Ollie almost couldn't believe his eyes. Death and destruction were definitely one of the worst parts about the war but damn if standing in some old Phoenix ruins with what was left of the fabled 37s wasn't cool. He ticked off the list in his head, memories from the posters he used to keep above his bed.
Huntsman. Nope definitely not gonna call him dad. Sabre. Mason's perfect partner and second in command. Hurricane. The murderous dreamboat who was also a ghost. Zeus. Enzo's far larger and less attractive sort-of-sibling. And then there was Ajax. Still golden and full of fire, sneering at the newcomer in his towel.
"Wait." Oliver held up a long finger. "Ajax left the 14s just before the uh. ...Incident. He was transferred to the 37s to replace Hurricane." He didn't stop to take a breath. "Who was killed but is standing right there." The finger drifted to Ben. He had a new scar but, if anything, it made him even more conflictingly adorable and terrifying.
"That's. A lot of coincidences but." He stumbled, blushing and running a hand through his wet hair and glancing at his toes bare on the cold floor until his words caught up. His green eyes found the little vanguard. "I'm really glad."
Zeus shifted in his periphery and Ollie spun, whipping the finger at the large man's broad chest. "Hey. I know your brother. Enzo." He sputtered, trying again to sound less invested. "Ares. Is he? Do you know if he-?" Oliver trailed off when Masons hand clasped his bare shoulder.
"I think we've got everything we need. Are you ready to go home?"
{Begin Encryption. ("When we grow up we'll both be soldiers. And our horses will not be toys. And I wonder if we'll remember. When we were two little boys") .End Encryption}
Mason pushed away from the terminal as though he had been burned.
“What the fuck,” he whispered. His heart was already in his throat and a surge of adrenaline rolled through him made his biotics spark around his wrists in a way they hadn’t since he was an untried and untested phoenix.
He felt like he’d had just seen a ghost.
Ethan looked up from where he lounged on the bed in their less than luxurious quarters on the Berlin. One eyebrow arched over the datapad he held in his hands. He looked casual but he tensed instantly, his own biotics simmering behind his eyes, turning them blue at whatever unseen threat had caused his husband to react so violently and ready to back him up as he always was.
“What is it?”
Mason didn’t take his eyes off the terminal, or the message that flashed there.
“Can you trace this?” he demanded. There was no gentleness in his tone.
Ethan unfolded himself from the bunk and approached. “Trace what, exactly, love?”
“This.” Mason jabbed a finger at the screen. “This message. This… what the fuck, this has to be a joke.”
Ethan’s gaze narrowed as he skimmed the short message. “It looks like gibberish. What’s got you so worked up? It’s probably some kind of prank message from the gremlin or-“
“No,” Mason said it sharply. Too sharply for Ethan to miss just how worked up he was. “No, this… This is… Fuck.”
Ethan turned his back on the terminal and stepped in front of Mason to block his view. “Mase,” he said slowly. Quietly. It took a long moment for the tick in Mason’s jaw to settle, for green eyes to meet gold flecked hazel. “Talk to me, babe.”
--
Mason dragged his blunt nails through the faint golden fuzz on his husband’s arms as he lay back against his chest. He’d told Ethan everything, in slow, halting tones, about a kid that shared the same eyes and the same dark hair… the same blood. A cousin that lived in his fragmented memories of his time before Cerberus, of a childhood spent by azure oceans and red dirt under his feet and the laughs of Kookaburras in trees. The heat and water and a sky so blue and clear he still woke up dreaming about it. A shadow, barely five to his worldly twelve, trotting off after him while they explored the rocks, and an old folk song Mason had sung about two boys going off to war to distract him from the screaming adults and skinned knees when they had skulked back towards the house.
He hadn’t thought about those memories in years, regaled to a past that felt like it didn’t belong to him anymore.
But the message, the lyrics from a song... That song, those words...
It couldn’t be a coincidence. It wasn’t possible.
“You can trace it, right?” he asked Ethan again, long after he had exhausted himself wandering through the broken halls of his memories, trying to find a face that was familiar and strange all at once.
(this is so dumb im sorry)
--
“You can’t smoke in here.”
Ethan regards the curly haired engineer with a raised eyebrow. He deliberately takes another, slow drag of his cigarette, much to the engineer’s growing distress. “Is that so?”
