Chapter Text
It takes McCree a week to gather his courage and go to the Shimada’s lake. He’s not surprised to find such a modest little body of water for a dragon so caught up in things like ‘honour’ -- Gabe’s been keepin’ him informed on all the dirt he can find about their neighbours.
“You saw the scars on the kid’s face?” Gabe says as he peels his bandages off and replaces them with fresh ones. He’s still getting used to the idea that McCree isn’t the same skinny kid he picked up off the street, when a bad cold could have probably done him in. “Most people are convinced Hanzo did it and it’s what got them kicked out of their clan.”
Jesse grunts around his cigarillo. The knot of scars where Genji Shimada’s left eye should be could hardly escape notice, nor his pronounced limp. McCree had noted it all the night of the party he’d been forced into attending. He’d also marked his brother, in that brief moment of eye contact, taking in his aristocratic good looks and the faintly murderous expression.
He would have been surprised to ever see him again outside of tight-laced society gatherings. Keeping the other dragon from clawing his own eyes out certainly hadn’t crossed McCree’s mind until he found himself doing so, while also trying to burn off his fur and pin him by the tail away from his throat. Hanzo Shimada was ornery as hell and a deadly sonovabitch; none of that should have piqued Jesse’s interest as much as it did, according to Gabe at least, who made sure to tell him how stupid it was to visit their lake the entire way there.
(“Should I go, y’know, scaly or not?”
“If he bites off your head because you wanted to make a good impression, I’m letting him eat the rest too, pendejo.”)
Jesse is sat stiffly at the shoreline, tail twitching nervously. Genji reclines in the river, glancing between him and the lake while doing a poor job of pretending he isn’t. The only one not suffering from nerves is Gabe, wings folded over his chest as he glares like he could set the lake on fire with only his eyes.
McCree clears his throat. “How is your brother, Genji?”
“He fares fine, thank you,” Genji says with a thin smile. “His wounds have healed well enough.”
Jesse can feel his eyes on the spot on his neck where his scales are still growing back in after Hanzo had torn them out with his teeth. He has to resist the urge to scratch at it. “Good! That’s -- good. I’m glad. Will we see him, d’ya think?”
Genji grimaces. “Probably not. He’s tolerated no company save for the fish that swim down to visit him.” Genji’s quick to continue in the face of what has to be McCree’s obvious disappointment. “It’s my fault that Hanzo fought you. I knew he wanted to make your acquaintance but would not admit it for the sake of his pride. I really thought he would just yell, I hadn’t meant for such violence.”
“Don’t beat yourself up over it, kid,” Gabe says, turning from the lake to look at the two dragons. “Everyone here’s an adult and our actions are our own. Short of egging him on, it isn’t your fault what happened.”
Genji looks at the both of them for a long time before bowing his head gracefully. “Thank you. If you will wait, I will see if my brother will speak with you.” He slides into the river and darts away, a twisting green ribbon beneath the water that disappears into the deep blue of the lake.
McCree fidgets with his claws, scratching at his neck as it feels like Genji is gone a long time. “Maybe I should go human-shape now, just in case,” he mumbles.
“Dragons see true-shape as more dignified.”
“Since when have I got any dignity about me?”
Gabe snorts. “The Shimada clan owns whole swathes of the coastline. These two might be estranged but they’ll have been raised with standards, so let’s try not to provoke him into chewing your face off again.”
He probably means it to serve as a warning but Jesse takes it as an excuse to think about how Hanzo had looked, fierce and resplendent with Jesse’s blood on his teeth and claws. It is perhaps unfortunate that McCree is almost as bad at being a dragon as Gabriel is; else either of them might have known that fighting is a part of dragon courtship. Gabriel might not have expended so much effort trying to persuade McCree to leave the Shimada alone, and McCree might not have been quite so floored when Hanzo eventually snakes his way out of the lake.
McCree has a rather hopeless tendency to look like a large drowned rat, no matter his shape, every time he emerges from water. Hanzo does not suffer from the same problem, it seems, as the water runs off his iridescent scales and leaves his fur looking like spun gold. His horns glitter in the sunlight, water droplets clinging to the points and sparkling when they catch the sun.
