Disclaimer: I don't own anything~
Ramirez stared at the ceiling in the dark night, hands rested on his stomach as he lay there on the bed. His mind blank as the body next to him slept soundly. Ramirez glanced at the body's bare back, every time they had their sessions the person would always turn away from him.
As if it was disgusted.
They both agreed that what they did together was just stress relief from all the fighting. The both of them weren't in any current relationships and there weren't any women around. But Ramirez knew there was more to it than from the fighting.
He turned on his side facing the body's back, edging a bit closer, but just enough that they were barely touching. Ramirez poked the body lightly, "Dunn… You awake?"
Dunn answered back with a small snore.
Ramirez sighed and backed up a bit, he knew the consequences if he slept close to him. Dunn would wake up in the morning and find him sleeping close to his backside, and that always made him mad.
It was stress relief, they both said. So it was forbidden to have any feelings toward each other. Friendship was alright, but anything more was not acceptable. They couldn't say each other's name, and they couldn't cuddle.
It was just a straight up fucking. No romance, no nothing. It always started with force, there was no gentle touch. But Ramirez was hardly the one that pushed around, it was always Dunn.
Almost every night Dunn would come to his room, push him against the wall, and claiming that he was close to getting killed and he needed stress relief. Ramirez never protested. After all, Dunn was his friend and he was also a higher rank.
But that's why Ramirez hardly started it, Dunn was higher rank, a corporal. He only did it when he really needed it, but he always asked first. In which Dunn would smirk in response and say that Ramirez had to grow some balls. Ramirez then would say something witty about it and Dunn would laugh, as if they weren't going to fuck each other up in a few moments, like they were just friends.
Just friends that liked to fuck each other up for 'stress relief'.
But, that's what they were. It was the truth in everything. They were just friends that went wild in the night.
Ramirez knew though, he knew that to Dunn it was more than just being almost killed. He used that excuse most of the time, other times he would say he got pissed or something else. Ramirez knew that he was just a replacement, a replacement for the man that left them.
But the man was something more to Dunn, something more that Ramirez questioned if he wanted or not.
Ramirez sat up and hugged his knees. He let out a small sigh, "What the hell were you thinking, Allen…"
Allen.
Ramirez ran his hand through his hair, letting out a grunt when he found that his head was sweaty. He flopped back down on the bed, turning on his side and facing away from Dunn. His thoughts raced as he tried to remember his friend, Allen.
Allen was just a year older than him. Joining the Rangers a year ago made him have one year of experience with war, but he handled it way better than Ramirez when he joined.
When Ramirez first joined he was kind of lost in his thoughts, messing up quite a bit even with his training, tripping on his own feet, and he was always being told what to do because he was the FNG.
But on the second day he was there, Allen had helped him.
Ramirez was told to do his teammates' laundry. Being the obedient man he was, he followed through. He was in the laundry room sorting the clothes, grumbling how it was unfair that he was always being told to do something. Ramirez had turned around when he heard a small laugh come from the door.
There Allen was holding his own basket of dirty clothes, laughing. Ramirez frowned when he saw that basket, thinking that Allen was going to dump it in the pile. But instead Allen put the basket on the ground and helped Ramirez fold.
He glanced at Ramirez, a small smile displayed on his lips. "I was wondering where everyone's clothes went."
Ramirez blinked, "Sir?" He thought it only proper to call him that, he didn't know Allen's name at the time but he did know that he was a PFC. Ramirez was only a Private.
Allen had let out a chuckle and turned to look at Ramirez, "You don't have to call me that, man. I'm a Private, just like you." He smiled as Ramirez nodded as if the information was very important. "My name's Joseph Allen, you?"
Ramirez looked back at the shirt he was folding, noticing that Allen was still folding even though he was looking at him. "James Ramirez."
Allen turned his attention back to the clothes, "Well Ramirez, don't worry about the guys, they always tell the new FNG what to do." Allen paused, "Then again, there are other rookies…" He gave Ramirez a worrying glance, "They're probably just making a joke about you being Mexican, huh?"
