Chapter Text
“Illari pleeeeaaase!” Hana whined pitifully, clasping her hands together and looking up with big, puppy dog eyes.
Illari let out a defeated sigh, her shoulders slumping and her right leg bouncing up and down anxiously.
“I don’t know why you even want to talk to me, let alone hang out outside of work hours,” she looked down at her hands fidgeting in her lap, “I’m not great company you know?”
Hana rolled her eyes and waved her hand, dismissing Illari’s self-pity, “Girl, we’re gonna be here for three months , you need to loosen up a little. We don’t think you’re bad company and that’s all that matters. Now, puh-lease just come with us tonight, it’s gonna be so much fun I promise.”
Hana held out her little finger towards Illari and looked at her with a reassuring smile.
Illari hesitated. The nagging voice at the back of her head was screaming for her to decline Hana’s invitation and spend the next three months stationed in Kanezaka wallowing in self-loathing. She felt her eyebrows knitting together as she frowned. Hana had been so nice to her since she first joined Overwatch and all she had done to repay her was shrug her off and decline invitation after invitation. It had been almost six months of Illari ignoring her and the girl still hadn’t given up.
The corners of her lips lifted slightly and a small smile found its way onto her face as she looked down at Hana’s pinky still extended towards her.
“Okay,” she hooked her own little finger around Hana’s, “I’ll go with you tonight. But I should warn you now that clubs aren’t really my thing. I don’t have anything remotely appropriate to wear.”
Hana’s face lit up and before Illari could do anything about it, she was being pulled reluctantly into a tight squeeze. She was pretty sure Hana was crushing her lungs.
“Girl, don’t even worry about your clothes,” she pulled back and gripped Illari’s shoulders with unnecessary force, “I’ve got you covered.”
With a squeal, Hana lept up off the bed and practically skipped towards the door. Just before she left, she turned and fixed Illari with a kind of threatening glare.
“Come to my room at 8pm sharp,” she pointed at her with an accusatory finger, “and don’t be late!”
Illari watched as she winked and a smile swiftly followed. Her ponytail bounced as she skipped out of the room. The door sliding shut with a soft hiss.
Immediately, Illari let out a deep breath and lifted her hands to stroke her silky braids as she often did when she was anxious. She collapsed back on her bed with a sigh and stared at the blank ceiling, attempting to arrange the thoughts and feelings swirling inside her head like a tornado. What on earth had she got herself into? Sitting back up, she looked over at the clock on her bedside table. 3pm. Four hours to go. For now, she should get back to unpacking.
☾𖤓
At around 7:45pm, Illari set off for Hana’s room, her stomach churning and head buzzing with all sorts of anxieties. She was still getting used to navigating the new base and took a few wrong turns here and there, ending up in hallways lined with conference rooms or medical bays. Eventually, she found the other sleeping quarters and scanned the nameplates on each door until she found Hana’s.
Inhaling deeply, she lifted her shaking fist to knock but before she could press her knuckles to the cold steel of the door, it slid open suddenly, frightening the life out of her. Illari jumped back and clasped her hands over her mouth to stop a yelp from escaping her body.
“Come on in!” Hana called from inside.
She shuffled awkwardly into the entryway, her heart rate still elevated from the little door jumpscare. Peering around the corner, she saw Hana sitting on the floor in front of a full-length mirror, mouthing the lyrics to whatever song was blasting from her phone at top volume. Upon seeing Illari, she reached over to turn the music down and waved cheerily.
“How did you know I was there?” Illari asked.
“Oh, Athena told me so I told her to let you in.”
Realisation dawned on her and she looked down at her feet in embarrassment.
‘Of course, it was Athena.’
She still couldn’t figure out how to utilise the Overwatch system, after all, they had nothing like it in Runasapi and tech was never her strong point anyway.
Hana stood up and came over to where she was standing uncomfortably in the entryway. She lightly punched Illari on the shoulder and chuckled at the younger girl’s look of disbelief.
“I can’t believe you still haven’t figured out how to use Athena,” she rolled her eyes, “it’s been like six months. I’ll teach you later. For now, let’s make you look sexy!”
Illari blushed at the comment and Hana grabbed her hands and led her over to the pink gaming chair at her PC.
“Sit there Cinderella, I’ll find you something to wear in no time.”
Hana swung her closet doors open dramatically and started rummaging as Illari perched on the edge of the seat, ready to run away at any moment, like some sort of prey animal.
As she waited for Hana to pick something out for her, she glanced around the room. Unlike Illari, she obviously wasn’t fully unpacked yet and cardboard boxes piled high with various trophies and trinkets were scattered around. She had seemingly brought over everything she had from the base at Gibraltar. Posters lined the glaringly bright, white walls and polaroid photos of other agents hung from string lights. The floor was littered with piles of clothes, pillows and half-empty cans of energy drinks. That girl drank far too many energy drinks.
