A week later...

The Australian Defense Force may not be one of the largest military forces in the world, but for what they lack in numbers they make up in training standards and equipment. Those aspects are what keep the ADF a more-than-capable force in the Pacific.

One downside of where they are located geographically: not a lot of opportunities to go through Cold Weather and Mountain Warfare Training. A fact that Shade and Gale were presently more than aware of. However Gale had a nice thick leather airman's jacket to shield him from the cold.

"T-t-take me b-back to th-the sweet-t-t times, th-th hot-t nights, e-e-everything's g-gonna b-be alright-t in the summert-t-time…" Shade sung to himself, gloved hands tucked between the gap of his vest and jacket, head tucked down low as he tried to preserve the little bit of heat he had left. Him, Dash, Chemo and Scarecrow were gathered around a small fire near the back end of a CH-46 Sea Knight, waiting for the signal to deploy and collect Roach and Captain MacTavish from their recovery mission at some mountaintop airbase, searching for and picking up key components from a downed satellite. "A-and even if-f-f I have t-t-to wait t-til next y-year, I d-don't c-care, a-all I kn-know is th-th-that I'll m-meet you there, in th-th summert-time…"

"Bloody hell," Gale exclaimed as he walked down the ramp of the helicopter, a steel mug of fresh coffee in his hands, "Haven't heard a damn Thirsty Merc song in ages."

"I'm th-thinking hot t-though G-Gale, f-figured I'd g-give the th-theme for B-Bondi Rescue a t-t-try," Shade answered, feeling miserable in the cold.

Scarecrow looked between the two Australians and the vastly different attitudes to the cold, "I'm sorry, Gale, but I don't understand why you seem comfortable while Shade here looks like someone's dipped him in liquid nitrogen."

Gale smirked and sat down in front of the fire, extending his free hand to catch some warmth, "That's because Shade was born and raised in sunny Queensland, while I'm a cold-blooded Victorian. We don't get snow regularly, but it's still pretty bloody cold."

"S-s-screw you," Shade shivered out behind clenched teeth. Gale simply chuckled.

"Spoken like a true Queenslander."

"Gale," Dash hissed from her position, huddled close to the fire, "Where the hell did you get coffee?"

Gale smirked and shook his head, "A magician never reveals his secrets, young Dash," he chuckled before taking a sip, sighing contentedly afterwards, "Besides, you all knew we were coming to the cold… should've packed your own shit."

"Hey Shade," Chemo spoke up, waving at him to catch his attention, "Let me know if you start feeling warm all of a sudden, okay?"

"I'm in f-front of a f-f-fucking fire, Ch-Chemo…" Shade shot the medic a nasty look. He just dismissed him with a hand wave.

"I meant from deeper inside. The second that happens, you say so. Don't want you succumbing to hypothermia, alright?"

Scarecrow chuckled, "The great and fearless Australian, brought down by mere cold weather."

"F-f-fuck off… wh-why aren't y-y-you lot hassl-ling D-D-D-D-Dash?" Shade stammered repeatedly to the others amusement, "Isn't-t she from t-the b-b-b-bloody d-d-d-d-desert anyway?"

Gale laughed, "Because we don't wanna fuckin' die mate," he then looked at the soldier apologetically, "And no offense Dash, but you're a nasty sheila when angry."

Dash flashed him a confused smile, "Thanks… I think," she then looked back down to Shade, and shuffled to sit closer to him, "Hey, you aren't the only one feelin' it."

"... n-n-no fuck-king doubt that Roach-ch is inside a warm b-b-build-ding right now…"

Roach quietly swore to himself as he hid outside a doorway to a small hut, peering around to the four enemy soldiers that were in his way, all of them gathered around a space heater and dressed in thick cold-weather uniforms.

"Couldn't bloody hide shit on a tropical island, can't they…" he muttered, steeling himself before leaning around with his suppressed ACR at the ready.

"In all seriousness though," Chemo spoke up, looking at their pilot, "where did you get that damn coffee? Might help Shade out actually, even if it is for a few minutes…"

Gale shrugged and nodded his head back towards the aircraft, "It ain't mine, actually. NJ brought his extra-large thermos for the pair of us." He took another sip, "If it's for medicinal purposes, I'm sure he'll share a little bit around…"

Chemo smiled behind his facemask, "Would you mind asking?" Gale nodded and disappeared back into the aircraft, while Shade gave Chemo an appreciative look.

