Chapter Text
“So let me get this straight, you have talked to her once!” Gyro Zeppeli’s voice was very loud even in the very crowded pub
“Twice if we are to be technical” he almost winced at the way he sounded and Gyro didn't seem any more convinced than he was before, Tim almost wanted to hit himself, it was a terrible retort.
“Only counts as once if you only meet her one time you know” Johnny piped in from his left.
The three of them were all packed inside of an inn, newly built and painted just for the race of the century they were all taking part in. Well the three of them and a good other twenty contestants, the unexpected battle between them and the Boom Boom family had set them all back a good few hours, which coupled with their amassed injures after the fight had lead them to have lost at least a night in which they should have spent sleeping in the wild.
Not that anyone of them were complaining about having to stay a night in a real bed for once, they were incredibly scarce to come by so the relatively small town they had stumbled into was very welcome. It wasn't in any way of the word large, it had a railway station and a newly built inn but not much else, Tim suspected that both of them had been new additions thanks to the race.
All things considered Zeppeli had been in the best mood out of the three of them when they arrived, full of confidence that they would make up for the lost time with little effort. Joestar on the other hand had been a bit more pessimistic about the situation but Tim wasn't sure if it was just the young man's personality or if it was his experience talking.
At any how Zeppeli took the pessimistic attitude as an excuse to drink both himself and his companions silly, and refuting any sensible notion that heavy drinking before a long day of riding could be a poor idea.
And that was in short why he was there at a pub in the middle of nowhere answering the awkward question of if he had any special someone who might be waiting for him at home.
“It's just sad really, right Johnny it's sad by American standards right?” Gyro asked while also appearing to find his question both worrying and laughable at the same time, Johnny's choice of answer seemed to only manifest themselves as grunts or excessive eye rolling. He apparently wasn't a particularly chatty drunk.
“I wouldn't call it sad perhaps, more ...unfortunate” Tim tried to defend himself.
“No unfortunate is when she happens to have been your childhood sweetheart and ending up marrying a different guy. Not when she's a literal fourteen year old on top of being married” Gyro answered.
“And you have barely talked to her” Johnny quipped in.
“Yeah that too” gyro said back at him
Tim just sighed “Well say what I'm supposed to do then, not fall in love?”
“Well wallowing in your own misery about it is not going to help now is it” Gyro said.
“What you need is to be reminded that she isn't the only righteous beauty out there you know. Peruse the waters again. You have no need to act faithful or anything to some girl who's already married, especially when there is plenty of fun to be had with other unattached people” Gyro continued, slurring his words, quite obviously being the most affected by the alcohol out of the three of them. Hadn't he heard somewhere that europeans were supposed to have a higher tolerance for the stuff, apparently not if gyro was any kind of standard to go by.
“But you know you're going to have a hard time of it if you just keep on sulking in this corner, looking like your horse has been shot or something” gyro giggled a bit at his own words.
Tim almost felt the need to point out that they were in fact not sitting in a corner but something in him gave him pause. Why not give it a try he thought, it wasn't like he had anything better to do this evening then get drunk together with the other two.
“Well how about this then, if a lovely lady would like to come here share my company for the evening I promise I will not turn her down” Tim said and took a celebratory drink out of his flask.
____
Gyro didn't think for one minute that Tim’s promise to be sociable would be end well. Not when he was sitting around looking like someone had sat his house on fire only hours earlier or something. Which he kinda didn't or well at least he was wearing a melancholy look to him like no tomorrow. Gyro wasn't a master of similes if he were to be honest. But he was on the other hand fully dedicated (and very inebriated) to try and thank Tim in some way for the help he had provided them with (granted that had been after he had tried to kill them but Gyro wasn't going to start holding that against him). Getting Tim to forget about his woes regarding married women seem to be a very good start in his own opinion.
“So what lady do you think he’d fancy?” he asked Johnny after Tim had left to go and have himself a quick wash up in their shared room.
“What? Why does that matter to you?” johnny sounded truly confused at the question.
“You have seen how he has been acting all evening right? a fast splash of water in his face ain't going to make him more approachable the way he's just sitting here looking like a storm cloud”
“Then tell him not to look so sad then, easy i don't see why we should care what lady he would want to spend the night with anyway, that's none of our business” johnny still sounded like he wasn't understanding at all until he looked on to Gyro one more time to notice the expression he was wearing.
