I Never Kiss and Tell (Chapter 2)
Elias was doing his usual routine. He arose from his bed and walked over to the small bathroom that was attached to his dorm room. He went over to his mirror and looked at his face. He looked terrible, and he felt the same. This was due to the fact that he couldn't get to sleep until very late at night as he had spent the entire night writing a note. This wasn't any note however as it was a love note he had wrote just for Monika. He had written and rewrite the note all night long until it got to a point that he liked. It had only been 3 nights since he had kissed Monika and he couldn't stop thinking about her no matter what he did. The two soldiers had not discussed the contents of that night but Monika was still as friendly and pleasant to Elias as ever, never shying away from a conversation or opportunity to mess around with the man. Whenever he was around her he found that he was especially awkward. He had always thought that she was pretty, the prettiest girl on Team Rainbow but never truly had any sort of emotions toward her until that infamous night, ever since then, however, he found that he liked her a lot and wanted to explain to Monika how he felt. He decided a love note would be a great way to start things off. Elias realized that he was running late for his morning training and quickly finished preparing himself for the day and grabbed his duffle bag full of clothes before heading to the shooting range. He grabbed the note he created and placed it carefully in his bag as to not fold or tear the paper. His plan was to sneak the note into Monika's locker when she wasn't around and then later he would talk to her about it, at a time when the two were alone in private. As Elias walked out of the room he realized that he had left his pistol on his nightstand. He turned around and walked to the table to retrieve it. As he walked back to the door he was surprised to see Monika standing there in the doorway.
"Guten Morgen (Good Morning) Elias!" The woman said in a happy tone. She was wearing her signature jeans and sweater that so many people had grown accustomed to from her. She had her hair hanging loose and his carelessly in a ponytail, her bangs were covering the corner of her eyes, and her hair, in general, was curly and natural. Elias thought she was even prettier for it.
"Guten Morgen… What are you up to Monika?" Said Elias in a forced tone to try to sound relaxed while in actuality he was extraordinarily nervous.
"I was just getting ready to go to morning training and I decided to stop by and walk with you… Are you ready to go?" Said Monika in a skeptical tone as she noticed how exhausted and unprepared for the day Elias looked.
"Oh yeah… I'm ready to go, I just had to grab my gun from the nightstand is all." Elias spoke the words while signaling towards the nightstand, as he turned his head and arm, the letter he had written the night before fell out of his duffle bag, which evidently was not zipped up fully. The letter drifted slowly to the ground and landed without a sound, luckily for Elias with the words facing down towards the carpet, having none of its contents revealed.
"Oh, looks like you dropped something Elias." Said, Monika, as she reached down to grab the note. Elias realized what happened and snatched the paper with much greater speeds than the woman and grabbed it before Monika could lay a finger on it. The woman was surprised by the reflex the man had just initiated to get his hands on the paper.
"Woops, I'm as clumsy as ever… Oh well, we are good now, What do you say we start walking down to the range?" Said Elias in an attempt at covering up what he had done.
"...Okay… sure let's go." Said Monika in a puzzled tone. Elias tucked the letter back into his bag and proceeded to walk down the dormitory hallway towards the shooting range with Monika walking beside him.
ONE HOUR LATER AT THE SHOOTING RANGE
One of Team Rainbow's Combat instructors stood beside Elias with a stopwatch. "Alright Elias, fifteen seconds, before the next round." Elias prepared his pistol for firing and quickly swapped a fresh mag into the weapon and took aim, waiting for the instructor's signal. Elias heard some light snickering to his left and turned his head to examine. It was Jordan, Seamus, and Dominic. Those three men could be better categorized as team bullies. If anyone was having a hard time or there was any sort of gossip going around it was always caused by them. They loved to make fun of Elias for his lack of social skills, but more than that they were jealous. They were angry that Elias was superior to them physically. He was always a crack shot making all of the legendary marks at the range while Jordan would only make the "minimum" for rainbow standards. Elias was always repping massive weights during their training sessions, and Seamus always found himself struggling to keep up, and even beyond that Elias was quick. He never was able to demonstrate his speed due to the amount of armor he carries and his heavy shield but when it was just him in a tee shirt and shorts he left all the other guys in his dust. Including Dominic who took pride in his high running speeds and endurance. Elias never took anything the men said to heart. Mostly because he never cared, no matter what people said to him he always kept his head up and pushed forward, never fazed by what people said. This time however their laughs seemed more mischievous, Elias could tell that something was out of the ordinary, he couldn't focus on that however as he needed to shoot at targets for one more round.
