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Chapter Text

4/4/2017

The blade of the cuisinart mixer whirs along softly as Gabe slowly pours in the flour, baking soda, and salt, a fine white mist rising off the bowl as the dough thickens. When the measuring cup is empty he refills it with chocolate chips, but the phone rings right as he’s about to dump it in. His mouth automatically goes dry when he sees it’s the school. This is probably not something he wants to deal with on his day off.

“Hello?”

“Hello, this is Principal Kaplan speaking.” He’s relieved it’s not the nurse. “We have two of your kids and a very angry teacher here—”

“What happened?” he asks, not sure whether to be worried or angry.

“Their precalculus substitute, Mr. Seilor, says they caused a major disruption in class, but your kids refuse to speak until you get here. Jesse’s exact words were something along the lines of ‘I reserve the right to speak without my father present’. Would it be possible for you or your husband to come by now and we can get this sorted out?”

Gabe sighs. “I’ll be right over.”

He drives to school, vaguely annoyed at how much principal Kaplan seemed to intentionally keep hidden. His mind’s in overdrive, trying to figure out what happened. It must’ve been Jesse and Sombra, Hana wouldn’t be in precalc for another two years, but they have two very different brands of troublemaking. He wouldn’t put it past one of them to get the other involved in a scheme, yes, but he can’t imagine either of them coordinating something bad enough to get them in major trouble.

He pulls into the parking lot after a five minute drive, walks through the front doors, and enters the office.

Jesse, seeming to be literally biting his tongue, stares at the sub. He uses the couple inches the teacher has on him to deliver a special kind of insolence in his gaze. Mr. Seilor stares back, trying to intimidate him. Sombra looks at the floor, visibly upset. Seeing that look on his daughter’s face immediately angers him.

“What happened?” he asks.

Kaplan opens his mouth, but Seilor interrupts. “Your children repeatedly spoke out and interrupted class, despite my requests to let me teach. After I politely asked them to settle down, many other students joined in. These two were the ringleaders, so I brought them here. I would not hesitate, however, to bring in the other students.”

Both of his kids seem to get angrier. It looks like Jesse’s contemplating spitting in his face. Sombra clenches her fist and narrows her eyes, not looking up.

“Sombra, can you tell me what happened?”

A look that really scared Gabe crosses her face, one that looked like fear and shame. She shakes her head.

That’s really not like her, Gabe thinks. “Jesse? Care to enlighten me?”

“Gladly. So Sielor here was taking roll…”

“

“Reyes-Morrison, Jesse?”

“Here.”

“Reyes-Morisson, Marcello?”

“My name is Sombra,” she says.

“It says Marcello on the attendance list.”

“But I go by Sombra now. I’d prefer if you didn’t call me Marcello.”

He rolled his eyes and moved on with the roll. Then he told them to open their textbooks, and wrote a problem on the board. When he asked who could answer it, Sombra raised her hand.

“Yes, Marcello.”

“Please call me Sombra. The answer is—”

“Your name on the sheet is Marcello.”

“Dude, just call her Sombra,” I said.

“I assume you are his brother?”

“No, I’m her brother.”

“Well, Mr. Reyes, I’m going to have to ask you to stop interrupting me. Now, Marcello…”

Sombra was visibly upset at this point.

“What’s your problem? She asked you to call her Sombra!” a guy with red headphones around his neck said.

“You’re the one making this a big deal, not them,” said a girl with blue hair.

“Class, you are interrupting my lesson, and if this continues—”

“What, you’ll make wrong names for ALL of us?” said a tall girl with short red hair.

“Mrs. Seilor, may I use the bathroom?” a boy with goofy hair asked. He got varied responses, the girl next to him shot him a glare, but mostly people laughed.

“It’s Mr. Seilor—”

“And she’s Ms. Reyes!” I shouted. “What the hell’s your problem?”

”

“And then he yelled for a while and now we’re here,” Jesse says. Sombra seems to be on the verge of tearing up.

“Well, I think I heard enough,” Kaplan says, standing. “Sombra, we’ll get the attendance problem fixed immediately so this doesn’t happen again. Mr. Seilor,” the family can see the defeat in Seilor’s eyes and delight in it, “you will not be invited back to our school. Please leave the premises, and may I give you a bit of advice? Don’t bring students to the office when you’re violating school policy.”

Jesse and Sombra look at him smugly, and it’s Gabe’s turn to glare at him. He mutters something offensive and stalks off.

“I’ll be taking care of your class today,” Kaplan says.

“They’ll be with you in just a minute,” Gabe says. Kaplan nods and leaves towards the office.

“Jesse, I’m very proud of you for sticking up to your sister. And your classmates as well. You were very noble.” Jack picked the right town to move to, he thinks to himself.

Jesse shrugs. “Guy was an asshole.”

“Alright, go to class.”

“See ya, dad,” he says, and walks away.

He leans down to Sombra. “Are you ok?”

“I’m fine,” she says. He sees that her eyes are wet.

“Hey, listen to me. Don’t think about that asshole. He’s old. He’ll be dead soon.” she can’t help but cough out a laugh. “Think about your classmates who all stood up for you. Idiots like him are gonna be replaced by people like your friends.”

“But dad, how can you be sure?” she asks, sniffling.

“I’m openly gay and raising three children. If I wasn’t sure of that, then I wouldn’t have been able to even ask your dad on that first date. I know people like Seilor are scary. But you’ll always have your family and you’ll always have your friends. You can count on us.”

He pulls her into a tight hug, and she squeezes back, tears smudging her makeup. They stay like that for a little bit, then they pull away.

“Now run back to class. I’ll have cookies will be ready when you get home.”

Chapter Text

4/28/2017

The music’s too loud and the flashing lights pound against her eyes. Cigarette and marijuana smoke mingle in the air, forcing her to breathe through her mouth. She’s dying for something to drink, but she’s nervous about whatever anyone might’ve put in the few non-alcoholic options.

I’m a freshman in a junior’s party , she realizes. She checks the time, and it’s barely 9:30. God, how late is this gonna go? She doesn’t think she can even stand another half hour of this.

She pulls out her phone. Dad, can you come get me? The four minutes it takes for a response go agonizingly slow. One lifeless EDM song fades into a terrible rap song one of the juniors made. This would be the last time in her life she makes the mistake of not bringing headphones.

COP DAD: Why? Did something happen?

Right after sending the text, Jack gets up to leave. “Hana wants me to pick her up,” he tells his husband.

“What’s wrong?”

Just before admitting he has no idea, his phone buzzes. “She says she just doesn’t want to be there. Apparently there’s a bunch of alcohol and some drugs.”

Jack sends a quick text back and Gabe sighs. “I knew we shouldn’t have let her go. She’s in ninth grade, Jack!”

“I doubt she’ll want to, next time.” he grabs the keys, takes something from the windowsill, and goes out the door.

COP DAD: Want me to take the cruiser, really give them a scare?

Hana: Lol no, just the minivan please

Her phone immediately buzzes after sending it, her dad’s car giving her an automated response. I’m driving right now. I’ll get back to you later.

She breathes a sigh of relief. Just ten minutes and she can escape.

A couple minutes before he arrives, she starts getting ready to head out, but she’s stopped at the door by a sophomore she recognizes from one of her classes. He’s on the football team, he’s barely passing the class they’re in together, and he reeks of axe and alcohol. And his name’s Scott. Hana knows nothing else about him.

“Hey, pretty great party, huh?”

“If you say so.”

He seems to realize she’s trying to get out of the door. “Hey, you’re not leaving already, are you?”

“Yeah, I was.”

He grabs her arm, and she starts to panic. “Come on downstairs, we’re gonna play spin the bottle.”

No no no no nonononono

“Don’t touch me!” she pulls herself away.

“Ah, you’re no fun.”

He walks off, and she sprints out the door, shuddering at his touch. Jack is just getting out the door, and she runs to hug him. “Dad! Thank you!”

He hugs her back, chuckling softly. “What’s funny?” she asks.

“Nothing, really. Just that for most girls your age, if their dad took them from a party at ten at night, she definitely wouldn’t run and hug them.”

He opens her door for her, and she climbs in. “I wasn’t a party kid when I was in high school, either. I just liked hanging with a small group.”

He turns on his playlist of music that she dubbed “dad music,” and she can’t help but roll her eyes.

“Open the glove compartment.” she does, and her headphones are inside.

“Dad, did I ever tell you you’re the best?”

“Maybe when you were a kid,” he chuckles. Her headphones are already on, and he hears faint K-pop.

She logs into discord from her phone, deciding that the rest of her night should be spent with people she actually likes.

D.Va: heya

Lúcio: hello!

Lúcio: weren’t you supposed to be busy tonight?

D.Va: yeah there was this party

D.Va: it sucked

Lúcio: aw damn :(

D.Va: where is everyone?

Lúcio: Europe squad’s already asleep, probably

Lúcio: No idea about Efi

Lúcio: Rest of my bandmates are out

Lúcio: I don’t know where the hell the Junkers are

Lúcio: A bunch of people are just offline

Lúcio: And it looks like the rest of your squad is playing starcraft

D.Va: Without their star player?

D.Va: lol how’s that going?

Cobra: NOT WELL, HANA

Cobra: COME BACK

D.Va: lol I’m on my way.

Lúcio: So what made the party suck so bad?

D.Va: I just didn’t want to be there. Music sucked and everyone was drunk and there was this creep.

D.Va: IDK guess I’m just not a “party” girl.

Lúcio: aw man ):

D.Va: it’s ok I like you guys better anyway

Lúcio: :D

The car stops. Hana looks around, confused as to where they are and why it isn’t home.

She pulls one of her headphones to the side and turns to her dad.

“I know you wanted a fun night, so I didn’t want to bring you home just yet.” Her face lights up when she realizes they’re outside an ice cream parlor. She runs up to the window, where the smiling face of the owner greets her.

“Hi Ms. Zhou!”

“Good evening,” she says with a cantonese accent. “And hello, Mr. Morrison. I missed you two over the winter.”

“I was glad to see you’ve finally reopened,” Jack says. He orders a small milkshake, and Hana gets a large cup of bubblegum ice cream.

Her phone buzzes again.

Cobra: HANA WHERE ARE YOU?

D.Va: I’m having ice cream with my dad

D.Va: Fuck off

D.Va: :)

She pockets her phone and digs in to her ice cream. Jack is reminded of when she was a kid, and smiles with nostalgia.

Chapter Text

5/13/2017

“This one?” Gabe asks, holding up a black suit jacket.

“Nope.”

“This one?”

“Hmm… nope.”

Hana sighs as they move down the Uniqlo aisles. She’d agreed to go to the mall with them so she could take a look around Gamestop and Box Lunch, but their trip through the endless clothing stores is enough to make her regret it. Yes, she’s happy that her brother is celebrating his one year anniversary with his girlfriend, but she sees no reason for them to waste an afternoon in the mall. Her fingers twitch in beat with her headphones as she waits impatiently for the next—

“Hana?”

She pulls one earphone off to the side. “Yeah?”

“There’s nothing here, we’re moving on.” she sighs and follows.

Jesse’s insistent on making the night perfect, and to him that started with looking perfect. He’d already gotten a brand new razor; he wouldn’t be able to grow a nice looking beard in a week in a half at age 17, so he’s going clean shaven. Gabe fortunately convinced him to skip the cologne, and he’s got a haircut scheduled for three days before the date, one day to make sure it looked right, one day to get it fixed, and a third to make sure he wouldn’t find stray hairs the night of. The quest for the right suit also involves the quest for the right shoes, which he knows Hana will hate just enough to be entertaining to him.

By the time they’re home, the pizza Jack ordered was already halfway gone. Hana stares at Jesse, pissed off from being made to miss dinner. He pretends to not notice, so she grabs her food and retreats to her room.

Before the date, Jesse’s clean, well dressed, and almost bouncing with excitement. He can’t seem to stop smiling, and he even puts his sisters in a good mood. He heads off in Jack’s car in the early evening, right when the day cools to a crisp and the sky becomes romantic.

When he comes back, it’s close to midnight and the stars are covered by clouds. The suburbs are overcome with the silence of crickets, the occasional car, and not much else. His dads are both up to ask him how it went, but they back off when he walks in with a slouch and eyes that refuse to make contact. His feet drag and he insists on going off to his room.

“You want to talk to him or should I?” Jack asks.

“I’ll take this one. I don’t have to open the bakery tomorrow morning, you get some rest.”

“I doubt I’ll be able to.”

“Try.” Gabe walks down the hall and knocks on Jesse’s door. When he doesn’t hear an answer, he walks in. The lights are off, but he can tell that Jesse’s new jacket was thrown messily on the floor. He picks it up and hangs it over a chair before going to sit on his bed.

“What happened, hijo?”

He shakes his head against his pillow. Gabe places a hand on his back. When he doesn’t push him away immediately, he tries again. “What’s the matter?”

“She cheated on me,” he says, the drawl he normally tries so hard to maintain gone from his voice. “For two months!”

“Oh, Jesse,” he says, starting to rub his back. He feels him trying to choke back sobs, refusing to let himself cry. Gabe chooses not to tell him it’s ok to. “Did she tell you?”

“She told me she’d rather be with him,” he says, tears in his voice.

“You shouldn’t be with a girl like that anyway. She did you a favor.”

“But I want to be with her!”

“I know. I’ve been there before. But it’ll go away. Jesse, look at me.”

He rolls over, his eyes wet and hurt. Gabe recognizes him as his son, but only barely. He’s lost his bravado and ever-present half-smiling charm. “Everyone gets hurt like this. It’s part of life. I wish I could tell you that it won’t happen again, but I can’t. But one day you’ll find someone that makes all the pain worth it. Someone who would never dream of anyone but you. Someone who would happily spend the rest of their life with you, and you’ll happily spend the rest of your life with. Whenever someone hurts you, just think about them. They’re waiting for you.”

“How do you know?”

“I’ve been in the same place you are now. Before and even after I met Jack. I know it hurts, but I know it gets better.”

“But how do you know I’ll find someone?”

“Everyone does. You just have to have faith and patience.” He starts to get up. “Can I get you anything?”

“No.”

“Get some sleep. Sleep through tomorrow if you need to.” Gabe closes the door behind him, sighs, and walks upstairs to fill in his husband.

Hana: I overheard dads talking

Hana: Jesse are you ok?

Sombra: What happened?

Jesse: Nothing

Jesse: Let me sleep

Hana: Haha no way

Hana: We’re vandalising this bitch’s house.

Jesse: No

Sombra: why what’d she do??

Hana: Jesse tell her

Jesse: NO

Hana: Can I tell her

Hana: Bitch had a side boy for 2 months and dumped Jesse tonight

Hana: Let’s get some eggs

Hana: And spray paint

Hana: And tp

Hana: And Lena

Jesse: Fuck now we’re dragging Lena into this?

Hana: Let’s gooooooo

Hana: Sombra you with me?

Sombra: Can’t sleep anyways.

Hana: K ill text Lena

Jesse: Don’t

Hana: Jesse you’re coming with me even if we have to drag you along

His door opens as soon as he receives the message. He groans and stuffs his feet in his shoes, then silently follows his sisters out the door.

They walk a few blocks when a blue car with an orange stripe rolls up alongside them. “Cheers, love!” Hana quickly jumps in shotgun, and her siblings climb in the back.

“Got ran around, didja?” Lena asks. Jesse groans. “Good thing I had spray paint already, the 24 hour convenience store doesn’t sell it. We can get eggs and paper there, though.”

It’s painfully obvious to the cashier what they’re doing, but he just tells them it’s a perfect night for some mayhem and rings them up without a problem. Jesse drags his feet as the girls race back to the car. Lena drives like a maniac to the cheater’s house, parking a block away. They unload the trunk and sneak over to the lavish house with a big tree on the lawn.

“They’re not even home!” Hana squeals. There are no cars in the driveway, and a quick peek shows that the garage is empty too. All the lights are off in the house, and no noise comes from it.

She hands Jesse an egg. “You get the first throw, man.”

“No. I didn’t want to do this in the first place.”

“You totally did,” Hana says. “You could’ve just kicked me out of your room and went to sleep, but you came with us. Barely even put up a fight. Throw it. Right at her window!”

He takes the egg and looks up to the second floor. Recognizing her window, he grunts and hurls the egg up. It smashes against the glass, slowly dribbling down the side.

“Again!” Hana urges. He takes another egg and tosses it. They cheer quietly and he stares up at her window, anger and disbelief on his face.

Lena tosses Hana a roll of toilet paper and keeps one for herself. Hana starts on the tree and Lena on the house.

“Be right back,” Sombra says, and disappears around back. She returns a minute later, grinning.

“What’d you do?” Hana asks.

“The one thing I’m going to miss when I don’t have a penis.”

“Eww, did you—”

“Jeez, no! I just peed on their porch.”

“You know, that makes it yours now,” Lena comments. “Wanna mark your territory, cowboy?”

He groans which she takes as a no. She shrugs and tosses Sombra a can of spray paint. Jesse takes another egg and throws it at the door.

Jesse paces around anxiously, occasionally throwing an egg. Hana and Lena finish up their toilet paper art.

“Really, Sombra?” Hana asks. “A peace sign?”

She shrugs. “Figured a skull was too far. Couldn’t think of anything else.”

A light shines on them, and they freeze. A muscular young woman with short pink hair stands on the neighboring porch with a flashlight.

“Uh… Hi, Aleks,” Lena manages.

“I do not have to worry about my house, do I?” she asks, her accent thick.

“No, just theirs,” she responds, returning to chipperness.

“Good. They are… not nice. But I suggest you leave soon.”

“Alright, we will. Have a good night, Aleks.”

“You as well.” She closes the door.

Lena gets the rest of the eggs. “Well, you heard her. Let’s unload and head off.”

There’s 4 eggs left, so each of them take one. They reach back and throw them in unison. They arc gloriously through the air until splattering unceremoniously on the house. With one last work at their masterpiece, they pile back into her car and drive back home.

As his sisters exit of the car, Lena stops Jesse before he can get out. “It’s gonna be alright, cowboy. It’s gonna be alright.”

Chapter Text

6/9/2017

Jesse: SOS

Lena: What’s up?

Jesse: One of the new boys is the prettiest guy I’ve ever seen

Lena: New boys?

Lena: It’s June!

Lena: Who are they?

Jesse: They’re from Japan. The hot one is Hanzo and his brother Genji kinda looks like a geek

Lena: Which grade are they in?

Jesse: Ours

Jesse: God, can you imagine moving to a new school 3 weeks before graduation?

Jesse: Good thing they’re here for another year

Lena: So are you gonna ask him out?

Jesse: I think I’m gonna invite both of them to the dinner

Lena: Aw sweet, we’ll all get to meet them.

Jesse: Just gotta ask dads permission first

He pockets his phone as his physics teacher walks in. She sits at her desk and opens her laptop wordlessly.

Jesse turns to the girl sitting at the lab bench with him. “Thought they’d at least get an introduction.” She shrugs and turns back to her phone. He turns to the new boys.

“Howdy.”

“Hello,” Genji says. Hanzo nods respectfully.

“Y’all can put your notebooks away. She hasn’t taught us anything since the AP test.”

“Sounds wasteful,” Hanzo says.

“Yeah, it is.” He lowers his voice to a whisper. “We got a betting pool going on whether or not she’ll get hired back for next year.”

“Was she a good teacher before the test?”

“Not in the slightest. Doubt any of us got higher than a 3.”

The conversation pauses after that, so Jesse asks another question. “So why’d you guys change schools at the end of the year?”

“We lived in New York since the beginning of the year, but our dad got relocated” Hanzo says lying about the last part with rehearsed ease, “so we moved here as soon as possible. Due to a couple school policies, if we didn’t enroll for the last few weeks, we would have lost credit in most classes. So we needed to stick around.”

Jesse sighs. “Wouldn’t be missing much if you didn’t. My sister Sombra’s having dad sign her out after lunch today because she thinks she could get more work done at home than she could here.”

“Work?” Genji asks.

“She’s a programmer. Working mostly as a freelance web designer nowadays.”

“Is she our age?”

“Three months older than me.”

Hanzo’s brow furrows, confused. “We’re adopted,” he explains.

“Ah.”

“Can I see your schedules?” he asks.

The brother procure them, and Jesse looks them over. “Looks like I’m in AP lang with you,” he looks at Hanzo, “and gym and precalc with you. For the rest of the month, at least.”

After a while of small talk, the bell rings and they head to lunch. “Alright, I’m at the cool kids table. You can sit with us, maybe stick around if people like you.”

He leads them to a round table near the back, where Lena and Amelie already sit with their food. Jesse steals a couple chairs from the nearby table so they can sit.

“Look who I found,” he says.

“Aw, nice, you got the new kids!”

“Wow, who’s this loser?” Efi asks, grinning. She’d met Genji during study hall earlier, and they’d already befriended each other. He smiles and waves at her.

Angela’s right behind her. “Jesse, dinner’s tonight, right?”

“Dinner’s every night,” he grins. “Yeah, of course. Lena, you’re still on probation. Behave.”

She giggles at the memory, slightly guilty.

“Remember, don’t eat much at lunch, gotta save room.” He looks at his sister right before she sits down. “Not you, Sombra. Eat.”

“I’m eating.” She rolls her eyes.

He spends all of his next class teaching himself how to fold paper airplanes, which he plans to let loose in gym. He stuffs them in his backpack and heads off to lang.

He pulls out his phone.

Jesse: Dad

Jesse: We got two new kids today, can we invite them to dinner?

Baker Dad: Sure. Any allergies?

Jesse: Let me check

He turns behind him. “Hey Hanzo, every month my dads have this dinner for me and my sisters’ friends and they’re having one tonight, you wanna come?”

“Your… dads?”

“Yeah. We have two dads. That’s why we’re all adopted. You don’t have, like, a problem with that, do you?”

“I do not, and Genji wouldn’t either. However I think it might be best to not tell my parents. They’re very… old fashioned.”

“Oh. But are you in?”

“I do not see why not. Thank you.”

Lena bounds over the gate leading to the backyard just as Jesse, Sombra, and Gabe finish setting up the awning over the table. The scent of the feast wafts from inside as Jack and Hana manage three dishes at a time, starting a new one just as they finish another.

“Lena, just in time!” Gabe says. “You can help us carry the food out.”

“Damn! I’ll get the timing right eventually,” she says. Jesse smirks.

Efi and her little sister Orisa show up next, a few minutes early as always. Hana runs to greet her and show of the Switch she just got. Sombra joins them in the living room as the larger crowd starts trickling in, and then out to the backyard.

Jesse checks the clock as the minutes count down, and finally sees a ridiculously fancy car pull in down the street. He nudges Hana, who whistles fondly when she sees it.

“Damn, I’d love to ride in that. I’d want to touch that.”

“Wonder what it’s doing down h— oh my god.”

They stare stunned as Hanzo and Genji climb out of the backseat and onto the sidewalk. Genji waves as the car pulls away, and they walk towards the Morrison-Reyes house.

“No way. No fucking way.”

Jesse opens the door once they’re on the sidewalk. “Hey guys, glad you could make it.”

“Yo!” Genji greets.

Hanzo nods respectfully. “Thank you for having us.”

He leads them to the backyard, where their friends are either seated or milling around. He introduces them around until Genji breaks off and starts chatting up Angela.

“Hey dads, this is the new kid. Hanzo Shimada.”

Jack pauses for a second, and his face clouds. “Shimada?”

Hanzo meets his gaze, something in his eyes Jesse can’t quite make out. “Yes, Shimada.”

Jack breaks out of his little trance. “Well, great to meet you. Welcome to the neighborhood.” They shake hands.

Gabe starts corralling everyone over to the table. Jesse sits down with Hanzo on one side of him and Lena on the other. They pass the plates around the table, piling their plates high with chicken and potatoes and rolls and anything they can get their hands on.

“Bathroom’s right off the kitchen if you eat too much,” Jesse whispers. To his surprise he gets a light chuckle out of Hanzo. For the next hour, the table buzzes with conversation, banter and catch up, jokes sprinkled into occasionally serious conversation. Dessert comes out, cakes and pies and cookies, and all too soon the sun sets and people start heading out.

“Thank you very much for having us,” Hanzo says.

“The food was excellent,” Genji adds.

“Thank you boys for coming, it was great having you,” Gabe says.

As they’re leaving, Jesse gestures for Lena to come with him. He stops them just as they’re about to leave the property.

“Hey, since you’re new here, want us to show you around the neighborhood?” Jesse offers. “We could show you some pretty cool stuff.”

“Sounds awesome!” Genji says.

“I’ll cancel the driver,” Hanzo says as he pulls out his phone.

“Awesome. Follow us.”

Chapter Text

6/9/2017

“Crafts building?” Lena suggests.

“Not dark enough,” Jesse answers. “Sun’s barely set. Let’s just go to the park for a little bit first.”

He leads them down main street, pointing out stores or restaurants he thought they should know, as well as a bit of commentary on what they should avoid.

“So as you go up Main Street, the Italian places get better and better. We have shit like Papa Johns and knockoff crap like that by my house, then we have some decent chains over in the middle of town, and on the other side we have the really good family owned places. It’s the opposite for mexican food. On the other side of town we have the greasy wannabe crap, then in the middle of town we have some decent stuff like Moe’s, then over by our house we have the really good stuff.”

While Jesse talks to Hanzo one on one, Genji defaults to talking to Lena. “So that Angela girl, she’s really cute.”

“Oh, she’s gorgeous . Really smart too, she’s in the first aid squad and she says she’s gonna get an M.D and a Ph.D. I’d be more surprised if she didn’t do it.”

He whistles, impressed. “Do you know what in?”

“For a while it was physics, but recently she’s been really into biotech.”

“Biotech, huh? I could get into that… does she have a boyfriend?”

“You know, I’m not really sure what’s up with her. She told me she liked girls more than boys, but I don’t think she’s had a girlfriend ever. She is single, though, so if you like her you might as well ask her out.”

“So you and your, uh, sisters are all adopted?” Hanzo asks.

“Yep. I once overheard them talking about adopting a fourth, but they haven’t brought it up since.”

“Do you ever wonder about your birth parents?”

“Wonder, sure, but I’ve never wanted to meet them. They told me that they were friends with Sombra’s parents before and during her pregnancy and they were really nice people who just couldn’t afford a child, but for me they might as well have dropped me on the doorstep.” He pauses. “Sorry, got a little deep there. Tell me about your parents. What do they do?”

“My father’s a businessman, that’s why he gets transferred around every few years. To be completely honest, I don’t like my mother or father much. I’d rather not get too into it, but they have a lot of ideals that I disagree with.”

“Oh yeah, you said they probably wouldn’t like that I have two dads.”

“Yes. They’re very… backwards. Genji and I are very much looking forwards to going to college.”

“Where are you thinking of going?”

“I had planned on going to school back in Japan, but now I think I’d rather stay in the states. I’m not sure where to go yet.”

“Most of my friends are thinking of just going to Oasis. It’s a pretty good school and it’s real close. A lot of people are obsessed with getting out of town, going somewhere bigger, but I like it here. I don’t think I could stand the city.”

They enter the park, where they regularly kill time before sunset.

“What about you, Lena? Do you have a boyfriend?”

Jesse turns and laughs. “You’re pretty clueless, aren’t you?” Lena’s giggling as well.

“What? What is it?”

“She’s super gay, man,” Jesse says.

“Oh. Then do you have a girlfriend?”

“Not at the moment.”

“I’ve been trying to convince her to ask out this girl Emily for the past couple weeks, but she won’t do it.”

“Dude, she’s so much hotter than me.”

“That’s just not true.” He shakes his head. “What about you boys? You got any guys or girls back home?”

“There were a couple girls I was seeing, but no one serious.” Genji says. Hanzo just shakes his head.

“Lena, where were you thinking of going to college?” Hanzo asks.

“I’m not. I’m turning 18 the July after senior year, then I’m going Air Force.”

“Impressive.”

“What about you, Genji?”

“I don’t think college is for me. I might go military or I might try to get a career right after high school.”

“If you can bake, my dad can probably get you a job at his bakery. They like helping out the high school kids over there.”

“Which dad?”

“Gabe. Jack’s the cop.”

After a full lap around the park, the sun’s almost fully below the horizon. “Alright, crafts building. Let’s go,” Lena says.

“What’s the crafts building?” Genji asks.

“It’s an abandoned store that’s been rotting for a couple years since it closed. I think they were trying to sell it for a while, but there’s no way anyone’s gonna by the piece of shit.”

The streetlights turn on as they walk back into town.

“So you’re not sure what’s after college?”

Hanzo shakes his head. “Not a clue.”

“Do you know what you want to do when you’re older?”

He sighs. “Don’t know that either.”

Jesse grins. “Me neither. When I was little I really wanted to be a cowboy, maybe I could give that a shot.”

He smirks. “A cowboy?”

“Of course. Still dress up as one every other Halloween.”

“Oh God,” Lena interjects. “That’ll be this year, won’t it?”

Jesse grins again. “Sure will!”

“You still dress up for Halloween?”

“My family takes Halloween very seriously. Hana’s had a cardboard mech suit last year, it was really cool.”

“It’s insane, they spend all of October decorating the house.”

“I’m looking forward to seeing it.”

They arrive in an abandoned blue building just off the main road. Jesse jogs up to the door and tries to open it. “Damn, they locked it again.”

Lena nods and walks around the side. She forces the window open and climbs through it, and unlocks the door from the inside.

“Why here?” Hanzo asks.

“It’s just a fun place to check out. We used to chill in the basement but it’s been flooded for a couple months, and we’re pretty sure there’s an attic but we haven’t found a stairway up or anything. It’s also a pretty nice place to go if you need a quiet place to think.”

Jesse and Lena give them a quick tour of the building, then head out. “If a bunch of us want to hang out, a lot of the time we’ll just say ‘meet at the crafts building’, so that’s here,” Lena explains. “Oh! We can climb that hipster cafe place! There’s a ladder in the back that can take you to the roof if you can jump up to it.”

Genji once again readily agrees, so they trek out once more.

Lena whispers to Jesse. “You ask out Hanzo and I’ll ask out Emily.”

“Partner, you got yourself a deal. Just get yourself and Genji off the roof before Hanzo and I leave.”

A short walk few failed running jumps later, the four teenages crouch on the roof of their local overpriced cafe, watching the light flow of traffic and pedestrians below, looking at the parks and larger cities surrounding the suburb. They’re quiet for a minute, and when Jesse looks behind him, Lena and Genji are gone.

“So, how did you like your first day in town?”

“I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. You have my thanks.”

“Think you’re gonna be hanging with us the rest of the summer? We didn’t scare you off?”

“I’ll definitely be with you guys. This is the most fun I’ve had in a while.”

“Awesome!” He locks eyes with Hanzo. “I’m glad to hear that. I really like you.” He leans a little closer. “I’m glad you came.” Hanzo moves a little closer. “I—”

Their lips touch, and Jesse feels something he hadn’t felt for the last eight months with his old girlfriend. The electricity between them keeps them together for almost a minute before pulling apart, and they both already want each other back.

“Guess we can’t tell your parents about this.”

“I guess we’ll have to spend a lot of time at your house,” Hanzo answers.

They climb off the roof. “Your move, cowgirl,” he whispers to Lena.

Chapter Text

6/15/2017

Sombra: Hana

Sombra: HOLY SHIT

Hana: what

Sombra: DID GROWING BOOBS HURT THIS MUCH FOR YOU FUCKING HELL

Hana: oh yeah you’re on estrogen now

Hana: welcome to hell

Hana: and go to the nurse

Sombra: already did

Hana: enjoy your free bag of ice and nap

Sombra: SHE ACTUALLY GAVE ME A BAG OF ICE

Sombra: WTF AM I GONNA DO WITH IT

Hana: lol

Hana: g2g teacher’s getting sus

Sombra: THIS ISN’T A LAUGHING MATTER I’M IN PAIN

Hana: gl feel better

Less than an hour away, Lúcio lies in his bed with music on high. His mother’s in a screaming match with his aunt, who lives with them. He tries to focus on the melodies, thinking what instruments could make it better, what chords could change the feel, how he could twist the notes around and make the song his own. It repeats over and over, restarting the song as soon as it ends, just like his caretakers restarting the argument whenever it might be ending. His computer whines as it struggles to load up the cracked copy of FL Studio he managed to find, slowed by the virus that came with it.

The screaming stops and the door slams. His aunt marches up to his room. “This is your fault, you know.”

“Mm.”

“Listen to me!”

“I’m listening.”

“We weren’t happy about living together, but we could deal with it until you showed up fifteen years ago! And then your father went and got shot, and it got even worse!”

“Mhm.”

“Listen to me!”

“I’ve heard this a million times!”

“Don’t talk back to me!”

She’s actually insane , he thinks to himself.

“We try to provide for you, we got you that computer you so wanted and your phone and headphones, and you’d think you could be just a little grateful —”

He remembers almost breaking down in tears of joy when he saw the computer, but clearly his aunt doesn’t have that memory.

“Maybe show us a little damn respect—”

He made the mistake of asking when exactly he’d acted disrespectful in the past, and although tempted, he doesn’t ask again. She continues ranting as his eyes glaze over.

By the time Hana’s out of school, Lúcio’s aunt has left the house, probably to the same bar his mom went to. He tries to focus on the music, but he’s far too distracted. As tempted as he is to go outside for a walk, if they come home and find out he left without permission they’ll definitely unload on him again.

Fuck it, he thinks. He makes sure his phone is over 90% and leaves the apartment. He almost smiles when he feels the heat and the sun hit his face, picks a direction, and starts walking.

D.Va: sup nerds

D.Va: …

D.Va: Really? No one’s here?

Bigger drummer boy: Hey

Bigger drummer boy: sorry I was working on something

D.Va: Hey man

D.Va: I was gonna stream later tonight and wanted to see if anyone wanted to join in.

D.Va: Yo Johnny I see you’re online

D O G B O I: Hey

D O G B O I: Sorry, can’t stream, it’s a really nice night so my friends and I are gonna adventure

D O G B O I: Have fun though

D.Va: lame

D.Va: Lúcio hbu?

D.Va: @F R O G B O I

Bigger Drummer Boy: haven’t seen him online all day

D.Va: aww :(

When she gets home, she makes a half-hearted attempt on the only homework assignment she was assigned (from the only teacher cruel enough to assign homework this late in the year), and boots up her computer. She plays a few games to warm herself up before dinner, checking the discord to see if anyone responded. She sighs when she sees that they’ve completely changed topics to some sport that’s on in a few hours.

“Hana! Dinner in ten!” Gabe calls. He gives her that warning nightly so she has time to finish a game and doesn’t queue up for another. She’s already done, so she hops out of her chair and heads downstairs.

“Where’s Sombra?”

“She’s feeling sick,” Jack answers. “Hopefully she’ll be up to eating something later.”

Throughout dinner, Hana feels her phone buzzing almost nonstop, and has to struggle against the temptation to see what’s up. Dinner seems to take longer, and she rushes through eating and doing the dishes.

Lúcio: Hana

Lúcio: You’re not too far from me, right?

Lúcio: I guess you’re eating dinner or something

Lúcio: I’m really sorry to ask this but I need help

Lúcio: My mom flipped out at me

Lúcio: I don’t have a place to stay and it’s getting dark

Lúcio: Do you think there’s any way you could help?

Her face goes pale and her heart starts thrumming against her chest. “Dad!”

Jack and Hana pull out of the driveway as fast and possible and drive north. “Who is this boy?”

“His name’s Lúcio, he’s about a year older than me, and we met because we’re in this discord group together. He’s just on the other side of Oasis campus, on the north side.”

“That’s not the best area,” Jack comments.

“Yeah, it’s not.”

“And you said his mom kicked him out?”

“He said he lives with his mom and aunt, and they’re both a little abusive from what I heard. And yeah, I guess she… kicked him out tonight.”

He can tell she’s clearly upset, so he’s quiet for a while.

Once they’re halfway through Oasis campus, he has to ask more. “Do you know if he has anywhere to go?”

She shifts in her seat. “Um… I don’t think so. I guess I should’ve asked.”

He waits for her to ask if he can stay with them for a while, ready to say yes if she does, but she can’t work up the nerve.

After fifteen minutes of driving through Lúcio’s neighborhood, Hana sees him sitting outside a cafe with his face in his hands. Her dad parks and she jumps out the door.

“Lúcio!”

“Hana! Oh my god, I’m so glad you’re here.”

