Work Text:
"Good Morning, my love," Hanzo greets with a yawn as he enters the lab, tugging on a white coat that is honestly far too worn to actually be useful as he approaches his desk, "Ready for another test?"
A rasping snarl from the cell on the left wall is his only response, and though he knows to expect that by now, every time it still cuts like a knife.
Every day, Hanzo comes back to this lab, trying to find a cure that will give Kuai Liang his humanity back.
Every day, he lets himself hope that he will be greeted by brown eyes and that gravel toned voice again.
Every day, he instead faces a corpse that hisses and snrls and rattles the bars of his cage, and reality crashes down on him once more.
"I know, I know," Hanzo rolls his eyes, clinging to his sanity by a thread as he pretends they are having a conversation on a normal morning, "But I am cautiously optimistic this time."
Hanzo has tried 47 different cures.
All have failed.
Any one else would have given up by now, would have accepted that the zombie virus could not be cured and put Kuai Liang out of his misery.
But Hanzo is not anyone else.
Hanzo cannot let this be the end of them the way it was the end of the world.
Not when Kuai Liang is so good, deserves so much better.
Not when he is all Hanzo has left.
They'd met after the apocalypse had already begun, and Hanzo knows that if he had not met the soldier, he never would have made it.
Kuai Liang and his unit had been stationed at the research base where Hanzo had worked with a handful of others, trying to find a cure, a vaccine, anything. Officially, they were there to protect the scientists from the hordes of undead, but unofficially, Kuai Liang confessed that he thought they'd end up threatened by humans more than anything else.
At first, Hanzo and his coworkers hadn't really mingled with the soldiers, neither group wanting to distract the other from their work.
But then the supply shipments stopped.
And then communications went down.
And then they were all stuck there, alone.
It had been a matter of survival for them all, so Kenshi, their head researcher, had enforced mandatory team dinners. Everyone pitched in to make food, there was a chore rota for cleaning up afterwards, and everyone ate together. Before long, friendships had bloomed, and everyone felt just a little bit saner.
Things felt a little bit closer to normal.
Kuai Liang and Hanzo had been the ones scheduled to clean after that very first dinner, and it had been so easy to let the soldier in under his walls, to laugh with him and talk with him and reach out for hands that were reaching back.
They were inseperable after that, Kuai Liang would accompany Hanzo around base and in the lab when the soldier wasn't on duty, watching and offering his own insights.
Hanzo had taken his few breaks up at the guard tower, bringing Kuai Liang a snack or a meal to ensure the other man ate during his long watches.
It hadn't taken long for them to start spilling secrets to one another, things they'd never said to another soul.
How Hanzo's wife and son had been some of the first to catch the virus, how he couldn't save them, how he'd prayed for it to take him too but it never did.
How Kuai Liang's brother had been bitten when the first hordes had formed, how he'd turned faster than anyone had every seen, how Kuai Liang had been the one putting a bullet in his brother's head because he knew Bi-Han would not have wanted to live like that.
Kuai Liang had told him about the child he'd saved all those years ago, and the secret he still kept to protect her, and Hanzo had sworn never to reveal it, never to let anyone exploit it should it be discovered.
The only person who could get Hanzo to rest was Kuai Liang and the only person who could pull Kuai Liang back to himself when the memories grew to much was Hanzo.
And then their supplies ran out, and the soldiers started raiding nearby locations for food, equipment, anything they could find.
They had a rota for that too, anf Hanzo had been furious when he found out how often Kuai Liang was on it. He'd been so angry for reasons he could not name that he'd refused to speak to the soldier before he'd driven out the first time.
They'd both pretended like Hanzo couldn't see the frown on Kuai Liang's face, the hurt in his eyes.
The anger had faded when Sonya and Kuai Liang didn't come back that night.
Or the next.
Or the next.
Hanzo stopped eating, stopped sleeping, throwing himself into his work so that he didn't have to think about all the terrible things that could have happened. He couldn't cope with losing anyone else, so he pretended he didn't notice the delay, ignoring the worried looks the other scientists sent him.
