What a wonderful morning.
WHAT a wonderful morning, was all she thought.

It was all she thought of when she got up and all she coud think of when she opened the window and the door of her apartment.

Not the door that leaded to the LZ. The other door. The door from where she was directly accross the Ocelot cage. He should be still asleep around this time. And with his apartment, so close to hers, there was nothing else she loved more than to mock him out of bed.

She was taking care of her hair in front of the huge mirror, when she had the brilliant idea.
She was already ready to leave the house and full dressed, so there wouldn't be a problem with the getaway, like the last time.

She looked out of the opened door.
It would be so much fun. But he would hate her for it. Again.
She grinned. With this huge, happy grin all over her face, she went to the old turntable, which stood on her small closet, in the corner of the room.

After she took care, that both window and door were opened as wide as possible, she took extra care as she put the needle down to make that song play.
She always loved Edith Piaf and in this case, the song text reflected perfectly, how she felt.
The music started playing and her heart skipped a beat.
"Non, rien de rien.", she started singing the young french Edith Piaf did.
"Non, JE NE REGRETTE RIEN!"
And it was true. She didn't regret a thing about this. Although she might would be later.

Ocelot woke up in that exact moment. For a second he blinked and relaxed. The nice, soft fabric of his beloved bed and the wonderful feeling of the morning sun, filling up the room and the breeze, floating throgh the room and...that song...THAT SONG.

"Ni le mal tout ca m'est bien égal!"
"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?", Ocelot shouted. He sat in his bed now, panting angrily. DD lay in his bed, barking at him.
"Non, rien de rien!"
"STOP THAT FRENCH NONSENSE! My God! It's 6 AM WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?!"
She couldn't really understand him. The music was indeed loud and she had to sing as loud as she could to piss him off. But seemingly she already succeeded.
He hated french. He hated everything about it and nothing was more beautiful than to see Adamska like that at 6 am in the morning.
"NON."
"STOP IT. I'LL COME OVER AND SHUT YOU UP MYSELF IF I HAVE TO!"
"JE NE"
"You are PUSHING IT YOUNG LADY!"
"REGRETTE DE RIEEEEEN"
She heard DD howling with her.
Ocelot threw away his pillow and angrily jumped out of bed. She knew what would happen if she wouldn't run now. Fast and as far away as possible.
She grabbed her bag and ran out of her room, leaving the trouble behind and running as fast as she could, down the stairs and then over the Platform.

"Kazuhira?"
It always was so dark in his office that it was hard to spot him. But he really didn't seem to be here in the moment. He needed it to be so dark, he still wasn't completely blind. He could see, but every kind of bright light was poison for him and she usually made sure that nothing happened to him.
But what if something happened?
During her escape, one of the soldiers stopped her, telling that Miller asked for her. She was quite surprised, that he was up that early.
"Kaz?", she asked again, taking a step inside the room and still holding tight onto the door.
He wasn't here. She carefully closed the door behind her and looked around.
Something could have happened. He's clumsy. He always was, but it got worse after the...incident.
What if-
"Ah, your here."
She turned around and nearly jumped.
"Kazuhira? Are you alright?"
"What? Yeah. Of course. What is...never mind."
She sighted and looked at him. He had something in his hand and she watched him puzzled.
"I brought you something."
"Is that...", it smelled like something to eat.
Kaz opened a little white box and handed it to her.
"...uhm...are you...is that a Burger?"
"The best one, you'll ever eat."

She grimaced.
"I...you know i usually don't eat breakfast. And you know i'm not very fond of these things. So why...i mean it's very nice of you! No doubt! It's just..."
"Eat it."
"I don't quite know."
"Eat. It."
"Kaz...I'm sure Big Boss would be more than happy if he had the chance to ea-"
"Do it for me."
She grumbled, then finally took the Burger an looked at it.
A normal Burger. It smelled good, but her stomach grumbled and she didn't feel like eating anything now.
Sighting, she looked at him and then back at the burger.
She took a bite and Kaz seemed to slightly shift.
It tasted great. A normal, pretty good burger.

"Its good. Very good. I like it. Thanks.", she said, after chewing the bite and put the rest of the burger down into the white box again, trying to shook him off.
"Is it! It is, isn't it! Perfect!", he grinned and turned his back to her.
"Wait. What are you doing? What was that for?"
"I have big plans. Great Plans, my love!", he said and went off, leaving her along in his office.

