"Oh geez! Oh geez! Oh geez! WhatamIgonnado?!" The Red Scout was practically sprinting in circles around the rec room at this point. If he ran any faster he might start going up the walls and ceiling.
"Ye could try breathin', laddie, I find that tends to help." Put in the RED Demoman helpfully from his place at the card table. He was focused on his cards more than the boy however, with his tongue wedged between his teeth and his eye skittering from one card to the next.
"Yes. As your Doctor, I can definitely recommend breazhing. Air is good for you. Also, I vill varn you zhat I'm in a razher good mood today, so if you keep running around like zhat indoors and break your leg on somezhing, I might have to shtop and admire the weazher on the way to zhe infirmary." The medic glanced up from his magazine and gave the boy a look, "so you should be more careful."
The Scout stopped and blinked at him owlishly, "fine then, Doc. I guess I'll just admire the weatha the next time a BLU's about ta' off ya instead shootin' im yeah?" The Medic rolled his eyes melodramatically and disappeared back behind his magazine.
"Now now, fellas. No need to be like that," soothed the Engineer from his own seat at the card table, he was winning as usual.
"What is this problem for Baby-Scout?" Asked the Heavy, she was also seated at the card table, although she was less interested in the game –having already guessed that Engineer was going to clean them out – and more interested in her distressed teammate.
"Yeah mate, yer actin like a snake crawled up yer daks." Sniper clapped down a set of cards on the table and leaned back; Engineer frowned and looked at his hand.
Scout stared at her "up my wha?" He shook his head, "whatever. It's just this new guy thing. He's supposed to come today right?"
"Indeed. Zat is what we were told, is it not?" The RED Spy didn't actually look up from his book when he answered, but he did answer, which was something.
Scout nodded, excitedly, "so how come everybody's so calm! Whaddya think he'll be like!? Oh man, what if he don't like me?! Do you think he'll like me?! Do you think he'll be good!" he pulled a face, "oh god what if he's worse than the last shmuck!? Oh geez I hope not!" True to form Scout hadn't been able to stay still for more than a few seconds, although at least he had seemingly taken the threat of broken bones to heart and was just running in place. "Oh god what if it's a girl! I hope it's a girl! Maybe it'll even be a pretty girl! We could use a pretty girl around here!" The boy didn't realize until it was too late that he'd put his foot in his mouth.
"OI! WHAT THE BLOODY HELL DOES THAT MEAN YA LITTLE BASTARD?!"
"HEAVY IS VERY PRETTY GIRL!"
"YOU WILL NOT FRATERNIZE WITH YOUR FELLOW SOLDEIRS! DO YOU UNDER STAND ME MAGGOT!? THIS IS WAR NOT A DATING SHOW!"
At that very moment a piercing whistle split the air, announcing that the supply train had arrived and Scout had zipped out of the room before anyone could brutally murder him.
The train that sped through the desert at high noon was not only completely automated, but carried only supplies and a single passenger. Nestled cozily among crates of supplies like an animal in its den the passenger sat and swung their legs, gazing out the window across from them at the scenery that sped past. They swayed back and forth a little, rhythmically, as if listening to music.
Without having been told, most would have never known from looking that this person was a woman. Short, strong and heavily built, she was wrapped up from head to toe in a bright red, fire-retardant suit and hid her face safely behind a full-head gas mask decorated with paints to look like a colorful rendition of a skull. Lying across several seats next to her was her beloved flamethrower, her prized possession. She had insisted on having it shipped along with her instead of it being mailed ahead with the rest of her belongings. Pyro looked at it lovingly, Chuck, she'd named it, because she'd thought it was a friendly sounding name.
She fidgeted; bored almost to tears. The Pyro had been on this train for what seemed like an eternity. Her employers had decided to transfer her to a different base a week ago and she hadn't been in battle since. The fact that once she finally arrived at her destination and got settled in, she would get to fight again made the two or three hours left on the train all the more agonizing.
