The workshop was a spacious place, where all operators, or at least most of them, improved their gadgets, some were so special that they needed daily care.

There were twelve personal square tables, which were separated by 6 near the door, and 6 near the large rectangular window, which overlooked the backyard of the Rainbow base. They were separated by a large table in the middle of the room, that served as storage of spare parts, tools and stuff.

Also useful when some people wanted to do teamwork, or when Seamus wanted to polish his hammer, or just leave it there.

The decoration was poor, since many accidents happened there, mostly with explosives involved. Shuhrat was the cause of most of them. In his opinion, "collateral damage" was not something to care about. And that was the reason that Six NEVER send the uzbek for a hostage extraction.

It was almost lunchtime, and a lone figure worked there, in a corner near the window. Masaru was very focused on his drone, Yokai. Its daily care was in progress. Silence was key to accuracy, and he couldn't afford any mistake.

"Come on, come on..." he was replacing one of the propellers. Yokai's hovering was a little weird when serving breakfast in the morning.

Humming, another figure appeared by the door, and sat at the middle table, the closest to the large one.

Masaru managed to stay focused. Anyway, it was just a simple humming. After a while, of hearing the welding sound, which was also bearable, the humming turned into a singing voice.

"Take oooon meee, take on meeee ..."

The Japanese blinked several times, his concentration interrupted. He looked where the voice came from. Jordan Trace was happily welding his c4s, with a pair of black earphones in his ears. It was totally unnecessary for him to make so much noise.

"I'll beeee goooooone ... In a day or ... Ow!" During the climax of his a cappella, he burned his hand with the welder. The Texan never wore protective gloves for an unknown reason.

Masaru smirked, but his concentration was lost. He put the screwdriver aside, and started playing Piano Tiles on his cell phone. Yokai buzzed, as if it were complaining that his owner was taking away his attention of it.

After many songs of the eighties and nineties, Masaru had to admit that he liked to hear some of them, even though it was Jordan who was singing.

" Put on the red light...! "

"Roxanne" Masaru replied. The Texan wouldn't hear him anyway.

After some burns and lost levels on the japanese's phone, Jordan finished two of his exothermic charges.

"Ah, at last" he sighed, stretching and appreciating his new 'toys'.

" At last " Masaru whispered to himself, taking the screwdriver again, putting his cellphone back to his pocket.

He still needed to put in Yokai a new spare, so there was no time to lose. The last days he had eaten nothing but bread and coffee, being distracted by his beloved drone, and was already getting hungry. Even if he called Yumiko for help, she´d just ignore him, as she was really sick of his laziness.

"Hey Echo, going for lunch in a bit, you coming?" Jordan stood up, grabbing his charges.

"I'll pass" Masaru answered, without looking at him.

Jordan was about to leave, but he stopped himself.

"Look at this, have you noticed?" The texan chuckled.

"I doubt it" the Japanese was still trying to regain his focus.

"I like this cactus, it reminds me of my golden ages... whose is this? Oh, here says ... From Chandar, Mark. This is Mute's? "

"Uh huh, I guess " Masaru nodded, but he was becoming more irritated with every second that passed.

" Here's more: To Nam, Grace. Figures, this one is her spot."

Two tables to the right of the Japanese, there was one full of stickers, the same type that had the Logic Bomb. It stood out a lot to the others.

"Maybe Mark likes Grace, I don't know, but could shut the fuck up, Trace? I'm trying to work here." Masaru growled, hitting the table with the screwdriver' bottom.

Yokai buzzed, as if it were trying to calm his owner.

" 'kay, 'kay, don´t get mad. " Jordan turned and left, humming a new song.

"At last. Peace and quiet."

However, Masaru, out of curiosity, turned to see the cactus. Indeed, there was one. It was small, with two arms, in a pot of the perfect size. In one of the arms, it had a reddish flower, which gave the plant a touch of beauty.

It was strange that Mark is leaving such details to someone. The youngest of the SAS had never shown any interest in anyone, be it man, woman or whatever was in between. His only visible love was Moni, his signal disruptor, in which he spent most of his time, repairing, improving, or just hiding it from Dominic, the german prankster.

Several times the japanese and the brit had been compared by their relationship with their gadgets, but none really cared. Masaru liked Mark, he was silent and only focused on his stuff.

In fact, he didn't see it as impossible. A few weeks ago, Six ordered Grace to improve her Logic Bomb, and Masaru, to help her out. The attackers were going to need it on a mission, which was easier than it seemed, or at least that was what Yumiko said when she returned from it.

