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It was the dead of night. The dark blue velvet sky hung over Teufort, a signification of another fleeting moment of peace from the battlefield. The base was silent; no clanging from Engineer's workshop, no maniacal laughter from Medic's successful experiments, and no patriotic yelling from Soldier combined with Demoman's drunken cheering. For once, things were abnormally quiet, which wasn't unwelcome by Scout. Scout was most definitely one of the most loud and chattery of the mercs, but even he valued these times of silence. Especially with you sound asleep in his embrace.
Despite how late it was, Scout was wide awake in his bed with you, your head snuggled against his chest and hearing the rhythm of his heartbeat. Your legs tangled with his, one of your hands on the free space of his chest. Scout's arm stretched over the pillow as his hand laid behind his head, his other arm lazily positioned against your waist to secure you against him. The sound of your soft snores or hums as you slept filled the looming silence in the room, grounding Scout from delving into his once constant overthinking that would crack his arrogant and snarky nature. He found himself swimming in thoughts about you as you laid on top of him, a soft smile curled on his lips as he fondly looked down. Oh, how you were his whole world, the thing that kept him anchored. His everything.
He observed how your head's movements were in sync with the rise and fall of his chest, the weight comforting him and filling him up with that familiar sense of being loved, the feeling filling all of his senses. Considering that you had just came back from a month-long contract, Scout having you back in his arms rendered him overjoyed but also kind of overwhelmed from the sudden shift. Regardless, he was more than pleased to have you back, right where he wanted you. It was refreshing to be feeling your skin against his own once again, having that consoling warm pressure against his body rather than the coldness of the bedsheets due to being a party of one in a double bed; that spot that was typically taken becoming freezing and in need of your body's heat. Sleeping alone was something Scout never wanted to return to, so it was inevitable that he was going to be struggling with his sleep while you were gone. He was only able to convince himself to sleep because his dream state was currently the only way to see you.
Now, it wasn't that Scout was struggling to go on when you were on your contract, or that he was losing the will to live and to go into battles. He wasn't reliant on you in an unhealthy way; your departure wasn't provoking a sort of existential crisis, but that didn't mean that he didn't miss you like crazy. And, he would never admit it, but he cried a couple of nights, which was not only because of how long you were gone for, but also because he was paranoid. Scout was overly confident and cocky, however, he was a worrier at heart, especially for people he cared deeply about. So naturally, he would begin to worry about you: such as if you were in serious danger doing the contract, or that you would never come back. Obviously you were going to get in danger - you, Scout and the team always did, because you were literal mercenaries - but that didn't mean he still felt some form of concern. He knew you were strong, and he didn't undermine it at all. Yet the poor thing couldn't help but worry that he may never see your face again.
He longed to hear your voice and would become incredibly mushy and giddy when you finally had the opportunity to call and update him. His day would brighten when he'd get a holler from Miss Pauling to let him know you were calling (which was actually supposed to be a call about you finding leads or making progress, but she was happy to make an exception for you and Scout), and it would be difficult to get him out of her office as soon as he got his hands on the phone. Scout would never admit this to you either out of pure shyness and worry of embarrassment (he'd embarrass you to make you laugh, but never if he deemed the embarrassing thing to be sensitive), but he would attempt to find any recordings of your voice. Whether that be from saved calls, VHS tapes that you and Scout would take together, or literally anything that could somehow contain your voice. He'd watch and listen to it on repeat before he'd start to get upset and be on the verge of tears.
But as his many tears subsided, and the remembrance of the respawn machine suddenly dawning on him when he worried about you being potentially dead, he began to grow excited for your return. As the days got closer to you coming back to base, it was clear that Scout was getting more upbeat and bright, even getting more giddy during battles. He'd gloat about it to uninterested BLU opponents when he was about to deal a final blow on them. (Which, when Miss Pauling overheard this when issuing Scout a contract, had her wondering if the BLU you and Scout were dating too.)
"Hey chucklehead, my girlfriend's coming back soon!" "Kill me already."
So now that you were snuggled right into Scout's arms, he felt an overwhelming urge to shed a tear. One that wasn't entirely sad - it still had that feeling of sadness towards your month long leaving, but it was mixed with his happiness for your return, his unwavering affections and love for you, and the warmth he felt in his heart whenever you were near. A singular tear multiplied into a few, sliding down his rosy warm cheeks and causing some sniffles to escape his nose. His hand that was sandwiched between the back of his head and the pillow moved down to hold your torso, holding you as close as possible to him as he quietly cried. You began to shift and stir from the noise of his sniffles and hitched inhales, making Scout take in a shaky breath. Your heavy sleepy eyes slowly opened with your lashes fluttering, becoming much more alert when you took notice of Scout's glistening skin and red eyes.
"Hey...what's wrong?" Your groggy voice made his lip tremble and threatened another glassy tear to escape his eyes. You were just too cute when you were tired, partly the reason why Scout loved mornings with you and waking up next to you. You mumbled something incoherent before wiping his tear away with your thumb, looking at him with worry.
"Don't cry," You whispered, gently cupping his cheek while your other hand pressed against his chest to prop yourself up a little. "What's the matter honey? Did you have a nightmare?" He shook his head with a warm toothy smile, one that had your heart doing leaps once you saw his eyes crinkle alongside his smile lines showing. Not only did you adore his smile, you adored how the rest of his face looked when he smiled. His happy expressions were practically addictive.
"N-No, darlin'," He reassured, his voice croaky from the few tears that spilled from his eyes. "I just...I just love ya so much. I missed ya a lot, y'know?" You felt like you could cry yourself. Why was this man so adorable? A sweet, cocky idiot who you swooned over every single day. One that you desperately wanted to hold against you, kiss his whole face and tell him how much he means to you and how you would kill for him. Cupid really hit you both with precision. He must have Sniper's aim.
"I missed you too, Jeremy. Not a day went by where I didn't daydream about you." You saying his actual name in your tired voice was like his Kryptonite. Both of you, to put it simply, were simply irresistible to each other. Everything you did was so incredibly attractive to the other, it was actually kind of insane. You were both hooked.
"Oh yeah?" Scout smirked, acting as if he wasn't just literally crying over how much he missed and loves you. "What were you daydreamin' about? Missed my muscles?" You had to bite back the need to roll your eyes at the return at his cockiness, but you figured you'd humour him. Besides, you missed this anyway.
With a content sigh, you laid your head back down and against his chest, your arms going to wrap around him as tightly as possible without making your grip uncomfortable.
"Snuggling next to you like this. Just...being back in your arms." You murmured, nuzzling your cheek against his chest. His smirk softened into another gentle smile, one of his hands moving up to stroke your hair.
"Can say the same, babe. Missed having ya in my arms." Scout said, moving his head down to press a kiss on top of your head. You tiredly hummed in response, shifting slightly as you allowed your eyelids to shutter close. He continued to move his hand on your head, allowing the tears to completely fade away.
"Love you." You sleepily muttered, clear that you were quickly falling back asleep. His other hand moved from resting against your waist to rub circles on your back - his fingers tracing little shapes with the circular motions - soothing you right back to sleep.
"Love you too." His palm trailed up to your shoulder to lightly rub and nudge it, planting his lips against your head again. A lazy smile curled on your lips once you felt the contact, a soft exhale airing from your parted mouth as you went back to likely dreaming about Scout.
As much as Scout didn't want you to go on another long contract like that, he was kind of glad he had the experience now. Maybe the next time won't be so bad, as long as he knows that you'll be right back his arms soon. That he most certainly will see you again, with that same sparkle in your eyes that he's fallen head over heels with.