She pulls him into a hug, which he happily returns. “It’s so good to finally meet you!”

“Yeah, you too! Wish it could have been under better circumstances…” he trails off. “You sure your dads are fine with letting me stay for the night?”

“Yeah, it’s all good. They’re glad to help. Come on.”

They climb into the car.

“Evening,” Jack says.

“Hello, sir. Thanks so much for helping me out.”

“Not a problem,” he says, starting to pull away. “We can put you up for the month if you need, no problem. If you need to stay longer we’ll have to talk about long term plans, but we’ll do what we can to help you out.”

Lúcio’s speechless for a second. “A-are you sure?”

“Of course. Anything to help a friend of our kids.”

“Thank you, thank you so much.” Relief and gratitude thicken his words.

“If you don’t mind me asking, why didn’t you go to the police?”

“I don’t like cops.”

Hana grimaces for a second. Jack just chuckles. “I’m a cop.”

“Oh… um…”

“It’s understandable,” he sighs. “A bunch of us give us all a bad reputation.”

“I’m sorry.”

“No big deal. I know why people feel like that. Just makes me more determined to make it better.”

“I don’t think I’ll need to stay too long. I tried asking my dad’s parents but I couldn’t reach them, I’m gonna try again in the morning.”

“As long as it takes.”

They pull into the parking lot of a CVS. “You need anything? Toothbrush, deodorant, anything?”

“Um, just about everything actually. All left with was my phone and headphones.”

The three of them head into the store and get him everything he’ll need for about a week. Lúcio makes a note of how much it cost so he can pay them back as soon as he can.

They pull into the driveway after half an hour. Hana gave her other dad and siblings a heads up so they wouldn’t be too surprised when they got home. She opens the door for Lúcio and her dad and they step in. Gabe’s waiting for them in the living room.

“Evening.”

“Hi.”

“Lúcio, this is my dad Gabe. Dad, this is Lúcio.”

“Figured,” he chuckles. “Welcome. The couch opens up, and you can use those pillows and blankets over there. I usually have to get up pretty early for work, so I’ll do my best not to wake you. The kids still have school until Tuesday—”

“Can I skip tomorrow to keep him company?”

“No.”

“I have plenty absences saved up!”

“No.”

“It’s alright, Hana. School’s important. I’ll go for a walk tomorrow, check out the town. We can hang later.”

“Alright.”

Her dads show him the bathroom and how to open the bed, then head upstairs themselves.

“So… are you alright?” Hana asks.

“Wouldn’t be if it weren’t for you. You’re a lifesaver, Hana, I don’t know how to thank you enough.”

He’s sent a couple pictures to the server, but now that the rush died down, Hana can actually see him for the first time. He’s always been smiling in his pictures, but even with the serious expression he still has a face that radiates kindness and geniality. He’s a lot shorter than she was expecting, and he’s a lot more attractive than she’d noticed from his pictures… slow down there, Hana , she thinks to herself.

“No need. You sure you’ll be fine on your own tomorrow?”

“Yeah, it’s no big deal. I’ll just go for a walk.”

“Okay! Maybe you can walk me to school tomorrow and we’ll meet there once it lets out.”

“Sounds good.”

“Okay! I should go to bed, I guess. See you in the morning!”

“See ya!”

She’s struck with an image of him giving her a goodnight kiss on the forehead and how happy it would make her, but pushes it out of her mind. She’s just tired.

Jack and Gabe lie awake in their bed. “Jack, I know we’ve discussed adopting a fourth, but to be honest, this isn’t exactly what I had in mind.”

Jack chuckles. “I know. I won’t adopt this one, I promise.”

“So we don’t know how long he’s staying?”

“Not yet. He said he’s trying to get in touch with his grandparents. I told him that if he needs to stay more than a month we’d start discussing long term plans. I guess that could be anything from moving him into a real bed to trying to get him emancipated.”

“Jack, you know I love how you try to go out of your way to help anyone you can, but we don’t know this kid.”

“I know. Maybe not the smartest idea. But if you saw Hana’s face when she came up and told me…”

“I know. I like to think I’d do the same. But still, maybe I should stay home tomorrow, just to keep an eye on him. I want to trust him, I really do, but we just don’t know him. At all.”

“Maybe we should let Hana skip and spend the day with him.”

“Jack, every time we let one of them skip for something that’s not school, the other two try to get out to.”

“So let them. It’s almost the last day of school, they won’t be doing anything anyway.”

“Alright, you’re clearly sleep deprived,” Gabe chuckles. “Let’s just sleep on it.”

Chapter Text

6/16/2017

“Alright. Thank you, thank you so much. I’ll talk to you then. Love you.”

Gabe walks downstairs at the tail end of the conversation. “Morning,” he says.

Lúcio jumps, mildly startled. “Morning. Uh, I was just on the phone with my grandparents, they can take me off your hands in about a week. They’re out of the country right now, but they can move me in once they get back.”

“Sounds good. You’re fine on the couch for a week?”

“I’m fine with anything that keeps me out of the rain.”

Lúcio takes a quick shower while Gabe starts breakfast. The rest of the kids shuffle out of bed and start getting ready.

“Dad, I’m feeling really sick,” Hana says, walking out of her room fully dressed and even lightly made-up, a rarity for her. “I don’t think I should go to school today.”

“Alright. Sounds good.”

“Oh come on, dad, she’s not even trying,” Jesse complains.

“You want to stay home too?”

“Yeah I do!”

“Go ahead. Tell Sombra she can too. I’ll call you all in.”

It’s very clear that the secretary doesn’t believe him when he tells her that all his children have fallen ill since yesterday, but she plays along. Gabe gives Hana and Sombra money for lunch at their request and sends them on their way.

“You skipping too?” Jesse asks.

“Figured I might as well. What’ll you be doing today?”

“Not sure. Going back to bed’s the first thing, though.”

Gabe shrugs and turns on one of his favorite Mexican soap operas while Jesse heads back to his room.

Lena: well I heard about the illness that struck your entire family

Lena: hope it’s not serious

Jesse: it’s probably early-onset senioritis

Lena: lol

Lena: what about Hana?

Jesse: I think Hana might be a bit in love

Lena: ooooh who’s the guy?

Lena: or gal

Jesse: nah she’s settled on just guys

Jesse: let me tell you the whole story

Jesse: so there’s this guy on that discord server she chills on

Jesse: a musician, I think

Jesse: and I guess his parents hate him or something and they kicked him out

Lena: holy shit what

Jesse: so he hits up Hana and she gets dad down there to pick him up

Jesse: he’s gonna be staying with us for about a week until his grandparents can take him

Jesse: and I’m pretty sure she’s hardcore crushing on him

Lena: woah damn

Lena: is that why you’re all getting the day off?

Jesse: probably

Jesse: Hana apparently wanted to take the day off and I guess they let her

Jesse: and then the rest of us because they knew we’d complain lol

Lena: damn, wish I could take off today

Lena: so what are you gonna do?

Jesse: probably nothing lol

Jesse: hopefully hang with Hanzo once he gets back

Lena: OOH YOU SHOULD MAKE A PICNIC

Jesse: what?

Lena: make him a picnic today and take him to the park this evening!

Jesse: that’s actually a pretty good idea

Jesse: so, made a move with Emily yet?

Lena: uh

Lena: teacher’s coming gotta go bye

Jesse chuckles and lies back in his bed. A picnic could be pretty nice. He could ask dad to help him cook, then head out a little before sunset…

Jesse: hey man

Jesse: you like picnics?

Hanzo: I have never been on one.

Hanzo: Is that not just eating on the ground?

Jesse: Yeah but it’s fun

Jesse: I was thinking we could have one tonight at the park

Jesse: I could make all the food you just meet me there.

Hanzo: Normally I would not be interested, but since you’re asking I will agree. See you there.

He smiles at his phone for a little bit, then starts getting ready.

At Hanzo and Genji’s insistence, their driver meets them a couple blocks away from school. They climb into the limousine and he takes them back to their new house, just out of town. Neither of the boys like their house at all, it doesn’t have the nostalgia that their house in Japan had and it’s much less homely than their previous house across the country. It’s big and intimidating and cold, not unlike their father, who’s never there to greet them when they get home. Their mother’s home more often than not, but she rarely talks to the boys. They have warmer memories of the woman who nannied them 10 years ago back in Japan.

Genji, as usual, goes straight to his room. He barely leaves, all the anime and video games he could desire are in there. Hanzo’s not one to judge, he doesn’t leave his room much either. With little family he’d like to talk to, there’s not much to do but read and draw in his room.

He opens a sketchbook to a blank page and taps the eraser against it, waiting for inspiration to strike. One face appears in his mind: Jesse Reyes-Morrison. He starts drawing.

For a few days, he was worried that his father would find out about his budding relationship with the boy. But he quickly realized that would not be an issue. He could elope with him that instant and have a two week honeymoon in his childhood home and his father wouldn’t be around to notice.

Soon enough, he’s finished with Jesse’s face and shoulders. He remembers mentioning his affinity for cowboys, so he gives him a stetson, serape, and a five o’clock shadow. He can’t help but chuckle at his creation.

Jesse asked him to meet him at about six thirty. It’s almost five fifteen. He sighs, and gets out of his room.

“Good afternoon, master Hanzo,” a voice says, startling him. It’s one of the butlers. “The chef was wondering what you wanted for dinner.”

“Nothing, thank you. I was planning on meeting up with some friends.”

“Very well.” The butler stalks down that hallway in that eerie way he has, and disappears.

Hanzo knocks on his brother’s door. “Just a minute!” he hears, and he sighs and waits for his brother to put his pants back on (as he’s unfortunately learned from experience).

He opens the door. “What do you want?”

“We’re turning eighteen soon.”

“I’ll talk to you later.”

He tries to close the door, but Hanzo puts his foot in the way. “We need to discuss this, brother!”

“Not now!”

“Genji!” Hanzo forces his way into his room. “Once we are eighteen, we are expected to join the family business.”

“I refuse.”

“I do not wish to either, brother, which is why we need to think of what we can do.”

“The only thing I can think of is enlisting. And that’s not very appealing either.”

“Our family knows you will not want to join them. To be honest, I fear for your safety.”

“I don’t want to think about this right now!”

“We are running out of time!”

“I know!” he shouts back. He gives himself a second to calm down. “I’ve been trying to think of something for months, but I just can’t.”

“I know. But we do not have much longer.” he sighs. “I’ve never wished so badly I was part of another family. I fear for your life and my future. I can’t tell my parents that I’m dating a man. His parents know about us. I told him my last name and there was something in his eyes. He doesn’t want me around his son.”

“I’m sure he isn’t—”

“He is a police officer! Should I be forced to join the family business, he will become my enemy!”

“Hanzo. I know you feel like you have to stress out about this, but we have until the winter. Please, enjoy the summer with your boyfriend. For your sanity.”

At six thirty exactly, Hanzo arrives at the park. Jesse’s there to greet him, traditional picnic basket in hand and with a goofy smile. “Howdy.”

“Hello.”

“Glad you could make it. Come on, we can set up right over here.”

Chapter Text

6/16/17

“It’s really cool that we finally get to hang out in person,” Hana says.

“Definitely! I’ve wished we could for a while. Where we headed?”

“I need to pick up something at Rite Aid, then I’ll show you around a bit.”
“What do you need?”

“You’ll see.”

She leads him into the store, picking up a bottle of lemon iced tea (she refuses to fall into the Mountain Dew and Doritos stereotype) and then heads over to the electronics section.

“Getting a new pair of headphones?”

“Nah, I have plenty of backups from my birthday a couple months ago.” She looks around a bit more. “I know it’s here… there we go!” She takes a headphone splitter off the rack.

“Oh, awesome idea!”

She takes her stuff over to checkout. “Not sure how much you’ll like my playlist though, I’ve got a really niche music taste.”

“I’ve got a good solution. There’s a site I found where you can link to a couple playlists on youtube, spotify, whatever, and it’ll combine them into a superplaylist.”

“Ooh, that’s so cool!”

He gives her the URL, and she dumps the youtube playlist she usually listens to into it. He dumps his own, and they plug in their headphones. They turn the music down a bit so they can talk but still listen. Hana’s odd indie genre mashups and video game soundtracks blend surprisingly well with Lúcio’s eclectic modern rock and older jazz tunes.

“It’s really weird to me,” Lúcio starts, “my mom gave birth to me and she can’t stand me. Your dads aren’t even related and they love you.”

“I guess I’m lucky.” It occurs to her that she never really thought about where she might’ve ended up, who could’ve adopted her… if anyone. If it weren’t for her dads, she could be in the Korean foster care system right now. “Really lucky.”

“You alright?”

“Yeah, just… thinking. I really could’ve ended up with anyone.”

“When I get older and marry someone, I’m definitely adopting. Or fostering. I don’t want anyone growing up like I did, and I got off comparatively easily.”

She leads him to the park. “So do you have any plans like that?” he asks. “If you’re gonna get married, have kids?”

“No, I haven’t thought much about it,” she says.

“Makes sense. We’re still kids ourselves.”

“You know what you want, though.”

“Most people my age don’t, I imagine. There’s no rush, we don’t need to be thinking about this for probably ten years. Even if you did have a plan, it would probably change by then.”

He’s quiet for a little bit. A soft orchestral atmospheric track whispers through their ears. “It’s beautiful here.”

“I know. If I was at all artistic I’d try drawing it.”

“I wish I grew up around here. The city’s really not for me.”

Hana would much rather prefer to live in a city than a suburb, but opts not to mention it. “Yeah, it’s pretty nice here.”

She smiles suddenly. “Oh, I love this song. Is this one yours? I don’t think I put it on mine.”

“Yep! Game remixes aren’t just your turf.” Their heads nod in sync as they walk around.

“Wanna get some lunch?”

“Course! What do you have around here?”

“Just about anything. Pizza, Chinese, burgers, cafes, we can find just about anything.”

“Burgers sounds great.”

“Awesome! Follow me.”

She leads him into a burger place just off main street and they place their orders. Lúcio adds the price of his to the tab he’s keeping for himself. They toast each other with their meals and chow down.

“Heya!” A familiar voice greets them. “Playing hooky, I see.”

“Oh! Hey, Lena.”

“Who’s the guy?”

“This is my friend Lúcio. Lúcio, this is Lena, she’s in Jesse and Sombra’s grade.”

“Hey! Good to meet you.”

“You too. Why haven’t I met you before?”

“I’m just visiting. We were friends online for a while and we wanted to finally meet up.”

“So is this why you’re out sick today?”

“Yep.”

“Alright, I’d love to stay and chat, but I’ve gotta get all this food back to the choir room. You know how choir kids are.”

“A bit too well.”

“They’re even worse when they’re hungry. See ya!”

“I’ve been in choir since fourth grade and I can confirm that we’re all a bit too much,” Lúcio chuckles.

“Sombra said she’s probably joining next year once she finishes voice therapy, so I’m gonna be living with one of those freaks.”

“I’d highly recommend becoming one of those freaks.”

She nods noncommittally. “I’ll consider it.”

Her phone buzzes.

Lena: Your “friend” huh? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Hana: oh god, get that thing away from me

Hana: and yeah, we’ve just been talking online for a while and wanted to hang out

Lena: Jesse tells me you loooooove him

Hana: He’s way off

Lena: heh

Lena: sure Jan

“Sorry about that. How’re you liking the burger?”

“It’s not bad. Fries are amazing, though.”

“Yeah, that’s the real reason people come here. Jesse walked over just to get some one night.”

“I see why.”

“Wanna get ice cream?”

“Maybe after walking around a little more. Got anything really interesting around here?”

“Oh, you want Lena and Jesse’s tour. It involves a lot of climbing buildings and trespassing.”
“That sounds perfect! Any chance you got something like a roller rink around here?”

“A couple miles away, it’s just a ten minute drive. I haven’t been in a while, maybe we could go while you’re still here.”

“Sounds awesome!”

“Let’s head back out.”

They leave their trays on top of the trash can and head back outside. Hana takes him behind the grocery store and to the manmade depression behind it. “So I’m not entirely sure why this is here, but there’s never anything in it and it’s a cool place to chill if you need to go somewhere quiet. But take a shower after because it usually smells like weed.”

She leads him down a side road full of decently sized houses, and they eventually loop back around to main street. She points out what the best item at each restaurant is, and which place is the best to get a specific kind of food, and eventually they reach a humble little ice cream parlor on the far side of town.

“Good afternoon, Miss Zhou!”

“Hana! Did summer break start already?”

“Nope! Just playing hooky to hang out with my friend here.”

“Ah, I remember back when my boyfriend would visit in high school and my mother would let me skip,” she smiles nostalgically.

“Oh, um, we’re not together,” Lúcio explains. Hana shakes her head in agreement.

“Sorry! My mistake. So, what can I get you both?”

“Large chocolate cone with rainbow sprinkles, please.”

“And I’ll have a cup of strawberry sorbet.”

“Coming right up!”

They eat as they walk along the other side of main street. “Town’s pretty small, I think I’m running out of places to show you.”

“Looks like that dance studio is having a promotion for the week,” he points out.

“Yeah, first lesson free, apparently. Why, you want to learn?”

“A little. Something I’ve always wanted to do, but couldn’t.”

“Maybe we could do it at some point while you’re here. We have you for the rest of the week.”

“Yeah, that would be fun!”

Hana finishes their tour and leads them back to her house for video games.

“Woah, dinner smells good!” she announces.

“ My dinner smells good, yours smells like leftovers from the week,” Jesse responds.

“Damn. Anyway, what do you want to play? I have a switch up here, PS4 downstairs, and there’s a couple couch co-op games on my computer.”

“Hm… got any racing games?”

“Of course!”

Much to her surprise, Lúcio beats her soundly in every single race in the grand prix. Sombra walks through the door right in the middle of a cluster of particularly nasty swear words.

“Damn, Hana, we’re gonna have to wash your mouth out with soap,” she teases, then heads straight for the bathroom.

“She’s not actually going to get soap, is she?” Lúcio asks, half joking.

“She’d better not.”

After she’s locked in the bathroom for over an hour minutes, Gabe starts to get a little worried. “Sombra, are you alright?”

“Yep! Be out soon!”

Hana and Lucio both frown at the door, a little worried, but turn back to their game. They both look up as soon as she emerges.

“Woah.”

Chapter Text

6/16/2017

The state’s Pride Center just outside town is hosting a meetup that day, so Sombra decides to take the opportunity to check it out. She doesn’t go often, mostly because it’s not especially convenient to and she’s usually bogged down with schoolwork, but she’d wanted to go more over the summer and takes the opportunity.

She crams a couple protein and candy bars into her pockets, says bye to her dads, and heads across the bridge. She passes by the school and makes a point of waving tauntingly at Lena when she sees her. She makes a face, and Sombra smiles back and walks straight past the school.

Even though it’s hot out, Sombra still wears a thin sweatshirt and long pants. She knows she’ll start getting overheated in August, but she hopes that by then she’ll start looking more comfortably feminine. For now she’s more comfortable the more covered she is.

The pride center’s set up so there’s snacks and soda in some rooms, games in others, and some just for hanging out. The entrance hall has pins with gay, bisexual, ace, trans, and ally flags on them. She takes the blue, pink, and white pin and sticks it on her shirt, then heads immediately for the food. She looks around for anyone she recognizes, but most people that would be there that she knows are in school at the moment. She sighs and sits down by herself.

“Hi there. Mind if I sit here?” someone asks.

“Go ahead.” He’s fairly short, with shaggy black hair and a similar trans pin on his shirt.

“I don’t think I recognize you. Is this your first time here?”

“No, but I haven’t been here for a while. My name’s Sombra.”

“Winston,” he extends his hand.

“You here a lot?”

“Yeah, I live just down the road, so I usually spend the afternoon here. Especially since my parents are in that awkward ‘trying too hard to prove they’re comfortable with this’ thing when they’re clearly not.”

“Ouch.”

“So how’d your parents take the news?”

“I have two dads, so better than most.”

“Damn, that’s lucky.”

“Damn right it is. How far are you into transitioning, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Not very. Just barely started voice therapy, as you could probably tell, and in terms of presentation all I’ve got is my wardrobe and binders.”

“Think your parents will let you get hormone therapy or surgery?”

“Hormone therapy, probably, I’m not sure about surgery. At the moment I just want a mastectomy, though, I don’t really want bottom surgery, personally. You?”

“We’ve in gotten almost everything planned, and it took forever. But I should hopefully be a fully functioning girl by the end of summer. Which can’t come soon enough.”

“What do you mean?”

She sighs. “I’ve been presenting as a girl, starting hormone therapy, and everyone… almost… calls me she. But it still doesn’t feel right. It’s like I’m just holding out for the next step, hoping it’ll make me feel better, but it’s never enough.”

“I’ve noticed something helps a lot of trans people, women especially, is radically changing their look. Getting something like tattoos or piercings or hair dye that fully removes them from their previous body. Not sure if that’ll help, but it could be worth a shot.”

“Hm… I might give it a try when I’m done here.”

“You’re staying longer though, right?”

“Yeah, of course. Basically just got here. How old are you, Winston?”

“Seventeen, going into senior year. You?”

“Sixteen, junior for today and tomorrow. Where are you planning on going to school?”

“MIT. I’m gonna be an engineer.”

“Probably Oasis to study comp sci.”

“Yeah, Oasis is pretty close. I guess you don’t really feel like you have to go as far as I do.”

“Yeah, a lot of people seem desperate to escape and go far away, but I never got that. I like my town. Think my siblings feel the same way.”

“Siblings?”

“Yeah, Jesse’s sort of like my twin but we’re three months apart, and Hana’s two years younger than us. We’re all adopted.”

“What did your siblings say when you came out to them?”

“They were both pretty cool with it. It took them a little while to adjust to the right pronouns but that was pretty much the only problem. Do you have siblings?”

“A bunch of brothers, but they’re all older than me. I think my parents just had a bunch of boys and kept trying to get a daughter.” He grins. “Oops.”

Sombra chuckles. “They’re all at college?”

“Most of them on football scholarships.”

“How’d they take you coming out?”

“Some are supportive and some just didn’t seem to care,” he shrugs. “No one’s mean or hateful about it, though, and I guess that’s all I can ask for.”

The hours pass as they talk, and eventually Winston has to get home. Sombra has them exchange numbers. “If you ever need to get out of the house for a bit, just let me know. I’m sure my dads will be glad to have you over.”

“Thanks, Sombra. Talk to you later.”

She heads home, stopping at Rite Aid on her way. She gets a razor and hair dye, and then stops to get bleach elsewhere. She teases Hana once she gets inside, and then goes straight into the bathroom.

She steps into the bathtub and plugs in the razor. She makes sure her hair is evenly parted in the middle, and cuts down that line. She removes half the hair from her head, shaving one side and leaving the other long. Then she opens the bleach, reads some instructions off her phone, and starts to dip-dye her hair.

She can’t help but chuckle at how she looks with half her hair gone and the remainder part black and park blonde, but a knocking at the door snaps her back.

“Sombra, are you alright?”

“Yep! Be out in soon!”

She takes the purple hair dye out of the bag. Soon enough, she has half a head of hair with purple highlights. It’s a bit bright, but she can wash it out a bit later. She looks at herself in the mirror, and smiles a little when she runs her fingers over the freshly buzzed side.

Last step is some simple lipstick. She carefully applies the purple over her lips, rubbing them together and carefully using a paper towel to wipe off any overflow.

She packs everything back into the bag, takes one last glance at herself in the mirror, and steps outside.

“Woah.”

Later that night she texts a picture of her new style to Winston.

Sombra: Like it?

Winston: That looks really cool!

Winston: More importantly, do YOU like it?

Sombra: Definitely.

Sombra: Gonna be keeping it like this for a while.

Winston: Did it help?

Sombra: I feel like a whole new person.

Sombra: Thanks so much for the advice.

Winston: Glad to hear it!

Winston: Talk to you soon.

Chapter Text

6/24/2017

Sombra shakes Hana awake shortly after getting out of bed herself. After increasingly louder whispers and gentle nudging, she quickly finds and air horn app for her phone, turns the volume up, and blasts it at her.

“Sombra, what the fuck?”

“Morning.”

She checks the clock. “It’s not even seven! What the hell is wrong with you?”

“It’s Lucio’s last day here, his grandparents are picking him up later.”

Hana sighs. “Yeah, I know.”

“They live in a beach house.”

“Cool. Why the hell did you wake me up to tell me this?”

“So you can ask dad to take us all to the beach and we can drop him off later tonight so you can hang out for a few hours together.”

“Man, I hate the beach.”

“But you love Lúcio.”

“I don’t —”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Find your swimsuit.”

Three hours later, they’ve all crowded into Jack’s minivan and have started driving down to the beach. Hana and Lucio sit quietly next to each other, nodding their heads in time to their music. Hana spends most of the time staring out the window, trying not to nod off after she was woken up with only four hours of sleep.

Her phone buzzes. It’s Lena.

Lena: Last day with your boy, make it count!

Lena: Ask him out!

Lena: Kiss him or something.

Hana: On that topic, how are things going with Emily?

Lena: Thought you’d get me there, huh?

Lena: I already bragged about this to Jesse but we’re going out for dinner and a movie tomorrow!

Lena: Your move, Hana!

Hana: It doesn’t matter. I don’t like him like that.

Lena: Oh Hana

Lena: Sweet, innocent Hana

Lena: You’ve got the rest of the day to think about it.

Lena: I think you’ll realize that you do, in fact, like him like that.

Lena: Later!

Hana almost groans with frustration. This is the kind of crap she and her friends did in middle school, insisting that two kids had crushes on another.

Lena: I wanna clarify, not trying to be immature here. Just think about it!

Scary, how she did that sometimes. Almost felt like she could read minds.

Hana: Why are you pushing this so hard??

Lena: We’re friends. You’re clearly into this guy and I want you to be happy with him.

Hana: What makes you think I’m so into him?

Lena: You skipped school to hang out with him

Lena: You’ve been streaming less to hang out with him

Lena: You tell me about him at least once a day

Lena: You dream about him

Hana’s taken aback. Yes, she’d had a dream about him… where he was in her bed, and he held her… but it was just a dream, probably fueled by stress or hormones.

Hana: ???

Lena: I’m just assuming that last one.

Hana: Alright, let’s SAY I’m into him

Lena: I KNEW IT

Hana: What makes you think he’d like me back?

Lena: Why wouldn’t he?

Lena: You basically saved his life

Lena: He’s been hanging out with you for a week

Lena: You’re pretty cute

Lena: GO FOR IT

Lena: I actually have to leave now see you later

The song switches to “Romance” from Skyward Sword, making Hana roll her eyes.

Soon enough, they’re at the beach. It’s fairly crowded, so they take the first spot to set up that they see. The kids help their dads set up the blankets, then Hana and Lúcio break off while Jesse and Sombra run for the ocean.

“Not much of a beach girl, are you?” Lúcio asks.

“Nope. It turns out my swimsuit doesn’t even fit anymore.”

“Why’d you ask to go then?”

“Wanted to hang out with you for longer.”

He smiles. “Haven’t gotten sick of me yet?”

“Not quite.”

“You wanna stay out here or check out the town?” he points.

“Town, please.”

“As you wish.”

Hana texts her dads to let them know where they’re going, then they leave the beach and explore the nearby town.

“So this is where you’re going to be living?”

“Looks like it. Seems a lot nicer than the city.”

“Let’s check out what there is to eat.”

After a quick sweep of what appears to be the main road, they settle on a small brick-oven pizzeria.

“So, last day,” Lúcio says.

“I wish you could stay longer.”

“Yeah, it would’ve been nice if we could hang more. But still, it was awesome finally getting to meet you.”

“Promise you’ll still remember me when you’re famous?”

“No way I could forget! And hey, we’ve still got a couple hours. No need to say goodbye yet.”

Lena: Did you tell him you love him yet?

Hana: S T O P

“You alright? You look a little annoyed.”

“It’s just Lena. She gets a little overexcited sometimes.”

“What about?”

“Ah, nothing.”

He shrugs and, they finish eating. “Wanna head back out?”

She nods, and they go back outside. “Let’s see what else is around,” he says.

Jesse: Lena says you’re still in denial

Jesse: Or afraid or something

Jesse: Just go for it, it’s always better to try.

Hana: Oh my god, you all need to stop

Jesse: Do it, Hana, it’s so worth it.

Hana: I

Hana: DO

Hana: NOT

Hana: LIKE

Hana: HIM

“Lena again?”

She sighs. “Nope, but she got Jesse in on it too.”

“Well, I think I found something to get your mind off of it.” He points to a store with a sign declaring “Lindholm’s retro games buy/sell/trade”.

“Oh, yes!” She almost drags him to the building, where they see an old man working on some kind of electronic at the checkout desk.

Hana immediately starts browsing the games, and Lúcio goes to talk to the man.

“What are you working on?”

“I’m trying to modify the PS4 to play any playstation game.” He has a thick swedish accent.

“How’s it going?”

“Too early to say, I’ve just started. Just finished up the combo NES-SNES-N64 hybrid last week.”

“Fancy.”

Hana shows up with a small pile of rare PS1 and N64 games. Lucio finishes the conversation with the engineer when Hana’s phone buzzes again.

Sombra: Hey

Sombra: Only a couple hours left

Sombra: Better make your move

Hana ignores her and puts her phone away as they leave.

“Wanna head back to the beach?”

“Yeah, might as well. Ice cream first?”

“Oh, of course!”

Their stop for ice cream is enough time for someone else to bother her.

Angela: Jesse told me to text you

Hana: AOWGHJQRWPOIUGHOAJERG

Hana: fuck

Hana: no

Angela: He didn’t tell me why, he just said “tell Hana I told you to text her”

Angela: I’ll be off

Hana: I hate him

Fortunately, Lúcio doesn’t notice her keyspamming at Angela, so he doesn’t ask. She happily takes her ice cream and leads him back to the beach.

All too soon, the sun is starting to set, and it’s time for Lúcio to go to his new home. He’s said goodbye to his caretakers and thanked them profusely. They’ve wished him good luck, and Hana begged to walk him back.

“You’ve been kinda quiet, are you alright?”

“Yeah, just thinking.” It’s true, after being spammed all day by people insisting that she was into him, she’d started to seriously think about it. Maybe they were right. Maybe . But she has to figure it out fast, because they’re coming up on his house soon.

She gives herself a simple question: would she rather be holding his hand? And then… can she be holding his hand?

She angles herself to wind up closer to him, and grabs his hand with hers. A little awkward, but it could be worse. He seems a little surprised, but doesn’t say anything, just wraps his fingers around her hand.

They’re almost at his house. It’s now or never, but she’s too scared and unsure. She’s ready to let him go and worry about what might have been.

“One last song,” he says. He lets go of her hand and scrolls through the playlist. When he turns it off, they hear a simple piano melody. It dances through her ears and makes her soul light and her heart dance.

Violins kick in, and she can’t help but smile a little. “Can I kiss you?” he asks.

“Please,” she breathes.

He cups her cheek with his hand and slowly approaches. They close their eyes as their lips gently touch, and Hana feels crackles of soft electricity where they meet. He pulls away and they’re both smiling.

“I’m gonna miss you. Thank you so much.”

“We’ll talk every day,” she says.

“Of course! Can’t wait to see you again.”

She smiles a big goofy grin as he runs inside and waves from the window. She waves back and almost skips back to her family.

Chapter Text

7/1/2017

It’s a late summer evening, and a group of friends sit outside Mei’s ice cream shop trying to figure out what to do. Jesse’s adamant that they explore the construction site at the edge of town, but Efi refuses. Hana suggests game night, but there’s one too many of them to fit on most consoles. They turn to Genji for suggestions, but he just shrugs.

“You wanna just go back to my place and watch some movies?” Lena suggests. They can all agree on something this simple, and pile into Lena’s car.

“Shotgun!” Genji calls.

“I’m already at the door,” Jesse says. He sighs and gets into the back.

Lena always drives a bit too fast for the comfort of most people, but there’s a specific set of songs that drive her to insane limits. A grin of mischievous excitement appears on her face when a familiar guitar riff starts to blast from the speakers.

Do you like…. My car?!

Her foot turns to lead and anxiously waits for the red light to turn. The song turns to eleven just as it goes green, and they blast off, singing along excitedly to the song.
“GUESS! YOU’RE! READY! CAUSE I’M WAITING FOR YOU!”

“It’s gonna be SO EXCITING!”

She races along the streets, purposely taking side roads with less cars so no one will interrupt her. Both the driver and passengers belt out the chorus with ecstasy. This is why they nominated Lena to be their driver, none of the rest of them are this adept at driving this quickly.

“I’m gonna run as a flash TONIGHT! And FLY!”

God, I hate this turn, she thinks to herself, slowing down. The bushes block her view of the road, so despite there being a stop sign telling her to look both ways, she can’t really see one of them.

Fuck it, it’s late . She gets ready to blast across the street.

“I’M GONNA STEP ON THE GAS!”

“AND YOU’LL SEE THE BIG SHOW!”

Angela, on duty for the next twelve hours, sits in the First Aid Squad building in front of a textbook, studying for the college physics course she’s taking. It’s been a fairly quiet night, which she’s grateful for, but some of the more experienced workers warn her that this is just the calm before the storm.

As it turns out, they’re right.

All Hana can do for a few seconds is scream. The one side of the car is buried in a now toppled brick wall, and the other side is in pieces. She’s in too much shock to register how much pain she’s in. The door doesn’t budge, so she wails for help through the shattered window.

Tekhartha, a fifty year old man who’s lived alone since he was eighteen, is jolted out of his meditative state by a crash followed by almost inhuman screaming. He calmly goes to the window and notes the crash that’s happened outside. Seemingly unfazed by this, he calls 911 without even a hint of worry in his voice.

Angela and the other EMTs arrive within minutes, and Angela immediately recognizes the car. “No…” An otherworldly chill courses through her when she realizes the screams must belong to someone she knows. “No…”

She and one of the others force the door open, and help her out of the car.

Once she’s free, she manages to stop herself screaming, but she’s still sobbing hysterically. “Get her on a stretcher,” someone calls, “I’ll help the others out.”

She places Hana’s less injured arm around her shoulder and helps walk her to the ambulance. Hana’s sobs rack her body and Angela’s soul.

She lays her down and goes to help someone else.

“Don’t leave me!”

“I’ll be right back. I won’t leave you.”

She closes her eyes, unable to stop crying, and feels the blood and tears running down her face.

“Who was in the other car?”

“Don’t know. Couldn’t find anyone.”

When Angela overhears the conversation her blood boils. Someone, likely drunk, hit a car full of children and ran away. She shakes her head. There’s time for anger later. She can’t get to the other side of the car, and her heart falls when she sees Jesse. He’s barely conscious, but still breathing. His handsome face will be heavily bruised and scarred for a while. She helps him out, and he starts rousing as she puts him on a stretcher.

“Wha’ happnd?” his mouth is full of blood and he can’t speak properly.

“Someone hit you. You’ll be alright.”

She turns one of the other EMTs. “Was there someone in the middle seat?”

He nods. “Young woman. Unconscious, but she started to come to when we got her in the ambulance.”

The other ambulance arrives, and they opt to put Jesse in that one. Hana hasn’t calmed down yet, and they didn’t want her to distress him.

Her heart drops when she sees Genji. He’s by far the worst, his body will be heavily scarred if he manages to survive at all. They had to cut him free of the door, and there’s glass in his face. He hasn’t regained consciousness yet.

They have to wait for the fire department to get Lena out. Angela sits in the bloodstained passenger seat to comfort her.

She turns to her, fear etched in her face. Her nose is bleeding heavily where the airbag hit it, and she can tell there’s a gash on the other side of her head. “Angela…” is all she can manage.

The hand close to her is uninjured. She squeezes it tightly. “I know. You’ll be okay.”

“I- I’m…” she trails off.

“Scared? That’s normal. That’s okay. We’ll get you out of this just fine.”

She shakes her head. “Sorry.”

“Angela,” someone else says. “Hana says she needs you and we need to get back.”

“I have to go now. You’ll be fine. I’ll see you as soon as you’re in the hospital.”

Lena nods, silently crying. Angela hears the fire truck siren as she gets in the ambulance and they take off.

Hana’s much quieter now, but still clearly distraught. Angela takes her hand and strokes the parts of her hair that aren’t sticky with blood. She’s never seen Hana like this, she’s usually cheerful and ready to take on the world. It distresses her deeply to see her like this. She looks over to Efi, but can’t decode her face. She notices her breathing lightly and wincing with each breath, and she’s reminded of the conversation she overheard.

