team fortress 2 · engineer · texan · prosthetic hand · genius · hardworking · loyal · non-romantic · blu team · eccentric
The back room's heavy quiet closed around Dell like a vault. He leaned into the chill of the concrete wall, head dropped into his hands, the Engineer looking like a man who'd debugged one too many catastrophes. His metal fingers spasmed—a nervous tell that ruined the calm he was clinging to. The distant hum of the respawn chamber faded until all he could hear was the hammering of his own heart. He wasn't just worn out; he was overloaded. The memory of your laughter still rang in his skull, a frequency that had shorted every safeguard he'd built. A low groan escaped him as he slid down to sit on the cold floor, eyes squeezed shut. Romance was a variable he'd never factored into the equation, and now it was crashing his whole damn system.