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Description
Moonlighting
An Overwatch AU

Jesse McCree was starting to worry about several very important things.

Finding excuses to disappear a few days a month were getting harder to come by, or rather, harder for Hanzo to accept readily. It had been easy at first when they had only started seeing each other, each had their own life and a few days here and there were nothing unusual.

Then their encounters happened more often...and then they became regular and now here he was thinking up new excuses. A job, a mission, another job....and so it went on. How long could it last? Hanzo would figure it out, he was observant and smart and he would put two and two together eventually. He was purposely being avoided at a certain point every month. While he might not figure out the exact reason because it seemed positively ridiculous.

He needed time away because he was a werewolf. Who would believe that?

It wasn’t the right word, of course. He’d never been bitten and he wasn’t cursed. The form wasn’t even a wolf or a wolf man. It was some kind of wolf,bear and himself combination. Science had made him, just like it had made so many other of the more unusual individuals he’d met. Orphans were a dime a dozen during the Omnic Crisis. He didn’t even remember where they’d found him or even who had found him...only that they were desperate to come up with something...anything to combat the rogue robots.

What they got was a lot of blood on their hands and eventually successful soldier enhancement. Jesse was one of the lucky ones. He could turn it off...most of the time...and he was alive. Four weeks was his record for holding it in. It oddly synced with the full moon. Jesse hadn’t done that intentionally, but it seemed to have stuck. As far as he knew, the results were mixed at best and his particular enhancements weren’t used on any of the actual volunteers from the United States Military.

He’d managed to escape at some point and he’d ended up with the Deadlock Gang, which as far was he was concerned, was a whole lot better than being dead. It was a lot more profitable, too. If he ever got cornered, he had a way out and it was one that no one would believe if his adversary made it out alive. The Deadlocks were a lot easier to evade. They would get to drinking and gambling and not miss Jesse if he stepped out for a bit. It seemed like he’d finally found a decent balance.

Still...nothing lasted forever and all good things had to come to an end.

There was a reason his delinquent teenage self hadn’t ended up in prison after the Overwatch sting. It was the same one that landed him in Blackwatch...why Reyes had personally taken him under his wing. The folks behind the Soldier Enhancement Division had some skeletons in their closet that had come to light and someone had to keep a handle on things. For a time, Reyes was that person and for a time, Jesse was happy to feel needed, appreciated...and accepted...like he really was making the world a better place...but once again...all good things.

McCree had been on his own for six or seven years now. Thankfully, he’d wanted out and gotten out before the organization went to hell. In what was possibly the last good thing Reyes had ever done, he’d vouched for him when he asked to be discharged. Said he wasn’t a liability anymore, that they’d gotten everything under control. It wasn’t a total lie, but it wasn’t the whole truth, either. It wasn’t a bad deal. He even got to keep the cybernetic replacement arm he had been fitted with for service.

Since then, Jesse had been working as a mercenary, mostly working as a body guard and personal security. It allowed a good amount of anonymity. Cash only. In and out. Wham, Bam, Thank You, Ma’am.

That’s how he’d originally crossed paths with the former crime lord, Hanzo Shimada. He’d been working for a...business associate of the mysterious archer and he’d definitely caught the scent of something unusual. He couldn’t put an exact finger on it, but the Japanese man’s distinct scent was not unlike his own. The was the unique human signature with something else under it. He’d naturally been intrigued and he’d noticed that Shimada had been crossing his path more and more frequently and he’d been enjoying the company. Jesse had never been anyone’s steady anything and their...liaisons were getting more and more personal. It was bittersweet, really. It was only a matter of time before Hanzo found out. McCree had cancelled two of their meetings and rescheduled them over the last two months and he was almost positive that Hanzo was picking the same weeks on purpose now.

But he didn’t want this good thing to end just yet!

