'I'm not sure how it all started;' these seven or eight words, depending on what your views on conjunctions are, are often spoken because the speaker doesn't want to think back to how it all might have started, or they simply want to forget about it all entirely. I'm an exception. You see, I really have no idea when my current problem began. First, let me introduce myself: I'm the RED Pyro. Simple, right? I go around and burn people to death and occasionally take an axe to their face. Where in that description does anything appealing jump out at you? If you're insane, all of it should. But y'know, that's just me. Like any respectable Author, I have to start my story at a logical place, so I guess I'll start it here-

The day we captured

the BLU Spy.

I sighed with relief when the alarms went off for the ceasefire. It had been a long day for both teams that ended with a tie; they got their grubby mitts on one of our ammo shipment schedules and we walked away with some blueprints. I was on my way to my room when I heard a fight break out near the entrance of our base. Jogging to the scene, I found Solly and Demo standing over the unconscious BLU Spy. I took notice of a few bruises starting to form on both of my teammates.

Tilting my head as an inquiry, Solly stepped forward to give his full report, "This maggot thought he could sneak in after ceasefire to grab another briefcase." He grunted his disapproval and kicked the limp form. 'Strange, he's never done this before…' I nodded vaguely and walked past them just barely overhearing the next bit of conversation, "You wanna give me a hand, Cyclops? I wanna get this maggot down to the interrogation room before he wakes up. We'll see if he knows anything we don't already." I chuckled lowly at the thought of Solly narrowing his eyes at the very unconscious enemy.

There are only a few rules the Administrator has in place regarding prisoners of war: one of them is that you have to kill or release said prisoner at or before the six hour time limit; that is, six hours after they are brought into the interrogation room. It you're even a minute late, the Admin is brutal with pay cuts. I think she takes half of your check from that week if you're the one interrogating the prisoner when the time limit maxes out. If you had a good week, that can be crippling for the sole reason that most of the mercenaries go into the next town over to drink or get laid on the weekend. If you had a bad week, then you had a bad week and you were probably planning on staying on base anyways.

It was around 17:10 when the BLU Spy was brought in for interrogation. It's 21:35 and from what I've heard from the frustrated yelling of my teammates outside in the hallway, no one's gotten him to say a word. I snickered silently to myself. 'Just our luck, we finally get a prisoner and he's a stubborn Spy' I tapped my eraser on the desktop for a moment. 'No, that's not quite right… Tight-lipped would be a better term.' Content with my vocabulary usage, I returned to my drawing, feeling at ease with how life was going. 'I'm in a comfortable place. I have a stable job with a somewhat stable income and the food is decent. The company is fine and the view is better than the worst I've ever had.' I paused in my drawing. 'That sounds pretty shitty.' Chuckling at my own misfortune, I smiled because yeah, I love this job and everything that comes with it.

A rapping on my door startled me from my thoughts. It was firm but not forceful. I opened the door to find Medic there. He seemed to be at war with himself over something, but whatever it was, it was quickly pushed out of his mind when he noticed I was waiting to see what he wanted. He cleared his throat and put on a mask of ease, something I've grown accustomed to when he's not confident with the situation he's dealing with. I put aside my impatience to listen to him, "Herr Pyro," He began, looking up at me with his puppy-dog eyes, "I'm sure you've heard, but ve are having trouble vith the Spy und ve were wondering if you could try to get some answers out of him…?"

He shuffled with nervous energy while he waited for a response. He has always been anxious around me, but never this bad. I nodded slowly, wary of the possibility that he could be the BLU Spy that had escaped and I just wasn't aware of the breach in security. I poked him in the chest to make sure, but he didn't fade to BLU or fizzle into a Spy, so I nodded and walked past him after shutting the door behind me. He huffed a laugh at my usual paranoia, but otherwise we walked on in silence. I'm not as paranoid as Solly, Hell I don't think anyone on this team can be that hardcore with hunting down things that might or might not be there, but I have just enough to the point of being dangerous to any lurking enemy Spies.

