Either scenarios with his pardner or how that conflicts (or smth else idk) with being a lone galaxy ranger 🙏

I am of the firm belief that Boothill loves with all his heart. It's not in his nature to be half-arsed. Rather, in all timelines he is passionate. That, of course, extends to the way he cherishes those around him.

With the same focus he'd have wrangling cattle (in the past, eyes cast forward and unblinking, lasso gripped between his callused fingers) Boothill observes you. There's purpose in his gaze. It's a destination that he craves. Before he even gets to court you, and Aeons know he wants to, he's resolute in this craving for you. Boothill isn't eloquent — he never has been, probably never will be. But he's set to do it right.

He gets you flowers. He gets you gifts. He makes you little trinkets from old bullet casings wrapped with scrap wire and shaped into something meaningful. He doesn't know if he's doing it right, everything gets scuffed from his metal fingertips, but he does it anyway. Boothill pines for you. There is a snug pull in his chest. Your laugh draws him in. Your smile makes his circuits buzz with a pride that isn't his yet. Anything he overhears couples do he tries to match: fleeting touches; sweet treats. He even sprays cologne onto his jacket in an attempt to please you.

And when he finally gets to date you? That affection — that yearning grows tenfold. It's coiled with possessiveness, wrapped in an old, embroidered handkerchief, and stored in the inner-most nook of his soul. Boothill isn't one to use big words to express his admiration. He acts. He manhandles the love he feels and hopes to press it into your heart.

His hat will sit atop your head and he'll feel this... potent affection pooling at the base of his neck. He'll stick close, physically, to feel the heat of your skin ebb into his artificial joints. He will watch and daydream a life with you — something beyond the stars, something back home, something domestic, something safe. Something a Galaxy Ranger guided by revenge cannot settle for as it is too soft for the Path of The Hunt.

But he craves for it; he craves for you and that is fact. No matter how much he'd try to push the thought away it springs back up in the silent in-between. In the silence after a gun is fired and in the rattle of a ship floating through space. He wants you nearby. He wants to protect you. He wants to provide whatever he can just for the chance to call you his. Boothill wants to love you: that is his truest sentiment.

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