"Ready? Three… Two… One!" Said the Instructor. Elias quickly aimed his pistol up at the few targets that stood up on the ground ahead of him. Elias dispatched of the targets with Superior Marksmanship. Perfect bullseyes and shots to the head were all that could be seen from the targets. As soon as Elias finished firing the last of the magazine the instructor stopped the time on his stopwatch.
"9.8 seconds… with perfect accuracy! That's a new team record. Congratulations and be sure to keep up the good work, I'm not ready to see you plateau yet…" Said the Instructor with enthusiasm
"Thank's sir." Replied Elias, even with the newfound achievement his mind was elsewhere he was focused on whatever Jordan, Seamus, and Dominic were laughing at.
"Alright good work today people, that's all I got for you, shower up and get some rest!" The instructor spoke loudly so that everyone at the range could hear. As most of the operators walked away from the range towards the locker room Elias found himself standing alone with the same three soldiers laughing just as before. Elias wanted to see what was going on and walked over to the men. They were standing in an enclosed circle with Jordan talking quietly to the other two men.
"I think about you all time, and realize just how much you mean to me! Ha Ha Ha!" Jordan laughed profusely at what was just said. Elias recognized the words and immediately knew what had happened. "Oh hey there is the big man himself!" Jordan said in a devious tone.
"Jordan what have you done!" Said Elias in a concerned tone, but as soon as the words left his mouth he knew what had happened. He looked over and saw his duffle bag had been moved from the spot it was left and was lying in the dirt next to Jordan, with the various pockets unzipped. "You went through my stuff? What the hell is wrong with you!?" Said Elias in an infuriated tone. Dominic and Seamus had stepped off to the side which revealed Elias' love note, it was being held and read aloud by Jordan.
"Wow, Elias, just wow, I must say you really have a knack for literature. Have you ever considered becoming a writer?" Said Jordan in a sarcastic tone.
"Jordan give me the note, Now!" Said Elias, he was not in the mood to deal with any of Jordan's harassment.
"Oh, Elias… No, no, no… I am having way too much fun right now to give it up… I just have one question for you however, Who is this for? What woman are you going to seduce with your wonderful charm?" Said Jordan in a tone where anyone could tell that the man was barely holding in his laughter. Elias realized that he didn't write Monika's name anywhere on the note. Something that he was greatly thankful for at that moment.
"I'll ask you one more time… give me the note right now or else…" Said Elias.
"Or else what?" Said Jordan, in a much more serious tone.
"Or I'll kick your ass." Jordan's smile quickly turned to a scowl as he slowly walked towards Elias. He got close and turned Elias away from the direction of Seamus and Dominic, before proceeding to whisper quietly in Elias' ear.
"Look, Elias, I remembered something great this morning after reading this wonderful letter. I remembered that you have never had a kiss... A secret that I was lucky enough to learn from you at basic training before we found ourselves on team Rainbow. I can't believe I forgot that, but I tell you what, I was planning on telling everyone on the Team your hilariously embarrassing secret, but I think I have an even better plan that would benefit both of us."
"What the hell could that possibly be?" Said Elias.
"I don't tell anybody a thing and this letter goes back to you, and you tank the shooting competition this weekend so that I can win. How does that sound?" Jordan proposed as he reached his hand out for a handshake to signal an agreement. Elias thought about the deal and wondered if it would be worth it. He thought back to the night he had spent with Monika when he made her promise not to tell anyone about his botched date and realized one thing, that he could not run from his problems forever. Elias left his hands at his side and took a step back. He then spoke confidently.
