nexus_sages | A New Year, a new day

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A New Year, a new day

Boss is sitting in the forum smoking his e-cigar as he often did. It was a new year, right? So, new years resolutions were supposed to happen. Give up smoking, yeah right.

"Any chance of target practice around here? My trigger finger is aching to shoot at something." Boss inhaled on the simulated smoke, before exhaling softly. Hell, he'd even ask Kaz to come and join him in this venture. "Kaz? Wanna go and shoot at something?"

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"Hngh." Boss grunted as he watched Kaz shoot down a can. He wanted a challenge? Why not? "Sure. I'll go first." Snake reloaded his gun and took aim shooting all the cans down in under five seconds.

"Nicely done, Boss." Miller dutifully crosses the makeshift range and replaces the cans, casually scrutinizing the placement of the holes. Not bad! Snake gets an approving nod. He makes good use of the walk back by checking the action on his own sidearm.

Kaz spares his commander a cheeky grin, then takes steady aim and fires. He's nowhere close to beating Snake's time but each round finds its mark; there are few things quite so offensive as a bullet wasted on a hasty shot.

Boss lit his phantom cigar as he watched Kaz shoot down his cans at a slightly slower rate than him but he still did a good job.

"Not bad. For a rookie." He teased his friend and took a long drag from his cigar. "You need more practice though. Your arm tends to lean to the left and place your aim slightly off. Also, try and spread your legs more evenly apart to gain equal balance."

Kaz snorts at the assessment and replaces his empty clip. "Harsh!"

He glances up over the top of his aviators and quips: "Hey! I've got an idea! How about I pull out MSF's ledgers and a couple adding machines? We can see who balances the budget first."

"Huh? What do you mean by that?" Boss was totally confused by what Kaz was saying about MSF's budgets. Was he implying that Snake blew all the budget on expensive equipment and weapons? He had to use them for missions and couldn't stint.

"Hey! Calm down!" Miller says, elbowing his commander. "I'm just pulling your leg, Boss! I'd never ask you to suffer the rigors of accounting.

"You do what you do best, I do what I do best. That's how the MSF... or uh, Diamond Dogs -- whatever the name -- we're a force to be reckoned with." He's radiating obscene levels of confident optimism.

Snake smirked at the elbow. Yeah, because he's so not doing accounting. He's a soldier, not a mathematician. Too much thinking and not enough doing.

"Yeah. That's how we roll. Diamond Dogs where I am now and MSF where you are now. Same idea. You're the brains and I'm the brawn, right?"

"You got it! If we hadn't run into each other, you might still be fighting banditos en la selva, sí? Wasting your talent."

Kaz begins marching back out to reset the cans. "I've got another clip left. Let's see if your advice shaves a second or two off my time."

"Yeah, you could say that." Snake remembered when him and Kaz had first met. Things hadn't gone that well, since they ended up fighting but things soon changed.

"Right. Let's go." Snake waited until Kaz set up the cans, before firing off his clip into the line of cans, levelling them. "Your go."

"You make it look so effortless."

Kaz repeats the setup process, grimacing at the increasingly mutilated targets. When he returns he sets his feet wider as prescribed and points his gun down the makeshift range. "Leaning to the left, huh? Any other mistakes this 'rookie' is making?"

"I've had lots of practice." He shot Kaz a knowing look and then focused his eyes on what his friend's feet were doing. You're doing well, Kaz. "Yeah, a little to the left and keep your feet apart, balancing your body weight in the middle. Also, you need to compensate for the recoil of the gun. The larger the gun the more recoil, then you need to compensate your body weight again." He smiled at his comrade.

Kaz takes a breath and dutifully follows the suggestions. He shaves down his time by a couple seconds, but at the expense of some sloppier shots -- one of which strikes the wall just below his targetted can with a puff of dust. But hey, the impact still knocks it down.

He sighs through a wry smirk and runs a hand through his hair. "Well, let's just say you caught me, Boss. Looks like it couldn't hurt to put more time in at the range."

"Yeah, you need more practice, Kaz. This old man is still beating you." Snake teased his comrade and gave him a playful slap on the back. "How about we try the shoot the apple off the head trick, huh? Up the stakes."

Kaz laughs, maybe a little too loudly at that suggestion. "The old William Tell, eh?"

He holsters his gun and rubs his hands together. He's certainly not one to pass up a challenge. "Sure. Sounds like fun."

He retrieves some fresh cans for this round, albeit fifty-percent smaller than the first set. Some kind of energy drink? "Can't make this too easy."

"Yeah, why not?" Boss clicked his neck ready to begin. This would be fun. "Smaller cans, huh? Your aim better be good, Kaz." He offered his friend a wry smile and went to stand in front of his friend.

"I'll be the target first."

"If you insist," he says, pressing a can firmly into Snake's shaggy hair.

Kaz backs up a respectable distance -- not far enough to make this exceptionally difficult, but not so close as to seem uncertain in his marksmanship. As he eases into proper posture and raises his gun, he finds himself entertaining a dark thought. How easy would it be right now? Just a little lower. His heart begins to race and he wipes his mind clean with a slow exhale. He lines up his sights with the upper half of the can, and squeezes the trigger ...

Ka-tang, the can goes flying end-over-end.

Snake stood stock still whilst Kaz placed the can on his head. He wasn't afraid. He trusted his friend with his life. "Give me your best shot." Boss shot his friend a smirk, as he felt the can fly off his head. The shot caused his ears to ring for a few moments but it soon calmed down.

"Guess it's my go, huh?"

"Damn, didn't even flinch. I'm impressed!" he says with a nonchalant laugh, as if that wasn't the most nerve-wracking thing he's done in a while.

He holsters his gun and straightens his posture. "Ready when you are!"

He didn't flinch because it's not the first time in his life that he's had a gun held up to his head before. Mostly, on those occasions he's had to dive under cover to avoid having his head blown off. You did a good job at shooting the can off, Kaz.

"Keep still." Boss readied his gun and then steadied the can gently onto Kaz's blond hair. He stepped backwards and then raised his gun before aiming down the sight....

....he shot the can off in an instant, not even touching a blond hair on his friend's head.

"Still got dry pants, Kaz?"

Kaz does his best to quash his reflexes, but he can't stop his face and shoulders from twitching at the impact. He's been on the business end of a gun before, but not nearly enough to kill those deep-rooted instincts.

He makes a 'pfft' noise and bats away the jibe with a dismissive hand. "Fun trust exercise, Boss. Might be a good way to break in the new recruits."

"Yeah, we could try it to test the new guys reflexes." Because that sounded fun, right? Snake scratched the back of his head and offered his friend a smile. "Saw you flinch, Kaz." Boss ruffled the blond's hair playfully.

The hair ruffling earns him a punch in the shoulder. Miller immediately paws his hair back into place. Not the hair, Snake.

"You know, the startle response evolved for a damn good reason. No shame in having a healthy central nervous system."

He rolls his shoulders. "What else? I have plenty more humbling flaws we can dig up."

Always keeping that blond hair in shape, huh Kaz? Snake smirked.

"I know. You've got good reflexes, Kaz. I'd be a bit worried if you didn't move at all." He draped an arm around his friend's shoulder. "Everyone has flaws. Especially me."

Kaz throws an arm across Snake's back in reciprocation. He chuckles at that last part, and when he responds his tone is dripping with sarcasm. "Really? Big Boss, the legendary soldier, has flaws? You're kidding me!"

"We're all human, Kaz. No one's perfect." He knew that he wasn't. He'd made mistakes, got things wrong before. "You worship me like a god, Kaz." Boss wasn't sure if he should be pleased about that or rolling his eyes.

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