Dark Horse

by Guachenim

Summary:

It all started with a racehorse.

Hanzo and Cole had never thought that their lives would intersect because of a young black stallion named Reaper, but after an incident at the Ranch Blackwatch - which Shimada had to attend to - the past both on the horse and that of the two young men comes the fore.

The horse who almost killed many of their owners will be the reason why Cassidy founds his reason to live.

Notes:

Hello there and wellcome to my first Overwatch - and English! - work!
English it's not my first language, so I'm sorry for eventual mistakes, I'm trying to make this a nice experience for everyone... The title is a Katy Perry's reference, but it's nothing alike the song, I swear.
So, have a nice week and enjoy the reading!

Chapter 1: All Started With a Racehorse

It all started with a racehorse. 

Hanzo knew he wasn't just any racehorse as soon as he saw the huge animal with blue-black fur came in, neighing and kicking almost everyone in his way until they managed to restrain him with the ropes they had brought, they needed at least three big men to be able to contain the creature. The Japanese had never seen such a strong animal in their lives. The pen where the horse was contained was a joke compared to how far he had run before they managed to arrest him, he managed to run from the cops and cowboys for at least four hours until Morrison's men managed to get him back. corner-it near a stream that he was only unable to cross because the patrol truck was already parked there. The horse's name was Reaper, and he was known for his less than heroic deeds. Hanzo was afraid of horses and just by seeing Reaper's eyes, he understood why everyone feared the animal and why the name was so absurd. 

His brother almost died because of a horse and his recklessness a few years ago, for letting Genji compete in that damn rodeo, but what was done was done, and he couldn't change the past - wise words from Lady Amari, the boss general department, second only to the delegate. He knew that the horse attacked a man before running away, he didn't even want to see the poor guy's face. 

“If one of the brutes touched an inch of my horse, I'll make you regret it!” shouted a man getting out of the passenger side of an old pickup truck, he was holding a cloth in front of his nose and blood was dripping from it. 

“Take it easy, pendejo, you just got headbutted by that beast and want to get slapped by the police officer?” said a man in a cap, getting down from the driver's seat, Hanzo recognized him as Gabriel Reyes, owner of a horse farm. 

The horse farm where the call came from that Reaper had fled. 

“I don't care, it's my horse and you're going to leave it alone!” growled at the youngest, he had a full beard and medium chocolate hair. Hanzo couldn't deny that he didn't look even a little attractive. 

“Cole, that’s enough, to the car! I told you it was a bad idea to buy this bastard, now you deal with it like an adult!” shouted the oldest, Gabriel sighed tiredly and pulled his goatee down as if he was going to rip it off “I'm sorry to involve you in this, kiddo, it's not your fault.” 

It took the Japanese a few seconds to realize that they were talking to him. 

“You have nothing to apologize for, Mr. Reyes, we are used to this type of approach” Hanzo said with just a brief wave “They caught him near the stream, but we need brute force to convince him to come with us.” 

“This demon is still going to kill someone, I say this from myself” said the dark-skinned man, pointing to the scar above his nose and on the side of his cheek “Cole is lucky to have been hit by the head and not by the hooves.” 

“Cole?” he looked in the direction of the truck, the man with long hair, he remembered Reyes calling him that “So he was the devil's victim.” 

“Yes, if I were to bet on who was the most stubborn, I wouldn't know who to put my chips on, they're both strong-headed beasts” sighed the Afro-Latino, staring at the animal still kicking and kicking in the air furiously. Morrison still hadn't shown his face until he appeared at the police station door. 

“Gabe? I thought I was going to send one of the kids to come get this pest,” Chief Morrison asked, his hands casually stuffed in his pockets as he walked towards the two. 

“And miss the chance to see firsthand the bastard who almost left me drinking soup through a straw for a month locked up like a criminal? No, no way” he laughed humorlessly, crossing his arms “He headbutted Cole before running away.” 

“So that was it” said the Chief, shaking his head in disbelief “He should give up, he's a goner.” 

“You know who the kid takes after, if it weren't a lost cause he wouldn't be so stubborn” he said with a smirk “Besides, it's kind of difficult for him, a year and a half of trial and error and he still just lets Cole get closer.” 

“Did you just come for the horse?” he asked, moving away from the fence when he saw Cole reversing the horse trailer into the pen. 

“Of course you do, you don't need to be so suspicious of everything, cariño” he said before a slap reverberated, catching the attention of everyone around, they could only see Chief Morrison's face turning crimson red and his expression of mortification and anger bubbling over behind his shades. 

“Gabriel, I'm on duty here,” Jack growled through his teeth, hands fisted at his sides, Reyes raising his hands in surrender. 

“I didn't do anything” he said, getting into the truck and pushing Cole out. “Come on, boy, put him in the trailer and let's go home,” the older man ordered. 

Cole got out of the truck without contesting, went to the tiny pen where the horse was trapped and jumped over the fence, Hanzo could hear the buzz among his colleagues watching the scene and could clearly hear Zarya and Reinhardt betting on what the horse would do this time, the woman betting twenty dollars that Reaper would headbutt Cole again while the man bet double that the stallion would kick him and bring him to his knees until help arrived. But surprisingly, Cole just held out his arms and waited for the horse to come to him. 

“Did those bad guys do something to you, champ?” he asked, reaching out his hand to touch his snout, Reaper reluctantly accepted that Cole touched his snout and bit his fingers “No, you know that hurts, no biting.” 

The horse snorted and pushed Cole's hand away, climbing into the trailer on its own. Hanzo approached his colleagues. 

“You owe me sixty” he said while the two looked at each other in disbelief, Hanzo shrugged “Nobody bet that nothing would happen.” 

“Smartass,” she said. Zaryanova gives Hanzo a twenty.

Once he had half his body in tow, Reaper reached out to kick Cole in the knee, but the cowboy dodged just in time. 

“You piece of shit! I should have let them make soap out of you! Ungrateful!” Cole cursed, Hanzo swore he heard the horse snort a laugh. 

Once the trailer was closed and Reaper was safe — but not happy — Cole climbed back into the truck and Deputy Morrison went to talk to Gabriel Reyes at the cab window. 

“You didn't come here just for the horse” he accused with a tone of anger in his voice. 

“Of course not, I love seeing my husband wearing a uniform and pretending to be the toughest guy in town in front of the kids,” said Reyes, craning his neck towards the Chief, Jack interrupting before he could accomplish his objective. 

“At home we talk” he said in the darkest possible tone and returned to the police station. 

Hanzo just shook his head in disbelief, it wasn't a secret to anyone that Morrison was married and to whom, but the Chief always maintained a very professional posture when he was at work and this was mainly to maintain respect among his subordinates, and considering where they lived, it was better for him to maintain this posture so that no one would disrespect him — even though that was a little wrong in the Japanese’s mind. 

•  

Cole was a cowboy for as long as he could remember. 

He was practically born on top of the horses on Reyes' ranch, yes, the same Gabriel Reyes who was now married to Chief Morrison. Before he had a wife, Miranda, Cole's mother, she was of Mexican descent with an American name and that's what Cole basically knows about his mother's past, she was a good-natured woman who never got involved with anything dangerous — very different from the problem child. She passed away many years ago when Cole he was still a very irresponsible pre-teen and much more stubborn than he was today — although it was still very much so — he remembers his mother taking him back and forth on a horse long before he started walking, The time she left was difficult and he knew he had been a thorn in his father's side in his grief. 

The thing that brought them together was Miranda and she was no longer there to calm their nerves. 

But when Gabriel called him to say he had met a man and that he wanted to start his life over again, Cole was surprised. First because his father and he practically spilled stuff that had been buried for years in that call at the same time, second because he was really surprised that Gabe called him while he was in another city, a long way from Santa Fe, and third... well, third because he was calling to tell him that he was getting married again, of all the things he was hoping for, that wasn't one of them. 

“The new kid kept staring at you” Reyes said, Cole laughed, crossing his arms “Jack said he came to town because of his brother, he had an accident not long ago.” 

“I've never seen him in town before,” he said. Cole takes a cigarette from his pocket, Gabriel giving him a disapproving look “Don't look at me like that, I'm too old to do that without you scolding me.” He puts the cigarette in his mouth, but Reyes slaps him on the back of the head, making him spit. 

“I don't mind you doing that, but not in my car” he said with a growl, Cole grunting and bending down to pick up the cigarette from under the seat where he had fallen “And besides, later Jack will think it was me and he’s going to spend half an hour scolding me about this.” 

“All right!” Cassidy raised her hands up in surrender “I don't do it in the car anymore, but for God's sake, I'm an adult!” 

“And you still live under my roof” said Reyes, driving with his arm out, enjoying the warm air inside “Back to the subject…” 

“Yes, he's interesting,” said Cole, throwing his shoulders back in the car seat. “But he's from the police, and you know about my past as a juvenile delinquent more than anyone” replied the brunette, losing it when Gabe rolled his eyes. 

“I was going to say he's from a rich family, or at least he was before he moved here with his sick brother, Jack told me they kicked them out of the house” the atmosphere in the truck suddenly gets heavy “Something very serious happened and he doesn't like to talk about it, maybe you know his brother.” 

“I don't know, maybe if you give me names” Reyes rolls his eyes up and down, clearly wondering if he even knew their names. “Let me guess, don't you know or are you so old that you started having memory problems too?” Cole asked mockingly, Gabriel pinching his arm in retaliation. 

The pained sound that escaped Cole's lips was the last thing either of them said until they arrived at the horse farm fifteen minutes later. 

Blackwatch Ranch was definitely the kind of place you'd expect to find Cole: endless areas of grass and lots of paddocks and stables housing at least half a hundred horses — at full capacity; the first thing you saw when you entered the side road were fields on both sides of the road leading to the large white wooden house with two floors and an attic where Reyes and Morrison had lived for some years, they also had a huge pavilion that served as a dining room for employees just on the side a few meters from the house and a large red barn in the background, a stable was at the back of the property along with the paddocks and an extensive grassy area. They were all low buildings and painted white with the exception of the barn and the main house, the typical air of western films made Cole feel even more in his natural habitat than in the city and he let himself hang out of the window absorbing the heat. and summer air humidity. 

“Thank God, I thought they would never get back with the damn bastard,” said a short boy with disheveled hair and lots of freckles on his face, he smiled smugly when Cassidy got out of the truck. 

“Don't call him a bastard, you bastard!” provoked the older man, the boy approached Cole, now the evidence of the height difference between them becoming stronger “Help me put him with the others, Grace, the sooner we finish this here the sooner we'll be in Orisa’s!” sang the older one excitedly, Grace soon disappearing to get Reaper's harness. 

“Are you going out tonight?” Reyes asked curiously, Cole just shrugged. 

“Today is Friday, it's boys' night, as we always do” said the youngest as if it were something commonplace. 

In fact, it happened quite often, but Grace had only recently gained the legal right to drink and go to a bar and they decided to start with Orisa, a kind owner who would let them stay there until closing time if they promised not to cause trouble. However, the habit had been going on for a long time. 

Forrest Grace and Cole Cassidy had known each other for a little over three years, when Cassidy answered the door and a short, disheveled and dirty boy was at the door asking for a job with lots of suitcases in his hands, the boy had recently been kicked out of home and was looking for a place to stay in exchange for working until his first salary and being able to rent a room in the city. One thing led to another and he ended up convincing Gabe to hire the young man to work with the horses in exchange for sleeping in the attic, until he discovered what led to Grace's expulsion from the house. 

It had all started well, like any normal day you would expect when you work on a farm and have a routine of heavy manual labor like what Grace and Cassidy were used to doing, the boy might have been as short as a beagle, but when it came to of physical strength, he was even stronger than Reyes himself — and this still caused Cole a great surprise. Despite this, the incident hadn't been about the hardest job, in fact, it was about a more “simple” one: helping Cassidy with Reaper. Things were going well until Cole tried to convince Forrest to ride Reaper once he was calm and not kicking the air and jumping like he usually was, the plan was pretty simple, Cole would calm the stallion while Grace waited patiently perched on the fence and mounted when he was close enough to reach the leg. 

Grace was thrown sixteen feet beyond their position and ended up with a serious concussion that left him in the hospital for days. 

That wasn't what caught Cole, Gabe and Jack by surprise, but rather when Doctor Angela Ziegler appeared in the hallway to give them the news that “she” was going to be okay. The three almost made her laugh out loud, followed by millions of apologies from Ziegler when she realized she had wrongly measured her patient's gender based on his identity documents — and when she learned he was a transgender boy, all the pieces fit together for everyone. None of the three even thought about reprimanding Grace for hiding this from them, for Cassidy, the idea never even crossed his mind, it only explained some of his more strange mannerisms. 

“Hey, Cassidy!” shouted the youngest, appearing back with the harness in his hands and waving them in the air “Hurry up! I don't want to be late for tonight!” 

•  

The rest of that day had been pretty calm after the incident with Reaper, but Grace and Cole had missed a lot of the day because of the horse, so they had to run. They fed the horses and changed every bucket and tub of water they had for each of them, checked on the seniors, paid attention to the colts and newbies, especially Soldier — a veteran white-coated horse they both secretly called “Jack Junior” behind Gabriel's back — it was the fun part of the job when they had to name or give temporary nicknames to each of them, even though Gabe had a pretty strict rule about not naming the horses. 

“If you name it, you stick with it,” said old Reyes. 

Obviously the two reckless boys ignored this rule to the letter. 

“So we have Mercy, Pharah, Soldier, Junker, Roadie, Sombra, old Winston and Tracer” said Grace pointing to a white mare, a brown mare with a dark mane, the white horse, a pair of light and dark beige horses that lived together, a young brown mare, an elderly black horse with white dappling, and a young brown foal. 

He crossed off all the names on the list on the clipboard as he went through the stalls one by one. 

“And don't forget Sparrow, you always forget the poor thing and he loves you!” Cassidy protested, the gray horse with a black mane raised his head from where he was lying as if recognizing his name. 

“Oh, it's true! I'm sorry, sir!” said Grace, pretending to take off his hat to the animal, who responded with a snort “If everyone is settled, then we can go now” said the younger of the two, Cole was waiting for him to go through the door to close the stable. 

There was only one horse left to check before they could go to the bar, the only one that didn't sleep in the stables for obvious reasons. 

Cassidy whistled, calling Reaper to the fence and climbed onto it to get taller — as if he really needed to with his six-foot height — and let the black stallion approach him first, if there was anything he had learned in these years The one who looked after Reaper was that he should always let the horse take the first step, he arrogantly trotted towards Cole and stopped to analyze him as the man sat on the fence with his legs to the inside. The cowboy had an apple he was playing with in his hands and gently held it out to the horse, the animal's suspicious look didn't go unnoticed before he took it and gently nibbled on Cole's fingers. 

“I shouldn't have, but I felt sorry for you” said Cole, the stallion snorting as if laughing at him “You're the worst horse in the world, but I love you” he said rubbing his chin, Reaper neighed and pushed Cassidy's hand away, laying his head against his chest. 

“I hope he eats your hand one day, I would laugh like it was the time of my life” said Grace further away from the fence, Cole laughed low and serious. 

“You only resent him because he kicked you out,” Cole said, scratching the horse's head, rubbing its mane. 

“No, I resent him because he almost cracked my skull in two, but believe what you want” Grace replied in a joking-not-so-joking tone “I'm going to take the shower, if you don't mind, I don't want to get there smelling like an abandoned, stinky barn.” 

“Go ahead, just leave some hot water for me, Grace” said Cole, watching the boy head straight home, the stuffy night air clinging the sweat even more to his skin from the hard day “And you, try to behave better.” 

The horse snorted in response as if rejecting everything Cole was asking of him. 

“Don't act like that, you know they're going to sell you if I don't get you to behave like the others and Gabe is going to kill me if I don't fix you, sweetheart” said Cassidy, rubbing the horse's nose, feeling that he was now with the whole nose pressed against his chest “I know you can be good, you just need a little push.” 

As if to thwart him, Reaper pushed his head against Cole's chest and knocked him off the fence straight onto his back with a thud that kicked up a lot of dust from the soft ground where he fell. Inside the house it was possible to hear the bang. 

“What was that?” Gabriel asked from his armchair in the living room while Grace went up the stairs to get to the bathroom before Cole ran out of all the hot water, the younger man shrugged. 

“Probably just Cole and Reaper being Cole and Reaper” Forrest said smiling, he scratched the sweat on his neck “We're going to get ready.” 

“Okay, just don't cause any problem” Gabriel asked, looking out the window to find Cole on his back on the ground, seeming to be laughing and the horse on the other side of the fence doing a party of jumping and snorting as if he was also having fun. 

The man was still breathing between laughs when he looked at the enclosure and smiled. 

“You're the worst, an idiot, but I still love you,” he said in an affectionate curse, Reaper snorting and stopping jumping in response as Cassidy got up to dust himself off, at least the horse had the decency to throw him on soft ground. 

Cole started to walk away and took his dusty hat off his head to shake the dirt off of it. He would have to remove the rest of it with a wet cloth if he wanted to wear it to the bar today and something told him he should. Maybe he would end up meeting someone interesting tonight — maybe even the mysterious man who was working with his stepfather at the police station — but he thought it unlikely that anyone would pay any attention to him considering his last attempt at a relationship, for God's sake, had been years ago and Lizzie still trying to stick with him for anything in the world. He just hoped he wouldn't bump into her at the bar tonight. 

He went upstairs and started looking for something simple and clean in his closet that he could use. It was boys' night out but that didn't mean Cole and Grace couldn't take the chance if someone gave them the chance. Cole chose light jeans with some wear in the back pockets, a white t-shirt and a red plaid shirt, that and his boots and hat would at least not look out of place, he knew his brother would wear something similar. A few minutes later, Grace appeared at Cole's door, his hair tied up in a ponytail that looked haphazardly done in his thick, messy hair and a green plaid shirt with dark pants and a pair of leather combat boots. 

“Where is the Pearl Jam convention?” Cassidy asked ironically, Grace giving him the middle finger. 

“I came to see if it was ready, we're late” he said, tapping his wristwatch. Cole suspected that the thing was very old after realizing that the protagonist of Stranger Things wore one of those. 

“I'm coming, just a second” he said, taking the bottle of cologne and sneezing it on his neck, then turning to Grace and sneezing in his direction, “Okay, we can go.” 

“Eeeew! We can't use the same perfume! They'll think we're a couple.” complained the youngest, fanning the perfume away with his shirt. 

“And what's the problem with that?” laughed Cassidy. 

“This ruins my chances, even more so since I would never have anything with you” said the smaller boy teasing him, his green eyes practically closed, they were so narrow and accusatory, and an offended pout. 

“A “no” would have been enough, Forrest” Cole said, taking the keys to his own truck from the jar on top of the dresser. 

•  

Orisa's bar, or “Idina”, was the meeting point for many of the city's people, especially on a Friday night and this could be interpreted in two ways: as for Cole, it was the best time of the week, where he just sat with his friends drinking a few good shots of Bourbon and Jack while they told jokes and ridiculous stories from their high school days; or like for Hanzo, it was the worst time of the week, it was the rhythm of Friday nights that dictated whether the weekend would be busy or quiet depending on how many bar fights occurred that night. The Japanese was not on duty, but he was also very alert for any confusion that was happening in the bar and he could intervene. 

He'd had a rough day with that damn horse. 

It wasn't long ago that he sent some messages to see how his younger brother was doing, from what he had heard, Genji was very promising about moving around on his own again and was already taking his first steps without the aid of crutches thanks to the efforts of the medical staff at the local hospital, Hanzo would send them a treat later this week in gratitude. He was drinking a glass of wine as he sat alone in the darkest corner of the bar before noticing a pair enter and then take the vinyl stools directly in front of the door, completely on the opposite side of the bar from him and the relatively full bar. He recognized the tall boy with the cowboy hat as the same one from the horse earlier, but he didn't remember seeing the smaller one before. They couldn't see Hanzo from the benches at the counter where they sat, but Hanzo could see them from the booth. 

As soon as Cole reached the counter, he elbowed him in, using his cheap charm to smile at the owner, a heavy-set black woman serving drinks just behind the counter. 

“Hey, Ori!” Cole greeted, over the loud music. 

“Cole” she greeted back, cleaning the glasses. She wore a yellow and green striped turban that night. 

“We want something lighter to start today, can you get us some beers?” he asked, almost singing, Hanzo took a sip of his drink while observing the man at the counter. 

“I want your friend's id, I'm still not convinced” she said about the other boy, Hanzo raised an eyebrow hearing this, the other boy getting up and handing the wallet to Orisa to look at once again “Okay, here they are, but I'm warning you to stay out of trouble.” 

Cole gave an offended snort, taking the two bottles from the counter and handing one to Grace. 

“Why did everyone decide to tell me this today? When did I do something?” asked Cassidy, still in front of the counter, Orisa just crossed her thick arms over each other in front of her robust chest and raised her eyebrows in a silent question “Really?” 

“Cassidy, I've known you since you were smaller than this counter” said the woman in a threat, Grace took a long drink from his bottle. 

“Come on, cowboy, let's just drink and talk” said the smaller one, pulling him after seeing that Cole and her were still arguing for hours about how he wasn't a troublemaker at all and just proving that he really was one. 

The sound of Bad Moon Rising playing lively in the bar made Cole tap his feet to the rhythm of the music, both boys enjoying the music and occasionally taking the risk of following along with the chorus that rocked the start of the night. Cole calmly drank his bottle of beer while thinking about something. 

“What’s wrong?” Grace asked curiously, Cole wasn't used to being so quiet, especially at the bar. 

“I don't know, it seems like there's someone watching us,” said Cassidy, looking around the bar, but finding no one, Hanzo sighing with relief at being in the booth and not at the tables. 

“It must be just your imagination, maybe someone is just looking at us without really watching us,” said Grace, immediately taking a menu from the stand and quickly looking over everything as if he had already memorized it. 

“I'm still thinking a lot about what Gabe said” sighed the one with brown eyes, leaning on the counter. 

“What was it this time?” Grace asked curiously, but without taking his eyes off the menu or his mouth from the rim of the bottle. 

“He said something about a new guy, one of Jack's men” he mumbled thoughtfully, his eyebrows furrowed and his lips stretching into a thin line. 

“What does your stepfather have to do with this?” Grace asked, now looking up from the menu to properly look at Cassidy. 

“It has nothing to do with him, it has to do with a new police officer” he explained more specifically “Gabe said the guy wouldn't stop staring at me” Cole said. 

“Maybe he knows you from the records” laughed Forrest, taking another sip of his beer, slowly letting the liquid go down his throat. 

“No, he's one of the new ones, really new, I've never seen him around here” said Cassidy “Gabe said he recently moved in with his brother.”

“So he thought you were pretty, the poor guy needs glasses!” laughed the youngest, Cole rolling his eyes at the comment “So, do you have anywhere to start looking for him? A name?” Cassidy's frustrated groan reverberated across the counter top as he leaned over her. 

“No,” he replied. 

“Wait, “no”? Don't you know his name?” asked Grace, surprised. 

The second groan of frustration followed by a muffled denial was enough of a response for Grace to understand that the older man was really stuck in a dead end and without any information that would lead him to that police officer, they still drank and enjoyed the music. However, a group of apparently familiar men entered the bar at that time and crowded into the booth directly in front of the two boys' spots. From where he was, Hanzo could notice the complete change in the duo's posture and body language. Cole and Grace were more rigid and silent, which was completely different from their calm and relaxed posture just moments ago. 

