Chapter Text
October 31, 1974
“Master Miller, Master Miller, come quick!”
“What is it now, soldier?”
Kazuhira Miller didn’t look up from his paperwork to meet the gaze of the soldier who had so enthusiastically called him. Although his voice was raised with excitement, its happy tone eliminated all thoughts of a negative cause for his agitation. Not to mention, the men of the Militaires Sans Frontieres had been planning all day for the Halloween party they were having that night, although how they planned on celebrating in the rain, Kaz had no idea. Nevertheless, they had been coming to him all day for his opinions, but Kaz honestly didn’t have the time to respond to them. He’d hoped to plan MSF’s budget for the next month, but his plans were circumvented when he discovered that they had no budget at all. So instead he went searching through the mountain of files he’d collected over his time of running the business, trying to find where the money went.
The soldier that had come to attention in front of his desk seemed to hesitate, as if he wasn’t sure if he wanted to talk to Miller anymore.
“It’s just…” he stuttered, “Well it’s nothing important, but… Boss wanted to see you.”
Kaz tapped his pen thoughtfully against his desk.
“Tell Snake to meet me here. I need to talk to him too.”
The soldier began backing out of the door and Kaz turned back to his papers. The interesting thing was how bad they really were. Kaz found the money, and it had all gone to things he’d approved of like guns, equipment, food; things that they needed. But they just weren’t turning a profit. Money from the small, odd contracts they got wasn’t enough to cover running a small army, even an army that only had around twenty men in it. They didn’t even have enough money to eat.
“What’s on your mind, Kaz?”
Kaz looked up, startled. In front of his desk was Snake, fresh back from a mission. He had the files he was sent to retrieve in his hand, so at least that was one contract they’d done. That might pay for their meals for the foreseeable future. Snake put the files on Kaz’s desk. When Kaz didn’t immediately respond, Snake filled the silence.
“We really need to fix that,” he said as he gestured to the leak next to Kaz’s chair. A bucket had been placed there to catch it, but the bucket was almost overflowing itself. Kaz sighed.
“That’s the problem, Snake. We don’t have any money.”
Snake bent down to pick up the bucket, looking at Kaz with a confused expression.
“We take contracts all the time. Of course we have money.”
“We don’t have enough, then,” Kaz responded, leaning back in his chair.
Snake poured the contents of the bucket out of the window, returning it back under the drip.
“Well then try not to think about it tonight. Figure it out later.”
“Snake,” Kaz began, but Snake quickly cut him off.
“The men want you to be there before they start their party. You’re right, things are bad, and they need the morale boost,” Snake patted Kaz lightly on the shoulder. “You’ll figure it out. You are a businessman after all.”
“Yeah,” Kaz said quietly, staring at the text of the reports. “You’re right. You go on ahead. I’ll catch up in a minute.”
Snake nodded and walked out the door. Kaz began corralling the loss papers into one stack, organizing them back where they belonged. As Kaz stood up to walk to the door, the phone began to ring. Kaz rushed back to it, picking it up eagerly. After all, it could be a client. Kaz greeted the caller like normal, waiting to hear the response. It took a while, but eventually a quiet voice spoke on the other line.
“You are Kazuhira Miller, correct?”
Kaz immediately grew weary. No one ever called asking after someone. Not on their business line.
“Yes. Who is this?
There was a pause on the line. Kaz considered hanging up in the silence, but then the voice responded.
“You may call me Cipher.”
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Kaz stumbled outside a little while later. The rain had stopped and the party was in full swing. There was an assortment of lights, music, and alcohol, all of which Miller had no idea of how it was procured. Frankly though, he didn’t care. He grabbed the first bottle of beer that was handed to him, tipping it back to try to wash away the guilt.
I have nothing to be guilty about, Kaz reasoned. I just made a business deal, nothing more.
It wasn’t long before he drank through his first beer, and had somehow managed to find another. The more he drank the more his deal with Cipher seemed less wrong. And the more fun this party was becoming.
At some point Kaz met up with Snake, and the two explored the festivities together. Kaz got out his tape recorder with a semi-coherent plan to record the highlights of the night, a plan made more difficult by the large quantity of alcohol they had both consumed. By the end of the night, they were both so drunk that they couldn’t stop laughing when the soldiers revealed their costumes. One of them had taken straw from a destroyed practice dummy and fashioned it into a blond wig. With it he wore a pair of novelty glasses. The soldier was clearly Alligator, but everyone called him Master Miller, and he did his best impression of Kaz all night. Next to him was Whale, MSF’s only medic. He had created an eye patch out of scrap fabric and tied a bandana around his head.
"Kept you waiting, huh?” Whale lowered his voice and scowled.
Snake looked on at his imposter with an unamused face. Kaz fell over laughing.
