#Vasco's gleeful look is just something else I love it | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

writermatthew · 6 years

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excerpt from first (unedited and immensely rough, as it tends to be) draft of the origin/birth of the sun. enjoy!

“I’ll try to establish a warrant out for their arrest, but I can’t guarantee you that anything will come of it, or even that they’ll bother to hear my voice,” Lincoln said with a soft, tired sigh. Vasco leaned into him, limping over the dirt road with all the grace of a trampled deer; he slung a thin arm over Lincoln’s broad shoulders (knight’s training, Vasco supposed, Teddy was built similar) and dug his fingernails into Lincoln’s arm whenever he felt himself about to go down.

Every time, Lincoln winced, and every time, Vasco spluttered an apology.

I’ve had worse, Lincoln would say, and they’d continue.

“Thank you. I don’t care if you catch them, I don’t care if they’re in prison… It’s preferred, but I wouldn’t… I’d owe you my life if you just scared them off. I would, I mean it,” Vasco said. “If they saw their faces attached to a bounty, maybe they’d leave long enough for Rona and I to leave, or… or… I don’t know.”

“No, I’ll have them arrested, one way or another. You and Carona don’t have to leave,” Lincoln said, lifting Vasco up against his side.

He grunted, and he halted. Lincoln skidded to a stop beside him, nearly toppling both of them in the process. Baffled, he looked to Vasco, who swallowed hard and turned his eyes to the fields surrounding them.

“Link… You don’t expect Rona and I to stay forever, do you?”

He blinked. “Pardon?”

Vasco took a long, shaky breath. “We aren’t… This was never going to be permanent. Not living with Teddy, at least, and not… I mean, we might have stayed near the city, but we could never… Big cities are trouble, and trouble finds its way to us, and it’s just…”

“Bad?”

“That’s a far less vulgar way of putting it. Yes, bad,” Vasco agreed. “Very, very bad.”

Lincoln fell silent for a while, but they continued walking, the dirt tamping beneath them providing a gentle backdrop to the awkward gap spanned between them. Vasco glanced at Lincoln multiple times, trying to get a gauge for where the man’s emotions were, but he never felt comfortable looking long enough to tell.

“My sister had her baby,” Lincoln blurted. Unsure how else to respond, Vasco made a noise that he supposed was gleeful, and he hoped Lincoln interpreted it as such, too.

“A baby boy,” he continued. “His name is Ellis. His middle name is Lincoln, don’t you know. Cole says he looks like I did when I was a baby, which is to say very small and fat. And ugly, I imagine.”

Vasco laughed. “You certainly aren’t ugly now.”

Lincoln blushed. “Ah, you flatterer. You’re the only one to think so, I suspect.”

This time, Vasco scoffed. “Oh, please. Teddy thinks you’re a god amongst men, ogles over you whenever you aren’t looking.”

Again, they came to a skidding halt, Lincoln initiating this time. He turned his red face to Vasco and searched his face for something. Lies, jokes, moles… who knew? His dark eyes flitted like a butterfly, before finally locking onto Vasco’s face.

“What?” Lincoln asked, voice hushed as if Vasco had told him that the Mother had moved in next door. There was a sparkle in his eye that, again, Vasco could not identify.

Vasco cleared his throat. “Uh, nothing. Nothing. I didn’t say anything.”

Lincoln stood for a long, long minute, staring Vasco down like a baffled child, before finally letting out a breath and turning back onto their path. Relieved, Vasco continued his limping march.

“About you leaving… my sister’s neighbors recently left, and they haven’t… they told us to take care of their house, for if ever they return. Maybe you can…”

Vasco shook his head. “I would love to, Lincoln, but if those men at the market- I don’t know. I’ll consider it, if things clear up. Right now, I have… I have bigger worries. I’m sorry.”

Lincoln nodded grimly, and the rest of the walk was silent but for the rustle of leaves and grass and the chirp of birds. Vasco was reminded of home, laying beneath an open window as nature sang its song and his mother baked bread in the next room. He dug his fingernails into Lincoln’s shoulder and rattled the thoughts from his head.

None of that. Not now.

And he thought of what was important.

Carona.

#wip tag #wip: oots #writing: atd (becca)#my writing #oi rough drafts r painful to post but when this is all shiny n polished... yeehaw babey

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