"Why don't we just move him back into the aircraft if he's at risk of turning into an Aus-sicle?" Scarecrow asked with a small laugh.

"One, the fire is out here and providing some kind of warmth. Two, while the cargo bay is out of the snow, it's still a cold steel tube. We might as well walk into a freezer, for how much good it'll do," Chemo answered, "And three, I can't be assed walking in and out to check on him and stay by the fire every few minutes."

"Aww, h-h-he really d-d-does care…" Shade muttered out from behind his balaclava, turtling up into a ball even more, "I love you too, Doc."

"Stop talking, Shade," Chemo shot back with rolled eyes, "You'll save energy and warmth that way." The Australian nodded in acknowledgement and kept quiet, focusing on warm thoughts and the like. Gale reemerged a few minutes later with a small can full of the warm coffee, and handed it to the freezing Aussie who, despite the comparatively scalding temperature, quickly downed it in a few gulps.

"Thanks m-m-mate," he muttered with a welcome sigh, feeling the warmth spread through his body slowly, "b-bloody lifesaver…"

Dash smiled softly, then glanced to her watch. "Captain'll hopefully be finished soon, we're about another hour or so from the extract time." The resulting dismayed groan from the rest of her team had her laughing softly to herself.

Twenty minutes had passed. NJ was now sitting with them in his flight suit and jacket, discussing his life in Alaska and previous experience with the freezing cold, after Shade had asked him in no uncertain terms, "how the fuck aren't you even shivering?"

The Aussie was now firmly between Dash and Scarecrow, the two of them sharing their body heat with him under Chemo's direction. Despite all the teasing, they were concerned for how poor Shade was feeling in the cold. Had they known that he had a very low tolerance for these conditions, they would have not put him on the team.

"... and the bears, damn, even in four foot snow they can move like a freight train, and take just as long to stop. Pops had to put a pair of three-oh-eights in a bear's head to stop it when it started to charge our home." NJ shook his head as he recalled the memory, "But we got some nice bearskin rugs made out of it as a result, so that was pretty cool." He was about to continue when the radio on his hip came to life.

"Kilo Six-One, this is Hotel Six. We've been compromised! Our primary exfil is no-go, we're headed to the secondary on commandeered enemy snowmobiles!" The team sprang to life, Scarecrow assisting the nearly frozen Shade to his feet, and they all climbed on board. "We'll meet you there!"

NJ climbed into the cockpit as Gale's hands flew across the multiple consoles, the twin engines of the Sea Knight coughed into life and began spinning the two rotors on the top. Dash tuned into the radio to respond to the Captain.

"Copy that Hotel Six, we're launching now, out!" Everyone strapped in as the rotors spun up and started shaking the aircraft's frame. Within minutes, Gale and NJ had the helicopter airborne and speeding towards the rest of the team. Dash and Scarecrow were on the seats right at the end of the ramp, the top half of the hatch retracted so they could keep a watch for the snowcraft that Captain MacTavish and Roach had stolen. Chemo was further up going through his supplies, getting a few bandages out and setting them on the seat next to him in preparation. Shade, now thawing out from a mixture of the aircraft's heating system and the adrenaline rushing through his system, was watching out of the side hatch, adding to their field of view.

They flew low and reached a large frozen lake, where they could see a large force chasing two vehicles around the small 'islands'. "I see them!" Scarecrow called out, pointing out to everyone else.

"Good!" Gale called back over the intercom, "We're getting low on fumes up here. Get them to get a move on, will ya!?"

"Will do!" Dash said as she keyed her radio, "Captain, we have you visual, but we're getting low on fuel up here."

"Copy that, we're taking heavy fire down here but we're almost there!" Was the reply, engine noise and gunfire audible in the background.

"I'm swinging 'er around, drop the ramp and cover 'em!" Gale shouted over the intercom, Scarecrow reaching up behind him for the ramp controls, lowering the ramp down enough for both him and Dash to lean out slightly with their ramp and send harassing fire out to the enemy forces that were closing in. They started to back off, affording both MacTavish and Roach enough room to breathe. "Okay, get ready for landing! We gotta make this quick!"

