Chapter Text
It was only a few days after his third mission with Blackwatch and he was still recovering. He insisted that his injuries were his own fault, that they were a result of him being too excited to finally have some semblance of physical autonomy, that he was the one pushing his newly-installed prosthetics to the limit (and he was), but it was still days more of monitoring and testing out modified versions of the prosthetics. He didn’t like the way Doctor Ziegler looked at his Blackwatch cybernetics, that concerned little tuck of her lips and that far off look in her eyes like she was searching for him in them. He didn’t know how late it was, but he knew it was late. His back was to the door and he stared out the window at the snow drifting down on Zurich.
He didn’t turn around when he heard the door slide open. He knew the sound of her footsteps at this point.
“Genji?” she whispered very softly across the room, “Genji, are you awake?”
He said nothing. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust her (Okay, well, at this point he didn’t exactly trust anyone) but he was curious as to what she would do under the assumption that he was asleep. Her feet padded slowly and lightly across the tile floor of the infirmary room until her form was silhouetted against the moonlit snowflakes and pale blue mountains and she quietly set something small down on his bedside table before turning around and looking at him. He closed his eyes as she pivoted, looking convincingly asleep. He heard her huff a little and very quietly go, “Merry Christmas, Genji.”
“It’s Christmas?” he said as his eyes flicked open and Doctor Ziegler jumped about a foot in the air from the surprise, clapping a hand over her mouth to muffle the half-shriek half-gasp that escaped her.
“Don’t scare me like that!” she said, bracing a hand against the windowsill.
“I’m not the one sneaking around at night,” said Genji, sitting up in his bed. He turned on the lamp on the bedside table and Doctor Ziegler flinched a little in the sudden light. He glanced at the little wrapped gift on his bedside table.
“It’s just–” Mercy made a dismissive waving motion, “It’s nothing. Just some chocolates. Swiss chocolates–well of course they’re Swiss chocolates, we’re in Zurich but–”
“Thank you,” said Genji, taking the bag off of the bedside table. He smirked a little, “Do you do this for all your patients?”
“No, just the ones who–” she caught herself.
“Who…?” Genji tilted his head.
“Actually, yes. I do do this for all my patients,” said Mercy, folding her arms.
Genji folded his arms at her as well.
“Well I don’t have many patients over Christmas anyway–” said Mercy, “And–well–they’re just chocolates, not that hard to get—”
“You’re talking to a triple amputee, Doctor Ziegler. I’ve heard a lot of hard truths in my time being here. You can say it.”
“…I just… do it for my patients who don’t have any visitors,” said Mercy, pushing her hair back from her face, “It’s hard. Spending Christmas alone.”
“…but that’s what you’re doing,” said Genji.
“Well my father was Jewish,” said Angela, with a hand wave.
“And your mother?” said Genji.
“Well she celebrated Christmas but she wasn’t… spectacularly religious. I mean she still…” Angela trailed off but then she shook her head, “It’s different. I’m working–I mean,” she caught herself and straightened up slightly, “The best Christmas or Hanukkah gift I can give anyone is keeping them alive so…” her voice tapered up as if she was trying to convince herself as hard as she was trying to convince him, “I’m…still… celebrating?”
Genji gave her a steady look, then picked up the little gift bag from the table, quickly but carefully unwrapping it. He didn’t look up from unwrapping the gift as he patted the edge of his bed, motioning to her to sit down.
“Oh I don’t have to–” Mercy started.
“Have you been on your feet all night?” said Genji.
“Well–yes–but—” Mercy started and Genji just patted the bed again.
Mercy pursed her lips, then sat down. An exhale fell out of her, that couch-locking wave of exhaustion that said, ‘Please don’t make me stand up again’ and she relaxed a bit where she was sitting and looked out at the snow falling past the window. It was rendered only marginally darker by the light within the room, but some of the snowflakes were catching the yellow light of the lamp now, the mountains still blue and moonlit beyond the lights of Zurich.
“…You have a beautiful view,” she said softly.
“Did you do that on purpose?” asked Genji, “Give me the nice-view room?”
“Back when you first joined us, yes, but this time was just blind luck,” she said with a smirk.
“Christmas Magic,” said Genji and Mercy just snorted at that.
Genji held a chocolate out to her.
“Genji, no, that was for you,” she said.
“You can’t possibly expect me to eat all of these by myself?” said Genji, holding up the bag with some mock scolding, “What kind of Doctor are you?”
Mercy huffed and smiled a little and took the chocolate, popping it into her mouth and chewing it tentatively. She swallowed it and blinked a few times. Genji wondered how many Christmases she had spent alone. It looked like she was wondering that too. “…Thank you,” she said, looking at him.
“Merry Christmas, Doctor Ziegler,” he said, biting off a corner of his own chocolate.
“Merry Christmas,” she said, smiling at him,