"Who are you."
The Medic quietly repeated his words - a slight snarl now defining his features. His brow furrowed, he put his glasses back on his face - as he kicked himself internally for allowing his emotions to take over him.
Looming before him, the boy that seemed like Scout stood silently, his gaze still set on the documents on the table. As the Medic rose quietly from his seat - still careful to obscure the details of the document from the lookalike's view - he heard a silent, almost inaudible click.
"You don't wanna move, old man."
There was a gun. And its muzzle was directed at the Medic's head. The Doctor, with an expressionless, deadpanned gaze trained towards the boy, did not do so much as flinch when he realized what was going on. "Vhat do you want with these documents?"
"...None'a your business, thats for sure." The RED Scout snarled in reply.
"Zhey do not have any valuable information." Medic pushed calmly. "None relating to any of your missions - nor of any value to a stranger. Just physical reports, and personal details. It is not valuable," The Medic reiterated, the gears turning quickly in his mind. "Zhat is… unless you want to know - or you already know your target."
At this, the Scout looked up, a dark glare meeting the Medic's gaze. "I said, it's none of your fuckin' business." He replied with a threatening low voice, his dark expression betraying the depth of his anger.
"Oh but it is." Medic responded coolly. "You have made it my business - since zhe moment you tried to infiltrate my office." He returned RED's hard stare with his own cold gaze. "If you kill me here - I will still have these documents in my hands. And you do realize zhat we respawn with anything we've last touched in our team belongings - that means the documents will fade from this location - and you vill have to find zhem with me, in the respawn area. By zhe time you arrive I will have my weapons ready - as well as a line to report to the Administrator."
The Scout's expression twitched, as his snarl intensified. He cocked his gun - then lowered the muzzle. Still holding the weapon close to himself, he lifted his free hand from the documents on the table and sighed as he lifted it, surrendering to the Medic.
"I got it, ya win." He said quietly as he turned his gaze away. "I don't wanna lose this fuckin' job either… I just need to check somethin' and I'll be gone."
At those words, Medic let out a sigh he had been keeping in. Finally standing to his full height from the semi-bent position he had been keeping himself in, he kept his right hand on the documents, as his left hung limply to his side. "Now, tell me vhat exactly it is you vant, coming all zhe vay here."
For a few seconds, RED was silent. His gaze now cast down, he responded quietly, in defeat. "The BLU Spy… might be my Dad."
Medic cocked an eyebrow. "Vhat? And how did you come to zhat?"
RED shrugged, ever so slightly. "Demo. He had pics of the bastard with my Ma." He sniffed. "Look man, I just need to check if this is true. I jus' need to know if he actually… if he actually, is my Dad." Noticing the older man's now softer, sympathetic gaze, RED winced. "I just want to know my own Pa, okay? It's - it's for my sanity's sake." He finished morosely.
The Medic shook his head, a loud sigh escaping his lips.
"...Fine." He responded quietly.
At this, the RED Scout met the Medic's gaze once more - his expression mixed with confusion and a certain glint in his eyes - betraying his facade of adamant distrust. "Wha-" Scout mouthed, the words barely coming out of his throat. "Really?"
"Ja." Medic nodded slightly.
Deliberately raising his right hand from the document, the Medic exposed his open palms - and walked back slowly. As he approached the table behind him - of which was lined on the surface with multiple surgical tools - he lowered his exposed hands, and folded them behind his back. As the RED Scout laid his hand once again on the documents, the Medic ordered him to do one more thing.
"Lay your gun on zhe desk." He instructed. "I must know that you will not be a threat."
RED paused hesitantly. Brow furrowed - he nodded slowly, then laid his gun on the desk.
There was some silence between the two as the Scout read the health profile of the Spy. A swirl of emotions crossed his face, his brow arching up from where it was once furrowed. He had found his confirmation.
The Medic, his hands still behind his back, watched from the sidelines. Behind him was a table for surgical tools he kept in the case of an emergency - and the tools laid exposed. He knew by heart which tool was kept where - and when he reached for one of them, he had no doubt in his mind that when he closed his palm, he had gripped the scalpel.
