Prompt: Engineer/Pyro, Snow
She might have been a hard bitch, but the Administrator wasn't a tyrant. In a war where no one actually died and no headway was actually made, it wasn't completely unreasonable to let the men have a few weeks off for Christmas. When the announcement was made, there had been a scramble to the phone booth to buy plane and train tickets, the victor being Sniper sporting a black eye for his efforts.
Just a few days before Christmas, and the team was waiting outside the base for the train to arrive and take them to their various destinations, be that the nearest air port, or straight to Boston. The snow had fallen hard the night before, but there was too much pride and testosterone to retreat back inside, or worse, huddle together for warmth.
The Engineer sat on his leather foot locker, watching his breath fog up, absently peering down the tracks, as if expecting to see the train, but knowing better. Though he had plenty of pride and testosterone to spare, he also had a healthy dose of common sense. When his teeth began to chatter, it was time to swallow that pride and high tail it back to base. No one else followed, however.
The base was dark, but warm, which was all it needed to be, and he kicked the snow off of his boots as the doors clanged shut behind him, leaving him for a moment in deafening silence. As he pulled off his ten gallon and shook off the snow, he heard hurried footsteps echo off the empty walls.
"Who the heck is still…" He looked out the narrow windows of the doors, back at his team who were still standing around like knuckleheads in the snow. As he counted each of them off, he realized one had been missing from the line up. Pyro rounded the corner just as the Engineer turned back toward the dark hall to face him.
They stared at each other a moment, Engineer still holding his hat in his hands as Pyro seemed to shrink under the gaze. The silence spanned between them, and Pyro shuffled his boots.
"You ain't got anywhere to be for Christmas, do you son?" Engineer asked suddenly. Though he wasn't exactly surprised at the concept, he was surprised to find himself saddened by the idea.
Pyro's shoulders jolted at being addressed, before he folded his hands in front of his stomach and shook his head, rubber squeaking with each movement as he started to sink into his shoulders again. If there was ever a perfect impression of an abandoned puppy dog…
The base was dark, and quiet, and goddamn lonely. Engineer figured the Pyro was slightly unstable as is. Leaving him in this shell of a building for three weeks by himself did not sound like a good idea. Cabin Fever could be potentially devastating. Brushing some snow off of his hat, he shrugged a bit, chewing the inside of his cheek. "Train is late as hell. Why don't you go pack some stuff and come home with me? Ya got time."
The puppy perked up, before turning with a squeal of boots and gloves and tromping down the hallways toward the barracks. The Engineer dragged a hand over his numb face.