hi!
this story was inspired by the trailer for "I come with the rain", which the author recently watched.
DO REVIEW. this is a little different from stuff i have written before and i would very much like to know whether it's having the effect that i want it to.
disclaimer: i don't own the movies, characters or, for that matter, anything. i am doing this for fun and do not profit from it. no point suing me either, because all you're gonna get is textbooks.
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It was a good way to close a long, hard day of work that yielded nothing more than the knowledge that what they were trying to do is nigh on impossible. A cold glass of beer, foamy and rich, to wash away the stain of failure that tainted all of them now.
The waitress placed the glasses in front of them with a clunk! and Rafe snapped from his thoughts. Hands quickly shot out and grabbed the glasses, and he watched as all the boys settled back into their seats, sipping gratefully at the golden brew and dissolve into friendly chatter. Well, all except for one; Danny was staring off into space again, and his drink sat on the table in a fast-forming pool of condensation. Gooz, even whilst chugging his own drink, eyes Danny's untouched one with the hungry gaze of a predatory hawk. If his friend continued his trip in la-la land, his drink would be appropriated soon enough.
On another day, in another time, he might have nudged Danny and alerted him to the impending theft of his drink. Hell, he might even have gone so far as to ask him what was on his mind; God knows that there were a lot of things to worry about, and if his friend wasn't a worrier, well, he was a white rabbit. Now, though, he was too tired to give a shit. The last thing he wanted to know was what his friend was thinking; if Evelyn was the cause for that wistful expression on his face. Rafe wiped a hand over his face and reached for his drink, belatedly realising that he had left it sitting too, and now the foam was all gone.
"You alright?"
He looked up to see Danny looking at him with an appropriately concerned expression; now he felt just guilty and just a little bit irritated. "Yeah, just tired." He flashed what he hoped was a convincing smile.
"What a day, huh?"
"Oh, come on, Danny. Yeah, today was crap, can we please talk about something else?" He kept his voice low, not wanting to draw attention to his irritable state.
His friend looked slightly taken aback, but recovered quickly. He reached into his jacket and pulled out a letter; the parchment colour of the envelope and the handwriting on it were painfully familiar to him and he suddenly felt a stab of anger. What the hell was he trying to do?
"I got this today...Evelyn asked about you, you know?" His voice sounded a little off, but he could have been speaking in tongues for all the difference it would have made to Rafe. "D'you wanna read it?"
That was it. He couldn't take this anymore; this sharing-caring session. Did he want to read it? Yeah, about as much as he wanted a trip to the dentist, or to eat snails. He got that his friend was trying very hard to make things better, but didn't Rafe tell him to let it go? Didn't he tell him that things couldn't go back to the way they once were? Why couldn't he just listen for once? Gritting his teeth, Rafe grabbed his drink and finished the glass without pausing for breath. The boys fell silent, growing aware of the change in the once-amiable atmosphere.
He set the empty glass down on the table and wiped his lips. "Ahhh, nothing in the world a good beer can't cure, eh? Well, I'll be taking off now." Having excused himself, he freed himself from the table and exited the bar, praying that he would finally be given the solitude he needed to contemplate the absolute unfairness of life; not only had he lost the love of his life, he couldn't even hate the guy who had ripped her from his arms because he was hard-wired to always look out for said guy. Soap operas were less dramatic.
And, true to soap opera fashion, Rafe had just rounded the corner when he heard footsteps falling behind him. He didn't even have to turn around to see who was behind him, because that's what a lifetime of hearing your friend's footsteps right behind you did to a man. "What?" he asked, knowing that this stalker could hear him.
There was no reply. He waited two heartbeats for an answer and turned when he didn't hear anything. The look on Danny's face made it clear that his friend had no idea what to say...finally. He sighed. "Look, I'm not mad or anything, okay? I just wanna hit the sack early tonight."
"Yeah, okay." There was a mixture of unreadable emotions flashing across his friend's face, none of which he recognised. He didn't know how Danny managed to become unreadable in the short months that he was gone; it felt like the world had suddenly changed when he wasn't looking. "Mind if I come along?"
He resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Why? You gonna sleep somewhere other than the barracks otherwise?"
That got a smile out of him. "I wish. I don't think I've ever had to sleep in so much noise. Makes me-" he stopped mid-sentence, as if offering Rafe the chance to drop the line of conversation and pick up a new one.
"Makes you what?"
"Miss Hawaii. You could hear the ocean from the base."
Well, wasn't that nice. While he was in England getting shot to pieces, his friend was in paradise, being lulled to sleep by the sound of the waves. Still, that was his own doing, wasn't it? He had no one to be angry with but himself, and that thought just served to stoke his anger even more. "Well, no point wishing for what you can't have." And that was one of life's truths. Now, if only he could learn to take his own advice...
They trudged back to the base in an uncomfortable silence. It was unoccupied, and they threw themselves on the so-so comfortable bunks, hoping that sleep would give them respite from the physical and emotional exhaustion that lay over them like a heavy blanket. All around them, the sounds of their impending mission filtered in, a lullaby not for the faint of heart.
