Novels2Search

Chapter Forty

You blinked quickly, wiping away the extra moisture that settled in the bags under your eyes. You had to have stared at the ceiling for at least five minutes. Or, well, that's what you thought anyway. After painting it all with your gaze, you decided to look over at your nightstand. The alarm clock on it read 5:33 AM. Great. I'm tired and now my fuse is short. It'll be quite amazing to lose my temper around the one guy I can barely stand. Simply marvelous! God my head feels like a semi truck slammed into it. I want to go back to sleep, but I can't. I don't even think it'd be good for me at this point. Jesus.

You sat up and you felt the full weight of gravity trying to push you back down. Your muscles just felt as if they were cinder blocks weighing on your body. Granted, it was still better than yesterday. It feels like that was ages ago. You pushed through and managed to stand up. Thankfully, you didn't have you pull your heavy potato sack of a body into a shower. You still felt clean. Instead, you dragged yourself over to your closet and, as quickly as you could, changed into your uniform. You shuffled over to your bathroom sink and splashed water on your face in an attempt to wake yourself up. Fortunately, it worked this time around.

You blinked rapidly as a new level of alertness surged through your skull. Yeah, you had a headache still, but at least you could operate at a better pace now. As you brushed your teeth, you started listing what you believed you had to do that day. Alright so I have to eat breakfast, then I have to look like I'm normal around everyone, and then hopefully I can finally start training with Medic and not lose my shit. After that I think I might focus on school work for a bit until I go to bed. I have to make sure to go to bed at around 8:30, because any later and I won't really get over what's left of my fatigue. I feel so responsible. You laughed at yourself. It felt amazing to be able to do that again.

You peeked your head out of your bedroom and scanned the room. The walls were as they always were: wood. Your rifle was chilling in the corner between your closet and your desk. Your desk was organized, but your bed needed to be made. You walked over to it and tucked in your bed sheets. Once that was done, you sat down and checked up on the time. It was 5:58. Knowing you'd have a bit until breakfast, you decided to stretch and watch some YouTube. You bent and stretched your taught muscles. Now you feel pretty loose, and you sat down to turn on your computer. You logged into it and brought up YouTube. Not knowing really what you wanted to watch, you scrolled through your recommended and found an art video. In it, you learned about this woman named Emily who had a bad run in with another art YouTuber. Honestly, you knew not to only see one side of everything, but the situation did sound bad on her end. Plus, it was really entertaining to watch her to create something. It made you want to try your hand at drawing again. You remember from elementary school that you were never bad at it, but could still obviously improve. I should get a drawing pad. I always disliked drawing on lined paper. Can we go to the store? ...I'm an idiot of course we can. You were about to click on another video from Emily when you heard a sharp knock on the door.

Closing the computer, you stood up and walked over to answer it. Before you could even lay your hand on the doorknob, you heard them knock again. A twinge of annoyance sparked, but you did your best to dismiss it. You opened the door and found Medic being his usual freaky evil butler self. However, remembering what your dream Medic told you, you tried to start the conversation as cheerfully and not obviously annoyed as possible.

"Good morning Medic! It's pretty early, do you need anything?" You asked with a slight smile on your face. Medic himself looked like he had woken up hours ago. He was perfectly awake. However, he was dressed more casually than you've seen him before. He didn't have his vest or tie on and instead simply wore a white button-down shirt on with suspenders.

"It is time for jour training. Come vith me," he stated simply. He then hastily turned and started swiftly walking to the MedBay. It took you a second to debate whether going along with this absurdity or to stay and test to see if he'd come back for you. However, you soon came to the conclusion that he would come back for you... with a temper. He's almost like me. You scoffed and followed him.

"Medic, it's really early right now. I don't think anyone else is up yet. Why start now? What about breakfast?" You whispered as loud as you could without using your voice. Instead of trailing behind him like some kind of baby duckling, you matched his pace and walked along his right side. You couldn't say it was easy either, he had a fast pace. Together, you both walked side-by-side in the cool, dark hallway.

