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“Can you two put each other down for a second?” Anita sighed as she crossed paths with Octavio and Elliott, who were huddled tightly against one another. The Soldier huffed a loud sigh as she watched the overly affectionate couple smother one another.
“But Anitaaa” Octavio groaned playfully as Elliott suddenly pulled away.
“We’re not on the same squad today…” Elliott harmonised with his partner’s whining. His eyelashes fluttered over bashful eyes, “I’m going to miss him”
Anita’s eyes rolled as she placed her hands on her hips, giving him a stern look. “No. You’re with me, and I don’t feel like losing today, so you better start getting your head in the game” she instructed as she tugged on Elliott’s yellow jumpsuit. “We’ve got two minutes before launch… get ready” she warned before walking to join the remaining members of her squad.
“Yes ma’am!” Elliott called out, as he threw a glance over his shoulder towards his squad. His fingers were still interlocked with Octavio’s, holding him steady in a tempting grip. Elliott’s eyes scanned the clock on the wall; sixty seconds remaining, he noted.
“Screw it” Elliott smirked, returning his arms around Octavio’s waist as he pressed another kiss onto his lips. "There's plenty of time to kiss you,” he smiled in a hushed whisper.
Elliott’s hands returned to Octavio, his fingers slipped around his jawline, tenderly stroking it’s enviable structure as he leaned in to him again. He brushed his nose against Octavio’s, their lips melted against each other as the butterflies returned, tumbling inside his stomach. Kissing Octavio felt like living inside a dream, one Elliott never wanted to wake from.
“WITT!”
The pair parted into a fit of giggles as they jumped at the sound of Anita’s commanding voice.
“I better go or she is gonna kill me” Elliott spoke quietly as he ran his fingers through Octavio’s luminous green locks one last time, “Dinner at mine tonight, yeah?”
Before Octavio could answer he felt a large, heavy hand grip hold of his shoulder, offering him a friendly pat, “Sorry to interrupt the PDA fellas, it’s lovely and all but I need to borrow this one for a little bit” Walter chuckled as he leaned down, collecting Octavio’s battle gear and placing it into his hands. “Heavy!” He nodded, “Not sure how you run so fast with all that hanging off ya!”
Octavio chuckled, “I’m a professional” he quipped jovially as he slipped into his battle gear and unconsciously began tightening the straps. His gaze fell onto Elliott once more as he whispered under his breath, “There are a lot of things I’m good at”. The runner winked at his lover with a playful smirk, watching Elliott’s cheeks flush at the suggestive confession.
“You horny devils” Walter chuckled, “Oh, to be young and loved up” as he stood awkwardly with the couple.
“Don’t worry pup, I’ll get him back safe to ya” Walter promised, patting Elliott on his shoulder firmly, “Let’s get going, Slim” he nodded to Octavio.
Octavio finally let go of the grip he had between Elliott’s fingertips and began to follow Walter to his podium, “See you soon, Cariño” he smiled.
Elliott was left standing alone. The aircraft was suddenly alight with the legendary fight-talk banter from across the way, thirty seconds remaining. He scurried in fetching his things, securing the jump kit to himself. Frowning curiously, he noticed how the straps felt somewhat tighter than before, Hmm… Maybe the late night take outs had started to take a toll on his waistline . He shrugged it off, quickly adjusted the straps to suit and dashed over towards his squad, taking his place next to Anita and Ramya.
“Sorry about that” Elliott mumbled awkwardly, offering Anita a small smile. “My head’s in the game, I promise!” he nodded with certainty. He couldn’t stop his gaze though, and felt his eyes gravitate towards Octavio, who had now slipped into fight mode. Warming himself up by jumping up and down on the top, excitement visibly rippled through him. Elliott smiled as Octavio caught eyes with him and formed a heart shape with his fingers and Elliott found himself doing the same.
Ramya rolled her eyes at the pair, “Wow”, she laughed in disbelief, “I never realised he’s as cringy as you!” she teased.
“Shut up” Elliott mumbled quietly. He watched as Octavio and his squad were first to take the leap. The games are always fast paced… And a lot more fun with Tav , he thought.
Eventually his squad decided on a landing spot. Well , Anita had. Elliott decided it was best to follow her every instruction, after the tension he had felt with the soldier earlier. The trio leaped from the ship, falling in-sync towards their chosen destination. Elliott smirked happily to himself as he deployed a decoy towards another squad, attempting to distract the enemy.
Nothing.
Elliott frowned in frustration, “ C’mon … Don’t let me down now” he growled through his teeth as he attempted a second deployment.
Nothing.
He shrugged it off, and decided he would figure out what went wrong later. He landed safely on his feet and began scurrying around his surroundings in search for some loot.
“Heavy mag here for ya, slim!” Walter called out through the comms.
“Want it!” Octavio spun on his heel, turning around to run back towards the direction of Walter, he reached backwards around his belt to retrieve a stim and soon discovered it was empty. The dust around his feet clouded around him as he froze to a sudden halt. How could he have forgotten his stim? No, he hadn’t… He restocked it this morning when Elliott reminded him to do so. He groaned in frustration, fumbling deeper into the back pocket hoping he’d find something. Nothing. Nothing was held inside the pocket besides a few empty candy wrappers. This wasn’t his belt… Elliott.
Octavio looked down at himself, now noticing his hip was free from his dialysis machine. “Oh no…” He muttered to himself as he inspected further across his body and noticed the familiar rounded discs that were now attached to him, he was wearing Elliott’s holotech gear!
Oh, no, no, no… I’m slow!
