Alex gets some nose bleeds.

I always wake early and check to make sure that all is well. Not to mention to make sure that the team whose turn it is to cook today were up and getting things ready. Even more so to make sure that the team taking care of the littles was on the job. The littles had their own area on the main floor. All of us teens were on the second floor. Eventually, we would move out of the crèche. Just when depended on a lot of factors, but primarily our grades.

I was swimming with the current on my way back to my room. Girls everywhere—all of them on their way back to their room from the showers. Nothing unusual, until I saw my door open and Alex start to leave. His eyes grew huge, and his mouth fell open. Then his face turned bright red, and he got a nose bleed again, before rushing back into my room.

I turned around and looked. Nothing unusual here. Just a bunch of girls wrapped in towels. Well OK, 'mostly' wrapped in towels.

I found Alex under his sheets, hiding his head again. "Rise and shine sleepy head. We have things to do today!" No response? Well, tickling always seemed to work on the littles. So I did it. Like a breaching humpback whale, Alex surged up out of bed and smashed his face right into my chest as I was bending over the bed to tickle him. I have plenty of padding there so it couldn't have hurt. But Alex reacted as if burnt and dived back under the sheets.

Uh, Uh. No way, I increased my tickle intensity. Finally, the laughter got the best of him as I tickled him right out of bed on to the floor.

"How did you sleep," I asked curiously.

Between pants to catch his breath, Alex replied, "Like a log. I don't remember anything."

"Pink?" I said.

"What about pink?" Alex asked with a questioning expression on his face.

"Hmm, Nothing, Nothing at all. You just mumbled something about pink in your sleep last night. I was just wondering what you were thinking of." I decided to skip around this line of thought as I could feel my face turning a bit pink.

"It is breakfast time, let's go see what June's team has for us this morning."

"I am starved," Alex said, with an accent on the word starved.

I peeked out, and the hallway traffic had reversed direction with everyone dressed and heading for breakfast. I just merged in with the traffic, Alex followed right behind me.

This morning the KP staff outdid themselves. Light, fluffy cheese omelets packed with veggies. Pancakes with whipped cream and various fruit preserves for a topping. As always, you could grab some scrambled eggs if you didn't like the main course. Plus there was plenty of cereal. And bacon, lots of bacon!

Typical of all teens everywhere, Alex piled on the food. Not that I was above the rest, but because of all the crèche business that was handled during the breakfast hour. I had my own table where I typically dinned alone. "Alex? Would you please join me?" I asked as I sat down.

I had no sooner stuffed my face with a massive wedge of the omelet when Margie, our communications chief, sat down. "Boss, still nothing from crèche 290, 291 and 293 are getting a bit frantic."

Not having contact for forty-eight hours was troubling. I finished swallowing and said, "OK, tell them we will check it out today." Margie left to report this to the other creches. I saw a question mark poised over Alex. Well OK, his arched eyebrows lead me to believe he wanted to know what was going on.

"My team is known as the trouble solvers. I require more from my girls than the other leaders do, plus I have an edge that the other leaders do not have. Girls have been going missing for many years now. Recently the pace is picking up. This something that just doesn't happen. But now for an entire crèche to be silent for two days! Simply put, I'm worried. I'm also of two minds, one is to leave you're here, and the other is take you with me. What do you remember of your cadet training?"

"I…, I…, Cadet training?"

"Never mind, let's go see what your muscles remember." And I guided us to our dojo.

Kicking out the girls who had been training, I didn't want to let them see me beat up Alex just in case something fell off, or equally just in case he pummeled me! I told Alex to get dressed while pointing to the canvas judogi outfits, which we all called Gi for simplicity. They were folded and placed neatly in alcoves close to the entrance. Too upset over missing girls to think straight at the moment. I slipped out of my workday outfit. In moments I was standing there only in the pink panties that I had put on last night.

"PINK!" Alex spurted. Then his nose started to bleed again.

I turned scarlet, he turned scarlet. I think I finished getting into my Gi with record-breaking time.

"Turn around—Please?" Alex begged.

I Impatiently did so. "OK," Alex said, "you can turn around now."

I checked him out, he had put on his GI correctly, so his muscles must remember what his mind had forgotten.

Not bothering to get into position or anything formal I swung a faint at him with my right arm, while really doing a simple leg sweep. And found my self flat on my back, Alex leaning over me about to punch my lights out. I rolled a few times and did a kickup movement to get back into a fighting stance. The fur flew! Neither one of us was the winner—if anything we tied.

We ended up with me on top of Alex. I could tell that he was about to reverse our positions when I noticed that things felt 'breezy.' I had not correctly tied the strings of my Gi, and it had come loose. I looked down, and of course, Alex followed. Yep, he spurted blood out of his nose again.

Somehow that brought our sparring to a sudden halt.

I have my own team and rather than household chores, (except caring for the littles. I insist that everyone take their turn caring for them, even me. ) my team fights. I know that it is not easy to manufacture light armor, but as Dianna knew how and we found a three-dee printer in the caretaker's facility that we were able to 'creatively borrow.' Anyway ignoring the creative shenanigans, my team of six each had a simplified set of light armor and a few spares.

On our way to meet my team for a briefing before we left to check on 290, I rained on Alex's parade. "Alex, I understand that you are in shock. I also know that the customs that you were raised with are not the customs of here and now. But suck it up. I don't dare leave you here by yourself. Too much could go wrong. I'm going to fit you with a type of light armor. It is not up to full Marine spec, but it is better than anything else around here. This means that I have to fit it to you and I don't have time to coddle you. Got it?"

Alex said, "I… I'm sorry. I'll try to suppress it."

I replied, "Great, now, get nude."

Alex replied, "…"

I got him fitted before everyone gathered for the briefing, and I was even able to get the specialized accessories that men required thanks to Dianna handling a fast printer job. I have to admit that he tried, he really tried. But seven stunning, and very well proportioned, girls naked and slipping into armor just blew his circuit breakers. Yep, nose bleed!