Work Text:
“La Vivienda… fitting .”
Sombra stood outside the dive - the warm, New Mexico breeze felt nice along her shaved head, way better than the freezing temperatures she endured at Volsakya. It was around evening, the cloudless blue sky that greeted her that morning was now violet, fading into pink as it got closer to the setting sun.
The small town she was in had few holiday decorations out reminding her what time of year it was. Lights were hung in some shop windows, wreaths with bald patches were placed in front of doors. In the cracks and holes of the damaged buildings laid poinsettias and small stuffed animals. Not a single soul was out on the street. Or at least, they were hidden from her sight.
La Vivienda was cramped in between a pawn shop and an abandoned grocery stand. A faded, hand painted sign was hammered down to the main door, and a tiny angel ornament was hung from one of the rusted nails. Sombra ran her fingers along its wings, tiny stands of feathers fell off with every touch. Soft light faded out from around the door. It was open.
As she walked inside a soft ring of a bell that was attached to the door broke the silence in the cramped but empty space. Sombra quickly glanced over the room; there was only enough space for a bar, two tables, and a dusty jukebox sitting in the corner. The air was thick and heavy, Sombra assumed there was no air conditioning unit or proper ventilation of any kind. No emergency exit, outdated and worn out furniture: she wasn’t surprised that this was the place of choice her target decided to spend his holiday.
“How long he’s been out?”
The elderly barkeep looked over at Mccree and scowled when the cowboy snored loudly. “At least an hour now. If it weren’t Christmas his ass would be out of here.” He picked up another glass and began cleaning. He looked up at Sombra and grinned, showing off glittery, gold teeth that shined through the whiskers of his greying mustache. “But that wouldn’t be in the spirit of things, would it?”
Sombra smiled back. She took a seat a couple barstools away from Mccree. “You’re a very humble man. A shot of tequila if you don't mind.”
The old man looked over Sombra skeptically and she couldn’t help but smirk.
“Yes, I know I look good.” She reached into her pants’ pocket, pulling out a leather wallet and taking out her fake California I.D. Her hair wasn’t its distinguishing purple ombre side hawk but instead plain, dark brown hair rested on her scalp and down her shoulders. Nevertheless it was her, and she was definitely 30. The barkeep nodded, handed back her I.D, and made her drink.
He handed it to Sombra who grabbed it eagerly. She raised her glass and said a quick “Salute!” before bringing it to her lips.
Sombra sipped the strong, bitter liquor, relaxing into her seat as she felt that familiar warmth start up in her stomach and creep up to her head. If it were different circumstances, maybe she would treat herself with another drink or two. She glanced back at Mccree, his face smushed against the bar. She was impressed that his hat managed to stay on for all this time.
Beneath the bar stand and out the the owner’s site, Sombra opened up a few cybernetic windows. She dismissed the season’s greetings pop up, a couple easy side jobs she had yet to start but had no rush to do so, and came across Lumérico intel. She frowned, bringing the glass to her mouth again. She looked up and down the page, but ultimately closed it as well.
She had one last window up; a group chat. The name of the chat was only three emojis - an owl, a spider, and a skull. The last message sent was from her;
‘heyy, dont get into any trouble w/o me ;p see u 2 laterrr'
Sombra wasn’t expecting a reply from either of them, they hardly sent anything in the first place. Still, the hacker was hoping to receive any sort of message. She worried about them and she had no idea what they were up too. She could locate them, she had done it plenty of times before, but for the time of year it didn't feel right to do so. A loud snort came from the other side of the bar. Sombra rolled her eyes and closed out her chat.
“Ah. Let me go on and get him. He’s a sight for sore eyes, and that’s when he’s not passed out.” Sombra had to laugh at herself.
The elderly man frowned at the woman as she walked over to the drunkard. “You're sure you want to deal with him? I don’t like the idea of him trying to pull anything off on you…”
“He’s mi hermano , I’ll be fine.” Sombra finished her drink in two more heavy gulps. She shuddered and grimaced as the tequila burned her throat, but then sighed in content and handed her glass back to the old man. She reached back into her wallet and pulled out two crumpled 100 dollar bills and slid them towards the barkeep.
“ Feliz Navidad .”
The barkeep quickly snatched up the bills and stared at them hard. He looked up at Sombra, smiling wide once again and began to put glasses away.
“Mccree~…Mccree..” Sombra whispered into his ear while she shook him lightly, trying to coax the older man out of his sleep. The intoxicated guns man mumbled something inaudible, then coughed, and turned his head away from the intrusive sounds that filled his ear. Sombra frowned. She gripped his shoulders, lightly massaging them. Then she used all her strength to shake the cowboy into the bar.
