Work Text:
“Julieta ya dámelo!” Goyo’s loud voice was heard through the whole hallway of the dorms with a vibrating rumble following the scream. Julieta had stolen a card from Goyo that was written for Vigil. Of course, Julieta couldn’t keep her hands to herself.
“Isn’t that your friend James?”Smoke and Mute were holding themselves together tightly under the cozy covers of their shared bed. Smoke appreciated all the hickeys and bites the weak light revealed on his lover’s neck, indicating a previous wild night.
“Oh, Julieta? She a bit crazy innit?” Mute couldn’t believe Smoke considered her just a little crazy. Of course, she cannot match Smoke’s craziness.
“She is your same species, no wonder you two are besties.” Julieta was cool, Mute liked her. She somewhat reminded him of Smoke and she is fun. The engineer enjoys working with her and listening to all her stories.
“Hmm, I wonder what she is bothering Cesar with now, those two are attached to the hip.” Mute placed his hand on Smoke’s head, slowly combing out his hair. Mute wished he could stay like that for eternity, just holding his partner impossibly close to his body and creating their own warmth underneath the blankets. “Mark, you know, I really like you, you look so pretty like that. I- agh… I… I don't know… I just love you so much, thank you for letting me into your life.”
Mute blushed, Smoke seemed so desperate to find the correct words to let out the feelings trapped in his chest. The engineer pulled him into a sweet kiss, stroking each other’s bodies as they merged their lips together. Mute could write several songs about how Smoke's words make him feel, words are simply never enough to express the immense feeling marinating in his chest.
"I wish we could stay like this forever. Can we?" Mute was going to lean down for another kiss, but redirected his attention to his vibrating phone. Smoke fell back into the pillow, feeling sad because Mute didn't kiss him back.
"I'm afraid we can't luv, we'll both starve to death, and I'm afraid eating each other out will not satisfy that kind of hunger." Smoke spoke as he stared at the ceiling of the room, Mute kept his attention on his phone.
"Hey, it's June first" Mute turned off his phone and returned his attention to his partner, pushing his face in the free space between Smoke’s chin and shoulder.
"Cool, new month, what about it Mark?" Smoke didn't know anybody who's birthday was in June. Maybe Mute was excited to receive his paycheck.
It's pride month Jamie, did you forget?"
"Oh! yeah I forgot, I actually have never celebrated pride month if we could say, have you celebrated it?"
"Does putting my discord's profile picture with a pride flag count?" Mute gave gentle kisses over Smoke's vandalized neck, feeling how his skin goosebumped under his own skin.
"Yeah, I guess,I mean full corporation marketing strategy but you're actually gay so it's valid." Smoke was thankful for it to be Saturday, he can actually rest like this for a while without worrying about work. Mute was right, there's not a better thing other than just to be cuddling with Mute after a wild night of sex.
"Well, guess what; apparently Harry has prepared something for pride month, a sort of rally with prizes. Also, your child is sending among us cremated with the gay flag saying sus."
" Your child? She is our child Chandar Mark. You still owe her pension." Right, Charlie considers him her father. "And prizes you say? What kind of prizes? And what kind of things are we doing? "
"Hm, the prizes are, a bunch of alcohol, a speaker and… a rock? The activities are a surprise apparently, that's what Harry says in the message. He says he wants to meet us in the stadium at nine."
"Oh, he's organized a kind of rally?"
"Yeah, I guess, it's for pride, makes sense, everybody here is legit gay. It's optional too." Mute's phone buzzed several times.
"It sounds fun, whatcha' think? Are you going to participate?" Mute retrieved his phone and scrolled through a bunch of texts from charlie, all of them queer shitpost.
"If you do will." Mute replied back to Charlie with a middle finger emoji and tossed his phone back on the nightstand, sitting on the edge of the bed, uncovering both Smoke and himself.
" M'kay then, we got some booze to win." Smoke sat momentarily by Mute's side to deliver a quick kiss on his cheek and stood up to find some sports clothes.
