The Black Lion [Open]

[Cpl. Joe Claude]

The pub was bursting with life; it was a Tuesday evening in England. It was Corporal Joe Caude’s first evening in this rainy country; he had just come over from across the pond with his unit. He and a few other Yanks were walking down the street, all in American uniform, all looking fresh and keen.
”What do ya think this place will be like Joe?” asked one of the men, Joe looked around at the guy who had spoken.
”Why the hell are you asking me Matty? I don’t know, full of weirdoes….joking.” he said grinning and turning back to continue at his speed down the street.

He took some cigarettes out of his pocket and lit one with a lighter, fumbling slightly, pocketing the packet, he let out a low and quiet whistle, watching the smoke float into the air, god it was nice to smoke, he hadn’t smoked since he got here, they weren’t being allowed but now that it was out of hours they could.

Rain started to come, tap, tap down onto the heads of the men as they walked.
”Bloody English weather.” someone said as they walked on, ”Need to go over to the US and look at our weather.”
”Our weather can be awful sometimes.” The corporal shouted back down the line of men, ”And when it’s awful, it is bloody awful!” he added as he pushed open the door to the pub.
The sudden warmth and noise was UN expecting to Joe, the pub was beginning to get crowded and even nosier and more and more men were getting drunk. Did this happen every night?
”It’s the Yanks!” a woman shouted from the bar, Joe’s face turned to see the woman coming towards him, ”You’re going to save us you are.” she said, she was a plump woman with red, rosy cheeks and a kind face. She lent towards Joe and gave him a peck on the check then turned to his comrades and did the same.

”You lot go and have fun.” Joe said to the men behind him, giving them a wink and turned towards the bar, making his way towards it and sitting down on a vacant stool. ”Red Beer.” he said to the bar man, who came back with a red looking liquid, tomato juice and beer mixed in.
”Cheers.” Joe took the glass and sipped it, savaging the room.

[Daniel Brennan]

OOC: *Gasp* He ‘savaged’ the room, did he? xP


The loud hustle and bustle of the pub was pleasant to Daniel’s ears and eyes. The pub was packed full of mostly soldiers from the army base, but there was the occasional old man mixed in around the place, broadcasting stories of their exploits in the Great War and boasting about what they would do to Jerry if they were just a bit younger. These old men were ignored by all. A few young women lay scattered around the bar, looking for someone to get out for ‘a good time’ with.

Daniel sat at the bar with a bottle of beer in his hand and a cigarette in his mouth, chatting animatedly to a Sergeant from his Battalion. “Yep, the recruits is definitely gettin’ stupider” the Sergeant muttered darkly. ”I bin with one there a coupl’a months back in France. We was on a patrol and these Germans start firing at is. Idiot panicked and ran away... right into the middle of a minefield!” The slightly drunk sergeant erupted into laughter causing a few nearby drinkers to edge away slightly. Daniel gave a weak smile at the obviously hilarious story and tried not to think about the poor new recruit.

A shout hailed the sergeant from the other side of the room and he murmured a friendly goodbye to Daniel before tottering across the room to his friend. The pub door swung open again to admit inside a group of American soldiers – paratroops it seemed, by their uniform. They had hardly walked in when they were greeted warmly by a local woman with a kiss on each of their cheeks. Daniel smirked into his drink.

One of the paratroopers – apparently the leader- came Daniels way, occupying the seat the drunken sergeant had just left. He ordered some strange alcoholic concoction from the bar keeper and proceeded to drink the strange looking liquid. Daniel hadn’t ever had much of a chat with these strange men that jumped from planes and so he decided on the spot – maybe with a small bit of help from the couple of bottles of beer he had already drank – to introduce himself. He tapped the man on the shoulder and stuck out his hand. ”Daniel Brennan, pleased to meet ya,” He said cheerily.

[Cpl. Joe Claude]

OOC – Dam it! Wrong word!!

Joe wasn’t expecting anyone to talk to him, he was a newbie in a country that had been fighting a war for three years already so there wasn’t much for him to talk about, and only that he was new and ready to go into action soon. But someone had decided to talk to him, he felt a tap on his shoulder and turned around to see a friendly hand and a friendly face looking at him.

