"Angela, are you there?" Hana knocked on the door to the medic's room – only for it to swing open. Huh? Had she forgotten to close it or something? But the lights were on, and she hadn't been in the med wing nor the mess hall, so odds were Angela was in her room right now, so Hana just entered, properly closing the door behind her.

"Angela?" ...No response. But the computer was running, showing some screensaver, and the desk was filled with papers and the ever-present cup of coffee. So she'd just been here. This wasn't going to turn into some silly missing person creepypasta or whatever, was it?

However when Hana looked around the room again, she noticed the faint sound of running water and a bit of light from under the bathroom door. ...That was a far simpler – if boring – explanation. Not like she was in any hurry, so Hana lounged on the couch to wait for Angela to finish her shower, turning on the TV to pass the time – only to turn it off a few minutes later once it became apparent there was nothing on other than some garbage and reruns, and the news only frustrated her more than anything, with all the crap going on in the world day to day.

Another few minutes later the bathroom finally opened. "Hey, Angela." Hana got up and turned around, "Sorry for intruding like this, but your door wasn't shut properly-" – and froze.

Angela had indeed just finished her shower, as evidenced by her wet hair held in place by a small towel. And also evidenced by the fact that otherwise she was entirely naked save for a larger towel wrapped around her body, reaching down over her thighs, but barely above halfway covering her breasts, a few stray droplets of water rather enticingly trailing down her collarbone and cleavage... "Hana!" With a rather noticeable blush Angela covered her chest with one arm and her crotch with the other.

While the medic was still giving a great deer-in-the-headlights, Hana recovered from her surprise much faster, flashing her a sly grin. "Oh, hey. Looking good."

"Th-this is... sorry." Her blush only deepening at the comment, Angela rushed past Hana into her bedroom, closing the door, leaving the teen to contemplate what had just happened.

Damn, she's hot like this. And that was inappropriate right now. Bad Hana. Save those thoughts for some other time, if you have to. Though it wasn't like she hadn't known this already either, but still, getting to see Angela like this... Seriously, not now.

Thankfully Angela's return precluded any more inappropriate thoughts, the medic now wearing a loose t-shirt and sweatpants, her hair in a simple ponytail. "I'm sorry about that." She started, sitting on the couch next to Hana. "The bathroom is a little small to dry off properly, so I use the bedroom instead. But it appears I didn't lock the door properly, so..."

"Eh. No big deal." Hana shrugged. "I probably shouldn't have just come in like that either. But actually I was here for you to take a look at my injuries."

"I see." Thankfully Angela seemed to have calmed down enough to not make the situation needlessly awkward. "How are you feeling?"

"Keeps getting better, I can move a bit more every day." Even though for Hana's tastes she still wasn't healing nearly fast enough. "And besides," she continued with a smirk, "that way I can repay you a bit for that 'view' you just gave me, if you know what I mean."

"H-Hana," And Angela was blushing again. "that is highly inappropriate." Score. Honestly, at times provoking this sort of entertaining reaction from Angela was so easy, even without her ...ulterior motive, Hana would probably keep teasing her just for the heck of it.

"Then does that mean you don't find my find my cute, sexy body at least a little bit attractive?" Hana suspected that her attempt at a seductive voice fell kind of short, but Angela reacted just as well.

"I-I... That's... Hana, stop it." However suddenly Mercy's voice was dead serious. "Normally I don't mind your... jokes, but not like this. To me the professional boundary between doctor and patient is sacrosanct. Working with Overwatch at all I'm already skirting close to violating that principle, so I do not need you adding to it like this. Do you get what I'm saying?"

Oops. "Sorry, I... didn't realise. Maybe that one was a bit inappropriate. No more dumb jokes while you're treating me, I get it."

"Thank you." Angela got up, throwing over her labcoat. "Now come on, let's get your back looked at."

"So..." Hana followed suit. "That means after we're done, I get to tease you all I want?"

