West Wing FF: "Will rise in majesty" (Sam&Toby, PG-13, post-series)

[black_eyedgirl]

Title: Will rise in majesty
Fandom: West Wing
Pairing: Sam/Toby implications
Rating/Warning: PG-13
Genre: Drama/Angst
Length: 900 words
Disclaimer: All belongs to Sorkin and Wells
Spoilers: Set post-series in the Sam-as-POTUS verse, but no detailed spoilers that I can see
A/N: I don't know what this is, which is why it's just going to the journal.

Comments

[raedbard]

I am as always a person with bad timing. So, *thoughts* now.

Have I mentioned that your Sam is much more nuanced and complicated and beautiful than mine? (This also by way of warning you that my President!Seaborn is going to be *you* President!Seaborn. *g*) But yes, this is a little window into a story I really want to read more of. A sotry which, therefore, you must be writing more of posthaste. 'Kay? ;)

Oh, Sam. Sam, Sam, Sam. This is, of course, why he's the future-President-figure and it doesn't quite fit anyone else. There is that specialness in him, which in his youth was marked by his beauty - both in body and mind. Thing about Sam is, that he didn't know that. Thing about Toby is that of course he did. (I've really turned into lit-crit person lately ... ANYWAY.)

Sadness makes him beautiful: the knowledge lurking in the back of his blue eyes and the grey threading through his hair.
*swoons* Saaaaam! You can't blame Toby for loving him, can you?

Sam looks down at the eagle on his carpet and does not believe he is worthy.
He's so ... I don't know. He's the kind of character who *ought* to be completely unbelievable because he really is that good, and yet ... This is Sam, really. Toby too, but on a smaller scale. There's a way in which he doesn't see the complexities of the situation and his suitability for it. It's such a huge, un-manageable task in a way, something you really can't win at, not outright. And Sam sees the black and white of that, and judges himself unworthy. (Or something else that is what *you* were thinking of rather than my stream-of-consciousness analysis ... )Anyway, suffice to say, YES. :D

This is a calling for Sam, and like every apostle he questions his master’s faith in his abilities. Toby wishes for a burning bush or a hand to reach down from the heavens; Sam is on the right path but Toby’s words no longer convince him of that.
... Oh, yes. (And wow, poor Toby. When the words don't work, how do you do your job?)

‘I love you,’ he tries, but he tags the phrase onto another and they run together, meaningless
*melts a little, in a tearful way* (I'm seeing parallels here, again that I don't know if you intended ... Toby's failing in communication mirroring Sam's perceived failings as President. Hmm. Only, neither of them are really failing ... )

Toby feels the weight of it and wonders if Sam would let him shoulder more; knows that he wouldn’t.
I'm getting such Frodo&Sam images here, you wouldn't believe! (But that's a good thing; they're the archetypal partners who love each other through every situation. And I rather love them. :))

The office is dark, and outside the storm dashes against the window. Sam is in the eye, holding the world together. ‘I’m not strong enough,’ he whispers, as though ashamed.
*cues Mrs Landingham, or the equivalent ...* Have I mentioned how much I love storm settings? Well, I do. And hello? Beautiful phraseology - Sam in the eye of the storm ... Wow.

Sam reaches one hand out, and their fingers touch at the tips.
*splutters* God. (And yes, God. Fingers touching, a lightning flash. Yes. *g*)

He is damned already, willing to steep his hands in the blood Sam will spill, to wash him clean of it. Sam presses their palms together like a prayer made before battle, like a blessing. Toby doesn’t know who’s giving and who is taking.
This is my favourite bit. Well, my second favourite bit. I don't know why they seem to fit religious imagery so incredibly well (I'm sure it's got more to do with Sam than Toby) but they really do. And hand-holding/pressing-together kink. *pets them*

...