Metal Gear and all characters are TM by Konami.
All that could be heard was the crashing of mortars and gunfire...
Inside a maze of demolished buildings a woman guides her team into a confined room, nervously she scans the walls holding her gun forward while bearing her index finger on the fire trigger.
Suddenly a slight movement catches her eye as her team surround her and ready their investigation formation. she gives a brief hand signal to her team who are nervously scanning the room and looking behind them as the ever increasing threat of enemy's flooding the area was becoming more and more likely.
As the sound of gunfire becomes louder she walks taking point slowly to the corner of the room and makes out the figure of a man pressed up against the wall perfectly still though aware he has been seen and is about to be confronted. Meryl squints to take in his features in the darkness but can only see the outline of a muscular yet lean man.
Meryl stands dominantly over the figure and thrusts the end of her gun into his chest while ordering him to stand to attention, at that precise moment the man seems to come alive and grabs the end of her Famas combat rifle and twists it around while grabbing her arm and putting her into a gentle lock. rage flowed through her as she knew only the right amount of force to submit her was being used...she cursed that it was because she was so obviously a woman from her shape that she was shown such mercy.
The team hurry to surround the man now holding Meryl bent on one knee submissively, her second in charge shouts "Halt...cease fire!". The man holding Meryl looks down on her to scan for weapons until he catches a badge on her uniform...Foxhound!
"Fox Unit...?!" the man exclaims in a deep husky voice. Meryl looks up as she takes in the words of a voice she hasn't heard for what seemed like a eternity. She feels the hold on her loosen and she stands up beside him as he pulls off the cloak that covered his sneak suit.
"Meryl?!..." He says as he takes in her features,while images flash through his head. The Shadow moses incident...escaping to Alaska and the 6months they spent together there.
Meryl pulls off her mask with a look of shock and pity. Snake had always been older then her but now the differences were extreme. she remembered back to when they met, she was only a teenager and had thought he was the love of her life. he was her mentor as a combat partner and her equal as a sexual partner. they explored all the aspects of both together with lighthearted training in the Alaskan cold to the precious moments they would spend together in bed. He knew how to please her and she knew how to please him.
But they had grown apart. he was desperate for her affection and nursed his sudden void with alcohol. They stared at each other knowing full well what was going through their minds...remembering every touch, every climax and every moment.
"Snake...your face...whats happening to you..?" she asked as she reached out to him. Snakes eyes wondered as he tried to break eye contact with her, he did not want her to see him like this, and after she left him he felt he didn't deserve that much pain.
Snake begrudgingly forces himself to shun her touch and looks away. "I am aging rapidly and I don't know why..." he chokes. Meryl motions to the guards to stand down their weapons. Snake starts to ask her questions about with organization she works for as he desperately tries to control the situation. Meryl is irritated by it and his little act of pretense. She spins him around to face her and with a sharp force forces him against the corner.
A look of tolerance waves over his face as she slams both her hands to the wall either side of his head. "LOOK IT WASN'T...-" then Meryl turns around to check her team who are busy looking out the broken remains of the wall, she then lowers her tone and voice "Look...it wasn't ALL me...I...things were deteriorating and-" before she could finish Snake cut in, himself trying to sound quiet.
"...Deteriorating?!!" he snapped "You never gave us a chance!...and you KNOW why...".
The sexual tension was hitting fever pitch. here they were in a dark corner of a war torn area with night falling, surrounded by a team of Meryl's and enemy soldiers everywhere. neither wanted to look weak or let the team in on what was going on. there wasn't much time but neither wanted to leave the other. Meryl felt as embarrassed and awkward as snake. she looked back at her unit thinking of a way to get them to move to another area.
"I don't know how much time I have left..." Snake said as he surrendered his pride to place one hand around her and on the center of her back in the same way he used to while holding her up against him when she was under him. He prepared himself for the defeat of her pushing him away or even laughing at him.
Meryl looked down with mixed feelings. She was standing next to her lover, now a old man, he was the same yet different. she shut her eyes and it felt like it always did when she heard his voice...but now the image had changed. Snake was more muscular but far far leaner. it was all she could do not to stare at his form in the sneaking suit that left very little to the imagination but she didn't even need any imagination, they had been lovers and in the beginning no amount of sex seemed to feed their hunger for each other.
