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For all the loud, wild personalities that now called Watchpoint: Gibraltar their home, it was a blessing that after dinner was served and the final daily meetings were adjourned, most of the agents of the revitalized base valued a quiet evening themselves. Sometimes, the sound of jets high above stirred the island base, but tonight, the beautiful, soothing sound of the sea breaking shore was all that could be heard. For all of the stress that came with being a part of the new Overwatch, these serene nights so perfectly suited a few hours of reading and research.
Mei enjoyed her evenings in her personal little lab, a cozy place with her computer station, a nice wooly rug, tea set, engineering table, and a collection of her favorite books and things. She lost herself so easily in her reading here, especially on quiet nights as these. She was so face-first into one particular journal that she didn’t hear one of her narrow lab windows open, and didn’t think anything of the Mediterranean winter breeze suddenly blowing against her bare shoulders. Snowball though beeped and tugged at one of her tank top straps, which is what ultimately alerted her attention to the wall at other side of her lab.
She looked up in time to see Jamison throw himself, head and shoulders first, clear through her window. He flopped onto the couch a few feet below with relatively no sound, like he was made completely out of rubber. He even propped his head against his hand and lounged out sideways, and winked at her as if he had been casually laying there the whole time.
“Fancy seeing you here, Snowflake,” he drawled.
“Jamie!” Mei sat up straight out of her chair, and looked over him. “This is my lab, silly. Of course I am here.”
He tilted a long, lopsided smile at her. “An amazing coincidence, that you were here when I decided to break in! You think it was fate?”
“Oh Jamie, you really shouldn’t come in that way,” Mei said. She pressed a button on a nearby console, which closed the window above him. How he had even opened it from the outside was beyond her. “Someone’s going to see you.”
“Is alright.” He turned his chin up, looking around at the shelves crammed with machines, books, mugs and toys. “I mean, ya know that if anyone saw me, they’d assume I was just stealing something!”
“Well, I suppose you are .” She put her index and thumbs together, making the shape of a heart over her chest.
His face scrunched like an elementary school boy’s. “Bleh! Gross!”
She grabbed a Murloc plush from her computer table and tossed it at him. Jamie caught it easily, then folded it tight to his chest like he had seized a treasure of hers. She felt bad about asking him to sneak in and out - it was too soon to let people know about their relationship, especially when she was still sorting out her own feelings about him. But he laughed loudly now, and she quickly forgot about her guilt.
If anyone did plan on barging into Mei’s lab at this time of night, hoping to split up a torrid love affair, they’d be sorely disappointed. Usually he fidgeted with the gadgetry in her office, breaking things apart and cobbling them back together, and talked enthusiastically about whatever happened to cross his mind at the given moment. She always sat in her favorite bean bag and tried to read, but mostly chatted with or teased Jamie.
Tonight though...well he had been excitable at first, but after a while he had become suspiciously quiet. By 10, Jamie had slithered off of the couch and laid spread eagle on the ground, the Murloc under his head, sighing long, dramatic sighs with a piece of paper draped over his closed eyes. When Mei ignored him, she was able to get quite a bit of reading done in her chair, but after a while the silence was too strange not to comment on. She leaned upright in her bean bag, and pointed at his scrap of paper.
“Jamie,” she asked, “is that your Secret Santa assignment?”
He groaned, and slowly nodded.
“Oh, that’s exciting.” She set her tablet down on her lap. “Who did you get? I promise, I’ll keep it secret.”
He sighed, extra-dramatically now that he knew he had her attention. “The bot.”
Overwatch now included three omnics - all of whom put names in the exchange jar. Mei sighed. “ Which one?”
“Tweety bot.”
“Bastion? Oh, that’s very sweet.” Mei showed him her strip of paper, which she had also pulled out of the peanut butter jar Winston repurposed for the Santa assignments. “I got Lena, and she should be very easy to shop for.”
Jamie froze, then peered at Mei. He then he slowly rolled his long body across the floor, towards her beanbag. When he hit her slippers, he sprung up into a crouch and faced her.
“Hey! Easy is boring, ya know.” Jamie waved his slip in front of Mei’s face. “Wanna switch?”
“No thank you . The whole point is to get to know someone different.” She tucked her strip of paper under the strap of her tank top.
