Work Text:
Mercy--being a pixie who did what she pleased--didn’t pay much attention to time. She knew though that it had been a good long time since Genji had brought any lost children to Neverland.
They have quite the little band of misfits, she and Genji. The oldest, Mako, has been ten for as long as Jamison has been eight. Lena has been nine for quite awhile. Lucio has been seven only slightly longer than Hana, the newcomer. Little Mei has been six longest of all. No one grows older in Neverland of course.
Some of them are more troublesome than others, all younger than Genji by a few years and all a bit more rambunctious than he. Mercy is fond of every one of them.
The boy Genji brings home this time is horrid. He is made of tin and has a voice like a babbling brook. Genji is enamored with him, flitting around to every nook and cranny of Neverland to show the boy all their most secret and special places. Maybe the infatuation is because the boy is closer to Genji’s age than the others are. The two of them are eye to eye when they stand together, unlike Mercy who came to Genji’s ankle bone the last time she went to the ground to measure. There’s no other reason Mercy can think of that Genji would like the new boy so much. There is nothing else nice about him as far as she is concerned, and what is so good about being tall?
Genji isn't paying any attention to her, no matter how loudly she jingles or how hard she tugs on his green hair.
In Jack and Gabriel’s lagoon, Genji sets the boy down on a rock and leaves, promising to return with shells. When the two merfolk try mischievously to grab at the boy's pants and pull him into the water, Mercy gleefully grabs a handful of fabric to do her part. Unfortunately for all of them, Genji turns around in the nick of time and comes back to scoop the boy up. Mercy hasn’t given the boy any more pixie dust yet so he isn’t able to fly off on his own. This gives her the smallest bit of satisfaction.
"What do you think you're doing!?" Genji scolds.
"We were only trying to drown him,” Gabriel says cheekily.
"Well, don't! Zenyatta is my guest and he doesn't take to water like you do, don't you know that?"
Jack and Gabriel just shrug and grin, showing their sharp teeth. Mercy stomps her foot in frustration as Genji flies off again with no regard for her. Even the boy looks back at her when she doesn’t follow, awful thing. Genji doesn’t bother.
The lost kids love the new boy too, tugging on his colored sashes and inspecting his tricky metal fingers. Although Genji says that people like Zenyatta are not a wonder on the ground these days, the lost children have been in Neverland for some time and they have never seen anyone of the sort. Mercy still doesn’t see what about him is so special.
The kids begin to gleefully collect materials because they want to build the boy a house. Lena zips around picking up sturdy sticks while Lucio sings a building song. Mercy is torn between being smug that the boy doesn't get to come into their real house in the Tree and being jealous that he is getting a nice new one.
That night when all the children and Genji are asleep, Mercy flies out and peeks through a gap in the ceiling of the boy's house. He is still and quiet, so she slips in to get closer.
The blue lights on his forehead blink on and off, almost like the rhythm of a human's breathing, she thinks. Hovering in front of his face, she sees herself reflected in the shiny material there. Preening, she ruffles her hair and tugs on her dress. It doesn't make sense why Genji would bring this new boy and dote over him so much. Isn't she good enough for him?
Suddenly the boy tilts his head to the side and she jumps in surprise, her pixie dust getting all over the boy. If she had done that to Genji he would have sneezed, she thinks bitterly. That would have been adorable. She scowls at the metal boy, but perches on the hand he holds up for her anyways.
"Greetings, small one," he says in his annoyingly nice voice. "It is obvious you are troubled by my presence, but I do not know why. Have I done something wrong?"
She sighs and sits down, putting her chin on her hand and blowing her bangs out of her face in frustration. Genji's figure appears in the dust that flies off of her hair, followed by a little heart above his head before the image evaporates with a poof.
“Ah. I see. I would assure you that I am not a threat, but I am not sure that’s true.” He reaches into his loose pants pocket and pulls out a small, intricately carved orb. “Look, he gave me this. He said it was a kiss, and although I know it is not a kiss because it already belonged to me, I didn’t want to break the news to him.”
