A little something I wrote after getting Rango on DVD this week. My brother got it for me, he's pretty awesome like that :D
Anyway, hope you enjoy this bit of Rango/Beans fluff... Characters and settings mentioned are the property of Gore Verbinski and etc;
love HamPickleSandwich
The situation at hand was, in a word, comfortable. What had started out as an awkward one-sided attraction had grown into a friendly partnership. Before long, an earnest romance had taken its place, and so it was that the Sherriff could be found in the parlour room of his fiancée's house, sitting on his knees calmly albeit awkwardly as she rubbed ointment into various spots on his back, marked by angry rust coloured scratches. True to her good nature, she was scolding away as he flinched away from sting of the ointment in the old wounds.
"-and what did I tell you before you left? That's right, don't hide near those cactus fields, cause Bill can back you into one of those just as easily as he can shoot ya, and that's not all! You know the doctor told you to rub your lotion in every day, and I told you to, and I offered to do it when you're home, and what don't you do? You don't listen! Honestly, Rango, I'm not goin' to do this every time you try and be such a hero about your job, rather than a sensible lawman... and stop flinchin' so hard! I can't rub it in properly with you tremblin' like that!" Immediately, Rango froze, trying to keep still, despite the fact that he was sure that his skin was going to tear open again, the way that stung so much!
"What's in that stuff anyway? Cactus juice?" he asked, turning to look at her for a moment. She looked briefly at the jar's contents before nodding.
"It helps clean out the dirt. Now the doc said I could put your moisturiser on top of this stuff, since it's not all over your back... then you can put your shirt back on." she finished fondly, starting to rub a much more familiar lotion into his back. It still stung as it crossed over his new scars (those weren't going to fade for a while), but it seemed to give a cooling feeling after a while, as opposed to the burning of the wound ointment. It was a variation of the stuff they put on his when he had bandages... those cacti had not just given him a poking, rather, they had stuck to their home and thus created valleys in his back when he'd moved just the wrong way. Beans had been the one to change the bandages too, once Doc had shown her how... He giggled suddenly, struck by an ironic thought.
"What's so funny?" Beans asked, pausing for a moment. Rango straightened, getting more comfortable. He smiled at the iguana, admiring the glow of her face that the fire gave her.
"You take care of me so well, Beans." he admitted, rubbing his head absently. Beans cocked her head, uncomprehending. The look on her face stated all too well that she wasn't sure whether to be amused, flattered or peeved. The chameleon continued.
"The irony here is that when a man and a woman get married the man typically looks after his wife... I think you've done more takin' care of me than any man has for his little lady." At this, Beans smiled.
"I think you're lucky you chose to marry me and not some showgirl in town." she replied honestly, returning to rubbing the lotion on his back. Rango nodded in agreement.
"Those girls are nothin' compared to you, darlin' – they can't cook like you, or dress well like you... and they wouldn't make me feel safe like you do when you're by my side." Beans pouted.
"I suppose you were going to say something at one point about me as opposed to what I can do... you're such a charmer, ain't ya." she said, minor sarcasm lacing her voice. But, boldly, Rango kissed her cheek, and it was affirmed that it was much more than her skills or dress sense that had led the chameleon to ask for her hand in the first place. A comfortable silence fell between them as Beans returned to her task. However, as it was with the sociable sheriff, conversation returned.
"Ya know... I'm beginnin' to get a little worried about Waffles. You know he spends just a little too much time with that girl he's got." he mentioned casually. Finishing her handiwork, Beans rubbed the lingering lotion into her hands before passing his shirt to him.
"Didn't you bring that thing and the fish into town in the first place?" she questioned, shifting her position as Rango buttoned up his shirt. He nodded sheepishly.
"They've got a bit of sentimental value to me." he admitted, sitting next to her as they watched the fire crackle softly. There was a hesitation in the air before Beans spoke again.
"Were they... did they come from the same place you came from? Before Dirt?" she asked. Rango felt a shiver run down his back, recalling the loneliness of where he once spent his days.
"I suppose now is a good time as any t' tell you how things went down before you found me," he started, a little smile crossing his features. "Do you remember our first posse... that night we talked about the walkin' cactus?" he asked. Beans looked blank for a moment. Then she remembered.
"I asked if you had anyone special in your life..." she recollected. Rango nodded.
"When I told you she couldn't keep her head... I actually meant that literally. That girl that Waffles has... that was her. We had a lot of roles together in the plays we showed," he explained. "The relationship didn't get very far after she lost her head for the final time..."
"...You know you're talking about half a doll?" Beans pointed out. Rango shrugged.
"She was real to me... anyway, Mr. Timms was a good friend of mine; he always played his roles well. He was more interesting than Victor anyway." he said, before getting up. He walked over to the window, looking out at the dark sky – his insides rejoiced. He'd be sleeping on her couch again; the second time this week!
"Victor?" Beans inquired from her spot on the floor.
"Er... See, Beans," he started, pressing his forehead against the glass with the slightest impatience, "You said at one point that living here was like being sealed in a glass box... and I told you I couldn't relate at all – trouble is; I know that feeling. I know that feeling better than you do. With that, he lifted his head again. Rango breathed against the glass, creating a foggy patch on the window. With a finger, he drew a square. When he heard no reply, he continued quietly.
"I was raised by humans in a little glass box, where the only friends I had are plastic bits and pieces to you – oh, and a dead bug – and the only other entertainment was food and movies. They-they never called me anything... so one day I started making things up, and I was a billion different people at once." he confessed, turning back to look at his future bride. Her face was not-quite-blank, an expression that he wasn't sure that he'd seen on his companion, before he realised that her eyes were watery. He kneeled by her side once more, ready to comfort her, when-
"You lived all alone for most of your life? A-as nobody?" she asked quietly. Rango nodded. He has taken aback when she threw her arms around him, gripping his back with disregard to the tenderness of his skin. He hissed in pain, causing her to move back suddenly, remembering.
"Sorry – did I hurt you?" Rango blushed – it hadn't hurt all that much.
"Er, not that much, it's just a little tender-!" he was cut off. Instead of hugging him, Beans had settled for surprising him with sweet kisses on his mouth and face.
"Wh-wha-?"
"You would have been so lonely without anyone to talk to!" she said, in between kisses. "And to think," -kiss- "you fit right in so quickly," -kiss- "and nobody could even," -kiss- "tell!" Rango wasn't exactly sure where this called for the treatment that he was being given, but he was happy to settle for being kissed to delirium. As he told her later, as she fluffed the pillow she always gave him to sleep with, he had a name and purpose now, and that was Rango – sheriff of Dirt, dedicated to protecting his townspeople by day and loving her in every spare second he had. As her cheeks turned pink, he kissed her one last time before she retired to her rooms and he settled on her comfortable sofa for the night.