"Zhere is a lot to be done, so ve must start early. Originally I planned on just skipping lunch, but I figured jou'd be avake now and here ve are. Don't vorry about breakfast, I haff it prepared."

"I don't know if I want to be away from everyone right now Medic..."

"Vhat? Jou've haff attachment issues vith them already?"

"Of course I d-!"

"Zhis is my training Strategist, it could last all day long. In simple vords, get over it."

"He-!" You stopped yourself. I can't get angry this early in the day. I won't let this conversation ruin it.

"Zhank jou for understanding, now vhere vere ve?" You little! You both stood in front of the doors, as much to your surprise, he held the door open for you. That's gotta be the first time he's done that. You stepped inside of his lab and he followed you in. The light inside was bright compared to the hallway, so you had you squint and wait for your eyes to adjust. He gently set the door back instead of letting it swing. You stepped aside and let him pass. He walked over to grab a chalkboard from the back of the room and wheeled it out in front of an operation table. It was the same one from your first dream with your Medic. You watched as he flipped it around and checked the writing on it. When it seemed to be to his liking, he motioned you over.

"So how are we doing this?" You asked, crossing your arms in a relaxed way.

"Vell, I vanted to start by explaining vhat my purpose in battle is, and zhen explain zhe equipment. Finally, I thought we could finish vith a couple of practices, but first, jou should change into the proper equipment." You nodded and dug through your necklace for the right disk. Finding it, you pulled it out and clicked the button. The transformation took place, and though it was quick and efficient, it made you feel like you were putting on a suffocating dress way too quickly. It was like a Fairy Godmother gift, but way too layered. That aside though, it made you feel pretty professional. Even more so than Spy's outfit, and that was a suit! You noticed something in your hands and looked down to see your own portable Medigun. Neato.

You also saw your own pair or red surgical gloves. They felt thick and waxy on your hands, but it was hard to tell if it was good or not due to your already being clammy. You could tell your hair was put up in a sort of bun. Your lab coat made you feel almost magical. You felt it swish against your boots and almost giggled to yourself. That would be embarrassing. You shifted your shoulders, all the while seeing Medic out of the corner of your eye studying you and your reaction. You could feel your own suspenders and the box-like contraption the Medigun was attached to you move on your back. It felt really nice to have your own tie and vest too, even if it seemed like overkill layer-wise. Overall, you felt cleaned up and thought you looked good. You were also getting pretty warm from the clothing despite being inside. It was hard to keep a smile off your face. I have to admit, as much of a jerk Medic can be, he has some style. I really want to see what I look like!

"Vell, how do jou feel?" Medic asked, cocking his head slightly to the side as if he was interested in your answer. That might be another first today. You couldn't suppress your smile anymore and it formed on your face. You looked back up at him and nearly beamed. You took note of his eyes widening and his eyebrows raising in surprise. As soon as they were there, his expression fell back to serious. It didn't really faze you however. "Vell?"

"U-um, I really do like it, but what's with all of the layers? I'm getting kind of hot," you laughed in a nervous way. Why am I like this? Medic shrugged.

"If it gets too varm for right now, feel free to get comfortable." Why does that sound wrong? You gave him a concerned look and his face flushed in embarrassment. You giggled slightly. "Ack! Jou know vhat I mean!"

"I know, I know. I'm just messing with you, because I'm feeling a lot better today. Thank you for that." You made sure you make eye contact with him when you spoke. You wanted to convey that you actually meant it. Thankfully he didn't look away in disgust. This could be a much better day than I thought. However, your headache just decided to give you a reminder that it existed. Despite the excitement, you could still feel some poundin' on your noggin' as you would say to yourself. It wasn't worth it to fret over it though. Not worth it at all. You set the Medigun down on the operation table, but found it difficult to take off the part it was attached to. Medic silently watched you struggle with it for a decent amount of time before you looked up to him. "Hey, do you think you could help me?" You accompanied the question with an apologetic expression.