The weird thing was that, every time they came to the workshop to do the job with Grace's gadget at the large table, Mark was already there, or suddenly appeared a few minutes later.

"Hello, Mark!" the korean girl smiled as she waved him.

The first time Masaru was surprised. Since when did Grace call him by his name? Only the SAS did that, nobody else was confident enough with him to do that. Maybe Chul, but he didn't talk much. Maybe less than the young brit.

Masaru looked at each other suspiciously. Something odd was going on.

"H-Hi," Mark replied softly, as if he was afraid of her. But his expression remained hidden behind his gas mask, including the adhesive tape.

He took his jammer with him, and deposited it in two seats in front of her and Masaru. No matter what the situation was, he always ended up looking at Grace. Almost staring. So much that it was turning creepy.

However, Mark was quick enough to turn away when the korean girl tried to look back at him.

As the days passed, Masaru began to care less about it. However, he was almost impressed, Mark sometimes kept "improving" Moni, while glancing at her.

One day, Grace got lipstick and a little make up. Or more than she had before, Masaru had no idea.

The Japanese didn't make a single comment about it. Although the same scenario as always was repeated, greeting and then absolute silence from Mark.

Masaru sighed, it seemed like it was going to be another day of third wheel discomfort.

He made his usual attempt to ignore them, but he stopped himself. What if Grace was after ...? Damn.

"Hey, Grace," Masaru called her as casually as he could.

"Hm? What's wrong?" She turned to him, and stopped typing on her laptop for a moment.

The japanese sighed in relief. No puppy eyes, no dilated pupils, no fake smile. At least reading Yumiko's teen magazine had been useful for something.

Masaru wouldn't have known how to act otherwise. Besides, he had been "in love" before, and now he did not have the time for that kind of crap.

"No, it's nothing" he shook his head.

Masaru felt Mark's gaze on himself, but he shrugged. Soon they were going to return to the usual "staring-look adorable" exchange.

A weird sound returned him to the loneliness of the workshop. It was a growl of his stomach. Maybe it was time to speed up his work.

"But when did he leave it here?" thought Masaru. Maybe it was in the morning, Mark always tried to learn Taina's step and go unnoticed where he was going. If the japanese was working on Yokai, he would not have noticed anything at all.

"Maybe I just should put it on Lesion's garden, he has so many of these that he won't notice" Masaru chuckled, turning away from the plant and focused again on his own drone.

Yokai buzzed. As if it were happy to receive the spare it so badly needed.

Despite being daytime, the first floor sleeping quarters' hallway was dark. The few light came from the window at the end, which gave a shy view of the garden, which some operators took care of as a hobby.

The spacious bedrooms, with four little and private rooms, were on the first floor, and the small ones, with just two rooms, were on the second floor.

Each door had a metal plate with a name according to the residents inside. The SAS had a British flag on the side, the GSG-9 a Germany one, the GIGN a French and so on.

In front of the FBI SWAT room, which was in the middle, there was a showcase, where all news about all of Rainbow was placed. Or at least that was the idea, because now anyone only had to send a message to their chat group and problem solved.

However, there was still the invitation for Jäger's birthday party, which was celebrated last week. Alexsandr was very fond of the old habits and made it.

Two doors to the right was the SAS room. A sign that said: "Thatcher" was trying to cover "Laza soights" written in indelible ink. Dominic's jokes were never missing.

Voices were heard through that door.

"Why does the old man take so long? I'm hungry." Seamus's deep voice asked.

"Perhaps breakfast got him sick." answered Mark's muffled voice.

"Awesome, James left without us" there was the sound of a door closing. "Let's get going, the old man will take an hour or two to get out of there."

The sound of a door opening was heard this time.

"Because I DO have hair and beard to take care of" Mike's voice growled "And stop calling me old!"

"You have hair YET, old man. Can we go now?"

"Give me a sec, let me dry myself out."

A gray cat came silently to the door of the SAS. Upon hearing the voices, he stopped and sat, looking at the door, expectantly.

"Will you go with the mask on again to get lunch, Mark?" Mike asked, with a little annoyance.

"It does not bother anyone, if that's what you mean," Mark replied, bored as usual.

"Hey, old man, did you hear the last news?" Seamus said, in a mischievous voice.

"Oh, a gossip? Just say it, Cowden..."

"One of my super reliable sources assures me ..."

"I think I already have an idea of what you're going to say, Cowden. It involves someone around here, right?"

"Yep, thought it was pretty obvious"

The silence lasted a few seconds.

