I haven't published a story since 2007. Anyway, I came up with this a few weeks ago almost as a joke, but now I made it.

~Enjoy.

Major Jamie Stewart was sitting on a wooden bench inside his dirty war tent trying to get a good shave with his metal razor. He had a small hand mirror laying on top of a wooden crate that doubled as a dresser that he was looking into. He had, for the better part of his adult life, a thick mustache on his upper lip that he continually trimmed. He made sure every day to shave the rest of his face to look like a man of power, not a cannibal. As he was slowly and meticulously shaving his face, a man called out from behind his tent's fabric.

"Major Jamie Stewart?"

"Yes, and who am I speaking to?"

"This is Captain James Nicholls. May I have a few words with you?"

"Get in here, young lad."

Jamie didn't normally let anyone just walk into his tent like that. Especially while he was shaving, but he and Captain James Nicholls had become great friends since first meeting during the war. Even though through military standards they both saw the Major obviously superior over the Captain, Jamie found that he and James were on the same level and they had a connection that made Jamie comfortable enough to allow James to walk in while he shaved.

"Ah, I see you're cleaning up. I can leave if you want."

"Heavens boy, it doesn't matter. You've been in here before."

And that was a true statement. This wasn't the first time James walked in and talked to Jamie while he was doing one of his many daily routines.

"It's funny how you call me boy, Major." James said as he closed the tent and walked closer to Jamie.

"I mean, I'm about three or four years younger than you, aren't I?"

Jamie continued to look into his perched hand mirror and shave his lower jaw.

"I suppose you're right. We've discussed this before, haven't we?"

"Yes, Major Jamie we did. It was a few months ago. It was the same time we both realized we were named after our fathers and our fathers happened to be in the same battle while they were soldiers."

"You're right. I must have forgot the birthday part considering the other facts seemed more...intriguing. Anyway, have a seat." Jamie looked at James' reflection in his mirror and patted on the side of his small bench.

James pulled out a wooden crate from what seemed like a growing number of wooden crates and sat next to Jamie. The wooden crate made it look like James was shorter even though he knew he was taller than his superior by a tenth of a meter.

"Well, I...I didn't really come here for much, sir. I just wanted to have a talk."

"You don't have to call me sir, James. We're not in combat, are we?" Jamie turned to his right and laughed with his friend.

"I guess, you're right."

"Let's forget about all these titles of Major and Captain, boy and man, sir and missus." Jamie joked and again they laughed together. "Here, we share the same ground." Jamie stomped his left foot. James then mimicked him.

"What did you want to talk about?" Jamie questioned while making an odd face into the mirror as he tried to get a tricky corner by his neck.

"I...I've been a bit scared lately, thinking about home and mum and dad."

"We all think that, James."

"Yes, well I've been reminiscing is all. I miss meals that are prepared in our kitchen by my mum. I wish I could eat things that aren't from a can."

"Don't we all?"

"I miss my younger siblings too. My sister is growing up as is my brother, and I'd like to see them."

"Ah. Yes, she's fifteen? If I remember correctly?"

"Yes, turned fifteen last spring."

"And he's..."

"About nine."

"May I ask you something?" Jamie could see James looking at him sheepishly.

"Go ahead."

"Are you missing anyone at home right now?"

"Everyone is. We all have family, friends, loved ones."

"Oh. Anyone special? Like any girls?" James cracked a bit of a smile.

Jamie chuckled.

"No, no. Not any woman."

There was a short pause.

"Any men?" James' smile was huge.

Jamie nudged James in his side.

"No. Not any men at home either."

"Oh, that's a shame." James moved his head to the side.

"Oh. Yes. What a shame." Jamie would have rolled his eyes but he was still focusing on the razor.

"What about any men not at home?" James said in a slightly joking voice, but the kind you could take seriously if you wanted to.

"Not at home? You mean here? James, do you think I'm gay?" Jamie stopped shaving and actually turned his head away from the mirror to look James in the eye.

"I...I didn't say that. I mean anyone could be gay."

"I don't think I look especially gay." Jamie wondered. How could he? He was pretty damn manly.

"Well, sometimes it's the most masculine of all that end up being gay." James said. A very, very slight blush was on his cheeks but it was not noticed.

"I suppose."

An awkward pause started to form. Jamie tried to shave again but didn't want to accidentally cut himself while he went over all the ways he could look homosexual in his head. James was looking away battling himself, trying to control his blood flow and not blush.

