I've drawn more original things I swear but I like doing these kinds of drawings of characters and printing them out as stickers to vandalize my computer with.
Vasquez heard the explosion go off and at first he didn't register it. He continued to shoot at blackstone while waiting for the Gatling gun to start up again. When it didn't, he looked up in confusion and instead of seeing a death machine, he saw smoke rising from the field.
Then it hit him
"GUERO!"
He ran and grabbed the nearest horse, jumping up onto it and riding out full speed into the outskirts of Rose Creek. He threw himself off the horse and started running closer to the smoke.
"GUERO!"
Vasquez kept looking for the body of his guero, half expecting him to stand up before he found him and laugh the whole situation off.
'He's not dead. No está muerto. Por favor no estés muerto'
Vas saw a lump in the grass and ran over to it but it was half of a blackstone, the bottom portion seemed to be missing from the body completely and it made Vasquez sick. Not because he was squeamish, but because that was the condition he may find Faraday in if not worse.
He was about to give up when he heard a faint groan.
"GUERO!?!" He ran towards the noise and found a blood and soot covered Faraday.
"Hey Vas," Faraday coughed out weakly.
"Estúpido guero, ¿qué estabas pensando?" Vas said, biting back a sob.
"C'mon Vas, at least let a dying man know what the last words said to him actually mean."
"You are not dying Guero, you promised me we could ride together after this. Deal with the bounty, have a life together," Vas knelt down onto his knees and gathered up the bloody Faraday in his arms.
"Maybe another time Vas, but I don't think I'm making it out of this one." Faraday said with a wince.
"No, Joshua, no, you hear me. You are not dying."
"Stupid Texican, can you not see I'm bleeding out here?"
"No such thing as a Texican Guero,"
Faraday blinked as a drop of water fell in his eye. 'Not water' he thought.
"Vas, I don't deserve tears." Faraday smiled as he brought a shaky hand up to wipe away the tear track but left behind a smear of blood instead when his hand fell to his chest.
"Vas, do me a favor, keep Ethel and Maria safe. I don't want them buried with me, my poor girls with just rust away, they don't deserve that. They've saved my ass way...way too ma.." Faraday stammered off as his eyes closed.
"Faraday!? Josh don't you leave me cabron," Vas sobbed, shaking him lightly.
Josh's eyes opened into slits and he smiled. "Don't think anybody has called me Josh since my mother passed away."
Vas just let loose a sob at that. Both languages were escaping him.
"Hey, it's okay Vas, you will be okay. I-I love you ya Texican." Faraday closed his eyes and let out a breath. Vas waited for him to draw another in but it seemed that was the last one he would ever take.
"Te amo Guero." Vas knelt down and kissed his forehead lightly before grabbing Ethel, Maria, and the deck of cards from his pocket and slowly rising to his feet.
"Cometí el error más tonto que alguien como yo puede cometer, fui y me enamoré." Vasquez said before beginning the long walk back to Rose Creek.
Vasquez curled up tighter into his pillow. He could feel the tears that he pretended did not exist seep into the pillow below him. He could almost hear his loco guero's laugh echo around him.
"C'mon Vas, pick a card,"
"Guero..."
"Vassssssssssssssss,"
"Fine." Vasquez looked down to see the Jack of hearts in his hand. He committed it to memory before slipping it back into the deck.
Faraday shuffled the cards around some more before pulling one out, "And your card is... The Ace of Diamonds!"
Vasquez snorted. "That not it?" Faraday said in a sarcastically puzzled way
"No guero,"
Faraday then snapped his fingers and revealed his card, the jack of hearts, in his hand
"Now is this your card?"
Vasquez quirked an eyebrow and Faraday laughed in response before looking at the card.
"Well look at that! It's all in the cards Vas, you don't pick them, they pick you. It makes since I'd get the Jack of hearts, me being the world's greatest lover and all that"
"Guero technically I got the card,"
"Yeah but, it always ends up back in my hand at the end of the trick, doesn't it?"
Vasquez sighed as he pulled the slightly burnt Jack of Hearts from his pocket.
"Oh guero..."
Faraday smiled as he stared into the rising sun. He never truly understood the significance of why people liked it so much. Sure people needed it to survive, but he never understood the beauty of it until Vasquez came along. Vasquez, whenever Faraday's leg starts to act up, will always sit him down and just point out anything to distract him. A flying bird, a unique shaped cloud, or the rising or setting sun. Ever since then, Faraday has started to notice the smaller things. Before Vas, he never had a reason to, but now he notices things like Vas's chocolate eyes, he smooth dark hair, the little freckle he supported on the small of his back, little things people never notice in day to day lives.
"Doing okay Guero?" Vasquez asked.
"Yeah."
"You sure? You seemed to be on another planet there for a while"
"Just, appreciating the little things in life."