The couple eventually went down to the stadium, observing the rest of the operators forming a circle near the entrance of the campus. Smoke held Mute's calloused hand and led him down with the rest of the group.
"Julieta, good morning sunshine!" Smoke joined the circle where Julieta was standing, extending his unoccupied hand towards her for a handshake.
"Hey, what's up crikoso?" Julieta answered the handshake and made some space for the couple to join the circle.
"Will ya' quit calling me that? You stanky bitch." Mute took two steps away from them. He liked Smoke’s friend, but damn, he values his eyes and ears. "Why was Cesar chasing you down the hallway anyway? You slammed against my door!"
"What, did I interrupt you and Mark doing the delicious?” Mute looked away ashamed, that girl probably is aware of all the times they have sex, she says they are both loud, and her room, is in front of theirs. The chemist elbowed his friend, making clear body language to make her stop talking about that. "Chingados, Cesar wrote a card for Monty, I snatched it from his hands and started reading it out loud, he got mad."
"You're so annoying, Julieta, you know that right."
"James you’d do the same, in fact, you literally bugged Sanaa for a month straight before we actually started dating, even Mark told you to stop.”
“Ah- fair, I may be a little annoying.” Smoke tapped Mute’s side in search of his hand, stopping when Mute answered his desperate pleas.
“A little?”The engineer finally joined the conversation. Mute felt like a giant, having to look down at his boyfriend to make eye contact.
“Shh! Harry is here!” everybody immediately muted their voices when Harry presented himself into the circle, exactly at 9 o’clock as he announced.
“Well, good morning team, I’m delighted to see a lot of faces here today.” Harry did not hesitate to take a step into the recently formed circle
"Today, in pride month's celebration, I decided to make some
with prizes since we can't leave the base for now. This is optional, you can opt out if you don't feel like it. " Everybody started looking at each other. "The prizes are, pretty much only bottles of alcohol for the winners. Flores has prepared a small party afterward in the communal area."
Vigil and echo were the only ones who left the circle. The rest of them kept chatting between themselves.
"The first activity will be back riding your partner, the first couple to get to the finish line wins a bottle of Vodka. " Harry brought his hands together, satisfied by the enthusiasm the operators showed in participating, though he felt they were more interested in the free alcohol.
"Prins, who is carrying who?" Julieta hopped excited towards Nomad, grabbing her arms. The traveler used her hand to compare her height to her partners, finding Medusa was slightly taller.
"It will be more viable if I go on your back, Juli." Nomas stroked Julieta's cheek before putting her hand away.
"Alr then, hop on, I've been preparing my whole life for this moment." Medusa crouched down, opening her arms and legs to have a more solid stand. Nomad climbed on her girlfriend's back with a hop, adjusting her arms and legs for Medusa to embrace her. "Sanaa don't put your arms around my neck, hook them under my shoulders and hold tight, because I'm going to run for my life."
"Ha… maybe be careful? Tripping down to the floor will surely not be pleasant Juli." Nomad couldn’t help but feel a little scared about this, back riding Medusa reminded her of trying to ride a bull.
"You'll be fine princesa, just hold tight, really tight." Medusa walked towards the starting line, standing right next to Mute with Smoke on his back.
"What do you say, Julieta? Some aguas locas after this or what." Smoke played with Mute’s Hair as he one down to Medusa. Mute had a small grin, he couldn't believe he was playing a children's game at work.
"I mean, if you win, which seems unlikely, Mute barely walks, not sure he can run with your ass on top." Mute laughed audibly, she was right, he wasn't exactly the most active operator of Rainbow.
"Ohg, that's not true."Smoke also knew that's true, Mute is always dragged out of the workshop to work out and eat lunch all the time, it is his routine.
"I'll try my best." Mute simply commented, stroking Smoke’s ankles.
"I thought you didn't like this kind of stuff." Mute spoke to the couple who had just stepped beside Mute and Smoke. It was Vigil carrying Echo on his back. Both engineers looked unsure of what they were doing, they visibly held with force to each other with a little fear.
