Snippet

[marnanightingale]

If you ask him at the right time, Edrington tells stories in bed... who knew?



* * *

"I doubt that you were sick before your first battle, Alexander."

"Well, no. I was not."

"Ah."

"I was sick before my second battle. Repeatedly. Disgracefully. And in full view of everyone."

"Before your second battle?"

Edrington rolled over, staring at a rough patch of plaster, remembering.

"Yes. Before my first battle, I was looking forward to the great, terrible adventure, wondering how I might do, hoping to be a hero. The second time -- is just another battle. That was far worse, somehow. That it could be just another day, and all these terrible things to happen in it, and nothing at all changed when it was done, really. I got drunk, thinking of it. Not thinking of it. And then I was very very sick."

"And then you carried on. As if nothing had happened."

"As if some other petrified young Captain had just happened to spew all over my breeches, at any rate." He paused, and rolled back to bury his face in Archie's hair, nuzzling lazily at a half-hidden ear. "There is a reason they put the new officers in their shiny fresh uniforms out in
front, you know."

"To inspire the men and intimidate the enemy?"

"In case the Sergeants have to give them a discreet nudge or two."

"Like this?"

"Not at all like. Thank God."

* * *