When Cole thought it was a good idea to get a new drink Hanzo managed to see a thin, well-dressed man follow him to the counter and lean arrogantly next to the cowboy. 

“Wow, Orisa, your establishment used to be better attended” he said with disdain, the man wore his hair methodically combed back and it was very well polished with a type of wax to keep it in place “If you start accepting these types of people here, how will your business continue?” 

Hanzo noticed that Orisa just looked up to meet Cassidy's dark eyes, she dropped the new round of beers on the counter while Grace remains still, Cole looked ready to respond when Orisa pointed at the two. 

“Maximillien, why don't you take care of yourself?” she asked the man in the suit uncomfortably “And I'm only going to warn you once, I think it's a good idea for you to control yourselves and not get into a fight here” she said sternly and looking at Cole and Maximillien equally irritated “That goes for both.” 

Cole let the air out in a growl from his mouth, Grace just took another sip of his drink in absolute silence as Maximillien made himself comfortable and crossed his legs over each other sitting on the vinyl bench. 

“Well, Ori, I was just worried about your image in business, it's not good that you start accepting to receive these people here, some fags, some Mexicans” he directed his gaze specifically at Grace “And Daddy Reyes' dyke little daughter.”

“ Dyke little daughter your ass, Maximillien!” Grace shouted, standing up abruptly, knocking over the stool. 

“Boys!” Orisa called, seeing that the situation was escalating too quickly. 

“But it's the truth! Look, if you start accepting these types of people in your bar, can you imagine the type of diseases they could spread? Imagine if they closed the place? What kind of company do you hope Effi keeps?” he asked provocatively, he takes a peanut and throws it on Cole's lap “Come on, Mexican fagot, we want to sit there.” 

In the tiniest second, the taller one stood up abruptly, his dark eyes filled with immeasurable fury as he grabbed Maximillien by the collar of his shirt and Cole pushed him against the counter, the man's blue eyes widened when he realized that Cassidy looked much smaller than he really was when he was sitting and leaning over the counter, Hanzo knew where it would end if he didn't intervene, so he finished his drink and sighed tiredly. 

“Repeat, come on! Repeat what you said about my brother, you son of a bitch!” Cole shouted, shaking the blue-eyed man when he felt a hand grab his back and take him off Maximillien. 

The man was one of his security guards and he punched Cole in the nose, one that made him stagger back and gave the skinny guy the chance to free himself from Cassidy's hands, the cowboy blinked a few times before growling and charging at the man. The two threw punches at each other before two more joined the fight. 

And then there was a gunshot and everyone stopped, throwing themselves on the ground. 

“Police! You are all detained!” Hanzo shouted, gun in the air and badge in his hand. 

Cole was really in trouble now. 

Chapter 2: Sometimes the things are unfair

Notes:

Hello there!
I was thinking about to publish a little earlyer this time 'cause I had prepared this chapter sometime ago, but I'm translating everything of my original idiom, so I am thinking if you want to see weekly updates or something like this...
I need to warn you that haves some transphobia here too, because Max is really an asshole
This tittle is a inner reference about a thing that my father usually says to me:
"Some things are right, but doesn't mean they are fair"
So, thanks for kudos and be wellcome to leave a feedback if you are liking this!

It was around eleven when Hanzo arrived at the police station with the five men in tow in the vehicles that had responded to the call, this time Fareeha and Zaryanova were the ones driving the police cars and — to be safe — Hanzo drove his car with Cole and Grace in the back seat, the youngest looking the most shaken by being taken by the police while Cole seemed impassive, livid, without even a smile. The police were called by Orisa herself moments after Hanzo fired the only shot to scare the brawlers and five minutes later they were all handcuffed to the wall outside the bar and having their documents collected, and as only Cole and the security guards were physically involved in the fight, they were the only ones taken away in handcuffs. 

This was starting to wear on his nerves, he saw everything, Maximillien said really criminal things, but there wasn't much that could be done about it, even if Hanzo recorded the incident no one wanted to testify against him because of the money; As long as Maximillien had money to pay bail and lawyers to get him out of this kind of trouble, he would be below the radar. 

The night shift employees — actually there weren't that many, just a few officers and a janitor — wandered around calmly while the three members of the police arrived with the troublemakers and the oldest Amari, Ana, Fareeha's mother and responsible for the police station while Morrison wasn't. was there, welcomed them as soon as they entered the building. 

“I should be more surprised to see you here, young man” said Ana in an affectionate but reprimanding voice, Cole could only shrug his shoulders with his hands cuffed “What did he do this time, dear?” he asked, addressing Hanzo while Fareeha and Zarya carried the men to the cells. 

“Bar fight” he said tiredly, unbuttoning his shirt one more button and rolling up his sleeves.

“In my defense, I was being provoked,” Cole replied, his voice deep. 

“Oh, again?” Ana moaned, Cassidy smiled awkwardly as he was taken by Zarya “Oh my… Jack only arrives in the morning, so most likely they'll have to stay here waiting for him to arrive.” 

Hanzo nodded, only then remembering something, Forrest was still at the door, afraid to enter or leave, the Japanese wasn't sure which of the two options was the correct one to say. 

“I also had to bring a witness,” said Hanzo, not knowing whether to use the word victim , leaving Ana's field of vision, with his hands on the waist of the black suit pants he was wearing. 

Ana gave a bright smile before calling the boy closer. 

“Hello, habibi, how are you?” he asked, looking directly at Grace, the boy gave a small wave “You look scared, darling, come on, let's put you in a warm blanket and a mug of coffee.” 

“Thank you, Aunt Ana” he replied more calmly, Hanzo placed a hand on his shoulder to guide him with them. 

Ana took him to the break room and rummaged through the cupboards for a moment before grabbing coffee and paper filters to put in the coffee maker, the youngest and smallest of the three seeming to shake even more and only then did Hanzo realize that he was crying softly. 

“You… Huh, are you okay?” asked the Japanese man a little nervously, he was not used to dealing with this type of situation, comforting a victim or witness was far from his skills. 

“Oh, he's just a little scared, aren’t you, darling?” Ana asked, preparing and turning on the coffee maker. 

“He said really horrible things to us, Aunt Ana, really, really bad things” he said in a broken voice, the oldest didn't know what to do now, Ana gave him a hint with her look and pointed to a blanket with them. 

The Japanese man grabbed the fluffy brown blanket that was next to him on the couch and gently placed it around Grace's shoulders, the younger seeming to give in almost instantly at the comfort he provided, he looked at Hanzo for a moment before smiling. 

“Better that way? I know it doesn't solve what he said, but…” Hanzo awkwardly scratched his goatee, Grace nodded. 

“Thanks, I guess” he murmured, still calming down, Ana waited for the coffee maker to fill up and handed him a mug of fresh, hot coffee. 

“Do you think you can tell us something now or do you want to wait until you calm down?” asked Hanzo, the boy giving a negative shake of his head “Okay, we still have a lot of time for this, what's your name?” he asked as gently as his voice could be. 

“Grace, Forrest Grace,” he said in a low voice. 

“Shimada, Hanzo Shimada” he said, extending his hand, smiling a little so as not to scare him, Grace shook his hand, the boy took a sip of coffee and placed the mug against his cheek to comfort himself a little “I'm sorry for what was there.” 

“Don't be sorry, Cole is an idiot, but a good idiot” he replied with a small forced smile. 

“Your older brother?” Hanzo asked, Grace nodded. 

“Yes, we are very close” admitted the youngest, leaning back and leaning his back completely against the back of the sofa, Hanzo thought that perhaps human comfort would help him. 

“He's quite protective of you, I suppose” he said, Grace nodding, Hanzo's limited ability to bring up some comfortable topic quickly running out “I also have a younger brother.” 

“So you understand why he defended me, don't you?” he asked in a choked voice, as if the words were too thick and stuck in his throat. 

“Actually, yes and no, Genji was always the one who picked the fights and I was the one who had to scold him for it” laughed Hanzo, Forrest following the laugh. 

“It looks a lot like Cole” Grace's expression was still droopy, a tremor in his shoulders suggested that he wouldn't stop crying anytime soon “It's just that they're always threatening, swearing, it's not the first or the last every time they tell me things like that.” 

Now Hanzo was confused, he tried to replay the entire fight in his head and knew there was something in the words Maximillien used to speak to Grace… he was addressing him by a female. 

“What kind of things? If you want to tell me?” he asked, genuinely curious and worried, Grace took another sip of coffee and placed the cup against his head, sobbing. 

“They… they call me a dyke, a fag, a queer, so many “she”s and “her”s that I stopped counting, Cole already…” another sob “Cole already is tired of repeating that if anyone else talks to me like that, he will punch them, but they never stop.” 

Hanzo's confusion quickly turns to guilt, he understood what the boy meant. As if it were something natural for him, Shimada put one of his arms over Grace's shoulders and gently pulled him into a hug on top of the blanket while he let the youngest's anguish come out in the form of crying, perhaps this would help him calm down before he could testify. 

“I promise I'll help you and your brother with whatever I can, I saw that Maximillien was the one who started the fight, I might as well say that in the bulletin” promised Hanzo, the boy seeming to soften a little under the hug. 

“Thank you... Hanzo” he said, hiding his head on the taller man's chest, finally relaxing. 

“You're welcome... Forrest” the smaller sobbed once more, Hanzo becoming stiff as he thought he had gone too far or said something wrong, but then felt the small calloused hands come out of the blanket and hug him back. 

That was enough of a hint to let him know that everything was okay now, that Grace would be okay, and that the only thing left was to talk to Cole Cassidy. 

•  

Cole already knew that, it wasn't anything new to him, but at least Ana had the decency to leave him with some entertainment. The tennis ball hit rhythmically against the concrete wall of the cell he was in, he could hear Maximillien's men laughing and talking on the wall on the side where he was sitting on the bed, but that no longer disturbed him. 

Gabe would want to rip out his throat. 

The more he thought about it, the more he was sure his father would tear him to pieces when he found out, he didn't even get the chance to call to explain himself before Zarya took his belongings and put them in a file box. He heard footsteps in the hallway and immediately stopped with the ball. 

“Fareeha, if you came to laugh at me, remember who changed your diapers when your mother was on duty or I'll spread your baby photos all over the police station” he threatened without looking away from the gray wall. 

The clearing of the throat that followed wasn't hers and Cole realized it was too late, startling him. 

“Well, I think Officer Amari had other plans” said Hanzo standing in front of the metal bars, Cole swallowing hard now “Don't worry, cowboy, you're only going to stay here until Morrison arrives, this won't go on your record.” 

“Yeah, that wouldn't make much difference, darling,” said Cole, now looking at Hanzo's face, the recognition taking him by surprise for two reasons “Shit, you said I'm going to have to stay here until he gets to the station?” 

“I suppose I did” admitted Hanzo amused, Cole groaned in disbelief. 

“My dad is going to kill me” he said, rubbing his face “And Jack is going to kill me too.” 

“I'm sorry?” Hanzo asked, leaning against the metal bars, Cole removing one of his hands from his face before answering. 

“Jack Morrison, he's my stepfather, he's married to my father... Gabriel Reyes” he said with an awkward smile, Hanzo's eyes widened in clear surprise. 

“I was really taken by surprise here, Morrison commented that they had children, but I thought they were just little kids” said the Japanese, Cole laughing at his confusion. 

“Yeah, I took more after my mother, but Forrest came already big for us, they couldn't formalize the adoption with him so close to turning eighteen, but it's as if I've known him since he was a baby” laughed the cowboy “You look familiar to me, I think I saw you earlier yesterday” he said, scratching his beard while watching Hanzo “You're the newbie, aren't you? What moved to the city a few months ago?” 

“I suppose so” he replied, extending his hand through the bars “Hanzo Shimada, but you can call me Hanzo.” 

“It's good to finally put a name to a face” said Cassidy “Cassidy, Cole Cassidy, you can call me whatever you want, darling” he replied, shaking his hand “But I think you already knew that, didn't you?” 

Hanzo's face turned a light shade of pink at the statement, he thought he was being discreet while staring at the man, until he realized he was too quiet when Cole answered the implied question. 

“Earlier, when I came to get Reaper, my father shouted my name” Hanzo was now completely red. 

“Of course, that” he said, only then realizing that they both had their hands still clinging to each other, freeing themselves from the grip before the situation became even more embarrassing. 

The two remained in contemplative silence for a few minutes, Hanzo looked at the clock on the wall, it was almost four in the morning and there would still be a few hours before Jack arrived to deal with all the bureaucracy of releasing the men, the Japanese man sat on the floor, close by the cell bars and Cassidy imitates him. 

“Your brother is worried about you, I had to comfort him and I promised I would save your ass” he said categorically, Cole was visibly worried. 

“Is he alright? I didn't hear him in any of the cells” he asked worriedly, Hanzo just gave him a nod before continuing to explain. 

“Yes, he's fine, he's not in a cell, in fact it won't even be on his record” said Hanzo, Cole sighed in relief “He wasn't directly involved in the fight, so Officer Ana and I were trying to calm him down before he needs to give his statement, he was crying a lot” the Japanese looked at the other man's relieved face. 

“That's good” Cassidy replied “Not the crying part, he was crying, you say?” Hanzo nodded “He must have trusted you a lot for this, Forrest isn't one to cry in front of strangers.” 

Hanzo smiled at this, feeling grateful that the youngest trusted him so much right away. He and Cole stayed talking for a few more hours until close to six in the morning before they heard the door leading to the cells open and an angry and shadowy looking figure stood in front of the opening, Gabriel had his eyes narrowed at Cole and Morrison soon appeared behind, accompanied by Grace, who just mouthed the words “I’m sorry”. 

“You're in a lot of trouble, young man” said Jack, Cole bit his lip and exhaled through his nose “Do you know how worried we were about you? We only managed to talk to Forrest now and found out you were here.” 

“I warned you a million times, Cole, without getting in trouble!” Gabriel shouted, Hanzo just walked away and unlocked the grille “I hope it served you a lesson.” 

The cowboy sighed heavily. 

“Yes, dad” he said with his head down, Hanzo opened the cell door and let Cole walk out towards the Chief, he took off his hat and stopped at Hanzo before going “See you around.” 

The Japanese laugh. 

“I don't know if I should say the same” he said in an amused tone. 

“Look, he makes jokes” Cole laughed, walking away, Grace also waved before walking away. 

The oldest stayed behind when they entered Jack's office, none of them looked very happy about it before they closed the door and Hanzo didn't see anything else, Ana calmly collected things while her daughter was on the computer resolving Maximillien's pending issues to release their bodyguards too. The Japanese man locked his jaw and ground his teeth together, feeling anger starting to flow through his body before he felt a slightly heavier hand on his shoulder. 

“Dear, I understand how you feel,” said the older Amari firmly. “But the world is not always fair, sometimes things are unfair and sometimes we are also quite powerless in protecting the weakest.” 

Hanzo felt the weight of the elderly woman's words, looking down at his feet and crossing his arms over his chest. 

“It's unfair that he doesn't pay for the things he said to Grace,” he said in a whisper. 

“Like I said “sometimes things are unfair”, my dear, he's doing something legal by paying the bail, even if it's not fair” she repeated patiently, patting Hanzo's shoulder as she said. 

The Japanese man's eyes fixed on the slender man removing a rather generous amount of money from the bag until it was in Fareeha's hands, he would ask her about Cole another time, as they seemed to really know each other from what he had told him. Something about Hanzo made him want to know more about Cassidy. 

However, he also needed to go home, even if he had to ask for the morning off to at least recover from last night's extra shift. 

•  

Hanzo arrived home in the morning only to realize that what he feared most had happened — and it was no tragedy, but rather some kind of personal affront — Genji was sprawled out like a fat, lazy cat on the living room couch, his feet dressed only in sushi socks, they sat on either side of the coffee table, legs spread and heads thrown back with their mouths open and a Nintendo Switch controller in their hands covered in orange snack powder — drooling and snoring on the backrest from the couch. The eldest rubbed his eyes with his thumb and forefinger, debating whether to choke his brother now or wait for him to wake up to perform the task, finding many packages of different snacks scattered on the floor and at least half a dozen cans of energy drinks. 

“Shimada Genji!” Hanzo shouted, the snoring was quickly cut off and the sound that came out of Genji's mouth was almost a squeal. 

“Ah!” he grabs the sweatshirt on his chest, eyes wide and green hair covering most of them “Damn, Hanzo, you didn't need to scare me like that... are you late?” he asked with a relieved sigh that it was just his older brother. 

“It's morning, Genji, and what are you doing in the room at such an hour?!” he shouted, Genji ignoring him as he curled up on the couch again. 

“You can't talk to me like that, I'm recovering from a serious accident, you know? I can't stress myself out” he said with a shrug, Hanzo almost gave in to the urge to strangle his brother with his own hands. 

“Kind of contradictory coming from someone who was playing on my hard couch all contorted like a pretzel” Hanzo growled, crossing his arms over his chest, resisting the urge to hit his brother “Did you stay on that couch all night? You have one bed, very comfortable and soft! What's your excuse that you were in a serious accident?” demanded the oldest, the green-haired one rolled his eyes. 

“I wanted to play on the television, the screen is too small” he said in a huff, showing the controls in his hands to Hanzo, who rubbed his face with his hands in a growl. 

“And all those snack wrappers?” he asked, kicking the packages to emphasize “I left all your food ready and labeled with post-its everywhere so you don't stuff yourself with junk” he said even angrier. 

“I wasn't hungry, and that food is horrible and as tasteless as the food from hospital … or from father ” said Genji with his arms crossed and throwing a tantrum, Hanzo felt a vein popping out on his forehead with such an insult. 

“Then why the hell did you take all those snacks?” he asked once again, all his willpower was now destined to not kill his brother and finish the job that the accident almost caused. 

“I said I wasn't hungry, not that I didn't want to eat” said the youngest with a provocative smile, Hanzo clenched his jaw in anger. 

He raises a finger in front of Genji's eyes. 

“I'll call Zenyatta” he threatens. 

“Hanzo, no!” pleads the youngest exasperatedly, anything would be less humiliating than calling his doctor so early. 

Hanzo's bargaining smile appeared only a few seconds later. 

“Now we're getting somewhere,” he said victoriously, Genji throwing his head back and growling deep in his throat in irritation. 

It was not uncommon for the two of them to argue — much less so early — or that Hanzo had to blackmail or bargain with his dear younger brother so that he would cooperate and comply with the recommendations of the doctor who was responsible for his case, usually threatening to call Zenyatta in the early hours of the morning or in the middle of the night. The night worked like a holy medicine, since Genji would much rather deal with his older brother's passive-aggressive attacks and taciturn humor than with the endless scold from his physiotherapist friend — and psychologist in his spare time. 

Hanzo took a small pot with a green label stuck to it saying “breakfast” and opened the lid before putting it in the microwave. He wasn't going to waste that amount of food if his brother refused to eat it. 

“Why did you arrive in the morning? I thought you were going to come home straight” Genji asked, now more curious than irritated, “ at least he had crutches and wasn't dragging himself around the house ”, Hanzo thought. 

“Bar fight, I was there when it happened, so I had to take the brawlers to the police station and wait for Chief Morrison” he said calmly while frying some eggs. 

“Someone I know?” he asked, approaching his brother. 

“Not that I know of…” Hanzo thought, the device beeping and he took the pot of heated rice out of the microwave “The Chief's eldest son, Cole, and some security guards for a rich asshole.” 

“Uh, what did he do?” he asked, genuinely interested, sitting at the island in the small kitchen. 

“He was defending his brother, Maximillien was being homophobic and then Cole tried to punch him, but the security guards stopped him” the two brothers' expressions turned sour at the same time, Genji looked with disdain at the pot that Hanzo placed in front of him with the ceramic bowl. 

“I never liked this guy, he thinks he's the owner of the city” muttered Genji, taking a handful of rice with his hand before throwing it into his mouth. 

“ He deserved to have spent the night in the cell” said Hanzo irritably, turning the egg before serving him and his brother with the meal. 

Genji took a deep breath, taking in the smell of the freshly cooked food and letting out a satisfied sigh at that, he looked tired and Hanzo wondered why, maybe he shouldn't have been so hard on Genji and he was just anxious that his brother was gone so long. The green-haired one let out a small laugh before taking out his chopsticks and pinching the eggs to cut off a piece. 

“Did he at least get punched? Tell me that Cole guy at least punched him” he begged, Hanzo laughed. 

“No, unfortunately, but it gave him a good shake” he replied in a lighter mood “And you? Did you at least have fun?” Genji's excited expression fell a little, but nothing too severe to make Hanzo worried. 

“Black Rabbit said he wouldn't be able to play with me tonight, something about the boys' night out with his brother, he said they were going out” he said, looking a little sad “That's why I played Breath of the Wild instead of the usual today, I ended up picking it up sleep halfway.” 

“ Black Rabbit ?” Hanzo asked, confused, Genji laughed. 

“That's my friend's name in the game, that's not his real name” he said, amused by his brother's confusion. 

For Genji, Black Rabbit was a good friend who coincidentally also lived nearby, but they had never had the opportunity to meet in person for obvious reasons, they had met a few months ago and soon exchanged messages through the game itself on XBOX, that was before of them evolving into their profiles on the network and then into messages on their cell phones. Sometimes they communicated via audio, but it was rarer, Black Rabbit always said it was difficult to be alone enough for some privacy living with so many people and Genji only had nights free with his entire rehabilitation routine. 

In the end, their friendship worked out in its own strange way. 

The ping on Genji's cell phone announced that he was receiving a message at that time. 

“Oh, speaking of which” said Genji excitedly “It's him!” 

[7:27 am|Black Rabbit]: Hi, I hope I didn't wake you up 

[7:28 am|Black Rabbit]: My idiot brother and I just got home 

[7:28 am|Sparrowkiller]: It was a good night, apparently 

[7:29 am|Black Rabbit]: Haha, no, we ended at the police station, my brother punched a guy, our parents are furious 

[7:30 am|Black Rabbit]: I feel so exhausted I think I'm going to sleep all day 

[7:31 am|Sparrowkiller]: So sleep tight babe, it's Saturday 

[7:31 am|Sparrowkiller]: Clearly you need 

Genji was smiling at the messages while Hanzo observed his almost radiant expression with a smug smile on his face, when he noticed that he had been looking at his cell phone for too long, the green-haired one cleared his throat. 

“What? I was just answering him!” he defended himself. 

“Of course” said Hanzo amused. 

•  

“I had been very clear about fighting, Cole, I told you so many times that you are not a little boy anymore and you need to keep your temper under control!” Gabriel shouted once he and the two boys were home, Grace shifting his weight from one foot to the other uncomfortably. 

“I was defending him, dad! Maximillien…” Gabriel cuts Cole off before he finishes, his finger pointing at Forrest. 

“I don't want to know what Maximillien did this time, you shouldn't retaliate to his provocations” growled Reyes “Next time let the police deal with him!” 

“Oh sure, the police, like they did when they leaked data from Forrest's medical records with his dead name, or like when someone spray-painted your car with racist phrases telling us to go back to Mexico, and don't tell me it wasn't him, because I know it was!” Cole said angrily, Grace opened his mouth to respond, but Gabe raised his hand, silencing him. 

