Whumptober 2022 Oneshots + Alt List Oneshots

Prompt 9 : The Very Noisy Night

Subprompt : Sleeping In Shifts
Fandom : Sacribaro
Pairing : Mike/Aleksandr
Chronology : During Mike's time in the military with Alek

Mike and Alek shared a tent in most places their section of the army stayed in. Every tent consisted of two to four people and they always slept in shifts, just so that there were people on guard in case there was an enemy attack in the middle of the night. It was nice for Mike and Alek because when one was taking a shift, the other got the entire tent to stretch out and rest in.

They switched every two hours, give or take, and they usually spent a little while talking and hanging out in between shifts. These brief moments of connection were amongst their most intimate as the fear of being teased by their fellow soldiers was no longer a concern. In those little moments, it was almost as if the war wasn't happening and they were simply bonding together in a shitty apartment downtown without a care in the world.

"Mike, wake up!" a frantic voice called, stirring Mike from his brief rest. Someone was shaking him, and it took him a few seconds to register that Alek was frantically trying to wake him up, a panicked expression on his face and his short hair a mess.

"Alek, what the fuck?" Mike grumbled in annoyance. It was then that an explosion nearby forced him properly awake.

"There's an attack, and-" Alek was cut off by another explosion right by their tent. The pair stumbled out of the tent quicker than you could say 'grenade' and ran through the night in their night clothes, nothing but their rifles in hand as they raced away from the chaos and into the nearest ditch.

"Alek-"

"Shh" Alek shushed him, covering his mouth. No one knew where exactly the attack was coming from, and they didn't want to draw any unwanted attention to themselves, so keeping quiet was the best decision.

The sound of explosions and gunfire died down for a moment, and the two were starting to relax, but then a grenade was thrown right into the ditch with them. "What is that?" Mike whispered, but Alek knew. He jumped onto Mike, throwing them both to the side right before the bomb went off, and screamed in agony as his leg closest to the bomb started feeling like it was set ablaze. "MEDIC!"

Mike screamed a few more times for a medic as he dragged Alek's frail body back to the surface and near the campfire where a few of their soldiers were lying down near the logs they sat on at night. A medic crawled over and looked over Alek's leg the best he could- The leg itself had been far enough to not be blown to bits, but the heat of the explosion left a serious burn near his foot.

"We can deal with this in the morning" the medic promised. "He'll survive"

"Do we know where the attacks are coming-"

"They left" the medic assured him. "A few soldiers scared them off back into the woods. Only two casualties"

"Shit"

"We're to deal with them in the morning when sight is better"

"Should we really stay here though?" Mike asked, frantic, but relaxed as he felt Alek's hand cup his.

"Calm down, Ponytail" he soothed from the comfort of his lap, his jaw set tight as his leg ached and burned. "We'll deal with it in the morning"

"Okay" Mike swallowed. "But I'm keeping watch for the rest of the night"

"Good, cause I need the rest"