CYOA – Chapter 16 – Life And Death Situations

warnings: mild panic attack

Rather than notice his brother venturing outside the water and feeling the looming threat, Genji is completely absorbed into Zenyatta...

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Jesse has brought Hanzo clothes, but even covered like a normal human he has an air about him that is decidedly… non-human.

He can’t put his finger on why. Something just keeps being… off. Not that he would tell Hanzo – or that Hanzo would care, he suspects. Watching a grown man try to work out how to use his legs had already been… something.

He had all the necessary muscles, but moving them in a distinct walking fashion, especially on unsteady ground such as the rocky beach, had not been easy.

Jesse had spent a good amount of time bracing Hanzo, arms slipped beneath his arms to pull him back up when he lost his footing. Or all but hugging him to his chest to let him get his feet back beneath him.

He’s… intimately acquainted to the smell of Hanzo (brine and ocean water), and his feel (heavy and warm).

Jesse has nothing to do but watch this weird, stocky little man learn to walk with the fiercest of expressions on his face. There’s no job, no obligations for now... just him being an idiot and letting himself get roped into this madness.

“So, uh…” he’s always bumbling like an idiot when talking to Hanzo. Something makes him incredibly nervous. Maybe the rows of needle sharp teeth. “You hate humans.”

“Correct,” Hanzo says primly, eyes down on his feet as he carefully makes one step after another. He’s gotten the hang of managing his balance incredibly fast.

“So why do you want to meet them?”

“I already told you,” Hanzo says in a tone that makes it abundantly clear that he thinks Jesse is an idiot for asking. “I want to know my enemy.”

Jesse is slowly letting go of him to let him move on his own, leaning against a large boulder. “So you think I’m your enemy?” It does kind of hurt, if he is being honest, but he supposes he can’t force Hanzo into trusting him.

Hanzo makes a little ‘tch’ sound and doesn’t answer. Instead, he stands upright with the proud air of a king, and begins to walk, if a little wobbly, up and down the rocky beach. He’s had a lot of trouble getting used to shoes, but he seems to have gotten better at it.

“So what’s your brother up to? We’ve been doin’ this for like… a week now, and I haven’t seen him once.”

Hanzo throws him an angered look, but Jesse can’t figure out if he’s pissed because he dared to ask about his brother, or because it’s not 100% about him for once. Jesse’s figured out in just a few minutes that despite Hanzo’s immense aversion against humans he is quite the… attention whore.

Or maybe he is not angry at Jesse at all, but at the fact that his brother must not have noticed his forages into the human world at all.

“He is focused on Zenyatta for now,” Hanzo says primly. “He will come back.”

He doesn’t add ‘When the novelty wears off’, but it is strongly implied in Jesse’s opinion. He wisely doesn’t say a thing.

“You know, you’ve gotten pretty good at this whole uh… walking thing. What do you think about venturing out a little bit? There’s a café close by.”

Hanzo looks at him weirdly, and Jesse has the distinct feeling that he does not know what a café is. He pulls himself up and tugs awkwardly at his clothes (all a bit too large, courtesy of Jesse), and says with immense dignity: “If we must.”

There are two spots of color high up on Hanzo’s cheekbones. He’s a lot more excited about the prospect than he wants Jesse to know.

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Louis sits at the docks, staring down at his arm. The slashes from the stupid creature had finally healed, but they were still visible in sharp black against his skin.

He doesn’t know what they are about; any and all experiments he’s conducted on himself, have yielded inconclusive results, most of the time directly contradicting each other. Miller would probably know what to do, but he doesn’t want anybody to know yet.

For the moment he just wants to sit and think. Sit at the water. Touch it.

He’s taken off his shoes and socks and has shimmied far enough to the edge of the pier to get his feet in up to the ankle. The touch of the cool water soothes something inside him that had been scratching for release.

Louis closes his eyes, hand over his healed slashes, and just listens to the to and fro of the waves around him. He’s always been inquisitive about the water and its residents, but he’s never felt this impossible pull to be close to it. Inside it.

It’s hard enough to keep just sitting on the pier and not thrust himself into the waves. He wonders if he is suicidal, but he does not think that he is. He does not want to end himself; he just wants to… swim.

