Chapter Text
He would not admit this, not even under the threat of torture, maiming though maybe just a little if they threaten to cancel the telenovela reruns night, but Gabriel Reyes loves, absolutely adores Jesse.
Okay, so his first impression of him hadn’t been spectacular; The moment the Rottweiler puppy was released from his box, Jesse - full name Jesse McCree, named so after he saw both his Full House DVD and an open newspaper about the Jaguar’s win - immediately caused havoc by running around the place, tackling down tables and cutleries and scurrying off people’s legs. To this day, during Gabriel’s rare cleaning days, he could still find shards of glass or dusty cutleries and knick knacks from that incident in hidden nook and crannies.
And Jesse is an energetic son of a bitch, unlike Gabriel’s middle aged ass, with his often aching body and creaking joints. Ana convinced him that it was merely due to him being a puppy, and as he grows, he’ll slowly wean of that behaviour and become the proper dog he is supposed to be. Yet Jesse never did, still running around in the rain and shaking everywhere inside afterwards, chasing after the ball he throws and coming back with a big ass tree trunk, and he once made Gabriel chase him all across a large park because he was curious with an obviously frightened dove trying to fly away.
Yet despite all of that, Jesse was the light of his life. He had been given to Gabriel after he was discharged to cope with his PTSD - that he would still deny he had till the day he die - and while they had a rocky start - with Gabriel just hating any sort of living being on principle and Jesse being clingier than a leech - they both make it work. Jesse depended on him for food, shelter and entertainment, and Gabriel depended on Jesse to remind him that there is actually something worth living after he was discharged due to crippling injury.
So yeah, Gabriel loves his buddy, his best friend, Jesse.
But if said dog keeps on ignoring him, Gabriel is also not above taking out his enamorada - twin shotguns, military issued, personally hand painted and even has an affectionate nickname of ‘Reaper’ and ‘Death Blossoms’ - and start shooting to get his attention. See if he’s as good at dodging bullet as he is at Gabriel’s every attempt in taking him to bath.
“For fuck’s sake chico,” he growled, tightening his grip on the leash that has been completely immovable for the last 5 minutes, “Jesse, fucking walk!”
But Jesse didn’t even turn at the sound of his name. No, his fucking ungrateful mutt, now a whooping 37 inch and 72 lbs lump of black and brown instead of being small enough to fit in both of Gabriel’s palms, wiggled his tail, lolled his tongue and just wouldn’t look away from the sight of two dogs playing with each other at the other side of the park.
Well, one dog stoically sitting while the other, smaller almost half its size dog runs around it, yapping and running in such speed that it made Gabriel’s head from across the park hurt. The two dogs doesn’t look like a breed he had encountered quite often - not that Gabriel knows much about dogs aside from Jesse - but they had collars on each of them, blue for the stoic one and green for the energetic one, so their owner is probably nearby.
Then, as if his suffering is not enough, the stoic dog looked away from the smaller, energy bound one, saw Jesse and Gabriel. And scoffs a doggy scoff.
Which in Jesse’s convoluted mind, is translated to be an invitation, because his massive - and admittedly quite strong - mutt decided to conveniently forget he has an owner pulling at his leash and runs.
“Madre di dios! Jesse! Hijo de puta!”
At 3.43 pm in a Tuesday afternoon, in a park - thankfully - quite scarce of people, Gabriel Reyes, ex Spec Ops commander with 30 - 40 years worth of service under his belt, tripped over his own legs and fell face down on the grassy land because his fucking ungrateful dog did not look back to pay attention to what his strength had ultimately caused.
The next chance he had, he’s having a dog meat fillet, animal rights be damned.
At least nobody is around to see this.
“Oh my god, sir, are you alright?! Do you need help?! Give me a nod if you can hear!”
Cojeme.
Whoever it is had an unmistakably deep voice of a male, one that should not be used for panicking like that, so before they become any more panicked, Gabriel pushed himself off from the ground, cursing his dog, and had a line of rude words to shut the stranger up ready on his tongue before he actually look up and stared.
