Chapter Text
Dark Shadows danced behind the mercenaries as they warm up slowly at the bonfire. How long was this cold going to last? it seems so unnatural in New Mexico to have snow piling on top of the buildings and blanketing the area everywhere with pure white but then weird shit has been happening for the past few years so nothing comes as a surprise to the mercenaries anymore.
Pyro squeals as they stick a marshmallow on a stick and shoves it in the fire, it immediately starts to turn disfigured and dark all over, Pyro makes even more delighted sounds at the sight.
Scouts arms are crossed tightly into each other, gripping his body with a shiver, he darts his eyes over to Heavy who doesn't seem to be overall affected by the freezing beyond 20°-C temperatures and is chatting with medic, Scout grimaced as the freezing wind blew harder against his back, everyone else (minus spy and soldier, they seem to be somerelse) seems to be fine except for sniper, scout furrows his brow at the sight of a empty spot that was occupied by sniper the last time scout had checked, being immensely curious, he decides to force himself to get up from the bench and follows the foot trails to a brightly-lit camper.
“𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘤𝘬–𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘤𝘬“
"Hey snipe, you in there?" Scout shouted between teeth chatters, his hand feels like it's going to fall off from banging it on the cold metal door so much-
The camper shakes as if someone had just started walking inside and the door rapidly swings open almost hitting scout in the process, sniper looks down at the pathetic shivering man with a raised eyebrow, guilt occupies his head, the sight of scout almost makes sniper feel sorry, he waits before sighing out loud and lets him in, scout whispers what seems to be an uncountable number of thank-yous, sniper grumbles out.
"Don't mention it" before scout sprints for the bed and wraps himself in the warm blankets, Mick very much exasperated a sigh.
Back to the bonfire, Mikhail seems to be chatting with Medic about where he was raised, apparently being born in the coldness of the winter months in russia makes you get used to it, medic thinks, sure, he has experienced the winters in Germany but this wasn't like it at all, he feels the cold creeping in his bones to his horror, and suppresses the waves of shivers as heavy continues on. yesterday it did snow quite a bit but it wasn't as bad as this, the heaters still somewhat worked inside the buildings and the temperature only went down to 0°c, Ludwig begins to miss the ever so radiant sun as he stares distantly into the weak fire.
Mikhail abruptly stops talking and leans over to see Medic's face before he voices out a concern. "Is Medic okay?"
Ludwig snaps out of the daze and blinks.
"Oh sorry Mischa, I am." Medic sighs softly as he glances at the melting snow beneath his boots. "The wind is very cold and winters are not so.. 𝘦𝘹𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘦 like this back home."
Mikhail looks down as well, he contemplated options, the heaters were struggling, barely giving any heat due to the mercenaries never using them during normal days, the fire doesn't do too much at the moment- it's dying out. Pyro makes a disappointed "hmpf" as the fire gets weaker & dimmer. Heavy begins to observe as Pyro then suddenly skips off inside the building, this peculiar action makes Mikhail interested. He follows pyro after hesitantly leaving Medic, 𝘩𝘦'𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘧𝘦𝘸 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘶𝘵𝘦𝘴 he thought, pyros snow prints leads Heavy at their room, he then slowly opens the door.
"Get off my damn bed you mongrel, if you wanna stay here, you follow the rules!"
Sniper yelled, his voice filled the ancient camper leaving Scout to freeze on terror, he glanced down at a very agitated Mundy, placed his arms on the railing and sighed very expressively.
"But it's no fair, there's basically nowhere to sit!" Jeremy whined like a dog. "I thought we were best buddies, y'know mates!"
Sniper retaliates back. "We are not best mates-!"
”𝘛𝘩𝘶𝘥“
The camper shakes along with the sound,
Both of the two men suddenly look at the door, Jeremy gulps and chuckles awkwardly.
"W-well since you're my buddy, how about you offer yourself up before whatever's out there gets the both of us"
"Scout– put a sock in it for a minute, would ya?"
Mundy pets one foot in front of another to the door, gripping his fingers around the barrel of the gun next to him when out of nowhere, the door loudly flung open and shrieks rang out.
“𝘉𝘢𝘯𝘨!“
Sniper gradually opened his eyes, there was a hole in the ceiling and someone was hugging him, and they had a very tight grip.
𝘩𝘶𝘩?
He then looked down to see Demoman drooling all over his cargo pants, along with dear old "scrumpy".
Back to Heavy, where he got trapped for what felt like 5 hours by Pyro at their little quaint tea party, only this particular time– it's in a very warm blanket fort, Mikhail would stay but it would be rude not to get medic for this opportunity, which was exactly what Mikhail was trying to communicate to Pyro about but all he got was horizontal head shakes and more tea. The fort was decorated with soft glowing of the string lights above the two (and stuffies), getting brighter as the last glow of the evening had faded away, Mikhail furrows his brow in a weary way and tried one more time.
"Medic should join, he is cold-"
"Npmh!"
Heavy exasperated with a plea after, then... pyro goes eerily quiet as they continued pouring tea, they put the decorated teapot down with a soft thud, they soon nod and point to the doorway, this makes Heavy smile with gratitude.
𝘕𝘰𝘵 𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘺𝘦𝘵, 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘺𝘦𝘵-
Heavy repeated in his head as he sprints through the building's corridors and looks out the door preparing to see worse but Medic is still fortunately there, although the fire died out long ago. Mikhail slowly walks to a very still Ludwig, dread behind to take place in Mikhail's head.
"Doctor..?"
Heavy taps on Ludwig's shoulder, only to get no response, this makes him suddenly check the doctor's face, the eyes are closed, Mikhails dread quickly seemed to be confirmed- but maybe.. not so quick? he lifts Ludwig up carefully, head on right arm and bent legs on the left, then Mikhail dashed to pyro's warm fort, making sure as to not drop Medic on the floor hard, pyro squealed with excitement then quieted down in curiosity as Heavy puts the doctor down on the blankets.
"Pyro will go find blankets to put on doctor, right?"
"Hmph!!"
Pyro went to work to find some blankets while heavy tried to wake up Medic, the yells were in vain and Mikhail felt frustrated, he wished he knew what was wrong with his doctor, how he wished dearly. Pyro then came back with the needed blankets and puts them on top, it seems that they chose the warmest ones out of all the blankets, surely he knows what's wrong?
more to come soon ;)