Chapter Text
The campfire sparkled brightly in the night. Amber tucked her knees up under her chin and stared into it. A spark floated out and landed just an inch from her foot. Her eyes were drawn to it for a moment as it flickered there before blinking out, suffocated by the sand that swallowed it up.
It felt a little sad, kind of. Staring into the fire, it was easy to forget why exactly she was out here… and why she couldn’t leave, either.
There was stirring on the other side of the fire. The voice was still mocking, but some of the hilarity had melted off of it over the past hours as the sun slid down. Now it was more just pure, condensed sarcasm that had survived by congealing together.
“Going to go to sleep, girl? Getting tired yet? It’s awfully late already.”
Amber’s cheeks flamed.
“No,” she said quickly. Her grip on her sword tightened and she shifted slightly, sitting up straighter and straightening her shirt. “I’m not tired at all.”
The woman - Shelly - glared at her from across the fire, her fingers dancing invisible little patterns over the barrel of her shotgun. Amber couldn’t help but watch them as they did. “Good,” Shelly said. “Neither am I. Then we have a long night ahead, don’t we?”
Amber nodded, swallowing. “I - I guess so.”
“Mmm.” Shelly fell silent, though her eyes never left Amber from where she sat on her side of the fire.
It … it hadn’t been supposed to be like this, exactly. She’d only wanted to come out and track - try to find out where Shelly might be going - hadn’t at all suspected that she might not already be gone. Apparently Shelly was a bold one - hiding in plain sight. The posse after her would have been forty miles past them by this point, chasing a ghost.
Bold… well, it was one way to describe it. Amber might have more accurately described as ‘amazing’. Or maybe fearless, because she was definitely that too. It really was dumb luck that she’d managed to stumble into the little hidden camp, catch the woman off guard.
Before she’d realized what happened, there’d been a gun in her face and her own weapon pointing back - a deadly standoff that had… become less exciting as time wore on. There still lurked the thought in Amber’s head that she wasn’t going to leave this place alive, but until then…
It felt like she was flirting with death itself - a potentially fatal dance, yet one filled with an intoxicating draw, one she couldn’t tear herself away from.
Amber didn’t think she really had it in her to do what she said - what she’d threatened - that had made Shelly back off and put them in this eternal game of waiting and watching, ostensibly searching for a moment of weakness in the other. Her heart ached at the idea.
“It’s - it’s a pleasant night, isn’t it?” Amber asked uncertainly. It was - the moon was full, the stars were out, and a warm breeze blew. She could see Shelly’s pot of chili still sitting on the fire, bubbling, waiting for someone to indulge - though it yet stood untouched. Amber’s heart felt like it was tying itself up in knots. It was - it was almost kinda how she imagined this might’ve gone, except… well, Shelly herself. She smiled hesitantly.
Shelly did not return the gesture, though she did use one hand to brush several stray black curls out of her face, to shift her sitting position and raise her head slightly. “It’s a fine night for a stand-off,” she said.
“Ye-yes,” Amber replied. “But, I mean… it might also be a fine night for other things too, you know. Like a - a date. If you and I were two different people. Not us.”
Shelly looked at her strangely. “I suppose. Are you trying to distract me? It’s not going to work.”
“No!” Amber exclaimed, probably a bit too quickly. “I’m just - I’m just thinking, like, what if things were, you know, different. What - what other people might be doing. Tonight, even.”
Shelly still seemed puzzled, but she shrugged at length. “Maybe. I don’t really care much about what might have been. More concerned with here, now. As you should be too.”
“O-oh.” Amber’s gaze fell slightly. “You don’t think about it much? That’s a shame. I - I think about it a lot. Recently, at least.”
“Is that so.” The response was… dry, but no longer sarcastic. Amber couldn’t tell if it was because Shelly was tired or because she was so unimpressed that she thought it wasn’t even worth sarcasm. Her heart sank. “And what sort of things do you think about, then, firegirl?”
“Well, uh, I mean - lots of things. What I want to do with myself, for example.” She hesitated. “I still haven’t figured that one out.”
“For someone who hasn’t figured out what they want to do, you’ve sure put your neck on the line to be a … masked cop? I guess?”
“I guess.” Amber’s response was glum.
“You guess? You mean to tell me that you didn’t think this through before coming all the way out here after me? What did you think was going to happen?”
“No, I mean, I just - I didn’t expect to actually find you, I mean. I just - I was just looking, but I expected that you’d have been long far away and I would’ve looked at the trail and it would’ve been easier to convince myself that I could never catch up with someone so amazing anyway. Would’ve made it easier to stay behind.”
There was no response and Amber blinked, realizing belatedly the expression of bewilderment on the woman’s face. She flushed darkly behind her mask, suddenly worried. Oh no - what had she said?!
“What did you mean by that?” Shelly demanded a moment later.
“I mean - um - I don’t -” Amber was panicking now. “I didn’t - what did I - what do you mean, what I said. I don’t-”
Shelly was suddenly standing on her feet, and in a split second she’d paced the distance between them, standing over Amber - the sword had slipped from her hand for one single instant in her panic and it was the only opportunity that Shelly had needed.
Amber’s eyes widened and her throat went dry. “I just mean - I mean -”
Shelly kicked the sword away with a foot, sending it clanging against rocks several yards away. But she didn’t shoot - instead, she lowered the gun slightly, though not enough to let any sensible person right entirely at ease. “I don’t get you,” she said. “You came out here to capture - or kill - me, yes? I reckon you’re after the bounty on my head, yeah?”
