#GOD i spent so much time looking for appropriate adjectives starting with w for the title

[vincess-princess]

the wild, the wayward and the wicked

hello guys! i'm here with a new fic! :) *shoves all unfinished wips back into the basement* this one is totally not inspired by rdr 2 which is definitely not actively sabotaging my grades and responsibilities right now by making me play it 24/7, because, as you are all well-aware, i'm a fully functional human being!

Fandom: Motley Crue

Characters: the usual bunch

Pairings: implied Nikki Sixx/Vince Neil

Rating: Mature

Status: ongoing

Warnings: graphic descriptions of violence, mentions of past drug addiction, period-typical homophobia, self-harm, a whole lot of crimes of all shapes and sizes

Summary: after an ambitious heist gone wrong, professional outlaws Nikki Sixx, Tommy Lee and Mick Mars are stranded in a city full of lawmen hounding them and with not a single dollar in their pockets. To start a new life in another state, they need a great deal of cash - and they decide to get it by temporarily becoming the men of law themselves and bringing to justice one of their own kind, who not-so-coincidentally also has a tremendous bounty to his name.

A/N: this takes place in California in 1880s, and in my attempt to be as historically accurate as possible i had to google the etymology of so. many. expressions. but i learned a lot of new things! :) (if i do get something wrong, though, you're welcome to tell me) i decided the chapters in this one will be shorter than usual (no 5k monstrosities lmao), and i'll try to post them more often too.

Chapter 1.

Word count: 1545

Even after five years of the life of an outlaw Tommy remained dreadfully - even deadly - thoughtless. Otherwise he would have reconsidered trying to sneak up from behind to Nikki downing a shot at the bar counter. The whiskey ended up in his eyes, and Nikki’s revolver – pressing between his ribs.

“Ouch!” Tommy’s hands flew to his face, and the piece of paper he was holding glided down onto the counter. Some whiskey got onto it, but mostly at the corners, so the text was still readable.

“Don’t rub your eyes, it’ll make it worse,” Nikki advised, reaching for the paper. The next second the half-full mug of beer belonging to a guy sitting next to him was upended above his head. Two indignant cries blended together, putting “I’m gonna end you” across perfectly without a single word. Nikki’s was louder, though – it was him getting a beer shower, after all, and it wasn’t even good beer.

“No guns!” the barkeeper warned and immediately exempted himself from his own rule, pulling a Colt New Army from under the counter. The “argument” – or, rather, six of them – was compelling enough for both Nikki and the guy to reluctantly holster their weapons. Not that Nikki would actually shoot Tommy, but he had to keep the little shit on his toes. The other guy, though… this saloon was the hottest spot in town for crooks and lowlifes, and they were always quick to anger. Nikki and Tommy blended right in for that very reason, but also ran certain risks because of it.

“Sorry, partner,” Nikki turned to the now beerless guy that turned beet-red and looked like he was going to explode, “this idiot here is pea-brained and even that pea usually goes unused. Lemme buy you another beer.” He fumbled in his already very light pockets with growing anxiety until his fingers brushed against a warm half-dollar and slid it across the counter to the barkeeper. Then he stood up, shook his head like a dog, spattering the beer on the counter, barkeeper and the guy, put on his hat, grabbed Tommy by the elbow and forcefully led him to the exit. The kid apparently realized he had just done something outrageously stupid and obediently allowed Nikki to drag him out of the saloon and into a narrow alleyway behind it. Judging by suspicious brown stains on the ground, it had quite a history of dispute settlements.

Nikki didn’t intend to go to such extremes, of course. A lot of lessons could be learned without bloodshed: a couple bruises would do the job just as well. Tommy endured his mandatory punch in the face without a single complaint, which was unusual of him, as it was his favorite thing to do. But this time he just wiped his nose with his calloused hand, avoiding looking Nikki in the face. Was he actually sorry?

Nikki was gonna give him some more tongue-lashing, but decided against it.

“Do not startle me like that anymore,” he only said tiredly. “The last thing we need right now is a commotion. And that was exactly what you almost did.”

“You splashed whiskey on me first,” Tommy murmured defensively. Well, maybe he wasn’t actually that sorry.

“Because you startled me! You know not to come up to me from the back like that. You’ll get punched. Or splashed. Or both, like in this case.”

“Well, it ain’t my fault you’re that neurotic! No lawman ever goes to The Diablo. You don’t have to be so vigilant there.”

“You’re a fool,” Nikki said almost fondly. “With a bounty like ours, any criminal will readily convert into a man of law just seeing us. Which is why we should prevent their looking as much as possible.”

