#scalien!hanzo

Yea so I fixed their spine...... and a few other things...

The atmosphere of the food lounge was sleepy at best, Scaly and Beebop had caught themselves some free time and since they wouldn’t have anything to do for a week or so (barring emergencies of course) the two had switched back to their natural, more nocturnal hours. There weren’t many other folks awake at this hour and the ones who might be likely were so because they had something else to be doing, so there weren’t many other patrons dining at this particular time.

This was great for a couple of reasons. The first of which being that the boys’ favourite extra-dimensional doppelgängers had picked this perfect time to visit, and being on ‘vacation’ meant the lizard boys and their slimy blue imp had lots of opportunity to raise some wicked hell together. But it also meant that the lack of other faces in the room made the two out-of-place gingers feel a little bit less like sore thumbs, Rex in particular thankful for the lack of strangers amongst them while he ate.

Humorously, Rex and Scaly were both sat in similar positions at their usually assigned table, their odd anatomy (which they unfortunately couldn’t un-fuck like Bygone thankfully now could) making it difficult for them to sit in the restaurant-style booth any other way. They were near mirrors of each other as they sat sideways along the bench seats, backs against the same wall the table was up against rather than on the backrests as they lounged with their tails out in front of them, running along the entire length of the cushioned benches and even hanging off the ends.

Both also had a matching smaller person using them in place of the seats their bodies were claiming the entirety of. Beebop was wrapped around Scaly’s shoulders like a blue feather boa as he occasionally picked periwinkles off the plate his lizard chaise was holding out for them both to share their snacks on, and Bygone sat atop Rex’s lap, only a little awkwardly as the smaller dino’s one reptile leg was draped over the edge of the seat allowing the currently-human ginger to at least half-sit on the actual cushion.

Though neither minded the odd positioning. At the end of the day they were all sort of the same person, and as they had started visiting their second twin more frequently (it was still so wild to think that there were at least three different universes where Pico had become a dinosaur…) they had honestly started forming a bit of a sibling dynamic and it wasn’t uncommon for all three of the freckled reptilians to lie about in a huge pile of orange hair and green scales, topped by a little blue velvety raspberry on a lizard parfait.

Scaly was about to devour a Scooby Doo-sized comically large sandwich when he noticed Bygone from across the table, the other nearly spilling his drink as his one good eye locked onto something in the distance it apparently liked seeing. Curious, the larger gator’s shining silver sights drifted across the room to scout out what his lookalike was ogling at. He raised a brow at what he saw.

Unsurprisingly the thing Bygone had apparently locked onto was a certain white-streaked head of hair, attached to the body of a (quite beat down looking actually…) living weapon and knife-play extraordinaire. Scaly wished that was as sexy as it sounded, but sadly the scars from these two’s knife-play were unfortunately quite painful and still caused the big lugghead an awful lot of sleepless nights when the weather was bad.

It was Blade.

Or, rather, ‘The Sword’, though all three of the Picos had sort of agreed they didn’t really like calling them that. Bygone had informed the other that apparently where he came from the person who would have been the mirror to the cyborg was named ‘Hanzo’, which Scaly thought was silly at first. Until Rex reminded them all that their shared name was ‘Pico’, in which case Scaly shut his tooth-barren mouth. But after some deliberation the council agreed that among the code names they had apparently all given themselves, ‘The Sword’ would now universally be referred to as ‘Blade’.

But Scaly’s musings were cut short as he instead had a sudden realization that brought a new question to his mind. Blade didn’t need to eat, as far as the lizard knew it wasn’t even something they were capable of doing. Whether it had a stomach or not Scaly wasn’t sure, but from what he’d seen of the other it seemed as though that mask was stuck onto his face pretty good, and the gator wasn’t sure it was even able to come off. He’d certainly never seen it… So then why was it in the food lounge of all places?

As if sensing all the eyes on it (which they probably did) Blade turned its apertures up from where they had been previously viewing the floor, allowing them to land on Rex and Bygone first before then stopping to rest on Scaly. He locked eyes with the weapon from across the room, and he felt something run through him like lightning when he met those shining red sensors. Scaly wasn’t sure what that was, but it made him shiver, something Beebop curiously noticed as he gently poked the lizard’s large chest to make sure he was okay.

