#and the merging keeps getting foiled because what Morgan wants is so very /human/ and she's more human than judgement

[iamthepulta]

I'm a tiny bit worried that I'm writing too much hurt to justify the hurt/comfort; I hope it's not turning into whump. I don't think it is. I'm not writing it gratuitously, but I wanted a tangible tonal shift and now I'm not sure if I've gone over the edge.

I'll just tag it I guess. :')

[12timetraveler]

Family Matters (HC on their families)

Just a little random thing I came up with today. I also posted this on Campfire Stories though it’s not technically a one shot. 

Made this with the help of @sweet-hoe-vanellope while we were chatting about some of the Van der Linde gang as parents. 

Enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Charles’ Kids

Charles has a little boy and a little girl.

He makes sure they are well behaved and polite, and that they respect the world around them.

They are always the first to ask to help, and not just because their dad has told them to, they genuinely like to help.

They’re very curious children, always ready with questions.

They want to get to know the world around them.

Quiet and observant like their father

But they don’t require as much silence as Charles, because they didn’t grow up alone.

They’re good influences on the other kids, doing their best to keep them out of trouble (Not always succeeding.)

They’re always there to help when their friends do get in trouble.

They are very loyal and they always have their friends’ backs.

 Arthur’s kids

Arthur has five daughters.

Yes five.

Yes daughters.

And he is completely wrapped around their fingers.

He is fairly certain he is raising five little angels, come to earth in human bodies.

They all look so much like him. Sandy blonde hair, sturdy build.

But some of them have their mother’s eyes.

At first Arthur wants to coddle them, treat them like the princesses they are.

But he soon realizes that the best way to keep them safe is to teach them to protect themselves.

So as beautiful and sweet as the Morgan girls are, they also could slit your throat before you knew what was happening.

They’re not afraid to get their hands dirty, always ready to help dad skin a deer or tend to the horses.

You can tell they’re spoiled, not because they’re bratty, or demand everything go their way, but because they all know their worth, and wont let anyone bring them down.

Arthur made sure not to pass his self-deprecating attitude to them.

 Javier’s Kids

Javier has an older son, then twins, a boy and a girl.

He loves all his children but he has a soft spot for his little princess.

All are musical like their father and keep their appearance crisp and fashionable.

Wild. Children.

Javier is by no means an absent parent

But he’s not going to stifle his children just to make them fit into societies standards.

He lets them do their own thing, unless it’s something seriously bad.

They are opinionated as hell and not afraid to tell you off.

Much to their mother’s dismay, their vocabulary is filled with curses.

Javier swears he never taught those words to them, but we all know he did.

Despite being blunt and passionate, they aren’t rude.

Quite the contrary, they turn their passions on helping others, and are the first to defend their friends if someone is picking on them.

  The family lines merge

One day Javier's eldest son invites Arthur's eldest daughter to go dancing (remember this would be in the roaring 20s)

Arthur leaps into protective dad mode.

He remembers how suave and flirtatious Javier was back in the day.

He’s worried that the elder Escuella boy may just be playing with his daughters heart.

He forbids her from going out with him (vaguely suggests she may never go out with anyone.)

One day Javier shows up on his porch with a bottle of the good stuff.

“Let’s talk, amigo.”

Javier tells that story on their wedding day, when the eldest Morgan daughter became an Escuella.

 Charles tells himself he'll never be like that when his little girl starts dating.

He. Is. Wrong.

The moment the younger Escuella boy comes sniffing around, suddenly he's just as bad as Arthur was.

Maybe even worse.

His wife tries to calm him down and convince him to give the boy a chance to prove himself.

Charles is too stubborn to listen.

Eventually his daughter confronts him, arms folded.

She calmly asks him what he always taught her.

Trust your instincts, listen to your heart, and keep a knife on your person at all times.

Why did he bother teaching her to be independent if he wasn't going to let her use it.

Foiled by his own logic he has to let her go out with the younger Escuella boy.