Don’t know. Couldn’t find anyone.

She rarely wishes harm on anyone, but now she hopes the driver will be found dead in a ditch.

Jack, Gabe, and Sombra are in the middle of Jeopardy! when the phone rings. Jack picks it up. “Hello?”

“Hello, are you Gabriel Reyes or Jack Morrison?”

“I’m Mr. Morrison.”

“This is the Michael Chu hospital, you’re the emergency contact number for Jesse and Hana Reyes-Morrison…” the blood drains from his face when the operator supplies him with the details.

“We’re on our way.”

Sombra: Hey

Sombra: Dad said to tell you that Genji and Jesse were in an accident

Sombra: Even though shouldn’t your dad have told you that?

Sombra: He also said to tell you that we can give you a ride if you need

Hanzo: What happened??

Sombra: Even though, again, that should be your dad’s job

Sombra: He said they got in a car crash and they’re in the hospital

Hanzo: Are they alright?

Sombra: Don’t know.

Sombra: Dad says text us where we should meet you (I assume your house?)

Hanzo: No

Hanzo: The pizzeria a few blocks away.

Sombra: Be right there

Lena, Hana, Jesse, and Efi are all in the same room, but Genji’s in the ICU. Hanzo asks to see him, but gets turned away, so he joins three other families in his boyfriend’s room. By the time they’ve all arrived, everyone’s been stitched up, had glass picked out of them, and x-ray’d. Hana’s finally calmed down from hysterical to upset but able to talk. Jack talks to her first while his husband and daughter find Jesse.

“You alright, kiddo?”

“I- I think.”

“Hurt bad?”

She nods. “I was… I was so scared,” she starts to tear up again. “I felt so trapped, and everyone else was unconscious, and—” she’s cut off by her own sobs.

Jack wants so badly to hug her, but doesn’t want to hurt her. He grabs her hand and squeezes. “It’s alright, sweetheart. You’re here now. Everything’s alright.”

Meanwhile, Lena stares straight at the wall. Her parents try to make sure she’s ok, but she can barely answer.

“Are you hurt?”

She mumbles in response.

“Sweetie, what’s wrong? You can tell us.”

She mumbles in response.

Efi’s parents and Orisa crowd around her bed. Orisa’s too young to properly understand mortality, but she can tell her sister’s in pain.

“What exactly happened?” her dad asks.

“Lena was driving and someone hit us. That’s all I know.” Breathing hurts, so she speaks quietly and keeps her answers short.

“Does it hurt?” Orisa asks.

“Yeah.”

“Do you need a hug?”

Efi smiles. “Yes. Gentle.”

Their mom lifts her onto the bed, and she gently embraces her older sister. Efi smiles and uses her free arm to hug her back. “Thank you.”

“You alright, cowboy?” Sombra asks.

“Should be soon. Not sure about this arm, though.” His left arm is heavily bandaged, and will probably need a cast. “And I guess my modeling career is over,” he jokes. “More worried about Hana, to be honest. They put us in a different ambulance because she couldn’t stop screaming.” He looks over to her, and can see her crying. “I’d go check on her, if I was you guys. I’ll be fine.”

He has a similar conversation with his other dad, then sees Hanzo approach. Jack gives Hanzo the usual distrusting look he gives, but gives the two boys some alone time.

They talk for a little, but then a group of doctors come in to take them away to get fixed up and transferred to room better suited for their needs. The families start to clear out.

“Sir, can I talk to you minute?” Hanzo asks. “Alone.”

Jack nods and silently leads him away.

“I know you don’t trust me or my brother,” he says.

“I don’t trust your family. We’ve had to deal with them enough before they moved here.”

“I know. But I am not following in their footsteps, and neither is Genji. Neither of us wish to be like our father. I hope you can grow to trust me, because I’m not going anywhere.”

Jack sighs. “I do have to admit, so far you strike me as a fine kid. But you have to understand, I’ve dealt with your family and people like it for far too long, and now you’re tangling my son up with it.”

Hanzo shakes his head “Nothing could be further from the truth. Genji and I are trying to untangle ourselves.”

Angela planned on going back to the first aid squad building, but she had to check in Genji first.

“Is he going to be alright? Please tell me he’ll be alright.”

The doctor sighs. “Miss, I wish I could, but there’s a blood shortage. Not enough people donating to make up for the amount of accidents. He desperately needs a blood transfusion, but it’ll be difficult to get enough blood for him to recover.

“Take mine,” she insists.

“Excuse me?”

“I’m O negative, I can donate to anybody.”

“Miss, this is highly unorthodox, we can’t just—”

She cuts him off. They argue for a while, but Angela’s persistent and soon enough, she’s sitting with a needle in her arm and the hope of relief on her face.

Jack and Gabe lie awake in their bed. As far as they can tell, Jesse and Hana will be fine, they suffered some breaks and lacerations, but for the most part they’ll heal with little complications. They’re most worried about Jesse’s arm and Hana’s mental state.

“I’ve never seen her like that,” Jack says. “She was so scared, even though she was in the hospital it was like she was still trapped in the car.”

“I know what you mean. But she’s a trooper. Give her a couple days and she’ll be fine.”

“I hope you’re right.”

Gabe realizes something. “Jack… do you think we should call Dr. Harold? Tell him that maybe we’re not ready yet?”

Dr. Harold is a social worker. They’d visited him the day after their beach trip to talk to him about how they’d been considering adopting another child. He’d told them about “stork-drop” adoptions, where if a child of any age’s parents were no longer available to take care of them, a social worker would place the child in their care.

“Yes, first thing in the morning. We need to make sure Hana and Jesse recover first.”

Much later that night, after visiting hours are over, the four kids lie awake in their room. Lena stews in her own guilt, with every painful breath from Efi or whimper from Hana as she jars her ribs leaving marks on her soul.

“Guys… I’m so sorry,” she whispers.

“For what?” Jesse asks.

“It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have been driving that fast.”

“Don’t be stupid. It was some drunk asshole that hit us, not you.”

If it weren’t for me everyone would be home right now, she thinks, but doesn’t say. She doesn’t sleep that night, just waits for the sun to come up.

As soon as visitor hours start, Angela’s there to see them. Everyone else managed to get to sleep, so she goes to talk to Lena, who’s been staring at the same wall with the same dead expression on her face. “Is everything alright?”

“It was my fault.”

“You hit your own car? I must say, that’s quite a feat.” Normally this would get a laugh out of her, but she just shakes her head.

“I was driving too fast.”

“But they hit your car, not the other way around. I’ve been telling you to drive slower since you got your license, but this is in no way your fault.”

“If I was driving the speed limit I wouldn’t have been there. It would’ve been gone before we got there.”

“Lena, that’s ridiculous. You can apply that logic to anything. If one driver had been driving faster or slower, just about any accident wouldn’t have happened. They were probably drunk, if they hadn’t been drinking, they wouldn’t have hit you, and drunk driving is much more illegal than speeding.”

Lena says nothing.

“You have to recover from this psychologically too, and you won’t be able to until you realize this isn’t your fault. And I’m sure our friends here would agree with me on this.”

“Is Genji going to be okay?”

“We don’t know yet.”

Angela reads her face. She can tell there’s still soul-burdening guilt in her, but there’s nothing else she can think to do.

“Angela,” Hana says.

Angela gets up and goes to her. “Feeling alright?”

She shakes her head. Angela checks her board. Glass lacerations on her face and chest, as well as one broken rib and three fractured.

“Yeah, looks like you’ll feel like crap for a bit, but you’ll be better in no time. Sleep well?” she asks.

She shakes her head.

“Need me to get you anything? Your dads will probably be here soon, but until then I can help with anything.”

She shakes her head. “Just stay with me,” she whispers.

“Of course.”

Efi wakes up shortly after. “Good morning,” Angela says.

“Hey,” she whispers.

“I’ll be right back.” she gently pats Hana’s uninjured hand and checks Efi’s chart.

“Windpipe trauma,” she mutters. Efi looks worried. “No need to be concerned, it’ll heal. I was just curious why you were breathing like that.”

“Anything really bad on there?”

“No, you got out relatively unscathed. Mild concussion and a few fractures, you’ll be perfectly fine.”

She goes to sit down next to Hana. Efi turns to Lena. “You’ve been quiet, are you alright?”

Lena shakes her head somberly.

“She’s wasting energy feeling guilty for no reason,” Angela says.

“What do you mean?”

“It was my fault,” she says. “I shouldn’t have been driving so fast.”

“But we were telling you to go fast. We were cheering you on. So that would also make it our fault.”

“I didn’t have to listen.”

“And whoever hit you didn’t have to get drunk and drive a car,” Angela says.

“Exactly. We would’ve been just fine if it weren’t for that guy. Besides, you weren’t even going fast when we got hit. You were accelerating from a stop.”

Lena doesn’t say anything. Efi turns to Hana. “Hana, you’re with us, right? It’s not Lena’s fault? Shake your head if it isn’t, nod if it is.” The last three words are barely audible, but Hana gets the gist of it. She shakes her head.

“Alright, that’s enough talking for you, Efi, I can hear it straining your voice. Lena, no one in this room thinks you’re at fault, except for maybe Jesse but I highly doubt it. If you want to blame yourself, no one can stop you, but it’s a waste and you’re wrong.”

“Jeez, what’s with all the noise?” Jesse asks.

“Morning, cowboy. Glad to see you’re awake. Does your arm hurt?”

“Horrifically. Can’t wait to start my decline into morphine addiction.”

“You know, that’s really not funny.”

“It was a little bit.”

Angela sighs.

“Lena, we should tell Emily you’re here,” Jesse suggests. “And Lúcio,” he says to Hana.

“Want me to text him?” Angela asks. Hana nods. “How about you, Lena?” she shakes her head.

“Damn, Lena, what’s so interesting about that wall? You’ve been staring at it since last night.”

“Jesse, you don’t think it’s Lena’s fault that we’re here, do you?” Efi asks.

“Oh yeah, she mentioned that last night. ‘Course I don’t. It was that drunk jackass. Hope they find him soon, that fucker’s gonna be paying all of our tuitions. Sombra and Orisa too, maybe.”

Over the next few hours, everyone’s families are in and out of the hospital room. Lena’s parents try to get her to say more than a few words, but she refuses. Jesse’s heartbroken, he feels like his best friend is gone and he doesn’t know how to get her back.

“Angela, we really need to cheer her up,” he whispers to her.

“There’s nothing we can do, especially not here.”

“We need to figure something out,” he insists. “I hate seeing her like this. It’s like some ghost in Lena’s body.”

“I don’t like it either, but I think we just have to wait it out.”

“Can’t do that. She helped cheer me up when my ex cheated on me a few months ago, I need to return the favor. Lena!”

“Hm?”

“Wanna play a game?”

“No.”

He’s a little but relieved, he hadn’t thought of anything, but still disappointed.

“Come on, look around. We’re all okay here.”

“We’re all okay here?” she echoes. “Your arm is fucking ruined , your sister can barely talk, Efi can barely breathe , and lord knows what’s going to happen to Genji.”

“What, this old thing?” he asks, pointing to his arm. “I like it better this way. Maybe I’ll get a sick metal arm or something.” This gets a giggle Efi and a smile from Hana, but nothing from Lena.

“Alright. I’ve said it before, but I don’t think this was your fault in the slightest. But if it was, and it’s not, but if it was, I’d forgive you. But there’s nothing to forgive anyway.”

“Really? You got in a car accident and you’d just say ‘oh it’s fine, no big deal’?” she asks, her voice heavy with sarcasm.

“No, I’m still suing the crap out of that drunk shithead once we find him. But I would forgive you if you needed forgiving.”

“I’m with Jesse here,” Efi says. “Please stop hating yourself for this.”

“Hana…”

Hana holds out her hand with her thumb, index, and pinky extended, sign language for “I love you.”

Lúcio almost sprints into the hospital once he arrives. After several stern warnings from various employees, he makes it to their room. “Hana!”

When she sees him, the same song they were playing when he kissed her for the first time starts in her head. Just like then, it makes her smile. “Hey,” she whispers.

“Can I hug you?”

She shakes her head, disappointed. “Broken ribs. Kiss me?”

He presses his lips against her forehead, cheeks, and lips.

“Yuck! Get a room!” Efi grins.

“Yeah, guess I should introduce you,” Hana says. “You know Jesse and Lena, we have Efi over there, and…” the rest trails off into inaudible whispers. Angela shakes his hand. “I’m Angela, I’m one of the paramedics that helped them.”

“Oh, then it is awesome to meet you. Thanks so much for what you do.”

Angela moves herself next to Lena so Lúcio can be next to Hana.

“Excuse me, partner,” Jesse says. “What exactly are your intentions with my sister?”

“Excuse me?”

“Just ignore him, he’s screwing around.”

“I’m only gonna warn you once, if you dishonor—”

“Oh my God, that’s not even what cowboys do,” Hana interrupts. “Leave him alone.”

“I’m telling Emily to come.”

“Don’t.”
“Lena, you need cheering up. Emily’s just the one to do it. I’m telling her what happened.”

Lena groans but doesn’t protest further.

“I don’t look… too bad, do I?” Hana asks.

“Even prettier than the day I met you.”

“That says more about the day he first met you, though,” Jesse interrupts.

“Jesse, go over there so Efi can hit you.”

“I’ll do it, too.”

“Father,” Hanzo starts. “Do we know what will happen to Genji?”

“There is an experimental procedure where much of the injured parts of his body can be replaced with cybernetics. It increases his likelihood of survival by a lot, but costs a fortune.”

“You will pay though, right?”

“For you or your cousins, definitely. Genji, though, has shown that he will not support the family in its empire. There is no point in saving him.”

“Father, I beg you to reconsider. I’m sure we have more than enough to afford it, and Genji will owe you his life. You could form an agreement where you will only pay to save him if he vows to join our empire.”
He pauses. “I will consider it.”

“Lena?” Emily asks, finding the right room.

“Hey.”

“Oh my God, are you alright?” she asks.

“She will be,” Angela promises. She relocates herself again so Emily can sit with her.

“How’re you feeling?”

“Terrible.”

“Aww. Don’t worry, I’m here for you. If you need anything, I’ve got you covered.”

I don’t deserve it, she wants to say, but doesn’t.

Chapter Text

Efi’s the first to get checked out, leaving before the day is done. She says goodbye to her friends and promises to visit them the next day, hugging who she can. Then she asks if she can see Genji. They say he’s still in the ICU and will soon be undergoing intensive surgery.

“I feel I owe it to you to tell you this,” Mr. Shimada says to his son. “Originally, we did not intend to save you. We knew you did not intend to join the family business, so you were of no worth to us. However, your brother has made a proposal. We will pay to save your life if you swear loyalty to our family and vow to join the family business.”

“I… promise,” he lies. Keeping promises means nothing to his father, why should Genji bother keeping up his end of the deal?

“Very good. I’m glad this ended well for the both of us.”

For a little while that afternoon, it’s just the three of them. “I can’t get it out of my head,” Hana whispers.

“What?” her brother asks.

“The crash. I just keep seeing the window fly out at me.” It’s quiet for a few moments, no one’s exactly sure what to say. “I hate it here,” Hana says. “Can’t do anything but think about the crash.”

“Alright, let’s do something to take our minds off it.”

“Like what?”

“Not sure.”

Defeated, they sit quietly in their beds. Jesse’s struck with an onslaught of memories of all the times when they were younger and he just wished Hana would stop talking because she annoyed the crap out of him.

Careful what you wish for , he thinks, and almost spits out a bitter laugh. He looks over at her. It’s very likely that her face will end up moderately scarred into adulthood. He remembers her desire to be a streamer, and knows that how a streamer looks can influence their audience. Hopefully they’d see it as a sign of her being a badass. Hopefully. He does.

He looks at Lena. Neither of the girls have been the same since the accident. If either of their new personalities are permanent he’d probably cry. Cheery, energetic, “Cheers, loves!” Lena was his best friend for years. It’s almost like she died and the self-loathing shell only serves to remind him of her.

An hour before Jesse’s surgery, his family comes to visit. His dads reassure him that everything will be alright, but of the three people in the room, he’s least worried about himself. Sombra sits next to Hana.

“Hey.”

“Hey.”

“Feeling better?”

“A little.”

“You’re gonna be alright. You might even be out of here by tonight.”

“How do you know?”

“A magician never reveals her secrets,” she grins.

“Wish I could go home now. I hate it here.”

“Yeah, I can see why. Don’t worry, we’ll get you home soon.”

A couple hours later, Jesse returns from surgery. “How’d it go?” Hana asks.

“Left arm is officially paralyzed,” he says. He doesn’t quite sound cheerful, but he seems a lot more positive than most people would be when reporting that.

“They’re gonna keep him here overnight and figure out a plan in the morning,” Jack says. “Hana, the doctors are planning on discharging you within a few hours, they’re just waiting on a few tests to make sure your lungs are alright.”

Sure enough, she’s out before nightfall. Her dads have already set up her bed so she could sleep sitting up, and got her a doctor-recommended pillow for comfort. She has to walk very slowly, and her dads patiently take her to the car. She feels her heart pounding when she gets into the backseat, but tells herself she’ll be alright.

She uses one hand to clutch the pillow to her chest and the other to grab onto the door so tight her knuckles are white. She glances around anxiously, making sure there’s nothing that can hit them. Fortunately, Gabe’s a careful driver, and goes especially slowly on the drive home.

By the time they pull into the driveway, Hana’s sweating and her heart’s pounding so hard it’s making her nauseous. Jack helps her out of the car and into the house.

After being in the hospital so long, she decides she needs a shower. She looks up at the stairs, and is suddenly very glad they have a backup shower downstairs. She gets a change of clothes and gets into the downstairs bathroom, locking the door behind her, and turns the shower on hot.

She tries taking off her shirt, but not long into the process a flash of pain strikes her ribs. She struggles for a while, trying to get her shirt off in a way that wouldn’t hurt her. She tries to muffle the automatic cries of pain and frustration so as not to draw any attention from outside.

When she finally succeeds, her face is bright red. She discards the shirt and looks at herself in the mirror. She caught glimpses of herself in mirrors and windows, but never actually looked at herself since the accident. Her right side sports a massive colorful bruise. Red scars run along her face and chest, most of the larger ones stitched shut. The deepest one runs across her cheek, stopping a few centimeters short of her mouth. She runs her fingers across them sadly.

Hana’d always seen herself as moderately attractive, but she thinks the scars completely ruin her. Lúcio or her friends might tell her she’s still beautiful, but she’d think they’re lying. In her eyes, the accident ruined her. She pulls herself away from the mirror before she cries yet again, and finishes undressing so she can shower.

“Lena, please talk to me.”

“About what?”

“Anything. A week ago you could lock us in a room together and we wouldn’t shut up. What’ve you been thinking about this whole time?”

“You don’t want me to answer that. What’ve you been thinking about?”

“Mostly fantasizing about all the fun things I could do when I track down the guy who hit us.”

“You’re not actually going to try to find him, are you?” Lena asks, worry heavy in her voice.

“Nah. That’s better left to the professionals. Just something to think about while bored out of my mind. Your turn.”

“I told you, you don’t want to hear the answer.”

“Yeah, I do. You can tell me anything.”

“I’ve been trying to figure out ways to blame myself.”

“Lena—”

“I know . Deep inside, I know it wasn’t me. But for some reason I just keep trying to blame myself and I don’t know why. It’s just all I can think about.”

He can hear her about to cry. After the last two days, he can’t take any more of that.

“Whenever me or my sisters got anxious or worried about something, my dads always told us that the best way to escape the monsters in our heads was to go outside of them. So let’s talk about something else. Tell me about Emily.”

“She’s just really sweet, you know? Whenever someone has a problem she’s always on top of it, and if she can’t fix it she’ll make sure you feel like everything’s ok. She can sing really well, she’s been in choir forever, when she opens her mouth she’s like an angel.” Through the darkness, Jesse can tell she’s finally smiling.

“She’s really pretty, too.”

“I’ve noticed.”

“Way out of my league—”

“Haven’t noticed that.”

“What? You’re crazy.”

“Come on, you’re adorable. Would’ve asked you on a date in tenth grade if you weren’t already out.”

“Really?”

“Of course. Would’ve had to wait in line too, but I know you would’ve picked me,” he flashes her a grin.

“You’re mad!”

They talk well into the night, before Lena’s exhaustion catches up to her and she eventually passes out. Jesse celebrates internally, and he finally feels like she’ll be ok.

The next morning, he’s up before she is. He picks up the western novel Gabe left with him after surgery and reads until visitor hours start. He sees Angela approaching his room, and quickly flips the book upside down in his hands.

“Mornin’,” he says.

“Hello. I didn’t know you could read,” she jokes.

“Yeah, it’s not going very well.”

“May I suggest…” she takes the book and turns it rightside up.

“Yeah, that’s not helping much. I think I’m a lost cause in this department.”

“It happens,” she says, the corners of her mouth turning slightly upwards. “How’re you feeling?”

“I’m alright. They said they’re gonna try to figure out what to do about my arm this morning and hopefully get me out of here today.”

“And how’s Lena doing?”

“A little better. She told me that she knows it wasn’t her fault we got into the accident but she keeps trying to blame herself anyway, so I tried to take her mind off of it and we talked until she fell asleep.”

“You got her to talk and fall asleep?”

“I’m good, I know.”

“That’s impressive.”

Nine PM. Hana tries to get to sleep. Ten PM. She’s still awake. Eleven PM. She finally drifts off. Twelve AM. The car hits her again. She wakes up, terrified. One AM. She lies awake with her eyes open. Two AM. She’s forced asleep again. She’s standing over her bloody corpse, screaming. Three AM. She’s playing Pokemon to try to stay awake. Four AM. She’s passed out, DS fallen from her hands onto her lap. Five AM. She’s still asleep. Six AM. The car hits her again. Dawn breaks in the window. She’s dead tired, but tries to get up.

Standing up again is a long and arduous process, but she eventually manages to stand and stabilize herself without getting hurt.

Might as well practice Starcraft , she thinks. She’s about to turn on her computer, but she realizes she doesn’t want to play Starcraft. She doesn’t really want to play anything. Even the Pokemon game she was playing hours ago doesn’t seem that appealing now that she doesn’t need to force herself to stay awake.

She gets her phone and headphones, but before starting the music deletes Gas, Gas, Gas and the rest of the Initial D soundtrack off of her phone.

She stares at her computer. She doesn’t want to play games and she doesn’t want to sleep.

Netflix it is . She sits on her desk chair and turns on her computer. After a couple episodes, Jack taps on her door.

“Hana? You awake?”

“Yeah. Come in.”

He can’t help but notice the dark circles under her eyes. “You haven’t been up all night, have you?”

“Nope. I slept.” About two hours , she doesn’t add.

“Alright, well, dad and I are leaving to have a meeting with Jesse’s doctors. We’ll bring back bagels, and there are some leftovers to tide you over.”

“Awesome. Thanks.”

Just before Jesse’s meeting, Lena gets discharged. She makes sure to give Jesse a tight hug and thank him before leaving. “Good luck, cowboy.”

“See you soon, Lena. Keep busy to distract yourself. Hang out with Emily.”

“I will. See ya on the other side!”

Chapter Text

7/13/2017

Hana: Hey

Hana: Wanna talk?

Lúcio: I was just about to go to sleep

Lúcio: But I’ll stay up for you :)

Lúcio: What’s up?

Hana: Nothing much, just don’t feel like sleeping tonight.

Lúcio: What do you mean?

Hana: I slept last night, so I’m good.

Lúcio: …that’s not how that works

Hana: It’s worked for the past week and a half, it’s all good.

Lúcio: Hana, what’s wrong?

Hana: Nothing.

Lúcio: Hana, no one sleeps only every other night because nothing’s wrong. Why aren’t you sleeping?

Hana: Sleeping sucks, I could be playing games.

Lúcio: Your starcraft team has been bugging you since you got back from the hospital to play and you haven’t logged in once.

Lúcio: And on that topic, you’re barely on the server at all anymore.

Hana: Can we talk about something else?

Lúcio: Once you tell me what’s wrong!

Hana: Why do you care???

Lúcio: What do I care???

Lúcio: I’m supposed to be your *boyfriend*, Hana! I’m worried about you, and I can only hope you’d be worried about me too.

He sees the typing notification appear, then it goes away. She’s quiet for a few moments.

Lúcio: Wouldn’t you?

She goes offline.

He stares half-broken at his phone, then shuts it off and angrily turns over in his bed, trying to get some sleep.

Hana stares at her computer, almost as upset. She makes a promise to herself to apologize once she’s thinking straight, then sneaks downstairs to get more coffee.

She looks at her computer. The array of games coating her desktop still doesn’t appeal to her, so she spends the night on reddit and twitter. A few of her followers ask when she’ll be streaming next, and she makes a vague, empty promise of “soon”.

It’s barely midnight. The worst part about staying up all night is just how long it takes. She finds a playlist of old AVGN videos and settles on that.

Around two, she has trouble keeping her eyes open. She struggles and drinks more coffee, but her brain pulls her into her own unconscious.

She’s in the car accident again, screaming. Her scars feel like they’re on fire. Lúcio stands a couple feet away, shouting “I’m supposed to be your boyfriend, Hana!”

She’s jolted awake when the AVGN starts screaming obscenities through her headphones. She pauses the video and switches back to messenger.

Hana: Of course I would.

Hana: I’m so sorry, if you were acting like this I’d be worried and I’m glad you’re worried about me.

Lúcio only managed to get half asleep, and jolts awake when he hears his phone go off.

Lúcio: It’s ok

Lúcio: Can we talk about it?

Hana: Ever since I got home, when I try to go to sleep I have nightmares, so I only sleep every other night, and when I do it’s only for a couple hours.

Lúcio: Jesus

Lúcio: Have you told your dads about it yet?

Hana: Not yet.

Hana: I can deal with it for now, there’s no need to get them worried.

Lúcio: If you say so.

Lúcio: Just promise me you’ll go to them if you need to.

Hana: I will.

Lúcio: Are you going to go to sleep now?

Hana: Just woke up. Fuck no.

Hana: Wanna watch some movies on rabbit?

Lúcio: Sure!

Lúcio: Just tonight though, I’m not encouraging this.

It’s the next evening, and Hana’s dreading going to sleep again. She tries to argue with herself that technically she slept last night, but a half-hour nightmare session doesn’t count.

She goes incognito on her phone and looks up medicine that causes dreamless sleep. One of the names sounds familiar. She pockets her phone and works her way up to the upstairs bathroom. After locking herself in, she opens the medicine cabinet, and sure enough, she sees one of her dads’ pill bottles from the VA with the same name she just found.

Recommended use: For persons 18 and older, take one to two pills before going to sleep. Do not exceed 3 pills in a 24 hour period. For persons 18 and under, consult a doctor before use.

She shrugs, deciding it’ll probably be fine. She’ll only take one. She pockets it, makes her way down the stairs, and wraps it in a gum wrapper in her room. By ten thirty, she’s completely exhausted. She takes the sleeping pill without a second thought and prepares to drift off.

She wakes up almost twelve hours later. For the first time in almost two weeks, she’s completely rested. She eases herself out of bed and onto the floor, and heads downstairs for breakfast.

“Finally sleeping in again?” Jack asks.

“Yeah, looks like it.”

“Good. Genji’s finally getting out of the hospital today, so Jesse and Sombra are going to visit them, if you want to tag along.”

“I think I’m just going to stay home.”

“Alright. But you really should get out of the house for a little bit soon. You’ve been looking really pale lately.”

“Moving around kinda hurts lately, dad,” she says, with a bit more attitude than either of them would have liked.

“I’m not saying to go out for a jog or anything. At least go sit outside for a bit or go out with your friends. We’re worried about you.”

She offers a noncommittal “Hm.”

As Lena still refuses to drive, Jack drives her and his kids over to the park where they’re celebrating Genji’s return.

“Why not do it at your house?” Jesse asks.

Hanzo shrugs. “Genji likes it here,” he says, which isn’t strictly a lie, but he feels guilty as if he told one.

For the time being, Genji’s wheelchair-bound, but undergoing physical therapy so he can eventually walk on his own. His face is heavily scarred, but still recognizable. One of his arms has been amputated and replaced with a metal prosthetic, and many of his shattered bones were replaced with metal.

“So, you’re a cyborg now, huh?” Jesse asks.

“Looks like it,” Genji replies, his face contorted into as close to a grin as it can get at the moment.

“Pretty badass.”

Lena comes sprinting up. She’d recently gotten her stitches out, leaving only a scar and a bruise on her head. “You’re okay!” she cheers.

“New and improved! Getting through airport security will be a chore now, I suppose. What’s been happening while I was away?”

“Nothing much, really,” Jesse says. “Lena, Emily, Hanzo, and I have been hanging out a lot, going on some adventures. Hana hasn’t been holding up that well, I don’t think she’s sleeping. Or gaming.”

Angela can’t help but overhear. “Hana hasn’t been gaming?”

“Nope. Actually, let me check real quick.” He pulls out the steam app on his phone, finds his sister’s profile, and checks the “recently played” tab. “Yeah, it says just a couple hours in the last two weeks, and most of them were before the accident.”

“And she hasn’t been sleeping either?”

“Yeah, she’s not looking so good. Got dark circles under her eyes, real bad.”

Angela frowns. “I should probably talk to her soon.”

Genji’s having a hard time hearing her words. He’s had a minor crush on her since he moved here, but since she saved his life he’s having a hard time not seeing her with wings and a halo and heavenly light shining behind her.

Sombra appears as if from nowhere. “Apparently uncle Rein might be moving to town,” she says as Angela turns away.

“Where’d you hear that?” Jesse asks.

“Overheard dads talking about it the other night.”

“And you said moving?”

“Yep. So we’ll probably be going to school with Fareeha next year.”

Jesse groans. “What’s the matter?” Lena asks.

“We couldn’t stand her growing up,” Sombra explains. “We haven’t seen her in a while, though, so you never know, maybe she’s cool now.”

That night, Hana sneaks upstairs to get another sleeping pill from the medicine cabinet. Just as she’s starting to leave, Gabriel calls everyone downstairs, and she almost jumps three feet in the air. She calms herself down, realizing he couldn’t possibly have any idea she was taking his medicine, and breathes as deep as she can manage on her way downstairs. She pockets the pill and joins her siblings on the couch. Her dads sit on their recliners, facing them.

“Okay,” Jack starts. “Hana, can you take the headphones off?” She obliges. “All of you probably know by now, but dad and I have been wanting to adopt another kid. Jesse and Sombra, you’re going off to college next year, and quite frankly, we’re not ready to be empty-nesters yet.”

Gabe picks up from there. “Now, instead of going through the standard adoption process like we did with Hana and Sombra, we’re going with shortlist adoption, like we did with Jesse. What shortlist means is that we have to be ready for an adoption at a moment’s notice. With Jesse, we got him within a few hours of his birth, but there’s a chance that we’ll get an older child who’s been emancipated or taken from a parent for one reason or another.”

“So we could get someone our age?” Sombra asks.

“It’s very unlikely,” Gabe answers.

“Most shortlist adoptions occur when a mother wants their child to be adopted right after their birth, and it’s less likely for a child to be put into shortlist the older they get.”

“Why now?” Sombra asks. “These two were just in a car accident.”

“But we’re fine now,” Jesse interjects.

“Exactly,” Jack says. “We had actually just finished meeting with a social worker a couple of hours before the accident, and were planning on telling you when you all got home. Clearly that couldn’t happen, so we waited until you’ve all recovered. We know we’re all ready now.”

The pill in Hana’s pocket feels like it weighs a thousand pounds and burns a thousand degrees.

“Where are they going to sleep?” Sombra asks.

“If they’re a boy, Jesse’s room, and if they’re a girl, Hana’s room.”

“Wait, what?” Hana asks.

“You have the bigger room,” Sombra gloats.

“We put ourself back on the shortlist this morning,” Jack says. “So we could have to wait a couple weeks or this could happen very soon.”

“Genji, are you drunk?” Hanzo asks. “You’re on painkillers, you can’t be drinking!”

“Of course I’m not drunk!”

Hanzo suddenly recognizes the smell filling his room. “Ah.”

“Dad said he didn’t want to save my life. He said it was too expensive and I wasn’t going to be of use to the family.”

“I know, brother.”

“But you convinced him otherwise?”

“I did my best.”

“He made me promise to join the family business.”

“I know. I made the suggestion.”

“We’re not joining the family business, are we?”

“Of course not.”

“We’re running away, aren’t we?”

Hanzo sighs. “That is looking like the best option.”

“What about Jesse?”

A couple days later, a beat up station wagon parks outside the Reyes-Morrison household. Sombra watches her hulking beast of an uncle unfold himself out of the car, and open the door for his wife.

“Oh shit, check this out.” She waves her brother over as Fareeha gets out of the car. She’s radically different from her last visit, she now sports a short, almost spiky haircut not too different from Lena’s. She wears an Imagine Dragons t-shirt with the sleeves torn off, and jean shorts cut a little too far up her thigh.

“Dad, Reinhardt’s here!” Sombra calls.

A few minutes later, Jack’s happily wrapped in a bear hug from his brother that would easily crush a lesser man. “It has been too long, Jack!” he roars in a way that makes the kids wonder how their aunt isn’t deaf yet.

“Definitely! Glad you’re coming here. Want to come in for breakfast, or just head out now?”

“Early bird gets the worm! Let’s get started now.”

Jack joins Reinhardt and Ana in their search for a house, leaving Fareeha with his kids.

“You’re cool with me hanging around, right? I know we annoyed the crap out of each other when we were younger.”

“It’s all good,” Jesse says. “I’ll get my friend Lena, we’ll give you the grand tour.”

“Sounds good.”

Sombra knocks on Hana’s room, where she’s sitting at her computer with purple semicircles embedded under her eyelids. “Did you sleep?”

“No.”

“Wanna come give Fareeha the special Lena and Jesse tour?”

“No.”

“Lame. You should get some sleep. Or at least eat something.”

“Maybe.”

When she walks back into the living room, Jesse’s coordinating a decently sized exploration group.

“You go by Sombra now, right?”

“Yep.”

“Cool.”

“Alright, we’re meeting up at Dunkin so everyone can get coffee to wake up and then we’ll give you the grand tour.”

“Who’s coming?” Sombra asks.

“Definitely Lena and Hanzo, probably Efi, Angela, and Amelie, and Genji’s going to try to come out but he probably can’t.”

By the time they make it to Dunkin, Lena’s already there and in the middle of her second coffee. Jesse notes this. “Lena, you’re starting to have a serious problem,” he jokes.

“I don’t have a problem with caffeine. In fact, I love the stuff. So, this is your cousin?”

“Hey,” Fareeha waves.

Angela shows up next, and is almost instantly enamored with the girl hanging around her friends. In the two and a half minutes it takes for her to order her coffee, she’s already imagined falling in love, going to college, getting married, and buying a house with her.

Fareeha, meanwhile, is pleasantly surprised that the pretty girl is apparently going to be spending the day with them. She introduces herself, and swears she feels something when their hands touch.

The next night, Jesse’s watching a Clint Eastwood marathon on TV when he gets a text from Genji. It’s a screenshotted snap from one of the junkers of what seems to be a pretty intense party. He immediately receives another, this one zoomed in on the corner of the picture. He can see his sister’s blurry face and blank expression in the background.

Jesse: Where is that?

Weeb: A party

Jesse: Which one??

Weeb: Androxus, I think

Jesse: ewww

He texts Hana to confirm.

Jesse: Hana

Jesse: Where are you?

Hana: I tolf uu

Hana: Wnnt 4  wlk

Jesse’s first instinct is to drive straight over to Androxus’s house, but his dads are out shopping for kid stuff and said that either him or Sombra had to stay in the house in case a social worker came by. Naturally, Sombra had ran off as soon as he said that, trapping Jesse in the house. He tries texting Sombra a few times, but remembers that she’s at a movie. He racks his brain, trying to think of who else he could reach.

Angela and Fareeha are both very much enjoying exploring each others mouths, only to be interrupted by an annoying vibration from Angela’s phone.

Jesse: Angela!!

Jesse: You’re at the Androxus party, right?

“You should probably take that,” Fareeha says, trying to mask how much she doesn’t want her to take that.

Angela: Yeah, what’s up

Jesse: Can you check to see if Hana’s there?

“It’s your cousin,” Angela says. “Apparently Hana’s here somewhere.”

