Title: Love Is A Flame

Author: Hotlen/Stonehouse

Summary:
It is the fall of 1944. Luke is a 19-year-old American soldier in France. Reid is a German doctor who is drafted by the Nazis to work in their POW camp. During a battle Luke gets injured and captured. Reid and Luke meet and a love story quickly follows, but this love must remain a secret under the watchful eyes of the SS. Think: "A Farewell To Arms" meets Lure and WW2.

Characters:
Luke (19), Reid (in his 30s), Katie (in her 20s), Noah, Casey and Kevin as other American soldiers. There are also SS, German soldiers, Nazi's, and the Snyder family.

Rating: R- NC-17 for language, sex and violence

WARNING:
EXTREME NOAH HATE, I mean Noah turns out to be the worst person on Earth in this story.

IMPORTANT:
Because many of you are wary about my stories I promise there's a few twists, but a very Lure ending will be waiting for you.

Chapter 1:

I drop the water-purifying tablet into my canteen and watch it disintegrate as it sinks to the bottom. The hard earth pokes unevenly against my back as I lean against the foxhole. I pull my helmet down over my eyes with a yawn, ready to nap. An hour ago we were trekking ten miles across the French countryside before arriving here and digging in. Beyond our foxhole a thick forest of trees spreads out to the East. Somewhere inside the mess of tangled branches the German front marches towards us. General MacArthur positioned my regiment along the forest border to ambush the Germans when they finally emerge from the trees.

"You gonna eat that?" I turn to see Casey pointing to my prize possession; a tube of M&Ms my parents sent me.

"Hell yeah I'm going to eat it!" I slap his hand away.

"Oh come on, Snyder, you've had them forever."

"I'm saving them."

"For what?"

"I dunno."

Casey scoffs, "You better eat them now before you die. Speaking of which, when you die can I eat them?"

"Real nice Casey!" Noah pipes up from the other side of Casey's head.

"I'm being realistic."

"You didn't even say 'if'," Kevin, who sits beside me, comments.

"OK, sorry. If the unfortunate moment of your demise happens upon you while I'm here may I eat your M&Ms?"

I laugh and pick up the tube, throwing it at Casey. "Knock yourself out since they seem to mean so much to you."

Casey claws at the package savagely. "Thanks man, I knew you were an alright guy."

I roll my eyes. "Why don't you write home for some?"

"My parents are lazy." He mumbles, melted chocolate covering his teeth. I look away disgustedly. "You always get packages."

"Hey, share some." Noah slaps Casey's arm, and Casey shakes some chocolate candies from the tube into his hand. Kevin reaches out across me and Casey dumps a few chocolate pieces in his hand also.

"You want some Luke?" Casey mumbles over another full mouth.

"Oh my how generous of you to offer me my own candy." I snicker. "No, it's OK, knock yourself out. I was thinking maybe some rehydrated orange juice and a packet of pork and beans would be on the menu for tonight."

"What I wouldn't give for some real food." Casey sighs, tipping the now empty tube over his hand and shaking it, hoping for a few more morsels.

"I hear after this fight we're going to be shipped back to base camp." Noah situates himself in front of Casey so that the four of us sit in a lopsided square.

"They always say that." Casey sighs, throwing the tube across the foxhole.

I tear the top of the orange juice carton off with my teeth and pour in some of my now purified water. I shake it around to mix the orange powder but it never tastes the way my grandma makes it fresh squeezed every morning. I pull my helmet once again over my eyes and sip on the grainy orange juice willing my mind to be anywhere but here.

Fall is quickly approaching. The trees around Snyder pond will soon change color and fall from the sky, floating on top of the water, turning the pond into a kaleidoscope. I love swimming in the pond at autumn, feeling the wet leaves cling to my body as I float. Looking up through the changing leaves made it seem like the sky was on fire. Every now and then a peaceful wind would rake through the leaves making them shudder and sparks of fire fall to the Earth.

My father would come by in the wagon to fetch me for dinner. I'd ride back with him on the hay bales, my wet skin sticking to the dry grass. All season my body would soak up the scents of the dying earth and I would smell of the heated beauty in it.

Grandma would bake pie after pie from the buckets of berries we'd pick from the farm. My favorite was her blueberry, followed closely with rhubarb. We never went hungry during the year, but at harvest time we never went unstuffed. Grandma cooked way too much food and force-fed the entire town.

Grandma always reminded me of Mrs. Claus. She has a round body, curly hair, a jovial laugh, and her cheeks are always rosy from the oven. Grandma is the nicest most giving person I have ever met. Her home, though small, is open to anyone who needs a roof over his head, and food is open to anyone who needs food in his belly.

