Otasune Long story

Hal sighed and slowly looked up at him with a hopeful expression. "R...Really...?" he asked softly and somewhat sheepishly.



“I didn’t lie to you Hal” he said, really feeling that this was building up in him, the fact that Hal felt the need to not trust him. Mei Ling went up to him and gave him a hug. Snake blinked at how more and more people are getting to pass a deadly meter from his combat space so casually. “I’m glad for you guys, really, you deserve this with all that’s going on. Still, I want to see you working.” She chirped, before walking away. Not before reaching for the bottle Snake had left outside and putting it in his hand. ‘Way to go Mei Ling.’ He thought as she left.



Hal hugged Mei Ling back and smiled a little. "All I want is for you to show at least a little enthusiasm ya know...?" he said looking at Snake.



“Ah…” he said now grateful that she had left since nice as she was she would not let him make that face. “I don’t say that out loud but you can assume I care” he said, hoping Hal got the message since he had been assuming the opposite from the beginning.



"Why don't you want to say it out loud?" Hal asked



Snake scratched his neck since he had to go into a very deep psychological explanation he didn’t want to summarize, still it could make things easy to understand so he forced it into two words. “If it’s not known it can’t be used to hurt me” he said, hoping that made any sense.



"Oh so you don't want to appear /soft/ right?" Hal asked standing up. He put his ice cream back into the freezer and went over to Snake.



Sunny took that cue to stop playing with the computer and go elsewhere. “I think soft works, thanks for putting it so delicately.” He said, since the word he would use was ‘weak’.



Hal smiled and looked up at him. "I just really need you right now..Like you need me when you're out on the field..." he said trying to put it in understandable terms



“You know you can ask me to do anything.” He said, thinking of this in terms of task.



Hal smiled and basically glomped him. "Oh good!"



If Snake knew that this was what it took to get him glomped then he would have done this long ago. He wondered why it made Hal so happy but shut up about it thinking that maybe it was like being told that there’s a techie out there a frequency away.



Hal pulled away a little and smiled. "So does this mean you're going to find someone trustworthy to look after me?" he asked with the cute face



“What do you need, and why do you need something like that?” he asked, already picturing his trusted pilot in who’s hands he had let Hal more then once. “Uh, there’s someone a fly away and she knows I’ll cut her hands off if any harm comes to you…” he tested.



"I mean doctor wise Snake." Hal laughed



“Oh…” then he got hit by the health repercussions all at once and it was instant panic. “Oh!” He hadn’t really thought about what this could do to Hal’s health and it was not fun to think about that now.



Hal blinked and looked at him. "Uh..Snake...You ok?"



‘Sunny was right, you’re going to die, something’s going to go wrong’ he thought. “I’m alright, we need to get you checked out, hopefully you won’t have to move to come any closer to a hospital.”



Hal gave him a smile. "Snake I'm fine." he said touching his arm. "I'm almost through the first obsticle." he added reassuringly.



“Obstacles?!” he asked, he had no idea that this was challenging like that. ‘I have to sit down and ask about this some more.’ Thankfully Snake defended himself in Russian, however when he’d asked he was only patted on the back by a fellow gentleman, nice guy, working class. And told to be useful and, for some reason, quiet. “Well, of you think you’ll be alright.” He tried to cheer himself up.



Hal laughed and brought him to the couch. "Well I read that if you can make it through the first trimester you'd have a higher chance of having no problems." he said trying to word it the best he could.



Alright, so he had to make more reading and less asking. That was better. “Close to first trimester so it’s not with nobody else then” he said, jokingly. Although it was really good to know he was not going to end up having a kid that looked more like Raiden then him.



Hal looked at him. "Snake I'm almost done with the first." he said tilting his head. "And you're the only other person I interacted with.."



“Good to hear.” He said, not really sure what to say to that. Well there was Julie anyway but that had just been cruel. He still couldn’t process how people could be that cruel to Hal; to a bastard like Snake, naturally, but to Hal?



