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It must be made clear that Gen really thought he could handle this one.
The kaiju ravaging Japan most closely resembled a wasp! A simple little bug. He's swatted countless hyper-aggressive pollinators over the past few months he's spent cohabitating with the damn things. He was so good at it that the moment one got into Momoko's home, he'd be hearing from them even if he wasn't there, and no matter how many times he re-informed them that this was not a good reason to call him on his MAC communicator. Yet, "bug in the house" was apparently on par with "Kaiju attack" to Kaoru, so Gen came running over every single time.
The only difference was that this wasp was Leo-sized instead of Gen-sized. It seemed simple to him: swat the damn thing until it dies. That's why he disobeyed the captain's orders.
…of course, the bug's stinger ultimately ended up lodged deep into his shoulder blade. With the whole of Leo's upper back feeling sluggish and uncomfortably hot, he finally understood why the captain had told him to wait with even more ferocity than usual. Gen heard a color timer blinking and realized a moment too late that it must be his own because he was the only one left to protect this little blue marble. A moment after that, he felt himself getting impossibly small — and then Leo was gone.
※ ※ ※
Gen stumbled back into MAC's station feeling as exhausted from a failed battle as he always did. It seemed to him that nobody noticed the fact that he'd been missing – that is, until the captain turned away from the strategist he'd been speaking with to serve Gen an ice-cold glare. Gen’s shoulders sank deeper into his torso and he decided to busy himself with vehicle maintenance in the hangar, primarily to be away from his captain's watchful eyes. When Gen took one step in that direction, his world suddenly shifted uncomfortably to the left.
"Watch where you're going, Ootori!" A fellow MAC member, one he'd just accidentally shoulder-checked, held him upright and steadied him with an annoyed look in her eyes. "You look out of it. Are you okay?"
"No," he shook his head, steading himself again, "I'm fine." His response was automatic and poorly thought through; the moment he was upright again, he careened in the opposite direction. He heard a thud more than he felt it, and as he tried to move to look at what might have caused it, he realized his body was far too heavy to even begin to think of moving. A chorus of voices sounded so far away as they chirped all around him.
"Ootori!... jeez, this guy…"
"Ootori? Ootori, hang in there!"
Something cold pressed against his forehead. "That's quite the fever! How is he even awake?"
"Tell medical staff to free up a bed in the medbay for Ootori!"
One voice cut through them all, just as it always managed to:
"Gen!"
He had tried to look up towards the captain, but the wave of nausea that hit him from the motion proved too much for his mind. The world went black.
※ ※ ※
Gen came to suddenly, feeling both too warm to move and too dizzy to breathe. His eyes felt heavy and his back burned deep underneath his skin. Though he tried to keep quiet, his breath came heavier, forcing him to attempt to focus on a wheezing pace of inhales and exhales. He dimly became aware of a conversation happening beside him and he tried to listen in on it.
"Is this the best place for him, Captain?"
"Yes."
"...that's not true, Captain Moroboshi."
"He'll have an allergic reaction to the medicine in the medbay. I won't tolerate a mix-up. That's why I always send Ootori home for treatment instead of to you. Haven't you noticed?"
"Oh… well… still, can't his bed be somewhere else? Or why not just send him home?"
"Do you really think he's in any condition to be transported? Where else do you suggest we put him — do you want him in your quarters?"
"Um…"
"Do you think I can't handle a sick man?"
"O-of course you can, Captain…"
"Then stop wasting our time. Go make preparations for your next deployment. You're wasting your time here!"
"C-Captain! Roger!"
A line of footsteps left the room.
"What a mess," he had heard the captain say after the door closed. There wasn't any other movement in the room; just the two aliens were here now. Gen tried to move and immediately groaned as he realized the severity of his soreness. Moving a single muscle, any muscle, felt like pure torment. That damn bug! What should he do? …would an appropriately-sized fly swatter work on the beast?
"Gen?"
The clack of that cane against the ground was enough to force one of Gen's eyes open. He knew the captain's cane like any delinquent student knows the sound of their strict, detention-loving teacher's high heels. This gait was angry. His captain was using more force than he would ever have to get from one place to another. Gen was absolutely certain he was about to be walloped for his efforts and tensed, not sure of where the blow might land, only knowing that it would be agonizing in his current condition.
Instead, the captain only bent down into view. He wore an odd expression; one with wide-opened eyes and arched eyebrows. The corners of his mouth were pulled down, but lacked the typical tightness that a scowl might provide.
"You're awake?"
Gen eyed him monocularly, unaware of how full of fear his own face was despite half of it being obscured, and minutely nodded his head. After a moment, the captain's eyes narrowed and his mouth evened out. That emotion that had smoothed out his captain’s face was replaced with something far more recognizable — stern aggravation.
"Rest. You need it. That monster poisoned you. You're of no use to MAC right now."
