A short but cute one-shot written by the request of someone on tumblr. I know y'all are probably waiting for me to update Bridge, but it might be awhile sorry. Meanwhile, enjoy this.
I promise, I am working my best on bridge, as I have inspiration. As they say though, you can't rush genius, hehehhee.
Engineer was relaxing in his garage after a relatively normal day. Well, normal enough considering they were paid to kill people every day. But still, it was normal, considering their circumstances. He was working on a new project, trying to improve one of his turrets, when he was interrupted by Pyro coming in. "Hey there Pyro." he said cheerfully.
"Mmpm!" replied Pyro in a friendly way.
"Whatcha need?" he asked, still tinkering with the new turret and not looking up at his fellow teammate. He was greeted by silence, and finally looked up at Pyro, shocked. A crack ran across one eyepiece, and the mask itself had a long gash of sorts running from the top down all the way to the neck, even cracking the mouth piece.
"That rotten Red Spy got ya, didn' he?" asked Dell angrily. Fury bubbled up inside him as he thought of the Red spy sneaking up on his friend and slashing their mask.
"Mmph mm mph m?" asked Pyro, sounding somewhat different.
"Can I fix it? I don't know. I could have a look, 'm pretty sure it wouldn't be too hard. But…I can't do it as long as yer wearing it…" he said, his voice trailing off as he looked at Pyro. In some ways, Pyro was even more mysterious than Spy himself. At least they knew Spy was french and that he was male. But Pyro…despite the engineer's friendship with his strange teammate, he knew next to nothing about them. Heck, he didn't even know for sure if he was a male or female.
"Well?" he asked Pyro questioningly.
"Mmp.." came the rather uneasy reply.
Dell could tell by now that Pyro was worried, maybe even a bit scared. He hated to see his teammate like this.
"Relax." he said, giving Pyro an easy smile. Reaching forward, he slowly gripped the mask with his hands and pulled it away.
Nothing could have prepared him for what he saw. To be quite honest, he wasn't exactly sure what he expected. A man maybe? Even a woman. But what he saw….it was like nothing he had seen before, not even in all his years as an engineer."What in the name of blue blazes?" he gasped, staring at the sight before him. It carried the distinct look of a female, yet it wasn't, not quite. Dark hair cascaded over her shoulders like a waterfall, her grey eyes shining like sun striking a lake's surface. Marred flesh covered part of the left side of her face, revealing a little bit of what was underneath, which appeared to be metal. Yet she seemed to be completely covered in normal human flesh as well. She appeared to be no older than 25, a fact further proven by her young looks. He could seen burn scars across her neck as well, but aside from that, she seemed okay.
"Surprised?" came her voice. It seemed to have the slightest tinge of a robotic drawl to it, but aside from that, he thought it was incredibly pretty.
"I…I never…" he trailed off, unable to form a coherent sentence.
"Don't worry, I'm human." she said, giving him a warm smile.
"Of…of c-c-course ya are." Still in a daze, he set the mask down on a table and slowly eased himself into a chair, still staring at her. "I'm going to work on yer mask….might as well stay in here I guess."
Pyro nodded, taking a seat on a nearby sofa, watching him work.
Finally, after only a minute or two, he set down his tools and looked up at her. " 'M sorry, but I simply can't help but wonder, w-"
"Wonder what happened to me?" she interrupted. "Don't feel bad, its a fair question. Not long before I came here, I was involved in a sort of…'accident.' I always had a habit of being rebellios and messing with fire. Well, one day, one of my friends started a fire by accident. It actually set part of an entire apartment complex on fire, luckily, almost no one was inside. Except for one mother, and her baby. The firefighters managed to drag her out, but they didn't see her baby. I was the only one who apparently cared enough to go back and look. Unfortunately, by the time I found her child, my way out was blocked. The fire to grew closer and closer to me and…" she broke off, trembling with fear and memories.
"Relax…Ya don't have to keep going." said Dell, placing a firm and comforting hand on her shoulder.
"N-no, it's alright. I want to."
Dell nodded and sat back, continuing to listen.
"Well, it got to me eventually. Burned part of my face and body, as you see" she said, lightly touching the scars. "I wanted so desperately to get away, I jumped out the 2nd story window. There was a small bush the broke my fall, which is probably the only reason why I'm still alive. Everything after that was a haze, but the doctors say I saved that child's life. Unfortunately, I also banged myself up pretty bad. Several broken ribs, a broken arm, fractured leg, and cracked my skull from the fall. The weeks I spent in recovery were the worst of my entire life. The pain was so bad, I tried to…" she paused, tears beginning to form as she struggled to mantain her composure. Dell moved closer, sitting beside her and wrapping his arms around her shoulders until she could continue. "I tried to kill myself, twice. It wasn't until later I discovered that the only way the doctors were able to save me was to do some sort of crazy new procedure that had never been tested. Apparently they replaced part of my skull, my right leg, and my left arms with metal. Even a couple of my ribs are metal. It kind of sucked at first, and people always gave me weird looks. I began to hate leaving my house because people would stare and gawk at me. Made me feel like some sort of spectacle, like a circus. Heck, a circus even offered to pay me to work with them, as some sort of 'Half Metal Lady.' I firmly declined them. Eventually, he pretty much never left my house anymore. I became a 'hermit,' I guess you could call me. Then I received the call from Mann Co., and came here. But first I got the mask and suit. I didn't want anyone to know, because I was afraid of what they might say about me, and that they would think I was a freak. Everyone here still does though…" she murmured sadly. "Except you." she said, looking up at Dell. "You were the only one who ever talked to me."
Dell stared, blushing slightly. "It's nothing….I was jus' bein' nice."
"Thank you." she said softly, wrapping her arms around him and hugging him. "I don't know what I would do without you."
Dell smiled widely and returned the embrace. "I'd better get ta work fixin yer mask…" he mumbled. Returning to his workbench, he began to repair the cracks and fix the eyepiece, until it was good as new. The whole time, Pyro merely watched him silently. Finally, he finished, and handed it back to her. "Thank you." she said, grinning, her grey eyes seeming to light up. "Hey..uh…what's yer name? Ya never did say."
"It's Edana."
"Nice to meet you, Edana."
Edana nodded, taking the mask from him. "Thank you. For everything." she said. Leaning forward, she kissed him lightly on the cheek before hurrying away, leaving Dell with a ridiculous grin on his face. "Yer welcome…" He mumbled.
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