"W-what?" He cowered out, clearly not expecting my question. A blush crept up his neck and pinked the tips of his ears.

"Is it true you took a vow not to sleep with the recruits?" I asked again, he ran his finger along his short stubble and then straightened his face to no-expression.

"I'm not discussing my personal life with one of the soldiers." He finally settled on, keeping his voice monotonous. He acted bored, which was a reaction in itself especially since he was blushing.

"With one of the criminals you mean?" My lip curled up into half a smile and his eyes narrowed at me.

"I think you have rested enough, there are seven remaining laps. You can run the rest and clear out when you're done. I'm signing off now." I watched him cross the track, his heavy boots making thudding sounds with every step that he took. I waited until he was far out of the distance before I exited the track myself and headed back to the living quarters without completing my final laps.

"I heard the private talking to the general about the bar a mile west from here. I thought this was a rural area, civilization ceased for miles around." Nicole was telling Hannah.

"After today I could really use a drink." I pointed out, flopping down on my bed which felt anything but satisfactory.

The girls laughed like I had told them a joke and I rested myself up on my elbows to look at them in question.

"We're not allowed off campus Harper." Hannah pointed out.

"Yeah but we're literally criminals, when have we ever followed the rules?" They looked at one another dumbfounded like the thought had never crossed their minds.

"What would we wear?" Nicole asked. I smirked knowing I had brought a whole suitcase of pointless outfits.

"Take your pick." I pointed to my trunk "I'm gonna go check out the staff showers, something tells me they'll be a damn sight better than ours." I gathered up my shower supplies and headed out.

There was a security guard sitting in a small office next to a barricade. It separated the criminals and the officers but when I was hobbling back from the track earlier I noticed a gap in the hedge that would allow me the access I needed to sneak through.

They had small cabins instead of sheds but there was a main shower and toilet block which indicated to me that the small cabins only housed their bedrooms. Stealthily I headed to the shower block, slipping inside unnoticed.

It was much cleaner than ours, with actual doors instead of curtains. There was only one shower room, it had a shower cubicle and a decent dressing area complete with a large mirror, sink, hair dryer and unit. Just left of the showers was a door and I opened it being nosy only to find a toilet so nothing too interesting.

I stepped into the shower eyeing up the lever. It had a choice of hot or cold and when I turned it warm water bounced off my skin, relaxing all of my aching muscles. It was pure heaven.

I took my time, massaging the shampoo into my hair, rubbing the soap on to my body. Enjoying the small bit of pampering I had found at this wretched Bootcamp.

Then I stepped out of the shower and blow dried my hair, watching it all straighten out with a lovely shine.

I opened the door and peeked my head out before actually committing to leaving but it was dark outside now and everything seemed quiet so I quickly left, ran through the bushes and ended up at my own living quarters in no time.

When I opened my shed door girls were throwing clothes around, standing in their bras, applying makeup to their face. They were pumped and we had accumulated more than just Hannah and Nicole on our one-bar-bar crawl.

We all separated into small groups so we could move around the grounds without attracting attention. But sure enough we had exited the Bootcamp and turned left down the dirt road until we came to a little country house bar.

It was a darling little building, white exterior and potted flowers out front that weren't very noticeable so late at night. We opened the door and surprisingly it was quite busy, probably because it was the only bar around. We pushed through the crowds and made our way out back, sitting in the beer garden since it was such a pleasant evening.

What I noticed really quickly was that it seemed to be the place the workers gathered. There were farmers who tended to the fields, lower rankers from our Bootcamp, the general public from the little neighboring houses and of course the small store owners from the tiny village thirty minutes away. A local live band played inside, but we could hear the music from outside and they sounded pretty decent but nothing game-worthy.

"Hey little lady, can I buy you a drink?" A man wearing a lumberjack shirt stumbled over to our table and slung his arm around me. He twirled a strain of wheat around his mouth. I sat and spoke to him for a while about farming and tending to animals, he seemed very passionate about it and I didn't have the heart to tell him that I just wasn't interested.

"Get your coat, you've pulled." Caitlin joked.

"I gotta use the ladies room." I announced.

I stood up and pushed the door open, reentering the bar. It didn't look any less busy than before, or perhaps it was even busier now. I hid myself away in the bathroom, fixing my hair, eating a few tic tacs to refresh my breath and then I left, pushing the door right into someone's arm.

"Sorry." I muttered politely, looking up and coming face to face with those cinnamony hues.

Shit.

Automatically I winced my whole face, screwing my features together almost in pain. He on the other hand looked furious, but oh so good. I cast my eyes down, not out of respect but out of the sheer weirdness of him not wearing his army clothes.

He was in jeans. Jeans! And a grey Hilfigure hoodie, my mouth watered.

"Am I in trouble?" I asked sheepishly.

"Oh you are in so much trouble." He grabbed hold of my arm tightly and pulled me through the crowd exiting the bar. I half expected him to drag me back to bootcamp but instead he practically threw me across the parking lot.

"Are you fucking stupid? This is a court ordered bootcamp. You can't just leave whenever you want, when the commander finds out about this you're gonna go straight to jail."

I could see he was holding onto that for a while, that rage. It must truly be exhausting to hide your emotions for that long, bury them deep so you don't get any frown lines or make any angry expressions.

"So don't brown nose your commander by telling him." I shrugged, trying to walk away from his grasp but he pulled me back strongly.

"Jesus! You're getting under my skin so much! I tell you not to do simple fucking things yet you do them anyway. Do you enjoy pissing me off?" There was almost steam coming from his ears.

"Is this fellow bothering you, little lady?" The lumberjack from earlier appeared and I turned to face him before returning my gaze back on Axel who point blank ignored his existence.

"Yeah, he's bothering me quite a lot actually." I muttered.

Before I could think or react the lumberjack threw a punch on Axels jaw. He didn't even blink but in a second he punched him back, the lumberjack fell to floor knocked out cold. My jaw fell open and I dropped to the ground making sure the poor guy was still breathing.

"What the fuck Axel?" I screeched.

"Axel?" His voice spoke slowly, sounding out his own name on his lips. It seemed like it tasted unfamiliar. "Since when were we on a first name basis?"

And that's when I realized I used his actual name. The name I call him in my head.

"We're not." I stood up and held my arm out for him to take. "Take me back to Bootcamp, back to your commander."