(no subject)

[never_promised]

It's not very long after Hotspur departs that Hal finds himself free. Free and not especially happy with himself. As soon as Jim is gone, he gets up from his seat and takes off in the direction Harry Percy had gone, stretching his legs in the hope of catching up. He's barely aware of rubbing his wrist as he goes.

Comments

[harryhotspur]

That direction, unsurprisingly, is outside: Harry had no particular object in mind besides 'get away from these two,' so that was just where his legs instinctively took him. He hasn't gotten far, though, just wending his way in the general direction of the lake.

[never_promised]

Harry spots him quickly and stretches his legs just a little more to catch up. Well--to catch most of the way up, and then to saunter more casually in a direction that will intersect with Percy's path.

Ugh. What does he even want to say to him?

[harryhotspur]

Harry looks surprised when their paths do cross.

"Why, thou'rt free."

[never_promised]

"Ay--Dame Bar did see fit to give us our release. Some little sugar-candies; if thou shouldst find thyself likewise trapped, bear it in mind." Now he does catch himself rubbing at his wrist, and folds his hands behind his back.

[harryhotspur]

"I marvel you did so soon leave your companion," Harry says. "Methinks you were both of one mind and humor."

[never_promised]

He gives Harry a look of intense annoyance. Possibly because he's not wrong. And because he almost didn't leave so soon. (Had Hotspur caught any of what Jim was trying?)

"Nay, I sought my liberty right quick. As thou seest."

[harryhotspur]

"So I do. And was it after all some whim of Madam Bar's?" he asks. "Or another's trick?"

[never_promised]

"Mistress Bar, so far as I know. She had the cure; I take it like any quack physician she made her own patients." He digs his toe at the edge of a rock in the path; the ground is hard, but not altogether solid, and he works it free. "I spoke--just now, I did speak thee--"

Dammit, a formal apology is so much easier than a heartfelt one.

[harryhotspur]

"What?" He's not trying to coax out the apology, he's genuinely confused. Hal didn't speak so very differently than he often does.

[never_promised]

Yeah, well, it's especially difficult to make an apology when the person you're apologizing to probably missed most of the jokes. Hal flicks the pebble away. "I did not use you with the courtesy that would become us both," he says, stiffly.

[harryhotspur]

Harry shrugs. "To do so is not thy custom."

[never_promised]

"Thou dost not make it easy for a man--!"

If thou wert sensible of courtesy, I should not make so dear a show of zeal. Because for the love of God, as soon as he opens his mouth Percy can find some way to drive any feeling of earnest solemnity out of him. Really, he's gotten along best with Harry Percy when Percy was dead. All the way dead. Before even Falstaff's counterfeit resurrection. There were a few minutes there...

[harryhotspur]

"And shall I bear thy mockery without complaint?" Harry retorts. "I am not thy pageboy, to meekly bear what my master will. Indeed, I am not thy subject! For thou wert not King whilst I did breathe in England."

[never_promised]

"Nay, but men do laugh together!"

He passes a hand across his face, tired. He came here to apologize, because he hadn't been pleased with himself; not to defend himself. "--Thou hast no brothers."

[harryhotspur]

"Well you know I do not." If there were any Percy brothers, Hal certainly would have heard from them by now. "What have brothers to do with it?"

He grew up with an uncle and a father, who never meant their scolding kindly.

[never_promised]

"Brothers do use one another roughly, betimes; they do laugh, they do mock, they do chafe and jostle together; but 'tis not meant ill."

[harryhotspur]

"I am not your brother." It's possible that Harry has slightly missed the point of this analogy.

[never_promised]

"No." He laughs; he can't help it. "No, I am not thy brother. But, having brothers, I have learned to be brotherly, it has shaped me for jesting and rough play meant well. --But thou art a soldier, and thou knowest well how men at camp do, arguing and mocking and speaking ill of this one's clothing, that one's horse--this one's face, that one's mother, this one's village. But they do fight together, they are brothers in their way, are they not?"

So, okay, yes, this is a bit of an evasion from his apology, but come on, Percy, he's making an effort to be--something. Friends? Something.

[harryhotspur]

"And under all, when they do so, is the love and trust brothers in arms to share," Harry replies. And for once, he leaves the rest unsaid: that he and Hal have never been brothers in arms-- the opposite, if anything.

But it's unfair, he decides after a small pause, to say there is no trust between them. "--you have done good to my family, this I know."

[never_promised]

Well--yes, fine. The point he doesn't explicitly make is a fair one. But they're done fighting now.

He starts restlessly away, but turns back as soon as Harry speaks again. "I have done what I may to set right some wrongs."

[harryhotspur]

"And you are the more honorable for it," Harry says, level and sincere.

[never_promised]

He pushes his hair impatiently out of his eyes. He's the more honorable for it. He knows that. But--yes, sure, that means something particular to Hotspur.

"'Twas to reflect thine own honor; and I honor thee no less here, though I may make some little jest--though I may laugh from time to time."

There, is that good enough to smooth things over? It's mostly true!

[harryhotspur]

"--I will strive to hear thy mocking in a kinder light," Harry offers, just a bit grudgingly.

[never_promised]

There we go! It's all sorted out. Hal smiles at him, with perfect warmth and sincerity, and claps a hand on his shoulder. "O, but 'tis well to be free again! Wouldst thou ride? Or--I know not, find a bootball, or spar with blunted swords, or--thou dost not play tennis, I think."

[harryhotspur]

--woah, wait, is Hal lonely? (Harry is not the quickest on the uptake, alright.)

"Ay, let us-- whatever you will."