Hanzo had come to Africa to take him in to hiding. Even though he had been sharing a living space with this mysterious man, Baptiste learned little bits an pieces when they were moving city to city.
Hanzo left notes under bar counters, pre-written and always at the spot against the wall. Occasionally he’d pull out another paper before placing his. Baptiste never saw him read the notes, but sometimes after he laid down to sleep he could hear Hanzo sniffling or laughing quietly. It’s not surprising that Hanzo had someone he missed, being on the run keeps you from the people you love. Baptiste missed his community and the people he took care of.
The cold is what bothered him the most. After leaving Africa they gradually made their way up into Europe. They mostly traveled by an old car that Hanzo seemed somewhat attached to. Somehow he managed to keep it full of gas, without ever stopping to work. Baptiste wasn’t sure that the generosity he was being shown would survive questions, so he kept quiet.
“Not much of a talker? Or afraid of what you’ll discover?” Hanzo asked over drinks one night a month after they started traveling together. He had just finished hiding his note.
“Didn’t know if questions would scare you off, you are doing me a big favor, didn’t want to risk it.” Baptiste took a sip of his drink, “But if you want I can be more of a partner, less of a package.”
“Only if you don’t mind questions being fired back at you.” Hanzo took a sip and waved the bartender over asking for some pretzels.
“20 questions, and I thought that I had out grown that.” Baptiste smirked and Hanzo gave a chuckle.
“It’s a sure fire way to get to know someone. Go one lob on at me,” Hanzo smiled, Baptiste’s heart gave a jump.
“Where are we headed? All I can tell is that we are heading north and if we go much further, you’re gonna have to defrost me.”
“Russia, I’ve got a friend that I need to meet up with. Who are you running from?”
“Talon, worked for them and I didn’t leave them on the best of terms. Who’s the notes for?” Baptiste asked, Hanzo looked away and Baptiste could see a blush bloom across his face.
“I’ve got a friend that is also ‘traveling’ and since we’ve been on different roads we leave little notes to each other.”
“But how do you know when they’ve gotten the last note?”
“We write the last bar that we were at. So that way we know if our older notes have been picked up. But you just asked two questions so I get two now.”
But before Hanzo could ask his questions, a cold wind blew in from the front door. The click of cowboy boots could be hear on the hardwood floors. Baptiste looked around because cowboy boots were an odd choice. He saw a scraggly man in a poncho and a cowboy hat, he seemed to be coming right for where they were sitting. Hanzo was absorbed in his drink and his pretzels.
“There you are darling,” the cowboy drawled. Hanzo looked up sharply, and a smile dashed across his face. “And who might this be?”
“This is Baptiste,” Hanzo said, and Baptiste saw a wave of jealous on the cowboy’s face. “Baptiste this is Jessie McCree.”
“Pleasure,” McCree said, “Darling can we talk alone for a moment?”
While McCree and Hanzo went outside to talk, Baptiste tried to remember where he had heard the name Jessie McCree. Two beers later, he had remembered. The Reaper, a masked operative that worked closely with Moria, had mentioned McCree being a danger to Talon. Great, Baptiste thought, another person that might bring Talon down on me. Immediately Baptiste hear the door being kicked open.
Gunshots began to ring out and people were screaming and running. Baptiste jumped behind the counter and activated his immortality field, hopefully that would help some people get out safely. He struggled to get his gun from the holster on his back because of the damn parka. He heard the twang of a bow and some guns stopped shooting.
Baptiste didn’t want to just blindly shoot because innocents could easily be harmed. As he was struggling with conundrum, the guns were silenced. He peeked out, the masked thugs were dead on the ground and some people were on the ground hurt. He quickly ran over to help the wounded, and heard footsteps.
“So they’re after you too” McCree said, standing over Baptiste where he was kneeing over a hurt civilain. “Why would that be?”
“I’d say something to do with that field that we saw earlier and the equipment he is working with now,” Hanzo stepped inside, still holding his bow by his side. “They know that we are here now, so we should get going.”
“Two moments, I’ll get everyone here stabalized.”
“We don’t have the time,” McCree growled, grabbing Baptiste’s arm. Baptiste shrugged him away and activated his regenerative burst. Everyone in the bar felt a wave of energy over them.
“Oh so that’s why they want you,” Hanzo said darkly, “Okay kids time to pack up and get in the car.”
“We aren’t done talking about this,” McCree pointed in Baptiste’s face.
“I didn’t think we were, and I have some questions too.” Baptiste pushed passed him to follow Hanzo.
