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*

Comments

[itmeans-arm.livejournal.com]

Not by thy foolery, I said. Thou may'st have time to learn again a smile before I require thee to teach it to others.

[ay-my-lord.livejournal.com]

*a low laugh* Thou dost teach me it.

[itmeans-arm.livejournal.com]

I am glad.

[ay-my-lord.livejournal.com]

Thy heart is good, then, an it swells with another's joy.

[itmeans-arm.livejournal.com]

Ay, perhaps.

[ay-my-lord.livejournal.com]

*it is too early for easy familiarity--but Horatio longs to test things, to witness them for himself and then declare them false or incontrovertible, and so he brushes the prince's sleeve just barely with the tips of his fingers* Elsinore hath need of a king who takes his gladness from the people's pleasure.

[itmeans-arm.livejournal.com]

*allows it, with a look that makes it very clear he's allowing it* Elsinore hath need of many things.

[ay-my-lord.livejournal.com]

*and, more than a few questions answered, he withdraws his hand* What would you give it, lord?

[itmeans-arm.livejournal.com]

A firm hand and a new beginning. The nation must needs be cleansed of ghosts.

[ay-my-lord.livejournal.com]

*shivers* Ay, my lord. It must.

[itmeans-arm.livejournal.com]

*notices the shiver* Where would'st thou start, an thou wert king?

[ay-my-lord.livejournal.com]

*more frank than he would like to be* With the spies, my lord. Do your business openly, that no man may waste his hours in finding out your secret bargains.

[itmeans-arm.livejournal.com]

Yet what if I have need of spies? Some things must not be open, lest an enemy should hear of them.

[ay-my-lord.livejournal.com]

*agreeing placidly* Mayhap your enemies have secrets. Have you, sir?

[itmeans-arm.livejournal.com]

Hath not everyone?

[ay-my-lord.livejournal.com]

Not one, my lord, now that I no longer bear my prince's.

[itmeans-arm.livejournal.com]

Nary a secret? Thou art a strange man, Horatio.

[ay-my-lord.livejournal.com]

I have loved my country, my prince, and my God, and I have tried to serve them well. An it were my epitaph, I could ask for no better.

[itmeans-arm.livejournal.com]

Hast thou done nothing for thyself?

[ay-my-lord.livejournal.com]

My learning, sir. I did go to Wittenberg for myself.

[itmeans-arm.livejournal.com]

Yet with thy prince.

[ay-my-lord.livejournal.com]

For that he pleased me well. 'Twas the greatest blessing that ever man granted, that he loved me as I loved him. *a soft look at his hands, which he has folded innocuously before himself (as though to say, I will not touch you again)* Have you never loved another, my lord?

[itmeans-arm.livejournal.com]

*a bit uncomfortable* Thou speakest not of love of friends?

[ay-my-lord.livejournal.com]

Ay, of dearest friends. *for he knows not what else to call it; they never courted, never married, never strove for one another as lovers did--they simply loved, and it seemed not unusual to share time and storied and kisses and, at times, a bed. it didn't seem to be sodomy, really; there was nothing of sin in it, nothing of turning away from an ideal to marry a fine woman and have fine children--* Dearer than brothers, I vow.

[itmeans-arm.livejournal.com]

I have loved no man so.