Before You Start A War

Chapter Fourteen

Niall takes another bite of his food, "You're lucky you still have that or else we'd get nowhere and your comrades would come in here and maim me."

Harry stops and puts the map down on the ground. He leans close, pushing Niall's hands down, keeping his own on top. "Optimistic thoughts, remember? If I didn't have this, we'd figure something out. I won't let them hurt you again."

Niall looks right into Harry's eyes and lets his shoulders relax for a moment. "Sorry. I can't help myself sometimes. Ya know, because of everything that happened."

"It's all right, I understand. Just please know that I will protect you from now on." Harry would grip Niall's fingers if his hands weren't already occupied by the slab of hardtack. Instead, he just keeps his hands over Niall's, hoping it's providing him some sort of comfort.

Harry has tried his best to hide his slight bit of interest in Niall that blossomed the day he helped clean his wounds. Even though he now knows Niall is homosexual, Harry doesn't know what he is yet and doesn't want to use Niall to try to figure it out. Niall's already shown doubt in his self-worth and he doesn't want to be another reason for him to wish death and suffering upon himself. He doesn't want him to feel useless and used anymore.

After a moment, Niall nods, causing Harry to pull his hands away so Niall can finish eating. He picks the map back up and continues to unravel it carefully, trying to keep it from ripping. When he's seemingly gotten all the creases out the best he can, he unfurls his company's own map, holding the corners down with some loose rocks and dirt. As Niall's taking his final bite, Harry pulls a short lead pencil out that he's had since he first went to war, used only for writing letters back to his family.

"So, we can just make small marks every now and then instead of doing the whole thing at once. I'll just tell them your memory is spotty about it so it'll take a while." Harry explains, looking over both the maps. They're pretty similar, with the same lakes and rivers being marked off by the actual mapmakers, but the posts and landmarks on each map differs according to where each company has explored. From what Harry notices, they've come pretty close to meeting each other, only a few miles away from each other at one point. Harry wonders if that was close to where the enemy caught him, and where his company caught Niall.

They both look over both maps, and Harry points to a certain spot on the map Niall's company made. "What's this?"

Niall shrugs, "I think that's where the brigade soldiers would drop off food and supplies for the regiment soldiers to collect. Then it would be distributed among the different companies around."

"What's the closest company to yours?" Harry questions.

"They were pretty far off, usually miles away. There's one here," Niall points to a circle on the map that's at least ten miles away from Niall's base. "And another further past that, here." He points to another circles further below the one he pointed to first. "It all kind of spider-webs around the supply drop spot. And then that is one of the ends of a spider web leading all the way up to the army's main base, while is miles away, over near Richmond, I think."

Harry nods along, "So really, if anything were to happen to your company, no one is really close enough to help?" Niall nods. "It's the same on this side, too. Our bases are all over the place."

"It's a battle tactic. If the enemy were to find one of the bases, it doesn't mean that the entire army will fall. An entire regiment can be taken over and there's a possibility those big, important people won't even know about it until weeks after it happens. Kind of sad, really."

"We have people going in and out from our base all the time from the bigger regiments and brigades. They always check on us to make sure we're still alive."

"Guess that's one thing that differs from the sides." Niall smiles sadly, looking down at the maps again. "Here, we can label this." Niall points to an empty area on the new map that has markings on his map.

Harry nods and follows Niall's finger along the map, leaning closer to see what he's tracing. Niall sits back after a moment and smiles when Harry looks back up at him.

"What?" Harry asks and Niall looks down shyly.

"Nothing."

Harry laughs slightly, "This sounds an awful lot like our conversation when I first came in."

"Hm, I guess it does." Niall chuckles along.

"What were you thinking about?" Harry inquires as he makes another mark on the sheet around a lake that the enemy explored and labeled as a good fishing spot.

Niall licks at his lips after taking another sip of water. "It was honestly nothing, Harry. Don't worry about it."

Harry props an eyebrow up, "You sure?"

"Yeah." Niall smiles again and leans back over the map, pointing at another discrepancy between the two maps. "I'm absolutely sure. Now label this."

Harry chuckles, "Yes, sir."