Soldier was acting strange. Not that the team noticed. Ordinary for the Soldier would make even the wisest psychiatrist give pause. He still ran about, proudly screaming about America and eagles while banging his entrenching tool against his head. He still demanded everyone wake up at "oh-four-hundred" for an absurdly early breakfast so they could beat that no-good-sissy sun to the battlefield. It was in the subtle differences that the Engineer noticed something was off. The Soldier would look at him sideways, tipping his head back so his helmet clacked out of the way of his maddened eyes, before and after the fighting for the day. The same look, too, without fail. The Engineer would find himself upgrading his dispenser while the shadow of their resident lunatic hung over him. The Disciplinary Action was used almost exclusively on his be-hind, leading him yelping out to where his nest would be setup long before the team even made it past their last point. Then things became a little less subtle. One of the Engineer's hats was missing. Nothin' fancy, that's for damn sure. It was just his old Stetson, the one his buddy had given him from back home before he signed up with RED. The Engineer had assumed that a Spy had taken it. Either one; the RED Spy was just as likely to steal from their team if he got bored enough. So the Engineer wiped the grease from his hands and set out to find the French bastard, only to come to a dead halt in the kitchen. The Soldier was wearing his Stetson, hunched over a steak and mashed potatoes dinner plate. Now, the Engineer didn't want to think about how his hat looked like it belonged on the Soldier's head. Heck no, he had a much bigger problem than that. Before he'd gone to breakfast, the hat had been on its hook in his workshop. He'd come back, and it was still there. He'd taken a nap while tweaking the design on his teleporter, and when he'd come to, the hat was gone. The Soldier had been in his workshop. "Fella's gotta take some offense to bein' robbed from." The Soldier lifted his head slightly, taking a bite of mashed potatoes. The Engineer remained calm, lifting his goggles off of his eyes with a sigh. "What the hell's gotten into ya? Actin' all kinds of squirrely lately. And don't go sayin' it was aliens, I heard that one before." Although he would never admit that the strange weapons the Soldier had shown him were made of alloys he'd never even seen before, much less that he'd never seen such a slick design. The Soldier rose to his feet at such an alarming speed that the Engineer flinched back, his body jumping slightly when the chair clattered noisily on the floor. "You're not as smart as I thought, Engie!" With that, he stormed off, leaving a baffled Texan in his wake. The Engineer quietly cleaned up the Soldier's food and righted the chair, then went back to his workshop. Now the Soldier's behavior was getting worrying. Midfight he would kick ammo boxes and supply crates over to the Engineer instead of trashing them for his own ammo. Small flowers were winding up stuffed under the Engineer's door. He would go to do his laundry, then come back and find that someone had already dried and folded it. The Soldier would hold doors open for him, spy-check with such efficiency that the Pyro started complaining, and even surreptitiously restocked the Engineer's supply of beer. "If'n I didn't know better, I'd think y'all were tryin' to flirt with me." The Soldier missed his rocket jump, looking back at the Engineer with wide eyes. They were successfully holding BLU's advance back, giving them a brief breather while Respawn kicked the enemy team back into gear. Still, the Engineer found himself pining for the BLU team to come charging in to kill the horrible silence that now met him. The Soldier wasn't moving, staring at him with unfocused madness, his rocket launcher rested neatly on his shoulder. Finally, the Soldier simply rocketed away, leaving behind a horrified Engineer. The Soldier's next move sealed the deal. He'd been missing in action ever since the battle had ended in a stalemate. At first, the Engineer had assumed that he was sulking somewhere. He could remember his first awkward time trying to flirt with someone, although they had been a she, and certainly not a stubby little bald man that killed the same nine doppelgangers every day for a living. Only when he hung up his hard hat on the stand in his room and flipped on his light did he realize where the Soldier was. On his bed, wearing the Engineer's Prairie Heel Biters, his Stetson, and holding the Disciplinary Action. And that was it. The Engineer stammered utter nonsense before shutting his gaping mouth, thankful that his goggles were hiding the shock in his eyes. The Soldier grinned wickedly, his eyes obscured by the hat, nudging the tip of his erect cock with the riding crop until a bead of precome was coaxed out. "This clear enough, maggot?" Good lord if his voice couldn't be damn sexy if he kept it quiet enough. The Engineer swallowed thickly, trying to figure out what the hell was going on in the Soldier's head. His mouth felt dry as he looked at the grizzled American, slowly pulling his goggles off of his head. He nudged the door shut behind him with his boot.