When Kuai Liang's truck had finally rumbled back into the base's parking lot, carrying him and Sonya back home, banged up but alive, Hanzo had bolted for them without even thinking about it.
The soldier had barely gotten out of the car before Hanzo was on him, kissing Kuai Liang within an inch of his life and muttering apologies in between.
Things hadn't changed much after that, save for how they dragged Kuai Liang's cot into Hanzo's quarters so they'd have enough room to stay together, and the way they'd slip away from time to time so they could hold each other close.
Life had felt…not perfect, not with the end of the world, but close enough to it. It was like they lived in their own little bubble where the apocalypse didn't matter.
But all good things must come to an end, and one day, Sonya didn't come back from a raid. Jax had said she fell as they crossed rooftops, the rung of a latter giving out under her, that it had been quick, painless.
The next time he went out, he didn't come back either.
The soldiers started dying on raids, from zombies and other survivors and animals and environmental hazards.
So the scientists picked up the slack, joining the soldiers on their runs and if it had the added bonus of getting them better samples and information, their attempts at a cure advancing faster, well…
Given the cost, no one had it in them to celebrate that.
The biggest fight Hanzo and Kuai Liang ever had was when the soldier told Hanzo he wasn't allowed to go on the raids, leaving the two screaming at one another in fury and ignoring each other for hours afterwards.
Hanzo had only relented when the soldier had cracked, begging him with wild, pleading eyes, to please stay home, where it was safe, where Kuai Liang didn't have to fear he'd lose yet another person he loved.
No one judged them for it, no one was upset that Hanzo never left the base, but even if they had, Hanzo wouldn't have cared.
Any amount of scorn would be worth it if it meant Kuai Liang never looked at him like that again, with that terror and grief.
And then, one day, Kuai Liang came back with a bite on his arm, and Hanzo's whole world fell apart.
At the soldier's request, they locked him in one of the cells they had ready for when they started testing the cures, and promised to use him as the guinea pig. Normally, Hanzo would have fought him on that, but the knowledge that the soldier was dying, would turn, left him desperate for any solution.
If testing every possible cure on Kuai Liang was what it took to get him back, then that's what Hanzo would do.
Which brings them to now, with Hanzo and Kuai Liang the only two people left in this base, testing cure after cure in the hopes that something will work.
"I'll spare you the details," Hanzo says as he gets the needle ready, getting a rumbling huff in response, "But I changed one of the components and I think that will help, arm please?"
Silence stretches through the air as Hanzo approaches the cell, needle in hand, and then the impossible happens.
Slowly, Kuai Liang slips his arm out through the bar, palm up, and blinks at Hanzo with milky white eyes.
This is how Hanzo knows he is still in there, can still be saved, because the soldier does not flinch as the needle goes in.
It happened somewhere around the tenth attempt, the soldier growing more lucid, reacting to words and names with responses too intelligent to ignore. It never lasts long, and he's still more zombie than man, but he is improving, even if Hanzo doesn't know why.
Kuai Liang, waits patiently as Hanzo injects the new formula, waiting until the needle is removed to rip his arm back with a growl and toss himself further into the cell.
"I'm sorry, my love," Hanzo whispers, kneeling by the bars to be at eye level with the husk of his lover, "I know it hurts, I'm sorry."
Lying on the floor, Kuai Liang writhes and whines as the solution works its way through his body, and Hanzo never once leaves his side.
"Fuck!" Hanzo shouts as he reads the results of the blood test, a hopeless sort of fury swelling in his chest and he cannot think past it.
The table flips easily under his hands (luckily not the one that had his irreplaceable equipment on it but still) and Kuai Liang growls again at the disturbance.
The cure hadn't worked.
48 attempts.
All failures.
"What is the point?" Hanzo chokes out hysterically, hands coming up to tug on his own hair as tears pool in his eyes.
