IDK why but I love the idea of Genji keeping a snarky/playful/hyperactive personality until Zenyatta beats it out of him later, at which point his old personality is still only mostly gone. So that's how I'm writing him c;
Having such a colorful addition to the team of higher ups in Overwatch was more interesting than Angela would like to admit, and watching Genji get to that point was quite fun. As her new partner, the two of them stuck together most of the time, something the cyborg liked to point out frequently. He constantly complained about "Having this deadbeat on this case constantly," but it was hard to miss the poorly hidden smirk on his face or the playful tone every time he said it. As much as he liked to complain about her and mess with her, they both knew that he enjoyed the time they spent together.
That didn't mean that he wasn't an ass half of the time. Because, yes, he was definitely that. It had taken twice as long as it should have to get the idiot settled into his new body and routine because he simply refused to listen for longer than five seconds at the time. Whenever she tried to explain something new, every other sentence of hers was punctuated with a question or comment of his or, alternatively, a bored sigh.
Early on in the process he had agreed to speak mainly in English, since it was a language almost everyone working at Overwatch was required to learn. After seeing that he sometimes struggled with finding the right words to express a thought, Angela had offered to tutor him. He had agreed, sure, but only because he knew that he needed to. Each time she tried to help, he tried his hardest to distract himself from the subject, or every once in a while he'd try to distract her as well. The worst case of this was when he kept asking her about her personal and family life. She had fallen easily for it, especially since he made a point to look genuinely interested in what she had to say. Only after two hours of discussing everything from her childhood home to her music tastes had Angela realized exactly what he had done. She had been livid afterward, refusing to speak with him for days after that, especially after he insisted over and over again that he really was genuinely interested and not simply trying to distract her. Most of the time it wasn't that bad; he'd often doodle, or sometimes he'd just stare vacantly at her face like he was in a whole different world. Angela often found herself wondering what he thought about when he did that.
All of that was just a piece of the life the two of them were living between the missions to take down the Shimada clan. Angela would teach Genji how to fix a loose part of his suit, how to pronounce words, or try to help him cope with the fact that he was now half machine. In return, Genji helped Angela quietly in the background, almost like he was trying not to be noticed doing it. He had to have some sort of instinct that told him when she was stressed, because every time she spent an all-nighter worrying about a patient or working on a project, he'd show up the next day demanding that they go visit a restaurant he hadn't been to in a while that he was sure she'd like, even though he didn't eat. Occasionally whenever she came back to her desk after a long surgery or procedure, she'd find the place completely spotless, and all of her papers would be organized. That was one thing that really astounded her; Genji hated cleaning. His living quarters had been an absolute pit since the day he received them, but he never hesitated to help her with her space when she needed it. It was things like those that made Angela trust Genji so completely. As much as he liked to act like an ass all of the time, he always had her back, whether he wanted to acknowledge that fact or not. And, of course, she always had his.
Though that didn't stop her from being absolutely pissed whenever they were on missions together. Genji's style was fast and stealthy, mostly because that was the way Winston programmed him - as an assassin. But sometimes he was just a little too fast or too insistent on being stealthy.
"Genji, could you please get back here?" she whisper-shouted, trying to reach the ears of the person now on the other side of a massive wall. She heard what sounded way too much like a snicker before some scuttling. Genji appeared at the top of the wall, and she could tell he had a shit-eating grin on his face under his mask. She was tempted to smack it off of him as her Valkyrie suit allowed her to glide to his position. "I really hate you," she mumbled under her breath, glaring at the suited figure now scanning the darkness of the traditional Japanese courtyard underneath them.
"Love you too," came the snarky reply. She barely had time to snort before Genji jumped off of the wall, landing on the ground like a cat. She opened her wings and glided down to the ground, gently landing next to him. There was only a split second pause before he scuttled off across the empty space of the courtyard in the blink of an eye. He continued on, peering around a doorway to look if the coast was clear. Angela intended to follow him, but there was one problem; he had gotten out of her line of sight, and her suit was already fidgety when considering him a human that she could fly to. She swore quietly as her wings refused to activate, not sensing that there was someone in need to fly to, and Genji continued on without her. He probably thought that she was right behind him; he would never leave her behind on purpose while they were in a dangerous area.
