Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It didn’t know what it was or how it came to being.

Without form it became, without form it traversed the arroyos after the storm and found the man.

When the connection was made, it was intoxicating. The need for blood was an insanity that it couldn’t control.

The human took it to the house, in his rage they killed the father and older brother… time slowed so it could savour the sheer ecstasy the man was having, at the sound of those screams and the feel of blood.

It didn’t know after it fed off the man, it left him vulnerable.

It left him open to the rage of the 12-year-old boy, who in his own madness beat the man to a pulp with his bare hands. Upon the man’s death, there was nowhere else to go.

It lived on in the boy for years, urging him to feed off chaos, blood, and violence. The boy obeyed, helpless and addicted until… four years later… he showed it better things.

Whiskey, drugs, and lots of glorious wonderful sex.

Life with Cole Cassidy wasn’t what it originally wanted, but it was acceptable.

After twenty years, they’d bonded more than they realised.

Chapter Text

“What is it?!”

The first time Cole witnessed Genji’s spirit dragon being unleashed, it scared the shit out of him.

However, when Cassidy saw her in her miniature size, he had to admit, Soba was “gosh darn-it” cute.

“Don’t be fooled, Cassidy,” Genji had said, “Soba’s no less powerful in this form.”

“What is she?!”

Genji explained, as best he could, of the trials he went through at eight, and the Shimada legends.

It was mind-boggling to think a small green spirit dragon was capable of such great destruction.

Cole was astonished. “But, she’s so little!”

Genji wasn’t wrong. A small dragon could do some pretty hefty damage to a kitchen, leaving it and the entire contents of the fridge and cupboards, decimated.

“She was hungry!” Was pretty much the excuse given.

Soba was as mischievous as her master, and like Cole’s best friend, she had the tendency to tease Cole something rotten. In an affectionate way.

When Soba found out about “it”, Genji’s rage frightened her, and she retreated. Such a lack of response from her gave Genji the final reason to leave.

Cole missed them greatly

After the Recall, it wasn’t just Soba Cole had to deal with.

Chapter Text

“I dunno, Genj. How can ya forgive someone who tried t’ kill ya?”

“Because he is my brother, Cole-san. The Clan took a lot more from him than me.”

Genji never explained. It seemed he couldn’t… or wouldn’t.

Upon meeting Shimada Hanzo, it was uncomfortably strained. It didn’t help that the man was handsome very easy on the eyes, but good looks were not enough. Hanzo had tried to kill his brother and that didn’t sit well with Cole.

Cole had tried to refrain from showing his dislike, in that moment, but grinding his teeth on his cigar only left him with a mouthful of broken wet tobacco flakes.

The Elder Shimada wasn’t keen on him either. Those dark eyes glared at him with judgment and disdain, and while he was polite to others, he had no qualms about showing his feelings to Cassidy.

Neither did his dragons.

Cole might’ve been humming a lot, one night in the communal dining room, buzzed pleasantly with slight whiskey intoxication.

The huffs and puffs of irritation only encouraged Cole, until two small blue hissing dragons lept onto his plate and scared the crap out of him.

“Holy shit! He has two of ‘em?!”

Chapter Text

“Cole-san, why persist in antagonising my brother? Do you hate him that much?”

Cole sighed.

His best friend was glaring at him, and Genji’s expression probably matched that of Soba who was stretched out on the back of the couch, looking at him with curiosity. Cole absentmindedly scratched a finger under Soba’s chin, but she didn’t cave and continued looking at him with a tilted gaze, puffs of green smoke huffing haughtily from her snout.

“I don’t hate him, jeez!” Cassidy turned away from Soba and looked at Genji. “I’ve worked together with Hanzo fer a while now, and he’s mighty fine on the battlefield. He got impressive skills… but…”

“You’re still struggling, to forgive him?”

“Ain’t it a best friend’s job t’be pissed at the fella what done ya wrong?”

“Cole-san… there’s no need. Please.”

“Okay. I’ll try. I’ll be good… as long as he don’t set his dragons on me again!”

“Perhaps you two could refrain from humming, belching, and picking your teeth and nails in Hanzo’s presence? Yes?”

Cassidy fished a cigar from beneath his serape and put it to his mouth. Soba edged closer and puffed a green flame to ignite the end.

“Ha! Fat chance.”

Chapter Text

Cole stayed back to hold off Talon’s reinforcements, allowing his teammates to reach the payload.

Hanzo stayed with him as back-up, though Cole knew it was really to “keep an eye” on him.

It unnerved him somewhat, and they craved for something—anything—to take the edge off what the adrenaline of the fight wasn’t giving them.

Cassidy grimaced, as an arrow took down a Talon soldier, he knew was sneaking up behind him.

That was the third time Shimada Hanzo saved Cole’s life on this mission.

“Thank-ya kindly!” Cassidy drawled as he reloaded Peacekeeper and ran off down the street.

He heard a grunt in his comms, and when Cassidy looked up, he saw Hanzo following, leaping from roof to roof.

They reached the main battle just in time. The others needed help, but before time could slow down, Hanzo’s giant twins erupted, crackling with blue lightening, and eliminated every enemy in their path.

Hanzo had saved them.

“I’m tellin’ ya… those dragons are power! We need to have them!”

Everyone congratulated Hanzo on the flight back home.

Cassidy didn’t, but he nodded in appreciation despite his misgivings.

When he saw Hanzo’s smile, he couldn’t help but smile back.

Chapter Text

Months went by and while the archer remained reclusive—at most—there was a noticeable difference with how he was with the others.

Cassidy observed that Hanzo had grown closer to Genji. Their relationship was strained and still painful, but it was progressing. Yet, Cassidy continued to struggle with his own feelings towards the archer and what he had done to his best friend.

Be nice, Genji said.

They tried.

They really did.

Cassidy couldn’t stop him.

The dialogue of Japanese, so restrained yet frustrated in tone, brought a smile to Cole’s face, especially when Genji tried to calm his brother.

Mercy shot him a glare of warning. “Cole! Tell him to behave himself!”

“What? It’s funny.” Cassidy grinned and spat out the remains of the chewing tobacco. It missed the mug. It was also gross.

Hanzo could no longer contain his disgust, and instead of yelling, like Cassidy had been hoping… two very pissed off dragons appeared on Cassidy’s table, snarling, and sending him teeny-tiny jolts of electricity.

“Hey! That tickles!”

Hanzo stormed out; the dragons left not long after.

“You’re a right dickhead, y’know that, yeah?” Lena sneered.

He also hated chewing tobacco, but it was worth it.

Chapter Text

Hanzo felt something inside him the day he met Cole Cassidy. He couldn’t understand it or explain what it was exactly, but whatever it was, it upset the Twins.

There was a familiarity about the American that scared him also, and it wasn’t because Cassidy and Genji were friends.

