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cetaitlaverite · 16 days

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Why All This Music?

Masters of the Air - Rosie Rosenthal x OC

masterlist is here i've been loving all the hcs and theories you guys have been sending me recently!! i adore hearing from you and let it be known i love to hear what you're excited about seeing/hoping to see too. it does play a role when i'm writing!! so do feel free to send me any and all of your thoughts, no matter what they are. i'm always absolutely thrilled to chat <3<3<3

23. Aren't We Protective?

Alma Leroy wasn’t sure what to expect of the weekend Freddie was coming to spend at home. She and Rosie were coming together, she knew, and were bringing Meatball just as they had at Christmas, but she also knew that Freddie and Rosie had experienced an awful lot since Christmas.

Alma knew the broad strokes of what had happened. Her daughter was never going to tell her all of it. She knew that Freddie and Rosie had become a couple - which she was not surprised by for even a moment - and knew that they weren’t anymore. She knew that the reason why was because Rosie had decided to reenlist in active duty even when he’d completed the required twenty-five combat missions. Everything else, she could infer.

She imagined Freddie had thrown an almighty tantrum. She was fragile about these things - and for good reason. Her heart ached to think of her daughter, who had already been through so much, thinking the next man she’d fallen in love with would be leaving the war unscathed, only to find that he’d gone behind her back and decided to put himself back in the line of fire.

But love was so fragile. Life was so fragile. Freddie couldn’t carry on the way she had been, by protecting her heart so fiercely she didn’t allow it to work.

Alma could tell even as she watched Freddie and Rosie disembark the train that something had changed between them. The fondness was clearly still there - they still looked at each other like they were the sole reason for every good thing the world had to offer - but they walked and stood apart, as though afraid to get close. This whole matter between them had been serious. Alma only hoped that a weekend at home, away from the war, would heal it. She didn’t want to see Freddie heartbroken anymore.

“Mummy,” Freddie whispered as Alma enveloped her in a hug. She held on tighter than she usually did. “Missed you.”

Alma smiled, pulling back and holding her at arm’s length. “My beautiful girl,” Alma said, smoothing Freddie’s hair away from her face before kissing her forehead. “I missed you so very dearly.”

Alma passed her over to Felix so she could greet her father and then approached Rosie. “Hi, Rosie, dear,” Alma said, enveloping him in a hug of his own. “How are you, love?”

“I’m good, Alma. Glad to be here. How are you?”

She smiled at the use of her first name. She was glad the practice she’d tried to make a habit of during his stay at Christmas had stuck. “I’m wonderful, Rosie.” She pulled back and held him at arm’s length, too. “I’d like to speak to you later,” she told him quietly, ensuring Freddie and her father didn’t overhear. “You’re not in trouble,” she added when she noticed him clam up. “I just want to talk about Wils.”

“Oh,” he replied. “Yeah, of course.”

“After dinner,” she told him, then squeezed his arms and stepped fully back.

Alma and Felix both greeted Meatball and then they all headed for the car. It was so much like Christmas but so different, too. Freddie and Rosie were both so much closer and yet so much further apart.

“My boys!” Freddie cried upon entering the kitchen of her house. Earnie and Bruno rushed for her while everyone else stood back, watching with smiles as Freddie sat on the floor to greet both of her family dogs. “Oh, my darling baby boys!” she went on exclaiming, receiving kisses and giving them in equal measure. “I missed you so, so much!”

Rosie got his fair share of enthusiastic greetings from the dogs, both of whom recognised him from Christmas. And while Freddie took to carrying around Earnie for the rest of the afternoon, Bruno trailed behind Rosie, leaving a room whenever he did and following wherever he went.

“It seems you’ve got a shadow, Rosie,” Freddie remarked as he entered the kitchen with Bruno on his heels.

Rosie looked down at the German Shepherd following behind him and grinned. “He didn’t seem that interested in me at Christmas.”

