#also its almost Christmas so like i do partake in some religious traditions too

[barefootbaltimore]

I have such a weird relationship with religion and faith as a concept. Like I dont believe, and a lot of common beliefs I honestly think are kinda silly but I go absolutely feral for religious imagery and stories.

[youareunbearable]

THROW BACK TO WHEN I WROTE MY FIRST GENYATTA FIC

ITS CHRISTMASY AND GAY

http://archiveofourown.org/works/8770147

There was a moment of joy in the Watchpoint tonight. No one was away on missions, and everyone was gathered together in the large rec hall where wine and beer was flowing freely. It was a warm, golden, happy interruption from the normal, gruelling missions and hardships these people had to go through.

Not that Zenyatta was an exception, he had just come back from a mission with "Just-call-me-Mccree-I'm-no-Mister-anything", young Ms. Amari, and young Ms. Song, all of them excitedly chatting about their cultural winter holidays on the ride back to base. Which would be the first time Zenyatta celebrated this holiday, and he must admit, the excitement was a little catching.

It didn't help that Genji had also been excited, spending the days before the party flittering around, collecting supplies from the nearest city with the younger members to make this winter holiday party enjoyable, especially since he knew it was his Master’s first one. Zenyatta remembered basking in the warm glow of positive feelings his student and friend was giving off as he shared some of his favourite Christmas memories. Nights of making chocolate drinks with his mother, having snowball fights with his brother, having a pretty thing hanging off his arm while they shared gloves and sweets, kissing under the twinkling light of a christmas tree. The perfect fairytale evening, and expressing that he wanted his dear friend and teacher to have the most magical first Christmas ever.

The night started off lovely, he had helped Reinhardt and the older Mrs. Amari create a glorious feast; Yule logs, sweet noodle kugel, bread pudding, chocolate cakes and drinks. Entrees that his sensors knew would smell heavenly if he could smell; ducks, geese, fowl of every kinds, beef, seasoned gourds and vegetables, rice dishes and vegan dishes. Watching the light and joy on the humans’ faces as he helped carry out the plates laden with these hearty meals warmed his circuits. He sat between Genji and "just-Lena-love!", the both of them describing how the food tasted, and hearing the laughter around the table, accompanied by the upbeat festive music from around the world was something wonderful to be apart of. With all the joy and warmth in his circuity, he felt he could slip into the Iris’ embrace.

Omnics had never really had any celebrations of their own, and the religious group that Zenyatta followed didn't have any either. During his wanderings he had observed the human holidays of Christmas, Solstice, Hanukkah, and so many more other holidays that all serve the purpose of bringing humans together in the deep of winter to have fun and remember not all dark times are final.

Now, he sat in the corner of the rec hall, sitting with Bastion and enjoying the glow that was happy, drunk humans singing festive songs, eating sweets, dancing and playing games and all over enjoying each others’ presences.

The party had been in full swing for a couple of hours already, most of the older members retired a little while ago, and Zenyatta was also feeling the need to power down into a sleep mode. He and Bastion spent the first couple of hours after the feast learning about the different holidays and partaking in different festive attire. Lena had insisted that Zenyatta wear this headband with brown felt antlers attached to them, and a small red cotton ball wrapped around his head, and how they were mandatory and extremely festive for her people. She herself was sporting a small green and red striped pointed hat she deemed was an “elf hat,” she had also given Bastion a version of “Santa’s” hat, which they happily accepted. Lucio had then insisted on him wearing a bright red sweater with small bells sewn onto it, with the words “Jingle My Balls” stitched across the centre- this had caused roaring amounts of laughter from many of the Overwatch members, especially when he had chimed his omnic orbs after someone had read his sweater aloud. He had watched, bemused, as the younger members wrapped wreaths of garlands and tinsel around Bation, while the older omnic beeped out the “Deck The Halls” song they had all sung earlier. Ms. Song had insisted that Bastion have this orange pinned with cloves in the vague shape of a bird, which they happily sung the Dreidel song, that the older Mrs. Amari had taught them, throughout the night to it.

He had also spent the night dancing. Twirling along with Dr. Ziegler, indulging McCree in square dancing, performing a rather elegant waltz with Ms. Vaswani, and he had also just finished dancing with Genji. His student was flushed from the spiked eggnog and giggling between the lyrics of some old Mariah Carey song he tipsily serenaded him with as they spun around the dance floor.

But he must say he was feeling exhausted, and knew the older omnic was growing tired of the festivities as well. The tired discord that buzzed around his older friend was started to affect Zenyatta himself and he longed to tuck himself away in him room and meditate until he fell into his sleep mode.

“Why are they doing that?” Zenyatta snapped out of his musings to turn to his companion. Bastion was sitting beside him, their pose almost reminiscent of that of a content child with their legs splayed out, visual sensors almost glowing with fascination as they pointed with their hand towards a couple near a doorway.

It seemed that Mr. Shimada-san and McCree were perhaps a little too intoxicated, making out quite enthusiastically with a small group of others either wolf-whistling at them or telling them to “get a room.” The monk tilted his head, confused, Mr. Shimada-san was very reserved the majority of the time, and hardly displayed acts of public affection with his partner, or if he did never to this extent, but he had been very affectionate all night with his partner. “It seems that the amount of alcohol they had consumed mixed with the merriment of tonight has muddled their inhibitions.” He gave an amused hum, as both Bastion and himself watched the couple break apart, flushed, to the sound of drunken cheers and whistles. McCree had a lovestruck look on his face as Mr Shimada-san, with a sly, pleased smile, reached up to pluck a small red berry from an overhanging green plant. Confused, but still amused by the couple, he stored away this new practice to ask Genji about later.

