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Genji texts him, and Akande ignores it. It’s not anger or annoyance on his part– he’s busy, and most of the time when Genji texts him, it’s a bootycall. He finally looks at his holovid a half hour later, and that’s when he see that Genji has texted him one word, “Help.”
Akande doesn’t remember running to the hangar, he just remembers the plane taking off. He doesn’t remember waiting in the bay for at least two hours, he just remembers jumping down before they’ve properly landed, trusting his cybernetics to diffuse the impact.
He remembers the fire. He remembers finally finding Genji in one of the rooms of the house, his legs crushed under a beam of wood. He lifts the beam up, and the angles are all wrong, there’s blood everywhere, and his left leg is mostly severed at the thigh. Akande suddenly remembers flitting in and out of consciousness, lying in the middle of the street of Ibadan after the bomb went off, flaming debris falling around him, looking over and seeing his arm lying three feet away from him, completely separate from his body–
He closes his eyes, bites the inside of his cheek. He picks up Genji as carefully as he can, in one clean motion. As he carries Genji out of the burning house, towards the ship, he’s struck by the fact despite his expertise in cybernetics, some things will never really fully integrate. His organic hand is shaking, his cybernetic one is not.
He had had his suspicions as to what Genji needed help with, and so he had brought a Talon doctor with him. She’s silent as she studies Genji and the plane lifts off. Akande sits quietly at his side, watching the invincibility disc spin slowly in the air.
“He’ll have to undergo extensive cybernetization in order to survive,” the doctor says, finally. Akande wants to ask her what the use is of telling him this. Does she think he’s going to tell her to let him die, then? Does she think he came all this way to give up? Does she remember who she works for?
But he’s too tired to be bitchy right now. “Do it,” he tells her. “Bring him back.”
-
Akande had scheduled a Skype date with Elizabeth later that night, and he completely blanks on it. He’s been waiting outside the medbay for hours when she calls, and he nearly drops the phone when it starts vibrating. He winces when the image from the front-facing camera pops up at the bottom of the screen. He has big, dark circles under his eyes and his shirt is stained with ash and blood. These aren’t necessarily novel circumstances for him to be in but he looks absolutely miserable about it, and so Elizabeth gets worried right away.
“What the hell happened?” she asks.
Akande rubs his face. He’s not an asshole or a coward. Elizabeth knows he’s been seeing Genji, fairly regularly. She’s okay with it, he’s okay with her seeing other people too. That’s not a concern for him. But for some reason, telling his girlfriend he just saved Genji’s life seems a lot more daunting than telling her he and Genji fucked.
Elizabeth is smart. Even if he wanted to, it wouldn’t make sense to be anything but direct. “Hanzo Shimada nearly killed Genji Shimada,” Akande tells her. “He reached out to me, I got there in time. He’s in surgery in Rome right now.”
Elizabeth leans back in her chair. Akande suddenly notices that she’s wearing a silk robe, and her collarbone is bare. She probably had a very different plan for how this conversation would go.
“Guess that whole business alliance we had planned is dead in the water,” she says. And Akande can just laugh. It’s not a complete diversion, as he imagines she knows. His efforts to forge a cross-continental stream of arms and cash is how he met her and Genji.
Elizabeth had met him in Monaco, in a tailored suit that surprised him, given what he knew of Deadlock. But what was most surprising was how after that, they couldn’t surprised each other. They met each others’ gambits, anticipated each others’ negotiating tactics, and after they had reached a suitable business agreement, Elizabeth had asked him out.
Shimada had not surprised him either, because he was a well-known entity. Akande walked into the meeting knowing that Genji would be the smiling, charming face of the clan, if he appeared at all. Akande surprised himself, though, because when Shimada asked him out, he said yes.
It made more sense after dinner, after Genji had fucked him so hard Akande could barely move. Genji had tried very hard to ensure Akande just saw him as shallow and hedonistic. But Akande could see quite clearly Genji wanted to want. And that meant something to him.
Elizabeth met every challenge Akande posed, and gave him challenges in turn. And so their relationship had risen. Genji loathed anyone setting any terms for his existence. And so their relationship remained meeting up in cities when they could and Genji fucking him so well. They talked afterwards and would always vaguely push towards something deeper. But they never broke the line.
So he and Elizabeth have a Skype date, and Akande ignores Genji’s texts. On his holovid, Elizabeth’s picture shakes a little as she moves to a lying-down position. “I’m sorry,” she says. “How do you think he’s going to do?”
“I think he will make a full recovery. That’s what the doctors told me. And they wouldn’t lie. But…”
“But it’s still your boyfriend,” Elizabeth finishes. “And afterward, it’s still going to be a lot for him.”
