awake, cradle, jests, kisses, obvious, unusual, and xanadu, go forth
look what i finally finished
Awake: dominion
Kabus was surprised to find that he’d woken up before Sarus.
He supposed he shouldn’t be. Sarus had woken him up coming in at oh-buttfuck-hundred earlier that morning, too tired to even try to be stealthy as he removed his armor and instead just letting it fall to the floor in a series of jarring clanks. So early in the morning, Kabus had been willing to forgive it as a case of Sarus simply forgetting he currently shared the apartment.
Figuring the Spectre would want his sleep, Kabus eased himself out of bed, tucked the blankets in around Sarus, and went to start his day without him.
His father wanted him to help run errands around the Citadel, so he was out most of the day. When he got back to Sarus’ apartment, just as the Presidium was entering its night cycle, he wasn’t terribly concerned to find it was still quiet and peaceful.
But when he went to undress so he could shower, he was concerned to realize the apartment wasn’t quiet because Sarus had gone out on Spectre business- it was because he was still passed out in the bed, with no indication that he’d stirred at all during the day.
He was at least still alive. Kabus could hear him breathing. It was just that now he’d been asleep for well over half the station’s day, and Kabus knew from experience that Sarus was even more difficult and petulant than usual when he slept too long.
So Kabus sighed and shook the Spectre’s shoulder. “Sarus, wake up.”
Sarus made no sign he’d even felt the gesture.
Kabus frowned and shook more insistently. “Sarus, get up.”
Still nothing.
Kabus frowned, then quirked a mandible. Oh, he knew exactly how to solve this problem. All he needed to do was make a quick call.
Councilor Madelivio was over in a matter of minutes, and rather cheerfully assured Kabus it was no trouble at all, he’d been headed home anyway, and Sarus’ apartment wasn’t much of a detour from his usual route home. Then he gave a conspiratorial wink and hobbled up the stairs, his cane making no sound at all on the soft carpet.
The apartment was silent for a few heartbeats after Tollak vanished into Sarus’ bedroom. Then there was a piercing shriek, and Sarus bolted into view, vaulted over the railing, and bounced off the wall to roll to safety under the kitchen counter.
Upstairs, Tollak bellowed with laughter, then came shambling out, wearing the biggest grin Kabus had ever seen, especially on a politician. “Spirits, I wish I had vid of that.”
Cradle: pliria, freiya
Freiya sighed and sank into her seat, one hand running over her scalp while the other rested on the small swell in her belly, just to reassure herself that at least one of her children wasn’t misbehaving. “Thanks for doing this, Pliria,” she said, glancing at the woman sitting across the table from her. “I don’t know where those twins get their energy.”
Pliria’s mandibles twitched in amusement. “Probably the same place men get their penis envy. Think you’ll be alright? I already ordered for you. No alcohol, of course.”
Freiya waved a hand dismissively. “It’s just one baby in there this time. The doctor confirmed it. After the twins, this is a walk in the park. He’s so much more well-behaved then they were, too. His kicks are more polite reminders he’s in there than demented attempts to cut himself out early.”
Pliria smiled. “So it’s a boy, then?”
Freiya nodded with a little smile. “Ax begged me to stay groundside this time around. Guess he didn’t want to deal with a third biotic kid running around. Can’t blame him, to be honest. Sarus behaves himself for the most part, but leaving him alone with Desolas is just asking for trouble.”
Pliria chuckled, sitting back a bit as an asari arrived with their drinks. “With any luck, the military will beat it out of them. Have you thought about names?”
Freiya hummed and accepted the glass of fruit juice from the waitress. “Well, if it’d been a girl, we were thinking Taracia, after Ax’s aunt, or Nelis, after my mom. Maybe Aediteia, like Ierian’s wife. She has such a lovely name. But as it’s a boy… Well, we figured there was only one name we really should use.”
Pliria blinked, then tilted her head. “You mean..?”
Freiya nodded. “Aephis. It’s a nice name, and… well. You know.”
