#billy bonney

"Not anymore, it seems. Over the last two years, there have been more attacks on women than ever before. Don't go into this thinking you're safe from them, okay? You keep your ears covered the whole time, you understand me?" While you still refused to admit to Billy that it was your first time joining the hunt, he didn't make much effort to prove he was convinced by your white lies.

"You use stakes for wendigos as well as vampires." He then corrected you that the former had to be made of silver, and then the creature had to be dismembered and buried amongst several graves. "Of course, I've cut off a basilisk's head before." The thought alone made you nauseous and you gladly let Billy take charge of the effort. "I know where fairy circles are, obviously." You had absolutely zero clue, and he knew it.

"I know," you drawled; he could tell you were tired of his constant safety reminders even if you were trying to keep up your confident "done-this-before" act.

"No. Don't get smart with me. Sirens are dangerous. There's a reason they're worth so many points. Tell me you understand that." He watched you shrink in on yourself ever so slightly, hating being reprimanded by him of all people who had yet to show any true doubt in you, and it brought an ache to his chest. He only wanted to keep you safe.

"I understand, Billy. I… I know what I'm doing," you hesitated through the last part, your lie catching in your throat.

"I know. But we're partners, and I want us to communicate about these kinds of things. I don't want to win at the cost of your life." He managed a soft smile when you looked over at him, trying to reassure you discreetly while knowing you'd wring his neck if it was too obvious. He hadn't been able to get you to crack with the truth of your experience but in quiet moments at the boarding houses, when he knew you thought he was asleep, he could hear you writing in your little notebook, kept tucked into your bag securely. He wanted to snoop, wanted to know what was so important to write that you were losing sleep over it, but he never pushed. You'd open up to him when you were ready.

You had been at his side when he walked into the general store in search for cotton, something he had told you at least five times was necessary to fighting sirens. He had helped you find the right amount to stuff your ears before he refused to let you pay for it, pushing the coins across the counter and dragging you out of the store before you could replace them with your own. You were a stubborn thing he had come to realize.

I know how to- I can do that- Well obviously- You never ceased in ways to deflect his attempts in helping. Yet, every time, he managed to coax you into relaxing enough to let him. The same had happened now as he watched you relentlessly try to jam the cotton in your ears. He took a slow few steps to stand in front of you, his fingers coming up to tilt your chin and make you look at him.

"Lemme check they're secure. Don't want to risk it," he murmured, your eyes glued to him as he touched your ears, examining the fit of each little ball of cotton. He was sure you had noticed his calloused fingers before on the street outside the gunsmith, and yet, he knew it felt entirely different now as they traced the outline of your ear. He had small bumps on the tips of his fingers from playing guitar in his downtime and whenever they grazed your skin, he swore you almost jumped at the contact.

"I think I did okay," you spoke, cutting the tension as hesitation seeped into the words before he smiled.

"You did good. Nice and secure. If they loosen at all, I want you to yell, okay?" He was sure you both were talking much louder than normal with the soundless surroundings. All he could hear was you; he thought he might prefer it that way.

~

Billy couldn't think straight; there had been three sirens awaiting you two. Billy watched in awe as you threw one of the daggers you kept tucked into your boots. He had been trying to teach you how to shoot better, but in the mean time, you had grown quite skilled with a knife after he suggested you trained your aim with something a little less fatal. Your dagger landed in the neck of the siren heading for you as Billy shot another and he looked over to you with a smile as you tore the knife through the rest of the creature's skin.

"Billy!" he heard you shout, but he was too slow as slimy hands landed on his ears, dislodging the cotton. A sweet melody wormed itself way through his head, sounding frankly like your own voice. He couldn't hear right; he was aware of that. The song sinking into mind couldn't be you when you had been so far away a moment ago. Things came in muffled shouts that never fully reached his brain. He thought he could hear you through the soft humming, calling his name, but the pull deeper into the water was too strong.

He choked on the water that poured down his throat as his mouth sunk under the water, wanting more than anything to fight back and get back to you. He didn't know if you were even safe. Perhaps your muffled voice had been part of the siren's song. Then he felt the tug back toward shore, the hand gripped hard around his forearm that pulled him back up.

"Billy… stop… I'm here… stop fight-" He couldn't make it all out but he knew it was you as you forced him back out of the water. There was a small thought in the back of his clouded mind that he should compliment your strength later but as he fell back onto the rocks of the shore, he could only think about the face in front of him.

You were beautiful. He knew that. It would take an idiot not to know it. But here, as you brought him back, as you grounded him and tore the siren's song from his mind, it was all he could think about. Your hands were soft against his face; the smallest callouses being formed at the base of your fingers rubbed against his cheek bones. You had been beautiful since the day he met you cursing out the man who was too weak to order whiskey. But now, with blood splatter across your cheek and your hair wild with effort, he thought you were breathtaking.

"You… you killed her?" his voice sounded rougher than normal, a hoarse noise to his breathing likely from the drops of water still in his lungs. Your face broke out in a smile that nearly blinded him.

