Your face has faded but lingers on: Two Jimmy/Richard fics
Fandom: Boardwalk Empire
Pairing/Characters: Jimmy/Richard
Title: Intolerable Constant
Word Count: 545
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I own nothing BE wise
Summary: Written for a one sided Jimmy/Richard prompt over at cloudytea's Boardwalk Empire Ficathon. The prompt was: "Sometimes my heart doesn't beat at night" .
Richard has feelings but they are one sided...
Dawn releases its breath uncovering a sky of purples, reds and oranges-a splash of water colors against a sky ripe with morning.
Hair full of sand and salt Richard gets up after a time and packs up his scope, his partner having long left. His boot brushes against one of Jimmy’s discarded cigarette butts; his aftershave is still faintly on the wind and there are impressions in the sand left by his boots. Richard frowns at the end to some beginning that never started.
_
This life doesn’t know him anymore. He lost it the day he met James Darmody. A rock thrown out to sea.
Richard is a wound up, rusting metal toy placed on a high self in a dusty, dark corner. Silence traps him to his own thoughts, a white hot and deep cut to the bone.
Sometimes he finds himself in long silent hallways surrounded by stark walls. He rests his forehead against them and closes his eye, cool to the touch and numbing to the past. Women and children’s voices echo up from below and Richard thinks this is enough.
He follows moonlit steps up to his bedroom. The house creaks and shifts underfoot and the lamps warm glow throws small shadows in the corners. He hunches over his small desk in the dim light, his too big of fingers tangled in metal shears as he cuts picture after picture, the white scraps littering the dusty floor like snowflakes. He fills up the scrapbook save for one page.
Richard stares at it, the blank page like a void, his destiny. His destiny was destroyed, all except the dead. The dead linger on like linings on the insides of his pockets. Rows and rows of skeletons like a coat check. Only Jimmy understands the horror of death, the horror of war. Only Jimmy really understands him. Richard runs his blistered and calloused fingers over the page, thoughts of the person he wants there swirls around in his mind like a snow globe.
Richard lies in his cramped bed at night, eyes to a ceiling he cannot see, a hand over a face that’s only half there. The rusty metal toy’s chest aches with pain. Surely his heart is beating but he can’t be sure. He thinks it could be in a house close to the ocean where a family he knows now lives.
Richard thinks: If you looked but didn’t really see or turned away I would give you a sound, a taste, a touch so you could see me. I’d thread a ribbon through your ribs to keep it all together and then you would know me. If only given a chance, the rusty toy taken down from the high shelf, I’d let you in.
_
Waves roll and crash to the shore. Light slips through Richard's fingers as he adjusts his cap.
As fog settles down to earth Richard inhales machinery and oil, fire and smoke, blood and war.
I’d let you in.
As his lungs exhale brevity’s breath, thoughts of toys, dusty dark corners, and normalcy are released to the salty wind. Deep orange rays skim the surface of the choppy water. Richard squints to see what’s beyond the horizon and to what lies ahead.
I would have.
Fandom: Boardwalk Empire
Pairing/Characters: Jimmy/Richard
Title: Long After
Word Count: 1,191
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I own nothing BE wise
Summary: Written for deadwillwalk. Happy Belated Birthday, girl!
Takes place directly after Season 2, episode 5: "Gimcrack and Bunkum"
Richard deals with the knowledge of what he almost did but Jimmy helps him forget
Long after he leaves the forest, after the fire dies and he says his goodbyes to his newly acquainted friends and after the taste of strong alcohol and roasted varmint vanish the metallic taste of the shotgun still lingers heavily on his tongue like a reminder.
Richard can still smell the pine and earth in his clothes and can feel the chill that’s crept into his skin from the slow night wind.
The car bumps and sways along the road jostling Richard out of his reverie.
Richard can finally feel his heart beat faster, a painful thrum against his ribs thanks to Jimmy’s reassurances and touch.
Richard had told him afterwards when he finally was awakened: “Then let’s go to work” and so they did. Without another word Jimmy grabbed his coat, hat and gun, stuck the knife in his boot and Richard quickly followed Jimmy out to his car.
The dog tags concealed under his shirt move in time against the pulses of his heart and Richard looks to the ex solider sitting next to him. He finally feels he’s able to take in the younger man now that his mind has quieted and smoothed out.
Jimmy lights a cigarette, the bright flare lighting up his face. Jimmy turns his head and returns the book of matches to his pocket when Richard notices the wound above Jimmy’s left eye. Without his consent his hand grips Jimmy’s arm like it has a mind of his own.
