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To say that level 100 classes were the bane of his existence was putting his feelings mildly. Throw on the fact that he decided to take early, 8:30 classes because he thought, ‘I usually wake up this early, this will be fine,’ made them hell on earth. Genji might have tried to warn him, but hell if Hanzo would admit that his sibling was right and he was wrong.
Sure, he enjoyed the idea of writing for his own purposes, and he knew he'd appreciate the time he had to just write later in life. But now? All he wanted was to grab some ridiculous sugary frappuccino from the closest coffee shop and work on his own personal projects until he went back to his dorm to play his guitar.
Switching majors was a bitch.
What made things worse, the teacher had gotten in his head that a big end of the semester project, worth 60% of their grade, would be the best idea.
Screw 100 level classes.
The teacher wanted groups of four and let them choose, at least. Only problem was, he didn't know anyone in the class outside of one of the people who sat next to him on a regular basis.
They seemed to be in the same position, as they glanced over at him and he gestured slightly. They grinned and nodded. Two other people around him joined them, some business major that seemed completely uninterested, and another that Hanzo knew was always on their phone during class. Not that there was anything wrong with either, nobody cared about 100 level gen ed classes and he checked his phone fairly regularly in class, along with his seat neighbor, but he swore he never saw them look up even once.
Not to mention he became slightly worried when they both asked what the project was about.
Names and numbers were exchanged, though Hanzo only remembered Hana’s at the end. The other two...they were Joseph? Jeffrey? Right, and the other was...he had no idea. He'd stick with Kathy. They seemed like a Kathy.
The four set up a time and place to meet and discuss their project the next day.
Class ended, and he nodded to Hana in goodbye before rushing to the center of campus to grab a quick bite. If he was lucky, he'd have about fifteen minutes to write something before his next class began.
Eh, he had enough time to at least write one thing. He’ll count that as a win.
The next day, he arrived at the cafe they agreed to meet at about five minutes early. He was the first one there, so he figured he would get a little reading done while waiting. Hana showed up a minute or two later and waved.
“Cool, you’re the on-time type. You think the others’ll show?” they asked.
“I would hope so, our grade depends on it,” he replied. “Though I do not have high hopes on...Kathy was it?”
“El-oh-el, same. Glad you felt it too. Business dude bro seemed like he might show though, they might be assholes but they gotta keep their grades up.”
Hanzo snorted and nodded. The two fell into silence as Hana settled into their chair.
Ten minutes passed before the two got a text from business guy saying he had a last minute inconvenience where he couldn’t come today, but if the two could send him the notes, he’ll e-mail them back his input. The two decided that maybe they should just get started instead of wait any longer. Hanzo thought he should maybe ask before the buckle down and avoid any awkwardness later.
“Before we start, do you mind if I ask your preferred pronouns? I use he/him by the way.”
Hana grinned, “I prefer she/her or sometimes they/them.”
“Which would you rather me use?” he continues.
“We’ll keep it simple for Kathy, if she shows. Just use she/her,” she replies cheerfully. “I’ll let you know if I would rather you use they/them, okay?”
Hanzo nods. There was less an air of awkwardness between the two as they started talking. They had gotten some pretty good headway on the project before they got a text from Kathy saying she couldn't come that day for whatever reason and that she'll be there next time. The two shared a look of disdain over their phones.
“Knew it,” Hana said as she blew a bubble.
“I admittedly wish I was wrong,” replied Hanzo as he pinched the bridge of his nose. “Perhaps we can send the professor an email asking what his policies are on no shows?”
“Maybe, he might have some terrible assignment ideas, but he seems reasonable enough.”
After that, Hanzo and Hana decided to call it quits on the project, but went to grab coffee before going their separate ways. Hanzo found himself surprised that, while he would normally be annoyed by her energetic personality, she reminded him so much of his sibling he couldn't help but care for her. And while he didn't really play games competitively, he still willingly listened to Genji’s stories.
“So I was like, el-oh-el, if you can't take losing like, one match and accepting that sometimes you fucked up, get the fuck off my team!” she laughed.
