“You have a kid?!”

Sombra winced at the way Tracer’s voice rose, the pitch rising to a vaguely outraged squeak. “Keep your voice down, would you?”

Tracer looked around the room, noticing a few others eyeing the scene they’d made with concern and suspicion. “Ok,” she said as she put a not entirely friendly arm around Sombra’s elbow and lead her towards a quiet corner. “Ok, fine, but...you have a kid?”

“No,” Sombra said as she pinched the bridge of her nose. “Not...not exactly.”

To her eternal regret, Oxton really wasn’t stupid. “You an’ Vaswani...you’re together, right? So she’s…”

“She’s adopted,” Sombra hissed with frustration. “She’s adopted, ok? Satya’s her mom, now. I’m…” She looked over to where Naya was pressing up to the heavy concrete wall and shatterproof glass that separated the guests at the zoo from the tiger enclosure. “I’m not exactly...I don’t know.”

She felt embarrassed to say it out loud. She wasn’t really ‘Auntie Sombra’ any more. She was closer to both Naya and Satya than that. But she’d had her chance to be Naya’s other parent and had said no. Even if her feelings had changed over the last few months, she didn’t expect Satya to make that offer twice.

“I heard her call you mami," a third voice joined the conversation, and Sombra spun to see a redheaded woman - Tracer’s girl, she realized after a moment - pushing a stroller up to them. “I don’t speak much Spanish, but I understood that.”

Tracer looked between them, gobsmacked, as she pushed her goggles up onto her forehead. “I still...just...I can’t believe it. You’re helping raise a child. You.” She looked around, as if just realizing they were at the London zoo. “What are you even doing here?”

She couldn’t help the way her voice softened when she looked over at Naya, raptly watching as one of the big cats stalked towards the large pond set into the ground. “She likes tigers.”

“There’s other zoos out there,” Tracer pointed out, but her tone was a bit less hostile.

“Yeah, but Saty’s at a conference here,” Sombra admitted.

“Oh,” Emily’s eyes lit up. “The Architecture in Culture and Society conference at City University? I was going to attend that myself, but…” She looked down at the stroller with a crooked grin. “Something came up.”

Sombra couldn’t help it, she had to look.

The sleeping baby who had been buckled into the seat was around a year old, she thought, with Emily’s pale complexion and Tracer’s thick dark hair.

“No shit?” She straightened up and gave Tracer a surprised look. “Heard you were laying low lately. Guess I know why.”

Tracer’s cheeks had gone red with a deep blush. “Yeah, well…”

Sombra’s expression sharpened as she glared at her. “And you’re giving me trouble for having Naya with me?!”

Emily snorted, clearly deeply amused. “She’s got you there, darling.” Her gaze shifted, and she straightened up. “But I think you might need to have this discussion later.”

Sombra turned, following her gaze, and managed to keep herself from groaning through force of will.

Naya had left the tigers and come to find her, and was staring at them with rapt attention, her arms wrapped tightly around her chest.



Or, really, staring at Tracer.

“Hey, Naya,” Sombra crouched down with a smile. “Did you like the tigers?”

“Som?” Naya stopped hugging herself so she could point at Tracer. “Tracer.”

“That’s her,” Sombra confirmed, trying not to sound nervous.

To her credit, Tracer put her goggles back on properly and offered a jaunty little salute. “Cheers, luv!”

“Tracer,” Naya repeated as she stepped closer. “Tracer.”

“Are you a fan?” Tracer grinned, clearly enjoying the irony. “Gonna be a hero when you grow up, Naya?”

Naya started nodding rapidly, balling her hands into fists as she half walked, half ran up to her. “Your real name is Lena Oxton, you were born in October of 2049, you joined the RAF when you were 16 and flew in RAF 20, Test squadron 41, and the Overwatch evaluation wing before you flew the Slipstream and turned into a superhero! You fought in the London Uprising, helped capture Doomfist, and were the first person to rejoin Overwatch after the recall! You’re best friends with Winston who is a space gorilla, you hate pistachio ice cream, you got married to Emily Gardiner in April of 2077 and you’re really neat and very pretty and I have your shirt!”

“That’s me,” Emily said with a smile once Naya had stopped infodumping and took a breath, and waved. “It’s nice to meet you!”

“Got my shirt, huh? That’s brilliant!” Tracer didn’t seem too shocked by the infodump either. Sombra had a feeling that she got that a lot from kids, given her usual reputation. “I met your Som a few years ago. Hadn’t seen her in a while.” She looked over to where some of the tigers were coming out of the water to sun themselves. “Som said you like tigers?”

Naya nodded rapidly again. “Favorite.”

“I like ‘em too,” Tracer agreed. “Always have. Did you know they generate a thousand PSI of force when they bite?”

“Yessssssss!”

Sombra was surprised at how fun it was to watch the two of them go, though she kept a close eye on Naya, watching for signs of a possible meltdown from all the excitement.

“Well,” Tracer said as they finally came up for air, “it was a lot of fun talking to you, but we’ll need to go soon - it’s gonna be nap time for our little one.”

“OK,” Naya said reluctantly, coming over to lean against Sombra, and she put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

“You remember what to say to someone?”

Naya considered that. “Abracadabra?”

“Nooo,” Sombra groaned as Tracer and Emily both giggled. “Maybe the other one?”

“Oh,” Naya blinked at them for a moment. “Thank you?”

“You’re very welcome,” Emily said with a smile.

“Absolutely,” Tracer agreed. “This was fun! But - hey, hang on just a tick…”

There was a flash of blue light before Tracer disappeared, and a few seconds later she was back, her accelerator strapped on over a bright blue t-shirt, and her bomber jacket in her hands.

“Here,” she said as she crouched down and offered it to Naya. “Think you could keep this safe for me, Naya?”

Naya gasped as she reached out and took the jacket, struggling just a bit with the weight of the leather as she hugged it to herself. “I will!”

“Brilliant,” Tracer grinned as she offered another salute. “You be good, then, and maybe Em and I can come see your mum and Som some time, eh?”

“I...think I’d like that,” Sombra admitted. How had that happened?

“I’m sure you’ll be able to get ahold of us,” Emily smiled. “Enjoy the rest of your visit - and do say hullo to Satya for me?” She sighed wistfully as she took Lena’s arm, aiming the stroller towards the exit. “One of these days we’ll manage to meet in person!”

“Yeah,” Sombra agreed, half dazed. “Maybe you will.”

She shook her head as she watched them leave. She hadn’t expected to deal with that today, but it had ended better than she ever could have expected, and Naya’s blissful smile as she clutched the jacket to her chest was worth every bit of trouble, anyway.

Yeah, she thought as she took Naya’s hand and started to lead her out. If I can handle that...maybe I can get the hang of the mom thing after all.

“So,” she asked Naya. “Seals next?”

“Ice cream!”



Sombra's face fell. “...seals.”



“Ice cream," Naya insisted.



She stood, scanning around them before catching sight of another food cart. “Hot dogs…?”



“HOT DOGS!"

OK, she admitted to herself with a grin as she followed in Naya's wake. Work in progress.