Ripcord came running into the Alpha Team's recreation room, panting. The team turned to him in confusion. He lifted his head up and stumbled over to the couch. "Someone has to help me," he wheezed, "angry ninja."
They all looked to Snake Eyes who was sitting on his mat looking back at them. They started to get really confused until they heard a familiar female voice.
"RIPCORD!" Temper yelled. She stopped at the doorway and put both hands on either side of the door frame. She caught her breath and walked over to the man who was about to feel her wrath.
"What is that?" Scarlett asked, running a finger down Temper's arm, getting a slick substance that coated Temper's enter back side.
"Grease," Ripcord informed, trying to stop a laugh from slipping out.
"Grease?" Scarlett questioned.
"Yes, Rip greased the entire damn floor of the sparring room," Temper spat out angrily.
"Ma'am," Temper turned around to see a soldier holding a mop and a bucket, "you asked for these?"
"Yes, I did," Temper confirmed. The soldier nodded and placed the two items next to the door outside of the rec room. Temper turned to Ripcord. "Since you caused this, you get to clean it up."
Ripcord looked at her, shocked. He had been expecting her to yell or beat him up.
"Well okay," Ripcord shrugged, gladly taking this punishment over anything else she could be doing to him. He got up and walked over to the mop and bucket.
Behind his back Duke leaned over to whisper in Temper's ear.
"What are those things on the door?" Duke asked looking at two semi-circular devices on opposite sides of the doors. She placed them there when she came into the room.
"You'll see," Temper replied. The moment Ripcord stepped in the doorway blue paint sprayed him and dripped down his body. The team laughed at his expense. Even Snake Eyes' had laughed in his own silent way. Ripcord turned, wiping off paint from his eyes so he could open them.
"This is war," Ripcord informed Temper.
{**}
Temper woke up to an intruder alarm and rushed to the door. Upon opening her door, she found herself being bombarded by plastic cups filled with ice water that she guessed Ripcord had meticulously stacked to lean on her door.
Later, as she was chasing Ripcord with a bowl of flour she grabbed from the kitchen. Everyone steered clear of two as they raced down the halls. Ripcord made the mistake of running into a dead end in the west wing barracks. Turning around, Ripcord held his hands up in front of his face to protect himself and yelled something she never thought she would hear.
"Snake Eyes did it!" Ripcord shouted. When nothing happened he peeked through his hands to see a shell shocked Temper.
"What do you mean... Snakes did it?" she asked.
"I had the idea, but he helped stack them against the door so that when you opened it, they fell." She left Ripcord to hide and sought out the black clad ninja.
{**}
"Snakes!" Temper greeted as she walked over to the man in the mess hall. She held the bowl of flour in one hand, casually balancing it on her hip.
Couldn't find Ripcord?
"Why would I be looking for Ripcord?" she questioned, feigning confusion.
Because of the prank he pulled this morning.
"Oh, right! That. But, you see, I was thinking about it. And I came to the realization that he couldn't have stacked those cups so perfectly, in a short amount of time, without waking me up. Therefore, he must have had help."
I can explain, Snake Eyes started, realizing where this was going, but too slow as Temper flipped the bowl over his head, making him a Storm Shadow version of himself. Everybody in the mess hall started to laugh, a ninja coated in flour was not something they got see every day.
{**}
Temper avoided Snake Eyes as she was still blowing off steam. In order to get back at Ripcord she enlisted the help of Duke, who took pity on her as Snake Eyes had helped Ripcord. When the two men hit the showers Ripcord ended up showering in toothpaste infused water. No matter what he tried he couldn't get the smell off of him for the next two days.
Temper taunted him. "Embrace your Colgate smell and smile!" she said merrily.
Ripcord then enlisted the help of a few other men to fill the women's showers with red food coloring. The women who used the showers had a slight red tint to their skins and the men got a good laugh.
Temper now had most of the women involved in making sure the men got a few wake up calls with some well placed airhorns.
After a few warnings from Hawk, they had to tone down the pranks a little.
It started with filling rooms with balloons to things ending up in jello. Some people ended up searching all over the base for a few of their belongings when they got replaced with cardboard versions.
After a week or so, it dwindled back down to just Ripcord and Temper and anyone in the Alpha Team who was willing to help.
After, Ripcord went to bed in the room he shared with Scarlet and somehow woke up in a hammock on the ceiling of the mess hall with no easy way down, he knew he needed to step it up a little bit.
{**}
Snake Eyes had come to the sparring room as he had been doing for the past week after he helped Ripcord. He was surprised when Temper walked through the door as she had not talked to him since the flour incident in the mess hall. He instead resigned himself to helping out the men a few times and waiting until it was over to shake hands and put it behind them.
Please tell me you're not mad at me anymore, Snake Eyes pleaded, putting both hands on her hips.
