Chapter 2

Before Hanzo knew it, a month had steadily passed without him even realizing it until he took an inquisitive look at a calendar, calculating from when he had arrived into this city to now. He had apparently spent most of that time glued to Jesse's side, exploring the city and every little nock and corner they could find, even ones the public didn't know about. Jesse's knowledge about various hidden sites was extensive and excellent, obviously knowledgeable about his settings, and used it to his complete advantage in wooing him over. It was working too as Hanzo, more often than not, found himself being swept along by Jesse's accented words and dramatic motions. After returning to the hotel to have a little extra fun after a day of exploring or simply enjoying each other's pleasant company and, well, Hanzo wasn't complaining. Luckily, money wasn't an issue with either of them, not when they were sharing everything.

Still, Hanzo knew he should have left long ago to keep the assassins off his trail and from finding him, but something kept him trapped in this very city or, more exactly, someone.

It was wholeheartedly foolish to stay, to keep himself at Jesse's side, despite the fact that they switched hotels every few days. It was barely enough settle their paranoia, keeping themselves moving about, which they both agreed to and never complained regarding. They were similar in their running/hiding ways, but when it came to each other, such things tended to vanish, their guards dropping. Still, Hanzo could see the way Jesse observed his surroundings consistently, taking in everything before allowing them to step into an unknown area, searching their room for bugs. Hanzo didn't mind, he did the same exact thing right behind.

It was strange how easily they clicked together, complimenting each other's routine and styles. Hanzo wasn't sure about fighting, since he has yet to see Jesse in an actual fight, but those hard muscles, the lingering lines of scars, and rough calluses didn't lie. It spoke of untold battles and, if Hanzo enjoyed running his fingertips over them, he wasn't going to deny himself. Jesse just had a way of making him forget about everything else when they were together, like the sins of his past didn't matter anymore, of the trailing family assassins that were surely behind.

The hotels they eventually began renting had their own tiny kitchens, allowing Jesse to show off his superb skills in cooking by creating a delicious meal over the stove. Not that Hanzo minded, not when Jesse would whistle happily and shake his hips to some imaginary beat. If Hanzo thought deeper about their living situation, he would suspect they had moved in together and with such practiced ease too. It was horrifyingly scary how fast things had progressed and yet there was no denial at how easily they simply...clicked.

Jesse was excellent at hiding his inner thoughts behind words, but even the gunslinger was concerned at how fast they were progressing through this relationship, and yet, he refused to acknowledge the concern it was placing on his mind. He couldn't deny the attraction, the attachment, the everything about Hanzo that made the cowboy stay and desire to learn more about the archer and Jesse could see the obvious signs that Hanzo was having the same mental issue.

They would hang out on the balcony of their hotel, smoking and drinking the night away, ignoring the cold from the way they bundled up beside each other, using Jesse's serape to enclose the heat within. Sometimes, Hanzo would lean over against a hard shoulder and simply fall asleep, pressed tightly against the other, and Jesse would just smile sincerely, remaining still until it was time to head in for bed. Other times, they would simply cuddle in bed, buried underneath the comforters, wrapped around each other like they slotted perfectly into each other's arms, like they were each other's' pieces to a puzzle, like they had belonged there since the very beginning of time. The peacefulness brought a sense of calm to their burning souls, the rest of the world becoming nothing more than background noise.

It was a happiness like neither of them had experienced, not like this, and they clung to it desperately, neither wanting it to disappear or fade. Still, it was in neither of the killers' character to leave themselves so willingly open to another, so open to failure, to weakness, but well, love made people do stupid things, even when they weren't entirely sure where exactly this relationship was progressing towards. A life built around blood, death, and betrayal left hidden scars buried within their souls, scars that the presence of the other was slowly forcing to fade into a mere memory.

But like all good things, eventually what the two killers had been running from would catch up to pop their little happy bubble.

Hanzo had noticed it the second they appeared, the dark shadows following from the corner of his eyes. If Jesse ever did, the man gave nothing away, not even a squeeze of his arm that was wrapped around Hanzo's shoulders. The archer could literally sense them creeping from the corners, slowly edging closer to their position. They were watching, observing, waiting for a perfect moment to strike, when the two of them had their guards dropped or cornered.

Luckily, all of this had begun outside their shared hotel, after being outside the whole day with night already setting in, the sun disappearing behind the skyscrapers in the distance, and bringing weariness to their bones. Hanzo kept a tight grip around Jesse's arm, steering him in a different direction in hopes of losing them, but no luck. The couple hadn't been walking down any crowded streets and, with how late it was, they stood out like a glowing beacon in the darkness. Their dressing style didn't help either.