“Gyro no”
“He just needs a bit of helping is all i think”
“Why must you do this”
“It's a simple matter of lending a friend a helping hand, he will be thankful for it i'm sure”
“I know i won't, you know we share a room for the night right, i'm not interested in seeing that much of him” Johnny sounded defeated, as if he knew that he wasn't going to get anywhere with trying to convince Gyro to stop putting his nose in other people's matters.
“I’m sure he won't get that far, he’s waaay to much of a gentleman for any of that. It's only one evening and hell we had to talk him into being pleasant if someone came up here asking even” gyro said with much vigor, “so question still stands, what lady would he enjoy an evening chat whit”
“How should i know”
“Well i don't know, you are both american i thought you maybe shared similar tastes”
Johnny couldn't do more then look at his partner with a questioning look, as if he couldn't decided if gyro had truly meant what he said or was just screwing with him in some intricate way.
“A yes every man from the south of america have the exact same taste in women how could i forget that” he bit back sarcastically, though it was lost to gyro as drunk as he was by then. “I think maybe mrs Steel’s blond at least, i have heard of that, maybe he likes blondes”
“Well it's a start at least” gyro answered, and started to scan the room for any fitting candidates.
“Hey johnny” he hit the younger man’s shoulder in order to get his attention to where he was pointing, “think that one might work ?”
____
“So what you're saying is that while you were sure your partner was taking a different route than the one that everyone was instructed to take, in the belief that it was faster, but when he started it earlier then you in the attempt to beat you to the next checkpoint even while you were on the same path you saw nothing of him. I'm understanding this correctly?” Mike look annoyed at the contestant, probably the fifth one they had talked to this evening.
Blackmore could understand the feeling they hadn't come anyway closer in charting out the location of the saints parts then when they had started this evening.
“Is what I said right, I knew I should never have trusted that son of a bitch anyway but I thought hey he's a rich bastard he might know something I don't, and my mother didn't raise a fool I knew my way around to talking properly with them rich pompous northern bastardes” Blackmore felt the need to almost smile at the notion, the man they had bein trying to get information out of by pretending to be journalists (and a considerable amount of bribing with alcohol) was many things but they wouldn't say he was in anyway as well spoken as he seemed to claim.
“Oh you having a funny time over there missy? Haven't heard a word from you all evening. Don't you have anything to ask?” The man asked with a lecherous look in his eyes after he picked up on the subtle smile playing on their lips.
Blackmore payed the comment no mind, men like him were dime a dozen especially out here in the middle of nowhere. Far away from anyone more feminine looking. In fact they were probably only one of maybe three others in the pub dressed in skirts. Maybe it was their own fault for opting for dressing that way rather than any of their more male attire but there was no use grueling over it now.
The fact still stood they had spent a considerable amount of time to try locating anyone who had gone of the setup path of the water holes and so far the only person the had yet to find was a babbling idiot who didn't seem to have seen or heard anything useful. The whole conversation taking place at the table was however abruptly interrupted by a long haired man wobbling over from the bar.
__
They were three people sitting at the table Gyro had walked over to. One darker gentleman with some kind of markings on his face wearing a very nice suit, opposite him sat a much rougher looking man with a wide brimmed hat on, likely another of the contestants, ‘god they really had fallen behind a fair bit by now, they had to start early has hell to make up for lost time if the likes of that man was on the same time as they were.’ he thought. But next to the nicely dressed gentlemen man was the person he was looking for. A quit fair, young looking lady whit long blond hair, dressed in blue.
From what else Johnny had tried to grasp from his hazy drunken memory she could sorta fit the description of Mrs Steel. (then again Johnny had only seen like one photo of her in the paper so he could just be talking out of his ass).
“Greetings! I hope I not interrupting” he said as he came closer to the table. The rough looking man turned around in his chair with a great deal of speed for someone so hefty looking as him.
“Oi! I know you ! Your that fool who was caught cheating in the first bout!” The man turned back to staring at the pair across the table of him.
“What business do you have with this man! Going to interview him to huh!? Wanna hear the opinions of unhonest idiot!?” The man was yelling quit loudly by now and starting to get red in the face.
“I can assure you, We have no prior plans to talk to this man mr Harvey, but whatever we do or not is frankly none of your concern” the fine dressed gentleman said in a calm tone as he leaned back in his chair.
