S3 Fic: Bark
Title: Bark
Characters: Snake/Otacon
Prompt: Otacon and Snake and that wolf pup and cuteness.
Rating: SFW
Summary: There are many ways to describe a cabin in Alaska.
Notes: This one was written first in spanish and then with a little help from my friends translated to english. For Arrcade I hope you like it <33 Happy Christmas and happy New Year!
There are many ways to describe a cabin in Alaska, depending on the person. For some it's a refugee, an escape, a resting spot. A stop before taking the next step. Otacon remembers reading something about non-places: passing sites that are neither one nor the other. That’s the first thing that comes to his mind when he finds himself in front of what once was the home of the legendary Solid Snake. Now, only couple of whiskey bottles -scattered around the floor- and a bunch of dogs were proof of the years he spent there. Just a stop before getting into business that seemed bigger than them.
It was something in the air, in Snake’s gaze or the fact that they had so much in common, it gives Otacon the impression that the cabin in Alaska has completed all the former functions.
Must be Hal’s scientific nature which brings him to over-analyzed things. He even can’t leave the place where he’s going to spend the
night alone, partly due his justified incredulity. The picture was surreal enough before Solid Snake -legendary soldier, mercenary, the
man that makes possible the impossible- kneeled down to caress a wolf’s cub.
“Is that one of yours?” mumbled Hal, proposing a subject to talk about and, even though none of them seem uncomfortable with the silence, there’s curiosity in his voice. Snake shakes his head and lights up a cigarette, the smoke filling the space between them. Otacon pretends to ignore his disgust. After all, they are going to work together, aren't they? He knew he had to get used to it, somehow.
“It’s from Wolf’s pack. He followed us, the rest have to be close.” There’s familiarity in the way David treats the cub. Wolf. Hal steps
closer until he’s by his side and the cub doesn’t reject him. Tentatively, he smells the air between him and Otacon, closing the
distance with playful licks on his hands.
“Huh… seems that he likes you.” Snake remarks. Otacon laughs, and it’s fine because one of Wolf’s companions seems happy with his presence. Snake peeks at him from the corner of his eyes without him noticing, memorizing his factions while laughing, holding the picture in his mind. Otacon swears he feels Snake's hand touch his own: strong, harsh, no doubt the hand of a soldier.
The landscape is like this: the infinity of the snow, ice freezing and Alaska, the last stop. Snake wasn't wearing his bandana, nor carrying his ammo or weapons as he was in Shadow Moses. Right now, Snake is David, and he smiles -it has to be a miracle- while the wolf’s cub licks the tips of his fingers, to end up laying in Hal’s lap.
“It’s weird.” Snake continues, a puff of smoke escaping though his lips, just as air from his lungs. Hair falls over his face, longer and
more rebel than before. “They seemed more interested in biting my toes instead of playing during the mission.”
“You didn’t seem so friendly either.” Hal adds, reminding Snake's voice to stay out of his way when he asked him not to hurt the wolves. It was the reasonable answer to give during a mission like that, but then he remembers following his trace and the surprise of seeing noharmed wolves.
“What could’ve changed…?” A rhetorical question, which holds in the air as the smoke of the cigar. Because he knows well what changed, how, and what happened for the change to occur. Snake stares in silence, nothing else to add, and Otacon looks back at him, noticing the now softened gaze of the soldier. It was something the cub could sense, apparently: how he was treating with David, not Snake. Hal could have never imagined that a cub playing between his legs was what Snake was referring to when they talked about start anew and enjoy life. It was probably a signal. Alaska was full of them, and Hal wasn't the only one over-analyzing them lately.
He could get used to it, though. They both could. Hal’s glasses slipped through his face after a last tackle from the puppy and fell,
snow dampening them. “Hey, you shouldn’t do that” he scolded the pup to no avail. Snake kneels down and pick them up, strong hands gently putting them back in place.
“Like it more like this.” he comments and stands up, shaking the snow to return to the cabin, the cub following him inside.
Hal, the scientist, engineer, programmer, feels his heart stuck in his throat. Dave calls him inside with a single motion, and he knows he would follow him to the very Hell.
This was the last of the first stops, and the bark of a dog greets him at the door.