The person who had been endlessly filling his ears with irritation for the last five seconds has got to be the most pastel coloured puta in his life because everywhere he sees is full of pink and cream. The polo shirt he wore had the colour of a light blinding baby pink, his khaki shorts had the most spotless shade of beige Gabriel has ever seen in his life, his glasses’ shades were even fucking red instead of the normal colourless it is like a normal human being, and his hair is snow white - there is no other description as to what that colour is - tussled over frowned forehead with skin so light this person probably never seen the sun before today.
Just 2 seconds and Gabriel already want to pull out his sunglasses because this person, even down, fuck, right down to his smile is blindingly bright. After all, compared to this person, Gabriel, with his dark grey hoodie, black knitted beanie, black baggy pants and black construction boots looked like a dark hole suddenly become sentient, grew legs and is walking around town with an equally dark coloured dog in tow.
“Oh, you’re okay,” the walking collection of Fareeha’s baby room’s colour palette said, but Gabriel was still too shocked to even notice anything else, “Is everything okay? Do you need help?”
It took him a while to remember he’s being asked a question, and it took him a while longer to remember he’s flat on his front in grassy grounds, “Nah, i’m fine,” he groused, pushing himself away and dusting his clothes off. Shit, even his beanie fell down. When he gets hold of his— Ah, mierda, “Jesse!”
“Jesse?”
“Mi perro— My dog. Piece of shit dragged me down while running,” Gabriel patted his beanie, dusting off the dirt that latched to it and shoved it back to hide his short, greying curls, “You seen him? Bout this big,” he indicated around his hip, “Black with brown patches. Can’t stop moving for crap,”
The white haired man, curled his lips, before he pointed to a direction somewhere in their side, “You mean that big dog?”
Gabriel followed the direction.
True enough, his big dumb mutt is panting and wagging his tail endlessly in front of a dog almost half his size, who looked less than pleased the big towering thing is standing too close. Around them, the smaller yapping puppy is circling the bigger dog and Jesse, jumping and rudely pushing on Jesse, to no avail.
“Oh, he’s yours? I was wondering why there’s a dog that big around here,” the man next to him said, his tone sounding very amused, “And he’s really friendly too. Not a lot of dogs are that eager to approach Hanzo,”
I’d say he’s more than friendly, the ex military man thought quietly, until a thought crossed his mind, “Hang on, those two are yours?”
The bright smile is back, and Gabriel’s stomach flipped, “Well, Hanzo, the bigger one is mine. The smaller one, Genji is my neighbour’s son’s. I often took them both together for walks because they’re both siblings and well, its good to spend time with family, right?”
As an unmarried man who has not come to several family gathering and missed out on various relative’s funeral, perhaps it is best that Gabriel does not answer that question, “Siblings?”
“As far as i know. At least, they have the same mother,” the white haired man shrugged, before raising a brow and inspecting his dogs, “Does that mean i should call them half-sibling instead? I mean, it is a mouthful, but it won’t make people get the wrong idea,” he frowned, rubbing his chin with one hand. The guy seems genuinely considering this. For Gabriel, he was considering that this entire conversation is too wholesome for a man who was too used to trash talking and topics of war.
“Oh, right, where are my manners,” the guy laughed, a rich baritone that sounded so pleasant in Gabriel’s ears, he felt like he’s having a stroke, “Jack Morrison,” he announced, extending one hand, “I’m usually around here around the same time to walk my dogs,”
Jack Morrison. Fitting, homey and so— civilian. He’s really not used to this whole thing, not even after 2 years after being discharged, “Reyes. Gabriel Reyes,” he replied, shaking Jack’s hand. It was a little surprising to see the power behind the handshake, and he concluded from years worth of practice that even behind the flimsy and cheerful persona, Jack might - or used to - have a job that requires physical activity.
The peace was shattered however, at a sharp bark, one that’s much more deeper than the small mutt’s - Genji? - and a little too light to be Jesse’s. Gabriel watched as the wolf-like dog of Morrison’s growled threateningly at Jesse, who seems a little shock until he overcome it and wagged his tail again. When Hanzo’s growling receded, Jesse began to move closer, and the smaller dog growls again.