“Well I ain't wanna have my name next to some cheating foreigner in any paper so you can forget any of my interview making it to print!” The man was standing up yelling at the two people in front of him.
“Well than I guess we are done, good evening sir” the gentleman continued in his calm voice.
Mr Harvey seemed to almost deflate, not expecting that answer at all. All the gentlemen did was raise an eyebrow as if to question if he was going have to ask Harvey to leave their table. Harvey only grumbled under his breath and turned to leave. Also making sure to bump into gyro hard on the shoulder with his own on his way past him.
“Hope i didn't ruin anything important there” Gyro said nodding to the fuming man exiting the bar.
“It's no problem, he wasn't informing us of anything useful anyway, I was actually starting to think up an excuse to end our conversation” the gentleman said looking over at the lady in blue. “Out here it's truly a fool's world where no sense reigns” he went on punctuating his speech with a heavy sigh.
He nodded to the now empty chair to signal Gyro that he could sit down.
“My name is Mike. O and this is my associated Blackmore” he said to Gyro while gesturing to the lady.
“You're press people then?” Gyro asked
“In a matter of speaking yes that's what could be said about us” Mike answered.
“Really what paper are you writing for?” Gyro continued.
“The Philadelphia digest” was the first words Gyro heard from Blackmore.
“Well quite a far way to travel I say” he said.
Blackmore gazed down in her lap looking like she regretted her sudden outburst.
“Well the race is all anyone wants to talk about, or read about these days” she said looking a bit embarrassed “we do our duty to provide the information asked of us” she continued whit a light and shy voice
“Yes, well as they say beggars can't be choosers, our paper is fairly new one, and we hoped to hear the opinions from the contestants while the race is still going, that way we get an edge over the competition so to say” Mike cut in.
“Right well if none of you aren't working at the moment I do have something to inform about” Gyro said with a smile on his face, no reason to continue to make small talk, he had come over here for other things. He was also quite sure his father and the others had told him not to do any interviews or social spectacle. At least he thought so, it was a bit hard to remember as drunk as he was by now.
He trained his gaze at Blackmore.
“My dear lady I don't know if you might have seen the tall looking gentlemen I was keeping company with earlier.” She raised an eyebrow, probably not expecting him to address her directly.
“He was wearing a cowboy hat and ehh a fine animal printed shirt, he's not sitting over there right now but he was earlier this evening” he nodded over to the way he had come from at the bar where johnny was still sitting alone in his wheelchair.
“I felt I needed to talk to you because you see my dear friend has very recently suffered a quite terrible heartbreak. He thought love was but a cruel misstep that would only bring him sorrows, and he gets even more melancholy when he gets into the drinks but the moment he saw you sitting over here there was as if his whole world changed you see, when he first lay his eyes on you he lit up like the fires of love was once more invigorated within him. But he is scared my dear lady, so scared of a repeat of his horrific heartbreak that he hasn't had the courage to approach you this entire evening”
Gyro felt in the back of his head that he was probably putting on a bit more dramatics than was strictly necessary but he got so far engaged in his own story and hell he thought Tim would probably need it if he was going to be approach at all this evening. “Now that he's temporarily stepped up to our rooms I simply said to myself, I have to help him what if this is destiny, what if I'm meant to help my dear friend just as he has helped me” he reached over the table and grasped Blackmore by the shoulders. “I beg of you my dear, go talk to him! how ever sad and unapproachable he looks he truly wishes to speak to you” Blackmore looked frankly very confused at the whole speech he had given. “But I must leave you two now, I think I might have ordered another round and I very much don't want Johnny to finish it without me” he stood up and nodded to himself mostly. As he walked back to where Johnny was sitting at the bar he felt like he deserved something a bit more pricy to drink for a job well done.
___
“That was odd” was all Blackmore could think to say as the two of them looked on the man making his way back to the smaller one in a wheelchair at the bar.
“I'll say, oh look, it seems you admirer is returning as well” Mike answered, as a tall man dressed in a much more classic rider attired sat down next to the other two.