He’s the most beautiful creature Jesse’s ever seen. McCree has to scrape his jaw off the ground as Hanzo curls his paws neatly in front of his chest and Genji returns to his spot on the sandy riverbank. “Good evening,” Hanzo says in a voice as deep and clear as the ocean.
McCree thinks he makes a garbled reply. Gabe shoots him a withering look and Jesse tries to communicate with only his scaly eyebrows that speaking to the gorgeous dragon in front of him might be beyond him at the moment. “Good evening,” Gabe says, turning to Hanzo. “We weren’t introduced. Gabriel Reyes. Jesse’s my ward.”
Hanzo dips his head low and even Gabe blinks in surprise. It’s not everyday you see a dragon bow to a lesser creature like a harpy. “My deepest apologies, Gabriel Reyes-”
“Yer apologising again.” Jesse only now notices Hanzo has deep gold eyes as he lifts his head to stare intently at him. It’s almost enough to make a dragon forget his words. “I know folks ‘round here like their gossip. I ain’t nobility — I ain’t even a somebody. I’m a nobody that lucked into a bit of gold n’ everyone knows it. Any other dragon would’ve snapped my horns off for presuming I was owed an apology. I know yer proud, Shimada-“
“And my pride will be my downfall,” Hanzo snaps, lashing at the water with his tail. “I have suffered many insults since my brother and I were estranged. Too many. It makes me easy to manipulate.” He glances at Genji before turning his honey-gold eyes back to McCree. “This does not excuse my actions. Our hoard is much lessened but if it would please you, we can offer you coin-“
McCree huffs, blowing out a thick smoke cloud. “Y’know I got no need for more gold.”
Hanzo looks pained but bows his head again. “Of course, forgive me-“
“Damn it, I don’t need any more apologies either!” They sit in intensely awkward silence for a moment; Genji’s glancing between the two of them and Gabe’s puffed up all his feathers. “It’s... it’s OK, Hanzo,” Jesse says eventually. “No harm, no foul. Genji said yer all healed, right?”
Hanzo is still for a moment, so still Jesse begins to worry. He slowly rises out of the lake and unfolds his paws so Jesse can see his chest, the skin and scales twisted with scars from Jesse’s claws digging into his soft underside. “It will heal, in time,” Hanzo says gravely as he sinks back into the grass. “The scars will serve as a reminder to be less rash.”
“There’s gotta be better ways to remember these things, darlin’,” Jesse says. Hanzo narrows his pretty gold eyes at him. “Not that a little scar’s gonna make you any less, uh -- Gabe,” he hisses. The harpy gives him an unimpressed look. “The bag, with the -- yeah, thanks.”
McCree digs around in the leather sack they’d brought with them, and he can feel everyone’s eyes on him at that moment. He hadn’t known why he’d packed them -- perhaps if he were a better dragon he would have known -- but it had felt necessary, important. Jesse pulls out a small handful of scales which had covered his neck until Hanzo had ripped them out.
Gabe rustles his feathers when he sees them. He’d tried to throw them out and Jesse had almost bitten his hand off getting them back. “Uh,” Jesse says and thrusts his paw out to Hanzo. “They ain’t as pretty as yours but they’ll keep you safe all the same.”
Hanzo freezes, even his tail stilling in the water as he stares at the scales in Jesse’s paw. His brother splashes over to his side and speaks lowly to him in Japanese, but if Hanzo hears him he makes no sign. He eventually lifts his eyes to look at Jesse, who has to resist the powerful urge to spread his wings a little and angle his head to show his horns to best advantage. If he hadn’t known before, he’s starting to suspect how important giving another dragon his scales is meant to be. McCree’s gonna be awful crushed when Hanzo turns him down.
Hanzo’s starting to smile, however, and he reaches out to him. “Thank you, McCree- Jesse,” he says as he takes the scales and brings them to his chest. McCree’s red is a charming contrast to Hanzo’s blue, and it makes something in Jesse’s chest buzz with pride. He grins like a fool, and Hanzo’s answering smile is like the first burst of sunshine after a storm.
***
The next party they’re made to attend, Jesse has a sharp tooth on a leather thong resting in the hollow of his throat and Hanzo has three red scales over his heart.
(The gossip alone sustains Genji and Satya for months afterwards; neither of them can bring themselves to care.)