"It's so nice to meet you all!" Lena watched as Emily shook hands with Angela with a grin on her face, "Lena has told me so much about you!"
"Only good things I hope?" The doctor smiled back, while Emily looked back at Lena with a teasing frown on her face.
"If I didn't know any better, I would've said you were trying to steal her from me." Emily somehow said it with a straight face. Lena couldn't help but blush in embarrassment, thankful for once that Archer wasn't here to see this.
"HA!" Reinhardt, and it wasn't that weird that the man preferred his last name over anything else, laughed out loud, "With how much she talks about you, I don't think you have to worry about that!"
"Reinhardt!" Her blush threatened to burn her ears as Emily's grin filled her face. Behind the older man, she could see Winston struggling to keep his own laughter in. Not only him, but she could see a certain cyborg look away himself, a hand going to his own mouth.
Indeed, Genji had joined them, at Angela's request, and while the cadet wasn't as close to the cyborg as the doctor, she'd made a promise.
That, and it was a perfect opportunity to try and hook those two up.
Seriously, as much as they tried to hide it, it was basically an open secret that the two had late night talks. The entire London branch of Overwatch even had a bet to see when, not if, the two would get together. She suspected that even Commander Morrison had a stake in it!
"Anyway, shall we?" Lena gestured to the small diner in front of them. She'd invited everyone out for lunch today, and this was the single best place she knew of. Winston had been hesitant at first, stating that it'd be difficult for someone like him. It only took a minute of Lena's pleading for him to join.
Thankfully, Lena already knew that this place could sit the gorilla quite well.
"Strange." Angela raised an eyebrow as one of the servers guided them to a seat, "I didn't think this place would have reservations like that."
Lena quietly cackled, as Emily snorted with a grin. Angela looked at them with a frown, but the cadet was quiet. She'd know soon enough.
"So, what're you getting?" The chatter of the diner around them was light, but Lena knew for a fact that this was because they had gotten there early.
Around her sat quite the odd group, if one were to look at it from the outside. Three women, sitting with a gorilla, a cyborg, and a man bigger than even the gorilla.
"Hmmm. I can't say I'm familiar with any of this. How about you, Genji?" Angela nudged the cyborg, who gave a hum of acknowledgement.
"I know some of these dishes are Japanese, but that is all. The others are foreign as well." The cyborg had slowly opened up more and more to them as the days went by. When before, a cold word or two was usually enough for the man, nowadays, he was more than willing to join their conversations. Usually with Angela's prompting.
"I would recommend getting the house special." The server spoke from their side, her notepad ready to take their orders.
"Then please." Angela nodded at the server.
"I'll take the same!" Reinhardt called out, with Winston and Genji doing the same.
"And you two?" The server turned her attention to the couple.
"Just the usual for us, Marie." Emily spoke for both of them.
"Alright then, orders should be out in ten minutes."
When the server left, Angela threw a quizzical glance at the couple, "You're regulars here, I take it?"
"You could say that, yeah." Lena grinned, "Anyway, me and Emily got an announcement to make." She grabbed her fiance's hand under the table and smiled. Angela was the first to get it, and barely muffled a squeal.
Genji looked at her as the doctor started shaking him excitedly while still looking at the couple, "The wedding?"
"Yep!" With a flourish, Emily pulled out a couple of invitations, "It's going to be next month, and we'd be honored if you all were to attend."
"Of course we will!" Angela took the invitation with a grace that didn't hide the excitement she felt. Reinhardt accepted his with a proud smile, but Lena stared at Winston with a critical eye.
"Winston." She held the invitation for the gorilla to him, but didn't let go when he grabbed it, "I hope I don't have to drag you to attend, ya hear me?"
"I wouldn't miss this for the world." It was perhaps one of the first times that Lena had heard such confidence come from the scientist.
"Good!" Lena smiled at him, "It wouldn't do for my best man to be missing."
"Wait, what?"
After a good minute of assuaging Winston's worries, the six fell back into comfortable chatter. Slowly, the small diner started to fill with more and more people. Soon enough, there was a whole crowd outside waiting to be seated. The poor server they had was running around trying to get orders as quickly as possible.
"Okay, now I get why reservations are a thing here." Angela was looking at the large crowd in shock. There must've been at least fifty people waiting outside, "I'm impressed that you even managed to reserve a spot, considering everything."
