Mei lay quietly on her bed. Her expression was peaceful. Sweet. But it was a lie.
The room was chilly, dark, and quiet. The window depicted a night sky decorated with a bright, white crescent and scattered sparkling specks. It was a beautiful night. Maybe it was a perfect night. The kind of night to stroll through a quiet town. The kind of night to propose to a lover. Maybe the kind of night to break their heart. It was the kind of night to tell children haunted tales. However, for Mei, it was none of these things. It was time to grief. Oh, she would never admit to it of course. She would claim she had nothing to grieve about to begin with, or that she was too tired to. After all, she was asleep as soon as the sun set. However, her dreams would reprimand her. They would remind her. They always would.
"Jamison."
"Mei?"
"I hate you."
He didn't reply. He could he? It hurt. It hurt him. It hurt her too. Why? What did they do? What did they lose? It doesn't matter. It's not here anymore. It was forgotten. Or maybe it wasn't forgotten. No, it wasn't, it couldn't have been forgotten. It was suppressed. It was written in a letter. It was indecipherable. The letter was written in an unrecognizable language. The ink was still wet. The ink smudged. It started to dry. The edges started to smoke, the paper started to shatter. The letter was rather volatile. The note was about to-
Mei woke up in cold sweat. It was very early.
"I can still sleep a little longer…" Mei mused. But she wasn't thinking about sleep. You could hardly call it thinking. Her mind felt loud. It felt chaotic. It felt scary. She clutched her tightening chest. She wasn't sure if it actually tightened, or if she imagined it. She couldn't tell.
She got up and started to wander. She passed quietly through the halls, thinking about lot of nothing, until she found herself in the kitchen.
"I'll get a snack and go back to sl-" Unfortunately, Mei's train of thought changed tracks very quickly. She felt that this was unfair. She had responsibilities to fulfill. She just wanted rest and a cookie. But before her was a burning letter in the kitchen. It was starting to explode, maybe. "Why...?"
The letter spoke.
"Oi, 'lo there Mei. Didn't expect to run into ya this early."
The letter was fixing himself a cup of milk tea, half sweet, with boba. Mei didn't respond right away. She fixed herself a cup of coffee. It tasted so bitter. She also burnt her tongue a little.
The letter finished his cup and got up to leave.
"Don't go." She didn't look up at him when she said that. He paused for a second, and sat back down. "Make me a cup of that too."
"Eh...alright?"
The letter seemed to have nervous scribbles scrawled all over himself, but he jumped up and scrambled to fix another cup of boba tea.
Nothing else could be heard but the sounds of bubbling boiling water, the splashes in the mug, the clinking of the little steel tea spoon. Mei thought it took a long time.
The letter handed Mei a hefty mug and sat back down, twiddling his quill.
"The balls are chewy, they're good."
"…"
"Err, forget I said that and uh…enjoy?"
Mei glanced at the murky drink and took a sip. It was a little sweet, and the bubbles were indeed chewy, but a little tasteless. But it wasn't bad.
"Jamison." The letter froze up.
"Yea?"
"I'm sorry."
"Is this 'bout this past week 'cos it's-"
"Hush and let me finish." Mei got up. "I was scared, Jamison, that you were a bad person. A great big bully."
"Well I mean-" Mei cut him off and stepped towards him.
"Hush. You hurt people, and did it with a smile on your face."
"True, I did but-" he attempted to defend himself but alas…
"Hush. You did all these things. But you did something else too." The letter looked perplexed. "You changed."
Still perplexed.
Mei sighed. "You have changed for the better. You help the people to used to hurt. You made amends." She looked down. "But all this time, I haven't forgiven you." The letter said nothing. Those words were frigid. "You are a good person, Jamison. I'm not. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry."
Mei hadn't noticed, but she was clutching the letter tightly. She wanted so desperately to read it. What did it say? What was she missing?
"It's aight, fresh wounds don't heal ova night ya know" Junkrat awkwardly wrapped his arms around Mei. Like he'd hug an angry joey, or one of his bombs. But still.
It was then she knew. It wasn't very complex.
"Jamie..."
"Mei, I dunno how to say this so hold on." He let go and reached in his pocket and pulled out a letter that looked like it was shredded then taped back together. Well that was because he tore it into pieces and used up a whole roll of tape to fix it. He presented the tattered letter to her, and she read it, with difficulty, aloud.
"dear mei,
i love you.
-junkrat"
Mei looked up from the letter and met his gaze. It a strong, warm gaze. Like an incendiary bomb being set off at a comfortable distance.
She dropped the letter and pulled him back into a hug.
"I love you too."
