Lena jumped, a bit startled to hear the phrase come from the ex-vishkar agent to her left. The woman rarely spoke much outside of business ever since she left the organization. Lena knew to leave it alone, knew that such a change could be jarring. She recognized that her extroverted attitude wouldn’t help matters. Instead she did her best to offer silent support, even if it wasn’t her expertise.
The pair of them were in the kitchen. It was late a night, and while Lena was up again due to her dreams she imagine Satya hadn’t even gone to bed yet. Twelve AM was still early for some.
“What makes you say that, love?” Lena idly stirred at her hot chocolate. She’d offered to make some for Satya but got a shake of the head in response. She seemed content with her tea.
“The people here seem to... avoid me. I must be doing something wrong.”
“Nah, you’re not doing anything wrong.” Lena dug around in the fridge for the whipped cream. It better be there. She swore if Jamison stole the whole can again–or blew it up–she’d have a fit. “We just know you came out of something rough. Don’t want to overwhelm you or nothing.” She finally found it wedged behind two cartons of juice.
Satya snorted and crossed her legs. “There is no need for that. I am a professional.”
“That’s not what I mean.” She nudged the fridge shut and shook the can. “Sorry if we were all assuming, but you do seem to appreciate the silence.”
“I do, but I believe getting to know my new teammates is important.”
Lena smiled, spraying a tower of cream into her mug. Satya made a face at the amount and it turned into a cringe when Lena sprayed a glob of it onto her tongue.
“Hey,” She said, almost spitting the cream back out. “I’m Lena Oxton, as you might know, Tracer is my codename.” She grinned and put the cap back on the can. “Hot chocolate helps me sleep.”
“There’s a lot of sugar in that.”
Lena shrugged and took a sip, enjoying the familiar sensation of whipped cream bumping into her nose. “Sure, but it makes me think of nice things. I’m sure you’ve got stuff like that too right?”
“Of course, songs my mother used to sing, spiders building their webs and... hmm.” Satya propped her elbow on the counter, leaning against her hand.
“What?”
“You will think it strange.”
“Aw, try me.” Lena tried to lick the cream off her face.
“Math books,” She said. “Simple problems, reminds me of my time in school before Vishkar.”
“I’m okay with math, never got into the higher end stuff, but geometry was pretty fun. And physics.” Lena grinned. “Well I guess that counts as math, but the experiments for that class were always fun.”
Satya studied her for a moment before straightening up. “Even when I was younger I was... fascinated by it. I used to sneak books from upperclassmen, study them in my free time. I did not like speaking up in class, but I could always find the answers.”
“I feel that,” Lena took another long sip and finally hopped onto one of the stools. “I was actually very shy when I was little, if you’d believe it. Even when I joined the airforce it only did so much for my social skills.”
Satya frowned. “You appear to be quite sociable now.”
Lena sighed and tapped her fingers against the counter before clinging to the mug. She let the warmth seep through her skin, appreciating it. “Yeah, things change sometimes, when unexpected things happen.”
The architect seemed to pick up on her mood. Instead she reached out with her left arm, tapping the rim of the mug. “What does this make you think of?”
Relief washed over her at the memory. “Makes me think of Winston actually. Back when I first joined Overwatch I had a lot of trouble sleeping. I couldn’t have tea so he made me hot chocolate. Might have sugar but it’s warm and comfy too.” She grinned as she brought the mug to her nose, inhaling the smell of chocolate.
Satya fiddled with her own cup. It seemed like she wanted to say something but kept it to herself.
“Well,” Lena tried to chug down the rest of her hot chocolate. She could feel some of it slip to the side of her mouth. “I can’t stay up too late, got an early morning run. You’re welcome to join me if you like.”
“That is... not something I’ve done often.”
“Always a good time to start.” She hopped down from the stool and deposited her mug in the sink. “But if that’s not your thing I’m sure there’s something else we could do.” She was headed around the counter but froze when she remembered something. “Ugh, oh god that’s right, I’m on chore duty tomorrow.”
“I could assist you, if that is okay.”
“What? No, I don’t want to bore you with cleaning.”
“Cleaning does not bore me.” Satya glanced to the side. “Unless it is dishes.”
Lena shivered. “Ugh, I know, why can’t people scrape their food into the trash.” She threw her arms up. “But don’t worry it’s just dusting and vacuuming.”
“Then I shall assist you.”
“Aw thanks,” She rested her palms behind her head and turned to walk off. “Well, see you tomorrow then.”
“Lena.”
The use of her first name had her spinning around so fast she almost lost balance. Then she froze when she saw Satya’s left hand reaching towards her. Her breath caught in her throat as a metallic thumb brushed over her nose.
“You should clean your face before you sleep.” She said.
“Hah, right,” Lena laughed, trying to get rid of the butterflies scattering below her lungs. “Right, always forget about that, uh thanks.”
Then Satya smiled, and Lena swore the room grew five shades brighter. “You are welcome.”
She sputtered out something she hoped sound like a “good night” but probably sounded more like “haha yup well um yup well later bye”. She wound up activating her accelerator to get herself out of the room. The heat on her face was practically unbearable.
She leaned back as she walked down the hallway. “Whoo, boy, that was um, wow.” Her hand ran through her hair as she tried to slow her heart down.
cuddle time for satya, and lena, who doesn’t know how to sleep like a normal person
just wanted to draw Lightspeed that wasn’t super doodly for once... I’m really happy with this!!! :D Took some inspiration from my fav Filipino artist (Manansala)
