AN: Chapter one of my first new fic in too long!
This one is gonna be short, only two chapters long. I need to make some minor edits and then publishing should move rather quickly. This is my first foray into G.I. Joe after being a long time fan of the RAH comics series, and thoroughly enjoying the Renegades cartoon, on which this fic is based.
Enjoy!
"The bond between those who have been through combat together is a brotherhood sealed in blood and watched over by the ghosts of those who fell."
-Scarlett, RAH issue #150
Scarlett wrinkled her nose at the warm bag that dangled between her thumb and index finger, labeled: MRE, sweet and sour chicken.
More like lime juice and vomit, she thought,and tossed it aside.
Being detained for an ongoing investigation at the Pentagon was hardly a vacation, but given all the horrid places she'd been over the last year, she wasn't about to complain.
She reclined onto the simple rack afforded to her by General Abernathy and sighed contentedly for the first time in ages. It felt cathartic when she turned herself in along with the Joes, after finally obtaining proof of foul play on Cobra's part.
It felt good not to be on the run anymore. It felt good to be the good guy again.
She ran her hands gently over the covers of her cot, feeling the coarse wool threads beneath her fingers. To the GI's that normally slept on them, she was sure they felt like sleeping in a roll of sandpaper while they yearned for a warm bed back home, but to Scarlett, it felt like fine silk.
She couldn't remember how long it's been since she slept in a bed. She'd spent nearly all of her last year running from Cobra and sleeping in a crowded truck with three enlisted infantrymen. Rancid smells and snoring became as much a part of her sleep pattern as her dreams.
If that wasn't enough to make someone have it out for Cobra and the Army, she didn't know what was.
She sighed and rolled over onto her side. She had to much on her mind to sleep. It wasn't going to be easy to integrate back into the Army, especially when most of the JCS still had their doubts about her loyalty and innocence.
Good thing Abernathy had their back. The general was kind enough to afford each of the Joes their own separate room, and Scarlett was going to make the most of it.
She closed her eyes and tried to drift off to sleep. She always had trouble with this part, even before she went on the run. Duke once accused her of never leading a combat mission because she was with Army Intel. The truth was, she saw more action in a year than the average infantryman experienced in a lifetime of sitting at a forward operating base waiting to go outside the wire. She didn't want to talk, think, or even be conscious of the horrors she saw perpetrated by Cobra and the many other enemies she fought in her years in the Army. Right now, she just needed rest.
Scarlett was feeling far too jittery to sleep tonight. She felt a presence draw near as she shifted around in her rack. During her apprenticeship with Snake Eyes—yet another person she didn't want to think about right now—she learned to detect would be assailants by their footsteps, the sound of their breathing, and even their heartbeat.
She held perfectly still and waited for the intruder to approach. She'd have the element of surprise if they drew close enough for a strike before she made her move.
It didn't take long for her to realize this wasn't an intruder, or rather, it wasn't a hostile intruder. His footsteps were lighter than any of the other jar headed grunts or fat, loud officers in the Pentagon, and the distinctive sound of his slow, careful breathing gave him away before he even cleared the door.
Snake Eyes.
The ninja closed in until he was almost close enough to touch her. She held perfectly still until she felt his hand come to rest on the small of her back. She tensed in surprise at his touch. How could he allow himself to be so familiar with her after all that had gone on between the two of them?
She knew he didn't believe her act. A ninja master like Snake Eyes was smart enough to realize when someone was awake, but he continued, sensing no negative reaction from her. The scarred hand, capable of such violence, touched her gently, warming her and easing the tension in her shoulders. If she weren't in turmoil over how she felt about the man attached to that hand, she might welcome the warm sensation of rough flesh gliding over her body in such a familiar way.
Which begged the question, what the fuck was he doing here? He didn't care enough about her to tell her that her father was dead, yet he'd invite himself in to stare at her while she was sleeping.
But Snake Eyes hadn't touched her in such a tender way in a very, long time, so she was inclined to let him continue.
They didn't have very many opportunities to keep up their romance up while on the run from Cobra, and for the most part, it went completely by the wayside. She remembered how good his hands used to feel running over her aching ribs and back after a long day of training. Thankfully the Arashikage didn't have any explicit rules about banging their students, and she didn't complain when training with him began to have additional perks.
She was his student long before anything got serious between the two of them. She remembered watching as the silent Ninja's attraction to her grew.
