Chapter 10: Message Not Delivered
In the dim morning bedroom Val flicked on the light, already dressed except for his shoes, and Gabriel, still in bed, stirred in his sleep. Quietly, Val padded over to the window, opening the blinds.
The bright morning sun beamed between the slats, and his partner in the bed groaned, lifting his head up for a moment before laying back down. Val stopped at the dresser to pick up his energy drink, looked over at Gabriel now with a pillow over his head, rolled his eyes, and walked to the bed, crossing an arm across his chest.
"Get up, we need to leave." Standing next to the bed Val stared down, waiting. "Gabriel." No response. Val yanked the pillow off of the other's head, snapping, "Oh my god, get your ass up!" Gabriel blinked at him a few times, sat up frowning, looked around, then looked at Val.
The tired man tilted his head. "Is that my shirt?" he said groggily, throwing the sheets off. Val looked down at his plain white t-shirt in confusion.
"No?" Gabriel sat on the edge off the bed, but kept squinting at him. "Did you also bring a white t-shirt?" Val asked while looking down again. Gabriel's behavior was a little strange, a white t-shirt wasn't the most unique article of clothing, but the guy did just wake up.
"Yes."
"Well, I got this one from my bag. We just have the same taste." Val shrugged before walking out of the room to let Gabriel get ready.
The already dressed man went into the living room, sat down on the sofa, and went through his mental checklist to make sure he wasn't forgetting anything as he looked around, putting on his shoes. Gabriel came out of the room after a few minutes, dressed and with his bag on his shoulder.
"Are you," Gabriel started, but paused. before clearing his throat and continuing. Val followed the other's stare, seeing the older man spotted a plate of food on the kitchen counter. "Are you ready to go?" he said, and looked away from the plate. That's what Val forgot.
Val hurried over to the kitchen as he spoke. "I forgot about that. We're running late." He picked up the plate, and scraped the food into the trash methodically, before he started rinsing the plate in the glanced over as he did, and rolled his eyes when he caught Gabriel staring at him wide eyed. "Gabriel, don't look at me like that, I just forgot to eat my breakfast. Like I don't always make you food, anyways." Val left the plate in the sink and adjusted his bag on his shoulder, walking to the door.
In an irritated tone, Gabriel asked, "Why are you calling me that?" as he waited for Val by the front door.
"Calling you what?"
He answered much more quietly now, "Gabriel. You always call me Reyes."
Val tilted his head, wondering what was going on in this man's head. He was bothered by the food, which Val explained, then assumed Val was wearing his shirt earlier, and he's bothered by his name now, when Sombra calls him Gabe all the time.
"I don't know how to put this in a less vulgar way, but you've been inside me. I think we are on a first name basis," Val said, which Gabriel did not seem to find very entertaining, only turning his head away to look at the door. "You seemed to like it last night, do you want me to stop calling you that?"
"I don't care, just drop the subject!" Gabriel snapped, and started to exit the building. Val grabbed Gabriel's arm, only more confused now, which Gabriel turned back to look at him, irritated. Clearly last night was a sensitive subject.
"You've been acting on edge all morning. Is something wrong? Did you want to talk about last night or something?" Val asked, trying to be sensitive to the ticking time bomb in his hand. Gabriel pulled his arm away aggressively.
"Absolutely not, I want to go home. When we leave this house, we are never speaking of what happened yesterday again, understand?" Gabriel said roughly. Val raised his hands up in defeat, and the two left the house without another word.
Arriving back at the base went smoothly, and very quietly, the two walking in silence back to the housing block. Val found a little bit of comfort in the smell of the ocean air and the sight of the tall concrete buildings.
Upon entering the house, Widowmaker sat on the couch drawing, looked up at the boys and waved with her same straight face. Gabriel didn't even stop to wave back at her as he simply treaded straight to his room. Widow looked over her shoulder at him, then rolled her eyes and went back to her notebook.
"Hello, V," she said flatly as he approached her. "Yes, I've been eating, do not bother me about it."
