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Jesse will admit that he is no stranger to change. His entire life has basically revolves around the concept. He will also admit that his school life isn’t like a musical but is good enough that he has a half decent social life. But when a certain long haired foreign exchange students waltzes into his life and starts living under the same house as him his junior and senior year gets a bit more exciting than he had expected it too. He’s not surprised when Jack and Gabe tell him about the exchange student coming to live with him. He had gotten some sort of say in the whole decision making process. In the months leading up to this person who he learns is named Hanzo’s arrival his room is changed. First there is suddenly another desk next to his and another bed on the wall opposite of his. Then there is also another dresser next to his. Then merely weeks leading up to Hanzo’s arrival there are boxes of this person's belongings start to dot their side of the room. Tall towers of boxes that he bets are getting closer and closer to toppling over every day. All the boxes are written on in this clean and precise handwriting in english and Japanese. But it’s the small box marked “stationary” that catches his attention and makes him wonder just what type of dude he’s getting stuck with.
Jesse doesn't know exactly what he was expecting. Actually he knows exactly what he was expecting. He assumed that the person showing up would be some lanky awkward looking japanese kid with greasy short hair , acne and maybe even braces. So he’s surprised when he meets a boy taller than him by at least a few inches with broad shoulders and long obsidian colored hair that’s pulled back into a ponytail. Jesse can also see that his arms are well muscled and assumes that he’s some type of athlete. He watches as Hanzo,Gabe , and Jack exchange some sort of pleasantry as he more or less size ups the other boy. But he’s brought back to the real world when Gabe lightly jabs him in the side and he starts paying attention to the actual conversation, and suddenly Hanzo looks at him. “You’re Jesse right” He says with a smile and a heavy japanese accent cradling the foreign words on his tongue. “That ‘d be me. Howdy” He says with a smile and he can hear Gabe groan next to him. Gabe has always thought that his accent was stupid. But that’s what he got for raising him up on old western films. Hanzo looked at him with an almost sparkle in his eye, and he struggled to hold in a chuckle.
“Well let’s get going you should get settled in “ Jack said with a small smile before helping Hanzo bring the few suitcases he had outside and to the car.Jesse watches as Jack helps him place his a suitcase in the trunk of the car and Hanzo places in the other. He watches as Hanzo’s muscles flex and move and suddenly his eyes are drawn to the tattoo on the on his left arm wrapping all the way up from his wrist up to his collar from what he can see peeking out from the collar of his shirt. Jesse had seen some cool tattoos but never never on someone so young. Hanzo was around his age so he couldn’t be more than 17 so it was kind of weird to see a tattoo on a kid so young. But he just chalked it up to a cultural difference if anything. After Hanzo placed his things into the car the 4 of them all packed up into the car and made their way back to the house. The ride to the
house was pretty quiet. Hanzo had spent most of his time looking out the window at the new sights he’d be surrounded by now. Streets lined with storefronts and even a mall though it seemed to be a bit far from the actual house he’d be staying in.
The house itself was cobalt blue in color and looked more like it belonged on a beach front rather than where it sat on the concrete. It was a simple 2 story and stood out among the rest of the houses on the street that were more pastel and soft in color. He glanced over to Jesse and wondered if the boy didn’t want him here. As much as he had tried to ignore it he had noticed the other boy staring at him in the airport and when they had been placing his luggage into the car. Not that Hanzo didn’t understand if he didn’t. Hanzo was invading his space , heck he was invading his room. Hanzo’s drawn out of his thoughts when his eyes catch Jesse’s and he mentally curses himself for staring when he breaks eye contact between the two of them. Hanzo hops out of the car and goes to take his things out of the trunk. Jesse assures both of the adults that he’ll help Hanzo settle in so they can go inside, and it take long after for Jesse to jump out of the car and help him with one of the suitcases.
The first thing Hanzo is greeted with when he enters the house is the open space of the living room and the sweet smell of pastries that remind him of a bakery back in Hanamura. The second thing he is met with are two dogs. A small pomeranian and a newfoundland up to his calf. The pomeranian takes to sniffing his shoe and the newfoundland takes to sniffing at his suitcase. He can’t help the soft smile that makes its way to his face as he bends down to pet the pomeranian. Jesse enters the house behind him and is quite in awe at the sight in front of him.
“You mus’ really be something Shimada. Don’t think I’ve ever seen ‘em be so friendly with anyone that fast. ” Jesse said as he leaned against the doorframe.
“That there’s Caramel and the big guy sniffin’ your stuff is cosmos.”
“Cosmos? You mean like space.”
“Yep"
"Rosita named 'im. Seein as the ol’ boy came running. I'm gonna assume she's out in the garage."
Hanzo hummed as he pet Carmel one more time before standing back up. Then a girl came bounding down the steps. Humming some tune that seemed to pour out of her headphones in to her ears. She seemed so in her own world that she didn’t even notice Hanzo and Jesse standing there as she made her way into what he assumed was the kitchen.
“That there was Vinnie. That girls always got her head in the clouds.”
Jesse said almost. Than he made his way to the room the girl had entered no to long after. Urging Hanzo to follow behind him. It seemed that the closer they go the stronger the scent of cookies and sweets got. Snickerdoodles Jesse thought. They were her signature, so it only made sense. Jesse walked into the kitchen Hanzo right behind him and there she was sipping a cup of steaming tea. A fresh batch of cookies sitting on the countertop. Her phone and earbuds discarded and placed neatly to the side. Her hand cradled the cup as the looked down at the murky light brown liquid in thought.
“Yo , earth to Vinnie. Vinnie come in” Jesse joked looking at the taller girl.
Her hair was a mess of thick curly dark locks that reached just past her shoulders, and greenish blue eyes came up to meet his own , before looking at Hanzo who stood next to him. A smile made its way to Vinnie’s lips , pearly white teeth peeking past plumb colored lips as she placed down her mug.
“You must be Hanzo. Nice to meet you.” Vinnie said making her way over to where they stood , which didn’t take long given the length of her strides. The girl was the tallest of all 3 of them, though she wasn’t taller than Hanzo by much. “The names Vermillion, but everyone calls me Ve or Vinnie.” She said the smile on her freckle filled face not faltering once. Genuine smiles for people who give me good feelings Jesse remembers her saying once. Though he can’t place where they were.
“H-hanzo Shimada , nice to meet you” Hanzo says from next to Jesse rather formally, and Vinnies smile falters for just a millisecond before its back and she’s giggling softly. Her lips hidden behind her hand as if she were trying to conceal her small giggling fit. Hanzo seems to visibly tense up next to him both confused and surprised at the reaction. It doesn't take long for Vinnie to stop laughing ad when she finally does and catches her breath she strights up back to her full height and sighs fondly with a smile. “I’m sorry I’m sorry, it’s just that there's no need to be so formal with anyone here really. I mean you’re going to be staying here for the better part of 2 years better to get comfortable sooner than later. “ She says returning to where she was when they had first entered the room grabbing her cup of tea.
“Actually since both of you are here try something for me.” Vinnie said walking over to the fridge and pulling out a tray filled with what seemed like skewered fruit coated in something clear. “I haven’t made tanghulu in a while so I’m not sure if it’s any good.” she says peeling one off of the parchment covered tray and handing it to Hanzo “Not sure if you’ve ever had it before but tanghulu is basically like a candied fruit lollipop.”
Vinnie says peeling 2 more off of the tray. Handing one to Jesse and the other one for herself.
“What she means is that there just shish kabobed fruit covered in sugar. “ Jesse says with a smile. Before biting into his tanghulu with a crunch. Which is followed soon by Vinnie biting into hers. Almost apprehensively Hanzo bit into his. Surprised at the distinct difference in the texture between the sugar glass and the actual fruit.