Mercy suddenly feels overwhelmingly sad, big fat tears filling her eyes. She swipes at them, embarrassed. A kiss? Genji had never given her a kiss. He’d never given her something that wasn’t really a kiss but told her it was one either.
“Don’t cry, little one. I wouldn’t want to steal him from you, but he seems rather taken with us both, doesn’t he? Perhaps we should ask his intentions.”
She sniffles. The boy is right, they should ask. Genji might get tired of his new plaything, but he always comes back to her. He will choose her over this newcomer, and it will all be settled. She lifts into the air and turns up her nose, flying back towards the gap in the roof.
“I’m surprised you never taught Genji what a kiss really was,” the boy calls after her.
Mercy’s glow turns as red as her face at that and he laughs. She speeds away, reaching the other edge of the woods in moments, and huddles under a large mushroom. Stupid boy, stupid kiss, stupid laugh. She eventually falls asleep as it starts to rain.
When Mercy wakes up she sees something out on the water that makes her glow stutter in fear. Pirates. They’re never in this cove anymore. The lost kids home was hidden in this forest, so Genji made sure the pirates stayed far away. But the island wasn’t too big and it was only a matter of time before they came back.
The leader of the pirates, Captain Hanzo, is Genji’s brother. He’s been trying to get Genji to come back and join him for as long as Mercy can remember. Together, Genji and the rest of the children have always thwarted the pirate’s schemes. That doesn’t mean that when the ruffians come around there isn’t still lots of trouble every time. Genji always gets in nasty sword fights and the dirty pirates get everywhere and they are never kind to the children at all. She rockets into the sky and heads for the ship.
The ship is deserted. Which means--
By the time she gets to the tree it’s too late. Their home is just as empty, everything upturned and broken. Panicked, she flits around the surrounding forest, not sure how she missed an entire band of rowdy men. When she finally finds the lost kids they are cowering in one of the many large hollow logs on the island, huddled around the metal boy. She jingles furiously at them, frantic to know what had happened.
“Mercy!” Lena cries as soon as the pixie’s glow lights up the dark space. “They took Genji! The pirates came and he told us to run, he stayed behind so we could get away!”
She gets up in the metal boy’s face, furious at him for letting this happen despite his complete inexperience with the pirates. The boy is calm, still. Always so calm!
Zenyatta explains that they were taken by surprise and unprepared to fight back. She shakes her head disappointedly and mimes punching and kicking. He nods, understanding.
“Alright, I believe it’s time to plan a daring rescue. Does everyone think they are up for it?”
Of course they are. Anything for their daring leader. The children break into cheers and run back to the Tree to gather their weapons.
Mercy manages to coat them all with a reasonable amount of pixie dust as they scramble to gather slingshot ammunition. She has a limited supply so she can’t keep them all afloat at all times. Genji is the only one who flies, usually. This is a desperate time though, and it calls for desperate measures. Jamison finds every exploding thing he has lying around and tucks them safely away. The plan isn’t foolproof, but they don’t have time to come up with anything better.
They split up. Mercy takes Jamison, Mako, Mei, Lena and the boy as far into the sky above the ship as she can, using the clouds to hide them.
Lucio and Hana stay low to the water, betting on the pirates not being smart enough to be watching out. They slip into the bottom of the ship through an open porthole.
There’s a flash of green in the middle of the deck. Mercy looks closer, sure that it’s Genji. He’s tied to the mast, presumably. At this point Mercy might have thought the pirates would come up with a more creative method of capture. She and Genji have foiled them plenty of times, but they haven’t learned. Only for the sake of the plan is she not flying down herself and giving Captain Hanzo the what-for.
Once Lucio gives the signal everything happens quickly. A flash and a poof of smoke come from the bottom of the ship and Mercy’s crew dives. None of the pirates bother to look up, the Captain furiously yelling orders and pointing at the ground. Most all of the pirates rush to the lower deck, but Lucio and Hana have already snuck back out the window. Jamison throws most of his bag down after them and Mako lands directly on the trapdoor, shutting it with a bang and locking it. Everyone left on board whirls around, finally noticing the new children’s presence. Genji laughs and whoops from where he is stuck as all the bombs go off, effectively incapacitating everyone on the lower deck.
