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“Red thread of destiny: a red thread that unites lovers” spoke the spokesperson of the most popular product for two years “Soul mates: two people who were born and live only to find each other. Yin and yang: two people who are half of all to each other.”
Hanzo sighed while watching the ad which Genji showed to him. One more time, Genji was trying to help his brother get a couple, and his best strategy was showing him that stupid ad… again.
Hanzo didn't even want a lover, he was happy as a single man, he wanted to think that at least, but Genji insisted.
“Genji…” he called him. Genji shushed him and pointed to the ad in his phone, but Hanzo ignored him. “Every weekend you come to my house with cookies which Angela makes for me to make me watch this ad, and every weekend, I eat all cookies and refuse to go to that place to have a ‘perfect lover’. You've been doing this for almost half a year... don't you think it's time to stop, babe?”
“Shh.”
“What we sell is not a perfect lover, no.” Genji had shown him the advertisement so many times that Hanzo knew it perfectly. “What we sell is the test to find the person who will be most compatible with you.”
There are many images of happy couples on the screen with the presenter's voice-over and the company logo (a heart with an arrow through it) superimposed.
“Cupid’s dreams: Live loving, love living.”
Many of Hanzo’s friends used that test. It is not cheap, but that is not important when you feel alone, or that's what they said to Hanzo when he said that it was a scam. Curiously, all those who had paid to meet the ideal partner now had one or were meeting the person with whom the agency's test had paired them.
Even his own brother had met his girlfriend with that stupid test and agency.
But that could always be luck, right?... Yes, there are people who have found someone 'perfect' for them, but there could also be people who only know someone crazy or perverted...
“Genji, I don't want to pay $500 dollars to meet a freak man.”
Maybe if he pays and takes that test, he will know a murderer, a stalker or a rapist! Hanzo didn't want to take the risk.
“Oh come on, Onii-chan!” Genji insisted. Hanzo gets up from the couch and goes to the kitchen, trying to escape from him. But Genji followed him. Genji really wanted to help his brother, even if he didn't want to. “If I could meet Angela, you will find someone too…I know you can!”
Hanzo sighed and denied with his head.
“Genji, you are a very nice person!” He complained “I am not and I do not want a couple. I won't go to that agency.”
“But Hanzo! You will find someone special!”
“I could find someone special.” He corrected him. “But I could find a freak, or just someone who is not ‘perfect' to me.”
“You don't know that.” Genji pointed his finger to Hanzo.
“You don’t know either!” He complained as he poured water into a tin kettle and then put it on the kitchen stove.
“Of course I know, I have the perfect girlfriend! She loves me and I love her…” Once again, Genji used the example that the test worked. Hanzo didn't like it. He is not like his brother, and he thought all of this topic of the test was a lottery ticket. How could a test know who is your perfect love? It is like an impossible dream. It is just a fucking scam!
Genji tilted his head as he noticed his brother's displeasure. Hanzo just looked at the kettle in which the water was boiling to make tea.
“Genji, I prefer to find someone in a coffee shop, library… I would like to meet that person spontaneously, get to know each other little by little and notice that we are pieces of the same puzzle... I don't want a test that says that we will be okay because we are compatible, I want to discover it by myself.”
Genji was silent for a few seconds, while Hanzo, satisfied with his answer, poured tea into a glass, praising himself for having shut his young brother's mouth. But…
“You talk like you really want a boyfriend, onii-chan.”
The older brother sighed and then offered his brother tea, trying to buy time to think of a response. But he didn't have one. Because what himself said, it was something that he didn't know he felt.
‘I really want to have a boyfriend?’ His own question hit him like a rock.
(...)
Doubt is like a disease, once it infects you, if you do not have a cure, you are condemned to suffer.
Swallow. Suffer.
Don’t tell others you feel a hole in your life. Try to keep your life as always. Don't know who looks back at you in the mirror because you know you are not the same you were before. Try to not see the changes in yourself. Don’t believe in the words you say when you say you don’t need anyone. Try to not notice you are lying to yourself when you think you are not changing. Don’t have enough. Keep living. Need something (someone) to fill your emptiness.
Swallow again. And suffer one more time.
(...)
Hanzo ended up going to that place to do the stupid test without telling his brother. Hanzo was always a proud man, self-centered… if the test would fail, he didn’t want to listen to his brother trying to comfort him with a talk about his true love is there in the world and someday he’ll find him, it would be like a slap in his ego. Besides, Hanzo would hate to admit his brother was right when he said that Hanzo would be more happy with a couple, it is true yes, but Hanzo didn’t want to accept it.
While he was talking with an employee of the company, Hanzo felt his hands sweat and his heart racing. He just have to do a test, not knowing his “perfect couple” (if Hanzo could have something like that).
