The rest of the day was uneventful; Jake mostly kept to himself in the dark corner of the saloon. Occasionally looking at the towns people from beneath the rim of his hat. It was obvious that they were frightened of him, as soon as he moved a coil they flinched. The only one who didn't seem to mind him was that small girl whom he'd meet six months ago. Her eyes barely made it over the edge of the table; she reached for the closest chair and scooted it right up to the table.
"Never expected to see you in this town again Mr. Rattlesnake Jake sir," Pricilla cautiously said as she reached over the table and gently grasped the bottle of cactus juice that stood near the convict.
"It anit right for youngyins to be drinkin' this," Jake hissed lightly as moved his tail above the table and slide the bottle back to it original position. The towns people looked on in fear and curiosity, they had never seen Rattlesnake Jake interact with anyone before. Pricilla looked on in aw as the rattlers tail slid back towards its owner.
"How'd ya lose yer tail?"
"That aint none of yer business child, not get goin' for I lose my cherub like domineer,"
"Yer what?" Pricilla tiled her head to the left and look directly into the rattlers eyes. This made Jake rather uncomfortable, he'd never had someone look him in the eye willfully and he didn't really know what to do in this situation.
"Leave me alone before I decide to have me a lil' snake before dinner," Jake hissed out more aggressively, causing many of the patrons to duck beneath their tables or behind their chairs. Pricilla, however, just slid off the chair, patted the dust off her skirt, and turned around to wave a goodbye to the rattler. And with that, pranced out of the saloon leaving the rattler quite stunned and annoyed.
"What are y'all lookin' at?" he growled out towards the crowd and they went back to doing whatever it was they were doing. As dust fell upon the town, people began to close up shop, and mothers were calling children back home. Jake slide out of saloon and onto the boardwalk, lazily making his way down towards the local inn, he stopped momentarily to see Sofia finishing up her last order and seeing the costumers to the door. She gleefully slid off her work apron, and got busy tidying up the shop, placing small knickknacks back to their original stop, humming while she swept the floors and occasionally fixing the odd light fixture back in place with a graceful movement of her tail. Her movements were fluid and smooth, with a sort of grace to them, almost as if she were dancing. Jake stared a while longer, allowing the memories of his youth to flow back to him. He remembered how he used to love chasing after her in the yellow cups that grew at the edge of town. How they played cops and robbers, and how they ended up sleeping curled together after along days play outside. They were memories that Jake whished he could experience again, but he knew better then to dwell on the past. He had come to this town to do a job, not to remember long lost moments. With a stern shake of his head he made his way quickly to the local inn and tucked himself away for the night.
He was up before the crack of dawn making sure he had all that he needed for the job. There was nobody awake at that hour so Jake was free to explore the town of Dirt a little more thoroughly. He looked into every knock and cranny that he could find; trying to see if there was a reason the pipes were beginning to fail again. The last time was due to corruption and greed, this time it was due to poor maintenance. There was severe corrosion on the main pipe that led into town; the flying sand had whittled the metal down. Jake face was plastered with a stern grimace; it was going to take a miracle to get the entire pipeline fixed before the dry season was upon them. Jake decided that he had spent enough time inspecting the piece of pipe; he was getting a tad hungry. He turned around and slithered quietly out of the back ally onto the boardwalk, and right in front of the tailor's shop. He grumbled to himself getting frustrated at his faulty sense of direction. As he turned around to in the direction of the saloon he heard a loud thump from inside the tailor shop. More precisely above it where Sofia's home was, he turned a curious glance towards the upward windows to see if there was more then one person inside the structure. Another thump this time followed by low murmurs, Jake stiffened. He quickly looked around the shop, trying to find some sort of entrance inside. He shot up the back staircase and stopped at the upstairs door. Making sure his guns were loaded, he opened the door and silently glided into the room.
