Archive of Our Own ^beta

“You can’t keep being so reckless!”

“Reckless? It was logical!”

“How?! You were heavily injured and standing directly in the enemy’s line of fire. I couldn’t have saved you then. You could have died!“

“Who cares!”

Lena cautiously stepped off of the Orca, looking for a sign of anything that felt off. At first glance, Watchpoint: Gibraltar seemed fine. Peaceful, albeit a bit dull. But she knew better: the base’s too still, too quiet. Lena could feel the pressure that had fallen onto it for the last few days, the icy spike that had pierced its heart. Behind her, her teammates followed closely, each of them showing various degrees of fatigue and discomfort. They had just returned from what should had been a simple recon mission, in-and-out with a simple report afterward. Long story short, things went south rather quickly. One day turned into five in a blink of an eye. At the very least, no civilians were harmed in the crossfire, so that was a small comfort.

Mei was the only one that walked away unscathed, although she looked ready to drop dead from exhaustion. Lena and Lucio spotted various cuts and bruises across their bodies, nothing too serious but enough to warranted a trip to the medical bay. And Genji…

Any untrained eyes would say the cyborg ninja looked just fine. But Lena? She had known him for far too long to be deceived by his stoic attitude. There was a hitch in his right shoulder as he pulled himself up from his seat and an almost imperceptible limp when he walked. If left unchecked, the mechanical components could gradually tear themselves apart. Usually, this meant Genji had to be shipped straight to doctor Ziegler, but…

“Ugh, the mission report is gonna be hellish!” Lucio’s groan halted her train of thought “I don’t even want to imagine what Winston have to say!”

“Aw, don’t be such a downer!” Lena flashed her trademark grin to try lift up the mood “Winston won’t chew us out, trust me. He’s too nice to do that!”

“Maybe we can do the report later?” Mei was visibly swaying on her feet “I think I should return to my quarter…”

“Go. I will handle the mission report.” Lena's smile flattered as Genji replied “Lena, Lucio, take yourself to the medical bay.”

“…You can come too, you know?” her words made him paused, if only for a second.

“… I will, later.” And with that, he zoomed off into the distance.

Lena sighed as Lucio put a hand on her shoulder sympathetically. If only the ninja and the good doctor could make up already.

“…What?”

“I-I didn’t mean it like that-”

“Who cares? Who cares?!"

“Angela-”

“I do! I care! Just because you couldn’t give a damn about your life doesn’t mean everyone else don’t!”

“…”

“You want to give up? Fine. But what about me?!”

“…It’s all about you. Everything I did was for you.”

“I don’t need you to jump head first into your death like that! I want you to be here, with me!”

An hour later, Lena dragged her feet into the canteen, freshly bandaged and carrying with her an order to take it easy for the following week. Ha, as if. All Overwatch agents knew that in their line of works, they’ll be lucky to even get half of that amount of time to rest. Still, Angela let her off way easier than expected, so Lena owed it to her friend to at least try. With that in mind, she decided the first step in beginning her recovery was finding actual food to eat. More than half a week of swallowing MRE had made Lena nearly wept when she laid her eyes upon the plate of foods handed to her. She nearly knocked Brigitte over as she zipped to the nearest table, ready to absolutely devour her target. Lena was so focused, she didn’t even realize someone had snuck up behind her.

“Oh my god, Lena! slow down!” She definitely didn’t choke on her food when she heard Hana giggling and sitting down next to her. “The canteen won’t run out of food any time soon!”

“I’m not so sure about that.” Lena managed a weak laugh through her coughing fit “Just one more days of eating MRE and I might have surrendered already!”

“Ugh, no need to tell me about that.” The younger woman shuddered “Every time I gave it a try, it somehow became worse.”

She glanced at Lena’s arm “Been a rough few days, huh?”

“Yeah, it was.” Lena drank some water before she continued “The whole team got away intact, though, and that’s all I could ask for. Angela even gave me a week off, too!”

