Otasune Long story

A/N: What no chapter title this time? :o





Hal sighed looking away from Snake and the woman and took Sunny to the bathroom to draw her a bath. "..." He started the warm water and put some soap in the water for bubbles.



Sunny was smiling at him at once and then she shooed him out of the bathroom so that she could bathe, since she insisted she was a big girl and could do it. Snake had long pushed the woman off him and was just outside to wait for Hal.



Hal walked out of the bathroom, closing the door when he bumped into Snake.



“Hal” he tried, as if you where testing the depth of a muddy trek with a pole before trusting your feet to it. Only this particular trek was filled with crocodiles and leeches.



Hal looked up at him. "Dave...Just tell me the truth.." he said softly



Snake was not really able to lie to Hal when he looked like that. “I really needed the flight…” no harm in redeeming himself a little “… And she won and you know how much she likes me… and flight prices are… prostitution worthy… these days…”



Hal looked at him. "...Oh.." he said looking down.



“…So she says ‘I need to practice my wrest- Hal?” he asked, afraid to touch him less he came out of that bubble and realized the mistake he’d made in being with Dave. He still tried to approach him.



Hal bit his lip. "...So she was right..." he said softly.



He stopped in his tracks and looked at him in confusion. He was a little afraid to ask. “Right about what? What did she say?” if he lost Hal to something she said, he was killing her in her sleep.



"That you don't stay with partners for longer than a few years...then you just leave them.." Hal replied sitting on the bed.



He chuckled at the way she’d said that and regretted it instantly. “Oh I’m killing her.” He muttered to himself the sat there with Hal. He didn’t know what to say to the man but at least he was being very calm about this. Taking this as a sign he hugged him.



Hal looked at him. "She was lying...?" he asked. "please..tell me she was..."



Snake sighed trying to calm his blood pressure. “She really wasn’t but it has nothing to do with this.” He clarified, since nothing breathing could rip him from Hal. Nothing.



Hal looked down again. "..I see..."



“You see? You see what?” he asked, trying to get him to understand. His beloved pilot friend was listening through the bathroom door as she was convinced there was a child in there.



"You don't want to be with me..." Hal said softly. "I'm just a burden and I'll never live up to any woman you've had..."



“Hal this isn’t a competition, when until somebody understands that?” he muttered as it irritated him when women came to him with this ridiculous assumption. “You don’t have to live up to anything” he said, placing a hand on Hal’s shoulder. The pilot raised an eyebrow at him and sighed. Coming in and pointing in the bathroom’s direction. “If you want to recite fairy tales, Snake, tell them to the kid.”



Hal looked up at her. "T..This doesn't concern you.." he said trying to sound assertive but failing miserably.



“I’m just doing this for your own good, Hal.” She said faking true concern and then leaning to Snake to caress his face. “And you try to get some rest, you look like shit.” She said before leaving them. Snake turned to Hal hopefully.



Hal glared at her as she left. He looked at Snake. "I don't want to be here.." he said.



“Because of me or because of her?” he asked, it may have sounded selfish but, hey, survival of the fittest.



Hal looked him in the eyes. He touched his face softly and kissed him. "Her.." he whispered. "I'm not going to leave your side...Ever.." he added.



Snake softened at Hal’s reaction being far calmer like this. He immediately thought about ways to make what Hal wanted happen in his mind even before he considered if it was prudent.



Hal stood up and went to the bathroom to get Sunny out of her bath. "I'll be in the shower if you'll watch Sunny while you think.." he said knocking on the door. "Sunny you done?" he asked



“Almost there!” she called then looked around and finally thought about it. “What do I wear?” She asked, as she was blindly convinced that Hal had clothing accessible to her.



Hal nodded and got one of his old t-shirts out of his bag. He brought it along with a warm towel and cracked open the door, not looking, and handed them through.



Sunny grabbed it and eventually came out wearing the large shirt and giving him the towel. “Where’s the lady and the snake? She asked looking around. “Did he eat her?” she said looking as she could believe that could happen.



Hal took the towel and hung it up on the rack. "Nope the snake's on the bed but he won't bite." he said smiling at Snake before going into the bathroom and closing the door. He sighed and undressed, starting the shower.



‘Oh that’s right, Hal, tell her I’m a giant reptile, see if she trusts me /now/.’ He thought smiling at her in a weak attempt at that. Eventually she came up to him determined that her strategy would work and pet his head again, completely ignoring his look of aggravation as she giggled at his expense.



