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Spy prided himself on the efficiency and quality of his work. However, if he didn’t get sleep in an hour, he was going to shoot his team’s bushman and then probably himself. Which wouldn’t be hard, considering Sniper had stopped actually looking through his scope thirty minutes ago and was now just sleeping with his cheek against it. Guard or sentry duty was among the most hated for the Mercs, Spy included. He almost felt bad that Sniper was assigned to do it so often, but then again, how much sympathy could he feel for a disgusting jarman?
“Whatzetime?” Sniper slurs, not lifting his head from his rifle.
Spy in turn lifts his head from the crates he’d leaned on against face first, “It has been exactly five minutes since you last asked. Congratulations!”
“Piss.” Sniper murmurs, adjusting to get more comfortable.
Spy leans on his hands, looking weary. They really should be actually watching out for enemy activity, but Damnit, it had been a week of hard matches followed by this. Not to mention no one capable in the kitchen had cooked anything.
“Did we run out of coffee?” Spy asks while pulling out his knife to fiddle with. It quickly spirales out of his hands and nearly stabs itself into the wooden crate he’s leaning on.
“Yeh, hourzagomate.” Sniper finally decides his ‘still on duty’ farce is too much and sets his gun away. It’s followed by the marksman leaning against the wall to try and sleep that way.
“Do we have cards?” Spy starts.
“No.”
“Chess?”
“No?”
“Newspapers?”
“ Mate. You try and read now.” Sniper responds snappily, clearly just wanting to nap or rest entirely. Spy should tell him off, but he’s way past the point of caring.
Spy considers calling someone with his watch, but quickly concludes it's useless, just as he had the last few nights. The only one who would be up and by a phone was Miss Pauling, but she would be far too busy and angry to have any sensible conversation with.
A quick glance out their watchtower’s window proves that there is still nothing out there. Though a light desert breeze bows in offering a fairly comfortable cool air wash over him. It was about the only comfortable thing about this arrangement. God he just wanted it to end already. Then he’d be done for another few weeks.
—
Soldier was waiting by the common area. He usually waited here when Spy was on night guard. From experience he knew the Frenchman was very tired after these shifts and loved to be treated to some good pampering and possibly some food. Soldier’s own positive experience with the tired mercenary came from Spy’s more tolerant attitude towards physical intimacy during those times. Either way, he would be there to offer his assistance to his hardworking teammate. Even if Spy didn’t love this assignment as much as he did.
Soldier pulls his sleeve away from Lieutenant Bites’ jaw and adjusts his helmet. Since this was Spy’s last nightshift for a while, Soldier had decided to go and get reservations to a place he knew Spy loved, for tomorrow. And by get, he meant he yelled at the scheduler, threatened his life, got banned and then asked Engie to do it for him. He adjusts his helmet again, wanting to look nice for when he told Spy about the dinner date. He couldn’t wait to tell him honestly.
Bites crawls onto his lap and starts chewing on one of his belt pouches again. Soldier absentmindedly pets the raccoon as he daydreams about Spy coming back from duty. Which reminds him, where was Engineer? Usually he also waited up for his partner when he was on duty (which he often was). Lest the team find Sniper sleeping on the floor in the middle of the hall again. Soldier supposed Engineer was going to show up later due to another one of his projects. Soldier can’t quite read the clock on the wall, but he’s guessing he should be seeing Spy soon.
Bites chitters on his lap and Soldier takes that as a sign that the critter is trying to mess up the flowers he’d gotten for Spy. He’d tried finding the specific ones Spy liked, but the flower shop attendant was nowhere to be seen to interpret the confusing labels for him.
Soldier perks up as he hears the all too familiar decloaking sound from the other side of the room.
“Spy!” Soldier exclaims, gently scooping up Bites off of his lap and then excitedly getting up.
Spy holds his hand out in a halting motion and Soldier stops, recognizing the motion. He knew Spy could get uncomfortable in situations quickly, just like he himself did in unfamiliar settings.
“It’s been a long night.” Spy says simply, not looking as tired as he usually did. Soldier feels mildly thankful for that, since that meant he could relay his surprise more easily.
“Which is why I have prepared a surprise for you, Private!” Soldier smiles, taking in Spy’s curious expression. The other isn’t quite smiling, but is definitely interested.
“Is that so?”
“Of course! I know you have been working hard for America this week, sacrificing your sleep to protect your fellow comrades in arms. So I decided to reward your commitment by getting us reservations at that one nice restaurant nearby! For tomorrow!” Soldier shifts his hold on the flowers, genuine nervousness striking him for the first time now.
“Oh.” Spy starts neutrally, “Is that it?”
Soldier tilts his head in response, not sure how to even start processing the extremely underwhelming response. Was Spy really so unsatisfied with it? Had he let him down so badly? Soldier feels a deep sort of shame settle into his bones. He hated letting people down.
“Well, regardless.” Spy starts, flicking cigarette bits onto the floor in a disinterested manner, “I’ve had some time to think while working the nights. Most importantly about us. The truth is, you make me miserable.”
