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cramberry24 · 1 day ago

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Air Mail Special

NO WIP Wednesday today because I have a CHAPTER for a NEW COD WW2 FIC!! i think schedules are going to be thrown to the wind...

Chapter 1: Where or When

Pairing: Robert Zussman/OFC

Tags: 18+ Minors DNI, Graphic Description of Corpses, War, Canon-Typical Violence, Medical Inaccuracies, so many medical inaccuracies, Historical Accuracy, Historical Inaccuracy, Explicit Language, Period-Typical Sexism, Period-Typical Racism, Period-Typical Homophobia, Friendship, Slow Burn, at least I'm gonna tag it as slow burn because i have no idea how slow it should be to qualify, Yearning, Mutual Pining, Idiots in Love, Letters, Love Letters, Fluff, Feminist Themes, Protective Robert Zussman, Protective Frank Aiello, Queer Themes, as always this is a must in any fic I write, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Denial of Feelings, Awkward Flirting, i think this will be the fluffiest of my fics, Blood and Gore, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Trauma, Self-Esteem Issues, Survivor Guilt, Friends to Lovers, Other Additional Tags to Be Added

Summary:

Viola Mancini's life has always been simple, straight-forward, and - more than anything - sheltered. So when the United States is thrust into the Second World War, she jumps at the chance to prove to her family - and to herself - that she can make something of herself. Of course, things don't exactly go as planned, especially when her friends in the nurse corps sign her up for a letter exchange program, but she soon finds herself looking forward to each letter that comes from one Robert Zussman from Chicago. And when her feelings take a turn for more-than-platonic, they're easy to bury and push aside so she doesn't ruin their friendship. That is, until Viola's squadron runs right into the Bloody First in the aftermath of D-Day, and suddenly it's not just in letters she has to worry about hiding her feelings - it's in person, too.

Chapter Summary: The Allies commence with Operation Overlord, and Viola comes across the last person she expects to see in the aftermath.

Tidbit under the cut, full chapter on ao3 linked in chapter title!

Dear Miss Nurse Miss Mancini,

I don’t really know how to start this, and I’ve probably already messed it up. Is there a proper way to address army nurses? I should’ve checked before starting this. I’ve never really written to someone I’ve never met before, but there’s a first time for everything, I guess. I also thought the whole penpals thing was only for kids to do, like my sister’s doing for school, but apparently not. Are a lot of the nurses doing this, too? I don’t know any other guys here who signed up for this. I will come clean, in the spirit of honesty, and say I signed up for this as a favor for my mother, but that doesn’t mean this is a once and done letter. If you’re game, I’ll keep writing, as long as you don’t mind my chicken scratch.

I should probably tell you a bit about myself. My name is Robert Zussman, and I live in Chicago…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Is that another letter from Robert?”

Minnie stretches the name slyly as she hangs off her hammock, grinning at Viola’s flushed face. Viola’s blush deepens and she swats her hand in Minnie’s direction, as if trying to get rid of an annoying fly. She uses her free hand, having learned her lesson the last time she flapped a letter at Minnie to get her to leave - the redhead had snatched the letter so fast Viola hadn’t even had time to blink.

“Can’t you mind your own business, Minerva?” Viola huffs, carefully folding the latest letter and tucking it back into its envelope. She usually likes to reread them as soon as she gets them, but her seasickness on the carrier makes it so she’s barely able to get through one letter without emptying the contents of her stomach.

“Oof, stomach still bothering you?”

That’s Faye, her boots echoing in the contained space as she joins them at their hammocks. She groans as she pulls herself up onto her claimed hammock, to Viola’s left. Minnie’s above them, still hanging off, red strands falling like a curtain from her head.

“How many times have we been on these carriers, Viola?” Minnie drawls out. “You’ve gotta be able to build up some kind of resistance to seasickness after all this time.”

“If we keep talking about it, it’s just gonna get worse,” Viola replies, voice strained. On cue, the carrier dips and sways, probably because of a big wave, and Viola whines, closing her eyes and laying back on her hammock, breathing in through her nose and out through her mouth to settle her stomach.

“Just keep breathing, honey,” Faye intones from her hammock as she rummages through her belongings, tugging out her embroidery to occupy her time in their off hours.

“If I have to hear you say that phrase one more time…” Minnie mutters.

“You know how many times you say it?”

“We’re nurses,” Viola cuts in, voice weak and low with nausea. “That’s all we ever say.”

Faye must take pity on her. She sits with her legs curled and tucked under herself in the hammock, her latest embroidery project held lightly in her hands as she gets to work. Despite the swaying and rocking of the carrier, the brunette has no issues.

“Anything new in the letter?” she asks curiously.

“Yes,” Minnie adds on, still grinning upside down at Viola. “How is dear old Bob?”

“Minerva, please, I cannot deal with this right now.”

She sighs but stays silent.

“He’s fine. Normal.”

Viola hesitates for just a second, resting her hands on her stomach and pulling nervously at her rings, staring at the bottom of the hammock above her. Whenever she’s not scheduled for shifts, or on long breaks, she tries to wear her rings as much as possible. Reminders of home, and something to ease her mind.