Blackmore was very confused, they hadn't expected to be propositioned in any way this evening, then again they didn't really frequented any type of bar, maybe this was part of it all. People did go to bars often to meet people and not just drink, after all that was why they were there with Mike. But no it shouldn't matter, they weren't here for any strange company and it wasn't even like they knew how to act or what to say. They were only here to observe if any of the racers might have acquired stands, that's what they were good at, noticing and observing. Mike was here to do the talking.
“I can hear you think over here you know” Mike spoke up next to them, he had returned to his bottle of foul smelling beer, ‘why did people drink it?’ Blackmore though ‘it tasted and smelled frankly awful’.
“What are is our plan of action now then?” They asked after awhile of silence.
“As it looks we are to far behind on the trail, no one here knows anything or won't say anything” Mike looked over the room. “All in all this has been a spectacular waste of time.”
“What will we tell Mr Valentine?”
“The truth, to be honest I doubted we would get any information out of this venture at all” mike sounded tired, they felt a bit bad at the prospect, after all it was understandable, Mike had done most if not all the talking this evening. Blackmore felt the urge to apologize for not being of any help at all. But they were interrupted by Mike continuing with his observations on the situation.
“So for the good news, the train we're boarding is arriving within the next twenty four hours, the bad news are that it's arriving at four in the morning so we have no use of going to bed anyway.” He puncture his speech by draining his glass. “The train will take us to the next layover where we will receive further orders” he sighed lightly at their situation before continuing.
“You should go talk to him you know” Mike nodded in the direction of the man in question that had befuddled most of Blackmore’s thoughts to why he had taken an interest in them.
“What, why? Why should I do that?” Blackmore looked over at their college.
“Why not? Can't hurt for you to practice at being a bit social. Enter the world of the common people for once” Mike looked over and noticed the quite obvious uncertainty they had written on their face.
“I'm not saying you have to, just that it's harder to embarrass oneself in front of someone who's eager to” he paused for a moment to re think his words. Probably not to say something that might upset them if Blackmore where to guess. Really Mike should know better then that, just because they were in a dress at the moment it didn't call for him to behave as if they were a real lady.
“Eager to get to know you”
“Mike I know what he's probably after” they said. “it's part of why I hesitate, a bit at least” Blackmore smiled sadly to themselves. “My admirer would probably not be as interested, if he were to get that far into undressing me” it all felt like a bad joke in that way. Looks can often deceive after all, theirs more often than others.
Mike only shrugged
“Well it's up to you after all if it gets that far, I just thought you might want company until we have to leave” Mike stood up from his chair and put his part of the payment for the drinks on the table.
“You're going somewhere?” Blackmore asked
“It's a personal matter don't worry I will be back to collect you in good time” he patted their head lightly “don't drink too much now” he ended and after that he left Blackmore alone to their own device
They spent a good amount of time just looking at the people in the room. Most of the evening had been already taken up by the same task but Blackmore took time to try and figure out what people it was that were sitting in the room now rather than just tryin to see any hint of strange behavior that could be attributable to having recently gained a stand.
There were mostly weather bitten men probably racers with the few odd locals trying to mingle in between. None were terribly interesting to be honest but with time their eyes kept on falling back to the three men at the bar. They were all the most outstanding of the crowd that went without saying, and any group where a wheelchair was involved was bound to stick out. But out of the three of them the one they were sure had to be their admirer caught their eye the most.
He was quite handsome truly and the way he seemed to talk and smile was comforting in a way Blackmore couldn't really understand. He was familiar too in a way. Why? they couldn't really put their finger on it but they had the strong feeling that they had seen his face somewhere before.
It took them a good few minutes until they gave up on trying to remember where.
They averted their eyes from the men at the bar and stared at the almost empty glass of whisky in front of them. They then quickly drained the last of it and stood up to walk over to them. Just asking who he was and what placement in the race he had couldn't hurt.
___
The evening had continued on much as Tim had expected it to do. Not much of anything had happened really it seemed after he had gone up to the room for a while. There was also no one that had come up to speak to any of them, not any of the other racers and much less anyone attractive trying to get to know them so to say. It wasn't as if he was bothered by it really. So it came to a surprising point when he heard someone clearing their throat behind his back.
“I'm sorry, is this seat taken?” Tim turned around to see the owner of the voice and came face to face with a young, very pretty looking person. They weren't short really just shorter than him which most were if he were to be honest he himself was quite tall after all. Dressed in a blue coat and matching skirt with a black umbrella in one hand, and long blond hair tied back in in a ponytail. They also had a look of awkwardness to them.
