Work Text:
A Night Out
He still wasn't sure what idiot had decided to host a yearly, high-stakes, cash-only poker game in a town full of immortal outlaws, many of which had been thieves of various sorts in their own time. The Poker Spectacular had been a source of irritation for him for years now. Even after he found a way to turn it around so that it at least made him some money, Bobo found himself busier than usual making sure that there wasn't open slaughter in the streets. That never did anyone any good, no matter how strong the bloodlust born of multiple trips to hell was in some of the Revenants that followed him.
This year was especially vexing with Cryderman harassing him to make an appearance at at the party being thrown. The players wanted to mingle with investors. All investors. Because Bobo didn't have anything better to do with his time than pander to a collection of pompous assholes, but they were insistent, and therefore his pet judge was insistent. It was a painful truth that even Bobo Del Rey had to give to get every once and awhile.
There was one silver lining to the whole situation and that was that the Poker Spectacular was landing close enough to Halloween this year that it had been turned into a masked party and that gave him the unique opportunity to bring the one person he wanted to spend the evening with. It was still a risk, but the smile she had given him when he'd brought it up had made it worth it.
They'd had to come in separately, but he'd arranged it all to keep her as safe as he could. He hated leaving her, but Willa was taking it in stride. She saw it as an adventure with a romantic rendezvous at the end of it, like one of her books. He was just glad that this crowd wouldn't even know the name Willa Earp, much less recognize her.
The large room in the Wainwright Hotel was buzzing and Bobo hated it. Cryderman caught him, acting as if it had been Bobo's idea to come and reminding him yet again that these men expected a certain level of class in this place and on and on. It was becoming harder each year to deal with this idiot. At some point he made an offhandedly comment on any of the ladies from the trailer park that Bobo might have brought along that night. Well, he did have a reputation. Some of it was earned and some he just let people believe what they wanted to.
Finally he broke away and started his search as subtly as he could, sticking to the outskirts of the party. Men and women laughed and drank and danced, already a little inebriated, and all wearing masks, making finding one woman in a black dress difficult.
Then he spotted her. She was striking, standing off towards the side of the room with a glass of champagne and a fake smile as one of the players in town for the game chatted her up. She was watching him carefully, a hint of caution just beneath the fake cheer, as if she were ready to break his nose at the first wrong move. If she did, he'd never know what hit him.
A pair of pale green eyes flickered his direction and her smile turned a little more real. The man that looked to have been trying to ask her for a dance followed her gaze after a beat and as Bobo moved a little closer he heard him mumble a grousing slur against all locals as he skulked away. It didn't matter. None of them mattered. She was beautiful and Willa was the only person he could see in that moment.
"I'm not sure I was aware you owned a suit," she said by way of greeting, her gaze running up and down the three piece black suit he had gotten his hands on. "Much less one without fur on it."
He smirked a little at her, pulling her hand up to his lips and pressing a gentle kiss to the back of it. His gaze flickered up. "We agreed not to draw too much attention."
"Robert, you always draw attention," she murmured, her tone suggestive and he finally straightened, his thumb still ghosting over her knuckles and she closed her grip loosely around his fingers to hold him there. Those eyes of hers were mesmerizing, even half hidden behind the mask. He might have gotten lost in them if she hadn't moved, reaching up so that her hand pressed against the back of his neck and guided him in. He melted into the kiss, the room around them inconsequential as her other hand rested on his side and his moved to the side of her face, fingers tangled in her dark blonde hair.
"I'm liking this whole getting out thing," she murmured a little breathlessly. "We should do it more often."
"When we're free of this place," he promised, his voice rough as he leaned his forehead against hers.
"We're close, Robert."
He murmured a soft sound of agreement.
"You know, that guy that was over here was trying to get me to dance with him."
"Was he?"
She hummed softly, catching his eyes again. "I told him someone else had already asked."
Her gaze was expectant and he lifted one off-colour eyebrow. "I wouldn't want to keep you," he teased and she swatted at him playfully.
"Dance with me."
His smile lingered and he glanced out to the crowd of visitors to their cursed little town. A few locals mingled as well, but the crowd had reached that happy state of intoxication at this point that meant they wouldn't notice anything that wasn't right in front of them. They were there, and joining in actually made them less conspicuous than lingering in the corner, but it had been years since he'd danced with anyone. He wasn't sure he even remembered how.
"I'll be damned, Del Rey. You did manage to class it up some."
Bobo felt his irritation spike at the sound of Judge Cryderman's voice. The last thing he needed was him sniffing around and wanting to chat with Willa.
The judge was leering at the young woman, not even bothering to hide it. She stood still, watching him with a stony expression, but she wasn't afraid. Not his Willa. She might not have a lot of experience with the outside world, but that didn't mean she was incapable of handling herself, even now.
"You local, sweetheart?" Cryderman asked and Bobo growled lowly, managing to pull the attention to him instead of her.
"Don't you have anywhere else to be?"
Bobo's tone shook the judge and he shrank back a little. Good. It was time he remembered his place. He forgot it far too often. He mumbled some excuse and some offhandedly comment about her needing to charge him more and the Revenant glared after him, keeping his more violent tendencies carefully in check.
"What did that mean?" Willa asked, her expression curious.
"He thought you were a whore," Bobo grumbled irritably.
The woman he loved was quiet for just a beat before he felt her gaze on him. "Do you tend to bring whores to these events?"
Well that was a loaded question if he had ever heard one. "I don't usually come to these events," he answered roughly and pushed a breath out through his nose, his mind made up. He extended a hand and she stared at it like she wasn't sure what he was asking. "Do you still want to dance?"
She didn't smile for him, but she took the offered hand and he pulled her out onto the dance floor. Willa leaned against him, her arms around his middle and her cheek pressed against his shoulder so she didn't have to look at him while they swayed slowly. He could almost feel her sorting slowly through what had just happened and the possible meanings behind it. There was so much of his life she didn't see and even though she saw a kinder side of him than most, she knew what he was. It wouldn't be a far jump for her to make, and that seemed to hurt her to think he might be sharing his bed with anyone else.
Bobo pulled her a little closer, leaning in so that he was speaking directly into her ear. "You're the only person I love. The only one I'm with," he promised softly. "As long as you'll have me."
Her grip tightened on him. "Swans mate for life," she murmured, pulling a smile from him.
"Yeah."
"Thank you, Robert."
"For what?"
She nuzzled in as they swayed, a sigh escaping her. "This."
He pressed a kiss to the side of her head. No matter how much he wanted to, he couldn't give her everything she deserved in this life. Not yet. Soon though. When she turned twenty-seven they could walk across the line together and break the curse. They could wander far and wide and they could grow old together. He could prove to just how much he loved her. Soon.
Until then, he would do the best he could with what they had.