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“Stupid-… stupid stupid stupidstupidstupid!!”
Roadhog groaned quietly, half annoyed, half too groggy to feel much of anything yet, let alone process what had woken him up in the first place. At least until he heard it again, coming from the bathroom door of the abandoned motel room they were staying at. Curses and quiet, pained noises. Desperate noises.
Hog glanced at the empty spot next to him where Junkrat had flopped down hours earlier without even bothering to take a shower or remove his prosthetics. Hog had done the latter for him, less out of compassion and more because he knew he’d hear all about it the morning if Rat woke up with sores.
The fake limbs were still where Mako had left them, his boss was not.
God damnit.
He contemplated simply going back to sleep, whatever Rat was doing in there really wasn't any of his business after all, but then the groaning and whining slowly morphed into what Hog was least expecting to ever hear from Jamison.
Sobs.
Genuine, desperate cries that would've been heartwrenching to a man more empathetic than him. Still, even he was at least somewhat phased by them, if only because hearing Rat cry was fucking unsettling. Hog had seen that freak take bullets, accidentally light himself on fire and step into one of his own beartraps without shedding a single tear and now he was crying like a middle-aged woman watching Titanic, it was nothing short of bizarre.
For a while Mako just stared at the door, but when Junkrat went back to angrily talking to himself he slowly rolled out of bed with a huff.
He wasn't sure what he'd see once he opened that door and he was even less sure whether or not he wanted to find out in the first place, but at the same time he knew he wouldn't catch any more sleep with Junkrat whining around in the dunny.
His knocking was more a formality than anything else, the lock was busted anyways and Hog pushed the door open before Jamie had gotten a chance to protest. Probably for the better. The knife he was holding in his hand wasn’t nearly sharp enough to get the job done, but it sure was sharp enough to do quite a bit of damage, sending blood spilling down his boney chest and stomach. Hog stared at him while Junkrat was still scrambling to cover himself, but as soon as Mako stepped closer, taking one of his hogdrogen canisters from the shelf, he stopped his attempts to get away from the other man.
“No! Get away with that, I just need to-… Just lemme fix it, I need to get rid of em! I’m almost halfway there, fuck off! I don’t need yer bloody help!”
Roadhog stared at him, the deep gash in his left breast and then the knife in his hand.
“… Too dull. Gonna bleed out before yer done, let me-“
But again, when Hog stepped closer, Rat backed off, now pointing his bloody knife at his partner in crime.
“I won’t stop until they’re gone!”, he screeched, more and more sounding like an actual rat instead of a human. He even hissed at Hog despite the fact that he was barely able to hold on to the knife in his hand, let alone defend himself from the larger junker if he decided to take it from him by force.
Roadhog groaned, dragging one hand over his mask. Then he turned and grabbed his machete from the dresser. Lucky for both of them, he’d only sharpened it yesterday.
“Yer no use dead, get over here”
Rat stared at him, the look in his eyes a dizzying mix of disturbance and mania as he realized what Roadhog's plan was. He stumbled over to him, the bloodied knife slipping from his fingers and clattering to the floor without him even really noticing.
Hog picked the lightweight up by his neck like a kitten and carried him to the tub so he wouldn’t have to stay up all night scrubbing. Then, without much hesitation, he took his machete to the excess tissue on Rats chest. It wasn’t much, Hog had never paid it any real mind, but Junkrat was seemingly bothered enough by it to take a knife to himself. Years ago when Roadhog had been a whole lot younger and a whole lot more insecure he had considered the same, but only Junkrat was deranged enough to go through with a plan like this.
“Hold on to somethin'. 's gonna hurt.”
For a lack of better options, Junkrat wrapped his good arm around Hog's shoulders, ready to dig his nails into the skin if the pain got too bad. He could’ve looked away, but he didn’t want to. He couldn’t wait to watch Hog get rid of what might as well have been cancerous growths.
Still, when Mako brought the machete down, slicing through more than half the flesh connecting Rat's chest to his breast he screamed. Screamed, laughed, sobbed, all at once, his emotions becoming so overwhelming that it was dizzying. That might've just been the bloodloss too tho, Rat wasn't sure. Most likely it was a mix of both.
Again Hog brought the blade down, unrelenting, even when Junkrat buried his teeth in Hog's shoulder to deal with the pain until he could taste blood. Hesitation would only make the whole thing take longer and be much much more unpleasant. So Hog just moved on to the second one, ignoring the sting of pain in his shoulder.
The second time along it took three cuts instead of two, but Rat was more phased by the fact that Mako had to touch his tits to get rid of them. By the end, he looked more than spent. His one hand was barely hanging on to Hog and he had given up on trying to hold his head up a while ago, just letting it slump against Hog's broad shoulder while blood from the bite wound slowly seeped into his hair. He would’ve never survived if Mako hadn’t intervened, that was for damn sure, but even now he was on the edge of passing out, so Roadhog didn’t waste any more time. He pulled his mask off and over Jamison's head instead and connected the gas canister to one of the valves. Gas spilled out from where the mask sat too loosely around Rat's scrawny neck and Hog bit his lip lightly when he realised that Junkrats chest was barely raising and falling anymore. He wasn’t sure what to do, so he just rattled him by the shoulders and tilted his chin up so he could get a look at his eyes.
“C'mon, breathe ya bloody rat. Gotta heal..”
For a few seconds, Junkrat just hung in the larger junker's arms, unmoving silent. Without his usual manic energy he looked frail and vulnerable, a descriptor that hog never had expected to use for his companion in a thousand years.
