Archive of Our Own ^beta

        When Sameer came to after the final explosion, the world around him had changed.

        Last thing he remembered he was huddled with Charlie and Chief, out of ammo and praying for the mercy of a quick death. Now, he was blinking awake face down on the pavement with no real memory of landing there. While he was glad he didn’t feel any injuries save some bruising and a throbbing head, he also didn’t feel anyone else lying near him. That realization more than anything jolted him into full consciousness, fresh worry sparking tight and anxious in his chest.

        Sami opened his eyes, and was unsurprised when he saw only a close-up of ground barely illuminated by pale grey light. He tried to sit up, but was abruptly stopped when his back hit something lying overtop of him. Bracing both hands on the pavement, he pushed himself upward — with a little effort the blockage gave way and Sami sat up onto his knees, the sheet of corrugated metal that had been the culprit falling away behind him.

        When he leaned back to look around and catch his breath, what he saw stole it away again.

     Diana was flying - no, floating - at least twenty feet off the ground, facing away from him towards a massive smouldering crater in the earth. Stirring German soldiers lay scattered on the ground behind her.

        Around where he now sat was a tangled mess of strewn scaffolding and metal sheets. Looking further, the entire airfield had been reduced to a smoking ruin. Ares was nowhere in sight - more distressingly, neither were the rest of Sami’s friends.

        As the sun broke over the horizon, Diana slowly floated back down to earth. She turned to take in the destruction surrounding her. Most of the Germans began to pick themselves up and gape at the scene; Sami spotted Chief towering amongst them, and sighed in relief. But wait, where was-

        A creaking, clanking sound drew Sami’s attention to the wreckage behind him. He turned to see a twisted chunk of scaffolding shaking back and forth. It rattled again, and the muffled groan echoing from somewhere underneath sounded eerily familiar. His heart lurched.

        Charlie.

        Sami scrambled to his feet. He ignored the dizzy spinning of his head, the sharp protests from his bruised legs and back — hardly important. Balancing caution and haste, he climbed over and around the wreckage to the clear space on the far side of the scaffold.

        Let it be him. Please, let him be alright.

        Steeling himself for all manner of horrors and heartbreak, Sami bent down to peer beneath the wreck - and nearly bumped heads with Charlie. He was somewhat disheveled but unquestionably alive, midway through crawling out on his own.

        “Alhamd lilah!” Sami breathed, relief washing over him. He knelt to grip Charlie firmly under the arms and was gratified to find him solid and real beneath his hands, though wild-eyed and trembling. “Here, can you stand mon ami? Lean on me, I’ve got you.”

        Shakily Charlie nodded, bracing both thin strong hands on Sami’s shoulders; Sami grit his teeth and with a deep breath and a little teamwork, hauled Charlie to his feet. Once upright they paused to catch their breath. Sami’s injuries reprimanded him viciously for this exertion, his back in particular. Charlie didn’t seem to be in any better shape — he leaned heavily against Sami’s shoulders and wavered slightly from side to side, blinking and gaping at him. Sami held him steady with a hand under each arm, quashing the overwhelming selfish urge to pull him into a hug and just hold on tight. Not the time for your foolish feelings, idiota.

        Instead Sami began looking Charlie over for injuries. Hands were definitely fine, fingers digging hard into Sami’s shoulders, arms and legs shaky but holding him up; face was dirt-smudged, furrowed with confusion and concern, but unmarred except for a small cut on his cheek; no sign of any visible head injuries. Body was-

        Oh. Sami gasped, heart leaping to his throat.

        Charlie’s overcoat was ripped through and soaked with blood in large patches across the torso.

        Biting down rising panic, Sami pushed the open flaps of the coat aside and began patting over Charlie’s stomach and chest with both hands, peering through the dim light to try and see the extent of his injuries.

        Death does not get to take anyone else I care about today. It cannot have him.

        “Er... Sami? Are you alright there?” Charlie frowned, glancing down at Sami’s increasingly frantic movements. “What’re you doin’?”

        “Trying to find where you are hurt.” Sami answered gravely, not so much as glancing up from his prodding.

        Something was not adding up. There were no signs of any damage to Charlie’s clothes under the coat, and no blood to be found there whatsoever. In fact, Charlie did not seem to be injured at all — he was barely even flinching.

        Sami’s exhausted, battered head was spinning, his usually sharp mind staggering at the mismatched evidence. His fingers stuttered over Charlie’s ribs, feeling the utterly intact material of his uniform jacket. “I- I can’t... there’s no- I don’t....”

        Perplexed, Charlie glanced down at his own attire, and then realization dawned across his face with a wide-eyed gasp. “Oh, no no- no Sameer listen, listen- ‘s not my coat, remember? It’s a German coat, I took it off a dead man! Blood’s all dried up, see?” He leaned in to catch Sami’s gaze, brow pinched with concern, blue eyes earnest. “I’m fine, lad. A lil’ bruised and beat, aye, but I’ll live. Are you okay?”

