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See, the first thing Tango really understands about the girl in the wagon is that she doesn't shut up. No, really. She's been talking and talking and talking since she woke up, and not even about the fact that she's no longer in Tumble Town or how the rope he wrapped around her wrists is sure to be hurting by now, at least he reckons it does a little bit. He keeps lighting and relighting the end of his fingers just for something to do and it's only after a few minutes of that that he notices the girl's finally fallen silent.
He looks up, and finds her staring at him, frowning. Tango raises an eyebrow, but he doesn't say anything, and eventually the girl says, "I expected you to be taller."
"And I expected you to keep your mouth shut, but look where that's gotten me." The bandit rolls his eyes, heavily considering just taking her back to town. The Sheriff wouldn't be too happy either way at him having taken one of the townskids, but at least he wouldn't have to listen to her anymore.
"You know, after all the stuff Dad's said about you, I kinda thought you'd be... more."
"What the hell does even mean, kid?"
She shrugs, and turns back to stare out the back of the wagon. "My name's Jesse, by the way."
Tango stares up at the mesa sky for a second, the sun hidden behind a rare mass of clouds, and says, "What, you expect me to tell you mine?"
"It's Tango." Jesse replies, and the man's gaze jerks back to her in shock. "Like I said, Dad talks about you a lot."
Yeah, Tango really should've just brought her back to town. Gods know he doesn't have the patience for this.
/
The first thing Tango notices about Jimmy as he rounds the corner, already cursing, is that the Sheriff is fit to be tied. He don't think he's ever seen the man too angry, truth be told, and he don't quite think he wants to. He glances to the side at where Jesse has, once again, fallen silent. She's staring at her father, hands frozen in the motion of sliding the ropes from her wrists.
Wait. Could she have done that the whole time? He tied those pretty damn good, how'd she do that?
There's a pistol in his hands that wasn't there a moment ago — he doesn't remember reaching for it, if he's honest (which he rarely is) — but he falters momentarily when he catches sight of Jimmy's face. Yeah, he ain't ever seen this man that angry.
"Now, look here, Sherriff, I ain't mean no—" He tries, but the Sheriff is suddenly a lot closer than he was before and Tango cuts himself off, just staring.
Jimmy starts speaking, his voice low, tone dangerous in a way that sort of kinda makes Tango's head spin a little bit. "My horses are one thing. My wagons are one thing. I'm one thing, Tango, but don't you dare touch her, you understand me, Bandit? I'll kill you."
It's only then that he registers the barrel of the pistol cutting into his side. Tango swallows, slow, and then nods. He starts to say something again, but Jesse starts talking just then and the words die in his throat.
"Dad?" He glances over again; she's standing now, rolling his rope up in her hands and tossing it to the side. Her head tilts as she cracks the joints in her neck. "I'm tired. Can we go home?"
Jimmy shoves away from him, wandering over to her. Tango blinks away the spots in his vision from not breathing and watches the Sheriff lift his hat from his head and plop it on Jesse's.
Jimmy doesn't turn back around when they start back towards town — Tango wasn't really expecting him to, he still hoped — but Jesse does. She turns and waves at him, shouting, "See ya later, Bandit!"
/
Now, Tango isn't really sure about a lot of things when it comes to the Sheriff's daughter, but he's almost certain that she ain't supposed to be up on the top of the fishbowl alone. But here she is, plain as the sunshine above them that warms the sand below his horse's feet, walking along the edge of the bowl towards the village outside the Mesa. He steers Adequate in the general direction the blonde is going and he's only a little surprised that she doesn't jump when he gets up next to her.
"Hey there, Bandit." Jesse greets, and he only thinks about rolling his eyes for a second. Tango knows that she knows his name; he doesn't say anything yet. "Shouldn't ya be off stealin' or whatever it is that ya do?"
"You ain't supposed to be up here, are ya, kid?" Tango says at last, and he catches the way she walks just a little bit faster as though he isn't on a horse and couldn't just scoop her up and run if he wanted to. When she doesn't respond, he pulls his horse to a slow stop. "Jesse, your dad know you up here?"
She's stopped, too, rocking back and forth on her heels as she, Tango assumes, tries to come up with something to say. The girl eventually settles on, "Well, not exactly. But I'm just going up the road."
He dismounts, grabbing the reins and gently walking Adequate up beside her. She turns and he takes that moment to grab her by the wrist and starts pulling her back towards Tumble Town. Jesse twists and she pulls but she can't get out of his grip, and briefly Tango once again wonders how she got out of those ropes last time.
