Chapter Text
A man once said to him, many things in this world could change a person’s heart.
Money, power or even obsession… all these could change one’s heart
But no one ever told Rosie…
How war could change someone completely…
The sound of jazz dazzles amongst the party floor, lightened by lightbulbs shining like the sun above greenish uniforms like morning ray shines on grass fields. Officer boys and red cross girls all gather around to celebrate Captain Glenn Dye’s 25th mission.
They smile with all their cheeks and laugh with all their sound. Drinking like it’s the last day of their life on this planet earth.
A tall body roams around the hall’s concrete floor, his curly hair styled by thick gel giving him the glamorous look of the era. This young star of Texas’ pilot school, Robert Rosenthal, is opening the entrance with the dance move synchronized with the Jazz song.
“Rosie!” The rotund man greets, giving Rosie the booze to clear up his throat like usual. “Here comes our dance lord.”
“Pappy!” He grabs the man’s hand and embraces him chest to chest like how friends from the same aviation school do. Next to them are the handsome faced Nash and skinny blonde Speas, and their fellow pilots. All of them are holding light orange jelly with cherry and cream top, “what did I miss?”
“Not that much, just Pappy’s ‘boutta finish his second jelly,” said Nash. They all got the smiles of fresh face pilots you would not often see in the original 100th in this Thorpe Abbotts. “Where have you been?”
“Checking around, I don’t wanna look like a drinker who only thinks about bourbon and girls like someone here.” Loud as the music in the background plays, Pappy bursts out his laugh. This smiley plays a big part in Rosie’s cadet life as somewhat both friend and father figure for him at the same time. “You guys are such a menace, leaving me in a latrine by the nissen alone? Devil’s act.”
“Oh well,” Pappy replies with his early bird tipsy. His round face shows flowery reddish color. “Nash here said that he wants to take a closer look at red cross girls so as a pseudo- father, it is a job that must be done.”
“Yes, yes, anything bad, blame it on me guys.” Nash glares at his friends, judging. “Anyway, they are too pretty to let them go.”
“Flirty ass.”
“They can’t just be seen from the donut truck, okay? They’re too pretty for that side gig.”
“Then look as much as you wish, and take them to your dream tonight too.”
“Guys, the night is young. Let’s not waste it with a fight.” Like how an ex-lawyer does, when he sees the atmosphere change he jumps to solve it. “Want some drinks? As a payoff for my poker loss last sunday.”
All three beams, they have already thought of the day for Rosie to fill up his tab since Speas won the game. “I want a Margarita, Nash a Bloody Mary and Pappy whiskey on the rocks.”
The winner turns his head, making sure that he got the right one. “Just whiskey on the rocks right? Mr. Lawyer is paying.”
“Mr. Lawyer gets the same check as we do fellas, let’s not dry his wallet from the first night.” The payer laughs, it’s true that he was a lawyer who, in fact, worked in a famous law firm in Brooklyn since he graduated from law school.
But Pearl harbor… it changed everything, Robert knew what he wanted. He wanted to serve his country. Later that day he ran to the office and enlisted to be a pilot, trained days and days to be here, in Thorpe Abbotts, as the best Flying Fortress pilot from Texas‘ school.
In just a moment, he memorized all the requests. He lightly nodded and turned around towards the army uniform bartender. Surrounding him and the round marble countertop are a variety of officers ranging from down to top.
His bright blue eyes survey the scene, trying to reach out to the bartender and suddenly…
“Croz! What took you so long?” A taller man with a light mustache and the biggest smile he has ever seen embraces him with all his arms. Rosie, who is now under the man’s arm, jumps when he notices that the hugger is a major! “You did great today!”
“Major!” He cries, violet scent fumes from the major. “I’m not Croz, sir!”
“Oh,” he immediately breaks out, face full of dizziness. “I smelled roses and thought you were my navigator.” Then turns towards the other major who is currently sipping his drink, he lightly shakes his head.
“Lt. Robert Rosenthal, sir.” Clear his throat with laughter, he wry his smiles. It’s hard to keep his face straight when suddenly one of his best talents had been noticed, the pheromone diffusion limited. “It’s my first day here with the 418th.”
“418th! That’s mine!” He hugs once again, this time it’s bigger that Rosie thought he was going to drown in the man’s chest! “I’m Bucky Egan, that’s Buck Cleven from 350th.”
