Adult Content Warning
This work could have adult content. If you continue, you have agreed that you are willing to see such content.
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Summary
"No one would have me."
Sober, those words haunted Lenny because they didn't just mean that Arthur hadn't found someone, nor did they mean Arthur wasn't interested. It meant he’d wanted it. It meant he’d tried. And it meant that he'd been hurt so much, by so many, that he’d given up. And that... that was painful.
There's a kind of pride men have, especially outlaws like themselves; they don't really open up about those things – they especially don't open up about those things with people younger than themselves, which is exactly why Lenny had no ability to pry after the fact.
And there's a burden that comes with knowledge. There's a burden that comes with knowing things. Seeing things.
Arthur’s biggest tragedy was the very thing Arthur couldn't see. But Lenny could. Lenny didn’t just see the way people treated him, he saw the way people treated everyone. He saw the way people treated Arthur. And he saw the way people looked at Arthur. One person in particular looked at Arthur too often, too intently – at least too intently for a "brother."