CYOA – Life And Death Situations – Chapter 11 (Patreon)

 warnings: pain; little bit of angst

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“You got time after work?”

Lúcio frowns slightly at the scratchy note in Jesse’s voice. He slowly says: “Suuure…”

“I uh… I saw… them... again. You know who I mean.”

Lúcio feels simultaneously excited and a creeping feeling of trepidation. He slowly stands, heartrate spiking.

“Oh. Wow.”

“Yeah. Uh… Listen. They want somethin’ from me and I have no idea what to do. Maybe you wanna come over and…”

.oOo.

Jesse’s heart is thumping a mile a minute as he makes his way to the rough part of the beach with Lúcio at his side. Part of him hopes that he’s just had a stroke or something and made all of this… mermaid-y business up. The other part really doesn’t want Lúcio to think he’s gone crazy and put him into some kind of asylum.

He has to help Lúcio crawl over the large rocks, and then they are standing on the shitty part of the beach that nobody wants to deal with, staring out over the grey water and fiddling with flashlights because it’s getting pretty dark pretty quick these days.

“They, uhm… they said that they’d be around…” he says awkwardly. 

Lúcio is practically buzzing at his side with energy; he’s asked him three times by now to confirm that they really had spoken his language. For some reason he seems to think that that is the most interesting part of all.

He takes it all in stride.

Jesse stands there, wiping his hands against his pants and wondering what the hell has gone wrong in his life that he’s standing on a beach waiting for mermaids to show up.

He is so focused on staring at the waves crashing against the jagged rocks, the ache suddenly flaring in his wounded arm catches him completely off guard.

He squawks out an aborted sound of pain. His flashlight thumps to the ground as his fingers spasm. He grabs at his forearm, fingers digging into the sleeve of his jacket as pain shoots from the slashes up his arm and radiates through his body.

Lúcio is at his side in an instant. Jesse can feel his hand pressing between his shoulder blades in concern, but can’t make himself move an inch. He’s sure the kid is asking him what’s wrong, but all air has left his lungs in the wake of the fire eating up his body. 

He’s reeling, struggling to come to terms with being fine one second and in agony the next. While he does have experience with sudden cramps, this pulsing, angry burn is something out of another world. The ache is all encompassing and impossible, radiating out from his forearm, and swallowing him up until his knees give way and he falls down to the beach, sharp rocks digging into his shins.

Lúcio is calling his name, arms around his shoulders. Jesse ignores him, clawing at his jacket to push the sleeve up and get at his skin. Within seconds he is ready to just gnaw his arm off simply to get this pain to end.

He doesn’t think he’s ever felt like this before, the burn of the wound eating through his body white hot and furious. It’s what he thought he would feel when Hanzo had first slashed at him weeks ago, tainting him with the inky substance from his claws.

Was he going to die now?

.o.

Genji has never seen Hanzo as furious as when they had realized that Jesse had brought another human with him.

Hanzo’s hand is curled around Genji’s wrist, trying to drag him along and away from the beach.

“Hanzo!” Genji cries out in alarm, stemming himself against the pull, tail working furiously to not just get dragged behind his older brother. “Calm down!”

“He ratted us out, Genji!” Hanzo hisses back. He is all teeth it seems, fins flared sharp and pointy everywhere on his body. He knew they shouldn’t have trusted a human. He had let Genji lull him into a false sense of security until even he had put his hopes into this man that they had only spoken to once.

What an utter fool he had been.

“We have to flee,” he commands, but Genji is still moving against his pull, winding himself like an eel as he tries to get free. He only manages to have Hanzo’s claws dig into his skin until thin tendrils of blood start to curl through the water.

“Hanzo, wait!” Genji calls again, bubbles of agitation spilling out of his gills.

When the scent and taste of Genji’s blood hits Hanzo’s palate, he finally pauses long enough for Genji to pull out of his grip, nursing his hand against his chest.

“We need to hear him out first,” Genji says, voice pitched down soothingly. “It’s just one other human, Hanzo. He doesn’t look threatening.”

Hanzo is seething. He looks almost deranged with anger, and Genji thinks that he would be following along with his demand if he weren’t so dependent on Jesse right now.

He turns to peer through the water again. The second human looks to be a good head smaller than Jesse. They don’t have anything on them as far as he can tell. How… dangerous could it be?

He swims a little bit closer to the rock sticking out of the water close to the beach. Just earlier he and Hanzo had been so engulfed into one another; mating against its cool, hard surface, and now…

He expects Hanzo to protest, but when Genji glances back, his brother is just hovering there in the water, fins still flared, tail lashing in agitation. He looks ready to strike as fast as an eel.

The back of Genji’s neck prickles. He turns back and sees through the agitated surface once more to see that the humans have crouched down at the beach. Something seems to be the matter. He carefully drags himself up along the rock until his head breaches the surface, peering at the two.

Darkness is setting in fast, but that is no issue for Genji; he can see them well enough, even above surface as he is.

