"How about this one?" Perconte asked, holding up a reel for Casablanca.
George Luz looked at him and Y/F/N, taking the cigarette out of his mouth.
"Tell me, who was it you left me for? Was it Laszlo, or were there others in between? Or aren't you the kind that tells?" he recited in his best Humphrey Bogart impression.
Y/F/N groaned. "It's no use, Perc."
"Oh come on, it's not that bad!" Frank put the reel back in the crate where he found it and sifted through more options.
"It is when you actually want to see a movie," Y/F/N leaned back to sit on the table behind her.
Y/F/N recounted the night she watched Seven Sinners with the men and Luz would not shut up with the lines, the costumes, and everything on the screen in general.
"It was only one time, Y/L/N," Luz blew some smoke from the side of his lips. "I'll be quiet this time."
Y/F/N smiled and shook her head. She couldn't stay mad at him. No one could.
"It's fine, Luz. I'll find something else to do," she lay flat on the table, closed my eyes, and let her lower legs swing from the edge.
"Well, I'm gonna play some catch," Perconte said, his voice a bit farther away now. "You guys coming?"
"You two go ahead," Y/F/N waved them off with her eyes still closed.
"Alright, see you around then," George told her.
The legs of the plastic chair he was sitting in screeched against the pavement. The heavy footsteps from his boots grew fainter until all was silent.
Y/F/N exhaled in satisfaction when the cool Austrian breeze swept through the tent and fanned over her face.
The weather was so nice. It was sunny, but not too hot. The clear skies, greenery, and tall mountains painted a picturesque paradise.
When she heard someone approaching the tent from behind, she jolted up. It was Floyd Talbert.
"Hey," Tab greeted with a half smile and a slight head tilt back.
"Hi," Y/F/N grinned, getting on her feet and folding her hands behind her back.
"What're you up to?" he looked at the scattered reels next to the half-filled crate and back at her.
"Oh, I was going through movies earlier with uh... with uh, Perco and Luz. They went off to play ball," Y/F/N picked up Seven Sinners and filed it between a random space.
"Aren't those supposed to be in alphabetical order?" Tab eyed the reel she just put in.
With one hand on her hip and the other holding herself up while she leaned on the table in front of her, she bit the inside of her cheeks. "Yeah, why?"
He smirked and put his hand over the same spot.
"You put Seven Sinners before Sergeant York," he flicked the reel sleeve, making it fall back from the one it was up against.
"I did," she laughed when she saw where she'd misplaced it.
"Hey, at least you know H comes after E," he tapped Shadow of a Doubt, which was filed after the two that were mixed up.
"Yeah, that's good," Y/F/N nodded and fixed the order. "So why are you here?"
"Captain Nixon wanted me to go to this store he said had Vat 69 in stock and I figured I needed a translator," Tab explained.
"Well good for you for coming to the shitty one," she teased.
"Liebgott and Webster went somewhere with Skinny," he said. "Don't know what they're doing though."
Y/F/N spoke some German, but wasn't confident enough to have actual conversations in it.
"Okay, let's go then," she shrugged and walked around the table to meet him on the other side.
She followed him to one of the Jeeps parked some distance from the tent.
He looked so good in his ODs. If she wanted to be honest, he was a great-looking guy in general.
Y/F/N hopped into the passenger seat and put her feet up over the dashboard.
"So how much whiskey does he want us to get?" she wondered as they traveled the paved road.
"He said whatever we could carry," Tab answered, not taking his eyes off the road.
Not like I wanted to relax or anything, Y/F/N thought to herself and groaned.
She turned her head to look at Tab. He had one hand on the wheel and the other tugging at his bottom lip. She knew what this meant, but she didn't know if she should say something, so she focused on their surroundings.
The closer they got to the town square, the more people, civilians and their own alike, appeared in their line of sight.
Tab parked in front of a liquor shop with a long window that covered up most of the right side of the gray building. At first it appeared to have no door, but upon closer inspection, it was just held open by a chair inside.