“Pretty good right?” Vinnie said with a smile eyes focused on Hanzo. “I mean it’s pretty hard to mess up tanghulu, but it’s always good to have someone new try it.”
“It’s really nice actually. I’m not really one to eat sweets” Hanzo said before taking another bite of the thanghulu.
“Oh my gosh your tattoo is super nice” Ve says and suddenly she’s standing close to him. Her fingers tracing the the dragon round his arm all the way to where it dips into the sleeve of his shirt and back to his hand again. Hanzo would be lying if he said he wasn't at least a bit intimidated by the taller girl. She spoke her mind , was a handsy person and didn’t seem to hold anything back , which was a stark contrast to the way japanese women acted. Most were soft spoken and kept their thoughts to themselves.
“Thank you. It was a sort of a going away present from my parents” He says with a slight chuckle. It was family tradition a dragon for everyone in the family. His father had one his mother had one and eventually even Genji would have one too. Usually the tattoo was started when someone born into the family turned 18 but seeing as his 18th birthday would most likely be spent stateside instead of back in japan his father had opted for him to get the tattoo for his 17th birthday instead. Hanzo had always matured faster than the other kids anyway.
“Gosh I can’t wait till I have all my tattoo money. I’ve got this killer idea for a few tattoos that I’ve been thinking off for forever.” Ve said.
‘Well did it hurt? I mean course it hurt thing’ massive. Guess I mean how’d it fell” Jesse says taking a seat at the kitchen island . The skewer from the Tanghulu discarded in the garbage.
“It hurt, I mean look at it. But it’s pretty much fine now. But it peeled a lot when it was healing” Hanzo says finishing his tanghulu and throwing the stick away. The three of them spent the next hour in the kitchen. Talking about random things tattoos , piercings , interest. They basically just spent the hour getting to know each other and Hanzo suddenly didn't feel as nervous to be around Vinnie and Jesse as much. Then suddenly there are footsteps leading to the kitchen. But he's too busy talking to Jesse and Ve about movies and how they have movie night every friday to have the footsteps to have his full attention.
“Oh I was wondering whos stuff that was sitting out in the hall” A voice unknown to Hanzo says from behind him. He turns to face the voice and is met with a short girl with hair down to the small of her back and chocolate colored eyes. Her skin is a bit darker than Jesse’s but is speckled with patches that are white without pigment , of what he can see on her face most of it is centered around her eyes and her cheeks.
“Ahem” She coughs and hanzo is suddenly brought to the realization that he had just been staring at her face and could feel his own going pink in embarrassment. Which is soon followed by the girl in front of him giggling.
“Well hanzo the lil beauty in front of you is Rosita.” Jesse says to hanzo whose face is buried into the palm of his hands in embarrassment. But soon enough there are tiny dainty hands pulling his own away from his face and he is met face to face with the bright eyed girl once again.
“Rosita Florebel Carmensita Morrison-Reyes at your service,” She announces with some sort of unknown authority and flourish. “ and the before you ask ‘cus everyone asks eventually I have a little thing called Vitiligo. Which is why I look kinda like a red panda.” She says with a chuckle. “As much as I wish I could stay and talk I need to feed the boys then head back down stairs before Hana has like some kinda conniption cus I’m afk so long.” That's when Hanzo notices caramel hopping up into Jesse's lap and Cosmo sitting just by his foot.
“Ya know ya coulda just asked for one uh us to feed em right?” Jesse said in an almost matter of fact tone, scratching the top of caramel’s head.
“Well then Cosmos would of just went to get me anyway. I think I might take him down if even for a little while. Old boy can’t be away from me for too long anyway. I mean as long as he doesn't leave me for Hanzo over there that is.” She says turning her attention to the old dog sitting at Hanzo's foot.
“It’s weird usually animals are a bit standoffish when it comes to me. So I have no idea why he seems to just flock to me.”
“That dog's got a pretty good sense for people. So I'm sure that you can't be too bad.” Rosita said with a toothy grin that seemed to just brighten up her entire face.
The rest of the day went more or less without a hitch, and Hanzo seemed to ease into his new surroundings. Although there was still some underlying uneasiness when it came to sharing a room with Jesse. It wasn’t because the other made him uneasy or anything he just seemed to be so relaxed in everything he did, and it seemed to show when it came to their room.
Despite the fact that Hanzo’s side of the room was covered in boxes of varying size Jesse’s was littered with wrappers and an overflowing hamper. The state of Jesse’s side reminded him of the havoc Genji’s room was always in back in Hanamura with the exception that there were no manga or comic books strewn around the room. Ignoring the state of havoc that the other side of the room was in Hanzo took to unpacking the boxes that were on his side starting with the bigger boxes, things like clothing and things to put in his room just to make the place seem more home like. Once Hanzo had gotten to the smaller boxes he moved from in front of his dresser over to the desk. The desk was pretty and had enough draw space that he could probably place his computer stuff in one and use the rest for storage. But before he can get to unpacking the smaller things he takes to moving the desk away from Jesse’s. Not that he didn't want to sit next to Jesse but it seemed that if his room was any indication his desk would be cluttered too, and the last thing he wanted was to have to argue because Jesse’s stuff was starting to consume his desk too.
By the time he was actually done fixing up his side of the room to his liking and bringing all of the cardboard boxes downstairs, He wasn’t really sure what to do. Despite how late it was the house still seemed to be a buzz and lively. But it was a weekend to say the least and it was still summer vacation, so he didn’t really expect the house to be dull. He spent most of the night just on his laptop, he wasn’t the best at socializing and was painfully awkward when it came to it on a good day , so he was hoping to hold out on embarrassing himself by not initiating anything even slightly social. Hanzo let his hair out of the ponytail it had been in and put the ponytail holder around his wrist. Then he took out his phone and snapped a few pictures of his side of the room. The light had been streaming in through the window as the sun set and he couldn’t help but to feel the urge to snap the pictures while the lighting was playing to his favor. He’d need the pictures eventually seeing as Genji was bound to ask him for pictures of his new space sooner rather than later.
~~
The next time Hanzo went down stairs it was for almost time for dinner and the smell of spices was starting to remind him of just how hungry he was. So he made his way into the kitchen where he found Jesse, Rosita, and Gabe. Accompanied by the soft buzz of music. Jesse was kind of just ,sitting at the breakfast bar chopping vegetables. While Gabe and Rosita shared space tending to pots and pans on top of the stove. He questioned just what they were making he walked over to the kitchen island and making a seat across from Jesse. Who greeted him with a tooth filled grin as he continued to cut vegetables.
“I hope you don’t mind spicy food.” Rosita said taking her attention away from the stove and on to Hanzo.
“I don’t. But if you don’t mind me asking what exactly are you making?” Hanzo replied. “I mean it smells pretty good”
“Since your here in the states and due to the fact that an “Authentic” American meal is sold at pretty much any fast food joint just thought it might be cool to give you some traditional hispanic food instead. I mean your first meal with us might as well be an actually good meal. Plus me and Gabe are pretty much the only ones allowed to cook actual food in this house, so we cook a lot of spanish food” She said taking a lid off of a pot and stirring it with a wooden spoon.
“Why exactly are you to the only ones allowed to cook?” He asked with a raised brow.
“Let’s just say that there have been one too many close calls and an argument over what is and isn’t a spice. Trust me you’ll learn the whole story eventually” She said with a small chuckle.