Freddie laughed. “I told you, he’s shy with strangers but he warms up. He just wanted to come to you first. Now you’re his favourite.”

Rosie grinned, crouching to pet Bruno behind his ears, while Freddie turned to the kitchen cabinets. “Tea?”

“Water, please,” Rosie replied.

Freddie scoffed. “One day I’ll make a Brit of you, Rosie, you’ll see.”

He didn’t doubt it.

She made quick work of preparing tea for herself and her parents and water for Rosie, chatting all the while about this and that. She wanted to go into the city centre tomorrow, she told Rosie, and thought she might show him where she’d gone to university before stalling her studies to join the war effort. He told her he’d be delighted to see it.

“There’s a new jazz club just opened down the road, apparently,” Freddie went on, giving him a smile over her shoulder. “I thought we might go tomorrow night. Just for a little while, maybe. We do enough drinking on base. I just thought it might be nice to pretend to be normal young people for a couple of hours.”

“Sounds wonderful,” Rosie assured her, accepting his glass of water from her.

Freddie gave the two other mugs of tea to her parents in the living room then returned to the kitchen for her own. She picked Earnie back up when he jumped up her legs and nuzzled her face into his neck, then let him nuzzle back into her. “My little boy,” she cooed, pressing kisses to his cheeks. “I’ve been missing you, Earn.”

“He’d love it back at Thorpe Abbotts,” Rosie remarked. He was watching the two of them with a grin, still with Bruno plastering himself to his ankles.

Freddie laughed. “He would. All those people to give him attention, all that space to run around in. He’d love getting to live in my pocket, too, the little attention-hog. And I’d love it too.”

“Seems like Meatball would prefer to stay here,” Rosie added. He inclined his head towards the living room, where Meatball was spread out on the couch, his head in Alma’s lap as she stroked him with one hand and sipped her tea with the other.

Freddie laughed. “If he was mine I think I would let him,” she confided. “Just to be sure he’s safe. I hate that he has to endure all the loud noises at the airfield and all the bombing raids. But when Benny comes back he won’t be best pleased to find his dog is now residing in Oxford with two people he’s never met, I’m sure, so Thorpe Abbotts will remain his home for the foreseeable.”

“He’s good for you,” Rosie countered. “Keeps you company when you’re working long hours in your office. Makes sure you come to the mess hall to eat, too.” He raised a pointed eyebrow here.

Freddie rolled her eyes. “Yes, yes, I know. I’m glad to have him with me back at base, in any case.”

The day was warm for April and sunny, too. After lunch Freddie changed into a summer dress - pale yellow, her favourite of all her more casual dresses - and followed her parents and the dogs outside. Rosie had no real summer clothes with him so he remained in his shirtsleeves, the cuffs rolled up to his elbows, and he joined Freddie in playing fetch with the dogs - a different ball for each of them, otherwise they’d fight over it - until they lost interest.

Freddie’s parents were sitting in two garden chairs by the back door. They had two fresh mugs of tea on the table between them and their eyes closed as they talked about mindless things.

Freddie smiled as she glanced back at them. The dogs ran around her feet, more interested in play fighting with each other now than they were with any of the balls Freddie or Rosie threw for them to retrieve.

“Come,” Freddie said. She extended a hand to Rosie which he took readily, and turned and led him further into the garden. There was a wall around its periphery, protecting the flower beds, and Freddie climbed up onto it somewhere close to the middle. “I used to do this all the time when I was younger,” Freddie told Rosie, using his hand for balance as she began to walk along the wall. “My mum used to tell me off when I did it by myself, but she won’t complain if you’re helping me.”

Rosie was smiling up at her as she concentrated on where she put her feet, using all the focus of a tightrope walker even though by all accounts the wall was wider than her feet. But he kept close anyway, there to steady her, ready to catch her if she fell, and enjoyed their closeness and the sweetness of the action, too. The domesticity. One day, he thought, if Freddie let him marry her, he’d buy her a house which had a yard with a wall around the edges just like this and he’d hold her hand while she walked on it every day if that’s what she wanted.

