(5 days later)
When Reinhardt sat down on an old dusty sofa in a meeting room and turned on the big screen there, he expected hours of peace and solitude. It was late, after all, and they were planning to leave Gibraltar in the following days; the others would be either busy or sleeping. It was all the same to him, really. He had grown used to being just Brigitte and himself, and the engineer needed to sleep more hours than he did, anyway.
However, said engineer had always had a sixth sense to know where to find him.
"Cannot sleep?" He asked, patting the sofa by his side.
"I miss the van. Is that weird?" She took her boots off and wriggled herself under one of his arms to lean against his side. Then, she stifled a yawn. Brigitte was a clever, caring woman on top of an amazing engineer and a funny person-one that loved warm cramped spaces to sleep in. She hummed in content when he snuggled her. "Why are we watching a 2D film, and what in the world are those huge robots?"
"Hush. It's a-"
"A classic, yeah. Everything old is a classic to you, Reinhardt," she snorted.
"Eh. They filmed this much before the omnics. It was ahead of its time."
"I don't even know how can you like this stuff."
It was difficult to explain. Well. Actually no. Balderich loved old crappy films nobody but him seemed to understand, and he made the whole platoon watch them with him all the time. At some point it became a habit, much like bench-pressing or eating currywurst when they were not on duty.
His old friend was always extremely amused at their faces of despair and exasperation, and it was not until Reinhardt grew older that he understood how funny it was to mess with his whole team like this.
Suddenly, Winston cleared his throat from behind the couch.
"Would you mind if I joined?"
"Of course not, my friend. Suit yourself."
Five minutes later, Lena was sitting at the floor by Winston's side.
"You people-oh dear us. You let Reinhardt chose?" Torbjörn groaned from the doorstep, making him laugh. He walked to the couch and pushed her daughter's legs up so he could fit underneath-which was not difficult. The engineer poked at the buttons on his mechanical arm and grumbled something under his beard.
The film continued playing, big robots fighting terrible monsters of old-style computer animation and even worse plot. But Reinhardt would not complain- films nowadays, the few that made it to the public, were all a pile of rubbish government propaganda.
Winston snickered every time they mentioned the names of the robots; if anyone would know pre-omnic history, that would be him. Lena kept asking questions and missing chunks of the film as she came and went restlessly, but her antics were somewhat not annoying, but a background buzzing-much like Brigitte's asleep breathing.
Ah, she always, always fell asleep at the best parts.
Something brushed the side of her head suddenly and his heart leaped on his chest; but it was just Ana, sitting down at the armrest by his side. Silent, soundless, like a ghost. She was wearing a long thick sweater on top of a tank top, her silver hair braided over her shoulder as it seemed to be her custom now. She seemed calm in the same way the moon gazed over a lake on a windless night. Untouchable and imperturbable. And beautiful, so beautiful.
The film kept playing, but he could not bring himself back to watching it. All he could think about was grabbing her, sitting her on his lap, and keeping her there. Hug her again. Kiss her forehead, her hair. Oh, he had always dreamed of more, but he knew her after all those years- It would never happen. Damn, he had never needed it to happen. She had so much more to give than just her body, despite of how much he had always liked it.
Something hard hit him in the elbow and he saw Torb looking at him with that face of sympathy, passive-aggressive worry, and disapproval that somehow Brigitte had inherited from him.
I know, he wanted to say. I'm a fool.
It was not until after a while that he realized Lena was not around anymore. Nor Winston. The lights were dim, much more than when he had set them up, and the film was rolling the end credits. He must have been really absorbed on his thinking not to notice a large gorilla leaving his field of vision.
Torb was not there, either, but Brigitte was still snuggled under his arm. And Ana… she was silent by his side. A patient, still statue.
"I think it's time I-" He oofed softly when the engineer's elbow dug on his ribs. Her brown eyes looked intently at Ana. He was about to protest, but she elbowed him again. Of course she would insist, having endured hell towing him around until he found his feet under himself again, but he had known enough shame for the week already.
"No, I am going to bed," she said in the end, pulling herself away from his arm. "You guys stay here and talk."
Reinhardt gaped. Had they somehow planned to hijack his completely random movie night to set him up with Ana? He spared a look at her and found, not without horror, that there was a twinkle of amusement in her eye. She knew. She knew and had decided to play along.
Shit.
"Brigitte!" He said among teeth, turning to the engineer. "You were supposed to be on my side."
"And I am, old man," she patted him in the shoulder. "Now, be a darling," she smirked, and disappeared from the room, leaving them alone and in silence.
"The chocolate was really nice," Ana's voice was soft and calm, soothing. "I wish you would have shared it with me."