He looks down watching his feet splash around. He can feel the cool water sliding through between his toes… until he can’t anymore. The water resistance… shifts. Goosebumps race down Louis’ spine. His hands come down and curl tightly around the edge of the pier, back curling forward until he has his chest pressed against his knees.

He keeps moving his toes, but something is different than before. It’s like a dormant little organ at the back of his brain has suddenly come awake. He can feel the water sliding around him.

When Louis lifts his feet out, he can see translucent webbing between his toes. It’s so soft and dainty looking. Unreal. He blinks slowly, then extends a hand and carefully touches the very tip of a finger to the web between his big toe and the one next to it.

It feels silky. He can also feel the slight tug.

It is real. The webbing is real.

Louis exhales sharply and turns the arm he has extended, staring at the inky slashes visible against his forearm.

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Genji can somewhat feel the tingling at the back of his head, but he doesn’t want to pay attention to it. Neither his brother, nor the human that had taken Zenyatta are on his mind when he can swim with his beloved again.

Zenyatta is a bit more quiet than he had been before he had gotten abducted. Something is troubling him, but he does not tell Genji when he asks. He keeps turning and peering over his shoulder as if they are being followed.

“You don’t need to be afraid,” Genji assures him as he urges Zenyatta against a reef, boxing him in with his arms. “I will protect you.”

He trails the back of a hand along one of Zenyatta’s arms, feeling the hard, smooth surface. Zenyatta doesn’t answer again; his little chubby tendrils keep moving while he calmly stares at Genji. His new face is exciting. Genji has no idea how this even works, but he likes the constant movements.

It makes him hungry, looking at Zenyatta.

“What are you worried about?” he asks again when his beloved doesn’t move. Zenyatta used to be a lot more flirty. A lot more expressive. The thought that they had done unspeakable things to him makes Genji’s blood run cold.

There is another moment of silence before Zenyatta suddenly jerks, his head cocking violently to the side for a moment before his voice is expelled out like a moray eel grabbing its prey.

“I cannot t-tell you.” His voice is strangely distorted, breaking all over itself. It sounds like it is an effort for him to get even that much out.

Genji’s heart squeezes painfully.

“Why not?” he asks softly. “I can protect you. Trust me.”

Zenyatta lifts his hands and gently frames Genji’s face, thumbs dragging along his cheekbones. His face is not giving away much in terms of expressions; the little tendrils of the octopus keep moving in a calm, hypnotizing manner. Still, Genji has come to understand the set of Zenyatta’s shoulders, the tilt of his head, the hum coming off of his chest, sometimes louder, sometimes more quiet.

“I trust you, Genji,” he finally says, hands still framing Genji’s face and forcing him to be still for once. “But I don’t think you can trust me.”

Genji’s heart skips a beat. His first reaction is to want to pull back, but Zenyatta is still keeping a hold of him.

“I don’t understand…”

Zenyatta slowly lets go of him.

“I can not articulate myself to you,” he says gently. “It is not within my possibilities at the moment. But… I don’t think that me being with you is good, Genji.”

Genji’s belly feels like it has shrivelled down to the size of a raisin. His gills keep moving jerkily but he’s not pulling any water in, and soon his lungs are burning from lack of oxygen.

“You love me because you have nobody else,” Zenyatta continues. “It has been just you and your brother for so long. Where is your family, Genji?”

Genji doesn’t say anything; he can’t say anything. His ears are filled with a weird static crackling noise. Dully he thinks that this must be what Hanzo goes through when he has one of his panic attacks.

“You should go to your family, Genji,” Zenyatta says gently, grasping one of Genji’s hands and squeezing it. Genji shakes his head.

“I can’t,” he finally gets out past the stopper in his throat. Slowly but surely he calms as he focuses on the pressure Zenyatta puts on his hand.

Zenyatta tilts his head slightly, the octopus leaning into the smooth glass until the eye is pressed up to it comically, staring at Genji.

“Why is that?”

Genji closes his eyes and inhales deeply again, then exhales. He pushes away from the reef he had Zenyatta boxed against and tugs him along.

“Come... I-I show you.”