“If you keep asking for healing when you are nowhere near your team, you deserve to get kicked off,” he responded. “Especially if you start blaming the rest of the team for your mistakes.”
Hana nodded enthusiastically, “Right? Like how can you be such a piece of shit?”
The two laughed as they drank their coffee. They chatted for a bit before Hana checked her watch and jumped up. “Shit, sorry Han, I have to go! I promised I’d stream for my followers today and that was supposed to start ten minutes ago!”
“Apologies, I did not mean to keep you. If you could try to contact Kathy and let her know the next time we should meet for the project, I’ll type up the notes on a Google document and share it with you and J.”
“Lol, p sure his name’s Jackson,” she replied, gathering up her things. “And I mega appreciate that. I’ll add my notes once you send it and we can see if dude-bro shows next time.”
“Right. Jordan,” he said as she snorted. “But go, do not leave your followers waiting, I know the internet is a cruel place and many refuse to wait even a second.”
She snorted and dashed off, “Later Hanzo!”
—
The next meeting went as similar as last time, though with this one dude bro did show up for at least a few minutes before he had to dash off for a different class. The two weren’t too worried as he added some notes and comments to the shared document.
He seemed alright, and he said he was fine with whatever the two wanted to do, just to keep him updated for what they need from him. It was more than they expected and they could work with that.
Kathy also showed up, about an hour late sipping on, from what the two could see, a strangely colored pumpkin spice Frappuccino and they shared a knowing glance. Hana mouthed a ‘betcha it’s half caff double espresso shot’, to which Hanzo set his mouth in as firm a line as he could to keep from snorting.
Turns out she hadn’t read any of the notes either of them tried to send her and expected the two to explain the project to her. Hanzo, somewhat used to this, attempted to do so before she started complaining about how stupid the group project idea was and how there’s always that one person who doesn’t do any work so that the others have to carry them.
She then proceeds to slurp loudly from her drink.
Hana and Hanzo share another glance, this time Hanzo frowning intensely while Hana tried to keep a straight face.
“Right, that is very true,” Hanzo starts, keeping his voice even. “So what do you think about…” He trailed off to start explaining their ideas when her phone went off. She held up her hand in a, ‘one sec’ gesture and Hanzo could feel his eye twitch.
“I’m sorry, it’s very important I need to take this. I’ll just meet up tomorrow or something? Or right before class we can talk about it, but I have to go,” she said. “It’s about a house, you know how it is, right?”
It took every bit of control Hanzo had to keep his face at least somewhat pleasant.
“Of course. A house,” he gritted out.
She waved as she hopped away, oblivious to her group’s looks of complete disdain.
Once she was completely out of earshot Hana jumped and and looked ready to flip the table.
“I cannot believe. I literally can’t believe people like her exist!” she exclaimed. “What a goddamn fucking bitch! I refuse to do any work that could help her grade! She’s using us!”
Hanzo took a moment or two to respond and immediately went to his laptop to type something. When Hana looked over his shoulder, she grinned. The man was writing up an e-mail to their professor explaining the situation.
It seemed that the professor was at least reasonable about this and had been contacted by another student who was having the same trouble. However they were on their own rather than having one who was completely uninterested. The professor asked if perhaps they would like the person’s contact info and the professor would contact Kathy to have her switch to their group.
The two immediately accepted and the professor forwarded their info.
The person would be free for a half hour the next day, so they all agreed to meet and discuss what each had written so far. When they meet, the person seemed to be a very kind woman with what could only be described as an angelic aura about her. She was a med student, though from a quick introduction she seemed to be hoping to go into musical therapy.
“I am so glad to meet you, my name is Angela Ziegler!” she said, her voice had a heavy accent, but it was light in tone. “It is such a relief to not have to do this entire project on my own!”
Hana nodded enthusiastically, “Same! I’m Hana Song and el-oh-el, the person we had before was a real bitch and I know she only chose us because she thought it’d be an easy A for her.”
“While bitch may be too strong a word, I am glad we do not need to worry anymore. John doesn’t seem reliable with meeting in person, but he has proven to be at least trying,” the other added as he nodded his own head in greeting. “I am Hanzo Shimada. Should we get started? We have all of our notes on a shared Google doc which I can send you now if you would like.”