“No, really,” Luca looks nervously over his shoulder. The doors to the makeshift workshop in the bowels of the Berlin's cargo back slide open and closed erratically. “You can’t smoke in here. There was a... um... incident. The bionium is airborne and it’s-“
“I know what it is,” Ethan hisses, instantly on alert and folding the cigarette into his palm. He has barely enough time to kick over a nearby metal workbench and haul Luca into cover before a fireball whooshes briefly over their heads.
There's a horrible scent of burning hair in the air and Ethan refuses to wonder if it's his hair that might be smoking.
Luca blinks up at him. “I told you you couldn’t smoke in here.”
"His name is Gus." Isaac offered helpfully, leaning against one old, whitewashed porch beam.
Ethan straightened, slipping back into his cool indifference just long enough to turn, inspecting Isaac. Gus nudged eagerly at Ethan's hand with a soft, wet nose and both men smiled when he melted.
Isaac didn't know much about Sabre. Not much other than the fact that they were entirely different. But everything in him warmed to see the way the flawless Phoenix melted to his knees for Isaac's old friend.
The Phoenix's massive biceps curled gently around Gus and the dog whimpered and whined mixed sounds of joy and relief, sniffing into Ethan's perfect hair with a happy, swishing tail.
"He really likes you," Isaac offered. He moved just enough to take a seat on the old porch steps, just a small distance from where the Phoenix and the dog knelt in the grass. "He's usually much more standoffish with folks at first."
Ethan sniffed. His cool tone hiding the warm sparkle in his pretty eyes as he smoothed his hands over the dog's soft fur. "Gus just has good taste."
"He does." Isaac agreed quietly. He let his eyes drift to the horizon- to the slowly setting sun. "There are a few little houses on the property. Spread out that we've always kept for farm hands or neighbors or whatnot. The refugees are being settled closer into town so if you and Huntsman wanted a place to stay planetside."
He hesitated, tipping his head in the direction of the busy farmhouse, filled with love and laughter and joy for the first time in far too many years, behind him. "Somewhere more private. You're welcome to any of them."
The captain sighed but it wasn't his usual weary sound. It was a satisfied, full belly, happy heart kind of noise. He smiled at Ethan and Gus as he got to his feet, teasing the warm pair as he moved to find Eva's side again. "He might try to follow you home, you know."
under a cut because apparently kim can’t write short things
Marie backed towards the wall as his massive form advanced on her with a predatory grin.
“I tried calling you.”
“I’ve been very busy.” She smirked up at him through her dark lashes before stepping out of her pants as she walked backwards. She reminded him of a bear, the way he stalked like an immovable force. “It’s only been two weeks, and you’re already missing me?”
“Two weeks is too long when we’re only here for two hours.” His gaze fell to her lace covered chest when she stripped off her shirt.
Marie gasped when her back hit the cold metal and he caught up to her, steady hands curling around the back of her thighs to lift her until her legs wrapped around his waist. She always got a thrill from the way he could move her as if she weighed nothing and her hand curled into the black and gold logo on his chest before pulling the shirt over his head.
“Then we will have to be quick.” She whined when one of his hands left her to fumble at the waist of his pants.
“Marie, someone might see us.” He panted against her mouth after kissing her. The room wasn’t exactly out of the way, and he wanted her to be sure. But he didn’t stop.
“I don’t care.” Her teeth latched onto his lip, drawing a deep growl from his throat. “Fuck me Zeus.”
His wide hand slapped against the wall beside her head when she reached between them, wrapping her fingers around his length. He let her stroke him, swiping his tongue back into her mouth.
“I’m already wet for you.” She pushed her hips forward, rubbing the tip of his cock against her entrance to prove her point, and he groaned in agony.
She would never get used to the size of him, and she whimpered from the delicious in-between place of pleasure and pain as he slid into her. She held his face as he fucked her, looking into his eyes and matching his moans. She knew she’d have bruises from the force with which she was shoved against the wall every time he thrust, and the thought helped to send her over the edge. She clung to him, nails digging harmlessly into the thick skin of his back and he held her tightly as she came.
She came two more times, the last one while riding him on the dusty floor of the warehouse and they spent the last hour curled against each other in a heap of clothes. She had kissed him until the very last second, and he had hated the way his fingers eventually had to drop from hers before they parted. And he had smiled the way only she could make him smile when he received her message 10 minutes later.
‘I missed you too.’
