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It wasn't entirely uncommon for a mission to end up taking them multiple days. Everyone had gotten used to occasionally having to make a camp for the night when a town wasn't available to stay at. This just happened to be one of those days.
The mission wasn't a major one. They were simply going around helping to fix some systems Rebellion had been updating around some planets. They ran into a few enemies here and there, but mostly it wasn't hard.
Though, this most recent part of the job has resulted in a bigger fight than expected. The governor of the planet they were on had finally located where they were and had intercepted them at one of the locations. A fight broke out between them.
It hadn't been a very eventful fight at first. But then someone got hurt. Hurt bad enough they had to retreat from the battle.
Since then, things had just gone a bit downhill. It was late. Mostly everyone was sleeping. Tsurugi had been, but had woken up for no indecernable reason. He sat up and looked around the cave they had made their makeshift camp for the night. The fire had died out a while ago from the look of it. The air was cool. It was pouring down rain outside.
Tsurugi was about to lay back down and try to get back to sleep, when his gaze drifted to an empty bed. Someone wasn't in their spot. On a scan of the room, Tsurugi found they also weren't even in the cave.
He got up and went to the entrance, peering out. It was hard to see in the rain and darkness, but he spotted a figure sitting on the ground. Tsurugi sighed and approached.
"Stinger, you'll catch a cold if you stay in the rain."
"Leave me alone." The response was almost instant.
"No." Tsurugi simply said and plopped himself down beside Stinger.
Stinger lifted his head from where he had is buried in his knees to glare. Tsurugi wasn't deterred. It was hard to get him to take no for an answer.
"I'm fine. Go away." Stinger repeated firmly.
"If you're fine then why in the world are you sitting out here in the pouring down rain? I thought you hated the rain." Tsurugi replied.
Stinger opened his mouth to reply, but nothing came out. He closed his mouth and returned to burying his face into his knees. Tsurugi placed a hand on his shoulder. Stinger tensed, but didn't try to knock him away.
"What's wrong?" Tsurugi asked.
"Nothing." Stinger continued to insist.
"Is this about what happened earlier?" Tsurugi guessed.
Stinger grabbed his right arm at those words. With the rain, the bandages that had been wrapped around it were practically falling off. Tsurugi could see the wound itself again. It didn't look pretty, but at least it wasn't bleeding anymore.
"It happens." Tsurugi started talking again. "We've all gotten hurt by miscalculating things. No need to be so hard on yourself for it."
"What do you know?" Stinger grumbled.
"I know that wallowing in self-pity isn't going to get you anywhere."
Stinger didn't reply. He let out a long sigh and tried to make himself even smaller. He was curled up as tightly as he could be. Tsurugi still had his hand on Stinger's shoulder and had no intentions of removing it yet.
"I always fuck something up..."
It was a very quiet sentence. Tsurugi questioned if he had heard right.
"It happens to the best of us." Tsurugi offered.
"I'm just a liability..."
Tsurugi scoffed at his words. "As if. You've been a legendary help to everyone, I've heard. You aren't a liability."
"You don't know me."
"I know what others have told me and nothing they've said is anything like that."
"Why do you care?"
"We're comrades. Of course I'm going to care when one of us is upset. I'm not... that bad."
Stinger glanced over at him. Tsurugi brought his free hand up to push the hair away that was covering Stinger's face. Both of them were absolutely soaked to the bone.
"If you only assume the worst, then that's all you'll ever see." Tsurugi said.
"What do you... what's that mean?"
"If you keep thinking about the things that go wrong, you miss all the things that went right."
Stinger didn't reply. He slowly loosened his posture. He shivered. Was he finally registering how badly soaked he was? Tsurugi was trying not to shake violently from the cold himself.
"Sorry..." Stinger mumbled. "It's hard to... fight my thoughts..."
"I can understand that." Tsurugi patted him on the shoulder and then stood up. "Let's get out of the rain."
He held out a hand to Stinger. After a moment, Stinger took his hand and Tsurugi pulled him to his feet. The two of them went back into the cave, trying to not make too much noise and wake anyone else up.
Tsurugi went and relit the fire. They would need the heat to dry off a bit.
Stinger sat down near the fire and stared at it. Tsurugi nudged him. Stinger glanced his way.
"We need to change those bandages." Tsurugi stated.
Stinger sighed. He easily took them off himself and tossed them into a corner.
"Dry your arm off and then we'll wrap it up again." Tsurugi said.
Stinger didn't argue and held his arm near the fire. Tsurugi grabbed the small bag of medical supplies they had brought along and started digging for what they would need for Stinger's wound.
"You don't need to help me." Stinger said quietly once Tsurugi sat beside him.
"But I want to." Tsurugi replied.
He felt the wound. It seemed dry now. Tsurugi got to work. He put some ointment on to make sure it didn't get infected and then wrapped the wound up once more. Stinger remained still, only wincing a bit. Soon enough, they were done.
