An explosion woke Spy again at seven in the morning. There was a crash and a grunt and a call of, 'Found the Frenchy!'

'Seriously? About time. Hey, Heavy, boost me up would yah?'

Spy blinked his eyes open to find a triumphant Soldier standing over the trapdoor, rocket launcher in his hands. The Scout scrabbled up through it a moment later. He noticed what the Soldier had not.

'Holy shit! A RED!'

Sniper had woken with the explosion same as Spy, and as soon as he heard the voices, he grabbed his rifle. There was no other way out but the trap door unless he wanted to jump out the window; he was effectively trapped. However, only one man could come through at once, and if he was quick enough reloading he might make it… if they didn't have their Medic with them.

Sniper glanced at Spy, rifle aimed squarely at Scout. What was going to happen to this tentative truce of theirs? Would it disappear now that Spy was safely with his team again, or would it begin to change how the teams fought each other as well as the robots?

Scout stared wide-eyed at the rifle aimed straight at his head. Soldier swung his rocket launcher around to face the Sniper, ready to blast the RED's remains across the wall behind him.

'Stop!' Spy snapped as he scrambled to his feet, his voice croaky from sleep. He cleared his throat and then repeated firmly, 'Stop.'

'But...' the Soldier said, his brows furrowing and his rocket launcher swinging back around to face Spy. 'He's a RED!'

'Yes. Don't shoot him.'

'But..'

'I said no, Soldier.' Spy stood in front of him, straight-backed and chin-raised, glaring straight at him. Spy knew from past disagreements with the Soldier that the best way to get him to see things from your point of view was to put on the persona of a commanding officer and tell him exactly what he should be doing and what he should be thinking. For some reason he responded well to that kind of bullshit.

'And how do I know you're not a spy?'

'Soldier, you know I'm a spy. I'm your spy.'

'How do I know you aren't a RED in a half-assed disguise?'

'Because I know the codeword.'

'Yeah? What is it then?'

'Manifest destiny.'

The Scout looked confused. And rightly so. They didn't have a password. The phrase sounded passwordy though, and it was about America. The Soldier accepted it with a happy nod.

'Uh, Spy? Why are you wearing a RED Shirt? Well, kind of wearing one?' Scout asked.

Spy couldn't decide if he should pull the shirt together at the front or cast it off altogether. In the end he did neither.

He wasn't sure how to explain.

'What is happening?' Heavy called from downstairs. 'Shoot the RED and rescue little Spy!'

Sniper decided it would be best if he didn't speak up until Spy had everyone on his side. He didn't want to startle anyone into shooting. Slowly, he lowered his rifle, making a show of slinging her over his shoulder on her strap. He grabbed his hat and sunglasses, still moving carefully.

Looking up at Spy, he wondered if his team had ever seen his naked face like this before. Was he the first to have seen him this way? How strange. It must be weird for them to see Spy wearing just his shirt too. Sniper was almost surprised they'd recognized him in RED.

'No. Don't shoot the Sniper.'

The Soldier made an annoyed grumbling sound in the back of his throat.

'Actually, yeah, what is going on?' Scout asked. 'Because you were missing all night and now we find you hanging out with the enemy Sniper and wearing his clothes? Like, shit, man, that's weird. And where's your mask? I haven't seen your ugly mug since Engie's birthday party. You know, the one where he dragged us to that hick karaoke place and you got really drunk and there was that pole and-'

'Yes, Scout,' Spy said through gritted teeth. 'I remember.'

Sniper couldn't help the little grin spreading across his face. Spy getting sloppy drunk with his team? That was too good not to picture.

'You've been sleeping with the enemy!' the Soldier blurted out.

'No. No I haven't.'

'Oh, so you've been sleeping in shifts instead? Very sensible. Also, why is that RED still alive?'

'Because he was helping me.' Spy's mind raced as he tried to find a way of explaining what had happened while still preserving some ounce of his dignity. 'I got caught up in a blast near the end of the match. As we BLUs and REDs are supposed to be working together in this, he helped get me back on my feet. I lost my shirt and mask due to the explosion. We found ourselves separated from both our teams and with only one weapon between us. As we didn't know the state of respawn, we thought it best to wait things out into the morning. And here we are.'

Spy had come up with a great half-lie as to why they were taking care of each other. Sniper was grateful that Spy was doing his part to protect him from the BLUs. And his explanation also made him sound a little less pathetic than he really had been.

'Have you seen any of my team?' Sniper asked them. He hadn't seen anyone since the blast.

