Chapter Text
Ten seconds. That's how long it took to respawn. Ten whole seconds of being dead. The excruciating feeling of being lit on fire, exploded, stabbed in the back, beat to death, sawed to death, injected, headshot, immediately followed by nothing, and then blinding white lights clouding his vision.
The resupply was not a welcoming environment by any means. The floor and walls were made of cold tile, the light's flickered and threatened to shut off, and the sounds of the battlefield was only barely muffled. The sight would make any civilian paralyzed with fear. But Scout is a mercenary. He'd been through it so many times, hundreds of thousands of times being brutally killed by an enemy BLU, just to wake up in the cold sterile room.
He had been brought back to reality to a strong hand slapping him on the back.
"WAKE UP, MAGGOT! THIS IS A BATTLEFIELD! YOU WILL GET OUT THERE AND SHED SOME BLOOD!" Soldier's voice was grating. If the harsh lights and migraine of being alive again didn't already make your head throb, than just the sound of Soldier's screeching orders will.
He truly didn't want to go back out, but he signed up for this. "Gotcha." He responded with his usual bravado, running out onto the field, feeling the dust kick up on his shins. He looked out, seeing the corpses lining the ground, as the Heavy and Medic were coordinating an Über push behind a thin wall. He seemed to be the only one who noticed a blue laser pointing right where they were gonna step out. He decided not to say anything, instead running off.
As he fled the scene, he could hear the faint yelling of pain followed by curses in German. He knew that the BLU Engineer has a nest in their intelligence room, so the only thing he could do is hope for his own team's Soldier or Demoman to take care of it.
He managed to get a few picks on the enemy Medic, Spy, and even Pyro, but he suffered a few burns because of it, nothing a med pack couldn't fix. He noticed the enemy sniper had been getting more kills than usual. He started to wonder where his Spy was. That was his job, Afterall. They were enemies for a reason. Either their Sniper is doing really well, or RED's Spy is not doing any-
Black. Everything was gone. Ten seconds of nothing. He awoke in resupply, a sharp pain right between his eyes. Bastard. Scout raised a hand to his forehead, before sighing and getting back onto the field. He made sure to avoid sightlines, eventually making it to right outside the enemy nest. He peeked the corner, heard the signature beeping of a sentry, and ducked out of sight quickly. Right as he turned back, he spotted the RED soldier storming into view.
"stand back, son, let a real man show you how its done." Soldier grinned and jabbed him on the chest with enough force to push his back against the wall for a second. He turned and fired a few rockets into the room, which was met with a scream and the sound of metal hitting the floor.
Scout peeked the corner once more, and while the Soldier and enemy Engineer were battling it out, he sneaked towards their briefcase, grabbed it, and began sprinting towards base. This was the last capture for the round, the faster he does this, the faster he could just get to bed and-
Black again. Ten seconds of black. He woke up once more in the resupply, audibly groaning, the same sharp pain between the eyes. Damn Sniper. Coincidentally, Spy had respawned at the same time.
"Y'know, it's your job to deal with the Sniper." He spat towards the Frenchman, earning a grumble from him, as he took a drag from his cigarette.
"It is your job to capture ze intelligence." He retorted, that pretentious grin plastered all over his stupid face.
The rest of the match passed uneventfully. Scout died a few more times, but eventually was able to capture their intelligence. the booming voice of the administrator rang throughout the halls, "RED wins!" Scout sighed heartily and gave his legs a good stretch.
"Great work, Scoot." Engie's voice was calm, and comforting. Like getting a warm cup hot cocoa after being punched in the face.
"You too, hard-hat." He smiled and gave Engineer a playful punch to the arm. Engineer was always the first person he sees after battle, since he always sets up nest in the intelligence room, and well, that's where Scout caps. He began walking back to respawn, and Engie didn't follow, instead packing up his buildings.
As he walked into the resupply, he spotted Medic discussing something with Spy, but he was too far away to hear, nor did he care. He stepped up to his locker, and stuffed his bag in messily, just barely able to close the damn thing.
"Ah- Herr scout, may I borrow you for a moment?" Scout's attention was completely drawn to Medic, but he avoided eye contact.
"er- wassup, doc?" He sauntered over to him, and Medic led him to his lab/office/operating room/birds nest.
"Scout- I'm going to be frank vith you- Your performance today was frankly.." His voice faded into static. How many times has Scout been here? Probably a million by now. His shoelaces were tied weird, and he shuffled in place, wanting to fix them but not wanting Medic to think he wasn't paying attention. He changed his focus to outside the window, staring beyond the horizon.
"Scout! Are you even listening?" Medic snapped and suddenly Scout was brought back to reality.
"Hm-? Oh- er- 'course, doc." He slipped his hands into his pockets, trying his best to ignore his shoelaces. GOD his shoelaces.
"Vhat vas I talking to you about?" Medic sat down at his desk.
"How awesome I am at killin' people."
"No, Scout. Quite zhe opposite. You died 15 times today. And you only managed to gain 4 kills."
Scout couldn't even muster a response, just shamefully swinging himself back and forth. "well- I-"
"Scout. I expect better. Ve all do. Do better next time, Bitte." He spoke calmly, and quietly, as if reprimanding a child.
Scout hummed, trying to hide his embarrassment.
Medic stared at him, only for a second. "You may be dismissed. I hope ve don't have to have zhis talk again."
