MERRY SLIGHTLY LATE CHRISTMAS!!! HERE'S YOUR PRESENT!!!!!!!
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August 15, 1779
General Washington,
I intend to keep this letter brief so as to avoid any trouble if it is to fall into British hands. We have driven the redcoats closer to the sea, and are now stationed in New Jersey, just east of the Pennsylvania border. I am meeting with Major-General Lafayette soon, and we plan to ride up to camp in New York to meet with you not long after.
I will refrain from specifying dates, but expect us within the week.
Levi King
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Letters from Lafayette had gradually lengthened and become more frequent, and I found myself grinning as he filled me in on activity around south camp, whatever was going down (something always seemed to be going down), and just his life. Hearing the stories with Herc just reminded me how much I missed my group of friends, though. I still had them, but at the same time I didn't. Not in the same way. Aside from the undertone of melancholy they gave me, the words were a source of bliss for me, something I needed in the situation I was in.
I rolled that week's third letter to him up and gave it to the boy he'd had deliver his last correspondence, thanking him before I went on my way. It was nearly sunset, and the summer's evening was warm, but not quite stifling: a bit hotter than was comfortable, but I paid it no mind.
My growling stomach only served to remind me of the deficit of food we had stored around camp, and the fact that I'd already gone without breakfast and lunch that day didn't make it better in the slightest. At that point, I needed to eat.
I sighed and stuffed my hands in my pockets before heading over to the camp's office, as well as it's storage house (among other things; it was the only building at camp). I entered through the front, and started down a hallway of rooms that I wasn't even sure of the purpose of most of. Towards the end was a room stocked with crates of food, so naturally that was precisely where I went.
But a flash of red caught my eye.
I froze halfway down the hall, waiting for any sound of movement as I slowly drew my pistol, prepared to find the enemy in the adjacent room. When another creak of the floorboards made it evident that I wasn't alone, I walked slowly towards the door that hund slightly open. I gave it a soft push, and there it revealed something I'd never have expected.
A girl no more than the age of twelve sat in the middle of the floor, her red dress a puddle around her small body. Her eyes widened upon seeing my pistol, and I saw her lips begin to tremble. My countenance was harsh, an expression of stone meant for the expected intruder, but my gaze softened at what I saw before me.
"Sir, please, y-you can't-- I'm just a kid... I don't... I don't mean harm, I swear. Please... just don't hurt me. I didn't mean to..." She trailed off as she stared into the barrel of my gun, clutching the hem of her dress. I swallowed roughly, my eyes widening.
"No, no, don't worry. I'm not.. I'm not going to hurt you," I said quickly, my forehead creasing in concern as I holstered my gun. "I just... who are you? What are you doing here?"
"I was just looking for food, I swear. Please believe me." I could see the tears welling up in her eyes, and pressed my lips together.
"I believe you. Stay here; I'll be right back."
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Not ten minutes later we sat on the floor of that very room, (much to my guilt) tearing through crates of bread and dried meat. I knew taking food from the troops wasn't entirely right, but certainly neither was leaving this girl to starve.
I watched as she finished off an entire loaf of bread (she'd already been through a half pound of jerky), and sighed, looking at my feet.
She glanced up at me, and with a soft smile, said, "Thank you, sir."
I matched her expression, running a hand through my hair that was getting a bit too long for my liking. "Of course. But now that you've eaten, can you start by telling me your name?"
She bit her lip, and her face visibly fell as her gaze was cast downward. "Maria Lewis, sir."
I hesitated--the sudden change in her demeanor was off-putting--but asked, "and, well, how'd you get to my camp?"
"I ran away from home."
My eyebrows shot up. It wasn't entirely random, but also was far from being what I'd expected. "I-- why?"
She looked up at me with a disdainful expression. "Why do you care?"
I almost had to laugh at how little she cared that I was quite literally a war general whose camp she'd stumbled upon. "Fine, then how old are you, Maria?"
"I'm... that's none of your business." She folded her arms. "I'm not about to start spilling my life to some strange man."
"And why not?"
She gave me a look of utter repulsion, and I again found myself biting back a laugh. "These just aren't things you ask."
"When I find a kid rooting through the store room of my camp, I'm going to ask these questions." I chuckled lightly as she huffed.
"I'm not a kid. And I'm tired of people treating me like one."
I raised a skeptical eyebrow. "You're definitely a kid."
"I'm twelve! I'm old enough to make decisions for myself!" she all but yelled at me, and I raised my eyebrows.
"So you're twelve?"
She opened her mouth to respond, but shut it again when she realized what she'd said. "Yeah."
I sighed. "Look, you clearly don't want to trust me, but you can, and right now, I'm all you've got. So if I'm going to help you find your way home, I'm going to need to know where you live."
There was a skip, before she conceded, biting her lip. "I'm from New York."
I raised my eyebrows. "I... can actually get you there within a couple days."
Her eyes widened slightly. "A couple days? Sir, I've got to get home sooner than that. My family's probably so worried."
