If there's one thing that would always brighten Mei's day, it would have to be watching her lovely girlfriend in the training room. She stood far away enough so Zarya didn't notice her, though Mei had the feeling that if she did notice, she didn't care at all.
It was simply mesmerizing watching the way the muscles in Zarya's arms moved as she lifted weights that Mei knew for a fact were far heavier than she was. She couldn't help but stare as the tank top the bigger woman wore stretch over muscles on her back that rippled. Her body was covered with a light sheen of sweat, making the woman appear to glow even more.
She was beautiful, a paragon, and Mei was quite possibly the luckiest woman in the world.
"Damn," a voice beside her said in awe, making her almost jump out of her skin. "What a beaut."
Mei whipped her head in the direction of the voice to find Junkrat. He didn't seem to notice her jump, if he did he was ignoring it in favor of watching Zarya.
"What are you doing here?" Mei asked, a bit of irritation in her voice. While she would admit that she enjoyed the junker's company much more than when they first met, he could still be a pain.
"I wanna to talk to you," Junkrat replied nonchalantly. "Come get some grub with me?"
The scientist taken aback at first, but after another glance at her girlfriend, she allowed herself to be led to be the dining area, where plenty of people were getting their fill for the day.
In a far corner she could see Jesse and Genji, sitting closely together as they ate. She wasn't sure how Genji was able to digest food, but that thought was quickly overshadowed by how happy they looked together. She certainly didn't miss the hands that were intertwined.
Jesse, noticing her eyes on them, tipped his hat in a greeting. She smiled and waved before going to get her lunch with the lanky man in front of her.
"So," Mei began once they had sat down with their respective meals; Mei with a plate of pancakes and Junkrat with some kind of soup. "What did you want to talk about?"
Junkrat paused for a good minute, as if he was trying to figure out how to say what he wanted to talk about. This struck her as odd, especially considering what a blabbermouth he was.
Once he found his words, he answered bluntly, "I think Hoggie wants to knock on Zarya."
Mei froze for a moment, mouth slightly open partially from the statement and the fact that she was about to start eating her pancakes while she listened to her friend. She slowly put the fork down, mulling over the Aussie's words. She almost asked what he meant, but then she thought back and remembered all the times she'd see Roadhog in the training room while Zarya was there. She considered all the times they had talked, or all the times she thought she saw the mask stay on Zarya for longer than normal when the strongwoman wasn't looking.
At the same time, it wasn't like Mei missed the rare, gentle smile that was usually given to the scientist had started to be given to the masked man as well. She saw the stare that lingered when he wasn't looking, and even the light dusting of red on her face when the two talked.
Mei broke from her thoughts and inquired as calmly as she could, "You think so?"
The Aussie nodded, pausing to have some of his soup before he began to speak again. "And I think that we both know that she doesn't feel any different."
She hesitated before nodding. "... And you want to get them together."
His face lit up. "Ace! I knew you'd catch on, Snowflake!"
Mei considered it for a moment. While she herself wasn't attracted to Roadhog, it didn't seem like the end of the world to get him and Zarya together. Actually, when she thought about it she realized that it would make the pair happier.
With a deep breath, she looked Junkrat in his golden eyes and asked, "So what do you want me to do?"
"I've got Roadie distracted, and the big German bloke has Zarya by her room," Junkrat whispered into Mei's communicator. In the background she could hear crashing and what sounded like Roadhog's muffled yelling. She hoped that Junkrat wasn't riling him up too much; she didn't want him to be too angry to enjoy the date they were setting up.
Nonetheless, she gave the junker a "thank you" before setting her communicator down and helping Lúcio with the music.
The day before, Mei had enlisted Dr. Zeigler, Hanzo, Lúcio, and Soldier: 76 to help her while Junkrat convinced Reinhardt to help him with the distractions. Most of Mei's helpers agreed without much convincing, although now Mei owed Hanzo some sake.
The old soldier was much more stubborn in agreeing to help but all Mei needed to do to convince him was take him aside and mention that two days after Roadhog and Zarya's date, the security was going to mysteriously shut down for a short time so certain undead Talon agents could come for a visit.
