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„Man, you are fit. You hit the gym often, then?“
William chuckled quitely and glanced over at Dave, who was resting his arms on the handles of his bicycle, out of breath and with a faint shade of pink colouring his cheeks. Instead of a walk, the idea had been to cycle along the fields for the afternoon, get some exercise and take in what sun winter had to offer. William had found it more of an enjoyable round of light cycling but the last leg up the hill, the one where they had first met, had been enough for Dave and now they were taking a small break and enjoying the view.
„Must be that army training,“ William replied with an easy smile and let his gaze travel across the fields, squinting slightly at the low sun.
„You were in the army?“ Dave asked interested, finally beginning to catch his breath.
Worrying he might give too much away, William's smile faltered a little. „Yes,“ he confirmed „But... not any more.“
„Why not?“ Dave asked and when William hesitated, hurried to add, „It's okay if you don't want to talk about it--“
„No,“ William interjected and gave him a small smile. „No, it's alright.“ Yet again, he found himself in a situation where he had to tread lightly, find a way to be still be truthful but so vague as to not give too much away. „I... put in for a tranfer to the front lines. Abroad.“ The last bit was added just to be sure when Dave looked at him in mild confusion at his wording. Surely Britain had to be involved in some fighting abroad somewhere, he figured. It was always the way. „And... something happened. And now I can't go back.“
„Wow,“ Dave said, who seemed to be drawing his own conclusions and was thankfully sensitive enough to not ask for details. „I can't imagine what that must be like,“ he said, „To be in a war zone.“
William, whose mind had started to wander to his last memories of the front lines in Tunisia, turned his head to look at him in surprise. He himself had lived through not one but two world wars and here was Dave, who had never known what war was like.
„That's why we went,“ he replied after a moment and knew he genuinely meant it. „So you didn't have to know.“
Dave nodded and they exchanged a smile. Then silence spanned between them until William cleared his throat and moved to get back on his bicycle. „Onwards?“ he asked, „Down the hill will be easier.“
Dave, happy for a change of topic nodded „Yeah, thanks,“ he gave back with a smile, „You just watch that you don't fall again, mate.“