Chapter 15: Wally World
"Hey, Reyes." Val said, stopping the already aggravated man on his way out.
Gabriel turned on his heel, finding Val in his casual wear, now adding a black baseball cap over his half up pink hair.
"What?" he answered, aggravated he can't ever make it out this damn door without getting stopped by someone.
"I require your assistance." Val said. Judging by the laid back demeanor with the cut up t-shirt and jeans, it was not important enough to keep the mercenary from going home.
"If it's not a mission, no you don't." He turned back to the door, trying to leave again.
"It's kind of a mission." Val said, grabbing onto the exiting man's wrist before he could leave. Gabriel sighed while he waited for an explanation. "I have to buy groceries, and I'm not allowed alone with the company card." Val looked at him with pleading eyes. Gabriel took his arm out of the other's grip.
"Take Sombra with you."
"She's still sick." Gabriel stared back frowning, waiting for a better answer. "Akande said you specifically."
"Bullshit, no he did not." Gabriel crossed his arms, staring the other down. Val took out his phone, scrolling through it while sighing, before flipping it around.
DoomPISSED
Can I have the card
Why?
Need groceries
Take Sombra with you.
She's sick with the flu
Take Reaper.
He's gonna say no, he doesn't like to babysit.
He doesn't get an option. He's going.
Aye-Aye, Cap'n
Gabriel looked up from the phone, now a lot less aggressive, debating how much fight he was willing to put up today over a grocery trip. Val gave a small smile back, looking through his long eyelashes while waiting for a response, and Gabriel groaned in defeat.
"Fine, let's go. This isn't a date though, you clingy fucking twink." Gabriel waved for the other to follow, Val's jaw dropping to the floor.
"Who taught you that word? I go shopping with Widow and Sombra all the time, why would it be a date?" The younger man stomped after him as he spoke.
"I never know with you." Gabriel shook his head at the younger's offended demeanor as they walked. "Don't want you getting attached." Val caught up and walked by his side.
"You are a bully! First of all, who taught you that word? I need to know right now, don't dodge the question! Second, don't call me clingy, this wasn't my idea. Third, I am not a twink!" Val said, passionately gesturing with his hands. Gabriel raised his eyebrows at the last point.
"Oh, you sweet summer child," Gabriel said to himself as he smirked.
This proceeded to spark an argument the entire way to the store.
"So being six feet tall earns me no points on the twink-bear scale?" Val asked, exiting the car and closing the door.
"You said yourself there was more than just those two, why are you so obsessed with it?" Gabriel locked the car, and pulled his hood up, only growing more tired of this conversation by the minute.
"I didn't grow these guns for nothing! Besides, you haven't graduated to that class yet." Val waved him away dismissively, pulling a piece of paper from his jacket pocket. "It's totally not because I don't hang out with enough guys to be an authority on the other ones." He stuck his tongue out and smiled as they walked into the store.
"Whatever. What are we getting?" Gabriel grabbed a cart, leaning on it as he followed Val.
"Here, will you hold the list for me?" Val held out the piece of paper while darting his head around. "I need a bunch of stuff sorry. I know where everything is though, I can make it fast," he answered.
"Do you want help?"
"Uh, yeah, just grab whatever is the best buy. I like to buy in bulk if I can, y'all eat a lot." Val started speed walking away, before stopping abruptly in front of the cart, Gabriel bumping into him.
"Hey, watch it guey," Gabriel said, pulling the cart back. Val did a 180, putting his hands on the front of the cart.
"Sorry, I feel like I'm being rude 'cause I'm used to Sombra coming with me. I don't want to boss you around," The younger said, leaning on the front of the cart. "You don't have to help me if you don't want to, you just have to watch me and make sure I don't buy anything stupid."
"You overthink everything Hollywood? I offered to help, you're fine. Now get off the cart you're gonna flip it over." Gabriel frowned, waving at the younger man like he was a fly.
"Alright, don't yell at me, you're gonna make people think you're my dad. I feel weird enough as it is." Val said, standing up straight and walking next to the cart.
"That's not yelling. I'll show you yelling." Gabriel said to himself, reading over the list as he walked. It was filled with a lot of stuff, mostly just basics. Bread, lunch meat, juice, and so on.
