We can't believe we're saying this--Canonverse AU!

[ay_my_lord]

*everything has fallen apart--the center has gone from the world (his center--his lord); to be plain, Horatio has wandered Elsinore like a shadow, sometimes settling in the library to run his eyes over pages, unseeing, and other times simply making a pilgrimage to the watchtower, where he looks out to the sea until the wind sears his eyes dry at last. he attends the new king at his dinners, saying little and eating less*

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[itmeans-arm.livejournal.com]

*and now that the typist has figured out what's going on, King Fortinbras will return to his dinner. no one really talks to him here (his army is mostly off making sure everyone knows about the regime change), and it's getting lonely. in the middle of the last course, he'll clear his throat* Good Horatio?

[ay-my-lord.livejournal.com]

*looking up, with a small smile that doesn't quite disguise the way care has begun to line his eyes* My lord. What would you?

[itmeans-arm.livejournal.com]

Tell me of thy day.

[ay-my-lord.livejournal.com]

*looking down at his dinner* I fear 'twas naught of import, an I could say that Plato and Glaucon imported naught--but even the learned minds of the ancients signify nothing to my too-amazed eyes.

[itmeans-arm.livejournal.com]

Why, man, dost thou mourn still, to be so unmoved?

[ay-my-lord.livejournal.com]

I ... *picking at the edge of a morsel of meat* I fear I do, good my lord.

[itmeans-arm.livejournal.com]

'Tis not well to let thy grief rule thy life.

[ay-my-lord.livejournal.com]

Wherefore should it not, when its source did rule my life in his?

[itmeans-arm.livejournal.com]

Hast thou not a new ruler?

[ay-my-lord.livejournal.com]

*quietly--needing direction more than anything else; knowing that he needs it* What would you of me, my lord?

[itmeans-arm.livejournal.com]

I would have your loyal friendship, nothing more.

[ay-my-lord.livejournal.com]

*a small smile* As my king, you might ask loyalty, ay, and I would render it gladly as to my God--for is not the king God's arm, and I a mere paring of that arm's nails? But friendship ... 'tis more than a stout arm can grasp. I suffered much for my lord for the tender love he bore me, and love cannot be seized, but must be built as slow as a fortress, and as sure.

[itmeans-arm.livejournal.com]

Yet a fortress may be built, may it not?

[ay-my-lord.livejournal.com]

*surprised* It may, my lord. But do you not have fortresses of stone to build?

[itmeans-arm.livejournal.com]

Ay, and men to build them while I but command.

[ay-my-lord.livejournal.com]

My lord hath need of company to ease his hours? *almost steepling his fingers, but then simply running his fingertips over each other, watching them in the candlelight*

[itmeans-arm.livejournal.com]

Thy lord hath want of it.

[ay-my-lord.livejournal.com]

*softsmile* Would you have me be familiar?

[itmeans-arm.livejournal.com]

'Twould be a relief from the formality of all else.

[ay-my-lord.livejournal.com]

Then how didst spend thy day, prince? Pray tell only the merriest parts, to lift my spirits and thine.

[itmeans-arm.livejournal.com]

*smiles* 'Twas none so merry. For a time I sat and heard complaints, for a time I read the books of Danish law.

[ay-my-lord.livejournal.com]

And didst learn aught from them, but for that Danes make many laws for few things, and trifling?

[itmeans-arm.livejournal.com]

*laughs* Ay, naught but that. I wonder that- *breaks off, deciding that wondering aloud how Denmark managed to stay unconquered so long wouldn't be very tactful*

[ay-my-lord.livejournal.com]

What dost wonder? *it's good, to have made someone laugh again--the prince never laughed at anything but himself or nothing (and they were so often the same) in those last days--*

[itmeans-arm.livejournal.com]

*shakes his head* 'Tis nothing.