Wonho couldn’t help but frown as he watched Sanghyuk moving around his room. He wasn’t paying attention to anything, just going through the motions like a zombie. It hurt him so much to see someone he loved like that, but there was nothing he could do to stop it. He couldn’t build anything that would change what had happened.

He couldn’t bring Hakyeon back from the dead.

“Sanghyuk,” Hongbin spoke up, startling Wonho slightly since he’d forgotten that anyone else was there, “why don’t you let me and Shownu do this?”

“Yeah,” Shownu nodded, moving to pull his partner away from the dresser he’d been staring at, “we can pack everything. Wonho? Can you take him somewhere else?”

“Sure,” Wonho nodded, leading Sanghyuk away.

The pair walked through the silent halls, not saying a single word. Wonho wanted to, but he had no idea what he could say. He’d seen the others try to talk to Sanghyuk. It seemed like no matter what they said he either broke down in tears or ignored them. Well, maybe not ignore them. It was more like Sanghyuk couldn’t hear them, like he was too trapped in his own world to realize that the real one was trying to communicate with him.

“It’s so quiet,” Sanghyuk suddenly said, braking Wonho from his thoughts.

“Yeah,” he nodded, looking around.

With Hakyeon gone, it was like the fight had left everyone. They’d just accepted Overwatch’s disbandment and left. Wonho couldn’t really blame them. With their leader dead and buried and their home partly destroyed……..this didn’t feel like home anymore. Their family didn’t feel whole anymore. It was just……it was easier to just accept the decision to disband and go. To try and find a new home elsewhere.

But that didn’t make Wonho feel any less empty as he looked around the halls that used to be filled with his friends and family.

“What are you going to do?” Sanghyuk asked and Wonho winced at how quiet the other sounded. He’d known Sanghyuk for a long time and he had never heard him sound like that.

“I don’t know,” Wonho replied, “I guess…….I don’t really want to think about that yet.”

“I’m going to see my mother,” Sanghyuk said, “she wants me to come and……there isn’t any other place I can go.”

Wonho just looked at the other, unsure of what to do.

--

“Sanghyuk!” his mother gave him a watery smile before pulling him into a tight hug, “I’m so happy you’re here.”

“Hi, mom,” Sanghyuk replied, “I….I brought someone with me.”

“Hello, Mrs. Han,” Wonho tried to smile as he accepted the older woman’s hug.

“Wonho, dear,” she welcomed him, “I’m happy to see you. Even if……” even if it is under these circumstances.

“It’s good to see you, too,” he replied, “thank you for having me.”

“I made dinner,” the older woman said, dragging both inside, “there’s lots of it. I didn’t know what you wanted or how much he’d eaten lately, so……I made a lot.”

“Thank you,” Wonho said after a pause.

“How is he?” Sanghyuk’s mother asked several hours later when Sanghyuk had slunk off to bed.

“He’s a zombie,” Wonho replied, “he doesn’t talk unless he has to, doesn’t eat unless he has to, and he doesn’t sleep. Just passes out.”

“It’ll get better,” she said, “in time, he’ll get better. He’ll start living again.”

“Do you really believe that?” Wonho asked her, “he didn’t just lose Hakyeon, he lost Overwatch, too. He lost our family. On top of that, every time he turns on the news, he has to hear people talking badly about Hakyeon and our family. He goes out to get coffee and all anyone can talk about is……what happened.”

“I know it doesn’t seem like it can ever be ok,” she smiled sadly, “but I do believe that things will get better. For Sanghyuk, you, and everyone else.” She looked at Wonho silently for a moment before opening her arms, “come here.”

Wonho was sobbing before he even got to her.

--

“I think you should talk to someone,” Wonho said as he watched Sanghyuk moving around the kitchen.

It had been nine months since Overwatch ended. They pair spent the first month with Sanghyuk’s mother before Sanghyuk needed to leave. He got a place a few towns over, found a job fixing cars, and just went about his life trying to pretend that he wasn’t broken. Wonho had left for a month, trying to go back to his old life, but he found that it didn’t make him happy anymore. The two months following that, he’d been trying to work as part of Shownu’s new team.

It wasn’t really a new team, just some of their closest Overwatch friends. At first, it had been nice. It almost felt like the old days when everything was right with the world. But then……then that ‘almost’ became too much for him. It hurt too much to be around something that reminded him so much of what he once had. The guys hadn’t blamed him, just told him that he was welcome to come back if he ever changed his mind.

Wonho somehow ended up living with Sanghyuk after that. Well, first he’d ended up crashing on Sanghyuk’s mother’s couch for a few weeks. It was thanks to her that he learned about Sanghyuk’s sorry state of being. He’d packed up and moved in with Sanghyuk after that. He’d been horrified by how horrible the other looked and promised himself that he would fix things. He made Sanghyuk eat and got him pills to help him sleep.