"It pays to know the chef."
"Archer!" Lena grinned up at the man. It was strange to her, to see the Spirit dressed in an apron of all things, but she supposed it suited him just fine, "C'mon, you ruddy bastard, lemme introduce you!" Despite her words, she continued to grin.
"Everyone, may I introduce you to the best chef I've ever met, Archer!" Lena gestured to him with a flourish. Emily politely clapped in amusement. Archer rolled his eyes as he started to place plates in front of them.
"That's only because you've never had good food, Oxton. I pity your tastebuds." The guests looked at the plated food, and immediately, they could tell something was different. That all of them were different dishes despite ordering the same thing.
"I'm sorry, but we all ordered the house special?"
"Indeed. Marie might not have said it, but I make each special different for each person." Archer nodded, but Lena snapped her head towards the taller male.
"No fair, Archer! You call Emily and Marie by their names but I'm still Oxton?!"
"You look more like an Oxton than a Lena, I suppose." Archer nodded as if it was the wisest thing he'd said so far. Emily stifled a laugh.
"Gah!" Lena rubbed her hair in frustration.
"At any rate, let me introduce myself properly. I am Kiritsugu Emiya, but please, call me Archer." The Spirit introduced himself with a small tilt of his head.
"Hoh. Interesting."
Lena almost jolted from her seat. Archer didn't normally use the connection between them when he was in front of her like this, saying that it would be too confusing, 'Archer, what is it?' She thought back, as everyone else introduced themselves.
"Oh nothing you should worry about. I'll tell you later."
"Please," Archer spoke outwardly, "Before I leave you to it, I would like your opinion on my cooking."
"Don't worry about it, he does this whenever someone new orders the special." Lena waved off the confused glances of her companions. Reinhardt was the first to shrug, before digging in into his dish, a German one that Lena was unfamiliar with.
A single bite later, and the man was staring off in the distance.
Another moment, and the man started crying, even as he took more bites, slowly savoring each one. The three people unfamiliar with the diner were startled, while everyone else in the diner seemingly ignored it.
"Reinhardt, is something wrong?!" Angela was the first to try and check up on him.
"Nothing's wrong, Angela, nothing at all!" Reinhardt stared at his dish in apparent wonder, "It's just-this tastes just like my mother used to make!" The man stood up before grabbing Archer in a bear hug.
"Thank you, my friend!" With tears still in his eyes, the man went right back to eating his food.
Angela, Genji and Winston stared dumbfounded at the scene, a scene that was apparently common enough that no one in the diner batted an eye.
Soon enough, the three of them started to eat, and were in the same, almost trance-like state that Reinhardt was in.
"I still don't know how you do that, Archer."
"I'm just that good, Oxton. I'm just that good." With a self satisfied nod, Archer turned to go back to the kitchen.
"Oi, wait a minute, will ya." She shuffled through a bunch of invitations, before handing one to Archer, "You better be there, alright?"
She already knew he would be, but she'd be damned if she didn't do this properly. Archer took the invitation in hand, staring at it in apparent contemplation. He turned to Emily, a look of mock pity on his features.
"Truly, you have the patience of a saint."
"You bloody arse!" She could hear him laugh as he walked back inside the kitchen.
It had been a good day. She'd invited her friends to the wedding, and they'd finally gotten to taste probably some of the best food they'd ever gotten. After eating, they had all gone back to the headquarters, but not before finding Archer and thanking him for the food. Well, all of them, except for Genji, who became a bit quieter than normal. Overall though, it was a good day.
So of course, something had to come and ruin it.
The entire compound was gathered in the mess hall. Commander Morrison had gathered them all together to discuss some important news, one that he'd deemed important enough to postpone his travel to the Swiss main base.
"So, any idea what the Commander wants?" She elbowed Winston with a grin on her face. The gorilla looked distinctly uncomfortable, if only because he had to be careful about his seating so as to not break anything.
"Well, there was a food fight yesterday, but-oh excuse me." Winston apologized to a man sitting nearby, as the scientist accidentally tilted the entire bench towards him.
It was a small miracle to anyone that watched the bench as it stubbornly held up. A miracle to anyone who wasn't Lena.