”Daniel Brennan, pleased to meet ya,” the man spoke cheerfully and Joe glanced down at the number of glasses around the man, had this man been sitting here all along?
”Hey.” Joe said, feeling his accent standing out oddly compared to the noise of British accents around him. He took the hand of Daniel Brennan and shook if firmly, ”Joe Claude, pleased to meet ya too.” he said, giving the man a warm smile.
He looked the man up and down, taking in his uniform, from the sound of the accent, the man in front of him was Irish, or what ever Brits called that accent…he looked slightly drunk judging by his voice that sounded over the top cheery…well that was how Joe interrupted it.

Joe had stumped out his cigarette outside before he had entered, so now was craving for another one. He took the packet of cigs from his pocket and took one out, the offered the soldier one as he put the rolled up cigarette in his mouth, putting the packet on the bar, he then proceeded to take out a lighter and lit the roll up, putting the lighter carefully on to the table next to the packet of American cigs.
He took a drag, the smoke floated off into the air, taking a sip again from the red liquid, he looked over at Daniel.
”I’ve just come over from the US, if you can’t tell.” he said jokily, ”The war has been talked about a lot over there, papers, even at the pictures; the war is the only topic of convo…nothing else.” he muttered, ”What about you, you look like a soldier who has seen a lot…don’t get my wrong.” he grinned.

[Daniel Brennan]

OOC: *Gasp* How dare you ‘Interrupt’ me as being slightly drunk!? ;D
Interpreted.
This is brilliant.
Also, I’m not sure if you know this already, but Danny –boy is an American soldier. Since you are setting this early on in the war I’ll set this in Daniel’s early years.

The American paratrooper uttered out a simple ‘hey’ in reply to Daniel at first, but then responded with his name and a wide smile directed at Daniel.. ”Joe Claude...” Daniel muttered to himself, rolling the name over his beer-numbed tongue. Nope it didn’t sound familiar. Not that there was much of a chance of him knowing Joe, but the mind did sometimes did strange things.

Joe took out a packet of smokes – American cigarettes Daniel noticed happily. Claude offered Daniel one and Daniel stubbed out the cigarette which had been in his mouth but had by now burned down to a stub and gratefully accepted the new... American one and lit it. He inhaled the smoke greedily and turned his attention back to Claude when he started talking. Daniel laughed loudly at Joe’s first comment - maybe a little too loudly - and nodded wisely, in his own opinion, at the next, more sombre comment. He grinned at the last bit and replied with a laugh. ”No, not much luckily. Haven’t really got much of a chance yet...” Daniel trailed off mid sentence before taking another swig of beer, shifting his cigarette to the side his mouth to allow the liquid to get past.

Daniel clunked the now empty bottle of beer onto the counter and half raised his hand to order another. After a bit of deliberation he dropped his hand again, deciding Patterson really wouldn’t like it if one of his NCO’s got pissed off his head in the local pub. He gave an involuntary shiver; No Patterson definitely wouldn’t like it. The bar-keeper had come over at the first sign of Daniel’s hand being raised but now he was waved away, much to his disappointment.

Daniel turned his attention back to his drinking companion. ”So, Joe! What part of the States do you come from? Me, I lived in Boston before the war,” He said, ending his sentence in a gloomier mood than it had started out at.

[Cpl. Joe Claude]

OOC - Sorry dear lol! And alrightly, they can become friends then!

As Daniel talked to him, the American accent came through much more then it had done when he had spoken first, probably to do with the amount of drink the man had taken, which was the reason that it was hiding his accent slightly.
Joe took another drag from the cig, it did feel very nice, Daniel had inhaled quickly and greedily and Joe raised an eyebrow at this, the man laughed loudly in his ear suddenly and Joe clutched his ear at the sudden noise.
”Jeez mate.” he said, chuckling. ”Want to laugh any louder?” he winked and shook his head in amusement, Daniel hadn’t seen battle yet? Well at least Joe wasn’t the only person in here that hadn’t. The paratrooper picked up his drink and got a swig of it, letting it run slowly down his throat, his cigarette had got in his way and he devolved into a coughing fit suddenly.

He stopped his loud coughing when Daniel started to ask him another question, turning to face the man he smiled…the ending of the sentence had been sadder then the beginning, Boston…Joe knew the state but had never been there before, maybe Daniel had not wanted to go over here to fight in the war like a small number of men that had been forced to fight but Joe wasn’t going into the personal side of his companion’s history.
”Me?” Joe said, ”I’m a New Yorker, but I lived in Germany at the end of the Great War, my family is…was Jewish but they converted to Catholicism in the ’20s.” Joe paused, ”I know I’ve just met you and everything but would you mind if you didn’t say anything about me living in Germany to others…I mean…all of Easy Company know but it would be safe if only a couple knew you know…” he said, his voice quieter, he had lent in towards Daniel and now lent back, giving him a slight nod and going back to his drink.