The test wasn't difficult, but it wasn't easy either. Questions, fictitious situations in which he had to say what he would do, writing his perfect date between five hundred and one thousand words, talk about his preference in a person (man, woman tall, short, dominant, submissive…), talk about his expectations (childrens, living together, adopt a pet, get married…). A much more complex questionnaire than he thought it would be. And they charged 500 dollars for the test before he could take it... Hanzo could swear his wallet cried while his pen was moving, writing the questionnaire.
The japanese man spent a little more than an hour writing, marking boxes with an x, adding personal information and contact information (only the company would have this information)... And while he was doing the questionnaire he was in a small solitary room with a desk and a chair, apparently they wanted to avoid distractions that would alter the answers.
Hanzo wasn't sure that the idea of a test, even being this rigorous (and in some questions intrusive, asking things like his fetishes) was going to give him a positive result. Yeah, maybe in a few days he’ll be on a date with a handsome man, but that doesn't mean he’ll have what he asked for in the test…
‘Stop making excuses, baka! You want to be happy and deserve to be happy, let yourself be happy!’ He can almost hear his brother's voice inside his mind. And even if he hates to admit it, Genji would be right if he said that.
Every day until he got a letter, Hanzo was really insecure. He was afraid that nobody would match his personality and goals… It felt like when he went to class and no one wanted to do a partner project with him because he didn't like to talk until the project was finished (and believe me, he took his time to make it perfect).
When Shimada's little brother came -as every weekend- to his house to visit him, Hanzo could see how happy his brother seemed. Too happy, if you ask him. He came into the house with his own keys, with a plate of cookies in his hand. That big smile could only mean two things: either he discovered that he had taken the test or Angela is pregnant.
“Onii-chan…” Her eyes were close to crying with emotion as she looked at him! This is really bad…
His little brother approached him slowly.
‘Please tell me I'm going to be an uncle.’ Hanzo begged in his head as he was clenching his jaw. ‘Please tell me I'm going to be an uncle. Please tell me what I'm going to be-’
And… Hanzo could see a letter in Genji’s other hand, with the logo of a heart crossed by an arrow, the logo of the company that distributed the love test. Perfect. Hanzo grunted so hard that he thought the windows of the house would break.
The postman must have put the stupid letter with the results of his ideal match in the mailbox and Genji, having the keys, was able to see it before he checked the mailbox. He couldn't have had worse luck.
“Onii-chan! When did you do the love test?” Genji smiled mischievously, like a child who was thinking of committing a mischief or breaking some rule.
“I just did it to try!” He said the first thing that came to mind, pushing his brother again to escape from his questions “It-it is just an experiment!”
“Just an experiment? You don't even believe you spent five hundred dollars on 'an experiment'!” Genji left the cookies and the letter on the table and then followed his big brother.
“I am very rigorous! I wanted to see what would happen if I answered the worst options on the questionnaire!” Hanzo uses the couch to stay away from his brother, running back and forth and always trying to keep him between him and Genji.
But the younger one jumped on the sofa and hugged his hip to stop his escape. He had never expected his young brother to have so little respect for such an expensive sofa. Hanzo tried to escape from his hug, but Genji was clinging to him like a koala, laughing as he talked.
“Come on, tell me! Is my brother dreaming with sweet love or maybe a passionate night?”
The older of the two's cheeks take on color and his eyes widen in surprise. He never expected a question like that, especially from his younger brother.
“It's disgusting to talk about those things with my little brother! I'm not asking you how you and Angela... You know!” He grabs his little brother's hands and tries to pull them free, but only makes him hold on tighter. He could feel his brother's face against his lower back, smiling and laughing, and knew he was having fun. “Why do you have so much curiosity about your brother’s intentions?”
“That’s different! Angela is the woman of my life and I want to spend my whole life with her! I just want to know if you are looking for what I have with Angela or just a one night stand.”
Hanzo closes his eyes and shrugs his shoulders, feeling his face heat up more by the moment. The question is simple, but his brother's interest is so great, not only was his ego in danger, he was also embraced because of his own intentions…
What if his brother makes jokes about his necessity of being in love unconditionally?
“Tell me, tell me! Is a boyfriend what you want, right? Do you want a lover who gives you sweet compliments?” Genji was right, but Hanzo didn't want to admit it to him. His heart was racing and his face was warm and completely red. His dreams of having something sweet, loving and lasting were betraying him to his brother, and he couldn’t deny anything.
“You don’t deserve to know it!”
The younger one complained with a mischievous and big smile on his face, still hugging him. He will not let him escape.
