Chapter Text
Usually, Cassidy was what most people would call a deep sleeper since whenever he finally did sleep (it isn't easy to get it, no matter how fast he could slip into it) it was almost impossible to wake him up. It's a blessing because it meant he could peacefully sleep through the night, but it can also be a curse; since he used to sleep through alarms in his Blackwatch days and wake up to Reyes screaming right in his ear.
Today was different though. For some reason, the slight movement from the other person in his bed somehow managed to wake him. Cassidy turned over to look at the man he almost always woke up beside, but his face was concealed by his hair that nearly got into his mouth when he turned over. Not that he minded since Hanzo's hair was one of the many things he loved about the other... But tasting hair wasn't exactly something Cassidy enjoyed doing. He carefully used his hand to move Hanzo's hair aside to place a quick kiss on his lips, being as slow and gentle as possible so he wouldn't wake him since he wasn't a heavy sleeper like Cassidy. His face scrunched up for a moment as if he wanted to wake up, but thankfully, he stayed asleep.
It was nice looking at him: his features were softer, and he looked at peace for once as well, and it makes Cassidy happy that he was able to see the small moments like this. He had the usual drool at the corner of his mouth which was wiped away for him. He would always talk about how he hated drooling in his sleep because he didn't like how his spit would get on Cassidy, but he didn't mind it.
He closed his eyes and sighed. He needed to sleep again soon before Hanzo woke up, either because he could always somehow sense when the cowboy was awake or because it was time to get up and prepare for their mission.
Speaking of their mission, he really did wonder what Winston signed them up for. He sent more people out on this mission than usual and warned them to stay in groups of at least two people, had talon finally gotten into something worse than omnics? He wasn't able to get too many details on the mission beyond the fact that talon was involved, which was worrying. He was usually able to get more info, like how many enemies they would be dealing with, a few routes to take if things go south, and a load of other helpful things.
"Are you asleep?" He heard a quiet voice call out. "I guess my thoughts got too loud." Cassidy huffed and slowly opened his eyes to see Hanzo blinking back. "Nah, I woke up a little while ago and haven't been able to sleep." He replied quietly, feeling that if he talked too loudly, he could disturb the peaceful atmosphere. Hanzo only hummed in reply before sitting up and opening his arms. Cassidy smiled at him before scooting closer and wrapping his arm around him, knowing what he had planned to help him fall back to sleep.
Cassidy closed his eyes again as he felt Hanzo comb his fingers through his hair and gently scratch his scalp, making him let out a content sigh as he felt himself begin to slowly doze off. Hopefully, Hanzo would fall asleep soon as well. Cassidy felt bad that he woke him up, but Hanzo would always say it had nothing to do with him.
He wasn't able to think on it too much longer though, since he was finally able to fall back to sleep with a small smile on his face.
---
When Cassidy woke up again, it was thankfully morning time and Hanzo was awake and sitting on the bed with his back facing him. He moved closer to Hanzo and placed a kiss on his lower back before wrapping his arm around him. "Mornin', love." He smiled and kissed his back again, but this time, Hanzo tried to wiggle away. "Good morning, and stop doing that." He pushed his arm away so he could stand up to bend down and kiss Cassidy on his nose.
"Get up now, we need to get downstairs and eat breakfast so we'll have enough energy for our mission." Hanzo said before moving away to get dressed. Cassidy lingered in bed for a moment, watching how Hanzo moved around the room to grab clothes and clean up clothes off the floor. While he enjoyed watching him, he knew he needed to get out of bed before the other noticed he was laying down still, so he decided to hop out of bed and help him do a small cleanup of the room before getting dressed. He look over to smile at Hanzo, but sadly, He wasn't paying attention since he seemed annoyed by something.
"What's wrong baby?" Cassidy walked closer to him and put a hand on his hip. He looked around again before his eyes landed on the cowboy, his frown deepening. "You'll have to go for breakfast without me, I can't find my weapon charm" He rubbed Cassidy's arm before moving away from his hand to look around the room again. Cassidy felt himself smile widely since said weapon charm was a small gift he gave Hanzo a year ago. The only times he takes it off his bow is to clean it, so it was a little weird that it was gone. But, if he didn't find it, he could always buy him a new one. "I could just help ya look for it, sweetie." He shook his hand and pointed to the door, meaning he wanted Cassidy to go and eat. He frowned but listened anyway, knowing better than to annoy him by not listening. He opened the door to leave but gave Hanzo one last look and said. "I love you, sweet pea. Make sure you don't take too long, we can always find it later." He hummed back in reply to show that he heard but was distracted for the most part. Cass didn't mind it though, he was always awkward with words of affection but he knew he loved him.