"No, at this point it's just between me and Ripcord," Temper informed him.
Sparring?
"With staffs?" she asked excitedly. Snake Eyes nodded.
Temper and Snake Eyes practically beat each other senseless for the next hour and half and then meditated.
What do you think Ripcord's going to pull next? he asked, picking himself off the floor.
"I have no clue," she admitted, gathering her bag from the floor. "A group of Joes should be here soon to start some fighting match so I suggest you shower quick." Snake Eyes nodded and left to the locker room.
Temper took her bag into the locker room and undressed. She inspected the shower before getting in to avoid anything Ripcord might have done to it. She quickly applied soap, rinsed, and turned the shower head off. She pulled the curtain to the side and walked out to the changing area, a space the same size of the showers with a curtain to change behind and a metal shelf for clothes. However, she didn't see her clothes on the shelf, just the towel she left. She heard shouts from outside, in the sparring room. Panicking she checked all the changing rooms and came up empty. Damn it Rip! She cursed to herself. She peeked around the corner to see the man she was starting to loathe, with her bag in his hand. She looked around for Snake Eyes and saw that Ace was occupying his attention.
Come on, you can't let Rip get to you. Just go out there, ignore the assholes, get your bag, get back, she planned in her head. She took a deep breath and tried to steel her nerves. Letting out a deep breath she went around the corner and strode over to Ripcord. Catcalls and wolf whistles came from every side. She saw Ripcord's shocked face and snatched her bag. "Dickhead," she muttered, just loud enough for Ripcord to hear her.
She hastily went back into the locker room, got her clothes on, and raced out of the sparring room. Snake Eyes followed her all the way to her room. She left the door open which he closed after he entered. She flipped on the light switch and plopped down on her bed, pulling her knees to her chest. He sat down next to her and pulled her into his arms. She felt tears escape her body. Snake Eyes held her and listened to Temper cry as sobs racked her body. All he could do was hold her and wait. He hated that. Not being able to anything to help her. The cries died down and she pulled away from Snake Eyes.
Is wrong of me to say you look beautiful when you cry?
He looked at her. Cheeks flushed, eyes glassy, hair slightly wet and tousled. Images came to his mind of her cheeks being flushed and hair tousled for completely different reasons. He reprimanded himself for such inappropriate thoughts when she was like this.
"It takes some pretty great luck to get a good compliment from a guy about how a girl looks when she's crying," Temper joked.
She put both hands on his shoulders and used them to hoist herself up to her knees. Putting one knee on either side of him, she straddled him. Temper slowly lifted her hand from his shoulders to the edge of his mask. She waited for a second, allowing him time to stop her, but he made no move to do so. She had only watched him take off the bottom half once, but she copied his movements as best as she could. Once the bottom half was off the rest was a piece of cake. Temper took off his visor, revealing blue eyes a little darker than hers. Next, she slid off the back piece and let his blonde hair free. She blushed profusely at the handsome man before her. Snake Eyes smirked.
Is this what you were expecting? All she could do was shake her head.
"Will you do something for me?" She asked.
What? He could not deny that the look of lust he saw in her eyes did wonders for his pride.
"Will you stay the night? At least until I fall asleep." Snake Eyes got up, putting his mask on her dresser, taking his shoes off and turning off the lights. He walked over to the bed and brought her down to the mattress with him. Snake Eyes had his arm wound around her waist, locking her into place with him. He had planned to wait until she fell asleep, but looking at her, he could not bring himself leave, so he fell asleep as well.
If Snake Eyes could go back in time to when he woke up he would do a million times just to wake up to Temper again. She was still sleeping peacefully and at one point during the night turned to lay on her back. Snake Eyes moved to turn on the lamp after he woke up and he saw Temper's eyes twitched and her body turned towards him. Her eyelids flickered open and she took in the sight of the man in front of her. She smiled at him. "Thanks for staying."
It was my pleasure, he replied as he moved his body to hover over hers, making her lay on her back again. Snake Eyes lowered his body onto hers, careful not put his full weight on her, and kissed her. Temper put both of her hands on his shoulders and opened her mouth to him. While he held himself up with one arm the other went to the base of her skull and he deepened the kiss. The two of them struggled for dominance until the intercom came on in her room.
*Will Temper, Snake Eyes, and Ripcord please report to General Hawk's office. I repeat: Will Temper, Snake Eyes, and Ripcord please report to General Hawk's office*. They separated from each other and Snake Eyes got up, then helped her. He put the mask back on and they left.
{**}
Ripcord and Temper sat in the two seats across from Hawk's desk, where he was seated. Snake Eyes stood in the middle of the seats with his arm crossed.
"It had come to my attention that you two have been playing a series of pranks on each other," Hawk informed them.
"It was just a harmless game," Ripcord spoke.
"Up until yesterday, which I have already warned the Pit about," Hawk pointed out.