Jimmy’s hand is still in his pocket, his other on the wheel, and his cigarette dangles precariously from his lips. He glances up at Richard before flicking his eyes back to the road.
“When?” Richard hates how even gruffer his voice sounds as it cuts through the darkness, the chill from being outside so long and his brush with death still cling to him.
Jimmy’s eyes are trained to the road but eventually glance to Richard’s hand still securely on Jimmy’s arm. His eyes slowly sweep up to rest on Richard’s face, his eyebrows knitted together in confusion. The moon peeks behind a cloud and Richard is able to see the injury a little clearer. Jimmy must hear Richard’s sharp intake of breath and must see the wince on his face because Jimmy’s face smoothes out and his body relaxes. He nods a little and focuses back on the road.
He takes a long drag, exhales and tosses the half smoked cigarette out the window angrily. Richard sees it spark upon impact of the road like a falling star before it flickers and dies out.
“Earlier today but when doesn’t matter anymore it’s who and we’re going to pay him a little visit right now,” Jimmy grips the steering wheel a bit harder, the moonlight revealing a murderous glint in his eye. His lips curl up in a little smile when he looks to Richard and they share a knowing look.
“Never again.”
Jimmy relaxes further back into his seat upon his words, the smile never leaving his face.
Richard runs his thumb across Jimmy’s arm lightly. A certain kind of peace settles over the younger man and Richard doesn’t want anyone to disrupt that.
“Never again.”
_
Because they have excess adrenaline to work off, or so Jimmy says they do, they stop on the way back, the blood on Richard’s knife and hands still cooling.
Jimmy procures a bottle of something from somewhere in the car and Richard hurriedly follows him to the beach.
Moonlight and stars reflected in the obsidian waves is like a night sky multiplied. The night feels larger though still dark. Richard feels drawn into it like a vacuum, only stopping when he is side by side with his friend.
The sounds of the sea spray and the waves crashing to the shore soothe him.
“Do you think we’ve seen too much death?”
Richard peers at Jimmy curiously. “Mmph. What do you mean?”
Jimmy takes a pull from the bottle before handing it to Richard. He gestures to their surroundings.
“That life should reaffirm life. Not death.”
Richard looks away, maybe a little too quickly. Jimmy’s words hit too close to home after the accumulation of events that day.
Richard shifts his mask and takes a long swig from the bottle and shrugs as if that’s enough of a response to Jimmy’s theoretical question. Not for the first time that day Richard doesn’t trust his voice. He tries in vain to quell his hands that shake slightly at the knowledge of what he almost did; it all rushing back to him and his mind can’t keep up.
There’s sudden movement that Richard can just make out from the corner of his eye. Jimmy takes his arm much like Richard took his earlier, leans in close and captures his lips. Jimmy’s lips are surprisingly soft yet forceful and insistent like there is no room for questions or second guessing.
Jimmy moves his hands to Richard’s face, his thumbs tracing slow lazy circles on his skin. He kisses him with purpose and direction just with everything else he does and Richard would expect nothing less. When he coaxes Richard’s lips with his tongue Richard opens for him and returns the kiss, practically clinging to the younger man as if he needs him to stand and really he does. Richard tries to match Jimmy’s pace and to keep up, to follow as he always has to Jimmy’s lead.
Richard isn’t sure for how long but neither move from their position as the kisses, nips and caresses continue. Eventually Jimmy slows them down. He slips his hand around to Richard’s neck and plays with the short strands of hair there and kisses his top lip lazily.
Their foreheads rest against each other like some magnetic force and Richard hears someone sigh. Everything is jumbled up, mixed together and utterly perfect and he can’t decipher who’s who or what’s what.
Jimmy’s lips are still close to his and his warm breath ghosts over him practically pushing the words inside Richard: “Something like that.”
Jimmy tugs at the lip of Richard’s hat affectionately, his face flushed, lips moist, eyes shiny and pupils dilated.
He picks up the bottle that Richard had dropped earlier and forgotten about. He dusts sand off of it and takes a pull as he makes the slow climb back up to the road with Richard quick on his heels.
Long after Richard follows Jimmy back to the car, back to Atlantic City and back to his life he still feels the phantom touches of the younger man’s fingers in his hair, on his face, and on his lips. He can still taste the whiskey like a chaser after Jimmy’s tongue; can see the moonlight reflected on his pale features and can feel the warmth of his hand as it rested on his knee comfortably the whole drive back.
Richard watches Jimmy as he drives, his fingers eventually finding Richard’s, his eyes never breaking from watching the long road stretched out before them. Life reaffirms life long after death is chased away. Richard only has to look at Jimmy to reaffirm this.