As much as he wished he was able to walk to breakfast with him, Hanzo searching for his lost item gave him time to talk to Genji about his surprise for later when they got back from their mission. He was probably in the main room sitting on the couch in his usual spot since he was almost always the first to get breakfast along with a few other members.
Sometimes, Cassidy was glad Hanzo woke up so early. It helps when you don't want to miss out on breakfast.
--
After quickly eating and greeting Reinhardt and Ana who sat at the table drinking coffee together, he made his way to the common room in search of Genji who was thankfully right where he knew he was gonna be. "Hey, Gen." He jolted from his place on the couch and quickly turned towards him. "Huh? Yes? What happened?" He tapped the side of his helmet to reveal his eyes which were wide with surprise. Cassidy snorted as he took a seat next to Genji. "Did ya fall asleep? I'll let you rest and we can talk later." Genji shook his head and sat up more. "What do you need? I'm awake now, so I might as well listen."
Cassidy chuckled before leaning back into the couch and crossing his arms. "I plan on proposin' today... If we don't get back too late, I'll do somethin' special for Hanny before I ask my big question." He said quietly. Genji clasped his hands together and leaned forward towards Cassidy with excitement glittering in his eyes. "Holy shit, really?! Please tell me his reaction after it all." It was nice to see how excited he was about it all, he even helped pick out a ring when the cowboy first brought up wanting to propose to Hanzo a few weeks ago.
"I'll be happy to have you as a brother-in-law, Cole. I know he'll say yes, even if he'll have a whole crisis first." He leaned back and put his hands on his lap.
"Hopefully this mission won't be too intense, would suck to have to push this to another day 'cause we're both too injured to do anythin'." Genji hummed in agreement before standing up with a sigh. "You just reminded me we have to get ready to leave in a few moments, we're leaving out early." He tapped the sides of his helmet again to put his visor back in place and began to walk ahead of Cassidy toward the hallway. He quickly bounced up so he wouldn't be left behind.
"So, who's all comin' along?" Genji hummed and crossed his arms as he thought. "As far as I know: you, me, Hanzo, Hana, and Angela are coming along. I know two others are coming with us but I'm not sure who." Cassidy nodded with a smile, it seemed like a good team so far. "Well, I'll cya inna bit, gotta go look for Han." Genji threw a peace sign up as his goodbye, making Cassidy chuckle as he turned around to go look for his beloved archer.
--
After looking around and failing to find Hanzo, he made my way to the front of the Overwatch base with a pout. He would eventually show up since he was coming along for the mission, but Cassidy needed to know if the other ate breakfast or not.
Due to being lost in his thoughts, He wasn't able to hear Hana's footsteps coming from behind him until she put her hand on his shoulder and startled him. "Jeez, I guess you weren't paying attention. You almost missed a turn!" She put both of her hands on his shoulders and made him turn to the left. "What were you so lost in thought about, old man?" He rolled my eyes at the name she decided to call him, but still gave her a small smile. "Was lookin' for Hanzo, but I haven't been able to find him." She hummed and leaned into him.
"He was looking for you too! Guess you both weren't able to cross paths." She lifted her hands from his shoulders and moved to bounce in front of him as she walked. "We'll just have to go meet him at the one place he'll no doubt go to! You'll be able to talk to him on the plane ride to our mission." Hana was right; even if he would've preferred to have a small moment of walking side-by-side alone with Hanzo, he would see him eventually as they went to go board the plane.
Talking to Hana helped pass some time by until they got to the ship dock to get ready for their mission. He looked around for Hanzo so they could board the plane together. He frowned when he couldn't see him anywhere. Hopefully, he was just running late... But he never usually did that; if anything, he was first or second here for the mission.
A finger tapped against his shoulder and made him turn around. He smiled as he turned to see Hanzo putting his hand down from tapping him.
"I couldn't find it." He mumbled sadly. "I went to eat and came here." Cassidy lifted him into a hug and chuckled. "Honey, we can jus' buy ya a new one if ya really want that charm!" He wiggled around in his arms until he freed his arms enough to hold onto his shoulders. "No, I don't want a new one!" He looked down and frowned at Cassidy as he was carried to the plane.