“He’s not–” Akande rubs his head. “I don’t think he’s my boyfriend. We definitely never made it official. I would have told you.”
“Yeah, you’re good. Don’t worry, it’s not important.”
“I mean, it does sort of matter here, given that he’s going to be on Talon support for a while–”
Elizabeth gives him a look that tells him he can keep talking, but she’s not going to keep listening. Akande isn’t one for wasted efforts. He shuts up.
“So what are you nervous about here?” she asks. “Moving in with your fuckbuddy, or how your fuckbuddy’s going to handle being a cyborg?”
“I contain multitudes.”
“Yeah you do.” She laughs, but her red eyes sharp. “Do you want me to come there?” she asks.
“You don’t need to.”
“Didn’t ask if you needed me. I know you don’t need me. I asked if you wanted me there. Do you?”
“Yes,” Akande says quietly. And something in Elizabeth’s expression breaks a little. Normally he hates when people look at him like that, so soft, because it feels like pity. But Elizabeth doesn’t pity him. She wants him. That’s what puts him over the brink after this hell day, after the adrenaline and exhaustion. He brings one hand up to his face as he starts to cry.
“I’m on my way,” Elizabeth says. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” he says. She waits and when it’s clear he doesn’t have anything more to say, she hangs up. Akande lets the holovid fall into his lap. He rubs at his wet cheeks.
He doesn’t know what news is going to come out of the operating room. He doesn’t know what’s going to come after. But he knows Elizabeth is coming now. That’s something for him to hold on to.
-
Genji wakes up before Elizabeth arrives. The doctors page him right away. He’s lying in bed when Akande walks in, after running across the Talon compound. There’s a pale yellow blanket covering his legs, but Akande can see immediately that the doctors have made the tubing and plating covering him red, silver, and black. Talon colors. The doctors shaved Genji’s head, Akande notes. And when he took such care to always make sure the dye was bright and fresh.
“I’ll have them make your cybernetics green instead,” Akande says. “If you want.” Genji stares at him. Akande can see his eyes– there are scars around them now– but most of his face is still covered, so Akande can’t tell what he’s thinking. Until Genji bursts out laughing.
“Usually I’m the one with the shit priorities,” Genji says, as Akande just stands there. “But uh. Good to know you’re picking up my slack.”
“I just wanted you to know– you’re not–“
“I know,” Genji says. Akande raises an eyebrow, and he snorts. “Or I guess I didn’t care. But it’s good to know now. Thank you.”
Those two words hang there, a high note sung too soon. Akande doesn’t know if he’d ever have known what to do with it, really. But as it is he elects to nod, sit on the end of Genji’s bed, and move on.
“Did they tell you everything about your condition?” Akande asks.
“I guess I wouldn’t know, would I?”
“You’re mobile. More so than you were before, even.” Genji silently moves his forearm in and out. “A lot of your chest and stomach is– gone. We saved the parts of your legs and arms that we could. Your face, neck, and lower torso are almost entirely intact.”
“Yeah, I noticed.” Genji chuckles drily. “Nice of my brother not to touch my dick, as he tried to kill me.”
Akande looks down at his lap. “Quite.” There’s a heavy silence between them.
Finally, Genji asks, “My brother…”
“Survived,” Akande says. Genji’s face is still mostly covered and it’s killing him. “We can change that.”
Genji is silent again, for much longer this time. His cybernetic hands hang limply in his lap. He’s staring at them. Akande covers them with his own hand.
“You don’t have to decide now.”
“Okay.” Genji looks up at him. His eyes are bright Akande can’t tell if that’s the cybernetic enhancements or if he’s tearing up a bit. “So. What now?”
Those are another two words Akande isn’t ready for, couldn’t ever really be ready for. “Talon and the Shimada clan have severed business ties,” Akande tells him. “We could may launch missions to quash them, if they begin interfering in Talon business. But I can’t see a path to reinstating you there.”
“I don’t want that,” Genji says. He’s staring at his lap again. Akande nods.
“What do you want?”
Genji doesn’t say anything. These were probably the words he knew were coming, but couldn’t be ready for. Akande stands. Squeezes Genji’s cybernetic shoulder. It takes Genji a moment to register the contact.
“Focus on physical therapy, for now,” Akande says. “I’ll help you. When you know what you’re doing again, you’ll have a better idea of what you’re going to do.”
“You’re right,” Genji says. “Thank you.” And Akande feels a bit better about taking that one.
-
Elizabeth’s plane is a dusty, weather-beaten thing, but Talon air control know it well. She lands without any problem, and politely declines the offer of an escort to Akande’s quarters. She knows the way by now.
