Jrade

Angela “Mercy” Ziegler sighed, sagging in her chair a little as she clicked through screen after screen of diagnostics, test results, computer simulations, and on and on and on.

“Virus seems,” she paused for a yawn, “to react to... Alpha-level inhibitors,” she muttered into a recorder, her chin slipping off of her hand and nearly falling to the desk, forcing her to sit abruptly upright with a sudden noise.

“You look tired.”

She turned around at the voice, low and warm, smiling when she saw Winston in her doorway. “Oh - I suppose I am,” she sighed, “but I just need to finish this bit of work before I head home to sleep.”

The other scientist, of whom she’d always been fond, cast his huge eyes toward the couch in her little office - covered in blankets and with a few pillows as well. “Uh, home. Sure.” He smirked and Angela sighed, opening her mouth to protest, but he waved her words away with a hand as he loped into the room.

“Don’t worry about it, I-” he chuckled briefly, rolling one shoulder in a shrug. “I know what it’s like to get caught up on a project and keep going far past the point of it being sensible.”

Angela actually laughed lightly at that, shaking her head. She knew she should’ve gone to sleep a while ago, but she was just on the edge of being able to direct the computers to run some more tests. Another twenty minutes of work on her part and the machines could be making progress while she slept, and she wanted that.

Twenty minutes. An hour, tops. Maybe two at the outside.

“I just need some coffee,” she groaned, rubbing at her eyes heavily with the balls of her palms. She smiled at Winston’s chuckle and his huge hand patting her on the shoulder, seeing bright spots and splotches that slowly resolved into his face.

“I’ll get you a pot,” he nodded, turning to head back to the door. “Black, double-strength-”

“-no cream, no sugar, no nonsense, yes,” Angela called after him. “Thank you, Winston! You’re a life-saver!”

They’d worked together on some projects before and formed a nice friendship - Winston wasn’t a doctor, but he was a good scientist and he had a good head on his shoulders, and had proved indispensable on solving a few problems. Particularly given that they tended to come up against some truly absurd problems here in Overwatch.

Angela returned her attention to the screen which was blurry at first, then wavy, and she rubbed at her eyes again with a heavy sigh. “Should’ve got coffee an hour ago,” she muttered to herself as she shook her head.

Of course, an hour ago, she’d thought she only had ten minutes of work left.

In lieu of hot caffeinated goodness, Angela leaned back in her chair, stretching her arms up over her head and groaning as sore muscles and ribs complained for the first few seconds but then started to relax and feel better, and the groan shifted to a sigh instead.

She didn’t expect a voice in her ear, warm and smooth. “Hey, chica.”

Between the shock of hearing anything at all, and the further shock of it being the voice of who it was, and her precarious position, bad things were practically guaranteed. Angela jolted slightly when she heard Sombra’s greeting, twitching and sending her chair keeling over backward - she yelped and flailed, but there was nothing to grab on to.

She didn’t hit the ground, though. While there was nothing for her to catch, something else caught her - or rather, someone, as Sombra chuckled and waved her camouflage off, holding Angela in her arms.

“Careful there, angel,” the hacker grinned at Angela’s still-shocked expression, the light pink creeping into her cheeks. “Falling for me all over again, huh?”

“Sombra,” Angela half-whispered, half-groaned, glancing around nervously. “You can’t be here - how did you get here anyway? What if somebody finds you, what if-”

“Yeah, well, that’s what makes it exciting!” Sombra snickered, setting Angela’s feet down on the floor. The doctor ran immediately to the door, turning the lock and double-checking it, but it wouldn’t stay locked forever if somebody wanted it open - Athena could override that, and she knew it.

“You need to leave,” she hissed, peeking through the door’s peephole. “I think the hallway’s clear, you can-”

Sombra interrupted her, waving a hand and bringing several screens up. Screens which showed the hallways of Overwatch’s Gibraltar facility. “Oh, oh yeah,” the hacker murmured, “the hallways are clear. Not that it matters to me anyway - come on, amiga, you know me better than that, I could get out any time.”

“Yes, I know, and you need to,” Angela insisted, turning away from the door. She had planned on protesting further, but was stopped when she noticed Sombra’s exaggerated pout. “What?”

“You haven’t even said hello yet!” Sombra crossed her arms, sticking her lip out even further. “You’re gonna make a girl feel unwanted at this rate.”