Hal nodded. "Why do you ask?" he asked. He found it weird that Snake thought it wasn't his to begin with.



“Nothing important, just me being paranoid, don’t listen to me.” He told the man. Fact was that since he didn’t know he could and he’d been so sure it could not be him, but this was Hal, right?



Hal smiled at him. "But what if I like listening to you talk?" he asked cutely as he layed back, resting his head in Snake's lap, looking up at him



“You know that’s not what I meant” he said, looking at how Hal lay down. He ran a hand over his hair for a moment thinking about how angry the man had been when Snake told him to stay away from the battlefield. Last pregnant person he saw on one was dead so his preoccupation could not be unfounded. He ran his fingers through the man’s hair as he took something else into consideration. What Hal would do if he died. Probably keep Philanthropy up… hire someone new, maybe. ‘He’ll be fine’ he thought.



Hal smiled and giggled a little as Snake ran his fingers through his hair. "I donno what I'd do without you.." he said touching Snake's cheek. "You always find ways to piss me off but you make up for it by giving me a good laugh."



Shit… he thought. “You’d probably have to put up with Raiden even more, the stubborn thing.” He said, remembering when Hal called him that. It had been interesting to hear the man defend him like that, touching at some point, even.



Hal laughed. "Yeah."



“And you’ll be fine” he said with a shrug not wanting Hal to make much of it. Still he didn’t think it would be this time, at another time, yes but it won’t be this. He was pretty sure.



Hal nodded and smiled. "I hope so."



“Well, I was waiting for Mei Ling to tell me when to go, wonder if that will be sometime this week so I can get that done.” He said, moving so he could get up and ask her about that.



Hal sat up and nodded. "You should so I know when to expect you back." he said. "Then I won't worry as much."



“I doubt you should worry at all, this sounds like it’s going to be easy, from what I know.” He said with a grin and went to get the woman. He was pretty glad when he heard it was not deactivation, but more like information gathering.



Hal sighed and shook his head. Sunny ran in and up to him. "Hal! Hal!" she shouted.

Hal blinked and looked at her. "What's wrong..?" he asked.

"Th...There's a big spider in the bathroom....!" Sunny shrieked.

Hal sighed and got up. "Show me where." he said grabbing a magazine.

Sunny led him to the bathroom and pointed in the tub at the spider.

Hal smiled and shook his head. he used the magazine to gently pick up the spider. He opened the window and shook it off outside. "There all better." he said closing the window.



“All you have to do is sneak in -don’t make that face, Snake- and find how advance the project on that ship is.” Snake was not too happy since he always had a damn bad experience in boats. “It’s docked, right?” he asked hopefully. “At least” she said. “Good, because that way you can find my remains.” He said, not happy with the mission at all. However boring it was and now it would be boring /and/ troublesome.



Hal got Sunny some lunch and started making some food for himself.



“Alright, Hal, I’ll leave in about a few minutes so I’ll just get something to drink while I’m there and what I need and I’ll be back as soon as that ship sails.” He said, since it was as long as he had to be there. “Good God it’s going to be boring” he told the man, pretending not to see Sunny but putting his hand on her head like it was an armrest playfully.



Hal nodded and got him some water. "Just be careful." he said. He packed a few rations for him and handed them over. "Codec me if you have any problems."



“Sure” he lied, if he had problems the only thing he’d want from Hal was to get out of the country. Still he wanted to reassure the man a little. So he roughed his hair a little before walking away to get his stuff and get to his point.



"I love you.." Hal said quietly as Snake walked away. He slowly started to go back to making his food



At first that mission went by the book like he was fifteen years old, even if he wasn’t. But he moved with an agility that rivaled the talented kids in the teams that the civil armies could train. Still maybe that’s what got him too confident in the first place, ironically he ended up calling Hal, maybe it was the blood rushing to his head as he hung upside down from the pipes like a trapped mouse above the machinery. “Hal, this thing is a hiding space. And it’s huge.” He said, looking down at the machine and lamenting the lack of virus-ridden USB. “Should I sabotage it?” he asked, thinking that first he should free his legs.



