Fic: The Simplest Gift (HH)
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I have just made myself all sniffly by watching the end of Retribution, hoping that it would provide inspiration for (ETA: a title for) this tiny little ficlet-thingy that I wrote the other night. It did.
Title: The Simplest Gift
Pairing: none is made explicit
Notes: It's post-Retribution but Archie is a central presence...
When he meets Hornblower again, months later on the bleak streets of Portsmouth, it is of Archie that he thinks. Hornblower is pale and strange, with his gaunt face and his threadbare clothes, and his defensive pose of normality moves Bush to angry despair. Was it for this, he asks himself, that Archie made his sacrifice?
When Horatio’s promotion to Commander is confirmed and Bush accepts the post of Lieutenant on the Hotspur, it is Archie’s words that keep running through his mind. He will think he has no-one left in the world, William, and that is when he will most need his friends.
The Hotspur has been at sea barely two weeks and Bush has lately begun to fear that he knows the answer to the question he would ask, if only he could. My friendship for him is not in doubt. But will he accept it, Archie? Will he?
***
I'll probably cross-post it to crumpeteers.
I have just made myself all sniffly by watching the end of Retribution, hoping that it would provide inspiration for (ETA: a title for) this tiny little ficlet-thingy that I wrote the other night. It did.
Title: The Simplest Gift
Pairing: none is made explicit
Notes: It's post-Retribution but Archie is a central presence...
When he meets Hornblower again, months later on the bleak streets of Portsmouth, it is of Archie that he thinks. Hornblower is pale and strange, with his gaunt face and his threadbare clothes, and his defensive pose of normality moves Bush to angry despair. Was it for this, he asks himself, that Archie made his sacrifice?
When Horatio’s promotion to Commander is confirmed and Bush accepts the post of Lieutenant on the Hotspur, it is Archie’s words that keep running through his mind. He will think he has no-one left in the world, William, and that is when he will most need his friends.
The Hotspur has been at sea barely two weeks and Bush has lately begun to fear that he knows the answer to the question he would ask, if only he could. My friendship for him is not in doubt. But will he accept it, Archie? Will he?
***
I'll probably cross-post it to crumpeteers.