485: Mountain - TM7 - Nathan/Josiah - Nathan's Beast

[katleept.livejournal.com]

Title: Nathan's Beast
Author: Kat Lee
Fandom: The Magnificent Seven
Character/Pairing: Nathan/Josiah
Rating: PG/K+
Challenge/Prompt: slashthedrabble 485: Mountain
Warning(s): None
Word Count: 500
Date Written: 21 April 2018
Summary:
Disclaimer: All characters within belong to their rightful owners, not the author, and are used without permission.






Nathan watched the townsfolk milling about their normal lives. It had taken years, but they had finally come to value them, Josiah both for his skills in the pulpit and with a gun and himself mainly for his healing abilities, but they still didn’t understand them. He knew they gossiped constantly about them and understood well the looks they received as women whispered behind their gloved hands while peering up at the church where they were again toiling in the hot, desert sun.

The church constantly needed work. It seemed as though as soon as they patched one hole in the roof or finished one project, either another hole or another project, or both, appeared, needing their attention. It called for hours spent alone both here on the roof and inside the church itself. Their work was never finished; he’d long ago given up hope that it ever would be.

They had an excuse now to spend countless hours together, hours which the other five men in their team and makeshift family never questioned. Indeed, most of them ran as fast as they could in the opposite direction. Sure, they’d patch a fence for Miz Nettie in a heartbeat, but spend hours working in a dusty, old church? Not if they could help it. Perhaps he could have bought their assistance with a couple of freshly baked apple pies, but he preferred the work just be left to Josiah and himself.

He preferred the time they had here to be their own. They weren’t ready to tell the townsfolk what they truly did most nights both here and down below, or even their most trusted allies, and although folks guessed at how they spent their time in secret, guessing and knowing were two different things. Nathan had seen what happened many times in the past when rumors were proved true. Heck, he’d been ran out of more than one town when that happened, and that was only when he’d been working on folks in secret.

No, if they ever found out what he and Josiah did, there truly would be no rest for the supposedly wicked. The other five might be able to understand, as Rain had when he’d called their engagement to an end, but accepting was a horse of a different color. Even Rain understood what he’d meant when he had told her but had been unable to understand what he saw in the man stretched out in the blazing sun beside him.

“Not so sure it’s a good idea for you to be up here yet, sweetheart,” Josiah’s deep voice rumbled. Nathan loved the sound of that voice, and he loved the mountain of a man who owned it. Looking over, he watched as Josiah’s huge frame gently cuddled the tiny kitten they’d rescued last week and felt love swell inside of him. Rather or not the world understood, it was obvious to him. How could anyone not fall in love with such a handsome, gentle beast?


The End