"Alright alright, we'll look for it when we get back. And plus, I'll have an amazin' surprise for ya even if we don't find it, it'll be better than a charm!" Hanzo huffed as he gave up trying to free himself from Cassidy's arms and decided to wrap his around his neck. "I doubt anything will be better than my favorite charm gifted to me by my cowboy." Cassidy laugh and swing him around before placing him back on his feet so they could sit down.
"Trust me, it will be, and you'll love it!"
At least, he hoped he would.
--
The plane ride to the mission was boring, like usual. Hanzo had his head laying on Cassidy's left shoulder while Hana had her's on his right one. She was asleep but Hanzo just had his eyes shut, probably thinking more than he was sleeping. Genji was talking to Angela, Ana was checking all of her sleep darts, and Lena was driving the plane; it was something she enjoyed doing even though Anthena was a good auto-pilot.
"Alright everyone, we're gonna be landing soon!" Lena happily announced from the front of the plane. Cassidy decided to start waking up Hana since Hanzo hummed to show he heard the other, sitting up to check all of his arrows before he grabbed his quiver and put it on his back. Hana rubbed her eyes and stretched her arms out high to try and wake herself up.
"Had a long stream last night?" He asks her as she stops rubbing her eye to check for her gun. "Mmhmmm... But, that's the usual." He chuckle and pat her on the head before turning over to Hanzo, who was already looking at him with an unreadable expression. He pushed his forehead into Cassidy's shoulder and stayed there for a moment until the plane turned downwards to show they were landing.
"Are ya sleepy, sugar?" He kissed the top of Hanzo's head as he nodded. "We'll be able to relax when we get home, I'll run ya a bubble bath and give ya a massage too." He held his hand as they both stood up to leave out of the plane's opening door. "I hope this mission ends early then." Hanzo said as he leaned his head on the cowboy as they walked.
He could hear Genji make fake gagging noises and Hana giggling as she took a picture of them, but at the moment, neither of them could care as they kissed, even if it made Genji's fake gagging even louder.
"Alright, everyone! Let's remember not to get too far apart as Winston requested! Don't wanna have to carry any bloody bodies back to the ship!" Lena bounced on her toes past the couple to leave the plane first. "Make sure all comms are on, and let's finish this mission as quickly as possible! But also, carefully, please." She looked over to Genji and Hanzo specifically when she said her final words before she sped off.
"Well, you heard the lady." Cassidy said before kissing Hanzo's forehead as they pulled apart from each other. Hanzo huffed and nudged him with his elbow. "Don't forget about your tendency to throw yourself into danger as well, cowboy." Said cowboy chuckled and put his hands up in defense. "Hey, she looked at ya when she said it, not me."
As they playfully bickered, they did both keep the warning in mind as they walked toward where their mission was supposed to begin.
--
Something was off, but it was hard to tell what, and Cassidy knew Hanzo felt the same by the way he stood and held his bow. There were hardly any omnics standing by the time they made their rounds of the area, both of them combined only killed 5 of them as well. But by the markings on the omnics, they had indeed been sent by talon. "This is strange, I feel like we should turn around before we get in any trouble." Hanzo quietly said, but Cassidy huffed in reply. "But darlin', the trouble's what we're here for!" Hanzo turned his head toward him and frowned. "Yes, that is true. But we're not here for-" A loud bang in front of them cut him off as an omnic fell from the top of a broken-down building. It was still able to move perfectly fine even with its missing arm, it had 7 others to make up for it. Hanzo looked back at Cassidy with a glare before aiming his arrow and shooting right into the omnic's eye.
But it didn't deter it even a little. If anything, it seemed to piss it off as it began to crawl toward them. They both turned around to run, but two more of the same omnic appeared behind them. "And what did I say about trouble?" Hanzo growled. "C'mon Hanny bee, we'll be fine! This much we can handle." Hanzo shot out two more arrows as Cassidy began unloading Peacekeeper.
The omnics only moved faster in rage, which trapped him and Hanzo between three giant robots that were probably about to crush them.
