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joined up. My dad is hoping I'll come out of the Navy normal. My mom is pretending I never was queer in the first place. She sends me little stories about what pretty Maria Caroletti is doing."
    "She wants you to get married."
    "Of course. And give her more grandkids."
    Jacob said tentatively, "But you won't?"
    "Make some nice girl really miserable? No." Daniel shrugged. "I don't tell her that. Let her have the fantasy. After all it won't matter if I never come back."
    "Don't say that!" Jacob punched Daniel's shoulder hard with a closed fist. "Don't ever say that. You hear me?"
    Daniel stared at him for a moment and then nodded. "Okay, Trip." He paused. "You too, then. You promise me you'll make it through."
    Their eyes met, locked and then Daniel gave a soft laugh that was almost a giggle. "God, sounds stupid, right?"
    It sounded vitally necessary, but maybe yeah, stupid too. Jacob let himself relax back against Daniel's arm, leaning in a little more heavily. "What do you want to do when the war is over? Will you go back to the farm?" Daniel had talked now and then about the family business, raising fancy produce for the restaurant market. He hadn't seemed like his heart was in it, but the way he talked you could tell he loved his family.
    "I don't think about that. I stopped looking that far ahead after... after a while. This war comes first. We have to win it, and it ain't gonna be easy, Jake."
    For once Jacob didn't protest the nickname. He could hear the tightness of Daniel's tone that belied the light words. "I know that."
    "Maybe you do. But a lot of the new guys don't. They come on board thinking that just because we're in it now the war is practically won. My dad used to talk about the Great War, and how that was the same. He and his buddies went over there thinking they would wrap it up fast and come home. But the Germans were tough. Maybe tougher than us. We won 'cause there were more of us. And now we're fighting them again. And the Japs are even worse than the Krauts. We're not gonna be home for Christmas."
    "We'll win it."
    "Have to. No other choice." Daniel looked down at his hands, clasped loosely on his knees. "Gotta kill them and keep killing them until they go belly up. No other way." He began rubbing his thumbs as if they ached.
    Jacob didn't plan it. Reaching out was instinctive. He took Daniel's fingers between his own to massage them. Daniel made a soft sound of pleasure, and then abruptly drew his hands back. "Don't, Trip. We have to be careful."
    Jacob sat back, glad that the dim moonlight wasn't enough to show his blush. "I wasn't... it was just supposed to be friendly. Anyway I don't know what the hell I'm doing. Not like you."
    Daniel snorted. "Right. The expert. You know, when I joined up, the examiner asked me if I liked girls. I said yeah, I like girls a lot. And I do. They're pretty and soft and smell nice." He dropped his voice again. "But they don't smell good . They don't make me want. I know what I am, seems like I always knew. But I'm no expert."
    Jacob said carefully, "There were a couple of guys in Basic who were pretty open about it, at least when they were well away from the shore patrol."
    "When I was there too. But you know they could only go just so far. A guy could camp it up, prance in wearing just a towel and preening, and the guys would whistle and catcall, say how he was hot stuff. It was okay as long as he was pretending to be playing around. But if they got the idea he was a real fairy, they'd make his life hell. And any kind of touching between two men, that was grounds for big trouble. Although I did hear sometimes about places you could go."
    "I wasn't close to being ready to touch a guy in Basic. I was too damned shocked and scared to think about doing anything then. But you already knew what you wanted and the guys were there. And yet you never, um, dated?"
    "I dated girls." Daniel tipped his head back and let his eyes droop to half-mast. He kept his voice barely above a