The insistent ringing of a phone broke the silence of the night, only halted by a nimble hand picking up the ringing contraption and answering the call.
"Hallo?" The voice distinctly laced with a German accent replied calmly, it sounding almost groggy given the early hour it currently was. Bleary eyes shifted towards the clock, 3 AM. 3 AM.
"Klaus, it's Pauling." A female voice stated, as though that alone excused the early hour that this call was being made. "I'm afraid i'm in need of your help..."
10 years have passed since the worlds of all of the mercenaries of Teufort had aligned and acted as one, as a unit. War was over, and had been for 10 whole years, yet there was a clear shortage of contact between the now retired mercenaries. Reunions had been long rumoured, but none had ever gained any momentum and none, until now, had even reached the stage of being so close and so real.
However, after a few calls being made by the one and only Miss Pauling, a real reunion between all mercenaries that had fought in that war was so close that the purple-clad female could almost taste it. It had been far too long, and with the help of two old mercenaries she had managed to get a hold of every other mercenary around and all of them had agreed to one big reunion. It was great news, and the reunion was only a couple hours away.
The clock softly ticked in the background as Miss Pauling began to shuffle through some paperwork, ensuring that everything she had noted down was going to plan in the order she had demanded. Where were the decorators of the small hall she had hired out? Where was those who had volunteered to provide food for the occasion? On such short notice she was aware things time wise may be a little tight, but she had no choice and had been working towards this reunion for months!
"What do I do? If those decorators don't turn up then-oh and the DJ, the Scouts had demanded there be one...and the food! If the food isn't sorted then-"
Slowly, arms wrapped around the young female's waist and enveloped her in a warm embrace. Behind her stood Scoot, the once upon a time Scout clad in red. He placed his chin on her shoulder, chuckling a little in the tense female's ear.
"Darlin', will ya chill for just a little?" He hummed, rocking her a little and seeing her slightly relax. "Things're gonna turn out jus' fine, the guys'll show up and the only thing you gotta watch out for is anyone who decides to scrap for old times sake~" As if that made her feel better. Though, despite herself, the dark haired female gave a soft chuckle and shook her head.
"I have no time to 'chill', Scoot." She said firmly, "there's plenty of work to do, and you're going to help me make sure this works out."
The sound of doors creaking open and heavy footsteps turned Pauling's attention away from the now pouting ex-Scout, and to the two figures standing in the once empty doorway.
"My apologies, are we perhaps interrupting something?" One of the figures asked, his voice laced with the same German accent as the one Pauling had heard on the phone. "We can always come back later-"
"No, Klaus, please do come in." She replied smoothly, lightly nudging Scoot with her elbow to force him to let go. "The reunion's not quite for another couple of hours-"
"Da, we know." The second figure answered, stepping into the building and looking around with the slightest nod of his head. "We came to help you set up."
"Aw man, with big ol' Misha helpin' us we'll be done in no time!" Scoot laughed, jogging over to the large ex-Heavy weapons guy of the RED team and slapping his ex-team mate's outstretched hand. "And even the doc's here, fair 'nuff he's a BLU, but he's still worth somethin' to this 'operation' of yours, darlin'-"
A laugh erupted from the large burly Russian, squeezing the smaller ex-Scout's hand in his own and watching him wince a little in delight. "Da, much quicker than if it were just you helping, little man."
Laughter followed from the small group and within moments Pauling had them organised to clean up the hall and get it ready for the reunion. She was determined to make sure this reunion was one that the ex-mercenaries of Teufort would never forget...and boy was she going to do so!
Meanwhile, in the pale glow of a northern bus station, stood Sniper Mick Mundy. His old hat was tipped slightly forward, shielding his eyes from the cars headlights as they drove past and prevented him from becoming slightly dazed. He was dressed remotely smart, a sight that would have been and has continued to be increasingly rare for the Australian sharp-shooter over the last 10 years and beyond. Black pressed slacks, a clean white shirt with the top two buttons undone, a somewhat darker version of the vest he used to wear as a mercenary over the top. Yes indeed, Mick Mundy looked rather sharply dressed, and boy was he regretting taking the bus.
