(Soldier: Ryan Bennett

Engineer: Dell Conagher

Pyro: you think he got a name?

Medic: Josef Humboldt

Be warned that there is violence in this and a blood warning.)

"Get the hell up Soldier!" Ryan yelled at the top of his voice, even then the noise of explosions were draining him out. The other person was covered in dirt and sweat much like himself. Laying against a wall of sand bags was the Engineer, Dell, a bullet wound to the right side of his abdomen keeping him stationary and bleeding out while covered in dirt. Dell had previously been accepting his fate before Ryan had come across him, his eyes opening when he heard the soldier speak.

"Ry-"

"No time for pleasantries, Maggot!", he yelled as he tried to pull Dell up, searing pain coursing his body as he muffed a string of curses alongside a pained groan. Ryan paused, he had not noticed the wound before, the blood soaking the brown fabric of Dell's overalls. Dell's helmet clunk to the ground as his head lurched forward, hand gripping his midsection in a sad attempt to get the pain to ease.

"God damn it, Soldier." He managed to mutter out, though his voice went unnoticed due to the noise the surrounded them. Ryan, from under his helmet, furrowed his eyebrows as Dell used one hand to pry Ryan's off his shoulder. In the distance the explosions grew closer, Dell knew he would only slow Ryan down and shook his head at Ryan's second attempt at getting him up. "You gotta get yourself the hell outta here, go... now." Dell said as he finally grabbed the hand that Ryan was about to use to pull him up.

He pulled the hand closer for a moment and, in this short sentimental moment, he quickly ripped off his dog tags and slapped them into Ryan's hand before pushing it away from him. "Go." Dell said gravely, his hand going to grip the wound in his side as he settled back down against the sand bags to await his slow demise.

Ryan opened his hand, looking at the tags and then to Dell. He gripped them tight before leaning down to be near Dell, an unamused look on his face, despite not seeing his eyes. "Listen here, Maggot! I don't leave my men behind!", he yelled as he grabbed Dell's arm, his other and going between Dell's legs as he heaved Dell onto his shoulders in a wounded soldier carry.

Dell let out another pained yell as Ryan did that and Ryan seemed to pause a moment for Dell to adjust before he set off at a run, yelling for Medic as he did so. Dell felt pain shoot through him with every bump and move Ryan made but managed to breathe through it, the hand that wasn't gripped by Ryan's gripped at Ryan's clothing.

Ryan's free hand gripped a pistol for protection rather than his usual rocket launcher which he seemed to have left behind for some reason. Dell closed his eyes tightly, focusing on anything but the pain, that was until Ryan lurched, shooting his hand gun several times. When Dell opened his eyes, a spy was dead on the ground to the left. Dell's eyes moved from the spy to Ryan who kept running, did he get stabbed? Dell tried his best to check but when he couldn't he tried to get Ryan's attention. "Soldier, are you alright?" he asked, getting nothing in return "Ryan!" Dell ordered.
"No knife wound is going to stop me!" he yelled as Dell tugged at Ryan's shirt weakly, fatigue from blood loss being the cause of his strength loss.

"Soldier, stop." Dell said but Ryan kept going at his running pace "Ryan," a shot of pain ran through him when he yelled "You're gonna to kill yourself!" He finished, taking a few heavy breaths to recover from his yelling. Instead of answering him, Ryan yelled for Medic. Dell leaned his head against Ryan's shoulder, he felt dizzy and sick but his life wasn't the only on the line at the moment.

He took a deep breath, his hand gripped at clothing again with newfound strength but let go when Ryan flinched. His hand retracted, blood coating his gloveless hand. Soldier's wound seemed to be worse than his own. Dell turned his head when he heard voices behind them, he could see the enemy approaching fast. This was going to be the end.

A shaky hand pulled his goggles off, tossing them as blue eyes stared at what little of Ryan's face he could see. Though despite seeing so little of his face he could see under the helmet. Short, military cut light brown hair was being flattened by the helmet while ice cold blue eyes stared straight ahead with determination. It was only when Dell's head turned, catching a red gleam in his eye before he made a quick decision and, despite the pain, ripped his foot from Ryan's grip, pushing himself from the other and pulling him down as well.

A loud gunshot sounded, hitting the ground that had been in front of Ryan as he tried to recover but Dell's hand reached for soldier who was breathing heavily himself with gritted teeth as he looked to the engineer. He shook his head, gritting his own teeth as he pushed himself up despite the dizziness that he felt. Dell swayed, Ryan coming forward to try and steady him despite his own swaying but failing as he fell to his elbow, his helmet now clunking to the ground to reveal what had been hidden nearly all the time.

