withstanding the war. ➳ au styles. [on hold; indefinitely] [in editing]

Chapter Eleven.

Niall’s POV:

I had finally opened up to Harry about what going on inside my head. What it really boiled down to was a constant fear of never seeing my family again. I told him I did not understand why the fear had not surfaced to the degree until now, and he concluded that the shelter of the camp was a comfort to me. But I was in the real world war now, the bombs and shooting a real thing. I had nowhere to hide, nowhere to feel safe anymore, hence the nervousness.

I also brought up my slight jealously for his love towards Marilyn. Harry gave me a confused look before I could even clarify. I explained how I wish I had someone at home waiting for me. I knew that if and when I returned home, girls would be “in love” with me, but I knew it would just be for the uniform I adorned. Harry chuckled at my fear, joking that girls would not even want me with that. I pouted at him while he continued to chuckle, but after a minute, he calmed down and explained how while yes, those girls would come, I would know exactly which girl was “the one.” I was curious as to how, but Harry could not offer any insight because “every experience is different”.

After our talk, we both decided that sleep was needed. It had been a long day for us and in couple of hours, our sleepy arses would be needed. We both said goodnight and fell asleep.

I woke up a couple of hours later, the winter sun poking its way through the slit in the tent. While it was a short sleep, I felt well rested and ready for the day ahead. I turned over in my bunk to see my friend still sleeping. He was facing me and a small smile was on his face. He was dreaming of Marilyn, no doubt. Maybe it was a past memory coming to comfort him or an exciting thought of what their future life might hold. Either way, I was happy that he was content within himself, even if it was for a short moment of time.

A horn rung out in the morning air, causing Harry to spring out of bed and stand to attention. I laughed at him and he glared at me while he cussed and shivered. He was obviously upset that he was startled from what I imagine was a pleasant dream and not expecting to be met with the frigid winter air. I continued to chuckle as I put my uniform on and managed to avoid a shoe Harry chucked at me for continuing to laugh at his misfortune.

As we walked out of our tent, with Harry finally forgetting about that morning’s incident, we merged ourselves with growing crowd headed for the main building. I glanced at Harry, knowing full well that fear was evident on my face. The last time that happened, Harry and I were kicked to the front lines, so I knew something had to be happening again and prayed that we would not be involved. Harry shrugged nonchalantly, as if none of it fazed him, but I could tell that it did. He was just better at wearing a mask than I was.

As we entered the main dining hall, I saw Liam off to the side, leaning against the wall. He saw me and waved, and I waved back to him. As soon as I did, another guy walked up in front of him and blocked his view. I was glad to see that Liam was doing okay and his injury was nothing major.

I looked around the room, finding lots of unoccupied chairs filling most of the space. I took a seat next to Harry, as we were sitting near the entrance. I watched Liam and the other guy take a seat a few rows up. Harry was still silent, the only indication he was alive was the fact that his leg was bouncing up and down in anticipation. It brought a tiny smile to my face, not out of satisfaction, but out of reassurance that I wasn’t the only one who scared. I put my hand on his shoulder, just like when we were on the plane, to try to calm him down. He smiled slightly at me, in a way to say thank you.

We waited just a few more minutes, the room filling up completely before Sergeant Pepper came to the front of the room. His presence demanded attention, the room quieting almost immediately when he stood in front of the podium.