soldier by chance

sackett-and-katz:

The truth comes to him all at once
out of the darkness of a moonless sea night two weeks back on the
account.

“You never cared about the gold in
the first place, did you?”

He watches Flint blink at the
bookshelf in the cabin for a moment and then turn to him, face
quirked in inquiry. His reflexes are a little slow, expression
blurred by the rum Silver had produced earlier in the evening with an
accompanying smile that said come, we deserve this.

“Has the guilt hit you at last?”

“No,” Silver says honestly, and
breathes through a smile when Flint laughs in response. Once such a
laugh might have terrified him, and the fact that it now only elicits
a feeling of warmth within his chest is the source of no small amount
of wonder. Of all the transformations he has undergone, this may be
the most unexpected.

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