He’s not Iro!

Hanzo had to keep telling himself that, but it only made him resent Cassidy more.

So, it helped that the other man didn’t like him and was riling him up.

He understood why the Cowboy did it, but there was something else.

Cassidy tended to be charming and kind one moment then beyond uncouth and disgusting the next.

Every so often his eye would glow red, and when it did, Hanzo swore that time slowed or stopped completely.

What Hanzo couldn’t understand was why each time incidents happened, every time Cassidy so much as coughed or picked at his teeth… or even opened his mouth, Hanzo’s dragons appeared.

They occasionally came to form for the others and when Soba manifested (it seemed the three had their own reconciliation to do), but they never appeared without Hanzo allowing it first.

The dragons reacted far too much for Hanzo’s liking.

Chapter Text

The incident with the spurs a few days before, had been one thing.

The damned spurs on Cassidy’s boots had been the last straw of an already bad day for Hanzo.

He hadn’t slept well, the nightmares and actions of his past left him scared, cold and shaken. He was off balance and off tempered.

Cassidy had just walked by nothing more. He wasn’t doing anything on purpose, but the clink of the spurs made Hanzo snap.

The dragons acted instantly and practically accosted and ripped the spurs off a startled Cassidy before scarpering away.

Hanzo couldn’t explain then. Nor could he when his dragons plonked the Cowboy’s favourite Zippo onto his lap, with looks of pride on their faces.

Okay, the cigar smoke was intense, and he had secretly wished the idiot Cow-man would cease smoking, but he never asked his dragons to do this.

Watching Cassidy search for his Zippo was amusing, but in the end, Hanzo had to return it and instead of listening to Cole’s ranting, he walked away.

Hanzo found himself outside his brother’s door and when Genji opened it, the ninja was surprised.

“Is your offer to meditate with you and Zenyatta still open?”

Chapter Text

Calm. Centred.

Meditation worked.

With Genji and Zenyatta’s help, the weeks and months passed by and he was able to regain a semblance of control over his emotions. The nightmares were fewer, not every night, and Hanzo could tolerate being in Cassidy’s presence.

The constant metallic click as Cole flicked the lid on his zippo… the chewing tobacco… even the sound of that drawl that came from his mouth, Hanzo tolerated now.

He was able to rise above Cassidy’s attempts to annoy him, and on missions it showed.

It never felt as tense or tiring when such things as Cole’s bad jokes, or any of his attempts to piss Hanzo off, could just be ignored and met with a roll of his eyes or a shrug of his shoulders.

Hanzo felt more like himself when he didn’t retaliate with anger or frustration. He was able to be civil to Cassidy, and then everything changed.

One teeny little smile (and maybe a snort of laughter) at Reinhardt’s joke made Cassidy change his tactics. Considerably.

“A smile? Ain’t that just sweet, darlin’?”

Darlin’?!

Sweet-cakes. Honeybuns.

“You’re ma Huckleberry.”

The dragons were confused as Hanzo was.

They really didn’t know what to do.

Chapter Text

Ignore him.

He’s trying to rile you up again. To make you feel the anger and detest… to hurt.

From across the lounge, Cassidy winked at him and continued his card game with Baptiste.

It made no sense at all to Hanzo. Why would Cassidy behave like this now?

His dragons wanted answers as much as he did, and there was only one person, other than Cassidy himself, who he could talk to.

Hanzo watched the twins slowly slither over to Soba, and the three of them coiled together. A calming hue of teal light emanated from them, and the spirits communicated together, not with speech, but with emotions, touch and tendrils of smoky breath.

Hanzo smiled fondly, pleased they had made amends too.

“So, what is the problem?”

Hanzo said nothing and just huffed in disdain.

“Cassidy.” Genji sighed. His helmet hissed jets of air, sounding slightly amused.

"It is frustrating. The dragons do not heed my commands to ignore his… incessant name calling."

The buzzing chuckle from his brother didn’t help.

“Yer all right over there, sugar dumplin’?”

The twins broke from Soba and flew across the room, hissing and snarling.

"Interesting.” Genji knew what the problem was.

Chapter Text

“Care to explain why Agent Cassidy has numerous claw marks over his body?”

Hanzo had come to the medical bay to… apologise? Explain that he hadn’t commanded his dragons to attack Cassidy?

He found himself speechless as the doctor dabbed and cleaned the multitude of little dragon scratches over Cassidy’s broad muscular torso, and upon seeing the smirk on Cassidy’s face through his many winces.

Angela was scowling, judging him, and well she must. It had been the Twins in their full form who had left Genji for dead. She had been the one who had to save him, reconstruct him…

Was she thinking Hanzo was trying to hurt Cassidy?

“Aw, Angie, babe…” Cassidy smirked. A flash of red glinted in his eye and he produced a cigar to gnaw on with his teeth. “The critters and I were only playin’.”

Critters?! Hanzo sneered.

“Agent Shimada…” Mercy was shaking her head, while glaring at Cassidy, warning him or… something else?

“Angie.” Cassidy scratched the thick hair on his chest. “Unclench! Relax! Ain’t no fightin’ goin’ on! Play got a little rough, an’ you know I like it rough, right darlin?”

Genji was the only one who found Cassidy’s wink amusing.

Chapter Text

He was pretending to be asleep, and the two knew this even as they loudly—and purposely—scraped the chairs along the floor. Lena slammed her hands on the table to gain his attention.

Cassidy sighed and with a single finger pushed up the brim of his hat. His eyes, red and smoky, gazed at them with a knowing slyness.

“You, mate… are a right dickhead!” Tracer pushed his feet off the table.

Cole smiled and tipped his hat at Lena in thanks. “As you have often called me, Lena-luv. Always appreciated.”

“What the bloody hell are youse doin’, huh? Why is he being a soddin’ wanker, Cassidy?!”

He said nothing, and looked to Genji instead, knowing the ninja would explain.

“Our beloved Tracer is referring to your new method of treatment towards my brother.” Cassidy chuckled and nodded. “Why?”

“Ah just like to see him squirm.”

Cassidy shrugged his shoulders.

“You said you would be nice to him.”

“I am bein’ nice!”

“Nah! Yer bein’ tossers, Cole Cassidy! Stop it!”

Lena wagged a threatening finger and then zapped out of the room.

Genji gave Cole a look even his helmet couldn’t hide.

“Lena isn’t wrong. You’re being assholes again!”

Chapter Text

“You’re being assholes again.”

Of course, he was.

“The clan took a lot more from him than me.”

Cassidy wanted to know how that was possible. He asked about it, but Genji never explained, clearly the subject too painful.

Hanzo had tried to kill his brother, near as damn succeeded, so how could Cole accept that? He knew why.

