Chapter Text
Chapter 1
Having a gun pointed directly under her chin, being soaked to the bone while having another woman straddling her at the bottom of a ravine was not precisely how Chili expected her day to go. Still, here she was, possibly about to die with not even a gold coin snatched, what an odd end to the notorious treasure hunter Chili Pepper.
An hour earlier, the thief had been seeking out some treasure she had heard rumours about in a small dusty town way out from the kingdom; the plan was simple, snatch the prize from whatever poor loser was keeping it and run off into the sunset, getting home in time for supper with the brats. This town was in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by nothing but desert and a bottomless ravine that was only traversable by a long but rickety bridge that Chili swears would break if she were any heavier. Many folks scattered for cover the minute she stepped in, most just being farm folk with no real sheriff or law enforcer in the place. Chili half-scoffed; this would be easier than she even thought initially.
Waltzing in like she owned the place, eyes closed and hands laying close to her daggers, trotting towards the house she had heard held the treasure she was after Chili felt relieved that no one would be getting in her way this time. Before the red-haired bandit could even place her boot on the patio, a gunshot rang out from the top of the house, narrowly missing her foot,
"Did you think it would be that easy to steal from someone helpless again?" a somewhat familiar voice growled from above where Chili was frozen from shock. Quickly gathering herself together, Chili gazed upwards, being met with the barrel of a gun pointed directly at her. A familiar face stared down at her; Rye had an all too smug look on her face, but the revenge that burned deep within her shone in her green eyes.
"Dontcha have another hobby than following me around everywhere like some kinda stray?" Chili hissed out, meeting the other girls' eyes with an almost pout on her face; great, the appearance of this bounty hunter had ruined her day.
"Sorry to disappoint, sweetheart, but it is my job to hunt you down." Rye smirked, "Now you can come quietly, or we can end it here; your bounty is dead or alive after all." The freckled girls' smirk seemed to turn upwards in malice at the thought of the other woman dead. Chili remained unmoving for a while, intensely staring back at Rye's green eyes with her fiery red ones. She would be shot immediately if she even tried to run away, Rye had a perfect aim with her twin pistols, but there was no way the redhead was going to come quietly to the nearest jail cell with the blonde, but maybe...
"FINE!" Chili screeched, surprising Rye in the process, "YOU WIN! HURRY UP AND TAKE ME TO WHATEVER COZY JAIL CELL YOU HAVE PLANNED!" Chili yelled in the most bratty voice she could, folding her arms and pouting; taken aback by the outright declaration of defeat, Rye had to take a second to correct herself.
"Right, ha, of course." Rye straightened herself up, very obviously confused at the sudden resignment of the other woman, preparing to jump down from the roof she had perched herself on, moving to the side to not fall directly on top of Chili. The second the green-eyed woman took the step to leap of, Chili dashed into the house at full speed; being lucky enough that the door was not locked, she was barely able to close the door and duck before several bullets made their home in the frame of the old wooden door. Chili could hear her heart throbbing in her ears, her eyes wide from an even narrower miss than before.
"You little-" Rye cut herself off by ramming herself into the door at full force, making it swing on its hinges, revealing Chili not there and a window towards the back of the house very obviously had been recently opened. Rye turned heel and ran out the door to see Chili booking it back out of town.
"Sorry sweetheart! I also have a job to do, and that's stealing as may valuables from people as possible." The bandit laughed loudly while her feet carried her as fast as they could through the dust road. Rye didn't even hesitate before chasing after the wanted criminal, gritting her teeth in anger; there was no way she was letting the thief get away this time; she'd already gotten out of the bounty hunters grasp too many times.
Chili approached the unstable old wooden bridge, confident she could probably cut the ropes to the thing in time to make sure Rye wouldn't follow her. Chili snickered to herself; stealing was only part of the fun of being a criminal on the run; she kinda enjoyed this game of cat and mouse they played.