“What do you mean with that? Do you really think I will let you go without knowing everything you answered in the test?” No, Hanzo was not stupid, he knew his brother would know everything soon, even if he tries to keep it all… But he would be lying if he said that he didn't expect Genji to have a little mercy and let him explain bit by bit about this. “Plus, I want to know where you are going to date your man and who is him!”
His heart beats hard as if it wanted to escape from his chest and get under the sofa to hide from the younger man's interrogation.
“I cannot know who he is or when and where I can meet him! You got the letter before I could read it!” He argues now covering his face with his hands while he is trying to escape from his brother's grip.
“That is true…” Genji said while he released him and went to recover Cupid's dream’s letter. Hanzo took several steps forward before steadying himself, nervous and with his heart pounding. “Come here and read your letter!”
The older walked to his brother and took the letter. His short nails gently scratch the paper and he gently opens it to take out the paper, pale pink and smelling of flowers, and the information is a few lines of text with elegant and perfect calligraphy. The presentation is like a love letter and Hanzo feels like a teenager. Although that pleasant feeling is broken when he looks up and sees his brother's face of deep emotion, as if the letter was actually for him and not for Hanzo.
“I don't know if I want to read this with you in front of you…” He whispers, unsure.
“If you don't read it for me, I'll read it by myself!”
“How considerate you are of your brother's privacy…” He whispered with a frown.
“Privacy does not exist between you and me~" Genji hummed.
“Dear Hanzo Shimada:
Your questionnaire has coincided with many very wonderful gentlemen, congratulations! Among the most favorable results and with a 98% coincidence, we are honored to say that your perfect candidate is... Jesse McCree!”
“Jesse McCree…” Genji repeated in a whisper, That name sounds interesting... American.”
Hanzo laughed a bit, trying to pretend that Jesse's name didn't matter to him. The reality was that he was wishing in his head that not only the name was American in Jesse.
“It says here that our ideal date will be in a… coffee shop?” Hanzo was unable to hide his surprise; he didn't know if he should be disappointed or excited…
“What happen?”
“I-… I thought we would go to a restaurant, or maybe a picnic…”
“Well... You said before that you wanted to meet someone 'in your everyday life', right?” You've never been to a picnic, and you only go to restaurants with me and Mercy. And if we went to a restaurant with you to meet your date… I want you to tell me all the details and get to know him, of course! But I'd rather not see you 'affectionate' with your date.”
“You wouldn't come to the restaurant to meet himt! It would be really awkward!” He looked at the address and the date and time to meet Jesse McCree. “Overwatch cafe? I didn't know there was a coffee shop here…”
Genji searched the name of the cafe on Google, showing him the photos. The place inside looks really well, with large display cases of cakes and sweets, and dark glass tables and wicker chairs, images of couples (perhaps owners and friends of the owners) on trips to different parts of the world… Hanzo is not a fan of the cakes, but he thought the coffee shop looked like a nice place to go to take a coffee and spend the day reading a book.
The windows outside had the logo of the love test company at one end, perhaps that's why that would be his 'perfect date' with Jesse… Hanzo feels very insecure thinking that nothing has really been planned or studied for their date.
‘What if Jesse and I don't get along? What if this was a scam and we were selected together at random?’ He was really nervous.
“Hanzo?...”
‘Maybe he would think I'm too serious, a weirdo…’
“Hanzo? Are you there?” His brother's hand passing in front of his eyes brought him out of his thoughts.
“I can’t go on the date.”
Genji blinked a few times. “What-... Why?”
“He's not going to like me.” In his hands he crumpled the paper and turned it into a ball and then threw it behind his back.
Genji caught the letter on the fly and uncrumpled it as best he could.
“What do you mean? He is your perfect date! Of course he will like you and you will like him!”
The older one didn't answer and fell face down on the couch. His brother followed him and sat on the floor with the letter and caressed Hanzo’s back softly.
“Hanzo…” Hanzo grunted as an answer, “why are you so insecure now? Is it because you don't like his name? Is that coffee shop bad?”
Hanzo didn't answer.
“You have six days left until the appointment... Are you sure you don't want to go? He's supposed to be your ideal guy... And this place is supposed to appeal to both of you.”
He liked how the place looks in google’s pictures, and it excited him to think that he had something resembling a soul mate. But what if this was just a lottery? What if Cupid’s dream were only summoned there to publicize one of their stores?
(...)
It is the day of the appointment when his thoughts change. Like every morning, he had woken up looking at himself in the mirror in front of his bed. He had always liked the beautiful naked body of his reflection very much. Hanzo had always loved his body, with muscles cultivated in hours of rigorous training, with his tattoos on one arm and one leg, without hair due to his Asian genes…
Spinning and posing in front of the mirror, he admires the fruits of his hard work, smiling and giving himself compliments he wishes someone else would say to him.
“You are more handsome than I imagined.”