Jamie put the razor down and again turned to James but with his hands flat on the crate while James quickly turned his head back towards Jamie to speak but he held his tongue.

"Do I actually look homosexual because I didn't think it looked that obvious?"

"I'm sorry, Jamie it was a joke I took too far." Another pause.

"Wait? What? I mean, no...well...I guess I wasn't too sure."

Jamie would be blushing but he had shaving cream all on his face. His eyes darted and he avoided looking at James.

"I mean, I don't know. I didn't know, I mean!"

"It's okay." Jamie said.

"I wouldn't know. I...I..."

"It's fine. It's fine. You know we don't have to mention this again. Let's sweep this under the rug."

Jamie gripped his razor's handle.

"You're right! You're right! It is fine. It's perfectly fine. It really is." James put his hand on the edge of the wooden crate dresser. Jamie looked at him from the side.

"It is?"

"Yes. It's fine. It doesn't change the way I view you. It wouldn't ruin our friendship."

"Really? You mean that?" Jamie now fully turned to James. He suddenly felt very stupid for having a face covered in shaving cream while he had just admitted his deepest, darkest secret to his closest friend.

"I mean I guess it could change it a little."

Jamie gulped.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

James picked up the razor.

"Well, what if I were to tell you I didn't have a girl in my life either."

"Oh?"

"And by choice. Not because the right woman didn't come along, but because I don't want a woman."

James twirled the razor in his hand. Probably not his smartest move but nothing he said so far seemed too smart.

Jamie didn't know how to react. He was still going over the past few exchanges.

"I guess, was choice the right word? I'd like to say I am not looking for a certain lady to grab my attentions. I'm trying to say. I am rather fond of...men..." It took a while for James to spit it out since he had never verbally admitted to finding men appealing over ladies. He knew it in his head, but his mouth had never said it.

Jamie's blue eyes lit up and his mouth opened for a moment. Wow, he really felt stupid with shaving cream all over his face.

"Oh? Well, same." Jamie managed to say.

James' mind was running a mile a minute. He wanted to tell Jamie he had been interested in him this whole time. That he only came into his tent so often in hopes that a moment like this would appear and it finally had. He wasn't sure how to put any of it into words though. He'd have to settle for actions.

"I...happen..." Jamie grabbed the razor blade from the dresser and started to stand up.

"to be very fond of men..." He got behind Jamie and looked him in the eyes via their reflections in the mirror.

"who are of a higher status than I..." He slowly leaned down to the sitting Jamie and started to get the razor nearer to Jamie's face.

"And they usually have facial hair because of it." He slowly started to shave Jamie's face.

Jamie sat rigid. He still wasn't sure how to react. One moment he was shaving his own face the next a very attractive friend of his was admitting to liking men just like himself and trying to shave his face for him.

As he shaved he turned to Jamie's left and kneeled. James held up his cream-covered chin with his right pointer finger and thumb.

"They always seem to need to maintain their facial hair of...status." James rubbed more cream onto Jamie's face and moved his chin up so that he could get at the tricky place on his neck.

Jamie wanted to gulp, but he couldn't. He continued to sit and look up at the ceiling of his tent, wondering what could happen next.

"But sometimes..." James rubbed cream onto Jamie's mustache.

"They actually..." He then proceed to carefully shave the mustache. One stroke at a time.

"Look better..." James leaned closely to Jamie to get a precise shave.

"Without all that hair." James carefully wiped off the shaving cream with a hand towel. Jamie finally gulped and caught a glimpse of his hairless face. He hadn't looked like this since he was a teen. Ever since he could grow a proper mustache he did and now he let some man shave it right off.

"See. You actually look your age." Jamie looked James in the eye. James then looked down at Jamie's upper lip and ran his thumb across it.

"You actually look a lot younger." He stared at Jamie's lips, turned his head, and soon kissed him. Jamie froze for a moment and gasped. James continued to kiss the startled Major. Jamie gripped the side of his bench, then James' leg, and kissed back. Their lips became more desperate while James slowly moved himself on top of Jamie. He stopped their kissing for a moment to say,

"Just think of how uncomfortable this would have been had you left that scratchy mustache." Jamie laughed and ran a finger across his own upper lip. It felt very strange for it to be bare.

"I don't like how bare my upper lip is, but I do like what I get for not having it."

He then wrapped his arms around James, pressing him closely and restarting the make-out session.