For the rest of the train ride she distracted herself by alternating between watching the desert scenery, fiddling with Chuck, and flicking a lighter while spacing out – thinking of all the battles she would have in this new base with her new team. She even sang a few camp songs - although she thought that they didn't sound very good through her mask, but if she occasionally lowered her voice she could pretend Chuck was singing duet parts with her and it sounded better – and then she thought about how the new location could be like camp. It would be fun!
Finally, FINALLY the train pulled to a stop and let out an ear-splitting whistle to alert her new team of its arrival. The doors opened with a hiss a little further down the car and the Pyro tripped over her own feet in her hurry to get out of the train car. Once outside, she found herself on a dusty wooden platform surrounded on three sides by the endless expanse of desert. On the fourth side were cliffs, several groups of structures and the terrain that separated them; undoubtedly the RED and BLU bases and the battlegrounds in-between. She looked up, the sky here was huge and impossibly blue, stretching infinitely in every direction and bearing down on her. She stood for a moment with her neck bent back she stared at the expanse, it was cloudless and seemed to twist and writhe under her gaze like a living thing. Pyro began to feel dizzy and decided to look away when the gaping chasm of sky threatened her with the capacity to swallow her up.
Feeling a bit dizzy she turned her attention back to the bases. Turned it back to more present, more grounded, important, things. Someone from the RED base would be along in a moment or two to collect her and the supplies, as had happened the last time she had been transferred. She shifted uneasily; this was all taking so long! And not only had she been forced to bear the previous week of cease-fire in order to get herself ready for the transition, now she had to wait out another five whole days of peace and non-violence here while she got settled! Oh the injustice! She'd happily give up a few meals or sleep on the floor, outside even, if it meant she could fight sooner, but the Administrator had decreed a cease-fire and a cease-fire there would be. The Administrator's word was law.
It was a few minutes of boredom and foot-scuffing later that Pyro heard a shout from behind her and turned to look. A little silhouette was running towards her, hopping around and waving its arms as it came. She tilted her head curiously and watched the little figure, clearly this team's Scout, with interest. It didn't take the runner long at all to reach the platform and once there he hopped straight up onto it, not even bothering with the stairs.
The Scout was lean and wiry like the sprinter he was. His skin was a shade of brown that reminded the Pyro of milked coffee, and he had discarded his uniform hat somewhere, revealing his short, soft-looking and very curly black hair. He looked her up and down for a moment as she examined him in return and then he fixed her with a goofy smile, revealing that he was missing a tooth on the upper-left side of his mouth.
"Hey there new guy! I bet they briefed you on everything already right? Well I'm the Scout, in case you couldn't tell." He tapped himself on the chest with his thumb, "I'm pretty tough so if anybody gives you a hard time you can tell me an' I'll sort 'em out okay?" A Brooklyn accent maybe? She wasn't sure. He spoke in a way that led her to believe in his sincerity, although his scrawny figure didn't put much behind his assurances. She nodded all the same however, and said thanks. "Right okay then, um… oh yeah! The Engie and Heavy are comin' in the truck to get the supplies and shit outta the train so they should be here in a minute. If ya like new guy, when we get back to base I could show ya around and all that, I know everybody and where everything is so it'll be a breeze for me. Whaddya say?" He looked at her with what could only be described as puppy-dog eyes and she faltered, feeling slightly assaulted by his friendliness, but liking him despite herself. When she finally gave him a hesitant thumbs up, a tremendous grin spread across his face and he replied with an exaggerated "Sweet!"
The excited Scout paced around next to her and chattered endlessly for the next several minutes, hardly even stopping to breathe. He single-handedly filled the surrounding desert with sound, an impressive feat, and although the Pyro wasn't a very chatty person she found she didn't really mind. He didn't seem to expect any kind of reply from her and she found the noise was a nice change from the silent train ride. The Pyro was used to constant noise, and the weight of this desert's silence was both suffocating and nerve-wracking. She too was used to quiet being a bad sign.