He gathered himself to his feet, offering a hand to his friend, “It is getting rather late isn’t it my friend? Shall I help you to your room? Or can you disrobe yourself?”

A small amused hum slipped from his vocal replicator, as Bastion took his hand and hopped up. Zenyatta only wished he had as much energy and mobility when he reached Bastion's physical age. “I'll be fine! I don’t know if I want to take these gifts off just yet!” The war-frame omnic chirped happily.

As they walked towards the exit, he caught Lucio’s eye, who was speaking with Genji, and gave a goodbye wave along with a pleased nod of his head when he got two waves back. The two omnics had just made it to the exit when Ms. Song had cackled behind them, stopping both of the omnics in surprise. “The mistletoe takes it’s last victim! Kiss or face bad luck in the new year!” She had a gleeful smile on her face as she held up her phone, clearly waiting to record the moment or already doing so. With her other hand she pointed upwards, showing a small plant with one small red berry clinging to it cluster.

The friends looked at each other in confusion, Bastion letting out a low beep that ended in a high note, and the monk turned to the young woman. “Pardon? I’m afraid we don't understand what's going on.” Zenyatta had turned to look for Genji, his student had normally been helping him understand the cultural significance to the activities tonight, and neither omnics could tell why one had to kiss because a plant was in a room.

Lucio laughed, nudging Genji’s shoulder as he called over, “It’s tradition! Don’t worry about it!” Genji, however, looked shocked and like he had sucked on a lemon, his scarred face twisting up, discord radiating off of him which shocked the monk. He tilted his head at his student, and the way his shoulders bunched up slightly, he knew that the monk would want to talk about this later.

“Tradition?! More traditions! Come now Zenyatta we can’t offend the humans!” With excited beeping Bastion offered their head to Zenyatta, who gave a small chuckle and reached over, smushing his red cotton nose slightly as he sent a small jolt of electricity to the other. There were cheering all around them, maybe not as loud as with McCree and Mr. Shimada-san, but it was still enough to warm his circuits from the attention.

Mei was giggling from her spot on the couch, reaching around Zarya to give her robotic friends a cheerful thumbs up and motioned picking something from the air. Ah, right, Mr. Shimada-san had also grabbed a berry after they kissed Mccree. Bastion, understanding what she was getting at or also remembering the scene from before, carefully plucked the final red berry from the bundle, holding it reverently in their hand. After a moment, they looked up and presented it to their younger friend, and with a flash of amusement from his omnic lights, Zenyatta accepted the berry.

It was with that, that the two friends left the party with cheers and laughter in their wake, going their separate ways to their rooms. Behind the closed door of his room, Zenyatta mimicked a deep sigh and began to take off all of the festive wear. Before he settled on the one plush mat on his floor, he reached over to place the small red berry on the small table beside the unused bed. With the muffled, distant music in the background, he soon fell into the familiar trance of meditation and a de-frag cycle.

_______

The hissing of a door being opened caused Zenyatta to wake from his recharge. Momentarily shocked that he fell into a recharge without realizing, he turned on his optic sensors. He spotted Genji, still garbed in his ugly sweater and other festive attire, kneeling in front of him. From the slight sway Zenyatta assumed that his student had partaken in a little bit more alcohol than when he last saw him. His other systems booted up, his internal clock told him that it was well into the early morning, and that a few of the members of Overwatch would regularly be getting up soon to start their day.

Without saying anything, the monk opened his arms, and the cyborg eagerly bundled himself up in the embrace. “Did you have fun, Genji? Was this reminiscent of the holiday nights of your youth?”

The cyborg merely hummed, seeming to try and snuggle up more into the metal embrace, thinking over his answer. “I did have fun, however I must confess, did want to spend more time this night with you.” The response was muffled into a robotic neck, and Zenyatta couldn't help the chuckle that escaped him.

“But I was with you for the majority of the night, my dearest. If you spent more time with me, the the rest of your friends would be missing your presence.” He ran his fingers through his pupil’s hair, the other hand holding his cherished student to him, not fully trusting his inebriated state to keep him balanced. The monk had a guess of what his student was getting at, however, he would wait for him to mention it.

There was a slight embarrassed shuffle of movement from the cyborg and a long silence before he blurted, “I wanted to be your first Christmas kiss!” The human in his lap froze, as only realizing he had said the words out loud. He tried to gather himself out of his omnic friend’s lap, “I’m sorry Master, that wasn't appropriate, please forget I said anyth-“ Genji was cut off as a metal finger was softly pressed to his scarred lips.

“Peace my student, you have said nothing of fault.” Zenyatta tilted his head, omnic lights flashing with amusement, “I am terribly sorry I missed spending such a vital part of the Christmas experience with you.” He lifted the synthetic chin towards his facial plate, “I can give you my second Christmas kiss, if it will make up for it?”

Genji’s warm cocoa coloured eyes widened in surprise, before warming and crinkling from his face splitting smile. He swiftly pressed his lips towards the seem in Zenyatta’s facial plates in a gentle, yet slightly over excited, kiss. The monk hummed as he pressed back eagerly, sending a small electric shock to Genji, making the man gasp in surprise. “Merry Christmas, Genji.”

“Merry Christmas, Zen.”