It all happened far too soon.
They all found out about my dully hidden secret far too fast.
What if they haven't caught on? Will I still be able to fight alongside them?
I am a Pyromaniac hired by the Mann co.; I use my fighting skills alongside 8 other people. We had one rule, never speak your name, we go by Scout, Soldier, Pyro, Heavy, Demoman, Engineer, Medic, Spy and Sniper. Day in and day out, we fight alongside each other, fighting ourselves basically , We are split into two teams, the RED team, and the BLU team, who are the exact same fighters, just with a different color, it's a bit complicated, but it makes sense after a while.
We had a mission the other day; we had to fight off robots from blowing up the Mann co., we call this Mann vs. Machine.
The battle starts, and I'm obviously in the front lines, right next to Heavy and Soldier, Engie working on his sentry and teleporter, Medic preparing his uber charge, Demoman putting bombs everywhere, Sniper getting ready his sniper rifle ready to shoot at the far back, Scout and Spy ready to move whenever, we were ready.
I could hear the sound of metal, Metal is the most fun thing to burn, because it doesn't catch on fire, it just becomes deadly hot. The metal sounded ever louder, everyone was griping at their weapons, ready to destroy the first robot to show his sorry face.
"Incoming!" Sniper screamed while shooting.
They were here! Too many to count, a horde of scout robots swinging their bats around were up first, most were blown to bits by Demoman's bombs and Engie's sentry; those that were still moving were killed by the rest of us.
A second horde came, those were Pyros, medics, Heavies, Snipers, this is going to be a tougher round, didn't take long before I was killed by an enemy Sasha. Time to respawn, on my way back to the frontlines, I came across Spy, who looked at the horizon and then towards me, there was a robot Sniper aiming for my head, he then ran to me and pushed me aside, and inevitably landed on me, I truly wish that hadn't happened.. He felt my not so masculine shapes, then gazed into my gas mask, I tried looking away but to where?
"es-tu…?" Spy started saying before Scout came by.
"Hey keep that for the bedroom ladies, we got a battle to fight, now get to it!" Words couldn't express my gratitude for that.
I kicked Spy off and went back to the frontlines burning those freaks, after a few kills and respawns; we eventually won the first few waves.
This was the most stressful battle I had ever fought, what if Spy tells the others? What if my secret is discovered and I'm no longer allowed to fight alongside them? Will it be the last I'll see of them? After the battle, Spy came to talk to me, but I acted like I didn't hear him and quickly walked away, I didn't want him knowing that I was a girl, I didn't want anyone to know, after making sure Spy was out of sight, I ran to my room, hoping not to bump into anyone.
When I reached my room, I quickly locked the door and took my mask and suit off… What will they think if they knew this suit was twice my actual size? If they saw my long dark lashes and pinkish lips, my long hair… my feminine hands, waist… This was too much to think of; I needed to burn something… I grabbed my suit and mask, and my flamethrower and walked out my room.
As I walked I heard the others talking around the big table of the cafeteria, I can hear Heavy's laughter from my room, when I reached the cafeteria, and they all looked at me, Spy was there and looked at me with a sad emotion... did he…?
"Where ya goin' with yer gun, Pyro?" the drunk Demoman asked, I could smell his breath from where I stood, even under my gas mask, I just shrugged to answer, they wouldn't understand if I talk anyway
"Pyro... vould you kindly follow me?" the Medic asked calmly, I nodded and followed
As we walked down the hall, I could still hear them talking, why did they stop at the sight of me? I'm going to burn Spy and destroy the respawner if he told them…
"Please sit, zhere are a few zhings I'd like to address to you, firstly, I noticed that you seemed more quiet than the ozhers, understandable, since you wear a mask, but sometimes, it would be fun to have an actual conversation wizh you, ja?" Is he asking me to remove my mask? Seriously?
"Now I know your face is as important as our names, but you see, some people in the Mann co. kind of… don't quite trust you, because you won't show us your face…" He told them, he fucking told them… Now if only Medic knew, I guess that would be alright, but if he told them ALL around the dining table, which would be very very low…
"All I'm asking right now… could you kindly remove your mask? I understand if you want your privacy but... like I said, some people don't quite trust you" he's talking about…
"Spy" … what? Did that just come out of my mouth..?