Eventually the sound of a truck engine grumbled its way to them from out in the distance and was accompanied by a pleased chirp from Scout "Finally!" The truck responsible for the sound pulled up a moment later. It was an old beat-up Ford that was leaning rather severely to one side, in fact, with the shape it was in Pyro was surprised the heap of junk ran at all. The smashed up thing looked like it had been through a demolition derby and among many other dents and anomalies a thick coating of dirt, areas of rust and a huge amount of wear and tear made it hard to tell exactly what color the paint was supposed to be, although Pyro guessed some type of brown, or red... or green maybe.
The doors swung open with a hideous screech and two red-clad figures emerged. The truck's driver was a small, but stocky man with a cowboy hat that had somehow remained white against all odds, goggles, steel-toed cowboy boots and the uniform overalls and shirt of the RED team Engineer. The person in the passenger side was undoubtedly the Heavy Weapons Guy, or rather, Heavy Weapons Girl, as it would seem. When she got out of the truck it groaned piteously and the lean righted itself. The Heavy was huge. Like a grizzly bear in a woman suit. Maybe she had previously been one of those people in the circus that bent metal bars with their hands and lifted cement blocks with loads of people on them. Whatever the case, she apparently disliked being crammed in a pickup that was far too small for her. She stretched her arms and popped her neck and back before giving the truck a disdainful look.
The Heavy had a stony face, platinum blond hair in two braids that went down her back and she wore her red shirt with rolled up sleeves. Uniform-wise the only thing that really stood out was a stupid-looking umbrella hat that Pyro suspected was to keep the sun off her mostly bare neck and shoulders. She wondered if anyone had ever given the woman trouble over it and glanced at the Scout, who was now excitedly bouncing up and down in place.
The pair walked over to the platform and were greeted halfway by the aforementioned Scout. "Jeez guys could you be slower? What, did you have to hotwire the truck to get the piece a shit movin'?" This comment gained only a slightly raised eyebrow from the Engineer and a snort from the Heavy.
"Little boy-scout is not wrong in this, truck did not start. Had to have Sniper use jumping cables," remarked the giant. Then she turned her attention to the Pyro, who shrunk slightly under her gaze and silently hoped that this woman wouldn't be as ill-tempered as the last Heavy she had worked with. That man had had one of worst temperaments she had ever seen and Pyro had felt lucky every time she survived a conversation with him. "This is new Pyro?" Heavy asked, clearly talking to the Scout despite regarding the smaller woman with a pensive stare. Pyro felt very small under that look, as if the Heavy had pinned her to the ground. She squirmed. The woman was looking down on her, more than just literally. Pyro clenched and un-clenched her fists, suddenly angry, feeling bruised.
Fire burned, it consumed, and it was a Beast that couldn't be made to feel anything. Influencing its nature was impossible. She had always loved it for this reason.
What would Chuck do?
Pyro snapped her head up so she was staring her massive antagonist in the face and stepped forward, stiff-postured and bristling, until she was nearly standing on the Heavy's feet and then nodded sharply, gravely. The Heavy grinned.
"Hell yeah, Guns! I'm gonna show him around the base when we get back!" The Scout proclaimed, not noticing the brief confrontation. His obvious excitement earned him a chuckle from the Engineer.
"So long as you don't tire the poor fella out, kid," he replied in a drawl as smooth as silk. He walked up to the Pyro, tipped his hat and extended a hand for her to shake, "Pleasure to meet you mister, I'm the Engineer, but most everyone calls me Engie for short. I hear your train ride was a long one and I figure you're pretty tired, but I'd be grateful if you could help load the supplies into this here truck." Pyro nodded and gave his hand a firm shake. "Thank you kindly," replied Engie.
For a moment she thought about telling them that she was a woman, after all it clearly wouldn't be a problem, but when she looked through her pockets and the pouch on her belt for her little notebook and pencil she found them gone. Must have packed them without thinking. Communicating was really difficult without them due to how severely the mask muffled her voice and she decided that she would tell them later. Naturally the idea of simply taking off the mask didn't occur to her.
