A young man with shaggy brown hair dipped his hat down over his eyes as the two women in front of him laughed hysterically, trying to regain some of his confidence he backed away and turned around walking back to the side of a large man dressed in a black button up shirt and dark jeans, a black beanie on his head.
"Struck out again huh?" The big man rumbled with laughter, crossing his large arms over his chest as the boy's face flushed pink with embarrassment.
"Shut up!" The boy snapped, shoving his hands into the pockets of his blue jeans.
"This is ridiculous." a blonde man growled as he walked up, glaring down at the boy who still hid his face under his cowboy hat. "Why are we even here? There's work to be done."
"Relax Morrison." The man in black sighed, his dark eyes scanning the room. "Our new recruit has intel that "El Lobo" frequents these events." He slapped a gloved hand on the boys back, making him lurch forward. "He gets an in from him using his old gang ties and we can find out where their base of operations is and take them down."
"You mean if, he gets an in Reyes." The blonde growled, crossing his arms and glaring down at the younger boy as he finally lifted his hat and adjusted it. "I'm not sure he can pull this off."
"Fuck off old man." The young boy growled. "You have no choice, and it's not an if, it's a when I get an in from him." He used one hand to tilt his gold belt buckle up at the blonde who narrowed his eyes at the letters "BAMF". "I'm one bad ass mother fucker and I'm gonna prove it to ya."
"You can't even manage to get a girl to dance with you, I'm supposed to believe you have it in you to convince an arms smuggler to work with you?" The blonde turned, crossing his arms as he leaned against the wall. The boy looked to where the two women had been and saw them eyeballing the two older men beside him. Glancing quickly, he surveyed the men and tried to see what the women saw in them, that he apparently lacked.
Both Reyes and Morrison were much taller than him, them being full grown men in their thirties and he only being seventeen. Their shirts were stretched tight across their large arms and chests and the boy glanced down at his tall and lanky figure, suddenly feeling less masculine than he had when they had arrived. How was he supposed to compete with freaking super soldiers? He felt his ears get hot in anger as he glanced back at the women before storming off to the bar to get a drink.
"Jack I swear to god," the boy heard Reyes snap as he walked away. "You fuck up my operation and I'll kick your ass all the way back to base in Switzerland."
Jesse Mccree leaned on the bar and glanced over the drinks on the wall, but when he tried to get the female bartenders attention he was coldly ignored in favor for an older man drinking from a large stein. Huffing Jesse let his head drop against the bars top and left it there when he felt someone sit a glass to the right of him. Turning his head, he noticed the woman beside him and sighed heavily.
"Buy me a drink, Ana." He mumbled sadly.
"Your underage Jesse." The Egyptian woman chuckled, "It's not only illegal, it's bad for you too."
"Well it's very good for my courage," Jesse growled as he leaned over the bar and grabbed a beer bottle and pulled it back over the side, jumping out of Ana's reach as she tried to take it from him. "I gotta be on my game mami." He twist the top off and tossed it behind the counter before taking a sip, making the older woman glare at him.
"Jesse, you have tons of courage, what this really about?" She growled, grabbing him by the ear, making him wince.
"Nothin, just nerves." He yelled out as Ana twist his ear further, making him lean toward her. "Ok, so I got knocked down a few pegs, I needed a pick me up." Ana let him go and put a hand to her head in annoyance, sighing heavily.
"Really Jesse..." She sighed, "What happened?" She looked as Jesse rubbed his ear with his free hand and pointed with his beer hand to where Jack and Gabriel were chatting with the women that Jesse had originally approached and had been laughed away. The girls were giggling as Gabe and Jack argued about heavens knows what now before smirking at one another and shaking hands. Gabe caught Jesse looking at them made a "I've got my eyes on you" gesture with his hands and Jack narrowed his eyes at him, making the girls turn and laugh once more. Jesse groaned and turned back to the bar, taking a long drink from his beer, making a face as he swallowed, it was warm.
"You know they just bet a twenty on my doom." Jesse groaned as Ana turned back to the bar, sipping her drink silently.
"Probably, so what went wrong?" Ana asked, looking down at their younger member. "Normally you can make any girl smile at you with that charm of yours, what did you do differently."
"I dunno." Jesse sighed and stood up straight, almost even in height with Ana although she was his elder and had a small daughter. "I tried to get one of them to dance with me and they just laughed me away."