Y/F/N immediately thought of the saloons in those Westerns her little brother watched on the weekends.
"Come on," she heard him say as he cut the engine off.
He only got one foot out of the vehicle when she spoke up. "Tab, wait."
He looked over his shoulder to her.
"What's on your mind?" she looked at him worriedly.
"What? Come o-"
"Tab."
"You saw it, didn't you?" he scratched the back of his neck.
"I did," Y/F/N nodded. "Talk to me."
She was probably the only one in the company that knew whenever something was bothering him, he tugged at his lower lip.
"This waiting," he looked to her and then to a rip on the driver's seat. "The fact that no one's telling us what's going to happen. It's fucking killing me."
At this moment, she saw something different in him. It wasn't the side she usually saw.
"Whatever happens, we're not going at it alone, though," Y/F/N gulped. "And you wanna know something, Tab?"
He looked back at her.
"I know it means shit all coming from me, but you're a great soldier. You'll do great things like you did with us," she got out of the car and headed for the store. "Come on."
Once she was halfway inside, he followed her to the counter.
"Hallo," Y/F/N greeted the young woman, who looked about the same age as herself, discarding some empty beer bottles.
"Was kann ich Ihnen bringen?" the lady said.
"Haben sie Vat 69?" Y/F/N asked her.
"Hmm," the woman's brows scrunched a bit as she looked to her side, her hands on the countertop, then she called to someone in the back room. "Haben wir Vat 69?"
"Ja, Laura. Es ist hier drin," a man's voice answered.
"Oh, gut," Y/F/N smiled.
"Zwei Gläser?" Laura eyed Y/F/N and Tab, who was still standing by the door.
"Oh, nein," Y/F/N laughed a little. "Wie viele Flaschen können wir bekommen?"
"Die Grenze ist zwei Kisten. Das sind zwölf Flaschen."
Y/F/N looked back at Tab. "Two boxes, twelve bottles."
"Yeah, that's good," he ran his hand through his brown hair, the pushed back strands flopping back over his forehead. "I'm gonna go have a smoke. Tell me when you're set."
"Zwei Kisten," Laura told the man in the back.
She faced the front again and watched Tab slip out, cigarette between his lips.
"Ist er dein Freund?" Laura smirked at Y/F/N.
For a split second, she hadn't known why this woman asked. They were wearing matching uniforms, so it would be pretty clear that they were friends. But then she remembered the alternate translation.
Y/F/N scoffed. "Ich wünsche."
"Ich würde auch," she joked and winked.
Although they were just friends, Y/F/N couldn't help but feel jealous over this girl admiring Talbert. He would, without a doubt choose Laura over her, not just because she's pretty, but because he would see her the way he sees wouldn't see Y/F/N: as a desirable girl who he had a chance with. Being with Easy all this time, Y/F/N was basically seen as "one of the guys". She wasn't athletic at all like he was or did anything that would be defined as "masculine", but she definitely wouldn't be on his list of girls to pursue. She felt foolish as that's all they would be. Just friends.
Laura brought the crates up and placed them in front of Y/F/N.
She scooped out some cash from her Army jacket, counted some bills, and gave them to Laura.
"Tab!" she took one of the crates by the punched-in handles and set it down on one of the stools.
He raised his eyebrows and peered into the store, before coming in and carrying one with ease, but not before giving Laura a small smile.
Y/F/N thanked Laura and the man in the storage room on her way out.
It was getting dark outside, but luckily the two were able to return to the base without any trouble.
Each carrying a box, they headed to HQ and saw Nixon with Harry Welsh.
"Captain Nixon," Tab said, putting his box down at Nixon's feet.
Y/F/N put hers on top.
"Thank you, Sergeant Talbert," Nixon looked at Tab and then at Y/F/N. "Sergeant Y/L/N."
"Sir," she nodded.
Now it was just Tab and Y/F/N again.
"I'm gonna turn in for the night," she told him as she walked backwards to her sleeping quarters.
"Right now? It's so early," Tab squinted his eyes a bit and turned his head slightly to the side.
