he đïžđïž
robin plaguing my mind
also doodle of the sillies because I love them
counting my days
BOOTHILL WANTERS WILL BE BOOTHILL HAVERS
(he's not even out yet)
Boothill HSR X Reader
Boothill LOVES how you are so quiet but still tries to sound mean.
MASTERLIST
áĄá ”ăæ°äș . The scent of warm vanilla and butter hung in the air like a soft lullaby. The kitchen of the Astral Express was cozy, golden light pouring in from the windows that overlooked the glowing dreamscape of Penacony. The others were out exploring, no doubt causing a mess. Youâd opted out this time. From Caelus running around all the time and Dan Heng being the most cynic youâve ever met. you needed a you day
You stood at the counter, a smear of flour on your cheek and a whisk in your hand as you mixed the batter with care. A batch of cookies cooled beside you while the next round waited patiently for the oven. The rhythmic sound of metal scraping against the bowl was oddly soothing.
You didnât even hear the door open. You didnât hear the soft boots on metal. But you did hear the voice. âNow darlinâ, I gotta say, I didnât think the Express came with an angel in the kitchen.â
You jumped, the bowl nearly slipping from your hands. You spun on instinct, heart rocketing up your throat. Without thinking, you pointed your whisk like it was a weapon. Boothill stood in the doorway, hat tipped low, a roguish grin cutting across his face like it had been carved from charm itself. He leaned one shoulder against the doorframe, lazy and at ease, like he hadnât just snuck onto the Astral Express uninvited.
And yet, there was no panic in your chest. Just annoyed disbelief. âYou lost?â you said, tone flat, though your grip on the whisk didnât loosen.
His grin widened. âNope. Think I found exactly what I was lookinâ for.â
He strolled further into the kitchen, bootsteps slow and deliberate. He moved like a man who knew his effect on people. With every step closer, you felt your expression harden. But your stance never wavered. âYouâre trespassing,â you said. âWhich means youâve got about five seconds to explain yourself before I chase you out with a kitchen utensil.â
Boothill paused a few feet away, giving the whisk a curious once over. âNow hold on there, sugar,â he drawled, voice thick with that warm southern charm. âDidnât mean no harm. Just couldnât help followinâ the scent of somethinâ sweet. Turns out it wasnât the cookies.â
You stared. Said nothing. He chuckled, low and velvety, hand reaching up to tilt his hat back. âYou always this silent?â
Still, you didnât respond. You raised your whisk a little higher, narrowing your eyes as if sizing him up for a duel.
Boothill blinked, then gave a small, amused whistle. âWell, Iâll be. Youâre a real pistol, ainât ya?â
He took another step forward. You jabbed the whisk at him not quite a threat, slowly taunting over. He stopped. âEasy now,â he said, palms raised. âAinât here for a shootout. Just figured⊠if the rest of yâall were out, you might enjoy some company.â
You glanced at the oven. Back at him. âI was enjoying the lack of company.â
Boothill didnât flinch. âSure you were. But look at it this way you keep bakinâ, Iâll keep talkinâ. Maybe Iâll even convince you I ainât all that bad.â
You stared a moment longer, weighing your options. Finally, you turned back to your bowl with a soft sigh, lowering the whisk but only slightly. âStay out of my way,â you muttered. âAnd donât touch anything.â
Behind you, Boothill gave a triumphant hum, the grin still stitched to his face âNo promises, sugar.â But he didnât touch anything.
He just leaned against the wall, arms folded, hat tipped low, and talked and while you didnât flirt back not once your silence didnât push him away either. You kept your back to him, the sound of the whisk hitting the sides of the metal bowl grounding you as much as it filled the silence. Well not quite silence. Boothill kept talking, weaving lazy words in that smooth, southern drawl of his, like he was just killing time on a front porch somewhere.
You werenât listening. Not really. But you also hadnât kicked him out. âWhat is that smell?â he asked eventually, voice a little closer now. âSomethinâ sweet. Kinda like you.â
You rolled your eyes finally turning to grab the small bowl of buttercream frosting you had chilling on the side. You dipped a spoon in, then held it out toward him wordlessly. âTry it,â you said. âSince youâre so good at judging whatâs sweet.â
He grinned like a devil given permission. âWell now, donât mind if I do.â Boothill stepped forward, real slow. He didnât take the spoon from you. No, that wouldnât have been too easy. Instead, he leaned down and tasted it mouth brushing the edge of the spoon like it was something far more intimate than sugar and butter. His lips curled as the flavor melted on his tongue.