He shows up at Charles’ dressed in his best suit, with a bouquet of flowers for her, and a bottle of whiskey for Charles.

Soon enough he accepts the that the Escuella boy won't hurt his daughter.

He eventually admits to his wife that there are worse men who could be courting his little girl.

The day they get married, his wife just has the biggest "told you so* smile on her face.

 Next the Morgan and Smith lines finally come together.

Charles’ son and the second eldest Morgan girl have been flirting their whole lives.

Only when he asks Arthur’s permission to take her on a date does it click for Arthur.

Arthur is a little calmer about it this time.

He trusts Charles' parenting more, and now he knows his girls can take care of themselves.

The day his daughter comes home crying is the day a rift nearly tears the Smith and Morgan families apart.

The two kids had a fight and had broken up.

The two dads are pissed at each other, blaming their poor parenting.

The moms try to work out what happened.

Eventually the kids work it out themselves

They're both human, they both have flaws.

Together they work through them and become the strongest couple anyone has ever seen.

Arthur is grumpy about it for the rest of his life.

He never letting the Smith boy forget the day he made her cry.

But he actually does forgive him, if only for his daughters sake.

He just feels the need to bring it up now and then.

Everyone is worried the damage is too much between Arthur and Charles.

Even after the kids are back together, the men don’t say a word to each other.

The day of the wedding, Arthur and Charles apologize to each other.

It's the best wedding present the kids could have asked for.

 Javier is more than shocked when his daughter admits that she is in love with the second youngest Morgan girl.

He's a good Catholic boy.

While he experimented in his youth, he had eventually settled with a woman.

He wasn’t sure about his daughter actually choosing that life

But more importantly, he worried for her safety.

People weren't kind to homosexuals.

What if someone hurt his little girl?

Arthur was a little shocked at first.

But having also been attracted to an Escuella at one point, the father Escuella, he couldn't necessarily blame her.

He too was worried about how others would treat them.

The first night the girls went out dancing, Javier and Arthur sat down with glasses of whiskey and discussed what they'd do.

The both agreed that anyone who tried to stand in their girls' way would meet with a strange accident.

Their wedding was smaller, just the family.

They couldn’t be married by a priest.

In fact the only people who knew about the wedding were the family.

The girls didn’t care.

This was about their love.

They vowed to always love each other, look out for each other.

Arthur swears their vows were more powerful than anything done by a priest.

Javier most certainly didn’t cry.

 Arthur was concerned when Marston's boy started showing interest in his middle child.

Jack was 10 years older than her and he found it inappropriate.

Also, as much as he loved Jack, he couldn't help but think of what a shitty husband and father John had been.

Would Jack be the same?

John, assuming the worst, stormed over to the Morgan ranch.

He was ready to talk, argue, even fight with Arthur I'd need be.

Arthur, having already gone through this a few times, was relatively calm when John arrived.

Arthur and Jack were sitting on the porch, discussing it like men.

Jack was amused (and touched) to see his father ready to throw hands for him.

Arthur just shook his head and said something about taking the man out of the wild and the wild out of the man.

Arthur agreed to let Jack date his daughter, on the condition.

If things went well, Jack would wait until she was 21 to propose.

(She is 18 at the time. Jack is 28)

Arthur wants her to be a grown woman first and make sure she knows what she wants.

Jack agrees to this, far less hot-headed than his father is.

On her Twenty first birthday, Jack proposes.

Arthur knew it was coming.

It had been clear for a while that the middle Morgan daughter would become a Marston.

On their wedding day, John and Arthur tease each other relentlessly.

It's their way of covering their emotions.

 The Youngest Morgan girl meets a handsome young man on a trip to Saint Denis.

The two of them correspond through letter for many months.

Arthur is rightly curious about the man.

And a little suspicious.

Old habits die hard.

One day the man sends a letter that he and his mother will be taking a trip out that way.

He wants to meet Arthur officially.