Pliria nodded solemnly, then tilted her glass towards Freiya in a small toast. “Best of luck, General. For you and for little Aephis.”
Jests: arterius brothers
Saren looked up at the top shelf of the armory, the one he just barely couldn’t reach, his arms folded and his mandibles set in a definitely not-happy angle. His pistol- his pistol, his trusted Brawler, the one with nicks and dents in the casing and one spot under the grip where Nihlus had carved the bearer of this weapon is gay somewhere he’d thought Saren wouldn’t find but he did because grips wore out and had to be replaced and they’d had a laugh over it before he’d allowed Nihlus to lead him to bed and fuck him senseless, that pistol- had been placed just out of his reach, angled just enough so it barely peeked over the edge of the shelf, taunting him.
"Something wrong, little brother?" Desolas’ drawl slithered up behind him, but he didn’t dare turn around. He just knew from the tone Desolas had done this, just to make him mad. Payback for eating all the food his brother had hidden away in his room, he knew.
At least he had an excuse. He was hungry. Solas was just a dick.
He growled and clenched his fists. “I can’t reach my pistol.”
"Well, that’s a real shame," Desolas hummed. Saren heard him come click-click-clicking into the room, and had to suppress the urge to Throw him into the rack of sharp things across the room when he felt him come to a stop just behind him. Solas would survive such an attack, of course, but Saren himself would be in severe trouble for his misconduct and intentional injury of both a ranking Hierarchy officer and his elder brother. He hated being in trouble. “And how do you suppose you’ll get it down from there?”
Saren twitched a mandible. “You’ll get it for me.”
Desolas tsked. “Not for that attitude, I won’t. What do I keep telling you about manners, Saren?”
Saren growled deep in his throat. “I want my pistol, Desolas.”
"You’re a Spectre. Get a new one."
"I want that pistol. Get it for me.”
"You sound like a child. What would Mother say?"
That did it. Saren spun around and seized his brother’s cowl, dragging him down to shriek in his face, “Mother would tell you to stop making fun of me and give me back my pistol!”
Desolas drew his head back, briefly panicked, then shoved Saren away from him, snarling. Then he just huffed, reached up, and pulled the Brawler off the shelf, tossing it at his little brother. “There. Happy?”
"No. Now I’m hungry." Saren scowled. Being angry burned calories like no tomorrow.
Desolas puffed up like he was about to start shouting, then groaned and ran a hand over his crest. “You know what? Fine. We’ll go out to eat. My treat. Make up for stealing your pistol. That okay?”
Saren grumbled, holstering his gun, then nodded. “Fine. But only if I get to pick the place.”
"Deal. Go change, you’re not supposed to show up to a restaurant decked out in heavy armor."
Kisses: luena, vynos
Luena stared out at Afterlife, wringing her wrists and watching the doors. Akise would be there any minute. It had been six years since they were face-to-face, six years since Aria’s final scheme, six years, six years, six years.
She didn’t know if she could do this.
She started pacing, now occasionally running a hand along her crest along with wringing her wrist. The skin on her lips had been almost entirely tugged off, and a few spots were still sluggishly bleeding. She should fix it. No, that would make her late. She couldn’t be late for this. Yes, she could. No, she couldn’t. Yes, she-
"Hey."
She jumped nearly a foot in the air, spinning on her way back down so she could realize it was only Vynos, pacing forward slowly, eyes locked on her. She let him approach, feeling a twinge of guilt over the fear in his eyes. “Sorry.”
"For what?" He came to a stop next to her, pulling her close to him with one arm and pressing a kiss to the top of her head. "It’ll be okay, I promise. Akise can handle any bad things that come her way because of this."
"But what if she can’t? What if she hates me for it? Vy, what if I get her killed?"
"Shh, shh." He nuzzled her slowly, hugging her tight. "Everything will turn out okay."
