FINALLY MAKING THE THREAD ABOUT MY PIERCINTYRE/HUNNIHAWK FEELINGS THAT I KEEP TALKING ABOUT: buckle up boys it's a long one

with piercintyre, even though trapper clearly had no issues with cheating on his wife, they both sort of knew that after the war he was going to go back to his life with her. nothing that went on in korea was anything serious in his eyes,

just a sort of "i still love my wife but i also love sex so... lol what can ya do" type of thing. and they had discussed this. basically, hawkeye knew from the beginning that trapper would never be fully invested in their relationship,

and it would probably never be more than a friends-with-benefits situation with them. and he was okay with that because he never expected to get invested himself. nevertheless, he still finds himself starting to fall for trapper.

at first he blames it on the fact that he doesn't have any responsibility to anyone, no one to stay faithful to, so of course it's easier to actually fall in love.

personally i think he talks to klinger about it bc klinger is just cool with everyone and for someone so desperate to be written off as crazy, he gives some surprisingly good advice.

also i think we were robbed of an epic friendship between hawkeye and klinger (but that's for a different post).

anyways, they fall into this weird sort of relationship where obviously they like each other, but do they LOVE each other? COULD they love each other? it's weird and they're both a little fucked up over it (hawkeye moreso, bc as i said, trapper was never as invested as he was)

and then this guy who was his best friend (with benefits) that he was kinda-sorta in love with leaves without telling him. no note, no warning, nothing. but he does leave a... kiss? that he gets via radar. which is just confusing as all hell because what does it MEAN?

does trapper actually love him? who knows! it's not as if he can send a letter asking about it, and even if he did get an answer, there wouldn't be any closure. he can't go back to the states and live with him.

trapper still has his wife and family, who, despite all the flings he had in korea, he does still care about. the whole thing just drives hawkeye crazy bc there's nothing he can do about it.

he's got all the pieces, but he can't put them together, and he'll probably never be able to.

enter bj hunnicutt: all around good guy, very wholesome, was probably a boy scout, loves his wife with every fiber of his being, couldn't cheat on her if he tried (aside from that one time but we're talking about first impressions here). at a glance, the exact opposite of trapper

hawkeye is reluctant at first. he doesn't want to replace trapper (because no one could replace him) but there's still this empty hole that needs to be filled with something, and maybe that something is bj. maybe what he needs is a change from trapper, something different.

maybe bj is exactly what he needs (i, the person making this post, say even though hawkeye hasn't come to this conclusion yet). the thing that does it for hawkeye is the way bj effortlessly bounces off of his humor.

they've barely met and they already banter like they've known each other for years. and then bj makes it clear that he has as much disdain for frank as hawkeye does, and that just seals the deal. he's definitely got a crush.

but then he starts thinking that maybe he only feels this way bc he misses trapper, basically just doubting how much is what he actually feels and how much is just because he's all kinds of fucked up from losing two people he cares about in such a short span of time.

then, after coming to the conclusion that yeah, he actually does like bj, he realizes that this could be even WORSE than with trapper because bj loves his wife so much that he'd never dream of doing anything with anyone else.

it's bittersweet in the sense that bj would never lead him on. there'd never be that whole guessing game thing he had going on with trapper. but he'd also just end up pining from afar, knowing that there would never be a chance of them getting together.

BUT LITTLE DOES HE KNOW, BJ'S BEEN HAVING A CRISIS OF HIS OWN!

he tells peg about hawkeye in the first letter he sends back home. after a while, bj realizes that he might be in love with hawkeye, and he's incredibly guilty at first, because he's committed to his wife. now, i hc that peg is very bi and very poly,

and when her and bj first got together, it was one of the first conversations they had. bj was the embodiment of "he's a little confused but he's got the right spirit" for a while, but eventually he figured things out and of course, they have a happy and fulfilling relationship.

with that being said, it's not the fact that he likes someone else, or even that he likes a man that bothers him. it's that he and peg agreed that they would decide on letting other people into their relationship TOGETHER,

and how can they decide on this together when they're a whole ocean apart? so, as discreetly as he can (mail scanning's a bitch) he tells peg about hawkeye. after a few letters she catches on to what he's telling her and they start to negotiate how they'll go about this.

keep in mind that during all of this, bj isn't telling hawk what he's doing. he feels a little guilty about it, but he doesn't want to lead hawkeye on until he knows for sure peg is okay with it. bj ends up confessing first

and even though hawkeye is quick to tell him that he feels the same, he's very reluctant to go ahead with their relationship bc what about peg? what about erin? he can't just ruin what they already have. he's not a homewrecker.

bj explains that peg is okay with it and that he'd love it if hawkeye got to know peg as well, since she's eager to meet him. they both start sending letters to peg and before they know it they start receiving letters addressed to the both of them.

and that's the way peg/bj/hawkeye came to be :)

tl;dr
piercintyre is cool and all but it probably wasn't the healthiest relationship. neither of them really cared at the moment and it ended too abruptly for them to work their issues out.

hunnihawk is a dream come true, except for the minor issue of bj being incapable of doing anything that could even remotely upset his wife

peg/bj/hawkeye (what's their ship name?) is the best because i think they would all adore each other and why choose between two people you love when all three of you love each other equally? also peg pegs them. end of thread.