Disclaimer: We don't own any part of Blizzard or Overwatch.
Author (Kate) Note: It is my turn to write the author's note, and at this point, I am writing this at 3:53 am. I just wanted to take time and say how much I appreciate all of the following this fic has gotten. This started out as just an idea between me and Alec, so to see it not only taking life, but to also have people enjoy it as well is incredible. I hope that you stick around and learn more about the world we have crafted.
Chapter 4: Je Désiree L'aide
Zarya twisted the key towards her, the rumbling of the truck's engine dying down with each passing second as unbuckled the seatbelt and got out. Slamming the metal shut and manually locking it into place, the tall woman shoved the keyring into her pants pocket, giving the neighborhood a quick once-over. Between the rundown buildings and graffitied, stained, and trash-filled streets, a steady uneasiness grew inside the woman, a large part of her hoping that she had made a wrong turn and that the apartment complex was in some other, nicer area. The building in front of her stood in a barely functional manner, pieces of yellow painted drywall chipping away and exposing the brickwork underneath while the exposed pipes and rusted, crumbling fire escapes provided no relief. Quickly pulling out her phone, she backtracked to the previous conversation with the waitress, swiping up. Much to her dismay, everything matched up; street, building number, everything. She gave a short sigh, making her way up the crumbling stairs in front of the deteriorating five-story building, pulling out the small golden key attached to a slightly fraying lanyard from her pocket, a temporary gift from the coworker. Pushing the key into the sticky lock, she turned the grimy and dirty handle, letting herself into the narrow hallway.
Zarya's eyes scanned across each scratched wooden door lining the hall, reading the numbers off until one towards the middle matched up perfectly. Despite all information matching up, the uneasiness of the situation did not go away, sitting in firmly in her core instead. Standing in the middle of the frame, the large woman raised her hand, rapping her knuckles against the proper one, the old wood creating a hollow thud with each of the three knocks.
"I've got it!" The familiar, chipper voice called out from behind the frame. As the pair of footsteps began making their way to the door, they halted suddenly, a loud crash soon following after it.
"What do you think you're doing, don't you know they're after us?" another voice joined in; a man's, harshly and loudly whispering voice joined in, each word laced with a recognizably Australian accent. "Quick hide, I'll cover for you"
Lena chuckled, pushing away the suspicious words from the other person with her. "Don't be silly Jamison, It's just my friend from work" It took a few seconds for the door to swing open, the sound of multiple locks unlocking only adding to the bizarre situation. Upon seeing the bartender, the young waitress's face lit up even more, starkly contrasting the dark and gloom of the inside. "Hey, there!"
Zarya gave a slightly uneasy look, the entire situation being too bizarre to be handled in any normal way. "Hey…" She began, eyes darting past the other woman and into the room behind her, not being able to make out anything behind her due to the tightly drawn shades, shutting out all possible light from the inside. "Have you packed up everything?"
"Yep, all done." She stated with a cheerful demeanor, clapping her hands together as if dusting them off.
The Russian became growingly uncomfortable simply standing in the doorway of the dilapidated, and stained hallway, not wanting to see what other kinds of people were attracted to this sort of lifestyle. "So, uh, may I come in?"
"Yeah sure" Lena moved aside, allowing the larger woman through and into the musty, dank inside.
Her eyes shot around the inside, the emptiness of the main room becoming a glaringly obvious feature save for a couch, coffee table, and one other human-like shape. Jamison had jumped back, completely taken aback by the sight of the new visitor. The scrawny man looked up a bit at her, allowing his eyes to slowly rake over the features of the form in front of him before settling on her face a good couple of inches above the top of his head. "Aren't you a looker?"
She just gave her eyes a slight roll, unamused by the comments given by the greasy, spiky-haired man. "Where is your room?" She asked Lena, mindset on getting in and out of these repulsive and unfortunate conditions as quick as possible.
"This way, follow me" She began, taking a few steps towards the crowded hallway until her action was paused.
"Shut the-" Jamison began, voice raising from next to the doorframe before Lena ran back to the front and closed the door, sliding all of the right locks into place. "Now, isn't that easier" He commented, making his way over to the other roommate who remain passed out in a heavy lump on the couch. The man gave him a harsh poke in his giving side, gaze looming over him. "You alright there, mate?" After a few seconds of inspection, Mako remained wordlessly slumped. "Oh, good. For a second there I thought you were a goner." Jamison commented before sitting down at the base of the couch, pressing his back into the worn and stained fabric as he tilted his head back, staring straight up at the ceiling. Mako, however, had remained unmoved, and completely unresponsive.