"Yeah, you sound just like my dad," Val said, as he started piling stuff in the cart. "He'd tell me that ain't yelling too." Gabriel furrowed his brow, and perhaps it was only now listening to the so-called Californian quote his dad as saying the word 'ain't', but Gabriel realized that he had been assuming where Val was from this whole time.
"V, you're not from Hollywood are you?" He asked, making Val pause the determined shopping spree and look over at him.
"Uh, well no, I guess," Val started, and continued to place items in the cart, although at a slower pace. "My family is from New Mexico. I was born in Albuquerque, and we went back and forth between there and California until the acting picked up when I was like, four. Why?"
"I can tell by your accent."
Val looked at him wide eyed. "What? I do not have an accent! Not any more than you do!"
"I thought you noticed. You sometimes pick up a bit of southern drawl." Val tilted his head, making Gabriel smile at his cluelessness. "You say y'all and ain't sometimes. It's not bad. I picked up a guy in New Mexico once, half the team could barely understand him with how thick his damn accent was." Val's face turned red as Gabriel quietly chuckled while looking at the shelf of bread they stood next to.
"Wait, don't. Lacroix hates when I get the pre-sliced bread. I can barely get her to eat this stuff as it is." Val interrupted Gabriel as he picked up a loaf.
"It's the same price as the unsliced though," he questioned.
"I know, just get the unsliced." Val waved for him to pass him the bread. Gabriel shrugged, passing him a loaf of unsliced.
"I would just tell her to starve."
"I have, and she will. Moira gave me one job with her, make sure she eats. I don't know what kind of hunger strike she's on, but Lacroix is super picky. Just believe me, that is not a fight you will win."
Gabriel watched curiously as Val went across the store, throwing items into the cart, seeming like he didn't even really need a list. Quickly, the cart started to fill up with food, which was a lot more than Gabriel felt was necessary.
"That is a lot of food. Do you need all of that?" Gabriel said, nodding towards the building stack of cans. Val turned to look at him with confusion.
"Yes? I'm getting my groceries for the month plus three regular guests. That's why I ask for the card, I'm not taking all this out of my check. You three don't realize how much you eat. Can I see the list?" Val said, while throwing items into the cart methodically, which Gabriel supposed made sense. He came over to peek at the paper in Gabriel's hand. "We need juice next. It's right next to the milk, so I will grab that if you can grab the juice for me." Gabriel only nodded and followed his lead.
Stopped at the juice, Val hurried away while Gabriel looked at the options in front of him. He quickly picked a couple of the cheapest ones and threw them in the cart. He met back up with Val, the younger man turning around and blinking at finding the cart behind him.
"Where's the orange juice?" Val asked while placing his groceries in the cart. Gabriel pointed at the cartons, and Val raised his eyebrows, then smiled shyly for a second. "Uh, sorry, I meant the ones in the jug. It's ok, I didn't write down which one, I'll go grab it." He walked back towards the juice.
Gabriel narrowed his eyes as he followed.
"Don't tell me you're too good for the carton juice, Hollywood." Gabriel said as he watched Val scan the shelf. "We couldn't all be raised on the bougie stuff like you and Lacroix." Val stopped at an empty spot on the shelf, smiling sheepishly. "Sometimes you have to suck it up when you're poor." Gabriel continued to tease.
Val gave a small laugh. "No, guey. It's you." He reached into the cart, pulling the cartons of store brand juice out. "Lacroix won't drink it, and Sombra and I don't care. I get the expensive stuff because you don't like the store brand." Val turned back to the shelf, placing the cartons back.
"What are you going on about? I've never complained about the damn juice." Gabriel narrowed his eyes, and tilted his head.
"No, but every time you drank it you made a face. I bought a different brand and you stopped making a nasty face when you took a sip." Gabriel paused for a second to think while Val pulled a jug off of the shelf, looking at him from the corner of his eye.
"That's why the orange juice tastes different. I thought I was just brushing my teeth really aggressively for a few days," Gabriel thought to himself before replying.
"How do you know that you little creep? You watching me eat?" He squinted at Val.