"Let go o' me, Bandit!" She's shouting in his ear, but he still keeps on going, not stopping 'til they're at the bottom again, hidden in the shade of the walls of the fishbowl and Jesse seems to have lost all her breath struggling to get away from him. "What'd ya go 'nd do that for, huh?"
"'Cause," Tango starts, "when your dad comes looking for you, he gonna come to me. Figured I'd go ahead and save 'im the trouble." He starts leading her forwards again, until he finally spots the Sheriff at the jailhouse.
Tango shouts, "'Ey, Sherriff! I think this one belongs to you!"
He finally lets go of Jesse and there really isn't anything she can do but stand there as Jimmy gets closer. He's mad again, but not at Tango.
"Jesse, get to the house."
"But—"
" Jessebelle, I ain't telling you again. House, now ." The Sheriff snaps, and she bolts towards the other end of the fishbowl before Tango has any time at all to react to the fact that her full name is Jessebelle . He turns back to Tango, the angry fire in his eyes dimmed a little but not entirely gone. Still not directed at him. "Where was she?"
"Found her up at the top, wanderin' around towards that village up there." He says, slow, not willing nor ready to get into a fight with the man right now. "Figured ya didn't know where she was, so thought I'd bring her back to ya."
Jimmy takes in a breath, closing his eyes — which, by the way, Tango feels is an affront to humanity — and running a hand up over his face and through his hair. He's a lot calmer when he opens his eyes. "Thank you."
"'Course, Sherriff." He pauses, then grins, "This mean you won't arrest me next time?"
"Don't push it, Tango," he says, but Tango can tell he's smiling.
/
The door of the house swings open behind them and Tango isn't at all surprised to find Jesse there, blanket wrapped around her shoulders as she slowly wanders out onto the porch and knocks her head against Jimmy's shoulder with a yawn. The Sheriff lifts a hand and brushes it through his daughter's hair slowly, near absent-mindedly, until eventually she lifts her head to peer at Tango through her bangs.
"Why're you at m'house, Bandit?" She murmurs, and he has to stop himself from laughing, instead glancing from her to Jimmy and then back again.
Tango shrugs, softly, and smiles at her when he says, "Just havin' a conversation."
"'Bout what?"
"'Bout you, obviously." He pokes fun, and she goes to stick her tongue out at him but starts yawning instead. Beside her, Jimmy's just watching him, though Tango couldn't for the life of himself tell you what for.
He nudges her to get off him, and Jesse stands up slowly, sleepily, and Jimmy gently pushes her back towards the door. "Off to bed, alright?"
She hums, and nods, and Tango is pretty sure he's never seen Jesse so quiet. As soon as she's back inside and he's fairly certain she's out of earshot, he says, "That kid sure is somethin'."
Jimmy tilts his head back to look at the sky, laughing. The Mesa might be blindingly hot during the day, but during the night? Tango could swear up and down that the stars up there are the second prettiest damn thing he's ever seen.
/
Skizz is near cackling at him, and Tango is about a second away from knocking him off his feet. The only thing really stopping him is the fact that he would hope he had more self control than that — he knows he doesn't, but a man can dream, can't he? — so he rubs a hand over his eyes and says for about the seventh time, "Skizz, shut your mouth 'fore I get a mind to shut it for ya."
"Pretty sure you need a mind for that one, buddy," Skizz shoots back, still grinning. "So, when do we get to meet this new niece o' ours?
Tango drops his hand from his face and glares at him, only to nearly jump out of his damn skin when Jesse's voice reaches him and all three of his friends curse, half-yelling, "Ain't bandits supposed to be good at hidin' or somethin'? Y'all was easy to find!"
All four bandits look up to find her sitting up on top of the boulders surrounding thier camp. "How in the Hels did you manage to get up there, kid?" He calls up, and she just grins down, a little sharply.
"Obviously I climbed up here, Bandit. Didn't think that one needed explainin'."
Behind him, Impulse snorts and Tango has to resist the urge to turn around and glare at him. Instead, he closes his eyes and asks, as though he doesn't already know, "Sheriff know you up here?"
Jesse laughs, loud, and grins again when she says, "Take a guess."
Skizz starts laughing again and Tango... Well, this girl is gonna be the death of him, Tango is sure of it.
