Posey squeaked in surprise against his lips, her eyes open wide staring at his closed ones. He was kissing her. Really, actually kissing her.
In a moment of clarity she remembered herself. She closed her eyes and promptly melted into him, letting him lead her through the kiss, letting him show her what to do.
When he pulled back her eyes remained closed, her lips still parted exactly where he'd left them. Forcing her eyes open, she found him already looking at her, still close but not nearly close enough.
"Oh, Bill," she whispered, starting to frown. "What did you do that for?" Her life was going to be so much more difficult now. Both of their lives were going to be so much more difficult now.
Bill's face fell. "I -" he began, and was cut off by her hand snaking around the back of his neck and drawing him back in. She pressed her lips to his and couldn't help but grin when he started to kiss her again. He drew her closer by the waist and she giggled into his mouth.
"Posey," he said, pulling back and quirking an eyebrow at her.
She grinned. "Bill."
"Why're you laughin'?" he asked, beginning to smile himself.
Because I'm happy, she thought. Because I'm loved. Because you've granted both of my wishes in one go.
"Because I think you're wonderful," was what she said, fiddling with the hairs at the nape of his neck.
"Wonderful, ay?" he said, starting to laugh. "C'mere, doll."
When he kissed her again she sighed happily. Yes, she thought, he's the one for me. Let him be mine for the rest of my life. Was it too late for New Year's wishes now that the clock had struck twelve, or was she right on time?
So 1945 was off to a good start - a better start, even, than she'd hoped for. She fell asleep tucked up snugly in Bill's arms, feeling the cold a little bit less tonight than she had in the days previous.
When she woke up again she was disoriented, forgetting, for just a moment, where she was. It all came crashing back to her after a moment - last night, the New Year's wishes, the kisses, the warmth - and she thought she might never stop smiling.
As always, she woke up before Bill, but she decided to stay put for a little while today. She needed to go the toilet incredibly badly but she couldn't bring herself to move, for his embrace was warm and comforting and the world outside of their foxhole was a little bit scary at the moment.
Eventually, she couldn't hold it any longer and had to pry Bill's arms off of her so that she could get out. The sun was just beginning to rise when her boots first hit the fresh snow on the ground. The first sunrise of the year. It was dead silent out, the rest of the men still sleeping or, otherwise, not much in the mood for conversation so early. Posey's eyes drooped as she picked her way through the foxholes to somewhere private where she could relieve herself in peace and were all but shut by the time she'd finished and begun making her way back.
On her way she was stopped by the sound of her name being called. She turned, squinting, as she tried to locate the source of the voice.
"Sergeant Wells," called the voice again, and she recognised it as Nixon's. Her eyes skidded over to the CP and fell right on the man in question where he was sat with Winters, the pair of them shivering vigorously.
"Sirs," she greeted as she approached, her hands tucked up under her arms and her shoulders hunched up by her ears.
"How are you doing, Wells? You alright?" Nixon asked, nodding his encouragement for her to reply honestly.
Posey nodded, looking between him and Winters with a shrug. "Doing okay, sir. Yourselves?"
They both mumbled their affirmatives, a little bit less than enthusiastic and even less convincing but she understood the sentiment.
"How's Lieutenant Welsh, if you don't mind my asking, sirs?" she asked, looking between them both. Welsh had been taken off the line a few days previously after being hit in one of the shellings. Posey hadn't been there at the time but news spread fast out here whenever anyone was taken off the line, especially an officer. They were short of more than a few good officers out here and Welsh was one they really hadn't been able to afford losing.
"He's doing okay. Recovering well," Winters said, nodding pensively. "He's gonna be fine."
"I'm glad to hear it, sir," Posey replied, and meant it. She'd always liked Welsh, for all that she didn't know him too intimately. Compton had been her own platoon leader since D-Day so she'd not ever fought under Welsh much. Still, he'd always been very kind to her and she knew him to be competent, both as a leader and as a soldier, so she respected him for that.
"Wells, while we've got you here, is there anything you need up on the line? Anything we might be able to get you?" Nixon asked.
Posey smiled slightly. He was a good ally to have. "A warm bed and some decent food would go down a treat, sir."