"I saved you." He laughed at that, your relentlessness to fight him on anything that could be construed as him doubting you, until he started to cough and you helped him onto his side. Your hand was warm against his back, his body finally registering that he was soaked and nearly shivering. The world was even quieter than it had been with the cotton in his ears; every cell in his body was tuned into you in that moment. Clearly you were well enough to drag him out of the water, to be sitting up and breathing, but were you hurt? Were you not aware of some life-threatening injury yet because your adrenaline was too-

"Do I annoy you?" your voice cut through his thoughts before his head snapped back to look at you. You didn't sound self conscious necessarily but more curious. Annoy him? He didn't think you could ever in all honesty.

"You're stubborn," he simply stated, wincing at the effort to sit up fully in front of you, "Stubborn but curious. Not annoying… I like it." His voice lowered with his last three words as he tucked a piece of your hair behind your ear. Yeah, I'm screwed, he thought as you softened ever so slightly.

"I'll take stubborn."

~

The journey back to the boarding house had been quiet and Billy was quickly learning that he might truly prefer your incessant questions and bickering. He couldn't stop the way his eyes strayed from the path in front of your horses to your body, clearly tired but not yet relaxing. He wanted to make you relax; a part of him wondered if you'd talk even more if you were truly comfortable somewhere… with someone.

"You promise you're not hurt?" he muttered one more time. He had asked the same question nearly five times in the last two hours and every time you answered just the same, "I'm fine, Billy. Promise." It had done very little to cure the continual nagging in his head that you were anything but. He never realized how much noise you made, your interrogation, your fussing over his help, your voice. It filled his every waking moment since meeting you and even these two hours without it was driving him up the wall.

You offered for him to take a bath when you two returned and even if you were only down the hall, it still felt like a thousand miles were between the two of you as he washed himself clean of the lake. Something had shifted between the two of you today and he wasn't sure if it was for good or not. It wasn't until the water grew cold that he forced himself out of the tub to finally face it. He was worried about you. That's all it was. Yet, it nagged in his chest as he walked back down the hall, not having bothered to put back on his shirt and worst of all, not bothering to knock either.

"Darling-" he started, only to be met with the sight of your bare back as you threw on your chemise.

"Billy!" you startled, turning to see him as your chemise fell to your thighs. He could see the way your breath caught in your throat seeing him shirtless, the scars along his bare chest out for anyone to see. Your hand visibly twitched at your side, as you were trying to control yourself and as he took in the image of you in front of him. He should be sent right to the jail cell for the way he couldn't tear his eyes from you. However, you weren't much better in that moment.

He knew he was covered in scars after so many years trying to fight for his freedom, but as you memorized the location of every one, he felt more vulnerable than ever before. Billy didn't mean to tense when you stepped forward but you paused at the sight, eyes hesitantly darting up to his. You held his gaze as you took one more step forward, his breath catching at the proximity.

"You have so many… Billy, how many hunts have you been through?" your voice came out a breathless whisper.

"A few," he mumbled, swallowing roughly when your finger traced a line across a long scar down his chest. He forced himself to stop looking at your face but instead, he took in the sight of your own skin. You were not as clearly beaten as Billy but his heart still clenched in his chest at the sight of scars patch-worked across your arms. His gaze fell further until it caught on the bright white line up your thigh.

"What monster gave you that scar?" he teased, a small smirk itching at the corners of his mouth.

"Not the kind we hunt." The room was suddenly a new kind of tense, not the warm kind you two shared a moment ago. It was deeper and regretful. You had been hurt by humans and here he had been trying to crack a joke; the guilt nearly ate him alive. He'd take a thousand vampire bites to stop another human from ever harming you again.

…That was new. A more profound feeling deep in his chest that had finally weaseled its way up to his mind. He would kill for you. Not just the witch he had before. Not the siren he had earlier. He'd kill for you. No matter the species. Nothing would harm you again if he had his way.

He wanted to press for more, to demand to know the name of the man—he could make an educated assumption—who dared to hurt you, but when he saw the look in your eyes, he didn't want to force you. Those five words you uttered to him were an opening of your heart, something you clearly hid away from anyone and he wouldn't take that grace for granted. It took a moment before you pulled away from him, moving to hand him his shirt.

The room was still tense, but with every moment that passed, you two moving in sync through the space, the tightness in his chest eased. He wanted to apologize but how could he? He wanted to know more; he couldn't bring himself to wish for a world where he knew nothing at all. He could hear you slip into bed as he checked the pocket of his bag one last time, fingers brushing over and counting the scales plucked from the sirens. He didn't know how many points you might have lost before he showed up, but he refused to let you lose any more.

Billy couldn't help the small smile he wore as he moved under the covers next to you, having found you facing him already unlike the nights before. You didn't move, only melted further into the sheets below you as he settled on his side, eyes tracking over your now relaxed body.

"Thank you," he whispered, knowing he meant it the same way you had that first night you two spent in this very bed. He watched your eyes light up with a small smile before you replied.