Band of Brothers Imagines

Chuck Grant x Floyd Talbert

Trying something new here. Gonna start writing for shipsss and this is one of my favs.
FIVE FEET APART

-HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE MOVIE PLOT, I JUST USED THE TITLE

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Chuck's injury was bothering him again. Floyd could tell even though Chuck refused to say anything about it. His left arm started to twitch. It was small at first but then it started to get more noticeable and his hand started shaking. "You okay Chuck?" 

Chuck sighed before he answered. "Ye- Yes. I-I-" He grunted in frustration and Floyd walked up to him, rubbing his upper arms soothingly. "It's okay honey. Just take your time." Chuck smiled appreciatively. "I'm fin-fine. I-I ju-just wish t-that I could b-be normal." Floyd sighed, staring deeply into Chuck's eyes. 

"You are normal Chuck. Your injury is nothing to be ashamed of. Yes, it changed your life, but I think it makes you extraordinarily brave. There is no one that I would rather be with." Chuck heaved another deep sigh. "I-I'm sorr-sorry Floyd," Floyd pulled Chuck into his arms. He didn't say anything, he just held him and rubbed his back soothingly. 

Floyd knew that Chuck had been thinking of the war and that was what had caused his wound to start acting up. It happened every time he thought of the war. The doctor had said that it was a stress thing. It also did not escape Floyd's notice that the doctor also hinted at Chuck's slight PTSD. Many of the men in Easy Company had it, especially after Bastogne, but they all knew that Chuck caught part of the worst of it. 

Having survived an wound like that to the head in battle, from none other than an American soldier, was unarguably traumatizing. Floyd also had his own theories for why Chuck got a little jumpy sometimes. A big part of it being that his almost deathly wound was caused by a soldier who was supposed to be on the same side. It was easier to accept when it was the enemy, but when it was a traitor from within, drunk or not, it certainly doesn't help. 

Chuck had even KNOWN the soldier. He was a replacement and though the Toccoa men saw them as just that, replacements, they still looked out for them. Chuck had made sure to help the replacements when they were feeling homesick because Toccoa training or not all of those men got homesick sometimes. For the replacement to then go and shoot him did not bode well with Chuck nor any of the other men in Easy. 

Floyd had not taken a personal part in the beating having known that Chuck would not have wanted him to. He appreciated what the men did, especially the MPs but he believed there were better ways to deal with your anger. So Floyd, with excruciating self-control, attempted to drown away his violent thoughts in a card game with Luz.

Now, Floyd focused on the distraught man, across the room from him. Five feet apart. He had stepped from Floyd's arms moments before and now refused to go within five feet of him. And Floyd knew why. Last time Chuck's PTSD had got this bad he had beat Floyd in his sleep. It already took Floyd long enough to convince him that he would be okay and to get him to sleep in the same bed again. Now he had to convince him that he didn't have to carry the weight of this alone.

He was torn from his thoughts by Chuck's voice, quiet and broken. "It's torture," Chuck paused and Floyd looked at him slightly confused. "Being human, I mean. Sometimes I wish I could just turn it off, turn it all off. Not have to deal with this stupid injury and all these... thoughts. All of the shit  in my head." Floyd's heart was breaking. For a solid ten minutes they sat in silence. What was he supposed to say?

"Charles... You don't have to carry the weight of the world on your shoulders you know?" Floyd sighed taking in the state of his damaged lover. He padded softly up to him and held his hands in his own. "At least not by yourself." A few traitorous tears escaped Chuck's eyes and he yanked Floyd to him in a bone-breaking hug. 

Chuck suddenly jerked away. When Floyd looked at him, his left arm was shaking. "Argh! Damn it," Floyd attempted to step closer to Chuck, mostly to make sure he was doing okay, but Chuck sidestepped him. "I don't fucking know what's real anymore." Floyd looked his lover dead in his blue eyes.

"I'm real."