Thanks! (I'd been looking forward to writing that last scene as well... ah, the benefits of having a boyfriend with tentacles...) (This is technically the last chapter, but... this Medic has a couple more adventures to go on, and I promise one of those will involve tentacles again (and the other will involve a Nessie hunt for SCIENCE!)) ~~~Ch. 10~~~ The team has been stationed out at the new base just a few days when the Medic collars the Sniper in the hallway, eyes wide. "Doc? Need something?" "My creature! He is missing! I poked around in the tank, I assumed he was sulking, he has been better able to control the camouflage perhaps, but he is not in the tank, not at all! I've looked everywhere. What if-- Mein Gott, what if he is loose on the base? Where can he go? What can he do?" "Check the showers. He needs to stay wet, right?" The Sniper fights a grin, sending the Medic off on a wild goose chase. He heads to the kitchen first, wrapping a couple of sandwiches tightly in plastic and tossing them in a bag with a bottle of wine. There's a little island out on the lake that won't be getting much traffic on the weekend... it seemed like a nice place for a date. The Spy is already there, half-lounging up on the grass, tentacles dangling down and floating in the water. He lifts his head when the Sniper arrives. "Took you long enough." "Well excuse me if I had to swim, with a picnic lunch." The Spy smiles. "Lunch, you say? I'm sure whatever you've brought is much nicer than my regular stores. Although... to be fair, I suppose it is still better to use the-- the beak, to open the cans I have stocked in the cave back there, than to use it to eat the fish that live in this lake." "I wanted to see that cave." "In the cliff." The Spy points. "The entrance is quite deep. You would need some sort of apparatus, I think." "Should order some, then." The Sniper grins, handing over the wine bottle. "Don't get much of this either, do ya?" The Spy uncorks it and sniffs, eyes closed. "Acceptable." "Ham and cheese?" "... Acceptable." "It's real ham. The fake pink stuff all has 'Heavy' written on the packages anyway, nobody in their right mind messes with that." "What kind of cheese?" "Dunno. Starts with a 'G'." "As long as it is not plastic and orange." The Spy's smile relaxes and widens. He moans at the first bite. "Where on earth did you get this?" "No idea." "Because it is very good. You will probably be answering to an angry teammate who ordered it specially." "My teammates aren't going to suspect me of stealing fancy cheese. If it belonged to the doc, he'll blame the spy, and if it belonged to our spy, he'll blame the doc, 'cause everyone else just eats the other stuff." The Spy laughs. "It is probably your spy's. I'm only sorry not to see the doctor take the blame..." "He's going mad looking for you. I told him to check the shower." They both relax a while, passing the bottle of wine back and forth while they eat, gazing up at the clouds. "He'll probably ask me to help him catch another octopus." The Sniper sighs. "Why does he still want another one?" "Dunno. So he can fuck it himself? Nah, probably graft it to some other poor bastard. Or I don't know, maybe he's got more tests. He was going to try talking up the camouflage serum to RED's Spy." "And will he be mentioning the side effects?" The Spy snorts. "Brought you this." The Sniper pulls a tightly-wrapped package from his vest pocket. "You'll want to keep it shut 'til you're someplace dry." "Cigarettes?" "Matches in there, too." He slithers across the grass, letting the wine bottle roll away, and wraps himself around the Sniper. "I love you." "Sure, I bring you presents and you're all over me." He jokes. "Love you, too." They kiss, with the sun high and bright sparkling across wet skin, with the grass beneath them fresh and smelling sweet, with the day free and lazy stretching on for hours, they kiss. ~FIN~