Summary: It seemed that whenever Genji disappeared to gain some perspective, there was always someone coming after him.
moving forwards with your head held high
Spring rolled through that year with an uncommonly hot day, followed by a rain storm that started in the afternoon and lasted well into the night.
Perched atop an outcropping, staring out over the curved edge of the forest covering the mountain's slope, and the wisps of fog that laid like across the rippling sea like a down quilt, was a figure dimly illumed in electric green. Droplets pattered against his pale armor, running down his visor in streaks. He tilted his head to the clouds, imagining the air's humid touch, the heat, the smell of soil and wet grass. While he'd never paid enough attention to such sensations to form an opinion either way on them in his youth, there was a time when he would have given much to regain them.
Even now, the yearning had not entirely abated, though its intensity had dulled.
Slowly, the mechanisms that controlled the rise and fall of his vents turned, expelling impurities and excess carbon dioxide in a pillar of steam that dissipated shortly after its release.
He'd been crouching in the drizzle for some time when a girl poked her head curiously out of a nearby window, blinked sleepily at him, then clambered out in her black-and-pink nightgown to join him. "What are you doing, Miss Song?" In the middle of lifting her second leg over the ledge as she hefted herself up, she paused to narrow her eyes, a frown pulling at the edges of her mouth that only grew when a heavy stream of rainwater fell from the roof to drench her bangs. "It is dangerous to..." He trailed off as a second thought took precedence over the first. "Did you just climb out of my room?"
Tossing her wet hair back with an impatient flick of her wrist, she completed the climb with a scoffed, "Please, I've done more dangerous stunts on stream." Then slyly added while she got her bearings, "Besides, you'd catch me if I fell, right?" After pausing for a disconcerting amount of time, all the while with that inhuman stillness he'd perfected, Genji opted for a half-hearted shrug. Gripping the outcropping a little tighter, Hana swung her feet, making the bunny slippers she wore blur with the motion. "That's not very comforting."
She made no move to leave, though, and Genji didn't ask her to.
"Anyway," she said after almost a minute had passed, "what's it that's got you up here like glowy gargoyle?" Though Genji's mask stared at her without any readable expression, she imagined from a catch of breath she thought she heard that he was stunned. There was a crackle of static, shortly followed by his tense posture relaxing slightly, his shoulders sinking.
"My brother's here."
It's the way he says it, flat and toneless, that convinces her what she'd already known – that climbing out of a window in the middle of the night in her pajamas and pink bunny slippers had been the only sensible choice to make.
She scowled at the lawn several floors below them, doing her best to ignore her the uncomfortable cling of her pajamas as the rain soaked into the fabric. "And you decided that the best way to deal with that was to climb out here and brood?"
"That is – I am not brooding."
"Oh?" She leaned back until her hair nearly brushed against the concrete, a cheeky smile on her face. "Then what are you doing?"
"Thinking," the cyborg replied immediately. He shifted awkwardly before correcting himself with a wary sigh of defeat, "Brooding."
Kicking her legs, Hana laughed, though it was admittedly subdued when compared to her usual fare. Eventually, the humor faded, allowing her to naturally change to a more thoughtful expression. She tilted her head, looking him over, taking in the joints between his digits where his hands rested. Those were made of bone and muscle, once. Just like hers. "It's okay not to be okay, you know." Genji turned to look at her, the movement avian in its speed and fluidity. She didn't seem to mind, "No one ever really tells you that."
Finally, unable to resist, she glanced side-eye at him, taking in the increasing brightness, the subtle pulse that synced to his heartbeat, "Me and Lucio aren't exactly in the know around here. Not yet, at least. Do you…" Briefly, she worried her lip, but plunged ahead, "Do you feel comfortable telling me what happened between you and your brother?"
The visor remained fixed on her, concealing everything beneath it. Even his presence was muted. Hana was fairly certain that if she closed her eyes, he could vanish into the night and she wouldn't register the absence. A rough inhale stalled her musings, and on its heels a quietly strained, "I'd prefer not to, if that's alright with you, Miss Song. Our history is a complicated one."
Hana nodded. "No prying. Got it. It's just… I want to help you, Genji." A frustrated groan escaped her as she plopped her chin on her knees. "But I don't know how I can if I don't know the whole story." Part of why she and her MEKA squad had worked so well was their commonalities. Different upbringings and nationalities, yes, but similar interests and attitudes. Fighting omnics in the mechs was like a new and exciting game – a game they, as the world's greatest players, were naturally going to win – until it stopped being a game. That was when their bond went from strong to unbreakable.
Was it so wrong to want a semblance of that cohesion and closeness with her new team, as well?
"I'm just going to talk to myself for a second, okay?" Without waiting for a response, she started, "Forgiving people who've hurt us, especially people we love… well, it's not really black and white. In any case, you're making the effort, and even if it feels like you're going backwards sometimes" – there was the reaction she was counting on - "so is he." Leaning to close the gap a little, she added earnestly, "I mean, he's here, right?" And, slowly, Genji inclined his head.
Satisfied for the moment, Hana leaned back, watching as the grey clouds above stretched to a thinness that could no longer hide the stars shining brightly behind them. "For me, at least, it doesn't matter how you get there, or how long it takes. What's important is taking more steps forward than you take back." Grinning, she looked over her shoulder to see that she still held the cyborg's attention. "How's that? Did I sound super sage-like?"
No response. It was starting to make her nervous, actually. Then a cool wind blew through her drenched pj's, leading to a shiver she couldn't quite suppress. Abruptly, Genji jumped to his feet. "It's getting late. Let's head inside."
Relieved, Hana fired back, "Finally! I was starting to think I'd start growing mold out here."
When she was climbing to her feet – Genji didn't offer to help, though she guessed it was because he knew she would want to do it on her on – the cyborg tentatively offered to make her some hot chocolate.
Hana pumped a fist, already well on her way to squeezing through the open window, "Sweet!"
Folding his arms over his chest, Genji cocked his head to the side, observing her reaction with amusement.
"Well, yes. Unless you'd prefer it bitter?" She stuck her tongue out at him before ducking inside, causing him to chuckle.
Once she'd changed out of her wet clothes and into a pair of grey sweatpants and a striped crop-top, met him in the kitchen, where a pair of mugs filled with chocolaty foam brimming over the edges made her whoop with delight. Remembering that it was past midnight and most of their fellow agents were asleep, she quickly clapped a palm over her mouth. The first cup was placed in front of her at the table - where she impatiently waited for it to cool before taking her first gulp and searing her tongue, anyway – while the second was placed in the microwave.
She frowned at Genji when he joined her, the space in front of him clearly empty, folded hands and palpable smugness besides. "Aren't you going to drink yours?"
He shook his head. "It's not for me."
Initially, she didn't understand, but upon thinking it over, simply replied with a nod, after which she took to sipping more slowly from her mug to conceal a smile threatening to climb too high to hide.
In the morning, she snuck a peek in the kitchen to find the microwave empty, with the mug now washed and drying on the rack.
A/N: I had this thought while writing that Jesse definitely did the Climb-and-Talk with Genji in Blackwatch, so imagine that he slips, and Genji's still adjusting to his prosthetics so he doesn't move quite fast enough to catch him. Jesse lands on his feet, makes a big show of walking it off, "Look, see, I'm fine. No harm done." Then proceeds to manfully make his way to the clinic on a broken foot.
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