lion and his big mouth.

Lion had thought that morning's joint exercise felt unnecessary and aimless since learning he'd be participating. The same old drills they had each done hundreds upon hundreds of times before, except this time together in order to build some kind of special camaraderie between the French and the British. His mistake, however, was instead of staying quiet like the others and just simply following through, Lion let his mouth run.

Thatcher had already seemed like something managed to get him in a particularly foul mood that morning, and let Lion know exactly how he had felt about his critiques with a swift right hook to the side of his head. He swore he saw stars for a moment, and the next thing Lion knew was that he was being walked back into base by Montagne and Rook. A fight between SAS and GIGN had nearly broken out on the field, not just because of Thatcher, but also because of him and his own big mouth.

In his attempt at finding some quiet after, he had bumped into Oberon. She'd already overheard something about a fight from somewhere down the hall. Word travels fast on base. She insisted on finding him an ice pack after noticing the redness of his face. He'd let her do that much for him at least, he wasn't thrilled at the prospect of bringing his sorry wounded pride into the infirmary to be face-to-face with Doc. He already felt like a fool, he wasn't in the mood for that to be reinforced by Doc of all people, now or anytime soon.

They sat alone together in one of the more spacious supply closets on the base, Lion insisted he wasn't too eager to go back to his own room just yet since if someone was still looking for him, it'd be the first place to check. Oberon held the ice pack to his face gingerly, perhaps overly aware of applying pressure to the spot. It hadn't begun to bruise just yet, which was good. If he was lucky it wouldn't swell too much. "Do you want me to hold it for you? Or do you--"

"Doesn't matter," Lion responded curtly, taking the pack into his own hand and holding it in place.

Oberon stared at him, eyebrows slightly furrowed and unsure if she should take offense at his behavior. "You know it doesn't have to be you against everyone." A defeated sigh fell from her lips when she spoke as her hand withdrew from his face, her arms now folded.

Eyes turned downward, Lion said nothing as he silently mulled her words over in his mind, only looking up as Oberon shook her head softly and turned towards the door to leave him be.

"I'm sorry. I appreciate this, I do."