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Inside the Circle	By : Storyseeker Category: +G through L > G.I. Joe Views: 7945 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own G.I. Joe, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 1-Follow
- 2-Master
- 3-Silence
- 4-Spark
- 5-Heat
- 6-Mist
- 2
- 3
- 4
Chapter 3: Silence

It was the heat leaking from her bones that jerked her eyes open with a start. She’d dozed she realized. The amber light creeping through the trees was all that remained of the afternoon. Silly girl, sleeping a hound dog. The quiet made her drowsy. She just wasn’t used to the lack of civilization. It was so silent here, especially with Snake-Eyes as her only company. The corner of her mouth rose slightly, and she glanced around, reorienting, and searching for her companion.

Snake-Eyes had given up his chosen spot by the stream. Scarlett shifted her eyes instinctively upstream, and saw him. The loose gray trousers he wore blended in with the gathering evening, though his pale skin, ground black with dirt in some places, stood out. He sat, half straddled on the edge of a rock jut, his back bowed in repose and his hands braced on his spread knees. He presented the picture of a man lost in thought, staring sightlessly down the leaf and tree dotted hillside drop.

She straightened up and cricked her neck, rolling one shoulder before pivoting around and off her own rock to drop the seven feet to the path leading to his side. Approaching on the left side, she couldn’t read his mood. The mottled scarring pulled the line of his eye down and back, and twisted the side of his mouth off center. It effectively cloaked his expression. He wasn't meditating though, and so she approached him, hands jammed into her pockets.

“Penny for your thoughts soldier?” She stepped up onto the wide rock next to him, gazing out over the drop with him. He didn’t speak at first, and then her peripheral caught his slight hand movement, making her shift her eyes to catch his words. “Nothing.” His body tone was rather despondent. “Just sitting.” She regarded him. His fingers were scrubbed and dark with soil.

She curled her lips faintly. “Just sitting…hmf. Here I thought you were come up with that great master plan. World peace. The great American novel.” Her southern drawl was stretched out.

He glanced at her. Even with the skewed perspective, the clicking of his tongue told her his mood was fairly pissy. “Since when have I held to an illusion of world peace…?”

She snorted, flashing teeth as she crouched down next to him, draping her elbows across her drawn knees. “Grumpy.” She jerked her head in the general direction of his cabin. “….don’t worry though, your secret’s safe. No one will see your manuscript before it's time.”

His motion was flat. “Right….”

She propped her cheek on her knuckles, looking him over with lazy-eyed matter-of-factness, debating before speaking again. “Well that settles it. When teasing you doesn’t get me a smile, you gotta be wrapped up in those ironbound thoughts of yours again.” She reached her free hand to lightly run the back of her wrist across his knee. “So...what? You wanna let me in on what’s got you thinking so hard about ‘nothing’?”

He dropped his head, exhaling slowly. Shifting forward with the weight of the world possibly, drawing his legs closer to prop his elbows on his knees he shook his head, his hands tossing the words away. “Nothing….really. Nothing I can talk about.” He paused, and the heat of her gaze bored into the side of his face.

He glanced over and shook his head again as his hands stuttered. “….It’s…I…”

He turned towards her fully. “Tell me something Shanna. If you had to choose between duty and your family, which one would you choose?”

She blinked.

Then she shook her head. “No, I'm sorry. Where did this come from…?” She paused, seeing his look.

She shrugged. “…I know Daddy would say, God and Country, and then Family, Amen.”

She flicked her eyes to his hands as he gestured shortly. “That’s not what I asked.”

"Well Sweetie, I'm not sure what I'd really do when it came down to butts and bullets. But...someone has to make the sacrifice. I decided years ago it was gonna be me do my family wouldn't have to, but if I had to choose between one or the other...?" She sighed.

"It comes down to it I think...I gave my solemn oath to defend my country. And my family'd kick my butt for thinking otherwise.”

As she watched his skewed expression changed from serious consideration, to something akin to sadness. He turned towards the hillside view, now fading into the gray gloom of dusk, his hands crossed and chafed his forearms repetitively.

She watched him, a thought forming as she stared at the movement of his hands. “Does this have to do with that?” She nodded towards the bands of red ink work tracing his forearm, a tattoo he’d carried as long as she’d known him.

His hands stilled.

“I’d always thought it was too unique to not mean something important to you….” She stared at him. “That white ninja…Stormshadow has one just like it doesn’t he, Snake Eyes?”

White knuckles gripping his wrists was his only response. She spoke softly. “I saw part of it at Destro’s castle. The familiarity didn’t click, then. And then later with Hawk...” She sighed. His grip relaxed and his hands hovered, hesitating, as if he’d speak, and then he slashed his palm sideways in sharp negation.

“Leave it be Scarlett. Just…do me a favor and leave it be.”

Her jaw set, and she pressed her lips together. Her cheeks were flushed. Okay, sometimes his exclusion did hurt. She huffed a resigned sigh, blinking and nodding at him as she reached up, gripping his shoulder, squeezing. “Sure Snake…I can do that” she sighed, and after a pause added, “I don’t need to remind you that he’s the enemy.”

He glared at her. She raised her hand. “I know. I know. You know that. It’s just…” he turned away. She shut her mouth, cursing inwardly.

The silence deepened, creeping around the two of them until full darkness swallowed them both in the coming chill night. Sightless in the gloom, she presently shivered and moved closer, threading her arm through his to slide around his waist. Her voice was quiet when she spoke again. “I’m not sure what is going on Snake Eyes. I can make a few educated guesses. I’ll say, there are no absolutes in this world. It’s seldom that our choices end up being that clear-cut. Even rarer that the consequences play out clear-cut either. All we do is make the best choices we can at the time.”

She laid her head on his shoulder. “You’ll make the right choice when you need to…You always have.” She closed her eyes to the darkness.

Soon, his arm shifted to draw her close to him, his lips grazing her hair, bringing her inside the circle of his silence.
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Inside the Circle