[luceti] - Appointments

[captainhornblower]

Messages and meetings for Cpt. Horatio Hornblower.


(Please title and date as appropriate.)

Comments

[captainhornblower]

Horatio stared briefly at the uniform and a not-quite smile appeared on its face. "Seems the Malnosso felt kind-- the people who brought you here."

Because to stare at him as he had when he'd come in, Archie must not know what this place was. Which meant Horatio had to limp through an explanation, grope blindly at trying to find ways to explain what this place was.

He considered for a moment. Then... Then he remembered how wary Archie had been newly back on the Indefatigable. Perhaps the words would help. "We're... a long way from the Navy."

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Archie tried to disguise the relief he felt at that. He folded the uniform coat and lay it on the bed, reaching for a shirt and pulling it over his head. "Alexis said we're all from different times and worlds." A pause to button the cuffs of his sleeves.

[captainhornblower]

"We are." Horatio lingered in the doorway, watching without drawing too near. So many lifetimes ago, this man was from. A lifetime without Archie, a lifetime on the Renown... The years seemed small, counted out, but the effect was obvious. "And there are only three men here who serve His Britannic Majesty's Navy." For no officer of the King's Navy would protest the writing out of the Articles of War, so one man was discounted. Let him have his East India Trading Company... Hornblower would not call him a Navy man.

[simplestgift]

Archie paused, glancing toward Horatio, then pulling on a waistcoat and taking great care with the buttons. More care than necessary, really, until at last he looked straight at his friend. "And you're from a different time."

[captainhornblower]

"I... yes. I am. 1805."

How strange it felt to say that to this Archie, to stare at the young face that had been his peer.

1/2

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2/2

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[Maybe he's not that surprised by the time gap, but the year itself threw him off.]

...You've made master and commander at least by now, haven't you?

[captainhornblower]

["Haven't you?"

The words produce a strange mix of modesty and pride as Horatio nods once.]

I made post. Just before I came here.

Oop. Sorry. Didn't mean to go back to action tags.

[unneeded]

"Post in ten years!" He was in awe, suddenly a vision of the boy he had been when Horatio first met him. Then, abruptly, a slightly wry smile. "Of course. You're Horatio Hornblower."

It wasn't spoken with the bitterness it once would have been, but it's not spoken with a great deal of joy, either. He's reminded of his own inadequacy, and the obvious favoritism of their superiors.

[captainhornblower]

"Post in ten years," Horatio replied.

He smiled faintly and inclined his head just so. "And with the finest first lieutenant I could ever ask for."

It was not a lie. Of the men living, who could serve as his lieutenant, there was none he would choose over William Bush. Nor was the implication a lie. In this place, even without a proper Navy, Archie was his first lieutenant, and he could not ask for a better one.

1/?

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Done!

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"...You're joking."

[captainhornblower]

"My word as a gentleman, Archie."

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"I've made lieutenant?"

He hadn't just survived this awful transition, but he'd mastered it?

[captainhornblower]

"In '97." He flashed a smile. "From what I hear, the examination gave you no trouble at all."

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"...I'm your lieutenant." There was some pride in that. Pride, and hope that he was not yet separated from Horatio.

[captainhornblower]

Horatio looked at him, serious as he replied, "As if I would go anywhere without you."

[unneeded]

No. He wouldn't. Not then, not now. Never alone. Protected, if not from danger, then from the perpetual solitude he'd endured endlessly in prison, what threatened him daily even on the Indefatigable. Horatio had kept his word, even a decade into the future. We don't leave unless you do.

He didn't know what to do with that. To feel worth something to someone, however undeservedly. He found himself shutting the drawer and sitting on the bed, not sure what he was doing with it open anymore anyway. This was all a dream. A beautiful dream, and he was going to wake up and everything would be horrible again.

[captainhornblower]

And it was true, as much as it could be. For all the shadows that haunted Horatio, that whispered in his ear... There had always been another voice, the memory of a smile. Or a sharp rebuke when he needed it. A sight to remind him that he had a reason to go on. If not for himself, then so that his friend's sacrifice would not have been in vain.

He'd never let Archie go, not really.

"My room's just across the hall here. I'll... let you get some rest." He didn't want to go. He was sure Archie had to be tired. He couldn't imagine being anything but after whatever it was the Malnosso had done to him. But he didn't want to go. He wanted to do what he'd done in Ferrol... taken up a post in a chair in a corner. Watched over Archie.

Though there was nothing to hurt him here.

[unneeded]

An anxious look. He felt so very strange in this place, and a little frightened of having a room to himself. But Horatio was right across the hall, and surely wanted his privacy. A post-captain. Used to his privacy. By now, he must have outgrown the emotional nonsense that was causing Archie to fret so, and having been through it once already wouldn't want any part in it again.

If he were any other man. Maybe...

"Horatio."

It was less than a whisper, just four syllables combined into two and carried on a wistful sigh.

[captainhornblower]

"Archie."

Horatio raises his head from where he stands in the doorway, not having ventured further in, not having risked it. After all, there are years between them... and secrets now. But secrets for the better. Not entire falsehoods, but... secrets still.

He offered a faint, faint smile and, in answer to what he hoped the sound of his name meant, took a step inside the room.