"Yah really need to take better care of your equipment."Engineer lectured as he walked down the basement steps. "Son, this is the fourth time in three months."
"I know, I know," Scout rolled his eyes trailing after him. "can yah fix it?"
"Probably can, but I dunno why I should."
"Isn't that why yer here? To fix stuff?" the young man bounded around the Texan and running on ahead of him.
"I got better things to do than fix your guns over and over again. I keep tellin' ya routine ma-"
"Hey Hardhat," the younger man cut him off, "did ya leave your light on?"
He frowned, catching the light under the door. He usually didn't leave the power in the room on. But he had the sinking suspicion he knew who had. He hoped he was wrong.
He reached mechanically in his pocket for his keys, his mind racing to figure out a solution. If He was in there, it was too late now to turn back. Keeping the kid out of the workshop at this point would be suspicious.
His hands fumbled, the keys hit the ground with a loud metallic clank. He was about to grab them when Scout scooped them up and shoved them into his hands. Reluctantly he unlocked the door and the barged in ahead of him.
"Do you smell smoke?" Scout asked.
Cigarettes. Not the smell of smoke. The smell of cigarettes. "M-musta left the soldering iron on," he stammered quickly.
"Gettin' forgetful in yer old age hunh,?" the kid snorted.
The Texan ignored him, his mind elsewhere. He was right, Spy, the other one, must have been in here. Hopefully he wasn't still in here, that could prove problematic. "Now leave me yer gun," he said holding his hand out for the damaged weapon resisting the urge to nervously glance around the room, "and I'll get to work on it. "
The kid handed over the rifle and to Engineer's dismay walked further in the room instead of leaving. "Why yah got a teddy bear?" Scout asked with disdain, jabbing a finger at Teddy on top of the dispenser.
"N-never you mind that" he exclaimed, his ears burning as he placed the gun on the table; why wasn't Scout leaving? If Spook was still in here…. There wasn't a lot of room to maneuver, odds were pretty good the two idiots would bump into each other. He wasn't sure what would happen but he didn't want to find out.
"Hey, what's this lamp doing here?" the kid asked, walking to the back corner. The Texan's heart jumped in his throat, there wasn't normally a lamp in here. Trying not to cringe he turned to see Scout pointing at a rather out-of-place looking floor lamp. He recognized that lamp.
"Don' touch that!" he barked.
Scout gave him a strange look.
"I-it's uh…defective. I was fixin' that for…" he hesitated, "Pyro." He hated dragging the firebug into a lie but odds were good Scout wasn't going to bother to fact check.
"Defective?" Scout repeated with a snort. "Yah sure the lightbulb ain't just burned out?" he reached a hand to grab the lamp shade.
"Ah said don' touchit!" he snapped, rushing over from the work bench and grabbing Scout by the arm.
"Ow! Hey what's th'matter with ya?"
"When I say don' touch somethin', ah mean leave it alone." he grumbled dragging him away from the light fixture before either of them got hurt.
"ALRIGHT! Alright! Just leggo already!"
"Do ya want me to fix this for ya or not?" the Texan grumbled, gesturing at his workbench, hoping to distract the kid from other things in the room. And that other things in the room would continue to remain inactive.
"Yeah. How long will it take ya?"
"I should get it done by this weekend."
"But that's days away," Scout protested.
"And I've got other things on my dance card, son."
"What am I supposed to use until then?"
"You've got other guns, use them, or borrow somethin' from the armory. It ain't like we gotta shortage."
"Are ya kidd-"
"-Now git outta here." the Texan cut him off abruptly. "I've got work to do." And company to deal with.
"But-"
"Git outta here before I decide that gun a'yers will take until next week!" Engineer said, herding the kid to the door.
"Ow! Watchit!"
"I got work ta do."
"What the hell is-" Scout's complaint was cut off as the Texan slammed the door. With a relieved sigh he bolted it shut. Leaning against the door, he breathed a sigh of relief.