A sharp nudge at his ribcage pulled Cassidy from his thoughts, and he turned to Mei next to him. Her eyes widened behind her glasses, indicating (hint-hint) for him to pay attention to the briefing.

Cole listened… something about getting another new recruit and bringing them back to HQ… but he couldn’t stop the confliction his mind was having.

Everyone deserved a second chance, right? If it hadn’t been for Reyes, Cole would be rotting in prison, so surely Hanzo deserved his.

“We givin’ him a second chance?!”

Cole hissed. “Why not? I gave you one!”

Something moved around his foot. Cole looked under the table. Two snarling dragons were glaring back up at him, teeth bared.

“Cole! Do you know what they are?”

He tried to shoo them away with a swipe of his boot, but that was a mistake.

Chapter Text

“I didn’t kick yer pesky critters!”

“They are not critters! They are ancient spirits who have existed for millennia!”

“Whatever! I dint kick ‘em! I jus’ like slightly shoved ‘em with my foot! They ruined my boots!”

“In retaliation to you assaulting them!”

“I barely touched them! They gotta get me a new pair of boots!”

The argument in front of the others was a little awkward, but Cole was a mite bit pissed off that he now had holes in his boots. Hanzo looked pissed off too, but Cole saw a waiver in the man’s eye… a brief flash of regret and confusion?

Either way, it didn’t stop them arguing. No, Winston did that.

The thump on the table with a big fist, silenced them and resulted in the subsequent destruction of a banana.

“That is enough Agents!” Winston’s deep voice snarled. “This has gone on too long! So, I have a solution. Cassidy, Hanzo, I’m going to give you two a mission to do together.”

“So, we’re not meetin’ the new recruit?”

Winston shook his head. “No. I’ve got something different for you.”

The holoscreen came to life and Cassidy banged his head on the table.

“Aw shit.”

Chapter Text

“Still conflicted, friend? Confused?”

They watched Hanzo storing his things away on the Orca, and saw the tension in his body, the uncertainty scowling on his face.

“It’s okay to be confused, but you have to understand that my brother was conditioned from an early age, we both were. As I rebelled, Hanzo could not. This mission will be the perfect opportunity to get to know him properly… and the dragons. Like-wise with…”

“Genj, not many people officially know about him, what we did when…”

A little electric hum of understanding responded.

“I understand, Cole-san. Hanzo...I know he is a good man. I know my brother can change, he already has, but he still has a way to go, especially after what our father and the Shimada-gumi did do him, the punishments he received.”

“They…the ones who took his legs?”

Genji didn’t answer.

“Shit. That’s fucked up.”

“As for the dragons?” Soba emerged and leapt to rub affectionately at Cole’s cheek, purring at the feel of his beard. “Be nice to them, considering what they are supposed to do…”

“They owe me new boots.”

Genji chuckled lightly. “Well, I wish you good luck! Send my regards to Junkrat and Roadhog!”

Chapter Text

This mission was “simple” enough, but Cole knew otherwise. Winston used this for team building purposes.

The bounty on the two Australians were not quite as high as Cole’s own, but the two ex-Junkers were crafty and wily enough to have escaped capture, even from Overwatch.

Cole didn’t need to read the objective, so instead he just updated himself on Junkrat and Roadhog’s last known location.

Tasmania.

The trip was going to be long.

Across from him, Hanzo was scowling at the mission report he was innately reading. He was not as familiar with the Australian duo as Cassidy was, but he did not like the look of this mission either.

Hanzo placed the tablet down and rubbed at his temples in frustration.

“We’re gonna hafta be careful, they are morons but they’ve eluded capture this long… even from us.”

“We shall be victorious.”

“Maybe. It don’t change the fact that they’re dangerous… and your beasties still owe me some new boots. I know there’s a good place in Tasmania that…”

“The spirits don’t get allowances, Cow-man! They owe you nothing!”

Cole snorted. “Fine! I’ll let it go, fer now. Let’s not underestimate these Junkers… okay?”

“Very well. Let’s not.”

Chapter Text

They underestimated the Junkers.

At first, it looked as if Hanzo and Cassidy were going to succeed where many others had failed.

It took only a day of tracking to find them, and they worked very well together, a perfect team, avoiding the traps and distractions left once the Australians cottoned on to them.

There were a few skirmishes, lots of explosions and scraps that took Cassidy and Hanzo all over the island, but unfortunately, in the end, Jamison and Mako evaded capture once more.

They were stranded in the middle of a desolated rainforest still trying to recover from the aftermath of the omnic war, one with his prosthetics crushed by a tree and the other cursing like a wild beast.

“You swear a lot.” Hanzo snarled, once Cassidy’s rant stopped. “There is no use complaining, Cassidy. We failed in apprehending them.”

“I’m not the one complainin’! I'm jus' swearin'! Ain’t a thing! I say let's get back to the safe house an’ wait for extraction.”

Hanzo snarled. “We cannot… my… my legs have been crushed.”

Cassidy took some deep breaths and then grinned the biggest grin ever.

“Well then, sugar plum. Looks like I’m gonna hafta carry ya!”

Chapter Text

“How come yer critters didn’t help us?”

Hanzo grunted.

It was bad enough he couldn’t walk and his prosthetics were crushed beyond any kind of salvation. It was humiliating to be carried piggy-back by the Cowboy through what was once a lush and thriving rainforest.

Hanzo felt so useless and it angered him.

Cassidy didn’t help by whistling, humming, and suddenly jolting Hanzo up his back whenever his hold started slipping. Now he was asking about Hanzo’s dragons?

“Their help wasn’t necessary.” Hanzo growled through grinding teeth. “Our mission was to bring Fawkes and Rutledge in, alive.”

Cassidy muttered something under his heaving breath and trudged on. It wasn’t ten minutes later, when Cole had to pause and settle Hanzo down.

“Dragons have treasure hoards, right?” Cassidy asked, gulping down some water and handing the canteen to Hanzo.

Hanzo gave him a glare.

“Can’t they pay for ma boots with that?”

The stream of furious Japanese curses made Cassidy laugh.

“You swear a lot don’tcha, puddin’ cup?!”

“Pudding cup?!”

There they were.

The dragons manifested in a protective stance in front of Hanzo, angry smoke and flames pluming from their nostrils.

Chapter Text

“Whoa there!”

Cole held out his hands in defence, and somehow that gesture stopped the fuming dragons from advancing and electrifying him. Thankfully they had emerged in their cutesy itty-bitty size, but from experience, Cole knew they could still kill.

“Don’t you guys…?” Cole scowled in thought and then addressed Hanzo on the ground. “They’re guys right? Male? Dragons have dicks, yeah?”

Hanzo’s eyes widened in shock, and his face reddened at the audacity of such a statement. But it was a reasonable question, wasn’t it? The archer’s jaw was clenched so tight that Cole thought it would snap under the pressure.

