This is something I had sitting in my computer for some time, unfinished, and today I decided to finish while I gather more ideas for paranormal Fortress 2.

Is not a finished story yet, but I guess I could write it in the moments I have no inspiration for Paranormal Fortress 2. This one is more about a very silent Sniper and a very ball-touching Spy (pardon the expression). I wonder if they'll kill each other or not...

...

It was a peaceful morning, if with 'peaceful' you can describe a lot of gunshots, explosions, etc etc. But the morning was all sunny and shiny and he was hugging a dispenser for dear life. Yes, the all mighty, please don't step on my shadow, I could get your mother in less than a second, proud and handsome Spy was hugging a dispenser while Engineer was having the time of his life laughing his soul off while seeing the amazing Spy sitting in his nest. Now that was a sight nobody would want to miss: Spy was burned, shot, and his left arm probably needed a bit more than a dispenser, but his face was priceless showing the expression of a man who's pride was probably crying in the corner.

"So...let me get this straight. You got burned by Pyro, who went after you, but then you came across Soldier, who tried to make you explode, and then their Sniper got your left arm, and still, you managed to survive all that only to fall on your face because you tripped with their Medic? I'm sorry Spy but...that's just a whole lot of bad luck"

"You don't say..."

Engie had to chuckle a bit at that tone in Spy's voice. It was the sort of tone someone uses when he got more than wanted in the worst scenario. He was upgrading his dispenser a bit so Spy could heal faster, he was there to help his team over anything else of course, when he saw another sight he would have never expected to see. Pyro was running towards them, carrying a wounded Sniper. Bullet in the stomach, now that had to sting. Pyro sat Sniper down next to the dispenser, much to Spy's happines, because he wasn't the only one receiving the weight of shame. Sniper was always a solitaire man who would never socialize, even outside of the fight; and there he was, needing help from a team mate to make it to the dispenser. In other words: priceless.

Spy's smile went from ear to ear while Pyro was informing Engineer about the situation in the battlefield. Apparently BLU got another point with the bomb, and they were running out of ground. Engie had two options: either stay there, hidden near the last point and hold the other team, or move onto a more advanced point, at least with his sentry. He saw both men recovering next to his dispenser. He could ask them to go through Respawn, but everyone knew how bad was to go through that experience; asking that was like asking them to dive head first into a pit of nightmares. Respawn had the bad habit of needing to reebot a few of your memories in order to recover your brain, so you had to go through things from your past you didn't want to remember.

"Pyro, could you come with me to see if I can place my sentry somewhere else while these two get healed?"

With a thumbs up from the firebug, Engie got his guns and followed Pyro, leaving Spy and Sniper alone in the nest. Spy wasn't exactly okay with the 'staying alone with Sniper' thing, but he didn't have a choice. He glanced over to the other man and saw his eyes were closed and he had some trouble breathing. Spy then looked at the part where Sniper's back was touching the dispenser and realized blood wasn't pouring on that side, which meant the bullet didn't go through clean, but was still lodged inside the man's stomach. Feeling better with the contraption's fumes, Spy got closer to Sniper, knife in hand, in the same moment the taller man was opening his eyes upon hearing sounds around him. He then saw Spy approaching him with a knife in hand and of course, his first reaction was to try and counter attack, but realized his body was numb and unable to move from waist down. His arms quickly reacted as well, but one had to be used for support, which left him with one arm to defend himself, quickly held by Spy.

"Stay quiet bushman, I'm trying to help, even if you don't know the mean of the word. Now stay still or I'll do more damage than needed"

Sniper saw the place the knife was going, and then saw the bullet wound in his stomach. His mind quickly did the math and realized what was going on: the bullet was still inside and, for God knew what, Spy was going to take it out. Sniper didn't like the situation one bit, but he couldn't move a lot anyway, so if the other man wanted to help him by either taking the bullet out or finishing him off he would have to stand still and hold his pride. Seeing Sniper didn't try to get away, Spy got to work, carefully inserting the knife inside the wound. It made then bullet hole bigger, but that would take the small piece of metal out. Sniper's body instantly tensed, but no sound came from the man, so Spy took it as a cue to continue, and while he knew the dispenser took half of the pain away, the procedure was still painful nonetheless.

Upon touching something solid inside the wound the Spy maneuvered with the knife and soon the bullet was coming out from the wound. Lucky for them, the dispenser had been upgraded before Engie left, so the wound started to close inmediately. Spy decided to put some ground between himself and the Sniper, just in case the other man wanted him death after that. The fact was this Sniper was their newest member, and none of them knew how he would react if anyone tried to come in contact with him, less to hurt him. Any normal person would be angry but at least grateful; maybe this man would cleanly cut his head off and be on his merry way. Either way, Spy wasn't prepared for Sniper's answer.

In an instant, a lot of questions were answered with a simple gesture. Once Sniper regained enough senses to look at the Spy, in probably an unconscious way, Sniper touched his chin and then moved his hand forward with a quick movement, before regreeting it and looking away, but the truth had been shown, and Spy got the hint all too well. He knew what that gesture meant, at least what it resembled to. Of course, in America he saw it been done in another way, instead of the chin it started with the hand on the lips, but the movement afterwards was the same. It was a thank you. A silent thank you.

