Otasune Long story

“Don’t worry about that.” He told the man happy to have been of help to him. It was always easier to Snake when he knew what Hal needed of him.



A couple of weeks later Hal walked back into the hotel room after his hospital visit. He set the paperwork and Snake and Sunny's dinner on the desk next to his laptop. He yawned and laid on the bed covering his head with a pillow with a groan.



“What happened?” asked Snake as he had not exactly liked how unreassuringly that groan had come out. He looked at Hal already having an idea of what the man was about to say. Sunny looked at her dinner and then looked at Hal attentive to what he would say.



Hal pointed to the folder sitting under the food on the desk. His head was pounding and he really wanted to just break down but felt he couldn't.



Snake went to the folder under the excuse that he was going to hand Sunny her dinner which she looked anxious to get her hands on. He did, and took his own, reading the papers over it.



Hal sighed and rolled over on his back hugging the pillow. He stared blankly at the ceiling and ran his hand through his hair.



Snake was grateful that there was nothing in his mouth yet or he might have spat it out. “You’re kidding.” He muttered, unknowingly making Sunny nervous too in the process. “What does it say” she asked, and he was not about to explain. “His condition is delicate and he’ll have to be treated carefully in the next few weeks.” He dealt with it. Also he’d said he’d help Hal, and he was not about to go back on that either.



Hal looked at him and sat up a little. "I'm really scared.." he said softly with a quiver to his voice. He adjusted his glasses and sighed hugging the pillow tighter



Sunny left her dinner in favor to walk to Hal and hesitate a little nervous herself but then hugged him as he probably could use that. “It’s ok to be scared” she said, thinking about something she had been told.



Hal smiled a little and hugged her back. "Thanks Sunny.."



“I’ll help you out and whether it makes you feel better or if it’s scarier you’re stuck with me here.” He said trying not to sound like he was trying to be reassuring or to sound confident at the moment.



Hal looked at him. "You sure?" he asked. "I don't want to be a bother.."



“That can’t happen” he said firmly as if daring Hal to keep him away. Sunny sort of felt the stress and she pouted at Snake. “He’s hurt! You can’t scold him!” She defended.



"I'm not hurt Sunny.." Hal replied with a slight laugh feeling better that Snake kept his promise.



“Uh? Well sick then but still” she said after wavering a little there. Snake went up to Hal and hugged him, there, now Sunny was happier. He looked at him for a moment but he’d agreed to help, not that he’d do otherwise.



Hal smiled and looked at Snake. "Thanks for not abandoning me.."  he whispered



Snake made a face, very similar to the one you would make if someone called you an asshole or a dick. “I’ll be outside” he said, not honestly pleased with the idea that Hal thought he could. Sunny just looked confused then flailed her arms in sudden realization “You better not go smoking out there!” she called, hands on her hips in a firm stance.”



Hal blinked and watched him. "What...?" he asked getting up and following him, grabbing one of the pieces of garlic bread from the dinner bag.



Snake was stepping outside by the time Hal caught up with him and he was turning on his cigarette when he noticed the man had stepped into the range for second-hand smoke – which made him avoid turning it on immediately. “Why are you out here?” he asked, wondering where that had come from.



"I came out to ask you why you're overreacting about something so little." Hal said after swallowing the bite he had just taken



“I’m not overreacting.” He said a little confused or at least faking confusion. “But did you honestly think I’d leave you alone?” he asked. “And also I had a little smoker anxiety, it happens.”



"No I was just saying how thankful I was you didn't." Hal said before taking another bite



“Anything for you. Just tell Sunny to stop lecturing me about cancer, who taught her that, anyway?” he asked Hal with a smile tugged at the corner of his lip. Hey, he might as well enjoy this while he had it; before they went to Russia and Mei Ling called again.



Hal giggled a little. "Well you /should/ start cutting back y'know?"



“That’s not going to happen, you know that and I know that” He told him. The problem with Hal was that his words where infectious like that, now he was going to end up thinking about it constantly.



Hal crossed his arms. "Snake..." He then started going on an information tirade about the effects of smoking on onesself and others.



“I heard you, I heard you, that’s why I’m not doing that around you.” He said, staying firm in his argument that he didn’t hurt anyone else by doing this to himself alone.