"Ca—"
"I mean it. You're dead weight. Don't make me carry it."
"But I—"
"Gen. I'll strap you down to that cot if I have to. It would further aggravate that back of yours. Are you going to make me?"
"Nn…" he shook his head. "Captain…"
"Just rest, Gen. You got us into this mess." The captain rose back up onto his feet and out of view. The pounding of his cane on the ground as he walked away from Gen is lighter, but barely so — the monster must still be on the rampage for the captain to be carrying that much tension. "I'll get us out of it."
Embarrassed heat rushed onto Gen's face. He wanted to argue, wanted to tell his captain that he couldn't possibly lie idly by when he should be helping. He tried to sit up to do so, but a single push of his hand against the cot caused white-hot pain to shoot up his bicep, forearm, triceps and upper back. He whimpered and collapsed, mind sinking deep into the back of his head. Gen hears an echo of a voice calling out to him, a metal clang echo on ceramic tile, but once again, he was too far gone to hear it.
※ ※ ※
…how long has it been since he stood on his own two feet?
Gen had no idea; it could have been minutes or days. Eventually, he came to. The world was a blur of colors and the only point of contact he could make sense of was a cool wet weight on his forehead. He groaned, pained.
"Oh, he's awake." The voice wasn't the captain's, meaning it must have been a MAC member that Gen never managed to remember the name of, and therefore wouldn't be able to recognize. "He must be hungry… want me to get you some soup to spoon-feed him, captain?"
"You're dismissed!" The captain's snapping voice drew Gen's attention, though the reverberations of that cane certainly didn't hurt in keeping that attention focused. The approaching noise was louder and easier to focus on than the sound of quiet snickering laughter and the office door closing in front of it.
"Gen."
"Cahhh…"
"Don't answer me. You're in no condition to talk. Just listen."
Something was pressed into Gen's hand. Admittedly, that was a body part he'd forgotten he had. His entire body felt like a soggy mush outside of that cold spot that sat right above his face, and now the cool object pressed into his palm.
"We're moving out. I'll be back soon. If anybody tries to help you, press this button." The captain maneuvered Gen's hand over a button on the thing that had been placed into his hand; his mind, weakly, recognized it as a transceiver. Gen's hand twitched around the thing as the captain seemed to leave it there.
"Press it now. Show me that you can."
This was… this felt impossible. Gen's body was no longer something he could control so much as it was a vessel he was trapped within. It took all of his energy to lift his thumb and hold it over the push-to-talk button, but he did. The captain's own receiver crackled with quiet static and labored breathing. Gen let go a moment later, startled by the sound of his own voice. He sounded terrible; dry, weak, harried.
"Good. Do that if anybody tries to examine or help you. I mean it."
"Cap…tiaa..."
"Save your strength, moron!" The captain was beyond frustrated. His cane brought him further away, slamming against tile, growing more and more quiet as he moved about other areas of his office – likely preparing to head out? They were going to fight it. That thing, the thing that did this to Gen. Isn't that what the captain had meant by moving out? Gen thought that that couldn't be right, because the monster had taken out him so what could MAC possibly do…
"Would you stay still!"
The long, freezing body of that cane was pressed across his chest, crushing the air out of his lungs and forcing him into a coughing fit. Gen hadn't realized he'd been trying to sit up until his entire body was flush with the cot again and the fuzzy image of his enraged captain loomed above him, spitting his rage onto Gen's face. "You are useless like this! You can't do anything right now except keep yourself alive! Stay still and wait. That's an order, Gen."
The cane lifted off of Gen, freeing his coughs to ravage his body. His voice didn't sound like his own through the dryness in his throat. He folded in on himself, fairly sure he was in something like the human’s fetal position, and then the cold wet spot on his head vanished. He heard a soft thud of something on the ground.
The cane, which has been steadily moving further from him, stopped.
"Useless," the captain muttered, suddenly so close that the voice tickled Gen's hair. He trembled. "Completely useless."
He heard the sound of water sloshing, of the trickle of something being wrung out, and then that cool spot of relief was back on his forehead. He exhaled. A hand pushed his sweat-soaked hair back so that the cool towel touched every bit of surface area that it could.
There was a long silence — Gen swears he heard a mumble, a curse, a swear… but then the cane was carrying the captain away, towards the door, which opened and then closed. Gen was alone.
With nothing to hear, there wasn't much left to keep Gen awake. He clung to the transceiver in his hand like a lifeline.
※ ※ ※
Gen remembered next to nothing of the time he spent alone after that. Reflecting on it after this mess, he couldn't quite tell if it was a reality or a fever dream. He remembers hearing the captain barking out strange orders and he thinks he might have tried to follow them to no avail, but any visual memory he had of that time was a blur.
