Chapter Text
Brigitte looked down at Fareeha, waving her plastic sword at her.
"You can’t defeat the dragon without me." she said
"I won’t! I just gotta get the treasure first!"
"But I wanna get the treasure too!"
Fareeha blinked, having forgotten.
"Oh."
She swiftly slapped Reinhardt in the knees with her own plastic sword, charging past him to climb the small plastic set of stairs to the plastic tower that acted as their castle.
They were in the living room of the Overwatch barracks. Their tower stood looking over their vast kingdom of upturned couches and chairs. The fields of carpet and blankets long harvested for construction of their barricades and forts. The peasants hid their plastic and plush bodies under bookshelves and tables, seeking refuge from the approaching monster.
"Ach!" Reinhardt yelped, grabbing his knee and jumping up and down. The ground rumbled with his weight as Fareeha climbed The Tower, quickly joining Brigitte in the keep.
"Knight Lindholm thank god I found you!" Fareeha exclaimed with a smile. "The dragon has taken over the kingdom!”
"Knight Amari!" Brigitte said hugging her. The beads of Fareeha braids slapped gently against her face and became somewhat entangled in the plastic pink helmet that the younger girl wore. The urgency of defeating the creature was halted briefly as they untangled themselves.
"Let’s kill him!"
Fareeha agreed to this tactic with a hearty "Yeah!"
They quickly exited the keep, taking the secret passage slide out into the courtyard of green carpet and multi colored pillows. In the land of the living room, the two of them reigned supreme. Ever wise and eternally cool, they shared the kingdom and all of the toys therein. But as all rulers, when their home was attacked, they heeded the call to defend their country.
Reinhardt got onto his knees, baring his teeth and growling at the two. He was an unstoppable monster that only the two fiercest princess knights could defeat together. The large translucent wings strapped to his back could launch him miles into the air at any moment. And also he breathed fire.
Brigitte spun in several necessary and cool looking circles before stabbing at Reinhardt stomach with her sword.
Reinhardt let out a roar, to which knight Fareeha quickly slapped him in the side with her weapon.
"Get his ankles" Brigitte said, circling around to his feet.
"But he’s already on the ground" Fareeha said, still joining her companion at smacking at their babysitter’s ankles.
"Papa says it’s so they can’t get away."
Reinhardt toppled to the ground with a loud grunt.
"Not my ankles!"
"Hit them in the head first! Then don’t have to worry about them running away!"
The two locked eyes, wordlessly sharing their attack plan.
Fareeha began smacking at Reinhardt’s head from above, hitting the back of his skull. Brigitte took the lower route, smacking him directly in the nose.
Reinhardt quickly rose, grabbing the both of them around the waist and hoisting them up off their feet. They both squealed, Brigitte laughing at the sudden rush in her stomach as Fareeha giggled wildly next to her.
"Knight Brigitte!"
"Aim for the heart!"
"Yeah it’s the only way to defeat him!"
They began swinging at Reinhardt’s chest. Brigitte was still learning to read, but it was the shirt with a colorful cartoon pepper on it and one of her favorite. She aimed at the cartoon’s eyes, directing her companion to do the same.
Reinhardt gurgled and sputtered, falling again to the floor. He lurched, swinging the girls onto his chest as his back slowly hit the floor.
"No! I am defeated!" he cried, throwing one arm over his eyes while another flung dramatically to his side.
They giggled and cheered, Fareeha helping Brigitte to climb over her uncle's chest as the two made their way to the other side of the room where the dragon’s treasure lay.
The treasure of course was stored in a plastic chest covered in various glitter stickers and plastic stick on gems. The dragon had stolen it in his initial attack on the peaceful kingdom. Why or how was not important, only that they had found it together.
They each hoisted up the lid, revealing mounds of old chipped jewelry, plastic guns, stuffed animals and, to their surprise, a few pieces of candy, two cans of soda, and carefully wrapped rainbow colored rice crisp balls.
They both gasped.
"You got candy?" Brigitte asked, turning to Reinhardt. The spell of their imaginary world broken.
He still laid on the floor but couldn’t keep a straight face.
"Thank you Reinhardt!" Fareeha said, quickly turning and throwing herself onto his chest in a hug.
"Yeah thanks!" Brigitte said, falling onto her friends back. The dogpile was quickly disturbed as Reinhardt sat up and pulled them into a hug.
"Well it’s what you get for being such brave knights." He smiled.
"Can I drink this now? Mom never lets me drink soda this late."
He scooped them up and carried them over to the inflatable mattress in front of the tv. Brigitte always insisted on bringing it out whenever Fareeha spent the night. Something about a plastic bag full of air was always enjoyable for sleepovers.
"Well....I’ll pretend I didn’t know if you promise to not stay up making too much noise." Reinhardt said. He placed them onto the mattress and tossed them their candy.
"We promise!" Brigitte replied, she was already fiddling with a chocolate bar, trying to figure out how to open it with her uncoordinated hands.