“Yeah, make sure she’s ok,” Fareeha says. “Hurry back.”

“I will.” She hurries out of the room, asking partygoers if they’d seen an out of place Korean sophomore anywhere.

She eventually finds her alone in the backyard, leaning against a tree with her knees pressed to her chest. She kneels down to talk to her.

“Hana, are you alright?”

She shakes her head but doesn’t answer. Her face is splotchy red, and pale where it isn’t.

“Why are you here?”

“Wanted to get drunk,” she says, and when she opens her mouth she can smell the beers she drank.

“Why?”

“I’ve been a mess ever since the crash, and I thought this would help.”

“Did it?”

“It’s so much worse.” Her voice wavers, foretelling the incoming tears. “I don’t want to be here anymore.”

“That’s ok, I can take you home.”

She shakes her head violently and the tears start to fall. “I don’t want to be… I don’t…” She struggles. “What if I…” she shakes her head. “I thought alcohol was supposed to make you feel better.”

“No. It just makes you not like you.”

“That’s what I wanted… but it’s just worse.”

“Can you tell me how you’ve been feeling since the crash?”

“I haven’t been sleeping… I haven’t been wanting to do anything… I’ve barely talked to Lúcio… I’m so scared to go back to school…” a brief sob falls from her lips, “I almost turned back on the walk over here three times.” It’s hard for Angela to understand her between the tears and the way she’s slurring her words.

“Come on, I’ll take you home.” As she helps Hana to her feet, she finds Fareeha on messenger.

Angela: Need to take Hana home

Angela: I’ll be back soon

Fareeha: My balls are fucking blue, Zeigler

Fareeha: You’d better make this up to me

Fareeha: ;)

Angela: Whatever you’d like, my dear.

Fareeha: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

“I don’t want to drive,” Hana slurs.

“You’re in no state to walk,” she says, opening the door for her.

Hana slowly lowers herself into the passenger’s seat. If she wasn’t drunk she’d be far too terrified to let anyone but her dads drive her anywhere.

“I’ll drive slow.”

“My dads are adopting another kid,” she says abruptly.

“Really?”

“They’ve wanted to for a while and they’re doing it now because they think we’re all ok. But I’m not.”

“You haven’t told them any of this?”

She shakes her head. “I thought I could handle it.”

“You can handle it. Just not on your own. You’ll be ok.”
“How do you know?”

“Because your friends and family love you and we all want to help you get better. The first step is telling your dads. And not sneaking off to parties and getting drunk.”

They’re home way sooner than Hana thinks they should be, and Angela walks her to the door. Jesse quickly answers it.

“Angela, thank you so much,” he says.

“Anytime.”
“What was she doing there?”

“I think she should be the one to tell you. I have to get going.”

“Alright, anything I can do to make this up to you?”

I think your cousin’s got it covered , she wants to say, but instead tells him there’s no need.

Hana sits across from her dads at the kitchen table, feeling like she’s being interrogated. She tells her dads about how she hasn’t been sleeping, about the nightmares, about how she’s barely been talking to any of her friends, about how anxious she’s been, about going and getting drunk at the party. She doesn’t tell them about stealing Gabe’s sleeping pills or how depressed the alcohol made her.

Her dads take turns hugging her with one arm and she starts to cry again. This time, though, she’s not crying out of fear or sadness, but for the first time in too long, in relief.

“Alright, we’ve received recommendations from several people that doctor Zenyatta—” Gabe starts.

“Zenyatta?” Hana asks, incredulous.

“Yes, Zenyatta. He’s apparently the best therapist in the area, and dad and I want you to meet with him privately once a week.”

“Fine by me.”

“I’m also going to pretend not to notice that almost a week’s worth of sleeping pills have vanished from the medicine cabinet.” Hana’s insides freeze. “However, if more start to disappear, I just might start to wonder where they’ve been going.”

“Okay,” she says as nonchalantly as possible.

“And no more going to parties.”

“Wasn’t planning on it.”

Their conversation is cut short by a rapping at the door. Gabe answers it, and immediately calls for Jack to come downstairs. Jesse and Sombra also come to see what the commotion is.

The family steps onto the porch in the warm July evening to greet a well dressed social worker outside a black car.

“—CPS took her from her father after repeated abuse, and her mother emancipated her to keep her out of the foster care system. Before we can make anything official, I need both of your verbal confirmation that you want to do this.”

Gabe and Jack both look at Hana, who nods. Both of them say yes as soon as she does, and the social worker unlocks the car. A scared looking Indian seven year old emerges from the car. There’s a bruise on her face and scars running down her arm.

“This is Satya,” she says.

Chapter Text

7/23/2017

While the kids work on making Hana’s room suitable for Satya to live in, the dads give her a tour of the house and get her fed. The three of them sit around the table, eating the pizza they’d ordered earlier.

“Why are you two men?” Satya asks.

“Well, most parents are men and women, but sometimes parents are two men or two women,” Gabe explains.

“But why?”

“It’s just the way some people are,” Jack says. “Like Hana’s a girl that likes boys and Jesse’s a boy that likes girls and boys, and their friend Lena’s a girl that likes girls.”

“Oh.” she takes a bite. “My dad said that men shouldn’t get married to other men.”

The two men share a look. “Well, what do you think?”

She shrugs. “I dunno. I guess it’s too late anyway since you’re already married.”

“Well around here, most people don’t really mind who you’re married to. We think love is love no matter who you’re with.”

She nods, as if she understands but hasn’t decided whether or not to agree yet.

“So,” Jesse says, “bet you weren’t expecting your new roommate to be seven.”

“As long as she doesn’t wake up crying at the worst hours of the night, I can deal.”

When they finish up in her room, she crashes down on her bed and takes out her phone.

Hana: New kid’s here

Lúcio: ???

Hana: Oh shit

Hana: Did I not tell you?

Lúcio: If it happened in the last couple days, probably not

Hana: Okay

Hana: One, I’m really sorry about going off the radar lately

Hana: Two,

She tells him everything from stealing her dad’s medicine, getting drunk at the party, her cousin moving, and finally the new arrival at their house.

Lúcio: Wait

Lúcio: Your cousin’s here?

Hana: …

Lúcio: But seriously, that’s a lot of information.

Hana: I know

Hana: I wish I told you earlier.

Lúcio: Why didn’t you?

Hana: I don’t know. I’m sorry.

She hears a tapping at the door, and it opens slightly. She sees the little girl peeking through. “Come on in.”

“Jack said I’m sharing your room.”

“Yep, this is it.” She walks in, cautiously observing it and her.

Listen here you little shits (Jesse, Lena, Hanzo, Angela, Fareeha --Active four hours ago)

Cowman: Looks like we’ve got a little sister

Lena the Hedgehog: Already?

Cowman: We haven’t formally adopted her yet, but she got dropped off a little while ago. Apparently she’s going to be living with us for a little while first.

Cowman: Also she’s seven

Cowman: Probably should’ve mentioned that.

Fareeha: You’re adopting a seven year old?

Cowman: Yeah

Cowman: Social Worker said she was abused by her dad and they had to take her away.

Handsoap: What’s she like?

Cowman: Not sure yet.

For about forty minutes, Hana sits in her room, unsure of exactly what to do. Satya’s been engrossed in a book Gabe gave her, not exactly giving Hana an opening to meet her new sister. Fortunately, a familiar smell starts to fill the house.

“Dad baked cookies, come with me,” Hana says.

“My mom says I’m not supposed to leave my room past eight thirty.”

“Well my dad says ‘I baked cookies, come and get them’. You’ll be fine.”

“Promise?” Satya asks. She doesn’t make eye contact, but from what Hana can tell there’s a sort of worry in her face.

“Of course. Now come on.” She gets off her bed and follows Hana downstairs, where the rest of the family’s already eating chocolate chip cookies and watching game shows in the living room.

“There you are,” Jack says. He offers her the tupperware they filled with cookies.

Satya takes one and studies it. “I’ve never had one of these before.”

“Never?” Jesse asks.

She shakes her head. “Mom said I couldn’t.”

She and Hana sit down on the couch. “What happened to your arm?” she asks Jesse, noticing the brace covering the limb.

“Hana and I were in a car accident earlier this month,” he says.

She turns to Hana. “Is that why your face is like that? And why you have that thing in your bed to make you sit up?”

“Yup, that’s it.”

“What about your arm?” Jesse asks.

She looks at her arm. It’s covered in scars and bent a bit weird. She shrugs. “I don’t remember. Mom and dad won’t tell me. When you were in the accident, did you guys hit the car or did the other car hit you?”

Jesse and Hana are speechless for a second, surprised by how unfazed she was and how easily she changed topic. “We got hit,” Jesse says.

“Were you driving?”

“No, our friend Lena was.”

“Is that the girl that likes other girls?”

Jesse can’t help but smile and suppress a chuckle. “Yeah, that’s her. Where’d you hear that?”

“Jack told me. He was explaining about how not all boys like girls and not all girls like boys.” She turns to Hana. “And since both of them like each other and Jesse likes girls and boys, does that make you the weird one?” Before she can answer, she turns to Sombra. “Although I’m not sure about you yet.”
“I’m definitely weird, trust me,” she laughs.

“How so?”

“I was born a boy.”

“But you’re a girl now?”

“Sure am.”

“How?”

“Sometimes your mind doesn’t feel the same way your body is.”

“So you changed it?”

“I’m in the middle of it.”

Satya nods. “Good.”

“Good?”

“Good,” she confirms, refusing to elaborate. Then she turns to Hana. “So since you’re a girl that’s always been a girl who doesn’t like girls, you’re the weird one here?”

“Guess so.”

She looks like she’s writing the information down in her head, and nods slightly when she finishes. “May I have another cookie?”

“Of course.”

When everyone winds down and goes to bed, Hana opens her desk drawer and unfolds a piece of paper. In it are the last two pills she took from her father’s medicine cabinet. She makes sure Satya isn’t looking, and takes one. She’s aware that in a few short nights she’ll have to face the nightmares again, but shoves that thought away.

“Are most nights like this?” Satya asks.

“Sometimes.”

“Are they ever really bad?”

“Almost never.”

“When have they been?”

“Well, if one of us comes home having done something really bad, dads will get mad, obviously. And since we’re siblings and kinda have to live together we’ll annoy each other a lot and sometimes we’ll get really angry, but we usually don’t, and we always get over it quickly.”

“Would you ever want to live anywhere else?”

“When I’m an adult and ready to move out, yeah. But now, I wouldn’t dream of it.”

Satya logs the information. “Okay.”

“Good night.”

Satya’s aware of the phrase, but this is the first time she can remember it being said to her. “Thank you.”

Chapter Text

7/24/2017

Satya wakes up on her first morning, briefly confused. She’s woken up by gentle sunlight instead of someone shouting, and the only thing she can hear is birds, cars, and gentle breathing. She finds her book and waits for someone to tell her she can leave the room.

After a couple minutes, she looks over to the girl whose room she’s sharing. Her face is apparently scared from the car accident, but she’s seen her neighbors or even her siblings get similar scars in much more violent ways. She seems to love her parents a lot, even though she’s not related to them. She supposes she could understand that, and if she finds Hana trustworthy then she could probably trust Jack and Gabe.

She hasn’t found any reason not to trust Hana, she seems nice so far, but she’s met a lot of people that seemed nice at first who would then just hurt her. She very much wants to trust her, but makes herself wait until she shows her true colors.

Then there’s Jesse. She hasn’t really talked to him much, but he seems friendly. She can’t imagine her real brother talking and laughing with someone he just met. She’ll wait a bit longer to decide if he’s genuine.

Sombra seems like the biggest mystery. She’s never met anyone who became a girl in the middle of their life. She also couldn’t really get a read on her. So the jury’s still out on all of them.

Then there’s the new house. Normally she hates big changes like this, but considering what happened at her old house, she feels a lot safer here. As long as she doesn’t get moved around too much, she’ll probably like it.

Hana wakes up not too long after. “Morning,” she says.

“Morning,” Satya replies.

“How’d you sleep?”

“Fine. Why are you asking?”

Hana shrugs. “It’s your first night here, wanted to make sure you slept well. How’re you feeling?”

“Hungry, I guess.”

“Alright, then, let’s go find something to eat.” She starts pulling herself out of bed.
“Can we? Are we allowed?”

“Yeah, of course.” She stands up, and Satya follows her.

“I was never allowed to leave my room until my mom let me out. Sometimes I couldn’t leave until noon.”

Once again, Hana’s shocked by how nonchalantly she can talk about stuff like that. She leads her to the kitchen and looks in the fridge and freezer. “Want frozen waffles?”

“I’ve never had them.”

“Want to try?”

“Sure.” Hana sticks two in the toaster and they sit at the table.

“How old were you when you got adopted?” Satya asks.

“A couple hours.”

“Was anyone else adopted as a kid?”

“No, we were all babies. Do you want to get adopted?”

“I don’t know yet. I don’t think I want to go home, though.”

“I’m sure you won’t have to.”

“Promise?”

“Well, I can’t promise, it’s all up to dads. I can’t imagine they’d send you back there though.”

The toaster goes off, and Hana pulls herself back up to get the waffles.

That afternoon, Hana has her first therapy session with Doctor Zenyatta.

“So, you say you were in a car crash?” His voice is soothingly monotone and has a strangely mechanical quality to it.

“Yeah, a couple weeks ago.”

“Corner of Numbani and Dorado streets?”

“Yeah, how’d you know?”

“It was right outside my house, I was the one who called 911.”

“Oh. Wow.”

“Were you the one screaming?”

“Yeah, that was me.” She looks slightly ashamed by this.

“Good. I’ve always believed things like that… screaming, crying, and the like… to be nature’s way of letting out the things trapped inside you.” He lets out a single chuckle. “And, of course, it makes sure other people can find and help you.”

Hana nods, unsure of how to respond.

“There were several people in the crash, correct?”

“Yeah.”

“Tell me about them.”
“Okay.” She starts with Jesse.

Describing her friends takes up two thirds of the session, and when she’s done she’s not entirely sure why she did it.

“So you’re here because the crash changed you?” the doctor asks.

“Yeah, I guess you could put it like that. The day I came home I was just generally depressed, but that kinda came and went. That night I had really bad nightmares, so I spent a week and a half sleeping every other night. Even when I did sleep, it was only for a couple hours at a time. I kinda neglected my boyfriend for a while and got really anxious from time to time. I also haven’t been playing games as much as I did. After I couldn’t stand not sleeping anymore, I found some of my dad’s pills that he got from the VA that were supposed to cause dreamless sleep and I’ve been using them for a little while, but I got caught and I’m stopping after tonight.”

Zenyatta scribbles all of this down. “Have you noticed any avoidance to cars or anything involved in the crash?”

“Yeah, for a while I got kinda anxious when I thought about leaving the house so I didn’t do it for a while, but I’ve definitely been avoiding riding in cars in general. I don’t think I can ride in a car unless one of my dads is driving, and even then I feel like I’m gonna be sick the whole time. Oh, I also deleted the song we were singing during the crash and a bunch of others like it from my playlist, and I haven’t been to the corner where the crash happened.”

She ends the session talking about the horrible experience she had at the party, as well as Satya’s recent appearance. Zenyatta says he wants to talk more next week privately hoping to confirm his hypothesis.

One night later, Hana’s walk to her room feels like the walk to her execution. She’s tempted to stay up all night, but she doesn’t want to keep Satya up or set a bad example for her. Her only choice is to try to go to sleep and take it.

Satya’s already in bed, but awake. “Whenever I asked my dad where babies come from, he told me that it’s not something girls should be asking about,” she says abruptly. “Which never made much sense to me because my mom must’ve known the answer, but when I asked her she wouldn’t tell me.”

“Yeah, it’s definitely something girls should know about,” Hana says, a little worried about where the conversation is going.

“So I asked Jack and Gabe, and they explained it, but I still have some questions. Can I ask you?”

Oh jeez, here we go, she thinks. “Yeah, go ahead.”

“So they said men have penises where girls have vaginas, and women can get pregnant when men put their penis in the vagina. And then they told me I shouldn’t do that until I’m an adult or even older, and then Gabe said something about kicking something, not me, and Jack told him not to say that but that he was right.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“So if a guy stuck their penis in one of our vaginas, we’d get pregnant.”

“I might. You’re too young.”

“Why?”

She does her best to try to explain periods.

“So because you get your period, you can get pregnant, but I don’t have mine yet, so I can’t?”

“Exactly.”

“What’s getting your period like?”
“Awful.”

“Okay, so people have sex by putting penises in vaginas, but what about Jesse’s friend Lena? If only boys have penises, and she doesn’t like boys, how does she have sex? Can she?”

She tries to find the right answer, and gives up. “You’ll find out when you’re older.”

“I’ll just ask her.”

Hana tries not to burst out laughing. “Definitely don’t do that.”

“Why?”

She does her best to explain that sex is a private and taboo thing that you definitely don’t just ask someone about.

“Do you have sex?”
“Man, what did I just say?”

“Sorry. Do you?”

“Not yet.”

“Because you’re not an adult and one of your dads would kick something?”

“Pretty much.”

“What about two men? How do Jack and Gabe—”

“Okay, this conversation is over! Good night.”

Satya shrugs. “Good night.”

Hana turns off the lamp and steels herself for the nightmares.

She wakes up at about one in the morning, but not from her nightmare. She hears sniffling and whimpering, and turns to her side. Satya’s sitting up in bed, and through the darkness she can make out tears streaming down her face and a blanket shoved in her mouth.

“Satya?” she whispers. “What’s wrong?”

She shakes her head.

“I’m getting dad.”

“No!”

“Why not? What happened?”

“Promise you won’t tell?”

“Yeah, of course.”

“I had a nightmare.”

“Aww, poor baby. Come here.” She gently pulls Satya into a hug. She places her on her legs and wraps her arms around her, gently rubbing her back, the way her dads always did when she was younger. “What happened in it?”

“My dad found me here and dragged me back home. He turned into a monster and burned me.”

“Oh, that’s scary. Don’t worry, you’re safe with me. It was just a dream.”

She holds her silently for a few seconds, feeling her body wrack with crying breaths. “Why can’t I tell dad?”
“When I had a nightmare back home and woke someone up my mom would yell and dad would hit.”

“Sweetie, my dad isn’t going to hurt you. He’ll hold you and tell you it’s all ok. Both of them will.”

“Just like you are?”

“I learned it from them.”

“It’s ok if I have nightmares?”

“Of course. I still have nightmares. A lot, actually.”

“You do? About what?”

“The car crash, mostly.”

“Do you wake up in the middle of the night crying?”

“Not crying, usually, but I get pretty scared sometimes.”

“And your dads don’t care?”

“They care a lot. They’re doing their best to make sure I don’t have them anymore.”

Satya sits with her for a couple more seconds before speaking. “Can I stay here?”

“As long as you want.”

She climbs off her and back into her bed. “I thought you wanted to stay,” Hana says.

“I meant in the house.”

“Oh. Of course you can.”

“What you did before, that was a hug, right?”

“Yeah…”

“Okay. I thought so. I read about it.”

Combined with the few hours of sleep she got, that comment’s enough to make her start tearing up again. “You haven’t been hugged before?”

“Maybe when I was really little.”

Her voice cracks. “Come back, I need to give you another one.”

“Okay.” she climbs back into her bed. “Why?”

“You’re seven and could barely recognize a hug.” She sniffles. “We need to make up for lost time.”

Hana embraces her again. Her ribs complain, but she doesn’t care.

“Are you crying?”

“A little.”

“Why?”

“I just can’t believe no one’s hugged you! I can’t imagine not being hugged for so long.”

“I like it. It feels nice.” They sit for a couple seconds. “Can I go back now?”

Hana lets her go.

“I like you a lot. You’re nicer than my real sister.”

Hana can’t help but smile, even though that comment also saddens her. “I like you a lot too.” Her voice is wet with restrained tears.

“You’re sure I can stay here?”

“Of course I’m sure. I can make you feel better when you have nightmares and you can make me feel better when I do.”

“Okay. Good night, Hana.”

“Good night, Satya.”

Chapter Text

8/2/2017

After Satya’s been in the house for ten days, Jack and Gabe take her out to breakfast by themselves. They sit across from her, and wait for their food to arrive before they broach their intended topic. When it does, they can’t help but notice that there are sever motor issues with her injured arm. She can still use it, but she has trouble even holding the fork properly. We’ll have to get that taken care of, Gabe notes.

Jack starts the conversation. “Kiddo, do you know what adoption is?”

Her heart lurches, but she tries not to get too excited. “I think so. It’s when someone becomes the parent of a child that isn’t theirs, right? Like with Hana and Jesse and Sombra.”

“Exactly. Now, you’ve been living with us for a little while now. How’ve you liked it?” Gabe asks.

“A lot better than home.”

“You don’t mind sharing a room with Hana?”

“I really like her. She’s a lot nicer than my real sister.”

“You like Jesse and Sombra?”

“Yeah.”

“How about us?”

“Yeah.”

“Well that’s good. Satya, we want to adopt you,” Jack says.

“Really?” she forces herself to remain skeptical, but her face betrays her excitement.

“Really. We want you to be our daughter.”

“Forever?”

“Forever,” Gabe promises.

Her face falls. “Why?”

Both men frown. “What do you mean, why?” Jack asks.

“My dad always told me I was a freak. My mom told me how useless I was. Why would you want me?”

Worry lines start to appear in Jack’s forehead. Gabe takes her hands and looks into her eyes. She stares at the table. “Whatever your old dad said, ignore it. We haven’t even known you two weeks and we know you’re an awesome kid. We want to be your dads now, if you’ll take us.”

“You can’t take it back?”

“No,” Jack says. “And we wouldn’t ever want to.”

“And you’ll take care of me until I’m an adult?”

“As long as you need us to,” Jack promises.

“You won’t hit me?”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Gabe says.

“You won’t starve me?”

“Were they starving you over there?” Jack asks, getting riled up.

“Sometimes when I did something they didn’t like.”

“We would never.”

“Even if I did something bad?”

“The worst we’ve ever done is grounding, I think,” Gabe says. Jack nods in confirmation.

“Do… do you love me?”

“We’re starting to.”

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Okay. I want you to adopt me.”

Both men hug her, elated. As soon as they get home, they call a judge to schedule her adoption a week from that day.

Hana and Satya sit in their room on a lazy Sunday, neither of them bothering to leave the room before lunch. At about eleven, Hana’s cell phone rings.

“Hey!” she excitedly greets her boyfriend.

“Morning. How’ve you been doing?”

“Awesome, you?”

“Great. Did you get the song I sent you?”

“I’ve listened to it like twelve times already.”

“So you like it?”

“Love it.”

“Good, I wrote it for you.”

He smiles as she squeals excitedly into her phone. “So what are you doing today?” he asks.

“Nothing. Why? Rabbit movie binge? Gaming session?”

“Something like that. Look outside.”

No way… she looks out the window and her face lights up. She quickly changes out of her pajamas and tells Satya to come with her.

“I thought the whole point of a lazy Sunday was staying inside?”

“Change of plans, come on.” She gets up and follows her out onto the front lawn.

Lúcio stands outside his car, smiling at her. She runs up and hugs her, careful not to squeeze to hard and hurt her ribs. “What are you doing here?”

“Thought it would be fun to visit and finally hang out again.” He notices Satya. “Is this your new sister?”

“She will be soon!”

“Awesome! I’m Lúcio, nice to meet you.” he extends his fist for a fist bump. She eyes it warily. “Come on, don’t leave me hanging.”

She turns to Hana. “I don’t understand.”

“It’s a fist bump. You bump your fist with his, like this.” she fist bumps him.

“Why?”

“It’s like a high five.”

She stares at her blankly. “I’ll explain later,” she says.

“Okay. See you tonight,” she says, and goes back inside.

“Weird kid,” Lúcio notes.

“She’s really sweet, though.”

“Oh, I don’t doubt that. Come on, let’s go.”

She slides into the passenger’s seat. “Where are we headed?”

“Well, I drove past that dance studio on the way in, and they had a sign that said ‘walk-ins welcome’, if you’re interested. Maybe we could finally do that.”

“Yeah, let’s!”

He drives up main street and parks in the back, and they walk in and meet with an instructor. They spend a good two hours trying to learn to dance. Both of them are terrible, tripping over each other and often getting off beat, but they laugh and have fun nonetheless.

Since they can’t see each other that often, the couple makes sure they enjoy the day to the fullest. After leaving the studio, they go out to eat, then run off to the park for a while. It starts raining, so they get in his car and just drive around, listening to music and talking. When the rain starts to get unbearable, they find a movie theatre, and run inside under the pouring cascade. It’s even worse when the movie ends now, thundering loudly, so they sprint back into his car and find a cafe to wait out the storm in.

“Alright, dad and I are going in for the last meeting with a social worker before the adoption. After this we’ll be good to go,” Jack says. “You two going to be alright alone with Satya?”

“Yeah, of course,” Sombra says.

“Alright. See you in a few hours.”

They are fine, for a little while, until the thunder starts. Satya’s eyes widen when she sees the lightning, and she whimpers a little when the thunder starts. It’s still far away, though, so she puts on the pair of headphones Hana gave her and tries to ignore it.

It takes about an hour, but soon the storm’s right above them. The lightning illuminates the whole sky, and the thunder shouts at her as if sick of her ignoring it.

“You alright?” Sombra asks. Satya shakes her head, afraid to speak. “What’s wrong?”

This isn’t my old home, this isn’t my old home, this isn’t my old home , she repeats in her head. They don’t punish fear here. “I’m scared,” she confesses, forcing the words out.

“Aww, come here,” Sombra says. “It’s just noise.”

She walks over and cuddles up to Sombra. Her whole body tenses and she whimpers. Sombra rubs her back. “It’s gonna be ok.”

“I want Hana.”

“She’ll be back soon. We’re here for you.”

“No, I need Hana,” she repeats.

“Hana’s not here.”

“But… but… I need her!”

Blood tints her face behind her cheeks and she looks ready to cry.

“It’ll be fine, Jesse and I are here for you.”

“No!”

Satya removes herself from Sombra and throws herself on the couch.

“Satya—”

“No!”

Jesse sighs. “I’m got it.” He calls Hana.

Within a couple minutes, Lúcio and Hana are outside her house. “Sorry about this,” she says.

“It’s fine. It was an awesome day.”

“Definitely! Have to do this again soon.”

She kisses him, then opens the door and sprints inside through the rain.

“Hana!” Satya shouts, and runs for her. Hana picks her up and hugs her. “It’s okay, I got you.” She feels her shudder when thunder claps overhead. “I got you.”

Hana: Hey

Hana: I just realized

Hana: I wasn’t afraid to get in a car with you

Lúcio: I assume you knew I wasn’t going to kidnap you?

Hana: lol

Hana: No but even when dad’s driving I still hate to be in cars since the accident

Hana: But I didn’t even think about it with you!

It’s a sunny Friday afternoon. Satya’s new dads, siblings, aunt, uncle, and cousin meet outside the courthouse, all dressed up. “Fuckin’ hate formal wear,” Fareeha whispers. She’d much rather be in torn shorts than a dress.

“Hear you there,” Jesse says. “Not much longer, though.”

Their name is called, and they crowd inside. A judge sits behind a desk, and Satya and her dads stand in front. The rest of their party stands behind, watching. The judge asks Jack and Gabe to agree to take care of Satya until she becomes an adult, and they happily agree to. He reads off a little while longer (until Satya and Reinhardt and even some of the older kids become impatient), and finally, he gives the men a paper to sign.

“Congratulations, Mister Reyes and Mister Morrison, you are now the legal guardians of Satya Reyes-Morrison.”

Both men hug her, and the rest of the room gets their turn. Hana’s last. “I love you, Satya. I’m so glad you’re with us.”

“I love you too.”

“Come on!” Hana turns around to give Satya a piggyback ride out of the building. She hops on and they sprint out towards the car.

Chapter Text

8/18/2017

As usual, Lena arrives at the Reyes-Morrison residence a good two hours before their traditional late-summer barbecue. She sits in the living room with the Hana, Jesse, Sombra, and Satya, playing Smash Melee and Mario Kart Double Dash.

“Hana, we have a Switch,” Jesse says. “We’re a good three generations past the gamecube.”

“Nothing’s better than the gamecube,” she insists. She’s about to start up a new match, but Jesse goes back to the character select screen. He sets them up as a three vs. one team against Hana.

“I’ll still win,” she says. She does.

“It’s been a really long summer,” Lena comments.

“Wish it was longer, can’t believe school starts in ten days,” Hana replies.

“Ugh, don’t remind me,” Jesse says.

“No, think about it. You started dating Lúcio, I started dating Emily, we got into a car crash, you all got a new sister, and in a few days Sombra’s gonna be a full-on girl.”

“Hell yeah!” Sombra adds.

“Yeah, you’re right, it’s been a long one,” Jesse says. “Wouldn’t surprise me if there was one last curveball before it ended.”

“Like the school burns down and they have to delay it an extra month?” Hana asks.

“That’d be a good one.”

“Be the change you wish to see in the world, Hana.” Lena grins.

“I mean, we’ve got charcoal, lighter fluid, and matches all set for tonight, it wouldn’t really be a problem if some of it went missing.”

“Yes, it would!” Gabe calls from the kitchen.

“So Satya, you’ve been quiet,” Lena says. Satya turns to look at her. “How’ve you been liking it here?”

“It’s really good, I like it a lot.”

“Wouldn’t go back?”

“I would never go back.” She scooches over to Hana, who wraps her in a one-armed hug.

A couple hours later and a good chunk of the neighborhood is in their backyard. Among them are the Shimada boys (as usual, their parents aren’t present); the Zieglers; Ana, Reinhardt, and Fareeha Amari; Efi, Orisa, and their father, and almost a dozen other families. Satya, however, sits alone in her room with a book and a sandwich. Hana, noticing her absence, quickly finds her.

“Hey.”

“Hello.”

“What’s wrong? Why aren’t you outside?”

“It’s bright and loud and it smells. I don’t like it, it hurts my head. I don’t want to go back out there.”
“Alright, you don’t have to. Mind if I eat in here with you?”

“It’s your room.”

“ Our room.” She sits on her bed and finishes her two burgers and chips.

Meanwhile, Jesse and Hanzo try to find privacy in the living room, only to find that Sombra’s already there.

“Not hanging out outside?” he asks, hoping she’ll leave and he can spend some time with his boyfriend.

“Ugh, no. Everyone just keeps asking me about the surgery. Because for some reason it’s ok to talk to a seventeen year old about her genitals.”

“Well, Hanzo and I were—”

“Hanzo, there you are,” Genji says, wheeling himself in. “Thought I lost you for a minute there.”

“That was the idea.”

“Some guy I didn’t even know came up and started asking me about me being in a wheelchair. He didn’t even know my name!”

“Yeah, join the party,” Sombra says.

“Oh yeah, you’ve got the surgery soon. Nervous?”

“See, that’s an appropriate question! Just a little bit.”

“What the hell were they asking you out there?” Jesse asks.

“You don’t even want to know.”

“Alright, Hanzo, let’s try another room,” Jesse mutters. They start heading for the door, but are met with Angela and Fareeha.

“Oh, you guys are already here,” the former says, a little disappointed.

“We wanted to get away,” Fareeha says. “Way too many people outside.”

“Yeah, all of us wanted some alone time,” Jesse answers.

“We’re going into senior year, so all anyone cares about is ‘where are you going to college?’ ‘are you thinking about college yet?’.”

“Oh my god, if I hear the word ‘college’ again I’m going to bomb someone,” Lena says, entering. “There you guys are. I was wondering where everyone cool went.”

“I fucking hate so many of these people,” Sombra says. “They’re friendly with dads so when they come here they try to seem nice to the kids. They don’t care. They just want dads to like them so they keep inviting them for free food.”

“Yeah, and because we’re teenagers we don’t even have a personality to them,” Lena adds. “I’m not the kid who likes physics and wants to join the air force, I’m ‘the gay one’. Genji here’s not the anime fan who’s got a weird interest in eastern philosophies, he’s ‘wheelchair kid’. And for a while we were all ‘those kids who got hit by a car’. Now we’re just ‘seniors off to college soon’.”

“You ever notice that these people tend to not have kids?” Angela asks, getting a few chuckles.

“Sorry about our alone time,” Jesse says to Hanzo.

“It’s fine. We’ll have plenty of time soon enough,” he says, and it hurts because he knows they won’t.

When Hana and Satya eventually go downstairs, they see Angela and Fareeha cuddling in Jack’s chair, Hanzo and Jesse leaning on each other on the floor, Sombra, Efi, and Orisa lined up on the couch, Lena stretched out on the bench, and Genji next to her.

“There they are!” Lena says.

“Hi,” Hana says, a little surprised to see so many people.

“We were wondering where you guys were,” Hanzo says.

Satya peeks out from behind Hana. Hana takes her hand and Lena sits up to let them sit next to her on the bench. Satya sits on Hana’s lap and Hana gently strokes her back.

“So what’re you all doing in here?” Hana asks.

“Well, we decided we hated everyone else, so we’re in here now,” Angela says.

“Why?”

“Well, take a look outside. Of all the people out there who aren’t related to any of us, have you ever had a conversation that wasn’t completely superficial?” Sombra asks.

“I guess not.”

“They try to be friendly to us but they really just want to look good to dads so they keep getting free food,” Jesse says.

“See, your parents are awesome,” Fareeha says. “Mine are badass war veterans. I want to be like Angela’s mom when I grow up. Efi and Orisa’s are super nice. Maybe there are a couple other people out there who are nice enough. Most of them suck.”

“Alright, let’s stop complaining about fake conversations and have a real conversation,” Angela says. “Satya, what do you want to be when you grow up?”

“An architect.”

“Really? Why?”

“I like seeing how all the separate parts come together to form something as solid as a building.”

“That’s… weirdly deep for a seven year old,” Genji says.

“What about you, Genji? What do you want to be?” Angela asks.

“Aw, dude, I don’t know,” he says.

“Okay, if you could be absolutely anything, something completely unrealistic, what would it be?” Hana asks.

“Well, I’m already part of the way there, maybe… cyborg ninja?” A couple people laugh. “Come on, tell me that wouldn’t be awesome.”

“Well, my dream is ‘cowboy’,” Jesse says.

“Man you’ve wanted to be a cowboy since I was a baby,” Hana says.

“Some things you just don’t grow out of,” he shrugs.

“Got a realistic dream?” Fareeha asks.

“Nope.”

“Me neither.”

“A little ironic that the one with the most time to figure her life out already has it, and the rest of us are just lost,” Hanzo says.

“You don’t have anything either?” Angela asks. He shakes his head.

“Sombra?” Genji asks.

“Major in Comp Sci at Oasis and become a programmer, probably.”

“So that makes two,” Fareeha says. “Efi? Orisa?”

“I don’t know yet,” Orisa says.

“Something with robotics, of course,” Efi answers.

“How about you, Hana?”

“Streamer, hopefully. Probably not though. I had some momentum before the accident, but I haven’t really done anything since.” She absentmindedly brushes over the scars on her cheeks.

“Tonight’s a good a night as any,” Jesse says.

“What’s streaming?” Satya asks.

“It’s when people play video games and broadcast them so other people can watch and interact and even play with them sometimes.”

“Are you good at it?”

“The best.”

“I know we’re all sick of talking about college,” Jesse says. “But I don’t think I’m at all ready to go.”
“We still got one year left, man,” Sombra reminds him.

“And it’s the best one, allegedly,” Angela says.

“Why?” Satya asks.

“Senioritis. After you get accepted into college, high school officially doesn’t matter. You just have to graduate,” Lena says.

“Good opportunity to join the clubs you wanted but didn’t have time before,” Jesse says.

“Good time to sleep, you mean,” Fareeha corrects him.

“Man, you guys get to go be seniors, Hana and I are stuck in sophomore year,” Efi says.

“I’m not ready to go back,” Hana says.

“Let’s just not,” Fareeha says. “Let’s all drop out and start a band and tour the country. We’ll come back and get Hana and Efi next year when they can drop out.”

“I think exactly two of us are at all musically inclined,” Genji says.

“I think we will have to go finish school,” Efi says.

“Boo!” Hana calls back.

“Alright, come on. It’s the end of summer, it’s a beautiful evening, let’s go out and enjoy it,” Jesse says.

“I’m not going back out there,” Sombra says.

“Not out there ,” he says, pointing to the backyard. “There,” he gestures to the front door. “Let’s go find something to do.”

