After the first week of routine, you had had pretty much found a small normalcy about you. Most people just accepted you didn't want to talk to anyone, and you had decidedly faded into the every day background.

Accept for one person. Junkrat. The wriggly man you noticed on your second day here.

He would always, at some point or another, have an eye on you. Prying fingers just ready to pick apart at you. You could tell he was planning something- the warning Mcree gave you ringing in your head.

He was a coackroach, but mostly harmless.

Time and time again you'd catch him looking at you, and time and time again you'd give him a half passive agressive half monotone face.

It wasn't personal. He was just the only one who kept paying attention to you- and it sucked.

You didn't want the attention.

But instead of wondering why he was staring, you continued about your days.

Multiple times he had tried to talk to you, most of which was in the cafeteria, and most of which Mcree jumped in, knowing how off centered you were at the moment.

Soldier and Rein were always close by, if not one then the other. And at this point, you'd say you have a soft spot for the big German grandpa.

He yelled, absolutely every goddamn thing he said, but he was so fucking sweet and humble that at some point in time you just started enjoying his company.

He always had tales of Valor and heroism to tell- most of which seemed improbable, but he was genuine, you wouldn't want to tell him otherwise and risk hurting his feelings.

Even Rein had seemed to notice how Junkrat took an interest in you- idly chatting about how the junker was starting to lurk in areas you frequented.

It was weird.

Really weird.

And it just felt like he had some sort of motive backing up his actions. 

At one point he even faked yelling that there was an enemy on base, 76 rushing you out of the room- you could see the disappointment on his face as you left.

So, you kept going about your merry way, trying your best to get stronger, strong enough to stop Talon directly in their tracks.

Until late at night, you just burned out. Completely. Mcree had been here early, you knew this because you were with him, the both of you practicing with Roadhog. For whatever reason the boar asked him to, but as per usual, the both of them eventually left to do their own things.

So, there you were, in the training grounds, sitting on some mock building and feeling like life is a fucking joke. You wondered to yourself if trying was really necessary- if putting so much effort into revenge was even worth it.

You ended up sitting there longer then you thought, the lights automatically turning off, because yes, everyone should be asleep at this time.

Even Mcree, and 76, and Rein, and even Angela. Maybe Winston might still be up experimenting, but you wouldn't want to disturb him. Everyone you had some sort or inclination for was off limits at the moment, and that sucked.

So instead of moving back to your room, you kept sitting up there, overthinking life with a mixture of grief and rage.

But eventually, something new happened.

The training doors slid open, angry and off centered footsteps wandering in.

Whoever it was seethed to themselves about something, and you were too out of it to even care about who could find you.

A few explosions went off, ticking  around like grenades before booming.

It hurt your eyes to some degree, but you decided to space out the best you could despite that.

You could see fine in the dark, just fine. So when a lanky figure hobbled towards the training bots, explosions ringing out left and right, you knew precisely who it was.

Junkrat. Of course he'd be in the room your in at precisely this time of night... morning- something.

But he didn't even notice you. Going about his merry way, laughing up a riot as he laid waste to training bot after training bot.

A few minutes of that, and you tuning him out completely, just idly watching his chaos.

It was nice to observe, and be unobserved by others.

Eventually though, you watched him glance past you, and immediately do a double take.

He had finally realized someone was up there.

Wow.

A couple explosions up and with a startling amount of force, Junkart was standing next to you. He had a suspicious face on and gave you a once over. Not that there was much to narrow in on with how dark the room was. The only lights were the glowing perimeters and a few landing pad lights.

"Oi- whats a bloke like you doin 'ere?" His accent was heavy- but even heavier was his scent. You nearly fell off with just how much of a push in the face it was.

It was similar to Roadhogs in a way- only much, much stronger, and headier, and it radiated off of him like a heavy fog.

It didn't smell human- but it wasn't you, and it wasn't anything else. He just... smelled like an inanimate object, and whatever it was made your guard drop. This wasn't a pristine scientist, ready to dice you.

This wasn't a soldier, collaring you and stuffing you into a cage.

It was just... the outside.

You watched him move around as his mouth moved to talk, but you didn't hear anything. Too swept up in being confused. You know he's a human, factually, in your mind.

But your nose is saying no- your wrong- and you swear he's not a living thing.

Finally the movement of sitting next to you jolts you to attention, his words just barely reaching your ear, "Right- uh- you practicing?"

He's taller then you even while sitting. Funny. He always looked so little next to Roaghog. Now that he's next to you the fact that he's taller is a bit of a... surprise.

