You best keep lyin' down...

Jonah Rogers. Lover. Fighter. RED Sniper. Picking off squirrels at 5gorge.

[aimlessprofessional]

What Happened After - RED Infirmary

[astroengie-blog]

[...]

“Ya know, Jonah, maybe Marcus could help. He’s got…medicine an’ whatnot here. Maybe he could prescribe somethin’ t’ balance him out, make JT a li’l more reasonable. Or hell, maybe he just needs t’ see Leo be a hero for RED. I mean, he knows how much Leo means t’ ya, right? Ain’t it just th’ BLU thing?”

[aimlessprofessional]

“It’s the only thing that makes sense,” he answered, voice dull. “Unless it’s just...JT. I left him alone. There, with our family, who hated him. God, maybe this is me. Maybe this is all my fault. I broke him somehow, and now he’s just inventing this reality where nobody can get between me and him…” Jonah broke off with a faint, wheezing cough, reminded abruptly that the Medic had cautioned extensive speech until his lung inflamation had subsided. “...I’ll talk to Marcus. Then I’ll talk to Jeff.”

“I don’t think ya ought t’ blame yourself for it. Maybe your parents, but not yourself. Kids can’t be responsible for each other. You’re just goin’ t’...have t’ reassure him that he ain’t goin’ t’ lose ya, an’... I don’t know. Hell, maybe he can even gain another brother out a’ Leo.” Despite his suggestion, Ben knew it would be near impossible to convince someone like JT of anything of the sort. If JT felt anywhere near the way Jonah was describing, it sounded like there wouldn’t be anything his brother could understand about the situation to help alleviate it. That was a real and serious problem. And one he was sure others had picked up on.

“I suspect Marcus knew JT’d react th’ way he did. Told me after he sedated ‘em both that Leo had asked about tellin’ JT right away that somethin’ had happened to ya. But Marcus said ‘no’, an’ I think that was th’ right thing t’ do, ‘specially after seein’ how JT did react when he was finally told. He flipped back an’ forth between being concerned about you an’ wantin’ t’ kill Leo an’ accusin’ him of tryin’ t’ lead ya t’ your death. Maybe if we just trick him into thinkin’ it’s your dyin’ wish or somethin’...”

Jonah laughed once, humorlessly. “It almost was.”  He rubbed his eyes against Ben’s shoulder, then let his head fall back again. ‘Look, can you...tell Leo he’s a shithead for hitting my brother? Then tell him I love him. And I want him in here when he gets up.”

“I can surely do that.” Ben pulled back and grinned brightly. That sounded like Jonah, wanting to get back to status quo, tough as that might be. He only hoped Leo woke up before JT, and even if the latter woke up first, Ben knew he could distract him at least temporarily with food, which he knew to be one of JT’s greatest weaknesses. He’d even pull in Pips on it if he had to. “Everything’s goin’ t’ be all right, partner. We’ll get this figured out.”

[aimlessprofessional]

What Happened After - RED Infirmary

[astroengie-blog]

[...]

Ben slowly petted Jonah’s head, bits and pieces of the incident flashing through his mind. The panicked shouting. Trying to make something happen without any way of testing it. Being so unsure of everything they were doing just to try and save Jonah’s life. The entire thing was harrowing, and he hoped he’d never have to go through something like that again.

“I don’t know if we could’ve even done all that without th’ Spy. Dell told me he’s kind a’ their leader, an’ I can see why. He may have a big ol’ stick up his ass—an’ man, I’d like t’ see that, I tell you what—but he can make a decision. I don’t think I could’ve done that. Not with everybody around me panickin’ an’ such. Bein’ a leader’s hard. I ain’t cut out for that. Leo would’ve done good, but… You were down there, an’… He couldn’t make any decisions, I’m just goin’ t’ be honest here. I ain’t never seen him like that.”

