He stood out like a sore thumb, like one tall tree in the middle of a surrounding forest. It was honestly laughable at how big he was. Compared to me, he had to be a whole two, maybe every three feet taller. I chuckled a bit at my height comparison, and turned my head, tearing my eyes away from the man's mountain of a build. I continued my tread to the elevator, now walking with some purpose. Then I felt it again, his gaze. It was burning through me even more than before. I sighed in annoyance, 'Jeez, what the hell was this guy's problem?'

I continued to ignore the man's insistent staring, and walked up to the new additions of my team. They stood there patiently, each of them bowing their heads in respect. Turns out the elevator had already arrived, they were just waiting on me. I pushed the button for the elevator doors, and they swiftly opened. I walked in first, and moved over to the side to make room for the other members to also board.

The ride was shorter than it was coming up, and after a short 5 mins, we were already exiting the elevator. On the way to back my office, occasional conversations sparked up around the members. I didn't bother to join in, mainly because I was too tired, and was trying to conserve all my left-over energy. I would say, based on the way they were conversing, they seemed like 2 brothers with their little sister. The man named Hutch being the peacekeeper between Horangi and Roze. It was adorable. After exiting the elevator, and winding the corner, we arrived at my office door. I strode forward, pulling out my keys, and fiddling around with them. After some time, I found the right key, and shoved it into the keyhole, yanking the door open.

I nodded to the soldiers, gesturing for them to enter. They obliged, and hustled into my office with me entering in after them. Closing the door behind me, I strode towards my desk, and picked up 3 distinct packages. I turned around, and leaned my lower half on the edge of my desk. "Horangi?" I called out, holding up a package in the direction of the soldiers. A man stepped forward, cradling one of his bags like it was a newborn baby.

He softly took the package from my hands before thanking me, I proceeded to hand out the last two packages to the other soldiers. I watched as they all examined them, before I cleared my throat, and spoke up. "Those packages that I've given you contain your dorm keys, a phone number book, and other essentials that are needed for your stay." I said. They all glanced at each other before looking back to me, and nodding in unison. A small smile crept up my lips, "Alright, you are dismissed. See you all tomorrow." I said, letting out a sigh, and pushing myself up from the edge of my desk. The soldiers all turned to leave, but before they could even reach the door, I stopped them once more.

"Wait, last thing" I said, holding my pointer finger in the air. They all turned, and waited patiently for me to speak. "If there's anything bothering you, or anyone, don't be afraid to come talk to me about it." I said, crossing my arms, and widening my stance to where my feet were shoulder's length apart. "I don't care how ridiculous you think it is, don't hesitate. I'm always here." I finished with a small, tight smile. The soldiers seemed to freeze in place, and it stayed this way for what seemed like a good like two minutes. That was until Roze broke the heavy silence.

"We will let you know if we ever feel uneasy. Thank you so much, and see you later LT!" She waved, and signaled to the other two soldiers. They exited my office, leaving behind a 'thud' sound as my door was softly closed back. A long sigh exited my lips, and I let my arms drop down to my sides. I ripped off my cap, and took off the extra parts of my gear, leaving me in a black T-shirt, and my standard issued green pants. I slowly trudged over to my door, lazily opening it once more. I needed something to keep me up, and so I made my way across the hall to the food court.

Lucky for me, enough people who were stationed on the 2nd floor had complained about having to go all the way downstairs for food, and so the higherups made a second food court upstairs, something I wasn't complaining about. I stopped at the beverages, not really having an appetite for real food. "It's either bitter coffee, or hot chocolate." I mumbled to myself. It wasn't exactly cold outside. It was. It was chilly to say the most, but I hated the bitter taste of coffee, and hot chocolate was too sweet to have this early in the morning. I went back, and forth like this in my head for a hot minute, arguing with myself.

Eventually, I settled on jet black coffee. I hated the taste, but it was guaranteed to keep me up. I fixed myself a cup, and turned around to head back to my office. However, before I could even take two steps away from the counter, I ended up almost spilling my boiling hot, shit water on myself. Soap had come out of virtually nowhere, and was standing in front of me. As he glanced down, his eyes trailed from my face to my cup, and upon seeing what was in my cup, his face contorted. I scoffed at him, waiting for whatever comment that was going to come from his mouth.

"You really are a perfect match for Simon, jeez...black coffee?" He remarked. The small smirk that was threatening to show just a few seconds earlier had completely vanished. I stared at up him, keeping my face as emotionless as it would get, "If anything, you're a better match for him, Soap." I spat, venom lacing my tongue. "Don't even put me in the same sentence as that bastard. If you can't do that, keep my name outta ya mouth." I spat, my accent becoming more, and more prominent as I spoke.

I pushed past him, leaving behind a shell-shocked Soap in my wake. I hated when people did this. Where they'd make it seem as if me, and Simon are like the best of friends or something. Like just a year ago he hadn't treated me like pure shit, and how no one cared. How no one even batted an eye. Like he hadn't made me break down at least once; Every. Single. Fucking. Day. Like he hadn't made me contemplate taking my own life multiple times. He made my life hell, and to say I hated that man was a total understatement.

I marched back down the hall seething with anger. However, my tantrum was cut short when I noticed a very tall figure standing by my door. I halted, ducking back behind the wall that I was just about to pass. The figure stood so still, if it wasn't for the occasional shifting that they did, I would've passed them up for a new statue that was added to the wall. My mind began to race, 'What if it was one of the Kortac soldiers coming to talk to me about something? Or what if it was just another one of the guys coming to bother me?' I asked myself. Deciding that it wasn't worth the energy to stand behind a wall and guess, I sighed, pushed myself to stand, and continued the trek to my office.