Her son, Holden, my dad is the second nicest person I know. He loves his Mama with all his heart. He'd do anything for her, or for anyone. When I have a problem he's the first person I go to. When I received my draft notice he was the first one I told. He put his hand on my shoulder and said, "Luke, I don't believe in violence and I do not like war, but you are brave and patriotic and your country has called you to serve." Even so I cried for a week about it until I couldn't cry any more.

My mother, Lily is prone to the dramatics. When I told her that I was called to war she broke down in sobs no one could console. All she could mutter was "My baby, my baby!" for days. When I boarded the plane for basic training she didn't come to see me off. I know she's my mother and I love her, but she's not the best person to have in your corner. She's self absorbed and selfish, forgetting for the most part that she has children because she's caught up in her own melodrama. I tend to steer clear of her.

My sister Faith is the only one of my siblings to really understand what war means. She had seen Adolf Hitler on the TV and read the headlines of the newspapers. She seemed not to care that I was drafted, and went about her life as usual, but the night before I shipped off she came in to my room and told me that she was scared. I gave her a big hug and told her I would be careful. She pulled away, nodded curtly, and left. I knew inside her 13-year-old body were emotions that she could never express.

My sister Natalie couldn't really understand where I was going. My parents didn't want to frighten her so they said I was going to serve the country in France. She doesn't know what war means, they keep her away from the TV, and I told her I was proud to go and serve the country. She seemed fine with that when I smiled. I write to her all the time, and in second grade sentences she writes me back.

Ethan is my only brother and he's five years old. To him I've gone away to summer camp, and now that fall is approaching and school is starting he thinks that I'll come home. I hope that he is right. My father sends me pictures Ethan draws for me. Mostly of our horses, the farm, the family, and sometimes he draws pictures of me fishing and camping. My dad says Ethan told him the pictures are of me having fun at camp.

"Fun," I mutter to myself as I feel the butt of my M-1 press against my thigh where I propped it against the foxhole wall.

"Earth to Luke," Kevin's hand slaps my helmet off my head.

"I'm trying to sleep, Kevin, leave me alone."

"Touchyyyy." I grab my helmet and put it over my face, blocking out the late summer sun.

"Come on, Luke." I hear Casey's voice warp through the metal of my helmet. "We're going to play poker for cigarettes."

"You can have mine." I mumble.

"Oh come on. Noah, deal him in."

"Aren't you exhausted?" I ask sitting up, my helmet tumbling to my lap.

"We're playing poker, not exactly strenuous."

My eyes dart to the line of trees that rustle in a swift breeze that picks up across the clearing. "One game."

"Five games."

"Three games."

"Deal." Casey grins; Noah begins handing out the cards.

"You know it could happen any second now."

"What could?"

"The Germans crashing through the trees with a wall of rapid gun fire."

"You think too much, Snyder, now ante."

After Casey's fifth straight win I threw my cards in his face and turned my back, hoping to take my long awaited nap. I could hear Noah, Kevin and Casey goofing about me, but my eyelids were too heavy and my muscles too weak to respond. Besides, they meant no harm.

Casey is an easygoing fun-loving kind of guy. His floppy blond hair matches his personality. He's not the shiniest link in the chain, but I enjoy his company, especially for his ability to make war into a joke. Without him I'd go insane. Casey comes from a working class family in Detroit, Michigan. His parents work in the factories building jeeps. Casey and I met at basic training. He slept in the bunk above mine and we hit it off right from the start. We were put in the same unit and shipped off to France together. We met Kevin in our travels to our station in France.

Kevin is an easygoing guy much like Casey. His blonde hair is shaved short and he has deep brown eyes, much like me. He's also an athlete, was on the basketball and baseball teams in high school. His family owns a general store in his hometown in Iowa. His mother is an elementary school teacher and he has two younger sisters like me. The three of us got real close in the few days we traveled together to base camp. At the base is where we met Noah, our Staff Sergeant.

Noah is an army brat from all over the world. His father fought valiantly in The Great War and was awarded two purple hearts and the Medal of Honor. Noah is much more serious and by the book than either Casey or Kevin. I know it's from his upbringing and his overwhelming determination to make his father proud. He's not a complete stick-in-the-mud, Casey can usually lighten him up and the three of them find pleasure in teasing me. The four of us became tight quickly. It feels nice to know there are people who have my back, especially someone as trained as Noah. The camaraderie and friendship is a welcome change from my life back home.

