To Rosemarie! Hope you liked it! Tried to sort of keep to the request!

It was a rare day that the squads were released from training early and able to do with the rest of the day whatever they pleased, the day made rare by the allowance of their Mentors to be released from their duties with them, free to do as they pleased. Though they spent most of that time together, now that their little friends had grown older, he had seen the youngest member of the squads combined head off in a familiar direction and turned to follow, giving a soft parting farewell to the others, as they too spotted who he followed and smiled in kind.

He followed her to the garden, back to that one spot she always seemed to migrate to, not one to spend time with others outside of her circle of friends. She laid in the grass, spread out in the warmth from the sun, and closed her eyes at the peace around her. She was excelling in training, he couldn't be more proud, the young woman turned her disadvantages into advantages and there was not too many who could do so with such ease.

"Mind if I join you?"

One of her eyes peeked up, and a smile spread over her features, "Not at all, sir." He chuckled, the word always came from her tongue with a certain amount of sarcasm in it and pointed a finger at her in warning as he sat down below her. She leaned back down, over her arm that had been curled under her head, and the eyes closed once more.

They sat in companionable silence for a long time, he ended up laying on his back and watching the clouds float lazily overhead, and she draped her bare feet over his stomach. Excluding the one he had raised personally, none of the other cadets would ever dare use him as their personal foot rest, but this one was given more pass then most others were in all the squads (some favor was played among them for obvious reasons) and then of course there was his two nearly grown charges as well.

Soon enough, the clouds above didn't change in shape, and he grew tired of watching them and he turned his attention to the feet laying across his chest. Still so small, a bit bigger then they had been when she was a fledgling, but she'd only grown perhaps a head bigger was still the shortest in all the squads combined. Smiling a mischievous smile, one that went unseen by the other at his side, he reached up and stroked a finger down the middle of one of the two delicate feet. It jerks back immediately, an irritated sigh coming from it's owner, and when no further attack came, settled back down again.

He waited a moment, and then repeated his previous action.

This time she gave a swallowed giggle and yanked her foot back again, moving them further down his stomach and falling back into silence.

Another moment passed, and he reached down again, "Nis!"

"I'm not doing anything." Though as he said it, he scratched his finger under her littlest toe and she gave him a soft shriek in return, yanking her foot back completely.

"You are too!" her eyes were bright with delight though, and he smiled as he sat up to meet her "I just watched you!"

"I have no idea what you're talking about." He reached for her foot again, though, and she shrieked and scooted back a step "Perhaps we've been training you too much for your muscles to be acting as such."

"You trying to get me!"

"I am not." He reached out again though and the foot is snatched away quickly she's getting fast, not that she wasn't quick as a fledgling mind you, but she's honed that skill into a fine art at this point and that pride in his chest for her swells just that much more at its sight.

Finally, the Captain snatched her foot up, no matter how quick she got, she would never surpass him, and he dug his fingers into her sole. She shrieked in laughter, yanking at her captured foot, "Now I am." He positioned it just right to allow him access to her toes, it had always produced the most bubbly giggles when she had been a smaller fledgling, and it seems that some things didn't change with the passing time. He chuckled when she kicked him with her other foot, and shrieked when he reached for that one too, loosening his grip on the one he already had in his grip and she managed to yank her foot free. Her eyes danced with delight and playfulness, as she gathered her feet under her for safe keeping, and he laughed at her laughter despite his attack being halted, if only for the moment.

Then she launched herself at him, it caught him by surprise, and he arched his back in surprise when little fingers dug into that one spot on either side of his upper ribs. He yelps a laugh of his own, her laughter ringing in his ears as she dug in for as much time as she could manage, seeming to enjoy the jolts she caused every time she did.

He reacted just as quick, snatching her small frame away, and she's still laughing when he towers over her, holding her hands pinned up on either side of her head, "You thought you could attack me?"

"Strategic counterattack?"

"And what do you consider what's about to happen?"

"Counter-counterattack?"

The Captain smiled at the young lady, leaning down to kiss her nose, "I'd agree with that." She shrieked in surprise, despite his taunting, when a bristled chin burrowed into her neck. Nisroc had been ruthless when she was a fledgling, and nothing much had changed, eliciting shrieks and bright giggles from the youngling under him, pressing his nose under her ear, "You've been excelling in training."

"Yohohoure a gohohohood mehehehntor!"

"You are growing into quite the spectacle," he pulls away, resting their foreheads together, gazing into her eyes "One to be watched among the squads. I'm quite proud of you." She was still giggling, lighter then during his playful attack on her neck, "You've grown to be quite fast, too."

"Faster and faster."

"Indeed, I've seen you and Sasha running through the fields during the cover of the night, more then once, what ever could you be doing at such an hour?"

"Stuff."

He smiles, "Stuff?" she giggles up at him "That's all I am going to get. 'Stuff'?"

She shrugs under him "Just stuff."

"Just tell me," she nods at his inquiry, "Is it bad?"

The young lady takes on a look of offence and he's quick to quench the offense with another kiss to her nose. Oh, if only the other members of the squad could see their stern and taciturn Mentor like this.

"Now, now," her eyes took on a fiery sheen "Don't get all mad at me, I didn't doubt you, it was merely a question that I needed to ask."

She rolls her eyes at the statement and sighs, though the air between them is still playful, and soon their smiles return once more.

"But you will always be the little fledgling who loved riding on my shoulders, no matter how much you grow.", he smiled when she cooed playfully at him, "Do you know how I remind myself?" she's giggling again and shaking her head.

"I think of the moments like this." He burrows his face back into her neck, and she shrieks in laughter, her shoulder scrunching up around his face, but he's truly burrowed in there, his bristled chin only adding to the playful torture.

"Nihihihis! Whyhyhyhyhy!"

He burrows in deeper, brushing his nose against her ear, "We never get to have these moments hardly anymore."

"Nihihihiss!"

"Let me enjoy myself just a bit more."

The Captain was quick, as he was trained to be, and released her wrists to reach for her belly, and she squealed brightly.

"Besides, you could use a good laugh."