"Alright, alright, just came to say hi." Val said, then set his bag on the sofa and walked away toward the kitchen, absentmindedly going through the cabinets, then opened the fridge and stood behind the open door staring, wondering what to make for himself after skipping breakfast.
He heard Gabriel leave his room, walk towards the living area, then his footsteps stopped.
"Hey," Gabriel said, lowering his voice, though Val could barely hear him from the kitchen. "I need to talk to you, can you come over tonight?"
Val pulled out a couple things to start making food, and now he was starting to feel sick since he hadn't eaten that morning. He closed the fridge, unconsciously using his thumb to stop the noise out of habit. When he turned, he noticed Reaper had leaned over the back of the sofa next to Widow while talking to her.
"Are we going to your house or am I being seen in public?" Widow asked, looking up at Gabriel.
"My apartment." Val watched the two talk from the kitchen as he made himself a sandwich, very quietly as he always did, since Widow hated being disturbed.
"Fine." Widow looked back down quickly, her hair whipping over the back of the couch. "Tell Sombra you're leaving before you go, she's roaming around here and will hunt you down if you don't." Gabriel gently tossed her ponytail off the back of the couch.
"I don't want to talk to her right now," Gabriel said, and Sombra uncloaked next to him.
"Why don't you want to say bye?" she yelled, putting her hands on her hips, making Gabriel jump.
"I warned you," Widow said, not looking up from her notebook.
"I told you to cut that out!" Gabriel shouted, then hooked an arm around the tiny hacker's head.
"¿Ya no quieres a tu hija? You don't love me anymore?" Sombra continued to yell while she struggled.
"You're not my daughter, and I don't love you doing the stupid cloaking thing while eavesdropping!" Gabriel wrestled with her, and spotted Val in the kitchen as they did. "When did you get here?" he asked, still shouting, and let go of Sombra's head.
"My blissful peace was short lived, but sweet," Widow sighed, before standing up and leaving the room.
"I was here the whole time, I never left," Val covered his mouth as he ate, trying not to laugh while very entertained by the whole scene.
"I have to get out of this house, I feel like I live here." Gabriel practically ran off to his room. Val rolled his eyes at the other's drama, before going back to eating.
Sombra approached Val in the kitchen, leaning to check no one was coming down the hallway before she started talking.
"So, can I ask you something?" Sombra lifted herself onto the counter next to Val. He gave her a side eye as he ate.
"Depends on if you're getting me in trouble."
"What do you think about those two?" she asked quietly, nodding towards the hallway to the bedrooms. Val paused his eating for a second, confused.
"What about them?"
"Do you think they're, you know," Sombra made a very inappropriate gesture with her hands, "a thing?"
Val widened his eyes. "Oh. Oh my god, no way." He was quick to dismiss her, but the thought was already planted in his head. She didn't just say anything for no reason. He squinted at her, then asked suspiciously, "Why?"
"Didn't you see how they were talking, the way he was playing with her hair?" Oh, great, another one of her conspiracies.
Vall rolled his eyes. "He was not playing with her hair. That doesn't mean anything," he said, biting into his sandwich.
"I mean, it just makes sense, they both hate the whole world except each other, they've known each other the longest, and she knew him before Talon." Val put down his food, biting on his inner cheeks. "I can't imagine anyone else actually wanting to touch that old man anyways."
"Oh fucking hell. She better not know something I don't." Val thought, as Sombra spun her newest conspiracy, while also decimating his self-esteem.
"He's also known Moira for a long time, no?" Val wiped his face with a napkin, trying to sound as interested as possible, and not irked by her comments.
"Yeah, but Widow is the only one who's been to his house." Sombra leaned over and spoke quietly. "Before and after Talon. I think they're getting freak-ay." She wiggled her eyebrows at him.
Val covered his mouth as he held in a laugh, before he composed himself, telling her sternly, "None of this is your business, and I don't want to hear it. I know it's all crap because you don't give info for free." He found the topic ironic to bring up now of all times, however she did have a few points that he didn't like hearing.
"Well, it's just a theory, you know I'm a chismosa." Sombra inspected her nails before looking up expectantly. "I was hoping you could tell me, since you and Gabe want to be up each other's culo's with all the missions you're going on." Ah, there it was. Val only pressed his lips into a line at the irony of her phrasing.