[aimlessprofessional]

Jonah had no hyper-masculine illusions when it came to Leo's emotional capabilities, but the idea of his lover's panic was upsetting all over again. To think the last they might ever have seen of each other was a shared glance on the way out the door of that storage room. It was almost too surreal and awful to consider.

"I...remember him shouting." Jonah shuddered a little, then paused. "I don't hear anything now. Maybe that means everybody's behaving..." He trailed off, hopeful.

“Oh, no, they’re sedated. Leo an’ JT got into a big fight, an’ Marcus had us hold ‘em down while he stuck needles in ‘em. Ragomir carried JT off by himself, but he had t’ come back an’ help me get Leo t’ his room. Your Soldier’s damn heavy, I tell you what.” Ben chuckled a little under his breath. JT had been ridiculously overprotective of Jonah when it came to Leo, but he’d let his disdain for the Soldier get the best of him, and it came to blows.

Shaking his head, the Engineer let out an amused sigh. “JT really ought not try t’ take on a fella a’ Leo’s size. He may be quick, but ain’t nothin’ like 225 pounds of fury at bein’ told he’s not allowed t’ see th’ fella he loves t’ slow him down. All it took was for Leo to get one good hand on him, an’ that’s when Marcus busted in with th’ sedatives.

“Sedated.”  Jonah didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “Of course.” He turned his head into Ben’s shoulder, closing his eyes with a soft, despairing sigh. “What the fuck am I going to do?”

[aimlessprofessional]

What Happened After - RED Infirmary

[astroengie-blog]

[...]

JT and Leo’s squabbling had become an everyday frustration, but some days it was acutely painful. Knowing that even after a fresh start away from home, away from the war, he still couldn’t have a peacefully-coexisting family — it was difficult to accept. “You’re the only sane person I know right now — wh…what are you eating?”

“Chicken noodle soup. I made a big ol’ pot of it earlier while we were waitin’ t’ hear about ya. Marcus locked everybody out a’ here. Pips got JT t’ go back t’ his room an’ kept him there. Leo slept in th’ common room. This pot I got here—” Ben lifted it up and tilted it just enough for Jonah to be able to see into it, “—is some I warmed up by itself. Ya want a bite? Marcus didn’t say nothin’ ‘bout you not bein’ able t’ eat.”

[aimlessprofessional]

Jonah shook his head quickly, curling his lip a little. The thought of Leo and JT being denied entrance because of yet another asinine fight was enough to kill whatever hypothetical appetite he might have had. "I guess JT lost his shit when he heard..." he ventured, not really expecting an answer. "I really thought for a minute my number was up."

The Engineer shrugged a shoulder and looked down into his soup, aimlessly swirling the noodles around in the pot. During the whole debacle, part of him had remained numb and in a state of disbelief. Nobody really died out here, right? They had respawn, and that solved everything. But it was only when Leo began freaking out in the tunnel, trying to get to Jonah himself, that it sank in that the Sniper really could expire, and there’d be no more wild and beautiful friend to mess around with and confide in and enjoy being with.

Leo was always so composed and confident, and he always had his shit together, but he was an nigh-uncontrollable mess when he found out Jonah might really leave them permanently. It was one of the starkest and ugliest moments of Ben’s life.

“Dell an’ I… We tried t’ boost th’ respawn signal as much as we could, but we...we just didn’t have enough time. You didn’t have enough time. That’s why we sent down th’ Spy with the teleporter. But...now that we know just how dangerous that place is, we’re goin’ t’ work harder on it. Boost it t’ a hundred percent. What happened with you ain’t ever goin’ t’ happen again, I swear on m’ life.”

Jonah nodded mutely, the Engineer's words having set in motion the creeping realization of how close his brush with death had actually been. "I know," he murmured, a little roughly. "I know you did your best..." He grasped for words a moment before swallowing hard. "Ben, can you...could you just put that fucking pot down a second? I just...I need..." He gestured vaguely, anxiously, struggling to remain composed.

