[luceti] - Appointments

[captainhornblower]

Messages and meetings for Cpt. Horatio Hornblower.


(Please title and date as appropriate.)

Comments

[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.

[unneeded]

A sigh of relief. Archie bowed his head, obscuring his face in the shadow of his bangs. The emotional roller coaster of the evening had set him straight on the path to a troubled sleep, but even a troubled sleep was still sleep. Maybe he would wake tomorrow in his hammock on the Indy, and later tell Horatio of his strange dream that they were in another world together and his friend was ten years older and a post-captain.

Or maybe, wonder of wonders, he would wake up in this same bed, far from the life he'd been strong-armed back into, with the room to breathe until he learned to stand on his own again.

"Thank you."

[captainhornblower]

Horatio smiled and nodded. He took a seat in the chair in the room, as easily as if it had been yesterday that he'd slept in a much harder one beside Archie, determined to see him regain his strength.

"I'll be right here."

He glanced up at the light in the room, torn. Only way to decide, though, was to ask. "Would you like it put out? Or would you prefer it stay lit?"

[unneeded]

"...Is there another light?"

The steady light is unnerving, but he doesn't want the darkness.

[captainhornblower]

"There's one candle in here, and I've another two in my room I could fetch," he offered.

[unneeded]

"Could you?"

He sounded too hopeful.

[captainhornblower]

"Happily. I'll be back presently."

Sure enough, he is gone only as long as it takes for him to grab his candle and the book of matches from the kitchen. After he sets the candles on the dresser, Archie's ready by his bed, he draws one of the matches across its strip, lighting it. The two candles on the dresser are lit.

He goes over to the bed, using a second match to light the candle near there. Then, he reaches up to turn off the light.

"How's that?"

[unneeded]

In the dancing shadows, the room could almost be his bedroom back on the estate. It's been years since he's seen it, but he remembers it. Archie, already under the covers by the time Horatio gets back, settles back into the pillows.

"Fine, Horatio."