He made his way to the kitchen, making sure to cause any sort of sound. If there were intruders he wanted to take them by surprise, and then make sure they would never be able to tell the tale to anyone. His blood boiled at the thought of something bad happening to her. He promised himself long ago that he would kill anyone who tried to harm her, and Rattlesnake Jake never broke a promise. As he approached the kitchen he could hear the murmurs growing louder, he stopped just at the doorframe and peered inside.
"Goddamn, useless piece of vulture shit… GHA, I give up… where the hell did I leave that spare coffee pot?" Sofia grumbled to herself as she rifled through the top cabinets in her kitchen. She was flustered, angry, and had not patients, and it was only six in the morning. The reason for her vial mood was due to her coffee pot failing her, in her frustration to find the spare she accidently had a few cans of peaches and a couple of rather large beans.
"Aha! There you are you litter varmint!" Sofia announce triumphantly as she pulled the coffee pot free of it pan-surrounded prison. With a smile plastered on her face she quickly went to work filling the pot with juice and placing it on the stove to heat up. There was a creak in the floorboards that came from outside the kitchen. The noise made Sofia stiffen; quickly she grabbed the nearest weapon she had, which to her disappointment was a frying pan that she forgot to wash last night. She silently made her way to the doorframe.
Jake could only see Sofia, but due to the darkness of the room, couldn't see the intruders. He counted to three slowly making last minute adjustments to his guns. Sofia held her breath; squeezing the pan tightly in her coils slowly she counted to three. 'One... two…three!'
"Let 'er go or else I'll filled ya full of le—"
"Eat dirty frying pan you son of a bitch!" Sofia shouted as she slammed the pan down hard on her attackers head. She turned towards the light switch flicked it open.
"Ha, gotcha you slimy lil'… knocked out criminal under my care…OH MY GOODNESS! Jake are you ok?" Sofia looked down in horror at the dazed outlaw who was lying facedown on her kitchen floor.
Jake came to a moment later, casting a dizzy, painful glance upwards to Sofia, who was hovering over him with a worried expression on her face.
"Damn women… you always this friendly with people who are tryin' to save ya from bandits?" Jake grumbled out, he could already feel the lump on his head begin to form.
"Bandits, save me…what are you talking about?" Jake scowled at the confused look he got from her, and hissed out,
"The damn bandits that were in yer kitchen, ya silly woman. I heard noises from outside yer shop and hear voices comin' from inside yer kitchen. Why the hell do ya think I came rushin' in 'ere like the air was on fire? It wasn't te play patty cake that's for sure." Sofia looked blankly at him for a whole two minutes as she put the pieces of the puzzle together. Her head dipped, Jake was sure that she was going to apologize to him or start to cry something along those line. Instead she threw back her head and let out a huge roar of laughter.
"W-w-wait, yo-you actually though that t-t-there were ban-ban-bandits in m-m-my home so you r-r—rushed in to try a-a-and save me… hahahahah," Sofia was now of the floor, her midsection was pulled upwards so that it was touching her chin, there were tears starting to form at the corners of her eyes. Jake looked on stunned, his eyes got hard and he reared up bearing his fangs.
"What the hell is so funny? I just SAVED yer life and this is how ya repay me?" Jake roared, which only caused Sofia to burst out into even more tiny giggles.
"O-o-oh Jake, 'sniff' ahh…there were no bandits," She managed to stager out. Jake stopped mid-hiss and looked at her slacked jawed.
"Come agai'?"
"That was me silly, the noises you heard outside were from me dropping a couple of cans of peaches and some large beans."
"The voic—" Sofia closed his lips with her tail
"Were from me mumbling to myself trying to find my extra coffee pot," she signaled him by pointing her head towards the stove behind him. Jake looked back at the stove then to the left of him, adding up all the pieces. A very thin blush began to creep up his face, he tried did his best to hide it but lowering his face and using his hat as a shield. Sofia just looked on and chucked to herself, 'that dummy, hasn't changed a bit…' she though happily to herself, she turned her head so that it as adjacent to his.