/
He's only really half-listening to what she's saying — something about one of Jimmy's deputies, who he doesn't really know outside of having been watched at the jailhouse by them a handful of times — but he definitely notices it when she's suddenly halfway across the space that separates the house from the end of the path down into the fishbowl. There's a man walking down, and he watches her run up to him and start talking what Tango can only assume is a mile a minute. Then Jimmy appears out of the house and leans up against the railing next to Tango and says, slow, "I forgot Pix was coming today."
"The archeologist guy?" He asks, "The one from the Guild, or whatever that place is?"
Jimmy nods and replies, "The very same. Pretty sure Jesse likes him even more than you."
Out of everyone that could be Jesse's favorite, outside of her dad, of course it's the man with the most access to literally everything valuable. Tango makes an affronted noise and knocks his shoulder against the Sheriff's. "You wound me, Jim. Wounded, I'm wounded ."
He rolls his eyes, and goes to say something else, but that's when Jesse and Pixlriffs make it to the porch. Jesse's still talking, cutting off whatever her dad was about to say.
"— see all of it. Can I? Can I? Can I? Please ?"
The archeologist nods at her father and says, "Ask him, not me. You know I'll say yes." And then, to clarify, "She wants to see the fossil. And the ruins. And the bridge."
Jesse hops up onto the railing and swings one of her legs over so she can stare at Jimmy. She repeats, much to his amusement, " Please ?"
"Next time we visit the digsite, Pix'll show you the ruins." He tells her, and she makes a triumphant noise and nearly falls off the porch — Tango grabs her before she does.
" Gods , child," he murmurs, and pulls her off the railing just for good measure. She laughs, a little sheepish, and then she grins at him.
/
In any other town, an infamous bandit willingly walking into the jailhouse would be a sight to see. But this isn't any other town, it's Tumble Town, and this isn't just some old bandit, it's Tango.
So he walks in, ignoring the greetings of the deputies and making a straight beeline for the Sheriff's desk. He's bent over it, reading reports and all sorts of stuff Tango doesn't really understand nor care to, and he barely looks up when the bandit leans across it.
"So," the netherborn says in lieu of an actual greeting, loud enough for Jimmy and Jimmy alone, "when're you gonna tell 'em?"
Jimmy makes a low noise of acknowledgement and replies without looking up, "Tell who, what, exactly, Bandit?"
Tango huffs out a noise that's somewhere between a laugh and a scoff, and begins to tap his claws against the old wooden desk. "Jesse, Scott." He says, and the way Jimmy's eyes jerk up to meet him make him think he might actually be on to something. "When're ya gonna tell 'em, Jim?"
Jimmy gets quiet for a long moment, and Tango briefly remembers the fact that his deputies are sitting on the other side of the room, likely watching whatever is happening, but he doesn't care. And then he's standing up and he's speaking, and the tone of Jimmy's voice isn't one he's heard much before. It's low, and somewhere between hurt and angry.
"Don't try an' talk about shit you ain't got no idea about, Tango." The Sheriff warns, and Tango's tail flicks back and forth behind him. "Get out of here. Now."
"Alrighty, man, alright." He lifts his hands in mock surrender and takes a couple of steps backwards before spinning on his heel and making his way towards the door. "But you gotta tell 'em eventually, y'know. I'm just sayin', Sheriff."
/
Now, maybe Tango really shouldn't be leaning so close to light the quirly with the tip of his finger, but sue him, dammit. It was a little bit ( a lot , he thinks personally) worth it to laugh at the way he can see the exact moment the red flushes across Jimmy's face the closer he gets and he just about loves it. The Bandit leans back as the Sheriff takes a slow drag from the paper cigarette before passing it over and it's a long time before either of them speak, the sun edging closer and closer to disappearing over the top of the fishbowl. Jimmy's lost his hat somewhere back in the house, Tango's left his bandana in his saddlebag for now; neither of them have any need of them right now, not with the day being near over with.
"So," he says eventually, after passing the cigarette back, and Jimmy glances over at him with a sort of amusement that fades out the second he decides to open his mouth again, "Jim, where'd you find Jess anyhow?"
"The Hel you talkin' about, Bandit?" The man asks, flicking ash off towards the ground; there's the edge of something in his voice now, not that Tango would really find it in himself to complain if the Sheriff got mad at him again. Seems to be the usual thing after all this time, really.
Tango, regardless of his feelings on it, replies, "I mean what I say, don't I?"
"Tango," Jimmy breathes the name out slowly, as though he isn't all that sure he should be talking in the first place. And then he says it again, the angry tilt replaced with something that sounds a little bit like he's laughing at him, " Tango . Jesse's mine."
