A/N: I have been recently dragged into cow hell and I've decided I don't need saving. Written for deputydakota over on tumblr because she's wonderful and deserves nice things.
The Little Things
It's a quiet night on the mesa, a relief from the hustle and bustle of the day. Even though the day is done, Moo's still working, because that's just what Moo does. He loves his job and he loves this town more than most do, and Kid admires him for that. He hopes, one day, he'll have that kind of dedication. So, while Moo's working himself to the bone at the Marshal's office, it's just Kid and Dakota who make their way out to the prairies. It's getting late, and they should be heading home, but this job and all it comes with leaves a restlessness behind that needs to run its course.
They leave Rebel and Jezebel to their own business, and walk a few feet to a small hill. Kid's the first to make himself comfortable, sitting down with a heavy thud and a heavier sigh. Dakota joins him on the dry prairie grass, still warm from the intense heat of the day. Somehow, the larger bull settles down with more grace, and Kid can't help but still be a little bit amazed. He's known Dakota his whole life, and he'll never understand how someone so big manages to move so carefully. He's relatively smaller than his cousins, and sometimes Cowlorado can't even manage to walk without tripping over his own hooves. Moo assures him he'll grow out of this; Kid hopes he's right.
The two of them just sit there quietly for a few moments with the wind rustling the grass and crickets chirping. Kid's not quite the best at sitting still and doing nothing, but even he'll admit it feels good to just sit and be and breathe for once. He might even make a habit out of it.
"What a day, huh, Dakota?" the Holstein asks. He's looking straight ahead as he speaks, watching the brush sway in the breeze. The mesa seems to stretch on forever, though he knows it doesn't. Their world, in fact, does have an end.
Dakota doesn't answer him, and that's not entirely strange. Kid's gone for whole days without hearing Dakota say a single word. Still, Cowlorado looks to his side, and his brow raises when he sees Dakota's looking skyward.
Kid slowly follows his gaze, and all he sees is the sky - the clear, blue-black night sky and all of its stars and the nearly-full moon. It takes a moment for the awe to find him, but when it does it settles slowly into his bones, urges a soft gasp out from between parted lips. More often than not, he's poked fun at Dakota's softer side, but as he stares up at the sky, feeling the stresses of the day leaving him, he thinks maybe the Dude's been onto something this whole time.
"Wow," Cowlorado murmurs, surprised by the softness of his own voice.
"Yep," Dakota replies. And, of course, that's all he would have to say. It makes Kid smile as he lays back in the grass, struck by the predictable perfection of this moment.
The Kid and the Dude stay like that just a little longer, until the night air is chilled and the fat crescent of the moon hangs high above them. They stay gone long enough that Moo eventually comes looking for them. When he finds them, just a little disheveled with worry, Dakota's quick to silence the Marshal by grabbing hold of his wrist and tugging him down to the grass to join them.
"This is what ya'll have been doin'?" Moo asks, looking between his cousins.
"Yep," Dakota replies.
Kid grins. "You got it."
Montana's brow furrows. He reeks of stress. Dakota reaches over without actually looking, grabs Moo's chin and forces him to look up. It takes a few moments, not quite as long as it took Kid, and soon enough Moo murmurs a quiet, "oh."
"Yep," Dakota says again, this time with a small smile of his own.
And the three of them stay there for a little while longer still, appreciating the simplicity of the time being.