I got the idea for this from a couple things, the most predominate was my friend HugglesxKitten and I talking about Miroku from Inuyasha and how he has broken every single one of the ten precepts of Buddhism. It's surprising how easy it is to commit one of the Seven.

Pride is the excessive belief in one's own abilities. It has been called the sin from which all others arise.

Pride is also known as Vanity.

"Full house, read 'em and weep, Weber," Mao laughed lowering her sniper rifle. From where they stood there was absolutely no way to see the fifty two cards, arranged in no particular order, pinned on along a board at 2000 metres.

"I can beat that easy," he scoffed getting into position. In five quick shots Kurz stood up and grinned. "Royal flush, babe. Looks like I win, now pay up."

With a groan the sergeant major handed over a manilla envelope.

"I don't even want to know what you're going to do with those."

"That's for me to know and you to wonder," Kurz winked and headed back to his quarters.

Once he was alone he allowed himself a genuine smile, sure it had been a bit under handed, but she started it. Besides, Mao probably had ulterior motives for what her prize would've been. Why else would she demand he go to bowling night naked? She obviously wanted him.

He spread the contents of the envelope onto his bed, they were photos taken from a few months back when Tessa had gotten really into pin up style photos after hearing Sousuke mention that he had a calendar. Tessa had begged Mao for weeks to do a photo shoot with her and the sergeant major eventually caved. Tessa kept a few of her favourites and left the rest with Mao for safe keeping. No man would ever break into Mao's room, regardless of how enticing the reward would be.

There were some shots of just Tessa; sitting on an AS, saluting, looking over a clip board, as well as shots of the both of the together. Kurz put all of those back into the envelope leaving just the ones of Mao on her own. He had two favourites of the bunch, the first was one where her fatigues were noticeably absent and what looked suspiciously like his favourite Walther WA 2000 covering her 'vitals'.

The second one was softer, innocent even. Just a simple shot of her winking and blowing a kiss. The only sexy part was her black wife beater was missing leaving a teasing view of her cleavage.

The first image Kurz pinned on his wall by his bed, he was only human after all. But the second image he put up inside his AS where he could see it wherever he was.

Some weeks later they were deep in hostile territory, waiting for the right moment when a small shift of Mao's AS frightened some birds and gave away her position.

"Urzu-6!" Mao's voice came on over the radio. "Retain your position and get that shot, that's an order!" Kurz swore, but did as he was told. For about thirty seconds. He was a damn good shot and he knew it, he fired at the target before glancing at the picture of Mao he had.

"I got this babe," he promised and took off towards her, taking out any of the enemy he happened to come across in one hit. In his cockiness, however, one AS was still operational after his shot hit it and they wasted no time in returning the favour.

The last thing he heard was Mao screaming his name, and not in the way he'd always wanted, and was able to take one last look at his superior before the blast hit and he was overcome with darkness.

"Wake up you bastard, wake up!" Kurz opened his eyes, wincing at the headache he had. He looked around and realized he was back on the sub with his AS in bad condition, but repairable.

"What happened?"

"I saved your ass is what happened. Don't you ever disobey a fucking order again, I told you to stand down."

"Aw babe, I knew I had 'em. Besides I got the target before I went to help you."

"You know," Mao sighed either in aggravation or relief, it was hard to tell. "One of these days that stupid pride of yours is going to get you killed."

"Nah," Kurz smirked up at her. "Not so long as I got you watching my ass, babe."

Special thanks to the Internet Movie Firearms Database which kindly has every single weapon used in Full Metal Panic along with screenshots, official pictures of the guns and info about them.

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