A fish out of water, I have always been.

Even here, I feel an outcast, even among others like me,

"Foolish little sparrow." Yes...a baby sparrow with broken wings that can't even find it's own nest.

"Let's start simple," Zenyatta chirped.

Genji flinched in surprise. He sighed, resenting how often he found himself lost in thought. "Yes."

The two of them were currently sitting next to each other on top of a stone rise, overlooking a small courtyard in the heart of the monestary grounds. After convincing his fellow monks to accept and admit Genji into their sanctums, the omnic had said that they were going to have a "conference of afflictions" to kick things off, which to Genji sounded a whole lot like "therapy session." Whatever fixed him. Then after that, they were going to try a full on meditation session.

Meditating. One of the many things his father taught him and Hanzo to do, but never actually did.

Unlike his family, this "Zenyatta" had something so... What was it? Some airy-politeness about him? All the other monks had risen their voices and shouted, but Genji honestly couldn't picture what this omnic would sound like if he were to anger. Come to think of it he wasn't even sure if he could get angry.

"Is it painful?" Zenyatta asked first.

Genji snorted as he sat. Neither of them had spoken for a few minutes. "Boring, at best."

Zenyatta chuckled. "I meant your augmentations."

"Oh." Genji mulled over the question for a moment. "I am used to it."

"That did not answer the question," the monk said lightly, almost happily.

Genji sighed again, admitting, "No, it does not hurt anymore, not since they finished the procedures. But it is...odd," he said, looking at his open right palm, "to look down and see a hand where I feel none..."

"I see," Zenyatta said, half in thought.

"How would you know?" Genji demanded as he looked at the monk, angered, almost insulted. "How can you? You've never had half your body replaced! You are still whole, as you were since your birth! I do not know if omnics can feel like people do, but I..."

His eyes widened as he realized what he was doing. Damn him. He forced himself to be quiet, eyes shut back towards the ground. Anger... That was another issue of his apparently. "But I suppose neither of us are human anyways..."

Genji sat looking at the snowy ground for a long moment, hearing nothing from the omnic but the occasional mechanical whir as he "breathed."

"...I cannot empathize with you," Zenyatta eventually said, seeming unoffended, "I will admit that much. But that does not mean I am unable to sympathize with you."

Genji hesitated a bit. "I am not certain I know the difference."

"Empathy is connection through similar emotions," Zenyatta explained. "Sympathy is connection through similar thoughts and ideas."

"So...you understand what I am going through, but you do not 'feel' it."

"Quite," Zenyatta said happily. "Just as a mechanic can still fix a machine without physically becoming one with it."

Genji looked down for a moment. He almost felt comforted by that. "You...really can fix me?" he asked, looking back up at the monk.

Zenyatta raised his head to speak, but found himself pausing. He truly wanted to answer "yes" with all his metaphorical heart. He almost only answered "maybe." He closed his right hand into a fist for a moment.

"...I will do everything I can for you," he said honestly. "I will not leave your side until you feel well enough to leave me."

Genji still felt crushed. "So you don't know if you can help me..."

Zenyatta winced, feeling like he was failing already. "My brothers...they look up to me, and often ask for my advice, but I admit I do not know everything. Some answers elude even me." He shrugged. "You are...unique, after all. This is a first time for the both of us."

Genji found himself gripped the ground with his right hand, the stone ground cracking a bit under his mechanical fingers.

"I don't want to be 'unique' anymore," he muttered in grief. "I've been hailed like some...'invention' for as long as I've been this way. I just want to feel like me again. I've been like this for so long, and I'm still not used to it. You'd think I would be, but...I do not know how much more I can take..."

Zenyatta stared at him in concern. He looked away, trying his hardest to think of comfort. Indeed, he was not prepared on how to handle rehabilitating a cyborg. After a moment of thought, he finally found something:

"...Would you believe that I resented being omnic for some time?"

"W-What?" Genji asked, slowly looking back up at Zenyatta. "How?"

"All the discord and pain omnics brought," the monk relayed, eyes on the ground, "by merely existing...I hated it, hated me. I always thought if I had been human, or never existed at all...perhaps that pain would've never existed..."

Genji creased his brow. He felt compelled to comfort the monk. "Y-You can't think that."

"But I did. I bereaved my brother Mondatta so." Zenyatta looked away entirely. "Even now I wonder..."

Genji felt like Zenyatta had just given up all hope. He looked around, trying to think of reason. "But...your friends here...the impact you've had on them...surely that is something you cannot lose? Surely they mean something to you as well? There are people here you've touched that you cannot fail. They need you."

"And that is what we will use to guide you as well," Zenyatta said decidedly as he looked back at Genji, his hopeless tone vanished and his calm intent returned.

Genji's eyes widened in realization.

He... He was right. There were people that didn't care what he "was." Even if he hated what he was now, they did and still would care for him despite it. Support like that was the reason he warmed up to Overwatch so easily in the first place. Most of them were still alive out there too. Lena, Winston, Jesse, Reinhardt, Torbjorn...

Angela...

It was so...simple. How had he not realized this sooner on his own? He felt like he had just dove into an ocean from the highest cliff: a blast of sensation, followed by an gentle floating in this new mental awareness. Is this what wisdom felt like?

"Is this what wisdom feels like?" he asked.

If Zenyatta was capable of smiling, he would have been as he looked at Genji. "If you feel free yet comforted, yes, it does."

Genji shifted from sitting next to Zenyatta to kneeling towards him, like a pupil would their master. "Apologies," he said. "I know you said we're supposed to meditate, but..." He was smiling underneath his mouth-guard as he closed his fists a bit, almost giddy. "L-Let us keep going first. I want to know more."

Zenyatta really wished omnics were able to smile.


NOTES: There we go, that's better. Genji comfortable and ready to learn X) I think writing this might end up making Genji and/or Zen my favorite OW characters lol. I do have a soft spot for all of them but y'know I can't not feel emotions about these kinds of things it's what I do.

Also unrelated and unimportant but I think this fic might've been my most quickly-noticed out of all that I've done. Don't know what that means but I hope it lives up to expectations :)