A/N: Well, you asked for it! I'm going to do my best to update this every week, I PROMISE It will get better as chapters go on. They're too impatient to get together in my head!

He'd decided to give the man a chance.

If he was being honest, the invitation was the beginning of a bit of an experiment. Medic and Engie weren't the only ones who could put together an experiment, he could too.

His hypothesis? If given the chance, then Medic will prove himself to be a decent (possibly even enjoyable) human being.

It had started with an argument with the Scout, who hadn't believed his relaying of the incident in the bar. Scout had asked soldier, but Jane had paid absolutely no attention to the goings on around him. All he could verify is that the Cubs had lost against the Giants (How a baseball team lost against a football team, no one knows.) But, Levi had become determined to prove to the scout, and anyone else that the doctor was actually a human being, so he had asked the man to meet with him and talk.

The knock came at around noon, the Aussie looking up from his novel and putting his coffee down to open the door.

Wolfgang Ludwig stood in the doorway with his arms crossed, scowling. He was sans his lab-coat with his vest and tie on, but there was a major wardrobe change. The man sighed and pointed at the bright red swim trunks the sniper had asked him to wear, matching black flip-flops he'd also provided. "Levi, I look schtupid and zhese... shorts look ridiculous. Vhat are vhe doing zhat requires them?" Came the groweld question as Levi took a moment to study him

The trunks were a bit tight on the German, hugging him in ways they didn't hug Levi, who blinked with raised brows and looked back at the annoyed eyes in front of him "Well one, I didn't think you'd actually do it. Two, climb in the cab and you'll see."

The Doctor puffed out a sigh and followed as Levi walked out of his camper, unlocking the cab and climbing into the front seat, Wolfgang following suit in the passenger side.

After a few minutes of driving Levi snorted and let his hand fly up to cover his mouth.

Wolfgang's eyes narrowed "What?" he asked flatly, knowing exactly where this was going.

"Mate-," Oh, how was he going to put this? "Oi'm sorry, mate, you honestly look like a twat." He was laughing good naturedly, his eyes shimmering with humor behind his sunglasses.

If Ludwig had the ear's of a feline, they would have pressed against his head, his mouth curdling a bit and his posture folding up smaller. "You told me to wear it!"

"I thought you would wear a t-shirt or something with it!"

Medic turned to stare at him, exasperated "I don't own any t-shirts."

He laughed "I'd lend you mine, but-" Mundy paused a moment then continued. "Actually, yeah, you can borrow one 'a mine. Not like anyone's gonna see."

Ludwig scrubbed his face with his hand "Standing in my laboratory like zhis vas hell. I had to wear an apron."

"You could have brought them and changed 'ere." Levi said in a playful deadpan. He glanced over as he made a turn, parking next to a copse of three trees in seemingly the middle of the desert, casting shade over a small area

Wolfgang rose a brow, changing the subject with a half hearted sigh "I assume you have been here before?"

"Yeah, actually. Usually on weekends I pitch a hammock here and read." Levi rubbed the back of his neck in a stretch and climbed out of the cab, walking to the back door of the cabin.

"Vell, if you had plans, I vould not vant to keep you from zhem-"

"No worries, mate, I invited you. Oi'm glad of the company."

He dug a box from somewhere in his camper and grinned grabbing a bike pump and gesturing to a cooler just inside the door for Medic to carry under the copse of trees. Sniper sat in the sand with a shit eating grin "Guess what came in on our latest supply drop?"

Wolfgang sat on the cooler and rested his forearms on his knees to look at Levi through his glasses "Vhat are you so excited to-?"

The box was spun around and Levi grinned above the picturesque advert of a kiddie pool with three children smiling inside it. He ripped open the box and pulled out the deflated corpse of a swimming pool "Ta daaa!"

Doctor Ludwig stared at the man before him, who was excitedly plugging in the bike pump and standing to begin pumping the air with a child's grin. His heart warmed a bit at the excitement, but he gave the feeling no mind. "Levi?"

"Yeah?"

