or, the one where Victoria finally tells Liam and Jaal about the ex-boyfriend on Omega, many hugs are hugged, and many feelings felt. Guest starring Sahuna, because adopted angaran mom is the Most important. 1800ish words, PG.
Warnings for discussion of/reference to past abusive relationship. Also, this was originally meant to be a prompt response, but I opted not to use it for that since it got super out of hand because, as is well established, I have zero chill.
Wind blows gently through the trees as Victoria finishes her story. She brushes her thumb at the corner of her eye, wiping away tears before they have a chance to fall, though she’s sure her watery eyes haven’t escaped Sahuna’s notice. It’s a sad story, and even though it ends well for her, she’s still not happy at the end. All she feels, all she’s ever felt, is staggering relief. “Someone found him dead in an airlock about four months later.”
Companionable silence falls around them. Silence usually makes Victoria uncomfortable, especially after sharing that particular life experience, but Sahuna has a way of making it warm, safe, even soft. She could live inside this silence, just sitting forever in a place that feels like family. Like home. Like she belongs.
Odd that her parents had to die, her brother had to be in a coma, and she had to leave the galaxy to find a place like that. Even odder that she found it among aliens. She pushes the thought away - an analysis for another time.
“You haven’t told them,” Sahuna says softly after a moment of contemplation.
The setting sun turns the Havarl sky into pinks and oranges and brilliant purples. Little pinpricks of starlight flicker at the edges of the oncoming night.
Victoria blinks at Sahuna. Their tea is long finished and smells of dinner have begun wafting outside through an open window. She looks out at the mountains beyond and the valley below, and swallows. No, she hasn’t. “I don’t know how,” she admits. She shifts against the large plush pillows beneath her, bringing her knees to her chest, loosely hugging her legs.
Sahuna reaches out over the space between them and clasps Victoria’s hands with hers. “You told me,” she says simply.
Victoria looks back at her. “Not easily.” She pauses, and then offers Sahuna a little smile. “Plus, you asked.”
Smiling in return, Sahuna lightly squeezes her hands and then lets go. “I’m nosy and have no shame. You know this.”
She laughs and lets her knees fall back to the pillow, tucking her feet underneath her. “It doesn’t seem relevant,” she says, playing with her necklace. Her fingers trail over the scar on her collarbone, the scar Sahuna had asked about. “It’s over, I’m okay enough. And I know Liam and Jaal would never do anything like that. So I - ” she exhales a short, frustrated sigh. “There’s nothing about it they need to know.” Now that she’s said it aloud, it sounds like the lousy excuse it is. She stares at her hands.
“Perhaps not,” Sahuna says. “But it is part of you, my dear. And they love you. Quite a lot, if the way they look at you is any indication.” She waits until Victoria looks up again. “I know my son. This will not diminish what he feels for you. I doubt it will diminish Liam’s feelings either.”
Victoria swallows. Though she’s never truly doubted their feelings for her, there’s a little part of her that always whispers you’re too damaged to be with anyone. Sahuna’s right, of course. But Sahuna’s only the third person Victoria’s ever told - the rest who know found out on their own somehow - and this is the first time she hasn’t dissolved into tears. Jaal and Liam have seen her cry, but her tears have been for things outside of her, not something unfortunately a part of her. It’s different, and she doesn’t like it. She pushes a stray strand of hair out of her face and sighs.
“I won’t tell them,” Sahuna promises. “I understand if you wish this to remain between us. But,” she smiles at Victoria in a way that makes her think of someone else, someone long buried in Indiana with a handful of daisies, “I think they would like to know.”
Victoria looks away and glances inside through the window. She’s too far away to hear them, but Jaal’s teaching one of his younger cousins how to build a fire in the open-air pit near the center of the compound. Liam subtly sneaks a piece of vegetable from the tray beside them, only to be caught by Jaal - though his only punishment is a smile and a kiss to his forehead. Liam turns and blows a kiss to her; she waves at him and smiles.
“Yeah,” she says, looking back at Sahuna. Six hundred years later and a galaxy away, it’s past time to stop running from a ghost who never deserved her at all.
***
The sun’s long set, and dinner long eaten and cleaned up, and the littlest ones long put to bed. Victoria sits down on the upper balcony, letting her feet dangle in the empty air. The mountains brighten and pulse with the glowing plants - a band of blue here, a patch of purple there, a swirl of pink in between.