Dash and Scarecrow watched from their vantage point at the ramp as they shot ahead of their team leader, flying over a large hillside dotted with trees before coming to a steady but rapid descent in a clearing across from the gorge. She shared a look with Scarecrow before focusing her eyes back out to the hill, "They aren't-"

"Roach! Pin the throttle! Don't slow down!"

"You gotta be shittin' me!" The four soldiers watched in shock as two snowmobiles sped down a steep hill, swerving and dodging trees, before launching off of the end of the hill where a natural 'ramp' of sorts had formed. Time felt like it slowed as Roach and Captain MacTavish soared over the open chasm and landed on the other side, slowing down to a halt just before the Sea Knight.

"Fuck me!" Roach screamed as his feet hit the soft snow, almost stumbling as the reality of what he just did hit him. "Fuuucking fuck!"

"Come on! Let's get goin', can't dawdle here all day!" Gale shouted from the cockpit over the noise, Scarecrow helping the shaken Roach on board while Dash and MacTavish held security. Just as fast as they had arrived, they took off and flew away, back to base.

Shade sat down next to his friend and pat him on the shoulder. "Bloody hell mate, you're makin James Bond look like an amaetur with stunts like that."

"Fuck mate, Bond can do his own damn stunts!" Roach shook his head, calming down from the adrenaline rush.

"I hope you remembered your GoPro."

"... god fucking damnit!"

"... then the Captain told me to pin the throttle, and I'm thinking 'what the fuck is the boss thinking?' We speed down this steep fucking hill, swerving between trees, and I look up to see this huge fucking cliff at the end of this hill…" Roach was talking a mile a minute, recounting the story of the mission to an audience in the rec room, a day after their return. Shade was sitting on a nearby couch with Dash beside him, watching the scene with amusement. They had both heard it on the flight back from Kazakhstan, though certain details had changed between that version and the version that was being told right now.

Shade turned to Dash and nudged her side, grabbing her attention. "When do you think he'll sell the movie rights?"

"When the reports are declassified in twenty-never?" She chuckled back, shaking her head and going back to her sketch pad.

"Reckon they'll get Hemsworth to play the part of me?" He continued on, "Either Chris or Liam, doesn't really matter. Then we get… uh… Liam Neeson as the Captain, Chemo can be played by that guy from Ted… y'think Chris Pratt can pull off a British accent?"

She rolled her eyes at him, tossing the sketch pad and pencil onto the coffee table, "Chris Pratt could pull off an accent that doesn't exist yet."

"That's great," Shade said excitedly, missing the point as he went on, "Jeffrey Donovan can be Scarecrow… that just leaves you, D…" he studied her for a few moments, hand on his chin, before snapping his fingers, "Emily Blunt or Jessica Chastain."

Dash chuckled and shook her head once more, "I never took you for a fanboy, Shades." The man shrugged at her, leaning back into the couch.

"Eh, I wouldn't call myself a fanboy exactly. I just like movies, and without an internet connection stable enough to watch stuff online or play games, we watched a lot of movies during our down time on deployments back at the Commandos." Shade sighed wistfully, "And after watching the same batch of movies with the same sets of actors and actresses for at least five times per tour… well, you end up learning their entire filmography."

"Uh-huh…" Dash replied skeptically, leaning back comfortably. "Say what you want, you're still a dork." She started to chuckle as Shade sighed dramatically and rolled his eyes. She went back to her pad, picking it up and opening it up to a blank page. Shade glanced over to her then focused his attention back to the crowd, where he noticed a new face amongst the audience. He stood up and made his way over, standing beside his target and tapping him on the shoulder.

"Oh, hey man," Allen said as he looked at Shade in surprise, "How've you been?"

"Keepin' busy mate, and you?"

"Working hard… I thought the RASP was tough, you guys are another five levels above that." Allen said exasperatedly, rubbing his neck to Shade's amusement.

"We are the best of the best of the best, after all, what else did you expect?" He said, patting the American on the back, "Any word on what team you're posted to yet, or is that still up in the air?"

Allen scrunched up his face in thought, "Not yet man, they've been putting me through all these different training courses that I didn't even know were even things that you would need. Thank god I have Russian heritage, otherwise I'd still be in that damn classroom."