Scout quietly turned to the double doors, and stepped out of the infirmary, just walking absentmindedly to his own room, but he tripped over himself. He huffed and sat up, holding his scraped knee. He hissed in pain and then looked down to his shoes. He forgot to fix them, again.
Something he always hated about himself, was how forgetful he was. He was just hyper focusing on how his shoe laces were messed up, so how could he completely forget not even 10 seconds later?
"How could a runner forget to tie his own shoelaces? Try not to get concussed ze next time you trip." with a woosh of the cloak dropping, Spy appeared in front of Scout out of thin air. Bastard seemed to be watching him at all times.
"Fuck off, Spy." He gave a glare to Spy, who just rolled his eyes in response.
"I hope you're not zhis inattentive on ze battlefield." He blew smoke in scout's face, resulting in a cough from the other. Before Scout could respond, the cloak fell over him, and he heard the distant sound of his expensive dress shoes tapping against the floor, slowly growing quieter.
"asshole." He mumbled, stood up, and brushed himself off quickly, starting to continue heading back to his room. He fell asleep within minutes.
Beep Beep Beep Be-
Scout's fist slammed against the alarm clock, and he groaned and grumbled in protest to himself. Eventually, he managed to pull himself up, rubbing the crust out of his eyes. He stood up out of bed, and changed into some new work clothes, leaving his dirty ones on the floor. He stepped out of the room, and walked over to the kitchen. He was almost always the first one up, along with Spy, who was absent in the mornings. He opened the fridge and grabbed a BONK! drinking it all in one fast gulp. He watched as the exit door opened, a tall figure stepping into view, the sunlight behind him causing him to look just like a shadow, but from the slouch hat, and horrible posture, Scout could tell it was Sniper.
He didn't know much about Sniper, he was always off doing his own thing, and whenever Scout had the chance to annoy him, he never talked. Scout found himself staring, causing the taller man to simply nod his head in Scout's direction.
"What're you doin' here?" Scout asked, sounding a little accusatory, but he didn't mean it to come out that way.
"Out of coffee." Sniper mumbled. It was clear he had no interest in talking to anybody, let alone the loud mouth of the mercs.
"Why don't you have any in yer van?"
"Ran out."
Scout stayed silent, not sure what to say. He simply stared at the man, without realizing he was staring. He never really noticed how handsome he was. He never really noticed Sniper at all. He was always a loner, and no matter how much Scout tried to make conversation, he was always shut down. He was used to annoying the other mercs, but for some reason Sniper had this quality about him that really intimidated him into not wanting to talk. It's not like he wanted to annoy people, he just talked so much that's what would happen. So, he ended up just playing the character of the annoying kid of the group, just because that's what he falls back to.
"Mate. You don't think I don't notice you starin'?" Sniper gave a glance to scout, as the coffee machine roared to life.
"I wasn't starin'." Scout looked away. He couldn't help but blush a little.
"sure." Sniper rolled his eyes, but it wasn't visible underneath his aviators.
"do you-" Scout started, but was quickly cut off.
"not 'ere to talk, mate." Sniper's voice was calm, but also firm, and gruff. Scout couldn't help but nod and scratch the back of his neck awkwardly. No other merc had that ability to Scout, to so quickly shut him up. It was like some off switch in his brain that only he knew how to use.
Scout shifted nervously, and soon enough, Sniper was gone. The rest of the morning passed uneventfully, and Scout didn't see Sniper until they we're in resupply, getting ready for today's battle.
He stared at the door, letting himself daydream before the start of battle. His colleagues we're seemingly doing the same, watching. Soon enough, and a countdown was soon playing from the loud speakers, spoken by the Administrator.
The doors flung open, and scout was quick to run out onto battlements. He managed to do much better than yesterday, wanting to avoid the embarrassment of being talked down to like an idiot. He had managed to die considerably less, but he found himself often at the receiving end of the gun of none other than BLU sniper. In order to avoid this, he took the flank route. It was as he was running through the halls, he saw a BLU spy, disappear into thin air. He pulled his bat out, yelled "Spy!" and swung the air haphazardly. He eventually stopped, opting instead to listen for any signs, footsteps, decloaking, even the bastard's breathing.
He heard the signature woosh of a decloak, and whipped his torso around to meet the Spy, not getting backstabbed, but earning a decent cut to his shoulder. He grunted and swung his bat into the man's stomach, and watched as he stepped back, while the man was down, he swung his bat into his skull, but missed, watching as right before the blow landed, he cloaked and was out of sight. "fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck-" he mumbled and turned around, scanning the area.
He was suddenly put into a tight chokehold, a revolver pressed against his temple.
"Surprise." Was all the he said before the younger man heard a loud gunshot.
But he wasn't dead. He gasped, not having realized he was even holding his breath. He turned around, looking at the dead corpse on the floor, a bullet wound right in the back of his head. He looked up to see his savior, Sniper. He simply tilted his hat down in acknowledgement.
"You awright, mate?" He spoke, voice neutral and calm, a nice way to get down from an adrenaline high.
"yeah- I- um-" His voice was wavering, and he was panting. He quickly caught his breath, and dusted himself off. "er- thanks, pally!" He returned to his usual bravado, and smiled, hopping out of the hallway, and running to the nearest health pack.
He patched himself up and returned to battle. He didn't see the Spy again for the rest of the day, which wasn't too abnormal, given they didn't cross paths often. They won that round, and Scout was happy with him performance. It was a good day.