Angela let out a noise somewhere between a groan, a sigh, and a laugh as she crossed the floor quickly to her girlfriend. She wrapped the hacker up in a brief hug. “Hello, Sombra, it’s lovely to see you, but this was an incredibly dangerous plan and maybe a little bit stupid, and,” she withdrew from the hug to peck a kiss on Sombra’s pouting lip.

Sombra, however, wasn’t quite happy with just a peck. Her arms uncrossed and she caught the back of Angela’s head, holding it there for a moment - holding them in the kiss as their mouths shifted against each other with a host of soft noises. She felt a triumphant little thrill as Angela’s fingers finally twisted into her hair and the doctor sagged into the embrace.

Angela got too distracted by her work sometimes and Sombra knew it - she’d seen it time and time again over the months they’d been together, and she was happy to help break her girlfriend out of it a little.

Plus, she just liked kissing.

They held it for another few moments before parting somewhat breathlessly, grins replacing their former expressions. “Now that’s a hello I can get behind,” Sombra murmured appreciatively.

Angela giggled, blushing slightly as she dropped her hands to catch Sombra’s. “It- this really was a sweet plan, but you can’t-”

“Oh come on! You don’t even know the plan yet,” Sombra pointed out with a grin, tugging Angela over toward the couch. “C’mon, sit - I’ve got eyes on the whole facility. Nothing’s gonna happen, relax.”

Angela didn’t really want to relax, but she knew she probably should and it was so difficult to say no to Sombra when she had that grin on, and that twinkle in her eyes. Angela forced herself to sit (nervously) on the blanket-covered couch, watching (nervously) as Sombra stepped around the couch and Angela could only wonder (nervously) whether anyone else would stop by.

They usually didn’t, when she was working on things, and it was late as well. Somewhere near midnight - a glance at the clock showed it to be one-thirty, in fact. Probably nobody would be up and around except for her, Tracer, and Winston. It helped ease her nerves a little.

What helped more than that, though, was everything that Sombra started doing - she came back around the couch with a wicker basket in hand, and immediately had Angela’s curiosity. Sombra pulled out a white-and-red checkered sheet from the basket and laid it out on the floor, and Angela started giggling. When Sombra started to pull out candles and light them, Angela tried to help, but the hacker waved her off.

“Hey! No, you stay sitting, angel,” Sombra insisted. “Hardly a surprise picnic if you’re doing half the work!”

Angela had to laugh at that, shaking her head softly as her grin grew and grew. Sombra had proved to be unexpectedly sweet and delightful in their time together - she had a front of aloofness, certainly, and there were certain extents to which that was true. She was definitely a deeply passionate person, but that translated into more than just deep kisses and frantically grasping hands.

It also meant little gifts whenever she came back from travels, it meant hidden surprises to be found, it meant a constant kind of thoughtfulness and attention which never failed to make Angela’s heart swell.

Candles, lit; white wine, poured; sandwiches and a platter of cheese and crackers, laid out. Then, Sombra sat down with a grin and looked up to Angela on the couch. “Well? You gonna join me, angel?”

The doctor laughed again as her heart leapt slightly at the little epithet, feeling more awake and lighter than she had in hours as the concern and stress sloughed from her mind. “Of course I will,” she replied with a smile. “It would be quite rude to refuse such a feast.”

“Damn straight it would,” Sombra chuckled, “but uh, y’know, I kinda just ate, so actually both these sandwiches are for you.”

Again, Angela laughed, sitting down on the blanket and taking a glass of wine in hand - she noticed a thermos in the basket as well, and wondered what it was, but that could wait. She raised her glass with a smile as Sombra did the same with a grin, and they clinked them together.

“To dangerous but wonderful surprises,” Angela teased lightly, drawing a laugh from Sombra’s painted lips.

“Hey, that’s my middle name, chica,” the hacker shot back with a grin, tipping back her glass for a swig. Wine wasn’t exactly her thing, but she made an effort at it at least - and it was alright. She was learning to like it more and more.

“Mm, quite a mouthful, that name,” Angela smirked as she took a sip, sighing through her nose. A nice crisp Zinfandel, perfectly chilled, and she wasn’t surprised. Sombra had a good eye for details. Despite her chaotic appearances she was actually quite precise.

