A/N: I know I've been starting a lot of new stories recently, but to be honest, this is something I could really write about, because it's something that really interests me. As you probably guessed, I got the idea for this after writing 'Good cop Bad cop' and I'm also studying the American west in History at the moment so yeah lol xD
Summary: AU-Its the year 1873, the year before barbed wire is invented, the year before the open plains of america become nothing but a page in a text book, and the Fair-Strife gang is all over it. All over it ;) This is losely based on the history of the west of America.
The boys are a bit low out of Jobs, but they spot a flier and take it immediately. The task; simple, just round up a couple of cattle rustlers and slap 'em in irons. However, they didn't think really, that if it was going to be that easy, why couldn't someone else do it?
They get dragged hither and thither by their lady-loves and end up in all the right places at all the right times to see the busiest part of the history of America fly by right under their noses, but it's not all flowers and ruffles, everyone has to get stuck in. Including the ladies ;)
Outlaw I
"Get these crates moving! We ain't got all day!"
Abilene, the busiest cow town in all the west, was in a furore. It was the day before the long drive was due to arrive, and things had to be prepared. The streets were thick with people rushing from pillar to post to be sure that everything, the trains, the enclosures, the saloons, loading supplies, recruiting new enforcers, everyone was readying the town for the mayhem that was due to ensue tomorrow.
Although it was chaotic, it brought the town money and business, but also trouble. Recently, Abilene had been on the receiving end of the attentions of The Leading Ladies; a band of three women, now wanted for a mixture of crimes, including cattle rustling, bank robbery, and in one case, murder. They'd been chased all across the west, skipping through the clutches of all the greatest lawmen of the time, and now it seems, they'd found their pay in Abilene. The local people could not understand how 3 women could board a train, detach the carriages, unload the cows, and herd them off, before anyone even noticed anything was amiss.
And it was for this reason; the town had decided that the only way to catch them and stop them would be to put them up against some of their own. The town had put up notices offering big reward to anyone who could help them out.
And it was the same, team of rag-tag gunslingers that picked up the notice that could be seen making their way slowly across the land toward the town. They rode on horses, a young blond man and a taller man with what could only be described as a mane, were both riding a big black stallion, and were bickering over who should be in control of the reins. A tall man with long black hair held out of his face with a red bandana was following behind them on a chestnut mare, holding the reins of a third horse, a limping dark grey gelding.
"I should be in control! I'm the one who knows where we're going!"
"No way am I handing the reins over to you, look at what you did to your own horse! And besides, I know where we're going too!"
A pair of glittering blue eyes peered out from under the shock of dark hair, feigning hurt. "You wound me Cloudy-pooes!"
An elegant eyebrow arched, and long fingers tightened round the lines of leather protectively, "Not half as wounded as Angeal I'll bet. And we're here now anyway, no need for you to try and take control. And I thought we'd agreed not to call me that Zacky-kins..."
Zack pouted, giving Cloud a long look before turning his head with a huff to look dramatically in the other direction. Rolling his eyes Cloud looked to the town in the distance, "When did those two say they'd meet us?"
"After the drive is done." Zack huffed, folding his arms and not looking round. "That should be tomorrow."
Cloud nodded. It seemed a bit silly to only arrive after the long drive was finished, as they wouldn't get any rest before they had to see what all this was about. They had none of them had any idea what this was about when they saw the poster for a job advertisement. They hadn't been particularly successful with their work, mainly due to the fact that none of them were very respectable citizens anyway, so when the poster had specified people with a history of bad conduct, they thought their luck was up for once, and hadn't wasted any time in saddling up and racing off.
The town they came to now, the one specified in the advertisement, was heaving with activity. Cloud was forced to get a tighter hold of his horse as the animal jerked at all the action around them, "Shh Fenrir, steady boy..."
Behind him, Zack tutted. "What?" Cloud questioned somewhat irritably.
"Oh nothing," Zack replied non-challently; "I suppose he's always this jumpy then?"
Cloud didn't answer, instead glaring coldly over his shoulder at the man, who was by this point looking into the horizon again. Oh how Cloud wished Zack would go bald, if only for a day, that should put him in his boots. Guiding Fenrir to a tether point, Cloud dismounted, swinging his leg forcefully over the horse's rump, making sure to knock Zack from his perch as he did so. "Oh sorry!" He lied, crouching next to his sprawling friend, "I didn't think you were so jumpy!"