He took another step forward. Then another. Until the air between you thinned, stretched taut like a wire. He was close now too close. You hadnât moved, hadnât flinched, but your hand was still midair holding that spoon, and Boothill was standing in the halo of soft kitchen light like a man who knew exactly how to make it all feel too much.
His eyes locked with yours glinting with that same wild. âNow that,â he murmured, voice dipped in honey and danger, âis the best damn thing Iâve tasted in a while. And trust me, sweetheart, Iâve tasted a lot of things in my time.â
You breathed out quiet, shaky. The kind of breath you didnât mean to let slip. The kind that betrayed something deeper.
He smiled wider, a knowing tilt of his mouth. âDidnât mean to leave you speechless, sugar. But I gotta admit⊠it looks real good on you.â Your hand finally lowered, the spoon forgotten. Your other tightened slightly around the whisk at your side like it could anchor you. You werenât flustered you werenât. But the warmth in your cheeks? The way your heart tripped in your chest?
Still, your voice came back to you, steady despite the hitch a second ago âYouâre standing too close.â
Boothill didnât move. He just leaned in, just enough for his words to graze your ear. âFunny,â he said lowly. âFeels like Iâm just where I oughta be.â
You didnât push him away. But you did tilt your head just slightly, eyes narrowing.
âwatch yourself,â you warned, âIâll shove that spoon somewhere frosting doesnât belong.â
Boothill laughed quiet and genuine, like youâd just made his whole day. He finally stepped back with both hands up again. âGot it, sugar. No touchinâ. For now.â
You exhaled once more, this time through your nose. Then turned back to the bowl, ignoring how warm the kitchen suddenly felt. You heard him lean against the counter behind you.
When the last batch of cookies cooled and the frosting was tucked away in a small container, the adrenaline had finally worn off. The rush of being snuck up on, the intensity of his presence, all of it settled into a quiet buzz at the back of your mind. Boothill hadnât left not that youâd asked him to anymore but the kitchen had grown calmer. Now you sat beside him on the small bench by the kitchen window, legs pulled up slightly as you bit into one of your cookies. The sweetness was warm, rich, buttery. Comforting.
Boothill, meanwhile, was still talking. Something about Penacony. Something about how the colors were too bright and too fake. Something about a guy he once knew with âa mustache that could lasso a comet.â You werenât really following. You just nodded occasionally.
But as you chewed slowly and let your thoughts drift, something clicked in the back of your mind. Wait⊠if his whole bodyâs robotic everything but his head then⊠He canât eat. Not really. Not like this. Which means⊠he canât feel. No nerves, no receptors. No warmth, no pressure. No pain. No pleasure.
Your eyes narrowed faintly in thought. So⊠theoretically, he couldnât You glanced sideways at him, a half laugh puffing through your nose at your own internal joke. He probably canât even get horny. Not that you were planning on testing that theory. Ever.
Boothill kept yapping, completely oblivious to the odd train of thought youâd gone down. His arms were folded behind his head now, hat tilted back slightly as he rambled about something that mightâve involved a gunfight on top of a moving train. Or maybe a bar fight. With him, it was hard to tell.
As he went on, your eyes landed on the way his hair had slipped down into his face again. It was long too long, really, for someone so full of motion and swagger. It fell in front of his eyes, almost shielding them. A curtain of copper and gold. Without thinking, you reached out and brushed it aside just enough to tuck a few strands behind his ear.
And thatâs when he stopped. Mid sentence. Mid word. Just⊠froze. His whole body stilled like someone hit a pause button. You blinked, suddenly realizing what youâd done. Boothillâs eyes slowly met yours.
You lowered your hand, unsure for a split second. But Boothill didnât look away. Didnât say a word
Maybe not in the way most people did. But there was something in that simple moment your fingertips brushing his temple, sliding the hair from his face that made the air feel a little sillier.
The expression on his face wasnât cocky. It wasnât charming. It was just⊠still. You took another bite of your cookie, suddenly feeling like youâd done something much more intimate than you intended. Boothill finally cleared his throat, a flicker of motion returning to his features. The grin came back but it was softer now âWell,â he said, voice a little more low pitched than before, âthat was⊠somethinâ.â
You just looked out the window, letting the taste of sugar and frosting linger on your tongue, and felt the weight of that quiet between you both. For the first time since heâd stepped foot on the Express, Boothill wasnât talking.
