Chapter Text
It was a cold night in that dusty wasteland. The RED team were all asleep in their base, tired from a long day of fighting; all except for one.
The Engineer sat outside, a ways away from the company of his teammates. He couldn't sleep. Insomnia was a common problem for him, especially on colder nights like this. Often it was because his mind was racing too hard about an array of things (mostly work-related), and usually, he came outside to tinker and build in peace in an attempt to clear his head of whatever was troubling him.
But he didn't mind. The nighttime was so peaceful. And in the chilly Winter air, he could truly enjoy the warmth and glow of a campfire.
Growing bored of the little piece of machinery he was tinkering with, he sighed and set it down next to him, then glanced at his guitar. He picked it up, dusted some dirt from its smooth surface, then gently set it on his lap. Surely, at this hour, he wouldn't have to worry about any BLU's hearing him. And even if they did, he was surrounded by sentries. They'd have no chance.
With little thought, Engineer started playing softly. The music was slow and relaxed, much like how he felt, and he glanced up at the starry sky as he played.
The strumming was mostly muscle memory with little thought behind it, so before long Engineer found himself dozing off - until he heard the distinct sound of soft, quiet footsteps in the sand. Must've been one of his teammates up to take a leak, probably Sniper. It was common for the team to go outside instead of using the toilets in the base - one of Soldiers raccoons had crawled under the floorboards and died, and the stench was unbearable.
Besides, if it was a BLU his sentries would have shot them to bits by now.
He called out to them.
"Lil' late t'be snoopin' 'round out here, ain't it? Best get back t'bed."
The footsteps stopped. There was a moment of quiet, the only noises were the crackling of the fire and the gentle strums of the Engineers guitar. He sighed. Maybe it was Medic, he was known to sleepwalk sometimes. Or Scout playing a prank on him.
Yeah, that's what it was. Little shit had done it before.
"Look bud, if yer tryna scare me again it won't work. Like last time, all you'll get outta it is a facefull a' wrench and a broken--"
He glanced down as he spoke, then nearly jumped out of his skin. Frozen in place, all he could focus on was the gas-mask staring directly at him from the other side of the campfire. The fire created a flickering orange glow in the round, emotionless lenses that seemed to burn right into the Engineer.
Then he realised his turrets hadn't shot the Pyro, so it must have been his own teammate. It was only slightly relieving, because that guy - thing? - had always scared the shit out of him. And he wasn't quick to scare.
But then he saw the blue hazmat suit.
Oh.
Engineer quickly grabbed his wrench from behind him. He wondered why the turrets hadn't shot at the enemy Pyro, until he realised the remote control beside him had them set to "standby" mode.
What a rookie mistake.
"Hey, listen--"
Engineer was about to switch the sentries on, until he saw that the Pyro was unarmed. It was just sitting there, legs crossed, elbows resting on its knees with its face in its hands, staring up at him with a somewhat fascinated look.
Engineer adjusted himself uncomfortably, hand hovering over the remote. What did this thing want with him??
Finally, the Pyro moved. It gestured to the guitar with a nod, then made a muffled sound of encouragement.
"Mm! Mm!!"
Engineer squinted slightly. Did it mean...'Go on'? It wanted him to continue?
Well...he wasn't about to kill someone - something? - that was unarmed and relatively docile. He was better than that.
He swallowed, then looked down at his guitar. With a deep breath he started playing again, a little shakier than before, not taking his eyes off of the Pyro.
After a few moments, the Pyro started gently swaying side-to-side with the music.
"Hmmm..." it hummed quietly, like it was sighing. Engineer glanced around. Nobody else in sight.
He knew from his own Pyro that these guys tended to be...different in the head. Maybe - just maybe - this Pyro had no intention of killing him. Maybe it simply wanted to hear his music. It didn't bring a weapon.
Now that he thought about it, he relaxed slightly. That gas mask still creeped him out a bit, but at least he knew for now that it wasn't going to be the last thing he saw.
Suddenly, the Pyro got to its feet. Engineer watched with awe and slight fascination as the other being started dancing to his music. Slow twirls, dips, curtsies, somewhat feminine movements for something so ruthless in the battlefield. In fact...Engineer had some scars on his body from where the enemy Pyro had burned him.
The same Pyro that was now dancing along so sweetly and innocently to the sound of his guitar.
When the song finished, the Pyro stopped mid-dance and looked in Engineers direction. He raised his hands up.
"I-I should really be gettin' back to my base, now...I uh...it's gettin' late...maybe you should head to bed too, huh?"
Pyro faced him and tilted its head slightly, like it didn't understand. Engineer sighed. Of course it didn't understand what he was saying.
