Scout finds Soldier firing rockets at a distant rock formation not very far away from the base. Darkness is slowly falling, but there is still light enough to see around. Summer nights got pretty dark around there. There is also a lonely old lamp post, its dim light flickering slightly.

Scout stops to watch a few yards from Soldier, noticing a few patches of scorched grass. Some bloodstains. Scout frowns a bit: Soldier has apparently tried his crazy “rocket jumps” again. He notices how the man is avoiding putting his weight on his left leg when he turns to reload his weapon. Soldier notices Scout and his mouth curls into a frown immediately. He doesn’t even try to hide his displeasure of… what? Seeing Scout? Being disturbed? Scout feels a bit hurt.

“What are you doing out after curfew, private?”

“What are you doing out after curfew, moron?”

Soldier’s frown deepens. “What does it look like? And you will call me ‘Sir’.”

“Looks like you’re wasting your time,” Scout replies snappily, peering at the blackened rock formation and then curiously at Soldier’s left foot. He notices the toe of his boot is nearly burned off. “You’ve apparently been shootin’ yourself too, genius.”

Soldier straightens up to his entire height and forces himself to stand up straight. Scout notices a quick twitch in the corner of Soldier’s mouth, and he frowns. Stupid Soldier: always so foolishly proud.

“You need to be disciplined, young man!”

“Oh yeah? You hafta catch me first, and I doubt ya can do it with that crap leg of yours.”

“I can always shoot little maggots like you,” Soldier says and lifts the rocket launcher on his shoulder, taking aim on Scout.

“You wouldn’t dare,” Scout says and lifts his jaw defiantly. He’s standing up straight as well, almost reaching Soldier’s height.

The men stare at each other for a moment.

“See, I was right,” Scout suggests with a grin, and cannot help himself: “Chicken.”

The remark outrages Soldier completely. “You little…!” he swears and instinctively takes a threatening step forward with his wounded left leg, which immediately fails to support his weight. Soldier topples down, growling in pain and surprise, the rocket launcher falling from his grip and clattering onto the ground. Scout doesn’t remain standing still, but immediately launches himself at Soldier.

“Idiot,” he mutters and offers his hand to help the man back up. “You gotta -”

Before Scout has the time to finish his sentence, Soldier catches a hold of his wrist and pulls on it hard, causing Scout to lose his balance. Scout’s fast, but apparently Soldier is too when needed, and before Scout has the time to get back up or even crawl away, Soldier has him pinned against the ground. His forearm is over Scout’s chest, holding him down, while his other hand is still gripping the wrist. Soldier’s staring at Scout from under his overly large helmet, absolutely outraged.

“You will not disrespect me like that ever again, do you hear me?!”

“I hear you! Let me go!” Scout’s attitude makes a complete one-eighty (he knows when to quit, at least) and he tries to wriggle free, but Soldier is half on top of him and much bigger and stronger than he is. His leg is hurting: Soldier has it crushed under his knee.

“And you will call me ‘Sir’!”

“You can’t pull rank here, Soldier!” Scout screams back, thrashing and trying to get away. “Come on, man, you’re hurting me!”

“YOU WILL CALL ME ‘SIR’!”

“I won’t, you crazy fucker!” Scout raises the volume of his voice, trying to match Soldier’s. “My leg hurts, let go of me!”

“This leg?” Soldier questions and twists his knee into Scout’s thigh. Scout screams, thrashing more violently and trying to push Soldier away with his free arm. He’s screaming obscenities at Soldier, slowly getting panicked as Soldier adds more pressure onto his leg, even leaning forward to push Scout’s chest harder against the ground. A bit more and Soldier is going to crush his ribcage.

In a fleeting sober self-preserving moment Scout manages to pull his baseball bat out of his bag (it’s still strapped to his back) with his free hand. Soldier’s too crazed to notice it, and Scout’s too fast. He swings the bat twice above Soldier’s head, gathering momentum, and then hits the right side of Soldier’s head as hard as he can possibly manage (he’s not a very strong hitter with his left). The surprise attack makes Soldier vulnerable for a moment, but moment’s enough for someone as fast as Scout: as he feels Soldier’s hold of him weaken, he uses his legs to push the man off of him and then he scampers to his feet, jumping back to get distance between them. He’s waving the bat around in slow circles in one hand, clutching his chest with his other and glaring at Soldier.

“You bastard, I was trying to help…” he spits out, voice wheezy after having his chest constricted for so long. He’s trying to catch his breath. “I was worried!”

Soldier is on all fours on the ground, breathing heavily. Scout sees a tiny trail of blood trickling down his cheek from under the helmet, and gets worried. He hadn’t hit that hard, had he? He hadn’t wanted to actually hurt Soldier, just get him off… Soldier doesn’t look like he would attack Scout again, but he still closes in very slowly and carefully.