“An entire week?” Hana’s eyebrows shot to her forehead “Hope she didn’t chew your head off in the process, too.”

“…Had she been doing that?” Lena cautiously asked. Angela’s kindness and patience were legendary among her friends and coworkers. In all their time knowing each other, she had never once heard the doctor raised her voice… except her fight with Genji 2 weeks ago.

“I had one little accident trying to tune my mech and she forced me to give up 2 days for “further observation”! Two!” Hana threw her hands up in frustration “There wasn’t even a scratch, just a bit of oil stuck to my hair! I managed to get away early, but that’s still an entire day lost for nothing!”

“Did something similar happened to the others?” It seemed the problem had worsened since they gone away. The doctor had been cold before their mission, but to hear her temper slowly boiling up like this…

“Just ask any member you can think of, some of them told me their own horror story already. Half of us just start stealing medicine ourselves.” Lena cringed. Oh, it was bad.

“I think you got off easy because Genji returned.” Lena paused as the mech pilot speculated “I swear, I saw her legs gave out when he was confirmed to be coming back, but then she tried to act all professional and cool like she didn’t just terrorize the entire base for a week and it’s infuriating!”

“Don’t be too hard on them.” Lena explained gently “Their history run deep, deeper than any of us can really understand, frankly. What Genji said hurt Angela a lot and he knows that, and Angela copes with her feelings by making sure we’re all safe. Just… give them time, all right?”

“…Fine.” Hana huffed “After all, they can only give each other the cold shoulder for so long, right?”

Lena didn’t have the heart to answer her.

“Angela…”

“Just…forget it.”

Angela didn’t appear in the canteen at all, so Lena took it upon herself to made sure the doctor took care of herself. As she cautiously walked back to Angela’s quarter, hands weighted with a hefty bag of foods, Lena’s mind drifted back to the strained couple. She wasn’t afraid to admit that she genuinely screamed when she found out Genji and Angela finally made it official. The ninja was even happy enough that he accepted her bear hug without much complaint while Angela’s laughter rang like bells. Truth be told, Lena had been rooting for them for a long, long while. Genji’s frequent trips to the doctor’s quarter late at night were one of the worst kept secrets across the Swiss base, and she took every chance she had to tease him mercilessly about it.

After all is said and done, though, she was just overjoyed to see her friends happy. She’s one of the few who managed to cracked Genji’s stony exterior shortly before he departed, but even then, she could see the swirling storm tearing him apart from within. Witnessing him now, at peace with himself and content with Angela made Lena felt strangely proud. Because of that, it was disheartening to see them at odd with each other…

“-lucky it’s not severe enough to need a complete replacement.” Lena stopped, her hand an inch away from opening the door. Angela sounded clipped and she’s definitely not alone.

“Am I cleared for field duties, then?” Lena nearly dropped the bag she was holding. The voice with a hint of vibration. Lena shouldn’t be eavesdropping, she really shouldn’t. She carefully let the bag down and put her ear onto the door anyways.

“…You are.” Angela sighed “But be careful, those parts won’t be able to sustain much more damage. If you were to be incapacitated, it will take another week for a complete replacement.”

“I understand.” Lena held her breath, preparing to zip away at the first sign of Genji leaving. But there was a pregnant pause.

“Angela-” Genji wanted to say more, but Angela cut him off.

“Are there any more problems, Mr. Shimada?” Lena physically cringed at the last name usage.

“…Please, don’t overwork yourself.” was all he replied with. Lena took that as her cue to dash off. She hid around a nearby corner, hastily tried to cover the fact that she just pushed half her face onto Angela’s door. Satisfied with the result, she turned around just in time to bump into a startled Genji.

“Lena!” His green visor lit up briefly “It’s late at night. What are you doing here??”