Another man suddenly appeared at Joe’s side and tapped him on the shoulder lightly. ”Oi Joe.”, Joe turned; it was one of the paratroopers. ”What?” he asked, frowning and giving an apologetic look to Daniel.
”Will’s gone off with a girl, look.” the stranger pointed over across the other side of the bar to where a soldier was walking towards the stairs with a girl.
”OI, William Hanson!” Joe stood up and shouted across the bar, ”You get back here, or I’ll give the Jerries one less person to kill!”
The soldier who was William looked around, ashamed and giving a quick note to the girl sauntered back towards Joe.
”Why the f*ck you do that Joe?” he asked as he came towards the bar, ”I was having fun.”
Joe ignored the soldier, ”I’m not having one of my men getting lost.” he growled, waving the two men away, they darted off into the crowd probably off to find more girls.

”Bloody sex maniacs!” Joe muttered under his breath, just hear able. ”You wouldn’t think there was a war on the way they are behaving, and I know for a fact that Will has a girlfriend back home.” Joe sighed and took another drag of his cigarette. ”What was Boston like for you then, never been there myself.” Joe said, turning his attention back to Daniel.

[Daniel Brennan]

OOC: Wahey, that’s a long post there ^

Daniel wasn’t sober enough to feel embarrassed at being laughed at, so he continued on what he was doing. Daniel grinned as Joe tried to take a long swig of beer with his cigarette still in his mouth. It was a rather magnificent choking fit, to be honest. Daniel leaned backwards into the person sitting on the other side of him to avoid the burst of liquid that flew through the air. Joe carried on normally as if nothing had happened.

Daniel made a noise of surprise. Joe wasn’t actually born in America, then. He was German and he used to be Jewish. That would mean he had a personal reason to be fighting this road. He could have friends or even family back in Germany. ”Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone,” Daniel said, and hoped he wouldn’t break the Corporal’s trust while intoxicated or otherwise. Daniel noted Joe’s voice getting quieter towards the end of his sentence and decided not to press Joe on what it was like in Germany.

One of the other paratroopers walked up and tapped Joe on the shoulder. Joe excused himself from talking to Daniel with a glance and turned towards his fellow soldier. The Private was acting like at little schoolboy, telling on one of his friends. Daniel had to turn away to hide the smirk on his face. They treated Joe like a fatherly figure which was strange since he couldn’t have been more than a few years older than any of them. Joe responded just as an actual father would and yelled out across the bar for William to come over. Most people in the bar looked over at the commotion and Daniel felt sorry for poor Will.

Joe preceded to bight the head off Will in a rather loud voice and Daniel was struggling to keep down the sound of his laughter. Still, he couldn’t stop his shoulders from shaking violently. He hoped Joe would know that he was laughing at Will and not at him. Will threw a dirty look over at Daniel, and walked away when Joe was finished with him. ”Sorry, I wasn’t laughing at you,” Daniel said and patted Joe’s shoulder.

”Life in Boston was Happy, I suppose. I moved over from Ireland when I was about twelve. Didn’t fit in at first, but then I made a few friends.” Daniel said cheerfully.

[Cpl. Joe Claude]

OOC - Didn't realize I had posted that much lol!

Daniel had been laughing and Joe was ready to round on his new friend and ask him why he was shouting at him when Daniel said apologetically that he hadn’t been laughing at the Corporal. A look of relief fell over Joe’s face as he realized what Daniel was saying and nodded.
”Sorry about that, they all seem to tell on each other like that, with all the training we had I would have thought they would toughen up and stop acting like schoolboys but no, they just carry on…Will is older then me in fact but I have a higher promotion so I can tell him off!” Joe grinned and gave a short laugh, ”Obviously I’m not high enough to really order them around, that’s the sergeants and officers jobs but they should know what their place is at least.”

Daniel started to talk about life in Boston, saying that it was happy and that he moved over to Ireland…”Hence the slight accent.” Joe put in, raising an eyebrow as if to ask if he was right in thinking that the accent was in deed Irish not some other strange British Isle dialect.