'Thanks for the Reinforcement, Archer.'
As she felt the hum of acknowledgement from the Spirit, her brain finally caught up to what Winston had said, "There was a bloody food fight?"
"Hmm?" Winston absentmindedly shifted the bench into its proper position, "Oh yes! You all were off on your lunch break, I believe. Some school kids had a field trip inside, and one of them threw a plate of food. Next thing you know." Winston shrugged as he chuckled.
"Bollocks!" Lena grabbed at her head, "All the bloody times for a food fight to happen, and it's when I'm not there!"
"There, there." Winston patted her back while trying to hold his own laughter, "There's always next time."
"You better call me when the next one happens, you hear me, ya big lug?" The cadet playfully punched the bigger mammal on the arm, before going quiet. The Commander walked forward, heavy step after heavy step.
One by one, the noises started to die down. Morrison didn't even need to talk for it to happen. The seriousness on his face said it all.
"As you may or may not know, Overwatch has had its fair share of controversies over the years." Morrison started with a grave look on his face. He stood with his hands folded behind his back, looking every bit as the hero that he was known for.
'I don't like where this is going.'
"The man has barely spoken, give it a bit." Archer, somehow, was the voice of reason.
"Recently, there has been talk about a unit of Overwatch, one embroiled in covert operations."
'Archer.' She thought in such a dead tone that even she was appalled, 'Is this going where I think it is?'
"Alright, I'll give you this one. I don't like where this is going either."
'Archer, what the hell did you do?' She could feel herself panicking as the whispers of the gathered crowd continued to rise in volume. A wave of curiosity, confusion and surprise was taking over the gathered Overwatch operatives.
"Nothing." She could practically feel the man shrug, "Well, unless you count as following the paper trail that their accountants left."
"Which is why I want to nip this in the bud as early as possible. Yes, Blackwatch is real."
Those in the room who knew about the rumors started shouting immediately. Those who didn't stared in confusion. Lena was incoherently screaming at Archer.
"Huh. I thought that they would at least take another week or so to get outed." Archer was shameless in his words, "Hell, for a black ops team, they've got a lot of rumors that are pretty accurate. Though, that's more to do with your modern surveillance tech than anything."
"THIS INFORMATION." Morrison raised his voice, a voice that was somehow scarier than anything else than Reyes could ever muster. The room flinched back as the furious gaze of the Overwatch commander glared at all of them, daring to speak up.
"Will be made public in the coming hours. I am informing you now as respect to your status as members of this organization. I will answer no questions on the matter, only confirming Blackwatch's existence. What you do now is entirely up to your prerogative, but know that Overwatch will respect it so long as it is within the law. You are dismissed."
The man stalked through the mess hall, head still held up high. He didn't seem to mind the mass of people that were desperately trying to get more answers.
Lena was one of them.
The one next to her was not.
"Huh. What's Blackwatch?" Winston scratched his head as Lena gaped at him.
"You don't know about Blackwatch?"
"This coming from the woman I just told this about?"
'Archer, this is serious!'
"And I am as well. Oxton, nothing will change, I assure you." Archer sighed in her mind as she explained everything she knew to Winston, "The UN was already aware of Blackwatch. The only thing that'll happen is a PR hit, nothing else."
'Are, are you sure?' Lena feared that this would shut down the entirety of the organization. While Overwatch had been controversial before, none of them involved the public disclosure of an entire black ops division.
"I am. The UN can't risk disbanding Overwatch with Null Sector threatening a Second Omnic Crisis. Calm down."
'Alright.' The Spirit, as he usually was, was calm enough to bring forth frustratingly rational thoughts to her head, 'I'll trust your take then.'
"Good, now if you'll excuse me, I need to go do some groceries."
She internally snorted at the obvious diversion to try and lift her spirits. Archer acted all tough and gravelly, and he was snarky as all hell, and a load of other things that Lena didn't say. Deep down though, the man was just a big softie.
She had faith in his words, and in Overwatch as a whole. This, like all the controversies, all the issues that Overwatch had attracted, would fade.
She believed in that, without a shadow of a doubt.
A/N: If you like what I do and want to support me, check out my P-atreon at P-atreon•com(slash)Almistyor.
And a special thanks to: Oliver vazquez, brutalcrab and Tassimo.