Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

All actions have consequences, that wasn’t anything new to the sharpshooter however he failed to realise the effect of what his and Scout’s interaction had caused. Not only did he bond with the runner but he also 'chatted’, he actively engaged with Scout’s jokes and even made a few of his own.

It was unheard of.

It went against his rules of isolation, it went against the very persona he was trying to build!

And yet he didn’t care.

He found himself looking forward to the early mornings, not minding that he would get his breakfast later than usual or on that rare occasion where Scout would go with him. Soon it
became second nature for him to wait on the kid before heading down to the base together, Sniper of course still disappeared whenever another teammate turned up.

He could only handle so much after all.

Little did he know that while he vanished back up to his van, a little scout was raving to the rest of the base about his new friendship with the gunman. No one listened to him due to the absurdity of the claims.

Sniper laughing?

Talking?

Understanding basic human interaction?

None of that sounded right and no one wanted to test the claims either, to them it was just Scout playing another prank.

Because you see, Sniper only interacts with Scout outside of the base or when he’s sure no one else is around. Just because he made friends with the kid doesn’t mean he’s now suddenly open to the whole team. That honestly sounds like a nightmare. He will admit that his new friendship with Scout was fun, but to an extent; he was always drained afterwards, still not use to upholding long conversations.

He's not afraid to admit he’s slightly out of practice with certain social cues, every few minutes he’ll go back to making vague noises in his throat rather than give a proper response. It was hard work going from basically radio silence to now a complete sentence. It was a drastic change for him, something he still was struggling to get used to.

So, imagine to his surprise when he exits his van one morning to see not only Scout, but Pyro waiting for him as well.

What the fuck.

Scout was laughing, the cheeky fucker, clearly finding amusement at whatever face

Sniper was pulling. Maybe if he closed his eyes, he could pretend that neither of them were here, maybe this was all a cruel nightmare and he was about to wake up right now.

“Snipes, look who wanted ta join us!”

He’d rather not see at all.

“Hey, why are your eyes closed?”

If lighting could strike him right now, that’d be great.

“Nah Pyro I think he’s fine, just dramatic.”

Maybe if he tried hard enough, he could just die this instant.

“Sniper, y’know we can hear you still right?”

Fuck.

“C’mon, we even bought ya a gift!”

Gifts are good.

“And their tiny!”

Well, what did he have to lose?

Scout the traitor chuckled once more, clearly having gained the forbidden knowledge of Sniper’s key weakness. Tiny things. Look, he couldn’t explain it to anyone but himself; the appeal of collecting little trinkets was just something that made him click. He had this compulsive desire to grab things that caught his eye, particularly shiny things. Cleary, Scout was trying to exploit his deep dark desire of hoarding shiny things, tiny shiny things, tiny shiny things that would sparkle under the sun on his dashboard.

Slowly peeling his eyes open, he took in the scene before him, unfortunately nothing had changed. Scout was still energetically bouncing, grin unmatched to the sun as his eyes shined with mischief whereas Pyro was waiting patiently next to him.

Glancing down, the sharpshooter noticed that the pyromaniac’s hands seemed full, holding what looked to be a large, wrapped present.

Silence stretched between the three of them, while Snipes wanted to turn them down, he really wanted to see what they had brought.

Curse him and his weakness, he never should’ve let himself be exposed like that. It wasn’t even intentional! The bugger just happened to stumble upon his collection, and he couldn’t just not show it off, he had worked hard to collect all his pieces. So far, his collection was a broken glass bottle, a rusted key, some lose change, small metal bits and a singular bullet.

It was his fucking pride and joy.

And now Scout was using it against him.

Reminds him of another teammate.

Regardless, Sniper was left with no choice but to welcome the unwanted company into his van. Like hell he was gonna risk the rest of the team see him hangout with these lot, he needs to be more discreet.

The van was relatively big, at least big enough to fit the three of them inside with Scout claiming the shooter’s bed immediately and Pyro squeezing themselves into the seat across the kitchen table. Already, he could feel a migraine work its way through his head and all Sniper could do was entertain whatever was going on and hope they both leave soon.

