cassidy had slowly woken up from his slumber, genji still asleep in his arms. he ran his fingers through genji's hair continuously, surprised on not being called up by gabriel.

"good mornin' gertrude." he whispered, placing a soft kiss on his forehead. genji was still fast asleep, not noticing his hands still were placed on cassidy's naked chest. he hummed a little tune to hopefully get his sweetheart to his senses.

genji's eyes slowly lit up with life. blinking excessively to get his train of sight back, he was woken to cassidy's half asleep whistling. he reached in for a kiss on the cheek.

"morning my love." he said, with a smile plastered on his whole face. "how'd you sleep?"

"i missed how much sleep could feel relaxing." cassidy chuckled.

"mm, me too. i've missed the feeling." genji replied, his fingers tracing around cassidy's chest. he then looked up at the clock that was screwed to the wall.

"oh my god. we slept through the whole morning."

"no way—" cassidy then turned over to see that genji was right. it was 12:34 pm.

"at least boss didn't see us, or me, fully stripped down." cassidy said, laughing.

"i forgot you are still—" genji's heart fluttered as his face slowly heated up like he had the night they decided to make love with each other.

"relax you randy dummy, i'll go put my boxers on before you get turned on again." genji covered his face with a nearby pillow, blushing, as cassidy moved the blanket away and got up to put on his undergarments.

"don't worry, you can look now." cassidy joked as he grabbed a shirt from his closet.

genji removed the pillow from his place and got up from the bed as well.

"i almost forgot. today is sunday, we don't have training i think."

"probably because moira goes to church."

genji snickered. "wait, seriously? i can totally see her singing kumbaya over at a summer camp."

cassidy burst into laughter. "no idea if she's christian, but it would make pretty good sense if she was. besides her science stuff of course."

after the hilarious conversation, they both dressed up, mainly cassidy. genji only needed to fix his hair. they both headed downstairs, holding hands, to be greeted by the woman who they pictured a saint quite earlier. she was sitting down, with a plate of a whole meal of irish lunch. cassidy went up to get a cup of orange juice on the side of the cafeteria. he then took a seat besides his friend.

"good afternoon boys."

"afternoon." genji replied, joining them. cassidy only smiled along and nodded.

"how'd you sleep from all of that chaos yesterday?" cassidy asked, taking off his hat off and sipping on his cup of juice.

"not well," she replied. "i kept hearing creaking from one of the rooms last night. i think it was from a bed."

as soon as those words slipped out of her mouth, cassidy spit out the orange juice that he was about to swallow. his eyes only expressed horror. he didn't think they would be that loud to the others. coughing from the shock, moira turned to genji to get an answer from him.

genji only had flashbacks from that night. he remembered whimpering cassidy's name over and over until he couldn't go on any longer.

"shimada, do you know where it was coming from?—"

"no idea. maybe it was the vents." he replied hesitantly, looking away.

"so the vents were crying for something while something was also creaking?"

genji tensed up so quick. his eyes widening by the second. thankfully nobody could see him heating up from his faceplate. cassidy was still coughing, trying to come back to his senses.

"maybe someone left the tv on, watching something inappropriate," he shrugged, feeling sweat coming down his cheek. genji's mind was pleading for moira to cut it with the suspicion.

she then nodded. "yeah, you're probably right. but they could have at least turned it down a bit."

cassidy only coughed more from that remorse. basically almost choking.

"you okay cass?" genji asked, trying to change the subject.

"y-yeah. went down the wrong hole." cassidy said, laughing it off.

"you spit it all out." moira stated.

"um—there was still a bit left in there, heh-"

"whatever. i'm gonna go to head out. they start worship after lunch at a local church." she said, grabbing her things but getting up.

genji couldn't help himself but snicker. moira quickly looked at the ninja, slightly irritated.

genji began fake coughing to make it look like he wasn't trying to laugh at her. "i think the air is a bit humid, don't you think cole?"

"OH—for sure!" he said, slapping his arm to the table.

moira rolled her eyes and walked off.

cassidy slowly turned around to face genji, both covered in sweat from their anxiousness.

"do you really think she was playing with us?" cassidy asked.

"even i'm not sure—"

"GENJI! THERE YOU ARE! cole, did you forget to tell him about today?" angela appeared out of thin air, grasping genji's arm from behind. it seemed to quite startle him.

"a-angela—"

"sorry angie, i completely forgot. i hope you won't go to hard on him for me." cassidy pleaded jokingly.

"i might just do that," she replied, giving a more serious look. she dragged genji along with her to her office. cassidy worded 'sorry' to his partner as they headed off. genji rolled his eyes and smiled, waving off as they headed off.

"how's it going with the body? any feelings of pain or malfunctions?" she asked, her hands tracing around the metal of genji's body to see if everything was still intact.

"nope. everything is perfect."

"no pain at all?"

"i've grown to get used to it." he said, scratching his neck.

"well that's a start. i still remember you coming to me all angry because every step you took felt like you were stepping on thumbtacks." she said, sorting out a few papers on her desk. she then came across a paper and stared at it for a good while. then, she held it up to her face to get a clearer look.

"speaking of all this, would you be interested in upgrading a bit of your body just a bit?"

"what are the benefits?" he asked.

"more protection and faster agility, but a lot more pain. but i think if you can handle this much already, the rest will be a breeze." she said, reading out some of the material she would use for the procedure.