Spy's eyes widden at the realitzation, and he went a bit closer to the other man. He couldn't help but feel sorry, even if he didn't know where the feeling was coming, probably human natural reaction upon seeing someone who doesn't have one of the five basic senses, or at least, the sound of one of them.

"Y-you're..."

Sniper looked at him, his face clearly showing distress for the situation, hidden by the best try at a serious face. He wanted it a secret, and Spy, of all of them, knew it because he slipped. Yes, he was mute, and since his job didn't require the voice for anything special, TF Industries didn't have a problem in hiring him, but now the snake knew and would probably use it to blackmail him. Before Spy could say anything else, and with his wound almost healed, Sniper stood up and ran away, probably towards his own nest to retrieve his weapons and get back to work, leaving Spy on hiw own thoughts. The french man soon took a hold of himself. He had work to finish and Sniper's lack of voice would have to wait for later, so he stood up, refreshed and healed, and was about to go when he saw Engie coming back, followed by Pyro.

"Hey Spy! We need your help with their Engineer! He set up a sentry next near the bomb and our team can't get any closer to defend the damn thing"

Spy straightened his jacket and nodded, cloaked and went off to get that sentry nest. As he ran towards the place where the BLU Engineer was he couldn't help but look around, trying to find where Sniper could be after being healed. Once he reached the spot, he hid behind a wall and disguissed himself as their Scout, who wasn't around at the moment, and saw the blue level three sentry beeping and aiming around, ready for any RED that would come too close and into it's range. BLU Engineer was proudly standing behind the machine, next to the dispenser, and Spy took it as his cue to make a stellar apparition as the talking brat.

"Yo Engie! I need some ammo over here!"

The other man's answer was clearly annoyance but he nodded anyways, and Spy got closer to the dispenser. Now that was irony, being extra-healed from the enemy dispenser right after being saved by hiw own team's dispenser. This was starting to look more like a board game, and his move had to happen soon, or the Engineer would start to suspect. What to do first? Kill the man and sap the sentry, or the other way around?

Spy was trying to decide which one do first when a burst of blood came his way, getting on his all perfect and disguissed face and suit. When he looked towards the Engineer he saw the man's corpse falling onto the ground, knees first, and only then he noticed the red laser dot on his own chest. Looking up a bit he saw the Sniper on top of some sort of wooden tower, lowering the rifle a bit. Spy darkly chuckled, and seeing the other man was still seeing him through the scope, he made the 'thanks' gesture Sniper did before. He then proceeded to sap everything and flee from the scene while his team came barreling down the path, getting around the cart and shooting all BLUs that came too close.

The rest of the battle was something quite boring for the Spy, since after he sapped the whole BLU's nest his team anchored themselves in that spot and even Engie, their Engie, got his nest nearby to take down anyone who tried to get them through a backdoor, so all Spy did was get a few easy backstabs and nothing else. His curiosity, however, was at full power, ready to learn more about, what the heck, the first mute team mate he ever had, and a Sniper nonetheless! If Snipers weren't weird and hard to read enough, this one didn't have much to say for himself.

Once the battle ended Spy decided to go and check on Engie to, at least, thank him for upgrading the dispenser for them before leaving but when he arrived to the spot he found Sniper around as well, probably for the same. Of course, the other man couldn't just simply say thanks his way because Engie would either realize what was going on or just don't understand him, so Spy decided to get a kick out of this one and step in front of the Sniper before the taller man could do anything.

"My dear friend Engineer, this bushman here and I would like to thank you for kindly upgrading the dispenser before leaving. We know you probably had to do it anyways, but it healed us faster, so thank you"

That took Engie completely by surprise, and the only thing he was able to do was nod a 'you're welcome' before Spy went on his merry way towards the base. He didn't miss the murderous look Sniper launched his way but he ignored it. Spy continued on his way towards the base, ignoring the other man. Once he entered the building he found some of his team already inside, celebrating the day's victory by sitting around and chatting about the kills each one did during the course of the fight. Spy prefered to get himself locked in his private room, where he could scheme all day long and look for information about the enemy or his own team. Once he reached the room he took off his jacket, loosened his tie and unbuttoned the first button of his shirt, took a glass and his oh so perfect wine, and went towards his armchair to get some quality time with his brain, when he saw the Sniper's van outside through the window.

Spy stopped, glass and bottle in hand and looked at the small, cramped, sorry little thing Sniper probably called home, and where the man spent all his time between fights, with a small fire next to it and Sniper sitting on a garden chair close by, cleaning his weapons in a way that made the Spy stood there and watch. The way Sniper cleaned his kukri was cautious and professional, not like one of those so called assassins that in reality were just brutes with guns. No, Sniper had his own classy way to do things, maybe a bit too wild for the Spy's taste, but out of the ordinary anyways. He kept staring at the other man down the field when all of sudden Sniper stood up and went towards the base. Spy's curiosity was getting the best of him, but he decided to remain in the same place. It actually paid off, for around ten minutes later (took him long enough to get there), there was a knock on his door.

