Fic: The Simplest Gift (HH)

[rosiespark]

.
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.

Comments

[fairestcat]

*sniff* Oh, that is wonderful.

[rosiespark.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you! I am so glad you liked it! ::beams::

I wasn't entirely sure about it - it's so short, but it felt complete. And any attempt to add to it felt like padding. In fact, it was originally one sentence longer, with more detail about Horatio's miserable existence in Portsmouth which I decided to cut.

I hate the way Loyalty and Duty don't make a single reference to Archie. It's just not realistic.

That's a very Horatio sentiment in your icon. :) Is there a story behind it?

[fairestcat]

It's actually a lyric from a song by the group The Lightning Seeds it just sort of jumped out and bit me one listening and said "I need to be a Horatio icon."

The hardest thing with short fic is not being afraid to keep them short. Drabbles and ficlets are often the personification of less is more and I think you did a great job here of not puttin gin too much.

[rosiespark.livejournal.com]

not puttin gin too much.

I know it's a typo but it's making me laugh because there was a bit about Horatio's "gin-sodden shrew of a landlady" in the sentence I cut. *g*

[tanacawyr.livejournal.com]

The fact that this hurts like hell and is entirely accurate is why I refuse to admit that Archie died. :-} He's alive and well and snuggling with Horatio like clockwork, I tell you. Making Horatio live after losing Archie is like condemning him to purgatory.

[rosiespark.livejournal.com]

The fact that this hurts like hell and is entirely accurate

I'll take that as praise. *g*

While I appreciate LKU stories, I think I've sort of come to terms with the way Retribution ends. The rest of Horatio's life is a gift that only Archie could give him, and which Archie wanted him to have. So I like to think that eventually Horatio gets over his grief and is able to find joy in his life, because that's what Archie wanted for him.

What I can't stand is the way there's no mention of Archie in the films post-Retribution. Slashy relationships aside, after what they've been through together, there's no way Horatio and Bush could so much as look at each other without thinking of Archie.

It's funny but I think watching JB play Apollo in BSG has helped reconcile me to Archie's death. Not sure exactly how. Maybe you should give in and watch it...

[tanacawyr.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm not prepared to leave "Hornblower" behind. I like the universe, I like the AUs, and I have no reason to leave. And I'm not exactly straining at the bit to watch something that isn't to my taste in order to "give in" and admit that I should stop enjoying "Hornblower."

[rosiespark.livejournal.com]

I didn't mean that you should stop enjoying Hornblower - I wouldn't dream of suggesting that to anyone, and I certainly haven't and wouldn't want to "leave Hornblower behind" myself. I'm sorry if that's how my comment came across! I was actually joking when I suggested "giving in" and watching BSG - and only because I do think you'd like it if you did watch it. But hey, no pressure! :)

[semyaza.livejournal.com]

I can't watch post-Retribution Hornblower at all. I love Horatio and Bush, but I just miss Archie so damn much and it seems as if he was never there somehow. They really killed the heart of that series when they killed off Archie. So I'll stick with the AUs and pretend he never died, because that's the purpose of fan fiction, isn't it? To rewrite canon? Don't tell anyone in LotR that I said that. :D

But this captures the feeling of Horatio without Archie very nicely, and certainly doesn't need to be even one sentence longer.

[rosiespark.livejournal.com]

They really killed the heart of that series when they killed off Archie.

I think you're right. ::sigh::

I'm glad you thought the fic worked. It's a tiny little thing, but seeing that I agonise over every word that I write, at least being so short made it easier to actually finish it. I have a number of HH WIPs that I would like to finish - in fact Archie's words to Bush in this one come from an unfinished scene between Archie and Bush (and Clive) that takes place the night before Archie makes his fateful asppearance at the Court Martial.

As for fanfic - well, some of it rewrites canaon and some of it merely fills in the holes. I'll read both types with pleasure, as long as they're well thought-out and well written.

[rosiespark.livejournal.com]

Oh God, my spelling!

appearance appearance appearance
canon canon canon

*g*

[timberwolfoz.livejournal.com]

*applauds until my hands sting*

Perfect. Just perfect.

[rosiespark.livejournal.com]

Why, thank you! ::bows, beams and blushes all at once::

It was fun to write. It just sort of came to me one night as I was lying in bed, and only needed a bit of playing with to nail the structural echoes in each paragraph - and then to pare it down to the essentials.

[commodorified.livejournal.com]

Gorgeous! *sniffles*

*refuses to believe a word of it but loves madly regardless*

[rosiespark.livejournal.com]

Oh my goodness! If you like it, then my cup runneth over. Woohoo! :)

[black-hound.livejournal.com]

Lovely. Precise and emotional.

I am certainly an advocate for everyone creating their own art from what we were given in the HH series, be that LKU or DKU or AU or whatever. But, in my heart of hearts I think it is important to see Kennedy die in the movieverse, just as it is important to see Bush die in the book canon. I love the romance and adventure and the pretty military boys in very pretty uniforms, but this was still a war -- with loss and broken lives left in its wake -- and sometimes that point just needs to be made.

[rosiespark.livejournal.com]

Thank you! ::huggles lovely feedback:: And it seems that something about this ficlet has called up all the beautiful Archie and Horatio icons in the fandom - yours, commodorified's, tanacawyr's... ::sigh::

I quite see what you mean about Archie dying being necessary. It feels very true to me, somehow, as well as making dramatic sense. And what you said about "loss and broken lives" is reminding me of a discussion on lj somewhere about the ATKM-verse fics, about how commodorified and damned_colonial "got war in their smut". Needless to say, I have no complaints on that score. ;)

Back to Archie - Mutiny and Retribution break my heart, but I love watching them. Now, that is, that I've finally (I think!) got over wailing "noooo..." at the screen and cursing the scriptwriters. *g* The end of Retribution is beautiful in a very powerful way - hardly the effect I imagine the Forester estate was aiming for when they insisted that Archie had to die on screen. Unwitting contributors to great art. Heh.

[sjkasabi.livejournal.com]

Oh poor lovely Mr Bush.

*sniffles*

Painfully beautiful.

[rosiespark.livejournal.com]

Oh poor lovely Mr Bush.

I'm actually more worried about Horatio, adrift in the dark without a compass...

Painfully beautiful.

Glad to know it worked - thank you!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Ooh, how wonderful. Have I mentioned how I love Bush? Er, I mean, William Bush, not any other possible Bushes.

will he accept it, Archie? Will he?

He will accept the friendship, William. More than that: he desperately needs it.

[rosiespark.livejournal.com]

Really glad you liked it! I suspected you'd missed it when I posted it.

He will accept the friendship, William.

Erm, I think I was trying to imply that he wouldn't. This was an attempt to make sense of cold distant shut-off Horatio as he appears in Loyalty and Duty. Trying to make up for the lack of even a single reference to Archie. ::growls at scriptwriters::

More than that: he desperately needs it.

Oh yes, he needs it. But he won't take it. And they are Captain and Lieutenant, fellow officers but not friends. Never friends. And therein lies the tragedy of Archie's sacrifice.

Bleak, I know.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Very interesting! Bleakness can be good... though it makes my heart bleed for Bush. (Not for the first time.)