June 8th 1550 hours.
The team met in the ever gloom hunt tree-house. Skipper stood in front of this team; Rico wearing a very solemn look, Kowalski, wary and almost devastated, and finally his apprentice; Private, who smiled obliviously to all that was going on around him, aside for Kowalski's feelings for Rico.
"Men," the leader sighed, "today is the day that we approach Julien and his cohorts."
It seemed much longer off than it reall was that this day would come; Kowalski rubbed his face and looked off to the entrance of HQ. Maybe he could get away with running home and locking the door. The tired eyes turned to get a glance at his love, who exchanged the glance back, trying for a heartfelt smile.
"Fish and chips Kowalski, Rico, you look like your dead. Buck up! This is a mission!"
Skipper began to pace in front of the ghastly looking males. He lifted up the paper that he had recieved the night before from Kowalski, the corner ripped off. Private's expression churned slightly.
"What happened to the pitcha in the corner?"
"There was no picture."
Private became discouraged and lowered his head. Continuing with what he had said, Skipper cleared his throat.
"Kowalski will be staying here with Rico. Private, you will be going with me to confront Julien."
The strategist raised his head up, before lowering it back down. Rico could feel the pain of his team member, he ached.
"The two of you will hold up here if anyone tries to come while both Private and I are talking to our new...neighbor."
"Yessir!" Each of them saluted before taking off on their duties.
A loud close of the hatch, and the two were left alone. This silence was more uneasy than before, Kowalski stepped over to one of the chairs at the desk and dropped his head upon the cold metal. It was a comforting feeling, as uncomfy as it was. Rico followed and took a seat next to him, his hand moved out and delicately touched the long fingers. The taller one raised his head up to be greeted with a worrying smile.
"I'm okay.."
Rico wasn't so convinced, he scooped up the hand into his and gave out a soft grunt.
"Rico..." said Kowalski in a whisper.
His first motion was to pull his hand back, and slipped it back into his lap, sitting himself up into the chair.
"Kowalski not okay.." the bigger one muttered in a raspy tone. His hand was left on the table, curling up into a weak fist.
"Picture..?"
The thought of it didn't even occur, Kowalski was up so late, he almost forgot there was a drawing on that piece of paper. He shuffled out of his chair and turned to the window, watching both Skipper and Private make their way to the door of Julien's.
"I drew you on my paper...I'm sure Skipper didn't..appreciate me doodling."
Have to pick your words carefully..
"Mad for being with me..."
"No no...that's not it Ric-" Kowalski felt the larger body wrap around his, his natural warmth almost making his shell of moodiness melt right off of him. A long breath left his lips, unable to help but sink back into the larger one.
"Know about fight.."
The breath that grazed his ear made Kowalski shiver, and forced his cheeks red. If it wasn't for what Rico said he would have most likely just lost himself even more than he already was.
"Then you know Skipper doesn't like us being together like this..."
Rico gave a nod and leaned himself forward, pressing a light peck to his cheek. The taller one was starting to loose himself quicker than he expected, each little bit of affection was only making him not care about Skipper's orders even more so then earlier.
"...Skipper not have to know," Rico spoke up.
Kowalski hesitated a moment, turning to get the flawless face of his potential lover into his vision, "You agree with me?"
The older one just smiled and moved his head closer.
Is he..
His heart began to beat faster and faster, Kowalski began to move in just as equally until their lips met. The dainty hands weakly grasping for Rico's which had rested upon his stomach, giving them a squeeze. It felt as if all time stopped. There was no mission, no tension between him and Skipper, no arguing, nothing. Just him and Rico, bliss. Once they pulled back, his eyes lowered to the wooden panels below them.
"We cant...do this in Headquarters.."
As much as he hated to admit it, Kowalski had a point. The two of them separated and took different positions. Kowalski staying at the window, and Rico, near the entrance. Both held a goofy look to their face, they couldn't help it..
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1630 hours
Sometime passed and Skipper emerged into the Headquarters. A very defining smile upon his face, it scared Kowalski a bit. His brow rose and sat up from his station at the window, a meek smile of his own plastered to his soft lips.
"Well, I believe that braindead Julien understands that this is our- my property, HQ I mean," he cleared.
"His cousin Mort is quite friendly." Private crawled up into the tree house as well and dusted off his shorts.
Rico gave out a delighted grunt, turning a glance over to Kowalski, who in turn felt his face flush. Skipper immediately sensed that light mood in the air, his suspicions rose to almost maximum.
"Well, you two seem to be in a good mood all of a sudden."
Kowalski hesitated, before he turned to him again.
"Sorry Skipper, there was something funny on TV."