[aimlessprofessional]

What Happened After - RED Infirmary

[ Next afternoon, following the Cave-in/Rescue ]

The first night Jonah had awoken after dark, disoriented and aching with memories of gravity going all wrong. He was in a bed that wasn’t his own, a slowly-throbbing ache and an arm he couldn’t move on his right side -- and there was a familiar hand grasping his own. Jonah let out a grateful breath, squeezing his brother’s hand weakly. And then, a warmth leaning close from the other side, Leo’s voice saying his name with an almost prayerful relief, and Jonah turned his head towards the soft lips at his temple.

Whatever had happened, he was safe. The memory of it was still bleary, but it didn’t matter. He was here, and Leo was with him, and JT was with him too, and it was all that mattered.

And then, the shouting began.

Jonah didn’t have time to protest or negotiate before Marcus drove them both out of the infirmary, and while the peace and quiet had been certainly more restful, the brief comfort of his important people at his side was replaced by a full check of vitals, ten minutes of mobility stretches, and a rough thumping on the back that forced him to cough up an alarming amount of bloody phlegm.

The next time Jonah woke, with no small thanks to a hefty dose of opiates, it was light, and once again he was not alone. He shuddered a little, raising his hand to his eyes and blinking through the bleary film of sleep.  “...you…”

“Doc said ya weren’t s’posed t’ move much, so ya better just keep still.” Ben sat in a chair beside Jonah’s infirmary bed, feet up on another chair. A faint steam rose from the pot of soup he held by the handle, spoon in the other hand, and then he slurped from it.

Between him, Leo, JT, and Marcus, Jonah was never left alone for more than a few seconds since he’d been brought in. Ben was currently the safest person to be watching him of the group, all things considered. “How ya feelin’, partner? You’re lookin’ better, that’s for sure.”

“If I look like I feel...I don’t want to know how bad I looked before…” Jonah swallowed, then cleared his throat, then blinked up at the ceiling for a moment in an effort to clear his head. “I feel a little bit like crap, to be honest.”  His shoulder was still immobilized, arm in a sling against his body, and it made him feel off-center with an overwhelming need to crack his spine. He’d never been a comfortable back sleeper. “I’m trying to remember what happened...there are holes, though. The girls. Did the girls wind up okay?”

[caitmayart]

Two finished commissions for the wonderful DoktorGirlfriend - Christmas presents for her roleplaying friend’s various OC’s!!!

Thanks so much for the work - these were way too fun!

<3

My commission information can be found HERE

(please commission me I am so broke and I like making arts I have FIVE open slots!! Thank you!!)

[doktorgirlfriend]

They’re wonderful! Thank you again!

Merry early Christmas Janie, D, Delena, and Aaron!

[theitaliansoldier-blog]

[This is fabulous - everybody looks awesome! Thank you! <3]

[aimlessprofessional]

[immortalizing the precious moments when a couple of big manly muscle studs are emotional wrecks together: truly priceless. Thank you so, so much <3]

[abluspy]

What Lies Beneath

[abluspy]

[...]

Taking a deep, calming breath, he did his absolute best to keep himself together, to avoid showing just how terrifying this really was to him. He hoped rather than believed that his eyes wouldn’t betray his own anxiety in the situation. “You want Leo? I can do zat for you. Just… Give me a minute, s’il vous plait.”

Philippe checked his watch. They had five minutes before the next respawn scan would occur. There was no time to lose. Peering up at the three faces high above him, he called out: “Leo! Contact your Medic and ‘ave ‘im meet us at your spawn. You should ‘ead zat way afterwards. Dell, Monsieur Clark… Wait ‘ere wiz us until we ‘ave teleported, zen grab your zings and go back to ze bases. We are done ‘ere today.”

His attention focused next on the teleporter. Setting it up precisely as Ben told him, he then returned his attention to the dying Sniper as he waited for the teleporter to build itself, trying to look as calm as possible. “Now… Whose face would you like to see? Leo’s? Or your brozzer’s…?”

