You woke up to see Soldier staring very intently at you, almost looking on edge. You couldn't see Sniper's eye behind his sunglasses, but his gaze pierces your skin like one of Spy's knives. Scout was looking around, his knee bouncing and his fingers twiddling. What's going on? Then, you noticed the right side of your face was leaned against fabric. Your eyes widened. Oh shit. You nearly jumped while sitting back up as quickly as you could, the back of your head grazing the back door of the truck. So much for keeping it cool. You found Medic giving you the side-eye, his expression stern. You could usually try to discern his emotions, but this time you really couldn't. He just looked annoyed. What the fuck? Unfortunately, the question of why he would let you stay there wasn't crossing your mind at the moment.
"Iz everything alright back there?" Spy peered up into the rear view mirror, looking visibly annoyed. Heavy glanced back as well with more concern than Spy, but his focus was more on driving. You could feel the tension from this morning invade the truck. You couldn't find the words to come out of your mouth. No one spoke up right away. "Well? Do we need to stop?"
"No, ve are just fine," Medic answered for the rest of you, his arms still crossed. You felt yourself shaking a little, so you grabbed your arm. He glanced back at you, his eyes narrowing slightly. Is he mad at me? Spy nodded slightly and shifted in his seat. You glanced around, trying to find something to focus on other than Medic's cold presence. Sniper was still leaned back, but he was rigid while his eyes were glued to Medic, watching his like a hawk through his sunglasses. Scout was still bouncing his knee, looking like an awkward kid asking to go outside while his parents were fighting. Soldier was tense, leaned over slightly as if ready to run over to you. You were uncomfortable, but knew this would have been worse with Engie or Demo.
"U-uhm, sorry about th-that, Medic," you stammered out, not looking him in the eye as your face flushed. He stared back, and yet refused to say anything. His mouth was turned down at an angle, and he looked as if he was angry with you. Damn it! Now we're right back where we started. You tried to force yourself to relax against the side of the truck, but every big bump in the road smacked your head and made you flinch. Eventually, you tried mimicking Sniper, with his head away from the truck but his body leaned against it. It was alright. It isn't as comfortable as Medic though... Wait. What the fuck am I thinking? You cursed yourself, blushing at the embarrassment of it all. Get it together!
You relaxed as much as you could, wanting to shrink once you looked up to see Medic with a continuous stare at you. Shit! You honestly wish you had Demo with you to lean on instead, but you were afraid he'd start a fight with Medic. It had to have been a dream. Heavy pulled the truck over and to a stop.
"We are here," he stated, and opened the door. Spy was complaining to himself as he swung out of the truck, but as Heavy was getting out, he rocked the truck and caused Spy to hit his head against the top of the door frame. Spy was presumably swearing under his breath as he held the top of his head. Sniper opened up the back of the truck and held it open for you, but after he hopped out, he let the back fall. You heard an angry grunt from inside, but thanked Sniper anyway. He peered down at you through his sunglasses and you could feel a chill scrape up your spine. The door slammed open and you turned to see Medic holding it for Soldier and Scout. You shook your head a bit to steady yourself. After all, you had a job to do.
You looked around to scan your surroundings. It was, of course, dusty. You felt the ground shift slightly under your feet as you walked. Heavy parked the truck behind a mountainous, blue building. It looked well worn, with boards covering some of the windows, though you weren't entirely sure why. On the back by a large door, a sign read "BLU Construction Company." A bit further to the left, you saw a slightly smaller door labeled "RED Scum."
"Fun," you commented to yourself.
"Whot is?" You heard Sniper from behind you and you jumped a little. In fear of stuttering, you gestured to the RED door.
"Bloody mongrels," Sniper muttered and walked stiffly over to the door and ripped off the part of the label that said "Scum." "The BLUs must've already shown their rookie around..." Sniper trailed off as you realized he refrained from saying "Strategist." You had to be imagining things, or was it overthinking things? You walked up next to Sniper as he was grounding the label under his foot. You walked cautiously, taking it all in. The paint was chipping and you weren't sure what to do. This was the entrance way. Why did the REDs enter here?
"Hey Sniper?" You called and he looked up at you. "Why does our team enter here?"
"You'll see, Sheila." You let out a short laugh.
"That's not ominous at all." Sniper shrugged with a small smirk. At least I can improve his mood. Can't have everyone at each other's throats.
You turned around to see the other truck pull up. Soon, Engie gruffly hopped out along with Pyro and Demo. Demo seemed to be in a sour mood, glaring at the ground as if lost in thought, but when he saw you, he lit up just a little bit. You shifted from one leg to another as you all stood together. However, everyone was standing next to each other like an awkward family gathering, as if one small slip up could send your crazy aunt into a rage.