"What happened yesterday was an accident," Ripcord defended himself. She saw Snake Eyes tense in anger.
"What exactly were you planning Ripcord?" Hawk inquired.
"I thought she would just wait until the guys left or have to sneak through the air vents," Ripcord explained.
"You didn't think she wouldn't come and get her clothes?"
"I didn't think she would risk it. I honestly didn't mean for any of that to happen."
"You will be overseen by Snake Eyes for the duration of your punishment," General Hawk started.
"Woah," Ripcord intervened with panic.
"You will be cleaning the sparring room for the next three weeks. You will put in extra training time with Snake Eyes for the next two. You will also be cleaning the floors of the bathrooms and locker rooms," Hawk ordered.
"I'm sure Snake Eyes doesn't want to waste his time training with me," Ripcord tried to get out of the beating he knew he was going to take.
"There is NO arguing. Your free time between five and six will be training with Snake Eyes. After dinner you will be cleaning up. Snake Eyes, Ripcord, you're dismissed."
The two left quietly.
"Is there a reason you called me here, Sir?" Temper asked.
"I guess I can't help but feel a little overprotective you. I was there when you were born. I would trust Snake Eyes with my life, that doesn't mean he isn't a guy. Look, what I'm trying to say is-"
"I'm not having this talk with you!" Temper interrupted. She could feel herself blush.
"I'm just trying to warn you," he explained, putting his hands up in defense.
"Consider me warned." With that she practically ran out of the room leaving an amused Hawk to himself.
{**}
Snake Eyes walked into the sparring room at five, on the dot. Ripcord trudged in, being berated by Scarlett that he deserved it. After she left, Ripcord turned to the ninja.
"So, what's first?" Ripcord asked apprehensively. Snake Eyes took out a pad and pen and wrote something down then handed to the man.
Conditioning.
"What? No 'wax on, wax off' shit?" Snake Eyes shook his head. What I wouldn't give to be with Temper, even if it's just sparring, he thought to himself. He motioned with his hand and Ripcord followed him to the workout room.
"What's first? Weights?" Again Snake Eyes shook his head. "C'mon man, work with me here," Ripcord pleaded.
They both walked over to the Salmon Ladder and Snake Eyes motioned for him to do what he could. Ripcord opened his mouth to smart off, but thought better of it and did as the 'Zen Master' asked.
At first Ripcord just hung there, and then swung his legs forward then back as quickly as he could while he pulled himself up a little with his arms and made a small jump, but didn't make it to the next bar. He tried several times to no avail.
"How the heck do you do this?" Ripcord asked, still hanging.
Muscle, Snake Eyes wrote.
"Haha," Ripcord exaggerated. "Seriously man, I can't do this."
150 pull ups then. Ripcord did it willingly with no complaint. 150 crunches.
After that Snake Eyes assigned push ups and after that, he had Ripcord do a headstand against the wall.
When the first hour of their time had disappeared the two men went back to the sparring room. Ripcord had been assigned to do some moves that Snake Eyes showed him and Snake Eyes did his katas.
Their session ended when dinner came and started again at the men's locker room. By the time Ripcord was done it was almost eleven. It would not have taken that long if Ripcord didn't stop and complain every five minutes.
Snake Eyes and Ripcord walked to the sleeping quarters and saw Temper going toward Snake Eyes' door.
"Hey. I expected to see you at least for an hour this evening," Temper informed Snake Eyes. He saw that she was trying to avoid looking at Ripcord.
I kept Ripcord from five to dinner.
"But there should be an hour between six and seven." Ripcord was beginning to get curious as to what they were talking about.
I'm not about to go easy on him. Temper smirked.
"Well, you should get going. Scarlett's waiting for you," Temper told Ripcord. She still didn't look at him, but the floor.
Temper waited until Ripcord had practically limped out sight before she opened her door and beckoned Snake Eyes to follow her in.
{**}
The two weeks Snake Eyes had with Ripcord went by agonizingly slow for the both of them. Or at least, it seemed like it for a while.
Each day Ripcord came back to his room in pain. Scarlett didn't really mind, knowing he deserved it. After a while, Scarlett made Ripcord sympathize with Snake Eyes by asking him what he would do if someone had her walk out in a towel in front of a bunch of men.
Each day Snake Eyes increased the level of Ripcord's training. Going to bed late was made so much more worth it when Temper let him in her room and he left feeling very... satisfied.
He felt almost a little guilty when he watched Ripcord struggle to walk back to his room, but the more Temper became his, the more he wanted to kick himself for not protecting her better in the situation Ripcord had put her in.
"What are you thinking about?" Temper asked.
He snapped back to reality and realized that she was waiting on him. Ripcord had left their sight already and he got so lost in thought he didn't realize it.
He smiled underneath his mask and quickly escourted her over to her bed.