Maybe this is all pointless.
Maybe he can't save Kuai Liang, just like he couldn't save his wife, couldn't save his son.
Maybe he really is just prolonging both of their suffering.
He can't be here right now.
Stumbling, Hanzo rips off his lab coat and snatches up his keys, making his way through the base to gather up his gear before heading to the truck.
It's unwise to leave the safety of the research base in such a distraught state, but he doesn't care. Not when every inch of those halls is just another reminder of every horrible thing that has happened.
(it's a reminder of so many good things too, and somehow that's worse.)
The engine roars to life under his hands, and before Hanzo can think about it, he's speeding away from the base as fast as he can.
He just needs a minute, some fresh air and a change of scenery to clear his head before he goes back to work.
He's not letting it end here, he's just….pausing, for a moment.
The shop is quiet as Hanzo creeps through the aisles, snatching as many seed packets as he can off of the shelves and tucking them into his pack. It is lucky that there was a garden center so close to base, since Hanzo knows the canned food won't last forever. Already, he's seeing stuff that is out of date, and he knows he needs to set up his garden quick if he wants to continue eating at least once a day.
Satisfied with his seeds, Hanzo pushes the cart towards the bags of soil and fertilizer, grabbing as much as he can fit into the truck, when he's interrupted by the sound of shouting.
Not the snarls and growling of a zombie horde.
People.
"Stop whining!" A boy's voice cuts through the air sharply, "You cut yourself with the shears, now I'm stitching you up! Actions have consequences."
"I saved your life, asshole," A girl growls back as Hanzo slowly creeps towards the sound, "You could at least be a little gentler."
"And here I thought you liked it a little rough," Another girl chuckles, earning herself a frustrated growl from the injured party.
"Alright, I found some aquaphor in the manager's office," A different boy cuts in as two sets of footsteps race towards the group, "Will that help?"
"I managed to get some advil from the nearby cvs," Yet another girl chimes in, tossing the bottle to one of her compatriots as Hanzo finally draws close enough to se them through the shelves.
Two boys and three girls, not one of them older than sixteen.
They must have been so young when the virus started, they likely don't even remember the world being any other way.
Sitting on the ground with her back against the shelves is a glaring girl with a shock of white hair, her leg stained red around a nasty looking gash that has been carefully stitched together. In front of her is a boy with a shaggy mop of black hair, so similar to Kenshi's had been that for a moment Hanzo cannot breathe, tucking a sewing kit back into a pouch on his belt.
A blonde girl with a gun on her hip and a bat in her hands is standing beside them, holding the injured girl's hand and chewing bubble gum as she scans the shelves around them for any signs of approaching zombies.
The newcomers stand side by side at the end of the aisle: Another raven haired boy, though his hair is long and carefully tied back, with a bow slung over his shoulders and a dark skinned girl with her hair braided down close to her scalp and a set of metal bracers on her arms that Hanzo recognizes.
Jax had worn similar ones, and the man had been able to punch through concrete.
No wonder they all made it out on zombie covered streets for so long, they are certainly well prepared.
"We told you not to go there," Shaggy hair whispers to her, worry creasing his eyes, "That place is infested."
"I wasn't seen, Takeda," The braided girl promises, her words soft and gentle, "Not by zombies or people."
Curiosity gets the better of Hanzo and he steps out from his hiding spot.
"Until now, that is," He rumbles at them, intending for the words to come out teasing but instead they are rough.
The five teenagers all jolt at the sound of his voice, weapons drawn and aimed at him before he can blink.
Shaggy Hair, or Takeda, he supposes, has a sword, which surprises Hanzo with how familiar it looks and how well he holds it. The glaring girl bares her teeth in a snarl as she makes to stand too, hand going to the wicked looking daggers on her belt only to be stopped by Bubble Gum's hand on her shoulder, pushing her back down.
