estabionage:
Spy was grateful that Sniper didn’t initiate physical contact. He wasn’t sure, after so many days being poked and prodded, that he could handle that without lashing out. As if a reminder, his sharp teeth scraped on the inside of his cheek and the man bit back a curse, steeling himself.
Talking hurt, but sitting there in pitiful silence hurt more.
“I… I don’t know. There was so much going on, I– it’s all a blur.”
A lie. He was sure Sniper could tell just bu the tone in his voice and the look on his face. He remembered every tiny bit of his stay in that lab. Remembered the nights in the locked tank like some pet fish, remembered the drugged haze, remembered the various kinds of restraints that felt like they were still attached. The bruises looked deep, but they felt deeper. Remembered every single bit of it… Yet he was at least glad, as much as he hated what had happened, that he survived and escaped.
He couldn’t imagine what Sniper must have thought. No doubt he’d been replaced after several days of missing fights. Had he left? Quit? Been fired? Worse?
He almost laughed at the absurdity of it all. Him, always coming to SNIPER of all people. That first night Mick had asked for help with a problem, and ever since solving it Spy had been the one in need of help.
Another shuddering breath had him coughing, the bullet in his side a painful reminded of why he’d come here at all. Tendrils gingerly curled, a deep maroon surrounding a clear bullet hole in his side… with no exit wound.
It was still in there somewhere, and it needed to come out.
“You wouldn’t happen to… want to go spelunking, would you?”
Sniper could tell Antoine was lying and it pained him deeply to even possibly fathom whatever the hell had happened that led to the Spy's current state.
But now was not the time to ask into that. Mick saw the bullet wound, saw the quivering in the other's body when he coughed.
And he knew what Spy wanted him to do.
His gaze moved to the first aid kit splayed out haphazardly on the ground beside Antoine, suddenly feeling something heavy and terrible sink down into the pit of his stomach.
There was a bullet still lodged into Antoine's side that he desperately had wanted to get out and patched up, which could only mean..
Mick's hands trembled as he gathered together various items from the kit before, looking over the bullet wound before his gaze moved back up to his lover's face.
"..Toni, you--you're not registered in Respawn anymore, are you.."