Heyo!
Genre: More or less personal headcannon in fic form. A little angst and a little humor
Characters: Mick Zaford and Steve the Bandit
The Ballad of Steve
Ever wonder why Steve works for the Zaford family?
"Looks that's ta last of 'dose Hodunk bastards." Mick Zaford said with a grin.
The two families' had just finished their long standing clan war, and with the help of the Vault Hunters the Zaford's had finally killed off the Hodunk family.
"T'anks for your help in killin' 'dose bastards." Mick said. "Now tat they're finally gone I-" He was interrupted by a gunshot from behind him.
Mick turned around and searched for the source of the gunshot. He saw a Hodunk, who had apparently survived the gunfight, standing over a Zaford henchman lying on the ground in a pool of blood. Axton raised up his rifle and fired a few rounds into the henchman before he could try and take out anyone else.
"Nice shootin' Tex." Gaige muttered. "A little late on the draw though."
"I didn't see you doing any better." He shot back.
"Who the hell did 'e shoot at?" Mick asked angrily, cutting off the other two.
He got his answer in the form of a weak voice that called out "Heyo."
He turned toward the noise and his eyes went wide. There was Steve shot through the chest, lying on the ground, and clutching at the wound.
"Steve my boy!" Mick yelled running to the side of the wounded man. "Don't die Steve. You can't die, you're the only son I have left."
"Heyo." Steve said in a depressed tone, and then went limp.
"No!" Mick screamed. "You Hodunk bastards! If ya weren't already dead I'd kill you!"
Meanwhile the Vault Hunters looked on with a mix of horror and confusion.
Mick stood back up and walked away from Steve's body, towards the Vault Hunters.
"Come on." He said sadly to the Vault Hunters. "Come on back ta the Holy Spirits and I'll pay ya for your work."
The Vault Hunters were back at the Holy Spirits bar, there was a party going on to celebrate the defeat of the Hodunk clan. Salvador was off getting drunk and playing darts with some of the Zaford henchmen, Zer0 was in a corner at a table by himself eyeing the rest of the bar wearily, and Maya, Axton, and Gaige sat at the bar with Mick Zaford. Even with the party going on around him he still seemed pretty depressed.
"So" Axton said, breaking the awkward silence around them. "Steve was your son?"
"Aye" Mick said. "He was ta last of my kids, after Lucky an' Peter died." He took a swig of rakkale. "Well actually he wasn't exactly my son. He was adopted... Sorta."
"What do you mean sort of?" Maya asked.
"We'll you see... Back in ta day, when my grandfather was ta head of 'dis family and ta rivalry was really intense, I was charged with raiding a Hodunk caravan with a couple of other boys. We waited out in The Dust for a few hours before ta caravan showed up, and then when it did we killed the guards and raided ta supplies they were carryin'. But in ta wreckage o' one of the runners was a little boy, couldn't have been more than t'ree months ol', an' he was beat up pretty bad. So we had some pity on ta poor boy and took 'em back with us. Now, my old man gave us some kind hell when he found out, but eventually he gave in, and me and my wife, god bless her soul, adopted the little fella. We named him Steve after me grandfather and we raised 'em as our own. Now, unfortunately 'e was still affected by ta injuries he received in the caravan raid, that's why he could only ever say 'heyo'. His vocal chords were almost completely destroyed an' he couldn't say anythin' else. An' that's the story of me boy Steve. I never did get a chance to tell him that he was adopted... 'O well, probably better that 'e didn't know."
The Vault Hunters looked at each other, Axton now looked depressed, so did Gaige and tears could be seen beginning to form in Maya's eyes.
"That's so... touching." Maya said.
"I'm sad now." Gaige mumbled.
Axton just looked down at the ground and sniffled.
"Heyo!" A voice came from across the bar.
Mick and the Vault Hunters turned to look at the source of the noise, and there was Steve standing at the end of the bar.
"Steve me boy!" Mick said running over to the bandit. "I thought you were dead! What happened?"
"Heyo." Steve said pointing at the New-U Station.
"Seriously" Gaige said to the other Vault Hunters. "How do we keep forgetting about those?"