"How big is the pool?" Wolfgang asked cautiously. Mundy, in turn, kicked the box over the man who observed the pool to be a circular five foot pool with a fifteen inch depth. "How tall are you again?"

"Err…" The taller man took a moment to think, but he never stopped pumping the air, already having the pool halfway filled. "Around six foot three?"

"Levi this pool is only five-"

"Don' worry about it! Crack open a beer, it'll be ready in a bit." It seemed out of character for the Aussie to be so easily entertained, but there seemed to me many things they had left to learn about one another.

"Mundy, do we even have water?" Wolfgang commented light heartedly. He was far more confused by Levi's giddy determination than anything. The man had to know that his plan made no sense, how can two six foot plus men fit in a 5 foot pool meant for toddlers? And how were they gonna fill it with water in the middle of a desert?

Levi finished blowing up the pool and grinned "This is where the magic comes in," and he ran back to the camper, almost tripping over his own lankiness in his haste.

Wolfgang watched in amused confusion. "I have never known him to be so excitable. I have been in regular contact vith the man for zhree years and I had no idea he could be so… is happy the vord?"

Sniper made two trips and ended up bringing 4 ten-gallon gasoline canisters to the site of their miniature oasis and began filling up the pool. He let his hands settle onto his hips when the pool only filled a few inches rather than to the top. "Huh…." Wolfgang couldn't help from grinning ear to ear when he admitted "I didn't really think this one through…"

"No, Herr Mundy, I do not believe you did."

Levi stripped himself of his shirt, draping it on a low hanging branch, stepping out of his flip flops and stepping into the three inches of water, curling up in a ball smaller than he technically should have been able to. He seemed a bit dejected, but his face showed more blank thought than disappointment. "Sorry, I don't usually get caught up in childish things like this-"

But the German doctor stopped him with a sweeping gesture of his hand and slipped out of his flip flops to let his feet rest in the two or three inches of water, risen to about four or five with Levi now sitting in the pool. "Do not make excuses for yourself. You found happiness in something small, it's healzhy."

"It's not small if you grew up with me. I lived in a kiddie pool til I grew out of it."

Wolfgang grinned, leaning forwards with his beer bottle held between interlaced hands, his elbows on his knees. "I would think you would have swum in lakes from how you talk, or in the ocean itself."

The Aussie relaxed a bit with a bit of a laugh "No, I grew up more in the center of the country, I couldn't just skip over to an ocean and we have a bit of a problem with alligators and crocodiles." He had an amused glow behind his eyes.

"But you are Australian, ja? You can put them in their place." He mimed a fist fight.

Levi's face went to a deadpan and he went to gesture to his size on comparison to the 'Average Australian', when he caught the amused twinkle in Medic's eye as the older man winked "Hilarious, Doctor." he rolled his eyes, but he was smiling along with it.

"It is honestly nice to see you so excited."

"Whatcha mean?"

"Before recently ve did not socially interact often… but zhat does not mean I cannot observe. You can be very distant to zhe others. A loner of sorts. It is nice to see you excited to a near childish level." He took a swig of his beer and smiled at the sniper, a nervous twinge to it, as though he was unsure how his companion would react to his observation.

Levi smiled softly "I just got caught up in the memory, you know? I had a lot of fun in a kiddie pool when I was young and every once in a while, I forgot I shot up height wise. He let out a few huffs of honest laughter. "I sometimes I still feel like an ankle biter.

"You are the second youngest on the team. Technically you are younger than most of us."

"How do you- medical files, right. Nah, 31 isn't so bad, I'm just far more tired than anyone else I know who's my age."

"Is zhat vhy you act far older than you are?"

"Yeah, that sounds about right." He let himself uncurl, his feet next to Wolfgang's, his torso propped up outside of the pool by his long arms. "That and the lad closest to my age might as well be twelve."

They both shared a quick laugh, honest and relaxed, before Levi decided to sink into a story. "We had a plastic one a' these back on the farm in 'straya. We would wash the dogs in it, at one time we ended up washing goats in it. In the summer- around Smissmas- my cousins would all come over and we'd splash round a bit, usually ending in about 6 munchkins piled on top of one another with very little water left."

