WOLFISH ⊳ arthur morgan x reader

Ch. VI

Your mouth was bitter and dry when you woke up, and your throat felt like an old book page. It took you a second or two to adjust to the morning light, and to the throbbing pain in your shoulder.

Oh. Not a dream.

You stretched your legs, and realized, almost fearfully, that the warmth of Lobo's fur against your back was missing.

Shit, not again.

You stood up frantically, looking around, reaching for the rifle strapped to your back until you heard a chuckle behind you.

"Oh, good. Y'made it through the night." It was a statement more than anything. And the voice belonged to none other than last night's hero but also newfound dilemma. Arthur. "How's the wound?"

He was sitting on a nearby tree trunk, and Lobo, the little traitor, was wagging his tail and enjoying a belly rub from him.

"It's better." You said plainly, tension subsiding from your shoulders. You stored the rifle away again, and reluctantly began approaching him on wobbly legs. "Though I'd take a gunshot wound over this any day."

He tilted his head and looked almost genuinely surprised. "Really?"

"Yeah." You stated, then laughed through your nose. "What's so strange about that?"

"Well, nothin', I just... it's nice if they don't shoot back for a change, I think." Arthur reached inside his satchel and retrieved a pack of cigarettes, taking one out and lighting it on fire.

"So what? They bite instead."

He took a drag from the cigarette, smoke  bursting past his lips at every word he then spoke. "Listen, unlike you, I don't go around huggin' every wolf I see."

"Seems like you go around saving people like me,though." You grinned and tilted your head a bit to be able to peek at his expression from under his hat. A sly smile tugging only on the right corner of his mouth graced his features.

"And finding their horses too." He nodded to his left, and you noticed your brown steed hitched up by a nearby tree. You wondered how distracted you must've been to not notice something as blatantly obvious as that until then."Or, what I hope is their horse."

"That is her." You confirmed, then looked back at him. "How—"

"Doesn't take a genius to find a steed in the middle of nowhere." He answered with a shrug before standing up from where he was seated, leisurely hooking his thumbs behind his belt while he walked over to the slowly dying campfire. He kicked some earth into the flames, watching them flicker before effacing into smoke. "Well, a domesticated one, that is."

You had to hold back a small, sad smile as the memories of a seventeen year old version of yourself flashed before your eyes, lasso clutched tightly in one hand as you ran after horses. The good old days, when your aunt hadn't fallen sick yet, and you had been living in blissful unawareness. Of course, you'd been poor even back then, but also foolish enough to believe that catching wild horses, and then domesticating and selling them would be a lucrative business.

"Don't worry, wild horses aren't exactly what one would call masters at hiding in plain sight." You smirked and picked up the piece of material you'd used as a makeshift bed the night before. Slowly ambling towards Arthur's horse, you folded it, then stuffed it back into one of the saddlebags.

When you turned around, you found him leaning against a tree, rolling up the blanket he had slept on.

"I take it you haven't heard of the white arabian up in West Grizzlies, then?" He asked, and you failed to tell wether he was mocking you or genuinely asking.

You frowned. "...no?" You said reluctantly, stepping away from his horse and towards him. "Should I have?"

"Reckon not. Lessens the competition." Arthur answered, punctuating his sentence with a dismissive shrug before he walked to his horse and tied the blanket to its saddle.

"Hold on, now. You're trying to catch a wild horse? Up in the mountains?" If it wasn't for his sternness and all around demeanor of little to nothing but seriousness, you'd taken it as a joke. A horse? In the middle of goddamn nowhere?

"Didn't believe it either until I saw tracks. Rumor has it it's a white Arabian. And that it hates people even more than I do."

You chuckled and crouched down to Lobo's level, scratching the dog behind his ears before looking back up at Arthur, who had been watching you intently. "So you're part of the rumor, or what?"

"Will be, if I catch it."

That got you thinking. A white Arabian? Those could well be worth a few hundred! You could put your above average horse taming skills to use, benefit from Arthur's extra pair of hands at that too, and then ask for half the profit. This could turn out more than beneficial, if you played your part well.

"You considered asking for help?"

"Why, you considered offerin' it?" He shot back, untying his horse from the tree. Gripping its reins in his hand, he turned towards you, and watched you intently for any reaction.

"I mean...not to brag, or anything of the sort, but I used to catch wild horses for a living." You stopped for a second, interrupted by Arthur laughing through his nose. "What?"

"Figures why you're so filthy rich." He sighed, then shook his head.

"It's not like I knew any better! Besides, it was kind of the only thing I was good at when I was nothing more than a kid." You retorted, almost annoyed at the fact that you felt strangely...embarrassed. Shame and guilt were little somethings you often avoided partaking in, mainly because you found that, at the end of the day, it didn't matter that much what people thought of you. And yet, when faced with a man you'd met less than 48 hours ago—

"Alright, calm down. If your wound's feelin' better, then yeah, sure, I could use an extra pair of hands."

"Sounds like a deal, mister Callahan."

[Sorry for taking so long! I'm just not exactly used to uploading the chapters of a fanfic as I'm writing them (I usually write it all out first and post it within a few days, usually a chapter per day) so everything feels a little unusual to me, if that makes sense? Also I want to apologize for these first few chapters being so slow, I want to make the buildup between Arthur and his love interest as natural as I can, similarly to how I did in some of my other, longer DBH-centric works. Sorry for boring you, and thank you kindly for being so patient with me♥️]