I played MGS5 for the first time in a few months. It was a good time; punched people in the face and trolled the masses with a water pistol and CQC.

It got me thinking. I'll post smaller, more innocuous chapters here as...fluff, I guess. I'll label them somehow to set them apart from the main story. Without further ado, here's the first.

Snake idly scratched his beard, staring at the screen of his iDroid for no particular reason other than making himself look busy. He thumbed through the staff menus, scrolling through the medbay patients and nodding slowly at the statuses of those admitted until he hit the most recent victim. A frown creased his face as he remembered the mission that had went so far south he was dully surprised he didn't find a new area of operations. "Uh...Boss?"

He looked up at the medical officer vying for attention, holstering his iDroid and standing to face the speaker. "Go on."

"Well, erm...Miss Quiet is stable, and her injuries are recovering far more quickly than we were expecting."

Snake held back a smile at the title attached to his buddy's usual title, nodding his head to urge the nervous medic to continue. "R-right. Uhh...right. I wanted to state that Miss Quiet has...fled the infirmary. I was assigned to monitor her every now and again, but she disappeared. Sorry, sir."

The medic stood at attention and waited for the admonishment that never came. "I understand. Good work, take five and get back to it."

Snake strode past the medic, patting his shoulder in passing as he stuttered out a "Thank you, Boss!"

As Snake walked toward the Command Platform, he pulled his iDroid and scrolled through the medbay patients. Sure enough, Quiet's name had disappeared already. A manual search revealed that she had been labelled as ready for duty once again, but he guessed that had not been due to convention. Snake decided to keep any conclusions to himself until he confirmed his suspicions, pocketing his iDroid and stomping up the stairs to his office.

Quiet lounged on her back, crossing her hands behind her head as the door to the office swung open, revealing a bedraggled and weary Snake. He raised a hand to point half-heartedly at her before reconsidering and sighing. "You're acting pretty lax about this despite taking a few mortars to the face."

"Hm?"

Quiet sat up and cocked her head in mock confusion, a coy smile on her face as Snake skirted around his desk. She swung her legs off the windowsill and felt her boots touch the floor just before he made it over, planting his hands on both sides of her and staring her down. They both knew she could simply disappear and dash out of the trap, but Quiet chose to stay out of a mix of curiosity and silent affection. "You were in the infirmary, should've been treated and all that. Yet I don't see a single bandage on you. No sign of being hurt whatsoever, so what's going on?"

Quiet drew one of her legs to her chest, smirking and pointing to the floor. Snake begrudgingly complied, glancing down and staring hard at the pile of discarded bandages piled under his boot. ...Uh."

She showingly raised her arms, showing off the signs of her rapid healing by way of the lack of bruises or scarring. When she was done with her little show, she smiled and rested her hands on his shoulders. "I believe the sarcastic answer would be to say they weren't very fashionable."

Snake shook his head and coughed out a ragged laugh, taking her gloved hands in his and holding them as tightly as he could without causing discomfort. Her unique condition, of course, made it difficult to show physical affection such as "Sure. And you still need some work articulating without body language."

"Seems we both have room for improvement."

"I guess we do."

Snake took off one of his gloves, biting the finger of his other one and pulling it off as he cupped her cheek. His other hand moved to caress the nape of her neck, pulling her close enough for their foreheads to meet, ever mindful of his shrapnel horn. "Don't do that again."

Quiet managed a small grin as her arms tightened around his shoulders. "No promises."

Snake mimicked her expression with some semblance of mockery, bumping his knuckles gently against her forehead before kissing her, letting his hands drop back to the windowsill as she hummed and pulled him comfortably against her. Snake smiled against her lips and pressed closer, deepening the kiss and pushing his hidden worry to the back of his mind. She was okay; that was a start.

I guess I'll start off with justification for the whole mortar thing. At one point in the game, I was infiltrating the airport in Africa, and...y'know, I got caught. Then they broke out the mortars. Thing is, Quiet caught their attention, so they started firing mortars at her. Maybe five or seven of them later, and she was extracted with grevious injuries. Of course she bounced back, but hey. Funny where ideas can come from, eh?

On a more serious note (because being blown up isn't, obviously), I wanted to write something for this two. I just wasn't sure how to move to story forward. Given how much I had written for my more recent stories, I find that I'm much better at writing about nothing rather than something. This chapter is mild evidence of that; this took maybe half an hour. When I look at it this way, it's kinda sad how slow I am.

I'll get over it, though. Somehow, somewhere, all that. Thanks to everyone who's read thus far, with particular gratitude for Sailor Star Dust for the kindness. See you all next chapter, whatever it may be.