First, he asked her to stop calling her sensei, and then he lifted his mask from his face during practice without warning. He revealed to her the scarred face of a man who had been to hell and back. It wasn't pretty. Burn marks forever seared his flesh leaving a permanent reminder of some horrible tragedy he wouldn't reveal. He gave this part of himself up to her as an offering of complete and absolute trust, and she returned it in kind.
She remembered how he didn't pull away when she reached forward to caress his jawline with just her fingertips.
Time stood still. Only the pounding of her heart and his sharp inhale of breath were audible when she touched him. His eyes never left hers while she acknowledged this moment of shared trust.
He had never let himself be this vulnerable with another human being. Growing up on the streets of a Japan taught him to trust no one, and that the closer you let someone get to you the easier it was for them to kill you. She managed to pierce his guard, however, like a well-executed sword strike.
She pressed her lips to his in an earnest, silent kiss. He didn't have a voice to say how he felt, so he acted. They took the time to forge themselves into something more than a teacher and a student. She didn't fall too hard for him initially, and tried to keep things physical, but it couldn't stay that way for long. Their time together meant too much to both of them.
Even before they became part of the Joes, their relationship only consisted of a few stolen hours between numerous demanding missions. It wasn't much, but it was theirs.
Little had she known that Snake Eyes was keeping secrets from her. She remembered how wholly he gave himself to her each time they were together, and how he let her make love to his scarred body. The affection he returned was gentle, but almost tentative. Why did he give so much of himself while holding back something so critical?
This thought snapped her back to reality.
She turned around slowly to find Snake Eye's masked face staring back at her. He let his hand linger a moment longer before pulling it away. He slowly lifted up his mask, and leaned in to kiss her.
She frowned and shifted her head at the last moment, causing his lips to land on her cheek. Some part of her didn't want this. Another part of her wanted to pull him close and let him take away the pain of a year on the run.
The feeling evaporated, however when she remembered how he kept his knowledge of her father's death from her. He was one of the few people she told about him, and how guilty she felt for how they parted. How could he have gone so many years without telling her that he knew how her father died? Could he even fathom how much peace that small bit of information would have given her?
"I'm sorry Snake Eyes," she said tenderly.
Try as she might, she couldn't be mad at him. She still loved him, she just wasn't sure she was ready to trust him again until she knew why he did what he did.
"I just need a little bit of time."
He nodded and abruptly replaced his mask, sealing his expression from her. All attempts at communicating with him ended when he abruptly changed the subject by thrusting her plasma-pulse crossbow into her hands and set her plate carrier and pistol belt on the end of the bed.
Scarlett frowned. He hadn't come to apologize. This was this was just another mission.
"What's wrong Snake?" She asked, trying to reach him one more time. "Where are we going?"
Snake Eyes placed a finger on either side of his mouth. They were meant to represent fangs. It was his symbol for Cobra. He then mimed bringing his handgun into battery, an easy way to say he was ready to kill. Looks like he snuck out of the Pentagon and found some Cobra targets for the two of them to hit.
Scarlett smiled, he was such a romantic.
She had been trapped in this room for weeks waiting to take the fight to Cobra. Unfortunately, the Joint Chiefs were doing a superb job of dragging their feet in spite of overwhelming evidence. She was getting impatient, and evidently, so was Snake Eyes.
She sighed and accepted her crossbow. It was half past midnight, and honestly she just wanted to rest, but maybe a mission together would help rebuild their mutual trust.
Dressed only in her issue tank top and shorts, Scarlett rose from the damp tangle of olive drab sheets and stretched in an exaggerated manner.
Groaning as her bones popped and her muscles slowly unwound. She ran her fingers through her crimson hair to wake herself before glancing over at Snake Eyes. Even behind his mask, the tilt of his head, the rigid stillness of his body, and the slowness of his breath all showed her he was admiring her.
She wasn't thin and delicate like so many other girls, which she knew he appreciated. Instead she was a gorgeous combination of lean muscle and defined curves. She hadn't yet learned to sense heart rates, as he had, but she was sure his was pounding.
He glanced away guiltily when their eyes met. Scarlett glared at him but said nothing. She wasn't particularly mad at him, nor did she blame him. Typically she allowed him to be very familiar with her body, today, however...
She tried not to think about it as she slipped on a pair of BDU's and pulled her plate carrier on. She slid her pistol into its holster and tapped him on the shoulder.
"I'm ready," she said, successfully hiding the conflicting emotions raging in her heart.