"Morning Quiet."
Quiet turned around and greeted her with a silent hum.
"Watcha doin?"
Quiet sighted and stretched on her bench-like bed.
"Yeah. I know what you mean."
After stretching a little more, she turned around so she lay on her tummy and watched her, smiling softly.
She sat down in front of the prison bars and started telling her about the day and about her fear of Ocelot's revenge.
Quiet smiled bright and hummed from time to time.

"Heard the Boss will go on a mission today, heard he'll take you with him"
Quiets eyes shined and she shifted.
"I can imagine you like getting out there, out of your cell. Your Cage little bird."
Quiet smiled and nodded softly, looking away from her and seemingly thinking about something.

When she got up, Quiet snapped out of her daydream and watched her, standing in front of her cell.
"I have to go now Quiet. I have to eat something and start working."
"Mmm..."
"And Quiet?"
The Sniper looked up to her, expressionless.
"It's nice to talk to you. Take care about him out there. And take care of yourself. Be careful. And if anything happens, you can try to tell me, okay?"
For a few moments she just stared into the dark void-like corners of the cell. Out of nothing Quiet watched her again, smiling.
It was her sign to go. She nodded and left the girl all by herself again. Inside her dark, void-like cell.

She took a good look around.
There were a few soldiers. Two tables were taken by small groups of them, making small talk and playing cards while laughing joyfully.
Her stomach growled. Ocelot was nowhere to be seen, so she decided to walk inside the canteen and went to the output next to the buffet, where the breakfast things still stood.

"Pretty early for lunch.", the men behind the counter smiled.
"Let's call it a brunch, I havn't had breakfast", she tried to smile back, but somehow muffled.
"Poor thing. Here you go.", he said, handing her a plate.
She looked at him before taking it. He was handsome and something told her, that she'd seen him before.
"You...you are one of the sodiers from MSF...you were in the combat unit...what are you doing here? Distributing food?"
He chuckled warmly and let one of his hands slip through his dark brown hair.
"I...um...Its nice you remember me, Miss! I'm...doing this somehow...i volunteer."
"Really? That's wonderful! Keep it up soldier. Keep care."
"I will.", he nodded and she turned around.

"Hey! Wonna sit with us?"
"Please?"
"Please Miss, come on!"
"We don't bite!"
She turned around to look at the small group of soldiers,which were calling her and waving excited.
A small giggle escaped her and she turned on her heels to go to them. They cheered loudly and pushed some of their plates around to gain some space.
She sat down and greeted them.
Some cards were placed on the table, some glasses, dirty plates, an ashtray and a few cents.
She looked at her plate and pulled up her hood.
They somehow looked puzzled and started talking for a second.
It was terribly rude, she knew and she felt bad about it.
"What is it, don't want to be seen with us?", one of them finally asked, his voice sounded sorrowful and somehow angry at the same time.
She turned her gaze away from her plate to them, she chew for a few seconds before swallowing and smiled.
"What makes you think that? I'm hiding from someone. Why wouldn't i want to see with you lovable morons?"
They looked at each other and started laughing again while she continued to eat.
"But, uhm Miss wait, wait...are you in serious trouble? Did someone hurt you?"
She could see them tense in the corner of her eye. It got silent once again. It was so sweet to see the soldiers care for the female personal. Not just her. Most of the women here, who first thought they may would have problems in between all these men, we're treated with careful, gentle gestures and niceness.
Of course, there were some guys who would whistle or say dumb things, but in the end the majority of the men took care of those cheeky guys.
Doors were held open, the laundries were done extra careful and not once was a women involved in a fight between the soldiers. It was strange, but most of them were gentlemen through and through. And whenever there was even the tiniest rumor about a woman being bothered, the men reacted with a sharp bitterness and disgust that one of their family members were attacked like that.

"Nah. Nothing serious. Ocelot is mad at me."
"Ohhh. Well. I guess we can't help you with that, Miss."
She chuckled and nodded. "Nice of you to ask..."
"No problem, Miss. It's our duty!", another one answered.
"Ehm...gentlemens? Am i right assuming that playing cards for money isn't allowed?"
And there it was. The third time it got silent.
"Um...it not like..."
"Poker?", she asked, not looking away from her plate.
"Yes...Miss..."
"Ante?"
"We're...umm...just playing with pennies. Not much money..so...um...20 cents. Nothing like...play-"
"Okay. I'm in. CAN i play with you guys?"
They stared at her in shock and one of them started grinning wildly.
"Sure Thing, Miss."

She took the money out of her jacket and started counting.
17 Dollar. Good catch. She smiled to herself and went on.
The boys really have to learn how to play poker. If they hadn't stated that they don't want to play with her ever again, she'd probably shown them how to...