Their eyes were stuck locked together as Blade slowly began walking towards the table they were all sat around, as if that were his only current purpose. They seemed to be almost in a trance, and the other two lizard boys shared curious glances with each other as the cyborg approached near enough to get a clear look at.

Their clothes were tattered and stained with now-dried blood, its hair tousled (kind of cutely…) as if they had just been in some wicked scuffle. He looked like a tomcat that just crawled home from a bad night out on the streets, and Scaly had to assume the other must have been doing some sort of combat testing. That would make sense why it was out and about at such an odd hour as this. But that still didn’t explain why they were here in the lounge. Though they all immediately noticed he looked completely exhausted…

Scaly had learned more about the guy since being gently encouraged to do so by both of his doppelgängers. As it turned out not only did ‘Hanzo’ exist in both of their worlds but apparently they both seemed to have a… particular fondness for them. And in doing so the middle child of the lizard trio had discovered that Blade was being horribly mistreated, his ability to regenerate virtually its entire body unfortunately being both incredibly useful as well as making the cyborg seem mostly ‘disposable’.

It hurt Scaly to think about right in his stupid, swollen heart. He couldn’t imagine how much pain and suffering they had been made to endure in all the times they were carelessly allowed to be torn to shreds. Just to regenerate and have it all happen again. It was nightmare fuel. And thinking about the fact this was all happening while the gator man himself was blissfully ignorant to it. He felt so guilty for never seeing it before…

Bygone cleared his throat awkwardly, turning his eye to watch Beebop slurp a periwinkle from its shell like Timon and Pumbaa while he himself loudly sipped his coffee in the hopes the mug would hide the blush on his cheeks. The (currently smallest) redhead had seen that absolute unit in action, and he couldn’t help the way his heart rate increased slightly as it fluttered in his chest. Rex too had paused his eating to stare, something that took a fair bit of interest in order to attract the overgrown-scaly-Labrador’s highly food driven brain.

Scaly was still locked in a staring match with the cyborg as it now stood at the edge of the table, though something told the big lizard that he was more so the one doing the staring as Blade almost… didn’t seem fully there. Whatever they were making the poor guy do before, it sure looked like it had taken a lot out of the ‘weapon’.

The gator sort of didn’t like thinking about the other that way either… The general consensus among the rest of the staff was that Blade was just a cold machine, but really, they didn’t know much about how it was made. Their body was clearly still made of flesh for a reason, surely it had to feel something, right..? If you asked anyone else they’d tell you no, but… Scaly had seen the other at its worst, and that sure looked an awful lot like someone who was suffering to him. He knew what pain looked like.

Scaly was snapped from his internal pity-fest by catching sight of a sudden movement from the aforementioned cyborg. All four of the boys at the table watched curiously as Blade drunkenly climbed over the lizard’s tail, stumbling slightly as its arms shook under its own weight and exhaustion. They had paused for a moment, seeming to catch their breath (something Scaly made a point of noting shouldn’t be affecting them if he was ‘just a robot’) before continuing the arduous ascent over the large lizard’s rotund form.

Eventually the overgrown potato peeler found the spot between where Scaly’s side was resting against the backrest of the seat, using the top of it as an armrest rather than for his back. The lizard made a surprised grunt as Blade slotted himself into that spot without so much as a word. Once they’d taken a moment to adjust themselves, pulling its knees up to rest its legs over one of Scaly’s large thighs and pulling their arms up to their chest in a pose the reptile recognized as ‘conserving body heat’, all four stunned boys watched in utter silence as the cyborg actually sighed, a clear release of tension as he allowed his eyes to drift closed.

A few moments later a small sound was heard in the near dead silence of the room. A tuned-down sort of hum, like someone turning off an old CRT monitor. Did he- did he just..?

“Holy shit,” Rex actually spoke, the current situation exciting enough that the usually mostly mute of the three lizards couldn’t even filter his reaction. Beebop noticed immediately, gasping over dramatically and clasping his face in his hands Kevin McCallister style as he beamed at the voice he very rarely got to hear. Bygone choked on his coffee, dripping half of it uselessly onto the table as he whisper-laughed (it sounded like wheezing) while Rex made a sweet little whine, goofy grin on his face and tail thumping against the bench slightly in excitement. They were both absolutely keeling over internally, it seemed as though ‘Hanzo’ really was meant to find them in every life.

