Headcannon time part 2! You know that story where tracers device breaks and the people caught turn into little kids? Well Sombra got caught and turned into her seven year old self and has the memories of as a seven year old. For some reason, she only trust Mccree and only talks to him, so he became her caretaker until they find how to turn her back to normal. During that time, Mccree learns more about her.

itshigh-boop:

I don’t think I’ve heard of this story. 🤔 Is it published somewhere on AO3 or FF? 

Either way, this idea is an interesting one – for me, the best way to think of this scenario is that McCree only knows the very basics of Sombra – isn’t in a relationship with her, isn’t exactly her friend, and he certainly doesn’t trust her, but out of the others, he knows her the best. So he’s put in charge of keeping tabs on her. But I think I like the idea of a little Sombra making McCree go insane with her snarkiness instead. He’s responsible for her, making sure she doesn’t wander off but she just has this infuriating way of pushing all of his buttons. And the worst part is that Sombra can only speak in Spanish at that age, so even though McCree understands her, his vocabulary is still limited so he can only give her basic answers. He has a hard time keep track of her because she’s so dang tiny and slips in and out like a mouse. At first it becomes a sort of game for Sombra, hiding from that old vaquero and making him freak out. She even adopted the name ‘Sombra’ as they all called her because she cheekily refused to reveal her actual name. 

But eventually one day, he finds her, huddled somewhere in some tiny corner and she shouts for him to leave her alone. Even at her correct age, McCree had never seen her so upset. Instead of leaving, he sits just out of reach, giving her the space she wants but tells he doesn’t mind listening to her if she wants to talk. Eventually she admits that she’s had trouble sleeping – she misses someone. She thinks it’s her parents but she never really got to know them. She was only two years old when they were killed, or so her records state. McCree listens and tells her that it’s hard when you miss people who were taken from you. He would know – he lost two sets of them. This garner’s Sombra’s attention. He then lets her know that there are people in the present that she can learn to care for again, as they would care for her in return. She doesn’t run into his arms or start crying, but eyes red and puffy, she plops down next to him and the two sit in silence.

From then on, Sombra is a bit less…sneaky in her interactions with McCree. She’s still a major pain but she listens to him and lets him know where she’s going (most of the time). He even gets to teach her some phrases in English and lets her wear his hat sometimes, which ends up sliding over her eyes because it’s too big. No one is surprised when they find McCree giving seven-year-old Sombra piggyback rides around the base. One night, Sombra even reveals to McCree the name her parents gave her and he can’t help but feel like he knows too much about a person he’s actually never had a meaningful conversation with.

So when the time comes that Winston can reverse the effects of the chrono- accelerator mishap, Sombra is unaware of anything that happened during her age regression. She’s still this stranger to everyone else but McCree knows a lot about the child that grew up into that distant woman, a woman who he now knows he has an eerie amount in common with. The day he accidentally refers to her as ‘Olivia’ instead of her alias, she looks shaken, and disappears, leaving behind a gunslinger with an apology and explanation still stuck in his throat. He may not be friends with the older version of Olivia, but he feels he owes her that apology.