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Scott always enjoyed the end of an evening at the Saloon. Don’t get him wrong he loved standing behind the bar, serving beer and advice to anyone who entered, but after many hours of just that, he relished the moment when he sent everyone on their way, before tying off the evening by cleaning. No matter what had happened at his bar that day, whether a fight broke out or a mostly empty room bored him, Scott always ended it all with just him, his broom and his rag, before heading home for the night.
And today wasn’t any different, at least at first. Scott had just been wiping down his bar counter, which was the last thing he usually did on any given day, when his doors swung open and three masked men with guns in their hands walked in. This didn’t seem good especially considering that Scott had locked the door, he always does, or did he forget today?
“I'm sorry, but the saloon is already closed. I'm gonna have to ask you to leave,” Scott tried his best to seem calm; this was going to be fine. Maybe they aren’t actually as dangerous as they seem.
The three men walked closer to his counter while they started laughing, before the one who had walked in first, Scott presumed he was the leader, raised his gun and pointed it directly at Scott’s head, “You’re gonna ask us are you now? Well then the answer is no. So how about you shoot up and get us some beers and maybe we’ll let you live, yeah. How does that sound pretty boy?”
This was bad, like really bad. Scott didn’t have his own gun anywhere close to the counter as he had already put it away in his bag closer to the entrance, which left him completely defenceless. And even if he somehow managed to get to it, he wasn’t even close to being a good enough shot to defend himself. And with how late it was, the chances of someone coming to help him were pretty much non-existent. In other words: Scott was screwed.
“Of course, right away,” Scott said while failing to keep his voice from shaking. Before he slowly moved to pour the drinks, for the men that he now assumed to be bandits. Scott was much slower in doing so than he usually was, mostly cause he couldn’t stop his hands from shaking, something that the bandits seemed to find quite hilarious, judging by their mocking laughter.
Once Scott had placed the beers out in front of the men he tried to move away from them, before the leader harshly grabbed his wrist stomping him completely. “Where do you think you’re going, sweetheart? We’re not done with you yet.”
“I'd highly suggest that you are.” A new voice rang out through the saloon, a voice that felt incredibly familiar and comforting to Scott. The voice came from the direction of the door, which led to every person in that room turnig there head to see who just entered, and to Scott’s great happiness it was exactly who he thought: Etho the town’s sheriff.
Etho stood right at the door gun in hand. As always his lower face was covered by a dark blue bandanna, which drew attention to his eyes, which were currently narrowed in concentration. Unlike when Scott usually saw him his white hair was left completely untouched, no bun or headband to keep it from falling close to his face. And if the situation wasn’t so dangerous and Scott's heart wasn’t still beating so fast due to fear it would definitely be beating just as fast for another reason.
“How about you punk just mind your own business,” the leader snapped as he fully turned towards Etho, with no regard for Scott as he didn’t let go of his wrist. That led to Scott being pulled slightly over the counter with his feet off the ground, his wrist hurting from the pressure and his arm hurting from the stretch of it all. Despite that Scott had really tried to suppress his hiss. Somehow all of that made Etho seem even more focused and angry. He was now fully glaring at the bandits.
“This is my town, which makes it my business,” Etho coldly told them as he stepped a few steps forward. “Now let go of his wrist.”
“I've seen your type before, small town sheriff who thinks he's the greatest because no one in this small town knows how to properly aim a gun, but you're not. People like you wouldn't survive a day in the kind of city we are from,” the leader said in a threatening manner while his associates pulled out their own guns, this was getting bad.
“Last chance get out,” Etho coldly said while taking his last step forward, making it so that he was about three big strides away from the bandits and stood in the middle of the room.
“Make me sheriff,” the leader chuckled, while the other two bandits started raising their guns.
