Unexpected Revelations

Part 1 of 2

It had been a quiet day for Thomas; his one operation of the day had gone very smoothly and so his time had mostly been spent making rounds around the wards, he had even managed to sneak in a quick stroll down the beach with Kitty in the afternoon. He was quite glad that he had managed to get some time with her as he didn't anticipate that the lack of activity at the hospital would last long, news had come in that there would be a big attack soon and that they should expect several new convoys of patients in the coming weeks which meant that everyone in the camp was a little on edge.

Thomas had returned to his tent, head full of ideas for a new paper to try to get published, and with the fullest intentions of getting straight to his typewriter. He paused momentarily as he noticed that Miles was also in the tent. Ever since Miles had started behaving strangely, it had been a rare occurrence that both Miles and Thomas were in the tent at the same time without at least one of them already being asleep. Thomas murmured a greeting which received little more than a grunt in return.

The atmosphere in the tent was tense, the only sound was the rather loud and persistent click of the typewriter keys. In between passages, Thomas glanced over at Miles. He had the same expression he usually had when he was in deep contemplation about a particular matter. He didn't seem to be doing anything in particular and the fact that Miles wasn't consciously avoiding him suggested to Thomas that whatever issue Miles had against him might be brought up and dealt with tonight. Thomas would be quite glad to get this mess out of the way, his natural impatience meant that he was getting close to snapping and demanding that Miles either get whatever it was off his chest or move on.

Time passed, and Thomas typed up several more pages. Halfway through his third page he heard Miles clear his throat, but when Thomas finished his sentence and gave Miles his attention, whatever Miles had been about to say was lost and silence resumed. Thomas rolled his eyes in exasperation and continued typing.

A few minutes later, Thomas's ponderings were yet again interrupted by the sound of Miles dragging a chair over. Bracing himself for the ensuing confrontation, Thomas carefully finished off his page and stacked it neatly on to the small pile he had already finished.

"Are you finally ready to speak to me? Because I'm damn sick of-" Thomas's irritable remark was swiftly interrupted.

"Why didn't you tell me you liked Kitty?" Thomas was momentarily stunned, whatever he had been expecting, that had not been it. Taking advantage of Thomas's silence, Miles ploughed on. "I saw you meeting her in the woods." Thomas thought back to all the recent time he had met Kitty in the woods and realised that each of their most recent meetings clearly showed that their relationship was no longer platonic. He paused carefully to consider his response before replying.

"Fraternisation with the VADs is not permitted, and Miss Trevelyan does not want to be sent home for any reason, so we agreed to not discuss it with anyone."

"That doesn't answer my question." Miles retorted, "I didn't ask why you didn't tell me you were in a relationship with her, I asked why you didn't tell me you liked her."

"It wasn't quite that simple." Thomas replied, after some hesitation.

"What's so difficult about it? Either you like her or you don't and it shouldn't have been so difficult for you to tell me about it!" Miles's reaction seemed a little excessive, but Thomas did not have time to question why Miles was so concerned as he defensively tried to respond.

"You wouldn't understand." Thomas struggled to find the words to describe the situation. "It's different for you."

"How the hell is it any different?" Miles demanded.

"Don't be an idiot Miles, of course it's different. Your family is rich, you're in the same class as her. If you like her there is no issue, but my family is not rich. What would be the point in me admitting to liking her if there was no chance of it ever happening?" Thomas paused after his short rant, "Why does it matter to you so much anyway?"

"I'm sorry," Miles floundered, "I hadn't thought about that."

"Now who's avoiding the question?" Miles looked away awkwardly.

"I liked her too."

"Well why didn't you bloody say anything then?" Miles shrugged, but continued to avoid looking at him.

"I thought I made it clear, I was flirting with her an awful lot."

"Yes, but I didn't think you were being serious!"

"I was being half-serious, I was hoping she would come around eventually. I even thought I was making progress until I found out she was secretly meeting you!" Miles glared at him accusingly.

"I'm sorry Miles, I hadn't realised." Thomas did genuinely feel a little guilty after hearing this revelation, he had been so focussed on trying to work out what was going on with Kitty that he hadn't noticed his closest friend's own interest in her.

"Would it have made any difference if you had known?"

"Probably not." Thomas admitted. They were both quiet as they absorbed the new information they had both been exposed to. After a while, the silence was interrupted by a loud, exaggerated sigh from Miles.

"It's a sad day when a man's best friend betrays him over a woman, breaking man code in the process."

"What on earth are you going on about?" Thomas's asked exasperatedly. Despite his tone, he was more relieved than annoyed as Miles's words were far too melodramatic to be taken seriously, which indicated that Miles was at least making an effort to move past their disagreement.

"Man code decrees that when two friends are interested in the same woman, whoever saw her first has dibs and the other must acknowledge this, and I saw her first."

"But you didn't see her first, I did!" Thomas couldn't believe he was actually arguing over points in some ridiculous 'man code' that Miles had invented.

"You said you didn't notice any of the VADs!"

"I lied." Thomas shook his head. "You are impossible."

"That's all part of the charm." Miles said cheerily. Thomas hesitated.

"Are we okay then?" Miles paused thoughtfully.

"It might take me a few days to get over my dreams being crushed." Thomas rolled his eyes, "But yeah, we're okay. I forgive your violation of man code." Miles paused again. "Kitty, on the other hand, has violated friend code so I must also confront her as well."

"What the hell is friend code?"

"It's mostly the same as man code, but since Kitty isn't a man the term doesn't really apply." Before Miles could start discussing the various points of difference between man code and friend code, Thomas quickly spoke up.

"How has she violated it?"

"Well man code also states that friends tells each other when they are interested in someone. She didn't tell me she liked you, and such lack of trust cannot be ignored." Thomas considered trying to dissuade him from confronting Kitty but quickly realised the futility of attempting to do so.

"No matter what I say, you're going to pester her anyway, aren't you?"

"Of course." Thomas rolled his eyes.

"God forbid anyone try to keep a secret from you."

AN: So I super struggled writing this confrontation, more so than I thought I would which is why I haven't updated 'Unexpected Correspondence' in a while since my efforts were focussed on this little piece. Originally this was going to be a one-shot but I've got a few ideas for a second chapter where Miles confronts Kitty with his new information, which should see Miles returning to his normal carefree teasing self. I know that 'man code' and 'dibs' are more twenty-first century things but they seemed like something that Miles would come out with, so please ignore the lack of historical accuracy concerning tone. I don't know yet whether I will update this or 'Unexpected Correspondence' first but hopefully they should both be finished fairly soonish unless I encounter another stumbling block like I did with this chapter.