"What, why are you looking at me?" Mark's voice was a little louder than usual.

Seamus and Mike laughed.

"Look kiddo, when I was young ..."

"Is it me or do all the old people always say they had a lot of girlfriends?" Seamus snapped out.

"STOP CALLING ME OLD! I AM ONLY 55!"

"I think that's not tru..."

"Shut up, Cowden. Going back to the subject, have you already tried asking her out?"

"Who? I don't know what you are talking about " Mark tried to suppress his nerves, but his voice changed to higher pitch, making it more obvious than it was before.

"We're talking about your korean bombshell Dokkaebi." Seamus emphasized each word.

Mark gasped and quickly gulped.

"Son, don't make it harder for yourself. Have you talked to her, invited her out, something?"

Silence took over the place for a while. Mark snorted.

"I gave her a cactus, happy?"

"Seriously, a cactus?" Seamus frowned.

"Well, it's not a bad idea, if she likes it and you have given it to her personally" Mike tried to see the bright side.

"Oh, actually..." Mark took a long pause. "I left it in her spot at the workshop"

"You couldn't give it to her yourself? Oh, man up Mark!" Seamus snapped, dissapointed.

"I wasn't going to give the cactus out of nowhere! Grace would think I'm a weirdo..."

"And don't you think she'd do exactly that? After seeing your spiny friend?"

"Wait, wait, Do you even have talked to her?" Mike asked calmly. "Besides saying hi" he added.

A moment of silence passed.

"I haven't." Mark's voice sounded increasingly frustrated. "Besides, I don't know even why I'm telling you this!" The screech of a sofa being pushed back was heard.

The sound steps coming towards the door were heard.

"Stop right there, Mute." Mike's voice was still peaceful. "We just wanna help. Besides, it would be good if the woman whose goal in life is making her colleagues rage over and over again with pranks, finds another way of entertainment, and that could be you."

"But Mark is boring" Seamus simply stated.

"Cowden, you are not helping. Now, kid, come here and sit down. Did you have a girlfriend in high school?"

"No, I never got interested. Besides, who has a girlfriend at twelve?"

"Alright, in college?"

"I don't think that twenty-year-old girls are interested in fourteen year-old-lads."

"Have you ever talked to a girl in your life?" Mike was losing all the hope he had.

"No. Romantically, no." Mark said quietly.

"Awesome, we're at about ... zero percent of progress." Mike feigned enthusiasm.

The cat began to scratch the door.

"It must be Bandit's cat, James feeds him sometimes." Mark spoke up, trying to change the subject.

Steps were heard coming again to the door. But they were deeper this time. The door swung open.

"Out!" Mike kicked, aiming to the air.

The cat ran out terrified. The opened door let see what seemed to be the SAS' small living room. Two armchairs, a couch and a small table. There was an abstract painting, and it could be seen another door that had a sign that said "Smoke". The SAS members were dressed casually, as it was their free day, but Mark had his mask on.

"I dunno why you hate cats so much, you are a lot like them, old man." Seamus pointed out.

"Huh?" Mike turned and crossed his arms.

Quickly the Scotsman took a small object out of his pocket, and turned it on, firing a red light to Mike's forehead.

"Boom, headshot."

Mark chuckled. Mike looked at the young brit and raised an eyebrow. It was very rare to see him laugh at something. Seamus had the same reaction, and aimed the red laser to Mark.

"It seems that love is changing someone" Mike leaned against the door frame.

"The looooooove" the Scotsman shake the laser all over Mark's chest.

If it had been possible, Mark would be letting steam out of his face. Seamus' stomach growled loudly.

"Don't you think we're done here, kid. Today it's the Germans' turn to serve lunch. Let's get going" Mike turned to the hallway. "Cowden, turn-that-fooking-thing-off."

"Aye aye, I trust that Jäger and IQ will do something edible." Seamus put the little laser thing back to his pocket and followed , but stopped and peeked through the door. "Hey, Mark!"

"Oh, coming." he said, returning to reality. Mark followed Seamus, and closed the door.

"As long as Bandit doesn't touch the food..." the voice of Mike was heard a little far now.

"Hey, who gave the idea of the cactus?" asked Seamus as the sound of his steps halted. "I know you are not that idiot to begin your courting like that."

"Uh... You are not gonna like the answer."

"Just tell me. I'll know anyway"

"It was... James' idea." Mark ran off. It was obvious he didn't want to see the scotsman reaction.

"Oh, man, from zero progress... It's now minus one."