Mud and Gold [Arthur Morgan] [RDR2]

➵ chapter ix

The cold night breeze seeped through the tent's fabric with ease, much to Arthur's displeasure.

Not quite sure of how long had it been since they'd gone to sleep, Arthur remained awake, albeit not willingly—the need to be alert at all times kept him awake. As a result, he got to see (y/n) shuddering constantly merely a few feet in front of him. With her back turned to him, he could only see his coat she wore, and part of her hair, sprawled flawlessly around her head. A blanket covered her waist and legs, but it didn't seem to be enough to keep the cold at bay.

Arthur clutched his own blanket closer to him, a small frown forming on his face. Watching (y/n) shivering so much made him worry—the last thing he needed was her getting sick. Not only that, but he knew that no one would ever fall asleep trembling like that. He could hear her teeth chattering from his spot, which only worsened his worried state.

To his mind came back memories from earlier; when she went to get that blanket for him to keep him from freezing by the campfire. He smiled at the memory.

Due to this, he didn't last long before he found himself reaching a hand up to grab her shoulder gently, which caused her to jump up slightly. She hadn't expected him to be awake, he presumed. He felt her body shivering yet again as she slowly turned, enough so she could glance at him, although it was quite dark in the tent.

Arthur could feel her gaze on him despite the darkness all around. "You cold?" He knew it was a dumb question to ask, but forgot about it when he saw her head nodding. "Come 'ere," he mumbled, lifting his blanket up a little, and beckoning her to get closer.

It didn't take her long to move; before Arthur could even register it, she had quickly moved to his makeshift bed, and lied right in front of him. He softly placed the blanket down, wrapping it around the both of them as best as he could. He then embraced her, gently, pressing her back to his chest lightly; he couldn't help but think about it, how it felt so right to hold her this way.

Their body warmth increased relatively quickly. Almost immediately after, (y/n) stopped shivering, causing a proud grin to tug at his lips.

She snuggled closer to him, her petite hands grabbed his in the process. "Thank you," she thanked him, her voice quiet.

Arthur couldn't hold the urge to nuzzle his face against her hair, and shoulder. He hummed in response, closing his eyes. Even if he wanted to give her a proper answer, he knew he wouldn't be able to. The mere fact that she hadn't hesitated to move to his bed, and allowed him to embrace her like that, had numbed his senses, clouded his thoughts—holding her in his arms turned out to be the greatest feeling he'd even gotten to feel in a while.

She had such an effect on him, left him almost breathless when things like this happened, but he no longer cared. Arthur was more than content with his current situation, and wouldn't trade it for anything else.

Lulled by her steady breathing, he fell into a deep slumber.

- ━━━━━━ ↼♔⇀ ━━━━━━ -

Quiet humming awoke him from his peaceful sleep.

Arthur fluttered his eyes open, met the sight of the tent's ceiling first. For a moment, he wondered what had awoken him, until a soft hummed tune interrupted his thoughts; he lazily turned his head to the side, instinctively followed the sound of the soft tune. He stared at the tent's closed flaps, his eyebrows raising slightly as he quickly recognized the song.

His mind wandered back to the day he and Dutch talked to (y/n), a day after she had been rescued from the O'Driscoll camp. When he woke up that morning, it had been to this same humming, soft and sleep-luring, that she hummed quietly to herself whilst writing on her journal.