12 years old…Joe wasn’t going to ask why the man had moved…maybe it was personal and Daniel didn’t seem to want to go in to detail, or maybe he did it was just that Joe wasn’t going to dive in at the deep end so to speak.
”Boston sounds a nice place, I bet Ireland was fun when you got to know people, isn’t it that island that is just off the coast of Britain? Sorry, don’t know my Geography of the United Kingdom yet.” Joe gave a laugh and took another sip of his drink this time with out the cigarette in his mouth. ”You are probably wondering what Germany was like, there is a lot of talk around obviously that Germany is full of scum and people that kill children, but it is just a country, just a normal country like this one and ours, with normal people. Yes, there are the lunatics like Hitler and his crew but most of the civilians are just like you and me…” he trailed off, feeling that he had rambled on a bit too much and that Daniel was getting bored.

”So…” he muttered, the awkward silence started to begin and Joe rubbed the back of his neck, feeling his face grow redder.

[Daniel Brennan]

It seemed to Daniel that Joe seemed very much relieved after Daniel said he wasn’t laughing at him. Maybe Joe got a bit touchy when he was being laughed at? Joe apologised about the scene that himself and Will had made. Daniel laughed – He was laughing a lot now, but was it because Joe was funny or because of the alcohol? – At the fact that Will was over then Joe. ”Well, he must have a good bit of respect for you if he just obeys you like that” Daniel added in helpfully and decided not to mention that he was sure he had seen Will give Joe the finger once his back was turned.

”Yes, hence the slight accent” Daniel replied to Joe’s question with a grin. ”Although I thought I had mostly lost that by now. Y’most have good hearing,” Daniel said complimenting Joe. ”Yeah, Ireland’s an Island near E-“ He started to stay, but stopped once he heard Joe’s next sentence. He looked at the Corporal with a disapproving look on his face for a few seconds. ”Yes, Ireland is near England” He finished what he was going to say.

Daniel had an amused look on his face at Joe’s description of Germany. Daniel wasn’t all so sure what Joe said was correct, but he nodded at him anyway. Maybe things had changed since Joe was in Germany. Most of the German soldiers the Allies were facing had been civilians before the war started and they were heartless bastards! Surely the army couldn’t have brainwashed them to be entirely different; the badness would surely have been there before. Maybe the people Joe knew as normal were other Jews and he just hadn’t talked much with Christian Germans. Daniel didn’t feel like arguing with his new ‘friend’, so he kept his mouth shut.

A silence developed between the two when Joe stopped talking and Daniel thought it best to tell him what he had said wrong with the last sentence lest he make the mistake with another Irishman another time. ”Listen, Joe: a couple of minutes ago you basically said Ireland that Ireland was a part of the United Kingdom. I know you probably didn’t mean it in that way, but it’s what it sounded like. I’m not a major Irish republican, but you wouldn’t want to say that around another Irishman, because you’d most likely start a fight.” Daniel smiled to show that he wasn’t giving out to Joe. ”Just... Try not to say it again” Daniel finished quietly.

There was another silence between the two and Daniel struggled to think about something to say. ”So... D’you have any news on if you are going out into combat soon?” He said, bringing up the topic again. Well, it was a big topic.

[Cpl. Joe Claude]

Joe watched Daniel; he seemed a nice enough guy. ”Yeah, suppose so.” Joe muttered, not noticing Will give him the finger behind his back and a few men sblack personed, Joe’s head whipped round and narrowed his eyes at the men who shuffled off into the crowd, he turned back to his new “friend” taking a sip of his beer and giving him a faint smile. Daniel was laughing a lot, was it because he was drunk or did he just like laughing? Joe didn’t know and he wouldn’t say anything just in case he touched a nerve with the Irishman/American.

”Thought I had the right place.” Joe said as Dan said that Ireland was near England, an awkward silence then developed between the two and Joe started to scan the pub again, his eyes wondering over every man in the room, he had left the conversation a bit down hearted and stiff after his comment on Germany and was feeling rather bad for it until Daniel started up speaking again, Joe glanced over at him, and listened.

Oh jeez…had he really just said that? Made himself look a right idiot in front of someone, dam! ”Ah, thanks for telling me Dan, won’t make that mistake again, see what I mean…my United Kingdom and Ireland geography isn’t good, I never knew Irish people were that touchy about their country…no offence or anything.”

The silence came up again until Daniel brought up the only subject that was worth talking about – the War. Well it was an easy topic to start with wasn’t it? ”Any news? I’ve been doing by my Captain that we are dropping into France or Italy any day now, just got to wait for the signal. This is only a quick stop before we go out…but to be honest Dan, I dunno if I really want to go out and face those Germans, but I suppose I better…I mean, the British have been fighting this war for longing than us Yanks and they need our help you know.” Joe gave a weary smile and took another drag of his cigarette before looking up at Daniel. ”What about you? When do you think you’re going to get go?” he asked.