Freddie began to hum softly as she progressed around the wall, one of the songs she often played on the piano. She was holding on tight to Rosie’s hand, using it to help with her balance, and when she got to the end of the wall she turned steadily around, carefully switching which hand was holding Rosie’s, and then started to walk back the other way.

Rosie kept on smiling as he walked with her. With her hair loose and brushed out, her shoes off, and her summer dress on she looked like the vision of peacetime he was dreaming of.

“I feel like eating ice cream,” she said after a while.

“Ice cream?” Rosie asked.

“Mh-hm. I’ve got a real craving.”

“We can go get ice cream.”

Freddie grinned down at him. “That is a very good answer, Rosie.”

He laughed. “You wanna go now?”

She considered this. “I suppose.” Turning carefully until she was facing Rosie, she placed her hands on his shoulders while he placed his on her waist and lifted her down.

Once face to face, closer than they’d been in a while, they smiled at each other.

In a moment of impulse, Rosie wrapped one of his arms around Freddie’s back and took one of her hands off of his shoulder to hold. He was the one humming now as he started to lead her in a dance.

When she realised what he was doing, she tipped her head back and laughed. It was some odd approximation of a waltz he was leading her around the grass in, like the ones she saw sometimes in films, and he grinned as she kept giggling. She accidentally stepped on one of his feet and exclaimed, “Oh no!” but he shushed her, laughing.

“My fault,” he told her. “Shouldn’t have put my foot there.”

Freddie only laughed louder, holding onto him tightly.

They waltzed their way around the garden in repetitive circles, their eyes on each other, until Earnie started barking and then so did Bruno and then so did Meatball.

Freddie and Rosie pulled apart, grinning as they greeted the dogs, sticking closer together now than they had before.

“Bravo!” Alma cheered from her chair, laughing to herself.

Freddie rolled her eyes. “We’re going to go and get ice cream!” she called to her. “Would you like some?”

“No, thanks,” Alma called back.

Freddie stood up straight and Rosie followed suit, the two of them approaching her parents to better conduct a conversation.

“You want anything, dad?” Freddie asked.

He shook his head. “D’you need money for it?”

Freddie started to swish her skirt around her legs, smiling coquettishly. “Well, I won’t say no.”

“I’ve got it,” Rosie said immediately. “I’ll get it.”

“So chivalrous,” Freddie teased. “Gets a promotion and all of a sudden he’s Rockefeller.”

“You got promoted, Rosie?” Felix asked.

“Yes, sir. To major. A couple weeks back now,” Rosie replied

Both of Freddie’s parents smiled and gave him their congratulations. Freddie waited for them to be finished before turning to Rosie. “Shall we go?”

“Whenever you’re ready.”

Freddie smiled. “Another good answer. Have you been asking around for advice?”

Rosie laughed, rolling his eyes as he offered a wave to her parents before following her into the house. “What, I can’t come up with good answers by myself?”

Freddie shrugged. “I suppose. Maybe you’re just trying to butter me up,” she added. “Do you have ulterior motives, Rosenthal?”

“No, ma’am,” he answered her as they reached the front door. “Just eager to please.”

Freddie smiled slyly. “Good to know.”

The walk to the ice cream parlour was short - ten minutes or so. It wasn’t really warm enough for ice cream but they weren’t the only people in there. Rosie would have liked to have been surprised but he’d been in England for a while now and if he’d learned anything about the Brits it was that whenever they got even one beam of sunshine they were set to act like it was the hottest day of the year.

Rosie stood behind Freddie as they browsed the flavours - there weren’t many, what with the rationing, but Freddie spent a while deep in thought anyway - trying not to take up too much space. He was surprised but tried to hide it when she leaned back into him and reached up both hands to hold onto his biceps in a way she hadn’t done since before he’d re-upped. He dared not move a muscle or stir a hair on her head with his breath in case she realised what she was doing and decided she didn’t mean to, so he stood stock still as she leaned into him, hoping she couldn’t feel the racing of his heart.