"I don't see how it could be zhat difficult, but alright. Turn around please." You faced your back to him and he simply took it off for you similar to a backpack, but with a small few small clips that hooked onto your waistband. When he gently set it down onto the table it hit you just how incompetent you were being.

"Oh that was stupid. I'm sorry. I can't believe I didn't figure it out." You face turned a dusty red as you felt the need to avert your gaze and not turn around.

"Vell, jes it vas pretty embarrassing. However, it doesn't matter." You turned back around and nervously laughed.

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"Yeah... Anyway, I don't want to waste time, so do you want to go ahead and explain your role?" You started unbuttoning the lab coat, which shouldn't have been as difficult as it was.

"Ja. My job to make sure jou and zhe rest of our teammates don't die vhile ve are fighting," Medic used a stick to point on the chalkboard to emphasize some of the things he was saying as he spoke. He pointed to a drawing of the Medigun. "Jour most important veapon isn't a veapon at all, it's zhe Medigun. For now jou are equipped vith the standard vone just to get started on some basics. Ve'll talk about zhe others later. Vhen jou push zhe lever forwards on zhe Medigun and point it towards a teammate, you will start healing zhem. It vill com in zhe form of a red beam. Don't ask vhat it's made of."

"Got it." Just like Sniper's "lemonade."

"On zhe side of zhe Medigun jou vill see a meter slowly filling up zhe more jou heal. Zhat is zhe charge rate of jour Ubercharge, vhich vill allow jou to be invisible for roughly eight seconds. It vas zhe second reason for jour heart surgery, or vell, transplant really."

"Wait, what?"

"Ja, I had to attach a device zhat vould allow jou to be Ubercharged and a separate vone to let jou respawn. Jour old heart didn't take zhat very vell, but zhe good news is zhat jour body didn't reject zhe new heart. If it di, vell ve'd have a bigger problem vouldn't ve?" He laughed and you slowly nodded. It wasn't like you could do anything about it now, but still. This guy's still insane. Same old Medic I guess.

"Fair enough I suppose." I can't do anything about it now, can I? By now, you had your lab coat placed neatly folded next to your Medigun. You quickly took off your vest, too and were left with a loosely hanging tie and your button-down. You folded it on top of the lab coat. Now you were comfortable. I feel like I look pretty good right now. I like this quite a lot.

"Strategist! Pay attention!" Medic tapped the top of your head with the pointing stick.

"Ow. You're right, you're right."

"Exactly. Now, you have two actual veapons as a Medic. Vone is zhe primary-distance veapon like zhe syringe gun jou saw in our little introduction battle."

"You mean the one I won pretty easily?" You smirked, folding your arms and leaning onto one leg. Medic growled in annoyance. It seems someone has their own pride issue.

"If ve vere to battle again, I can assure jou I vould vin."

"I doubt that." In one swift moment, Medic had lunged forward taking advantage of your relaxed state by grabbing both of your arms so they couldn't move. He held them in a strong grip and walked forward to stand over you.

"As jou ver saying?" He whispered. You tried to separate your arms, but it was no use. They wouldn't budge. Quick! Think of something! Make him fall! Medic had his own smirk now, and oh did it bug you. In a debatably desperate attempt, you swung your leg around his and put all of your power into bringing your heel into the back of his knees. In case that didn't work, you also pushed yourself forwards. Leaning backwards would have been easier, sure, but that would mean him falling on you instead of the other way around. Thankfully it worked, and in his surprise, he didn't let go of your arms and pulled you down. "Oumph!"