You reached for another cookie, already bracing yourself for Boothill to launch into another absurd story something about a bounty, a jailhouse escape, maybe even a mechanical rattlesnake this time because he always did. You thibk by now he knows youâre not the biggest talker in the world. But just before your fingers brushed the plate, his hand caught yours.
Your breath caught in your throat. His touch was firm but not harsh. Metal fingers curled gently around yours, cool and seamless, humming faintly with life. You didnât even have time to react before he brought both your hands up⊠and pressed them to his face.
The contact was immediate.
The warmth of his skin, the faint vibration of the robotic parts moving beneath it all sank into your palms as he leaned in, into your touch and he just kept talking.
âWell now, this reminds me of the time I went toe to toe with a fella named Colt McGraw big olâ gunslinger, real sore loser. Got hisself stuck in a barrel of moonshine after I tricked him into thinkinâ I was a ghost long story.â
His accent was as thick and honey smooth as ever, drawling like he hadnât just casually stolen the most flustering moment of your entire day. Your hands stayed there, pinned softly to the sides of his face. His hair tickled your knuckles. His skin, the only flesh left on his body, was warm beneath your fingertips. And those vivid eyes sharp, playful, aware were half lidded in a way that made it worse. So much worse.
You sat completely still, back straight, staring at him like someone had just pulled the floor out from under you. Your face burned. It crept up from your neck, flushed across your cheeks, and hit the tips of your ears in a matter of seconds. He knew. He had to know.
But he just kept rambling, voice slow and syrupy. âYâknow, I gotta say, ainât every day someone can be so on guard and make me feel this way. Makes a cowboy feel like a person again.â He smiled. âKinda nice.â
You opened your mouth. Nothing came out. You tried again. Still nothing. Your brain was static, your thoughts replaced with a single screaming line of internal monologue: what is happening what is happening what is happening.
Boothill didnât seem fazed in the slightest. If anything, he looked relaxed. Comfortable. Still holding your hands to his face like they belonged there.
And you flushed, frozen, helplessly red just sat there, cookie forgotten, wondering how the hell a man made mostly of metal could make you feel this warm.
áĄá ”ăæ°äș
Boothillâs words kept rolling, painting images of outlaw duels and near death standoffs with the kind of ease that came only from experience or embellishment. Probably both. But he never let go. Your hands stayed cradled against his face the whole time, his metal fingers wrapped gently around your wrists like he wasnât ready to let the moment end. He leaned into your touch time and time again.
Eventually, though, the story began to wind down. Something about escaping a collapsing bridge with nothing but a grappling hook and âa prayer to whoever was listeninâ.â He chuckled at his own punchline, the corner of his mouth curling in that easy, boyish way that somehow made everything worse.
Then, slowly reluctantly he let your hands go. He lowered them from his face with a gentleness that didnât match the brashness he wore like a badge. His fingers slid away last, like he was memorizing the shape of you with the tips of his metal hands. When he looked at you, his eyes were steady.
âLilâ darlinâ,â he said, voice low and warm like sunbaked earth, âyou got hands that feel like home. I ainât sure what kinda trouble youâre stirrinâ up in that head oâ yours, but I reckon Iâll be thinkinâ about this for a good long while.â
He tipped his hat just slightly and started to turn like he meant to leave. Your eyes dropped to your lap for half a second before you stopped him.
ââŠI really liked your stories,â you said softly, barely above a whisper.
He paused in the doorway. You hadnât meant to sound so genuine. So raw. But it was too late to take it back. Boothill glanced over his shoulder, just enough for you to catch the smile tugging at his lips.
âYeah?â he murmured. âWell⊠guess Iâll have to come back âround and tell you another sometime, huh?â
And just like that, he was gone. Leaving behind the faint scent of old gunpowder and desert air and a heartbeat in your chest that didnât quite know how to settle down.
Boothill: So⊠if I âaccidentallyâ kissed you, youd fall in love right?
Â
You: If you âaccidentallyâ kissed me, Iâd âaccidentallyâ reload your gun with glitter and watch you die fabulous.
RAHHHHHH BOOTHILL CAME HOME đ€©
LIKE OMG HES SO BBG????
Finished a old doodle of my fav himbos together (and to help me fight off this stupid art block) đđ
gay people rejoice
The cowboy that serves has finally come home
penacony game night! đđź (zoom in for a bunch of easter eggs :])