CYOA – Life And Death Situations (Patreon)

Chapter 8 – warnings: Hanzo's permanent anxieties

Rather than having a look at Lúcio's life first, we keep following Hanzo and Genji's adventures...

Hanzo tries not to let Genji’s morbidly horrified expression get to him as they swim next to the huge boulder sticking out of the water. It is marking the place where he had tried to wriggle his way out of the net and had met the human who had miraculously helped him a few nights ago.

“A… human touched you,” Genji says eventually, his face lightly twisting as if he wants to look disgusted but also tries not to. He looks Hanzo up and down, and seems to float a bit backwards.

Hanzo just stares at him with a dark expression.

“They helped me for some reason,” he reiterates primly. Genji’s face twists again. He stares at Hanzo, then peeks out of the water and around. When he comes back down, he asks: “And… how will we contact the human?”

Genji knows even less of humans than Hanzo, but there is an aura of eagerness about him that is at odds with how he acted just now. Hanzo has the feeling that he is very, very excited about meeting a human, and not entirely for the prospect of getting his Zenyatta back.

It is at least better to see him with a bit more life again. Genji not flitting about is something that scares Hanzo to the core, and he hadn’t even known it.

“I am not sure,” he admits gruffly and lightly moves his tail to push himself upwards so he, too can peer out of the water towards the wide beach to the side of the steep cliff. There is a wooden structure on it, and Hanzo is more or less sure that the human had come out of that direction, though he hadn’t noticed him fully until he had been almost upon him.

Genji moves restlessly. Hanzo knows that it will be only seconds before he starts to whine so he reaches out and squeezes his shoulder.

“Just… stay back and let me try something.”

To his surprise, Genji does slightly move back, happy to watch – for the moment – how his brother is planning to catch himself a human, apparently.

Hanzo is not happy with any of this. He wishes he had thought before speaking such a promise, but Genji’s condition had put him between a rock and a hard place, and he’d always had a habit of just blindly running forwards if put under pressure like that.

He scowls and moves to the boulder sticking out of the water.

.o.

Genji watches with interest as Hanzo moves to the stone they had been more or less hiding behind since coming here. Hanzo curls his arms around it as if hugging the thing, digging his nails into the hard surface as he breaks surface and peers out over the beach dotted with humans.

As Genji watches, he twists his tail until he has lifted the tip over the water.

Genji has promised to stay back, but… well. He’s curious. Hanzo will understand, right? He quickly slips closer and puts his hands on Hanzo’s shoulders, using his brother to push himself up and out of the water as well, watching the happenings above the surface.

Hanzo hisses, bubbles popping up in front of his submerged mouth, but he does not push Genji away, as was expected.

He waits. It is not something Genji is particularly good at but has tried to work on since meeting Zenya...tta. The thought makes the ache in his chest flare up and his smile slowly slides off his face. He presses his lips together, watching as Hanzo carefully twists the tip of his tail outside the water, his scales catching the rays of the sun and reflecting them.

He hopes it’ll work. He hopes Zenyatta isn’t… scared or anything. Though he can’t quite imagine it. He’s never met anyone as calm and centered as Zenyatta. He misses him dearly.

Minutes pass. Genji has no idea what he is supposed to see. He digs his claws slowly into Hanzo’s shoulders until his big brother suddenly jerks – but not to push him away.

“Someone’s coming!”

Genji blinks, heart leaping in his chest as he peers over the beach. It takes him a little to realize that there is, indeed, one of the humans running along the sand.

“Is it the human?” he asks breathlessly. Hanzo slowly retracts his tail back into the water.

“It is a human, at least,” he murmurs, sinking himself back down until only his eyes are peering over the water’s surface, his hair fanning out like algae behind him and around Genji’s throat. “Get back. Try not to alert them to your presence,” Hanzo says sharply, and Genji obediently lets go of him, pushing himself a little back but still peering out of the water just like his big brother is. He wants to see the human. He wants to know if it is the one that has… helped… his big brother.

.o.

Hanzo’s pulse is racing as he squints over the beach. Their eyes might be very good beneath water, but above he finds that he is rather… nearsighted. The wind blowing dries them out too quickly and he finds himself blinking again and again to try and keep track of where the human is.

Anxiety twists in his gut. What if it is not the same human? What if he is luring another one to them that is a lot less benign? He can feel the waves Genji is making behind him, barely an arm’s length away. He wishes he had gone alone, but Genji had tagged on like a little cleaning fish.

When the human starts to slow down, apparently unsure whether Hanzo is even still there, he slowly lifts his tail again, lightly twisting it in the space above the water’s surface. That gets the human moving again.

Hanzo digs his claws harder into the rock, chest pressing against the cool, wet surface, trying to wrestle down the sharp twist in his belly.

Only when the human starts climbing over the rocks littering the shore on this part of the beach does he recognize the stature of the human as being the same man from back then.