"Kay Trouble, kid's gone." he grumbled, turning from the door. There was a pop as the floorlamp disappeared and turned into a nosy Frenchman. "Now, yah mind tellin' me just wha-" the words froze in his mouth when he saw the man gracelessly slump in the arm chair.
He expected the man to snap at him - or make some smug remark. Instead the man mumbled a greeting he could barely make out.
The Texan swallowed, trying to figure out what to do. He'd never seen the man like this, something was eating at him and he had no idea what to do about it. Finally, he cleared his throat, "Erm- y-yah alright there?" he asked hesitantly.
"I'm fine," came the petulant reply.
Engineer snorted, "Pull th' other one, even I can tell yer lyin'."
The Frenchman wordlessly lit a cigarette. The Texan was about to object but then decided to save his breath. "Yah want some coffee?" a mug of coffee seemed a poor solution to whatever was ailing the man, but it was all he had to offer.
"Oui." came the soft reply.
The Texan took the coffee pot from the modified dispenser and filled it with water from the workshop tap. He turned to Spy as he poured the water into a panel on the dispenser, "So what brings ya down here?"
The dispenser hummed on, and the coffee maker gurgled as it started working. Finally the man spoke "I had a bad day."
"A bad day hunh?" he repeated. "Ya wanna talk about it?"
But Spy remained silent. As soon as there was enough coffee the Texan took his mug from off the dispenser and filled it. "Sorry, ah don' have any cream or sugar down here." he apologized, passing the mug to the Frenchman who just held it in his hands, staring down into the steam.
"My project…" he started and trailed off.
"Yea?" he prompted gently.
"The personal project I mentioned… it did not have a…" the man froze, hesitating on the words. The Texan could hardly believe he'd lived to see the man short for words more than once. "successful conclusion."
"Ah" he said quietly, taking a spare mug off a shelf and pouring himself a cup. That had probably been a hard blow to the man's pride, no wonder he was skulking around like a wounded dog. After a moment's pause he gingerly patted the Frenchman on the shoulder. "I've had a few projects and designs blow up on me." Sometimes literally, but he decided not to add that. "It's always rough when you ain't expectin' it."
"I certainly was not expecting this." Spy agreed staring into the mug of coffee as if looking for answers, his cigarette burning down to a trail of ash.
"Yah know… Spook, ah can't do much if I don't know what's goin' on." He rubbed his neck nervously, "Yah wanna tell me about this project a'yours?" He wasn't really sure why he was asking, odds were he wasn't going to get much an answer.
The man took another sip from the mug before speaking up quietly. "Exactly… what is your opinion of your team's Spy?"
"He's a self absorbed ass." like some other people he could name, "Stop changin' the subject."
"I wasn't." the man replied simply with a wounded air taking a drag from his cigarette.
"What does this have to do with Spah?"
"It has everything to do with him." the Frenchman replied, sighing out a cloud of smoke.
"Oh?" he asked warily "Care to explain?"
"That was my project…" Spy paused before asking again, "You aren't friends with him are you?"
"What? Nah, we barely talk." He realized sheepishly he'd spent more time with the enemy Spy than his own teammate. True, his team's Spy didn't drug him and kidnap him, but it still was an odd thing to admit to himself. "Why?"
The Frenchman paused and finally after another sigh replied in rapid French "Because I was blackmailing him."
After a moment Engineer's mental translation caught up and processed, "Ah. And that didn't turn out well I take it?" he found himself asking.
Spy stared up at him as if expecting more of a reaction before shaking his head "Horribly." he slumped deeper into the chair.
"What happened exactly? I-if you don' mind my askin'?"
Spy took one last drag on his cigarette before stubbing it out on a long forgotten plate by the chair that hadn't made it's way back to the kitchen. Quietly the snake pulled another cigarette out of his case tapping it on the arm of the chair. For a few moments it seemed he wasn't going to answer, it wouldn't be the first time the man avoided a question. He should have known better than to ask, he was lucky to get what information he had. Then, to the Texan's surprise Spy answered, his voice thick as the whole story poured out.
