Work Text:
Fareeha Amari had a lot on her mind, which was fairly typical these days. Her thoughts often wandered to the training drills she hoped to prepare for herself and other agents, or to new upgrades on her combat armor. These were her good days. On others, she worried about the difficulties with managing the highly undisciplined nature of the recently reformed Overwatch. She worried about how her mother and the others judged her performance in her role with the organization...especially her mother.
Today was one of the good ones, at least. It was also Valentine's Day, a fact that hardly impacted Fareeha’s life at the moment. She forgot all about it until overhearing Lena making plans to call her girlfriend after their early morning training session. Moments later, she filed it away, forgetting about it all over again.
Fareeha needed a little pick-me-up after spending the early afternoon studying the latest blueprint for proposed upgrades to her Raptora combat suit. She left Torbjörn in the armor lab and headed towards the large common area located in the living quarters at the Gibraltar base. There, she could make herself a cup of tea before returning to her work. She expected the place to be empty at this time of day.
It appeared empty at first, until Fareeha noticed Satya Vaswani nestled in the comfortable, red arm chair that faced towards the large glass windows located opposite the kitchen area. The former Vishkar architect continued to read her book, either not hearing Fareeha’s entrance or ignoring her. Satya usually wouldn’t flat out ignore her unless her reading was important.
The two began working together only a few months ago. Fareeha solicited aid from Satya in her latest project, with the goal of upgrading and improving the shielding technology on her Raptora armor and also for the armor of some other agents. Their working relationship started out rather professionally, if not cold. Fareeha appreciated the focus and intensity in which Satya pursued her craft, but she also loved sprinkling her serious workday with some levity. Her jokes took Satya a few weeks to get accustomed to, but the architect soon felt comfortable enough to add a few playful barbs of her own.
Fareeha hesitated to admit all the reasons for it, but she began looking forward to the days the two of them worked together in the armor lab. She enjoyed Satya’s sharp intellect, her dry, witty humor, and it didn’t hurt that the woman was completely gorgeous. Today in particular wasn’t a lab day for them, with Satya here in the lounge, obviously catching up on some light reading.
Quietly, Fareeha continued further into the lounge, approaching the set of wooden cabinets just above the sink in the kitchen section off to her right. It was small and contained all the basics: refrigerator, oven, cupboards–nothing at all out of the ordinary. She swung open the cabinet doors and pulled out a box of black tea. Before removing a cup from the same cabinet, she turned her head around to glance over at Satya. The other woman remained seated in the large chair over by the window, still facing away from her, the top of her head and her dark hair the only part of her visible. Then, Fareeha remembered Satya liked to wear a headset on some days, to help modulate noise. She couldn’t see well from this angle but assumed she probably wore it while reading in the lounge; not that it got too busy or loud at this time of day, but Satya always took precautions.
Since this was likely the case, Fareeha didn’t feel too guilty about making a bunch of noise in preparing her cup of tea. She grabbed her favorite mug and then filled the red, ceramic kettle on the stove top with water, placing it on the burner afterwards. Moments later, something pink and red caught her attention out of the corner of her eye, to her left. A plate of heart-shaped cookies with pink and red icing sat on the counter. A Valentine’s Day treat someone undoubtedly prepared for them. Suddenly, Fareeha hungered for a snack and picked a pink one up off the tray. She bit off one of the lobes of the heart and chewed on the confection. It was pretty damn delicious. She really wanted to know who baked them.
As if reading her mind, Satya spoke from her seat without turning towards Fareeha, “Ah, I see you’ve found the treat your mother left for us this morning.”
“Yes, they’re really good,” Fareeha replied, after swallowing the last bite. Odd, she didn’t recognize her mother's baking. Then again, it was years since she last ate any of it.
“I wasn’t too loud? I tried to stay as quiet as possible,” Fareeha added.
Satya now turned in her chair to meet Fareeha’s eyes. She pointed to her ears, which were both covered with a tiny, white device, “I couldn’t hear you because of these but I noticed your reflection in the window. I adjusted the volume setting and I can hear you now, of course.”
Satya then smiled at her from over her shoulder before returning to her book.
“I’m making some tea, Satya, would you like some?” Fareeha offered.
“No thank you,” the architect called from over her shoulder.
The stove and the boiling water grabbed Fareeha’s attention again. She watched and watched; as time seemed to pass slowly, she tried distracting herself with mulling over some of the issues with her suit design Torbjörn brought up in today’s meetings. A few more minutes of silence and the kettle whistled. Soon after Fareeha poured the hot liquid into her cup with the tea.
Now, she had to decide where she wanted to drink it. The initial idea was to sit quietly in the lounge, taking a short break before heading back to the lab. With Satya here, her desire to stay didn’t change, as she would enjoy the company. However, she hating imposing when Satya probably prefered solitude.
Only one way to find out.