"I doubt that, Medic." You lifted your chin to tell him. Yeah, his knee hit your stomach pretty hard when you fell, but you weren't about to give him that satisfaction. He still had a grip on your arms and pulled them so it was like your hands were in the air for you, but you were parallel to the floor. It was possibly out of spite, and it kept you from getting up. So there you were strewn across his torso and chest. Your legs were touching his. It was a dumb, awkward situation. Good going. Medic, however, did not look too good. You couldn't tell if it was the fall or his (hopefully) hurt pride. He just stared at the ceiling with his eyebrows furrowed. "Medic?" You didn't get a response, so you poked him in the chest twice. He looked down at you like he was draining his patience at a rapid pace. Oh shit. You sighed, momentarily pressing your face into his chest and just relaxing before he inevitably threw you off like a ragdoll. However, that didn't happen.

It felt like the minutes ticked by, so much so that your back started getting cold. Confused, you risked a glance, expecting him to be staring at you still or just waiting for you to look up to yell, but instead he just stared off at the ceiling. Oh God I think I broke him. You were getting really cold now, and the fact it was so quiet that you could hear the air conditioning didn't help. Too scared to try to start a conversation, you put your head back down. After a bit of waiting, Archimedes flew to land on your bun and cooed. Hoping that sparked life into the poor German, you looked up to find him just staring. Now you were getting really anxious and flustered, so much so that the heat from your face just made the cold contrast of your back severe. In short, it got worse.

"Medic?" You tried to get his attention, afraid to speak. Surprisingly, he looked down at you in response. Not expecting this, you didn't ask to get up like a normal person. "Ah-u-um, s-sorry, but my back's j-just c-cold...heh." You both just made senseless eye contact before he placed his left hand on your back. What the fuck is going on? I just want to be yelled at right now! My arms are cramping, the cute dove hasn't moved, and his hand's actually... really warm. After all of the sitting still, you became pretty sleepy. You let out a relaxed sigh through your nose as he messaged your back. This is stupid... I need to just finish the training. I'm hungry. I need to get up, I can't do this! I can't be tired! If I'm tired, then my patience will be as low as Medic's! Are the other's up yet? "Medic? Are you alright? I need to get up, and so do you. You have me really worried right now." There was no audible response, but he slowly let go of the grip on your arms.

Wasting no time, you pushed yourself up and stood. Medic's hand retreated back to his side. You stretched, but when you stretched your stomach, you pull back quickly, wincing in pain. You didn't even bother looking at Medic and stroked the dove on your bun. Instead, you grabbed your Medigun and pointed it at Medic. Following what he told you, you pushed the lever forward and watched as a beam of red vapor came out and attached itself to him. You just let it sit there for a bit, not knowing when it'd be done. Instead, the man of the hour sat up and waved it away. You turned it off and sat next to it on the operating table

Medic promptly stood up and walked into his room. A few moments later he came out with his own Medigun and healed you in return. Even your headache vanished. You nodded to signal that you were fine and he put it back. Archimedes flew off and he came back more than slightly annoyed.

"Couldn't jou tell zhat I was hurt?" He threw his hands up in the air. "After zhat little stunt jou played!"

"Excuse me? You're the one who wouldn't let me up to correct my mistake Doc!" You defended yourself. This fucker had the audacity to do all of that shit and then blame it on me! What a stupid-!

"Jou know vhat? Ve've vasted enough time!" Are you fucking kidding me? "Now like I vas saying before being interrupted, zhe syringe gun is the standard veapon, but zhere are others. Most notably zhe crossbow." He pulled it out from under the table to show you. "Zhese are slightly slower vhich means jou need to practice jour aim vith it. Vhat is important about zhis vone and zhe reason I'm giving it to jou so early is zhat it can heal teammates. Ve'll get back to zhat later." He set it on the table. Every word was accented and short to show his pinched up anger. His german accent became heavier with every word, making it harder to understand, but not impossible to decipher. "Now, zhis is zhe bonesaw. It vill be jour beginning melee veapon. Understand?"

"I do..." Can we just not do this anymore?