"Come on." Lena nudged Zarya, soon leading her away from the two roommates and down the narrow hall towards her room. Throwing open the door, the outside light of her room shone through cracked windows, the first bit of light making its way into the apartment an unknown amount of time. The room remain barren and empty, all signs of life removed from the small, deteriorating yellow space, only a stack of boxes sitting at the base of the bed hinting that at one point, someone had lived here.
Lena headed over to the spot and removed one of the taped up cardboard boxes from the pile, leaving few others stacked beneath it to sit alone.
"Is this it?" Zarya asked looking around, the empty room, gaze only met with crumbling drywall and peeling patches of pale yellow paint.
"Yep. Well, that and my bike." She nodded over to the thin, blue painted frame of a bicycle propped up against the wall closest to the door, providing the only source of color in the bland and nearly featureless room.
Not wanting to think about the depressing atmosphere Lena once called home and remain in it much longer, the larger woman decided to shrug it off, pushing it to the back of her mind as the need to get in and out of there became top priority once again. "Alright" With ease Zarya picked up the remaining three boxes stacking them in her arms as the light weight of the objects provided to be no difficulty for the Russian.
The two made their way back out into the main room, Lena holding her smaller box tucked under one of her arms while grasping the metal frame of her bike with her free hand while Zarya remain close behind her. From the spot on the couch, the two roommates remain unmoved, huddled near each other in spaced out silence. The shorter of the two women took a moment to just stop, looking over the two men she had spent the past few months with, only to now be leaving that chapter of her life behind her. "Bye guys," She said, a small, fond smile forming on her lips. "I'm really going to miss you." Despite the given situation, the words parting her rang of nothing but truth, Lena already beginning to miss the roommates she had originally selected from an ad on Craigslist.
Zarya made her way around the smaller woman, tucking the boxes under her arms as she painstakingly removed every single lock on the door before allowing it to swing open. With a quick wave from the cheerful Brit, the two had left just as quickly as they had come, plunging the room back into darkness and silence.
Jamieson remain in his spot pressed against the couch, only tilting it to the side to get a view of his roommate, his cheek pressing into the other man's leg. "I think I'm going to actually miss her, what about you?" Mako remained motionless in his spot, completely unmoved and without any sign of life among him. "Well said, mate," the Aussie choked out, a single tear forming in his left eye, moved by his partner's words. "Well said."
A sense of relief washed over Zarya as she turned into the lot of Lena's new apartment complex, more than happy to a nice, normal, cared for structure in stark contrast to the previous nightmare that she was still trying to push from out of her mind. The ignition was shut off once a parking spot was found beneath a scraggly tree, the two women soon getting out and grabbing the things from the mostly empty truck bed.
The complex stood two floors high, painted a dusty blue with darkened wooden doors decorating the front of each apartment, a golden number signifying which one was which. Up the cement stairs and along the flat path in front of the higher level stood a pale and weathered, yet sturdy guardrail, placing the only indicator of age onto the complex. The two made their way up the smaller set of stairs pushed to the right of the complex before taking a mismatched set of wood ones, giving them a better view up close at the type of life that took residence here. Most of the blinds lining each small window poking out from the front entrances were open, allowing the natural light from the outside into the smaller spaces inside; an overall good sign.
"Here it is, Number 4." Lena stopped once the walkway reached a corner, the according number stood shining at her eye level. She rested the black rubber of her handlebars against the wall, propping her bike up as she knocked on the wood of the door.
It took only a matter of moments for it to swing inwards, no sounds of locks being removed or any slight hesitation given by the main resident. Out of the doorway came a woman whose height towered over Lena, a good few inches added to her advantage. From her tall stature to the fitness of her form, she seemed like someone who in any threatening situation, could hold her own for the necessary amount of time. Despite this, when she smiled, all form of threat or intimidation washed away, the emotion softening up the strong and sharp features of her face. "Hello, you must be Lena."
Zarya shifted the boxes in her grip down lower, getting a better look at the new woman Lena would be calling a roommate. In comparison to Lena's previous two, she had little to no complaints, the overall appearance and attitude of the woman coming as no immediate threat.
"Yep! And this is my friend Zarya." She said gleefully, giving a slight nod to the woman beside her; such a large and noticeable force that was hard to ignore and lookover in the first place. "Zarya, this is Fareeha."
The new roommate looked up at the other woman towering over her, measuring her with her eyes as if analyzing whether or not she could match her in a fight. "Please, call me Pharah," she said, moving aside and into the attached kitchen area, allowing the two space to enter. From the front door to the main entrance, everything was well lit and furnished. The main living room complete with a small, brown sofa, two arm chairs decorated either end as each seat faced a television set propped up by the dark wood of a console table. "Your room is to the right." Pharah said, pointing down the small hallway pressed into the wall closest to the kitchen divider.