“Uh, maybe?” His eyes followed her hand to her chest, where she hid the paper, but fortunately he knew better than to try to snatch it. “But hey! I don’t know Blinky that well!”
“And I know Bastion very well already.” Mei rest her tablet at her side, and folded her hands over her knees. ”I think the assignments are fine as they are.”
His lips pursed. “There’s such thing as too different, yeah?”
“I don’t think so.” Mei waved a finger between herself and him, like an example. “No difference between two people is too great to try and understand.”
“ People!” Jamie repeated, slapping his hand against his chest. “But bots are different. How’s a person supposed to understand them?”
Mei sucked in a sharp breath. “Well if you are so clever, you should be able to figure out something Bastion would like.”
“I am clever. And I say getting a bot a gift makes no sense.” He tapped his finger against his temple. “What could bots even use? They don’t need nothing, except tune-ups or whatever.”
“Not all people need things either.”
“People need things more than bots.”
Mei pinched the bridge of her nose. This was the wrong tact with him. She thought for a moment, then reached her hand forward and clapped it over his knee, just as he started to open his mouth to argue more. “How about... look at it another way? These are just gifts - and nobody needs a gift. It is not like you’d buy Lena food and water as a present.“
His mouth opened, then shut again. “Well, I ‘pose not…”
Mei nodded, and continued. “ So, what kind of gifts do you usually give other people?”
“Ya see...I guess...the thing is, I really only did the gift thing for Pigface. He got his scrap gun the first year, then the automatic shrapnel attachment last year.” Jamie grimaced, and looked down at the ground in long consideration. “This year I was gonna try to make a rocket, give his hook a little more kick , but…”
But Roadhog wasn’t around now. He’d left for Australia again, alone, and swore to kill Jamie if he followed. Nobody understood why - especially when Roadhog had been the one who fought so hard to negotiate the two Junkers into Overwatch. The far-off daze in Jamie’s eyes at times told Mei that he still didn’t understand why Roadhog would do that to him, and that it still hurt terribly.
Mei’s lips quirked. “Well, I mean, if that’s the kind of gift you like making-”
His face snapped up suddenly. “I ain’t giving a bot a gun!”
“Then don’t!” Mei slammed her palms against her knees. ”Figure out something else!”
His orange eyes were near glowing, with intent and something close to anger. “I’d rather get you something.”
“Well I just want to see Bastion happy.” She grabbed her tablet and held it to her chest, and stood up from her beanbag. “All I want from you is to try.”
----
Jamie sat on a stool in the laboratory a few days later, already certain he was making a mistake. First of all, this was not Mei’s lab, but one of the cold and old-fashioned chemistry rooms. He already wished he brought a warmer jacket, but he stole a white lab coat to hold himself over. Mei seemed unbothered - of course she did, it took no less than a blizzard to give her a chill - and of course Bastion wouldn’t feel anything whatsoever. At Mei’s stern insistence, it was the big bot that Jamie was here to observe today.
So far, it was just helping her set up big boxes of whatever at one of the black marble tables, taking cartons from the closet and arranging it near the tubes and computers. Whenever it seemed like the giant monster would knock its head against a lamp, or slam its metallic elbow against a computer, it seemed to catch itself and spin deftly out of the way. Unnatural for sure. Jamie narrowed his eyes at the bot.
Bastion hesitated, its arms holding a carton of glass vials. It whistled softly, balanced the carton on that rickety gun-arm of its, and then used its flexible hand to tug at the collar of Mei’s coat. When it succeeded in getting her attention, it blinked its display in Jamie’s direction.
“Doot? ”
“Oh, Bastion. He will be observing today.” Mei said. She turned her back to Jamie. “He says he wants to learn about being a scientist.”
Jamie waved lazily from his table across the room. “The future Dr. Jamison Junkenstein, that’s me.”
“And the good doctor is going to be quiet and well-behaved, or he will have to observe someone else instead.” Mei took the carton from Bastion, and set it on the table. “Perhaps Dr. Ziegler? ”
Jamie’s face contorted. “Absolutely not! That Witch sprayed me in the face with that soapy stuff last time I went to her lab.”