The Heavy was still regarding her new teammate, although with a lesser amount of obvious displeasure, and once she was apparently satisfied she nodded, "Hopefully new Pyro will not be tiny baby man like last." With this comment she moved over to the train and started to load the supply crates into the bed of the pickup. This was a strange thing to say though, and Pyro tilted her head questioningly, looking between Engineer and Scout, hoping for an explanation.
"Pssh, as if. I can tell you ain't a rage-quitting pansycake like the last guy, huh new guy?" the Scout gave the Pyro a friendly slap on the shoulder and ran off the help the Heavy, who delicately gave the smaller man the lightest box she could find.
Exasperated, the Pyro fixed her confused look on Engie, who gave a smile in return, "Our last Pyro - the feller you're replacing - had a nervous breakdown and was retired. Don't worry about it too much though, just take it easy and get used to everything here, alright?" He smiled at her encouragingly and said, "Now, come on it'll be sunset in an hour or so and the faster we get this junk loaded up, the faster we can get back to base and have some grub."
The easy-going Texan trotted mildly over to the train with Pyro on his heels and with everyone working on it, the red-clad mercenaries got the truck loaded up in just a little over fifteen minutes.
The pickup had only two seats, so the Pyro opted to ride in the bed of the truck with Chuck and the crates rather than sit on Heavy's lap, a decision that pleased them both. The Scout meanwhile, ran ahead with a wave and the exclamation, "I can get back twice as fast as that piece a shit! I'll save ya some chow newbie!" Pyro waved at him as he left and wondered if it really would be like camp or if anyone would survive. Did Respawn really count as surviving since you had to die first? If not, did that make them zombies? If they were zombies then how come she didn't want to eat brains? Were there vegetarian zombies and if so did they eat dead plants or live plants? Pyro was distracted from her deep philosophical musings by Heavy pointing out that she was falling out of the truck and that she should try not to fall out of the truck so much.
The base was about a ten minute drive from the train station, which, if one included the time required to get the damn truck started, took about twenty minutes altogether. Pyro - aside from the falling out of the truck incident - spent her time sitting in the bed with Chuck across her lap, watching as the dust bloomed out behind them and hung in the air like smoke. She found herself mesmerized by it. That vast sky and endless sea of dust surrounding her made her think of just how small she was; even the Heavy seemed small in comparison. If she let her mind wander, she could imagine that the dust was just like real smoke, thick and black, and she saw the huge blue sky lit up with orange. The imagery of the burning desert eased her almost ever-present tension, if only a little. A release she was glad for. Suddenly her skin itched and her hands pulled the lighter from her belt-pouch of their own accord, flicking it on, off, on, off…
They had piled the crates mostly towards the driver's side to try and balance out the Heavy and give the truck a little break. The Pyro herself sat almost in the center of the bed and once she managed to put away the lighter before it ran out of fluid she turned to running her hands idly over the flamethrower as she was jostled around by the truck's poor suspension. She had built Chuck herself, although RED had provided blue-prints for her. She had built him herself and knew everything about him, every little quirk he had and how he behaved. Pyro had been transferred twice before this and it almost didn't matter if she had made friends or enemies on her previous teams, because in the end Chuck was still with her, the companion that she could trust her life to. She smiled beneath her mask as she inspected the weapon for what had to be the hundredth time that day, but was pulled from her thoughts by the looming silhouette of RED base and the Engineer's call of "Just about here Pyro, welcome to Gold Rush!"
The three mercenaries drove through a gate and the truck came to a sputtering, wheezing halt next to a camper van that seemed to be in ten times better condition. Pyro hopped down out of the truck bed with Chuck and looked around at the buildings that surrounded her. They were mostly wood, as all RED base structures seemed to be, and that ever-present dust clung to every surface except Engineer's hat. The Heavy and Engineer piled out and over to her. "I figure you'd rather have a look around with Scout than help us lug in these crates, so how 'bout we go on inside and see if we can find the kid, hmm?" asked the Engineer as he motioned her to follow, she did, but a glance back showed her that the Heavy had already started unloading the crates into a pile on the ground.