Obvious: actor
Sephira flicked a mandible in amusement, watching as Gahlan checked over the old injuries on her hand. While he nattered on about the condition of her plates, he kept twitching his head back and forth, side to side, so she got a perfect view of his rather nicely-painted crest.
Two years married, and he still kept showing off his crest to her. Incredible.
She hummed and pulled her hand away, rubbing her thumb against one of his mandibles. “Gahlan, are you going to finish your breakfast, or fuss over a decades-old stress fracture all day?”
Gahlan blinked up at her, startled, then flushed slightly. “Sorry.”
She chuckled and touched her nose to his. “It’s no trouble. Eat.” She moved her head to graze her cheek ridges against his and added, “Unless you’d like to make good on all those offers your crest was making for you?”
She cackled at the shade of blue his neck turned all the way to the bedroom.
Unusual: poor’todor
Kael found Shala in the main battery.
Not that that in itself was unusual- Shala was small, and the armory was full of krogan, so she’d converted part of the battery room into her own private armory. No, the part that worried him was that she was sitting quietly in the corner, staring at the ground, not moving.
"Shala?" he called, approaching warily. Any lack of jumping when the door opened was a bad sign.
At first, she didn’t respond, and he had just reached her when she said softly, “If it’s a girl, we’re naming her Rena.”
He blinked, then settled down to sit facing her, now noticing the way one of her thumbs brushed against the slight swell in her abdomen. “Rena?”
She turned her head away from him, shoulders hunched like his question wounded her, and he suddenly remembered. Rena’Kaddi vas Idenna, Shala’s best friend in the marines and girlfriend, killed by Cerberus, the spark behind Shala’s immutable rage. Rena.
He was quiet a moment, then softly asked, “What was she like?”
Shala was silent, thinking, then quietly said, “One time, we had to switch suits to more heavily-armored ones. We used the same clean room to save space. Keelah, she had amazing hair. It was a lot longer than mine, but it still stuck out like she stuck her finger in a wall socket. I have no idea how she put up with it, it must have gotten in her eyes so much when her helmet was on. Anyway, I started sneezing, because some of her hair got loose and went up my nose. Turns out I’m allergic to dander, who knew?” She shook her head. “Then the next time we had to take our helmets off in the same room, her head was shaved clean. She was all embarrassed about it, but she said she didn’t want me to get sick or anything just because she liked her hair long. I tried to tell her she didn’t have to shave for me, but she said she wanted to.”
Kael blinked, then reached out and gripped Shala’s knee, figuring touching her hand would be too much at the moment. “She sounds incredible.”
"She was." Kael thought he could hear a little smile in Shala’s voice. "She really was."
Xanadu: politurians
"I can’t believe I agreed to this," Ierian grumbled. "Or, more accurately, I can’t believe I let you talk me into agreeing to this."
Aediteia rolled her eyes and nudged him slightly. “Be polite, Ierian. If you’re going to represent your race, you need to play nice when the other species invite you to their homes.”
"Then why couldn’t Valern have done the inviting?"
"I know you don’t care about the honest answer, so I’ll give you the one I know you’re thinking. He likes to watch you suffer." She rolled her eyes and reached over to adjust Ierian’s hood so the furry lining would stay away from his eyes. "Look, I know it’s awful by our standards, and you’re freezing off your crest that is very handsome and absolutely proportional to your dick size-"
"Was that sarcasm? Funny, I distinctly recall you saying my crest was a factor in your deciding to ask me out."
"Scientific curiosity, Ierian. Don’t change the subject. Yes, Hyetiana is a terrible planet by our standards, but Tevos personally invited you here, so at least pretend not to want to leave immediately.” Spotting a window, she took his hand, securely wrapped in the gloves he wore around the house and office during the winter, and pulled him along to look outside. “Besides,” she hummed, leaning in and pulling his hood back just enough to kiss his cheek, “it at least looks nice.”
Ierian harrumphed and scowled at her, then grumbled and slid an arm around her waist when she leaned against him, looking out the window at the view of the snow-filled valley below. “I’d like it better if it wasn’t so cold.”
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