[aimlessprofessional]

Jonah felt like he was falling. Falling, or floating, someplace that made his stomach clench and upend with vertigo. 

Brother. What about his brother?

"He's not here...my brother...he--" The anxious words choked him abruptly and he began to cough, every one another bullet of agony through his body. He fell back again with a tearing gasp, shaking, thick blood trickling down his cheek.  "Please -- JT, please --"  Where was he?

[abluspy]

What Lies Beneath

[astroengie-blog]

[...]

"I don’t want t’ lose Jonah either! But we have t’ use th’ teleporter!" The words practically burst from his throat, strained and uneven. "It’s th’ only way! An’ you’re too goddamn heavy for us to lower! Get your shit t’gether!"

The Soldier lurched forward but ultimately stopped struggling, slumping down until his face rested for a long moment on Ben’s shoulder. Voice softening, the Engineer held him up now more than held him back. “Leo… We’re goin’ t’ have t’ send down th’ Spy. We’ll send him with m’ PDA an’ th’ metal. He can…take care a’ Jonah, I promise…”

[abluspy]

Leo’s hands suddenly gripped Philippe’s shirt, and the Spy instantly met his reddened, wet eyes. Quietly, he rasped right in Philippe’s face. “That is my life down there. You fix this. Please, Philippe. Please…”

"Everyzing will be all right." The words were a promise he intended to keep.

[...]

Feet touching down first, he managed to get solid footing and set down the kit of metal in a clearing, using the light from Shannon’s flashlight she’d left behind as a guide. The Spy picked his way over to the fallen Sniper and crouched beside him, eyes cataloging the blood around his mouth, the whistling rasp of his shallow breathing, the deathly pale of his skin, the fine shine of sweat on his brow. This did not look good. He had to work quickly. “I need to know about your injuries. Tell me everyzing…”

[aimlessprofessional]

"Knee...broke on something...the way down..." Jonah broke off with a thready gasp, pupils blown wide in shock. "Landed on m..." A cloud of slowness interrupted the words, and he struggled to retrieve them. "Shoulder. My shoulder...my..." He tried to indicate his broken collarbone with his uninjured hand. "Can't breathe...ribs are -- can't breathe--"

He trailed off into a soft sobbing gasp, trying to lift his chest free of the weight inside it, the slow collection of blood where broken bone-ends were pulling his lung apart. Everything was cold and he didn't want to die here. Not for good, not for real.

It was beginning to feel familiar. The things you knew, fracturing like sea ice and drifting further and further away. The hissing, white-noise fog smothered his thoughts further, and he struggled to keep aware of the Spy carefully checking his injuries, his concern useless. If there was a Spy here, it ought to be JT. That would have been better.

"...Where's Jeff..." He wasn't a hundred percent sure the words made their way out of his head. "Wh...he should be here..." What if nobody explained to him what happened? He wouldn't listen to Leo. He'd never understand. "Leo...I want...oh god..."

[abluspy]

What Lies Beneath

[abluspy]

The others slipped in behind Leo, and Philippe pushed his way to the front with his own flashlight, slowing them down just in case it wasn’t stable. Once he found the edge, he approached it cautiously, waving a hand at the others to hold back. The edge seemed solid enough, the scaffolding still raised above the dirt floor, braced against the tunnel walls. What happened with the section they’d been on? Was it not braced adequately?

Shining his flashlight down, the Spy peered over the edge to assess the situation. The twisted metal of the walkway was obscuring some of what he could see, electrical conduits and other pipes protruded from the rock and dirt, some broken, some fully intact. It was difficult to tell how many levels they’d fallen, but once his flashlight beam landed on Shannon’s dirty face, Philippe guessed it had to be at least two levels down. He breathed a heavy sigh of relief. “Zere zey are! Per’aps…seven to nine met—twenty-five to zhirty feet down. Shannon, can you see us? ‘ow are ‘otaru and ze Sniper?”

