Red Dead Redemption II Preferences and Oneshots 2

Hosea Matthews: Earn Your Keep

Hosea Matthews & Child Female Reader

Summary:  You've been with the gang for a while, quickly coming to see Hosea as a father figure. Wanting to earn your keep, you try to go hunting but end up getting hurt. You are about 8 years old.

Word Count: 2500

Hosea dished some stew into a bowl before handing it to you. "Here you go, kid" he smiled, patting your shoulder as you took the bowl from him.

"Thanks, Hosea" you smiled up at him.

"There's some bread by Pearson's wagon, go grab yourself some" Hosea told you as he started to get his own bowl.

"Will do" you nodded with a smile before walking away.

You grabbed some break, just like Hosea told you too, before you spotted Jack sitting at one of the tables with his own food. You decided to go and sit with him while you are.

"Hey Jack" you smiled as sat down beside him.

"Hey Y/n" Jack smiled back up at you, clearly happy to have some company. Jack was about four years younger than you but since you were the only kids in the camp, you still get along just fine. You broke your bread in half, handing him one half of it. "Thanks" he beamed.

You had barely even started eating before somebody else joined you at the table, sitting down opposite you both.

"Well look at that, the youngest members of the Van der Linde gang" Micah mocked, his usual smirk on his face. Your gaze instantly dropped to your food, just hoping he would go away. Jack looked to you before copying your actions, keeping his head down.

"Hello, Mr Bell" you spoke quietly. Micah had always made you uncomfortable, as he did with a lot of people in the camp. He seemed to enjoy scaring you and Jack.

"I bet you think yourselves quite the pair of little outlaws, don't ya?" Micah asked, obviously making fun of you both. Did he not have anything better to do than pick on children?

"No sir" you shook your head.

"'No sir' is right. Little Marston may be a little young but you're twice his age, should start pulling your weight around here. Y'know, earning your keep. Eating all our food but not actually contributing, dunno why Dutch keeps ya around" Micah scoffs and this time you didn't say anything at all. "That's what I thought" he chuckles before standing up and walking away, making sure to grab your chunk of bread first.

"He's a bully" Jack huffed.

"He is" you nodded in agreement.

"Here you go, you can have mine" Jack smiled sweetly as he held his half of the bread out to you.

"It's okay, you can keep it" you assured him. Jack just frowned before breaking the bread into two smaller halves and placing one half in front of you. "Thank you Jack" you smiled, earning a smile back.

Maybe Micah was right? You didn't really do anything to help the gang and you were getting older now, maybe you should start helping out? Yeah! That's what you would do. You would actually bring some food back to the camp instead of just eating it, just like Micah said!

-----

After some thinking you decided that you would go hunting. You know that Charles and Arthur do it a lot and everyone thanks them when they bring back their game. Hosea had even taken you out hunting with him one, teaching you the basic, so you kind of knew what you were doing.

So, you grabbed some spare equipment before sneaking out of the camp one day when Hosea was in town. Well, you didn't really need to sneak out. You literally just walked out of the camp and nobody saw you.