'Respawn's fine, you idiot,' the Scout said to Spy. He turned his eyes to the Sniper and then away again. 'Urm. Kind of,' he admitted. 'Our Sniper said he saw your Spy approaching our base last night and, uh, Sniper kind of shot him.' He ended with an apologetic little shrug, still not looking directly at the RED Sniper.

It occurred to Spy that the only conversations Scout must have ever had with the RED team would have been shouted swear words. He'd never had to try and talk with one civilly and it was obviously making him uncomfortable. Good. Spy liked seeing the Scout uncomfortable. It helped deflate the boy's massive ego just a little.

'I still don't get it,' the Soldier said. 'Why is the RED still alive?'

Spy gritted his teeth in annoyance. 'Because he's our ally. We were instructed to work together to take down the robots. We haven't been and that's a mistake. 'Divided we fall' and all that. We'd do much better against those robots if we coordinated our attacks.'

'Blasphemy!' the Soldier gasped.

'We're doing fine on our own,' the Scout said.

'Yes,' Spy agreed, though privately he wasn't so sure. 'But we could do better.'

'I dunno, man, bet the others wouldn't agree.'

'Sounds good idea to me,' the Heavy called from downstairs. 'Now, please come down.'

'Uh, oh yeah,' the Scout said.

'Help me with this ladder, will you, Sniper?' Spy asked casually, wanting to prove that REDs and BLUs could work together now he'd accidentally made himself spokesman for the idea.

'Uh, yeah,' Sniper stood, grabbing one side of the ladder with Spy. It had been odd working with his enemy before, but now with more of them it was even more awkward. Still, he was glad Spy hadn't just abandoned their truce at the first sign of his teammates.

They slid the ladder down and Sniper hesitated. He didn't want to go down there with their Heavy, but he didn't want to be stuck with the Soldier and Scout either. Heavy seemed to be the safer option, so he swung down onto the ladder and started climbing, keeping an eye on Spy as he descended, watching to make sure the man wasn't going to fall.

Heavy watched the Sniper suspiciously for a moment before nodding to him. It was his equivalent of telling Sniper that he would accept and respect this truce.

Sniper nodded back to the big man. It was pretty rare that he'd been killed by Heavy, usually being pretty far out of the way, but he'd shot the man through the head countless times. Not to mention shooting his Medic.

Spy came down next, well-aware of how uncomfortable Sniper would be alone with a BLU. A BLU other than him, that was. How odd that was to think about.

Scout followed next, with Soldier bringing up the rear. Spy lead them out of the building so the Sniper wouldn't be forced to stand around in an enclosed environment with four members of the enemy team.

'Right then. We had better go our separate ways,' he said with a business-like tone. He'd managed to help keep the peace so far but it was probably best to separate as soon as possible.

Spy tried to decide if it would be more awkward to appear back at base with a RED shirt on or none at all. (And without his mask, christ.) He decided to give it back and then go and search for his disguise kit before heading off. It had to be in the next building along with the remains of his jacket.

'Thank you for lending me this,' Spy said, pulling off the shirt and folding it neatly, before handing it back again.

Spy seemed to do fine on the ladder and Sniper's worry faded. The Frenchman must have recovered most of his energy over the night. That or he didn't want to seem weak in front of his teammates. Maybe that was more likely, Sniper thought, watching the Scout and Soldier carefully as they came down, following Spy outside.

'We should get both teams together to talk,' Sniper suggested. 'keep the truce until things are back to normal.'

'Yes,' Spy agreed, secretly thinking about what a nightmare that would be. He planned on going through with it all the same though. Nothing would ever change if they didn't push it to. Things would likely be rocky to start with as members of both teams trying to resist but it would be worth it in the end.

'And I trust that if you see me approaching your base tomorrow morning you won't have the same reaction as our Sniper did to seeing your Spy?' he asked. This time the undercurrent of good humour he was aiming for came through just fine. The idea of walking into the RED base uncloaked made Spy nervous but he knew it would be the best way to kick-start the truce between teams that both of them needed, whether they accepted that fact or not.

"I'll make sure no one's got a loaded weapon," Sniper chuckled.

It really would be strange, working with the BLUs, but it was for the best. Together they could do so much more. Sniper gave the others a nod before heading off in the direction of the RED camps.

He had a lot to tell them.

And there we end! This was our first, short RP to see if we thought we'd work well together as RP partners. It mustn't have gone too bad because we've been RPing ever since. I hope we'll be able to start sharing that story with you guys some time soon but it's still a WIP at the moment, and many many times longer than this one. Like boy, that thing's a monster. And it's about monsters, of sorts.