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“So, this is it, then?” Genji's brow raises from behind that of his metal face plate. He hears Hana scoff loudly, young face scrunching like a sour raisin.
“This is it? We're like, a huge deal , you know.”
He chuckles. “Overwatch is also like, a huge deal. I was a part of that.”
His eyes gaze over the crowd in front of him. Cole's team. It feels bizarre to say. Cole never seemed like he was going to hang around- and from the talks he had in private with the others he wasn't so sure he was going to answer the recall. But even still, here he was. Functioning as something of a commander. It leaves a weird coating on his tongue, sitting heavy in the back of his mouth. Weighted like lead flavoured blood, unnerving and not quite right. Though the cyborg had gotten more than used to a few bloodied tongue bites in his lifetime.
Fareeha snorts, leaning forward to rest the tip of her chin upon her glove. “I think you mean Blackwatch. The cringy younger brother institute of overwatch.”
He feigns offence, briefly. “There was nothing cringy about us. We killed a lot of people, Fareeha. You of all people should know that.”
He tries not to let the simmer of anger, of discontent fizzle on his voice. He doesn't want the newbloods to have that notion going in - that the people here were killers just for the sake of it, though there's no sense in hiding the true nature of the work they once went through with.
Distantly, he remembers the sound of shattering glass. A single shot, a single scream.
“... how do you feel about it?”
“About what?” he answers the younger woman's question with a new film of stagnant normality.
“About, you know-” She rolls her hand at the wrist, like she's trying to recall it, though the raise of her brow and the slight purse of her lips makes it clear she hasn't forgotten anything. “Working with Cassidy again.”
The question leads Baptiste back into the conversation, sitting up against the back of his chair. He leans forward in that sort of zealous way Genji is already finding to be his normal. A low laugh blooms in his throat. “Am I catching a vibe? Of something more? Past lovers maybe, Agent Shimada?" His tone is playful, but there's no questioning the question being just that. A term spoke with a desire for an answer.
Genji doesn't know what his answer is, but he leads with one thing first, trying to laugh through his syllables. “We were not lovers, not really. Merely teenagers in - strange company. Everyone has needs.”
Hana sticks out her tongue. “Ew, gross. Cassidy is my boss. Don't talk about him like that.”
Zarya pipes up after her long bout of silence , an unbothered tone to her words. “You are a brave, fierce woman. You have no boss.”
Hana points. “Yes,” She says, words enthusiastic and arching. “You're so right, Zarya.”
“When isn't she?” Bap offers a fistpump to the power lifter. Fareeha blocks it with her hand.
“No. Don't instigate, we do have a boss. It's just not Cole. And you listen to your bosses.”
Zarya sighs and shakes her head. There's something sweetly ridiculous about the entire group, so ragtag and varied. It's very Cassidy. He can see why he likes them, at any rate.
“... So, is your boss/not boss going to show up any time soon?”
He braces his elbows to the table. Hana hums.
“I dunno. Usually he's only a little late. This is a bit late.”
A jolt of antsyness overtakes Genji, and he stands up.
“Then I'll see to wrangling the cowman.” He assures softly.
“I'd check the kitchen, by the coffee maker” Bap calls as he descends into the hallway.
The building was…. Unfamiliar. Since the fire and talon rain down the team was left largely without somewhere to go, so after boarding one of the ships out and fleeing out to Busan's Meka base, courtesy of DVAs help.
It was a safe haven during such a complicated time in their history, and very well secured. Talon's threat stays imminent, but the chance of them being found in say the coming week is fairly low. A bit of assurance in a time when everyone is desperate for it. Something good.
Baptiste's guess rings true as Genji comes into the kitchen, finding the cowboy leaned up on the meat of his arm against the cool counter housing the coffee machine and electric toaster. His hat is tipped low down on his head, forced down his brown tasselled hair.
Genji can't help but feel a little tug. A spark of butterflies pulling in his chest and down his stomach in a twisting knot. A soft pull of familiarity.
He remembers their first meeting. After years . Standing in Gibraltar HQ shoulder to shoulder as Winston talked through the minutes. He’d changed, a bit, but not that much. At least not physically. The primary change was a prosthetic limb, across his right hand. He swallows just a bit, hard at the thought. He doesn't like imagining what twisted things Cassidy happened into over the years apart.
He digs his heels a bit, just enough to make his feet echo. Cole's head snaps up, almost jumping off the back of his head. He turns on the heel of his cowboy boots.