“Mierda,” the tan skinned man grumbled, taking his hand away from Jack and started walking to the group of canines, “Jesse!”
Hearing his name, the Rottweiler turned, his tail wags stopped and almost looked guilty. But he didn’t move, not even as Gabriel marched towards him, “Come here!”
He always suspected that no matter how dumb his damn dog is, Jesse is smart enough to actually understand what he was saying. And it is usually evident in his behaviour, like right now, when he slinked away, and in an act of deviance, actually jumped behind Hanzo instead of obeying him.
Gabriel could feel a vein starting to pop.
“You little ingrate—“
“Now, now,” A hand was placed on his shoulder, and it took decades worth of training to stop his first instinct to deck the owner. Right, park, dogs, nice and too wholesome man who wore too much pastel, not an enemy war zone. Look at that, he’s getting a hang of it, “Jesse just wanted to play, right?”
The stupid mutt cocked his head, probably aren’t used to hear his name coming out from a stranger, but he soon lolled his tongue out again, clearly happy. He barked once and jumped on his front paws, almost crushing Hanzo’s curled tail and Genji’s entire body, who managed to sneak underneath and is still trying to push Jesse away. Genji yapped away in protest, noisy and loud for something so small, until Hanzo grabbed him by the neck to remove him from Jesse’s vicinity.
The little puppy is still growling at Jesse’s general direction from in front of Hanzo’s legs, but he sounded more like Gabriel’s lawnmower than an actual threat.
“I don’t think either of them is too happy with him,” the dark skinned man commented, taking in the stink eye Jack’s dog gave his own. Jesse didn’t seems affected by this, now that the nice stranger who called his name no longer grabbed his attention, and instead he wagged his tail again and leaned forward. Hanzo leaned away, and Genji started yapping repeatedly, shoving himself between the two towering bodies that is his older sibling and Jesse. To be honest, that noise is starting to make Gabriel dizzy.
Jack, however, seems to enjoy this way too much, “No, don’t worry about it. I mean, Hanzo is always a bit wary of strangers sometimes, but trust me, Genji’s always like that. They’d get along before long,”
Gabriel really, really doubt that.
“Dime, te divertiste, chico?”
Next to him on the wooden park bench, Jack laughed heartily, one hand affectionately rubbing Hanzo’s head. He probably think that Gabriel was cooing over Jesse’s latest predicament in his native language, or something equally cute and cuddly. Gabriel didn’t have the heart to correct him.
Sitting in front of him was Jesse, head tilted to the side due to the added weight that has latched itself to his ear and would not stop rumbling like it was a broken motor. The big dog didn’t seem to mind, often purposefully swinging his head and the momentum would cause Genji to swing back and forth like a particularly large earring. A large and growling earring.
Hanzo was staring at both canines with utter exasperation, if Gabriel thought animals could make such expressions.
Jack chuckled, “I told you they’ll get along,”
Gabriel gives the man a quick glance, took in his joyful expression, and decided that even as a man who had caused the death of hundreds if not thousands unapologetically during his career, he didn’t have the heart to tell this oblivious man that no, no they really aren’t.
With a sigh, he grabbed Genji, who began to struggle, but in the end was no match for the strength of a grown adult human and had to let go of Jesse’s ear. The owner of said ear doesn’t seems to be in pain of any sort, considering that he immediately turned his attention to Hanzo, who sidled closer to Jack.
Genji barks loudly, repeatedly, and he swore if his owner - the person entrusted by his owner, anyway - is not right next to him, he would punt this little yapping machine miles away.
Instead, he held on to the small squirming body tighter, and dryly commented, “He had a set of lungs on him,”
Jack sounded proud, as he spoke, “Isn’t he? He’s really healthy since birth. Their poor mother was not, however,” he sighed, looking dejected all of the sudden. As if sensing this, Hanzo leaned closer and licked Jack’s hand. This little gesture brought a smile on the white haired man’s face, “Between Hanzo and Genji, their mother had several other broods, but i’m not sure what happened to them. As far as i know, they’re the only ones who survived,”
Gabriel had only known Jack for less than 3 hours, but even he could tell that the frown on the man’s face seems out of character. Smiling is a good fit on his face; frowns are not, “Was the mother yours too? And older pet?”
