13th June: Vickery's fury

"Surprised." The lad corrected the other, though he made a note to remember the German word he had heard first. "Oh..no, don't worry. I should have warned you and I should'a told you...it's a'right you told him how it was. Don't worry. A'right?"

He followed the other again. "Now.. we'll need ter see what t' honey did ter yer head....An'.. an' no need ter worry about pas' conversation, ok? Couse, I think o' you as a friend, if I may, and..I know that you'd not have done summat ter get me dunked worse ter save yeself. I'm sure you wouldn't." Well he hoped he was, but looking at the other lad. How could he have had a mean streak in him?

Freddie's English was unable to cope with this speech, but he had picked up one word that was cruxial to him. Rather shyly offering his hand, he asked: "Friends?"

To have something like this acknowledged would far outweight any negative effects their little excursion would have to Freddie. He only hoped that he could help Pye enough to make his punishment as easy to bear as his seemed now. But being under constant watch was not something he really could help with ... So what could he do?

"Friends." Pye took the hand and shook it. It looked a bit like he was sealing the deal. He smiled. "How do you say that in German?.. " Because then he could confirm it in the other language as well, as was only fair. Friends, them. Yes.

"Oh.. we need to get that shako off of you." He said grinning. It was still their little secret!

"Freunde!"

Freddie shared the grin, then carefully looked around to make sure no-one was watching before gripping his shako with both hands and slowly lifting it upwards.

"Friends.. Freunde." Pye repeated and grinned. "Thanks." He added. When he saw the shako leave Friedrich's head and then observed the mess that was beneath it, he suddenly burst into laughter, barely forcing himself not to have it so loud that somebody might come inquiring.

"Come. We need to scrape it off." He chuckled. "You'um goin' ter have. .real... real.. shiny hair." He grinned and produced a plate which they could have the honey transferred to, until a better container was at hand. "Lean forward, will you?"

Freddie laughed as he pictured the sight his head must be now and carefully bent over.

"Vielleicht the honey makes it grow in spirals? I would like that."

He screwed his eyes up again, trying once more fruitlessly to peer through the bones of his own head.

"You think there is anything to ... rescue?"

"We can save enough. No worries." Pye chuckled, taking the biggest chunk off first, before he started to scrape at the hair. He did try to get any loose hair out of the honey too. Though, considering what they ate sometimes,.. well it wasn't the worst thing.

"I don't think I can get everythin' out completely." He murmured , grinning. "But we'll get near all and.. um just keep bent over like that, so it gets drippin' off on it's own." It already looked as though he could make Friedrich's hair stand at odd ends, which only amused the lad further.

"Hmm.. you got a plate? Mebbe you can see yeself in that?"

Freddie stayed obediently bent over and thought. He didn't have a plate or anything else like a mirror. Captain Torrington had two very nice silver plates that reflected everything perfectly; Freddie knew because he had polished them lovingly after breakfast this morning. But he also knew that he wasn't supposed to use them for something like this, much as he would have liked to. Another idea struck.

"Can we use a pot with water? If we ... wash out the honey, then we have süßes ... swede water for tea."

"Hmmm.. I don't know. You think honey will wash out easy like that?" His hands had now gotten quite sticky. Most of the honey was now piled in his plate. He licked at his fingers and looked quite satisfied with the taste.

"Nex' time we'll have yer wash ye hair firs' 'fore we...." Well, was there a next time even? Though he would hope for one to happen it would certainly not be for a long while. Not until Vickery was satisfied and at ease with him again. " Hey...you know wot' ...? You're a batman to Mister Torrington... an'..an' I'm a batman to a batman... couse i'm suppose to help Cotton." He thought it amusing now, trying to make light of the situation.

"I don't know. Vielleicht."

Taking a strand of hair between two fingers, Freddie drew it down over his forehead and looked at it dubiously, squinting slightly.