Her arms are around Akande the second he opens the door. He sinks into her, burying his head in the crook of her neck– she takes a step back, but he trusts her to right herself. He’s slept, ate, and showered since they last spoke. But he hasn’t felt entirely righted until now.
“You didn’t text me anymore,” Elizabeth says. Her hand is pressed against his back. “I figure no news is good news, but…”
“He’s okay,” Akande says. He pulls back and kisses her. Brief at first, but that just makes him realize how much he missed her, and he deepens the kiss. Her hand slides down his waist.
“I’m glad,” she says, her lips just off his. “When can I meet him?”
Akande blinks. He takes a small step back. “You want to…?”
“That’s why I came, innit?” Elizabeth picks up the handle of her rolling suitcase and strides into his quarters. She plops down on his clean, white couch and puts her boots up on his glass coffee table. Akande doesn’t know what she’s done to him, that he’s charmed and not annoyed, that he wants to straddle her lap instead of push her feet away.
They need to talk, though. Or they should. Probably. Akande sits down beside her and contents himself with setting a hand on her thigh. “You don’t need to do anything you don’t want to,” he tells her. “You being here is enough.”
She waves her hand. “It’s all good. I want to.” Akande tilts his head a little and she narrows his eyes. “I’m not the spying, jealous, girlfriend, if that’s what you’re thinkin’.”
“I know you’re not. But I don’t know why you’d go out of your way to help someone you never met.”
Elizabeth is silent for a moment. She unties her tie and lets it hang around her neck. “He got dealt a shit hand,” she says finally. “Not the injury– he was lucky as fuck you were there for him. I mean that he was put there in the first place by his damn brother.”
She looks up at him with a fierce expression, like she’s daring him to question her. Akande doesn’t. He knows what Elizabeth cares about most, and he cares about her. He nods.
“Bet the brother comes up with some real bullshit to justify it to himself,” Elizabeth continues. “Bet he tells himself Shimada was askin’ for it. That he didn’t have a choice, that it hurts him just as bad. That some kind of behavior of his was bad enough, that their shit wasn’t unconditional anymore. Anything but the fact that deep down, he wanted to do it.”
Akande hands her a glass. She takes a long swig, and almost slams back down on the coffee table. She’s staring straight ahead.
“Everyone deserves a family,” Elizabeth says. “And the one Shimada grew up sounds like real horseshit. He deserves a new one.”
Akande nods quietly, and he kisses her. Elizabeth grabs a fistful of his shirt and he settles on her lap, bracketing her with his thighs. She runs her hand over his thick, hard pecs and shoulder and lets out a little growl.
“Missed you,” she says. “Love you.”
“I love you too,” Akande murmurs. And then they don’t talk much anymore.
-
Genji’s hair starts to grow back, a fine fuzz of black. Eizabeth buys bleach and dye and sponges it on to his head, and Akande thinks Talon cyberneticists swapped his panels to green and black mainly because they didn’t want him looking like a Christmas tree. Genji seems so pleased looking at himself in the mirror the next day. He laughs when Elizabeth nudges him and points out his body and hair are two different shades of green. Akande watches them and he can’t quite put his finger on why the two of them, like this, is making him so happy.
Genji’s done excellently in physical therapy, and that makes him happy. Elizabeth’s been able to visit and stay for a good chunk of time, and that makes him happy. Elizabeth and Genji get along well, and that makes him happy. But there’s something else there, he thinks. He figures part of it out when he hears Genji laugh.
Elizabeth has always had a pointed sense of humor, teasing Akande and whispering snarky comments about passersby. Akande recognizes the relief in Genji’s laughter. It’s the relief that someone sees you as strong enough to be pricked, as someone who can take it. Elizabeth pushes Genji, Akande realizes. In a way that he, for all his talk about conflict making you stronger, cannot. Maybe it’s because she wasn’t the one who pulled Genji from a burning building as Genji’s flesh bubbled and melted. She wasn’t the one who sat at his bedside and watched Genji try to move a body that wasn’t his own, not yet. Maybe it’s because Elizabeth just has more of a stomach than he does. Or maybe it’s because Elizabeth has never lost a limb.
Whatever it is, Akande can only be grateful. Because he never hears Genji laugh more than when Elizabeth ribs him. It makes him happy.
He figures out the rest of it when he and Genji are sparring. He started this as soon as Genji’s physical therapist gave him the go-ahead. Fighting again with prosthesis had helped Akande feel whole. And selfishly, Akande wants to relearn Genji’s body in some kind of way. And Genji easily agreed to sparring, and hasn’t done more than kiss him all the months he’s been here. So fighting it is.