Lightly shaking her head, but with a small smile, Angela closed the door behind her, leading the way to the medbay. "If you absolutely have to."


"Hey, Angela!" Hana spotted Angela just as the medic was on her way back from the lab after calling it a day, motioning her over to her room. "Check out what I got from my parents."

As Angela entered, the girl produced a flat angular bottle holding a clear reddish brown liquid from a large parcel labelled in Korean. "Here."

"Amaretto?" Angela read the label.

"Yeah. After I got injured, Mum and Dad were kinda worried." That was probably an understatement. "So they sent me a huge care package. A new game, some 'super-lasting' face paint, a bunch of sweets, you know. Stuff."

"Including some ...liqueur, is that?"

"Yep. I love it. You should try some too. ...Hang on." Hana paused, already in the process of rummaging through a drawer. "You're not gonna be all doctor mode 'alcohol is bad for you, you shouldn't drink', are you?"

"No." Angela chuckled, shaking her head. In fact she usually had a bottle of something even stronger, rum for the most part, somewhere in her office; even if her 'I need a freaking drink' moments as reaction to a particularly gruelling injury – or exasperating patient stupidity – had become less and less over the years, she'd never been able to completely shake this vice. "In moderation it's fine. But at this time of the day?"

"In the afternoon?" Hana shrugged. "Were you still planning on driving anywhere today?"

"Well, no."

"See? And it's just a little bit, don't be like that."

"If you insist." Angela acquiesced and Hana produced a pair of pink shot glasses resembling stylised skulls, filling them both and handing one to Angela. "Thank you."

"Geonbae."

"Prost." The two touched glasses, Hana emptying half of hers in one go, while Angela only took a small sip at first, savouring the taste of the liqueur for a moment. It was only slightly sharp, a little sweet and had a very intense taste, with a strong note of almonds or marzipan.

Once Angela had leisurely finished her glass, Hana looked at her expectantly. "And..?"

"It's good."

"'Great' you mean." Hana grinned. "One more?"

Angela raised an eyebrow. "What was that about 'just a little' before?"

"Aw, you sound just like my mum." Hana pouted. "'But don't overdo it, dear. And be sure to share with your friends.'" She said, rather accurately imitating the tone of a concerned mother.

"Hm, did you 'overdo' it with alcohol before?"

Hana smirked, tilting her head. "Did you?"

"Exactly twice."

"Heh. So not even Mercy is immune to getting wasted sometimes." Even though Angela had the technology to cure at least herself of drunkenness or a hangover within minutes, so in a way nowadays she was. "Good to know you're still human."

Even though Hana was grinning, her voice carried an amount of genuine admiration ...along with something else Angela couldn't quite place. "Except when I was at university, there was no 'Mercy' yet, only kind of shy, bookish, younger than everyone else Angela."

"So some of your friends took you out to get drunk? Come to think of it, you never really told any stories from that time, how come?"

After a brief pause Angela shrugged. "There is little interesting to tell. ...It was remarkably unremarkable, one could even say; I was very focused on studying so I'd finish as fast as possible, at the expense of free time and the usual wacky university student antics. ...Were you expecting another dramatic life-altering event during that time?" She added in an amused tone at Hana's vaguely disappointed expression.

"Well... something interesting at least. Seeing who you are now, all of that sounds so... normal."

Angela chuckled. "I'm afraid I used up my allotment of tragic origin story years earlier."

"Crap, sorry." Hana's expression fell as realised what the woman was referring to. "I didn't mean it like that."

"Don't worry about it," Angela placated her. "It's long in the past."

"But on the topic of stories," She continued a moment later. "What about yours?"

"You've read my file, haven't you?"

So Angela had, once before DVa had even been invited to Overwatch, and later more out of ...personal interest. But while a thorough – if short – CV, it didn't truly tell much of Hana's personal story. "And you know of my biography, but that's not quite the same, is it?"