Hal got in and started washing himself from the sea water. Once he was finished he got out and dried himself off with his towel. he wrapped it around his waist and walked out of the bathroom with his and Sunny's wet clothes.



Snake was sitting there talking with Sunny, more like getting scolded about the philosophy themes he had brought up which she reattributed with her own ideal arguments in the weirdest ways usually an “No it’s not” or a “you are lying” or other four-letter phrases. He gave Hal a ‘rescue me’ look.



Hal went into the closet and got into come dry clothes, which consisted of a grey turtleneck and light grey khakis. he came back out dabbing his hair with his towel. "What's she doing wrong?"



“She compared grenades with fireworks” He explained as if tempted to cut her little tongue. “I can’t wait to catch that boat” he mixed in there so that Hal could ask what his plan had been.



Hal nodded. "When?" he asked putting the wet clothes in a couple of plastic bags to put in his bag.



“Tomorrow early morning, it comes here about four at the early each morning so we have to have everything ready by tonight.” He said, then looking gravely at Hal “And we have to sneak on board too.”



Hal nodded. "I think we can do it." he said. "Shouldn't be too hard."



“Alright, then I’ll just go get things packed, it’s not much but I think we can get a kick in the place.” He said. As he had to postpone that flight to Russia now, it was going to be a long week.



Hal nodded. "Ok." he said. He handed Sunny her shell.



Snake started to grab what they had to take out for the time being which was one or two things and re-packed them. He took a look at the papers and put them back. Then went back to the chair to lay down again.



Hal got Sunny tucked in and got her to sleep. He walked out and looked at Snake. "Snake..why don't you lay on the couch? you'll be more comfortable" he whispered



“Can’t oversleep. Besides, you can take the couch” he mumbled hoping and worrying about getting up in time. Even though he had that inner clock of his.



"O..Ok..." Hal replied laying on the couch. He closed his eyes and tried to sleep yet something kept tugging at the back of his mind.



Snake tried to get some quick rest but the anxiety made him get up at one-o-clock. He killed it by grabbing the stuff they needed and going over it again. He put everything on the chair and went outside to have a smoke before the headache set in.



Hal rolled over in his sleep after hearing Snake going through the stuff. He lifted his head a little and laid back down.



Once outside and after lighting his cigarette he was able to relax, even thought it was because he had a watch with him. He took his time with it since he knew he could not sleep once onboard.



Hal woke up about an hour before they had to leave. he looked over to the chair and saw Snake wasn't in it. He got up and walked outside. "What are you doing up?" he asked looking at him.



Snake tossed the butt and stepped on it, since he knew Hal hated that and sighed so that his breath didn’t smell so much of smoke. “Vice made me” he explained looking inside. “I think we should go.” He said, placing a hand on Hal’s shoulder to pivot him around.



"But the boat doesn't come for another hour.." Hal said turning as Snake turned him.



“Uh?” he looked at his watch and ran a hand over his face repeatedly to wake himself up. “Right, then we can wait- what are /you/ doing up?”



"I couldn't sleep.." Hal replied turning to face him again. "My nightmares are starting to get a little better at least.."



Snake was not pleased to hear that. He looked into Hal’s eyes, as if he’d see it right there; whatever it was that tormented him. He wished he could do something for his lover but his hand only reached so far. It only resulted in frustrating him. “What was it?” he asked about the nightmare.



Hal shook his head. "It's the same as always..either about Emma or about something happening to you.." he replied.



“he knew Emma haunted Hal in ways she was probably not responsible for. But he came as a surprise to Snake. Although he should have seen it coming. However the fact that some of this was his fault he didn’t know what to say to that.



Hal shrugged and gave him a smile. "It's ok..you don't have to worry about it.." he said.



‘Don’t worry’ often became ‘It’s a problem you can’t solve’ he knew but he couldn’t fight it. So he just nodded and waited for the hour to pass so they could move. Although after a few minutes he realized this was probably a chance he should respect so he leaned and kissed Hal.



Hal kissed him back. "Thanks.." he smiled looking up at him. "..For being there ya know?"



“Where else would I be?” he asked completely missing that. “If you want I can stand outside more often.” He offered, hoping to understand one day why this pleased the man.



Hal laughed softly and hugged him. "You're not going to leave me are you?"