“Speaking of mouthfuls, eat up,” Sombra insisted, shuffling around the blanket to be behind Angela. “C’mon, I know you, chica - I bet you haven’t eaten in eight hours.”

“I-I ate dinner!” Angela blushed lightly at the teasing.

“Yeah? What? And when?”

“I- well-” Angela frowned slightly, picking up one of the sandwiches. “I hardly keep a journal of it all. I don’t remember exactly.”

She didn’t, either, genuinely didn’t remember exactly but she was pretty sure it had been around six and she’d only had a bowl of soup, and didn’t really want to admit to that.

Sombra, laughing, snapped her fingers. “Luckily, you’ve got me looking after you,” she murmured over Angela’s shoulder as a screen floated in front of them - security footage from the mess hall of a certain blonde-haired doctor eating a (small) bowl of soup at five forty-eight in the afternoon.

“So, maybe not quite eight hours,” Sombra murmured as Angela sighed a laugh. Then the hacker started to rub at her shoulders and the laugh shifted into a groan as Angela slumped backward into her grip.

For a few moments, they both happily let the meal go forgotten. Sombra worked the balls of her thumbs deep into tight knots in Angela’s shoulders and down her back, and as she did she peppered light kisses down her neck, over the edge of her ear, on every patch of skin she could reach.

Angela sighed and stretched an arm back, running fingers through Sombra’s hair and holding her head in against her neck, letting out a slight gasp when a soft kiss was emphasised by a little nip of teeth. The gasp swiftly shifted to a laugh as Angela twisted to the side a little so she could turn her head over and meet Sombra’s eyes with a grin. “Are you sure you’re not hungry?”

“Not for a sandwich,” Sombra responded in a deep and warm murmur, eyes twinkling, “but I could definitely eat…”

Angela laughed brightly, slapping at Sombra’s shoulder and sitting upright. “You’re incorrigible!” Still, she couldn’t deny that the idea was a good one. It had been a very long day, and just having Sombra close meant her heart was running a little faster, her blood feeling warmer than it had. It would be all kinds of wonderful to cuddle up underneath the blankets on the couch.

There was still the slight fact that she was technically trespassing, though, and Angela really didn’t want to broach that particular topic with her coworkers and teammates at the moment. Things weren’t quite as they seemed when it came to Sombra, but they didn’t know that, so it was easiest to just keep their relationship hidden.

Even if that meant they didn’t get to see each other as often as either of them might’ve liked.

Angela sighed slightly as she picked up the sandwich again, Sombra’s hands dropping to her sides, her ribs, massaging lightly still. She felt energized at the contact, brighter and better than she had minutes ago.

“Thanks for this,” she murmured softly, before taking a bite of the sandwich and even surprising herself with the moan that came out. Her stomach jumped at the idea of food and she took another bite, larger, and focused on chewing it down as quickly as possible.

Sombra chuckled, shuffling forward to rest her chin on Angela’s shoulder, legs on either side of her and arms wrapped around her torso. “No problem, chica, I just wanted to see you and - I mean, hey, who doesn’t want to pull of a romantic picnic for their girl every now and then, huh?” She snickered before squeezing her girlfriend lightly. “Hey, you might wanna slow down there. Not so romantic to choke to death on a sandwich, y’know?”

With a laugh, Angela shook her head, blushing slightly. “Sorry, I just- it’s very good, and as it turns out, I am quite hungry.”

Snickering again, Sombra planted a soft kiss on the back of her neck, grinning as the hairs there stood up on end at her passing. “Yeah, I figured you would be.” She didn’t have any real concerns over Angela choking, but she couldn’t pass up the opportunity to tease her a little.

For the next few minutes, she just held on and breathed deeply, nuzzling against the back of Angela’s neck, getting whiffs of laboratory and operating room, and soap that had faded over the past two days or so, sterilizers and ozone from the electrical equipment, vanilla and cinnamon from somewhere. Sombra doubted it was baking, but it brought a smile to her lips anyway, all of it. Her favourite scents in the world.

After she was done eating, Angela took Sombra’s hands in hers and squeezed at them gently. “All finished now. Here, come and-” she dropped the sentence, but not Sombra’s hands. Those, she tugged on gently, standing and pulling Sombra over to the couch.