-
“No smoking.” The small Asian man was dwarfed by the giant desk, not bothering to look up from his work.
“Right.” Ethan pulled the cigarette from his lips, reaching over to snub out the embers onto the shoulder of the ever present enforcement bot before flicking it into the trash.
“So.” Their handler finally looked up when Ethan flopped down into a chair. “The mission was a failure.”
“Yes sir…” Ethan’s brows furrowed, knowing Mason had already given a debrief, so he waited for the real reason he had been called into the office.
Tatsu leaned back in his chair, resting his lips on his steepled fingers. “My little birdies tell me that Zeus has been off his game. Distracted. Is this anything I need to worry about?”
“Your birdies are deaf and dumb, Tats. Zeus is fine.”
“So he hasn’t been absent?”
Ethan shifted uncomfortably, for once not able to see where this was heading. “He’s missed a few meetings. And was…misplaced last week. But nothing major.
“Misplaced.”
Ethan was annoyed now. He was being toyed with, knowing full well Tatsu had every piece of information he already needed.
“What’s this about?”
“Zeus being the direct cause of the failure of this mission is just the cherry on top of the shit piling up against him.”
He’d never admit it. The instinctual protection that kicked into his gut the moment he thought any of them were under attack. He kept the defensive tone out of his voice when Tatsu’s brows rose. It was tactical to make Ethan answer this particular question, but he was as skilled at dancing around the point as his boss was.
“We’ve all made mistakes. It really wasn’t that big of a deal, what is this really about?”
“Does Zeus have his priorities straight.”
“Of course he does.”
“Hm.” Tatsu tapped a finger against the screen and Ethan froze. There was no mistaking Nico with his pants around his ankles or who he had pushed against a wall.
“Who is she?”
Ethan sighed on a slow blink that pulled his eyes away from the screen. “An Alliance officer.”
“I’m not your level of genius Sabre, but I can see she’s wearing an Alliance uniform. Or was, at least. Who is she.”
“Lieutenant Miller, sir.”
Ethan knew when the man went silent he was thinking, and he recognized the danger in that, so he didn’t give him the time to do so. “It’s nothing. She’s a plaything. He has to burn off steam somehow right? We don’t want Zeus going boom from too much pent up pressure.”
“There are other ways to blow off steam than sneaking around with Alliance officers.” Tatsu sneered, leaning forward and all façade of casual banter disappeared. “I’ve always liked Zeus. Dependable. Efficient. Follows the rules. I called you because if it goes to Huntsman, he will have to report it to those higher than me. So consider this a curtesy call. Remind him, Sabre. Take care of it or they will.”
Ethan didn’t need to be told just who they were. “Yes sir.”
-
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
“Whatever this is, can’t happen. You have to cut her loose.” Ethan pulled the edges of his leather gloves under the hem of his suit’s sleeves. “This is your first and final warning Zeus, the next time it goes above Tatsu’s pay grade.”
“She’s not a threat, Ethan.”
He intentionally ignored the significance of the use of his real name and the fact that he never thought he’d ever hear a twinge of vulnerability in the vanguard’s voice. “She’s a bloody distraction. And they consider that a threat. If you put her on the radar, there isn’t shit you or I can do about it.”
Nico’s chest heaved at that, gold pupils darkening in a challenge. His mouth opened to retort only to snap shut when another form appeared in the hallway.
Mason stopped in his tracks in the doorway to look between the two men. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing.” Ethan replied without taking his eyes from Nico’s hard stare.
“O-kay…”
“Hey.” Ethan called to Mason’s disappearing form. “You,” his finger jabbed in Nico’s direction. “Don’t move.”
“Hey.” He called again after turning the corner and Mason finally stopped as Ethan caught up. He heard a sigh before striking green eyes turned on him. “Can we talk later?”
“We’re done talking about it Sabre. You said that yourself.”
“I know what I said but…” He took too long searching for the words he wouldn’t say and the disappointment in Mason’s eyes made his chest constrict too much for his liking.
“Exactly.” Mason huffed out a breath before reaching to straighten Ethan’s tie. “I have a meeting. Be careful tonight.”
Ethan watched Mason’s retreating form until he disappeared before turning back into the room just in time to see Nico punch a hole through the wall.
The Phoenix stations had been more, or less, abandoned toward the end. As more and more of the Phoenix operatives either lost themselves becoming dragoons or died fighting the inevitable, Cerberus didn't even bother to strip the tech from what had once been their homes.