“Oh, i wish she had been,”
There’s a story there, he knew, but Jack doesn’t seem forthcoming, and Gabriel’s in a dog park, of all places in the world, not an interrogation room. He not going to pursue something he’s clearly not privy to if he can help. Instead, he nodded towards Hanzo, who was still staring warily towards Jesse, “What’s the breed? Never see anything like ‘em,” he returned Genji to Jack, who was all too happy to be let go and immediately sidled to Hanzo. The larger dog hid him as soon as Genji was within reach, but the small dog refused, instead bouncing forward to growl at Jesse again.
“Oh, that’s because they’re a foreign breed. They’re called Shikoku, from Japan. Not entirely pure bred, but the mix is probably not that far away appearance wise so you can’t really tell,”
Gabriel nodded. Wow, this all sounds so domestic, talking about dog bred and shit. Living ‘normal civilian life’ - as Ana had put it - is really a different type of beast all together, “And yours? Jesse’s a Rottweiler, right?”
“Yeah,” despite himself, the ex-Spec Op Commander smiled and rubbed Jesse’s had roughly, making the dog bark and lolled his tongue happily at him, before turning his attention back to Hanzo and Genji, “Got him after i was discharged, a present from my team and a friend from a different platoon. Still can’t believe that little puppy turn this big in about 2 years,”
“He is quite massive, i’m actually impressed. And you were in the army? What was your rank?”
Oh, well, Gabriel may not enjoy living in the civilian world that much, but this part he loved, thrived even. Ana called him an arrogant bastard sometimes when he does this, but Reinhardt would only laugh and told him that after everything he did, he had the right to at least brag about his accomplishment a little, “Ah, i can tell you, amigo, but i’m afraid i will have to kill you,”
Jack’s eyes widened behind his red-tinted glasses, and unlike the usual bar patrons who would either look unnerved or accused him of lying, he nodded, yet still retain the awe in his eyes, “Let me guess, Marine?”
Gabriel smirked wider, “Classified,”
“I can’t even ask your unit?”
“You can, but unless you’re the Secretary of Defense or the President, you’re not getting an answer out of me,”
It was almost amusing to see how Jack’s smile become wider with every answer he gave, unlike the usual nervous or suspicious glances he was given. Time to return the favour, “And i can tell you’re not always a civilian yourself, so how about you return the favour?”
The white-haired man laughed, and the sound was pleasing the more and more Gabriel hears it, “Oh, mine’s nothing as fancy as yours. I was ah,” he exhaled, pulling Hanzo closer to him. The dog seems to notice Jack’s sudden shift in mood, abandoning Jesse and Genji’s one sided war in favour of leaning closer to Jack and licking his face. Jack, in return, smiled and kiss one furry cheek, “No, i wasn’t in the army, i was in SWAT. Served for nearly over 30 years climbing the ranks, until i was injured and spend the rest of it in a small town’s department as the superintendent until a year ago and here i am,”
He doesn’t sound too happy about that, but at least, this time Gabriel can relate: Injured in a job they both like, and was forced to retire to either a peaceful life or a paper pushing job because having most of his nervous system no longer works after a large explosion means he’s a liability, decades of loyalty be damned. Gabriel does know he’s projecting, but what the fuck, he’s pushing mid-60s - which he will admit, because he’s not delusional like Ana or Reinhardt - from a high risk job where he expected to die in a long time ago but he’s not and he had to live the rest of it as a grumpy old man with awards he can’t even mention. He’s allowed to be salty.
“Anyway!” Jack exclaimed so loudly, he gained the attention of every single living being around, including Gabriel, the three canines, and even the squirrel wandering about on the tree since they got here, “I wasn’t kidding when i say that not a lot of dog ever goes near Hanzo, so i’m really happy to see that Jesse will. So, i know it might be pushing a little, but do you mind if we meet again around the same time tomorrow? You know, to let them mingle a bit more?”