“Ah it's free alright!” Came Gyro’s voice from next to him, “in fact my own seat is free to, you can have whichever you would like”
“Gyro what are you talking about even?” Tim asked, why did he have a sinking feeling that the Italian was up to something.
“Me and Johnny here we're going to leave anyway so she can have any seat she'd like right”
“What?” And it seem that was enough to wake Johnny up from his alcohol induced nap he had been taking in his wheelchair.
“Yeah you see ehh there was this guy who wanted to buy our horses and we need to stop him Johnny, we can't win this race without horses!” Gyro just continued to scream about how it was horribly important that they leave right now and completely ignored johnny's confusion as he wheeled him out of the pub.
“Don't mind him he's, well very drunk by now I would say” Tim said to the blonde young lady.
“I understand, it's no trouble” she answered and took their seat at his side. It took but a moment for her to speak up again.
“I'm sorry, if you don't mind me asking I thought you looked awfully familiar and I'm guessing you're in the steel ball run race, I just can't seem to remember your name” she said.
“I'm not surprised really, I think there were some papers that wrote a bit about me before the race, some might have taken my picture to though I'm not sure if they used it, I did also come in fourth place at the first stretch but I doubt I was especially memorable in that one all things considered.” He answered. It took them awhile of just looking over him it seemed, her eyes were very deep blue he noticed almost gray even.
“Tim! Mountain Tim right!?” They exclaimed but fast as she did, quickly put her hand over her mouth. “Sorry, sorry I'm so~rry” she seemed to almost sing out the last syllable “I didn't mean to be so loud that was very rude of me” she went on.
Tim couldn't stop himself from laughing a bit, this person was quite adorable to if not a bit socially awkward.
“No it's fine, you're correct in fact” he smiled at them. “might I ask your name to?”
“it's Blackmore” they said
“Well that's quite a interesting mouthful not that I'm complaining it's a very beautiful mouthful that I wouldn't mind having, is that a first name or last?” Tim asked. He could see a flush creep up Blackmore’s face as he said it, it would appear that the alcohol had robbed him of any subtlety but her face was really quite the pretty thing especially when flustered.
“It's.. it's just my name sir”
“Well can I ask where you're from then?” Tim continued on, he came to think on the promise he had made to Gyro earlier in the evening. It seemed he was in luck to fulfilling it.
“Oh eh Washington originally the state that is, but I live in Philadelphia these days,” Blackmore seemed a bit more comfortable speaking about that topic “I have heard cowboys don't usually really have a true home and from what I have read about you, you're very well traveled but where did you use to live if you don't mind me asking” they said.
“Well I guess that explains the umbrella then” Tim gestured down to the black umbrella that was leaning against the bar, “haven't been up there that much myself but from what I have heard it's a bit more useful there then down here in the desert”
He looked over to the catch the bartender's attention. “And you're right about the other part, haven't owned a house or any of the like in, well it must be up to ten years now I think. And otherwise, well I was born and raised in Kansas”
“I'm just in the habit of having it around I guess, I wasn't so prepared for it to be quite so dry. I'm just always ready for the possibility” she said.
“For rain in the desert?” Tim asked with a raised eyebrow.
“It just rains very often around me” she said with a shrug.
The bartender then came to them and asked if he would like a refill.
“Another beer for me and what would you like to have?” Tim looked over at Blackmore who once again seemed flustered at his behavior.
“A whiskey?” She answered Tim nodded and put the payment for their drinks on the bar to be collected.
“So we both know what I'm doing here but I wonder what business you have here in the middle of the Arizona desert?” Tim said
“Would I need a specific reason?” Blackmore said, sounding a bit taken aback at the question.
“No it's just we are a very long way from Philadelphia and I would be very surprised to think someone as pretty as you would end up wandering into this no name town by coincidence”
Blackmore was quiet, Tim could also see that their cheeks had gotten very red at this point. the moment their glass arrived they grabbed it fast and gulped down almost half its content.
“Investigating, we are here to investigate the race” Blackmore’s voice seemed to waver a bit.
“So you're a journalist then?” Tim asked.
“Yes in a way, I mean one could say that”
“And you're here to write about the race” Tim concluded.
“Yes. it seems to be what everybody cares about these days” Blackmore turned then to look Tim in the eyes.