Fareeha picked up her mug and blew at the steam on top of the liquid’s surface, and approached a chair to the left of Satya’s. As she sat down in it, Satya’s golden eyes rose from her book to meet hers.
“Do you mind if I sit here a few minutes? I wanted to finish this in relative peace and quiet before going back to work.”
Satya gave her a small smile, “No, I don’t mind at all, Fareeha.” She immediately returned her attention to the book.
So, she’s not in the mood for conversation, it seems.
Fareeha sipped the hot liquid in her mug and turned to gaze out the window, admiring the view of the sea near the Gibraltar base, and how the sun shimmered against the water, just below the clear, blue sky. She felt content just to sit here for a few minutes in silence with Satya.
“Are you leaving the base tonight? I know of a few making plans for the holiday,” Satya’s voice broke the silence between them, even though her eyes never left her book.
“Nope, nothing tonight. It’s just another day, not a big deal.”
“I’ll admit I’m surprised; your mother talks as if you have plenty of admirers,” Satya replied. She still avoided eye-contact and focused on her reading.
The comment caught Fareeha off-guard to the point she almost spat out her tea. For starters, why was her mother talking about this kind of thing with the other agents around here? It was so unprofessional, but mostly it was just embarrassing. Also, why would Satya even take note of it?
She looked over at Satya, to search for a hint of the woman’s intent written on her face. But she found nothing and Satya still didn’t meet her gaze, eyes averted downward towards the book.
“I don't know. I think it's just wishful thinking on her part. It’s a mother thing.” Fareeha answered. She paused her speech for a few seconds before following up with her own inquiry. “So, what about yourself? Any plans for tonight, Satya?”
Satya finally raised her eyes from the book to meet Fareeha’s. “That business is mine, of course.”
A chuckle sneaked out of Fareeha’s mouth, “So, is my business now yours as well? Remember, you asked me first.”
A smile teased on Satya’s lips, “It's simple curiosity. I wanted to know if the things your mother says about you are true or not. I’m sure you know she likes meets with Hana here in the lounge each morning for their chats.”
Right, those two were infamous around base for their gossip. Still, why does Satya care about this? The reason would seem obvious with anyone else, but sometimes even Fareeha had difficulty interpreting Satya’s intent, and she was probably the closest to the woman of anyone here.
Perhaps against her better judgement, Fareeha decided to hurl herself down the obvious path of questions.
“Sure, but why that particular piece of info catch your attention? It almost seems like you’d be interested in asking me out sometime.”
Satya’s eyes widened a small yet noticeable amount before they returned to her book.
“That’s merely your own assumption, Fareeha,” she replied. Fareeha noticed how her eyes fixated on the page of the book, unmoving and not actually reading anything.
A part of Fareeha wanted to stop, but the other part enjoyed their teasing banter too much. “I’m sure you’re aware, Satya, assumptions aren't necessarily wrong. Don't worry. I wouldn't mind if a beautiful woman such as yourself asked me out to dinner. I'd even offer to pay for it.”
While Satya’s eyes remained on the book, her left eyebrow raised slightly and pulled the corner of her mouth up with it, “I disagree. It would only be fair to split the bill evenly between us.”
Whatever reply Fareeha expected, it definitely wasn’t that one.
“Well, yes. That's a better idea. A great idea, Satya. Absolutely.”
Satya looked up from her book again, her lips displaying a smug smile, “I did promise you and Winston that I would make a valuable addition to your team. These 'great ideas’ of mine are one benefit.”
She was teasing her. Fareeha could play that game, too. She flashed Satya her own smug grin, “Great ideas are one thing but do you plan on making this one a reality?”
Satya chuckled, “Fareeha, I find this manner in which you're trying to ask me out on a date quite amusing. I don't have any plans later and I accept your offer.”
“Wait, I wasn't asking you...you were the one...never mind, why don’t I come pick you up around ah...eighteen hundred tonight?”
Satya nodded, “I'll be prepared by that time and we can work out the details before we leave.” Her face now glowed with that satisfied look she always had after winning a debate with Fareeha or Torbjörn, over some issue related to their research on the armor shielding project. While Torbjörn hated the look, Fareeha found it undeniably attractive. Now so more than ever.
“Good, good. It's a date, then," Fareeha chuckled, trying to mask all the feelings exploding like fireworks throughout her body. "Well, Satya, I should get back to work and let you finish your book. I'll stop by your room later.”
Fareeha stood up from her chair, offering one last beaming smile to Satya. The architect answered with her own smile before returning to her book. At this point, Fareeha’s heart threatened to punch a hole in her chest and she now probably radiated enough heat to warm a planet. Before leaving, she washed her cup in the sink and cleaned up the kettle. Just minutes after returning to the lab, she completely forgot she did any of that.
If someone told Fareeha earlier this morning that she’d have a date for tonight, she would have laughed straight in their face. But here she was, with a date...and with Satya of all people. She would spend the rest of her day at work wondering how the hell that even happened and feeling grateful it did.