A/N: A-ha! Another (sort of) swift update! Thank you everyone for your kind reviews and your constructive feedback. I hope you all enjoy this chapter.

Bound Home

Chapter 21

Mountains cover the white sun,
And oceans drain the golden river;
But you widen your view three hundred miles
By going up one flight of stairs.

-Wang Zhihuan, At Heron Lodge

The house is quiet with sleep. He is surprised that his brother is still awake, since the boy's journey was long, and he is certain Archer has not slept in a proper bed in months. But awake he is, wandering the grounds long after midnight. Guy watches his shadowy form from the window of the guest room that Robin generously keeps ready for his use, and, curious as to what is keeping his brother from his rest, goes down to meet him.

The crunch of his boots on the dirt is loud in the still air. Archer whips his head around, visibly relaxing when Guy comes forward into the moonlight.

"What are you doing still awake?" he asks quietly.

Guy steps closer. "I came to ask you that same question. Is everything alright?"

Archer's nod is a sliding of shadow upon shadow. "Just thinking."

"About?"

His brother sighs. "Dreary things."

Guy studies him, seeing a pensive expression on Archer's face. "Will you tell me what is on your mind?"

Eventually, after a silence thick with cricket chirps and slow breaths, Archer does. He talks about his shipwreck, and this time all flippancy is gone from his voice. "The water rushed in on us so quickly – there was nothing we could do. I'm not sure how any of us survived, and it – it frightened me. We could have perished that day." He picks up a rock next to his foot and tosses it at the night sky. His arm hangs limp at his side as he watches it sail into the darkness. "I'm getting old."

Guy laughs quietly. "So – you have faced your mortality at last."

"I suppose."

"And what will you do now that you have accepted the horrible truth that you are in fact not going to live forever?"

Archer purses his lips, scuffs the toe of his boot in the dirt. "Seems like I should do something responsible. Not sure what that is, though."

"Get some proper work," Guy advises, and with an unavoidable catch in his voice, he adds, "Get a wife. Make a home for yourself."

"Somehow, the thought of getting married is even more terrifying than the thought of drowning."

"Enough with you, then," Guy laughs, and Archer cracks a smile, but it quickly fades.

"Sorry," he says. "I just don't like to think about it, is all."

"Drowning, or marriage?"

"Oh, now who's joking..." Archer shakes his head with a wry cast to his face, and then heaves a sigh and stares up at the stars.

Guy follows suit. The sky is thick with silver lights.

"Are you happy now?" Archer softly asks without taking his eyes off the stars.

Guy slowly tilts his gaze down, from star to star, from sky to horizon - from horizon to his brother's face. "I am," Guy whispers, as if it is a secret only now being revealed to him.

Summer brings an outbreak of influenza to Nottingham. Little John tells her it is a milder wave than the one they endured the previous winter, and asks if she would help Matilda prepare some curatives. She readily agrees, and spends two weeks in the villages, studying symptoms and administering remedies. She shows Matilda her father's books, and the woman is astounded at the level of detail found in them.

"He must've loved his work," she says one day, after Saffiya shows her a table of symptoms organized by time of onset and length of duration.

"He did," she says with fondness. "He was an excellent teacher, as well."

"You learned your arts from him?"

"He gave me the foundation. He died when I was quite young."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Matilda murmurs, caressing the worn edges of the linen paper. She flashes Saffiya a smile. "He'd be proud o' you, that's for certain."

Saffiya gives her a smile of her own, throat too tight to let her express her gratitude in words.

Those who fell sick manage to recover quickly, and Saffiya leaves Matilda's home in late June, just as the honeysuckle has reached full bloom. Robin greets her at his threshold with words of congratulations - "You always were a talented physician, Djaq." - and ushers her inside to take refreshment.

In the dining hall, Guy is sat at the table with a map and some papers spread out before him. "We've been shopping," Robin explains cheerily.

Guy glowers. "I am looking at property suitable for building a house," he corrects. "I cannot live under the same roof as Loxley much longer - not without losing my mind," he adds, directing the last comment at his host.

"It's nice to know my hospitality is appreciated," Robin drawls. Saffiya peers over Guy's shoulder and sees that the map is of Nottingham.

"But you do wish to remain close by, it seems," she says to him. He extends his glower to her. She grins. And then their gazes lock and linger. She is hit, suddenly and with great force, by a new understanding of what it means to be close to him (just two breaths away).

His eyes are very, very blue.

She pulls back a step and tries to look away, but she can't help returning her gaze to his. Robin talks on about deeds and properties, but his words are nothing but noise. Guy is still staring at her, with such an expression that makes her think he is deaf to Robin's speech as well.