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Gabriel Reyes, Hero of the Omnic Crisis, Savior of Humanity, Blackwatch Commander, and the best thing that's ever happened to Jesse McCree, is drunk.
It shouldn't surprise Jesse, really--despite what Reyes would like everyone to think, he is human, and he's had more than a couple drinks this evening. They're out celebrating the successful end of a long mission, most of Blackwatch out with them, and once Reyes had bought the first round of drinks, people had kept coming up to him and offering him another, on them.
...not that Jesse's been watching, particularly, or even paying attention. Of course not. He's at the pool table, has been for most of the night, nursing his drink and losing badly at pool to whoever makes their way over to him. That's where he is--losing pretty badly to Kepler as Genji and Torre and the Newtons look on--when he feels a hand land on his shoulder. He was already planning to botch his shot, but the sudden contact jolts his cue and the shot goes even wider than he'd meant it to. He looks up to see who the hell is interrupting his game and looks right into the face of Commander Reyes.
Reyes swears. "Shit, sorry, I didn't mean to make you miss." He hasn't moved his hand yet. It's warm and heavy and Jesse is trying his best not to think about it. Reyes is not usually a man who touches easily or often; he rations out physical contact like he has a finite supply of it. For him to touch like this, for him to touch Jesse like this, he's definitely drunk.
"Don't worry about it," Jesse says easily. He ought to move out of reach, but he doesn't.
Jesse's relationship with Reyes is... complicated, though that's no one's fault but his own.
He'd worked his way up from his unconventional beginnings to his current place, in the upper echelons of Blackwatch, one of Reyes' top people, basically Blackwatch second-in-command. He's in the loop for pretty much every op they run, as far as he knows, and Reyes has called him some variation of vital, important, or, on one occasion, very gruffly, irreplaceable. Jesse had gone warm and embarrassed and unaccountably pleased at that last one. While Jesse knows that Reyes is his CO, he likes to think that maybe they're friends too--or at least they had been, until Jesse had fucked it up.
See, somewhere along the way, Jesse had developed a crush on Gabe Reyes. Well, that's not entirely true--he'd come into Blackwatch at 18 with a painful, overwhelming crush on Gabe Reyes, the good-looking hero who'd saved his ungrateful ass from prison. (Didn't stop him from being a little shit to Reyes and everybody else who tried to help him out, that first year or so in Blackwatch, but the point still stands.) Then time had passed, and the pedestal Jesse had put Reyes on had fallen out from under him. Reyes wasn't the shiny hero Jesse had expected him to be; Reyes was a good man who did the bad things that had to be done. Jesse would follow him off a goddamn cliff if Reyes asked, but the crush Jesse had had on the image of Reyes had shattered when the image had.
But later, when they were friends, when they were both metaphorically elbows-deep in this thing and covered in blood, when Jesse knew who Reyes wasn't and who he was, then he'd realized, oh, this man, he's who I want.
Then late one night after an op, running on adrenaline and three days without sleep and the way Reyes' mouth quirked up at one corner when Jesse caught his eye across the transport, Jesse had kissed him. It was quick, as sweet as Jesse could manage, and Reyes didn't push him away. He didn't say anything, but he didn't push Jesse away.
And then they just... didn't talk about it ever again. It's been months. Ostensibly, nothing between them has changed at all, but the distance between them feels different now. Jesse's more aware of how far Reyes stands away from him, how much space he leaves between them in the briefing room or on the transport or in his office late at night. Was it always like this, and Jesse hadn't noticed? Or is this new, some kind of punishment for Jesse being so forward? Jesse can't tell, and he's afraid to push it any further, a little afraid to even ask--he's not scared of professional consequences so much as he is what Reyes' answer might be.
That's where they are, when Reyes puts his hand on Jesse's shoulder and doesn't let go.
"Haven't seen much of you tonight," Reyes says to him.
"I been here, playing pool." Jesse says. Keeping my distance, he doesn't say.
"Losing at pool!" Torre corrects, laughing, and Jesse schools his face into something appropriately embarrassed at this assessment.
Reyes squints at him. "Jesse McCree," he says, and even while his full name in Reyes' mouth does something funny in Jesse's gut, the hand on Jesse's shoulder finally moves--over to his other shoulder, dragging him close and tucking him up under Reyes' arm, "Are you hustling these poor agents at pool?"