Pairing/Characters: Jimmy/Richard
Title: Intolerable Constant
Word Count: 545
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I own nothing BE wise
Summary: Written for a one sided Jimmy/Richard prompt over at cloudytea's Boardwalk Empire Ficathon. The prompt was: "Sometimes my heart doesn't beat at night" .
Richard has feelings but they are one sided...
Dawn releases its breath uncovering a sky of purples, reds and oranges-a splash of water colors against a sky ripe with morning.
Hair full of sand and salt Richard gets up after a time and packs up his scope, his partner having long left. His boot brushes against one of Jimmy’s discarded cigarette butts; his aftershave is still faintly on the wind and there are impressions in the sand left by his boots. Richard frowns at the end to some beginning that never started.
_
This life doesn’t know him anymore. He lost it the day he met James Darmody. A rock thrown out to sea.
Richard is a wound up, rusting metal toy placed on a high self in a dusty, dark corner. Silence traps him to his own thoughts, a white hot and deep cut to the bone.
Sometimes he finds himself in long silent hallways surrounded by stark walls. He rests his forehead against them and closes his eye, cool to the touch and numbing to the past. Women and children’s voices echo up from below and Richard thinks this is enough.
He follows moonlit steps up to his bedroom. The house creaks and shifts underfoot and the lamps warm glow throws small shadows in the corners. He hunches over his small desk in the dim light, his too big of fingers tangled in metal shears as he cuts picture after picture, the white scraps littering the dusty floor like snowflakes. He fills up the scrapbook save for one page.
Richard stares at it, the blank page like a void, his destiny. His destiny was destroyed, all except the dead. The dead linger on like linings on the insides of his pockets. Rows and rows of skeletons like a coat check. Only Jimmy understands the horror of death, the horror of war. Only Jimmy really understands him. Richard runs his blistered and calloused fingers over the page, thoughts of the person he wants there swirls around in his mind like a snow globe.
Richard lies in his cramped bed at night, eyes to a ceiling he cannot see, a hand over a face that’s only half there. The rusty metal toy’s chest aches with pain. Surely his heart is beating but he can’t be sure. He thinks it could be in a house close to the ocean where a family he knows now lives.
Richard thinks: If you looked but didn’t really see or turned away I would give you a sound, a taste, a touch so you could see me. I’d thread a ribbon through your ribs to keep it all together and then you would know me. If only given a chance, the rusty toy taken down from the high shelf, I’d let you in.
_
Waves roll and crash to the shore. Light slips through Richard's fingers as he adjusts his cap.
As fog settles down to earth Richard inhales machinery and oil, fire and smoke, blood and war.
I’d let you in.
As his lungs exhale brevity’s breath, thoughts of toys, dusty dark corners, and normalcy are released to the salty wind. Deep orange rays skim the surface of the choppy water. Richard squints to see what’s beyond the horizon and to what lies ahead.
I would have.
Fandom: Boardwalk Empire
Pairing/Characters: Jimmy/Richard
Title: Long After
Word Count: 1,191
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I own nothing BE wise
Summary: Written for deadwillwalk. Happy Belated Birthday, girl!
Takes place directly after Season 2, episode 5: "Gimcrack and Bunkum"
Richard deals with the knowledge of what he almost did but Jimmy helps him forget
Long after he leaves the forest, after the fire dies and he says his goodbyes to his newly acquainted friends and after the taste of strong alcohol and roasted varmint vanish the metallic taste of the shotgun still lingers heavily on his tongue like a reminder.
Richard can still smell the pine and earth in his clothes and can feel the chill that’s crept into his skin from the slow night wind.
The car bumps and sways along the road jostling Richard out of his reverie.
Richard can finally feel his heart beat faster, a painful thrum against his ribs thanks to Jimmy’s reassurances and touch.
Richard had told him afterwards when he finally was awakened: “Then let’s go to work” and so they did. Without another word Jimmy grabbed his coat, hat and gun, stuck the knife in his boot and Richard quickly followed Jimmy out to his car.
The dog tags concealed under his shirt move in time against the pulses of his heart and Richard looks to the ex solider sitting next to him. He finally feels he’s able to take in the younger man now that his mind has quieted and smoothed out.
Jimmy lights a cigarette, the bright flare lighting up his face. Jimmy turns his head and returns the book of matches to his pocket when Richard notices the wound above Jimmy’s left eye. Without his consent his hand grips Jimmy’s arm like it has a mind of his own.
