At the Lamb Inn

[venusinfurs90]

Title: At the Lamb Inn

Rating: PG

Pairing: Horatio/Archie

Word Count: 2,651 (!!)

Summary: Archie and Horatio have a heartfelt conversation as Archie tries to learn to open up to his once closest friend. Set just after The Duchess and the Devil - I wondered what Archie must have felt about being friends with Horatio again, and how many conflicting

Comments

[eglantine_br]

Another missing piece, and once again that feeling that it must have happened just that way. Archie's courage and self-awareness is really clear.

[venusinfurs90]

Thank you! I'm glad it came across that way - I imagined there must have been a small transition period between Archie and Horatio discovering each other again and becoming the best of friends.

[rikibeth]

Well-thought-out - the tensions between them are very believable.

[venusinfurs90]

Thank you! I'm glad you thought it was believable :)

[anteros_lmc]

*waves madly* You're back! With fic! Huzzah :D Dying to have a chance to read this! Comments soon hopefully :)

[venusinfurs90]

Hello!! I am back! *waves* huzzah! (for a little bit - but university is determined to get in the way as always) XD please do let me know what you'd think, I'd love to hear your comments! :D

[anteros_lmc]

*shakes fist at pesky uni* Sorry, hope your studies are going well :)

I'm still enjoying your tumblr immensely but this fic is something else all together. It's beautifully written, as I would expect of course, but it's the characterisation that really makes it for me. This is very much how I see both characters, right down to their slightly antagonistic relationship. Archie may have his demons but he's no pushover and he has a sharp tongue when provoked. But it's Archie's unwillingness to reveal those demons that I really identify with here. He may be prone to panic but there is something incredibly resilient at Archie's core and it's partly his ability to lock away the trauma. I've just said more or less the same thing in a comment on eglantine_br's moving and chilling He who is dry cork. You've both identified what I think is one of Archie's most fundamental characteristics.

Deep down though, he knew that he clung to Horatio’s friendship because a desperate part of him needed to believe that those values were true, and in Horatio

[venusinfurs90]

studies are indeed going well, but I am also shaking fist at pesky uni! *shakes fist* So much writing to do, so little of it navy-related alas

[esmerelda_t]

Lovely blend of the sweet and the melancholy, thanks for sharing.

[venusinfurs90]

Thank you! I'm glad you thought so. :)

[donnaimmaculata]

This really is a beautiful friendship moment between these two characters. Their interaction is spot-on, it's full of both tenderness and understatement. Archie does come across as very self-aware in canon, and this conversation feels like the logical continuation of his character development in Frogs and Lobsters where, if I'm not mistaken, he for the first time voiced his emotions ("I panicked. I knew I was doing it but I couldn't stop myself."). Up until that point, he would show how he felt plainly enough - by refusing to eat, refusing to accept Horatio's help, refusing to escape - but he would never say. And it makes a lot of sense that, when he decides to finally talk about his feelings, he would do it hesitantly and only after trying deflection first. Especially because his protective mechanism has always been been to lock everything up

[venusinfurs90]

Oh my gosh, thank you for such a wonderful comment! But yes, I think Archie is very self-aware, and that he'd have a hard time opening up about his feelings, even to Horatio. I imagine he probably feels a lot of the times like he has something to prove and that actually vocalising his vulnerability to someone else is not something he deals with very well.

And I'm very glad you liked the ancient mariner. :)