The kingdom saved and the dragon now reverted back to their loving protector, the two were focusing on their reward. Reinhardt stretched, lazily tossing blankets and pillows at the girls. Outside the sun had just finished setting and they could both sense it was time to settle down for the night.
"Can we watch a movie?" Fareeha asked, bouncing on the mattress. Brigitte was tossed a few inches into the air but was not deterred from there candy.
"Of course!” Reinhardt replied “Which would you like?"
"Terminator!"
"Your mother has told me expressly not to allow you to watch that."
"But she also said not to let me drink soda after dark."
Reinhardt laughed, gathering up the stuffed animals and action figures he was able to find and lining them carefully up on the couch.
"Your attempt is noted."
"The wizard one!" Brigitte offered, finally freeing her prize. “Cause we’re magic.”
"Now that wouldn’t be so bad."
"But it’s gotta be the very first one!"
Reinhardt nodded, going over to the television to change the channel. She looked over at Fareeha who seemed pleased with the choice, if still disappointed her plan to watch an action movie had failed. Brigitte held out her candy bar to her friend and Fareeha graciously took a small bite.
Brigitte loved sleepovers with Fareeha. Whenever her parents went out on a date or a mission she would come over to their apartment. And if papa and mama and Reinhardt were away on a mission, or a date, she would head over to the other side of the barracks to stay with the Amari’s. Tonight both were true. The Amari’s had gone for an evening out, while papa and mama were working on something for work. That left Reinhardt there to babysit them, something they both took advantage of, managing to talk him into letting them build up a fortress in the common living area.
The two scampered under the blankets, arranging pillows and stuffed animals around them. The sides of their bed were built up with couch cushions and blankets and a single kitchen chair. All of them completely necessary, as they had explained to Reinhardt. This served as their fortress against any would be attacking lizards. A country cottage, Brigitte had decided, for the princesses to visit on vacation.
The screen switched from cartoons to the opening credits of their film. One they had both watched 100 times before.
Reinhardt brought over the remains of their treasure and sat it before them, before taking to sitting on the recliner at their side.
"Are you going to sleep?" Brigitte asked.
"No no just resting my eyes." He smiled, hands across hands stomach and eyes already half closed.
Fareeha rolled her eyes, turning to her companion.
The movie played and the two lay there transfixed.
Soon the credits rolled, the sound of the orchestra and Reinhardt snores the only thing left.
"It’s 9. This is the latest I’ve ever stayed up." Brigitte said
"I stayed up till midnight once." Fareeha said, now nibbling at the last of her rice crispy treat. They both whispered, keeping quiet for their guardian.
"Woah"
"I’m gonna try and stay up til then again."
"I’ll try too!"
"You don’t have to."
"I wanna."
Fareeha smiled.
It occurred to them both that with Reinhardt asleep and the movie over, they didn’t have much to do.
“I wish dragons were real.” Brigitte said after a time. She was thinking about the ones in the movie and how fun it had been when Reinhardt was one. “They’d be really cool.”
“I bet we could tame one.” Fareeha said. “And train it to cook us food.”
“That’d be cool.
They both tossed and turned, trying to get comfortable. Fareeha looked around for the remote, replaying the movie.
"Ummi says she fought an omnic like that once.”
“Huh?”
Fareeha looked at her with a smile
“An omnic back in the war. It was as big as a house and was attacking a town in England."
"Did she kill it?"
"Yeah. Her and uncle Jack both got it."
Brigitte smiled, thinking of her father’s friend and the man who frequently visited her family. They all had so many stories from the war. She wasn’t sure she’d ever be able to hear all of them. She loved hearing about them from her friend.
Something occurred to her though, thinking of both aunt Ana and uncle Jack fighting such a large creature
"Think we’ll ever have to fight one like that?"
Fareeha scrunched up her face in thought, picking at the threads of their blankets.
"No, they’re all dead." She replied flatly.
"No they’re not."
Fareeha rolled to her side to look at her.
"Well the big ones are. Not the nice ones."
"I know! But the big ones are gonna come back some day." Brigitte clutched her pillow to her chest, the thought sending a shiver down her spine.
"Nuh uh."
"Yeah! Papa says so." she hissed. “He knows all about them cause he made them.”
Fareeha paused, a look of worry crossing her face. It worried Brigitte. The other girl was older and therefore the one she turned to when things were uncertain on confusing. Seeing her pause was upsetting.
"Well IF they do then yeah we'll fight em." She eventually said. “Shouldn’t be that hard since our parents have.”
“I guess.”
“I’m gonna use a gun." Fareeha said. "or a bazooka or something like that."
"I would use a sword." Brigitte said, wiggling under her blankets.
Fareeha's eyes brightened, mind racing with new ideas. Brigitte quickly felt her excitement getting to her.
"Maybe we could use a lasso like the old cowboy movies!" Freeha said.
"Or a giant axe!"
"Yeah!"
And like that, the two found themselves talking into the night, their whispers just low enough to not wake their resting guardian, midnight coming an going as easily as their talk of the future.