Chapter Text
Lena ‘Tracer’ Oxton fell to the ground with the largest, loudest and most contagious of yawns. It was tiring really, despite how easy her chronal accelerator made the job seem, having to heave the dozen or so boxes filled with miscellaneous items up. Sure, she was thankful that she was not lagging behind like Angela or poor little Mei. However that did little to stop the time traveling Brit from becoming exhausted to the point she could take a quickie in the storage floor.
And just that she did, or at least was in the process of before an exhausted Angela burst through the squeaking door with a red face and cheeks puffed to their limit. No sooner had she taken a couple of steps inwards, she allowed to boxes to fall to the floor with a tremor that startled Lena.
“Oi!” pouted the Brit as she threw the blonde a glare.
“S-sorry,” huffed Angela, bent over as she gasped for air. “What’s in these boxes? Iron blocks?”
It was not, but something much worse.
Books.
Since it was the end of Autumn, Winston had asked (ordered) that everyone (but mainly McCree) to clean their rooms and offices to allow more space for future renovations prior to the holidays. Now that Talon had been dealt with and many of their rogue agents brought into Overwatch’s ranks, the gorilla wished to take the time to finally deal with the base’s poor sanitation.
Thus, after much deliberations, promises of kisses and a very tense game of paper-rock-scissors among other things, the unlucky ones were left to deliver the remaining boxes to the far wing of the building. Having cleared their own quarters and respective work areas, most had left to tackle a few remaining missions before the end of the month, leaving Lena, Angela, Mei, Hana and Sombra to deal with the rest. Packages were carefully selected and sorted, with McCree’s old tobacco box collection thrown to the further depths just by the air vent to rid of the nasty smell that almost killed Hana.
Speaking of which…
“Hey! Don’t hog the doorway to yourself,” announced Hana as she pushed the door clear for her to enter with her own cargo with the tip of her shoe.
Sombra however beat her to the mark as the Mexican hacker slipped by with a mischievous cackle. “Thanks, bunny girl,”
“No fair!”
“When have I ever been known to be fair,” responded Sombra with glee as she dropped a couple of boxes labelled as ‘fragile’ in front of her. Instantly the sound of breaking glass caused everyone to look wide eye at the Latina who simply stared at her crime nonchalantly. “Oops,”
“What was that?” asked the Brit as she sat up with folded legs.
“Some junk I guess,” shrugged Sombra before examining her nails for possible damage.
Hana huffed and glared before slouching a bit and making her way into the room. After placing her own cargo, gently, she jumped atop a large draped metal crate for a bit of rest and relaxation. “How much more?”
“Aw, come on luv, no need to be hasty,”
Lena giggled as Hana groaned.
Angela meanwhile took advice from the two newcomers and made herself comfortable on a couple of stacked metal crates. The blonde fanned herself with the nearest piece of paper, clearly disheveled after the trek.
“Hopefully not too much,” sighed Angela.
“Well, I did my part, best I get out of here,” Sombra dusted herself off her immaculate black and purple coat.
Angela turned to the hacker in disbelief. “Are you serious?”
“Serious as I’ve ever been,” chuckled Sombra, stopping just short of the door. “Why? Need me to wipe that sweat off of you?”
Angela crossed her arms, standing in defiance to the deserter. “No, because you need to help us out just as we agreed on,”
“Ay, chica, I never agreed to anything,”
“But-”
“Don’t listen to her Angela, she’s just being mean is all,” Lena interfered, “She’s too busy trying to keep up appearances before Satya comes and sets her right,”
Angela looked at Lena who in turn was giving Sombra an knowing smile. True, it was well known that the hacker had an aura that rivalled that of a poltergeist but the same could not be said when Satya Vaswani was around. With her Sombra seemed like a saint sent by the angels. Lena was not entirely happy of the fact she had to blackmail the infamous hacker about her lovey-dovey emotions but the reality was that she was best friends with said hacker’s girlfriend gave her leeway enough to save her from any retribution that might come her way.
