Chapter 2 "Take on me"

"Gasp" opening his eyes, Snake notices Quiet smoking a cigarette outside with her bra untied from the front leaning on the front door. Turning her head while exhaling smoke in an upward fashion, she notices him awake. Quickly hooking her bra and throws off the cigarette, she rushes to his side.

"Snake?"

"I'm fine…. Hey how come you're speaking English?"

"Your mind is clear now… it was the chlorine..."

"Chlorine?"

"Yes, don't you remember when I jumped to that chlorine infested room, to retrieve Shabani's necklace?"

"But how?"

"Aside from burning my skin, the chemical burned the English strain parasite that was incubating on my throat, but I didn't realize it till a few days later I left Mother Base."

"Why didn't you come back?"

"How could I, you know what Miller and Ocelot would have done to me, I'd probably be dead."

"Hmm right…"

"Now, let's try getting you out of that bed, I got some crutches."

"I know… thanks for that…"

Snake lifts himself from the bed, but struggles a bit to balance himself. "Here" Quiet gives him a crutch to his right hand she took had standing on the wall, "I'm ok". He begins to exert great effort to maintain the crutch and not fall. He stumbles and falls to the bed sitting. Quiet helps him up.

"Wow, I really need digoxin" She grips his hand so he can maintain a firmer grip on the crutch, "I got it now." "Let's head outside" Snake begins to walk and Quiet helps him, he still stumbles but he's now beginning to get a firmer grip and rhythm walking. He steps down slowly the three-stepped wooden stair and as he observes his surroundings, he leans with the crutch to the wall right aside the wooden stairs. She hands him a few cigars and matches. "Ah thanks". Quiet sits in a wooden chair to the left of the stairs to clean her rifle.

"Where are we?" asks Snake as he lights the match to smoke his cigar, "Doesn't this place look familiar to you?" He takes a closer look to his surrounding and sees the dirt road is sand-colored, the white brown rock wall with many cracks, to the right the dirt road seemingly becomes disappears because it goes downhill to that direction and the left he sees the endless rock wall and mountainous landscapes as far as his eye can see.

"Are we in Afghanistan?"

"Yes, we're near the ruins where you and I first fought."

"Hmm." Observing more carefully the rifle Quiet is cleaning

"Hey, that's the Brennan right? Haven't seen one in years."

"Hmm.."

"Remember how a bullet of that could tear a Skull soldier in half?" "Hmm…"

"Swoosh!" a strong gust of wind hits them unexpectedly. Snake covers his eye in surprise, while Quiet unfazed continues working.

"Forgot to turn on the radio"

"Radio huh, that brings memories…" Quiet stands from the chair and goes inside the house to turn on the radio.

"Woah here she comes, watch out boy she'll chew you up! She's a man-eater"

As the song plays, both Snake and Quiet begin to reminisce of their time spent on the battlefield together. As she keeps cleaning her rifle, he stares at her and decides to ask, "What am I doing here?" She stops cleaning it and turns her head to Snake's question;

"I wanted to save you…"

"Why? After all these years…"

"It was the only chance I got"

"So you mean to tell me you have been spying on me all these years?"

"Occasionally yeah, something like that…"

Snake voice begins to turn a bit grim, as if interrogating the Sniper.

"How come you never approached me before?"

"It's kind of an obvious answer don't you think?"

He was getting frustrated, as Quiet would not tell him why he's really here, he grips in fist in frustration. The squeaky sound catches Quiet attention.

"Look, if you want to go back to the ruins of Outer Heaven, fine, let me know and I can take you there…"

Snake looks at her surprised; he loosens his grips and takes a deep breath

"No, that's fine…"

Quiet turns back and looks at him

"Why? Don't you want to rebuild it?"

"Kinda an obvious answer don't you think" flickering the ash from the cigar and puffing another one "Look at me, what good am I now, my reputation has been destroyed" Quiet stares at him as he had remarked his current situation so casually.