"Should'a jus' walked.." He grumbled to himself as he kicked at a loose pebble on the ground, huffing as dark clouds shrouded the moon and it's illuminating light and causing the world to appear that little bit darker. "That or I should'a just headed out earlier..."
Sighing quietly, he tilted his head skywards and gave a soft hum of honest thought. It had been ten whole years since he had last seen the other mercenaries of Teufort, though it felt like only yesterday that they all had said goodbye. Mick had to be honest with himself, he would have thought that the others would have contacted him sooner and arranged a reunion before the ten year milestone. But, he reminded himself, they had lives of their own, all of them. While dwelling on that subject he wondered what his RED allies were doing with their lives, as well as his BLU acquaintances.
The squeaky wheels of a bus approaching brought Mick out of his thoughts, allowing him to dig a hand into those black slacks and grab at the loose change in his pocket. He was on his way, and as time went on he realized just how nervous he was.
"Got to hurry, the reunion's only an hour away."
Racing down one of the back alleys, Francois Renard gave soft pants as he spun around a corner towards his home. He'd gotten his invitation to the reunion of Teufort mercenaries surprisingly late, and thus was in a bit of a rush to make sure he looked...well, a lot more presentable than he did at that current moment in time.
Dusty blonde hair askew and sticking out at all sorts of ungodly angles, white shirt greying and dirty as well as a jacket torn at the bottom, his trousers were much in the same way and let us not even go on about his shoes. It was true, the once stylish and fashion-orientated ex-Spy of BLU was a mess that would have caused his past self to faint at the sheer sight of himself.
After a good ten minutes of running at top speed he finally burst through the door to his small apartment, slamming the door behind him and taking a second to catch his breath and in that small moment he caught his reflection in his gaze. His face was pale, dark circles around his steely grey eyes, less of a muscular build than the ten years ago when he was a rather dashing rogue (or so he dubbed himself despite the fact he hadn't much muscle back then).
"Ah...I have a lot of work to do if i'm to look remotely presentable-" The ex-BLU scolded himself lightly, "well, better get started."
With that, he rushed into his room with the need for a good shower and a little bit of cosmetic to hide the darkness of his eyes.
Eventually, the time of the long awaited reunion came and Miss Pauling along with Klaus, Misha and Scoot waited with lumps caught in their throats out of pure excitement to see who would walk through the door first. What they didn't expect, however, was for the mercenaries to all come together and rush in all at once to catch the four by surprise.
They all stood together, RED and BLU, side-by-side, and all had massive smiles on their faces. From Pyro to Soldier, every mercenary gathered there was evidently excited much like children at the idea of seeing each other again. Brother and brother met once again, an example being Klaus who spotted his brother Kaiser amongst the crowd. Friends met friends, the RED ex-Soldier Byron and the BLU Engineer Dell instantly were slapping each other on the back and laughing madly.
"We have the Soldiers, Engie's, Heavy's, Medic's, Scout's, Demo-men, Pyro's and- only one Spy and one Sniper?" Miss Pauling counted, "we're missing two mercenaries?" Clicking her tongue, she glanced at the clock nervously before nudging Misha. "Misha, Francois and Mick did say they were coming to this reunion, correct?"
"Da, Miss Pauling." The Russian confirmed, glancing over the heads of the other mercs before pointing. "I think one of them has just arrived-"
Just as Misha said this, Mick stumbled through the door while shielding himself from the rain that had begun to fall outside.
"Holy-" The Australian could be heard saying in shock as he was steadied by Brent, the ex BLU Sniper. "'ello mates!" He called, being greeted with whoops and slight cheers. There was one thing he could say, and that was- "ah, today's a good day."
Just as the ex-RED stepped in, he was bumped into from behind and nearly knocked onto the floor by the sheer force of it. With a grunt, he turned his head to make a snide comment to whoever had rushed in before discovering he was face-to-face with someone he hadn't quite seen before.
"Watch where you're goin'!" He growled a little, upper lip curling a little in irritation as he stared down at the shorter and slightly jumpy male.
"My apologies, Sniper." The newcomer replied calmly, the smooth French accent washing over the Australian almost with nostalgia and it took only a couple of seconds to click.
"Spook."