"I can't believe you brought porno mags here instead of clothes or food." I lay across Nates bed flicking through his magazines, he sat down beside me gazing down at the page.

"I have a whole stash, my roommates and I trade them off from one another." I turned to look at him and pulled my best 'what the heck?' face.

"How do you jerk off in a room full of people?" I inquired, remembering the conversation with Axel earlier.

"I don't. We have to go the toilet block to do it. It's not very comfortable. I've learnt how to have a quiet one in the dead of night but it's awkward and I can't exactly get my magazines out. So mostly we just go the bathroom. She's my favourite." He pointed down at the centre page spread. And 'spread' was the exact correct word to describe the picture.

"She looks angry." I joked.

He lay down next to me, squashing up on his single bed as I flipped through more pages of nude women. I took my time reading the small paragraph and descriptions on each page.

The door opened and we looked up, expecting one of Nates roommates to have returned from the cafeteria earlier than expected. But when a general walked in we were both stunned into a silent surprise.

He scanned the room before finding us and then a dangerous expression crossed his face. Neither of us reacted at first but after a lingering few minutes Nate jumped to his feet and stood to attention.

"What is going on here?" He asked frigidly.

I sat up in Nates bed and looked from the general to Nate to the porno lying out on full display.

"Williams, when I enter the room you stand to attention." He shouted with hostility.

I climbed to my feet and stood to attention.

"Permission to speak General Sir?" Nate asked.

"Permission granted." The general walked over to him, standing right in front of his face.

"Apologies General Sir, your visit is most unexpected." He glanced at me and then back at Nate.

"Yes I can see that." He replied scornfully. "You know male and female recruits cannot mix in private quarters." I rolled my eyes, waiting for him to dish out the extra laps or go crying to Axel. "Did you just roll your eyes at me Williams?" Shit.

"No Sir." I kept my eyes completely still although the urge to roll them for a second time was taking over.

"This is black pigeon calling for red dog" he spoke on his walkie talkie. My eyes flicked to the side to face him but his eyes remained locked on Nates. The general sounded cocky, like he was on a serious power trip.

"This is red dog answering black pigeons call." I recognised the voice as Axels immediately.

"Lieutenant Sir, I am requesting the writing of a disciplinary for Williams."

"What the fuck! A disciplinary! That is so fucking out of order! This is my second one and for what! Are you trying to get me sent away?"

Nate turned to face me slowly, his mouth fully agape.

"Eyes to the front soldier." The general shouted making Nate look away. I was seething, my whole body frantically pumping my blood around with anger and disgrace.

"I can hear her. What has she done general?" Axel didn't seem pleased, I could imagine his disapproving look as clear as day, after all I have memorised it enough.

"Caught her alone in shed thirty with Thompson." He glanced down at the porno, "their position was compromisable. Then she proceeded to back chat."

There was a radio buzz filling the air around us but Axel made no attempt to answer back.

"Sir?" The general prompted, checking the walkie talkie to see if the connection had been lost.

"I will write it up." He said quietly. "Permission to deal out the punishments as you see fit general."

The general gave us a wicked smirk and slotted his walkie talkie back in his trousers.

"Tomorrow Williams." He sounded the words out slowly, giving the promise of death. "You're to do ten extra laps of the assault course, twenty extra laps of the track and then end the day on one hundred push-ups. I can't wait to see you suffer. Now get out of here and if I catch the pair of you mixing again I won't hesitate to ship you off."

I waited until night had fallen to straighten out the mess I made with the general. He was a bushy, upper lipped menace who let the power go to his head and quite frankly I was livid.

I stormed across the staff quarters with a little more stomp to my step than usual and pulled open his door like I was trying to remove it from the hinge.

He lounged with his legs up on the sofa, eating out of a noodle box with other food cartons dotted around. He paused his chopsticks and looked up from his food mid chew, rolling his eyes.

"I had no choice Harper." He said without swallowing the contents of his dinner.

"Who does he think he is, that slimy little weasel." I threw my arms around to emphasise the severity of my points and practically shouted my words at him.

Axel just continued eating and watching the television.

"Are you listening to me!" I shouted.

"It's hard not to hear you." He uttered in a dry, bored tone before shoving a dumpling into his mouth.

"You gave me a disciplinary. Another one."

"Will you calm down? You're not going to get sent away. I won't let that happen, but you need to behave yourself. I can't protect you when you're obviously stepping out of line."

I nudged his feet out of the way and sat down on his sofa, gazing lovingly at the Chinese takeout box in his hand. He sighed and handed over the box before picking up another one.

"What are we watching?" I glanced at the television, George Clooney was on the screen.

"We are not watching anything. I am watching Oceans eleven." I lay my bare legs over his and settled down beside him, purposely sampling all of his food.

Absentmindedly he held my legs and whenever he moved his hand to grab more food I would be left with an uncomfortable cold patch where his hand had just been. He always returned it back to the exact place.

"What's going on with you and Thompson?" He asked after stewing on this question for the longest time. He kept his eyes on the television even when I turned to face him.

"Nothing." I answered simply.

"The general said you were caught in a compromising position." He still wouldn't look at me.

"Yeah well general douche talks shit." I could feel myself getting annoyed again.

"You're not allowed to have relations with the other recruits, it's forbidden. They'll move one of you on."

I shoved a chicken ball into my mouth and chewed out my aggression.

"Look okay, I know you won't tell me because I'm the Lieutenant and you don't want to get into trouble but I hope that you would because—"

I grabbed his face, forcing him to look at me.

"Your general is a perv who needs to conjure up fantasies about us because his pin dick isn't getting any."

"Don't talk about my generals like that, Williams."

"Well, it's true. There is nothing going on. We were laying on his bed reading a porn mag, that is all." His eyes glowed and he looked down at my lips.

"Good." He said abruptly, I let go of his face.

"Good?"

"Yeah, because it's off limits and I don't want to keep covering for your ass. So start behaving yourself."

I cuddled into him and surprisingly he threw his arm around my shoulder protectively. It felt nice, warm and safe.

I polished off his noodles and continued watching Oceans eleven as I lay against his chest in a comfortable silence just listening to his calm breathing.

Here alone, he was a different man than out there on the field and I smiled to myself, honoured that I was the one who got to see him so relaxed and at ease.