“His other name is Huggy Egan,” said Cleven with his deep voice, sly a little smile and the refreshing scent Robert is not sure how to describe.
“I’m so sorry about that, normally we have only one rose and now we have roses? My brain is gonna blow.” Mustache major whines, compresses his whiskey glass beside his temple like remembering people with scent is such a big burden. “Why can’t people have such a unique scent like you, Buck?”
“You go to South Dakota and everyone will give you the same treatment as I do.”
Between two majors conversation Rosie suddenly feels like he was being a third wheel while waiting for the turn to speak. He can only imagine a few things while this goes on and on. If he dared to make an assumption, Major Egan must have been a kind of alpha that mainly uses his nose to remember people’s pheromones more than their traits and characteristics.
But for Cleven, he’s not certain of his thoughts yet.
Rosenthal shakes his head to clear up his mind. Despite all of the assumptions and conspiracy going on inside his busy little brain it won’t affect any of the officer’s performance anyway since exposing secondary individuals’ gender has been prohibited within the military grounds prior to the great war in Europe.
But still, from his own experiences within the army for a year or so. Though the law was meant to protect and provide omegas opportunity in military related careers, this line of work still holds its tradition of alphariarchy and the glorification of physical related strength from one’s own biological gender.
Contradicted to the law career path that glorifies betas said to have less emotion and libido than alphas, and have higher morals in judging cases with more rational thoughts than omegas.
Argue with the fact that he is not more or less emotional or rational than any other beta lawyers in New York. But despite all of that he has to be the one to keep his head down, and try not to be too much for someone’s archaic standards of proper alpha in law career that are certainly and mostly man-made like all laws do.
“Excuse me, sir.” The new faced pilot paves his way towards his older target; the bartender. “I would like a Bloody Mary, one On the Rock, one Margarita, and an Aviation. Please write it on Rosenthal’s tab.”
“Rosenthal?” The bartender looks down for pages on the tab book for likely an existing tab of Rosenthal. “Which Rosenthal are you? J. Jerry or E. Ed?”
“R. Robert” – “Robert Rosenthal, I just came today sir.”
“Oh! Another Rosenthal! Then let me write it down for you in a bit eh?”
It took about half an hour for Mr. Bartender to serve all the menu he ordered, it gets him wondering how many bartenders this base has?
Tonight is a big night and yet the committee managed to get only one man on duty to make drinks for us, maybe Rosie might have seen half-a-man bartender on a daily basis, who knows!
Rosenthal uses both his hands and fingers to hold on four glasses of drinks to serve it to his friends. Once he tilted his head, his bright colored eyes saw the two majors from previously, talking to the pilots enthusiastically. “Here comes Rosie.”
Like a lightbulb on Egan’s head lights up, “Rosenthal! O, Rosental! It’s you, I remember now. Your reputation precedes you.”
“Like how we skinny drive, sir?” Nash sips his drink, Margarita has boosted up his confidence up in the blue skies.
“Skinny?” Repeats Egan, surprised but not disgusted. “What do we have here Gale, they’re wicked!”
Cleven still holds his solitude within his words. He gives them a small laugh then goes, “didn’t your instructor warn you or anything?”
“There’s not much we can do, sir. We could fry an egg sunny side up on our canopy with Texas’ weather” Rosie added, although he's old fashioned, yet still got his childish self somewhere in the blue. Whenever you put dozens of freshly grads together they would certainly cause tons of disasters like how they did in their frat days.
It’s hard to resist when it’s your friend’s request, okay?
“Like I said, your reputation really proceeds you.” Lavender scented man pats two pilots’ shoulders, followed by their co-pilots like Speas and Pappy, “Well then, enjoy the party lads. See you on tomorrow’s mission.”
Meanwhile the smell of bitter sweetness reeks alongside two small men from afar, one has straight dark brown hair while the smiley one has wavy dirty blonde. “Major Egan.”
“Croz! Bubbles!” Huggy Egan is in charge once again, hugging two chest size men and burying them within his arm to the point Rosie could only see their legs and Egan’s a-2 jacket that has a strong oil odor. “Rosie, this is the guy I said he smells like you.”
Croz sniffs, his innocent looking brown eyes look sorrowful like a dew drops from a tree leaf. “Sir, he’s rose. I’m prairie rose, we’re clearly not the same scent.”