Cassidy waited for an answer, noting that one dragon was not looking angrily at him. It looked confused but curious.

“You got a dragon dick, lil’ fella?” The dragon puffed a cloud of blue smoke… did it roll its eyes?!

Its twin didn’t look pleased, neither did Hanzo.

“Can you please…refrain from talking about dragons’… cocks” Hanzo seethed through his clenched jaw. “And concentrate on getting us out of here?!”

“Er? Sure.” Cassidy nervously chuckled and bent down so Hanzo could get on his back.

As they trudged on, the dragons flew and glided alongside them. Ever watchful.

Chapter Text

The long journey back to the safe house was mostly uneventful—and thankfully silent—except for Cassidy’s grunts of exertion and some choice expletives when he slipped.

Hanzo opted to put into practice what he had learnt from Zenyatta in their meditations with Genji.

He focused on the sounds of the wildlife in forest, and zoned out anything Cassidy, and the fact he was literally legless and being carried by the sweaty Cowman.

Until…

“So, whatcha call ‘em?” Cole asked as he climbed over tree trunk.

“Hmm?”

Cole nodded at the blue flitters of light chasing after insects. “The dragons.”

“They do not have names.”

“Soba has a name.”

Hanzo grunted as Cole nearly lost grip on him again. A hard jolt upwards didn’t help the increasing, and annoyingly pleasant, friction of his groin against Cassidy’s solid muscled back.

“Genji named his dragon after a type of noodle he’d eaten after he gained her. She only accepted it because he gave her some. He influenced her too much…”

They bonded differently than Hanzo was ever able to.

The sudden shrill whistle caught Hanzo off guard. That the dragons halted and paid attention surprised him even more.

“You guys want names?!”

Chapter Text

They weren’t sure.

Hanzo knew they understood human words, the limited spoken language, but that wasn’t how they communicated.

They were empathic.

They shared their emotions with each other and Hanzo, and used body language, tactile touches and some vocalizations to emphasize and contextualize what they wanted to put across.

Even their spiritual light, the intensity of their glowing auras helped them to “talk”

They didn’t have names. Names were a human concept. Hanzo could tell the twins apart by their behaviour and mannerisms, a specific emotion that fitted for them.

“Spirit Dragons don’t have names.” Hanzo said, even though he knew in the stories his family told them, they had titles bestowed on them as a sign of respect and honour.

“That don’t seem right.” Cassidy paused for a moment, seeing they were close to reaching their safehouse. He looked at the less angry looking one. “Ernie.”

“Don’t make me kill you, Cassidy.” Hanzo warned, his arms wrapped tighter around Cole’s neck.

“Bert n’ Ernie.” He choked and laughed at the same time.

A plume of electric fire scorched around his feet.

The dragons didn’t like that.

“Hey! I’m still carrying your Master here! Don’t make me drop him!”

Chapter Text

When they descended (very carefully) into the underground safehouse, Cassidy placed Hanzo down onto the worn-out couch before slumping with utter exhaustion next to him.

The dragons who had restrained their frustration at Cassidy’s constant stream of name suggestions now growled, sparked, and snapped at his ankles.

“Glitter and Sparkles!?”

“Why must you continue to annoy me—and them—with names they do not wish to be called?!!”

Hanzo had reached his limit. He was tired, had a headache, and the news from Winston that they wouldn’t be extracted for another week, was the last straw.

“Why? Why I gotta annoy ya?” Cassidy sighed, got up from the couch and disappeared into the next room. “Because a tree crushed yer legs and annoyin’ ya takes yer mind off the pain?”

The build-up of static seemed to dissipate as Hanzo and the dragons watched the Cowboy return with a bowl of lightly soapy water, cloths, and a towel, placing it down by the couch.

The Cowboy was right. The agony of having his prosthetics smashed, was considerable, and while he’d been aware of it during the piggy-back ride, Cassidy’s distraction had taken his mind off it.

The searing pain came back.

Chapter Text

Bill.

Bob.

Billy Bob.

Steve.

Roy.

Names that were so human, so American, names unworthy for such mystical beings, spouted from the Cowboy’s lips as he tended to Hanzo’s legs.

Hanzo didn’t like it. He was perfectly capable of doing this himself and the more the Cowboy touched him, the more irritated he and the dragons became.

Though when he tried, Hanzo failed.

Cassidy laughed.

Using a kit from his bag he began the slow and fiddly process of detaching the links and fixtures still clinging painfully to Hanzo’s skin.

Chaz.

Dave.

His touch was surprisingly gentle. Delicate.

Emil.

Alonso.

The names angered Hanzo more than the pain of the extractions of metal. Though Cassidy’s touch remained soft… tingly.

“Keep still!” Cassidy snapped when a particularly large splinter came loose, and Hanzo jolted. “Gotta get the right bits out and yer stumps bandaged up before infection sets in.”

“You have the finesse of a monkey with a hammer!” Hanzo hissed again. “Aren’t there any biotics?!”

“Used the last one when the tree came down. Remember? An’ it don’t look like this place has been restocked. Sides, I know what I’m doin’!”

“Fine! Just hurry up!”

“Alright! Un-bunch yer panties, darlin’!”

Chapter Text

Hanzo wrenched himself out from Cole’s grasp and backed against the arm of the couch to keep the distance.

Such a move only made the pain worse, so Hanzo reluctantly leaned back and allowed the gunslinger to carry on.

It was a lengthy process, and Cole had to make sure that he didn’t take out the wrong pieces, for those that needed to stay in were vital to getting any replacements reconnected.

“Why?!” Hanzo’s voice hissed with anger. The dragons hopped up to curl around his stumps, glowing to provide whatever healing they could muster, yet their fierce disapproval towards Cassidy was just as raw.

Cassidy scowled, and backed away to his side of the couch, the smile on his face faded.

“I’m tryin’ to help.”

“Help?” Hanzo’s voice croaked, and his eyes glistened with hurt. “You call me those pet names… you go out of your way to irritate me, mock my dragons with names…to help me?”

“Well, that’s more t’piss yer off.”

“Because you hate me.”

“Hate is such a strong word…”

“You do it because of what I did to Genji.” Hanzo bowed sadly.

This was Cole’s chance to learn the story.

“What did you do, sugar?”

Chapter Text

You know! Everybody knows what I did to Genji, it’s why they hate me for it, and why they’ve been lying to me… hiding their distrust and disapproval.

Hanzo couldn’t speak the words.

He knew Cassidy didn’t like him and had been riling him up all this time, Genji was his best friend after all.

Hanzo didn’t expect anything less.

“What, didcha do?” Cassidy’s voice was deeper, rough and threatening. Hanzo tensed. Cassidy often resorted Spanish when he was pissed off.

The silence dragged. The tension thickened.