P3 was still riddled with defenses and largely inaccessible to anyone without firsthand knowledge. Oliver tried to settle the strange twist in his tummy. He wasn't sure what he was expecting, but it wasn't that everything would be almost exactly the same.
-
Even empty, it felt more comfortable in the group wash rooms than the private stalls in the squad leader's quarters. Oliver's shoulders shuddered with quiet sobs underneath the white-hot water of the station's showers when the quiet hum in his bones responded to something unseen, sparking to life only to find an easy harmony with his kind.
He hadn't felt anything like it in years and for the first time in a very long time, Oliver didn't feel alone. The relief that flooded over him almost started him sobbing again.
-
"When you're five years old, your twelve year old cousin is literally the coolest person in the world. Mason was my superhero. My whole life. He was everything I wanted to be. And then he became a Phoenix. I saw him in commercials and on magazines. They did interviews and photo shoots for calendars. They were so... cool."
Ollie cracked a pretty smile and combed his fingers through Ben's shock of white hair, brushing it out of his face to see his pretty eyes. "I guess that's how propaganda works though, huh."
-
"I can feel him." Mason's jaw clenched and his green eyes stayed fixed on something none of them could see.
Ethan worked quietly, uploading a number of coded encryption keys to access the station. It didn't take long. He gestured lightly as the massive metal doors slid open to a dark hallway. "After you, love."
-
Oliver finished his shower quickly. Rinsing the soap from his back and letting the hot water run over his head, wetting his dark hair a final time before he shut it down. He'd beelined to cleanliness and hadn't had a chance to rifle through what was left in the closets so he wrapped a white towel loose and low around his hips.
The smile fit his face before he rounded a corner, somewhere between the showers and the mess, only to catch a glimpse of a ghost at the other end of a long hall.
silly fluff... thing. idk doesn’t have to be canon just something that was floating around in my head for a while. took a few liberties so feel free to ignore.
--
Post War Terra Nova
The kitchen was the heart of the farmhouse and the heart was beating strong.
Mason grinned at the sight of his husband, immaculately dressed and hair perfectly styled, his head bent close to Mara in deep conversation. Mara held a cup in her hands, empty, but too engrossed in whatever she was discussing with Ethan to notice. Mason suspected it wasn’t so much the subject Ethan was waxing lyrical about, but more the cadence of his voice and the clear, precise tones of his accent. Mason could sympathize – Ethan could spent hours reading out the dreariest Alliance regulations and Mason wouldn’t mind one bit as long as he could lose himself in that voice.
A clatter on the stairs behind him had him turning towards the porch. Luca pushed his way into the kitchen, the screen door banging behind him as he came in. His skin was flushed and sweat beaded along his brow as he ran a hand through his curls. In his white tank top it was easy to see the new muscle forming from the hours of hard labor on the farm.
“Why is it that you’re the super soldiers with crazy strength and incredible stamina, but I’m the one out there with Mason and Isaac digging holes for the fences?” he complained, draping himself dramatically over Ben’s back where Ben sat at the long kitchen table helping Eva shell peas. It was weirdly domestic and a sight Mason wasn’t sure he would ever get used to.
Ethan looked up and smirked. “Because we’re pretty,” he said.
Luca looped his arms around Ben’s neck and perched his chin on his head. Ben exchanged a long suffering glance with Eva but didn’t push the engineer away.
“So pretty,” Luca yawned in agreement, rubbing a cheek against Ben’s hair. “Kalahira, but I’m exhausted. I don’t think I can make it another step.”
“You’d better,” Eva shot him an amused smirk. Then she wrinkled her nose. “You kind of stink.”
“That’s sweat from working so hard, Evie. Very manly, thank you very much.”
“Stinky,” Eva laughed. She nudged Ben. “Go take him to get cleaned up, Ben.”
“Yeah,” Luca brightened. He was all but sliding into Ben’s lap now, a sly smile and a waggle of eyebrows. “Take me to get cleaned up. You have to carry me though. Suddenly my legs don’t work.”
“Bloody hell,” Ethan muttered, glancing away.
Mason laughed and squeezed Ethan’s shoulder. “Hey, Luca worked hard today. I was impressed.”