He rubbed the back of his neck and looked down. He had fled from her room, yes. The chocolate had seemed a good idea until she had grabbed his hand. It had been an innocent gesture, yet- it was the first time she touched him since they had met again. It was both sweet and a dagger through his heart. Ridiculous, he knew. He did not only get older with the years, it seemed.
"So you made this little raffle to tell me that?"
"It was Torb's idea, actually. Always getting his nose in everyone's life." she half-smiled, handling her long braid. "But I'm grateful this time, because I was afraid to talk to you and he pushed me into it."
His stomach dropped. Oh, boy. There were many things she may want to talk about-her lack of contact during years, her sudden return, his meltdown ten days ago, their nonexistent relationship- and all of them made him shudder.
"Let me explain wh-"
"No," he got up straight away and gave her the back. "I don't want to know why you stayed away. I don't want to know why you decided to come back. You did, and that's- I'm blessed enough."
"Yet, you are upset and angry."
His hands itched to punch something, to lift a barbell. Anything. He did not want to have any conversation that involved them, but he could not run again. Even if everything else had been stripped from him, he still had his honour-and he promised her. He promised he would be his friend or anything she needed for as long as she wanted. But he just- he just-
"I don't think I can keep my promise any longer," he said in the end, pushing the words outside as if they weighed a ton each. "So-this is it."
Ana grabbed him from behind; arms barely circling his waist, forehead just below his shoulder blades-and he almost melted to the ground.
"Maus, don't," he covered her little hands with one of his. "I'm serious, I-"
"Please, hear me out," she interrupted him, a bit on a panic. Her fingers curled, scratching his belly with the short nails. "Then, I leave it in your hands. I promise."
He made a thin line with his mouth and glued his eye on the screen in front of him. He did not want hear it, he was positive about it. Yet, he was an idiot when Ana was concerned, and he would be until the day he died.
"These years away from everything I hunted down those that broke our family apart," she started after a bit of silence. "It's a long story, and-you know I'm not very good at telling stories. To make it short, I'd say recently I met someone-gained some intel, and I decided to find Winston. Let him know Overwatch was destroyed from the inside."
"Overwatch died with you," he barely restrained himself from caressing her hands. "You kept Gabriel and Jack in check. You listened to Angela's complaints, growled at Moira when she stepped out the line. Taught Genji and Jesse, and Fareeha, and Brigitte. What do you think happened when Jack came back alone?"
His voice had lost its strength as he talked. It had been years, Ana was alive, and yet-yet he wished he could erase that year from his memory completely. He may have not been in active at the time, but it Overwatch was his only home. His only family. And it disintegrated literally in front of his eyes.
"You made me laugh during all that," she rubbed her forehead against him, softly. "You kept me afloat and sane so I could do what the team needed-and I never thanked you for it."
"There's no need. I just wish I had been there with you and Jack. Where I should have been. Then, maybe things would have been different."
"We would not be here today if not for that," she made a sound as if she was going to say something, but had decided against it in the last moment. Her fingers curled over his old sweater. "I would not have had an idiot coming to my room with chocolate and- I would not have realized how much I had missed him."
"You have always wanted me around," Reinhardt snorted, letting his head fall. "If only for a while. Then, you rushed to the next problem. The next training. The next mission. And then, you came back when it suited you. Just like now."
There was a moment of silence, and it was more deafening than the loudest of the yells. He had never been this honest, this direct. But it was now or never. There were no more grey areas, no more time after decades of backs and forths. Not after she died on him.
Break it or mend it.
"You are right. I've loved you for years," she said in a low voice, unaware of the lightning strike effect her words had on him. "And I have always pushed you away. I had too many things to do, people to care about, Fareeha. The war that I wanted to win at all costs. And fear. Fear that I would get all the team killed for your sake, just like I did for Sam. Fear of being involved with someone again after our relationship failed."
Reinhardt closed his eyes until he managed to draw breath. Sometimes he had dared to think that she had feelings for him, too, but she never said- She had never explained-
"Everything else was more urgent, everything else had priority. I was more blind with two eyes than I am now," Ana continued, her voice cracking every now and then. "I know I have no right to come now and tell you this, after everything you've been through, but, if you would have me-"
He turned around and pulled her in an embrace, hugging the air out of her. Her hands found his shoulders, the base of his neck, and he felt like choking. Choking on his own fears, on a thin thread of hope, on her scent and all the love he always have had for her.
"Are you sure of this?" He said under his breath. "Ana, if you- I can't-"
She kissed him.
Their second kiss in thirty years, and it tasted of salt and sorrow, of time lost. She totally was out of practice -as he was, who was he fooling?- but it was the best kiss he could ever hope for.
When she pressed her forehead to his, he was laughing and sobbing at the same time.