Jesse seemed to visibly shutter at the reasons behind those allowed to cook and that just made Hanzo chuckle, What could possibly happened that was that bad. Now Hanzo was intrigued. He definitely wanted to know more but he decided not to push it to find out. Rosita did say he’d find out eventually so he’d just have to be a bit patient. Hanzo didn’t notice when but sometime during the conversation between him and Rosita Gabe had left the kitchen and the vegetables Jesse had been cutting had been presumably put into a pot on the stove.
Hanzo , Rosita and Jesse spent quite a while talking about nothing and everything. Although Hanzo was most interested by the way Jesse and Rosita tried to tell the others most embarrassing stories. Their dynamic reminded him a lot of the one him and Genji used to have when they were much younger. The pair had seemed to warm up to him fairly easily and Hanzo honestly appreciate. He knew for a fact that he definitely wasn’t the easiest to warm up to. But He was happy to at least warm up to Jesse. I mean it would be kind of weird if he didn’t seeing as he has to spend the rest of his time here sharing Jesse’s room.
It had been a while since he had actually sat down at a table and eat with other people. Heck he couldn't really remember the last time he sat down and had a meal at the dining room table. So it was kinda weird to help Jesse set seats at the dining room table. But, he was kind of happy to see that he actually had to pull his own weight around the house as weird as it sounded. He would have felt useless if he didn’t have any type of responsibility. Him and Jesse set the table in relative silence. Hanzo only occasionally asking Jesse if he had set a position the right way, or to pass him a utensil or plate. But not one that was awkward one that seemed to work and was comfortable between the both of them. It took them little to no time to finish and once they were done they both went back in to the kitchen to help Rosita place the food on the table.
It would seem that the simple act of putting the food out was enough to draw everyone away from what they were doing and pulled them to the dining room. Hanzo can’t remember the last time that he ate at the dining room table with his whole family. Heck he couldn’t remember the last time all his family was in the same room. With how often his father was away for work it was rare they were even in the same prefecture. So it was kind of nice to be able to sit with his host family and have a real meal like this all together. It was weird he’d only seen american families sit down and have a full spread of food like this for holidays and other festivities.
Dinner seemed to go on without a hitch so to speak. Seeing as Him , Jesse , Gabe and Rosita did all the preparing for dinner Jack and Vinnie were left to clean up for the night. He said his goodnites, and him and Jesse made his way up to their room. Jesse just flopped down on his bed seemingly exhausted out of his mind. As much as he wanted to just sleep and all he had promised to text Genji as soon as he had settled in. Him and Genji spent a few hours texting back and forth. They talked about nothing important and he sent him the picture he had taken earlier of his side of the room. When him and Genji were done talking Hanzo plugged his phone in and laid down.
~
Weeks passed and Hanzo got more and more accustomed to just how the house worked, along with how the others in the house acted. Like the fact that Rosita spent quite a bit of her time in the garage of the house. Which he found out was pretty much like an extra room in the house. He also learned that Vinnie bakes when she’s stressed and that Jesse is neat and organized in very little areas of his life. He’s organized when it comes to making sure he looks good when he goes out or when he wanted to do something. But everywhere else in his life was messy , unorganized and it kind of bothered Hanzo. He didn’t understand how someone could live their life in such disarray. At this point he was pretty sure that Jesse was almost more unorganized than Genji and that in itself was a feat.
Hanzo’s first week of his new school seemed to come out of nowhere. He forgot for a while that what he was therefore just why he had become a transfer student in the first place. His priority was grades, heavens knows what his father would say if he let his grades drop. The day before Hanzo started school him and Genji talked on the phone for hours. As much as they had talked since Hanzo had arrived in the states, but then it was mostly them talking in Japanese and mostly Genji talking. But now Hanzo was doing the talking. He talked about Jesse , Vinnie , Gabe and everyone else in the house. He talked about how the pets actually like him and how Genji and Jesse would probably get along swimmingly. Genji talked about how empty Hanzo’s room was and how the house was so much quieter without Hanzo screaming at him. What a good time for him to start getting home sick. He said his goodbyes to Genji and took to stress cleaning. Jesse had slipped out of the room at some point during Hanzo’s call with Genji, and his side of the room was exactly what Hanzo needed to de-stress.
When Jesse had came back to the room it was quarter past eleven. Hanzo was fast asleep, and his side of the room was pretty much spotless. He had never really seen his side of the room this clean. His comics were lined up on the bookcase by name and in numerical order. His hamper wasn’t overflowing and his bed looked decent for once. As beautiful and amazing as his side of the room looked. It was kind of weird knowing that Hanzo had been the one who cleaned up his room like that. He also kind of wondered just why he did it. It was rare for Jesse to even clean up his side of the room, so it kind of weirded him out that his side of the room was decent looking let alone clean.
~
Hanzo woke up with butterflies dancing around in his stomach. He hadn’t been anxious like this since his first night in the house. Now here he was anxious like a child on their first day of kindergarten. He had woken up early to the point that not even Jesse was awake yet. He was never good at making new friends. It wasn’t his thing. He wasn’t one to socialize. It had been like this from the very beginning. He had fallen in love with being alone. As sad as it sounds. He was more into reading then sports , and the sports he did excellent at were always single player sports.
Hanzo spent the time he was awake picking out something to wear. He had lots of clothes to pick from but decided to keep it simple. He picked a plain gray T-shirt, a light washed pair of jeans , a tan belt, and a pair of gray and white sneakers. All He has to do is make some friends. Who knows maybe he’ll meet some exchange students like him.
In all honesty the only reason he was really here was to learn how to network. At least that’s how he explained it to his mother and father. God knows that if he didn’t make it sound like he was developing skills he’d need when the company was his that he would be in some private school. Learning how to be a CEO with the poster children of the “I’ve never worked for anything a day in my life but I’ll still be a CEO” campaign.
~
Hanzo’s morning goes off without a hitch. Even with the butterflies running rampant in his stomach and the impending feeling of doom that follows him the whole morning. Despite Gabe cooking up a big american style breakfast Hanzo sticks with toast and a cup of tea. To scared that if he eats more he’ll end up throwing up from nerves, and it seems to work because he doesn’t throw up. Not when he gets in the car and had to sit through Rosita talking her ear off ,not when he finally arrives and anxiety almost paralyzes him with the amount of kids there despite it still being early.
He takes a deep breath and gets out the car and moves to the side, soon followed by Jesse , Rosita, and Vinnie. Vinnie is the first to leave the group she has to go talk to her coach about tryouts. Then it’s Rosita who runs to meet a brown haired girl with enthusiasm. Then it’s only him and Jesse.
“As nice as it is out here I think we should go inside and get our schedules and locker numbers.” Jesse suggested with a smile.
Hanzo nods and follows Jesse in to the large building. Hanzo had done his research on the school but the size of the school was just starting to set in. It took up about 2 blocks and the buildings itself was about 4 stories high. At least 800 kids went there not including the extra 100 to 200 exchange students it accepted from all around the world. Hanzo follows Jesse into the building. The hallways crowded and filled rambunctious reminded him of how crowded trains got back home. Scared of losing Hanzo in the dense crowd Jesse grabbed his hand. That’s when he realizes that Hanzo is scared if the sweat of his hand was any indication. He seemed so chill as if he wasn’t worried. But , he was and the fact that he could hide his feelings so well was kind of astounding. Jesse decides that his friends can wait just a bit longer to catch up with him.
They make it to the cafeteria in one piece, despite Jesse and Hanzo getting jolted around every now and again. By the time they make it to the cafeteria there’s already a long line forming. Jesse let’s go of Hanzo’s hand and Hanzo kind of misses the warmth. They both get on the line and wait for it to be their turn. Small talking amongst each other , despite the fact that neither of them are particularly good at it. So it ends up being more painfully awkward than anything else. They get their schedules and locker numbers and head out of the cafeteria.