Not wanting to pull Jesse into his own personal troubles (Hanzo certain they were here for him), the first moment he could get a chance to head to the bathroom, the archer snuck out the backdoor of the restaurant. He was going to take care of this little problem himself, not wanting to drag the other into his mess of a life.

Hanzo mentally cursed himself. He had most definitely gotten attached to the ridiculous cowboy, fallen for the savvy words and wholehearted confessions of love.

Despite the month of comfort, Hanzo (luckily) could never quite pull away from the safety of his bow, kept in a special instrument case, arrows hidden within. There's a small knife inside his kyudo-gi for up close if absolutely necessary. Still, he wasn't the only one carrying, considering Jesse constantly equipped his revolver, ammunition, and a hidden knife underneath his serape. They were both killers of sorts and certain things could never be left behind, no matter who was with them. It was something Hanzo respected and willingly worked with. At least, he is certain at this point that Jesse wasn't here to harm him in any way, his dragons having already made sure of that the first night they slept together.

Still, what should have been a simple take down of a couple useless assassins hired to kill him was causing him more trouble than originally intended. These ones were smarter. They knew his abilities. They had come prepared, ready to make his long-range attacks useless, getting up close and personal. Normally, this wouldn't bother him, trained in short-range martial arts, but a group that could easily coordinate their attacks, driving him further back against the wall as they peppered him with bullets. There was no cover and no free second to climb up the walls of the buildings to get the distance and vantage point to shoot freely, not when there was a relatively skilled sniper already set up in the distance, forcing him to remain low to the ground.

Six troublesome assassins were far too prepared for his fighting habits. They had tidily taken into account for all his skills. They were pulling all the stops to take him down, to get the bounty on his head from his retched family.

Hanzo sneered, backing up slightly, despite knowing he was unintentionally cornering himself. It wasn't like he could go anywhere else. He was trapped in a tiny alleyway with his bow and a small handful of arrows, nowhere close enough to take down five men wielding guns at once (not even with his scatter arrows), two of which were hanging towards the back to overlook the situation, while the sniper remained hidden in a building across the street. Hanzo had already pinpointed the location, but he hadn't been able to shake off his followers to properly strike without getting harmed himself, not even to gain a perfect location to use his dragon strike.

He ignored the taunting voices spoken in Japanese, his mind focusing on figuring out a solution to his current predicament. At least, he had taken the clash away from the restaurant, away from Jesse, but like hell he was going down without a fight.

Fingering a scatter arrow, Hanzo calculated his best chances of taking out everyone with a single draw before he got shot down. It wasn't good, not at this close range, with no cover to protect himself when the last two came out barely injured, but he was going to have to take this brief chance. His dragons could easily take care of the five men in this narrow alleyway, but the power usage would leave him momentarily weak, enough for a mere sniper to pick him off, a reach that had been purposefully calculated to be out of his dragons' reach.

Damn...

Hanzo refused to go down because he had dropped his guard. He refused to let what little happiness he had be taken away from him. He would fight or go down taking everyone with him.

There was some more bickering, most of it regarding his family back home in Japan, the money they would earn from killing him and dragging his corpse to the elders, and the method of splitting the winning price. Hanzo ignored it all, his mind in tune with the wind and the breaths the men were taking. His fingers strung the bow, ready to take the first shot and the resulting fire that would occur immediately.

"Well, well, what's goin' on here?"

The familiar drawl broke Hanzo out of whatever concentration he had built up, his eyes snapping towards the familiar shadow behind everyone, just stepping into the light of the city to reveal his presence. The red telling glow of the cigarillo and outlined shape of the cowboy hat gave Jesse away in the darkness.

Hanzo swallowed thickly. He had been followed. Had he been that obvious or had Jesse known the entire time about the intruders? Hanzo snorted. He shouldn't be surprised. He really shouldn't.

Jesse grinned so brightly in the darkness, flicking his hat upward for just a moment with his left hand as his right loosely held his revolver, pointed downward towards the ground. "Honestly, it looks like trouble ta me. How about ya take your leave and don't come back? I promise ta not send ya packin'."

The various men cursed out in Japanese, motioning the cowboy to get out of the way. The two in the back immediately aimed their guns at him, cocking it to show they were ready to return the threat. One was calling out to their sniper through an earpiece, demanding why they hadn't been alerted to the stranger's appearance, but there was only a telling silence on the other end.