Jesse counted himself lucky that at the last minute, someone with a very large wallet had hired him to house sit for the weekend in a rather fine estate outside of Kyoto. It was a strange request, but it seemed like easy money for a mercenary. He didn’t have to fight anyone or stop any train robberies...it was just him and a house for the weekend and he wasn’t about to argue. It was the perfect job. The home obviously belonged to old money. There were pieces of art in every room, from scrolls to vases to statues, all carrying a dragon motif. Hanzo would love this place. He’d have to tell him about it on Monday when they met up in Hanamura. Maybe the house belonged to someone famous, a celebrity or something?

It was really peaceful out here in the middle of nowhere. The only sounds were from crickets and the occasional splash from a frog or a fish in a nearby lake. McCree sighed stripping off his effects piece by piece until he was down to just a pair of old Blackwatch pants. He’d held onto them since they were made especially for him to accommodate his enhancements. Jesse took a deep breath. No time like the present to get unpleasant business finished. His cybernetic arm was about to look very out of place.

He walked away from the house and into its massive backyard toward the lakeshore. The gentle lapping of the water and the sand and the occasional cry of an owl was the only thing he could hear. He settled down on the grass and took a few deep, purposeful breathes.

Alright then. On with it.

It wasn’t obvious from the outside, but McCree could feel the shift start. The burning heat on his skin, the dull ache in his bones as they prepared to stretch and the irritation on his skin that would momentarily sprout rusty fur.

“Mind if I join you?”

McCree’s heard skipped a beat at that voice. He felt the hairs on the back of his neck raise and the pit of his stomach felt like it fell through the floor? How could he have missed Hanzo’s approach? He should have smelled him a mile away with that distinctive scent of his! No...no he couldn’t be here...he’d already started....

“What are you doing here? You are supposed to be in Hanamura!”

Try as he might, McCree couldn’t hide the desperation in his voice. He held his flesh hand behind his back, the nails had already darkened and grown into claws.

Hanzo shrugged.

“I live here, well, sometimes. This is our summer estate. There’s not another soul for miles. Its just us. I’m the one who hired you to house sit...and I’m going to do it with you.”

Jesse McCree felt as though the world was falling out from under him and Hanzo was just chatting like nothing was wrong.

“Hanzo. You...you have to go. You can’t be here.”

McCree’s hear thudded in his chest, this was an absolute disaster! He could feel the pressure mounting harder in his bones. Muscles were already starting to swell. Shit! Had his eyes changed color yet? They were always early on...morphing from a soft brown to striking yellow.

Hanzo seemed oblivious to Jesse’s panic, remaining infuriatingly calm.

“You don’t want me to know your secret. I know. Jesse McCree, did you not think I could smell what you were from the moment I met you? Given that nose of yours, you have to know that we have something very personal in common. It’s rare to find a kindred spirit. You probably know that as well as I do. I noticed your pattern and thought I might be of some assistance.”

McCree felt his heart clench, not hearing a lot of what Hanzo said, admittedly. He knew. Hanzo knew. If he did then why was he still here? Why was he wasting his time?

“Jesse, we’re the same. You don’t have to hide from me.”

“It ain’t the same, Hanzo. It isn’t...it isn’t natural.” McCree paused, visibly starting to sweat.

The archer raised an eyebrow.

“So...generations of selective breeding and special training is somehow more ‘natural?’ Please. You’ll forgive me if I find that hard to believe, speaking from experience.”

“Yeah, well, speaking from my experience it is really different. It ain’t alike at all. You...you don’t have to....”

“But I want to.”

The archer blinked slowly and McCree could see the stirring of something other in his eyes. Tiny flecks of gold appeared in Hanzo’s irises, expanding until their usual color was replaced with a metallic sheen. Patches of skin darkened and glistened in the moonlight as they turned into rich, blue scales that freckled the archer’s body. A pair of elegant antlers peeked out from between spikes of Hanzo’s hair.