I exhaled heavily, running a hand through my hair. "I'm afraid you're forgetting that you quite literally barged into an army camp. You're really in no position to be haggling for time."
"But sir, please--"
I held up a hand to cut her off, and though I felt bad because of how desperate she looked, I really had to at that point. "I wish there was more I could do for you, but I'm running a war here, you're just going to have to work with my timeline. We leave either tonight or tomorrow morning, depending on when Lafayette gets here."
Her sadness had faded, replaced by an amused curiosity. "What in the world is a Lafayette?"
Then it was my turn to grin, stifling laughter. "Lafayette's the general from south camp. We're riding up to New York together to meet with General Washington." At that, though, her face lit up with recognition.
"You know the general?"
"Yeah, we're old friends, actually. He knew my dad."
"Oh my god; he's so cool. Was he really the one who started the revolution?"
"Well, sort of. He was the general who really jump-started our progress, but this wasn't all his idea. He was a farmer before, and wanted to be a sailor."
When I walked in, I definitely wouldn't have guessed that the girl on the floor idolized General Washington, but there I was anyway, chuckling at her starry eyes as we discussed him. I humored her for a while, answering any and all questions I knew the answers to, and after an hour we were both lying on the floor laughing about his past.
"I swear! He was like, twenty or something, and he was fighting for the British against France. He did fuck it up, but not on purpose." I raised my hands in mock surrender (I couldn't help that the fact was true), and she furrowed her brow, chuckling.
"No way. He fights against the British. I refuse to believe that he ever fought for them." She folded her arms, shaking her head, and I just shrugged.
"Sorry, kid, I can't help that it's the truth."
"I'm not a kid," she whined, tossing a corner of a loaf of bread at me. I yelped, ducking out of the way.
"Hey! You can't go throwing things at army generals; it's rude."
"You're rude."
I huffed, pulling up my sleeve to pretend to check my watch. "How long till I can get rid of you, again?"
"Hey!"
I rolled my eyes. "Maybe if you weren't being rude to someone who took you in, fed you, and is giving you a place to sleep, I wouldn't want to get rid of you."
She shrugged. "Definitely worth it."
"Whatever." I shook my head. "We should probably go, my friends are more than likely wondering by now where I am."
She groaned. "Does this mean I have to come meet people and like, socialize?"
"Unfortunately." I sighed as I pushed myself up to my feet, before pulling herself up alongside me. "Even more unfortunately, it doesn't get easier with age. You're just expected to do it more."
She scrunched up her nose. "Ew. What's the good part about being an adult again?"
"I'll tell you when I figure it out."
With that, we started out of the camp office and toward the tent I shared with Alex. When we'd crossed the stretch of camp, I lifted the canvas tent flap to find Alex sitting talking with Nael as they cleaned out the barrels of their guns. The pair had grown somewhat close over the past few months, and as funny as the sentence may sound, I was glad to see my brothers getting to know each other.
"Hey, guys." A soft smile graced my lips as they both glanced up at me with grins.
"Hey Y/N. Nael was just telling me--"
"Y/N!?" My eyes widened at Alex's mistake as I heard a voice behind me, and cursed under my breath. "You told me your name was Levi."
I turned to see Maria standing behind me looking bewildered, and pursed my lips. "Fuck," I muttered, "I just-- go in the tent and I'll explain everything." She furrowed her brow, but did as I said anyway and I dropped the tent flap behind us as we walked in and sat with my brothers.
"Y/N, hold up, who's this?" It was then Alex who was giving me a bewildered look, and I groaned.
And then I (grudgingly) proceeded to explain to my brothers the events of the past hour, and to Maria my identity and the complications of it. But really, you've just read that story for the past several chapters, so I'll spare you the details. Unless, of course, you'd rather I paste six chapters worth of words here?
I didn't think so.
Anyway, by the time I had everyone in the text up to date, I was both surrounded by shocked faces and completely out of breath.
"So, you were just run away from home? And you ended up 'ere? 'ow the fuck did you get from New York to 'ere? You do not even 'ave a 'orse." I rolled my eyes at Nael ashe furrowed his brow at Maria.
"That's not the only way to get around, dumbass."
He scoffed. "That is a far way to be walking, connard!" I shoved him lightly, and he shoved me back, and that escalated quickly as we both began to retaliate with more force. It only ended when Alex jammed himself between us, and even then, I just shoved him into Nael. He shoved me back, and when I again went to shove him, he just caught my arm and gave me a pointed look. I rolled my eyes.
He scoffed. "Both of you connards need to stop; I mean it. We have a kid on our hands now; we need to figure this out."
In response, Nael shoved him into me, and I shoved him back, and he just grew angrier with each time. His yells of 'hey!' just grew increasingly louder and more desperate, until finally he threw his arms out to his sides.
"Hey! Stop it, alright? This is serious." His efforts to really calm us down were in vain, though, as we all just sat there giggling at how annoyed and disheveled he looked.
