#mathylibrarian

At first, Hanzo thought about getting him anew, engraved flask.  His old one wasbeat up and looked about fifty years old. But that seemed too personal; a friend wouldn’t get another friendsomething as nice as that.  So then Hanzothought about getting him this brand of coffee he saw in a store a couplemonths ago that claims it had three times the amount of caffeine than a regularcup of coffee.  But that seemedimpersonal; everyone knows that McCree likes his coffee hot and strong, everymorning.

Hanzo spent every moment of his free time overthe past week either shopping online or down in Gibraltar looking forsomething, anything, that would work.  Hewas at his wits end and 48 hours away from the deadline by the time he finallycame up with something.  He almost didn’thave time to get it together but somehow he managed.

From Hanzo’s bed, his comm buzzes.

[Genji]: Where ru binch?

Hanzo curses. The party started ten minutes ago and he didn’t even realize.  He quickly changes into a Henley shirt andjeans, grabs McCree’s gift and runs out the door.

When he gets there, Hanzo’s glad to see he’snot the last one to arrive.  Only abouthalf of the team is here so far and McCree is not one of them.   Good,Hanzo can subtly add his gift to the growing pile and McCree will neverknow.  

Slowly but surely, the rest of the teamfilters in.  Reinhardt supplies everyonewith an amazing spread of food and Ana keeps the alcohol flowing.  Hanzo socializes and tries to not look tooexcited when McCree finally walks in with his present.  He also tries not to freak out when McCreecomes over to stand right next to him and join in on the conversation.

All too soon Lena is calling everyone to sitdown for the exchange.  Hanzo’s worriesfrom earlier come back in full force but he can’t escape fast enough to switchout his gift.  He ends up sandwichedbetween Hana and Satya on one of the couches, McCree ends up on the other sideof the room right next to Genji.  In hispanic, Hanzo misses the first couple gifts being opened and the receiversguessing the givers.

“Hanzo, it’s your turn love!” Lena says waytoo cheerfully, startling Hanzo.  Shethrusts a large box into his hands.  Hanzo cannot remember who brought it eventhough he was sneaking peaks at all the incoming gifts.

Hanzo carefully peels the wrapping paper off,partially because he doesn’t want to accidentally break something and partiallyto annoy Genji who has always had problems with Hanzo’s steadfast refusal totear into presents.  

Hanzo’s eyes widen when he finally gets a lookinside.  First he pulls out a pair ofmedium sized, matte black, spherical stud earrings.  They don’t give him any insight into who gavehim the present but he likes them none the less; he had been getting tired ofhis hoops.  

It’s the second item that makes him softlygasp.  With two hands he pulls out abeautiful sakura bonsai tree.  It looks alittle distressed, probably from not being properly taken care of in a day ortwo, but it’s gorgeous.  Hanzo isspeechless, he didn’t think anyone knew about his love for plants, and his lovefor taking care of bonsai trees when he was younger and still an heir.  Genji would be the only exception to thatassumption but he had already bragged to Hanzo about how he had gotten Lena’sname and couldn’t wait to give her gag gifts to make up for the prank shepulled on him last month.

Hanzo drags his eyes up from the tree andscans the room for the possible gift giver. Hana maybe?  No, they are goodfriends, but she’s not the type of person to buy something like this.  Satya? No, she had already been revealed to have given her gift to Fareeha.

It’s only because Hanzo’s spend an ungodlyamount of time staring at McCree does he notice the slight tinge of pink at thetips of his ears and the way he tries to look just a little too casual.

“McCree?” Hanzo guesses.  McCree almost looks startled to hear hisname, but then a small smile grows on his face.

“Was it really that easy?  Guess I’m getting’ sloppy.  But yea, that was all me.”

Hanzo wants to ask how he knew about thebonsai, and why, but Lena’s already jumping up and moving on to the nextperson.

“Okay, that means you’re next Jesse.”  She blinks to the table and back and handsJesse his.  “Come on love, don’t keep uswaiting!”  If Hanzo wasn’t too busy stillfawning over the sakura tree, and once again freaking out about his gift, hewould have noticed to imp-ish smile on her face that only appears when a plangoes off perfectly.

