It had been a long day of fighting, and one that was far from finished. Though it looked as though it might be for Medic. He staggered backwards as a stray bullet clipped his side. His madipack was heavy. So heavy. He could barely stand. Medic took another step back as he glanced around wildly for any sign of a teammate. He could barely see through cracked, smoke-smudged glasses. The back of his foot caught on something. With an undignified yelp, Medic tripped.
One bone-jarring moment later he found himself on his back, the medipack digging painfully into him. He tried to pull himself back up only for a pinching pain to shoot up his spine. Medic groaned. All the bombs and bullets and robots around and he'd ended up downed on his back like a tortoise thanks to a trapped nerve.
Medic let out a resigned sigh. There was nothing he could do but wait for the medigun fumes to heal him or for one of his teammates to find him and try and help him up. Which would hurt. A lot.
A third option presented itself in the form of slow, clanging footsteps. Medic stiffened, sending a stab of pain up his spine. He raised his head to find a giant Heavybot slowly making its way past him. Medic was in plain sight. All it would have to do was turn its head and-it turned its head. Two blue lights stared straight at him from an expressionless metal face. With a jerky motion the robot changed its course, heading straight for Medic.
Medic swore in rapid German as he forced himself to his feet despite the pain. He'd been going too long without a break or food; his legs were shaking from the effort. The medipack. It was too heavy. He couldn't escape with it. With a grunt and more twinges from his still healing back, Medic dragged it off.
The Heavybot was close now, its shadow looming over Medic. The only reason Medic wasn't dead yet was because it was already damaged. Someone, probably one of the heavies (probably his Heavy) had managed to rip the minigun out of its massive hands. One arm was out of commission, scorched and bullet-riddled and hanging uselessly at its side. It didn't need two arms to kill Medic though. It probably didn't even need one. It could crush him to death under its huge feet and heavy weight. That had happened to Medic once in their early days of battle the robots. He didn't want to ever have to repeat that experience ever again.
The earth shook with each slow, relentless stride. Medic frantically searched for an escape. There used to be one to the right of him but a rocket had brought half a building down in a slew of bricks and tiles too high for him to possibly scrambled over.
His eyes flickered to a half-open door on the other side. The Heavybot was closer to it than he was though. It might be slow, but its reach was long. Medic knew he'd never make it in time. He took a nervous step backwards and bared his teeth at the Heavybot in one final act of defiance. It would win this fight but Medic would win the war. He would make sure of it.
A great gout of flames burst into the air in front of Medic like dragon's fire. He gaped as it enveloped the huge Heavybot, smoke rising up from inside its metal plates. Laboriously, the Heavybot swung itself around to face the new threat, but by the time its body was facing the door, its attacker had moved.
Fire swept around it, changing direction every few seconds. Soot blackened its silver surface as flames licked around it. Metal turned red hot. The Heavybot's movements ground to a halt, its headlights flickering.
For a moment, it looked as though it had been defeated.
Then the blue lights blazed back to life and it took another creaking, shuddering step towards Medic, its giant hand reaching out for him. Its last act on earth would be to take the Medic down with it in a mess of crushed bones and ruptured organs.
A wild battle-cry filled the air. The flames and smoke decapitated in time for Medic to see the RED Pyro swing their axe up into the Heavybot's knee joint with all their might.
There was a horrible screech of metal tearing through metal. The Heavybot juddered to a halt, straining forward to reach the Medic just a hand's width away.
The Pyro leant their weight in against the axe. With a crack, something gave.
Slowly, oh so slowly, the Heavybot keeled over to the side. It hit the already damaged building, crushing the one remaining wall as it fell in a rain of bricks and mortar.
The RED Pyro advanced on Medic with flamethrower in hand. Medic watched death, painful, agonising, burning, death, approach him. It had ended this way so many times before. Of all the ways to die on this battlefield, death by fire was truly the worst.
'Medipth? Medipth?' The monster was standing over Medic now, his own wide-eyed face reflected in the lenses of their mask. When had he ended up on the floor? He couldn't remember.
It didn't matter. Soon flames would engulf him, cracking his skin, boiling his insides, burning him alive.
'Youpth alripth, Medipth? Hurth?' A sooty, gloved hand reached towards him. Medic stared at it. There was no flamethrower in it now. No axe either. No flare gun. Just an open hand offered to him.
Slowly, as though afraid it might bite, Medic lifted his arm up and took the RED Pyro's hand. They helped pull him to his feet, muffled mumbles coming from behind the mask the entire time. Medic couldn't make out a word of it but the Pyro's tone made it finally click into place.
They were worried about him. They'd rescued him, helped him up and were checking if he was hurt.
'I'm fine,' Medic said faintly. 'Perfectly fine. Just had a bit of a...shock back there, but I'm over it now.'
'Mpth! Compth mpth, bkpth tuh yur tphm!'
'Sorry?'
Pyro repeated themselves.
'Back to my team?' Medic hazarded after listening closely.
'Yupth!'
'That's quite all right, I can find my may back to them myself.' Pyro shook their head and waddled past Medic to pick up his Medipack. 'Uh, thank you,' Medic said as they handed it over. Despite helping them last time, Medic's brain was still sending panicked signals to him, telling him to run. Medic blamed it on the shock he'd just had and his fight or flight instincts. Medic believed that what set humans apart from animals was their ability to overcome their instincts though, so he ignored them. Together they wrenched the axe back out of the Heavybot's knee. The bottom half of it had broken off entirely.
