Hosea had just pulled the horses off the main road and onto the trail towards camp when Charles noticed that Arthur’s satchel was wiggling.
“The hell?” Arthur said, his hand flying to his gun as he spotted the same thing Charles had.
Charles reached carefully for the bag. “Cover me?”
“Yeap,” Arthur drawled, and Charles had to suppress a choked bark of laughter when the silly man dropped into a drawing stance. While sitting. The dramatic show-off.
Charles reached out a hand, keeping his torso as far away as possible, and gingerly picked up a corner of the satchel’s flap. He probably looked silly enough, himself.
“Alright,” he stage-whispered, looking over at Arthur with wide eyes. Hosea had slowed the horses down to a walk, and was currently looking back at them in bemusement. “On three. One, two–”
He flung open the flap, scooting back away from the bag as far as possible, while Arthur drew his gun.
No snake came springing out, like Charles had half-anticipated. Not even peaches. Not quite.
The little puppy they’d saved earlier that day was cowering in the bag. Its fur was a mess, sticking up against the leather, and one of its ears was flopped over to cover its eyes. The short string of sausages that had been the cause of all its puppy troubles was nowhere to be seen, though its muzzle did shine with a suspicious coat of oily fat, and its pale-pink stomach bulged.
“Wha–so that’s where you went!” Arthur exclaimed, and he shoved his gun back into its holster in favor of reaching out and lifting the puppy into his arms.
The puppy whined, a tiny pathetic sound, and stuck its minuscule snout into the crook of Arthur’s elbow. Charles had the inkling it might be wiping its mouth on the man’s sleeve.
“Awwww,” Arthur crooned, gently bouncing the puppy in his arms. He looked absolutely head-over-heels smitten already, and when he looked up at Charles he almost looked puppy-like himself, his down-turned eyes wide and imploring. “You… you seein’ this?”
“Yeah,” Charles said softly, and he leaned forward to run a tentative hand along the puppy’s belly. Its tiny tail wagged. “He’s adorable.”
“Almost as adorable as you,” Arthur just had to say, and grinned when Charles groaned, suppressing the urge to roll his eyes. “Though definitely more devious. I bet he gobbled up all them sausages and then passed out in my satchel, and we’re probably lookin’ at a little bit of a, well, shitty situation later. Pun fully intended.”
Charles did roll his eyes at that, and both Arthur and Hosea laughed.
Thank-you to @veckati for your wonderful illustration of this scene from Chapter 5 of The Cowboy’s Interchronometric Guide To Pining, my and @kaphzzz's on-going Time Travel Charthur AU!!
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