Out in the middle of the desert, finding animals wasn't uncommon. Soldier had his abnormally large horde of raccoons, and it was normal for any of the mercs to stumble (sometimes literally) over the occasional lizard or roadrunner. But domestic animals, like cats and dogs, hadn't been seen in the area for years. So when Scout heard a strange mewing sound coming from behind the respawn room, he thought he was imagining things. He quickly climbed the fence that kept him from exploring too much and snuck over to the boiler, trying to keep quiet to avoid scaring off whatever was making the noise. He was about as sneaky as a rooster with a megaphone, but he managed to avoid scaring off the source of the mewing. He saw a tiny kitten curled up under the boiler, shivering as they tried to stay warm. It wasn't too terribly cold (at least, not to Scout, who was used to colder temperatures from living in the north), but the sky had been grey and cloudy all week, and Sniper had been complaining about a chill in the base lately. Scout got down on his knees, reaching a hand out for the cat to sniff. He'd seen tons of alley cats as a kid, and he knew that you had to let them come to you. The kitten booped its nose against his hand, and he fought the urge to giggle. He carefully wrapped a hand around the kitten, dragging it out from underneath the boiler and pulling it up to his chest, cradling it. It meowed at him, but he shushed it, running his hand through its fur. "It's ok, lil' guy," he said, smiling. "I'll get'cha somewhere warm."
Climbing the fence again was a little harder while cradling the kitten, but Scout managed to get over without injuring anyone. He ran back to base as fast as he could, making sure not to squish the kitten. He ran up to his room, slamming the door behind him and locking it. Once he was sure he was alone, he set the kitten down on his bed. It sat there for a few minutes before gingerly moving around, exploring the space. It crawled under his blankets, then walked over to his pillow and started kneading it with its paws. "What are you doing?" Scout asked, smiling at the cat's silly behaviour. He rubbed its head, sitting down on the bed. It jumped into his lap and started kneading his leg. "Quit!" he laughed, trying to pull the kitten off of him. It mewed at him, and he lay back on the bed, letting it climb up onto his chest and curl up into a ball. He stroked the kitten's fur, smiling to himself. "What da hell were you doin' out there, lil' guy? Dis ain't no place for a lil' guy like you." The kitten, of course, didn't answer, but it started to purr as he rubbed its head, and he took that as a sign of happiness.
A sudden knock on the door sent him bolting upright, and the cat yowled as it flew off his chest. It quickly shushed it and pulled the blanket on top of it, running to the door as he heard Engie's voice calling for him. He flung open the door, and Engie's eyebrows furrowed as he looked at Scout's nervous, heavily breathing body. "You alright?" He asked. Scout nodded, using his long arms to block the doorway. "Yep. Couldn't be better. Nothin' goin' on here."
"Okaaaay. Have you seen Py? I haven't seen 'em since this morning."
"Nope. Haven't seen 'em." Scout's wide eyes and awkward posture would remind a modern reader of a certain chef from a rat-themed movie. Engie just thought he was being weird.
"What are you doing in there?" He asked, trying to push past the boy. He was hiding something, Engie knew it.
"I, uh, just, I, I was...masturbating furiously. Yeah, that's it. Just goin' at it. You don't wanna come in here."
Engie looked at him like he was crazy, but backed off. "Well...let me know if you see Pyro, ok?"
Scout nodded. "Yep!" As soon as Engie was gone, he shot back into his room, closing and locking the door again. He looked back at the bed, a yelp shooting from his mouth when he saw the kitten was gone. He tore through the room, looking for the kitten, his face paling when he realized the kitten must have gotten out when he was talking to Engie. He burst out the door, looking around the hallway before running off to his left, towards the main room. He heard Engie talking in the kitchen, and raced through the door, stopping cold when he saw Engie and Medic staring at him. Behind them, on top of the refrigerator, was the kitten, walking amongst the books and other bric-a-brac that had been left up there. While trying not to look overly suspicious (and failing miserably), Scout made his way over to the fridge under the guise of looking for a snack.