"Yeah, I sneak into your room to watch you sleep too. It's not just you, genius, I watch everyone, I can't help it, that's why our boss hired me." Val stuck out his tongue as he moved the groceries in the cart to make room for the juice in his hand. "Has he not told you the story? I feel like it's his favorite story to tell, it's embarrassing."
"He told me he picked you up in a bar, and you impressed him with your so called people skills. Which I don't know how you managed to do that, you're a brat." Gabriel said, putting his weight on the cart, intrigued.
"Yeah, a bar filled with his clientele. I knew those bar patrons better than he did, and I didn't have the luxury of time he did. I had to read customers as they came in the door if I wanted tips, and change personality on a dime between tables."
"Playing the part." Gabriel nodded, the dots starting to connect.
"Exactly, my talents are knowing what they want from me. And, since they all thought I was just some dumb waitress, anything they drunkenly decided to say, I got it right here." Val tapped on his temple. "Like Sombra says, information is power. Sombra collects it through brute force, I let the information come to me." Gabriel stared at Val, processing for a few seconds.
Val's confidence didn't waver once through his story, and it lined up with the other versions he had told, which meant it should be the truth. Not that Gabriel wanted to believe it. While he was thinking, Val started to walk away, paused, and turned back to see he wasn't following, which only made the younger put his hands up in confusion.
"You scare me cabron." Gabriel said, squinting from underneath his hood, making Val laugh as he came back to walk next to Gabriel, and he pushed the cart forward finally.
"Whatever. If I wanted to use my powers for evil, I could poison your coffee, like how I had to make Lacroix to take her meds once." Val said, rolling his eyes. "Your breakfast tastes a lot better now though, doesn't it? Let's go." Without waiting for an answer, he grabbed the front of the now full cart and started pulling it toward the check out.
"Hey, are you taking some of this home or something?" Gabriel asked while looking at the cart and trying to calculate in his mind how many meals were in there. "Even for half of the month this is a lot for you."
"What do you mean take them home?" Val slowed down, to look back at Gabriel.
"To your house, or apartment, or whatever."
"No, I live on the base." Val turned away, picking up his pace again.
"Field agents don't live on the base." Gabriel said, parking the cart next to one of the self-checkouts.
"Well, I wasn't a field agent. That was part of the agreement, living quarters for labor." He started scanning the items, avoiding eye-contact.
"You are now though. You still don't have a place to live?" Gabriel placed groceries on the counter as Val quickly went about scanning them.
"I don't exactly have anywhere to go. I don't have papers. I don't make a ton of money. I already had to fight with him this month to get him to give me the card because I have four people eating my groceries." Val started scanning the items a lot more quickly, still not making eye contact.
"And he didn't want to give it to you? What is his issue?"
"I don't know, he always has an issue, he's an old friend but he's kind of a control freak. I can't even get my pay from a contract these days without fighting with him over it. It's part of the game." Val said, tossing cans into bags as he scanned.
Gabriel titled his head. "What game?"
"Sorry. I mean, the negotiation, whatever you want to call it. I know how it will turn out, but it's a hassle every time." Gabriel stared at the younger man, only growing more confused.
Val glanced at him and sighed, slowing down in his scanning. "I ask him for money. He asks why. I say he owes me, he says I owe him. Then I list all the reasons why he actually is saving money, only giving me what I'm asking instead of what I'm really worth, like when I ask for 200 on the company card instead of my 2000 in back pay that he owes me. Then I get my money. That's the game." Val scanned the items as he spoke, Gabriel furrowed his brow, nodding.
"Yeah, sounds like a fucking hassle. Just tell him to give you an apartment. Then you don't have to deal with him."
"Like that'll happen."
"That's what I did." Val stopped his scanning to look at Gabriel.
"What?" He said, blinking.
"My apartment. It was a safe house no one ever used. I keep it clean, pay the rent, deal with the stupid landlord, I get to keep the keys." Gabriel said bluntly. Val continued with a furrowed brow.
"He'd just tell me no."
"That is the worst he can do." Gabriel shrugged, and Val glared at him. Gabriel rolled his eyes at the other's drama. Clearly someone did not see the whole picture. "You're an asset, you said it yourself, no one can do what you do. Your contract is being re-negotiated, so negotiate. Play the game, grow a back bone, I don't see why he would tell you no if he didn't tell me." Val finished scanning and held out his hand, waiting for the card.
