Chapter Text
Cole was, admittedly, a bit nervous when he didn’t see Hanzo the next day. Hanzo had let Cole cuddle with him, and bring him back to his room. They had even laid together there and Cole had basked in the closeness and the shared kisses, chaste as they had been. Then after dinner Hanzo had excused himself and went back to his room. It made sense that after so much closeness Hanzo would need space. But then, when he didn’t come down for breakfast and wasn’t answering pings on his communicator, Cole got a bit worried.
Genji was a good friend, and after hearing that Hanzo had gone up to the roof, had volunteered to go after him and figure out what was going through that strategist’s brain of his.
It was going on a couple of hours and neither one had come down yet. On the one hand, Cole was incredibly glad that Genji hadn’t been sent down head first. On the other, he didn’t know what kind of state Hanzo was in that required that long of a chat.
“Relax little brother.” Fareeha commented as she passed by where he was sat on the couch, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees in his head in his hands. “Whatever you have broken can be fixed.”
“Christ ‘Reeha, what makes you think it was my fault?” Cole snapped, tension sharpening his words like a whetstone.
“You are out here sitting and looking like you have screwed something up. And with your history with Hanzo I made the centimeter’s leap.” She hopped over the arm of the couch and plunked down next to him. “What happened?”
“I think I scared him off. I’m too clingy for my own good.”
“Did you propose?”
“No. I know neither of us is ready for that.”
“Did you ask him to move into your room?”
“No, he likes his own space, and if we even hoped to fit we’d need to wrangle an officer’s suite out of Morrison.”
“Did you tell him you loved him?”
“What? No. Of course not. We haven’t even been dating that long.”
Fareeha rolled her eyes. “Then what? It doesn’t seem like you’ve done anything worthy of this much sulking and pouting.”
“I just wanted to hold him and kiss him and treat him as sweet as he deserved.”
“Uh huh…?”
“And now today he’s hiding on the roof.” Cole slumped further down on the couch. “Stop laughing.”
Fareeha covered her mouth with her hand and called her laughter. “Cole. You lovesick idiot. You’ve begun nesting. Trying to pamper your omega to show you are a worthy mate. Your age is catching up to you.”
The lightbulb slowly popped on in Cole’s mind. “Ah shit, it’s gettin to be that time of year isn’t it?”
“I believe so. You were always more irregular than the rest of us. More volatile too.”
“I should tell him. I’m pretty sure he’s only been with younger alphas. Or ones that think they have somethin to prove.” He knew that age had something to do with it. And you could force your instincts down so you could present however you wanted to.
“That is up to you. It is your body after all.”
“I know I know… I just don’t wanna scare him off.”
“You will scare him more by sulking and not communicating.” Fareeha leaned over and kissed his temple. “Do not make my mother rise from the grave to haunt you for your silliness.”
Cole grumbled, then looked up at her with narrowed eyes. “Oh for fuck’s sake. I’m older than you.”
“You only now realized I called you little brother?” She asked with a laugh. “Maybe there is some truth to Hanzo’s flirting insults.”
He reached out and slugged her hard in the arm, “go on back to Angie you bitch.” He groused, ducking away as she moved to tousle his hair.
It wasn’t until shortly after lunch that Hanzo and Genji came down. Hanzo ate, which Cole was glad to see, then came over to him.
“May we go somewhere? To talk?” Hanzo’s words were quiet, and he still seemed nervous, which only made Cole’s anxiety flare up.
“Yeah, sure Han, anywhere in particular you want to go?” Cole felt like he had just put a handful of sand in his mouth, it was so dry.
“Your room?” That wasn’t a good sign either. But he nodded, stood and offered Hanzo his hand. There was a moment of hesitation where Hanzo stared at it and Cole almost took it back before Hanzo slid his calloused hand into his.
The walk was silent, which wasn’t unusual for Hanzo, but he still seemed like he had a lot on his mind. Every so often he caught Hanzo’s nostrils flaring, and that caused Cole to subtly scent the air in return. Everything he caught was just anxiety. This was not going to be a good conversation, even if the results were fine. Both of them feeding off of each other’s anxieties? That was bound to create one hell of a storm sooner rather than later.
Cole opened his door and gestured for Hanzo to enter first, and he did, taking his shoes off and setting them to the side, same as he did in his own room. Good sign. Cole offered him a seat and got a shake of the head instead. Bad sign.
“You sit. Please.” Worse sign. Fuck.
Cole did, walking the few steps to his bed on shaky legs and sat, careful not to give in to the paranoia twisting his guts into balloon animals. Hanzo paced for a bit, crossing the width of the room as he passed Cole on each trip.
“I know you are worried, but this… is not us breaking up unless it is what you want.” Hanzo began after several minutes of silence. He wasn’t quite looking at Cole, but Cole still felt himself relax some.
“No, I don’t wanna break up,” He confirmed, careful to squeeze the metal hand with his flesh one and not the other way around.
“Then why…. Throughout the rest of the day we spent together…. Did you not want me to reciprocate? Did I do something wrong? Do you not trust me or find me attractive enough? I know I am not a proper omega the way that movies and books suggest I should be but-“ Cole was on his feet, catching Hanzo on his next pass by. Hanzo’s body tensed like he was about to throw Cole off of him but he did not move any further than that.