“Oh, nothing much!” She reassured Genji with a quick smile “Doctor Ziegler didn’t come down for dinner, so I brought some here for her. You know, just looking out for a friend. Is she in there?”

“I…see.” Genji stared a hole through her bag “You don’t need to be in a hurry, then. She’s in her room at the moment.”

“Perfect! Thanks a lot, love!” Lena said smoothly, pretending like she didn’t know it already. As she was walking away, though, Genji called out behind her back.

“You’re a good friend, Lena. It’s good to know Angela have someone like you in her corner.” Lena’s eyes widen at the sudden compliment, but she quickly regained her composure.

“Aw, hush! You’re making me blush!” She hit his shoulder playfully, which managed to draw out a chuckle from him.

“But… don’t forget that I’m in your corner, too.” Her voice turned serious “Take care of yourself, you hear me? Don’t make me have to worried about both of you.” Hazel eyes stared through green visor for a second. Then Genji shook his head and chuckled.

“Noted.” It’s not a lot, but it was a start. Lena reluctantly let him go, slowly returning to the task at hand.

“Have you been assigned to the mission tomorrow?”

“It won’t be long. I’ll be back before you even know it.”

“…”

“I’ll come back. I promise.”

Standing in front of Angela’s door again, Genji’s compliment echoed in Lena’s mind, giving her a much-needed boost of confidence. She took a deep breath then knocked, getting an immediate response right on the first one.

“Come in.” The door slid open to a rather worrying sight. Angela was gluing her eyes to the monitor’s computer, not even bother looking up to greet her visitor. The room was pitch black, saved for the dim light coming from the monitor. Angela looked thin, dangerously so with darken bags under her eyes. Littered around her desk were thrown away cup of instant noodles and discarded water bottles. From just a glance, Lena could tell she wasn’t really reading in any information from the screen, either; her hands seemed to move across the keyboard automatically, typing away with a speed must had been gained from years of experience.

“Doctor Ziegler? You there?” The doctor jolted out of her daze under her touch. Her eyes widen when she actually saw who just came in.

“Lena?” The younger woman tried to answer but was immediately shut down when Angela started to scrutinize her.

“It was the bandage, wasn’t it? I knew it wasn’t tight enough-“ Angela rambled on, already reaching for the first aid kit she had under the desk. Lena tried to pull her hand away from her, but the doctor’s grip was impossibly strong.

“Doctor Ziegler-“

“Should have double checked it before letting you go. Verdammt-“

“Doctor-“

“Always have to mess it up. Why do I always mess it up-“

“Angela!” The doctor stopped dead in her track, her hand hover over Lena’s bandaged wound. She looked like a kicked puppy, which almost made Lena regretted yelling at her.

“I’m fine. It’s you I want to check up on.” She gently pried Angela’s hand off of hers. The other woman sat there, her brows furrowed in confusion.

“The others said you’ve been on edge for a while now, and you haven’t shown up in the canteen for the last few days, so I brought some foods for you.” Lena shook the bag in her other hand for emphasis “Want to take a break?”

“Oh. Oh!” Angela finally loosened her grip “Thank you, truly. You didn’t have to do so much, though, I have a meal here already.” She gestured to a plastic bag sat unopened on her bed. Who put it there, Lena could guess.

“Aw, really? I picked these up just for you!” The ghost of a smile passed through Angela’s face. Seeing that, Lena decided to push further “C’mon, doctor. Just a five-minute break, yeah?”

Lena’s puppy eyes and pleading tone eventually won over. The doctor’s sigh was monumental, but nonetheless, she moved away from the computer.

“Alright, just five minutes-” The doctor stood up, only for her knees to promptly buckled. Lena caught her with a yelp, barely avoided hitting and spilling the pile of trash on the desk.

“Woah! Careful there!” The younger woman slowly guided her friend over to the bed. “Don’t worry, I’ve got you.”

