Chapter Text
Six months ago…
Jesse had been to this club a couple times before. It was a higher end establishment, so he rarely felt like shelling out the cash to get in, but he was in the mood to treat himself tonight. His eyes wandered over the stage, the tables off to the side, and the door leading off to the private rooms before they settled on a young man on his phone in the corner.
He had dyed green hair and wore a crop top, a tiny miniskirt that barely qualified as an article of clothing and a neon green choker. The phone was positioned so the light illuminated his makeup. He didn’t seem to actually be doing anything on his phone. Both his legs were prosthetic, but high end ones. A hell of a lot nicer than Jesse’s and they matched his outfit too.
Jesse lounged in his own corner, watching the young man for a little while. He was gorgeous and no one dressed like that if they minded the attention. Jesse wouldn’t actually try anything unless the young man initiated, but he could watch.
Eventually, the young man turned and saw him staring. Jesse raised his fingers to his head and mimed tipping a hat. The young man grinned and winked, but his phone rang before he could walk over. He checked his phone and hurried out of the club.
Jesse waited a few minutes to see if he would return, but eventually resigned himself to failure and hooked up with an old acquaintance of his. The sex wasn’t bad but it wasn’t great either. Definitely not worth the money he paid to get into the damn place.
~*~
Now that he was back in civilization without the threat of his clan hanging over his head, Hanzo actually took the opportunity to try and expand his social circle outside of Jesse and Genji. He started going out and exploring the city, signed up for cooking lessons, got a library card. He was still trying to figure out how to actually interact with people, but he was making progress. He had a few people to talk to who weren’t either family members or Jesse. It was exciting.
The tradeoff was that he didn’t have as much time to spend with Jesse. Jesse took it in stride, going and having fun with his own friends. Still, Hanzo found himself missing his sub. His boyfriend. His lover.
They still spent time together. Almost every morning and evening and at least one day a week. It was a lot, but not nearly as much as Hanzo was used to. He considered just calling Jesse to stay with him, but he couldn’t and didn’t want to rule every aspect of Jesse’s life. At least not for too long.
One evening, just as Hanzo was starting to seriously consider calling Genji for some relationship advice, Jesse showed up with a bouquet of roses in hand.
“Howdy, darling. You free tonight?”
~*~
Jesse sat on a tree stump, smoking a cigar. He was pretty deep into the park where he could enjoy the tobacco without worrying about anyone else’s lungs. He’d been cutting back lately and it made him nervous and irritable. He really needed someone to knock some sense into him, but he didn’t know anyone here well enough to trust them and had no intention of going back to Blackwatch. He was retired. He was done.
He leaned back, eyes closed, and let out a plume of smoke.
“Ah, McCree-san, yes?” The voice was soft but deep with a slight accent. Jesse opened his eyes to see the young man from the club standing in front of him.
He still had a crop top on, but he had traded the miniskirt for long slacks and a different pair of prosthetics, this pair more suited for hiking. Now that Jesse saw him straight on, he noticed the scars running down the side of his face and neck. He wrung his hands, shifting his weight nervously.
Jesse took another long drag. That tiny shirt hardly hid anything. Certainly not the man’s sturdy frame and no amount of nervous posturing could hide the guarded readiness of a trained fighter. “So, who do you work for?”
The man tilted his head to the side. “What do you mean? We met at the club?”
Jesse scoffed. “We made eye contact at the club, darling. Now, I know I didn’t leave my name or schedule lying around for you to follow me and yet here you are anyway. So. Who do you work for?”
~*~
Hanzo took the roses almost disbelievingly. “Jesse?” he asked, confused. “What is this?”
“It’s a bouquet, darling.”
Hanzo both loved and hated that tone of fond exasperation Jesse got sometimes. “Yes. I noticed. Why did you bring me one?”
Jesse looked almost hurt but he answered before Hanzo could backpedal. “Well, I was just thinkin’, we’ve been together for a while now, but we ain’t never really gone on a date, you know? I thought it might be nice to get dinner somewhere fancy, maybe a movie. Just… a date.”
Staring at the roses in his hand, Hanzo tried to think back to his youth. He’d had lovers before. A few women arranged as suitable brides by the clan elders, a few men arranged as suitable fuckbuddies by Genji. The former were always formal affairs. Chaperoned until the got to the bedroom. The latter had always been urgent, secretive fumblings. The heir of the Shimada could not be seen publicly in an unsuitable relationship.
