atticus

like i talked about a lot of examples of this between him & richard in my 10,000 word richardhenry essay, but there's a bunch i didn't even get to. like i mentioned how significant it is that henry told richard that he doesn't have to be present at bunny's murder, that it was almost shockingly thoughtful to give him the option of preserving his own innocence, especially because richard would never have considered opting out if he hadn't been explicitly told it was okay. but even his response to richard's response to that is tactful.

bc what richard says next is "don't you want me to?" and he says it "rather sharply" (in his own words). he's getting defensive and guilty. spiraling, like he usually does. he thinks he might have an obligation to the group and he's afraid of letting them down but at the same time he's also afraid of the thought that they might not actually want him.

and henry's so casually just "you can stay or not. but there's no reason why you must." and tells him that there were things he had to know but that he feels he's done him a disservice by involving him this far.

like. so succinctly letting him know that it's his choice, not his obligation and it's not that he's not wanted. just. he has a choice.

there's any number of these examples with richard. i mentioned a ton in that essay. i talked about the thing with the pull out bed too. richard, after nearly freezing to death, refusing to sleep on henry's bed so henry lies to him and says he actually wants to sleep on the pull out bed to keep him from feeling guilty. from feeling like he's taking something away from him. his response when he's trying to thank richard for helping him with bunny and richard's trying to deny his own value again and henry just goes "it's everything and you know it". he's so... to-the-point in his approaches to this sort of thing that he manages even to get it through the head of someone as insecure and self-hating as richard that he's loved.

he does it with the others too, you can't see it as often bc of who the pov character is, but it's there. telling camilla she was brave after that cut with her foot. the same straight-forward, insistent manner he uses with richard. bunny running around with his metahemeralism essay, so proud he wants to get everyone to read it. henry refusing to read it, but he doesn't ridicule bunny. he actually tells him he's sure it would go over his head.

that's the thing i think richard's getting at with his bizarre restaurant speech about why poor people love henry. like when he's watching henry invite the waiter to sit down and eat with them and he sees how amicably they talk and he points out that because those types of people aren't impressed by henry's manner or money, they see the real henry, the henry richard knows, who is "taciturn, polite, and in many ways, as simple and straight-forward as they themselves were"

and then he compares him to julian but see it's one of those things that henry has in common with julian for completely different motivations. i talked about this in my richardhenry essay too, that they both resemble him in superficial ways but never actually had the same malicious motivations on the inside. henry's not trying to be manipulative in these instances. they're such random little things and he does it with so little ceremony. what would he really gain from it? what would he gain from trying to make sure richard DOESN'T feel like he owes him something? that's the opposite of what someone manipulative would do. he did it because he actually cared.

Omg can I tell you about this headcanon

Bunny’s actually VERY QUIET during segs. I’d say at least in the beginning, when he’s new to being henrysexual and feels like he’s doing something illicit he’s quieter. You know, like a thief in the night. Henry finds it very fascinating bcs here is this perpetual fucking loudmouth who never stops yapping or cracking jokes or whatever and now he’s just 😶

Of course with him it’s a spectrum though, depends on his capricious moods. Some days he’s loud af 🖨️ other days he’s quieter.

I think it also depends on the intensity of what they’re doing. If they’re going slow and sensual (RARE) he might moan more than chatter but say if they’re hate fucking then he’s more vocal, both moaning and cussing Henry out