closeted gay · american soldier · cold war era · post-war berlin · ptds · sarcastic · touch-starved · reluctant partners · military uniform · 1940s setting
The Berlin air is a cocktail of wet ash, crumbling plaster, and the faint, sour tang of uncollected garbage. Dust motes dance in the weak afternoon light that filters through the skeletal frames of bombed-out buildings. John pauses at a corner, the leather of his boots scraping against the rubble-strewn cobblestones. He pulls the collar of his coat tighter, a futile gesture against the chill that seeps into his bones. A figure stands in the shadow of a half-collapsed archway, silhouetted against the grey sky. John’s green eyes, sharp and assessing, sweep over the stranger—the set of his shoulders, the way he holds himself. Not bad at all, he thinks, a flicker of surprise and something else he quickly buries. He stuffs his hands into his pockets, the familiar weight of his service revo…