Hanzo flinched, his focus completely shattered. It took everything to stop himself from calling out to Jesse, to scold him, to demand he run away. However, there was something that was stopping him, a shiver that ran down his spine, like the air was tensing to some unknown force. He felt frozen in place, unable to do anything but watch.

"It's High Noon..."

There was a high pitched ring in the air, almost like time was slowing down to a crawl. Hanzo spotted something brown tumbling across the street before it vanished, his mind focusing only on his lover. His dragons squirmed underneath his skin as if sensing something wasn't right. The men standing between them were starting to yell out commands but Hanzo didn't care.

The gunslinger smirked cunningly, full of confidence that was overly familiar, and the way Jesse had slipped through Hanzo's defenses with such ease that left the archer breathless.

"Draw!"

Five shots, five bull's-eyes, five bodies.

Hanzo blinked. The attack had been so fast that he had barely caught the tail end of it. He glanced momentarily down at the corpses on the ground, all headshots, and then back up at Jesse. "What..." That was all he managed to get out, ignoring the fact that he had a little speckle of blood on his clothes. "What did you...?"

Jesse strolled down the dark alleyway like it was nothing, like he hadn't killed five people all at once, twirling his revolver momentarily to release the empty casings, letting them clatter to the ground with a sharp ring. His shoes jingled, leaving Hanzo unable to understand how the cowboy had been able to sneak up on them in the first place, and Jesse chuckled amusingly as he reloaded, the gun tucked away soon after. Stopping just a foot away from the other, whose warm brown eyes trailed over Hanzo's body, checking for any injuries, Jesse smiled. "Ya hurt, darlin?"

Hanzo blinked once, twice, as if trying to understand those words. "What...? No, I'm fine."

"Ya sure?" Jesse warily reached out, careful to not startle his lover, and cupped the right cheek tenderly. His thumb went over the soft cold skin, wiping a smear of blood that had been dripping down from a cut. "Looks like they got ya here, darlin."

Hanzo automatically reached up with his right, his left still on the bow, and touched the hand, enjoying the way the warm limb felt against his chilled body. Mentally shaking his head and berating himself for getting distracted, he touched the same cheek and, when he pulled back, found fresh blood on his fingertips. "Oh." It was a scratch. They must have nicked him when he had been running. This was minor, almost nothing compared to what he has suffered before. "This is nothing."

Jesse just hummed, as if amused, carefully getting Hanzo to walk with him out of the alleyway where the five bodies rested (after, of course, taking the pay-out cash off the assassins). His weapon wasn't exactly quiet and he didn't want to be found at the scene of the crime. Hanzo clung to him, not that Jesse cared, as they put some distance and eventually, the two snuck into another alleyway to get out of sight, knowing that the two needed to have a conversation. The hotel was too far at this current time for something this important.

Jesse, being the one currently in control, decided to speak up first. "I guess...this means we both gotta move on from this city, huh." he muttered under his breath, knowing very well that Hanzo could hear him clearly in the dead silence of the city. "We've both been here too long."

Hanzo nodded to that, completely agreeing as he leaned back against the wall. "I'm afraid so. My family's hired assassins managed to track me down and they'll come again. I've been stationary for far too long."

Jesse sighed, sucking a drag from his cigarillo. He knew the other was eyeing him and he smirked, plucking it over to Hanzo.

The archer wordlessly took it and inhaled a long puff, letting the nicotine spread into his veins, forcefully relaxing him during this stressful situation. He could feel the tension rolling off his shoulders, his disruptive thoughts fading away like the smoke released from his lips, and felt better in handling the cold air on his bare right arm that revealed his tattoo sleeve.

Neither of them wanted to leave each other. It was so obvious in the way they gazed heatedly at each other, not wanting to part with what happiness they had found. It wasn't often that people like them found something like this in their dark and dangerous lifestyle.

The gunslinger hummed gently into the night once more, shuffling closer to his lover, enough to wrap his arms around the man, and throw his serape over the both of them, careful to not catch the cigarillo. "Well, I do know there's a hyper train leavin' this city in two hours' time. Plenty of time to relax back at the hotel, then hoof it over."

Ah, there it is. The separation...

The beginning of the end.

Hanzo sighed, unconsciously leaning into the warm touch, clutching the cigarillo as he took another puff. He wanted to cling to his lover, to be pulled into Jesse's absolute warmth. "I see..."

"I say we say goodbye to this wonderful city and explore the next one together."

Hanzo froze, his fingers tightening around the cigarillo in his lips. "We?" Had he heard incorrectly? That wasn't possible. "Together?" The words were almost mere whispers and he thought that perhaps it was his mind making up his meager hope into reality.