Liam sits down on her right, Jaal on her left. She leans forward against the low railing and rests her chin on her hands. She knows she’s been strange ever since coming inside for dinner - quiet, distant, holding herself just a little too stiffly. No one else in Jaal’s family knows her well enough yet to notice it, but Jaal and Liam do. They sit quietly beside her, waiting. They’ve all learned over the past months that not one of them responds well to pushing.
“My ex-boyfriend used to hit me,” she says softly. No pretense, no preamble. No setting up the story like she did with Sahuna, explaining that it all began with her mother’s death and running to Omega and being so consumed by her grief she didn’t realize what was happening until it was too late. Just the bare fact of it. “A lot.”
She feels them share a look over the top of her head. She can almost picture the look - worried, perhaps even horrified, Liam’s mouth falls open just a little while Jaal’s eyes shimmer, both torn between hugging her and killing someone six hundred years and a galaxy away dead.
Night bugs hum and chirp and sing in the silence, a chorus of insects trying to attract each other’s attention.
“Tori?” Liam settles his hand on her lower back, and Jaal puts his hand on her knee.
She sits up straight, draws her legs up, and turns so she’s facing them both. “I’m okay,” she says. “I just, I wanted - actually, Sahuna wanted me to tell you,” she tries to lighten the mood. Because the way they’re looking at her, like she’s the most precious thing in both their worlds and they’re trying to figure out how to protect her from absolutely everything all at once, is just a little too intense.
She loves them with all her heart and then some, but sometimes it scares her how much they love her.
“Darling one,” Jaal whispers, his voice thick with tears. He reaches out and cups her cheek.
“I’m okay,” she repeats, and lets Jaal draw her close.
He kisses her temple and guides her head to his shoulder. His hands gently stroke her hair, smoothing out the little hairs that have escaped from their loose crown braid, before settling on hers. She turns her palms over and softly grasps his hands.
She pulls away, kisses his scarred cheek, and turns. Jaal’s arms circle around her waist and he tugs her into his lap.
“Is that how…?” Liam trails off and brushes his fingertips - feather-light, as if she’s still hurt - down her left temple.
“Yeah,” she says. One break of many. She can point to them all, though she’d rather not.
Liam tucks a small piece of hair behind her ear. “Can we do anything?”
Victoria smiles - he’s always trying to fix things, even things that were broken years ago and don’t need to be fixed anymore. She’s just a little chipped, and always will be. It took her a while to come to terms with that, but she’s okay with it now.
“No,” she says. Maybe she’ll tell them the whole story one day, from the beginning, from sitting down in Afterlife to the bodyguards to Aria telling her they found him dead on the wrong side of a decompressed airlock. But she probably won’t, not unless they ask; she’s done thinking about it, done remembering. She reaches out and cups his cheek, brushing her fingertips through his hairline. “But thank you.”
He clasps her hand, and then turns and kisses her palm. She strokes her thumb over his cheekbone.
Jaal hugs her tighter, strengthening his arms around her. Victoria leans back into him and twines the fingers of one hand with his, letting her other fall from Liam’s cheek down to his hands. He catches hers and brushes a kiss to her knuckles before letting their joined hands drop to his lap.
Bats - or Havarl’s equivalent, she’s not heard a name for them yet - flap through the nearby trees, and Victoria looks up at the starry night sky, streaked with purple and pink aurora. Bioluminescent leaves blow gently above them in the wind. What a strange planet, and yet it feels more like home than Earth ever did. Maybe it’s the company.
“I love you guys,” she says quietly. This isn’t the first time she’s told them, but it somehow seems more important than it did before, more solid. Permanent. Real. They’re all a little chipped and broken.
Jaal presses a kiss to the top of her head and then smooths out her hair. “I love you,” he whispers in return.
Liam leans forward and bumps his forehead against hers. “Love you,” he murmurs.
She sighs contently and lets them just hold her for a while. Shadows pass over them as a family of great beasts flies above. “I’m okay,” she says again, when they show no sign of ever letting go. “I wanted to tell you, that’s all.”
And that’s the truth of it. Though Sahuna encouraged her to tell them, Victoria would be lying to herself if she said she didn’t want them to know. And as much as Victoria wishes she weren’t - Sahuna was right, and what happened is a part of her. The men holding her are her world and they deserve to know everything, even the broken bits.
Victoria nuzzles Liam’s shoulder and shifts out of Jaal’s lap. She scoots forward to the edge of the balcony and dangles her legs over the ledge again, though this time she braces her hands behind her and leans back, looking up at the sparkling starry night sky. Liam and Jaal settle in beside her, sliding their arms around her waist. She smiles and lifts her pinkies, curling them around her partners’ fingers.
