The Tale of a Deed, by Auburn (R/Mature)

[the-hobbet.livejournal.com]

Fandom: THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN
Pairing: none
Author on LJ: auburnnothenna
Author Website: Allusions
Why this must be read:

A casual, seemingly cost-free good deed, done even before Ezra arrived in Four Corners, comes back to send ripples of change through the relationships between the Seven, brings Maude to town for another competition with her son, and stirs up painful memories. All of the Seven are featured, especially Ezra and Vin, but it's particularly hard on Nathan.

Auburn weaves a fascinating, bittersweet tale, full of insight, and told in prose as elegant and honeyed as Ezra himself. It goes down smooth and haunts the soul for a long time after.

Sample The Tale of a Deed

Chris was a bad-tempered sonovabitch, drunk or sober, but he holed up in a corner and brooded if left alone. Vin got talkative and tetchy, but didn't drink enough to make it a problem. Ezra got plumb mean and sorry for himself, and he'd cut you to pieces with his razor tongue when he was swimming so deep in the bottle his knees couldn't hold him up, but like Chris, all he really wanted was to be left alone. JD couldn't hold his drink long enough to be drunk, he just passed out; while Nathan would drive a man into shooting him someday, telling everyone everything wrong they ever done and what they should have done instead. Buck himself got loud, well, louder, and maybe too damn friendly.

But Josiah... Josiah was the worst of them, calling down Old Testament wrath and acting it out on whoever and whatever touched off his temper. Josiah was a destructive bastard, just about unstoppable when he got a gutful and likely to kill some 'sinner' with his bare hands sooner or later.

Tonight, Josiah had that brooding look Buck had learned to dread, the way he dreaded Chris's black, suicidal rages after Cletus Fowler and his men burned out Chris's ranch and killed his wife and son. Buck didn't know who or what Josiah had lost or killed, but he recognized that something dogged the man fierce. Riding with them, rebuilding the church, saving Ezra's soul, all of it was some kind of penance. Some nights it just got away from Josiah and then he took it out on anyone that got in his way.

Buck wrapped his arm around Peggy's waist and stood up with her, causing the redhead to squeal and throw her arms around his neck. He had no intention of being around when Josiah blew up. Let someone else handle Josiah tonight, he was going to be wrapped up in pretty Peggy's soft white legs.

Something, maybe the way Vin's head swiveled toward the poker table, maybe the harsh scrape of a chair over the floor, snapped Buck's attention to Ezra.

The gambler was smiling at the dark-haired drifter. Shit. The other players had all shoved away from the table. Heidegger was glaring at the drifter with sheer disgust. Money, cards and chips were scattered across the green baize. Buck recognized the tight smile Ezra sported. It wasn't the dimpled, little-boy-shy smile Ezra sometimes let slip when he was most pleased nor was it the cheerful shark grin he wore when he'd just executed a prank or a con. It was that placeholder smile he donned while he decided where he was going to shoot someone. Which meant something had gone seriously wrong at the table.

Because the thing about Ezra, Buck mused, was he didn't get mad and just shoot at someone. Get him riled and he'd like as not smile at you sweet as sugar, then turn around and get you back in as humiliating a way as his fertile imagination could invent. Ezra was deadly with his guns, hard as Chris or Vin when it came to survival, but he just didn't shoot unless he thought he was out of other options. If he shot though, he shot to kill. It didn't bother him later, either.

Buck swiftly put Peggy down. "Get on upstairs, darlin', I'll be along," he said, pushing her out of the way. No, he didn't like the way that drifter was grinning at Ezra one bit.

The Tale of a Deed