Operation: Glancing Tear

The truth exposed(finale)

Eirik's POV(3 months later)
I walked through the halls with Zack as he asked "so when are you telling her?" I looked over as my brow scrunched "telling who what?" He replied knowingly "Kali, when are you telling her you've got a crush on her?" I decided the innocence card was best to play as I replied indignantly "what the hell are you talking about?" He laughed before replying "you two act like John and his wife, I don't want to hear it. Tell me the truth" I sighed before repenting "fine, yes I'm into her you happy now?" He smiled smugly before nodding "yes, now look behind you" I froze before slowly turning around and seeing no one besides the janitor, I turned to Zack and spoke "you are so fucking lucky, I was about to murder you" he laughed off the threat as we continued down the hallway to the cafeteria in search of some food. I asked him simply "so when are you and Siu gonna confess?" He looked at me slowly, it almost sounded like his neck creaked as he replied in a haunted whisper "do not bring that up" I looked over before replying "well you've no problem bringing up my crush so"
I heard a very familiar voice behind us "oh so you have a crush?" I sighed as I punched Zack's shoulder "you just had to bring it up, hello Jay. How was your mission?" She shifted her weight onto her back foot and crossed her arms "you aren't slithering your way out of this, who's your crush? And don't call me Jay" I looked at her and in a deadly serious tone I replied "Zack" he started laughing while her front slipped for a second and a small chuckle escaped. Zack realizing I really didn't want to confess at this exact moment nodded and replied "yup, he's all over me" she didn't look amused as she replied "I'll find out sooner or later, I always do" I nodded before offering "maybe you'll find out in the future" just then Siu and Yumiko appeared behind Jaimini. Siu quickly noticed Zack and said her hellos to which I gave a wave before speaking "well I'm gonna grab some food, y'all can talk but I'm hungry so have fun" I turned and made my hasty retreat from the increasingly uncomfortable situation as I heard Jaimini "what's up with him? He's never run away like that before" as I got in line and began to grab my food.
     I sat down and scrolled through my phone while eating making feeble attempts to avoid conversation with Jaimini in case she got me to slip up and admit my feelings. I heard a tray clang on the table next to me as I glanced over and saw Ngugi "oh hey bro, what's up?" He motioned to the line where Jaimini was standing and asked "so when are you telling her?" I sighed and asked "so you know too?" He chuckled before replying "my brother, everyone on this base but her knows. For gods sake, even the janitors know" I groaned as my head impacted the table next to my tray, he chuckled and replied "you should tell her tonight, I heard a rumor that one of her admirers is making his move soon" I looked over before nodding "alright, thanks for the heads up." He nodded as the rest of the ground sat down and I heard Jay asking "so what were you two talking about?" I looked up for a second before replying "random shit, like how would a Trex ride a bike" she chuckled followed by a sigh and a soft "I was sure it was something stupid like that."
      I laughed as I saw Siu looking longingly at Zack while he stared nervously out a window, I glanced at Jaimini and silently cursed myself how can I not just confess? I can take life but I can't say 3 words, how?. My questioning was broken by Jaimini asking "hey Eirik, why are you staring at the table?" I shook my head and looked at her "huh?" She spoke somewhat concerned "you're being unusually quiet, what's wrong?" I faked a smile and replied "nothing, I'll tell you later if you have the time" she nodded as we talked with the rest of our friends before a monstrous crack of thunder caused everyone to jump, I chuckled once we realized what had happened before it started down pouring. I listened to the rain impact the tin roof, I heard Yumiko ask "hey Zack, Eirik, what's it like on a SWCC team?" I looked at her strangely "I thought we already answered this question?" Yumiko shook her head no "not with me anyway" I looked over at Zack and motioned for him to explain.
He started "well it's a lot of dedication, we have to work almost constantly to keep our skills improving. James keeps us training because we're so exposed on our boat, plus we have to be fast on our feet." I nodded as he continued "we're a family, much tighter nit than a conventional force. We live, fight, sleep and die together, if we don't get along and we get caught in an ambush it could be disastrous. James works hard to make sure that we're always keeping on top of our game and we fix any problems." Yumiko mused "sounds stressful" I shrugged "you get used to the pressure, we're always the biggest target so we need to keep everything moving smoothly or you guys don't get extracted" Jaimini asked a new question "so what's the worst mistake you've ever made on an extraction?" I looked at her before replying "I was new to the teams, I had just graduated and we were in our first ambush and I panicked. I wasn't checking targets and almost shot the SEALs we were extracting until I had my luckiest unlucky moment my minigun jammed. I've never had my minigun jam since but I'm glad it did then, it gave me time to reset"