"Okay, um...I go, RED base, tired, need sleep...you go, BLU base, also need sleep, yeah?"
Pyro stayed stock-still for a good few seconds, and the Engineers fear was growing again, until Pyro shook it's head.
"Nmm hmmh! Mmph hmm mph, hrrmm?"
Now it was the Engineers turn to not understand. He shrugged and held his hands up.
"I can't...hear ya, bud." He said, then gestured to his own face." Th'mask, it's hard to hear ya."
Pyro immediately seemed to understand as it nodded in agreement.
To the absolute shock of the Engineer, the Pyro sat back down, lifted its hands, and started to take off the mask.
Unable to interrupt or even blink, Engineer watched with a mix of fear and absolute anticipation. He'd never seen a Pyro without the mask. They always wore the same one, and it always muffled their voices to the point of their speech sounding like complete jibberish.
It was taking ages to pull the mask off. Maybe fear of exposing itself, or maybe it was Engineers rush of adrenaline playing tricks on him and making everything appear slowed-down.
Finally, the rubbery mask slid off of the Pyro's head. It shook its head quickly like a dog, and Engineer could see a full head of thick, curly hair, a deep ashy black colour with streaks of silvery white.
"You can hear me now, si?"
The voice was lighter, a bit hoarse, but much more soft and level than Engineer had been expecting - a far cry from the loud and gruff noises the Pyro's usually made under their gas masks.
"It" was nothing more than a young man.
And he appeared to be Spanish.
A speckle-dappled face and a wide, bright orange eye smiled at Engineer. The right half of his face seemed to have been decimated by flames at a distant point in his life - the skin was scarred and pink, uneven, and the eye on that side of his face appeared to be blind, or at least partially, glazed over and tinted white.
He was so awestruck with the sight before him that the Engineer only realised he'd been sitting in total silence when the Pyro cleared his throat. The quiet noise made him jump, and he snapped back to the moment at hand.
"Oh! U-uh, yeah, I can hear ya jus' fine now."
The Pyro beamed, eyes squinting as he smiled. The grin revealed a large gap between his two front teeth.
"Bueno. My English is not so good, si? And I said before - I'm not tired, please play more music? Pleeease? Por Favor?"
He resumed that position from before, legs crossed like a child, hands on his cheeks.
Engineer was starting to see just how young the Pyro not only acted, but looked. He was clearly no older than 25, but his scars showed he'd already been through a lot. And yet, he still radiated childlike energy and curiosity.
He almost pitied the poor thing.
"...alright, I'll keep playin' for ya. You always this friendly with your enemies..?"
He started playing again, watching the Pyro. The younger man tilted his head.
"Enemy? You're not my enemy. Maybe in contract, but nobody is really Pyro's enemy. Pyro just burns who I need to burn, si? Is nothing ever personal. Fire is good. You see? So colourful and warm~"
He held his hands up to the campfire and giggled quietly, absolutely loving the sight and feeling of the flames.
The fascination with fire was more endearing than unnerving now that the mask was off...
Wait, what was Engineer thinking?? This was his enemy - just hours ago they were fighting to kill each other and their comrades. He couldn't make a friend out of this BLU.
"You are born in America?"
The Pyro asked, bringing Engineer out of his conflicted thoughts.
"Huh?"
"America. You were born here? Grew up in Texas, si? Your voice - it sounds like Texas accent. I like it, sounds warm and welcoming, like sunset."
The compliment was unexpected, but not unwelcome. A bashful "awh" broke out from the Texans lips and he rubbed at the back of his neck.
"Thanks, heh...yep, Texas boy, born n' raised. Ain't much different here than it is back home, though here it's a mite colder in the winter..."
Pyro gave another soft giggle, which gave way to a tiny little snort.
Oh, Engineer had never heard that before. He'd always thought of snort-laughs as ugly and snobbish, especially whenever Spy did it. But this was soft, repressed, almost...childlike. That phrase was crossing Engineers mind a lot the more he interacted with the Pyro.
"Must be difficult, growing up with all this sand and dust and barely any trees to light up. You like lighting things up, si? You lit good campfire."
He blew onto the flame, making it dance and smiling as he watched it intently.
"Pyro came from Spain. Not very nice life there. Not very nice people. They didn't much like me."
'Wonder why that was,' thought Engineer.
"But then I come to America, and everything is good, everything is nice and old lady is nice and gives me job where I can light things up all day..! It is good life in America, yes. You are lucky."
Engineer shrugged, continuing to strum away at his guitar.
"Guess so. Say, uhm..."
He glanced around, then leaned forwards and whispered to the Pyro.
"Hope y'don't mind me askin' this but uh...I'm curious. How did this whole thing come about?"
