Shaded Soldiers || Gay MxM || Omegaverse

26. Friends in the Making

On Tuesday morning, Captain continued testing me to see what I could do. He took Reid and me to the firing range, where I got to shoot a lot with different guns, and they both seemed happy with how I handled them. I was much better at shooting things in a short distance, but I did manage to get several nice long-range shots as well. I had a lot of fun, especially when Captain gave me an assault rifle and two full magazines, and told me to just blast the target to smithereens at the end.

And the day didn't end there. After lunch, Captain asked if anyone would like to go for a little hike at the nearby forest hills with him and Nico. I turned to look at Reid with pleading eyes, and he told Captain we'd come with him without having to ask me about it. Daz, Ash, and Rio decided to come along as well.

"Keita? Chandler?" Captain asked them.

"You know my knees can't handle that anymore," Chandler said, laughing loudly.

"As in, he's feeling lazy today," Keita translated.

"You know you have to get up from your butt once in a while, right?" Captain asked him teasingly.

"I'll get up from my butt once I'm retired," Chandler said, still chuckling.

"Fair enough," Captain said, and turned to Ryan and Ethan, giving them a questioning look.

I wasn't sure if I imagined it, but it looked like Ryan was about to look at me before he stopped himself.

"Maybe another time," he told Captain without even considering it.

I was taken a little aback. I tried to tell myself I'd only imagined it, but... Now that I thought of it, I still couldn't really tell what Ryan – and Ethan as his partner – thought of me. I mean, they didn't seem to avoid me, but even though our paths had crossed plenty of times, we'd mostly exchanged short greetings. Sure, I hadn't interacted a lot with any of them yet, but maybe things were colder between me and Ryan than I'd realized.

I tried not to think about it. I really needed to get to know everyone better before jumping to conclusions. At least he didn't hate me or anything. Maybe he was just shy. Hell, maybe he thought I didn't like him since I'd not tried to get to know him better.

I really did want to get to know him better. All of them. And that... That was an odd thought. I'd never wanted to make friends with anyone. Especially with alphas. And that there was another weird thought. Having alphas as friends.

Damn, they really got under my skin, huh... All those alphas in my past.

I was still having those same thoughts when we arrived at the beginning of the hiking trail an hour later. I tried to listen to the conversation the others were having, but more than once, I slipped back to trying to guess if Ryan had something against me, or if I was just being ridiculous.

And it didn't take long before Reid noticed it.

"You all right?" he asked me quietly, slowing his step.

"Hmm? Yeah, yeah," I said hastily, matching my pace with his.

"You sure?"

"Uh-huh. Just... Thinking stuff..." I admitted.

"You... want to talk about it?" he asked hesitantly.

I glanced at him. I could probably talk to him about it, right? The others were getting ahead of us, so they wouldn't hear my question.

"I was just wondering... if I was just imagining things after lunch... When Captain asked Ryan if they wanted to tag along," I said, part of me wishing I'd kept my mouth shut. But since I started already... "I kind of got this feeling that... he didn't want to come because of me."