Turning, he made to leave, but came face to face with a pair of disapproving amber eyes and a feeling that almost made him wince. Gawd, why was this guy so scary?! Before anything could be said though, Zack saw a chance, and immediately squeezed out a few huge tears, latching onto the man's cloak and wailing, "Vinnie, Cloudy-pooes was being horrid to poor Zack!"
The amber eyes rolled, and 'Vinnie' bent to untangle Zack's fingers from the end of his cloak. Pulling the other man to his feet, he stood the scowling pair in front of him and folded his arms, "Both of you must stop being childish. It will get you killed."
Cloud hung his head, but as soon as Vinnie's back was turned, the pair of them were back to their usual antics, sticking tongues out, tripping each other up and just generally acting like small boys.
They tethered the horses, then made their way into a saloon, 'The Shera'. It was a noisy place, full of smoke and people gambling, a singer on the stage and really bad pianist playing in the corner. There was what looked like lunch being served up at the bar, and as a result, that was their first stop. The bartender, a loud man with a cigarette poking out of the side of his mouth, greeted them with a narrowed look and three shot glasses full of whiskey. Deciding that neither Cloud nor Zack could be trusted to talk seriously to him, Vincent decided it was best if he spoke to the barman himself.
"We're here because of this," he said, placing the poster, torn off at the corners and crumpled, on the counter. "Could you tell me something about it?"
The man pulled the poster towards himself, taking a drag from his cigarette, and inspected it. "Yes. We sent these to the surrounding towns hoping to pick up a few bastards to help us out." He fixed Vincent a look, "You bums wouldn't be here to help would you?"
Raising an eyebrow, Vincent nodded. The bartender roared with laughter, "Well fuck me and call me mother a donkey! Hey lads-" He called to the rest of the bar, "-These punks think they're here ta help!"
The bar fell silent as every head turned to stare at the cloaked man sitting beside the two squabbling fully grown men. Zack stopped chewing on Cloud's shoulder at the feeling of dozens of pairs of eyes watching them, and sat up straight, looking sheepishly at Cloud, who was mournfully inspecting a new hole in his shirt shoulder.
"You think you guys can take their ladyships on?"
The three turned round to find themselves looking at what would appear to have been an elderly man, holding a cat under his arm. But on further inspection, the man was simply worn out to beyond his years, leaning on a walking stick and smiling warmly at the three men.
Immediately the room came alive, people moving their chairs out of the way, offering to help him to the bar, pulling out his stool, paying for his drink, only moving away when they were sure he was completely settled. After the room had returned to its noise, the man introduced himself. "Reeve Tuesti, sheriff of this here cow town, though you wouldn't know it." He chuckled, "If I was any younger, boy I'd be out there to catch 'em gals myself." He sighed, "But I ain't. Which is why we need young fellas like yourselves."
Vincent nodded and was about to open his mouth to speak when Zack leant over and blurted out, "So what're we catching here? You said 'gals', does that mean we're hunting girls here?"
Ignoring the glare Vincent shot the young man's way, Reeve nodded, "Three young gals, been cattle rustling round here. And I'm not after their heads or anything, but this here's our business, our livelihood, it's the only income we got. I can't leave them running wild stealing our cattle."
Zack nodded, but this time it was Cloud who spoke. "I'm afraid Mr – Tuesti was it? – Tuesti, we don't chase after young girls. We can do nothing to help you."
Vincent and Zack both stared at Cloud in shock, but Reeve appeared unfazed, "Who did you say you were?" He asked, slowly stroking his cat from ear-tip to tail.
"The Fair-Strife gang." Cloud replied, watching the movement of the other man's hand, carefully scratching the cat in all the preferred places.
"We've heard quite a bit about you here; deserted the army, dishonourably dismissed from the Government, born in the backstreets, stealing for a living; you've got quite a name for yourself." He paused, passing his gaze from man to man. "We've also heard that you're not adverse to doing odd jobs, including mining, cattle driving, and the pony express. You can do so very much to help us Mr Strife, especially for $10,000 each."
Their eyes widened at the sum of money mentioned, and Reeves eyes twinkled knowingly, "You've not been very lucky with your work recently have you?"
Cloud shook his head. Despite how much he didn't want to be known as a womanizer, the promised price was a very appealing offer, and it wasn't as if people would lie about them being hero's when they caught these 'gals', right?
"So then," Reeve said, picking the cat up and leaving it on the counter, blissfully ignorant of the death glares being shot his way by the bartender as he watched the paw prints appearing on his pristine surface, "That settles it. I will brief you on the situation, and then I'm sure you'll want to rest up before the mayhem ensues."