Ethan didn’t look convinced and pointedly ignored Luca being carted off by Hurricane into the hall. They passed Isaac coming into the kitchen as they went, his hair damp and a towel around his shoulders. Isaac paused by the table, leaning down to give Eva what was supposed to be a quick kiss, except that her fast hands latched onto his neck and held him in place for a kiss that was significantly more than just a peck on the lips.
“Ah, newlyweds,” Mason joked, catching Mara’s eye and winking. “I remember what that was like.”
“Well, here’s hoping for some grandbabies sometime soon,” Mara sniffed. “I’m not getting any younger, you know.”
Isaac and Eva broke their kiss to exclaim together. “Mom!”
“We talked about this,” Isaac added as he straightened up.
“You talked,” Mara dismissed him, but her eyes were bright with mirth. “I still want grandbabies.”
“You have grandbabies,” Eva said pointedly. She nodded at the two dogs curled up in the corner. Gus, sensing attention on him, raised his head and thumped his tail happily against the floorboards, tongue lolling out.
“Not quite the same,” Mara laughed but she was soon distracted from that subject by Mason pressing a fresh mug of tea into her palm. “Oh, Mason, you do know just how to make a lady feel pampered.”
“I get that a lot,” Mason teased, laughing again when Mara’s cheeks stained the faintest pink. He was falling in love with Mara in a whole new way, wishing this woman could have been his mother. Wishing this whole family in the farmhouse could have been his.
Something of his thoughts might have shown in his face because Ethan was suddenly there, curling an arm around his waist.
“Babe,” he protested. “I haven’t showered either. We just came in.”
“I know,” Ethan murmured, running a palm over the dark stubble along Mason’s jaw that was only a few days shy of a beard. “Very manly.”
Mason chuckled but let Ethan kiss him, just as Mara chimed up, “if you’re handing out kisses, Sabre then I’d like one too.”
Ethan drew back, a quirk of his mouth that made Mason struggle not to laugh more. “Well, it seems my work is never done.”
“Mom,” Isaac and Eva groaned again.
--
Later, after a loud, hearty meal and a few too many sips of wine from Nico’s ancient wine cellar, Mason and Isaac poured over the map spread across the table.
“And this trail?” Mason asked, pointing a finger to one section that appeared to be nothing but forest and mountainous terrain. “How many clicks is this one?”
“This one,” Isaac nodded. “This one just might give a phoenix a run for their money. Its rough terrain, and a good eighty clicks to the summit. You’d probably smash it out in a few hours.”
“Less, actually,” Mason mused, running his eyes over the map. It wasn’t a brag, just a fact.
“Will your husband be joining you?”
“Ethan?” Mason snorted. “No, running trails is definitely not his forte. Or running at all. But why don’t you?”
“I’m an old man these days, Huntsman. I doubt I could keep up.”
“I’ll pair it back for you. It’s no fun running the trails alone all the time. And I doubt Luca is going to let Ben out of his sight long enough to join me.”
Isaac chuckled. “You’d be right about that.”
Mason grinned then turned back to the map. Terra Nova was beautiful, wild, and rugged in a way he imagined the Wild West back on Earth might have been once. But it wasn’t without its dangers. And Isaac’s farm, nestled in one of the most fertile and beautiful valleys, was prosperous and thriving in a way that had too many covetous eyes turned towards it.
“You’re not really thinking about the trails, are you?” Isaac said quietly. He was mindful of the activity nearby, his mother perched on Ethan’s knee, giggling over a glass of wine while Luca played one of his melodious love songs he’d written for Ben he had no hope of Ben understanding. Eva was tucked up on the couch, one of the dogs gazing up adoringly at her as she scratched their heads while Ben sprawled on his stomach on the floor at her feet.
Mason gave Isaac a glance. He wasn’t surprised that Isaac had picked up the thread of his thoughts. He was an Alliance admiral after all, trained to protect, trained to be always thinking five steps ahead. Of course he was aware of the dangers.
“Your neighbors. Are they as prosperous as you?”
“No,” Isaac shook his head. “But they don’t have my mother, or a Luca. Even though we share what we have.”
“And the defensive satellites? Are they in orbit yet?”
Isaac’s silence was telling. Mason didn’t need him to say more.
“You need to keep your guard up. The war is over but not everyone got the memo.”
“I know,” Isaac answered, his eyes suddenly hard as he studied the map. “But right now… Well, I don’t need to tell you that I’m glad to have a few phoenix around.”