"Probably. But it's honestly remarkably unremarkable." Hana echoed with a smirk. "I still have both parents; Mum is like the kindest and bestest person ever, and Dad still somehow beats me in Starcraft half the time. I got no siblings but a couple of good friends from school and gaming I'm staying in touch with. Seriously boring stuff. Yours is clearly the better superhero origin story."

"I'm no superhero, Hana." Angela protested, but the girl shook her head.

"You so are." She returned in complete earnest. "Dedicating pretty much your life to helping others, just because that's what you believe in. You're a legit angel."

Even if that was technically what she was doing, and she'd drawn that moniker several times before, Hana's compliment still made Angela blush. "Why, thank you, Liebling." Even if Angela wasn't sure if she was deserving of this. "But if nothing else, I'm sure your story is more eventful already. At your age I wasn't even halfway done with university. You're already an international celebrity, fought against that massive Omnic several times, and now joined Overwatch." Not to mention killed multiple people in combat, got to watch good friends of hers die, and almost died herself at least once.

"If you put it like that, I guess..." Hana shrugged. "But so have you and most others here. I just got an early start, that's all. You got to have a normal full-length childhood instead. ...Aw, crap, again, I didn't mean to-" Hana hurried to correct her faux-pas, but Angela quickly stopped her.

"It's alright. And besides, you're almost correct on this one. While it likely was never entirely the same, my aunt and uncle took me in after my parents died. They had no children of their own, but they cared for me just like actual parents would have, so my childhood was in fact relatively normal."

"Huh. That's ...good, I guess?"

"Yes. ...You dodged the original question." Angela added after short pause.

"Which would be..?" Hana's not entirely convincing innocent expression more or less spelt out that she was well aware of the question.

"If you ever got seriously drunk, or 'wasted' as you put it, before."

"Yeah, kinda. Just a couple times, though. I mean, a bunch of teenagers on a party, throw in a few old enough to buy alcohol, what do you think's gonna happen?"

"Fair point." Even if with the number of ER patients related to all kinds of drunken idiocy Angela had had, she couldn't really approve of it, despite the fact that back then she hadn't always been better.

"But in my defence, I wasn't nearly as bad as some of the others."

"Oh?"

"Like the chick who ended up running around down the street wearing absolutely nothing but a funny hat because someone dared her to. Or the guy who jumped like three metres out of a tree trying to grab on to a branch on the way down, and broke both his shins and a wrist instead."

"Oh dear." Angela shook her head and couldn't help but quote an old joke. "Famous last words: Hold my beer and watch this."

Hana laughed. "Something like that. But I can say with certainty that I always kept my clothes on while drunk, and never got injured either."

"...But you still did a few embarrassing things, didn't you?" Angela guessed.

"You can't prove anything." That was as good as a yes. Not that Angela hadn't of course; one time she'd gone into a very long, very angry rant about something completely inconsequential, much to the amusement of her – equally drunk – fellow students. "But that one time an even drunker... more drunk? whatever, guy tried to hit on me and apparently I was so not amused at that time I actually punched him and he fell straight off his chair and wound up cracking a rib. ...Didn't actually hold it against me the next morning, though."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah. He even admitted he could be a real ass when he's drunk."

"Well, as long as he fully recovered."

"He was back in training like the two days later. Nothing could keep him down."

"'Could'? Did something happen?"

"Turned out a building-sized Omnic stepping on his MEKA and then chewing it a bit was enough to keep him down after all." Hana let out an empty laugh. "And the nerve of that guy, to get himself killed after beating me in a game the day before and never let me have that rematch. Idiot."

"Oh, I'm so sorry, Liebes." Well that had certainly gone south quickly. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not really." Hana shook her head. "Let the dead rest. ...Fuck, now I really want another." She continued after a moment, pouring both glasses again without even asking and pushing one towards Angela, and the medic accepted.