"Work, work damn you," she repeated as she tried over and over to activate her suit's Guardian Angel mechanisms. Unluckily for her, it didn't seem like it wanted to cut her a break. And even more unluckily, the courtyard was massive and almost completely empty of cover; there was no way she would be able to cross quickly enough on foot to avoid being seen. She really, really needed Genji to come back for her, and sooner would be preferable to later.
"Did you hear something? Go check that out." A voice from around the corner demanded in Japanese. Angela's eyes widened. 'Damn it, why did I say anything?' There was almost no point in looking for a hiding spot; her suit had a very faint light gold glow whenever it was especially dark, and it was almost midnight outside. Even if she did find a place to hide, that would give her away instantly. But she still tried, ducking behind a corner and pressing herself against the wall. Her Caduceus staff was tucked into her belt, quickly replaced in her hands by her pistol. The thing wasn't extremely effective, considering her strict pacifistic nature, but she knew better than to go into a war completely unarmed.
Eventually, a pair of footsteps entered the building she was hiding in, quickly zoning in on her position. 'Well, can't say I didn't try hiding.' Angela thought bitterly, waiting patiently for the footsteps to round the corner. As soon as they did, she released a round of bullets into the surprised face of the generic looking but well built guard before scuttling down the hallway at full speed. He called angrily after her, and when she looked back she could tell that her bullets had only mildly annoyed him, not done any real damage. Panic rose in her gut as she began knocking furniture into the way whenever she could, dodging the angry bullets flying towards her by rolling and ducking.
Unfortunately, it didn't take long for her to get hopelessly lost in the maze of a building. She had no idea where she was or where she was going, and that was a massive problem. At any moment she could be barreling headfirst into more enemies. Her one hope was to get to a higher floor, break a window, and float out, or have Genji miraculously find her. Considering Genji had been the one to forget her in the first place, she went for Option A, looking around for a set of stairs to climb. It didn't take long to spot one, and with one sharp left turn she was racing up the flights of stairs. The guard cursed as he tripped over a step, which made Angela almost cry in relief. That was about ten seconds more time that she desperately needed.
That relief quickly turned into dread as she reached the top of the stairs. In front of her was a hallway that dead-ended, looking much like an attic. Albeit, the hallway was quite long, but it was a dead end all the same. She froze in fear, unsure of what to do. Could she maybe trick the guard into letting her back downstairs? It might take some planning, but it wouldn't be impossible.
Then all planning was cut off by a large hand grabbing her neck and pushing her up against the wall. 'Damn, how did he get up here so quickly?' She clawed at the hand and jammed the butt of her pistol into his stomach, but she wasn't an agent of Overwatch for her brute force. The guard laughed and ripped the gun out of her hand, throwing it across the floor. "Well look what I've got here, a little bird caught so far from its nest. Where's your partner, because I know for sure that you didn't come here alone. You barely look like you could fight off a kitten."
She spat in his face angrily. "Burn in hell." The response lost some of its edge due to the fact that she was currently gasping for air, but it held some of its intended potency all the same.
"I'm sure I can make you talk, it's just easier if you give me the information I want willingly. You're as good as dead if I want you to be, hun." The guard growled menacingly, tightened his grip on her neck, and raised her up off of the ground so that her feet were dangling in the air.
"Poor choice," Angela coughed out before tucking in her legs and pushing them back out, kicking his stomach with all the force left in her body. The guard dropped her, more in shock than in pain (though there was still a good amount of pain), and she tumbled to the ground. A few of her limbs crackled ominously as she stood up, but the adrenaline pumping through her bloodstream was more than enough to ignore whatever injuries might have occured. She bolted for her gun, picking it up before racing for the stairs, coughing all the while, trying to get her voice back properly.
"Not so fast." A hand reached out and grabbed her ankle, sending her tumbling back to the ground. Angela let out an earsplitting shriek. She had been ignoring it, but that ankle was most definitely broken. Crap. "Good try though."