Angela plopped down the bed with a grimace, to which Lena quickly blurted out an apology. After making sure she wouldn’t faint under her watch, Lena turned her attention over to the mysterious bag. Opening it revealed a carefully packaged green lunch box with a disposable spoon, inside of which was…

“Rice congee.” Lena breathed out “Of course.” She handed the box to Angela, whose eyes flickered in recognition of the content inside.

“You need to take care of yourself first before worrying about others, love.” Angela tried to glare at her, but Lena stood her ground and simply stared back. Eventually, the other woman gave in. She took a small spoonful of the congee and her eyes immediately welled up, but no tears fell out.

“It’s warm.” Lena just nodded in response. The two women sat there in silence, one keeping watch while the other slowly finishing her first real meal in days. After a while, Lena started to get anxious so she resorted to cleaning Angela’s desk for her. It gave her an easy distraction from the unnamed tension in the room, even if she was just going through the motions.

Halfway through the meal, Angela spoke up. “I was so angry.”

“I know.” Lena replied, waiting for her to continue.

“And I was so afraid, too. Genji left and I didn’t even say goodbye, not a single word. Then we lost contact for nearly a week and all I got were memories of the last things I said to him, with the regret of what I could have said instead.” The doctor continued, fingers tapping along the side of the box.

“The entire time we were trapped in enemy’s territory, getting back to you were the one priority he had in mind, too.” Lena offered what she hoped would be a reassurance.

“Now he’s here and all of a sudden I don’t know what to do.” Tears shone again in Angela’s eyes and this time, it looked like they might fall for real “A part of me just want to throw myself at him, another part just want to scream in his face and never see him again. What’s wrong with me?”

“Hey, look at me.” Lena wasted no time to drop what she was doing and comfort her friend “Nothing’s wrong with you, you hear me? Absolutely nothing. If anybody got a problem with that, you tell me and I’ll go kick their arses myself.”

“Then why am I so at odd at myself?” Lena sighed upon hearing the question.

“Because you’re in love.” Angela froze and stared at the younger woman. She could do nothing but offered a sad smile.

“You’re in love and it the best and worst feeling you’ve ever got.” Lena explained simply “Because even with your heart of gold, you’ve never cared for someone so deeply before and it’s both exhilarating and frightening. That’s nothing strange, love. That’s just life.”

Lena set the lunch box aside and took Angela’s hands into her own “You weren’t wrong for worrying about him and Genji wasn’t wrong for protecting you, either. Both of you are willing to risk everything for the other, it’s just a matter of time before it all come to a head. And as someone who has been through this before, I can tell you the fear and doubt will never really goes away, but you will eventually learn to live with it.”

“Someone has been through this before, huh?” Angela cocked an eyebrow.

“Yeah, Emily and I went through a few of these conversations before.” Lena closed her eyes “It wasn’t easy but eventually, we got through it together. Something tells me you guys would, too.”

“…I can’t afford to lose him.” Angela whispered.

“I bet the same goes for him, too.” Lena squeezed her hands sympathetically “So stop kicking yourself for it, okay? He’s here now, you’ll have plenty of time to talk it out.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. Thank you.” Lena beamed and gave the doctor a tight hug, one she reciprocated with just as fiercely.

“Now, you finish your food then get some rest, okay?” Angela rolled her eyes, which just made Lena smiled harder “I’m serious! You better get some sleep so you can rip him a new one tomorrow. That’s doctor order, are we clear?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Lena, being the mature adult that she was, answered the other woman’s sarcasm by sticking out her tongue. As she was taking out the massive bag of garbage, though, Angela called her back one more time.

“Wait. If you see Genji, would you mind telling him to see me here first thing in the morning? I…I’m ready now.” There’s a look of determination in Angela’s eyes.

“You betcha.” Luckily, Lena already had an idea where the ninja could be.