"Here's to absent friends." Ricky, Ana, Amélie, Gerard... far too many.

"To absent friends." Hana echoed and they both emptied their glasses, falling silent for a good minute or so before Hana finally broke the silence. "Aw man, I completely killed the mood, didn't I?"

"So you did." Angela lightly smiled, placing a hand on Hana's shoulder. "But don't worry about it."

Taking Angela's hand and pulling her just enough to make the medic follow her, Hana dropped onto the edge of her bed with a long sigh. "Sorry for being such a downer."

"It's alright, Liebling." Angela placed an arm around Hana's shoulder and the girl in turn moved a little closer. "Everyone is entitled to their grief."

"Yeah, but..." Hana began before stopping herself, just leaning against Angela's shoulder instead. "Guess so."

They just sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes before Hana spoke up. "Okay, that's enough with the mopey stuff. Wanna check out the game my parents sent me? I took a look at the back and it seems like something you could be interested in too."

"Yes, let's do that."


"Here, catch!" Hana accurately threw the ice cream sandwich she'd gotten from the store, and Angela easily caught it, peeling away the wrapper as Hana rejoined her side, already well into her own ice cream.

"Thank you." Seeing as Angela was currently waiting for a synthesis for an experiment to finish, Hana had declared that they should make use of the nice weather – one of the first real warm days of spring this year – and go out into town. So now they were leisurely walking along the beach with no particular goal, just eating ice cream, chatting and enjoying the sun.

"Oh, right, I wanted to tell you." Hana spoke up. "Guess which two Overwatch members became a couple recently?"

"Huh." Angela raised an eyebrow. "It's not you, is it?" She asked in a slightly odd tone, but Hana shook her head.

"Nah." I wish. "But it involves another almost as cool person."

"I'm flattered you think of me that way, but I like to believe I would have been the first to notice."

It took Hana a split second to process before she burst out laughing. "Hah! Good one. ...Okay, the other almost as cool person."

Angela briefly paused and Hana could practically see her go through all the new and returned members of Overwatch, before reaching the correct conclusion. "Lúcio?"

"Yep."

"Aaand..?" Angela asked after a few seconds' silence, and Hana just grinned at her.

"Guess. I'm just gonna give you the hint that she was a member back before the fall too."

"Unless you're being semantic about Fareeha, that currently only leaves one option, you know." ...Huh, so it did. "Is it Mei."

"Mm-h." Too easy. "I kinda didn't see that coming either, but in retrospect it totally makes sense."

"How so?"

"I mean, have you looked at the both of them?" Hana replied as if stating a blindly obvious truth. "They're some of the nicest, friendliest people ever, to everyone. They're like a perfect match."

"If you put it that way, surely." Angela nodded. "Well, I'm happy for the both of them."

"Same here. And they're totally adorable together, check it out." Taking out her phone, Hana brought up a few cute pictures of Lúcio and Mei sitting besides each other and cuddling or posing for the camera. "See?"

"So they are. ...Did you take that last one?" Angela asked, referring to the one picture that wasn't a selfie, as well as ostensibly taken in a completely different room and lighting."

"Yeah. They totally deserve each other, right? Even if they can't keep their hands off each other for like five minutes."

Angela chuckled. "Just give them a few weeks, they'll grow out of it eventually."

"They better." Hana pouted a little. "Because I will keep telling them to get a room every single time."

"Speaking of." She continued after a moment. "Do you have a boyfriend right now? Girlfriend. Whatever. Significant other."

"Not right now. Not in the last few years, in fact."

"Did something happen to the last one?" Hadn't Angela had enough tragic dramatic stuff happen to her already?

"No, no, nothing like that. We... broke up in mutual agreement after it became apparent that my work with Overwatch was putting too much strain on our relationship. A common enough issue even for ordinary doctors."

"Aw, that sucks." Even if not entirely without reason.

"But to be honest I haven't really been looking for a relationship since then." Angela continued. "Or, actively not looking for time even."

