#good stuffffff!!!

and no one else joined her. they had assumed only one would go, but she had a futile hope that one, or two would follow her. they could’ve done it on their own, if they went together. 

(she cried, a week after she left with her meka and supplies, in a stolen, unmarked truck, when she received a transmission from an untraceable line that wished her luck and confirmed she had been listed as kill-on-sight.

can you imagine being nineteen and knowing you can never go home? that to save your home, to keep it safe, you had to give it up?) 

she /might/ see her sisters some day, if they travel, if they retire and pass their mekas down, if they take a trip and somehow can get in contact with her--but it’s a long shot. so she’s not exactly lovey-dovey when she requests to work with overwatch. 

she explains her situation to winston and mercy, in as much detail as she can give. she’s stoic, has shown up armed but without her meka (she refuses to let south korea’s tech fall into anyone else’s hands if she can help it, has the self-destruct button on her at all times. she’s still loyal, though her superior officers will never know.) 

so what i’m getting at: they know, from day one, that d.va’s a soldier first and foremost. they understand that she’s not an overwatch agent--she’s a south korean soldier who is protecting her home by allying with them. they are /not/ her priority.  

mercy says, bluntly, “if you don’t prioritize us, we won’t prioritize you. just to be clear. but we will be certain to keep you informed on what’s relevant to your cause. we are willing to be your allies. you need to communicate with us and tell us what you need, and in return we’ll tell you what we need. you cannot use us without question, but we will lend assistance. we expect the same courtesy.” 

the first month she’s with them, it’s tentative. she isn’t social, she doesn’t talk to them outside of missions. it’s deliberate. it’s her way of saying, “you’re all older, you all have more experience, but i’m still professional, i will prove myself, and i’m a warrior.” 

when they start to respect her--when they stop looking at her with sad, pitying eyes and with respect, that’s when she lets go a little bit. when she starts dryly teasing, when she seeks lucio and others out for company. 

she’ll always be really, really grateful for fareeha, who respected her from day one. who found her after a rough day, alone and lonely, and listened to her story. who told her that she’s a brave and admirable woman for doing what’s right, what she knew had to be done, even with the steep sacrifices she had to give.

fareeha, who doesn’t baby her, who has never done so. who doesn’t call her ‘sweetie’ or ruffle her hair (and that stuff is.... annoying, but she deals with it from the others once she knows they respect her. they mean it kindly, she knows, so she deals with it as gracefully as she can.) 

and then 76 appears and starts hanging around. like i said earlier, he’s a little bossy, a little pushy, but that’s not her problem. they end up doing what they have to in the end regardless, so his complaints and issues don’t matter. 

then they have their first mission together where it’s just the two of them. winston had arranged it (he has weird algorithms that determine who should go on what missions together based on their skill sets, and it works about 87% of the time if athena’s loud analyses are anything to go off of.) 

it goes well, except at the end hana has to bail out of her meka for a few minutes because someone attached /something/ to it and she has to quickly get it off manually-- her meka’s perfection incarnate, she knows that, but it isn’t the best for any sort of fine-motions. the arms don’t move delicately enough

she goes as fast and quietly as she can, but of course she gets spotted. if she had both hands, she would’ve gotten him with one hit, but it takes a few when she’s multitasking, and she takes a few grazes in the process. 

she thinks she’s fine to return, but she shrieks, involuntarily, when a shot goes through her thigh as she’s retreating back into her meka, and she notices 76′s head shoot towards her position. it takes all of thirty seconds for her to fix it up passably for the rest of the mission until they return to base, and then she’s back in it. 

when they’re heading back, her meka stashed away in an 18 wheeler she’s driving with 76 in the passenger seat, he says, “let me look at your thigh.” 

she doesn’t take her eyes off the road. “it’s fine for now. i’ll see mercy or lucio when we get back.” 

“i have a biotic field left.” 

“save it. those are useful for the field, it’d be a waste to use it when the base is fifteen minutes out.” 

she hears it click on anyway, and she grits her teeth. 

“they’re meant to be used.” 

