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Jane and Tavish, mercenaries of RED and BLU, had gone from one accidental meeting to spending a whole lot of time together. It was a little unconventional, how quickly they became best friends, but there was something that caused them to be drawn to each other.
It got to the point where Tavish thought it important for Jane to meet his mother. He'd been neglecting her recently, going traveling with the soldier instead of heading home on leave. It wasn't fair to her, so he decided they could all start spending time together.
He'd called ahead of time to tell her Jane was coming, but as they entered his home she stood there, arms crossed, looking angry as ever.
"So you're the one keeping that boy from his mother." Was the first thing she'd said to Jane, who was taken aback enough to blurt out a hurried apology.
Guilt hit Tavish immediately, and he tried to negotiate peace, but his mother wasn't having it.
"Well, at least let me look at you, I need to be able to describe your face to the police when you inevitably wind up getting my son locked up in jail." She reached out bony fingers in his general direction.
Jane turned confusedly towards Tavish, who just put a hand on his back and pushed him towards her.
Tavish's mother snagged Jane's face as soon as it was close enough, yanking him into a proper position. She then let her fingers wander, gauging the shape of his jaw and the size of his chin, wandering up to prod at his lips and nose.
"What in God's name is this?" She squawked, hands bumping against his helmet.
"It's my helmet." Jane said matter-of-factly, prompting a deeper scowl from Tavish's mother.
"A helmet! In MY house? You take hats off indoors young man!" She tried to snatch it, but Jane dodged backwards just on time. Tavish could tell he did not like the prospect of taking it off.
“Leave him alone mum, it's fine,” Tavish tried to say, but his mother just scoffed at him.
“I'm not dealing with this, you can have your little visit but I won't be a part of it.” She waved a hand at them and then retreated up the stairs.
“Sorry..” Jane mumbled, looking apologetic, but understandably confused.
“No, no. You don't need to apologize, she's just like that you see.” Tavish shrugged, relatively embarrassed by his mother's behavior. He should have expected her to come up with some reason to throw a fit, but a part of him had been hopeful his mother would be happy about him making some closer friends. Either way, he figured she'd come around eventually.
“Anyway, you want a drink?” He asked Jane, who nodded enthusiastically.
Tavish grabbed two beers from the fridge and led Jane into the living room, where the two of them sat together on the couch.
“I really am sorry about her, but it takes her time to warm up to people. She'll get used to you eventually.” Tavish said.
“S'all right,” Jane replied, shrugging and taking a sip of the beer, “The touching just surprised me.”
“Oh, right,” maybe he should have mentioned it beforehand, “It's the only way she can see stuff, since she's blind.”
“Oh.”
Either Jane had forgotten Tavish's mother was blind, or just really had a bad time grasping any reason why she'd grab at his face. Things had gotten quiet at this point, leading to the first instance of awkward silence in their friendship.
“So,” Tavish started, trying to break the silence, “Why do you wear your helmet everywhere anyway?”
He'd never really noticed it until his mother brought it up, but Jane was never without it. Even when he was in casual clothes, even after showering, it was just always there.
“Why? It's part of my uniform.” Jane said, skirting the question.
“Ok, but you wear it when you're out of uniform too.”
Jane was silent, chugging the rest of his beer and placing the bottle on the table.
“Well I like to be in uniform, even when I'm out of uniform. I'm always a Soldier, even when I'm not at work.” He said.
Well, that was a better answer, but it still didn't sound right.
“Really? You sure you're not hiding something under there?”
Jane stiffened suddenly.
“No...”
“That sounds like a yes.”
“It is not!” Jane spluttered, “What could I possibly hide under my helmet? Are you accusing me of drug smuggling!?”
“Woah, calm down,” Tavish chuckled, always finding Jane's logic patterns fascinating, “I don't think you're hiding anything illegal under there lad."
“Well... good.” Jane crossed his arms and pouted, it was almost cute, and definitely made Tavish want to push his teasing just a bit further.
“Maybe you aren't hiding something,” he started, catching the Soldier's attention, “but you're hiding yourself, like one of those shy little girls that hide behind their long hair.”
Jane almost choked.
“What did you just call me?!” He bellowed, “I am not a sissy! I have killed men for calling me less!”
