Leave it all

[savvygambols]

I have so many tl;dr thoughts about this fic. Here are some of them:
Writing for one of my own prompts? Awk. Mod fail, try again. (I am legitimately embarrassed.)

In my defense, I would never have written it without the initial inspirational push from skylilies in the form of this fantastic fanmix, of the Roe/Heffron persuasion, titled gentle beats. This

Comments

[skylilies]

oh goodness, this is really lovely. it's a missing scene/time that i haven't seen explored before, and i just love your take on these boys and their personalities and their interaction (how there's still banter and a curve of quiet amusement to roe and a little bit of pissiness to babe, lmfao)

“You hurt yourself on this boat and find you can’t be fixed,” warns Gene. “I’m gonna toss you over.” He screws the lid of his canteen back on. “Right over the bow.” He sets the canteen down. “Spina won’t stop me. Spina’ll help.”

“Aw, shit,” says Babe. Gene sits down on the bunk across from him. He looks amused, like Babe’s said something meaningful.

i love this bit -- gene's threatening and mentioning spina (WHO WOULD HELP /sob) and how he's sort of joking but also not going to take any bullshit; i really get a sense of the easiness/closeness of them, esp. because of gene's snarky side is coming out, lmao.

“Come home with me,” says Babe and winces because he sounds like he’s pleading and that was not what he was supposed to say anyway. What he meant to say was, Christ, Gene, I might be in love with you and the war’s over now and maybe I won’t see you again, least, not for a long time, and I just wanted to say it because. Because. Because I’m only here because of you. Shit.

;__; and babe.

“No snow,” says Gene. “Don’t know how you feel about snow these days.”

“Hate it,” says Babe without thinking. “Never want to see it again.”

“All right then.” Gene smiles at him. To hell with it, Babe thinks again.
and the little things you put into it, like the mention of the snow/the memories with it, lovely.

I JUST. I DON'T KNOW, I LOVE THIS WHOLE EXCHANGE. THIS WHOLE PIECE. THIS CAN'T BE THE ONLY YOU WRITE FOR THIS FANDOM, YOU NEED TO WRITE MORE, PLEASE? (and post it to the comms to share with people!) hng ♥ i'm so, so glad that the mix inspired you to write this, because it's lovely.;;

[heartequals]

So flattered I forgot to reply! Go me. Um, this is a lovely comment, thank you so much, and I'm not sure if I mentioned before but I am overwhelmed with joy that you responded so positively to this story! SUCH A LOVELY FANMIX, oh my gosh.

I'm glad their characterizations rang more or less true -- there was a lot of hand-wringing and flailing over them!