#joeslie

[wornout-pinkscarf]

Hey look I did it

[owlinaminor]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

little joeslie fic, dedicated to iris who is literally @joeslie joeslie dot tumblr dot com.  canon-compliant, 2k.

excerpt:

What did you do after the war, Ellis Leslie?

Drank less, for one thing.  Oh, he’s still drinking, still carries a flask in his coat pocket, still pulls it out when the night is dark or the bar only serves shit beer.  But he forgets to fill it, sometimes.  He keeps a bottle of whiskey on the windowsill by his bed, and sometimes it is weeks after he empties it that he remembers to buy another.

They ask him about the war.  They—the women at the market, the girls at the bar, the old men who come into the bookshop looking for poetry or instruction manuals, looking to build chests or live longer.  They see the medal pinned on his jacket, and they want to know.  Was it hard?  Were the trenches as cold and muddy as they say?  Who did you lose?

“It was cold,” he answers.  Drawls it out, like he’s standing on a stage, trying to buy time because he forgot the rest of the speech.  “It was muddy.  It was always too loud, or too quiet.”

[wornout-pinkscarf]

Pardon?

[canondestiel]

happy birthday!! i hope the day improves for you as it goes by 🥺

oh no i missed this earlier! tysm!!