“Ugh, fine,” groaned Sombra in distaste, “Just let me get a cup of water then,”
Sombra whirled with hand on handle ready to make a quick exit. And at that moment, the door burst wide open.
Mei came in fumbling with eight boxes stacked as high as the ceiling all tumbling to the ground. In an epic boom, the room became the epicenter for the ultimate death of hundreds of books, memorabilia, old shirts and several computers. Beneath it all, Lena had been caught mid waist by a large stack of papers, while the rest of the group were up on their respective sitting positions, clinging away from the mess. Lena could feel the edges of magazines poking at her thighs while a few pages descended atop of her bob cut hair.
“Blimey,” chimed Lena as she looked down at a lump beneath the cardboard and paper shift until they revealed a small Chinese woman moan in lament.
“Sorry! Sorry, sorry,” Mei repeatedly squeaked, “I was trying to bring everything so no one had to carry it, but then I couldn’t see, and the door was just closed. I-I- Sorry! Sorry,”
“Don’t you ever shut up?”
“Olivia!” hissed Angela.
That was another neat thing of being friends with the hacker’s love, the use of her actual name to force the woman to do anything they wanted. It was less of an earned right and more of an immediate abuse pf power, but its effect was just as good. Sombra did not enjoy being called by her actual name given her usual privy life but since it was seldomly used, she allowed the rest of the rabble to use her name lest they go tattle-tale on Satya.
“Fine.” Sombra threw her arms in the air.
Stepping over a couple of books, she leaned over and extended her hand for Mei to grab.
“Thanks,” smiled Mei meekly as she pushed herself up from the debris. “Sorry about that guys,” Mei offered once more, falling onto her knees to begin the arduous task of cleaning up.
“Is all good love,”
“Nothing to worry about Mei, we’ll help you up,” Angela offered with a comforting smile. Then she turned to Sombra and Hana, both of which had been trying to tip toe out the nearest window as means of a quick escape. “Right you two?”
Both of the smaller girls turned around with limp shoulders and disgusted faces.
“Right!”
“Si,”
Angela narrowed her eyes at both of the them until each slumped to the ground and began to pick up papers grudgingly. Turning her attention to Mei, who was somewhat stuck between pulling at some item beneath her.
“Mei, love, gotta say, love your enthusiasm, but that’s my foot,”
Lena wiggled the limb causing Mei to fall back with an embarrassed face. “Sorry! Sorry, sorry,”
The Brit cackled before disappearing in a blinding flash of blue and appearing only a couple of feet from where she had initially stood. “Ah, feels good to feel the ol’ girls, ye’?”
While the time defective girl was off making sure blood was not fully pumping across her legs, Angela looked over to the duo who were both grunting and mumbling beneath their breath. She knew both did not enjoy this type of work and were much more willing to abandon it for the entertainment of their video games.
“Could’ve been live streaming instead,” Hana pouted with a frown drawn across her brow.
Just to her side was Sombra angrily mimicking Hana’s own motions, clearly displeased at having to hear her long-time nemesis ramble all in the meanwhile having to physically work.
“You know if you cleaned up as fast as you played your games we would finish much faster, right?” Angela smirked as she noticed either of the two gamers groan back at her but ultimately hasten the speed. “Good,”
Now that she had secured the loose ends of the group she turned her attention to Lena who was herself in a hurry. And not that Angela minded, but she preferred if Lena was not shoving everything into the already manhandled boxes until they were near the point of exploding. Mei was herself scanning through the thousands of pages and folders, trying to sort them out into neat stacks.
“Mei, what are you doing?”
“I’m separating the non-disposables from the recyclable materials otherwise when we come to throw any of this stuff away we’ll know how to better dispose of them,” answered Mei as she added a plastic binder without its filler of documents. Angela could only chuckle and shake her head at the young ecologist.
“Lena, please be a dear and bring us a couple of more boxes,” Angela motioned at Lena, being the only one who was still standing up.