Snake Eyes nodded and moved to the window he came in through. Most of the windows in the Pentagon were half a foot thick and capable of withstanding ordnance from most main battle tanks, but leave it to Snake Eyes to find a way to pry one off without setting off any alarms. He gently slid the large piece of glass into her room without making a sound, exposing her quarters to the cold, night air.
Scarlett attached her crossbow tie line bolt to a pipe just below her window before adjusting the tension on its winch to support two people for the descent down the Pentagon's seventy-seven foot high walls.
Snake Eyes clung to her back as she engaged the winch and lowered them to the ground. She cursed herself for closing her eyes and enjoying the feeling of his warmth. It really was a tender, human sensation. She didn't have many moments like this while spending her time in the company of grunts that never shut up and regularly flirted with her in a mocking way.
If they weren't such good, loyal soldiers, she would have kicked the shit out of each and every one of them long ago. But that was the key word, loyal. Loyal to the end in spite of all of their shortcomings.
Regardless, it felt nice to be rid of them for a while and simply be held by someone in total silence.
When they hit the ground, she retracted the crossbow's line and made a break through some bushes to the motorcycle Snake Eyes stashed nearby.
The damn thing still gave her the creeps. Why Snake Eyes decided to hold onto a bike owned by Zartan was completely beyond her. Everything about that man made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. She couldn't dream up a worse nightmare than a murderous, hog riding rapist turned Cobra assassin.
Regardless, the machine served its purpose. She'd make him get rid of it later.
Snake Eyes cleared the brush from where he hid it and hopped on, followed by Scarlett. She wrapped her hands securely around his waist as he sped off. She tried to convince herself that the reason she enjoyed resting her head on Snake Eye's shoulder was exhaustion, but she couldn't deny how nice it felt to be in the company of another human being.
Snake Eyes glanced over at her, his impenetrable visor meeting her piercing green eyes. She wanted to see his eyes again, but she feared they would only bring pain as she remembered his betrayal. She knew he had a reason for doing what he did, and yet she still couldn't trust that that reason wasn't self-centered.
"Eyes on the road Snake," she snapped.
He nodded once before turning his attention back to the late night Washington traffic.
Snake Eyes took them across the Potomac River and into Delaware, where they found an old, abandoned steel mill in an industrial area. It seemed Cobra could never get enough of hiding in shady places like these.
Snake Eyes killed the engine as they approached and stashed it in a small work shed, before retrieving a hardcase from the side of the motorcycle. Scarlett followed Snake Eye's lead and mirrored his precise footing as he silently approached the mill. Clearly he'd scoped the place out well.
The two of them stuck to the shadows, avoiding the eerie orange glow of street lights that illuminated the crumbling road leading to and from the facility. Snake Eyes jumped up a fire escape of a nearby two-story building. Scarlett followed, using her ascension cable to reach the top. Snake Eyes dropped the case he was carrying before popping it open to reveal a sniper rifle that was stripped down into pieces.
He deftly assembled the weapon, a Barrett Arms M208, which resembled their old M107 but modernized to use plasma pulse ammunition.
The rounds it fired didn't glow like the ones that came from her crossbow. They were designed to emit radiation outside of the visible spectrum, but it was no less powerful of a weapon.
Someone back at the Pentagon is missing their favorite toy, thought Scarlett.
He turned the weapon to the steel mill to use it to survey the terrain while Scarlett pulled out a pair of binoculars to do the same. At first glance, the facility looked like any other east coast factory. The last time it's furnaces fired was years ago, leaving it a rusted out hulk of what it once was, and its grounds littered with old pieces of machinery that no longer served a purpose.
On closer inspection, however, it was clear that not only was Cobra here, but it was sloppy with its protection of this facility.
Armed and uniformed Cobra guards were barely hidden behind pieces of metal and inside abandoned guard shacks, laying in wait as though they expected an ambush. Near the old loading dock, several, unmarked Cobra X2 trucks were being loaded with all manner of crates and supplies.
The troopers who packed the trucks all looked like they were moving with a purpose. They were about to abandon this facility.
Scarlett began to scan the scaffolding that ran along the smokestacks that once were used to scrub sulfur from the plant's emissions, and found not one, but two glints from unhidden sniper scopes. Just as quickly as she noticed them, however, they were gone. Two plumes of blood accompanied by the sound of two suppressed shots of plasma alerted Scarlett to the fact that Snake Eyes saw the snipers as well.
He was as deadly and merciless as ever.
