Chapter Text
Hanzo's eyes narrowed as he searched the cafeteria in hopes of finding somewhere to sit. He was supposed to sit with Genji, but his brother was nowhere to be found. Then he spotted someone sitting in the corner by themselves. They looked lonely, and rather oddly dressed in a red poncho and cowboy hat perched on his head. Hanzo shuffled over to them, Converse sneakers squeaking on the tile floor. "Can I sit by you?" Hanzo asked, accent thick. His parents had recently transferred them to America for his father's 'business' and now he was just the weird kid of the school.
The kid looked up at him in shock, then scooted over a little bit to make room. "Uh, yeah, sure. I guess." He didn't sound too sure.
Hanzo held out his hand, hoping he was doing this American customs thing right. "I am Hanzo. Hanzo Shimada."
The other kid gave him a funny look, but shook his hand in return. "Jesse. Jesse uh- McCree."
"Jesse McCree, pleasure to meet you!" Hanzo beamed, and he swore he saw Jesse blush a bit. It was probably just secondhand embarrassment from being seen with the new weird Japanese kid, and his thick accent.
"Preasure?" Jesse mocked his accent.
"Urusai!" Hanzo said, and a few kids turned to look down at them. He felt his face grow hot and he stared down at the revolting food on the tray in his lap.
"Uresay?" He butchered the pronunciation, and it was making Hanzo angry.
"It means shut up." Hanzo said flatly, not looking up from his tray.
Jesse looked a little guilty. "Look, fella, I'm sorry- I didn't mean it like that. I just- I'm not good with people." He mumbled, glazed eyes staring dead ahead.
Hanzo looked over at him, and smiled slightly. "It is okay. Apology accepted."
Jesse looked over, and returned with an even bigger smile. Something caught his eye, though. It looked like Hanzo had a tattoo on his arm. "What's that?" he pointed to the designs.
"Huh? Oh- Just stuff I drew in class. Teacher talk too fast, I got lost." He giggled, and Jesse swore he felt his heart jump. Shit, he wasn't supposed to be doing this. He couldn't get close to anyone, especially not now, now that the cancer was worsening at a rapid rate. Jesse flinched, looking away like he had just witnessed someone jump from a skyscraper. Like a body falling, this was going to be loud, messy, and it was going to hurt.
Hanzo saw him flinch, and just poked at his inedible food, assuming he had done something wrong. Now he felt guilty, this was the closest person he had to a friend and he was already shying away from him.
"Where do you live?" Jesse asked after an awkward period of silence.
"Not too far from here, just down the road."
"Me too, dude!" He smiled and weakly nudged Hanzo with his elbow. "What's your house number?"
Hanzo told him, and Jesse's eyes widened in shock. "I- uh.. Fella, I live right next door. So your family's the one that bought the house?"
Hanzo nodded, smiling gently, both of them jumping when the bell for lunch to end went off. Hanzo immediately threw his styrofoam tray into the trash along with his untouched meal before anyone could get there. "I'll talk to you later!" Jesse called, and got a wave of acknowledgement in reply.
Hanzo's window faced the house next to his, right across from his neighbor's window. He wished he could have a window in the back, facing the open field behind the houses. The sky was just starting turn light blue with cotton candy clouds, and he'd kill to have a view like that.
He was busy with his head down, brain deep in thought on a calculus problem when there was a tapping on his window. He chose to ignore it, until the third tap. That's when he finally looked up, and saw Jesse tossing candies at his closed window. Once he had Hanzo's attention, Jesse motioned for Hanzo to open the window. Hanzo rolled his eyes, and did as motioned. There was no screen separating him from the outside world, his father hadn't gotten around to installing the screens yet, so he leaned out and stage-whispered, "What do you want?"
"Meet me in the field in fifteen minutes! I want to talk to ya!" Jesse almost yelled.
"My parents-" Hanzo said.
"Who cares? Just sneak out your window!"
"But what if they come check on me?" Hanzo questioned.
"Do they usually check on you when you're studying, or do they leave you alone?" Jesse sighed.