Meanwhile, RED seemed to be in a state of shock. His wildest assumption now confirmed - he stood there, still gripping the document before him. "I..." He faltered. "I...I've been killin' my Dad. "
The Medic pursed his lips, his expression unreadable. "...Vhat did you expect?" He said coldly. "Nothing vould have changed with your confirmation. You are a hired mercenary. Your job is to kill all who stand in the way of your objective - it does not matter vhether that is a friend of foe." He paused. "Sometimes, knowing only makes things more… difficult ." He coughed.
As RED looked up to the Medic, the Doctor thought that he could see the beginnings of tears welling up in his eyes. He sighed - a breath not drawn out of sympathy, or empathy, but a tired and cold apathy he knew all too well. As the Medic walked deliberately towards the boy, RED did not move from where he stood.
When he stabbed him in the neck, and RED's last gurgles of life turned to the quiet, hazy silence of death - Medic turned away from the boy's inanimate, fading body, and picked up the now blood-stained document.
"...I vill have to re-write this report." He said quietly, to nobody but himself.
~oOo~
"Hey!" The Soldier seemed to yelp out of nowhere, suddenly struggling with his coat.
The Engineer looked towards the man, mildly alarmed at the sudden noise. "What is it? Did you find something?"
"I bet it's that stupid lizard again." Sniper snarled tiredly.
The four-man rescue team of the Engineer, Demoman, Sniper and Soldier had been walking in silence for some time now - all of them tired, but still searching for the Scout. It felt like at least an hour had passed at that point - and they were slowly, but surely losing their will - and hope - at finding him. Their voices, now hoarse from the panicked yelling they had done to search for the Scout, had mostly died down, with only the occasional hollering sounds coming from the Soldier. They were in the middle of the desert, in the middle of nowhere, and it was getting very, very cold.
"Hey!" The Soldier yelped again, suddenly flinching as he almost bumped into the Sniper beside him.
"Bloody hell, mate!" The Sniper hissed as he instinctively dodged out the way of the heavier man. "What's wrong with you?"
As the Soldier patted down his chest, he looked to the team with his mouth agape. "She...Sergeant Yellow just ran off!" He shouted mournfully. "We must find her, men!"
As he began to run towards some small, but quick-moving thing in the distance, the rest of the team looked to each other in tired agreement, and began to slowly jog after the man.
"For christ's sake," The Sniper growled tiredly. "If we don;t find Scout soon I swear I'm leaving the bloody wanka' and his stupid lizard in the de-"
With an unceremonious thump, and the sound akin to a tree falling on soft soil, the Sniper tripped. In the distance, Soldier was yelling for the lizard - still chasing after the small runner.
As the other two slowly approached the Sniper, they focused their light on what had made him trip, and slowly realized what they were seeing.
"I am back, boys! Sergeant Yellow has just found a tasty morsel!" Said the Soldier, now beaming as he walked back with the small creature in his hands. It was not for much longer that he held his gleaming smile - as his upturned smile loosened, and his jaw slowly dropped.
They had found the Scout.
~oOo~
He was unconscious for a few days before he finally woke up.
When he did open his eyes - the Sniper and Engineer that had been talking by the side of his bed, dropped their conversation as a third member in the room - Soldier, it seemed, from the volume of his voice alone - ran to tell the others. The next few hours were a bit of a blur.
There was a lot of talking involved. Although he'd managed to squeeze a few words out - it was surprising how much the rest of the team had to say to him. There was a lot of scolding. Some yelling about how irresponsible he was being - by almost dying, worrying the rest to death (apparently) and carrying his problems on his own shoulders without telling the team. There was some drunk sobbing from the Demoman (Scout wondered how bad in a condition he must've been for Demo to break his sober streak), and some more sarcasm from the Spy, with the Heavy silently threatening to shut him up. All in all, he was… flattered, by how much they cared.
Flattered probably wasn't the right word, seeing as there were tears in his eyes as he spoke to each and every one of them earnestly - but he didn't really know how else to explain it. He was overwhelmed with a sense of a weird kind of joy - a sense of what felt like belonging - as he dealt with all their loud complaints and fusses, one by one. Somehow, it felt like he was back home.