"Jake, can you look at me please?" she said in a very soft voice, which made his blush grow even deeper. As a result he lowered his head even more so that it was parallel to the floorboards.
"Jacob, please look at me," she said in a much softer voice. Jake's head snapped up and he turned his head three quarters to her. He hadn't been called that in so long he had forgotten what it sounded like. Sofia smiled lightly and placed a butterfly kiss on the rattlers cheek.
"Thank you for rushing in here and trying to protect me from 'bandits' I really do appreciate the gesture… and sorry for hitting you on the head with a dirty frying pan," she looked him in the eye as she spoke, she could see his eyes turn from shock to warm and glowing. It was breath taking to see, the reds and oranges began to slightly fade revealing the beautiful yellow that she had loved as a child. They looked at each other of a few minutes before becoming aware of the other. Sofia adverted her gaze and made her way around the gunslinger towards the stove. She hoped that Jake couldn't see her, for her face had taken on a hue of bright scarlet. Jake did notice though he had seen it out of the corner of his eye the moment she made a break for the stove. He lowered his hat so that she wouldn't see his smile.
"Umm, would you like some coffee? I have plenty…" Sofia said as she causally lifted her head and through him an over shoulder glance. Jake looked at her from behind the rim of his hat, his eyes seemed to see right through her very being, it made her shiver.
"Coffee would be nice—"
"I can even whip up some bacon and eggs if you would like?" Sofia said in a hushed voice. Jake came around side her and cast a glowing smile downwards.
"No man can turn down bacon and eggs," he smirked and went to the other end of the kitchen. He watched her as she cooked, just like in the shop last night; her movements were fluid and graceful. She really was dancing, he noted, he also took notice of how damn beautiful she looked in the apron she was wearing. The fabric hugged her coils and tightly emphasizing the curves in her slender yet robust form, it really left nothing to the imagination.
They ate their breakfast in relative peace, neither one looking the other directly in the eye. It wasn't an uncomfortable silence, both of them had been on their own for so long that it was nice just to have someone in the room with them, even if they weren't talking. Jake glanced at the clock above the stove it read seven thirty, which meant he had to get going soon. He looked lifted his head slightly so that he could take one last gander at Sofia before he took off. She had already cleared the dished and was washing them in the sink. Slowly he approached her, tapping her side with his tail to get her attention.
"I'm goin' to head out now,"
"Oh, ok well I'll see you in a little bit I guess," Sofia let out a small smile and there was silence for a little while.
"It might be best if I went through the back, seein' as you don't want anyone in town to know I was up 'ere," Jake said, Sofia was a little disappointed that he would think that of her, but she didn't let it show.
"I couldn't give a damn what the towns people though, but if that's what you want to do then its fine by me, here let me get the door…" Sofia glided past him towards the back entrance.
" Uh, I really think you should—"
"MY DOOR!"
"Let me do it myself" Jake whispered the last part and slowly made his way to the back entrance. Where he saw Sofia trying to understand how her solid oak door, imported from Canada, was smashed to splinters.
"How in the hell…you know what I really don't want to know…" she turned away from the door and looked at Jake, who seemed a bit worried. 'God I hope she doesn't have another fryin' pan on her,' Jake silently hoped as Sofia dissected his expression. She simply let out a sigh and move out of the way to let him pass.
"Thank you again for the, uh, 'rescue' effort Jake," she said with a chuckle
"Yer welcome…thanks for the coffee and food, it was good…oh and I'll replace the door,"
"There's really no need t—"
"I'll fix it," Jake said sternly, then gave a tip of his hat and slithered down the steps. Sofia watched him go down the steps, then made her way back to the kitchen, rather quickly, so just see him glide off along the boardwalk towards the saloon. She smiled to herself as she lay her lower body against the sink, 'he really is the same as he was back then, just grown up and a little more stubborn' she sighed and got back to finishing off the dished. Today was going to be a very long day…
