Chapter Text
It was Scout’s least favorite day.
It was one of those yearly physical examinations every employee is required to do before being sent back to the battlefield. The doctor, of course, is the Medic. The medics from both sides were given a day-long ceasefire to get the evaluations over with. To think that the red Medic would get all of them by now is an understatement.
He managed to check up on five employees during the day-long ceasefire. That being the Pyro, Heavy, Engineer, Soldier and himself. Sniper refuses to leave the camper; and if the Medic tries to escort him out, he drives away. Spy is married to his invis watch and is nowhere to be found. Scout camped out multiple rooms of the base until he saw the Medic. And the Medic was waiting for the Demoman to get somewhat close to sober.
After that day, it was only them who fought in the battle. Though, it could say the same for the blue team. It’s the blue Sniper, Scout, Demoman, and Medic who were out on the battlefield. Both medics had a minor truce to exchange tips on how to catch the rest of the team, then resumed to battle.
The red medic found the camper and unscrewed all of its wheels, then paid Pyro to light them on fire. He then withdrew all alcohol from the Demoman, though he did give him a piece of cloth drenched with alcohol so all of his organs wouldn’t shut down. Then, for the Spy, he stole his disguise kit and disguised himself as the Spy’s former wife. And as for Scout, he happened to find his dog tags on the floor, then placed them in front of the doctor’s room.
So that’s how he got here.
“I want you to look at this eye test.” Medic said, snapping Scout out from whatever he was thinking about. There he stood in front of a piece of paper that determined his sight. “Say what I’m pointing out.” Explained the Medic.
He squints his eyes. “I see Pyro grabbing a decapitated BLU Soldier’s head, and in the next panel he kisses him?” He turns his head to a confused Medic. “I thought I’m supposed to be seeing letters!” He exclaimed.
The doctor raised his eyebrow, then directed his head to the paper. He gasped, then tore the paper off from the wall.
“Not again!” He said. “Stay here, junge. I’m going to have a talk with Pyro.” And now Scout is alone.
Not too long after, his stomach grumbled. He could really use a snack right now. His eyes scanned the room until it landed on the mini fridge. He knew the only things that are there are hearts and other organs but it wouldn't hurt to try finding a snack. Or try eating the organs, who knows?
He crouched down, wrapped his hand around the fridge handle, then swung the door open. There was no food except a pretty much alive head. A blue head.
“Shit!” Shouted Scout, tumbling himself down to the floor. As if dealing with his Spy was already enough, he has to see the blue version of him. The decapitated Spy winced, closing his eyes from the shouting. Afterwards he opened his eyes.
His eyes softened and smiled. “Son, you’re here-” he stopped talking when he saw the color of the man’s clothing, which didn’t resemble the color blue at all. “Oh it’s you.” He said, looking away from him.
“And what does that supposed to mean?” He asked, unbelievably taking offense to the blue Spy’s tone. “And what do you mean by son? You bring your children to work, you sick bastard?”
“Children? He’s as old as you!” The man said. Now that got Scout wondering if his Spy has children. He’s not one to assume that the BLU team are direct clones of his team, but from the many similarities each mercenary has to their opposing team, it might be safe to assume.
“Yeah yeah.” He said. “Why did you assume your son would travel all the way here to save you?”
“Are you that stupid, chlapec? He lives here!” The Spy said.
“Oh, a Teufort resident! I didn’t know you raised your children here!” Scout clarified.
“No. He’s my coworker.” The blue Spy corrected. Scout’s trying to brainstorm which one in the blue team would fit in that criteria. It couldn’t be anyone other than…
“Sniper is your son?” He asked.
“You’re being stupid on purpose! The blue scout is my son!” He confirmed. And he said it.
“Which means the red spy-”
“Yes.” The other confirmed once again. “Did you not know?”
…
“No.” He said truthfully. But it’s also a half lie. In a way he always suspected seeing his father some day. Even if it would take years, even if that person could’ve been anyone, he would be ready to have a long and awkward talk to whoever was his father. Anyone but the Spy.
He remembers seeing some hints from the many implications the other mercs had said to him. Hell, some even straight up implied that his father was Spy. But who really wants to believe that?
“Did you not want to believe it?” The man asked.
Scout then recalled all the times he was rude to the man who’s his father. The many things he drew that no child would draw if they knew the person they’re drawing was his father. He did that to his father?
“Yes.” Scout answered quietly.
“I’m sorry you had to find out this way.” The blue spy apologized. Scout might’ve imagined it but it sounded sympathetic.
“I don't know what to say about this. Just…” Was the only thing Scout could say about this, using his hands to lightly grip on the blue Spy’s head. He could only stare at him and stare at his face. “Why you?”
The spies had different nationalities but Scout could imagine what this spy would’ve looked like unmasked, then he tried to imagine what it would be like to be close with the red spy. To unmask and see what his face would look like, and what his hair would look like. He barely had any memories of his father as a child.
Though, the clearest memory was when he was sick. He stayed in his bed and constantly napped for the whole day. At one moment he saw an unfamiliar figure, though he wasn’t scared. He remembered when the man would bring a chair and lay it next to his bed, sitting on the chair and stare at the little boy. Then his hand would run through Scout’s hair for a couple of seconds. He opened his eyes a bit more to see that the color of the man’s hair was black and the warmest smile one has ever seen.
