The sun is located far away from the Earth. Very far away. Scout had probably heard how far away it was once, but right at this moment he was too busy figuring how it could perform such a perfect headshot.

The sunlight was seeping through one tiny opening in the curtain that covered the window, at an angle which hit him directly in his eyes.

He turned around, but it was too late, it would be impossible to fall asleep again, even though it felt like someone had filled his head with concrete during the night, so he sat up. His hair was incredibly intidy when he ran a hand through it and he could barely keep his eyes open.

"Hey, Snipes?"

No response. Maybe the old man was still asleep. The cast on his leg made a stump sound when it hit the floor as Scout tried to get up. He'd seen people walk with a cast before, so it shouldn't be that much of a problem.

"All right," he said to nobody in particular while slowly trying to stand up while holding his balance. "Easy now. Eeeasy." His arms were all over the place as he lost his balance, waving and trying to find something to grab, but for no use. The couch squeaked loudly as he fell back down on it.

"Snipes, wake up, goddamnit!"

Still no response. Scout was hungry and extremely tired. The best solution would be Sniper making him breakfast, but as he was plain out ignoring him... Geez, did he need to do everything by himself?

He stood up one more time, this time a bit more slowly. It was difficult keeping balance, as he'd been lying for more than a week, but on pure willpower, he was able to stand more or less normally. He took a clumsy step forward, whimpering lowly as he put his weight on the injured leg. The sharp pain made him quickly step on the other leg. It was an awful way to move, it hurt and it was clumsy, but it was better than nothing.

Limping over to Sniper's bed, Scout planned on scaring him some way, waking him up. He sneaked up close, took a deep breath and yelled "BOO!" while grabbing the person he thought was lying under the blanket.

No Sniper. Had he seriously just left him just like that? Without saying anything?

"Wow," Scout said lowly to himself. "Rude."

He halfway walked, halfway jumped on his right foot to the door. The inside of the van was comfortably dark, but outside the sunlight was probably very strong. Closing his eyes so they wouldn't burn to ashes as soon as the sunbeams hit them, he opened the door. The colour inside his eyelids quickly turned from comfortable black to painful, reddish pink. He covered them from the light with his arm before slowly opening them.

There was not a single cloud on the bright blue sky. The sun, which was fairly high up at it, shone bright down at the dry ground which was almost completely bare around the van, witch exception from some grass here and there. Sniper was sitting in a chair facing the sun, eyes in the shade of his hat, reading some sort of book.

"Hey." Not really wanting to step out of the van as he was almost naked, Scout just put his head out through the door.

"Well, look who it is." Sniper laid the book down, adjusted his hat a bit and looked at Scout. "Wow, it looks like someone hit ya with a truck."

"Thanks, I appreciate your compliment," Scout replied sarcastically. "What time is it?"

The man in the chair looked down at his watch. "Half past one. D'ya sleep 'til now?"

Scout nodded. He didn't usually sleep this long, he tended to be up early, as he found sleeping boring. "I'm hungry," he complained.

The Australian didn't even look at him. "Then make yerself some food."

"Can't you?" Scout was not the kind of guy who made food, in fact, he'd only done it a couple of times during his entire life. At home, his mother used to do it, and in the base he usually ate in the cafeteria with the others, even though the food usually tasted like shit. In the start, he'd wondered who had made it, but as he'd never found out, he'd stopped caring.

When he came to think of it, Sniper was rarely to see in the tiny cafeteria. He probably made all his food by himself out here.

"Can't I?" Sniper repeated. "Nope. Busy." He held up his book as to prove his point.

"No, you're not." Like a book was more important than a full Scout. "Make me some food," he demanded.

"Nah. Do it yerself. And stop demanding people around." Sniper looked back in his book. "If you don't like it, why would you think other do so?"

Scout opened his mouth as to say something, but he had no way to argue back. "I have no idea how to cook."

"What are ya? Six?"

"I-"

"Go make yer own damn food," Sniper interrupted and looked back up at Scout. "And put on some clothes, if you wouldn't mind."

"Fine! Jeez!" Scout went back in the van, slamming the door behind him. He had hoped it would make a loud sound so Sniper understood how much he disliked being treated like this, but instead it slid perfectly shut, muffled by rubber on rubber inside it.

"Make yer own damn food." He imitated Sniper as he tried to locate some clothes to put on. His own clothes were covered with tomato sauce after he managed to tip the plate with spaghetti while eating dinner yesterday. There had been spaghetti everywhere, even falling out of his pockets as he hurriedly trying to clean up his mess. There was no way he was wearing that. It was way too red.

Then what should he wear? The only clothing in the van was Sniper's. He could go back to his room in the base to get some new clothes, but to do that, he needed some to wear first, as there was no way that lazy bastard out there would get it for him. He sighed as he pulled out one of Sniper's shirts. There was probably a way he could wear it without looking like him.

