Chapter Text
Bill Williamson was dumbfounded. He looked through his clothing, his bedroll–thrice–and examined everything of his own. He had looked essentially everywhere for this one, very important, yet deeply embarrassing possession of his. He hasn’t lost anything in years, especially not something so humiliating. He was getting desperate, and he had to find it. As quick as humanly possible.
At this point, he could get away with not saying anything, denying any questions arising from anyone who’d come across it.
Bill scans around the camp, noting everyone in the general area.
Arthur Morgan. Haven’t asked him yet.
“Morgan. Could I uh, err, you got a moment?” Bill would find himself asking out loud, anxiously scratching the back of his neck as he watched Arthur leisurely stroll through the withdrawn camp.
The cowboy stops in his tracks, sighing to himself before facing the other man to inquire what exactly the sudden urgency was.
“Er.. sure Bill. What’chu need now?”
“Well,” Bill clears his throat.
“You happen to … see anything out of the–uh, ordinary? Just layin’ around somewhere?” Bill asks, his eyes darting towards the floor as he speaks.
Arthur lifts an eyebrow, and shrugs, thinking back to all of the events that had transpired the same day. Bill has asked for more peculiar things before, not leaving much room for him to question.
“No, I haven't been in camp long enough to, recently. ‘xcept maybe that I saw Uncle gettin’ off his ass earlier to help with ‘round camp earlier. Pretty irregular, I’d say.”
Bill lets out a defeated exhale, no, Arthur would’ve definitely shown some sort of torment towards him if he’d seen. Or, maybe he wouldn’t want to know.
Yet he seems to not press Bill any further, and not ask any questions. The man would at least hand him back his property if he had the chance of having it in his possession.
Bill furrowed his brow at Arthur, deciding it’d be better to just leave it there before he’d get the idea of getting suspicious.
Shit. Then who the hell has it?
“Hey, Bill,”
The bear of a man turns around suddenly upon hearing a voice behind him.
Horse.
…
No, it was Javier, on his horse.
“Shit, Javier,” Bill quickly retorts, caught quite off guard by the ponytailed man sneaking close to him, Boaz – Javier’s horse– obverse of Bill’s bewildered face.
“I think I found something of yours, Bill,” Javier discloses, with a big shit eating grin plastered on his face. Bill’s heart, and every other important organ of his body seems to shut down.
Okay, it doesn’t necessarily have to be it. Javier very well could’ve found anything else belonging to him, such as his missing belt buckle– which had been missing for a few moons now.
Yet, judging by Javier’s expression, it very much could be Bill’s missing item.
“And uh, what would that be?” Bill responds, trying not to show any sign of weakness or vulnerability to the other man.
“You tell me,” Javier responds, patting his good ‘ol horse on the head. This action does not go unnoticed by Bill.
Well, shit. He can’t just say that he’s missing that, that would cause Javier to press Bill for answers, or create a reason to humiliate him for having such a raunchy item.
“Can’t seem to recall I’m missin’ anythin’,” Bill quickly retorts, hoping that the conversation would cease then and there.
“That so? You sure you ain’t missing anything? Must’ve caught you rummaging ‘round your belongings recklessly for nothin’ then,” Javier smirks, hitching up his horse to a nearby fence.
Bill furrows his brows, looking around camp to ensure no one would be eavesdropping on their conversation. Bill lowers his voice. “Fine, I… am missin’ something. What did you find…?” Bill responds, then quickly adds on–as he raises his hands defensively, “and it ain’t mine! I was just holdin’ it for someone. Whatever it may be, of course.”
“Right… so uh, this book ain’t yours is it?”
Bill immediately looked incredibly relieved, he’d never seen that book in his entire life, nor had reading ever interested him in any way.
“Never seen that book in my life,” Bill replies, hoping his reaction didn’t seem extremely obvious that he’d previously been nervous of Javier’s discovery, clearly sweating bullets.
Javier shakes his head, “Ah ah ah, not the book. Inside the book,”
“Inside the book?”
“Yes, Bill. You wanna open it, or should I do the honors?” Javier responds by holding up the book to the air, waving the hungry Boaz away from it. He then looks at Bill eagerly, moving the edition close to the man adjacent.
Bill swallows dryly, looking down at the item being presented to him. He skeptically takes it into his hands, opening to the middle of the book, with his desired possession hidden within the pages. His eyes NEARLY jump out of his skull at the revelation.
“I– you uh, how the fuck did you– you,” He swallows dryly, trying to complete a fucked-up, yet coherent sentence.
“Don’t TELL ANYONE about this,” Bill quickly jumbles his words, shutting the book instantaneously on the worn picture.
“Didn’t think you’d be the type, Bill. Y’know, to have that type of stuff just layin’ around,” Javier quips with a smirk, casually crossing his arms at the sight of a flabbergasted Bill Williamson.