#waltray

Joe finds himself rolling his eyes lovingly as he grabs George by the hand, gently pulling him out of their apartment before he started rambling about himself.

They arrive at the old bar a little after nine, Joe scanning the room looking for his Marine buddies.

“Toye, you blind dickhead! Over here!”

Joe turns his head to see Ray waving him over, Brad rolling his eyes as he finishes his beer. Joe smiles, the familiar faces of his friends settling any nerves he had about introducing his boyfriend to them. He thought he was the only one in their platoon who wasn’t straight until he caught Brad and Nate in the back of their humvee making out like teenagers. And he definitely can’t erase the mental image of Ray and Walt doing it in the middle of the damn desert like the whiskey tango trash they are.

“Did both your boyfriends leave you? Because I don’t blame them, honestly. I wouldn’t want to wake up to either of your ugly faces in the morning,” Joe greets them, laughing as they stand up and greet him with a one-arm hug.

“Now, Joey, you’ve got to play nice in front of your boyfriend, who might I add is absolutely gorgeous,” Ray starts, ignoring Joe’s glare. He sticks his hand out to shake George’s, “Ray. Ray Person.”

“George Luz,” George responds, already liking Joe’s friend.

“I’m Brad, the unlucky son of a bitch responsible for keeping these idiots alive,” Brad introduces himself.

George sits down, accepting a beer from the new man who had also just sat down. “Well, I appreciate you keeping him alive, I know it’s not easy. He’s stubborn as all hell,” George grins, taking a drink. The new man introduced himself as Nate and the man next to Ray was Walt. George knew most of these guys from Joe’s stories, but it was nice to finally put a face to a name.

“I am not stubborn,” Joe argues.

Ray and George reply at the same time, “yeah you are.” Both men look at each other and grin.

“I’m just going to get bullied this entire night, aren’t I?” Joe asks, rolling his eyes.

“Welcome to what I put up with every damn day with you all,” Brad mumbles in response, looking between Ray, Joe and Nate. There wasn’t enough alcohol in this bar, Joe thinks, especially split between four Marines and George Luz.

A couple of drinks later and everyone’s eased up, the awkward tension of first meetings have dissipated. Mainly thanks to Ray’s endless rambling and George’s jokes.

“There’s no way you did it in the middle of the fuckin’ desert!” George exclaims, shaking his head as Ray tells him the Great Awakening of 2017.

“Hell yeah I did, homes. I wasn’t about to wait until we got back to base camp-.”

“Believe me, I was the unfortunate soul who saw them,” Joe sighs, the image still fresh in his mind.

“And I was the one who heard them,” Brad mumbles, refusing to look at Ray and Walt.

Walt was turning bright red, all of a sudden very interested in the writing at the side of his beer bottle. Ray, however, was grinning like an idiot, unabashedly proud of himself. The corner of his lip slowly turns down, “the sand was another issue. When I say that shit gets everywhere, I mean everywhere. I’m pretty sure I was shittin’ sand for weeks, my di-.”

“Shut up, Person,” Brad says, almost out of instinct.

“What? It was even worse for poor Walt here, he still has sand in his ass-,”

“Shut up, Person,” Walt repeats and Ray lets out a small yelp, indicating he had just been kicked under the table. Thankfully the conversation shifts and they’re onto something else.

“There’s no way Joe ‘Stone Cold’ Toye cried watching Tangled!” Ray howls with laughter. “Scary Marine, my ass!”

“Like a baby, he thought Eugene was dead for good,” George laughs, adding more to the story and slowly chipping away at Joe’s hard-earned reputation.

“Shut up, Luz,” Joe elbows him, but this only encourages him further.

“Did Joe ever tell you the story of his childhood dog? Who ran away?” George asks and Joe knows exactly where this was going.

“Luz, shut it,” Joe says halfheartedly, he kind of didn’t mind the banter but the protest was necessary to save face.

The men around him shake their heads and George has the floor and takes it eagerly. He loved being the centre of attention and telling a slightly embarrassing story about Joe was his favourite thing to do.

When all men eventually stumble out of the bar, several hours and stories later, Joe feels a warmness in his chest that wasn’t there before. For so long he was worried about letting these two parts of his life meet each other but tonight was proof that it could go well.

“You better send me that meme you showed us!” Ray calls out to George as they leave.

“I’ll send you all of them!” George calls back, grinning when he turns back around to face Joe, who had a soft look in his eyes. “What?”

“Nothin’,” Joe mumbles, “I’m happy, that’s all.”

“Of course you are, you get to go home with me,” George smirks and Joe kisses him quickly, the sound of his loved one's laughter still ringing in his ears.

another shot of electricity flew over ray’s head.

“fuck these asshole don’t know when to quit. what’s eta on the cov?” ray shouted, cov being a nickname, among the many others, for coven, their platoon,at walt who was on the other side of the street, panting from the force of his powers.

“ten, maybe fifteen minutes. they’re stuck behind a ward. fick and gunny are working on breaking it.”

a burst of force knocked out the wall walt was using for cover and he made a mad dash for ray.

ray covered, shooting massive bolts of fire from his hands.