“They made you do it… didn’t they?!” Cassidy snarled, contempt and anger screwed upon his face.

“I… was ordered. Yes.”

“You dint refuse?!”

“I refused!” Hanzo roared, furious that he couldn’t move to throttle the arrogant American. “You think I wouldn’t?! They took my legs from me and still I refused them!”

“Hmph.” Cassidy grunted, his face softened only a little as he took out a cigar and began to nervously chew on the end. “Yet you still went ahead an’ did what they asked of ya?”

How could he explain?

He’d been desperate and angry… they both had.

The brothers had pleaded, begged each other.

Neither sibling gave in.

Anger won out.

Chapter Text

Fine. Don’t tell me.

The silence lingered on. Hanzo didn’t say a word or give Cole any kind of explanation, but he did—begrudgingly—allow Cassidy to continue tending to his injuries.

When he finished, having wrapped bandages to each end of Hanzo’s legs, he moved away to allow the two dragons to nestle against them, as their eyes were still glaring at him… though not as angry.

In fact, they looked sad. Just like Hanzo.

“You’re still here?” The Archer said, his voice low and wavering. Before Cole could retort, he realised that Hanzo wasn’t speaking to him. His brow creased in confusion at the dragons.

“Is something wrong with them?” Cole asked, wincing slightly as his belly rumbled with hunger.

There was a brief snort of contempt from the three of them before silence and lots of contemplative scowling and facial expressions at the creatures on Hanzo’s lap.

The silent and private conversation went on for a fair while before the dragons huffed and slithered away to explore the rest of the crappy little underground safehouse.

It was worrying they were out in the open like this.

Always around Cole Cassidy.

Did they sense something Hanzo did not?

Chapter Text

Hanzo clearly wasn’t going to say anything, but Cassidy’s stomach did.

Cole got up to find food. The underground safehouse wasn’t the coziest, and it was stocked with the measliest rations ever, but they would suffice. For now.

Hanzo wasn’t impressed, he turned his nose up at the contents inside the foil packaging and his dragons did the same when they sniffed at it. As Cole scoffed his down, Hanzo picked and nibbled at the dried clump of brownish gunk with utter revulsion.

As he ate, Cole saw the look of disgust on the dragons. They were watching him closely and it was unnerving.

“Hey… Dumb and Dumber! Quit glarin’!”

The hisses and slight scorch of blue flame and electricity made Cole get up and put some distance between them.

“Don’t call them that.” Hanzo sneered. “They’re wiser than you will ever be. Then so too will a dog.”

Okay, that was it.

No more being nice… which he hadn’t been.

“Y’know what, Shimada?! You don’t wanna give whatever lame excuse y’got for justifyin’ tryin’ t’kill Genji? Fine! I’m jus’ tryin’ to understand! So, take that stick that’s shoved up yer ass and go fuck yerself!!”

“They killed my wife!!”

Chapter Text

He hadn’t meant to tell Cassidy that.

It slipped out through a surge of uncontrolled anger and grief, and while the outburst had Hanzo seething, it was the way the dragons had increased to Cassidy’s height and size and were now bathing the whole room in a searing blue glow that had him stunned.

The safehouse was charged. A brewing storm in such a confined space was ready to explode, and Hanzo tried to contain himself from making that happen.

The dragons were on edge, upright on their hind legs crowding Cassidy either side of him.

To his credit, Cassidy didn’t recoil, move or blink. Not a part of him even reacted, except Hanzo might’ve seen a red glint in his eye.

Hanzo tried to take some deep breaths, to calm down, but everything from his past, everything the clan had done to him and taken from him fuelled his anger. All his years of training forgotten.

He was not going to tell this Cowboy of his failures, of his sins and shame… his dishonour didn’t need to be explained for the likes of Cole Cassidy.

Without his legs, he couldn’t retreat.

He didn’t expect what happened next.

Hanzo froze.

Chapter Text

Gently his hands rose up, palms flat, in a submissive manner.

“Easy there…” The soothing drawl of Cole’s voice made the twins grow, and they towered over him as if ready to devour and end him. Cole didn’t move or say anything further, but looked between the two of them, a soft genuine smile on his face.

Hanzo watched him, just standing there and smiling as if nothing had happened, and it confused him. No doubt he was wondering why Cole was so calm instead of retaliating against his outburst.

Cassidy had done just what he had hoped and now, as he finally reached into his serape, took out a half-smoked cigar and began to chew the end, he saw the dragons slowly shrink back down and glide over to Hanzo.

Without pity or anger, Cole moved to the couch and sat down, noting the swelling tears in Hanzo’s eyes.

“Tell me about her?” He said, in a gentle hushed voice, and with a smile that made Hanzo bow his head.

“I… do not deserve to speak of her…”

“Hey now. It ain’t good to keep it all in. If you can’t talk to Genji ‘bout it, I’ll listen…no judgement.”

Chapter Text

Hanzo had no intention of discussing his past sins with this American. The man had done nothing but piss him off, ridicule him to purposely fuel his guilt.

Cassidy had shown in his “pranks” and usages of sweet names to unsettle Hanzo, but why was he being like this now?

“You are not my friend.” Hanzo growled, and slipped to the floor. His bandaged stumps hurt, but he was able to alleviate his weight by using his arms to move across the floor. He paused and swivelled round to glare at Cassidy. “You say you will not judge me? You’ve done so ever since we met. You’ve gone out of your way to demean and ridicule me… for your own desire to make me suffer more for my actions. You dishonour my dragons. As much as I deserve your disdain, you do not deserve to know my shame. You are nothing to me.”

“If I had a dollar…?” Cassidy sighed and shook his head. “No… it ain’t a matter of that… god, we’re such dicks. Look, I know we ain’t friends, Shimada…but Genji and I are. He believes in you. I can too… if I understand. I’m willin’ to listen.”

Chapter Text

Anger. Fear.

Those were prominent, along with grief, shame and guilt.

So many emotions ran through their host, human emotions that they had been all too familiar with over the past decade. They understood that, but their human was experiencing something else, something the Twins had not felt in a long time…but was accompanied again with shame and fear.

Disgust.

It’s not right.

They remembered.

He’d been beaten, threatened. His family humiliated him (and her) they degraded their very souls that the Twins couldn’t fight against because he had restrained them. Restrained and hidden every part of him for the sake of the Clan.

The Cowboy had asked, asked for the past and the truth, for the hurt to be revealed, but their host didn’t speak.

He ignored the Cowboy for the next two days that followed. The Twins returned to him, until the Cowboy began to spout off more “names” for them.

John?

Wayne?

They emerged much to their Host’s dismay and approached “Cassidy” with trepidation.

They sniffed, snorted… and a tang of sadness and regret permeated from him. Though sincerity, genuine concern, was prominent within a conflict of other emotions.

