happy post-reunion things:

bean-about-townn:

• about ten seconds after they kiss in the field, james basically collapses with exhaustion. thomas manages to persuade the plantation owner to let him watch over james for a few days while he recovers. he alternates his time between watching james, and putting the finishing touches on the escape plan he’s been working on since being sent to savannah, but never had any incentive to actually put any effort into. he would either suffer in the plantation, or suffer somewhere else. at least at the plantation he had something to do. now, however, he has james again – and despite not knowing the exact details, the scars and bruises prove that peter lied when he claimed james and miranda would be taken care of, if thomas just agreed not to make trouble at the plantation. whatever pain james has suffered to exhaust him so completely – physically and emotionally –  is more than enough for a lifetime. thomas is determined to see to it that he suffers no more.
• james wakes up a few times, never for very long. more than once, he clearly thinks he’s still asleep. one time he sleepily calls thomas ‘my lord’, and thomas kisses his hand and tells him it’s alright, my lieutenant, that everything is going to be alright now that they are together, because he will make it so.
• of course, they escape. that’s not important. what is important is what comes after
• thomas occasionally catches james staring at him, and just gives a little smile that says ‘i know, i can’t believe it either’
• james is a LOT happier to say ‘i love you’. before he was cautious, he was sensible, and the worst happened anyway. and he spent ten years thinking that thomas had died not knowing all the things that he did, all the things that he was, that made james fall in love with him. he’s never going to make that mistake again
• they trade stories of their various scars. james tells thomas about flint. when he starts telling him about the maria alayne, thomas freezes, and for a moment james’ heart sinks. ‘I never knew who it was that killed my father,’ he says. james can’t look at him. he’s remembering a thought he had, not long after waking up properly in thomas’ bed at the plantation. how did you get here? he’s remembering the small but persistent thought that has been tormenting him since then – what if thomas had been on that ship? what if he had missed him? if he had just been a few weeks earlier, would he have found thomas sooner? before miranda’s death? before the war? what pain could he have prevented if he had just been faster, smarter, better – but then thomas tells him how peter had him transferred from bethlem to savannah. how he had been ready to give up – how being freed from the chains and the torture of bethlem had saved his life. how that had only been possible because of alfred hamilton’s death. ‘You saved me,’ thomas says, and he kisses james. ‘even if you did not know it at the time.’