Dell looked back up to see the incoming enemy before looking back down and lowered himself to the ground, his arm hooking around Ryan's neck and pulling him into a hug "You did good, Ryan." He told him, the other starting to lose his colour quicker than he was. It wasn't too long before he felt too weak to even hold himself up and he collapsed, Ryan following shortly after, retaining the hug as they both bled out on the mostly dried earth. Unlike Soldier, Dell didn't want to watch the incoming doom, rather he looked at the man who tried to save him and was going to get himself killed protecting him.

He had a nice trail of blood falling down his chin and dripping into the dirt, the crimson liquid mixing with clumps of soil. He could see Ryan's eyes struggling to stay open before they drifted to him as his eye lids shut, his head now in the dirt as Dell slowly joined him in unconsciousness. Dell's fingertips felt wet as they rested on his stomach, clothing crimson with blood. As his eyes drifted closed he could hear the seemingly distant sound of fighting continuing without them.

The smell of gunpowder filled his nose and the soft sound of a name being called, though he could no longer register the words being said. Unconsciousness took over Dell and the next time he opened his eyes, his heart stuttered with fear. He sprung to life only to feel pain "Definitely not dead." He muttered, laying back down and taking deep breaths as he observed the room. He could tell he was in a medical facility but what worried him was what base- wait. Dell felt panic as he noticed that Ryan was nowhere to be seen.

It was during his panic that the door opened, entering the room he spotted familiar faces and relaxed. He was in his own base. Entering was a familiar gas mask alongside the Medic they needed on the field. "Ah, Engineer, you are awake." Josef said as he approached, Pyro hurrying to Dell's side and giving him a hug as Josef walked to a cupboard and laid down a plain white shirt and some sweatpants on the bed.

He chuckled, a very short-lived chuckle due to pain, and looked to Josef. "Sold- "
"Is fine. He was in bad condition but I managed to fix his internal bleeding and he survived. As for you, you are lucky the bullet did not puncture anything and went straight through or you could have died out on the battlefield." He finished and Dell nodded, getting help with sitting up by his good buddy Pyro.

"Can I see him?" Dell asked getting a nod.
"Just don't get your hopes up, he may not ever wake up." Dell stared at the doctor for a minute, registering what the other was saying. Was he in comatose or was it unclear at this moment? Dell tried to push that from his mind which now brought up the question of how long had he been sleeping.

"How long have I been out?" he asked softly, the doctor writing down some notes before looking back up at him.

"A few days." He muttered "I would suggest taking it slow." With that Dell nearly ignored Josef and stood up, Pyro helping him up. He quickly got dressed and started out the room alongside the medic and pyro who escorted him to Ryan's room and left after checking up on him.

Silence consumed the room once the door closed, Dell sitting down in the chair next to the bed. He took a deep breath, his hand coming up to brush the gauze that covered his wound before looking to Ryan and leaning forward, his elbows resting on the bed as he gently grabbed the soldier's hand into his own. This man almost died trying to protect him, damn he was grateful that they both survived so he could give him proper thanks.

He must have sat in there for hours because Dell awoke to feeling a hand on his head. At first, he didn't register what was going on and he continued to rest his head on the bed, when it finally did register his eyes darted open and he rose his head to look toward Ryan, who was caught off guard by how quickly the engineer had responded.

Ryan's hand jerked away, his mouth opening and closing trying to find words but failing for once in his life. Dell let out a breath, standing and giving him a hug. For once the soldier had his guard down, no one had really done that before. He almost wanted to hide behind his helmet but it was nowhere to be seen. "The doc said there was a chance you wouldn't wake up." Dell muttered pulling away to sit back down.

Ryan scoffed "No wound can keep me from the front lines!" he gave a look of determination before his eyes fell to Dell who held an almost guilty look as he rubbed his neck and let his head droop.

"You damn near got yourself killed like a god damned fool out there." His voice was serious, forcing Ryan to be serious.
I told you, I leave no man behind. No man deserves to die alone." He stated stubbornly before Dell glared at him.
"It was my damn mistake that lead me into that situation, you had nothin' to do with it!" he yelled before pinching the bridge of his nose, Ryan had shrunk back into his bed a little at Dell's angry outburst, just concern in disguise.