“It will be something of an adventure, don’t you think? When my brother and I were children, our father began to teach us how to control the spirit dragons...but, he also taught us who we were. Who we really were. You’re the first person outside my immediate family to even know. That’s some very intimate knowledge, wouldn’t you say? I can’t imagine you’ve actually had any time to actually enjoy your shifting.”

Well, that was putting it mildly.

That intoxicating smell that always seemed to linger around Hanzo became stronger. It filled McCree’s nostrils and the creature inside him felt like it was clawing to get out. Hanzo’s shifting was so different. It seemed to flow, little bits and pieces of the dragon within seemed to materialize. It was like watching one of those changing pictures in a pretend haunted house. One minute a human trait was there, the next, a draconic one replaced it. McCree couldn’t help but feel a twinge of jealousy. His shifting was always so chaotic.

It felt rude to stare. Jesse felt like he was watching something perhaps a little too personal and looked at the ground, chewing on his lower lip. How did Hanzo make it look so damn effortless?

Jesse felt something cup the side of his now shaggy cheek and gently steer his gaze back. He blinked to the side and saw that it wasn’t a hand, but rather a blue scaled talon that somehow held him so supportively.

“I see that look. You think it was easy for me? You think my first changes weren’t frightening and painful? That I just started out having control? No.”

Hanzo shook his head.

“It took practice, Jesse McCree. Years of it. Over time, it became like breathing. It can be that way for you, too.”

McCree tried to find words, anything, but nothing was coming to him. His throat was tight and he didn’t think he could manage to speak without starting to cry and sakes alive, that was not something he wanted to do in front of Hanzo Shimada over nothing. So instead, he screwed his eyes shut.

It was true, though. He didn’t have practice. He’d never wanted practice. He’d wanted to rush it, get it over with. There was nothing elegant about it. It was something he had to do, not something he wanted to do. Truth be told...he hated it.

He hated that this was forced on him, that he had to hide it, that it hurt and that it was something he had to live with when he’d never asked for it in the first place. Reyes...Morrison...they’d volunteered and from where he was standing, their perfected formulas for soldier enhancement spat in his face. There was nothing anyone could do about it. They couldn’t turn if off, they couldn’t take it out. It had been a part of him for too long.

“H-Hanzo, I can’t stop it.”

He shoved the talon away from his face and fell to his knees.

The anger fueled his transformation then, thick, rusty fur sprouted all over his body, his feet distended to resemble a wolf’s hind legs. His back swelled with raw muscle, too heavy to stand fully upright without a definite slouch. Jesse’s nose darkened and his face pushed out into a muzzle, some sharp teeth curled his lips back like tusks.

Let Hanzo see, then. Let him see how wrong he was and this could be another good thing that could end right now and at least there wouldn’t be any more waiting around for the inevitable.

When McCree opened his eyes, there was a large, blue dragon waiting for him in Hanzo’s place. It smelled like Hanzo and held itself like him. The dragon gently leaned forward and pressed its forehead against Jesse’s.

“Neither of us chose this. It is what we are. We have to make it our own.”

McCree started. The voice, though altered and different, was unmistakably Hanzo Shimada’s. Jesus, he was even beautiful completely transformed. It was strangely calming...comforting even to see someone else completely transformed and here at his side. Thankful, he pressed back against Hanzo’s forehead. The dragon rumbled pleasantly and wrapped his long body around Jesse comfortingly.

It was too much.

McCree really did cry then. The fur on his face was wet and his breathing was a series of loud chuffs. He leaned into every bit of the dragon he could, his mechanical fingers digging into Hanzo’s mane and holding it fiercely. He needed it. He just needed to be here with someone like himself...but not like himself. He had to say something. Anything. All he could manage was...

“Don’t go.”

Hanzo’s lips curled back in a knowing smile.

“Never.”

After a few long minutes, McCree managed to pull himself together.

In a voice made rough and ragged by the change, McCree nonetheless sounded cheerful.

“This is really a lovely place you’ve got here. I might fancy dropping by again. Same time next month? I...think I could use a few of your pointers,”

Description
Moonlighting
An Overwatch AU

Jesse McCree was starting to worry about several very important things.

