Chapter Text
„It was the tent with the wounded wasn’t it- that one tent you raided to impress me? It was, wasn’t it.“
Arcade let out a century long sigh and continued: „You actually had me impressed for that one time“
Benny’s mouth being swollen shut, he couldn’t really reply. Although, even someone as frequently eloquent as him would have had a hard time coming up with a dignified comeback for that one.
„How could you ever fit into that suit. You’re as short as you are heavy“
Benny huffed. „That don’t make any sense“, he wanted to say but could only gurgle. Arcade continued to half carry, half support him. Both of them had leg related injuries, so they were both kind of crawling along through the desert. This was not how they had envisioned their magnificent escape to look at the end.
Arcade had a knife stuck in his right heel, and an even bigger knife a bit further up. Benny’s legs had both been flattened by someone feeling very enthusiastic about hammers.
Then of course there were some missing teeth, broken ribs, infected wounds beginning to feel numb, classics really.
The only original injury fate or life or whatever power had the final say on these things, came up with, was the small piece of wood that was once part of a legion spear, still painfully lodged in Benny‘s cheek, missing his eye by a few millimetres. It ached horribly and Benny would have loved nothing more than just fall face first in the sand and rub the thing out on the ground, he just wanted it out.
„Come on, twink“ Benny gurgled. Arcade was gradually walking slower, movements getting more sluggish. Benny wanted to rest somewhere safe, and soon, for Maria’s sake. „Shut up“ Arcade grunted.
Benny finally decided to do something, and swooped the blond man up in a firearm’s carry and brought them to safety in a nearby town where there was a whole buffet waiting for them and-
Benny blinked and the buffet was gone.
Ugh.
„They are still following us. They don’t have cars. Doesn’t mean that’s an advantage for us, but-“ Arcade paused. His tongue felt so heavy he wanted to spit out.
They were both out of breath by now. And they could still hear those damned legion assholes shouting in the distance.
Were they really worth all this trouble?
Arcade had had about enough. Traveling with the Courier he knew they must be somewhere near Helios One.
Which was also near an awesome cazador nest.
„Say, Benny“
„Hn“
„Wouldn’t it be nice seeing those roman clowns get stung to death by killer butterflies?“ Benny didn’t immediately react (for one, he didn’t really know what clowns were) but a warm smile soon started lighting up his grimy face.
He nodded as enthusiastically as he could, immediately regretting it, scrunching his face up in pain.
Arcade was already calculating. He was smart, yes, but he was no tactical genius. He knew he wouldn’t be as fast with Benny to carry along, who couldn’t even attempt to walk alone in his condition.
„Listen, Benny“, that name still felt unfitting for the checkered suit asshole, „You’re gonna hide behind these rocks and not move. I’ll be the bait and lead them right to the cazador nest“
Benny’s smile froze, his eyes betraying several fears.
Arcade didn’t lie. „I don’t know if it’s wise for me to come back for you. But I carried you all this way already, didn’t I? I already outed myself as a chump.“
Talking made his tongue even more heavier than it already was, so Arcade stopped and let Benny drop in the shade of an abandoned car wreck, surrounded by some lovely cacti.
Could you be any less gentle?, Benny wanted to say, but his face was enough to clue Arcade in.
Arcade defended himself, „I never said I was a doctor. People just keep mistaking me for one because I wear a labcoat … “
Benny’s expression changed into something resigned, kind of pathetic.
“You’re not gonna come back”
Arcade waited for another sentence, but that was apparently all Benny had to say. He wanted to reassure him, comfort him, make his intentions clear, but he couldn’t because he had no intentions. He had no idea what he’d be doing, he didn’t even know what he was doing right now.
They looked at each other’s exhausted faces, until Benny broke eye contect, lips forming a thin line, face scrunching up into a grimace, probably in pain. Probably.
And for once Arcade just went with his instincts and left.
_-*-_-*-_ -*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*
Well. Cazadors sure lay a lot of eggs.
They are also not fit for delicate tactical strategies.
Once arrived at the nest (and euphoric as hell that it was actually still there), he had to rely on his stealth, but also on the right timing to drop all caution and lead the legion right into their trap.
For short: It didn’t quite turn out how he wanted. Stealth had never been his A-game and cazadors are scary.
So by the time he started to make himself more noticeable to the ever approaching legion, he realized two things and tried to react to both.
One: The Courier walking right at the front of that legion with a facial expression that could potentially convey joyous glee, but in the situation it was placed in, only made Arcade question how he could have ever labelled that face a friendly one in the first place.
Two: Something colored in a beautiful mix of orange and crimson started to choke his vision, fluttering not more than half a metre above him.
Fuck. Fucking hell.
He felt the sting before the Cazador’s poker entered his lower abdomen.
This was the conclusion of Arcade Gannon. He’d like to thank you all of you for coming to his presentation.
Next, of course, he’d like to thank one very special person, someone whose actual name he still didn’t know.
Then again, maybe she wasn’t a person.
Always felt more like one of those securitrons to him. Only she was programmed to persevere and that only.
She seemed kind enough, didn’t she.
Sitting around the fire, chatting about this and that – she seemed like a person.
What a disaster of a Thursday afternoon all this turned out to be.
The last thing he felt were arms under him. Strong, short arms, and the flicker of black and white checkered cloth.
_-*-_-*-_ *-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*
„Benny, you holding up?“ He whispered to his right, where the personification of human misery had manifested physically.
Benny wasn’t holding up, because since their last mishap he had counted every bump on the road the brahmin wagon encountered. Right now the blue patches on his back must have amounted to at least 200, give or take another 100.
„Benny.“
That made his eyes light up, and Arcade managed to hide his blushing. Not very well, but he managed. “Thank you for taking control of the situation”, Arcade continued, quieter, gentler, “What with that cazador taking me out” Barely audible, he added: “I probably shouldn’t have left you … with the cacti … I’m sorry.” „Yeah well I’m not sorry. Next time your sorry behind is countin‘ on me you can bet that same sorry behind I’m leaving you with the cacti!!“
The words sounded like they’d sting on paper, but the way Benny said it made Arcade’s face hurt. He didn’t need to be grinning right now, but Arcade couldn’t help it, “Thank you” “Already said that”, Benny grunted, obviously exhausted from talking this much with a literal hole in his face. And for some stupid reason, he still continued on: “Bastard.” „Let’s be civil about this - “, Arcade replied, now using his own fake-offended tone.
And they were actually very civil about this, and sometime later, camping out in a deserted cave at the edge of civilization, they came to an even greater understanding.
“We escaped not one, not two, NO, we survived THREE whole things in one single day!”, Benny announced, “I’m officially declaring this partnership a good one!”
“Well thank my lucky stars”, Arcade huffed, but his chest couldn’t help warming up a bit at the sentiment. They did actually survive a whole day, getting chased by various unstoppable forces trying to off them.
Free they were not, still, but it was a positive developement. He wanted to express as much with words, but after turning his head he saw the bastard was actually asleep.
And what a handsome bastard the guy was. Arcade could finally stare at him, and he didn’t even bother trying to feel ashamed of it. Sun burns, various knife and laser wounds and blue and green patches peppered Benny’s face, but underneath all that he finally looked calm, his head cradled into his arms, all curled up, like a newborn gecko, almost cute like or something- STOP IT ARCADE.
Arcade willed his eyes back to the little fire they had ignited, some smelly leftover bug parts still roasting on a stick that probably used to be a car antenna.
No actually, staring at Benny was probably still the nicer pastime and so he did.