She nervously looked back at her distracted unit. and pressed herself up against him as she felt him draw her closer with his hand on her back. She could feel his renewed interest in her pressing next to her through their clothes.
It was a inappropriate time, a inappropriate place but no-one had filled the void in each others lives. Meryl placed a hand up to his chest and felt his heart rate had sped up. She pushes him further into the corner and rubs her body up against his, her hips moving in a slightly disguised but provocative manner up and down as she scans his uniform for any openings.
She was confused herself. All that was flooding through her mind was her reasons for leaving, her feelings for him now, the pity of his situation, her feelings as a teenager, her memories of discovery and adventure with him,his possible reaction to here now, her slight revulsion to his DNA enhanced aging. When she closed her eyes it was him...and that was what was important.
She condemned herself for expecting him to just carry on as before and was scared of his reaction to her, she even wondered if there could be someone else by now.
She decided to let her guard down. "Ive missed you so much...sometimes.." she breathed heavily as she spoke, but amending her sentences as not to be seen as weak or at fault while nervously glancing back at her unit who were engaged in gunfire exchanges.
Snake glanced over her shoulder to scan the positions of her unit and judge how far away the enemy gun fire was to gauge the danger then quickly turned back to her and in one economical movement forced her against him and lent down so their lips met as Meryl hungrily kissed him back with a tinge of guilt that his actions confirmed there was still no-one else for him and unless he was acting on impulse...she was just so grateful.
"I'm not asking to be forgiven Dave...I was only a Teenager...what did I know..." Meryl whispered in his ear in a faltering voice as she pressed the side of her face against his neck while taking in the scent of him and the feel of his hair.
Snake slowly turns to her with a lost look in his eyes "Why did you leave me? do you know how much pain I suffered??...I can deal with the physical kind but theres not much protection from the emotional kind." his eyes cast down as the kisses he feels on his neck hardly register as the flashbacks of their time together go through his head.
"...y-yes, I heard from Hal...he relayed alot of your messages..." Meryl answered as a look of seriousness washed over her face.
"Hal...yea.." Snake half breathed, half laughed "...He seemed to always know when we were having troubles..." he continued.
"Well he does seem very...well the word isn't protective...but he seems to think he can solve all of your problems..." Meryl said as she ran her hand down the front of his sneaking suit.
The din of gunfire died down as the unit walked back into the room as Meryl broke her embrace to snake.
"What is up with her and the old guy..?!" a solider asked his team-mate. "I don't know...maybe they know each other?" came the reply. The first soldier looked at the second and shook his head "eww no way" he exclaimed in the slightly mechanical tone his mask gave him.
"Theres a safe house east of here, we can set down there for the night.." Meryl ordered while she stared at Snake almost for approval. Snake nodded back to her and reloaded his non I-Ded Assault riffle.
They set off East with Meryl and Snake in total silence together trying to be vigilant to their surroundings but still lost in the pain of the past and the desperation for each other.
After a hours' walk they reach a building which is nearly complete in comparison to all the others. They all start to unpack their rations and camp items.
Snake scopes the ground looking for the most practical place to stay and finds a shielded cornor away from the strong night winds. The night seems still with the nearly ever present gunfire silenced.
The Team roll out sleep sacks as Snake disassembles his weapon to check its parts.
The moon is perfectly clear high in the sky, and the sounds of nature can be heard all around the team as it edges to-wards 2am.
He glances over to Meryl who is getting into her sleep-sack on the cold wood-chip floor, he drops his gun pieces, stands up and walks over to her.
"...Meryl...are you still awake..." He breathed quietly in his distinctive gravelly voice. Meryl stirred and looked up at him "uhh ahh...?".
"...Do..you...still...- ...Is there anyone special...now..?" He asked while he was sitting up with his back to her. "...No...not since you.." she whispered.
He hangs his head down and edges alittle closer to her. "If you didn't want to talk to me why didn't you talk to Hal?" he whispered.
"...Things where far too complicated and it was all getting on top of me.." She exclaimed with a teary look in her face. "You could have talked to me.." He persisted.
