He was doing it again.

It was 3:34 in the morning at 2Fort. It was a clear night and both bases remained peacefully in the dark night hours. Every mercenary was normally asleep at this time and, as a result, all lights were switched off; however, there was one man awake as he was drowning himself in work despite the lateness and the fact that it was in the middle of the week.

The RED Medic sat at the desk in his infirmary. Instead of most needed sleep and rest, paperwork was his center of attention. Dark rings of fatigue told just how tired the man was. His head was supported by his left hand as he stared at the papers in front of him. His brain refused to function; however, Medic didn´t stop and with a sigh, he removed his glasses to put them on the desk. Soon afterwards both of his hands rubbed over his tired eyes. This was the fourths night in a row the German worked this deep into the night. It was not the first time it happened, but every time it did happen his performance on the battlefield suffered greatly.

Engineer stood in the Medibays doorway, looking at the exhausted man. He was standing there for solid five minutes, yet Medic didn´t even notice him in the slightest which was another sign of how tired the otherwise observant man was. Slowly, the Texan shook his head. He couldn´t watch this anymore. Without hesitation, he stepped into the room and went up to the older mercenary. Medic gave no response until he felt a pair of hands on his shoulders. A slight shock shot through his body but calmed down immediately when he lifted his gaze to meet the smiling engineer.

"I didn´t know workin' hours were moved into the middle of the night" the now grinning Texan teased when he leaned slightly on the chairs' backrest.

With another sigh escaping the German, he leaned back against the rest and rubbed his eyes once more as an attempt to get rid of the tiredness. "Oh, good evening, Engineer… My apologies. I did not notice you were there" he said when he looked back up after he put his glasses back on.

It was a rare sight as Engie neither wore his hard-hat nor his googles. Thankfully, Medic got to see him without them an unimportant number of times already, or else he might had not even recognized him. The German sunk a little into his chair with a sigh of comfort when Engineer decided to give his shoulders a slight massage.

"Evenin'? It's like half past three in the mornin', Doc"

"… Already?"

The shorter man slightly raised an eyebrow. It was nothing new to him that the other tended to work this late. Hell, he himself was not any better. Sometimes they would even do all-nighters together just for the sake of science, but not once up to this point had he witnessed Medic losing track of time. Something was fishy.

"Yeah, ya should go to bed, Son. Ya can barely keep 'em eyes of yers open" Engie said with a hint of concern in his voice.

"I can´t. I have work that needs to be finished"

"Ya can finish it later too, ya know?"

"No, it's important" Medic insisted, now avoiding the younger Texans' gaze while also leaning towards his desk to give himself support with the help of his arms.

As soon as Medic left the comfortable position, Engineer let go of him. He watched the other for a few seconds before he himself let a sigh escape his throat. Engie placed his organic hand on his neck in order to rub it. Blue eyes were fixed on the man who forcefully tried to keep on working. He knew that Medic was aware of the fact that he couldn´t keep going like this, yet he stayed stubborn. The Texan decided to try to bring this to an end. Slowly he got closer to the older mercenary to wrap his arms around his neck from behind and placed his head to the left of Medics own right on his shoulder.

"Ya always do that…" he started, voice low and gently.

"What?"

"Every time somethin' is wrong, ya just work without a break. As soon as ta matches are over, ya shut yerself away in here, doin'…. this, without givin' yerself time to recover. Just like ya doin' it at this very moment"

Medic was taken aback for a short amount of time. Silence filled the room as neither of them spoke a word. Engineer just kept looking, while the German tried to consider the words he just heard as good as he could in his tired state. Eventually he replied. "You do not need to worry. I can assure you, everything is okay"

The Texan was all but happy with the reply he got offered. As a result, the grip he had on the older man got slightly tighter. "Oh please, don´t gimme that! I know ya long enough to tell that somethin' is far from right. Besides, I've checked on ya yesterday too. Ya fell asleep on yer table. Ya wouldn´t work yerself to exhaustion like that if everythin' was fine. Don´t think ya can fool me, Mr. Ludwig"

Engineers' voice may have been calm, but there was still a hint of a warning tone present. Hearing his surname was enough for Medic to give the younger man his attention. A tired gaze wandered to the other whose face was rather serious.

