[fanfic] the things we found back home; the montmaray journals, simon/toby, pg
title; rating: the things we found back home; pg
fandom, pairing; count: the montmaray journals, simon/toby (suggested toby/veronica, simon/toby/veronica, simon/sophie); 737
notes: barely spoilerish for book 1 (and I haven't read book 2 yet so no spoilers in the comments, please.)
The first time Toby FitzOsbone kisses Simon Chester they're at Montmaray.
It's Simon's birthday and Toby is drunk on brandy and too much sun and even though his sisters and Veronica are just up the path, he leans in and presses his lips to Simon's.
Toby remembers the way Simon's cheeks flush, and the way he can't help himself from kissing him again until he can hear Henry giggling, her voice much closer than before (and she sounds just like a girl). Simon untangles his hand from Toby's shirt and steps back, a look of guilt written all over his beautiful face. But after... he sees it there, a brilliant flash of shy smile, just for a half a second.
Just enough.
"Happy Birthday, Simon," Toby grins and then sprints into a run, calling out for Henry, a laugh at the back of his throat.
-
It isn't like Simon doesn't know that Sophie FitzOsborne is in love with him.
And the truth is, even though she is a bit younger, he wouldn't hesitate to love her back, if only he could.
She sits with Veronica in the library, doodling something in a leather-bound book when he catches her looking at him.
The way her face goes bright crimson reminds him so much of her brother Toby that he wonders if maybe he could come to love her too.
But even in that moment of doubt, Simon knows he can't choose which of the FitzOsbornes arrests his heart.
-
Toby almost tells Veronica once.
She's splayed across his lap on his bed, her hair spilling out over his leg and across the sheets, and she reads aloud from a book about fated loves, the kind torn apart by circumstances beyond their control, a true rarity for her.
She comes to a part in the story and her voice drops low, and she takes a pause, swallowing hard.
"Honestly, I don't see the point of all this," she tells him. "I mean, if you really love someone, what could possibly stop you from being with them?"
Toby knows she must be thinking of Isabella. The love between a mother and daughter is one that most would agree should be stronger even than romantic love.
He reaches out, brushes her hair back from her forehead. "It's not always so simple, Veronica," he tells her, a kindness in his voice that she recognizes.
The look she gives him is positively shattered.
"Yes it is," she closes her eyes, relaxing against him as he tucks a strand behind her ear. And then, with a sigh of calm resignation, "I'm never going to be in love."
-
When Simon spies the two cousins together on Toby's bed, his heart is momentarily seized with jealousy.
The gentleness with which Toby reaches out to brush her hair back, the sense of serenity exuding from Veronica: it makes him ache for them.
Both of them.
He has never seen Veronica FitzOsborne less contrary in his presence than she is right now. The feircely argumentative girl he knows melts away when Toby touches her. Simon wonders, briefly, what you might call that kind of power over someone.
And then he realizes...
It's love.
-
The second they get off the boat, Toby throws his arm around Simon's shoulders.
"Thought we'd never make it," he says. "But here we are."
It's late at night, and they walk from the docks, past a noisy tavern and out of sight of the men working to unload the boat. He kisses Simon, who steps backward against the brick tavern wall, and somewhere in his windswept mind, he realizes that it's always him kissing Simon first, and not the other way around.
Still, Simon lets him, opens his mouth, brings a hand to cover the back of Toby's neck until a group of drunken sailors barrels out of the pub and spills into the street.
When the group passes, Toby bites his bottom lip, and presses his forehead against Simon's, a grin on his lips.
"One of these days..." Simon says, an ache in his voice, like he doesn't really care what would happen if indeed they were caught.
"One of these days," Toby agrees.
He reaches out and grabs a handful of Simon's shirt at his collar, dragging him back toward the boat to help unload. "C'mon, Chester," Toby says. "Or they'll come looking for us."
-fin.