I didn’t want to go back inside.

The sun was setting, turning the clouds purply-pink and the sky gold, and everything was so peaceful.

Everyone always told me I was stupid and an idiot for sitting out here, ‘cause I could get killed, but I guess I didn’t care, or I believed that they would be honourable enough not to shoot me while I sat there, unarmed, in the middle of no man’s land.

I knew the lull in the fighting would end soon. I didn’t want it to end. I hated this fighting. It was stupid. Why couldn’t we all just get along? I was just…so…tired of it all. I wanted it to stop.

“Hello.”

“Ah!” I shrieked and jumped a little, attention diverted from the sky. I whipped around to look at the source of the greeting.

Standing to my immediate left was one of them. I could tell by the colours he wore and hadn’t bothered to remove, dark green with a light scarlet stripe. I blinked up at him owlishly.

He smiled nervously and blushed behind his freckle-spotted tan. “Hi,” he said again, scratching his forehead.

I smiled back, a little confused. “Hi,” I replied. “What are you doing here?”

“Well, it’s no man’s land, isn’t it?” he asked, smile dissolving into a frown. “I’m allowed here, aren’t I? Not just your kind.” Anger clouded light brown eyes.

His sudden hostility startled and dismayed me. I hurried to rephrase my question. “No, I’m sorry; I didn’t mean it like that. Of course you’re allowed. I mean, I was here to watch the sunset, and…” I waved a hand at the colourful sky. “Didn’t know what you were here for.”

The boy relaxed. “Oh.” He frowned again, this time to himself, then looked back at me. “Sorry about overreacting. It’s just…with the tension and fighting and everything…” He gestured at the plains around us with a sigh, then said abruptly, “Can I sit down?”

“…Huh? Oh! Sure.” I patted the dusty ground beside me. “Go ahead.”

“Thanks.” He sat, going down cross-legged, then followed my gaze to the setting sun. We stayed like that for a while without speaking.

“I think I’m going to die.”

The words were very, very unexpected, and they were mine.

“What?” The boy turned to look at me, startled.

I flushed and ducked my head. “Sorry. That was random.”

There was silence again, but words were burning on the tip of my tongue. I felt like I had to say them or I would explode. Meekly, I glanced at my silent companion, swallowed, and blurted, “I’m scared that dying will hurt.”

He stiffened. “No surprise there.” He sounded sarcastic and maybe bitter. I watched as he put a hand to his right boot and pulled out a knife. Orange light reflected off the blade as he turned the unsheathed knife over in his hands. It occurred to me that I should be on guard, that he was the enemy and that he could plunge that knife into me and kill me right there, but this was no man’s land… He’d said so himself.

“I hate this.”

I watched him and waited.

“Why do we have to go on killing each other?”

I shrugged, somehow glad that he shared my opinions.

“I’m scared too.”

This time I stared at him, not because he was my enemy, just because he was a boy and had just admitted he got scared.

He saw my look and scowled childishly. “Don’t look at me like that,” he pouted. “It’s not like guys are invincible or anything.”

I giggled. “It’s just that guys hate admitting stuff like that.” Then I sobered. “I don’t wanna die.”

“Heeey…chin up, soldier, don’t cry,” the boy said, looking startled again.

I sniffed and glared at him. “I’m not crying!”

He chuckled. “Okay, sure. Hey, what’s your name? I – ”

“Don’t!” I yelled, cutting him off. “Don’t tell me. I don’t want to know.”

“…What? Why?” I thought he sounded a bit hurt.

“Um…” Tucking a strand of hair back into my bun, I smiled weakly at the darkening sky. “I don’t want to…you know, put a name to…deaths…”

“Oh. Yeah, I get what you mean.” He sighed and resheathed his knife. “Thanks.”

There was a moment’s pause. Then, “Chocolate chip macadamia?”

“W-What?”

He produced a slightly squashed cookie from a pocket, wrapped in a napkin, and gave me an impish grin. “Split it?”

“O-Oh. Okay. Thank you.”

He broke the cookie in two and gave me half. It was too sweet, but that was okay. It was the significance here of breaking bread – well, cookies – with the enemy.

The enemy.

Chocolate and cookie crumbs turned to dust in my mouth, and I choked on a last mouthful.

He turned to me with a concerned expression when I kept hacking, and tried to help by pounding on my back.

“You okay?” he kept asking, until I could finally breathe enough to tell him I was fine.

“Hey, uh – ”

He was cut off by a long whistle and a flare in the starry sky. A pause, and then we got up together. I stared at him – I didn’t want to go, and I said so.

He cracked a smile. “Yeah…know what you mean. But…a soldier’s duty, eh?” He laughed feebly, then trailed off. “Look, I…I’m glad I met you. I’m sorry if I – you know, meet you out there or – you know, people you know…”

He couldn’t say it, and neither could I. It was easier not to acknowledge the fact that one of us might kill the other, or friends and acquaintances of the other.

I nodded and swallowed. “Yeah. Uh…good luck out there and everything. Um…maybe – ”

Another flare and whistle rent the night air. Time was running out.

“Maybe, when it’s all over, we can, you know…”

He smiled ruefully. “Yeah, that would be cool.”

I nodded but still couldn’t bring myself to leave. I offered my hand. “Good luck,” I said again.

He shook it and nodded. “Good luck.”

One last smile, and then we were walking back, each to our own.

I did try to look for him, after several years and a treaty was drawn out, but I never found him or found out what happened to him, or even what his name was. I wondered if he died, how many he killed, how many were people I knew, if he was killed by someone I knew, if he was killed by me.

I’ll keep looking. Maybe he’s alive and wondering the same things about me. Maybe not. But until I know, I’ll remember him, and every time I eat a chocolate chip macadamia nut cookie, I think of him. They only taste like dust now, and I have to choke them down, but I smile and then cry, because it reminds me of him.

My friend the enemy.

---

AN: Yay, I can write again. Ha ha.