Signing in defeat the shooter sat himself begrudgingly across from Pyro, who had placed their gift delicately onto the table. Interestingly, they had yet to even make a sound since Sniper had noticed them, not even a mumble had escaped their mask.

It was almost like they were nervous, but of what?

Of his reaction to the gift or to him?

As far as he knew, Sniper hadn’t interacted with the firebug or at least had an interaction that would warrant such a behaviour from the normally jittery being. Then again, Pyro was known for their unpredictability, so maybe this was normal behaviour. It was really hard to tell.

And Scout was being of no use as he had made himself comfortable on the Sniper’s bed, seemingly taking a nap; leaving Snipes with the oddly silent jitterbug, who was staring at him intently from their blank mask. With no other option Snipes reached for the wrapped gift, carefully bringing it closer to himself under the scrutiny of the quiet individual, watching them for any sort of reaction.

And still the masked person in question remained silent, the only indication they gave was sitting up straighter once the aussie grabbed the gift. Being extra careful not to ruin the wrapping, Sniper began gently taking off the excess layers of tape that surrounded the present. He was left dumbfounded as more and more layers of wrapping paper were discarded to the side, it seemed never-ending with the layers getting smaller and smaller and yet Sniper still had yet to reach the gift itself.

Throughout it all, Pyro was steadily leaning closer and closer to the sharpshooter, elbows resting on the table as they started shaking from excitement. Scout had turned over on the bed, now facing the pair as he watched the grand reveal.

Holy shit.

It was the greatest thing he’s ever seen.

At the centre of the table surrounded by all the paper and tape of the world, was a small metal statue of a koala. Sniper picked up the tiny creature, lifting it up to admire the handiwork of such a thing. The body was made of different cogs and metal scraps all melded together with burn marks and little dents; the koala looked to be mid walk with a little lump on its back. Upon closer inspection the shooter realised it was supposed to be a baby koala, its features even tinier as its little paws were attached to the parent’s back.

Sniper was thankful he was wearing his shades that day, it would be awkward to explain to anyone why he was fighting back tears.

It was just too precious.

He was in love.

He’s already named them.

Susie and her little joey, Benjamin. It was just them against the world.

Sniper politely nodded his head towards both Pyro and Scout, before quickly excusing himself. The tiny family was too precious to join his collection of assorted items, he needed a much better placement. Koalas need somewhere high up and away from any danger, somewhere he could protect the family easily and somewhere the rest of the team wouldn’t usually go. So lost in his thoughts, the trained shooter didn’t hear Scout’s loud exclaims and hurried footsteps behind him.

No, this sniper was on a mission, possibly the most important mission of his life. He had a family to look after now.

And his sniper’s nest would be perfect.

With his destination in mind the shooter hurried his paced, allowing muscle memory to takeover as he continued staring fixatedly at his little koalas. Had anyone in the base decided to look outside, they would find a fascinating scene before them; the Sniper speed walking across the base with something cupped in his hands while
Scout and Pyro trailed behind him like lost ducks.

Finally reaching his target, the older man began climbing up the ladder to his proclaimed nest, but not before gently tucking the little family into his vest pocket, resolutely ignoring the snickers from behind him. Reaching his hideout, Sniper found the perfect spot for his new family, right next to the boarded window he shoots from. It had enough sunlight for the koalas to relax and provided protection for any stray bullets, not like he’d let anything happen to them, they need stability in their lives, and he could provide it for them, he’d lay his life down for them. He’d kill his entire team for them.

Kidding.

Not really.

“Uh, Snipes?”

Snapping out of his thoughts, the man in question angled his head towards the familiar voice, his unwanted house guests had followed him to his nest. He honestly hoped they’d still be at the bottom of the ladder, he wanted to finish devoting his life to his koalas.

What did these two want again?

“Pyro wanted ta know if you liked the gift? Kinda just upped and left.”

Of course, he loved the gift, he was gonna make a blood sacrifice for them everyday now.

“That’s…. uh good?”