Hal smiled softly and shook his head as he finished his bread. "As long as you're outside I'll be fine with it." he said going back inside to get more to eat and to get Sunny her food.



Snake nodded with a ‘I-did-not-pay-the-slightest-bit-of-attention’ expression until Hal went in, then looked at his cigarette, looked and stared at it. “Damn it, Hal” he muttered putting it in the box and pacing a bit in his spot before going back inside.



Hal got Sunny's food and his own and sat on one of the beds while she sat on the other. He started eating and waited for snake to come back in ready to spray him with fabreeze (a type of oder eliminating spray. smells like flowers) if he had to



“Well, we have to go to Russia eventually, any ideas?” he asked casually as he walked in, hoping Hal didn’t make much about the fact that he didn’t smell of smoke. Sunny had noticed but accepted it as something he did ‘just because’. ‘Good girl’ he thought.



Hal looked at him as he walked in. "You talking to Mei Ling?" he asked tilting his head as he ate. "Once you're off I need to show you something." he added.



“I have to, been off the loop for long enough to make me anxious.” Or maybe he should have just had that smoke. “Besides I kind of have to report to her.” He said, meaningfully.



"Well yeah I know." Hal replied nodding before eating more of his pasta.



“Well apart from that, enjoy the boredom.” He said, more to Sunny then to Hal, since he knew that Hal hacked, thus could handle boredom like a hacker. Sunny was a little more vulnerable to it then that and she made it known.



"Why? Snake what's going on?" Hal asked giving him a look of slight confusion



“We’re stuck here until I can talk to her so I’ll get to that.” He said, going to fetch something of his for a moment. He would have to entertain that kid somehow so he had an idea. He looked for it and then contacted Mei Ling.



Hal nodded and went back to his much needed food. "Well then I guess /someone/ should go shopping for food so we don't have to go out everynight." he siad staring pointedly at Snake



Sunny laughed at that while Snake spoke to Mei Ling. He made a mental note of it but he was more concentrated in the conversation he was having. Eventually he ended it but didn’t really like how that came out. He handed something to Sunny and told her to learn to work it out, promising it could be fun once she did. She stared down at the stealth camo and then at Snake in confusion before trying her luck at it.



Hal giggled a little and looked at him. "What'd she say?" he asked



“She said we can’t hand her in just yet, we need to know if her family’s gone connections; that is if she had any at all.” He said, watching how she made that thing work and studied what it did. “Not to mention that you’d think she’d be happier with her own folks.” He said, not really noticing how that came out.



Hal sighed and looked at him. "Keep your voice down I don't want her to get upset." he said



Sunny had just figured how to work the camo and had not been paying attention to them. Snake kept an eye on her for a while then decided it didn’t need his attention any longer. “I’ll go buy something… What do you want?” He asked, giving Sunny his back for a moment. She used that to walk into the room for a moment and didn’t come out.



Hal thought for a minute and grabbed the small hotel notepad and pen. He wrote down everything he thought they would need the most as well as a few other things that may come in handy later such as hot sauce and whipped cream. He handed it to Snake with a grin. "These are the things we need."



“Ah, wow, ok” he paused staring at the list but thought better then questioning Hal. So he went out for 100% of the articles in this list and 32% beer, maybe they served corona here too. He’d been missing that. The door to the bedroom Sunny walked into pushed itself but there was nothing to be seen. Except that a cushion had moved on it’s own accord close to Hal.



Hal jumpped a bit and looked at where she would be.

"Sunny you scared me."



The cushion did not respond, neither did the kid, for a moment there, there was a sight hesitation and then the door moved about a foot before wind closed it again. Snake had no idea evolution could be so powerful. He watched how his list evolved into something incredible and he watched as the idea of his beer had elevated in percentage too.



Hal blinked and followed her. "Sunny?"



There was some giggling for far but there was no answer, and even then the giggling had echoed in the hall so it could be really anywhere.



"Sunny come on we shouldn't be out here..." Hal said looking around as he walked slowly. He had become parinoid everytime he was alone in anyplace that wasn't with Snake.



Sunny kept silent trying not to giggle when Hal said this but feeling pretty mischievous with the new ability of not being seen. She was extremely giddy with this.



Hal bit his lip and looked around still  walking slowly.