"Wirklich? My surname? Do you really think that using it would intimidate me, Dell? Also, the correct address would be 'Dr. Ludwig', thank you really much" the German said in a matter-of-fact kind of manner. If he hadn´t been so tired, he mostly likely would have cracked a smile. It was rare to hear his actual name, not that he complained. He liked it, especially when it was Dell who said it.

"Oh really? Even without a Medical Licence?" he teased, now wearing a grin which was rather large thanks to the doctor saying his first name. A puzzled look made itself visible on the elders face, clearly not expecting him to know about it. When Medic questioned how he did, Engie merely answered. "Ya do know ya talk a lot, right? Probably slipped from ya the other day"

Judging by the frown, Dell could tell that Medic didn´t remember or maybe he did, but couldn´t recall it due to his current state. Either way he wouldn´t give him enough time to think about it. He stood back up straight with his hands again on Medics shoulders, telling him once more that he really should get to sleep. Medic would have groaned if it wasn´t for a robotic hand to suddenly run through the hair of his occiput. Instead of an annoyed grunt, a pleased sigh replaced the silence for a second. It was not hard to tell that if Engie continued this treatment, Medic would fall asleep right then and there.

"See? Ya barely able to stay awake right now. So c'mon, Doc" There was the annoyed grunt. "Don´t make me tell Heavy about this. He'll tie ya ta bed if necessary"

"In all seriousness… when did you become my mother?" the older man grunted.

The engineers' chuckle filled the Medibay while still gently fondling the dark but graying hair. "Last time I checked I was yer boyfriend, but ah'ite. Now let's get ya ta bed, Cupcake"

"Ach, fine!" Medic finally gave in.

Engineer gave himself a mental pat on the shoulder for finally annoying Medic enough to make him give in. Slowly, the older man stood up to make his way over to his private room, followed by Dell. Shortly before they reached the door, a long yawn confirmed even more how much it was about time for the man to go to sleep. The younger of the two made sure to switch off the lights of the infirmary before he followed Medic into his chamber. No chance he would not make sure that his boyfriend really went to bed. He was more than aware of how good he could act if he wanted to. After stepping inside, Dell saw how Medic was already busy with changing his clothes; however, he was far too tired to grab his actual nightwear and just stopped as soon as the only things left on him were his shirt and boxers. One could not believe how fast Medic fell face first onto his bed.

The sight was amusing for Engineer. Sometimes the doctor seemed to be the biggest child on earth, despite being the oldest of the group besides Soldier. With a shake of his head, Dell went over to the bed to cover the doctor up. He also made sure to get Medics glasses or he would have done so if he hadn´t found them on the nightstand already. At least the medical man made sure he won´t wear them when falling on the bed like a sack of potatoes. Silently he nodded to himself as the Texan was ready to retreat. That means if it wasn´t for a hand to suddenly grab his overalls and pull him back and onto the bed. Needless to say a surprised yelp filled the air and before he could even react properly, the Texan felt two strong arms around him to stop him from getting up. Medic nuzzled his face into Engies back soon afterwards.

"Woah, what gives?" The tone made it clear he was still surprised by the sudden act.

"…you force me to go to sleep, I force you to stay with me" he heard his boyfriend explain with a muffled voice.

"Ya could have warned me, ya know!"

"Where would be the fun?"

"Not fair though!"

"It is to me"

For the first time since he stepped into the elders' territory, he let out a grunt. It was not an annoyed one whatsoever. More like a 'I can´t believe you right now' kind of sound with a hint of amusement. It was useless to fight against the doctor once he had a grip on you. A few minutes passed in which Medic made no attempt to change their position as he still held the younger man in his arms. His motionlessness made Dell think that he maybe finally fell asleep, but he was proven wrong when he spoke up.

"Is there a reason why you won´t relax, Dell?" the half-asleep German questioned, voice still muffled.