Until a green glow sliced one of the three omnics in half. Genji had thankfully managed to find them which made Cassidy turn to Hanzo with a relieved smile. "Ah, thank god that quick message update works." Hanzo grabbed him by the arm and pulled them through the robot that was still very much alive, even after being sliced in half. "Huh? You called him on the comm?" Hanzo nodded. "I would've figured you heard about it, but now's not the time to worry about that." Genji laughed and pointed his sword at me. "I'm worried about it though, you're usually a great listener Cole!" Hanzo rolled his eyes and shoved him and Genji forward to use his twin dragons on both of the omnics that ran full speed toward them.
And while it sadly didn't kill them, they were now in too many pieces to kill. Cassidy sighed in relief and slowed down to pat Hanzo, who jogged to his side again, on the back. "Goddamn baby, that was some quick thinkin'. But what if ya need 'em again? That didn't feel too early?" He shook his head before placing a quick peck on Cassidy's lips. "Too many questions. I'll be fine, Cole." Genji made a noise of disgust as he sheathed his sword. "Blegh, I'm still here y'know?" Hanzo rolled his eyes but smiled as he looked at Genji. "Oh please, as many things as I had to see from you in our youth, me kissing my beloved is nothing."
Cassidy managed to tune out their playful banter for the most part, his eyes were trained on Hanzo: whose smile widened at whatever Genji had said, whose shoulders bounced along with the piece of hair that would always hang in his face, and who he so wanted to marry right about now.
Whatever conversation he and Genji had ended if the way they both now stared at him patiently didn't hint at it enough. "Well, I'll be going to find Angela and Hana again, you two stay safe." He gave a peace sign before climbing up one of the abandoned buildings. "Oh, and don't be afraid to call if you need me!" After Hanzo nodded at him with a smile Genji left in a green flash. Cassidy still waved at him though, even if he probably only saw a brief moment of it.
"Let's go then, I'm sure there are more omnics just like those that we need to deal with." Hanzo broke the small silence and began to walk forward, looking behind him to make sure the other was following.
As Cassidy began to walk towards him, something moved by in a blur and took him with it. He blinked to make sure it wasn't just his eyes playing tricks, and maybe something just moved by so fast it made it seem like Hanzo was gone.
But by the fourth blink, he realized Hanzo simply just wasn't there.
He begins to panic as it sinks in that something just took Hanzo; it's fast too, which made catching up to it hard. But that didn't stop him from running down the alleyway that it took Hanzo down. "HANZO!" He panicked and called out as loudly as he could, but there was no response. He couldn't tell how far whatever the blur was taking him because there was no trail left behind, no sound cues, nothing that could help him even a little bit. He attempted to use his comm to talk to him before realizing the screen was cracked somehow.
What the fuck happened for it to be cracked? It was fine moments ago?!
"Shit." He could feel his hands shaking as he ran. "Shitshitshitshit."
Why'd it have to be him? While he knew Hanzo was able to handle himself it didn't mean the thought of him being basically kidnapped felt good. He called out to him again with no success; if anything, the yell alerted five omnics of his location and they were now running toward him. Thank god it wasn't the same ones from earlier, but more humanoid ones which made killing them easier.
As he aimed to shoot them another came from the side, because of course while he was trying to find his lost lover he had to get attacked by more omnics while on his own! He used the handle of his gun to slam down on the omnic's head before shooting it and the rest of his barrel at the others. But shooting with a shaky hand caused him to miss a few bullets, but even missing like this was not usual for him. "Fucking hell." He hissed out as one of the three still standing omnics grabbed at his arms, knowing he had to reload and nearly stopping him from doing so. He lifted his foot and kicked it back into the two behind it, causing them all to fall and giving him enough time to load his gun and shoot the shots he missed earlier.
This mission was going south really fast. He needs to find Hanzo now so they can get back to the others.
He didn't call out to him anymore just in case there were any more omnics around listening for him, but the spurs on his boots did jingle as he ran. Thankfully though, they seemed to be quiet enough for him to take out a few stray omnics, but none of them fought back either way.
After killing one omnic that he prayed was the last (and thankfully, it was) He began to find a small dotted blood trail that got bigger as he kept running, which made him worry for the safety of Hanzo. Hopefully, he was okay, the blood trail would stop every now and then so if it was his blood, maybe he hadn't lost too much; at least that's what Cassidy kept telling himself. And it seemed like he was able to take some enemies down as well with the amount of omnic parts and oil all over the place. But once again, it was just him hoping it was his doing and not someone else's; because there were no arrows in sight.
