Kick knows that, to a point, someone looking in would see this as shameless. But to him, your introduction had stirred something within him that couldn’t be ignored.

The truth was, Kick had loved computers since he was a little kid. Anything tech related, really. He even went to a coding camp, and built a small robot for his school fair. This lasted until he was of a certain age and Kick’s father had began to crush any dream he had that wasn’t becoming a soldier.

Kick didn’t hate being a soldier, not at all. He just felt a little…like he blended into the background. Like he could have a sick day and his lack-of presence wouldn’t be hard to fill.

And so, when Merrick introduced that for the next mission the Ghosts would be working closely with a tech based unit, he got excited. Even more so, when he saw you.

At first, Kick was awkward. He couldn’t help it, he wasn’t used to making himself known like this. But you never made him feel bad, you helped him, let him talk about his interests. He told himself he was just happy to be immersed in this interest again, that was why he was so happy. And it definitely wasn’t because of the smile you gave him whenever you asked him to keep talking.

“Hey, uh…” Kick hesitates by the door of the office your squad has been given, pad and pen in hand, feeling a boyish excitement run through him as you look up, “you busy?”