[Daniel Brennan]

Joe had started apologizing urgently after Daniel told him off for his mistake. Daniel just made a little "Hmm" sound in response. Daniel smiled at Joe saying they were touchy. "Yes, I suppose we are very touchy about our past. Just can't forget about things that have happened in the past. Forgive and forget!" he said with a laugh. Next he raised his eyebrow a bit; ”Although, if you think I’m touchy about that then you should see some older Irish people who remember what it was like when England was in control! You’d really, really regret saying something like that around one of them!” Daniel said with an entirely serious face. He couldn’t keep the serious look on his face, though. It relaxed into another grin after a few seconds.

Daniel nodded as Joe started talking about being parachuting into France or Italy. He might be dropped out of the plane any day? Daniel shivered slightly, thinking about the suspense Joe must be feeling. No wonder his men were so eager for some “fun” before they went out. ” I really do feel sorry for you, Joe” Daniel said mournfully. ”I just cannot imagine having to jump out of a little tin box that high in the sky with only a little piece of fabric to keep you up” Daniel grimaced. ”Although you probably don’t think it’s that bad, do you? I mean, you must be used to it having gone through all that training and all. Still... You’d never get me up there doing your job” he said, cheering up a bit.

Daniel shook his head sadly when the Corporal returned his question. ”Nope, I don’t have a clue when I’m going out. We’ve been doing a lot of training, so maybe it’s going to be soon, but nobody has said for definite when or where we are going. I do wish I knew, though. Even though I probably wouldn’t like the suspense of I did actually know.” he said confused. ”So, so far all we have is training exercise after training exercise; how quickly you can set up a machine-gun, how quickly you can dig a foxhole and so on...” Daniel trailed off.

As Daniel exhaled a stream of smoke, he suddenly remembered that he had to be back in base soon. He cursed to himself and pulled up his left sleeve to reveal his watch. He squinted to see the hands in dim light of the bar and he moved his head from side to side to try and let some light on it. ”Damn,” he said. ”I need to be going back in just a few minutes, sorry,” He said apologetically to Joe beside him. He began to get ready to leave, fishing through his pockets to make sure he was leaving nothing behind and he called over the barman to pay for his previous drinks. ”Yeah, I’m sorry Joe. Someone would definitely kill me if I was late to this... meeting.” He started to stand up.

[Cpl. Joe Claude]

Joe felt like a slight idiot that he had apologised a lot for just saying a few words but he felt that it would be right to not go off on bad terms with this new person he had met. Daniel went on that if Joe met another older Irishman then things would be worse. ”I’ll remember that.” he said, nodding and letting go into a smile when Daniel started to smile, loosing the seriousness on his face suddenly.

For some reason Dan suddenly shivered slightly, he then said that he felt sorry for the paratrooper, and that he couldn’t imagine jumping out of a “little tin box” as he called a plane. Joe nodded, a small smile spreading across his face. ”It’s said that the paratroopers are the best in the Army…” he muttered, ”If you ever wanted to try jumping out a plane, I could always get someone to take you up and you could have a go, I mean…only if you wanted to, I wouldn’t force you or anything, to be quiet honest mate, I wouldn’t want to run into gun fire and battle with only a rifle, yeah I mean I have to do that, but paratroopers have an element of surprise that you foot troops don’t you know? We come from behind the Germans…” Joe broke off.

The two sat in silence a minute, Daniel looking down at his watch suddenly, he spoke up saying he needed to get back – to base Joe guessed -. Joe nodded, ”No worries Dan.” he said, the way Dan said meeting, Joe felt like he wasn’t actually meaning meeting but didn’t press the subject. ”It’s fine Dan, don’t want you to be late, it was nice meeting ya.” Joe said, offering his hand so Dan could shake when he was ready.

[Rhys Bevan]

OOC: Not me best post, sorry.

Rhys stumbled into the bristling atmosphere of the pub, waterlogged and decidedly pissed off. He had been the victim of a mis-judged prank by a couple of American recruits to his company involving a bucket of water and not an awful lot of forethought on his part. Rhys had convinced the privates in question that, no matter how ingenious their plan had been, a bucket of water would simply not halt German machine fire while getting to work on target practice potentially could. He had cleared off sharpish as soon as the privates took his advice and withdrew a rifle each; they had caused enough damage with a bucket. He had no intention of seeing what they could do with firearms.