She seemed shocked at the revelation that I almost committed fratricide before asking "did you ever find out why the round jammed?" I shook my head no and replied "I've never wanted to, I just use it as a reminder why I have to take the training as seriously as we do" Zack nodded in confirmation before starting "the worst mistake I've ever made, oh I got it. We were in a really bad ambush, we could barely mount a return assault and I saw a guy with an RPG and I started to fire with my M240s and I wasn't paying attention so when the RPG hit the water next to the boat and it got lifted I was still firing and I managed to put 6 7.62 rounds into our engines and kept us in that ambush for another hour while James worked to fix the damage." Siu giggled before teasing "sounds like you had bad aim back then too" I smiled at the interaction, the flirting was getting to a breaking point. Zack shot back with "yeah, we'll atleast my gun isn't half my height!" Siu defended "it's not my fault, that gun has a lot of ammo" to which Zack dragged me into the situation "no, Eirik's minigun has a lot of ammo. His gun goes through all of your ammo in 6 seconds"
I tried to back out of the debate with "hey guys, let's not bring my baby into this bloodbath because she'll tear you to pieces" Siu rolled her eyes as I stood and spoke "well I'm off, Jay if you wanna talk later feel free to swing by my dorm" as I picked up my tray, threw away the garbage and headed out the door. I headed towards the East wing moving past my dorm and to the end of the hall and out the door pulling up my seat sitting under the walkway roof watching the down pour as I thought over what Ngugi said, so someone else wants Jaimini, interesting. I wonder who it is, probably maner than me. They're actually making a move. My internal musings were broken by a knock on the door next to me, I looked over and saw Mike I spoke "hey mike" he pulled up another chair and replied "hello kid, what're you doin' out here?"
       I replied half distractedly "thinkin'" he asked "what abouts?" I looked up as lightning cracked, illuminating Mike's face for a split second "What to do, I'm doubting myself" he prompted "It's Jaimini, isn't it?" I chuckled before replying "yea, I'm wondering what to do and the answer isn't clear" he spoke "listen, all I can say is you should go for it. What could go wrong? It's awkward for a couple days, Eirik don't live with the regret of not going for it" I nodded as I heard Jaimini behind us "am I interrupting something?" I replied "no, Mike was just giving me some advice. Thanks again mike" Mike stood and nodded before speaking to Jaimini "take my seat, we just finished up" I gave a nod as I heard the chair strain under the new weight and the door close behind us, I looked over and asked "any reason you stopped by? Not that it's unwelcome" she replied after a second "you've been acting weird so I decided to come find out why" I nodded before looking up at the dark sky before replying "I was afraid you'd say that"
     She asked "so why are you acting so weird?" I spoke slowly, carefully picking my words "I've just been.... conflicted on a decision, I can't make up my mind on what to do. It's been nagging at me since I got back from my mission today" she replied confidently "so what's the problem? I'll be able to help" I rested my elbows on my knees and spoke "I don't know if I should confess or not, I mean I doubt she's into me but mike suggested I go for it" she asked slightly down before quickly covering it with her normal tone "so who is it?" I chuckled as I looked out at the far off horizon before speaking softly "...you" lightning flashed in the distance, I waited for the crack as Jaimini laughed before falling silent "holy shit, you're serious" I nodded as she sighed before replying "well I wasn't expecting that" I chuckled dryly "I wasn't expecting to confess, it was meant to be my dirty secret" we just sat listening to the storm before she spoke "you were wrong" I looked over and asked "what?" She repeated "you were wrong"
I asked another question "about what? I'm so confused" she grew a soft smirk that I only saw when the Lightning flashed again illuminating her face "you said I wouldn't be into you, you were wrong" I looked at her funny before I asked "wait, you're into me? The fuck? Why?" She chuckled at my shock before replying "because you're different, everyone else here is stagnating, you're hauling ass trying to become better. You're like me, you're always pushing to the next level" I nodded in acceptance before asking "so what do you want to do? Do you want to go on a date or do you just want to see where it heads" she replied after thinking "why don't we have a date to the gun range, you have your sacred saturdays I can borrow you from Mike and we can go shoot guns for hours, just spend some time together" I must've sounded surprised when I said "really?" Because she asked "what? Why the surprise?" I replied "I guess I was just expecting you to want a big expensive fancy dinner" she laughed before replying "I know it may seem like it but I don't really like getting treated like a rich kid, I like the work" I nodded before speaking "I suppose it's time we head inside, the storms picking up" she nodded as we stood and returned the seats to their places before walking inside the base heading towards Jaimini's dorm, I'd gotten my happy ending.

A/N I'm ending this here since I'm running out of ideas of where to go with this, I hope you enjoy this and if I think of new ideas of where to go I'll come back to it