[aimlessprofessional]

"I see your -- light, jeez --" Shannon raised her arm to her eyes. "Bug's here!" In the slightly improved light, blood was visible matting the Pyro's temple, but her hair masked the source. "She's bleeding, but she's awake! Jonah is..."

The Sniper shook his head tightly, the movement making his vision swim and he closed his eyes again. "Tell 'em...I have a broken rib...hard to talk, is all..." It was colder down there than he'd realized, a chill crawling under his skin as though he was soaked to the bone, and he felt like he was breathing through mud. He had a keen foreboding that the metal mesh around his collarbone wasn't where it had once been. "Help them get Bug out. Then you."

Cradling the radio against her injured hand, Shannon tried to scoot toward the wall where Hotaru sat, shivering as the bloodied skin of her back twisted with the motion.  "Sniper's got a busted rib! He doesn't look so hot...We could really use some band-aids down here. Is Geoff with you? Who's there? Can you lift us out?"  

Jonah wished she would stop shouting. He closed his eyes, wishing the Spy would cease his questions and come rescue the girls. He wished it was warmer. He wished he was back at the base, on the couch that morning before some worthless soft spot in his conscience had agreed to go help.

[abluspy]

What Lies Beneath

[blufirebug]

The ground beneath the Pyro was rough when she came to. That was the first thing she realized. And also the only thing as an excruciating ringing and throbbing burst through her head to the exclusion of everything else. Hotaru curled into herself against the pain and the urge to vomit, her motions earning protests from a number of abrasions and blooming bruises. Fingers tangling in her hair against her scalp, she took a few gulps of dirty air and groaned. 

"M… Medic… Medic…"

The conspicuous absence of any gunfire or other battle sounds was lost to her. She was hurt and dirty; it was the instinctive assumption. But through the ringing pain in her skull, she did almost perceive voices, and she writhed and wriggled herself to her hands and knees, head bowed and gagging, searching the dirt floor blindly. One hand found and gripped someone’s pant leg, and she drug herself forward.

"Here… M’here…"

[aimlessprofessional]

Jonah pressed his face hard into the crook of his arm, stifling a roar of agony as the pull at his leg shifted breaks and tears -- his entire right side was one indeterminate smear of pain. But the Pyro needed to get clear if the Scout was going to come down from her precarious perch, and he'd dealt with worse.

"G-good...come on..." He let Hotaru move herself, lowering a shaking hand to find her hair with his fingertips, then the back of her jacket. "Here...stay by me..." He tugged her up further against his side. "Try to sit up. Shannon -- you with me, Scout?"

She was curled against the metal, cradling one arm to her chest. "Yeah..." Her voice was a little clearer now, as she scanned the floor to try and negotiate a drop. "...Bug okay?"

"Awake. Moving. Think she's concussed." Jonah swallowed, mouth thick with the taste of dirt and blood. "She's out of your way -- hang down, it's just a short jump. C'mon."

"She must've bounced off when this thing lodged...you okay?"

Jonah let out a shaky breath, and it hurt. It felt like there was a boulder pinning his chest, and every word trailed off into a weak whisper. "Yeah." It was a lie, and his voice cracked a little on it. "Leg's broken. I'm okay..."

In the light filtering from above, he watched Shannon shift to the edge of the scaffolding and turn to let herself down. The back of her shirt was torn, black blooms of wetness spreading from where she must have slid and ridden it down. Thank god for tetanus boosters.

Shannon dropped to her feet, then to one knee with a sharp cry, shuddering and hissing. "I think my wrist is broken, too."

"You're cut up in back."

"I am?" Somehow, it had become the least of her worries. She crawled over, trying to remember her first-aid training. "Bug? Hey. Hey, say your name!"

