Broken Bodies, Broken Hearts

8

Raku runs in and trips over, unfinished oneshots and drafts spill out her Google docs as she openly weeps.

"I'm sorry, I just fell into AU hell."

She whispers as she tosses this chapter at you.

____

The clocks ticking was the only sound in the room, the blank wall all Hanzo could see. He just wanted to speak, but the no sound left his mouth as he tried to force the words out. The pain was excruciating even when he was high on the pain medication, and though he tried to force a reassuring smile onto his face he found himself unable to.

More than once someone had shown up in his room, crying and blaming themselves. He couldn't move to help them, he couldn't speak to tell them it wasn't their fault. The only person who was at fault was Gabriel and even then he wasn't entirely at fault, he'd heard them talking to him and telling him he'd been brainwashed.

Maybe if he hadn't tried to be noble, they wouldn't be in this situation.

Jack had hailed him a hero, told him he'd single handedly helped to end the war but he hadn't. He'd been reckless, thrown himself into the line of fire because he could. Most of his time was spent staring at the wall now, thinking about what he could've done differently. Killing Gabe, it was the worst thing he could've done. His vow to never kill someone innocent was broken, and now he was there with blood stained hands waiting for the inevitable backlash.

Jesse never showed up, maybe he'd run off because who wanted a murderer for a boyfriend anyway. He silently cursed at himself for ever being naive enough to consider he had a chance, especially in the midst of a war where everything ended. Innocence, friendships, lives, the list could go on. Life went on though, and though he wished he'd come and show his face and tell him it was fine it became less and less likely the more time went on.

Though he was offered everything imaginable to give them answers, to try and tell them he never could. There was no reason for him to try when there was nothing to go back to, a world ravaged by war and what little remained was hardly worth it.

The answers they pried for, bribed him for, they never came. More than once he'd seen Jack come in with a bottle of unlabeled liquid (which he was hesitant to assume was alcohol, for the mere thought of Jack drowning himself in alcohol was devastating enough) in one hand and his head in the other. The tears he was forcing back caused him a great deal of pain though he could hardly vocalize his thoughts thus he was left regretting everything.

"What did he do-"

Jack had begged, hands running through his hair which was steadily greying. He opened his mouth to respond, but all that had come out was a choked sob. Reliving the entire thing in his head was hard enough, telling him about it was something he couldn't bear to do. The cowboy was the one to eventually shake words out of him, when he came with news he'd been dismissed. It hardly surprised him, the army wasn't about to let a useless soldier leech off them - he'd already lost his legs and put them at a disadvantage so it seemed to be the final straw.

The rays of sunshine that came through his window were a bother, and though he sat there staring at the wall he couldn't resist the urge to slam it shut. Sitting up was a pain, and his body screamed at him to stop but he was too far. His arms were much the same, every inch of him ached but that was to be expected having spent goodness knows how long still.

He knew they'd be watching, they always watched, and he felt tempted to wave at the camera they thought he couldn't see. He wasn't sure why it was there, maybe they were just worried he was going to try and kill someone else. But he was done with it, the blood haunted him and he couldn't shake the feeling of terror even weeks after it had happened.

He wasn't sure why seeing the cowboy was more effective than any of the pain medication he'd been on, but when he shuffled through the door evidently bearing news he lit up. Forcing himself to move, he looked over at him, if he'd have had the strength to do so he would've held him close and apologised over and over for everything. Feeling fingers intertwine with his, he gently squeezed his hand in turn with a small smile falling on his lips before long.

"We're going home."

Came the words, gentle and patient as if he was testing the waters and his grip tightened.

"Home?"

His own voice was almost foreign, quiet and unused and he almost sounded scared of the inevitability of returning to the place. He didn't want to see what the war had done to the place he remembered so fondly yet he so boldly wanted to return to the place. Rebuild what once was, find his family - find himself once again.

From what he'd seen in newspaper clippings the Shimada estate was destroyed but that was fine. His mother and father however weren't, captured during the war they had narrowly avoided death. Genji has escaped, run away to Nepal with his boyfriend and hidden from the war - never allowed the fact that they were supposed to be enemies destroy the peace they had luckily. But his parents, they had nearly gotten themselves killed because of how naive and selfish they were and he couldn't help the shame that he harboured in silence.

"Home. Together."

If Hanzo's heart could have swelled with joy any more than it already had, he was certain it would've done just that. With the little strength he could muster, he slung his arms around the other man and hauled him closer with a smile.

"Thank you."

He murmured, the words slipping out as he felt arms wrap around him. They'd won a war, they could do it.

Together.

____

So, this is (maybe) the end. There may be more chapters, it depends on what happens. I will however be focusing time on writing that side story I mentioned a while back ('Letters to Jesse' I believe) and more oneshots. I just want to say thank you so much for all the votes, the lovely comments and the overwhelming support on both sites this is published on.

If you do wanna come scream at me for finishing this please drop by my discord server (https://discord.gg/MzVAd6M) or send me anon stuff on my tumblr (takanopewrites.tumblr.com). Or you could just send me prompts. Prompts are great.

Anyways thank you again for reading, feel free to drop a comment and/or some votes and hopefully I'll see some of y'all on my other fics.