Red Dead Redemption II Preferences and Oneshots

Micah Bell: Lessons in Love

You had never taught anyone to read before but you would give it your best shot. You sat beside him on his cot and handed him some pieces of paper. 

"What's this? Why didn't you bring a book or something?" Micah asked, holding the papers up with a confused expression on his face. 

"When Hosea taught me how to read he gave me papers like this. He said that books could be a little strange to read so these were like...starting with something simple" you explained. You had written some letter combinations, words, and sentences on the paper. Each one getting increasingly more difficult.

"Right, sure" he nodded, as he glanced through the papers quickly. 

"Alright...so, erm...do you want to just read through them and stop when you have a problem?" you asked with a small smile. The last thing you wanted to do was treat him like an idiot because you knew that he wasn't one. 

Micah just nodded but didn't say anything as he looked at the paper and you realised that he was reading in his head. "Er, Micah? Could you read out loud? J-Just so I can hear if-" you started but he cut you off.

"Yeah, yeah. Just so you can hear if I fuck up" Micah rolled his eyes, obviously trying to cover up the embarrassment that he was feeling.

"I wasn't going to say 'fuck up'...just if you needed any help" you smiled, he just glanced at you before beginning to read it out loud.

Micah got through the first few sentences fine, not making any mistake but when the words and the sentences became a little more complicated, he started to struggle. You told him to break longer words up into easier parts and all the other little tricks you had been taught. 

It wasn't long before you could tell that he was getting frustrated, getting angry at himself. "Hey, that's enough" you smiled, placing your hand on his as you pulled the papers away. "You're frustrated and you aren't going to learn like that. Keep the paper, keep practising but only when you can focus. If you get frustrated, put them down, walk away, and go back to them later" you told him, placing the papers on the cot and taking your hand off of his. "When you want more help, come find me" you smiled at him as you stood up and walked out of his tent. You would say that your first lesson went well. 

Micah couldn't believe that you actually wanted to help him. He liked that you didn't treat him like a child or an idiot, you were so god damn nice.

-----

After a few more lessons, Micah slowly got less hostile towards you and fully accepted your help, and his reading skills were coming along well. You had even grown fond of your time with Micah. He definitely wasn't stupid. The others in camp had described him as ignorant but you knew that it just wasn't true. He learnt fast and you could see that he was actually very clever, more clever than people give him credit for. 

Micah had also grown found of your time together as well. He was constantly amazed by your patience with him. He knew that he could be difficult, his temper was short and he tended to have outbursts when he became frustrated. He had snapped at you multiple times, he had made you flinch, he scared you but you remained patient and didn't give up on him. Eventually he stopped snapping at you, not wanting to scare you off when all you wanted to do was help. What really made him warm up to you was your kindness, he swears that you didn't have a mean bone in your body. 

Micah's reading skills had got much better and you thought that you would change up the next lesson. You were supposed to meet Micah in his tent and that's exactly what you did. "Hey, here" you smiled, holding a book out to him. 

"You're actually giving me a book today?" Micah asked, raising an eyebrow as he took the book from you.

"It's one of my favourites, I thought that you might like it. You don't have to read it now or anything" you shook your head, looking down at your feet.