Chapter Text
A bullet wound. It'd be something that shouldn't be ignored, but Mute? He chose to. It wasn't important now. The mission was what needed to be completed, and by God they were almost there. He remained on one knee, focusing on keeping himself steady while Smoke was up ahead, holding the room until their extraction could arrive.
He kept one hand pressed on his stomach where the bullet now rested, trying to keep pressure on it. Smoke was yelling obscenities up ahead at the Masks, causing a small, pained chuckle to erupt from him.
“Don't worry, babe. My other babes have got this place locked down.” Smoke whipped his head around, probably flashing a smile from underneath his mask. Even in dire situations, he always found something to crack a joke at. Maybe that was what had garnered Mute’s attention, be it from sheer annoyance or genuinely enjoying his light hearted company. It was a change from most SAS operators.
Those were oddly pleasant thoughts to have as he was bleeding out into his hand, but that's just what Smoke managed to do to his mind. The familiar sound of metal clanging from the wall to the floor broke him out of his trance, ripping him back into the familiar reality.
“Flash!” Smoke yelled and shielded the eyes of his mask with his entire arm, while Mute turned his entire head and squeezed his eyes shut. Even turning that much made him whimper in pain, and he felt like a fool for doing so. At least his partner was oblivious half the time, because he didn't notice one bit. He was too busy mowing down any threat that came their way. Meanwhile Mute hadn't shot a single bullet in the past few minutes.
His breathing was getting ragged, and honestly his own mask was making it difficult. But he couldn't take it off thanks to Smoke’s grenades, so he was forced to sit there and wheeze out each breath. Mute heard footsteps coming from his left, and while his spot from under the desk was covered, he knew he needed to make a move. “...piss off…” Muttering to himself, he grabbed his pistol from his hip and aimed shakily at the source of the noise, firing a few bullets into the shape before slouching back down. His head was starting to feel like absolute shite.
“Got me covered back there, babe?” Smoke’s urge to call everyone “babe” never stopped, even in these situations. It was nice, honestly. Mute felt his mind drifting everywhere, as he lost more and more blood. It had to have been around ten, twenty minutes now? He honestly didn't know. Everything felt so slow. The most he had was his hand against his stomach, failing to catch the blood. His glove and armor were covered in a nice shade of crimson. At the lack of a response, Smoke turned his head to look at Mute. “Mute? Babe?” Shit. His attention is going to focus on me instead of the threat now.
“‘M good… doing good.” Trying to save it, he looked up and gave a grimace that would never see the light of day. “...ETA?” He needed to deflect with a question, but he could tell by the way Smoke was approaching him that it was unsuccessful. “Go back to watching your angle… I'm fine.” But the man was as stubborn as a bull.
“How long have you been sitting like this for you fucking git?” Smoke pressed his hand against Mute’s own that was trying to soak up the crimson liquid. “Bloody hell… you're a mess.” Clearly Smoke was fine without an answer to the previous question for now, and focused on trying to find something better to patch him up with. But he knew the other man was smart enough to realize that Mute had been bleeding well before his gunshots.
“Focus on the task. I'll be fine.” Mute tried to shoo Smoke away with small hand movements, but ultimately they did nothing as the other hunched over him with some duct tape. He must have been putting some of the remotes on the grenades as he went, or just had spare on him in case something fell off. They weren't the most elegant of creations.
“ Mark, I'm going to beat your ass when we get out of here.” The use of his real name made Mute uncomfortable, but he was sure that was the point. “I'm getting you patched up, no matter how dodgy it's gonna look for now. I'll let them know that we'll need medical attention ASAP, eh?” Smoke was overbearing with Mute once he would notice something was off. It worried him and all he could do was hope that he wouldn't lose his focus. “Just… lay down under here. Promise me you won't conk out on me?” His raspy voice normally would cause annoyance or just unsettle everyone within earshot. The man really had a way of changing his voice on the fly.
“If it gets you to focus, fine.”