“Well you’re in one of the first year transfer student home rooms. But my home room is right across from yours and it would seem that we have a pretty similar schedule.” Jesse said analyzing both of the schedules.
“Well at least I’ll have a person I know In most of my classes. But , I guess I might as well try to make some other friends. I mean I appreciate it and all but you can’t hold my hand and be my only friend here.” Hanzo said as they made their way up the stairs, to the 3rd floor.
“Well I guess you’re right. I can’t be your only friend.” Jesse said his thick southern drawl clinging to every word.
He knew he kind of sounded like an absolute jerk. But it was true he couldn’t only have Jesse as a friend. They would be together practically all the time, and he knows they’d both need a break from each other. So they settle in to this comfortable silence as they walk to their lockers which just like their home room was across the rather wide hallway from each other’s. It was kind of empty around here. The hallway only had a few other people walking around, either talking among themselves or walking to their locker or home room. Hanzo still kind of nervous about his impending classes. Decides to stuff his books in to his locker and sit on the floor next to Jesse’s locker. Taking a few deep breaths he let his head lay back against the locker behind him. The day was just starting and yet he would give anything to be back in bed. But he knows that isn't going to happen so with Jesse's help he gets off of the floor and puts on a realistically fake smile. Something charming and sweet. Something that will hopefully help him make some decent friends. At least that was the plan. Then , just like that the bell rang and
~
Things don’t always go according to plan. That’s what Hanzo finds out during his fifth period class. He somehow managed not to make a single friend with the exception of a returning transfer student from Switzerland named Angela, and the only reason he made friends with her was because she was his mentor. But Angela tries to remind him that Rome wasn’t built in a day and that friends are generally hard to make.But there even harder to make when your new to a school and most people in your grade have already made their group of friends. Despite not actively avoiding Jesse the two of them barely crossed path. The two of them had the same class but somehow they didn’t share more than a few words in between classes and looks from across the classroom. The only time they talk to each other is when Jesse comes to picks him up from his fifth period class and and go to lunch together. The walk to the cafeteria is filled with pleasant small talk. It would seem that both of their days were not interesting in the slightest. The first day of school is pretty much the same everywhere Hanzo thinks, and questions why he even made it seem like such a big deal anyway. When they finally get to the cafeteria they meet up with Rosita who bounces and buzzes around them like a personified rey of sunshine. She is a mess of big puffy hair and light colors that pop on her skin complexion. She also has a smile so wide on her face that they both make the assumption that her day was considerably better than either of theirs was.
“Well I'm not sure that i'll be able to stay in here with yall. I have to find a book in the library if I ever want to pass my english teachers class. I mean she have out syllabus 8 pages long, and she had the nerve to say that this is just for the beginning of the year. But other three that my day had been sunshine and puppies. I mean aside from the stayed stares from the freshman and everyone else to be honest. ” Then she turns to Jesse and tells him to say hi to the rest of the group for her. Then with a smile and wave to Hanzo she leaves the cafeteria. Jesse and Hanzo then get there lunch and make their way to one of the tables inside because the weather was more on the hot side, and that was without the scorching hot sun. They make it to a table with 3 other people sitting at it. They all great Jesse with smiles on there face, and don't even make a verbalized greeting to Hanzo. Instead he is met with sideways glances and almost judgmental looks and Hanzo wants to vanish or shrink into the floor. Jesse can feel the almost tension between Hanzo and the others so he speaks up.
“This is Hanzo. Hanzo this is Mei” He says ushering to the brown haired Chinese girl with round circular lenses perched on her nose. She was wearing an oversized light blue sweater with a black tank top underneath and a pair of dark jeans. “ She's our resident nerd and one of many voices of reason , head of the robotics and science club. Pretty much if you ever need help with any academics come to her.” He says then he moves onto the next person as she gave him a shy wave.
“This here is Lucio our resident musician and another voice of reason. “ Jesse says ushering to the boy adjacent to Hanzo. The male was fairly dark skinned and had ombre dreadlocks worth the ends covered in yellow. He was wearing a green tank top with a frog on it and a pair of almost matching sweatpants. The male gave Hanzo a happy enthusiastic wave paired with a smile.
“....lastly this little lady here is Hana. Our resident geek an-“
“and let me guess a voice of reason?” Hanzo said and everyone laughed , and Hanzo was at a loss.
“No actually she’s our resident enabler a voice of YOLO if you will.” Jesse says looking over at the female adjacent from him. She had long brown hair , dark chocolate colored eyes and fair skin with two pink isosceles triangles painted on either of her cheeks. She has a pink and white striped shirt on with a white and blue letterman jacket on top of it. The emblem of tis letterman jacket though was a bunny with an almost ominus look on its face.Hanna gave Hanzo a wide grin and she reminded her of Genji and Rosita.
“And this here is Hanzo everyone. So Hanzo everyone here is pretty much an exchange student. With the exception of Hana because technically she's not here on a student visa. She's here as a legal citizen. But she didn't move to the states till not to long ago. Mei is Chinese, Lucio is Brazilian and short stack over there is Korean.” After that they seem to warm up to Hanzo.
But it's not till almost half way into lunch that he realizes he still has yet to make friends with anyone of his own volition. He had found friends in Mei, Lucio , and Hana. But, Jesse was probably the only reason that they even gave him the time of day in the first place. He probably would be sitting alone at the back of the cafeteria if it wasn't for Jesse, and as nice as it was for Jesse to help him socialize it made him feel incompetent and socially inept. Not to mention he also felt as if Jesse was just forcing Hanzo onto the rest of the groupand like he was just going to mess up the group dynamic completely. He knew that it shouldn't but he couldn't shake the feeling. Hanzo played with his food on his tray while the others talked about anything and everything that could possibly come to mind. Jesse stole a rather worried look at Hanzo. (Accompanying Piece)
He listed to this conversation with Hana on her latest end of summer fling. A french senior exchange student at their sister school by the name of Amélie Lacroix. A tall thin beauty who's only true love was ballet , which she had detected all of her time and effort to. Hana complained that she was as boring as she was skinny. Jesse couldn't help but to chuckle at that. Hana had to many flings then he could keep up with. “Might as well live in the now” she would say. He wouldn't be surprised if living in the now ever got her killed or seriously injured. But he has to give credit where credit is fur, she has yet to not at least think about basic safety precautions before she did anything extremely stupid.
~
Hanzo manages to make a friend all by him himself. Actually manages to make 2 friends simultaneously. He's sitting in his last period class english feed up and tired of trying to make friends. He sits at a group of tables in the back of the class next to this short spanish girl and this Indian girl. It's all because he can't help but to make a snarky remark towards the teachers happy-go-lucky attitude. Somehow this comment makes both of the girls on either side of him snicker. The indian girl then makes a not so quiet remark about how the teacher stresses the importance of the syllabus to the students. The teacher looks like he might pop a vein if he stresses it anymore is pretty much what she says. Then the Spanish one comments on how he dresses as if he was the one taking classes. It goes on like this for a good five minutes. Then when they stop Hanzo decides to introduce himself.
The Indian girl flashes both him and the Spanish girl a braces covered smile. She introduces herself as Satya Vaswani. Hanzo is in love with the way the name sounds. Satya has long silky black hair, piercing brown eyes. She wears a black and blue cropped band t shirt and a pair of black skinny jeans. You can see the pale light blue belly button piercing she had in the gap between her shirt and jeans. Next to introduce herself is the spanish girl. She had long black hair with purple dyed ends and half of her head was shaved. She introduces herself as Sombra but says that her actually name is Olivia Coloma. Olivia or Sombra has on a dark purple shirt, black leather jacket and dark washed jeans.