“There’s a difference?” John looks surprised by the information the smaller man has just given him, “You never told me, Harry.”
“There is.” Seems like Croz’s first name is ‘Harry’, his voice is soft and humble. It’s very pleasing to hear him talk. “Prairie roses have a stronger scent compared to normal roses, mine is significantly bitter.”
“I really smell the difference, Bucky.” This time Rosie guesses it’s Bubbles who talked, he has the same amount of mustache John Egan has but slightly lighter and more neatly cut. “His smell is fainter than Crosby’s.”
“Okay, I trust you guys alright?”
“So what’s your name?”
Suddenly he was asked about the name after observing the conversation between older stationed officers for a while. Rosie takes a deep breath and proceeds to his word, “Rosenthal, Robert Rosenthal.”
“He even got a rose in his name! You lose, Croz. He wins the roses war.” Bubbles laughs out loud, his round bright blue eyes resemble the terms he was called. “But don’t worry, I’ll always be by your side.”
“You’re being silly.” Harry laughs back. “Anyway, I really lost this time.”
“...”
The darker haired man jostles his body to reach out his arm towards Rosenthal, “I’m Harry Crosby, this is Bubbles Payne, we’re Brady’s and Blakely’s navigators.”
Robert finally comes to his realization when the man in front of him introduces their full name. Croz that Egan meant was a nickname from Crosby, the sad faced navigator who looks blue all the time even at the jolliest moment.
Upon Crosby’s arrival, their scent filled the place to become miniature roses infused eau de parfum within the matter of seconds. It’s so strong that even the man at the back could smell rose petals at the same time.
“I have never seen you before, you’re new here ain’t ya’?”
“Yes, sir, it’s my first day here.” He introduces his fellows as his hand passes through them, “this here is Pappy, my co-pilot, and these two are Nash and Speas.”
Bubbles then later notices the pilots' silver badge “You guys are all pilots?”
“Seems like it, sir. All of these three boys are fierce pilots.” Says Pappy enthusiastically. “We met in Texas and have become each other's brothers since that day, I’m their pseudo-father.”
“Cool,” Bubbles smiles. “Right, we ‘boutta being going on mission with new faces tomorrow!”
“You're on the tower.” Crosby glares, the prairie rose scent fills with an odd burned poppy seed-like smell. “Dear group navigator.”
“Don’t forget to bring my lucky globe along.” The blonde haired man pats his commander’s shoulder to give him a sign to let go, Egan doesn't waste any time to set them free from his arms. “But I won’t tell you where we are going before the briefing.”
“Bubbles you meanie…” Egan whines, “just a little hint?”
“Mission is a surprise when you keep it a secret, and keeping it a secret is a good thing to do as a commander.”
“Which Bucky cannot.” Added Gale Cleven, his plump lips lifted up and became a little smile.
John immediately frowns his face, “Why’re you changing sides, Buck! That’s not fair, come on!”
“Bubbles tells the truth and I support it.” The golden haired Cleven touches his fellow major’s shoulder affectionately, Rosie could smell a subtle amount of honey scent taking over Egan’s lavender completely. “Listen to me, all you have to do tomorrow is just mingle around London and get laid somewhere with a beautiful lady repeatedly until you use all your day off.”
“Say that like it’s easy to find a lady.” Greenish eyes of little mustache Egan lays eye on his companion.
“British girls don’t like dingy old clothes.”
“And the only dingy old clothes are RAF.”
They all burst out laughing right away after Buckys finished his line of jokes like they share the same brain cell of continuing each other’s words. Like a newbie he is, Rosie just laughs a dry laugh, trying to understand the 100th’s tradition.
That night proceeds smoothly, Nash finds a beautiful lady called Helen and spends the whole night dancing with her. Even when Rosie walked back to their nissen, Herbert Nash was still mumbling about her on his bed non-stop like a speech. While Pappy, he ate his jelly on the rock until his tummy was rock solid. And when Rosie touched it, it almost resembles a B-17 nose!
How about him?
He just wonders where tomorrow’s mission would take him…
He thinks, uses his left hand to tighten his blanket for his comfort. This barracks bed still gives him the same quality even though it was assigned for officers without any ranks left behind.
That roses and poppy seeds scent…
Why can’t Robert get it off his head…?
