Work Text:
“Then there was this awesome find in Petra! You wouldn’t believe all the dudes I smashed up!” Sloan excitedly jumps - as much as they can sitting on the sofa - with arms spread wide.
“I can’t believe you’d smash anyone, Slo.”
“I- What?! You know what I mean, you big bozo!”
Mauga chuckles as Sloan punches his bicep. He’s been relaxing in his hammock, idly reading over some of the usual team reports he more or less has to get now that Cuerva’s long dead while Sloan regales him with stories of their recent excavations. It’s good background noise, if nothing else, though Mauga can’t resist the occasional tease.
They’re happy to talk all day about their dig sites, discoveries, old history, and all the rest of an archaeologist’s repertoire with little input, and Mauga is happy to listen. He’s pretty sure that Sloan is a bit too hyperactive to make friends easily, and he’s always liked listening to them anyway, even if it’s just about rocks. Besides, they’ve needed to do some catching up, and the recent break he’s gotten from Talon after looting the Null Sector ship was the perfect opportunity for it.
Sloan suddenly springs up and bounces their way straight into Mauga’s lap, knocking the data pad to the floor of his little home. “Soooo, how’s work been for you?” They ask, kicking their feet like a much younger child while looking up at Mauga.
Mauga flicks their forehead and chuckles when Sloan cries out indignantly and slaps the spot. “Busy,” He replies noncommittally. “Finally got some time off and I’m spending it with a rock-chewin’ doofus.”
“Booo!” Sloan slaps Mauga’s pec as he leans down to pick his data pad back up. “C’mon, you’ve gotta be doin’ some super fun stuff at work!” Sloan flails their arms and legs to rock the sturdy hammock. “Tell me, tell me, tell me!”
Mauga grumbles, slinging his arm around Sloan’s torso to make them hold still for a moment. “Relax. Nothing’s been goin’ on, kiddo.” The screen of the pad is cracked but it seems functionally fine. He quickly flicks the reports away before Sloan can get a look at them.
They know some of what he does for Talon, but they don’t know all of what Talon does. At least, he hasn’t told them about it. Whether or not they’ve found out more is still up in the air.
They snatch the tablet away before Mauga can hang onto it and starts rapid-fire tapping and swiping through it. Talon keeps their documents well-encrypted, so he isn’t worried about Sloan finding anything they shouldn’t, though he does worry a bit about the data pad cracking even more. “Ooh!” Sloan suddenly squeals. “Who’s this?!” They turn the tablet around and Mauga feels as if the world stops spinning for a moment.
Sombra must have sent something, because Sloan has opened up a file of blurry, glitching security footage paused on an image of Baptiste, running through the snow-covered streets of Toronto, herding civilians while shooting back at Null Sector units.
Mauga forces himself to laugh, and grabs Sloan’s wrist. Their grin vanishes and they tilt their head as Mauga takes the data pad back. “Just some side project I’ve got a friend helping me out with,” He says.
Sloan lets the tablet be taken with little resistance; they know when their big bro has hit his limit. Not that he’d ever hurt them though, but this must be something that hits hard for him. They can tell it’s something that they won’t wrestle out of him, so they shrug and fold their hands behind their head after Mauga releases their wrist. “Must be a pretty big project if you’re getting it triple encrypted with separate ciphers,” They say lightly, gently swinging their feet until the hammock starts to gently sway.
“Yeah, you could say that.”
Sloan makes a noncommittal sound. They think they recognize the man that had been on the camera footage, but they can’t quite place it. Whoever it is must mean a lot to Mauga though, they know that for sure - Mauga just doesn’t get attached to people like that.
“You oughta spend less time with all that dusty old garbage,” Mauga says suddenly.
Sloan immediately stiffens up and hits Mauga again. “Screw you!”
Mauga chuckles. “I’m just sayin’! Give me a cut of that cash and I could see why you spend all your time diggin’ ‘em up.”
They fling their head back and give an exaggerated groan. “You and your money,” Sloan grumbles. “They’re worth way more than just dumb money! Don’t you get how huge these finds are?!”
“Nope. But I’m sure you do.”
“I do!” Sloan exclaims, arms thrown wide. “When are you gonna stop being such a big doofus?!” They yell, pounding their fist into Mauga’s chest in time with their words.
Mauga snorts. “You first.”
“You second! Wait… Dang it!” Sloan growls and lurches up, grabbing at Mauga’s neck in a poor attempt to strangle him while Mauga laughs. “Stop doing that!”
Mauga curls one arm around Sloan’s neck and rubs his knuckles roughly into their head. “I’ll stop doin’ it when you stop fallin’ for it!” He teases. Sloan struggles against the hold, spluttering and flailing until Mauga finally lets them go.
“Jerk,” Sloan mutters as they nestle back into Mauga’s lap, pouting and sulking.
“Dork,” Mauga responds in kind. After a moment of quiet, he snags his tablet again and goes back to look at what Sombra had sent him. He waits until Sloan starts to drift off to really open up the files. The first had already self-destructed, the others aren’t much better quality but show similar things - Baptiste fighting through hordes of white-plated bots with the poorly cobbled-together crew of Overwatch, standing between them and the dozens of human and Omnic civilians that wouldn’t care one way or the other if he had fallen - with little notes from Sombra added in here and there.
he’s doing fine
his new friends are keeping him safe
you gotta relax for a while hermoso, he’s alright
He’s alright. Ha. Sure. As alright as a bloody surfer in the middle of the ocean.
Mauga sighs heavily as he sits the tablet back onto the floor. Something wet starts to seep across his arm, and he looks down to see Sloan drooling in their sleep. “Hey. Slo.” He tries to nudge them awake, to no avail. “Slo, c’mon, gross.” Again, Mauga tries to nudge them awake, but Sloan remains completely unconscious.
Mauga rolls his eyes as he carefully extracts himself from beneath Sloan so they can drool into their oversized jacket instead of his arm. He gives them a solid pat on the head, which, predictably, prompts no reaction. “You keep on digging in that thick skull, Slo,” Mauga chuckles.
At least someone won’t leave him.
Even if it’s only because they’re too thick to understand the risks.