Immediately, the first shot was fired by Etho, hitting one of the bandits in the chest right where his heart was located. While the first one fell lifelessly to the ground Etho shot his second bullet hitting the other bandit with the same accuracy. It all was happening so quickly but for just a moment Scott thought that this would all turn out fine, the moment ended when the third shot was fired, this time not by Etho. The bandit's leader was one-shotting this time and hitting his mark. Scott didn’t see the bullet hit but he did see Etho crumpling to the ground. No! No! NO!!! This can't be happening!!!
“ETHO” Scott couldn’t stop himself from yelling the other’s name and letting the tears run down his face. This can't be happening, not to Etho. Scott started pulling himself over the counter, maybe if he got to Etho, he could still help. He could still do something, anything. Etho couldn’t die like this. Scott didn’t get far though as when he started running towards Etho, he was harshly pulled back painfully slamming against the counter.
“I don’t remember saying you could leave and stop sobbing it’s pathetic. Really all of this over a stupid sheriff.” The man that had shot Etho said coldly, before walking towards the sheriff lying on the floor unmoving and pulling Scott with him, “How pathetic. The world's better off without this wannabe, and you'll soon join him.”
The bandit symbolically raised his gun, Scott being able to do nothing but look at him in fear while crying. Then two more shots were fired, one hitting each of the bandits wrist, right where the joints are. The pain caused him to let go of Scott and his gun, both falling to the floor as gravity claimed the gun and Scott was shaking too much to stand on his own.
“The only one that’s joining the afterlife today is you,” a voice Scott thought he’d never hear again rang out. Etho. The sheriff quickly moved up getting up from the floor seemingly unharmed, but how?
The bandit just looked at him in pure horror, while trying to step back before being stopped by the bar counter. Etho didn’t take a single step he just raised his gun aiming it directly at the man’s chest.
“Just so you know, you got me all wrong. See, I've done the same thing you have in the past before becoming the sheriff of this here town, and if i know one thing it’s that I never get chout and don’t show mercy, especially if you're going to threaten this town's bar keep.” Scott had never heard Etho like this, threatening. And once he was done the last shot was fired and the last bandit was no more.
“Scott are you alright… did he hurt you?” Etho carefully and hesitantly asked as he moved a bit closer to Scott and crouched down in front of him.
Before responding Scott moved forward throwing his arms around Etho and placing his head in the crook of the sheriff's neck and starting to sob again, while trying to speak, “I thought I had lost you. How did you? The bullet?”
“It’s okay, Scott. I’m here,” Etho said as he wrapped his arms around the sobbing man, “I'd just finished the testing on my bulletproof undershirt and when I saw those guys forcing there way in, I couldn’t just leave you… I'm sorry I should have been here sooner, should have stopped them from ever getting in, from ever hurting you.”
“I don’t care about that, I care about you, Etho. And I thought you were gone, you absolute idiot, don’t you ever do such a thing again,” Scott continued.
“I promise I'm not going anywhere,” Etho calmly said while moving his hand to guide Scott’s face up so they could look at each other as he wiped away Scott's tears.
Scott started calming down after that, his breathing becoming more grounded as he tried to match it to Etho's. Once Scott felt that he could think and speak properly again he knew what he had to do. If he didn’t do it now he might never have the chance to again, so he raised his eyes to meet Etho's before saying, “I… I love you”
Etho didn’t move for a long moment, going completely still before the part of his face that Scott could see turned fully red and his eyes went wide. The next thing that followed was a row of undisirtebul sputtering that left Etho's mouth. Scott had never seen him like this before, it was cute in a funny way. So the bar owner didn’t even try to hide his laughter.
The laughing seemed to finally snap Etho out of his short-circuiting before averting his eyes, “I think I love you too”
The two stayed like that for a moment longer, before Etho decided to get up and help Scott with the clean-up of it all, before walking the man to his home, there was no way Etho would leave Scott alone after all that. The sheriff also promised some sort of date in their future but for now he'd just cuddle Scott until they fell asleep, completely safe and together.