"How did you ask?" Val asked, Gabriel handed it to him.
"I was in the same place as you. I walked up, said 'Hey, I don't have papers, I don't do well living with other people, I need a place to stay and I'm willing to pay for it, help me out,' and he told me he would see what he could do." Gabriel shoved the card into his pocket.
"Right." Val nodded, absentmindedly staring at the screen while waiting for the receipt.
The two rolled out of the store side by side, with the greeter attempting to ask them for their receipt, Val ignoring him and Gabriel flipping him off. Once they got to the car, the latter handed off bags from the cart.
"Now, what the hell did you do to have to be babysat with the card?" Gabriel asked as he handed bags to load into the car.
"I got pissed one day and bought 2000 dollars in Juicy Couture. Had to walk my ass back into the store the next day straight to the returns desk."
"How did you manage that on a 1500 dollar card?"
"I'm just that good." Val smirked, loading the last bag and closing the door. They climbed into the car, having finished their shopping adventure, and headed back to the base with the groceries in tow.
About as soon as they got back to the base, once all of the groceries were unloaded, Gabriel took his opportunity to escape. This left Widow and Val to actually put the groceries away, which between the two of them didn't take long. After putting away the food, Val got started on cooking, with Widow retreating to her room. Val took his day off as an opportunity to clean, dusting and mopping while he had a large pot of soup simmering on the stove for his sick teammate. He finished his cleaning, then went to serve Sombra, since she had been stuck in bed all day.
Carefully, while balancing two bowls in one arm, he knocked on her door, and she opened it for him, rubbing her eyes before quickly taking one of the bowls from him.
"What's this?" She said, blowing on the steaming bowl in her hands, as she walked to her bed.
"Caldo de res." Once she sat on the edge of the matress, she looked up at Val, her eyes widening.
"What the hell happened to your hair?"
"You know, the usual. I'll fix it later."
"You don't have to take care of me, you know, I can take care of myself." Sombra rubbed her eyes, sniffing.
"I like to keep busy, it's fine." Val stirred his spoon quietly. The two sat silently as they ate for a few minutes, before Sombra finally broke the silence.
"Thank you for the caldo, by the way, you didn't have to make it just for me."
"I know, but you're sick, it's nice to have something warm. It'll help you feel better."
"Just say you're welcome." Sombra rolled her eyes.
"You're welcome. And don't roll your eyes at me, ratón." Val gave her a side eye as he smiled.
"You have been hanging out with your boyfriend too much, he's the only one who calls me that."
"He's not my boyfriend, and I find that hard to believe."
"Fine, whatever you want to call your situation, he's still the only one here who's called me that, and lived anyways." Sombra smiled coyly, before changing the subject. "So who went with you to the store, did the spider actually do her own grocery shopping?"
"No, Gabe went with me." Val spooned more of the caldo into his mouth, a little embarrassed.
"Wow, first names and you're buying groceries together? Have you started picking out baby names yet?" Sombra smirked, and Val glared at her. "What?"
"It's not like that and you know it."
"If it's not like that then why are you getting so mad?" Sombra only smiled, looking at him out of the corner of her eye. "I know you like him."
Val put his spoon back into his bowl with a loud clink. "Stop."
"Ok, so you want me to pretend to be ok with all this when it weirds me out, and you don't want me to make jokes? Pick a struggle, guey." Sombra shook her head, furrowing her brow as she quickly ate from her bowl.
"I just like him as a friend," Val said, staring into his reflection in the broth.
"You two are way past that point." Sombra put up her index finger as Val opened his mouth to argue. "Not just the sex, you two are getting really comfortable in each other's space. He's wearing your stuff, you're picking up his little speech patterns. You see what's happening here, right? Are you sure you don't like him? Because someone is going to get hurt if this keeps up." She stirred her spoon in the bowl.
Val chewed on the solid bits of his food as he thought about his response, and swallowed hard before he answered.
"I think it's more complicated than that, because I do like him, " Val said, staring into his bowl to avoid looking into the other's eyes. "But he's a complicated guy. He made it clear that he doesn't want a serious relationship, and he's got all sorts of baggage. I don't think he would be able to handle a relationship even if he wanted to," he said, shrugging as he licked his spoon, not wanting to decipher his complicated feelings about a complicated relationship.
