Re: [Boating: Hugh and Atticus]
"I was ambitious and it got me in trouble," Hugh said flatly, not really wanting to dwell on it, but he was also trying to be more honest with himself, and with other people in some extent, and since the topic had come up, he wasn't going to shy away from it, if not necessarily dive deeper.
"But I'm familiar with the tropes, even if I've not read that many books, I've found them in plays too, films. But with her..." Sometimes he wondered when he'd really fallen in love with her. He knew the moment he'd realized that he was willing to admit to himself that he did. That moment was crystal clear in his memory, the sort of thing that could be pulled back like it was a still of a film. And that was part of it, but not a good descriptor. After a heartbeat he spoke again, turning the words over thoughtfully as he did. "The night we met she reached over and tugged one of my curls down, and I told her that I didn't let anyone play with my hair, and she grinned cheeky, and she did it again, and that isn't when I fell in love with her, but it made her different than anyone else I knew. For probably two years she never missed one of my shows, even though she hated sitting still through long things, but at the same time she didn't take my attempts to look perfect seriously, she was always willing to poke holes in my facade, but she took me seriously, and when I was with her, I saw myself more honestly, I think. She loved me, and she kept me grounded, and I loved making her smile."
That had all been its own sort of pain, and sometimes it still was there, even though he kept thinking he'd mostly walked away from it. Maybe part of being an adult was gathering scars, wounds that you'd carry with you for the rest of your life, and that even if they'd heal, you'd still see the evidence of them.
He moved, heading for the rudder as he considered the island, and as he reached it, he took it - straight ahead as Atticus had said. "So older you went to the Island knowing he'd turn you younger?" Hugh hadn't ever paid much attention to the island, other than not to go there, but that wasn't something that was really even a temptation as he didn't have his own boat, or the skills to get there. "So when you say you know what older you does - is it because you have those memories?"