We were just outside of the interrogation room when he stopped me, "Now, everyone has had a chance to get zhis man to talk. Granted, not as much as some would like, but they were given a shot und no one has received so much as a response. I don't want you to be disappointed if you fail as well. Ve'll just try different tactics." He smiled reassuringly and held the door open for me.

I walked into the white-walled, claustrophobic room and examined my target carefully. The first thing I noticed was the lack of blood- after all, we want information and we can't get it if the prisoner is dying or dead from blood loss. That being said, it looks like Medic healed the BLU Spy after every round of interrogation. I say this because I could see where his suit was rumpled and torn from my teammates roughing him up. 'I see Spy had no qualms in using his switchblade against his rival.' The second thing I noticed was how his haggard expression transformed into one of relief when he saw that I had entered the room. His face had visually brightened at my appearance. Still he said nothing.

I sat in the chair across from him and studied him. His eyes danced with happiness, but he looked tired, yet I could see the faintest of smiles pulling at his lips. He shifted his weight not once, but thrice; crossing and uncrossing his legs. He made a face of discomfort, but quickly put a mask of confidence over it. "Are you going to ask me your questions, or am I free to go? I haven't got all day." 'Huh, first words out of his mouth since we brought him in and they're sarcastic.' I tilted my head at his continuous anxious behavior. He pursed his lips and let his eyes glance to the left as he spoke, "I 'aven't had zhe chance to use zhe utilities since I've been 'ere." He grimaced while speaking, as if what he was admitting dented his pride.

While there is a bathroom attached to the interrogation room specifically for prisoners, it's useless unless a guard unlocks it. My mind was already made up before I even took time to contemplate what I was doing. I nodded in understanding and headed out of the room to grab the key.

When I came back in the room, the Baguette was staring at me. Funny thing about Spies is: You never know what's going on in that head of theirs. So, under that hawk-like gaze, I unlocked the bathroom door and sat back down in my seat across from him, half expecting him to try to kill me or something equally foolish. I was surprised when he stood up and mumbled out a quick 'Merci.' before hurrying to relieve himself.

Another surprise was that he didn't dawdle. I thought for sure he was going to make me come in there and wrestle him back into his seat or something, but no. He came back to the table and sat down across from me expectantly. Then it hit me. 'He's waiting to prove that he can withstand any questioning technique we throw at him.' I hummed quietly to myself, an action that concerned my neighbor across the table.

*Baguette,* He jumped nearly a foot when I addressed him, but he managed to keep a bit of the mask of calm and collected, *Did you enjoy the match today?*

He looked confused at first, but then a look of disappointment settled on his face. "Playing good cop, mon ami?" He chuckled lowly to himself, "I was hoping for so much more." I shook my head.

*I'm not playing good cop at all, you've simply outlived my patience. You're not talking,* I took out my shotgun and cocked it, *So you must not have much to say.* Without waiting for a reply, I blew his head off.

My teammates might not always agree with my decisions, but they have enough respect for me that they don't outwardly object. Usually.

Engie burst through the door with a fist full of gadgets I can only assume he was planning on using on the late BLU Spy, "Dagnabbit, Mumbles! Now why'd ya have ta go an' kill the snake? Here I am, plannin' all sorts a revenge an' y'all go an' mess it up!" I chuckled while he fumed at me. I knew he wasn't really mad at me, he's just pissed at the Baguette for one-up-ing him so damn often.

*If you'd let me hang out by the sentries and guard them from the Baguette, you wouldn't need any of those revenge plans.* He huffed but was smiling under his guise of anger. I left the interrogation room soon after that, my job having been incomplete but I was satisfied. I got him to talk, that's all I had to do. Yet I didn't get him to talk about anything the BLU team is doing. I might have created unnecessary drama, but I accomplished my personal goal. If anyone refutes it, that's their problem.

I found myself on the deck of the RED base, leaning against one of the posts while going over my conversation with the BLU Spy again and again, but not really being able to make sense of it all. It's like a jigsaw puzzle with one too many pieces and a few chunks missing from the essential bits you do have.

