A/N: For the Globetrotter Competition (Dublin: write about sickness, disease, or death) and If You Dare (176. A promise is...)
I.
"You'll come back, won't you?" Dennis asks quietly, his voice shaking. "Promise me you'll come back, Col."
The older boy smiles weakly. What he'd give to reassure his little brother, to offer a promise so freely. But Colin knows that a promise is a dangerous thing if it can't be kept. "Look after Dad, okay?" he says instead, resting a hand on Dennis' shoulder, trying his best to be brave.
"You're coming back."
Colin turns, starting away, swallowing down the guilt, quickly getting lost in the crowd.
"Colin! Promise me!" Dennis is still yelling, but his pleas are soon drowned out by the murmur of anxious students.
II.
For a moment, Colin begins to think that he will return to Dennis, that he'll make it through this war after all. He is quick in battle, nimbly dodging flashes of light. Maybe, he thinks, maybe it will be okay.
"Kid, look out!" someone cries.
But Colin barely turns in time to see the streak of green before it finds his chest.
III.
"Your brother was a hero," his father says, using that same forced strong voice that Colin had used.
"I know," Dennis says, placing his hand on the gravestone.
He had wanted a promise, and Colin had refused. At the time, it had felt cruel. But now Dennis understands.
It had been war. Cruel, brutal war. Promises offered would have been fragile things, easy to break, and Colin would only have made one if he'd known it could be kept.