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Jonathan sighed as he hung his head over the bathroom sink. He had lazily splashed water on his face and watched as a mix of blood and face paint rolled off the tip of his nose. He heard footsteps and the sound of the door closing in the adjacent room.
“Come to steal my first aid supplies, eh?” Evan put on his canadian accent and a goofy grin to add to his tease. Their recent mission had been a flop and he knew the whole gang was taking a hit but Jonathan seemed the most down about it. He listened as the other man let out a grunt before moving into the bathroom.
“Alright come on. Let me clean you up,” Evan gently tugged on Jonathan’s shirt. Jonathan didn’t complain and sat himself on the counter beside the sink. Evan grabbed a rag from under the sink and put it under warm water before moving to wipe the face paint-blood mixture off of Jonathan. Jonathan kept his eyes closed throughout the whole ordeal but Evan could tell his mind was over thinking what had happened.
Their mission had seemed simple: set up camp outside the warehouse where a big drug shipment was coming in, on the night of the shipment everyone was suppose to be at the camp. They had set up their camp a few weeks earlier in case the shipment came early and took turns swapping out who stayed each week. This week it had been Jonathan, Brain, Tyler and Luke.
Evan chewed his lip remembering when he had stayed his week. Marcel and Anthony kept counting more and more men showing up. This made the team agree to set up an emergency alert that would be sent back to their main base. Even then when Jonathan went to leave Evan had pulled him aside and told him that even if no one was attacking yet to hit the alert when he had a bad feeling. Jonthan took his advice and 30 minutes before the group got ambushed the alert at the base went off. By the time the rest of the gang got there Brain had two bullets in his leg, Tyler’s shoulder was dislocated from falling on it wrong due to a grenade explosion, Luke and Jonathan had scraped and scratches all over them from bullets and grenades’ shrapnels. The most they could do was give the small group cover until they got into the vans for them to leave
“Do you think they knew?” Jonathan’s voice broke the silence as he stared at Evan.
“I don’t know…”
“What, what if they-they knew the whole time? And that's why they kept calling in people?”
Evan gently wiped the blood off from the scrape on Jonathan’s right cheek, he moved away to grab some alcohol wipes to clean it. He let out a soft sigh as he moved back, “I don’t know Jonathan. They could have been calling in more people because of the shipment and then someone happen to catch wind of everyone up there which lead to the ambush.”
Jonathan winced at the alcohol wipe but continued to maintain eye contact with Evan. Evan could already hear the other’s thoughts and silently stopped what he was doing to look back at Jonathan.
“It wasn’t your fault, Jon.”
“It...it feels like it”
“Everyone agreed on—“
“They agreed on my plan Evan! You agreed to my plan! And now people are hurt and—and those drugs are going to be all over Los Santos! I feel—I feel so stupid .”
Jonathan’s shoulders sagged at the end of his rant. The words stuck inside his head were finally out in the air and Evan quietly took them in as he finished cleaning and bandaging Jonathan’s cheek. Jonathan’s eyes fluttered shut as he grumbled, “I’m sorry.”
“It wasn’t your fault,” Evan whispered, he gently cupped Jonathan’s cheeks, “Yes ...it was your plan, but we all added onto it. You gave a base idea that we expanded on together . As for the drugs: we can easily kidnap some asshat and interrogate him to where the shit it. And if he doesn’t listen then I guess we’ll just have to put our crazy clown on him”
Jonathan let out a soft huff of a laugh and gave Evan a gentle smile. He leaned into Evan’s hands as the Asian continued, “You’re not stupid Jonathan, you know that right?”
Jonathan gave a soft nod, “But I…..I just—I feel like I’m stupid”
“Because people got hurt?”
“Yeah ...and because that mission was a disaster…”
Evan laughed softly, “Don’t worry, we’ll get ‘em next time.”
Jonathan smiled as he placed his hands against the ones on his cheeks, “Thank you, Evan.”
Evan smiled back, his mouth working faster than his brain, “I care about you.”
Jonathan’s laughter echoed through the bathroom as Evan stumbled over his words, “Fuck-wait-I ment: you’re welcome!” Jonathan gently took Evan’s hands and intertwined their fingers. He watched as the other’s face flushed, the hidden meaning behind his words coming out. Jonathan felt his own face flush as he responded back,
“I care about you too.”