Work Text
He was quiet, they both were, sitting on the top of a building in the abandoned compound that had been infested with their enemies at the start of the day, now their bodies lay where they stood and it was a message that no one would see until the sun rises again tomorrow. So for now, they had peace. It was a silence she couldn't quite explain, the blazing hatred that she had once felt for this man had settled as they worked together, time passing by quickly, the mist that had surrounded her brother when she was a child had revealed some, but he was almost as closed off as she. Except he didn't quite know that. “I had a sister. She was a child when I left, barely turned eight and she had experienced more pain than she should have in a lifetime. My brother was dead by my own hand and I did not want to taint her with spilled blood.” His eyes are staring out at the sunset, the air warm with a cool breeze coming from the south but she was frozen, ice running through her veins and she is thankful that he continues like she is not there. “Innocent. She looked like father, like Genji, and I could not look at her and pretend that I had done a good thing. I could not become an example to follow. So I did not go to her before I left. I..” The archer's voice trails off and he blinks away from the dimming sky like it had burned him, eyes dropping to the ground far below them, his voice quiet when he speaks again, his words stinging her like a bee that had been frightened by a small child. “I regret that. I should not have left her. Not there. She should have been with me, not abandoned in the middle of a war, where family waged against each other and assassins took their chances. She should have been with me, she could have been so much more.” His gaze slowly returns back to the setting scene in front of them and she looks away from his features in chance that he will not notice the tears that were hot and imminent in her eyes, blinking slowly before closing them to regain herself, her voice, but he speaks again, “You remind me of her.” And any attempt she had at stopping the flood is lost, several tears dripping off of her nose as she hopes that her hood covers the side of her face in his corner view. Silence fills the gap between them and she tries to breathe without giving away her emotions to the other, who's brown eyes were still forcibly fixated on the slither of sun left above the horizon. The sun has long disappeared by the time she has the will to speak, tears dried against her face and breathing levelled out in secrecy. “So, you are telling me that you're substituting me for your sister?” His laugh is breathy and she doesn't expect it, glancing over to see a somewhat ghost of a smile on his lips and his eyes closed, as if he was relaxed and did not know what, or keep track of, every movement and sound that was around them. Her heart is sinking and part of her feels like she is breathless, choking on nothing but is it not polite to return the gesture of speaking about family?“I had brothers. I suppose I am substituting you for one of them, too.” His eyes open in somewhat alarm and look to her, either not expecting her words or about to lecture her on attributing him to anyone. “I doubt-” “The eldest. I think I loved them both the same but I always found him more fun, he was harsh sometimes and had a scowl most likely permanently on his face but he was soft, with me. He was there, always there.” Until he was not. She's staring at her hands and his face is straight, eyes wide and full of an emotion she did not want to look up into for fear of breaking, for fear of admitting her lies and losing the only one she had left again. “Our families are alike in the fact that they tore each other apart. It is in an instance like this that makes me wonder if our paths were destined to cross.” Hanzo's voice is soft, softer than she's ever heard it in her adult years and it brings familiarity with comfort, misty, hazy memories of her brother patting his seemingly enormous hand softly upon her small head, throat dry and sore, the words falling from his mouth in their native language are unintelligible to her now. “Perhaps.” Her small reply silences them until the moon is high in the sky and they decide to move, the hours dwindling until those at the top of the list arrive to receive their message. Months later there's a tanto to her neck and a voice in her ear, they spill her secret, a question on their lips that she does not answer, eyes watching Hanzo as he processes the information. The pain and the recognition, the anger that flares in his eyes as they look at her, strong and harsh and she is going to lose him again. He is going to leave her again.