Author's Note

Hello everyone, this is my first Overwatch story. I got the idea after a sick POTG with Ashe. I titled it 'It's Half-Past Noon, Jesse', which brought about this idea a series of Overwatch prompts and pairings.

This story does deviate from canon, but to be honest I don't really care. I liked the prompt and this is what came of it.

If you have a prompt, or pairing request feel free to submit. So, without further ado.

*I do not own Overwatch, or any characters involved in this story. However, if you like the line Blizzard, give a girl a shout out.

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Overwatch

Pairing: Ashe x McCree

Prompt: It's Half-past Noon, Jesse.

Even before it goes off, Jesse McCree knows he's in for a world of hurt.

"It's half-past noon, Jesse." She shouts over the sounds of gunshots, punches and the rapturous noises associated with their deadly line of work.

He wants to shout, wants to shoot back, but for the first time in what feels like forever, Jesse McCree is frozen, not by any other force except fear. A paralyzing, all-encompassing fear that courses through every nerve ending, pulsates through every vein. It forms a dull throbbing in his head, one that ticks along with the lit fuse on the dynamite hurtling towards him at top speed. A few choice words barely escape his lips and are immediately engulfed by the ensuing battle.

All he can do is stare. Stare in those moments before his frozen body is sent flying backwards through the wall of the saloon. He knows it's coming. He's mentally prepared himself for this. But, the thought that Elizabeth Caledonia Ashe will be the one to blow him away still amazes him.

Flashes of that night outside the dinner echo in his head. Her white hair, the thin line of red that showcases her lips, a smile a mile wide and his fingers running through her hair. Gently he caresses her rosy cheek wanting to kiss her, but wanting to do it right and that meant waiting. It's one of his fondest memories of her, of their time together. He always finds himself falling back to that particular moment. The moment before she became Ashe, became the angry vengeful, feral demon before him.

Deep down, in the pit of his stomach he knows he loves her. He knows he will never feel this way about anyone, not to this magnitude ever again. He could try. He could force himself to feel this way about someone else, maybe the waitress at that dinner back on Route 66 where that memory was form. Maybe, he could force those feelings associated with that moment on to her? That waitress is sweet, nice to look at, an all-around good person. But why should he do that? Why should he force himself to feel something he doesn't? Especially given how close the real thing is to him right now and besides how fair would that be to that waitress to use her like that. Ashe is only a few hundred meters away. Her short snow-white hair lapping at her shoulders, that smile a mile wide stretched across her lips, her hands poised on her trusty rifle and her eyes brimming with excitement.

God, he loves that look. He loves the tingle of bone chilling ruthlessness that she gets in her eyes just before a heist, or a fight.

She would do anything to win, has done anything to win.

It's one of the many things he loves. Maybe, he's crazy. Maybe, he deserves this for what he did to her. Maybe, he's getting his due justice. But, Jesse McCree loves this woman. He loves her, unconditionally, wholly and without remorse, he loves Elizabeth Caledonia Ashe.

That's what he wants to scream to her in the moments when that stick of dynamite, the one she keeps handy on her belt, is hurtling towards him. The lit fuse dwindling as it gets ready to erupt.

He can't. The lump of paralytic fear sticks at the back of his throat. He opens his mouth and tries to speak, but the sound that escapes his lips is a voiceless, helpless creak.

He's gone. He going to die and she will have killed him. Maybe that's a good thing. He couldn't kill her so maybe with everyone around them and she at the trigger ending his life will be a good thing. He couldn't complete his mission with her here. Mainly, because he would never, could never kill her. Yeah, he's lied to her, sent her to prison, kept her from Blackwatch and broke her heart, but all of that was for her protection, to keep her safe. Maybe it was stupid and selfish of him. But, he loves her. He doesn't want her hurt. He can't bare that. He can't pretend that he's okay with her in the line of fire. He can't. He won't. If this is what she needs, so be it. He will relish in his defeat and at the very least maybe Ashe will get an ounce of closure.

McCree closes his eyes waiting for the impact, living fully in the last few measly moments of his dishonest life. He inhales what feels like a long breath but isn't longer than a fraction of a second. He doesn't have that much time. But to him in the final moments of his life it's a lifetime. He can smell the faint smell of barley, and of fragrant roses. Those roses are here. She always uses that rose scented perfume. He loves it so. Why hadn't he taken the time to enjoy this? Enjoy her. The breaths of fresh air, the beauty of every picturesque landscape, or enjoy her, Ashe. He wants his last thoughts to be of her. The guilt and shame he has over what he's done to her, of who she's become at his dirty hands.

