A bright, white light was flooding my vision and I had to blink furiously before I realised where I was. It was gonna take a while to get used to this whole re-spawn thing. It didn't matter how many times I had been spawned yesterday, every time felt like the first.
"Does it ever stop feeling like this?" I asked to no one in particular. I was only met with looks of bewilderment and contempt from my team members. I suppose I had become so accustomed to RED Sniper's warmth that I had forgotten I was not particularly well liked around here.
Still a little dizzy, both from my re-spawn and the moment I had shared with Sniper, I wandered over to the resupply cabinet to replenish my ammo supply.
"Didn't ye hear the Administrator?" I heard a thick Scottish accent from behind. "It's over. RED team won today."
"Oh.." I returned the ammo to the cabinet. "Back to base I suppose."
I trudged along behind the rest of my team, they were worn out and tired from a hard day, and couldn't help but feel a little guilty at my lack of effort put in today. It surely looked poor on my part that, after the first half of the day, I didn't manage to get a single kill. As everyone walked towards the cafeteria I stepped out for a moment so I could freshen up. The path to my small apartment was dark, but over the last few weeks I had learnt it easily enough. The place was small, but I couldn't complain, I was just grateful for the free accommodation. The only thing that bothered me was the lack of windows. I've always hated the feeling of being boxed in, and the one little window in the bathroom just wasn't quite enough for me.
As I approached the small blue door, I noticed a light coming through the crack in the hinges. I didn't remember leaving a light on this morning. I pulled my gun from my side and walked slowly and cautiously, trying not to make too much noise. Before I pulled out my key, I gave the handle a slight twist just to check, and sure enough my door swung open.
"Hello..?" my voice cracked slightly as I called out. "Uhh- who's there?"
I heard footsteps in the next room and so I followed the noise, my gun pointed straight ahead. As I neared my bedroom I heard a shuffling of what I could only imagine was my furniture being moved aside. I opened the door quickly, flicked on the light, and scoped the room. Nothing. Everything looked just as I had left it. I breathed a small sigh of relief and collapsed on my bed, my feet still touching the floor.
"Don't scream!" I heard as I felt something brush my ankle. I stifled a gasp at hearing a mans voice. I knew that accent all too well. "I didn't mean to worry ya, love."
I watched as Sniper crawled out from under my bed.
"I was going to surprise you, but ya came back a lot quicker than I was bettin' on." He looked a little sheepish sitting on the floor of my bedroom, like a little kid that had just been caught stealing chocolate from the pantry.
"What are you doing here?" Surprise or not, we had organised to see each other tomorrow.
"Well, I- uhh. I couldn't stop thinking about ya while I was walkin' back to base, an' I thought you might like some, uh, company tonight." He was blushing a little and I couldn't help but smile. He pulled himself up off the floor and sat beside me on the bed. "Is that okay with you, love?"
"Uhh, sure," was all I could manage. I still didn't quite understand why he felt the need to break in when he could have easily just come over later and knocked on the door.
"Hungry?" he beamed at me as if he was quite proud of whatever was about to come next. So I nodded, and he pulled me into my little kitchen excitedly. "This is the surprise!" he looked so chuffed and I couldn't help but smile. He opened my fridge and pulled out a tray of what looked to be quite an assortment of different sweets and cakes. He carried his surprise over to my little coffee table and sank into my couch. The RED Sniper happily patted the spot next to him as a gesture for me to join, and he picked me out a treat he thought I might like.
"It's caramel on the outside, but in the middle, it's chocolate!" He was practically radiating pure joy. He had seemed so dark and brooding earlier today, and it was quite refreshing to see such a beaming smile. His whole demeanour was relaxed and it was definitely making me feel at ease. He was no longer wearing his hat or those yellow glasses. His hair was a little ruffled and his shirt was now hanging off him more loosely. The top couple buttons were undone and I couldn't stop my hungry eyes from wandering to his bare skin underneath. He was rugged in all the right ways, and it was becoming harder and harder to control myself around him. I bit into the sweet he handed me, and sure enough there was definitely chocolate inside, quite a lot actually and distracted and woefully unprepared, I let it drip all over my clean, white button down.
"Shit!" I looked down at the large stain covering the top left of my shirt. I pulled off my blazer and grabbed a damp cloth from the kitchen sink to try and dab at the chocolate in a vain attempt to rid of the stain.
"Can I help ya?" I heard Sniper call from the couch.
"No, no, it's fine, I'll just need to find a new shirt." Forgetting I was standing in the middle of my small kitchen, and forgetting that my guest/intruder was sitting only steps away from me, I unbuttoned the shirt and tossed it aside.
"Uh- um.. love?" I looked up to see his bright red face sitting across from me as I stood in my kitchen wearing nothing but my pencil skirt and my underwear. Feeling my cheeks grow hotter, and not even bothering to explain, I quickly darted to the bedroom, embarrassed enough and not wanting to make it any worse.
After what felt like only seconds had passed, I heard a soft knock on my bedroom door.
"Can I come in?" He sounded a little hesitant, as if unsure as to his next move. I scrambled to find something, anything, to cover up with, and ended up opting for the sheet straight from my bed. I wrapped it around my chest and stifled out a meek "okay".
A/N: Hey, sorry, I know I'm posting quite quickly at the moment. I actually wrote these last three chapters all at the same time. It will probably slow down a bit now.