Lena picked the bike back up and shifted her grip on the box, carrying both of her items inside with the taller woman closely towing behind. They made their way down the short hall and took an immediate right, parting through the already wide open doorframe. Inside, conditions only continued to improve with every growing second. The space was a rather good size, giving the room space to move around and breathe in, the plain white painted walls providing endless possibilities of new decoration. Flush against right wall sat a sturdy, wood-framed bed, metal supports on either side holding it up as small posts stuck up from each of its four corners. Above sat a good-sized window, the white curtains fastened to either side of glass panes, exposing the outside world and giving her a view of the apartment complex nextdoor. As she walked in, Lena couldn't stop smiling, setting her things in hand down onto the thin carpet lining the floor, allowing them to rest against the foot of the bed, Zarya soon adding her pile of boxes to the mix. The young Brit climbed onto the bed, sitting on her knees as she looked out the clear, clean glass of the window, peering into the neighbor's space as she began to formulate plans of how to set up her new room.
A rap at the door caused her concentration to break, Lena turning her head to see the her new roommate standing in its frame, part of her medium-length black hair tucked behind one of her ears. "Do you happen to have any plans on Wednesdays?" She asked, eyeing the other woman as she spoke.
Lena fully turned her body, sitting upon the naked mattress of her new bed, thinking her plans over in her head for a few moments. "I don't think so. Why? Need me out of the house for something?"
Pharah gave a short sigh, shaking her head slightly. "No, My mother insists on coming by every Wednesday with dinner and I know she will want to meet you. You don't have anything to worry about, though, she nice. For the most part." With no other words shared between the two, the new roommate made her way to the other room immediately across the way, shutting the door behind herself with a soft click.
Zarya removed her gaze from out the window, ending her brief period of zoning out while the two other women had their brief conversation. "Want help unpacking?" She offered, feeling useless just standing around without having productive thing to do.
The other woman shrugged, indifferent to the help. "If you want, love."
Zarya took out her keys from her pocket, using the serrated edge to quickly cut through the clear packing tape holding the box edges closed together. The load was split between the two of them, either party making short work with the minimal amount of items at hand. As they began to sort, small piles were made on the bed of appropriate similarity. Pulled out of the cardboard was mainly clothing, towels, or colorful bedding, each pile growing to a medium size as the amount left began to dwindle. Upon removing one of the last towels from her first box, Zarya paused as an added weight came up with the bundle, the terrycloth fabric folded in such a way that well-defined corners could be seen as it wrapped itself around the box-like shape.
Setting the towel down, the tall woman unwrapped the contents, exposing a small wooden case, either side and bottom covered by a thick polished wood, smaller glass panes allowing the smaller medal inside to be clearly seen. She examined it closer, the gold of the medal dancing in the natural light of the room, the familiar engraving of Nike with the stadium behind him shining back at her, the words 'XXX Olympiad London 2012' following the curve of the medal at the top. Sitting at the base sat a small, golden plaque reading 'Lena Oxton, 400m Women 49.50'. Similarly, situated on the outside of the case sat another, larger plaque reading in thin black letters: 'In my heart, you'll always have the gold'.
Zarya turned to Lena holding out the case in question, eyes shifting up to the woman in front of her. "Is this real?"
Lena parted from her unpacking and looked to see what Zarya was holding, almost instantly freezing in her position. She gave a small nervous laugh "Oh, yeah." She got up from her spot on the bed, taking it from the other woman's hold and gingerly wrapped her fingers around it, supporting the delicate framework. Without a second glance at the case or its contents, she lowered it back into one of the now emptied boxes, letting it rest flesh with the brown cardboard. "It's real. I just leave it in here though"
"Why didn't you tell me?" She asked, watching as the other woman set it down, leaving it and its importance alone and forgotten.
Lena's face had fallen, any fragment of her cheerful demeanor gone as she slowly got back up onto the bed, going back to her original unpacking duties. "I don't compete anymore, so I just don't talk about it."
It took almost no time at all for Zarya to pin the two together, explanations forming in her head between the little known information regarding the smaller woman. The sudden inability to compete coupled with the intense leg pain from their first interaction played in her mind, a sense of pity began to form for the other woman. She just nodded in response and moved on, continuing to help Lena unpack the rest of her things. After she grabbed a pile of clothing and moved onto the next box, Zarya spoke again. "I still think you should hang it. You should be proud of your accomplishments."
Despite the overall pain regarding the subject, Lena pushed aside all negativity, allowing a facade to be remade instead. She gave Zarya a smile "I don't want to be one of those old Olympians who have all their medals just hanging about." Instead of questioning it further, the Russian gave a slight nod, simply going back to work.