'It would be so much easier if I could talk to someone about this, but the problem is that I don't know if any of my teammates are going to suspect me of treason just because I got him to talk to me. Solly most definitely will. Scout would probably make some stupid pun, like, 'What, are you battin' for the other team, now?' The fact that I didn't get any valuable information is even more damning, but it's not like he would give it up even if I tortured the Hell out of him. He probably talked to the others, too, he just didn't give anything of use so they wrote it off.'

I shook my head stubbornly. 'I need to stop thinking about this! Medic said he didn't talk to the others, so he didn't. That's it. But then, why talk to the one person on the team who is regarded by their own teammates as a… Freak…?'

'Alright! I'm done!' I stormed off of the porch and into the sandy backyard. I was comforted when I came across Snipes, Engie and Demo sitting around a campfire drinking beer. Normally, I don't drink. But let me tell you right now: forgetting all about tonight held a ton of promise right about now.

I passed when Snipes offered a beer, but I did join them by the fire. Even being around the flames calmed me tremendously. I let their conversation flow right by me as I gazed into the burning coals. That was all well and good until Snipes called my name in a tone that suggested he'd been trying to get my attention for a while now. When I looked up at him away from the fire, he looked rather worried. Internally, I scolded myself for causing him more stress than he needs.

*What's up?* Snipes took a sip of his beer before asking his question again, "I heard ya tore tha BLU piker a new one 'fore ya ended 'im. That true, or is tha Scout runnin' 'is mouth again?" Huffing a laugh, I waved it off.

*No, I got him to talk, but none of what he said was of any use. I figured since he wasn't talkin', I might as well stop wasting everyone's time.* Demo raised an eyebrow, "Ya got tha' bloody snake ta talk? 'Ow'd ya manage that?" I shrugged and took a poker stick to the coals, not really wanting to get into this part of the conversation.

*I just sat down, he's the one who spoke up first.* Engie laughed and slapped me on the back. "Well now, how do ya like that? Our little Mumbles is climbin' up in tha world. From back-a-the-classroom genius ta junior interrogator." The others chuckled while I swatted at his mock-brotherly attitude. I slumped back down on the log I'd been sitting on and stared at the ground, pouting at their easy natures. *Jerks.* Snipes took notice of my discomfort and changed the subject, for that I was grateful. I went back to staring into the fire, wondering if it'd be too much to ask that tonight just be a bad memory and never be brought up again.

I can't believe they all still remember that story I told them of how I never really paid attention to my schooling, but when I found a class I really liked I excelled in it. It seemed like they brushed it off, but I guess they hold onto whatever they can to get to know me. 'Good to know.' I smiled to myself at the thought of them wanting to get to know me, the real me. I wonder how they would react if they knew where I've been? Would they still allow me to sit with them as I am now? My eyes wandered to Snipes as he laughed at one of Demo's stories. 'How unbearable would it be to lose him as a friend? Would I be able to recover from that?'

I don't think I could. That fact alone scared the Hell out of me, but thankfully I showed nothing of my panic to my teammates. Afterall, it's not like they can see the terror in my eyes through the gasmask. No, to actually show them my emotions would be letting them in. To let them in would mean that they'd see who their teammate really is. I mean, everyone of us has committed some pretty bad crimes, but when it comes down to it, I don't want to compare; I already know my crimes are the most horrendous.

*I think I'm gonna head in for the night, see you all in the morning.* They all waved, but I couldn't help but feel as though Snipes was looking after me with concern. Well, I'll know later on. He has a knack for cornering me and getting me to admit what's bothering me before I turn in for the night. We are neighbors, but it hardly helps my cause that he's so damn understanding whenever I present one of my problems to him, even if he had to fight me for it in the first place.

That night, I slept hardly at all, my mind was filled with all sorts of questions that had gone unanswered. I wouldn't admit this aloud, but I wish Snipes had cornered me earlier. His voice tends to soothe any worry on my mind. 'I wonder why that is?'