Saltwater – Chapter 2 Part I

This part 1 of chapter two, I needed to give Scott's lover an introduction which really needs its own chapter since the heartbreak element is gonna be pretty long if it's included with this, and in all fairness I do not have that kind of energy right now. I am terrible at introducing OCs so if this is cringy and awful as fuck I apologise.

Anyway, on with military!Scott and wartime sweetheart, just as requested!

The second time Scott Tracy had his heart broken he had gone beyond his mother's death into a world surrounded by: war. He had been conscripted into the Air Force after a turn of events in Central Asia had the American government plunge themselves into an unnecessary battle, and in their greedy determination they had decided to effectively send their children to slaughter in their thousands, and Scott was to be one of them. He had recently left university and was ripe for the picking despite his father's pleas to move abroad or go back to university to avoid enlistment, but Scott would hear none of it, all of his friends were being dragged in, and he no right to run away, or so he felt.

Scott discovered that in war nobody bothered much to preserve their own image, it was about doing all you could to make yourself feel good in case you went down in flames the next day, literally. Most people looked to find love, even if it was only to last for the night. Scott found himself following the crowd and looking for someone that he could love without his family, he wanted to think about something else for just a second. Finding love couldn't difficult for him, could it? Especially where he was, everybody loved a man in uniform, and Scott was no exception. Unfortunately for Scott, he seemed to always deter a little from the unspoken rules. Instead of finding the usual pretty girl in his arms to love, he fell into someone's arms: those of his own squadron leader.

Daniel Elliot was a little taller than him, his build wasn't huge but he was certainly far stronger than he looked. Short black hair and an oddly perfect fringe to go with the blue eyes so deep that Scott could have swam in them. His fair complexion made him look a little more delicate than one might think, but his beauty did nothing but excel how much Scott looked up to him as a pilot. Scott hadn't exactly wanted to be pulled into the war but Daniel almost made his being there worth it with his charm and soft yet strongly-toned Brooklyn accent.

Scott didn't train with Daniel to begin with, as he'd had his birthday drawn from the enlistment lottery before Scott and was a rank above him by the time Scott was made to join. Scott felt an attraction to him the first day he knew him, it wasn't exactly love at first sight, Scott didn't know him well enough for that, but he certainly felt something about the warming smile of the charismatic man who was to only be his friend, close team-mate at most.

At first they had shared barracks, with the rest of the squadron, of course.

Scott couldn't help but become close to him, they worked well together, and they were close with all the other members of their squadron, but over beers before leave and random flight tests and trust-building exercises, anyone else would have believed them to be drifting closer than to anyone else. It was skinny love, they were gazing at each other without even realising it for a lot of the time that they were around each other. Although they were aware of their own feelings, they continued to be blind of each other's affections.

Their love seemed to naturally blossom, without them really being in a relationship, or even aware of it. It was accidental hand touches, coming to each other's determined aid in combat, not even realising how they were literally hugging each other as they helped one another during maintenance checks. There were more than enough sweet gestures, compliments were often with late-night conversations when one of them couldn't sleep, hugs and hot chocolate after awful sorties or bad news from home were more than most others would give, and they had never denied being an item to anyone that asked.

None of this exactly set the ball in motion, but Scott felt there was something more romantic in Daniel's personality than between them. Daniel always wrote to him when they left each other for leave, writing on actual paper rather texting him, convinced that a little old-fashioned was better, and they were of such novelty to Scott that he kept each and every page of the poetic and fluid notes that Daniel would send to him, and was unaware of his smiles and little giggles that he would make on reading with long-awaited excitement. He enjoyed Daniel's words and company too much to be friendly.

Once they had decided to stay after dark in their hangar, taking a much-needed look at Scott's jet, and he couldn't help but laugh a little when he watched Daniel pull a thermos and a box of sandwiches out of his coat pockets.

"What is this? A date?" He had asked ironically.

"Yeah, why not?" Daniel had said, laughing it off shyly to ignore the rose in his sleeve.

Scott was amazingly oblivious to his own happiness, to the comfort he felt in the calming presence of someone like himself, who adored him so dearly and yet he was blind to all affection, secretly afraid of being loved.

The evening continued relatively normally, save for Daniel's odd shyness and unusual timidity towards Scott, stumbling over his words and being very plain, which was suspicious for his outgoing character, and Scott wondered if he should question this strange behaviour; however, he found that he needn't ask, he need only look a little surprised.

"Scott, with your permission, I would very much like to kiss you, may I?" He heard, and for the present moment, he was stunned. Kiss? All the day's events added up to the entire year they had been softly loving about each other and silently flirting, falling into a harmonic spiral of pure adoration without the sensation of their obvious romance, and they had been wildly ignorant.

He thought blankly for a seemingly infinite moment of the pair of lips he subconsciously stared at, having unknowingly felt a wild desire for them, but it all rushed back to him.

Scott looked up at his eyes for a second.

"Yes," he said, almost a slightly shocked whisper. But it was all it took for their unspoken forbidden relationship to begin, and to be tested by the determined arms of war that may char their wings, and pull them apart.

Surprise! If you haven't read my early stuff you probably won't know that I've loved the idea pansexual Scott for years, and I wasn't about to miss my opportunity. I realise that Daniel probably has the personality of cardboard, but I'm willing to work on that.