"I mean no harm," Hanzo assures, pitching his voice into that soft tone that had always helped ease Kuai Liang's fears when his memories took hold, "I have not seen any other survivors in nearly three years now, I was just curious, but I shall leave you be if you wish."
Silence greets his words, so Hanzo tucks his disappointment away and turns his back. At least he got to hear a voice that wasn't his own for once, he can let that be enough.
"Wait!" The braided girl calls after him, ignoring the way her friends hiss at her to stop, "Do you know where the S.R.R.C. is?"
Shock rips through Hanzo as he whirls back around, the acronym one he hasn't heard since….well since Before.
"What?" He breathes out, eyes darting over each teen as he tries to figure out how they know that name.
"The Shirai Ryu Research Center," Takeda clarifies, wincing when White Hair kicks him with her good leg, "We've been trying to get there for ages, are we close?"
"Why are you trying to find it?" Hanzo questions in suspicion, hand going to his waist where his makeshift rope dart rests.
"None of your business," The archer answers with a sneer, fingers twitching around the arrow he has knocked but hasn't drawn, "Just tell us how to find it."
It is stupid to say, Hanzo knows this, but the sword in Takeda's hands, the gauntlet on the braided girl's arms, the way Bubble Gum leans against the wall, all of it is so familiar that Hanzo can't help but to speak.
"I'm not telling you where I live until I know why you want to get there."
All five sets of eyes widen in shock, silence carrying through the air before Bubble Gum finally crows in victory.
"I told you fuckers!" She grins madly, jumping for joy, "Didn't I say it! No way Mom would let that place fall! I bet you they're already close to a cure, they won't even need-."
"Cassie!" The archer cuts her off with wide eyes, his gaze darting between her and Hanzo in fear.
Her words make the scientist's heart sink, and he knows the news he will have to give.
Hanzo was never a medical doctor, or at least, he never worked in a hospital. He's never had to give people the news that their loved ones were gone. But he remembers how the doctor told him.
"What was you're mother's name?" Hanzo asks, and she must hear the sorrow in his words because her face falls.
"Sonya Blade."
Hanzo's eyes close as he sucks in a sharp breath, "I am so sorry, but…"
"No," Cassie chokes out, eyes welling with tears.
"It was five years ago, and it was painless," Hanzo tells her, sparing her details that will only bring more devastation.
If she asks, he will not lie to her, but nor will he inflict this knowledge upon her.
"Jax Briggs," The braided girl asks with an impressively even voice and suddenly Hanzo knows who she is too.
Jacqui, the major's beloved daughter, for whom he had left retirement to defend one of the bases searching for a cure so that she might have a safe world to grow up in.
"He went missing about a month after Sonya died," Hanzo explains, making sure to look her in the eyes, "I don't know what happened after that."
Her face turns stony as she nods in acceptance, and Hanzo's heart aches for her.
"And…Kenshi?" Takeda whispers, eyes fixed on the floor, "Takahashi Kenshi?"
"Pneumonia," Hanzo nearly chokes on the words, remembering the way the other scientist had withered away, how Hanzo hadn't been able to save him at all, "Three years ago."
"Is there anyone left?" The archer asks, eyes darting across his devastated companions, "Anyone at all?"
"Just me," Hanzo shakes his head, electing not to mention Kuai Liang, "I am sorry that you did not find what you were searching for."
He can't imagine how this must feel, to spend years searching for your family only to return and be told that you were too late, they were gone.
"We didn't just come looking for them," White Hair tells him, squeezing Cassie's hand in an attempt to comfort her, "Did you work at the center?"
Hanzo nods, brow furrowed in confusion, "I work there still, and I will until I either succeed, or I die."
"Well then today's your lucky day," The injured girl lets out a mirthless chuckle, "We have information that can help you make a cure."
And all at once, Hanzo can breathe again.
"I can walk," Frost hisses as Hanzo carries her into the base, the other teens following close behind, "I don't need to be carried like a baby."
