SniperXReader

Ch 11

     I walked into the common room after showering and changing. Demo seemed pretty happy to be cooking, it smelled good too. I looked to Spy and Heavy who were playing chess. "I have a question." Heavy looked to me. "Da, Little Girl?" I leaned in close to them, "Why don't we like Demo's cooking?" Spy snorted. "It is not because he is a bad cook, it is because of what he cooks." I thought for a moment. "Exactly what does that mean Spy?" Heavy looked back to the game as Spy made his move. "He cook strange food. Not like what Heavy has eaten before." I thought for a moment. "So it's good as long as you don't know what it is?" Both answered yes in their native tong. I let out a small 'ah' and walked away from their game to look for Mick.

     I found him out side leaning on his camper smoking. He looked ridiculous... a Hawaiian shirt, kakis, and the rest of his usual attire. "You do know it's dark outside." He turned to me. "Didn't notice." I walked over and plucked his sunglasses off of his face. "You look stupid wearing them at night." He just let out a grunt in response. "Don't mind if we take your car?" I shook my head and pulled the keys out of my pocket. Mick took them from me and headed that way. He was acting very aloof. "You feeling ok?" Mick stopped walking. "I think this is a bad idea." I thought about it for a moment. "We don't have to go into town..." Honestly Mick was right, that Spy could be watching right now. "We probably shouldn't." Then an idea hit me. "You can cook right?" Mick turned back to me and shrugged, now nerves that I put him on the spot. "Oh, come on! Theirs got to be more than one reason you're called 'Bushman'." A blush came to his cheeks. "Ya want me to cook for you the way I would cook for myself?" I smiled to him. "Yeah! It'll be kinda like a picnic." He smiled back. "Alright sounds good." He tossed me my keys back. "I'll meet you at that cliff we climbed the other day." I turned and ran back into base to get some supplies.

        I was in my room grabbing a trashed blanket when a knock came to the open door. "Here." It was Spy. I looked to him, he was holding out a bottle of whine. "Since you two are not going into town you might want this," I smiled to him. "Thanks." I ripped a blanket off of my bed, snatched the bottle and headed towards the common room. "You forgot the glasses!" I turned back to Shy who was chasing after me and stopped running. "Oh, yeah, right." I took the two glasses from him and headed to the cliff top. I was glad that their was a path up it or I would have dropped everything. By the time I got up their Mick had a fire going. "Hey! Spy gave us something!" I looked around for Mick but couldn't find him. So I set the bottle and glasses down so I could spread the blanket out. As I was doing so I heard a gun shot. I got down on a knee and pulled out my pistol. As I looked around I saw some one heading towards me, I aimed at them. "It's me Shela, got dinner!" As he came into view I saw that he was holding up a Jack Rabbit. "Oh..." I put my pistol down and let out a sigh of relief. "What where you saying about Spy?" I turned and grabbed the bottle of whine and held it up. Mick let out an audible 'yuck'. "It couldn't be that bad." That's when I realized I didn't have anything to open it with. "Well it doesn't matter, can't open it." I dropped the bottle and Mick laughed at me. He sat down on the blanket with the rabbit still in hand. "Don't like this blanket too much do you?" I shook my head. "No, it's already trashed." Mick then proceeded to butcher said rabbit. "I take it you're use to eating what you can find." He nodded to me. "Growing up in the bush of Australia that's how you survive." I thought for a moment, "You don't look like the stereotypical Aussie." Mick chuckled. "I'm actually from New Zealand." I let out a loud and confused 'huh'. "Yeah. My dad's the one who came up with the idea to sink New Zealand to the bottom of the ocean." I gasped and Mick laughed some. "Yeah... It was a hell of a family reunion..." I could tell that it was a touchy subject. The people I thought were his parents actually adopted him some how and who know what happened to his real patents... "Bastards left me to die." Well I guess that answered some questions. Mick stabbed his knife into the ground and threw the now butchered rabbit over the fire. "It doesn't matter anymore." He seemed bitter about the hole thing. "The parents I grew up with are the only one's I'll ever have." I smiled to him as he watched the fire. "Then you're Australian." He turned to me. "Do... Do you really think so?" My smile didn't fade. "Yes I do." His eyes lit up. "Thank ya, love." For the first time he reached out to me. It was a simple hand on the shoulder, though it meant a lot. Our eyes met for a moment, his blue iris shined before he looked away and went to tending dinner. "I ran away from home to join the circus." I glanced up to the sky. "That's where I learned how to shoot so well..." I looked back to Mick, he was watching me. "...They were the only family I really had. They saved up the money so I could go to art collage..." I turned form Mick and looked into the fire. "...Though collage wasn't for me. I ended dropping out. I never fit in. Jeremy was really my only friend." Mick gave a soft laugh. "Yeah, I dropped out of high school to help my parents on the farm..." He pulled the rabbit off of the fire and poked it with a thermometer. "...though that was a lie." He pulled the thermometer out of the rabbit and cut off one of the legs. "Hey, did you bring some plates?" I turned pink, "No... I forgot." Mick laughed. "Don't worry I brought some." My blush drained from my face. Mick walked to the other side of the fire and came back with a large bag. I guess we're not going to talk about our past anymore. It was nice to know that he grew up on a farm. It also seemed that we both had troubled childhoods. Ii was snapped out of my thoughts by Mick handing me a plate. Their was a leg of rabbit, some weird looking carrots, and something I couldn't place. "What's that?" I looked from my plate to see Mick already shoveling food into his mouth. "Roasted Prickly Pear, probably one of the best things I can cook." And he wasn't wrong, it all was pretty good.