Sunny walked close to Hal, behind him, as quiet as humanly possible just so that she could scare him a little. She wondered what he’s say when he noticed she was behind him too.



Hal sighed and shook his head. "Hal you're overreacting...it's not like something's going to hop out and grab you.." he said to himself



It was too hard to resist for the little girl, far too much, she leaped onto his back and hugged him while giggling like mad. “Surprise!” She yelled happy to be able to do something so fun, now she wanted to do it again.



Hal gasped loudly freezing in place. He immediately knelt down and wrapped his arms around himself protectively.



Sunny saw what happened and she fidgeted with the device desperately until she turned it off, then she placed a hand on Hal’s shoulder. “Are you ok? It was me” she said as if Hal didn’t know.



Hal looked up. "I..I wish you wouldn't scare me...like that...right now.." he said looking at her as he stood up shakily



“Are you ok?” she insisted wondering if that could really hurt him, but then again he had gone to the hospital recently. “Don’t die!” Now she was holding back tears.



Hal nodded and looked at her. "I'm alright..I'm just parinoid is all..." he replied putting his hands on her shoulders. "I just have to be a bit more careful from now on."



“Ok.” She said, trying to calm down. Then she looked at the little device. “What’s this for?” She asked. “and the things in the luggage and the boxes, and this” she said pulling a gun she had taken a look at and kept on her.



Hal blinked and gently took it from her. "It's for Snake's job.." he said



“What does he do?” she asked him, putting the small device in her pocket and walking inside, slowly so Hal go the idea and caught up.



Hal took one last look around and followed her. "I'm sure Snake can explain it better than I can."



“Why did you kidnap me?” she tried once more, now that she had Hal alone and answering questions she was not about to let that go. Snake was too busy noticing it was not going to work to get a beer when you had a lot of bags over you but buying six-packs where you bought the rest of the stuff works.



Hal locked the door and sighed. "We didn't kidnap you Sunny we saved you.." he replied. "From the bad people."



“That’s what the last people told me.” She said as if for the first time ‘really’ talking to Hal. “How do I even know anymore? The first people I was with didn’t treat me so well so I believed them, but then you showed up and kidnapped me for a second time. Who do I believe?”



Hal blinked. "I..I donno hun...." he replied



“I see.” She said, not really happy that she’d gotten this far and still didn’t have her answer. Little later then that Snake got there with a face like if he’d brought presents.



Hal looked up and smiled. He helped him with the food and everything



“I kind of forgot you couldn’t drink beer and brought you some.” He said a little sheepish packing it into the fridge. “So I’ll drink that for you, don’t worry about it.” He reassured. “Right Sunny?” he asked, looking around. Then figured she used the stealth camo again when he couldn’t see her.



Hal laughed and nodded. "True."



“That’s such a shame I even bought lemons to go with it. I guess Sunny can help me drink this, right Sunny?” The girl giggled as she was not even sure she /knew/ what beer was, just that you drank it.



"Absolutely not Snake." Hal said putting it in the fridge. "She'll drink the milk and juice you got."



“Don’t do that, she’ll grow curious, come on, Hal, just because you can’t have any doesn’t mean she has to be spared from the bad taste.” He said, observing how she was agreeing up until the part where he said it tasted bad.



"I never liked it in the first place.." Hal said closing the fridge and cabinet. "Oh! i forgot to show you the pictures." he said rummaging through the folders



“Pictures?” he asked trying to make sense of this. Sunny was glad of the change of subject that didn’t involve something icky in her mouth. However now that Hal didn’t tell he she could trust them she was thinking if running away was such a good idea.



Hal found them and handed them to Snake. "See that tiny little thing?" he said pointing to the small unreconizable blob on the sonogram picture.



Snake put the bag down really slowly, afraid it might fall from his fingers. He looked at the document and just stared. Silently for a moment. Then he lifted a finger and placed it on the shape Hal was pointing out as if he was going to be able to touch it. “That?” he asked in a dead voice.



Hal nodded. "Yeah..It's little but that's it." he said looking at him with a slight blush to his cheeks. He noticed the tone and wondered if it was a bad thing or not.



People often made the misconception to believe that the world could change around snake and it would not affect him; they have never been as wrong as they where right now since he hadn’t been so affected in a twisting way like he had now. One thing was to think of this in concept; strategy A goes against situation C and plan B is sitting there until abnormality D with the set of exception managing patterns, then to stare at a sonogram and to realize that, yes, it’s yours.



