Scratch what I said about Peaky Blinders, Band of Brothers is probably the fandom that has collected the most fictional crushes.
I read somewhere on Tumblr that Joe liked to sing Irish songs or "I'll Be Seeing You", and then found this otp idea on pinterest so here I am, combining the two. Also, 40's music is actually pretty good so go give them a listen.
(Y/L/N) = your last name. Futuristic AU, so no particular country is named for the location; it's only referred to as "the nation" in here. Army ranks are the same as in the show. Cursing. Female reader. Death. Longer than usual, about 3.2k words. Second piece written in second person; I think second person is actually pretty easy to write so I may just keep writing in 2nd person. Fluff and angst.
~~~
It was no use. No matter how many times Easy Company tried, they just couldn't defeat the enemy. They couldn't drive them back enough to get some time to recover. Every week, the United Governments Army (Luz would call them Uggs as a joke and it seemed to stick) would close in closer and closer. Eventually they'd be knocking on Easy's door with grenades and machine guns pointed and ready to fire.
"It's pathetic." Joe often complained. "We've been at war with the Uggs for three fucking years. And nothing has changed. We're Easy Company, we're supposed to be the hope for everyone else here. We're the fucking rebel team that's supposed to do their fucking job, but can't because we're too goddamn low on ammo and supplies."
"We're only a small force, Toye." you would always remind him gently. "We can only do so much with about hundred or so people with a small few buildings we call base."
He would huff, and that would be the end of those conversations, the topic quickly moving on to something else that had happened that week, or to Luz, Skip, Malarkey, and Penkala's latest prank on Nixon. It was the latter most of the time.
It had been four years. Four long years of a corrupt government draining the land of its resources and driving everyone in it to hardship. Four years of the regime they called "the nation's greatest salvation". It was nothing of the sort, however. All that had come out of the new government system was poverty and despair. You and many others in Easy found it funny how quickly the nation went to waste in four years.
It seemed like the nation was in good hands in the first year. Things started looking up. But then corrupt officials began taking advantage of the prosperity and decided to help themselves. They drained the country of its riches and turned it into a desolate wasteland. The riches they stole were used for themselves. If you looked towards the mountain range, you would see the stark white houses of the officials, standing proud and tall against the drab gray of the mountains they sat upon.
By the time the second year rolled around, rebel teams began popping up here and there to take care of the corruption and poverty. They didn't do anything too drastically big at first. It was mainly hijacking and ransacking supply trains that came in from other towns nearby. But then the officials began to grow suspicious, and decreed that if anyone were against the regime, that they step forward and voice their concerns.
No one came forward. It was clear what would happen if they did.
The third year of the regime, the rebel teams grew tired of not doing anything and the leaders of the two strongest rebel teams sent assassins to kill the Supreme Minister in the annual meeting of the Senate. They succeeded in their mission, declaring war on the United Governments and thus began the 2 years of pointless fighting and bloodshed.
Personally, you thought that war was unnecessary, but you couldn't imagine what would happen if the rebel leaders had sat down and talked with the Supreme Minister. They probably would've ended up killing the Supreme Minister anyway.
You and Joe often speculated about the different outcomes of the world if war hadn't been declared. But you didn't dwell on it too long because if the war hadn't started, you and Joe never would have met. (It was funny how you met, really, but that would be a story you took to the grave. Long story short, you almost shot Toye and threatened him with a spoon when he was on his scouting patrol.)
"Toye, you're scouting tonight with Guarnere and Perconte. Get your weapons ready." Speirs called from below the tree you and Joe were sitting in.
"Yes, sir." Joe replied, heaving a quiet sigh. "Fuckin' war making me go on fuckin' patrols. I'd rather be spending time with you."
You laughed and pressed a quick kiss to his cheek, before he jumped out of the tree and turned to help you down. "It's only 2 hours. You'll be back before the sun goes down, and then we can watch the sunset together." You held his hand and jumped off the branch, landing gracefully with a twirl. You looked up at him with a soft smile, kissing the back of his hand. "Okay, Joe?"
"Okay." he whispered as he pulled you into a hug. "I'll be back."
"You'd better. Or else I'd have to go watch the sunset by myself." you smirked and picked up his gear. "Come on, Speirs is going to throw a fit."
~~~
"Winters! Where's Major Winters?!" Perconte's voice rang out in the crowd. You looked up from sharpening your knives, your hands moving of their own accord as you watched him weave through throngs of people and supplies moving back and forth. "Major Winters!"
Dick turned around and called him over. "What's happened? Everything okay?"
"I'm not sure, Major. Toye and Guarnere found something you should see."
Dick stood there for a moment, contemplatively watching the people move around him, then turned back to Perconte and yelled for Nixon to grab the jeep. You sheathed your knives and picked up your beam gun, beginning to clean the dust out of its nooks and crannies. Whatever it was, you didn't think would end up turning out well.
Toye, Guarnere, Perconte, Winters, and Nixon drove in two hours after the sun had gone down. You had waited for Joe's return, doing numerous tasks to occupy your time until they came back. Currently, you were having a contest with yourself to see how long you could plank for. A few of the other guys in your barrack had competed with you, giving up when it was apparent you would be planking for a while.