"So...," You started, hoping someone could lead the way around here. Engie waved forward and everyone slowly followed him. You trailed behind a bit, but didn't dare to be left. You didn't know this place at all. Well, regardless, Engie swung open the door and you closed it behind you. Inside, you were met with a small, uncomfortable corridor to walk through. On one side was a wire fence allowing you to look to your left to see inside, and on the right was just a wall. Engie led your team up a small set of staircases to reach the entrance. On the metal door was a small note, and you rushed ahead to read it before Engie raised the gate. Thankfully, you didn't bump into anyone. The note read:
"Hiii!!! It's the BLU Strategist! I just wanted to say hi and tell the RED Strategist that she better have a plan for our first battle together! I know I have something special ;). I'm so excited!! 8D.
P.S. Don't even think about going back into our space to look for plans! There isn't any back there and we'll get you on camera! Bye!!~
-BLU Strategist"
Something about it made you uneasy, like there was a queasy feeling in your gut that told you to be wary of your other self. It made you want to throw up and fight her at the same time.
"Ha! That note looks like a littles girl wrote it!" Scout taunted the piece of paper.
"Scout, I write like that, well, used to anyway," you looked at him. He looked confused for a moment.
"Yeah, well, you're not dat dumb, anyways. 'Sides, you act a lot coola." He tried to point this out to you, but you just turned your head slightly to the side. I only act like a child, though.
"Got it, Scout."
"You know what I mean!"
"Alright, we get it," Spy complained and pushed the button to open the door a little too forcefully.
The door rose open almost agonizingly slowly, but what it revealed left you... well you didn't know. It was amazing, exciting, but also very underwhelming. The first thing you saw was a rock, then a small, wall less RED building farther to the left, and on your right was the continuation of the BLU building that had a small entrance. You were the first to walk out, scanning and examining your surroundings. You walked towards the other entrance, or, well, BLU exit and passing by what looked like a minecart. Once you got there, you noticed there was still space behind it. You walked up and down the space, but noticed a little space that wasn't gated off. You peered over to see a very, very long drop below.
"Hey, be careful down dere!" Scout called to you, and you found yourself in a smooth control of your muscles, afraid of jumping from shock. "Don't ya see da signs?"
"Yeah, I do!" You lied, and walked back up to him, now very aware of the white picket sign with a skull on it. You continued to explore more forward, following the track through a tight squeeze where rocks surrounded you. After that, you found the first point. It was red with a circular hologram saying "RED Demolition Company" on it.
"Here, we guard dis point ta keep the others from pushin' da bomb," Scout informed you. You nodded, grazing your foot over the metal plate. A couple of steps further was a little, yet wide, tower-like building for your team. You peered inside to find a little corner and some stairs. You heard footsteps and turned around. It was Engie.
"Ah find this spot good fer a dispenser. Sometimes, Ah'll place the sentry here, too," he informed you and you nodded. You felt his eyes on you as you walked up the stairs to find the landing and some cover in the form of metal sheets. It would be good to snipe up here... Would it? You tried to imagine the team coming from over the hill through the small RED landing or through the tunnel with the track. It's not the biggest space, though. You hopped down and backtracked to find a ramp and some space behind the tower building. A big metal box was there full of supplies. That's a good place for restocking metal. You walked around the building and through an actual tunnel underground. They seriously have to push the cart through here? Talk about a choke point. There, you found another door on your left labeled "BLU Spawn." You continued up a set of stairs that led to a walkway overlooking the tunnel. On the other side, you found more stairs leading up above ground. You saw a landing next to a drop that didn't have guard rail in the tunnel as well. I wonder how many times they fall off. Above ground now on the other side of the tunnel, you were face-to-face with another of those tower buildings you saw earlier. You looked to your right and saw another large drop along with a little space to travel without being immediately seen. Good for Spies. You looked to your left and saw the second point. You glanced back and your team was talking amongst themselves in low whispers. You were almost certain they were talking about you, but decided not to bother them.
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Then, you found yourself next to a building. You walked inside of it to find more stairs leading to a spawn room for your team. You came back out and followed the tack some more. There was a structure made from wood that could only be described as a loopty-loop for the bomb. Before walking that, you skidded down to a tunnel leading to a big room with stone walls. You followed it to find a little path between the loopty-loop and the third point. Looking back for the first time in a while, you found your team slowly trickling behind you, letting you explore the space for yourself rather than give you a tour. You had to admit, it was a bit confusing. Regardless, you walked your way along the track and around a corner to find the end of it, near a large pit. I guess this was the hole I saw in my map. You found RED buildings around you in a way that reminded you of the Colosseum. You turned back to notice your team wasn't following you anymore and took the time to walk through the buildings. They were simple enough, yet a bit confusing. It was just a place to get others from flanking you. There were three spawn doors for the RED team, so that was nice.