Jimmy’s hand is still in his pocket, his other on the wheel, and his cigarette dangles precariously from his lips. He glances up at Richard before flicking his eyes back to the road.
“When?” Richard hates how even gruffer his voice sounds as it cuts through the darkness, the chill from being outside so long and his brush with death still cling to him.
Jimmy’s eyes are trained to the road but eventually glance to Richard’s hand still securely on Jimmy’s arm. His eyes slowly sweep up to rest on Richard’s face, his eyebrows knitted together in confusion. The moon peeks behind a cloud and Richard is able to see the injury a little clearer. Jimmy must hear Richard’s sharp intake of breath and must see the wince on his face because Jimmy’s face smoothes out and his body relaxes. He nods a little and focuses back on the road.
He takes a long drag, exhales and tosses the half smoked cigarette out the window angrily. Richard sees it spark upon impact of the road like a falling star before it flickers and dies out.
“Earlier today but when doesn’t matter anymore it’s who and we’re going to pay him a little visit right now,” Jimmy grips the steering wheel a bit harder, the moonlight revealing a murderous glint in his eye. His lips curl up in a little smile when he looks to Richard and they share a knowing look.
“Never again.”
Jimmy relaxes further back into his seat upon his words, the smile never leaving his face.
Richard runs his thumb across Jimmy’s arm lightly. A certain kind of peace settles over the younger man and Richard doesn’t want anyone to disrupt that.
“Never again.”
_
Because they have excess adrenaline to work off, or so Jimmy says they do, they stop on the way back, the blood on Richard’s knife and hands still cooling.
Jimmy procures a bottle of something from somewhere in the car and Richard hurriedly follows him to the beach.
Moonlight and stars reflected in the obsidian waves is like a night sky multiplied. The night feels larger though still dark. Richard feels drawn into it like a vacuum, only stopping when he is side by side with his friend.
The sounds of the sea spray and the waves crashing to the shore soothe him.
“Do you think we’ve seen too much death?”
Richard peers at Jimmy curiously. “Mmph. What do you mean?”
Jimmy takes a pull from the bottle before handing it to Richard. He gestures to their surroundings.
“That life should reaffirm life. Not death.”
Richard looks away, maybe a little too quickly. Jimmy’s words hit too close to home after the accumulation of events that day.
Richard shifts his mask and takes a long swig from the bottle and shrugs as if that’s enough of a response to Jimmy’s theoretical question. Not for the first time that day Richard doesn’t trust his voice. He tries in vain to quell his hands that shake slightly at the knowledge of what he almost did; it all rushing back to him and his mind can’t keep up.
There’s sudden movement that Richard can just make out from the corner of his eye. Jimmy takes his arm much like Richard took his earlier, leans in close and captures his lips. Jimmy’s lips are surprisingly soft yet forceful and insistent like there is no room for questions or second guessing.
Jimmy moves his hands to Richard’s face, his thumbs tracing slow lazy circles on his skin. He kisses him with purpose and direction just with everything else he does and Richard would expect nothing less. When he coaxes Richard’s lips with his tongue Richard opens for him and returns the kiss, practically clinging to the younger man as if he needs him to stand and really he does. Richard tries to match Jimmy’s pace and to keep up, to follow as he always has to Jimmy’s lead.
Richard isn’t sure for how long but neither move from their position as the kisses, nips and caresses continue. Eventually Jimmy slows them down. He slips his hand around to Richard’s neck and plays with the short strands of hair there and kisses his top lip lazily.
Their foreheads rest against each other like some magnetic force and Richard hears someone sigh. Everything is jumbled up, mixed together and utterly perfect and he can’t decipher who’s who or what’s what.
Jimmy’s lips are still close to his and his warm breath ghosts over him practically pushing the words inside Richard: “Something like that.”
Jimmy tugs at the lip of Richard’s hat affectionately, his face flushed, lips moist, eyes shiny and pupils dilated.
He picks up the bottle that Richard had dropped earlier and forgotten about. He dusts sand off of it and takes a pull as he makes the slow climb back up to the road with Richard quick on his heels.
Long after Richard follows Jimmy back to the car, back to Atlantic City and back to his life he still feels the phantom touches of the younger man’s fingers in his hair, on his face, and on his lips. He can still taste the whiskey like a chaser after Jimmy’s tongue; can see the moonlight reflected on his pale features and can feel the warmth of his hand as it rested on his knee comfortably the whole drive back.
Richard watches Jimmy as he drives, his fingers eventually finding Richard’s, his eyes never breaking from watching the long road stretched out before them. Life reaffirms life long after death is chased away. Richard only has to look at Jimmy to reaffirm this.