"GENJI!" She screamed at the top of her lungs as the guard pinned her squirming and struggling form to the ground. Honestly, it was a desperate attempt. If Genji hadn't found her already, he was never going to. This was it. This was how she was going to die.
However, that name caused the guard to pause. "What tha' hell do you think you're screaming that name for?" His eyes blazed furiously. "Genji Shimada is dead, in case you haven't heard. And you're about to join him. As much as I admire your effort, no one gets away from me. I'd sooner die than let that happen."
Angela closed her eyes and let out a long breath. This hadn't been how she had wanted to die, but at least she had made a valiant effort. It wasn't a complete failure; hindsight being twenty-twenty, she probably shouldn't have gone back for her gun. Cool metal pressed against her temple and braced for the impact, wondering if death would be nice. Maybe her biological parents were waiting for her there, wherever there was.
What she wasn't expecting was for a large weight to fall on her chest, knocking the breath out of her. She wheezed and opened her eyes, seeing the dead guard lying prone on top of her, a silver and green cyborg standing over the dead body, blade drawn. Angela obviously couldn't see Genji's face, but she could tell the ninja was murderously angry (literally). His breathing was more heaving than normal and extremely rasped, like he was barely keeping himself from screaming at the corpse on the ground. His hand was wrapped so tightly around the glowing green katana that she was afraid the hilt might crumble under his grip. His other hand was balled in a fist, which he promptly smashed into the wall behind him to let out some of the rage. She could have sworn she saw what looked like tiny bolts of green lightning crackling at the impact, though it was probably just a trick of the light.
But that anger quickly died away when his head tilted back toward Angela. He knelt down next to her, pushing the dead guard off and examining her. The suit around her ankle was stained the color of blood, and her neck had a bright red hand printed on it. But what was the worst was her face; her hair was an absolute mess, settling every which way on top of her head. Her eyes were wide with fear and completely bloodshot, tears building up in the corners of them. He had never seen her look so terrified, and they had been in a lot of scary situations together thus far.
She flung herself into his arms, crying loudly as she buried her face into the metal plates on his neck. "You left me, you got too far away and I couldn't fly to you," she stammered pathetically, breaking his heart. "I thought I was going to die, that I was going to leave so many people alone without help."
Guilt flooded over him in a hurricane. God, he was such an idiot. It had taken him a few minutes to realize that Angela wasn't behind him, and by that point she was absolutely nowhere to be seen. This wouldn't have happened if he was more careful; he knew that even though she was incredible mentally, she was extremely physically fragile, that she needed him to be there in order to survive situations like this. And he had gotten impatient and left her behind, expecting her to be able to keep up with his impossibly quick movements. How could he be so much of a moron?
Genji sighed and wrapped one of his arms around Angela's waist, using the other hand to run through her hair, fixing it a bit in the process. "I'm sorry." He mumbled quietly. "I know, I know, I'm stupid and a disaster to be around and I just hope you can forgive me. I'm always giving you so much crap, and you are way too kind to me despite it all. I don't deserve your forgiveness, but I do hope you can give it to me anyways."
Despite everything, Angela chuckled. "You know, for some reason I find it extremely easy to forgive your sorry ass." She lifted her head out of her shoulder, a massive smile breaking through the morose cloud surrounding the two of them. "Just don't do it again, got it?"
He grinned, even though he knew Angela couldn't see behind his mask. It amazed him how much of an incredible person she was. "Got it. Now, I think it's time we get out of here."
"That is an amazing idea," she said enthusiastically. "Do you know how to do that? Because I have exactly no idea where we are."
"I do indeed. Just follow my lead." Genji expected her to stand up at this, but she didn't. She just stayed where she was, arms wrapped around his neck.
"Sorry, but as punishment you get to carry me out of here. My Valkyrie suit heals me, but it takes a lot of energy from me and I'm about to pass out as is." She gave him a tired grin, closing her eyes and yawning as she did so.
"I suppose that's fair." With that, the mechanical ninja picked his doctor up, and the two of them made their way out of Shimada castle, both a little shaken up, but bodies and friendship both miraculously intact.