“Bummer,” Lena puffed a bit of air before opening the door wide for her to exit. “Be back in a jiffy,”
With her usual two-fingered salute, the Brit disappeared down the hall in quick burst of light. Angela could hear the sounds of feet fade out past the echoing halls before disappearing all completely. With one soldier down, Angela adjusted herself on a gap in the floor where the spill had left. Angela grabbed the nearest page, a plain document detailing a list of components for some unknown gadget that Winston most undoubtedly had put on the backburner, before scanning the room for anything that may closely resemble it.
Quietly, the blonde settled onto a routine she was already accustomed much to her distaste. Little by little the top layer of clutter began to disappear only to leave even more files beneath. Angela could hear the added ambiance noise of crumbling paper and shifting paper under the weight of bodies. Occasionally would Hana or (more often than not) Sombra would curse their luck before throwing a large object out of sight. Time seemed to slow down as piles began to grow little by little, opening up the space around each of the agents.
It all seemed to have grown quiet before the sound of thumping footsteps grew louder and closer by the second. Angela could already tell Lena was arriving though a bit later than she anticipated.
“Sorry loves,” breathed Lena, comfortably out of her bulky chronal accelerator and onto a loose red shirt and black running shorts. “My charge was runnin’ low so I had to go plug up for a bit,”
Now out of her time-controlling device, Lena wore in its stead a white and orange watch-like bracelet with blue light pulsing around its surface. While the entire base had been rigged to ensure Lena would never disappear without the aid of her chronal accelerator there were still areas, such as the storage room they were currently in, where such scientific and quite frankly expensive additions were still not in place. Adding to the growing number of gizmos Lena could use to anchor her to this timeline was the watch she was currently wearing, made mainly for sport use rather than combat but stylish nonetheless. Indeed, were Winston not too busy trying to blow his laboratory in an effort to create new breakthrough technology Angela would consider asking the gorilla for a couple of fashion advice.
“Righty-O,” Lena beamed as she tucked a couple of already unfolded boxes out for Mei to use.
“Thanks,”
“No problem love,”
Mei immediately filled two boxes before moving onto a third with a sigh beneath her breath. Angela moved on to pouring another thick heap of old adverts onto the ground for her to sort through. At least a hundred letters from banks could be identified by their size, most of them immediately tossed to the nearest box Lena had set up net to her. While Lena grabbed the two boxes Mei had finished up with, the climatologist reached out for a couple of magazines between Angela and Sombra.
They were mostly old issues from subscriptions conspicuously under the name of ‘G. R. Hernandez’. Mei blinked twice as her brain attempted to place a face on the name written on the white box at the corner of the page cover.
“Who’s he?” asked Mei in mild curiosity as she handed Angela the magazine.
The Swiss doctor drew the monthly digest level for a closer look. Careful not to miss a bit of gossip, Sombra glanced over the blonde’s shoulder to the name before sighing out in Spanish.
“Que idiota,”
Angela turned to Sombra who simply shook her head and continued at a snail’s pace to throw things out onto an open donation’s chest without looking up.
“Know something we don’t, Sombra?” asked Angela with a creased brow.
In turn the Mexican hacker shrugged, “Always,”
Angela glowered at Sombra for a solid minute, drawing Lena’s attention at the uneasy silence the blonde gained. “Then care to share,”
Sombra looked up briefly to notice all sets of eyes except for Hana who busy making origami with some important presidential contact info. Knowing she had no recurse but to admit defeat, she blew a small raspberry before leaning forward.
“Fine, but don’t say I didn’t warn you if you repeat it openly in front of everyone,”
Angela and Mei looked at each other while Lena tilted her head like a pup before taking a seat to listen attentively at this upcoming revelation. “Oh?”
Sombra looked down at the name and back up again at her audience. “That’s Gabriel’s undercover name,”
“What?”
“Wowsers!”
“No way!”