"Alexander, calm down, we are just 'aving fun." Alex glared at Nael, but he only grinned back, and eventually Alex just sighed.
"Whatever. But we still need to figure out what to do about her." He motioned to Maria, and as we all glanced over to her, she sat there with an extremely annoyed look.
"Levi and I figured it out a while ago."
I grinned, giving Alex a proud look. "Yeah, we figured it out a while ago. Keep up, Alex."
He rolled his eyes. "I'm not sure what I think of this kid anymore."
"Ees alright. She is not nice to you, so we like her." Nael smiled back at me, and we chuckled as Alex scoffed indignantly.
"I'm being triple-teamed for doing absolutely nothing. This isn't fair," he grumbled, folding his arms. I rolled my eyes.
"Whatever, Lexi. Hey, have we gotten any word from Laf about when he's going to get here?"
Smirks grew on both my brothers' faces, and I winced in anticipation for the teasing that I could tell was coming. "Aww, Y/N's just so impatient to see her man. Young love is always so cute." Alex stuck out his bottom lip as he batted his eyelashes, and Nael raised his eyebrows.
"Oh? You are seeing 'im again? This 'as become very frequent, non? You were just writing to 'im last night."
I rolled my eyes dramatically at the two of them and their knowing smirks. Then, of course, Maria just had to join. "Ooh, so what, this mysterious Lafayette is your courter? Your secret lover?"
"Not you too!" I groaned, burying my face in my hands. "He's neither, these two are just the actual worst."
"Doesn't sound like that," she sang, and I threw whatever was next to me at her. She looked at me angrily after dodging what had turned out to be a shoe, and I just looked at her with an innocent smile. She rolled her eyes. "Asshole."
"'ey! You are like, eight, you cannot be swearing," Nael scolded her, and I shook my head.
"She's twelve, first of all, and second of all, you were swearing at age eight," I scoffed, and he curled his lip at me, mimicking my words. "Asshole."
"Anyway, in all seriousness," Alex began, grabbing both of our attention, "In his last letter, Laf said he'd be here today, so probably in a few hours."
My face lit up, though somewhat involuntarily. "So we can leave tonight?"
Nael smirked. "So you can see 'im tonight, more like."
"Oh, shut up, I'm just trying to get Maria home."
"I am sure you are."
"Okay, you know what? Fine. I'm excited to see my friend who I don't see that often. Is that what you want?" I huffed, raising an annoyed eyebrow, and everyone else rolled their eyes (including Maria).
"I mean, I guess we'll take it, but only because you admitted you were excited to see him," Maria said, folding her arms with a disbelieving look.
"You stay out of this," I shot back with a glare, and as she opened her mouth to respond, she was quickly cut off by someone opening the tent flap.
"Is it me we 'ave been missing?" We all looked up to see Lafayette's bright brin at the opening of the tent, and my expression quickly changed to match his.
"Hey, Laf," I said, and he walked into the tent, making the already crowded space much more so.
"Bonjour, mes amis." He took a seat next to me, but when he caught sight of Maria, he furrowed his brow. I groaned.
"Nael, you explain this time; I refuse."
And again, here we fast forward through the explanation because you know as well as I do that none of us feels like hearing this story again.
"So we are taking her when we leave for New York?" he asked me five minutes later, after he had received a full explanation. I nodded.
"Yeah. And speaking of which, we should probably leave before sundown."
He groaned. "But Levi, I am just want to sleep. Why must you be such a, uh, what is ze phrase? Wet sheet?"
I bit back a laugh, running a hand through my hair. "First off, it's wet blanket, and second, someone has to be the adult here. We're at war and traveling by night is safer."
He stuck out his bottom lip in a pout. "Mais je veux passer du temps avec vous tous," he whined, and I rolled my eyes.
"Somehow, I think you'll survive."
"Come on Levi, when was ze last time we all went drinking?"
I pursed my lips, considering the matter, but huffed and shook my head. "Look, as much as I would love to, we have a twelve year old girl with us. We really can't bring her into a bar with us."
"And why not?" That time it was Maria who spoke, raising her eyebrows with a grin, and I gave her a warning look.
"I hate to be the metaphorical mom here, but Herc is down in South Carolina, so you've all forced my hand. We aren't bringing a twelve year old girl into a pub. That's final."
"But Levi," Alex groaned, and I sighed.
"Alex, it's not happening. Just let it be." I ran a hand through my hair as everyone around me just sat there looking disappointed.
Eventually, Lafayette cleared his throat, breaking the momentary awkward silence. "Anyway, I am still disappointed zat we must, but shall we leave?"
I sighed. "Trust me when I say that I don't want to any more than you do."
"I am not trust you."
I looked at him with my brow furrowed, and he just shrugged.
"You're the worst, Lafayette."
"Perhaps. But you are love me anyway."
If only you knew how true that was.
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WOOOP CHRISTMAS DOUBLE UPDATE HOES!! 4000 MORE WORDS WHERE THAT CAME FROM!!!!