Chapter Text
If you were to be blunt, you would say you were the best sniper. Ever. Like, in history of people pointing guns at other people. On a good day, Scout could sweep through the BLU barracks and retrieve the briefcase without any bodies to intercept him. That feat was due to your rapid firing and precision. You felt, after years of perfecting your practice, you were allowed to toot your own horn from time to time. Hell, could anyone else boast taking down the entire team in 10 seconds?
Perhaps your ego was a tad inflated. You could accept that. However, it was taking a beating today. The reason? BLU's Sniper.
Mundy was a lot like yourself. You both wore hats and orange-tinted aviators. You both pointed your scopes at heads. And you both enjoyed a fair bit of black coffee. However, he lacked a specific chromosome that you had. Something that a certain punk from Boston would poke fun at on many occasions. As always, however, you brushed off his attempts at belittling humour. Scout was an idiot, you assured yourself, and you wouldn't let him get to you.
But as you felt a familiar shooting pain hit you right in your cerebrum, and blackness enveloped your world, you braced yourself for some more jabs from the small kid with a big attitude. You respawned and immediately noscoped the wall a few times -- a tic you picked up after some of your more frustrating days. Scout was waiting for you, leaning his slender frame against the medical locker.
"I heard the domination jingle," he said, referring to the blaring tune that played whenever a merc scored three consecutive kills on someone else. "Was it Kangaroo Jack again?"
You pulled out your melee -- an overly large shank of ham -- and proceeded to whale on the teen as he laughed at you, all the while begging for you to stop amidst his overzealous revelry. His hands went up in resignation, and you decided to leave him alone. For now.
"Yes, it was Mundy," you answered, a seething iciness to your tone. "That bleedin' twerp keeps catching me off guard. Taking me down when I'm trying to protect mid'."
"Just focus 'im. That's what I would do. Nothing he can do to stop you if he's dead."
You nodded in consideration of his advice. At that, you raised a hand and beckoned him to follow you as you both stepped out the automated spawn doors. He matched your pace, offered you an approving wink as he passed you by, and sped ahead. Now it was your turn to annoy the sniper.
You would take him down again and again. You'd wait for him outside spawn doors. You would always keep your sights on him. He will not be able to escape your wrath, for you are the best sniper the world has ever-
You hear a blast right as you round the corner, and suddenly your body is falling to the ground and you go blind once more.
When you respawn, you skip releasing your aggression on the wall, and go straight for dashing out of the med bay. You wouldn't let him catch you this time. As you came around the corner again, you bent your knees in a crouch, and as you predicted, you heard the bullet hit the wall behind you. You got him.
It was at this point that you got a good look at him. You noticed a smile creep upon his lips as he reloaded. You took this to mean he was impressed, (as he should be), but you didn't idle for long. While he was reloading, you pulled up your rifle, aimed the scope at him, and took the shot.
Miss.
You cursed beneath your breath, and quickly hopped from your spot. He was already aiming at you, and you heard the shot hit Engi, who was tailing behind you. You muttered a small apology, but kept running. You knew a good nest up the stairs. Waiting for Mundy there would be your best chance to get your revenge. After speeding up the stairwell, you spent the precious seconds you had looking for a decent hiding spot. That hiding spot ended up being behind a railing that ran parallel with the door he would be entering from. You pulled up your scope and waited. You counted 4 seconds before Mundy was up there, kukri in hand. The red dot aligned perfectly, but the moment your finger had pulled the trigger, he spotted you and sidestepped to the left -- another miss.
"God, damn it!" you roared, ditching your rifle and pulling out the ham. "Stop doing that!"
A low rumble of laughter erupted from Mundy, which only made you more furious. As you came after him, he backpedaled, swinging his center mass away from each throw you gave him. No matter how hard you tried, you couldn't hit him. He was the slipperiest motherfucker you had ever met. You put your all into this brawl, yet he didn't have the decency to fight back. His knife was almost glued to his side. Then, you took notice of something. He was still laughing. He wasn't even trying to hurt you anymore. What the hell...?
"Fight back, dude!" you barked, huffing in exhaustion. That ham was pretty heavy, and you weren't going easy on him, either. "C'mon, just fight!"
"Aw, but Sheila, this is much more fun." His eyes narrowed playfully. That little gesture made you tense up, heat rising to your cheeks. Your anger did not lessen in the slightest.
"Fine. If you feel like fucking around with me, then that's the game we're playing." You dropped your ham shank, which was a violation of some code somewhere, and you could almost feel the Administrator huff in disbelief, finger hovering over the intercom to scold you. But you didn't care. You had been putting up with the humiliation all day now with no promise of respite. You were going to deck this guy.