The both of them laughed before Nixon replied, "That might be just beyond what I can get you. Is there anything else?"
Posey hummed, thinking it over. Eventually, she confessed, "A blanket would be nice. Or a scarf, maybe."
"We should be getting some coats down in a day or two," Winters said.
Posey beamed. "Really? Coats?" The idea was heaven. The year was off to a flying start.
"We're surrounded, so don't get your hopes up," Nixon subdued her but the damage was already done. Posey nodded, grinning.
Winters gave a shake of his head. "For now, we can spare a blanket. Right, Nix?"
"Sure," Nixon agreed. He rummaged around behind him before letting out a small 'aha' and producing a blanket. "Here ya go."
He handed it over and Posey laughed, somewhat deliriously, at having the material in her hands. It was a little bit scratchy, as military issued blankets were wont to be, but it was also a little bit soft. Hopefully, it would serve to make her more than a little bit warm. "Thank you, sirs. Really." She hoped that they could hear the genuine gratitude in her voice, that they could read the sincerity on her face. "This - well, this is the best present I've received in a long time."
Nixon laughed whilst Winters smiled softly. "Don't worry about it, Joe."
Posey was sent on her way shortly after and all but skipped back to her foxhole. When she hopped back in her movement woke Bill but she continued to drape the blanket over him anyway.
"Posey?" he asked, groggy and bleary after just having woken up.
"Look!" she said, and tugged at the blanket she was currently attempting to get under. "A blanket!"
"Where'd you get it from?" Bill wondered, lifting a hand to help her get underneath it with him.
"Winters and Nixon at the CP. They said we might be getting coats in a few days, too."
"Yeah? Don't tell Liebgott," he grumbled, smiling just slightly when she laughed. All Lieb had gone on about on the journey over to the Ardennes had been a coat, and if they didn't end up getting any the both of them knew they'd never hear the end of it.
The foxhole was significantly warmer with the blanket covering them, though the chill in the air seemed to only have gotten colder overnight. Even snuggled as tightly together as they could get the cold was biting. Posey felt her teeth chattering but could do nothing to stop them. The real problem she'd been having was the ache in her ears, intense and sometimes so overbearing she could focus on nothing else. She needed earmuffs, or a hat, like the one Spina had found somewhere. Or maybe if she could just get her hands on a scarf...
"Come on," Bill said, shuffling out from under the blanket, "it's fuckin' freezin'. Lets go get some breakfast."
"It'll be colder above ground than it is in here," Posey protested, but she followed suit nonetheless. The food, at least, would be warm.
She kept the blanket wrapped around her like a cape as she trudged after Bill through the snow, keeping her head down to try to keep her nose warm and following his footsteps. She was sniffling in the cold, her eyes streaming against the wind, but still she walked on, humming to herself if only to have something to focus on other than her body shutting down on her.
"Hey! Joe!" Bill called, obviously catching sight of Dominguez, their mess officer. Posey smiled as she recalled her first day at Toccoa, when Bill had complained about her being called Joe on account of how many of them they had in Second Platoon. It seemed such a silly thing now but it had really gotten them off on the wrong foot, so much so that they'd all but despised each other until he'd found out she was a girl, and perhaps even a little bit after that, too.
How times had changed.
While Bill tried to convince Dominguez to start breakfast early, Posey found the stump of a tree and sat atop it to keep from getting her ODs wet in the snow. She drew her knees close to her chest and wrapped the blanket tighter around her, her hands shaking where they clutched at the fabric. She buried her face in the blanket where she held it and shut her eyes, thinking of warm places and trying to imagine she was there. She thought about Camp Toccoa and how hot it had been there, how she'd thought she couldn't possibly survive training in such heat. She'd have given anything to be back there, now, but she had a talent for nothing if not taking things for granted.
"He's doin' it now," Bill informed her as he approached, having just torn poor Dominguez a new one to persuade him so. "You alright?"
Posey looked up at him and offered a small smile. "Just cold."
Bill nodded and sat beside her on the tree stump, so she opened up the blanket to share it with him.