I began to mentally restate a prayer, begging any god that would listen to me, for it to not be Simon at my door. As I got closer the silhouette of the person seemed to get more, and more apparent as I neared my office door. I was about 6 feet away from them, and they didn't seem to notice me walking up. It was almost as if they were preoccupied with something. I stopped nearing closer, and took the time to thoroughly examine the silhouette of the person. It was a male, with broad, curved shoulders. He was freakishly tall, and had some sort of sniper mask on- A sniper mask? I cleared my throat rather loudly to get the attention of the person.

Their head snapped in my direction as they looked down, and found that I was right. It was him. "König, was it?" I asked, tilting my head to the side a bit. He was visibly startled at the mention of his name, and I couldn't help but let out a breathy chuckle. I felt my hand growing numb from hold my still-hot-shit-water, and I began fumbling with my keys for a bit before finding the right one. I excused myself, and walked in front of him to get to my door. He backed up instantly as I unlocked it, and I walked inside, gesturing for him to follow.

I turned around, just in time to see him enter my office. The doorframe literally covered the entirety of his head, and neck. He bent down, curling his body to the side as he took a step forward into my office. He pushed the door closed softly with his elbow, and I turned on my heel to walk back toward my desk. I sat down in my chair, and placed the coffee mug on a random cupholder on my desk. Leaning backwards in my chair, I crossed my legs and folded my arms.

"Take a seat, König." I said. He jumped a bit before following my orders, slowly making his way over towards my desk, and leaving his awkward standing position by my door. He sat down gently, keeping his legs slightly ajar. I kept my eyes on his masked face before speaking. "So, what is it that brings you here?" I asked, leaning forward, and sliding my chair closer to my desk, ultimately resting my elbows on it. I intertwined my fingers, and placed my chin on my knuckles. "You've got my full attention." I said.

At first he said nothing, and I began to notice how fidgety he was. Like how he couldn't really keep eye contact, and how he was constantly playing with his fingers, or his zippers. "I would like to switch teams." He suddenly blurted out after some time. His voice was shaky, with his German accent hinting it's presence like he was unsure of what to say. I thought for a moment. 'This guy isn't even on my team, why is he telling me this?' I asked myself.

"Switch teams?" I asked with a questionable tone. "Yes." He replied almost immediately. "I see, well you'll have to talk your LT about that-" I said, and before I could even finish my sentence, he cut me off. "I already have." He said, and I had to pause for a second. I took in a large breath, "Who's your lieutenant, well your contractual lieutenant?" I asked, sitting myself up, and turning on my computer. "Ms. Stephen." He said, and I glanced over at him. He was looking down at his hands, fidgeting with his fingers again.

I let a small sigh leave my lips. I had known Stephen since high school, at least I thought I knew her. She was practically a stranger to me now. 'No use in fretting over spilled milk.' I thought to myself, before I glanced back at my computer screen, my finger tapping my cheek as I opened a blank spread sheet. "Well König," I started, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw him perk up at the mention of his name. I turned my head to face him.

"If you want to leave her team, and join another one, you'd have to talk to the captain, and then to the lieutenant of whichever team you want to join. It shouldn't be hard for you, though. Many of the lieutenants had their eye on you when they saw you get out of that chopper." I said, giving him a small reassuring smile before glancing back to my computer screen. "I already am." He said. His voice caused me to do a double take, as it was almost like his whole demeanor had completely changed, with his accent sounding way heavier than it was a few minutes ago.

I glanced at him to see him already looking at me. "Were you trying to join my team?" I asked. He didn't respond, all he did was just stare. He shifted his head to the side, causing his mask to cast shadows over his eyes. Regardless of this, it was still obvious that he was staring directly at me. In all honesty, he looked quite horrifying, but I'd seen worse. I turned back to my computer screen.

"I don't know, that's what it seems like you're trying to say." I said, glancing back at him. Still, he said nothing. "Correct me if I'm wrong." I added, glancing back once again to my computer. Silence filled the air before he finally spoke, "You're not." He said. His voice was lower than ever, and in my peripheral I could see him shifting around in his seating continuously. 'Poor guy really can't sit still.' I said to myself, "Okay, I'll let you know what the terms will be." I said.

I kept my eyes trained on my computer screen, not bothering to look at him as his gaze burned into me. "Alright." He finally said, before he stood up, began heading over to my door very slowly. "And if you can-" I started, watching as he whipped his body around to face me once more. His stance had changed significantly as he was even more slumped over. 'Odd, he didn't seem scared.' I wondered. "Come by my office at 8:00 AM tomorrow, I'll have the other members here so we can work something out." I said.

I gave him a small smile, and he nodded in return. I broke the eye contact first by looking down, and shortly after I heard a 'thud' from my door suggesting that he'd left. I turned back to my computer, reviewing König's file once again. I had pulled it up to see how accurate it was, and to see if he'd really live up to this description of him on his file. According to it, turns out the poor man was so awkward he just started murdering people for the government, so he didn't have to talk. Surprisingly, he didn't seem that bad.

He was a bit weird in the beginning, but he seemed to warm up to me rather quickly.

The real question was why was he so hellbent on joining my team...?

(2513 Words ehehehe)

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