Sombra roller her eyes as she tried to ignore the Brit from using the word ‘wowsers’ like some comedy show. Rather she looked over to her right to notice that Hana’s attention had been peaked by the mention of Reaper’s name. “Gabriel? As in mister grouchy-face-I-hate-everything-Die-die-die?”
“Yes, you pink disaster, that Gabriel,”
“No way” repeated again Hana as she snatched the item from Angela’s hands. After a second of skimming through the first couple of pages Hana turned over to Sombra with a disgusted face painted on her, hand outstretched with the magazine away from her. “But this is all gross stuff!”
Mei bent over on all fours and grabbed the magazine from Hana’s dangling fingers. She flipped through a couple of pages, before stopping altogether at some article. “Men’s Ultimate Fashion and Yours Too?”
“Crickey, Reaper has some fashion-know-how?” Lena whistled. “Ain’t that a shocker,”
“Oh wow,” Mei added in awe. “Twelve Ways to Master Your Love?”
“Figures. The man always has had a thing for those stupid telenovelas,”
“I’ve never seen this side of Reyes,” Angela blurted out as she etched closer to Mei’s side. “nimmer,”
“Can’t say you missed much,” Sombra growled, “Man has issues, that’s for sure,”
Mei thumbed through more articles and galleries with fascination. “I think it’s admirable,” she concluded, now on a major column about how to improve house décor without wasting too much money or contaminating the environment. “Quite fascinating,”
Hana quirked her brows as Mei flipped over the page to reveal a male couple cuddling each other.
“Eww,”
“Says the gay Korean falling hard for a certain Swedish redhead,” Lena mocked with a knowing smirk.
Hana stuck her tongue at the Brit in turn. “Pan Korean actually, but still, it’s weird thinking about Reaper thinking who’s body he’s gonna snuggle up with,”
“Bugger, gonna have to find something to wipe that off my mind soon,”
“Stop it you both,” Angela ordered in her motherly tone. “Let the man have his privacy,”
“Oi, look at that,” Lena whooped as she swiped at the magazine, ripping off a relatively thick envelope tucked between the article’s pages.
“What’s that?” asked Hana as she looked over to the baby blue cardboard paper.
“Dunno,” replied Lena as she flipped the envelope over, “Oh!”
Immediately the Brit turned a deep shade of red as her lips pursed to a thin line, eyes growing wider by the seconds as they scanned around the item’s surface. Sombra herself found some amazement in seeing the Brit almost turn into a walking tomato but found even more entertainment when the girl flipped the envelope over for everyone to look.
“What is it?” asked Mei pushed her glasses up the ridge of her nose. Once comfortable she craned her neck closer to read the stylized title decorating the upper section. “Wishing for that perfect family present? Write to us today about your perfect dream child!”
Mei let out a small squeak and coughed in embarrassment. Hana herself facepalm as hard as she possibly could in an effort to erase what she had just seen while Angela and Lena merely stared at the envelope in wide eye petrification. Sombra was the only one who had avoided any of the above and was simply laughing so hard she had fallen over.
“HA!”
“Cor, never thought poor Gabe had it in bad for something like that,”
“Never mind that, just open that thing up, I want to see what’s inside,” pressured Sombra as she continue rolling in laughter.
Lena looked at Angela for advice but found the doctor just as lost as her, if not more. Deciding to risk it, she slipped a finger beneath the already torn open envelope to find a small booklet. No bigger than her hand, it was composed of several identical thick cardboard sheets each decorated with a cartoonish baby sleeping with pink letters written atop of it.
“The Greatest Gift for You and Your Loved One!”
Now that stupefied Lena beyond belief. No way this was real, not in a million years… was it?
“Erm- cough – Angela…” blurted Lena out a tad louder than she hoped.
That however seemed to have done the job and snap Angela out of her own shock. The blonde looked around like a stranger to the world before recognizing the voice. “Y-yes! I mean, yes Lena?”
“Umm…”
“The fuck!”
“Hana!”