Finally, Rat drew in a big breath, coughing violently from the harsh gas stinging in his lungs. Still, he drew in another one and a next one after that when he felt the pain ebb away as his wounds rapidly closed, scar tissue forming where blood had been pooling from just a second ago. The new tissue felt raw and sore, healing this quickly was no pleasant experience after all, but slowly Junkrat's breath steadied itself again and the tiniest amount of color returned to his face. Then, of course, he broke out into wild laughter, maniacally running his hand over his now scarred chest and the blood sticking to it. He almost had to pull it back because of how sensitive the new scars were but he simply couldn’t bring himself to do it. He pulled off the mask and stumbled to the mirror, almost slipping on his own blood and cracking his skull open on the sink when he tried to hop over on his solitary leg. He managed tho, staring at his reflection, his now flat upper body, finally matching the way it was supposed to look in his head.
His head whipped around, staring at Roadhog like he wanted to say something, but the words got stuck in his throat when he saw something that he… well, certainly didn’t expect.
Roadhog was smiling. It was a small, crooked smile that exposed his freakishly large bottom canines and underbite and it looked even more bizarre because of the blood staining Hog's chest, hands and arms, but it was there, even if it disappeared almost as soon as Junkrat had spotted it. He had seen Roadhog's face before, once or twice maybe, only briefly tho. He had a vague idea of the scar covering almost all of Road’s left cheek, down to the corner of his mouth and he knew the tired, annoyed dark eyes. But even tho he rarely got to see Mako's face, most of all he knew that Roadhog didn’t smile.
Somehow it was far creepier than Hog digging a blade through his flesh. The blade he was still holding, his grip relaxed now.
Junkrat giggled a little and dramatically pointed at Mako. "You are one freaky little bugger, did ya like cuttin' my shit of that much? Bloody 'ell mate, knew you had some dirty little secrets!"
Roadhog, now looking just as annoyed as ever, just rolled his eyes and got up. "Not why I-... ah fuck it. Wha'ever. Wash up, you’re not getting in the bed bloody.”
Hog got up, followed his own advice in washing himself, and left the bathroom, marginally more annoyed than usual. The way Jamison had looked when he got that first look at himself... fuck, how was Mako supposed to not smile at that? Off course Junkrat would've laughed at him if he had admitted to that, so he just left him with whatever explanation he had made up for himself already.
Junkrat took a bit longer to wash up, mostly because he was busy caressing his maimed chest while giggling and muttering little praises to himself. He didn't care about the two massive scars that the whole maneuver had left him with, quite the opposite. He just cared that they were finally gone and the scars served as a constant reminder of that.
Hog was in bed again already, his mask laying on his chest so he could listen to Junkrat's quiet ramblings. Again he was smiling, now that he didn't have to worry about someone seeing him anymore. He wasn't yet sure what to think of the fact that Rat had caught it the first time around, but that was something to worry about later. For now, he was perfectly happy just listening to his little sewer rat of a man, quietly babbling to himself, musing over his butchered chest like it was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. In Roadhog's humble opinion, he wasn't wrong.
Rat could barely contain the giggles bubbling up through the cracked lips and every once in a while Mako could even hear him thrash around in the bathroom, too excited to keep still despite the fact that he was missing two of his limbs.
Sure, it meant sleep would be near impossible until Rat finally came to bed but… Hog was okay with that, surprisingly.
When he heard Rat turn off the water and hobble over to the door he pulled his mask back on, wanting to avoid being roped into the Rat's endless chattering again. For once it seemed like Junkrat had talked enough tho, he simply curled up at the foot of the bed like a dog, his head bedded on one of Roadhog's thick calves and his arm clasped around his chest in a gesture that almost looked too soft for someone like the young junker.
After a moment of hesitation, Hog sat up and pulled the frail junker up on top of him, his calloused hand gently caressing the boney hip and thigh, all the way to where it suddenly came to a stop.
Roadhog would keep his Rat safe, that was his job after all.
On top of him, Jamison nuzzled his cheek against Roadhog's chest, wrapping his spindly arm around him and attempting to do the same with his stump, ignoring the fact that it didn’t really work all that well. Roadhog took a deep breath, and soon after he was drifting off once more, this time with his boss curled up on top of him, the slight weight soothing him right into dreamland. He drifted off to Rat trying to contain his elated sounds, still in awe of how his chest now looked. Roadhog was relieved to be wearing his mask, after all it meant he could smile all he wanted.
The next morning he awoke before Junkrat, as usual. He almost threw Rat off him when he sat up, remembering at the last second that the smaller man was sleeping on top of him and carefully scooting him off his broad upper body, putting him down on the mattress instead.
Before he could get up Junkrat's chest caught his eye. Usually Jamie slept with his harness on, now he was laying there, bare-chested, the two scars adorning his upper body beautifully, at least in Roadhog's humble (and maybe slightly fucked up) opinion.
Following an impulse he couldn't explain or justify to himself, no matter how hard he'd try for the next few hours, he pushed up his gas mask just enough to expose his mouth and leaned down to place a small kiss right between the two scars. Then he stood up so he could dress for the day and prepare a meager breakfast for the two of them.
As soon as the smell of roasted lizard reached Junkrat's nostrils he jumped out the bed like he was spring-loaded, almost forgetting to put on his prosthetics and falling on his face. He quickly put them on and dressed himself before he joined Roadhog in the run-down kitchen and immediately demanded to know when breakfast would be ready. "So... yer into cuttin' blokes with that knife ah' yours? Didn' know you were that fucked in the head", Rat joked, seemingly still looking to tease Roadhog with that. Hog just rolled his eyes.
"Aye. Not like that tho"
"Don't talk yourself out of it, saw you grinnin' ya freak, can't hide from me"
Roadhog glanced down at him and for a second he considered explaining himself, but then he just huffed quietly and handed Rat his roasted lizard.
"Eat. Long day ahead"