She was suddenly snapped back to attention when a pile of multi-coloured clothes landed in her lap. Confused, she looked over at Hana and quirked a brow. Rolling her eyes again, Hana motioned towards her and then to the clothes in her lap.
“Are you going to try them on or what?”
Illari stood and held the clothes out to admire them. In one hand she held some sort of fishnet top adorned with silvery studs and purple mesh bits and in the other hand, she held a black miniskirt covered in some type of netting. Not her style at all . The nagging voice in the back of her head was almost begging her to back out now.
Hana sighed and pushed her over to the doorway, “Go try these on and then come back so I can do your makeup, ‘kay?”
“Hana, I’m going to look terrible. I appreciate what you’re doing for me but I don’t think I can do this.”
“Don’t be ridiculous you’re gonna look hot as fuck when I’m done with you. Plus,” Hana paused dramatically and placed her hand over her heart, “you pinky swore and that is the most sacred of promises, like, ever. So there’s no way in hell I’m letting you back out now. Go put the clothes on, dumbass.”
☾𖤓
Illari stared at her reflection in Hana’s mirror, dumbfounded. She could barely recognise herself. Her eyelids had been painted to match the purple of her outfit and a dramatic, black liner had been placed on top. Her lips were the same shade of black as the chunky boots she wore on her feet (also Hana’s). As a child she had never really had time to play around with makeup or clothes in between her training, this was all completely foreign to her.
Hana looked at her creation with a large smile on her face, puffing her chest out in pride. Illari had even let her style her hair with bejewelled clips and ties, only on the condition that it was still in a braid of some sort, which seemed like a fair deal.
“See? What did I tell you? Hot, right?” Hana asked, raising her eyebrows.
A light shade of pink dusted Illari’s cheeks at the question and she looked away, embarrassed.
“I don’t know if I would say that. But if you think it’s okay then that’s good enough for me.” she responded quietly.
Hana sighed, “Girl, you’re impossible. Stay here, I’ll go grab Lucio and Brig.”
She left the room and disappeared down the hallway, leaving Illari alone for a few minutes. With her head in her hands, she lowered herself onto the edge of Hana’s bed and closed her aching eyes. This was a terrible idea. She should stay away from Hana before she hurts her. Like she always hurts everyone.
☾𖤓
They took the subway to the nightclub since the station was so close to the base. In hindsight this was probably a mistake since none of them spoke a word of Japanese and they got off at the wrong stop twice before making it to the correct one. Illari didn’t know Brigitte too well and decided to walk beside Lucio even though she was only a tad more familiar with him.
The sun had set by the time they reached the club and the air was getting a little chilly so the warmth of the building was a welcome change. Illari had never seen anything like it before. Her eyes widened as she took everything in and her heartbeat rose just a little bit as nervous energy flooded through her body. Music blasted from speakers set up in every free space possible and the bass thudded uncomfortably in her chest like it was trying to break out of her ribcage. It took a few seconds for her eyes to adjust to the artificial darkness and she watched in a trance as colourful lights flickered on and off in various patterns, illuminating the sweaty mass of people dancing in the centre of the huge room.
Hana’s hand on her shoulder broke her out of her daze and she whipped her head around to look at the glamorous girl stood behind her. She mouthed something that Illari couldn’t quite make out and headed off in the direction of the bar with Brigitte in tow.
Lucio leaned in and spoke directly into her ear, making her jump.
“She said they’ve gone to get a round of shots. Let’s go find a table.”
Illari nodded and followed Lucio through the hoards of drunken dancers until they reached an empty standing table. She made the mistake of placing her arms on the table’s surface and soon realised why no one else was doing that. Gagging, she removed her now sticky arms and scrunched up her nose at the reek of old alcohol. Lucio was cackling beside her like some sort of witch.
“Rule number one of the club: never touch anything. It’s gonna be sticky!” he yelled over the music, wiping away tears in the corners of his eyes from his laughing fit.
Brigitte returned with a tray of drinks and Hana followed suit.
“She put her arms on the table!” Lucio shouted at the newcomers and Brigitte roared with laughter.
Hana passed her a drink from the tray and mimed a drinking motion with it before leaning in.
“It’s vodka. Drink up!” she said in her ear, winking and downing her own drink in one.
Illari had never done this before and she stared in horror as the rest of the group downed their drinks just as quickly as Hana had done. The vodka was clear and there wasn’t too much of it in the tiny glass so it would be over quickly. It couldn’t taste too bad. Right?
She lifted the glass to her mouth and swigged the liquid in one go. All three sets of eyes were on her as she swallowed. Then came the burning. Her whole mouth felt like it was on fire as the bitter drink scratched at her throat. She coughed and spluttered and stuck out her tongue in a grimace. It was horrible. Everything hurt and her eyes watered as the molten lava travelled down. Her solar powers burnt but not like this. This was far worse.
