One-Shots (G.I. Joe Fanfiction)

Letters from Home

Snake Eyes walked back into his room late at night.

Hawk telling the Alpha Team that they were released from their duties was a relief.

For a ninja, hiding things under the bed was child's play, but he never had to worry about people searching his room. So, he reached under and brought out the box.

It was mainly filled with letters, one stacked neatly and a few shoved into the sides where they could fit. All out of order, with his favorites on the top. If ever asked, he could arrange it by date, where they were sent from, where he received it, and even length.

He pulled out the oldest one. What was once perfectly packaged and Snow White was weathered with age and bent in the corners. Nothing but his name written in perfect Japanese calligraphy and stamped with a broken wax seal on the other side.

He pulled out the contents. Mission orders, oaths, contracts he had to sign to be fully bound to making sure his sword brother paid for the murder of their master. He spotted a few flourishes in the writing of the names and the signature at the bottom that were so distinctly hers.

He put it away and pulled out the next one, much less formal, sent from a small post office in Tokyo.

Snake Eyes,

I beg of you to reconsider my proposal. Even if the Soft Master is wrong, and Storm Shadow is guilty, I could still join you. You've put so much of yourself into this mission but you don't have to do it alone. You could return home sooner.

-T

He put that one away, remembering the spiteful reply that he sent.

The letter that came after that one didn't come for a long time.

Snake Eyes,

I apologize for my earlier letter. You were right in you previous correspondence that it was not my place. I am neither your wife nor your clansmen. As your superior, I prompt you to find a plan to finish your mission quickly. I want this dealt with as soon as possible. Please make yourself available for our next meeting.

- Lady Kowarenai

The next one he remembered receiving after he joined the Joes. And after they had their face to face meeting which including a lot of apologies from him. It had been mysteriously slipped in with a mission file he was given.

SE,

I respect your decision to join General Abernathy and his endeavor against this terrorist organization. For reasons I can not explain, I will be unable to help you. In all senses, you will be henceforth cut off from the clans as we are not able to intervene in this fight against Cobra. In the meantime, written correspondence will be our only method of communication. Any responses should be sealed, per usual, and given to Hawk. He knows what to do with it and can be trusted to have it delivered.

-T

It didn't really dawn on him until much later that he never actually told her the name Cobra.

The next dozen letters were much more personal. In order to assuage suspicion, they couldn't communicate often, so instead they fit in as much as possible into a few pages. Letters were sent every few months, filled with details of past childhoods and the past few months. Every suspicion, concern, desire, and memory shared through the ink of a letter. The only thing to compliment the incomplete half of their correspondence was his remembrance of his replies.

He picked up one from the top file, sent a year after they became much closer and she had shared of her concerns becoming 20, becoming closer to her mother'a political world.