“Hanny, baby, sugar pie, please, sit with me. Let me explain.” Hanzo let Cole bring him to sit on the bed, even though his body did not lose any of that tension. The scent of sad and anxious omega just about killed him, but he had to explain. Maybe that would fix it.
He would give up anything to fix it.
“See, remember in all those biology basics class how as we get older our hormones seem to change priorities? Well I ain’t a spring chicken no more and I was always a bit hard to pin a proper cycle to. It’s been sneakin up on me without me realizing it mostly because this is the first year I’ve had an omega this close since I was a teenager who woulda fucked a melon if it was warm enough.”
“You what?” Hanzo cut him off, leaning away to look at him with a mixture of confusion and disgust.
“Not important.” Cole waved a hand and continued. “See, as I’m gettin older my body is more focused on caretaking. Helping with a nest, feeding, cuddling all that. Like, yeah, gettin off woulda been nice, but it wasn’t important. Treatin you like a prince and spoilin you rotten was. Make sense?”
“But you fucked a melon?” Hanzo was, as usual focused on the wrong part of the explanation.
“No! No I woulda, if I hadn’t had other teenagers to fool around with. Haven’t you ever been that horny?”
“To consider having sex with produce? Absolutely not.” Hanzo turned away, tilting his nose up. “I had my hands and that was more than adequate for my needs.”
“Alright well good to know fancy pants rich McGee over here never was that desperate. My point is, me wanting to take care of you and ignore my own dick was not about you being unattractive or anything of the sort it was just my hormones going ‘we like this one, so let’s spoil the hell outta him so when rut hits next week he’ll let you smell him and touch him and do things to him.’ Which you are not obligated to do by the by.”
“Even if I was considering it, the melon thing is just….”
“Look, I was a stupid kid with stupid kid impulses. I never actually even came close to doin that and only considered it because some of the other guys said they had tried it when they were desperate and I don’t know if it was some sort of urban legend or trick but I never actually did it.”
“Please tell me your penis has never been anywhere near anything else you have cooked for me.”
“No. Not any nearer than inside my jeans anyways. I wouldn’t do that to anythin I was servin anyone without their permission anyways.”
“Good. Good.” Hanzo muttered something in Japanese and while Cole only caught a fragment of it, it had something to do with never eating melon again and desperate filthy Americans.
Cole sighed, running his hand over his face. One stupid rambling comment had derailed this entire conversation. If Hanzo hadn’t been planning on dumping him before it was certainly a consideration now.
“Hanzo, I-“ Hanzo raised a hand and cut him off.
“I do not ever wish to hear about anything you stick your penis into, or thought about sticking it into, or anything of the sort again.” Hanzo’s tone was tense, and Cole just nodded.
However, Cole was never one to leave well enough alone, but also clarification was important. “What if that something is you…? Can I talk about it then?”
“Today? Absolutely not. Once I have had sufficient time and alcohol to forget about the melon, maybe.”
“Fair enough. Are we…. Okay though?”
Hanzo looked over at him for a long while, stretching the silence so long he could have knit with it, if he knew how to knit, before he nodded. “Yes Cassidy, we are alright.”
“Can I have a kiss?”
“Yes.” Hanzo leaned in and brought their lips together, slow. Cole gently cupped the back of Hanzo’s head, keeping him there without force as they kissed, the scratching of their facial hair pulling against each other in a way that made Cole think of velcro.
The kiss lingered and when Hanzo pulled back, Cole let him, but still chased after his lips. Kissing Hanzo quieted every noisy part of his brain like turning the dial on an old radio that was only playing static.
“I thought I said one?” Hanzo questioned, dodging the kiss with a raised eyebrow.
“Yeah. You’re right,” Cole said sitting back, unable to help the small frown at himself, “sorry.”
“Hm.” Hanzo mused before leaning in and giving him another, chaste one. “I will forgive you.”
“Yeah? Even if I don’t learn my lesson?”
Hanzo grabbed Cole’s hat from off his head and tossed it to the side table, before pushing Cole down on the bed, laying beside him. “I suppose just this once I will indulge you,” he said in a way that made Cole think that it would not, in fact, be just this once.
They laid there kissing, some gentle and chaste, others with tongue and hair just this side of being pulled, that had Hanzo rolled on top of Cole, grinding their hips together, for long enough that Cole lost track of time. It didn’t matter though, Cole could kiss Hanzo forever. He couldn’t think of anything else other than Hanzo’s lips and tongue and heartbeat above his body. The way his hair was so soft even when tamed into its signature style. The way every inch of him was firm enough to bounce a quarter off of.
Cole could just devour him whole. He reached for Hanzo’s waistband and was met by Hanzo grabbing his wrists in a firm grip, pinning them back to the bed.
“It is dinner time now,” Hanzo told him, as if that was supposed to matter.
“And?” Cole asked, whining as Hanzo crawled off of him and started moving to the door, carefully adjusting himself in his pants.
“And I do not wish to be late. If you do not show, that is fine.” Hanzo slipped on his shoes and opened the door back up. “I will save you a melon.” Cole swore as Hanzo let the door slide shut behind him. He doubted Hanzo would tell everyone, that seemed more like a Genji response, but damn if he wasn’t a little worried somewhere in the back of his mind.