He stayed still in place at what he said. He had said it without thinking, an unimportant comment. But now he couldn't get it out of his head.
“What would his voice sound like?”
He wasn't able to get that thought out of his head as he put on his pajamas and went to the kitchen to have breakfast.
Genji had called his brother every day to ask if he would come, and Hanzo always refused until the day came. The coffee tasted different when thinking about going on that date, strangely sweet…
“Angela says 'it's about time you let yourself be happy'... oh, and she also asks you if you want to have dinner tomorrow and you tell us how the date went.”
“Tell Angela I'll think about it…”
Hanzo started looking for clothes in his closet, leaving the call with his brother on the table. He would wear his best clothes to that date and that required a lot of time to prepare. Even if the test was a scam, he was determined that the date would end with him having a partner, even if he had to put on an archery show.
“Angela! Tomorrow we have to go look for Hanzo!" Genji spoke, raising his voice.
He laughed a bit while he was letting the clothes he will wear on the bed after the shower and went to the bathroom with his phone in his hands.
“Angela sends you a kiss. What will you be wearing? I think the skinny jeans you bought the last time the three of us went out would look good on you... They'd show that American what an ass you have!”
“I prefer not to talk about my... My ass with my brother." Genji laughed at the call, “I'll wear a kimono! I want to look... Elegant.”
“You're going to play hard, huh?” Hanzo looked at the phone in surprise as if he could still see his brother's face (although it was just a voice call, they couldn't see each other). Genji knew him very well, “My brother is determined to look like a prince for his date ~ ...And you said you didn't want to go… I'm sure you've already chosen the kimono and are going to take a shower now.”
“I don’t know what you are talking about!”
“Yeah, of course… If you want my opinion, I think you should put a high ponytail, it would look great on you… It is stately and elegant.”
“... Thanks for your help, Genji.”
“I love you, Onii-chan. I hope you have fun today.”
Hanzo smiled before getting into the shower.
“I love you too.”
The call was hung up and gave way to preparing for the appointment: a shower, a mask to make his skin look good, putting on his kimono and looking at himself from different angles so that everything was perfect… He felt like a prince while putting on an expensive cologne that he only used for special occasions.
(...)
He entered the cafeteria determinedly, ready to take on the world and take a man on his arm after a perfect date. His eyes scanned the place in search of a lonely man, but there were many lonely men there… And most of them were devouring him with their gaze.
He sighed, going to sit at a table, having short conversations with those men, but none of them were Jesse. They didn't even know anything about the love test!
Hanzo frowned as the last of the men left, rejected by him. Maybe Jesse, like him, had thought the love test was a scam and decided not to come.
He got up from the wicker chair after ten minutes of waiting, and just as he was going to pay for his coffee, the most beautiful man he had ever seen walked through the door.
Slow breathing, pupils dilating, heart racing, hands starting to sweat. Damn. He'd hate to say it out loud, but he's felt love at first sight.
“How about you sit down again, sir?" The lady who was going to charge him for the coffee said, smiling at him.
Hanzo looked at him in surprise. Had he noticed the moment when his heart was pierced by the arrow of Cupid? Before he could ask him anything, he heard a new voice, one that no one in the bar he had spoken to had.
“Excuse me, are ya Hanzo Shimada?”
Hanzo swallowed, his throat feeling dry, as he turned to face the man. He was prettier up close. Tall, with curly hair, a beard and he was wearing a hat and a poncho typical of cowboys from Western movies. It took several seconds for Hanzo to realize that he was waiting for a response, with a gentle smile that could tame the wildest of dragons. Oh fuck, his face felt so warm right now... Was his mouth open all this time? He is so gently closing his mouth with his fingers in his chin... He wanted to touch him more...
He still wanting an answer! 'He is smiling so sweet...' Hanzo said to himself 'Say something! Quickly! I can't let him escape!'
“Yes..., Yes! I'm Hanzo Shimada!” Jesse chuckled a bit because of his excitement and Hanzo could say he could make an egg in his face.
'Why I'm talking like a virgin teenager? It is not my first date with a man...'
Hanzo coughed trying to calm down a bit. It didn't work.
"Nice to meet you, Jesse..."
Jesse smiled and took his hand, kissing it. His beard tickled his fingers, and his heart, if possible, pounded harder against its cage of bones.
“Hanzo, you’re more handsome than I imagined.”
He opened his eyes in surprise. He has said what he imagined he would say!
“I'm sorry it took me so long to come... But if you allow me, I want to make the appointment with you... I promise it will be worth it.”
Jesse winked at him and his legs shook. His plan was to look confident, strong, even a little daring, to take him on his date even if the love test brought them together at random. But now his plan was not to turn into jelly before getting his phone number…