They slumped down to it, the cushions squished and formed by hundreds of hours of Angela’s sleeping form on top of it. She grabbed a couple of the blankets and wrapped them both up like a burrito, and then sighed with perfect contentment as they settled in to just lay there.

One of Sombra’s arms slipped up underneath the hem of her shirt, palm flat against her side and stroking up her ribs. The little bit of skin contact was so lovely, it felt warm and comforting, and Angela unbuttoned her shirt thoughtlessly as she kissed at Sombra’s forehead and stroked at her hair.

The hacker took advantage of the opportunity quickly, dipping down to kiss Angela on the now-exposed shoulder before sitting up just enough to shuck off her own shirt. When she laid back down again, she slid a bare arm behind Angela’s back and laid her head down on the doctor’s shoulder, wrapping her other arm around the front in a tight embrace.

“Much better,” she murmured, nuzzling her cheek against skin that was interrupted by only a bra strap. Angela laughed and nodded, stroking her fingertips lightly up and down the soft, warm skin of Sombra’s ribs and inhaling the scent of her hair. Something fruity, tangy - kiwi, maybe, Angela wasn’t quite sure, but she knew she loved it.

“You really should leave before you get found,” Angela whispered, but the insistence had bled from her voice. Replacing it was a tired sort of resignation, and it was echoed in Sombra’s sigh.

“Yeah,” she grumbled, trying to burrow her head in deeper to Angela’s shoulder. “I know. I really am keeping an eye on things, though, but… yeah, I’ll leave in a bit.”

“Not too soon, please,” Angela smiled, the expression widening when Sombra looked up to her with a grin.

“‘Course not.” Sombra snickered, stretching her neck out to kiss Angela on the lips, just softly, just briefly.

Angela had somewhat different ideas, though. The hand at Sombra’s side rose to her hair and tangled there, holding her head, shifting it to the side, letting the kiss deepen. Sombra didn’t complain about that in the slightest, though - she let out a soft moan of approval, her lips sliding against Angela’s as she repositioned and ran a hand up her back, tracing the fine fuzz along her spine.

She knew Angela liked that. A second later she got the shiver and the little whine she’d been looking for, goosebumps breaking out across Angela’s skin.

“You should let me know next time you want to visit me at work,” Angela whispered breathlessly, parting the kiss just for a moment - Sombra’s mouth fell to her neck, though, kissing and sending bright waves of sensation rippling below her skin. “I can make more time, maybe take a break and head outside somewhere safer.”

Sombra chuckled, brushing her lips against goosebumped skin as she grinned. “Didn’t I already say? Half the fun’s in thinking you might get caught. Who wants a safe picnic? That’s boring - now, this,” she caught the back of Angela’s head with one hand and bit gently on her collarbone, laughing lightly at the groan which flew from the doctor’s mouth. “This is exciting!”

“I can’t- can’t disagree with you there,” Angela sighed, heat flooding her cheeks, her neck, her core, her everything, spreading out like flares from the sun as Sombra’s hands roamed over her skin and she returned the favour. They didn’t get to see each other often enough. They deserved to be uninhibited, unfettered, unhindered.

Unfortunately, fate has a sense of humour.

Angela’s eyes flew wide as there was a knock on the door.

“Doctor Z- uh, Angela? I brought the coffee. Are you alright? The uh… door’s locked?”

“Winston,” Angela hissed a whisper as Sombra grinned and waved, and then shimmered away into invisibility. “I, um-” Angela turned around on the couch to face the door, pulling the blankets up and over Sombra’s invisible form. “Come in,” she called out, “and err, door, unlock!”

The door unlocked itself at her command, Winston turning the knob a moment later with a curious and slightly concerned expression on his face. He had a large carafe of coffee in hand, but his expression split into a chuckle and a grin as he looked into the room.

“Oh, having a little nap?”

“Y-yes! Yes I am,” Angela grabbed onto the provided excuse tightly, even as Sombra started kissing at her ribs and belly. It wasn’t fair in the slightest, and Angela grabbed a tight fistful of purple hair under the covers, but that just spurred the hacker on.

“Sh-short nap, I think,” Angela continued with a light and forced laugh. “Twenty minutes or so.”

Sombra made a slight noise and bit her side.

