Disclaimer - I own nothing you recognise.

Challenges listed at the bottom.

Word Count - 483.

Soldier!AU

Warning for Character Death.


Open Your Eyes (Please)


They were excited when they were shipped out, two young men, wanting to make a difference for their country. They dreamt of the glory of coming home, tired but triumphant. It was too late to back out when they realised that the reality of war was nothing like the games they'd played on their gamestations as kids.

In war, there was no pause button. They couldn't save their progress and take a break to get a cold drink and rest.

Reality was mud, and maps and fear. Reality was long hours spent in the hot sun. Reality was bullets, and wounds and death, and the real fear that they might not go home at all, never mind tired and triumphant.

Piers broke down first, crying in his bunk, stifling his sniffles in an attempt to keep his weakness to himself. Dudley crawled in beside him, ignoring the quiet jeering from a few of the others as he sought to comfort his best friend.

When Dudley came within inches of stepping on a landmine, Piers returned the favour, slipping arms around Dudley's trembling frame when Dudley had a nightmare that he hadn't had those inches to protect him.

They lost their innocence in those first weeks, and they began to understand why those that had been out there for a while startled when a toad hopped across the base, or when one of the younger soldiers whooped when news from home arrived.

They clung to one another, each of them scared of losing the other, each of them scared of losing themselves.

Dudley almost forgot what it was to laugh, until Piers kept him up half the night, cracking the cheesiest jokes he could remember. Piers almost forgot what a kind hand felt like on his skin until Dudley stroked his sweat soaked skin after a nightmare.

Together, they pulled through until a week before they could return home. Leave was on the horizon, and the joy the two of them felt at getting away, getting home to safety and comfort was all that was keeping them going.

Except there was a last mission to see through.

And it went wrong.

And Piers leant over Dudley, tears splashing down onto Dudley's face from Piers eyes because Dudley wasn't allowed to die, not like this.

"I love you," Piers whispered, squeezing Dudley's hand tightly. "You have to wake up, and be okay, so you can tell me that I didn't imagine that you love me too. Please, Dudley, look at me."

When Dudley's eyes fluttered and opened, Piers laughed a broken laugh, full of relief and pain.

"You didn't imagine it," Dudley managed to gasp. "I'm… I'm sorry, Piers. It… hurts. I can't."

His eyes closed.

"Stay with me," Piers begged. "Dudley, open your eyes."

When Piers went home, it was alone and carrying a medal, given posthumously, to hand over to Petunia Dursley.

Written for;

Character Appreciation - 13. Toad

Book Club - Peter Pan - Mud / Map / Excited

Showtime - Soldier!AU

Amber's Attic - DudleyPiers