Playing Dangerous ↠ ||RDR2 // Arthur Morgan X Reader||

epilogue; part two

A/N: Almost reaching the end now – the next part will be the final instalment of this book.

I am super stoked to start writing Gods and Monsters, although I have to finalise the story's plan before I do anything... oops.

Anyway, pleased enjoy this fluffiness!

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Shady Belle and all it's elations and troubles soon became a memory lingering in the back of everyone's minds once the gang reached their new prosperous plains at California.

Admittedly, the first few weeks when you had all rocked up there were a nightmare; the plot of ranch land was run down – a baron, sandy wasteland with decrepit old outbuildings that needed pulling down and building from scratch. It was in need of a lot more work than everyone had thought.

So you were all crammed into the old farmhouse for weeks – and seeing as it was approaching the beginning of fall, it could become rather chill sometimes at night with the smashed windows and draughty big cracks exposing you all to the outside elements – whatever that may've been.

Immediately it became clear some serious money had to be pulled in – the money collected from before was enough to secure materials for the various barns, stables and machinery needed – but even more cash was then required for livestock, and proper lodgings for everyone in the gang. For some time you felt utterly enraged that things appeared to be going back to the way they were – Dutch having the boys risk their necks on stupid jobs to get enough money in.

Those 6 months through the fall and the depth of winter were the worst you had felt since coming back to the gang. Yourself and Arthur's marriage had been fine before all this, but in the bitter jaws of a ruthless winter, crammed into a house with other frustrated and exhausted people – the seams in your previously idyllic marriage began to fray.

The pair of you fought a lot. Screaming and shouting, storming out of rooms and slamming doors. However, you could not help it, you were so pissed off with this whole set up. This new life was promised to be a new one, one that glimmered and gleamed with opulence. Right now it seemed to be bleak – you often wondered whether this was right, and spent many nights' sleeping alone after another row with your husband.

In these disconcerting times, Hosea offered the best counsel possible. Without him, you were sure you would've almost been at breaking point. The wise older man was so good at making you think about all the toils you had been through already just to be here – to be married to Arthur. He reminded you of the feelings you two had shared, making you recollect how you had been feeling when you were without each other. It helped you see clearly, calm the flaming fire in your gut that burned brightly every so often when Arthur sided with Dutch time and time again. You learned to cool off, withdraw and give both yourself and Arthur time.

This was no easy task or a quick fix – there were days where yourself and Arthur barely even spoke, but to you – that was better than spending all those nights hating each other's very existences'.

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By at the end of the 6 month struggle, around February time – things picked up.

Enough work and funds had been put into the gang's growing ranch to be able to set up lodgings across the acres. The members of the gang not tied to a significant other had began to set work on making the farmhouse a more habitable environment – whilst yourself and Arthur, John, Abigail and Jack – as well as Dutch and Molly – all got a lodge built for yourselves. It meant that for the first time in what seemed like forever, you finally had some privacy once again with your husband.