“You know it's not that simple, Cole, Jack's hands are tied here, they have money, they have good lawyers and they can afford fucking bail... and what do you have, hijo?” asked Gabriel, Cole took off his hat and threw it away. 

“Mierda!” Cassidy roared “Mierda!” he repeated louder this time, his voice sounding like something between a roar and a growl “They take what they want, do what they want and I have to keep quiet? Is that what you're telling me to do, Gabriel?” 

“Yes, hijo, That's exactly what I'm telling you to do” Reyes said sternly, with his arms crossed and sitting on the arm of the sofa “I know you wanted to put him behind bars…”  

“Or in a pit,” Cole grumbled. 

“But the world doesn't work like that, Cole” he said even more seriously “You won't be able to solve things by punching him in the face, and you're no longer a child who doesn't understand that” Gabriel sighed tiredly “You'll only be able to do it he'll pay for something if you call the police about it, or maybe becoming a cop like Jack.” 

Cole laughed bitterly, as if something had a bad taste in his mouth. 

“You know I can't, my record has been dirtier than a barnyard pole since I was thirteen, dad” he said, throwing himself onto the sofa, shoulders slumped in defeat. 

Grace just turned towards the stairs and started climbing. 

“If you need me, I'll go to my room, I feel exhausted” said the youngest, Gabe gave him a sad smile in response. 

“Alright, kid, if you need anything, call us… we still have a lot to talk about” said Reyes looking at Cassidy, when he heard the footsteps disappear in the hallway, Gabriel rubbed his goatee thoughtfully “Co, I know you resent this.” 

“It's kind of obvious that it is” he replied irritably. 

“Pendejo” warned Gabriel “I'm trying to have a man-to-man conversation here, and you keep acting like the rude brat you were as a teenager, all that repressed anger never got you anywhere, Cole” he said, Cole shifted uncomfortably on the couch. 

“I don't know…” he murmured “Sometimes... sometimes, I look back and regret having been a pendejo , as you say” he said, making air quotes to punctuate the word “I think I'm trying to make up for what an idiot I was.” 

Gabe laughed, this time amused and not sarcastic. 

“And you think that by punching Maximillien to defend your brother and Orisa you are redeeming yourself?” he asked ironically, more rhetorically than actually asking “Mijo, you're really very stubborn or very stupid... maybe both, I don't know who you take after.” 

“Hey!” Cassidy exclaimed, offended. 

“But getting into more fights doesn't mean you're going to get rid of old fights, kid” said Reyes, leaning forward “You're an adult now, so act like one.” 

Cole wanted to respond with something ironic, but Gabe was right, he was acting like an angry little boy at the bar and that's why they ended up at the police station in the first place too. At least he had a chance to exchange a word or two with Hanzo and now he had a name for a face — a very attractive face, at that. 

“Yeah, whatever, I'll try harder next time, old man” he said, crossing his arms, Gabe knew that was the most he would get out of Cole for now. 

“You’re off work for today, but you'll have to make up for it on Sunday,” Reyes said, Cassidy's defeated expression almost making him laugh again. 

“Great, I think I deserve this” he said, getting up and picking up his hat from the floor, “I'll go check on him.” Gabe just murmured an agreement and Cole left the room. 

Once Cole was free from all the scolding, he went upstairs to check on the youngest, only to find Grace sleeping face down on the bed still fully dressed down to his shoes.

Cole was very affectionate with Grace, not unlike he was with any member of the family, but he was especially careful with his little brother because he knew that the boy didn't have many affectionate figures in his life and he always tried to be as helpful to him as possible. They had rules of coexistence, of course, such as not touching more than necessary when they were sleeping or knocking on the door before entering each other's rooms to avoid embarrassment. Cole saw that his cell phone was on the bedside table and connected to the charger, probably the last thing he did before going to bed, and he carefully took off Grace's shoes, untying and pulling them very gently so as not to wake him or hurt his ankles. 

He threw a blanket over the boy, as undressing him was out of the question. 

“Sleep well, buddy,” he said. Cole, leaving a kiss on his head and messing up his brother's thick, brown hair even more, getting up and going to close the door. 

Cole walked down the attic stairs and passed the bathroom. He pondered for a few minutes if he needed a shower before deciding what he would do next, sleeping was a good idea but either way he smelled like beer and stale cigarette smoke. The man opened the door and entered the tight space, taking off his shirt and throwing it in the laundry basket. Cassidy looked in the mirror and noticed that there was a large bruise on the side of his face, partially covered by the beard on his jaw, as well as blood. dry in his beard from the punch to the nose. 

He grunted, finishing undressing and getting into the shower, the hot water hitting his back first before throwing his head back, he hadn't drunk enough for a hangover, but his entire body ached from the fight and the night in one. cell, Gabriel was right, he was getting too old for games like that. He slid his back across the cold tile and sat on the shower floor, reflecting as the water soaked his brown hair. 

If Hanzo hadn't interceded for him, he would have been ironed now.

Chapter 3: Let me take care of you

Notes:

Hello there!
I'm really sorry about the non-weekly update but it's here now.
This took a little much time than I was thinking it was because I needed to write, translate and rewrite without the translations incoerences and mistakes to don't have anything lost in translation... Well, now it's fine!
No warnings today, just a little bit of blood in the end, but is basically our boys beeing dumbs and socially stranges with each other.
Enjoy!

Cole knew he wouldn't be able to sleep even if every cell in his body was tired, so he decided he would at least take a look at his precious horses. He went downstairs and took some biscuits from the jar before leaving towards the still less busy stables, the only one present being the farm's veterinarian, Baptiste, the cowboy greeted him by taking off his hat before taking a look at the stalls and seeing that everyone was fine. 

“You look like shit, Cassidy” said the young man, he was tall and quite strong, with high, thick curls on top of his head, his skin was dark and looked soft and well cared for even though he worked on a farm. 

“Tell me something I don't know, Jean” Cassidy grumbled, the taller one peering into Sparrow's stall before the horse stood up and rubbed his head against Cole's fingers “Sorry, boy, he didn't come with me today.”

Baptiste laughed at how the other talked to the animal before starting to examine the old Soldier, the young Haitian had been hired not long ago to help with the horses when they realized there were too many animals and not enough specialists, he was a friendly young man and a very helpful person who was always willing to go above and beyond his primary service. In fact, everyone there did much more than their primary job. 

“Have you seen Papa yet?” Cole asked, doing a quick check around, Jean frowned. 

“No, Mr. Reyes hasn't shown up here yet, the last time I saw him was last night while he was finishing counting the chickens” replied the youngest, they both exchanged a suspicious look with each other. 

Gabriel was always the first to get up and the last to go to bed, and the chickens were in the coop long before he and Forrest locked the horses in their stalls. 

“That's definitely weird,” Cole said, scratching his beard and kicking some loose pebbles as he walked around the stable. “I was going to take the day off today, but I think I'll end up helping you, do you need anything?” he asked, rubbing his hands. 

“You should have been sleeping, pendejo” a voice behind him said, making his soul almost leave his body, Gabriel was standing in the door on the opposite side, without his cap and with his gray curls messy, Cole didn't want to say anything, but he it looked terrible “Why don’t you save your energy for tomorrow? I'm still going to rip your skin off.”

“Nah, I'll still have a lot of skin for you to rip even if I give Baptiste a hand today, dad” replied Cassidy, turning to face the older man, Gabriel dragged himself heavily to where they were and patted Cole on his shoulder.

“So do what you want, but know that I won't go easy on you” he coughs a few times before leaning back on the hay, Cole noticing that there was something wrong with Gabriel, but he didn't know exactly what was going on with his old man. father. 

“Did you catch a cold, old man?” he asked with a sarcastic smile, Gabriel's dark eyes stared at him as if he had offended him with the question, piercing like bullets. 

“Call me old man one more time and I'll revoke your day off, pendejo” he said in a hoarse voice, he cleared his throat before continuing “It's just a sore throat, nothing to worry about.”

“I didn't say I was worried,” Cole said, shrugging, pretending he hadn't noticed how strange Gabriel's voice sounded.

“If you don't mind, Cassidy, I'd like your help taking the horses out and bathing them, we have a lot of work to do” scolded Jean with crossed arms, Cole's shoulders slumping in regret. 

“I'll never volunteer for anything again after that” joked the cowboy, Gabe laughed, leaning against the wooden wall before sighing.

“You thought I had nothing to do, did you?” Baptiste joked back, Gabriel smiled.

“Be careful not to have too much fun, kids” said the oldest, he still supported himself for a while before getting up and leaving. 

Cole had paid attention to that too, he couldn't be crazy, he knew his father wasn't well the moment Reyes didn't come yelling at him in the stable and telling him to leave so he wouldn't interfere with his work, and that cough? God, not even their old dog coughed like that. Something was very wrong and Cole knew it more than anyone on that entire farm, but he had no way of talking to Jack now to find out what his father was hiding from him. 

Yesterday he didn't look so bad, but today he had deep circles under his eyes. Cole thought it might be because of the sleepless night waiting for him and Grace to get back from Idina, but he really doubted it. 

Jean began to take the horses out one by one, and while he bathed the horses, Cole cleaned the stall and changed all their bedding — a dirty, smelly job, but one that someone had to do anyway — he turned over the straw and took out all the dirt to put in the cart for another of the boys to take away, that was usually Grace's job, but today it was just one of the boys staying for the season. This went on all morning: taking the horse out of his stall, cleaning the stall, bathing the horse and returning him to the stall; one by one the horses were all treated and fed before Cassidy could withdraw. 

A few hours before noon he was already exhausted and had not seen the slightest sign of Gabriel or his younger brother, Cole went to check on Reaper taking advantage of the fact that he would have some free time with the horse. 

“Guess who is the most terrible and devilish little thing in the world, but that I love unconditionally? That’s you!” he said, opening his arms as soon as he climbed onto the fence and the black stallion trotted happily to welcome him “I know you missed me, you filthy demon” said Cassidy, hugging the horse's nose. 

“I definitely don't understand how this bastard loves you so much,” Olivia said. 

Olivia Colomar, or, as Cole liked to refer to her, the original Sombra. 

She was Cole's best friend and younger sister — Cole had many adoptive siblings — they had grown up together and now she was a Computer Science student at the local university, the name Sombra was her hacker nickname and she had been equally disgusted. and flattered to have a horse named after that by Cassidy. 

“Maybe it's my irresistible magnetism,” Cole said convincingly. 

“Good thing it only works with horses” Sombra jokes, Cole rolled his eyes “How's the progress going with the diablo?” she asked. 

Cole jumped into the pen and Reaper backed away from him. 

“See for yourself” he said before exchanging a few words in Spanish with the animal to calm it down and then climbing onto its bare back and stroking its neck “See? It's not that bad, we just can't put a saddle on him or he'll get angry” he replied, sitting on the horse as if it were nothing. 

“If I remember correctly what they told me, that's how he knocked you out yesterday” she replied, leaning against a nearby post, Cole frowning. 

“Who told you?” he asked angrily, trying not to be surprised by a headbutt again. 

“Well, I have my contacts” she said, cleaning her long, purple-painted nails “Is Papi home?” she asked. 

“Yes, but it's strange today” said Cassidy, getting off the horse, caressing his neck and spoiling him with one of his cookies, Reaper gently nibbled Cole's fingers without hurting him this time. 

“How strange?” asked the girl, approaching a safe distance from where the horse and Cassidy were. 

“Strange as sick-looking strange,” Cassidy said nervously as the girl and he shared an anguished look. 

“I'm going to try to get something out of him, I warn you” said Sombra, heading towards the house “It was good to see you, hermanito.”

“It was good to see you too, hermanita,” Cassidy replies. 

He still kept thinking about how strange Gabriel was acting. 

•  

As soon as he entered the kitchen in the early afternoon, he found his younger brother still waking up as he leaned with his elbows on the sink counter, his red flannel shirt with the ends untucked from his pants and his hair still messy. and loose on the shoulders, but with boots and dark jeans. He passes by his brother and places his hand full on his head, stroking his tousled curls while the younger one doesn't even bother to take his eyes off the coffee pot slowly dripping the contents into its jug. 

“Hey, buddy,” Cole greeted as he took a package of cookies from the cupboard and placed it next to him on the sink. 

“Hey” was all he got in response while the youngest patiently waited for the coffee maker to beep to announce that it had already performed its function. 

Cole chuckled at Grace's sleepy expression, the dark circles around his eyes betraying that he had slept less than he really needed after yesterday.

“Do you want to go for a walk with me? I think Mercy e Sparrow do they need exercise” Cassidy asked, Grace yawned as she poured a bottle of coffee. 

“It would be nice, but aren't you too hungover for that?” said the smaller boy, leaning on the kitchen counter, Cole shook his head. 

“I didn't drink enough for a hangover, it takes a lot more than two bottles of beer to put this machine to sleep” he said pointing to himself with two thumbs and a cocky smile, Grace rolled her eyes. 

“You have the self-esteem of a Ferrari on the chassis of a mother's van, you know that?” Grace asked sarcastically, Cassidy let her jaw drop as she glared at Forrest. 

“Okay, smart-ass, I'll prepare the horses, but if you keep disrespecting me like that, I'll hide your video game controls for a week” the two laughed together knowing that it was all a big joke, Forrest just replied “alright” muffled before Cole walked out of the kitchen back to the stable. 

Cole quickly put the saddle on Mercy, the mare was one of the calmest of all the horses they owned and was usually the first choice of the newbies at the ranch as she was the most tame and obedient among them, Cole stroked her white and pink nose while I did a quick check to make sure she was ready to go. It wasn't much different with her partner, but Sparrow, the gray horse who practically adopted Grace as his official caretaker, was much more energetic than his partner, he had arrived at the ranch shortly after Mercy and since then he hadn't left her side. not even for a second. If Cassidy took the horse alone to any activity in the field, he would certainly be stubborn until he saw the mare nearby. 

Grace appeared a few moments later with a small backpack on her back and one in her hand for Cassidy. 

“Take it, I brought some things for us to have a snack near the lake” said the little one, throwing the backpack to Cole. 

“Great, we can have some fun there” replied the biggest one. 

The two left soon after, Cole on the mare and Grace on the horse. 

The oldest was nervous about the night before, he had finally found Hanzo, but it wasn't under the most ideal circumstances possible. The cowboy stroked his beard for a moment before starting to speak when they were far enough away from the property. 

“So, remember the cop I told you wouldn't stop staring at me when the Reaper ran away?” he asked vaguely, Grace frowned as he followed Cole. 

“Yeah, I remember you saying something like that when we were at the bar, why?” he asked, Cole sighed loudly. 

“I found out his name, it was Hanzo” he said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, Grace seemed surprised. 

“Are you kidding? Was it really him? Was he at the bar that whole time maybe listening to you talk about how you wanted to meet him?” he asked amusedly, Cole laughed dryly. 

“Yeah, exactly, on the one hand it was good to finally put a name to a face, but I don't know, after what happened yesterday, I highly doubt he still has any interest in me” replied Cassidy, her brother rolling his eyes. 

“Oh yeah, for sure, he wasn't even blatantly hitting on you and you were hitting on him” said the younger man “Get real, Cassidy, the gay energy between you was on the same level as our parents” Grace added, Cole stopped the mare. 

“So if you think I have that many chances, what should I do, Mr. Cupid?” he asked, teasing him, Cole didn't expect Grace to take him seriously until his brother remained silent while he thought. 

They spotted the lake as soon as Cole stopped talking and walked towards it in silence, Cole could hear Grace's thoughts so loudly that he already knew exactly what he was going to suggest before he even made it much louder than the horses trotting, but he did not stop breaking into a cold sweat as his brother stood with one hand on his chin in thought, his other hand firmly holding the reins of the gray horse as Cassidy guided the mare beside him. 

“I think you should ask him out,” said Grace, stopping the horse as soon as they reached the lake. Cole didn't respond right away “I know it's been a long time since you've been out with someone like that, Co, but you need to go and fix your love life or you will die single!”

“Grace, you know that I have already accepted my fate as the bachelor uncle of our family” laughed Cassidy, stopping next to his brother so that his mount could drink some water, the two got out and began to place the towel on the ground as well as two small aluminum mugs and your snacks. 

“You think you can fool me very easily, right? Do you really think I didn't see how you were all smiles for Hanzo when we left the police station” said the smaller boy, placing the bottle of coffee and the packet of cookies in a corner of the towel before sitting down with Cole, the boy's red and black flannel looked too big on him. 

“If only I had taken his number” Cassidy grumbled, taking off his hat and throwing it next to his brother, Forrest snorted loudly and slapped himself in the face. 

“You're an idiot! That's the first thing we do when we're interested in someone, Cole!” Grace shouted, punching his arm hard “You become dumber than you already are when you fall in love” growled the smaller boy, Cole gasped, offended. 

“Sorry, Mr. “I don’t fall in love”, but you know very well why I didn't get his number” Cassidy shouted, pushing him back hard, Forrest laughed, taking the bottle of coffee and pouring some for himself. 

“Okay, you're forgiven… for now” he said, taking a sip from the aluminum mug. 

“Speaking of which, did you tell your boyfriend that you named your favorite horse after him?” Cassidy asked, Grace choked on her coffee. 

“Cole!” he scolded, completely blushing, the older man had to hold himself back from laughing at his brother's disconcerted expression “He's not my boyfriend.” 

“He calls you cute nicknames like “babe”, that's something boyfriends do” he laughed, watching the pair of horses drinking water and rubbing their noses together “He's even affectionate with you and everything.” 

“You are too, and we don't even know each other, I'm sure he's like that with everyone” said the smaller one, shrugging his shoulders against his ears, Cole didn't miss how the boy was practically exploding with embarrassment. 

“You have a crush on him, admit it” Cole teased, Forrest turned furiously to Cassidy as he drank the rest of his cup, he dove into the water and threw the contents at Cole "Hey! I was kidding!”

“It's not funny” he countered, Cole then smiled with his teeth bared in a cruel idea “No, Cassidy.”

“You know what else wouldn't be funny?” 

“Cassidy, no!” 

“Cassidy, yes!” 

Cole stood up to his full height and Forrest crawled back until he was standing and leaning against the tree where they tied the horses, but it was no use as Cole came forward to chase him and grabbed him around the waist, pulling him off the ground. Even though Grace was still relatively strong enough to free herself from Cole's arms around her waist, he was still too short to reach her feet on the ground as Cole threw himself into the lake with his screaming brother. 

“Son of a bitch!” Grace shouted before sinking his head into the water. 

Cole emerged a second later, already much further than Grace could reach with his shorter arms.

“Did you insult my beloved Mama?” he asked, pretending to be offended, Grace emerged soon after coughing. 

“You can only be adopted, you piece of shit” he growled, brushing the hair out of your face “You could have at least waited for me to take off my boots, you bastard.” 

“It wouldn't be fun if I had warned you,” Cassidy said with a shrug. 

They had to wait for their clothes to dry before returning home late in the evening. 

•  

All Grace could do was grunhir out of frustration with every wrong move he made in that match, and this was becoming quite frequent as they advanced trying to accomplish the objective, he groaned again when Sparrow Killer's chat icon turned green and flashed with his unintelligible curses. 

“ I need healing! ” Sparrow's voice shouted into the phone, Grace just shook his head in irritation. 

“ Bro, Black Rabbit and I can't keep healing you all the time! Stop throwing yourself into the crossfire! ” shouted another voice back, Lúcio, a friend of Grace's who played practically every game with the brunette. 

Grace grunted in agreement.

“Lúcio is right, I can't handle everything if you keep throwing yourself at the enemy team” he said, followed by another uncomfortable groan. 

“ People, focus, for God’s sake! ” Hana Song replied to the two, or rather, Dva: professional gamer, streamer and Lúcio's girlfriend (in her spare time); Grace frowned even more. 

They had been playing for about two hours and he had felt the twinge of pain in his stomach since the beginning of the night, it was already the third game and they had lost the previous two, the boy was wearing his rest glasses and his headphones, a gray t-shirt one size too big for his body with black basketball shorts as he sat in front of the console, feet crossed and practically curled up on top of the bed. 

The cramps were really bad this time and he could feel it coming at any moment. 

“ You're making me embarrass to my Twitch followers ” Song muttered, a female voice complained offended. 

“ Don't charge us so much, love, this team is really difficult! ” replied Lena (Tracer), Forrest knew her personally too, she and her girlfriend, Emily, were a lovely couple and he felt welcomed by them both. 

“ I need healing! ” Sparrow shouted once again, Grace felt that this was the last straw, he left the match before he could even hear the indignant response from any of his friends about the boy's insistence on demanding support for the thousandth time. 

Grace groaned in pain from both the cramps and the headache and threw himself onto her side and curled up in a ball of agony on her mattress and blankets. Cole used to say it felt like a cozy little nest with so many blankets and pillows, he muttered many curses of pain as he cowered and trembled. He considered calling Cassidy just this once. 

Meanwhile, the match was still chaotic. 

“Shit, where's Rabbit?” asked Genji worriedly, he was sitting on a poof of bean bags in his room this time and was wearing black sweatpants and an orange t-shirt, his neon green hair was messy and a huge bucket of ice cream was resting between his thighs. 

“ You must have scared him away after asking for support, carrots ” accused Hana, the defeat screen falling for everyone else shortly afterwards “ Damn, Sparrow! ” she screamed and the sound of something falling or being thrown to the ground with force could be heard. 

“ Amor, take it easy, you don't need to break the control because of him ” replied Lúcio, a little more patiently, Genji rolled his eyes “ But you're right, he doesn't rage quite like that without a good reason, that's strange coming from him. ” 

“ I also found it very strange, I sent him a message earlier and he said he didn't know if he was going to play because he was in a little pain ” said the girl, Lena murmured a question and they continued talking. 

They exited the game, went back to the menu, and decided to end their game night there for now, but continued on their voice chat when they realized that Grace had hung up. 

“Now that you say it, I noticed he was mumbling and groaning in the middle of the game, do you think he's okay?” Genji asked, wrapping the headphone cord between his fingers, Hana made a long, thoughtful sound. 

“ I really don't know, Gen, he's not much for saying anything personal to us ” said the Asian girl, Lúcio agreed with her “ Besides, I think you should talk to him, if you're so worried it's better to know straight from the source than to theorize. ” 

She was right about that, it was better to go directly to the source than to wonder what Black Rabbit had or if he was okay. Genji picked up his cell phone from the bed and typed a message. 

[9:30 pm|Sparrow Killer]: Hey, are you okay? 

He mentally cursed himself for sounding so stupid and dropped his cell phone on the bed, the characteristic ping of messages from the other boy sounding like a sweet symphony to Genji's ears and he jumped to open the notification. 

[9:32 pm|Black Rabbit]: No :( 

[9:32 pm|Black Rabbit]: So much pain, it feels like my organs want to kill me 

[9:33 pm|Sparrow Killer]: Oh, babe, this is too bad 

[9:33 pm|Sparrow Killer]: What are you feeling? 

The response took a little longer this time, Genji could imagine the reason, he just didn't know if it had to do with the pain or the other boy's shyness, he patiently waited for the three typing dots to disappear and give way to the message. 