“Chocolate,” Freddie decided after a while’s consideration. Rosie had known that was the flavour she’d choose before they even set foot in the door but he declined to mention as much for fear of trivialising what had clearly been an intense decision-making process.

“Alright,” Rosie agreed, forcing himself to step away from her to get in line. “Chocolate it is. Sprinkles?”

“Of course.”

There was a teenage girl behind the counter and Freddie could tell she was struck by Rosie’s handsomeness. He didn’t notice, of course - he rarely did - but she blushed as he ordered, nodding rapidly, and fumbled with the money he gave her, her eyes darting between her hands and his face.

Freddie smiled to herself as they stepped to the side to wait for her to scoop it into cups for them. And, just because she could, she leaned her head against his shoulder and shut her eyes, humming to herself to pass the time.

Rosie accepted both cups from the teenage girl and she blushed bright red as he thanked her, and even brighter as he said goodbye. Then he handed Freddie’s cup to her and let her precede him out of the door.

“Thank you, sweetness,” Freddie said once they were back outside. She smiled and shut her eyes into the sunshine momentarily. “That girl in there fancied you.”

Rosie scoffed a laugh around his first bite of vanilla ice cream. “What?”

“Yep,” Freddie confirmed as they started walking home. “She fancied you. Couldn’t you tell?”

“No.”

Freddie laughed. “Cute.”

“How do you know?” Rosie asked.

Freddie quirked an eyebrow at him. “Why? Are you interested? I’m sure she’d be thrilled, Rosie, but she’s probably a bit young -”

Rosie groaned. “You know that’s not what I mean.”

Freddie laughed, veering closer to him as they walked. “I can tell because I fancy you. Same way you can tell when another man fancies me.”

Rosie scoffed. “Every man you’ve ever met ‘fancies’ you.” He made a valiant, though terrible, attempt to imitate her accent upon his use of the term ‘fancies’ which he made himself cringe with the moment he heard it.

Freddie laughed loudly. “No they don’t. My goodness, aren’t we protective?”

Rosie shot her a look. “You can’t tell me that every guy at Thorpe Abbotts wouldn’t drop everything just to dance with you one time. Or that all the original guys didn’t ask you to dance at least once when they first got there.”

Freddie rolled her eyes. “Bucky asked me to dance. So did Douglass, which is not flattering because he asks everyone to dance, and so did Hambone. That’s it.”

Rosie raised his eyebrows at her expectantly.

“Fine, and Baby Face and Curt. But that’s it. Plenty more of them asked Millie.”

“Only ‘cause you kept telling everyone no.”

“Said yes to you, didn’t I?”

Rosie smiled. “Eventually.”

Freddie shrugged. “All the same.”

They continued walking quietly, their arms brushing as they went, and when Freddie was finished with her ice cream Rosie took the cup from her and tucked it beneath his own to carry the rest of the way for her.

Freddie yawned. “I’m getting tired already. I’ll have to go to bed early tonight.”

“The beds here are so much better than at base,” Rosie remarked.

Freddie smiled. “Bet my bed’s better than yours.”

“I didn’t realise it was a competition.”

Freddie laughed and wrapped both of her arms around one of his. “Will you read me a bedtime story before I sleep?”

Rosie laughed because he thought she was joking but when he looked down to find her big brown eyes already looking up at him, expectant and curious, his laughter faded away. “Really?” he asked.

She nodded. “Just for a bit. My parents won’t mind.”

He grinned. And, feeling brave, he bent down to press a lingering kiss on the top of her head. “Yes,” he said, “I’ll read to you before bed.”

“Good.” Freddie looked up at him as he pulled away, catching his eyes and smiling. “Then it’s a date.”

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