Ramirez shrugged it off, "I don't really care."
Allen gave a small laugh, "Well, well, well, aren't you a positive person?"
The both of them continued to do the laundry the whole day, together. They had conversations, jokes, and even some stories from their hometowns. It was the start of a great friendship.
They spent almost everyday together, training, playing around, and even chores. But one day when they were both in Ramirez's room having a normal talk, Dunn came in.
"Ramirez," Allen and Ramirez turned their attention to the doorway, "I'm gonna need you to… Oh." Dunn crossed his arms and leaned against the doorframe, a determined look on his face as he turned his attention to Allen. "So this is where you've been going to the past few days."
Allen laughed and clapped his hand on Ramirez's shoulder, "Yeah, man. Ramirez is awesome! He's real funny!" Dunn hummed in response as he lazily glanced at Ramirez.
Ramirez remembered feeling uncomfortable when Dunn looked at him that time, a feeling of hatred shot through him as he looked into Dunn's eyes. His expression showed that he was bored, but Ramirez felt as though Dunn was jealous.
Allen must have sensed that Ramirez was uncomfortable because he laughed nervously, "So, what did you need, Dunn?"
Dunn paused at first, but then he pushed himself off the doorframe. "Nothing, I'll just have you do it."
Allen frowned, but he got up from his seat anyway. "Okay." He turned back to Ramirez with a smile, "Wake up early tomorrow, you and me are gonna have a race." Ramirez grinned and Allen turned and walked out the door.
Dunn had stayed for a bit and stared at Ramirez. Ramirez smiled, "Don't be so hard on him, whatever he's doing."
Dunn looked away, "I'll keep that in mind." Before Ramirez could say anything, he left. Ramirez then flopped onto his bed and slept for a good night's rest.
The rest didn't last that long until he woke up in the middle of the night. He awoke slowly, he did not have to go that bad, but he still had to go. Ramirez quietly got off the bed and tiptoed out of the room, so as to not to wake up his roommate.
He made it to the bathroom when he heard thumping and shouting down the hall. Ramirez raised his eyebrow in question. He hesitated and looked at the bathroom door, he crossed his arms. "To pee or not to pee, that is the question." Ramirez mentally slapped himself for the lame joke before turning around to walk to the noise.
It might be some trouble, I should careful, he thought. As Ramirez continued down the hall looking for something to use as a weapon, the noises turned into something more.
Two people were shouting at each other, one loud and one trying to keep their voice down. Occasional thumps as if someone fell down, and loud bed squeaks.
But Ramirez could recognize one the people shouting, the one that was quiet.
He took a sharp intake of breath as his eyes widened, "Allen…" Ramirez sprinted down the hall. Not thinking he turned and broke the glass for a fire extinguisher, almost dropping it as he ran again.
Ramirez came to the door and jangled the doorknob, but it was locked. He tried to kick the door down and it didn't work either. The adrenaline rush he was in didn't let him stop to think as he brought the fire extinguisher up and ramming it against the door, 3 fast tries and the door pushed open.
Ramirez rushed in, ready to fire the extinguisher. He looked at Allen, who was shocked by Ramirez's appearance, but there was also fear on his features. "Allen, are you... Okay..? … Dude, are you naked?"
Ramirez made eye contact with Allen, who blushed in embarrassment, and watched as Allen put a blanket around himself. He jumped in shock as Allen turned suddenly to him, "Ramirez, watch out!"
Ramirez tilted his head in question when he heard the door slam close. Before he could turn around a person wrapped an arm around him and covered his mouth, he struggled but the person that was holding him was much stronger.
Allen rushed to him and tried to pry the person's arms off of him. Allen shouted at the culprit, "Stop! Dunn, cut it out!"
Ramirez heard Dunn grunt as he was pushed to the ground. Ramirez turned on his side and saw Dunn glaring at him. He noticed that Dunn wasn't wearing a shirt but he was wearing pants, pants that weren't zipped up and unbuttoned.