“I wanna understand… can you help me? Please?”

Chapter Text

Another day went by and now the tension was becoming unbearable, along with the ache in his stumps.

Cassidy had given up trying to convince him to talk, he even stopped with the pet names for Hanzo and his dragons. Instead, the Cowboy stayed out of his way, trying only to help Hanzo when he tried to use the bathroom.

“I do not need your help to piss or shower!” Hanzo had snapped, unwittingly letting his dragons loose on Cassidy again. They backed him away and the silence remained again.

Though Cassidy’s patience was hanging on by a thread. He wanted to understand, even a little bit as to what happened.

Hanzo was very reluctant to explain and he wasn’t going to after what he had said to the Cowboy. However, he couldn’t shake off the feeling of regret, for being too harsh and then a peculiar urge to—maybe—apologise overcame him.

Maybe he should tell Cassidy. Maybe it would be good to talk about Eiji.

She didn’t blame you.

You may not have deserved her, but she does need this. You owe it to her.

The dragons had convinced him too easily.

“I was nineteen when we married.”

Chapter Text

Hanzo explained what he could.

“From the moment of my birth, negotiations with suitable, wealthy, families were conducted by the Clan to find a future wife for me. There were many offers, from all around the world.”

Cassidy looked surprised. “From the moment when you were born?!”

“My future was already arranged. Yes. Through the years, I was tutored in everything, expected to be perfect in everything. Academically and physically. The Clan was paramount and it was indoctrinated into me, as were the legends of the Shimada dragons and the promise of their power. I was eight when I received the blessings of the Twins. Two dragons were exceptional and I was hailed as such.
Though my failures were met with brutal punishment…Genji, not so much.> Where my brother could get away with misbehaving, I could not. I was sixteen when I met Iro…”

Cassidy smirked. “Oh yeah?”

Hanzo nodded shyly.

“We would meet often over the years. I was eighteen when my father found out. He nearly killed me. Iro was not as fortunate.”

“Shit…Hanzo…”

““Shimada Sojiro’s son is douseiai" So, 18 years of negotiations were ruined. Only a close family working for the clan gave us an out.”

Chapter Text

Hanzo was shaking, trembling, as a strange relief of having spoken aloud of his past, at last, washed over him. That it was to Cassidy, surprised him… but didn’t?

The one man out of everyone at Overwatch who had been more honest about his dislike towards Hanzo than he cared to admit. Winston, Tracer and Mercy… even the young recruits put on false airs around him. So, it made sense, in a bizarre way, that it was the Cowboy he ended up talking to.

Cassidy handed Hanzo a glass of water, a soft smile on that scruffy bearded face, and Hanzo nodded in thanks.

“Eiji’s family is a respected one.” He said, his voice hoarse and shaky. He took a sip of water. “Humble. They had not offered Eiji as she was older than I, by ten years, and widowed. Yet, she did offer herself. The Elders and my father accepted…reluctantly as they did not think they could control her as much as someone younger…”

“Did ya love her?” Cassidy asked.

Hanzo gave him a look, as did the dragons. “No. I didn’t.”

“You didn’t wanna marry?”

“I had to. Eiji was beautiful…but…”

She wasn’t Iro.

Cassidy seemed to understand.

Chapter Text

Cole couldn’t imagine having his future planned for him at birth. Somethings sure, but not every little detail… certainly not Damien.

Though honestly? No-one could’ve been prepared for meeting Damien.

Yet, when a man’s first love was killed for being in a relationship with them? By their father? That weren’t right. Hanzo and Genji had been raised in a seriously fucked up family.

“They’re a Yakuza family…whad’cha expect?!”

The day was wearing on, but Hanzo hadn’t finished talking. Cole offered several chances to stop and take a break, seeing how the archer was struggling to contain his composure, but the Japanese man was determined.

The dragons nestled next to him and they pulled a blanket over his torso.

“I was not kind to Eiji, or grateful for her offer.” Hanzo said, “I was angry and cold towards her, despite that I’d known her all my life. Yet, during our ceremony, she was warm, gentle… much more than I deserved.”

“Did she…?”

“She did her duty… with a love I couldn’t return.”

Cole was somewhat familiar with unrequited love. He was never able to give Ashe what she wanted. It was what turned her so bitter and angry.

Weren’t her fault.

Chapter Text

Hanzo wanted to tell Cassidy more about Eiji, but he didn’t know her beyond what he had expected of a wife, and what his father demanded.

“All he wanted from her… from us were heirs, a son (or more) to ensure the Shimada bloodline.”

Hanzo never took the time to know her, even when he was growing up.

Eiji had been quiet and reclusive compared to the other members of her family. She was always there, in the background, unnoticeable, but then Clan business was Hanzo’s only focus.

Thankfully there was no pity in Cassidy’s expression. Sadness, yes… there was familiarity with loss and hurt from his own past.

After they ate more of the rations… the dragons showed their disgust by trying to ignite the supplies they had, and Cassidy dubbed them some nicknames again before Hanzo found the need to continue.

“When Mother died, Genji got lost in drink. He took drugs, indulged in… orgies… and got into constant fights. Genji became a liability to the Clan. I was ordered to keep him in line, to do what my father did to me… I refused. They took one of my legs. Eiji was the one who saved us.”

Chapter Text

He couldn’t stop now. Everything came pouring out.

Years of trauma, of rage and despair…it spilled out and he couldn’t help himself.

Cole listened, and as he promised, there was no judgement. He barely said a word, as all of Hanzo’s emotions erupted one after the other.

“She cared for me after I lost my leg. How could I not love someone like that? How could she do that when I barely spoke to her in her grief?”

Cole didn’t have answers, how could he? The dragons were worried for their host, the heat in this little place was rising higher, the smell of ozone permeated the air.

“Why didn’t Genji see what they did to me? That he would let them take my other leg to prove his point?!! Why did he fight me? Why did I let it go too far?!!”

“Hey…darlin’…” Cole moved from his position, only intending to place a calming hand upon Hanzo’s arm, but it was a mistake. The dragons slithered around Hanzo’s body protectively, and hissed at Cole.

“I am not your darling, Cowman! You’re not him!”

He weren’t trying to be, but God, Cole’s insides were aching at seeing Hanzo so distraught.

Chapter Text

He tried to shove Cassidy away, but a tight grip held his wrist, and a metal hand grabbed his other as he went to fight back.

Instinct told Hanzo to kick Cassidy in the groin for the audacity, but it proved futile without any legs.

He couldn’t restore the walls that had been a part of his fortress all his life, and instead of fending off this American with ease, Hanzo was reduced to a scrapping flail, screaming profanities in Japanese as tears of rage and despair stung his eyes raw.