[9:34 pm|Black Rabbit]: Lots of headaches and cramps 

Wait, what? 

Genji read and reread the message a few times before frowning deeply and his thick eyebrows tightening in genuine confusion. 

[9:35 pm|Sparrow Killer]: Cramps? 

Grace felt his face getting redder and redder at this, he bit his lip and put his cell phone aside for a moment before burying his face in the soft blanket and screaming in frustration.

“Cooooole!” he practically howled as he cried out his adoptive brother's name in agony, Grace could hear Cole's heavy footsteps running down the hallway before practically breaking down the attic door, standing on the trapdoor stairs with his head inside the room. 

“What's wrong, darling?” he asked nervously, walking heavily towards Grace and crouching down in front of him “God, are you crying?” he asked worriedly. 

“I'm in a lot of pain, I need help” he whimpered, shrinking even more. Cole quickly understood what was happening. 

“Oh, buddy, it's okay,” he said, stroking his younger brother's hair “I'll get you a hot water bottle and some tea, okay? — the smaller one agreed “Are you crying just because of the pain?” he asked as he sat with him on the bed and placed Forrest's head in his lap. 

“No” Grace murmured frankly “I think I ruined everything, I think the friend I'm talking to will run away if I tell him now.”

Cole let out a small chuckle, but stopped as soon as his brother's murderous gaze rose to him, Cassidy continued stroking his hair resignedly.

“I think it's better to bring chocolates too, for my own safety” sighed Cole, getting up, he crouches close to his brother once again before leaving “First: if he leaves because you told him, he's an idiot” the biggest enumerated “Second: I will take care of you and this will pass, okay?” Cassidy received a positive nod from Grace “So great, I'll be right back, darling” he said, ruffling his brother's hair before disappearing into the trapdoor again. 

Grace picked up his cell phone again to respond to Sparrow's last message, his icon was an angry carrot, a joke with his hair, he knew it was green, he just didn't know how green. 

[9:46 pm|Black Rabbit]: Yes, exactly that 

[9:46 pm|Sparrow Killer]: Why are you cramping? 

[9:47 pm|Black Rabbit]: Because I have a uterus and sometimes it's not very nice to me... 

Grace's apprehension was reflected throughout his body, he was tense and biting his lower lip hard enough to hurt the thin skin in the area a little, the typing points rose and fell on the screen. 

[9:48 pm|Sparrow Killer]: (audio message) 

Grace stayed keyed up before clicking the icon to play the message. 

“ Oh! Now I understand, now I get it! Now everything makes sense, now all the pieces fit together! ” said the deeper voice, imitating Bender's phrase from Futurama, Grace laughed “ Don't worry babe, if I was with you I would take care of it, I hope you get better soon. ”  

Grace couldn't help but smile with tears brimming in his eyes at that message, he pressed the audio icon to send one to Sparrow as well.

“My brother is going to take care of me today, but thanks for worrying… you’re really cute, Sparrow” he said, holding back tears. 

Cole appeared in the doorway with a tray containing a cup of tea and a large peanut butter and jelly sandwich, some pills on the side of the plate. 

“Did I miss something?” asked Cole, seeing his brother crying, but noticing his wide smile on his face. 

“He's cute,” he said with a shrug. 

•  

Cole still had his brother's words raw in his head. 

Of course, Forrest wasn't exactly experienced or an expert on relationships — neither of them were, really — but Cassidy knew he was right when he said that the best course of action was for him to ask Hanzo out, he had managed to find Hanzo's profile on a social network, not that it was a difficult task when there weren't many Hanzos in the region, it was just a little confusing for Cole. 

He didn't have a phone number and one of the few photos of Hanzo's face on his Instagram was of him with said younger brother, he was looking uncomfortable with the green haired boy hanging around his neck in a beige sweater and orange scarf, the oldest with a navy blue shirt and hair much longer than what he wore now, the rest were photos of coffee, sweets and dogs with sporadic appearances of photos of him with his brother; his brother's name was Genji and his Instagram had many more photos. Cole stopped snooping before finally sending a message hoping Hanzo was still awake. 

@NamesCassidy(10:00pm): hey, nice dogs you have there 

Cole wanted to punch his own face, what was he thinking with such a stupid message, what was he? A high schooler? Cassidy snorted, he was about to delete the message when typing dots appeared on the screen and he choked on air. 

@ShimadaHanzo(10:03pm): Thanks, their names are Akira and Kaneda 

@ShimadaHanzo(10:03pm): Yours is adorable too, by the way 

Cassidy was confused for a moment before remembering that his profile picture was with Jefe, he laughed and shook his head. 

@NamesCassidy(10:04pm): for a minute I thought you were a stalker, darling 

@NamesCassidy(10:04pm): that's Jefe, he's a cute old man 

@ShimadaHanzo(10:05pm): I would never think of snooping into your life on my own, Mr Cassidy, I have no intention of invading your privacy 

“Too long and too formal” Cole muttered thoughtfully, maybe he was nervous or something, but the cowboy assumed that maybe Hanzo was naturally too tense and formal from the way they talked at the police station. 

@NamesCassidy(10:06pm): just Cole is great, darling 

The man's heart almost exploded with the next message. 

@ShimadaHanzo(10:06pm): Sure, Cole 

@NamesCassidy(10:06pm): so 

@NamesCassidy(10:07pm): I was here thinking 

@NamesCassidy(10:08pm): my brother really liked you and I wouldn't forgive myself if I didn't invite you to dinner one of these days ;) 

Cassidy pressed the send button with her heart in her hand. 

And Hanzo received the message with his heart in his throat. 

“Is there a problem, Anija?” asked Genji, appearing in the kitchen casually while Hanzo was red as a tomato and blinking at his cell phone screen “Hey, Hanzo, are you okay?” he asked, snapping his fingers in front of his face. 

“Yesterday's cowboy invited me to dinner” Hanzo said stiffly “What should I answer?” asked the older man, trying to formulate something less formal and more casual in his head, but all the options seemed too pompous. 

“Oh, give me your phone!” said Genji with a malicious smile, looking like a little demon. 

“I don't trust you with my phone” he said, avoiding his younger brother's hands, Genji laughing and returning to the freezer to put away the half-empty container of ice cream. 

“You are very boring!” sighed the green-haired man, leaning back on a crutch, he leaned completely on it and crossed his arms before throwing his head between them, his chin resting on the metal bar "If it takes too long to respond, he'll think that you were offended." 

@ShimadaHanzo(10:12pm): It would be a pleasure to have dinner with you 

Hanzo almost threw the phone in the garbage disposal after that. 

“I'm a joke doing this” Hanzo grumbled with his hands covering his face, putting the phone aside to get some tea. 

“You're horrible, Hanzo” said Genji with an amused expression on his face, but Hanzo noticed the cell phone vibrating on the counter and the brothers looked at each other.

Hanzo knew what Genji would do if he wasn't fast enough, so he abandoned everything and ran to get the device at the same time Genji did.

He still had the advantage of speed. 

@NamesCassidy(10:15pm): great, I'll see you on Tuesday if that's okay? 

@ShimadaHanzo(10:15pm): Perfect, I'll send you my number 

Hanzo sent his contact and Cassidy sent him, he looked over his shoulder only to realize that Genji was still staring at him as if it was his moment as he saved the information to his contacts. 

@NamesCassidy(10:16pm): I really need to sleep now, last night was hell

@NamesCassidy(10:16pm): See you around, darling ;) 

“Did you lose anything?” asked the older man in a bad mood when he noticed his brother hanging around his neck “Is there nothing better to do than inspect my life? I thought you and your boyfriend were going to play tonight” Hanzo complained, shaking his shoulder to get rid of his brother. 

“Rabbit is not my boyfriend” replied Genji, moving away abruptly as if it burned him to be touching Hanzo, the older man gave a convinced smile. 

“I hadn't said it was him I was talking about” said Hanzo with a raised eyebrow, Genji turned even redder ‘Did you want him to be?” 

“Fuck you, Hanzo!” shouted the green-haired one, returning to the room sulking “You're the worst brother, you know that?” he asked from somewhere Hanzo couldn't see, he let out a little laugh. 

“Said the nosy guy who was clearly spying on my messages” replied Hanzo only to hear a growl in return. 

“Huh, anija” the voice was now low and a little hesitant, Hanzo furrowed his eyebrows before walking to the bedroom door and peeking through the opening, Genji swung his legs restlessly, sitting on the green chair with his hands crossed in his lap “Maybe I like him, but I don't know if he would like me” he said, almost too low for him to hear. 

“I'm sure he would like you very much, Genji,” said Hanzo, sitting next to his brother. “You should talk about this with Zenyatta, he can advise you a little better on this than I can.”

Genji smiled slightly, looking back at his older brother. 

“Yeah, I can do that” he looks at Hanzo's phone in his hand, his smile growing “It looks like you're going to have a date with the handsome cowboy in the end, doesn't it?” 

•  

Even with the freezing night, Gabe couldn't sleep, feeling his body burn and the pain settle in his bones. 

He needed to get up and maybe go get a glass of water from the kitchen downstairs, but getting up and going downstairs seemed like too much effort for Reyes' aching body to handle, his throat felt as if it were the flu - but he knew it wasn't one - he felt the air entering his nostrils, but not reaching where it was supposed to go. 

Gabe had to sit up in bed, looking to the side to find Jack sleeping with his back to him, his chest hurt heavily and he tried to hold back a cough before he ended up accidentally waking the blonde up, but he couldn't, he thought it best to go to the bed. single bathroom on the opposite side of the hallway and stood up slowly, her legs burning with effort. 

As if oxygen is not reaching your lungs. 

“Jack” groaned the Latino kneeling next to the bed “Jack, I can't…” he coughed a few times, the blonde lifted his head from the blankets and faced Gabriel on the floor, knees and hands supporting his body. 

“Gabe?” he called, almost jumping out of bed, Gabriel choked on air before pressing the carpet beneath him between his fingers “Gabe, what do you have?” he asked, more exasperated, holding Reyes' shoulders to sit him on the floor and lift his head. 

“Can’t… breath…” was all Gabriel said before another fit of coughing and wheezing, he was pulling in air hard and it didn't seem to get where he needed it, Jack held his husband's face in his hands. 

“Calm down, look into my eyes, I'm going to call the boys, don't leave here” he said, receiving a nod in response, Gabe held tightly to the chest of the old t-shirt he was sleeping in and coughed even more. 

Jack turned on the lamp and bitterly regretted what he had done. 

“No” Jack covered his mouth scared, Gabriel was coughing up blood “Cole! Forrest! Fast! I need help!”

Chapter 4: Nobody wants him to die

Notes:

Hi, there!
I know, I'm sooooo late! But it's because I had very problems with this chapter and my life was a chaos... But here I am, and I will finish this - one way or another.
Thanks for reading and for the patience.

They could feel the desperation in Jack's words as soon as they heard them. 

Cole wasn't a light sleeper, but hearing the blonde's screams at that time of the morning could never be a good thing. The cowboy practically jumped out of bed as he was and left desperate to help his parents, without even understanding what was really happening, the road to the hospital was a blur in Cassidy's head — and he thought it was a miracle that he hadn't caused an accident along the way — Grace was a nervous wreck pacing up and down the hallway while Jack had his hands shaking in his lap.

He knew there was something wrong with his father, he just didn't think it would escalate so quickly.

“What the hell just happened?” asked Cole, rubbing the sides of his face as his adopted brother seemed to formulate some logical explanation in his head, if he concentrated enough Cole could hear the gears working in his brain. 

“That seemed serious, I’d never seen Gabe that bad, like, ever in my life.” said the little one with green eyes, his heart restless in his chest. 

“I guess we don’t have much to do now, boys.” said Jack, picking up his phone and texting Ana to let her know that he would need an emergency day off today, “All we can do is stay calm and wait.” he extended his arm, calling Forrest to sit with them in the chairs, “Come on, son, pacing around like that won’t make him come back any faster.” 

The smaller boy stared down the long corridor of the Emergency Room before nodding and sitting down. 

“I'm scared” he admitted, shrinking, Jack put his arm around the smaller boy's shoulders, “What if he… what if he dies?” he asked worriedly, Cassidy promptly made the sign of the cross. 

“Jesus, Forrest, don't say something like that,” muttered Cole, he watched as they looked at them, three men in pajamas in the waiting room of a half full crowded emergency room at that time of night, “He's going to be okay, darling, don’t worry." 

“Not even you seem so convinced of that, Co” he said, shivering a little, Jack pulled the boy closer to his chest and started stroking his messy hair. 

“Shhh, it's going to be okay, he's stubborn, he'll come back to us before you even know he's gone.” said Jack placatingly, “If you want to go home, you can call someone to pick you up, it looks like it’s going to take a while here.” suggested the blonde, the two boys looking at him offended. 

“No, no fucking way, we're all going to stay here, we're not going to leave you alone, Jack” said Cole with his arms crossed over his old, worn-out flannel shirt printed with red and green checks, Grace curled back into Jack's chest. 

“We’re not going to leave you here alone, we’re family, we’re not going anywhere until Papa Gabe is with us, we’re just going to go out with you two or we’re not going anywhere” agreed Grace, Jack just gave in and left being swallowed by both children in a tight hug.

“If you insist, who am I to stop you” said Jack, relieved. 

Jack was just as scared as the boys, but he needed to maintain control of the situation.

He should be the father here, instead of being comforted by the two of them, but he knew they were both right, they were family and they would get through this together, no matter what Gabriel had.

The three of them waited for a long time before anyone came to give them any news — which was perhaps a good thing, because it meant that nothing serious enough had happened to warrant warning — the morning sun began to rise as Cole supported Forrest's head on his shoulder and he himself was struggling to stay awake, Grace had fallen asleep wrapped in the threadbare jacket that he had hurriedly grabbed from the closet and used as a blanket, Jack was propped up in a corner next to the water fountain facing the emergency doors, he rubbed his eyes tiredly.

That was when they saw a familiar figure approaching them, coming out of the double doors with a lab coat and a clipboard. It was tall, slender and straight with short red hair and uneven eyes. She had an arrogant gait and approached the family with a cold look in her unequal eyes — one blue and one brown.

It was Moira O'Deorain, Gabriel's doctor for many years, Cole and Forrest didn't really like her or her insensitive treatment of all patients, as if each case was just a medical record.

She smiled at the three of them when she saw them sitting in the waiting room as if she was happy to see them. Cole nudged his younger brother to wake him up while Jack almost jumped up to meet the woman halfway.

If the youngest two could, they would be hissing like cats right now.

“Hello, Jack,” greeted the woman, then addressed the other two, “Boys.” 

“Witch” both the youngest said in unison, Jack rolled his eyes at his children's lack of education. 

“Sorry about them, Moira, it was a difficult night” said Jack in a clear tone of reprimand to the two youngest, “How is Gabriel? Can we see him now?” he asked worriedly and hopefully.

“The prognosis is the same as I already told him, the plan needs to approve the treatment before we start” said Moira, Jack and the boys looked at her confused, “Oh, you don't know yet, do you?” asked the doctor, Cole tilted his head towards her with interest in listening, “Gabriel has cancer, lung cancer, it's under control, but it's serious” she said with a shrug. “I thought it was pretty obvious, all the blood, I thought that was why you brought him here so quickly.”

“Wait, what? Cancer?" Cassidy asked, Grace also straightening up to face Moira.

Now everything made sense and at the same time nothing else seemed to fit into Cole's head: the strange cough, the fights over cigarettes, the lack of appetite, the lack of strength, him getting tired much faster than before — Cole’s world was crumbling beneath his feet and he looked to the side to find Grace with wide eyes and shallow, ragged breathing. He held his brother's hand, he was having an anxiety attack just like the night of the bar fight.

“Yes, I thought you knew, didn’t Gabriel tell you?” asked Moira in a sigh, Jack slid with his back against the wall and Grace opened and closed his mouth without making a sound, "I gave him a few options, but all we can do now is ease the symptoms while we wait for the worst."

Jack looked at his children, noticing how Grace was breaking down.

“I think it would have been better if you had broken the news differently, Doctor O’Deorain.” said Jack, “I'd like to see Gabriel now, if you don't mind.” 

Moira smiled slightly, seeming at least embarrassed by the absolute lack of tact with the delicate situation happening in front of her. 

“This way, Jack.” she said, guiding the older man by his shoulders. 

•  

Cassidy guided Grace to the first bathroom they found on that floor, taking him in a completely opposite direction to where the two had gone.

The smaller boy was still shaking and breathing too quickly through his mouth to get the air where it really needed to be, Cole taking him to a quiet and empty place before gently placing his hands on Grace's shoulders, going down to his arms and climbing back up, in a subtle affection, trying to anchor Forrest back to reality.

“Hey, buddy, look at me, can you do this?” asked Cole in the sweetest voice he had, “Forrest, I need you to focus on me, on my voice, darling” he said, holding both sides of the smaller boy's face to look into his eyes, Grace gradually looking back at him, “Great, now pay attention to me, can you do this, darling?” asked the cowboy.

“I think so” he said in a meow, the boy barely able to maintain eye contact with Cassidy he was so nervous.

“Good, now breathe, come on, inhale” said Cassidy taking Forrest's hand and placing it on his chest, doing it first and waiting for him to imitate him, “And exhale, deeply” he instructed, Grace followed him, “Good, very good, inhale.”

One.

“Exhale.”

 Two.

Grace followed, his eyes slowly closing and his heart slowing down, they stayed like that for a few minutes, hugging each other, before the younger boy shuddered and Cole knew what was going to happen even before the little hands dug into his back with strength and Forrest's tiny body crashed into his.

“I don’t want him to die” Grace whimpered, a large, heavy hand began to untangle the boy’s tousled curls while tears wet Cole’s old shirt.

“None of us want to, darling” said Cassidy, practically swallowing him in his arms, “None of us do” repeated the cowboy.

Cassidy cradled Grace in his arms and tried to calm his poor little anguished heart, he had barely found a home to call his own and now it was being ripped away from him, Cole could understand, but he couldn't even imagine how he was feeling. As soon as Grace managed to stop crying, he helped him sit on the sink counter and offered him tissues to dry his tears.

Jack appears at the bathroom door some time later, looking as disconsolate as the boys, he looks at Cole and Forrest with a droopy look.

“Do you want to see your father?” he asked. Cole looked at Grace, the boy already starting to get off the bench and go with Jack.

“I just need a minute alone,” Cassidy said, hands crossed and resting on the sink, Jack gave a positive wave as he took Grace with him.

As soon as he heard the click of the door closing, he let his shoulders slump.

The diagnosis had been a thousand times worse than anything he had even imagined, for the first time in a long time, Cole was distressed about his father's health. Moira had said it was cancer like it was nothing and it had shocked all three of them, Grace could barely face his brother and father — both because of his breakdown and because of the entire dazed state he was in now — Cole had to let them both go away so he could process the situation for himself, he didn't want them both to see him crying so he did it hidden in a bathroom with his flannel shirt pulled up to his face.

How long has Gabe known and not told them? Did he know he was dying and didn't tell them anything? Why? 

He felt his chest tighten at the thought of losing his father, they had just reconciled and it was gnawing at his mind in fear and panic, he had already seen what it did to a person — what this illness did to Miranda — and he couldn't let that happen to his father either. 

He looked for the number in the address book and pressed the green icon as soon as he found it. 

“Han… hi.” he said, wiping the tears on the back of his free hand, “I’m sorry for calling so early.” 

“Cole? Are you alright?" he asked, apparently too drowsy to understand what was happening. 

“Can we talk about this later? I really need a ride right now.” said the youngest, Cole sniffed, "I am in the hospital." 

"Hospital? What's wrong with you? Did you hurt yourself?" he asked abruptly, Cole would have laughed if the situation was less tense and painful. 

“Nothing, I have nothing, it’s my father, he’s very sick” he explained with a sigh, “I think Jack and Forrest will stay here a little longer with him, but I don’t feel good here” he replied, picking at a loose thread of his pants. 

“I’m sorry about your dad” he said sadly, he leaned back against the wall and sighed sadly, “Do you need anything I can pick up on the way? I can bring some breakfast” offered the Japanese man, Cole sighed. 

“If you don’t mind, I don’t think I have the stomach for this right now, but I appreciate the offer” he said genuinely grateful, “I wish I had called in another circumstance, but you know how emergencies are and you were the first person who came to mind” sniffed the cowboy. 

“I'm glad you trust me with this, Cole” said Hanzo, “Wait for me outside, I just need to change and I'll be there soon” the cowboy sighed. 

“Thank you, really” Cole thanked the older man, wiped the rest of his tears and sent the location of where he was before getting up from his hiding place and cracking his back.

He sneaked out of the bathroom and tried to escape through the back, but before he reached the door, he thought again, Cole knew he couldn't make his brother and Jack more worried than they already were about Gabe, sneaking out now wasn't the answer. He had to do what Gabriel said to him and be an adult, talk to them and let them know he needed to be alone.

He turned around and went to talk to the three.

•  

Gabe would still be on observation until the afternoon at the earliest.

That's what the doctors told him, Jack and Grace.

The cowboy stood outside with an unlit cigarette between his fingers, it felt wrong to smoke anything now no matter how much his body demanded the nicotine, not when this is the main reason why Gabe was here in the first place.

Grace joined him in the parking lot as he sat on the ground.

“I asked to stay at some friends' house today, just until things calm down” explained the boy, Forrest looked even more tiny when hunched over like they were now, he looked as finished as any of them.

“Will you be okay alone there?” asked Cassidy, receiving a positive nod from the youngest, “Okay, I also need to go home, we have to keep things running with or without the old man” said the Latino. 

“You don’t have to pretend for me, Cole, I know you felt bad about it too” he said, looking at the older man with those huge emerald eyes, “Don’t forget that I know you well enough to know when you’re running away, Cassidy, I already had to take care of you while drunk, this gives me more intimacy points with you than any man or woman you have slept with, have had sex with or will have sex with in all your life” he said with a slight gleam of amusement in his eyes. 

Grace was trying hard to be positive, he looked a little better now. 

“I know, but I need my personal space, if you don’t mind” said the bigger one, messing up Grace’s curly brown locks even more, who grumbled and complained about it, “See you at home” he said goodbye tiredly. 

The smaller boy gave a brief wave and then disappeared down the hallway back towards where Gabriel's room was. Cole could only see him from afar because he was so shaken by the news, Forrest was right, he was running away from seeing him with his own eyes and was sure that the situation was real. 

That his father could die soon. 

He couldn't cry now, not when Hanzo could arrive at any moment and see him as broken up as he could be seen in a situation like this — that was totally out of bounds for him anyway — but as soon as he saw the black sedan pulling into the parking and stops in the empty space closest to him, he knew it was his cue to enter. Cole made a move to greet Hanzo by waving his hat at him, only to realize too late that he wasn't wearing it. 

“Hello, darling” he said in a hoarse voice, the morning air was still cold in his bones and he shivered slightly at that. 

“I see you haven't slept much at all” said Hanzo, waiting for the burly cowboy to settle in the seat and fasten his seat belt, “I took the liberty of bringing you a blanket, and I know that you said you didn't need it, but I also brought some of coffee and cookies.” 

Cole's eyes widened in surprise and he glanced at the backseat of the car, finding said items there, his stomach growling at the smell of freshly baked vanilla cookies and chocolate chips. 