His eyes widened with realization, "Y-you two were…"
Dunn snarled, "What the hell do you think you're doing busting in here?"
Ramirez grunted as he got up, looking away from the two of them. "I heard some noises and Allen. I thought somebody was hurting him."
Allen laughed, "That's true in some way."
"Shut up, Allen." Dunn said in a quiet voice with a blush on his face.
Ramirez turned and gave them a questioning look. Before he could say anything Allen answered the question that played on his mind. "Friends with benefits," Allen chuckled, "Although Dunn likes to call it 'stress relief' for some reason."
Dunn stayed silent. Allen cleared everything up for Ramirez and told him to go back to sleep, after that they never mentioned the little incident. They quickly became fast friends, but that was because wherever Allen went Dunn was there and it was vice versa.
Ramirez shifted on the bed as those memories ran through his mind, he didn't want to remember it all. Not all of it, he didn't want to remember all of it.
But it always did when he thought about why he was here.
He was Allen's 'replacement' after all.
Allen. The one that was so kind, so caring, and the one that Dunn wanted to lay there next to him. Not Ramirez, no, never Ramirez.
Ramirez silently cursed himself as his mind went back to when Allen was leaving. Where Allen was just packing up to go while Dunn shouted at him, and Ramirez hid and listened to them argue.
"You can't just leave!"
"Dunn, be reasonable. This is a big opportunity, it's the Task Force 141!" Dunn glared and took some of Allen's shirts out of the suitcase. Allen grabbed his arm, "Hey!"
Dunn pushed him away, continuing to take Allen's clothes out of the suitcase, he got so angry that he just threw the suitcase up in the air. Allen's eyes widened in shock, but he didn't stop Dunn from kicking his clothes around whilst swearing obscenities.
Ramirez wondered if there were that many swears.
"Dunn…," Allen managed to breathe out, but Dunn ignored him. Allen reached out to Dunn's arm and quickly reacted to hug him when Dunn swung his arm to hit him. "Jake, I know that this is hard for you to…"
"No! You DON'T understand!" Dunn yelled, grabbing Allen's head. "You don't know… How this…" Dunn rested his head on Allen's shoulder.
Allen sighed, "It's not like I have a choice, Jake."
"You could've at least looked angry or something… And stop using my first name, Joseph."
Allen grinned and pulled back to look at Dunn, "But I like your first name!"
Smirking, Dunn pulled Allen closer. "Don't push it, I'm already letting you off to join remember?"
Ramirez high tailed it out of there before things got hot and heavy in the room.
The next day, Ramirez watched as Allen went on the helicopter.
Ramirez grinned, "Allen!" Allen turned with a questioning smile.
"Rangers lead the way!"
Allen laughed, "Got that right! And remember, Ramirez! You're a MexiCAN, not a MexiCAN'T!" With that, he left without another word. Goodbyes were already made beforehand, especially with Dunn.
But Ramirez couldn't help look back behind him to see Dunn's expression. It was the same as always, with his 'cool and laid-back' personality.
Dunn raised an eyebrow at him, "What?"
"Nothing," Ramirez responded back.
And that was the beginning, the beginning of Ramirez's and Dunn's late night 'stress relief' sessions.
It happened quickly. In fact, Ramirez doesn't even remember how it happened. But he's sure it had something to do with the mentioning of Allen, war, and other negative stuff.
Ramirez breathed out a sigh, A replacement… Shaking the thought out of his head, he turned his head to Dunn. Pursing his lips together wondering what to do, he knew he couldn't leave the room or the bed without Dunn waking up.
His breathing hitched when he felt the bed shake as Dunn turned over, reaching for something. Dunn's arm landed on Ramirez's stomach, causing Ramirez to yelp. Dunn proceeded to hug him.
It made Ramirez's heart tingle, but it made his brain go in debate. He could feel his heart beating against his chest and he was cursing himself if Dunn woke up because of it. But that feeling instantly left as he heard Dunn mutter something that proved Ramirez's point.
"Joseph…"
He was just a replacement.
Hahaha. XD I hope no one hates me for this!