She followed the Engineer in silence as he led her into a large building, through a few corridors, and up a flight of stairs. He ducked through a few doorways on the way down the hall, looking for Scout, and stopped as they passed a door left slightly ajar. A deep frown set itself across his lips and he peeked around in the dark room before shutting the door. It clicked as he shut it and he jiggled the handle before turning back to the hallway and his charge. Pyro tilted her head at him and he rubbed his hand up under his magic hat with a light sigh. "Don't worry about it buddy, that door's just supposed to stay locked is all. No big thing."
He glanced around the hall before heading off in the direction they had been going before he stopped. "The jack-rabbit'll probably be in the rec room or the canteen," he muttered, more to himself than to the woman who shadowed him in silence. The pair trotted up another flight of stairs and down a hallway, before stopping in front of a battered wooden door, behind which the sound of loud voices could be heard. The Engineer turned and flashed Pyro a smile, "this here's the rec room; most of us like to stay in here or in the canteen when we ain't in a fight." He explained. Pyro nodded and Engie turned back towards the door and opened it without further ado.
Inside the room was a television, several old-looking pieces of furniture including a couch, a couple arm chairs and a card table. There was also a billiards table, a few sparsely filled bookshelves, a record player, and several men and a woman lounging, watching two of their comrades rolling around on the floor, yelling and trying to brain each other with anything they could get their hands on. Perched on the arm of the couch and cheering for one of the men to, "bust his teeth in!" was the Scout.
Heads turned when the two newcomers entered the room and while one man wearing a red suit and an equally red ski mask went back to leaning against the wall and watching the fight with an amused expression, the other; a tall, lean woman with aviators, a ponytail and a slouch hat and slouched posture, looked the team's newest member over with relaxed interest. Pyro waved at her awkwardly and the woman touched the brim of her hat in greeting and turned back to the spectacle.
Next to Pyro, Engie sighed and headed over to the pair of wrestling mercenaries. Pyro herself, paused a moment and then headed over to the couch upon which the cheering Scout was perched. She leaned both Chuck and then herself against the couch's back and propped her chin up on her hand, watching the fight and Engie's futile attempts to attract the two brawlers' attention. Pyro bet that they'd stop fighting if she gave them both a puff from Chuck, but after some consideration, she decided that, while a good way to introduce yourself to an enemy, it probably wouldn't go over so well with allies.
After a moment the Scout noticed the masked woman and fixed her with his 500 watt smile, "Hey! Ya made it here with ya head still attached, congrats!" His friendly smile turned impish, "five bucks says Demo knocks Solly out cold!"
In all likelihood, Demo was short for Demoman , but she didn't really want to hazard a guess about Solly. Soldier maybe? "Solly?" asked Pyro, tilting her head quizzically, although through her gas-mask the question came out sounding more like 'shrrry?'.
Scout paused a moment before realizing what she meant. "Oh yea, Solly's short for Soldier, he's the guy with the helmet. So you on or what?" he asked, hand outstretched. Pyro thought this over and decided that a man in a helmet was probably less likely to get knocked out than a man not wearing a helmet. She nodded and shook Scout's hand, widening his grin and causing him to cheer the Demoman on even louder.
The fight lasted about another minute, in which time the one-eyed, kilted black Scotsman, sporting cornrows and a headband, presumably the Demoman, landed a nasty elbow to the other man's jaw and received a broken nose in return. Finally fed up, Engie pulled his wrench out of his belt and called out over the racket, "the next fella to take a swing is getting a whack! Y'all hear me?!" This stopped both men dead. Now that they were holding still, Pyro saw that the Demoman seemed a little better off than the Soldier: sporting only a severely bloody nose and a cut under his remaining eye. His helmeted opponent looked as though he was quickly developing a brilliant shiner and had his own bloody nose accompanied by a split lip and a few other bruises.