“I was going to bring a coat, but it clearly wouldn't fit” he explained a little red, Cole thought that was adorable. 

“You have to be a hallucination,” said Cole, wrapping himself in the blanket, letting out a satisfied and relieved sigh with the warmth of the fabric wrapping his cold body, “Thank you, darling.” 

“You’re welcome” said Hanzo, driving the car out of the parking lot and starting his way through the city streets, he would have to leave Cole at the farm and that would make for a long journey. 

Hopefully he and the cowboy could spend some time alone with this, even though neither of them has said anything so far. Cole picked up the bag of cookies and dug into the contents. 

“I didn't think I was hungry until I saw that,” he said, taking some cookies and putting them in his mouth. They melted like butter and seemed to massage his tongue with the sweet taste. Cole found himself sighing and almost melting in the passenger seat as the police officer drove. 

“I thought so, when my brother was hospitalized, I was so tense that I usually forgot to eat, I only discovered I was hungry when a doctor or nurse offered something” he said empathetically, these were difficult times for him. 

“I think I can relate,” Cole replied, taking a sip of the drink, it wasn't a coffee, but a cinnamon latte that went perfectly with the cookies, “I can imagine how hard it must have been for you, Gabe kind of said.” 

Hanzo nodded.

“It’s not like it’s a secret that he’s the only family I have and care about.” said the Japanese, “But I don’t want to bother you with this matter, we have plenty of time to get to know each other, right?” he asked, something told Cassidy it was a real question. 

“Absolutely yes.” he replied, watching the streets change to the road, “It's just that when you've seen the situation once, it seems harder to believe, it seems like a nightmare that's happening all over again and I already know the ending.” said the cowboy. 

“Do you talk about your father’s illness?” Hanzo asked, Cole nodded, “May I ask what it is?” He questioned placing his hand on Cole's thigh, the Latino looked at the hand as if considering the next step before placing his own on top. 

“We just found out that he has cancer, it was a shock for everyone because he hadn't told us” he replied, absently stroking Hanzo's hand with his thumb. 

“I'm really sorry” he said holding Cassidy's hand tightly, Cole gave a sad smile. 

“Thank you, darling,” he said, returning to silence, but more comfortable this time. 

It didn't take much more than five minutes between Cassidy's directions and Hanzo to be crossing the gates of Blackwatch Ranch, he parked just in front of the porch of the main house and turned off the car, Cole still holding his hand and his eyes fixed on an invisible point. On the ground, the Japanese man was worried, but it wasn't like he could do more than that. Cole sighed before unbuckling his seatbelt and giving Hanzo a sad smile. 

“We’re here,” he said, unraveling the thin blanket and folding it into his arm to return it to the backseat. 

“Yes,” said Hanzo, “Oh, Cole?” called the older one, Cassidy looked at him, “I wanted to know if you still think it’s a good idea for us to meet up for dinner, if you want?” he suggested, Cole looked shocked at first, but a smile grew on his lips. 

“I’d still love to, darling,” he said with a smile. 

“You can call me if you need something, anything.” The Japanese man pressed one last time the hand from Cole, the cowboy leaned towards the driver's seat and gave Hanzo a kiss on the cheek, the black-haired one was disconcerted by this, but maintained his posture. 

“Thank you very much, Hanzo,” the Japanese man's name sounded like music in Cole's voice. The Latino walked away and got out of the car, leaving behind a police officer completely out of control thinking he was imagining that. 

Once he realized he was alone, Cole felt safe enough to burst into tears, clutching the red, embroidered serape that was in his late mother's trunk. 

•  

Genji was waiting for his doctor and friend at a cafe near his home. 

The cafe was relatively quiet, especially in a small town and on the weekend, and was one of the few that actually had a varied menu of sweets and savory snacks, as well as as many teas and coffees as you could imagine. Hanzo used to say that it was the only place with a decent strawberry cake that he had eaten since they had moved from Japan, and decent was the closest Hanzo would admit to liking something.

Zenyatta was one of the few friends Genji had and he felt a little strange about that, not that Zen was bad company, but since the accident, his social circle was basically limited to people he knew from the hospital or from online games. .

He and the young physiotherapist were sitting opposite each other while Zenyatta watched him curiously, Genji was restless, more than usual.

“You look distressed today, Genji” said the man with the shaved head, he takes some alcohol gel to clean his hands, Zenyatta was a little older than him and much thinner, he wasn't that big and had calm features.

“Ah, you have no idea, Sensei” he replied with his cheek resting on his hand, Genji had barely looked at his friend's face yet, his legs hadn't stopped shaking.

“Usually you’re not so downcast, there’s something bothering you and I can feel your anxiety, what happened?” asked Zenyatta casually, Genji sighed, now facing the other man, he wore a loose white shirt with a yellow string of beads around his neck.

“Yeah, I’m having… love problems ” said Genji, summarizing the situation, he saw that the owner, Mei, approached the two's table with the menus. She was wearing a cute green and orange uniform with a full skirt and ruffles and a white apron.

“That's news, I thought things were under control regarding that” Zenyatta seemed amused by the information, although it was difficult to tell with his neutral expression. 

"Hello boys! Feel free to choose calmly, today is a good day for a delicious glass of matcha with milk, if I may suggest!” said the Chinese woman excitedly smiling, Genji and Zenyatta smiled back. 

“Thank you very much, Miss Zhou.” said the oldest, taking the menu with a wave, Genji murmured a “thank you” smiling. 

They waited for Mei to walk away and Genji let his smile fade.

“Not exactly,” replied the green-haired one in a sigh, scratching the table top with his nails, “I think I finally found someone nice, but I don't even know him personally.” 

“I told you it was a bad idea for you to sign up for a dating app,” Zenyatta scolded, receiving an uncomfortable look from Genji, “Unless it wasn’t on one of those apps, I suppose?” he asked curiously, the youngest let out a nervous laugh. 

“Actually, it was playing online” he said scratching the back of his head, the monk looked at him in surprise. 

“I think you just surprised me, my friend,” he said with his hands folded under his chin. 

Genji snorted, choosing what he was going to order.

“It was a surprise for everyone, there’s just one problem” replied the Japanese man, downloading the menu. 

“Does it bother you that this person is a boy?” asked Zenyatta, confused. 

"What? Of course not, you know I never gave it much importance, you know me, Zen” he smiled provocatively, “I never refuse anything, if you know what I mean.” 

The monk took a deep breath.

“I should imagine,” he murmured calmly. 

“You know, didn’t your mother ever say it was bad to refuse food without trying it first?” he asked with a mischievous tone, the Nepali man pinched the bridge of his nose in disbelief. 

“I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that for the sake of my own sanity,” he said, outraged while Genji laughed behind his menu. 

The Japanese man was having a lot of fun seeing his doctor and friend totally unhinged by a joke like that, Genji usually used this to tease the older man until they were laughing — which was very rare — then they heard the doorbell ringing loudly when two other customers entered the cafe as the Chinese woman was taking their orders: a spiced tea with milk for Zenyatta with a vegetarian vegetable pie and a large glass of cappuccino for Genji with a generous piece of brownie with walnuts. 

“I'm telling you, mate, I would kill for a bubble tea today, you know I can't resist those things” said the tallest one, a very thin blonde with spiky hair in a black tank top and very destroyed denim shorts, a style very punk that totally clashes with the ambience. 

“Of course I know, Jamie, you didn’t stop shaking me for a second talking about it” laughed the smallest, a brunette with messy and slightly long hair, he was wearing a large denim jacket with a plush lining and black sweatpants with all stars in the same color, the back of the jacket had a huge rabbit skeleton pierced by arrows embroidered on the tissue. 

“You should get one too, it’s really good!” suggested Jamie practically bouncing in front of the counter, “Me-ei, we need your wonderful service, shorty here had a bad day.” 

“Hi Jamison” greeted Mei as she prepared and warmed up the orders of her previous customers, “Hi Forrest, long time!” said the woman, turning to the two and placing the plates on the counter. 

“Really, I didn't have much time to come here before” he said with a small shy smile, Genji felt something itching in his mind, he knew that voice from somewhere, it was too familiar to ignore. 

They got up to take the orders from the cafe counter and save Mei all the trouble of leaving the two boys waiting to bring the dishes to him and Zenyatta, Genji just didn't expect that she was already preparing the boys' orders and when it was almost arriving at the counter, Grace quickly turned around without looking back and bumped into him, accidentally covering them both with a large glass of chococcino. 

"Oh shit! I’m sorry, I’m really sorry!” shouted the smaller boy, quickly grabbing paper napkins so they could both clean themselves. 

“I’m the one who apologizes, damn it, what a mess.” replied Genji, balancing himself to clean the orange and white jacket he was wearing. 

"I am a disaster!" they both said in unison, stopping to stare at each other as Mei appeared right behind them with a mop. 

Genji's brown eyes met Grace's green ones and they both suddenly felt shy, Zenyatta had to move the green-haired one away from the counter so that the Chinese woman could clean up the puddle of coffee and chocolate that had formed under their feet. Grace was very sad when he realized that he hadn't even taken a sip of his drink before it was all over the floor. 

“It’s okay boys, don’t worry, it happens” the woman said, Jamison nodding his head in agreement with her. 

“Yeah, mate, it's okay, we'll buy you another one” said the blonde, patting the younger man's shoulders, Grace was still cleaning his jacket with the napkins. 

“I paid, it was my fault” Genji offered, taking out his wallet and taking out a note for both of them, “You can keep the change, and I'm sorry once again” repeated the Japanese man, seeing the smaller boy's cheeks getting redder. 

“Oh, thank you” he replied awkwardly, Zenyatta took the plates and Grace and Jamison their drinks before leaving the cafe, leaving the other two boys alone sitting at their previous table. 

Genji still felt the gears in his head working hard to remember where he heard that voice before, but he abandoned the thought as soon as the brownie was in his mouth. 

As soon as they were far enough away from the cafe, Jamison faced Grace with the straw still in his mouth, looking at him curiously as they walked towards the hospital where Gabe was still under observation, Fawkes lived a few blocks away from the building. 

“So, that guy was a real jerk! He bumped into you and even made you spill your coffee on the floor, if it were me, I would have made him lick it up drop by drop!” said Jamison very loudly, Grace laughed nervously. 

“He apologized, Jamie, and he also paid for the coffee, I can’t just swear at this guy.” He said, taking a sip of his coffee, the blonde's eyes narrowed at Grace. 

“Ahem, I know, that’s bullshit if you ask me, I wouldn’t mind hitting a guy even if he uses crutches” he said crossing his free arm while the other hung limply with the glass in his hand. 

“Jamie, I've had my share of fights over the weekend, besides, I think I know him from somewhere” he said scratching his face, his cheeks blushing. 

“Hmmm, you thought he was cute, didn’t you? What would your boyfriend think of that?” he asked, poking Grace's side, the smaller one flinched. 

“I already told you that Sparrow is not my boyfriend, damn it! I don’t even know his name!” he replied exasperatedly. 

“And then your brother is the socially awkward one” he said, taking a noisy sip of his bubble tea. 

Grace was silent the rest of the way, trying to remember where he knew that voice.

Chapter 5: Our little happy family

Notes:

Wow, I almost forgot to write notes for this chapter
I spent hours editing this chapter, translating and adapting things from my original language to English and now my work is over
This was the last chapter edited to remove the stain of Cassidy's old name from the story, and from now on only new chapters will be published
I hope you still want to read the story until the end

Cole ficou realmente com o coração partido. 

O cowboy passara os últimos trinta minutos sentado no chão do quarto com as costas contra a porta e a cabeça enterrada no tecido com cheiro rançoso, eles nunca tiveram coragem de lavar o serape de Miranda para não perder as memórias ou a cor original. Seus olhos estavam inchados de tanto chorar e sua cabeça latejava um pouco, mas ele não podia ficar ali o dia todo. Por mais que isso fosse tudo o que ele quisesse agora, ele tinha tarefas a fazer — senão qual era o sentido de todo aquele discurso que ele dava ao irmão sobre manter as coisas funcionando mesmo sem Gabriel?

Cole seria um hipócrita se não tentasse ao menos manter a casa em ordem. 

O cowboy cobriu os ombros com o serape de uma forma semelhante ao que ele se lembrava de ver sua mãe fazer quando ela ainda estava viva, pegou uma muda de roupa e trocou-se o mais rápido que pôde antes de ir para os currais. Havia um rebanho de novas vacas programado para chegar hoje e ele tinha que ajudar Baptiste a garantir que todas estivessem confortáveis ​​no campo antes do meio-dia, ele tinha que preparar os cavalos e ter um dos funcionários o acompanhando. Não importava quão pequeno fosse o rebanho, eles nunca saíam sozinhos para trabalhar nos campos.

Ele continuou com a mesma camisa xadrez e trocou a calça do pijama por uma calça jeans leve e surrada, que serviria para hoje, ele não queria pensar em roupa — por mais vaidoso que Cassidy fosse — a única peça de roupa que ele fazia questão de usar era o chapéu marrom surrado que ele sempre carregava para todo lugar.

Cole saiu para a varanda e quase acidentalmente tropeçando no Jefe, que estava dormindo no capacho.

“Buenos días, senhor”, disse ele, agachando-se para cumprimentar o velho pastor alemão, apenas olhou para Cole, deixando-o fazer o que quisesse com ele enquanto Cole esfregava seu pelo cinza, o latino riu, massageando as orelhas do cachorro, “Seu preguiçoso.”

Seu rabo começou a abanar com o carinho, Cole se levantou para ir embora e Jefe fez o mesmo, esticando-se para acompanhar seu dono em suas tarefas domésticas. O cowboy queria verificar seu outro animal favorito antes de fazer o resto das tarefas.

Reaper estava inquieto.

O cavalo corria desesperadamente e Baptiste não conseguia entender o que havia acontecido com ele, observando-o enquanto enchia seu cocho com comida.

Ele estava correndo em círculos ao redor do cercado e não parecia que iria parar tão cedo. O veterinário se afastou do cercado com os braços cruzados, tentando entender o que ele estava tentando fazer, quando Cassidy se aproximou dele com o Jefe ao seu lado.

“Ei, Jean, o que aconteceu com meu cavalo?” Cassidy perguntou, os dois homens ficaram lado a lado para assistir, Baptiste coçou o queixo tão confuso quanto ele.

“Eu sei tanto quanto você, ele está correndo por aí desse jeito desde que cheguei”, disse o veterinário, dando de ombros, “Aconteceu alguma coisa? Não vi o Sr. Reyes ou o Sr. Morrison pela casa, parecia que não tinha ninguém lá.”

Cassidy cavou o chão com o calcanhar antes de responder, tentando encontrar as palavras certas.

“Eles não chegarão até a tarde, tivemos uma emergência, eles estão no hospital”, respondeu o cowboy, Baptiste assentiu, “Papai vai ficar de cama por um tempo, eu acho.”

“Você já contou para sua irmã?” ele perguntou preocupado, Cole fechou os olhos com força.

“Deixe Olivia fora disso por enquanto, ok? Ela não precisa saber”, Cassidy pediu.

“Você sabe que ela encontrará uma maneira de descobrir, é melhor você contar a ela do que a alguém de fora da família”, aconselhou o veterinário. Cassidy balançou a cabeça.

“E quem vai contar a ela? Você?” ele resmungou, Baptiste não respondeu, “Você foi quem contou a ela sobre o Reaper, não foi?”

"Eu nunca disse que não fui eu", Baptiste deu de ombros, Cassidy olhou para ele com um olhar traído no rosto, "Mas, falando sério, ela precisa saber, vocês todos têm que estar juntos nisso, eu digo porque eu conheço você, Cassidy." Ele se aproxima do cercado de Reaper, o cavalo ainda inquieto e galopando sem parar, "Você vai precisar de toda a ajuda que precisar, e eu posso ajudar, eu sei que Olivia também pode."

“Eu sei disso”, disse Cole, sacudindo a poeira que se levantou quando Reaper passou por eles novamente, “Obrigado pelo conselho, mas temos um monstrinho para acalmar.”

Cassidy se aproximou da cerca enquanto Jean se afastava, ele pulou a cerca e entrou no cercado de Reaper, o cavalo se assustou quando ele entrou em seu caminho e empinou, jogando as patas para cima e recuando enquanto Cole esticava os braços para os lados e para cima, tentando acalmar o cavalo.

“Uau, calma aí, campeão!” O cowboy esticou os braços para os lados e esperou o garanhão se aproximar, bufando e balançando a cabeça, “O que você tem?” ele perguntou, sentindo Reaper cheirá-lo e acariciar o lado de sua cabeça.

Cole segurou a cabeça entre as mãos, era assim que fazia com todos os outros cavalos quando estavam muito excitados — mas especialmente com Reaper —, segurando suas orelhas e olhando em seus olhos pretos-oliva, Cole puxou a cabeça do cavalo contra seu peito e sentiu o animal bufar várias vezes em sua barriga, cada uma mais lenta e relaxada que a anterior, levou a mão à testa e removeu os pelos grossos e pretos da frente dos olhos do cavalo para poder observá-los melhor.

Reaper ficou parado, praticamente imóvel enquanto Cole sentia seu coração desacelerar e se acalmar, ele fechou os olhos e sentiu cada som e cheiro ao seu redor.

Ele podia sentir a respiração do cavalo em seu corpo, seu batimento cardíaco, o calor irradiando de seu pelo, seus cascos ocasionalmente chutando e batendo na terra abaixo deles. Cole beijou a testa do cavalo várias vezes antes de sentir que ele estava mais calmo e ele não conseguia dizer se era ele quem acalmava Reaper ou se Reaper era quem o acalmava. 

Baptiste ficou surpreso ao ver o animal demonstrando tanto carinho por Cassidy.

“Eu também estava preocupado, garoto.” ele disse respirando no mesmo ritmo do cavalo, Reaper deu um tapinha em seu peito e Cole riu, “Eu sei, eu sei, ele vai ficar bem.” disse Cole, encostando sua testa completamente na do animal, acariciando seu focinho e pescoço, “Eles devem pensar que eu sou louco, falando com um cavalo.” 

Reaper bufou como se estivesse ofendido e empurrou Cassidy para frente com força, para longe de seus braços. Cole riu antes de se afastar e pular a cerca de volta para onde Baptiste e Jefe ainda estavam. 

“Você realmente é a única pessoa que esse demônio deixa cuidar dele, se eu tivesse tentado fazer isso, ele teria me pisoteado até não sobrar nada.” disse o haitiano, acariciando o lado do Jefe, o cão com a língua de fora e apreciando o carinho. 

“Eu sou bom com cavalos.” ​​Cole disse com um simples encolher de ombros. 

•  

Cole e Baptiste estavam levando as vacas para o curral onde elas ficariam quando viram um enorme SUV preto se aproximando da propriedade de longe, deixando um rastro de poeira fina e leve para trás.

O carro seguiu direto para os portões principais da fazenda. Cole cerrou os dentes.

Ele reconheceu aquele caminhão.

Só havia uma pessoa no mundo que teria a audácia de aparecer ali sem convite.

Os dois garotos se aproximaram do portão a cavalo, Baptiste com uma expressão tão severa quanto a de Cole quando viram o caminhão se aproximar e estacionar bem na entrada da propriedade e um homem alto e musculoso saiu dele com seu impecável terno de linho branco e seus luxuosos óculos escuros espelhados, as mãos de Cassidy agarraram as rédeas de Pharah com força enquanto ele olhava para o homem e seu motorista se aproximando deles, ele se sentia como se estivesse em um filme de faroeste, o próprio Clint Eastwood pronto para defender sua casa dos bandidos.

"O que esse cara está fazendo aqui?" rosnou Cassidy, Baptiste parado ao lado dele e Soldier também confuso.

O homem abriu os braços e parou perto dos cavalos.

“Olá, Cassidy, eu estava esperando conhecer outra pessoa hoje.” O cowboy apertou os olhos e cerrou o maxilar.

“O que você quer aqui, Akande? Estamos cansados ​​de repetir, Blackwatch não está à venda e nunca estará, as rejeições telefônicas não foram o suficiente ou você precisa de humilhação pública para entender?” Cole perguntou, sem descer do cavalo.

Akande Ogundimu era pelo menos uma cabeça mais alto que Cole e muito mais atarracado e musculoso. O homem era dono de um conglomerado agrícola chamado Talon e eles eram um dos maiores produtores de grãos da região. Não era mais o primeiro e provavelmente não seria a última vez que ele tentaria entrar na Fazenda Blackwatch e sair com a escritura em mãos, mas tanto ele quanto Gabriel estavam inflexíveis sobre a venda. 

Se ele estava aqui pessoalmente, era porque era importante ou ele estava desesperado.

“Na verdade, eu vim para lidar diretamente com o Sr. Reyes,” ele disse, andando calmamente ao redor, Cassidy desceu de Pharah e entregou as rédeas para Baptiste, só então Akande pareceu notar sua presença, “E olha quem está aqui? Eu pensei que você viria correndo de volta para nós quando não conseguisse encontrar nada melhor, mas parece que eu estava errado.” 

O haitiano cerrou os punhos enquanto segurava as rédeas dos dois cavalos. Cassidy se posicionou na frente de Baptiste, ficando entre os dois antes que ele dissesse alguma coisa. 

“Se você veio aqui só para ofender a todos e acha que isso vai nos fazer vender nossas terras para você, lamento informá-lo, mas você veio ao lugar errado, senhor ”, disse Cassidy, com fingido respeito, “Baptiste não tem nada a ver com o que você e meu pai negociaram, ele tem sido um funcionário exemplar desde que chegou, então sugiro que tenha um pouco mais de respeito pelas pessoas que trabalham aqui além do Sr. Reyes.”

Jean cruzou os braços sobre o peito.

“Você ouviu o homem”, disse o veterinário, “O que você realmente quer aqui? Se você quer falar com alguém responsável pela fazenda, é melhor falar com Cassidy, Reyes ficará fora por alguns dias e, enquanto isso, é com ele que você fala.”

Akande deixou sua mão enorme descansar no lado esquerdo do peito.

“Ah, eu não sabia que Reyes estava doente”, disse Akande, parecendo prestar condolências a Cole. “Uma grande tragédia, de fato.”

Isso fez as narinas de Cassidy se dilatarem.

“Primeiro, Akande, meu pai está bem vivo, muito obrigado.” ele disse entre dentes, aproximando-se do homem com o dedo apontado para seu peito, “E segundo, ele ainda não está em um túmulo para você aparecer aqui falando como se estivesse.” Cole caminhou até ficar praticamente cara a cara com Ogundimu, um fogo selvagem em seus olhos, “Se você não quer que eu expulse você e seu assistente daqui a tiros, sugiro que deixe a propriedade da minha família .”

 Akande riu do homem mais jovem e simplesmente andou ao redor dele. Baptiste teve que descer do cavalo e agarrar o braço de Cole antes que ele fosse até o outro homem.

“Eu não queria parecer desrespeitoso, garoto, mas parece que essa propriedade vai acabar sendo minha de alguma forma” ele parou na frente dos dois, Akande tirou os óculos escuros para limpá-los com um lenço que carregava no bolso, “E quer você goste ou não, Baptiste vai acabar trabalhando para mim novamente quando esse lugar for meu.”

