you can afford to play.

[quigonejinn]

Bush did not often live with women: for one thing, most of his pay went directly to his sisters. For another, because of those sisters and the own quirks of his nature, Bush was too fastidious. He cleaned his pots and pans with baking soda, and he washed the mirrors in the bathroom with a double dose -- ammonia mixed with vinegar first, then Windex.

During the time in California when he shared an apartment with Hornblower, in fact, he handled all the cleaning. Hornblower cooked. It was weeks until Bush found out that Hornblower was not scheduled for Basic School and that Horatio was being docked for the months when he had been on the officer grade: it was Saturday morning. Bush and Hornblower went down to the 7-11 across the street and around the corner because Bush wanted beer and Gatorade, and Hornblower restricted himself to buying a container of cheap jelly. When he reached into his coat pocket, however, he found a pair of twenties. They were crisp, neatly folded in half, and Hornblower stared at them like they were live grenades.

Later, when were back in the apartment, Hornblower explained -- at Bush's urging, Hornblower had bought more food. A dozen eggs, a gallon of milk, some breakfast sauasage, and a box of pancake mix. Two cans of mixed fruit in syrup. It was enough for a good breakfast, and now, there was a stack of pancakes on Bush's plate. He spread butter on them.

"They were from a friend -- a woman -- who lives in this complex," Hornblower explained. "I met her in the laundry room, and she helps me with mine sometimes. She told me that she knew how to get a stain out of the sleeve of my jacket, so I gave it to her."

Bush looked up from his pancakes. He had a knife in one hand, a fork in the other. "So?"

"She must have slipped the twenties in there." Hornblower only had two pancakes on his plate, and he hadn't touched the opened tin of mixed fruit -- Bush remembered how fond Hornblower had been of the ones in their MRE's, and he pushed the can towards Hornblower. It made good topping for pancakes, and Hornblower had gotten the cans off the shelves without Bush saying a word about it.

"I'm not seeing the problem."

"No," said Hornblower. "It's -- it's -- I wish she hadn't done it. The poor girl, she's -- "

"Poor girl, nothing. She's trying to help you. You should have told me that they were docking your pay. I can chip in more of the rent, you know, because I'm hardly giving you anything now." Bush folded a bit of pancake over, put it on his fork, and stuck it in his mouth, and eventually, Hornblower shut his mouth, closed away his emotions away from his face, and put the mixed fruit on his pancakes and began to eat. He was having one of his tantrums, Bush realized, but at least Hornblower was eating.

He was due to play poker with some officers that night, after all.

Comments

[nolivingman.livejournal.com]

*loves the appearance of Maria*

[quigonejinn.livejournal.com]

Maria makes many things better, man, and in the past few days, I've been fascinated by the idea of teasing out some scenes about her and HH in this world. Oh, the dork. *___*

[black-hound.livejournal.com]

Jesus Christ. I love USMC!Bush will all my heart.

[quigonejinn.livejournal.com]

It's hard not to love the bastard. *Gary Stus him with all her heart and soul*

[iansmomesq.livejournal.com]

Hot damn I love this. Love it, as many say, like Burning. Burning.

Mixed fruit and Maria and Bush's generosity just make my heart all melty inside like butter dripping off that folded over bite of hotcake.

[quigonejinn.livejournal.com]

You know, I didn't realize until after I posted this how I'd housed the canned mixed fruit from Fidelis. *plajerizes!*

[http://users.livejournal.com/_oggy_/]

*eeeks!*
oh so lovely!

[billytaylor.livejournal.com]

nice nice nice .... I've got to find some nonfiction man to hold my attention for awhile. This Bush is hard to not think about.

Is your icon popham? I've got my code book out (geek that I am) but I don't understand.

[iansmomesq.livejournal.com]

I'm with you. I <333 Rhod's USMCBush like burning, he's just. The man, you know?

[quigonejinn.livejournal.com]

The icon is gone now, but it was supposed to spell out "Yo mama." It was my icon for when I was feeling particularly irritated with myself, and yeah. Oh, the dorkery.

Bush, Bush. All that competence and devotion is addictive.