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“You came back.” Edward blinked, surprise written all over his face at Bruces’ sudden reappearance as he ducked down beside him, the loud gunfire continuing to whiz over their heads.
Bruce looked a little taken aback at Edwards’ expression. “Of course I came back. Why wouldn’t I?” He asked, eyes clouded by confusion.
“I thought they might have got you.” Edward confessed, jumping as their barricade was again assaulted by weapon fire. “The thought of you lying shot in a nearby ditch is unappealing and I am also aware that without you I probably will not make it. I am a genius after all, I know the odds.”
Chuckling despite the circumstances, Bruce nodded. “That is probably true.” Peeking over the barricade, he made a quick assessment. “We need to get to safer ground. They are trying to flank us.” Bruce muttered as he wiped a small piece of dirt off his face.
“Where is your gun?” Edward asked as he reloaded his own weapon, his hands trembling slightly as he forced the magazine in.
His face stony, Bruce avoided Edwards’ eye. “It was stolen by one of them while I was distracted. I think they were toying with me since they could have taken me out easily but chose not to.”
Edward sighed loudly and fixed Bruce with an exasperated gaze, “Just how seriously do your children take this game?” He dropped one of his extra pistols in Bruces’ hand along with an entire magazine of paintballs. He had thought this would be a fun exercise which would maybe make Bruces’ kids a little less inclined to kill him on sight, as they usually threatened to do, but now he was full of regret.
“Very, it would seem.” Bruce matched his sigh as he vaguely made out Tim scaling one of the far off trees and throwing out a series of signals to his three brothers whom Bruce knew were hiding among the assorted flora. “They like you really but they would also quite like to fire an entire round of paintballs into your smug face.”
“My face is not smug.” Edward protested and at Bruces’ rolling eyes he conceded, “all the time.”