Work Text:
One loyal boatswain.
"He was my friend", I said, and raised my voice a bit at the end of the sentence; it's what I usually do to draw attention to what I`m saying, so that the listener would channel back somehow that, "Yeah, man, I`m following."
"What?" Billy looked so adorably confused, that I immediately had to suppress an urge of a very strong kind to caress his mouth. I bit my own lip instead.
Billy was staring intensely, as usual, waiting for me to return the burning look, which I did.
"Gates...” I said. "You don't know how deep my regret is about what I've done. Every fucking day I miss him. I see this murder as one of my truest sins. Most terrible ones, Billy.
Bones simply disagreed. Whenever he does this, I just don't know whether he's playing some cleverer game, or should I trust him, may be? Can anyone be more fucking loyal than this guy? It's ridiculous. Billy Bones is being ridiculously loyal. Fuck!
That's what I thought, while remaining completely silent, of course. Still staring at him, though.
"Are you serious?" he asked, his eyes wide open, and I couldn't quite tell, whether that smile was sarcastic or reassuring. "Gates betrayed you. He conspired with Dufresne. Against you. I understand why you acted… that way."
"Billy", I was just stunned by the simplicity of his attitude to Gates' death. It’s like he actually thought Hal might have deserved it somehow?
"Well, I wish you'd never murdered him", Billy continued. "I wish the three of us could casually sit down and talk things through. I wish I had more patience. With that letter..."
Don't tell me the guy sees himself responsible for Hal? I stood speechless, overwhelmed by the intensity of my feelings. Sudden and seemingly unspecific at first, but I knew all too well, it had always been there, the sweetness I carried in my heart for this boy. But never before did my chest burn as hot and never before did it ache so profoundly.
I fell for you, Billy fucking Bones.
"I am with you, Captain. I'll never betray you".
I've always been kind of aware of a certain feeling I harbored for the guy. I just never fully realized how fucking strong a feeling.
God damn it, Flint.
God damn it.