#i am Incapable of writing under 1000 words lmao

[little-bi-kingtrashmouth]

10 & 34 for the two part prompt! Whatever characters you want ☺️

10. After a near death experience & 34. “It’s 2am go back to sleep,”  thank you for this!! wrote about kenneth and arthur for this one😌

The room in Van Horn smelled damp and the stench of fish wafted through the window. Arthur would have preferred to not sleep here for the night but after the whole mess outside of Butcher Creek, those trees crawling with the Murfee Brood? It was safer in this musty room for a few hours. A ship horn gave a low bellow in the distance and he heard a dog bark on the street. There was less shouting in the air and he was thankful for it, the fighting at the saloon seemed to have ended. Plenty of people here were drunks and awake all hours of the night but it was finally late enough there was some peace. 

There was a shatter of a bottle outside and Arthur was embarrassed he jumped. He clenched his hand around his pencil and lifted it up from the current sketch he was working on. 

Arthur looked down at Kenneth who was sleeping on his side, curled up almost into Arthur’s hip. The lantern light was low and gave a glow to his hair, and the finer details of his face were in the shadow of Arthur’s side. He seemed unphased by the sound outside and Arthur was thankful, after all they’d been through tonight Kenneth just needed to rest. 

Arthur turned back to his sketch and added the scratches that were scabbing over on Kenneth’s cheek, face cut by branches as he’d fallen into a pit and struggled to climb out. It had been horrifying, the second the road seemed to explode in front of them, crowing and hollering from the trees and their horses bucked them immediately. Arthur’s ears were ringing as he saw Kenneth get up and run into the trees, either running from the Murfees or at them and his heart stopped when Kenneth fell into the ground. Arthur had rolled to the other side of the road and stuck to a tree for cover, trapped by three in the road. They shouted at the others to chase after Kenneth and Arthur swore. He did his best shooting with only his revolver, his rifle and repeater still on his horse who was running the other way on the road. By the time he was running into the trees to follow Kenneth he saw three other Murfees circling the pit Kenneth was struggling to get out of, they had been teasing and sneering down at the young man he could hear spitting swears and threats. 

The flash from the explosion made it harder to see in the dimming evening light and the thick tree cover made it even harder. He shot at one, or at least hoped he had in order to give Kenneth a fighting chance. He could just hear shouting and swearing and the Murfees laughing like this was the most fun they could have tonight. 

Arthur had kept running to them, saw Kenneth pinned to the ground by one of the Murfees fighting him off and snarling up at the man. A second stood by laughing and Arthur shot him down. It startled the Murfee trying to cut into Kenneth enough that he sat up and Kenneth flipped them, pulled his knife and stabbed the man, over and over. 

Kenneth had been shaking and had such a wild look in his eyes, one of which was most likely to bruise, Arthur hadn’t seen it but he was sure he’d been hit. His face was scratched up and bleeding just a bit and his side was covered in mud. 

They had rode hard and fast out of there after they called their horses back and just ended up here, in need of a bath and a roof over their heads for the night.

Arthur looked down again when he heard a sharp inhale. Kenneth’s eyes fluttered open and he sat up quickly and winced at the movement, looking around the room as if he wasn’t sure where he was. 

“Hey now,” Arthur put his journal aside and hovered a hand behind Kenneth, wanting to touch his back but not wanting to startle him. “You’re alright,” he soothed and Kenneth looked at him, brown eyes wide and Arthur could just make out the start of the bruise around the left. 

Kenneth let out a heavy sigh and his shoulders dropped, relaxing and bringing his hands up to his face. 

“Shit,” Kenneth whispered and Arthur almost laughed. If the last few hours could be summed up with anything, it would be a soft and defeated ‘shit’ in a dingy hotel room. 

“Y’okay?” Arthur finally let his hand touch Kenneth’s back and he could feel the young man’s heart thundering in his ribs. 

Kenneth nodded and dropped his hands into his lap, staring ahead to the dwindling fire of the fireplace. 

“Just, felt like I was getting grabbed again.” Kenneth mumbled and wrapped his arms around himself, bringing his knees up to his chest. “That was, that scared the shit out of me Arthur.” He added quietly, as if he was ashamed of it. 

“Scared me, you falling like that. Explosion too, we’re lucky the horses made it out alive.” 

Kenneth nodded, “I don’t know what I’d do if I lost Eudora, I,” 

“She’s alright though, you are too.” He rubbed a gentle circle on Kenneth’s upper back and watched him breathe slowly, trying to calm himself. “Bruised up but you’re fine, always are.” Arthur grinned and Kenneth smiled, maybe even flushed a little if Arthur was seeing right. Kenneth slumped into Arthur’s side and Arthur easily put his arm around him, resting his cheek on the top of Kenneth’s head. 

They sat in silence for a while before Arthur glanced at the small clock on the bedside table. 

“C’mon, it’s 2am, go back to sleep.” Arthur sighed, rubbing his hand up and down Kenneth’s upper arm. 

Kenneth nodded and felt at his cheek again, the scratches were just that and there was no fear of scaring or anything too severe. Even still, Arthur was sure that the feeling of scratching up his face to clamber out of a trap was enough to shake Kenneth severely. 

“You too,” Kenneth nudged Arthur with his shoulder and Arthur huffed. “Serious, you need sleep too old man.” Kenneth grinned and Arthur scoffed but smiled. Kenneth settled back down, curled onto his side facing Arthur and watched as the man closed up his journal and safely tucked it into his satchel. 

“Hold me?” Kenneth whispered and Arthur nodded, opening his arms to hold the other man to his chest. Both of them sore and just barely comfortable in such a shamble of a room but safe and alive. And for now that was enough. 

#my writing #oc: kenneth shaw #rdr2 #arthur morgan #drabble #long post #i am Incapable of writing under 1000 words lmao #rdo oc #rdr2 oc #thank you for sending this i had fun!!!