”Sounds just horrible.” Mei turned to her assistant. “Bastion, you can ignore him. Would you please prepare the glycerols for today’s testing?”
“Doo-loo!”
After that...well, to Jamie, absolutely nothing of any interest happened. They just went back and forth, squirting pipettes of one kind of goo into another kind of goo, and made notes on a computer in between. Mei was the one who said that Jamie should observe Bastion, to figure out what made it tick, but he had no idea what he was supposed to be looking for. The bot was just moving things around: Jamie might as well be watching a crane operated toy. And he’d usually be okay just ogling Mei as she bounced from one project to the next, but the frosty attitude she was putting on dampered even that joy.
So Jamie’s attention very quickly strayed, first around at the other gizmos in the room, and then to the little tweet bird that hung out with the robot. It didn’t have a cage, but it had a thin wooden perch mounted at Jamie’s table, just a foot or two away. Jamie wondered if the bird was strung out or something - it kept hopping up and down the length of the perch, sang birdcalls at the glass window, and occasionally fluttered down to the tabletop and pecked at the seeds scattered across the cold marble.
That thing did nothing but eat all day. How much of its fluff was feather, or fat?
Jamie lifted a finger to the bird, to poke at its white belly, but suddenly felt an electric shiver run down his right arm and leg. He turned his face very slowly towards Mei and her assistant. Bastion’s face stared dead-on at his, its visual input panel humming and flickering between the usual, soft baby blue and a violent, shuddering orange.
“Yikes…” Jamie opened his palms and lowered his hands, slowly. Bastion’s face stayed dire orange for a very long, extremely uncomfortable stretch of time, before Mei called out to Bastion again. The bot swiveled around to her, its display a cheery blue once more. Neither Mei nor the little bird had a clue about this little exchange.
The Junker grumbled to himself and slumped against the table, laying his head over his crossed arms. He swirled a few of the seeds over the tabletop with his finger. Fearlessly, Tweety’s bird hopped after Jamie’s metal finger as he pushed the seeds, pecking as he went.
“That bot don’t let anyone mess with ya, yeah?”
The yellow bird tap-tapped its beak against some seeds. After a few moments, it perked up, and tilted its head to give Jamie a look. The lanky man tilted his head back, this time giving the bird a good, long stare.
“You think, you’re like the little guy to his Piggo?”
“Chirp?”
“Hmmm...”
----
Mei rolled around on the floor, clutching her favorite Murloc plush to her chest. She sighed, flopped onto her back atop her bright blue rug, and looked up at the opposite side window. For a longing moment, she waited to see it shake or jangle at all…but hadn’t opened in over a week. The last time she saw him for more than a glance, it was in the chem lab a few days ago, and he had barely said a word to her since then. Whenever she ran into him on the base, he looked distracted, distant.
What was Jamie doing? Mei kicked her feet in the air. He wasn’t even in his own workshop these days, but Torbjorn’s, and stayed there every night until early in the morning. By then, she had to be asleep, since she had to work with Winston and Efi on research during the day. Even if she found Jamie during the afternoon, he was busy with Torbjorn building arms and armory as part of his so-called ‘apprenticeship’. The night was really all Mei and him had for themselves, but he hadn’t shown up since they fought.
Mei squeezed the plush tight, and sighed long and loud. She was very sure she hadn’t been too hard on Jamie - he had been incredibly obtuse and rude - but right now, it was hard not to regret it. It was even harder not to worry about what his distance over the last week meant.
What if he flaked out of his gift to Bastion? What if he forgot, or gave up, or decided he didn’t care enough to get a gift? What if he was angry at her for pushing him, and didn’t see that she just wanted him to open up a little? Mei squeezed her eyes shut. She was so sure he was improving, that his attitude had changed and his relationships with the other people in Overwatch slowly warmed. But if Jamie could never accept their omnic teammates...
There was a brief, loud knock against Mei’s lab door. At first, she ignored it, thinking perhaps it was an accident. But the knock happened a second and third time, and more insistently at that.
“Excuse me?” A low, cautious, but familiar voice called out.
“Oh!” Mei hopped to her feet. She ran a hand through her messy hair, and was halfway across the room when she thought to look at the state of her lab. A totally mess, mail scattered all over her desk and everything. Mei winced. At the very least, she saw the Murloc on the floor, hurried back, tossed it onto a shelf, and then returned to the door. She opened it a sliver. “Is that you, Aleksandra?”
