"Hanzo!" A young voice half shouted, half whispered, not quite old enough to control his volume just yet. "Are you awake?"
Genji was small, just four, his weight barely dipping the mattress as he climbed up Hanzo's double bed. The child mumbled frustrated Japanese phrases as he coordinated himself. Hanzo groaned.
The older Shimada turned his body, his back previously facing Genji as he dozed. But now he was wide awake and glaring. The child froze. "What are you doing, Genji?" The words were whispered yet ever aggressive; the desire to be the firm older sibling, the role model, was strong even through tiredness.
Genji's eyes were wide, still positioned in the all-fours climbing pose as he fisted his hands in Hanzo's blue sheets. Pouty lips blew a stray bit of black hair out of his eyes, wild and untamed. Genji wriggled too much to get it cut. Hanzo had to hide a smirk at the image.
Moving, then, the young Shimada shifted until he sat with his legs folded under him. The kneeling position was still slouched and unruly, the posture terrible and oh so Genji. His personality shone through everything he did. Only then did Hanzo notice his watery eyes, brown irises surrounded in this pinkish redness and shoulders trembling.
"I had a nightmare, Hanzo."
Hanzo tried to soften his voice as best he could, still firm but ultimately sympathetic. "Why don't you go and tell Father-"
"No! I want you!" A childish pout, a bout of frustration. Hanzo didn't mind shushing the young boy's sudden volume, his chest swelling with pride at the trust.
"Alright, just for tonight."
Genji suddenly perked up in that way only children knew how. Throwing back the covers in one big movement and tucking his tiny body in close.
"Hanzo! Han-zo. Wake up, sleepy head!"
Hanzo's sleepy eyes opened at the dip of heavy weight beside him. A violent shiver ran down his tattooed back as his covers were pulled back and a lithe body crawled in next to him. Hanzo was too exhausted to move, but his nose twitched slightly at the smell behind him.
"Are you drunk , Genji?" His voice was deadly.
The teen behind him giggled and snickered, braiding Hanzo's long hair with thin fingers. " Maybe ."
"What are you doing here?"
Genji hiccuped and laughed louder, slurring his words slightly, "climbed through the wrong window I guess. Oops. "
The carelessness frustrated Hanzo. The way Genji kept stumbling through the house at ridiculous hours, drunk or high. The way that he was blamed for it because he was older and should set an example.
The way that Hanzo couldn't catch a break.
"For fuck sake Genji! Can you not be an idiot for one night!"
Hanzo felt guilty immediately but tried to shove it away, trying to be strong even through Genji's silence.
After a few minutes of contemplation, Genji shifted, leaning against Hanzo's back so he could poke his head into Hanzo's eyeline, green hair and watery eyes making him look too young. "Are you mad at me, Hanzo?"
Hanzo sighed and closed his eyes, anger dissipating because it just wasn't worth it. "No, I'm not."
Another silence, Genji lifted from his shoulder and flopped down onto the mattress.
"Well that's good because I'm too drunk to find my room."
Hanzo barked out a laugh and Genji made himself comfortable, just for tonight.
"Can't sleep?"
Genji spoke it in Japanese, it was a welcome familiarity in this strange place.
Could he somehow see the memories that occupied Hanzo's thoughts?
Hanzo had his back to the door, sitting cross legged at the end of his bed and staring out of the window. He didn't respond, just brushed a stray grey out of his eyes.
"Move over, Hanzo." Genji's robotic body climbed up next to him, twisting and adjusting himself until the metal of his shoulder brushed against his brother's flesh one. With his face plate off Hanzo could see the disfigurement across his mouth, an angry pink scar trailing up through his lips, down his throat, meeting others in its trail along his jagged hairline-
Hanzo grabbed a cigarette from his nightstand. Genji stared at him with wide eyes but didn't say anything.
"Do you want to talk about it? What's keeping you awake?" Genji broached the topic with this uncharacteristic gentleness. Or maybe it was characteristic, Hanzo just hadn't been around to see it become so.
"No." Because what was it, truly? Could he pinpoint one thing? What didn't steal sleep from Shimada Hanzo these days?
Genji huffed a dry chuckle. He'd expected that answer, eyes glinting knowingly. When he smiled, the scar tissue around his lips pulled, showing more teeth on one side than the other.
"Do you remember, when we were boys, I would come to find you after a nightmare?"
Hanzo's eyes watered before he could stop them. Why couldn't he stop them?
A hand, hesitant, snaked up his back and hovered over his shoulder. After a moment, it lowered, embracing Hanzo's shoulder in cool metal.
"Would you like me to stay, brother?"
Hanzo's face creased up, too obvious to hide, and he bit into his knuckle to keep from screaming. A nod, so shaky and hesitant that Genji would have mistaken it for a shiver had his eyes not adjusted to the dark.
"Just for tonight?"
"For however many nights you need me to."
Oh.