"But what do you want?" Sombra raised her eyebrows. Val groaned.
"I don't want anything! Look, I'm not trying to hide anything from you. I started all of this, I came onto him the first time, I suggested we keep hooking up, I said no strings attached, because you know I'm scared of commitment." Val set down his bowl and turned toward Sombra. "I'm sorry, but I think us having a friendship outside of the bedroom is not the end of the world, despite what you say."
"I didn't say that." Sombra started.
Val interrupted her. "Okay, well, you implying that he's using me or whatever, is kind of insulting to the fact I'm an adult and can make decisions about who I sleep with, as if I'm not quite a bit older than you. And if I wanted your opinion about the age difference I would have asked for it," he said, crossing his arms as he grew more frustrated.
"That's not why I said that cabron, and you know it," Sombra set her utensil back in her bowl aggressively.
"Then why did you say it?"
"O que la. You three, you, Widow, and Gabriel, you always tell me to mind my own business. You're not going to like what I have to say, and he's not going to like me saying it, but you have every right to know. I don't wanna hear it if you don't like what I tell you," she said, and Val titled his head already having an inkling as to what she was talking about.
"Go on, say it. I won't be mad at you."
"Fine, but don't tell me to mind my business this time. I made the baby name joke because he told you about his son. I was going to make a joke asking when's the wedding, but that would mean he'd have to tell you about his wife." She raised her eyebrows, looking away.
"Yeah, his ex-wife? He told me about that already." Val bit on his inner cheek impatiently, wondering if that was really her big reveal.
"Oh, is that what he told you?" Sombra said, drinking from the side of her bowl. Val tile his head in confusion. That is not the reaction he was expecting. Sombra only nodded to confirm he had indeed heard correctly. "What did he tell you, exactly?"
"He said he was married, they are separated now, and he doesn't see his family or friends anymore from back then." Val clenched his jaw, wondering where this was going.
Sombra frowned. "No, V, he is married. He has a wife. " Val blinked, several times. "He still goes to see her, the last Sunday of every month. That's why he lives in LA, so he can keep tabs on her."
Val stared back in horror for a moment, his heart starting to hammer.
"No the fuck he does not, no way." Val squinted at her, before he turned away, not quite believing what Sombra was saying.
"I know you keep out of the news and other's business, so you don't know, or maybe just haven't connected the dots. When he says he hasn't spoken to his family and friends? It's because he almost killed himself and the Overwatch leader in a base explosion," she said, leaning in as he followed along.
"Oh my god. When he said it was his fault," Val glanced down at the floor, trailing off, as now these gaps were being filled in a nasty way.
"Yeah, it's because he almost killed a lot of people. Now he doesn't want to go talk to his wife. Even if he did, she probably wouldn't want to see him." Sombra put a hand on Val's arm, right on cue as he started feeling light headed. "The guy is basically stalking her. I can give you proof, the marriage license, the gps signals, security footage, whatever, but you already knew he had baggage. That's why I was worried." She looked up at him with concern, Val's vision blurring as she finished her sentence.
His ears had started ringing. Sombra was anything but a liar, especially when it was serious. He stared into the wall, and swallowed hard. When he looked down, his hands had started to tremble.
"I think I'm gonna throw up," he said, standing up and putting a hand to his forehead while he paced around, trying to process everything she just told him. He had been emotionally prepared for a crazy wife scenario, however a stalker boyfriend came at him from out of left field.
"Do you need to sit down? You look like you're going to pass out."
"No." Val paced back and forth, breathing heavily.
"I think, maybe you don't understand what I was saying."
"Oh, I don't? You just dumped a metric fuck ton of information on me and expected me to be calm about it!" Val hissed at her, then leaned over to put his hands on his knees. "I'm allowed to be a little bit upset about this info."
"I think you forget the people you mingle with. I was trying to warn you that one of you is going to get hurt because you are being way more honest than he is, it's not like I'm team Martina or anything."