"Can't win them all cowboy." Ana chuckled, making Jesse grunt as he took another drink. "You need to pick your prey better." Jesse paused with the bottle to his lips, cocking an eyebrow at her, as if encouraging her to go on. "Why'd you pick those girls?" She looked over her shoulder at them as Gabe and Jack began ignoring them for another argument.
"I dunno..." Jesse shrugged, slowly turning the bottle in his hands. "Kinda pretty, looked like they were up for some fun."
"I see." The sniper captain snickered and earned a sideways look from the young male. "You were not serious and were overconfident." Jesse started to open his mouth when she put a gloved finger to his lips. "Why do you think Jack and Gabe get so many admirers Jesse?"
"They're huge," Jesse said, gesturing over to them. "G.I. Meatheads, both of em."
"Ok, physical prowess." She shrugged, accepting the answer. "So, you need to beat the fact that they have bigger muscle mass." She pointed and watched as Gabe glared down at the girl who had taken interest in her and Jack shook his head to the other female before both of them started walking toward the bar. "What's a word you wouldn't use to describe them?"
Jesse cocked his head to the side, watching as the girls huddled together, looking sour about being rudely rejected by the older men. He mulled it over for a moment more, looking at their forever stoic faces as they drew closer to the bar and greeted Ana.
"I forget the word, but another word I'd use would be somethin like asshole." He said as they came within earshot.
"What'd you say?" Gabe snapped
"Watch your mouth Mccree." Jack rolled his eyes.
"Charming Jesse. The word I'm looking for is charming." Ana corrected, making the older men look at her with confusion.
"Whose charming?" Jack asked as he Gabe ordered drinks for the three adults.
"Not you two," Jesse sighed, taking another drink from his warm beer, turning sideways, one arm leaning on the bar as he faced the group. "You both belong to team resting bitch face." Ana covered her mouth with her hand and suppressed her laughter as Jack's face fell into one of shock.
"Hey!" Jack snapped, "I've been told I look approachable and kind!" Jesse opened his mouth for a quick comment when he heard giggling behind him.
"Team Resting Bitch face, oh my god." He turned quickly and noticed a girl covering her mouth, snickering at the joke. He looked down at a younger girl who was standing at the bar, getting a drink, she was wearing a black dress with several accents in multiple colors that struck her at her knees, her brown hair was slightly curly and framed her green eyes as hers locked with his for a second. Jesse felt Ana push him with one hand on his back, making him stumble forward. He caught himself on the bar and put down his beer, tipping his hat he grinned at the girl, a slight blush in his cheeks.
"Howdy." But before he could continue the girl grabbed her drink and sped away, a hand over her mouth as she disappeared into the crowd of people, leaving Jesse struck. Gabe barked out in laughter and Jack crossed his arms, shaking his head as Jesse stared after her. "Oh hell naw." Jesse growled, he tipped back the beer and chugged the rest quickly, making Gabe chuckle and Jack stare in disgust. "Don't wait up." He smirked over his shoulder to the group before he put the bottle down and dashed into the crowd, looking for the black dress.
"Think he'll actually do it?" Jack asked, watching as the cowboy hat bobbed and weaved through the crowd as the boy searched.
"Another twenty says he strikes out again." Gabe chuckled, Jack, smirking at him and going to shake his hand when Ana gripped their arms, glaring at them both.
"And you call yourself grown men, HA!" She tightened her grip and a moment of fleeting fear ran through the commanders of Blackwatch and Overwatch. "Leave that boy alone, he's got enough on his shoulders as it is without you two making stupid bets on his failure." She grinned as a look of shame cross their faces. "Two weeks of babysitting for you both if he gets her to dance." She grinned and made them both relax as they shook hands in agreement.
Jesse kept to the outside of the room, scanning the room for El Lobo, and for the girl in the dress. He had almost made it halfway across the room when he heard her laugh again, spinning around to find her, he listened hard, trying to drown out the hollars and music of the people on the dance floor.
"I swear to god Ami, a real cowboy!"
Jesse grinned, turning in her direction and found her standing beside a table by the wall talking to a woman with long ice blue hair done up in braids. The blue haired woman seemed disinterested in the conversation and was scrolling through her phone.
"He had a hat, boots, he even had this huge revolver on his hip, you should've seen him!" The girl was laughing freely now, one hand holding her drink on the table, and the other fanning herself as her cheeks slowly turned pink.
