Archive of Our Own

Mizuki woke first.

That part wasn’t unusual. He’d always been an early riser, trained by years of necessity and the fear that something might happen if he wasn’t awake to stop it. What WAS unusual was the warm, snoring weight beside him.

This thing with Wuyang was still new… still a little terrifying. 

He hadn’t expected any of this. Not after the Yokai learned he’d been a double agent. He hadn’t expected forgiveness. He hadn’t expected the little metal medallion that Kiriko handed him with a declaration that her friend thought he could do a lot of good in Overwatch.

The Hashimoto wanted him dead. His shame cast too much of a shadow to stay with the Yokai. Overwatch seemed like a safe… neutral third option.

It had NOT stayed neutral.

Finding a family there was… yet again, unexpected. He was treated with respect and trust that he didn’t think he deserved right from the start. Everyone included him in dinners, game nights, and special training sessions. Winston didn’t even blink an eye when he asked for a different room to avoid kita makura. Hanzo and Cassidy taught him that the best path to redemption was doing the most good that he could. No one mocked when he tucked charms into window ledges and door frames.

And then the new agents from China arrived and Mizuki’s whole world changed.

He and Wuyang were consistently paired up as the support duo on missions. Their styles complemented each other. They worked well together. 

Becoming friends was easy. 

Letting it become something purely physical had been manageable. Just two young men coping with the stress of getting shot at a couple times a week. 

Falling in love… was the hardest thing Mizuki had ever done.

Not because loving Wuyang was difficult, that part was easy. But because most everyone else Mizuki had ever loved had died. His grandparents, mother, father. The darkness had taken them one by one. He hadn’t wanted to risk exposing Wuyang to that curse.

But Wuyang was surprisingly stubborn… and persistent… and extremely charming when he decided he wanted something and apparently, he wanted Mizuki. Eventually, Mizuki had given in.

It turned out that the greatest good luck charm he could ask for was Wuyang.

He’d never been more happy, never felt more safe. All Wuyang had to do was look at him and Mizuki felt the spirits that had loomed over him since childhood drift further and further away.

And now here he was, in their bed. 

The sun was just barely rising, painting pink strips across the ceiling and walls. Mizuki had taken one of the shade slats off the window when he first moved in so that only three strips appeared. Three was good. Four would have been terribly unacceptable.

Wuyang was, predictably, out cold and stretched out over most of the bed, wearing nothing but the tightest pair of royal blue boxer briefs. His skin was warm and nearly golden in the early light. His hair was loose and soft, and it rather comically fluttered where it had fallen over his face every time he exhaled. 

Mizuki smiled. 

He reached out slowly, brushing his hair back. Though his touch was light, they were both de facto soldiers and instinct had Wuyang’s eyes fluttering open. He squinted at Mizuki.

“Oops.” Mizuki whispered. “Sorry.”

“No you’re not.” Wuyang grumbled and closed his eyes.

“No I’m not.” Mizuki confirmed, soft and fond. He slid down and draped himself across his boyfriend’s broad chest, ear pressed to his skin, listening for that steady, strong heartbeat.

“I’m not getting up if it’s before nine,” Wuyang grumbled again, but he did flop a lazy hand onto Mizuki’s waist, thumb rubbing circles there through the fabric of his oversized sleep shirt.

“You did tell your sister you’d go running with her today.”

“No.”

“Wu-chan.” 

“No.”

“She’ll be mad.”

“She’s… always…” Wuyang’s voice drifted off mid-complaint and his hand stilled as he dozed again.

Mizuki just smiled into his chest. For a while he stayed there, watching his boyfriend sleep. He was tempted to curl back alongside him and nap for a bit longer himself, even if it was bad luck to sleep in… They hadn’t had a free day like this in so long. But Wuyang HAD promised Anran he’d go running with her and ever since the Talon attack, they weren’t supposed to leave the base alone. 

Which meant SOMEONE had to go running with Anran or she’d get REALLY mad and take it out on both of them for days.

He leaned up and pressed a soft kiss just over Wuyang’s heart.

“For luck,” he whispered. Then he slipped out of bed, attached his arm, and changed quickly into his workout gear.

It was quiet as he stepped into the corridor outside. Reconstruction had been going well. Most of the damaged structure had been replaced. Scorch and burn marks had been scrubbed off. But the base still felt weird to Mizuki. The harsh lighting and concrete felt cold, especially now, early in the morning, when most were still asleep. 