Arthur has never been more shocked than when Tilly Jackson stood behind her son on his doorstep.

Tilly's husband died recently and she decided to leave Saint Denis with her son.

They bought a little cottage nearby.

Within a few months, the youngest Morgan daughter was engaged to the son of Tilly Jackson.

Arthur doesn't worry about this one.

He knows any child of Tilly will be a good man.

The only concern he has is how people will treat the two of them, being a mixed race couple.

The first time they go into town together, Tilly's son let's go of the Morgan girls hand

Arthur grabbed their hands and pressed them back together.

He told them not to be afraid of what others thought.

The death glares people got from the intimidating old man have never been rivaled.

He'd gladly kill anyone who dares try to stop those kids, or any of his kids, from loving who they love.

This wedding has the town riled up.

While it's true that none of Arthur's children married white people, this wedding drew more attention for some reason.

The protesters didn't stay long

On the back row sat all the parents, guns casually draped over their laps

None of the families minded being outcast from the town.

Just so long as all their kids were happy.

 Grandparents

As the parents grow older, they all move into the Morgan Ranch and give their homes to their children.

It’s easier to have all the grandparents in one place.

And they can look out for each other, like old times.

The Marston’s stay at Beechers Hope

But that isn’t far from the Morgan Ranch anyway.

The grandchildren call all of them grandpa and grandma.

At this point the families are so intertwined its hard to figure out which child is actually who’s grandchild unless you sit down and write it out.

It’s just easier to let them all be your grandchildren.

They all fervently deny that they were ever gunslingers, but their grandkids are very suspicious about it.

 Arthur nearly lost count of all his blood grandbabies.

Ask him how many he has, he’ll shrug his shoulders.

But he can name them all without missing a beat.

And those that aren’t his to boot.

So if you really want the number, he’ll count it out for you.

At first he’s a little upset that there’s no one to carry on the last name “Morgan.”

But he shrugs it off and says that it weren’t that great a name anyway.

Then his daughter and the Escuella girl come to him with news.

They’re adopting a boy, or rather his daughter is.

The little boy will have the last name Morgan.

He didn’t realize how happy that would make him until they said it.

He loves the little adopted baby just as much as any of his other grandbabies.

 Charles is almost mystical to the grandchildren.

They always snap to attention when he speaks, entranced by his wisdom.

He teaches them all about nature and his heritage.

Even those who aren’t descended from him.

He’s the grandpa everyone comes to for advice.

He finds it amusing, but is happy to talk their problems out with them until they figure out a solution on their own.

He also makes sure each and every one of them can use a bow and arrow.

 Javier jokes that there are enough children to form a choir.

At least everyone thinks he’s joking.

Until one day he lines them all up and they sing Oh Shenandoah in perfect 4-part harmony.

He’d been teaching them on the side.

Javier is just as proud of his adopted grandson as Arthur is.

He makes sure the child learns Spanish and music.

The best dressed of the grandchildren, thanks to Javier.

Sometimes you forget the boy is adopted, he’s so much like his abuelito.

 John is terrible at keeping all the kids in order in his head.

He can remember the two that belong to Jack, but that’s it.

The other kids don’t mind.

Arthur told them that a wolf ate part of Grandpa John’s brain so he can’t remember things well.

They all take it easy on Grandpa John.

Abigail knows each and every one of them, and what they’re interests are.

“Why do we have a book on Frogs?” John asks

“Oh I bought that for ____________ ‘s birthday.”

“Who?”

“Oh you know. Javier and Charles’ granddaughter.”

“… she likes frogs?”

 One day Arthur sees a strange man watching the property.

He’s aged drastically since Arthur last saw him, but he knows immediately who it is.

He calls his children to herd the grandchildren inside.

Javier, John and Charles come out and stand by his side, hands casually resting on their guns.

They aren’t sure what he wants, but they aren’t taking any risks with their family.

The man just stares, gives them a nod, then turns and rides away.

It’s the last time anyone sees Dutch Van der Linde.