Chapter Text
Rays of sun shone down through the waves above, refracted light dancing on his skin and reflecting off his scales. He felt weightless like this. Closing his eyes and drifting on the gentle current, he wished he could stay like this forever.
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“Huh. Looks like they’ve finally managed to clean the water.”
Scout looked up from his breakfast when he heard Engineer speak. The hardhat had today’s Tuefort Times on the table in front of him.
“What water?” Scout asked, trying his best to sound only mildly interested.
“Hale River,” Engineer answered as he tossed the newspaper across the table. “You know they finally fixed that chemical leak from the fort a couple months ago, right? Seems like both the groundwater and the river have been declared safe. Took ‘em long enough.”
Scout stared at the paper. The picture on the front page showed a group of kids happily splashing in the water. Excitement welled up in his chest when he realized what this meant. Perhaps he could finally… nah! What if someone saw him? Or, maybe…
The announcer’s voice booming through the speaker shook Scout out of his thoughts. Thirty minutes until battle. He sighed and got up, tossing his dirty plate in the sink and following his teammates to the locker rooms. The water would have to wait until later.
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Scout felt unusually nervous. Excited. Jittery. Thankfully, he managed to use that energy for good. BLU briefcase in one hand, the other holding his trusty bat, he bashed the enemy Soldier’s skull in before speeding back to base. Demo and Engineer cheered and hollered as RED’s victory was declared over the speakers.
Grinning like an idiot, Scout made his way into the locker room and took his blood-soaked shirt off. This was the best he had done in a while. He had managed to capture the enemy’s intelligence virtually by himself.
“Little man did great today.” Heavy walked in and gave Scout a rough pat on the back, nearly making the boy fall over.
“How fascinating!” Medic exclaimed as he appeared from behind Heavy. “Tell me, what could have caused this sudden boost in your performance? Have you changed your diet recently?”
“Dunno, Doc.” Scout said innocently. He swatted at the man’s hand that was curiously poking at his thigh. No way he was going to let Medic examine him. Last time it ended in a near-complete dissection, and he was NOT going to deal with that again. “I guess I’m just amazing at my job. Better than all o’ you.” he shrugged before pulling a clean shirt over his head.
“Seriously, mate.” Sniper was next to enter the room, with Soldier clinging on to his shoulder. “What’s gotten into ya? I’ve never seen you run that fast before.”
“Cadet!” Soldier yelled, seemingly unbothered by the gaping, bleeding wound where his leg was supposed to be. “You sure taught those nasty BLUs a lesson today! And uh… Medic-”
“There’s no healing that,” the doctor cut him off and gestured to his leg. “Go through respawn before it’s shut off. And bring in the beer after! We’re celebrating tonight!”
Scout cheered and punched the air. Yes, he was feeling great today. For their overwhelming victory, but even more so for the prospect of his plans for the upcoming night. Not that he could tell anyone about that, though.
The rest of the team made their way back to the base soon enough, with Pyro happily running up to Scout and putting their arm around his shoulder. He listened to their unintelligible but happy muffles as the teammates walked to common room together. Even Spy seemed to be in high spirits, which was a rare occurrence to say the least.
Soldier barged into the common room a few minutes later, with a brand new leg and a crate under each arm. Drinks were passed around and laughter was shared, the celebration lasting well into the night.
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To Scout, it seemed to take forever for the ruckus to die down. Eventually, though, stillness seeped into the base, and his teammates excused themselves to the sleeping quarters one by one. Even Engineer, who would normally spend all night tinkering away in his workshop, had passed out on the couch in the common room. Scout looked at him as he peacefully snored away. It had all gone downhill for the man after Demo had started sharing the scrumpy.
Scout got up from his seat. He hoped that no one had noticed that he had not really been drinking. He had something to do tonight, after all. He quietly made his way out of the common room, down to the garage.
Some of the mercenaries had vehicles of their own. Aside from Sniper’s RV, they were all parked down here, along with the team’s shared ‘RED Bread’ van. Scout moved around Spy’s fancy red sports car, lifted the garage door, and got to his truck. The old pickup sure had seen better days, but it still worked, and that’s what mattered. Engineer had actually helped him fix it up a bit and taught him some basic maintenance so Scout could take care of it himself.