With spite fueling her, Rye tried to aim her guns at the bandit while sprinting after her; she couldn't aim as well in movement as she could while stationary. Still, any chance to wound Chili and slow her down was better than letting the criminal slip out of Rye's hands again. Rye's eyes widened, seeing Chili take her first delicate step onto the bridge, immediately picking up the pace to close the distance between them while Chili was occupied with not making the bridge collapse. Taking aim just as she stepped onto the bridge, being finally close enough to get a clear enough shot. The redhead turned to face Rye just as the blonde fired, having her third near-miss to that gun the span of such a short time; Chili ducked, the bullet grazing her ponytail. Chili audibly laughed until the bridge started to tip sideways suddenly.
Both women immediately lost their footing; the bullet originally aimed at Chili had snapped one of the supporting ropes on the other side of the bridge instead. They both desperately grabbed onto the wooden planks that made up the bridge but to no avail; as the old rotten wood gave way under both their hands, both of them yelled out in terror, both plummeting towards their supposed deaths at the bottom of the ravine.
Chili had many regrets as she fell; not making up with her brother was at the forefront of her mind as she felt the wind howl in her ears; who was going to take care of those silly kids back at home now? They weren't going to last very long without an adult around; hopefully, they'd be able to magically summon another one, not that she particularly cared all that much. Funny how she had only just found a 'home', and now it had been taken away from her so quickly, almost like she didn't deserve good things after her life choices and taking good things from others. It was fair, she decided; at least she hadn't been caught and thrown in jail; she much preferred this end over rotting in a cell for eternity. Chili tucked in on herself, closing her eyes tight and bracing for the bone-crushing impact that would soon come; no point in praying or bargaining any kind of god for saviour now, she supposed.
What she wasn't expecting was to be dunked in cold water, soaking her thoroughly, opening her eyes in shock while also accidentally inhaling a bunch of the surprisingly chilly water in the process. She quickly swam up, gasping for air in her shocked state while also trying to keep her head above water; she had never been an exceptionally talented swimmer. Steeling her resolve, heart beating and pumping adrenaline through her veins, she began swimming towards the ledge of the river she had found herself submerged in. Her fingers grasped at the mud of the riverbank; she could feel the dirt lodging under her fingernails; she grimaced slightly at the awful feeling but eventually hauled her body out of the chilling water. Her lungs tried to intake as much oxygen as possible as she coughed up the water filling them; her throat felt raw and her whole body was still in shock, but she managed to laugh at the situation; against all odds, she had survived.
Chili forced herself to crawl to the more stable ground, but before she could allow herself to collapse, another body slammed itself into her at full force, making both of them roll in a mock fight. Chili could barely process what was going on before her arms were pinned above her head, a pair of legs straddled her waist. The cold metal of a gun was pressed to her chin as she looked up at an equally soaked Rye; her freckled face had a look of absolute hatred plastered on it; she was missing her signature hat, her eyes were wild with a mixture of anger and residue fear.
"You're not fucking getting away from me again, not with your life anyway!" Rye weakly yelled, almost vibrating with anger, but Chili could still see Rye was shaken up from the event, desperately gulping down air between words. "I'm finally going to see the dirt red with your blood, finally get to see you suffer," Rye growled out; a slightly twisted smile made its way on the taller girls face as she looked down at Chili.
"Be a bit hard to carry a body to the nearest sheriff's office when you're in the middle of nowhere and down a 40-meter steep canyon that you will have no chance to climb up." Chili smirked, "So go on tough girl, shoot and see how easy it is to carry a corpse around." Rye narrowed her green eyes at the other girl knowing she was right. She huffed loudly in frustration, placing her gun in her holster before reaching around her back for a pair of cuffs she had ready for this encounter.
"Guess we're travelling buddies until we get to the nearest town love." Rye snickered, cuffing a not too please Chili's wrists together. Rye roughly stood up, yanking Chili with her by the cuffs and immediately headbutting her, making the other girl yelp in pain before falling back to the ground. "Just because I need you alive doesn't mean I'm going to be giving you any special treatment, I will personally make sure your life is hell."
"Looking forward to it love."
~