Dulce Decorum Est
Disclaimers: Characters belong to Takaya-Sensei and Hakushenka and are used for entertainment, not profit. Only prose is mine. Setting is based loosely on Actual events.
Notes: The Battle of Vimy Ridge was one of the important Battles, since it gave the Allied forces more of a hold in the front, but at a great cost. It is also one of the most important battles for Canada, since Canadian troops were the ones that contributed a hell of a lot to make it possible. It is also the time that Canada gained an Identity as a major player on the World Stage. Ypres was an earlier battle (1914) when the German forces used Mustard Gas which was later banned by the Geneva Convention. The title "Dulce Decorum Est" Is a nod to Wilfried Owen, a great poet of WWI who sadly died in the war. This poem describes the terribly futility of war and is a must read during Remembrance Day Celebrations across Canada as well as "In Flander's Fields".
Sorry for the History Lesson. I am a History teacher after all. Let's go.
Vimy, Europe, 1917.
Kyo sat shivering in the trench, a cigarette clamped between his teeth as he tried to ignore the chill that was seeping through his uniform and into his bones. He never seemed to be able to get warm, even when he would get a few days off. Those days were coming far and few in between, since the war was starting to get even more complicated than before.
The damned Yankees had finally decided to join the war, but even with their help it seemed that they were soaking the ground with blood…for a scrap of land about the size of a football field. He shook his head as he thought about that and sucked more smoke into his mistreated lungs. He knew he had to stop thinking about it. There was no point in trying to make any sense of anything in this stretch of hell.
Cause that was what it was. Hell. He wouldn't wish his worst enemy (and that included his damned cousin Yuki) to be stuck there right beside him. As he thought about that, he idly wondered how his disliked cousin was doing. He hadn't seen him since the battle of Ypres and he had to admit he was worried. That was the first time that the Huns had used Mustard gas and Yuki's battalion had been one of the unlucky ones to get caught in the midst of it.
He shuddered as he recalled combing through the bodies for survivors and how they had all looked like what demons would look. Sort of like what Dante would have dreamed up in when he was writing the Inferno. Yuki had been smart enough to soak his handkerchief in urine and tie it around his nose and mouth, but the damage had been done. He could still hear the raspy voice and the thick coughing that would sometimes be accompanied by bloody phlegm.
"Penny for your thoughts, Kyo?" Kyo looked up and smiled grimly at the tall figure wrapped in a damp khaki trench-coat, cigarette smoke curling about his head.
"Haru." Kyo greeted him and moved over on the crate he was using as a makeshift stool.
"You looked very thoughtful there, kid. You okay?" Haru asked, his prairie accent rolling out his words as he spoke. Haru was a farm cousin, his family opting to stay on the farm by Camrose rather than go to Edmonton or Calgary like the rest of the family had.
"Who is here? Nah. I was thinking about Yuki." Kyo confided softly after they had both shared a rusty laugh at the madness of life during wartime.
"I saw him the last time I got leave." Haru commented as he took off his helmet and scratched at the shock of black and white hair, the product of a childhood accident on the farm. Kyo watched him and took a drag of his cigarette before chucking it.
"His lungs are still bad. Hatori doubts he's going get better again." Haru finished. He looked at Kyo who sighed heavily.
"Shit. That's horrible. It's true, he's alive. Not like Momiji. Or maimed like Shigure. But still…" Kyo's voice trailed off as they both remembered their younger cousin that had died in the battle of the Somme. Or the older cousin that had gotten his arm blown off during a midnight skirmish.
"Well, He's home now. At least that's a blessing." Haru said, breaking the silence.
Kyo's lips thinned out and he looked around before wrapping his arms around Haru and pulling him close to inhale the scent of him, that strange mix of sweet-grass, leather and snow that always clung to him no matter how many days he had been on the front.
"I'm not going to die, Kyo." Haru murmured into his cousin's neck as he surreptitiously rubbed his back in small circles.
"We're going over the top soon." Kyo muttered as he pulled away, albeit reluctantly. Although he wanted more contact with his cousin, he knew it was dangerous to show any affection lest anyone caught them.
"I know. We'll make it though. Don't worry." Haru whispered back before leaning in close and planting a quick kiss on Kyo's lips. Kyo would have returned the kiss, but their officers came out to rally the men for the trip over the top.
"See you after." Haru yelled as he yanked on his helmet and ran off to his unit, leaving Kyo to watch him run off.
Shaking his head to clear it for the battle, he tightened his helmet and cocked his rifle. The Last Push for the Ridge had begun.
---
Haru literally slid into his trench, his body completely covered in mud. Apart from the bits he had wiped away from his mouth, nose and eyes, he was sure that the disgusting mud of the battlefield had ingrained itself into every inch of him. Grimacing at the thought, he barely had time to catch himself before he landed head first in said mud.
"Watch yourself." One of the other soldiers said as he walked by and punched him lightly on the arm.
"Yeah. Sorry." Haru replied as he took off his helmet and rushed off to where Kyo's Unit was. He was eager to see if his cousin had survived another battle of that godforsaken war.
"Hey, Harry, Harry Somhar?" Haru winced at the way that the broad Yorkshire accent was murdering his name, but said nothing. He had learned after three years of trying to correct it that he was fighting a losing battle.
"Yeah? What do you need?" Haru asked, turning around and coming face to face with a craggy looking man with eerily brilliant eyes.
"You got a cousin named…Ky…Kyo..Kyle Somhar?" Haru's eyes widened at the question.
"Yes. He's my older cousin…is he dead?" Haru asked in a dead voice, his bluntness making the officer wince.
"No. He's in the field hospital, though." The officer told him, making Haru's face blanch out under the mud that was still caked on his cheeks and forehead.