“Shimada,” He greets, breathing a whisper. Genji can feel a heat of worry flush across his cheeks under the metal of his suit. He doesn't look so good. The usual healthy tan and flush biting across the apples of his cheeks is fairly absent, replaced by a pallor. His eyes seem more sunk under his dark furrowed brows, lost in the shade of his hat and the sickness of his under eyes tone.
“Cassidy.” He keeps his tone absent of pressure.
“Hey sunshine,” his tone rumbles through his chest. He shifts awkwardly, flannel shirt rumpled and tucked out weird from his belt. Still the same dorky one Reyes bought him.
“... You look like you haven’t slept in a while.”
He laughs. Genji had basked in that sound earlier in his life. Like a light shining down in a heavenly ray. His laugh was warm, and toasted, coming quickly and easy to the man across from him like the flow of the Mogami river, bustling and smooth. It came out like smooth curls of chocolate, like the ones plated over desserts far fancier than anything about the modest cowboy he knows but never unappreciated as it arrives. A special treat, and as terrible as it feels to admit, exceedingly rare.
“Maybe I haven't, Ninja man.”
“Ahoka, Cole. You jest, but I am… worried about you. How long has it been since I've seen you?”
“Far longer than I'm happy with.”
“And now as you appear to me you look so…”
“Roguishly good looking? Attractive? Country?”
He scoffs in the back of his throat. “Cassidy.”
He gives a fox-like grin. “Whut?”
Genji reaches a cautious hand out to his chest , and settles it across the heat of his bust, holding it there square against his heart.
“You don't look well” He barely notices how low and softly he whispers the words. The taller man looks down on him but not in shame or superiority. The same way you would a beautiful animal sitting in the moonlight. He swallows- audibly.
“...I … aint feeling so well, but we got bigger things to focus on.”
“Why haven't you gone to see Angela?" He hisses through his teeth. “Cassidy. Seriously? We have doctors here-”
“Yeah, yeah, gen, but it aint exactly like that!”
“Then what is it like? You are not well and you are hiding it, that puts us at a greater disadvantage than anything else! Oh- sometimes I swear Cole I would very much like to-”
“Genji. Calm yourself. Okay? I aint. Ill , persay.”
“Then what are you?”
He rubs his forehead. “S just a bad migraine and mixed with a case of the blues.”
Genji purses his lips from behind his mask.
“Are you sure?”
“Postive”
Genji sighs, the lack of truth under his words evident. But he doesn't bother with it yet.
“Alright. Then off you get to your meeting. I’ll follow you in with coffee.”
He chuckles low and hearty. “Aint you just a work wife?” he croons.
“Do not push your luck, Cole."
“Alright. But you do go ahead and push two sugars into my drink.”
Genji rolls his eyes. “What sort of ‘work wife’ would I be if I couldn't make coffee the way you like?”
“You’d prolly be Angela!”
Genji listens to the retreat of swinging boot spurs for a minute. He sighs and shakes his head, something slightly uneasy coming over him. He turns back to the counter, and removes the pot from under the maker. He draws out the glass container and searches around for embarrassingly long trying to find mugs. For a moment, he scans the cabinets for the yellow mug with tiny brown and white horses on it that Cassidy was prone to using. It was only with the furrow of his brow that he realised that it wasn't there. That it hadn't been in a long time.
Something about explosions consistently ruining their respective slices of peace back then and now.
He settles on a white mug with a sort of tan speckled rim around its wider bottom portion- meant to look artsy- or at least giving artsy a try. He follows that up with a second identical mug and settles them both on the counter. He fills his own with ⅔ milk and ⅓ coffee- far too much milk acording to almost everyone else in the building but just how he liked it. Coles fills to the top with steaming black coffee and puts in two sugar cubes from a tiny glass jar just big enough to fit his pointer and thumb into. Thank you cybernetic hands.
Each gets a light stir before he lifts them from the counter, walking with grace and poise. He slips back into the stolen MEKA meeting room, watching the new bloods in their sprawled positions. Hana is by far the most comfortable in the room, sprawled across a chair she must have sat in before, relaxing. Pharah’s posture is as straight as normal, sitting close to the front of the rounded table. Bap is leaned on folded arms, watching carefully, though his eyes look down to skim a notification on his phone every so often. Zarya has one hand on the table and the other sat comfortably on her thigh as she stares off into the board. Cassidy is talking in a rusted out of practice way- clearly not used to talking as much as he's been these past few weeks. He's looking worse- a shade or two paler in skin, a dark ring starting to form on the underside of his sleeves across the pit of the arm. There's the slightest tremour to his flesh hand, stirring in the nerves and under his skin. Genji's stomach twists into a knot. Or at least what little there is left of his stomach.