“we’re not gonna make it, if we don’t take out the front line.”

walt, out of breath, panted, “any suggestions?”

ray laughed, “yeah but you’re not gonna like it.”

brad was swearing up a storm.

if anything happened to ray or walt, it’d be his fault. he’d sent them ahead, much to ray’s excitement, only because he’d thought they were in the clear.

“trombley!”

trombley ran up quickly, “yes sir.”

“how accurate is your shot spell?”

“fuckin’ accurate.”

“good. with me. reporter., stay in the humvee”

brad grabbed trombley by the arm and pulled him to the side of nate and gunny.

“what?”

“sir, we don’t have enough time to counter the ward. trombley is gonna blast it, sir.”

nate stood up and for the first time saw genuine worry and fear in brad’s eyes.

“accuracy?”

“90-93.”

nate looked to gunny who nodded sternly.

nate looked back to brad, “do it.”

brad sighed gently, “thank you sir. i recommend moving them men back at least four yards.”

“okay.”

“permission to stay and help tombley, sir?”

nate smiled, fear in his eyes betraying his expression, “permission granted.”

brad rolled up his sleeves and instructed trombley to do the same. 

then, for the first time in his life, he prayed. prayed that this would work.

walt gawked as another blast slammed through the build they were using for cover.

“ray! we can’t do a summoning spell, my kit is in the humvee.”

ray groaned, “brad is gonna kill you. you’re not supposed to go anywhere without your kit walt!”

walt rolled his eye, “now that we established the obvious, i have a suggestion.”

ray sent another flash of fire, this one hitting the man on the far right, and consuming him with flame.

he looked to walt, squinting, “what is it?”

walt swallowed hard, “unison.”

ray laughed, “unison? are you fucking- walt people die trying that shit and we haven’t even practiced it!”

walt groaned, “look we’re gonna die either way, at least this way we die trying!”

ray sighed, “fine, but don’t come yell at me in the underworld because you shit plan got us killed.”

walt smiled and ray could die happy knowing he was the reason for it.

unison was powerful, but dark magic. two witches, combining their powers, had unreconcilable and irrevocable outcomes, usually in the form of massive casualties. it’d been outlawed in many countries, but the good ol’ u-s-of-a was trying to hone in on the power as a new form of wmd’s. ray jokingly liked to call them witches of mass destruction. it was a testament to how the world viewed them, as taboo, weapons, outsiders. he simultaneously loved and hated it. 

the rolled up their sleeves, tattoos lining up perfectly and held on tight.

“okay trombley, i’m going to put a shield around us and i want you to focus all of your psycho bullshit on the ward. think about it completely shattering. pretend it insulted your sister for fuck’s sake. just take. it. down.”

trombley smiled, cold and feral, “yes sir.”

brad placed his hands on the ground and spoke softly forming a protective shield against the blast radius.

“now trombley!” 

in an instant the ward was down, collapsing several building around them as well.

there were resounding cheers from the men behind them and brad radio for them to hurry their ass up.

holding onto one another, ray could feel everything from walt - anger, fear, desire, power - and he was intoxicated.

slowly the repeated spells, in unison, to build their strength.

the earth began to shake and ray gripped walt’s arms tighter, the power almost too strong to bear.

“ray, ray look at me.”

ray looked at walt, pain beginning to take hold in his body.

he saw walt’s eyes shining the brightest blue he’d ever seen and began to feel more calm, balanced, like he was in control.

“we can do this. i got you.” walt smiled as bricks crashed around them and ray’s heart felt like it was going to burst out of his chest.

“if we survive, remind me to tell you something.”

walt pulled ray into him, hands not letting go.

he leaned in and whispered in ray’s ear, “i already know.”

ray pulled walt closer to him and as their lips crashed together, the entire enemy line burst into flames and ash. 

when the platoon finally were able to reach ray and walt, they found they weren’t need.

the two men were sitting in the middle of the road, holding hands, and talking heatedly.

ray looked up, “well it’s about you lazy sons of bitches. we’ve only been waiting for ten fucking years. you want us to win this war without you.”

brad was out of the humvee and on them in an instant.

he looked between the two of them intensely, “you both good?”

walt smiled, “we’re good sir.”

he let go of ray’s hand, still feeling their connection even as he walked away.

brad looked at ray who was looking at walt.

“hey bradley, remember when we tried unison in seventh grade and ended up killing your neighbors cat.”

“yeah the, uh, tabby, right? god i hated that thing.”

ray smiled, “yeah well walt and i just did that to the entire fucking enemy line!”

ray shouted the last part and jumped up and down in excitement.

brad gawked, “how the fuck did you do that?”

ray just ran away and back toward walt.

“ray!” brad ran after him, “how did you that?!”

ray turned around, still running backwards, “love, bradley, with sweet, sweet gay love!”

brad walked back the humvee in contemplation, maybe he should try with nate sometime.

anonymous - thank you! i’m not sure if this is what you were looking for and if it isn’t send in another ask and let me know. i know a lot of modern witch!aus are very soft gothic, etc. but this is gen kill, so i took it a little differently. thank you!