#sorry fatdink

[strrwbrrryjam]

a link back to this post and inspired by @fatdink's tags

...Dutch sighs, resigned, listening to the waterfall behind him, as he hears the echoes of light footsteps on metals bouncing off the walls of the sewers.

He knows it is Hosea behind him, coming to argue, coming to berate him, he's not too sure.

He sighs again, before he starts to speak, hoping to get some words in before Hosea starts his tirade.

"Trelawny's right," He starts, "These lawmen aren't going to quit until they hang me. I shouldn't have lied to your face. I shouldn't have fallen off the wagon and secretly started to steal again on the sly. I shouldn't have pushed these lawmen so far, trying to embarrass them and mess with their heads. It was thrilling, yes, but I shouldn't have done it --- and now there is only one way out, maybe if I were to hand me over to them, let them imprison me, walk me to the gallows and kill me,"

Hosea interrupts, "You will do no such thing," His tone is detached, not revealing the emotions Hosea is burying inside.

Dutch turns to Hosea, his expression forlorn as he continues, "Dear, maybe they'll let everyone live,"

Hosea's face betrays the emotions he feels as his expression turns from rage to resigned sadness, as he speaks, his tone frustrated, "Oh, why'd you get us into this, Dutch?"

Dutch searches the ground, seemingly looking for an answer to Hosea's question, before his eyes jump back to Hosea's face, "I don't know," He answers Hosea, dejectedly, before continuing, "But I have a possible theory," He turns, away from Hosea, gazing at the wall opposite the waterfall, staring at the ground as if it hurts himself to even be near Hosea, "I think I have this thing where I need everybody to think I'm the greatest, the quote-unquote fantastic Mr Van Der Linde," He gestures to the air left of him, as if his name was written there, "and if they aren't completely knocked- out, dazzled, and kind of intimidated by me," He looks back to Hosea as he admits, wistfully, "then I don't feel good about myself." He finishes, gesturing to himself.

He turns back to Hosea, sour, at the world, at Hosea, at himself, he's not too sure anymore, "Humans traditionally like to tempt fate, flatten the weak and outsmart the strong, and at the end of the day, I'm just-"

"We're wild animals," Hosea finishes for him, his facial expression matching Dutch's.

Dutch chuckles, dryly, "I guess we always were," he replies, before walking towards Hosea as he speaks, "I promise you, if I had all this to do over again, I'd have never let you down." He stops, till he's face to face with Hosea, gazing into his sad eyes that have been tearing up steadily this whole conversation, "It was always more fun when we did it together, anyway."

Dutch shares a kiss with Hosea, his left hand cradling his cheek, after he rests his chin on Hosea's collarbone, wrapping his arm around his chest as he carries on, "I love you, Hosea," he tells him, softly.

"I love you too," Hosea replies, whispering in his ear, after which he detaches himself from Dutch to look him in the eyes as he says, "But I never should have married you,"

Dutch's expression is one of resigned despair as he turns from Hosea, the sound of his dejected footsteps echoing as he walks away from Hosea...

its i what like to call the fantastic mr van der linde au, or what i like to think might have happened if micah didn't join the gang

side note, when i made the original post i had thought john to be ash because honestly, when i think of a younger john i think of ash, especially with the introduction of kristofferson in the movie. but I've recently learned that kristofferson is younger than ash, so if i were to actually write more, arthur would obviously be older than john.

i haven't exactly workshopped the idea of why arthur would end up with hosea n dutch, at least, i think i haven't, all I've came up with right now is that arthurs pa was hanged for his crimes n arthur was put into the system where hosea n dutch were the ones to take him in

if you can't tell there is an au where they did settle down n start to live normal lives, but you know dutch, i think out of all the characters in rdr2 he would be one of the most to not want to settle down, not want to be known as some working man and not the most wanted man in america, i think, out of all of them, he would be the one to fall off of the wagon n get them all into trouble again.

and i made trelawny the badger, because for me it just makes sense that it would be trelawny.

and while i havent worked in all the characters, micah is definitely the black rat, although, he's more obvious with his intentions than he is in the game n never joins the gang, as he didn't really get a chance to since they've settled down.

charles is agnes for many reasons, most of them entirely self indulgent, i am mainly a charthur shipper, i like charles so much n i thirst for john n charles friendship. but also for the little we get of her, we know that shes is reserved, shes smart n shes loyal.

im not entirely sure who would be kylie (the opossum), i think my main choices for him was either susan, uncle, sean or lenny, but i haven't decided because there are reasons why each of them would work, but there are also ideas why they wouldn't, i think my favourite of the four is uncle.

i havent exactly got everything sorted so far but i know most of what i would like for this au.

#i know i posted this before. but i accidentally deleted it. #im so glad that i created an ao3 work of all my stuff cause i actually really like this. #sorry fatdink #rdr2 #red dead redemption 2 #rdr2 dutch van der linde #dutch van der linde #rdr2 hosea matthews #hosea matthews #rdr2 josiah trelawny #josiah trelawny #rdr2 charles smith #charles smith #rdr2 john marston #john marston #rdr2 arthur morgan #arthur morgan #rdr2 vandermatthews #vandermatthews #rdr2 charthur #charthur #strawberry speaks #strawberry writes