~.~

Mirage crumpled against the wall from the blast, ears ringing from the crack of his head against the concrete. He wheezed, blinking hard and shaking his head like a dog as his hands scrabbled over the dust and rubble on the floor. He was flooded with the panic that had been plaguing him so much recently, and with both his squad out of sight his imagination was running wild.

His gun. Where was his gun?

Choked coughing rose from his left and his head whipped up to try to see. People were moving around, but his head was spinning funny and the smoke had shadows that danced when there was nobody there, he knew that. His heart was racing hard against his surely broken ribs. The room was full of damn smoke and falling dust from the explosion, there was no way for him to tell if the sound was friend or foe and-

Mirage shook his head again, and tried to fight the panic in his breath as he searched for the goddamn gun-

His fingers curled around the handle and he drew it up, pulling back the slide as the cough came again.

There was a way for him to know. He had ears, didn't he?

He fired in the direction of the coughing, praying his hits were landing as someone started yelling across the cavernous room. Shield-light flashed in the plumes of smoke, and then the yelp and nothing more. His PDA pinged, and he grinned.

Enemy. Duh.

The sound of a shotgun blast close on his right made him jump so badly he fell back on his ass. Then a clinking sound that shot him with relief. Path, that was his grapple. So he was up, at least. That only left-

"You'll get shot, sitting there."

Her hand grasped his shoulder as he turned to see her materialise at his side, and his witty retort wilted on his tongue when he saw her face just before she dragged him into her Void tunnel. There was blood streaming down one side, enough that only the silver-filmed blue of her eye stood against the red. His gut flipped as his uncooperative legs hastened to keep up with her as she took him out of the danger zone.

She dropped him unceremoniously against the rock wall, the spot mostly shielded from prying eyes. She was moving fast, her backpack open as she dragged out supplies, and Mirage felt oddly like he was somehow running slower than she was. He blinked at her as his brain went blank, like a hiccup, before the reality sank in and he reached out to touch her chin. Wraith stilled, but his touch wasn't invasive as he turned her head so he could better see her head wound.

"I can get it." she murmured, averting her eyes from his because she knew he'd see that she knew how bad it was, but his fingers lingered a second longer than he told them to.

Her lips twitched a little at his obvious concern as he let her go and he realised, as heat bloomed in his chest, that three years ago she'd have done more than just almost-smile.

"Fix your leg." she motioned as she tore open a wipe from her medkit, and her smile appeared properly when he looked down, surprised at the sight of the rend in his combats, the blood-soaked material.

"You'll be lucky if it isn't broken." she added, and maybe it was his probable concussion talking, but she sounded kind of worried, under that streak of amusement and the colour of her professionalism.

Pathfinder had cleared the room of usable loot and joined them, so the anxiety under Mirage's skin eased a little. Their respite was brief and seven more squads still stood between them and their Championship. Mirage spent the remainder of the Game with the strange new worry in his gut despite having both his team close at hand.

~.~

Mirage pressed himself into the corner as his decoy dashed out the door, his almost empty pistol clenched tight in his hands. A tremor ran up his arm and he shook it out with a long, silent breath. Above his head, the footsteps reacted, and their gunfire chased the hologram out the door. The body hopped the balcony and landed in front of him, and he fired. His clip broke armour but they didn't stop, obviously considering it a bad idea to stay and fight with no shields.

Mirage let out his breath, relief making him weak as he barked into his comms and heard the voices of his squad as they instantly responded. He slid down the wall, shaky, completely out of ammo and praying he'd be left alone till his team arrived.

He couldn't sleep when it came his turn to that night, instead lying in the dark listening to the quiet murmurs of Pathfinder and Wraith and worrying that he was letting them down a lot recently. Worrying that eventually they were going to decide he was a liability, and replace him. Worrying that somehow he'd lose them, or find out they weren't as fond of him as he was them.

The same worries had plagued him before, though not to the same extent. It had been months of this, this ridiculous insecurity that caught him when adrenaline left him weak, and whispered to him in the night. They'd been stupid three years ago and were stupid now, but no matter how he scrunched his eyes shut and counted his breaths, he was still left feeling stupid and childish and unable to stop worrying.

~.~

"Wraith!"

His hand caught her shoulder as she let out a strangled kind of cry, and his thundering heart forced his blood around his body in a sloshing, racing mess. Together they watched the other legend disappear, the clouds swallowing him as if he'd never even existed. Mirage's palm was sweating against the back of Wraith's shirt, but her free hand crossed her chest and came up over her shoulder to squeeze his wrist tightly. He pulled her upright and away from the drop. When she spun to look at him his brain jarred. All he could do was stare at her as they both caught their breaths in heaving gasps.

Her blue eyes bored into his and for a dreadful, endless second, he tortured himself with the knowledge that if he'd been just a second slower, tripped, missed his stride, missed her shoulder, he wouldn't be looking at her right then. It was like all his fears and nightmares were coming true, slithering from the walls of his head to torture him. He felt his eyes sting with tears, and opened his mouth again, searching for words, any words, something to fill the silence as they stared at each other.

Wraith's eyes changed, and her she reached out slow fingers for his face. His stomach lurched, what was- her thumb brushed his chin, fingertips ghosted up his cheek and Mirage was starting to wonder if maybe, maybe she-

Her hand drew back, and when she twirled her find in the space between their faces, somehow she made everything better.

"You nearly ruined your hair." she whispered, and then she chuckled, watching him stare at the perfect green leaf she'd plucked from his hair.

A voice in the back of his head tried to remind him that it must have gotten there during the struggle, or his race to save her from a certain, irreversible death.

But Wraith's eyes were warm as she motioned for him to follow her away from the edge of the floating island, and he forced the fear away.

~.~