Work Text:
That smile of his. That god damn man-devil smile. It curses his eyelids when he tries to sleep and a glance at the crescent moon all but reminds him of those stacked teeth. They're white as the stars and might as well burn as much too. None of this is helped by the fact the Judge is laying beside Glanton on a cheep mattress, stargazing at nothing.
"Whyr you so queer, Holden? You come out the womb lookin' like a dried skinnd dog?" The words slip and slur from Glanton's drunk lips.
"My madre, maybe she raped a dog and that's where I come from." The judge smiles wide and briefly glances to the other man.
"Tú...madre?"
"Mi madre."
"...The hell that mean again? M-ah-dr-eh?"
The judge almost breaks his smile into a laugh but holds off. His eyes bore into the abode ceiling above and he analyzes each minute crack.
"Mother. You got the memory of an ancient." Holden's eyes find the drunk beside him "Or maybe the tongue ain't meant for you."
"God knows that ain't true and you ain't insult no god."
"God lies to man like mortality lies to sentience. If he spoke of truth then there ain't never existed savages or warpaths."
"You sayn god ain't almighty? He ain't know our fates? Sodomite bullshit."
"It's simply a thought for you to feed on, man"
"...If god ain't know our fates then I know our fates. I vow to never die from gunfire or damn deviants but to die from whiskey down my throat." Glanton lifts the nearly empty bottle up and clings in against a ghosts'.
The judge gives a proper deep chuckle at that and his eyes lock with the man's and there's a pause. Without warning, Holden takes the bottle from Glanton's hand and finishes off in front of the shocked other. If it were any other person, they'd already have a hole right between the eyes but Glanton just cusses out an array of slurs and gives up any fight.
"Fuckin stealin buzzard damn botton feedin white bellyed pansy-"
He went on and on and the Judge listened while also listening to the commotion of the other Americans in other rooms. Glanton started to lose the energy he once displayed and begun to sink down like a avalanche. Holden silently moves his huge build to line up with the other man's head and it falls on his stomach with a soft whisper.
"Holden...you uh...you like a brother. But not" He chokes out a burp. "Maybe a father. Like a padre. Mi grande padre."
Holden hums a loud and reverberating hum that rings through both the men. Glanton's face is bright red with alcohol. A big white calloused hand sneaks up the side of the scalping leader and rests on his shoulder like a white whale going in for the kill.
"Wait no. Not a padre. Big father. I don' know. Maybe there jus ain't a name for it. That's fine...its..."
Glanton's dialog gets cut off by sleep and replaced with snoring. The judge's smile is as wide as it can go without breaking his jaw. It practically glows white, more than the rest of him, from the moon coming through the window. The other shifts in his sleep as if he almost can sense it.
"Buenas noches mi corazón."