Wasted ammunition

[t0l]

”No, no, I’m fine,” he lied, taking in a deep breath, “I’m just, uh, looking at the little engravings on the receivers here. They’re...intricate. Lotta stuff going on there, so I had to concentrate. Besides, alcohol wouldn’t do me any good, I don’t drink, haven’t drank in...six years now.”

He talked fast, speeding up towards the end of his sentence in an obvious act of deflection. Not that he thought she was particularly gullible or anything, but as more of a natural, panicked reaction, desperately trying to change the topic. By the looks of it, it worked, and he breathed a quiet sigh of relief as he took a step back, crossing his arms over his jacket and shifting his weight around to lean onto his right leg. Confronting his issues was something reserved for himself and/or a close individual, and certainly not the Captain’s half-sister; the additional baggage dumped onto someone else like that probably wouldn’t translate well into post-contract evaluations, dashing his chances at scoring a re-up. Oh, sis! The trainer you hired for me is actually a fucking psychopath!

He snickered at that last thought, taking another deep breath to calm himself as she fumbled with the rifle, eventually managing to load it. When she shouldered the gun, his eyes briefly lit up, noticing that she assumed a proper position, but fell back down when the anticipation over her firing grew longer and longer until he realized that it probably wasn’t going to happen. No thanks in part to him turning on the safety, actuated by an ambidextrous lever somewhere near the thumb, something that she’d neglected to check. Maybe he should’ve started with basic firearm anatomy instead, but it was too late. Obviously frustrated, she had lost interest, though part of him doubted he ever had it to begin with, and had thrown the weapon aside for him to bend over and pick up.

“Here’s your problem,” he illustrated, holding the weapon forwards and using his thumb to actuate the safety lever on and off, “It was set to safe. Now it’s on fire, now back to safe. Marked clearly with little engravings, take note for the future.” That done, he set the weapon back on the racks, getting a glimpse of his watch. It wasn’t exactly a big lesson, no practical applications yet, but it’d still taken a significant chunk of time out of their day, and he figured she was right. Live-fire could happen on a different day, and all that really mattered right now was that she had the theory down, which she did. Not that she’d need it, really, considering someone like her should have a protection detail.

“Whatever, fine, we’ll call it a day.” He didn’t sound angry, at least, on the surface, as he started pulling equipment off of his belt and storing them back in his big box of belonging. “I’ll clean up here and meet you there.”

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