"The next time we put it into a mug!" And there would be a next time sooner or later; even if he had to find some way to make the whole company locate their camp under a tree with a bee-hive. Laughing at the impossible task he had set himself, he methodically squeezed out the honey in the strand.

"If you really meaned what you said gestern, then we can be the Batman's Mess."

He hope that Pye remembered his invitation, and still wanted to include him.

"Meaned?.. Oh, you mean if I really meant?" Pye thought what gestern was supposed to be. "Is.. gestern.. is that yesterday?" He asked just to be sure. It made sense when the lad mentioned the batman's mess.

So if he really meant something he said yesterday the mess would be almost full of Batmen. Yes, it had to be gestern - yesterday. "T' invitation stands, if yer want to join us, aye. Certainly does! An' you can teach how ter cook so good that you know how to! An' .. I'll introduce yer to me partner. Think he'd be glad to have you with us too. See, he's not German, an' he speaks .. uh Irish, wot' he speaks."

He playfully messed the other lad's hair so that it now stood at odd ends, honey supporting it somewhat. Then he chose to sleek it all back, and laughed. "Yer look like a fop.. erm.. like a ...a well real high n' posh."

"A fop? Posh?" Freddie repeated, his eyes burning with delight at the repeated invitation. He certainly would like to get to know Pye's partner; he had never met somebody from Ireland before. Did they speak a different language as well?

He touched his now straight and sleek hair. He imagined he must look something close to a wet dog.

"If you want, I can cook tonight. I would like doing it. And if Cotton let us help with the rabbit, we can vielleicht make filled rabbit and ... oh, what's the word for beeindrucken? If you want to make the officers see that you can do something good? But he will want to do it himself, I fear."

"If Cotton allows it, I'll be glad to help with the cooking." He smiled at Friedrich. He was glad to have gotten on so well with him, and this was not only because he knew how to cook so well! He was fun and friendly, and he knew things that Pye did not. And although he did not know so much English, and knew German he was the good sort.

He chuckled. "Think we do need ter wash yer hair 'fore we go anywhere's cookin' or anythin'." He did need to bring the rabbit to Cotton still first, get some things done and then.. maybe come to help cook. That would be fun. "What's beeindrucken? What is it like?"

"It is ... if you want to ... show a man that you can do things very good ..." Feeling that this explanation wasn't any better than his last one, he tried to find something he could use as comparison. His hands fluttered.

"Like you shoot much better than I, and I think 'Oh, he is very good. I want to be like him'. Du", he pointed, "beeindruckst mich." He pointed to himself and screwed up his face in an expression of extreme awe, then looked questioningly at Pye.

"Oh..Oh impress. is it? ter impress someone with wot' yer doing? Or....he did not know if any other word would be better in that place.It could be make someone jealous too, but he thought it was more positive than that. And with jealousy that expression on Rottlander's face would certainly not be made, but rather one of discontent, when jealous.

"Aye, I think you mean impress. Make ye stare in wonderment... em, something like that." He murmured and grinned. "Beindruck'n .." He paused, no it did not sound the same, it felt as if there was an e missing. "Beeindruck'n." He tried and looked at Rottlander. "Why's your words so long sometimes?"

"Yes! Impress." Freddie repeated the word carefully, then said, pronouncing each syllable seperately: "Be-ein-druck-en! I don't know. I think it funny that your words are so short. I feel like I have left out some ... Buchstaben. The sounds words are made out of."

He gave another of his infectious grins and tucked at Pye's sleeve.

"Do you need a 'ticket' to go to the river to wash?"

"Be-ein-druck-en." Pye repeated a couple of times. "Du beeindrucken ich!" Well, he did look more happy about how he said it than he was correct in the way he used his words. But it was probably his first ever self-made sentence, so he could be given atleast some credit at trying.

He blinked , arched a brow and then, unlike the grin of Friedrich, he scowled:" Aye, I think I need to go an' ask fer one. But you better not come along n'less you intend ter wear that shako on yer head. Couse.. he'll look at you right odd if he sees your hair sleek like that!" It would be funny, especially if they would not tell him how it happened, but still!