"I was raised with manners, and your leg is injured," Hanzo replies dryly, fighting back a sigh at hearing this again, "I am not babying you, I am trying to help."
Huffing, Frost does not dignify him with a response.
"Kung Jin," Hanzo calls over his shoulder to the nearest teen, "Would you punch the code for the lab in? Its 8926."
Nodding, the archer does as asked and the door to the lab slides open to let them all in.
"Please make yourselves at home, though I will ask that you treat everything in here with care," Hanzo tells them as he sets Frost down on a bench, tugging Ermac's crutches out of what once once the man's locker and passing them over to here, "I will also ask that you stay away from the containment cells."
"Why?" Jacqui's brow furrows as she peers over at them, a curtan blocking Kuai Liang from view, "Is something in there?"
Hanzo sighs as he rights the table he had flipped earlier, and he figures they will find out sooner rather than later.
"Yes."
All eyes snap to him in shock and disbelief, likely thinking him an idiot for keeping a Zombie so close.
There is no danger to it, not when Nightwolf had designed the cells himself, nothing could escape them unless released.
"There was a soldier stationed her with your parents," Hanzo explains, not wanting to let their imaginations make the situation worse than it is, "When he got bit on a supply run about four years ago now, he came back and volunteered himself as a test subject for potential cures."
Understanding shines in Frost's eyes as she looks at him, turning towards the curtain in curiosity.
The others are confused, but none condemn him and he cannot help but to feel grateful for that.
"I promised him," Hanzo whispers under his breath, fighting back the stinging in his eyes, "I promised I'd cure him."
A hand finds his shoulder, and Hanzo looks over to see Cassie shooting him a sympathetic smile.
"Good thing you met us then, huh?" She elbows him gently, "We'll help ypu keep that promise."
Nodding, Hanzo goves her a grateful smile before his atttention is grabbed by the sound of Frost's crutches carrying her over to the cell.
"Frost-."
"I won't let him out," The white haired girl assures him, "I just…I wanna see. I need to know."
The curtain makes a whooshing sound as she pulls it aside, gasping as she takes in the sight before her.
To Hanzo's shock, Kuai Liang does not growl at the newcomer from where he's curled up in the corner the way he always does when woken from a nap. Instead, he just lets out a curious trill, lifting himself up and reaching for the bars.
"Kuai Liang?" Frost breathes out in shock, reaching back as tears pool in her eyes.
Slowly, Hanzo approaches, ready to tug her away when the soldier's lucidity leaves him.
"I apologize for not recognizing you, Frost," Hanzo whispers as he kneels beside her, watching as Kuai Liang's hand closes around hers with a mournful chuff, "He never told me your name, when he spoke of you."
"He talked about me?" She asks in a small voice, never taking her eyes off of him.
Hanzo nods, resting a hand on her shoulder.
"Often."
Before being stationed with the S.R.R.C, Kuai Liang's unit had been deployed on search and rescue missions throughout nearby cities. On one, Kuai Liang had found a little girl, with a bite mark on her arm that was already more than a week old.
Too old to turn.
She'd been abandoned by her parents after being bit, for fear that she would turn.
But she never did.
So Kuai Liang had helped her hide the bite, bringing her back to the special forces with him and ensuring that no one ever discovered her immunity for fear she would be deemed an acceptable sacrifice.
She was too young to die, Kuai Liang had said, and did not deserve to die like that, strapped to a table and torn apart.
Hanzo agreed.
Even if it meant the whole world was damned for it, the child's immunity could never be discovered.
"Did he tell you that I'm….?"
"He did," Hanzo confesses, mentally counting the seconds, the seconds rapidly becoming minutes that Kuai Liang stays as close to human as he can get, "No one else ever knew, but he told me."
"If you need to use me to fix him, then," Frost rushes out turning to Hanzo with pleading eyes, "Then you can, okay? I'll-."
"No, no," Hanzo cuts her off gently, seeing Kuai Liang's shoulders slump in relief out of the corner of his eyes, "I will never do that, not to you and not to him. We will find a way to cure him without resorting to such measures."