A couple of minutes later, he was searching for eggs wearing an unbuttoned shirt with a singlet under and a pair of folded up pants.

Where were those damn eggs? He searched everywhere, until he found a cooler located under the coach. A blast of cool air hit his face as he opened it. It was filled with beer, but placed on the top of it, four eggs and a pack of bacon. He guessed that was all, and took up two eggs and the bacon pack.

Turning on the tiny cooking plate was a bigger obstacle on his way to make breakfast than finding it the ingredients. He turned everything at max, but nothing happened.

"Hey, Snipes," he yelled out the open window, even though they was more than close enough to hear each other perfectly fine speaking normally. "How do I turn on the plate?"

"Talk dirty to it."

"Wow, funny." It was pretty funny, but he was way to hungry to laugh. "Seriously, dude, how does the plate work?"

Sniper explained as good as he could how it worked, step for step. It didn't really give much results, as Scout had never had less idea what he was doing. He swore lowly as he tried for the third time without anything happening. He decided to try one more time, and if that didn't work, he'd go eat in the cantina.

"Wooo!" he yelled as a huge flame suddenly spewed out from the plate with a loud WHOOSH, causing him to jump backwards in surprise, lose balance and fall down at the couch. "That's what I'm talkin' 'bout!"

He heard Sniper yell, asking what the bloody hell was going on in there, but Scout ignored him, reaching out to turn down the flames a bit. Happy with his success, he proceed to put a pan on the plate.

Now what? Should he just slam those eggs and the bacon down in the pan, just like that? He shrugged and cracked open an egg on the edge of the pan. Just as he was going to open it up enough for the sticky goo inside to seep out, the entire thing collapsed in his way too hard grip, covering his hand with transparent, sticky, disgusting fluid, eggshell and yellow yolk. He did a throwing motion down at the pan, and the egg landed at it with a splat, followed by a fssh as it started cooking.

Success! He smiled as he did the same thing with the other egg, and when he put a couple bacon strips in there, too. This was going so much better than expected.

Ten minutes later, he was disappointedly poking the burned egg/bacon mix with a fork. He was sitting in a chair outside, next to Sniper, as they had to ventilate the entire van after Scout had burned the eggs so bad they almost caught fire. He stabbed a piece with the fork and put it in his mouth. Not only did it taste awful, it crunched, too.

"That," he heard Sniper say, "is one of the saddest things I've seen for some time."

Scout didn't answer, he just looked down at the plate. He was disappointed in himself, it had went so well, but everything had somehow messed up anyway.

"How many eggs were left?"

"Two," he mumbled as he stabbed another piece with egg and put it in his mouth. He had to force himself to not throw it back up, as the taste of burnt egg spread in his mouth. In the corner of his eyes he noticed Sniper getting up from his chair. Scout pretended to enjoy his meal until he heard Sniper close the door behind him.

"Screw you," he said lowly to the stuff on his plate. It didn't respond. He hadn't really expected it to do so anyway. It made a nice sound when he squashed it, though. The consistence was almost like rubber when he squeezed it, but when it broke together, it splattered through the fingers of the fork. It was pretty entertaining compared to eating it.

The smell of bacon hung in the air, making Scout's stomach growl and his mouth become watery and hunger for the salty and crispy meat. It smelled so wonderful, compared to the coaly things he could barely call bacon on his plate. He ignored Sniper when he heard him to come back out again.

"Here." Sniper laid two white pills on the side of Scout's plate. "I take a guess that you forgot." He reached him a glass of orange juice. Scout wondered where that had been, the juice, as he hadn't seen it when searching for eggs.

After drinking up the juice and taking his pills, Scout's stomach roared in hunger. He took a quick look at Sniper's lap, where he had a plate with two eggs, bacon and lots of beans. Sniper must have noticed, as he looked back at him.

"Y'want one?"

"I have my own," Scout replied dryly. And then, lowly: "Yeah. I guess I do."

Sniper reached him the plate, telling him that he'd already eaten, and wasn't really hungry. Gratefulness began to spread in Scout, he wasn't used to this kind of situation.

He looked up at the other man. "Thanks, bro."

Sniper just nodded once while smiling. Why was he so damn pretty? Just looking at him made Scout want to drop everything he had and go and kiss him or something. Every muscle in his body itched to do something, every nerve longed for Sniper's touch and his mouth just wanted to taste Sniper's.

He had to focus on his newly acquired meal, he just hoped he wasn't sweating. Or worse, blushing. All right, Scout, he told himself, breathe in, breathe out.

The yellow yolk flowed over when Scout poked it with his fork. He took a piece of bacon and ate it with a forkful of egg and beans. It tasted heavenly compared to the stuff he made himself, way too good to be eaten slowly, he was way too hungry for that, too, so he ate it up like he hadn't eaten in days.

"Ya hungry today, boy?"

