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[tu_vas_triompher]

This new Harry isn't going to be permanent, right? This is all one of those temporary Milliways things? It's Halloween, so Harry Hotspur of the 15th century is a Tottenham Hotspur of 2015 for the moment, and soon he'll be himself again. Right?

The alternative to optimism on this point being panic and despair, Feuilly is doing the only sensible thing, which is to take the amiable and vaguely...shiny...Harry Percy of the future out to hit things with practice swords.

--and hell, if it's his chance to win a playful skirmish or two, he's not above taking it.

"All right," he says cheerily, when they get to the yard near the stable. "Do you know how to hold it?"

Comments

[harryhotspur]

"Uh." It's just like in movies, right? ...what is it like in the movies, anyway? He grabs hold of the sword in a way that seems basically logical, then looks to Feuilly. "You really know how to do this?"

[tu_vas_triompher]

"Well, I probably wouldn't last long in a real battle," he admits. "But I've been learning for a few months now." And Feuilly doesn't really learn things by halves.

"Now--" Hm. There's an awkward moment of hovering. "A little more like-- move your hand up? The, the index finger and thumb--"

Harry had been better at this. In various ways. Better at knowing when to just move Feuilly's hands and nudge him into position and--

[harryhotspur]

He shifts his grip obediently (his hands are different: his fingers don't look like they've probably been broken twice each, there are no callouses, his nails are clean). "Like that?"

[tu_vas_triompher]

"Mm--a little looser--thumb and forefinger, and then the, the rest of the fingers support the sword--" His hands look more like Feuilly's hands. Feuilly smiles a little at that--and then, shyly, sideways, up at Harry. "It's fun," he says, just a hint of question in there. "That is--it's work--but I bet football is too? And that's fun?"

It must be: he can't imagine a Harry that doesn't love doing what he does best.

[harryhotspur]

"Oh, yeah." He brightens in just the same way. "Yeah, it's fun." He looks down to his grip and then back at Feuilly for final approval, then says, "And there's-- there's some way you've gotta stand, too, right?"

[tu_vas_triompher]

"Oh, yes. Of course pretty soon you start moving around, but--" It's good to have your feet used to being where they're supposed to be. Which is something Harry the football player probably knows very well.

Feuilly demonstrates. By now he can almost be sure he's standing right, without looking down at his feet!

[harryhotspur]

Harry starts laughing. "You look-- sorry, I'm not laughing at you, it's just so strange-- you look out of a movie or something! Really warrior-y."

Right. He stops laughing and tries to mirror Feuilly's stance.

[tu_vas_triompher]

Feuilly snorts. "I'm a, a wild bloodthirsty revolutionary, remember? The terror of Paris? --Um. So, right. You swing like this, and, uh. You kind of keep doing it until you can do it without the point wobbling around. That's--how I started, anyway."

[harryhotspur]

"Ha-- right, but-- you make it easy to forget that..."

His brow furrows in concentration as he gives it a go for a few moments, but then he grows self-conscious and lowers the sword. "Was that... I don't think I'm very good at this."

[tu_vas_triompher]

"You're doing well. --Here, take a swing at my sword." Because it's exciting, the clash of metal, and really there's no need for perfection here, and--and it's disconcerting to see Harry doubt himself here, with this.

[harryhotspur]

Right. He gives it a swing and-- yeah, that is more exciting. It's easier to pretend it's just playing at pirates or something like kids, rather than a skill Feuilly has apparently practiced-- and expects him to share. He grins and takes a tentative lunge forward as he swings again.

[tu_vas_triompher]

Ha! There, see, it's fun. Granted, it's less fun to practice the same cut over and over and over again until your arm hurts--but there's no rule that they have to do that today, is there.

(But still, it's strange, it's strange, it's strange, even when Feuilly is laughing and batting the sword away and aiming an easy and obvious swing at Harry, ready to pull his strength from it any moment.)