Scaly was a little perplexed by the situation, but… not at all put off by it as he slowly lifted the arm from the back of the seat to place his (currently mostly fingerless) hand gently against a rising and falling back. He could feel the hard bones beneath his palm and it caused a sting in the big lizard’s heart. He was however still hugely confused as he glanced around like a stunned dog, ears pinned like he wasn’t quite sure what to do. What exactly was happening right now?

As if sensing his lookalike’s internally blazing gay panic Bygone chuckled softly while wiping up some of the coffee he’d spilled on himself, smiling warmly at the bigger lizard as he still wore a faint blush on his pale cheeks. “Bro, I think he knew he was about to shut down… they came to find you ‘cause they knew they’d be safe if they did it around you.” The expression the gunslinger wore on his face was sweet, thinking of a certain other pair of ‘Picos and Hanzos’ he knew would also especially appreciate this.

Scaly made a soft whining noise as he let his silver eyes roll down to land on Blade’s apparently ‘sleeping’ form. He supposed that made sense actually, this person had been made to suffer unimaginable horrors both physically and psychologically for lord knows how long, and all the while he’d been made to do it alone and locked in a box while people treated them like they had no soul. The big lizard was the first person to ever look at the other as if they were something other than a tool of destruction, the only one to ever see that maybe there was still a glimmer of human lurking somewhere in that tortured meat prison.

And certainly he was the first person to ever hold the cyborg while he suffered, doing the best he could to comfort him as his entire system malfunctioned. Scaly had to imagine it must be terrifying, he knew how scary it was for Beebop when the little blue monkey had neurological fits, and he’d seen it a few times in Rex as well. Though he had yet to really see it in Bygone he had learned that while the other’s specimen form was truly impressive to witness, it too clearly came bundled with plenty of side effects.

Now his heart was breaking for all of these people he cared for, his ears flat and eyes shining with not-quite-tears but still an obvious wetness. He lifted his head from where he’d been gazing at Blade to turn towards Beebop, giving his partner’s side a gentle rub with the broad side of his snout. The amphibian returned the gesture, chattering softly as he twisted his cat-like body around Scaly’s neck to hug his arms around the big guy’s nose. Bygone reached out one leg to gently kick Scaly’s side under the table, a brotherly gesture of support.

Ever curious, Beebop eventually snaked his way from behind Scaly’s head to clamber down his partner’s chest, landing on his belly next to where Blade was still peacefully resting in standby. Gingerly, like he was reaching out to pick up a baby, the little alien tenderly pulled back the bloodied haori and reached his hands into the slightly open folds of the cyborg’s tattered kimono, feeling the skin beneath. “It’s cold…” he muttered aloud, ears drooped and expression becoming slightly concerned.

“Yeah buddy…” Scaly agreed, he’d noticed it too. The cold was pouring off the other like a stone, and he could feel it practically radiating off of them against his side. The amphibious alien made a pout as he studied the resting face of the frail person, mask still cruelly fastened firmly in its place. He sighed through his reeds, the action causing a cute little whistle, before he made a few circles around the lizard’s belly on all fours like a cat. When he finished ‘making his bed’ he found a spot on Scaly’s stomach close to Blade, curling up against the other like two kittens trying to keep each other warm.

Scaly pulled his chin up slightly in a little pout of his own, that was pretty precious to see… Beebop wasn’t heartless by any means, but he could definitely be possessive of his large lizard companion. Though it seemed even the little biting skink could tell something wasn’t right with The Sword’s condition, he too welcoming the other into the bubble of comfort he knew his Bi-bi could provide.

Scaly’s attention was peeled away from the darling sight of two small bodies curled against him by the sound of a plate scraping the table, his eyes leading his head to the side where he watched Rex slide his discarded sandwich across towards himself. He didn’t stop him. After inhaling the hoagie just as cartoonishly as Shaggy himself would have done Rex fixed Scaly with an amused look on his face. He… was actually laughing, Scaly didn’t know he could do that!

Bygone was also scratching his chin with his fleshy hand in an exaggerated manner, a Dreamworks-esque expression on his face with one brow cocked and a crooked grin on his lips. He couldn’t help but notice that his reptile-shaped reflection looked awful comfy sitting there with his small collection of heat-sappers glued to his person. “Scaly…” he cooed, a knowing tone in his voice.

“Shut up. Not a fucking word.”