Before the virus, there would have been a way to look at her immunity and apply it without killing her, without traumatizing her or harming her in any way. But Hanzo was not trained in such matters, does not understand them, and he is the only scientist here.
He will not attempt it.
"I'm immune too," Kung Jin interjects, tugging a briefcase out of his pack and unzipping it, "We've already got all the results from the tests they did on us, so there's no need-."
"They might have to make the cure out of us-," Frost cuts in, glaring at the archer.
"That's not how it works," Hanzo assures them both, pulling Frost away from the cell when Kuai Liang begins to growl again, "Show me what you have brought, and I will see what I can do."
"We've been raiding all the abandoned research centers we could find," Jacqui explains as she pulls a computer from her own bag, plugging it in to the wall and attaching what looks like an external hard drive, "Frost and Jin are really the only two who understand any of it-."
"Perks of being a lab rat," Frost flashes them all a sharp edged grin, ignoring the sad look Cassie sends her.
"But according to them, there's enough here that someone should, theoretically, be able to synthesize a cure," Jacqui continues as though Frost hadn't spoken, "Which would be you."
"What do you mean, lab rat?" Hanzo turns to look at Frost and Kung Jin, eying them with trepidation.
"Well, Frost was experimented on by BlackDragon Industries and I volunteered to be studied by Wu Shi University," Kung Jin shrugs in explanation, "They analyzed our immunity and since my uncle worked at the university, he made sure I knew what was going on."
Frost also shrugs, the motion artful in it's nonchalance, "I'm just really good at eavesdropping."
And clearly intelligent, if she understood the words just by listening.
"I am incredibly grateful that you have brought this to me," Hanzo says rather than attempting to unpack that information, "But I must manage your expectations here."
Walking over to the filing cabinet, Hanzo pulls out his own notes.
"I have tried 48 different cures," Hanzo tells them, sliding the folder onto the table, "All have failed."
"We know it's a long shot," Takeda replies, fingers tugging on a loose thread of his sleeve, "But we had to try."
"You will try, right?" Cassie adds, hand squeezing Frost's shoulder in reassurance.
"Of course," Hanzo says, shocked that he even needs to confirm that, "But know that I might not succeed, and if I do, it will likely take time."
"We can wait," Jacqui shoots him a small smile, "After all, it's the end of the world, all we've got left is time."
He can't argue with that, so Hanzo gets to work.
Sitting at the table in the lab as he reads through the documents yet again, Hanzo takes a sip of his coffee, wrinkling his nose when he realizes it's gone cold.
In the past six months, Hanzo has tried seven new formulations of the cure.
All failures.
There's something missing, he can feel it, some component or process that he doesn't have that is stopping him from succeeding.
If only he knew what it was.
"You should really be asleep, old man," Frost sighs as she enters the lab, her leg long since healed.
"So should you," Hanzo fires back without looking up, "Stay behind the line."
She's taken to visiting Kuai Liang while the others are away, and rather than bar her from being in the lab alone, Hanzo painted a yellow line on the floor in front of the soldier's cell and asked that she stay behind it and out of his reach. That way when his lucidity fades, she is safe.
"I know," She huffs, sitting down in front of the cell and rolling a ball between the bars, "You gonna sleep any time soon?"
"Nope."
"Fair enough."
The silence of the lab is broken only by the sound of the ball being rolled back and forth by Frost and Kuai Liang, and Hanzo turns on his stopwatch to track the time once more.
He's been lucid for longer stretches now, and Hanzo cannot place why, but the records will be helpful regardless.
Better to have more information than you need than to need information you do not have.
Hours pass, Hanzo's eyes growing heavy as he chugs down the swill in his mug to stay awake, leafing through yet another paper when-.
There.
Buried in a footnote.