"… Yes... Spy… he doesn't quite trust you"
That lack of trust coming from a spy? Can we even trust him? Maybe he's the BLU spy for all we know, he's been pretending to be everyone else for so long.
"Doctor..?" said a French voice, I looked at the door, hoping it wasn't that rat, and it was… I just looked away.
"What is it, Spy? We're talking" Medic said in a harsh way, knowing that if Spy was here, I wouldn't talk.
"I came to ask about that thing I told you, how is it going?" Thing? What thing?
"This conversation doesn't concern you, Spy, go back to the others"
"If I am right about this, you know what we will have to do, don't you?"
"And if you are wrong, zhen I assume you will take responsibility and apologize correctly"
With those words, Spy just left… It's more than obvious that Spy knows about me… he's sneaky... but very smart, he even sleeps with Scout's mother occasionally… he knows a woman's body well, what if he blackmails me into sleeping with him? That would seem like Spy's doing won't it?
Before I knew it... I had my hands on my mask, about to take it off…
"Py… Pyro, you have nozhing to prove to me." With my mask halfway gone, all he could see was my chin.
"I can't live like this anymore! I never should have come to Mann co., losing the friendships I made with you was the best thing that happened to after I burned down my house and killed my family along that"
"You found out when it was too late that Mann co. was only for men didn't you..."
My hair fell out of my mask, he could obviously tell by my voice and my hair that I wasn't a man…
"I already knew Pyro, who do you zhink took care of you whenever you were knocked out after a battle, I can't patch you up when you're wearing that suit"
"Then why didn't you tell them? You could have gotten me kicked out, that way you wouldn't have to heal burns from the other team's Pyro all the time" I mean… I'm not close to anyone, it's not like anyone cares much.
"You're a part of our team, our fortress, Pyro; it wouldn't be the same wizhout our pyromaniac burning corpses around for fun"
I took a deep breath and managed to take off my entire mask, revealing my very feminine face, Medic had only seen the shape of my body, not my face, I caught him staring... these men haven't been in contact with a female in a long time, it was to be expected, it was embarrassing…
"So… will you let the others know?"
I tucked my hair under my mask and walked out the medic's room, walked towards the cafeteria, before I knew it, I was skipping, and then running, I reached the cafeteria out of breath, I wanted these people whom I fought side by side with, these friends, to know the real me, No more hiding, I could see Spy smirking while smocking his cigarette, but I didn't care, all that mattered, is if they accepted me for who I am, the rest doesn't matter.
"Everyone!" I screamed, but my mask muffled it, and they were all still laughing and eating, they didn't hear me, they didn't even notice me.
"Hey!" I tried getting their attention again, only Scout heard me this time.
"What's up Mumbles?" he asked me, but I wanted everyone to listen to me.
"Gentlemen?" Spy said in a loud and strict voice "I believe we have a teammate that wants to say something, it would be kind to listen"
I heard footsteps behind me and turned around and saw Medic running after me, he looked at me with a proud look on his face, I took a deep breath... And rolled up my sleeves, they all looked astonished to see such skinny arms, it didn't take long before Scout came running to see up closer.
"How are you so skinny after all that fighting?" he asked, I took a few steps back and turned around, I took a hand under my mask and pulled on it, slowly, strands of my hair fell out of my mask, with each strand, my heart pounded louder, I could feel their gaze. When my mask was fully off, revealing my hair, I heard the Demoman and Heavy whistling at me.
"That's enough, you stupid baboons" I told them, revealing my feminine voice, I didn't feel comfortable enough turning around yet, so all I did was unzip my suit and took it off, all that covered me were my fitted tank top and tight shorts, they all gasped at my feminine shapes. I expected them to look a bit happy to see a girl among them, but when I turned around to look at them, most had sad and surprised looks on their faces, it wasn't a secret that the mann co. was way too rough for ladies and men didn't feel right hitting women most of the time, for that reason, women were not allowed to fight for mann co.
They reacted far differently than I had anticipated, perhaps I meant something to these idiots after all.