“ Levantense Joèl !”
“M’ names not Joèl!” Mccree sat up rapidly, drool spurting out of his mouth as he slurred his words. He looked around disorientated until made eye contact with Sombra. He squinted his eyes, trying to bring her into focus, making sure she was who he was really seeing.
Sombra smirked at his confusion. “Hey.”
Mccree closed his eyes and sucked in his breath, irritated that the hacker wasn’t imaginary. “….Whaddya doin' here?”
“I’m getting you out of here.” Sombra replied. "Can’t you see this man wants to go home for the holidays?”
“I ain’t goin nowhere w’ you.” Mccree attempted to put his head back down again, but Sombra grabbed the back of his poncho and jerked him back up. “Ga- Damn Sombra!” Mccree twisted himself around to shout at woman laughing at his outburst. His sudden movements made his hat fly off his head, and he cursed loudly as he slowly reached down to grab it.
“Cmon now, let’s not be rude. You know you've overstayed your welcome.” She slinked her left arm around Mccree, going under his prosthetic and maneuvering his right arm over her shoulder. Mccree complained under his breath but didn’t protest further. “Okay, okay. Uno, dos, treshhhhrrrmm- “. With grunts coming out of both of them, Sombra lifted Mccree to his feet. They both staggered, but quickly regained their balance. Sombra gave one last wave to the barkeep and started their slow trot out of the building.
Mccree shuddered when he felt the cold wind hit his warm skin. They both did not realize how much time they spent inside as the sky was now completely black and star ridden. Another gust of wind went straight through the both of them. Mccree sneezed and Sombra snorted back.
“Alright.. lets get a move on.” Sombra guided Mccree past La Vivienda and down the dimly lit street.
“….Where we headin’?” Mccree asked. He took heavy breaths and leaned hard on Sombra. Her grip on him tightened as she struggled to keep herself from tipping over. Their heights were not a drastic difference, a couple inches give or take, but Mccree definitely out weighed her.
Sombra steadied herself and huffed out an answer. “There’s this little motel a couple blocks down this way. Nothing special, looked pretty vacant. Very old too. They had a lil snowman outside the office door. How fucking cute is that?”
Mccree attempted to reply, but only muffled sounds could be heard with his face hidden in his poncho. Sombra chuckled to herself before focusing on getting them to their room.
They slowly passed boarded up houses, leftover remains of the omnics that were destroyed here. Sombra couldn’t tell for sure, but some of the rubble seemed to have smoke still coming out of it. She turned her focus upwards and was greeted by a million stars. Sombra thought about being back home in Dorado, and almost felt a little homesick.
“You see all these stars? It’s been a while since I’ve seen something this beautiful. Míralo .” Sombra turned her head to look at Mccree. His eyes were closed and his nostrils flailing hard as he breathed out of them. Sombra nudged her head against his to grab his attention. “Jesse look up, look up."
“If I move my head Som, I ain’t gonna make it.”
They walked for a few more moments in silence. Sombra could see the red haze of the motel’s neon sign. She sighed in relief. She wasn’t too excited about spending the night in a low-down motel but the idea of lying in any bed was extremely pleasant. Sombra tried to hurry their pace, but Mccree began to grunt and groan at the increased speed.
“Hey I’m.. I’m not feeling too well….”
“We are literally here.” Sombra pressed her finger onto the motel’s keypad and with a flash of violet the door unlocked. She twisted the both of them to squeeze through the door, Mccree complaining with a series of pained noises from the sudden change of angle. Sombra huffed and quickly got them both inside.
“Imma puke.”
“Don’t puke Jesse."
“Sombreugh.”
“Nonononono.” Their steady pace turned into a rushed wobble as Sombra desperately tried to make it to the motel’s bathroom. She kicked open the door just as she could feel something wet and viscous drip down her arm. “ Espera ESPERA JESSE! COÑO !” Her voice booming in the small room.
Mccree moved out under Sombra’s arm and stumbled to the bath, promptly emptying his stomach into the empty tub. Sombra ran for the bath faucet groaning in disgust. She twisted the faucet on, ignoring the cold water and ran her entire arm through it. A quick glance back towards Mccree was almost a ginormous mistake. Sombra dry heaved as she splashed water back towards the commotion.
Mccree glared at the hacker next to him after feeling drops of water hit his hot face. Grimacing at the unsightly mess he stood up and pushed Sombra back towards the door. “Move.” He turned the shower head on and began to wash away the former contents of his stomach.
“I thought you could hold your liquor Jesse.” Sombra flopped onto one of the two twins bed that their room had and bounced on the springy mattress. The sickly smell of alcohol began to waft into the room. Sombra hissed in disgust and turned her head to complain into the old pillow. “I don’t think I’ll ever drink again.” The shower head turned off and soon after Mccree walked into the doorway.