The three of them spend more time in class talking to each other then they do listening to the teacher. They talk about where there from and the best food in their home country. When Hanzo leaves the class he promises that he’ll pay more attention in the class tomorrow, despite seriously doubting that it'll happen.
The end of the school day comes and Hanzo is left in a considerably good mood. He meets Jesse, Rosita and Vinnie in front of the school and they walk home together. They talk about their day and Hanzo talks about Satya and Sombra the way a kindergartner would talk about a new playmate. The next few days set Hanzo in to a nice stable pattern.
~
Hanzo hates Jesse. He doesn’t hate his personality or style or even the way he talks. He just hates the fact that Jesse is more messy than the two dogs he shares a house with. Jesse somehow managed to leave behind a mess wherever he goes. He leaves his socks and underwear and clothes and comics all around the room. Despite the fact that everything has a place or spot to keep it in.
Hanzo is not a neat freak. He just likes order. He asks Jesse to keep his things on his side of the room at the very least and Jesse does this, but it’s only for a few days before Hanzo finds a stray comic book on his side of the room.
Jesse finds Hanzo’s constant nagging to be cleaner annoying. He sounds like Gabe complaining. Jesse’s side of the room definitely isn’t as clean as Hanzo’s but it’s an organized mess as he likes to call it. He knew were most things were.
~
Hanzo likes routine. His routine has been virtually the same since the first day of school. Wake up , get dressed, eat breakfast, go to school , come back to the house, does homework, talks to Genji or just spend ,help with dinner and go to bed.
But that routine is kind of disrupted when mid-winter break hits. It’s Christmas time and his mother is begging him to come home. She wants them to spend Christmas at home like a family should, Hanzo can’t remember the last time they all spent Christmas under the same roof. It was probably when Genji was young. So he talks to Gabe and Jack and they work something out. So a week and a half before Christmas Hanzo finds himself on a long almost seventeen hour plane flight home.
When Hanzo steps off of the plane he is met with a feeling of nostalgia. The familiar characters surrounding him just make him feel that much more at home. He goes to luggage claim and gets his large sticker covers suitcase and then is off to find his family. They aren’t that hard to find. He just looks for the tuft of green that Genji called hair. He makes his way towards them. When he finally sees them he doesn’t know how to feel. On one side he’s happy to be home on the other side his gut makes him feel like this is going to be a very very excruciatingly long vacation. His mother looks older. She has more wrinkles then she did the last time he saw her and the bags under her eyes are deep and dark. But he gives her a hug all the same, he had always been a mommas boy and highly doubts that part of him will ever change. He kisses her cheek and pulls away. He turns to Genji. He’s still shorter than Hanzo. The two of them do a handshake that they had made up years ago and have a long hug. Hanzo lets out a big sigh tells them both that he missed them. He wished his father was there, but deep down he knew that he wouldn’t be. In all honesty Hanzo would be surprised if his father even showed up on Christmas. His mom and Genji bombard him with questions, but the only thing Hanzo knows that he wants to do is take a shower and then have a nap.
The flight leaves him tired but he makes sure to send Jesse a text to tell the other that he had arrived back home safe and sound. He Dozes off in the car on the way home from the airport. He may be home for the holidays but he doesn’t leave the states without a reminder of where he’s stayed for the past few months. A brightly wrapped Christmas present sits in his suitcase. It’s a surprise supposedly and he can’t open it til Christmas Day in the states. He doesn’t even have the slightest clue to what it could even possibly be and the suspense is slowly and surely killing him.
A few days before Christmas Hanzo’s mom had decided to host. A dinner party. She invites pretty much all of her siblings and their kids. The house is filled with loud drunk or tipsy Japanese women and men. Hanzo couldn’t handle his aunts talking about him and telling him how he looked like his father. So he runs off to his room and FaceTimes Jesse. They talk about nothing really. Just a bunch of small topics that they couldn’t focus on for more than five minutes before they ended up going to a different topic. Jesse even updated Hanzo and Hana’s latest act out of impulse, to which Hanzo decides to voice his concerns and their onto another topic. Hanzo is thoroughly surprised when there’s a knock on the door a day before Christmas and there stands his father. Him and his father exchange pleasantries , and Hanzo promised to answer all of his father's questions during Christmas dinner.
Christmas dinner is filled with questions and he tries to answer them all but there are just too many to answer.
Christmas goes on without a hitch. There is no screaming or arguing , no harsh exchange of words. Nothing, they manage to have a normal Christmas. Something that that hasn’t happened in god knows how many years.
~
It is spring break and Hanzo, Jesse, Hana, Lucio, Vinnie, Mei, and Rosita are driving. Well Jesse is the one driving the rest of them are either absorbed in their phones or listening to music or whatever else. Their headed out to Gabe and Jack’s beach house. They’ve only been driving for a few hours. But Hanzo already can’t wait to get to the beach house. He was never a big fan of cars and hated the thought of being in one for the next six or so hours. But sitting up front with Jesse , keeping him company and controlling what came through the car stereo was making it all somehow bearable. It was only him and Jesse and they were pretty much just shooting the breeze so to speak. Him and Jesse had somehow managed to really bond in the past few months. Despite Jesse encouraging him to go to sleep he stayed up and continued to keep Jesse company.
“There’s no way that I could just sleep and leave you awake driving by yourself for god knows how long. I have to be awake to make sure that you don’t get tired and miss an exit or run into the road divider or something. So stop telling me to go to sleep. Okay so how about we play music...” Hanzo wasn’t sure when Jesse had turned off the stereo in the car. But Hanzo turned it back on and set it low. Everyone else was sleeping and the last thing he wanted to deal with was an agitated Rosita. She could somehow go from adorable to borderline satanic in a matter of seconds. Soft music played through the car stereo. The highway went on for what seemed like forever and it was pretty much them on the rode. Street lights illuminated the road and the cars headlights of course. ”and just talk”
“Sure, I mean I guess that’d help keep me up.” Jesse said his eyes pretty much glued to the rode.
“So then I’ll start what’s Gabe and Jack’s story anyway. I mean two suburban gay dads with three pretty much perfect and quirky children seems to simple, and If I’ve learned anything about the Morison-Reyes family it’s that you guys don’t exactly do simple. It’s just not you’re guys style.”
“Oh, their stories a cute one. The were both working in the army as soldiers. Same time, same place , same troop and everything and they fell in love. But they didn’t say anything. Both of them did three tours. Got honorably discharged and came out of things mostly unscathed, just a few scars. They go home. Jack to rural Indiana and Gabe to Arizona. Funny they were so close to each other and never even knew it till somehow by fate they ran into each other. They dated they got married and adopted me Rosie and Vinnie.”
“That’s pretty much a story for the books. Well I asked my question now you get to ask one.”
“Well then I guess I should ask about your folks. So how did your mom and dad get together?”
“Pretty standard story. My mom and dad met not to long after my dad's company was really starting to take off. They finally had one of those big corporate offices. Soon enough my mom was hired as a communication liaison and my dad fell for her a month after he had hired her. The rest is pretty much history. They got together , got married with this grand wedding and had me and my younger brother Genji.”
“I never knew that you had a brother?” Jesse said stealing a glance at Hanzo
“Yeah, we’ve been inseparable right up until this trip. I’m pretty much his older prettier better half. You never asked so I didn’t tell. But now you can ask whatever you want”
“Well now I feel like I know so little about you. Do you play any instruments?”
“I’ve pretty much been classically trained to play pretty much anything. My parents were dead set on me having a well rounded view on the world. But I did teach myself how to play guitar all by myself. Well how about you Mr.cowboy you play any instruments?”
