STORY: "Most Musical, Most Melancholy" (Jack Aubrey/Stephen Maturin)

For chocolateboxcomm this year, I was assigned the Aubrey-Maturin books, which itself was a gift right back to me--Jack/Stephen (book, movie, or both) is one of my bulletproof comfort pairings. ♥

I chewed on my recipient's signup and letter for a while, and bounced thoughts off some friends. And then, mollyamory just up and handed me a premise. Handed it right over! It was just what I was looking for! (I highly recommend this as a writing process, btw, getting mollyamory to give you things.)

So I gleefully submerged myself in Jack/Stephen world, and brought along Killick and also a bird (based on the Long-Billed Corella), and wrote this:

Most Musical, Most Melancholy (8514 words) by Dorinda
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Aubrey-Maturin Series - Patrick O'Brian, Master and Commander - All Media Types
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Jack Aubrey/Stephen Maturin
Characters: Jack Aubrey, Stephen Maturin, Preserved Killick
Additional Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Pining, Birds, Injury, Worry
Summary:

Would he die? Was he in fact dying right at this moment? And Jack not there?

Jack forcibly steadied himself. He thought of Stephen's heart beating beneath his hand. Rapid, straining, like a—

—like a trapped bird. He looked up. At once he saw, tangled in a line, a pale and blotched little bundle, feebly thrashing.