To Be Alone Is A Great Thing (Eli/Open)

[Stephen Colly]

Back at base after a week of leave, god it was nice to be away from all the memories of old, from his father, Stephen had gotten another bruise on his face for his troubles in trying to get his father to not hurt the horse Zoey on the farm, bastard. His mother had gotten weaker and weaker and her face had been thin with lines of tiredness and despair at her husband who was a drunk and at her son who wouldn’t talk to his father if he didn’t have to.

Stephen hadn’t been talked to by any CO since he had arrived, it was his first day back at base, early evening actually, a light breeze was in the sky, it was darkening, and the town was getting ready for the night, not the pub that was…

It was a nice pub, all the soldiers went there in the evenings and Stephen wasn’t an acceptation. He pushed open the heavy, oak door, heaving the loud noises of drunken men and the laughter of women.
”Stephen!” a soldier by the name of David had clamped the boy’s shoulder hard and was leading him over to the bar, ”Good to see ya, how was home? Want a drink?” asked his friend.

”Hey David, yeah beer please and home? Home is just as ghastly as it was the last time I was there.” Stephen said, taking the beer that was handed him to, ”David, would you mind if I be on my own tonight?” he asked his friend, slipping away before the man could say anything in protest.

He found a dark corner with a table, and sat down, sipping his drink, watching the people around, not really knowing what to do, all he wanted was to stay here in this corner for the whole evening and not be bothered.

[username]

Elijah was never one to drink, and she wasn't about to make an exception now. In fact, she hadn't wanted to go to the bar in the first place, but she had always had trouble telling people no. Even if she had declined, she doubted that the group of soldiers who had invited her would've listened, anyway.

So she was stuck there, sitting by counter. One of the men had even bought her a mug of beer, much to her feeble protests, but she didn't dare drink it. The last thing she needed was to be drunk, slurring to everyone in the room that she was impersonating a man.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw one of the men that had invited her talking to another women. The man pointed to Elijah, who instinctively put her hand up to cover her face in hopes that she would be left alone. Her plan failed miserably. The woman, a brunette, had sauntered her way over to the bar while Elijah wasn't looking. She gingerly pulled Elijah's hand away from her face and smiled in a way that she obviously thought was seductive.

"Hey, sugar," greeted the woman. Elijah winced visibly and pulled her hand out of the woman's grasp.

"Hello." Elijah responded in monotone. The brunette gave her a strange look, and Elijah mentally scolded herself. Idiot, you forgot to lower your voice!

"Look," Elijah began again, this time remembering to deepen her voice. "I'm sorry, I know you're only talking to me because that guy told you to," she waved her hand in the general direction of the man who had sent the woman over, "and I'm sure you don't want to be here either. I'm sure there are other men who would enjoy your company."

Before Elijah knew what had happened, she had been slapped right across the face. Her cheek began to grow hot from the rush of blood, and Elijah touched the spot as the woman stomped off.

[Stephen Colly]

A commotion at the bar attracted Stephen’s attention, he glanced over seeing a soldier and a woman talking quietly, from the way the woman was standing, Stephen could tell she was being seductive, he didn’t know why the woman then slapped the very famine man’s face and stormed off, heading in to Stephen’s direction.

Stephen turned away from the woman as she approached. ”Don’t come near me.” he said, the woman stopped in her tracks, ”Why? I’m not going to –“ the soldier stood up, eyes flaring as he stared at her, ”Please, leave me alone.” he said, coming towards her but she had disappeared before he could say anything else, off to find another man to have a night of passion with.

Stephen glanced over to the soldier who was still at the bar, touching his face, Stephen grabbed his drink and made his way over to the man, ”Hello there.” he said, smiling lightly and sitting on a stall, watching the man, he did look famine but maybe that was just Stephen, he could never tell people’s ages but his build did look different, ”You alright?” he took a sip of his drink, taking out a cigarette and offering one to the fellow soldier.

”Want one?” he asked, putting them on the table and then lit his own, inhaling.

[username]

Elijah sighed and leaned forward onto the counter, resting her head on her crossed arms. She comtemplated trying for the door again, but she had a hunch that the nearby soldiers wouldn't let her out any time soon. Many of them were in hysterics because of the small scene that Elijah had been a part of, and it added to the din of the small pub. The noise level was beginning to take it's toll on her, and she could sense a headache coming on.

Because of the clamor, Elijah didn't notice that another man was walking up behind her. His greeting caught her off guard, and she started.

"What? Oh, hello." She caught herself then, and lowered her voice to a more reasonable pitch. "Ahem, I mean, yeah, I'm alright." Elijah sat up as the newcomer sat on a stool next to her. She smiled politely in response and took to gazing into the contents of her still-full mug to try and disguise the fact that she was aware of the young man inspecting her. If she had long hair and was wearing a dress, she wouldn't have minded. But she wasn't, and she hoped that he couldn't see through her act.

Her thoughts were momentarily inturrupted by another of the man's questions. Elijah eyed the packet of cigarettes left on the table and thought, why not. Everyone in the army picks up smoking at one time or another; why not start now?

As with alcohol, Elijah has never experimented with cigarettes, either, and on the first inhale of smoke, she hacked slightly. It took her a moment, but she regained her composure and resumed taking drags, only choking once in a while.

"Elijah Thomas." She stuck her hand out to the man as way of greeting.

[Stephen Colly]

Stephen had only taken up smoking when he joined up, his father had done it all the time but Stephen hadn’t seen the pleasure in leading yourself to an early grave, it was the same with alcohol, that had had a strange taste to it when he had first started drinking it, but like many, he had got used to that and smoking and now he enjoyed both hobbies…oddly, that and another thing that he had found out about himself whilst in the army and that other thing made him lie in bed at night and wonder…

Her voice that he now spoke with had, at first, sounded higher but it suddenly lowered, Stephen thought nothing about that now. He glanced down at the other man’s still-full drink and saw him give it a look of disgust and Stephen frowned, ”You don’t like that?” he asked him, pocketing his cigarettes and lighter as soon as he had taken one and lit it.

He suddenly started to hack and choke a bit when she first inhaled the smoke and Stephen gave a laugh, ”Steady on.” he muttered, raising an eyebrow at the man, maybe he was new to the army and was like Stephen when he had first started.
The man now introduced himself as Elijah Thomas and stuck his hand out in a form of greeting. Stephen took it and shook it, the hand felt too smooth to be a man’s hand, normally men’s hands were ruff with days in the fields or whatever, Stephen let go of the hand quickly, taking a sip of his drink followed by a puff of his cigarette. ”Stephen Colly.” he said, introducing himself as well, giving Elijah a smile.

[username]

The cigarette wasn't as bad as Elijah had anticipated. Sure, the smoke choked her every now and then, and it tasted like tar, but all in all, it wasn't horrible. She couldn't see smoking developing into a habit, though.

She looked up as the man referred to her mug of beer and shook her head. Elijah pushed the cup toward him and replied with a "help yourself". She certainly wasn't going to drink it, and if the other man's half-empty mug was anything to go by, he liked alcohol and would put hers to good use.

When the man gave his name, Elijah looked up to return his smile. However, the light caught Stephen's face so that his bruise became apparent. Elijah gasped in an horribly feminine manner that she would cringe at later; her hand even flew up to cover her mouth.

"What happened?" she asked, all thoughts of keeping up her guise of masculinity gone from her mind.