Things I Love: #10 - Chris Larabee (The Magnificent Seven)
Well, I did Vin, I could hardly leave out Chris, could I? Vin is only my favourite by a very very narrow margin. These two are quite honestly my OTP of OTPs and it's almost impossible for me to think of one without the other, or to choose one over the other. It's not Chris and Vin, it's Chris/Vin all the way for me.
But anyway, we're talking about Chris, so let's talk about Chris. He's another one of those billowing black coat of manpain characters. And damn, he's sexy with it. He has the smirk, the cocky confidence, the squishy vulnerable inner core, the deathwish, the lot.
And Chris is so...oh, Chris, what I love most about Chris is how wrong he is about himself, how utterly wrong in every way. He calls himself 'the bad element' and he couldn't put further from it if he tried. He's the kind of guy who will throw himself in front of runaway horses to save a little boy, who will risk his life to help prostitutes and old ladies and widows. He considers himself wild and dangerous and rootless - and yet this is a man who longs to put down roots again, to build himself a family and a home and a life again. But he's so wounded and damaged that he will not, absolutely will not allow himself to love. He pushes away anyone who tries to get close to him - and it's only because Vin and Buck and the others just will not let him.
Picture this, Vin, after having known Chris for all of what feels like five minutes, quite merrily confesses to Chris that he has a price on his head and he's worth $500, dead or alive. What does Chris do? Our big bad dangerous gunslinger? He ducks his head and grins and gets all bashful, simply because Vin smiles at him and calls him 'friend'.
Bad element, my arse. Big soft squishie, more like.