There was a new attack: Null Sector had targeted Berlin and they were bringing heavy artilleries. Lena was sent to fend them off with Brigitte, Angela and Genji. They walked straight into an ambush because of course Null Sector had been anticipating them. Once she and Brigitte got separated from the others, things took a turn for the worse. Lena eventually lost one of her guns and earned a bruised rib. Her chronal accelerator gave out, too, leaving her with no other option than to let Brigitte do all the heavy work. Winston called in already, saying that back up will arrived soon, but Lena’s hope was turning into desperation with each passing minute.

Lena spotted Genji and Angela from across the battlefield, struggling to regroup with them. Her heart sank when she realized Angela’s staff was broken, their only option for healing now unavailable. Genji right arm swing uselessly against his side, but he was undeterred by it. She and Brigitte tried to meet them halfway, but with one limping and another have to act as support, their pace was as slow as snails.

Suddenly, an omnic appeared from the smoke with a machine gun and started open fire. Brigitte barely deployed her shield in time to cover the two of them and can only hold her ground, not moving an inch forward. Lena watched in horror as Genji pushed Angela out of the way to deflect the rain of lead away. He managed to send a bullet back to the enemy, stunning it temporary. Angela was shouting, begging him to retreat, but he could only move so much: a bullet had managed to tear through his right thigh. He barely had enough energy to stand, let alone run.

The omnic were rebooting fast, too fast. Where the hell was back up? Her comm suddenly pinged: the calvary was second away from their location. Please, Lena prayed. Please make it in time.

The omnic raised its arm and shot. Genji swung his blade. Angela screamed. Seconds stretched into eternity.

Lena was frozen as Genji’s head snapped backward; a bullet lodged in his forehead plate.

Lena walked in on Genji demolishing the training bots in the practice range. Even back when she was just a cadet training with Winston and Angela, Lena was mesmerized by the way Genji fought. There was a reason Overwatch kept tap on him back in the day, wanting to recruit him due to his skills and connection to the Shimada clan. Once Genji got his cybernetic body, those skills were boosted to near supernatural level.

Right now, Lena watched as he disarmed a bot with one swing of his wakizashi then crossed the room to decapitated another in only a few seconds. Genji had always been heralded as one of the best field agents in Overwatch and it showed. One after another, the targets fell under Genji’s blade. Lena almost cheered as he deflected a dozens of rounds shot at him straight back to a training bot, reducing it to a heap of broken wire and metal. He paused for a moment to look at the last bot, stripped of its weapon and entirely defenseless. Needless to say, he made quick work of it.

“That. Was. Amazing!” Lena hopped into the range and over to Genji. Always being one with a dramatic flair to him, he was striking a pose while sheathing his wakizashi, which almost made Lena giggled. The man whipped around, clearly surprised that he had an audience.

“Thank you. It wasn’t much.” Genji relaxed once he realized who was talking. He bowed his head like he was an actor and Lena burst into laughter this time. She could swear that he chuckled a bit, too.

“I’m serious!” Lena punched Genji’s shoulder, to which the man didn’t even have the decency to fake being hurt “The way you deflect the bullets? Pure magic, I’m telling you!”

“Just discipline and training, after all.” Genji shrugged, then paused under Lena flat stare “And a bit of cybernetic enhancement, of course.”

“Of course.” Lena repeated. She looked around, taking in the absolute havoc Genji had brought to the range. Nearly half of the total training bots, or what’s left of them, lied littered on the ground. The odd of them being salvageable wouldn’t be too high, Winston wouldn’t be too happy about having to replace all of them at once.

“You’ve been at this for a while, huh?” Genji stood still like a rock, having no response to her inquisition “Can’t sleep?”

“I don’t need more than two hours of sleep.” He replied automatically. That didn’t answer her question.

“That’s still two hours of sleep you’re missing.” Lena crossed her arms, not letting Genji off the hook so easily. Once she saw Genji wouldn’t budge, she hung her head and signed.

