'To be young and in love'

-

The bars of bright morning light creeping through the tattered curtains caused you to stir, and the moment you did – it felt as if you had been beaten over the head with a brick last night. The thumping tenderness in your head indicated quite a hefty hangover from the night's drinking.

Grumbling to yourself, you turned over and pressed yourself tighter to the warm figure of Arthur beside you. At least that was one reason to put a smile on your face, as you rested your head on his chest and shut your eyes again to try and settle the cracking headache.

You had no idea what sort of time it was – and didn't really care You could quite happily of stayed in that bed all day, but there was a lingering feeling that you knew you had to get up; there was work to be done around the camp.

The bed creaked in protest as you sat up, clutching some of the thin sheets to your chest as you looked back over your shoulder at Arthur, admiring how perfect he looked. His messy hair and untroubled, peaceful expression made your lungs ache somewhat.

You just could not resist.

Quietly, you manoeuvred yourself into his lap, straddling his hips whilst you smirked down at him mischievously. The fact you were sat in such a position caused Arthur to stir, a tiredly smug look on his face.

"Good morning to you." His tone was cocky, and you didn't miss the way his eyes were all over you. "Didn't think you'd be wantin' to go again so soon after last night."

You cocked your head at him with a challenging look, even your eyes gleamed smugly.

"Clearly you underestimate me, Mr Morgan." You purred, leaning down to kiss him softly – enticed further by the way his voice sounded at this time of the day. Arthur allowed you your time, but he knew deep down too that the pair of you had responsibilities to attend to – and just because you now had your romance-novel worthy relationship wrapped up in a pretty little parcel – it did not mean you were exempt from continuing work as usual to keep the gang going.

"Look, there's nothin' I'd love more than to spend this mornin' making you moan," he started once he had retreated his lips from your own, seeing how disappointed you look, "But we got stuff to do. I don't fancy seein' you be on the recievin' end of Miss Grimshaw."

He was right, regrettably so. You rolled your eyes childishly and parted him with one final kiss before you got up to get yourself ready for the day.

You felt eyes watched your every move as you got yourself dressed that morning, smirking to yourself silently as you savoured the perfection you had in your life. You loved Arthur more than anything, and to feel so happy at last was almost overwhelming.

He had eventually got himself dressed too, forcing his eyes off you for more than 3 seconds. The heated behaviour between the pair of you just caused you to laugh – if someone had told you all those months ago that Arthur wouldn't be able to keep his eyes off of you – you would not of believed them in a million years. It was rather strange, the way fate, the world and time all had their secret workings.

"There you are." You teased Arthur as you grabbed his hat for him and put it on his head, cupping his face then in a sarcastically mothering manner. "Handsome cowboy." Your playful tones scorned, squishing his cheeks as he pulled away from you, trying to remain with this gruff exterior but he was hindering a laugh.

"You're real crazy," his low tones taunted you, a smirk appearing on his face after the quip, "I ain't sure you should be allowed out there." He continued, and the smirk was only growing darker whilst you were aware his hand was creeping over your backside. "Perhaps I should just keep you in here, all to m'self." His large hand grabbed you then through the skirts of your dress, and you hit him something whilst the pair of you were laughing away to yourselves like a pair of children.

Falling out of the door, your mischievous snickering soon stopped when the pair of you saw Dutch standing to your right – a rather disconcerting unreadable look on his face.

"Good night last night?" he asked singularly, and already you felt increasingly uncomfortable and awkward.  Yourself and Arthur exchanged to a guilty glance, which didn't give you enough time to respond. It seemed Dutch wasn't done anyway.

"Don't bother answerin' that. Most of the goddamn house knows you had a good night last night." He sounded angry? Your cheeks were growing hot but you were still smirking – as was Arthur, but he had dipped his head in hopes of heading his grin under the brim of his hat.

"Sorry Dutch." Arthur responded, and you could hear the amusement wavering under his tones. "We didn't mean to be so loud."