“What? It’s what we’re all thinking about, right?” responded the Korean gamer as she threw Angela a shrug. “No way that’s real,”
Angela followed the pointing finger at the object in Lena’s hand. Angela was in the middle of formulating a response but was cut short by Mei who interjected.
“Must be a joke or something,”
“Pfft, joke or not, sounds less like writing and more like genetic birthing.”
“Ain’t that illegal,”
“Almost everywhere, except in a few countries I think. Still controversial.”
“Who cares, this is too funny.”
“Must be some sick joke or a bad prank,”
“Angela, do you think this is something to do with genetic birthing?”
“Actually, I think it is,”
“Bollocks!” Lena shouted in disbelief. “Ain’t no way that’s real,”
“Well,” Angela added after coughing a bit. “Mei may be right. I think. It’s a common practice nowadays for families who are incapable of either fostering a child of their own or adopting one due to legal complications,”
Sombra was finishing up before joining the chat. “Oh, and that doesn’t make it weird,”
“Well no, actually.” Angela glared at Sombra before returning her sights to the item in Lena’s hands. “Consider this, say for example you” she pointed at Lena as an involuntary volunteer, “and Amelie try to have a child.”
Lena looked directly at the still cluttered mess on the ground, clearly averting her eye contact from anyone else as she blushed at the sudden example. She had dreamed on some occasions of the day she and Amelie would be able to live a life without having to worry for each other’s survival. Amongst those day dreams there had been a couple of images she remembered, specifically in seeing a young offspring of theirs running wildly about whilst the two walked side by side on the beach. It was a far flung fantasy even by her standards but one that pained her to think about nowadays. Lena knew why, but she could feel Angela’s caring eyes look at her for acknowledgement before continuing.
With a small nod, Angela took a deep breath before continuing. “Again, let’s imagine if Lena and Ame- I mean Widowmaker decided to have children of their own. Well, due to Lena’s time disassociation, the risk of having a child before we can solve her er- ahem- issue is too high. Widowmaker herself has suffered various modifications to her body, rendering her unavailable as a host to birth any children. See where I am going,”
No one but Mei responded with a nod or some form of response, clearly rooted on the subject.
“Okay. Now, because we are still considered an illegal organization despite the support we still receive, no country is willing to be the target by helping us, thus adopting a child from some countries is impossible. Unless we take a child during a mission but that would be considered kidnapping and would only make things worse for us as a whole,” Angela continued, sighing as she still recalled an argument between her and Fareeha over taking in an orphan not long ago.
“In any case, most countries have stringent regulations to stop adoptions from unsuitable parents or, worst case scenario, by organized groups. In other cases, the country may not have said option at all,”
“So, science comes to rescue,” interjected Mei once more.
Angela looked at Mei with a small tearful smile. “I guess that’s one way to put it. Some hospitals, at least the most well-funded and available are capable of using DNA from donors, in most cases from one of both of the parents to inseminate a willing volunteer. Such cases usually take time and a lot of money, most of which pays for the person’s pregnancy. In our case, thanks to the law enforcement in Gibraltar, we can’t actually follow this procedure, except for a couple of exempt hospitals outside the country,” Angela finished with a deep sigh.
“So how is that genetic birthing or whatever it’s called?” Lena asked, if hesitantly, with the softest voice Angela has heard her thus far.
“Well, in the case that inseminating someone does not work, be it the intended couple or a consenting female, then genetic birthing is the next step, if less illogical and more questionable of decisions. But like Hana pointed out, it’s quite controversial and very few countries allow it.”
She herself had the unfortunate luck of knowing all this out of experience despite how much she wished for the day she wished to see a small Fareeha look-alike laugh with glee.
“Well,” Hana commented in a low voice, scratching her neck after hearing the sad topic unfold. “Sucks, don’t it?”
Lena flipped the stack towards her for a long hard look. She knew her chances of ever seeing a baby Amelie were small, but now hearing it being confirmed knotted her stomach tight. Still, what was the worst that could happen if she did try something. “Well, how about we give it a whirl?”