“No,” Amber confessed. “Actually, I - I couldn’t care less about that, really, I - I -”
“Then what - why? My reputation spreads far and wide, I know. You knew what you were risking coming after me. For what? Was it worth it?”
Amber wrung her hands together. “Actually, I just wanted to get a chance to ta-”
Shelly suddenly looked off abruptly towards a large boulder resting about fifteen feet away, her gun flying up and cocking loudly in the night. Amber looked too, falling silent - she’d not heard whatever it was that Shelly had, but a split second later thunder reverberated through the night as the shotgun in the woman’s hands rumbled and belched a veritable tidal wave of molten lead and fire into the night. It echoed and rang in Amber’s ears, and sparks flew as shrapnel hit the boulder, sending rocky chunks in all directions.
It had been a diversion.
“Don’t move,” someone said from the darkness on the other side of them. “I’ve got my sights on you… and you’re surrounded.”
“Who - who is that?!” Amber whispered.
Shelly scowled darkly. From the darkness, two figures advanced, suddenly clearing up the mystery. “It’s the Goldarm Gang,” Shelly said aloud. “Fuckers mad that I stole from them and got away with it. Sore losers if I ever saw them.”
Amber had realized this already, though - the teenager with the thick poncho-scarf and the woman who seemed permanently shrouded in darkness beneath her cowboy hat, laughing softly at them in a vaguely ethereal manner.
“Well, my dear, it doesn’t seem you got away with it after all, did you? But no matter… after those two take care of you and your… prisoner, I’ll see that I take back what’s mine .”
Shelly was seething.
Amber knew they had only a split second, probably - and a sudden burst of adrenaline filled her from head to toes - she dove at the side of Shelly’s knees from the ground, taking both her and the woman down in a tumbling heap. Not a second too soon, for even as Shelly cried in protest and discharged her shotgun violently into the air, the teenager leaped wildly at her - or where she used to be, and now he flew harmlessly through the air, skidding to a halt several feet away.
Amber and Shelly rolled several feet themselves, all the way to where Amber’s sword had fallen. Now she grabbed it and sprang up - without hesitation aiming and firing, not at their assailants directly, but in a wide arc between them, causing red-hot flames to shoot out in every direction, billowing clouds of acrid smoke that stung the eyes and caused the teenager to hesitate for a split second - Shelly picked him up bodily and threw him into the fire - causing his scarf to catch fire as he hastily stripped it off of him and rubbed at his eyes.
The woman in the hat was also there, though - there was an unearthly light and sound coming from her - a sort of luminous third eye that shone from her forehead and saw through the smoke and chaos with supernatural ease.
“HEY!” Amber shouted, just before the woman attacked Shelly. When she turned, Amber jammed two fingers solidly into the glowing third eye - the scream of pain that issued from the woman after that was something indescribable. Her knees buckled and she tumbled to the dirt, spasming.
Amber grabbed Shelly’s shoulder, pulling her away. “C’mon, let’s get out of here!” The fire was spreading, burning rapidly through prairie grass and positively roaring now, consuming all before it with an all-devouring rage.
Someone was yelling behind her as they ran. A gunshot whizzed in the air over their heads, a bullet slamming into the dirt beside them.
“Fuck!” Shelly exclaimed. “I don’t have my gun - where are you going?!”
“The one place we’ll be safe!” Amber cried.
“What?!”
Amber pointed at the horizon. Light from the town just beyond it was already visible on the horizon.
“Are you kidding ?!” Shelly said. “That’s not safe - not for me - have you forgotten that I’m a wanted fugitive?”
She kept running with Amber, though - bullets still whizzed around them.
“Oh, yes it will be,” Amber said, a determined look on her face. “No one will harm you - not if you’re my prisoner.”
“Fu- WHAT?!” Shelly’s expression was dumbstruck. “NOT IN A MILLION LIFETIMES, FIREGIRL.”
Amber hesitated only for a moment. “Please, Shelly, just let me… please - trust me.”
Shelly’s mouth was already opened - but she didn’t speak for a moment. “Do I have any choice?”
Amber shook her head sheepishly. “It doesn’t look like it, really. I - I’m sorry. I promise I - I’ll make it up to you. Okay?”
“Why do you even care so much about me?!” Shelly returned, exasperated.
“Because I - I’m in love with you!”
Now Shelly stopped dead, in spite of their pursuers. “... what?”
Amber was panting, flushed, desperate. “Yes, Shelly, please, but right now - just don’t - just don’t think about it right now. It’s not important. Just - please - come with me.” She reached under her cape and produced a bundle of rope. “I promise - I’ll let you go as soon as I can. I just - I don’t want anything bad to happen to you. I know you don’t trust me, but -”
Shelly was... laughing? “Oh no - I definitely trust you.”
“...what?”
Shelly shook her head. “Someone as dumb as you are wouldn’t be able to lie that convincingly. There's no doubt about it - you meant every word you just said. You meant them all, didn't you? The whole night? Hmm. You said - you said you were in love with me. Well, I believe you… I’ve never heard anything so stupid in my life.”
Amber’s brow furrowed for a moment (but only for a moment) before her face lightened. “Thank you,” she said. “Now come on, let’s get out here. Don’t worry - I’ll take care of everything .”
“Oh, God.” Shelly rolled her eyes as Amber fashioned crude rope handcuffs. “That’s what I’m worried about, actually.”