"I don't want to watch my friends die around me, don't wanna be the last man standin'." He muttered placing his head into his hands, he honestly didn't mean to let the last part slip but it did. He heard shifting, glancing up to see Ryan shifted closer to the side of the bed and threw his legs over the edge, his other hand clamped tightly for a reason Dell could not figure out. Dell was about to say something had Ryan not pulled him up, forcing him into a hug that was both gentle and firm.

"What on earth makes you think we are going anywhere?", he asked with a stubborn huff, "I sure as hell am not going anywhere." A rare soft moment came into the clear, probably wouldn't get another with soldier so Dell relished in the moment that only he was witness to. His arms, currently hugged around Ryan in a hug, shifted as both hands moved to his shoulders. Ryan looked up to the standing engineer who had been about to do something but decided against it and covered his embarrassment with a smile.

"That's good, don't know what I would've done without ya." Dell said as he tried to turn to sit back down, though it was difficult seeing as Ryan had refused to let go just yet. Instead he closed his eyes, his face turning red as he pulled him closer, refusing to make eye contact. "Uh, soldier-" Dell muttered stopping suddenly when he recognised the look on his face.

It was strange to see that look without his helmet, usually he only saw the frown on his lips. Before now he thought it was a sign of him being upset but his eyebrows were knitted together, eyes downcast, and face flushed with heat, he didn't know what feeling it was. "Ryan." Dell muttered as the man before him leaned his head against his chest, his face now looking down to the floor.

Dell could tell something was off with the man, perhaps brought about with the fact he almost died. He placed his hands on the other's shoulders and pushed him away enough to slip his hands under the other's face and raise it to look at him. For a moment, their eyes made contact before looking to the side "Hey, what's wrong?" Dell asked, now worried about how out of character Ryan was acting, maybe he got clocked somewhere along the way.

Ryan seemed to get frustrated as he struggled to stand up, Dell helping him. He muttered a few things "Boy, you're gonna have to speak up." Dell told him before he felt a hand brushing against his clothing, he glanced only to feel it come into contact with his neck. Ryan brought his tightly clamped hand up and opened it, dangling from his hand was the tags that he had refused to let go of. He somehow managed to clip it back around Dell's neck despite it being damaged. It was after the tags had been returned that Ryan's thumb moved to brush Dell's cheek the rest of his fingers resting around to the back of his neck, nearly forcing Dell to look up at the soldier before him. He could see Ryan lean down, enough that their noses touched. Panic arose in Dell's chest as he felt their noses brush. His face and ears started to feel warm, though he really hoped it wasn't too painfully obvious.

Even though Ryan's breath smelt bad from several days of unhygienic sleep, he could still smell the gunpowder and smoke on him. Dell was getting nervous, his breath coming heavily with his own terrible breath which resulted in him closing his mouth and breathing through his nose. His mind was brought back to the situation at hand when he heard Ryan speak. "I almost lost you because of incompetence, soldier." He said catching Dell of guard and taking his mind off how close they were and what position.

"Incompetence?" Dell asked with a soft growl in his voice "You are anything but incompetent. I look at you and I see bravery, loyalty, honesty. Do you think I would admire you if I thought you were incompetent?" He asked before feeling himself tugged forward, completely getting rid of the gap between them as their lips made contact. Ryan was a rough kisser, though at the same time gentle and passionate. When they separated, Ryan going off to the cupboard to gather clothes, he left Dell there feeling dizzy with a racing heart as he tried to figure out what just happened.

Once he regained his footing he spun to look to where Ryan was, though was greeted with the back of a hospital gown. He quickly averted his eyes—mostly, how could he not sneak just a peak… or two. After a moment, Ryan found his clothes, wincing as he reached to get them, a signal for Dell to come in and help. Dell put a hand on the other's shoulder before grabbing the clothes for him, using the hand on the side furthest from the wound. He was the less wounded of the two hospitalized idiots.

Dell helped the other get dressed, mostly just his shirt seeing as Ryan found it difficult to raise his right arm up past his waist, the same side the other's wound was on. "For the love of- stop distracting me or you are gonna end up a button off." Dell said as he felt hands slip around his waist, one hand in specific slipping lower. He finished and gave Ryan a pat on the chest with a smile "That took longer than expected." He muttered before leaning in closer to Ryan.

"Now about that kiss…" he said before pulling the confused man in by the collar for a short kiss before pulling away slightly, lips still brushing against one another's "You aren't gettin' away that easily." He told him simply.