Bad Beginnings (A RDR2 Fanfic)

Why Care

The next morning, Arthur woke up early. 5 AM, before Dutch or Hosea could get up and talk to him. He needed to head down to town to get more food and a new pen for his journal. He decided that this gig with the two men wasn't going to last forever, so he wanted to bulk up for his normal life.

When he made it back at around noon, he wasn't expecting Dutch and Hosea to raise hell, but of course they did.

"Where the hell were you?" Dutch asked as soon as Arthur appeared.

"Excuse me?"

"I told you Dutch, he was going down to the sheriff to get us in trouble," Hosea added, shrugging on his coat.

"What?" Arthur was very confused. "I was going down to the store!"

"Really? Then why did it take you half the day?!" Hosea exclaimed. Arthur has to admit, he did have a point.

"Well, it took me about an hour to walk down and back, sir," Arthur explained. "Then I had to help some lady load her groceries into her wagon for the dollar I needed to get my stuff."

Dutch sighed. "What else did you do?"

"Well, when I entered the store, sir, the clerk weren't very happy to see me so he chased me around town a bit. Then I got distracted by a dog, he was real cute, then once I finally got my stuff it was 11!"

Hosea opened his mouth to say something, then closed it again. Dutch also seemed at a loss for words. Arthur just continued running his trap.

"I don't know why you're so worried about me being gone. You made it very clear that if I yapped, y'all were gonna kill me, so why would I do that?"

This is when Dutch laughed his loud booming laugh. "You're telling us that you got distracted by a dog for 2 hours?"

"Well, when a dog's comin' at ya with a stick, ya can't say no, sir."

This caused even Hosea to crack up. "I swear, you're the goofiest kid I've ever met," Hosea laughed.

Arthur couldn't help but crack a smile, too. He went by the campfire to unpack his bag, sitting on a log they had laid down next to the flames.

Without thinking about it, he got his metal spoon that he originally got from his old house and went to chow down on some baked beans.

He heard Dutch sit down next to him. "You can heat those over the fire if you want."

"Thanks, but I don't have a pan, sir," Arthur replied, scooping into the cold beans. He hadn't had warm beans for years, saying he had a skillet at the old house, but not one now.

"You can just borrow ours!" Dutch laughed, grabbing the pan hanging up next to the fire.

Arthur smiled, before he poured his beans in there and started heating them.

"Oh my god," Arthur sighed as he began eating.

"Haven't you ever had a warm meal?" Hosea asked with a laugh.

Arthur paused, thinking about how much he wanted to tell them. He eventually went with, "Not since a year ago, sir."

"That's when you left home, I presume," Hosea guessed.

"Yessir," Arthur replied, after eating another mouthful of beans.

"Why'd you leave?" Dutch asked, cleaning his revolver.

"Well...," Arthur replied, thinking about his answer. "After my daddy was hanged, there wasn't much left for me."

There was an uncomfortable silence. "What about your mother?" Hosea finally asked.

"She died when I was real young. Pneumonia or somethin'. Real bad."

"I'm sorry to hear that, son," Dutch said, wrapping an arm around Arthur's shoulders.

Arthur ate another spoonful of his beans. "It's fine. I hardly miss my father nowadays."

Arthur suddenly lost his appetite. Despite this, Arthur finished his beans in silence.

"Well," Dutch said, breaking the silence. "We're going to the saloon. Want to come along?"

Arthur set down the pan and his spoon in the grass to rinse off later. "Sure, why not."