"Last time you had a theory, I was an Overwatch spy. Besides, Gabriel doesn't like me right now anyways." Immediately, Val knew he said too much. He started packing away his left overs anxiously while he thought of an excuse, avoiding her eyes.
"Aw, what happened? Did you two get in a fight?"
"Uh, I don't know Sombra. Guys don't really fight, they just stop hanging out when they don't get along." Val opened the fridge and looked around inside, which now seemed way more packed than it was before.
"Why weren't you getting along though?"
"I don't really know, we're always arguing about something, you know. I guess you'll have to ask him, he's avoiding me." Val said quickly, and simply forced the food in the fridge. He looked over at Sombra who had a concerned look on her face.
"That makes me sad, you two were getting along so well and you won't even talk about it. Gabe won't say bye to me, 'cause he's too busy with his stupid girlfriend. This family is falling apart." Sombra frowned at the ground, her eyebrows turning up, looking like she was about to cry. Right, attachment issues, family unit, this was her family.
Val sighed, pulling her into a side hug. "I'm just as confused as you right now Sombra. He's being a dick, it's not you." Val rested his chin on the top of her head, and sighed.
"Yeah, you're right." Sombra sniffed. Just then, Reaper came out of his room, quickly heading towards the front door, Sombra yelling at him, "Oyes!"
Gabriel shouted back, "What? What do you want?" He only looked at them over his shoulder.
"Uh, bye, again! Since you won't say it! Hope you have a nice date with la bruja, asshole! Hope the head is worth getting your passwords leaked!" Sombra said aggressively and flipped him off. That made Gabriel turn around real quick, as Val shoved her away, covering his face with his hand, embarrassed.
Gabriel angrily stomped toward them shouting, "What? The fuck? Are you on crack? Is that what you smoke? You smoke crack little girl? I'm gonna wring your neck in this kitchen right now for talking to me like that. What are you even talking about?"
Val stepped forward and put an arm across the raging man's chest, Sombra taking this as a prime opportunity to keep going.
"You and the spider are making plans to go to your apartment right now, don't pretend you don't know."
Val glared back at her. "Shut up. Right now," he said, and pointed at her.
Gabriel shoved the other's arm off his chest. "Get off me! You two need to stay out of my business, I don't even," Gabriel paused for a second, as he squinted, first at Sombra, then at Val. Then he widened his eyes and threw his hands up as he walked away. "I'm not fucking dealing with this. I'm leaving."
Just before Gabriel walked out of the house, he stopped and turned around.
"Lacroix! Let's go!" he shouted. Widow left her room, looking over at the two in the kitchen with her same disgruntled face before walking out of the building with Gabriel.
Val completely blocked out whatever shittalk Sombra spouted, entering crisis mode, as he saw the two leaving at the same time.
"Oh, shit. This can't be good," Val thought to himself, realizing they just pissed off one, or both, of the two deadliest mercenaries at Talon, and tried to gameplan
Either, Sombra's conspiracy wasn't true, and it looked like they were spreading false rumors about Gabriel, and apparently leaking his passwords, thank you Sombra. Or, it was true, in which case, he just slept with the boyfriend of the world's deadliest woman, and he lived with her. Fucking fantastic.
Maybe just a quick text to Gabriel, because this was going south very fast if Sombra continued to do what she does best and stir the pot.
💀Blade
We need to talk. RIGHT NOW.
Message not delivered. Error - 80
Sending fake errors is NOT gonna work
I ain't stupid
Message not delivered. Error - 80
Message not delivered. Error - 80
DID YOU ACTUALLY BLOCK ME?
OH REAL FUCKING MATURE
He analyzed his options, preparing for the worst. He couldn't talk to Widow and let the wrong thing slip again. This wasn't his first accidental home wrecking rodeo, angry women were not always rational, especially if they didn't know their partners weren't straight. And that was without being brainwashed killers, but this had to get straightened out, Sombra was impatient.