"Lesion and Grace convinced us to join, both said they'll do our laundry."
"Are you sure she is going to do it?"Mute made Smoke jump on his back, adjusting him into a better position.
"She better." Vigil replied to Mute, but the blasting sound of a whistle completely censored his voice.
"Are you ready?!" The psychiatrist spoke through a megaphone and almost all the enthusiast ops yelled back at Harry, except of course Vigil and Echo. Harry felt like a P.E. teacher. Nomad hugged her partner tightly, thinking over and over that she can’t die like this.
"Three! Two! One!" All the participants left behind a cloud of dirt. The ops that took the lead were Medusa and Julieta followed by Tachanka and Kapkan taking second and Vigil with Echo taking third place. The rest of the participants stayed behind, Fuze and Jäger tripped down and Rook and Ace gave up halfway.
"aahhh!" Medusa was the first one to cross the line and then the rest of the ops followed behind.
Nomad carefully hopped off her lover's back, placing her hands on Medusa's back to soothe the pain she caused. The tracker placed her hands on her knees, huffing loudly with a slight tone of laughter in her throat.
"Let me get you some water love." The couple of Brits stopped by her side, tapping her back to catch her attention.
"Girl what in the hell?! You ok? Your soul is about to leave your body!" Medusa threw back her pink puffy hair before turning to Smoke.
"It’s free vodka we're talking about here, I can't let this slide." Mute shook his head like a dog, getting droplets of sweat all over Smoke's back.
"Disgusting Mark, you're a dog." Mute stood there exposed, Medusa just gave him an awkward smile.
"Congrats Guzman, you've rightfully won a Vodka bottle, which I'll give to you when all of this is over." Harry approached the trio with a pleasant smile on his face.
"Yeah." Medusa said under her breath. The psychiatrist stepped away from them and grabbed the megaphone hanging from a string from his pants.
"Next activity will start in 30 minutes right here people!" Harry turned off the megaphone and walked to a bunch where Sam was sitting.
"Here my love." Nomad finally came back with a flask filled with freezing cold water. Julieta accepted the cold water and downed half on it in a blink, then splashed the rest of her forehead, splashing everyone around her.
Nomad laughed at the scene while Mute and Smoke looked at each other confused. "Later losers, I gotta attend more important activities with Miamor."
Not many activities were held after the first one, since less and less people started showing up after they won their prize. Harry still felt happy about it, he felt proud he was able to bring the operators to play silly games for pride month. It’s already hard to bring the team together for anything.
Around 9 pm everyone was inside the cafeteria sharing the alcohol they had won. Harry sighed in disbelief at the scene, inside the room there were people that hated each other to the point to fist fight, but they just ignored each other when there was alcohol in between. Hey, at least they are together.
“I look so pretty, I mean, I always look pretty, but I like the way you painted my pride flag.” Medusa declared after taking a sip from her red cup. This couch they were sitting in was very comfortable, she could sleep there easily.
“Pff, Julieta, I guess yeah, it’s true, you’re always looking pretty, I'm glad you liked your face paint, I tried my best.” Nomad gently pinched Medusa’s cheek, admiring the colorful butterfly she painted on her lover's face.
“Sanaa, you sleepy? we can go to bed if you’re feeling tired.” Nomad placed her forehead on Medusa’s shoulders and nodded. “ ‘Kay preciosa, I wanna go to bed as well.” Medusa passed her strong arms around Nomad’s back and legs, bringing her up with a single movement. She excused herself with Mute and Smoke before leaving the cafeteria.
“Hm, Harry was nice to do this for us, I’d really wanted to go out during pride month.” Medusa carefully placed Nomad in their bed, taking off her shoes and sitting by her side to do the same.
“Well, we’re not staying here forever, maybe we’ll be able to leave before the month ends.” Nomad turned to her side, hugging Medusa’s waist and pulling her to the center of the bed.
“I hope so."