The RED team's Spy had been away a lot, that had been common knowledge on base. But the team had long accepted this and the man's desire for privacy and figured they'd never know. It never occurred to Engineer that someone would be nosy enough to find out where the man was going. Now that he thought about it, it seemed obvious that Spy, the other Spy, would investigate.
"…the Scout's ma?" he asked incredulously, cutting into the Frenchman's narrative. His outburst was silenced with a sullen glare as the story continued.
Spy had been industrious and finally got proof of the man's liaisons and had been waiting for a good opportunity to use them. Apparently today had been that day. RED Spy had infiltrated their defenses, and Spook had decided this was the time to show off his evidence. In front of his teammates, including Scout himself, he revealed the pictures exposing the other Spy and his affair. But his victory was hollow, the enemy Spy had been a few steps ahead of him and he had lost the photos, his dignity, and probably his pride.
"He was right there and I handed the knife right back to him like an imbecile" Spy growled, "I should have seen it, how could I have missed it!?"
"Ya certainly ain't the first person to fall for those disguises." Engineer said trying to soothe him. "And ya won't be the last." He tried not to think too hard about how often he himself had fallen for those disguises, how many times the Spook had pretended to be someone else.
"I'm not supposed to be that easily fooled! Not by a fellow spy!" the snake insisted vehemently. Then Engineer understood the situation, he felt like an idiot for not realizing it earlier. The man had a rivalry with the other Spy, much like his resentment of BLU Engineer. It was one thing to be beaten by someone else, it was another thing entirely to be beaten at your own damn game.
With his tale over Spy slumped in the chair, puffing a cloud of cigarette smoke around his head. Engineer sat quietly processing the story. "So… why are you telling me all this?" he finally asked.
"My team thought I was the enemy and shot me in the face!" Spy hissed miserably, "I haven't got anyone else to talk to."
Spy had mentioned at their last meeting that he didn't want to share time with any of his teammates, but it hadn't really registered with him. So the man really didn't have friends or anyone to talk to? It made sense he supposed, he was hard to get along with. That didn't stop him from feeling more than a bit sorry for him. No one to talk to but an enemy. Sounded like a damn lonely way to live.
Engineer thought for a moment, biting the inside of his lip before finally speaking "Well, I got some work ta get to… But if you want to hang around, uh…" he hesitated, "Uh… yer welcome to."
Spy looked up at him in quiet... was that surprise? Shock? Whatever the expression, the Texan found himself clearing his throat nervously. "Y-you'll have to be gone by suppertime, but until then-"
"-Merci." the man cut him off, a faint smile on his face.
"No Problem" Engineer replied in his own awkward French, returning the smile.
Spy laughed "Your accent, Monsieur!" he exclaimed in mock horror.
"Yea, yea laugh it up." the Texan replied, quickly turning back to his work bench, the tips of his ears burning. "I-I got work to do." he grumbled, though relieved to see the man in better spirits. He hadn't been sure what to do with the man in the state he'd been in. Watching the man sulk felt… wrong.
Engineer forced himself to focus on the task at hand and started to strip down Scout's rifile, the Frenchman watching him intently. With a frown he noticed it was still loaded. "Damn kid needs to take better care of his things." he grumbled, removing the unspent shells, his mind whirring back to the Scout. The BLU Scout. His mother. With RED Spy.
He didn't necessarily like his team's Spy. They barely talked. True, he had thrown a wrench at the man's head. But they hadn't really gotten along before that. They just happened to be on the same team. He'd never really been around much to get to know. Though he now knew there was a reason for that.
"Yah think he's gonna be sore? Spy I mean."
The Spook blinked as if startled out of a daydream "Hm?"
"Enh…nuthin… " he shrugged sheepishly, "Probably jus' bein' paranoid." The lever wouldn't even come off, it looked like something had junked up the release. " Could you hand me that bottle?" he asked, pointing to the shelves next to the chair.
"Certainly." the Frenchman leaned over, passing the bottle of gun oil next to him.
