#rvb inserts

I match you with…Sarge! (I honestly was about to match you with Grif as well)

It’s been a year since being recruited into Project Freelancer. Over that one-year period you have managed to hold your ground and climb your way up the leader board. Your current ranking is at 9, just two points away from moving up to ranking 8. Besides the progress you made as a Freelancer, you made progress on becoming friends with the Freelancers in the top 10. Technically, you were the little baby to them, the little “kid” they have to worry about once in a while, a bit too precious for them.

“Sooooooo…when did you realize this?” York waved a hand as he took a bite out of his apple. It was early in the morning and you guys decided that it was a good idea to eat something light before heading out on the large assigned team mission for the day. You sheepishly poked around your tray. “Maybe three or four months ago…” York looked at you straight in the eye.

“Are you kidding me (S/N)? Why didn’t you tell me the first month?” You shrugged quietly. “I wasn’t sure yet?” You stretched out the word ‘yet.’ York rolled his eyes. The Dakota twins came by and sat down. “Watcha two talking about?” South looks at you and York. “Oh you know, (S/N) growing up and having her first crush.” You blushed. “Man she’s been crushing on the guy for four months and only now she tells me.” North chuckled. “Is this your first time hearing about her crushing on Wash?” York’s head snapped in the direction of the dark purple clad Freelancer.

“You knew?!” North shrugged. “Well of course, I am the fatherly figure around here. She told me the moment she began developing these feelings.” South took a sip out of her cup. “It was a bit shocking when she told us, I thought this whole time she would crush on Wyoming or Florida since she’s always doing recon with them.” York’s hand was outstretched. “SOUTH TOO?!” North lazily picks up his fork. “She was eavesdropping while (S/N) was telling me about it.” South blew a stray hair out of place. “I happened to be passing by, I wasn’t eavesdropping North. There’s a difference.” The twin argued.

“G-guys I’m still here…” You chimed in. They all looked at you. “Who else knows?!” York demanded. You thought for a second. “Mmm, everyone except Carolina. I was about to talk to her about it that same week Tex came around…but you know…” The twins nodded in agreement. “So you’re telling me…that Maine knows as well?” You nodded slowly fearing for what he has to say. “Dammit guys, stop leaving me out of all the fun!” You all laughed at York’s retort. Before continuing the conversation, F.I.L.I.S.S. called for all you to report to the Director. “Well, it’s show time guys.” North says with a grin.

Mission briefing was short, all 10 of you will be involved in this mission. 5 of you will be stealing data files and equipment while the other 5 will be covering them through recon. The recon team will be leaving first to scout out enemy territory. You were assigned to the recon team. South was throwing a tantrum while the 5 of you were getting ready to leave. North tried to calm her down. As you watched the twins argue, Wyoming elbowed you. You looked at him and he pointed in front of you. “Don’t look now, your beau is coming.”

“He is not my beau Wyoming.” Wash and York was walking up to you guys. “Hey guys, Wash and I just wanted to wish you guys good luck.” You looked at York suspiciously. “Isn’t that right Wash?” He elbows his friend. “U-Uh yeah. Right. Good luck guys.” You blushed under your helmet. “We don’t need luck.” Florida came by and slaps Wash on the shoulder. “Anyways, we shouldn’t delay you guys any longer. We’ll see you down there in a few hours.” York says. You and your teammates boarded the Pelican, you were the last to get on. York had his arms crossed as he nodded at you and Wash waved at you. You waved back, “Come on you love sick puppy take a seat.” South pulls you inside.

Once your Pelican left the MOI, North breaks the silence between the 5 of you. “(S/N), I’ve been meaning to ask you this since last week. How’s the progress on getting Wash to notice you?” South, Florida, and Wyoming leaned forward in their seats. Your head dropped in defeat. “Terrible.” They all let out a sound of disappointment. You continued on. “I’ve been following your advice North. I’ve saved him food whenever he’s out on missions with CT, let him look at my notes from those hell boring classes, even cover his back when we’re paired up on missions.”

South lets out an impatient groan. “How stupid can Wash be?! Are those damn obvious hints not enough for him to catch on?!” North looks at her. “South…” She raises a hand to stop her brother from speaking. “It’s fine, (S/N) said it was okay since earlier this week.” You nodded to back up her statement. North exhales. “Well it isn’t Wash’s fault. I think the way (S/N) presents herself through these deeds Wash takes it as a friendly gesture.” You tilted your head. “No offense but it’s just your personality. You’re always looking out for everyone even though we treat you like the little kid around here.” You shrugged. “Wash is just hopeless.” South mutters in defeat.

