Settle & Sink
Sections 1 through 4

Warnings: Small mentions of torture (nothing really graphic), and a little slash if you tilt your head 16 degrees and hum Scarborough Fair. Please leave a review to let me know what you think of it.

(bones)

Standing in the armory, a guard at his back and a full set of mail and helmet before him. He closed his eyes briefly, because suddenly the self-contempt and loathing that had stalked behind him for the past month (the dark of Will's eyes, the gleam of Djaq's sword, Robin's slow breathing late at night) finally, finally caught up, with a shuddering, jarring impact that made his feet stumble and his breath gasp short. Opened his eyes and slipped the chain mail over his head. Felt the weight settle and sink into his bones.

(fire and fist)

Alan knew a lot of things- some that he should, most that he shouldn't. The good of secrets lay in keeping them, and that was one thing he could do well. Lies to cover secrets, secrets to obscure lies. He told himself that the fire and the fist were better than the guard uniform, and believed.

(stake)

"Gisborne's man" really wasn't that different from "Robin's man" when you got down to it. It was a job and he was good at it- almost as good as he'd been in the forest. But when the similarities ended, it was all he could do to keep standing. "If you're not with us, you're against us" meant more when "with us" led to telling the location of the camp. The stake he was tied to was familiar and the sick feeling in his stomach was more bearable now, shirtless and bruised, then it had been in the past month.

(the great escape)

Tried to imagine the camp as he waited for the inevitable. Nothing came instead- black and wide and all-encompassing. Frightening.
Found that he was halfheartedly expecting a rescue attempt and carefully, methodically obliterated the notion from his mind. They hadn't come the first time, wouldn't come the second.
Went through the motions- smartmouthed the guard, charmed the serving girl.
Received a backhand and a sympathetic look for his efforts and abandoned them.
Lapsed into silence.
Regretted things.