[abluspy]

What Lies Beneath

[blu-streak]

That moment the floor tried to swallow them whole seemed to stretch out eternally. In moments, where they had walked was a yawning gash in the rock, terrifyingly dark beyond the reach of the lamps.

The last few feet of solid ground were listing downwards, a twisted section of walkway drooping down into the blackness with one small Pyro clinging to it for life.  ”Bug — can you climb?” Shannon dropped to her belly at the edge of the crevasse. “Just a little, and I can get you!” She wasn’t far. It was just two feet, maybe three, and their hands could reach.

"Scout! I need a hand over here —"

The swirling dust made her eyes stream with tears, and she could barely make out the Sniper clinging to the edge at her right. “Pull yourself up! I have to get Bug!”

"Shannon, I can’t get — you gotta pull me up!" Jonah’s fingertips dug into the floor as he strained to lift himself. "Then I can get her!"

Could he? There was a chance the Sniper was strong enough to pull up the metal planking, or even hold Shannon by the ankles for her to retrieve her teammate. Then again, who knew if the rest of the floor would even wait for them to engineer a rescue. She turned back down to Hotaru. “Bug, come on! You’re so close!”

The metal shifted with an ominous groan. “SCOUT! GET ME UP!”

"BUG! CLIMB!"

Somewhere beneath, another chunk of substrate dropped into nothingness, and the floor under them all began to liquify.

[aimlessprofessional]

Twelve feet, maybe fifteen, in a moment.

Then an instant of metallic, thunderous chaos, the level below caving beneath them in a second sharp drop.

 A rain of debris, then stillness.

Jonah lay half on his side. His right side. It took him a few minutes to come to this conclusion, drifting away several times in the process. But by some wonder of will he was able to raise his left hand to his eyes, rubbing the dust away and blinking up the way they had come.

Caverns? Or half-formed tunnels? He could see the jagged, asymmetrical edges of at least two broken floors above them, criscrossed with the remains of the twisted walkway and what was possibly an electrical conduit that had been stretched down the level below.

One panel of scaffolding was wedged across the drop, just eight feet up. The Scout was hung up on it, curled awkwardly in the V of the metal paneling and the rough wall.

"Shannon--" The name was a gravelly whisper, and Jonah coughed...the resultant explosion of pain in his chest made him shake and retch, wondering how many ribs were broken. But the noise seemed to have reached her, and she shifted a little, searching her surroundings.

"Bug...wh...where is she..." The girl's voice was a slurred mumble. Jonah only hoped she hadn't dropped the radio.

[abluspy]

What Lies Beneath

[aimlessprofessional]

Jonah grinned lazily. “Did you forget Dr. Feelbad is still in my house? Hell, your bunch over here is fun compared to him and his inverse sense of humor. Yes, princess, even you—” he called back, rewarded with the rustle of someone patting all their pockets in search of a projectile.

"It’s a little stark, I guess…reminds me of Pendleton, actually. Nothing I’m not used to." He glanced down at Hotaru, hand trailing along the wall. "Of course, now the bases are so far apart, I don’t get to run across many BLUs doing workouts these days. Don’t have any reason to sneak over, either. You still drawing?"

[blufirebug]

"Yeah, a lot. …Maybe not as much lately now that it’s winter. Hands get cold, and nobody’s as willing to take their shirts off. …Plus, lots of them have been pairing off, and they’d rather do that together."

The Pyro hopped ahead again to be the first to reach the door at the end of the short hall, spidery fingers stretching out to test the doorknob, a little surprised when it actually turned after a token resistance. “…Huh.”

[aimlessprofessional]

Jonah blinked. "Unlocked?" Odd. He turned the flashlight over in his hands, then reached past Hotaru, carefully waving her back. "Stand back...let me take point on this."

