CYOA – Life And Death Situations (Patreon)

Chapter 7 – warnings: mild anxiety attacks

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It had already been eerie to watch Genji interact with Zenyatta… but it is even more eerie to watch him make his way through the dark sea, eyes half closed, following some scent or… marker that only he seems to be able to decipher.

He moves with a pinpoint accuracy that eventually has Hanzo reaching out to grab the end of his tail and halt their silent progress through the water.

Genji turns, looking at him in confusion, and Hanzo blows out a slew of bubbles in exasperation.

“Where are you going?”

Genji turns to swim on the spot in front of him. He looks impatient and like he thinks Hanzo is going insane.

“To Zenyatta.”

“But how?” Hanzo can feel his skin breaking out in prickling goosebumps. Genji is staring at him quietly with dark eyes that seem bottomless here where little light reaches from the surface. Hanzo’s breath starts freezing in his lungs until finally Genji’s pale face twitches into a sad little smile.

“I gave him a few of my scales,” he admits eventually. He is looking down at his hands which he is wringing in front of himself like a child. Hanzo’s heart skips a beat at the admission but he forces himself to calm down. This is not important. Not now.

(It is very important. Anxiety makes him nauseous for a second.)

“We will talk about this,” he tells him sharply, but the little glance Genji throws his way is very telling in that he thinks they won’t. Hanzo has a habit of letting Genji get away with a lot of shit. But not this time. 

“Go,” he hisses, annoyed, and Genji is off again like a swarm of little silver fish; fast enough that Hanzo has to work to keep up with him.

At least this explains how sure Genji is about where to go. He can feel his scales in this… this thing’s possession like they are still attached to his own body. Hanzo just hopes that Zenyatta won’t have the same affinity to them as their species does. 

They would lead the thing – and by extension the humans – to wherever Genji would be. There would be no place to hide; no way to escape.

Genji, you utter fool.

He feels like he has failed his brother. Like he should have been there to prevent the disaster… but it is as it is now. There is no point in lamenting the past.

He forces his rapidly beating heart to calm down, focusing on the flick and glitter of Genji’s deep green tail to keep the encroaching darkness at the corners of his vision at bay.

.o.

When Genji finally slows down, Hanzo had been about to reach out and snatch him back. It had looked like Genji would strand himself full force on the sandy shore. 

The water here is so shallow it is still warmed from the sun’s rays even though it has long since gone down.

They’ve never been much in these waters. The humans are very busy here; so when Genji suddenly breaches surface, Hanzo has a knee-jerk reaction of calling out that he should be careful. Instead he presses his palm across his mouth and closes his eyes, breathing deeply to keep the anxiety down. When the water rushing through his gills in slow, even drags has calmed his pulse, he follows to where Genji is swimming on the spot, slowly pushing his head through the water.

While Genji is out to far past his shoulders, Hanzo only peeks out enough to see what is going on.

There is one of the buildings the humans live in; it is sprawling and severe looking with sharp edges everywhere. In the light of the slowly vanishing moon it looks stark white like a skeleton.

“He’s in there,” Genji whispers. His body next to Hanzo’s is almost vibrating. 

He suddenly jerks forward, hands out to dig claws into the sand and pull himself on land. Hanzo is there in a second, fisting the fin low on Genji’s back to hold him back. It is a low blow but at least finally has the young man hissing and snapping out of whatever trance he had fallen into.

“What?!” Genji snaps so aggressively that Hanzo almost flinches back. He keeps a sharp grip on his brother’s fin, feeling the fine bones bend to the point of almost snapping until Genji howls and twists to get him off of him.

“What the Hell are you trying to do?” Hanzo asks calmly while Genji looks close to crying at the pain, reaching back and holding the fin that he carefully stretches out again.

“What are you talking about? Getting him back, of course,” Genji says, voice tight and expression even more so.

Hanzo stares at him blankly, then slowly pushes his head back out of the water and peers at the sprawling structure.

“How?” he reiterates. “It has a fence all around it.”

“I’ll change to legs and just-”

“And what? Waddle your way in, demanding for that thing? You’ve barely put an effort into learning how to walk, Genji. They would grab you and cage you. We stick out like sore thumbs. We do not possess any clothes, and humans are very particular about those.”

He speaks calm and analytical, but when he smoothly slides back beneath water and sees Genji’s absolutely gutted expression, he grows quiet.

They hover awkwardly in the shallows, Genji finally letting go of his fin and just staring down at his webbed fingers.

Hanzo pulls a face, feeling like he has to say… something, but also knowing that he is spectacularly ill equipped to comfort someone.

“I… am sorry. For what it’s worth,” he says stiffly. Genji doesn’t answer. His body is swaying slightly on the spot like the pull of his scales is almost physical.

“There has to be something we can do,” he says softly, and Hanzo shakes his head.

“Short of having a human contact, we can’t do anything, Genji. Going up there would be suicide.”

He reaches out but pulls his hand back awkwardly before he can touch Genji’s bicep.

“Listen. Just… forget about it. I know you were close to Zenyatta, but this isn’t… this isn’t worth your life, Genji.”

“You know nothing,” Genji hisses bitterly. There are tears in his voice, though the water makes it impossible to see them in his eyes. He bites his lip sharp enough to lightly break skin. Hanzo can smell the blood trickle immediately in the water.

Genji’s hue, having become stronger on their way to this God forsaken part of the sea, wilts before Hanzo’s eyes. His lips become bloodlessly pale, bright green scales turning a muddy brown as he sinks down to perch himself on the sand, looking like absolutely devastated.

Hanzo slowly lowers himself as well, quietly taking a place next to his brother. He doesn’t know what to say to make this any better on him.

He doesn’t know if there even is anything to say.

He just quietly sits and places his hands folded together over his lap, head lowered as he listens to Genji’s deep, obviously pained breathing. It… it hurts himself, too. He’s never seen his brother like this. Genji’s pain is almost palpable.

He looks like he could die from getting his heart broken, and the thought has anxiety clench like a fist around Hanzo’s heart. He wants to know if their kind can die from sorrow, but there is nobody he could ask. It’s just the two of them. Just Genji and him.

When he speaks, it takes him by surprise himself.

“I met a human the other day. Maybe he would help.”

Genji’s head snaps around, staring at him. Hanzo doesn’t think he could be more dumbfounded about this revelation than Hanzo could be about having offered it up in the first place.

He groans and puts his face into his hands.