Angela looked at Lena in disbelief. She knew the Brit had fostered a little hope for some time now but to her this sounded as a desperate attempt to make something happen. Lena herself could see Angela try to decipher the train of thought behind that of Lena’s words. Rather than let her come to a conclusion, she jumped in before allowing Angela to berate her for acting so rash.
“Hear me out, okay?” Lena waved her hands frantically. “How about we try to write to the magazine about what we think our baby should look like?”
“Lena,” Angela began as she rubbed her temples with both hands.
“Come one love, you know we don’t do much nowadays besides sit here in loafers after a mission. Talon’s gone, the Omnic Crisis is close to an end and we have loads of time to spend, don’t we?”
Angela groaned in admittance despite her best efforts to not follow through with Lena’s seemingly desperate attempt to live a fantasy.
“Well, then how about we give it a whirl and send the company these thingies? Ain’t no harm in sending them. Plus, they are meant to be shipped off which are just around the corner.”
The remainder of the group shuffled awkwardly, unsure of whether this was not a mistake to listen in to. It was then that Mei decided to reach out for one of the sheets from Lena’s hand in concern. “Let’s read the footnote, maybe they say what they might do with our letters or if there’s a catch,”
“Brilliant!” Lena cheered.
“Better have a prize involved or I’m not participating,” Hana commented.
Angela and Lena gave Hana a questioning look, causing the Korean girl to realize how that sounded. It was well known that the livestreamer did have donations of which she gave most her money to charities and kept a fraction relative to a small fortune for personal use. “Uh, Hana, don’t you make enough money in your shows?”
“Of course, but I said prize, not money. Why bothering sending something so cheesy if you’re not gonna get something cool, duh?!”
Lena shrugged. “’Cause it’s all in the fun?”
“Yeah, and I don’t whoop noobs for a living,”
“But you do!”
“My point exactly!”
Mei carried on her reading despite the ensuing argument between Lena and Hana over whether games should be enjoyable or not. She had participated in Hana’s game nights, often losing but still enjoying her moments. Hana was competitive, but that was by nature, though Lena on the other hand was more about the excitement she got out of a good game. Still, she let them have their chat while she carefully scanned the footprint at the very bottom with some mild concern.
Apart from a couple of legal notices regarding the optional form and the contact information, there was little else. After a couple of flips and thorough searching, she found a small text box that provided some insight.
“Interesting,”
“Took you long enough,” jabbed Sombra at Mei, “Care to enlighten us as to what your little eye spotted?”
Mei ignored the hacker with a hmph before continuing. “Say’s here the information is completely secure. It asks that if you – I mean, if we decide to write them then we can keep anonymity but require a mail address if we do win something,”
“Oooh,” hummed Lena, “Does it say what we win?”
“Not really, just says that ‘Everyone’s a Winner!’.”
“Ha! Most likely some stupid bag and some discount cards,”
Angela rolled her eyes. “Sounds like a plan to keep sending more silly advertisements to me,”
“Aw, come on Angie, what’s so bad about getting something besides your boring medical reports? Besides, don’t ya want to take Fareeha out for a nice dinner if it is money, eh?”
Lena waggled her brows at the Swiss doctor who only blushed without reply.
“Not for me, I’ve got more important things to do besides waste my time with some childish cereal prize winning,” Sombra interrupted as she stood up from her spot. “Besides, it’s not like I can’t get that money on my own,”
“Legally?” asked Mei inquisitively.
“Of course,” Sombra shrugged with sarcasm dripping down her tongue. Sidestepping in front of Lena, she leaned down and snatched one of sheets from the Brit who jumped up in surprise.
“Hey!”
