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Ever since he was young Genji had never been able to lie to the ones he lied.
He had first loved his mother dearly, and as a young boy when she squished his cheeks between her delicate fingers he had been forced to show her the brightly coloured sweet in his mouth and admit to eating it without permission. Her scolding had never been harsh. He could have placed that for nurturing his mischief as he grew older and she eventually passed.
Genji had also loved his brother. Maybe not as much but the bond was there. It was stretched thin by hours of training the amounted in bruises and the occasional broken finger, but it was always there. Once he was able to lie, but it was flimsy to Hanzo’s face. Genji still remembered the words rolling off his tongue that denied that he had been out at the nightclub until the earlier hours as alcohol stained his breath.
Luckily though, he had never loved his father. The man may had given him a brother and a wife and a mother, but he had also placed the dragon on his back and, indirectly, placed the blade through his skin. Genji never had a trouble lying to him and took the punishments as they came over and over again.
But now, faced with Zenyatta, Genji found himself stuck.
It was indeed love that he felt, but it was different. It certainly wasn’t the forced love he had for his father, or the boyish love that he shared with Hanzo. It was closer to the soft and nurturing love of his mother, but still so different.
Yes, he had read and seen the romantic love, but refused it to be the same feeling he felt for Zenyatta. The omnic had saved his live and given him a path to walk on. It felt so wrong to tarnish the innocence that came with it. But the feeling swell and grew until it clawed at him with a power that rivalled his dragon. And he knew it was noticed.
But whether it was reciprocated was a mystery.
*~*~*
Genji feels like a fool for more than a few days after the simple yet shattering kiss.
He hadn’t meant it.
Well… That would be a lie, but he didn’t expect it from himself at that moment. He avoids the omnic for as long as he can and spends as little time in his presence when he must be near him. Zenyatta, per usual, seems unfazed by the turn of events, but Genji knows he is thinking constantly. But whether it was on the recent turn of their relationship or his usual ones was a mystery.
Though Genji cannot escape when he is staring out the window of his room, once again watching the snow that was as cold as his artificial body. The metal hand on his shoulder makes him freeze and for once he is thankful of his visor hiding is face.
“Do not worry. Your feelings are returned if you wish it to be that way.” Zenyatta speaks in his usual way and lets Genji go. He floats out without another word, and only once he’s gone does Genji make a terribly embarrassing noise at the back of his throat and roll into a tight ball as his human heart swells with happiness.