He automatically squints at his arm where he had slashed him, but it is wrapped in some kind of colorful bandages, preventing his view. The fact that he is still alive makes Hanzo wonder about whether humans are… immune to their toxins. The thought chills him to the bone.

There is a moment where the human is standing on the beach, his dark eyes searching the waters as he pushes his headgear slightly back to presumably see better. Genji is hanging on to Hanzo’s back, peering out around the boulder with him, seemingly just as fascinated by the sight of the human as Hanzo is.

They both had never really made room to just… watch those creatures. Whatever they had seen were just confusing glimpses of attackers. This human does not seem too… threatening, really. He is wearing very little; just some short bright red covering over his legs, and something to protect his feet. There are no weapons on him as far as Hanzo can tell.

Finally, when the human looks like he is about to lose interest, Hanzo reaches up and digs his claws into the boulder, dragging himself up smoothly until his powerful feet can find purchase on the stone surface and keep him aloft.

He feels horribly exposed outside of the water but… they don’t have any choice, do they?

The human looks startled. His face goes slack as he stares at Hanzo appearing like that, and Hanzo keeps his hands down, pressed against the top of the boulder to show his intention of not harming him. He’s not sure if the human understands, but he does not start screaming or running. He stands there, his broad chest heaving, and watches.

As Hanzo looks back, he notices that the human’s skin is darker than his own. He looks weathered from the sun. He also seems to possess some kind of… fur where Hanzo and Genji are quite smooth, but he can’t be too sure of that. It’s difficult to see clearly at this distance, even though it is just a few meters.

The human slowly lifts the arm with the colorful bandages. Hanzo watches him calmly.

“Hey there!” he calls. He has a weird twang to his voice that Hanzo had noticed during their first meeting as well. It makes it a bit difficult to understand him, but their words are... largely the same.

Hanzo tamps down on the immediate flare of nervous energy, the past rearing its head for just long enough for Genji to suddenly push himself in front of the boulder and show himself as well, gaping at the man who, in turn, stares back at the two of them with his mouth slowly hanging open.

“You speak our language!” Genji says in an almost accusing tone. Hanzo numbly stares down at his head. He should grab him and pull him back again, but all he can think is ‘have you forgotten, Genji?’.

The human, in turn, just says: “There’s two of you?!”

Silence stretches out. Hanzo glances towards the other side of the beach, and, realizing that he is way too exposed throning on the boulder as he is, he lets himself fall back down into the sea.

In order to talk to the human, they have to get closer to him. Already realizing that – or just brimming with curiosity – Genji is already on his way, digging fingers into the rocky sand and dragging himself up on the shore until he is almost stranded. The sight has Hanzo’s heart racing and he scrambles to follow suit so he can push Genji back into the sea in case the human becomes hostile.

However, he just… stands there looking. His ruddy skin has become a good bit paler as he looks down on them. He moves suddenly – quick enough that all fins along Hanzo’s body flare out in defense – but he just seems to have lost agency over his legs because he plonks down onto his heels first, and then onto his ass.

“I’m… this can’t be real,” they hear him muttering as he reaches up with a wildly shaking hand and pushes the headgear back so they can both see his face better.

“What’s your name, human?” Genji asks, eager. Always curious.

The human just blinks at them.

“Whu…?”

“Do. You. Have. A. Name,” Genji reiterates more slowly, a frown appearing between his brows as he throws Hanzo a little glance. Doesn’t the human understand them after all?

“Ah… uh… name… yes… aah… Jesse. McCree. Just Jesse, it’s a long… story, I mean…”

Hanzo’s face darkens and he slaps his chest with one hand sharply to shut the babbling up.

“Hanzo,” he says, then slaps Genji’s shoulder. “Genji.”

The man nods slowly. Finally, he seems to be regaining his footing and calms down, though his dark eyes are still wide and disbelieving.

“I… alright. Hanzo… and Genji. I’m jus’... I didn’t think y’all spoke my language.”

Hanzo scoffs.

“Maybe you are speaking our language,” he says scathingly, even though he knows this not to be the case. However, he doesn’t like the human to think too highly of himself.

Jesse does not react to the sharpness in Hanzo’s voice. He just nods slowly. He leans forward some, curling his arms around his knees. Hanzo stares at the bandages around his forearm again. He wants to reach out and tug them away. He wants to see what is underneath. He still remembers very vividly the sensation of the human’s… Jesse’s skin splitting like ripe fruit beneath his claws as he’d slashed at him in panic.

“...been the one I met.”

Hanzo is jerked out of his thoughts by the ensuing silence. He blinks and realizes that both Genji and Jesse are looking at him. He just scowls, having no idea what is happening now, and Jesse, seemingly realizing that, reiterates: “You’ve been the one I met… right?”

