@yoursmary said: what a mess we’re making of things. red dead redemption 2 sentence starters , accepting.
“you mean - my mess, that by extension, you’re now a part of,” is gentle, but he means it, glancing from the ground up at mary. he’s always tried to keep his affairs with the gang separate from mary, at least a layer of division between them, but at some point the gang had started to consume him entirely. is there even an arthur morgan that is not subservient to the van der linde gang? most of all, to dutch?
when he looks at mary that’s easy to believe, but now - the chaos of the past few weeks, of barely escaping guarma and seeing her old man again, who still looks at him with the same disdain in his eyes from all those years ago despite how he’s withered away - there’s no denying it. he can’t keep idealizing her, can’t keep the polished image of her on a pedestal as some kind of fantasy he can take out whenever shit goes awry. not anymore.
a big hand covers one of her own.
“oh, mary - if i knew what was good for either of us, i would’ve turned you down when you first asked for my help. milton and ross wouldn’t know you, wouldn’t know remotely what you mean to me, wouldn’t be able to hurt you - but i’ve always been selfish, haven’t i?”