Part 6 is here. Rushed out as usual so I don't lose my nerve. Hope you enjoy.
Hat: Part 6
McCree had written him as upright-standing and graceful and beautiful, but then the cowboy said that he didn't really see Hanzo that way. The 'Hanzo' McCree had written about was just a 'westernized' version of him. So, then, where was the line between what McCree really thought of him and what he'd made up for his poems?
Why did he even care?
It all started with the archer's theory about McCree's hat. If he hadn't been so curious about the way McCree behaved when he wasn't wearing his hat, none of this would have happened. Vaswani wouldn't have come up with her ridiculous crush theories and Hanzo wouldn't have been left questioning whether she was right or wrong.
Now any time he was near the gunslinger, he grew nervous and anxious and he wasn't even sure why.
And there was no way to avoid the cowboy anymore. Instead of waiting until the archer showed up in the vicinity of the group that always got together, the gunman actively sought him out. As a matter of fact, he was at Hanzo's bedroom door right now.
"Sorry to bother ya, but I thought maybe we could talk," McCree said through the door.
The bowman wasn't sure what to do. For some reason he didn't want to be alone with the man. He wasn't really sure why though. There was no reason for him to be afraid to be alone with him. Perhaps it wasn't fear. Perhaps it was what Vaswani had mentioned. He didn't really want to think about it.
Yet he WAS thinking about it. What if she had been right about their so-called crushes? Well, at least on the gunman's end. Then Hanzo wasn't sure if he wanted to be alone with McCree in case the gunslinger wanted to say something about it. And if she were right concerning his own feelings? Well, it would be just as bad to be alone with McCree because of what he himself might say.
It was a lose/lose situation. That is, unless she was wrong in both instances. How could Hanzo even question his own feelings? He knew what he felt and it wasn't what she said it was. Yet when he heard that voice through the door, his heart began to race.
Did he have a reason to say no to him though? The gunslinger had graciously allowed him to read his notebook full of poetry, which was still on his dresser. Even if the archer were doing something besides attempting to meditate, there was no reason for him to rudely leave the door closed.
Hanzo finally opened the door and silently noted the power of suggestion. If Symmetra hadn't mentioned her weird theory about his and McCree's feelings, Hanzo never would have considered it a possibility on either of their parts.
The smile on the gunman's face stunned him, so he simply greeted the cowboy with a nod.
"Hey there," McCree said. "Hope I didn't interrupt anything."
"No. I was only meditating." That wasn't entirely true though. "Please come in."
McCree looked like he didn't want to enter at first, but he took a step inside anyway, fiddling with the hat in his hands. "Never really been in nobody's room here besides mine. This is pretty nice."
"Please have a seat," the archer offered. It was the polite thing to do, right?
"Thank ya kindly."
The bowman watched him take a seat in the only chair in the room, so he sat on the bed. Hanzo wondered if maybe it was too casual. He really should have had more furniture. Symmetra had a few chairs scattered about her room, even though she claimed that she rarely had company.
He, too, rarely had company, but that was obviously no excuse to have only one place to sit.
While his mind was otherwise occupied, McCree simply watched him. And even though his mind WAS otherwise occupied, he could see the fact that the gunman was watching him.
"You wanted to talk?" the archer asked.
"Uh, yeah. Ya seem like ya've been avoidin' me lately. I'm thinkin' maybe it's somethin' I said."
Hanzo couldn't recall if the cowboy had said anything that might have caused offense. Then again everyone was offended by everything these days. "You have said nothing wrong."
"So, ya HAVE been avoidin' me?"
Ah. Hanzo had been caught unawares. He'd been outmaneuvered by this poetic cowboy. "I have been avoiding you," he had to admit, considering the cowboy had already called him out on it.
There came one very simple question. "Why?"
However, the answering of it would prove difficult. Had he never given thought to the architect's suggestion, he wouldn't have to hold a self debate as to what his answer should be.
And it wasn't as though he hadn't been thinking it over this whole time. Unfortunately, in the presence of the man, things seemed to grow more complicated.
So he finally decided to come clean. No more theories and no more advice from third parties.
"Why do you behave differently with me than with others?"
The cowboy gave half a smile of half embarrassment. "Noticed that, huh?"
Thankfully McCree seemed to accept a question as an answer.
"I gotta admit that I hold ya to a higher standard than I do most everybody else."
So, the cowboy held him to a higher standard than others. It only made sense. Everyone who knew Hanzo held him to a higher standard than most others.
"And I think yer funny," the gunman added.
Funny? So was he something to laugh at now? That was a contradiction to what the gunslinger had said just a moment ago.
"I don't understand your meaning," Hanzo admitted.
The way he'd said it must have made it obvious that he was offended. McCree raised his hands in defense. "Didn't mean nothin by it. It's just that I ain't never met nobody I was so curious about."
Exactly! The gunman had taken the words right out of his mouth. He was curious about the cowboy and the cowboy was curious about him. And it was perfectly natural. Neither one of them knew much about the other's culture, which confirmed Vaswani's earlier suspicions. And they knew very little about each other in general, which explained why the gunman was always trying to hunt him down.
So then why did Hanzo still feel so unsatisfied with that answer?
"And here I am followin' ya around like a lost puppy. It musta been pretty obvious," the cowboy said with a little chuckle.
Pretty obvious?
McCree looked at the archer for a long time but didn't say anything.
Hanzo figured he'd go ahead and ask what he wanted to know. That's what he'd decided, was it not? "What do you mean?"
The gunman chuckled again. "Well, maybe it ain't so obvious."
"Not obvious to me. What are you talking about?"
"That I kinda like ya."
Hanzo frowned and before he considered what that statement meant, he thought about the fact that the architect was right and he was wrong.
Then he had to wonder what the cowboy meant by 'kinda'. And what he meant by 'like'. And how that combination of words added up.