Soldier widens his eyes behind his helmet. His grip on the flowers slackens a bit as the confession leaves him reeling. He thought everything had been going great. Spy always looked so relaxed around him, after all his hard work earning the man’s approval. Did he misinterpret? Miss something?
“It became so clear to me tonight. Your loud and rude behavior is simply too much. Not to mention the weird habits and uncanny lack of intellect. Can you believe I found them charming at first? Me neither; they proved far too quickly to be unbecoming and unmanageable.” Spy looks angry and what Soldier interprets as hints of hurt.
“S-Spy I did not—“ Soldier starts, voice quiet from the way his throat has closed up. Bites is at his legs now, trying to get his attention because the drastic change in his tone has worried them.
“It would have been fine if you had at least shown any levels of affection or care! But all you do is bark your orders and expect everything to bend to you! I am sorry to inform you but relationships do not work that way. I do not want to be seen with you, in fact I do not want to see you.” Soldier can hear the anger in Spy’s voice now.
There is nothing he can think to say in response. The word sorry comes up multiple times in his mind but he wouldn’t be able to push anything past his throat. The shame in his bones melds into a deep seated anguish as his body shakes with the effort of its effect.
“Goodbye Soldier, do not speak to me unless it is an emergency.” Spy’s voice is carefully neutral again. And as he disappears under his cloak, Soldier drops the bouquet of flowers.
He’d ruined another relationship and hurt someone he cared for so much.
Soldier pulls the helmet down further to cover more of his face as he feels tears falling down. A true American soldier never cried and certainly not when things gone wrong were their own fault. How could things have gone wrong like this? It had all been perfect.
He stands still for a few minutes more, replaying every word said to him and trying to tie them to the moments where they applied. All the hurt he’s caused without ever thinking about it until Spy had to scream at him to notice it.
Bites whines at his feet and Soldier scoops up his beloved companion, burying his face into their fur, “I’m sorry. I'm sorry.”
He stands there for only a moment longer before heading back towards his room.
Face still buried into Bites’ fur he passes by Engineer without saying anything.
“Hey! Are you al—?” Engineer’s surprised and worry tinged voice fades as he pushes past to get to his room as fast as possible. He had a lot of thinking to do before next week’s matches.
Engineer stops to look at Soldier’s fading back. He looked extremely upset. Not to mention he’d left before seeing Spy, unless the man had decided to leave work early, which he figured was possible. Did they have a fight? He considers his choices for a bit longer, but settles on seeing if Soldier needs some company after he’s finished getting Sniper to bed.
He notices a bouquet on the floor and his confusion grows. He decides to just set it onto the couch and continue waiting. Whatever happened here will be revealed to him when he talks to Soldier later.
“I am not dragging you the rest of the way. Get up.” Spy’s distant voice registers to Engineer. Which further confused things but also alleviated some worry for him. Perhaps one of Soldier’s animals wasn’t doing well?
“A bloke like you couldn’t drag me a foot of the way. Much less the rest.” Sniper’s response makes Engineer roll his eyes.
“Fellas.” He greets with a tip of his hardhat once he’s at the doorway and sees them.
“Perfect, you deal with this mess Laborer.” Spy gestures to Sniper who’s sitting on a stump, leaning his head against the tip of his rifle.
Engineers chuckles, “Rough night huh Slim?”
Spy flicks a lighter open as Sniper glances up at Engineer, “Rough nights .”
“Let’s get headin’ to sleep then.” Engineer offers a hand to help the other stand up. While Sniper loops an arm over Engineer’s shoulders they hear Spy clear his throat.
“Have you happened upon Soldier?” Spy asks, almost sounding shy.
“Yeah actually, which reminds me. He ran past me a good five minutes ago lookin’ mighty upset. Ya might wanna see if he’s doin’ all right.”
Spy’s brows furrow and he steps past them to get inside. Sniper looks at Engineer curiously but only gets a shrug as a response.
Spy notices the flowers inside but upon not seeing Soldier nearby decides to look for the man in his room.
He puts his ear up to Soldier’s room door, but can’t hear anything to give him a hint on what’s wrong. If he had to guess, he assumed it was one of the critters not doing well. He hoped that wasn’t the case, as he hated seeing Soldier in low spirits. The rest of the team seemed to share his sentiments, as Soldier worked as a weird sort of morale in certain situations.
“Soldat?” He says knocking afterwards. He can hear clear shuffling and barely manages to move out of the way of the door that’s slammed open.
Soldier stands there at the doorway frozen and Spy mirrors his frozen state.
“S-Spy…?” Soldier asks, voice warbling and tears clearly visible. Spy is shocked by the amount of hurt in Soldier’s posture and how broken he sounds.
“What’s wr—“ Spy can’t finish his question before Soldier has fully enveloped him into a crushing hug. He wouldn’t have been heard anyway either, as it seems this was enough to cause Soldier to start crying earnestly. Spy does nothing but freeze in bewilderment. All he can think of causing this reaction is one of his animals dying.
Soldier leans his head into the crook of Spy’s neck, trembling as he starts speaking, “I’m so s-sorry. Please reconsider, I didn’t mean to! I have shamed America and you..”