He moves over to the cowboy wordlessly, shutting the heavy metal door and meeting his trembling fingers. Cole's words break apart like a gingersnap- faltering and crumbly as he mumbles through the sentence he was finishing. He gives a tired grin that turns the smile lines on his face into little triangle dips- framing his thinner lips and small grin.
“Thank you,” He stops his words, keeping the casual nicknames he's used to off of his tongue. Genji notices, but he doesn't for a moment feel bad about it. He knows why he purposefully keeps away from the tenderness , given the current company and their… prying sort of behaviours.
Genji settles into a chair. In reality , he should be in one of the other meeting rooms. With tracer and Winston's group, probably. But he doesn't mind missing this one. The little room in this particular company feels like a safe spot. The darker underbelly of a stagnant rock. Perfect to hide himself away in, if just for a little while.
Cole doesn't feel the same. It's clear, to the way he watches the door. Studying it, waiting for it to fly open. His hands never rest as he talks, or at least not far. Always raised at the waist, like he's ready for his wrist to brush on the edge of his holster. Genji distantly wonders how long it had been since Cassidy had been without a holster- without a weapon.
Sometimes he wonders how long it's been since he hasn't been dressed like that. In cowboy clothes. Far too afraid of showing his truth.
Despite Genji's body being primarily metal now, thanks to his master's teachings, he feels more himself. Free from the clan he is now left largely himself. And with time, he's grown more comfortable with that. It isn't perfect, but he's aware that he is both the man in the metal and everything beyond it.
Cassidy used to dress normal. On the weekends. The first time he’d seen it- in his youth- he’d laughed a little. At the ripped boot cut jeans and the busted up henly shirts. At the trucker hats with nonsense country slang and the fake names he’d use when going anywhere. The stylings of “Joel Morricone” or “Cinder McGraw" or other silly names he’d always pull from his pocket at the drop of a (cowboy) hat. It was ridiculous. But it was him.
The cowboy persona IS Cassidy. At least in some regard. He does love western movies - smoking and drinking and justice. He is a cowboy. But he's also Cole.
It seems as the days loom longer and farther into their age, he becomes more ashamed of that.
Genji- no longer the sparrow. No longer the monster. No longer the spirit or the legacy.
And Cassidy. No longer the orphan or the funny man. Just the soldier, the serape and the dwindling cigar.
Just the dreams of a sunset.
Genji wonders if he's in that sunset dream, or if he's what Cassidy is so desperate to ride away from after all.
His thoughts are stirred, shaken away as the door swings open. Cole flinches, hands raising to nothing, fumbling after a gun that isn't quite there. Genji would be a liar if he said his own hands didn't reach for his arms.
Brig and one of the new recruits- anran- stand in the doorway. The younger of the two- the fire wielder- looks award, but Brig just looks excited. She leans forward on her feet, speaking loudly.
“Come on guys. Winston is ending meetings early. I think Tracer convinced some of the MEKA squad to bust out some games. We all deserve a chill day after Gibraltar happened.” She offers a genuine smile. Anran gives an earnest thumbs up. “M-me and Wuyang brought a few things from xiou.”
Hana gasps, standing quickly. “Yess! Brig thank you for saving me.”
“Im pretty sure she was about to die from boredom." Bap snorts, leaning back in his chair.
Pharah stands up, collecting the meeting notes.
“Ive got something I need to handle first.”
“Calling your mother again?” Zarya asks, tone not unkind in any way. Still, the soldiers face flushes.
“Very observant.”
They pool out in a quick set of movements. Bap claps Cassidy on the back once , hard. The cowboy visibly shivers as he follows out, walking tight together, like just breathing would take up space. Genji catches up to him as he moves down the hall, one hand braced on the wall.
Brig turns her head.
“You coming , Cassidy?"
“Y- yeah. M just fixin to see the rooms is all.”
Genji sees the furrow in her brow. Just as much as he's worried, too, he knows that Cassidy would only double down if he knew someone else was watching him.