“Good evening, Mei-Ling.” Aleksandra smiled broadly, looking ever the hero and champion. Even in the dark of night, her presence always shone bright. “I am happy you heard me.”
“Of course!” Mei said. “I’m sorry, I was just a bit absorbed for a moment there.”
Aleksandra‘s eyebrows lifted slightly. “Have I interrupted important work?”
“No no! I was on break anyway.” Mei waved her hands, then remembered to the door wide for her friend. “Please! I have tea, and a place to sit. Would you like to come inside?”
“Thank you. You see, a bit of privacy would be ideal.” To Mei’s surprise, when she opened the door wide and cast more light on her visitor, she realized that Aleksandra actually looked embarrassed . Something seemed clenched tight in her left fist. “I need a favor.”
----
The new Overwatch didn’t do its anticipated Secret Santa exchange on Christmas itself, but rather a week ahead of time. Over the next few days, the base would empty as everyone who had family would go home for the holiday. But for now, the canteen was stuffed full of food, a bedazzled tree, strewn-open gifts, and all of the agents crammed in one place. Orisa folded herself into the smallest, most polite sitting position she could managed, and their strike commander, Winston, did his best not to crowd Lena and Emily whenever he moved his arms. Still, the whole team was so rarely together in one place, and the chatter and the excitement around each gift exchange was worth the squeeze.
Near the end of the exchange, Hanzo stood in the center of the giving circle, holding a thick photo album and facing the Bastion opposite of him. The archer bowed stiffly to the omnic, his face tight and unreadable. “Thank you for this present. I will count it among my treasures.”
Bastion bopped in excitement, and the Santa hat swinging from its head probably would have flown off if not for the magnets keeping it in place. The sentry bot’s torso whirled independently of the rest of its body, and it shot Mei a thumbs up.
“Yes! You did wonderful!” she called back.
Lucio hollered from nearby. “Killed it, B-bops!”
The rest of the group applauded, and Bastion’s head spun. “Fwee!” Meanwhile, Hanzo slunked to his seat like he never wanted to be seen again.
“Very good.” Angela clapped her hands together, to call everyone’s attention. “Now, the next exchange. Who got Bastion a present?”
Nearly twenty agents, of all different shapes and sizes, looked among each other. They shrugged, chattered, and some looked at Bastion concernedly, like the thought of someone ghosting him had already crossed their minds.
“Oy,” a tired voice finally called from the corner of the room. Jamie yawned loudly as he raised his hand high. “Yeah, that’s me.”
Bastion whirled another 180 degrees, and spied the Junker slouching against the opposite wall. It clearly made some attempt to contain itself, but couldn’t help a worried wurrrr.
“Well, isn’t this quite the matchup,” Angela murmured.
“Don’t keep us waiting, boy! Out with it!” Torbjorn called out. The Santa-clad engineer stretched his arms, and started to waddle toward the holiday tree. “Which one of these is it?”
“Ain’t in here.” Jamie jerked his thumb out the window. “It’s outside.” With nothing else to say about the matter, he shoved his hands into his short pockets, and shuffled through the crowd and out towards the exiting hallway.
Mei looked to Bastion. “I guess...we are going out there?”
“Dwee-doo...”
Not everyone was willing to go outside just to see a gift exchange - Torbjorn did, and Lucio and Angela. Bastion, having no choice, moved in cautious and halting steps with Mei at its side. After considering the exiting parade, Zenyatta drifted afterwards, sporting the bright neon LUCIO cap and tank top set that had been his gift.
Jamie lead them out of the canteen hall and onto the open, yellow-green expanse of grass just outside. Sometimes the field was used for football games, or for target practice, but there usually wasn’t anything to see out here. The cold air coming off the Mediterranean Sea blew over the little party in a sudden chill.
“Brr, should’ve brought that grogg along with me,” Torbjorn muttered.
Angela eyed him. “You also could have stayed inside.”
“Oh ho ho, of course not!” Torbjorn pointed straight at Jamie, hobbling at the front of the group. “I’m not missing whatever this nutty contraption ends up being.”