Sniper watched the younger take a slight step back. Silly Scout, he wasn’t going to kill him for the statue. No, he was truly thankful for the little family.

He was gonna kill him for talking about him behind his back.

Rumours had a funny way of going back to him.

The shooter grinned sharply as he turned his full body towards the pair, watching colour drain from Scout’s face. The runner squeezed himself behind Pyro, apologising profusely but c’mon Snipes no one believed him anyway so let’s ignore this yeah?

Muffled noises escaped the firebug as they waved their hands around in a placating manner, very rarely was Sniper ever truly angry yet those that witnessed it told tales of horror; heck Pyro themselves was wary of upsetting the shooter with their gift. It was why they were silent, trusting Scout to do all the talking for them and hopefully not get the two of them killed.

Sniper watched the pair talk over each other, making their case of why Sniper shouldn’t kill them, Pyro even gestured to the statue after all it would be horrible for a family to witness a murder already. They had a point, rolling his shoulders back Snipes took a step away from the duo, purposely relaxing himself to ease their nerves.

“What did you two want anyway?”

Pyro perked up at the question, flapping his hands around in an a more excited manner whilst Scout tried to translate.

“When I was definitely absolutely not talking behind your back, Pyro overhead me and wanted to see for themselves if what I was saying was true. Apparently, he needs your help with something?”

That had Snipes straighten up again, help with something? That would explain the random gift, though he wasn’t complaining, if this is how the pyromaniac asked for help then they could go right ahead.

Happy with this new development the firebug started gesturing to the runner, hand signals that looked like something along the lines of ‘hurry up’. Scout hastily unzipped his backpack – something that Sniper embarrassingly hadn’t noticed – and pulled out what looked to be a colouring book.

But it wasn’t just any colouring book, it was an Australian colouring book.

Very slowly, the pieces were slowing being put together.

The Sniper was Australian, Pyro was curious, clearly at some point the jitterbug had gotten themselves a colouring book filled with Australian animals and wanted his input. And of course, with Scout and his blabbermouthing about Sniper ‘opening up’, Pyro saw it as a chance to get the Aussie’s help with his colouring. But they couldn’t just rely on Scout, no that would be too risky, Scout was just phase one, they needed his trust, his loyalty so they handcrafted something that would lure him into a false sense of security.

It was the fucking koalas. It was all a ploy, insurance so that he wouldn’t kill the both of them if something went wrong.

All so that he would help with a colouring book.

He couldn’t help it, he started laughing, a full-blown belly laugh that shook the entire platform they were standing on. Sniper had to lean down to his knees, struggling to catch his breath at the ridiculousness of the entire situation. He, a trained killer was just bribed successfully by a tiny koala family in exchange for help with a colouring book. There were definitely tears sliding down his face that even his shades couldn’t hide, not that he cared, he was still struggling to breathe.

A few more quiet chuckles escaped him as he tried to compose himself, not oblivious to the state of shock Scout appeared to be in, whereas Pyro was clapping his hands in triumph. Gesturing to the rest of the crates, Sniper urged them both to sit down as he grabbed the nearest colouring book.

Flicking to a random page, he landed on an image of an emu and with a large grin began explaining the large bird to the duo.

“Hope you got enough crayons mate.”

Now, as much as he’d like to claim that was the last time, he ever talked to either of them, he’s admittedly a shitty liar. It seemed after that fateful encounter, Pyro now had the courage to personally go up to Sniper in and out of battle interactions, occasionally even joining him in his van after breakfast.

Obviously, it was to hear more about the Australian animals and finish the colouring book. But sometimes it was just to sit together in silence with Pyro’s humming as background noise. Unlike Scout who couldn’t bare to not share every little thing, the firebug was more than happy to colour in silence, understanding that Sniper didn’t always want to talk; something they both shared.

This new development with Pyro however, meant that Sniper had to adjust his schedule again.

Wake up.

Blast Scout’s music for his workout.

Relax with the kid.

Clean van.

Steal food before the others arrive.

Back into van.

Help Pyro with their colouring book.

Clean and check over his weapons.

Nap.

And repeat.