" YUANFEN " genji shimada.

iii | a favor

yuanfen.
act one, chapter three.
"a favor"

—

DAHLIA KNEW BETTER THAN to push Genji to talk anymore after their conversation- especially when he at least agreed to think about her request. She didn't want to push her luck, so she made sure to keep her lips clamped tightly shut as he led her down the hallway. As they neared the lab, she reached into her pocket, relieved to find both Winston's keycard and the bullet from the evidence room still stuffed inside. Her fingers danced over the copper bullet, and she smiled to herself as she realized that the entire situation hadn't been in vain.

Genji came to a stop just outside the lab. He said nothing, arms crossed tightly over his chest as he gestured inside. "There you go, gaki."

Dahlia's eyebrows pulled together in confusion at the use of the foreign word. She opened her mouth to ask him what it meant, though Genji had already turned away from her. She watched as he retreated down the hallway, obviously not wanting to stay for any longer than what was necessary.

"Remember to think about it!" She called after him. If he heard her (which, considering her voice echoed off the walls of the otherwise empty hallway, was likely) he ignored her. He disappeared around the corner without looking back. Dahlia shrugged, awkwardly waving in his direction before she entered the lab.

Much to her relief, Winston was still nowhere to be seen. There's no way he's still on his lunch break, Dahlia thought to herself as she moved to return his keycard to his desk. He must have business elsewhere. Or maybe he's busy debriefing for the same mission that Genji's going on.

She frowned as the thought crossed her mind. Being Winston's apprentice meant that Dahlia spent most of her time cooped up in the lab, even when her mentor got to do the fun stuff. Winston knew of her desire to work in the field, so he made sure to tell her all about the missions whenever he returned. She appreciated his thoughtfulness, and she loved the stories he told her, but envied him: being able to do what he loved whilst also helping fight to protect the world. It was weird at first, being mentored by a gorilla from the moon, but Winston was one of the smartest beings she knew, and they pair had grown close over the years they had worked together.

Dahlia stared down at the keycard that she placed on his desk, once again feeling guilty for taking advantage of her mentor's forgetfulness. Reaching down into her pocket to feel the bullet, she reminded herself that she did it with the best intentions; besides, what Winston didn't know wouldn't hurt him.

She plopped down in a seat in front of one of the countless lab tables. She took the evidence bag out of her pocket, opening it and dumping the bullet out onto the table in front of her. Dahlia examined the copper object closely, noticing tiny engravings on the surface. Her eyes skimmed over the remnants of blood still staining the tip of the bullet.

"Hey, Athena!" She called to the AI. "Are you able to run ballistics?"

"It is in my programming, Miss Blackrock, but shouldn't you leave that to the forensics division?" Athena responded.

"This is for my own personal research," Dahlia said to her, and it wasn't exactly a lie. She tucked the bullet away once more, saving it for a day where she had more time to research it on her own. Winston could walk through the doors at any given moment, and she didn't want to be caught with evidence that she legally wasn't allowed to have.

Dahlia moved on to begin to clean several flasks and other equipment left behind by her mentor. She slipped on a pair of gloves, dipping her hands beneath the warm water of the sink, and began using a sponge to scrub at the dirty equipment. It was a job that she knew far too well; while Winston sometimes allowed her to participate in the simple experiments that he conducted, she wasn't exactly an authorized scientist, leaving her with the less-exciting job of cleaning up the mess afterwards. It wasn't a difficult job, although sometimes the remnants of an exploded test tube or failed chemical concoction made her rather nervous to clean up.

As she continued to clean the various flasks and test tubes piled up beside the sink, Dahlia's mind wandered back towards the conversation she had with Commander Morrison. It angered her how the Commander constantly shrugged off her suggestions and worries as though they didn't matter. Sure, Jack Morrison had been working in the field, whether it be Overwatch or the military, for longer than she'd been alive, but she wasn't stupid. The least he could do was listen to what she had to say.

"Overwatch is not above the law," Dahlia mocked the Commander with a frown. "Your father wouldn't want you to have this life. My father's dead, he can't make decisions for me anymore."

"Dahlia?" She perked up at the sound of her mentor's voice, swiveling around in her chair to see Winston entering the lab. He looked around him in confusion, almost as if he was looking for something. "Who are you talking to?"

Dahlia smiled in his direction. Although in a foul mood, the company of her mentor never failed to make her feel better. "I was talking to myself. It gets lonely here all on my own, y'know?"

Winston chuckled at this and nodded in understanding. "I worked alone before I had you. I know what you mean," he said, and suddenly Dahlia felt guilty. She knew how much he appreciated her company, and he was always willing to listen when she spoke, even the times when she did nothing but complain about how unhappy she was working in the lab. She watched as Winston plopped down in a hammock in the corner of the room. He grabbed a jar of peanut butter, opening it with his feet and slurping at it as if it was a smoothie. Dahlia grimaced slightly, still not used to her mentor's animalistic tendencies. Although he was arguably the smartest being on base, he was still just a gorilla.

"I heard you got in trouble today," he said after a moment, looking at Dahlia over the top of his glasses.

"I swear you agents gossip more than high schoolers," Dahlia grumbled with a roll of her eyes, causing him to chuckle lightly and shrug.

"You need to let it go," he warned her. She sighed, fed up with the amount of scolding she had already received. She wasn't a child, and she was sick of being treated like one. "Commander Morrison and his team of trained investigators will get justice for your father, you do not need to worry. Besides-" He dropped the now-empty jar of peanut butter onto the floor and stretched his arms out around him. "-what could be better than spending your time in the safety of a lab, surrounded by all that science has to offer?"

Dahlia mumbled agreement, though she actually couldn't disagree more. No matter how much she liked Winston and enjoyed his company, working in a lab just wasn't for her. She didn't want to spend the rest of her life cooped up in a lab; she longed for freedom, for the ability to help people, to help the world.