Chapter Text
The sun had set by the time she heard heavy footsteps approach the front door. Her hands were set on the handle of a metallic pot, the smell of the stew she had made spreading pleasantly throughout the kitchen.
Even with two rooms separating them at that point, she could still faintly hear Satoshi's nonstop rambling. Something about frogs. She guessed he had tried catching some again.
"Don't bring mud in the house!" She yelled out once hearing the door slide open.
A moment of shuffling around, the door sliding closed with the presumed difficulty of someone carrying a child on their back, before the telltale sound of small footsteps speeding through the home, no doubt eager to get cleaned up and ready for dinner. Another set followed, nowhere near in a hurry.
The pot found its place as she reached for bowls instead. The days had gotten colder, winter slowly but steadily approaching their village. Soon Satoshi would no longer find frogs to chase, if he went outside at all.
She tried not to laugh at the mental image of her son bundled up in furs from head to toe, nothing more than his determined little face sticking out of the mass of clothing.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a pair of arms wrapping around her chest, a head resting on her shoulder. She reached over to land a kiss onto the culprit's cheek, noticing the man's smile growing at the action.
"You're late today." She quipped with no real anger.
"Your son insisted on checking every section of the pond."
"We're raising a little detective, it seems."
"He'll go far." Even in the low lighting of the hearth, pride visibly clung to his expression. "When he moves on from frogs, that is."
A chuckle left her as she nudged the bowls into the man's arm.
"Help me set the table."
Hanzo nodded, letting go of her to instead busy himself with the cutlery. The two of them arranged the necessities for their meal, embracing the moment of comfortable silence that they were granted.
It did not last long.
"I almost got it this time, mama!" Satoshi announced the moment he stepped into the room, his eyes lit up. "Next time I'll get one!"
"Whenever you do get one, it will be great to see." She nodded sagely.
"It will be. And then I will catch a fish! And when I catch it, we'll eat fish for dinner!"
"You should tell me when you do." The seriousness in her voice was comedic. "I will clear my cooking schedule for it."
Satoshi nodded, clearly making a mental note out of it as he climbed onto his seat. Hanzo ruffled the boy's hair with his free hand, causing Satoshi to let out a small whine along the lines of how he was messing them up.
Harumi grabbed the handle of the pot, prepared to bring it forth to the table, but paused when she heard footsteps approach the house once more.
Her suspicion was only confirmed when there was a knock on the door.
"I'm on it." Hanzo spoke up before she could make a move, halfway through the kitchen by the time she looked back at him.
She responded with a nod he most likely didn't see. The late visit sparked her curiosity. What could be so important now of all times?
The conversation that begun in the other room once the door was opened was quiet. Too quiet. It was one she should have been able to make out at least barely, but the voices were kept deliberately low.
"Can we eat?"
She gave Satoshi a small smile, trying not to betray the worry that had begun rising in her chest.
"Just a second, firefly. I'll go tell dad to hurry up, okay?"
The kid mumbled a noncommittal "okay" in response as she too left the room, headed towards the entryway. The muffled voices became clearer as she approached, and her heart picked up at their tone.
"It could be nothing." The voice of a neighbour, a friend, thinly veiled with anxiety. "But in case it's something-"
"What's going on?" She let herself barge into the conversation.
Her eyes flickered from the figure outside the door, their expression uncertain, to Hanzo, whose eyebrows were furrowed, his fingers tightly laced together as he absentmindedly tapped his thumb over them. A worry that did not settle even when he met her eyes.
"Harumi." The other man greeted with a smile that did not reach his eyes.
"What's going on." A repeat. Unwillingness to let them move on from it.
They didn't answer her, lips pressing together in a thin line. It was Hanzo who spoke.
"They think they might've seen something going around outside the village."
"Something?"
He took a sharp breath.
"One of the Lin Kuei."
A chill made its way down her spine. Her gut instinct had proved correct in the worst possible way.
"Again, it could've been a mistake." The neighbour tried. "Could have just been a random wanderer. But the boy swears he saw the insignia, and you know how he can be-"
"We should check it regardless." Fatigue lingered at the edge of his words, but his eyes burned. "To make sure it was a mistake. We don't have the luxury of betting."
"What could those bastards want now?" Her voice raised higher than she would've liked, and she forced herself to quiet down.
Satoshi was still in the house. He didn't need to hear this.
"Who knows. What do they ever want? That's hopefully what we won't need to find out."
"I'm coming with you." She declared, prepared to move out and grab her weapon, before Hanzo put a hand on her shoulder.
"No."
She blinked in surprise. There was no rage in the man's eyes, nothing stern like he expected. It was an ask, not a demand. It was uncharacteristic of him to do something like this. They both knew she could very well hold her own in a battle.
"...Why not?" She let out.
"If-" He faltered for a moment. "If this is a problem, and it escalates, one of us needs to be here to protect Satoshi."
Something held on to the end of his sentence. Something she wasn't being told. Some part of the conversation, of the news he had been given, that he wasn't telling her.
Something that made her doubt the idea of it just being a misunderstanding.
She forced down the knot building up in her throat, then placed her hand over his. Looking at his eyes for a moment too long.
"You're coming back home alive." A command that cracked at the edges. "That's an order, Scorpion. You hear me?"
Hanzo let out a humourless laugh.
"I'm planning on that. You know I would never leave you willingly."
The implications behind the last word hung in the air.
She let go of him, and in return he let go of her. Part of her already missed the warmth of the touch.
"We'll be back. This can't take too long." A promise standing on frail legs, born from uncertainty from the man giving it.
And despite that, despite knowing all of this, she still nodded.