Blush stained his face as he kicked at the floor, small sprays of gravel flying forward as he attempted to work around saying something. His wrist felt uncomfortably hot and the small image of a white mamba sat coiling around the ankle of the animal of your mark. He'd only recently encountered you after he'd been dragged onto Mother Base by Snake. He'd been in the middle of an attempt on Snake's life, machete raised and going down in an arc before Snake had sidestepped and restrained him almost easily. Eli's knees and and elbows been bleeding after being tossed down to the ground. Small trickles of blood had begun to trail across his skin before Ocelot had picked him up by his jacket collar and sent him on his way to the Medbay. On the way there he'd physically bumped into you, another rescued child, and delivered a snark comment before noticing with a begrudgingly expression that his wrist mark had changed

He'd expected that he might meet his soulmate when he was grown. Maybe when he wasn't trying to bring down a mercenary group. Maybe when the memory of the escape of his handlers after learning of his nature of a clone wasn't so recent in his memory. Regardless he'd promptly gotten flustered and run off. Thought as time went on he began trying to make small talk with you while maintaining his threatening demeanor to the other kids.

Days later he'd finally worked up his nerve to properly talk to you. He knew his grip on the small bundle of Golden Crescents in his hands was too tight, the stems were probably cracked at this point but he still still presented the small bouquet that he'd managed to bribe one of the outer going soldiers to bring back to base. He spoke almost sheepishly which served in stark contrast to his usual behavior but his rough accent warbled out regardless as he held out the flowers "They're for you."