PEACEKEEPER // hanji ananda zoë

I see that there is evil
And I know that there is good
And the in-betweens I never understood

'Poor shmuck. It's been an hour.' Barrow turns away from the sorry sight before him and back to his companion. Ardsley's attention, however, is still fixed upon the scene. There is usually a third among them, but tonight he had the unfortunate luck of becoming the victim of the Bird. Ardsley finally shakes his head, sighing as he turns back to Barrow. He raises his glass a little to stare into the bottom before downing whats left of his beer. There's nothing to be done for the poor soul now. Once the Bird had her claws in, it was impossible to escape.

"I bet this isn't how Baton thought he'd spend his birthday, huh?" Ardsley drawls, raising his hand to flag down one of the workers for another round. 

"He's an idiot for thinking talking to her was going to be short."

Ardsley raises an eyebrow in question to which he only receives a deadpan expression. "You said her."

For a moment, there is a pause. The Bird's excited chatter can be heard floating over the din of the cantina. Barrow raises his head to look back over at the scene, narrowing his eyes at the figure with their back facing him. There are arms flailing excitedly. He stares hard for a few moments before slumping in his seat and rolling his head to look at Ardsley wearily. 

"It has to be a she. It seems so feminine sometimes."

"Don't say it. That's rude. The Bird is still a person. Also, sometimes means nothing. Sometimes, you scream because there is a spider in you bunk."

Barrow groans, rubbing at his eyes before letting his head fall onto the table. A dull thud resonates for a moment before disappearing. Just like Barrow's patience for humanist Ardsley.

Would you look at me I'm crazy
But I get the job done
I'm crazy but I get the job done

"Ahh, shit. It caught him."

Baton raises his head to look at Barrow, raising an eyebrow at his words. 'What caught who?' He lets out a quiet grunt of questioning as he adjusts his shin guards. A quick stretch down to his toes and then he's up again, meeting Barrow's gaze head on. Sometimes, he really couldn't care less what Barrow is talking about. He's a bit of a grunt, and also kind of an idiot most days. Baton mostly talks to Ardsley anyhow, so it's not like it truly matters. With a sigh, he turns from Barrow to talk to Ardsley, only to find him missing. His brows furrow as he turns to his other side, spinning slowly to try and find his missing friend. That's when he realizes what Barrow was talking about.

There, about thirty feet away from him in the training yard, stands Ardsley. Beside him stands Squad Leader Zoë.

"Oh."

"Poor Ardsley. He never saw it coming," Barrow laments, his face settled into a sorrowful expression as he clasps his hands to his chest. "It snuck up from behind. He had no chance. I'll remember him well."

For a moment, Baton can only stare at him in mild disgust mixed with absolute indifference. He really is an idiot. It wasn't like talking to Squad Leader Zoë was going to kill Ardsley. Sure, he might get his ears talked off a little, but Zoë had the best at heart. The compassion contained in such a tiny, twiggy, birdy body had to have some kind of outlet. It just happened that that outlet was talking about science. It was only natural. Zhe'd grown up with two scientists for parents, but Zoë was too restless to work in a lab. Special Ops was the next best choice. Baton kept it noted in his head that should he ever need to know anything about muttations, be it their anatomy, physiology, or biology, he would first go to Zoë.

"Squad Leader Zoë isn't that bad, Barrow."

"Oh, ripred. Are you turning into a teacher's pet over that little- little Bird? She's crazy!" Without even a pinch of grace, Barrow drops out of his dramatic pose and lumbers forward to grab his sword. He picks up a second and tosses it to Baton, who steps back to avoid any kind of collision. Any amusement from Baton's face has been extinguished.

"I'm not a teacher's pet. Zhe's not even a teacher and we've only talked once-"

"On your birthday, when it kept you hostage for eight hours to-"

"I wasn't hostage! We were talking about field work. Squad Leader Zoë has more experience than most of the people here at only twenty-seven, Barrow! I mean, sure, maybe zhe's a little eccentric, but zhe's really dedicated to zher work!"

"Okay, what the hell is zhe- What the hell language are you speaking?" Barrow bursts, stepping towards Baton quickly. Baton backs up in quick steps, narrowing his eyes at his taller companion before bending to pick up his sword. His eyes never leave Barrow's. He keeps his movements slow as he rises back up, settling into a comfortable stance for what is, no doubt, about to be a very uncomfortable sparring match.

So go ahead and laugh all you want
I got my philosophy
And I trust it like the ground

The bed creaked beneath Ardsley's weight as he shifted to pull off a boot. It was only unlaced halfway as he tugged at it, too lazy to put in much more effort than he already was. With a sigh, he let his foot drop back down to the floor, doubling over on himself to unlace the boot a little further. Footsteps sounded by the door followed by the soft click of the door behind someone.

"Hey Turin."

Ardsley looks up at the call of his name, smiling through his exhaustion at Baton as he draws closer.

"Hey Karsh. Finally finished with your exam?"

Baton drops with a groan onto Ardsley's bunk, face pressed into the thin mattress. The exams in Special Ops were hell on earth sometimes, but the job was worth it in the end. With a chuckle, Ardsley finally pulls his foot free and stretches backwards across his bed, parallel to Baton. A muffled jumble of words rumbles through the bed, but he's unable to pick up whatever it is the other man is trying to say. He does, however, pick up on his subsequent laughter by the way Baton's body begins to convulse. Finally, he flips over, smiling widely.

"Barrow got held back to talk to our proctor."

"Oh?"

"Our proctor was Squad Leader Zoë. Zhe liked his hair. Said it reminded zhim of a muttation zhe studied once..." The smug look on Baton's face spoke more words than he could for his feelings on Barrow. Ardsley's mouth popped open in shock before he let out a raucous bout of laughter. Baton couldn't help but join him.

"Ripred, but he hates Zoë. Thinks zhe's the spawn of Satan or something."

"Zhe's really not that bad. I don't understand why he hates zhim so much. I mean, I get that zhe's annoying sometimes, but zhe's brilliant."

"And crazy," Ardsley added, twisting until he could sit up by the head of his bed. Catching Baton's baleful glare, he rolled his eyes and kicked out one of his feet to prod him. "I'll give zhim credit, though. Zoë's not a bad fighter. Zher pointers have helped my form a lot. Examiner for one on one combat said I'd improved a lot during my test today."

Baton's face softens at that and he pulls himself up to sit cross-legged. His eyes flit to the side quickly to check on the others in the room before he leans forward to whisper, "You know that rumor about zhim keeping a mutt from a mission?"

For a moment, Ardsley blinks at him in confusion. Then he shrugs, shaking his head. "I feel like Barrow would have told me that one, but surprisingly, no. Why?"

"Because zhe did. Two of them. Zhe won't tell me what kind though..."

"You're kidding," Ardsley deadpans, eyebrows furrowing in disbelief. Well, zhe was crazy alright. 'Who in their right mind would keep a mutt as a pet?' He couldn't deny that zhe had zher charms once you got to know zhim, however. The whole 'the Bird' thing was a bit of a cruel joke among the younger cadets. Sure, zhe was a bit flighty and flapped zher arms about, but Zoë flew a whole hell of a lot higher than all of them. Command wouldn't make zhim a squad leader for nothing.

Now you take this all for granted
You take the mortar, block, and glass
And you forget the speech that moved the stone
And it's really not that you can't see
The forest from the trees
You just never been out in the woods alone