"Oyes! Are you even listening to me?" Sombra poked him roughly on the shoulder as he looked down at his phone.
"No, sorry. I just realized I don't have my headphones, and I think I left them on the airship. Let me go get them before they take off with them onboard." Val said distractedly.
"You are the worst."
"I know sorry, I can't lose another pair, I'll be right back."
Val jogged out of the door and across the concrete trying to catch up with the two. He spotted Widow on her way to the hangar, walking by herself, and made his way up so he could walk next to her.
"Hey, where's Reyes, I thought you were leaving together?"
"I was walking too slow."
"Oh, I need to talk to him, is he heading straight to the hangar?" Widow nodded, and Val took a few quick steps, before stopping and turning back. "Damn, that's kind of rude, do you want me to walk with you?"
"No, thank you. He's having a meltdown and I enjoy walking outside, I couldn't care less if someone walks with me or not."
"Ok, cool. Don't let him be a dick to you alright." Val said, walking backwards as he pointed at her
"Believe me, I don't."
Gabriel hadn't gotten to the hangar yet when Val had sight on him. The older man turned his head at Val's rapid footsteps, only groaning after seeing who it was, but didn't stop for his pursuer.
"Reyes, we need to talk!" Val caught up with Gabriel, keeping pace with the other agent.
"If it's what I think it's about, I told you I don't want to talk about it."
"Oh, I am not asking anymore, we have a situation."
Gabriel groaned, looked around, then leaned in and said, "I'm not fucking talking on this base, Sombra has it wiretapped to hell and back." Val glared at him, looked around, checked which building they were closest to, then sighed.
"Come here." He grabbed the older man's hand, pulling him into the building they stood next to. A few steps into the hallway he pulled Gabriel into a small supply closet with himself. "We can talk here, Sombra doesn't clean. And I tried to text you first, did you block me? Are you fucking 15 years old?"
"Oh no, I know what you're doing, you two are conspiring. What if your phone is recording or something?"
"My phone? Really? Fine." Val took out his phone and ripped the battery from the back, tossing both into the corner of the room. "Should we conduct a strip search too?"
"You'd like that wouldn't you, little creep, I should file an HR complaint for you stalking and harassing me. I'm not saying shit." Gabriel crossed his arms.
"Oh, my god, I cannot tell if you're serious right now. Why won't you talk?"
"I'm fucking joking, but you're getting on my nerves. I know you were talking shit about me with Sombra, why would I want to talk to you?"
"Dude, the last thing I'm going to fucking do is tell her about my sex life, she'd sell me out for a cigarette and a smoothie!" Val's stone faced teammate gave him no response, and he rubbed his eyes with one hand. "Look, I mostly need to know if you're sleeping with Widow because if what Sombra said is true, Widow finds out about last night, she'll bite my head off," Val explained, exasperated.
Gabriel only glared back for another few seconds.
"Why the fuck did you two start on that out of nowhere?"
"Widow's the only one who's been to your house, you were about to take her home with you, it looks a little weird! I didn't think so, Sombra pointed it out, and she makes very compelling cases, I think you can agree," Val explained while rubbing his forehead. Gabriel looked down, very focused on squinting at the ground.
He looked back up with a much more neutral expression, as neutral as the pissed off mercenary got anyway. "I see how that comes across now."
"So?"
"I think it's a little funny, and gross, that you believed that, but no. We are not, and have never been together. Can I go home now?" Val looked back wide eyed.
"Oh no, that's only half the situation."
"Ooh que la madre, what now?" Gabriel threw his bag down on the floor.
"Well, I," Val paused in distress, trying to find where to start, and instead getting a devilish idea. He started twisting his hair nervously, looking down at the ground, before he said, "I broke a vow of abstinence for you. We have to get married now." Val looked up at Gabriel through his lashes, raising his eyebrows solemnly, which must have been pretty convincing because the already ashen man lost a little color in his face.
"What?" Gabriel sneered. Val tried to keep a straight face as he continued.
"I know, I'm sorry I should've told you sooner. I wouldn't have even said anything if it weren't for," he took a dramatic pause to raise his head and place a hand over his lower stomach as he said, "the baby."