"Nah, you keep it," Bill said, wrapping it back around her again. "You're shakin' like a damn leaf."
"I got it for us to share," she mumbled, nuzzling her face back into it.
"We'll take it in turns," he replied, running a hand up and down her back as though to warm her up. "How's that?"
"Mhm," she hummed, nodding and blinking back the tears the wind was making prick in her eyes. "Okay."
She stared at the snow and sat quietly with Bill, waiting for breakfast. The other men were only just starting to stir awake, their voices quiet as they muttered to each other about mindless things, only just audible as they carried over on the wind.
Posey gazed mindlessly at her footprints in the snow as they waddled towards her, right beside Bill's where he'd followed after. A set of converging lines, they got close to each other but cut off right before they could ever meet. Posey lifted her foot and dug it into the snow right next to Bill's, pressing hard to make an indentation. When she placed it back with her other one she smiled. Now they met.
"What're you doin'?" Bill asked, looking between her footprint and her.
Posey shrugged, peering up at him from her blanket. "I was looking at our footprints. I thought it was sad that they got so close but they never got to meet, so I made them meet. See?" She pointed to her footprint and he lifted his foot to reveal his right beside it. Posey smiled softly and Bill breathed a laugh, giving a subtle shake of his head before glancing up into the trees.
"You two alright?" asked Lip, approaching them from seemingly out of nowhere.
Bill's hand fell from her back and dropped into his lap. "Hey, Lip."
"We're okay, Lip," Posey replied quietly, looking up at him to send him a smile. "How are you?"
"Doin' just fine, Duckie," answered Lip, nodding into his scarf.
"Happy New Year," Posey said, letting herself smile in earnest as she recalled her hope for the next year of her life. She was still hoping it was going to be a good one, a happy one.
Lip nodded, smiling brighter, too. "Happy New Year, Duckie."
"Is Dike about?" she wondered absentmindedly, fiddling with the seam on the edge of her blanket.
Lip's face fell imperceptibly. Posey wouldn't have noticed if she hadn't been watching him.
"Why? Do you need him?" he responded. That was all Posey needed to be told to know that Dike wasn't, in fact, about. He was likely back at Battalion CP or off making a call somewhere, any excuse to get off of the line and showboat to the brass about what an excellent job he was doing of absolutely fuck all. He was massively too stripe-happy, if you asked her - or, really, any of the enlisted men.
"I wanna steal his scarf," Posey mumbled, smiling when it got a laugh out of both Bill and Lip, even reluctant as it was from the latter. "It's not like he's using it much back at the Battalion CP anyway," she added under her breath.
"I'll keep asking about some more warm clothes," Lip assured her, glancing around him as though expecting one of the officers to appear. "We're cut off from everything so it's difficult..."
"I know," Posey answered. She tried to smile at him again, to reassure him that she knew it wasn't his fault. "I was only joking."
Dominguez came over just then and began to dish out their breakfast, which was the same thing they got for all three meals everyday, some sort of stew that was more mucky water than it was meat or vegetables.
"Thank you," Posey told him anyway when he slopped some of it into her canteen cup. It looked revolting and smelt even worse but she'd take what she could get. At least it was warm.
Lip left after he'd gotten his, likely to either check on the others or inform them that breakfast was ready a bit earlier today, perhaps both. A silence had fallen in his absence, and it reigned the entire time they were eating.
"It's snowing again," Posey whispered just as she'd finished. She watched the snowflakes begin to flutter towards the ground, tentative just now but undoubtedly about to get heavier.
"Don't fuckin' stop in this place," Bill grumbled, shaking his head bitterly.
"At least it's pretty," Posey murmured, resting her head on his shoulder without thinking about it. After she left Belgium she'd never want to see another snowflake again but, for now, she had to find comfort in the fact that it was pretty, otherwise what hope was there left in the world? There had to be something left that was beautiful otherwise what were they out here fighting for?
"Yeah," Bill replied, sounding unconvinced.
Posey smiled and shut her eyes, imagining warm summer days and trips to the beach. Summer would have to come sometime, even if they were still out here by the time it did. Winters didn't last forever, and neither did wars.