November 1, 1974
Kaz woke up in his bed with no idea of how he got there. His tape recorder had been placed by him; the tape ejected and put on his nightstand. He groaned and pressed a hand to his head. He couldn’t hear anything over the pounding in his skull.
He rubbed his temples and put his glasses back on. He had a lot to do if he wanted to enact Cipher’s plan. He didn’t feel guilty anymore. He was making this deal for MSF, so that they could continue to thrive. He did this for the business. He did this for Snake.
November 4, 1974
“We’ve got guests!”
“Time to move?”
“Don’t worry, they’re not our friends from Langley. I brought them. Made sure we weren’t followed.”
Kaz watched Snake give a slight nod of his head, and turn away from the MSF soldier he was training with. Kaz threw him a jacket and turned back to the jeep with his passengers.
“Professor Galvez,” Kaz said mockingly as he gestured towards the small building that served as the MSF base. Galvez stepped out into the pouring rain and glanced at Kaz.
“Remember your role, Miller,” he whispered, a slight shade of anger to his voice.
How could I forget, Kaz thought as he followed him inside. Already the sub-commander was beginning to have second thoughts about working with Cipher. He knew that Snake wouldn’t approve of the alliance, and he also knew that Snake would never want to join with Zero again, that this plan was ultimately in vain. But MSF was struggling. Their financial situation was worse than what he told Snake; they were barely staying afloat. The benefits from this deal were too good to turn down.
Kaz put coffee on and adjusted his sunglasses. The sound of the door opening jarred him from his thoughts. He looked up to see Snake entering from the back, his hair mostly dry and his clothes fresh and adjusted. He sat down and pulled out a cigar, his eye locked on Galvez and Paz. As they began to talk business, Kaz stood in the back, entering in the conversation when needed. The story was easy to see through, but anything was worth a shot. Galvez explained the situation, the CIA’s involvement. When Galvez began offering the new forward operating base, Kaz made sure to step in.
Sounds pretty good to me,” Kaz spoke with a small smile, talking over Snake’s silence in hopes to sway him. “This place is becoming a mess anyway.”
When Snake still didn’t respond Kaz turned quietly and addressed him directly, lowering his voice as he did so.
“Snake, we need someplace we can settle down.”
“The government’s agreed to cooperate - unofficially of course,” Galvez continued as if Kaz had not interrupted him.
“A chopper for transport’d be nice too,” Kaz continued wistfully, giving a pointed look to Galvez. Galvez smiled benevolently at Kaz.
“I’ll see what I can do.”
At that moment Snake stood up with a start, his chair banging backwards in his haste. Kaz jumped at the sound, Galvez remained unaffected.
“Hold it!” Snake began, his gravelly voice raised slightly in anger. “You seem to think we’re just a pack of ‘dogs of war,’ is that right?”
Galvez shifted slightly before responding. “Yes, that’s what I heard. You’re an army without a state…”
“No,” Snake began slowly, “We only left our countries behind.”
Deal’s over, Kaz though bitterly. There was probably no way Snake would take the bait now. Galvez could beg and plead, but Kaz knew how to read Snake. And he had already made up his mind. Galvez continued to talk though.
“…Tonight I stand before you as an educator.”
A sob story won’t change his mind.
“This is my student. She came to me to study peace. Her name is Paz, Paz Ortega.”
“’Paz’…’peace’,” Snake said thoughtfully. Miller entered the conversation with an easy smile.
“No kidding? That’s my name too. Kazuhira – it’s Japanese for ‘peace.’”
Miller extended a hand, but Paz refused it. Kaz pulled back slightly confused, but said no more. Galvez continued to talk. Kaz briefly thought that they were laying the drama on a little thick, but he played along as well. Of course, the girl’s story didn’t work, no matter how good of an actor Paz was, and before long both she and Galvez were standing in the rain. Kaz watched them waiting patiently outside while Snake continued to try lighting his cigar.
“Are they still here?” Snake crossly asked.
“Come on Snake,” Kaz started again, trying to keep his voice even, ever the mediator, “this could be good for us. They’re willing to give us an offshore plant…”
Snake looked at him darkly.
“… A place we can finally put down some roots,” Miller finished, unperturbed. “This is our chance to expand MSF.”
“We don’t need a place to stay, Kaz,” Snake said with a slightly exasperated tone. “We’re nomads. We always will be.”
“What, you’d rather keep wandering from conflict to conflict, tools in the hands of whoever’s fighting at the time?”
“The second we settle down, who’s to say we won’t become the warmongers?”
“Listen to me Snake. We’re not mercenaries. We’re not a foreign legion. MSF’s a business. A new kind of business.”
Snake made a disgruntled noise, dismissing Kaz by once again clicking at his lighter. Kaz sighed, his exhaustion beginning to show in his voice.
“Look, it’s not like we’re trying to start a war here. All we need to do is find out who this ‘security company’ really is.”
