Engineer, after a long, detailed inspection, left the clothes back on the table.
"Not a drop of blood." He rubbed a hand on his chin. "They probably made him strip before taking him away."
"Made him?" Demoman asked.
"I don't think the kid took of his clothes by his own will, with this cold..."
"What would they do that for?" Medic asked.
"No idea. This is weird. But I think we can all agree that he was taken away." Sniper said, looking around him.
"It had to be BLU! Hah! Those maggots are getting their sweet revenge for stealing their precious land and now they're torturing Scout with cold showers and putting out cigarettes!" Soldier hit the table with the palm of his hand.
"I...don't think so, Soldier. BLU—" Medic tried to make him understand, but Soldier was too immersed in his own delusion.
"It had to be them! Animals always go after the youngest and weakest in the pack! Well, let's see what those brave men do when a man comes to them!" And he stormed out of the room without listening to someone more reasonable than him. They let him be.
"He's vanished and left his clothes behind...It must be the aliens! They've come back!" Demoman was not being any more reasonable. They didn't bother with him. They let him run out of the room, rambling aloud in case those grey bastards were listening.
"Yes, yes, go check on the aliens." Medic dismissed them, then looked at the remaining teammates, who had more than one brain cell. "Alright, who would want to lay a hand on the kid?"
"Anyone?" Sniper suggested. "I mean, he's never gone around making friends."
"Someone who could specially hate him?" Engineer dug deeper, his eyebrows furrowed.
"Boston gangs." Heavy replied, looking away in thought.
"Yeah! Didn't he get in trouble with all kinds of mobs back at home? What if one of them caught him?"
"I'll go check." Sniper lost no time and left the room as well. Any second could be crucial, and he had this pressure in his chest because they had wasted enough time...
"I just hope he's not dead already. How could we wait this long to...? What kind of friends are we?!" Engineer was talking more to himself than any of the present.
"We've never been friends." Medic was quick to point out, as if that was enough explanation.
"He always thought we were." Engineer replied in low voice. From his gestures, it seemed sure he also wanted to rush away to look for him, the only thing keeping him there being the need for a plan.
Medic furrowed his eyebrows, crossing his arms. Oh, come on, they were making him feel guilty about having told him to go away! He groaned, trying to shoo the thought away.
"Any ideas, Spy?"
No one answered. It was then that they realized that Spy was not among them and they had no idea of when he had left the room.
Soldier walked in front of the BLU, assembled in line.
"Alright, you filthy animals stole us our runt of the litter! Shut that big mouth, we know it was you! So you'd better spit it now before I show you a whole new world of pain!"
He waited for a response he would never get. Severed heads don't talk.
Demoman took a furious sip at his drink and then smashed the bottle at his feet.
"Come at me, you anal-probbing jessies! Come abduct a real man, if you've got what it takes!"
And the aliens answered to this earthling's call, attracting him with a ray. Demoman rose in the sky, fist ready to punch whatever forms of life he encountered up there.
Time passed inside of Spy's smoking room unbearably slow, but there came a day when Scout became aware that some days had passed and Spy had not come to the room. Which was bad news for him, because he had ran out of food, had just a bit of water left and it was about time he cleaned the box.
«Okay, has he disappeared again?»
He tried to take a look out of the box. All he found was darkness.
«Pheh! Typical of Spy to abandon everyone...», he thought, curling up against himself and closing his eyes, because he could do nothing more—that, or ruminating about his growling stomach.
If this kept going on for too long, he would starve. He had been thinking about escaping, but there was a problem: the door was locked and he had no way of opening it. All he had in this room was a carpet, furniture, books...He would have to eat the books. He wasn't sure of how long he would survive on that, but what else could he do? One couldn't trust Spy...
He had tried to attract his attention and he, like an idiot, had completely ignored him, like his mind was floating in outer space. Now he had no idea of what else to try.
Sadness was starting to get the best of him. What could he do? Now he was going to rot inside of a box, and they would throw his corpse into the garbage can, and his mom and Miss Pauling would be always waiting for him and wondering where he had gone.
Thinking about his mother made a knot appear in his throat. She didn't even know he was fighting. She thought he would come home for Thanksgiving. He had promised her.
«I'll find a way out!»
She gave him the fuel he needed to hop out of the crate and inspect the room inch by inch. He ignored the curious pictures of Spy posing with weird people hanging on the walls, the expensive-looking decorations, and never once wondered how he managed to get all of this in there, when and who he bribed to have such privilege. He ignored Spy's warning and got on the sofa to reach for the magazine he had left on the little table beside it and munch it, to silence his stomach.