There was a flicker of weakness in Jesse's eyes, like he was suddenly uncertain by Hanzo's confusion, before straightening up. He nodded once, smiling softly, and tugged Hanzo closer to his chest. "Yeah, together." He drifted off momentarily before gathering himself, taking his smoke back. "I mean, we're both drifters, right? Aimless wonderers in this world." Jesse began, tightening his grasp around the other. It was almost like a romantic gesture out of those movies, except for the back alley setting and the blood on their clothes.

Hanzo slowly nodded, unable to deny that very fact. It was true after all. They both went wherever they felt like going, taking a job here and there to keep themselves afloat in the materialistic world or using the assassins that came after them, robbing them dry as their bodies cooled.

"So, we, ya know, might as well drift together." Jesse cupped Hanzo's chin, their eyes meeting together. His bare thumb caressed a chilled cheek, knowing he had the other's full attention. He had to stop himself from kissing those lips, from derailing their conversation. "Ya know, I watch your back and ya watch mine. No more lonely cold nights. No more sitting alone at a bar. No more having our own thoughts as our only company." Jesse felt Hanzo's hands wrap around his body, pulling him in closer. "Sure, it might get us double the trouble, but that's the fun of it. It'll be worth it in the end. So...what do ya say?"

Hanzo was silent, his eyes never leaving the other. He was more than just considering the idea, he welcomed it. No more...anything. He had been in self-exile for seven years, rightfully punishing himself for the death of his younger brother, and there was a part of him that wanted to continue his isolation, but there was another, a stronger section, that clung to Jesse for the warmth he brought his soul. The nightmares he suffered at night had vanished almost completely in Jesse's presence, pulled into an embrace that left him exhausted and breathless. The sensation of strong arms wrapped around him gave him comfort, made him feel safe, in peace, protected.

Still, there was one thing that needed to be placed out into the open. Hanzo licked his dry lips, his brown eyes observing his lover carefully. "What's your full name?"

Jesse blinked briefly, surprised by the response before chuckling. "Jesse McCree. Pretty sure ya can just google my name and get every detail ya ever need to know about little o' me."

"Ah, the bounty hunter that used to be with Blackwatch. The one with the current highest bounty." Hanzo should have known. He should have made the connection, but well, he blamed the man with his distinctive distractions, all of them. Pressing a little closer against the other, he huffed. "Shimada Hanzo. In my culture, we give our last names first."

There was a brief freeze on Jesse's side before relaxing. "Shimada? As in from the Shimada-gumi stationed in Hanamura?"

"I'm the runaway heir to a crime family. Well, what's left of it. I know Overwatch tore the group down. It's no longer as strong as it used to be." Hanzo admitted, burying his face against Jesse's board shoulder just so he wouldn't see any resulting reaction, as if his crimes would come spiraling out of nowhere. "I did something horrible in my past, something I should have never done, and I left afterwards to pay for that crime. I've been living a life of isolation...until I met you." Those last words had the archer closing his eyes.

"So ya turned against the family that was once under your power." Jesse relaxed, raising his right hand up to push a few loose bangs that had fallen into Hanzo's face back, tucking them behind the ear. There was just one single bang that refused to conform to the rest, springing back into place stubbornly. Still, the warm touch was pleasant in the cold air, sending shivers down Hanzo's spine, reminding both men that they were standing out in the cold.

There were plenty of things Jesse wanted to bring to the forefront of their conversation, from his time back in Blackwatch, about certain truths he knew, but the gunslinger figured now wasn't the best time. Their relationship was shaky at best and Jesse didn't want to ruin what little pleasure he had found.

Smiling, Jesse chuckled, nuzzling closer to the other. "Well, I'll be darn grateful to have ya at my side despite our pasts." He placed a gentle kiss at the curve of Hanzo's neck, enjoying the way the other unconsciously pressed closer for more. "I'll have to admit there's just something sweet between us. Don't want it goin' away. So, what'd ya say?"

Hanzo didn't say anything. He retracted from the warm grasp momentarily to stare into those warm brown eyes, feeling his dragons curling underneath his skin, and smiled. Leaning in, he kissed the stupid cowboy silent.

That was enough of an answer for the both of them.

Just like Jesse, Hanzo didn't want this breathtaking freedom to disappear.

He could already see the interesting adventures they would be having together in the future and he willingly swept towards it with this ridiculous cowboy at his side.

I had planned this to have more content but I've decided to split this into another story.