"You ok, Scout?" Engie asked, concerned at Scout's more-nervous-than-usual appearance. Scout nodded. "Yep. Just lookin' for somethin'. Nothin' crazy goin' on here." He ran his hand over the top of the fridge, looking for the cat, but found nothing. He bit his tongue as he saw the kitten jump to the cabinet next to the fridge and start walking towards whatever Medic was cooking on the stove. He jumped over to the stove, smiling awkwardly at Engie and Medic. "Gee, Doc, what'cha cookin'? Bet it's somethin' good, huh?" he forced a laugh, his eyes flicking up to where the kitten had been. His heart skipped a beat when he saw the kitten was gone, and he was sure his heart had stopped when he saw the kitten clinging to the back of Medic's jacket. Scout quickly reached out and pried the kitten from Medic's coat, drawing an odd stare from the doctor. Scout quickly put his hands behind his back, chuckling. "Dere, dere was a bug or somethin'. Got it off for ya. You're, uh, welcome!" he dashed out of the room, clutching the kitten to his chest.
"Zhere is somezhing strange going on vith zhat boy…" Medic said, shaking his head. Engie sighed. "I'm sure we'll figure it out sooner or later."
Scout locked his door and plonked the kitten down on the bed. "Jesus fuckin' Christ, you nearly killed me dere! Please don't evah, evah do that again. Just stay here. Please, lil' guy."
The kitten mewed at him, rubbing against his hand. He sighed. "I can't stay mad at you. C'mere." He picked up the kitten and sat down on the bed, petting it gently. "I bet you're hungry, huh? Dat's why you ran off. You just wanted some food."
The kitten mewed, and Scout sighed. "I don't even know what cats eat! Milk? Tuna? Prob'ly not Bonk…" he looked around his room for a trace of anything he could feed the kitten, but the idea of feeding it week-old pizza didn't sound like a good one. The kitten mewed again, and he sighed.
"Whaddaya want, lil' guy? Blood?" He held out his finger, and sure enough, the kitten started sucking on it. It didn't take any of his blood, but it was obvious it was hungry enough to think his finger might provide some sort of nourishment. His heart sunk. He'd have to go back to the kitchen to get food. Sighing, he picked up the kitten, cradling it to his chest. "Alright," he said. "Let's go get you some food." he walked over to the door, moving the kitten to one hand so he could open it. This gave the kitten the opening it needed to jump out of his grasp and speed off down the hallway. Scout swore, racing after it.
Engie picked up the rubber suit with shaking hands. He had gone down to the field to look for Pyro, and had finally found a clue in the respawn room. The suit was all that was there, with their shirt and shorts still inside it. Something had happened to Pyro's body, but Engie had no way of knowing what. He was getting more nervous by the minute. They were usually back at base as soon as he was, waiting for him in their room. It wasn't normal for them to be gone this long. Even if they had ditched their clothes and gone somewhere, they would have come to find him, right? Maybe they were back at the base. He picked up the bundle of clothes and headed back to base, hoping to find them wandering around.
Scout swore under his breath as the kitten raced towards the dining room. He could already hear the voices of people inside, waiting for dinner. A small squeak escaped his lips as he slammed against the door frame, barely missing the kitten. He stood up quickly, forcing a grin and awkwardly laughing at the rest of the team, who had snapped to attention and were now staring at him. "Hey. Just, uh, dropped my ball! I, uh, I think I see it over dere! Heh, heh, yeah."
The team continued to stare at him. Scout inched his way over to Pyro's empty chair, where the kitten was trying to figure out how to climb into it. He crouched down by the chair, wrapping his hands around the kitten and trying to pry it off of the chair leg. "Yep, just, looking for my ball. Uh-huh."
Engie walked in the room, holding Pyro's empty suit, a grim expression on his face. "Y'all, I think something happened to Pyro." The team turned to look at him, and Scout stuffed the kitten inside his shirt, wincing as it clawed his way up his chest.
"I need y'all to help me find'em. They could be anywhere in the base. They could be hurt, or scared. If you see 'em, try not to freak out. Scout, what the sweet Jesus are you doing over there?"