This is fine. This is fine. The shocked look on Jesse's face is easily played off. It's like he's undercover, he thinks. This ain't his first rodeo.
"Commander Reyes!" Jesse says, mock-wounded, putting a hand over his heart. "You think I'm hustling pool? I ain't hustling pool!” And he's not, not really. To hustle would require his luck to mysteriously turn, and for them to be playing for anything but fun. All he's done is lose tonight, and all he's lost has been the facade of his pride.
Reyes squints at him harder, their faces close together. "You have impeccable aim, McCree. There is no way you are terrible at pool."
"It's different kinds of projectiles," Jesse lies, still not pulling away.
"Sounds to me like you ought to be playing darts instead."
"Maybe I like a challenge," Jesse says, shrugging as best he can with the weight of Reyes' arm still solidly across his shoulders.
"Maybe you're banned from the dart board," Tack chimes in.
Jesse grins sheepishly. "Also that, definitely that."
"Banned?!" Reyes thunders, right by Jesse's ear. Jesse flinches a little, and Reyes immediately apologizes, more quietly. "Sorry, sorry. Who would ban you from the dart board?"
"It was...a group effort," Jesse says.
"A bunch of sore losers," Genji says, grumbling. "A bunch of sore losers who don't like to lose."
"Darts seemed fairer if Genji and I didn't participate anymore--although I'm sure the Commander could override that, if he wanted."
"Do you want him to?" Reyes asks, his voice lower than it really ought to be, still right in Jesse's ear. Jesse suppresses a shiver.
"Yes!" Genji says.
"Nah, seems to me I'm happy enough playing pool. I think the Commander might be drunk," Jesse says, keeping his voice light, even while Genji groans in annoyance, "And I certainly wouldn't want to take advantage of him when he's in that state."
Reyes studies his face; Jesse is almost certainly imagining the way it seems like Reyes' gaze flickers down to his lips for a moment.
They wind up at the dartboard, Jesse's game with Kepler forgotten as pretty much everyone in the bar crowds around to watch Commander Reyes square off against Genji. It's much less of a disaster than Jesse expects, honestly, years of training on Reyes' part managing to mostly override whatever alcohol is in his system.
"You're lucky I took up the challenge," Reyes tells Genji, lining up his shot with one eye squinted closed. "Imagine the trouble we'd both be in if McCree had actually wanted to play darts. Best shot in Blackwatch--hell, maybe in all of Overwatch."
Jesse clutches his cup a little tighter, hopes that the corner he's chosen to watch from is dark enough that it's not obvious how hard he's blushing. "I had to give at least one of you assholes a fighting chance," he calls, and everybody laughs.
Reyes loses, of course, because Genji is literally a ninja and Jesse's pretty sure Genji's got computer-assisted aim, but it's closer than it has any right to be. The bar erupts when Reyes misses his last shot, and in the aftermath, as people crowd around Genji and the dartboard is declared off-limits once more, Jesse finds Reyes next to him again.
"You got a smoke?" Reyes asks quietly, leaning in close to Jesse.
Jesse blinks at the question, a little surprised. He knew that Reyes smoked occasionally--cigarettes go missing from Jesse's pack every so often when they're in the middle of something real stressful, and once he caught a glimpse of Reyes smoking on a roof in Grand Mesa--and he also knows that he's not supposed to know. Jesse gets why it would be a secret, and he's kind of amazed he's being let in on it now.
He nods. "It's about time for a break," he says, and Reyes follows him out one of the side doors. They stand across the street from the bar; Jesse taps a cigarette out of the pack and hands it to Reyes. The cigarette is in Reyes' mouth before Jesse can fish his lighter out of his pocket, and Reyes leans in to let him light it, Jesse's hands close to Reyes' face as he shelters the flame from the cool night breeze.
They stand in silence for a few minutes, away from brightness of the street lights, the glow of the cigarettes illuminating their faces in the dark.
"Everything okay?" Jesse finally asks.
Reyes doesn't answer.
"Because I've only ever noticed you even thinking about smoking when you're real goddamn stressed out--and usually when there's something for you to be stressed out about, it ought to be my business too."
