Chapter Text
“Happy Birthday Dear Jack! Happy Birthday to you!”
Applause erupted, and Jack leaned forward to blow out the candles. Everyone clapped and cheered.
“Can I take this damn thing off now?” Jack said, grabbing the birthday hat from his head and crushing it, before tossing it at Jesse’s face. Jesse laughed and caught it before fixing it and putting it on himself.
“So, February 22nd is your real birthday,” Jesse said. “Everyone got that?! Jack’s birthday is on February 22nd!”
Jack enjoyed everyone’s laughter. It helped that it had been a couple months since the dubbed “Deadlock Incident”, and everyone had healed from their wounds and the trauma that horrible week (or in Jack’s case, three weeks) had brought them. Though the memories weren’t all bad. Some memories were kept close to his heart. Others were the reason he was having trouble sleeping at night.
“Yeah, glad someone got it right,” Jack smirked, standing up and showing off a growing gut cradled tight inside of an athletic shirt. He worked out just the same, but he was taking it easier, and also enjoying himself for the first time in forty years. It was starting to show in an obvious way, and the only one that ever said anything about it was Jesse, and Jesse was always nice to him. He should be, seeing how the kid was starting to get wide as well as distended.
Jack cut himself a generous slice, licking his fingers of the frosting, before dishing out the other pieces. He smiled and passed out his share of wise cracks and grumpy retorts, before walking a bit out of the way to eat his cake. To his surprise, Hanzo sought him out.
“You are looking well,” he said easily.
“Yeah, I know. I’m turning into Jesse,” he smirked.
“You could only wish,” Hanzo said, turning his head to smile and wave at his boyfriend.
“How do you two do it?”
“Do what? Gain weight?”
“No, just,” Jack laughed. “Happy. The happy thing.”
He tried to look away as Hanzo studied him silently for a long moment. He was embarrassed he had to ask that question, and of Hanzo, a man he barely knew, though…they were starting to become good friends.
“I told you once to never fear what you want,” Hanzo said. “I mean it. The shame you may feel is an anchor to the past. Lift it and be who you want to be. Be with who you want to be, the way you both want to be together. It is clear you are already heeding my advice in part?”
Jack looked down to his gut, maybe the size of a small cantaloupe now, and Hanzo had clearly gestured at it. He put a hand on it and jiggled it up and down with a chuckle before looking to Hanzo. The archer was wearing something casual, something that didn’t quite hide his own gain all that well either.
“Yeah, well,” Jack chuckled. “We’re all chubby now.”
Jesse watched Hanzo talk to Jack as he ate his cake, watching the timid smile on the man’s face. The three of them were getting along better than they had ever before, and while Jack mostly kept to himself, sometimes he’d sneak down into the kitchen to join Jesse in a midnight snack. Hanzo didn’t need to know about the casserole they polished off together last night, swapping stories and recipes. Sometimes it was nice to be in the company of a friend who liked to eat as much as Jesse did and as often too.
He turned his attention to Genji as he heard a charming light laugh escape him. He was talking to Mei, and he could hear their conversation from a bit away and decided to eavesdrop.
“Well, I ask because I was wondering if you needed help with restoring the systems. I am a cyborg so cold does not affect me like the others. In fact, I make a nice space heater.”
“Oh well,” Mei giggled a little. “Sorry I didn’t know that’s what you meant when you asked if I was warm enough working at Ecopoint.”
Genji laughed again, shifting a bit nervously and Mei was doing the same. Cute.
“I suppose that was worded strangely.”
“But I would love your help, Genji. No one else has offered and I leave in a couple weeks.”
“Ah, then I will make sure everything is in order,” he said. “Perhaps… we can discuss the details over dinner tomorrow night?”
Jesse grinned and looked away. CUTE.
He listened to Mei scramble to say yes, and the couple awkwardly resumed a more benign topic of conversation. He jumped a little as he felt hands slide to his stomach and shoulder, and Hanzo was there to give him a peck on his cheek. Jesse looked over and grinned.
“Don’t fill up on cake,” Hanzo whispered. “I got us something special to share tonight.”
“Oh?”
“Mm… Rocky Road. Two gallons.”
“Whoof, ya playing with fire, Hanzo. Or would that be ice?”
“Hopefully I’ll be playing with McCree.”
“I like the sound of that.”
299, 300, 299, 300, 299, 299, 300.
Beep beep beep!