'I'm sorry about that,' Medic said. It had been damaged saving this life, after all.
Pyro shook their head. 'Dnpth be.'
'Last I saw of my team they were dropping back towards respawn. That robot with the bomb was getting rather close. At least we know they managed to stop it!'
'Wedpth duh?'
'Yes, or we'd all be rather dead right now.'
They moved in silence for some time after that, dodging from the shadow on one building to the next. When all they'd passed were empty stretches and broken robots, Medic found himself casting about for something to say. He'd said thank you, hadn't he? He must have. It was just he couldn't remember doing so. An idea occurred to him.
'Does this mean I've got to make you a thank you card?' Medic joked.
Pyro clapped excitedly, bouncing up and down on the balls of their feet. 'Yepth! Yepth pleapth!'
Oh. That meant he was actually going to have to do one now, didn't it?
Medic sat at his desk, glaring down at the paper in front of him. It was late, the lamp over his desk the only source of light in the infirmary. He'd had to wait until the RED Medic retired for the night, else he would have been laughed at. The RED Medic liked laughing at him. Then again, he liked laughing at the RED Medic too.
He chewed on the end of his pencil thoughtfully, trying to think. What to draw? What to draw what to draw what to draw... When Medic set his heart on a task it had to be done right and this card was going to be done right if it killed him. The waste paper basket next to his desk was already overflowing with carefully folded and then roughly crumpled pieces of paper, each an attempt at a thank you card that hadn't made the cut.
Medic had tried drawing himself. He'd tried drawing the Pyro. He'd tried drawing a flamethrower. A dead Heavybot. A big sign saying 'thank you.' A unicorn. Even a rainbow. The last ended up screwed up into a tighter ball than any of the others (save the unicorn, now that one was just embarrassing), the problem being that he had no colouring pencils and there was something about a grey rainbow that didn't really shout 'thank you!'
Archimedes landed on the edge of his desk in a flurry of white wings and white paper. His doves were another thing that he had to save until the RED Medic went to bed. He couldn't stand birds flying around in the infirmary. According to him it was too 'unsanitary'. The RED had demanded that the doves be kept in their cages, and to keep the peace (or as close to peace as they could manage), the BLU had agreed. He let his doves out at night anyway though because the RED was an ass and what he didn't know couldn't hurt him.
'Now don't go pooping in here again or he'll get suspicious,' Medic told Archimedes, rubbing a thumb against the back of the dove's head. Archimedes closed his eyes contentedly. It made Medic smile to see how friendly Archimedes had become. He certainly hadn't started out that way. A bit like the Pyro, Medic thought to himself. He stopped moving his thumb. Archimedes opened his eyes accusingly and shuffled his feet, as though about to take off again.
'No no no, you stay right there,' Medic told him. 'Here's the deal: I'll go fetch you some sunflower seeds, and in return, you do some modelling for me...'
Medic waited until he could get the RED Pyro by themselves before he gave them the card, something that took an unsurprisingly long time, considering how hostile the two teams could still be to one another. No one wanted to leave one of their teammates alone with an enemy, just in case. In the end, Medic had to to ask the Pyro to meet him later as they passed one another in the corridor. The RED Spy walked by a moment later, giving Medic a cold look. The RED Spy's face always looked like that though, so it didn't worry him.
'Medipth?' a quiet voice asked. Medic glanced up from the papers he was studying. Pyro hovered in the doorway, one hand holding onto the frame as though they were scared they were going to be swept away.
'Ah, Pyro! Please come in.'
The Pyro hesitated.
'I'm not planning to run any medical tests on you, I promise,' Medic said, sensing the problem. 'I just want to give you something.'
The Pyro slowly peeled their fingers away from the door frame and edged into the room. Medic tugged his top drawer open and lifted out a folded piece of paper. He hadn't been able to find any card, so it would have to do. There were envelopes around but he'd decided not to use one just in case the Pyro set fire to it or couldn't get into it because of their thick gloves.
'Here you go, Pyro. I said I'd make you one.'
Pyro paused, staring at the paper in his hands. Then they hurried over and took it off him. They slowly turned the card over to look at the front. And didn't move. Not a muscle. They just stayed exactly where they were, lenses fixed on the paper in their hands.
It went on for so long that Medic stood up and rounded his table, peering down at the paper from a safe distance to double-check he hadn't accidentally given them the grey rainbow one. Nope, it was definitely the detailed little picture of Archimedes that he'd spent hours drawing and carefully shading.
Carefully, oh so carefully, the Pyro reached up a finger to stroke the illustrated Archimedes' back.
'Um, is it okay?' Medic asked. He hadn't accidentally pissed off the enemy pyromaniac had he? 'I'm sorry, I didn't have any colouring pencils. I know it's not as interesting as your card, and-' The Pyro cut him off short by enveloping him in a tight hug.
'Fnpth fu, Medipth! I lovpth itph. I lovpth itph.'
'Ah, I'm glad,' Medic replied, taken aback by the sudden hug. He patted the Pyro on the back. He found that he'd really meant what he said. Seeing the Pyro happy made him happy too.