#sorry for this lil bit of nonsense x3

[some-cookie-crumbz]

I NeED MORE BABY KADEN AND BABY OLIVERRR,,,, they are too cute for this and any other world 😭😩😍 KIDGE BABIESSS 👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻 Love you crumbz!

MDSALKNF;ASONF!!!! I love you too!!! I’m so glad you love these dorky boys! Hopefully some full shenanigans with a focus on them will be good~! x3

They’d been traveling for a good few days, followingwhatever leads they could get to help guide them towards their target. Thankfullyenough, their mark tended to leave gossip behind from every place he breezedthrough. The man was well-known for his callous, cruel ways; had takencountless lives with no regard for the damage he caused. They couldn’t rely onthe locale sheriff from town to town to do much to bring the villain down.There was a long line of graves from the ones that had tried to bring him tojustice, and the ones still above snakes saw that as reason enough to step down.And so, knowing that no one else would be able to bring the lily-liveredoutlaw.

Finally, they caught up with him a small town well off thebeaten path.

He took a deep breath in, letting the scent of gun smokefill his nostrils. He had heard the shots before he’d reached the outskirts oftown but thought it to be the usual suspects. Just a couple of patrons at thesaloon getting a little too wild on their drinks of choice. As they enteredtown, however, he couldn’t help but think that it had to be something more. Theonly sounds that could be heard came from the saloon a ways down from them,with no townsfolk milling about. The shops had their doors and windows drawnshut tight, too.

He gently patted his steed’s thick neck and guided him throughthe long dirt street, pressing forward so he could see the aftermath of whatactually happened. There was a darkened patch in the soil in front of thesaloon, though the body had already been relocated. Not far from the dark spot,he could see the slight glint of metal, partially hidden by the dirt. Despitethe dark patch and what it represented, the usual excited, boisterous calamityof every other saloon could be heard past the doors.

He hopped from his horse, pausing to give him another quickpat, before taking the reins and guiding him towards the spark that had caughthis eyes. He knelt down and carefully plucked the item up, dusting it on pantleg before inspecting it. He let out a small sigh before pushing himselfupright again, still clutching the item.

“What’cha reckon happened ‘round here?” His comrade asked,letting out a small whistle as he maneuvered his own steed around the dark spotin the dirt. In one hand he held a journal, where they’d been logging theirtravels, with a map tucked safely inside as a page marker. The other wassmoothing out the pale beige mane of his horse, seeming to sense the beast’sapprehension at the unnerving silence around them. He’d always appreciated howhis partner could read a map and keep the animals calm.

“Nothin’ good,” He said, short and blunt, while holding theabandoned sheriff’s badge at him. The other let out a small swear under hisbreath while he himself guided his horse over to the small tethering post justbeside the saloon. He never tied his own horse down, knowing he was awell-behaved sort, but he still had him stay close by to avoid causing a fusswith the local sheriff. He stole a glance at the multiple other horses teethedup.

Yup, this was definitely the crew they were looking for.

He pocketed the sheriff’s badge and waited for the other toge this own horse settled by the tether. Kosmo was an older stallion, but hewas loyal and smart; knew better than to go running off by his lonesome. He didgood about listening to his handler, but even he was also an incrediblyprotective horse. Probably had something to do with how Pa had trained him, ifhe reasoned a guess. “Gotta be the ones we’re looking for, huh, Boss?”

“Any luck, yeah,”

“Any luck, ya say!” The younger man scoffed before leaningin to quietly hush his horse, who had turned his head to press his snoutagainst the side of the human’s face. “We been trackin’ him ‘long for a good longwhile! Bout time we get to beat him hollow after all he done!”

“Hold yer horses, now. Gotta go at this in a wise way,” Bosschided evenly, taking a moment to readjust his gun holster again. He pulled hispistol out and double-checked it, making sure it was fully loaded, then slid itback into place.

“Ah, so ya’ got a plan?” The other asked over his shoulderas he tucked his journal away in his saddle bag for safe keeping.

“Reckon’ so,” He shrugged, rolling his shoulders andadjusting the gun holster on his hip.

“Oh yeah? And wazzat?” The other asked as he stepped upbeside him.

“Call him out, shoot him down, and end all this nonsense,”

The other blinked and then started laughing. “M’ sure theold man woulda been real proud of that plan, Boss,” He teased, giving him asmall shove. He offered a smile back before letting his expression turn neutralagain before pushing open the doors to the saloon.

The quiet creak of the doors did nothing to silence theuproar taking place over at the card table, most of the patrons gathered aroundin an enthusiastic debate. He opted against heading that way right off the bat,though, and instead swerved over to the bar. The bartender kept glancing overat the ruckus, clearly uneasy, wincing whenever there seemed to be any kind ofphysicality to the whole thing. “Real excitable sort ya got’n ‘ere, friend,” Hesaid as he slipped into one of the empty stool.

The tender jumped in surprise before offering an attempt ata smile. “Keeps things lively ‘round here. What’re ya havin’?” He asked,choosing his words carefully and moving to set his cleaning rag aside.

“Surprise us,” The other said with a grin as he hopped upinto the vacant seat beside Boss. The bar keep stared for a moment beforenodding, turning his attention over to the selection behind him.

“Never seen you boys before. Ain’t from around here, eh?”

“Nowhere near. It that obvious?”

“Could tell the minute I got a look at the pair of ya,” Thebartender said as he set the drinks in front of them. Boss took his and turnedto look at the crowd, vaguely aware of the chatter between his partner and barkeep. His eyes roved over the crowd, listing off each member of the group inhis head, trying to snuff out the leader.

His eyes flashed when he spotted a black hat with a red bandamong the crowd. The hat was all too familiar to him.