“i had already--whatever.” she sighs irritably. “whatever.” 

she’s limping a little bit when they arrive, and she has to slap 76′s hands away at least three times when he tries to take over transporting her meka from the truck to the hangar. 

it’s whatever. she’s exhausted, even before they debrief with winston and athena and she goes for her post-mission checkup. she passes out on one of the cots in medical the minute mercy clears her, not bothering to change or leave. 

she doesn’t notice at first, but 76 starts hanging around the bases more often after that mission. especially when she’s there. he asks after her even when she’s not there (nothing overly creepy, but more than should be happening when they don’t know each other. just general, “how’s the kid doing?”) and coincidentally requests the same missions, even though before they had only had that one mission together despite months of working in the same organization.  

then he starts hanging around her. which is weird on a lot of levels. 

it wouldn’t be that bad if he actually /interacted/ you know? but instead he’s just sitting and watching, with that visor keeping his face inscrutable. when she’s gaming in one of the rooms, sometimes lucio or lena will watch or ask to play a round with her, and 76 will just be. awkwardly to the side. 

he’s nice enough, she guesses. he brings food, and he’ll clean up after them. the one time she was sick, he brought her crackers and ginger ale and stayed close, which kinda ticked her off but the ginger ale was good to have. he’s quick to use his biotic field after missions if he’s the first to reach her, when he’s tasked with bringing her transport. he sometimes reaches out like he wants to grab her shoulder and squeeze, but her body language must be enough to stop him from doing so. 

it’s /weird/, really. she can’t see his face, can’t read why he acts the way he does. and he doesn’t even do much. 

the next mission they have together---that’s when she gets pissed off. 

because it was going fine. it was one of the few missions where hana went without her meka, no one else was available, and while she’s primarily a pilot, she /has/ been trained. 

and 76 steps in front of her the entire time. shields her, gives her pointless tasks to do, and she can’t say anything because he’s the leader on this and it’s time-sensitive. arguing won’t do shit. 

she’s fuming, though, and it’s with more than a little bit of righteousness that right before they retreat, she shoves 76 out of the way and headshots an agent that he wouldn’t have been able to stop 

he turns and snarls at her, wordlessly, and she snaps, “cry me a fucking river, grandpa, next time i’ll let him slit your throat. get back to the van.” 

they do. he spends the first ten minutes of the ride screaming at her. 

“i told you to stay on my left!” “i told you to be the backup, you weren’t supposed to fire unless i couldn’t!” “i told you--” “i told you!” 

she lets him get it all out, and when he looks like he’ll start again, she speaks up, icy cold, her eyes locked on the road and her hands tight around the steering wheel. 

“i don’t know if pulling this protective-macho bullshit gets you off or what, but it needs to stop.” 

a strangled, offended noise leaves his throat, and she continues before he can get all righteous and outraged. 

“i’ll let this go. this one, single time i’ll let it go, old man. the bullshit work, the disrespect, the yelling when i did my job--i’ll let it all go,” she says, almost kindly. “we can be friends, old man. but i won’t take this shit anymore. i’m not whatever fantasy you’re cooking up in that perverted mind of yours.” 

“that’s not--” he makes a weird noise in his throat. “i’m not a pervert.” 

“i’d rather you be a pervert after my ass than this weird, father-figure BS you’re trying to pull,” she says bluntly. “that’s much easier to explain than you using me to fill some hole from you feeling dissatisfied with not having kids or starting a family or whatever trauma you’re trying to use me to fix.” 

he’s very, very quiet after that. 

they don’t talk for a bit, and when they get closer to base, hana speaks up again. 

“you’re not a bad guy, 76,” she says. “i think your heart’s in the right place. i know nothing you did was meant badly. i know you think you were just being nice and giving me some TLC that the poor teenager isn’t getting from anywhere else. but think about how your actions looked to me.” 

“i’m sorry.” she gives him points for not giving any excuses.  

“it’s fine. but if you’re going to be nice? be nice to everyone. it might actually make your life less pathetic if you made friends instead of trying to be this ‘silent guardian angel’ which is just creepy.” 

“you don’t....” 

“don’t what?” 

“You don’t sugar coat anything. do you?” 

“that’s not my style, old man.” 

(things get better after that. it’s clear that hana’s still his favorite to everyone except hana. hana just sees that he’s making an effort with everyone else and not being a creeper anymore. he’s being involved, even if he’s still a man of few words. and he’s not just bringing her ginger ale when she gets sick, now that’s his entire Thing whenever anyone gets sick. 

it’s like the grandma who thinks everything can be fixed with chicken noodle soup. except much less filling.

and maybe they joke around a little bit. 76 and hana have their own, dry humor that doesn’t go over super well with anyone else. 

she can be a little meaner with him, when she gets in those types of moods, and he just. takes it. dishes it back without crossing any lines. he’s the only one who can really take hana’s anger during those weeks when she gets resentful of her position, her acerbic digs and seemingly endless requests for intense spars. and she apologizes by taking him to whatever cheap diner was closest after their latest mission, getting him crappy coffee and eggs. 

she reluctantly admits he seems to understand her homesickness more than most here. they’re the ones that /can’t/ go back, rather than they’re choosing not to go back. he’s not her dad, or an uncle, or any weird family-figure that she doesn’t want. but he’s a good friend, after awhile.