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smallgayjew ([personal profile] smallgayjew) wrote2011-06-07 08:06 pm
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[Milliways]: Rainy days and Mondays



It's raining.

The weather's been so nice lately that Posner was beginning to take it for granted, but today the raindrops pelt against the glass of the window, counting down like everything else, ticking away their last few weeks.

Hector is quiet today. He has been all day. He's quiet, and the boys aren't sure how to respond to that. They aren't even doing anything at the moment. Just reading, revising, working on essays for Irwin or Mrs. Lintott. Hector stands at the window, watching the drops fall, and the boys pretend not to watch him until he actually turns, moving slowly, ponderously (Hector always moves ponderously; it's why Posner likes the word so much.) back to his desk.

“Sir.” Lockwood is the first to break the silence. “Can I...say something, sir?” He only waits until Hector looks up to continue. “Well, we've got the most important exam of our lives coming up and we're just...sat here reading literature.”

No one says anything, but only because they all agree.

Hector clears his throat. “Leaving that aside for the moment. There's something I have to tell you.”

“We know all that, sir,” Akthar interrupts, as impatient as the rest of them to skip over anything not to do with the exam.

“How do you know?” Hector asks, as though they've stumbled upon some dark secret.

“About sharing classes with Mr. Irwin, sir.”

“No, no not that,” Hector says, shaking his head.

“Why is that, sir?” Lockwood asks.

Hector falters, clearly thinking of something else, wanting to go back to whatever he was going to say before. “It's a question of timetabling, apparently. No, this is...something else.”

“Does that mean your lessons will be more like Mr. Irwin's, sir?” Akthar asks.

“More use, sir,” Crowther chimes in.

“Less farting about,” Timms adds.

Posner can't tell if they're loosing their frustration or if they're teasing as usual.

“Hush, boys, hush,” Hector says, annoyed. “Can't you see, I...I'm not in the mood.”

“What mood is that, sir?” Dakin asks, the smirk in his voice indicating that he is almost certainly teasing. “The subjunctive? The mood of possibility?” Scripps chuckles, though he has the grace to half hide it.

“Get on with some work,” Hector nearly growls. “Read.”

“That's what we're saying, sir,” Lockwood argues. “There's no...time for reading.”

“Can't you just give us the gist, sir?” Timms asks.

“Just the outline, sir,” Crowther adds. “Then we can pretend.”

“Pretend?”

“No one'll know, sir,” insists Timms. “That what exams are for.”

“Will you shut up about the exams!” Hector shouts.

He's never shouted at them before. They don't quite know how to react.

“Shut up, all of you!”

There's some muffled giggling, nervous smiles.

But mostly silence, until Hector goes on. “What made me piss my life away in this godforsaken place,” he says, quietly enough that Posner almost thinks he's forgotten they're there. “There's nothing of me left.”

His face screws up, like he's trying not to cry, and his voice wobbles when he says, “Go away.”

And then he does cry. Quiet, high-pitched sobs that seem so wrong from a man so large.

Posner looks over his shoulder at Scripps, looking for advice, for guidance, for some hint as to how he should act, but Scripps looks away, and as Hector continues sobbing, Posner finds there's only one thing he can do.

While all the others watch in horrified silence, Posner stands, making his way across the front of the classroom, circling around Hector's desk.

“Sir?” There is no response. “Sir.” He touches Hector's back, tentatively at first, then begins to rub as he remembers his mother doing for him when he was small. “Sir.”

Hector puts his head in his hands, and Posner offers what comfort he can. Scant return for all Hector has given them but all he has to offer.



[ooc: All dialogue is from the Fox Searchlight film The History Boys.]