"So, are you looking right now?" Hana kept prodding.

"That would depend." Angela shrugged after thinking for a moment. "I wouldn't say I'd be averse to it, but I... don't know if I've found the right person at the moment."

"Huh." That was either a really good or a really bad sign and Hana masked her brief pause behind finishing the last bit of her ice cream, careful not let any hint of nervousness show. "And what kind of person would that be?"

"That's... a good question. Simply the... 'right' one, I'm not sure how I'd put it."

As Angela paused to think. Hana hurried to pre-empt her. "Not like that. Much easier, a guy or a girl or either?"

"Oh, that. At least since university, or maybe always, I've been exclusively attracted to other girls." Angela answered rather nonchalantly, kinda at odds how she'd react to some of Hana's – really still pretty harmless – teasing in the past.

Fuck yeah! Hana could just barely stop herself from plain jumping and shouting. Her only two real concerns had been solved just like that, now she only had to go for it. Why not right here and now? The thought popped into Hana's mind, but she just as quickly discarded it again; on some random bit of beach, some random time in the afternoon wasn't nearly stylish enough. She had the luxury of preparation, so was gonna come up with some- Actually...

"What's so funny." Angela asked, Hana's poker face apparently not as good as she'd thought.

"Nothing, I just got a neat idea for my stream this evening. You should totally come and watch, I'm gonna be playing this one puzzle game I showed you yesterday. If you come into chat I'll make you a mod too."

"I'll try, but I can't make any promises, I need to finish my synthesis this evening."

"Aw." Hana pouted. "You don't even have to deal with chat or anything, Lúcio is a pretty great mod, but you should at least listen on the side."

"At this point most of the reactions only involve stirring every few minutes and making sure nothing unforeseen happens, so I should be able to do that much."

"'Unforeseen'? Like what? Explosions, acid clouds, wormholes, the experiment suddenly attaining sentience?" Hana asked with a grin, fully aware that reality wouldn't be nearly as spectacular.

"You've watched far too many Hollywood movies, dear." Angela laughed. "The worst that could happen is the mixture catching fire or some secondary product building up and ruining the whole reaction."

"Sounds kinda boring. Good that I'll be there to entertain you. Well, not there there, but you know what I mean."

"I suppose. Thankfully most of the chemistry I'm dealing with is mostly on the tame side, what you call 'boring' I call 'safe'."

"I know, I know." That one time Hana had actually seen some kind of chemical burns first-hand, and she'd rather not repeat the experience. "Colourful explosions are still cool, though."

"I'm afraid there's little overlap between pharmacy and pyrotechnics; or 'parlour tricks' as a professor of mine liked to put it. And I suppose she was kind of right in that a surprising number of important chemicals are clear liquids or odourless white powders."

"So no bubbling green flasks of acid either."

"I'm afraid not. Video games may have lied to you there."

Hana shrugged. "Guess so." Not that was much of a surprise, but it never hurt to ask.

"If you want I can show you some real acids and the like I have in my lab once we get back." Angela offered and after a brief consideration Hana nodded.

"Sure, if we have time. I still need to set up my stream and all." Not to mention talk with Lúcio about her plan.

"Of course. ...And another thing," Angela continued. "You asked me all about my relationships. ...What about yours?"

No way. Okay, it could simply be curiosity, of course, but the timing... "Same here, none right now. Like two ever; a boy and a girl, but no idea how much they count. Neither lasted very long, and I guess we were still teenagers figuring ourselves out."

"Interessant. And what did you figure out?"

"That I'm not into those excessively cutesy girly girls, nor effeminate wimpy guys."

"And instead?"

"I dunno." By now it was relatively clear what Angela meant, but Hana didn't catch it on purpose. "Someone who can keep up with me. I guess."

"No, I meant-" Angela let out a slightly impatient sigh. "...a boy or a girl?"

