Brothers in Arms

Eclipse: But Taunting You is So Fun!

"Excuse me?" Shadow demands, glaring at me like I'm a piece of half-chewed gum on the spotless floor of his life.

"You heard me," I reply easily, and his cheeks flush. "Dainty, delicate, frangible. Lilliputian, perhaps."

"You did not just call me insignificant," he threatens, leaning close. "You did not call me small and breakable." I meet his gaze, hiding my glee behind a veil of detached amusement.

"Homunculus," I say mildly.

Even my reflexes are barely fast enough to avoid that punch to the face.

"Dammit, what do you do for fun? Read dictionaries?!" He rages, chasing me around the room like a demented ball of spikes. "Or does making fun of me take up all of that time?!"

"Making fun of you is fun," I call back, leaping off the wall to avoid an angry spindash. "At least appreciate the effort I put into doing it. I was pretty proud of Lilliputian, you know."

"You've never even read Gulliver's Travels!" He shouts back, madder than a kicked hornets' nest. "And a 'homunculus' isn't even real! Miniature humans in the womb were a mistaken medical theory!"

"It's still a noun. It just means a different thing than it used to," I grin, hurling myself out of his way again.

Glad to say, this is pretty normal behaviour for us now. I've only been working with Shadow for about four weeks, but, in a time of great stress and anticipation of attack, I've found that simple teasing can be a welcome relief. And, as much as everyone complains about our antics, I notice that everyone around the room has stopped to watch, a good portion of them laughing at the rise I always manage to get out of Shadow. Even he finds it enjoyable, I know. If he were really mad, he would just stalk off, but he indulges me with spontaneous matches of strength and speed.

"Okay, lunch break," Captain Andrews yells over the sound of us fighting. Shadow's finally gotten ahold of me, and we're in the middle of a grapple, but the words get our attention.

"Lucky for you," he huffs, picking himself up off of me where we'd fallen to the floor. He walks over to join Rouge, and I stay quiet, grinning. I tend to let him have the last word, since I figure it'll put him in a better mood, which, frankly, he can often use.

Trotting behind him after brushing myself off a bit, I plop down on the ground in between Agatha and Rouge. Through an unspoken agreement, Shadow and I don't tend to sit next to each other, as that would be asking a little too much as of yet. So, I've been getting to know his friends a little better.

"Nice one," Rouge compliments me mildly, taking a bite of her regulation sandwich. "I'll have to remember some of those."

"Thank you," I beam in return. "Though, I must say, I think 'petite' is really the best descriptor."

"It is," she agrees, snorting a little at Shadow's unimpressed look. "Okay, okay, admit it, Shadow. Everyone here is taller than you by at least two inches. I've got five whole centimeters over you, and you're, what?" She asks, turning her attention back to me. "10 centimeters taller than him? 11?"

"Something like that," I shrug, unwrapping my food.

"The teeth offset the height, though," she observes, and I blink confusedly at her, not understanding.

"Meaning?" I ask, cocking my head slightly.

"Shadow may be petite, but at least his mouth doesn't look like a death trap," she elaborates, and I roll my eyes. "It's a total turn-off."

"My teeth are fine," I reply, miffed.

"Your build is perfectly attractive, but, believe me, women would run away the moment you said anything," she continues, and I groan.