He’d never had anyone take him on a date before. It angered him to realize how much of a normal life had been denied to him. He turned back to Jesse with a smile.
“I’ll clear my schedule.” He braced a hand on Jesse’s shoulder to kiss his cheek. “So long as I get to pick the movie.”
Jesse took his hand and kissed it with a flourish and a bow. “Whatever you want, darling.”
~*~
The young man visibly paused and weighed his reply. Most of the delicate vulnerability vanished and Jesse realized with private amusement that the man must have been trying to seduce Jesse into dominating him. A doomed endeavor from the start.
“I don’t work for anyone,” the man said. “But I need help and I have reason to believe you could help me.”
“Could? Maybe,” Jesse acknowledged. “You’re gonna have to give me a bit more to go on though.”
The man looked around briefly, checking for any witnesses. There weren’t any. Even five years out, Jesse still kept in the habit of being cautious. He didn’t go places where there were witnesses. That might turn out to be a problem now, but the man’s clothes were tight enough that even if he was hiding a weapon, there was no way he would be able to get to it in time.
Once he was as confident as he could be, the man squared his shoulders and spoke. “My name is Genji Shimada. I am the second son of the Shimada line. My older brother is the heir to the Shimada empire. I need you to help me save his life.”
~*~
Choosing a place for dinner proved to be an interesting conundrum. Hanzo wanted somewhere fancy, but Jesse wanted decent sized portions. They both wanted something new, but they came from almost complete opposite culinary backgrounds. Finally, they settled on an Ethiopian restaurant. It was expensive and high quality enough to satisfy Hanzo's taste but he had to admit the appeal of meals that filled more than the ego.
Hanzo made the reservations after cancelling his social activities for the night. He had only agreed to watch a football game at a friend’s house for the novelty, not because he actually cared.
He did end up calling Genji for help choosing an outfit. After laughing his ass off at his brother, Genji pointed him towards a pair of jeans and a button down with a pattern similar to his typical clothing. Hanzo had to admit Jesse’s wasn't the only ass that looked pretty good in denim.
When he left his room, Jesse was waiting for him on the living room couch. He had his cowboy boots on and a crimson shirt with the top buttons undone to show off his day collar. He straddled the line perfectly between over the top and just plain stunning. Hanzo smiled at him and kissed him.
“You ready to go?” Jesse asked.
Hanzo nodded. Jesse offered an arm and he took it, tucking himself against Jesse’s body for the whole walk to the nearby restaurant.
~*~
Jesse stared. “…Pardon?”
Genji shrugged sheepishly. “I saw your arm at the club. My family has dealt with Deadlock before, but I didn't think there were any left outside of prison after Overwatch was through with them so it wasn't hard to figure out where you had gone.”
“Hell of a leap of logic to go from an arm decoration to assuming I’m, what, a career criminal turned Overwatch agent?” Jesse scoffed. “Gimme a break.”
Genji pulled up a hologram with Jesse's remarkably sparse military record. “I have resources, McCree-san.”
Jesse looked over it for a moment. “Yeah, alright. I’m listening. What’s your story?”
The hologram vanished. “My father passed away three months ago exactly,” Genji explained. “Two months and twenty eight days ago, my brother saved my life from an assassin.” He gestured to his legs. “Not before I sustained some injuries but I am grateful to him anyway. I have always been the problem child. There are many people who believe if is to the clan’s benefit for me to die. Unfortunately, Hanzo still insists on caring about me. This has undermined his authority within the clan. He is clever and he is strong, but the elders will come for him as soon as they can decide on a successor. I need you to get him out before then.”
Jesse chewed on his cigar. “And what exactly do you think I’ll be able to accomplish?”
Genji looked away. “Hanzo is loyal. To a fault. He is beginning to question, but he is not there yet. When he comes to his senses, I need someone to be there to help him and I will have to be long gone if I hope to survive.”
Jesse nodded slowly. “Uh huh. And you couldn’t hire any random bodyguard to do this because…?”
“I don’t want my brother going to prison. His record his clear, but I’m sure Overwatch is aware of us and I doubt they will just let him go free. That will keep him with the family no matter what.”
“So. Let me get this straight. You want me to buddy up with your brother, a yakuza princeling, to ensure that I’m around when folk try to kill him so that I can help him escape the law? Is that right?”
At least Genji had the decency to blush. “Actually, I, uh, I was thinking you could, could sub for him? He really needs it?”