“You should confess your love for him through poems…No better yet, knock knock jokes.” Wyoming suggested. “Sure, teach me some. Knock knock.” You grunted sarcastically. “Who’s there?” Wyoming replies. “Shouldn’t the guy lead the courtship?” Florida asked. “Leading the courtship who?” Your white clad teammate continued. “Wyoming shut it.” Florida elbowed him. “Wyoming who?” You and South groaned. “SHUT UP!” You both screamed. “Shut up who? Shall I go on (S/N)?” North shook his head defeated. “Wyoming enough.”

“Anyways, I think (S/N) should just tell Wash directly.” Florida suggested. “What?!” Florida continues. “You’re the most confident Freelancer around here, it shouldn’t be much of a problem.” Before you could protest South jumps in. “Beat him up if he doesn’t like you in return, or I can do it for you.” You were taken a back. “South I don’t think that is…” South shrugged. “North, Wash needs a wake-up call.” You looked at Florida. “Do it after this mission. We’ll be there for you.” Wyoming, North, and South nodded in approval. You groaned. What were you getting yourself into?

Although the mission was filled with high tensions, it was a success. Minor injuries but it wasn’t too bad. You’ve tended to all your teammates injuries on the way back to the MOI. You had one more person to tend to and it was Wash. They’ve told you help Wash in the locker room. Those final minutes on the Pelican was a long one, the walk to the locker room had your stomach in knots. Tex wasn’t there, a tense Carolina was the first to leave the room. Everyone else was getting ready to leave. York who was informed of the plan whispered to you as you took off your helmet. “It’s now or never kiddo.”

Wash was sitting on the bench waiting for you, you exhaled. York nods at you to get going and you awkwardly walked over to him. York follows behind North leaving you and Wash in the locker room by yourselves. “So it’s your right shoulder?” You looked at Wash. He nodded. Wash is currently suffering from a dislocated shoulder. You got to work as Wash explained how it happened. It was something to do with a car. It’s always a car with Wash. He lets out a sigh of both pain and relief once you popped his shoulder into place. “Thanks (S/N).” You nodded. He walks over to his locker to put his helmet away.

Thanks (S/N) Was all you got. You actually felt a bit frustrated. “Hey Wash.” Wash doesn’t look at you. “Hmm?” You bit your lip. “What do you see me as?” He closes the locker door and looks at you. “Well you’re strong, helpful, friendly, confident, and hell you’re pretty good at fighting.” You clenched your fists, he’s just too oblivious. “Why the question (S/N)?” You shook your head. “It’s nothing.” You slam the locker door. He flinches. “Are you sure?” You looked at him and snapped. “JUST IN CASE YOUR OBLIVIOUS ASS HASN’T NOTICED YET, I HAVE FEELINGS FOR YOU OKAY!” You turned and stormed out of the room.

You quickly walked down the corridors, your hasty footsteps echoed behind you. You were frustrated. You grumbled. “This is ridiculous!” You exclaimed. Kimball and Doyle. You felt like they were little children throwing tantrums and fits at each other for no damn reason. You were invited in there for a meeting on the next course of actions against the enemy. As a member of the Red team, Carolina, Church and Washington saw you mentally mature and intelligent enough to be in those little meeting with them whenever it was called for. They needed various degrees of perspectives and ideas. They wanted to see the knowledge that was held back by Sarge unfold before their eyes.

The moment Kimball and Doyle started going at each other’s throats (verbally), you were on the verge of snapping at such childish behavior. It was like your days back in Blood Gulch, but worse. Your team and blue team’s bullshit was much more tolerable than these two “children” back in the conference room. Carolina thought it was best for you and Wash to leave the room and check up on your little recruit teams while she attempted to calm the two. So you and Wash did, you took a run for it when you had the chance to before Wash could even stop you. You’ve grown irritated, this was what? The fifteenth time this week the two leaders are acting this way.

The moment you got outside you groaned at the top of your lungs. Frustrated, you ripped off your helmet and threw it at a nearby tree.

“OWW WHAT THE HELL?!” You jolted a little, taken aback by your helmet actually hitting someone. A figure was coming out of the shadow of the tree and you saw a glimpse of orange armor. You immediately knew who it was.

“Who threw this at me-“Your teammate was waving your helmet and stopped just before the leaving the protection of the tree’s shade. “Oh it’s you. That’s one hell of a good arm you got there.” He tosses your helmet to you.

“Sorry Grif.” You caught the helmet and walked over to him. Grif flinched and backed away from you as if you’ve actually hurt him or you were diseased. Baffled, rather than backing off you decided to take a few steps forward. “Are you okay?” You smelled the scent of cigarettes nearby.

“I’m fin- Grif trips over the tree root, instinctively you grabbed his hand and stopped him from actually falling backwards. “T-thanks.” He muttered. Your eyes widened at your teammate. He had a lit cigarette in his free hand. “You smoke?!” You thought you were imagining things but this was real.