"Why're you still up?" Joe's voice called from above you. You looked up slightly and saw his boots standing a foot in front of you.
"I was bored." you replied simply, looking back down at the ground. "Besides, it's only about 9-ish."
"Y'know, you didn't have to wait up for me."
"I couldn't sleep. I was bored. It's still too early to sleep, anyway. What was I supposed to do?"
"Right. Can you come to bed now?" Joe moved away from you and began changing out of his gear, fiddling with the record player in the room, and flopping onto his bunk when he put on his favorite song, I'll Be Seeing You. "I wanna cuddle."
You chuckled. "You can cuddle me when I've finished planking and washed the sweat off of me."
"But I wanna cuddle you now." he whined from beside you on the bed.
"Joseph Toye, stop staring at my ass." you only replied, laughing.
You heard a quiet 'humph' and a rustling of sheets, then silence. You sighed, knowing Joe was probably not going to say anything else or move until your arms wrapped around him, and got up from your plank. You looked at your watch for the time. 10 minutes, 23 seconds. A new record!
"Okay, fine, you big baby." you finally conceded, wiping the sweat off your face and neck. "Give me five minutes." You pressed a kiss to his temple and went off.
Five minutes later, you had Joe in your arms as you sat against the wall adjacent to the bed, your fingers running through his hair. "What'd you find on patrol today?" Joe was silent for a moment.
"Joe?" You stopped and looked down at him. He had a look of deep thought, his brows furrowed and eyes closed as he recalled what he saw.
"The Uggs got real close. Too close, even. It looks like they're gonna do something soon."
"Good thing you and Gonorrhea and Perconte saw them, yeah?"
"Major Winters thinks they're gonna attack. But he wants to wait until tomorrow morning to know exactly what they plan."
"Hell, if you saw them there, they're definitely going to attack. I hope Winters knows that's the case."
Turns out, you didn't have to wait until the morning to figure out what the Ugg soldiers were planning. Everyone in the barracks were shaken awake when a shout of "EVERYONE UP, WE ARE UNDER ATTACK!" was heard over the PA system, followed by the sound of explosions. You all scrambled to put on your gear and grab only the essentials.
Things moved in a blur after that. You had set up your beam machine gun with Liebgott in one of the trenches next to the path the soldiers were using to get into base. But knowing the Ugg soldiers, half of them would be coming up the path while the other half would be walking around towards the back.
"Shit. Liebgott, we gotta move a couple gunners to the back. They're gonna attack us from there too." you said as you watched the back of the Ugg force. Sure enough, soldiers had already started breaking off and heading off in both directions toward the back of the base. "Liebgott, come on. We can let the beam gun recharge while we're trekking up there."
"Yeah, let me get another gunner with us." he nodded and headed off, ducking explosions and light beams.
"Lipton! Lipton!" you shouted when you had reached his post. "Liebgott and I and another set of gunners will be heading to the back of the base. About a hundred Ugg soldiers started breaking off and heading around as we speak."
He nodded and you dashed off, glancing back at Joe and the two other soldiers following you through the fire to base.
"We gotta grab some extra ammo and then we're heading straight to the roof." you told them, heading towards the armory.
The back was quiet and calm, unlike the front half of base. But eventually, that would change. As soon as you had finished setting up your guns, the soldiers came around and began appearing. You and Liebgott let the gun go, light shooting off into the darkness and illuminating it.
It seemed like you could hold off the soldiers, but as you kept shooting, the gun began needing a recharge and you only had one extra battery left to use. As you kept shooting, two more soldiers took the place of the one you had shot. It seemed like they were a never-ending stream of ants.
"We're gonna have to retreat soon!" you yelled to Joe.
"Yeah. But we're in this till the end. We're gonna let them have hell." he shouted back with a smirk.
"Remind me to never let you have kids!"
An explosion rocked everyone to the ground as you covered your head, feeling dirt fall onto you. You looked up and saw that there were more soldiers than before, and your beam gun was on its last few reserves of battery life.
"Liebgott, we have to go! Now!" you shouted. "We've done all we can here!"
The four of you grabbed your guns and stands and ran back into base, through the mazes and tunnels towards the front. You burst out through the base doors in the front and light beams and explosions and fires dotted the field. Major Winters was easily seen, shouting orders and doing his part.
"Major Winters!" you shouted at the same time as another voice. You turned to see your boyfriend running up as well.
Dick looked at both of you as you stopped before him.
"Major Winters, I was just at the back of base. They're not stopping. I propose we blow up base." you stated confidently.
Joe looked shocked at your idea. "What? No way! We can take 'em!"
"Joe, it looks like half of your squad is either dead or wounded. We have to do something. And blowing up base seems like the best way to do that now." you held his hand, squeezing it in reassurance. You turned back to Dick.
"Major Winters, we can rig up some explosives to blow up base. We evacuate everyone, then we set off the explosions."
He nodded, then turned to Joe. "You go with her to set everything up. Liebgott, you too. Bring those gunners with you." He shouted for Speirs and Lipton. "Evacuate every soldier we have at base right now. This place is going up in flames as soon as (Y/L/N) and her team are done rigging up explosives in the base."