He motioned for Scarlett to give him her crossbow, which she did without question. She learned in her years with Snake Eyes to always trust his plans, even if she couldn't discern at all what they were. Or at least, she thought she could trust him.
As Snake Eyes pulled the weapon out of her hand, she held onto it for a moment longer, causing him to spin his head to look at her in surprise. She frowned and then let go of the weapon. This man saved her life many times before. Why did she let this one little act drive a wedge between them like this?
Snake Eyes bowed his head apologetically before deftly aiming and firing her crossbow from the building and embedding its bolt into one of the mill's dormant blast furnaces. He drew his sword, still in its sheath, and hooked it over the line the bolt towed.
He sped down the zip line at incredible speed toward the Cobra troops, letting go inches before he plastered himself on the side of the old, rusted furnace, and landing silently.
Scarlett watched him roll to a stop, and started breathing again when she watched him draw his weapon and slip into the shadows.
Snake eyes moved with precision and speed towards a pair of Cobra troopers. He killed the first one silently with a blow to the spine from his sheath, which he wielded like a baton, then grabbed the other guard, covered his mouth, and jabbed upward into his heart. Snake Eyes glanced over his shoulder into the darkness where Scarlett stood. He couldn't see her, but he knew she watched over him.
Not that he would admit it, but Scarlett was his talisman. From the first time she saw his scars and didn't recoil in disgust, he knew she would always be there to watch over him.
Scarlett realized that Snake Eyes's efficiency would have shocked anyone else, but to her, it was at most normal. Even as he cut down trooper after trooper she hardly batted an eye at the violence that a man who treated her so tenderly was capable of.
She decided she would be of more use firing the sniper rifle than admiring Snake Eyes's handiwork, and quickly shouldered the large and unwieldy weapon. It's thick stock, a vestigial feature from when weapons still had recoil, fit awkwardly into her shoulder, but she could manage. She centered the crosshair on a Cobra trooper near the gate and squeezed the trigger gently. The silent and invisible plasma impacted the trooper just below his helmet and all but melted his head off his shoulders.
Scarlett shuddered at the sight, magnified twelve times right before her eyes. She could do killing up close and personal, but there was something about long range shots that really got her. Maybe it was how impersonal it was, or how her victims didn't even have a chance to get any questions of their own morality off their mind before they suddenly flashed out of existence.
At any rate, it wasn't worth dwelling on.
Her shot dropped the Cobra trooper in mid sentence. The officer standing next to him dove for cover. Scarlett heard the radio crackle to life while he radioed in the attack, pulling the majority of the troopers to the front gate and away from Snake Eyes. The troopers filed neatly into position near the front gate to defend it and inadvertently walked right into Scarlett's trap.
Sniping wasn't exactly rocket science with this weapon. No rounds meant no need to account for the wind, powder grain, air pressure, the curvature of the earth, angle of elevation, or the speed of the target. As long as her crosshairs were on their mark, every shot was a guaranteed kill.
She dropped three Cobra troopers with three successive shots before the rest of them got smart and took cover, refusing to expose themselves to any additional casualties. Their choice suited Scarlett just fine.
She swung the large rifle around to Snake Eyes's position, only to find that he didn't need her help. A trail of torn and bloody corpses lead from Snake eye's entry point to the convoy of X2 trucks parked at the loading zone. Snake Eyes was facing down the last of the Cobra troopers, who took cover behind a stack of pallets piled high with wooden crates.
Snake eyes glanced to Scarlet once again, noticing the glint of her scope in the moonlight before closing in on his pray.
As he bore down on them, one of the troopers broke cover and dove forward in panic, and in his confusion, toppled one of the nearby boxes onto Snake Eyes.
The ninjutsu master dodged the strike with only a light scrape on his shoulder, but it was what was inside the boxes that worried Scarlett. When the wood splintered open several glass canisters of Bioviper material rolled out.
Snake eyes tried to ignore the new hazard, and focus on his targets, but it was too late.
In a final act of desperation, the trooper drew his pistol and cried out in agony before shooting one of the canisters, causing it rupture and explode. The trooper was thrown hard onto his back a hundred feet away and didn't move again, most likely dead. The contents of the canisters splattered, hitting Snake Eyes and the surrounding area.
Shit, shit shit, cursed Scarlett.
If there was one thing in the world Scarlett hated without reservation it was hat damned, blue goo.