“All right then, keep your secret.” She held a finger up. “There’s one more thing I got to ask you, though.” Genji tensed up, waiting to hear whatever strange request she had in mind.

“Wanna be my training partner for a round?” Whatever Genji had imagined, Lena could tell it wasn’t that “I couldn’t sleep, either, and we both know the training bots aren’t enough for your paygrade.”

“…Very well. I accept your challenge.” Genji finally relented. Lena eagerly got into position; her guns holstered on both side of her hips. Genji unsheathed his sword and pointed at her “You know I’m not going easy on you, right?”

“Who do you think I am?” Lena grinned, then whipped out her gun and shot. As expected, Genji dodged all of them easily. He tried to get in close to disarmed her, but she dashed away before his blade could even touch her. Lena had always like to rub in the fact that she was the only one who could one up Genji in term of speed. They continued like that for a while, evading each other and occasionally trading blows.

Lena eventually slowed down, holding her gun in an X pattern to block a downward slash from Genji. As they struggled, she took her chance to casually drop the bomb on him.

“Angela wanted to talk to you tomorrow morning.” Genji’s visor flashed and his grip faltered for a brief second. That was all Lena needed to knock his blade out of his hand and kick him away. She stood up, winded but still got the upper hand and threw her opponent a taunting smile.

“What happened? Are you slipping from your old age?” Genji just grunted in response. He picked up his sword and readied himself again.

“Did she tell you anything else?’ His voice was calm, but his body language was anything but.

“Why don’t you come here and find out?” Lena barely finished that sentence before he lunged at her again. This time, the sound of his blade clashed again her guns were almost deafening. She jumped back and tried to put more distance between them, but Genji foresaw it and threw out shuriken to block her. Lena yelped as the shuriken grazed her hair and sunk into the wall far behind her. From the corner of her eye, she caught the glint of his green blade aiming for her neck. With the katana in his hand, Genji could slice through metal if he’s serious, and he’s sure as hell not in a joking mood right now.

She dodged it just barely in time, her mind racing a thousand miles an hour. Okay, maybe riling Genji up was a slight overstep. Despite that, Lena wasn’t one to give up easily. Running so fast that even Genji’s optic enhancement had trouble catching up, Lena trapped him in a vortex and unloaded her guns on him, hoping that the barrage of gunfire would be enough to throw him off. That proved to be a fatal mistake. Genji dodged and weaved his way through the gunfire, then with a single precise strike, deflected a bullet back to her. She was moving too fast, the sheer momentum wouldn’t let her stop and guide her face straight to the bullet. Without any other option, she activated her recall. She flung backward for mere seconds, but by the time it was done, she found herself on the floor, eyes staring at the tip of Genji’s katana.

“Do you yield?” They both know the answer to that question.

“All right, all right, you got me.” Lena put her weapons away and admit defeat. Genji helped her get back on her feet quickly, he almost seemed apologetic about the way he beat her.

“Angela said your congee was good.” Lena said more sincerely this time. She waited as the cyborg ninja stared a hole through her.

“She ate it?” Something in Lena’s heart cracked at how vulnerable Genji sounded.

“I had to sweet talk her into doing it,” Lena explained “She actually said it was warm, but in my book? That sounded like a compliment to me.” Genji seemed like he didn’t know what to do with his body.

“C’mon, let’s find somewhere else to sit first, yeah?” Lena motioned for Genji to follow, to which he complied wordlessly.

They found a spot outside, facing the ocean. Genji sat legs crossed while Lena let hers dangling over the cliff. The night was chilly, but after their sparing match, Lena more than welcomed the cool gusts of winds. She told Genji what happened in Angela’s room and the ninja looked like he drank in every word she said, even though the story itself wasn’t all that eventful.

“…And then I left to find you.” She concluded “That’s all of it, I guess.”

“Thank you, for looking out for Angela.” Genji hesitated before bowing his head again “And…I am sorry for forcing you into this position.” Lena had to resisted the urge to smack the man on top of his head.