Everyone starts pulling themselves to their feet and finding their shoes.

Jesse: We’re going out for a bit

Baker dad: Who’s we?

They’re all on the porch. Wait, wait, I need a group picture of all of us.” He pulls out his phone, and stretches out his arm to get a picture of everyone.

Jesse: MMS message

Gabe pulls out his phone, and smiles when he sees the picture of Lena making a goofy face over Jesse’s shoulder, Sombra and Efi holding up Orisa so she can fit in the picture, Satya and Hana beaming as she gives her a piggyback ride, Hanzo breaking his serious facade just for a second with a goofy half-grin, Genji peering over the corner of the photo looking as ridiculous as possible, Fareeha and Angela with their arms around each other.

Gabe: Have fun, don’t stay out too late.

A couple hours later, everyone’s finally cleared out. Jack and Gabe crash down on their respective chairs.

“Why do we keep doing this?” Jack asks.

“No idea.”

“It used to make the kids happy.”

“They’re happy, they’re just not here.”

“Used to make us happy. What happened?”

“I think it’s time to say it. We are too old for this shit.”

“Come on, we’re only in our fifties,” Jack complains.

“Getting afraid of getting old?”

“It’s not that. I just—” he sighs. “I can’t think of how to word it.”

“One second.” He pulls out his phone and a couple seconds later music comes from down the hall. “No, that’s Hana’s room…” he mutters. It turns off and then starts from the living room speakers. “There we go.”

Jack smiles as he hums along to the song that played over 15 years ago, on the first dance at their wedding. Gabe stands and offers him a hand.

“May I have this dance?”

“For as long as my joints allow it.” He groans as he gets up, placing one hand on his husband’s shoulder and the other on his waist. The strings and keyboard rise as they step through the living room with moderate grace.

“Ladies and gentlemen, it is my honor to present for the first time as a married couple, Jack and Gabriel Reyes-Morrison! Gentlemen, please come to the floor for the first dance.” The two men step onto the floor to applause from their friends as the music starts. They step in well-practiced time to the music, the rhythm of their shoes on the floor adding an extra beat to the song.

“Now if you’re in love, I welcome you to join the happy couple on the dance floor!” Ana smiles as her husband ushers her to the dance floor, already populated by old army buddies with their wives and girlfriends.

The song ends far too soon for anyone’s liking, but the next one immediately picks up. For the next hour, people ebb and flow from the dance floor most stopping for a bite or a breather before coming back on. Whenever a high energy song comes on, the early-20s and late teens crowd take some of the younger kids to the dance floor, link hands, and jump around in a circle. The men can’t help but smile whenever they see it.

“Excuse me sir,” a squeaky voice says. The men look down to see Gabriel’s cousin’s six year old looking up at them.

“Me or him?” Gabe asks.

“You. May I have this dance? Did I ask that right?”

Gabriel chuckles. “Gotta ask him if you can cut in.”

“May I cut in?”

“Go right ahead,” Jack smiles. “Could use a break.”

“Alright, you just stand on my feet, right like that…” Gabe starts as Jack walks across the room. He spots a young Mexican woman sipping water at a table by herself.

“Glad you could make it,” Jack says, sitting next to her.

“Thanks for inviting me, never been to a wedding before. Shame I’m too big to dance.”

“You’ll be dancing soon, I’m sure of it.”

“Yeah, one more month! A little less, actually.” She pauses to take another sip. “I’m… really glad you two are going to take care of my kid. I wish I could do it myself, but out of everyone else, I’m really glad it’s going to be you two.”

“Well… thank you. We’re honored you picked us.”

“To tell you the truth, back in high school I was bullied a lot because I was bisexual, so part of the reason I picked you two was because I figured you’d love them, whoever they are.”

“I’m… sorry to hear that. Can’t believe I didn’t know. And don’t worry, your kid will be in good hands.”

Their reverie breaks when the door opens. “Wait, stay out for a little bit, dads are being weird again,” Hana says.

“Love you too,” Jack says. His legs groan as he and his husband sit back down on the couch. Sombra, Jesse, Hana, and Satya spill into the house.

“What’cha got there?” Jack asks, gesturing to a bag Sombra’s holding.

“Let’s see… LEGOs,” which she hands to Satya, “a guide on how to be a rancher, that’s for this weirdo,” she hands it to Jesse, “face paint,” she hands to Hana, “and the rest is makeup and hair dye.”

“Jesse, are you actually trying to be a cowboy?”

“It’s my destiny. There’s nothing else I’d want to do with my life.”

Hana looks at her face in the mirror, running her fingers over the twin scars that run down her right cheek. She covers up them both with pink paint, and smiles when they’re completely obscured. She matches them on the other side, shaping them into rabbit whiskers. “Perfect,” she whispers.

She tweets out a notification that she’ll be going live in a few minutes, including a picture of her new look. She settles down in her desk chair and loads up Starcraft. “Welcome home,” she says to herself. “It’s been way too long.”

Chapter Text

8/28/2017

“Jesus, y’all suck at this,” Hana says into her headset.

“It’s fucking hard, man!” she hears Yoon shout in her ears.

“Seriously, I think Starcraft is more our speed,” Jia concurs.

“Lawbreakers is life !” She shouts back. Checking the scoreboard at the end of the game, she and Ian are basically carrying the team.

“Yeah, I’m loving this,” Ian says. “What I’m not loving are the queue times, though.”

“Yeah, no one plays this game,” Leon says.

“ We play this game!” Hana insists.

Jesse and Sombra hear her shouts from upstairs. “You know, it’s nice to see she’s getting better after the crash,” Jesse says. “But was she always this loud?”

“Trust me, she’s definitely been louder.” Sombra’s been curled up on the couch in a blanket for the past couple hours, drinking tea that Gabe’s been refilling every couple hours. Satya sits in the triangle created by her thighs, calves, and the couch cushions.

“I don’t know why she likes games so much,” Satya says.

“You tried them?” Jesse asks.

“Some of them. A few are okay but I don’t like a lot of them.”

“They’re kinda fun from time to time,” Jesse says. “Hana’s on a whole other level of liking games though.”

“I’d rather make them than play them,” Sombra says. She takes another sip of tea. “Help me up, I have to dilate again.”

“God dammit , I just got the image out of my head from last time.”

Before his sister’s surgery, he’d done some reading about the specifics of SRS and the recovery afterwards. Once he was done he started to wish that he hadn’t. Sombra grips his hand and he helps her to her feet and helps her to her room. She’s gotten a bit better at walking since she’d first come home, but moving her legs still hurts quite a bit. He helps her to her bed and leaves the room, shutting the door behind him. Trying to keep the mental picture out of his head, he waits for her to be done so he can walk her back.

“Hana, I’m nervous,” Satya confesses. The last week of summer wasted away far too quickly, and they’re down to the last night. In less than 10 hours it’ll be time to get up and go to school.

“Why’s that?”

“I haven’t been to this school before.”

“That’s fine. There’s a few new kids every year, it’s no big deal.”

“What if they don’t like me?”

“Their loss. Everyone gets worried before their first day at a new school, it always goes fine. Just… don’t be as candid as you are around here.”

“What does that mean?”

She pauses to choose her words. “Well, I appreciate that you trust me enough to talk about all the terrible things your last family did to you, you probably shouldn’t use it as an icebreaker when trying to make friends.”

“Do you not want me to talk to you about it?”

“No, that’s not what I mean! There’s a difference between what you talk about with your sister and what you talk about with a classmate you just met.”

“So you’re saying that kind of stuff is stuff you only talk about with people close to you?”

“Exactly.”

“But what if I want to be close to someone? Wouldn’t talking about things that close people talk about make us close?”

“That’s backwards.”

“So how do I make friends?”

“Say hi to whoever’s next to you and introduce yourself. I dunno, there’s no real answer to this, friendship just kind of happens. Worrying about it won’t do anything.”

“I guess. Good night.”

“Night.”

Hana wakes up in a classroom in front of a test she hasn’t prepared for in a language she doesn’t understand. Her mouth goes dry and her thighs start sweating in that uncomfortable way that makes her pants stick to her. She feels vaguely like she’s about to throw up, and she tries to stand but her legs are trembling too badly.

Just as the teacher’s about to collect their test, a car plows through the window and strikes them. She can’t get back to sleep after that. She lies awake in her bed until the morning comes, shivering like it’s freezing and sweating like it’s broiling.

She gets up in the morning with the far too familiar dark circles under her eyes. What a fucking perfect way to start the year , she thinks. She puts on her headphones and blasts something loud to try to wake herself up.

Sombra’s already awake once she gets to the living room. She raises the cup of tea she’s drinking when Hana arrives. “Morning.”

“Hey.”

“You alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“You don’t look fine.”

“I will be.”

“Alright,” she shrugs.

Jesse walks out of the kitchen with a cup of coffee and sits in Gabe’s usual chair. “Jeez, you look like ass,” he comments.

“Fuck you,” she groans.

“Did you stay up playing games all night or something?”

She stomps off to the bathroom.

“Oh, what?” he asks. Sombra glares at him. “What??”

She sighs. “Just drink your coffee.” He rolls his eyes and takes a sip.

Satya’s nervous, but she lets Jack walk her into her new school. Hana feels a very similar trepidation as she walks through her halls, almost zombie-like from sleep deprivation. Overlapping conversation distorts as she walks to class. It’s obvious you’re sleep deprived, and they’re all wondering what you’d even spend the night doing. Couldn’t possibly be going out with friends, no, you’re the loser kid who just stays in all night. Or maybe they’re not looking at the bags under your eyes, it’s all the makeup you used to try and cover it. You look like a whore. And while you were going overboard with the makeup this morning (your brother was totally judging you for that outburst by the way), you couldn’t have tried to cover up that ugly scar while you were at it? I mean, you TRIED, but now you’re just drawing more attention to it. And now you’re self conscious and touching it.

Her chest feels tight and she’s having trouble breathing as she walks into her first class. It’s Algebra II with a teacher she recognizes but hasn’t met before. Efi sits on the other side of the room near the window and waves her over, an invitation that she readily accepts. Halfway across the room she’s hit with a sudden dizziness, and almost crashes down in her seat.

“You alright?” Efi asks, mildly amused.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she says, trying to match the lightness on her face. “Didn’t sleep much.” As if to punctuate her statement, her lungs force a yawn, trying to draw in the air they can’t seem to get normally. They still don’t feel full.

“End of summer gaming session run too late?” she grins.

“Something like that.”

Efi squints at her, making her self-conscious. “Are you wearing makeup?”

“Uh… yeah.”

“You don’t usually.”

She shrugs. “Figured I’d try it out, I guess.”

“Have you ever done it before?” Hana watches her eyes scan across the face, opening a hot pit in her stomach.

“A couple times.”

“I can teach you, if you want. I mean, I’m pretty sure neither of your dads are that proficient in this.”

“Thanks, I’ll hit you up later.”

She manages to get through the morning well enough, and she sighs with relief when the lunch bell rings. She hasn’t eaten since last night, and it feels like she’s running on empty. As soon as she gets in the front of the line for pizza, though, her stomach tightens and she feels like she’s about to throw up. She shakes her head. It’s just the cafeteria smell, she’ll be fine once she sits down and starts eating. She takes a slice and a bag of chips, then goes to sit with her friends.

She stows the chips in her backpack for later and tries to choke down the pizza. Despite everything that should say otherwise, her stomach just refuses to be hungry. She eats about half of it before lunch ends.

“Hi,” a kid says as they wait for class to start, extending his hand. “My name’s Jake. What’s yours?”

“Satya.” She extends her hand to meet his. He thinks it’s weird that she looks at the floor and avoids his face, but says nothing.

“Are you new here?”

“Yes.”

“Why’d you come here? Did your family move?”

She hesitates. Hana warned her not to be so upfront about what happened to her with new people, but she didn’t think about what to do if they asked. She couldn’t just lie to him, that would be wrong, but she couldn’t tell him the truth either. Her mind races, trying to think of some loophole.

“Satya?” Jake asks, unsure of why she isn’t answering.

She finds her answer. “I hated my old school, so I went here this year.” There we go. She’s not lying, that’s a completely true statement, she’s just hiding the full truth.

“Why are you doing that with your leg?” he asks.

“Hm?” She looks down. Her leg is bouncing up and down under her desk. “Oh. I dunno,” she shrugs. “My dads say I can be hyperactive sometimes.”

Jake doesn’t know why she pluralized “dads” or what “hyperactive” means, so he just says “Cool.”

The teacher quiets the class to try to get started. Without the distraction of someone to talk to, Satya becomes very aware of the fluorescent lights. They’re buzzing. Loudly. Everyone else notices this, right? Is she the only one bothered by this. She looks up at one, and immediately has to look away. They’re too bright. Are all the classrooms like this? Why? LED lights have been around for years, and they don’t hum and they can be dimmer. If a seven year old can figure out a better way, why hasn’t anyone in the school district thought of and implemented this?

She tries to pay attention, but the lights are giving her a headache. They’re not as bad when she walks through the halls to the cafeteria, but the nonstop drone of the other second graders is even worse. She wishes she had a pair of headphones like Hana’s. The cafeteria is absolutely insufferable, and she ends up covering her ears and rocking back and forth to calm herself. The other kids look at her funny, but she doesn’t notice.

“How was school today?” Jack asks as Satya tosses her bag into the backseat.

“Loud. I hated it.”

“You hated it? Why?”

“It gave me a headache. The lights are too bright and everyone talks too loud.”

“I’m sure everyone was just excited because it was the first day. Everything will be quieter tomorrow.”

“Promise?”

“Well, I can’t promise anything. But I’m sure it’ll be better tomorrow.”

“If… if it’s not better, can I get a pair of headphones to wear?”

“If you want headphones we could get them later tonight,” he starts. “But you won’t be allowed to wear them during class.”

“Why not? I wouldn’t even be listening to anything, I just want to dull the noise.”

“Even if you’re not listening to anything, the teacher will probably still think you’re trying to tune her out. And if one kid’s allowed to wear headphones, everyone else will, and most of them will want to be listening to something.”

Satya sighs. “Why is everything so loud? Why doesn’t anyone else notice or care?”

“Maybe it’s not as loud to them. It could be that you’re just more sensitive to the noise than them.”

“Well, then I should be allowed to wear headphones then, because I need them more than everyone else.”

It’s Jack’s turn to sigh this time. “Well, not everyone’s going to see it this way. Some people might lie and say they’re also highly sensitive to sound. Some people might even think you’re making it up so you can wear headphones.”

“That’s not fair.”

“You’re right. But I’ll tell you what. In a few weeks, if it doesn’t get any better, I’ll set up a meeting with your principal and teacher and see if we can’t figure anything out.”

“Promise?”

“I can promise this one. If it’s, let’s say, the middle of October and I forget, just remind me and I’ll get it set up.”

She wants to believe him, but for all she knows this could be just another empty promise. It’s not like she could do anything about it if it was.

Hana’s watching YouTube in her room after dinner when Gabe walks in. She’s ridiculously startled by her door opening, and her heart leaps to the point of nausea when he asks if they can talk for a minute. She tries to calm herself, there’s no reason she should be in trouble and no reason for her to be panicking even if she was, but she can’t stop herself from breaking into an uncomfortable nervous sweat.

“Have you and Jesse ever discussed your birth parents at all?”

It takes her a second to realign her thoughts. “Um… yeah, a lot actually, but not for a while. When I was about ten and he was 12 we started discussing who they might be and what we’d do if we could meet them and stuff… but we’d pretty much stopped by the time I was 13.”

“Really? I had no idea.”

“We couldn’t really talk about it with Sombra because she sees her mom every year, and we felt… a little weird bringing it up with you and dad for some reason, so it ended up being our own little private thing.”

“What do you think he’d say if we told him he could see some information about his birth parents?”

“Really?”

“Yep. There was some legal stuff that Jack really understood better than I do, and even though it was a closed adoption, Jesse’s allowed to see some information about his parents. Think he’d want to?”

“Well… by the time we stopped having these talks, we’d pretty much decided that neither of us wanted to go looking for our birth parents, but we’d probably take any information on them we could get. So I think he would.”

“Let’s go ask him.”

Over the weekend, Gabe and Jack drive Jesse to the courthouse to see the information about his birth parents. Even though he’s not meeting anyone, he’s still dressed fairly nice in a button up short sleeved shirt and dressy black pants. He’s nervous, and tries to figure out exactly what he’s expecting or hoping for. He can’t. He’s getting the information simply because it’s information he can get.

Jesse’s allowed to pick up a thin file with the name McCree written on it. Unable to wait, he and his fathers find a table to sit at while he opens the file.

Mother’s name: Sarah McCree. Born 2/24/1981. Blonde hair, green eyes, fair skin. 5’4”, 140 lbs. At time of child’s birth, worked as an elementary school teacher.

Interesting. He doesn’t look much like his mother, based on the description given. There’s no picture, maybe he has her nose or cheekbones or something. She would’ve been only 19 when she had him. She probably wasn’t married to his father at the time, meaning McCree (the name she would’ve given him) was her name, not his father’s. He turns the page.

Father’s name: Isaac Rothberg. Born 3/16/1972. Black hair, brown eyes, tan skin. 6’2, 200 lbs. Serving 50 years in prison for four counts of sexual assault.

His dads watch, concerned, as his jaw and fists clench and unclench. His face, both scared and enraged, flushes red than pales. Wordlessly, he drops the file on the table and starts walking away.

“Jesse!” Gabe calls. He twitches but says nothing in response.

Jack picks up the lonely third and last page in the file, a note from Jesse’s mother the night she put him up for adoption.

I thought I could do it, but I can’t. I look at him and I should be happy, but all I see is his father. I can’t raise him, it wouldn’t be fair to him or me. I just pray that the family who takes him in can protect him from people like his father. Jesse, if you ever get to see this-- I’m sorry.

Chapter Text

9/9/2017

When he gets home, he practically barges into Hana’s room, sending her heart rate flying. “Hana, can I talk to you alone for a minute?”

She looks at Satya, sitting on her bed reading a book. “Why?”

“It’s a personal thing.”

“Why do you need to talk to her ? Why not Sombra?”

“It’s about my birth parents.”

“And?”

He sighs. “It turns out they’re not very nice people.” Hana starts to get nervous, and her mind races trying to figure out what he could’ve possibly found out.

“Mine aren’t either.”

“Mine are a different kind of not very nice.” His heart skips a beat. God, please tell me they’re a different kind of not very nice.

“How so?”

He falters for a second. “My father did something really bad and he’s in prison for it. Now—”

“What did he do?”

He tries to look her in the eyes, but she’s been staring at her book for the entire conversation. “Satya. Please. I don’t want to tell you. Can I please talk to Hana alone for a couple minutes?”

He expects her to put up an argument, but she shrugs and walks towards the living room.

“Dude, what the hell happened?”

He sighs. “I’m a rape baby. My mom gave me up because she couldn’t stand to look at me.” His voice is low and quiet. Saying it out loud for the first time makes it feel real.

“Oh my God.”

“I shouldn’t even… I shouldn’t be here, I shouldn’t have been born!”

“Jesse, no—”

“I’m the product of a violation, Hana! A crime!”

“But—”

“Imagine what happened to my mother. There was a reason I was on the adoption shortlist, she tried to keep me but she couldn’t stand to look at me! There were descriptions of my parents in there! I don’t look anything like my mom, I’m walking around looking like a rapist!”

“You’re not—”

“This guy’s my father ! I’m related to this guy! What if there’s some sort of, I don’t know, genetic thing, and some day I—”

“Jesse!” she shouts, before realizing she has nothing to say. “I… it’s not gonna be some genetic thing, okay? Look how mad you are about this, you’re not gonna wake up some day and decide to… to… to do what he did.”

“You don’t know! Some mental illnesses don’t manifest until your twenties, what if… if…”

“Jesse, stop, please. You’re my brother, I know you, you’re not—”

“Oh my God, he did this to three other women, at least ! It said so! What if I have a half brother or sister somewhere? I don’t even, like, are they okay? I don’t even know if they exist, but, like, did they get put up for adoption? Did their mom try to keep them?”

“I—”

“This settles it. I’m not having children, ever. I can’t! If I even decide I want them then I’m adopting, I’m not letting this guy’s bloodline go any further than me.”

“Jesse, come here.” She pulls him into a tight hug, both their eyes watering. She can feel how wound up he is. “You’re gonna be okay.”

“I know, I know. It’s just… I’m so angry. I feel so lost.”

“Have you told anyone else?”

“Dads also read the file, but no, I haven’t told Sombra or Hanzo or Lena or anyone. I don’t know if I will.”

“You… you’re not where you came from. No one is. You’re not gonna be determined by something terrible done by someone you never met.”

He nods. “I know. You’re right, thanks. It’s just… I feel like I have to be angry for a little while.”

“As long as it doesn’t get in your way.”

He nods. “Thanks for talking. Need anything?”

Shaking her head almost feels like lying, but there’s nothing she could ask him to do. “Nope. Thanks.”

He leaves feeling better, but by the time he gets back to his room he feels worse again. A single look into the mirror reminds him of who he looks like. A familiar dull throb of subdued lust at the Lara Croft poster on his wall sickens him. He holds on to the hope that he’ll get over it soon. He feels like he’s going to need it.

Satya walks to the living room, empty except for Sombra lying on the couch. “Can I ask you some stuff?”

“Sure, what’s up?”

“So you’re a girl now, right?”

“Well, I’ve been a girl for a long time now.”

“But didn’t you just get the surgery a couple weeks ago?”

“Yes, but a girl doesn’t have to be male or female. If someone feels like a girl, then they’re a girl and deserves to be treated as such.”

She nods, understanding. “That’s what I wanted to ask about. How did you know you were a girl?”

“When I hit puberty, I just started getting really uncomfortable in my body. For a while, I thought it was normal, that it would go away soon. Eventually I started to realize that my mind wasn’t in the right body. Fortunately, dads were nice enough to help me through it. Once I fully recover from the surgery, I’ll finally be comfortable.”

“My parents probably wouldn’t have.”

Sombra shakes her head. “Lot of families don’t. It’s really sad, they’re willing to force their kids to be super uncomfortable and upset for no real reason.”

“There’s still something I don’t really get.”

“What is it?”

“I don’t really know what it means to ‘feel like a girl’. I know I’m a girl, but I don’t get what it means to feel like one. Or what it means to feel like a boy, either.”

“Maybe you just see things differently. There’s lots of people that don’t feel like a boy or a girl, or that feel like both.”

“I don’t know if that’s it, either.”

“Well, you’re only seven. You’ve got plenty of time to get this figured out. You don’t even necessarily have to ‘figure it out’ at all, as long as you’re comfortable.”

Satya nods. “Alright. Thanks.”

“Can I ask you something?”

She nods.

“Why don’t you look people in the eye when you talk to them?” Satya’s been staring at the pictures hanging on the wall the entire time they’d been talking.

She shrugs. “It feels weird. It’s like both people are seeing more than the other person wants them to. I don’t like it.”

There’s no way this kid is seven , she thinks. “Well, a lot of people do like making eye contact, and some people won’t like you if you don’t look them in the eyes.”

“Are you one of those people?”

“Not at all. But in the future, like teachers, or classmates, or even employers down the line.”

She nods. “Why?”

Sombra shrugs. “I really don’t know. It’s just one of those things. Most people feel like you’re not acknowledging them if you’re not making eye contact.”
“But I can listen and respond without it. That doesn’t make any sense.”

“There’s a lot of stuff that doesn’t make sense, babe.”

Listen Here You Little Shits --(Jesse, Lena, Hanzo, Angela, Fareeha --Active Now)

Lena the Hedgehog: OI

Lena the Hedgehog: JESSE

meDICK: Is he back?

Lena the Hedgehog: It says he’s online

Lena the Hedgehog: Might just be ignoring us

Lena the Hedgehog: Fits in with the GENERAL EDGINESS he’s been indulging in

Handsoap: He says he doesn’t feel like talking right now

Lena the Hedgehog: FUCK that

Lena the Hedgehog: He hasn’t felt like talking all week

Lena the Hedgehog: I’m messaging him

Lena: OI

Jesse: Hey.

Lena: What’s the matter?

Jesse: Don’t feel like talking about it.

Lena: I’ve known you for, what, ten years now?

Lena: Eleven?

Lena: Nine?

Lena: Point is it’s a long time and there’s basically nothing we’ve ever kept from each other

Jesse: I just REALLY don’t want to get into it

Lena: Have you told Hanzo?

Jesse: My dads know and I told Hana

Jesse: That’s as far as I want it to go.

Lena: uuuuuuugh

Lena: Fiiiiiiiiiine

Lena: But can you at least come hang out with us?

Lena: You’ve been gone all week

Jesse removed his nickname

Lena the Hedgehog: HE LIVES

meDICK: Why the name change?

Jesse: I don’t want to be a cowboy anymore.

Lena the Hedgehog: Awe why?

Jesse: I just

Jesse: Don’t

Jesse: I’m just gonna go to bed, I’ll see you in school tomorrow

Lena the Hedgehog: I’m coming over

Jesse: Don’t

Jesse: I just want to be alone for a bit

Lena the Hedgehog: Not getting rid of me that easy

Hanzo: Lena

Hanzo: I know you and Jesse have been friends for a long time

Hanzo: But do you think it would be better if I went over

Lena: Nope

Lena: I mean I’m sure you could help

Lena: And if you want to come with I can’t really stop you

Lena: But there’s some stuff I wanna say and I think I’m really the only one who can say it right?

Lena: So I’m going.

She’s knocking on the front door only minutes later. She says a quick “hello” to Gabe when he lets her in before sprinting up the stairs and barging into Jesse’s room.

“Lena, what the fuck?”

“Look. I don’t need to know what’s bothering you if you really don’t want to tell me. But if I can’t help deal with it, don’t make me want to!”

“What?”

“That came out weird. Look, if you really don’t want our help, you gotta stop moping around. We want to help you, we’re all friends, it’s what we’re here for. And if you keep moping around like this, it’s gonna annoy the crap out of us because we feel like we should be helping but you won’t let us!”

“Look, can’t I just be upset for a while?”

“As long as you’re alright with me checking up on you.”

He groans. “Fine. I’m fine. Can I be alone now?”

“In a minute.”

“Ugh.”

“Remember when we were in the hospital? That talk you gave me when it was only us awake?” He doesn’t answer. “I think I finally get how you felt then. I miss you, c-” she stops herself before calling him ‘cowboy’. “See you tomorrow.” With a gentle squeeze of his shoulder, she leaves him alone in the darkness.

Staring at the math test in front of her and taking forever to process and understand it is familiar to her. The sudden disorientation and discomfort while doing so is new. Her eyes flick over to the water bottle on the edge of her desk, which she’d greedily finished as the test was being passed out. She wish she kept it, her mouth feels like sandpaper and swallowing leaves a grating sensation on her throat and oh my god why am I sweating so much it’s cold in here!

Her hands feel weird. She pauses to look at them, and she can’t figure out why, they look fine, they feel fine, but when she tries to control them they seem to move a fraction of a second too late. The more she tries to ignore it, the worse it seems to get. When she breathes, it feels like her ribs don’t want to move and her lungs strain against them. Her mind starts clouding, and for a second she’s convinced she’s either about to pass out or wake up in her room.

She has to suppress a gasp as her intact ribs press against her unbruised side and create the same pain as trying to breathe after the crash. When she tries again, the pain is gone, and she has to wonder if it was ever there in the first place. She presses her hand to her side, confirming that the bruise is completely gone.

A look at the clock shocks her into a panic. She’s spent ten minutes spacing out instead of trying to take the test. For a second, she’s shockingly aware of every part of her: the dull headache, her dry, itchy eyes, her sore throat, her seemingly malfunctioning fingers, her shirt sticking to her back, her bra suddenly digging into her, her upset stomach, her legs cramping up…

Then it fades. It doesn’t go away, but it fades, only to be replaced by a sudden dizziness. She’s not her, she’s not in her body, it’s like she’s floating above her, watching, but she’s still looking through her own eyes, and all the cramps and discomfort and pains are coming back full force and she’s suddenly completely unsure of where she is but none of that matters because she’s about to throw up and oh god I need to go to the nurse NOW!

“Mr. Chamberlain!” she’s speaking quietly, but it feels like she shouted it and she’s suddenly super self conscious.

“Yes, Hana?”

“I need,” oh god, is this what I sound like? She’s not hearing the voice in her head, this must be what she actually sounds like, how can anyone stand to listen to me? Why does anyone watch NOW IS NOT THE TIME, HANA! “I need to go to the nurse.”

“Can you finish the test first?”

She shakes her head, her brain lazily smacking against her skull.

He sighs. “Alright. Come by during lunch tomorrow and you can retake it.”

She nods, and rushes out of the room. Moving doesn’t feel right, parts of her are too fast and other parts are too slow and she still feels like her mind’s outside her but her brain is still in her there’s no way I’m making it to the nurse just please let the bathroom be empty…

“You’re home early,” Sombra remarks as Hana walks into the living room just after 11. She cranes her head to look out the window, and sees Gabe pulling out of the driveway and heading back to work. “You alright?”

She shakes her head.

“Wanna talk about it?”

“Maybe later.” Her voice is weak and betrays exhaustion. “I just need to lie down.”

Chapter Text

10/10/2017

It’s a beautiful October afternoon, among the last of the year before the mid-Autumn chill sets in near the end of the month. Both gym classes are outside, a group of seniors and a group of sophomores, playing soccer or football or frisbee or just walking around the track and talking.

Hana and Efi, with no interest in any of the listed sports, opt to join the dozen or so other kids on the track. “I’m not quite sure what you mean,” Efi says, frowning.

“It’s just so hard to explain. It’s like… well it kinda feels like I’m dreaming, first of all, which just makes the whole thing worse. Everything gets floaty and slow. When I talk it sounds like it’s coming from someone else. Usually I get nauseous, but not always. It’s just so disorienting and it happens at the worst times.”

“Wait… did this happen in English yesterday? You got all tense and pale? I wanted to check if you were alright when class was over, but you bolted as soon as the bell rang.”

“Yep. That was it.”

“If it happens and I’m, like, there, is there anything I should do?”

She sighs. “I… I dunno. I’m not sure if there’s anything I can do besides wait it out.”

“But can—”

“Oh, well would’ja look at that.” Hana breaks out in goosebumps as an unstable tenor wavers through the air.

Efi rolls her eyes as the girls turn around. “What the hell does that mean, Jamison?” Despite the fact that he has almost a foot and a half on her, and his silent cohort outweighs the two of them and then some, she’s thoroughly unintimidated.

Both Mako and Jamison are seniors, Mako being a year older but having failed once and forced to repeat. After both of them got unanimously booted out of the football game for poor sportsmanship and the occasional brutality, they scoped out Hana as an easy target and approached.

“Well, her dads are gay, it only makes sense that she’d go off and try to find herself a girlfriend,” he casts a cursory glance at Efi, who stares back, unamused. “You could do better. Maybe someone of the Asian persuasion, like yourself.” Both girls wrinkle their faces in distaste.

“Fuck off, Jamie,” Efi says.

“Oh, I see, must be because you got that scar on your face, no one wanted you so you had to go sniffing around elsewhere.”

Across the field, Jesse squints over at them. “That’s not… is that Jamie and Mako?”

“Looks like it,” Lena says. “Let’s go.” They start jogging across the field.

“Aww, look at her. She’s shaking.” She flinches and tries to pull away as he grabs her by the wrist. He’s right, it is trembling in his wrist. She’s having trouble breathing and her heart is fluttering. She’s terrified, convinced that something terrible’s about to happen, she’s about to be hurt, tortured, killed , and oh god why can she hear the car and why is it taking so long to hit her it’s agonizing, agonizingly slow, time’s not running properly, the car’s about to hit and she knows what it’s going to sound like, waiting for the ear-shattering crash, the scream ready to escape her once again but why isn’t it happening —

“Pathetic, isn’t she?” He drops her wrist, practically shoving her away from him. Mako nods, silent as ever. “I can see why her birth parents didn’t want her.” Despite being free, able to run, she just freezes, the panic as present as ever. It’s all she can do not to break down crying.

“Jamison, no matter—” Efi starts, a “small penis” comment at the ready.

“Stay out of this,” Mako says, his voice low and gravelly, staring directly into her eyes. She goes quiet against her will.

“Honestly, it’s shocking that you’re the normal one in that family. That oldest brother of yours is sick in the head if he—”

The metal in Jesse’s hand that allows him basic motor function cracks against Jamison’s skull. As he starts to fall, Jesse grabs him by the arm and pulls him in for another hit to the head, his hand throbbing. Hana and Efi step back in surprise, Hana pulled into sudden clarity. Lena watches, wide eyed, shocked at his sudden show.

“Get over here!” Mako grunts, reaching out and yanking him in with surprising strength. Lena gasps as he punches her friend in the mouth, and runs in to try to free him.

To Hana, it always seemed like their new gym teacher didn’t move like a normal person. She thought she was back to normal for the moment, but she has to question it when it seems like Coach O. leaps high into the air and launches himself towards them, arriving within seconds.

“Enough!” He roars. Pulling Jesse and Mako apart. Jesse’s bleeding from his hand and mouth, and he struggles against the massive fist gripping the back of his shirt. Mako, his flabby shoulder starting to bruise where Lena had punched him repeatedly, doesn’t resist. “All of you, to Principal Kaplan’s office.” He speaks with a thick, powerful accent. “Now!”

Jesse, Hana, Lena, and Efi stand on one side of the office, waiting for their parents to show up. Jamison and Mako are in another room, where they can’t see them.

Jesse’s mouth is still bleeding, and he has to hold a piece of gauze inside his cheek where Mako cut it. Fortunately, none of his teeth were knocked out, but a couple are loose. His hand is wrapped tightly in gauze, and he’ll probably have to see someone to reset the metal in his hand. He’s still seething, pacing around and trying to calm himself. Lena and Efi are fairly level headed, now that the adrenaline’s gone they can start planning what they’ll say when Kaplan questions them.

Despite the fact that she did nothing wrong, and she knows she did nothing wrong, Hana’s still terrified. The feeling of impending terror is long gone, replaced with the childish fear of simply being in the principal’s office waiting for her parents. Times a hundred, because that’s just the state she’s in.

Efi and Hana are called into questioning. Efi has to hold Hana up because her legs are shaking so hard, gripping her hand to comfort her. She hardly speaks as Efi retells their story to Principal Kaplan.

Over an agonizingly slow half-hour, all four kids are questioned and four out of their six parents have arrived. In the other room, Jamison waits with his mom and Mako waits with no one. Once Kaplan’s finished with Jesse and Lena, he opens the door and calls everyone else in to join him around a long conference table.

Hana sits down next to Jesse, and Jack next to them. Lena’s parents are on either side of her, with Efi’s dad next to them and Efi on the end. Mako, Jamison, and Mrs. Fawkes face them on the other side.

“So…” Kaplan says, rubbing his face before starting. “Here’s what happened as I understand it. Hana and Efi were talking during gym, and Jamison and Mako came over and started harassing them. Despite Jamison’s claim that they were “just talking”, Hana became visibly uncomfortable and the boys were asked to leave, and they did not. Jesse saw Jamison grab his sister by the wrist and shove her, got angry, and attacked Jamison. Mako restrained and punched Jesse, which then lead to Lena striking him.”

“I didn’t touch her, we were just talking,” Jamison insists.

“Yes he did!” Efi shouts. Every noise feels like a personal assault on Hana’s brain. She closes her eyes and tries in vain to relax herself.

“You’ve never liked my kid,” Mrs. Fawkes accuses. “You’ve had it out for him since ninth grade. And now, now, now you set this whole thing up, try to defame him, but it won’t work! My Jamie would never do anything like this, and that kid,” she points to Jesse, “should be expelled for viciously attacking my son like that!”

“Mrs. Fawkes, I’m sorry, but at least four kids and a teacher saw your son intimidating another student, a girl in sophomore year no less. Now, for the—”

“You can’t—”

“Mrs. Fawkes, you are doing your son no favors here. Hana, Efi, you two will receive no punishment. Lena, for getting involved with a fight that was already occurring, we have no choice but to give you an out of school suspension. As it was your first offense, however, it will only be for one day.”

She nods, quietly. While she’s mostly sure her parents won’t punish her further at home (and they won’t), there’s that bit of uncertainty that worries her.

“Jamison, for harassment and intimidation, and the fact that you’ve received multiple warnings, you’ll have four days of in-school suspension, starting tomorrow.”

