kabiryuu:

McSombra Shapeshifter AU

So this headcanon came to life on the McSombra discord server with teamwork. We were talking about it for hours with a few people, so I wanted to collect all of our ideas here and share them with you, guys. I hope you’ll enjoy it!

(Also, sorry for structural and grammatical mistakes, I tried my best. I hope it’s somewhat understandable…)

So,

Shapeshifting is a really rare, random ability, which allows both humans and animals switch between animal and human forms. They’re the outlaws of the wildlife, finding it hard to find their place.

McCree was born a wolf. However, he knew he was different as he never saw the other wolf puppies turning into humans. He started to show more interest in the human world and kept visiting the village next to the forest, until he barely used his wolf form. He spent weeks then months visiting the village as a human, until his pack rejected him and treated him like a complete stranger.

Using his human form, he lives in his calm little shack on the outskirts of the small hunting village, next to the forest he used to live in. He tries to fit in, working as a lumberjack and selling his wood to the villagers, but still he’s all alone.

One day, when the sun is about to set, as he packs his wood and takes the road home, he suddenly notices a pair of glowing wisp blue eyes in the shadows, gazing into his soul from the distance. He freezes for a moment, but as he turns his body to get a better view, the strange creature disappears immediately. He sees that creature every second day, and by each day it gets closer and closer to him. Months pass by and he’s starting to get frustrated by his regular ‘visitor’. Until one dusk, when he notices a black fox around his shack with the same glowing blue eyes. He throws the wood from his shoulders and heads towards the animal, walking fast then running. Of course, the fox backs away but McCree doesn’t stop. He chases the animal through the empty dusty road of the village until they reach the edge of the forest. Instead of stopping right there, he starts running faster and faster until he feels the soil under his palms…then paws…

McCree keeps following this fox every day, not that the villagers would miss the mysterious lumberjack anyways… He tries to find out why this little creature keeps spying on him.

Every time he starts chasing this fox in his wolf form, she always gets away. Or she stops and they start going in circles around each other until she slips away by the moment he’s not paying attention. However one chase ends up with McCree finally catching up to the fox just enough to leap onto her. They roll a few metres on the ground and stop with a huge cloud of dust launching into the air around them. He tries to get himself together but as the dust lifts, he freezes. He finds a woman, without clothes, lying under him with the same wisp blue eyes, sharp canine teeth and face covered with dirt.

Fast as lightning, the woman disappears again but McCree notices a deep cut on her right leg, probably caused by the fall.

A few days go by and the fox stopped visiting him, so he goes to the forest and looks for her traces. He keeps searching for her for days, until he finally finds her near a stream that crosses through the heart of the forest. She tries to clean her wound but it just looks worse than first did. He approaches her slowly and carefully and offers his help. She wants to run away again, but the wound became so deep she’s unable to run anymore. As she’s been living in the forest for a really long time, it’s hard for her to trust anybody, even if it’s another shapeshifter. All her instincts tell her to run and not to trust him…but there’s something special about him…maybe it’s the way their gazes lock together as they come to mutually understand each other.

Then, hesitantly though, but she allows him to take her to the village and McCree covers her with his warm coat that protects her little frame.

In his little shack, she turns human before his eyes when they have to work on her injuries. The entire time he’s patching her up, she watches, sort of fascinated. She swears or growls every time the injury stings, but in the end, she’s secretly grateful.

She’s still really cautious, she turns into a fox every time she’s about to go outside.

McCree gives her clothes, not just because he’s really embarrassed about housing a naked woman only covered by his coat, but in case people see her human form. She hates them at first and squirms in them all day. Pants are tricky to get used to at first, but finds them more freeing than the alternative McCree once brought her – dresses, so she ends up using clothes similar to McCree’s. She also likes to steal McCree’s clothes as she loves his scent and often finds them more comfortable, so half of his clothes become hers.

However, as soon as her wound closes up entirely, she disappears again. McCree’s quite sad at first, but a few days after her disappearance, he notices a certain black fox visiting his house every day as she brings him rare herbs and delicious berries.

After that, the fox continues visiting him day by day. By that time McCree has no idea if she can talk or not. Until one rainy day, when the fox scratches his locked shack door to get inside, and of course he lets her in:

“It’s pouring rain outside, and you locked your door?”