[harryhotspur]

Well, Harry's still pretty strong, and much faster than before, so though he misses when he brings his sword up to block Feuilly's swing, he easily springs out of the way of the blow.

[tu_vas_triompher]

--Right. Right, Feuilly knew he was fast like that. Really he did. At least he's quick enough himself not to overbalance from the swing; he collects himself and presses forward.

Harry's still got that insistence on winning, right?

[harryhotspur]

How'd he guess?

This Harry's had an upbringing that worked a little harder to quell his natural instincts towards impulsive impatience, but... he still likes to win.

Even at something he's never tried before and has no reason to expect to be any good at.

(But he saw that bruise, his swings are still pretty tentative.)

[tu_vas_triompher]

There, now he looks a little more comfortable. A little more like himself. Even if they're just playing soldiers, and Feuilly shouldn't be able to keep Harry on the defensive.

He lets up in a bit, and grins a questioning grin.

[harryhotspur]

"What, giving up?" he teases. Though he's happy to swap the sword into his left hand and give his right arm a shake.

[tu_vas_triompher]

"Just wanted to see if you were. So--do you believe we do this?" Is it too strange?

[harryhotspur]

"I mean... you seem like you know what you're doing." He jabs half-heartedly with his left hand, though not anywhere near Feuilly-- he definitely doesn't trust his coordination with his left enough for that. "I guess it must be pretty boring for you this way."

Because as bizarre as it sounds, he does believe Feuilly-- or at least, he believes that Feuilly thinks what he's saying is true, and evidently has the skills and memories to back it up.

[tu_vas_triompher]

"--Definitely not boring." He lowers the point of his practice sword and bites his lip. "So, um. Am I--if you're used to--if you're used to kicking a ball around with me, am I getting any good?" His ears are a little pink; this is too much like fishing for praise. "I just mean, if we've been doing that for a while--"

[harryhotspur]

Harry grins and gives Feuilly a little shove. "Sorry, what? I get to say you're brilliant? Or are you gonna go all-- fluorescent?"

[tu_vas_triompher]

Feuilly shoves back, but he's already turning a bit red--and puzzling out the word. "Flu-- fleur--" Help a 19th-century Frenchman out here, Harry? "Oh! Is that how you say it? That--word--about lightbulbs--I've seen it written but--"

[harryhotspur]

"Yeah, the one about light bulbs," he agrees. "And about the colors you turn when somebody tries to say something nice."

[tu_vas_triompher]

He hunches his shoulders, laughing but still embarrassed. "I just wanted to know--you're a good teacher. With the swords and the riding. It's good to know it works with football, too." Augh, okay? "So, um. You really don't care about horses?"

(There are a thousand more important things to know about a person. How does Harry Percy of 2015 feel about politics, warfare, the future, friendship, honor, death--but it's safer to start with little things, isn't it.)

[harryhotspur]

"I mean I don't not-- I don't think they should be turned into glue or something, I just don't-- I've hardly ever even been around them." Is his other self really so obsessed with horses? He absently jabs the tip of the sword into the grass.

[tu_vas_triompher]

Feuilly nods, rubbing the back of his neck. "...Cars?"

[harryhotspur]

"Well-- yeah, but-- I mean, it's not-- Kate says I'm obsessed, which I'm not--"

[tu_vas_triompher]

He reaches out to punch Harry's arm, but doesn't quite make contact; there's that Kate says and all of its unknown. But Feuilly's laughing anyway. "Right. Right. So--football--cars--"

He trails off, biting his lip but smiling. "I'm sorry to keep asking questions."

[harryhotspur]

"No, no, it's--" He gestures vaguely. "This fucking place, right?"

He looks like he's considering saying more, then visibly decides to leave it there.

[tu_vas_triompher]

"This place," he agrees, with much the same look.