In Oakdale I'm not very popular. In a small town everyone knows your business and I'm the weird kid with the drinking problem. I had been popular up to my junior year of high school. I was the captain of the basketball team and led Oakdale High to their first state championship. I was the winner of an esteemed writing award, and I managed to get on the dean's list every semester. In junior year my life started to change for the worse. Feelings different from other boys my age began creeping up in my mind. I would look at my guy friends the way they looked at girls and I knew something was wrong. I told my parents how I felt and my mother had a major panic attack. She went so out of her mind that she needed to be sedated and hospitalized. My father seemed to think I'd outgrow my feelings and so didn't pay much attention to them. My family turned their back on me so I turned to alcohol, my amber best friend. In some ways being drafted was a gift. I could escape my troubled confusing life and have something to focus on. I could forget my feelings and my tendencies, my perversion and my sickness. All I am is Private Snyder from Illinois. Another body to fill their quota, another target for the Germans. Life seems easier in the fields of France. You live or you die, and there's not a helluva lot of time in between for other thoughts.

"Hey Snyder, take a look at my girl." Casey pokes me in my side.

"I've seen her." I grumble shooing him off, trying to go back to sleep.

"Come on man."

I groan, knowing Casey even for this short time I knew he wouldn't relent. I sit up, putting my helmet on, and take the picture from his out stretched hand. It's a black and white school picture of a beautiful slim blonde girl.

"There she is." Casey says with pride. "Alison. I told her when I get back I'm going to marry her. She's a nurse in Detroit. "

"Very beautiful." I say handing the picture back.

"Look at mine, Luke." Noah hands his picture over of a curly longhaired girl with a round face. "Isn't she beautiful?"

"She's great Noah."

"Great! She's one in a million!" Noah cries incredulously. I force a smile and hand the photo back.

"Since we're all sharing." Kevin grins and digs out a photo from his pocket and hands it over. The photo is mud smeared but I can see the brilliant smile and wide doe eyes of the girl in the photo.

"She's got a great smile." I say encouragingly.

"Lemme see." Casey rips the photo from my hand and passes it between he and Noah.

"What about you, Luke?" Kevin asks. "Got a girl?"

Suddenly I feel hot under the collar, my eyes shifting between Kevin, Casey and Noah as they look on expectantly. "Um, no. I live in a small town, practically related to all the girls." I force a laugh. "I'm going to go to Chicago though when I get home." I lie. "Find me a honey."

They crack up, putting their pictures away, mumbling about what a lucky son of a bitch I am to go to Chicago and find an experienced girl. I laugh awkwardly with them and hide my blushing face beneath my helmet.

"Have you ever been laid, Snyder?"

"Wha…what?' I jump, caught off guard by the question.

"Laid, sex, make love, whatever you want to call it." Kevin explains. "Have you ever done the deed?"

"Oh, sure, yeah, lots of times." I lie weakly.

"You lying shit." Casey laughs.

"Well have you?" I retort.

"No, Alison is a stick in the mud, she won't even let me take off her bra."

"I hear ya there." Kevin lamented, "Josie won't even let me kiss her with tongue. She says it's undignified."

"Dude, you guys are pathetic." Noah laughs.

Casey, Kevin and I turned our heads sharply to Noah. "So have you?"

"Hell yeah I've had sex with Maddie."

"Lucky bastard." Casey swore.

"It's only because he's older." Kevin justifies.

"You guys are dating prudes. Maddie loves having sex."

"You guys are sick." I groan, not wanting to think about touching a woman that way.

"Jealous is all you are."

"Why would I ever be jealous of you having sex with your girlfriend?"

"Fiancée"

"Whatever."

"OK guys break it up, we're fighting the Germans here not each other." As if on Kevin's cue black figures began to rustle the branches of the anterior trees.

"Guns ready boys!" Our commander shouts.

We all dig down into the foxhole, grabbing our guns and pointing them to the tree line. I hold my helmet closer to my head. Press my face against the dirt wall of the foxhole and breathe in soil. The dying Earth, like back home at the pond, is all I can smell. The thundering of my heart against my ribcage is all I can feel; faster and faster as German orders and breaking branches came closer. I close my eyes and pray to God I'll make it out alive, to see my siblings grow up, to hug my grandmother again and fix the ever breaking tractor with my father one last time.

I look to my left to see Casey grinning, chewing on a piece of gum as if this were a walk in the park. Noah has sheer determination plastered on his face, and to my right Kevin looks at me worriedly and shrugs.

A breath passes my lips and then all I can hear is the ringing of gunfire and the wail of explosions.