"Well, I know that—"
"No, idiot, she's—" He cuts himself off for a moment before repeating the words with a little more force. "She's mine , my kid. I didn't find her nowhere."
And that's about the time that said kid suddenly appears, hanging down from the porch roof by a hand and both men can't help but jump. And, y'know, normally, Tango would laugh at the way Jimmy sputters into a cough as he shoves the cigarette back at Tango, who promptly stubs the end of it out against the railing as Jesse drops from the roof to the ground and peers up at them.
When she starts to say something probably smart-ass like that would get her in even more trouble than he's sure she's about to be in, the Sheriff recovers from his coughing fit and fixes his daughter with a heavy glare.
He says, "Jessebelle Solidarity, what in the Hels do you think you're doing on my roof? Get back inside before I drag you there myself."
Jesse stares at them both for a second before letting out a long sigh and stomping up the porch steps and to the front door with the sort of anger that Tango, after all this time, has figured out is mocking. Right before she goes inside, she stops and, without turning around, says lightly, "Y'know, Da, if ya didn't want me to catch ya smoking, maybe don't do it underneath my window."
The door shuts before either of them can say anything and when Tango looks back up at Jimmy, he's looking up at the roof and muttering under his breath too low for the netherborn to really hear properly. Tango says, "Jim?"
"What, Tango?" And Tango really tries his best not to look too pleased at having gotten the Sheriff to use his name several times tonight.
"I think I believe you now."
His gaze snaps down to Tango's and for all he looks annoyed, the Bandit can still hear the affection in his voice when he spits out, " Bastard ."
/
Tango's watching them, and he knows that Jimmy knows he's watching them by the way the Sheriff's tail keeps lashing back and forth against the ground, though somehow, miraculously, Jesse hasn't quite spotted him yet. He doesn't quite know how , not with the way he's just perched on the top of the ledge behind the saloon like a bird ready to take to the skies at any time, but Tango isn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth, not like this. Scott hasn't noticed him either, but he doesn't really care if the Chromiam King notices him or not.
He can't hear them all that well, not from up here, but he doesn't mind; if anything, he probably shouldn't be here at all, it's not his place to be anyhow. The bandit gets a little lost in thought thinking about it, gazing down at the trio on the porch of the house at the end of the road, and so it nearly startles him into falling off the ledge when he suddenly hears his name get yelled, and he blinks back into focus to find that Jesse's finally spotted him and is about halfway up to the ledge—he look from her to the men on the porch, Jimmy's running a hand over his face and Scott kind of looks like he's fuming (not, really, that Tango would be that well acquainted with what Scott Smajor looks like when he's angry—he's never stayed in Chromia long enough to see it) but Tango looks back down at the girl struggling to climb and he leans down and hauls her up by the arms.
"What're you doing, Jess?" He asks, though he nearly doesn't with the glare the fourteen year old sends him the moment he opens his mouth. She says, "Did you know?"
And he doesn't have to ask what she's talking about when he says, "Yeah, I knew."
"Why didn't you, I dunno, say anything? How long have you *l known?" Jesse says, near incredulous, and Tango just leans back against the rock wall behind him and peers at her from under the brim of his hat.
Finally, after what feels like a lifetime, he replies: "A while. It wasn't my place to tell ya."
"You coulda, though."
"Yea, I coulda. Didn't."
The blonde frowns, huffing out a breath that does nothing more than disturb the bangs she has hanging in her eyes. "Why not?"
Tango glances back towards Jimmy, finds himself being watched, and then he shrugs as he looks back at Jesse.
"Told ya already," he says, "Wasn't my business."
"Not any of your—like Hels it wasn't!" The outburst, though not all that loud, still startles Tango into sitting up. He stares at her for a minute until she repeats it, "Like Hels it wasn't any of your damn business, Tango! You and Dad can keep going around actin' like you don't care, but you do. You do, I seen it, and don't you dare try to tell me I'm wrong because I'm not. I'm not."
"Jesse, kid—"
"No! Don't call me that!" She snaps, and then, "I'm fourteen , not stupid . I have eyes, same as every damn person in town, and you , you just—"
Tango reaches over and places his hand over her mouth, fixing her with a long stare that, after a few seconds, makes her seem to curl up. She pulls her legs up to her chest and just peers at him from over the top of her knees after he drops his hand.
"You could've told me, Tango." Jesse says at last, quiet.
"No, Jesse," Tango repeats, "I couldn't."
She doesn't say anything else after that.