Reyes laughs. "Big secret: I smoke when I drink, too. Something about the way the alcohol interacts with the SEP shit and, well, you know--" he stops, waves his hands vaguely, and yeah, Jesse does know, and that's an argument for some other time, "I just really need a cigarette or five. I'm not... I'm not stressed out. I mean, there's a lot of things we should both be stressed out about right now, but tonight's been good. We all did good work, and we deserve a breather. Tonight's been--good."
Jesse looks over at him and smiles. Yeah, yeah it has been. Even if things go back to exactly the way they were before tomorrow, tonight has been really good.
He takes a risk, sways a little and bumps into Reyes with his shoulder. "It was nice of you to let Genji win at darts like that," he says, and Reyes laughs and doesn't move away.
The rest of the evening goes well, when they rejoin the celebrations. Reyes gets another drink from somewhere, and then another, and keeps himself firmly in Jesse's space. Fred and Prithi, both of whom know about his stupid crush on his stupid commander, shoot Jesse sympathetic looks the couple of times he manages to catch their eyes, but it doesn't seem like anybody else thinks this is at all suspicious. Jesse will probably spend too much time thinking about that in the shooting range tomorrow, but whatever, that's a problem for Tomorrow Jesse. Tonight Jesse is busy walking whatever this tightrope is: knowing that Reyes is drunk, knowing that his Commander can't mean this but wanting it anyway, trying to figure out how much he's allowed to enjoy and how much he ought to push back.
Eventually, Reyes leans in and whispers, "McCree, I think I'm drunk."
"Surely not," Jesse says, teasing, and jesus, Reyes is studying his face again with far more intensity than that remark called for. "C'mon, Commander. Let's get you home."
"It's Gabe," Reyes says, still serious. His hands are on Jesse's shoulders now.
"Doubtful, but okay, sure. C'mon, Gabe. Let's get you home."
He means to just call a cab, put Reyes in it and send him back to base, but then Reyes announces to the entire goddamn bar that Jesse McCree is taking him home and the laughter and whistles start up and Jesse wants very much to be not here anymore.
"You don't gotta keep wooing the Commander, McCree. Where can he even promote you to from there?" Bennett, one of the newer Blackwatch agents, says to him as they make their way to the door, and it can't be dumb luck that Valdez moves between him and Bennett just as he turns, ready for a fight.
"You don't want to do this," Valdez says, her voice even but still somehow clearly a threat.
Bennett looks taken aback. "'s just a joke. I know that Jesse--I mean, I wouldn't have made it out of that mission in Lagos without him. I know it's not like that."
Jesse shoots her a look, and then he and Reyes are leaving the building and climbing into the cab.
The ride back to base is mostly quiet, Jesse's spirits somewhat dampened by the exchange with Bennett, unsure how much of it Reyes had heard. Reyes jokes several times that he doesn't usually bring guys home from bars. Jesse jokes back that he's honored, truly, and the grin he gives Reyes feels almost genuine.
Jesse helps Reyes out of the cab when they arrive, and then they take it slow as they make their way across the base to Reyes' quarters. Reyes leans up against him, and Jesse does his best to make it seem like he doesn't care.
When they make it there, Jesse finally breaks the silence, saying, "I hope you had a nice time tonight. I know you don't usually come out to the Blackwatch parties, but after that mission, it seemed like you needed that as much as we all did."
Reyes snorts, pausing where he's on his third attempt to key in his door code, not that Jesse's counting. "Yeah, that's, uh, that's not usually really my scene. Nobody likes to get drunk with their commander, and I don't know if you can tell, but I'm not that good at booze."
"Wouldn't say nobody. Seemed like you were doing alright to me." Jesse shifts, looks away from the keypad as a Reyes gives it a fourth try. "Everybody was happy to have you there."
"Were they?"
"Everybody cheered."
Reyes snorts, poking at the keypad. "They cheered when I left, too. Were they happy to have me there?" He turns to look at Jesse. "Were you?"
The keypad beeps irritably, and instead of trying to answer that, Jesse finally elbows Reyes out of the way and tries it himself. It's a long number, one that Jesse really shouldn't know, and he doesn't know all of it, but it's a series of dates that are important to Reyes, and he knows most of them: his mom's birthday, the last time the Lakers had won whatever Basketball Cup before the Crisis, the day they'd signed the treaty that ended the Crisis--and one more.
"You gotta put in the last one," Jesse says, moving Reyes back in front of the keypad.
"How did you--"
"I'm a spy. This shit is kind of my job."