“Come on, Kaz. It’s pretty obvious they’re backed by the CIA.”
Kaz blinked. Snake had already seen through part of the plan. He might as well play along then.
“Wait a sec, that would mean…”
“Our friend, the ‘professor’ is likely KGB. We’d be making an enemy of our homeland,” Snake finished Kaz’s thought.
“And there’d be no turning back.”
Kaz turned away from Snake, a little saddened. Their plan didn’t work. So MSF wouldn’t be getting a helicopter anytime soon. Just as he was about to leave, Snake unexpectedly spoke up.
“Put some coffee on, Kaz. It’s time for a little chat with the professor.”
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A couple of hours later, Kaz sat silently at a table, listening to the constant sound of water dripping through the holes in their roof. In front of him were the plans of the new base, the budget he’d been allowed to fix it with, and the order form for a transport helicopter. Kaz flipped through them unhappily, exhausted to the bone. He wanted to lie down, to relax and let the stress of everything wash away, but he couldn’t sleep. He was kept awake by a nagging guilt. True, Snake had accepted the mission, but Kaz kept thinking about the way Snake had snatched the tape when he had heard the Boss’s voice, the way his expression had changed. Kaz had never seen him so affected by anything before, and it was Kaz who had allowed Galvez to bring that tape and his plan into their base. It was strange, but Kaz discovered that he was deeply moved by his boss’s mood. He had never noticed that affection and care for Snake before, but now it was impossible to deny. Snake’s emotional well-being was important to him, and that element brought a new confusing layer to their relationship that Kaz didn’t want to examine too closely, especially not now, so late in the night. Or was it so early in the morning?
Kaz was so preoccupied with his own thoughts that he didn’t notice someone approaching. He was startled when he felt a warm hand rest on his shoulder. He looked up to see Snake staring back down at him. He had clearly just come from bed; his hair was tussled from sleep. He was wearing the basic army fatigue pants that they distributed to all members of MSF, and he was shirtless. Kaz gave a tired smile at his commander’s appearance.
“You know, Snake, you really shouldn’t walk around without clothes. You’ll catch a cold.”
Snake face remained neutral, but his voice took on a lighter tone.
“And you shouldn’t do paper work in the middle of the night with sunglasses on.”
Kaz rubbed at his eyes and grunted in acknowledgement. He did have a rather bad headache, and staring at a tiny print in the dark sure wasn’t helping.
“Why are you up anyway?” Kaz asked, stifling a yawn as he stretched. Snake didn’t answer and removed his hand from Kaz’s shoulder. Kaz sighed, and lowered his voice.
“Is it because of her?” He didn’t need to specify who she was.
Snake looked away from Kaz and lowered his eye.
“I don’t want to talk about her.”
“Fair enough,” Kaz said quickly, standing up. He didn’t want to dwell on his commander’s negative emotions any more than Snake did. Especially since he knew that he brought them on. “While you’re up do you want anything? Coffee?”
“Coffee won’t help you sleep, Kaz,” Snake chuckled.
“No,” Kaz admitted, “But it’s all I can make in this place.”
Kaz turned back to Snake. While he was shirtless, Kaz could easily make out all of his muscles, could trace the defined edges of his body. He could also count the scars that littered his skin. It was strange, but Kaz thought that they looked attractive. He’d never noticed it before. Kaz banished the stray thoughts from his mind; he had no room for petty teenage crushes in his life. He picked up his things from the desk and turned to leave.
“Seriously, you should put some clothes on.”
Snake smiled and began to follow Kaz out of the room.
“Do you mind it that much, Kaz?”
“Well, no, I don’t mind it, it’s just…” Kaz searched for the word as he stopped outside the door to the quarters he and Snake shared. Everyone in MSF bunked with someone else to conserve space. “… It’s distracting.”
Snake gave Kaz a very pointed look, and then spoke in a teasing tone.
“Why would my body distract you, Kaz?”
Snake snickered as Kaz threw the first thing he could grab, a pillow, towards him.
“That’s not how I meant it,” the second-in-command sputtered.
“Just go to sleep Kaz,” Snake said as he curled into his cot.
Kaz sniffed indignantly, but nevertheless stripped out of his uniform and crawled into his bed. Long after Snake had drifted back to sleep, Kaz found himself still awake, turning thoughts over in his head.
The things he learned that day frightened him a little. He was overly concerned for Snake, and cared about his feelings. Although that just meant they were friends, right? Friends cared about each other. Although, the newfound attraction to his commander was a little harder to write off. But Kaz always knew he was bisexual, and a hot body is a hot body, no matter who it belonged to. As long as it was harmless attraction, Kaz figured, it wouldn’t lead to anything.
We’re friends, and nothing more, Kaz repeated to himself, before finally allowing himself to close his eyes and fall asleep.