"it's all up to you though. i won't be here for long so you'll have to decide quick before i head back to gibraltar." she put the paper down, fixing her ponytail.

genji thought for a moment. "would it affect any human parts of my body?"

"probably the most of it. human flesh can't handle that much of an engineered kind of speciality. maybe it is for the best we don't do this for right now. i still need to do more research on it." she grabbed the paper again and handed it to genji if he wanted to give it a better look.

her handwriting was surprisingly neat, everything clear to read. reading the discoveries she had made were quite astounding, but genji didn't want to deal with any of those things for his body at all. it felt like too much.

"i agree. i don't think i would go too far with those upgrades." he said, handing the paper back to angela.

"i understand," she replied, taking the paper back to her pile of notes. "as long as you feel better and comfortable with being a cyborg, then that's all that matters. just let me know if you get injured or if a malfunction occurs, alright?" she said, giving genji a pat on the shoulder.

"i will," he responded, with a soft smile. "thank you again for all of this."

"it's my pleasure." angela then sat at her desk and began to sort out her work. genji got up and headed off.

he looked around, but cassidy was nowhere in sight. the room was fully empty, only the sun being the main source of light in the cafeteria. he sighed, pulling himself out of his seat to walk to his dorm.

"ah, genji, i've been looking for you," reyes's voice rung out behind him.

genji turned around and narrowed his eyes, crossing his arms. "what do you want, boss?"

"oh, i'd just like to take a walk with you." he paused to notice genji's confused expression.

"what? are bosses not allowed to bond with their team anymore?" he brought his hands up in a shrug, seeming to be completely nonchalant, though genji felt something brewing under his cool demeanor.

"that would be very unprofessional to do," genji pointed out.

"sleeping with your coworkers is also considered very unprofessional," reyes grinned, "but we've never worried about formalities here in this business."

"so that's what this is about."

genji considered running. maybe finding some place to hide from reyes. he considered taking gabriel out if he needed to. he wasn't going to be chastised by a man in a beanie.

"wouldn't be wise to harm your boss," reyes chided, clicking his tongue and eyeing genji's hand at his sword. "i suggest you follow orders—" he dropped his voice to a whisper—"now."

genji swallowed down the bile collecting in the back of his throat from uneasiness. hesitating, he finally took a few steps toward reyes.

"good. i was hoping you wouldn't misbehave today. let's see how long this lasts." he brought a hand up to beckon genji to follow him, turning on his heels and disappearing into the hallway.

genji followed with reluctance and caught up to stand at his side, still eyeing reyes down for any potential weapon he might be concealing. the man was nothing but trouble. dropping his guard at any point could prove fatal.

"when i put you both together in a dorm, it was just for renovation," reyes began. "we were getting one of the other dorms cleaned up and thought it'd be better to stick you two together instead of having someone with moira. who knows how she'd react, with her god-fearing tendencies." he laughed from his own sarcasm. "i was not betting on you two to begin whatever hassle is going on right now."

"get to the point," genji growled.

"easy, shimada," reyes bit back. "i'm getting there. have patience." he slowed down his stride by a noticeable amount.

the sun streamed through the large windows on the walls, yet gabriel remained out of the direct rays, his face almost darkened and out of sight.

"listen to me. you're getting distracted by that silly little boyfriend of yours. you should be thanking me for what i need to do. any kind of attachment to him will only make you lose your guard."

"are you saying i can't trust him?" genji sneered.

"shimada, once you head into the real world instead of living your youth with that one person, people will take advantage of that."

"gabriel, i won't make it a distraction. it was a one time thing and we got carried away, i—"

"enough." gabriel interrupted. "you'll be moved to another dorm in two days. across the building. i'd say pack your things early," he advised. "makes the moving a lot easier."

"you—" genji stammered. "i did not agree to this..."

"you don't have to," reyes responded. "it's not your choice to make. you follow orders, boy. it's what we hired you for."

"we should at least have a say in your orders—"

"GENJI," gabriel snapped. "i said enough. this is for the best. i already told cole about the change."

"where is he?" genji whispered to himself.

"i sent him on a mission. alone."

"YOU DID WHAT?" genji said, fuming.

"GENJI, IF YOU'RE GOING TO INTERRUPT ME FOR THE LAST TIME, I WILL MAKE SURE YOU NEVER SEE THAT COWBOY EVER AGAIN. DO YOU HEAR ME?"

genji gulped, fidgeting with his hands.

"sorry."

"he'll be fine, so stop worrying about it." he continued. "we got him backup, which is also not you. if you ever saw your little cassidy trip over a pebble, you'd start crying. we can't have a man like you show any source of weakness in battle."

genji's shaking hands only turned into shaking fists. he felt himself blazing with rage. the words couldn't even come out. he could only stand in silence in the cruel, loud world he lived in. gabriel looked him up and down, grinning.

"there there, your little cassidy will be alright. i need a drink." he said, pushing the ninja aside and walking off to his office. genji couldn't even move. he was helpless. he felt like he was going to lose his mind if he didn't know where cassidy was, or if he would get hurt. the thought of it made his stomach churn. how could a boss like this be so, insensitive?

then, an idea came to mind.

"you're right. you should drink." genji said from afar. "but please, may i join you?" he asked, looking much more calmer.

"if you insist," gabriel replied. "head inside. i got a bunch of wine and alcohol. treat yourself, shimada."

the plan was plain and simple. he didn't care how long it would take. he needed to go with cassidy. or to see him, one last time before they were forced to drift apart.