Disclaimer: I do not claim to be or know QT, or anyone remotely associated with him or the movie Inglourious Basterds. But a girl can wish.
Note: This is a companion piece to 'Defiant Eyes.' It is not necessary to have read that to understand this, but it will be a limited understanding as this has little to no back-story.
Small Comforts
an Inglourious Basterds Oneshot
Aldo wasn't a sentimental man, and Hugo wasn't the needy type.
To Aldo, they were a perfect fit.
But still, it took effort for Aldo not to notice how when Hugo slept alone, away from the rest of the Basterds at night, the space between his arms made a girl-sized shape. Aldo tried not to notice the glint of obsession in Hugo's eyes. Or the way Hugo caressed his knife more lovingly than anything else.
It was hard for Aldo not to notice these things. But he still tried.
They didn't talk much. They didn't sleep near each other. They didn't eat meals together. They didn't do much of anything normal together. Aldo supposed they didn't really need to. Their form of communication was through grunts and pats and nods and looks. Shared grins at the slaughter of Nazis. Phrases in German that Aldo didn't understand and phrases in Aldo's drawl that Hugo didn't understand. Quick moments of unadulterated lust and need.
And for a while, that was enough.
When it came down to it, Aldo knew that Hugo would always mean more to him than he did to Hugo.
On good days Aldo was optimistic – at least he had half of Hugo. When Aldo was feeling pessimistic he knew that the half he had was the angry, mean, and bitter part of Hugo. He figured that was really the only part of Hugo that was left. After her.
Her. Aldo couldn't bear to even think of her name. It would make her too real. Even though she was dead she was still competition. No... she wasn't competition; there was no competition. There was only her and Aldo was an afterthought, a consolation prize. A big "Sorry I screwed over your life, will this make it all better?" from the man upstairs. And even though she was a dead Jewish girl Aldo resented her. He resented her even though she was the reason Hugo was Hugo. If it wasn't for her Aldo wouldn't have had to break Hugo free of that holding cell.
Aldo would tell himself, after they were done and had gone back to camp acting like nothing had happened, that he deserved Hugo as much as she did. She may have been Hugo's lover but Aldo was both his lover and his savior. Didn't that count for anything?
But Aldo knew it wasn't true; it really didn't count for anything at all. He didn't deserve Hugo even a fraction of how much she did.
In the end, Aldo knew that Hugo didn't care about him at all compared to how he cared, obsessed, about her.
In the end, Aldo was just a small comfort to Hugo.
And in the end, life went on, even if Aldo didn't want it to.