It wasn't long before the material began to transform into a collection of Biovipers. The ten-foot tall behemoths closed in on Snake Eyes as he backed up against the concrete wall of the loading dock. He drew his plasma pistol and sword, using both to simultaneously fight off his attackers.
Scarlett knew he wouldn't last long against odds like that. She swung her rifle one hundred and eighty degrees and took aim. With a deep breath she pushed away everything but her targets. Scarlett walked the targets counting them down, and fired round after round into the heads of the Biovipers. Each shot connected, but none of them affected the gelatinous creatures. These four were probably rejects, and weren't implanted with control chips, making head shots useless.
Thinking quickly, she picked up her crossbow, which Snake Eyes so kindly left for her, and loaded an explosive bolt.
She kept two of these C4 infused bolts clipped to the back of plate carrier on special missions for emergencies only. They each carried enough explosive force to pierce a main battle tank's armor, or to put a group of Biovipers down for the count. It was Snake eye's only chance, but if the Vipers didn't absorb enough of the blast he might be caught in it as well.
"Snake, hit the deck," she yelled into her com link seconds before letting the bolt fly.
Snake Eyes obliged without question, quickly ducking and covering his head.
The bolt found its mark in a Bioviper's back and blew it into a light blue haze, along with the four others that surrounded it. Fire and teal blue goo flew in all directions. When the mist finally cleared, Snake Eyes was still laying in the center of what was left of the vipers. The back of his shirt was torn off, his visor had fallen and shattered, and he wasn't moving.
"Shit," cursed Scarlett, "Snake! I'm coming!"
She never got a response, though. Not even a mic click.
She ran to the improvised zip line Snake Eyes used, and hooked her crossbow's limbs onto the metal wire. She jumped, tucked her knees, and held on.
One of the Cobra troopers on the ground noticed her and pointed her out to his squad. A moment later, a hail of plasma fire ignited the air around Scarlett.
She ignored the fear that coursed through her. She wasn't going to let anything stop her from reaching Snake Eyes.
She grabbed the line with her gloved hand to slow herself, creating a sickening smell as the rubber in her palm burned. She grunted as she extended her legs to absorb the shock and lessen the impact. Regardless, she slammed into the rusty metal hard.
Her boots clanked on the metal as pain shot up her legs from the blow. She didn't have time to think about it, however. She unhooked her crossbow and dropped hard to the ground.
She staggered to her feet and dove for cover while loading a second explosive bolt into her crossbow. She stood and pressed the stock securely into her arm before letting the arrow fly directly into the center of the Cobra unit, exploding their guard shack and sending troopers flying.
She didn't stick around to see how many died. She switched her crossbow to pulse plasma mode and fired a few rounds in the trooper's general direction before making a break for Snake Eyes.
A few rounds peppered the area around her as she rolled into cover behind one of the trucks at the loading dock. She sprinted towards Snake Eyes, and the Biovipers. Fortunately, the damn things were spread so far apart that they wouldn't be reforming soon.
She pressed her head to his chest and found that he was miraculously still breathing. She slapped him a few times to jolt him awake.
"Snake Eyes," she yelled. "Come on! We have to move!"
Genuine fear shot through Scarlett when he didn't budge. She was too late.
A few moments later a Cobra plasma round struck near her head.
Today was not going to end easily.
She pulled Snake Eyes to his feet to haul him into one of the trucks. She flung open the back door, only to find it loaded down with canisters of Bioviper material.
"Fuck!" she cursed as she dragged the unresponsive man inside, slamming the door behind her just as a trooper attempted to throw a grenade inside.
The frag ricocheted off the door and bounced back in the trooper's face. All Scarlett heard was an explosion accompanied by a strangled cry and a wet cracking sound of bones hitting the door.
She didn't have time to make Snake Eyes comfortable. These X2 trucks were built like tanks, but eventually Cobra would find a way in. She ran to the front and keyed the ignition.
Just like driving the coyote again, she mused, if Duke wasn't being an asshole and insisting on driving.
On that note, she slammed on the gas, and didn't bother to look for anyone in her way.
A few Cobra troopers were given only seconds to dive clear of the truck's path as it accelerated. One was very unlucky, and only managed to get his torso out of the way. Scarlett cringed as she heard him scream in agony as his legs snapped.
That was a low blow, even against a Cobra trooper.
She couldn't afford to think about it for too long. She needed to get Snake Eyes some medical attention.
She set the truck to autopilot with the Pentagon as its destination. They'd be in deep shit when they got back, but shooting up a Cobra base made it all worth it. That was if Snake Eyes wasn't seriously injured.