He stopped in one of the common rooms, at the small kamidana Kiriko and her mother had built when they last visited. It had been… intended for Mizuki’s use. But he’d been pleasantly surprised to catch both Hanzo and Genji praying at the shrine as well. His own prayers were brief, but laced with gratitude for this new home and family he’d found and requests to protect them.

After, he wove his way through the buildings until he reached the gate that separated the base from what used to be the Gibraltar Nature Reserve. He wasn’t surprised to find Anran here, already stretching. He also wasn’t surprised to hear her exaggerated groan when she caught sight of him.

“You’re joking.” She groaned dramatically.

“We’ve had more missions than you,” Mizuki responded mildly. “Let him have his day off.”

“A day off isn’t an excuse to be lazy.” 

“Have you seen his abs?” Mizuki shot her a look. “He’s not lazy.”

Anran huffed. “Well, I don’t like the way you run.”

“I’m happy to go back to bed.”

“I didn’t say that. Just… Try to keep up this time?” 

“It’s a morning run. Not a morning sprint.”

“You’re a baby.”

Mizuki rolled his eyes, but started his own stretches, carefully rolling his shoulders and loosening his calf muscles. He scanned the short treeline subconsciously. Counted the macaques, noted the wind direction. 

Then they took off down one of the old nature trails.

As much as he complained, he didn’t actually mind this. Running felt… freeing. Especially here in the greenery and sea air and macaques darting alongside them, bold and curious. Plus, he liked Anran and enjoyed her company. She’d accepted him as readily as her brother had from the beginning and her friendship filled a void that leaving his Yokai friends had caused.

Even if she was a bitch to keep up with. 

After a cool ten-kilometer loop at her punishing pace, Mizuki collapsed into the grass near the security gate, staring up at the sky and gasping for air.

“Āiyō, zánmen de xiǎo shuàigē lèi la?” Anran grinned, stepping over to look down at him. Mizuki didn’t even think she was sweating. 

“Shut it.” Mizuki wheezed. 

She laughed and tossed him a water bottle. 

He downed over half of it in one go. 

“I take it you don’t want to do weights with me then?” Anran asked.

He answered her with a middle finger.

Anran just laughed. “Alright. Go tell my brother he owes me a run.”

“You’re seriously going to lift after that?”

“Yeah. Brig should be up by now and-”

“Agents Ye and Kawano. Your presence is requested in the briefing room.” Athena’s electronic voice called out from a speaker near the gate.

“Oh you’re joking.” Anran groaned. “We were supposed to have a day OFF.”

“Apologies. Multiple emergencies have arisen.” Athena responded.

Multiple. Mizuki’s stomach dropped.

Of course.

He pushed himself upright, brushing grass from his clothes. The morning felt suddenly dimmer than it had just twenty seconds ago.

Still, he returned the sad smile that Anran gave him and took the hand she offered to pull him the rest of the way up.

---------------------------------------------

The first thing Mizuki noticed when he stepped into the watchpoint’s briefing room was that Wuyang had also apparently been called up. He had obviously still been in bed and scrambled to get here as fast as possible. He was wearing Mizuki’s sweatpants that he had discarded on the floor the night before and a hoodie that Mizuki knew had been on top of their laundry hamper. 

There was also the fact that he still looked half asleep where he sat, eyes half closed and hair stuck into a rushed, low ponytail instead of his usual high loop.

Mizuki dropped into the chair next to him that the others who had already gathered in the room had knowingly left empty.

“Sorry,” Wuyang said immediately.

“No you’re not.” Mizuki smirked as he echoed Wuyang’s words from that morning.

Wuyang grinned in response and bumped their knees together under the table, but any further affection was cut off by the arrival of Winston and some of the other senior Overwatch agents.

Winston waited for everyone to be seated, then looked around. 

“I know most of you have been on back-to-back missions for weeks now and deserve respite. Unfortunately, circumstances do not allow for it.”

“What’s happened, Winston?” Tracer asked. “Athena said there were multiple emergencies.”

“We’ve received reports of multiple Null Sector attacks across the globe. They seem to be strategically striking to force us to split our resources.” Winston looked down at the tablet he was carrying. “And perhaps most concerning is that each report includes descriptions of a new omnic unit. Not anywhere so large as the titans but… big.”

