Why Did I Sign Up For This?! (Tankman x Doctor!Reader x OC)

*CC* Broken Cadence *CC*

The golden desert sun is blazing hot overhead; its rays bake your skin. Sweat is traversing down your face in small streams, getting in your eyes, droplets dripping off your stubby nose. At first, you tried to lift your arms to wipe the sweat from your vision so you can see, but pretty soon, all you can do is focus on not toppling over. Your arms flop uselessly at your sides as you beg your feet to keep moving.

Yards ahead of you, you can see the black and white forms of the other new recruits steadily increasing the distance between you and them. Before the sun reached its peak, you thought you maybe ... possibly ... had a chance of catching up with them. But they had already lapped around you twice. You'll be lucky to finish this lap without them passing you again.

And beside them booms Captain--stupid Captain with his burly, drawling generic military voice that makes your teeth grind together.

"I don't know what I've been told!" Captain calls out, matching the pace of his recruits perfectly.

Gruey, JJ, and Benedict echo his words, "I don't know what I've been told!"

"Black and white just can't get old!"

"Black and white just can't get old!"

Out of the corner of your eye, you see Captain throw a pitying glance over his shoulder at you. His mouth forms the word, "Jesus" before he slows down and matches your pace. It's not that hard for him to do; even though you're jogging, his stride is still fast enough to match you.

He's wearing a smug grin on his face when he leans towards you, hands on his hips, and remarks, "Can't quite hear you, Doc."

You groan. "How .... am I ..." you pant, "supposed to sing ... when I'm dying?!"

"It's not singing," Captain retorts with attitude. Using both hands, he pinches his thumb and index finger to one another, like a maestro enjoying a symphony. "It's called a 'running cadence'. It helps my men work as a team when we're out there on the battlefield."

"Good thing ... I won't be on the battlefield?"

Captain shrugs. "You never know, Doc. May just have to have a medic on the field during tough battles."

His words have your feet tripping over themselves in a dance that almost has you landing right on your face. Somehow, you manage to keep upright.

Regaining your balance, you stop running and swivel in his direction to gauge his next reaction. "Are you serious right now?" you cry.

Captain's smile hasn't left his face. "We'll see. All the better to have some training under that fanny pack, hm? Anyway, get back to running and repeat after me..." Suddenly, he's back to yelling again. "Woman left me high and dry!"

You sigh and start running again, trying to time your steps with the beats of the song. After the proper amount of defiant scowling, you wrench your mouth open and reluctantly repeat, "Woman left me high and dry...."

"Good thing I've got mags nearby!"

You grimace.

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Long story short, training was a nightmare.

After about an hour of running and then five minutes of stretching, Captain dismisses you and the others.

"Nice work today, recruits! Go grab a shower and some grub and then head to your assigned stations for the rest of the day. Be back here first thing tomorrow morning."