Akande may not push Genji. But he doesn’t go easy on him. Akande wins, bout after bout, month after month. Genji never seems disappointed by it. Maybe just a little resigned. Akande thinks he’d much rather the disappointment.
But one day, as Akande moves in for a grapple, Genji sweeps him off his feet. Akande gets the wind knocked out of him as he falls to the mat and before he can get up Genji is crouched over him, an arm across his chest. Akande tries to push up against Genji’s forearm. Doesn’t budge.
Genji is staring down at him, unblinking. Akande can’t remember the last time he’s smiled this hard.
“That was incredible, Genji, I know the cybernetics made you more agile, but your positioning, it–“
Genji’s still staring down at him. He takes his arm off Akande’s chest and takes off the lower part of his mask. He’s panting heavily between warped, scarred lips. Akande is suddenly very aware of how full Genji’s pupils are, and that Genji is on top of him.
He puts his hand on Genji’s cheek. Genji leans down. They kiss, deeper than they have before, Genji is running his hand down his side, and–
“I’m sorry. I thought y’all were finishing up.”
Genji’s head jerks up, Akande tilts his back. Ashe is standing upside down in the doorway. “Just a bit of news from Hanamura,” she says. She’s watching them with a small smile. “Nothing major. Just thought you’d want to know. But don’t want you to drop what you’re doing for that.”
“We’ll be out soon,” Akande says.
“Take your time.” And Elizabeth leaves, shutting the door behind her.
Genji looks back down at him. Genji gets up almost immediately after, puts his mask back on, tells him, “I’d like to hear whatever news there is,” and starts to head out. But Akande saw the look in his eyes. No diminishment of lust from the intrusion, no fear or embarrassment. All entirely to the contrary.
That opens doors. And that makes Akande happy.
-
Akande and Elizabeth talk about it some. The best setting to broach the subject, the boundaries to set, how to make it clear to Genji nothing is expected of him. They’re both planners. They like a roadmap.
But they don’t get there. Instead, Genji is in their quarters after dinner, sitting on the couch while they eat their long-postponed dinners, making fun of them. Elizabeth is arguing with him, saying really, this isn’t that late a time to eat. Akande tells her come on now, it’s ten pm. They can own this. Genji laughs and kisses him.
Maybe it’s the wine Akande’s been drinking, maybe it’s how Genji has to put his hand on the back of his neck to pull him down to kiss him. But the kiss lingers, and Elizabeth is watching them when they pull apart. Genji looks embarrassed.
“Sorry,” he says.
“Don’t be.” Elizabeth takes a long drink. “I know you know I know, and don’t have any issue.” Genji nods. “Hell. If you wanted to kiss me, I sure as shit wouldn’t have any issue with that, either.”
It’s only because Akande knows Elizabeth so well, that he’s able to catch the bit of shock and regret that flashes in her eyes when that slips out. Genji certainly doesn’t notice. He’s too busy turning red and looking right past her shoulder.
“Only if you wanted to, you know,” Elizabeth says, quite casually. Genji clears his throat.
“I would like to. But.”
Elizabeth pushes up from the table. She tilts Genji’s chin up with one finger. She waits until his eyes focus on hers, and then she kisses him.
“Is this what you want?” Akande asks, when they break apart.
“Yeah,” Genji says. And his voice is breathy and he’s still just staring at Elizabeth but it’s the most sure Akande’s heard Genji be since the fire.
In his and Elizabeth prior discussions, Akande’s mind had always gone to what Elizabeth and Genji would look like together, about just sitting back and watching them. But as they stumble to the bedroom he’s pulling Genji tightly to him, kissing him fiercely with an arm wrapped around his waist. Elizabeth laughs softly and kisses the back of Genji’s neck, and Genji pulls back with a gasp.
“Sorry,” Genji says. “It’s been a while.”
Akande smiles. “It’s okay,” he says. But Genji stops him as he moves to undo the plating on his pelvis. Akande quickly removes his hands.
“You two– start without me,” Genji says. “I’m fine,” he adds, when Akande’s brow furrows. “I just– just give me a minute.”
If Elizabeth is concerned as well, she doesn’t show it. She pushes Akande onto the bed and climbs on to him as he lets her push him down. When he lips move from his mouth to his chest, Akande looks over her shoulder. Genji is sitting at the edge of the bed, staring at his lap.
Akande taps Elizabeth and sits up, shuffling over to Genji. His plating is off and his dick is in his hand. He’s moving his fist up and down, almost aimlessly. He’s still soft.