He thrashed against the arms that wrapped around him, soft soothing words pleading in his ears lost as Hanzo drowned in the memories that had haunted him through his life.

The sound of his mother’s screams as she tried to protect him from his father’s beatings.

The pain and power of the dragon’s after his trials. Feeling their emotions through their bond.

The looks on the faces of the people he killed. The splatter of blood on his face.

Every physical blow from his father.

Iro’s screams.

The loss of his limbs.

Genji’s howls, Genji’s blood.

Eiji’s smile when the light faded from her eyes.

“It’s okay… I gotcha.”

Chapter Text

Cole always could take a beating, and in this moment he gladly did.

With all his strength, he took the lashes of Hanzo’s grief, his hold stayed firm. Though having to contend with the dragons, was not easy.

The spirits had enveloped them both, their bodies coiled around the men, squeezing as their breath howled blue shocking flame.

Cole ignored their weak taser attempts to get him to release Hanzo, they weren’t trying to kill him, but they were sure as angry as heck and wanted to hurt him.

“Give it up! I ain’t lettin’ go!” He growled through gritted teeth. “Hanzo… I ain’t letting go! I gotcha! Yer not getting’ rid o’ me that easily!”

It hurt like fuck, but then such anguish always did. The physical beatings Cole received was nothing compared to what Hanzo was reliving, guilt and remorse screaming through tears and curses of Japanese.

“We gonna kill him?”

Cole didn’t need this.

He remembered his mother, when she held him as Cole now did with Hanzo, trying to calm his hysteria…

“No.”

“Oh! We gonna fuck him then?!”

“No! What the fuck?!” Cole yelled, loud enough that the dragons loosened their grip.

“You’re no fun.”

Chapter Text

The bastard wouldn’t let him go.

The longer Cassidy held him, the weaker Hanzo became, but still he fought to get the man off him.

Cassidy and Genji had said Hanzo was a good man. How could they think that after everything he had done, even to those he was supposed to have loved?

Emotions are signs of weakness.

He isn’t weak!

He screamed along with his dragons, every vile name and insult he could think of towards Cole Cassidy, it was all he could do now his arms were pinned to his side.

“No.”

The word from the Cowboy’s lips wasn’t directed at him.

“No! What the fuck?!”

The dragons loosened their grip… they backed away and Hanzo sensed their confusion, a curiosity… a power they sensed, briefly before.

“Hey, I’m plenty fun, it’s why ya stuck with me!”

Something else was here… like them, but not.

“Will you shut the hell up?!”

Hanzo just reacted, thinking that Cassidy was telling him to shut up, so he headbutted him.

Hanzo looked up at the startled Cowboy and saw the blood dripping from his nose.

One of his eyes was glowing red.

“Aw, darlin’… you tryin’ to turn me on?”

Chapter Text

It was Cole’s voice… but Hanzo knew that it wasn’t Cole talking.

Still recovering from the bombarding emotions and memories, struggling to calm his ragged and panicked breaths, Hanzo seized the opportunity to put some distance between them.

He tipped himself off the sofa and rolled upon impact with the floor to his front. Using his arms, Hanzo slunk to the other side of the room.

The Twins came to him, guarded him as Cassidy sat sprawled out on the couch with a grin. Cole wiped away the blood from his nose with a slow sweep of his fingers and looked at the red with a lustful fascination.

“Well, that was a darned mighty hard crack y’gave me. Did I say somethin’ wrong?”

None of this made sense to Hanzo. The many months he’d known the Cowboy, there’d always been something off about him. The Twins knew this too.

Was this why they kept emerging around Cassidy without his permission?

They sensed this thing about him?

“Who are you?!” Hanzo demanded, scowling as Cassidy lavishly licked some blood off his lip.

“I’m me.”

“Not you. That… thing…”

Cassidy scratched the back of his head and grimaced.

“Ya talkin’ ‘bout Damien?”

Chapter Text

When Cole had only just bonded, it was difficult to explain… he didn’t want to openly tell people that he had this thing living inside him. So, no one did know, until Angela.

She was perceptive and plus those special medical gadgets of hers detected another presence inside him. She could offer no explanation—no scientific explanation—behind Cole’s “parasite”, no that came from Genji.

Already filled with rage, Genji had noticed something different about Cole Cassidy. Soba confirmed it, and at first the two young men clashed violently, before becoming friends.

“Still don’t know what it is…”

“Hey!”

“I call it Damien… it seems to like the name.”

“You talk to it?” Hanzo’s voice dripped with vile disgust. “You’ve named it? It is Yokai!”

“Okay… whatever that means.”

“It can mean many things… but in your case, Oni! A demon!”

“A demon? Sounds ‘bout right.” Cassidy wiped the remainder of blood from his face and took off his hat to ruffle the locks of his hair. “Did have a heck of a blood lust for a while… he made me do things I din’t wanna, but years together have made us get along just peachy fine. Fer the most part.”

Chapter Text

The Cowboy had an Oni inside of him.

Hanzo knew about the different kinds of Yokai from his mother’s stories. The spirits of the Shimada dragons and even the Kitsune of the Kamori clan, were the only ones he’d actually seen, until now.

Why did Genji not tell him?!

The dragons approached him, snarling… sniffing Cassidy, and looking confused as if they couldn’t sense anything.

“Look, Damien helps me… he slows things down in a fight… okay I get a deadeye and a poundin’ headache afterwards… but we get along, mostly.”

“You get along?!” Hanzo sneered. “They are creatures only out for blood and death! They don’t compromise or help!”

“Like a yakuza heir? What can I say?” Cassidy shrugged his shoulders, his face scowled as his past came back to haunt him. “It weren’t sunshine and rainbows when we was introduced. The man he inhabited first, killed my pa… my brother… and that man was a fucked-up sicko before Damien took over him. I was too fer a while… but now…we have an understandin’. Damien answers to me now, not the other way round.”

So now it made—a bit—of sense why his dragons were fixated on Cassidy.

Chapter Text

“Hi there beautifuls.”

Distrust. Hate. Rage.

The need to destroy.

“Oh, you really are gorgeous, the pair o’ya. Yer Shimada ain’t too bad either.”

Pride. Loyalty. Protection. All for Hanzo.

Then he felt their hate again… their confusion.

“Okay ma pretty lil’ spirits. I came into existence and took over the first fella I sensed. I din’t know nothin’ ‘bout who or what I was, only that I needed to feed. First man I took over had a lust for killin’ and I drank it up, bein’ young… newly hatched or wotnot. Cole… the bitty scrawny thing made me take him instead, and he ended up bein’ the reason for my… docility.”

The hosts didn’t move, their eyes never broke away, locked in silence and a vague sense of their “companions” communicating for them.

Sheesh, humans really are so confined and conflicted.

If there was an emotion from the dragons that could convey the sheer perplexion, Damien felt it.

