#the fun things about henry's squeamishness and judgemental thoughts around hal's face hole

[heartofstanding]

One of the many things I love about writing Henry POV is how his subconscious is just... completely fucked in a way that manages surprises me. Case in point, he started imagining how Mary would react to what he considers to be the Hal's Face Hole Problem (that is, how people are going to judge Hal once they see his scar) and ended imagining she'd dump his arse over it:

Why do you need to manage Harry, he imagines Mary saying, her small body tucked against him, why must he be managed? You don’t understand, he would tell her, you don’t know what it’s like to rule a kingdom, to be seen and judged. You don’t know how men would see me – see him – once they know how his face (your face, he wears your face) has been marked out. It’s a stain, a blot – people will read him by its mark. We must prepare for that. Mary would bristle, pull away from him. She would take herself from his bed and go to Harry.

#fic excerpts #henry v's face hole #poor henry even his brain is like 'oh boy you're getting divorced for that mister' #the fun things about henry's squeamishness and judgemental thoughts around hal's face hole #are 1) he's also thinking about how it reflects on HIM; 2) his own latent guilt over hal's injury and his 'abandonment' of hal #and 3) that *henry* is going to develop a disfiguring skin condition that affects his face #so he's saying these things about hal that will be said about him #text posts #fic talk