Val couldn't help but grin at the stern man glaring at him, until Gabriel took a swing at his stomach, knocking the wind out of him. "Quit goofing off! You can't have kids, remember?"
"Not after that punch I'm not." Val said, wheezing dramatically, even though he was perfectly fine. Gabriel went to pick up his bag, which Val immediately stopped and reached to grab the bag strap also. "Wait, no, I'm serious, you have to talk to me about last night! We have have Sombra on our asses, you avoiding me is what forced us into this fucking closet, we aren't leaving until we are on the same page!"
Gabriel groaned, but let go of his bag. "You're so obsessed, fine. What is it you want to talk about, let me guess, what are we?"
"What? No, why are you being so weird? You're acting like this is the end of the world."
"I didn't want you to get the wrong idea, last night was a one time thing. Clearly that failed because here you are, texting me, shoving me into a closet, cooking for me."
"Get the wrong- you're the one who's acting like it's a huge deal! That food wasn't for you by the way!" Val started to shout, then paused and took a deep breath, hands on his hips, praying to any higher power—especially Britney—for patience. "It's fine, it's fine. Look, I know! I got the fucking idea since last night, and I don't like you like that! But Sombra is already asking me questions I can't answer. So we have to figure out an excuse before she finds out the real reason we aren't talking, then you can go on and ruin this friendship however you'd like."
"Oh."
"Oh what?"
"Nothing, continue."
"No, no, no. Tell me what you're thinking, you've been really interested in the shelf while you've been letting me ramble. I know I talk too much, what is it?"
"It's a very interesting shelf." Val glared at him, Gabriel's sudden goofy attitude not cute after the way he's been acting. "Ok, I may have misread this situation."
Val tilted his head, a little awestruck by the other's mishandling of this whole debacle. "Are you serious? Gabriel, you are not the first, and not the last, person I have had a one night stand with, even on base to be honest. Please, for the love of god, do not flatter yourself." Val rolled his eyes, and a little amused at the irony of the situation, smiled while asking, "Did you think I was going to fall in love, want three kids and a dog after one night with you?"
Gabriel stared back blankly for a few moments.
"Well it sounds ridiculous when you say it like that."
Val laughed.
"Oh my god are you 16? Am I in a Rom-Com? Is this The Notebook? You're not that good, get the fuck out of here." Val gave a dismissive wave pacing around, but smiling, a little relieved Gabriel was talking to him again, and actually joking around.
"Oh, that is not what you were saying last night," Gabriel said as he raised his eyebrows. The younger one turned his head slowly to the other.
"You'll never prove it wasn't a fluke though," Val challenged, trying to see what he was getting at.
"See? I was right, you're obsessed with me, you want me." Gabriel squinted behind his stupid face mask, his big arms still crossed. Val couldn't help but drop his jaw in awe.
"Are you flirting with me? Right now? After all your drama?" Val asked in shock, a little puzzled by the neurotic behavior but flattered nonetheless.
Gabriel kept his composure, unmoving. Except the tiny, glance down and away. He answered after a few seconds, only dodging the question
"You're something else. I have a flight to catch, are we done here?"
"Busted," Val thought to himself. "No mask to hide your eyes right now." He gave a smug smile, propping his head up on the shelf with his arm.
"I don't know, I thought it was cute. But does this mean you're going to keep talking to me after this? You're not going to make it weird?"
"Only if you don't. We're just friends after we leave this room though, alright?" Gabriel said firmly, and reached down to pick up his bag, then waited expectantly for a reply. Val twirled his hair in his hand absentmindedly.
"That sounds like a plan." An idea formed in his head as he played with his hair, and just before Gabriel left he spoke again. "And, Gabe, if you ever want to hang out, just as friends, and, uh, prove that wasn't a fluke," he said, giving Gabriel a once over for good measure. "You have my number. No strings attached."
"That," Gabriel swallowed hard. "Sure is an offer."
"It's up to you, I can be just friends, but I don't get attached. And, do me a favor."
"Hmm?"
"Fucking unblock me."
"Right…"
