Forced Together? (Tankman x Female Reader)

Resentful Gift

I suddenly felt uncomfortable. I didn't like to be here knowing that I was just seen as "female".
Stan noticed this and asked the others if they wanted to leave, which they halfheartedly said yes to.

Before the sun began to set, the boys left their drinks at the table, I didn't. I needed this coffee to stay awake to think hard about what I was told today.

We only began to move after Tom demanded Stan and Randy to put their helmets back on. He also made sure all our guns were loaded with the ammo he had bought.
He tried to convince me and Randy to upgrade our armor before we left, but Randy knew I wanted to leave so he refused.

I felt awful knowing that I wasted a day trip.

I can't believe I went from overachiever, to insecure teenager in less than a day.

I spent the rest of the day trying to find a way to apologize, slowly drinking my coffee. When I finally found a way to, the shifts had started.

Now it was just me and Tom.

I mean T.

...

He didn't say a single word to me.

Not at 24 o' clock

Not at 2 o'clock

The last shift, 4o'clock, creeped up slowly. I tried to hide from Tom the whole night. But he still found me.

He stood in front of me, nervously scratching the back of his head.
I ignored him, showing him my back.

"Hey, I uh, just want to say I'm sorry for what happened earlier. But I mean, come one, someone had to tell you the truth."

I could feel my throat drying up. I couldn't believe what he was saying! "You didn't have to say it so bluntly, why couldn't you have said it when we got back here?" I said, I tried my best not to let my voice break.

"It was something that just had the best inflection, right after it happened, please you have to understand that there was no other way to bring it up." He tried to grab my shoulder but I pulled away.

"You don't know who I was back home, what if they trigger me you would never know?"

I heard Tom slam his fist against the fence.
The sound of something sliding across the loose dirt followed.

"This was supposed to be a welcome gift, then an apology gift but now I guess it's just a pity gift."
I turned around to see him throwing his arms back, puffing out his chest as if trying to intimidate me.
"I didn't have time to get it to look like our uniforms, but I hope you enjoy it anyway, even though you have that shitty attitude holding you back. He walked off to where the others were sleeping.

I hope he tripped on his way over there, I muttered angrily.
I caught a glimpse of the gift.

It was a high quality chest armor piece.
Curiously, I bent down to pick it up.
It was pure white. No sight of an X mark.

Was this looted off an enemy soldier?

I turned it to see the inside.
Like Tom said, it was better than my own armor, soI removed the one I had and made the switch for the new one.

I soon realized that the difference wasn't just in quality, but in size. I instantly felt the air leave my lungs as my chest was crushed against my armor.

I took a sharp inhale from the pain. I fell to my knees, my armor felt as stiff as a board.

Desperately, I tried to take it off, but it was too tight. I sat down in shame.

Welp, this is a part of me now, I hung my head low. I could ask someone to remove it, but nah, that would be too embarrassing, I thought.

A soft beep began, it was 5 o'clock already? I stood up, trying to hide my pain to help the others wake up Randy.

Surprisingly, he didn't take much to wake today, maybe last night was an off night for him.

We skipped saying good morning and went to start breakfast.
I didn't want to eat anything since breathing was already a hassle in this thing, I can't imagine how swallowing would feel.

I sat down with the others, only eating a single pack of crackers.

"Hey, uh you look pretty good in that heh heh." Randy desperately tried to break the silence halfway through eating.
"Yeah, it sure does." Tom said sarcastically as he shoved his sad bean breakfast into his mouth.
Stan looked at them disapprovingly as he finished his bite to speak.
"Ignore them, Y/N I think you look-"

He stopped speaking when a noise arose, drowning his voice