“Oh, shush you, it’s not like you haven’t got at least half a dozen more by the looks of it.” Sombra gestured at Lena’s hand which was still holding a couple more of the adverts. With a flick of her finger, she stood upright with a raised eyebrow at the item in hand. “Still, Satya might laugh at this farce,”
Doubtful as it was, Satya rarely laughed unless it was a clever comment that she might deem satiable, nevertheless no one bothered to counter to Sombra’s mean comment. Patting the small wrinkles in her luminescent jacket, the Mexican hacker twirled around on the ball of her foot to face the door.
“Well, it was a nice chat amigas, but I must be really heading out. Ta ta!”
Sombra slipped out the half-open door before anyone could respond, her mischievous laughter echoing down the halls.
“Come back here you!” Angela shouted without effect before throwing her hands up in the air. “Ugh, that woman!”
“Calm down Angela, otherwise you might grow grey hairs,” Lena soothed playfully. “Though I think Fareeha doesn’t mind a bit of age, don’t you?”
“Lena, how would you like to be interned at the med bay from Amelie for a week,”
“Welp, shutting my mouth it is then,”
Hana in the mean time slipped a sheet from Lena and began reading. It was not entirely the most convincing thing she had seen, but considering how bored she was before her daily livestream, there was nothing but to take up on the challenge.
“So are you guys writing to this magazine or not?” Hana questioned for clarity as she waved the paper for everyone to see.
“Well, maybe?” Mei shuffled in her seat with wringing hands. “We need to write something though,”
“Then let’s get some pen and start writing.”
Mei shook her head this time with greater ferocity. “No,” She settled into a more comfortable position before continuing on. “We need to take our time if we want to win something, don’t we?”
Hana groaned, her cheeks puffing up to further radiate the pink whiskers painted on them. “Jiluhan! That’s no fun,”
“But if we don’t write something worthwhile, then none of us have the chance to get the prize,” Mei explained, “Otherwise it was a waste of time. How about if we each wrote our letters sometime this week and we mail it when the next courier arrives? That should give us some time to prepare something decent,”
“I still am not sure about this,”
“Don’t be a spoilsport Angela. Think of it as a writing exercise.”
Angela scoffed at Lena’s solution. She had more than enough exercise in writing than she ever hoped waiting for her back in her office. Still, the words from the perky Brit still lingered over her as she allowed a second to visualize inviting Fareeha out for a nice dinner somewhere or perhaps for a beautiful present for her beloved. Not that she needed such material things but it did not make it any less meaningful to show her love in a direct manner.
“Du gewinnst, ich werde es tun,” Angela finally admitted defeat. “I’ll write this silly note. But don’t expect me to send it if I don’t like how it turns out, ja?”
“Wouldn’t dream of forcing you, love,” beamed Lena as she punched the air in victory.
“Urgh, okay,”
“Good then. Let’s say we have ours finished by Friday? That way we have it mailed before the weekend without worries?”
“Aye aye ma’am!”
“That’s a whole week away,”
“Agreed, but under the condition that no one reads each other’s letter. I think that will save us each the embarrassment, do you agree,” Angela added as Lena handed her a page of her own to fill out. “And no rude comments,” she gave Hana a pointer look.
“No fun,”
“Oh, here you go,” Lena shouted as she grabbed a couple of envelopes tucked away in the magazine still undisturbed. “That way we’ll have it ready to ship in a jiffy all nice and spiffy,”
“Yōuxiù,” clapped Mei as she jumped up with both items in hand.
Sadly, her moment of triumph was shattered as she accidentally bumped into the sides of the boxes Lena had rested on a low table. With a loud crash, the entire floor became once more the epicenter of disaster. Papers, books and even clothes were now fully strewn about without order. And just beneath it all was Angela’s lower body, having been caught in the avalanche that followed while Lena had managed to jump out of the way to avoid the same fate.
“Sorry! Sorry, sorry,” Mei apologized with red cheeks in distress.
“Mei! Neoneun eolgan-i ya!” Hana startled the Chinese climatologist as she attempted to shove a couple of books away from Angela’s feet.
“How about we start writing those letters after we clean this mess up, ja?”
“Ditto,”