We Maintain our Honor

We maintain our honor...

"You were not needing to do that, Comrade," A soft breeze ruffled the Russian's hair, sweeping his bangs across his forehead. "It was…not a thing you were needing to do."

America shrugged, hands in his pockets. He shivered; it was cold and he was uncomfortable with the situation.

It had been so many years since the recovery it was hardly important anymore. Well, not to him, anyway. To Russia it was probably a bit more pertinent.

"It was just…the right thing to do, I guess."

"We are at war." Alfred smiled crookedly.

They were indeed. A cold, Cold War. But when there was no way he could have done anything else with the bodies. "If we didn't dump them, we all would have gone hot or gotten cancer or something. I encased them in steel and dropped them in the ocean, Russia. I was trying to steal your technology, not save your dead."

The hulking man nodded. It had been a long time since the two had stopped pretending that they both were not determined to steal and cheat the other out of as much technology as possible. He had done his fair share of covert operations that involved pirating American technology. "I would have done the same. But I am highly doubting that my soldiers would have been putting yours to rest as…cordially as yours did mine."

Again, America shrugged. "I may hate you and everything you stand for, but I respect your armed forces. I've seen 'em in action. Tough. You fight like one hell of a man, Red."

Russia smiled. "Da, I do. But I must say, Amerika, the United States Marines are a force to be reckoned with. And your naval power is almost unprecedented. Like father like son, I suppose."

"He's not my father."

"I know."

"But I am having more bombs now, silly little boy."

America grimaced. "I know. Shut up, that's why I wanted your submarines."

The smirk fell from Russia's lips. "They were not your dead to bury so honorably."

"Are you upset that I did?"

"No. I am…humbled."

There was a soft howling as the wind kicked up, blowing both of their coats wide open. Russia tilted his face into the wind while America hid his nose away in the fur of his jacket.

"If I die on the field before we stop fighting, I would be liking to be buried with full military honors as well, if of course, you were to be the one…"

The American took a deep breath. "Alright. Yeah, that's fine. But I…I want that too. Full honors. Pretend I was a Soviet general or something, bury me like that."

"As if you were Stalin himself."

The park bench was suddenly claustrophobic and the two powers stood at almost exactly the same time. Russia extended a hand and America shook it. A tiny spark passed between them, a spark of hatred, regret, and nuclear deterrence. "I still thank you, Amerika. Perhaps one day, when you have seen the errors of your ways and come to the side of goodness and equality we may be friends."

America coughed, the chill constricting his throat. "Yeah, maybe when you stop oppressing your people and taste freedom we can be friends."

They both smiled.

"Assuming we don't kill each other first," They said together. Then they turned around and walked in opposite directions, hands on their concealed weapons and secretly wishing there was some other way.

Through our actions.

A/N: Short one-shot that needed to be written. Based of the story of the K-129 recovery mission as it was told to me by my father. The Soviet Sub K-129 sank in the ocean and the CIA was ordered to recover it. It is assumed we wanted to see if there was any Soviet technology for us to reverse-engineer. Officially, they could not recover much but of what they did there were six bodies. The bodies were radioactively contaminated (it was a nuclear sub) and they needed to be immediately disposed of, so they were encased in a steel tomb and given a burial at sea with full military honors. This story takes place in the eighties. I don't know when we told the Russian's we buried their dead for them, but I thought it would be more interesting if this little ficlet took place during the Cold War. Note: The Soviet's did have more bombs than us, but they only had a few of the big ones while most of ours were Strategics.

Also, I just noticed that the country with the largest and most extensive (because power is an opinion) Navy today is the 'child' of the country historically known for it's supreme Navy.

Please leave a review and tell me what you think!