Scarlett ran to the back and flung open the door, leveling her crossbow against any Cobra troopers that dared to follow them. None did, however.
They knew they lost the war. There was no use in them fighting a pointless battle with two ordinary Joes.
She closed the door and sprinted to Snake Eyes's side, examining him quickly. He was conscious by now and attempting to sit up. She silently laid a hand on his chest, causing him to cringe in pain and fall back.
She frowned. She hated she seeing him in pain like that.
She did a quick check over of his body but found no new burns and only a few scraps. The Biovipers absorbed most of the heat and concussive force for him.
He wasn't unscathed, however. A little examination revealed a few broken ribs and a broken arm. He was bleeding internally, and was probably concussed. Unfortunately, aside from using a spare Cobra uniform jacket to tie a sling for his arm, it was nothing she could treat here.
Scarlett sank to her knees, casting her crossbow aside and letting out a sigh of relief. She took a moment to let the adrenaline rush of the firefight subside before raking her flame red hair, darkened by sweat, out of her face.
She always needed a few moments to decompress and come back to reality after a mission like this. For a few seconds she would let the world fade away and let a calming peace come over her. Then she would harden her eyes, jump back to her feet, and get back to business.
Snake Eyes reached out and took her hand while she silently sat next to him. Her eyes shot open in surprise from the warm and inviting contact. It was something he did so many items before, why did she have such conflicted feelings about it now?
Snake Eyes looked up at her with pleading eyes, begging her not to reject him and let go. He then reached up and began to trace gentle patterns on her sternum.
Not patterns, letters.
I-A-M-S-O-S-O-R-R-Y, he began shakily, slowly gaining confidence when she didn't pull away.
I-D-I-D-N-T-K-N-O-W-H-O-W-T-O-T-E-L-L-Y-O-U, he wrote sadly, I-M-S-O-R-R-Y-I-L-O-V-E-Y-O-U.
Scarlett smiled conflictedly as he traced the last U.
She couldn't help but be made at him. He'd withheld knowledge from her that she'd been searching for since her investigation into Cobra began, but she shouldn't be taking a bad situation out on him like this.
It was hardly his fault her father was dead, and him telling her he had been there wouldn't have brought him back. Her father was dead because of this shitty corporation's lust for a MASS Device, and nothing else. It was wrong of her to try and implicate Snake Eyes in that.
She took his hand and pressed it to her heart. "No, I'm sorry," she said.
Her cool green eyes met his intense blue and she smiled, leaning down to give him a quick kiss. She closed her eyes and rested her forehead against his.
"I shouldn't be taking this out on you, it's just..." Her voice trailed off before she could decide what to say. "My father meant everything to me," she finally continued. "and that's not your fault so don't worry about it. I love you, too."
Snake Eyes smiled up at her eyes opened. He ran a hand through her loose hair until his hand came to rest on her neck. He gently pulled her in for a second, longer, more tender kiss. It wasn't laced with passion and C4 like so many of their other kisses. It was slow and tender as if he were letting her set the pace, and Scarlett appreciated that.
Both of them enjoyed the sweet moment of recovery. Scarlett, however, found it hard to reign in her need to be forceful, and soon they were kissing again, much more passionately.
The redhead always liked taking charge in situations like this, and Snake Eyes rarely complained. She outranked him, after all.
It didn't last long, however. Snake Eyes sucked in a hard breath as Scarlett accidentally touched one of his cracked ribs. A hiss managed to make its way through his cut vocal cords. It was the most expressive sound he could make to convey the pain of his injuries.
"Shit," she cursed, backing off him quickly. "Sorry, Snake."
Snake Eyes clenched his teeth and then relaxed slowly back onto the floor of the truck, his head now pulled into Scarlett's lap. Scarlett held back a laugh. It always got her seeing someone so stoic in such a position. She smiled mischievously and reached down to poke him lightly in the ribs. He convulsed in minor pain, which only caused the rest of his body to protest.
He shot her a hurt look that was somewhere between mocking and severe. He only half expected her to do something like that.
She gave him an innocent grin before pulling him further into her embrace.
"Serves you right for getting hurt," she scoffed.
Snake Eyes glared at her like he was going to protest, but quickly gave up and folded into her embrace as she let out a small laugh. She would have fun tormenting him over the weeks to come, and she knew he wouldn't mind. As far as they both were concerned, they were back together, and Cobra's days were numbered.