Now feeling a bit bored, you decided to sit down on the edge of the track to consider your battle ideas. Before you could, though, you heard shouting from around the corner back towards the third point. You couldn't make out what they were saying and started to panic. Frantic, you started to scramble to get up, afraid of your teammates fighting, but Medic stormed in, his head low and fuming.
"Are jou done here?" He called, scanning the room.
"Yes?" You answered, and he narrowed his sight to you. His eyes widened in seemingly anger, and he marched towards you. "Medic? W-what's wro- Hey!" He lifted you up by the back of your shirt and dragged you far away from the ledge.
"Vhy are jou sitting on zhe edge like zhat? Vhat vere jou thinking?" Medic screamed at you. "If jou fall into zhe pit jou die and the respawn isn't turned on here yet!"
"What are you-?"
"BLOODY BASTARD! GET YER HANDS OFF OF HER!" Demo tackled Medic and slammed him into a wall. Medic dropped you and you fell. The two men started fighting with Demo being much more ruthless. "I TOLD YA THAT I WOULD GET YOU IF YA DID THIS!" Demo hit Medic in the jaw, and the pop made you shudder. In shock, you watched as Medic headbutted Demo and threw him off. Demo didn't stop though, and ran right back into Medic, slamming him into the wall again and again. At this point, Medic looked like he might pass out. Shit shit shit shit shit shit!
You scrambled off of the ground. They're going to kill each other! Feeling fear rise up in your chest, you ran towards your team for help.
"They're going to kill each other!" You shouted and they all came racing from around the corner.
"DOKTOR!" Heavy yelled and sprinted towards the two just as Demo started to choke Medic.
"HOW WOULD YA LIKE A TASTE OF YER OWN MEDICINE, HUH DOC?" Demo shouted, squeezing harder as Medic started to turn blue. Once Heavy got there, he could hardly pry them apart. If he got an arm off, Demo would slugg him in the face.
"HOOYAH!" Soldier ran to help Heavy and they barely managed to get Demo off of him.
"LET GO OF ME!" Demo cried as he threw his weight around. Medic was slumped against the wall like a beaten bag of potatoes. He was barely breathing, but still alive.
"Nyet!" Heavy declined in a calmer voice. He had a broken nose and blood was dripping down his chin.
"REMAIN CALM YOU PIRATE!" Soldier shouted, and promptly got headbutted. "I see I deserved that now." Eventually, Demo tired himself out. You looked around, afraid to heal the two in case either one of them goes berserk again.
"What in the Hell was that?" Engie asked sternly, glaring between the two. Medic coughed with a busted mouth and bruised cheek, pointing at Demo. "Well?" Engie turned to Demo.
"The bloody bastard had grabbed the lass and was draggin' 'er around like a ragdoll! I warned 'im to never lay a hand on her!" Demo defended himself and Engie turned to you. You didn't need to see his eyes to know he was enraged.
"Is what he's sayin' true?"
"I-It is, but he was keeping me away from the pit," you answered, hoping to protect Medic and keep him from getting another beating. Engie didn't say anything.
"Wouldja let me go now?" Demo asked. Heavy and Soldier looked at each other before nodding slightly. The pair slowly let Demo go, and he stretched his shoulders.
"Alroight, Oi think it's toime to go," Sniper said his piece. Engie still hasn't said anything. You teammates started walking off, Pyro looking back and forth in his usual oblivious way. Scout rubbed the back of his neck, not looking sure of what to do, and just followed your team. Spy, of course, had no comment to make and lit a cigarette before leaving. They were around the corner before you heard shifting behind you. You turned around to find Medic struggling to get up. You made your way over to him and offered a hand. He declined it and managed to get on his feet, but was shaking. As he started to fall back down, you slipped his arm over your shoulders and supported him the best you could.
"Because I know you'll never admit to it, I'll just say 'You're welcome' now," you commented and Medic didn't say much. You walked him up a small set of stairs to reach the health pack. You gently sat him down as best you could, but he still let out a small grunt when you helped him down. You didn't bother to apologize and instead grabbed the health pack. Come on, that's what Medic would do. You're better than that! You sighed. "Sorry about that." Medic stared at you with an expression you couldn't place, mostly due to the bruising. You unboxed the bandages and ointment. And started unrolling the tape.