Though she’ll always be a little chipped because of it, what happened in the Milky Way is past, over. She’s found the two men here with her on the balcony, and she’s safe with them, forever, and that’s what matters.
Victoria giggles - an actual, honest-to-god giggle- and her foot catches on the last step, sending her stumbling into Liam.
Liam smiles and puts his arm around hershoulders, part out of affection, part to help her stand up, and part - if he'sbeing honest - to keep anyone still standing in Kralla's Song from getting anysmart ideas about taking out the Pathfinder while she's toasted. "You'redrunk," he says, stating the very obvious.
"Little bit," she says, holding upher thumb and forefinger for him to see just how much. "Got in a fight,too." She turns her hand around, showing off her scraped and bruisedknuckles.
He looks over her head and catches Drack'seye. Victoria could take on the whole bar if she was really determined, but shetends not to go out of her way to pick fights. Drack, on the other hand - Liamrolls his eyes. The krogan simply shrugs at him and goes back to his ryncol.Liam adjusts his arm as Victoria sways a bit; he'll get the story out of Dracklater. "Let's get you back to the ship."
Victoria hiccups. "Okay." She leansher head against him and follows his lead out of the bar.
Liam tightens his arm around her and leansover to kiss the top of her head. They step out into Kadara's setting sunlight,dark oranges and pinks met with neon greens and blues as the market's signsbrighten in the dusk. He's sure there are people watching her every move here,just as they are everywhere, but it's almost like they can be normal here.Boyfriend and girlfriend, just walking back from the bar.
Kadara's a shithole, but at least it doesn'twhisper as they walk past, doesn't come right up to her and demand her help.
Victoria stops, right there in the middle ofthe market, and looks up at the sky. She then looks over at him, smiling wide.
And in that moment, she's not the Pathfinder.She's not Ryder. She isn't carrying the stress of her last name or theresponsibility of her title, she's just Victoria - a girl he likes a lot.
She lifts up on her toes and he meets her fora kiss. He slides his arm down around her waist, helping her stay steady evenas she breaks away and settles back down on her heels.
After a moment, sure that she's not going totopple over, he continues walking them back toward the Tempest. Jaal'swaiting for them in the airlock.
"Hi!" she chirps, slipping out fromunder Liam's arm to hug Jaal. She trips over her own feet and falls into him.
Jaal catches her and presses a kiss to herforehead. "Did you have fun?" He raises his brow - an expressionadopted from Victoria - at Liam over her head.
Liam makes a drinking motion with hisfingers, and Jaal nods in understanding.
"Drack and I beat up the whole bar,"she says, just as proudly - if not more so - than when she told Liam.
"Ah," Jaal says, gently guiding herout of the airlock and down the glass walkway. "Congratulations."
Liam stifles a laugh and follows them.
Victoria's in the middle of reenacting aparticularly-energetic headbutt when she stops in the middle of the walkway.She turns and looks up at both of them, a soft, starry smile on her face."I love you guys," she says quietly. She pauses a moment, and thenkisses Liam's cheek, then Jaal's, and takes their hands.
The soft smile disappears, replaced by asmirk and a mischievous sparkle in her eyes. She winks, and takes the lead backto their quarters.
@riana-one (at least I assume that’s you on tumblr?) on AO3 prompted: Victoria with a squishy baby angara on her hip. Both Jaal and Liam want kids and domestic fluff is so cute.
So here we go!
A loud, bone-shaking clap of thunder startles Liam awake. He blinks in the darkness of Jaal’s bedroom and looks out the window. Lightning flashes as the storm pours down outside. The roof overhang protects them from most of the rain, but the wind is strong enough that little droplets blow in.
He takes a breath of the cool air. Strange. It almost smells like Earth. Almost - there’s a hint of Havarl’s flowers on the air.
Liam shifts, stretching his legs out, and digs a little further under the blankets. Jaal nuzzles his neck and tightens his arm tightens his waist. Sleep still drifts around the edges of Liam’s vision and he smiles, covering Jaal’s hand with his. When he reaches out with his other hand, he finds nothing but air.
He rubs his eyes, trying to turn the crumpled blankets beside him into their girlfriend. No matter how hard he tries, Victoria is not lying in bed with them.
Jaal takes a long, slow breath, and pushes himself up just enough to look over Liam’s shoulder. “That it is an excellent question.”
Liam sits up and blinks away the last bits of sleep. He scrubs his hand over his face.
Jaal reaches out to turn on the lamp, but nothing happens. “Hm,” he says, “the power’s out.”
As if on cue, bright lightning flashes, almost instantly followed by a deafening crash of thunder.
