HanMei (if you heard of the ship) and what if Hanzo was walking minding his own business when Snowball suddenly appeared and asked for help. Hanzo follows and finds a drunk Mei. He carries her to her room, and she asks him to stay with her.
Sorry this took so long to get to you! I’ve just been so uninspired recently.
Also, whoops. There was angst. My hand slipped.
Hanzo didn’t come to Overwatch to make friends. The true and genuine reason he appeared at Watchpoint: Gibraltar, was because of his brother. Even now, in the time that he had been there, even though Genji seemed glad to see him, constantly, Hanzo couldn’t help but feel that their relationship was rocky. That Genji was saving face around him for his own comfort. His brother was an entirely different man from all those years ago, so Hanzo couldn’t at all be sure.
But he stayed, regardless of how he felt things were going, because he felt obligated to try and make things work out here, if nothing else. And make things work he had, certainly.
There was Genji’s best friend, Jesse. He was…an interesting character. Loud, bullheaded and brash. He was about as typical as an american stereotype can be. But the man had a good heart and seemed to cre greatly about the organization. There was Hana, the teenage warrior with an affinity for modern technology, and an online persona that of a girl with no insecurities and endless confidence. She would chat at him excitedly in Korean and take unflattering pictures while he wasn’t looking. The list of characters went on, and Hanzo got to know them each as well as they would let him, or as well as he would let himself.
Hanzo could call them friends, he supposed. Did he expect to find someone beyond that? Certainly not.
He had met Mei in the shooting range in his first few days on the base. The woman had been squinting slightly in focus as she shoots ice crystals out of her contraption and into the chassis of a training bot downrange. He frowns a little, watching her. She seems to be doing fine on her own, and interjecting advice at this point, Hanzo decides, would be rude. Surely, if she was on this team, she was more than capable of handling herself. Even if her posture for such things was absolutely awful.
Uncasing Stormbow, Hanzo slings the quiver over his shoulder and finds a high up place where training bots ‘patrolled’ by. He dispatches them with ease, turning slightly to tag the few stationary bots within his line of sight. It was horridly simple, but he refused to adjust the difficulty settings while someone else was in the training area with him.
He feels eyes on him and turns, and the scientist seems to jump a little, blushing at being caught. She stammers something about needing to leave in Mandarin, and makes her escape quickly. It confused him, at the time.
It became more clear, over the months. He would stumble into the kitchen in the morning to find her sitting over a large amount of sweet sticky rice, far too much for one person to eat on their own. she would always smile and offer him some, and he would take it, because….well he wasn’t entirely sure why. Perhaps it was how she sounded still tired in her yeti pajamas, how hopeful she looked when she asked him if he wanted any. He couldn’t say no.
And it only escalated from there, he would say. It went from her offering to share, to them making breakfast and eating together. Sitting and having tea and chatting in Mandarin or Japanese, whichever one they happened to fancy that day.
Of course, Hanzo would never admit that his feelings for her went beyond that of friendship. A relationship in a place like this, with the lives they had wouldn’t be beneficial to anybody, and could put anyone here at risk, including themselves.
Today in particular, Hanzo had been resting. After a mishap in a mission, he had hit his shoulder harder than he should have when breaking his fall. He miscalculated, is all, and he was certainly feeling it today.
At least, hr had been resting. Something cold nizges his arm and his eyes open, frowning and looking down. There, pressed against his arm, was Mei’s assist-bot, as he had come to think of it, not quite sure if the thing was a robot or an omnic. Either way, it was her companion. What was it doing so far into the base, and away from her lab or her room?
“What?” He demands, and the flaps on the side snap down and it sinks a bit, before nudging against his hand. He pets it, as Mei often does, but as soon as his hand is over the top, it darts away, as if attempting to pull him out of his seat with his hand.
“Ow- hey!” He scolds and snowball whirrs at him insistently. it goes to the door and then back, whirring and chittering at him. “You…want me to follow you?” He inquires, and the flaps on the side come up and it comes back to him. That seems to be an affirmative, but Hanzo isn’t sure. He stands and the bot races to the door, confirming his suspicions. “Fine- I will follow. but what is the meaning of this?” He asks, and snowball whirrs.
