Continuing the fine tradition of belated crossposting to this journal

Here goes my no-longer-Secret Santa for eirok who gave me the best prompt ever. (It was so awesome, in fact, that I'm working on a sequel. Thanks <3)

Title: The Times' Tidings
Prompt: Naked Snake/Python, 1959: "You were there for me when The Boss vanished, when I didn't know what the hell I was doing."
Word Count: ~2,100
Rating: Slightly NSFW
Summary: Python finds out that making someone feel better is a trickier quest than it might seem.
Notes: This assumes Snake had none of his later codenames at the time the fic would've taken place, but that Python was already known as such since BB calls him that unprompted in Portable Ops. (Which may or may not make sense overall, but I went with it since I figure it's still better than total fabrication.) Also, see if you can spot the shout-out to a character not included in the prompt. XD
Disclaimer: MGS belongs to Hideo Kojima & Konami.

( 'When The Boss vanished, and I didn't know what the hell I was doing... You were there to save me.' )