※ ※ ※
Gen woke properly, with nearly full awareness to a stinging sensation radiating from the inner soft flesh of his elbow. It didn’t quite hurt, but it was distinctly uncomfortable; he grumbled and, with more strength than he realized he had, he lifted his opposite arm to feel for what was causing it. Lifting his head and visually confirming what might be there seemed beyond his abilities. He felt a bump on his arm, a mess of soft and bumpy plastic, and some sort of wire feeding out of him. Before he could get any sort of grasp on it, his hand was tugged away from his arm.
“Be still.”
It was the captain, of course. He tensed in the captain's grip, but didn't fight the superior officer. The captain stared down at him, eyes digging into Gen's.
"You're feeling much better already," he observed.
"Captain… what is this?" His eyes darted down to his arm, and the IV threaded into it. Gen, honestly, had no idea medications could be administered to him in the same way they could be to humans, but the look on the captain's face seemed… distinctly relieved.
"It's an antidote. You were poisoned. It's de-toxifying your body." Light and darkness the captain sounded tired. Gen sat up, and this time the captain didn't push him back down. Instead, he watched his subordinate carefully, waiting for the man to tremble and fall back down. He didn't.
"Thank you," Gen said. "Is the monster still out there? …It's up to me now, isn't it?" It had to be, if the captain had gone through all this effort to resuscitate him. He'd risked the lives of MAC officers and innocent civilians to get Gen back on his feet; the thought made Gen's stomach turn. It had to be up to him. "I'll defeat it. I have to."
After a still moment, the captain nodded. "Be careful. Its poison can melt through MAC equipment - it's a miracle your body could withstand it for as long as it had to." The smallest smile possible lit up the captain's face, just barely reaching his eyes. "Though maybe I shouldn't be surprised."
Visions of boomerangs, waterfalls, strange machines and, of course, jeeps coursed through Gen's mind…
"Of course I could handle it." Gen smiled back, eyes as bright as the sun. A bit of their warmth reflected in the captain's as his smile grew by a matter of millimeters. "You've put me through worse than this, captain."
The quiet laughter they shared as Gen swung his legs over the side of the cot, taking his first few steps in days, was a profound release of tension. The monster was still on the loose and innocent lives were still in danger, but the two aliens were now both on their feet - together, they could certainly handle a stupid little wasp.
Then the oddest little thing happened — Gen, who'd been smiling so wide that his eyes had squeezed shut, opened them to the captain's stern face.
"You know what to do," he said.
Gen tried, he really did, but the smile wouldn't leave his face. The captain had smothered his emotion with the help of years of practice, but the laugh the captain had let out rang in Gen’s ears.
"Of course. I'll begin preparations immedia—" It was, of course, the MACCY base's siren that cut Gen off. His eyes went wide as the captain's expression grew all the more stern; he swallowed down the sudden onset of nerves.
"I won't let you down!"
※ ※ ※
It must be made clear that Ultraman Leo exterminated that wasp. He would never accept such an embarrassing defeat from the same kaiju twice!
His captain’s advice and outright assistance did make the fight easier; the kaiju's stinger had been pried off by the look of things, leaving the back of its abdomen oddly as smooth as a baby's head. The captain had warned Gen of the poison though; it must be possible for this beast to grow it back, given enough time. That put our hero on a precarious timer - not that Ultraman Leo had never dealt with such a thing. He had to go all-in on an offensive. It was just about the only way to make sure he didn't end up in a sickbed again!
The fight ended like they all do — with a sickening kick to the thorax, and with Leo flying triumphantly off into the stars.
※ ※ ※
"Ootori-kun, you look much better!"
"Wow! You do! That antidote sure worked out for you, didn't it?"
"You have the captain to thank for that. Make sure you thank him for all the babying, you hear?"
What astonished Gen after missions like these was the reception he often garnered from MAC's members. The atmosphere was often revelrous, making Gen's sudden and unexplained disappearances were easy to handwave away. Nobody wanted to dwell on where Gen had gone and how he’d made it back. Ruefully, he admitted that, well, the faces that make up MAC always changing around Gen made the occasional necessary lie a bit easier. It astonished him more than anything that these faces, most of which he'd only fought alongside for a matter of months and weeks, cherished his return to base. They celebrated that he'd made it, too.
"You're right, you're right… I'll have to talk to him right away."
"Of course you'd say that. You're worse than a teacher's pet!"
All Gen could do was laugh good-naturedly and snake his way through the small crowd and make small talk with the celebratory MAC crowd on the way to the captain's office. When he finally got there, he closed the door behind him and took a small sigh of relief. He appreciated his team — he did! — but they were humans, and they only knew the younger half of him that he was still coming to know himself. He lied to them out of obligation.
The captain, on the other hand…
Dan Moroboshi was standing in front of a porthole window, staring out into the star-streaked abyss of space. Gen paced to his side, every footstep loud enough for the captain to hear. He did not move and did not react.