Finding excuses to disappear a few days a month were getting harder to come by, or rather, harder for Hanzo to accept readily. It had been easy at first when they had only started seeing each other, each had their own life and a few days here and there were nothing unusual.

Then their encounters happened more often...and then they became regular and now here he was thinking up new excuses. A job, a mission, another job....and so it went on. How long could it last? Hanzo would figure it out, he was observant and smart and he would put two and two together eventually. He was purposely being avoided at a certain point every month. While he might not figure out the exact reason because it seemed positively ridiculous.

He needed time away because he was a werewolf. Who would believe that?

It wasn’t the right word, of course. He’d never been bitten and he wasn’t cursed. The form wasn’t even a wolf or a wolf man. It was some kind of wolf,bear and himself combination. Science had made him, just like it had made so many other of the more unusual individuals he’d met. Orphans were a dime a dozen during the Omnic Crisis. He didn’t even remember where they’d found him or even who had found him...only that they were desperate to come up with something...anything to combat the rogue robots.

What they got was a lot of blood on their hands and eventually successful soldier enhancement. Jesse was one of the lucky ones. He could turn it off...most of the time...and he was alive. Four weeks was his record for holding it in. It oddly synced with the full moon. Jesse hadn’t done that intentionally, but it seemed to have stuck. As far as he knew, the results were mixed at best and his particular enhancements weren’t used on any of the actual volunteers from the United States Military.

He’d managed to escape at some point and he’d ended up with the Deadlock Gang, which as far was he was concerned, was a whole lot better than being dead. It was a lot more profitable, too. If he ever got cornered, he had a way out and it was one that no one would believe if his adversary made it out alive. The Deadlocks were a lot easier to evade. They would get to drinking and gambling and not miss Jesse if he stepped out for a bit. It seemed like he’d finally found a decent balance.

Still...nothing lasted forever and all good things had to come to an end.

There was a reason his delinquent teenage self hadn’t ended up in prison after the Overwatch sting. It was the same one that landed him in Blackwatch...why Reyes had personally taken him under his wing. The folks behind the Soldier Enhancement Division had some skeletons in their closet that had come to light and someone had to keep a handle on things. For a time, Reyes was that person and for a time, Jesse was happy to feel needed, appreciated...and accepted...like he really was making the world a better place...but once again...all good things.

McCree had been on his own for six or seven years now. Thankfully, he’d wanted out and gotten out before the organization went to hell. In what was possibly the last good thing Reyes had ever done, he’d vouched for him when he asked to be discharged. Said he wasn’t a liability anymore, that they’d gotten everything under control. It wasn’t a total lie, but it wasn’t the whole truth, either. It wasn’t a bad deal. He even got to keep the cybernetic replacement arm he had been fitted with for service.

Since then, Jesse had been working as a mercenary, mostly working as a body guard and personal security. It allowed a good amount of anonymity. Cash only. In and out. Wham, Bam, Thank You, Ma’am.

That’s how he’d originally crossed paths with the former crime lord, Hanzo Shimada. He’d been working for a...business associate of the mysterious archer and he’d definitely caught the scent of something unusual. He couldn’t put an exact finger on it, but the Japanese man’s distinct scent was not unlike his own. The was the unique human signature with something else under it. He’d naturally been intrigued and he’d noticed that Shimada had been crossing his path more and more frequently and he’d been enjoying the company. Jesse had never been anyone’s steady anything and their...liaisons were getting more and more personal. It was bittersweet, really. It was only a matter of time before Hanzo found out. McCree had cancelled two of their meetings and rescheduled them over the last two months and he was almost positive that Hanzo was picking the same weeks on purpose now.

But he didn’t want this good thing to end just yet!