Hal looked at him. "Snake..?" he asked watching him. "talk to me.."



“Did you know I heard I couldn’t do it?” He said, in his own little trip. Sunny listened in since she had no idea what was said about clones or that Snake was one. “They said, that since I’m a clone or something like that, that I couldn’t do it.” He said, feeling this weird feeling you get when your entire world is rearranged around you and you don’t know how to even begin to get used to it.



Hal smiled. "Does that mean you're happy?" he asked



“Otacon, shut up for a moment, I’m in a crossroad of life, here.” He said, simply staring at the picture. He had to do something before he continued to study this. But was, oddly enough, shy about it. Dear God why did he get thrown into such a battlefield where he had no previous training, orders or briefing?! However he reached out and placed a hand on Hal’s belly, looking at the sonogram as if it where a manual. “There we go, you where saying?”



Hal smiled and put his hand by Snake's. "You're happy?"



“It’s ok for me to be, right? I’m not doing anything wrong?” he asked, voice a little distant and it didn’t sound like his own due to the tone. Sunny looked very confused, was Hal very sick?



Hal laughed and nodded. "You aren't doing a thing wrong." he smiled.



It was not until Snake hugged Hal as if he might drop dead with puffy dilated eyes that Sunny understood what was going on. ‘Hal’s dying’ was her first immediate thought and she regretted thinking about running away since he was being so nice.



Hal hugged him back and smiled softly. He looked down at Sunny. "You ok Sunny..?"



“I don’t want you to die!” She said, hugging Hal too, he was so cared about, why did he have to go? That wasn’t fair, surely this would not happen to Hal, Hal was a good boy, good boys didn’t die. Snake looked at her a little confused from where he was.



Hal blinked and hugged her. "Sunny I'm not dying." he said



“Then why is your pet crying?!” She asked, Snake’s eyes widened and looked at her in a ‘don’t-say-that’ way then tried moving his face in an angle away from Hal’s. He was tempted to try and flee.



"Oh..um..." Hal looked at Snake with an 'it's ok' look. "He's just happy Sunny."



“What’s going on?” she asked, trying to take a look at the papers. Snake was feeling better about being so vulnerable at this level since he’d be uncomfortable with it otherwise.



Hal looked at him. "Snake it's your call if we tell her or not.." he said



“Why would we not? It could be good for her to know the extent of possibilities goes further then she thinks.” He said, speaking as if he where of a humanities prep student or a new cadet from the army.



Hal smiled and looked at Sunny. "Snake you can show her the pictures." he said kneeling down to Sunny's level.



Sunny looked at Hal and then at the pictures Snake gave her. “These aren’t pictures” she said, looking at the strange print.



"look right there." Hal said pointing to the spot on the pictures he showed Snake. "That's going to be our baby." he said trying to put it in child terms.



“He’s not really your pet, is he?” she said, pointing at Snake. “She’s your wife!” Then she concluded beaming at her discovery. Snake stared as he had just been slapped across the face with a pan. Then he looked at Hal and then at Sunny and then tried to clear that up. “Ah no, see that’s not it.” He explained but that only made Sunny more sure.



Hal just blinked. "wife...?"



“You said ‘our’ and you are a boy so that only leaves…” she then points at Snake who seems to be scheming a way into making her redirect and possibly forget that preposterous idea.



"Snake's a boy too Sunny." Hal said stifling a laugh



Snake was too busy behind Hal touching his hair and studying the length of it again. “It’s the hair, isn’t it?” he muttered to himself in misery. Sunny then tried again. “I’ll know what he is eventually.” She warned.



Hal giggled. "I'm sure you will"



Sunny started to investigate on her way to Snake’s belongings to see if she saw something that could clear this scenario up to her. Still it was a good thing Hal was not dying. Snake poked Hal with something close to a Suffering look. “Is it the hair?”



Hal laughed. "I'm not sure but you sure look manlier than me." he replied



“Thanks at least /someone/ is paying attention.” He said, trying to comfort his pride a little. He sighed more relaxed and got to even sit down. However he couldn’t help but feel like he was missing something right now, like he should have thought of something important.