That isn’t at all helpful. He sighs and resigns himself to following the bot.
It leads him into the lab area, most of the lights are off. Mei, in those adorable yeti pajamas, looks to be pouring over data, she looks over at Hanzo when he enters, turning away quicky and wiping her face. he frowns, approaching her. “Mei, are you alright?”
“I- yeah!” She turns around beaming at him and brushing some holoscreens into a digital folder behind her. Her eyes are red and her face is heavily flushed, almost entirely red. It’s more than clear that she’s been drinking. Now, Hanzo was no stranger to having a drink, and, yes, occasion getting drunk. There was nothing wrong with either of those things in moderation, but Mei was clearly also upset.
“I was just- There’s still so much data from when I was- yeah.” She nods, eyes focusing on something on another desk, and she goes for it, stumbling over her own feet before she gets there. Thankfully, she’s caught by a strong, dragon-tattooed arm rather than the floor. “Be careful.” He chides, and Mei frowns childishly. “I don’t need your help.” she huffs, fixing her glasses and gently pushing his arm away.
He frowns as she moves to the desk, shuffling through papers, shaking her head and and lifting her glasses to rub at her eyes. She sniffles and HAnzo frowns, sighing softly. “Mei-san. You’re distraught.” He isnists, and she looks over at him, fresh tears gathering in her eyes.
“I- My team, Hanzo. I- I have to do this. They- I was the only- I can’t just-”
Her shoulders shake and she hands her head, and Hanzo can’t help himself but to wrap his arms around her. she had told him about how she returned to Overwatch, waking up on Ecopoint: Antarctica and her entire station’s cryochambers being compromised after nine years of sleep.
“Let’s get you to bed.” He decides, pulling back and tucking a bit of hair behins her ear. Mei frowns, starting to protest. “Hush.” His instruction is firm, but gentle at the same time. “You are intoxicated, and hardly in any state to be reviewing data. We will get you some water amd to your bed.” Her eyebrows knit and it looks like she’s going to be stubborn and protest again, but she relents, looking away and nodding.
He steps back and she turns towards the doorway, taking a few uneasy steps before stumbling over herself again. She was more drunk than Hanzo originally thought. He catches her again, this time scooping her up to carrt her against his chest in a cross between bridal-style and the way one typically carries a child. She huffs, resting her cheek on his shoulder. “You don’t have to carry me.”
“I do, if I don’t want to guide you across the base like a blind dog.” He answers easily, and she sighs, giving in. He feels strange, carrying her like this into the women’s barracks, but he didn’t have much of a choice. He approaches the door and she prattles off her door code, him fumbling a little and adjusting to put it in without dropping her, so he gently sets the woman back on her feet to punch in the numbers.
The door slides open and he turns on the light. Mei seems to have figured herself out enough, shuffling instead of trying to walk to her bed. She sits on it, and looks at him, taking her glasses off and her hair down, fluffing it out of it’s neat bun with a clumsy hand. He blushes, looking away and clearing his throat.
“I- I suppose this is where I take my leave.” he nods as she adjusts her pillows and blankets with immense concentration. “Oyasumi, Mei-san.”
He turns the light off, sure to leave on the lamp by her head as she gets settled in. He sighs down at her, petting her head once before straightening up and going to leave. “Wait.” She sits back up a little, frowning at him. “will you stay with me?”
“I- hardly think that’s-”
“I hate waking up alone. Not after Antarctica.” She blurts quickly, recoiling a little at her own words and looking at the ground. Her face would be redder if it was physically possible bast her drunkenness. “B-but If you don’t want to, then that’s fine, I just-” she’s backpeadling already, but hanzo gives her a small, sad smile.
“If that is what you want, Mei. I will stay with you.” She nods once, and he moves to sit on the bed with her, laying out beside her. She turns over to snuggle against his side, a fuzzy, blue cloudy blanket between them. He wraps an arm around her, looking down at the woman, already falling asleep again.
“You will never wake up alone, then. If that is what you want.” He rumbles softly