Scout ignored Sniper calling him "boy" and nodded. "It was awesome. Thanks." He looked back up at Sniper and smiled. Sniper smiled back. He was so close, but yet so far away. Maybe it was time to tell him?

"Snipes," he said with a shaky voice. His heart was pounding hard enough for him to hear and feel, he was worried that Sniper could hear it. Suddenly his mouth got all dry. He wished he hadn't drunk all the juice. "I... I need to tell you somethin'."

"Go on."

How could Sniper be so damn calm when Scout was this close freaking out? "I," he said lowly, unsure how to formulate himself, "I... Really liked your eggs."

What. Had he just...?

What the heck, Scout?

"Wow, huh, thanks." Sniper sounded pretty confused, he'd probably expected something a bit bigger.

"No, that's not it." Scout took a deep breath, closed his eyes and decided to just jump in it. "I-I really like you, aight?"

"Many people do." Scout could hear that Sniper was smiling widely by this point. He probably found this whole thing entertaining. "Except the people I shoot, of course. No big surprise really."

"No, I..." well, this was it. No more hiding. "I love you," he said, very, very lowly.

"Come again? I didn't hear ya."

Scout was starting to feel a bit annoyed. This was difficult enough to start with, if Sniper didn't have to make it so damn complicated.

"Fine." He searched every inch of his body for some braveness, but at this point, he couldn't find any. So he did it without. Shaking, sweating, trying to swallow spit that didn't exist in his mouth and probably blushing, he looked up at Sniper and tried to look him in his eyes, which was covered with sunglasses. He felt an urge to rip them off.

"I love you." His voice was surprisingly steady. He breathed out, terrified. "All right. I guess I'll leave now."

He stood up from the chair and started limping towards the base. There was no way Sniper loved him back, so he'd probably just messed up everything they had. There was no reason for him to stay any longer.

"I know."

Sniper's voice made him stop and turn around. "You know what?"

"I heard ya yesterday." Sniper was smiling a weird smile. "I've seen it in yer face for some time, too. You aren't very good hiding your emotions."

"Wha-why didn't you tell me?"

"Tell ya what? That I knew it?"

"Yeah!" Scout was starting to feel a bit upset, as he had to go through this, when Sniper already knew.

"Because I wanted ya to tell me face to face." He took of his sunglasses and looked at Scout, who had clumsily walked back to him, now standing six feet away, in his eyes. "Besides, I love ya too."

Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Hold on a second. He was probably just kidding. Right? He'd never experienced somebody say they loved him back, besides his mother, but that didn't really count.

"I, you, wha-" He stuttered, unable to think of what the hell he should do at this point. One part of his brain told him to run away and never return, but another part told him to stay.

"Get over here, wanker," Sniper said, waving Scout towards him. Unable to think of anything else to do, he stumbled towards him, until he was standing right next to him.

"Hey," he said confused.

Sniper didn't respond, instead, he grabbed Scout's head with his hands, pulled him down and kissed him.

Scout had no idea what to do. He'd never gotten this far before. It was wonderful, but he felt like he had to do something himself, so he ended up trying to copy what Sniper was doing. His stomach was filled with butterflies, it felt like he was flying, like Sniper was the only person in the world.

K-dank!

He'd somehow managed to hit his teeth against the Australian's. He quickly pulled away and looked down at the ground, disappointed in himself. It wasn't that hard to kiss someone, but he'd still managed to mess up so badly.

"Yer first time, eh?"

Scout didn't reply. He was too busy trying to faint from the extreme amounts of energy which was quickly filling his body, making him forget to be disappointed. Instead, he smiled widely, and almost bursted out laughing for some reason.

"Ya weren't half bad."

"Yeah, I was." He looked up at Sniper, who was looking softly back at him. "I did awful."

"Yeah, ya did." Sniper laughed lowly. "You... What would you have said? Sucked."

"Wow, thanks." Scout jokingly hit Sniper's arm.

"Ya messin' with me?" That low voice of his was really scary. Scout took a step backwards as Sniper stood up from the chair. "That'll be the last thing ya do!" He leaped towards Scout, grabbed him and made him fall backwards on the dry ground.

"No, stop!" Scout squealed as Sniper started to dig his finger into Scout's sides. He gasped for air as he squirmed to get away from the Aussie's grip. "Please!"

But Sniper didn't let go, instead, he just tickled him even more, causing him to laugh and squeal and giggle like crazy. Tears started to fill his eyes from all the laughing. He snorted with laughter as Sniper's fingers ran up and down his sides. Trying to break free, Scout waved his good arm all over, while writhing like a snake on the dusty ground. No use, it was impossible to get away.

After some time, Scout had no idea how long it had been, Sniper stopped. Breathing heavily, Scout pushed him off and sat up. The older man got up.

"See ya in the van," he said with a challenging look before he went inside.

Scout was a bit unsure what he had meant in the beginning, but after some time, he understood it perfectly. More excited that he'd ever been before, he followed Sniper into the van.