Siren’s Gold Chapter 7
//It’s been a long time coming, but here it is Siren’s Gold Chapter 7 Read on AO3 HERE Rated M “ An olive branch is extended, and information shared. “
The first week went well, all things considered.
Well, as well as it could have gone. Hanzo had been insistent upon the rules he had set, which meant Jesse needed to be able to bridge the expanse of water in the cavern to go from the central rocky outcrop to the bank at the back. This had been an ordeal, the two arguing relentlessly. Hanzo could not fathom why Jesse would not just get in the water, and Jesse was not at all eager to return to the sea after nearly drowning the day before. Not to mention that after coming down from his panic attack, he wasn’t positive he could trust getting in the water with the siren in the first place. They argued over the best method, whether or not it was safe, and why Jesse couldn’t just stay on the center island, among other things. It ended with nothing but shouting and cursing, until finally Hanzo had relented, but only for the time being.
That was the first argument between them, and certainly not the last. Hanzo held grudges to prove a point, and would not speak unless Jesse apologized. Jesse was stubborn as all hell, and not willing to budge. So the first night, no words were shared between them, silence filling the space between the rock where Hanzo lay and the shore where Jesse curled up, neither sleeping yet neither speaking, only listening to the sounds of the other breathing and the gentle lapping of the water on the rocky bank.
The day after had been its own adventure. It started with fish, to be specific. Hanzo brought McCree fruit in the mornings after his hunt, and would spill them onto Jesse’s side of the bank before moving to his own to eat the creatures he had hunted. Normally the dragon fed on large fish, which was quite a sight. Hanzo would tear the creature apart with his claws, strong jaw full of sharpened fangs ripping through the flesh easily. McCree would watch from across the cave, slowly chewing his meal of coconuts or mangos or something of the like, eyebrows raised as he watched the dragon feed. He could not decide if he watched out of curiosity or disgust, but either way he couldn’t look away.
Suddenly the dragon had looked up, eyes locking with Jesse’s. Blood was painted across Hanzo’s lips, dripping down his chin onto his scaly tail, and it spilled from the rocks to the water, clouding it with its rich color. The two didn’t speak, only looking at each other before Hanzo wiped his mouth with his hand, only serving to smear the blood further across his face. He looked like a real hunter then, a predator covered in blood, and he gave McCree a challenging smirk, a flash of teeth painted red glinting in the early morning light.
“What is the matter, captain?” he chuckled, clearly amused with himself. “Got something to say?”
McCree narrowed his eyes before shrugging, nodding his head towards the dragon. “I was admirin’ your dinner. Or at least, what it was before,” He motioned again to the pile of flesh that sat in the dragon’s hands.
Hanzo blinked at this response, thinking a moment before cocking his head in thought. After a moment he grabbed what remained of the fish’s carcass in both hands, heaving it over his head and throwing it at the human. McCree jumped back in surprise as the mass of scales and stripped bone hit the rock in front of him with a wet slap, specks of blood and other liquid splattering around him. “You may have the rest if you are so interested in it,” Hanzo said as he began dunking his hands in the water, slowly clawing away the blood that crusted his nails.
Now it was Jesse’s turn to stare, blinking slowly at the dragon before turning to the pile of raw mush in front of him. A smile slowly cracked on his lips until finally he burst out laughing. Hanzo’s head snapped up, eyes narrowing as he took in the pirate, laughing like a fool before him. “I did not realize I was so humorous,” He snarled, glowering at McCree. “I can take it back.”
McCree shook his head quickly, laughter trailing off but smile remaining. “Nah, nah it ain’t that. I’m mighty happy you were willin’ to share. Just don’t know if I have the stomach for a pile of raw meat.”
Hanzo’s eyes widened, and he raised an eyebrow in surprise. Humans could not eat raw meat? If he remembered correctly, the Shimada clan had been able to eat raw fish. Infact, he knew they had, and could remember beautifully plated and crafted dishes being presented to him and his brother long ago. And yet the foreigner didn’t have a taste for it. That figured, he mused, it was unlikely a man such as the one before him would have a taste for the finer things. “How predictable… Such an unsophisticated taste,” Hanzo grumbled.
Across the rocks, McCree rolled his eyes. “Well excuuuuse me. I’m not sayin’ I won’t eat it, I just can’t eat it raw. If you had any way of cooking it I wouldn’t mind none. But now I’m fine without it, thank you very much.”
The dragon pondered this for a moment, and then turned away, silently washing the blood from his hands and body. Jesse took that to mean the conversation was over, which was fine by him, and turned away, continuing to munch angrily on his breakfast of fruit.
The hours of the day passed slowly for McCree. Hanzo would leave the cave for hours on end, and Jesse would have to find things to entertain himself with. Sometimes it was counting the drips of water that fell from the ceiling. Other times it was building piles and shapes from the empty carcasses of the fruit he had eaten for breakfast. On more than one occasion he did nothing at all, simply laying on the rocks and looking up, or sleeping for many hours.