"Well if you want to scream and shout like some goddamn animals then take yourself off into town – some of us like to get to sleep at night." The gang leader scolded you both. So that's why he was grumpy – because he hadn't had his beauty sleep. It was a rather amusing thought, picturing Dutch laid there angrily glaring at the ceiling last night.

"See you both later." He added after a few moments, and excused himself off back to his room. The moment he had disappeared behind the way, you really had to bite back the eruption of laughter – and Arthur was fighting it too, deciding to pull you both downstairs before you got scolded any further.

"We gotta be on our best behaviour now, I mean it." Arthur whispered to you as you got into the hall, the amused smile lingering on his face. "- Or Dutch will have it out for us."

The thought of such a strong willed, feared gang leader getting uptight over a few hours of lost sleep still made you want to howl with laughter, and you continued to supress your smirk as Arthur kissed you farewell.

"I got some stuff to do with Sean today, you go outside and help the girls, okay?" Arthur instructed, and you nodded obediently. It was best to keep yourself out of trouble considering you had upset Dutch once already today.

"Yes – don't worry." You started, patting his arm as he headed out towards the front door. "I promise I'll be on my best behaviour." You marked with a sing-song chime to your face, eyes on Arthur as he shot you one of those smiles that made your heart race every time.

"Good girl." He responded, the last thing he said before his figure disappeared out of the door.

Although you knew you would miss him for a while – it was best for the both of you to not spend every waking minute in each other's pockets. The fact you had him around and he was yours was fantastic, but the last thing you wanted to do was push it and end up making the pair of you sick of one another.

No, you would get on with your work, spend time with your friends – and not piss Mr Van Der Linde off any more.

---

Countless times you had pricked yourself with the needle now, and you had come to the conclusion you were damn right awful at sewing.

Sat in a circle with Karen, Mary Beth and Tilly on the warm afternoon – you couldn't help but feel totally useless next to them. They'd gotten through mending twice as many clothes as you had.

"I wish these men would just stop trashin' their clothes so much." Karen vocalised, an annoyed look on her pasty looking face. She had already ran out twice to be sick after the amount she had drank the night before.

"Do you get a lot of sewing to do?" you asked, and your question caused the girls to giggle at your naiveté.

"Way too much." Mary Beth replied to you quickly, her delicate hands gathering another shirt to start patching up. "And your Arthur is one of the worst for it." She added, beginning to thread the needle. Your heart seemed to constrict happily in your chest at her choice of wording... Yes, he was indeed your Arthur.

You brushed off the girlish happiness you felt with a small, dry laugh.

"Oh I don't doubt it." You responded in a playful fashion, still steadily making your way through the second shirt, concentrating on not ramming the needle through your finger. There was a silence that lingered over the group, and you hadn't really noticed at first until it felt pressing – and you had the burning feeling of being watched. Your eyes flickered up to suss just what exactly was going on – and the three women were all staring at you with a little grin.

"What?" you asked, the nervousness not able to be hidden in your voice. Your (eye colour) glance flitted curiously between the group of girls who were looking at each other with sly smirks.

"...Ain't you gonna tell us what it was like?" Karen whispered, leaning forwards on her mat slightly. She was thankful in that moment for the seclusion the wagon beside you all provided from prying eyes – particularly Grimshaw.

You stared a little gone out at them, before the keen look in their eyes told you all you needed to know. A hefty sigh escaped your lungs at the way these girls were all for the gossiping.

"It was good." You replied shortly. Through all your life, you had never liked the clique-y pack orientation of a group of gossiping girls. You felt your private affairs should stay private.

"Only good?" Karen asked once again. She seemed to be the ring leader in this whilst Mary Beth and Tilly sat back – not openly directing you with questions, but their gazes displayed interest despite their withheld approach.  "That ain't what it sounded like to me." She started, setting the other two girls off into a giggle. You groaned internally and reminded yourself never to get so vocal again ever whilst you were around camp.

"I could ask the same about you and Sean." You bit back, turning the tables with a coy smirk. "Get up to anything yourself last night?"

