Title: Tower
Author: Kyrianne
Fandom: Red vs Blue
Prompt: 54. Tower
Pairing: Tucker/Doc. There needs to be more of this pairing. D:
Rating: PG (Something must be wrong. This is a Tucker pairing fic! XD)
Word Count: 1414
Summary: Doc hears some creepy noises in the dark, and what he finds is something he never would have expected.
Disclaimer: I own nothing but the silly idea of this story and the words used to write it.
A/N: Just about a third of the words here I borrowed from Shakespeare. So if you don't like him for whatever reason, or can't understand his language for crap, you have been forewarned.
Oh right, in case you get confused, the setting here is Zanzibar. I didn't really make that too clear in the story. o_O;
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Doc hummed lightly as he padded barefoot down the hallway to his room, dragging a comb through his damp, post-shower hair. Not even the muted grumblings of O'Malley in the back of his mind had any effect on his good mood, and he let a content smile pull on his lips as he reached his doorway. He made a beeline to his new book as he entered the room, intent on reading a few more chapters before going to bed.
Agh, not that again! O'Malley complained silently, expressing his distaste for the book with a few more carefully chosen expletives.
Be nice, Doc chided, almost amused now at his A.I.'s grousing. He ran a finger over the embossed title on the cover of the slightly beat up paperback. The face of the heroine smiled up at him, content and happy in the arms of her soul mate. His smile turned wistful as he opened to the page he'd marked.
O'Malley made it a point to show the medic images of himself puking.
Doc frowned. What, it's nice to be reminded that there's the potential for love out there for everyone! And it doesn't hurt that it has a happy ending.
O'Malley smirked, unseen. And how do you know that? he mocked, already knowing the answer.
Fighting a blush, Doc replied in a flustered tone, Just because I sneaked a peek at the end already doesn't make me a bad person! Plenty of people do it all the time!
Just as O'Malley was gearing up to answer, the sharp, distinct snap! of a twig outside the window interrupted their argument (though Doc would have called it a friendly debate). It elicited a gasp from the purple-clad medic, who covered his mouth almost immediately with a trembling hand.
Calm down, Frank, it's just an animal... maybe a rabbit..? he told himself unconvincingly, voice wavering even in his mind.
It can't be, and you know it. All the animals here are dead, O'Malley jutted in cruelly. His sense of unease rose as Doc slowly started for the window, muscles taut and ready to spring into action at any hint of danger. O'Malley reminded him gleefully where he stored the battle rifles he'd found upon arrival, and the accompanying flashes of blood and gore made the pacifist sick to his stomach.
The irony of the situation only made him feel worse as he poked his head out of the window, terrified of what would greet him as he looked down. The night outside was calm and still; suffocating darkness swirled a foot from his face, full of depth and false security. Doc fought the urge to run and he opened his mouth to call out a tentative hello.
Something small and hard whizzed past his left ear. Letting out a cry of surprise, he dropped to safety beneath the window, ears ringing and heart pounding like the footsteps he was too frozen to take. Glancing to his right, he saw the object that had been thrown at him: a rock, about the size of a robin's egg, slightly rounded from erosion; it had probably come from the beach.
The pounding in his ears finally subsided slightly as he crawled forward to pick up the rock, curiosity getting the better of him. "What...?" he murmured to himself, but he suddenly realized there were more noises coming from outside.
"Psst! Doc!"
Doc crawled back to the window and propped himself up, peeking over the window sill with only his eyes showing. He knew that voice!
"Doc, come back here!" It was a harsh whisper, laced with irritation and longing.
He rose slowly, hands grasping the window sill as a means of comfort. "Tucker?" he whispered back incredulously. "Is that you?"
He could almost hear Tucker smiling in response. "Hell yeah, who else would it be? Man, I thought you'd never come back!" Then, as a sort of afterthought, "Sorry I almost hit you with that rock. I was trying to get your attention."
"It's fine," Doc replied automatically, feeling a huge wave of relief wash through him. He chuckled nervously. "I thought you were someone here to kill me!" he confessed.
Tucker snorted. "Whatever, man. No one ever comes around here, 'cept for me sometimes." Rustling sounds drifted upward, along with some muttering, until finally a dim light shone from the soldier's helmet. "There we go," the teal spartan exclaimed, sounding proud of his small accomplishment. Doc smiled down at him, leaning to put his chin in his hand as he watched the man standing far below him.
"So, why are you here this time?" he asked. "Have another 'sprained ankle'?"
"Nah," Tucker replied, grinning slightly as he remembered the excuse he'd used last time to get out of blue base. "I've got terrible pains in my chest."
"Oh?" That hadn't sounded like just an excuse; the tone Tucker had used seemed to convey a real sense of pain.
"Yeah... my heart's been hurting to see you, baby."
Doc's face flushed crimson. O'Malley struggled to take control and vocally tell Tucker what he thought of him, and Doc barely managed to keep him in check. "T-Tucker!" he stuttered, head bowed with an embarrassed smile.
"Heh, I knew you'd like that one." He smiled, then his eyes widened as he remembered something. "Oh right! Wait a sec, I've been practicing something..." Tucker turned to dig in the bag he'd brought with him, muttering again as he rummaged through the stuff filling the backpack. A lot of clothing, Doc noticed with some surprise. Finally, Tucker found what he had been looking for with a determined gleam in his eye. It was a book, old and crumbling, with a blue marble pattern swirling across the cover.
"What's that?" Doc wondered aloud, leaning forward to try to see it better.
"Just wait," Tucker commanded with a wink, then opened to a page and began reading.
"'But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Doc is the sun!
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
who is already sick and pale with grief,
that thou her servant are far more fair than she:
Be not her servant, since she is envious;
Her vestal livery is but sick and green,
and none but fools do wear it; cast it off.
It is my medic; O, it is my love!
O, that he knew he were!
He speaks, yet he says nothing: what of that?
His eye discourses, I will answer it.
I am too bold, 'tis not to me he speaks:
two of the fairest stars in all the heaven,
having some business, do entreat his eyes
to twinkle in their spheres till they return.
What if his eyes were there, they in his head?
The brightness of his cheek would shame those stars,
as daylight doth a lamp; his eyes in heaven
would through the airy region stream so bright
that birds would sing and think it were not night.
See, how he leans his cheek upon his hand!'"
At this, Tucker winked up at Doc, who was still propping himself up as the play suggested, then continued:
"'O, that I were a glove upon that hand,
that I might touch that cheek!'"
"Oh..!" Doc murmured, unable to get out any other sound as he flushed darker, silly grin stretching across his face.
"'He speaks!'" Tucker continued reading, grinning just as widely.
"'O, speak again, bright angel! for thou art
as glorious to this night, being o'er my head,
as is a winged messenger of heaven
unto the white-upturned wondering eyes
of mortals that fall back to gaze on him,
when he bestrides the lazy-pacing clouds
and sails upon the bosom of the air.'"
Finally getting some semblance of control over himself, Doc recited the line he knew came next. "'O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou, Romeo?'"
Tucker closed the book and smiled up at him. "So are you going to invite me in now?"
"How could I refuse, after something like that?"
They were both still smiling when Tucker reached the top of the tower, dropping his bag on the floor with a thud that seemed to claim territory as he flicked the light switch off with an eager finger.
And to think Sister said I was wasting my time figuring out how to read that! Tucker thought later on in the night, proudly, almost as if he had just won a bet.
And in a way, he had.
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A/N: What is it with me and writing cheesy love stories recently? Oh well. I like this new, romantic side of Tucker, don't you? x33
