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Have you ever had that feeling when you hit it off great with someone you’ve been a fan of for a long time?
This was the feeling that Lúcio had for Hana Song. Hana was just as energetic and funny and unique as her streams as she was in real life. Lúcio didn’t think he’d ever met a girl with as much passion for what she loved. You know that feeling when someone tells you they enjoy what you do? Combine that with the first feeling and you’re on seventh heaven.
Lúcio met Hana officially when she joined the reformed Overwatch team. Though she had been there for a week or so before they actually met, and even then, it was on the battlefield. Hana liked to stream her battles to the fans that had followed her career as a professional gamer into being an official operative of Overwatch. He was quite the fan of hers beforehand, but she was an amazing tactician, and an even better fighter. He didn’t want to distract her in the middle of the skirmish, but stuck close by in case her or the rest of the team needed a boost. Without Mercy here, they would need him to stick around, and the fan intimidation wasn’t going to keep his teammates alive.
“Oh my god, you guys, you’re right that is Lúcio!” came the call of his name in her recognizable voice. Her streamers must have noticed him zipping around in the background or heard his tunes through the speaker. He turns and regards her and she waves enthusiastically. “Lúcio, yeogi! I’m such a fan! Everyone say ‘hi’ to Lúcio!”
Hearing it come from her was just as great as hearing it from a total stranger, but there’s a swell of pride and joy in his chest since he knew her, just not directly. He waves back at her and she grins widely, blasting off across the map with her mech and entourage of loyal streamers. He can feel his heart beating in time with his music.
Hitting it off as a fast and strong friendship was what kept him going sometimes. She was very straightforward, and any time he felt the weight around him squeezing down, she would pull him aside to play a few rounds of multiplayer with him. She suggested that he co-stream with her. “Most of my friends and fans already love your music, let’s have them get to know you more! You’re so sweet I don’t think there’s anyone who’s anyone that wouldn’t like you for commentary when I stream games. I can get you to play a couple too! There’s plenty of streamers that have—“
He keeps on nodding as she proposes a partnership with him. He says that it sounds great, but he also knew he had a lot of touring to go on over the next few months into January.
“Maybe next year?”
She tells him to promise her.
He swears. And the next year he keeps that promise.
Streaming is a really stressful hobby. The chat stream was always flowing, most of the commentary he had trouble picking up and sometimes it even distracted him from her. She’d tickle his side to get his attention from the chat and he’d practically shriek.
That became almost the community joke over time. Lúcio’s cute giggle.
Overall the feedback was fantastic. They got compared to a couple of American gaming duos, but he had no idea who they were. Spending time with her was really all he cared about. This was quickly becoming one of his most dearest friendships. He asks her if she wants to tour with him. She considers it but there is a lot of competitive tournaments coming up and a gaming expo that she was attending and hosting panels for. She couldn’t do it right now. He says that that’s okay, he wasn’t planning on going on tour until the beginning of April.
“Next year, for sure!”
She keeps her promise. His concerts are more popular than ever. She had her mech painted to match him for the tour and it’s touching to see the frog and bunny next to each other with the tour logo and year. When the lights go down, there’s another coat that glows in the dark. He writes a couple of songs that go great with the maneuvers she shows off in her mech. He has more fun than he’s ever thought was possible. It’s almost sad to see it end. They go back to occasionally having streams together. Sometime he’s late. She calls him out every time.
“And here’s a shout out to Lúcio for being a scrub and late to the party again!”
He laughs a little. “You know I’m sorry, I was getting you that coffee.”
“Everyone, tell Lúcio he’s a scrub for being late!”
The chat stream replies and he glances over at the log and sees the question.
When are you two going to start dating?
The idea of even pursuing that kind of relationship with her put him on edge. She was younger than him. She was very pretty. He didn’t even know if she would like that kind of relationship with him. And he didn’t want to endanger his friendship. It was too important for him. Nothing was ever going to be more important.
“Maybe next year.” He answers without thinking.
“What? I didn’t hear you—Oh, they got me! You distracted me, Lu!”
He makes it up to her by making them lunch.