“Nice planet you’ve got,” Liam grimaces as little echoing booms roll through the mountains.
Jaal smiles and sits up beside him. If he noticed Liam’s sarcasm, he ignores it. “It is beautiful, isn’t it?”
Leaning over, Liam kisses Jaal’s unscarred cheek. “It is.” Aside from the wicked thunderstorms, at least. He looks down at the empty space next to him. “Should we go find her?” Victoria is terrible with maps and navigation, but not so terrible that she’d get lost inside a house, even one so big as Jaal’s family home.
“Probably.” Jaal slides out of bed and offers his hand to Liam.
Liam lets Jaal tug him out of bed. It’s a little cooler without the blankets and the warmth of Jaal’s body, but finding his shirt in a dark room is more work than he wants right now. The pants he’s wearing are enough. Jaal seems to decide the same, and they slip out of his bedroom.
Finding Victoria isn’t hard, even without any lights. She’s in the kitchen, beside the window.
Liam stops just inside the kitchen and holds his hand out against Jaal’s stomach, keeping him from walking forward. Smiling, he tilts his head at Victoria.
She turns, bouncing the small angaran girl a little higher on her hip. Thunder rumbles, shaking the glasses Jaal’s cousins left out on the counter, and the girl squeaks and buries her head in Victoria’s shoulder. Victoria presses a kiss to her forehead and gently sways back and forth.
Liam looks at Jaal and smiles at the way Jaal’s watching her - soft, starry-eyed, it’s an expression that warms the very air around them. He’s sure there’s a similar look on his own face. Something inside of him melts at the sight of Victoria holding a child.
Victoria turns, and a smile grows across her face as she sees the two of them. She walks over to them and whispers something to the girl, who lifts her head despite the thunder.
“Hi Flora,” Jaal says, gently settling his palm on Flora’s back.
She smiles wide, revealing a missing tooth. “Hi Jaal!”
“I got up for a glass of water,” Victoria explains. “Flora found me, wanted a hug.”
Liam doesn’t blame her. He doesn’t love thunderstorms, and this is the strongest, brightest, loudest one he’s ever experienced. Victoria’s hugs have magic properties, he swears.
“It’s loud,” Flora says, resting her head on Victoria’s shoulder again.
Rain pounds on the roof, and Liam leans in to press a kiss to the top of Victoria’s head. There are other, more pressing, concerns at the forefront now to have the future discussion, let alone the kids discussion. But that doesn’t mean he hasn’t thought about it.
“Oh, there you are,” a relieved-looking Finn rushes into the kitchen.
Victoria grins at him. “Found something of yours.” She shifts Flora to her father’s arms.
“Thank you,” he says, taking his daughter.
Flora yawns. “Tori gives good hugs.”
She boops the girl’s nose. “You can have one whenever you want. Sweet dreams.”
Flora sleepily waves at them as Finn carries her back to her bed.
Victoria looks at Liam, and then at Jaal. She tilts her head. “You guys are looking at me funny.”
The storm rages outside as they stand in silence for a moment, staring at her.
“Seriously. What is it?” She pats her head, as if it’s her hair that’s causing them to look at her like she’s the sun.
Jaal cups her cheek and tilts her head up. “You are marvelous,” he whispers, brushing his thumb across her cheekbone before gently kissing her.
Victoria lifts up a little on her bare toes, leaning into the kiss. “Thank you,” she whispers against his lips. She settles her heels back on the floor and pulls away from him to look at Liam.
He smiles at her, his thoughts still half-caught in their potential future.
She crinkles her nose at them both. “You guys are weird,” she says lovingly, taking their hands in hers. “Let’s go back to bed.”
There’s a little wobble, an uncertainty, aninstability. It itches at him at night, and the hours he spends alone in thetech lab. Something’s wrong, and he can’t name what; he thinks it’s onlynerves, a new environment, being around aliens.
But then Ryder squeezes Cora’s shoulder asthey stand in the wreckage of a ship, a transponder blinking sadly in Cora’shands, and he realizes what it is.
Jaal hasn’t been touched since he cameon board.
II.
His mother asks, among other things, if theyare kind.
They are. The crew of the Tempest iskind and supportive, they are funny and happy, they are ridiculous and loving.He’s not certain he’s ever felt loved by a team before. Liked and respected,yes, but loved? No.
Jaal tells her this. He tells her of the crew– of Peebee’s enthusiasm and Vetra’s resourcefulness, of Drack’s tenacity andCora’s calm – but especially he tells her of Ryder and Liam, and the pull hefeels toward them. He tells her of the look in Ryder’s eyes just before sherealizes he’s turned and can see her now, a look of genuine care thatmakes his heart flutter. And he tells her of the way Liam always gives him alittle light smack on the back of his shoulder before a fight, and how hesmiles with a stuttery sigh of relief when they meet at the Nomad afterward.
