The A Team

Chapter Eight

Just want to note, that for those of you who are only here for the Grian/Mumbo ship, there will be some in every chapter, if not the focus of the chapter. Without further ado, I hope you enjoy!

Day 63

Stress felt conflicted.
"You guys ready to give it a try?" False asked the small group of shooters.
Mumbo nodded uneasily while Grian grinned and raised his empty hand in a salute.
False put her hands on her hips.
"Ok! Boys, you know how to load your crossbows so I'll leave you to the target practice. Stress, you know what you're doing right?"
"Well, yes but-"
"Good!" False cut in absentmindedly. "Go ahead and I'll step in as needed"
Stress sighed, and equipped her bow. The problem wasn't a lack of skill. False had been working with her on her aim and she was getting pretty good. She had a 70% accuracy rate on the circular targets False had helped her to learn on. But now...
Mumbo had spent the last couple days working on a moving target set, with human shaped targets that moved back and forth with varying rates of speed. It worked perfectly, and the way Grian had painted the human targets were very realistic.
"Stress are you ok?"
Stress felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up into False's crystal blue eyes.
She lowered her gaze and glanced at the arrow in her hand.
"I just..."
False crinkled her eyebrows.
"Do you need help stringing up your arrow?"
"No"
"Do you want help aiming?"
"No"
"Stress... What's wrong?"
Stress sighed and turned back towards her friend.
"They look like people"
"They... what?"
"The targets!" Stress pointed behind herself. "They look like real people"
False tried and failed to hide her expression of utter confusion.
"I'm sorry I don't understand"
Stress took a breath and holstered her bow.
"I'm a healer False. It's my job to help people and heal them and..." she desperately searched for more synonyms.
"Anyway, I've really liked learning how to use the bow. It's cool, and I know it's an important skill to have in our position, but I never really associated it with shooting a person until..." she looked back at the targets.
"Until now"
Stress hung her head.
"I just don't want to hurt anyone, and knowing that I possibly could, scares me"
False's expression softened and she put her arm around the small brunette.
"I get it Stress" she said gently. "There is a big difference between shooting at a target and shooting at a person, and when you begin to make that transition it can be difficult, especially for someone like you"
Stress raised her head.
"What do you mean?"
"You have the biggest heart of anyone I've ever met" False said matter of factly. "It's no surprise that you would find this sort of thing hard. You wouldn't hurt a fly"
She offered Stress one of her rare smiles.
"Look, if you need to take some time before moving onto this, that's fine. You can keep practicing on the regular targets for a while"
"Really?"
"Yeah of course" False said falling back into her tough girl persona. She began to walk away, but stopped and turned back.
"Look..." False raked a hand through her hair. "Would you mind not telling the guys about how sappy I was just now? I have a reputation to maintain"
Stress giggled.
"Your secret is safe with me Falsey"
_____________________________________________________
"This one. No no no, ok, this one. Ok this one!"
Grian laughed as he missed his third shot in a row. He shrugged and turned to Mumbo with his signature smile.
"Your turn"
Mumbo chuckled at his friend before pulling an arrow out of the small case strapped to his belt.
Aware of Grian's eyes on him, he puffed out his chest slightly and tried to appear more confident than he felt. Placing an arrow in the flight groove of the crossbow, he held the scope up to his eye.
Mumbo was very proud of the moving human targets he had made. It wasn't a difficult contraption, but he had wanted it to be just perfect. He had also been able to watch Grian paint them, which had been the best part.
Stop it Mumbo thought. Stop thinking about him so much. Besides, it's creepy to watch a friend like that.
"Any day now" Grian murmured.
Mumbo blinked rapidly, his face heating up right on cue.
"S-sorry" he stuttered, taking aim again.
He pressed his lips together, and pushed down on the trigger. The wooden arrow caught the leg of one of the targets, and Mumbo stepped back, admiring his shot.