McCree pull out the tissue paper and throws itbehind him.  He chuckles when he sees thebag of Death Wish coffee.

“Oh now this is nice.  How much… three times the amount of caffeine!?  Well hot damn!”  McCree sets it aside then pulls out thescroll of paper also in the bag.  Hefreezes when he unwinds it.  The blooddrains out of Hanzo’s face.  “This isamazin’,” McCree almost whispers.  Heturns it around to show everyone.  It’s acarefully done charcoal drawing of a desert landscape.  

Hanzo spent countless hours staring at reconphotos from their last mission on Route 66 to get the drawing perfect.  Looking at it now, he can see countlessmistakes.  McCree doesn’t seem to mind though;he’s looking at it like it’s a masterpiece.

“Ana I know ya got an eye for detail likethis.  You do this?”

“Guess again habibi.”

“Uhhh, Genji?”

“Getting closer.”

McCree finally looks over to Hanzo with asurprised expression.  “Hanzo?  You did this?”

Hanzo nods jerkily but doesn’t say anything.  Jesse opens his mouth to say something elsebut Lena’s talking over him and moving on to the next present.  

When the exchange is finally over Hanzoescapes to one of the sky walks outside with a strong drink.  Socializing is hard.  And tiring.

“Thought I might find ya out here,” says a lowsouthern drawl.  Despite all the anxietyHanzo has been going through tonight, and how he kinda just wants to curl up inhis bed and never speak of the gifts he gave ever again, he still can’t stopthe smile that finds its way onto his face when he turns around and looks atMcCree.  “Don’t know how you can standthis cold weather though.”

“This is mild compared to the winters we hadin Hanamura.  And were you not stationedin Switzerland during the original Overwatch?”

“Yea, but that don’t mean I liked it.”  They laugh, and eventually it fades out intoa slightly awkward silence.  There’s athin string of tension hiding beneath the surface made up of fear and thingsboth of them want to say.

“Hey,” McCree says, breaking the silence.  “Uhh, thanks fer the gifts.  They’re really nice an’ I can tell yaobviously put a lot’a thought into it.”

“You are most welcome.”  Internally, Hanzo winces.  He knew it, the gifts were too personal andnow he’s made things awkward between them.

“Did ya draw that all by yerself?” Jessebarrels on.  “An’ is it Deadlock Gorge?”

“Ah, yes. The surveillance photos from our last mission there made excellentreference photos.  I thought you wouldlike a reminder of where you grew up.”

“Well you were right.  I love it, thanks Han.”  McCree says it with such sincerity it shocksHanzo.  He shakes away his surprise aftera couple moments and asks the question he’s been dying to know the answer to.

“On a related note, how did you know I likedtaking care of bonsai?”

McCree runs his hand through his hairnervously.  “Oh I didn’t, that was jus’ aguess.  I’ve seen ya hang out inBastion’s garden quite a few times in the past an’ I overheard ya talkin’ ‘boutplants with Ana one time an’ so I jus’ had a gut feelin’ an’, well…”  

Once again, Hanzo is stunned, this time by theattentiveness McCree has shown.  He wouldhave never expected that from anyone, let alone from the man who he’s prettysure only sees him as a friend.

The awkward silence falls again, tension stillnot resolved.  It stretches longer thistime, until McCree mumbles something under his breath that sounds like ‘fuckit’.”

“Hey Han, would ya like ta go get adrink?  With me?”

Hanzo stares at McCree in confusion, thenlifts his half empty glass up in response.

“No, no, not right now.” McCree says with anervous laughter.  “I mean later, someother night.  Down at a bar, jus’ the twoof us.  Ya know, like a date?”

Realization dawns.  Oh.  Sothis pining isn’t as one sided as he thought. Well that’s… nice.

Hanzo must take too long to respond becauseMcCree shifts awkwardly and takes a step back. “Or not, I’m sorry, must’a misread somethin’ here.  I’ll leave ya be.”

“Wait!” Hanzo forces his mouth to work andthrows out a panicked hand to wrap around McCree’s wrist.  “I would love to.  Get a drink with you, that is.”