It feels like such a small thing incomparison, and Jaal doesn’t want to dampen her opinion of his friends. Butdespite the friendship, and despite the love, and though he is happy – hestill feels off balance. I have not been hugged – nor given a hug – since wewere last on Aya, he writes. Sadness tugs at him as he reads the words; thehugs he received in the Resistance headquarters were of greeting, and not thekind he’s been craving. Sahuna will know this without him saying so, and hesends his message.
Do they not hug at all? she writes at theend of her lengthy response to his stories. Or are you concerned it wouldnot be welcome?
He thinks about all the times he’s seen Rydergive her crew a hug – Vetra, upon finding peanut butter in the galley; Drack,when they won a third obstacle course; Liam, after he told a story about hismother and suddenly had trouble speaking around his unshed tears. Jaalswallows. It is not the former, and though everything he’s seen of them overthe past two months says otherwise, a part of him still worries that it’s thelatter.
III.
He steps out of medbay, leaving Ryder tospeak with the Moshae. Exaltation is…horrific. He has no other word for it, andacrid bile burns at the back of his throat as images from the facility racethrough his mind.
“You alright, mate?” Liam asks asJaal passes the other man in the research center.
“I…I need some time,” he says. Thesimple answer is no, but it’s far too complex a thing right now. Heneeds to just feel for a while, before he tries to put words to it.
Liam reaches out and, in a mirror of hismovements in the base, rests his hand lightly on Jaal’s shoulder. “If youneed to talk.”
Jaal nods. “When I know what words tosay.”
With a soft smile, Liam slides his hand downJaal’s shoulder, to his arm, to his hand. He squeezes lightly, and then letsgo. “You got it.”
He leaves Liam to his research and enters thecool, quiet sanctuary of the tech lab. Nothing captures his attention, and hisarm nearly tingles with the memory of Liam’s touch – tingles with the need for more.He’s on the verge of walking back out and asking when the quiet doorchime dings.
“Come in,” he says, the hoarsenessof his own voice surprising. He clears his throat.
Ryder steps in far enough that the doorcloses behind her. And then steps closer, until she’s only a foot away fromhim. She’s let her hair down, and she looks up at him through wispy pieces ofbright orange. She blinks, and tilts her head, like she’s unsure of her words.It’s an odd, disconcerting expression on her.
Jaal can’t stand it any longer – between theconstant knot of imbalance in his stomach to the discovery of Exaltation, it’sall just much too much – and he reaches out and draws her to him. He wraps hisarms around her slender frame, nearly engulfing her as he holds her close.Hugging or being hugged, he’s so desperate that it doesn’t matter.
She sighs quietly and leans into him, bringingher own arms up around his waist, holding him as tightly as he’s holding her.
Tears spring to his eyes. Too much time haspassed, and her touch is overwhelming and not enough all at once. He rests hischeek atop her head and tightens his embrace, flattening his palms over herback. Her hair is soft and strange, and smells good. Like flowers and freshrain, like comfort.
“Thank you,” he whispers after along while. He doesn’t move to part from her, but she doesn’t move either.
“Any time,” she says, and there’sso much soft conviction in her voice that he knows she means it.
IV.
Victoria is small and warm and soft in hisarms, and Liam is strong and warm and solid at his back. They’re both longasleep, and Jaal’s as tired – even more so – as he was when they climbed intoher bed and curled around each other an hour ago; they feel so good around him, he hardly wants towaste this feeling by sleeping through it. He presses a kiss to her shoulder,letting his lips linger on her skin, and squeezes Liam’s hand, gently so as notto wake him.
She makes a quiet little noise in her sleepand scoots closer to him, and Liam nuzzles his neck with his cold nose. Jaalsmiles, and lets himself start to drift into sleep.
And the unsteady, wobbly part inside of himfinds its balance.
6 for victoria/liam/jaal if you still want prompts?
#6 - piggyback rides. I may have taken some liberties with Tempest architecture regarding ladder locations. And this got out of hand real fast. Real fast.
***
Ryder’s high-pitched squeal pulls Jaal’sattention away from his tinkering. Curious, he steps out of the tech lab, onlyto nearly collide with Drack and…Ryder? Held on his back as he runs three timesaround the research console, and into the cockpit? Jaal watches, equal partsconfused and fascinated.
