Re: Blood and Iron-Chapter 446: Old Dogs, Cold Beer

Heinrich couldn't help but sigh and shake his head as he commented on his best friend's damn near timeless face.

"Brother, how is it that you look almost as young as my daughter? And I look like a man who has been through the meat grinder."

Bruno lifted a liter of beer and handed it off to Heinrich a smug smirk on his face as he spoke the taunt that damn near made his friend choke on his own drink.

"I would suppose you could say my genes are stronger than yours… I suppose I have my mother to thank for that. Somehow we all managed to get that graceful aging, and a face that defies Chronos' curse."

Heinrich stared at Bruno with a discerning gaze before posing a question that had a reciprocal effect on the man, as he too damn near suffocated as he began to cough up his beer.

"Does that mean that you and Heidi are related? She too appears to bewitch in the same way as your own family, and while I know about her father, and his side of the family, what of her mother? Do you know who her parents were?"

Bruno stared at his old friend with a murderous gaze, as if he was going to wear his guts for garters if he dared speak another word of such heresy. And the man was about to verbally confirm this when the two brothers arrived, only one of which was dressed as casual as him.

The man who was dressed like a common dockyard hand was quick to salute Bruno in the fashion of a proper soldier.

"Sir… I am pleased to see you are as healthy as ever! My name is-"

Bruno was quick to cut the younger man off as he responded with a triumphant smirk on his own face.

"I know who you are, corporal, no I should say sergeant Preiss was it? You were promoted shortly before the march to Paris weren't you, lad? And earned an Iron Cross no less, well done. I wish I could have been there to pin it to your chest myself…"

Heinrich took one look at the young man and his even younger brother and was quick to realize something.

"Wait, a second… I was the one who gave you the medal wasn't I?"

The young veteran was surprised to see that these two myths among men had remembered him, and was quick to ask, with an almost pessimistic tone. The way soldiers do to one another, and especially veterans no longer bound by hierarchy, or rank.

"There's no fucking way you both remember a grunt like me…."

Heinrich had a shit-eating grin as he drank from his mug before talking to Bruno as if the ruse had been seen through.

"I do believe the boy has caught us in our lie…"

Bruno however shook his head and chuckled.

"Boy? This lad fought and bled like the rest of us—that makes him more man than anyone who's only read about Isonzo in the papers. And Heinrich is right. We're just messing with you. I looked up your file after speaking with your brother, and I presume he did the same after I told him about tonight's affairs. No hard feelings, right?"

The kickboxer looked at his older brother thinking the man would perhaps break at the idea of his idols forgetting all about him, and playing a cruel prank, but the veteran surprised his younger brother as he shook Bruno's hand and joined him for the laugh.

"I'll admit, you had me there for a second, it truly was the honor of my life to serve beneath the two of you, so if you don't mind me asking, what the hell have you both been up to over the last two years?"

And just like that, the four of them sat down, and shared stories, of the years when peace had settled, of their time in the trenches, and of what came before. It was a brief night, one where Bruno and Heinrich had met together and met with two of their former comrades, and in doing so, just let themselves be free until the dawn came to claim them once more.