“Okay, here is my solution, darlin’s. We don’t gotta be enemies, adversaries or whatever. Our hosts, right now, wanna fight, but I got a plan that could be so much better!”

What? The dragons were curious.

“We should all totally fuck!!”

Chapter Text

Their eye contact broke.

Cole and Hanzo grimaced as Damien’s suggestion to the dragons was conveyed to their respective hosts, with a sub-conscious mimic of Cole’s voice inside his head, and a bombardment of sexual emotions, intrigue and anger for Hanzo.

“What did that demon just suggest?!” Hanzo’s anger was barely constrained, but the intensity showed by the clench of his jaw and the tearing of his eyes.

“I er…” Cole didn’t want to say. Though he was still trying to fathom why now, after all these months, had his companion decided to intentionally communicate with the dragons. He didn’t know Damien could.

“Look… I’m not sayin’ we do it now… but it could really help relieve the tension between us all. I think he could do with a bit of fun.”

Cole bit his tongue from verbally responding to Damien’s proposal, and his poor sense of timing. He asserted control once more in hopes he didn’t piss Hanzo off further.

“I’m sorry. It ain’t always easy to keep him from opening my mouth and sayin’ what he wants.”

Hanzo made a disapproving grunt and shuffled off to the bedroom.

The door slammed shut behind him.

“That’s a no, then?”

Chapter Text

Hanzo opened his eyes as fingers brushed the strands of his hair from his face. He smiled and sighed with content at the sight of the beautiful man lying next to him.

He was older than Hanzo remembered him, his shoulder-length hair in disarray and dark stubble scruffily growing over his jaw.

Iro.

Hanzo hummed pleasantly and snuggled into the comforting hold enveloping him.

“I’ve missed you…”

“I know, but I can’t stay.”

Hanzo didn’t like that and tightened his grip, squeezing with his arms and legs. A loving kiss pressed to his forehead, then lips gently caressed at his mouth and jaw.

“I don’t want you to go. I won’t let you.”

“Please… my lord… don’t do this to yourself. I want you to be happy.”

“I was happy with you.”

“I know, but we had our time.”

Hanzo closed his eyes and choked back a sob. He didn’t want to remember how it came to an end.

“I know, my lord… I know it hurts, but do something about it. For me? Don’t be alone.”

“I have no one.”

“The Cowboy seems interesting.”

Hanzo bolted awake, bathed in sweat and the blue light of his sleeping dragons.

“Fuck!”

Chapter Text

Cole really wished he didn’t have a demon living inside him.

The arguments he and Damien had over the years, especially in the beginning, sometimes resulted in rages, losses of control, that more than earned the bounty on Cassidy’s head.

When Hanzo left and shut himself in the only bedroom, Cassidy was left to argue with “himself”.

“Why the fuck d’ya proposition him?! Huh?! After everything he’s just been through?”

“Like ya haven’t thought about it!”

“I haven’t!”

“Bullshit! Don’t lie t’me, asshole!”

“Whatever! We can’t come on to my best friend’s brother!!”

“Argh! You’re no fun! We need a drink!”

Cole looked for some, but there was nothing in any of the cupboards or anywhere.

No booze.

He had no smokes on him except for the stub of his cigar. He had a few joints stashed away for the special “Damien” emergencies back at HQ, so there was nothing to satiate the demon.

Cole closed his eyes in a vain attempt to ignore Damien’s whining like a child in his head.

“Can’t drink, can’t smoke or get high, can’t fight…so why can’t we—?!”

“We are NOT fucking Hanzo Shimada!”

There was an explosion, of lightning and blue fire.

Chapter Text

No words.

Glares exchanged, apologetic and hopeful for forgiveness, shame and embarrassment which tried to be hidden with anger and indifference.

No words exchanged between the two of them, not even when their extraction came and Lena made endless comments about the scorched and wrecked state of the safehouse.

The silence and the tension between the two men made the flight awkward for the others on the Orca. Then when they got the order to divert to Japan, Hanzo was even less than inclined to speak.

Lena looked over her shoulder, coaxing Angela and Briggette to get an explanation as to why the men weren’t talking, or to say something—anything—to break the silence.

They tried but Cassidy and Hanzo said nothing.

Hanzo was rigid, stern, as Mercy and Brigitte fitted the new legs they had brought with them.

Cassidy was squirming on the other side of the jet, toying his cigar with nervous fingers, just itching to light it.

When he began to talk to himself, mumbling and hissing, Angela knew he was talking to Damien.

It became pretty clear that once again, Cole’s “roommate” had caused a rift, big enough to piss off Hanzo and his snarling dragons.

Chapter Text

Brigitte patted Hanzo’s knee and wiped at her nose with the back of her hand.

“All good to go!” she said chirpily, backing away. “The upgrades should feel instant.”

Hanzo bowed in thanks and jumped up onto his new prosthetics. He bowed again to the engineer and to Mercy, with a small smile.

Cole also rose up to his feet. He took off his hat and held it nervously in both hands, his fingers worrying the brim.

“Hanzo… I’m —!”

Hanzo held up his hand and silenced him. “Don’t apologise!”

Cole opened his mouth to say something else, but Hanzo’s hand touched upon his arm and squeezed.

“We shall speak no more of this!”

“Hanzo--!”

“We have nothing more to discuss!”

It came out abruptly, more than he probably intended it to be, and Hanzo was about to walk away, but Cole grabbed Hanzo’s hand that had been squeezing his arm. He held it, feeling Hanzo’s rapid pulse, and his desperate urge to pull away and flee.

“I am though.” Cole bowed to make sure he caught Hanzo’s gaze. He ignored the startled panic on Hanzo’s face as he looked up, and Cole smiled. “Sorry, I mean. Fer everythin’.”

Chapter Text

He realised that he should’ve said thank you at the very least, but words failed him. Again.

Hanzo had grunted with acknowledgment and then pulled out of Cassidy’s grasp. He walked away to the next compartment and his dragons followed him.

They coiled around his new legs—hummed happily at them—and slithered up his body to rest upon his shoulders.

They were worried about him, Hanzo could feel their emotions trying to sooth his turmoil, but what could he do to reassure them? Their own misgivings about the Cowboy and his Oni… were not helping him, especially after that dream.

Cassidy was not Iro.

Though there was the whole scruffy rough look they both shared.

Hanzo kept to himself for the rest of the flight. Once the Orca touched down outside Kanezaka, the five of them disembarked only to see Genji and a woman waiting for them.

“Brother! Welcome back! You remember Sensei, right?!”

How could he forget?

Asa Yamagami taught Sojiro’s sons the way of the sword, among other talents. Her husband Toshiro, was the Kajiya of Kanezaka. He made all the swords for the Clan.

Asa was his Sensei and seeing her now, he only felt shame.