“You are certain he made a gift?”
“Well, the lad’s been using my forge every night for something.”
Bastion’s attention had drifted to the sky, where a gaggle of seagulls coasted in lazy circles, but Mei tapped on its forearm to keep it focused on walking. Ahead of them, in the center of the field, was some kind of waist-tall object covered in a dingy blanket. Jamie’s pace quickened to it, and he gripped the blanket and waited for the party to approach.
“Alright!” Torbjorn said, crouching and leaning his hand on his knee. “Now, let’s see what this is all about.”
“Ladies and gentlemen and bots, feast your eyes on this!” Jamie dramatically ripped up the blanket, tossing it up to the sky and behind him. “Ta-daaaaaa~!”
It was...just a large yellow cylinder. Jamie beamed as if he was the most clever man in the world, and only slowly caught onto everyone else’s confusion. “Ta-da?”
“Is that a barrel?” Torbjorn’s face soured. He looked like he quite regretted leaving his grog now. “That’s it, boy?”
Lucio hopped closer, and peered over the bright, unevenly-painted yellow canister. He knocked his knuckles against the side. “What’s the deal, Jay? Does it explode?”
Jamie frowned. “I got some range, mate.”
Angela pressed her hands to her chest. “Thank goodness. Perhaps I’m not needed out here after all.”
Zenyatta said nothing, but the glow under his forehead panel flickered. “Hmmm...”
“I’d stand back anyway, at least, if you like ya eyeballs were they are.” Jaime pointed to the sentry bot though. “‘Cept you, Tweets. You’re the main event.”
Everyone jumped to distance themselves from the yellow barrel. Poor Bastion though beeped in a low, worried tone as it looked to Lucio, then to Zenyatta. It didn’t move forward until Mei pressed her palm against Bastion’s arm.
“Give it a chance,” she encouraged, softly. “We are all here for you.”
So the rickety sentry bot shifted forward carefully, towards Jamie and the mysterious yellow barrel. The Junker had a rolled-up scroll crammed in his pants pocket, and only now unfurled it for Bastion to see. He had to get up on his toes, but Jamie managed to opened the piece of paper in front of the bot’s visual scanner. It was a messily formed schematic.
“Dwee do?” Bastion asked.
”Read the specs,” Jamie said. ”Ya can do that, right?”
Bastion’s eye glowed yellow, and with a horizontal beam of light, scanned the paper up and down. Its display then blinked a few times, as if in confusion.
“Weet?” Bastion lifted up the barrel, and shook it rapidly. It wasn't the sound of oil sloshing, or bullets knocking together. It sounded like sand, or pellets?
Mei didn’t know what was going on, but the sentry bot jolted straight up very suddenly, and whirled its torso around. A panel in its center popped open, and Bastion ejected a chrome canister onto the grass. Its ammunition cylinder? It didn't wait for Jamie to help, and jammed the bright yellow canister into place itself. Bastion then twisted its body into turret mode, and pointed their barrel to the sky.
Ganymede flew to Mei, and sat hunched in her palm as she softly shielded the bird with her other hand. Jamie stuffed his fingers in his ears and bounded towards the rest of the group. “Rip it!” he hollered.
Bastion’s turret spun towards the sky, and let loose a roar of fire. Mei ducked low and closed her eyes, and a few seconds later, she felt a light hail hitting her back.
She opened her eyes, and looked at the ground around them. Golden yellow spheres dotted the grass. “Seeds?”
Lucio pointed at the sky. “Look!”
Seagulls swarmed down all at once. Angela shrieked and covered her head, Torbjorn cursed, but everyone else watched in awe. Birds that had just been lurking around the island, hiding among rocks or in the abandoned buildings of the Gibraltar complex quickly recognized edible feed when they saw it, and descended in from apparently all directions. The seeds must have been going up to 30 meters into the air, and Bastion spun in quick circles, distributing the feed all over the field. Mei even saw some clatter against the distant window of the canteen hall.
Finally, the hail ended. Bastion discharged the yellow canister onto the ground, empty of contents and metal steaming. It unfolded itself from its turret form, standing up to full height. Then, Bastion slowly turned around, looking at the literal hundreds of birds summoned down around him. The omnic spun around a second time, completely taken by the crowding of white birds all around.