“Taking after you,” Tommy grumbled. Nikki graciously ignored it, because it was true. “And if you hadn’t doused me in whiskey and listened instead, I would have suggested we do it too!”

“What?” Nikki frowned, but the menacing effect he aspired for was ruined by a very untimely sneeze. The beer odor kept assailing his poor nose, completely blocking his sense of smell. He needed a bath real bad, but going looking for it to a hotel or a bathhouse was hardly better than walking right into the police station. His posters were hanging on every pole in town, and these places were among the first to be informed of wanted outlaws in case they try to seek shelter there. Nikki had since shaved off his beard, of course, losing at least five years and the charm of a highway robber together with it, but he still didn’t wanna risk it.

“Look what I found!” Tommy pulled a wad of paper out of his pocket and handed it to Nikki. Upon unwrapping it, he recognized the piece of paper that Tommy brought into the bar. He hadn’t noticed him picking it up again, but the kid was extraordinarily, even unnaturally nimble-fingered and took to thieving like a duck to water. Nikki’s been doing it since he could remember himself, but next to Tommy he was an absolute jackleg.

The layout on the paper looked familiar. A huge WANTED on top, a mugshot underneath…  

“A bounty poster that is not of us?” Nikki skimmed through the text until he got to the sum. It wasn’t dark enough in the alleyway, and Nikki only had one whiskey shot, so the zeros shouldn’t have been doubling in front of his eyes, right? He twisted the poster, held it an inch away from his eyes, then extended his arm as far as he could, trying to catch the stray zero fleeing from the scene, but all four of them stood their ground. Eventually he did come to the conclusion that the sum offered was real. And all that just for one guy?

Then Nikki read the charges, and things got a bit clearer. Murder, including that of an officer, theft, armed robbery, breaking and entering and… sodomy?

“Quite a character, right?” Tommy grinned as he saw Nikki’s eyebrows fly up. “And would you look at that hefty sum! It could last us a few months until things settle down a bit. Just for bringing one guy in!”

Nikki looked more closely at the photo of the criminal. Well, he could as well have had “sodomy” written all over his face: long blonde hair, plump lips twisted into a lecherous smile, and a heavy stare from underneath thick long lashes… if Nikki hadn’t read his name written on the top, he would have taken him for a wanton woman.

But no, the name – Vincent Neil Wharton, usually going by Vince Neil – was clearly male. Unless the doctor was drunk during his birth and his mother never bothered to check.

“Whatcha staring at?” Tommy narrowed his eyes, and Nikki finally managed to tear his gaze away from the photo. Then his lips stretched into a sleazy grin. “What, lack of gals hitting you that hard?”

“Hey, you took the poster, not me,” Nikki snapped back. “So many bounty posters out there, and you picked this one! Says something about you, huh?”

“Yeah, it says that I like more money for less effort,” Tommy retorted easily. “The biggest bounty of the rest was half of what’s offered here.”

“It’s that high for a reason,” Nikki hurried to curb his enthusiasm. “You see that list of offences? This guy knows what side to grip the gun from and ain’t got no morals to hold him from using it. And you know how the cops are – they wouldn’t have offered such a sum if they could catch the man themselves. Besides, he’s wanted alive, which makes it ten times harder.”

“What, are you scared of him?” Tommy laughed. Nikki loved hearing him laugh – Tommy always managed to find something funny in any situation, however desperate. Unfortunately for Tommy, Nikki’s dislike of being mocked exceeded that love by a large margin – as, coincidentally, did Nikki’s muscular mass compared to Tommy’s. So the next few minutes the kid was eating dirt – not on his own volition, of course, but he had no other option with Nikki’s knee pressing into the small of his neck, and thrashing around and shouting curses only made it worse.

Soon enough Tommy came to accept that his only choice was to surrender and stopped writhing in Nikki’s grip. Nikki held him down for a few more seconds – for the lesson to assimilate better - before letting him go. Their fights always ended like this, no exceptions, yet Tommy never learned.

Tommy slowly rose from the ground, spit out soil and licked his split lip.

“Was that really necessary? Another punch would do the job just fine,” he murmured with resentment.

“It wouldn’t, your skull is too thick.” Nikki picked up the long-suffering bounty poster again. “And I’m not scared, I’m being reasonably careful. As you should be too.”

“It’s gonna be three against one. What’s there to fea- be careful about?”

“You don’t know the man. There’s always something.”

“Now you’re just overthinking it.”

“Gotta think for the two of us.” Nikki folded the poster and shoved it into his pocket. “I need to talk it over with Mick. Let’s get out of here.”