Another dinner rush was passing by at work, the normal influx of people making the waitstaff and chefs busy as always. After Lena made her way through her given section for the night, taking three orders, she beelined towards the side room, quickly tapping one of the touch screen computers, typing in her employee ID. As she began entering the orders into the system, the manager entered the door frame, only looking around until she spotted the waitress. "Lena, when you're free come to my office."
Lena gave a small nod in response, words failing her upon hearing the request. The other woman parted from the doorframe, the sound of high heels clicking away as the waitress was almost frozen in position, taking a few seconds to recover before getting back to work. A little while later after a few more orders were taken and placed, Lena made her way to Amélie's office and put a fist up to the door, giving it two soft knocks before parting it open slowly. "You wanted to talk to me, love?"
Upon entering, the manager remained in her usual place, positioned at her desk and clicking away at her computer, filling out the newest report or evaluation. "Yes, I wanted to check in with you. Have a seat."
Lena's heart was racing as millions of different possibilities sped through her mind, each adding to the anxiety of the given situation. She pulled out the chair that had been tucked into the other side of Amélie's desk and planted herself down onto the wood of the seat. The waitress folded her hands over her lap, fingers weaving together as she sat there patiently, mind still racing as her foot anxiously bouncing up and down.
Once the tapping of the keyboard ceased and the application had been closed out of, Amelie turned her seat, facing the younger girl. Her nylon stocking covered ankles crossed as the manager inspected Lena, narrowed eyes glancing over the black vest and white buttoned up shirt her of uniform before resting on the waitress's soft, innocent facial features. "Now that you have your new schedule, I wanted to know how it was going for you."
Relief began to wash over Lena, realizing the origin and intent of this meeting. "Oh it's going great." She began, a smile forming on her face yet again, putting her almost permanent feature back into place. "I'm really enjoy working here."
"That's great." Amelie got up from her seat, towering over Lena. "It was rather troublesome to fit those hours in." Worry began to build up inside of Lena yet again, her lips parting as an apology began to form on her tongue. But before she could say anything, Amélie continued. "I am telling you this because I am wanting one thing in return." She had taken steps towards the young waitress and made her way around the desk, arms loosely crossing over her chest.
"Sure, love, anything." She managed to make out, the previous bout of relief escaping her as the other woman made her approach.
The manager moved in closer, her hand now placed on Lena's small wrist, pinning it to the dark wooden arm of the chair. The younger woman looked up, craning her neck to get better sight of the her higher up, towering over her. Amelie looked down onto the waitress, pressing her wrist down firmly. "Your complete compliance." She said, dark words laced heavily with the weight of her accent, adding to the anxiety and danger of the situation.
Lena's brown eyes widen wide at this, lips parting wordlessly as she struggled to come to terms with what was going on. She stared up at the other woman, completely lost and unable to form anything remotely regarding speech as her mind raced, reality still coming to terms with her. Amélie's other hand grabbed at Lena's jaw, long fingers wrapping around the angles of the bone, holding it completely still and in place. The manager leaned down as she forced their lips together, pressing her soft, full ones into Lena's. Frozen in place, the young hire sat firmly in her chair with nowhere to go any no way to fight back the unwanted advance. The grip on her chin tightened as Amélie pressed harder, her lips planted firmly onto the other's without letting up.
After a matter of moments, Amélie pulled away, her intimidating, looming glare meeting Lena's eyes. "Do we have an understanding?"
"You.." She began, words failing to come together as her entire ability to properly form speech crumbled in front of her.
"If you don't understand then you can say say good-bye to your job." The words left her lips with a concerning easiness that left Lena in alert, her insides on fire and her mind with possibilities that she did not want to think about.
"You can't be serious." She blurted out, emotions running hot as the possibility of all she had worked for becoming useless, crumbling around her due to chance interaction.
"I am, now do you understand?" The grip on her jaw tightened, pressure from the hold growing into an uncomfortable, painful pin, making the younger girl wince in response.
Lena nodded, small and defeated under the towering authority of her manager.
"Good," she said retracting her hands and harsh grip from Lena's jaw and wrist. "Now go back to work."
Slowly, Lena made her way out of the seat, finding her footing as she began towards the door, the overwhelming fear and confusion of the situation making her steps heavy. As she began reaching for the door handle, Amélie called out yet. "One more thing, Lena"
Lena stopped in her tracks, reluctantly turning around to face her manager."Yes, ma'am?"
The corner of her lip turning up in a half-smile upon hearing the word ''ma'am'; a refreshing, more appreciated term, highlighting her power over the waitress. "You know better then to tell someone, right?" The woman asked, resting her chin upon an elegant hand, her elbow placed on the wood of the desk.
Lena gave a slow nod. "Yeah.." She muttered, completely defeated under the authority of her higher up.
Amélie simply waved her off and Lena continued her shift.
Author (Alec) Notes: Who votes we give Jamieson and Mako a spin-off fanfic?