"They usually leave me alone.." he hesitated, then nodded, closing his window to get ready. He almost slipped out of his sweats to get back into his jeans, then he remembered how the night air stung against his cheeks and nose, and decided against it. Sweats were always much warmer. He grabbed a heavier jacket out of one of his many unpacked boxes. There were too many boxes in his room, and he hated it. Clutter bothered him, but he was too busy with studying to work on unpacking. Ten minutes after Jesse had told him to get ready, he slipped out the window. Luckily, he was on the first floor and it wouldn't be difficult to get back into his room. He slid the window shut behind him to avoid suspicion, and took out his phone to use as a flashlight.
By the time he reached the barbwire fence, it was getting harder and harder to see. Hanzo slipped between the wires, stopping when he heard a rustling in the tall grass.
"Who's there?" He called out, immediately regretting it. What if it had been an ax-murderer? Luckily, it was just Jesse McCree.
"You made it!" he breathed out, exhilarated.
"Of course, I do not like to leave people hanging."
Jesse grabbed a hold of his hand, and started dragging him through the grass. "There's a place I want to show you." He said, offering no further explanation when questioned.
When shown what he had to sneak out for, Hanzo immediately knew it was worth it. Against the darkening velvet sky that was dotted with clouds, lay an old oak tree with gnarled branches that swooped low to the ground. Underneath the oak tree was lush grass that had spent its life shaded by the oak tree, and fed by the decaying leaves. Hanzo allowed himself to be guided closer to the tree. It was late in the year, so the smell of new leaf decay drifted into the air when the leaves were kicked into the air. It was absolutely stunning, and for this, he knew he'd have to show Jesse a cherry blossom tree in bloom when spring came about.
Jesse stepped on a low laying branch, climbed onto a low hanging branch, and swung his legs back and forth. Hanzo hesitantly joined him, not daring to sit too close, which Jesse seemed to be fine with. Then, the conversation started. At first it was getting to know each other, and where they had came from. Hanzo told his many tales of Japan and its schooling system, while Jesse seemed to be able to counter with an even crazier story of the American schooling system. They both started laughing so hard they nearly fell off the goddamn branch.
Hanzo pulled out his phone and checked the time, squinting against the bright LCD screen. Midnight. He held out the phone to Jesse, showing him the time. Jesse let out a string of profanities, jumped down, and told Hanzo to follow him.
"We gotta get home!" He urged, holding Hanzo's hand again as they ran through the tall grass.
Once back in his room, Hanzo sat down on the edge of his bed, out of breath. Truth be told, he thought he was in love. With a guy. That wasn't normal, but God sue him, he was going to love Jesse till death do them part. He decided it was time to get ready for bed. Following his usually routine of changing into pajamas, brushing his teeth, and reading a chapter of a book in low light, he climbed into bed. He couldn't sleep, though. His brain was going a million miles an hour with thoughts of the boy next door and what had just happened. Hopefully it would be a regular occurrence.
It did. It became tradition for them. They snuck out at 10, and made it back by 12. In the span of those two hours, over the course of a month, they had become best friends. Hanzo admitted he might be gay, and Jesse shrugged it off like he didn't care. He really didn't care, being gay was just something unique about a person, and he always tried to see the best in people. He didn't even flinch when Hanzo started sitting closer and closer to him, eventually sitting right next to him, hands touching ever so slightly. Jesse had even gotten him to promise that he'd stay with him one night till the sky turned blue.
"Can I tell you something?" Hanzo asked, picking at the side of his nail nervously.
Jesse looked over at him, concerned. "Of course, you can tell me anything, dude."
He took a deep breath, leaned in, and kissed Jesse. His heart broke when he got no response besides stunned silence, followed by Jesse hopping off the tree branch. Ouch.
"Where are you going?" Hanzo asked, looking like a kicked puppy.
"I have to go." Jesse stormed off through the grass, leaving Hanzo behind. Hanzo stayed there the entire night, wondering what he had did wrong, until the sky turned orange and then blue like a robin's egg. He slowly slid off the tree branch, trudged home, snuck in through the window, and grabbed his stuff for school. He didn't even stop to grab breakfast, just putting on his shoes, and walking out the door.
Hanzo never heard from Jesse again.