[luceti] - Appointments

[captainhornblower]

Messages and meetings for Cpt. Horatio Hornblower.


(Please title and date as appropriate.)

Comments

[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."

[captainhornblower]

Horatio nods, crossing the room silently and taking a seat again in the chair. He smiles, the candles much more natural to him than the lamps on the ceiling. He can't help his nerves, but he can help showing them. So he sits calm and still, and his voice is quiet.

"Good. I'm glad."

[unneeded]

He turns his head, cheek against the pillow, looking at his friend.

"You won't go anywhere?"

[captainhornblower]

"I won't leave your side."

Horatio leans forward in the chair, offering a small smile in the darkness, whether or not Archie can see it.

"I promise."

[unneeded]

A tiny, half-hearted smile that tries. It's so hard, sometimes, walled up in the midshipmens' berth with Horatio in the wardroom. This is swiftly driving away some of the troubles that would have plagued his sleep. He closes his eyes, then opens them as if to make sure his surroundings have remained. Satisfied, he lets out a breath and tries to sleep.

[captainhornblower]

Horatio shifts in the chair. It isn't the first time he's slept in one, and... both in Luceti and his world, he doubts it will be the last. So he settles in, breathing easily as he tries to let himself fall asleep as well.

[unneeded]

As Archie settles, the St. Michael pendant that mysteriously found its way onto his neck slides over his chest. He reaches to touch it, frowning slightly. "Horatio?"

[captainhornblower]

Horatio lifts his head. "Hm? What is it, Archie?"

[unneeded]

He draws the pendant out from his shirt. "Where did this come from?"

[captainhornblower]

It takes Horatio a moment to figure out what he's talking about, though he smiles a bit. "It's... It's a gift. From later than you remember. Saint Michael." In case Archie hadn't looked at it closely in the light. Then, softly, "To keep you safe."

[unneeded]

"Annnnd is there a particular reason I might arrive with a gift I've yet to receive?"

He is so very, very tired.

[captainhornblower]

"I'll see if I can't explain more tomorrow, but as for now..." Damned if he could process how to lay things out. Not when he hadn't really slept the last night and had paced like a madman most of the day, desperate to distract himself while also keen on either looking for Archie or thinking up ways to attack the bots and do harm. "Will it suffice to say that the Malnosso are strange creatures and what they do rarely makes much sense?"

He paused, then added, quietly, "I'm glad, though, they didn't take it. That you have it."

[unneeded]

Archie closes his hand around the pendant now, sinking back into the pillows. "So am I." His eyelids droop.