 “Só nos seus sonhos, Akande.” Augustin disse, soltando o braço de Cole, o cowboy ajustou sua camisa enquanto observava o ex-lutador andar pela propriedade como se avaliasse o lugar, “Se você já disse o que veio dizer, sugiro que vá embora, você não poderá falar com Reyes hoje, ele não está lá.” Jean colocou seu corpo na frente de Akande e Cassidy o imitou.

“E mesmo que fosse, a resposta ainda é não”, acrescenta Cole.

Os dois praticamente formavam um muro ao lado dos cavalos, em frente à casa da família. 

Akande assentiu e se virou para o caminhão preto, não parecendo muito satisfeito, mas ainda aceitando o que os dois garotos lhe disseram. Ele chamou seu assistente e os dois ficaram parados observando Ogundimu entrar no veículo e começar a dirigir de volta para fora dos portões.

Jean respirou fundo antes de balançar a cabeça. 

Antes de sair, o homem abaixa a janela para falar com Cassidy.

“Por enquanto, você quer dizer, Cole Cassidy,” a voz estrondosa disse acima do motor, “Quando você estiver desesperado pelo dinheiro, vamos conversar novamente.” completou Akande, finalmente saindo dos portões.

Quando o enorme veículo estava longe o suficiente na estrada que levava ao Rancho Blackwatch, Cole percebeu que ele e Jean-Baptiste ainda estavam parados lado a lado em silêncio, ainda tensos com a conversa que tinham acabado de ter com o antigo combatente. 

“Então, você trabalhou para eles?” Cole perguntou, o haitiano suspirou pesadamente. 

“Sim”, ele disse, parecendo envergonhado, “trabalhei lá por alguns meses, mas a ética de trabalho deles não era para mim”, explicou. 

“E você se arrepende?” Cassidy perguntou. 

“Todos os dias da minha vida”, respondeu Jean. 

•  

Dias como aquele sempre foram o inferno pessoal de Genji, eram os dias em que ele passava praticamente o dia inteiro no hospital e cercado por agulhas, eletrodos e fios conectados por todo o corpo, era doloroso e mais doloroso ainda quando terminava a sessão de fisioterapia, o japonês de cabelos verdes sentia que não ia a lugar nenhum com tudo isso. Já fazia pouco mais de um ano e meio, quase completando o segundo, mas ele mal conseguia ficar de pé sozinho depois do acidente. 

Ele se sentia um inválido e um fardo na vida de todos. 

“Puta merda!” ele gritou, jogando a garrafa que estava em sua mão com toda a força, a garrafa de água quicou no chão e rolou em direção aos pés de Zenyatta. 

"Vamos, Genji, dê um passo, você consegue fazer isso sozinho." disse Mondatta, irmão de Zenyatta, os dois eram muito parecidos, pareciam gêmeos idênticos e iriam mexer com a cabeça dele se Genji não soubesse que ele era o irmão mais velho. 

“Não consigo,” rosnou o mais novo, com as mãos tremendo enquanto tentava forçar o corpo para cima, “Não consigo, isso não funciona!” ele gritou frustrado, ele mal tinha conseguido subir até a metade das barras hoje, o mais velho insistia que ele desse alguns passos sozinho. 

“Acho que já chega por hoje, irmão.” Zen interveio, Genji suspirou aliviado e caiu quase violentamente onde estava sentado. “Ele está exausto.” Genji esfregou os olhos com o polegar e o indicador, as lágrimas insistindo em fluir de vez em quando. “É sensato que você descanse hoje, Genji.” Zenyatta disse, sentando-se ao lado dele em um banco. 

O japonês bufou. Andar parecia tão simples antes do acidente — apenas colocar um pé na frente do outro e repetir — e agora essa era a tarefa mais dolorosa que ele poderia fazer naquele dia.

“Eu vou, sensei.” ele disse com os olhos fixos no chão, Zenyatta o ajudou a se levantar e se trocar no vestiário antes de ir para casa. 

A viagem foi como qualquer dia normal, até mesmo um domingo. 

Hanzo o pegou logo depois do trabalho, mas ele parecia um pouco mais disperso e menos mal-humorado do que sua personalidade amarga de costume — mesmo com aquela pequena ruga de preocupação no canto da boca — e Genji imaginou que talvez tivesse a ver com sua ida repentina ao café de Mei naquela manhã, ele sabia que tinha algo a ver com aquele homem sobre quem Hanzo havia lhe falado. 

Foi por isso que ele também combinou com Zen de encontrá-lo antes da sessão de fisioterapia — uma tortura, se perguntarem — Hanzo não estava em casa e não poderia levá-lo. 

Aquilo o lembrou de outra coisa, ele não tinha visto seu celular vibrar o dia todo e não sabia se Rabbit estava bem, ele queria contar ao garoto sobre o acidente no café e como seu dia só tinha se transformado em sucessivas situações desconfortáveis ​​desde então, ele só queria chegar à segurança de sua casa e afundar nos travesseiros macios de sua cama. 

[12:40 pm|Coelho Preto]: Ei 

[12:40 pm|Coelho Preto]: Pardal, algo muito ruim aconteceu 

[12:42 pm|Coelho Preto]: Papai está no hospital, estamos totalmente devastados

[13h40|Coelho Preto]: Espero que esteja tudo bem 

[13h41|Coelho Preto]: Sério, estou preocupado 

[13h50|Coelho Preto]: Se você não responder às mensagens, chamarei a polícia atrás de você! >:( 

[Mensagem apagada] 

[14h02|Coelho Preto]: Eu te insultei, me desculpe! 

[14h03|Coelho Preto]: Esqueci que hoje era seu check-up médico </3 

[14h04|Coelho Preto]: Sinto muito, por favor, não fique chateado 

[14h05|Coelho Preto]: Me ligue quando puder conversar :( 

Isso aconteceu há uma hora e Rabbit havia verificado o Whatsapp há apenas alguns minutos, Genji ficou chocado com todas aquelas mensagens. 

"É seu namorado?" Hanzo perguntou curiosamente, Genji suspirou lendo as últimas quatro mensagens. 

"Sim", ele cora quando percebe que deu a resposta errada, o sorriso de Hanzo fica ainda mais largo, "Quero dizer, não, não, Rabbit não é-" 

“Não é seu namorado, eu entendi as últimas quatorze vezes que você disse isso.” respondeu o mais velho. 

Aquela situação já estava ficando ridícula e Genji sabia disso tanto quanto Hanzo ou qualquer um de seus amigos mais próximos, ele não podia mais negar que havia algo entre ele e seu amigo misterioso, mas como ele poderia estar apaixonado por alguém sem nunca ter visto seu rosto e nunca sequer perguntado seu nome verdadeiro? Aquela era uma situação complicada, mas ele mesmo era quem estava dificultando. 

Deixando esses pensamentos de lado, suas costas doíam muito com todo o esforço que ele havia feito hoje, principalmente por se movimentar com muletas por tanto tempo, ele colocou seu celular no carregador e suspirou cansado antes de se deitar na cama, felizmente a tomada estava perto o suficiente para que ele pudesse usar o aparelho enquanto ele carregava, ele achou que seria uma boa ideia ligar para seu amigo. 

Não demorou mais do que alguns toques para que o menino mais velho atendesse. 

"E aí, tudo bem?", disse o japonês docemente. 

“Thank God, it's you” replied Rabbit's voice, sounding relieved, “I thought something had happened, you don't usually stay out all day without sending any messages, but then I remembered what day it was” sighed the boy. 

Genji signed too.

“Today was the monthly check-up, it was hell” he said, curling up on the bed, “I just got home, I was really worried about you, I received your messages” the Japanese man bit his lip before continuing, “How is your father?” 

“My dad?” The boy needed a moment and a sigh to calm down and answer the question, “He's really sick, but we're trying to find treatment for him, looking for doctors…” The smaller one also seemed very worried.

“I imagine this is all horrible, babe” said Genji, wanting to hug Rabbit in that second.

“And how are you?” he asked, changing the subject, Black Rabbit knew that his day when this happened was always the worst possible. 

“Not good, to be honest,” said Genji sincerely.

He didn't receive any response, the Japanese man thought the call had dropped before realizing that the photo of the coffee cup was still on the screen and the small green strip was still flashing to show that they were still on a call.

“Rabbit?” 

“Open your Spotify, I sent you something there that you need to hear, I always listen to this song when I feel sad” said the boy, his voice suggesting a smile. 

Genji immediately looked for his laptop somewhere in the mess of his room and found it — fortunately — near his bed, he opened the app tab and then the messages and notifications, the Japanese man was initially confused by what he saw on the tab because he didn't think that was his friend's usual type of music, but he clicked on it anyway. 

When the song started, he understood why Black Rabbit wanted him to hear it. 

It was Towards the Sun, by Rihanna.

When the song ended, Genji's face was wet with tears and the call hadn't even ended yet. 

“So? Did you like it? Please tell me you're not mad or upset” Rabbit begged, Genji wanted to kiss the boy right now and tell him that he was the most precious little thing in his life. 

“Thank you, babe” said Genji, “Thank you, I don’t even know how to thank you.” he swallowed. 

“Buy me a coffee and we’re even.” laughed the older one, he seemed so happy simply with Genji's happiness which was sweet and touching in every way he knew. 

“On Friday then?” the green-haired boy said, without even thinking, he could hear the other catch his breath. 

“Forrest, who are you talking out there? Oh my-” he heard a female voice call. 

Forrest? 

So that was the name of the mystery player? 

Before Genji could have a response, the call had already ended and the boy simply disappeared, he recognized that voice…

“Wait a minute, Hana?” shouted Genji, eyes wide, “Does Hana know Rabbit? And she never told me?” gasped the youngest. 

Hanzo soon appeared at the door without understanding anything, Genji staring at the phone with his eyebrows so furrowed that they looked like just a long line above his younger brother's narrow eyes.

“Is there a problem, Otouto?” Hanzo asked confusedly, Genji shook the phone up and down in his hand. 

“I think I know who knows Black Rabbit.” he replied thoughtfully. 

•  

Gabriel was nervous about the conversation he knew they needed to have between themselves. 

He and Jack were in an almost awkward silence inside the car and Gabriel was starting to feel that this was the worst thing that could happen now, Jack had his eyes fixed on the road in front of them and wouldn't look away for anything, the Latino placed his hand on his thigh and Jack seemed to jump with barely contained fright, but then relaxed. 

“Cariño” called Gabriel, “I'm sorry you had to find out like this, I really don't even know where to begin to apologize to you or the boys” began the Mexican, Jack quickly looked away from Gabe, returning to the road the next moment. 

“I don't want any apologizes about this, Gabe, I wanted you to trust me to tell me this, the same way I trust you” he said shuddering, he had to stop the car on the side of the road, “For God’s sake, if anything happened thing with you, me and the boys would be devastated!” 

“I know, I was an idiot” admitted Reyes, “Cole and I have been through this before, I know it would be scary for him and I wanted to spare you and the boys from seeing what I saw from Miranda” he said in a Sigh. 

“And you preferred to die in silence rather than asking for help?” asked Jack angrily, his fist clenched and hitting Reyes' chest hard, "Is this what you wanted, Gabriel?" 

"No, it was not!" he exclaimed in fright, gently holding Jack's hands, the blonde starting to give in and bent over the passenger seat, crying, "Jackie…" 

“We're going to get a second opinion, whether you want it or not, I'm not going to let you die like this” he said sobbing, Gabriel trying to comfort him as best he could, “Don't you dare.” 

“You are very optimistic if you think you can get rid of me that easily, Jack,” said Gabriel laughing, receiving a punch on his thigh as punishment, “Ow!” 

“Don't you even think about doing that kind of joke in front of me now, Gabriel Reyes, or I swear to God I'll break every bone in your body, damn it” he said angrily, Gabe laughed even more. 

“Oh, don't be like that, cariño” he said, bending over Jack to kiss his cheek, his goatee tickling his skin as Jack tried to push his face away with his hands, “I'll look into that second opinion you said, but these things cost money, Jack, and that’s something we don’t have as much of now.” 

Jack sighed, giving in to the affection Gabriel was giving him.

“Yeah, I know, that's why we need to talk to the boys as soon as we get home,” said Morrison, cowered, forgetting for a second where they were. 

“Let's leave the worrying about things at home for when we get home, Jackie, I know you're exhausted, I wouldn't mind driving home” Gabriel offered with a compassionate look at his husband. 

Jack rubbed his eyes, he hadn't even had time to cry about everything he had trapped in his chest and it was as if he would explode at any moment if he was left alone or in silence, the blonde sat down again with his back against the back of the bench and started crying, Gabriel hugged him and they stayed like that until Jack was able to speak again without sobbing. 

The Latino was absentmindedly humming in Spanish, something Jack didn't even understand the words to, but he totally understood the tone he was using with himself, the same tone he used every time they were just enjoying each other's company on sunny summer afternoons and lazy times on the porch, or when he wanted to calm Jack down after a particularly difficult call. 

“Everything will be fine, mi amor, everything will be fine, I promise for the soul of my late mother” said Reyes kissing the top of Jack's blonde hair, the youngest rubbing his face against Gabriel's biceps. 

“Poor soul, it’s doomed” Jack said jokingly, Gabriel rolled his eyes. 

“I thought jokes about this were prohibited” he grumbled, patting his back, Jack freed himself from Gabriel's arms. 

“For you, yes, that doesn’t apply to me, however,” said Jack, poking the tip of his husband’s nose with his finger. Gabe laughed sarcastically, but his bad mood didn’t last much longer than until the moment Jack stole a kiss from his lips. 

The rest of the drive was calmly silent, with Gabriel taking the wheel — stubbornly, by the way — and Jack holding tight to his hand as if he would escape if he let go, even as Gabriel insisted that he needed both hands to steer their car. 

“Ready to talk to them?” Jack asked once they were parked outside the main house. 

“Ready when you are, cariño” said Gabriel kissing Jack's cheek. 

They got out of the car and entered the house. 

•  

As soon as Forrest arrived with Hana and Lúcio, Cole knew that there was something strange with his younger brother, the Korean woman was looking very guilty in his opinion, even if the Brazilian didn't share the same aura of guilt — he seemed really oblivious to the matter — and when their eyes met before he walked through the door, Cole knew that should be a topic for another time. 

“We brought him safe and sound, as promised” said the youngest with a wide smile and a hand on Grace's back, his brother looked at Cole and the oldest understood the hint. 

“Okay, thanks, but you don't need all that” said Cole, holding Forrest's shoulder and leading him inside, Lúcio saluted with two fingers on the temple and then in the air, “Still, thanks, boys.” 

“Hey, take it” said Lúcio, he threw something to the smallest of the three, “To see if it cheers you up a bit.” 

“Is that a pachimari keychain?” asked the confused boy, looking at the keychain in his hands. Lúcio just nodded. 

“Yeah, how do you know? I found him lost at home and I thought you would like it, you seemed sad since we left, so de nada!” he said with an even brighter smile, his dreadlocks bouncing with the little jumps he made in place. 

“Thanks, Lu, really” said Grace with a small smile, Cassidy still analyzing the situation, Hana remained silent and looking guilty in her corner. 

“Look, Forrest, I wanted to apologize,” said the girl, approaching the smaller, “I didn't mean to do that, I didn't know it was a delicate… subject for you.” 

Forrest sighed, seeming to consider the girl's words, he extended his arms to her and Hana hugged him.

“I'm not mad at you, Hana, really” he said in a calmer voice, the two stayed at the door for a while before hearing Jamison's horn blares loudly at the gate. 

“Still friends?” Hana asked. 

“Always, Hana,” Forrest said, shaking the girl, “Thanks for letting me stay there until things calm down.” 

“You’re welcome, everything for our friend” said Lúcio, joining the hug. 

The three said goodbye briefly after parting ways and Jamison took them back to the city, Cole however was curious. 

“Hey” called Cassidy before the youngest disappeared up the stairs, “What happened between you and Hana?” asked the confused cowboy, Grace looked at the ceiling and then at Cole, as if considering what to answer to the question. 

“After dinner I’ll explain, now we have other things to worry about” he said, slowly climbing the stairs again. 

Once Gabriel was home and safe, Jack demanded a family meeting. 

“You know why I want to talk to all of you, don’t you?” asked Jack once Cole, Gabe and Forrest were sitting with him at the table, “Starting with you Gabe, why did you lie to us?” 

Gabriel lowered his head and scratched his cheek, a little uncomfortable with that subject and knowing exactly where Jack was going.

“Jackie, with all due respect, I didn't want any of you involved in this” replied the Mexican, Cole narrowed his eyes at his father. 

“And you intended to tell us when? When you die?” asked Cole, from the look his father gave him, it looked like he had hit the nail on the head, “You have to be kidding me” he said between his teeth. 

“Hijo, I never wanted to give any of you a hard time, and that's life, parents die before their children, people die all the time” he replied with a shrug, the look Jack gave him said he had given the wrongest answer among all possible choices. 

“Did you think that when Mama died?” Cole cut in sarcastically. 

Gabriel swallowed, his lip quivering at the corner as he responded.

“No, it was not.” 

“Then why should I think that of you, old man?” Cole's eyes were fixed on his father, Gabriel looked away and wiped a stubborn tear from the corner of his eye. 

“And what was your plan?” asked Jack, “Were you just going to do what Moira said and die in front of us, hoping no one would notice and leave us like that? No explanation and a pile of debts?” 

“Of course not, damn it!” replied Gabriel, punching the table, the three got scared and jumped at that, “I'm negotiating to sell the farm to the Talon Conglomerate.” 

That explained why Akande was there in the morning before everyone else. 

“What?” Asked at the same time, Cole stood up abruptly from the table and began to shout in Spanish, “¿Volverse loco? ¿Quieres que nos sintamos aquí y aceptemos que mueres así? ¿Y vender todo lo que tienes a estos tipos que van a destruirlo todo y plantar quién sabe qué?” 

“Cole, in a language everyone understands, please.” asked Jack with all the remaining self-control he had left. 

“He can’t sell the farm to a bunch of people in suits who have never even stepped foot in a pen full of cow shit!” said Cassidy, still out of control, Jack hit the table with the palm of his hand. 

“Language, Cole, for God’s sake!” scolded the blonde, the brunette threw himself back into the chair. 

Cole sighed heavily. 

“I have my savings” said Forrest in a tone of voice so low they almost didn't hear, as if he suddenly felt like a little mouse at the dinner table, “I've been saving for a while, in the beginning it was all so I could get out of here as quickly as possible and not disturb you, but then you and Jack offered the attic and said you would take care of everything I needed… and adopt me” the boy scratched the back of his arm. 

Gabriel just looked at the youngest, he was really very confused about the whole money thing.

“How long have you been keeping this, chico?” he asked, shocked. 

“Since the first payment, I've never spent more than a hundred dollars and Cole's old clothes have always fit well” he said with a shrug, “I might have about eighty thousand in my account now, I was going to save it until I could have my surgery or pay for the treatment alone” he said, looking embarrassed. 

Cole's jaw dropped, dropping the toothpick he had in his mouth in the process. 

Gabe's eyes filled with tears like two pools of shiny tar.

“No, I can't accept that, and even so, I still need a lot more money, boys,” he said, trying to swallow the tears. 

“Oh, shut up” said Cole rolling his eyes at his father, “It's the least we can do after all the work you had to do to raise us and all that” the cowboy took another toothpick from his pocket, Forrest did a disgusted grimace at that, “Besides, the regional rounds are coming up, I can sign up for a rodeo again; right?" 

All eyes at the table turned to him and none of them seemed happy with what Cassidy said. 

“Cole, you promised you would never ride a bull again in your life, it was agreed, we almost lost you” said Jack pinching the bridge of his nose. 

“E você, seu braço! Fratura exposta, ou você esqueceu tudo o que aconteceu em Houston?” Grace perguntou, algo lhe dizia que era uma pergunta retórica. 

“ Claro, o Rodeio de Houston ”, pensou Cassidy, “ Como eu poderia esquecer a última vez que montei em um touro ?” 

Cole suspirou novamente e tirou o chapéu da cabeça para jogá-lo na mesa.

"Não vou quebrar minha promessa, mas também não disse que necessariamente tinha que montar em um touro, disse?" ele perguntou com um sorriso malicioso, Forrest olhou para ele com olhos de águia, "Vou competir nas provas de cavalos." 

“Ah sim? E com que cavalo?” Gabriel perguntou. 

“Reaper, qual mais?” respondeu Cassidy. 

Agora todos olhavam para aquilo como se Cole tivesse realmente enlouquecido. 

Chapter 6: I think he likes you

Notes:

I know it's been a while
I've been facing some problems since the last update, with Cassidy's name changing and having to take a break to review everything I've published, mainly because it's not in my first language, it took a lot of time and effort
Plus, I was stuck on my term paper research for about two years - that ruins anyone's sanity
I'm editing and translating the other chapters now, 6 is a completely new chapter, but the others will undergo republication and updates
Dark Horse will not be incomplete - pinky promise

“The answer is still no!” Gabriel said, slamming his fist on the table hard, Cole pacing from side to side while huffing like an angry bull, “You said you would never compete again, it was a promise, you swore on your mother's grave!”  

“Papa, I know what I said: I said I would never ride a bull again in my life and I'm keeping my promise” said Cole, standing and leaning forward, facing Gabriel's furious figure. 

“Oh yeah, you're not going to ride a bull, but you're going to ride a fucking demon with hooves?” growled the oldest, Gabriel stopped to cough and raised a finger as if to say “ I’m not finished yet ”.

“And who do you think you are to say anything about my decisions, Gabriel Reyes?” Cole pointed out “You're dying standing up and you still want to talk about me? Did you hide everything that happened from your own children, and worst of all, from Jack? From your own husband?”

“Don't bring Jack into this argument, pendejo, or I swear to God I'll knock your teeth out with the worst slap you'll ever receive in your life” he said pointing his finger in Cole's direction, Gabriel winced in another coughing fit and the son held him by the shoulders.

“Stop being stubborn, old man, besides, you're not in position to deny anyone’s help right now” he looks for the glass bottle that Gabe kept with water on his desk in the office, he pours the glass and holds it out to his father.

“And who will take care of me? You?” he said around the edge of the glass, taking a few sips, Cole nodded his head “Great, this way I'll die an even quicker death.”

“How funny” Cole grumbled “But I'm serious, dad, I'm going to sign up for regionals and who knows, if I do well enough, I might go to state!” he pleaded.

“Mijo, I know that money is important and that you want to help, but I can't let any of my children die, Cole, you almost died” said Gabriel holding his arm. 

Cole sighed heavily, understanding what Gabriel was getting at. 

It wasn't just an unfounded worry, it was a real worry about something that had already happened and they both knew it was very dangerous — not just because Cole was their son, but because it was a really dangerous work — one thing it’s to work on the farm in that he often had to expose himself to dangerous situations involving animals, it was quite another to deliberately put himself at risk for uncertain money when he already had a serious previous injury — apart from the fact that he would, of all choices, ride the horse the most skittish of the entire ranch. 

Gabe couldn't allow one of his sons to take such a risk.

Mainly for him.

“I promise I'll come back safe and sound, I'll take all the care I can, old man” assured Cole, Gabriel left a few affectionate pats on his arm with that.

