#i SWEAR i will reply soon i have just had a bad bout of executive dysfunction

[considerablecolors]

Hey, I just wanted to say how much I love your SAF fanfics on Ao3. There's so many, and I'm still working my way through all of them, but I noticed in one, you talked about Curt being bipolar and mentioned that you could write a whole essay diagnosing these characters.

This was like 2 years ago, but I was just wondering if you ever got around to writing that essay, because I would very much like to read it.

hiya, tysm! im so glad ur liking the fics (and im so sorry there's so many lmao)

and WOW i... completely forgot about that LMAO. with how fast my brain goes when its in hyperfocus mode, i think half the time i just throw stuff out there and never come back to it 😭

so no, unfortunately it did not get written lol. BUTTT now that im thinking about it again i would probably be up to typing smth up (not necessarily a whole essay lol but maybe a big ol tumblr meta analysis post). esp as ive rewatched the show again and again, i get even more ideas about these characters in terms of pysch everytime- so yea, I'd prolly be down to try and write something up!

genuinely tysm for reaching out and reminding me of this, it had totally slipped my mind how into this idea i was lol, but i'll definitely try to write a bit of that !!

[reddeadmort]

Okay, so it was really tough trying to capture this in writing! Also, a lot of the commonly known language differences only apply to the modern world, so youtube wasn’t much help. 

I’d have liked to put a bit more dialogue around taking the piss of each other’s accents in but it was hard enough thinking of what I’ve got lol! Never know, I might sneakily update in the future if I have more ideas. Enjoy! 

Arthur Morgan x Reader | “Language Barrier” | AO3

Guidance: Fluff and fun, little bit of angst in the middle. Gender neutral reader.

Words: 1.8k

You were casually walking through camp one morning when Arthur started to wave you over. Smiling, you obliged; you always loved to talk to Arthur, though inevitably your conversations always devolved into you taking the piss out of each other’s accents. It was always friendly mockery, neither of you actually wanted to offend the other. You just loved to make Arthur laugh, and this was the easiest way.

“Here, Y/N, ya heard about Mary-Beth’s aunt?” Arthur asked.

“Mary-Beth’s ant? What on earth is Mary-Beth doing with an ant?” You genuinely had no idea what he was on about. You were pretty sure Mary-Beth was far more interested in books than wildlife.

“Nah, her *aunt*.” Arthur, ever the effective communicator, repeated the word in exactly the same manner. Smiling, you stared at him, shaking your head, gesturing for him to continue.

“Her relative! Her aunt.”

“Ohhhh! Her aunt. Heavens above Arthur, half of what you say is virtually unintelligible! At least I use the language in the manner it was intended.” You playfully hit him on the arm.

“Yeh I still ain’t sure bout that” Arthur smiled at you as he over-exaggerated rubbing where you had hit him.

You threw your hands up in mock annoyance. “Good man, have you considered pronouncing all the letters in a word?”

Arthur chuckled before retorting “Least I don’t stick random ‘r’s where there ain’t none. Ya carn’t take a barth without ‘em.”

“Where there aren’t any”

“See, y’agree” Arthur grinned. Mary-Beth rolled her eyes and walked away; the two of you didn’t even notice, too enamoured by your current discussion.

“Oh good lord Arthur, your attitude towards communication is perfectly risible.”

“Whatever you say, boss” Arthur winked at you. You were about to reply when John’s voice made an unwelcome entrance into your world.

“Oh will you two shut up and kiss already!”

You and Arthur froze, inches from each other’s faces, then turned your heads to face John. As you did so, Abigail executed a hard slap to the back of his head.

“Hey!” John complained, rubbing his head. Abigail whispered angrily to him, but you couldn’t quite catch what she was saying. “Well, they should, it’s very irritating” John grumbled back to Abigail.

You and Arthur turned back to face each other, still wide eyed with shock.

“I…errrr…..” Arthur stuttered.

“Yeh…. I…. have a thing…. to do….. over there” you gestured with your thumb behind you, not daring to break eye contact.

“Yeh… me too….”

You both broke away, heading off quickly in opposite directions. You headed towards the horses; brushing your Ardennes would give your hands something to do while you thought.  

You liked Arthur, sure, you wouldn’t spend so much time with him if you didn’t. But you’d never really thought about him in that way; you hadn’t thought about anyone like that for years, this life was far too risky to build an emotional attachment stronger than friendships. It was hard enough coping when friends died…. if a partner died, you didn’t know how’d you react. You assumed Arthur felt the same way; after Mary, after Eliza and Isaac…. he seemed to invest all those emotions in his family, the gang. There was no space or time for any romantic endeavours.

You focused on the strokes of the brush on your horse’s neck, counting them, trying to stop your mind from racing.

The more you tried to remind yourself that you and him were just friends, the less convinced you were becoming. What about your reaction whenever a rider would arrive back in camp? That little pang of disappointment when it wasn’t Arthur? You thought about how you were always desperate to make him laugh, to see him smile. John and Sadie were good friends, and you thoroughly enjoyed their company, but you’d never stayed up into the early hours, despite being exhausted, just to continue talking to them. You had with Arthur though. For god’s sake, you’d started timing your meals just so you could have a good reason to sit with him.