"Yes?"

Of course he knew the other man couldn't answer him, but he wanted for the him to gain the access to his private room. There was another knock, faster this time, and Spy repeated the same question. He was having a kick out of the situation, and couldn't help but chuckle at the silent sigh on the other side of the door. He was curious as to why would Sniper go to his room, specially when the man barely set a foot inside the building, but this amused him enough to wait some more. However, the taller man wasn't as stupid as he would give him credit for, and soon enough a small paper slid under the door. Spy went to pick it up, and he heard the impatient food moving on the other side.

Unfolding the paper, Spy found one sentence:

'Will you keep the secret?'

"Interesting...you know how to write bushman"

There was a silent 'huff' on the other side, and Spy unlocked the door and opened it, revealing a quite distressed Sniper, clenching his hands into fists, waiting for an answer. For Spy, that was just funny: seeing a man with no social skills trying to make him keep a secret; priceless. Of course he would keep the secret, he always wanted something to blackmail others, but this time he could straight-forward get something he usually couldn't, so why waste the oportunity?

"I will, for now"

Sniper looked at him with some dread in his eyes. Spy rolled his eyes.

"Look bushman, that's classified information, and you just gave it away, and to me. I just picked it and kept it, so for now, I won't tell a soul, but...well, if I need something from you..." Spy grinned.

Sniper's answer was a very, very angry glare. He wanted to beat the man to pieces so bad, but after going through Respawn he would just go and tell everyone. Maybe if he took him outside Respawn's reach, kill him and then feign innocence? That would be good, at least for the karma.

"In fact, I do need something from you. I've seen everything in both bases except one place..."

Sniper looked at him, trying to cut the nasty frog of a man with his gaze. If only that could happen...

"Your van"

The taller man froze in place, not being able to react to what the Spook just said. His van? Heeeeell NO! He would never allow anyone but himself enter into his sacred place. Then again, Spy had him by the nuts with the whole mute thing going on. If he accepted he would allow Spy to take a look at his private heaven and get even more information about him, but if he declined then the frog-man would and tell the world he wasn't allowed by nature to speak. All in all there wasn't a good outcome for the man.

Sniper silently sigued and hold one finger up, to which Spy inmediately recognized as 'okay, but only once'. His answer came out into a malicious grin. He only needed one time to recollect a lot of information about his new teammate, besides, he didn't want to spent too much inside the messy little van Sniper owned with so much pride.

"Alright then, lead the way mon ami"

Sniper have him a shocked look, as if 'NOW?!', but had to comply. He was between the sword and the wall, and he couldn't do anything but play along until the other man had enough to keep his word. He turned around and started walking towards the exit of the base, followed by Spy, who locked his own room before going after the taller man. Once outside he saw the sun was already setting, and his team was still yelling and celebrating, so nobody would even bother to look for them, since both men prefered to stay away from everyone else.

Sniper was the first one to step inside the van, leaving the door opened for the masked man to get inside as well. There was enough space for them to stand, maybe one of the sit on the floor, but that was it. The van was quite small, but much to Spy's surprise, quite ordered and clean. If he left aside the amount of trophies that probably belonged to animals at some point, all of them displaying their glory in a shelf, Spy could assure that place belonged to a normal, non assassin and not crazy man. He had to admit, as filthy as the bushman looked, he was able to keep the place at least clean in the limit of normal human life.

"Well well...is rather unexpected you can be this civilized, bushman"

The other's man answer came in a silent growl, only noticed by the air passing through his clenched teeth. Spy could notice Sniper was in and out of his comfort zone in that moment at the same time: 'in' because the van, 'out' because of him. The suited man decided to sit on the small couch behind the table and make himself comfortable on it.

"Well, you have a guest in here, won't you offer him anything?"

Sniper glared daggers at him but did it anyways. He served a glass of orange juice to the frenchman. The other couldn't help but be amused at the offer.

"My my, Sniper, don't you have anything else? Oh, I forgot, you lack of voice is not your worst trait, but your lack of class. In fact, the first one is an improvement"

Sniper's fists clenched to a point where his knuckles went white. Spy knew he was pulling the beast's tail a bit too much by that point, so he resumed in taking the orange juice and drink it. It was actually pretty good, not the best, but better than other he had drank in the base, brought to them by the company. Maybe the man had his own supply of orange juice, or maybe he went into town every now and then to buy it. Still, he maintained his face in his usual superior smirk.

"Thank you. So, to the point. You know as Spy I love knowing things from others..."

Sniper flinched at that. He knew Spy wouldn't just go with being in his van but ask a lot more from him. He sat on the bed at the end of the van, looking at him, waiting for the worse to happen: being asked about his life. Spy smiled at him, crossing his finger under his chin to support it. He took a moment to drink in Sniper's distress before speaking.

"So...what is your favourite type of food?"