“Of course you’d want to start right away, Mr. Stern and Stoic. But maybe you could let her sit down before we get started?” Hana snorted.
Hanzo kept his face as neutral as possible but both saw the tips of his ears redden.
“Oh, right. Apologies, I…” he coughed into his fist awkwardly. “I supposed I would just like to get this done sooner than later. We need to catch up to where we should be if we had a truly full group and I would admittedly like more time to work on my own personal projects.”
Angela smiled softly. “It is quite alright, I believe since we have limited time today we should exchange info and I can copy all that I have onto the shared document?”
“Ooh, and then we can read it and talk there on our off time, hell yeah. This is like, literally the weight of the world off my shoulders, thanks Angie!” Hana cheered. Angela flushed, “Since there’s not a lot we can do at the mo’, you wanna grab some coffee with us?”
Angela paused, “Are you sure? We just met.”
“As if I’d care,” replied Hana waving her hand.
The other turned to Hanzo who shrugged a shoulder, “You do not have to but I’ve found than Hana has her way of convincing people.”
“It’s cause you only look scary, Han!” she laughed.
“That is a lie I am absolutely terrifying,” he deadpanned. He was already gathering his things and looked expectantly at Angela, “Shall we go?”
She giggled and hopped up, “Alright, I will join you.”
As the three went to get the campus’s overpriced lattes, the trio got onto the subject of music. It seemed all three of them couldn’t help but talk about their instruments of choice.
Hana started talking about growing up and singing all the time and how she sort of missed it a lot. She admitted she was planning on getting a small keyboard for her room at some point so she could sing again.
Hanzo nodded thoughtfully, offering to play his guitar should she want a fuller sound. But then Angela surprised the two of them by pointing out that she could also join, having played the electric bass for the last five years.
Both Hanzo and Hana were surprised, “Are you for real? You even play bass?”
“...you are much different from the bass players I know,” Hanzo added.
Angela raised an eyebrow at him, “Really?”
Hanzo pauses and realized that perhaps he should rephrase that, “My sibling. My sibling I mean...Genji tends to be...very over the top when playing.”
“Well I’ve heard the opposite, though maybe we’re all very different,” she laughed. “If we are to go by looks alone, you seem the type to have played piano your whole life.”
Hana laughed in response, “Okay well if we’re going by stereotypes, I guess I fit that one. But it makes it easier to sing along to!”
Hanzo almost blanched. “Violin before would be the closest, you know the expectations,” he smirked when Hana nudged him. “Perhaps that is why I could pick up the guitar like I did.”
The trio continued on to talk about their respective instruments and what they wished to do with them. Hanzo mentioned dreaming of one day playing in a band with his sibling and some friends, but he needed to find people...which he was definitely not good at.
“Well, you know us now?” Hana offered.
“I would love to be considered, but I cannot at the moment...med school is, as they would say, metaphorically ‘kicking my ass’,” Angela sighed.
Hanzo took a second to pause and glanced between the two before nodding.
“I...will talk to Genji about it,” he had a small smile on his face as he looked away, “Thank you.”
The three went their separate ways after picking up some coffees as Hanzo went to meet up with Genji. They waved their left arm in the air and Hanzo could see the neon green bracelet from far away.
“Hanzo come on! I have exciting news!” he shouted from across the way. Hanzo sighed, he was mildly annoyed as half the court was staring at him because of Genji’s shouting, but at least his sibling was excited about something today.
Still, he was annoyed, so he took his time and chuckled to see Genji exaggeratedly tapping his foot.
He swung his backpack onto the back of the chair and sat down casually, “Alright, what is the ‘exciting news’?”
Genji grinned, throwing himself into the chair across from Hanzo, “You’ll never believe it!”
“Believe it,” Hanzo snarked.
“Stop,” Genji deadpanned. The two glared at each other before he snorted and the two chuckled. “And everyone thinks I’m a meme, low and behold the meme-king appears!”
“There is beauty in subtlety, little sibling,” Hanzo smirked. “But what was it you were actually going to say? I may have some news as well.”