"Yeah, but I got nothing to do, so I'll just hang out," she replied. "See you tomorrow."
"Goodnight," he nodded in her direction. "And Y/F/N?"
She twirled back around.
"Thanks," he looked at her now with that same expression from earlier that day.
After a few minutes of silence, she opened her mouth. "My pleasure."
"You guys seen Webster?" Tab popped his head in one of the rooms where a bunch of the guys played cards.
"Outside, somewhere," Bull said without looking up from his fan of cards.
Tab already checked everywhere outside, so he resorted to visiting every room that had a balcony door.
Finally, on the third floor, those doors were wide open, revealing David Webster stretched out on the widened stone ledge, his back against a pillar and a book in his lap.
"Webster!" Tab called, making the reader nearly jump.
"Jesus Christ, Tab. You want me to die?" Web rolled his eyes.
"No, but I do need your help translating something," Tab came in and sat across from Webster.
"I don't care how good she looks, I'm not gonna be your wingman," Webster buried his face in his book again.
"No, not for that!" Tab groaned and put one leg up on the ledge. "It's a conversation I overheard."
Webster closed his book and looked up at Tab. "Fine, continue."
"Okay, so the first person said 'is er deen Froyd?'" Tab squeezed his eyes shut, trying to get the pronunciations right.
"'Ist er dein Freund'?" Webster corrected. "That means 'is that your friend?' That, or 'is that your boyfriend?'"
Taking a second to process this, Tab nodded absentmindedly. "Okay, okay. Then the... second person said 'ich wünsche'."
"'Ich wünsche' means 'I wish'," Webster replied and waited for the next line.
"The first person then said 'ich würde ocht'," Tab recalled.
"'Ich würde auch'? That's 'I would too'," Web looked curious now. "Is that it?"
Still running over the newly translated dialogue in his head, he didn't hear the question.
"Talbert?" Web tried again.
"What? Yeah. Thanks, Web," he stood up and went out into the hall.
A smug grin was etched across his face as he made his way back to his room. Now that he thought about it, he recalled Y/F/N looking mildly annoyed at the comment Laura made.
So out of all the men in Easy Company, she wanted him?
Usually when he was done with a girl, he didn't think much about her, but somehow... he didn't want to let this one go.
"Hey, Tab," Y/F/N greeted as she entered the lobby.
"Hey. Where you been?"
"Just got back from the checkpoint," she wiped some sweat from her forehead.
"Oh, good," he walked to a wall on the far right of the building, where a staircase was behind it. "Can I talk to you about something?"
"Sure...," she hesitantly followed.
He headed halfway up the stairs before spinning on his heel to face Y/F/N, who was just five steps behind.
"I know what you said about me yesterday," he flat out claimed.
"What?" Y/F/N tilted her head back to meet his eyes. "I didn't say anything."
"Yeah, you did. When you said you wanted me to be your boyfriend," though he tried not to do it, Tab still got that smug look on his face.
"Fucking Webster," Y/F/N muttered under her breath and looked to her side.
She felt her heart hammering wildly. So what was he going to do now? Run and tell everyone? In turn, have the officers hear about it?
"Tab, it was a joke," Y/F/N adamantly told him.
He stepped down so that they were at the same level now.
"I sincerely hope not," he cupped one side of her face and leaned in to kiss her.
Y/F/N closed her eyes and let herself feel the warmth on her cheeks.
She pulled away, holding on to the black railing of the staircase. "Tab, it's not what I want."
"What isn't?" he held her hand, as if he was scared she would walk away.
"I don't want to be around for just one day. I'm not that kind of girl," Y/F/N took her hand away and bounded up the steps past him.
Tab followed, stopping in front of her on a landing. "Who said you were going to be that girl? Y/F/N I want to be yours and I want you to be mine."
"You better not be lying to me, Tab. Because I swear—"
He put his lips against hers again and smiled. "I'll prove it to you as many times as I need to. At least let me do that."
Y/F/N agreed. "Just don't let me down. Because I will leave."
"I won't. I promise," he held her hand again.