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Challenge #24
Phrase: "Please don't tell me that's an elephant in the backyard."
Word Count: 666
Rating: PG
Title: Changing Times
Author: Rydia Highwind
Disclaimer: Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear Solid 2 and all characters refered to herein belong to Konami. I claim nothing, I'm simply borrowing.
Summary: Between MG and MG2. Fox reflects on the changes he's been through and the changes yet to come.
Warning: Yaoi, Fox/Snake. My Snake is an uber-dork. And there are caribou.
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It's strange how things can change if you let them. Even if you don't. All it takes for change is to let something in that you wouldn't normally have let in, and there you have it. Change. And sometimes it just kind of happens for you and you're left wondering what the hell happened and how to get back what you had, even when you know damn well you never will. Change can be just as voluntary as it can be inevitable, it's just in how you look at things.
Sometimes change really bites. Sometimes it can be the worst thing to ever happen to you. Hell, I've seen some changes in my life that were pretty horrific. I guess as a solider, a lot of the change I see is pretty bad. Just goes with the job description, I guess. I've seen towns and villages razed clean to the ground, I've seen family destroyed by bullets and grenades. I've done some of that myself. It's what you do, you know? Not always honorable, but hell, I don't abide by anyone else's standards. Right for me is not necessarily right for the government I work for or for the people I see or whatever. It's right for me, it's what I believe in, and it's what I fight for.
But change can be good too. I mean, change is what got me out of Vietnam and into the US. Change got me a damn good job doing the only thing I'm any good at, and change got me...well, it got me one of the best things I've ever gotten.
Not that I'll ever let him know that. Even as I lie here staring up at the ceiling, fingers running through those silky mahogany curls splayed messily across my bare chest, I know I could never let him know. He's a liability as is, without anyone really knowing that I feel as strongly about him as I do. I didn't even admit to myself what I was feeling until just a while ago. And that's privileged information. No one else's business. Maybe he has a right to know, but that's just too bad.
He's asleep and muttering something about elephants. It's just so damn cute. It'd be cuter, but I think he's drooling on me.
I'm leaving soon anyway. I don't have a choice. I think Campbell picked up my trail, and there have been people probing at my trail for far too long already. There's no way they can trace anything now, but that won't keep them from finding something, sniffing out something to hold me on.. This is FOXHOUND, after all. You're only as good as the guy standing next to you. And that's pretty rough when you're standing all alone.
I'm not exactly what you'd call a spy. Let's just say it was advantageous for me to stick around. For me and for Big Boss. I'd just tip him off when they had a lead on his whereabouts. No one could track me. No one even suspected me, since the set up had been botched and I ended up having no idea he was behind Outer Heaven until I got the hell out of there. I think the kid has some idea that my loyalties lie with myself only, but I don't think he realizes that I agree with Big Boss' worldview. He's just too damn naive. That's why I think I can maybe get him to come with me.
I don't know. He's still so much of a mystery to me. Maybe that's what makes him so attractive. I can't always quite figure out what's going on behind those lucid green eyes. He intrigues me. I don't know if he'll come with me when I tell him or sock me in the eye.
"Mmm," the kid is dreaming. About elephants, apparently. Who dreams about elephants? Really. "Please don't tell me that's an elephant in the backyard."
I smile. "Nah, it's just a caribou."