A/N: This may be my favorite one-shot yet. Enjoy this little fluff piece, and the numerous references to MASH's episode 38 Across.
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SUN AND STARS AND STRIPES
Prompt given by Tumblr's easy-company-tradition, from wecomrades fabulous BoB prompt list.
Number 4, Lewis Nixon + "I don't care as long as you stop harassing me" + old newspaper
July 1945
Zell am See, Austria
Lying on a slate dock in the middle of Zeller Lake, her clothes drying in the sunlight and her skin warm and practically radiating, that was the life Alice wanted. No more foxholes, no more firefights. No snow, no rain, no gunshots. Just her, the sun, and water, and Lewis Nixon half-dressed next to her. Bliss.
"Hey, you're Jewish," he muttered. "What's the Yiddish word for Bedbug?"
Alice almost groaned. He'd been working at the Crossword from a four-month-old Stars and Stripes issue for nearly half an hour. Her clothes were already almost dry. "Nix. The sun, the water, the warm stones. I'm not here to be a Yiddish dictionary."
"Come on. It's five letters. Starts with V."
"You're serious?" Alice opened her eyes. Removing her arm from over her face, she sat up and looked at him. She tried to glare, but seeing his smirk ruined any attempt. "Why is this so important?"
He waved the newspaper at her. "We found three copies. I gave one to Harry and one to Dick. Whoever finishes the crossword first gets to watch the others do fifty pushups."
With a laugh, she shook her head. "Is that Dick's sorry attempt at getting the two of you training again?"
"The original bet was the losers buying drinks for the winner, but since Dick's a stick in the mud, he said no. Apparently it would be 'unfair'." He snickered into his flask as he took a drink. "For Christ's sake though. Maybe you're right. That damn Prohibitionist tricked us into training."
"Nice."
"Yiddish word. What's the Yiddish word for bedbug?"
"Nix!" She shook her head.
"I'll splash you if you don't tell me."
"I don't care as long as you stop harassing me!" But her resolve crumbled as he just smiled back. She sighed. "How many letters?"
"Five. Starts with V," he said. "Yiddish word for bedbug."
"Vantz."
"Vantz!" He grinned. "Perfect."
Alice watched him for a moment as he put the newspaper on a dry part of the dock and scribbled the word down. The sight made her smile. Such a far cry from D-Day, or Market-Garden, or Bastogne. His hair stuck out at a few awkward angles. His shirt lay on the stones behind them, drying after she'd pushed him before he could take it off. Not that she minded.
She stood up and stretched. Her shirt had mostly dried, only the parts of her that had been against the stone still damp. The sheer number of times that Nix had distracted her while she was trying to get work done made her unsympathetic to his attempt at the crossword.
"Nix, come on," she moaned. "Put the damn newspaper down."
"I am not about to do push-ups," he muttered.
She huffed. Still standing next to him, she looked out over the lake. The clear water rippled in the gentle breeze, blue skies and white clouds echoed on its surface. Peace, calm, tranquility. She wondered if any of those were in the puzzle. Alice knew that if she started kissing him, he'd melt immediately, but he had to earn that. So she turned around, moved a couple of steps back down the dock, grabbed his shirt, and hurled it into the lake.
"Oh no, was that your shirt?"
Nix glanced up. He looked from the shirt floating in the water, to her on the dock and shook his head. But he couldn't stop the smirk that spread across his face. For her part, Alice tried, really tried to keep from laughing. But as he put the crossword behind himself on the dock and stood up, seemingly resigned, she couldn't help it.
Alice screamed as Nix grabbed her. They were close enough to the edge of the dock that with his significant height advantage, she stood absolutely no chance. Between shrieks and laughter, he just threw her off the dock.
Sputtering, Alice popped back at the surface. "Fuck you!" she coughed out. But at his grin, she just rolled her eyes. "No. Not after that!"
"I give you my Vat 69. Is that not enough," he said, sitting down at the edge.
"I'm not cheap or easy." Alice waded further out to where the shirt had sunk in the water. Grimacing, she looked for it. Found it. Alice reached in, ducking under the water, and pulled it up.
Nix just scoffed. He flinched as the shirt flew into his chest. "Aren't you the woman who handed out kisses for cigarettes?"
"Oh for crying out loud," she muttered to herself. They were never going to let that go. Alice swam back to the dock and heaved herself up. Nix pulled her the last of the way, and she just shook her head. "Vat 69 isn't a pack of smokes."
"Oh dear God, where would I find cigarettes? I'm so poor," he drawled. Quick as a flash, he grabbed a pack out of the paratrooper pants that sat where they'd been with his shirt. "Hey look! Smokes!"
"Aren't you lucky," she said, smirking. "Cigarettes are my weakness." She pulled Nix into a kiss and held him there. He smelled like Vat 69 and roses. At the thought, she smiled and kissed him deeper. He only smelled like roses because she smelled like roses. Alice chuckled, taking a few deep breaths as she broke the kiss. "Nix-"
"You were right," he said. Nix kissed her again. "Definitely lucky." Then he abruptly sat back. "Lucky Strikes! 38 Across!"
Alice groaned, loudly, and laid back on the stone surface to start drying off all over again. The damn crossword puzzle. She closed her eyes. When Nix kissed her again, harder, it threw her completely off guard. But she didn't open her eyes. She just stayed there. Her, Nix, sunlight, water, the warm stones. Alice couldn't stop from smiling.
"Can't believe you fell for that."