“Can you do me a favor, red?” The blue Spy asked, snapping Scout out from his thoughts.
“What?”
“Kill me. I’d love to respawn back to my base.” Requested, the blue Spy.
“But we still have to interrogate you!” Scout shouted.
“That damn doctor of yours has already interrogated me enough! I think he’s done something to the color of my sinuses.” The Spy rebutted. If Scout looked close enough, he would spot the color inside of his nostrils, which represented the color pink.
“Ew.” Scout cringed. But he had another idea to say. “I don’t want to kill you yet. I have to ask you something.”
“What could you possibly want to ask?”
“What’s…” Did he really want to ask this question? “What’s… your relationship between you and your Scout like?”
Well, it’s not like there’s another opportunity he could ask that question any time soon.
“Oh.” The BLU Spy said.
“Sorry.” He didn’t like apologizing but it felt necessary. “It sounded like you two are closer than, you know, me and Spy.”
“Spy and you.” The Spy rephrases. Then, he asks. “Will you kill me right after?”
“Immediately.” He promised.
The blue Spy went silent. Scout could feel the weight in his eyes from all the waiting. Was he stalling (how could that be possible?) or was his relationship with his son just dysfunctional?
Then the blue Spy spoke up. “Just because he knew I was his dad didn’t make the relationship better than yours. Back then, his mother would do all the caring. But then she and I divorced.”
“I’m sorry?” Scout wasn’t sure what else to say about it.
“Thank you, but let me continue. I took Jaromír and his brothers with me. For the first time in my life, I had to make the decision to care.”
“That doesn’t sound good.” He replied. It sounded bad. But for the life of him he couldn’t imagine the Spy showing explicit supervision for more than 10 seconds.
“He made my work harder. Sometimes I’d catch him getting into trouble amidst our battle. Most of the time, with no fail, I go save him.”
“Wouldn't it be better if he just died and respawn?”
“At the end of the day, it only takes 15 seconds to respawn; that’s what most people think. But there’s always a chance it will never work as perfect as before.” He looks at Scout. “I trust that machine but sometimes my son would go through damage not even the Medic could repair in one go, it scares me.”
Scout took a moment to think about the respawn machine. He remembers being in the unknown for a couple of seconds, sometimes it felt like a longer nap. Then remembering coming back to life, sometimes seeing a repulsed reaction from the Spy and seeing how long he had stared at the man. Maybe that was his hidden version of showing care.
“I never thought of that before.” He said.
“Could you kill me now?” The blue Spy asked.
“No! All I heard was your sad backstory! What is it like dealing with your son's foolery, did you two do any hobbies together? Does he like you?” The Scout questioned.
“Zmrd, how nosy are you?” Exasperated Spy, in annoyance.
“Well, maybe I just want to know what it’s like to have him there!” Scout exclaimed. He didn’t like how vulnerable he sounded but who else is going to tell him this? He’s not sure if he’s seeing it right but he saw the Spy’s eyes softened.
The Spy sighed. “Despite you two being so alike, you are way more open than him when it comes to sharing things about yourself. After the divorce he got more secretive. I once found him smoking in front of my house because he thought I was gone! And that man cried when I caught him!”
It made Scout cringe imagining a blue version of himself crying not only to being caught but that person being the Spy catching him in the act.
“But he’s old enough so we smoked together.” He humored. Scout didn’t like imagining himself crying but it was better to picture him and Spy smoking. He did wonder what it would be like if he just hung out with his father like that. It must’ve been nice. Though he can’t hope for a moment like that to happen in real life. His Spy would go through odd lengths for him to not smoke.
Believe him. He tried buying a pack once. The next day the cigarettes were no longer found in his room.
“If you’ve argued with your Spy about anything, then that’s what it’s like with my Scout. Except he complains more about me doing my job and finding a new lover for some reason.” he described. “I assume you’ve done baseball?” Scout nods his head. “So I was his pitcher.”
“Your aim was probably bad.” Scout teased.
“I have the best aim. Better aim than your damn Sniper.” The Spy jokes, leading the Scout to stick his tongue at him, which oddly brought a smile to the Spy. “At the end of the day we’re still each other’s family. I know that he loves me, and he knows that I love-”
BANG
Just like that, the BLU spy is dead.
He’s not sure why he killed him off like that. He didn’t even hear the whole thing.
In the distance, he heard footsteps which increasingly turned into a running motion. The door swung right open, revealing Medic, who’s holding the eye test in his hand. He observed if Scout was hurt, like he were to accidentally give himself 20 injections or destroy the whole bed. He wasn’t hurt. Then he scanned around the room, laying his eyes on the dead Spy’s head. That man was more than hurt.
“Scout!” shrieked Medic. “You killed my lab rat?!”
He knew that Medic was going to ask questions later so he made up a quick white lie. “I was hungry, doc! I opened the fridge and saw that BLU Spy’s boogers were pink!”
The medic looked at him before pinching his nose bridge. “Mein Gott.” Is all he said. Scout sighed in relief, not believing that his lie worked. Now that he knows where his lies come from.
Even if he’s not ready to have Spy as his dad, he at least wanted to know more about him. And so he left the base to go to the library. He asked the librarian directions to the language section. It was then he left the building with a book on how to speak French. He’s not too good at reading but he’ll try.