#winterpapen

because i think he did.

listen i know i'm obsessed with the roses that smelled like raspberries but it's just such a TENDER detail.

there's so many little tender things like that about henry, and so much of it is tied to his love of nature.

as much as henry seems like the type to thrive in dusty libraries and ornate classrooms, that's not actually where his heart was. he wanted forests & gardens & farms. he wanted simplicity. he wanted peace.

i legitimately don't think henry even LIKED hampden. or school in general. he dropped out of high school. he didn't even WANT to go to college. it was julian who convinced him. he was there for julian & julian alone.

and even so, he considered dropping out and going off to live on a big farm somewhere.

henry winter wanted to be a farmer so badly.

and there's a metaphor in that, too. because it was a farmer that he killed at that bacchanal. it was that simple life that was drifting further and further away from him.

and afterwards he only gets more & more obsessed with gardening. he was trying to get it back.

there's a metaphor in bunny's death too. because i think that impression of simplicity is a huge part of what henry loved about bunny in the first place. he practically says so, at bunny's funeral, with the poem he reads. camilla & charles tell richard so too. henry loved that bunny made him laugh, softened him, grounded him. brought him down to earth.

until after the bacchanal when all bunny wanted to do was hurt him. until he killed him & destroyed that bit of simple comfort too. with his own hands, just like he did with that farmer.

he destroyed himself.

listen. i know i keep saying it, but you don't understand.