"I don't really like country boys." Ami sighed, putting her phone down and taking a drink from her glass.
"You would him," the girl laughed, "He had this big goofy grin, but it was so cute." Jesse felt his cheeks heat up as he dodged people to get closer, his heart picking up in speed. "And he had these gorgeous brown eyes."
"Easy girl," Ami laughed, rolling her eyes dramatically. "Let's not forget the boyfriend you have." Jesse froze, feeling like his world shattered, suddenly the elation he had felt finding her had been pulled from under him like a rug for a bad joke.
"Not for long if he doesn't clean up his act!" The girl snapped, suddenly the smile vanished and was replaced with a scowl. "Can not believe that asshole ditched me to go drinking with his new friends." She propped her head up with her arms on the table, huffing angrily, Jesse inched forward sill listening, failing desperately to keep his hopes in check. "It's like he's bored of me, He never wants to go out with me anymore, he'd rather go out with his buddies and leave me waiting at home. For months, this craps been going on, I'm half tempted to just dump him!"
She sighed heavily again as Jesse snuck up behind her quietly, but Ami caught sight of him, quickly Jesse raised a finger to his lips and winked, pointing to the girl in the dress. Ami smiled and smirked down at her short friend.
"Don't let him get you down," Ami said, patting her friend's shoulder who tried to regain her happy by taking a long sip of her drink, Jesse was behind her now, arms crossed as he thought of the perfect thing to say. Swaying gently to the music the girl sighed deeply as Ami picked up her phone again. "Go dance already, that's the whole reason you wanted to go out anyway." Ami was speaking louder now, so Jesse could hear and he tipped his hat in appreciation.
"I don't want to dance alone!" The girl complained, "Come dance with me!"
"NO," Ami said sternly ending the discussion before it could further. "Maybe your cowboy wants to dance with you. He can help you forget Chris."
"I'd be happy to oblige." Jesse purred, leaning down in her ear, making her jump and dash around the table to hide halfway behind Ami who laughed hysterically. "Aw now, I won't bite." Jesse took off his hat and bowed at the waist. "You ran off before I could get a chance to talk to ya, or thank ya for laughin at my bad joke."
"You weren't kidding." Ami laughed as the girl peeked around her friend, "He is a real cowboy."
"Yes Ma'am. Now, I heard a lil lady was lookin for a dance partner." Jesse leaned over to peek around Ami, who shoved her friend out from around her. Jesse stuck out his hand and turned his face a little to the side, giving her a wink. "I'm real light on my feet." the girl turned to look at Ami who cocked an eyebrow and lifted a booted foot, pushing her toward Jesse slowly.
"Hey that asshole doesn't want you around anymore, why isolate yourself?" Ami reasoned as the girl turned back to Jesse and very slowly took his hand, following him out onto the dance floor as a new song started.
"Can ya line dance?" Jesse asked, running a hand through his hair and slicking it back before putting his hat back on, standing beside her as people lined up for the dance.
"I wouldn't be very southern if I couldn't." The girl laughed and tucked her hair behind her ears, pulling it away from her neck. Jesse noticed a rose choker on her neck and smiled.
"A rose of the south uh?" He chuckled and gestured to her choker when she gave him a confused look. "Can I call you Rosa?"
"I don't see why not." she laughed, the song started to pick up and everyone began to dance. Jesse put on his best flare while dancing, occasionally looking back at her as the way the group moved, he was in front of her.
"So if I'm Rosa, what are you?" She asked a little into the dance.
"You pick something," Jesse told her, kicking up his heel and smacking it in sync with the group. "Like I picked Rosa."
"How about just Cowboy?" Rosa smiled and backed up as Jesse walked backward, careful not to go too far.
"Nah, lots of folks call me that, think of something a lil more original." Jesse grinned, "You got a great sense of humor sugar, you'll think of something."
As they turned to go to the next section of the dance Jesse looked up and noticed Gabe and Jack looking slack-jawed as Jesse and Rosa kept dancing with the group. Careful to make sure Rosa didn't see him, Jesse stuck out his tongue and flipped them both the bird making them scowl as he gripped his belt buckle, flashing it so the BAMF letters lit up by the lights.