"No deal Jordan, you can eat a bag of dicks!" Jordan was infuriated by the comment. He expected Elias to simply give in to his demands and was surprised by his will.
"No deal… No Deal! what do you mean no deal!" Jordan said as he shoved Elias backwards. Elias felt the force that Jordan inflicted and realized just how tired of Jordan shit he actually was. Elias immediately responded to the shove with a powerful left hook. It sent Jordan backwards onto his ass in the dirt. Jordan struggled to get up, he was dazed like no other with an excruciating headache and could barely stand. After the hit, Elias realized that the note went flying out of Jordan's hand and was lying on the ground. Both Seamus and Dominic were shocked, but once they realized what had just happened began running towards Elias with their fists at the ready. They began to beat down on Elias who tried to fight back but was ultimately overwhelmed by the two soldiers attacking him at once. Jordan found his way back to his feet and took a few steps back to lean on one of the nearby light poles as he watched the fight. The fight ended abruptly as the Shooting Instructor shouted.
"What the hell is going on out here!?" Said the Instructor angrily. Elias found himself in a position with Seamus in a headlock while Dominic was delivering blows to his ribs, but Dominic ceased as soon as he heard the Instructor. Elias as well released his headlock and Seamus fell to the earth gasping for air.
"Elias attacked us, sir! He was angry about something and then lashed out!" Said Jordan.
"It's true sir!" Said Dominic in an attempt to reinforce the accusation.
"Too hell it's true!" Shouted Elias.
"I don't care who's fault it is, all I know is that you men are fighting on my shooting range, and that is unacceptable. I want all of your asses in detention asap!" ordered the Instructor.
"But sir!?" Spoke out Jordan in a last ditch effort of escaping his punishment.
"What's that, do you want an extended detention period Trace? No? Oh well then shut your mouth!" Said the Instructor. The men realized that talking back was no use and began walking towards the on-site detention area. As they walked away Elias realized that a small crowd of their fellow operators had accumulated and were likely watching the brawl. One of the operators standing farthest to the front was Monika, she had a look of complete confusion as she watched the men walk away.
THE FOLLOWING NIGHT
Elias silently stepped through the hallway of the dormitory looking at the different numbers that organized each room. He continued walking until he reached his room. He quietly opened the door with the spare room key he kept tucked away on top of the door frame. As he walked into the room he felt the small note in his hand. It was the note that he had written for Monika. He managed to sneak it through the Detention security which was quite poor at the Rainbow Six facility.
"They probably expect their soldiers to behave or something…" Elias thought to himself in a joking manner. As Elias entered the room he looked at the note, the amount of trouble that the note created seemed to be too much for him to deal with, and thus he took the note and dropped it in his garbage basket. As Elias turned towards the doorway in which he left open he expected to see the Detention officer coming after Elias for sneaking out but was surprised to see none other than Monika, she must have noticed his open door. She was wearing some sweatpants and a light sweatshirt with her hair tied in a loose and messy bun.
"Of course with her bangs hanging over her eyes." Elias thought to himself. "And of course gorgeous as always…" Elias walked over to the doorway and leaned against the wall a few feet from Monika.
"Hey…" Elias said quietly.
"Hey to you too, Is there something going on? No that's not the right question… Elias, what the hell happened yesterday?" Asked Monika in a concerned tone. Elias felt very cool and collected, he found this out of the ordinary for himself especially when he was around Monika but he took advantage of it.
"Sometimes…" Elias said calmly. "Some people need to be shut up." Said Elias.
"Does this happen to do with certain someone posting dirt about you on the internet?" Asked Monika.
"Dirt? What are you talking about?" Questioned Elias.
"Someone anonymously posted about you… they exposed your secret about you never having your first kiss… along with some other hurtful words…" Said Monika apologetically.
"Yeah… well, I guess you could say it was because of that." Said Elias.
"Look, Elias, I know things between us have been kinda… weird the past few days, but when stuff like this happens… I worry about you."
