#armirving

in the script, there's a part where little tells irving to let armitage know that his duties are done for the day, and that he can go to bed. irving nods, and leaves. when he comes back, all he says is that hickey is missing, and possibly two of the seamen. you know who he doesn't mention? you guessed it, thomas armitage. he conveniently leaves out that armitage is missing as well, which he would've known because he wouldn't have been able to find him to let him know his duties for the day were finished.

john doesnt give tommy away. he doesn't let anyone know that he's missing as well. he doesn't rat him out to command when he doesnt stand up with hickey, hartnell, and manson, even though i'm sure he had a feeling tommy was a part of the group who kidnapped silna.

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: The Terror (TV 2018) Rating: Not Rated Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Thomas Armitage/John Irving Characters: Thomas Armitage, John Irving (1815-c.1848) Additional Tags: Girlnavy, Fem Thomas Armitage, Fem John Irving, Fluff, Kissing, they're so soft Summary:

Jane buries her face in her beloved’s neck and enjoys the warmth of Tommie against her. After such a long day away from each other, she’s excited to take and take and take until she’s full of her girlfriend and sated. She’s also quite ecstatic to try out her new lipsticks.

tommy, upon finding out that hickey didn't have very kind plans for john, went and tried his damndest to convince hickey to spare him. to let tommy be in charge of anything john related. to let tommy talk to john, and maybe even convince him to go along with them. hickey, curious to see where this'll go, agrees, and lets him. this, obviously, doesn't work.

anyways, when they go with hodge, john, and a few others on these hunting trips, tommy insists on going with john and hickey. he doesn't trust hickey alone with his lieutenant. tommy makes it ABUNDANTLY CLEAR when john takes a moment to speak with hodge about when to meet back up that if hickey tries absolutely anything, he'll find himself at the end of a shotgun barrel. they dont end up coming across the inuit family in this version of events bc im delusional, and i said so. hickey doesn't try anything, but that's mainly because tommy isn't holding his shotgun over his shoulder, but he is instead holding it properly, looking for any excuse to raise it in hickey's direction.

they get back to camp, yada yada yada, collins still brings the bear to camp. in the chaos, tommy grabs irving and tries to bring him to the boat. he ends up having to punch him to knock him out and carry him there instead. when running back to find sol, the whole ned situation happens. john wakes up finally, but they're already too far for him to return. goodsir tends to his head, but john is staring daggers at the back of tommy's head the entire time.

when they finally make camp, john, desperate for any kind of closeness, sticks to tommy. tommy had been taking over some of billy's responsibilities in terror camp as billy was obviously sick, and as the 3rd lieutenant, john was the first to get "downgraded," so john was already quite familiar with tommy. tommy was more than happy to accommodate, and from the Look he shot anyone who came within a few feet of john, it was obvious that he was off limits. john slept in tommy's tent with him, would be dragged along while tommy was patrolling, and would sit watch with him. tommy didn't leave him alone at camp with anyone other than goodsir and hodgson.

john, despite clinging to tommy, didn't speak to him for a week. he was too angry to do so. in fact, he didn't speak at all until they found hodgson almost 2 days after they had set off from the chaos of terror camp. when he finally does speak, tommy is elated. he's just happy his lieutenant is speaking to him again.

john has resigned himself to being essentially babysat by tommy, but at the end of the day, he feels much safer with him than he would anyone else. he starts keeping his eye out for tommy, becoming almost paranoid when tommy isn't within eyesight. he starts to lean into tommy's presence, feeling somewhat at peace when the other man is there. he tries not to look too deep into that.

tommy definitely talked to john about his concerns and his desire to leave hickey before speaking with pilkington and then tozer about it. tommy probably shared a lot of his anti-hickey thoughts and feelings with john because it was safe to do so. he didn't have to worry about john turning around and speaking his words back to hickey because john is as against hickey as he is. tommy would probably lament over his own cowardice, and john would nod his head, relating in silence to the feelings of uselessness in the face of danger.

john isn't happy with being forced into the mutiny, but tommy has quickly become his rock. the only thing more consistent in his life than tommy is the cold, and even that's changing.

does john wake up sometimes with tommy's arms around him, and with his own hands on (or under or holding) tommy's shirt and his leg thrown over tommy's? yes, but no one needs to know that. it's a moment that's his and his alone. one where he allows himself to snuggle further against tommy and believe, if only for a moment, that the rules of the outside no longer exist. that god isn't watching him in this tent in the middle of nowhere. that he's allowed to have this. he knows that when tommy wakes up, he'll have to move and pretend the closeness was an accident, but for now? for now, he lets himself have this