“I didn't call you a sissy, just said you act like a shy girlie,” Tavish smirked.
“That's!-”
“Not the same thing lad.” Tavish was grinning now, thoroughly enjoying messing with Jane. “Come on, how about you prove you ain't hiding back there by taking that bloody helmet off.”
“What? No!” Jane looked quite taken aback, a lot less angry, but still sitting on the couch with a stiff awkwardness that proved he was still on edge. “This helmet stays on my person at all times.”
“Come on Jane.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because I refuse!”
At this point Tavish didn't really know why he was pushing it. He always teased Jane, but knew when to stop. Today he was pushing things further than he normally would, but he just couldn't stop himself. It was likely due in part to the fact that he suddenly was curious to see Jane without his helmet. It'd only just dawned on him that he'd never gotten a proper view of Jane's full face. Sure Jane could never keep the helmet perfectly steady, he'd seen flashes of Jane's eyes now and then, but never even long enough to remember what colour they are. In a choice he made without thinking, Tavish reached over to Jane and lifted his helmet.
The first thing he recognized was Jane's shocked expression, the second thing he noticed was the colour of his eyes.
They were blue.
It only took a second for Jane to get over being frozen in disbelief. He leaned away from Tavish and smacked a hand on top of his helmet, holding it down firmly over the top of his face.
Tavish backed away when Jane retreated, but it took him longer to recover from the shock. Something had happened inside him in that moment, something that had caused an explosion of butterflies in his stomach. He felt almost lightheaded. Jane's eyes were blue, of course they were, he suddenly couldn't imagine them being any other colour.
“Are you satisfied?”
Jane's irritated voice managed to pull Tavish from his thoughts.
“W-What?” He stuttered.
“Are you satisfied now?” He repeated, but Tavish understood.
“Oh... Yeah.”
Way to sound like an ass, Tavish.
Jane looked pretty uncomfortable with the whole situation, and guilt was starting to settle in Tavish's stomach.
“I... didn't expect you to look like that.” He said stupidly, his normal charisma having disappeared completely.
“Like what?” Jane bristled, ready for another insult.
“Just, you're eyes are blue. I didn't expect it...”
“...Great detective work,” Jane said, words dripping with sarcasm.
“No! I mean it's... it's...”
What? What was the word he was looking for?
“Cute.”
Poor word choice.
Jane went red immediately.
“Are you messing with me?!” He yelled, voice pitched higher than usual.
“No! Shit.. I meant-”
The problem was, Tavish couldn't think of anything else he meant. Jane's eyes were cute, it was adorable for some reason that he had blue eyes, and now Tavish's heart was pounding over it. His whole face was heating up as he desperately looked for a way to dig himself out of this hole.
“Look... I wasn't trying to insult you, I swear. I was screwing with you and I took it to far, I'm sorry.” Tavish felt a lot better after giving an apology.
Jane looked like he hadn't expect Tavish to just outright apologize, and seemed to deflate.
“It's fine.” He said, relaxing back into the couch.
“No it's not, I... took things too far.” An awkward thing to admit to maybe, but if felt like the right thing to do.
“Thanks... But I'd prefer to just forget about it. If that's alright.” Jane mumbled.
“Yeah, that's fair.”
“And don't do it again.”
“Of course.”
They both melted into the couch, the whole experience somehow exhausting.
The silence had returned and Tavish felt like shit. He really hadn't wanted to make Jane feel uncomfortable, but despite that he couldn't bring himself to fully regret it. He'd seen Jane's full face now, and he liked it. There was no real reason why, he liked it because it was Jane's, and Jane was important to him. His stomach had butterflies again, but Tavish kind of liked them.
“Well you can sit there all night looking like a limp vegetable, but I'm going to have more drinks.” Jane said, rising from the couch.
“Who are you calling a vegetable?!” Tavish guffawed automatically, coming out of his slump.
“You, sitting there like a lazy waste of space. Get off your ass and show me where you keep the beer.” Jane was grinning at him, and Tavish felt a surge of relief.
“You sound like my mum.” He complained, pushing himself off the couch.
“In that case she can't be blind if she sees you that well.”
Tavish punched him, causing a burst of laughter from the both of them.
Jane slung an arm over Tavish's shoulders, and began dragging him in the complete opposite direction of the kitchen.