Freddie was delighted by Pye's attempts to speak his own language and clapped his hands.

"Sehr gut. Bald kannst Du Deutsch so gut wie der Hauptmann! Me is mich, though. It is 'Du beeindruckst mich'. You impress me, right?"

He then pulled a face and put his shako back over his head.

"I better put it over my hair. It is not good w.. If Sergeant Müller or so sees me." Casting Pye a mischievous look, he added: "If you have to ask the Captain for little things like a wash, he ... he says you can stop or you smell soon. He can not have time for you all the time."

"Du beeindrukst mich." Pye spoke, his expression clearing. "Sehr gut... sehr gut, sehr gut!" The last time he almost sang it. He thought he knew what sehr gut meant. It was like good, just gut. So sehr must've meant a lot or many or very.

For a moment he touched his head and his hair, just as Friedrich said Bald. Oh, it was not said in the same way as bald so it was something else. Deutsch was German, he knew that. So something with, German and good and the captain.

"Um....Captain speaks good German, yes." He nodded. But that made no sense unless the boy meant to say he might soon speak..sprechen was speak? So speak good German?

Before he would make a wrong assumption he asked:" So... you said.. something like.. very good and um... that I could speak as good as the captain?" Because, if he had said that he spoke as well, Friedrich would be a bad liar!

He smiled and stuck his tongue out at his friend. "I don't want ter be smelled thousand yards away jus' couse I was lazy o' askin' me captain about t' ticket." Though the lad was quite right. Vickery would have to limit the amount of times he needed to come to him soon or else it could just get terribly out of hand!

Freddie's grin became face-splitting; he clapped Pye on the back and crowed:

"You understand!"

He practically danced to Captain Vickery's tent, then had to struggle to assume a more serious expression. It didn't work long; whenever his eyes switched to Pye, he started to laugh again. All the tension of the previous hour, the exhilaration of being with his friend, the joy over his willingness to learn Freddie's native language, the absurdity of the situation and the fact that they had managed to get away with the honey all worked together and made Freddie's body shake with uncontrollable laughter.

"Shhh." Pye was equally thrilled he understood Freddie all on his own, though when they began approaching Captain Vickery's tent, he knew they should not behave so happy or else the captain might thing them dead drunk!

"A'right." He remembered to store the honey safely this time, so that it was both not seen, but also would not leak and make other things sticky. "Um... you comin' with me when we ask 'im, or waitin' out 'ere? We need ter look all serious.. you know, if we's going to him together!"

Freddie firmly bit down on his cheek and finally managed to get his laughter under control. He touched his hair, which was still sticky even in places uncovered by the shako. Not good, but letting his friend go alone into the lion's den was not good either. And it was no crime to have sticky hair, wasn't it?

"If you want, I come in with you", he decided.

"I'd.. like you did. And we'll say yer got summat tree sap on your hair, and we wants to wash it out, a'right?" He looked at Friedrich's hair and grinned.

He shook his head then, forced his expression into one of a very obedient, calm, serious soldier, and approached the tent. He paused, cleared his throat, then spoke :"Permission ter see Captain Vickery?"

Pye's voice. Vickery had to smile to himself; it hadn't been long at all before the lad needed to see him.

He swept the tent-flap aside and ducked out, heedless of the fact that he was bareheaded. The breeze teased at his hair as he looked at Pye.

"Yes?"

Pye had not seen the captain in such state of undress before and blinked. Then gathering his senses he spoke, sounding much more timid. "..Sir,.. I need a ticket." He hesitated glancing at the buttons on Vickery's coat. They were nice and polished, very well tended to. He had no doubt it was all thanks to Cotton even.

"'Couse we's going to the river with Rottland'r.. an'.. you said I needed a ticket.." He finished then after a few moments of hesitation added. "Couse.. we's going washin'...Please, sir."

And then again, very quietly and timidly again. "Please? Promise we'll be good."