You can't win them all.

Taina "Caveira" Pereira had ordered a drink called a chocolate egg cream. Evidently she didn't drink alcohol. These were two points of surprise for Julian "Rook" Nizan, who hadn't known she didn't drink, and hadn't known that a "chocolate egg cream" was a thing.

She had then spent about ten minutes explaining the drink to him.

It contained, and Rook considered this a very American move, neither egg nor cream. Seltzer water and milk were mixed, forming a head of white bubbles, then chocolate syrup was added and mixed in vigorously. Rook was of the opinion that it tasted something like fizzy chocolate milk.

Caveira had a milk mustache. Rook was debating whether or not to point this out, when she pinned him with a look. "So who don't you get along with?"

They had happened to be in the Rainbow base canteen at the same, and Rook had joined her for a drink. He considered her question as he sipped his old fashioned. "I don't get along with plenty of people."

The Brazilian operator snorted and pointed to herself. "Julien, you get along with me."

"You seem to be under the impression that you're unlikeable. You have a milk mustache by the way."

Caveria wiped her mouth absently and said, "I can be unlikeable."

"Sure," Rook agreed. "But not to me. Just because one person doesn't like someone doesn't mean someone else won't like them."

"What about Fuze?"

"Fuze?" Rook considered this. "I don't dislike him. I guess I can't say that I like him too much, but maybe that's because we just haven't spent much time together. He's a gifted engineer as far as I know."

Caveira downed the rest of her drink, and Rook hid a smile at the mustache that formed. "So you do get along with everyone."

"I'm not a golden retriever, Taina," Rook said, and then he chuckled. "Okay, there was this one guy we worked with in the GIGN, call sign of Lion. Good at his job, but he was confrontational. Doc doesn't get mad at many people-" Here Caveira winced slightly, but Rook jsut continued. "-but he thought Lion lacked empathy, and Lion thought Doc was too much of a humanitarian. They argued about it, and it got so bad Twitch, Emmanuelle, tried to step in and settle things down." Rook shrugged. "I didn't think it was fair that she had to do that."

"Why's that?" Caveira asked.

"Emmanuella's a sweetheart," Rook explained. "She's like a sister, to me and to everyone else in my unit, and when she tried to settle things down Lion just got even more confrontational. I didn't think that was very fair, and it might have been a problem but we got transferred to Rainbow soon after. I doubt we'll see Lion in Rainbow unless something big happens."

Caveira held her empty glass up, and the bartender caught her eye and nodded, preparing another fizzy chocolate drink. "Okay, you get along with everybody, but does everybody get along with you?" she asked.

Rook smiled in thanks as the bartender set the drink down, and turned his smile to Caveira. "Well, you like me," he said, mirroring her previous argument.

"Sure, because you're likable. But just because someone get's along with someone, that doesn't mean everyone else will," she said, mirroring his own argument. Rook conceded the point, and she pressed the point, "So, anyone in Rainbow that doesn't get along with you?"

Rook thought for a moment, then he remembered something. "Oh, I like your fingernail polish, by the way."

Caveira blinked at the apparent non-sequitur and looked at her fingernails, which were painted, of course, black.

Rook nodded. "I was talking with Meghan, Valkyrie, and she mentioned I should compliment you on them. Now there's someone that puzzles me." Caveira started to take a drink and Rook saw his chance. "She always seems nervous around me, ever since I found one of her cameras in the men's showers."

He leaned back as a fine mist of chocolate egg cream covered the table. He handed Caveira a napkin and she held it up to her nose, glaring at him with teary eyes. "You did that on purpose!" she accused.

"Yes," he confessed with an amused smile.

"Do you know how much this hurts going up your nose?"

"Non," he admitted.

"She did not put a camera in the men's shower. Did she?" Caveira asked, incredulous.

"Well, non. I found it in the men's locker room. She said she gave it to Mark, that's Mute, to do some modifications, and he must have left it in there," Rook said, radiating trust.

"And you believed her?"

"Sure, why not?"

Caveira searched his open, honest face for any sign of a lie, but there was none. "And it hasn't occurred to you that she might, oh, I don't know, be worried about being written up for putting a camera into the men's locker room?"

"I wouldn't do that. I told her I believed her but she still jumps whenever I go up to her." Rook took a sip of his old fashioned.

"Then I'm not sure that counts." Caveira thought for a moment. "So the only person in the world you don't get along with is some GIGN operator who yelled at Twitch?"

Rook swirled his drink. "Well...it wasn't just that. You know that Thatcher helped train me?"

"The old man trained most of us, Julien. Most of us are on Rainbow because he helped pick us," Caveira answered.

"Oui, well, he and Lion got into an...argument. Lion made a remark and Thatcher told him to take it back." Rook shook his head. "Lion doubled down and Thatcher punched him. I mean right on the jaw, Lion dropped like an old rag. The GIGN and the SAS almost went at it right there, Taina. Doc and Mute were trying to keep everyone from going off, of course Montagne stepped up immediately and Sledge matched him, and by the time I ran up we almost had an international incident. Smoke and Twitch helped me calm everyone down, but it was close."

"You don't like Lion because Thatcher punched him in the jaw?" Caveira asked.

Rook sighed. "Thatcher is a gentle guy. No, really. He's the most upstanding man I've ever met, and the most moral." The French operator hesitated a moment. "I look up to him. Plain and simple. So if he doesn't like Lion, I don't think I can either."

Caveira studied him for a moment. "But you'd be able to work with him, wouldn't you?"

"Of course." Rook downed the rest of his drink. "I can work with you, can't I?" He gentled the jibe with a smile as he caught the attention of the bartender.

Caveira eyed the old fashioned as it was set in front of them, and asked, "That's what, your fourth drink?"

"Yes. Why?"

"I would have thought that it wouldn't take many for you to get tipsy." The Brazilian woman smirked impishly. "You know, because you're not very big."

"It's really a surprise to me that you weren't making many friends in Rainbow," Rook retorted dryly. "I have a high tolerance," he said by way of explanation.

"I don't. That's why I don't drink, I don't like feeling like I'm not in control," Caveira explained.

"Oh, how interesting, you'd think we would have a similar tolerances. You are heavier than me, after all."

Caveira snapped her fingers and exclaimed, "Touché! A wonderful riposte by Julian Nizan."

Rook nodded to an imaginary crowd. "Merci, thank you. And now, ladies and gentlemen, I take my leave." He downed the rest of his drink.

"You're turning in already?" Caveira asked.

"Right after I drink quite a bit of water, yes." He stood up and stretched. "We're running exercises in AR training tomorrow evening, so I want to be well rested." He paused for a second and pointed to her own drink. "Why not just drink chocolate milk?"

Caveira shrugged. "I like the fizz."

"Ah. Good night."

Rook walked out of the canteen and Caveira sat at the table for a moment. Then she stood and said to herself, "I wonder if Valkyrie's cameras record."

Charlie, the bartender, hummed happily to himself as she left. He'd stocked chocolate syrup for years on the off chance he would be able to use it.