Hours felt like days when there was nothing to do, which was dangerous for McCree as the voices of the past would whisper to him, filling the silence with their wants and desires. Fareeha would call to him occasionally, reminding him not to give up and to avenge her, or sometimes Reyes would whisper evil things in his ear, taunts and threats of the past. Of course the voices were all in his head, a coping mechanism to keep him from going mad he had developed long ago. But sometimes the voices were too much, and to drown them out, McCree would sing.
While Jesse McCree was a man of many flaws, he was also one of many talents, and one of those was singing. He was not one to brag of his own abilities, but he could hold a tune quite well. His voice was always strong and confident, be it in a pub leading a group of drunken friends in song, or on the deck of his ship, carrying his motley crew in the chorus of a pirate shanty. So sometimes, when the voices became too loud in his head or he couldn’t be bothered to count the stalactites in the ceiling, he would sing.
The songs would vary, for McCree knew a great many. Sometimes they would be filthy pirate songs detailing pillaging ships and sexual conquests. Other times it would be songs from foreign countries, ones he had heard sung by Captain Amari or Fareeha in his youth. And occasionally, he would sing slow songs, romantic and heartfelt. His deep voice would reverberate off the rocks, filling the cavern with his melodic words.
It was during one of these songs when Hanzo returned, silently breaching the surface of the water after a long (and particularly exhausting) conversation with Genji. He had spent the later parts of the day complaining in great detail about everything the pirate did that drove him mad, and Genji had listened with a bemused expression but offered nothing in the way of genuine help or advice, only giving cryptic responses. “If you want the human to like you, try being a little nicer. Get to know him,” Genji had said with a shrug. “You are both too stubborn to make any progress if you do not try.” He sounded like Sojiro Shimada, Hanzo had thought with a huff. All cryptic answers and poetic verses, nothing straight forward. He had left with the same amount of irritation as when he had arrived at Genji’s lagoon, nothing gained. As he made the journey back to his lair he thought of all the things he could say to the human to put him in his place, to make him be less stubborn.
But as he broke the surface, his thoughts were put on pause. The cave was filled with a beautiful sound, singing unlike any he had heard before. He slowly drew closer to his side of the bank, crawling up the rock just enough to peer at the human on the other side. McCree was laying on his back, eyes closed as he sang. His words were uninhibited, voice low and deep, slow and rumbling across the water.
The words of the song were sweet yet sad, a bitter story of a sailor’s unrequited love with a mysterious woman he had met one night sitting on some rocks on the beach. The woman was beautiful and mysterious, and the two shared a wonderful night together, making love on the sand before falling asleep in each other’s arms. When he awoke in the morning, naked and sprawled out on the beach, all he held in his arms was a pile of shells. The man was, of course, confused and unsure of whether the whole thing had just been a dream. So the next night he came back, and again there the woman was, sitting on the rocks at the beach. The two ran to each other and again made love, and again he fell asleep with her in his arms and awoke to nothing but shells. This went on for several days, until the sailor soon had to go back aboard his ship. The night before he was to set out, he went to the beach to tell the woman that he loved her, but she never came. The man was, of course, heart broken, and set out to sea the next morning with nothing but pain and bitterness.
Hanzo found himself not breathing, hanging on every word the pirate sang. The story progressed on, with the sailor’s ship getting trapped in a storm, and he was thrown overboard. The sailor, of course, could not swim, and as he began to sink into the waves the last thing he saw was the face of the woman he loved, reaching out towards him in the water. When the man awoke, he was on the beach of his home town, and there was the woman he loved. Only now, as she laid with him in the sand, a tail like a fish replaced her legs. The man had fallen in love with a siren, and she had fallen in love with him. And because sirens can see the future, she had known where he would crash into the sea, so she had left so that she might have the chance to save him. The sailor was so happy he could not speak, and the two made love under the stars once more. Eventually the siren gave up her tail and kept her human legs for the man, and the two were together forever, always holding each other under the stars.
When the song ended, Hanzo felt his heart sway, and he let out a quiet breath as the last note resounded off the cave walls. His body released the tension he had built, and he slowly propped his head on his hands, watching the human who continued to lay on the rock across from him. The sun was fading quickly, and pinkish beams of light filled the cavern with a glow as warm as McCree’s voice. After a moment, Hanzo gathered his words, speaking gently.
“That was quite a story,” the dragon said. McCree sat up quickly, reaching for his pistol that lay beside him on the rock, before he realized who had spoken and relaxed, turning to Hanzo.
“Isn’t it? It was always one of my favorites,” He said, only slightly embarrassed. If he had known the dragon was listening, he might’ve picked a different song.
“There are a few things that are incorrect,” Hanzo mused, tilting his head. “But for the sake of the story, they were passable.”
Jesse raised an eyebrow, interested. “Oh? Like what?”
