For the Love of Super Soldiers

Built Flower Tough

"Lieutenant..."

"Find out what people want to eat, okay? And our next plan of action."

"Lieutenant, would you just-"

"Later."

With that, I scooped my bag up from the floor and climbed the stairs to enter my suite.

My bag fell from my arms again and I tossed my sheathes atop it. The weight of my head seemed to increase as I flopped down onto the mattress. I felt like I was back in the Marines, constantly having to reprimand Victorian and worry about the safety of my team.

My team. I had gone from traveling desolate Texas land alone and quietly to traveling desolate Texas land with four others and nothing but noise. A big enough change for someone as reclusive as me was just having Aaron around, and with Victorian's arrival and duty to, as he would call it, play Cupid/ Big Brother, I was feeling the toll that was taking on me as well. And that was just in the two days he had been here.

A knock on the door brought me back to the world outside of my thoughts.

"Come in," I said, sitting up.

The crack between the door widened until I saw Aaron's head peek through with a smile.

"Hey," he said.

I gave a little wave and shifted to a side so he could sit.

"Fish and Chips is pouting downstairs."

I glanced at Aaron when I heard chuckles coming from him.

"Told him off, huh?"

"A bit," I started. "I didn't yell at him, and I certainly should have. He can reason a lot better than he does. He chooses not to, and he knows that I've always hated that."

"He did save us, Scarlett."

"Yeah, after placing us in even more danger than we already were. There's no excuse for that. And since when are you two best buddies?" I asked with a cocked brow. "Last I checked, you two were like cat and mouse."

Aaron shrugged while he continued to stand alongside the bed. "We aren't. But I can acknowledge when someone does something productive and beneficial."

"It was still dangerous."

"More dangerous than you running away from me and cutting yourself on that fire escape?"

"That was different. I knew I could make that jump, and I don't need you to take care of me. I do that just fine on my own."

I could hear Aaron's eyes rolling as he sucked his teeth. "That doesn't change the fact that you decided to jump between two buildings without scoping them out, along with nearly refusing first aid after you had cut yourself."

"I would have been fine, with or without the first aid."

Aaron sighed and squeezed the area between his eyes and I heard a low, "Ridiculous..."

"Look, Fish and Chips knew you could get the Trucker off of the Jeep, as well as get us away in time. Yeah, he scared the hell out of us, but we aren't dead. That was good thinking."

The area of the bed closest to me dipped under Aaron's weight, and I felt one of his hands press against where the cut had been.

"No scars from either, right?" He asked.

Hesitation. "Right."

"Then we should let bygones be bygones."

"You're saying I should apologize?"