“A new unit? Thought we shut down all their manufacturing.” Cassidy said.

“Like I said. It’s most concerning.” Winston tapped a few commands on his tablet. “We know of four separate incidents. I’ve split you up accordingly.”

“Strike team leaders are Agents Morrison, Zaryanova, Shimada, and myself,” Sojourn added, standing. “Transportation is still… recovering so some of you are travelling with some friends from the RAF. I sent details to your communicators. Any questions?”

Genji raised his hand. “Which Shimada?”

“Whichever one of you wants to do the paperwork after,” Sojourn replied dryly.

“My brother is a very capable leader,” Genji said solemnly, eliciting a few laughs.

Mizuki smirked, but the dread and disappointment he felt prevented much else. 

They were dismissed with instructions to meet their respective teams in the hangar in 15 minutes. The trudge back to their quarters was silent. Wuyang was still a little too sleepy, Mizuki a little too grumpy. While he did actually like going on missions and fighting the bad guys… he had also been greatly looking forward to a lazy day of cuddling.

When they got back to their room, Mizuki stripped and took the briefest of showers before going to his closet to put on his gear.

“We’re together at least,” Wuyang said. He was sitting on the bed, already dressed, with his tablet out.

“They know not to break up a good thing.” Mizuki sat to tug on his boots. “Where are we going?”

“Nepal. The monastery. Winston wasn’t kidding when he said this new unit was big.” Wuyang held up the tablet.

The image on the screen was blurry, clearly taken on someone’s communicator. A massive omnic loomed over the shrine and temple buildings, its body low and armored, supported by massive and… mismatched-looking mechanical legs. It looked a bit like a giant, fucked up crab. In the center of its body glowed a singular red optic eye. 

“Don’t love that.” Mizuki frowned at it.

“We can take it!” 

Mizuki smiled at Wuyang’s optimism. He didn’t doubt that they could handle it, but it was a fight and anything could go wrong in the blink of an eye. Especially with his curse already threatening to tip the scales. 

But he kept that to himself and just gave Wuyang a kiss on the cheek before they left for the hangar.

Transportation was… as weird as Sojourn said it would be. Mizuki, Wuyang, Zarya, Pharah, and Mei were all rushed to Nepal on the sketchiest RAF jump jet. While it was fast, it was bumpy and LOUD, preventing all the premission banter that usually helped settle Mizuki’s nerves. Even Wuyang, with his boundless optimism, looked uncomfortable. Anran had been assigned to the strike team going to Italy with Soldier 76. And while he didn’t NEED his sister on missions, Mizuki knew he preferred it when they weren’t separated. 

Eventually, the mountains of Nepal rose beneath them.

They landed, and Wuyang shrugged on a blue jacket while Zarya gave… what Mizuki supposed counted as a gameplan. 

“Hit it until it is dead.” She announced, hefting her particle cannon up.

“Can’t argue with that.” Mizuki shared a smirk with the others, and then they were off.

The Shambali complex was massive, twisting up the side of a mountain in layered terraces of shrines and buildings. Mizuki had always wanted to visit, to see if his spirits could even linger in the presence of the iris. But not like this.

Now acrid smoke wafted up from half-destroyed buildings. Prayer flags fluttered in the haze like torn ribbons. While the others took off at a run up the steep mountain path from their drop site, Wuyang and Mizuki were forced to go at a slower pace, stopping every so often to check on injured monks and civilians.

By the time they reached a larger shrine courtyard, the fight was already in full swing. Zarya was facing off against the massive crab omnic like a deranged Russian bullfighter. Mei was running around, doing her best to freeze and disable its legs. Pharah was airborne, pummeling it with a barrage of rockets.

“That is one big robot,” Wuyang observed. 

“Bigger they are… you know the rest.” Mizuki pulled his glaive off his belt. “I’ll keep Miss Muscles up. Can you help Mei?”

“You got it!” Wuyang grinned, then ran after the climate scientist. “Mei! wǒmen qù huá bīng ba!”

Mizuki’s Chinese was rusty, but the meaning became obvious when Mei tossed Snowball toward his boyfriend, instantly freezing the water trail beneath him. The two of them skated across the courtyard like… armed Olympic athletes.