        On Charlie’s chest Sami’s frantic hands stilled, coming to rest flat against the fabric as this kinder reality finally sank in. He’s alright. Thank goodness, thank goodness, he is alright. The last few hours of memory were a chaotic blur of gunfire and explosions, but now with this reminder Sami could remember taking the coats. It was my own damn idea.

        He sighed out a breath he didn’t even know he had been holding, eyes falling shut in blissful relief. The taut nervous energy that had been keeping him up simply melted away. Shoulders slumping, Sami leaned heavy into Charlie’s strong steadying hands — suddenly, he felt utterly exhausted.

        “Sami?” he heard Charlie ask, voice high and tight with worry. Unexpectedly, he then also felt a calloused hand gently settle to cup his cheek, holding his lolling head up. Both Sami’s eyes flew open in surprise at that, whipping up to meet Charlie’s anxious wide-eyed gaze.

        “Sameer?” Charlie said a little louder, leaning anxiously forward. Probably trying to check his pupils. “You didnae answer me yet, are you alright mate? Are you hurt at all?”

        Sighing, Sami shook his head, indulgently leaning his cheek into Charlie’s warm supportive touch. “Tired as hell and bruised all over, but that is it. Might’ve hit my head in that last explosion, but I just feel a little dazed, s’not bleeding.” This did not make Charlie look any less worried, so Sami tried a shaky grin. “Oh, look at me matraba, I will be fine. You know I have had much worse.”

        Without warning, Charlie yanked him forward into a crushing embrace.

        “Ow!” Sami yelped at the sudden pressure on his back. Quieter, he hissed “Goodness gracious- I said I was bruised, remember?”

        “Ach, sorry!” Charlie eased his hold a fraction, voice sounding uncharacteristically wobbly in Sami’s ear. “You just... you had me scared for a minute there, is all. Sorry.”

        And yet Sami could still feel Charlie’s hands trembling, one pressed flat against his back and the other cradling his head to Charlie’s shoulder, tangled low in his hair. Trembling, like they only did when he was most shaken or scared.

        Acting on caretaking instincts, Sami lifted his arms to wrap around Charlie’s middle in a grateful hug of his own, squeezing tight.

        “It is okay, mon ami,” Sami whispered, the words nearly sticking in a throat which felt a fraction too tight. “We are okay now, just breathe. Just breathe...”

        Following his own instructions and letting the exhaustion take over for a second, Sami tucked his own face in against Charlie’s shoulder. He closed his eyes, listening to the shaky inhale and exhale of Charlie’s breath puffing softly against his neck, matching his own breathing to it. Slowly, Sami’s heart stopped pounding in his ears, and the tremor in Charlie’s hands gradually faded away. Still, there they stood, clinging on tight to each other as the growing dawn light washed over them.

        Trying to even begin processing everything that had happened in the night sent Sami’s head spinning again, so he brushed those thoughts away for another time. No thinking. Instead, in this rare moment he just let himself be held — taking and giving the simple comfort of contact, of closeness — and he listened now to the strange calm all around them. In the woods at the edge of the field, a few birds began to sing.

        This... this must be what peace feels like. He had nearly forgotten it, in the course of this long, terrible war.

        “Charlie! Sameer!!” Chief’s excited shout from down the airstrip shattered the quiet, jolting Sami from his thoughts as he and Charlie split apart and turned towards the voice, side by side.

        Chief was waving and grinning at them, from down the field next to Diana. She smiled, and gave a small wave as well. Her companion was less reserved than either her or his usual self, hooting and cheering with audible relief “You’re alive!!” 

        In greeting to him Charlie grinned broadly and waved back. Looking over at his companion smiling into the sun, for a moment Sami ached to pull him back into their previous embrace, to hold him once again and cherish that rare happiness. For wishing it he felt quite foolish, and yet... and yet Charlie’s arm was still slung comfortably over his shoulders. From that small fact Sami found the nerve to keep his arm securely around Charlie’s waist, holding on.

        “Aye, we’re alive!!” Charlie crowed, laughing and waving again exuberantly with his free arm, while the other tugged Sami a bit closer. “We’re alive!”

        Sami smiled too, despite the pang of guilt that shot through his chest as he suddenly remembered Steve. Good, brave, kind Steve, who had given his life to save the day. So that we could live.

        He swallowed back the wave of emotion that threatened to overcome him. There would be a time to grieve, but it was not now. They still had a long road home ahead of them.

        Now, he simply closed his eyes. Soaked up the gentle warmth of the sunrise on his face; and the energetic flame of Charlie, shouting and waving, safe by his side. Safe, sober, unharmed despite the odds. Grateful, Sami held his best friend a little tighter and took a deep breath of the crisp winter morning air, basking in the dawn of a new day he hadn’t thought they would get to see.

        We are alive.