When the mob had mostly left, and only the Scout and one other remained, he realized that he had yet to speak to the last man in the room. As the Medic cleared his throat, and approached him from the foot of his bed, the Scout felt his heart skip a beat.
"Hello, Scout." The man he knew and trusted smiled warmly - an expression that made him melt, just a bit. "Welcome home."
~oOo~
It was some weeks after the ceasefire.
Things had largely gone back to normal, and the two bedroom refugees had been once again supplied with their own dormitory room. War was in full swing, and the Scout had never felt more alive than he did now.
As the daily battles had ceased, and the team returned to each of their own quarters for a brief break before dinner duties, Scout hung around the infirmary with the Medic - it had become a new normal for him in the last few days.
They were conversing over the battle done, and laughing over what each of them had seen during work. As the Scout worked up the courage to ask the Doctor something, the Medic gave him a light pat on the shoulder.
"Thank you, Scout." He said as he beamed at the young man. "You have been on a roll with watching my back and saving me, have you not, Junge?"
At this, the Scout scratched his face, and looked shyly away. "...Well, I'm just returnin' the favor, doc." With a slight, sheepish grin, he looked to the Medic, and smiled. "You saved me too. Ya know, in the ceasefire and stuff."
The Medic cocked his head to the side, a slightly confused, but nevertheless bemused grin adorning his features. "I do not recall." He replied warmly.
"Well, ya did." The Scout huffed. "Don't be too critical of yourself doc - you may not know that shit went down - but it did." Scout grinned playfully. "And through it all, you were there for me." He shrugged. "Sure we had our mistakes - I didn't know you were cranky 'cause you lacked sleep from work an' shit - I should'a been more thoughtful when I slept beside you."
Medic sighed, his slight smile still on his face as he shook his head. "Zhat vas my fault - I should have communicated more clearly." He paused. "I did not mind you sleeping beside me, you know."
Scout's face lit up. Without warning to himself - much less the Medic, he blurted out his question. "Then would ya mind if I crashed with you again?"
There was a surprised pause between the two. As the Scout realized what he had said - his face turned beet red, and he couldn't help himself but to talk his way out of the awkwardness.
"Uh - just so ya' know it ain't like - uh, in a gay sense or anythin'. You don't like that shit and I definitely am not fuckin' gay, but I just like sleepin' with you ya know? It's like, warm and kinda comfy somehow? Like you - I mean your room smells nice and it's clean and it kinda makes me feel like I'm home, if ya get it. It's just uh-" The Scout yammered on, words tumbling out of his mouth faster than his mind could catch up.
"Ja." The Medic nodded. "I do not mind." He smiled warmly. "In fact, I think I vill enjoy zhat as vell."
As the Scout dropped any words that he had been preparing to say, he looked up at the Medic incredulously. And as the big, genuine feeling of happiness seemed to force its way onto his face - his actions moved faster than any part of his brain could process.
"Doc, I think I love you."
~oOo~
As the Demoman settled in for his evening drink, he thought on the topic of duality.
There are many aspects to people that you would never expect - the duality of man, as they would say. Despite what we would like to think, people are often not single-faceted, with multiple facades facing outwards to all the aspects of our life.
It often takes a special kind of bond between people to see through the mask - and in a world of RED and BLU, that kind of trust was a hard thing to achieve.
Alcohol helps in bypassing trust. It's pretty easy to expose your whole being when you're blackout drunk. Your happiness, your sadness - your fears. The day that Scout had come to his room - he had unwittingly heard everything. And although he didn't understand why himself - he didn't blame the kid for having special feelings towards the older man. he might even invite the boy to another drink in his room - if the Medic would let him. Demoman chuckled.
Although, I don't think I would like to keep hearing about Medic's 'apparently' chiseled abs. He thought, as he smiled humorously to himself.
It was about time he got another drink.
Part 3 is coming in a new story. Look out for "Above All, Do Not Play God".