Spy doesn’t understand where this outburst has come from, but he hesitantly rests his fingers on Soldier’s back, not quite figuring what to do with them. Soldier continues holding on tightly, rambling something incomprehensible every few seconds.
“Jane?” He goes to using Soldier’s real name, seeing if that will calm the man down.
It seems to work, as Soldier stiffens up and pulls back to look at Spy, “You’re still calling me Jane..?”, His voice sounds so fragile as he says it.
This makes Spy narrow his eyes and takes a hold of both of Soldier’s cheeks, “Soldat, mon moitié, what happened?”
Soldier stares at him with a look of dazed confusion for a bit, before his features morph into something akin to suspicion.
Soldier hesitantly sort of points back to the rec room, “You were angry. At me. I hurt you by ignoring your feelings….”
Soldier’s face falls as he gets to the last part, “And…we broke up.”
Spy takes embarrassingly long to process what Soldier had said and turn things around into a logical explanation. When he does however, he feels an unbridled rage simmering under his skin. How dare that rat .
He curses in French before calling for Soldier’s full attention again by pulling him closer again by his lapels, “Jane, it was not me. I have absolutely zero intentions of ending things with you. The person you spoke to, it would have had to have been that pathetic excuse for a Spy on BLU. When I get my hands on him I swear I will—“
Soldier interrupts him with a kiss, going for a surprisingly gentle approach. Spy easily reciprocates, gladly forgetting all about the BLU Spy and wrapping his arms around Soldier’s shoulders.
It’s Soldier who pulls back first, meeting Spy’s rather tired yet pleased gaze with uncertainty, “You swear on the forefathers of this unparalleled country—“
Spy bites back the urge to resort to French, “My stance towards you remains unchanged.”
“Why would you change your stance for this?” Soldier asks with real confusion.
“We are not and will not be breaking up anytime soon.” Spy settles for getting to the original point, internally feeling a warmth grow in him as he watches Soldier’s ecstatic face.
The next moment has Soldier scooping up Spy into a bridal hold and doing a small half spin. Bites is also excited by the change in mood and starts hopping on Soldier’s bed.
Soldier goes in for another kiss after not finding any words to describe all he wants to say. Spy pulls away quickly though, adjusting his legs so he can be ready to be put down.
“Perhaps we save the more intense love declarations for another day, oui? It has been a long night.” Spy says, signaling that he wants to be put down.
Soldier obliges, setting down Spy carefully, albeit still grinning and excited himself, “You’re staying over tonight right?”
Spy pauses, thinking. That hadn’t been his original plan, but he can imagine Soldier getting sad again if he leaves. Spy meets Soldier’s gaze and the other’s hopeful expression confirms his conclusion without a doubt.
“I suppose so then.” Spy concludes.
Soldier cheers, “Your fancy wear is over there.”
Spy looks in the aforementioned direction and spots the dresser. Apparently Soldier had moved it again for whatever inconceivable reason. Probably because the raccoons loved nesting in
it all over again when it was in a new spot.
Spy digs through the clothing which wasn’t very diverse and is pleasantly surprised to find that his nightwear is folded neatly at the top. He pulls the nice silk garments and starts unbuttoning his suit. From behind him he can hear Soldier fiddling with his shotgun, ready for his nightly routine of cleaning it out. Usually he did his rocket launcher right after battle and the shotgun before bed.
Spy notices the obvious looks he gets as changes clothing to turn in for the night. And after he buttons up his nightshirt, he saunters over to Soldier. Soldier lifts his arms up in preparation, leaving Spy enough room to snake under them and lie on the man’s lap, back flush against his chest. The methodical routine helps lull some more sleep into Spy who’s reached that stage where keeping his eyes open is hard and mildly painful.
“I had a surprise planned for you.” Soldier starts before Spy has the chance to nod off.
“Mhmm?” Spy hums, sounding pleased, though not opening his eyes.
“I got us reservations at LeBlanc, a restaurant truly reaching American standards.” Soldier states proudly, but sounding more anxious than before. Bites chooses that moment to crawl into Spy’s lap, curling comfortably and only hissing once.
“You did?” Spy cracks his eyes open a bit, smiling and now giving Bites the occasional stroke of fur, “Sounds lovely. Thank you Soldat.”
“Perfect!” Soldier shouts loudly, “Uhm, I am very glad you like it, son. We leave at 1800 tomorrow.”
Spy gives Soldier a kiss on the cheek and then goes back to lying against the man. Luckily Soldier was now finished with his cleaning, meaning they were much closer to getting to sleep.
Spy moves to lie on the bed as soon as Soldier moves to do the same, slightly missing the softness of his pillow immediately. Though it’s a thought quickly abandoned as he feels warm hands reel him in closer. The comfortable weight of a solid presence on his back and the warmth of their area immediately draws him into the edge of sleep again. It seemed Soldier was similarly pleased, tangling himself fully with Spy and seeming much more relaxed now.
After a few seconds, Spy finally comfortably drifts off, looking forward to tomorrow and to telling Soldier he had a surprise of his own coming up.