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Boothill lets out an exhilarated laugh as he shoots a large robot square in the chest, watching as it clunks to the floor with a loud thud. The sound of wires sparking is loud as it starts to spark and malfunction along with the many other robots he’s taken down, all of them scattered around the Penacony alley.
He quickly scans the alley only to see no robots left standing, just a bunch of broken down machines laying on the concrete ground, small sparks flying off them, lighting up the darkness of the alley like the stars do with the night as they jerk and twitch.
Another bounty completed, he notes with a sharp-toothed grin.
He puts his gun back in its holster as he deems the robots broken enough to not be able to get back up when a loud huff of air reaches his ears, prompting him to look behind him towards the source of the noise.
The sight that greets him is Stelle resting her hands on her knees as she catches her breath, her bat gripped tight in one of her hands. He lets out a fond sigh, watching as she stares at a malfunctioning robot that has a large indent in its metal from her bat. The robot looks absolutely worse for wear but the ones leaning against the smaller ones leaning against the walls are absolutely destroyed. He knew he wouldn’t regret bringing her with him on this bounty when she had practically thrown herself at him when he told her that she could accompany him.
There’s a few visible scratches on her along with some faint bruises on her legs but nothing too bad, though the way she’s so out of breath like she just ran across an entire farm from just beating robots brings him slight concern.
“What? Are a few robots enough to take ya down today? Hate to say it, doll, but I’m ‘fraid you might be gettin’ a little rusty.” Boothill teases with a playful chuckle, walking over to her to check and make sure there’s nothing actually wrong because Stelle is one heck of a fighter. She usually doesn’t get so tired so easily.
“I’m not getting.. huff.. rusty. You were just shooting all willy-nilly and I had to make sure you didn’t shoot me!” Stelle tells him with a breathless voice, glancing up at him through her gray hair to which Boothill lets out an indignant squawk. Well, at least he knows she’s okay if she’s being this sassy.
“I’ll have ya know that every single bullet I shot was perfectly aimed at the robots!” He defends, fondly rolling his eyes.
“You aimed at the robots fighting me! Then they moved and I had to dodge the bullet!” Stelle counters, letting out a tired huff of air from her lips.
“..Okay, maybe that’s my bad– but! I was not shootin’ all willy-nilly.”
“If you weren’t then why didn’t you take me into account?”
Boothill pauses.
“So maybe I was shootin’ a bit recklessly but I still was shootin’ carefully enough to take these motherfudgers down.” He relents, knowing he’s not gonna win this small little bicker.
“Close enough.” Stelle shrugs as she finally stands straight, dusting herself off for a brief moment. With how fine she seems, Boothill can feel his concern fade away.
“Well,” Boothill starts, a smirk tugging at his lips as an idea starts to form in his mind. “Since ya had to deal with my recklessness, why don’t I give ya your own reward for the bounty?”
Her eyes immediately brighten at that, a sparkle adorning the golden irises at the thought of getting a reward. He already knows what she’s gonna say before she even opens her mouth.
“And no, it ain’t stellar jades.” He chuckles and he almost feels bad with how her face falls in disappointment. Well, he shouldn’t keep her looking like that, now should he?
“Then what’s the reward?” She asks, clearly less interested now that she knows there’s no stellar jades being offered up. It’s endearing enough that he can’t help the grin that breaks out onto his face.
He gently grabs her chin as he steps closer to her, not enough to be uncomfortable but enough to be brushing against her when she shifts in surprise.
“How bout a good ol’ kiss from one galaxy ranger?” He asks in a low tone as he leans his face down towards hers, a playful smirk toying at his lips.
He was expecting some kind of patient response like a nod or a shake of her head, or verbal confirmation but really, when is Stelle ever patient because she’s pulling him down by the collar the very next second and crashing her lips on his.
His eyes widen in surprise at the feeling before fluttering close, his head tilting slightly to the side to make it more comfortable. He hums in content at the feeling of her soft and warm lips against his chapped and cold ones. He gently placed his free hand onto her hip, making sure to keep his touch light so as not to hurt her with his artificial strength.
After a few peaceful moments, Stelle pulls away, looking up at him in contentment with that soft smile that he’s grown to find endearing on her face. It makes his mechanical heart beat ever so slightly faster as his internal fans kick on in a self soothing method. If Stelle notices the noise, she does not comment on it.
“Y’know,” Stelle starts, a hint of mischief in her voice that has him smiling fondly. “I think I deserve a reward for every robot I beat.”
Boothill can’t help the beaming grin that makes its way onto his face.
“Hm, I reckon that’s fair enough.” He says with a playful lilt to his voice before diving back down to kiss her again, to which Stelle happily reciprocates.
If they kiss a few more times than the amount of robots broken on the floor, well, that’s no one’s business but theirs.