Jesse’s face is contorted. He seems to be in pain.

“What…?” Genji whispers. He feels the water move behind him, and as he turns, Hanzo has come a bit closer. He looks marginally more calm, though still calculating and angry.

On the beach, Jesse slowly unfurls the tight clench of his body, face drenched in sweat.

.o.

As sudden as the pain had come, it had stopped again.

Jesse is panting, curled over his arm and trying not to vomit. Lúcio unearths a bottle of iced tea from the pocket of his big jacket, and Jesse gladly accepts it.

The nausea retreats with the liquid going down his throat, and by the time he pulls the mostly empty bottle away from his lips, the pain has already retreated into a vague memory. His body remembers well, however, and his limbs are not quite obeying him yet.

“What was that?” Lúcio asks, hand rubbing small circles between Jesse’s shoulder blades. The other hand is fiddling with the flashlight, clicking it on and shining it against Jesse’s chest so he can peer into his face.

Jesse just shakes his head. How the hell should he explain that his weird mermaid wound has started to burn like Hellfire incarnate?

A shock of green swimming next to the boulder takes his attention and saves him from having to try and explain himself. It’s already pretty dark, but the hair is almost luminous. He exhales in relief – he is not crazy – and jerks his chin towards it. Lúcio turns with a frown to follow his stare.

He stands slowly as he sees… something, and turns the flashlight towards the boulder. Jesse can hear his sharp intake of breath when he spies the eyes bobbing above the waves, Genji blinking at them owlishly due to the sudden bright light.

The light of Lúcio’s flashlight follows those same eyes quietly as the hybrid begins moving, slowly dragging himself up over the water with help of the boulder. Cool trepidation trickles down Lúcio’s spine as he sees how easily those claws are digging into concrete stone.

Eventually, the hybrid is perched on it, a long emerald tail curling around it twice before trailing down into the water. Lúcio has seen him multiple times before, but the visuals had always been grainy and did not do his beauty justice.

“Genji,” Jesse calls over, still crouched low and trying to gather his strength. “Where’s Hanzo?”

The young hybrid’s face screws up tight, his eyes flicking to Lúcio. He answers the question with another question: “Who’s that?”

He looks unhappy, which is… understandable, Lúcio supposes. They had not thought that Jesse would bring someone else with him.

Jesse finally has himself back together enough to stand up on shaky legs. He drags a hand across his face, inhaling deeply. “Lúcio. A friend of mine. I think he could help you out.”

Genji’s face is still tight. He looks skittish; like he’s just one wrong movement from throwing himself back into the water and fleeing from sight.

“Who else have you told about us?” he calls over, eyes flicking between Jesse and Lúcio. Jesse lifts his hands to swear his innocence, but Lúcio steps in front of him.

“I know of your kind,” he says, shutting Jesse up immediately. “Even before he told me about you.” Jesse stares at his back quietly; he can feel his stare like a physical thing. Lúcio ignores him, though, and continues: “I am working in a marine institute not too far from here. He said that I might be able to help you.”

Genji keeps on the defensive. He slowly lowers himself a bit once more while it becomes darker around them. He is hugging the rock against his chest like a lifeline.

“I don’t know what that means…”

Lúcio shakes his head. He tries to keep the flashlight steady despite his shaking hands, while he racks his brain for anything to say that would make himself more trustworthy in the eyes of the hybrid, but it is… difficult.

He lowers his flashlight a little to not blind Genji as much, though the way his eyes start to glow green in the dark is rather… unnerving. “That is not important for the moment. I can explain it to you later, if you like. But… Jesse told me you guys needed help.”

It is surreal to speak to Genji – to even know his name – after weeks and months of… spying on him via the robot. The grainy pictures they got could never measure up to the real beauty of these creatures – or just how long they really were. Just from the looks of it, Lúcio would estimate him to be a good four meters from the tip of his tail to the top of his head.

Genji doesn’t answer immediately. He looks sullen and unsure, but is obviously interested enough that he hasn’t fled yet. He seems cautious like a cornered wild animal.

“Can you understand all the words I’m saying?” Lúcio tries to change tactics a bit and break the ice. Jesse is relegated to a quiet bystander, his dark eyes scouring the dark water all around the rock. Where was Hanzo?

Every now and then he feels like he can see the eerie ice blue glow of eyes through the agitated surface of the sea, but they’re always gone so quickly that he can never be quite sure of them.

Genji looks affronted, brows drawing together.

“I’m not stupid,” he calls over, sullen like a little kid, and Lúcio nods quickly, lifting his free hand placatingly.

“That’s not what I was… you know, you’re right. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to imply anything.”

Genji makes an impatient sound. Fed up with Lúcio’s tip-toeing around the issue, he calls over: “My Zenyatta has been stolen. Can you help me get him back?”

Lúcio makes a soft sound before repeating: “Zenya…tta.”

The feeling of deja-vu hitting him is like vertigo. He’s only heard the name that very day.

Could it really be?