Husband can be a strange sort of scary at times.

He always tries to be friendly. He always tries to have a smile to show, a kind word to say, a joke to tell. But he can keep smiling even when threatened. Even when fighting. Even when angry. There are times he loses that smile. But he can make people nervous when he keeps it.

The bar we stopped at in a town in Nevada had many strangers in it. Though of course we were the strangers. Which meant that when one of the men approached me with interest, and Husband, while smiling, tried to persuade him to leave me alone, the others in the bar only saw a stranger accosting one of their own.

Husband smiled as the man punched him, and kept smiling as he threw the man to the floor. He smiled as others grabbed him and he shoved them across the room. When a man hit him with a chair, he smiled as he grabbed the man and threw him through a table. He was a smile at the heart of a storm.

And when the bartender brought a gun from behind the bar, Husband switched to Paladin and raised the point of his sword to the bartender's face. And smiled. I am not sure whether the sword or the smile frightened the bartender more.

When we left the bar, I said to him, "You did not leave any for me to fight."

"Sorry, my love. Should we go find an all-girl bar you can defend my honor at?"

I glared at him.

He smiled.