Admire (DJ x Commander)

Chapter 8 : COMMANDER

Commander sighed as he left the building. It was probably around late afternoon now, and it was getting hot out. He readjusted his hat and wandered around. 

"Hey, Commander!" 

Commander turned see Minigunner carrying a table with a small stack of chairs on it. "Oh, hello. What are you doing?"

"Moving furniture, there's some empty crates and we're setting up camp for the night. Paintballer is really nice, he helped us find all this neat stuff."

"Oh, that's great. Need any help?"

"Bah, we'll be okay. The question is, do you?"

Commander trailed behind him as they walked to the crates. "I should be alright, thank you." 

"Nonsense, I haven't seen you trying to find anything at all." 

Minigunner dropped the table and chairs lightly in front of a cluster of large supply containers. Demo and Pyromancer waved from the top of one of them. They were stacked with no particular pattern, some with 2 or 3 containers high. Haphazardly put together ladders helped lead to different "floors".

Commander kicked at the dirt. "I'll survive, don't bother." 

Minigunner looked at him with a slight expression of concern. "It's been a long day for all of us, especially you, let us do something for you just this once. You barely force us to do anything." 

"Urgh. Fine." Commander put his hands in the pockets of his jacket.

Minigunner smiled. "Phew, I thought you were gonna say no again. Follow me."

With slight hesitation, Commander followed Minigunner to a sun-bleached green container that was separated from the group, but still near them. "We had already put this together earlier. Thought it would be a good spot for you." 

Commander opened the door to the container with a creak. There was a small lantern sitting on a table with a chair pushed under it. A mattress WITH sheets and a pillow sat in the corner of the room. 

"This is- Wh- SHEETS? Where in the hell did you even find sheets?!" 

"There were some beached ships out near the docks, it took some effort to get up them, but there were a lot of good supplies, including sheets, blankets, and other stuff. Don't worry, everyone helped, this isn't just a me doing this for you thing." 

"God, you guys really didn't have to do this. Thank you." He peeked past Minigunner to see Pyro and Demo giving eachother high fives as they walked off. 

Commander couldn't put into real words how grateful he was for his troop. 

"It's really no issue, thanks for being a great leader." Minigunner beamed. "I'll leave you be now. Let us know if you need anything." Minigunner walked off, shutting the door to the crate halfway.

Commander sat down on the chair at the desk. Urgh. Why couldn't he be useful for once and do this kind of stuff by himself? Commander pitied himself. These people stuck with him all this time, and for what? So he could sit alone and be useless?

Commander's insecurities encased him. 

He wondered how he used to be able to lead literal armies with all this weighing him down. 

Taking a deep breath, he pushed his anxieties down and bottled them up. He stood up and left the supply container. 

Commander reminded himself that he was going to find DJ a leg brace. It was a good distraction for the time being.