Instead of staying at the barracks to dry off, Rhys had decided to head down the pub to get a drink in and possibly a bit of sympathy from the young barmaid who appeared to harbour a soft spot for him. Although the landlord who appeared to share the same feelings as her was a little bit creepy. He was forty-two after all.

Rhys leaned against the bar and grinned at the barmaid, Rosa, who smiled back at him, her eyes quizzical. "Why are you all wet then, Taffy?" she asked cheerfully, after taking the Staff Sergeant's order. "Top secret business," answered Rhys without blinking. "If I told you, I'm afraid I'd have to kill you,"

Rhys thanked Rosa, took his drink and went to sit in the far corner of the pub. As he sat down on a chair, he felt something crumpled on the seat. He looked down to see a discarded newspaper spread across the seat of the chair. Shrugging, he unwrapped the large spreadsheet and began to read. As long as no one interrupted him, he thought, this could turn out to be quite a nice day really.

[Daniel Brennan]

OOC: I bid you farewell!

Daniel rattled in his pockets hurriedly, looking for some coins to pay the barkeeper, who was looking rather skeptically at Daniel as if he didn’t expect the soldier to actually pay. By the look on the barkeepers face Daniel guessed he got a lot of those types of people here, most of them military men. They’d just by a drink and quietly slip outside when they were finished. Daniel slapped a few pound coins into the outstretched hand of the barkeeper, who took a few steps back and counted the coins carefully. ”You can keep the change,” Daniel said cheerfully. ”There is none” the Barman grunted in response.

Daniel noticed Joe’s outstretched hand which he took a hold of and shook vigorously for a few seconds. ”Yep, see ya soon Claude!” Daniel said with a smile on his face. ”Good luck in France, or Italy, or wherever you’re going. Jumping, I should say” Daniel turned around and started walked quickly towards the door. ”Don’t forget to open your parachute!” He called over his shoulder cheerfully. As he turned around he stumbled into a wet looking English soldier reading a newspaper, his hand flying dangerously close to the Limey’s face. ”Ah. Sorry there.” Daniel said apologetically with a smirk on his face. He quickly scooted out the door before the Englishman decided Daniel deserved a beating, and started jogging back to base.

[Cpl. Joe Claude]

Joe watched Dan try and find some money, ”I have some.” he began to say but just as he saw it, Dan had produced money from his pockets and handed them to the barman who looked rather annoyed and sauntered off. Dan shook his hand a bit too hard and Joe was feeling rather awkward until finally the man let go of him.
”Yeah, see ya soon Dan.” Joe said, giving the man a quick salute and a wink, ”Don’t you worry, I won’t forget to open me parachute!” he watched as Dan turned around and walked quickly towards the door, crashing into a soldier on the way past. The soldier that he had landed himself into looked wet and slightly annoyed, why the hell was he wet?

Joe got off his stool, took his drink and hurried over to the man who was reading the newspaper, on the front page a huge photo of Hitler – “First Photo Of Hitler Released To Public” read the caption at the top, war was the only thing that was in the papers at the moment, Joe glanced over at the soldier he was now sitting opposite and gave a light cough.
”Hello.” he said after his cough had subsided and hopefully attract the other man’s attention.

[Rhys Bevan]

Rhys lowered his newspaper and looked up at the man in front of him. He hadn't seen him around before; probably one of the multitude of Americans that had signed up in droves to join in the war effort. Rhys found their evergreen optimism uplifting and the more men the better but they did have a knack for being...irritating at times. Added to the fact that they spent most of their time kissing the faces off the local girls, they weren't the most popular branch of people currently in Rhys' book.

But this one looked difference; more battle-hardened maybe? No; it was something more than that. Rhys didn't recognise the uniform and he wasn't smiling as innanely as his comrades. Maybe he was a member of the formidable Special Air Force that had cropped up recently, mused the Staff Sergeant, bringing his glass to his lips. He had heard tales of the Canadian Jacka and his men. Interesting tales.

"Hey," he smiled wanly, deciding to at least attempt to be friendly. "Rhys Bevan, 7th Armoured Division. Didn't know Brennan there was your boyfriend,"

Rhys grinned in good spirits and held out a hand for the newcomer to shake, deciding that the newspaper could wait for another time.