He chugged his drink down, wanting the liquid courage morebecause it would be wasteful not to take it, and pushed out of his seat.“Boss?” The other asked, raising an eyebrow.

But he didn’t look at the other. “Square up, Big Gun, yalily-livered snake!” He shouted.

The figure sporting the hat shifted, a pair of piercing blueeyes peering over the brim at him. He shifted to lean back in his seat, cockinghis head up further, and offering a lofty smile. “Ya hankerin’ to get shot deadlike that uppity lil’ Sheriff, boy?” He goaded, tilting his seat back andpropping his muddy boots up on the edge of the card table.

The Bar keep made a quiet whine in the back of his throat,distressed by the muck getting on his furniture.

“No, Sir. Ya gonna dig ya own grave and then I’m gonna shootya into it,” He scoffed, settling a hand on his hips. His fingers were itchingtowards his gun in the holster, but he forced himself to hold back. He had tomake sure he was going about this with some amount of finesse.

“Izzat how ya think’ll go down, boy?” Big Gun asked, a smilestill in place but a spark of fury dancing in his eyes. He didn’t take tokindly to threats.

“Know it will,” The younger male suddenly declared, hoppingdown from his own seat and standing beside Boss. A determined glare settled onto his face, amber eyes bright with a mix of hostility and giddiness. “We beentrackin’ ya sorry tail ever since ya blazed on through our town! Came in withyer heap of knuckleheads and shot up the place!”

Big Gun cocked his head, sizing them both up before smirkingand tapping the brim of his hat. “Ah, ‘member the pair a’ ya! The littleankle-biters a’ that nose-up Sheriff who gave me this nice lil’ trinket!”

“Hobble yer damn lip!”Boss all but roared, hand gripping around the gun and pulling it free. Thesecond he pulled it out, the four other figures at the table bursting up totheir feet with their own guns in retaliation. “Ya’ll gonna pay fer what yadid!”

Big Gun shifted himself, dropping his feet from the tableand rising to stand in a surprisingly smooth motion. “Ya think yer so slick?Let’s see what ya got,” He scoffed, reaching for his own holster and pullingout his gun.

For a moment, there was a tense standoff, eyes swiveling fromface to face, before the saloon erupted into a chorus of gun fire.

Boss fired back, managing to clip one guy in the shoulderand another in the chest before flipping another table for them to duck behind.“Wanted to get-em outside before we got right in ta it,” Boss, huffed, pressinghis back against the flipped tabletop and sliding down a bit. He checked hisgun to reload the four shots he’d taken before glancing over at his partner. “Yagot yer gun?” He asked.

The other blinked before patting at his belt and mutteringunder his breath. Suddenly, he stood up and held his hands up in the shape of aletter T. “Time out! I forgot my gun!” He proclaimed before whistling.

In a shimmering puff, Kosmo appeared, yellow eyes bright andears perked up. He beamed at the pooch, leaning forward to scratch behind hisears and nuzzle their faces together. He then shifted and started to rummagethrough the pseudo-saddlebags they’d attached to Kosmo and Wink, Kosmo andBae-Bae’s oldest son, to produce his own bright orange squirt gun. “Sorry, Ishould have mentioned that to you when we were heading in,” Boss chimed calmly.

“S’fine,” He mused before holding the gun up and waving it abit for the others to see. “Mkay, I got my gun! We can get started again!”

“You can’t do that, Newt! It’s cheating!” Big Gun suddenly shouted, pointing at him accusingly.

Newt blinked then scowled. “You called time out last time weplayed pirates because you got thrown overboard and we didn’t call you out onthat! You’re just being a big doofus, Alfor!”

“That’s different!I only got thrown overboard because I was distracted cause I had to pee!” Alforsnapped back.

“Then why didn’t you call timeout when you had to pee? We’vealways had time outs for pee breaks allowed!” Kaden chimed in suddenly.

“Yeah! You just said that so you could redo that part andnot get fed to sharks!”

“Nuh uh!”

“Yeah huh!”

From behind the cardboard bar, the figure of little RichterGarrett poked up and let out a small sigh. “Geez, again with this?” He mumbledto himself. He shook his head and carefully walked around the bar, motioning tothe other boys at the cardboard card table. “Come on, guys. This might take awhile so we may as well go inside and get some more snacks.”

The others nodded eagerly and tailed after him, settingtheir cowboy hats and water pistols on the back patio table as they did. Whenthey headed inside, the three adults all perked up from the kitchen table tostare at them. “Richter, are you all done playing already?” His mom askedworriedly.

He shook his head. “Nah, Newt and Kaden and Alfor are justarguing about the rules again,”

Alfor’s mother let out a small sigh and pinched the bridgeof her nose. “Oh, honestly. It seems like they can’t go a week withoutbickering over something with their games. They take them so seriously, don’tthey?”

Kaden and Newt’s dad chuckled a bit. “I guess playtime isserious business when you’re that age. Think maybe a piece offering will helpthem all settle down?” The other young boys all perked up and nodded eagerly. “Let’ssee… I think we have enough apples, so let’s do some apple slices and peanutbutter today.” He said while pushing up from the table and heading over to getstarted.

A few minutes later, Keith came out only to be slightly surprisedto find Alfie, who was completely drenched and covered in mud from the now-soakedyard, standing beneath the big tree in the backyard, shouting up at it, andboth his sons and their two cosmic canines relatively high up in the branches.He wasn’t sure if he was impressed by their quick thinking, surprised thatKosmo and Wink seemed relatively content in the tree, or miffed that the twohad busted out the hose to win the fight.

Eh, maybe a little bit of them all, he surmised.