AN: This story takes place in a historically based AU, which might create some OOC. This fanfiction will also contain light bishounen ai, which means this story is based on a boyxboy pairing. If you are not a fan of bishounen ai/yaoi, please click the back page.

Duncan's Storage Cleaning Session

(Somewhere in Upstate New York, June 1920)

It happened in the early summer of 1920. The Great War was finally over after lasting for nearly five years. The results were major, such as Germany losing all of its colonies to Great Britain or France, Russia becoming a communist state under the Soviet Union, and all of Europe covered under poverty. Duncan, a veteran of the Great War, had been home for almost a year. However, he was alone, as his parents were dead for seven years, and his brothers and friends were killed fighting for the Allied forces. The only person around Duncan was his housekeeper Trent, though as soon as Trent finished the daily chores, he left for his house. However, there was a secret storage closet of the stuff Duncan had from friends during the time of the Great War. He didn't tell ANYONE about that storage closet as there were keepsakes of dear friends before and during the war. However, Duncan felt the closet needed to be cleaned as the closet was losing space due to the amount of objects inside the closet that took space.

While going to the closet, Duncan bumped into Trent.

"Uh, Mr. Duncan, where are you going?" asked Trent.

"Dammit! I was gonna clean my closet!" Duncan replied. "Ya gotta problem with that?"

"Mr. Duncan, if it is just cleaning I could do it," assured Trent. "After all, I am your housekeeper."

"I was gonna do it myself," Duncan said.

"Alright, if you say so," sighed Trent, leaving Duncan to his business.

A minute later, Duncan arrived at his closet. Opening the door, Duncan stepped inside. Turning the light on, he immediately started cleaning the closet. At first, cleaning the closet was not as bad as he thought it was going to be. That was, before he encountered a keepsake of a rather close friend of his. He had found a book, titled Pride and Predjudice that his dear friend Noah had given to him on his birthday before the United States entered the Great War in 1917. Duncan secretly admired Noah and was missing Noah ever since he was shot during the Great War in Europe. Letting a tear escape from his eye, Duncan started to remember the time Noah gave him his beloved book.

(September 1916)

"Here, I decided to give you this," Noah told Duncan, giving him his favorite work of literature, Pride and Predjudice, by Jane Austen. Duncan was confused as to why Noah gave him his most prized possession.

"Uh, Noah, why are you giving me this?" Duncan asked. "Isn't this your favorite book?"

"Yes, however, it is your birthday today," Noah replied. Duncan had forgotten it was his birthday after all, which made him blush a little. He smiled a bit while blushing.

"Thanks Noah," Duncan responded, still embarrassed about forgetting his own birthday. "It was very thoughtful of you to give me this."

(Duncan's Closet, June 1920)

After dropping the book, Duncan continued to clean his closet He was still a little upset about encountering Noah's favorite book, but it was not enough for Duncan to quit cleaning the closet. However, a while later, Duncan stumbled upon Noah's old helmet during the Great War. Duncan had kept Noah's helmet since the day he was killed on the Western Front. Duncan started crying as he held the helmet of his secret crush.

(Western Front, November 1918)

The war was nearly over. Duncan, Noah, and many other soldiers were fighting the enemy, though the enemy was starting to weaken since the United States of America entered the Great War. Noah was Duncan's last remaining companion during the war. Geoff, Harold, Cody, and Alfred F. Jones were killed a month before due to the effects of mustard gas, as they failed to get the masks on quick enough before the deadly gas was effective enough. Right between his eyes, Noah was shot in the head by an enemy soldier. It was too late to save Noah as he died immediately. Devastated, Duncan quickly took the helmet Noah had on his head and took it back to the trench. He kept the helmet in a secret place so that the other soldiers wouldn't take it, as the troops were running out of supplies. He even brought Noah's helmet home rather than his own helmet on the day he went back the United States of America from Europe.

(Duncan's Closet, June 1920)

Duncan was sobbing while holding the helmet. Heavy tears were flowing down his blue eyes. He couldn't handle cleaning the closet anymore as it would make him more depressed. As he left the closet, he wiped some of the tears off of his cheek. He had realized how much he had missed Noah the entire time since the day he died. Many of the things reminded Duncan of Noah, which made it too difficult to clean the closet. While walking down the hallway, as far away the closet as he could get, Duncan bumped into Trent.

"I am done cleaning the closet for now," Duncan sighed. Trent slowly nodded as Duncan said this. However, Duncan was sure he would never clean that closet ever again, as he realized it was putting an emotional strain on him. After all, Duncan had truly missed his secret love Noah.

AN: This is one of my first bishounen ai fanfics that I have done in a while. Reviews would be really nice. :B