The vacationing group trudged into the hotel as one tired, amorphous blob. Sans Winston, who had to move to the side since he would crush them all under his weight, and Genji, who couldn't feel tired due to his cybernetics, everyone else was practically dragging themselves on the floor. Even Sombra couldn't muster the strength to mutter a word of snark.
Lena and Emily were at the front of it all, tired like the rest of them, and yet, both still had grins of satisfaction. It was currently ten in the evening, and they had spent the entire day outside, touring the Italian capital. It was tiring in more ways than one, and was simultaneously one of the most memorable days of their relationship to date.
Sure, they couldn't do much other than take a few photos of the readily available public areas. No, those activities were left for tomorrow. All they did was see where they wanted to go, and they already had the plans ready.
They wouldn't waste a single moment of this, up until the wedding.
Of course, they needed some rest. Lena could actively feel her legs begin to waver from walking for well over twelve or so hours. Trained pilot as she was, she didn't exactly have the endurance of some people like the commanders.
Still, it was a satisfying tiredness, and the pilot could see the same satisfaction echo from the rest of her companions, except for the Lacroix couple, who were still out in the city.
"Alright everyone, remember that tomorr-" Lena was in the process of reminding everyone of their itinerary when a practically heavenly smell wafted into the hallway.
They had rented out an entire floor of the hotel they were staying at, courtesy of Overwatch. They were closer to apartment units than hotel units, though, since they even included kitchens in every room. A fact that Lena knew had to be a conscious decision, since the top brass knew who would be coming.
That meant that only they had access to the rooms, and the only other person missing from their group was the very same person that had said that he was going to go look for ingredients.
There was a sudden surge of energy as they all made a mad dash to Archer's room, to find the door already open. The table was set, even accounting for Winston's frame, and the man in question was in the kitchen still, humming to himself as he saw them all burst from the doorway.
Archer raised an eyebrow, "My, and here I thought you would never arrive. I was prepared to eat all of this by myself if need be."
"Don't you even bloody joke about that." Despite her words, Lena had already seated herself, everyone else following suit. Her stomach wasn't the only one to growl at the continued smells coming from the kitchen. Archer snorted.
"Have you people not eaten yet?" He asked, somewhat jokingly.
"We planned on ordering when we got here." Lena replied, not as jokingly.
"...You're in the middle of Rome and you planned on ordering fast food." There was a hint of disbelief as the Spirit paused to look at Lena and the others. They most certainly didn't look away sheepishly, "I swear, all of you would live off of cup noodles if it weren't for me."
"Hey!" Lena pointed at him, "The cafeteria gives some pretty good meals, so it wouldn't just be cup noodles!"
"I think O'Hara would beg to differ." A roll of his eyes and a smirk towards the redhead.
Said woman gave an exaggerated sigh as she held a hand to her head, "I'm sorry Lena, but I don't think I can live with just that. Add some fishsticks and I'll be fine."
They continued their banter, with Angela, Genji and Winston joining them. They were all waiting for Archer to serve the food, and Lena knew for certain that the man was actively waiting for them to get impatient enough, the bastard.
Soon enough, the food was served, and instantly, they were on the dishes. A butter chicken that was dripping in flavor, braised beef that melted in her mouth, and pasta seasoned with parmesan. If Lena wasn't so busy eating, the drool that would inevitably drip from her mouth would hit the table.
"Dios mio, this is good." Sombra practically moaned. Lena was tempted to smack her if it didn't have the potential to waste food. Reinhardt gave a hefty laugh and a thumbs up, already too busy eating to talk.
"Seriously," Emily spoke in between bites, "I have no idea just how good you managed to become at cooking. Like, you said that you were an Archer, right?"
"That's correct." Archer was looking at them with an air of satisfaction. Lena was tempted to smack the smugness out of him, for what little it would do. Except that would mean she would need to get up to reach him.
"An Archer that uses swords." Genji interjected, and as Lena took a glance in his direction, she had to do a double take as she saw his mask was off, and that the cyborg was actually eating.
She wasn't the only one to stare at him, as the rest of the room suddenly paused to stare at the man. Said man continued to chew, steadfastly ignoring the looks thrown his way. Angela was the only exception, the woman holding back her laughter, to very little success.
"Holy shit Genji." Emily almost subconsciously smacked her arm in response to the curse, but even the redhead was staring at Genji in disbelief, "When the hell did you…?" Lena trailed off, not knowing how to make it not sound insensitive.