“Cass had something he wanted me to see. Ex blackwatch secret.” He does a shush motion, and pats Cass's back in a seemingly friendly way. He feels a tremble.
“Right , partner?”
Cassidy laughs on the edge of his breath. “Right. Old trade secret. New bloods- be good, ya hear?”
“Yes sir.” Baptiste salutes across his forehead. Genji catches his eyes. The mercenary winks.
The group splits apart. Genji watches the others move. Cassidy doesn't stop to sell his act, continuing to amble down the way, balanced against the wall and swaying slightly in his walk. Genji turns to support him. He can't keep the scolding out of his voice.
“Lying cowboy.”
“Sneaky Ninja.” He mutters through his teeth.
Genji slides a hand across his chest, moving to support him under the shoulder. His hand sensors detect moisture. He cringes.
“Eww! Cole, you are all sweaty!”
“I can ‘t exactly help it, genji.”
“I go on far more physical missions than you and I have NEVER once sweated through a shirt like this.”
“That's because you only have one damned armpit! Can you even sweat , cyborg boy?”
He can't help but laugh. His face warms from the harsh breath clouding under the metal.
“Yes, yes, I can sweat.”
“You’ll have to prove it to me sometime, then.”
The innuendo doesn't slip by genji, but he chooses to ignore it. He smacks a hand across the front of Cassidy's forehead. The cowboy winces, suntanned nose scrunching up into little lines.
“You have a fever.”
“Low grade.” he huffs. “Shot Angie a message while you were out on coffee. Thank you , by the way. “
“What did the doctor say, then?”
He hesitates on his next words, jaw clicking open a beat.
“Psychogenic fever.” he pulls off his hat, running a hand through his hair, wincing at each little motion. “Response to-stress in the migraines I get.”
Cassidy had headaches like this as long as genji had known him. From what he overheard from Moira they were a result of countless explosions and other health complications the cowboy had given himself. Something or other about his eye that Genji just can't find in the back of his brain.
Regardless, he had them back in Blackwatch, too. Every so often for three or so days at a time, he’d walk around looking more ridiculous than normal- huddled up in a blanket with a cowboy hat AND aviators to block out the light.
Genji leads him down to the transformed barracks at the lowest part of MEKA’s HQ, to one of the free beads. The place was sparse. Wall suspended beds in rows of four and stacks of three. He settles Cassidy down in the far corner on one of the beds. The cowboy groans into his hand. There's an orange pill bottle on one of the side tables. His feet clang on the cold floor as he goes and picks it up. There's a note from angela- talking about refraining from caffeine. Genji leans over Cassidy.
“You made me your accomplice.”
“Eh?”
“You made me your accomplice in coffee crimes.”
The cowboy puts two and two together quickly, and snorts though it looks like it hurts. “Oh no. Angie's gonna git us both.”
Genji makes a cheeky face he can't see.
“Are you seriously doubting her?”
“No. No I'm not.”
“Alright, cowboy, medication time.”
Genji passes the pill bottle over with bottled water. Cassidy twists the lid off between his thumb and pointer, popping off the plastic seal. He wets his lips and mouth first before taking two pills from the little orange container with a chasing sip. He swallows hard, and then moves to lay back down.
“Oh , no you don't.”
He lets out a groan. “Shimada. I'm tired.”
“You smell terrible. And you're going to act worse tomorrow if you do not get clean now. I know you.”
He sighs. “I ain't in any condition to shower right now, Ji.”
“I never said you were going to take a shower. I said you were going to get clean.”
“Going to hose me off like a hoverbike?”
“If you don't start moving, I will.”
He groans. He kicks off his boots like a fussy child before standing up on slightly tattered (barf) socks. He groans, rubbing his head, glaring at the fluorescents.
“... I'll get the lights for you in the bathroom. Just come on.” He drags the cowboy by the wrist. He moves down the room to the bathroom. It's a tight crowded thing- not used for actual bathing or showering because it's a compound. Cassidy amuses himself with his own thoughts, turning to look at Genji. “I aint washing up in the sink.”
“I’d expected you to suggest the toilet bowl.”
“Im to tired to make my funny make sense.”
He laughs. Genji presses on his shoulders.
“Sit down on the ground.”
“Really treatin’ me to five whole stars, eh?”
“You're far too poor to be sassy, Cole. It's beneath you.”
