the shooting stars and i || genssidy

chapter 15 || timetable

genji's schedule, the piece of paper taped to his dorm fridge read.

7:30 AM: wake up. he pushed himself out of bed, slipped off the sweater that didn't belong to him, never returned, and brought himself to his senses as he stepped in front of his mirror to brush his teeth. he missed the soft snoring he used to hear until 8 o' clock. his dorm felt so silent without it.

8:00 AM: head downstairs for breakfast, it continued. he rubbed the sleep from his eyes and made his way downstairs to the cafeteria, where he wouldn't be able to even converse with the man he loved most. reyes's demeanor was bubbly like usual as he went over future plans for the team, while everyone else remained silent. genji couldn't bring himself to look at cassidy. it was too much to bear, knowing that what he wanted was so near and yet so far from reach. he caught cassidy looking at him a few times, and he tried to smile back, but it just made genji appear all the more miserable the more he forced it.

8:30 AM: training in private quarters was listed next. genji found himself going upstairs despite not even remembering when or how breakfast ended. he breathed in sharply through his teeth. he made his way to his private gym and wrapped his non-cybernetic arm in cloth, preparing to hit the punching bag hung from the ceiling in the center of the room. he needed to be faster, he promised himself. if he could just eliminate reyes in the blink of an eye, then there would be nothing standing in his way to cassidy. no more endless nights of monotonous torture, no more spending his time wasting away in his dorm while being bored out of his mind. how did moira handle it, he wondered? he couldn't stand a day longer in these new conditions.

10:00 AM, it went on. break time. genji had nothing to do in his dorm. with cassidy, he got to travel to europe or some other part of the world he'd never seen before just from the other man's stories. he no longer had that luxury. all the technology in the building were updated to prevent genji from contacting cassidy in any way. he couldn't ask workers to pass notes; it was now against company protocol. he couldn't take the silence anymore. he just wanted to talk to someone. to feel the touch of cassidy's lips against his. no words could describe how much he yearned for him every second of the day.

11:00 AM: recreational hour. he left his dorm and went to the library to calm his mind a bit and hopefully catch a glimpse of cassidy as well. he started in the archive section to try and get informed about what they were dealing with, but slowly found his way to the nonfiction section from curiosity. he picked up a book about folktales from his home country, missing the way his father's highest servant would recite the stories to him when he was only learning how to count on his fingers. after a while, he caught sight of a familiar hat-wearer staring at him from across the short aisles of books, which felt more like a sea. he smiled at genji and waved, not saying a word. genji couldn't even will himself to smile back from the pain he felt. he held an arm out and beckoned cassidy to come closer, which was already dangerous enough. they could hide together, at least for this hour. but it was too dangerous. reyes would catch on instantly. they finally looked away, after an eternity of gazing at each other. they went their separate ways to find different corners of the library to sit in. genji couldn't take his mind off of cassidy no matter how hard he tried.

12:00 PM, it had reserved in the middle of the paper, have lunch as a team. another half hour of suffering, this time with moira speaking up to discuss plans with reyes a bit more. he didn't even ask genji or cassidy for their input. they both gave him hollow looks in response. nothing memorable ever happened at these gatherings. it was a waste of time, except for the food. cassidy couldn't take his eyes off of genji, and reyes snapped a finger in his face to pull him out of his trance.

1:00 PM: train recruits was listed next. genji rubbed his eyes from exhaustion. it seemed as if the day was never going to come to an end. he had to go down to the training grounds with his assigned group of rookies and teach them how to work with him on missions. he couldn't deal with their immaturity and their restless questions. he was tired of snapping at them like they were schoolchildren. oddly, he sometimes caught himself thinking about cassidy whenever something interesting would happen. he'd enjoy being with these people, genji thought to himself, from how childish they could be. it could be oddly endearing. but today he wasn't in the mood to deal with them. one of them kept falling over from the simple recoil of their gun. another would not shut their mouth about their fighting techniques being "perfect" when they were far from it (genji could point out a million things wrong with their stance, for starters).