“There's no way I can change your mind, is there?” asked the older man amused, Cole smiled back.

“Nope, no way”.

“But what about the registration money? How do you plan to get to Houston and stay there?” Gabriel asked sternly “We already have a big money problem, Cole, we can't spend another penny.”

“Forrest wasn't the only one saving money, you know? I don't have anyone to spend it on besides my old Papa and my little brothers” Cole pressed his hat to his chest, as if he was very sad about what he was saying, Reyes rolled his eyes.

“So, if you have everything under control, get out of my sight, I need to rest, you little shit” said Gabriel, reclining his office chair, crossing his ankles and arms behind his head “Tell Jack he can come if he wants, but I need a minute before I leave here.”

“Got you, old man,” Cassidy replied, leaving the room.

He didn't have to walk far to bump into Forrest, sitting on the floor with Jefe and looking lost at a small keychain in his hand, turning from side to side while his other hand stroked the dog's head.

Jefe raised his ears to greet him and Forrest looked at him from the ground.

Cassidy joined them.

“I couldn't talk to you after the hospital” he said, his hand going straight to his brother's hair “What's that face? You look sad.”

“I had an argument with Hana, she didn't know I was on the phone with Sparrow and called my real name, I don't know if he heard, but I was so embarrassed that I hung up” he said, his gaze still lost on the keychain “Then I freaked out.”

Cole looked at him without really understanding the reason for the fight, it seemed like a very irrelevant reason for the two of them to end up fighting with each other, but he knew that everything that had to do with this Sparrow was a delicate matter for Grace, Cole shook his head in disbelief and then he put his hand on Forrest's shoulder, squeezing it lightly.

“You apologized to her, that's what matters, right?” said the cowboy, Grace nodded, leaning his head on Cassidy's shoulder.

“Yeah” he said in a low voice “It's just that I'm afraid he won't like me if he really gets to know me, you know, like other guys.”

“If he does that, I'll be happy to give him a good kick in the balls,” said Cassidy. Forrest laughed a little awkwardly, knowing that the joke had a grain of truth and that Cole was fully capable of doing that if he realized that Sparrow hurt his feelings.

He tangled his fingers around the keychain in his hand, squeezing the soft, tentacled foam ball before saying what was really worrying him.

“And I heard the conversation behind the door” he confessed “Are you going to Houston alone? For the rodeo?”

“No, of course not” he says, with a gentle smile at Forrest “I would never go anywhere without my faithful squire, you go with me.”

Forrest let out a wide smile, his bright little eyes stared at Cassidy with such joy that he knew he was making the right decision in not excluding him from his plan to save his father and the ranch.

•  

Genji faced the door of the dorms with a determined expression on his face.

The Japanese wanted to surprise Hana at a time when she was at home alone so they could talk just the two of them, he knew that Lena had a very long tongue and would let the conversation slip to someone who shouldn't have — perhaps Emily — and that Lúcio — even if he was a born gossiper and a very reliable source — I would never let slip the things he was going to ask.

That was why he was in front of Dva's door at that time of night, after convincing Hanzo to leave him there, "it's a matter of life and death" said Genji, "I really need to talk to a friend of mine, it's important".

He had to tell Hanzo that something very serious had happened to Rabbit and that he needed to resolve it as quickly as possible. It was the only thing that would convince the older man to let him leave, but he didn't give many details about what had happened to him without exposing his friend, Hanzo agreed to leave him at his friends' house and asked Genji to let him know when he was going to pick him up or if he was going to stay the night — which he agreed to without reluctance. Genji waited patiently on the doorstep until Hana came to answer, he pressed the doorbell and stood there, staring with a frown that rivaled his brother's in his scolding moments.

“Gosh, what a heck!” she exclaimed, with one hand tightly pressing her chest, the much larger red and black striped football shirt almost covered her mesh shorts “What are you doing here?”

“I came because I need you to tell me the truth, it's going to drive me crazy if no one tells me what's going on” he said, trying to enter, Hana tried to close the door, but Genji used his crutch to prevent the Korean from closing the door on his face “Tell me this isn't a joke that you agreed on and have been fooling me with for two months.”

“What are you talking about, you freak?” she asked, really worried “Are you drunk?”

“No, I’m not, and I know it was your voice on the call with Rabbit” said Genji, Hana stopped pushing the door “Why did he hang up so suddenly when you called him?”

Hana sighed, opening the door and letting him in, Genji slowly entered the house and walked towards the pallet sofa in the middle of the room, Hana closed the door and sat on the pink puff that was on the opposite wall, next to another green puff much like the one Genji had in his own room.

“I knew that at some point this would happen, he's still very upset with me, by the way” she said, picking up the can of energy drink that was abandoned on the floor, it looked like she was drinking it before he arrived “Look, I messed up, I didn't know that he was talking to you and he told me that I never should do this in front of you, because he wanted to tell you himself.”

Genji could understand what she was saying.

“But why is he so afraid of me?” asked Genji, confused. “At first I understood that it was because we were two strangers, but when you called him and he hung up on me, I thought it was a joke on me or something.”

“No, carrots, relax” Hana took a long sip of her drink “No one here is making fun of your face, I think he really likes you.”

This made Genji's heart race in a way he didn't even remember was possible.

“So what's the problem?” Genji rested his cheek on his hand and his elbow on his knee. “Why is he so embarrassed to meet me?”

“Being honest? He opens up more to Lu than to me about this, but I have a theory” he said, taking out his cell phone “I think he's afraid that you're just playing with his feelings or that you'll run away if you know the whole truth, if you get to know him for real.”

It made more sense now, but it also made him sad, making his heart sink.

“But... I like him” he said almost in a whisper “And I'm also afraid that he'll be disappointed to find me and see that I'm…” he points to his body, from top to bottom “Like, you know.”

Hana nods, getting up and moving to sit next to Genji on the pallet sofa, she offers him a sip of her Monster, which he accepts without hesitation and takes a sip, Hana's hands roam the shorter sides of his green hair.

“There's nothing wrong with you, carrots” he laughs, a little bitterly “I know it's a pain in the ass, but I'm sure he's not an idiot, trust me, if he was an asshole, he wouldn't be our friend.”

“It makes sense” he rests his head on the window behind them “It's just that, you know, that people already have a somewhat distorted view of me because I'm Asian, when they find out that I'm also disabled then…”

“Yeah, I got you,” Dva said, still combing his hair on the sides of his head. “But hey, I know he won't be disappointed in you, Gen, you're a sweetheart.”

“Pff, how do you know?” he asked, leaning his body until his head was on Hana's shoulder “Did he say anything?”

“It's harder to get him to stop talking about you than to start to talk” she replied, rolling her eyes “You'd be surprised to know how many times he starts rambling about how sweet you were to him.”

“Hey, he's the one who's sweet with me” Genji lightly pushed her shoulder, Dva returned the push “He sent me a song today, Hana, a song! He wanted to cheer me up because I had a shitty day!”

Hana snorts, amused by the situation.

“And you still ask me if he really likes you…” she says, more rhetorically than anything.

The door slowly opens to reveal Lúcio and Tracer with some shopping bags and Junkrat and Emily close behind with the rest of the shopping, Lúcio seems surprised to see Genji in the living room without warning.

“E aí, mano!” he exclaims happily, approaching Genji almost in a jump to hug his friend “It's been a while since I've seen you, you should have warned us.”

“If we knew you were coming, we would have gotten more food, love" said Tracer, Emily shyly waving at Genji as she passed them in the room "We just got some snacks for Dva's next stream, we’re playing Don't Starve Together.”

"And I'm going to keep my headphones on, you scream too much," said the redhead from the kitchen, sticking her head out the door just to complement "If you think it's bad to hear the screams in the stream, try being next to the screams.”

"I don't even scream that much," Tracer defended herself.

"And who said he doesn't scream? I feel sorry for his brother's ears” Dva said before Genji could even respond.

“Hey!" Genji took his head off his shoulder, a hand on his chest in offense. "You're the one shouting “ask to nerf, noob” and I'm the one shouting too much?”

"It's different, I'm good" Hana pretended to file her own nails before getting up.

Junkrat just stared at Genji in silence, trying to remember where he had already seen that boy with phosphorescent green hair before getting up and heading towards the shared kitchen.

•  

Hanzo woke up early that morning.

The older Japanese man had received a message from Genji about spending the night at his friends' house this time. He would be lying if he said that he wasn't somewhat relieved to see Genji getting back to socializing with people his own age — or the closest available to that. He just hoped these companies were more responsible than the ones he had when he lived with his parents before the accident.

After what happened the day before, he was a little apprehensive.

Cassidy seemed pretty shaken after Mr. Reyes' hospitalization, Chief Morrison had asked for the day off to take care of everything and he still hadn't received any news until he received a message from Cassidy on his Instagram.

@NamesCassidy(09:35am): hey darlin’, I hope you weren't too worried ;)

That made his heart skip a beat, he looked around to make sure he was alone and had enough privacy before responding.

@ShimadaHanzo(09:37am): I've actually been wondering where you were, I hope you're okay. How is it going?

He smiled at the message, waiting for Cassidy's response. He was a little embarrassed for being too formal as always, but he knew Cole would understand that this was just Hanzo's way of interacting with others and not disinterested on his part. He saw the typing bar rise and stop before the message appeared on the screen.

@NamesCassidy(09:38am): good, thanks for asking

@NamesCassidy(09:38am): the old man will be fine, he's as stubborn as a mule

@NamesCassidy(09:39am): but that's not what I came to talk about, I wanted to know about our dinner

Oh, of course, the dinner, he had even forgotten about that with everything that happened!

He looked at the calendar on his desk, his life was so monotonous that he knew there were no commitments there, but he wanted to make sure he could find Cassidy on any day he wanted.

@ShimadaHanzo(09:40am): Of course, dinner, when are you free?

He was already opening several tabs in the browser to search only for the best restaurants in Santa Fe, the best rated and with the best reviews from people who have already been there, his anxious mind working overtime for him, without even knowing what kind of food Cassidy was used to eating or what he liked.

@NamesCassidy(09:41am): oh, I was wondering if it's too early to invite you to my house

@NamesCassidy(09:42am): not to brag, but I make the best enchilada in town, family recipe :D

Hanzo was shocked.

Dinner at Cassidy's?

With his family?

He had never gone this far, none of their flings or their relationships had gone beyond casual hookups, nor had they even come close to meeting each other's families and now Cassidy was inviting him to dinner with them at their house? And they were just friends!

"Are you okay, Shimada?" asked Chief Morrison, approaching his table "You look a little pale, boy.”

"It's all right, sir" he said a little shakily "There's no big deal.”

Morrison nodded, tapping the back of his fingers on his desk as he passed him. A little more distracted than usual, he stopped next to his chair and leaned against the wall, Hanzo minimized the browser tab before he realized what he was doing before he arrived.

“How is your brother?" Morrison asked, taking his glasses off his face to look at his own reflection in them.

"Fine, he's at some friends' house, he said he missed talking to people other than me," said Hanzo, remembering the night before how flustered Genji was. "I was afraid he wouldn't adapt to the city.

"Yeah, I know how it is, sometimes I worry about that," said Morrison, a small smile on the corner of his lips. "I insist that boys need to socialize more, but Cole and Forrest are as skittish as foxes.”

Hanzo couldn't hold back a giggle.

"I see" he crossed his arms over his chest, remembering how the boy, Grace, cowered on the sofa while he spoke to him that night "And what about your husband?”

Morrison's smile fell a little, taking on a sadder look.

"Well, he's at home, but he needs care" he rubbed his face "Keep it just between us, but I'm worried, Gabe is a strong man, but I've never seen him so shaken as after he told us he was sick... I suppose that Cole told you.”

"Yes, sir" he replied blushing "He commented on it, asked for a ride home, how do you know?”

Morrison laughed, a slightly wet laugh with tears stuck in his throat.

"I saw your car leaving the hospital that day" he explained "Don't worry, I don't disapprove, quite the opposite, it's good that someone talks sense into him and that he has friends at the moment, he doesn't have many.”

Hanzo's face flushed even more at the mention that Morrison didn't disapprove of their friendship, that he wanted him close to his stepson.

"Of course, sir" he replied awkwardly "He seems like a good person, even though the means he uses to be a good person are a little dubious" he said, remembering the situation in the bar.

Morrison sighed.

"Yes, he's been worse" Jack moved away from the wall and walked back in front of Hanzo's table "You should come over for dinner one of these days, Shimada, it's good to have Cole's friends around, if you want to bring your brother too" offered the Chief.

This reminded Hanzo that he had not yet responded to Cassidy about his invitation.

“I'll think about it, sir” he replied nervously, asking every god he knew to get Morrison out of his desk so he could answer Cole at once.

When Morrison disappeared down the hall to his office, Hanzo practically jumped to open his Instagram and respond to Cole's message immediately.

@ShimadaHanzo(10:02am): I'm flattered! My schedule is free, what do you think about tomorrow?

Hanzo's eyes were fixed on the screen, as if he would miss Cassidy's response if he looked away.

The three dots moved up and down on the screen.

@NamesCassidy(10:02am): pick you up at 6 ;)

Hanzo wanted to scream with happiness.

•  

Cassidy knew something was wrong with his little brother.

Once he managed to convince Gabe to participate in the Houston Rodeo, he began planning what they would do and how to train Reaper for the circuit's steeplechase events, but Grace seemed to be completely out of it as they talked at the kitchen table, even when mentioned that the two of them were going to Houston — along with Baptiste, just in case — and that he would need his help, Grace just agreed with what Cole said.

This wasn't like Grace.

He didn't know what had happened, but he was distracted all day: carrying empty buckets because he forgot to fill them with water, dropping things because he forgot where they left them and bumping into them right away, stepping on wires and accidentally pulling them out of sockets, a mess. Cassidy was worried about his little brother, he wasn't that clumsy, if Grace was anything he was very careful, he then pulled the boy over to talk in between his many attempts to teach Reaper to cooperate and let him ride him.

"Everything okay there, buddy?" Cassidy asked as Grace filled one of the water troughs in Reaper's pen, Cole approached him still on top of the horse "What do you have today? You seem a bit grumpy.”

Grace shrugged, not looking at him or responding.

Cole got off his horse and approached on foot while Grace filled another bucket of water and poured it into the trough.

"I'm okay," he replied without enthusiasm.

"No, I know you, that's not your okay face, hon" he reached out to squeeze your cheek as if he were a child and not just a few years younger "What is it? Are you still sad about what happened?”

The smaller one shrugged again.

“It's nothing” he replied, clearly lying, he avoids Cassidy's warm brown eyes and continues to repeat the same task.

"You know you'll never fill that trough, don't you?" Cassidy asks, looking amused somehow, Grace finally frowns, confused.

“Why not?" asked the boy, finally looking at him, Cole gave a small smirk.

"Because that's not a trough, it's the basket of apples I brought half an hour ago" just then Forrest's eyes widened and he noticed the water under his feet "You're wasting water, darlin’.”

"Shit" Grace exclaimed, jumping away from the puddle of mud that was beginning to form, the water slowly infiltrating the ground "Fuck! I can't do anything right!"

The boy threw the metal bucket away, with strength, making it bounce and the metallic clang echoes throughout the place, scaring the chickens scratching nearby.

Reaper neighed loudly, as if complaining about the noise.

"Hey, calm down, boy" Cole jumped over the fence to stay by his side, Reaper sticking his head over the fence to follow his owner "Did the bucket offend you so much that you had to attack him?”

"Shut up, I…" Grace started to speak, but stopped herself, growling in frustration and pulling her hair down "I'm just stressed, that's all.”

Cole knew very well what that was, and he knew what would ease the boy's anger.

"I know, I know, it's a lot" he took his hands to Forrest's shoulders and rubbed briefly, the boy gave in a little, his shoulders becoming less tense "I know something that can help calm the nerves.”

Grace looked at him suspiciously, but Cassidy didn't seem to be joking.

“What do you suggest?" asked Grace with his hands on his hips, looking really exhausted.

"Come, you'll like it, I promise" said the oldest, jumping back into Reaper's enclosure, Grace approached in fear " Come, come, come close.

"Cole, I don't know if it's a good idea, he already had hurt me, I'm afraid of him" the smaller one refused to go beyond the fence, Reaper was in the middle of the pen, standing like a shadow "He might be scared of me.”

"He won't, I swear" assured Cole, Grace slowly approached the fence and placed a hand resting on the top. "He's seeing you, don't worry, it won't scare him like last time, I won't put you on top of him.”

Grace climbed onto the fence of the pen and swung a leg over it, Cole pushed Reaper closer slowly and cooed at the horse, praising him and keeping him calm as Forrest climbed down the fence without making any sudden movements. Cole grabbed a bucket from the corner of the pen and approached Forrest, standing with his back to Reaper as if he posed no danger to him.

"I planned to do this at some point, but I think it might be now." Cole handed over the bucket, inside it was a brush with thick, hard bristles. "Our star of the show needs to get used to the life of an artist.

"Do you want me to brush him?" asked Forrest, afraid to approach the horse, who on the other hand calmly walked towards the two.

"I'll be here the whole time, darlin’, no need to worry" assured Cassidy, he reached to the side and held Reaper's head with him when he felt he was close enough "Do you want it?”

Grace stared at the black horse for a long moment, debating whether or not to do what Cassidy was asking of him, he was afraid of getting hurt again, but he knew that Cole wouldn't ask him to do something if he wasn't sure that what he was doing was safe for both of them.

Then, he took the brush and slowly approached the horse, touching the brush to its face before starting to brush.

"Slowly" instructed Cole "He's just going to brush you, champ, you don't need to be afraid of anything, okay?”

Grace didn't know if Cole was talking to him or Reaper.

He slowly slid the brush down the side of Reaper's face, along the entire length of his nose and back to the beginning, the dead hairs coming out in a cloud every time he brushed his long face. The horse breathed heavily at first, snorting a little, but Cole's voice calmed him and gradually he stopped staring at Forrest with his scary black eyes and began to ignore him.

"I thought Reaper was afraid of hairbrushes" Cole said calmly, watching Forrest work on the horse's mane as he held his head "But one day, while I was out there with him, I saw how he looked when I brushed the other horses outside the fence, he was staring the whole time and I thought he was scared of the brush, thinking I was hurting one of them.”

Grace paid attention to Cole and the horse, going down to the neck carefully.

"But then, I dropped the brush and it made a little noise, that alone was enough to drive him crazy, jumping" he explained, Grace made a confused face.

“Did the sound of the brush falling on the floor irritate him?” asked Grace, softly.

“No” Cole replied “It's what I did after that scared him”.

“And what did you do?" he asked again, untangling the mane from his neck.

"I took the brush and waved him to stop jumping" said Cassidy, his hand stroking the horse's forehead "He's not afraid of hairbrushes or the loud noise of things falling, he's afraid because he thinks things will be thrown at him, because he doesn't know the difference from someone who picked up a hairbrush to throw at him or comb his fur.”

 That clicked something in Forrest's head.

"Did you just make an analogy about me being like that horse?" Grace asked, a little offended.

"Basically" laughed Cole, still calming Reaper "I know you're afraid of getting hurt, of that Sparrow boy not liking you back, that a lot of people were idiots and jerks to you, but you can't think that anyone will hurt you." explained the cowboy, taking another brush from the bucket and starting to work on the other side of Reaper's mane. "If you wait for every hairbrush to be thrown at you, you'll never know what it's like to have your hair brushed with care.”

“That's literally the worst thing you've ever said” Grace said with a disgusted expression on her face.

"But it worked, for both of you," Cassidy said with a victorious smile.

“Ridiculous” Grace muttered.

Even so, he continued brushing the horse until all the dirt and dead hair was gone.

"And, by the way, Hanzo is coming to dinner tomorrow, we need to go to the market to buy ingredients for the enchiladas," said Cassidy, receiving a deadly look in return.

" You make him enchiladas," the boy grumbled.

Chapter 7: The things I do for you

Notes:

Hello there~
I know no one was expecting me to post another chapter so soon, but HERE I AM!
Hope you guys like it, I'm so worried about this chapter
Please let me know of any translation errors or inconsistencies, sometimes some of them slip through even after proofreading
Thank you all <3

Depois que eles saíram do mercado, Grace ficou confuso.

Enquanto Baptiste e Cassidy estavam comprando mantimentos e ingredientes para as enchiladas, ele andava pelo mercado com um olhar perdido, sem realmente prestar atenção no que estava fazendo enquanto pegava itens da enorme lista que Gabriel enviou com eles. Ele ainda pensava muito sobre o que havia conversado com seu irmão sobre Sparrow e sabia que mais cedo ou mais tarde eles precisariam conversar.

Ele abraçou um grande saco de marshmallows antes de se aproximar de Cassidy e perguntar como uma criança:

"Posso ficar com isso?", ele lançou um olhar suplicante para o irmão. "Só um."

Cassidy riu e deu um tapinha na cabeça dele.

"Você adora doces, hein?", disse Cassidy. "Você vai comer tudo de uma vez, como da última vez?"

"Não garanto nada", respondeu o menino, colocando delicadamente o pacote no carrinho.

"Eu me pergunto para onde vai tudo isso", comentou Baptiste, olhando impressionado para o pacote, imaginando quanto tempo ele duraria nas mãos do mais novo deles, o garoto deu de ombros.

"Ainda estou crescendo", disse Grace, procurando os outros itens da lista e pegando cereais na prateleira mais baixa.

"E quando começa?" Cassidy perguntou com um sorriso.

Grace deu um pequeno chute na canela dele, mais como um aviso do que como uma agressão real. Baptiste balançou a cabeça e riu das birras dos irmãos.

"Bem, já que vocês estão tão ocupados com seus debates importantíssimos sobre marshmallows, vou procurar o que realmente viemos buscar", disse o veterinário antes de sair pelo corredor em direção à loja de ferragens.

Assim que Baptiste saiu da vista dos irmãos, eles caíram em um silêncio familiar, Cole ocupado procurando o que quer que estivesse nas prateleiras mais altas e Grace olhando para as prateleiras mais baixas, ele se distraiu com a tarefa, quase automaticamente pegando e colocando no carrinho tudo o que ele reconheceu que estava na lista, o mais novo aproveitou para pegar algumas caixas de cereal de milho e repor seu estoque de salgadinhos e salgadinhos que ele mantinha em seu quarto.

Foi um erro olhar para a prateleira de salgadinhos importados.

Sparrow mencionou isso a ele uma ou duas vezes, mas ele se lembrava de ouvir o menino mais novo tagarelando sobre o quanto sentia falta dos salgadinhos picantes que ele e seu irmão comiam quando seus pais os levavam ao Japão para visitar parentes nas férias de verão.

Ele ficou distraído por muito tempo, segurando um saco de batatas fritas de camarão apimentadas — as preferidas de Sparrow.

"Ei, Grace!" gritou Cassidy de longe, já chegando ao caixa com Baptiste. "Vamos deixar você aqui se não vier logo!"

Ele teve que fugir para alcançar seu irmão.

O garoto estava sentado em seu quarto no sótão, olhando para fora através da pequena janela circular que jogava um pouco de luz no quarto, bem acima de sua cama bagunçada. Ele encostou a cabeça no batente da janela quando viu um pequeno pássaro marrom e carmesim se aproximar e pousar do outro lado do vidro.

