Marco Domici: Irene

"Put your head in my lap." Irene said as she sat back against the vehicle.

"I bet you say that to all the guys." Marco replied as he quickly pulled himself down and close.

They both vibrated for a few short seconds as Irene's gatling gun rattled directly over Marco's head. "Low flying missile." She said. "Now get back to work fixing me up."

"Yes dear." Marco had learned a little about battledress during a work detail in Basic. He just assumed they wanted the recruits to have a little hardware lust. Marco did, of course. He wasn't particularly looking to get his own suit any time soon. He did, occasionally, wonder about Irene's suit.

"Homies at two." She said without interrupting her counter fire.

Marco slid right and pulled his laser rifle over Irene's well armored legs. Using her thigh as a rest he fired several well aimed blasts. "Larry, Curley, and Moeisha; exit stage left."

"What in the double blue suns does that mean?"

"No clue; just read it once and liked it." He pressed on the last bit of thermaseal and activated it. "Okay, you're good to go. Clear internal atmo and watch that left leg. It's too cute to mess up."

They had cleared debrief, cleaned and readied weapons, and headed back to their shared bunk room. Marco had a small box on his; courtesy Star Confederation mail.

"More of your mom's cookies?" Irene asked, a little huskily. Her dad had worked hard but couldn't cook hot water.

"Better, bunkie. Much better." Marco opened the slim package and waved a flat screen in front of Irene. He smiled.

"Eww...didn't they quit making those things? I used to see them in grade school. All my teachers had them." Her voice lost its joy. "I..."

"Yeah, I know." Marco put his face near Irene's. "This looks just like something a teacher would use because it's something a teacher would use. There's this company that refurbs the hardware and puts old style hands-on lessons on the comps. The teachers that use it are normally home-schoolers with difficult kids."

"You graduated high school with a college degree." Irene used one finger to push Marco back a bit. He didn't make passes at her like a lot of the others. Not that Irene would have minded, but she had gotten her heart set on some of those cookies.

"You haven't graduated high school, Irene." Marco pushed back against the finger and waved the old comp. "Yet. You wanna continue to lose at cards or you wanna get your diploma, toots?"