“Or m-maybe more like forty minutes,” Angela corrected herself, stifling a noise. “Mm. Or an hour.” Sombra didn’t seem to react to that, so Angela laughed and nodded. “Yes, yes that would be best - sleep cycles and circadian rhythms and all that, it won’t do to sleep for too short a time, you know?”

Winston shrugged, not knowing much about that kind of stuff, but it made sense. Sometimes he woke up from a ten-minute nap feeling refreshed, but one that lasted half an hour left him feeling sloggy and dull. At the end of the day, he trusted Mercy to know what she was talking about when it came to medical things.

“Whatever you think’s best,” he shrugged, “the coffee should still be hot either way when you wake up. But, you know, uh… if you just go to sleep? Not such a big deal, I think.” He smirked. “You don’t need to work every hour of every day, you know.”

Angela laughed at his teasing words, and also to cover the fact that she wanted to gasp as Sombra started to unbutton her pants. “Yes, well, you know what they say - n-no rest for the wicked, ha!”

“Wicked, sure, yeah right,” he rolled his eyes and shook his head, ambling over on both feet and one fist and setting the carafe down on Angela’s desk next to the computer. “Just leave this here, shall I?”

“Excellent! Thank you, Winston.”

“No problem at all. Have a good nap or sleep or whatever, Angela.”

“Of course I will. Thank you. You can um- oh, lock the door on the way out.”

Winston chuckled as he headed out, waving over his shoulder. “I’ll let Athena know you’re not to be bothered for the rest of the night unless it’s an emergency!”

Then the door closed, and locked, and Angela immediately threw off the covers that were causing her to overheat now, and revealed Sombra’s grinning face.

“That was so mean!” Angela hissed, smacking at Sombra’s shoulders, but the hacker just laughed and curled up and took it.

“I know it was!” Sombra giggled and shook as Angela continued to smack ineffectually at her. “It was great!”

The laughter flowed freely as slaps softened until they were strokes and caresses, mouths losing their grins to become occupied with each other instead. With the door locked, with the knowledge that nobody would be coming their way, Angela was able to relax even more - which, after all, had been the point of the whole thing.

That, and to have a bit of fun, at least.

In the end, she even did nap, drifting off into unconsciousness afterward with Sombra curled up in her arms. The last thoughts in her mind were that soft, tangy, fruity scent of Sombra’s hair, the warmth of her skin and the slight difference where implants ran underneath it, and how incredibly wonderful it felt to just hold her like that.

She woke up an hour later, to her phone alarm gently sounding - wind chimes, a tune that brought a smile to her lips even though it wasn’t one she had picked. Sombra was gone, but she wasn’t really surprised to find that.

Angela stretched out with a yawn to grab her phone, flicking the alarm off thoughtlessly with a thumb. When it went away, though, the screen showed something else - a picture of her sleeping face taken over Sombra’s bare shoulder, the hacker grinning like a fool.

The photo was captioned “Morning, beautiful” and it made Angela giggle and grin, and immediately flick to her contacts to send a message.

“Thanks for this, so much. It was wonderful - I really needed a break, I think. Thank you.”

The response came only a moment later. “Hey, you can always count on me to help you avoid work!” Angela laughed at that, shaking her head as another message came through. “It was good though, yeah. We should do it again some time.”

Her cheeks were sore from grinning as she tapped out a response, pulling on a lap coat almost thoughtlessly. “Good idea! Are you free Tuesday?”

“For you? Always, angel.”

Angela sighed and pressed the phone to her chest, shaking her head softly and wondering how exactly she got so lucky. Yes, technically, Sombra was a wanted fugitive - but technically, so was she, so was Winston and Tracer and all of the others. Overwatch was illegal, but that didn’t mean it was wrong.

Yes, Sombra was helping Talon at the moment - or appeared to - but to the people in the UN, everyone in the reformed Overwatch was appearing to do all sorts of horrid things.

Something Angela had learned quite thoroughly was that there was more to life than appearances.

She smiled and set some music playing as she settled in her chair again, waking her computer from its sleep and picking up the recorder in hand. “Now, where was I? Let’s see… oh, yes: the samples of the virus which we have cultured seem to have a high level of response to Alpha-level inhibitors. More research is required to see whether this is correlative or causative. Of particular note are the effects of more complex compounds such as…”