Hamilton / Lams Oneshots

Soldiers (Kinlaurens) [Historical]

I was very bored during online class this morning, so this is neither long nor good.

"You're late, Kinloch", I heard my superior officer say. His face was obscured by shadows, the night was as dark as it could possibly be.

"Where are the prisoners?", I asked him, not willing to give him any explanation as to why I was late. There was none, after all. "Right in here", he answered, making a wide gesture towards the barn, which we had occupied earlier in the day with little resistance from the owner.

It hurt my soul to know that these people were my fellow Carolinians, men who I had thought I would stand with every day. But with this horrible war, I had no choice but to fight against them, and hope it would be over quickly.

I opened the large door, and in the faint light of the lamp I was holding I could see six prisoners, two of which were unconscious, as we had knocked out anyone who had tried to resist the capture.

The four conscious men were hastily tied by their hands and feet, and if any of them had been foolish enough to try and get out of the ropes, they would have most likely succeeded, though they would've ran right into our guards' arms.

I decided that I wouldn't take any chances, and so I bent down to the first of the men and started tightening the ropes. If looks could kill, then I would've most likely dropped dead, but as it was, for all I cared he could glare all he wanted.

As I tightened the ties on each of the conscious prisoners one by one, my gaze fell on some dusty equipment at the dark end of the barn. I finished up the last knot and stood up, curious, grabbing my lamp and making my way over to the tools.

I found some rope, and figured it would be best to also tie the other two, knowing they would eventually wake up. I kneeled down next to one of the men, even with the dim light of the lamp, I could tell that his coat was darkened with blood.

I tied the man's feet and then moved up to tie his hands behind his back. I was interrupted in my routine when my hand brushed over the soldier's wrist. Just when I thought I had mistaken, I brushed over the skin again, feeling the subtle imperfections in the skin caused by scars and more obvious ones from fresher cuts.

My heart sank in my chest, I knew the gravity that those imperfections held, and as I smoothed over the skin once again it felt familiar. Almost too familiar, as I pushed the soldier's sleeve up a bit and traced further upwards.

I held my breath as I reached up into the man's hair and carefully gripped a fistful of it, feeling memories that I had pushed away flooding back to me.

Quickly, I brushed the hair out of the way that way concealing the soldier's face, and held my lamp close. "Laurens...?"

Though his face was dirty from the dust and blood, my hand immediately felt familiar against his cheek. I remembered how I so quickly distanced myself to avoid getting hurt, and how much I hurt him by doing so.

"Are you done in there?", I heard my superior officer call out to me. I quickly got up. "Yeah, just have to collect stuff!" I heard him grumble an answer.

I looked back to the soldier on the floor, who still showed no sign of waking. After making sure absolutely nobody was at the door, I turned to the awake men.

They looked confused, I would be too, but I had no time to answer questions. I got out my pocket knife and threw it to one of the men. Pointing next to me on the ground, I gave him a glare.

"I'm giving you the chance to leave only because I want you to take him with you. Let him escape under all circumstances, got it? Fail, and I'll track you down and kill you myself."

With that, I turned around, crouching down next to the blonde. I pulled out a handkerchief from my pocket, it had my initials on it. Carefully, I slipped it into the blue coat pocket.

Seconds later I was out the door, and the officer waved me to follow him. I pretended to lock the barn door, then went to one of the guards. "I tied them all up, you should be fine if you take a break."

As I walked away from the scene, I could feèl a heavy weight lifted from my chest, leaving only the hope that nothing would go wrong.