She looked up and froze in shock as she heard the noise.
The noise of ringing spores. There was only one cowboy-russian-guy here. She pushed herself to one of the walls and carefully peered around the corner.
"Shit shit shit shit.", she whispered as she saw Ocelot, angrily walking. He was looking straight forward, so he didn't see her sneaking around.
As soon as he brought some distance between them she sighed in relief and suddenly spotted shiny blue eyes.
A smile appeared on her face.
The Boy stood there, watching her confused and somehow derisive.
Eli. Eli they called him. The White Mamba. The problematic little new one. She had to smile. Simply had to.

He did not ask her what she was doing. He simply stood there. His brows raised and stared at her as if she was some kind of maniac.
"You are the Mamba. The Infamous White Mamba, am i right?"
His expression changed. He looked...moved. Surprised first, then again slightly discomforted.
She knew what he was thinking. He didn't like it to be called Eli. Of course he didn't. They took his identity from him with taking that name.
It was her time to shine again and she needed to manipulate him a little to make him the good boy she wanted him to be. A hard task. But Big Boss is a hard task too and she made it. At least up to that point.
Again, he didn't reply.
"I heard a lot about you! Your reputation precedes you. Must have been hard. I bet half of the soldiers here wouldn't manage to do such a thing. Leading all those men you have...my respect."
Was that a small smile on his face? For the blink of a second.
"What are you doing here?", he asked.
Finally. That was easier than she thought. Some soldiers told her that he spoke English. But to get something out of him that fast, after he didn't speak for so long was great success...for the moment.
"I have to get away from that Cowboy.", she smiled softly and he still stayed cold as ice.
"Hmm.", he replied.
Asking him what he's about to do may be a little to pushy now so she just let silence fell between them.
He was scanning her. She didn't look like the soldiers here.
She wore her boots. Not the combat boots as usual. The fancy boots with the heels, which made her look taller than she was and the black non-military turtleneck top.

"You are...not one of the soldier here.", Eli stated.
"Not really. But somehow."
He twitched somehow.
"I...will...have to go now.", he said, but still stayed were he was. Was that a light red on his cheeks?
"Alright then, Mamba.", she said, walking away and raising a hand to say goodbye.

"You can't ban singing."
"BUT i can ban singing in french!"
"Oh come on. She's a good singer, why does it bother you so much Ocelot?", Big Boss asked. Adamska was walking next to him, from time to time running to catch up with him again.
"You can't ban french either."
"French singing. At least. It drives me crazy. She..."
"Gotta go now.", Big Boss stated, he looked up ti the LZ where the Helicopter already waited. Quiet stood there, waiting for him as well.
He put a hand on Ocelots shoulder and smirked. "You'll make it."
"Take good care.", he replied and made the Boss smile even wider. Big Boss looked up, seeing her standing a few meters away. She waved slowly.
Quiet looked up too, softly smiling as she saw her.
Ocelot turned around. "Ohhhh she's so dead."
"Be nice." Big Boss chuckled and went on to get into the helicopter.

"Where are you?!", he yelled. She was already gone again. Getting away was her thing.
Although she wasn't even far away. She was sitting on one of the pipes, about five meters above him.

Ocelot sighed and put his hands on his hips.
"Oi.", a voice called. A young voice, a voice she knew by now. She searched from were it came and finally found the source.
"Eli?", she whispered, so soft, that nobody would here it.
Ocelot turned around to look at the boy, who was leaning against a wall with crossed arms.
"Eli? What are you doing here?"
"Just taking a walk.", he stated and pushed himself of the wall. "The Girl", he went closer to Ocelot who scanned him curious, "She went that way."
Eli gestured to the right and Ocelot smiled.
"Thank you Eli. You know, it's a good thing you finally start to interact with us! Keep it up boy!", Ocelot grinned and went to the right.

She jumped down, after he was gone, looked after him and then turned to Eli.
It was getting dark and cold outside.
She looked at him and smiled gentle.
They didn't say a word. She wanted to thank him but something held her back.
"It's getting cold. Do you want to have a jacket, Mamba?"
He smirked and suddenly chuckled. His cute, cocky, little british laugh and turned around, leaving her alone.
"You owe me", he called and raised his hand.
"Did he just...left me like...that's my gesture. Thats MY thing.", she mumbled and sighed.

Hello there .

Just wanted to say thank you for all those nice reviews and excuse myself.
I somehow didn't manage to write faster the last days, hope you're still out there and feeling good and...yeah. You know what i mean!

Fortunately you liked that chapter and have a nice day!

See you around.