The door opened, and Spy walked in. His eyes turned to the hare which had torn Dapper Cadaver to pieces and was munching some of them.
Hare and human glanced at one another in silence. Look what you made me do, Scout tried to communicate him through his eyes. But then Spy surprised him.
He didn't fulfill his threat. He didn't shout at him getting his dirty paws on the sofa and filling it with hairs. He just removed his mask so he could run a hand through his face.
Scout had never seen his face...He was mostly sure no one else had...
He had always wondered what Spy was hiding under that mask. A big zit? A bald head? Scars? But there was none of that. He was a common human being, with dark hair, which was starting to turn white, starting from the sideburns.
But his expression...
Scout had no idea of what age he was, but one thing was sure: he looked definitely older now.
Spy mumbled something in his language that he didn't understand. Probably Spy himself was just talking without worrying about making sense. However, there was one word Scout caught.
"...Jeremy..."
Spy then rose his eyes at him and walked towards him with the intention of grabbing him. And Scout bit him in the hand.
«Now you act like you give a crap about me?! Now you do, after leaving me for dead as a human and as a rabbit?!»
Spy let out a groan, shook the hand, which had started to bleed, then seemed to wake up from wherever he was to glare at Scout and take out his gun.
«What? You're gonna kill me? C'mon, go ahead!» Scout didn't move out of the bullet's way.
Spy stood still with his finger on the trigger. If he hadn't know better, he would have said this hare was challenging him.
«You knocked Mom up and ran away! You left her alone with one more mouth to feed! She's a queen and thanks to you she had to work double shifts, with no free days and only four hours to sleep! And she still found time to be there for me, to tuck me in bed, see me play baseball at school and hear about my day! She could have aborted me, no one would have blamed her, and she didn't! She had all right to loathe me and yet she loves me and shows it every time! What's your excuse?! What the hell did you need to do that it was so important?! They could have killed me in the streets, my own brothers, all of these gangsters and bullies, and you wouldn't have even known I existed! I've almost died quite a few times this week and it's now that you even notice I'm gone! I gotta believe that you give a damn?! Come on, shoot the rabbit! Erase me from your life for good already!»
Could Spy read minds? Actually, no. Nevertheless, it seemed there was some little voice inside of his head which agreed with Scout. Spy lowered the weapon until it slipped from his hands and dropped at his feet.
"...Oui, c'est pas ta faute...C'est la mienne..." He muttered, letting a long sigh as he walked to the sofa and dropping on it, covering his face with his hands.
Scout watched him in silence. The heat of hatred inside of his chest cooled down slowly at the sight of that man, who he thought was an insensitive jerk, in such a miserable state.
«You disgust me. I wish I could talk so I could tell you.»
No, he was feeling nothing while he thought of it. The more he looked at Spy, the less he wanted he insult him...
«...That should treat you not to treat people like garbage...Look at you, you walk around like your farts don't stink and you come to your private corner to cry...»
He used to think he wanted to see him suffer, but...
Mpf...
Spy rose his eyes, startled, when he felt the hare brushing himself against his leg to attract his attention. This was surprising for him. It almost seemed like the hare was empathetic and had changed his mind and wanted to comfort him!
It was impossible, but the thought made him smile. And, of course, he caressed him.
«...Guess the best way to get even will be not being like you at all...»
Spy turned his eyes at the box and saw that he had clearly neglected him. "Desolé." He was quick to fix it. He made sure Scout ate something right away, and, after lighting the fire, watched him as he did. Once he was finished, he picked him up, sat on his armchair and caressed him. Scout licked the bite. Once one got used to being pet, it felt really sweet...With the fireplace bringing warmth to that cold, dark room, he came to enjoy it greatly. He closed his eyes and curled up in a ball. Spy kept caressing him for long until he eventually stopped. Scout rose his head. He had fallen asleep. He had discussed with the other teammates if Spy slept with his eyes open, but he didn't—he was just a tired man who found some relief in shutting his head down. Scout could have taken the chance to pee on him, or bite him, even if that cost him his privileges and his own life, but quickly rejected the idea and chose not to move, so he wouldn't wake him up. When he realized, hours had passed. He had fallen asleep.
He stirred, making Spy open his eyes. They both shared a lazy look. Spy smiled.
"Tu me rappelles Jeremy...Un petit diable..." He said with hoarse voice because of the sleepiness, while caressing his head. He looked away, his smile fading.
His name again...
«...He's this sad because of me?...»
Perhaps not everything was lost after all...