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When Connie got assigned her new secondary field partner, she wasn’t quite sure what to expect.
Agent Washington. Weapons expert; twenty-five years old; born on a colony with a primarily Korean population; did his basic training in the Leonis Minoris system; and one of the unlucky few to have seen active combat against the Covenant before ending up here. On record she only knew his codename and speciality, but she had always preferred knowing what exactly it was she was dealing with. So she’d taken a few liberties. As it turned out, the Project’s security wasn’t very well constructed; she figured she better warn them about that sooner or later.
Her initial impressions based on that information were that he would likely be someone rather like Agent Maine seemed, before you got to know them: quiet, professional, a ‘get the job done and don’t bother me after’ kind of guy. He’d seen the front lines of the war and was here for the reason everyone else told themselves they were here for− being part of the magic bullet program that was going to end the war.
So, stoic and serious made sense. It was a personality type that was kind of lacking around here, anyway.
The first time she met him was an entirely professional setting, with the Director and the Counselor there to introduce them and watching their every move. Washington seemed to be everything she’d assumed he would be; he stood ramrod straight to attention, spoke only when spoken to, and remained dead silent when they were dismissed to go prepare for their training.
Connie didn’t dare break the silence as they walked together, barely risking glances at him out of the corner of her eye. He looked too young to be here, baby-faced as anything despite the various small scars that littered his complexion and blotted out patches of freckles. Black roots at the base of pale blonde hair gave away his habit of bleaching it, and his hair itself had a certain fluffiness to it where it was starting to grow out of the regulation cut. Really he didn’t look much like what she’d imagined, but appearances could be deceptive.
“So,” Connie started, once they split off to their own lockers, “how long have you been on board?”
“Huh? Oh, a week or so,” Washington replied whilst inputting his locker code. Didn’t look like he’d changed it off the default yet− no. Connie mentally smacked her own hand, stop. “The Director’s mostly been having me run evaluations, just to double check that my original tests still check out. Only got to work with my primary partner yesterday.”
“Maine, right?”
“Yeah.”
With that, the silence returned. Connie sighed; well that didn’t work quite as well as she’d hoped. Training together better produce some results, because right now she was running blank on how to−
Behind her, Washington groaned. “Shit, stay upright, come on−”
Curious, Connie peered back over her shoulder. Washington was stood with one leg either side of the bench and she caught him elbowing the locker door to make it stay open, only for it to hit the limits of its hinges and swing right back. It struck him hard on the elbow he’d used and he all but yelped, grasping at his elbow and letting go of whatever it was he was fussing with beforehand. Clattering followed, something toppling out of his locker onto the floor and− rolling?
…Was that a skateboard?
That was a skateboard. There was a skateboard rolling towards her.
She stopped the board with her foot, looking up at Washington with his deer in the headlights expression and giving him a raised brow. There was an amused smile fighting its way onto her face, her lips twitching, but she folded her arms to keep up the ‘stern’ exterior.
“You have a skateboard in your locker, Agent Washington?” She said, trying and failing to keep the teasing tone out of her voice. Tapping a finger against her arm, she shook her head and tutted. “This is a serious military project, Agent. There’s no time for such frivolities as skateboarding, don’t you know?”
All of her preconceived notions of Washington disappeared with the utterly awkward way he began to stumble over his words. “I didn’t− I just− I only− uhhh−”
Connie couldn’t let it go on any longer, she burst into laughter. “Washington, calm down, I’m just messing with you. You don’t need to give me excuses.”
“Oh. Oh good.” His body language loosened all at once, and he gave a laugh. “Because I got nothing.”
“So, skateboarder huh?” She rolled the board back towards him, and he stopped it with his foot, flipped it up into his hand. He grinned, the sort of goofy grin that lit up his whole face, and turned to put it away in his locker again.
“Sorta? I can do a few tricks, nothing super fancy,” He said, shrugging. “I kinda just brought everything I own with me, there’s not a lot.”
“Well, that makes sense.” Thoroughly distracted, she crossed over to the other row of lockers and peeped past Washington. “Is that food from the mess hall? Naughty.”
“I was hungry after all the evaluations! I just, y’know, made it easier to get food during breaks,” Washington said, flicking the swirly straw that stood in an old can. Connie reached past, swiped a packet of dried fruit from the shelf. “Wow, right in front of me huh?”
“You stole it first,” Connie pointed out.
“Fair point.”
Connie elbowed him in the side, tucked the packet into the pocket of her formal uniform for later. Examining the contents of his locker further, she caught sight of the photos on the back and smiled.
“Cats! Oh they’re so cute!” She said, pushing up onto her tip toes. “What’re their names?”
Wash seemed delighted at the question, pointing at each of the cats in turn. “That’s Ari, and that’s Skyler. A friend back home’s looking after them, sends me pictures sometimes. Those are the latest, from before I got recruited here.”
“You know, those are the best pictures I’ve seen anyone hang in their lockers. I know at least one of the others has pin-ups taped to the inside of the door,” Connie said, sitting herself down on the bench in front of Washington’s locker. When Washington gave her what she read as an incredulous look, she nodded. “Who needs family photos when you can have sexy ones, huh?”
Not that they’d probably be allowed family photos, honestly she was surprised Washington had even swung his cats, but that wasn’t the point.
The comment got her another laugh. Washington reached into the back of his locker, touching the faces of the cats in the photographs for a moment with a sigh. It was a moment that Connie could relate to, thinking back to the photos of her mothers she’d smuggled along on her data-pad.
“You’re a lot… friendlier than I expected, Connecticut,” He said after a moment. Reaching behind his neck he unfastened a clasp, pulled out a cat shaped chew on the end of a necklace that she hadn’t noticed under his uniform.
Connie laughed, shook her head. “Oh god, it’s Connie, please. Connecticut is such a mouthful. The only people who call me that are the Director and the Counselor.”
“It is kind of a mouthful,” Wash agreed.
“What did you think I was gonna be like? I’m offended, Wash.” Then, “Can I call you Wash?”
“Uh− yeah, sure.” The smile that flashed on his face didn’t go unnoticed. “Well, I don’t know, you guys up here in Alpha squad are meant to be like− the best of the best! I guess I expected you to be a little more… I don’t know.”
“Snooty?” Connie said, raising a brow.
“I guess?”
“Well, don’t worry, there’s none of that here. Well, not a lot. Wyoming accounts for most of it.” Grinning mischievously, she leant towards Wash and stage-whispered, “Wyoming has a photo of his favourite teapot in his locker.”
Wash blinked. “…Really?”
“Really.”
“How do you know these things?” He stripped off his uniform’s shirt, revealing a tank top underneath, and folded it up to put away.
“I know a lot of things. I’m the intelligence specialist, it’s my job,” Connie said, swinging her legs. “Stay on my good side, and it’ll be an asset.”
Wash raised a brow, fidgeting with the fly on his pants. “And get on your bad side?”
“Well let’s hope you won’t find that out, Wash.”
“Okay, scared now,” Wash said, making Connie laugh. Hopping up from the bench, she elbowed him in the hip.
“Don’t worry, I’m sure you won’t,” She said, then sighed. “Guess I better get ready to join you for our partnership evaluation. I’ll go grab my suit.”
She headed down the row to go towards their actual armour lockers, ready to retrieve her undersuit and armour, but as she turned the corner she stopped. Taking a step back and leaning around the final locker, she called over.
“You know, you didn’t turn out quite like I expected you to either, Wash.”
“In a good way, or a bad way?”
“Definitely a good way. You need to teach me how to skateboard, sometime.”
“Heh, sure thing.”