"Nice one!" Grian exclaimed, thumping him on the back.
Mumbo smiled bashfully and pushed his hair out of his face, avoiding Grian's eyes. He always got distracted by them.
"Well that's enough for me today" Grian said, unhooking his weapon belt and tossing it in a nearby box.
"Do you want to get dinner?"
Mumbo felt his mouth go dry as he struggled to speak.
"Dinner?" He coughed violently. "Y-yeah! I'd love that"
You're too excited he scolded inwardly.
"Race you inside!" Grian yelled, already taking off and flying towards the base.
Mumbo stood for a moment, breathing heavily, trying to force his face to return to a normal color. He heard a giggle behind him  and turned around.
Stress had her hands pressed to her mouth and Iskall stood next to her with a knowing smile.
"Sooooo... Mumbo" Iskall said raising his eyebrows. "Anything to divulge?"
"What? No. Why would you say that?" Mumbo said, looking around to make sure Grian was long gone.
Stress let another giggle escape her lips.
"Come on Mumbo!" She said skipping over to him. "You like Grian, don't you"
"What?"
"Mumbo-"
"No!" Mumbo exclaimed, stumbling away from her, attempting to hide his face. "You're way off base. He's just a friend!"
Iskall laughed and joined Stress.
"Dude don't even try to cover it up" he said pulling Mumbo to face him. "You may have been nervous around all of us at the beginning, but it's been three months and the only person who still makes you stutter is him"
"Not to mention the blushing" Stress snickered.
Mumbo put his face in his hands.
"How many people know?"
Iskall shrugged.
"I mean, I don't really know. It's not like we talk about it"
"Ren and I do" Stress cut in.
"What?!" Mumbo spun to face her. "Ren is Grian's best friend! They're like brothers! What if he tells him?!"
"He won't!" Stress said soothingly.
"How do you know?!"
"Because I asked"
Mumbo stared at her.
"You... are really nosy"
She smiled and shrugged.
"We all have our weaknesses"
"I can deal with this myself" Mumbo said defiantly. "It's just a little crush! I'll get over it soon"
Stress put a hand on his shoulder and looked into his eyes.
"Do you really believe that?"
"I... no"
He hung his head.
"Look man you don't have to do anything if you don't want to" Iskall said. "Grian has so little experience with social interaction, I doubt he'll notice if you don't tell him. And for us-" he gestured to himself and Stress. "It's just funny"
"Gee thanks" Mumbo grunted rolling his eyes.
He felt arms wrap around his middle as Stress hugged him.
"If it's any consolation, I'm rooting for you" she said. "I think you guys are cute together"
"Mumbo Jumbo!"
The three turned as Grian glided towards them.
"What's taking so long?"
Stress and Iskall watched Mumbo's face as it flooded with color and his mouth twisted into a dopey smile.
"Sorry!" He exclaimed. "I-I just got um... distracted b-by" he waved his hand in Stress and Iskall's direction absentmindedly "the- uh, them"
Grian smiled at Iskall and Stress in turn.
"Sorry to interrupt! We were going to get something to eat" he said nudging Mumbo's arm. "Do you guys want to come?"
Iskall looked at Mumbo and smirked.
"Nah we're good" he said. "Go enjoy yourselves"
Stress giggled and Mumbo narrowed his eyes at them.
Grian looked between the three of them, clearly confused by the situation. He shrugged it off however, and poked Mumbo in the ribs, making him jump.
"Come on! I'm starving"
He grabbed Mumbo's hand and pulled the flustered man behind him as he ran towards the bunker.
Stress and Iskall laughed, watching the tall man trip over his own feet.
"He's never going to tell Grian how he feels" Iskall said with a snigger.
"I don't know I think he might" Stress said, looking fondly at her friends off in the distance.
"Care to put your money where your mouth is?"
"Sure!"
"Ok" Iskall turned to her. "If Mumbo tells him within the next... let's say three months, you win. If he doesn't, I win, and you have to... make me a five course meal for a special dinner. You are the best cook on the team"
"Ok... if I win, you have to let me and False give you a makeover" she giggled.
Iskall smiled.
"Deal"

I hope you enjoyed the chapter!
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New chapter coming soon!