With perhaps a tinge of concern. These arethe people he trusts to watch his back in a firefight.
“I’m going to catch you, old man!”Liam cries as he exits the cargo bay, Peebee on his back.
“Doesn’t look like it!” Drackcalls, his heavy footsteps echoing over the glass walkway. The cockpit doorshiss open, and then closed, and open again. Drack comes back out while Liam’sin his second lap of the center console. He’s strolling now, with Ryder grinningwide and triumphantly holding a scrap of green fabric over her head.
Liam groans and releases his hold on Peebee’slegs, letting her step down to the floor. “Damn,” he says.
Drack and Ryder do a slow lap around theroom, high-fiving their crew mates.
“You tried,” Peebee says, ahalf-hearted attempt at consolation. “Dibs on Vetra next time, she’sspeedy.” She twirls a bit and leans against the console, next to Vetra.She winks at the turian.
“Ouch,” Liam says, clasping hishand over his chest. “Harsh.”
She shrugs. “You lost this on the ladders.To Drack.”
“All hail the undefeated champions ofthe Tempest obstacle course!” Ryder shouts at the end of theirvictory lap, raising both arms up in triumph.
“You’ve done this twice,”Lexi says.
Jaal’s new to the Tempest, only beenon board a week and a half, and his fellow crew often need to explain theirtone or sarcasm or jokes. But Lexi’s disapproval is as clear as the waterfallson Aya.
Drack shrugs. “Still won both times,didn’t we?”
Lexi just shakes her head, and mutters to herself underher breath.
Ryder hops down, a wide smile on her face,and drapes the green fabric in a haphazard sash over Drack’s armor. He slingshis thick, armored arm around her shoulders and she stumbles a bit under thesudden weight, but stands straight, grinning.
She catches sight of Jaal watching, and giveshim a little wave.
***
There’s a crown to consider now. Made of a dull metal amalgam with mismatched gemstones (and several pieces of what Jaalthinks might accidentally be bone) around the tips, the crown is hideous.But it is a crown nonetheless, and ever since Suvi and Vetra finally defeatedRyder and Drack several months ago, the crown has passed from team to team. Andit is up for grabs again tomorrow.
Ryder plops back down on the bed, tucks herbare legs under her, and turns on the holoprojector. Kallo’s plans for the newobstacle course flicker into the air. The lights dim, and the windows darken,letting the map glow bright blue.
Three teams of three this time. They’reallowed to switch configurations as often as they want, but one member must beon the back of another at all times. The rest of the rules are the same asalways: no intentional physical contact with other teams, and don’t break theship.
(Other, rather specific rules have surfacedover the past months, for participants and course-makers alike: leave the pyjakalone, walls are not floors, access hatches and crawlspaces are not valid meansof avoiding the laser grid section, the floor is not allowed to actually belava.
Jaal’s favorite is “no use of biotics toadjust local gravity,” which turned, after the very next race, into“no adjusting local gravity by any means at all.”
But by and large, the basic rules areenough.)
“Okay,” Ryder says, pushing herhair out of her eyes. She zooms in on the cargo bay. It’s a mess of ropes andrickety makeshift bridges, with no clear route from the armory up to the secondfloor doorway.
Jaal tries to trace a path with his finger,but winds up in a dead end inside the Nomad within six steps.
“This the configuration he’susing?” Liam asks.
Ryder takes a swig of her beer. “Hopeso.” She squints at the hologram. “I take that back. I hope not.”Her lips twist into a frown and her nose scrunches up.
The Concentration Face, Peebee calls it. Theexpression looks absurd on her, but Jaal’s never seen it fail. Ryder’s eyesshift slightly right, and she tilts her head.
“I have an idea.”
***
Jaal adjusts his arms, settling Ryder moresteadily against his back, and twists his body. The motion is enough to changetheir direction, and his feet hit just above the galley doors, sending themback down the hallway. As they pass the center point, Ryder reaches up and grabsone of the medallions off the underside of the walkway. The door to the cargobay opens, and Vetra and Peebee fly out in a barely-controlled spin. Rydershifts her weight, rolling them out of the way of the other team. She shifts her weight back, straightening them, and Jaal takes them through the door and into the cargo bay for the last challenge.
Despite the gravity change, the boxes andgear forming the walls of the maze have remained mostly in place. They’rethrough the first third of it when the air starts to buzz.
The only warning they get is SAM - Ryder,Jaal; Gil has regained access to the artificial gravity controls - and abrief alarm over the shipwide intercom, and then they fall a foot and a halfonto the deck. Jaal takes the full brunt of it, and grunts.