Genji shook his head before clearing his throat, “Okay so you remember how you wanted to start a band like, some day and shit?”
Hanzo nodded, looking expectant.
“So I was talking with my roomie, you the know the weird cowboy? And he was like, ‘I saw your guitar case, do ya play?’ And I was like, ‘uh, duh? Why would I bring that with me to college if I didn’t? We have no space. And he was like, ‘you never took it out, so I didn’t wanna assume’. And I was like, ‘well yeah I do, why what about you?’. And he then he whipped out a pair of drumsticks and was like, ‘you bet!’ and he asked if I wanted to jam with him and I grabbed my bass and we played for like an hour. He’s fucking awesome, brother!” Genji explained, flourishing his story with his best, admittedly terrible, southern accent and wild flailing of arms.
Hanzo raised an eyebrow good naturedly.
“And he said that he would totally want to be in a band if we considered it, so all we need is a singer and we could actually do it!”
At that the elder’s lip twitched up.
“Well then, I believe I may have good news…”
Hanzo updated Genji on his group project woes and while he was less energetic in his story, his sibling could see an excitement reflected in his eyes.
Days pass and the group is able to put together a decent enough project. Due to the number of complaints the teacher had received over MIA group partners, he decided to give their final grades based on how well each person did individually and add points depending on the visual aid.
It turned out that Jed was able to hold up his side of the bargain, though he wasn’t able to make it to any of their meetings. He did make a pretty kick ass intro and conclusion for their powerpoint, so bonus points were given to each of them.
They also were the group that had their shit together the most and the teacher gave them each a high pass, which helped each of them keep their GPAs where they wanted.
As sweet sweet retribution, Kathy’s group seemed to have not gotten anything done until the night before, judging by how tired each of them looked and floundered through their presentation. While they weren’t exactly the worst, they were definitely near the bottom and Hana swore that Angela’s normally kind smile had an edge to it.
Afterwards, the trio met up for drinks in celebration. Angela still had another final to take so she left earlier than the others, but not before Genji ran up to meet up with Hanzo. He caught sight of the familiar green bracelet and began to introduce his sibling to the others.
“Ah, before you go, Angela, this is my sibling, Genji,” he gestured to him, mildly surprised that he seemed to have frozen in place. “He is the bassist I mentioned the other day, he is...normally more...excitable than this.”
Hanzo glanced at his sibling expectantly.
Genji was still frozen and staring at Angela, to which she began to fidget in place. Hanzo nudged him and Genji almost jumped a foot in the air.
“HI!” he squeaked out. Embarrassed, he coughed and stuck out his hand, “Hi, ah--apologies I hello. Angela. It’s a pleasure to meet you!”
Angela shook Genji’s hand and giggled, “The same could be said to you, Genji.” She glanced at her watch and sighed, “I too must apologize, but I have another final to rush to and I need to review my notes once more before I take it.”
“O-oh right, yeah, sorry for keeping you,” Genji replied, once more awkwardly. Hanzo was almost staring at his sibling in confusion before it dawned on him and he smirked.
“No need, please,” she let out a soft chuckle and smiled. “I hope to see you again though, your brother has talked about you many times and I enjoy meeting fellow bassists. But I must go! Ciao! ”
“Later Angie!” Hana shouted as she turned and walked off. She glanced at Hanzo questioningly, as his sibling was quite a bit different from what she was expecting.
When Angela was out of sight, Genji seemed to come back to himself as he immediately placed his hands on over his face.
“Goddammit what the hell was that I cannot believe I did that what even was that,” he muttered to himself.
Hanzo snorted, “I have never seen you so awkward.” He could continue to tease Genji, however he noticed Hana staring at him and realized he hadn’t introduced Hana yet.
Genji had not yet moved, so his brother nudged him with his elbow once more and after a moment Genji sighed once more and looked up.
“What.”
“This is Hana, she’s the vocalist I mentioned,” he deadpanned.
“Hana?” his sibling glanced to his other side and looked surprised. “Shit, sorry. It’s good to finally meet you!”
He let out a breath and grinned.
“He mentioned you’re a vocalist?”