Birds were chirping and bringing gentle, harmonious music to the ground below. The wispy clouds hovered blissfully across the sky as the beautiful sun shone down upon the wonderful world for all to observe. Anyone surveying the area would see wondrous sights and monuments.

The Cupcake Bridge was there, separating the bases of KANDY and HAPPY from each other. The edges were lined with sprinkled delicacies and the supports were large candy canes, while the top was made from twisting strawberry liquorice. Below it was the water that led into the Friendship Tunnels. These tunnels had marvellous paintings showing people laughing and giving each other presents.

The tunnels lead into two respective bases, each belonging to a different company. Both bases were almost 100% identical in design, except for the company colours that distinguished them from each other. These two bases were home to the organisations KANDY and HAPPY.

Each side was part of different companies that were made specifically to bring more joy and happiness where it was needed. KANDY (Kind And Nice Desiring Youths) was led by Kandymann, a jolly man who had a head full of hair and a large smile, and HAPPY (Handy And Pretty Positive Youths) was headed by Happyfriend, a more pudgy than Kandymann but was just as jolly. Each leader was working with each other to make as many people love life as possible. As such, they needed people to help their operation of optimism.

Each man hired 9 helpers to assist them. Each of these helpers had their own role in the co-operation between the sides. There was the Scout, who dished out short bursts of happiness upon the other side and then either ran off to replenish his happiness or stayed to share more joy.

Then there was the Soldier. He used sparkle-propelled projectiles that exploded into happiness, giving out joy to anyone nearby. Alongside him was the Demoman, who did the same thing but with more precision, the Heavy, who dealt out continuous amounts of friendship, the Engineer, who built machines of mass joy-bringing, the Medic, who allowed his friends to replenished their happiness meters, the Sniper, who aimed to give everyone instant happiness, and the Spy, who threw his target a surprise party with his gladness tools.

Then, of course, there was the Pyro.

He loved this world of friendship and niceness. It suited him just fine, being with KANDY. Everyone was his friend and no-one was mean to him. Every time he gave a certain someone enough happiness, he gained a new best friend. It was moments like those that gave him joy to know that he was slowly making the world a new place.

Unfortunately, his best friends would sometimes break up with him, and they would go back to being just friends. Sometimes, even he would be forced to break up with his best friends, but most of the time would try to patch up the relationship by showering them with rainbows from his magic trumpet. They would laugh as they lay on the ground, covered in sparkles, as the laughter slowly faded away. Then they would come back soon after and continue being his friends.

His life was perfect. The loudspeakers would sing melodious songs to him and he would laugh along with the Scout as he lay giggling in pure happiness while the sparkles enveloped him. He wouldn't give up this life for anything.

One night, Pyro was watching the sunset, dangling his feet above the water as he sat at the edge of the wall, humming one of his favourite tunes. "Hmmph mph hmph…" he hummed as he lay back and put his gloved hands behind his mask head. He liked the mask. He didn't know why, but he liked it. He never wanted to take it off. He closed his eyes and got himself lost in his thoughts.

Soon, someone joined him. He opened his rested eyes and turned to see the Engineer, floating in the air and wearing a small white diaper. "Hey, Pyro," he began, speaking to his friend in a high-pitched voice, "wanta come inside? Dinner's cookin'." The Pyro responded by nodding and indicated that he would be there in a minute. "Alrighty then. See ya soon." The Engineer then floated away, leaving behind a small trail of rainbows.

When he was sure he was gone, Pyro reached into his pocket and pulled out a small unicorn. It looked at him and neighed softly, urging him to snuggle it. He did so, holding it close against the side of his mask and snuggling it, sighing as he heard it neigh in pleasure at his touch. He could not go anywhere without his Balloonicorn. It was his bestest friend of them all, over all his other friends and the other team. It listened to him, talked to him, and understood what he was saying. When his friends weren't there, it was.

He hugged the Balloonicorn for a while more, and then remembered what the Engineer had said. He quickly but carefully slid the doll back into his pocket and hurried off to the dinner table.

When he got there, he found all his friends waiting for him. The Soldier and Demoman were having a heartfelt conversation about the last bread roll, and Soldier hit Demo around the side of the head, which earned a laugh from Demo. The Heavy was sitting across the table eating a roast chicken while the Scout congratulated him on gained another ten pounds, which caused the Heavy to roar in laughter and give Scout's neck a hug, but the Medic managed to separate them.

Pyro took a seat next to Engineer, who was gleefully watching the situation play out before him. "Ain't it wonderful, Pyro? These fellas all just being friendly and taking the sadness out of each other." Pyro could never quite put his gloved finger on it, but sometimes during conversation, the people talking to him would sometimes have moments in their sentences where their voices would sound slightly… distorted. They just never sounded very right to him.

But Pyro just ignored this small matter and simply replied "Uh-huh," before filtering a bowl of soup through his mask. "Good to hear," the Engineer chuckled; "now I wanted to ask you somethin', boy."

Pyro looked up at Engineer, surprised. Usually, his friends would just talk to him about how much happiness was spread that day or how many best friend they had made. They never questioned or asked him anything. He put a hand to his chin and slowly thought to himself. Should I let him?

Eventually, he reached the conclusion that no real harm could come of it, and turned back to Engineer, nodding his head and motioning for him to talk.

"Well," he began, fidgeting nervously in his seat, "I just wanted to know… um… what you look like?"

Pyro was quite taken aback. All this time, he had never once considered what he really looked like. He knew that he had known at one point, but the memories of what he really looked like were long gone, if they were ever there. Engineer waited for an answer, and then asked again. "What do you look like under that mask?"

"Hmmph huh," the Pyro answered, not sure what he was trying to get across. The Engineer sighed and said "Ah said, you needn't worry. I don't need to know anything about you, especially not what you look like." Pyro's head whirled around in surprise. There was the distorted voice again, but this time it had taken up an entire sentence. That never usually happened.

His head started to ache in confusion and he instinctively put a hand to the top of his mask, trying to steady himself. He grabbed the edge of the table and wandered off, still holding his head in his right hand. "Guess I could get an answer tomorrow, maybe?!" the Engineer called after him in his squeaky voice, but he ignored him and just wandered through the flower-filled hallways leading up to the quarters. He could talk to Engineer when the morning came.

He slumped down on his bed and attempted to soothe the headache. He pulled his Balloonicorn out to comfort him and held it against his chest, rolling over onto his back. He felt tears in his eyes and a pain in his gut. He had not had this kind of feeling for a long time, not since…

nO.

The distorted voice. It was there.

thAt nEvER HaPPeNed. fORGet AbOut iT.

It was extremely different now though. He didn't like this voice. The old one was weird, but it was still happy and friendly. This one scared him. It was too… mean.

fORGet mEan. I aM yOuR FRIend. I aM your friend, Pyro. The only friend you will ever need.

The voice had returned to normal now, but he still wasn't sure. Could he still trust it?

Don't you agree? Don't you think I'm your friend?

A short silence followed. The Pyro stared down at his fluffy pillow, as if the voice were emitting from there. Then, he slowly nodded his head. Yes. You are my friend.

Good. Sleepy time now.

The voice faded away, and the headache with it. However, he had forgotten all about the headache by now. All he was thinking about was the voice, about what it was, where it was from. A train of questions and unlikely answers raced through his mind until his body could take it no longer. He slumped down on the bed and fell asleep almost instantly.