Mizuki stuck close to Zarya. throwing his spinning blades at any exposed wires or hydraulics he could see, occasionally flinging his kasa up at Pharah when she needed it. 

And it was going well. The thing was big, but it was also slow. It didn’t have any guns and seemed to rely on smashing its giant legs into the ground to cause damage. Those were easy enough to dodge. Working together, they even managed to shear one from the body entirely. 

And then the omnic stilled completely, steam coming off of hydraulic vents.

“Uh… did we win?” Mei asked.

“Piece of shit robot battery died.” Zarya laughed.

Then the red optic eye flared brighted and a low mechanical sound rumbled through the courtyard.

“Wait-” Pharah said sharply.

A BLINDING red energy beam burst out of the bottom of the omnic, shooting into the ground. At the same time, the remaining legs stabbed deep into the stone courtyard, seemingly to anchor itself.

And then the courtyard, and half the mountainside itself SPLIT.

A violent crack tore across the cobbled floor, racing straight towards the high monastery walls. Stones tumbled inward as the ground began to drop away in a widening chasm.

“MOVE,” Pharah shouted over the comms.

Zarya grabbed Mei by the arm and hauled her toward solid ground. Pharah boosted upward to safety. 

Mizuki grabbed Wuyang’s jacket sleeve.

“Come on!”

They sprinted toward the edge of the courtyard as the crack widened behind them. And then Mizuki felt Wuyang’s sleeve get ripped out of his grasp. He turned to see Wuyang get yanked backward by… thin, spindly arms that were now blossoming out of the omnic’s chassis.

He took a step forward.

“No!” Wuyang cried out. “Go!”

Wuyang twisted in midair, bringing his staff up to crack on the arm. It let go of him and he toppled to the floor, rolling across the stone. 

On the wrong side of the crack. 

Mizuki watched in horror as more of the arms started wiggling in Wuyang’s direction. Whatever the red beam was started pulsating. The ground was shaking. And Mizuki realized Wuyang wouldn’t make it.

The spirits had always taken everything he loved. 

Not him. Not this time.

He was running before he even realized it.

“MIZUKI!” Zarya yelled from somewhere behind him, but he ignored it. 

He flung down a paper doll, spirits speeding his step, and vaulted the broken stone. He cut through the arms above Wuyang and tried to grab onto him. For one brief second, they made eye contact, both equally terrified.

Then the courtyard collapsed and they disappeared into the darkness below.

—------------------------------------------------

He dreamed briefly of Kanezaka and the Yamagami house

It was warm and welcoming now that he’d helped Toshiro escape the Hashimoto. Lantern light and the scent of simmering broth layered over eachother. He’d been given a seat at their family table many months before, but now Wuyang sat beside him, eagerly accepting a plate of food from Kiriko’s grandmother. Toshiro was clapping him on the back. Everyone was talking, but Mizuki couldn’t hear them.

Their mouth’s moved. Their faces were bright and happy. The warmth that surrounded him was undeniable, though. Happiness, safety, family. It was all he’d ever wanted. 

And then pain tore him out of it.

It was white hot as it ripped through his shoulder and down his spine, dragging him from the warm dream into a world of cold stone and darkness.

He gasped, then cried out in pain as he attempted to make sense of the multitude of torturous feelings. He was on his back on a jagged rock. Something was cutting into him just below his ribs. His cybernetic arm lay flayed open like a burst pipe, spitting sparks in angry bursts that lit the cave in violent little flashes.

“Ah-” He nearly choked on the pain as he forced his other arm up and toggled the clasps that attached the prosthetic. His cybernetic connections screamed as they were forcibly disconnected, but once the arm was off, the sharp searing pain in his shoulder subsided enough to breathe.

Not that it was much of an improvement. His head pounded in nauseating waves and the moment he moved, bile surged in his throat. Wetness ran down the side of his face into his mouth, and he could taste that it was blood. Sharp pains and stickiness at places along his legs and torso let him know his head wasn’t the only place that was bleeding either.

He forced himself to sit up and very nearly toppled over with the effort. A single work lantern had fallen down… into wherever they were with them. It revealed a cramped, cave-like space. Whatever opening he had fallen through was now gone. The ceiling was a mass of rock and debris that groaned and rained dust in little showers that floated through the lantern light. No way back up.

“Mizuki!?” 

