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It was the eleventh hour, Satya was getting cold feet, and Hana was at the end of her rope.
"It's not hard. I've seen you do much harder things without breaking a sweat."
"This is different," Satya said, somehow managing a stately air even when nervously playing with the hard-light emitting from her left palm. "People are different. Especially--"
"Especially when you liiike them?" It was probably mean to be teasing her, but Hana had no patience left. If needling Satya got results, needling it would have to be. "Especially when it's Fareeha?"
"You're making me regret ever asking you for help," Satya said through tight lips, looking away.
"Okay, okay," Hana relented. "I'm sorry. Look, I know you're nervous, but it'll be fine. And when I say you've been through harder--if you can blast a Talon agent's face off from three feet away with your projector, you can definitely deliver a pick-up line."
Satya took a deep breath, seeming to steel herself. "You're right. I can do this."
Hana checked her handheld. In exactly seven minutes, Fareeha Amari would emerge from the doors of the gym adjacent them, done with her workout and heading for the showers, just as she did each morning.
(It really was a match made in heaven, Hana thought.)
And then, just as they'd practiced, Satya would flawlessly deliver her line, Pharah would respond positively, and they'd set a date for Friday. Yes. Another easy win for D.Va.
Or, at least, it should have been, had someone not been getting nervous.
"Okay. Let's run through it again. I'm Pharah."
"All right." Satya concentrated, then donned a look of artificial surprise. "Oh, Captain Amari! I like--"
"No, no. No Captain Amari. Pharah or Fareeha. Informal. You're flirting, not attending a military briefing."
"It seems...so rude."
"Ugh, Satya! She'll love it; trust me. Nobody else calls her Captain Amari. You think we're all being rude too?"
Satya's expression said, "Yes, absolutely, very much so," but outwardly she only pursed her lips.
"'Hello, Fareeha,' then."
"Okay...?" Hana said, leaning forward, egging her on.
"I like--" Satya stopped, shook her head, and then continued, a look of disproportionate intensity crossing her face. "I like your guns."
"There you go," Hana said, deciding that now was probably not the best time to critique Satya's form. It was important to optimize morale.
"But what if she doesn't know what it means? What if she thinks it's...crass?"
"It's too late to worry about that now. Look, she'll get it, and she'll like it. I swear. If she doesn't, you can blame me."
(A promise she might regret making later, but, well. That was Later Hana's problem.)
Satya opened her mouth, but before she had the chance to say whatever she'd been about to say, the reinforced glass doors of the gym slid open, revealing their target herself. Fareeha's hair was pulled back, her workout clothing was slightly damp, and sweat gleamed on her skin.
Hana thought it was something of a miracle that that alone wasn't enough to quash Satya's interest.
Fareeha looked surprised to see the two of them lurking outside, but in typical form she recovered quickly.
"Hana, Satya. What are you doing out here?"
Hana gave Satya a meaningful look, but the woman seemed to have been overtaken by the sort of paralyzing fear typically associated with the imminent possibility of death. Her mouth was silently moving, her eyes were wide, and it seemed unlikely she would recover immediately.
"Hey, Fareeha, you know, yesterday I was watching Jack on the practice range," Hana said, attempting to divert attention from Satya's current predicament. "I think he was trying to beat your records with those helix rockets of his, but he didn't even come close."
"That's—"
"And then at my livestream last night, someone accused me of hacking. Me! How petty can you get? I can sleep at night knowing that I've never even thought about using an aimbot in my life, and that idiot has to live with himself, knowing he got told to git gud by D.Va—"
"Hana," Fareeha interrupted firmly, "I would love to chat, but I'm in something of a hurry." And then she was throwing her towel over her shoulder and heading for the showers. Satya was still chewing her lip, looking panicked, and Hana threw caution to the winds.
"Wait! Satya has something she wanted to tell you."
Fareeha paused and looked back. Satya managed to send quite a vicious look Hana's direction before she seemed to pull herself together. She straightened, clasped her hands behind her back, and stared at Pharah with utmost seriousness.
"Er, what is it?" Fareeha asked.
"Captain F—Amari," Satya said. "I like—I like—"
Here it comes. Hana leaned forward in her perch on the windowsill. It had looked grim there for a few moments, but Satya was righting the ship.
"I—admire your dedication to justice and the protection of innocents."
Hana herself couldn't say whether the noise that escaped her mouth was a hysterical laugh or a groan of despair. Probably it was somewhere between the two.
When she managed to sit up straight once more, she saw Fareeha wearing a puzzled but not entirely displeased expression. Satya, for her part, had gone utterly stiff once more.
"Well...thank you?" Fareeha said, and seemed to decide on pleased. She smiled, then turned and disappeared down the hall toward the locker rooms.
When she was gone, Satya collapsed (rather dramatically, Hana thought) onto a conveniently-produced hard-light stool and buried her face in her hands.
"What happened? We practiced!" Hana slid off the windowsill and paced in circles.
"Never mind. I'm sorry for wasting your time, Hana," Satya mumbled into her palms. "I am clearly a lost cause."
Immediately, she felt bad. "No, no. Come on. At least you said something, right? And she smiled, so it's not like she was totally weirded out or anything."
"You're just saying that to make me feel better."
"Wrong! Hey, the Satya I know doesn't give up like that. Show her what you're made of. It can only go up from here, right?"
Satya lifted her head, considered, and then nodded. Her face steeled.
"Yes. I can only go up from here."
At dinner that night, Hana was sitting at her table and poking at her food, waiting for the others to join her. As Satya approached, Fareeha walked behind her and seemed to murmur something. Satya's lips parted, her mouth curling into a smile that she was obviously trying very hard to suppress. She looked back to respond, but Fareeha was already sitting down, a private smile adorning her own features.
Satya's shy grin remained as she sat down across from Hana.
"What did she say?"
"She said nothing."
"Satyyyya. Come on!"
"This is neither the time nor the place."
"I'm your wingman! You have to tell me."
Satya merely pursed her lips primly and began eating.
It took a full half-hour to finally whine and plead and coax the answer out of her, but at last Satya tired of Hana's inexhaustible energy and told her.
"She said, 'I find your love of order very attractive as well.'" She smiled while recounting it, seemingly unable to resist.
"Yes!" Hana let out a gleeful shout and punched the air, earning a reproachful look from Hanzo at the next table. "It worked! It worked!"
"I suppose it did," Satya allowed, resuming eating.