The cyborg's face was still pale, ashen gray from being covered from the sun. His eyes, however, had changed. No longer the intense red that had been a staple when he had been in his original cybernetic body, the one that Lena met him in when he was still in Blackwatch. No, they were now a normal, everyday black.
The most striking difference was the addition of a jaw. Lena had tentatively asked about it in the past, and she had regretted it ever since. Genji's jaw had apparently been destroyed, and while the man could technically eat, it was at a slow, gradual pace. More than that, he couldn't actually taste everything, only the more intense flavors since his cybernetic tongue lacked the full breadth of a normal tongue.
It was apparently why he had enjoyed Archer's cooking back in the diner. He could still taste the food, even if he couldn't truly enjoy it.
Now though, it looked like he had a fully functional mouth, and going by how he would chew almost thoughtfully, he could use it as any other person could.
Genji had no qualms about it however, chuckling as he put down the fork, "When did I manage to start being able to eat normally again? It was actually just a couple of days ago, thanks to Angela."
"And Captain Chase's help, don't forget." Angela admonished him gently, "If it weren't for her help with the cybernetics, I would not have been able to do any of this."
"Of course, of course." Genji smiled and it was such a cognitive dissonance from what Lena knew that she had to shake her head, "Remind me to get her something good for Christmas, she deserves that much." And it seemed that even the solemn air that would occasionally cloud around Genji faded as he gave a grin to all of them.
"But I believe that we're going off track." Genji smirked in an echo of Archer's, "You were going to tell us why you were so good at cooking?"
"Hah." Recovering from the reveal of the cyborg's sudden ability to eat, Archer held his arms out in a shrug, "Well, if you insist. Lucky you, a story and a meal."
"C'mon Archer, think of it as your early wedding present." Lena was careful not to spill anything as she pointed her fork at the Spirit.
"Sure, sure. Whatever you say." Pulling up a chair, Archer quickly removed the apron tied around him and sat down, "I suppose I can start with a question. How many Heroic Spirits do you think Chaldea summoned?"
"Heroic Spirits such as yourself?" Winston piped up, an interested gleam behind his glasses, "That is…hm, if I were to guess, maybe a dozen? With the events you've told us about, I would bump that up to maybe two or three dozen."
"Good guess, what about the others?" The food that they were eating was still in their minds, but now that Archer was talking about his past, it fell by the wayside.
Lena and the others didn't really know anything about Archer himself, other than the events he had specifically told them about. Don't get her wrong, the thing about the Singularities and Lostbelts were all important, but none of that told them anything about Archer.
"I'd hazard around fifty at best." Angela replied, "An organization like Chaldea would need to balance power with control, and no offense to you, Archer, but you aren't exactly easy to manage."
"None taken." Archer laughed her worries off, "But no, both of you are wrong. The last count I can remember when I was there was around three hundred."
"T-Three hundred?" Lena was not the only one shocked. She had seen firsthand just how strong Archer was back when Null Sector attacked. She couldn't ever forget it. To think that there were others that strong, with that kind of numbers, was insanity.
"Yes, well, I won't go into the nitty gritty of it. That would take too long." Archer made a show of rubbing his chin, "But I suppose you can imagine just how many of those Heroic Spirits were incredibly famous, to the point where respect was just given to them by virtue of who they were, or what they could do."
"Wait a minute." Emily held up a hand as she dragged something from her memories, "You…you said that you met King Arthur? And Napoleon, right?"
"Yes."
"And…you cooked for them, didn't you?"
"Got it in one." Archer continued to chuckle, "When I say what I cook is 'fit for kings', I mean that literally. This particular spread was tailor-made when Nero requested a meal when they met with King Arthur, Jeanne d'Arc, Lakshmibai, and…several others." Archer coughed to himself at the end.
"And several others, huh?" Lena tilted her head, her lips curving into a sly grin. "Come on, mate, don't leave us hanging. Who else got to taste this kingly feast of yours?"
Archer shifted in his chair, a faint twitch betraying his usual stoic demeanor. "Let's just say...a few of the dining guests had rather explosive personalities."
"Explosive? Like, bombastic or…" Reinhardt trailed off, scratching his head.
"More like literal explosions." Archer muttered under his breath, though his smirk betrayed amusement. "There were some fiery disagreements over seating arrangements, especially when Gilgamesh decided his throne wasn't properly respected."