"What's in there?" Hal asked as he looked through one of many of his tech manuals.



“Some weaponry, looks designed like a smaller metal Gear to me, it has two legs though I’m not sure it can walk well.” He explained as the thing turned on. He was really calm from the roof where it was as it scanned the area around itself. Snake knew well that these things could not look far up so for now he was safe. Although he refused to come down when he noticed it was not one that was scanning the area, it called two more with a strange mooing sound. “Heh, sounds like a cow, Hal” he said. His smile faded in an instant before informing his friend of a new fact too. “Um… Hal… they can look up.”



"Snake get a picture and get out of there NOW!" Hal shrieked.



Snake got the camera out and snapped the picture at the metal gears who targeted the camera and registered the form as ‘evidence’ in their programming. They had been programmed to destroy it now and he was seen as a target immediately. Problem was that he was too busy pulling his leg free to notice the number sequence on their screens that read ‘warning evidence clearance’ as they prepared the explosives. The ship was being quietly evacuated thanks to this ‘accident’ as a team was sent down to deactivate the system. Mei ling wondered why the men where coming to shore so fast. “Leg’s stuck but I’ll be right out, Hal. They’re not attacking me”



"Well get unstuck because what I'm seeing isn't good.." Hal said



“Um… Hal stay far.” He said, cutting the communication so he could attempt to get out. Mei Ling made a chocked sound of surprise when she saw the huge explosion. The men still on the ship and the team looked like they died a swift death and she started to try to contact Snake at once.



Hal sighed and immediately codeced Mei Ling. "What's going on?!"



Mei ling didn’t really want to give premature bad news but she was not getting Snake on the frequency. “The ship blew up, looks like the new Metal Gears are coming with self-destruct devices.” She said in a shaky tone.



6 "What?!" Hal shrieked.



“They must be programmed to clean evidence so the ship was completely destroyed. We have to wait” she told the man sternly not wanting him to do anything hasty like last time something like this had happened.



"Tell me where to meet you!" Hal said



“Stay where you are” she said, getting her things so she could go to where he was. “I’m sure they media is bound to report this tomorrow and maybe we can catch Snake with the survivors.” She said, not saying ‘if he lived’ out loud so that Hal would not get too upset.



"What am I sopposed to do?! Sit here and wait?!" Hal shrieked.



“You have to calm down, Hal it can’t be good for your health, especially in your condition to pack so much stress, I’m on my way” She said, trying to hurry since she had not expected him to be this upset. However she hadn’t expected Snake to fall through the top level of that window and get his leg stuck like that. ‘That happens to him for getting so cocky, he was – is – not exactly seventeen anymore.’



Hal sighed in frustration. He couldn't stand to lose Emma let alone Snake. "How amI supposed to be calm!?"



By the time Mei Ling had gotten there she knew Hal would probably need something to drink. So the made her quick way to the kitchen to make something. “We have to wait until the rescue team has mobilized she told him, looking at Hal in the eyes meaningfully. “Besides if Snake didn’t call he probably found an easy way out or… Well you know him” She tried to be reassuring.



Hal shook his head. "What if he didn't?" he asked.



“Then at least he died a quick death.” She explained before she could stop herself. “Um… But I really doubt that” She said trying to fix that slip. She knew better then to expect Snake having escaped the lower levels of the ship beneath water level in a second to spare but that didn’t mean Hal needed to know any of that so she concentrated in her tea making and offered it to Hal so he could calm down.



Hal looked up at her from his place on the couch. "I...I told him to be careful...He never listens to me!"



“Why don’t you get some sleep? You can scold him energetically when we pick him up tomorrow” She said, tuning the radio to the news so that she could catch that report in the morning once it came up.