No one else pays much mind to the hurried movement that follows them leaving the debriefing. Glances are spared, maybe, but no one catches sight of the look on her face before her back is turned and she’s disappeared around a corner. If they did, someone would be checking on her, but everyone else is content to carry on at a leisurely pace. He notices, though. Genji notices, and the familiarity of the expression he’s seen so briefly lingers with him, heavy.
Avoiding her has been pointed. It’s all been intentional, if purely due to the fact that he hasn’t been sure how to approach someone like himself. How to feel about someone else whose body is part machine -- different tech, different process, but... similar enough that he can relate to her. He doesn’t think that he’s related to her more, however, than in this particular instant. Perhaps that’s what has him leaving his comrades in order to trail after her.
“ You were listening in on the debriefing. ” A statement, not a question, comes as he eyes Hotaru where he’s found her. Distance is kept between them, but his voice is calm. He isn’t angry that she’s listened in on something meant to be classified -- he couldn’t care less about that fact -- and that much comes across. Referring to her as a ‘monster’ had seemed unprofessional to him, not to mention incredibly exaggerated, but he had not cut in to correct. He had seen no point, then. Now, though...
Now he suspects that ‘monster’ is a word that plagues her,
much like ‘machine’ plagues him.
“ You were not meant to hear that, ” he tells her, though he quickly realizes how the words aren’t remotely reassuring. Gaze lowers, then darts off to one side, and Genji falls silent, arms tense but at a loss for what to do at his side. A moment passes, perhaps a few, before a long exhale is released and his head turns back toward her. “ That is not how they see you. ”