The Demoman jumped to his feet and snarled at the Engineer. "THIS bloody idiot," he jabbed a finger at Soldier accusingly, "threw out me last bottle of scrumpy!" "He didn't even drink it; he just poured it out on the ground!" The Demoman's accusation, which Pyro could only think to describe as a drunken wail, was directed toward the entire room it seemed, and he advanced on both the Engineer and Soldier through his blood and rage until the Engineer held up his hand to silence him.
Engie turned to look at Soldier, "and what do you have to say for yourself Sol? I'm guessing there was a reason."
When Soldier spoke to defend himself the Demoman grinned triumphantly while Pyro, Scout, Engie and the other two spectators winced in unison. Soldier's jaw clicked alarmingly when he moved and he grimaced in pain, but wasn't actually deterred. "IT'S DERELICTION OF DUTY TO DRINK WHILE ON THE BATTLEFIELD!" Pyro was extremely impressed that the man could be so very loud despite his jaw being so obviously busted.
"I'm not on duty and neither are you! It's a cease-fire ye damned nutjob!" Demoman snarled in response.
The Engineer sighed and regarded the Soldier like a mother who had just come home to walls covered in crayon and knew she was the one who would have to clean it all up, "you know he has a point Sol." Soldier started to protest, but was cut off by an absolutely withering, bloodcurdling, paint stripping, flesh-melting look from Engineer, "I don't want to hear you talk anymore with your jaw clackin' around like that," he turned to the Scout, "go find the Medic and tell him what's goin' on." Scout's own protest was also cut off, but this time by the Engineer snapping, "GET!" Scout got.
An uneasy silence fell over the group, without even the interruption of an awkward cough to lift the weight, that is, until Scout's return several minutes later. They could hear his approach from miles away.
"–and so he all yelled at me 'GET!' in that pissed off voice he gets sometimes so then I came to get you Doc, like he said cause they was all busted up an' bleedin' an' shit and Engie's all in a major twist an' the new guy's here and –"
"Yes, Scout. Sank you very much for finllink me in. Please calm down now. You are going to give us bozh aneurysms und if I get mine first zhen ve vill be out of luck ja?"
The over-excited kid came jogging into the room followed by a tall, blond man with a hawkish countenance and an extremely annoyed expression.
"Oh, uh… sure thing, Doc. Sorry."
"Gut. Sank you, Scout."
The pair were also followed by the Heavy, who had apparently finished unloading the crates, meaning that this single room now contained the entirety of the RED team.
The Medic shook his head when he strode in and saw the bloodied mercenaries sitting on the floor and pointedly not looking at each other. "Unbelievable," he sighed. "Is it really so hard to go for a few days wizhout trying to murder somevon?" The thickness of the man's accent was surprising and if his English were more broken Pyro might say it was even worse than the Heavy's.
Demoman grinned triumphantly once more when he was the first to receive the Medi Gun's healing rays, causing the Soldier to bellow in protest, "WHY DOES HE GET HEALED FIRST?! HE'S NOT EVEN AMERICAN!"
Medic arched his eyebrows, "neizher am I." he replied coolly, "Besides, he's bleedink all over zhe carpet." Off to the side, Engineer sighed and pushed up his goggles in order to rub tiredly at his eyes. Pyro could already tell who the parents were.
"Well I figure since we've got all y'all in the same room we may as well just introduce the Pyro here." Engineer looked at her as if asking whether she minded and continued speaking. The whole room suddenly was looking at her as if they'd forgotten she was there entirely and she shrunk back a little, wishing she could steal the Spy's silly watch and turn invisible. Engie seemed to take her lack of response as a go ahead and proceeded to introduce each person by class title, even the ones she had already met, and they, in turn made some sort of greeting.
The last person introduced to her was the Medic, who was now healing the Soldier. "Pleased to meet you, Herr Pyro and before I forget I vill need to schedule an exam for you." Pyro held little fondness for doctors and tensed visibly at this, gaining a loud scoff from the German. "Calm down, idiot. It's just to make sure everyzhing checks out. You von't even have to have surgery."