"Yes, sir." you all chimed, then dashed off into base towards the armory, Speirs and Lipton in the opposite direction towards the soldiers.
Joe ran alongside you. "So that's your plan? Blow this place up and possibly kill all of us in the process?"
"Joe, I'm a technician. I can rig up a time delay, I can make a remote detonator, the list goes on. It's all about chemistry on our part, and timing on Major Winters's part. None of us are gonna die."
"I hope you're right."
"Come on, have a little faith." you rolled your eyes, a smile tugging at the corners of your lips.
Working on assembling the explosives was easy. Just attach a cable on the TNT, stick something to the fuse to make a bigger explosion, and ta-da your explosive was set up. It was setting them up around base that was the hard part. You and your team dashed through the halls and buildings, across grassy terrain and dodging beams of light.
You ended up in your wing of the barracks, the familiar halls becoming more and more familiar as you finally ended in your bunk room.
"And we make it home." Joe joked as he set the TNT out in the hallway.
You smiled as you connected the fuse and made your way from inside the room to the hallway. "How many you got left?"
"One."
"Good. We'll put that one in here."
"Wow, you wanna blow up our room first. How romantic."
"Well, you know what they say about explosions and romance. Go blow something up together and you'll be together forever." you laughed.
Liebgott and the other soldiers ran into the room. "(Y/L/N), we go the TNT set up. Everything is ready to go. I still find it brilliant how you connected them all to one fuse and one remote."
"Hey, find your own girlfriend to flirt with."
"Just doing my job. Are we ready to detonate?" you replied with a nod.
Liebgott nodded and you shooed him out with the other soldiers, following them out. "Come on, we gotta go."
As soon as you said those words, a laser beam shot above your heads and you instinctively raised your arms to protect your head. You felt a jolt in your hand, and the sound of crackling and fizzing.
"Shit! The detonator's damaged!" you cursed, turning to Joe. "I gotta go back and fix it! You get Liebgott and the others out of here!"
"No! I'm not leaving you here to die. At least not alone." he protested.
"Joe, you need to go. I wouldn't be able to leave this world, knowing you died."
"And I couldn't live with myself if you were dead." Joe took your hand and dragged you back to your room. "Babe, that's what we promised each other when we became a couple. We're not being separated." Joe laughed to himself. "Gosh, I haven't even married you yet and we're already dying."
"Well, are you going to propose anytime soon?" You ducked a shot as you burst back into your room and shut the door behind you.
You turned away from the door and Joe was holding the ring out with such a loving expression on his face. "You wanna marry each other then? I was planning on doing this at the sunset but now seems a good time as any."
"Fuck yeah. Come on."
You held his hands as he promised to love you and cherish you in everything until your dying breath, and you promised to love and cherish him in everything until the end. He slid the ring on your finger and gave you his ring to slide on his.
You looked up at him with a smile. The smile Joe loved so much. "I love you, Joe."
"I love you too, (Y/N). Now come on, let's get these explosives fixed.
You looked at the damaged detonator you set down by the record player. "This can't be fixed. I'll have to rig it to something else with a bit of electric current running through it..."
You looked up from the detonator and saw the record player in front of you. "Oh, now that's just sad."
"What?"
"I could set up the signal using the record player. We'll have to play a song before seeing it go off, though."
"And?"
"Care to dance?" you asked him with a bitter smile.
Joe seemed to understand what you were implying, and wrapped his arms around you. "Of course, baby."
You hooked everything up and put the needle on the record, hearing the first few tunes of the song play. No one had touched the record player since you had been woken up in the middle of the night, and it still had I'll Be Seeing You on the player.
I'll be seeing you
In all the old familiar places
That this heart of mine embraces
All day and through
In that small cafe
The park across the way
The children's carousel
The chestnut trees
The wishing well
You and Joe swayed around the room, memories flashing through your heads.
I'll be seeing you
In every lovely summer's day
In everything that's light and gay
I'll always think of you that way
You remembered when you had first met each other, and the (very) threatening spoon being waved around.
I'll find you in the morning sun
And when the night is new
I'll be looking at the moon
But I'll be seeing you
You remembered the first time you shared your first kiss, the Easy men setting up a small picnic date for the both of you.
I'll be seeing you
In every lovely summer's day
In everything that's light and gay
I'll always think of you that way
You remembered when you had kept your relationship with Joe secret from the rest of Easy Company until George had stumbled in on the both of you kissing by accident. (He had fist-pumped the air and muttered, "Guarnere owes me 50 bucks!")
I'll find you in the morning sun
And when the night is new
I'll be looking at the moon
But I'll be seeing you
The last few notes of the song played, and you looked up at Joe one last time. He looked at you, your hands cupping each other's faces. You heard the TNT begin detonating from the other side of the base, getting closer and louder with each explosion.
"I love you, (Y/N). So much."
"I love you too, Joe. So. Fucking. Much."
You kissed each other, feeling a slight flare of pain and heat all over, then--
I'm crying now. Look at what I can do with angst.