"White, what's the matter?"

"It's nothing, don't worry about it."

Lloyd's been worried for two weeks now. It started with an emergency call, going to Columbia for a mission, and now White seemed to have something missing. He dropped out of school, smoked heavily, and never really slept.

The taller suddenly turned to him. "Aren't you supposed to be doing a test in like twenty minutes?"

"It's a math test, I don't need to study." Math came easy to him, but lately, sophomore geometry has been difficult. Last week, he cried because it was the first time in his whole life that he had failed a quiz. Kim had to comfort him and take the next one for him, which he barely passed. They studied together for about a day, though they fooled around, if anything.

White walked off, stating commands must be given to a lesser rank. Lloyd stood there, smelling cigarette smoke and looking at the Japanese skyline. He loved it here. He was able to see Haruki and his family. Everyone said he looked much older and much thinner. His mother fed him well the night he slept there. They were leaving in a week, unfortunately. But maybe a change of scenery would help his friend.

-

"Kimmy, look!" He shoved the test in his face. "I passed! I actually did it!"

"Well, look at that!" Kim stood up and hugged him, Lloyd's little feet kicking in the air. "I knew you could!" He carried him to the table and poured two glasses of rum. "Here," He put him down and put it in his hand. "as a treat."

Lloyd looked into the cup, swirling the liquid around. "My parents wouldn't like this..."

Kim finished his shot and poured another. "They aren't here, are they?"

A rebellious spark made its way into his heart as he drank the rum. It had a nice aftertaste. The taller poured him another. Then another. Then another.

-

"Lloyd!" James was walking to Kim and Lloyd's room. "Mulligan sent you a letter!"

He walked in. His jaw hit the floor. There was his friend, red-faced and holding a bottle of liquor. Kim was holding a box of his chewing tobacco, laughing for apparently no reason.

"What the fuck?!" He grabbed Lloyd's arm to steal the bottle. "Are you serious?"

"Whaaat???" Lloyd hugged his waist, gigging.

He spun his head to the oldest one in the room. "You let him do this?!"

He was laughing so much he could barely get his slurred English out. "I gave it to him!"

"You what?!"

"Aw, don't get your paentis into a bunch!" That made the two Koreans laugh hysterically.

James, red in face, dragged the shorter out by his arm into his bedroom for the night. Lloyd flung himself onto the bed, laughing so hard his lungs hurt.

"Stop laughing! You're lucky I'm not telling your parents!" James carried his legs to the bed.

"Ahhhh haha!"

-

In the morning, with a terrible hangover, he caught White crying in his hands right before a battle.

"White." He put his hands on his shoulders. "Please, tell me what's bothering you."

"My dad.." He muttered in his hands.

"What about your dad?"

"He died. He had a car accident." He began to sob as Lloyd hugged him. He was sorry for him, but also grateful he wasn't in that position. "Sauveterre, what am I going to do?"

"I'm so so sorry. I'll be here for you. I-"

A man with a mustache walked in. He grabbed Lloyd's arm and said, "You're my second in command. We're going." And before he could say a word, they were gone.

-

White waited for him. Kim came back before him and waited. James came back three days later and waited. Haruki waited. His parents waited for a dreaded call.

"He's dead!" White cried into James' shoulder. "He's dead! He's dead!"

"No.."

The Battle of Nagasaki was the bloodiest to date. Almost two hundred men and women were dead just on day one. Trucks of them were being sent back to Vagu. Many of them were teenagers, and lines that stretched miles were at the city hall where the bodies were being stored, each parent praying their child wasn't in a bag. Some were more lucky than others.

White was in Lloyd's room. He's been so nice to him despite everything he did to him in boot camp. He cried into his pillow with Kim, who showed sadness for the first time in years.

"He's back! They both spun their heads around to James, who was jumping up and down. "They're back!"

The three rushed up to the dock, where the remaining three hundred of the nine hundred soldiers were rushing out of the planes. Lloyd was with his brother. His uniform was covered in bright red. He was cut up and bruised. He was alive.

White ran and hugged him first, tears spilling down his cheeks. Lloyd knew, his embrace showed it.

"I'm sorry I left." He whispered before the other two came. "I'm so sorry."

-

After being given a new rank, he drank with his friends. His brother and James both encouraged him not to drink too much while Kim poured as much as he wanted.

"Lloydie," Haruki asked in Japanese. "tell us about the battle. What took you so long?"

"It was unbearable! Soldiers dropping left and right. There was screaming, crying, death, everything you could imagine. They wouldn't let us leave for two nights. Then, when we were about to leave, they attacked us again. But listen close to this." Everyone sat up, ears open. "When me and everyone else thought we would lose, the general came out on his big white horse carrying the Vagian flag-" his voice shook with emotion, his hands acting out the story. "-and put it high on the pole. I saw it wave as the sun came up. Such a beautiful thing! Me and the general said the battle was a success, and he put his hand on my shoulder." He touched the place the dark hand of the general touched. "What a thing to see!"

The people around him clapped and cheered as if they were watching a movie for hours as the stories went on and on. Lloyd couldn't help but notice there was someone missing, and he knew where he was. He slipped away, and saw White smoking outside. He could see the half gone cigarette shaking.

"Are you good?"

"Oh, yeah! Just great!" He turned to him, tears making his skin shine. "I thought my only friend in this stupid place was dead for nearly a week and you're in there telling stories like nothing happened!"

He walked closer to him. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you. Honest."

"I swear if I lose another person, I'll go crazy!"

"White, it'll be ok. Nobody is going to die."

"But my dad is dead! And the last time I saw him, I was angry with him because he sent me here!" He put out the cigarette. "I've should've been a better son!"

Remembering his father, Lloyd sighed. "It's ok to be angry with your dad. How could you've known?"

The other broke down. He covered his eyes with his hands. "My mom, Sauveterre, she's so worried. I can't take care of her. I can't do anything here."

"What can you do? You're only fifteen."

He was crying so heavily that he couldn't speak, Lloyd led him to his room. White sat on his bed, muttering.

"Here." The shorter sat next to him and gave him the brown cross from his wall. "I know it's important to you."

His fingers stroked it, the tears in his eyes making it hard to see Jesus hanging. "Why are you so nice to me? I'm so shitty. I pushed everyone away. I treated you like shit."

"That was in the past. I'm not angry anymore." It was weird for him to say that. The war started over a year ago. "To be honest, your friends before were shit."

"I don't want to be here, Sauveterre. I want to be back home with my family, not in Japan! I'm tired of fighting! Of killing! I want to be a kid again! I want to see my dad and sit at the table for dinner with my siblings as my mom cooks!"

"I want that too, but we need to accept our new normal."

"Without my dad, nothing is normal. Nothing at all."

Lloyd kicked his feet. He thought about his father. He was so happy to still have him. "It's going to be alright."

-

They were in Thailand by the time White was improving. He never went back to school, but he never cared that much about it anyway. Lloyd helped as much as he could, although he didn't know what to really do.

One day, while in the same plane, White looked up to the sky as tears became to form.

"Thank you, Sauveterre. Thanks a lot."

Lloyd didn't look away from the controls and the window. "For?"

"For being here. Thank you for giving me a second chance."

"Don't even mention it." He turned quickly to give him a smile. "That's what friends are for."

"Yeah." He sat back in the street, feeling the bombs being dropped. "We're good friends."

----

Fred Elwell
The First Born