#bulletspongevanguard

He’d never drifted with the man, but his father and the Marshall had struck a strong friendship since the very first day that they had set foot into the Jaeger Academy in 2015 – about seven years ago.  

Being a military officer, a bit older than most of the recruits – roughly the same age as the Marshall that had just been assigned to the new Academy – it had been easy for Raphael Alenko and David Anderson to relate to each other both on a personal and professional level.

The PPDC was also a bit different than other military institutions in the sense that “fraternization” wasn’t exactly being frowned upon; especially when the stronger the bond between Rangers, the better they fought as one.

There were still certain regs, and soldiers were expected to follow orders; but it was nevertheless a culture of collaboration between people that genuinely grew to care about one another.

And the Marshall was an honorable man that did care deeply about the recruits that trained here at the Academy; and the men under his command.  When he’d received news of the accident, he’d flown all the way from Kodiak Island to Vladivostok to check up on Kaidan, and had requested his transfer back to the Anchorage medical facilities.  After Kaidan had finally awaken from his coma, Anderson had come to visit him almost every week during his convalescence and two years of intensive rehabilitation – only distancing his visits when he was faced with emergencies.

The other man’s presence could never replace either his father or a co-pilot – that bond had been much too deep.  But still, Anderson genuinely cared, and that meant a lot.  Sometimes, that was all it took, actually.  And yeah, Kaidan had gotten rather good at reading him over time, and he knew.

“I appreciate it, really,” he added with a small smile.  “But please, humor me.”

Kaidan didn’t mind the familiarity in private, but after having been part of the military since he was sixteen – never mind having grown up as the son of a military officer – keeping a certain level of decorum in public actually felt a little familiar and comforting to him.

To his credit, it seemed that Anderson had gotten pretty good at reading him, too.  He simply nodded, and they started to walk again side by side.

“Actually, it’s good that you are here.  There’s someone I would like you to meet.” Anderson stated, making his way towards the Kwoon.

“Is that about the notice I received this morning regarding the new Fightmaster that’s supposed to help me train an increased number of Ranger candidates?”

Kaidan saw the other man wince. “That soon, huh?”  Judging by his expression, Kaidan had to guess that this was probably something he should have been informed of at least four days ago; assuming the communications hadn’t gotten lost.

“But yes, actually it is.”

Anderson opened the door, motioning for him to enter first.

“Kaidan Alenko, let me introduce you to Marco…”

Kaidan had barely made a few steps into the room that he completely froze, staring straight at the man right in front of him.

How can anyone have such eyes?

The man, whatever his name was, had the most stunning features Kaidan had ever seen in his whole life!  Lightly tanned, olive toned skin, dark brown – nearly black – hair, aquiline nose, full lips, and the most striking set of intense, light grey eyes…

“…should be with us until…”

He had the vague notion that Anderson was still talking, but it seemed like his brain simply wasn’t registering anything at the moment.  Actually, his gaze had moved from the other man’s eyes to the tight tank top and loose pair of cargo pants – usual training attire – that he was currently wearing…  But Kaidan didn’t remember that tank tops were usually so tight-fitting – or maybe it was the man’s chest and shoulders that were exceptionally well defined; because that sure was looking very good on…

“Alenko!” the Marshall suddenly repeated, a little more sharply than before.

“What?” Kaidan answered in a bit of a panic, head immediately snapping to the side to look at Anderson.

“I was asking you if you could take Shepard – Shepard, so that was his name! – here on a tour of the Academy’s facilities.” he calmly repeated, a small smirk tugging at the corner of his lips.  What had he just said about Anderson’s ability to read him again?  Damnit!

“I ah…  Actually…” Kaidan raised a hand to the back of his neck, instinctively rubbing it as his mind tried to come up with something – anything, really – to buy him some time to allow his brain to do a complete systems reset.

“I’m uh, can I have an hour?  The flare up is pretty bad, and there’s something I wanted to get before coming here earlier…” he stated, giving Shepard a small nod before quickly – bit too quickly – taking off to his left.

“You left something in the showers?” Anderson called out after him.

Was he heading for the showers?  Damnit!

“Yeah, the headache is really bad and…”

“Sure you don’t need to go see medical?” Anderson called out again, and Kaidan could hear the restrained laughter in his voice.

“No! No. I’m good.  Just have to relax and…”

“Get under cool, soothing water.  Help the headache clear out a bit?” Anderson suggested, and Kaidan could feel like he was just about starting to get ready to murder him!

“Yes, cool and soothing, I’ll be back in about an hour!”

Actually, the cool shower seemed like the best idea one could have at the moment.  And as much as he wanted to kill him at the moment for having put him on the spot, the Marshall had just provided him with a sensible excuse…

A few minutes later, as the cool and soothing water ran across his back, Kaidan rested his forehead against the cool and soothing tiles in front of him, and started laughing.

Oh god, I’m such an idiot…  He thought, wondering how strange that encounter might have been for the other man – Shepard, his name was.  Not that Kaidan believed he’d be able to forget it again.

He might actually have to offer to buy him a beer in addition to giving him the grand tour of the place in order to try to make up for it, and convince him that he was a pretty normal, decent guy.  After all, they were going to have to start training and develop a teaching curriculum together pretty soon for the next session.

The thing was, that guy was attractive.  Ridiculously so, and that’s what had completely thrown him off!

Kaidan was not used to spontaneously finding people desirable, no matter how good looking they were – which had actually been a little problematic in the past.

The usual pattern is that he would find himself being attracted to a girl or a boy’s personality – be curious to know more about them and become their friend.  Then, as they grew closer and he started trusting them more and more – becoming emotionally attached – the desire to share something more physically intimate with them would come into play.

Except that, by the time it finally did, the other person – that might have been initially attracted to him – had already more or less resigned themselves to being just “good friends” with Kaidan, and had either lost interest in taking things further or moved on towards someone else.

His father, that had long suspected that his son might be asexual, was the one that had been quick to make sense of how relationships worked for him, actually.  “It’s a bit like the drift for you, isn’t it?” he’d suggested “If you can’t trust a person with your mind and your heart first, the connection doesn’t hold, and your body simply doesn’t want to follow.”

It was probably the best way of putting it.

Of course, it wasn’t like sexual orientation was actually set in stone, and so he supposed that Shepard had been his exception.  But it was okay, really.

After all, it wasn’t the first time that he’d found himself having developed – sadly unreciprocated – desires for someone else.  It was just the first time that it had happened so spontaneously and absolutely without warning – hence why he’d been thrown out of the loop a little (okay, a whole lot) back there.  But he could handle this, hopefully without letting things get even more awkward between them.  As far as first impressions went, he could difficultly have done any worse.

When he came back to the Kwoon about an hour later, it was thankfully with a much clearer head, and in good control of his physical and mental faculties.  He was also rather grateful for the fact that Anderson had stayed with Shepard, and the both of them had gotten the chance to go grab a bite while he was “recovering” from his “headache”.

“Hey,” he greeted his future colleague, extending his hand for him to shake “I’m sorry about earlier.  I uh, I get pretty bad migraines from time to time; and they mess up with my ability to concentrate.” It was a rather lame excuse, but still more acceptable than “I just had to run off to deal with my awkward boner, after all blood had apparently decided to rush out of my brain and into my groin – thus leaving me a mindless mess.”