"Thank ya," the Texan said adding a few drops of solvent and tried again, but it was still sticking. Grumbling under his breath he added a few more.
"Didn't you tell the boy you were going to work on his gun later?" the snake asked, peering over his shoulder.
"That was more to try to teach him to take care of his own weapons." the Texan explained as he finally managed to remove the lever from the gun stock, "Can't have him thinkin' I'm here just to clean up his mistakes." From the looks of the situation, the whole thing would need a good cleaning and an oiling, and probably some minor work. "Besides, it seems sort of counter intuitive to have ya hang around while I repair the equipment you destroy," he added with a chuckle.
"Why Monsieur, I have no idea what you mean." the man answered with mock innocence as he pulled up a drafting stool and sat next to him at the workbench.
"Sure ya don't." Engineer muttered rolling his eyes, "Just don't take any offense if I work on other projects right now."
"No offense taken."
"Glad ta hear it."
After Spy left, Engineer started cleaning up the workshop. Scout's gun was placed in a crate under the workbench, out of sight until he was ready to give it back to the kid. He whistled to himself as he put his drafting stool back where it belonged, swept up some shavings and cigarette ashes and put his cleaning tool back where they belonged.
He was halfway through scrubbing out the coffee mugs when he stopped mid whistle, realization of what he'd done came crashing down on him.
He had aided and abetted the enemy.
Spy, who sabotaged him every day. The man who killed him and his teammates on a regular basis. The man whose job description included "deception" and "backstabbing." He'd just made him coffee and invited him to stay.
The Spook was doing his job he tried to tell himself. Just like he was doing his. It was just a job.
But the man's job was to sabotage and assist his team. There was nothing in his job that meant he needed to spend his personal time stalking and shadowing an enemy teammate. He'd done that because he wanted to. He'd enjoyed it. Engineer suddenly remembered the pride in Spy's voice as he explained what he'd done, the lengths he had gone to. He had gone out of his way to blackmail an enemy just because he'd been bored and wanted to prove a point. He'd wanted a challenge.
"Dammit." he muttered, remembering the conversation at Swissmas "You were boring." "You used to provide a challenge." He'd been the focus of one of the snake's projects himself. Used to be. At least that's what the Spook had told him. Was he still one of the man's 'projects'?
Spy could have easily been lying about that, he never could tell the difference between the man's truth and lies. Was this just another game, another project? If this whole thing was another game, what was the goal? What did the man want? How much was truth, how much was a lie?
"This is ridiculous," he muttered to himself shaking his head. Truth, lie, it didn't matter. Whatever the reason, he couldn't let this continue. Shouldn't let this continue. He was in too deep already. He should never have let himself get this deep. Why had he let this continue?
If he had any sense he would have thrown the man's dinner invitation away and spent the evening in his work shop. Alone.
He should have tossed him out when he came in with that stupid bear. Kicked the man out at Swissmas. Him and his cornish game hen.
As ridiculous as this situation was he should be have told someone after Thanksgiving. Hell, he should have said something when he got dragged off to the strip joint in the first place.
But he hadn't, had he?
At first, he hadn't wanted to tell because it had been so ludicrous. The situation had been so unbelievable that he figured no one would take him seriously. Or worse, if they had, he would be humiliated.
But now he didn't want this to be discovered. If the situation was discovered…. He remembered what had happened when Demo and BLU Soldier's friendship had been revealed. The actions the Administrations had taken, the public shaming. That would be small potatoes to what would happen if anyone found out he'd been spending time with the enemy Spy. Demo had never had the BLU Soldier on base, and the Soldier had posed little threat to the operation of the team. Spy had been on base, and he'd never reported it. He was betraying the team with his silence.
It was too late to take anything back, but this couldn't continue. It'd have to end. And he would be left to his own devices. Alone. Again.
But logically, he reminded himself, logically, this had to end. It had gone on too far. He shouldn't have let it begin.
"Dammit." he hissed, beating his fist on the edge of the sink.