"Kinda. Mind lettin' me go? I get ya want me to stay n'all, but I'd like to at least change mah clothes" he stated, turning his head as good as he could towards his captor.

It took a few seconds, but finally the doctor lifted his arm to set the other free. Taking his chance before the older one changed his mind, Engineer stood up and went over to one of the drawers Medic had in his room. Opening one, he pulled out a pyjama that definitely was not Medics size. Their relationship had gone long enough for both parties to have a certain amount of clothing in their boyfriends' room. So sleeping together was nothing new; althought, it was kept limited. Not because they feared the others would get suspicious. They probably knew anyway, since both men didn´t bother to make such a big secret out of it. It didn´t help that Engineer once accidently put on one of Medics shirts either. How he did not notice that it was too large, was still a mystery to him. The funny looks he was given by their colleagues made it worth it, though.

No. The actual reason was their own personal working time. When they were captured in their own little worlds of machines or medicine, they'd forget about everything else for a few hours and when they finally finished, they were either too tired or simple didn´t want to bother the other anymore. It never was a problem to their relationship, besides there were still nights of teamwork. They made it up for the others.

Soon Engineer was finished with changing his clothes. Switching of the light first, he then crawled back onto the bed, lying down beside the other man. As soon as he was settled two arms wrapped around him once again. This time; though, he was the one nuzzling closer to the warmth. Both men let out sighs of comfort and their foreheads touched. In this brief moment, it felt like everything before did not happen, but just because it felt like it, didn´t mean at least one of them was still bothered by it. As a matter of fact, Engineer still couldn´t quite lay a finger on it. He eyed Medic through the dark and in a gently manner he nudged him to see if he was still awake. A tiny "Hm?" confirmed it.

"…just askin' because I'm worried about ya… Ya won´t tell me what's botherin' ya so bad, will ya? Just wanna help" he whispered, stroking his boyfriends' cheek in a loving manner. He just wanted to make sure he knew that he was there for him.

There were a few moments of nothing but silence. Engie patiently waited for any sort of answer and soon he was rewarded.

"… I am afraid not. Maybe some other time"

That was not the answer he had hoped for, but alas he couldn´t change it. He won´t force the doctor to talk. Whatever it was though, Engineer was about 100% positive it was what keep Medic awake for days all the other times as well. Too bad humans' weren´t like machines or else he might already had found a solution to this problem. For now, all he could do was to try to stay patient and hope for Medic to tell him sometime.

Making himself finally comfortable, he tried to shove this pestering thoughts away and just concentrate on the here and now. Being beside the man he admired in a moment of peace. Medic must have guessed that there was something off, because he moved up just a little to place his lips on his younger partners' forehead. Good thing they were in the cover of darkness as Dell felt a small blush creep onto his face. Pushing that little fact away, a smile found its way up too. With a pleasant sigh, he moved even closer to the taller man. The arms around him did a good job in trying to get him closer as well. Finally, both men were relaxed and ready for sleep to claim them.

"Gute Nacht, Dell… Ich liebe dich," the German said in a voice so low and taken by sleep already, that it may had been hard to understand when not listening carefully enough.

Engineer understood it when he heard it, the small smile developed into an even bigger one. In response he snuggled up on Medics chest, listening to the calm heartbeat. He heard the last phrase enough times to know exactly what it meant and before sleep finally took his consciousness as well, he whispered a respond ever so softly back.

"G'night, Erich… love ya too."

Authors Note:

A HUGE thanks to alonegothictomboy from deviantArt for Beta-Reading this story!

So… y'know? I am actually pretty new to the TF2 Fandom. But even though I am, I've already read a sh*t-ton of fanfictions. And one thing I noticed was the lack of actual fluff. I get that they are mercenaries n' stuff, but heeey, underneath all the violence they are still human. So… yeah. Here have some TF2 'Science Party' fluff mixed with slight angst and comedy.

Also… Medic goes by my personal headcanon name "Erich" for his first name. If we ever get to get his canon first name, I will change it~

Also also… how to even do Texan Accents, I do not know, lol