/
The thing about Tango is that he is, always has been, and probably always will be, first and foremost a bandit . Regardless of his relationship — or lack thereof — with Tumble Town's sheriff, a man had to eat; and if a man had to steal in order to do so, well then, he was going to steal.
Besides, he knew some people who would pay big money for even a little bit of gunpowder, and Tango knew exactly how to get into the Ranch to get some. And he swore the every god he knows that he was doing that… he just got a little distracted .
He's midway through filling his saddlebags with the gray ash when he hears laughter across the enclosure and he pauses, glancing up to spot one Jesse Solidarity sitting atop a fence post, her tail swishing back and forth lazily as she talks with both her hands and nearly falls off the fence if it weren't for the hands that keep reaching out to grab her and pull her back. Tango stands there in the middle of the creeper field for a second too long as one of the mobs sneaks up behind him and he barely has enough time to dive to the side when he hears the hiss.
The creeper doesn't quite explode, but he drops one of the bags and he can't pick it up for risk of being seen, so instead he hops the fence back where he came and hooks his remaining bags securely back on Adequate's saddle and climbs on, pulling the reins towards where he's gotta get out. He passes Jesse on his way down the trail and slows to a stop when she stops walking in the middle of the road and turns to peer up at him.
He looks back down at her for a long moment of silence, and then:
"You want a ride back to town, kid?"
She keeps staring at him for a few seconds, before letting him help her up behind him, and nearly as soon as they've started going again, she says: "You might wanna get that dust off your hands 'fore my Dad sees ya, Bandit. You reek of gunpowder."
"So do you," he counters, wiping his hands on his legs as she rests her chin against his shoulder blade and says nothing. So he continues, "Who's the farm hand?"
"Their name's Beau."
"Well, that don't tell me nothing, does it, Jess?" Tango's tone turns dry, and she pinches in the side for it. "Come on, tell me about 'em."
He listens to her huff aloud as he steers Adequate towards the Sheriff's house. Then, as she dismounts and bounds up the steps, she says to him: "Bandit, you can ask me about my love life when you and Dad get whatever it is yall got going on straight, okay?"
And Tango's left staring at the door as it shuts, and when he turns to go, he spots Jimmy coming up the road with his tail lashing against the ground and, well, Tango just resigns himself to the half angry look in the Sheriff's eyes. It's not directed at him this time.
He's kind of used to that these days. Sometimes.
/
Tango’s learned some things. Jimmy's lost his hat. Well, that's a lie — said hat is currently sitting atop his own head, and even if the Sheriff is more than tall enough to grab it back, he's not even trying to. Tango, with his position in between Jimmy and the pile of paperwork on his desk, half sitting on the top of the desk, is more than close enough to kiss him, and he nearly does. He nearly does, and he's pretty sure Jimmy almost does too, except there's a throat cleared from the doorway and both of them freeze.
And Tango knows who’s standing in the doorway, so when he tilts his head back to look at Jesse, he just grins. The girl is staring at them, her tail lashing back and forth against the ground as she frowns. Then, with a loud sigh, overly dramatic in a way she only could’ve learned from Tango himself, Jesse turns on her heel and leaves the jailhouse. Jimmy shouts after her, and she responds something too fast for the bandit to properly figure out what she said, but Jimmy doesn’t try to move away and so neither does he, for a while.
Tango does leave Jimmy to his paperwork eventually, the Sheriff’s hat safely back in its proper place on the Sheriff’s head, and sets out to find the girl. She’s climbed her way up to the roof of the tavern — he’s impressed that she managed to get up there without getting caught, or, without getting caught by someone who’d report it to her father.
“Y’know, Bandit, when I told ya that you and Dad needed to get it together,” she pipes up when he drops down next to her, his bandana vacant from the bottom half of his face. “I dunno that I quite meant it like that.”
He snorts, bringing up a hand to muss up her hair — it’s down loose today instead of in it’s normal braids, and he feels like he should ask her about that, but he won’t — and then he laughs when she tries to duck away from his hand and nearly loses her balance. Tango grabs her by the arm and yanks her back, and doesn’t move away when she settles against him.
They stay there for a while, until the Sheriff makes his way outta the jailhouse and spots them. His voice carries even from all the way down there, and when Jesse slips off the roof this time, Tango doesn’t try and catch her. He scrambles down, too, laughing even when Jimmy’s angry gaze is turned on him.
There’s a softness there, these days. Tango’s used to that part now. The same way he’s used to the sound of Jesse’s running footsteps, and Jimmy’s half-exasperated, forever-fond shouting after her. He’s used to it, and it’s good. It’s good.
It's really good.