Chapter 4

Never Second Best

When Hanzo woke up that morning, he knew Genji hadn't come back yet, because the shower wasn't running over some J-pop song, like it was every morning. Hanzo sat up and sighed. Where could his brother had gone?

You have to find him.

Hanzo flinched. He had forgotten about the previous night, and only half an hour of sleep had been needed. In truth, Hanzo had woken up at three a. m., strongly disturbed by what he had just witnessed. He had stared longly at the ceiling of his bedroom, his brain running wildly and preventing him from falling asleep again. All the while, Hanzo, the other one, the older one, was arguing with him that he should worry more about his younger brother. To which Hanzo replied that there was no need, since this was a normal occurrence for his younger brother, although it usually happened during the weekend. But hearing the voice of his older self only reminded him of what said older self had done, which he couldn't escape anymore, as if his memories had been engraved in his own.

After standing up and stretching, Hanzo grabbed his phone, only to find a text from Genji, which he had received around three a. m.

Genji "We need to talk. Gym before class?"

Hanzo frowned, but replied a simple "Okay." before going to the shower.

Since Genji had not brought his car back yet, Hanzo had to use his father's car, with driver, to his annoyance. Once the driver left him in front of the high school, he quickly made his way around the building. It was still early, like it always was when he arrived. There were only a few students already waiting for class, but most of them stayed at the cafeteria until the morning bell rang.

Genji was easy enough to find in the empty gym. His brother had taken residence in the tiers, laying on his back with his bag for a pillow. Hanzo wouldn't be surprised if his brother hadn't slept during the previous night. He climbed the stairs quickly and sat beside his brother's head.

"Good morning."

Genji finally cracked his eyes open when he recognized his brother's voice. He sat up, combing quickly his hand threw his green dirty hair.

"Hello Hanzo." he managed before he yawned.

"You didn't sleep last night, did you?"

"I probably did. Not a lot. It was... kind of hard to sleep last night."

"I understand."

Silence fell between the two of them as Genji changed his bag of side, so that it wouldn't be between him and Hanzo. Then, he fetched in his pocket and pulled Hanzo's car keys out.

"I'm sorry about borrowing your car."

He handed the keys back, and Hanzo hesitated before taking them. He glanced between his brother's hand, relaxed and nesting the keys in his palm, to his brother's face. While he didn't look remorseful, he did look tired, and on edge, like he was worried about something, and could flinch at any given moment, almost like a cat. Finally he took the keys, and pocketed them in his jacket pocket. He would put it in his bag later.

"I hope you made good use of it."

"Oh, yeah... we hum... we went to see this small indie band who makes Nepalese fusion music."

Hanzo tried not to grimace at the description. Genji had always been into weird things.

What is he talking about?

Hanzo chose to ignore him. Instead he asked:

"Was Zen with you?"

"Yeah."

Hanzo nodded. At least he knew his brother had stayed out of trouble if his best friend was with him. Hanzo wondered what Genji wanted to talk about, although he had an idea of what it could be. Genji tried to find a way to approach things without sounding like a mad man, mostly because he wasn't sure his brother also had had a nightmare. And if he had, he didn't seem too shaken by it. Not like Genji was.

"I had a nightmare last night, although it wasn't really one. I don't know how to explain, not without sounding like an idiot." Genji started carefully.

Hanzo nodded.

"I, too, had a nightmare. I believe we had the same."

Hearing his brother confess his own nightmare made Genji's head turn so fast it hurt his neck. He looked at his older brother almost hopefully. Sure Zen had understood, because he, too, had had this nightmare of sorts. But if Hanzo also had had one, it would be much more easier.

I told you he had to have had one too.

"I probably wasn't the same, but..."

Genji tried to find his words. What was he afraid of? He'd been brewing over this nightmare for the past few hours, and still he couldn't quite pinpoint what made him so worried.

"But we both saw Hanzo attacking Genji." he finally managed.

"I think killing, or almost killing would be more accurate."

The calmness in Hanzo's voice has he said it made his younger brother shiver.

"It was true, wasn't it?"

"It was, unfortunately."

Genji sighed longly.

"Gods, I see it every time I close my eyes. The blade cutting through my... his limbs..."

Hanzo nodded slowly.

"Me too."

Silence fell around them once again. Hanzo pursed his lips, not sure what to add.