The voice cut through the ringing in his ears, raspy and hoarse. Terrified.

“Wuyang!?” The sound of his own voice sent a new wave of nausea coursing through him that he couldn’t quite fight down. He dry-heaved, grateful they hadn’t had time for much of a breakfast. 

“Oh thank god. Thank you. Thank you, thank you.” Wuyang’s voice broke apart in babbled, desperate gratitude.

Mizuki dragged himself forward on one arm and his knees. He rounded a pile of rubble and was horrified to see Wuyang suspended from the rocks above, leg wedged between two ancient-looking wooden support beams that had collapsed in the rockfall. Blood stained his pant leg dark and his face was flushed from being upside down. His hands were scraped raw from trying to pull himself free.

Panic rose in Mizuki’s gut, but the sob Wuyang let out wasn’t in pain, it was in relief.

“I thought you were dead,” Wuyang choked. “I- you weren’t moving. I could only see your legs and you weren’t moving and I thought… Mizzy.” 

“Are you ok?” Mizuki croaked, not even registering the blood dripping from his own temple. 

“Oh my god, you’re bleeding everywhere-”

Mizuki didn’t answer. Panic was thrumming through him like a possessed spirit. His heart was pounding so hard he swore his ribs were shaking. He rose on unsteady legs, vision swimming, and grabbed his glaive where it still hung from it’s chain.

“Hold still.”

“Mizuki, you can’t even stand-”

“Hold. Still.”

The wood was as old as it looked, brittle and dry. It gave way with just a few well-placed chops and a crack that echoed in their trapped space.

Wuyang fell free with a grunt.

Mizuki tried to catch him, but only succeeded in collapsing with him. His head exploded with pain again and he gagged on more bile. 

“Mizuki.” Wuyang scrambled upright despite the now frightfully obvious break in his ankle. “Sit up. Sit up. Let me-” His hands were on him, shaking. 

“M’fine just… just give me a second.”

“You’re not fine.” Wuyang shuffled forward and took Mizuki’s face between his hands. “I thought I lost you. I thought I lost you.”

For a moment, they just looked at eachother. 

Wuyang’s face was streaked with weird tear tracks from hanging upside down. New ones gathered at the corners of his eyes, spilling over and weaving tracks of their own down his cheeks.

“This looks deep.” Wuyang noted, reaching to brush his thumb along the edge of what Mizuki assumed was the cause of the head bleeding… and likely concussion.

Mizuki just shook his head and used his arm to pull Wuyang into him. It hurt like a motherfucker, but feeling his warm, breathing, life against him more than made up for it.

“Mizzy you could have gotten away,” Wuyang trailed off with a small shuddering sob and buried his face against Mizuki’s neck. “You could have gotten away, why did you come back!?”

“Stupid question,” Mizuki mumbled. “Would’ve killed you.”

“Better me than both of us.”

“No.”

The word came out sharper than he had intended, but apologizing felt like a lot of effort he didn’t think he could spare. Getting out of here would be hard enough and he could tell by the thumping sending new dust raining down on them that the fight above was still going on.

“We need to get back to the others. Have you seen my kasa?” Mizuki struggled to push Wuyang back enough to look around, wincing at the movement.

Wuyang shook his head. “I don’t think it's down here. My staff either. I need water to fix some of this or we’re not getting far… I could… urine is mostly water-”

“No.”

“Mizuki you’re hurt bad.”

“Not bad enough for you to pee on me.” Mizuki gently shoved him the rest of the way back and ignored the myriad of his own pains to inspect Wuyang’s leg. He used his teeth to rip off what was left of his last glove and gingerly turned his boyfriend’s ankle over. “This is broken.”

“You’re worse,” Wuyang argued.

“I’ll accept the trophy later. Comms?”

“‘I think we’re too deep. Zarya saw us fall. She’ll know where to-”

A massive impact overhead shook the cave space, cutting Wuyang off. Another torrent of dust came down, this time accompanied by pebbles and wood splinters as the entire ceiling shifted. Mizuki’s eyes flickered to a narrow opening, an old tunnel reinforced with more wooden beams, this time intact.

“Guess we take the deep, dark, probably haunted tunnel.”

Wuyang didn’t argue. He just nodded.

Mizuki groaned as he forced himself to his feet. He stumbled his way over to the lantern and grabbed it before returning to help Wuyang up. Supporting his weight when he could barely keep himself upright was… difficult, but desperation fed his strength. Together they hobbled into the tunnel opening and beyond.