"Good, now, zhere are a few quick zhings I must address. Please, equip zhe Medigun." Not wanting to make him any more upset than he was, even if he snapped at you, you put it on. "Alright, start healing me." Do I really want to? You obliged. Then, he just walked away. Hey! What are you doing? After he reached a certain point, the beam cut off. "Do jou understand vhat happened?" Of course I do, I'm not fucking stupid like you act.

"... There's only a certain distance the Medigun's beam can reach?"

"Exactly, but it is pretty far ja?" You nodded. "Zhis is important, let zhe others absorb zhe damage, because jour life is simply more important as Medic." That's understandable, but it just sounds so vain coming out of you. "Also, it's important to keep moving because zhe enemy Sniper vill always try to pick jou off. Turning around is just as important thanks to zhe enemy Spy. Got it?"

"Got it."

"Vith that out of zhe way, please, get zhe crossbow out." You nodded and took off the Medigun and grabbed zhe crossbow. "Now, see that target up zhere? I want jou to hit it vith a crossbow bolt."

You aimed as best you could, but it was no use. The arrow came off and hit about three feet under it. Medic nodded at you to try again. You did, but this time it was worse.

"Vhat is vrong vith jou? Just hit zhe target!"

"I'm sorry okay? I'm fucking sorry I can't please you, your majesty." Yay! You did the one thing you told yourself not to do! GOOD FUCKING JOB! Angrily, Medic snatched the crossbow from your hands and hit the target dead in the center. He shoved it back in your hands. Oh wow you're such a genius you proved NOTHING!

Sighing, you aimed yet again and fired, missing the target.

"Do it again," Medic ordered. You missed. "Again." Missed again. "Do it right zhis time! Sniper told me jou have good aim!" You missed horribly. "Augh! Vhy can't jou just hit it! It isn't moving!"

"I'm sorry! God Medic... I'm sorry I'm not your perfect clone! I can't hit this right now, because I need to practice! I need more than a middle-aged German man making me uncomfortable and pissed off in every way shape and form! You have never approved of anything I've done, you never own up to your own mistakes, and you blame everything on me! I don't need that extra stress of dealing with you! I don't need it! My friends have abandoned me, my own FATHER can't bear the thought of talking to me, and everything I've done so far here has been such a mess I'm surprised none of you hate me! Well, that is everyone except you!"

"Strat-!"

"NO! Just be quiet for one fucking second! You can't stand being around me! You know it! Yeah, I've been an ass to you, but what you've done to me physically and mentally is NOTHING compared to that! So guess what? I'M SORRY! Is that what you wanted to hear? I'M SORRY! Now you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to take this fucking crossbow, and go PRACTICE without you BERATING MY EVERY ACTION! All you have done is ridicule me and make me so fucking uncomfortable! The worst thing about this day is just having to deal with your bullshit! I really want to be friends with you! I didn't at first, but I want to now! I want to be able to laugh with you like I do with Sniper! I want to cry with you like I do with Engineer and Heavy! Even hiding from you in crates of GRENADES was so much more fun and exhilarating than this!" You were crying pretty badly at this point, but it was just pent up frustration and anger that kept your words clear as day to your tormentor. "I know I have a lot to get used to here," you voice was as quiet as a whisper. "But I don't think a part of that should be having to do what you want me to twenty-four seven." A heavy silence filled the room. Medic didn't say anything, and you couldn't see anything through the onslaught of tears. "Are we done Medic?"

"Uh-jes Strategist. Ve've done vhat ve've needed to do. Jou can go and join zhe others now." There isn't any kind of response to that? I don't expect an apology out of an ass like him. I just hope no one woke up to me screaming. The heavy silence sat as you put on the layers of clothing to be able to properly change. Medic didn't do anything. I have to look like such a fucking mess, don't I? When you were done, you found the disk in a pocket in the lab coat and changed. And to think I was going to have a good day today. I used to really like being in that outfit. Fuck it, I don't want to think about this anymore.

You walked out and headed down the now-lit hallway. You found some people in the living room and decided to join them. I've messed so much up.