“Mweep?”
It took a few moments for the audience to recover from this display. Angela ruffled out her hair, as if to shake any feathers out. Lucio and Torbjorn were shocked still, and only just started to react. Zenyatta hadn’t flinched at all, but kept his gaze fixed on Bastion. Jamie put his hand to his brows and peered in a wide circle around the field, and he whistled at seeing how far some of the seeds managed to get.
Mei herself gasped, and then ran to Bastion’s side, careful to skip around any seagull swarms in her path. Bastion noticed her, and swept its arm in a wide circle, swiveling to indicate all the birds.
“Bweet! Bweet!”
“Yes, Bastion! There are many of them!”
It wasn’t just gulls either. Mei looked a little closer, and saw they had attracted some smaller, speedier birds as well - bright teal Kingfishers, some larks, some beautiful white and black plovers. Bastion’s display blinked in fast blues and greens, trying to keep up with all of the different birds hopping around.
“I think, Bastion, you will have to learn how to ration the seeds.” Mei opened her hands, and Ganymede hopped onto Bastion’s forearm. “Perhaps, I can get you a weekly supply as a sort of salary?”
In spite of the swarm of birds, Bastion’s display focused down on Ganymede with something akin to anxiety. Completely unbothered though, the little yellow canary found some seeds that got stuck between Bastion’s grooves and joints, and pecked them free. The sentry bot looked at the happily eating bird for moment, then its blue visual scanner wavered and then dissolved into static. Its shoulders slumped. A low-pitched whirring sound emitted from the bot.
The others started to carefully draw closer to Mei and Bastion. Jamie scratched his chin. “Huh. Izzit dead?”
“No.” Zenyatta’s face was blank and expressionless, but he turned his attention from Bastion and stared straight at Jamie. “I believe your gift made our friend cry.”
Jamie’s jaw dropped. “ What? That’s not...uhhh…”
“You outdid yourself, Jay-Jay.” Lucio bounced forward and slapped Jamie on the shoulder. “Second person to make someone cry today!”
The group now gathered close to Jamie, with chattering ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ and ‘well I nevers’. The positive attention seemed too much for him, so Jamie threw his hands up to give himself some space.
“No no no! If I give a gift, then I get a gift! That’s all I care about!” He turned his back on the bot, and extended his hand with a gimme motion to the group. “Well, who had me? Pay up.”
“Okay,” Mei said, and stepped forward. To Jamie’s credit, he didn’t yelp or startle, but his eyes widened incredibly at her approach.
Mei took a slick, silver-and-blue envelope out of her pocket, and presented it to Jamie with both hands. He stared at her for a dumb moment, then snatched it away. He squinted at the envelope, shook it, then ripped off the side of the envelope. When he turned the contents of the envelope into his hand, he was left with a pair of shimmering, hard silver-plastic cards. Jamie peered at Mei, then brought the cards right up to his eyeballs. He read it for a moment, then looked to her again.
“A museum ?”
“The Barcelona Museum of Modern Technology,” she said. “It opens in a week, and they sent me tickets to the premiere.”
Jamie’s eyes widened. “A premiere? So like, brand spanking new place?”
”A new building, but it will have a lot of really wonderful machines and creations!” she said. “I thought, if you like building things, you’d maybe learn a lot from it.”
Torbjorn whistled. “Gonna be some very nice toys for show there.”
Jamie considered that, and his lips curled fiendishly. “So, window-shopping?”
She clapped her hands over her mouth. “Please don’t! They would be cross with me if you stole the exhibits.”
He considered that, and then flicked the two tickets in his metal hand open, like a little silver fan. “There’s two tickets here. You meant to give me both?”
Mei nodded. “Of course. This way, you could bring whoever you like with you.”
Torbjorn had whittled closer, and elbowed Jamie a few times in the ribs. Likewise, Bastion’s hinged hand closed over the Junker’s shoulder, though Lucio gently detached it from Jamie.
“Not this time, big guy,” Lucio said. “They'll think you are part of the exhibit.”
“Bloo…”
Angela looked at their lead engineer, her eyebrow lifted high. “Torbjorn, they didn’t send you tickets too?”