“The letter was dated a few days ago,” she admits softly. Minnie’s eyes flicker over to Faye, and Faye doesn’t even bother to hide her grimace.

“So he’s definitely a part of the invasion, then,” Faye says, voicing what’s been bothering Viola since she first saw the date at the top of the paper. The mail system is notoriously unpredictable - Viola’s had more than her own fair share of problems with it - but Viola’s gotten the timing of letters down to an art after two years of this. Of course people want letters to be delivered as soon as possible after they’ve been written, but it usually all comes down to location. The closer the sender is to the recipient, the faster the letter will be delivered. This is one of the fastest times one of Robby’s letters has been delivered to Viola, which can only mean he’s not far from her. She has his information - what division he’s in, base intel needed to address her letters - but she doesn’t know where all the divisions and platoons are. She’s got entirely far too much going on just in the hospital wards and tents, too many patients she has to put all of her focus on, and troop movement is not something she’s normally privy to.

But now, it’s hard to ignore or deny. Robby must be a part of the invasion, which means tomorrow morning he’ll be with the thousands of other soldiers storming the beaches. Frank’s one of them, too, she knows that for certain, and now she’s worried about two soldiers. At least Faye’s husband isn’t a part of the first wave. He won’t see most of the initial action.

“He could be in the second wave,” Minnie pipes up, reading Viola’s mind. “Or the third, or, you know, any other wave besides the first one. Or maybe he’ll get sick, or he’ll fall down a set of stairs like that private we saw today, and he’ll miss the first day.”

“I think he’s in the first wave,” Viola says softly. “I just…feel it in my gut. And he…he ended the letter differently, this time.”

Minnie slumps even further off the hammock, eyes wide. “Did he say love?! Please tell me he did! Or something sickeningly sweet and romantic, like ‘with all the love in my heart’-“

Faye sighs wistfully. “Oh, that would be romantic.”

Viola’s cheeks heat up again. “No, he did not. He signed it off same as always.”

Well, the same way he’s been signing it for a little under a year now.

Yours, Robby

Viola has every single letter he’s ever sent her. She can go back and pull out the exact letter where it changed, where he dropped the sincerely from sincerely yours. She never mentioned it in her letters, only signing hers off in kind - yours, Viola - and it’s been constant ever since. It’s no grand romantic action, not even slightly romantic, it could’ve just him forgetting the word and just never correcting himself, but still. Viola has run her fingertips over the words on that letter so often they’re barely visible, now.

“Well, what was different, then?” Minnie huffs impatiently.

“He…I don’t know, it’s hard to explain. The last paragraph he wrote is just…it’s different. Robby’s never seen combat before. You know how it is out here, how…how every letter could be your last.”

Viola’s fingers tense. Vivid images flash behind her eyelids as she blinks - smoke, thick and clogging, dust and rubble everywhere, an endless shaking as if the very foundation of the world is falling apart. She purses her lips, takes another deep breath to banish the memories.

“Did he…?” Faye hesitates, pausing to gather her thoughts. “He didn’t pull one of those ‘if something happens’, did he? Because, Viola, you know how I feel about that, oh, God…”

Faye makes the sign of the cross, closing her eyes, lips moving silently.

“You’re so superstitious, Faye,” Minnie replies with a groan, rolling her eyes. “That’s just an old wives’ tale.”

“He didn’t say anything like that, don’t worry,” Viola reassures her friend, and the brunette sighs, shoulders slumping as she relaxes. “Like I said, it just felt different. Maybe he’s just nervous. Or maybe I’m reading too much into it.”

“You? Reading too much into something? Never.”

Viola doesn’t bother with a response, twisting her pinky ring round and round and round. She could feel the hesitation in each word in that last paragraph, the way the pencil strokes seemed uncertain, or unsure. As if he didn’t know what to say. As if he was holding back from something.

It could just be the censors, of course. Robby could just be getting used to them cutting out or marking through words or whole sentences. Maybe he wanted to talk about something too specific to his position, and he chose to keep it out to not deal with that. Even after two years, Viola still becomes beyond frustrated when her family writes back that part of her letters are almost unreadable due to the censors. And she watches what she writes! Part of her believes there’s some spiteful censor out there cutting up her letters just to make her life harder.

“I’m sure everything will be fine,” Faye says softly, giving her a sympathetic smile, and Viola weakly smiles back at her.

“Just another day, another invasion,” Minnie continues, flapping a hand. “Now. I’m hungry. Wanna come grab some food?”

The thought of food, of eating, of even smelling food is enough to make Viola’s stomach turn violently.

“You two go on ahead,” she manages to get out, closing her eyes again. “I can’t - hm, I’m just gonna lay here.”

Faye gives her a pat on the shoulder as she leaves to join Minnie, the two chatting quietly as they head to the mess hall, their voices slowly disappearing and leaving Viola alone with her swirling thoughts.

#<-✨this is the way ✨#<- joining you in the pits of multiple long wips🫡

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