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It’s late when they meet, or early depending on who you ask. The rooftop is quiet, only broken by the slight breeze and the soft footsteps on concrete. Zenyatta isn’t sure how long Ramattra has been waiting, but something inside him knows it wouldn’t matter if it had been a minute or an hour. He hadn’t been expecting to see the large omnic on the last mission he went on, but he had, and it had stung to be on opposite sides.
Ramattra had dropped off of the face of the earth after their parting. Zenyatta had wanted to go after him, plead with him to stay, it was only Mondatta and his vague explanation that had stopped him then, but upon receiving a coded invitation, he wouldn’t, couldn’t, stop himself this time.
He comes to stand next to his friend, hoping he doesn’t have to change the status to former after this, and the pair share a moment of looking over city lights. Ramattra breaks the silence. “I had wondered if you would come”. Zenyatta wants to lean into him, bump his shoulder into the larger omnics arm like he always had, it aches not to be able too. “I never considered not coming” is what he says because truly he hadn’t. It wouldn’t have been a trap, then again, Zenyatta does not know this version of Ramattra anymore.
He finally turns, looks up at the omnic beside him. “Why did you ask me here”. Ramattra does the same after a sigh he doesn’t need. “I wanted to apologize” he starts. “I did not wish for our first meeting in so long to be what it was”. Zenyatta shakes his head but struggles to find his words. It’s a funny parallel, he acknowledges, that Ramattra has always been able to leave him speechless, only now it is out of more frustration than love. And yet, after all this time it seems Ramattra can still read him like an open book.
He looks back at the city lights before he speaks. “That is not what you wanted to hear, is it?” Zenyatta looks down. “We both know it isn’t, but I have doubts you feel sympathy for what I’d like”. It’s another moment of silence before a large hand hooks under Zenyatta’s chin, tilts his head up to meet Ramattra’s face plate. “I have missed you”. There is no better judgement at play when Zenyatta leans into the hold. A chunk of himself had darkened when Ramattra had left, and as much as under the circumstance this hurts, its also healing in a bitter-sweet way. Zenyatta thoughtlessly hooks his fingertips in the rib like lattice that covers Ramattra’s chest. “I have also missed you” he says softly, fingertips clenching ever so slightly.
They stand there, worlds apart and yet so close, basking in unspoken wishes and a contact they’d both no doubt missed. “Why did you come, love, if you knew I wouldn’t speak how you wanted?”. Ramattra asks gently, hand not moving from his counterpart’s jaw. “I had hoped you could…I need to know why Ramma” Zenyatta spoke almost desperately, hoping beyond all reason this was all a misunderstanding. But he’d be proven wrong when the grip on his jaw tightens ever so slightly. “Why? Is it not clear Love? It is for you, for us, for all of us”. Says Ramattra with such a sincere passion it would set Zanyatta aflame were it about anything else. His fingers clench again, near budging Ramattra closer with the force of it. “How could you say that dear one, when you cause such pain to your own people, when you would throw them into the line of fire unnecessarily?” begs Zenyatta.
Ramattra scoffs, finally pulling away, their hands falling away from each other. “It is all a means to an end Love, a few lives for the greater good, to finally be out from under the humans thumb” as he speaks both of his palms come up to cup Zenyatta’s cheeks, to drive home his cause but also like he cant stand to not be touching. Its just this side of aggressive, but Zenyatta knows it’s not meant to hurt or trap, it’s because of this he simply lays his hands over Ramattra’s. “You cant truly believe that Dear one, or must you lie to us both?”. It’s a lost feeling, actively listening to one of the most important people if your life sound like a tyrant, a monster. Ramattra gently shakes his head, pulls their foreheads together.
“It is alright Love, I don’t expect you to understand now, but I promise you will”. From between Ramattra’s palms Zenyatta shakes his head again. “Oh Dear one, if this is how you wish to live you know I won’t be there to see it” he says softly, squeezing Ramattra’s hands gently as he does so. The larger omnic presses closer, moving the mouth of his faceplate to now rest against Zenyatta’s forehead, touching their chests together. “I will not deprive you your need to remain ignorant my Love, your need to fight me alongside fools who cannot understand, but know that you will see, I will make you see, even if it means you are the last to stand in their ranks”. His tone is sweet, loving, no matter the words being said, it takes a piece of Zenyatta’s soul to hear them.
Zenyatta steps back, pulling Ramattra’ hands down into his own, holding them against his chest. “Ramma, my dear one, I love you in every way a being can, and even after this I always will”. He says gently, needing the other to understand. “But if you do this to me, take from me that which I hold so close, nothing will save you”. He punctuated his still gentle tone with a squeeze of Ramattra’s hands. “No code or binds will stop me, do this and you will be hunted by my hand, I promise you that, I will write it in the stars, on our wires, on the rungs of every man’s ribs, do this, and you will not survive dear one” he finishes softly, almost sweetly, like his promise isn’t violence.
Ramattra chuckles at his words, pulls him close like the lover he once was and again connects their foreheads. “How I adore your fire my Love” he whispers between them, and though it may seem dismissive, Zenyatta knows it is not, simply that they are on neutral ground as it currently stands. “I have missed it more than you can imagine”.
For a long while they share space, pressed together in a mockery of a lovers embrace though it could be just that. Eventually Ramattra pulls back, still connected at their hands but able to properly look at one another. “Then write in your stars my Love, and when the time comes we will ruin each other as perhaps was always destined”. Slowly, as if savouring the moment, Ramattra brings Zenyatta’s knuckles to the mouth of his face plate, holds them there for a moment before pulling their foreheads together again by Zenyatta’s chin for another short moment of peace. Then they fully part from each other for the second time since coming together on this night.
“You should go my Love, your people will no doubt wonder where you are” Ramattra gently urges before turning back to the city lights. Zenyatta looks at him for a moment longer, taking in the once love of his life for possibly the last time with nothing but love still between them. “I do love you still Ramma, and I am sorry it is this way” are his words before he leaves, slowly making his way back to their temporary base.
He finds Genji waiting for him, sitting outside the motel on a bus stops bench. The cyborg looks up as Zenyatta approaches, holds out a hand when he’s close enough to take it. He does so and is pulled into a hug, Genji’s arms around his waist, his still helmeted head against his lower torso. They don’t speak for a while and Zenyatta is grateful, raw from the past meeting, but he does rest his hands on Genji’so head, keeps him close. When he does pull back just enough to look at the cyborg properly, it’s said man that speaks first. “Are you okay?” Zenyatta let’s out a soft laugh. “No, but I will be” is what he offers in return because it’s the truth.
Genji nods and stands up, keeps his hands on Zenyatta’s waist. “Okay” he says first, bumps their heads together as a kiss. “Tell me how I can help and I will”. Zenyatta presses into the contact, sighing as of he had the lungs for it, but needing to feel is relief. “Just…” he starts, stops, and cracks ever so slightly by pulling Genji into a proper hug, tight and probably a little uncomfortable for the man who will never say so. “Just be here with me”. He whispers. And Genji does so.
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Ramattra watches as the love of his life stands in another’s arms, let’s go in another’s arms. A human to make it worse. He seethes quietly from his shadowed hiding spot. He had hoped his Love would come with him, but he’d known it would not happen, no matter how he spoke of his world vision. Idly, though it makes his metal ache at the thought of the who it is, he is grateful Zenyatta is still loved. Adored properly as he should be. He just hopes, like a fool and despite everything he may be that being again.