“I do in fact I play a little thing called a keyboard but y’all well off folk call it a piano.” Jesse says with a chuckle
The night continued pretty much like that. With the exception of when they pull over to a rest stop or gas station for an energy drink and candy to keep them up. When Hanzo and Jesse finally pull up to the beach house their running off of coffee, sugar and energy drinks. They talked about pretty much everything and left no stone unturned. But things that are said while on the road in the middle of the night stay there. Jesse was probably the person who knew him the most intimately now, not even Genji knew some of the stuff that he had shared with Jesse. But he knew Jesse just as intimately. Jesse was smart, he plays the dumb clown role but he notices more than people give him credit for.
The first night is fun and full of first times. They spend hours on the beach before and after sunset. They even manage to somehow build and light a bonfire. So they turn the speaker up and they make s’mores. Hanzo has never actually had a traditional s’mores which for some reason surprised everyone. So everyone became obsessed with getting him his first real S’more, and he has to admit s’mores were good, he could kind of start to see the fuss over them. It’s actually his first s’more that leads to the second first of that day.
They run out of chocolate and marshmallows at the bonfire so Hanzo offers to run to the house and get some more. Hanzo’s standing in the kitchen rummaging for the marshmallows when Jesse comes in to help him. They finally find the marshmallows after some time and they just spend a few minutes just talking, so Hanzo hops up onto the table. The kitchen is dark with only streams of moonlight coming in. One minute there talking and a few seconds later their just whispering to one another with their faces centimeters apart. He’s still sitting on the counter, his hair was out of its usual ponytail and Jesse’s body stands right between his legs. The two of them lean in and there lips touch and it isn’t magical and fireworks don’t go off but it’s amazing in its own unique way. Jesse taste like soft rain chocolate and this raw unique form of passion that can only belong to Jesse. The kiss is followed by another and another and soon enough him and Jesse are making out in the middle of the kitchen. Anyone of their friend could walk in and catch them but in that moment they really couldn’t care less. It was as if time itself had stopped and the world was standing completely still except for the two of them.Hanzo wrapped his legs around Jesse’s hips and they keep on like this for a good minute or two. When they come up for air there are no words to be shared between them. But there is this goofy smile on Jesse’s face and Hanzo tries not to smile to hard.
“We should get back before one of them come looking for us.” So hanzo unlatched from Jesse and hopped off of the countertop. Grabbing the bag of marshmallows and the bag of chocolate. Jesse follows him that goofy smile stuck to his face and a blissed out look on his face. So he goes from having his first s’more to having his first kiss with a guy in a matter of minutes.
This happened over and over again during the trip. Hanzo and Jesse took any and all alone time they had together. Talking , or hugging, or kissing. It’s always something and usually it’s the last of those three options. It was like they couldn’t keep their hands off of each other. It’s the worst best thing to ever happen to them. But Hanzo is thoroughly confused as to what they exactly were now. They weren’t friends cus as far as he’s concerned friends don’t spend copious amounts of time making out with each other, and maybe they were boyfriends. But Jesse had never really officially asked him out. So he asks. There in the living room in the middle of the night making out on the couch with Hanzo straddling his lap when Hanzo stops the rather hot and heavy make out session to ask the question.
“What are we doing?” He asks
“Well we were just kissing” Jesse says with a deep low chuckle that Hanzo could listen to forever.
“Well I got that much smart ass. But what are we doing? And what exactly is this ? Are we dating ? Are we friends?” He says. It had to be asked. The last thing he wanted to do was to make a wrong assumption.
“We’re living and loving and this is just how we do it. Why do you need to put a label on it?” Jesse says rather defensively.
“Well I’m sorry, but I get kinda confused on what to do when someone just kisses me all of a sudden and I need to know why they did it. I’m asking for a label so I know what I’m supposed to do.” Hanzo replied
“We’re a thing I guess than. But why should we put a label on this. Labels just make things difficult.”
“Wha-“ Hanzo goes to comment. But cuts himself off instead. There was no use arguing in the middle of the night and waking everyone else up. So he just gets off of Jesse’s lap and makes his way to his room. He gets into bed and text Satya and Sombra. He needs someone to help him handle his emotions because if he does it by himself there’s no telling what he’ll do.
~
The next morning he wakes up in a stupor and quite literally on the wrong side of the bed. He rolls out of bed and heads to the bathroom with his change of clothes and his towel. Just as he’s about to put his hand on the handle to open the bathroom door the door is pulled open, and there standing like a sculpture chiseled by the gods stands Jesse. The only thing he has on is a towel wrapped loosely around his waist, his hair is wet and strands have started to become curls. His skin is still wet and he gisted as steam seems to pour out of the bathroom behind him. Very little is left to the imagination and Hanzo is totally fine with that.
Jesse blocks the door and Hanzo wishes he would move. But Jesse seemed dead set on something. They spend a few seconds just standing there and then Jesse is the first to speak up.
“About last night…” Jesse starts and stops. Like he doesn’t remember why he even brought up last night. It almost irritates Hanzo. So he speaks up before Jesse can continue.
“Lets not do this now. I need to take a shower before everyone else wakes up and there’s no hot water left.” He says is a dull almost matter of fact way.
“S-sure I guess we can do this later then.” Jesse stutters and gets out of Hanzo’s way. He glances black at Hanzo one last time before he turns to head back to his room.
Hanzo gets in to the bathroom shuts the door and takes a deep breath . He feels as if he had been holding his breath forever. It looks like their going to have to talk about last night one way or another. Despite how much he knows he’d going to dread every minute of them talking things out. This will be interesting is all he can think as he gets into the shower.
When Hanzo gets out of the shower and is only left with the task of drying his hair Jesse comes in to his room. He stops trying to brush his damp hair and turns his attention to Jesse. He can feel his heartbeat pick up in speed. Seems like there going do this right now.
“So last night. I’m sorry for kind of going off on you like that and making it seems like you were annoying me.” He says as he takes a seat on the bed next to Hanzo. “ I mean it’s not like you were pushing me or anything. It’s just that by what I’ve learned and seen from experience when you put a label on things they just get messy.”
“I mean I get that. It’s just that last night you said We’re a thing I guess than. What do you mean I guess. It’s a yes or no type of thing there’s no maybe we’re dating . It’s either we are dating or we aren’t. It’s not like I was the one who initiated things between us. That was all you. So what’s it gonna be.” Hanzo said looking over to Jesse
“We’re dating. Were definitely dating. No way I’m gonna let you get rid of me that easily” Jesse said with a smile. “So we good?”
“Yeah we're good.”
“Perfect now that we’re officially dating I can kiss you whenever I want, and infront if whoever I want.” Jesse said leaning over and playing a small peck onto Hanzo’s lips. Something short and simple and cute. Hanzo could get use to his new boyfriend obsessing over him all the time. Jesse doesn’t want to leave just yet. So he offers to help Hanzo with his hair. When their done with Hanzo’s hair they head downstairs to make breakfast. It’s so romantic and domestic and Hanzo can totally get used to this.
~
Spring break is eventful. It is jam packed with first times and hookups and love and everything good and bad under the sun. Pretty much everyone had a fling or got together with someone. Hanzo and Jesse somehow managed to get together. Rosita and Lucio got together while Vinnie and Hana both had flings with some other teens who rented out a house for the sole purpose of throwing wild parties. The house wasn’t to far from there’s and the whole gang got invited to quite a few parties. Spring break is more than eventful and is also a perfect opportunity to gain some wisdom.
~
Their first official date is interesting to say the very very least. Jesse takes Hanzo into town and they have coffee and eat these adorable little pastries in a bakery. It’s cute and adorable and not their style. The cute is appreciated but not necessary. So they go to the movies again. There’s a screening of invidious playing and a screening of Deadpool, and they both manage to agree on Deadpool.