This was followed by a shrill chorus of "why not?!" from several people in the room, as if they were a group of children being denied some fundamental justice. Scout even piped up further by saying, "the hell Doc? Why don't he have to get the uber-heart-thingy surgery like everybody else?!" The Medic rolled his eyes.
"Firstly, it is pronounced über, Scout, not uber," now Scout rolled his own eyes and made the blah-blah-blah gesture where he mimed a person talking with his hand. If the Medic noticed he didn't let on, "und secondly, did any of you even read zhe briefink? The Pyro has already had zhe Über Surgery."
"Come to think of it, the file did say he was a transfer from another base didn't it?" Engineer chuckled sheepishly, "kinda slipped my mind a bit."
The Spy pulled a cigarette out of his case/disguise kit and finally spoke up after remaining silent so far, "good. Zen 'e should be slightly less incompetent than we expected. 'ow reassuring." He then stuck the cigarette between his lips and started digging in his pockets for his lighter.
"Aw now Spooky, no need tah be rude, for all you know he coulda been working fer RED long before you got started," put in the Sniper with a kind, but slightly impish smile playing across her lips.
Demo chuckled, picking up Sniper's implied statement, "aye, but I'd say just about anyone would'a been workin for RED longer than Casper the unfriendly ghost. What's it been now, four months laddie?" The visible parts of Spy's face turned a shade of red that almost matched his mask and he scowled as he focused on finding his lighter. Pyro smiled, so he was an actual newbie. Baby spies were adorable. She giggled and made a mental note to watch out for him since he'd probably spend a lot of time getting lit up until he got really good.
The Demo and Sniper's line of thought seemed to pique the curiosity of the Scout, "say newbie, how long you been working for RED anyhow?" He tilted his head in a way that made Pyro think of a parrot.
Honestly, she really didn't feel like answering this last question, she didn't have her notebook and didn't like having everyone looking at her so expectantly to boot. So she tried to think of a way to change the subject. Oddly enough the group was distracted again by the newbie "stealth expert."
He seemed unable to find his lighter and he let out an annoyed curse that caught his teammates' attention. "Spy's fancy suit is full of many ants?" inquired the Heavy with raised eyebrows. The Spy shot her a dirty look and made a visible effort to try and relax, letting out a deep, even breath and holding his next inhale for a few seconds.
"I was sure I 'ad my lighter less zhan an hour ago, I don't suppose anyone 'as seen it in zee meantime?" he asked in a voice that projected forced calm. Everyone in the room shook their heads almost in unison. He frowned and stuffed his hands into his pockets, brow knitted, "it was a gift, if anyone finds it please let me know. It's silver, wizh an engraving of twin guns."
The Demoman trotted over to him and slung his arm around the thinner man's shoulders, "Don't worry about it too much laddie. Ya probably just left it somewhere an' it'll turn up eventually. I do that sort o' thing all tha time!" The Spy grimaced, clearly disliking Demo's comfort-cuddles.
Beneath her mask Pyro smiled, his expression was funny and she imagined a squiggly line appearing above his head like it did in newspaper comics. She walked over to the peeved man and started digging around in her pockets. Spy (and the other REDs as well) watched her suspiciously until she found what she was looking for and pulled out one of her lighters, a zippo, – she usually carried two or three lighters of different types – flicked it on and held it up to him.
The Spy looked slightly taken aback, but thanked her awkwardly and lit his cigarette anyway. Pyro handed him the zippo and turned back to the Scout. She asked him a question, slowly in order to make her words easier to understand, "you were going to show me around weren't you?"
After the seconds it took him to decipher what she'd said, the Scout flashed his huge, gap-toothed smile, "Oh Yeah! Thanks for remindin' me!" He ran over to the door, "come-on whatcha waitin' for?!" Pyro smiled, relieved for an excuse to leave the room full of people and then remembered that he couldn't see it, so she gave him a thumbs-up instead and followed Scout out of the room with a farewell wave to the others.