Scotland! pt 2

[likeroaringlions]

They do reach the Clyde by nightfall, though too late to cross at the ford. There's just light enough left for hunting: dusk, with rabbits coming out. William has them a supper in no time. And the rain has stopped, more or less. A dry-enough night for a cooking fire, and it's not a bad prospect, spreading out the sheepskins and blankets to sleep on.

Cold, though. It would have been nicer traveling a month ago, or even just a couple of weeks.

Comments

[harryhotspur]

But Percy's plenty used to that. It's a good feeling, even: the rain, the dirt, the fire. That's one of the problems with Milliways, he thinks: everything is so easy.

"And where seek we tomorrow?"

[likeroaringlions]

"If I were with Douglas men," he says thoughtfully, nibbling the meat off a last rabbit bone. "We'd be bound for Douglas Castle. I don't know if that's the best plan for the two of us though, aye? Have you been there?"

The Douglases had held him prisoner, after all. But he's not sure where they would have taken him.

[harryhotspur]

"I have not," Harry replies. And for the first time, it occurs to him: "But how shall I return to Milliways? Must we back to Stirling?"

[likeroaringlions]

"...No fucking idea. I thought you'd just..." Uh. "Just show up back at Milliways after a few days?"

[harryhotspur]

"Oh." Huh. "I know not-- perhaps?"

[likeroaringlions]

"I figured you knew. What with--" What with being the dead guy. Well. "We'll find out, eh?"

He tosses the bone into the fire and licks his fingers.

[harryhotspur]

"I have not left-- not above some few hours," Harry says. "Well! I shall find my way to Stirling if I must."

And... break into the castle? Well, it would definitely be exciting.

[likeroaringlions]

"Oh, I'll see you back to Stirling if it's like that. I wouldny drag you out here and..." Have no plan for his return, because he assumed Hotspur would just magically vanish? Uh. "I'll see you back to Stirling," he repeats. "You should have a couple of days, anyway?"

[harryhotspur]

Harry shrugs. What does William take him for, a person with abstract curiosity about the world and the drive to undertake research and find out the answers?

(well he is dating someone like that)

"Think not of it," Harry says. "We shall turn to such questions when we must."

[likeroaringlions]

Eh, if Harry Percy and William Douglas were that sort of people, they would have figured out long ago that they're from completely different worlds and this isn't even Percy's Scotland.

William nods, satisfied, and wraps his arms around his knees. He hasn't ridden so far in quite a while, and he's tired, but he's not ready yet for sleep. "Nice to be out of the castle."

[harryhotspur]

Harry nods. Castle, Milliways, same idea.

"When shalt thou return again?"

[likeroaringlions]

"To Stirling? Or to Milliways? I'll be back to Stirling for the king's wedding, if nothing else brings me back sooner. Not sure when that will be, though. Milliways, well, I'll be looking for doors when I can."

[harryhotspur]

"Thou'rt fond of it? Of Milliways? Thou'rt eager to return?"

He's never been sure what he would have made of Milliways if he'd had the freedom to come and go-- how readily he would have gone back.

[likeroaringlions]

"Aye, of course." William gives him a questioning look. Doesn't Harry like Milliways? Well--but he's stuck there, isn't he. "It's mad, but it's no so bad as all that, really. I've got..." Friends there, he'd been going to say, but is it true? Well, sort of? "I've got to know a few people."

...he's definitely not going to mention Jim.

[harryhotspur]

"The people there, ay, they are well enough. --in the main." Some of them... are not.

[likeroaringlions]

"Well enough," he agrees. "You said you've got a friend, that you left a note for? Or is that Security business?"

[harryhotspur]

"Ay, a friend-- Feuilly, a Frenchman."

(actually he probably should have left a note for Security purposes, but-- oh well, X will forgive him)

[likeroaringlions]

"Oh aye? Does he know Bahorel?" Eh, now that he thinks about it, maybe Bahorel had mentioned Hotspur getting along with the French set. (...now that he thinks about it, he hasn't seen Bahorel in a while. Huh.) "That's good. You talk to some of the people there and it's just...you wouldny think there's such a thing as friendship in the world."

[harryhotspur]

"He doth. They did live and die together."

At the second thought, he lifts his brows and asks, "And who says so?"

Though he suspects he knows the answer.

[likeroaringlions]

"Oh, I...it doesny matter." He rubs his nose on the back of his hand, and hunches his cloak around his shoulders a little tighter. "There's just people there that will read into what you say and then go on as if they know all about you." (and it's novel and secretly flattering to have someone listen to what he says and imagine his interior life but ugh no stop that moriarty) "It makes me miss just...going out on the hunt or to play football, and just being and doing without someone to tell you why you're being and doing. Is it...it's been like that on the raids I've gone on. Is it like that in war?"

[harryhotspur]

"Yes," Harry says, briefly distracted from the fact that William is obviously talking about Moriarty by how completely he empathizes with that feeling. "It is. It is."

[likeroaringlions]

"That's all I want," he says quietly. "And it's one thing to go on my own, but it's only half the fun without a friend."

[harryhotspur]

"Hast thou no lads to ride with thee for England? --for I am no fool, I know well wherefore thou wouldst venture on this southerly course."

[likeroaringlions]

He looks sideways at Hotspur, then grins hugely and leans over to punch him on the arm. "Worked that out, did you? Well, no worries, it's no the Percys I have in mind to visit, I wouldny bring you with me and then do that. I'll see how our friends the Nevilles are doing." Ha. Another arm-punch.

[harryhotspur]

Harry can't help but grin. Who doesn't hate the Nevilles?

"If thou wouldst fight--" Oh he shouldn't say this. "Look you, it is an easy thing to set in motion some small skirmish."