"..No I couldn't..." she resigned.
"Well you seemed to talk to nearly everyone else...even now your not being very open about things.." he returned.
"Look!...its not something I feel I can say now!...I..I dont want to go over all the mistakes!!...all the confusion..." She said trying to end the conversation.
"So...it must be just me then...what did you...did you just change your mind?...Did you just use me for sex...did you just...go off me...was it something I said...did...didn't do...what do you WANT from me...what do I have to do...-" Snake was getting louder and more irritated and felt desperate.
"..WHY do you have to do this?" she snapped back while checking her tone and scanning around her sleeping unit. though the slightly louder exchanges had awoken one of her troops who listened carefully to the unraveling events which he just managed to hear over Johnny's snoring.
"..Do you know what...I dont understand...and after speaking to you now it seems like theres nothing left to salvage...Unless this is some kind of amusing game to you, confusing me totally...hurting me...because you can...-" He snapped as he stood up over her "-...KEEP yourself to yourself...OK?...something I should have done..." with that he walked back over to his space near the cornor.
Ten minutes had gone by and Snake was already feeling embarrassed and regretful which was very unlike himself, He even thought that if she was only moving to her current whims with him...he could have settled for that, just to be with she when he was in her favor.
He started to hear some silent and suppressed sobs in the darkness. and decided to stay very still and try to fall asleep.
After about twenty minutes he heard a stirring sound and saw Meryl get up from her sleeping-bag and walk over to him.
"...I'm...sorry...sorry about everything...please dont do this to me-" She said keeping her tone as firm as she could as she placed her hand on his shoulder as he turned away from her.
She knew he had some idea of why she left..what he had heard from others, which further infuriated him...but he didn't know the true story. She lent forward to kiss the side of his neck.
"..Your doing it again..." Snake whispered. She moved over to kiss him on the lips.
He was totally unresponsive to her kiss, it was all he could do not to submit.
"Give me one more chance at lest...Ive proved myself to you in the past..." she said.
Snake lifted himself up onto his elbows and stared at her "What does that mean?" he asked in his puzzled voice.
Meryl looked down to the ground. Snake reached out and pulled her face back to-wards him. he noticed her face was blotchy and red from sobbing.
Meanwhile her team-mate lay there with his eyes wide to the unfolding of events. he had no idea his stalwart leader had such a venerable side, or that she had done something in the past she felt bad about. he also was not aware of her association with the legendary Solid Snake.
Meryl pulled away to stand back up and walk to her bedroll when she felt his hand reach out faster then she could notice and grabbed her arm pulling her nearly off her feet.
Snake pointed in a down motion as he unzipped the side of the sleeping-bag. then placed his fingers to his mouth in a hushing motion.
Meryl slowly got in and started undoing the straps and buckles that held the front of his exo-skull suit as he climbed on top of her. both of them kissing each others necks.
Meryl grabbed Snakes sides and tried to wrestle him over underneath her. as she reversed him she sat on top with almost a grin.
As if it were a battle of wills he grabbed her hips and reversed their positions again.
All of a sudden Snake cried out almost in pain as his body shook and he started to cough. he quickly reached for his backpack and the injection pen in the side pocket.
Meryl helped guide his hand as he injected a drug into his neck to get the fastest effect.
Meryl's need to be overcome by him subsided for a moment. "Whats happening to you Dave..?" she whispered solemnly. "I dont know...but, Hal says these injections will buy me some time and stop the symptoms...seems to work for a while too.." he exclaimed in his husky voice.
"Buy you time..?" she questioned.
The moment Snake was told he had about six months to live flashed through his mind, but there was no way he was going to tell Meryl just yet. He wanted her love, not her pity.
"...What do you mean by...time?" Meryl asked unable to hide her concern. though the thought her lover was in fact dying never crossed her mind, she knew he was cloned from the DNA of a man in his 50s but how could she understand the ins and outs of such a procedure.
"...it doesn't matter...but.." he said as he took a deep breath "..do you know what does matter..?"
"What?" she asked coyly "...this.." he said as he undid the front belt on her fatigues.
Fin