![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Jun. 29th, 2017 01:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
devoutish[Alfie Solomons and Royce Melborn have been inseparable since the day they met - a day that, even over thirty years later, they both claim to remember with picture-perfect clarity. There are some discrepancies in their retellings, but the most important details are the ones that they both agree on: Alfie (aged six) tossed a ball to a mate that ended up going wayward and hitting Royce (also aged six). Given that they both had somewhat rough-and-tumble lives - Alfie as the Camden Town-bred son of a big-time gangster, and Royce as a habitual runaway from the orphanage where he was meant to be living - they of course came to blows. The fight had ended with some nasty-looking bruises on both of them, and Alfie had ended up bringing Royce home for Sabbath dinner.
As the years went on, Royce became something of an unofficial fourth Solomons brother - Alfie's loyal friend, partner in crime, and twin. He kept coming to those Sabbath dinners, and to all the holiday dinners as well. When they were grown, he got a job alongside Alfie, working for Alfie's father's gang. And when the war started, all the brothers including Royce (even Henry, who was a married father of two at that point and therefore wouldn't have been drafted) signed up to go off to fight. Royce and Alfie, as it happened, ended up assigned to the same regiment.
They're two years in, now. They're thirty-seven, and they're in France. Like most regiments, theirs has been switching between serving on the front lines and being taken off to serve elsewhere and get a bit of a break. This is their fifth cycle on the front. They're nearly four weeks in.
The whistle of a bomb arcs overhead, and hits another trench about five hundred yards away. Alfie, catnapping in the corner, doesn't even stir - they've all had to quickly get used to sleeping whenever and wherever they can. He'll have to be up soon, though - in five minutes, it's time for watch duty with Royce.]
As the years went on, Royce became something of an unofficial fourth Solomons brother - Alfie's loyal friend, partner in crime, and twin. He kept coming to those Sabbath dinners, and to all the holiday dinners as well. When they were grown, he got a job alongside Alfie, working for Alfie's father's gang. And when the war started, all the brothers including Royce (even Henry, who was a married father of two at that point and therefore wouldn't have been drafted) signed up to go off to fight. Royce and Alfie, as it happened, ended up assigned to the same regiment.
They're two years in, now. They're thirty-seven, and they're in France. Like most regiments, theirs has been switching between serving on the front lines and being taken off to serve elsewhere and get a bit of a break. This is their fifth cycle on the front. They're nearly four weeks in.
The whistle of a bomb arcs overhead, and hits another trench about five hundred yards away. Alfie, catnapping in the corner, doesn't even stir - they've all had to quickly get used to sleeping whenever and wherever they can. He'll have to be up soon, though - in five minutes, it's time for watch duty with Royce.]