You felt smug watching Karen's face drop, and the bolshy woman backed down into a girl, blonde ringlet curls hanging by her reddening cheeks.  Both Tilly and Mary Beth were giggling along with you too now, glad to see you were able to take the questioning but also give some back. Respect in this gang seemed to come from stepping up to people, whatever the circumstance.

"(Name)!" Came some shouts – reverberating from the front of the house. Perplexed, you set your sewing needle and thread down, picking up the skirts of your dress as you circled around the edge of the Shady Belle manor house and rounded to the front of the property. Your mind was curious with what exactly was going on.

"There you are!" it was Javier, stood by the old, weathered fountain. Your eyes only took a further few seconds to realise who he was holding onto, black leather reins in his hands.

"Boxer!" you yelled, fighting past your banging headache and running to your mount in excitement. The large shire remained calm despite your hysterical display as your wrapped your arms around the horse's neck to give him a much wanted hug.

"Javier – I –" you babbled uselessly, stepping away from Boxer and then in turn, chucking your arms around Mr Escuella. "Thank you so much, Javier. Truly, I am so grateful."

Javier's lips quirked into a small smile, as he patted your back gently.

"It's no trouble," he started as you pulled away, "It was Sean and Arthur's idea too. We'd gone to Saint Denis to meet up with Trelawny – I mentioned about Boxer so... we figured we'd head by the stable on our way back."

Just as Javier had been explaining, your eyes wandered to the two outlaws trekking down the long stretch of trail from the top of the grey-wall lining the property; making their way towards you both on their respective horses.

"You glad to see him?" Arthur called from Phantom's back, and you nodded eagerly in response, taking Boxer's reins from Javier's gentle grasp.

"So, so happy. I missed him a lot." You replied, patting the strawberry-roan fur on the shire's neck.

"You owe us big time, girly." Sean loudly announced to you, but you didn't really pay him no heed. "We had to go all the way back on ourselves to get that nag."

"Don't listen to him, darlin'." Arthur sighed as he slid from Phantom's back, tethering the horse to one of the nearby set of posts. "It weren't no trouble."

Sean started laughing dramatically loud then, hauling himself out of his horse's saddle and leading the fine thing to be tethered next to Phantom.

"Don't listen to him, darlin." Sean mocked in a very bad impression of Arthur's voice, pulling a mocking face whilst he did so. "Bloody Englishman! Think yer so fookin' charming."

Sean's childish manner versus Arthur's rather crass approach made you gaze over at Javier sympathetically – you only wondered how insufferable going out with Sean and Arthur at the same time would've been for him.  The Mexican gave you a little half smile in agreement of your sympathetic glance.

Remaining at Phantom's side. Arthur fed his prized mount a small sugar cube and whispered some sweet words to the horse – patting the black coat on his muscular neck. You watched on with adoring eyes at the display, before noticing the way Phantom's ears went flat back when Sean swaggered around the horse – too close to his back end – and totally unaware of the possibility he could've been kicked.

"The one you shouldn't be listenin' to, is him-" Sean called to you, pointing back at Arthur like an accusing child. "He's just old.... N' foolish."

You rolled your (eye colour) eyes in a here we go again manner, folding your arms over your chest as Sean swanned about by your side.

"I told ye' once, and I tell ye' again – you picked the wrong feller." He sounded so cocksure, stood right by your side as his red hair framed his cheeky face, he was obviously just trying to wind you and Arthur up in turn with his words. You knew better by now than to take what he was saying seriously. It was always best to just bat some banter back his way.

"Oh, right? Okay." You responded, furrowing your brow sarcastically, "So, I should've picked you – is that right?"

"Well – if you like to have a good time, with a lovely young lad-" he started, and you were laughing already by now having broken character. Sean was such a goon, it was part of the reason people loved to hate him in this gang. Even Arthur was watching on with a small smirk.

"Go on, get out of here." You scolded him teasingly, pushing him by the arm as Sean stumbled out of the way, laughing because he knew he was misbehaving.