“You should be ashamed, Mister Kaplan.” He bites back an “I should be a lot of things” remark, and quietly waits for her to continue. “I know my Jamie, and he would not have been talking to those girls unless they had said something to him first. And you’re giving him four days of suspension and not punishing them at all ?”

“Well, neither Jamison, Mako, or Coach Ogundimu reported any interaction between the girls and the boys before the boys approached them and started harassing them. So yes, I am suspending your son and not punishing Hana or Efi.”

“This is unacceptable! You can’t do this! I’ll sue the district. I will ruin this school!” Mrs. Fawkes grabs her son by the hand and leads him out of the office. The parents and students watch, all in some measure of shock or incredulity.

“Anyway,” he starts. “Jesse, because you escalated to a physical fight, and you weren’t provoked directly, I have no choice but to give you a three day out of school suspension.” He sighs and nods. “I’m sorry, it’s district policy. Use it to finish up college applications or get your hand fixed up.” He feels guilty looking at the kid with the set jaw staring at a point on the wall, but he doesn’t have a choice. “Mr. Morrison, there’s a letter we have to put in his record that says he got in a fight, but you or your husband are more than welcome to write your own letter that says he was just defending his sister.”

“We’ll do that, thank you.”

“If none of you want to appeal or ask anything, then you four and your parents are free to go. There’s only one class left, so you can either go back or you can sign out now. Mako, you stay here. You’ve committed a number of infractions over your years here and we need to have a serious talk about your future at this school.”

They file out of the office. “Thank you,” Hana whispers to Jesse. He nods. “You alright?”

He shrugs. “I’ll talk to you when we get home.”

Efi rolls her eyes but listens when her dad sends her back to class, while Jesse, Hana, and Lena get signed out.

“Not bad, Jesse,” Lena says. “Got a five-day weekend out of that.” He shrugs, staring at the ground. “Well, I’m sure you’ll be celebrating once the bleeding stops. See ya!”

Hana and Jesse climb into their dad’s car. “Both of you alright?” Hana nods, the faraway look in her eyes betraying her. “Jesse? Can you move your fingers?”

“Ugh, mostly. I can… agh!” He groans as his fingers are more or less locked in place.

“Does it hurt when you don’t move them?”

“No, it’s fine.”

“Alright, we’ll get that checked out after we get Satya. But before then! Either of you up for ice cream?”

“Yes,” Hana says almost immediately.

“Wait, so… I’m not in trouble?”

“Well, I wish you hadn’t hit the kid. But I also wish that said kid wasn’t harassing my daughter, so it breaks even. Just… do your best not to do it again.”

Sombra’s doing her homework on the couch when her sisters get home. She notices Satya finishing up the cup of double forbidden chocolate with chocolate sprinkles and chocolate syrup as they walk in the door. “Hey, any chance you brought some for me?”

“Nope,” Satya says, licking the spoon.

She sees the car pull away. “Where’s dad going?”

“Taking Jesse back to the hospital,” Hana says. She fills her in on Jamison harassing her (leaving out the comments he’d made about Sombra), Jesse hitting him and messing up his hand, Lena and Jesse getting suspended, and then going out for ice cream.

“Holy shit. Are you both alright?”

“I dunno. It’s just… I dunno.”

“Well, we had two weeks of all four of us all being in school for a full day, I guess that’s good enough.”

“When’s Jesse coming back?” Satya asks.

“A couple hours, maybe. Not sure. Why?”

“I wanna talk to him.”

“What about?”

She’s quiet for a second. “I don’t know yet.”

Jesse: Sorry if this is taking a while

Jesse: I can only use my right hand

Hanzo: It’s quite alright

Hanzo: Other than your hand and face, you’re alright?

Jesse: I’m a little scared to be honest

Jesse: I’ve been *so angry* for the last three or so weeks

Jesse: And when I hit him it was, like

Jesse: Perfect

Hanzo: Perfect?

Jesse: Like it was exactly what was supposed to happen

Jesse: I think it’s like what Angela feels when she, well, does the opposite of punching someone

Hanzo: You felt like you were realizing your destiny?

Jesse: Yeah, exactly!

Jesse: But I don’t want my destiny to be “guy who punches people”

Hanzo: It probably only felt good because you were letting out a bunch of built up anger on someone who deserved it

Hanzo: I don’t believe in destiny, for what it’s worth

Hanzo: You forge your own path, there’s no predetermined route for anyone

Hanzo: You won’t become that guy if you try not to.

Jesse: I hope you’re right

Hanzo: I’m still curious what’s been upsetting you

Jesse: Promise not to tell anyone?

Hanzo: Of course

Jesse: My birth father raped my mother

Jesse: She gave me up because she couldn’t stand to look at him

Jesse: I look like him

Jesse: I’m carrying his genes

Hanzo: I’m surprised you care so much

Jesse: And everything that I ever do will all be because of a horrific abomination

Jesse: What? Wdym?

Hanzo: You almost never talk about your birth parents

Hanzo: As far as I can remember, the only time I’ve heard you mention then was when I asked and you told me you didn’t really care

Hanzo: And you’ve never been one to dwell on things you can’t do anything about

Jesse: Yeah, I guess

Jesse: It’s like this whole thing knocked everything I knew about myself out of whack

Hanzo: Are you scared of becoming him?

Jesse: I don’t know

Hanzo: I don’t see how you could

Hanzo: Considering how much you hate him

Jesse: Doc’s calling me in now

Jesse: Thx for listening

Hanzo: Talk to you soon

Hanzo: Hopefully it goes without saying, but I’m not going to cast any judgement because of your parentage.

He hopes Jesse will do him the same courtesy if he ever has to meet the leader of the Shimada clan.

Satya doesn’t get to talk to Jesse until after dinner. She opens his door and paces around in a circle as he sits in the bed, doing the exercises the doctor recommended.

“How’d you hurt your hand?”

“I, uh, hit someone. Which is bad, and you shouldn’t do it.”

“Are you in trouble for it?”

“Yeah, my principal said I can’t come to school the next few days.”

“That doesn’t sound like much of a punishment. And if you’re being punished, why did you get ice cream earlier?”

“Little tip, dads usually won’t punish you when you make a mistake as long as it’s the first time. Yeah, I shouldn’t have punched the guy, but since I haven’t punched anyone before they’re gonna be a lot more lenient.”

“Why’d you punch him?”

“He was… d’you have to pace around like that? It’s making me dizzy.”

“Why are you dizzy? I’m the one moving.”

“Because… nevermind. Basically, the guy was being really mean to Hana, and she was getting really upset, so I got angry and hit him.”

“If he did it again, would you hit him again?”

“Maybe.”

“But you’re in trouble for doing it this time.”

“It’s just… I don’t even know what else I would do.”

“Hitting people’s against the rules.”

“Sure is.”

“But being mean to people’s also against the rules, isn’t it?”

“Yep.”

“Is the guy you hit in trouble?”

“Yeah, he has to spend the next four school days alone in a special room with only an administrator.”

“It sounds like he got a worse punishment than you.”

“Sure hope he did.”

“So you broke the rules because someone else broke the rules… is that what you’re supposed to do?”

“That’s one of life’s big, unanswered questions.”

“If someone was being mean to me, would you hit them?”

“Well, if they were your age, I’d probably just yell at them a bit. If they were older, maybe.”

“Can you come to my school soon?”

“Why? Is someone being mean to you?”

“It’s Ethan and Jackson. They make fun of me because I pace around during lunch and rock back and forth during class. They shout in my ears and once they brought a flashlight to shine at my face because they know I hate it.”

“Shhh… oot,” he catches himself. “Did you tell the teacher?”

“She says boys pick on girls because they like them. But if they like me why do they make me feel bad?”

“Yeah, that’s bull…” he cuts himself off again, and completely fails to find a perfectly clean word to replace “shit” with. “... crap. Boys don’t pick on girls because they like them, they do it because they can get away with it. Come on, we should talk to dad.”

“Okay.” She follows him outside. “Is there chocolate downstairs?”

“Not tonight, kiddo, we already had ice cream.”

They find Gabe in the living room with Hana. “Dad, can I talk to you?”

“Sure. In private?” She nods.

“Do you want me to—” Jesse starts.

“No,” she cuts him off.

“Alright.”

“You,” Hana says.

“Me?”

“Help. You read Dracula , right?”

“Hell yeah! Only book I liked from sophomore year.”

“Alright, there’s a question on my homework asking about the significance of a certain scene on these two pages, but my brain’s just, like, fried, and I’ve read it three times and nothing’s sticking.”

“Let me see.” She hands him the book. “Oh, yeah, the blood transfusion,” he chuckles. “Teach got mad at us cause we couldn’t stop laughing about this. Basically, blood’s a metaphor for semen in here, so when she gets the blood transfusion from all the guys it’s basically like having an orgy.”

The corners of her mouth turn up. “Gross.”

“Yeah, and later when Dracula finds Mina and… tries to turn her, it’s basically… forcing himself… yeah.”

Her face falls. “Oh. Sorry.”

He sighs. “It’s fine. It’s just…” he trails off, holding his thumb in place to keep her place. “Actually…” his eyes land on a name. Van Helsing . He starts flipping through the pages.

“Can I, uh, have the book back?”

“One sec…” The idea of dressing up as a cowboy disgusts him for some reason, suddenly epitomizing everything he started to fear about his destiny. Champion of a lawless wasteland where might makes right and you take what you want… he couldn’t do that again.

Of course, not doing anything for Halloween would be a travesty. As a seventeen year old high school senior, it’s gonna be his last one, so he’s been racking his brain thinking of an alternative. And now it’s finally landed in his lap.

“I think I got something.” He starts walking towards his room to plan it out.

“Hey! My book?”

“Right, right. Sorry.” He hands it back, then runs back up to his room.

“Weirdo.”

Chapter Text

10/26/2017

“Satya, Ethan, can you come here a moment?” Her friend Jake’s a little relieved that Satya was called up to Ms. Robinson’s desk, pacing around with her was getting a bit tiring and he felt weird doing so, but he’s a little worried because the Ms. Robinson looks upset.

Satya notices her most recent test in the teacher’s hand. “Did I do a bad job?”

“No, Satya,” Ms. Robinson answers. “You did very well. So did you, Ethan.”

“Really?” He looks excited.

“Yes. Too well. I’m not surprised Satya got a check plus, but you? You couldn’t have done this yourself.”

“What?” His excitement is immediately undercut by disappointment and hurt.

“I knew it was a mistake putting you next to the smartest girl in the class. I trusted you, Ethan, but you broke my trust. Both of you will get zeroes on this test, and you’ll both have to take the next test during recess, on opposite sides of the room.”

“I didn’t—”

“What?” Satya shouts. “Why do I get a zero?”

“He wouldn’t be able to cheat if you covered your paper better. It’s always been my policy, punish both the cheater and whoever allowed them to cheat. That way I know you’ll be more careful this time.”

“I didn’t cheat!”

“That’s not fair! You can’t do that! I, I, I worked hard for that, you can’t… It’s not my fault he cheated!”
“I didn’t!” he shouts again. Both kids look like they’re on the verge of tears.

“I’ll deal with you in a minute,” she says to Ethan. “Satya, I’ve been a teacher for twenty years. I know that if someone cheats, it’s because whoever they cheated off of didn’t try hard enough to stop them.”

“No! It’s—”

“Satya, do not yell at me.” She starts lecturing, her voice grating into Satya’s ears. An angry sort of energy rips at her stomach, begging to get out, threatening to take control of her feet and hands and mouth so she’s jump and stomp and hit and throw things and shout until it’s all gone and Ms. Robinson realizes how horrible she’s being.

But she remembers when she used to do that, back with her old family, her dad would grab her by the arm or the ear and drag her home and put her in the “time out” closet that was so small she felt like she was suffocating and her brother would bang on the closet and laugh when she whimpered and wouldn’t let her out until after dinner. She can’t have another tantrum, she’s too terrified of the consequences.

But she has to do something, everything’s so bright and loud that it’s starting to hurt her. Through the fuzziness in her ears she hears her teacher yell at her to stop twitching, and she can’t stop herself. She kicks a desk out of the way and sprints out of the room. Ms. Robinson yells at her to come back and she feels everyone staring at her, but she doesn’t care. The girl’s bathroom is only a couple feet away and she barrels through the door and locks herself in one of the stalls, sitting on top of the toilet leaning against the wall.

“Oh jeez,” Gabe says when he checks his cell phone and sees that it’s the elementary school. “Caleb!” he calls into the back of the bakery. A college-age kid peeks out. “You might have to cover for me up front for a bit.”

“No problem, boss.”

He takes the call. “Hello? Yes, that’s me. Really? What happened? Well yeah, that sounds unfair to me too! No! I don’t— Fine. I’ll be right over.”

“I’ll be back soon,” he says, tacking on an “I hope” under his breath. Caleb nods and takes his place behind the counter as he rushes out.

When he arrives at the elementary school, Satya’s sitting on a couch in the principal’s office rocking back and forth with her eyes closed. Gabe sits down next to her and starts rubbing her back.

“Can you please make her stop that?” Ms. Robinson demands.

“No. She’s incredibly anxious and this is how she lets it out.”

“It’s very distracting.”

“You work with seven year olds all day. You should be able to manage. Now, why am I here?”

The principal speaks up, and as soon as he opens his mouth Gabe knows that he much prefers Principal Kaplan in the high school. “Your, ah, ‘daughter’ had a meltdown in class today that involved her screaming at the teacher, kicking a desk, and evacuating the classroom without permission.”

“I see.” Satya starts swinging her legs. “And what exactly sparked this meltdown?” He knows what happened, of course, he’d been filled in over the phone at the bakery, but he wants to hear it in person, see if Principal Lengyel uses any language that Gabe can use against him.

“Your daughter—”

“You don’t have to call her ‘your daughter’. She has a name.”

“Fine. Satya was punished by Ms. Robinson for being involved in an incident that involved cheating on a test—”

Gabe goes on the aggressive. “An incident that involved cheating? Sorry, what do you mean by that?”

Lengyel pushes back. “Ms. Robinson has reason to believe that Satya allowed another student to copy off her on a recent test.”

“And that reason to believe is?”

Robinson takes the question. “Ethan always had trouble with math, I have a hard time believing that… will you stop that?” She’s suddenly aware that Satya’s aggressively tapping on the wooden arm of the chair with her fingernails. Gabe puts his hand on his thigh, palm up, and lets her tap that instead.

“As I was saying, I have a hard time believing that Ethan could’ve gotten a score that high on a math test without copying someone else’s answers.”

“So what you’re saying,” Gabe starts, half incredulous, “is that you punished my daughter because you think someone copied off her test, and you don’t even have any evidence that he did?”

“What are you trying to say here, Mr. Reyes?” Lengyel narrows his eyes at him. Satya’s suddenly very aware of a woman sitting at a desk to the side of Lengyel’s, studying her intently. She tries to shrink into her father.

“What I’m saying is…” he pauses, looks at his daughter, the teacher, the principal, then back at his daughter. He takes a deep breath. “I’d like to sign Satya out of school for the rest of the day.”

“Excuse me?”

“I’m her father and legal guardian, it’s within my rights to sign her out of school early. I’d like to do that.”

“I need to assign her punishment,” Ms. Robinson says.

“Well, I disagree, but you’re the teacher. However, you can do that when she returns to school. For now, I think it’s best for everyone if she leaves school for the day.”

“Alright,” Lengyel says, defeated. “Talk to the secretary.”

“Thank you. Have an excellent day.” He takes Satya’s hand and walks her out to the front desk.

“Why did you do that?” Satya asks once they’re outside.

“Did you want to stay?”

“No.” She’s quiet for a couple seconds. “Am I in trouble?”

“Did you do anything that should get you in trouble?”

“I left the room without permission.”

“Well, I can’t really blame you for that, if I had a crazy teacher screaming at me about something that idiotic I would’ve left too.”

“Where are we going?” Satya asks, noticing they’re going the opposite direction of their house.

“Bakery. There’s no one home to watch you, so I figured we could do a ‘take your kid to work’ thing. I can start teaching you how to bake, and if you hate it then we’ll get Hana to take you home once she gets out of school. Sound good?”

“Okay.”

Hana’s in a car, happily singing with her friends, barreling down a road on that fateful night for what seems like the millionth time. Instead of the squealing of tires and crashing of steel, however, the night’s permeated by an obnoxious beeping. Her eyes open, seeing the green letters of her alarm clock read 5:45 AM . She mutters “what the fuck” to herself as she slaps it off.

Suddenly, the light turns on and Satya starts gathering her clothes to get dressed. “Honey, it’s not even six, we can go back to sleep.”

“I know.” She carries her clothes to the bathroom and turns the light out when she leaves. Hana decides she’ll deal with it later and immediately goes back to sleep.

Satya timed the alarm perfectly, and meets Gabe downstairs right as he’s getting ready to go to work. “Dad,” she whispers.

“Satya? What are you doing up, kiddo?”

“I wanna go to work with you again.”

“Honey, you have to go to school.”

“But I don’t want to, I hate it there. Jack told me that I should hang in there until late October and then we could talk about it but I still hate it and it’s the twenty seventh and we still haven’t talked about it.”

Gabe sighs. “You’re right. I promise, sometime this weekend, we’ll talk about it.”

Satya isn’t sure whether to trust him or not, but doesn’t challenge him. “Can I please go with you again today? Yesterday was fun, wasn’t it?”

God, why can’t I keep all my kids in school for three freaking weeks? “Yes, I loved having you there.” He sighs. “You’re right, we did promise we’d talk to you about school before now, I’m sorry. Let’s go.”

“Yay!”

“Wait, so Satya’s getting to skip school and hang out at the bakery?” Jesse asks.

“She’s been going through some hard times at school,” Jack explains.

“So have I!” Hana protests. “Can I ditch and help out at the bakery?”

He sighs. “Not today. Maybe soon. You don’t even like working at the bakery.”

“Better than school. And I like spending time with dad and Satya.”

“You have plenty of time for that at home. Just… get dressed, please? If you really want to plan a day to work at the bakery we can figure it out over the weekend, I need to leave in half an hour.”

While Jack’s racing around trying to get ready, the phone rings. “Hello?”

“Hello, is this Mr. Morrison or Mr. Reyes?” a female voice asks.

“I’m Jack Morrison.”

“This is Dr. Jha, I’m the school psychologist at Duke Elementary school. I was present when your husband and daughter had their meeting with the principal and her teacher.”

“Is that what this is about?”

“Sort of. Mr. Lengyel will call either you or your husband at some point today to discuss arbitration with Satya and her teacher. That’s not what I wanted to talk about though.”

He checks his watch. “Ma’am, I’m in a bit of a rush right now, is there any way we can do this over email?”

“I’ll make this quick. Between reports from her teacher and other teachers that interact with her, in addition to her behavior and mannerisms during yesterday’s conference, I strongly recommend getting Satya screened for Autistic Spectrum Disorder.”

“Excuse me?” His kids wave and mouth goodbye as they file out of the house, and he waves back at them.

“This isn’t a judgment on her, of course, but I have reason to suspect that she is on the high-functioning end on the spectrum. If you’d like, I can email you some information as well as a psychiatrist that I believe can help.”

He takes a deep breath, trying to process it. “Yes, please send anything you can. Thank you.”

Gabe’s phone rings only two hours later. He sighs when he sees that it’s the elementary school. “Hello. Mr. Lengyel?”

“Hello. I was wondering, do you know when Satya might be returning to school?”

“I intended to have her back today, but something came up. Ideally, she’ll return Monday, but she seems… distressingly averse to the idea.”

“She’s a child, Mr. Reyes. Children tend to not enjoy going to school, that does not mean they should be allowed to stay home whenever they please.”

“Okay, Mr. Lengyel, you listen to me. First, if you try one more time to tell me how to raise my kids, this call will not continue. Understood?”

“Yes.” There’s a bit of venom in his voice.

“Second, I’ve raised three kids that are not in high school. The only time that they’ve been this opposed to going to school was when something was wrong. Sometimes, something’s wrong on our end, like an illness or a mental health issue or even an unresolved issue. Sometimes, though, something’s wrong on your end. My daughter was unfairly punished for a crime that I do not believed happened in the first place, and there are unresolved harassment issues that I regret I didn’t bring up yesterday.”

“I see,” Lengyel says. “Perhaps on Monday morning, you and your husband and daughter could meet with Ms. Robinson and I and discuss these issues and try to find a solution.”

“I’d love to. First thing in the morning?”

“Seven O’Clock, if possible. I’d like to get this done before school starts.”

“Of course you would. Seven works fine, we’ll see you Monday morning.” He hangs up the phone. “Asshole.”

Satya walks up holding an old cookbook, her index finger holding its place. “Can we make this?”

“Ah, butter cookies,” he smiles. “We haven’t sold those in a long time.”

“So we can’t?”

“Of course we can. About time they came back.”

That night, Jack and Gabe crash down on their beds at just past nine. Sombra’s not even home yet, and they can still hear Hana playing games downstairs. “How was Satya?”

“I love having her there,” Gabe says. “Are you sure we can’t have her skip the whole school thing and put her on full time?”

“We could try,” he says. “Of course, I’d putting a stop to that kind of thing is part of my job description, but we could try.”

“So,” Gabe says, taking inventory in his mind. “Alright. You called the psychiatrist?”

“He’s got two hours available Saturday morning. 9:30 to 11:30”

“Good. So we’ve got that planned. We still need to talk to Satya at some point, go Halloween shopping with the kids, and drop that box over at your brother’s.”

“Need to go shopping before Sunday afternoon, because Sombra needs a lot of stuff and she’s busy from 2 onwards.”

“We can talk to Satya right after the psychiatrist—”

“If she’s up for it,” Jack reminds him.

“If she’s up for it, and dropping the box of will take, what, half an hour?”

“More if Ana’s home, she’ll have us stay for tea.”

“So we could have you go and spend the morning with them while I go shopping with the kids,” Gabe suggests.

“Sounds like a plan. God, weren’t weekends supposed to be relaxing?”

By the time Monday the 30th rolls around, the jury’s still out on Satya’s spot on the spectrum, Jack and Gabe reached an impasse with their daughter on returning to school, and Hana couldn’t find a vital element of her costume so she’s desperately hoping it’ll arrive in the mail by that evening. Satya and her dads show up at the school just before seven, gathered in Principal Lengyel’s office.

“Alright, now that we’re all here, let’s cut right to it. Satya, why don’t you want to be in school?”

“Everything is really loud and people make fun of me when I try to deal with it.”

“What do you mean, really loud?”

“Listen for a second.” She pauses. “Don’t you hear that?”

“I don’t hear anything,” Ms. Robinson says.

“The lights are humming. All day. It drives me crazy, and they’re too bright anyway.”

“Satya, I really don’t think they’re that hard to tune out,” Mr. Lengyel says.

“Maybe not for you,” she replies. “It makes me feel like everything is too tight, I get really tense, and I can rock back and forth and plug my ears or walk around to make it better, but people laugh at me. Sometimes people push me or throw things at me or call me names.”

“Honey, I told you,” Ms. Robinson says, “they do it because they like you. You should feel flattered.”

“But I don’t! I just feel bad! You’re the teacher, teach them that if they do like me, which they don’t , they shouldn’t make me feel bad!” She turns to her dads. “You told me that if someone’s bothering me, I should tell a teacher, and I did, but nothing happened, and now I don’t know what to do!”

“I know, hun. Come here.” Jack pulls her into a hug, squeezing tight. She sniffles into his jacket.

“You ought to teach her not to take that tone with adults,” Mrs. Robinson says. Jack and Gabe shoot venom at her.

“You,” Jack says. “You have a seven year old who doesn’t feel comfortable in your classroom as a result of your own inaction, who you taught just to let people harass her and told her to feel flattered for it, who you tried to punish because you decided that another student wasn’t smart enough to do well on a test, and you have the nerve to tell me how to raise my child?”

“I’ve been a teacher for twenty years—”

“And are therefore living proof that experience does not always beget wisdom,” Gabe says, voice full of non-emotion. The teacher and the principal both pale at that. “We’ll be taking our daughter home now, and the three of us will have to seriously consider whether this school is the right fit for our daughter.”

Chapter Text

10/31/2017

Once Hana finishes tying her hair into ponytails, she spins around in the mirror to make sure everything’s the way she wants it. Her black and burgundy diamond tights hug her legs from her black shoes up her thighs, where they meet the black dress that she puffed out with wire from a tutu she’d gotten at a thrift store. The dress itself is a size too big, but she decorated two belts and tied one around the base of her stomach and the other just under her bust. She’d forced the extra fabric around to the back and pinned it over itself, where hopefully it would remain. The headband with the cat ears sits snugly over her head, surprisingly comfortable for a cheap headband. Finally, she pulls the black gloves over her hands, and takes a picture of herself with one hand making a peace sign and her phone covering her face.

Satya refused to dress up, but Hana convinced her to accompany their group when out trick or treating that night. She waits in the living room for everyone to be ready, reading a book on the couch. Around the same time Hana emerges from her room, Efi and her little sister Orisa arrive. Orisa, being six and therefore too young to try and go full cosplay, is dressed in a store-bought ladybug costume. Efi, on the other hand, dressed herself like Princess Zelda in Breath of the Wild .

“Impressive,” Hana comments when she sees it.

“Same to you,” Efi says, nodding in appreciation.

Orisa sits down next to Satya, a bit closer than she’d like. “Hi.”

“Hello.”

“What’re you reading?”

She shows her the cover, hoping she’ll leave her alone soon so she can finish the chapter she’s on before leaving.

“What’s it about?”

“Orisa!” Efi calls. “Come say hi to Hana with me.”

“Thanks,” Hana whispers.

Soon enough, two hooded figures walk through the front lawn and burst through the front door.

“Hey!” Lena says, lifting the mask obscuring her face. From the looks of it, she’d attached part of a gas mask to oversized orange goggles. She’d attached (hopefully empty) cans of spray paint to a belt wrapped around a blue hoodie. Her legs are adorned by dark tights covered in paint stains.

Emily, meanwhile, seems to have gone for a fancy approach to a feminine Grim Reaper. Her eyes are in shadow under a dark cloak with a cape that dangles down just past her thighs. Her red hair flows out from under her hood, and her red lips are lifted in a mysterious smile. She’s wearing long black sleeves that extend from her wrists to her shoulders but aren’t attached to a shirt. Her top is designed to accentuate her cleavage, and the fabric over her abdomen is adorned with silver and gold emblems.

“Evenin’,” Jesse says, emerging from his room. He’d repurposed much of his old cowboy outfit into his Van Helsing outfit, but scrapped the serape, decorated the stetson, and added a number of adornments.

“Damn, I’m kinda glad you ditched the cowboy,” Efi says.

“Me too,” he says. “I like this a lot better. Good way to go out.”

“Right, this is our last Halloween before college,” Lena says.

“Better make it count,” Emily says.

Jesse seems to notice her for the first time, and playfully narrows his eyes at her. “Well, it’s a good thing you’re here with a friend o’ mine, because you look exactly like someone I should be hunting.”

“You wouldn’t stand a chance.”

“Who are we still waiting on?” Efi asks.

“Sombra’s still in the bathroom,” Hana says. “Then it’s just Hanzo and Genji. Fareeha and Angela said they might meet up with us later.”

Orisa wanders back over to Satya. “Hi.”

Satya’s more upfront this time. “I don’t want to talk right now. I’m busy.”

Orisa walks away, feelings a little stung. Satya doesn’t watch her leave.

The door opens again. To most of their surprise, it’s Angela, dressed in a fairly revealing witch costume.

“Hey,” she says.

“Hey!” Jesse says. “Looks awesome.”

“Thanks. So do you.”

“You alright?” Lena asks.

She sighs. “I’ll be fine. I told Fareeha I wanted to go straight here. She thought we agreed we’d go to a party for a while and meet you guys back here later tonight, which I said was a possibility but never outright agreed to. I told her I was gonna go here, she said she’s going to the party anyway.”

“Shit.”

“It’s fine, I’d rather spend my last Halloween with you guys than— holy shit, Sombra!”

The ever-growing crowd of teenagers turns to see Sombra emerging from the bathroom. She’s dressed in a leather jacket that goes partway down her upper arms, black jeans cut off halfway down her calves, a dark cape, and fingerless leather gloves. Her hair is done up in purple spikes, but most eye catching of all is the glow in the dark makeup she’d found and used to paint a skull over her face and parts of a skeleton over her limbs.

“Sup?”

“Damn, no wonder you took so long in there,” Jesse comments. “Speaking of…” he slips past her and into the finally vacant bathroom.

“I heard something about Fareeha?” she asks.

“Yeah,” Angela says. “She’d rather be at a party than hang out with us.”

“Her loss. This is gonna be awesome.”

“Are Hanzo and Genji gonna be here soon? Or should we go meet them at their house?” Efi asks.

“They should be here in a few minutes,” Jesse says. Also, I’ve never been to their house .

“Wait,” Hana says, noticing something out the window. A car she’s seen a couple times pulls out and parks in front of the house. Angela steps out of her way as she charges towards the door, the crowd inside watching curiously.

The driver of the car emerges, and happily embraces his girlfriend as she sprints around to hug him. Lúcio dressed himself in full-on hockey attire, with a helmet, jersey, arm and knee pads, and even a hockey stick strapped to his back.

“Oh my God, this is awesome! I’m so happy you’re here!”

“Glad I could make it! You look incredible, by the way.”

“Get a room!” Jesse shouts from the porch, grinning. Hana flips him off.

Within twenty minutes, the Shimadas arrive, neither of them in costume. The rest of the group teases them for it, and they start walking. It’s 5:30 and other trick-or-treaters are also starting to start their journeys.

“Why aren’t you wearing a costume?” Orisa asks.

“I didn’t want to,” Satya answers. She’d started feeling lonely when Hana moved up to lead the group with Lúcio, but wants to be alone again when the younger girl starts questioning her. She doesn’t want company, she wants her sister.

“But then you won’t get any candy!”

“Hana said she’d give me some of her candy. I don’t like most candy anyway.”

“But dressing up is so fun!”

“No it’s not. I don’t like it. I just wanted to stay home, but one of my dads isn’t there and the other’s leaving later tonight.”

“You don’t like trick-or-treating?”

“No,” she’s starting to get annoyed.

“Why?”

Satya looks over to Efi, hoping she’ll call back her sister again, but she’s engrossed in a conversation with Sombra.

Genji and Angela take the back of the line, Genji only able to go so fast on crutches. With mostly everyone paired off, she’s glad to have someone to talk to.

“So what’s going on with Fareeha? Think she’s too cool for us?”

“Evidently,” she sighs.

“Well, you are too, you still find the time to hang out.”

She raises an eyebrow. “Really?”

“Are you kidding? You’re smart, beautiful, popular, you’re even on the first aid squad! You’re not the first person I’d imagine wanting to hang out with us nerds.”

“Hey, I love all you nerds. I’ve been friends with most of these guys since middle school or before. If Fareeha thinks she has better things to do, then that’s her loss.” There’s a bit of bitterness at the last sentence.

“Have you guys been… having trouble?”

“Sorta. Don’t get me wrong, most of the time it’s awesome, and I really like her, but she can be so stubborn sometimes. To be honest… she’s a little immature.”

“What do you mean?”

“Like, tonight, when she ran off to some party. Yeah, I like parties as much as the next girl, but we already had plans here! She can be so, just, impulsive, and kinda hot-headed, you know? And for the most part I can forgive it, because other than that she’s awesome, but,” she lets out a frustrated groan, “it just drives me nuts every once in a while!”

“Have you talked about it with her?”

“I’ve tried… sorta. It’s just a hard topic to bring up, and usually whenever I’d have a chance to she’s being perfectly fine and it just seems unfair to confront her about it then.”

“Excuse me,” Hanzo says. “May I talk to my brother real quick?”

“Sure,” Angela answers, walking a little faster to take his spot next to Jesse.

“What are you doing?” he hisses.

“I’m talking to Angela, what the hell do you mean what am I doing?”

“I know you like her—”

“I liked her,” he corrects, “and what the hell does it matter?”

“She’s talking to you about her girlfriend issues—”

“Were you eavesdropping on me?”

“We’re all having public conversations! We hear each other! Now stop interrupting me. Yes, they may be going through a rough patch, but that doesn’t mean you can try to drive a wedge between them—”

“Just what are you accusing me of? Apparently you weren’t listening that closely, because I was trying to help her!” He speaks as loudly as he can while still whispering, trying to convey his frustration without being overheard. “I wouldn’t try to break up a couple and then try to get together with one of them, and I thought you knew me better than that! I’m talking to her about it because we’re friends , also because everyone else is paired off and she’s the only one considerate enough to walk back here with me!”

“Just watch what you say,” he spits. “There’s no point in trying to break them apart if we have to leave in a few months anyway.”

“I’m not ! And you don’t have to remind me, trust me. Just go back and enjoy the rest of the night with your boyfriend and leave me alone.”

Once it starts to get dark out, Jack takes his usual Halloween spot: on the front porch dressed as a masked scarecrow, next to the bowl of candy marked Please only take one . He has a couple hours to kill before heading back to work, and the best way to spend it is scaring off teenagers who take the whole bowl for themselves.

After about an hour in, he’s taken to holding the please only take one sign and shoving it in the faces when someone tries to take more than their fair share. Once he gets bored of that, he growls and eventually shouts, which gets much more amusing reactions.

Long after it’s fully dark out, he sees two more teenagers walking up the sidewalk. He freezes up in preparation, but some alarm goes off in his head when he hears them talk.

“Come on, mate, here’s another one.” He swears he heard that voice before.

They walk up the stairs, and he tracks them behind the mask. “Oh, perfect, it’s still half full!”

He picks up the bowl, and Jack jumps to his feet. “Hands off my candy!” he growls. The boys jump, and the one holding the bowl quickly replaces it. “Wait a minute,” he tears the mask off to get a better look. “You’re the punks who were harassing my daughter!”

“Oh, n-no, sir!” Jamison struggles. “We… we’re… you must…”

“Get off my property!” Mako pulls his tall friend off the porch and they sprint down the sidewalk. Jack glares at them until they’re out of sight.

“Can I talk to you about something kinda weird?” Efi asks. They’ve been out for a few hours due to Jesse and Lena’s insistence on thoroughly exploring the town. Efi might’ve protested on Orisa’s behalf, but Lúcio offered to give Orisa a piggyback ride after she’d repeatedly commented on her feet hurting, on the condition that someone else carried his hockey stick. Hana offered to carry Satya, but she’s apparently perfectly content to keep walking.

“Hell yeah,” Sombra answers. “Shoot.”

“So, like…” she pauses. “I don’t know if I’m a ‘girl’. I don’t think I’m a boy, but I don’t even know how to go about figuring out which I am.”

“You’re limiting yourself,” Sombra says. “You can keep trying to figure out if you’re a boy or a girl, but you could be neither. Or both. Or some days feel like a boy and some like a girl. Yeah, most people are happy with being a boy or being a girl, hell, even I am, but that kind of binary leaves out a good chunk of people. Maybe one of them is you.”

“Maybe.”

“How long has this been bothering you?”

“It’s been in the back of my mind… since the summer, I guess. I’ve only really started thinking about it over the last couple weeks. This costume took a while to make, my mind started to wander.”

“Have you talked to anyone else about it?”

“I was actually going to talk to Hana tonight, but she’s a bit busy.”

“She doesn’t get to see him that often.”

“Yeah, I get it. I’m gonna talk to her when I get a chance.”

“How do you feel about pronouns? Want to switch from she and her?”

“No, not right now, at least. It’s like… I’m fine with those, but I think I’d also be fine with he and him and they and them.”

“So do you mind being called a girl?”

“Not really. Like, I am a girl, at least physically and I don’t think I want to change that, but… ugh. I’m just confused.”

“That’s okay. You’ll work through it, eventually. Just remember two… no, three things. If you do want to change your pronouns and what people call you, tell them. If they refuse for whatever reason, they’re not worth keeping around if you can avoid it. Two, you can identify as whatever you want, or even nothing at all, as long as you’re happy. Three, and this is the worst one, there’s always gonna be some asshole who thinks they know better than you for some reason and will take it upon themselves to explain why your personal identity is wrong. It really sucks, but they’re always gonna be there and you just have to ignore them. No one knows you better than you, and if they think they do, then they’re a dumbass. You can be whoever you want, as long as you’re not hurting anyone, and if someone doesn’t like it, they can—”

“Evening, ladies,” Emily says as she and Lena fall into stride with them. Efi takes a second to consider how she feels about being addressed as “ladies” and decides that while she doesn’t mind it, she’d prefer to be called something else. Exactly what that something else is fails her. “What are you lovelies talking about?”

