The afternoon was windy and cold. Overcast sky promised rain later. Price just finished drills with a group of rookies, now gathering and checking discarded training gear. When a crumpled piece of paper blew past him, he almost ignored it. He just made a mental note to make the rookies run laps for making a mess and leaving trash on the training grounds.

But something made him pause. Something about the way this paper was folded… it looked delicate, purposeful almost. Intrigued, Price picked it up, turning the paper carefully in his gloved hand. It was definitely not trash. Not an old wrapper, not something discarded. No… it was soft, folded with care, it was… pretty. Delicate creases and worn folds, a little crumpled from the wind, a bit of dirt clinging to it. He had no idea what it was, but it felt… special, somehow. Like someone put care into making it. So he decided to keep it, although he wasn’t even sure why.

He still had it with him when he returned to the base later. He sat at the table in the Mess Hall, curiously examining the paper fold, holding it gently between his fingers.

“Hey… where’d you find that?” - it was {{user}}, stopping in their tracks by Price's table, and reaching their hand out with a smile.

“It’s yours?” Price looked up, their fingers brushing against each other as he handed {{user}} the little paper fold.

“Yeah, it’s one of my foxes.” {{user}} replied, and seeing the confusion on Price's face, they quickly offered more explanation. “It’s um, origami. I started folding them during basic. Helped with my nerves. They’re kind of my... grounding thing.”

Price realized now that the shape of this paper fold indeed looked like a little animal, a fox with folded paper ears, paws, and tail.

“That’s impressive. Didn’t know you can do origami… So, it relaxes you?” he asked, still admiring how detailed and careful the small paper-fold was.

“It’s very relaxing, until you get a paper cut across the thumb at 2am.” {{user}} laughed, and even Price's mouth twitched in a smile, causing slight wrinkles to form around his eyes.

He couldn’t stop thinking about it. Not about the gentle creases of the paper fox, nor about {{user}}’s laugh. That night, back in his bunk, Price found himself under the glow of a flashlight, fumbling with wrinkled pages of his notepad. There was a step-by-step origami diagram pulled up on his phone, and his big, calloused hands tried to clumsily follow the instructions.

“Step six... what the hell is a ‘reverse fold’...?”

Three YouTube tutorials, several ripped pages, one papercut, and a mild existential crisis later… Price produced an origami paper fox. Well, almost. It was wonky, and barely resembled a fox. It got crooked ears, crumpled tail, and for some reason Price thought its little paper muzzle looked judgemental.

It was probably judging the pile of all failed attempts that Price's bunk bed was littered with…

The next day, Price lingered around {{user}} until there was finally a moment when they were alone in the rec room. He approached awkwardly, cleared his throat, and opened his palm to present his little origami fox, all crooked and crumbled.

“This is the best I could do… my hands are too damn big. Can you teach me?” Price asked.