"I'm sorry Monika, I don't mean to get involved in stuff like this, It just happened… I don't know what to say."
"That's alright," Monika said as a slight grin grew over her face. "It was pretty sick to see you kick Jordan's ass today if that means anything, How did you get out of detention anyways?"
"I snuck some sleeping pills into the watchman's coffee." Monika was surprised by the response, and her eyes widened with surprise.
"Wow… ha ha! Elias Kötz a rule breaker, I never thought I would see the day." Said Monika in a joking tone. Elias smiled at the comment.
"Yeah well… It happens I guess."
"I guess... Alright well look, Elias, I just want you to know that If you ever need to talk to someone, I'm here for you, you can tell me whatev..." Monika was cut off by Elias.
"Do you want to go on a date with me?" Elias asked in a determined, and spontaneous question. Although Elias did not have any marks on his face from the fight he was still very sore from the endeavor. In a way, the fight gave him a feeling that there was nothing else left to lose and thus the question that was always on his mind found it's way out of his lips.
"...A date?..." Asked Monika quietly.
"Yes, a date… with me… But it wouldn't be anything serious, we could just…"
"Yes."
"Yes?" Asked Elias.
"Yes… Elias, I would love to go on a date with you… When would you like to do it?" Elias was thrilled with the response, but he was undeniably surprised. Monika Weiss the most desirable and sought after girl on Team Rainbow was going on a date with him. He felt like he must have been in a dream. "Elias… Elias?" Monika had to say his name to make him snap out of his thoughts.
"Oh sorry. Tell you what… I know this great Italian Restaurant that's not far from base, it's only about ten minutes away. Once I get out of detention in a week. We go, around eight o'clock, meet at my room?" Monika smiled at the obviously premeditated date setting.
"That sounds great Elias, What should I wear?" Elias thought for a second and realized that he never thought about the apparel of the evening.
"Oh, you know, just wear whatever... Nothing big, Just wear…" Elias was cut off from his sentence when he heard his phone buzz. He looked down to see his alarm wailing.
"Oh shoot… I'm sorry Monika but I have to go. The patrolman is about to come around and if I'm not sitting on my ass, looking miserable in five minutes I'm toast. But I'll talk to you later?" Asked Elias. Monika smiled at the energetic man.
"Ha ha… Yeah, I'll talk to you later, Now go get back to detention before I turn you in." Said Monika in a joking tone. Elias had a big smile on his face before he turned to run down the hallway back down to the detention facility. As Monika turned to walk back to her room she noticed that Elias had left his door wide open. She didn't want to leave it open so she walked over to close the door for him. As she grabbed the door handle she noticed the small garbage bin near the corner of Elias' bed. She saw him throw the small note into the bin earlier and felt an overwhelming urge to read it.
"No… I shouldn't intrude on his privacy." Monika thought to herself as she stood there hesitantly grabbing the door handle. Eventually, however, the curiosity got the best of her and decided to walk over to the bin and read the message.
"It will only be a second." and "It couldn't possibly do any harm." Were thoughts that infected Monika's mind. Once she reached the trash bin she bent over to grab the small note. She grasped the fine card material that it was written on and carefully opened it. The note read.
Dear my warmth of day,
My dark of night,
My mold of clay,
My most breathtaking sight,
You have a hold on my mind,
No one else will have,
But if someone should own my heart,
it's you I'm glad.
Hey, I know that this poem is especially cheesy but It really is a wonderful feeling to able to relate to these words, In a much less ridiculously spoken way I want you to know that I think about you all time, and realize just how much you mean to me. You may now dismantle this note if the cringe is too much.
Yours,
E. K.
As Monika finished reading the note she realized how much she appreciated the note, and let out an uncontrollable smile, although the note really was silly and completely oozed Elias' social skills, she loved it. Monika thought that she heard footsteps approaching so she quickly tucked the note into one of her sweatshirt pockets and walked out of the room, making sure to latch the door on the way out.
