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midshipThis should, objectively, be the best day of his life. Somehow, it isn't.
The HMS Hotspur truly is the most beautiful sloop Horatio has ever laid eyes on. Command of her truly is the pinnacle he's aspired to through all the blood, sweat, and tears of these last long, painful years. By all accounts, taking the deck ought to be a purely blissful thing.
Somehow, Horatio hasn't slept a wink all night. Somehow, even as he pulls on his uniform in the chilly hours of the morning, his stomach is roiling and unquiet. Somehow, for all he ought objectively skipping bodily over the waves, he's practically stumbling by the time he hits the dock and shaking as he bundles into the jolly boat.
He feels dreadful--genuinely dreadful. The rock of the sea under his feet will hardly do much to improve his already quarrelsome stomach.
(More than that, the best day of his life had already come to pass. The best day of his life had been when Archie Kennedy squeezed his hand tight and took a first shaking step from his cot.)
Thank goodness his first lieutenant will be with him in the little skiff. Thank goodness he'll have a chance to begin to collect himself before he has to set foot on the Hotspur's deck.
On his deck.
The joy mixes with nausea again, and Horatio's fingers fumble for the nearest something solid to catch hold of.
The HMS Hotspur truly is the most beautiful sloop Horatio has ever laid eyes on. Command of her truly is the pinnacle he's aspired to through all the blood, sweat, and tears of these last long, painful years. By all accounts, taking the deck ought to be a purely blissful thing.
Somehow, Horatio hasn't slept a wink all night. Somehow, even as he pulls on his uniform in the chilly hours of the morning, his stomach is roiling and unquiet. Somehow, for all he ought objectively skipping bodily over the waves, he's practically stumbling by the time he hits the dock and shaking as he bundles into the jolly boat.
He feels dreadful--genuinely dreadful. The rock of the sea under his feet will hardly do much to improve his already quarrelsome stomach.
(More than that, the best day of his life had already come to pass. The best day of his life had been when Archie Kennedy squeezed his hand tight and took a first shaking step from his cot.)
Thank goodness his first lieutenant will be with him in the little skiff. Thank goodness he'll have a chance to begin to collect himself before he has to set foot on the Hotspur's deck.
On his deck.
The joy mixes with nausea again, and Horatio's fingers fumble for the nearest something solid to catch hold of.
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Date: 2017-08-15 02:07 pm (UTC)Can't help the murmur as he leans back again, reluctant as ever to be parted from him even by this much space, "I love you."
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Date: 2017-08-15 04:17 pm (UTC)It has Horatio dizzy with glee all the same.
"I-- love you, Archie."
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Date: 2017-08-15 06:14 pm (UTC)He's known for some time now, for all it didn't feel safe to say until recently.
"And we'll-- show it again soon enough."
Not now, unfortunately, but soon.
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Date: 2017-08-15 07:23 pm (UTC)Squeezing Archie's hands has a sense of finality to it. Thank goodness it's actually very much a beginning.
"Go. Set the men to gun drills again, will you?"
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Date: 2017-08-16 02:18 am (UTC)"You'll tell me everything I'm-- allowed to know about our mission later?"
Because of course they'll be later. Of course the captain and the first lieutenant are allowed to spend a considerable amount of time together, especially at the beginning of a voyage.
Of course Archie's looking for every excuse to be able to spend that time.
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Date: 2017-08-16 11:51 pm (UTC)They'll have to manage their way around their duty, of course. They'll have to find how to balance their roles and their devotion; their need for time as captain and first lieutenant, their ability to take time as lovers.
Now that they're properly here, it feels infinitely possible.