"Just ride wit' me some time! I promise I'm a lot better-" Sean lingered now, and you looked at him with playfully cautionary eyes. "-and I'd make you scream much louder than he did-"

"Sean!" You yelled louder now, grabbing a strategically placed horse brush from the brick edge of the fountain and hauling it in his direction, the wood brush smacking him in the back whilst the Irishman pegged it to get out of the way. His cheekiness sometimes far outweighed his common sense.

Sean had just about disappeared from sight when you felt Arthur wander up beside you, his arm around your waist.

"Good shot," he told you, "Shame it weren't a bullet though."

"Arthur!" you laughed to his dry sense of humour, gazing up at him and shaking your head, the smile sitting prettily on your lips. "You don't mean that."

Arthur looked away and deliberately tried to make it look as if he was not joking – when it was clear he had been. You smacked him lightly in jest, to which he started chuckling in knowing naughtiness.

"Ow- woman, you gotta stop hittin' me!" His laughter far contradicted his words, and so did his manner as he pulled you into his arms again.

"Maybe you should try acting your age then I won't have to." You reprimanded him with a humorous context, leaning up and pressing a chaste kiss to his lips – aware that Javier was just metres from the pair of you and you did not want to make him feel uncomfortable.

"I'll see you later." You added once you'd pulled away, turning around and flashing a pretty smile at Javier.

"And thanks to you once again, I'm grateful you paid attention to me when I was drunk." you were half laughing at how absurd that statement felt coming from your mouth, before you headed up to the front door of the house.

Alone, Javier and Arthur exchanged a knowing little glance – and it immediately set Mr Escuella off into a quiet snigger.

"She's alright. I've missed her." Javier said to Arthur, patting his friend's shoulder as he went to go about the rest of his day.

--

Sat on the very edge of the bed by the cabinet, you looked sadly at the diamond jewellery that had been sat there for the past couple of days. Delicate finger picked up the ring, and looked at the blood that distained those pretty gems – instantly, images of Bronte entered your head and you quickly wished to expel them – talking to yourself to assure your mind that that stage of your life was done with now.

Your gaze had been locked onto the jewellery on the table, when you heard the bedroom door click open softly – averting your eyes up to see Arthur. You hadn't intended to look so miserable when you watched him come in.

"Everything alright?" he quickly asked you, seeing the gone out/partially sad look on your face. Sighing shakily, you nodded and brushed some hair back out of your face.

"Yes... I've just been thinking, I'd like to get rid of this jewellery." You explained, watching as he leaned against the wall opposite where you were sat, folding his arms across his chest, dark red material of his shirt clinging to him flatteringly whilst he looked at you with a thoughtful glance.

"Sure," he had started, shifting his weight, "We could head up to Saint Denis this afternoon if you like?"

He seemed happy to do just about anything for you – and you felt bad, he'd only just got back from the city and he was willing to go up there again for the sake of you?

"We don't have to go straight away..." you responded, but he cut you off as he shook his head.

"Don't be stupid, it's fine." He assured you, "We could make a night of it, if you like?"

You found yourself studying his gaze then, probably far too attentively to red into what that meant. The smallest smile crept onto his lips, which gave some hint.

"If you don't wanna, it's fine." He responded, the smile still lingering. "Just thought it would be nice for us to spend some time on our own."

There it was, the incentive. You weren't going to pretend you didn't like the sound of the idea too plus your hands were hurting from a whole day of stabbing yourself with a needle – so a nice night away sounded perfect.

"Alright," your smile was still bashful and giddy, still girlishly shy around him despite all you had shared over the past evening. "At least we'll be out of Dutch's way." You sniggered quietly, lifting yourself from the bed to get sorted for your night away – and obviously for the perfect fact you'd be rid yourself of these evil diamonds.

A/N: I'm aware this is kind of dry/boring.
Understandably, I am heading towards wrapping this story so just tying a few loose ends up before I make my ending chapter