“You okay, man? I didn’t hit ya too hard, did I?”

Soldier doesn’t reply. Blood drips down his chin. There isn’t that much blood… maybe it’s just a concussion? Scout knows next to nothing about medicine, but he knows a concussion isn’t a good thing. He crouches next to Soldier, bat still in hand and ready to hit or jump away if Soldier even so much as flinches.

“Hey…?” he says silently, reaching a hand out to… shake the man? Anything, he doesn’t really know.

“Quite a hit,” Soldier says suddenly, slowly pushing up with his arms and sitting back. Scout watches as the man straightens out his legs, grunting slightly when moving his left one (Scout can’t help a gasp when he sees that almost the entire sole of Soldier’s boot is burned off, his foot just a mess of black and red. It isn’t bleeding because of the burns, but it looks downright nasty), and takes off his helmet, touching his right ear and grimacing slightly. The ear is all bloody, but apparently all the blood is coming from the cartilage, not from inside the ear. Scout feels relieved.

“God, you had me scared back there,” he says and forces a tiny laugh.

“It’s just a scratch,” Soldier brushes it off.

Scout hops a tiny bit closer and fishes a hanky out of his pocket (his mom’s hanky), starting to wipe the blood off from Soldier’s ear. He’s ready to dodge and back off, and feels genuinely surprised when the attack never comes. Soldier’s looking the other way, holding his hands on his lap like an obedient child and not making a move to stop Scout from what he’s doing.

So Scout carries on and wipes the blood off, stuffing the bloody hanky back into his pocket once he’s done. He stares at Soldier, tilting his head to the side a bit.

“You’re really strange, ya know that,” he says, poking Soldier’s cheek with his index finger.

Soldier just grunts defiantly and swats Scout’s hand away. Scout grins and leans a tiny bit closer, teasingly, to whisper directly into Soldier’s wounded ear. “Really strange.” He carefully puts emphasis on both words and finishes the whole thing by gently blowing air into Soldier’s ear.

This makes the other man jump in surprise and then push Scout away with a seriously disapproving groan. Scout just grins, knowing that he just won a match, whatever it was that they were battling for. Soldier on the other hand concentrates on pulling his helmet back on.

“We need to get back to the base, that foot of yours looks fucking disgusting,” Scout says and scowls, getting back up on his feet. His chatterbox mentality is slowly returning. “Didn’t Medic specifically tell ya not to try out those insane jumps when he’s not around? Come on, I’ll help ya.” He offers his hand to Soldier, wriggling his fingers invitingly.

Soldier looks at Scout’s hand and takes it, almost pulling Scout back down: Scout hadn’t prepared for Soldier actually using him to stand up. He was half-expecting him to ignore his help and try to get up by himself. After the initial near-loss of his balance, Scout helps Soldier up and slips lithely under his left arm, placing his arm around Soldier’s waist, and he never stops being surprised at how docile Soldier’s suddenly being, accepting his help without as much as a word against it. Soldier throws his left arm over Scout’s shoulder, leaning slightly into him and taking full advantage of his help. They start their slow journey towards the base.

Suddenly Scout remembers something: “Your rocket launcher!” Then he’s already sprinting back to the place where he had found Soldier, leaving the man behind looking surprised. Scout picks up the weapon, astounded at how heavy it actually is (Soldier always carries it with such ease), and returns to Soldier, handing it back. Or, he would hand it back if Soldier just put out a hand to take it.

“I… apologise.”

Scout stares at Soldier wide-eyed, still holding out the rocket launcher. Scout can’t see Soldier’s eyes because his helmet is covering them, just like it always is, but he sounds and seems completely serious.

“What?”

“I apologise. For attacking you. I was out of my bounds.”

Scout stares some more. He can’t believe that Soldier is actually saying that he’s sorry and not only that, but also admitting that he was wrong. It is… unbelievable. Soldier takes the rocket launcher and straps it on his back and then he offers his arm at Scout invitingly, just like Scout himself had done before.

“It’s okay,” Scout says after managing to shake off most of the astonishment. “I’m kinda sorry for hittin’ ya so hard.”

“It was completely called-for. I would not hold it against you.”

Scout scratches his neck in confusion and adjusts his cap. “Wow, you’re…” then he laughs at the thought, nervously, and flashes a wide bratty grin at Soldier. “A total fucking nutjob.”

Soldier chuckles quietly and tilts his chin up, peering at Scout under the rim of his helmet. “I take it this will be our little secret.”

“Are ya kiddin’ me? I’m tellin’ everyone once we get back to the base! I owned you, man!”

Soldier keeps chuckling as Scout slips back under his arm and as they continue walking towards the RED base, Scout squeezes Soldier’s waist a bit tighter.