Jesse counted himself lucky that at the last minute, someone with a very large wallet had hired him to house sit for the weekend in a rather fine estate outside of Kyoto. It was a strange request, but it seemed like easy money for a mercenary. He didn’t have to fight anyone or stop any train robberies...it was just him and a house for the weekend and he wasn’t about to argue. It was the perfect job. The home obviously belonged to old money. There were pieces of art in every room, from scrolls to vases to statues, all carrying a dragon motif. Hanzo would love this place. He’d have to tell him about it on Monday when they met up in Hanamura. Maybe the house belonged to someone famous, a celebrity or something?

It was really peaceful out here in the middle of nowhere. The only sounds were from crickets and the occasional splash from a frog or a fish in a nearby lake. McCree sighed stripping off his effects piece by piece until he was down to just a pair of old Blackwatch pants. He’d held onto them since they were made especially for him to accommodate his enhancements. Jesse took a deep breath. No time like the present to get unpleasant business finished. His cybernetic arm was about to look very out of place.

He walked away from the house and into its massive backyard toward the lakeshore. The gentle lapping of the water and the sand and the occasional cry of an owl was the only thing he could hear. He settled down on the grass and took a few deep, purposeful breathes.

Alright then. On with it.

It wasn’t obvious from the outside, but McCree could feel the shift start. The burning heat on his skin, the dull ache in his bones as they prepared to stretch and the irritation on his skin that would momentarily sprout rusty fur.

“Mind if I join you?”

McCree’s heard skipped a beat at that voice. He felt the hairs on the back of his neck raise and the pit of his stomach felt like it fell through the floor? How could he have missed Hanzo’s approach? He should have smelled him a mile away with that distinctive scent of his! No...no he couldn’t be here...he’d already started....

“What are you doing here? You are supposed to be in Hanamura!”

Try as he might, McCree couldn’t hide the desperation in his voice. He held his flesh hand behind his back, the nails had already darkened and grown into claws.

Hanzo shrugged.

“I live here, well, sometimes. This is our summer estate. There’s not another soul for miles. Its just us. I’m the one who hired you to house sit...and I’m going to do it with you.”

Jesse McCree felt as though the world was falling out from under him and Hanzo was just chatting like nothing was wrong.

“Hanzo. You...you have to go. You can’t be here.”

McCree’s hear thudded in his chest, this was an absolute disaster! He could feel the pressure mounting harder in his bones. Muscles were already starting to swell. Shit! Had his eyes changed color yet? They were always early on...morphing from a soft brown to striking yellow.

Hanzo seemed oblivious to Jesse’s panic, remaining infuriatingly calm.

“You don’t want me to know your secret. I know. Jesse McCree, did you not think I could smell what you were from the moment I met you? Given that nose of yours, you have to know that we have something very personal in common. It’s rare to find a kindred spirit. You probably know that as well as I do. I noticed your pattern and thought I might be of some assistance.”

McCree felt his heart clench, not hearing a lot of what Hanzo said, admittedly. He knew. Hanzo knew. If he did then why was he still here? Why was he wasting his time?

“Jesse, we’re the same. You don’t have to hide from me.”

“It ain’t the same, Hanzo. It isn’t...it isn’t natural.” McCree paused, visibly starting to sweat.

The archer raised an eyebrow.

“So...generations of selective breeding and special training is somehow more ‘natural?’ Please. You’ll forgive me if I find that hard to believe, speaking from experience.”

“Yeah, well, speaking from my experience it is really different. It ain’t alike at all. You...you don’t have to....”

“But I want to.”

The archer blinked slowly and McCree could see the stirring of something other in his eyes. Tiny flecks of gold appeared in Hanzo’s irises, expanding until their usual color was replaced with a metallic sheen. Patches of skin darkened and glistened in the moonlight as they turned into rich, blue scales that freckled the archer’s body. A pair of elegant antlers peeked out from between spikes of Hanzo’s hair.