“Wait, you can talk?”

“Yeah, but that’s not the point. The point’s that you freaking left me outside!”

She told him that she’d learnt the human language from another old shifter in the forest. Shapeshifters can communicate telepathically when they’re in their animal form.

Even though they have conversations regularly, McCree never got the woman’s name. Turns out she doesn’t have one at all. He suggest her the name ‘Sombra’, as she lurks in the shadows with her black pelt. She likes the sound of it, so she accepts the name.

Whether it’s raining or not, Somba loves slipping into his little shack. She sleeps on his bed, and he comes home one day and sees either a fox or a woman curled up on his bed, sleeping deeply.

One day, he convinces her to go into the village with him, as a human. She agrees on the condition that he goes into the wild with her as a wolf.

After a few weeks, the time comes for McCree to visit her den in the forest. The entrance is a bit narrow, but somehow he manages to force himself into the hole. They end up curled up together in the warm den as one big sleeping fur ball.

McCree asks Sombra about her first shapeshift. It happened when she was little, her mother and siblings ran away and she never saw them again. She grew up all alone, that’s why she was so flighty at first with him.

McCree hates hunting season. He’s been trying to protect his old pack for many years but failed. Hunting hasn’t stopped and he can’t do anything against it. It breaks his heart. He refuses to hurt either a hunter or a wild animal. That’s why he tries to convince Sombra to live with him as a human, to protect her from those murderers.

One day, when Sombra spent her time in the forest, McCree witnessed a group of hunters leaving the village. Fear seized him and in his wolf form he went to find Sombra as soon as possible. But the hunters reached her faster than him, and McCree saw her getting shot by one of the men. The hunters got nearly torn apart right then and there, they hardly managed to get away, marked with deep wounds. McCree took Sombra home immediately and he thought she would pass on any day while she was still in critical condition. Meanwhile, the villagers kept talking about a giant lone wolf with brown pelt that almost killed the hunters in the forest. McCree laid low during that time and concentrated on putting Sombra into a stable condition. She eventually got better after a few weeks, but the experience stayed with her.

After the whole accident, Sombra’s started to use her human form more frequently. Slowly but surely, she feels more and more comfortable in it and stays by McCree’s side. Even though she likes forming a big comfy fur ball with him as animals, she also enjoys resting her head on his bare toned chest as their limbs entwine under the sheets, feeling each other’s warm skin.

As for their first night together, Sombra had no clue how humans “mate” at all. As McCree’s been living in the village since his teenage years, he’s already had a few human relationships before. McCree knows about her lack of knowledge about this whole thing, so he tries to lead her and be as tender as possible. She finds it really unusual and scary at first, but McCree’s delicate touch and warm embrace makes her feel safer ever than before. Foxes are monogamous, so after their first night together, their relationship is sealed for Sombra.

However, during the mating season Sombra still occasionally turns into a fox and unknowingly cries out just like any other foxes in the wild. The result: male foxes visit their house every day, so McCree has to shoo them away with a broom. She continues the hollering though, just to annoy him with the “competitors”.

When McCree comes home, opening the door and Sombra is waiting overhead and just jumps on top of him when he calls out her name. She loves scratches in her fox form, as they feel much better that way.

“It’s like you’re my pet.”

“Say that again and I’ll end you.”

McCree would never treat her like his pet, but when she overreacts this and feels low, McCree turns into his wolf form and lets her stroke his thick fur and rub his belly. He loves it though.

McCree would never give her up anyway. Not when he spots her sleeping by the fire and it just melts his heart every time. Despite driving him insane sometimes, she’s still adorable.

When spring comes, they often go to the forest in their animal forms and chase each other, feeling the melting snow under their paws and the scent of new plants in the air.

McCree usually runs faster than Sombra, as he has longer legs, but Sombra always finds shortcuts under tree roots and bushes thanks to her small frame, making the race equal.

One day she tries to trick him, as she hides again but takes much longer to show up. McCree gets worried and tries to catch her scent, only for Sombra to jump onto him from behind and tackle him.

“Looks like your nose gave up on you, old dog.”

“I am not old, you just scared me is all.”

But for real, he was truly shocked that he couldn’t find her with his smell.