Okay, there was no way this was still coincidence. So what the heck was she still waiting for? But despite how determined and forward she like to think herself to be, part of Hana was still gripped with insecurity and nervousness, stopping her from confessing to Angela on the spot. "Beats me, maybe both. Probably girls." Most definitely one specific woman. "A buddy in MEKA once told me what he said was the easiest way to be sure."

"Oh?" Angela raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

"Pretty simple. What kind of porn do you get off to?" Hana grinned as Angela made an indistinct noise and almost missed a step in reaction to her bluntness. "Which would put me square into 'girls only', by the way." And, occasionally, a few things less likely found outside the realm of fiction, if she was feeling frisky; but while Angela's reaction to the finer points of that would probably have been priceless, at the same time this most likely wasn't something DVa should be overheard discussing in public.

"I... see." Angela answered with a pointedly neutral expression

"So... what kind of stuff do you watch, then?" Hana couldn't resist prodding after a moment. "Does the good doctor have any secret kinks she'd rather not anyone else know about?"

"H-Hana, that's-" Angela immediately blushed, taking a few moments to compose herself. "This isn't- As I said, I'm 'into' other women only. And I'd really rather not discuss this in public." Even though Hana was pretty sure there was no one in earshot right now, and only a handful people in sight, despite the nice weather. Probably owing to it being the early afternoon in the middle of the week; one of the perks the irregular hours working with Overwatch brought with them.

"Fair point." Hana shrugged as she turned into a street to make their way towards the arcade. "But I may get back to that in private, then."

"Please don't."


"Gg." DVa giggled. "Well fought." Even if the match had been clearly one-sided by the halfway point, the other team had made hers work for every single point. "Both you guys and my team." After reading chat for a bit she continued. "This is all we have time for today, but at least we got to finish on a beautiful game." Not like the one before where one guy was camping so hard he pretty much pitched a tent and another played the very worst of the meta in what was supposed to be a friendly game. "Can I get some gg bunnies in the chat for everyone who just played." As the chat briefly flooded with emotes Hana took a deep breath, going over her words one more time.

"And before we end things off for today, I just wanna say- ...dedicate this stream to one very special person. We've only known for like half a year, but they've been been there for me all that time and are truly precious to me." Hana made a heart with her hands and winked at the camera. "You know who you are." Hopefully.

As they'd planned, before chat really had time to react, Lúcio took over, cutting DVa's feed and hosting a colleague and occasional rival instead as Hana sunk back into her chair, letting out a long breath. Her phone was already non-stop vibrating from social media notifications, so Hana just turned it off, she'd deal with the fallout tomorrow. After she had an answer.


As promised this one a bit more lighthearted (save for that one sombre moment; that one also featuring a callback to the very start of the very first chapter), featuring what I think counts as mild fanservice (at least if you have an active imagination), both this and the previous chapter serving simply to show some more moments between the two and set up the next one. This and the one before actually started out as one mammoth chapter, but I wound up splitting them, both for thematic/mood reasons and length (both as one likely would literally have been over 9000 words). Anachronistic order strikes again (kind of), the four bits in this chapter are in order, but the first two may have happened somewhere before/between the parts of chapter 8 (it's intentionally left a little ambiguous; I don't know for certain either).

Blame the Lúcio/Mei paring (whose only real point it was to give Hana a good segue) on my brother; he made pretty much the same point as Hana, and I'd say he's not wrong either. That bit of banter about chemistry is mostly factual as well. Not sure about pharmacy specifically, but in my biochemistry class, a few reactions where just as boring and wait-y (except more so, because you didn't even have to supervise, just stick it in the oven for 8+ hours and hope you get something useful); and the typical technicolour science is mostly relegated to TV, pyrotechnics and some analytics.

Not much else to say other than thanks to my beta bruhxism. And the usual stuff of thank you for reading, hope you enjoyed, yadda-yadda feedback/criticism, until next time.

Peace out