THE NIGHT OF THE DATE
Elias sat on the foot of his bed fiddling with his neck tie, attempting to assemble a complex knot while watching a YouTube tutorial on his phone, As the man failed miserably to complete the task he gave up and decided to settle for a plain old fashioned Windsor knot. Once he finished tying that knot he walked over to his bathroom and examined himself in the mirror. Elias felt and thought that he looked great. He tried hard, after all, to look as good as possible without going overboard on the outfit and he thought that he found a great medium. He was wearing a nice gray dress shirt with a black tie and some sleek black slacks with some more casual looking dress shoes. He was freshly showered and had his hair done up in a slick looking fauxhawk.
"I think I'm ready to go." Elias thought to himself. As he approached the door heard a knock, most likely from Monika who was equally ready to leave. Suddenly the thought dawned on Elias that he had forgotten his wallet on his nightstand. He went over, grabbed the wallet and then hastily returned to the door. He opened his door and found himself at a loss for words at what he saw. Monika stood there in the hallway. She was wearing a gorgeous looking black blouse with a sleek red belt that connected to her deep crimson skirt. She had her light blonde hair curled and flowing across her shoulders with an intricate braid running down the back, and she, of course, had her signature bangs hanging over one eye. That was just one of the many things Elias found that he loved about Monika.
"Are you ready to go, Elias? Do I look alright, I wasn't quite sure what to wear, but you said to wear whatever so I thought this looked good, I put on a little bit of mascara and…" Once again Elias cut her off before she was finished.
"You… look… stunning." Words seemed to fail to reach Elias' mouth and trickled out without order.
"Really? You think so?" Monika said with a lit up smile from the previous compliment.
"Yes… Really." Said Elias. Monika was very pleased by the response.
"And you also look, really quite handsome tonight Elias." Said Monika. Elias took the compliment to heart but was still caught up in Monika's beauty. The man eventually got a hold of himself however and began to speak.
"Well… Let's be off I suppose." Said Elias.
"He, he… You lead the way." Said, Monika, as she wrapped her arm around his to follow him out of the dormitory.
THREE HOURS LATER
Once Elias and Monika returned from their date they walked slowly over to Elias' room. Both of them were a little tipsy from the wine at the restaurant and were ready to go to bed. They had shared all sorts of stories from their lives. Elias told of the first time he went to the middle east and how he was nearly killed by 15 thousand pounds of explosives laced onto a military compound, and Monika shared tales of her time with her father and how much she looked up to him. They both had an amazing experience but it was clearly evident that there was still more in the air to be discussed. Elias opened the door to his room and Monika walked in.
"Look Elias… thank you for tonight… Really, it was great… I really like doing things with you." Said Monika. Elias did not respond. "Well, I think that we have both had more than enough wine and we should call it a…" Just as it has seemed to become Elias' signature action, Monika was cut off in the middle of her sentence. This time was different, however. Rather than speaking, Elias slowly slid his hands down onto Monika's hips and pulled her into him. He proceeded to kiss her. He kissed her the way he kissed her the first time. They found themselves breaking and returning their lips together. It seemed as if neither of them had the will to pull away. Monika put her hands on Elias' cheeks and jaw, while Elias held her hips. They then eventually after a couple minutes found their lips separated, They had their foreheads touching with their noses and lips less than an inch apart. Elias then pulled away further before speaking.
"I'm sorry… I don't know what to say… It just… You look so stunning tonight… and I…"
"Elias?" Asked Monika.
"Yeah?"
"Shut up. Just shut your mouth… I don't want you to worry about a single thing for the rest of the night… nothing else in the world... for the rest of tonight it is just, you and me…" Replied Monika in a commanding tone. Blitz didn't need to say a word because both of the operators knew that the message was received, and Blitz was more than happy to oblige. Elias found his head being pulled into Monika's lips by her grasp, and before he lost control again he reached out, and with his fully extended arm, he barely managed to hit the side of the door, that he noticed had been left open. As his fingers touched the door, the object found just enough momentum, and it slowly drifted closed, blocking everything else out.