“Heh” He chuckled to himself. “Looks like I get to be mirage for the day” he ran his fingers along the holo-tech discs decorating his arm. How did no-one notice? He asked himself, Guess that’s what happens when you’re making-out with your hot boyfriend and don’t pay attention . If only he could figure out how to activate his decoy…
“Finally, Silva!” Ajay groaned as Octavio finally caught up to his squad, “What took ya so long?” she asked and attempted to swipe Octavio on the shoulder. Her eyes widened as the Octavio before her dispersed into pixels and vanished before her eyes.
“Right here, chica!” Octavio crackled as he jumped onto her back with a light pounce, “Got ya!”
“Tav!” Ajay shrieked, brushing him off of her. She rolled her eyes as she noticed the several decoys of the runner surrounding her.
“What are ya doing with Witt’s gear?” she huffed, “One of you is more than enough! We don’t need more!”
“I guess we picked up each other’s stuff by mistake” He shrugged as he proudly placed his hands on his hips, “I look pretty good though, don’t I?” he smirked under his mask, admiring himself as one of his decoy’s fought a losing battle with a wall.
“Hey, Witt” Ramya nudged Elliott with the back of sheila, “Send out a decoy. Distract them and My Sheila can unleash hell on ‘em!” she instructed with a cackle.
“Ha, um… Yeah , about that” Elliott grimaced, reaching into his back pocket and pulling out a handful of stims, “I guess we picked up each other's gear” he huffed an awkward laugh.
“You idiot!” she complained.
“Ssh!” Elliott rushed to hush Ramya, “Don’t let Anita find out! She will kick my ass…” he mumbled through puppy dog eyes and reached a coy hand behind his head.
“That look won't work with me, mate” Ramya shook her head, “How did you not notice? Let me guess” she taunted, “ Love goggles on too tight, ay? Now we’re sharing our gear…”
“I… I guess I was a l-little distracted” he confessed, “I knew that belt felt tight! I was worried I was getting fat-” Elliott’s giggle was interrupted with a sudden shriek as he ducked behind Ramya’s newly built cover, with a number of bullets firing their way.
“Oh, that’ll be the last of your worries if this costs us the game!” Ramya grunted, swatting him with a playful threat. The stream of bullets eventually broke her walls of defence, leaving them vulnerable.
“Do something then, Witt!” Ramya demanded, “We’re sitting ducks!” a panic rattled through her voice.
“Uh… Yeah!” Elliott fumbled as he took hold of the launch pad, “Boy, I hope this is as easy as Tav makes it look…” he mumbled to himself as he threw the pad outwards. He sighed in relief as the pad unfolded in the air and landed successfully.
“Wanna fly, compadre?” he grinned, offering his best impression of his boyfriend.
“ Never do that again…” Ramya warned, “Let's get out of here! Anita, let’s go!”
Despite her immediate confusion, Anita followed her squad. They successfully managed to escape their disadvantage in the battle and Ramya began to set up defences inside one of the buildings.
“So, uh… Don’t be mad!” Elliott began, still slightly out of breath, “I maybe… Accidentally… Picked up Octavio’s stuff”. He flashed his best puppy dog eyes as he watched Anita’s expression fall, “But! I’m gonna fix it… Right now, I’ll find him!"
“Make it quick” Anita grumbled, “We’ll lock this building down”
Elliott flashed a small, sympathetic smile before scurrying away. He kept close to cover, ducking and diving behind rocks and weaving in and out of shrubbery, feeling a little lost without his precious decoys. It felt like he was walking aimlessly around the arena, Octavio could be anywhere by now.
Time felt as if it were dragging as he searched for Octavio. He tried to think of places he had had encounters with his man before, perhaps he had favourite hiding spots. He imagined his counterpart would definitely be laying low if he felt as lost as Elliott. He decided it was best to stay put, in the end; to wait for Octavio to come to him. Elliott found himself a particularly large bush and set up his temporary look-out. It was a matter of minutes before he heard Octavio’s whooping tones, cheering on his team mate. Elliott crept up to the ridge from where he had heard the voice.
“Come here often?” He smiled, placing a gentle tap on Octavio’s shoulder. He still found himself fretting in shock as the display of his boyfriend disappeared at the touch of his finger tips.
“Bamboozled!”
Elliott smiled upon hearing that familiar voice, he turned around to see Octavio, the real Octavio standing in front of him.
“Hey, handsome” Octavio purred as he pulled him around a bed of large rocks, hiding them both out of view. He pulled his mask down, freeing his lips and leaned in close, locking Elliott inside an enchanted kiss.
“We shouldn’t do this here” Elliott chuckled between their parting lips, “My squad are already pretty pissed with me” he tried to reason, but then, Elliott found himself suddenly surrounded by multiple Octavio’s, each tending to every inch of his entire body. Octavio’s touch, even in the form of a decoy was difficult to resist. He purred happily and laid down his chin, resting it into the palm of one of them, as another brushed a tempting touch down his shoulder.
“Having fun being me for the day?” Elliott smirked, raising an eyebrow, his lips only inches away from the real Octavio as he felt himself being pampered by a sea of others.
“Hmm, I am” Octavio nodded, latching lips onto him once more, “Although, it’s not fun being so… slow…” he teased. “But this… This is fun” he said in a husky whisper, watching his decoy’s pamper his partner.
“I think we should probably switch our stuff back now” Elliot mumbled despite his body willing him to stay, “Anita is going to kick my ass if I don’t get back soon” he admitted. He felt a decoy slip their fingers through his curls, “That tickles,” he giggled as another softly stroked it’s pixelated hand across his chest.
“Yeah, you’re right…” Octavio nodded in agreement before pausing. A smirk curled around his lips as he watched the decoys of himself toy with his boyfriend, “ Although… This has given me some new ideas for later…” he breathed, pressing his lips against Elliott’s for a final time.