Hana is usually good with eating except for when she is caught up in her games. Then she tends to just munch on snacks. Old habits instilled in him by his mamãe made him want to make sure she didn’t just eat junk all day. Feijoada is simple enough to make and she seems surprised that he’d so good at cooking. There were no girls in his family, someone had to learn all of the recipes if he wanted to have them while he was on tour.
She says she wants to learn how to make this herself. He says he can do that. She says he’ll have to bring her to visit his hometown. He flounders a little at that idea.
“Maybe next year.”
He makes good on teaching her some of the recipes he learned from his own family, but the visit doesn’t happen. He doesn’t want to be questioned if he is seeing her. The idea of asking her to go steady with him is scratching at the back of his mind now, but he doesn’t follow through on that either. Keeping promises was too difficult when it came to something like this.
It’s been three months since they last were able to see each other. He was working on a new album right around the time that she was prepping for a convention on the east side of the United States. He flies in to go to it as well. He gets in easy because he’s well known for streaming with Hana now. There are actually some people that know him more for his streams with her than his music. He makes sure they know that music is his main squeeze. They ask if Hana is his main squeeze as well.
He doesn’t know.
“When are you going to ask her out?” Asks one fan. How long had her fans been wanting him to ask her? He would have thought that they would be more aggressively protective.
He still doesn’t know.
“Maybe next year.”
It’s good to see Hana again, but he’s afraid to incite questions about their relationship. He’s afraid of how many times she has been asked the same. But he’s never heard her speak a word. She has to have been asked at least once by now, but there’s never been a moment where she has brought it up.
He doesn’t follow through on that promise either. But it doesn’t matter. They wouldn’t remember.
The next year comes around and the call for Overwatch operatives comes again. He’s sent out with her, and sticks close by. Her mech is back to its original color, but she kept the frog label. He fucks up, and ends up in the middle of the line of fire. She loses her mech protecting his hide. She pulls him into an alleyway for cover while she waits for another one to be sent to her.
“After this, we’re going out for lunch together.”
He looks a little confused since eating after a mission was usually what the two of them did, but this was different this time. She puts two fingers together. A couple.
Was she…? His skin gets a little darker with the red hue of a blush and he’s stammering now. He runs his hands over his hair and she waits there patiently for him to come out of the fog and reply to her. How was he even supposed to ask that? He swallows like there is a frog in his throat and manages to reply.
“Are you asking me out?” His voice is practically a squeak in the mix of apprehension and nervousness and just a little bit of hope and joy. “Hana is this really the time—“
“Lu, come on.” There was that look she got. That look when she knew she was in control. He’d never seen a look of cocky determination like that on anyone else. She was going for the push and he was to support. “We’ve known each other for going on five years now. I’ve been patient for a lot longer than I would be if I didn’t really, really like you. Do you want to go on a date or not?” She was really pushing for it. As fearless now as she always was. As much as he admired it, it was putting nervousness in him. He tries to gently push it off, thinking that dodging bullets for real might be less stressful than the one coming right for him.
“Hana, we are gonna get our asses lit up if—“
He can feel Hana tug him down by the front of his shirt and kiss him. He thinks he just felt his heart’s rhythm go into chaos. She smells sweet, and her other hand rubs his chin before pulling away. He’s at a loss for words. This girl. “… we can go on a date, yeah.” He folds like a stack of cards and she looks so pleased to have him this flustered.
“You’ll promise me that it won’t be next year that we talk about this, won’t you?” A little bit of playful singsong wasn’t going to calm him down, but holding his breath makes it a little easier.
He nods.
“Promise.” She points at him and tilts her head. She wanted a promise to make him follow through. For her, he didn’t want to go back on his word.
“I promise.”
That seems to be enough for Hana. The grin on her face is happier than she was at the last tournament she won. He tries to smile too. His heart is back online and going a mile a minute. He touches his burning face to try to bring it down to normal. Her mech arrives, and she jumps back in, her thrusters power up and she looks back at Lúcio. There’s a fire there that even the ocean couldn’t quell.
“Tomorrow, Lu.” She was going to set a date and pull that bandaid. Maybe give him a day’s grace.
“Today.” He decided.