Dendritic Cell's lover's grief

Dendritic Cell was suffering from love. A bright, limitless and unrequited one. His love knew no bounds and was full of devotion, as strong as a cell was able to love another. However, the reason of his secret suffering didn't even notice his existence in that world or, more precisely, that organism. The proud, brave Squad Leader of the T-Killers was above unnecessary things like feelings and annoying dendritic cells, even though the latter was always one of the first rushing to him to present him antigens and reverentially shuddered at the tiniest contact of their fingers during the presentation, sneaking looks full of false hopes and yearnings at him. A few times he had even awkwardly tried to invite him to go somewhere together, but it was as if the T-Killer didn't even see him. One of the Dendrocyte's distant relatives, who was living in the thymus, once told him a terrifying story about final exams, where he had participated as well, among others examining that current Squad Leader. Without the latter's clever classmate, the future T-Helper Commander, he would have failed the negative selection and said relative would have been forced to eliminate him together with the others who have failed. Our Dendritic Cell was thinking about this with a shudder and thanked all the existing forces of homeostasis that this hadn't happened, feeling a huge gratitude towards the T-Helper deep inside, though he was still jealous. During his lover's grief, he reached desperation from time to time, sometimes entering melancholy, other times wailing like a girl or even thinking of hanging himself on the very tree he was living on. His dendrocyte-friends were comforting him, suspecting that it was about an unrequited love, but didn't manage to get a clear answer out of him. The poor guy was enduring everything, not wanting to reveal his secret. All he could do was suffering in silence and hoping for a miracle. It's said that if you wish for something very strongly, your wish could come true. And so, one wonderful day, Dendritic Cell had a free hour and was sitting in his treehouse, sewing his beloved lactic acid bacteria plushies and dreaming about being carried in the T-Killer's arms. Oh, these impossible dreams! The Squad Leader, in the meantime, was sitting on the same tree and fending off cells infected by some strange virus. He had never seen anything more disgusting in his life: bubbling viruses, looking like acid-bright hats with a heart-pattern had stuck themselves to the heads of unlucky "zombies", making them do various obscenities, like doing their business in front of everyone or collectively dancing Lambada. Soon, the monsters stopped doing nonsense and started to climb on the tree to get him. The T-Killer was going up higher and higher, until he grabbed the railing of the balcony, pulled himself up with his last remaining strength and fell into the Dendrocyte's house. The latter could not believe his luck! He let go of his sewing work and opened his mouth to ask what had happened, but the Squad Leader interrupted him: "Call for backup." Dendritic Cell called the headquarters. The T-Helper promised him to send a few units and ended the call. Hanging on top of the railing, the T-Killer was gloomily watching how the tree was getting covered by "zombies" from all sides, who were climbing on it like ants. Taking the offense in the house would be impossible, they had to get out asap and head to their coworkers. The T-Killer's men were currently being kept against the lymphatic duct, there, behind the bridge. Thinking about an escape route, he asked the Dendrocyte: "Can you run fast?" The other was willing to do anything, even break through a crowd of enraged contagious zombies, just to be with his beloved Squad Leader. He nodded effusively and immediately rushed to get a rope-ladder for the emergency evacuation, also taking a quite heavy folder with important documents with him, just in case. Since the tree's trunk was full of infected cells, they had to fasten the rope to the thickest branch they could reach and descend at some distance from it. Of course, the ladder was too short to reach the ground. Hanging on to the last rope, the Squad Leader started swinging and jumped down. Then he yelled at the frightened Dendritic Cell to do the same. The latter closed his eyes and threw himself down... but was skillfully caught. Dendritic Cell, who couldn't believe his luck, found himself in the T-Killer's arms. He could feel the other's body heat, the tense movements of his muscles under the uniform and his unparalleled heartbeat, so powerful and steady... The Dendrocyte was delirious with joy and burning with heat, like a maiden on her wedding night. And then, the violent "infectees" grabbed the Squad Leader's legs, making him fall on top of Dendritic Cell. The latter realized that he may never get such a chance again, decided to not let it pass and kissed him. "Now's not the time for that!" grumbled the T-Killer, jumped to his feet, threw the other man over his shoulder and rushed off to reach the others and regroup instead of senselessly playing the hero alone in a ring of enemies that was getting tighter and tighter. In the meantime, Dendritic Cell was having his head in the clouds while hanging on the T-Killer's shoulder and sometimes hitting the "zombies", who were trying to attack the Squad Leader from behind, with his heavy folder. And he also managed to reach one of them with the twig on his hat and to successfully rip out a sample for an antigen presentation. Thanks to the T-Killer's great physical fitness and his strategic weapon in the form of Dendritic Cell with his folder protecting his back, they managed to get to the slightly beat-up squad of T-Killers. The Leader immediately started to give orders left and right, and the Dendrocyte, who was now in relative safety, contacted his colleagues, and they helped to spread the necessary information about the enemy among the immune cells. After that, fresh troops of T cells arrived, a NK in the mood for fighting, and also the no less enthusiastic B Lymphocyte with his friend Memory Cell and a giant cannon loaded with antibodies. A bit later, they were joined by macrophages, and the fun began. *** Their victory was more than successful. The T-cells and the macrophages were piling up the killed "zombies" in order to dispose of them later, and the T and B memory cells were writing down that historic battle for future generations to the accompaniment of the B Lymphocyte's bragging about himself and his antibodies. NK made it clear that she had also contributed to the victory, and the macrophages made it even clearer that if they had nothing to do, they should help with the cleanup or carry away the injured together with the neutrophils who were beaten up the most. The T-Killers mocked them as usual, saying that they had gotten their asses kicked like losers. But, to be fair, it had to be said that thanks to the operative work of them and a lot of other cells, the organism had been saved from a dangerous virus. And a considerable part of the merit belonged to Dendritic Cell and his colleagues.   The Squad Leader praised his men and then stepped aside and patted the Dendrocyte, who was just humbly standing there, on the back. The latter looked at him with eyes full of pain and love, like someone, whose fate was to suffer for all eternity. "Great job, weakling!" said the T-Killer. "You've deserved a reward." "Could I get it right now?" the other asked carefully. "Wut?" The Dendrocyte was in a turmoil. Trying to process everything that had happened, he came to the conclusion that maybe it had been in the heat of the moment, but it did seem that the Squad Leader hadn't minded his kiss earlier. So he decided to take another risk, moved closer to him, slightly closed his eyes and nervously gasped out: "Just one kiss", pursing his lips. "Are ya crazy?" The T-Killer was taken aback, worried that somebody might have seen them. "Yes. Love makes us go crazy," replied Dendritic Cell and dared to take his hand, expecting to get hit any moment for his audacity. The Squad Leader shook off his tenacious hand, slightly shoved him to the side and hurried to send him packing, muttering into his ear the order to wait for him at his office. *** After approximately half an hour, the Squad Leader got some free time and arrived at the treehouse. Having tightly closed the door behind him, he hurriedly took off his shirt before the baffled Dendrocyte's eyes and said:  "You asked for it yourself. Come here, get your reward." Not believing his eyes and ears, Dendritic Cell happily rushed into the T-Killer's arms, who had decided to take advantage of the opportunity to release some tension after the battle. So it didn't end with just kisses, and the Dendrocyte could enjoy several hours of unearthly happiness with his beloved. *** But what a pity that the mean Squad Leader never called him after that.