“Ha! I should’ve gotten an exhibit of my own, if you ask me! A whole wing!” Torbjorn tugged at his bushy beard thoughtfully. “But I might’ve clocked the executive curator a few years back. Good ol’ gentleman’s disagreement . If I go, I might have to whip up a disguise for myself.”
“Torbjorn, you absolutely never change...”
Jamie’s attention turned from his mentor to Mei. She held her hands laced in front of her waist, and swayed slightly side-to-side in a manner that struck him as strange. Jamie tapped his chin, trying to suss out exactly what she was up to, but she just kept a simple, cherubic little smile on her face.
“I mean, uh, it'd be rude not to take the person who got them in the first place,” he said aloud. Jamie looked between Lucio and Angela, like they were good arbiters of rudeness. “Uh. Right?”
Lucio pumped his fist in the air. “Do it!”
Angela crossed her arms. “I suppose. Though you are going to have to dress so you aren’t an immediate embarrassment to Mei, Mr. Fawkes. A shirt, for starters.”
“Is this a gift or a chore now? I’ll find somethin’.”
Lucio hopped forward, beaming and puffing himself up. “If there's style that needs serving, then I've got you covered my guy.”
“Not you!” Jamie jabbed his finger at Lucio’s chest. “I end up looking like some ancient-ass punk whenever ya touch me!”
“Thank you, Lucio,” Mei cut in, “let’s work something out for him together.”
“Aw yeah.” Lucio shot finger-guns at Jamie, his smile wide and gleaming. “Don’t worry Jay-Jay! We’ll make a fashionable man of you yet.”
“Uggghn…”
“Who was Mei’s Santa?” Angela looked around, then opened her hands. “Probably someone still inside, then.”
“Only McCree and Lena are left,” Lucio said.
Torbjorn snorted. “So you’ll either get a half-smoked cigar, or an IOU slip in a box.”
“How rude! I’m sure they put together something nice,” but under her breath, Angela added, “probably.”
The group left the gaggle of birds to their feast, and made their way entrance to the canteen. The cold weather was more than enough reason to put some spring in everyone’s step, so nobody immediately noticed Jamie and Mei walking slower than the rest.
Zenyatta hummed faintly as he floated, and when they reached the door of the canteen, the three birds perched upon him reluctantly fluttered off into the sky. The bot turned his head, and his eyeless stare rest upon Jamie, and then Mei. Jamie hadn’t noticed, but Mei did - what was Zenyatta possibly thinking? But before she could ask anything, the bot spun around, hummed, and drifted back through the door to the canteen hall.
Angela, from the hallway, looked to Mei. She had already herded Lucio, Torbjorn, and now Zenyatta along. “Mei?”
“Don’t worry. I’ll be in soon,” she called, and quickly closed the door between herself and the others. Mei turned away from the canteen entrance, and looked up to Jamie. He still held the ticket close to his face, taking in all the subtle detailing and the fine print. Bright silver reflected in his pale eyes.
“Sooo,” Mei asked. “What do you think?”
“Honest? I ain’t even got my head around it yet.” He looked over the royal blue-printed name of the museum again, like he still didn’t believe it. “Never just been let into a fancy place like this.”
“That’s good. I was hoping it would not be disappointing to you.”
His eyes snapped to her from over the tickets. “What? How?”
“It was a very selfish gift.” Mei laced her hands in front of her, and looked aside. “You see, I was sure you’d pick me as your companion, and it would be a good excuse to go out together.”
“You an’ me…”
“On a date. A real one.” Going somewhere real, together, without sneaking around at night or pretending to be on a mission. She could wear one of her pretty, unused dresses, and Lucio would undoubtedly find something handsome for Jamie, and it would be a whole evening together with the world none the wiser.
The realization of this same thing belatedly hit him, and he very quickly shoved the pair of tickets deep into his pants pocket, his eyes darting back and forth as if someone might take them from him. Mei raised her hand to her mouth and giggled, and he laughed too, and relaxed into a sideways smirk.
“I guess you ain’t as mad at me as I thought,” he said.
“Oh, I was very mad,” she assured him. “But I also think, you made up for it today with your gift.”
He snubbed his nose with his thumb. “Peh. It was nothing! As they say, Jamison Fawkes can see through the heart of any man, woman, or bot!”