"Do you feel any better after talking?" Tsurugi asked.
"I don't know..." Stinger shrugged.
"If you ever need to talk, I'm here. I'll listen." Tsurugi stated.
"I'll just be a burden..."
"You won't be a burden to me. You can talk to me."
"If you say so..." Stinger gave in.
The two sat silently in front of the fire. No one else had stirred from their movements. That was good. They did not need anyone asking what the hell the two of them had gotten up to.
Tsurugi snapped out of his thoughts as there was weight pressing against his side. He turned his head to find Stinger had shifted up against him and was curling up. Tsurugi placed a hand around his shoulders and pulled him closer. He didn't know what was happening, but didn't want to deny Stinger it.
"Cold..." Stinger whispered, shivering for emphasis.
"You're the idiot who decided to sit out in the pouring down rain." Tsurugi replied.
Stinger didn't have a rebuttal for that. He just moved in closer. Tsurugi wasn't sure how much he was going to help. He wasn't exactly the warmest person here either.
"Why are you awake?" Stinger asked.
"I don't know." Tsurugi shrugged. "Just woke up randomly."
"And you... came looking for me?"
"Noticed you weren't in your spot and got worried."
"Sorry..."
"There's nothing to apologize for. It's fine now." Tsurugi said.
"You know... it's weird hearing you say all this. I'm so used to you being a bit of an ass." Stinger managed a small laugh.
"Even I can act serious when I need to." Tsurugi huffed. "I'm not that much of an ass to everyone, am I?"
"You just really like getting your opinion out there."
"I simply am offering my advice."
"Sure..." Stinger rolled his eyes.
"I take it you're feeling better if you're starting to joke around." Tsurugi commented.
"I guess so."
"I'm good at helping people then, aren't I?" Tsurugi stated.
"Sure... we'll go with that."
They fell back into silence for a while. It was peaceful.
Once they felt dried enough, they began heading back to their beds. However, Tsurugi didn't get much peace before there was someone setting up his bed beside him. Tsurugi just watched as Stinger moved over. What exactly was he doing?
"I... um, hope it's okay if... if I stay here..." Stinger mumbled, embarrassed.
"I don't mind at all." Tsurugi shrugged.
They laid there is a bit of an awkward silence. Tsurugi felt like there was something more to this. There felt like there were words not spoken that needed to be.
"Tsurugi?" Stinger said quietly.
"Yes?" Tsurugi rolled over to face him.
"Um... thank you for... helping me." Stinger mumbled, avoiding eye contact.
"No problem."
"I... um..." Stinger didn't continue.
Tsurugi eyed him up. What was he not willing to say? Did he want to ask something? Did he want to say something and was afraid to? Was there anything he could do to make Stinger more comfortable talking about it?
Stinger suddenly moved and pressed himself up against Tsurugi. Tsurugi was taken by surprise and didn't know how to react. He hesitantly brought an arm around to place around Stinger.
"What's with all of this?" Tsurugi questioned. He wanted some answer to this. Stinger was behaving strangely. That was for sure.
"I like you..." The response was so quiet Tsurugi almost didn't catch it.
"You... like me?" Tsurugi repeated. "As in...?"
"I... like like you..." Stinger sounded like he was about to die of embarrassment.
"Oh..." Tsurugi blinked at Stinger, not knowing how to process this sudden information. "Um... well, if you like me that way then... I will have to think about it."
"I'm sorry..."
"Don't be. Falling in love with someone is very legendary."
"Tsurugi..." Stinger groaned at his wording.
"I have to say, I never expected someone to fall in love with me. At least, not anyone in this group." Tsurugi continued to speak. "It's hard to say how I feel about you but... I think I'm willing to try."
"Are you... sure? Serious?" Stinger seemed shocked he got any sort of positive answer.
"I am very serious. I am very willing to try and get closer with you. I think it will be very legendary."
"Can you stop calling everything legendary for five fucking minutes, Tsurugi." Stinger sighed.
"But it is!" Tsurugi protested.
Stinger rolled his eyes and then completely buried his face into Tsurugi's chest. Tsurugi chuckled a little and pulled the blanket over them. This was not how he was expecting any of this to go.
He had simply intended to bring Stinger back in the cave, ended up having some impromptu therapy with him, and now he had just been confessed to. Did he have a boyfriend now?
He could think about that in more depth in the morning. He was tired after everything. Stinger seemed to feel the same. He had already fallen asleep.
Tsurugi closed his eyes and found it quite easy to drift off. Despite how much he had to think about, he was able to shut his mind up and just sleep.
Tomorrow was going to be chaos though. Tsurugi questioned how the position him and Stinger were in would be taken by the others. That was the last thing he thought about before he finally fell alseep.