“You okay?” Ryder asks, and he can hearthe shift in her voice from Obstacle Course Combatant to Doctor. She sits up,straddling his hips, taking her weight off his back and chest.
“Yes,” he says, pressing his palmsto the floor and shifting his weight to bring his knees under him. “Holdon.” She may have switched - however briefly - out of Obstacle Course Combatant,but he has not. He hears Vetra and Peebee arguing about which way to go at thebeginning of the maze.
Ryder hooks her legs on his hips and graspshis shoulders, and he carefully stands to his feet. While he would consider asudden influx of gravity a good excuse for breaking the one player mustalways be giving a piggy-back ride to another rule, he doubts theiropponents would see it as such.
Especially since Ryder took a rather liberal interpretation of the concept of local gravity by disabling it for the entire ship.
The maze only stymies him once - and Ryderstraightens and sits up tall, peering over the top of the obstacles to directhim out of the corner - and then they’re out and at the ladders.
“They should’ve left the gravity off forthis,” Ryder mutters as she flattens herself against Jaal’s back and hebegins to climb.
Jaal allows himself a glance to the side ashe reaches the top. Vetra’s about halfway up the ladder with Peebee; she’sstarting to slow, but not enough to make their lead comfortable. He tightenshis arms around Ryder’s legs and runs.
Through the cargo bay upper balcony - pastDrack and Cora still trying to navigate the ropes obstacle, somehow having moretrouble now that gravity’s back, and Suvi shouting encouragement from the side,though there no chance for them to even come in second now - and to the upperlevel door, where Liam’s waiting. Jaal turns, and Ryder climbs off of him andonto Liam. As soon as he has a solid grip on her legs, Liam takes off at a deadrun down the length of the ship, Gil and Peebee at his heels. The cargo baydoor closes, shutting off Jaal's view of the end of the race.
Not five seconds later, Kallo comes over theintercom. “We have a winner!”
The door opens again, and Jaal steps forwardand leans against the wall, trying to calm his breath. He waits anxiously forthe cockpit door to open, with Vetra doing the same beside him.
The cockpit door whooshes open, and Jaalgrins wide. Liam steps out, Ryder on his shoulders now, the ugly crown perchedcrooked atop her head.
***
Infoboard Message #304Subject: Gravity
Gravity aboard the Tempest is to remain at 1G (9.807 m/s2) at all times. Peebee’s escape pod is the only exception. {Cora}
You’re just mad because you couldn’t figure out a ropes course. {Liam}
I have read the Initiative handbook, and there is no such rule. {Jaal}
[attached: AIHandbookLatestUpdateCH.pdf] {Cora}
If you’re allowed to make up Initiative-wide rules just because you lost a race, then I’m allowed to charge the fiend. {Ryder}
12 - Leaning on a shoulder. 1300 words (because I have no chill at all), mostly of Tori/Liam (still with important bits of OT3!) because that’s how this one fell.
Becoming Pathfinder hasn’t been great for Victoria’s anxiety and panic. Somehow, she’s managed to keep this from her boyfriends for a good long while. Until she can’t.
***
Boots crunch on the sand beside her, andsomeone sits down in the small shade of the Nomad. He tosses a rock away,and she cracks one eye open.
Liam.
She closes her eye again, rests her foreheadin her hands, and concentrates on her breathing. Good air in, bad air out,something the owner of her favorite bakery said to her once, when she came infor a fifth evening in a row to buy herself a Made It Through A Crap Daycupcake. Good air in, bad air out. The meds should kick insoon.
It wasn’t even anything specific. Just onetoo many fights, one too many kett that got too close, not enough sleep, threeemails from Tann, a reminder from Lexi that she’s working too hard and noteating enough, SAM pointing out a mining zone just as she drove past it. All ofit would be fine on its own, but together - she felt it rising in that lastfight, a wave of adrenaline unrelated to gunfire surging up inside of her, bringingwith it an all-consuming urge to just panic. She’d tried to channel itinto the fight, maybe blow off the steam by shooting a couple kett in the face,but it hit too fast too strong. At least she was able hold it at bay until afterward.
Liam puts his hand on her knee. “Youokay?”
Victoria sits up a little, leans against theNomad’s wheel, and takes a long sip from her water bottle. The water’s crispand cold, refreshing and centering as it slides down her throat. A soft blanketof calm starts to settle over her, starting in her chest, slowing her heart andher breathing, and gradually spreading outward. She can almost feel themedication transported through her veins. Much better.
“Yeah,” she says quietly, though she isn’t totally there quite just yet. “Thanks.” She takes another drink.