His poncho and hat were off his head, instead both cradled in his arm seemingly clean. Uncombed hair stuck to his sweaty forehead. Replacing his traditional under armor was a rustled collared shirt, still tucked in tattered jeans. His cowboy boots remained unchanged.
“Y’ lying and y’ know it.” Mccree looked over the shabby room. He has stayed in better, but has definitely stayed in worst as well. His eyes fixated on the door still slightly ajar, but moved to look at the Talon operative lying face first on the motel bed instead. “What do y' want from me Sombra?”
Sombra lifted her head from the pillow and stared back at the cowboy. She raised an eyebrow at Mccree’s stoic expression, rolling on to her side as she shrugged her shoulder. “Nothing. Just wanted to see you.”
Mccree scoffed. “Oh please. Me and every other unlucky 'fella that knows you knows damn well that you always got some.. ulterior motive . Well I don’t got nothin for ya.”
“Yo se."
“And you ain’t gonna get nothing from me about anyone from Overwatch.” Mccree scratched his neck. “You know more about them than I do anyway.”
“Yo también lo se .” Sombra sat up and yawned. Her hand combed through her her ombre hair, maneuvering her fingers as she detangled the knots that formed throughout the day. She pouted. “Maybe I should shave my whole head again. Like I know last time I did and we squared up you called me a chicken nugget but still I think it's time for a chop.” She looked up at the guns man’s unchanged expression. The attempt at small talk didn’t work. Sombra sighed and swung her legs off the bed, fully facing the cowboy.
“I really mean it Jesse. I’m not here to harass you or threaten you. Okay maybe I did harass you a little bit in the bar but...” Mccree rolled his eyes. Sombra ignored him and tried to continue, "It’s Christmas, and I was..”
Sombra waved her hands around, thinking of the proper words to say. She looked back at the older man staring at her still standing in the doorway of the bathroom. She sighed, her eyes cast down to the stained carpet as she felt a wave of embarrassment wash over her face.
“I didn’t want to be alone.” she mumbled, barely audible. "Not this year....”
Mccree face morphed into a face of genuine surprise, then softened before quickly changing into a smirk. “Fuckin' sap.”
He laughed as Sombra threw obscenities of both English and Spanish dialect at him. He sat on the bed next to her.
“Wait a minute. Did you…did you brush your teeth?” Sombra stared hard at Mccree, his warm smile now a straight line as he processed the question.
He got up grumbling. “I ain’t got no toothpaste now.”
“Wash your mouth with soap! Duh!” Sombra called out to him as he shut the bathroom door. She could faintly hear the water run, the sound of gurgling followed by a series of coughs and deep hacking. She couldn’t stop her cackling when Mccree came out disgruntled.
“Are ya happy now?” He asked, sticking out his soap scrubbed tongue.
“It’s better than having vom mouth hermano .” Sombra rebutted.
“I would have preferred if you had just left me alone.” Again Mccree sat down next to her, brushing his hair back with his prosthetic.
“No you wouldn’t. Think about where you were; passed out-“
“I know where I was you don’t have to remind m-“
Sombra continued. “PASSED OUT drunk in a run down bar with a tired old man cleaning shot glasses at ten o’clock at night. That was your idea of a Christmas Jesse."
Mccree shrugged. “I’ve had worse.” He heard Sombra mumble a quiet ‘don’t I know it’ but didn’t draw any attention to it. Instead he laid down next to the smaller woman, placing his hat and poncho on his stomach and closed his eyes. He felt the mattress bend to his right, Sombra choosing to lie down too. She let out a long sigh, and Mccree followed with one of his own.
They laid side by side in a tensed but unreasonably comfortable silence.
“… when was the last time you celebrated this holiday?” Mccree asked, breaking the still of the air trying to ignore the lull of sleep.
Sombra turned her head over, her eyes shut too. “What? Christmas?”
“No Sombra Labor Day of course I’m talking about Christmas pendeja .”
He let out a giggle when Sombra’s hand quickly slapped his stomach.
She brought a hand up to scratch her scalp. ”Ehh no sé. I’ve never really got into it, even as a kid. Never got presents. I like the lights though.”
“Yeah, the lights…” Mccree opened his eyes, staring at the ceiling, eyes deep in thought. “Back in Blackwatch, you know Blackwatch right?”
“Of course I know of your old crew.”
“Mmmofcourseyoudo but anyway at Christmas time, Gabe used to string up all these lights all throughout the base.”
“Wait wait wait.” Sombra slowly propped herself on her shoulders. Her cut eyebrow up in suspicion. “My Gabe? Stringing lights?”