He gestured to the other mans outfit. The Pyro tilted his head again like a confused puppy, except this time Engineer could see his eyebrows furrow questioningly.
"Ahh, okay...how exactly did you start...acting...like this? So obsessed with fire n' burnin' things. It..."
'It ain't right' would probably warrant a negative response. That was the last thing he wanted.
"It's...interestin'."
Pyro thought for a moment, looking deeply into the campfire.
"Hm. Difficult to say. Fire has always been good...no idea why people so afraid. They think I'm strange for liking it. Feh. I am not strange. I think..."
He looked around, as if what he was about to say was very secretive. He leaned forwards and cupped his hands over his mouth, and Engineer listened.
"I think...that other people are who is strange. Maybe - just maybe - Pyro is only person on the planet who sees fire as it should be. Fire only hurts people who let it hurt them. Fire is a friend to those who respect it. Maybe everyone else sees something that I don't. But I suppose, if I am only sane person on earth, then everyone else will think I'm the crazy one...this makes sense?"
Engineer nodded thoughtlessly. He couldn't believe it. Not only had the Pyro come up with such an explanation...but it made sense. At least, from the Pyro's point of view. There was no doubt this boy was crazier than a rabid skunk. He almost pitied him...almost...
"Do you think Pyro is crazy?"
Engineer looked up to see the Pyro now had a very solemn, upset look on his face. Damn thing read his mind.
"I am used to it. I know the face you make. You are afraid of me. You think I'm some monster like so does everyone else. Is that true, Señor?"
The older man stuttered a bit before replying. He chose his phrasing very carefully - the one thing he didn't want to deal with was an angry Pyro.
"N-no. I don't think yer crazy. Just...very enthusiastic about fire. People these days don't really get excited for much no more, so they think yer bein' weird for likin' somethin' so much. And - I was only scared before cuz' I saw you were BLU. Anyone else on your team woulda killed me if they saw me out'n the open like this so I assumed you would too. But, ya didn't. So I guess...we're alright now, huh?"
Pyro sniffed, wiped his nose, then smiled again.
"Engineer made good points, you're smart. Made so many pretty machines all by yourself. So I can trust your opinion, si?"
Engineer nodded with a smile of his own.
"Sure."
Pyro smiled even wider, happy with that answer, before standing up, his mask held under one arm.
"O-kay. Pyro is happy to have new friend. Will make sure not to light you up when we meet again, hahah~"
He paused, then looked at Engineer.
"Do you have other name Pyro can call you by? 'Engineer' is very formal. Not what friends call each other, no."
Engineer was at a loss for words at this point. Simply too dazed by the entire conversation, staring blankly up at the Pyro, trying to figure out what to say. Pyro snickered.
"Okay, I say first. My name is Ángel."
Engineer blinked.
"...An-hell?"
Pyro snorted with laughter and started giggling uncontrollably, one hand hiding his face in supposed embarrassment.
"No no, heheh...that is how we say 'Angel' in Spain. You call me 'Angel', si? And now, what is your name..?"
Engineer swallowed and lowered his hat.
"...Dell. Though, don't go tellin' yer team that...Angel."
Angel started giggling again, doubling over slightly and holding his stomach. It was quite a contagious sound, and Dell almost found himself chuckling along.
"Heheheh~ Dell is funny name, and is even funnier hearing you say mine! But thank you Dell, you play guitar very good and let me listen. Teammates are not as nice as you are. Hope you sleep well, Dell, sun comes up soon. Muchas gracias~!"
Before Dell could say much more, the Pyro slipped his mask back on and started giggling again. That soft voice was gone, replaced with the usual, gruff, muffled cackling from before.
"Hmhmhmhmhm!! Hmhm, hm-hmhmm--!!"
Pyro twirled, bowed to Dell, who tipped his hat in return, and before he knew it, Angel was gone just as quickly as he came, skipping off into the night.
Heart racing, hands shaking, the Engineer reached up and took off his hat, rubbing his forehead. He was sweating, even in the cold night air.
He looked up to see that his new 'friend' had already disappeared into the darkness, leaving behind a strange and lonely silence.
That was the strangest, most intriguing, most baffling few minutes of Dell's long life, by far. He had a lot of questions, but many of his previous questions had been answered. Now, there were new questions. But they could wait for another day.
Dangit...now he'd have to stay up and reprogram the machines not to target that Pyro. He needed more answers and he sure couldn't get them if Angel was dead.
And...he couldn't shake that strange feeling. Like a mix of anxiety and exhilaration. As much as his common sense wanted to deny it, he couldn't get rid of that tightness in his chest and the shakiness in his legs.
Angel had to be the cutest darn thing he'd ever seen.
...It was gonna be a long night.