Millions of a Face

Chapter 3

The next day passed like a blur. Or extremely slow. Depends on which part you looked at.

Faces was put with a squad that was about a year older than him who had recently lost a member in a training accident. Not that they knew how young he was when he got assigned to them.

"Alright trooper," one of the older cadets says, looking down at Faces from where he was leaning up against a bunk. "Here's how this is gonna go. We're scheduled for a training exercise in half an hour, so we're getting introductions out of the way." He took off his bucket, revealing a shaved head. His expression didn't change from a snarl. "The name's Hiccup"

The cadet next to Hiccup sitting on the bunk and swinging his legs gave a wave. "I'm Dinii. Nice to meet ya!"

"I'm Jumper," the third drawled before smirking. "Cause I wanna jump off-"

"And I'm Ka! Get it? Like Ka-BOOM! But Boom's my batchmate and not here, so it's just me. Ka."

Jumper grumbled from where Ka had shoved him aside to greet Faces, rubbing his shoulder. "Wow, Ka, if I knew you hated me so much I wouldn't have gotten up this morning."

That drew Ka's attention back to his squadmate. "Nooo, Jumper!" He latched onto Jumper's arm, hugging it to his chest. "I don't hate you. Don't be like that! You'll scare the newbie."

With that the focus returned to Faces, who hid his discomfort at being the center of attention by taking off his helmet. "I'm Faces," hesitating for a second the committing to a "nice to meet you all?"

Hiccup scoffed. "Sure." He stood straight and moved to be chest to chest with Faces, now literally looking down at him. "So, short stack, what'd you do in your old squad, huh? We recently lost our long ranger, so you better be adaptable."

Faces didn't know if he liked Hiccup or not. He was clearly trying to intimidate Faces, as the newest member of the squad. But seeing as no one was stopping him, they were thinking along the same lines as their leader. And it was obvious that Hiccup was their squad leader. He stood infront of the others when greeting the unknown, clearly protecting them. So, even if he was a dick, he still had a heart. Somewhere.

"I haven't been in a squad before, sir, but my abilities cover a variety of areas, including long range." Faces blinked at Hiccup's deepening scowl, tacking on an extra "Sir." Just to be safe.

"Wait, Faces." He leaned past Hiccup to look at Dinii, who had spoken. "How old are you?"

"I am six, sir." Even though Dinii wasn't a superior officer like their squad leader was, he still had more experience that Faces, so he would rather be overly respectful than insult his new squad.

"Kriff." Jumper, who had managed to detach himself from Ka, turned and started pacing, spewing explicitives. "Karking son of a banthafucker. Osik faced nerfherder. Kriffing hut'uunla shabuir-"

"Jumper, enough," Hiccup snapped, turning to look at his squadmate. Faces let out a silent breath of relief. It was extremely intimidating being so close to an older cadet, especially one who had looked angrier and angrier with every word that had come out of Faces' mouth.

Sighing, Jumper visibly tried to relax himself. "I'm good, I'm good." He then looked Faces dead in the eyes, stepping up to stand next to Hiccup. "Cadet. Do you know why you've been assigned to a squad a full year and a half older than you?"

Faces knew that the answer would anger the both of them more, but he couldn't lie. "No."

Jumper swore and started pacing again.

-

The remaining time between their introductions and the training exercise passed in relative silence, only broken up by the mutterings of Jumper's curses. Dinii seemed to take pity on Faces and showed him his new bunk and supplies.

When the time for their training came, Hiccup finally spoke up. "Alright, time to move out boys." They gathered up their abandoned buckets, carrying them under arm as they made their way towards the training facility. They'd get their blasters there.

"Hey, Faces."

Turning towards where he heard his name, Faced came face to face with Jumper. He looked a bit constipated.

"This is going to be a routine exercise, we've done them a hundred times by now so don't worry. Just follow the orders that Hiccup gives and you'll be fine. We'll keep you out of the line of fire." Jumper tried to smile, but instead it looked like he smelled something foul.

Faced appreciated the attempt nonetheless. "Thanks vod, I'll keep that in mind." He smiled at his squadmate, wide enough that it crinkled his eyes. It had been a while since someone had looked out for him like that. None since his last life.

Jumper's smile relaxed, becoming more genuine. "Come on, we don't want to be late."

Without even realizing it, they had begun to drag behind the rest of the squad, the three marching on a few meters ahead of them. Faces cursed and scrambled to catch up, barely hearing the huff of laughter that followed behind him.