"Then why is the TV off?"
"They could have turned it off Skippah.." Private replied, wobbling over to it.
Skipper turned his attention over to Rico, who was put in a trance-like state by his game.
"Kowalski," he asked rubbing his chin, "How about I come over for a late night sleep over?"
The apprentice turned his attention over to the strategist, then Skipper, letting out a whine to himself.
"Uh..sure Skipper,"
"Great...see you later on tonight.." he smiled and trailed over to the chair next to Private.
Kowalski was confused about the sudden ask to stay the night, but, he wouldn't object. His leader seemed to be acting very friendly about it...
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2200 hours
"Did you want to sleep on the floor Skipper?" a tasteful sigh leaving his lips laced within each word.
"Don't have a pull out?"
"Not to my knowledge."
Floor it was, Skipper didn't mind the floor, but sleeping on something harder then stone would be nice. Each of the males entered Kowalski's pristine room, which had been a little more messy than clean. With all that had been going on, cleaning up his room was one of the least important things on his mind. He turned to Skipper a faint look of challenge in his eye.
"Alright then...supper then?"
"This late?" Kowalski queried.
"Eleven that's not that late, I eat at around this time at home, but lately I haven't been able to." he raised his brow in reply
"...I suppose then, what would you like? I can call for pizza or something."
"Anchovy pepperoni?"
Kowalski shrugged and dropped on to his messy bed giving a lazy nod.
"Phone is downstairs in the kitchen, Dominoes' number is on one of the sticky-notes on the fridge. I'll clean up my room, and set up your...bed."
Skipper grunted and writhed out into the hall, down the stairs, and into the kitchen. His eyes almost burned from the brightness of it, blindly, he grabbed for the phone and turned towards the fridge.
Why are there so many..
The silver fridge was coated with about 40 different sticky notes, after much squinting and effort, Skipper tugged the Dominoes number off and dialed.
Kowalski fixed up his bed, tucking the sheets in, fluffing his pillows, picked up all the papers and pencils on the floor. Once he made it to his desk, the deep blue eyes peered over all his pages. One specifically caught his eye, the page of many profiles of the team. Delicately, he picked it up, it was the only drawing where he did Rico's expression exactly as the real him. He smiled and moved it on to his nightstand, putting it in the bottom drawer.
"Pizza will be here in twenty."
The taller one flinched which had made all the papers in his other hand drop, a shaky breath came from him and turned to Skipper.
"Scared me.."
"Someones a little jumpy," Skipper commented.
"Happens when your meta-cognitive.." he inferred, cleaning off the rest of his desk, organizing each paper into their correct folders before taking a seat on his bed, Skipper stealing the desk chair. There always seemed to be a space of gravity between them, without it, who knows what would happen. Silence. Skipper coughed and shifted in his chair.
"So..." he finally struck up.
The younger one raised his head, staring behind his leader at the textured gray wall.
"hmn?"
"Rico."
"What about him?"
"Have you been to the fair yet Kowalski?"
"uh," he drawled out uneasily, setting his hands upon his lap, staring over each finger tip before raising his head, "no...I haven't, have you?"
Skipper sat up more, and let his arms caress against his chest, crisscrossed.
"Huh, Julien said that he saw two of us at the fair a few days ago."
The went silent and began fidgeting.
"I said you weren't supposed to be with him Kowalski,"
"Why are you so hellbent on us not being together? Your being so damn over protective," he muttered venomously.
The doorbell rang, Skipper proceeded to get up and step down the stairs. Pulled out a twenty and took the pizza.
"Did you want it down here or can we eat in your room?" he shouted from downstairs.
Kowalski's expression faltered
What the hell...was he just teasing me?
"Downstairs!" the taller one nudged open the door and pitter-patted down the stairs and met up with Skipper in the living room, already chewing through a first piece. He took a seat on the white couch and grabbed for one piece of pizza, taking a few bites from it.
Kowalski picked up the remote and clicked the TV on.
"So was that argument just for your amusement?" he muttered, a mouthful of pizza.
"No, it was for a reason."
"What would that be, Skipper."
The other put his pizza down, cleared his throat and took a good sock right into Kowalski's cheek bone. He yelped out as he dropped his pizza on to the floor, his glasses dropping on to the ground as well. Pulsations of alerts ran to the area of the pain, making it throb and swell. With a stunned look, he turned to look at his expressionless leader.
"Y-you...you punched me," Kowalski mumbled.
"I thought a normal smack wouldn't have given enough impact" Skipper replied, simply.
"That doesn't give you a right to punch me..."
"What are you going to do about it?"