They had to pause several times for Mizuki to overcome spasms of dry heaving, Wuyang getting more nervous with each occurrence. 

“I don’t think that’s just a concussion. Why do you feel so cold.” Wuyang fretted. “I need water.”

“If I lose consciousness, you can pee on me.” 

“Mizuki.” There was no amusement in Wuyang’s voice, only terror. 

After a while, the thudding above faded out to nothing and the tunnel started going in an upward direction. Which was great, but the incline made it much harder to pretend he wasn’t failing… and fast.

Eventually, a step came that was too much and Mizuki’s knees buckled. They both went down hard.

“Mizuki!?”

“I think… I think the spirits got me on this one, Wu-chan.”

“What does that mean!? Don’t say that!” Wuyang dragged himself closer, broken leg ignored. “Don’t say that.” 

“Shouldn’t have dragged you into this.”

“You didn’t drag me anywhere!” Wuyang’s voice cracked. “We were assigned.”

“Everyone I love gets hurt.” Mizuki was too out of it to really care what he had just revealed. It was becoming impossible to keep his eyes open. “Broken leg… now you gotta watch me bleed out…”

“Bleed out?” Wuyang frowned, then dropped his gaze to where Mizuki’s hand had gone, pressed against his side. The black fabric and darkness had concealed it well, but this close… there was too much blood.

“Oh no.” Wuyang whispered.

His hands moved quickly, tearing some part of the white jacket he always had tied on his waist off. He pressed it hard against the wound.

Mizuki didn’t even wince.

“Mizuki. Mizzy, stay with me.” Wuyang’s voice trembled. “Mizuki, please.”

“Sorry.” Mizuki breathed.

“No. Mizuki, don’t you dare.” Wuyang pressed his head forward until their foreheads touched. His tears flowed freely now. “You said you loved me. I love you too, ok? I love you and you’re not allowed to leave me right now. You are not.”

Mizuki tried to respond, say something sarcastic… something reassuring. But the darkness got there first.

How cliché, was Mizuki’s last thought.

----------------------------------------------

When he woke, it was slowly, to the sound of someone humming compas music. 

He forced his eyes open and took in the familiar, bright lighting of the Gibraltar infirmary, which almost immediately ignited a pain in his head and caused him to snap his eyes back shut with a groan. 

The fight came rushing back to his mind. The fall. The tunnel. Wuyang.

He tried to sit up too fast. Alarms above him beeped. A lance of pain shot up his right side. He became immediately aware his left arm was still gone. 

A hand pushed back down gently. 

“Careful, my friend. I need you to take it easy.” 

Baptiste’s familiar voice cut through the haze.

“Wuyang,” Mizuki croaked. “Where is he?”

To his surprise, Baptiste chuckled.

“Young love. I remember it well.” He sounded amused. “He is fine. That boy wouldn’t leave your side all night. I finally had to get Reinhardt to escort him to the shower. He was stinking everything up.”

“Athena?” Baptise added, addressing the base AI. “Can you tell Agent Ye that Mizuki is awake?”

“Affirmative,” Athena confirmed.

“He will be very excited.” 

Baptiste lifted the back of the bed so Mizuki could sit up slowly this time, and handed him a cup of water.

“What… happened?” Mizuki asked. 

“Eh I don’t know everything. Just that Null Sector apparently activated an omnium and are frankesteining new freaky bots.”

“I meant… to me.” Mizuki corrected.

“Ah.” Baptise began ticking things off on his fingers. “Six inch gash on your side all the way down to your ribs. Blood loss. Severe concussion. Multiple lacerations. Cranial swelling. And you’re going to need to wait a few weeks before we even attempt to remake your cybernetic connections.”

“And Wuyang?”

“Damn near killed himself getting you out. Then some of Zenny’s friends found you and helped stabilize you.”

“I should be dead.” Mizuki said quietly. “I felt the spirits… I should be dead.”

“I’m afraid I don’t know anything about that.” Baptise smiled at him. “Only that Wuyang’s determination must be stronger than those spirits of yours. Ah- speak of the devil.”

Wuyang burst into the room, breathless… shirtless and wet. He was already crying and looked like hell. Hair mussed, eyes swollen, still littered with bruises. 