Grif shrugs, he doesn’t say anything. Leaning up against the tree he puts the cigarette back into his mouth. “Yeah,” He inhales deeply. “I just didn’t want you to see me this way.” Your teammate pulls the cigarette out and exhales a heavy cloud of toxic smoke. You couldn’t believe it. Out of curiosity you sat down at his feet, you wanted to know the motivation for this action of his.

“I know you hate guys who do drugs (Y/N), so why aren’t you yelling at me or some shit?” He glances at you and takes another puff. “I know I shouldn’t blow out of proportion just yet but I just wanna know why.” You looked at him. He breathes out a steady stream of smoke before putting out the nearly finished cigarette and tossed it away. Grif slowly drops down to the ground and gazed up at the sky while getting comfortable.

He kept a respectable distance between the two of you since he knew he reeked of tobacco, he didn’t want you to suffer from the suffocating scent right now. “Just to get this out of the way, Sarge, Simmons, the Blues, Wash, Carolina, they all know I’m a smoker. It’s just you and those damn recruits who doesn’t know alright.” You nodded and waited for him to continue. “Since I can last remember, my whole life has been nothing but eating Oreos and junk food nearly 24/7, avoiding fucking chores, and well this… smoking every chance I get.” He says with his hands outstretched. “This is why I’m the most out of shape soldier around here.” Your orange clad teammate quietly admits.

“Besides binge eating, I smoke to relieve stress.” You gazed at him. “You’re actually stressed out? I thought you hardly care about training the recruits we’re assigned to? What did Matthews and Bitters do to you again?” Grif scoffs. “Matthews’ ass kissing is still on the level of Simmons and well Bitters…that good for nothing lazy piece of shit ate more than his fair share of food earlier off of my fucking tray too!” You rolled your eyes in amusement. “There’s more than enough food to go around in the mess hall,” you giggled. “Well this is what you get for being a ‘Sarge Jr’ I hope you’ve somehow learned your lesson from that.” A smirked formed on your face.

Grif turns away, embarrassed. “Don’t bring that up please. That was just last week, I’m a changed man.” You shook your head. “Sure you are.” You mused sarcastically. He changed the subject. “So what’s chewing your ass (Y/N)?” You didn’t know where to start, you began to explain the progress of things. From there you chronologically explained the things that went down in that meeting. Whether you knew it or not, you were just ranting off wishing you could give Kimball and Doyle a piece of your mind. If one could see the color of your emotion, your anger would be the same shade of red like Sarge’s armor.

Fifteen minutes later you’ve finished. You looked at Grif wondering whether or not he had blanked out right when you began. If he did, then you wouldn’t be surprised it was just normal for him to blank out even during staff meetings. “Well first of all, you’re starting to sound like Wash and Carolina back when they first came along.” You gave him a look, his face paled fearing for his life. “Hey I’m just stating my opinion.” You nodded for him to continue. “Secondly, Doyle and Kimball needs to get along just like how we’re surprisingly getting along with the Blues. Well they need some time before they could see eye to eye. I mean like come on, it took us a long time for us to actually get along with Church and the others.” You raised an eyebrow. Did he actually listen to you this entire time? “Thirdly, your plan sounds great. It might actually work this time around when we see Felix or Locus again. It just sucks that Kimball and Doyle’s behavior steals the spotlight from you.”

“You were actually listening this whole time?!” Grif nodded. “Well duh, I mean like you did chuck your helmet at me so something had to be pissing you off.” You mutter another apology. “But my plan, it requires all of us to do something you…Wait are you just saying it’s a good plan to make me feel better or…” Grif gave you an expression that said ‘are you stupid?’ “(Y/N), just because I’m lazy doesn’t mean I’m stupid. Trust me it’s a good plan. Honestly you’re just a quiet and shy person maybe that’s why you never got your chances, your quiet personality kinda let Sarge stomp all over you back in Blood Gulch.”

You were speechless. “What? I’m serious. Laziness doesn’t equal stupidity, I just lack motivation and I’m just this way to piss off Sarge constantly. I thought you knew that by now.” You shook your head. Grif exhales and stretches. “There’s a reason why Wash and Carolina thought it was a good idea for you to be there. Being a quiet person doesn’t necessarily mean you’re dumb or an easy person to stomp all over. You’re just as scary as Carolina when you’re angry.” He gave you a smile as he stood up. “Next time, you should assert your dominance at the next meeting. That’s some hell of a plan. Maybe I’ll put some effort into it just for you.”  He winked at you and turned to wobble off. You stopped him before he could actually leave you. “You know Grif, just you admitting things makes you more attractive so I’ll admit some things to you. You munching on some Oreos is adorable… But please lay off the smoking, it’s a huge a turn off for me.” Grif blushed a little a bit speechless as you walked away with a grin. “You gave me some motivation (Y/N).”