The seats are crappy and are pretty much at the back of the theater. But it doesn’t matter because halfway through the movie they end up making out like stereotypical teenagers.
~
Jesse wakes up sweating and gasping at some hellish hour of the night. The room is dark and he closes his eyes tight. He takes deep breaths and looks at the neon red colored numbers on the alarm clock on his dresser. He spends almost half hour trying to go back to sleep, and when he can’t but has calmed down just enough to stop shaking and gasping for air he gets out of bed and shrugs on a hoodie and a pair of jeans. He shoves his half charged phone and his keys into his pockets before he heads out. He puts on a pair of old beat up track sneakers and is out of the house. Everyone else sleeping unaware of him.
He’s just going on a walk to clear his head he says. He lets his feet take him wherever. The streets are almost completely vacant besides the odd person here and there and he’s thankful for that. He stops when he notices just where he is. He’s in a park. The same park that Jack and Gabe use to take him too when he was smaller. It’s vacant but not many people bring their children to the park at almost 3AM. He makes his way to the swings and sits there for awhile before he fishes his phone out of his pocket. His fingers move across the screen almost automatically, till they come to a pause over a contact number. He takes a deep breath he doesn't want to call him but he has too, because as much as he doesn't want to admit it he can’t handle these thoughts by himself. He needs someone to ground him. He needs Hanzo to ground him. So he presses call, and brings the phone up to his ear with a soft exhale.
“Hello” The voice on the other side is soft ,tired and filled with sleep.
“H-Hi Hanzo” He mentally curses himself for stuttering
“Jesse? Are you okay?” Jesse makes sure to note the hint of worry and fear and edge of panic in the others voice.
“Yeah I’m fine. I’m sorry if I woke you darlin’ ” He notes the sigh that comes from the other side of the call. It isn’t upset, it’s relieved.
“No don’t worry about it , I’m always up at 3 in the morning. What’s wrong?” He can hear Hanzo shift in his bed. Probably to sit up.
“Nothing, I just wanted to hear your voice.” I want to see you Jesse thinks to himself. But keeps his mouth closed and those thoughts to himself.
“It’s not nothing, you wouldn’t be out of the house” Jesse hates that Hanzo can read him so well , even on the phone.
“Just can’t sleep that’s all.” I want to see you. I want to feel you. I want you to hold me. His thoughts scream but keeps his mouth shut still. He can hear the cars pass by on the street next to the park.
“Jesse where exactly are you?” Hanzo ask and Jesse wonders if he ask because of the car or just because
“I want to see you. I’ll be there.” He can hear Hanzo getting dressed and hear the opening and closing of a door. Soon followed by Hanzo’s breathing. “I’ll be there Jesse so don’t move.”
“Okay” is all he can manage to say before Hanzo hangs up the phone. He feels guilty for pulling Hanzo out of bed, but is relieved that he doesn't have to face his thoughts alone.
Hanzo arrives at the park pretty quickly and takes a seat on the swing Next to Jesse. Hanzo hands him a pack of cigarettes,It’s Jesse’s bad habit. But it's needed. He opens the package and pulls one out and places it between his lips. He fishes a lighter out of his pocket and lights up the smoke. He hands the pack back to hanzo and watches him light one too. They stay like that for a moment. Just sitting on the swings smoking in silence. He watches as Hanzo takes a long drag from the cigarette and lets out the smoke as a deep sigh.
“Was it a nightmare?” Hanzo ask looking a Jesse.
Jesse takes to looking at the rubber mats padding the swing area like the most interesting thing ever to be created on the face of planet earth. He lets out a puff of smoke and nods. To hanzo he was an open book so there was no use to lie.
“You should have just told me. How long have you been awake now?” Hanzo said taking another deep drag before dropping the cigarette butt and stubbing it out under his boots.
He looks down at the time on his phone. It’s almost 2:30am. “A little over two hours.” he says glancing over at Hanzo
“Wanna talk about it?” Hanzo says. He doesn't say it so his voice is soft. As if the words might just up and break him ,Jesse is forever grateful about that.
“Nah , not yet at least” He says taking a deep breath and stubbing out the Cigarette in his hand.They stay like that in a comfortable silence for some while , and when Jesse stands up Hanzo soon follows. They walk in the same silence all the way back to the house. It’s comfortable and easy. But for Jesse everything seemed comfortable and easy with Hanzo around. They make their way inside and up to their room.
Hanzo sits on Jesse’s bed with his back against the headboard. Jesse makes his way on the bed and lies in between Hanzo’s legs. His head against his chest. Listening to his heartbeat , steady and strong. Just like Hanzo. He can feel Hanzo playing with his hair. He lets his thoughts come to a stop, it takes a while. But they do.
“It was one with you in it.” Jesse finally says after their time in absolute silence.”I’ve been having it more often and it just shakes me up. I can’t do it, whenever I wake up from it and you're not here I can’t help but think bad things.” He finally finishes.
“But I’m right here. I’ll always be right here, and you know that it’ll be a cold day in hell before I leave you alone.” Hanzo says back and there is just something about talking to a person at 3am that makes it feel raw.Jesse just takes a deep breath. “I know but, I just can’t stop thinking that you might not be okay till I see you.”He says his face flushing slightly. “Well I’m okay. So don’t worry.” Hanzo says softly. His hand still playing with Jesse’s hair.
Jesse can feel himself drifting off and mutters words that will be lost to the night in the morning “Aishiteru”. But he’s awake to hear more words soon to be lost to the night “Te Amo”. It’s not soon after that Jesse falls victim to lady sleep and soon after that Hanzo falls victim to her too.
~
Having sisters is hard. That’s what Hanzo learns. Rosita and Vinnie are blessings but also somehow confusing all at the same time. Vinnie is in to girls , but seems to hold a mild disdain for everyone she’s ever dated. Rosita is madly in love with Lucio and somehow managed to make everyone think she’s flirting with them. But ,Hanzo also learns that when one of them needs advice on relationships they come to him as a second to last resort. So when Rosita comes in one day sobbing and blubbering illogically he stops what he’s doing. (Which at the time was FaceTiming with Genji.) He sits he down hands her tissue after tissue and waits for her to be ready to speak.
He spends an hour and a half with her about everything. Apparently there had been a picture of Lucio and some girl going around for a while. She tried to talk to Lucio about it for a while but he kept blowing her off. She was starting to wonder if she can even trust him at this point. Hanzo gives her good relationships advice and tells her to talk it out with Lucio, even if he doesn’t want to talk about it. He also tells her to let this be the last time that she cries over a dumb guy. This becomes habit between Hanzo and Rosita. They take to talking to each other pretty quickly.
There’s a repeat of this instant a few months later. But she doesn’t come to Hanzo crying like she had. She comes to him with gossip. There’s talk of Lucio making out with a girl and she had already told her that the rumors are untrue. She claims that she trust him. So they just make fun of the person trying to cause a rift between her and Lucio , cus she has no intention of ever letting him go and definitely not anytime soon.
~
Hanzo also learns that being the gay best friend is a lot of work. Especially when you have two lesbian best friends. He has to make sure that they look hot but in style and trendy. He also has to make sure that the girls they’re going after is actually gay and that their worth his Bestfriends time.
He also learns that his Best Friends are pretty much made for each other. Both Sombra and Satya were obsessed with their phones and technology in general. Satya could write a mean piece of code and Sombra was miraculous with a motherboard and all the physical parts of a computer. They both had the same personality, they met each other’s type, and they were both single.
Hanzo doesn’t like to meddle with other people’s life without their permission but this was too good to be true. So He just started to aggressively nudge them towards each other, eventually they got the hint and they ended up shacking up together. It was perfect.