"So you're not really interested…"

"No"

"I see.." Quiet goes back to work on her rifle while he continues smoking his cigar.

She decides to ask him "How was your life in Outer Heaven?"

Snake looks at her with serious intention

"I'm heading back inside" he throws the cigar, picks up his crutch, and goes to the bed to get some sleep. Ignoring the Sniper question.

Quiet keeps looking at her rifle and squeezes it's trigger hard.

That night . . .

Snake is still smoking cigars in front of the house. It is a full moon tonight. "You not coming to bed?" Quiet asks peeking outside the front door looking at him, "Yeah, my leg is practically cramped up." As he throws off the cigar, he picks up his crutch and heads inside the house to lay on the bed with the help of her. The inside cabin is illuminated with the moonlight. Snake sighs in relief as he relaxes on the bed; Quiet begins to take off her clothes. "You know, I didn't use clothes here till I took you in…" "Hmm" "Basically you're still immune to this right?" She stands in front of the bed, presenting her whole naked body to him without reservations. "Don't think so anymore." He gets up and leans his back a bit to take a good look at her naked body.

"Did you do it with other women?"

"Only at new year's eve parties, some drunken women would come to my room…."

Quiet lays herself to Snake's left side on the bed, her side is cleared of bedsheets as she cannot cover herself because of her parasite treatment. As she rests her head with her hand, she looks at Snake while he keeps talking about fun times in Outer Heaven.

"What happened to the Seychelles base?"

Snake looks at her in confusion but decides to give her answer

"We dismantled it completely and took off all its part to keep building Outer Heaven." Quiet drifts her finger at Snake's abdominal area as he keeps talking. Wanting to know what happened after she left. He then turns and takes a good look at her exposed body lying beside him and then her eyes.

"Huh, strange isn't it?"

"What is?" Quiet gives him a look that somehow makes the stoic man flustered

"We look like a married couple"

"Want to do it like one?"

"You're not serious?" Snake gives out a slight chuckle

Quiet lays herself on top of Snake and looks at him in the eye "Oh yes I am, what's stopping us?" she continues to playfully move her hand in his stomach

"No" Snake removes the sniper from his body and turns to the side to sleep

"Wow, I thought you said you were not immune to this anymore…"

Snake ignores her remark and falls asleep.

Later that night…

"Never again, I will never speak English again, for Him…" Snake remembers after his men had tortured Quiet. She said she would never speak English just to be with him…

"I am Venom Snake…"

He wakes up, startled from the dream, he looks to the side and sees Quiet turning around to him

"Another nightmare" she asks as she places her hand in her head and with the other plays with his belly again, as to offer him some comfort.

"Yeah, something like that…" Snake begins to realize he hadn't received much affection this past decade, lest even human touch, except for the drunken women he never got close to people, he was just a figurehead giving orders and speeches whenever he wasn't taking lives and torturing others. He looks at the sniper's eyes directly…

"You know…"

"Yes?"

"Maybe it's not a bad idea, to…"

"What?..." Quiet whispers to him and begins to lower her hand…

"Do that…"

"Let yourself go…" her hand reaches his crotch, unzipping his pants. Snake looks at her and begins to loosen up his serious expression as the woman begins to handle it. Staring at her eyes, she picks up a rhythm with her hand, and Snake gets even more aroused. She gets on top of him and the legendary soldier delivers himself to the beautiful sniper.

"You are truly a man-eater…."

"Giggle"

Quiet looks at him, feeling satisfaction and decides to ask him "How long has it been for you?"

"I don't even remember… and you?"

"Quite some time…"

"Have you had other men before?"

"Few of my former xof comrades, quite in fact, after the parasite treatment, I didn't have anybody…"

Snake looks at her and struggles on what to answer next, he then decides to put his arm around her as to console her, knowing the hard life it must have been having a body like that, not being completely human.

"Shame, you are beautiful…" he wishes to say, but something holds him back, he then takes off his hand off her and goes to sleep.

Quiet turns the other way. The couple falls asleep.