“Ah. Yes. You discovered me after my unfortunate run in with some hunters.”

There’s another awkward pause in which Genji digs his elbow into Hanzo’s side. Hanzo glances at him; they usually don’t need to talk in order to understand each other, and eventually he sighs and says ill-tempered: “I am grateful for your… assistance.”

Jesse smiles slowly. It changes his whole demeanor, somehow. His shoulders relax and he seems less likely to just up and run.

“You’re welcome.”

Before anything else can transpire, Genji suddenly blurts out: “We need your help, Jesse.”

Hanzo bites the tip of his tongue, but in the end he has to concede that he couldn’t think of a more elegant way to ask as well.

Jesse, to his credit, does not bumble around this time. He frowns and scratches a hand through his weirdly colored hair, staring at Genji, though his gaze keeps trying to flinch to Hanzo. He doesn’t trust them; or he doesn’t trust Hanzo. Which is fair enough, probably.

“Help you?”

“My friend got kidnapped. And you need to get him back for me.”

Hanzo can see where in Genji’s world that makes sense, but Jesse blinks slowly and inhales deeply.

“Alright. Just… Could you tell me more? A… friend? There’s three of you?”

Genji winces.

“No… not exactly… my friend is not like us, he’s more like you… with legs, that is. But he’s also not like you. But he’s gotten taken by people like you. And where he is now, Hanzo and I can’t follow. But I need him back.”

Hanzo’s gills flare on a soft groan. He can just about keep from slapping a hand across his face, and instead throws Genji a dark stare that makes his babbling brother shut up. He looks a bit embarrassed at least.

Jesse, predictably, shakes his head.

“I don’t understand a word. But uhm… I’m just a lifeguard. I can’t do jackshit.”

“What is a lifeguard?”

“I look out for people so they don’t get hurt while swimming,” Jesse says patiently enough, popping a thumb over his shoulder to the rest of the beach where only a couple more humans are visible.

He then croaks out a weird sound that comes again and again until Hanzo realizes that he is laughing. Genji and he throw themselves glances while Jesse slaps a hand across his face and shakes his head.

“I can’t believe this shit,” they can hear him murmur into the cup of his palm as he slowly opens his eyes again and stares at them once more; first Genji and then Hanzo, whom he keeps an eye on, eyes flinching to Hanzo’s hands, fingers dug into the pebbles of the beach.

“I don’t understand a thing,” he says again. Genji lifts his tail and slaps it down into the water in agitation. The motion has Jesse sit up straight in alarm, his wide mouth set into a tight line. He might look reasonably calm but he is on edge just as they are.

“We need your help!” Genji reiterates insistently; as if Jesse had any obligation to assist them.

Jesse, predictably, shakes his head.

“I’m sorry, pal. I am… I need a bit for this to… sink in, okay? And I still don’t understand what it is you want from me. I just need…”

“Time,” Hanzo says calmly.

“But we don’t have-” Genji starts, his fins bristling. Hanzo reaches out and puts a hand on his biceps to try and calm his agitated brother.

“Genji. It is not an unreasonable request. He doesn’t trust us. And we don’t trust him.”

“I can explain it better,” Genji offers, his voice trembling like he’s close to tears.

Jesse’s face contorts at that; something weird and complicated going on in him before it smooths out and he begins to stand.

“Listen’. I gotta get back to work. But I’ll return at sundown and we can… talk more. I wanna hear what you gotta say. An’ I wanna ask some shit.” His eyes flick to Hanzo at that.

Genji looks like he wants to reach out and grab his ankle; keep him from walking away, but he keeps calm for once and nods slowly, head turning to look to Hanzo as well.

Hanzo inhales, his hand still on his brother’s arm.

“Very well. We will be here.”

They watch him move towards the large rocks separating one part of the beach from the other, but before he can start crawling over them, he pauses and looks back.

A moment later, his long legs have taken him back to the shore where Genji and Hanzo are half stranded. His sudden return has both of them bristling in alarm.

He shakes his head, arm outstretched towards them.

“I’m… sorry, really. I know this is inappropriate but… can I touch one of you? I just… can’t believe you’re actually real.”

Both of them pull faces and he immediately drops his arm again, nodding to himself.

“Yeah… uh… sorry. My bad.” He stays there, staring at them wide-eyed. Hanzo tries to see them from his point of view, but it is a bit difficult to imagine. Eventually he sighs put-upon and starts to rummage around in the little satchel on his hip. He unearths one of the glowing rocks he has stashed in there and extends it towards the human.

“Here. As a kind of… peace offering.”

Jesse outstretches his hand again, mouth open in a soft ‘o’. Without touching him, Hanzo lets the pebble plop into his open palm.

“We will wait,” he tells him again, talking slowly to make sure Jesse understands. He throws Genji a short glance, and they both turn and pull their way back into the safety of the sea.