"I'm here to bring you to him. Come on." The officer said as he nimbly moved through the boxes of ammunition, guns and soldiers that were trying to catch the elusive and much needed bit of sleep before they were called to action yet again.
Haru only followed him, his mind a conjuring up the worst case scenario as he did so. The last time he had been fetched by an officer, he had arrived just in time to witness Kyo and Shigure watching a priest administer the last rites for Momiji. He sincerely hoped that it wasn't the case this time. If it was…
They arrived at the makeshift hospital in what seemed record time. The only impression that Haru had of that walk was moving through what seemed like rows and rows of cots that held writhing, crying, sobbing and sometimes dying men. He would have probably kept on going if it hadn't been for the officer stopping in front of a cot where a doctor stood.
"Is he here? Is Haru here?" Haru blinked and let out a sigh of relief as his cousins' irritated voice sliced through the hospital din.
"Kyo. Of course I'm here. Where else would I be?" Haru asked as he made his way to Kyo's side, his anxiety still not lifted until he got a good look at his cousin.
"Where?" Kyo asked, his voice holding a note of panic as he waved his hand around in an effort to find his cousin. Haru grabbed his hand and gave a small gasp when he saw Kyo's face clearly for the first time since he had gotten there.
"Thank God." Kyo muttered, his hand reaching out to his cousin, who quickly grabbed it.
"Haru, promise me you're gonna stay here. Don't let them take my ey…" Kyo's voice trailed off and Haru felt a weird sense of unease and relief when his cousin finally fell unconscious.
"He's a tough one. Wouldn't go under until we found you. Luckily it wasn't that long." The doctor commented as he took a bowl of water and a cloth and began working away the dried blood crusted around Kyo's eyes.
"Why? Why was he waiting for me? Is he going to die?" Haru asked thinly as the doctor worked.
"He might, if the wounds get infected." The doctor replied as he peeled back what Haru at first thought was cloth, but on closer inspection, he saw was flesh.
"What happened to him?" Haru asked, horror seeping into his voice as he watched more strips being peeled off.
"He got a faceful of shrapnel getting prisoners across the lines." The officer replied as he too tried to suppress a shudder when the doctor scooped out what Haru knew to be the gelatinous remains of one eye and deposited it on the ground.
Haru gagged and turned away, his throat and eyes both burning with nausea and grief.
"He's a hero, kid." The officer commented softly as he forced himself to watch the doctor work quickly and steadily. There was nothing else to be done other than to clean, sterilize and bandage the wound. The shrapnel had cauterized as it had sheared. There was nothing else to be done.
"He's a blind hero. But a hero. " Haru noted sarcastically. "What comfort will that be once he finds out he can't see?" Haru asked bitterly.
"At least he will have the comfort of going home." The officer returned quietly.
"With a Victoria Cross. It's not comfort enough, that you are right. But he'll be going home."
Haru laughed hollowly at that.
"Lucky him."
--
He trudged up the snowy street, not caring that the snow and slush were squelching into his boots. He was so close that nothing mattered at that point. Not the itchy roughness of his uniform, not the cold or the wet. He was home.
The small drifts of snow that he was winding his way through were nothing compared to the never-ending rain, the stench of corpses and the rattling coughs of comrades that could very well be dead the next time he opened his eyes. A little snowstorm was heaven compared to that hellish existence.
He felt his heartbeat quicken as he crossed a street he had dreamed about practically non-stop since that battle that had torn one of his last relatives from him. Ever since Vimy Ridge, He had been the sole Sohma holding the fort in the battle-field and he had done his best to keep the promise he had made to come home again. And now, after what felt like a lifetime, he was finally coming close to fulfilling that promise. Only a few more meters and he would prove he had held up his end of the bargain.
Coughing slightly, he adjusted his rucksack and quickly moved down the immaculately swept path before ringing the doorbell.
He thought he would have to wait for awhile, since Shigure never answered the door on time. He said it would disagree with his idiom, or something idiotic like that.
To his surprise, the door swung open to reveal a tall, sinewy man with angry orange hair that was longer than he remembered it being and swept forwards to cover most of his face.
"If you're with the Sally Ann, I just gave you four dollars, so bugger off and go bother someone else! I don't care if it's Christmas! Piss off!"
"Good to see you too, Kitten." Haru dead-panned, making Kyo raise his face up, revealing the scarred upper half of his face where his eyes had been.
"Haru? Oh fuck…Haru?" Kyo whispered as he reached out with trembling hands and ran them over Haru's face to reassure himself that it wasn't his imagination playing tricks on him again and that Haru, his Haru, was really there.
Haru laughed softly and pulled Kyo close.
"It really is you. Fuck…Haru…Oh fuck…"
"Yes. I didn't die, Just like I promised. I didn't die." Haru whispered before tilting Kyo's face up and kissing him, gently and tenderly in the quiet, dark day of Christmas Eve, 1919
Finis.
Notes: What was supposed to be a Remembrance Day drabble turned into a long fic. It's totally Au, of course and I made the guys Canadian because it is a holiday that is held in high regard in Canada, since the Colony technically became a world-recognized country after the battle of the Somme and Vimy Ridge.
The names are a bit bastardized because English people would add an r to the end of a word with a (I have heard many English peeps call it "Canadar") so the name "Sohma" Would probably get the same treatment. Their names would probably be Anglicized as well, so Haru- Harry, Kyo- Kyle, etc.
Also, Many Japanese people did fight in WWI and WWII that was a huge bone of contention when they were relocated to interment camps because they were considered enemies, so it kind of fits that these two would/could make an appearance in an AU setting.
Anyways, that's all the notes and thanks for reading. I shall hurry up and write more for my other fics…busy teaching and all that. Thanks once again.