Reassure him. He's afraid you might turn up like me. Tell him you won't.

Hanzo nodded once again.

"For what it's worth, I would never do such a thing to you."

"I know you wouldn't but... that's probably what Genji thought, too... before..."

Genji took in a deep breath.

"Genji found it in himself to forgive Hanzo, even after all the horrible things he did to him. So I want to find it in my heart to believe you. And I feel like I can, because I just can't see you being so..."

"Stupid?"

Genji chuckled.

"No. Maybe? It's weird, isn't it? If anyone has been eavesdropping on us they probably think that we are crazy."

Hanzo faintly smiled and nodded.

"You're probably right!"

Both brothers shared a look before smiling at one another. Suddenly someone cleared their throat. They both looked down and saw Jesse, standing at the foot of the tiers, with his usual cowboy hat on his head.

"Sorry to intrude but... Hanzo, can I talk to you for a second?"

Hanzo's gaze went from the Southern man to his brother. Genji smiled mischievously and stood up.

"Sure, Hanzo and I were done anyway."

He picked up his bag and said:

"Sorry again for borrowing your car."

"It's okay, I'm not mad at you."

Genji winked, which made Hanzo frown, and quickly jumped down the tiers. He trotted out the gym, and Jesse waited until the younger man was gone to climb up.

As Jesse joined him, Hanzo was racking his memory to try and understand why the pseudo-cowboy wanted to talk with him. Sure, he had kindly brought him home the previous afternoon, but there had to be more than that. Jesse was part of the twenty-four, or so Hanzo had called them. There had to be the reason why he came to talk to him. So he thought back to Hanzo's memories. McCree had been mostly a part of them after he had joined Overwatch, and while the cowboy was insufferable, they had become somewhat friends before their last mission. At least Hanzo thought they were friends. Genji was always joking about the fact that they spent a lot of time together, but Hanzo didn't see the harm in that. They were workout partners, and shooting partners too. Sometimes drinking, but not often, since Mercy wasn't too keen on curring hangovers.

Jesse sat beside him with a smirk.

"He gave you back your car?"

"Thankfully, yes."

"So, hum, I swear I didn't overhear anything, but there's this voice in my head telling me that you know what I'm talking about."

Hanzo frowned. Yeah, he knew about the voice in his head, but thankfully Hanzo was mostly a backseat kind of person, letting him be instead of talking to him non-stop, which he would not have stand more than a handful of seconds.

"I know what you mean."

"Alright, well, McCree asked me to deliver a message to Hanzo, and since you're Hanzo, but not the right one, I just wanted to make sure the right one was also there."

"You are fortunate I understand what you mean, because anyone else would have told you you are not making much sense."

Jesse chuckled, scratching the back of his head.

"Yeah, I know. So..."

He took a deep breath.

"So keep in mind that this isn't me talkin', it's McCree. God this is awkward..."

Come on, you promised. Plus, this Hanzo ain't so bad as well. Maybe we can shoot two coins with one bullet!

Jesse took another deep breath and let out quickly:

"Hanzo, McCree always had a crush on you, and he's very sad he never had a chance to tell you, because now you're both dead, and it sucks."

After letting out a breath, Jesse added:

"Again, his words, not mine."

Both Hanzos were taken aback by the revelation. Hanzo was mostly surprised that Hanzo had never noticed, and the declaration itself made him feel strange and uncomfortable. Older Hanzo would have asked him to repeat it if he could, because he couldn't believe it.

What?

You heard him, McCree has a crush on you.

It's impossible.

Why?

Because...

"Hum... Hanzo? Everything okay?"

Jesse was getting rather worried from the lack of respond from either of the Hanzos.

"Hum... he doesn't want to believe it." Hanzo clarified.

After about a minute of silence, where Hanzo was trying to convince other Hanzo that it actually made sense in relation to the memories of the two of them he had seen, Jesse cleared his throat. Hanzo looked up, both his and other Hanzo's train of thought altered. After taking a deep breath, Jesse leaned forward, and crashed in lips with Hanzo's.

A/N: Hi guys! I really really hope I didn't make too much of a mess with this chapter. It's easy to seperate Angela and Mercy, but how do you seperate Hanzo and Hanzo? The guy has an aversion to call signs, its a family thing I guess. Anyway, I hope it was easy to understand, and if it wasn't I apologize. And on that I'll see you on Friday!