Mendez’s eyes were still as sharp and aquiline as ever and his face was damned near inscrutable. Matt could probably count on one hand the amount of times he’d seen the man smile, much less laugh in all the years he’d been training them.
It made him all the more intimidating and scary no matter if you were a six year old kid or a forty year old Spartan who topped him in over a foot of height.
Of course, the man had to go and utterly ruin that pre-conceived image of the self-same hardass Matt had built him up to be in his head by guffawing. “Ha! Blame Ackerson and his damned sense of the dramatic. Kurt seems to like it okay so I guess; all things considered it ain’t too bad a name for an incognito Spartan.” He smiled in a decidedly draconian way and yet his face didn’t crack or break contrary to all of the whispered rumors the young Spartan recruits had exchanged surreptitiously among themselves.
“You always were dogging Kurt’s footsteps, I dunno where the hell he dug you up from, Matt, but it’s good to see you all the same, son.” That was perhaps more sentiment than Matt had ever seen the old man show.
He waved the younger man’s apology off with something that might have been understanding in his eyes. “No need to apologize, you were upset with good reason. I probably would have done worse in your shoes. Was half afraid you’d get pulled off into one of ONI’s black bags and would never see the light of day again.” That seemed to be their MO when it came to Spartan washouts who could still serve in some capacity or the other.
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It made him all the more intimidating and scary no matter if you were a six year old kid or a forty year old Spartan who topped him in over a foot of height.
Of course, the man had to go and utterly ruin that pre-conceived image of the self-same hardass Matt had built him up to be in his head by guffawing. “Ha! Blame Ackerson and his damned sense of the dramatic. Kurt seems to like it okay so I guess; all things considered it ain’t too bad a name for an incognito Spartan.” He smiled in a decidedly draconian way and yet his face didn’t crack or break contrary to all of the whispered rumors the young Spartan recruits had exchanged surreptitiously among themselves.
“You always were dogging Kurt’s footsteps, I dunno where the hell he dug you up from, Matt, but it’s good to see you all the same, son.” That was perhaps more sentiment than Matt had ever seen the old man show.
He waved the younger man’s apology off with something that might have been understanding in his eyes. “No need to apologize, you were upset with good reason. I probably would have done worse in your shoes. Was half afraid you’d get pulled off into one of ONI’s black bags and would never see the light of day again.” That seemed to be their MO when it came to Spartan washouts who could still serve in some capacity or the other.