“One last question. Am I hallucinating?”
“I don’t think so?”
“Fuck.”
~*~
The restaurant was fairly quiet, but that wasn’t exactly unusual for a Monday night. Except for an incredibly cheerful and outgoing waiter, Hanzo and Jesse basically had a corner of the restaurant all to themselves.
Hanzo couldn’t stop grinning. It was so rare he got the opportunity to just talk. At least, it had been before he met Jesse. Still, the time spent regaling Jesse with stories of his childhood was precious. Gesturing wildly with his fork, he told Jesse everything he could remember about his early childhood, about his and Genji’s exploits before the pressures of the clan drove them down their separate paths. He even managed to tell the stories without getting melancholy.
Jesse picked up the thread when Hanzo petered out. He skipped over his childhood just as Hanzo had skipped over his own adolescence, instead telling obviously censored stories about his career in Overwatch. Most of them revolved around famous heroes in one compromising position or another. Hanzo would have thought Jesse was making them all up if they weren’t too outrageous to be anything but true.
When the food came, Jesse tried to keep talking around it. Hanzo put one foot up under the table, resting it between Jesse’s thighs. “Chew first. Then talk.”
He smirked as Jesse swallowed thickly. “Whatever you say, darling.”
Hanzo moved his foot away and leaned forward to steal a kiss. “God, I love you.”
Jesse kissed him back. “I love you too.”
The warmth in Hanzo’s heart was quickly eclipsed by the painful heat of Jesse’s food. His mouth burned and Jesse shoved a glass of milk over to him. Hanzo coughed and sputtered, but eventually managed to sooth the burn.
“Please tell me you brought a toothbrush. I want to make out with you later.”
“Don’t worry, darling. I got one in the car.”
“The car’s at home.”
Jesse paused. “We got time before the movie. I’ll run back home, make sure I don’t set your mouth on fire again. ‘Least, not in the unpleasant way.”
~*~
Jesse finally put the cigar out. He needed something to do to distract from the situation. “You know, I’m retired. It’s right there in my file. Even if I was willing to get through to Overwatch for you, and I ain’t, I don’t got those kind of connections anymore.”
“You have a better chance than most people.” Genji had lost most of the carefully constructed attitude, unless this nervous desperation was a second layer of deception. Jesse wouldn’t put it past him. “I can pay you,” he offered. “I’m pretty rich, you know.”
“Ain’t my price that matters. The brass ain’t gonna accept letting Shimada walk without something more’n cash.” Jesse did feel bad for Genji, but he had retired for a reason. He wasn’t about to go jumping back headfirst into that life. He wanted to keep all his remaining limbs. He’d gotten pretty attached to them.
Genji huffed. “Then tell them I have information. Anything they want to know. If they can schedule an extraction, I can get the clan archives to them. All of it. As long as they’re not too obvious so Hanzo doesn’t catch on.”
That was… a better offer than Jesse wanted to admit. He knew Gabe would appreciate it. He didn’t owe the old bastard anything, but he was still fond of him. “Listen, that’s a pretty good offer but I’m still putting my life on the line for you and I got no stake in this. You’d better make it worth my while. And something other than money. I won’t be able to live myself if I take that blatant a bribe.”
Genji pulled out his phone and showed Jesse a picture. “That’s what Hanzo looks like.”
Well, fuck. Genji’s brother was really fucking hot.
“I’ll see what I can do.”
~*~
They ended up being late to the movie. They could have left the apartment with plenty of time to spare, but Hanzo had wanted to make sure Jesse had actually gotten all the spice out of his mouth. His examination ended up taking nearly half an hour. By the end of it, they were both panting and Hanzo’s lips had gone numb.
Hanzo had to bribe the usher to let them in, but he had more than enough money to do that. The movie was a needlessly convoluted sci fi thriller. They had missed all the exposition so it was impossible to keep track of what was going on, but Hanzo wasn’t paying attention anyway.
He had one hand in Jesse’s and all his attention was on the feel of their hands together. After everything they had been through, after the life of luxury mixed with danger that he had led, it was amazing that anything as simple as holding another man’s hand could bring him so much joy, but here he was.
Sitting in a darkened theater, his hand in Jesse’s, his head on Jesse’s shoulder, stealing some of Jesse’s shitty, overpriced movie theater popcorn, he was the happiest he had ever been.
And yet, for once in his life, he was sure that things would get even better.