“Wow.” Mizuki tries to make it… normal. “You look like shit.”

Wuyang didn’t laugh.

He hobbled across the room at a speed that nearly had him tripping, ankle enclosed in a white exo-splint. When he reached the bed he stopped abruptly, like he’d hit an invisible wall. His hands hovered, his eyes wet with tears. He was shaking violently.

Baptiste quietly slipped away.

“You stopped breathing.” Wuyang breathes when they’re alone. 

“Wu-chan.” Mizuki raised his arm.

“You stopped breathing!” Wuyang’s voice broke on a sob and he folded forward, carefully but desperately pressing himself into Mizuki. There were no words for a while, just Wuyang’s restrained sobs. Mizuki wound his hand up into Wuyang’s damp hair and held him there, cradling his head.

For a while there were no words, only shaking breaths and quiet sobs. Mizuki closed his eyes when he realized his own vision was blurring with tears.

After a few long minutes, Wuyang finally stilled, exhausted, resting against him as their breathing slowly matched.

“Did you pee on me?” Mizuki whispered.

The startled laugh the question pulled out of Wuyang felt like pure sunlight.

Wuyang pulled himself back just far enough to make eye contact. His face was still wet with tears, nose red, completely wrecked, but he was smiling now.

“I needed water.” He said bashfully. He brought up a hand and cupped Mizuki’s jaw. His thumb brushed along Mizuki’s cheek with painful tenderness. “I can’t lose you. You should not have come back for me.”

“Wuyang.” Mizuki said seriously, “I think I have spent my entire life needing you without knowing it. Now that I have you, I wasn’t about to let a fucking War-of-the-Worlds-ass Omnic take you from me.”

“You’re an idiot.”

“Rude.”

“Did you mean what you said in the tunnel?” Wuyang asked softly. 

“What… did I say in the tunnel?”

“You don’t remember!?” 

“Apparently, I was half dead, so no.”

“You… you said you loved me. Well you said everyone you loved gets hurt but then you were talking about me and-”

“I meant it.” Mizuki cut him off. “I mean I do. Love you.”

Wuyang blinked like the words had physically hit him, like he hadn’t expected Mizuki to so readily admit it.

“Oh. I-”

Mizuki reached up to cover Wuyang’s mouth, cutting him off.

“I mean the other part too.” Mizuki said. “The curse… You almost died too because you were with me. Misfortune… I wish I was strong enough to break-”

Now it was Wuyang’s turn to lift a hand and press it over Mizuki’s mouth. For a moment, they stared at eachother and then Mizuki jerked his hand back suddenly. 

“Did you just lick me!?”

“Yes,” Wuyang said flatly. “Because you’re an idiot.”

“Again. Rude.”

Wuyang carefully climbed onto the bed, moving slowly so he didn’t aggravate Mizuki’s injuries. He settled over him, knees braced on either side, and held Mizuki’s face between both hands.

“I know you believe in your curse,” he said softly.  I won’t try to convince you not to. But if you break up with me, I will tell Anran to light you on fire.”

He gave Mizuki a serious look.

“Got it?”

“Understood.”

“Good.”

Wuyang leaned down slowly, giving Mizuki plenty of time to pull away if he needed to.

“I love you too,” Wuyang whispered. 

The kiss was gentle at first, almost hesitant. Like Wuyang was afraid of hurting him. But when Mizuki started kissing him back, it deepened into something warm and steady.

It was probably the most intense kiss Mizuki had ever experienced.

Everyone he loved DID get hurt, and here was Wuyang… choosing to love him anyway. It was terrifying. It was overwhelming. It just reaffirmed his dedication to break the curse, no longer to protect himself, but to protect Wuyang.

He pulled back when his head began to swim again, and an alarm on the bedside beeped.

“Watch it!” Baptiste called out from somewhere behind the soft fabric curtain. “Concussion! Cranial swelling!”

“Oh my gosh!” Wuyang scrambled off the bed like he’d been shocked. “I am so sorry.”

“This sucks.” Mizuki groaned and let his head flop back against the bed.

“We’ll demand a day off?” Wuyang offered. 

Mizuki looked at him longingly for a moment, then smirked. “Good. We need to explore this kinky side of yours.”

“K-kinky side!?”

“Well you did pee on me.”

“MIZUKI.”