The song continued and the group turned, Jesse looked back at her over his shoulder, his back to her now. She had the sweetest smile Jesse had ever seen on a girl and was impressed she was able to keep up with the dance. She noticed him looking back and her smile grew as she laughed happily, Jesse felt his heart do a flip as they turned to start the next segment again. Now she was in front of him and Jesse did this section with his head tilted slightly to the left, enjoying the view until a whistle caught his attention, he lifted his head expecting to see Gabe but saw Ana staring him down with a death glare instead.
Before long the song was done and the group clapped for themselves, Jesse tipped his hat and bowed as Rosa curtseyed, holding the end of her dress. Jesse took off his hat and fanned himself with it, a mischievous idea appearing in his mind.
"I got an almighty thirst." He laughed, putting his hat back on his head. "Fancy a drink?" He pointed his thumb to the bar where Gabe, Jack, and Ana stood. Rosa smiled and nodded without a word, Jesse reached out and took her hand in his gloved one and lead her through the crowd, dodging people expertly. "What drink do you like?" He asked as they reached the bar, letting go of her hand.
"Oh, just a water please." She told the bartender, Jesse nodded and held up his fingers to indicate two of them as the woman walked away and brought back to water bottles. Jesse turned and took the cap off of his as he winked at Ana who smiled happily.
"Looks like Pharra will get to spend some time with Uncle Reyes and Uncle Morrison for few days." Ana laughed and pat the two big men on their shoulders as they groaned, Gabe mumbling something about just finally getting the polish off his nails.
"Rosa," Jesse smiled, gesturing to the three adults. "Mi Familia." He watched as Rosa looked each adult over. "Amari, Morrison, and Reyes." Jesse introduced them, pointing each one out. "This is Rosa."
"Hello," Rosa greeted timidly, looking scared of the men.
"So how far you in the hole Jefé?" Jesse asked Reyes as the big man glared at him, obviously not happy.
"Don't make him mad," Rosa begged, gripping Jesse's arm in slight fear. "He already looks ready to strangle you, cowboy."
"Nah, you really wanna see him mad?" Jesse teased, wrapping an arm around her and pulling her against him. Suddenly all three adults knew where this was going.
"Boy dont-" Gabe snapped
"Just ignore him!" Jack insisted, putting his arm in front of Gabe as Ana rubbed her eyes with her hand.
"oh here we go."
"Tor-Til-ah." Jesse said, his thick southern accent destroying the world "tortilla", making Gabe's eye twitch uncontrollably. Jesse pulled Rosa with him as he backed away, Jack forcibly keeping Gabriel from grabbing Jesse by the throat.
"C'mon Rosa, let's give dad time to cool off and go dance some more." Jesse laughed, starting to pull her to the dance floor when he heard Jack's hysterical laughter and Gabe's stern voice.
"Give who time to calm down?" Jesse realized what he said and slapped his free hand across his mouth and clamping it shut.
"Oh, oh!" Jack wheezed, leaning on Gabriel who looked a mixture of disturbed shock and in awe. "Papa Reyes! Your Papa Reyes!" Jack pointed at his friend and kept laughing as Ana covered her mouth with both her hands, looking like a proud mother for Jesse. "Wait till Genji and Pharra hear this! Babysitting totally worth it!"
"Get over here." Gabriel growled, snapping his fingers and pointing to the space in front of him, like a dad about to give a scolding.
"Sorry Mr. Reyes, but I REALLY like this song!" Rosa smiled and gripped Jesse's arm, pulling him out to a congested part of the dance floor, making Jesse remove his hand from his mouth and tip his hat back on his head so she could see his face. His cheeks were a bright pink as she wrapped his arms around her waist and started shifting side to side with the song, putting her hands on his chest.
"Oh my god...I can't believe I did that." Jesse mumbled, looking up at the ceiling, refusing to glance back to the group he knew he would have to face later when it came time for their job.
"So, Reyes isn't your dad?" Rosa asked, making him look down at her with shame.
"N-no, he's not..."Jesse trailed off and tightened his hold on her waist, pressing her into him.
"I get it," Rosa smiled, "He annoys you. And you annoy him, so he's kinda like an unofficial adoptive dad?" Jesse smiled down at her, glad she had taken everything in stride and even had the quick wit to drag him out if harm's way when he needed it.
After a bit of swaying and twirling, Jesse felt something nagging at him, he glanced around the room-looking for his contact but didn't see him still, so he decided to ask about the other thing that had been nagging at him.
"So," he tipped her chin up from his breastplate. "How about this 'boyfriend' of yurs."