His hand replaced hers on the door, carefully pushing it open. It groaned, hanging up on gravel and debris that seemed to have drifted on the other side of the threshold. On a higher note, as Jonah could tell as he managed to wedge the door open about eighteen inches, caged bulbs were tacked to the walls inside, giving off a weak yellow light every fifteen feet or so.

They illuminated a corridor approximately eighteen, twenty yards long, branching at a 90-degree angle from the cement-floored and walled hallway they'd come down. A metal catwalk with scaffolding floor lay atop pressure-pounded rock, braces anchoring into the earth on either side.

"Okay, this is different." Jonah threw his weight into the door, trying to get it to budge another six inches or so. "I think there's another door at the other end..."

[abluspy]

What Lies Beneath

[blu-streak]

Shannon huffed out her disappointment, squirming a little before swallowing down her pout. There was just no point. Stupid crates. Stupid HALLWAYS. Stupid Philippe all-work-no-play jerk. Stupid cans of fruit cocktail. Stupid everything.

She grabbed Geoff’s arm, leaning in to kiss him on the cheek. “Try to make Leo break up with him —” she hissed, before bouncing back onto her heels and slouching back toward the entrance of this room. “Fine. Let’s go.” 

But her feet stayed planted.

"I’m not letting that guy get behind me. Snipers first."

Jonah gave her a slow blink then shrugged, picked up one of the flashlights they’d set down, and ambled out the door. “Rest of you boys behave…”

[blufirebug]

Hotaru hurried after the Sniper before she could deeply regret ever having spoken, putting herself as a buffer between him and Shannon. Jonah and Ben were the only two choices Philippe would have allowed, and each would have offended the Scouts about equally. But the Engineer might have taken their attitude more personally, and the Sniper was still her first choice besides. She bounced a couple of steps further to fall beside the RED, not at all eager to be too close to Shannon just at the moment.

"So…" she muttered. "How do you like it here? Aah… the base, that is. Overall. Not down here. In the ground. …With the angry people."

[aimlessprofessional]

Jonah grinned lazily. "Did you forget Dr. Feelbad is still in my house? Hell, your bunch over here is fun compared to him and his inverse sense of humor. Yes, princess, even you--" he called back, rewarded with the rustle of someone patting all their pockets in search of a projectile.

"It's a little stark, I guess...reminds me of Pendleton, actually. Nothing I'm not used to." He glanced down at Hotaru, hand trailing along the wall. "Of course, now the bases are so far apart, I don't get to run across many BLUs doing workouts these days. Don't have any reason to sneak over, either. You still drawing?"

[abluspy]

What Lies Beneath

[theitaliansoldier-blog]

[...]

Suddenly, Philippe appeared at the end of the shelves. “We can look at zis later. Come ‘elp wiz ze crates, s’il vous plait.”

[blu-streak]

"We don’t even know what’s in them!" Shannon kicked at the floor. "Why are we breaking a sweat hauling them up when they could just be full of socks or soap flakes or—"

"Or hand lotion. Or old Playboys—"

"YOU are a JERK and you need to cram it—"

"The kid’s right." Jonah leaned against a shelf, arms crossed, head tilted to absently survey the BLU Spy’s lower physique. "About the crates. Not about me. I’m charming."

Shannon repositioned herself behind Geoff, glaring over his shoulder. “Leo, you said you’d make him shut up…”

[aimlessprofessional]

Jonah smirked at the scouts. "You gotta feed your boyfriend better if you're going to hide there...he's scrawny as a tentpole. Or mizzen-mast, if the cabin-boy prefers..."

He was cranky, starved for a cigarette or two, and the only thing worse than a musty tunnel was one full of stick-in-the-mud spies of whose asses nobody would quit singing praises. It wasn't that great of an ass. Come on.

He sensed Leo's warning retort before he heard it. "Oh, come on -- we're playing pack mules today. I have to make my own fun!"

[coldbloodedred-blog]

"No self-respecting sports league plays in weather like this, at least not when it’s forecast." Queenie sniffed, pulling her feet up onto the sofa. "I can’t imagine how much more proof they need that their guns work in the rain." She shuddered, slitted eyes narrowed.

