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Language:
English
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Part 1 of baby’s first engie+pyro fics
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Published:
2018-10-08
Words:
663
Chapters:
1/1
Comments:
3
Kudos:
12
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1
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86

perspiration and pyros

Summary:

two mercenaries bump into each other in the bathroom

Notes:

i recently stumbled upon a picture of the first few lines on my old instagram and was like yoo where did this fic go idr what i did with it
LO AND BEHOLD… i was on my old phone looking for Other tf2 media and i found it. WOWZA!
this is 6 years old (as of 2024) + one of the first (if not The first) tf2 fics i wrote. enjoy

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

 

Sweat.

That was their primary scent.

They were constantly running in their big, poorly-insulated suit, lugging around that propane tank and huge flamethrower. I mean, what did people expect them to smell like? Flowers? Coconut deodorant? Not a chance. The smell of sweat even outpowered the smell of fire. That's how bad it was.

Besides sweat, they smelled as expected: like smoke, gasoline, and burnt flesh. Don't expect a scented candle like that hitting shelves anytime soon.

They weren't a monster like the team said they were. Well—maybe in some ways, but certainly not when it came to personal hygiene.

Pyro whistled to themself as they scrubbed their body with their favorite lavender-scented soap. Lavender was definitely high on their list of favorite colors and scents. It was soft and kind, like Miss Pauling; they felt wrapped in its comfort whenever she gave them a hug. They rinsed and repeated for a third time for good measure. The smell of gasoline still lingered, as always.

Engineer opened the bathroom door, intent on dropping a bit of intel into the toilet. He paused when he noticed the shower running. Whoever it was, he didn't really want them to hear him do his business. He considered stinking up his own bathroom when he noticed Pyro's suit laying over the top of the shower stall. He was torn between curiosity and embarrassment; like the rest of the team, he always wondered what was under the pyromaniac's mask and suit. On the other hand, he didn't want Pyro to walk out, suitless but also not expecting him, and create an uncomfortable situation for both of them. During his moment of inner turmoil, the shower had stopped and he snapped back to reality as the stall door opened.

"Huh?"

Lo and behold, Pyro was still wearing their mask, a hair towel uselessly on top of it, but the biggest surprise to Engineer was their giant, fluffy pink robe. No expression could be inferred from their blank, static mask, but it didn't take a genius to figure out they were surprised to see him.

"Oh, hey—" Engineer started, his voice catching a bit. He cleared his throat. "I was just about to uhh, use the bathroom. Excuse me." He awkwardly started to shuffle past when he caught a whiff of something pleasant. He turned around, and Pyro looked back at him curiously.

"Pyro, you.." He leaned in for another sniff in a way he hoped wasn't creepy, and was relieved to find his action was just met with a still-curious head tilt. "Hope you don't mind me sayin' this, but you smell good, partner."

"Hudda!" Pyro reciprocated, moving in close to the Engineer and making an overexaggerated sniffing noise. Engineer chuckled.

"You probably can't really smell anything with that mask in the way, huh? Don't worry, I don't smell too good anyway. You're not missin' out."

Pyro shook their head enthusiastically. "Mm hudda huh!"

Engineer's Pyronese was a little rusty, but he mostly understood. "..I smell like fire?" Pyro nodded, and he grinned. "Then I must smell good to you then, huh?

"Hudda!" To Engineer's surprise, Pyro wrapped their arms around him and squeezed him in a tight embrace. He returned the favor, and could've sworn Pyro made a squeaky toy noise as he hugged them.

After a while, reluctantly, he pulled away. "That was nice." He gave them a pat on the shoulder. "Say, how 'bout I come over to your room when I'm done in here and we can, err.. do somethin'?" He sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm not sure what you're into—which is probably why we should spend some time together—but I've got a few puzzles—"

"Mmph!" They nodded excitedly, bouncing up and down. "Hudda huh. Hudda!" With that, they exited the bathroom and practically skipped back to their room.

Engineer would've never guessed that a beautiful friendship would bloom from smelling someone in the bathroom, yet there he was.

 

Notes:

i still working on other pyro and engineer fic in the present day bear with me

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