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[likeshowbusiness]

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Dated post-Nux-fight; text

[bleak_midwinter]

Mister Starks.

I'd like a word.

[likeshowbusiness]

You can have several, Mr. Shelby.

What can I do for you?

[bleak_midwinter]

Mighty generous of you.

Pub? In, say, fifteen minutes?

[likeshowbusiness]

[After a few minutes:]

Would this have something to do with a recent incident, Warden?

[bleak_midwinter]

Very sharp, Mister Starks.

[likeshowbusiness]

I'll see you up on deck, then. Would rather go about this with the sobriety it deserves, you understand.

[He'd never dream of trying to change the venue for a meeting with a warder in a real prison, and a real warder would never tolerate it, but this isn't a power play so much as an experiment.]

[bleak_midwinter]

[Honestly, Tommy doesn't care- he'll pick his battles, and this isn't one of them. He rolls his eyes where Harry can't see it, and shoots back:]

Fine.

[And that's all- he shows up five minutes early to get a smoke in before Harry arrives, but he looks calm enough when he does.]

[likeshowbusiness]

[Harry arrives bang on time, calm enough. His jaw is badly scratched and the bridge of his nose looks like someone took a bite out of it, because that's what happened.]

Mr. Shelby.

switch to prose because who cares about html not me

[bleak_midwinter]

He exhales sharply, then flicks his cigarette over the railing and straightens up.

"Mister Starks. You look like you've had a fun time of it."

Likewise 8|

[likeshowbusiness]

"He's a scrapper, your charge," Harry says approvingly. He assumes the boy is Tommy's inmate; if he isn't, what the fuck are either of them doing here?

[bleak_midwinter]

"That he is," he agrees- and it's the only reason he hasn't tried to use some force of his own. He knows Nux isn't an innocent little boy, but he'd been beaten unconscious and left in the hallway for Tommy to find, and that's not even close to the few injuries Tommy can see, here.

[likeshowbusiness]

Harry watches him for a few moments, very still and very quiet.

"So what now, then?"

[bleak_midwinter]

"Now, I'd like you to tell me what the 'ell happened that I had to find my inmate beaten unconscious, lying in a hallway."

He is still, hands in his pockets, chin raised.

[likeshowbusiness]

"Does he not remember? I didn't clip his head that hard."

[bleak_midwinter]

"I thought I'd try and see if you had any other stories to tell me than he did. Get both sides of the story, as it were."

That is fair leadership, isn't it?

[likeshowbusiness]

And Harry offers the exact kind of blow-by-blow that he'd have offered back home, on the understanding that the consequences have already been decided regardless of the explanation:

"Had an argument, got physical, don't take kindly to having a man try to bite my ear off."

There is clearly nothing else forthcoming.

[bleak_midwinter]

Now Tommy gives a slight eyeroll in sight of Harry, and he pushes away from the railing.

"And you thought you'd beat him unconscious? That seems like a bit of an overreaction. He isn't exactly the most physically intimidating lad on the boat, Starks."

[likeshowbusiness]

"You're not wrong. Most men would have been able to get up and walk away from what I did to him."

Hardly his fault that he keeled over a little sooner than expected, is it?

[bleak_midwinter]

"And you should have been perfectly capable of seeing that far earlier than you apparently did. Perhaps we should invest in some spectacles?"

[likeshowbusiness]

"Maybe you should invest in some for him, so as he'll be able to spot a fight he can't win."

[bleak_midwinter]

"Very funny," he remarks, his voice a low drawl as he pulls his cigarettes back out. "And very evasive. Does it make you uncomfortable, Mister Starks, to think that you beat someone so much weaker than yourself?"

[likeshowbusiness]

Evidently not.

"Should it?"

[bleak_midwinter]

"Yes. There's no pride in that, no satisfaction." He strikes a match, the sound loud between them.

[likeshowbusiness]

Harry laughs.

"You here to tell me off for getting into it, or just for getting into it with the wrong sort of con?"

[bleak_midwinter]

"Getting into it with the sort of con that falls under my protection," he clarifies, because honestly- he's not going to pretend he cares just as much about the other inmates on the Barge. There's a few that he'd do the same for, but that isn't the kind of man Tommy is.