        We didn't talk much while we ate. I know I skipped lunch, not by choice. I had no idea if Mick had eaten lunch or stayed in the med bay with me. We did eat everything that he cooked, so I guess that we both were hungry. The walk back to base was quiet too. I knew Mick wasn't much of a talker, I wanted to talk about everything. I wanted to know who he was. That will take time I guess. "So, about collage, you didn't date Jeremy did you?" The immediate change in atmosphere spooked me, I laughed though. "No! Gross! Do you know how many girls he's been with?" I heard Mick sigh in relief. "I was just worried..." I stopped snickering. "About what?" We stopped walking. "I don't know. I just worry like that sometimes." I reached out and grabbed his hand, he stiffened at my action. I started walking again pulling him with me. Honestly, I think he's never had a girlfriend before, or ever been close to a girl. "Hey, Shela?" We stopped walking. "Yeah?" I looked at him, he was staring at his shoes. I took him a long time to find the right words for what he wanted to say. "I... I don't really know how relationships other than friendships work... haven't really had many of either..." I went over and hugged him. "That's alright. You have a lot of guys around, I'm sure they can answer your questions." I let him go. "Even Jeremy can be helpful, he's my friend after all." I started to walk away. "Thanks, love."

        Mick walked me back to my room, the guys kept their mouths shut. I walked into my room and on my bed was a note and a polaroid. 'Stay away from him, your mine.' I grabbed the polaroid, it was a photo of me and Mick on our, date. If it was a date, who knows. "You alright, (Y/N)?" I turned back to him. "No." He walked into my room. "I want to sleep in my bed, with no beeping..." I tossed the note and pic back onto my bed. "...Do you know how annoying twenty sentries beeping all night is?" I sat down on the bed. "It's just for a couple more days." Mick reached over and grabbed the note. "The wanker spelled 'you're' wrong..." I was confused. "What does that matter." Mick grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the room. "I don't think it's the Spy." We entered the common room. "Guys!" Mick looked around. "Where's Spy?" Everyone shrugged. "I'll go get him?" I walked over to his smoking room and knocked on the door. "Sniper wants to talk to everyone." The door opened. "Well good everyone is here. I was just briefing Miss Pauling on the plan." The three of us walked back into the common room. "What is it Snips?" He handed Spy the note. "Would a you make a spelling mistake?" Spy made out a hum. "The writing isn't good either... but the spelling mistake is a big tell tell." Everyone was very interested in this new development. "So it might not be the Blu Spy?" I was confused. "We need to rework plan." Heavy stood and headed to the war room. "Go get some rest." I shook my head to Jeremy. "I can't sleep with all that beeping." Mick put his hand on my shoulder. "I'll stay with her, just fill me in later." The two of us headed back to my room. "Thanks." I collapsed into my bed, and Mick sat on my desk chair. It didn't take long for me to pass out. 

((I would like to thank everyone for making this story #1 in the tf2 tag on 11/1/2020))