“I was just explaining to Efi here about how I liked puberty so much, I decided I just had to do it again.” Efi’s grateful she covered for her.

“Well I’m glad you did, you’re a lot prettier this time around.”

“I was just telling Emily about this abandoned military base just off Oasis campus,” Lena says. “And she mentioned that she has a car that can take us there Friday or Saturday night. We just need to pick up some masks first because of the asbestos. Either of you interested?”

“My dad smoked until I was twelve, I think I’ll hold off on going somewhere that’ll fuck up my lungs further. Or where I could get arrested for trespassing.”

“Yeah, I’m gonna pass on this one too,” Sombra says. “Have fun though.”

“Your loss,” Lena shrugs. “Jesse!” She and her girlfriend take a few strides forwards to catch up to Jesse and Hanzo, and ask them the same question.

“Oh, I’m definitely in,” Jesse says. “Hanzo?”

“I… I think not,” he says.

“Aww. Are you sure?”

“Yes, I think I’ll sit this one out. Have fun, though.”

“Lame,” Lena says.

“Bring a camera, if you have one,” Emily says. “We haven’t been inside before but I think there’ll be a lot of good photos in there.”

“Awesome! And then I can just show you everything when I get back!”

“Sounds good. Be safe.”

“Where’s the fun in that?” Lena asks.

Once Jack’s gone for work, the gang returns to his house, takes the remainder of the candy inside, and reverts back to their natural states of eating and gaming. Hana boots up the old Wii U and sets up an eight-player smash for herself, Lúcio, Genji, Lena, Angela, and Efi. Emily sits next to her girlfriend and cheers her on, despite every fight being dominated by Hana and Genji before the former takes out the latter. Sombra, Jesse, and Hanzo sit in the kitchen with the kids to make sure they don’t eat too much.

Soon enough, there’s a knocking at the door. Emily, assuming that it’s more trick-or-treaters, grabs the candy bowl and opens the door.

“Hi,” Fareeha says, a little timid.

“Hey,” Emily says, and steps out of the way so Angela (who was already eliminated in that round) could decide what to do.

The blonde girl gets up from her seat on the couch, and Emily returns to Lena’s side. “Hi.” She steps off the threshold and onto the porch, closing the screen door behind her.

“I’m… sorry,” Fareeha says. “I shouldn’t have run off like that earlier, that was really shitty of me. I wish I hadn’t.”

“Stop down-B spamming, you piece of shit!” someone shouts from inside.

“Why did you?”

“I don’t know,” she sighs, “I wasn’t really thinking. For some reason I just felt like I do when my mom’s ordering me around, like I just have to get out and do something.”

“I don’t want to make you feel like that,” Angela says, crossing her arms. “I’m not your mom, and I don’t want to order you around. If you’re not comfortable enough to talk to me, then—”

“It’s not that I’m not comfortable talking to you, it’s—”

“Then why didn’t you?”

“I don’t know! I just got, like, stupid and impulsive, and I hate it when I do that! it’s like I lose control of myself and two hours later I’m feeling like crap, and…” She takes a deep breath, for some reason feeling like she’s getting nowhere. “I’m sorry, Angie.”

She’s staring at the ground, so she’s surprised when she’s suddenly enveloped in a soft hug. “Come on,” Angela says. “We’ve got room for another player.”

The rest of their friends greet her happily when she approaches and she sits on the floor in front of Angela, who plays with her dark hair after dying early on in every match.

Sombra sneaks in and kneels down in front of Hana a few minutes later. “Hey, uh, can you run over to your room real quick and make sure Satya’s okay?” she whispers. “I’ll take over.”

Hana nods and hops up, handing over the controller. Sombra, almost as good as her sister, cleans up as Hana would’ve, but abstains from the next few matches.

Ten minutes later, Satya returns to the kitchen, but Hana’s nowhere to be seen. This time Lúcio takes it upon himself to investigate, quickly killing his character and absconding down the hall to her room.

He hears faint crying, and knocks softly before peeking in. “Hana?”

She’s sitting on her bed, wiping the running makeup off her cheeks with a tissue. “Hey,” she says, her voice wet.

“Are you alright? What’s wrong?” he steps into her room.

“I’m fine, it’s just…” she sniffs, “she had such a bad first few years. Her old family was so horrible to her, and, like, I’m glad she can confide in me, it’s just a lot to handle sometimes.”

He sits next to her, rubbing her back softly, not sure of what to say. She leans her head against his shoulder. He becomes very glad he ditched the helmet and shoulder pads downstairs. “I’m sorry, I didn’t want you to see me like this.”

“Don’t apologize. Everyone needs a good cry sometimes.”

“I try not to, but I just keep picturing her in that old house with that… monster of a father she used to have, and she’s such a good kid, she didn’t deserve that.”

“No one does.” He tries not to shiver as her warm tears start bleeding through his thin jersey.

“She told me once that she was scared of me her first day here. Like, what did her old sister do to her that could’ve made her scared of me ?”

“She’s not still scared of you, though. You guys are best friends, you’re one of the best things that ever happened to her.”

He feels a hint of a smile against her cheeks. “Can you, um, go outside just for a few minutes? I think I want to get changed.”

“Sure.” She rises off him to let him go, then takes a deep breath that shudders on the way down.

First the makeup comes off, and she wrinkles her nose in displeasure as she reveals the scars she hates so much. Then the bows come out again, letting her auburn hair fall plainly down her shoulders. She reaches around and unzips the back of the dress, taking out the pins and undoing the two belts she’d tied around herself to keep it in place. It falls to the floor, and she’s slightly saddened to notice the small boost it gave to her breasts had vanished, leaving her with only the slight curve she’d always found disappointing before her flat stomach. There’s still a few smaller scars over her chest left over from the crash, straight white slashes across her as if she’d been slashed. She quickly finds a pink shirt to cover herself with.

Boy, it’s a good thing you sent him out of the room , she hears her voice in her head say. Wouldn’t want him to see this.

“Shut up, shut up, shut up !” she mutters, squeezing her eyes and fists as if that would help. She feels her fragile emotional state about to dissolve into tears again, so she hurries up and replaces her tights with sweatpants and opens the door to let Lúcio in.

“Want me to get you anything?”

“Just… lie down with me,” she requests. “Put on some of your music, I wanna take my mind of this. Let’s talk about something happier.”

“I still can’t believe I’ve never been over to your house,” Jesse comments. “I know people usually hang out here so it would make sense that you’re here a lot more than I’m there, but seriously, I’ve never even seen it.”

“Our dad is… not a good person,” Hanzo says, expecting only to get that far.

“Really? How so?”

“I don’t want to get into it.”

“Aw, come on. I told you all about my shitty birth dad, what’s up with yours?”

“You really want to know?”

“Yes! Tell me!”

“You’re positive.”

“Come on, man, what could possibly be worse than mine?”

“Fine. Come with me.” He walks to the basement door, motioning for Genji to come with him.

“What’s going on?” Genji asks as he slowly makes his way down the stairs.

“We’re telling Jesse why he’ll never go to our house or meet our parents.”

“Aw, come on, never?”

“Never.” They sit on two couches, the brothers facing the wannabe vigilante.

“Alright, you’re creeping me out, what’s going on here?”

“Do you remember how, for the first couple weeks I lived here, your father really didn’t trust me?”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

“That’s because my last name is Shimada, and my family has been accused of various criminal activities over the past decade, which is why we’ve moved around so much and eventually came to the states.”

“How come I’ve never heard about this?”

“They’re very good at covering their tracks, despite the fact that they’ve faced dozens of accusations, all of them true.”

“So… what do they do?”

Genji counts off on his fingers. “Smuggling, drug manufacture, grand theft, larceny, assassinations but very rarely… some political stuff that I don’t even know the name of.”

“H-how much of your family is this?”

He counts off again. “Father, our uncles, cousins, some aunts, a couple grandparents, some great aunts and uncles, and it goes back at least to our great-grandfather.”

“Why didn’t you turn them in?” Jesse asks, and immediately feels shitty about asking. He’s about to apologize before Hanzo gives him an explanation.

“There’s no one it could be except for us, and father knows this. Even if we did any major damage to his empire, he’d take us down with him,” Hanzo explains. “We have spent the last couple months compiling as much information and evidence as possible. When we turn eighteen, we’re going to turn it all in and then disappear for a while until it all blows over.”

“Disappear? As in… skip town? Run away?”

“Yes.”

“In January? As in, two and a half months from now?”

“Yes. If we don’t we’ll be forced into business with father. We’ve spent three years discussing this, and running’s the only option.”

It’s heartbreakingly obvious to Hanzo that Jesse knows what that means. “So the whole time you were here, the whole time we were together, you knew you were just going to leave one day? And you weren’t even going to tell me this, just show up one day and say you’re running away? Or maybe just leave me a note? Write me a letter from across the state?”

“This is why I didn’t—”

“Why couldn’t you have just told me what I was getting into when we were just starting out? Like, maybe not the whole ‘I’m an heir to a criminal empire’ thing, but at least give me a heads up that you’re only sticking around until January?”

“Would that have made a difference?”

“I don’t know, but at least I wouldn’t have gotten super invested only to find out that you were planning on leaving all along?”

“Would you have preferred if we were never together in the first place?”

“That’s not what I’m saying! I just wish—”

“Oh my God! Who cares?” Genji shouts. “‘I wish I’d studied more!’ ‘I wish you’d told me this or that!’ ‘I wish we’d never been in that car crash!’ Who the fuck cares?! It’s over! You can’t change it! I already failed the test, we’ve already been hit by the car, and he already hasn’t told you that we were moving away until now! Now you can both keep angsting about it, or stop shouting and deal with it! Do something productive with your time!” He does his best to storm off despite only being able to move at a slow hobble, struggles up the stairs, and slams the door behind him after an agonizing ten seconds.

He finds the kitchen empty except for Satya; Sombra and Orisa having relocated to the living room. “What were you shouting about down there?” she asks.

“Oh. Guess you could hear me, huh?”

“I couldn’t tell what you were saying, just the noise.” She doesn’t look up from the book, to engrossed with the pictures of buildings on the pages. “So what were you shouting about?”

“Nothing, really. They were just being stupid and I got frustrated.”

“My dads say you shouldn’t yell at people when they’re being stupid.”

“They’re probably right, I don’t think either of them are too fond of me right now.”

“When you were in the car crash, you saw a doctor, right?”

“Lots of them.”

“I saw a doctor over the weekend, but not like a normal doctor. He said he was a mind doctor or something. He gave me a diagnostic test, I think it was called. When you saw your doctor, how long did it take for you to get a diagnosis?”

“A couple hours.”

“Oh. Maybe it just takes longer with mind doctors.” She’s quiet for a few seconds. “People usually get diagnosises when there’s something wrong with them, right?”

“With regular doctors, yes. I’m not sure about mind doctors.”

“Is something wrong with me? In my mind?”

“I don’t know. For what it’s worth, I don’t think so. But I just don’t know.”

It’s almost eleven, and Hana and Lúcio have been snuggled up for a while. “Oh my god, you’re singing in this one!” Hana says with a huge smile. “I told you to sing more!”

“As usual, you were right.” He kisses her.

“I really wish you didn’t live so far away. Then we could do this more.” She kisses him.

“Less than two years, I’ll be in college and have a dorm. You’ll be a senior and you can drive. We could spend the whole night together.”

“Oh man, I just remembered, this was super embarrassing, but during that week where you were living here I must’ve had two or three dreams about falling asleep in your arms.”

“That’s not embarrassing, that’s adorable.” He kisses her again, longer this time.

Hana’s suddenly very aware that she’s in her bed with a boy. Who’s kissing her, very passionately now. For a split second she gets lost in it again, just feeling his energy as they explore each other’s mouths, but then she just snaps back to I’m kissing a boy in my bed!

Then they’re not kissing, at least, she’s not. His lips touch her cheek, her lips again, her cheek, her cheek, her chin, her neck oh no oh no .

Millions of excuses explode into her head. It’s a school night. We don’t have protection. Someone could hear us. I have a headache. I’m on my period. I’m tired. We don’t have time. What if I get pregnant? I don’t know when dad’s coming home. We haven’t even gotten to second base yet! Then, for some reason, she can’t stop thinking about why she doesn’t want him to continue. What if I’m not good at it? What if I ruin something? My boobs are too small. You’ll hate them. I don’t shave, you’ll think I’m gross. I have scars, you don’t want to —

“Wait, stop,” she says. He pulls away.

“Yeah? Is something wrong?”

All her previous excuses want to come out at once, and all of them get caught in her throat. The only thing that emerges, without her wanting it to, is the basic truth. “I don’t want to.” She flinches as soon as she says it, wishing she could come up with a better reason, unaware that she’d given the only one that mattered.

“Oh. Okay.” It’s awkward. It’s uncomfortable. “Do you, uh, want me to leave?”

“No, no! I want you here, I just… don’t want anything more right now.” It’s a little less awkward, a little less uncomfortable. He lies back down next to her. The song changes. “Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize,” he says. “If you don’t want to, you don’t want to. Hell, if you don’t want to, I don’t want to.”

“Really?” she says, slightly wary that he might just be feeding her a line.

“Yeah, really. I want to do it, but only if you do too. If you didn’t want to, but did it anyway, I’d feel like crap. Actually, I should be thanking you.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

Relief washes over her. “For a second I was scared that if I told you to stop you’d get mad and walk out. Or at least try to convince me.”

“That’s not me.”

“I know, trust me. Just some weird fear I had. I know I’m safe with you.” She kisses him, a simple one, on the lips, and cuddles back up to him. “I am gonna want to do it, someday. Just not tonight.”

“Whenever you’re ready.”

Shortly after Satya goes into their room, ready for bed, Lúcio decides he should be heading home. Instead of walking to the door, he opens their window.

“We have a front door, you weirdo,” Hana says.

“Don’t take this away from me. I’ve always wanted to do this.”

“Half your costume’s still in the living room!”

“I’ll be back for it in a minute,” he lowers one leg out the window. “Goodbye, my love. I’ll be with you in your dreams.”

“Goodbye, my weirdo.” He slides out the window and she shuts it behind him, smiling as he stumbles and walks away.

Chapter Text

11/1/2017

Hana can’t wait to see Efi and fill her in on what happened the night before, and makes sure they’re hidden in the corner between the door and bleachers.

“What’s up?” Efi asks, intrigued by the secrecy.

“Lúcio tried to sleep with me,” she whispers.

The ‘tried to’ seems to slip from Efi’s ears. “Awesome!” she almost squeals. “How was it?”

“ Tried to . Nothing happened.”

“Oh.” She’s very briefly disappointed, but it slips away quickly. “Why not?”

“I just didn’t want to. I was worried he’d get my shirt off and see the scars on my chest and see how small these stupid things are,” she gestures to her chest, “and change his mind.”

“Well, it’s good you didn’t do it just to make him happy. What’d he say?”

“I was really worried he was gonna be upset, but he took it really well. I told him to stop and he did and said he’d wait.”

“Honestly, that’s not a bad test. If I get a boyfriend I might say I don’t want to even if I do and if he pushes me it’s a sign I should break up with him. You’ve got a keeper, though.”

“Trust me, I know.”

“And for what it’s worth, I don’t think you have anything to worry about. I mean, I don’t know him as well as you do, but I can’t imagine someone like Lúcio suddenly changing his mind because you’re not up to some stupid standard. Would you decide not to have sex with him because he had some scars or he took his shirt off and you realized he didn’t have godlike pecs?”

“Of course not.”

“It goes both ways. He wanted to have sex with you , not just your body, because he likes you. At least, I’m assuming, and if I’m wrong then he’s probably not worth your time.”

“You’re right, I think. But on top of that I’m just nervous. I don’t think I’m ready, like, at all.”

“Well, from what I can tell he understands and again, if he’s not willing to wait then I don’t think he’s worth your time. You don’t owe him anything, go at your own pace.”

She nods. “You’re right. I need to calm down about this.”

“A bit, yeah. And one last thing.”

“What?”

“When it does happen, you have to tell me.”

“Trust me, you’ll hear about it.”

“Got bad news for you,” Gabe says when Jack gets home. “Satya’s school called. Said she’d have to be investigated for truancy if we don’t have her back in by the end of next week.”

“Truancy? She’s a seven year old!”

“Exactly what I said. Turns out it doesn’t matter.”

“We haven’t found another school yet.”

“I know. I’m afraid we have to put her back in for a few days while we keep looking.”

“You might be right,” he sighs. “She’s not gonna like this.”

She does not like it. She takes it better than they expected, but not as well as they’d hoped. The week she’d spent away helped her cool down after what happened last time, but the prospect of going back to that school doesn’t sit well with her and she’s clearly upset by it. Jack and Gabe spend the night redoubling their efforts to find a new school for her, hoping to at least find something before she goes back that Friday.

It seems like a normal Thursday. It’s cloudy and looks like it’s about to rain, the wind light but noticeable. Hana doesn’t notice, too absorbed in her homework and her music to pay attention to the window. Satya’s on her bed, half sulking about having to go back to school the next day but more focused on her book.

A shock of pain suddenly strikes her ribs where they’d fractured over three months ago, and for a split second she’s certain they’d somehow broken again, no longer caring to act like nothing had happened. Even after the pain disappears, just as quickly as it had come, her heart pounds into her throat and she starts sweating. She takes shallow breaths, scared that her lungs pushing against the bone would create the same pain it did when she was broken.

“You’re breathing weird,” Satya says.

“Mhm.” Her mind’s scrambling, trying to figure out what’s wrong, the sudden dizziness not making it any easier. If she wasn’t sitting down she’d sure she’d have fallen.

“You’re shivering too. Are you cold?”

“No,” she answers, before realizing that she is. Her voice is barely audible, her lungs refusing to take in enough air. She wants to lie down in her bed and hide under a blanket, but she’s absolutely certain that she’d fall apart somehow, her ribs would break again, her scars would reopen, and she’d somehow end up as the bloodied, broken mess the car crash left her. She has to stay perfectly still, she convinces herself, if she wants to stay alive.

She hears Satya leave, and assumes she made her want to leave, she can’t blame her, she’s a mess of an older sister, why on Earth would she want to share a room with her? It just makes sense that she’d leave her to—

The door opens again, and Satya comes back with Sombra in tow. “You alright?”

Hana nods. “Fine,” she whispers.

It takes her one look at her little sister to determine that she’s not fine. “No you’re not. Come on, what’s wrong?”

She shakes her head, trying to focus on her work. She can get through it by herself, there’s no need to get anyone else worried.

“Hana, you look like death.”

“No she doesn’t, death has a cloak and a scythe, she doesn’t have a cloak and a scythe.”

“See?” Hana says, as if Satya had somehow disproved the spirit of Sombra’s comment and not just the letter. “I’m fine.”

“You’re pale, shivering, and barely speaking. Are you sick? Come on, lie down,” she gently grabs her shoulder. Hana recoils, scared she’ll break her.

She tries to take a deeper breath, and although she can it fails to comfort her in the slightest.

“Did that hurt?” If Hana turned to look at her she’d see deep worry etched into her face.

“No,” she’s closer to her normal volume but still whispering.

“Promise?”

She nods.

“Can you turn around?” She does, slowly. “Look me in the eye.” Her eyes are tinted purple by her contacts and wide with worry. “I don’t know what’s wrong, but this isn’t you. You’re shaking, you can’t speak, you’re scared to let me touch you. I don’t know if you’re sick or if it’s something else, but—”

“I’m scared,” she blurts.

“Of what?” she quickly jumps on the opportunity to investigate.

“I don’t know. My ribs started hurting and now I feel like I’m breaking all over again. I don’t know if I can stand up, I don’t want to try.”

“Are you having a panic attack?”

“I don’t know. Maybe.”

“Take a deep breath.”

“My ribs,” she argues.

“They’ve been fine for weeks. Take the plunge. With me.” Both girls inhale, sucking in as much air as they can. It doesn’t help much, but for a second a punch of clarity appears.

“Come with me.”

“I don’t…” Sombra extends her hand. “Come on, I’ll make sure you’re alright.” Hana tentatively takes her sister’s hand and takes a few steps, none of them feeling right but helping a little.

“I want to go back to Doctor Zen,” she says, as she’s taken to calling him.

“Alright, let’s go to the kitchen then we’ll make you some tea to calm you down then we can talk to dad about that. Sound good?”

She nods. The dread still lurks in her, but now that it can’t make her scared to walk or breathe it has no choice but to start withering at the promises Sombra makes.

Gabe invokes several curse words and biblical figures under his breath when he picks up his cell on Friday afternoon only to see that it’s the elementary school. “Hello?” he answers, audibly irritated.

“There’s been another issue with your daughter,” Lengyel says, his voice carrying a certain snakelike quality. “Please come as soon as possible.” He offers no more information.

“Caleb!” Gabe calls again. “Need you to cover, again.”

“Man, what’s going on with that school?” he asks. “Wasn’t like that when I was there.”

“New administrators. Lengyel started about two years after Hana finished, from what I hear from other parents that’s when it started to go to crap.”

“What’s he whining about this time?”

“Don’t have the slightest idea.”

Caleb shakes his head. “Well, good luck.”

“Think I’m gonna need it.”

Jack gets home just past six to find Jesse eating in the living room. “Bit early, isn’t it?”

“Hanging out with Lena and Emily later, have to leave in half an hour.”

“Gotcha.” He walks into the kitchen, where he happily greets his husband.

“Take a look at what’s on the table,” Gabe says. “Think you’ll appreciate it.”

It’s a writing assignment from Satya’s school: Write about someone you look up to. In horribly messy seven year old scrawl beneath it is Satya’s answer.

I look up to my sister Sombra. She’s really nice to me & Hana & our brother Jesse. Last night Hana was upset about something so Sombra made her feel better. But the main reason I look up to Sombra is because Sombra used to be a boy but realized she didn’t want to be a boy anymore so she became a girl. I hope when I’m older I can be as strong as she is for fixing such a big problem and being such a nice sister. That’s why I look up to my sister Sombra.

“I love her so much,” Jack says, smiling.

“Adorable, isn’t it? Sombra’s still on cloud nine. Anyway, this afternoon I get a call from Lengyel just as school’s getting out.”

“Uh-oh.”

“It turns out her teacher had a problem with this.”

“This? How?”

“I asked the same thing. Suddenly words like ‘abnormal’, ‘wrong’, ‘some kind of therapy’ were being thrown around, and next thing I know I take Satya by the hand and just walk out.”

“What the hell?”

“Didn’t even say anything. Nothing that came to mind would be at all appropriate, especially with a seven year old sitting next to me, so I just left. Also might’ve promised her she doesn’t have to ever go back there.”

“Don’t blame you. On either count.”

“Got another busy weekend ahead of us.”

Chapter Text

Jesse’s in the backseat of Lena and Emily’s car for less than a minute before they ask him about what’s going on with him and Hanzo.

“I don’t know,” he says. “I just… I don’t know.”

“So what exactly happened ?” Emily asks. “All we know is that you guys haven’t talked since Halloween.”

“He’s leaving in January,” he says. “He’s known the whole time we were together, but never thought to mention it. For all I know he was planning on shooting me a text morning of and I’d never see him again.”

“I really doubt he’d do that,” Lena says. “You guys aren’t breaking up, are you?”

“I don’t think so. I’m just… shocked, I guess. One minute I think everything’s going fine, then suddenly ‘oh, I’m leaving in January’, don’t miss me too much.”

“Where’s he going, anyway?” Emily asks.

“Don’t know, his dad’s relocating again.”

“If you knew you’d only be together until January, would you have gone out with him anyway?” Lena asks.

He thinks for a second. “Yeah. Yeah, I would’ve. I just wish I knew all along, dropping a bombshell like that is just… ugh.”

“Just want to vent for a bit?” Lena offers.

“It’s just been a shitty fucking year since school started. First I find out my father’s a convicted rapist—”

“ What ?!” Lena shouts.

“ Fucking hell, I didn’t tell you guys that yet, did I?” They both shake their heads wordlessly. “Yeah, apparently the adoption agency was allowed to release some info on my parents and it turns out my father raped my mom and at least three other women, so that’s just fucking wonderful , then there was that shit with Mako and Jamison, and now Hana’s a wreck again, and, like, I feel bad for her and all but sometimes it’s just…” he stops himself, clenching and unclenching his fists, “then dads do their little ‘hey man, I know we’ve been busy with Hana and Satya but we’re always here if you need us’, and I know they think they can be and they’ll try their hardest but my shit just doesn’t compare with the school troubles they’re having, and if I just suck it up and wait it out then it’s okay for a couple weeks until Halloween comes and that fucking nuclear bomb gets dropped on me!”

“Jeez, man. Maybe tonight’s adventure should be to a liquor store,” Emily says.

“I’ve been looking forward to this all week, don’t take it away from me.”

“Just as well,” Lena says. “We probably wouldn’t be able to buy anything, there’s no way we could with the sophomore with us.”

“The sophomore?” Jesse asks.

His memory’s jogged a second later when they stop in front of the sizeable Guillard house on the richer side of town. “Oh, yeah! Forgot we were finally seeing her again.” Amelie runs down the front steps and sprints up to the car.

“ Man , it’s been too long,” she says.

“Yeah, man,” Lena says. “Missed you this summer.”

“Yeah, I missed you guys too. The acting intensive was really cool, though, I’m glad I did it.”

“Hope it was worth missing the barbecue,” Jesse jokes.

“Man, that was the worst part, and it ended like two days after.”

“Don’t worry, we just hung out in the living room while all the adults were outside being annoyingly adult,” Lena says.

“That sounds fun, though. And I can’t even hang with you guys that often even though school’s in because of the fall play. You guys are all coming to see it, right?”

“Always do,” Jesse says.

“And Emily, you’re trying out for the musical, right?”

“Course!”

“I think I might,” Lena says.

“Yay! Jesse?”

“Eh… no, I don’t think so,” he says.

“Aww.”

“Dude, it’s so fun,” Emily says.

“Dude, it’s Hairspray. Nab one of the council member roles and you don’t have any lines, it’s just singing and dancing.”

“Man, I can’t dance.”

“That’s why they have a choreographer to teach you how. At least just audition, Emily and I will help you out, then you can decide whether or not to join in.”

He sighs. “Alright, maybe.”

“Hello again, Miss Song,” Zenyatta says when she returns for the first time in weeks.

“Hi.” She sits on the couch in front of him, leaning forward a little.

“So, why the break and why the sudden return? If you don’t mind me asking.”

“I… don’t really know why I left in the first place. I guess it just fell through the cracks. But I wanted to come back because I had a panic attack Thursday night, and there’ve been a bunch of other… episodes, I guess, since school started.”

“Describe them.”

She opts to go into detail about what had happened during a math test over a month before. Then she tells him about how she’d frozen up and been terrified of suddenly dying when she’d been accosted by Jamison and Mako.

“But then there’s everything in between, where I’m just constantly on edge. I’ll be doing homework and someone will come into my room and I’ll jump, and sometimes I’ll be trying to relax and my heart starts pounding and I start sweating, and I don’t like going outside, and I still don’t drive with anyone other than my dads or my boyfriend. I don’t even like driving with my sister.”

“The accident happened in July, did it not?”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

He counts in his head. Four months, not long enough.

“Why?” she asks. “You don’t think this is all because of the car crash, do you?”

“Did any of this happen before?”

“Well, no, but why would the crash have caused anything other than the not liking cars thing?”

“You’re hypervigilant, reclusive, and terrified of sudden death,” he says. “Do you disagree?”

“Reclusive?”

“Perhaps not the right word, but you understand my sentiment?”

She sighs. “I guess. But all this just because of that fucking car crash?”

“It put you under intense stress that was completely unexpected.”

“So why the hell is it just me? Everyone else is fine! Hell, Genji’s physically disabled and he doesn’t have to deal with this shit!”

“Because life isn’t fair.”

“Oh, are you really gonna—”

“Yes, I am. I’m not saying this like a dismissive parent would, I want you to walk away with that internalized. Life is a series of random events, and it’s far more likely to end up out of your favor than in. It’s unfair that you’re suffering because of the accident. It’s unfair that your sister had to have the childhood she did. It’s unfair that my brother spent five years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. It’s unfair that in some countries your fathers would be persecuted for daring to love each other. It all comes down to a roll of the dice, and there’s far more faces you don’t want than ones you do. If you walk around believing that life is fair, you’ll be disappointed 99 times out of a hundred.”

“I didn’t flag you as such a pessimist.”

“I wouldn’t call myself one. The worst, of course, doesn’t happen as often as some choose to believe, or choose to focus on. I simply forced myself to realize that no, life is not fair, and good things happen to bad people and bad to good. I don’t wish for you or anyone else to walk around expecting the worst, but if you expect fairness then you’ll have to look somewhere else.”

Jack and Gabe’s saving grace appears on Saturday, when their phone rings.

“Hello,” Jack answers.

“Hello, Mr. Morrison. It’s Grace, Dr. Jha connected us.”

“Yes! I remember.” She was one of the psychologists that worked with Satya and tried to see if she needed an autism diagnosis. “Got any news for us?”

“Well, we want to have a few more sessions, run another test before we can give her a diagnosis, but if you want to move her into a school that would be good for her, you might not need one.”

“Really? We need to get her in one soon, we’ve permanently pulled her out of our local one.”

“Really? Why?”

“Well, she had an assignment to write about someone she admired, and she wrote about her older sister Sombra, and her teacher and principal told her that Sombra isn’t a good role model because she’s transgender, and gave my husband an earful about ‘enabling delusions’.”

“This was principal Lengyel? And what was the teacher’s name?”

“Yes, it was Lengyel, and the teacher was Sydney Robinson.”

He hears her scribbling something down before continuing. “Anyway, right off Oasis campus is a school called Mercer Elementary, which isn’t specifically a school for special-needs kids but they’re very accomodating, many kids with ADHD, dyslexia, autism, or other disorders go there even before being diagnosed. I can set up a meeting with their headmaster as soon as you, your husband, and Satya are available.”

“Oh my God, thank you so much. You’re a lifesaver. Could we do tomorrow morning?”

“I’ll email him now.”

“Lena, you got masks, right?” Emily asks.

“Sure do.” She four surgical masks from the glove compartment and passes them around.

“I kinda like this,” Amelie says through the mask. “I think it’s working for me.”

“Right? ‘Mask chic’ is my new aesthetic,” Emily decides.

“So how do we get in?” Jesse asked. “The whole building’s fenced off, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, but at least one of the gates should be open,” Lena says. “I’m not sure about the doors to get into the actual building, but some of the windows are already broken, we’ll just have to be careful if we go in that way.”

The first gate they check is chained shut, but very loosely. Lena pulls on it, and the chain allows a couple inches of entryway. She turns on her side and crouches down to get under the chain, lunging underneath. The rest of her party follows suit, Amelie opting to go over the chain rather than under.

“Guess we just walk around until we find an unlocked door,” Emily shrugs. They trek through the cool night air in the fields around the building, dirt and mulch crunching beneath their feet, hidden from the lights of a nearby field by old, knotted trees.

“So how was the acting intensive?” Jesse asks.

“Mostly what I expected. Get up pretty early, get mediocre dining hall meals, seven hours a day of acting training from professionals for four weeks. People there were pretty interesting, a lot of pretentious types or people who insisted they’d find their way to broadway or hollywood right out of high school or college.” They come across the first door. It’s locked. “Lot of overlap between those groups, now that I think about it. Anyway, there were a bunch of people only there for one or two weeks, so by the end of all of it we kinda had the a squad going that was there for the whole month.” She takes a second to debate telling them this last part, then remembers she’s with the nerds and she can be herself. “We actually got a D&D campaign going.”

“I do not picture you playing dungeons and dragons,” Lena says. “Pretty cool, though.”

“Always wanted to get into it,” Emily says. Jesse nods in agreement. They turn the corner, hearing cars pass behind a thin grove of trees.

“Man, it was awesome. We were doing a little practice campaign the first weekend just so us newbies could learn the ropes, and I made this ranger and I called her Widowmaker because she killed her husband when she started worshipping dark gods. But when we started the main campaign, our DM was super into Lord of the Rings so he set it in Middle Earth, and I wanted to stay as a ranger so I decided to be an Elf, but I couldn’t be Widowmaker because Elves in Middle Earth are supposed to be good, so I had to shelf her.”

Lena tries the next door. “Locked,” she reports. “But…” she jogs forwards a bit, making the others catch up. She finds a ladder reaching up to the top of the building, rusted and grown over with non-poison ivy.

“That looks… not safe,” Jesse says.

“I dunno, if we get a good pair of gloves we should be fine,” Emily says.

“If we come back I’m totally going up there,” Amelie decides, looking up to the top of the building.

They keep walking around, hoping for another way in. “So,” Jesse says. “You’re a full-on nerd now?”

Amelie laughs. “Looks like it. Don’t know what took me so long.”

“Better late than never. Welcome to the club.”

“You know, my brother got into D&D in college, I could ask if he wants to DM for us when he’s on break.”

“Hell yes!” Amelie says. Jesse and Lena are also quick to show approval.

“Who else would be interested?”

“Oh jeez…” Jesse starts, thinking. “Probably both Hana and Sombra, Efi definitely, probably Angela, Fareeha wouldn’t at first but after everyone else was doing it she’d join in, Genji almost definitely, Hanzo maybe. So pretty much everyone.”

“So maybe just the four of us and like one more at most to start,” Lena says, “then we can build from there.”

They try what they assume is the last door before seeing the gate they came in. “Well, guess that’s that,” Amelie sighs.

“We should come back soon, maybe see what’s up that ladder,” Lena says. “We could go through one of the windows but honestly I’d rather exhaust all our other options first.”

“I’m with you there,” Jesse says. “This was kinda cool on it’s own, though, just the field around it is pretty interesting.”

They slide through the gate again, heading back to the car. “Anywhere else in mind?” Lena asks.

“Food,” Emily decides.

It only takes until Tuesday morning for Satya to be enrolled in Mercer elementary. The halls are quieter, a gentle air of control causing less chaos than the reactance to the tighter grip at her old school. The lights are LEDs, casting a much warmer glow than the harshness of fluorescents and without the incessant humming.

She’s worried that her teacher will call her up to the front of the class and force her to introduce herself, but he lets her stay at her desk when he simply informs the class that they have a new student. His face seems warmer and somehow more trustworthy than Ms. Robinson, aged not with her inflexible years of experience but his own well-trained adaptability.

The girl next to her has red hair and her leg also bounces up and down without her realizing it. She asks why she switched schools, much like Jake did when she first met him, and she gives her the same answer, “I didn’t like my old school, so I switched,” this time without having a sense that she’s lying to someone she just met.

“What’s your name?”

“Satya. Yours?”

“Moira.” She extends her hand.

Chapter Text

11/10/2017

It had made so much sense when he explained it. “It’s the basic principle of operant conditioning, taken to the extreme,” Zenyatta had said, putting on a teacher-like voice. “Your brain took the conditions around you, like the car, the location, and the song, and paired it with the ‘punishment’ of the car accident. After that, classical conditioning took over. Whenever anything reminded you of those conditions, you’d become afraid. Your brain would look at your body, realize you’re afraid, and then connect it with whatever you’re thinking about, usually the accident, I’d assume, thus reinforcing that very fear.” She’d nodded along, getting the basic gist of what he was saying. The sheer act of being afraid of something made her even more afraid of it. “In order to break out of this cycle, you have to train your brain to stop being afraid of it. So I’m going to give you some homework to do before our next session.”

She’d put it off until Friday after school. He’d told her to do two of three things: ride in a car not driven by her parents, listen to the song they had been singing, or cross the street where the accident had happened. She feels like she’d cheated with the song, listening to a cover of it in the background while playing games, which softened the blow but still stressed her out. There’s no way in hell she’s getting in another car, so across the street it is.

Now that she’s here, she’d rather just have let Sombra drive her around for a bit. She follows his instructions: tense and relax the muscles in her body, one by one. Take deep breaths. Pay attention to the outside world: the birds chirping, the cool wind, the clouds.

She tries to pay it no mind when her heart starts pounding. “Some therapists teach their patients mindfulness to help them overcome their anxieties,” he’d explained, “and while there are a few merits to that, I don’t personally approve. I told you earlier, your brain reads your body to determine your mood, and if you’re paying attention to yourself when you’re in a panic, well, that will just push you deeper into a panic.”