“That happen often?”
She turns to look at him. She thought she hidit well, but - of course he knows the signs of a panic attack. Crisis responseisn’t lacking in panic. His voice is gentle,concerned not accusatory, and she shrugs. “First one on the field,”she admits. “And it’s happening less elsewhere now that Cora’s taken overmost of the bullshit.”
But happening less now implies happening a lot before, and Liam’s smart enough to know that.
He squints at her and then moveshis hand from her knee, settling his arm around her shoulder. He tugs herclose, his armor clanking against hers, and presses a kiss to the top of herhead. “Why didn’t you tell us?” Still gentle and concerned, and shewonders how he does it. From almost anyone else, the question would sound mad,maybe even hurt. But he just sounds worried.
Victoria shrugs. “Hi, I’m thePathfinder, and I’m having daily panic attacks because the fate of the entireInitiative has landed on my wildly unqualified shoulders, and I don’t know whatthe fuck I’m doing.” She gives him a wide, fake smile, and then rests herhead on his shoulder. His armor isn’t that comfortable to lean against, butit’s nice sitting here with him.
Liam smooths out her hair. “Lexi giveyou meds?”
She nods and tugs his arm a little tighteraround her. “Right thigh compartment,” she says, patting it.“Also nightstand drawer.” She’s only had a few attacks here that wereso overwhelming she couldn’t even process you have pills for this and shouldtake some. Luckily, SAM spoke up, but SAM can’t hug, SAM can’t hold, andher father certainly didn’t program SAM to talk anyone down from a panicattack. She got her meds okay, but it was a rocky rest of the evening. Havinganother person - a boyfriend who hugs, who holds, who might have a clue how totalk her down from a panic attack - know where to find her meds would be nice,if ever things started to get totally out of hand.
Well. Ideally things wouldn’t get totally outof hand, and ideally she wouldn’t need any help at all - pharmaceutical,artificially intelligent, or otherwise. But after thirty-odd years, she’slearned her mind well enough to accept that, as badly as she wants it, ideallysimply isn’t going to happen.
“Got it,” he says. He links theirfingers together and gives her hand a little squeeze. “Let us know if wecan do anything?”
She wants to make him promises. Wants to tellhim of course, absolutely, wants to tell him that she’ll always saysomething, always ask for help. But her mind can be cruel to her sometimes,cruelest of all when she needs help. The best she can give him is, “I’lltry.”
He seems to accept that, and leans his headagainst hers.
Her hardsuit scrapes on the rocky sand as shescoots a little closer to him. His armored shoulder may not be the mostcomfortable to lean against, but he sure is solid. Stable. Calm. He tightenshis arm in a sideways hug.
“Where’s Jaal?” she asks after awhile, finally calmed enough to notice that he’s missing.
“Went off to scout ahead,” Liam says.“Figured both of us would be too much.”
“And you lost the coin toss?” shegrins.
He shakes his head. “No,” he sayssoftly, brushing his fingers down her arm, though neither of them can feel it.
The terrible joke dies right there onVictoria’s tongue. That single syllable contains so much care and concern, morethan should be allowed for a word with only two letters. He presses a kiss toher temple, and whispers so softly she thinks he doesn’t mean to say the wordsout loud at all, we would never toss a coin about you.
Victoria blinks. They’ve been together a few weeks now, after months of dancing around it, and Liam and Jaal both never stop surprising her with how strong,how intense, how everything they feel for her. It’s a little overwhelming, but the good kind. Not the kind that threw her into a panic attack mid-charge.
“Probably best not to learn Care AndFeeding Of Your Human Girlfriend in the field on the fly, huh?” she says.
Liam smiles. “Something like that.”He shifts a little and fusses with an armor pocket. “Speaking of,” hehands her a protein bar.
She opens the packaging without lookingat it and takes a bite. “This is disgusting,” she says, around amouthful of somehow both chewy and dry snack, but she chews andswallows anyway. The doctor in her knows that she needs to eat something, evenif her tastebuds are screaming in horror. She looks at the wrapper: bananachocolate oatmeal. It tastes remotely like none of those things.
“Take it up with requisitions,” hesays.
“I will,” she says, and takesanother bite. “What’s the point of being Pathfinder if I can’t even getthe good protein bars?”
Liam laughs. “No point at all.”
They sit in silence while she finishes therest of the bar, and washes it all down with half a bottle of water. She spiesJaal climbing over a nearby hill, his silhouette nearly glowing in the settingsun. His rofjinn is an even brighter blue for the red rocks behind him.
“You good?” Liam asks her as Jaalwalks toward them.