Shade quirked an eyebrow at him, "Oh yeah? What do you mean?"

"Well, they've been putting me through stuff like intelligence gathering, linguistics and languages, some real James Bond, double-oh-seven kind of shit." Shade thought about this bit of information carefully, trying to make sense of it. "We're wrapping it up very soon though, so I expect a placement soon."

He nodded and looked over to Dash, then back at Allen. "Sweet. Well, if you have any dramas or questions or whatever, you know who to see."

Allen smirked, "Not you, from what I've heard."

"... you're learning really quickly." Shade nodded in approval, to which Allen chuckled.

"The banter's the same, you just have a lot more options for material with you guys."

"Is this a bromance I'm witnessing?" Meat called out, walking over and slinging an arm around both the Australian and Americans' necks, "Better be careful, Allen, don't want to have Dash find out that Shade's cheating on her with you."

Allen looked at Meat and Shade in confusion, "Wait, I thought you said that you two weren't a thing?"

Shade shoved Meat's arm off and frowned at him, "We aren't, but Meathead over here has it in his thick skull that we are."

"My tag should've been Cupid, always bringing people together. Just you wait, after your date you'll come to me all 'how can I ever repay you? I'm so much better for having Dash as my one true love!' And I'll be all, 'worry not, I'm just doing what I do best?'"

"Being a pest?" Shade shot out with no amount of restrained venom. "Seriously, fuckin' drop it or I'll drop you." Meat lifted his hands in surrender, stepping back from the Aussie.

"Alright, alright… I'm just sayin' man, I reserve the right to say 'I told you so', okay?"

Shade rolled his eyes but let the man off, "Whatever…" He turned around and headed back to the couch where Dash was still seated, Allen internally smirking as he realised that Shade wasn't doing anything really helpful to defend his case. Now that Meat had called attention to it, actually, Allen could kind of see what he and a few others had remarked to him. There was definitely something there, but it was faint.

He was drawn from his thoughts when a young-looking Lance Corporal dressed in a British Army uniform tapped him on the shoulder. "Excuse me, PFC Allen?"

"Yes?" He answered, turning around to face the newcomer.

"General Shepherd has requested your presence in his office, immediately. Said it was an urgent matter regarding your position in the unit." His eyebrows shot up, maybe he was about to find out his team placement now. He nodded and thanked the young soldier, then flashed a confident thumbs up to both Shade and Dash as he made his way out and towards the administration block.

One month later...

"Do you seriously not own anything even remotely fashionable?" Staff Sergeant Amy Bradford said with a frustrated sigh, turning back around and rounding on her 'subject', Dash. Said subject was laying back on her bunk with her sketchpad once again in her lap, a disinterested look on her face.

"Nope…" she answered plainly, "it's not like I was expecting to be coerced into a date."

"I'm more surprised by the fact that you actually agreed to that kind of thing," another woman, Lieutenant Emma Moore-White, spoke up from the end of Dash's bunk, "I think you've been around Meat a bit too long," she chuckled at the end of her remark.

"Oh please! The only reason we didn't win was 'cause Shade mucked up his landing!" She argued, flicking her pencil at the Lieutenant.

"That's beside the point," Amy said, leaning against the wardrobe door, "even if you knew you were going to run, why'd you accept those conditions?"

Emma jumped in, "It doesn't seem like you to take that risk," she shifted around and swung her legs down to the floor, "so there has to be more to it."

Dash rolled her eyes, "I thought there was no way in hell we'd lose. Ain't no more to it than that."

"Factor out your odds of success," Emma began, "if Meat made it so you had to go out with, say… Gale, or Ghost, or Scarecrow, would you have still taken the bet?"

"Not if I had to run with them. Except maybe Ghost, the LT kicks ass. But if it was still me and Shade runnin' it, yeah. 'Cause I wouldn't expect him to muck up like he did."

Amy hummed in thought, then paced over to Dash's desk and sat down on the chair behind it, "Did he know about the specifics of the bet before you two ran? I mean, the way you tell it makes it sound like he took a dive for the loss, y'know."

Dash rolled her eyes and sighed heavily, "You people and your conspiracy theories… No, he didn't know."