He takes the last few moments of his life, with her at the forefront of his mind and waits for the brutal, cataclysmic impact, but nothing happens. A muffled detonation makes him jump a little in his boots. His eyes shoot open to see someone he never expected here, in front of him. Her little shield flickering beneath the dynamite's burning, but still it holds. She turns to him, giving him a once over. Her long brown hair hanging in waves behind her, a fraction of it pulled back to keep from distorting her vision.

"I'll be your shield!" Brigitte smiles at him. Her shield blocking Jesse from Ashe's angry barrage of bullets.

Jesse smiles at the young girl and pulls out his pistol. "Time to get back to work." He says as he dodges back into the fray. The only thought on his mind now is getting to Ashe, to dodge his way to her and tell her how he feels. He won't make that mistake twice.

"I love you, Elizabeth Caledonia Ashe. Always have, always will." He shouts his voice booming past her comrades, who are still fighting one another. But, for a brief moment, she hears him and stops her face contorting into confusion.

She loosens her grip on her rifle, not fully letting her guard down. "McCree, did I hear you right?"

McCree cups his hands around his mouth to make sure his voice projects loud enough for her to hear him. "You did, darlin'! I love you!"

"You can't just say that." Ashe says letting her guard go down a little farther. "You can't just say that now, especially." Her rifle is at her side, still firmly held so that she could have the first shot if need be.

"I've wanted to for a long time. I just didn't know how."

Most of the fighting has died down by this point all eyes are on Ashe and McCree. Ashe's robotic compatriots are all standing in their default positions. She must have flipped the switch to turn them off.

She bites her lower lip in frustration. "Then why didn't you?"

Jesse McCree takes a minute to think "Because, I'm selfish, stupid, and immature. And I don't deserve to be loved, not by someone like you." He steps closer to her, his arms held up in a surrendering position.

"Those are just words, Jesse." Ashe shakes her head. "Why did you do it, Jesse? Why did you switch sides? Let me go to jail for you?"

Jesse is mere feet away from the woman now. His voice reflects that.

In just above a whisper, he stares at her and replies. "Because, if I didn't join they would have thrown away the key Ashe. They would have let you rot in prison. They wouldn't have given you as little as they did, darlin'. That's my biggest regret, Ashe, letting you get caught, letting you take the fall, leaving you behind. I knew... I know you can take care of yourself, you made that perfectly clear, but for once in my life I wanted to do the right thing, save you. I figure now that I have all the details, it was probably the wrong thing to do. And, Ashe, I am sorry. I'm sorry more than you'll ever know, more than be expressed in words; I'm sorry."

Ashe steps down from her perch atop the truck. She rests her rifle against the tailgate and doesn't take her eyes off him. He's older than she remembers. Hell, she's probably older than he remembers.

He still smells of cigars and whiskey, just the way she likes it.

"Jesse?" She starts her voice low.

"Yeah, Ashe?"

She raises her hand so that her palm is resting on his cheek. She caresses it momentarily, which forces him to close his eyes. He leans into her touch. It's just like it had been all those years ago. She moves her hand and

Thwap.

She smacks him squarely across the jaw. The sting of his flesh sparking new adrenaline in his body.

He rubs his jaw and smiles as he works his mouth around to relieve some of the sting. "I... I guess I deserve that."

"Yes, you did." She says through a narrow gaze. "You also deserve this." She leans in and kisses him.

And, man is Jesse McCree glad he waited all those years. It's better than he could every imagine. She twists her head just enough to allow him to lead, a little.

Then, explosions. Not just fireworks in his head, real explosions, erupting all around him. Ashe while in the midst of her kissing has shifted her finger to the self-destruct button on the remote.

It was better than laying down arms. This made this moment even more special. The sound of exploding robots erupt around them, like dominos falling.

Everyone who had been fitting had moved away from the pair, giving them plenty of room to kiss and enjoy the fireworks, every last one.

"I love you, Jesse McCree." Ashe mutters from beneath his lips. "Always have, always will." She repeats his own words back to him. Jesse likes the sound of her saying them more than anything else in the world.

The End.