The disarming smile that had appeared on the older man's face was hardly confidence giving, but it was relieved, and for that Cloud found they had to be obliging, and at least hear what the man had to say. He led them outside and waited while they retrieved their horses, then led them to a barn, complete with outside enclosure and set of stables.
"You can tend to that horse now if you'd like, the tar is over there." He said, gesturing towards the limping gelding, and then to the corner, where a big pot of tar was sat on a barrel.
"Thanks," Zack beamed, bounding over to the tar and grabbing it before leaping back over to his horse, who was watching him with an apprehensive look in his eye. "Don't worry," Zack said to him, patting him soundly on the rump, "It's only a pot of hot tar. S'not gonna hurt you."
If the horse could have raised its eyebrows in a disbelieving gesture, Cloud was sure it would have done. He turned his attention back to Reeve as the man began talking again. "Once you've settled in your horses, you can return to The Shera, I'll have Cid, the Barkeep set you guys up in some rooms. You can rest there tonight; the ladies shouldn't make a move before the drive gets in."
Nodding his thanks, Cloud glanced over at Vincent, who was already leading his mare to a fresh stable. When he turned back however, Reeve had gone. Shrugging, Cloud tugged on Fenrir's reins, leading the horse to the stable on the other side of the barn, it was never a good idea to put the headstrong stallion next to the wily mare if it could be helped. Vincent would literally kill him if anything happened to his pride and joy.
On the other side of the barn, Vincent was busily untacking his horse, sweeping his hands through her mane, whispering sweet nothings in her furry ears. Anyone would have thought he was in love with the creature, the way he doted on her.
"What do you suppose they'll be like hmm?" He whispered as he smoothed down the fur rubbed up by her girth. "Thieving little imps?"
The mare snorted quietly, dipping her nose into the water bucket by the door as he continued to groom her. "My sweet Lucrecia, I'm not sure quite how, but I'm sure you're the only thing I have left to hang onto."
He kissed her softly on the nose, his lips barely skimming the velveteen fur that covered it. On the other side of the stable, a similar although less smoochy moment was taking place.
"Stop kicking!" Zack complained as he shuffled around after his horse's feet, dabbing now and then with the tar brush. Angeal did not seem too happy about having a hot sticky brush stabbed repeatedly into his already uncomfortable back leg, and was turning round on the spot, much to the dismay of Zack, who was squatting down, attempting to tar his leg.
"Angeal!" The grey stopped skittering around and craned its neck to look at the offending man.
"What?!" Zack demanded, "Do you not want me to look after you or something?"
At the soft huff and swish of a tail, Zack set to work again, prodding the horse indelicately in the back leg with the sticky tar brush.
"That's not how you tar a horse. And besides, it's his hoof you need to tar, not his limb."
Looking up at the voice, Zack found himself staring up into a pair of soft green eyes. And pink, lots and lots of pink. "Huh?"
"His hoof," she pointed.
"Yeah?" Zack said, looking down at the foot she was pointing to.
"That's what you should be tarring."
He frowned up at her, obviously not understanding what she meant. Sighing, the girl let herself into the stall, and hitched her skirt up a bit to crouch beside him and take to tarring brush from his limp fingers, "Here, let me do it." She offered, giggling when he nodded absent-mindedly as he stared at her.
When she had finished – Angeal stood much stiller for her than he ever had for Zack – she introduced herself. "I'm Aerith Gainsborough."
"Zack..." He mumbled, wiping his hands on his chaps so he could shake her proffered hand.
"You got a second name, Zack?"
"Fair!" He said suddenly, reddening as he noticed how he was staring so openly at her, "My name is Fair, Zack Fair."
She smiled, showing all her teeth in an honest, endearing smile that had Zack's heart melting. She must have seen his sappy expression as she laughed, and held out the tar pot. He took it. She smiled again, her shoulders shaking with silent laughter as she excited the stall. "It was a pleasure to meet you Fair Zack Fair."
He nodded, and gulped. She laughed again, and walked away without sparing him even a last glance as she exited round the barn door.
Cloud was watching her go as he walked over, Fenrir's saddle and bridle slung over his arm. He stopped next to his friend, who was still staring after Aerith. "Who was that?" He asked.
Zack shrugged, "Some kind of angel I guess..."
A/N: So, what did we think for a first chapter? I was going to make this chapter go on for ever and a day, but I thought that would be a nice line to end it on. Did we like the fact they're no longer in Gaia? Are they better in America? Did you pick out the relationship between Vince and Lucrecia? Heh heh heh, I couldn't help but put that in there xD