“What did I tell you?” Lena glared, though her heart wasn’t completely in it “I was just looking out of my friends. If you haven’t noticed by now, that included you, too.”

“You didn’t think what I did was wrong?” Genji looked at her curiously.

“For standing your ground? Buying us time? I would have done the same thing if I was in your shoes.” There wasn’t a hint of doubt in Lena’s voice.

“I meant what I said.” Genji chuckled humorlessly “There’s no need to pretend. We were shouting loud enough for half the base to hear.”

“…You could have worded what you said better.” Lena confessed.

“I don’t want to die.” Genji said simply. Even though his face was hidden behind the silver visor, Lena thought he looked so much more tired than he ever should be “If anything, it was the opposite. I was fighting out of a desperation to keep living. There is too much for me to give up on now.”

“But in that moment, there were a choice between me and her. I just chose her. Even if there were a second chance, it would still be her.” What could Lena say to that?

“Maybe Angela doesn’t want to have to choose at all.”

“Neither do I.” Genji’s words hung heavily in the air.

“But putting Angela on the spot like that was still wrong.” Genji chucked a pebble into the vast ocean below “I don’t know what to say to her now. An apology’s not enough for what I’ve done to Angela.”

“Well, it is for a start.” There’s a hint of exasperation in Lena’s voice “Come on! You’re really telling me you’re that bad with words, Mr. Former-Playboy?” That last sentence startled Genji into laughter.

“I’d like to put emphasis on the word former, please.” Genji joked back, albeit weakly.

“Point still stands.” Lena scoffed “Look, she wants to talk and you want to say sorry. Even if you did it poorly, that’s still better than tiptoeing around each other, no? How are you going to patch it up if you don’t even bother to try?”

Genji was staring at her again “…Sometimes, I wonder which one of us is the older one.”

“Excuse you!” Lena elbowed the ninja “I’m wise, not old!”

“Of course, of course.” Genji laughed and held his hands up in surrender. Lena huffed, but she decided to let it go…this time.

“Fine, I’m going to bed now.” She stood up and started walking back inside, but not before telling Genji one last time “Do whatever you want, just talk to Angela. I want to see you lovebirds reconciled by the next day, understand?”

She heard Genji called out from behind her “Roger that. It’s like you said: About time I bring out my inner playboy charm!” Against her best effort, Lena felt the corner of her mouth turned upward.

The first thing that Angela smelt in the morning was the smell of rice congee. As she cracked her eyes open, her vision was filled with neon green light. She slowly looked up, expecting to be greeted with a cold, hard, silver faceplate . Instead, she saw hazel eyes brimming with love and uncertainty. Genji stood there, holding a lunch box like it was an offering to an angry god.

They said sorry at the same time, their voice overlapped and echoed through the small living quarter. He barely put the lunch box aside in time for her to pull him into her bed, holding onto him like a lifeline. The dam broke and Angela sobbed her heart out in Genji’s arm. They talked for a long while, even after Genji coaxed Angela out of bed to eat breakfast. The congee tasted even better than the one he made last night. She almost chocked herself laughing when Genji told her how Lena convinced him to “pull out his inner playboy charm”.

While he waited for her to go freshen herself up, Angela could see the smile hanging from his face as his eyes followed her around. She told him as such and his smile only grew wider. Something about it felt just right.

She asked him with a sly grin when was he about to use his playboy charm on her. Her voice was like a command, and Genji couldn’t obey faster if he tried.

When she and Genji stumbled out of the room later, lips bruised and hearts full, they ran headfirst into Lena. She gave them a thumb up with a face-splitting grin, no doubt enjoying how embarrassed Genji looked. Even as Genji had to fended off the relentless teasing from the younger pilot, his hand remained constantly enveloped hers, giving Angela a much-needed reassurance that he’s there to stay. If Lena noticed it, she didn’t make any comment at all.