Dell Conagher uses his foot to knock on the door, knowing there's a chance he wouldn't get a response. He knows Spy isn’t doing well, which means he won’t be in a good mood. It might have been safer to pass by the door, to not bother him and let him recover on his own time, but the Engineer wouldn’t do that to a teammate. He’s going to make sure Spy is alright. Even if it kills him.
Eventually a muffled "Come in, laborer." can be heard from inside.
Engie sighs quietly— he might huff if he weren’t trying to cut Spy some slack— and pushes the door open and stops in the doorway to study the situation. Spy is in bed, completely covered in blankets to a point where Dell has to second-guess whether he’s there. The lights are off except for a lamp beside the bookshelf, but it’s enough to dimly cover the room. A fire crackles onwards at the side of the room, the wood recently replaced, making the room a comfortable temperature. The room is pristine, and for once does not heavily reek of smoke.
"Hey Spy," he says as he walks in, holding a plate of food and tea. He sets the plate on the table in the center of the room and brings the mug to the beside, pulling medicine from his overall pocket as well. "I heard that you're not feeling so good." He stands beside Spy's bed, holding the tea and starring where Spy's face should be.
Grumbling comes from under the covers. "Who told you about my illness?"
Engie shrugs, even if Spy couldn’t see it. “That’s not important right now.” He wouldn’t mention the coughing, the sneezing, the mumbled complaining, the sighing that could be heard halfway across the base… It was only time before Pyro asked him about the situation. Though he made plans to come anyways. “I brought you a drink and medicine.”
Eventually Spy shoves the blankets away to look at Engie. Dell can’t help a small laugh, because he’s never seen Spy so miserable. He looks wary, pale, horrible. This couldn’t be much more than a common cold, and yet it floored him. “I do not need your offerings, Engineer.” Despite all these ailments, he manages to sound bitter.
“I didn’t say you had to take it.” He shrugs again and sets the items down. “Just that I brought these for you. And I have food on your table back there.”
Spy sits up and takes the mug anyways. He can tell already from the scent that it’s mint and lavender; the Engineer knows his tastes well, it seems, even if it’s not a topic they’d ever discussed. (Of course, Dell had asked Heavy about the tea to be confident, but his tea preference was more obvious than Spy thought.) Engie hands him the medicine as well, a dark liquid, and tells him how much to take. Scowling, Spy takes it before drinking his tea.
Engie rests his hands on his waist. “You ain’t going to thank me today, are ya?”
“I won’t thank you tomorrow, either.”
“You always thank me eventually,” he points out, shifting to turn towards the door. “I’ll come back to check on you tonight and bring you food, if you’d like. I’d hate for you to stay miserable for so long.”
Spy huffs. “If you truly did, you would send Medic.”
Engie raises an eyebrow. Both of them remembered what happened last time someone was ill under the care of Medic. Poor Soldier.. Spy regards this memory with a nod. ‘Fair.’ Dell would take that as something.
He formally turns to towards the door and begins walking to it, figuring it’s best to leave his teammate alone now to suffer under the blankets. “Is there anything else I can get for ya?” He still offers when he’s reached the door, looking back at Spy, knowing he should at least offer something, even to his insufferable teammate.
There’s a long silence. Spy had been looking at the place where Engie was standing before, so he takes a guess.
He’s met with more silence at first. Spy doesn’t have an instantaneous response, as though it caught him off-guard to be asked something like that. Eventually he gains his grounds. “Of course I don’t. I want to be left alone, laborer.”
Dell decides to push his limits. “Let me get my guitar and come back, how about that?” When he’s meat with a third bout of tense silence, he turns to do such, kicking the door temporarily closed. Not what he expected to be doing with his day, but it’s better than letting his teammate suffer alone.
Spy sighs. He did not want Engie’s company, he repeats to himself, he should have objected. And yet, he had made no objections. He’s normally so quick on his feet, what had failed him?
Engie returns with his guitar, and pulls a chair beside Spy’s room. Spy is trying to ignore him, reading a book with his half-empty tea on the beside counter, but is failing to. He laughs softly to himself and idly starts playing a song he knows will be recognized.
He can tell Spy has stopped paying attention to the words on the pages in front of him. His eyes have stopped scanning the pages, he’s started tapping on the edge of his page. He raise his head. “How long are you going to play your insufferable tunes?”
“I thought you liked this song,” he hums instead of the next line. “It’s always the same, it’s just a shame, that’s all…”
Spy eventually places his bookmark, sets down his book, and takes Engie’s company, as though it wasn’t the worst thing in the world, even though his expression reads like it is. When Engie finishes the song and does his little bow, he asks “Are you going to leave me alone now?”
He shrugs and continues to play gentle music on his guitar. “Y’know, sometimes people appreciate having company when they’re ill, stuck in bed without much to do. I understand you might not be one of those people, but I thought you would prefer it to loneliness.”
“A distraction from your illness then.”
Spy stares at him like he’s impressed with the audacity. It’s the only confirmation Engie needs that maybe he was closer to right than Spy wanted him to be. He looks back to his guitar and continues playing something, and at some point, Spy complies, admittedly alright with his presence.
dededos
turnnoffyourmind
discoholicmusic
gummygunk