She looked over at the group to see them all in hysterics, clutching at their stomachs as they laughed.
“How do you drink that stuff?!” she exclaimed, only making them laugh harder.
Brigitte reached for a second glass of vodka and held it up, gesturing for a toast. They each grabbed their second glass and copied her.
“To Illari’s first drink! Cheers!” cried Brigitte, clinking her glass against the others before once again downing the liquid in one go.
“Cheers!” Hana and Lucio chimed in together.
Illari braced herself as she lifted the glass to her lips and swallowed the liquid fire just like before, instantly gagging and screwing her face up in disgust.
‘How do people do this.’
“I’m gonna go dance.” Lucio called before heading out into the sea of writhing people moving their bodies to the beat.
Brigitte went with him and Hana began to follow, only stopping when she realised Illari wasn’t trailing behind. She held out a hand and smiled a soft but encouraging smile at Illari when she saw the hesitation on the younger’s face.
Illari paused. Her palms were starting to heat up and when she looked down, her fingertips were beginning to glow just a little. Panic started to rise in her chest like the tide and she squeezed her eyes shut in an attempt to block out any excess stimuli. Not here; she couldn’t lose control here; not right now. The shadows loomed over her ominously as she fought back the heat rising in her temple. It was just a crowd of people. She could do this.
A sudden determination took hold and she turned to grab another shot off the table. With one quick motion, she had downed the drink and began to stride towards Hana’s outstretched hand. The drink was beginning to get to her and she stumbled a little. These platform boots were not doing her any good either and for once she was thankful she had Hana’s arm to lean on.
Hana giggled at the drunken stumbling and leaned over to yell in her ear.
“With your tolerance, you are gonna regret that third shot tomorrow morning, girl, trust me.”
Illari knew that much at least.
A fog had settled in her head and for some reason, everything was a lot funnier than it was half an hour ago. She scanned the floor for any signs of Lucio and almost collapsed in a heap of laughter when she saw him dancing up on some other girl in the crowd. Out of the corner of her eye, she could have sworn she saw Hana huff and roll her eyes when she spotted him.
All of a sudden, Illari felt the uncontrollable urge to move her body in time with the music and she began to sway from side to side, raising her arms up above her head and closing her eyes, feeling the beat bouncing in her bones. It came out of nowhere but it actually felt kind of nice. Her head felt light; like she was weightless.
‘This must be why people dance.’ she thought to herself.
Upon opening her eyes, she realised Hana was watching her with a huge grin spread across her face.
“I did not think you were gonna dance,” she shouted over the music, “you should get drunk more often!”
Illari just looked at her, perplexed. She wasn’t drunk… Was she? It didn’t matter anyway.
They carried on dancing for a few more songs before Hana pulled her over for a break, sweat glueing her hair to her brow.
“It’s fun, right?” she panted, wiping her forehead with the back of her hand.
Illari hummed in agreement. She was right; it is fun.
Hana hooked an arm around her own and spoke into her ear again.
“Don’t be obvious about looking but this girl behind us has been eye-fucking you alllll night, like, I’m not even kidding; she’s been at it since we arrived.” she said.
Immediately, Illari whipped around to look, completely ignoring Hana’s advice.
Sitting on the booth seats on the other side of the room was a girl with green hair gazing straight at her. She had her legs crossed and her arms draped around the back of the chair with a glass of an orangey-brown liquid dangling precariously from her fingers. A pair of headphones sat around her neck and she wore some sort of beanie atop her head despite the heat in the club. Instead of turning away quickly when she realised she had been caught staring, the girl maintained eye contact and took a sip of her drink with a smirk.
A gentle smack to her arm made her turn away from the mysterious stranger and back to Hana, who was grinning slyly.
“Girl, I told you not to be obvious about it!” she yelled.
Illari winced and gave her an apologetic smile.
“Anyways, you should totally go talk to her before she finishes mentally undressing you and leaves.” Hana said, wiggling her eyebrows playfully and giving her a smug smile as the comment sent a blush creeping up the other girl’s cheeks.
“But I don’t know what to say in that kinda situation, Hana!” Illari exclaimed, her words slurring a little.
“How about some liquid courage then?” Hana responded, reaching into her jacket pocket and bringing out a small bottle of liquid.
Without even bothering to read the label, Illari snatched the tiny bottle from her hands and swigged it. The fire of this one was different to the vodka but it still burned like a motherfucker and she screwed up her face as it slid down her throat. With a hiccup, she returned the bottle to a stunned Hana.
“Illari! Girl, I was just kidding!” she yelped, eyes wide.
“Be right back.”
Illari staggered a little and attempted to shoot what she thought was a wink back at Hana before she turned on her heels and beelined for the seats where her mystery admirer sat.
‘Here goes nothing.’