He chuckles into his hand. Genji stretches, and exits the room for just a moment. He goes back to the kitchen area. In his search for mugs he had found an exceptionally large pot , and it had given him an idea. He fills it up, and then searches the remaining unsearched cabinets for a hand cloth. He finds one. He tugs the overfull pot behind himself back through the maze of rooms to his companion. He sits onto his knees.
“Take off your shirt.”
“Eh?”
Genji breathes through his nose. “I figured you would not enjoy being in a crowded bio room- with the lights and noise and all. But I don't want you to go to bed uncomfortable.” He dunks the cloth into the water.
Cassidy fumbles his thumbs over the buttons of his shirt, slowly peeling it off of his warm body. His lips press into a line, dark brown eyes softening tender.
“Don't have to do that.”
“You didn't ask. I just wanted to.”
He shuts his eyes. Genji slides his hand up the wall just enough to flicker off the light. He illuminates it just fine with his glowing prosthetics.
He dunks the cloth again, before ringing it. Cassidy keeps his eyes shut.
“What are you doing for soap?”
He smirks.
“Hotel bar stuff they keep in commissary."
He laughs. “Not the worst bath I've ever taken. Did I ever tell ya about my weekend in Tucson?"
“I could always listen a second time.”
Cole swallows. Genji rakes the little white cloth across his figure, being careful with pressuring against scar tissue.
“Keep talking like that and you might get yourself stuck in a story you don't care about hearing."
“Hmm. I can't remember any time I was mean about the stories you tell.”
"You weren't all that enthused about my training stories.”
Genji feels his cheeks warm. “You told everyone about me tripping on my sword!”
“It happened, didn't it?”
He scoffs. “Tell me about your weekend in Tuscon, Cowman.”
Genji listens to the quiet droll of Cassidy's story telling voice. The sound has grown huskier between the meeting and now, lower on his breath. He mumbles the names of southern nothings- speaking on gangs and shoot outs as casually and promptly as one might the weather. Genji raises his arms, wiping over sweat-stuck skin until it comes back clean. Slowly but surely nursing over him.
It's nice. Decidedly domestic for the two of them.
Just as Cole's voice wears away to almost nothing, a loud bang sounds outside. Cassidy's posture slams upright like a deceitful teen's dirty magazine drawer slams shut. He looks around. The noises continue, followed by a jeer of laughter.
A huff of irritation comes over Genji. He paws into the pockets of his sweatpants, reaching for his communicator. He thumbs over the controls, and enters into Lena's contact.
> tracer? That you all
A reply bubbles, blinking at him for a minute.
Yeah, luv <
Sorry, you know how Rein gets over games, LOL <
Everything okay? <
He jams the pads of his fingers into the letters he needs.
> fine. Just tell him to quiet down, please. Bit too much excitement for
He types out Cassidy's name and then erases it away.
> fine. Just tell him to quiet down, please. It was a bit too exciting for me. I'm feeling jittery.
He hits send and puts the glowing screen away. He looks to Cassidy, staring at his blood shot eyes.
“It's fine. Just a rowdy game of uno.”
“Typical of our lot.” Cole huffs out on instinct.
“You think we used to sound like that durin’ game nights?”
Genji doesn't bother answering his question. He sighs out a breath.
“Are you scared?”
Cassidy laughs. “Always, darling. Always.” Bitterness coats his saccharine tongue.
…Cassidy had never done amazing with large explosions. He could handle flashbangs- and things in the moment. But the bigger the shake the worse way the cowboy would come. It brought to mind many things. Brought about thoughts of the incident between Cassidy and Mina Liao.
The genius scientists fiery death in an HQ- in the arms of Genji's cowboy. Right before the cowboy that took out the rest of the family Cole had tried to carve out for himself. Morrison and Reyes. Ana not too far from either of them.
He’d left for Nepal not too far after. He hadn't spent a lot- enough time with Cassidy then. But he could see it on his face. IN the darkness under his face.
He’d done his time. Hoping after ghosts.
He’d seen it in the way he looks at Echo - the ‘ghost’ of Mina Liao's spirit.
He didn't take it well.
So Cassidy doesn't exactly LOVE explosions.
… That only makes seeing Gibraltar go in flames - swarmed with talon in the same way the lab and swiss base were sting harder.
Cassidy's thoughts clearly mirror his own. The cowboy's chin scrunches up, stippled with dots and lines of emotion on its end- tangled in the fuzz of an untrimmed beard. Wetness coming to his blood shot exhausted eyes.