She smiled tightly, trying not to laugh again. “See? You didn’t need to trade after all.”
“Yeah I... wait one second! ” Jamie planted his hands on his hips, and narrowed his eyes at her. “So before, when you said you had Blinky-”
Mei quickly waved her hands up. “No! I really had Lena at first! And I really believe you shouldn’t trade away giftees.” Mei thought of Zarya, and the piece of paper that her friend had offered that night. “But I couldn’t refuse when someone asked me to switch, and had your name in hand. I’m sorry.”
He seemed to consider over this, his face peering close to hers, his hand scruffing at his hair. “Maaaaaybe I’ll let you off this time. I mean, that makes two of us who fudged the rules.”
Mei shook her head. “What do you mean? You did what I asked. You made Bastion very happy - you made them something nobody else could have even thought of.”
“Yeah, but that cannister took just one night to do.” His cheeks were red, and it wasn’t the cold that did it. “Could ya close your eyes for a minute ‘ere?”
“Okay…”
She couldn’t hear anything for a few moments. But then, she felt his fingers shake against her nape, and then cool metal dropped around her collar. Mei kept her eyes closed, difficult as that was, as he cursed and fumbled his hands behind her, until he withdrew his arms and took a step back.
“Jamie?”
“Ya can look now,” he whispered.
She saw him first, his face flushed and clearly trying to avoid her eyes. Then, she looked down at her chest, and gasped. A silver snowflake. The delicate pendant and chain sat nearly weightless, and gleaming, only a few inches below her throat. She brushed her fingers over the pendant, and lifted it with one fingertip to inspect closer. There were slight bumps, barely uneven edges. Not mass produced.
He said he spent only one night on the barrel, so all the other nights...
“You made this?” Mei asked.
His teeth chattered, but he didn’t speak. He looked at her with a strangely meek expression, his fingers fidgeting and fussing in front of his chest.
“Jamie, this is-”
“No! You ain’t gotta say anything!” He blurted out, like he couldn’t help his nerves any longer. “Look, it ain’t nearly enough, but it’s all I got! I gotta live on the straight ‘n narrow for now, but one day I’ll bust outta here and get ya a crown of jewels, or a solid diamond hair thinger-”
She caught his hand, and laced her fingers between his, his shaking hand calmed by hers. Her cheeks bloomed a shy, rosy pink, and her beautiful doe-brown eyes turned so sweetly up at him, like an angel giving him a grace.
“Snowflake...”
“I just love being surprised by you.” Mei lifted his hand in hers, and kissed him on the knuckles. “Please, just stay with me, and surprise me every year.”
Jamie’s face went completely blank, like a crashed computer. Then he threw his head straight back and laughed. “Oh! Don’t gotta tell me twice! I’ll surprise ya every single day if you want!”
She still smiled up at him, though her eyes widened considerably. “Ah, I don’t know if my heart could take that...”
“ MEIIIIIII!” A voice rang out from somewhere inside, and reverberated through the metal walls, “McCree is dying waiting to give you his thing!”
“Hold yer horses Lena! You’ll ruin the surprise!”
Mei cracked the door open behind her, and called back, “ Sorry, sorry! I’m coming!”
He held her hands tightly, urgently. “ Hey, ya know, that sneaking thing, tonight? ”
“ Please.” She tucked the necklace under the collar of her shirt, and disappeared back into the common room.
---
Jamie watched her go, then stumbled backwards a few steps and let himself fall backwards against the grass. A ragged, tired, relieved sigh shuttered out of him, and clouded in the frosty air above his face. He thumped his chest a few times, like he'd been on the verge of a heart attack and needed proof that the damned thing still worked.
He blinked slowly, hearing a low, mechanical whir that seemed out of place among the ocean waves and birds squawking. Jamie’s eyes rolled up and behind him, towards the center of the field.
The sentry bot and canary alike stared at him, sitting in the middle of the grass next to the yellow canister. They hadn’t gone inside with the rest, he slowly realized - they’d been out here the whole time. Watching.
As the Junker gaped, Bastion slowly uncurled its fingers, and gestured a very deliberate thumb up.
“Argh.” Jamie pressed hands over his face. “Dammit.”