Now that he thought about it, he didn't really know...he was nowhere near strong enough to make a bruise like Skipper just did.
"I don't acting like this to you Kowalski, but sometimes a leader has to make a point."
"What point!?" The taller one stood up and glared, ""Your overreacting to this! There was absolutely no point to punching me, you keep repeating yourself. Don't be around Rico because the team may get screwed up."
Kowalski clicked the TV off and turned his attention to Skipper again, whom was starting to feel the tension rise in himself.
"Because it will Kowalski, if one of you gets hurt then they will end up leaving."
"Then maybe I should leave, just so I don't have to deal with you and being punched again," Kowalski snarled.
"Oh, so you think your leaving? If you leave then you wont be around any-"
"That's not to your jurisdiction Skipper, you cant control people. We're individuals damn it,"
Skipper got up, the other flinched in fear of being punched again. His small body swiftly went up the stairs, grabbed his bag and began for the door. Kowalski took long strides and made to the door, grabbing Skipper's shoulder and pulling him away. Skipper gave out a grunt and felt his body fall to the ground, he turned up to his strategist.
"You cant keep me in here." he challenged.
"I'm not, I'm trying to get you to explain more to why you don't want me being with Rico like this. Stop running, your a leader, face things."
He preceded to stand up, and dust himself off, grabbing for the doorknob. Once again, he grabbed his shoulder and jerked him back. Skipper's brow furrowed and turned to look at the other, glaring.
"Let go."
"I'll quit if you leave."
"No you wont, stop spewing nonsense"
The shorter one shoved Kowalski off him and proceeded out the door. He wasn't going to let Skipper go yet, just as he made it down the stairs his own fist slammed right into the other's stomach. A loud grunt of pain left him winded, clutching at his stomach lightly. As feeble as he was, the rage was starting to get to Kowalski. Petty thoughts were fading, anger was rising, adrenaline, rushing.
"Skipper, you HAVE to have a reason. Stop avoiding answers and tell me!"
A wince left him before dropping his bag and grabbing Kowalski by the arm, forcing him to the ground, landing with a thump. Skipper took this time to jump atop of Kowalski, peering over him.
"I already told you, there is nothing else to it! Stop overanalyzing!" he barked out.
Unable to move, Kowalski struggled under his leader, staring into his eyes, he knew that he was lying. This was such a stupid reason, so simplistic. Too simplistic. His body began to rock back and forth, trying to get Skipper off him.
"Get off me you liar!"
"I'm not lying!" he shouted back, giving a smack across Kowalski's face.
"Stop hitting me!"
Pulsations of pain stung through his cheek, feeling it again on the other side as well. His body writhed about until he finally him off. The two took a step back and glared at each other, chests rising and falling again. Kowalski rubbed his face tenderly, feeling the swelling begin. Skipper grabbed his bag, slung it on his shoulder and began off. With his back turned, Kowalski tackled him to the ground.
Your a liar, stop lying, I hate you, you want me to be alone...alone forever. I try to stay in line, follow your rules. I can only take so much..
Skipper's shouts were getting muffled, he could feel himself wailing on the back of his leader over and over.
"The reason I am so against this Kowalski is because I followed in your same exact tracks! I don't want you to hurt Rico like I did!" Skipper yelped out in pain.
Instantly, his body stopped moving, everything stopped. He jerked his body backwards, making Kowalski fall off.
Lights turned on across the cul-de-sac. Private, along with Rico left the house and came to the scene under the lamp-lights. The apprentice tugged his leader backwards and helped him up.
"Skippah...wot happe-" Skipper jerked his arm back, nudging the younger one off him.
Rico stepped in to help up Kowalski, brushing him off and taking a step in front of him, just incase there was any more pursuing of this fight.
"Leave me alone Percy...I'm going home.."
Private watched him walk off, hesitating, he gave a quick look to Kowalski, then Rico and followed after Skipper.
"You never told me..." Kowalski whispered.
You never told me..
Rico felt the smaller mass drop against his back, he turned to look at the bruised up male. His azure eyes lowered, Kowalski's hands weakly grabbed at his chest. Slowly, he kneeled down against the street and tugged the other up into his arms.
"Everythings...okay.." Rico whispered into his ear, "okay.."
A/N: I'm sorry I leave so many AN's. But, I apologize if this didnt come out as fabulous. I spent a good hour using an online grammer and spellchecker page and after all that work it ended up not loading the document for me. So if are there any apparent errors, its cause I wasnt able to fix them on the original document. I really hope people like this twist I gave it. I think it gives me a bit more to work with, to an extent. I've noticed that chapters may come slower, only because I do end up getting really tired after school and such. Please Review!
-SM