"I came to thank you and to pack up that cot… but I see that it's not here."
"Yes. I returned it to the medbay before we left to fight."
"Oh. Of course - industrious as ever, captain!" the student couldn't help the smile from widening across his face. He must have realized that his captain had been so confident in his ability that he'd gotten rid of his sick bed and rested all his hopes on Ultraman Leo defeating it in the rematch. Dan had no idea why he was surprised; this was the thing Leo always accomplished. Nevertheless, Dan hummed in agreement and turned towards Gen. He eyed his replacement’s face, meeting those bright eyes and scanning over warm cheeks plastered with a split-lipped smile. Probably a result of the dehydration from before he'd gotten proper treatment. He was in one piece now; that was what mattered. Gen Ootori was as healthy as he'd ever been right now and beaming with pride.
His captain quashed it.
"Don't do that again."
Dan's voice wasn't as stern as it usually was. Gen picked up on that quickly, if the open curiosity cluttering his face was any indication. He must have expected a stern 'Keep it up.' Or, even better, a gentle 'Good job.' That isn't what he got. Instead, he received a request.
"Captain… of course not. I inconvenienced you terribly." Gen bowed his head. "Thank you for saving my life."
"Both of your lives." Dan eyed the confused look on Gen's face, obviously trying to solve what seemed to be a riddle put in front of. Dan relented; this wasn't meant to be a test. The way Gen's eyes grew clear and focused when he said "Leo," surprised Dan but he continued on. "Why do you think I brought you to my office?"
The man thought that over for a moment. "I hadn't considered it… I was too weak to think." It's an answer Dan had expected, so he nodded gruffly and continued to wait for the man to think it out right now. "Was it because you needed me to defeat that kaiju?"
Always this. Always this with Leo. It has to be me, right? It all rests on my shoulders? It's too familiar. It made him want to throw something. Maybe even Gen!
"No. We would have found a way."
"Oh. Um… you mentioned an allergy? I didn't know I was allergic to-"
Dan cut him off. "A lie. I thought it would be an obvious one." He raised an eyebrow. "What are you and I?"
Gen's voice grew hushed with the answer. "Aliens." No one would hear them through these thick walls and over the thrum of revelry outside, but he still said it like the delicate secret it was.
"Yes," Dan said. His own voice had grown hushed, too. "Our humans had no idea what was wrong with you. They would have put you through tests and put you in machines to diagnose you."
The memories were so close to the surface that Dan Moroboshi bit back nausea as his apprentice grew pale. He could see the realization dawn on Gen's face. He saw the faraway look in those eyes and knew Gen was imagining lying on a medbay cot… just like Dan had, all those years ago.
"They would have…"
"Without a doubt, they would have realized you aren't human." Dan knew he wouldn't be able to keep a straight face so he turned to face the porthole once more, looking out into space. "They aren't dumb. They would have realized you were Leo."
"Captain…" Hearing that tone in his student’s voice, Dan wondered if he realized his captain was looking back towards a specific, distant star.
Gen surprised Dan. He always managed to.
"You're very wise captain, and I respect your authority, but," his student's voice is tentative as he asks, "how did you know to…"
"That doesn't matter." Dan froze at how quickly he'd responded, and in his peripheral vision he could see that Ootori had startled, too. He knew outbursts weren't out-of-character for him, but usually his outbursts were anger. He wasn't angry right now. Though he couldn't see his student’s face, the worry was palpable; Dan didn't need psychokinesis to feel it. "It was a long time ago. Don't worry about it." He forced himself to turn towards his student, and the open look of concern on his student's face made him react immediately. Dan lifted his cane off the ground and grinded it into the tile; the echo of metal-on-metal brought a hint of fear back into Gen's eyes. This was far more tolerable.
"Seven-"
"It doesn't matter." Dan’s eyes moved towards the door. "Go enjoy the celebration. It wouldn't be happening without you."
Gen seemed to consider that, ultimately agreeing with a small nod. He began to walk away, but looked back to his captain with unsaid words hanging by a thread. What was showing on his face to garner a reaction like this?
"You should join us, captain."
"I will."
"I'll come back for you in a bit. I'm holding you to that."
Dan stalled as he realized Gen was, however clumsily, trying to take care of him. "Right."
"Have a drink before then!" Gen wrapped a hand around the doorknob. "And enjoy our stars. You can go back home soon, captain. I'll make sure of that.” Gen slipped away before Dan's response formed his mind. Once it did, he shook his head, closed the thick metal window guard, and rejoined the party.
Gen knew what he'd said. It infuriated Dan how well the man had come to know him. After all — this planet was their home, not some far-flung star out in the cosmos. With a defeated groan, Dan went to pour himself a drink; he ought to heed just a few of his student’s words and prove it.