Now…..now he had to convince Sanghyuk to talk to someone who could help him more than Wonho could.

“Why?” Sanghyuk asked, eyes not straying from his task of making a cup of tea, “I’m fine.”

“You aren’t fine,” Wonho frowned, “you know that as well as I do.” He sighed, “just try, alright? Just once?”

“If I try,” Sanghyuk said after a long moment, glancing over at the other man, “I go to one session, you’ll drop it?”

“I’ll drop it,” Wonho promised, “I’ll set it up, but Sanghyuk? You have to try, really try. If I think you didn’t try, then I’ll make you go again. And again. And over and over until you try.”

“Alright,” Sanghyuk frowned, clearly not happy with the idea but willing to do anything to get Wonho off his back.

A few days later, Wonho was sitting in a waiting room while Sanghyuk talked to the best doctor in the country.

--

“Wonho?” Sanghyuk asked, curled against the other man’s side.

“Yeah?”

“Why have you stuck around?” Sanghyuk asked, “I’m grateful, sure, but……..it’s been four years. I’m sure there are a lot of things you’d rather be doing then hanging out in this piece of town with me.”

“Like what?” Wonho frowned, “we’ve got our garage, this place is pretty nice, and the town isn’t that . This is better than I had before……before.”

“I know Shownu asked you to join him,” Sanghyuk told him, “why didn’t you?”

“Reminded me of what I lost,” the other man shrugged, “I tried, but……eventually I just couldn’t be around the constant reminder.”

“And I’m not?” the time manipulator frowned, “Wonho, seriously, why?”

Wonho frowned for a long moment, just looking at Sanghyuk. He’d gotten better over the last few years, he wasn’t a zombie anymore. But…….Wonho knew he was still kind of broken on the inside. If he told Sanghyuk the truth…..he had no idea how he’d take it. it could make him shut down again for all he knew.

But……Sanghyuk wasn’t going to let this go either so…….

He should know. Everything.

“Sanghyuk,” Wonho sighed, “you……I……..I’ve been in love with you for years. Maybe even since that first day when everyone met for the first time. I….I bumped into you and you smiled at me and I……I ran off because I’m socially awkward like that. Then you introduced yourself and I just…….you were so amazing. I thought I didn’t have any right to even be near you, let alone talk to you or……or ask you out. So I just……watched you from a distance.

“I saw how you looked at the planes,” he kept going, ignoring all else, “and I knew that I had to do something. You deserved to be in the air again. So I did and you were so happy and the next thing I knew we were friends. I……thought that was enough for me. And it was, for a while. But then I wanted more, I wanted to ask you out. That was when I noticed how you looked at Hakyeon and……..and I decided that friends was good enough. It had to be. And it was. Hakyeon made you happy and so long as you were happy, so was I.”

“But Hakyeon died,” Sanghyuk whispered, “and I wasn’t happy anymore.”

“I’m here because I want you to be happy,” Wonho told him, “I…….I want to help you be happy. Or help you get on a path were you can be happy. I just…….I just want you to be happy.”

The pair fell silent after that.

--

Wonho cursed at the sound of a phone going off. Beside him, Sanghyuk let out a small sound of discontent before burying his head in the pillows. Normally, Wonho would have found the sight cute, but this wasn’t normal. This was the early morning, before the sun had risen and after several all-nighters at the garage working on something important for a client. Right now, Wonho couldn’t find the energy to think about how adorable his boyfriend of one and a half years looked.

“What do you want?” Wonho growled when he finally dug the phone out of his bedside table drawer, far too tired to realize that his normal phone was charging.

“Wonho?” the voice on the other end of the phone asked.

“Wonsik?” Wonho asked after a moment, “Is…..is that you?”

“Yeah,” Wonsik replied, “it’s me. I’m, um, I’m calling about the recall.”

“Recall?” Wonho frowned, looking over at Sanghyuk who’d woken up at the sound of his old friend’s name.

“Yeah, the recall,” Wonsik said, “I……crap, what time is it where you are? , I’m so sorry to be waking you up so late.”

“It’s fine,” Wonho assured him, “just……recall? That…..that means Overwatch is reforming, right?”

“Our family’s gonna be whole again,” Wonsik replied, clearly grinning.

“That’s great!” Wonho laughed happily, “that……that’s wonderful.”

“I’ll send you details on where to go,” Wonsik said, “just……one question?”

“Shoot.”

“Why did you answer Sanghyuk’s phone?”

A/N: so we’re starting this off with a ‘what if’ question: what if Hakyeon had died? I’m not gonna lie, when I got to that part in the original story I was super intrigued by the idea of what would have happened had Hakyeon actually died. How would Overwatch work without their one, true leader? How would Sanghyuk fair without in one, true love? And now I’ve played with that idea a little~~~ needless to say, this isn’t even close to cannon.