"Don't think I'm doing this because I feel sorry. I would actually use the Medigun to heal you completely, but if the others saw they would smack you around again to erase everything I just did, so I'm afraid you'll just have to wait, won't you? This is the most I'm willing to do right now." You had a weird feeling, it was comparable to a mother scolding a child, but that didn't seem to quite place it. "If what you were saying about the respawn here, I'm not going to leave you behind. Can you speak?" He shook his head slightly and weakly pointed to his jaw. It was dislocated. "I see." Remembering something from Health Science, you wrapped your thumbs up. You gently, yet firmly placed your fingers on the side of his face with your thumbs in his mouth against his back teeth. If I'm doing it wrong, he'll stop me. "This will hurt, so please don't bite me." You started applying pressure to reset his jaw, and he made a muffled yelp as you clicked it back into place. He weakly touched it with his hand.
"How did jou...?" He started to say weakly, but sounded awful. You "shhhed" him.
"Look, as much as you think I'm dense, I'm not that stupid," you looked at him.
"I never thought jou vere stupid." You rolled your eyes and he looked at you earnestly.
"Then prove it to me by being quiet, you sound awful." He kept his mouth shut. You wrapped his knuckles and a bit up his arms where he was scraped. You then got some of the ointment and started applying it to the other bruises all over his face, including a nasty black eye. You wiped away the blood from his nose, which surprisingly didn't seem broken. He watched you work and started trying to sit up, so you helped him. Then, you remembered Demo smashing him into a wall. You gently removed his head from the wall and viewed the damage. Yep, without a medigun, that'll leave a bump. Then, you saw a bruise running down his neck. Laying him back, you folded your hands and sat on your knees. "So, do you want to put ointment on your torso?" He seemed to think for a moment before nodding. You helped him get his shirt off to rub the ointment down his back, and then applied it to the bruises on the front. All the while, you were trying not to make it as awkward as it felt. Damn teenage hormones, you'll have to go away eventually. I'll probably end up doing this with all the guys eventually. Once you were done, you wrapped the ointment in bandages to keep it from rubbing off and helped him get his shirts back on. Once you were done, you put the med kit back and helped him up, but he could stand much better on his own now. "So," you started and he looked down at you. "Care to explain what you were all arguing about?"
"I zhought I couldn't speak."
"This is your only time to tell me privately before I ask the others. Might as well hear your side of the story."
"Vell, zhey vere attacking me on zhe way to finishing jour little tour." You raised your eyebrow, and Medic looked up. "Let's just say zhey expressed zheir disliking towards me. Everyvone vas on edge today."
"Do you know why?" Medic didn't answer and you looked up at him. "Medic?"
"(Y/n), ve are used to seeing death, especially our own. However, vhen it's jou who vill die and suffer, none of us cares zhat it's part of zhe job. No vone zhinks I feel zhis vay zhough. Zhey all zhink I'm crazy-"
"But you are." Medic smiled and laughed.
"Yes! Zhey are correct! And yet, zhey all zhink zhat makes me a danger to jou... especially after vhat happened." Medic's voice lowered when saying the last part.
"I see... could you tell me why you've been... acting like when we first met?"
"Hh, jou act like zhat vas so long ago!"
"Still, Medic. You know it freaks me out when I catch you just staring at me in such a serious way."
"Vell, zhat's just my face."
"Medic..."
"I know... it's just been-" He struggled over a rock "-awkvard. I haff to say zhat it vould seem veird if I just started acting like jour friend after everyzhing zhat happened, even more so in front of zhe others."
"It felt the same way for me, I won't lie. Still, it'd be nice not to act like enemies all of the time. We don't have to be friends suddenly, either." Medic looked down at you with a raised eyebrow. "Heck, I'll even watch another of your movies with you when everyone else...except Scout I guess, is asleep."
"Ah jes, zhe notorious night eater." You both laugh. "Do jou vant to do zhat?"
"That's why I suggested it. It'd be nice not to see you as a mysterious, intimidating man anymore." Medic laughed.
"Is zhat vhat jou thought of me? I'm flattered." You laughed, blushing slightly.
"Okay, so we have to pretend we hate each other in front of everybody, then."
"Zhat vorks for me, until zhey don't vant to kill me."
Together, you made your way back to the front of the battlefield and thankfully didn't have too much trouble on the uneven ground. There, you both found your way back to the trucks, where Engie and his passengers had already left. You, helped by Heavy, got Medic safely into the truck. You hopped in after and sat by him. Heavy climbed into the driver's side and started the engine.
"Iz Doktor okay leetle girl?" Heavy asked.
"For now he is," you answered truthfully.
"Ah, Sheila, you sure you don't wont ta trade places?" Sniper asked. You shook your head.
"I'm keeping an eye on his condition. I didn't use the Medigun, because he doesn't exactly deserve that right now. Thank you, though." Sniper nodded, buying the excuse.
For the trip back, you stayed awake as Medic slept. You weren't really sure if your plan will work, but as fun as it is to play cat and mouse with Medic, you would prefer him as a friend.