Jesse blinked as he stared at the scale or tried to over his large bare belly. He put his hands on his stomach and flushed in surprise. “Hey Hanzo!”
He’d just gone into the bathroom to take a shower and freshen up before they got into the show of it that night, and thought it would be a good spontaneous idea to weigh himself. Though that meant he had left Hanzo alone with the Rocky Road, and he could hear the spoon clanking against his teeth in the other room.
“What is it, Jesse?”
“You wanna take a look?”
He waited for Hanzo to pad into the bathroom, wearing his hakama only. Hanzo had gained some curves himself and a plump tummy, and not many of his pants were fitting anymore. It seemed like he was mostly putting it on in his thighs and ass and was still in firm denial of it, making one hundred and one excuses as to why. Jesse sure loved the look of him now, though. Hanzo’s eyes trailed over Jesse’s near naked form before they snapped to the number on the scale.
“Three hundred?”
“Three-zero-zero.”
“My word!”
“Yeah,” Jesse laughed. “I’m floored.”
“We should celebrate!”
“How about we get you on this thing first?” Jesse grinned wide.
Hanzo sneered. “There is nothing new the scale would tell me. I have always been one seventy-seven.” He shrugged, pretending to be aloof.
Jesse grinned and narrowed his eyes before rushing over and scooping Hanzo up. His boyfriend gave him a yelp and wriggled in his arms, before Jesse stepped back on the scale.
“Let me down!”
“Five hundred and six pounds! Hanzo you weigh two-oh-six!”
“That is not true!”
“That’s almost thirty pounds you gained with me,” Jesse grinned.
Hanzo huffed and gave up the struggle, because Jesse wasn’t going to let up and he knew it. Instead, Jesse pulled his boyfriend into a deep kiss, forcing him to calm down enough to enjoy it as he cradled him in his arms.
“I love you Hanzo.”
Hanzo, still a bit flustered, reached into his pants pocket and squirmed out of his arms to grab his hand. With a swift and deliberate motion, he slipped a ring on to Jesse’s finger. Jesse blinked a bit and looked at the gorgeous silver and gold band with the sapphire inlaid into it. His eyes darted to Hanzo’s grin as the archer wrapped his arms around his rotund waist.
“Uh… Hanzo, what is this?”
“An engagement ring,” Hanzo said with a shrug.
“You—did you just ask me to marry ya?”
“I didn’t ask anything yet, but, yes. Will you marry me, Jesse McCree?”
“You’re askin’ me to marry ya while I’m standin’ on a bathroom scale?”
“Is it not romantic enough?” Hanzo teased him, pretending to show concern.
“Romantic, no. Perfect? Well…” Jesse looked at the ring. “Yeah.”
“Is that a ‘yes, I will marry you’?”
“Yes!” Jesse laughed, overcome with bubbling joy. “I will marry you, Hanzo Shimada!”
Jesse picked Hanzo up again and pushed into a deep kiss, feeling his heart swell up a thousand times over. He couldn’t have imagined a more perfect way to celebrate the big three-hundred.
Jack groaned, pushing into his small room and peeling off his shirt. He had eaten too much birthday cake, that was for certain. He looked down at his bloated stomach and grumbled something to himself before changing into a nightshirt and some loose boxers. It was late. He was exhausted. He should go to bed and sleep off the sugar—strange.
There was a square white box on his bed, wrapped neatly with a pink ribbon. Jack approached the box carefully and cocked his head, searching for a card – maybe someone had gotten him a birthday gift and didn’t want to give it to him in person? Still, no one had access to his room but him….
Jack carefully tugged at the ribbon and opened the box, his eyes tearing up instantly as he saw a gorgeous peach pie, a fork resting over it and still warm to the touch, resting inside. Jack put a hand over his mouth and his other on his hip, taking in a sharp breath before carefully lifting the pie out of the box. He shook his head as he saw something even more surprising.
Gabriel’s journals. A small note was taped to the cover.
You should read them. – G
Jack shook his head to himself, and placed the pie on the bed, before climbing under the covers. He took the fork and dipped it into the pie, enjoying a savory bite, before grabbing a journal. Delicate fingers uncurled the twine and peeled it open to the first page.
Souls on Twine
Our souls in kind on twine between us.
Love undescribed, but there to guide,
The way we feel about the other side.
We do what we must.
We belong where we fall.
But the twine between us
will never stall.
The End