Snake stayed silent. If he interpreted this from some angles he could not promise Hal that and was uncomfortable with letting him believe a lie. “Not anytime soon” good, nice and open answer.



Hal smiled and nuzzled into Snake's chest. "I'm not going to leave either.."



Reassuring… Very reassuring. Snake stayed put for a while then looked at his watch. He roughed Hal a little with an arm in a friendly way then pat his back. “We should get moving.”



Hal nodded and went to get Sunny. He got her up and carried her out of the room. "How far do we have to go?"



“Just to the pier, but we have to sneak halfway. Can you get her to make no noise?” he asked, things in hand already. He looked at Sunny and felt pretty uncomfortable at how very vulnerable she looked.



"She's half asleep Snake I'm sure she'll be fine." Hal replied



Snake nodded and went to lead Hal to the place they needed to sneak into. The people here where loading the ship with crates of possibly fruit, vegetables and fish. He was pretty sure about the fish too judging from the industry. He signaled Hal to stay close and approached between the crates.



Hal followed him closely with Sunny asleep in his arms. He looked around and wrinkled his nose at the smell.



“I’m going to haul this one with the crane, try not to get in the way” “Shut up, Steve” Snake heard in the conversation and waited for the worker to get on the crane before pulling out his M9 and shooting ‘Steve’. He then grabbed Hal by the arm to grab to the cargo while it was being hauled into the boat. “Hold on tight” he told the techie.



Hal grabbed on with his free hand. He looked at Snake as the crane brought the cargo up



Snake gripped Hal protectively until they where let down. Then he pulled Hal to hurriedly move between the other crates, hoping the smell didn’t drive Hal mad. Eventually he had them at a darker corner of the hold. “At least we can’t starve” he said, as the harsh reality was that they would be here for a while.



Hal sighed and nodded holding Sunny as she held onto him. "true.." he said



“Now all we have to do is be quiet while they close the doors and then we can move around; for a few this place is sort of ours, that is until they stop at another place that controls exportation then-” he was explaining until he saw something move between the crates. He pushed the back of Otacon’s head so the man could crouch into a safer position. “Get down” he mumbled.



Hal crouched down and held Sunny protectively. "...." He stayed quiet and watched Snake



Snake observed but was satisfied with knowing it was nothing, just someone who had hitched the same ride, probably a couple of islands back. He relaxed and let Hal upright again, pointing him out. “Be careful” he told Hal really quietly.



Hal nodded and sat up. he found some sacks lying around and made a bed for Sunny to sleep on. He covered her up with his coat and let her sleep.



Snake just sat there to watch. He noticed that they where done with the cargo and soon enough the doors where being closed and locked. Once this had happened he waited a few minutes then went to get a light he could hold up to light around and his handgun in case something went wrong.



Hal stood up and stretched. "Snake...How long do you think we'll be on this thing?" he asked.



“Day or two.” He said, as he needed to wait until they reached one of the Portuguese-speaking islands to catch a flight to said country then they could talk about going to Russia.



Hal nodded and sat back down. "She's still asleep.." He said smiling at Sunny. He was amazed she slept through all the running and such.



“That’s a good thing and a bad thing. Good, she was quiet, bad, now I have to compete and see which of us has more energy.” He said, keeping out the fact that he’d been experiencing weaknesses since very recently.



Hal blinked a few times and closed his eyes tightly for a brief moment. "ughh.." he mumbled and laid down



“Hal?” He asked walking to him and observing. He was trying to be attentive but sitting down was probably the best alternative to the amount of time he should spend without sleep.



Hal looked up at him. "I think the boat rocking's getting to me." he said with an embarrassed laugh as he curled up a little.



Snake knew he was just extracting revenge but the chance was perfect. “Why don’t you take the pentazemin?” he joked “Don’t hit me” he said, holding up his hands in case that Hal decided to resort to violence.



"No i'll be ok if i lay here.." Hal replied with a little groan. "I need..to focus on something else..."



“Alright” he said, looking around once more. He was comfortable with the crates, as they made a great chance to hide and at the same time they looked like boxes too. Not that something had to do with the other.



Hal sat up against the wall of the hold. "I feel like crap.." he said softly



“Try to get some sleep then, come on” he said, pulling Hal closer as he preferred a smaller perimeter to work with. They kept this up for hours, until the light of the sun was filtering through the levels with some of the water.



Hal laid his head on Snake's lap and closed his eyes.