Gabriel blinks, looks at Jesse, who was still sitting and staring at Hanzo - when did his dog become such a creep, madre di dio - while the dog he’s staring at is alternating between giving Jack nose pokes or Jesse a wary glare. Genji, finally tired of his entire yapping rampage is now leaning on his sibling to doze lightly. He still had one eye open, presumably to watch Jesse, but at the rate he’s going, it won’t be long before the little pup tire itself.
He turned back to Jack, who was staring at him expectantly with those large baby blue eyes, a colour so bright it’s not even concealed by his ridiculous glasses. In fact, the glasses made the irises looks more purple, and it’s completely adorab—
Oh, right he was asked something. Meeting again, tomorrow.
Between Jesse and Hanzo and Genji, who is not getting along well and is evident to everyone around except to Jack and Jesse to some extent.
And also a meeting between himself and Jack. Jack, the ex-police captain, who wears too much pastel colour and khaki shorts that revealed toned calf and little soft hairs, wears the most ridiculous glasses he had ever seen in his life, but also had a really, really nice smile and actually, if you ignore the dog smell, he actually smell good, in fact his dogs smells good he probably take care of them well, and he had a nice smile which is so adorab--
Right.
Answers.
“So you agreed to meet him again tomorrow?”
“Yeah,” he said to the phone distractedly, the plastic device tightly held between his shoulder and ear. Both of his hands were busy holding a popcorn bowl and the other scooping it in generous amount to his mouth, as he watched the latest spanish soap opera, his late night ritual. Once he’s finished with the latest ‘delivery’ to his mouth, he brought the free hand down under the sofa, where Jesse is slumbering and rubbed the mutt’s ear, “Wanna tell him it’s probably useless, since the little mutt was angry at him all the time, and the big one he’s obsessed with doesn’t seem interested, but he seems determined so i can’t see why not,”
Well, that's the quick summary of it, at least. Ana probably doesn't need to know that.
“Uh huh,” Ana mumbled, and Gabriel raised a brow at her answer.
On the screen, Rosita found out that Juan had been cheating on her with Juanita, who she recently found out was her own half sister. A teary debacle followed, with people angrily throwing vases at each other, flinging insults and petty declarations of love, and finally, as he had guessed several episode earlier, Juanita revealed she is pregnant, but not from Juan but from Ramirez, her rich family’s gardener who she had fallen in love with. Gabriel cheered childishly as Juan shook his head in disbelief and loudly exclaimed everything to be a nightmare, while Jesse, roused from his sleep by the motion on his ear, decided to lick clean the salt and butter from his fingers.
In his concentration for his soap opera, Gabriel had actually forgotten that he’s on the phone, until Ana piped back up, “Hey, Gabe,” she piped, which he answered with a grunt, “when’s the last time you went on a date?”
The scene is escalating right now on screen, because Rosita is screaming angrily at Juanita while Juan tries to diffuse to situation, but Ana’s weird question brought him back to their apparently still ongoing conversation, “Huh?”
“You know, a date?”
“What the fuck— i don’t know, like decades ago? Before i got enlisted i think,” he told her, “the hell brought this on?”
Ana laughed, almost in time with Rosita did on the soap opera as she revealed that her mother is, in fact, the woman Juanita’s father left her mother for. Ana’s laugh was a lot more gentle than Rosita’s psychotic one, but somehow, the one that came to his ears through the phone was a lot more sinister. It’s probably because Rosita is a spoilt brat while Ana is a capable soldier with dozens of successful high profile missions under her belt.
Under his hand, Jesse, now stuffed with the salt and butter from his hand, made a confused noise, before climbing over the sofa’s arm to sniff on his half devoured bucket of popcorn. The man absentmindedly waved him off, earning himself a disappointed whine.
“Ana?”
Then, the woman stopped laughing. That sounds a lot more scary for some reason.
“Oh, nothing, nothing,” she hummed mysteriously, “Just keep me posted on this, this Jack person, will you, Gabe?”