~
Hanzo is stressed. With finals rapidly approaching he spent more time writing out study guides and studying then he did sleeping. He couldn’t have brought his grade so far just to watch it fall like the Prussian Empire. Him and Satya study via Skype whenever possible. But he somehow manages to still feel like he’s only going to fail. He’s so caught up on this that not even Jesse can relax him. He pretty much becomes cold and reserved towards everyone. He works and works and works relentlessly up until the week of finals when he just stops. He doesn’t pick up a single note card or study guide or anything. Jesse finds it weird how after obsessing even more than relentlessly over stupid finals he could just up and studying. Jesse was just tearing to study and Hanzo was done with studying.
The day of finals Hanzo is anxious. It’s like the first day of school all over again. But he eats cus he know he’ll need it in the long run. He opts to walk to school instead of have Gabe drive him. He leaves extra early and starts to walk to school. He had spent the past week gaining the confidence to pass this test. He couldn’t risk someone messing up that for him. So he left everyone alone and just took the test. These test scores would determine if he can com back for his senior year or he’ll be in some stuck up boarding school in Japan this time next year. The stakes were just too high to play around with. He didn’t want to leave here and never comeback, and his father would pop a blood vessel if he came back with bad grades.
~
Rositas Quinceanera is an event everyone in the school seems to want an invitation to. Hanzo didn’t know that she was so popular. But it would seems like everyone in the Morison-Reyes family was. But when he thought about it made perfect sense. Jesse was pretty much impossible to hate , Rosita was the captain and squad leader for the drill team and Vinnie was the captain of girls volleyball, soccer, and basketball team. It was pretty much like being invited to a party with high school royalty. But Hanzo has a direct look into the preparations for her Party. She scrambled to send out official invitations and she has this that and the third that still needs to get done.
Her party though is perfect. She looks gorgeous and perfect and both Reyes and Morrison cry. Her dress is big and beautiful and is black with big white splotches and covered in glitter. Everyone who sits in that room is now apart of a moment Rosita will never forget. There is a changing of shoes and 2 father daughter dances along with a brother sister dance that is more than adorable. Then there’s food and dancing and than there a candles given to 16 people who have changed her life. Hanzo somehow managed to get one himself. People talk about her sweet sixteen for almost a month after it happens. The only thing as important as this is prom and homecoming.
~
The last week of school comes and It is also spirit week. Hanzo takes as many pictures of his friends as he possibly can. He doesn’t know if he’ll be coming back next year (although he doesn’t tell them that) and he’d feel better leaving if he had pictures of this place. He takes pictures of them on pajama day and on twin day when him and Vinnie match outfits. He takes pictures of them on culture day with each of them representing their countries flag. He takes pictures of everything.
He spends that weekend putting the pictures into a scrapbook. There is no glitter but there is pretty patterned backing paper and markers an stickers. Each page is perfect and feels bittersweet but in a good way. Jesse takes out a scrap book and dust it off. Then he joins Hanzo in scrapbooking which turns out to be more fun than he thought it would be
~
There’s a party on the last day of school and it is one of the most hyped up parties that take place. The house is rented out and there is absolutely no furniture with the exception of a couch and a huge outdoor swimming pool. Most people spend the night dancing and hooking up. Hanzo and Jesse are dragged to the party by their friends. Him and Jesse spend most of the night cuddling on the sofa wishing that they were home. There’s booze in the house and Jesse and Hanzo say to hell with it and both have a beer. It doesn’t go much except make Hanzo feel a bit warm. The keep an eye on their friends. Especially Vinnie and Hana. God knows what they’d be up to do when inebriated. Vinnie was a daredevil and with liquor clouding her judgement she is bound to do something stupid. But the night goes on alright. Except for the fact that it gets shut down by the cops cus of a noise complaint. Hanzo and Jesse somehow manage to get back to Jesse’s house in one piece and decides it’s better if they all crash there instead of taking everyone home or putting them in a cab. Hanzo and Jesse retreat to their room and fall asleep in each other’s arms.
The next morning there is a long queue for the bathroom. Mainly because most of the people were hungover and needed to puke. Once everyone had managed to hurl and throw up their guts they all got two Advil and two glasses of water. Hanzo hopes that this will keep them from pulling something like this again. But he doubts it. They spend the day on the couch and floor watching movies in the living room with the curtains closed. Him and Jesse sarr cuddled up together and spend more time kissing and talking to each other than they do watching the movie. They even manage to fall asleep together during some point in the movie. But Hanzo doesn’t care and nobody else seems to care either.
~
It’s just the first week of summer vacation and he is already being shipped off back to Japan. He knows he’ll get over it quickly but means having to be away from his boyfriend for an extremely long amount of time. Jesse is the one to drive him to the airport late at night. This remind him of the trip to the Beach. They spend the drive singing and jamming out to the music , and just enjoying each other’s company. They make it to the airport all in one piece. Jesse walks with him to the terminal and waits for the flight to board. Hanzo just absorbs Jesse’s atmosphere. He couldn’t be more smitten. The call for passengers to board and Hanzo doesn’t want to leave. He knows that he has to. Him and Genji have more than enough time they need to make up for. So he kisses Jesse right there in the middle of the airport, he kisses him something passionate and amazing and long. It’s not a goodbye forever kiss, but it sure does feel like that. “I love you Jesse” Hanzo says, his voice barely over a whisper and he ends the kiss. They’ve said I love you to each other so many times before. But something about it feels different. It feels like a goodbye and Jesse hopes like he’ll that it isn’t, cus then he sure as hell wouldn’t know what to do with himself. “I love you too my precious Hannibee” Jesse jokes. His I love you isn’t a goodbye forever. His is a “goodbye for now I’ll see you later”. Hanzo smiles at that and Jesse presses a kiss to his forehead before he gets on the plane.
Hanzo spends his time on the plane thinking of a way to persuade his folks into letting him come back to the states. The last thing he wants to do is not only leave loose ends untied, but leave Jesse there by himself. He wishes that he told Jesse that there’s a rather big chance that he might not be coming back in a month. But he can’t tell him now. So he stays dead set on making sure that he’ll be back for another semester.
~
Genji is growing up. This thought occurs to Hanzo in the middle of catching Genji up with what’s happened in his life in the past however many months. Genji is no longer his adorable baby brother he’s pretty much a man. Their only a year apart from each other. But it seems like their the same age. Genji could listen to Hanzo talk about America for forever. So he stops and lets Genji catch him up on any and everything he’s missed out on. It turns out that Genji has had some romance in his life to. A boy in his school from Nepal that goes by the name of zenyatta. He can tell by the way he talks about him that Genji is absolutely smitten with him, and Genji doesn’t even seem to know it. Hanzo listens to Genji talk about his boyfriend for what seems like hours but gas has only been minutes and when he’s done talking about him Hanzo tells Genji that he’d love to meet him one day.
~
When Hanzo comes back Jesse hugs him tight as if he’ll disappear when he lets go. Hanzo hugs him back and almost twice as tight. He is sure he is in love with Jesse, and there’s no doubt in his mind that they were made for each other. They fit together perfectly.
“Come on let's go home. You missed quite a bit and everyone missed you.” Jesse says with that sweet southern drawl that Hanzo has fallen in love with.
“Let’s go. I’ve missed all of you.”
Hanzo’s first day back goes on without a hitch. He’s happy he fought tooth and nail with his family to stay an exchange student for his senior year. He just felt like he belonged stateside. That’s where his newfound home was. There in the living room with Jesse and cosmos and caramel. At least for now that’s where it was. Who knows what senior year will bring. If it was anything like last year it will be more than eventful.