Hanzo rushes to stand so quickly that his chair falls behind him, the filing cabinet shaking as he tears it open. He can feel Frost's confused eyes on him, can hear Kuai Laing's confused whine when she doesn't roll the ball back to him, but he doesn't pay them any mind.
"Ten, ten, number ten," Hanzo mutters under his breath as he searches for the file, pulling it out with a triumphant hum.
The tenth cure had left Kuai Liang more lucid than any other zombie in the world, though it hadn't saved him, and Hanzo had not known why.
Until now.
"Fuck," Hanzo chuckles hysterically, tossing the file down beside the paper with the saving grace of a footnote, "Fuck!"
One little measurement.
That's all.
Just one.
"Good fuck or bad fuck?" Frost asks, scooping up the ball and striding over to hi.
"Good," Hanzo answers, already setting up the equipment he needs, "Do me a favor, grab this list of chemicals from the store cupboard."
"Aye aye, captain," Frost agrees, tapping her finger against the file detailing the tenth cure and heading off to collect the components.
This could work.
This could actually work.
Hanzo's hand isn't shaking as he holds the needle because he won't let it.
He approaches the cell on steady feet because he refuses to stumble.
His heart doesn't pound because he keeps an iron grip on it.
He won't feel fear or doubt here.
This is going to work.
This has to.
"One more try, huh Kuai Liang?" Hanzo asks with a nervous smile, unable to keep it all back, "It'll work this time."
The soldier makes no sound as he extends his arm out through the bars, holding Hanzo's gaze with empty eyes as Hanzo lifts the needle and carefully pushes it in.
It's going to work.
It has to.
Hanzo's not sure he could bear it if it doesn't.
The second the needle is pulled free, Kuai Liang rips his arm back, curling up on the floor in the far corner of his cell and beginning to hiss and growl in pain once more.
Sitting on the floor beside him, Hanzo murmurs soothing words as Frost hovers nearby, watching them both with a pained expression and not for the first time Hanzo wonders if this is worth it.
Is keeping his promise truly the way to do right by his lover? Or is he being cruel by putting the man through agony after agony only to fail time and again.
"If it doesn't work, try again," Frost demands, seeming to read Hanzo's mind, "You promised."
"I'm not sure I can bear to keep putting him through this for much longer," Hanzo whispers back, tears pooling in his eyes.
"Then I'll do it," Frost offers in a clipped tone without a moment's pause, "You make the cures and I inject him, whatever you need to teach me so I can do that, I'll learn, but you don't get to give up. I won't let you."
"Thank you," Hanzo nods, already knowing he will accept the offer because the alternative is killing Kuai Liang and that cannot happen.
That can never happen.
The muffled sound of a voice pulls Hanzo from his slumber, making him rub at his eyes with a sleepy groan as he tries to remember where he is.
"Hanzo?" The voice rasps again, rough with disuse and hoarse like it hurts but Hanzo recognizes the sound of it all the same.
The scientist's eyes snap open, lifting himself up from the floor to blink at the sight before him in shock.
Kuai Liang.
Brown eyes.
Skin no longer grey, though a few cracks remain that are bleeding sluggishly.
And his voice.
His voice.
Wordlessly, Hanzo shoots up to stand on shaking legs, punching in the code to the cell and ripping the door open hard enough to send it slamming into the wall.
He doesn't care though, not when he has his lover in his arms in the next second, body warm against his own and holding him back as tightly as his atrophied muscles can muster.
"It worked," Hanzo breathes out, head tucked into the soldier's neck and tears streaming down his face, "You're okay, you're okay, it worked."
"Did you ever doubt that you'd do it?" Kuai Liang chuckles back, nuzzling his face against Hanzo's hair like he's reveling in the feeling, in the ability to hold Hanzo once more.
The scientist does not dignify that with a response, instead he tugs Kuai Liang down by the cheeks to kiss him deep and slow.
It feels like a prayer to a forgotten god, a thanks for giving this bright, wonderful, beautiful man back to him and Kuai Liang kisses him back just as hard.
It worked.
It worked.