Val's head shot up. "Oh, you know her name?" He rubbed his face with one hand before he spoke. "That's great, fucking fantastic, he wants to go around telling the whole fucking world but me, he don't even like you." Val said, throwing his hand up in the air.
"Hey! I wasn't the one lying to you, and I said you weren't going to like what I had to say." Sombra pouted at him, as he started to pace across the room again.
"I know! You also just fucking told me that he's got a wife and lied to my face about it! I'm about to bite someone's head off!" Val said, towering over the tiny hacker before going back to pacing.
"Like you said, he's a complicated guy, and he isn't really with her." Sombra added shyly.
"Oh, I couldn't give less of a fuck about her right now. I told him not to lie to me, that I would find out. He wants to fuck around, he's gonna find out!" Val stopped pacing to look at a wide eyed Sombra staring up at him. "Why are you looking at me like that?" He shouted in frustration, standing tall over the sitting woman.
"You're being un poco scary right now," she said stiffly. He stared back at her, blinking, then took a step back, noticing he was still breathing heavily.
"I am going to scream!" Val said to no one in particular. He stormed out of the bedroom, straight into the bathroom, closing and locking the door. He stood in the bathroom for a few seconds, his heart pounding in his ears, temples, and fingers.
Val proceeded to scream at the top of his lungs, the walls and his ear drums rattling.
After good a minute of yelling, he stopped to take a breath, looking at the mirror. He was red and huffing, his ears rang, and his throat was scratchy and dry. Looking for a distraction, he searched the bathroom, pulling cleaning supplies out from underneath the counter.
In the midst of furiously scrubbing the bathroom, he heard muffled arguing from the hallway. He sat up and listened for a few seconds, unable to understand anything. He opened the bathroom door, finding Widow and Sombra arguing in the hacker's doorway.
"Why do you always assume I'm the one at fault for everything?" Sombra said, leaning on her door frame.
"Because you are like a wooden spoon, always stirring the damn pot. I know you don't ever keep your nose where it belongs, now tell me why he's screaming!" Widow raised her voice and got into the shorter woman's face.
"I can hear you two!" Val said, leaning out of the restroom, making the two ladies snap their heads toward him. "Can you both maybe mind your business for once?"
Widow turned toward Val. "If you are screaming at the top of your lungs next to my room, I'm going to ask questions." Her eyes flicked up to the scrub brush in his hand, before looking back down. "What the hell happened?"
"Can't a man just clean his house? Why does something have to be happening?" He waved his free hand in the air.
"You are stress cleaning. My room is next. I'm not letting you raid my room," Widow said. Val clicked his tongue. She had lived with him for a long enough time to know his cleaning habits.
"Mind your bees wax, Lacroix. I ain't talking about it today. Ask Sombra if you want your room to not get raided." He said, pointing at her. He turned his attention back to the restroom, going back to scrubbing the shower. A few minutes of distracted scrubbing later, the restroom door opened.
Val groaned loudly.
"I'm still cleaning!" He said, stepping out of the shower to find Widowmaker standing in front of him with her arms crossed. "Oh, Widow. I'm still cleaning, what do you want?"
"She told me." Val threw his arms up, and turned away to go back to cleaning, clearly getting nowhere by talking with these people. "I was there, for some of it. I can help explain, but it wasn't all his fault. Moira was there for a lot too. It really isn't as simple as you think it is."
"Lacroix, I don't need the entire Reaper defense squad up in my grill right now." Val said, going back to scrubbing the floor of the shower, much more aggressively now.
"I know you're angry, but you could at least let him explain before you do something rash, or before he does something more rash."
"I don't really care what the explanation is anymore. If he wanted to tell me, he would have said so when I asked. Instead, he lied about it, so now I have a lot to process right now." He turned around, pointing his scrub brush at her. "And don't tell me not to do anything rash, because I would love to hunt him down and smash his skull into the fucking concrete right now, but I'm cleaning. I am handling this fantastic all things considered."
"Do you think cleaning with bleach using your bare hands is handling it well?"
"Relative to the situation? Yes, I could be handling it a lot worse, see me stomping his skull in. Now please, leave me alone, I'm trying to clean."
"Just don't kill each other. At least not in the house." Widow sighed, before leaving the bathroom.
Author's note: my cat Babymans says
e3w
988