Makin' Plans (hbo war imagines)

24. Richard "Dick" Winters; Sorry To Bug You

You could take a bullet—you had in Carentan, to the leg—and you could bounce back from near-fatal grenade experiences—multiple times and it was starting to concern people. But the one thing that made you squirm were bugs.

You had managed well enough to keep this fear to yourself in the years you'd spent with Easy company. There had been some close calls in Toccoa, as Georgia wasn't necessarily bug-free, but it was usually just mosquitoes. Everyone hated those little shits. It was the spiders in the corners of the rooms or beetles and ants crawling over your hands while you slept that got to you. You recognized the irony of an experienced soldier being spooked by dime-sized creatures, but it couldn't really be helped.

You had all but gotten through the war without admitting your fear to anyone. In fact, you hadn't even really thought about it in a while. Easy was enjoying some downtime in Austria, and it had been the most relaxed anyone had been in a while.

Catching you awake in the wee hours of the morning as well, Dick invited you for a swim.

"In a lake that beautiful," you replied, looking out a window to see the sunrise casting a glittery shine across the water. "How could I say no?"

You followed him down to the lake, and the two of you swam around for a while, in no rush to do anything except enjoy the cool, clear water. When you'd finally had enough, you got out to dry off.

Lying out on the dock with your feet dangling over the edge, you closed your eyes.

"It's quiet out here," he noted, sitting down at the end of the dock next to you.

You hummed your agreement. "Almost too quiet," you added with a laugh. Then you felt a tickle on your arm, prompting you to open your eyes. A spider was slowly inching its way across your forearm. Sitting up, you swiped the creepy-crawly off your arm onto the dock. "Ah!" you shrieked.

Dick jumped at the sound. "What's wrong? Are you okay?"

"A bug," you stammered, trying to control yourself. You frantically searched to make sure there weren't more scaling you.

"That's it?" he chuckled. "You make it through several months of near constant battle and you get spooked by a spider?"

"Please," you groaned, still unable to locate the bug. "I just can't... ah! There! Killitkillitkillit!"

He glanced down to where you pointed and nonchalantly swung his leg around to stomp the bug. "Better now?"

A shudder passed through you before you nodded. "Ugh. Yes. Thank you." Catching the smug look on his face, you tightened your expression. "Not a word about this."

"Wouldn't dream of it."

"If Nix makes some sly remark to me-"

"I won't tell him a thing." Giving you a side-glance, he smiled before looking back out over the lake. "Of course, I'm beginning to wonder how you've managed to go this long without everyone knowing."

Sighing, you allowed yourself to relax. "I was almost completely covered for three years. Bugs didn't have anywhere to land."

You both lightly chuckled, sitting there with your feet dangling in the water.

"Thank you for killing it for me." You bumped your shoulder into his.

He continued to smile out at the water. "You are welcome. I wouldn't mind killing more bugs for you in the future."

"Oh yeah? I'd be honored to have you kill bugs for me," you giggled, leaning into his side. "I'll call you up whenever I need one killed. You'll have to live close, of course."

"How close would you like me to be?"

"As close as possible."

"This close?" He gestured to the space that no longer existed between you.

"Seems close enough to me."

"Me too." A comfortable silence fell over you both. "So how long has this bug thing been an issue?"

Another tumblr request 😊

Hopefully I can get some of my writing mojo back bc idk what's up. I've been working on this one for a few days and it's still pretty short :/ but I don't hate it. M'kay.

~Mariah