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He had nightmares about it, of course he did, he’d seen a man die protecting him, a man he’d grown to respect and admire and only known for such a short time, and he hadn’t even been able to avenge him. He still didn’t know who had weeks after it had happened, so he went to ask Ms Cullen,
“Now Teddy how many times do I have to tell you to call me Emma?” she sighed when he knocked on her door that afternoon,
“Sorry Ms… sorry Emma,” he corrected himself, she looked at him and he looked away, downright sad and ashamed,
“What’s wrong Teddy?” she asked softly, showing him that familiar sisterly affection he loved, approaching and brushing his fringe back gently.
“I couldn’t save Mr Horne…” he sniffed, tears welling up in his eyes, he was such a damned coward, couldn’t even load a gun and kill that monster of a man.
“Oh Teddy…” Emma breathed, “come, sit down…” she urged, but he eased from her grasp and stood his ground,
“No I can’t… I got a question I need answerin’ and I know you’ll set me straight,” he nodded, determined, rubbing his face, “Who killed the Indian? The one who got Mr Horne?” Emma looked at him for a moment,
“Red Harvest,” she said, expression serious, “it was quick and brutal, he didn’t deserve a good fight.” Teddy had to agree with that, the man had run Mr Horne through with half a dozen arrows, when he was barely armed, part of him would have liked it to have been slow and painful for the native.
“They’re still in town, aren’t they?” he asked, he knew they were waiting for Mr Rocks to recover, he’d survived somehow and had needed a good talkin’ to from Mr Chisholm before he’d actually let himself heal, but it didn’t hurt to reconfirm.
“Yeah, most of them are staying here, much to my chagrin…” she sighed, glancing over her shoulder when Mr Vasquez sauntered into the main room in nought but his long underwear, “Please put some clothes on Gabriel…” she averted her gaze as she said it, but the way her blouse wasn’t sat quite right on her shoulder told Teddy she wasn’t actually bothered by Vasquez’ partial nudity, that perhaps she had caused it. “I believe Red Harvest is camped just on the Northern outskirts of my land, whether he’s at home, I do not know,” she offered, Teddy nodded enthusiastically and left the house, stumbling as he went to swing onto his horse, making the motion a lot clumsier than he’d intended, before riding to find Red Harvest.
He found a burnt-out campfire beside a naturally felled tree that had been hollowed, he climbed off of his horse and hitched him carefully to a nearby tree, approaching the small camp and looking around curiously. There was a tanned deer hide bundled up inside the log, along with other things that clearly belonged to Red Harvest, he was going to poke around further but he heard someone whistle and stood quickly, pulling his gun just in case. He turned to see Red Harvest with his bow out, an arrow nocked and ready to fire, his horse stood just behind him with a string of rabbit carcasses draped across its bare back,
“It’s me! Teddy Q!” he blurted in a panic, dropping his gun in the dirt; the native lowered his weapon and frowned at him, Teddy had no idea where he’d snuck up on him from, but he’d have been impressed if he wasn’t so scared. “I uh, I wanted to talk about Mr Horne,” he said slowly, cautiously bending to pick up and holster his pistol, Red Harvest still didn’t speak to him, but did finger his arrow slightly when he picked the gun up, “About the man who killed him… the re… the Comanche?” Red Harvest spat then, a quick, disgusted gesture into the dirt.
“He was a disgrace, not a Comanche,” Red Harvest all but growled, Teddy had half forgotten what Red Harvest’s voice sounded like, felt embarrassed at the little chill that crept down his spine as he spoke,
“Ms Cullen… Emma… she says you killed that man, the one who killed Horne…” he couldn’t quite meet Red Harvest’s intense stare, not out of fear but out of something he was uncertain of, “I wanted to thank you… and… to find out if he suffered…” he balled his hands into fists as he said it, wanting to know that man had paid, that his death had been shameful and painful all at once.
“He did not die a noble death…” Red Harvest said simply, “I made sure of that,” he added and Teddy visibly sagged with relief, sitting on the floor and crossing his legs, just hearing that seemed to take a weight off his shoulders and exhaust him.
“I feel like I failed him…” he admitted, “He died right in front of me… I couldn’t even fight…”
“You were injured…” Red Harvest noted, though Teddy had healed up, didn’t know the native even knew he’d been hurt. Red Harvest pulled the hide out of his log and laid it on the ground beside him, Teddy looked at him and frowned when he gestured to the edge of the hide, “Sit,” he urged, so Teddy scooted off of the dirt and onto the animal skin. “You fought though,” he said bluntly, and Teddy supposed he had, not particularly well, but he’d shot someone,
“I did… not well…” he sighed, “I could’ve done more,”
“Do more now,” Red Harvest said, “You’re alive, your town still needs help,” he went to his horse, pulled the carcasses off of it and carried them over, removing one from the bunch and hanging the rest on the tree Teddy had hitched his horse to, then sitting down beside Teddy and beginning to skin the one he’d kept.
Teddy watched him do it, different to how he’d seen other men skin animals, Red Harvest was cutting the animal so cleanly it seemed impossible, and challenged all the ‘savage’ terms he’d heard being used to describe people like him. He was so delicate with the skin and gore, prying it apart, shearing the skin almost like it wanted to come off, it was oddly beautiful, and his hands were incredibly dexterous that Teddy found himself lost in the motions.
He sat watching Red Harvest skin and prepare the rabbit for some time, barely even registering the sun dipping beyond the horizon until Red Harvest stood and began to relight his fire, spitting the rabbit and hanging it over the fire to cook.
“I should leave huh,” Teddy huffed out, about to stand but Red Harvest dropped back next to him and put a hand to his shoulder,
“Eat with me,” he insisted, expression such an intense frown that if Teddy didn’t know him even as little as he did, he’d have been scared into staying.
“Okay,” he nodded, sitting and fidgeting as Red Harvest sat beside him and stared intently at the rabbit, turning it from time to time, neither of them talking until the rabbit was cooked, halved, and the top end was handed to Teddy. “Thank you…” he said quietly, uncertain, but biting into the cooked flesh and eating, occasionally glancing at Red Harvest, who ate in silence and glanced back; he heard a snicker and turned to the other man, frowning, Red Harvest smiled at him then, a warm, cheeky look,
“I have plates,” he said as if that would answer Teddy’s confusion, but Teddy just frowned harder and Red Harvest chuckled again, “you didn’t even question… that I handed you food and not a plate…”
“I didn’t want to offend you…” Teddy mumbled, blushing furiously and looking down once more,
“You won’t offend me,” he assured and Teddy shrugged a little, he was sure he could offend Red Harvest without even trying, he was prone to putting his foot in his mouth. He turned his head to say as much and was shocked when a warm, slightly damp mouth covered his own, his eyes widened and he saw Red Harvest’s eyes flutter open and grow just as shocked as his own, jerking back and staring angrily at the floor.
“Uh…” Teddy let out, panicking in his mind because he didn’t really know what had just happened,
“I… didn’t mean to…” Red Harvest uttered, “not your mouth… not first…” he proceeded to mumble something in a language Teddy didn’t understand. That meant Red Harvest had meant to kiss him, but was apologising for it being on the mouth, his brain informed him slowly, and he found himself leaning to press a kiss to Red Harvest’s cheek, it was hot to the touch and he jerked back, embarrassed and struggling to hide a little smile at the thought of this man, the one who’d avenged their friend, liking him in that way. They ate in silence after that, sharing smiles from time to time, brushing shoulders, leaning in for chaste, almost child-like kisses, Teddy felt like he was experiencing his first crush all over again, and he didn’t mind that at all.