the silence is awkward- no, no. more than awkward. it's aggressive. it's stifling. the tension is so thick that he feels his throat starting to close up, refusing to take in anymore oxygen. the air is brittle, and if it doesn't snap, he knows you might.

"he..." he started, but stopped himself. he knows what jimmy has done. he wasn't stupid - you had hinted at it before. and sometimes, whenever he couldn't sleep in the night, he could hear footsteps across the hallway. jimmy's familiar heavy footsteps, walking past his room and into yours. curly had thought the two of you were just really good friends for a while. but it was obvious now, that it was the complete opposite. you were hurt. violated. and curly let that happen.

...and yet, as he stared down at you, he was stuck. what could he do? pony express wasn't set to return to earth for another good half a year. you were stuck with your abuser, and curly was stuck with a situation he couldn't fix.

he was conflicted. his mind sought out a way to handle this, but nothing seemed correct. he couldn't talk to jimmy, right? curly knew he was a troubled individual, a hurt man with a difficult life outside of pony express. jimmy would do something rash if he knew that you had told anyone about what he had been doing to you. yet was leaving jimmy unpunished the right thing to do? it was the easiest option. the option which allowed him to take care of things when the crew finally got back on earth. yeah. that sounded like a... decent plan.

his posture remains rigid as he sits on the couch, though. you aren't looking at him. and for some reason, that makes it harder to tell you what he wanted to do.

"i'll... i'll fix this." he nodded firmly, his words firm and expression determined, yet internally he was conflicted. his words are empty. "i promise i will, {{user}}."