"Wait, wait, wait," Sombra interrupted, holding up a hand mid-chew. "You're telling me the Gilgamesh, star of the single oldest epic, sat down and ate your cooking?"
"He didn't just eat it." Archer replied, voice tinged with a mixture of pride and exasperation. "He declared it worthy of being cataloged among the treasures of Babylon."
Emily nearly choked on her water, coughing as Lena thumped her back. "Okay, that's either the most dramatic review ever or he was being sarcastic." Lena was certain it was neither.
"No, he was being serious." It seemed even Archer was slightly offended at the implication that his cooking was anything less than perfect, "Just, it was hard to take seriously when it was his child version saying it."
"His child version." Sombra stared at the white haired man.
"Yes."
"That means that there were other versions of Gilgamesh."
"Yes, we had three of them. One a kid, one an asshole, one less of an asshole." Archer said with a straight face, "In fact, we had different versions of a lot of the Heroic Spirits there. If I recall, there were…thirteen? Maybe fourteen versions of King Arthur. Nevermind that Jeanne, Nero and a lot more looked like her."
"Her?"
"Oh, I guess I forgot to mention that King Arthur was actually a woman, huh? Though, that's a moot point since we did summon the male King Arthur anyway."
The rest of the night continued as they listened to Archer's stories. The shock from Genji when he heard Tamamo no Mae acted like a housewife. The disbelief from Lena and Emily when they heard that James Moriarty used a coffin as a gun, with missiles. The horrified interest that Angela displayed when she heard about Florence Nightingale's healing methods. The absolute confusion from Sombra as she came to know of Quetzalcoatl's interest in luchadors. The wallop of excitement from Reinhardt as Archer detailed Siegfried's battles. And the undisguised interest from Winston as he listened to the many, many inventions of Leonardo Da Vinci.
The sheer scope of what Archer told them convinced her that everything he was telling them was entirely real. Nobody would be able to come up with all of that on the spot. They had even finished most of the food in front of them, leaving some for the Lacroix couple when they came back. Even then, more and more questions were thrown at Archer's old allies.
If the neverending, forthcoming answers didn't convince her this was all real, the small, nostalgic smile on Archer's face did it.
Lena could tell he missed Chaldea. Even if the Spirit would never admit to it, she knew that to be the case. Beneath even the subtle annoyance when he would describe a bit of trouble Oda Nobunaga would come up with, there was fondness there, as if talking about a sibling that an older brother had to take care of.
It was well after midnight that the fatigue that had built up caught up to them and they decided to call it a night. Reinhardt was the first to call it in. The man was still spry, but even he was a victim of time and age. Angela and Genji were next, followed by Winston. Only the four of them were left, and Sombra was still there since she and Archer shared the room.
Literally nobody trusted Sombra not to do something when she wasn't being supervised.
Still, Lena could feel her fatigue reach new highs as Emily tried and failed to stifle a yawn.
"Alright, you two." Archer's voice, usually sharp-edged with dry humor, softened as he glanced at Lena and Emily. "You've had a full day, and your legs are probably screaming bloody murder. Go, get some sleep. You'll need all your energy for tomorrow."
Lena raised an eyebrow, her grin stubbornly defiant even as her body betrayed her with another yawn. "Look who's sounding all parental. What's next, a bedtime story?"
"I've already told you enough stories to last a lifetime by now. It's a miracle you're still awake."
Emily nudged Lena gently, her voice laced with fond exhaustion. "Come on, love. He's got a point, and I'd rather not start the day feeling like a zombie."
With a reluctant nod, Lena stretched her arms overhead, the motion shaking loose a groan that could have been mistaken for a growl. "Alright, fine, you win. But if you try to sneak in any food while we're asleep, mate, I'll know."
Archer raised an unimpressed eyebrow, his smirk razor-thin. "I'll be sure to quake in terror. Now go."
Taking Emily's hand, Lena let herself be tugged towards the door, glancing back just in time to see Sombra leaning across the table with a mischievous glint in her eyes. "Oi, Sombra, don't start anything either, yeah? I don't want to wake up to find the hotel's Wi-Fi mysteriously down."
Sombra's innocent expression was about as convincing as a fox caught in a henhouse. "Me? Start something? Lena, querida, I'm offended."
"I bet you are." Lena shot her a playful glare before stepping out into the hallway with Emily, the muffled laughter from the room trailing after them.
…
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: FireRogueWolf25, brutalcrab and Tassimo.