As realisation dawned, you stopped brushing and let your head fall forwards, hitting the saddle with a thunk. Well shit.

—–

Arthur did what he always did when he needed to think; working in his journal. He was sat on the edge of camp, looking over the plains, pencil idly doodling. He felt so…. embarrassed. Typical Marston, unable to keep his mouth shut, ruining everything. There’s no way you’d want to spend any time with him now; not now John had planted the idea of him liking you in your head. Arthur felt so sorry for you; there you were, thinking you had a friend, only to discover you had an admirer in the form of an ugly, stupid, old man.

Arthur had admired you from the moment he lay eyes on you, but he’d fallen in love with your charm and wit. Though, every time you joked together, made fun of each other, Arthur was terrified of offending you. It was worth doing though just to see you laugh, at something he had said; it always made his day whenever that happened.  

A tearing sound made him look down; in his self-absorbent daydreaming he’d accidentally put a hole right through some journal pages with his pencil. Swearing, Arthur chucked the book to one side, shut his eyes and threw his head back towards the tree he was leaning against. He hit it harder than he meant to, making him swear again. Goddammit.

——

You uncharacteristically avoided each other for the rest of the day, only daring to be in the same vicinity when everyone started to settle down for some evening drinks and singing. You couldn’t tell Arthur how you felt; it wasn’t fair to put that pressure on him, you knew he’d given up on that aspect of life years ago. You tried to take your mind off it by talking to Sadie and Abigail. You felt a bit sorry for John; he’d obviously been given a right tongue lashing by Abigail and was desperately trying to not be on the receiving end of a death glare from either you or Arthur.

You stepped away to go grab another drink, and when you returned Abigail and Sadie were in deep conversation. As soon as you sat back down however, they immediately stopped. Sadie nodded to Abigail before standing up and walking off towards the guys around the campfire.

“What the hell was that?” you asked, taking a swig from your drink.

“Oh nothin’” Abigail responded. “Though I could do with having a quick chat with you in private Y/N, can we go to your tent?” You really weren’t in the mood for a private chat, whatever it was, but you didn’t want to upset Abigail so agreed and followed her over.

—–

Arthur had noticed you were avoiding him, and he tried his best to stay away from you too. You must already be disgusted at the idea of him being sweet on you and he didn’t want to make you any more uncomfortable. He was so absorbed wallowing in his own misery he didn’t notice Sadie come up behind him and tap him on the shoulder.

“Hey, Arthur, can I have a word? Nothin’ bad, I promise.”

“Sure, Sadie.” Arthur stood up, downing his beer, before following her towards the tents; Sadie’s was right next to yours, he sure hoped you weren’t there too.

—–

“Abigail, what the hell is this about? Do you need me to talk to John? He’s going to have to stop avoiding me eventually, the stupid bloody arse” you sighed, sitting down on the edge of your cot.

“Errr…yeh…somethin’ like that. Wait here for a moment!”

Rolling your eyes, you lay down on the bed, covering your eyes with your forearm. You hadn’t had nearly enough to drink to have a serious conversation.

A few moments later, you heard a slight commotion outside the tent. “Sadie, I don’t think this is…..”

You looked up just as Sadie shoved Arthur through the opening before he could finish his objection, securing the flap behind him. You immediately sat up, scrabbling to get up off your cot; in your haste your foot got caught on the edge, sending you flying forwards. You were saved from faceplanting into the small table by Arthurs arm underneath your chest. He pushed you upright as quickly as he could before backing away; he didn’t exactly get far, given the size of the tent.  

“Y/N… I…..errr” he stuttered, not able to meet your gaze. You began to reply as he continued.

“Look, Arthur about earlier…..”

“I’m so sorry Y/N……”

You were both so desperate to get the next words out you spoke over each other in a frantic rush.

“Arthur, I know you don’t want to be in a relationship, I know how hurt you’ve been… I do love you, but I don’t want to put that pressure on you, it’s not fair…. I do so hope you still want to be my friend.”

“Y/N, I’m so sorry, you must feel so uncomfortable… please know I’ll never act on any feelin’s I have for ya, you deserve so much better than me. I understand if you don’t really want to see me no more, but I still want to be ya friend.”

You both smiled at each other, glad you’d said your peace. A moment later, you finally processed what the other person had said.  

“Wait….what?” you said, staring at Arthur with a confused look on your face.

Arthur was completely frozen, terrified, but was at least finally making eye contact. Without saying anything, you gestured with one finger towards him, mouthing the word ‘you?’. You then pointed at yourself, accompanying the motion with a silent ‘me?’. Still maintaining eye contact, Arthur nodded ever so slightly.

You went to say something, pointing at Arthur, but self-shushed yourself by moving the side of your fist to rest on your mouth. Sod it, words won’t help here.

You practically launched your self at him, wrapping your arms around his neck and pulling him in for a kiss. For a moment, Arthur didn’t respond, his arms hovering either side of you; after what seemed like an eternity, he finally put his hands on your waist and started to kiss you back eagerly.

Eventually, you both broke away for air. You smiled up at Arthur, ruffling the hair on the back of his head.

“Do you have any idea how insufferably smug John, Abigail and Sadie are going to be?”

“Yeh. Don’t think I care though” Arthur grinned back at you, before taking your hand and leading you out of the tent.