Reyes fixes him with a look before entering a last sequence of numbers. The keypad chimes happily and the thumbprint pad lights up; not taking any chances, Jesse grabs Reyes' hand and presses it to the pad himself.
Reyes looks down at where Jesse is holding onto his hand, then up at Jesse's face.
Once they're inside, Jesse grabs an empty water bottle and heads into the bathroom to fill it up, fully intending to sit with Reyes until he's drank at least half of it. He's only been in here once or twice before, for team meetings that have needed to be off the books, and as much as he's curious, he knows that now isn't really the time. When he comes back out of the bathroom, Reyes has changed into what looks like a very soft t-shirt and sweats and is seated on the edge of the bed, swaying a little.
Reyes looks up at him, a strange look on his face. "You'd tell me if I was out of line, right? About anything?"
Jesse stops, looks at him. "Boss--"
"Gabe," Reyes stresses, and Jesse starts again.
"Gabe, if you're out of line, you won't be able to shut me up. That's a promise." Jesse takes a careful seat next to him and holds the bottle of water out to him. "Is there something you're worried about? Because I thought the last mission--"
Reyes does not take the water bottle. Reyes, in fact, knocks the water bottle away, fists a hand in the front of Jesse's shirt, pulls him close, and kisses him. Oh. It's a sloppy kiss, needy, and Jesse kisses back with abandon. He wants this. Reyes nearly crawls into his lap, his fingers curled in Jesse's hair, Jesse's hands roaming the fabric of Reyes' t-shirt, soft over the hard planes of his torso. They kiss until Jesse is almost dizzy with it, Reyes licking into his mouth. One of them is making delicious, filthy noises, and Jesse thinks it might actually be him.
"You're drunk," Jesse says shakily against his lips.
"Am I out of line, though?" Reyes pulls back just far enough to look at him, but makes no move to extricate himself from Jesse's lap. "I know you said you didn't want to take advantage of me when I was drunk, but I really wish you would."
"How do I know you won't wake up tomorrow morning and really regret this?" Jesse asks.
"Stay," Gabe says. "Please stay. I'll drink the water and be good and you don't even have to kiss me any more--"
"I really want to, though," Jesse says, and Gabe laughs.
"--don't even have to kiss me any more until we both sober up. Just stay." Gabe laughs again, and Jesse knows him well enough to hear the sliver of doubt in the laughter. "Or don't--I can't make you stay. It's not an order. It took me months and more liquor than I've had in years to work up the courage to do this, after you kissed me. I worried that you'd only kissed me because you thought you had to."
"What kind of monster do you think I think you are?!" Jesse interjects. He watches as something complicated happens on Gabe's face, and he tightens his grip on Gabe's torso to keep him from wriggling away. "What kind of monster do you think you are?"
"One who's had a stupid, inappropriate crush on his second-in-command for much longer than he should have."
"One who hid his stupid, inappropriate crush on his right-hand man well enough that his right-hand man thought that his own idiot feelings were unreciprocated," Jesse says. He kisses Gabe again, but gently this time, like he had all those months ago.
"You know there's nowhere for me to promote you to, right?" Gabe says when Jesse pulls away, his voice teasing.
"Just to your bed." Jesse winks at him, and he relishes the full-throated laugh it startles out of him. "I'll stay, if you want me to."
"I want you to," Gabe says, and he kisses him again.
.
Jesse wakes up in the morning to a voice murmuring in his ear.
"You're still here," the voice says. It's Reyes, and he sounds a little mystified.
The evening before comes flooding back to Jesse. He's in Commander Reyes' bed, wearing one of Commander Reyes' old shirts. He'd used one of Commander Reyes' spare toothbrushes before crawling into the bed last night next to Commander Reyes. He'd slept here last night, the best night's sleep he's had in a very long time, lying next to Commander Reyes.
Commander Reyes, who'd kissed him and told him to call him Gabe.
"I'm still here," he says aloud. "So are you."
"It is my room," Gabe says. Jesse finally cracks an eye open, and he sees Gabe right there next to him, a small smile on his lips. "So, I don't know about you, but those regrets you were worried about last night don't seem to have hit me yet."
"I've only got the one regret so far," Jesse says, tugging Gabe close and kissing him slow. "...and look at that, no more regrets."
"Good," Gabe says. "Good." He kisses Jesse, and Jesse doesn't let him go.