August 8, 1962
"So what're you trying to tell us?" asked Merlin, "You got a girl back home or something?"
It was getting dark now and the small campfire wasn't doing much for illumination. They hadn't had any particular orders from HQ for about two days so they had decided to lay low for awhile. It wasn't often that the lull between missions was this long and they decided to make the most of it while they could.
Piccolo chortled and shook his head at his friends.
"Girls," corrected Cole, "Well, I might not. I mean, it looked like Jean was going to marry Todd, but Jean's kinda flighty. Then there's Eliza and Annabelle-"
"How many girls are there?" Burne asked with a mixture of awe and disgust.
"About six," Cole said casually.
"Jesus," Merlin said.
"I don't suppose that you'd be serious with any of them?" Piccolo smirked.
"That's cruel," Cole said, hurt, "I am serious with every single one of them."
"What're you gonna do then?" asked Merlin, "Marry them all?"
There were a few scattered laughs.
"Of course not," Cole said conspiratorially, "I'll just marry the one who gets pregnant first."
The camp circle erupted into full on laughs. Piccolo was having trouble wiping the tears from his eyes; they came so fast and hard.
"Well," said Burne, "You know what they say about a guy who has more then two girlfriends at a time."
"Oh no," Cole moaned.
"You see, this guy with ten girlfriends walks into a bar-" started Burne.
"No," Merlin groaned.
"Just hear me out to the end. So the bartender says-"
"You got a girlfriend Burne?" Piccolo asked.
The sudden attack of blushing that came on him obviously said he hadn't. A look akin to admiration came over Merlin's face. Things turned sour when Cole said;
"How about you Merlin?"
"I'm married," he said shortly.
Now they were on risky territory. Everyone knew not to talk about someone's marriage. Only a complete idiot would risk going farther then-
"So how's that then?"
You could always count on Burne to do the stupidest thing possible.
"Fine," said Merlin with narrowed eyes.
"Well what's that mean-?"
"How about you Piccolo?" Cole asked, a little louder then necessary, "Girlfriend? Fiancé? Wife?"
Piccolo could tell that Cole was wanted to say; Sister? Cousin? Grandma? He was that desperate to change the conversation. Quickly Piccolo answered;
"Well, there's Kayla."
Burne's attention was diverted.
"Who's that?"
"Girlfriend," shrugged Piccolo, "I was kinda thinking of asking her to marry me when I get back or something."
"Good-looking?" Cole asked, interested.
"Incredibly."
"Oooooooohhhh," Cole whistled, "Does she have a sister?"
"Why?" asked Merlin, "So you can have seven?"
Another few laughs were elicited from this comment.
"Hey," said Burne, "What about…"
His voice dropped off as their two commanding officers came back. Piccolo exchanged glances with Merlin. The Sergeant and the Corporal had wandered out of the jungle about a year ago. The Sergeant looked like he would rather be anywhere then where he was. That was quite common though. The Corporal however, looked like he was ready to kill until there was nothing left. That was unusual.
Obviously they were higher rank. There wasn't a member of the platoon who doubted that they were skilled. Nobody knew where they came from though. It was pretty creepy to tell the truth. Both of them nodded at the other four men before continuing on to a place a little ways from the rest of the camp. No one said anything for the rest of the night, the conversation loosing its will to survive.
.
.
.
"Wasn't that cute?" 'Corporal' Reaper said as he laid down out of ear-shot, "Talking about their girlfriends."
"Shut the fuck up," 'Sergeant' Kraken snapped.
"It's ridiculous," continued Reaper, "Chances are they're probably all going to die before they get back to these women anyway. Doesn't really matter."
"I said shut the fuck up," Kraken snarled as he turned on his side, his back to Reaper.
Kraken knew now that he had the most goddamn rotten luck in the history of the world. First of all he was trapped in Vietnam. Second, he was trapped with this moron.
"You know I'm right," Reaper continued talking, "I'm betting that Burne goes first. He's just so stupid."
"If you don't shut the fuck up you bastard," Kraken said through gritted teeth, "Then I am going to shove my gun so far down your throat that you'll be shitting bullets."
For awhile there was blessed silence. Kraken had almost begun to hope that Reaper had decided to lay off when he heard a rather introspective;
"Who do you think was worse, Lenore or Hargreeves?"
Kraken turned back to him so he could glare at him.
"It's an honest question," he said, "Because here's how I see it. Hargreeves made you all hate each other, so that kind of made you strong in one way. Lenore made us all draw together which made us strong in another way. Only problem is that you don't give a shit if one of your siblings dies and it hurts like fucking hell when we lose one of ours."
"I don't care," Kraken said, "Hargreeves was a bastard and Lenore sounds like a bitch. Now let me go to sleep and think about your dead siblings in silence."
Turning on his side again Kraken started to close his eyes. Just then he heard a;
"Hey?"
"What now?" Kraken snapped.
"Do you miss her?"
It took awhile for the question to reach his brain. Even once it had it was difficult to understand though.
"What are you talking about?" he finally asked.
"Well…" Reaper's voice trailed off before getting strong, "Every single moment I'm thinking about how I'd love for Cat to be here, well not here obviously but just near me. I know she's gone but…but…I really wanted us to…anyway I was talking about that white girl. I know she can't remember you or anything, but do you still wish you could see her?"
It had been a long time since Kraken had thought about Vanya. It wasn't as though he was trying to hide away her memory or to forget about her. She was just too painful to think about normally. He'd deemed it best if he just locked up the memories for awhile.
God how he wished things were like they used to be. For the first time in his life he had actually enjoyed waking up. Why shouldn't he of? He'd had someone who'd cared about him and wanted him to be happy. Hell, he'd wanted her to be happy. It wasn't the healthiest relationship, he knew that. Yet, he loved her. Even when she couldn't remember his name he loved her. It just made things hurt more though.
"Do you miss her?" Reaper asked again.
"Every damn day," Kraken replied.
Reaper chewed the information over for a minute.
"You've got no one to kill to help you through that," he said, "That's really sad. I feel kinda sorry for you now. Me, I just kill everything in sight so I can practice for those Temp guys."
All the rage associated with Reaper and Sententia flowed back in a tidal wave.
"Shut the fuck up," Kraken snapped, "And if you ever, ever mention Vanya again then Claire or no I'm going to make sure that you know what the hell your pancreas looks like. Now go to sleep."
For once, Reaper listened to him.