A Little Fire Never Hurt (tf2 fanfic)

Dangerously Dancing

Sunday morning soon came as the mercenaries in the base soon awoke. Sniper having a coffee in his van, Spy smoking in the kitchen while scout and demo man argued over the tv. Engineer was cooking as usual, making the kitchen smell homely. The rest of the crew were off doing their own thing in the early hours of the day.

Annie snored softly in her bedroom, sleeping past breakfast and into the afternoon. The sun clambered slowly to the top of the sky and it's bright rays shown boldly into the large bedroom. She tossed and turned in the bed and groaned sleepily, not yet ready to wake up.

Rap, rap, rap.

A soft, yet swift knock was at the bedroom door leading into the hallway. The young girl heard the sound but simply screwed her eyes tighter, not wanting to be bothered.

The knock sounded again.

Knock, knock, knock.

This time it was harsher and more urgent than the last gentle ask to enter the room. It sounded more annoyed, as if the person knocking grew offended of not being answered. Annie groaned loudly and opened her eyes, then squinting as the sun was in her face.

"Hold on" she whined loudly, hopefully they could hear her.

She sat up and yawned, shaking her head harshly to move the hair out of her face. Annie whipped the covers off and planted her feet on the floor, grabbing some clothes, a graphic tee-shirt and grey sweats, she quickly changed and moved to the door.

"Sorry for the wait i was asle- What do you want?" she narrowed her eyes.

Smoke blew into her face, making her cough. "Well good morning to you too, girl"

"Spy if you're going to just be critical, please leave me alone." she snarked sarcastically. She sighed and left the door open as she made her way to the bathroom, grabbing her toothbrush and turned the faucet on.

The older man came into the room and took another breath of his cigarette. Breathing out smoke came out of his nose and mouth as he spoke. "You missed breakfast." he remarked, "I didn't want you missing lunch, so i came to wake you" his accent sliding out, he glanced around the room and looked up towards the second floor, tilting his head as if he were in thought.

Annie wrapped up brushing her teeth and spat out the remains. Gargling water she rinsed the sink and began brushing her hair out. "I know, i'm just been tired lately, i guess with the training and such i've just been not getting good sleep" she replied, brushing her cream and orange hair.

"Any plans for today?" the frenchman asked, coming into the doorway of the bathroom and leaning onto the door frame. Annie didn't look at him but shook her head.

"Not really." she mumbled, focusing on a mat on her head.

She flickered her eyes towards him and they held eye contact for a brief moment before he looked away. He said nothing more before leaving the door frame and heading out of the room.

It looked like he wanted to say something, she queried, then put the brush down. She flipped her hair and went out into the hallway, catching up to him.

Annie was dressed into a sports bra and jogging pants and headed towards the gymnasium of the base. She closed the double doors behind her and stepped outside towards the building behind the base. She was alone and was lost in thought of how her first training session went, how she bested them all with her impressive combat skills and how she even took down Heavy, the biggest bull in the ring. She entered the metal doors and the deafening silence was actually kinda peaceful. No yelling, no arguing, nothing, just peaceful silence. Something she hasn't heard in a long time.

Annie sighed happily and began walking to the middle ring that wasn't taken down from their training session. Some other supplies have been moved, probably from someone training in here. Annie looked around at the weights, benches, and other equipment before laying her eyes on a bo-staff. Her eyes lit up with excitement as she placed her hand on it. The hollow whooshing as she twirled it took her back to her military training. Exercising all day and everyday it seemed like. She knew long range, short range, and mid range combat. She was good with weapons, knives, hand to hand, and more combat skills. Her favorites to train with where knives and staffs. Something about it was just satisfying, like a dance almost, when training with these.

She entered the ring and poised herself to her invisible enemy. Twirling the staff she weaves it between hands, over her head and behind her back. She struck out, swung, and swung it back to her side, as if she's done it a thousand times before. She struck again, dodged, and blocked. Her memories of training and advice pouring into her head.

Her invisible enemy was coming in for a strike against the legs, blocked. Again. Against the head, block, deter, swing, strike.

Again.

Swing, step, balance, block, thrust.

Again.

Block, swing, strike.

It was a rhythm that she knew very well, it was like a dance to her, she had to be flowing like water yet strike like stone. She almost mastered it, yet she had some rough edges to smooth out. Around 20 minutes had passed and the small flow of adrenaline through her veins had made her hyper. Panting, she looked around the empty gym, birds softly singing in the distance and the cool wind beating against the windows and doors. Still silent. Odd..

She put the bow staff down and exhaled harshly, rotating her arms, she stretched then reached up to fix her hair. Suddenly the doors opened. Spy. She furrowed her brow curiously, did he need something or was he going to train as well?

"Afternoon"

Spy said nothing but a nod as he approached her, throwing an already lit cigarette to the ground.

"Sparring, eh? What where you using?" he questioned, straightening his jacket and collar with his gloved hands.

Annie motioned behind her towards the staff and for a moment she could've sworn his brow lifted, just for a second. Amused she picked it up again.

"Never practices with one of these?" she mused.

The french man shook his head and skillfully flipped out his butterfly knife, twirling it around his careful fingers.

"Non, i use this in battle" he commented.

The girl nodded her head, "want to fight?" she smirked, whirling the staff around, assuming position.

"Oí"

word count: 1118

enjoy <3