Very discreetly, you tried to sniff him, still so confused at why and how a human could smell the way he does. Everyone smells alive. There isn't anyway he can't be.

Junkrat absentmindedly tried to shoot at some far off bots. Giggling moderately when a few explosions hit their mark.

You huffed in confusion, and he looked to your expression. Barely flinching at his gaze, you simply paused before finally responding to his question, "No."

"Oh?" Junkrat sassed, "Not training?" He took a moment to raise his eyebrows and place a hand on his chest, "What, EVER, could you be doing???" He shook his head around with ever word of the sentence, mock dramatics dripping off every word, eyes closing at the end with fake poshness.

He peeked a single eye open, and the gold rings he had nearly glowed.

"Just... sitting..." you responded, shuffling about

"OH?" His grin grew wider, and even more sarcastic and poking then before, "Hope ya ain't turning into a bludger- 76 would beat you a new one."

You huffed out a laugh of some sort, "I can only assume that's some sort of a poke at being lazy." Soldier definitely could and would beat some sense into you. He didn't pull any punches, because he knew you had an massive advantage.

"Damn right." Junkrat croaked, he sounded oddly not crazy.

And then, you both just sat together. Atop a mock roof. You hate to admit that you enjoyed the cockroaches company, but, he wasn't human to you, and your guard dropped so low that even a rat like him could jump it.

At some point or another, Junkrat took to launching grendaes at a few far off training bots. You wanted to ask him a million questions- most of which pertained to his scent, but how would that even work.

'Hi- I'm an undercover werewolf- you smell weird, what was your childhood like?'

Psh. Yeah. Like you could do that. Much less would you want to disclose that information to a human like him. Inanimate object smelling as he is.

If you just get close enough to him. Close enough to press your nose to his skin and breath, maybe there was something underneath the soot and grim that covered him.

Maybe, just maybe, then you could properly discern if he was a threat or not.

Just as you started to lean in, he looked to you suddenly speaking "Any reason you're just sittin out 'ere?"

An irritated huff came before you could stop it, and you could feel your nails get just a little bit sharper, "Any reason you're here this late?" You sassed back.

A nervous giggle flew off of him, and it almost made you smirk, "Got real bloody mad- decided to blow off some steam."

You felt that before. Many times over in fact. So many times that you eventually stopped trying to release it- and instead let it fester inside of you.

"I can relate." You mumbled.

"HAH- glad we're on similar sides-" Junkrat spoke, shooting off another set of grenades, before taking a moment to reload his frag launcher.

He was so sharp and lanky looking. Nothing on him was soft, and you wondered what it would be like to get hurt by him.

You looked away.

Wondered what it'd be like to watch as people cut you open- if you would fight back now that you know there are some people out there that have your back.

He was staring at you, the two gold eyes in the corner of your eye were tell tale of that fact, and you finally decided that maybe... just maybe... you should turn in for the night.

Letting 76 get an edge in combat because of tiredness would haunt you for weeks.

Standing, you spared a mere glance in his direction, before walking off and dropping from the mock building. You landed without much trouble, any friction you felt burning in your legs healing instantly.

All the while, as you stalked out of the training room, you felt him staring at you.

As soon as the sliding doors closed behind you, the breath you were holding pushed itself out of your lungs. You didn't bothed sticking around, running off in a different direction.

His scent lingered with you, and where your legs brushed there was ash and soot.

You shook your head as you walked, trying to shake off his smell, and only succeeding minutes after.

A passing thought drifted by, one asking what time it was, and the other wondering if Winston was still up.

He needed to stop staying up so late. Poor dude was going to run his mental health into the ground.

Not that you had room to talk, but regardless you headed in his direction.

When you reached his room your hand lifted, knuckles gently tapping on the door before you heard him shuffling around.

"Come in!" Winston called, shuffling around some more before you let yourself in.

"(Y/N)! What are you doing out and about?"

You rose an eyebrow, "See, this is where I have the excuse of being nocturnal, and then ask you why your up."

Winston let out a nervous laugh, "Well I... I don't have any excuses, but I started a new shield prototype!"

He shrugged, "One thing led to another.."

Laughing, you waltzed in and took a seat on one of the bean bag chairs he had. Not at all like the labs you've been acquainted with.

"Classic Winston. You should take better care of yourself big guy."

He laughed, "Yes, so I've heard."

"So tell me about your new prototype." You spoke, cuddling into the bean bag and yawning.

The gorilla plucked the device he had been working on off the table, showing it to you and immediately going on a rant about all the great plans he has for it.

You fell asleep somewhere between, 'improved durability' and 'thermal reactor.'