As he ran down a graffiti-covered alleyway with more omnic parts, the trail of blood came back, but it was worse and led down to the left. He followed it and was able to see something- or someone- laying on the ground.
God, it looked too much like Hanzo for his comfort. He begged every god above for it not to be him: but from the mass amounts of blood, stormbow abandoned in a corner, and arrows scattered all over the alleyway, there was sadly no doubt the body was Hanzo. He felt like he was going to throw up; the thought of Hanzo being hurt badly enough to leave three different trails of blood was making his stomach turn.
And in the end, Cassidy wasn't able to keep his breakfast down. he leaned onto a wall as the world spun before he bent down and vomited. How had this mission managed to go this badly? They were usually able to handle anything thrown at them, even if it ended in serious injuries.
He ran over to Hanzo on wobbly legs and wiped his mouth, feeling like he was going to throw up again as he looked at the state of his body. Whatever had got him attacked him as if it was a wild animal, but he knew better than to think it was something like that; Hanzo wouldn't die like that. There was an attempt to claw through his chest and stomach, and he couldn't even say it was a failed plan since his organs were nearly on display. The arm with his dragon tattoo was covered in scratch marks but dimly glowed as if using the dragons was the final thing he did. His face was surprisingly unscathed besides one small scratch on his face which meant whatever got him aimed to kill him as quickly as possible.
But by the looks of it, he lasted long enough to crawl into an alleyway, and maybe he even won.
"Oh my god." He dropped down to his knees and looked around for anything to help with stopping the blood that was pouring out of Hanzo's stomach wound. When he found nothing of use, he ended up having to use a part of Hanzo's clothes that wasn't torn to hold it over the wound and apply pressure to it. Even if this was something he had to do while being in Blackwatch, he still freaked out about it.
"Babe? Oh my god, Hanzo, oh my god." He began to panic as the situation processed in his mind more, Hanzo was barely breathing and his eyes were glazed over.
Hanzo Shimada was dying, and Cassidy had no idea what to do. Neither of their comms worked, and they were both lost down an alley.
"Hanzo... I'm so sorry, I'm sorry I didn't get here quick enough." Cassidy could see the other struggling to keep his eyes open by the way his eyes would flutter. "Y-You aren't supposed to leave yet. We were supposed to be next to each other, enjoying the last few moments of our lives, watching the sunset." He looked around Hanzo's body for any other wounds, but it seemed like the most major one was the one on his stomach. He had no idea how he was going to call out for anyone because he didn't want any omnics to come while he tried to keep Hanzo awake.
How the hell was he supposed to get help now?
"Hanzo, baby, stay awake please." He leaned down to kiss Hanzo's forehead and pressed down on his stomach harder.
If only he hadn't been too late, maybe he would've only been carrying him back while he was passed out from blood loss, not dead and unable to open his eyes. He knew it was much too late to try and save the other, he had lost too much blood already, but he still wanted to try. "Hanzo, can ya speak to me, please? Can ya move?" Hanzo wasn't responsive at all, and his blinking began to slow down until his eyes closed completely.
"Fuck, Hanzo! Open yer eyes, please!" Tears began to fall from Cassidy's eyes the longer Hanzo stayed still.
He didn't know what to do now, the person he considered to be his everything was dead. And it feels like it's all his fault. Maybe if he didn't linger behind, he would've been able to see, or maybe they could've been on the ground together. Dying with Hanzo didn't sound like a bad idea, it actually sounded like the best thing to happen right now. It felt like a huge part of him was just ripped out, and he wanted it back; he wanted him back.
He slowly removed his shaky hands from Hanzo's stomach and sobbed, picking him up and holding him in his lap instead as he rocked side-to-side. "I'm so fuckin' sorry Hanzo..." He squeezed Hanzo's dead body, knowing it was getting more blood than needed on him, but he couldn't care about the blood now. He kissed his head and moved one hand from under Hanzo's legs to hold his hand, rubbing his thumb into his cold palm. Hanzo would've never admitted it, but he would always love holding hands. It was something he tried so hard to be subtle about it, but watching his every move was like a hobby for Cassidy. He only hoped he knew how much Cassidy loved the way his hand slipped perfectly into his own.
He let out a shaky sigh, closing his eyes and whispering in Hanzo's ear.
"I know you don't like surprises but... Hanzo Shimada, will you marry me?"