You came at him, fist cocked in the air, and you saw the briefest glimpse of fear in his eyes. He dropped his kukri, and moved out of the way. You steered after him, and he began laughing again.
"Enough! Just let me kill you!"
"That's pretty dark, love. You might need a shrink-"
But you got him. You cornered him in the room and readied yourself for another punch. But, before it could connect, his hand came up and grabbed your wrist. Fingers curled around your slim forearm, he gave you a gentle squeeze. Your eyes met in a heated gaze, your mouth growing into a restless snarl, his thinning into a stern frown.
"I don't want to hurt you."
"Then explain all the times you shot me, asshole!" You snapped your arm out of his grip. That thin smile of his grew into a sheepish grin, almost apologetic in nature.
"I just wanted to get your attention s'all."
Your brows furrowed in confusion. "I don't understand," you whisper, frowning.
"Well, it worked, didn't it?"
At that, you shook your head. "Couldn't you have thrown paper airplanes? Sent a letter? Just talked to me?"
"Kinda hard to accomplish that when 8 other people are on my ass."
You conceded that his excuse was fair. "...I guess."
An air of discomfort filled the room as you both sat in silence. You watched him, your gaze uninhibited by your glasses, as they had been knocked off in the struggle. With a heavy sigh, you cocked your head to the side and tried a smile. And then, with all the amicability you could stomach, you offered him your hand.
"I'm sorry I wanted to kill you so badly. Truce?"
His hand crept up and held yours, giving it a firm shake. "Truce."
You sat down beside him, both of your backs against the wall; in the same spot you had just been waiting for him. You weren't the best at conversation, so you listened in to the lulling sounds of battle. You heard maniacal Medic laughter, annoying Scout banter, and the occasional hearty declaration from Engi whenever a new building was erected. The noise had been static to you for years. You didn't think about what they were saying or doing. You just honed in on voices and pulled a trigger. Snipers were pretty reclusive in that right. They didn't have time to talk to their team, as they usually holed themselves up in their nests. You tried to be a team player, in assisting with fires and captures, but ultimately, your job was to stay back and thin the crowd. And that job suited you, you found, as it gave you the energy for after the battle, when you got to go back to base and enjoy some time with your team.
"Someone's going to come up at some point. Just warning ya." Mr. Mundy said, breaking your train of thought.
"I'm aware."
Another wave of silence, though instead of steeping in it, becoming comfortable with the respite, this silence droned on, and left you itchy to clear it.
"Why did you want my attention, anyway?" you asked, turning to face your male counterpart.
"Right, I'm glad you asked. I wanted to-"
"Enemy sniper!" called Solly, appearing seemingly out of thin air, rushing from the entrance on the opposite side of the room. Mundy was immediately up, and hurdled over you as Soldier unleashed 4 rockets at once. You shrieked, rolling away from their trajectory, but still unfortunately caught up in the leftover smoke.
"Easy, Doe!"
"Sorry, miss! You'll be okay -- no friendly fire today!" Soldier offered you that adorable, goofy grin of his, and he was on his way out the door, chasing after BLU's Sniping fiend. Or perhaps, now he was your friend. Right?
You got to your feet, dusting off your pants and reclaiming your discarded rifle and shank. You could only take two steps out the door, before an arrow landed in the window beside you. It webbed into little cracks and creases emanating from the arrow, which stuck straight out the glass. Along the body of the arrow was a small little scrap of twine, knotted together with a letter swinging aimlessly from it. You plucked the parchment, adjusting your sunglasses so you could read the print. It read:
"You're a nice bird and all, so I thought I'd offer to you some private sniping lessons, yeah? Not in any sleazy way. But, I noticed you struggle a bit today. I must be out of your skill level. We can fix that. ;o) - Sniper."
You growled, eyeing the crudely drawn winking face he embellished the page with. You nearly crumpled the sheet into an incoherent mass of ink and paper, until your eyes caught glimpse of Mundy, meters ahead of you, but that annoying smile of his could be seen miles away. He shouted at you, but it was lost in the chaos of the battle. And then... did he wink at you? Your frown weakened into a perplexed grin.
"I'll show you, asshole!" you cried, with all the air in your lungs, hoping to reach him as the distance between you two greatened. "You're going to see exactly who's out of the other's league!"
He was out of sight, ducking behind the frame of a door to the 4th cap point. You relaxed a bit, hooking your rifle onto a strap behind you. As you sped forward after the next point, you desperately hoped he heard you, because he was going to eat his words.