“We don’t have to do this,” Akande says quietly.
“I want to do this.”
“We don’t have to do this now.”
“I want to be able to do this,” Genji spits out through clenched teeth. His eyes are bright. “It’s just– a lot– and I don’t know–“
Elizabeth reaches over and cups his cheek. Genji stills as he stares at her. She crawls to the headboard and unbuttons her shirt, not quite putting on a show, but very clearly for an audience. She pulls off her pants and panties and undoes her bra and sits crosslegged and pats her thigh.
“Lie down,” she says. Wordlessly, Genji does, his head landing in her lap. She runs her fingers through his hair and looks up at Akande. He shakes himself out of his spell. She smiles at him when he settles between Genji’s legs.
It’s not that he’s opposed to topping, it’s just that when they had been together before, Genji had always topped. And frankly Akande had liked it that way. For a man who had grown up spoiled and coddled, Genji had always fucked like he had something to prove.
Which, Akande supposes, isn’t much different than the situation he finds himself in now. He puts a hand on the inside of each of Genji’s thighs and pushes gently, and Genji spreads quickly. Akande settles between his legs and Elizabeth passes him the lube. Genji looks up at her.
“Where do you want to be?” he asks. Elizabeth slides behind him, right up against the headboard. “You can sit on my face, or I can finger you, or–“
She kisses him and he quiets, sitting up a bit to meet her. “Later, sugar,” she says when they break apart. She sits crosslegged. After a moment, Genji lets his head fall into her lap. She pets his scarred temple. “Right now we’re taking care of you.”
They both look over at Akande at that, and he’s suddenly quite aware he hasn’t been doing a thing while he’s been watching them. He uncaps the lube, coats a finger. Genji sighs a little when he slips it inside of him.
Akande goes slowly. Takes his time, even when Genji’s breathing gets quick and shallow and his little grunts start sounding a lot like “please.” He stretches him out carefully, thoroughly, strokes his prostate every now and then. Elizabeth watches Genji, her sharp eyes cataloguing every reaction as Akande moves in and out, as she plays with his nipple. When Akande pulls his hand away, reaches for the lube again, she looks up at Genji’s fully erect cock and laughs a little.
“Look at that, sugar,” she says. “Knew you could do it.”
Genji turns and buries his head in her thigh, but Akande can see that he’s smiling. Akande leans down over him and kisses his chest, and Genji looks up at him.
“Are you ready?” Akande asks.
“Jesus Christ, Akande.” Genji’s pupils are blown wide and his chin has a bit of drool on it so any forcefulness he’s intending to convey is seriously undercut. “Yes, I’m ready. Jesus Christ, fuck me already–“
He’s cut off, his breath hitching, as Akande pulls back and lifts his hips up. Genji lets out his breath in one long sigh, Elizabeth petting his cheek, as Akande pushes into him.
Akande doesn’t last long. Nothing embarrassing, but he can’t last too long, not when Genji’s so tight and is finally letting himself be loud. Not when Elizabeth is meeting his gaze and slipping a hand underneath Genji’s head, to play with herself. He falls forward a little when he comes, and he can smell Elizabeth’s pussy on the hand she strokes his head with. He flicks his tongue out and she dips her fingers down for him to lick a little, before Genji starts squirming and he has to pull out, a trickle of cum leaking out as he does.
Genji’s holding his cock, making little gestures at stroking but mainly just squeezing the base. When he peels Genji’s fingers away, it only takes Akande a few strokes before Genji’s cumming all over the cybernetic plate on his stomach.
“You all taken care of?” Elizabeth asks Genji as he lies there, panting. When Genji nods, her smile turns a little dangerous and she says, “Good.” Then she moves out from under him. Genji’s head hits the duvet and Elizabeth sits on his face, staring right at Akande as she does.
She’s so good to him, giving him what he’d previously denied himself. Watching Genji grab at Elizabeth’s thighs and pull them further apart, the glimpses he gets of Genji’s tongue and her labia. Elizabeth’s eyes fluttering, even as she tries to keep them trained on Akande– it’s everything he wanted. She kisses Genji, after she moves off him, and Akande wonders if he kisses Elizabeth now, if he’ll be able to taste her on her lips.
But Genji’s eyes are half-closed now. His hair is mussed and his cheeks are flushed. He looks so good, so fucked, Akande can’t help but kiss him as he lies down next to him. On Genji’s other side, Elizabeth does the same.
“I don’t have to stay the night,” Genji says. His voice is already thick with sleep. “I can leave if you want me to.”
“Shut the fuck up,” Elizabeth says. “We want you to stay right here.”