"Try seven hours straight marching in the rain," Jonah cut in, entering from the kitchen where he’d finally been browbeaten into finishing the dishwashing. "Every day. For about a week and a half. Then tell me again about how bad you’ve all got it."

Queenie snorted. “You should’ve read the brochure before you signed up.”

[theitaliansoldier-blog]

"Some of us didn’t have a chance to read any kind of brochures before being called up into the military, you know what I’m saying?" Leo moved past Ben to approach Jonah, coming up beside him and wrapping an arm around his waist to tug him in possessively. With a devilish grin, he tilted his head down to steal a loud smack of a kiss. "You look good when you’ve been all domestic, baby."

"Gross! God!" JT whined from the couch opposite Queenie. "Why don’t you go be slimy in another room. On another planet. Greasy, dirty—”

Leo glared at the younger Rogers. “Cut your shit, JT, or I fucking swear I’ll punch you so hard, your mother’ll feel it.”

[aimlessprofessional]

"Hey--" Jonah gave Leo a warning shove, the other man's arm around his waist keeping it from being terribly effective. He turned then, shooting JT a pointed glare. "Hey. You both give it a rest. You know, maybe punching Mom is something you two could bond over."

"Oh, now that's just monstrous--" Queenie raised an eyebrow."

"No, my mother's monstrous. I'm just trying to broker a truce -- can you blame me?" Jonah took hold of Leo's belt loop, tugging him toward the couch where JT sat. "You, move over. Ben, what's with the lenses?"

[blutundgerechtigkeit-deactivate]

Pulse check! Reblog if you are an active TF2 rp blog.

[theitaliansoldier-blog]

When Jonah grabbed his shirt, Leo bent down with it, hoping he was interpreting this action right. The tone of Jonah’s voice and the look on his face said more than that the Sniper was just upset. Slowly, carefully, he pulled the other man into a firm hug, holding him close to his chest in case this wasn’t such a good idea after all.

But if he was beaten up a little, he supposed he deserved it. “I’m sorry, Jonah. I’ll try to be more careful. I promise I will. Don’t stay mad, baby, please…”

[aimlessprofessional]

Jonah leaned into Leo's shoulder, feeling raw and defeated. "I just want us to leave here in one piece. I want to go back to the beach house." And everything that meant.

He brought an arm around the Soldier's back. "And I want your chip replaced. Tomorrow."

[theitaliansoldier-blog]

“Nobody wants to be here, Jonah. But it’s our job. We have contracts, and we get paid to perform our duties.” Shutting the door again, Leo moved over to stand behind Jonah, resting his hands on the back of the chair. “If you want me to say I hate this job, I can’t. It got me away from trouble in New York. It’s the reason we even met. I can’t hate it at all for that fact alone.”

What could he say to make things better? Nothing. He’d already said there wasn’t anything, and there really fucking wasn’t. But he didn’t want to leave either. The most important thing in his life was right here. He had to say something. “I’m sorry I called you a selfish bitch. That was rude. But it fucking hurt when you said you wouldn’t take care of me if something bad happened when you know I’d take care of you. It felt like you were saying I wouldn’t be worth it if I wasn’t at my best. I just… I just want to be with you, you know what I’m saying?”

[aimlessprofessional]

"I didn't say I wouldn't, you dick, I said I didn't want to --" Jonah looked up, eyes narrow, scowl back in place as he pivoted in his chair. "Christ, Leo, what do you take me for? I just wish you'd quit improving the odds I'm going to have to...you've got rockets to bust sentries with. You don't need to do it with your damn head."

He glanced sideways, jaw clenched. "When are you going to get it that I care as much as you do? You think you have everything figured out, all the damn time...stupid shithead grunt..." The Soldier was in reach, and Jonah grasped for a handful of his shirt.