He rubs his forehead.
“..I thought.” his voice breaks into a cough. He takes the gasping time to coil out a thought. “I thought- for just a minute-” He laughs.
“For just a minute , I thought Gibraltar would be different. I would be home again. I needed- fuck genji.”
He settles his head against Genji's chest.
“I'm a man. In need of faith- and such a lack of it. I dunno what I thought. Why for a second, I let myself think it’d be different. That this time- something like family wouldn't hurt so bad.”
“I ain't never going to get it right, Shimada. I'm never going to stop losing people.”
His hand tightens against where his prosthetic begins. Genji laces his fingers.
“You don't have to stay in the past. You are meant to be- you.. You wanted to be something good. A spot of old fashioned kindness brought into today. You are not a cowboy to hide who you are, or to hide in the shadows of a troubled past. You are a cowboy who helps people. That is always what you wanted to do.”
He wipes his face. “F only i didn't hurt so many people first.”
He tightens his grip. “The past doesn't own you. Just because bad things happened before- there is no excuse not to learn and grow and change.”
“Im not as good as you , genji. I ain't nearly the wise sort you are- going on some- self discovery tirade- I aint-!”
“Yes you are. Cassidy, I am still me, yes? After everything I have gone through- after losing my body, am I still me? Or am I just a robot to you?”
He sputters. “Your- genji- course your you-”
“Then you are no different.”
“You are still you. No matter what happens. And you and I both know Cole. not the cowboy Cassidy or Jesse or Joel or Morricone- or whatever else- You are Cole. And if Genji still exists in me Cole still exists in you. And what does he want?”
He breathes. In a soft depressurising whistle of a breath.
“You.”
Genji chokes- just a little.
“I-..”
“I had been expecting you to say- being a good person or-”
“Yeah , yeah, that too- but damnit shimada. Tonight I just want to be me. And all I want is you. Please.”
Genji turns the knob to release his face plate and pulls it off.
“... here I am.”
Cole sucks in a sharp soft breath, wiping at nothing on his face.
“Yeah. Here you are.”
He laughs a bit.
“You still look so good.”
“Not that different, no?”
“Yeah. But not the same either.”
“Its just me. And that's what you want.”
He nods like a man possessed. “Thats definitely what I want.”
Genji is a bit lost on the details on when their faces met but he acknowledges the warmth and the beauty of the moment of it sometime after- sometime in the tangled strings of thoughts and feelings and soft warmed movements. His mind falls into a rewind- like hands raking through warm water on a frost chilled morning- parting a sea of memories. Of every little moment he felt a little something and said nothing.
He feels more than a little something now, he feels everything. A rush of emotion so large it's almost overwhelming.
But more than that he feels complete.
He parts in a gasp of breath, in a half straddle against the cold floor of a military base somewhere in the middle of south korea being held by a cowboy. It's absurd. It's ridiculous. On the surface level, it's insane. But to him, in some twisted way though it is not his base or the overwatch he knew, it is still home. And though there is a hat on his head and the hard but true principles of a cowboy sat in his arms all that holds him there is his very own Cole Cassidy.
“... you alright, Cowboy?”
Cassidy breathes. “More than I've been in a while, darling."
Cassidy breathes heavily for a minute, in little shaking breaths. He giggles nervously on the end of each , until he's laughing.
“I missed you.”
“I missed you as well.”
He crushes genji into a tight squeeze, and holds him there. Some minutes pass until their warmth becomes one heated embrace. He untangles himself from Genji's grip.
He wipes his still wet eyes clear of any emotion. “I needed that,” he admits.
“Ready to be a cowboy again? Fix the world we broke?”
“Ready to be a cowboy- and your boyfriend- and myself. If you’ll have me, that is.”
Genji's heart flutters.
“That's awful forward of you.”
“Is there anywhere left to go right now?”
Genji laughs. He doesn't know what part of the absurdity catches him first but Cassidy catches him then as he doubles over in laughter, choking on breath, systems whirring as he giggles nonsensically. He can feel the fondness in the way he's healed. He catches his breath a beat or so later, speaking slow.
“Yeah. I'd be happy to have you as we.. figure out where to go next.”
“It ain't gonna be easy. We're gonna have a lot more close calls.”
“Sure we will. But we're not dead yet. Still time to try. ”
Cassidy squeezes his hand.
“Side by side again, ninja?”
“Side by side again, gunslinger.”