Chapter Text
König was never one to talk to others, he was especially never one to make friends and that's exactly the reason why he decided to join the military. No need to make friends when he can't think about anything other than war. right?
König found his days at his base maddening, not talking to anyone, isolated, constantly losing the people around him. Even if he didn't know them all that well, watching that much death and despair was good for no one, not even a recluse who has been alone his whole life.
It didn’t help he was never treated well by his teammates- they always would comment on his height or how sickly he looked sometimes. König could barely handle going on missions with them anymore, the insecurity, the anxiety was all too much. So, when hearing he would be transferred to a special unit task force somewhere in the UK, he was more than relieved to get away from the base, full of terrible memories and empty rooms.
As his captain was briefing him on the transferring procedures König was lost in his thoughts and the excitement of having a new start, in a new place, with new people so much so he forgot to listen to the bulk of the information being given to him.
“Do you agree to be transferred, Sergeant?” was all he could catch.
“Yes, Sir.”
~
The plane’s seats were obviously not made for people over two meters tall, so the eighteen hour journey was more akin to eighteen hours of torture. Once on the tarmac of his new base König let out a sigh of relief. He would never have to spend another second in that death machine the engineers liked to pass off as an aeroplane. The faces who welcomed him to his new home looked kind, which eased König’s worries a fraction, yet he was still hesitant to let his guard down.
“The name’s Price, I’ll be your Captain, from now on you will be following orders from me. Understand?”
“Yes, Captain,” König responded, voice laced with giddiness. He would learn from his mistakes back in Germany, he would at least try to talk to someone on the damned base whether he liked it or not.
“This ‘ere is Gaz, he’ll show you around the base and help you get settled in,” Price said, before he turned on his heel and took his leave. Gaz stayed silent while staring up at König. Immediately, thoughts started racing through his mind- how had he already messed up when he hasn't even been here for more than 10 minutes and everybody is already judging him, they already hate hi-
König was suddenly pulled from his never-ending spiral of thoughts when Gaz finally decided to speak up. “Wow you’re tall, I mean we have some giants here but…” Gaz trailed off with a look of wonder in his eyes, this did not make König feel any better yet Gaz seemed to notice the furrow of his brow behind his mask. “Oh uh- don't worry it's good to be tall, gives you an advantage on the field. I know you’ll be a great addition to the team.” König could tell there was something genuine behind Gaz trying to comfort him, though it didn't eliminate the sinking feeling of dread in his chest. His words had done more than any other attempt to comfort him, it made him feel ever slightly more wanted and useful than he felt at any time serving back home.
The base was bare and grey, just like any other. The winding narrow hallways would be a pain to navigate if he didn't have a guide, and Gaz was walking with a confidence, as if he was on a mission. That mission was soon revealed to König when he found himself at the base’s mess hall, during peak hour no less. “Welcome to dinner, a war of its own in ‘ere I tell you,” was all Gaz chuckled before he was gone, off to get some food. König quickly caught up to Gaz and grabbed a meal of his own.
Gaz showed him to a table with 2 other men who seemed to be in the middle of an argument, when they stopped to take a good look at König. He could see that one had a mohawk and the other had a mask similar to König himself, yet this stranger had a skull sewn to the front of it, it looked terrifying, König couldn't tell if he wore it to scare his enemies or everybody else on base. After a silence that was slightly too long for anybody to find it comfortable, someone finally decided to speak up.
“You can sit down y’know,” it was the skull masked man, who was swiftly punched in the arm by the person sitting beside him. König eventually did sit down next to Gaz who was opposite the two strangers he assumes are his new crew.
“You must be the new one? I’m Soap, and the scary lookin’ fella over ‘ere is Ghost,” Soap had a wide toothy grin while Ghost just stared at him with an unwavering gaze and furrowed brows.
Gaz and Soap were engrossed in conversation though König could not pick up a single word. He was much more focused on Ghost, who was staring daggers into his soul. König tried to ignore the glare and continue with his meal yet it was hard when the man staring at him looked like he could kill anyone in this room in less than a second. König stole a quick glance at Ghost again, just to make certain that he wasn't going crazy, but he immediately regretted that decision as he noticed the eyes that were watching him intently were right next to him.
König was so focused on not making eye contact with this new stranger and so wrapped up in his own unending thoughts that he hadn’t seemed to notice the shuffle that had taken place along his table. Ghosts eyes were now right next to him, staring at him; it was as if his gaze was burning holes in him. This felt like an interrogation.
“Where’re ya from, big guy?” asked Ghost, his eyes glancing at the taller man. König blushed at the use of the nickname, he was glad he wore a mask yet you couldn't ignore the feeling that everyone could see his bright red face even through the mask.
“Ich- I‘m from Austria but i joined the German army,” König’s voice was staggered, he was fluent in English thanks to his dad yet that didn't show from this short interaction.
The table was silent while Ghost interrogated König, all presumably too scared to interject. The questions lasted only 10 minutes though it felt like hours because of the amount of stress and fear that Ghost instilled in him.
After dinner, Gaz showed him to the barracks, long grey hallways with identical door the only thing distinguishing them, small numbers next to the doors on the wall, walking to the end of the hall, #21 plastered next to the door,
“This‘ll be your room, be glad you're not rooming with anyone,” Gaz jested, shooting him a wink. König was indeed feeling lucky- he didn't think he could handle sharing his room with anyone, someone so close to his personal space, so close to him, it would send him into a panic.
That night was calm, though he did feel uneasy because of the change of location but it was only a matter of days until he could accept this place as his new home. The night was calm compared to his old barracks, the rowdy sounds of his fellow soldiers drunk off their asses trying to drown the sorrows of war and loss was a common occurrence back at home, he rarely got more than 5 hours of sleep, the group here seemed to be much well adjusted to the losses of war and didn't need to be piss drunk to deal with it all.
He knew that his sleep would be amazing compared to the shaky and inconsistent rest he got on the plane ride here, he closed his eyes and almost immediately fell into the arms of exhaustion, some subconscious part of his brain whispered to him while he was still in the in-between of consciousness that this is the place for him and he had found his people and oh did he pray that was true.