“Well for one,” the dragon began. “Sirens cannot see the future. So she would not have known he was going to be thrown overboard.”
“Well I’ll be damned,” Jesse muttered, taken aback slightly. “I always heard sirens could see the past and the future, and what a man wanted most.”
“A man’s true desire, that is correct,” Hanzo nodded approvingly. “That is how they are able to lure their prey, by appealing to them with that which they desire most. But to see a man’s life is not a skill they posses unless it is directly related to their desire.”
“I see,” McCree muttered.
“And another thing that was incorrect was the part about her legs,” Hanzo said quickly. “Sirens are sirens, they do not possess shapeshifting magic unless they are put under a spell of some sort by another being, they cannot do it themselves. Very few magical creatures have the ability to take the form of man. So the two would have had to remain lovers by the sea.”
Jesse blinked in surprise. The two hadn’t spoken to each other this much since their discussion when Jesse had first arrived, and now the creature was giving him a plethora of information. Perhaps this was a gesture of some kind, an offering of calm instead of the hostility he had grown used to. Whatever it was, he would take this olive branch and extend his own, as well as use this conversation for its potential for valuable information.
“Other magical creatures? How many are there? We sailors only ever really talk about sirens and krakens. Well, the sailors around here anyways,” He corrected. “Some of the foreign sailors talk about selkies and water horses or other things.”
“Ah, there are a great many more than that,” Hanzo nodded. “But those kinds of creatures come from colder water, or fresh waters in different lands. Just as animals on the surface require different conditions to live, so do we under the water. Most do not venture here, but some find their way into the warm waters in which we live.” If he wasn’t mistaken, he was pretty sure Genji actually owned a selkie in his collection of creatures. He was never very interested in Genji’s horde, but now he found himself curious enough to ask in their next meeting.
McCree’s mouth fell open, dumbfounded. Many more? How many more? All the legends and myths were real, just with slight inaccuracies? It was almost too much for him to believe. But his mind drifted to the events only a few days prior, to the creature of smoke and evil intentions that had sunken his ship and put him in this situation. If something like that could exist, then there was no telling what else could live in the world, just out of sight.
“So then… If sirens can’t do all that stuff in the song, where do people get those ideas?” He asked warily. “Surely they can’t all be made up?”
“I would say there is surely a portion that is made up to make your stories more interesting,” Hanzo mused. “But no, a good portion are abilities other stronger creatures possess, as I said before. Humans just can’t tell the difference between us.”
Jesse pondered on this for a moment before coming to a realization, snapping his fingers with understanding. “Like when I called you a siren, and your brother laughed at me? It’s ‘cuz you two aren’t the same as sirens?”
Hanzo rolled his eyes as he remembered Genji’s guffaw at the human’s mistake, but nodded. “Yes. Because we are finned creatures humans imagine us to be the same as Sirens, because that is the only race of sea creature they know. But we are far different.”
“What, uh,” McCree began, unsure of how to phrase his question politely. “What exactly are you two?”
Hanzo cocked his head, smiling with a flash of sharp teeth. “We are Dragons.”
McCree blinked, taken aback only for a moment. “Dragons? Like sea dragons?”
“Something to that affect, yes,” Hanzo chuckled, brushing a piece of long hair behind one of his finned ears. “We are, how would you say… More pure bred creatures of magic. Sirens are born from the sea, where as we are born from a different place. It is hard to explain to someone with no knowledge of the world of magic.”
“Well I, I reckon I wouldn’t mind learning,” Jesse offered, mind racing a thousand miles a minute. Dragons? What in the hell did that mean?
“Hmm…” Hanzo pondered for a moment before shrugging his shoulders. “Perhaps another time. The sun is gone, and you need rest. I intend to start your swimming training tomorrow, so you need all the energy you can get. Perhaps depending on your level of success, I will tell you more of what you wish to know.”
McCree hadn’t noticed that the sunlight had died away, pale moonlight streaming down in thin beams. He soured slightly at the concept of getting in the water, but after tonight, he was a little less nervous about the siren- no, the dragon- being there with him. So he sighed, but gave a nod. “I suppose that’s fair. I’ll try and get some rest then.”
Hanzo nodded approvingly, pulling himself onto the rock, his long tail coiling around himself as he tried to get comfortable on the outcropping. “Then we shall speak again in the morning, Jesse McCree.”
The pirate nodded, pulling his coat up over himself as he laid back down on the rocks. “Til then, Hanzo.”
The two did not speak to each other again that night, the cave filled once more with the dripping of water and the lapping of the waves. Their minds were full, and both had many a thing to think about. Eventually, as Hanzo had just closed his eyes, he heard a low rumbling from the otherside of the cave. His ear twitched, picking up the low and sweet voice of Jesse McCree. He sang softly, just loud enough for Hanzo to hear, in a language he did not know. But the words rolled from his tongue, and the dragon felt his mind ease as his breathing grew heavy, lulled to sleep by the songs of the pirate.