While the good doctor and Hanzo were in the kitchen preparing food, Soldier and Lúcio helped Mei set up the room the date would be happening in. With Winston's permission, they got to use a large, unused storage space near the kitchen, and by the time seven rolled around, they barely recognized the room anymore. The decorations were minimal as they were the only non-holiday themed things they could find, but they managed to make it work without making the room look too gaudy. They couldn't find any "nice" tables, but they found a fold-up table that they placed in the middle of the room. They had placed a red tablecloth on it and put a candle on the center of the table with plates on either side of it, neither of them particularly fine, but they were clean and looked good with the rest of the room. In the corner, Lúcio had set up a small stereo that would quietly play mellow, romantic music while the date went on. The playlist he put in had enough music to last hours, so the music stopping in the middle of the date wouldn't be an issue.
After admiring their handiwork for a couple of minutes, Soldier exited the room, mumbling something about going to bed. She didn't miss the communicator in his hand, the screen clearly showing messages to an "unknown" number. Mei thanked Lúcio graciously as he too made his way out, telling her that he was happy to help if she needed anything else and handing her a remote that she could use to turn the music on when the couple arrived.
"Athena, can you dim the lights?" Mei requested once the men were out of the room with her head tilted up to look at the ceiling. The AI complied and the lights dimmed, making the mood even more romantic. Mei was almost jealous of Zarya and Roadhog; she would love to have a date like this.
However, that would have to wait. She picked up her communicator and sent a quick message to Junkrat and Reinhardt to let them know that the room was ready before stopping by the kitchen,talking with Dr. Zeigler and Hanzo for a while before her communicator buzzed twice. It was time.
Junkrat marched proudly through the halls, Roadhog not far behind him. He could feel his chest bursting with excitement and a little bit of anxiety from keeping his mouth shut about the whole thing for so long. He wouldn't admit it to anyone, but he did have a hard time keeping secrets. Well, he supposed that he wasn't doing too great of a job right now since every so often he blurts out, "you're gonna love this, Hoggie!"
But his Hog had no idea what he was talking about, so he supposed that he wasn't doing that bad at keeping the date under wraps.
He stopped once they reached the door that was, thankfully, closed, a wide grin spreading across his face as he turned to look up at the older man. "You go first, Hoggie!"
The mask stared down at him impassively as Roadhog grumbled, "What the fuck are you planning?" He could almost feel the uncertainty in his voice.
Junkrat couldn't help but let out a laugh. "Nothing shitty! Don't ya trust me, Hoggie?"
The bigger junker sighed before moving past Junkrat and walking in. Once the mask moved up he stopped dead in his tracks. Junkrat scampered to his side to see what was going on, and he couldn't believe what he was seeing.
Standing by the table and talking to Mei was Zarya. But she wasn't in any of her normal clothes like he would have expected. No, instead she wore red lipstick and what appeared to be eyeliner, and she had donned a red, strapless dress that went down to her ankles. It hugged her muscular form perfectly, and the slit up the right side of the dress reached her hip, revealing the leg underneath. The chest on the dress was open slightly, revealing some tasteful cleavage, and the black heels she wore made her taller than Junkrat when he stands at full height.
He could definitely see what attracted Hoggie to her in the first place.
With a laugh, he quickly exited the large room, but not before yelling, "Have fun, Hog!"
He leaned against the wall outside, taking a deep breath to give him a moment to relax. He was sure that Mei could handle everything until it was her cue to leave. Besides, she did have a few helpers working on this thing with her.
Speak of the devil, it was a few minutes before she came out, an excited smile on her face.
"They're hitting it off!" Mei exclaimed as she went to stand next to him, making sure to keep her voice down so she doesn't disturb the date going on. "This was a great idea!"
He was about to gloat a bit about his genius idea, but he stopped himself when he really looked at her. She had her hair up as usual, but in a small ponytail instead of a bun like usual, and it was sans the hairpin she always wore. The dress she wore was casual and not overly flashy, but it was a dark blue and it had snowflake designs on it along with a white trim on the bottom, collar, and ends of the sleeves. The sleeves reached just past her elbows. Under the dress, he saw white tights and sparkly, light blue flats. She clearly wanted to look good for her girlfriend, even if it wasn't her date with the pink-haired woman.
He stayed silent for a moment longer before he replied with a noncommittal "yeah."
If she noticed his change in behavior, she didn't remark on it. Rather, she looked up at him with big, brown eyes and a much gentler smile than the one she had before.
"Will you come get dinner with me, Junkrat?" She requested.
With the look on her face, he couldn't say no even if he wanted to.