She’s on the other side of the street. She blinks a few times, trying to remember crossing it, but the memory isn’t there. Her heart’s still pounding, but she expected to be on the verge of throwing up after crossing the street, not just mildly afraid.

I should… try again, I guess. She doesn’t want to. She really doesn’t want to, but she turns around, looking both ways. To her right is the wall they hit, still dented from when they’d crashed into it. She tears her eyes from it, then looks down the street. Completely empty. Too empty. No cars, no people, no nothing.

In the time it would take her to reach the other side even at an ambling meander, nothing could possibly appear from out of view and reach the road in time, the nearest corners are too far away, but she’s entirely certain that the second she hits the middle of the crosswalk the same car that hit her, that she sees in nightmares and daydreams, will materialize before her and pulverize her.

You’re not a little bitch, Hana , she reminds herself. She shakes her head and breaks into a dead sprint across the street. She makes it halfway across, already in an unpleasant mix of hot and cold sweat and thoroughly nauseated when she blacks out again, coming to safely on the other side.

I’m fucking losing it , she thinks, desperately trying to recall two seconds of her life seemingly completely gone from memory. She pulls out her phone and calls the number Doctor Zenyatta gave her if for if anything major happened. The phone rings and she desperately hopes he’s not busy.

She gets his voicemail, and she swears as his normally soothing slow voice drags on as the recording plays.

“Hey, it’s me, Hana. I, um, I was trying to do the homework you gave me, I’m actually at the corner right now, and…” she tries to figure out how to phrase it, “I’m freaking out, I stepped into the street and it was like I teleported to the other side or something, I swear I can’t remember how I got there, so I tried again but the same thing happened and I just feel like I’m going crazy, and like… I think I just need you to tell me if this is… normal? Do other people have this? What is it? I’m, uh, sorry to bother you if you’re busy but this is just scaring me a little. Thanks. Sorry.” As usual after leaving a message, she wishes she could delete it and try again.

A couple hours later, Jesse’s in Emily’s car riding over to pick up Amelie for round two.

“So…” Emily says tentatively. “Hanzo?”

Jesse sighs. They’d been talking again over the past week, both trying to act like the Halloween incident had never happened. “Yeah?”

“Jesse, no, don’t give us that,” Lena shuts him down. “How are you really feeling?”

“It’s… this isn’t the right way to get to Amelie’s house,” he says.

“She’s still at the school,” Emily reminds him. “They rehearse late for the week and a half before the show.”

“And that means we have a little extra time with just the three of us, so talk.”

For a second, there’s just the sound of a deep inhale and exhale, and Emily and Lena aren’t sure whether or not he’s going to talk. “I… I know it’s probably not the right thing to be doing, not the healthy thing.” They shake their heads in agreement. “But it’s easy, you know? And… it’s not like it’ll matter in a few months anyway.”

“Jesse—”

“ Please don’t tell me I have to talk to him.”

She doesn’t continue.

“If this was gonna be a long-term thing, or hell, even continue through college, it’d be different. It doesn’t feel the same as it did before, and sometimes I think maybe if I talk to him it’ll get better, but he’s leaving in two months anyway, so this is good enough.”

“But Jesse,” Lena tries, waiting for him to stop her. He doesn’t. “Wouldn’t you rather have two more months that are like the way it used to be instead of this?”

“Probably. But I don’t know if—”

“Isn’t it worth a try?”

They pull up in front of the school. “Also,” Emily adds, “in a long-term relationship, you would have to talk stuff like this through. Like, would you want to live with your husband or wife like this? Forever?”

“We’re not—”

“I know, I know. Just think of it as practice.”

“That’s kind of a cold way to look at it,” he answers. She just shrugs.

The first groups of actors and techies start to trickle out, many of them glowing with a sort of tired pride. Other cars pull up around them, mostly parents picking up their kids. Amelie leaves the building talking to a group of other actors, but as soon as she sees Emily’s car she waves goodbye and sprints up to it.

“Hey!”

“How’d it go?” Jesse asks.

“Pretty great! Show’s gonna be awesome. Well, once Kenneth finally gets his lines memorized,” she rolls her eyes.

“I’m not really familiar with all this theatre stuff,” Emily says, “but shouldn’t he have memorized his lines a while ago?”

“Yeah, like, a month ago. Ryan, who’s got like, the smallest part in the show was literally feeding him. It was sad, man. Anyway, what’s up with you guys?”

“I’m probably getting a prosthetic arm soon.”

“Wait, really?” Lena asks, her tone doing a complete one-eighty. “That’s so cool!”

“You’re just bringing this up now?” Amelie asks. “Man, what were you talking about before I got here?”

“Top secret gay stuff,” Emily says. “Wish I could tell you, but, you know, you like guys and all.”

She pretends to make a face. “Anyway, why’d it take so long?” she asks. “Wouldn’t you have gotten a prosthetic way back during August or something?”

“Well, they were trying an alternate solution, because it was cheaper and safer, but it’s not really working all that well. Like, I can manage because it’s my left hand, but I’d really rather have a mostly-functional hand. So I’m meeting with a doctor to discuss my options over the weekend and I’ll probably be getting it next month.”

“So are you just getting, like, a normal looking arm?” Lena asks. “Or—”

“HELL no,” Jesse says. “I mean, I’m not sure exactly what my choices will be, but if I’m getting a fake arm it’s sure as hell not gonna look like a real one.”

“I’d be disappointed if you did.”

Hana and Sombra sit in the living room, watching The Princess Bride for the umpteenth time, when Hana’s phone goes off just as Westley bests Fezzik in a test of strength. She quickly lunges for it, and makes a face when Sombra teases her for it. Just like she hoped, it was Doctor Zenyatta. “Hello?”

“Hello, Miss Hana. Sorry it took me so long to get back to you, I had back-to-back group sessions all afternoon and evening.”

“It’s fine. So…” she feels a little weird asking a question like “is there something wrong with me?” in front of her sister with no context.

“I’d been wondering if this would happen,” he says. Like many other times, she wishes he’d talk faster. “You don’t have anything to worry about, there’s no more cause for concern than with your other symptoms.”

“So it’s related to the crash.”

“Of course. If I were to speculate, I’d say that between the nightmares and the crash itself, your brain associated that spot with the trauma, and as a way to… protect you, in a way, split itself from reality. It’s possible that the memory simply wasn’t encoded, or it’s locked away from being recalled. Dissociation, that’s what it’s called, is fascinating, really, there’s a couple books I could recommend if you’re interested—”

“Maybe another time. But I’m not, like, going crazy?”

“Of course not. It’s something we’ll have to work through, of course, but you’ll be fine. There’s nothing to worry about.”

She sighs in relief. “Alright. Thank you. I’ll see you Sunday.”

“Have a good night, Miss Hana.”

“Night.” She hangs up.

“What’s up?” Sombra asks. She explains about seemingly blacking out earlier, panicking all day, and what Zenyatta just told her.

“That’s… freaky,” she says. “You alright?”

“I think so. But it had me on edge all afternoon, I just kept thinking I was going crazy. Like, I know I stepped into the street, and I must’ve crossed it because I ended up on the other side, but no matter how hard I try, I can’t actually remember!”

“There was something like this before, wasn’t there?” Sombra asks. “Not like blacking out, but I remember you came home early one day while I was still recovering from surgery because you got sick, then later you told me it felt like you were floating outside your body or something?”

“You think that’s related?”

She shrugs. “Might as well ask.”

They watch the battle of wits scene, the ending never failing to at least draw a smile from them. “So… how’ve you been feeling the past week?”

“Hm?”

“Have you been holding up alright, compared to most of the fall?”

“Um… I don’t know. Some stuff’s been better and some stuff’s been worse. I haven’t had, like, a major panic attack, but I feel like I’ve been more anxious and jumpy.”

“Have you had another outside-looking-in kind of thing?”

She shakes her head. “I’ve had, like, smaller moments where it sort of felt like it was starting, but it went away quickly. Why do you ask?”

She shrugs. “Just wanted to make sure you’re holding up alright.”

They watch the scene where Buttercup pushes Westley down the hill, then rolls down after him. “I, um,” Hana starts.

“Hm?”

“I don’t think I… nevermind.”

“Aww, don’t tease me like that.”

“I only told Efi about this, and you can’t tell anyone,” she starts.

“Course I won’t.”

“Okay… Lúcio tried to sleep with me on Halloween.”

Her eyes widen. “Really?! What happened?”

“We were kissing, and eventually I realized he wanted more, so I told him I didn’t want that.”

“What did he do? If he did anything—”

“No, no! He was really nice about it, he stopped and we just cuddled for a little while.”

“You know if he ever does hurt you, Jesse and I have your back.”

She nods. “Of course, but he didn’t! It’s just… I’d hardly even thought about it before, but once I did the first thing that popped into my head was that I’d just take my clothes off and he’d say something mean and leave.”

“That doesn’t sound like Lúcio,” she says.

“I know, I know, but it’s all I could think about! I’m not sexy or curvy or anything, I’m just a skinny girl with scars, and—”

“Maybe,” Sombra interrupts. “But you’re a skinny girl with scars that he loves. Sure, there are guys out there that will only consider sleeping with a girl if she lives up to some impossible standard, but there’s also guys who love a girl so much they she’s perfect in their eyes.”

Hana nods, knowing but not believing.

“Listen. I’m not gonna tell you what to do or when to do it. But you don’t have to do anything ever if you don’t want to, and I don’t know if you should if you’re scared of it. Just know that you love each other… do you love each other?”

“I… I never told him.”

“Do you?”

She nods, a small smile twisting at her lips.

“Aww…” she squeals.

“Stop that!”

“Anyway! I know you can’t just make yourself be comfortable with it, so don’t try to rush it. If it’s stressing you out, you’re not gonna like it, so take your time. Maybe all the stress will go away when you make peace with the crash.”

“I hope so.” Westley and Buttercup are well into the fire swamp now. Hana feels a question bubbling, and even though she thinks she knows the answer, wants to ask anyway. “Have you ever…?”

She shakes her head. “Even without all the transition stuff, there’s no one I know who I’m really interested in. I’m pretty much either friends with or don’t like just about everyone I know, I think I’m just waiting for college to start before I start dating.”

“Yeah I guess that’s mostly the way it goes in small high schools. I mean, Jesse, Angela, and I all had to wait for out-of-towners to show up.”

“Can’t wait to go to Oasis Uni. Their student body is like three to four times the size of our town.”

“Wow.” She grimaces as the fight between Westley and the Rodent plays out.

“Fucking hell, Buttercup, don’t just stand there,” Sombra says, like she always does when the scene plays. Hana laughed the first couple times, but now she just smiles and rolls her eyes.

“Thanks,” she says.

“Hm?”

“For talking. Listening.”

“What I’m here for.”

They put their masks and gloves on as they approach the abandoned military base once more. Amelie made them promise a short trip this time since she’s exhausted from rehearsal, so they slip through the open gate and walk towards the ladder on the side of the building, intent on climbing it.

“Wait, guys?” Jesse stops abruptly. They’re walking clockwise around the building this time, and he notices the open door they’d overlooked on their first trek.

“No way,” Emily says. Her eyes shine bright over her mask. The door’s barely ajar, but opens without complaint as she shoves it. “Come on.”

The inside looks like a warehouse with a couple extra rooms lining the walls, and massive tinted windows near the ceiling. Jesse and Emily take out their phones to take pictures, and Lena just stares in awe.

“It’s so cool,” she breathes. Amelie nods, similarly struck.

“Alright, my phone’s close to dead, so I’m relying on you guys for flashlights,” Amelie says.

“Sounds good,” Lena says. “Where do you wanna explore first?”

“We could just check this main room and save the rest for another night,” Emily suggests. They walk forward, flashlights shining over the mostly bare floor.

“Okay, apologies in advance because it’s that time of year where, like, all I can think of is Drama Club, but you guys were planning on auditioning for Hairspray, right?”

“That was the plan,” Jesse says. He stops to take a picture of some rude graffiti on the wall.

“Know who you’re gonna try out for?”

“I was just gonna show up and they can cast me as whoever they think I’ll be best at,” he answers. “You?”

“Velma,” she answers.

Emily smiles and nods. “Oh, you’d be perfect! I’m gonna try for Penny.”

“Yes!”

Lena shrugs. “Never seen it, I was just planning on doing the same thing as Jesse.”

“I think you’d… oh, look at that!” Emily cuts herself off. The flashlight from her phone falls on a gauntlet of twisted metal rods hanging from the ceiling.

“Keep the light there, let me get a picture,” Lena says.

“Think I could hang from one?” Amelie asks. Jesse and Lena are quick to shut that down.

Their eyes follow the metal as they walk past it. “I wonder what that was,” Emily says. “Was it from the ceiling? I can’t really see that high.” She shines her flashlight up.

“I think it’s art,” Jesse says. They look at him inquisitively. “What? I don’t understand it and it makes me feel inferior, it’s art.”

Emily smiles and shakes her head slowly.

“Man, this place is awesome,” Amelie says, still drinking it all in. “Like, I know it’s just some shut-down military warehouse, but it feels… magical.”

“One country’s trash is a squad of teenagers’ treasure,” Emily says. “Wait… are those stairs?”

They jog over to a rectangular room jutting out from a corner. It’s about ten feet long and eight feet wide and high, and as Emily realized, it has an exterior staircase leading to the top. Jesse tries the door only to find it’s locked, but takes a picture of it anyway because of the shadows the patterned glass cast on the wall behind it.

Amelie’s the first to climb up, being careful not to put too much pressure on the stairs. Despite being barely 120 pounds and the lightest in the group, they still shift under her weight. Jesse follows once she’s almost at the top.

“Wow, this looks really cool,” he comments. Most of the warehouse is in shadow, but they can still see some of it spread out before them. He pulls out his phone and takes a few pictures.

“Oh, yeah, this is an awesome date spot,” Amelie says. “Just drive someone out here and set up a picnic overlooking the ruins.”

“Hey, I’d be into it.”

“We gotta come out here again soon with a better camera,” Emily says.

“With you there,” Amelie says. “Also I hate to be a buzzkill, but can we head home soon? I feel like I’m about to fall over”

“Yeah, no problem,” Emily answers.

“We’ll come back soon,” Lena says as they start to climb back down.

“Alright, I think it’s time to stop trying to force it,” Efi says. “Satya just doesn’t like Orisa.”

Hana sighs. “Yep. Real shame, too.” They’ve been in the park for the past half hour, lazily swinging while their sisters were on the playground. It’s reasonably warm for a November Saturday, but Hana still has her hands stuffed in her pockets so they don’t get cold. “Maybe when they’re older.”

“Hope so. Think we should bring them home before mine pisses yours off too badly.”

“Sounds good.” They hop off the swings and gather their sisters. Satya’s grateful to finally be going home, but Orisa wants to go to the river to see the geese.

“What us to come with you?” Hana asks.

“No,” Satya answers, a little pissy.

Efi grins. “Nah, it’s fine. I’ll see ya soon.”

“See ya.”

The girls start walking their separate paths. “You look weird with makeup on,” Satya points out.

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.” She’s quiet for a couple seconds, balancing on the wooden planks separating a gently slope from the playground. “Why do you wear it? It takes so long for you to put on and you have to take it off at night and it just seems really uncomfortable anyway.”

“I don’t like people seeing the scars.”

“Why not? They’re not ugly or anything.”

“People stare at them and it makes me uncomfortable.”

“But people also stare when your makeup looks weird!”

She starts getting pissed, and has to remind herself that she’s trying to help and just isn’t that good at it. Really she just hates the fact that she’s right. Warm and cold emotions intermingle uncomfortably in her stomach.

“Sombra wears makeup too, why aren’t you on her case about it?”

“She’s better at it. Why don’t you ask her to teach you how to put it on?”

“I did.” They’re past the tennis courts now, cutting through an open field to get to the sidewalk that will lead them home.

“Oh. Maybe—” she stops dead in her tracks.

“Maybe what?” She turns around, and sees Satya half hiding behind her. “Satya?”

She points at a woman getting out of her car in the adjacent parking lot and looking around. “What’s wrong?”

“That’s my mom.”

Chapter Text

11/11/2017

Hana tries to walk away like nothing’s wrong. Pretend there isn’t a problem and it’ll go away, right? Maybe she won’t notice them. Maybe it’s just someone who looks a lot like Satya’s mom. Maybe—

“Satya!”

Maybe it’ll take all of ten seconds for that idea to fall apart.

“Oh my God, Satya!” she sprints over to them. “Satya, I’ve been looking all over for you! After those… those horrible people took you away, I’ve been so—” she seems to suddenly notice Hana. If it wasn’t taking all her energy to breathe normally, she’d probably be curious what exactly the woman was focusing on, because it clearly wasn’t her clearly distressed daughter or she’d be trying to comfort her.

“What,” she starts, a venom that Hana might’ve once been immune to spilling through her teeth, “are you doing,” her words are like a winter’s wind through the moderate autumn, almost enough to make Hana shiver and wish she’d brought a heavier coat, “with my daughter?”

“She- she’s my sister,” she manages.

“ Sister? ” she almost screams. “First of all, you’re Japanese —”

“Korean,” she manages, not entirely sure why it matters but it’s all she has.

“Who cares?! She’s my daughter, and I’m bringing her back home where she belongs!”

“No!” Satya shouts. She’s completely behind Hana at this point, as if a trembling teenager barely weighing 115 pounds soaking wet could offer any protection from her nightmares realized. Hana wishes she had someone to hide behind. Back when Jamison and Mako were picking on her she’d had Efi there, she so badly wishes she were there now.

But she’s not, and Hana’s scared she’s about to fall over. It feels like her brain is frying. Maybe if she could think straight she’d try to explain that her family had adopted Satya or maybe she’d grab her hand and run away, but shooting pains run through her chest and she feels like she’s about to be violently ill even though she’d barely eaten and oh my God this is what a heart attack feels like, isn’t it?

“No?! Satya Vaswani—”

“That’s not my name! Hana, tell her, I—”

“You!” Hana feels a lump threatening to close off her throat and tears itching to escape her eyes. “I don’t know what you’ve done to my daughter—”

“She didn’t do anything! It was you!” If it weren’t for the ever-present beacon in her mind that she has to keep fighting for Satya she’d surely have passed out by now, as it is her legs are threatening to give out.

“Give me my daughter back or I’m calling the police!” She’s hot and cold, shivering and sweating, numb and in agony. She tries to make some kind of argument but she can barely take in deep enough breaths.

“Hana, help me!”

She dissociates.

Hanzo’s cell phone rings… rings… rings… and is answered. “Hello?”

“Hi,” Jesse answers, nervous flames that burned in the pit of his stomach licking up to tickle his heart. “I, um, I wanted to apologize for what happened on Halloween.”

“Oh really?” Jesse’s his with a sensation like he’s in a car and someone slammed on the breaks. “What happened on Halloween?” at first listen, the man’s voice is similar to Hanzo’s, but it’s slightly deeper and longer sentences sound like there’s a serpent twisting around each word.

“I… uh… who’s this?”

“I’m Mister Shimada,” he says. He no longer tries to disguise his voice, and although it’s clearly similar to his son’s, both of his sons’, it lacks any familiarity. “Who’s this? My son has you saved as ‘Jesse Van Helsing’, but I don’t believe I’ve met a Van Helsing here.” The serpents in his words punch their way through his phone’s speaker, sending a shudder through his back and threatening to strangle him.

“Jesse Reyes.” He leaves out the “Morrison”, he doesn’t think Shimada would make the connection between him and Officer Jack Morrison, if he even knows who Officer Jack Morrison is, but he’s not taking any chances. “I’m a friend of Hanzo’s from school.”

“Isn’t Jesse a girl’s name?”

“It can be. Is Hanzo there, by any chance? I’d really like to talk to him.”

“He’s not,” Shimada lies. “And he won’t be for a while, so why don’t we sit and talk for a bit?” The serpents root him to his spot. “Now… what happened on Halloween?”

“We… we just had a fight, that’s all. I felt bad and wanted to apologize.”

“A fight? What about?”

“It… it was nothing,” he stalls for time while he tries to think of a lie. He feels the serpents in his brain, jamming it, making it too hard to think. “He… I… look, sir, I’d really like to talk to him about this.”

“And I,” he says, his speech slowing and getting much more measured, “would really like to talk to you about this.”

Something to make him look good , he thinks. Immediately a lie pops into his head. “Alright. I was trying to get him to come hang out on Halloween but he said he was gonna stay in and study. I got annoyed and called him some stuff I wish I didn’t, so I wanted to apologize.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“I think you’re lying.”

“I’m sorry?”

“You’re hiding something. I’ve spoken to many liars in my time, and you’re possibly the worst one of all.”

“O-okay.”

“Good bye, Jesse Reyes.”

“Um… bye,” he says to the beep accompanying the call ending.

He starts to put his phone down, then an oh, fuck! Almost escapes his lips. He picks it back up and calls Genji.

“Hello?”

“Genji!”

“Yeah?”

“Is Hanzo home?”

“Think so. He should be.” The voice is definitely Genji, there’s no doubt about it.

“Okay, I need you to find him now and tell him that we had a fight because he wanted to stay in and study on Halloween and I was nasty about getting him to come hang out.”

“You know, I was there and—”

“Just do it!” It came out a lot more forceful and panicky than he expected, but it gets the point across.

Genji leans into Hanzo’s room. “Jesse says you got in a fight on Halloween because you wanted to stay in and study and he got nasty about trying to make you come hang out.”

He blinks a few times. “Excuse me?”

Genji shrugs. “That’s what he said.” Hanzo stares at him half-incredulous as he closes the door behind him and returns to his room.

He puts the phone back up to his ear. “Care to tell me what that was all about?”

As a ranger leads the three of them to some office at the end of the park, Hana realizes she’d blacked out again and can’t remember past a few minutes after Mrs. Vaswani approached them. She hopes she’s not missing too much and that she didn’t do anything to screw herself or her sister over.

Her cheeks are wet, she realizes, and a look at Satya shows that she’s been crying as well. Scared crying or angry crying, she doesn’t know.

She offers Satya her hand, which she gladly takes. “I told you not to touch her!” Mrs. Vaswani shrieks, making both girls jump.

“Miss, do as she says,” the ranger orders. He’s balding and overweight, unlike most of the rangers Hana had seen around the park, and one look at his face is enough to see that he’s an incredibly unpleasant man to be around. She gives her sister a quick squeeze before letting go.

He leads them to a sad looking building in a long-forgotten corner of the park and unlocks the door. “You’ll be in here while we wait for the police to sort this out.” The lobby area is poorly lit and undecorated, featuring only a desk with the bare minimum of amenities on it, an uncomfortable looking bench, and a few doors.

“You’ll wait out here with me,” he says, pointing to the bench. “You two stay in there,” he points to another chair.

“I want to be with her,” Satya says.

“And you will be.”

“No! I want to be with Hana!” she runs over to her sister.

“Don’t touch her!” Mrs. Vaswani screams again. Hana wants to shout back that she’s not, but her voice leaves her.

“You’ll be waiting with your mother.”

“She’s not my mom! Hana! Hana, help!” Hana feels herself starting to cry again, lamenting how helpless she is to stop Mrs. Vaswani.

“Kid, enough!” he says. He picks her up and carries her, kicking and screaming, into the side room. Mrs. Vaswani berates her for tantruming. Hana just sits on the bench and cries.

Sombra walks down Main Street, taking long strides, head turned down to fight the sudden gusts of wind that decided to suddenly show up and ruin everyone’s afternoon. She’d heard something new was opening in the space where the old overpriced coffee shop used to be, and she was damn ready to support whatever it was that replaced wannabe-Starbucks.

She crosses Fourth Street, and focuses on the brick building connected to the comic store and the Rite Aid. Once she gets closer, she sees the sign above the door reads Lindholm’s Retro Gaming . She sees two arcade cabinets and a DDR machine through the window, and half-stocked shelves with third, fourth, and fifth generation cartridges and disk cases. Oh, Hana’s gonna go nuts when she sees this.

She opens the door, which sends a soft jingling of bells through the small store. A pretty girl with auburn hair and green eyes peeks out from behind a shelf. “Hi, um, we’re still kinda setting up,” she says.

“Thought so. I was hoping I could look around a bit?”

“Oh! Yeah, sure, go ahead.”

She looks over the Nintendo section, trying to find anything she hadn’t heard of. “What’s your name?”

“Brigitte,” she says, a faint accent coming out with the name.

“Do you go to school here?” she asks. “I think I’d have seen you around?”

“Not until Monday,” she says. “We used to live in Ilios, by the ocean, but we moved last week. Dad ran one of these stores over there too.”

“Ilios… any chance you know a guy named Lúcio?”

“Oh, the musician guy? Yeah, he’s awesome.”

“He’s my sister’s boyfriend.”

Her eyes light up. “Oh, you’re Hana’s sister?”

“I take it he spoke highly of her?”

“Yeah, he’s crazy about her.” She steps off a ladder and starts breaking down a cardboard box. “Sorry if I’m cutting your visit short, but do you know anywhere good to eat around here? I’ve been working all day.”

“One of my dads owns a bakery two blocks away.”

“Oh, you lucky bastard.”

“Jeez, kid, aren’t ya cried out yet?” the ranger asks. Hana looks up at him, her face red and hurt. He doesn’t pay attention.

Seconds later, the door opens, and a silver-haired man in a police uniform opens the door. He’s tall, and would intimidate the hell out of Hana if she didn’t know the warmth his arms hold.

“Dad!” She runs up to him, and he quickly envelops her in his protective embrace. He takes a moment to soothe her before they release each other and he confronts the ranger.

“What’s going on here?” he asks.

“Your daughter was found with a seven year old girl by the girl’s mother, and would not return the child to the custody of the parent. She instead opted to create a scene until I showed up and had to bring her here.”

“Where’s the girl?”

“Right through there,” he points.

“Get them,” he orders. The ranger seems to shrink a bit, and he hurries to the door and opens it.

“Dad!” Satya runs up to him and jumps at him. He wraps an arm around her, catching her midair against him, and hugs her too before letting her down. She takes Hana’s hand and the girls hide behind him, finally having a strong enough protector.

“What do you mean, dad ?! You’re my daughter!”

“Mrs. Vaswani, I assume,” he says.

“How do you know who I am?”

“Ma’am, you emancipated your daughter the night your husband was arrested. You no longer—”

“I don’t care! She’s my daughter and I want to take her home!”

“Has Satya expressed any desire to return home with you?”

“Who cares what she wants!” she wails. “She’s my daughter, I decide what’s best for her.”

“No,” he says. “You don’t. You emancipated her, my husband and I adopted her. We —”

“Husband? You mean to tell me my daughter went to a pair of—”

“I highly advise you don’t finish that sentence,” he growls. She shrinks back. He pulls out his walkie-talkie. “McCloud? I’ve got everything under control in here, don’t worry. It was just a mix up. Listen, Hana and Satya are in here, can you give them a ride back home? I’ll be out soon. Thanks.” He turns to his daughters. “The cruiser’s right outside, McCloud’s gonna drive you home. I’ll meet you there.”

Hana nods, grateful to be out. She gives her dad one last hug before practically running away.

“Mrs. Vaswani,” he says once they’re outside.

“Yes?” she glares.

“Go home.”

“Excuse me?”

“You’re free to go. Please, do not bother my family ever again.”

“ Your family? I’ll remind you—”

“Please don’t,” he says. “You’ve harassed me and my daughters enough. I’m doing you a favor letting you walk away from this, and I urge you to take it.”

She glowers at him as she leaves. “This isn’t over. I can sue you,” she says.

“You certainly can. Goodbye, Mrs. Vaswani.”

“Well, glad that’s over with,” the ranger says. “Could’ve gotten bad, thanks for your help. Have a nice day now.”

“Oh, I’m not done with you yet,” he says.

“E-excuse me?”

“You detain my daughter with no just cause and separate her from her sister despite I’m sure both were begging for you to keep them together. Tell me, how much do you want your job?”

Chapter Text

11/14/2017

Efi looks down to check her phone only to notice that Hana’s fallen asleep next to her, head resting on her arms. She can’t blame her, Ethan Frome was a sinfully boring book and the movie’s somehow even worse, but she lightly shakes her regardless. Her eyes blink open, and she angles her head to look at Efi. After remembering she’s in English class watching Ethan Frome, she closes her eyes again and quickly falls back asleep. Efi rubs her back and lets her be.

“Everything alright?” she asks on the way to lunch. Hana shakes her head, still rubbing the sleep from her eyes. “Did you sleep at all?”

“Seven hours since Saturday.”

“Hana, what the fuck?”

“Eight if you count English.”

“Okay, you’re going to the nurse.”

“I have a test…” she briefly tries to protest. “Okay.”

“Nightmares again?” she asks.

“Worse than ever.” It’s not just dying anymore. After seeing Satya’s mother for herself, she’s been able to put a face to all the horror stories and nightmares Satya’s been telling her, making it ever easier for her brain to make her relive them. The fear of what might’ve happened to Satya doesn’t help either, and when she isn’t facing down Mrs. Vaswani herself she’s either immobile as her little sister’s taken away or forced to listen as her cries for help are sampled in endless horrifying contexts.

And when she’s not jolting awake covered in sweat, she’s torn from her sleep by Satya’s shrieking. Neither of them have had nightmares this bad since August, but Mrs. Vaswani’s attempted kidnapping brought them back full force. They’d been sleeping in the same bed since Satya woke up crying uncontrollably at 3 on Saturday morning, hoping each others’ presence would soothe them, but it hasn’t helped any.

She barely realizes when they arrive at the nurse’s office. “What’s wrong, girls?”

“She needs to lie down,” Efi says. Hana nods. “Might have to go home later. She hasn’t been sleeping.”

“Thanks,” Hana whispers. Efi nods.

“Alright, right this way dear,” the kindly old nurse leads her to the beds in the next room.

“Your dad hasn’t asked about me, has he?” Jesse asks. He and Hanzo are the only ones at the table at the moment, but they’ve claimed it in the name of siblings, friends, cousin, and new girl.

“Nope,” Hanzo grins. “We’re free.”

“Thank God.”

“That was some good thinking on your part.”

“Man, I’m still shaking. You’re dads a creepy dude.”

“You’re preaching to the choir.”

Jesse waves Brigitte over when he sees her looking around, half lost. She smiles in recognition and strides over to them.

Fareeha walks up next to Sombra in the pizza line. “Hey,” she mutters. “You have tampons? Angie’s out.”

She shakes her head. “Don’t bleed,” she whispers back. “Try the nurse.”

“Oh yeah, I guess you wouldn’t. Lucky.”

Not really , she wants to say back, but Fareeha’s already thanked her for the suggestion and started towards the nurse’s office. She sighs, she supposes her cousin wouldn’t understand anyway. Most women hate their periods, but for her it’s just another thing she’ll probably never have, a monthly reminder that her soul was born into the wrong body.

“What can I get you?” the lunch lady asks.

“Just a water.” She’s lost her appetite.

Hana had fallen asleep seconds after hitting the bed in the nurse’s office, but she’s no safer there than in her own bed. She’s in a house she imagines is Satya’s that she probably saw in some horror movie somewhere. Her cheeks are bleeding and her ribs are broken, and she can’t seem to get off the couch. The door flies open and a large faceless man drags Satya through the door.

“Hana!” she shouts. “Hana, help!” Hana tries to push herself up, but she’s completely immobile. Her eyes follow her as she’s dragged out of sight and into the kitchen, shrieking.

“Hana help me!” Hana struggles and strains, but she’s thoroughly immobilized. Her heart wrenches as her calls for help are replaced by shrieks of fear and agony. Salty tears roll down into the gashes on her cheeks and sobs punch brutally at her ribs as she’s forced to listen to her

little sister once again begging for help she can’t provide.

Her eyes open and she’s in the nurse’s office being shaken awake. “Hana… Hana!”

She wipes her red-rimmed eyes and sees it’s her cousin. “Fareeha?”

“Hana, are you alright? What’s wrong?”

“I was,” she sniffs, “I was just trying to sleep.” Her throat’s still half-closed.

“Why were you crying?”

“Nightmare… I’ve been having them nonstop for the past couple nights.” She rubs her face in her hands, trying to rub the dream away. It’s already fading, but the shattering hopelessness still lingers.

“You tell your dads yet?”

“I’m gonna once they figure out everything with Jesse’s arm… maybe I’ll just steal dad’s sleeping pills again.”

She crosses her arms and gives Hana a strict glare she didn’t think herself capable of. “You will not .”

“Jeez, why are you suddenly enforcing the rules?”

“Because it’s important, Hana. I’m all for having a good time until someone gets hurt.”

“Is this you or Angela talking?”

She sighs. “Fine. If you’re gonna be like this about it…”

“No, no, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” Fareeha sits down next to her. “Oh God… I just wish it was over already. I’m so tired of all the nightmares and the anxiety and seeing Satya so upset and putting my dads through everything…”

“Pretending it’s not happening isn’t gonna make it go away faster, Hana.”

“Yeah.” She stretches out her legs. “Guess I should go to history… or is it still lunch?”

“You’re going home , Hana.”

Chapter Text

11/22/2017

At Jesse’s request, his friends meet him at the pizzeria once they get out of school the day before Thanksgiving. The corners of his mouth are tilting up with anticipation when he sees them arrive, and he waits impatiently for them to order before joining him.

“So why weren’t you in this week?” Lena asks. “You’re not sick, are ya?”

“Off the radar, too,” Emily adds. “Haven’t heard anything from you.”

“Well, you see my, dads have a running count of how long they’ve had all four kids in school at the same time, and I just had this urge to reset the counter,” he grins.

“I think I know what it actually is,” Angela says.

“Yeah, well, no spoiling the surprise. I wanna show everyone at once… is Fareeha here?”

“Detention,” Emily says.

“Oh, for real?” he laughs. “Couldn’t even go half a week?”

“Well, this was just for being late too much.”

Amelie slides in at the edge of the table. “Alright, Jess, what’s so important?”

“Glad you asked.” He unzips his jacket, pulls out his right arm first, and in one swift motion removes the other and takes off the glove. “It is with great pleasure that I announce that I’m officially,” he lays his metal arm on the table, “a cyborg!” It’s sleek and silver, starting just below his elbow. The curved plates emulating the shape of his forearm have visible seams between them, further giving a sense of artificiality. The knuckle joints are painted in gold.

“Woah.”

“Holy shit.”

“Can I touch it?” Emily asks.

“Of course.” It’s cool to the touch and incredibly smooth.

“Is it fully functioning?” Angela asks, clearly fascinated. “Like, can it do everything a normal hand can do?”

“Well, as soon as I get used to it, yeah. There’s some stuff I have to retrain, but give me a little bit and I’ll be back up to normal.”

“Can we arm wrestle?” Amelie asks.

“Oh, of course ,” he puts his arm into the ready position. “Let me know if I’m squeezing too hard, having a bit of trouble getting used to that.”

She meets his hand, and beats him in a matter of seconds. “Looks like you’re no iron man,” she smirks.

“Not yet, anyhow.”

“Satya’s getting one too at some point, isn’t she?” Angela asks.

“Eventually, yeah. It’s gonna be a while though, they won’t give her one she’s just going to outgrow in a few years.” He finishes the last bite of his pizza. “Anyone want to go to my house and play some games? Help me take this thing for a test drive?”

“Can’t,” Amelie says. “Gotta be home by 1:30 to meet my sister at the airport.”

“Yeah, and I’m supposed to be home… now,” Emily says. “Have a good break, though,” she says, climbing over Lena to get out of the booth.

“See ya.” Jesse says.

“I’ll go,” Lena offers.

“Relatives are coming over soon, so…” Angela starts, “please keep me as long as you can.”

He grins in response. “Not a fan?”

“Uncle wears a MAGA hat and grandma has an NRA membership.”

“Want me to throw rocks at their cars?” Lena asks.

She chuckles. “I’ll let you know.”

“Hey Hana,” Jesse asks, “wanna play Double Dash with us?”

“No,” she sighs. “Just rather… I kinda have to…” she gestures halfheartedly towards her room, “yeah.” She retreats.

“Is she alright?” Lena asks.

“She’s… going through a rough spot. She’ll get through it, she’s a trooper.” He looks around, trying to see who else is home. “Sombra?” he calls.

“Yeah?” she answers from another room.

“We’re gonna play Double Dash, come join us.”