He climbed into the driver’s seat and put the key into the ignition. For a moment, he sat there, contemplating whether he should actually go or not. He was not entirely sure if this was a good idea. Even under the cover of the night, the chance of getting caught would still be greater than zero.
It had been so long, though, and ever since Engineer had tossed him the newspaper that morning, that never-ending itch deep in his chest had been stronger than ever.
Scout sighed. Fuck it. He turned the key and started the engine, driving out of the base and onto the desolate desert road.
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Getting from the base all the way to Hale River was quite the drive. Scout excitedly jumped out of the car when he reached the riverbank, after miles of dark, empty desert. Now that the headlights were off, it took him a minute to get used to the near total darkness. He was truly in the middle of nowhere, and to his delight, there was no sign of life anywhere. He was completely alone.
Not wanting to wait any longer, he began to strip. His shirt came off first, followed by his shoes, socks and pants. He piled his clothes onto the driver’s seat, before pulling down his boxers and throwing them on top. He cautiously climbed down the riverbank, cupped his hands to scoop up some water and gave it an experimental sniff. He smiled. It actually seemed clean.
It was finally time. Scout took a few steps back, filled his lungs with air, and jumped.
The water was surprisingly chilly. Scout let the river engulf him as he went down to the bottom. And then it started. He felt his legs fuse together and scales poking out from under his skin. He had forgotten how much it tickled. Next, his dorsal and pelvic fins grew in, along with the end of his tail. He gave it an experimental wiggle and smiled at how easily he propelled himself through the water.
Scout was still holding his breath. It always took a minute or so for his gills to open up, and he wanted to see if he could last until then. A stupid little game he had been playing with himself ever since he was a kid. At last, he felt the slits under his jaw pull open as water started filtering through them. He let go of the air in his lungs and watched the bubbles rise to the surface.
Fucking finally! It had been way too long. The complete lack of clean water in the Badlands had left him unable to transform and swim freely, until now. The river was still not as great as the open sea, but it was better than nothing.
After swimming in circles for a bit to get used to his tail, Scout started to make his way upstream. The moonlight was just bright enough to let him look around. The river seemed devoid of life, having been cleaned only recently. Getting closer to the bottom revealed some newly sprouting aquatic plants carefully poking out from between the rocks, however. Scout was sure that the fish would return eventually.
Happy with that conclusion, he distanced himself from the bottom a bit. He began putting some power into his strokes. Each flick of his tail faster than the last, Scout gradually built up speed until he was zooming through the river. He smiled to himself. Oh, how much he had missed this! He was even faster in the water than he was on land. He curved the end of his tail up and breached the surface. Water splashed up around him as he flew through the air, making a graceful arch before going back under. It felt great. So, so great.
Scout swam another mile or so, until he decided that he should make his way back. He surfaced and floated facing up, letting the river carry him downstream. He coughed forcefully. Switching from his gills to his lungs had always been harder than the other way around, especially now that he had been out of practice for a while.
He stared up at the clear, starry sky above him. He was glad he had driven all the way out here, to the middle of nowhere. He could swim in peace without any prying eyes.
Scout's thoughts wandered, back to his childhood. He had never really understood when he was a kid. Why his mom would not let him go to the public swimming pool with his brothers. Why she always told him not to tell anyone about him being a merman. Back then, he had only been upset about inheriting his family’s stupid fish gene, as he had called it.
Still, he had been blissfully unaware of the struggles that monsters faced in this world. Being seen as different, or unnatural even. As Scout had grown older, and he became aware of his status, he had finally become grateful of his mom’s protective treatment of him. Carefully hiding his true form had granted him the chance to live a relatively normal life. He kind of threw that normality out of the window by joining the RED mercenaries, but that was a whole other can of worms.
Scout continued drifting down the river as fond memories of their occasional trips to the sea came back to him. His mom had always managed to find secluded spots where he could swim freely. He would spend hours in the waves, playing with the fish, looking for pretty shells and bullying the seagulls. One time, his brothers had needed to drag him out of the water by his tail when it was time to leave. He chuckled when he remembered that day.
Way too soon, Scout saw his car parked by the riverbank. He had made it back to where he started. He pushed himself onto dry land and took a moment to admire his tail. The silvery scales reflected the moonlight beautifully. Looking up, he noticed faint red streaks over the horizon. It was nearly morning. He really had to get back to the base.