The conversation was interrupted by a series of short knocks on Dash's door. Emma jumped off the bunk to greet the newcomer, Sergeant Jasmine Hubbard. In Jasmine's hands was a sizable zipped bag. "Nice work Jas, this is everything?"

"That I could find or borrow, yeah," she replied, stepping inside and setting the bag on the small table beside Dash's bunk, "Once the other ladies heard what it was for, they all rallied together."

"Ugh…" Dash groaned, flopping back on the mattress and covering her face with her pillow. Jasmine looked at her and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Honey, you do realise that you and your boy-toy of yours are the talk of the town, right?" She said with a smirk, glancing at the other two women in the room, "While you get to go out and play, us others need stuff to do and talk about."

"Fortunately for us," Amy said from her corner, "and unfortunately for you, the not-a-relationship you have with Shade is our topic. Like, if the Task Force had a magazine, you and him would be the cover article."

Dash moaned incoherently and muttered something too muffled by the pillow to make out.

"I'd never thought I'd see the day, even if it is just a 'friend date'," Roach said from his place on Shade's bunk, flipping through a magazine he had bought recently. "I'm sure it'll do her the world of good, get her outside of the base and actually doing something she'd want to do."

Shade shrugged as he flicked through his wardrobe, "Maybe, I mean, she did enjoy herself when she came home with me…" he paused and shot a warning glare to the three men in his room, "... when she accompanied me home during my family emergency."

Rook shook his head and laughed, "I know what you meant mate, relax. Besides, we're the ones keeping bloody Meat away while you to head out."

"We have your back," Royce finished, internally cursing his friend into damnation for the situation he's caused, "And I know I've said it before, but I'm sorry for how far this has gone."

"Don't worry about it Roycie," Shade said dismissively, "You had your hands tied, and you've helped keep him in check this far. Who knows what he'd have done if you weren't there."

"Fair point," the Canadian conceded, "So, where're you taking her?" The others listened on in interest, and Shade turned around with a few shirts on their hangers in his hand.

"I was thinking just a simple night out; dinner, movie, something pretty basic. Nothing overly romantic or anything…" he said, drifting off a little wistfully, something that the others didn't miss.

"... mate, you don't actually have a thing for her, right?" Rook asked, eyebrow raised in suspicion. When Shade failed to respond and turned back to his clothings, Rook frowned. "Shade…"

"... maybe, I don't know, alright?" He answered finally, returning the clothes to the rack. "I mean, she's awesome to have a friend, rock solid and dependable, and bloody hell, she moves like a damn Taipan." He moved to sit down on his bunk, "Doesn't help that she has that soft twang to her voice that just… ugh!"

"I think she's got you hook, line and sinker," Roach commented.

"And that fucking scares me," Shade responded, looking at him squarely, "There's a reason why they didn't initially have chicks on the lines, and there's a reason why couples don't serve in the same units. Say we hit it off, get something started. Then what? One of us is eventually wounded in a firefight, and the other foolishly risks their life to save them. They go down, and more of us get put at risk…" he sighed loudly and fell back onto his bed, "Not to mention the fact that the pain of losing her would probably be greater than losing any of you…"

Rook scoffed, "Gee, feelin' the love here…"

"You know what I mean, mate," Shade shot back, a little irritated, "I love all of you like bloody brothers, and I'd be fucking devastated if I lost any of you… but I don't think I could function if I lost her… don't get me wrong, I'd love to actually be with her… but I'll be more than happy just being her friend..."

Authors' Notes

(Spitfire)

It's now four am. Dash is not very excited about this 'date'. She wants it to be over. Especially with all the gossip and fawning the other ladies are doing. That's… all I got.

Thanks for Reading, Fly High Aim Higher

~Spitfire out

(Shade)

The plot thickens, both for Shade and Dash's relationship dynamic, and for the MW2 plot at large. Gave a bit more context as to how Allen was prepped for his eventual infiltration into Makarov's team. I gave him some Russian heritage (on his mum's side) so he'd have some foundations for the language and culture. Plus some more 'spook' shit too, as he's going under cover.

Oh yeah, Dash and Shade about to go on a 'not-date'. About time, even though they aren't that enthusiastic about it, given the circumstances… oh well.