WANTED // Sapnap X Reader

19

The entire walk home, one word echoed around your head. Thief.

Why would he do something like that? In the time you had known him, he had never seemed like the type of person to steal anything - much less large sums of money from local banks. For Christ's sake, he laughed at bad puns. If anyone was going to be a wanted criminal, Nick was the last person you would have picked. 

You couldn't help but wonder if it had all been a front, to get you to trust him. 

You barely heard the creak of the wooden steps as you stepped up onto the porch of the saloon, heading straight to the door and slipping inside. Your eyes adjusted to the slightly dimmer light of the indoors to see that Perkins wasn't behind the bar anymore - he was probably out back, tending to the few horses he kept. Anne was still there though, cleaning up after breakfast as she finished off her cigarette. 

You set the eggs down on the bar in front of her. "Here."

Anne looked at the carton, picking it up. "Thanks darlin'." She said, grinning at you. "How much did he charge you?"

"Nothing." You said, hating how your voice clipped at the end of the word. 

Anne set the eggs into the icebox before turning back to you, her brow drawn. "What's wrong? You seemed so chipper when you left." She came back to rest her elbows on the bar, peering at you curiously, like a good once over would tell her everything that was making you upset. "You pass Janet's house on the way there, don't ya? She didn' say something, did she?"

"No, I just..." You stopped, a lump suddenly forming in your throat. Saying it aloud would make it real - not that it wasn't already painfully real, but you if you didn't say anything now, you could live in this little pocket of safety for a while more. 

"I never liked Janet." Anne continued on. "She was always too nosy for her own good - and look where it got her. Four kids and a husband that works in the mines. She almost married a banker, you know..."

Until reality would come knock down the door. 

"You were right." You blurted out.

Anne raised an eyebrow, puzzled for a moment. "What, about Janet?"

"No." You said, still working around the lump in your throat. "About Sapnap, when we first brought him in." You paused to take a breath. "There's a wanted poster in town."

Anne's eyes widened as she put two and two together, gaze drifting towards the ceiling, like she could see up through the floor and into the attic room. For someone that had been so sure that Nick was the thief the whole time, she seemed rather taken aback. Perhaps she too had gotten attached to the presence upstairs. 

Not quite like you had though. 

"You're sure?" Anne asked, voice dropping slightly, searching your eyes with her own. 

You nodded. "There was a picture of him on it... I think his family might have turned him in. I can't imagine anyone else would have had a photo-"

"There's no way anyone would know he's here though, right?" Anne asked, cutting you off. "I don't want Pa getting into anything for this, not when we were the ones-"

"I know." You said. You really did - if Perkins (or Anne) got into any trouble for this, when you had been the one to drag Nick into the house on your own morality, you would feel even worse than you did now. They had done nothing but help and care for this man, not knowing who he was. Whatever trouble would come of this, they didn't deserve it. "I don't think anyone knows - unless they've seen him in the windows upstairs."

Anne nodded, her gaze falling to the polished bar she was leaning on. For a moment, the saloon was silent, until Anne spoke again. "What do we do?" She asked, voice quiet.

"I don't know." You said, equally as quiet. What did you do? Turning him in would kill you, but if he stayed and Anne and Perkins ended up getting in trouble for it, you would feel awful as well. If only you had been more skeptical when you had first found him behind the saloon - but how could you have been, when he had looked so scared and hurt? 

What could you do now, that the inevitable would come? Silently cursing your good intentions, you leaned against the bar, holding your head in your hands. All the possible endings seemed dire - turn Nick in to the authorities and know that you had been the one to put him behind bars, let him stay but have to face the possibility of all of you serving time (you hadn't meant to shelter a criminal, but you had) or kick Nick out now, to fend for himself when his ankle wasn't fully healed yet. 

"I think you have to talk to him."

Anne's quiet words broke you out of your thoughts, and you picked your head up out of your hands, looking at her across the bar. She looked just as conflicted as you did - if not more. "You have to talk to him." She repeated. "And I have to talk to Pa."

"Are you sure?" You asked. 

"What else can we do?" Anne said, pushing off the bar. Suddenly, she seemed so much more tired than she had a moment ago. "I'll explain it to him, and hopefully you can get Nick to... I don't know, at least stay put until we figure out how we're going to handle this." 

"Okay." You said. "Right." You were glad that you talked to Anne - at least now, there was some sort of tentative plan about what happened next. 

You were less happy that you were going to have to talk to Nick. A flux of emotions swirled in you - distrust, anger, sadness, fear. 

What were you even going to say to him?