This time Mccree was the one to raise his eyebrows. “Of course?! You’re telling me you know about Blackwatch but don’t know that Gabe went crazy with the decorations for like, every single holiday?”
He turned his body around to look at Sombra directly, counting the holidays on his fingers. “Halloween we had these shitty paper ghosts up in the halls. Valentines me and Lena were cutting out these shitty paper hearts and hung them on the walls. St. Patrick’s day he made Torb this shitty lil’ leprechaun costumHHH” Mccree couldn’t stop the wheeze that came out of him. Sombra’s shoulders bobbed up and down as she joined him in laughter.
“That is…that is fucking funny!” Sombra chuckled. Her laughter started to die down as Mccree continued to giggle to her left.
“I wish I could’ve seen that.” She mumbled. Mccree let out a few half-hearted chuckles before stopping, his eyes drifted down to the crumpled sheet they both laid on.
“….it was fun. It makes me miss him.” Mccree shifted onto his back again, sighing loudly. “I miss my pops.”
Sombra’s eyes widen. “What.”
“Shit.”
She sat up fully, leaning towards Mccree’s now blushing face. “ Qué!? ”
Mccree scowled away in embarrassment. “Forget it!”
“You call him pops too!?”
Mccree snapped his head back, brown eyes staring into each other. “Oh don’t you tell me you call him dad!”
Sombra backed up, a slight red tinge forming across her face as well. “So what if I do? He acts like a dad, I think. Always getting on me.”
She sat up, her eyebrows furrowed and voice lowered and strained, mimicking Reaper. “ ‘Sombra focus on the mission. Sombra stop drinking on the clock. Sombra lo juro por dios I will beat you if you close the doors on me again. ’ ”
A wide grin formed on Mccree’s lips. “Yeah that’s pops alright.” He couldn't count how many times Gabriel yelled at him for smoking on excursions.
The laughter started back up again. The two criminals reminiscing on fond memories of botched missions and other unlawful shenanigans they embarked on. Soon the conversations died down and the two were laying down side by side, sharing a bag of peanut M&Ms they bought at a vending machine outside. The T.V was on, playing The Grinch Stole Christmas.
“That’s you.” Sombra said as the cartoon showed the Grinch’s mischievous smile.
“Incorrect. That’s your weirdo bitch girlfriend.” Mccree replied with his mouth full. Sombra sucked in her teeth annoyed, grabbing a handful of candy and stuffing them in her mouth.
“Stop being disrespectful to my baby.” She said in-between chews. “I haven’t said anything about your dumb robot boyfriend."
She continued to eat in silence. “You know,” she started. “We really could really pass off as being a family you know. Like you, me and Gabe. You would obviously be the ugly child, but that’s just how it be.”
A snore answered her. She looked over and the bounty hunter was knocked out, chocolate coating the outside of his mouth.
She chuckled, downing the rest of the candy before falling asleep herself to the sound of low-fi Christmas music.
***
Mccree let out an obnoxiously long and loud yawn as he woke up. The aftertaste of booze and something else unpleasant coated his tongue, he frowned at the taste. The crust that was settled in the corner his eyes crumbled away as he slowly blinked, regaining his consciousness. Seeing the unfamiliar ceiling caused the bounty hunter to panic for a moment, sitting up rapidly and reaching for his peacemaker before his memories came back to him. That’s right. He’s in a motel room somewhere in New Mexico. He was at a bar. He was alone.
But then he was with Sombra.
He looked around for her; she wasn’t on the opposite bed, the bathroom light was off, the door leading outside was closed. The T.V in front of him was turned on a public station; two ominic news anchors in Christmas sweaters were chuckling over a poorly made gingerbread house. Mccree watched for a moment until his eyes noticed the glow of the T.V was casting light on a small present placed at his feet.
He reached over to grab it; it was nothing but a cardboard box with a bow taped on it. He took off the top and revealed a small phone. Curiously he turned it on. A text message was waiting to be read.
joél.
“My name’s not Joél.” Mccree told the screen.
first, merry xmas!! this is your present i hope u like it! im the only contact and the only one that this phone will allow, just a lil tweak i did to keep our convos private ;3 i didnt want to leave so soon, but work needs to get done. u know how it is. see u later :p
Mccree’s lips pulled down into a frown.
He scratched his head before replying.
Stay safe sis. and thank you.
A small tug of his lips turned upward when added a cowboy emoji at the end of it. He almost jumped in his seat at Sombra’s instant response.
OFC U WOULD USE THAT
also the bill for the room is about 110? u got it
He threw the phone on the other bed, gritting his teeth as he made his way to the bathroom for a much needed shower.
“Merry fucking Christmas to me.”