Everyone turned to look at Scout, who was struggling to keep the kitten inside his shirt and yelping softly as the kitten tried to scratch its way out of his shirt. At Engie's exclamation, Scout jumped, and in the rush to look innocent the kitten climbed out of his shirt and ran across the table, avoiding empty plates and fast-moving hands to jump and cling to Engie's overalls. Everyone looked from Engie, to the kitten, to Scout, who was a combination of white and red none of them had ever seen before. It was like a kid with his hand caught in the cookie jar, but about ten times worse.
"Are you why Scout's been actin' so weird all day?" Engie asked, wrapping his hands around the kitten and prying it off his overalls. He cradled it to his chest, sitting down. Spy laid his gun on the table, but Engie stopped him. "We ain't shootin' it, Spy. It's just a lil' thing. Ain't gonna hurt nobody."
Spy sat back in his chair, looking at the kitten with disgust. One would think he would be a cat person, having many catlike qualities himself, but he couldn't stand furry beasts of any kind. He was allergic to dogs, but he had no good memories involving cats.
The kitten mewed up at Engie, as if trying to speak. He chuckled. "What is it, lil' fella?"
"He's hungry," Scout said, gathering the courage to speak. Engie nodded. "Course. Let's get you somethin, huh?" He stood up, walking towards the fridge. "Let's see if we've got anything for ya."
The rest of the team turned to Scout, who chuckled awkwardly.
"So, where'd'ya find it?" Sniper asked.
"And what possessed you to bring such a filthy animal here?" Spy added.
"He was under the boiler next ta respawn, shakin' like a leaf," Scout said. "I couldn't just leave him."
"Of course you could," Spy said, but Medic put up a hand to stop him. "You say you found zhis cat near respawn?"
Scout nodded.
"Und Engie, zhat vas vere you found zhe Pyro's belongings, ja?"
"Yep," Engie said from the fridge.
"Perhaps zhe cat is connected to Pyro," Medic said, showing off a surprising amount of plot omnipotence. Most of the mercs scoffed, but Engie and Scout looked worried. Engie carried the kitten back to the table, sitting the mask out in front of it. The cat crawled inside the mask, meowing loudly. Demo started laughing (it was awfully cute), but quickly quieted down when he saw the serious faces of his teammates.
"Ok, meow once for yes, twice for no," Scout said, crossing the table to stand next to Engie. "Are you Py?"
Engie looked at him like he was crazy. "It's a damn kitten, Scout. It ain't gonna know what you're-"
The kitten meowed once, crawling out of the mask. Scout was pretty sure Engie stopped breathing.
"So...cat is Pyro?" Heavy asked, confused. Scout looked up and nodded. "Yeah. Pyro's a cat."
"Holy shit. Pyro's a cat!"
[Author's Note: Holy hell writer's block is a bitch. I almost thought I wouldn't get anything posted today.
Yes, this is a cliffhanger! I've never done a cliffhanger chapter before, and this seemed like a good place to do it. I'm gonna spend another hour or so writing as much of part two as I can so that I don't have to stress about writing the whole thing tomorrow morning. I've just been so busy and uninspired and it's killing me.
I think this might be developing (gasp) an actual plot! The next chapter'll be more dramatic, and then I'm going to try to wrap things up in the next week or so. As much as I like writing this fic, and as much as I'm sure you guys enjoy reading it, 25 chapters is a lot, I'm running out of ideas, and I've been sitting on the twist for this series since the beginning. It'll be good, and I'll do my best to wrap up everything. That's right. Everything. Maybe even the BLUs.
The link to the Tumblr for this fic broke last time, so at risk of sounding redundant, the URL is nonbinarypyronfriends. Just look for that on Tumblr and you should find it. Even after I'm done with this fic, I'll still try to keep that blog active with various headcanons and such, and I'll even roleplay as the characters if anyone wants to do so. But enough gushing about that.
Next time on More Days for Pyro: Blood, stress, and Ms. Pauling.
Stay tuned!]