RDR2 AU

[dog_eat_dog]

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[stand_unshaken]

"Ain't there? Sometimes you just get caught up in this shit. No way to get out."

[dog_eat_dog]

"Who's going to stop you from leaving but yourself?"

[stand_unshaken]

"Havin' no other options," he starts with. "No skills but robbing and killing. No money. Fear of dyin' alone somewhere in some shithole cabin."

[dog_eat_dog]

Tess shakes her head. She’s long been of the mind that she can do whatever she pleases, and that if she wanted to quit this nasty work and do something else, she could. It’s half arrogance, half denial — she could, if she wanted to.

“All things that can be changed,” she replies, gently skeptical. “If you had it in your head to, you could do whatever you pleased.”

[stand_unshaken]

"Now where did you grow up, thinking like that?"

Arthur certainly never believed he could do whatever he pleased.

[dog_eat_dog]

“I grew up a lawman’s daughter,” she reminds him — or perhaps confirms. “Been sick of hearing about what I can’t do since I was a little girl.”

[stand_unshaken]

He holds up a hand - sorry, sorry.

"Most folk I know don't grow up like that and take out of it what you have."

[dog_eat_dog]

“Lacking that, ambition makes up for for it,” she replies. “But plenty of people lack in that too.”

[stand_unshaken]

"It's true that you are a singular woman, Tess," he agrees, giving her a crooked little grin.

It's true. She's quite something, and he isn't even really thinking about what she looks like when he considers that.

[dog_eat_dog]

“So I’ve heard,” she replies with a little grin. “What about you? You have enough ambition in you?”

[stand_unshaken]

"Enough for what?"

[dog_eat_dog]

“I don’t know, you tell me,” she replies, amused. “You have dreams that aren’t Dutch’s?”

[stand_unshaken]

He snorts and orders another drink - just a beer this time, he isn't planning on rolling out of here. "You and your dreams. I want to live a free life. A good life. That's it."

[dog_eat_dog]

“If you’re not living it now, when does that start, exactly?”

[stand_unshaken]

"I live it now, sometimes. We're on the run a little too much these days, but we had good times. Real good times."

[dog_eat_dog]

Tess polishes off her drink.

"Good for you, then," she replies, and that's genuine. Might as well live in the moment, especially when tomorrow might never actually come. "Real decent fit for you. Wrap up those loose ends that keep you running and you'll have it all set."

[stand_unshaken]

"Looks like we both got it pretty good, then," he says, finishing his own drink and looking around for Uncle.

"I oughta find the old man and get back to camp."

[dog_eat_dog]

"Sure do," she replies.

She gets to her feet. She ought to get going too –– someone will be chasing her down to get going at some point, whether it's Joel complaining about getting going, or Robert with some new dumb idea summoned from the bottom of a bottle.

"We'll be in the area for a little while yet. Don't be a stranger, yeah?"

[stand_unshaken]

He greets her, then finds Uncle and practically leads his horse back to the camp. How he got that drunk that quickly, Arthur doesn't know.

He finds himself thinking of Tess, the easy way she'd tricked him into helping her, the way she'd hidden herself away for safety, the work she actually does. She's smart, and he can't deny she's beautiful.

All the same, he doesn't expect to see her again. Especially not in St. Denis, miles and miles away from the place they'd met.

Especially not while Arthur is in a tuxedo, hair slicked back, beard trimmed, and trying to sneak into the graveyard.

[dog_eat_dog]

Business connections take her all over the place. Down south, back up north for a bit, city to city. There's a dust-up with one of their government connections, an issue with paying him off. Robert fucks some things up and she has to let him go, and none too sweetly at that. They need a new connection. There's one in St. Denis. It feels good to be back in a bigger city. The long process of getting into people's good books enough to start collecting on favours feels tedious, at times, but Tess is nothing if not goal-oriented.

After one particularly long evening of socializing, she's getting a bit of fresh air on the step outside, watching the quiet evening streets as she smokes a cigarette –– something far less ladylike than the way she's dressed.

She almost doesn't recognize him at first, but there's a familiarity about the way he moves that sticks out to her like a sore thumb. No man in a tuxedo creeps around like that. Then there's the line of his shoulders, the glimpse of his face.

She glances back at the closed door behind her and decides her partners can cover for her if she doesn't come back before long. She picks up the front of her skirt and crosses the street in his direction. Whatever Arthur's up to, she's going to find out.

[stand_unshaken]

He's pretty quiet for a man his size. He knows how to creep, and he knows how to duck. There's no security at the graveyard, but that's just a not yet, not a ever.

He doesn't really know his way around the place. He knows he has to be at the Northeast corner, in one of the tombs, but it's a long, snaking way there.

And when he gets there, of course there's a padlock. Fuck. He can get out the lockpicking materials, but it'll take longer. And he keeps hearing rustling.

[dog_eat_dog]

Tess picks her way over to him, fully confident –– even overconfident –– about how safe it is to approach someone dead-set on breaking into a graveyard. She doesn't even bother moving into his line of vision.

She speaks up, teasing:

"That's quite the outfit for an outlaw."

[stand_unshaken]

He knows it's a familiar voice, but who can place these things at a graveyard in the dead of night? Jesus. He goes totally still for a moment before the words sink in.

Friend or foe? Does he care? He turns around slowly and searches out the other person in the dark. "Quite a thing, to follow an outlaw into a graveyard."

guess who wrote this and then forgot to hit post comment LKJASLDKHSDFKSDFsd

[dog_eat_dog]

"I've had worse to fear from better dressed men."

Tess brings her cigarette back to her lips for a moment, the end flaring up red as she takes a drag off of it, briefly illuminating her face. She's more made-up than usual, but still Tess. Still smirking.

HOW DARE U

[stand_unshaken]

He's about to retort, but then she lights her cigarette and he sees her for long enough to recognize her.

"Fuck you," he says, instead of what he'd been planning. "I look damn good in a tuxedo."