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“I’m gonna marry her one day, Joe,” Luz nudged his friend.
“Marry her? You’ve not even been introduced yet,” the two men eyed up the new woman in Easy Company.
“Just you wait and see,” Luz sprang up and made his way towards you, his goofy, lovable grin plastered all over his face.
“Hey, I’m George Luz,” he held out his hand for you to shake. One glimpse of his beautiful smile was enough to cause you to start stuttering, but eventually you fell into easy conversation, the first of many, that lasted well into the night.
You lay out on the grassy English field, George next to you. You were gazing at the stars that lit up the night sky, but George’s stare was fixed firmly on you.
“Isn’t it beautiful?” you asked, stroking George’s hand, whilst running your other through the lush green grass that made such a comfortable bed.
“Yeah, it sure is, Y/N,” his goofy grin surfaced as you turned to look at him. He leaned in and his lips touched yours gently, and yet with a hunger you’d never before seen in George. You both knew, but were unwilling to admit, that your time together may be limited; the jump was cancelled tonight but the respite was only brief and soon you’d be fighting the Germans, both your lives at tremendous risk. The kiss had more meaning than any you had experienced before, even with George. Time swirled around you and it felt like you were up in the sky with the stars you had just before been admiring. George was the first to pull away, placing a gentle kiss on your nose before sitting up.
“I love you,” he mumbled so quietly that you thought you were dreaming. There was so much love between you, but never before had either of you put those feelings into words. He turned to you, and the seriousness of his expression told you that you had heard him correctly.
“I love you too,” you fell back on the lush lawn and resumed your watching of the stars, nothing mattering to you in that moment apart from George and your bond of love.
Over a year later, you were shivering in a foxhole in the Bois Jacques, trying desperately to keep warm tucked into the side of George Luz.
“Quit burrowing, will ya, you’re stealing my heat,” he complained, but his cheeky grin told you he didn’t really mind.
“I’m gonna go for a walk, try to warm myself up a little,” you said, climbing out of the frozen foxhole. A few minutes later, you heard footsteps behind you, and an icy hand slipped into yours. You squeezed it tight and the two of you continued walking in silence, trying in vain to warm up. Soon you came to a small clearing and George dropped your hand, scurrying over to a tiny patch of grass that hadn’t fallen victim to the snow.
“I can’t remember the last time I saw something that didn’t have snow on it,” you laughed as George walked back towards you. You were expecting him to take your hand and lead you back to the foxhole, but instead he fell to one knee, holding out a single blade of grass tied into a crude knot.
“This blade of grass struggled through the snow to survive and I hope we can do the same, together. I want to take you home to Rhode Island, to meet my family, and one day have a family of our own. Y/N, will you do me the honour of becoming my wife?”. For the first time since you’d known him, you saw a hint of fear in George’s eyes. German machine guns barely fazed him and yet, kneeling in the snow, waiting for a word, he was more terrified than he’d ever been.
“Yes,” you managed to stammer out, the shock keeping you from saying more. George delicately slipped the grass ringer onto your finger and kissed you, a kiss even more magical than the one you’d shared in that English meadow.
For the first time in this awful war, there was no wisecrack that could paper over this. His ears still ringing with the noise of the explosion so close to him, Luz stared at what remained of the foxhole in disbelief. He didn’t know how long he lay there as the shelling continued all around him, but he found himself crawling towards the foxhole when he noticed it. That little knot of grass lay just before the crater. As soon as he saw it, Luz’s state of shock evaporated and he began to weep. He lay in the snow just cradling that little piece of grass that represented his now vanquished hopes for the future, a future with you.