these days. You could always trust mortals to try to find the easy way, and taking money was apparently easier than earning it. The problem was that these were not the first stagecoach robberies in the area, and those old robberies were a problem in themselves.
It seemed that the group suspected of robbing the stagecoach back in March had not been able to be prosecuted, and they had something to do with these newest robberies. Add to that the fact that there was a constant clash with the local constabulary that went beyond the law and right into personal conflicts and insults, and it was a situation that was just waiting to explode. Not that Kray wanted to side with the marshal and his brothers: the Earps were bullies and Kratos loathed bullies. But the local outlaws, or cowboys as they were known here, were definitely breaking the law and that couldn't be stood for. Truthfully, Kratos didn't like any of them.
He especially didn't like Doc Holliday. And he really didn't like that Zelos had been spending so much time with the reprobate. He wasn't just a gambler, he was a trouble maker. In any given situation, if there was a choice between calming things down or riling things up, John Henry Holliday would pick the latter nine times out of ten. He'd just run Johnny Tyler out of the Oriental not long ago. The man couldn't even have a serene relationship with the woman that loved him, and had ended up sending Big Nose Kate away. He was just a pain in the ass, and Kratos had been avoiding him as much as possible. Which meant not as much time spent with Zee either.
Kray was ready to go. If he wasn't going to step in and crack some heads to knock some sense into them, which was really probably pointless with somebody like Ike Clanton anyway, then he didn't want to be here when they all decided to do something idiotic. That was going to be a mess, and he wasn't really looking to clean up a mess. That should be Virgil's job, anyway, though he was woefully under qualified. Virgil Earp had been fine when Tombstone had been a tent city of 100. Now it was a full-fledged town of more than 10,000, and he was still using the same tactics of intimidation, pistol-whipping, and threats. It was going to fall apart, and from the way the rumor mills had it sounding, it would be falling apart soon.
Kratos headed towards the Oriental to look for his brother, to somehow let him know with or without him, he was going home. Maybe by the time he got there, he'd have figured out just how he was going to say that.