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Soldier likes the Pyro. They’re frightening, and that’s respectable. Fear is an enemy of the brave and the BLU team, scoundrels that they are, are brave. Soldier is man enough to begrudgingly admit this. It’s good — smart, even — to know one’s enemy.
He thinks the Pyro likes him too, when they save him from spies or airblast an enemy soldier’s rockets away. When they run by with a thumbs up and a muffled cheer of comradery; that’s a bond of brotherhood, there, in the flesh!
They decorate their belongings with stickers. Rainbows, kittens, clouds; gold stars and puppy dogs and cartoons of milk cartons. All in pastels or oversaturated, bolstering Pyro to a blend of cute and lethal, colored equally by art and the stiff reflections from their fireproof suit. They’re stingy, too, with who they give them out to. Engineer has a few specially selected ones of hamsters and gold stars on his tool box, and Sniper has been allowed one of a garishly bright kitten, which he’s opted to place on the handle of his kukri. The edges are already fading and merging into the wood with use, and occasionally when sharpening or cleaning the blade Sniper will run a thumb over it, a fond twist to his lips.
Soldier will not admit that he is jealous. It stands, though, that when Pyro first approaches him with a bounce in their step and a sticker perched carefully on their fingertip, he is ecstatic . It’s a small smiling frog, and it goes immediately onto his helmet. He smooths it down with reverence and when he looks back to Pyro for approval, who has crouched down with due attention at his process, they offer a thumbs up and a vague sound of positivity. Soldier is giddy: now not only will he have a flame-wielding, pain resistant brother-in-arms at his side; he also has a small reminder of their friendship that will forever be with him, a good luck charm to remind him what he’s fighting for — like a locketed wife’s photo in his breast pocket, right near the beating steadfast heart.