“It will be something of an adventure, don’t you think? When my brother and I were children, our father began to teach us how to control the spirit dragons...but, he also taught us who we were. Who we really were. You’re the first person outside my immediate family to even know. That’s some very intimate knowledge, wouldn’t you say? I can’t imagine you’ve actually had any time to actually enjoy your shifting.”

Well, that was putting it mildly.

That intoxicating smell that always seemed to linger around Hanzo became stronger. It filled McCree’s nostrils and the creature inside him felt like it was clawing to get out. Hanzo’s shifting was so different. It seemed to flow, little bits and pieces of the dragon within seemed to materialize. It was like watching one of those changing pictures in a pretend haunted house. One minute a human trait was there, the next, a draconic one replaced it. McCree couldn’t help but feel a twinge of jealousy. His shifting was always so chaotic.

It felt rude to stare. Jesse felt like he was watching something perhaps a little too personal and looked at the ground, chewing on his lower lip. How did Hanzo make it look so damn effortless?

Jesse felt something cup the side of his now shaggy cheek and gently steer his gaze back. He blinked to the side and saw that it wasn’t a hand, but rather a blue scaled talon that somehow held him so supportively.

“I see that look. You think it was easy for me? You think my first changes weren’t frightening and painful? That I just started out having control? No.”

Hanzo shook his head.

“It took practice, Jesse McCree. Years of it. Over time, it became like breathing. It can be that way for you, too.”

McCree tried to find words, anything, but nothing was coming to him. His throat was tight and he didn’t think he could manage to speak without starting to cry and sakes alive, that was not something he wanted to do in front of Hanzo Shimada over nothing. So instead, he screwed his eyes shut.

It was true, though. He didn’t have practice. He’d never wanted practice. He’d wanted to rush it, get it over with. There was nothing elegant about it. It was something he had to do, not something he wanted to do. Truth be told...he hated it.

He hated that this was forced on him, that he had to hide it, that it hurt and that it was something he had to live with when he’d never asked for it in the first place. Reyes...Morrison...they’d volunteered and from where he was standing, their perfected formulas for soldier enhancement spat in his face. There was nothing anyone could do about it. They couldn’t turn if off, they couldn’t take it out. It had been a part of him for too long.

“H-Hanzo, I can’t stop it.”

He shoved the talon away from his face and fell to his knees.

The anger fueled his transformation then, thick, rusty fur sprouted all over his body, his feet distended to resemble a wolf’s hind legs. His back swelled with raw muscle, too heavy to stand fully upright without a definite slouch. Jesse’s nose darkened and his face pushed out into a muzzle, some sharp teeth curled his lips back like tusks.

Let Hanzo see, then. Let him see how wrong he was and this could be another good thing that could end right now and at least there wouldn’t be any more waiting around for the inevitable.

When McCree opened his eyes, there was a large, blue dragon waiting for him in Hanzo’s place. It smelled like Hanzo and held itself like him. The dragon gently leaned forward and pressed its forehead against Jesse’s.

“Neither of us chose this. It is what we are. We have to make it our own.”

McCree started. The voice, though altered and different, was unmistakably Hanzo Shimada’s. Jesus, he was even beautiful completely transformed. It was strangely calming...comforting even to see someone else completely transformed and here at his side. Thankful, he pressed back against Hanzo’s forehead. The dragon rumbled pleasantly and wrapped his long body around Jesse comfortingly.

It was too much.

McCree really did cry then. The fur on his face was wet and his breathing was a series of loud chuffs. He leaned into every bit of the dragon he could, his mechanical fingers digging into Hanzo’s mane and holding it fiercely. He needed it. He just needed to be here with someone like himself...but not like himself. He had to say something. Anything. All he could manage was...

“Don’t go.”

Hanzo’s lips curled back in a knowing smile.

“Never.”

After a few long minutes, McCree managed to pull himself together.

In a voice made rough and ragged by the change, McCree nonetheless sounded cheerful.

“This is really a lovely place you’ve got here. I might fancy dropping by again. Same time next month? I...think I could use a few of your pointers,”