“And whit such interesting individuals in it who could blame them” she were smiling at him now, and hell if she had looked pretty when she was awkward or flustered that had nothing on how nice they looked when she smiled. All Tim could do was to take a deep drink of his own bottle. No staying true to his promise of acting sociable wasn't going to be hard at all.
___
“To be completely honest he was probably the most sorry excuse of a horse thief I have ever meet” Tim was well into his cups by now and to be frank his evening had been incredibly pleasant. With Blackmore probably more drunk than he was and laughing very heavily by his side.
“What happened to him then after he fell off?” she was to be able to collect themselves to ask.
“I took him to the closest doctor and then I informed the sheriff of his whereabouts, didn't even have to bring him down to the office to collect the bounty” Tim took a swig out of his bottle, what time was it even? he might have to be on his way in only few hours. if he remembered correct Gyro had wanted an early start to make up for lost time.
“Well it seems the two of you are enjoying yourself” came a new voice from outside his field of vision. Tim turned around and saw the owner of the voice, ‘what were those markings on his face? they look very strange’ he thought to himself when he saw them.
“Mike! Mike you're back!” Blackmore exclaimed it appeared they knew each other Tim concluded. “Tim this is my college Mike. O, Mi~ke this is mountain Tim” she continued.
“Ah pleasure to meet you” Mike sounded quite bored with the whole situation but perhaps he's just very tired, it was very late by now after all. “How many of those did you drink Blackmore?” Mike asked and gestured at the half full glass still in Blackmore’s hand
“Oh eh four maybe?” They answered “I'm so~rry, I know I'm not experienced in the matter of drinking” she was smiling and swaying a bit as they said it which didn't really give of the impression that she was regretting it.
Mike sighed “We need to leave now anyway if we are going to make it to the next layover in time, and I assume Mr Mountain has to be on the road in a few hours. At least tell me you can walk properly?”
"I think so” Blackmore said and promptly jumped of their chair and almost fell right over if not for Tim quickly catching them with an arm around her waist. “Sorry I'm so~rry” she said again.
"I'll help you get outside alright” Tim looked at her with what he hoped was a charming smile but could probably just as well be something stupid looking with how much alcohol he himself had imbued. She didn't seem to notice any diffrens and only smiled back at him.
“Well it's the least you can do after getting him drunk like this” Mike muttered and turned around to walk out of the pub.
Tim didn’t have much trouble getting Blackmore outside, she weighed extraordinary little he discovered quickly. Outside it was very dark, almost every house on the one street in the town had their lights out, only the still lit lights from the pub illuminated them from behind.
She looked very beautiful still on poorly lit porch Tim noticed after having put her down. He would probably miss her after this evening but it couldn't be helped, it wasn't as if there were any big chance of either of them seeing each other ever again.
“Will you be alright now?” Tim asked as he looked on her, their hair had come loose a bit and their pale face was framed with blonde strands of hair.
"He'll be fine it's not a long walk!” Mike yelled over his shoulder as he was several leagues in front of them with no clear sign of stopping.
"I'm thankful for making your acquaintance and for you to keep me company this evening, and I wish you safe travels and much luck in the race” Blackmore said with a just a light blush to their face by now.
That changed fast as Tim brought their hand up and placed a kiss on their knuckles.
"Im very happy you would spend your evening with me, and i hope your travels will be safe as well” Tim felt almost a bit smug at the face Blackmore had after his actions. And he hadn't regretted the evening at all, it proved to be a welcome distraction from his current woes of the heart. He had barely spent any time thinking at all about Lucy now that he thought on it.
Then out of nowhere he felt a hand yanking him out of his thoughts and down in a kiss. It was a quick thing only a fast touch of soft lips to his but he was confused as soon as it had ended, he had barely the time to close his eyes and get lost in the moment, it was over so quickly.
There was nothing more said as he watched Blackmore disappear a bit wobbly into the night using their umbrella as a makeshift cain. All he could do was feel happy, ‘it was the perfect ending to such an evening wasn't It’ He thought as he walked back to the room he shared with Joestar and Zeppeli.
He found them in a very drunk and ungracious pile on top of one of the beds in the room. ‘It was a bit sad though’ he thought as he laid down. Just his luck to find lovely things he couldn't have or ever see again wherever he went.