But dammit, Feuilly doesn't like being afraid to say things. Afraid to learn something new. He worries at his lip, fidgeting with the sword a moment. "Um. I know you're stuck here, no Door. But you're--the, the other Harry, he, um. Died in a war. You're--?"

[harryhotspur]

"What?" He looks startled. "No, I'm-- not, no."

That makes sense, of course, for a knight to die in a war. But it's still a disconcerting thought.

And now that Feuilly asked a difficult question, Harry feels like he has to at least try.

"Um, what, um-- do, uh-- you and me, uh, what--"

...it's really awkward to have to actually articulate this for the first time in this context.

[tu_vas_triompher]

"Good." The sincerity of his response is obvious; he puts a hand on Harry's arm and gives it a little press, nodding. "Good. You should be alive."

Aaand then he goes a bit still, and turns rather pink, and--well, he doesn't take his hand away because that would be strange, but-- "I. Um. I think--that is--we've never talked about it exactly--" Bahorel would be beating his head on the ground, either laughing or crying, right about now. Is this a sufficient answer? Please? Particular friends is what he might say, in 1832, of--say--Joly and Lesgle. What does it mean to someone from another time and place? (And what has it ever meant, precisely?)

He does take his hand back now, and scratches the back of his neck. "We're together. A lot."

[harryhotspur]

"Right. Yeah." Poke, poke goes the tip of his sword in the grass. "I mean, I was just-- we probably had more in common if I was, like, a knight or whatever you know so I just wasn't sure if-- I dunno, if things were different and all."

...it's not quite clear from his tone whether that means things are the same. Or if he's talking around the same thing Feuilly is.

[tu_vas_triompher]

That's a remarkably uncommunicative collection of phrases, Harry. It has a somewhat distancing effect. Feuilly picks lifts up his practice sword again, and picks some bits of grass and mud off the tip. "I don't know. I don't know if things are different. In your time--now, the future--"

He'd thought that in 2015 people were all very open about everything. But--well, Harry, alive, is still evidently married to Kate, very much so. That's not something to intrude on. If--when--his Harry comes back, they can figure this out then.

"At any rate," he says firmly, with a little nod. "We're friends. --You let me talk about Poland. And uh. I mean. For a knight, an English knight, you're all right. You even talk about republicanism with Enjolras. --A little."

[harryhotspur]

"Well, I mean, things are different, obviously," Harry says with a mostly convincing laugh. "I still haven't managed to figure out how to explain to Enjolras why we still have a queen. I guess I don't really know why." But admitting that would be conceding defeat!

--that's totally what Feuilly was referring to, right?

[tu_vas_triompher]

Feuilly laughs, maybe a little more convincingly. "'Tradition' is not a good enough answer. --So--I'm guessing you're very good? At football? Um, striking fear into the other team?"

[harryhotspur]

"I mean, you know, it takes a lot of--" Oh, don't PR-speak for Feuilly. Even if it is a Feuilly that doesn't seem to know him. "--Yeah. I am."

[tu_vas_triompher]

His grin is cheerful and uncomplicated. "I bet." Some things must hold true across Milliways' caprices. "Do you--do you want to put the swords away, get a football? --I mean, you don't have to, I--"

[harryhotspur]

Harry can't help but grin back, and go a little pink. "Yeah, well-- after saying that, I'd better prove it, I guess."

[tu_vas_triompher]

"You'd better." He carefully, gently, brings his practice sword up and taps the point to the center of Harry's chest. "I win? Now you can see how bad I am with a football."

[harryhotspur]

He stumbles dramatically back a few paces, clutching his chest, then says, "It's way easier than all this!"

[tu_vas_triompher]

"Sure. If you're good at it. You've been doing this since you were a kid?"

Well, maybe there's hope for Feuilly. But he anticipates a good bit of embarrassment first.

[harryhotspur]

Harry nods. He swings the sword up to rest it against his shoulder and nods towards Milliways-- shall we?

"I didn't say it was easy to be good, just that anybody can kick a ball..."