TEAM FORTRESS 2 BELONGS TO VALVE
For once, RED's base was peaceful, to the point of resulting abhorrently boring. Although it was their free day, there wasn't much to do, not with that heavy rain falling outside which forced them to stay indoors. After making sure that the storm didn't affect his sentries, Engineer locked himself up along with Medic up in the lab to make some modifications to their weapons. Sniper was taking a nap on the sofa, Heavy read a Russian novel by his side while Pyro spent the time drawing on the floor while she watched a children's program on the TV. Soldier fought sloth forcing himself to work up at the gym and Demoman had been paying him company until that moment, when he decided to stop for a while to have a rest. He went to the mess hall, where the other were, to have a drink. There he found Spy and Scout sat at the table, focused on a large puzzle.
"Fancy not seeing you brawling." Demo smiled, walking to the fridge to get a beer. "Aren't you sick?"
"Nah, I found this, and Mr. Frog here's helping me out." Scout explained, pointing at the box.
"If I leave him alone, I am sure he will use a hammer to make the pieces join at some point." Spy joked, placing a piece carefully in its place.
"Who knows where this came from. The things I've seen around here! The other day I found a bra at the bottom of the laundry basket." Demo grabbed the box and took a look. The picture was the Gioconda and it seemed that there were still many pieces to finish it.
"Some lucky guy wiped his ass with the no-bringing-anyone-to-the-base rule." Scout snickered.
"One thing is for sure: that wasn't you." Spy added, raising an eyebrow. "What are you doing? That one comes here."
"They're all the same!"
"Can't you see it's a different shape? Give me that."
Demo rolled his eyes, smiles and went back to the gym to give Soldier a bit of a conversation. Alone again, Spy and Scout went silent again. Spy glanced furtively at the boy from time to time, and he seemed to struggle to complete even just the face—he thought it was unusual for him to be this quiet. After picking some of the pieces he was looking for and offering them, he leaned back on his seat to light a cigarette.
"Scout?"
"Yeah, I know, this is the background."
"No. How come you're doing puzzles? Not that I care, but you always lock yourself up in your room to listen to that pathetic music you love so much and drink soda and eat chips till you burst. I would have never thought you'd be interested about these sort of things."
"It's just that I don't wanna do that today. I wanted to run, practice my pitch...I mean, I could still go outside, but I don't wanna get a pneumonia with this shitty weather."
As all answer, Spy pressed his lips and kept doing the puzzle.
"And I do like puzzles." Scout continued. He had just found one of the crucial pieces in order to form Mona Lisa's cleavage and he was watching it closely. "I've made tons of them with my mom. Since she always came back from work really exhausted and couldn't play much with me, we spent our time together doing this. None of my brothers wanted to do them with me, so..."
"Hm."
"...I miss that."
"Your brothers bothering you?"
"No, you moron. Those moments." Scout placed a piece, but took it out when he realized it didn't fit, as much as he tried. "Sometimes I think that we're in here, fighting to death, while she's at home, alone, and...I don't know. It makes me real sad."
"A sentimental Scout. Too bad I don't have a camera in hand."
Scout grunted something Spy didn't get although he still got the message, and finally put the piece in its right place.
"Come on, don't get angry at me." Spy said. "Everyone here misses someone. It is natural."
"You too?"
Spy expelled the smoke aside.
"I do."
Scout stared at him, expecting him to elaborate his response, but since the spy was again focused on the puzzle, Scout decided to make him talk:
"You never talk about your family."
"If I can help it, I prefer not to reveal any personal information."
"But you can trust me, you know that, don't you?"
"I don't care. Ever."
"Alright, but you do have one? You got a family?"
Spy rose his eyes to him for a second before placing a new piece, shaping the background.
"Someone like me cannot have a family."
"Sure you can, unless you're sterile. Are you sterile?" Spy rose an eyebrow and gave him an offended look. "Okay, I'll take it that you're not. I don't know, dude...I can't picture you like the typical family guy who sits in his armchair to read the paper while smoking a pipe and watches the kids while the wife's cooking dinner; buuuut, I don't know, you're rotten rich and you're a sly fella, you could get out of this easily and settle wherever you'd want."
"Do you really think so?"
Scout nodded.
"Then you are a complete dimwit. It is not as easy."
"Ain't it? Why not?"
Spy didn't reply and placed another piece. Scout waited and waited but he got no reaction from him and ended up sighing.
"Really, dude, sometimes you're impossible to understand."
"I would be very thankful if you stopped calling me 'dude'."
"Though. Okay, okay. Let's change the subject and finish this puzzle in silence, like a pair of old geezers."
"Thank you."
Scout snickered.
"How about we play taking a sip of Bonk! every time we put a piece in its place? To spice it up a bit."
"If you want to drink, don't make up silly excuses. The fridge is right there." Spy smiled, pointing at the appliance with a nod.
"Fine, fine." Scout stood up and quickly got his drink. "I'm telling you: you're an old geezer already. Want something?"
Spy turned his head to watch him head to the fridge, and when Scout made him that question he forced a smile.
"No, thank you."
THE END