Captain Hanzo shrieks in fury and goes for his sword as Mercy dive bombs his head. “Get them!” he screams, but it’s too late. Lena has tricked three of the pirates into falling into the water, swooping over their heads and herding them towards the rail so that they ducked to avoid her and tumbled over the edge. Jamison has knocked out two more with cleverly aimed rocks from the slingshot, and Mei has accidentally dropped her too-heavy wooden sword on first mate McCree’s head, effectively dropping him to the deck also. All the while, Zenyatta was releasing Genji from his bonds.
The Captain and Genji now face off, one with a deep scowl and the other with sword once again in hand and a wild grin.
“Look! I knew they would come for me. Who is my real family then, Nii-chan!?”
Hanzo grits his teeth, not seeming yet to know that he is beaten. “You need to come back down to earth, Genji. The life you lead is irresponsible and useless!”
Genji laughs. “At least I’m not a filthy pirate!” Then he lunges at The Captain, who just barely blocks the boys thrust.
“You really think you can best me, child?” Hanzo says, pushing Genji off forcefully. Mercy spends the last of her dust on him as he flies through the air and he drifts gracefully to land on the deck, then pushing off to flip through the air and land on the railing of the quarterdeck.
“You forget, brother,” he crows. “That I did not come alone!”
The lost kids all come from their various spots on the ship and in the air, landing on the rail next to Genji. Mercy perches on his shoulder, hands on her hips. All geared up, despite their small stature, the lot of them make for a formidable picture. Hanzo grows pale, defeat in his eyes. Mercy feels pride swelling in her chest.
Then seemingly out of nowhere a shot rings out. Everyone looks shocked and confused for a moment, even Hanzo who looks down to his own body first. Then Genji falls.
All the children shriek in unison, catching him before he can topple to the deck below. Mercy hears twin cries from the deck: Hanzo and Zenyatta, both screaming Genji’s name.
What has happened soon becomes clear. The first mate recovered and pulled out his revolver in defense of his captain. There is a wound in Genji’s stomach. This has never happened before. Despite how long the battle with Hanzo’s crew has waged, everyone had always come out of the previous battles with mere cuts and bruises. Mercy wonders briefly if McCree in his injured state had meant to shoot Genji at all.
Jamison, Hana, and Lena descend on the two conscious pirates in a fury as the rest of the kids lower Genji to the deck. Zenyatta rushes to his side as Mercy flits around in circles, beside herself. She has no power over this. You can’t simply will a human back to life like you can a fairy. She doesn’t know what to do.
The children are in tears; Genji looks pale as the moon.
Then as everyone watches, a glow brighter than Mercy’s own comes from the middle of the small huddle of bodies. The kiss, the orb that Zenyatta had shown her is floating above Genji’s still form giving off a bright golden light.
Mercy hovers next to the orb, amazed. She couldn’t believe that this boy from the ground had brought with him such a witchy thing. The light coming from it feels warm and she realizes that she feels stronger, her dwindling dust replenished. This healing glow is not a magic that she knows. She looks up at Zenyatta, tilting her head in question.
“Don’t be afraid. I can fix him,” the boy says calmly.
Sure enough, the effects of the bullet wound are reversing under the strange light. Genji stirs and his eyes flutter open.
Overcome with happiness, Mercy rushes to him and presses real, true kisses all over his face. Genji sneezes from the pixie dust and then grins. “Mercy? What are you doing?”
He looks around, suddenly seeing everyone’s tear stained faces. “What’s wrong with all of you? Didn’t we win?”
Zenyatta takes his hand and helps him sit up. “Yes, we won.”
Mercy watches as Zenyatta puts the orb back into his pocket. He wasn’t going to tell Genji what he had done! The boy had saved Genji’s life but he wasn’t even going to brag!
She flits up to hover once again in front of Zenyatta’s face and presents him with a kiss as well. Thank you, she thinks. You can stay.
Somehow, the boy seems to understand her. Maybe he had understood her all along.