Fic: Shelter (Bertie/Lionel, PG)

[cruisedirector]

Title: Shelter
Authors: dementordelta and cruisedirector
Rating: PG
Word Count: ~2900
Summary: The war changes everything, except the things that will never change.
Note: This follows all the posted parts of "Crown and Country" (they're all in this comm as well as on AO3 but out of order). This is less sexy and much darker than those.

Comments

[miss_morland]

Oh, I was so excited to see that you'd written more in this 'verse! \o/

This is absolutely lovely. I love the metaphor of the title; there's something wonderfully bittersweet about the contrasts between love and comfort and one side, and the horrors of war on the other.

And THIS:

The cottage at the edge of the known world was likely lost to him; by the time this war ended, Lionel knew, he would be an old man.

*tears up*

Thanks for this! <3

[cruisedirector]

Thank you! We actually have written loads in this 'verse but most of it is unprintable and rather redundant. *g* There is, however, a last bit that is happier than this -- postwar, so still bittersweet because they're neither young nor in the best of health, but less dark.

[oleander9999]

I come by and check every so often and was thrilled to find a new chapter of Crown and Country! I'm still asleep or I would have gotten the pun of the title (thanks, miss_morlandMy heart was simultaneously broken and warmed by this story: broken because we know that, though this is fiction, they really did suffer the horrors of the Blitz and Bertie was losing his health, Lionel getting older, warmed because in your universe they have each other completely. I love that they have their memories of Balmoral, of their many levels of union, their dreams of what might have been and what will be in another life, another world

[cruisedirector]

Thank you so much! There's one more chapter and I think that's really the last one (it's postwar, neither of them is young) but it's much happier than this one, though this one isn't nearly as bad as reality must have been. I think there is no question from the letters and diaries that they were a comfort to each other during the war and immediately afterward (no sooner had Lionel celebrated the fact that his sons had come through safely than he lost Myrtle).

Do believe me on the redundancy. I've been editing the last bit and it has some of the same lines nearly word for word over and over. The sorts of things people say before falling asleep etc. *g* There's almost nothing that moves a plot as such.

[quyllur]

Love the sweetness and how close they are. So grateful that they can take shelter with each other during the times that send them seeking physical shelter. Thank you!

[cruisedirector]

Thank you! There's one more, happier bit of this series -- I couldn't decide whether this one was dark and depressing or in fact not nearly dark enough considering the era in history in which it's set. And Lionel and Bertie were two of the really lucky ones -- their families and their friendship came through the war intact. I need to post the happy ending!