Era um pequeno pardal, virando a cabeça de um lado para o outro como os pássaros fazem quando estão curiosos. Ele piou e pulou algumas vezes, mas Forrest permaneceu parado, não querendo assustar a pequena criatura empoleirada em sua janela.

Isso o lembrou de seu Pardal.

Ele não conseguia falar com o garoto desde seu desabafo com Hana no domingo, ele não tinha coragem de falar com ele, não depois de tanto tempo.

Grace pegou o celular para verificar as mensagens que ele vinha ignorando o dia todo enquanto trabalhava, havia muitas delas de Sparrow e alguns de seus outros amigos da faculdade, ele abriu a conversa com Sparrow e tentou não entrar em pânico.

[17h37|Assassino de Pardais]: Amor?

[17h40|Sparrow Killer]: Você desligou de repente, você está bem?

[17h40|Sparrow Killer]: Achei que ouvi alguém te chamar

[19:00|Matador de Pardais]: Coelho?

[19h48|Sparrow Killer]: Por favor, responda, vamos conversar :(

[9:30 am|Sparrow Killer]: Espero que esteja bem

Forrest respirou fundo, contendo a pontada de culpa e medo em seu peito, ele ainda se sentia apreensivo, mas Sparrow parecia genuinamente preocupado com as mensagens que ele havia enviado desde a noite passada e não parecia ter desistido de falar com ele, mesmo depois do que aconteceu.

Grace relutantemente enviou uma mensagem.

[16h32|Coelho Preto]: Ei

[16h32|Coelho Preto]: Desculpe, eu desapareço

[16h32|Coelho Preto]: Eu meio que entrei em pânico porque meu amigo viu que eu estava falando com você, eu não estava em casa quando liguei para você, acho que exagerei

[16h33|Coelho Preto]: Eu não queria te assustar

A resposta demorou um pouco para chegar, talvez Sparrow não estivesse mais esperando uma resposta.

Mas então chegou uma mensagem.

[16h34|Sparrow Killer]: Graças a Deus! Pensei que algo tinha acontecido com você

[16h35|Assassino de Pardais]: Não faça isso de novo, eu estava tão preocupado :(

Grace mordeu o lábio, envergonhado por ter assustado tanto o garoto, que pensou por alguns minutos antes de lhe enviar uma mensagem.

[16h35|Coelho Preto]: O que você diria se eu compensasse e explicasse o que aconteceu?

[16h36|Coelho Preto]: Podemos tocar algo juntos

[16h36|Coelho Preto]: Combinado?

Sparrow pareceu considerar o que ele sugeriu, continuou online e viu todas as mensagens imediatamente.

[16h37|Sparrow Killer]: Stardew Valley, claro :)

[16h38|Sparrow Killer]: Eu sei que você queria jogar depois da última atualização

Grace soltou um suspiro de alívio.

[16h39|Coelho Preto]: Então combinado :)

Ele ligou o videogame e fez uma chamada de voz com Sparrow.

"Oi, querida," foi a primeira coisa que ele ouviu quando a ligação foi completada, ele já podia sentir as lágrimas subindo em sua garganta. "Ei, o que aconteceu? Não precisa chorar, Rabbit, está tudo bem."

"Eu só" Grace soluçou. "Eu pensei que você ficaria bravo comigo, eu pensei que meu desaparecimento te deixaria bravo ou chateado, eu meio que surtei naquele dia, tanta coisa tinha acontecido."

"Eu sei, mas está tudo bem, sério, eu entendo que foi um dia de merda para você e que você simplesmente explodiu," Sparrow tinha uma voz calma e controlada, ele realmente parecia estar tentando ser compreensivo. "Só não desapareça daquele jeito de novo, eu quase tive um ataque cardíaco quando percebi que você tinha ido embora."

"Sinto muito", Forrest soluçou, o nó se dissolvendo em sua garganta. "Sinto muito, eu não deveria ter desaparecido daquele jeito, eu era um idiota."

"O importante é que você saiba que eu vou estar aqui, babe", disse Sparrow. "E que eu ainda quero sair com você na sexta-feira, tenho um lugar muito legal em mente para te levar, você vai gostar muito", ele podia ouvir o sorriso em sua voz, ele podia imaginar Sparrow pulando de excitação.

"Onde?" perguntou Grace, relaxando um pouco mais.

"O fliperama é meu lugar favorito", ele disse com uma pergunta implícita.

"Vai ser perfeito", respondeu Grace.

[...]

O ar da noite estava congelante.

Cassidy preferia ficar do lado de fora à noite.

Estava mais fresco.

Mais fácil de respirar.

Mais fácil colocar seus pensamentos em ordem.

Ele pensou em tudo o que tinha acontecido nos últimos dias, toda a sua vida estava virando de cabeça para baixo desde que esbarrou em Hanzo pela primeira vez, mas ele sabia que não tinha nada a ver com o homem, ela já estava toda bagunçada antes dele. chegar. O que aconteceu foi apenas uma coincidência, um acidente no caminho, mas um lindo acidente.

Gabriel já estava doente, a venda do Rancho Blackwatch já estava batendo na porta, seu cavalo ainda era um demônio incontrolável, ele já tinha muita coisa para lidar e muito passado para lutar.

Mas a chegada de Hanzo lhe deu uma razão pela qual ele não desistiria sem lutar.

Um motivo para ele pensar no futuro.

Ele observou o cavalo preto andando de um lado para o outro em seu recinto com sua capa de chuva nas costas e uma caneca de café e uísque ao lado dele na escada. Ele pondera por um segundo antes de se aproximar de Reaper e pular para dentro do recinto. Como sempre, eles conseguiram escová-lo esta manhã, então por que não tentar algo novo?

Cassidy gentilmente removeu o poncho das costas, o poncho vermelho de sua mãe, e deixou o cavalo cheirá-lo primeiro.

“Ei, campeão,” ele disse em um tom de voz baixo e profundo, Reaper olhou para ele com olhos curiosos. “Tenho uma proposta para você, o que acha de darmos uma volta?”

Cole não sabia se era o pouco álcool em seu sangue ou se era uma alucinação por falta de sono, mas jurou que viu um pequeno sorriso se formar na boca do cavalo. Ele deixou Reaper cheirar seu poncho um pouco mais antes de coçar o queixo e colocar a mão sobre seu longo focinho.

Reaper esfregou a testa na mão, Cole interpretou isso como uma permissão para se aproximar dele e abrir o tecido.

He covered Reaper's back with the poncho.

Unlike when they tried to put him in a cell, Reaper remained calm and still, almost yawning.

“Good boy,” Cole said, climbing onto his back.

He expected Reaper to start kicking and jumping at any moment, but he remained as calm as any other horse he had ridden in his life, as if he wasn't the horse everyone was afraid to get close to, the demonic horse that almost disfigured him. Gabe and almost gave Grace permanent brain damage.

The cowboy rubbed Reaper's neck, using his feet to guide him around the pen while holding the base of his mane at the end of his neck, he silently obeyed Cassidy's commands.

“You know we're going to have to cooperate with each other now, don't you? We have to understand each other, the old man needs us, the farm,” Cole begins to ramble, walking in circles, coming full circle. "I need you."

Reaper snorted, as if understanding his words.

“We both know you’re the only horse good enough for a rodeo, don’t you?” Reaper repeated the snort. “You’re the only one capable of this, the only one who can be trained for this, so we’re going to have to do our best.”

Cole rubs his neck affectionately, only one hand held Reaper's mane while the other went to the gate lock, he expected Reaper to try to escape as soon as he managed to unlock it.

But that didn't happen.

He just stood there, with Cole on top of him in front of the open gate, the horse waiting for some command to go forward.

Cole had an idea, he was having a lot of ideas tonight.

“Why don’t we get you somewhere warm and comfortable, champ?” said Cole, as if the horse would understand.

Reaper snorted, his head turning back and almost touching Cassidy's leg as if agreeing with that, Cole smiled and guided the horse to the stable where the other horses on the farm were — all except Reaper — he cooperated calmly as he was taken to a bay.

Cassidy didn't need a halter or ropes to convince Reaper to enter.

The horse soon chose one of the stalls on its own.

His late mother's horse stall.

Peacekeeper.

He waited for Cassidy to open the stall for him, the cowboy staring in disbelief as he watched the scene in silence: the black horse standing in front of the stall door, staring at him with its big dark eyes and still with the poncho on its back, as if waiting to be accommodated. He slowly walked over and unlocked the door, letting Reaper enter.

Peacekeeper's stall hadn't been used since the horse died months after his mother, but it still had windows connecting to two other stalls and was still cleaned frequently.

Soldier stuck his head through one of those windows and greeted Cole with a snort.

Cole rubbed the old white horse's head and let him stay there while he settled Reaper in the stall, the black horse didn't seem to notice or be bothered by Soldier's presence at his window, even sniffing him when Cole turned him around. so he could lie down on the soft hay and get his poncho back.

He had tears in his eyes.

Cassidy's hands were shaking as he removed the poncho from Reaper's back, the horse just staring at him as if talking to him.

As if to say:

“ What are you waiting for, cowboy? You've brought me this far, let me rest ”.

Cassidy gave him one last caress before leaving and closing the stall door, his heart felt like it was about to explode.

As soon as he was outside the stable, Cassidy felt tears streaming down his cheeks and he could swear he could feel his late mother's presence with him there, the same way he felt close to her every time he got on a horse, before going inside. in an arena when I was younger.

“Gracias, Mama,” said Cole, bringing his hat to his breast.

If Miranda could see him now, she would certainly be smiling.

[...]

Hanzo was working late in his home office.

He was looking for any accusations that could put Maximillien behind bars, but he could find almost nothing, not that there were no reports of his behavior in the city, but the overwhelming majority of reports always ended up the same way: dismissed due to lack of evidence.

This had started to make Hanzo frustrated.

Most likely they didn't get the evidence because no one wanted — or was able — to ignore the money the man had in his hands. He looked for the oldest cases and noticed something very strange.

Most of the people in the police force who were directly involved in Maximillien's cases, at one time or another ended up being removed or transferred to administrative work, if they were not transferred to other police stations far from the city.

One name that appeared a lot in these records was that of Chief Morrison.

Before becoming a Chief, Morrison was involved in most of the cases involving Maximillien, always ending up away to other areas of the police station throughout his years of service in Santa Fé, he and Officer Ana Amari were the main names involved in the complaints.

It seemed that something or someone was trying to cover up whatever Maximillien was doing, something much more established and older than Chief Morrison's tenure as the city's security officer, and — from what he knew of his colleagues — he highly doubted that any one of them was involved in Maxmillien's criminal activities.

Zaryanova was very straight-laced, although she was a very reserved woman in relation to her private life and very practical in relation to her work, she did not seem like the type of person who would cover up this type of criminal activities — he knew that Zarya had a wife, so Unless she was hypocritical to that extent, she didn't seem like the type to keep quiet.

Reinhardt had a very good heart for this, he acted like a gentle giant around everyone and Hanzo knew him well enough to know that this behavior wasn't just limited to inside the police station.

Fareeha needed no introduction, as Ana's daughter and an activist, there was no way she would be someone who would cover for Maximillien — he knew that the girl was a staunch defender of justice.

He felt at a dead end.

Who could be behind all this?

He worried about whether Genji would be safe with someone like Maximillien loose on the streets, if he would be safe.

"Anija, what's wrong?" asked a sleepy Genji, taking Hanzo by surprise, he was rubbing one of his eyes with his fist like a child, he looked ready to sleep, in his pajamas and with his hair down and without all the gel that kept it in place.

"It's nothing, just work stuff," Hanzo said, watching his computer screen turn off. “Nothing you need to worry about.”

"Worried about your date tomorrow?" laughed Genji, leaning against the doorframe, he looked much less distressed than when he left the house on Sunday night, the young man looked like he had been relieved of a weight on his shoulders.

"Not exactly," Hanzo replied, he felt like he was getting too old too soon because his back hurt and his eyes burned from spending so much time in front of screens at work. "That worries me too, but that's not what I was doing.”

"I know," said Genji, approaching smiling. "Well, I was going to sleep, Rabbit and I played Stardew Valley that night, he explained to me what happened and we spent some time together, just the two of us."

"Oh, really? So you guys made up?" Hanzo asked, relieved for his brother, Genji nodded.

"I think so, he's still a little sensitive and everything, it's been a difficult few days for him with things at home, he said he felt bad for blowing up at everyone" the youngest sat at the table, leaning on his crutches. "He still wants to meet me and said he wasn't kidding about accepting my invitation to meet on Friday, I want to take him to the arcade and he was excited because he's never been there before.”

"That's good, brother," Hanzo smiled at Genji, the boy standing up on his crutches before heading out towards the door. “I'm glad to know you're okay.”

“I know” said Genji, smugly “But seriously, anija, try to sleep, you have to take care of yourself too.”

It hit him like a brick to the head.

If Genji was telling him to rest, then it was because he shouldn't look good while still working on the files, but before he could argue about anything, his brother had already left for his own room. He rubbed his forehead irritably and got up, heading to the kitchen of the small apartment.

Hanzo started to tidy up the counter and put everything he needed on it to make tea and calm things down. The older man didn't want to admit it, but he was nervous about meeting the cowboy in his natural environment.

He chose chamomile tea to help him sleep.

The sweet smell was comforting enough to forget his worries for now, he knew he had a busy day tomorrow and he would have to ask Genji to behave.

Speaking of Genji, he decided to check on his younger brother.

Hanzo approached the half-open door of the young man's room and a small strip of light entered through it, allowing Hanzo to see inside, his brother was sleeping peacefully, with his cell phone next to his face and hugging tightly to a Pachimari plush. which he had brought directly from Japan.

He stopped to watch him sleep, the same way he did when he was just a child — and when he was in a coma in the hospital — feeling a mixture of relief and sadness.

Two years ago, they didn't even know if Genji would survive the accident.

A year and a half ago, they didn't know if he would still come out of the coma.

A year ago, they didn't even know if Genji would walk again.

He couldn't see his life without his brother now.

Thinking about this, Hanzo closed the door.

[...]

They had agreed that Cassidy would pick Hanzo up at home at six.

However, Hanzo had plans before meeting the cowboy.

“Explain to me again, Anija, why did you bring me with you to a flower shop?” asked Genji, watching his brother picking flowers.

"Because it's rude to arrive at your host's house empty-handed, and as I said before we left, you're also a guest," Hanzo replied, looking around for something specific. “We have to bring gifts for Mr Reyes and Mr Morrison too, I believe flowers are appropriate.”

"And I look like I know something about flowers?" asked Genji, he was staring at a small cactus with a single yellow flower, the price on the tag could only be wrong, it was impossible for such a small plant to be so expensive. “Tell the truth, you’re just trying to get their attention and soften their hearts.”

"No, it's not that" Hanzo growled.

He searched all over the flower shop until Kiriko, the small and energetic owner of the small shop, appeared to serve them.

"Hello, Mr. Shimada, to what do I owe the visit?" she asked with her big, kind smile. “Hi, Genji.”

"Hey," greeted the boy, observing with outrage the price tags of other cacti on the same shelf.

"Good afternoon, Kiriko," Hanzo said, looking for something with his eyes. “You wouldn’t have cutting sunflowers, would you?”

"Lucky for you, Mr. Shimada, they just arrived," said the girl running to the store's storage room, bringing the bucket with her dragging it on the floor. “Are they a gift for someone special?”

"Actually, yes," said Hanzo, a little shyly. “We have dinner tonight, a friend invited us to visit.”

Kiriko smiled radiantly.

"I hope it's a good dinner, your friend will definitely love the flowers," she began to separate some flowers. “How many will there be?”

"A small bouquet, nothing too extravagant, maybe ten would be enough," Hanzo mused, Genji still exploring the store behind him with curious eyes for a few plants in particular.

"Alright, I'll wrap it for you sir," she said turning to the counter at the back of the store, Genji approached the counter with a small cactus in his hand, Hanzo frowned at him.

"What are you doing?" he asked, confused.

"What do you think? Buying a gift too," replied Genji, not seeming to be happy about it, the cactus was in a small pot and was shaped like a rose, bluish green with pink tips.

"You're not the gift-giving type, otouto," said Hanzo, with a wry smile on his lips, Genji rolled his eyes.

"Rabbit said he liked cacti because they were easy to take care of, I want to give him a gift when we meet on Friday," said Genji, shrugging his shoulders as if it was no big deal.

He could deny it all he wanted, but it was more than obvious that the boy was completely in love with his friend and was trying hard to show it.

Kiriko soon returned with the thick bouquet of sunflowers in her arms ready and decorated with a beautiful orange bow around the stems of the flowers, she hands it into Hanzo's arms and the man seems impressed with the size of the arrangement, paying soon after.

"Thank you, miss" Hanzo thanked, bowing, Genji also pushed his cactus to pay.

"You're welcome, come back often," she smiled at Hanzo, then with an amused expression on her face as she faced Genji. “Is it also a gift?”

"Yes," he replied without looking directly at the girl.

"It's a good choice, she'll love it", said Kiriko with a wink at the boy, Genji crossed his arms leaning on the crutch.

"Who said it is a she ?" Genji corrected mockingly. "A guy can't give a plant as a gift to another guy? Really?"

Kiriko rolled her eyes, pointing to the rainbow flag pin on her apron.

"Really, man? You’re telling me this?" she replied, equally mocking.

Hanzo knew that this was an old inside joke between the two, a family thing that they had been doing for many years, Genji and Kiriko had teased each other about it since they were much younger than now and they were the only ones in the family who knew about Hanzo, the only ones he had the courage to open up to. He soon discovered that he was not the only one in the family.

"Exactly, I thought you, of all people, wouldn't assume I was straight." Genji feigned disappointment, placing his hand dramatically on his chest, Hanzo rolled his eyes at this, Kiriko laughed at her melodramatic cousin.

"Yeah, yeah, I got it," she wraps the cactus with pretty paper just around it, without suffocating the plant. “Netflix is ​​losing a great actor.”

Genji sticks his tongue out at her as he searches his frog wallet for the money he needed to pay for his new plant.

They went home to get ready, and later, when Cassidy parked the truck in front of the small apartment building, he didn't expect that Hanzo was already waiting for him outside with a bouquet of sunflowers in hand. He was wearing a dark blue suit and white shirt without a tie, his hair tied into a bun and meticulously styled with gel, Cole suddenly felt like he looked unkempt in front of the older man.

"Wow, you look great" he blurted out before he could stop himself, Hanzo turned completely red.

Only then did Cole notice the second person behind him, clearing his throat to get their attention. The younger boy was dressed more casually, wearing only beige twill pants and a white hooded sweatshirt.

"Aren't you going to introduce us, anija?" Genji asked, an amused look at Hanzo.

"Oh, sure," Hanzo said sheepishly, pointing with a hand gesture from Genji to Cole. “Cole, this is my little brother, Genji,” he looks at his brother, “And Genji, this is the man I told you about, Cole.”

Genji's smile when he greeted Cole was completely mischievous, like a child who was about to say the most horrible thing at the worst moment just because, he shook Cole's hand and the cowboy made sure to shake it hard so the kid wouldn't. dare to make any joke to your face.

"Ah, yes, Hanzo talked a lot about you," Cole said, eyes now on Hanzo.

He unlocked the car and let the brothers get in, the trip wouldn't be long, but it wasn't any less tense for any of the three — Hanzo felt intimidated talking to Cole under his brother's judgmental gaze and Cole seemed to feel the same with Genji. practically on the back of his head analyzing him.

Genji kept staring at his brother from the backseat, waiting for any reaction from the older man to be able to use against him later or to tell Rabbit when they were on call again, Cole remained motionless and silent, too embarrassed next to a handsome man to say something.

As soon as they arrived, the cowboy wasted no time and opened the door for the two, being the good gentleman his mother raised, he ran ahead of the two to open the door to his house for his guests.

"Since we're early, darling, why don't we go in and I can put these beauties in the water so they don't suffer so much?" offered the cowboy kindly, giving way for the two to enter first.

"Of course, thank you." Hanzo said, smiling at the man and entering the house.

Everything felt so cozy.

He could see the living room and integrated kitchen from where they were, in the small room where they left their shoes and work boots, there were some hooks for coats and raincoats on the wall, framed with dark wood, everything inside the house was made of antique furniture. and well cared for, in an almost Western style. Hanzo and Genji let their jaws drop as they passed through the small portico that led to the living room.

"Make yourself comfortable boys, I just need to sort this out if you want to put your coats on the hooks up front," offered Cassidy as he walked past them towards the bright kitchen, from afar, Hanzo saw Grace at the kitchen counter, cutting some vegetables.

He poked his brother's shoulder and showed him the bouquet of sunflowers, Grace just stared at him before pointing to a crystal vase on the corner of the coffee table and Cassidy poured water into the vase before placing the flowers.

He extended an arm to Hanzo as he approached the couch.

"Ah, yes, thank you," said Hanzo, still very embarrassed and a little enchanted by the atmosphere of the house, he removes his blazer and hands it to the cowboy.

"Do you want any drinks?" said the cowboy, Genji took off his jacket and handed it to him.

"You don't look like a soda drinker," Genji said, Cassidy smiled at him as he took the two brothers' coats.

"Well, I don't, but my brother does," Cassidy admitted. "Hey, buddy, why don't you bring our guests a soda?" he asked, speaking a little louder so the boy could hear over the music in his headphones.

Forrest removed one side to hear him better.

"Did you say something?" asked the boy, only then noticing that there were more people in the house. “Oh hi, I didn’t see you coming.”

Genji immediately recognized the cafe boy.

"Hello, Grace," Hanzo said with a smile. "How are you?"

"Good and you?" he asked, approaching with a soda, Cole took the opportunity to put away his coats and return, Grace looked at Genji curiously. "Don't I already know you?"

"Yes, I'm the coffee guy, I bumped into you at Mei's coffee shop the other day, I still feel bad about spilling coffee on your jacket," replied Genji, Grace's eyes widened.

"Ah, yes! The twenty dollar guy," he said, slapping himself on the forehead. “Man, don’t even worry, that was totally my fault.”

"Coffee guy?" Cole asked the two boys.

"Twenty dollar guy?" Hanzo asked, the two older men exchanged a knowing look, as if they were understanding where this conversation would end.

"I… spilled coffee on him on Sunday because I accidentally bumped into him," said Genji, embarrassed, Grace didn't look any less embarrassed.

"And he bought me another coffee, I forgot to tell you," Grace said to Cole. “It was just a stupid accident, no one got hurt.”

Cole deu um sorriso irônico para seu irmão e trocou olhares com Hanzo, seu irmão parecia estar escondendo mais informações sobre essa história do que queria contar, mas ele não o pressionaria na frente de estranhos, o cowboy riu da história e balançou a cabeça em descrença enquanto Genji ficava cada vez mais vermelho.

"Não estou surpreso", disse Hanzo, o mais velho olhando para os dois com diversão. "Pelo menos não terei que apresentá-los."

"Mais ou menos", respondeu Genji. "Ainda não sei seu nome."

"Pode me chamar de Grace", disse o garoto, entregando a lata de refrigerante ao outro garoto.

"Genji", ele se apresentou, aceitando o refrigerante.

Aquela voz ainda era muito familiar para o jovem de cabelos verdes.