"Smissmas is in zhe summer in Australia?" The doctor seemed very confused for a moment.

In return, the Australian seemed just as confused for a moment before realizing and pointing out "Southern Hemisphere"

The doctor gave a quick gasp of realization then nodded in understanding, with a gesture for him to continue. "and he asked, "Vas it a staple in your childhood besides Smissmas?"

Levi let his head tilt back and slowly smiled, losing himself in the memory once again. "Oh yeah, we had it out year-round. Probably a stupid idea, but some days you'd come out to find dad had stopped mowing the lawn and is laying in the pool fully clothed- I had my first kiss in a kiddie pool." When Wolfgang's eyebrows rose incredulously, he grinned. "Don't believe me?"

"Levi, looking at you in this moment I doubt it. Let alone during pubescence."

The sniper fell back with laughter, a hand smacked to his chest "I am HURT! I honestly happened!" He wiped his eyes. It was unbelievable to him that he and the German could get along so effortlessly.

It was unbelievable to the German that the Australian was comfortable enough to try. "Well, if it happened, tell me the story!"

"I was 11, she was 13, it started by accident." He repositioned himself so that he was sitting crisscrossed in the water, Wolfgang sifting to straighten his spine. "I was tall so I'd been able to convince her that I was her age so that we could hang after school. She fell on top of me when we were joking around. We fell into the water and she landed right between my legs. I was shocked, and actually in a bit of pain, but she was mischievous and pecked a kiss to my lips while I was vulnerable and ran home." He waved off the mocking 'Ooh' from the doctor. "I was hoping it would lead to more, but one of her friends ratted me out and she never spoke to me again."

Another laugh was shared before Wolfgang finished his beer and stood in the water to open the cooler for a second, grabbing another for himself and one for his companion. "I got my first kiss on a dare."

"Oh? What, your mates dared you to kiss some unsuspecting sheila for a laugh?"

Wolfgang looked up from popping the top from the bottle and said "Sheila?" slowly from the corner of his mouth. "I believe her name had been Michelle-"

"Oh! No mate, a sheila is a girl."

He nodded in understanding and decided to answer by continuing his story, "I vas already in university, everyone knew me as zthe quiet kid from zhe fancy swiss boarding school. She vas a senior, I vas a freshman, und she had bet her friends that she could kiss anyone and get away with it. She tried to seduce me, but I was studying and not paying her much mind. Zhen she randomly kissed me, and I kissed back. Sad zhat I had to break her heart."

Levi had begun laughing but interrupted himself "How did you break HER heart?"

"Vell, apparently how I kiss is… geil…. Er… sexual? Nien, zhats not zhe vord-"

"Sexy?"

"Ja. she vanted more but, I vas not interested. I vanted my degree und I ended up graduating early." He sipped from his bottle and relaxed, watching the gears rolling in Levi's mind.

"That's porkie."

"Pardon?" Wolfgang rose a brow

Another language barrier. He was going to have to watch his slang. "That's got to be a bloody lie."

The doctor grinned that evil grin that the rest of the team was scared of "Do you doubt me?"

Levi blanched and gulped in time for the radio to go off announcing thirty minutes til mission begins.

"Piss-!"

Both men decided to move simultaneously, Levi accidentally swiping Wolfgang's legs out from under him and ending with a doctor slamming into his chest, knocking them into the pool again. The doctor had enough presence of mind to roll and immediately pop back up, running for the van to acknowledge the call "Ja wohl!"

The Sniper was not as lucky, panting for a moment to get his oxygen back before he stood again. He'd been closer to the doctor in that moment than ever before. It took him a moment to evaluate how it felt to watch the man accidentally dive for him

He took a breath and drained the pool to put it away "Doc, you're soaked, put my shirt on."

"Danke" Wolfgang replied quietly and grabbed the shirt from the branch, walking to change behind the camper.

Neither of them noticed the light dusting of a blush, on themselves nor on the other.