Yet more Candal. I’m not too proud of this one, but fuck it.
The season was coming to a close, as the biting winds that whipped about Cayde-6’s cloak readily reminded him. He bolted up the hangar stairs three at a time, barely avoiding the frosted patches as he went. Saint-14 hollered something about his pigeons, and that it was “GOOD TO SEE YOU ARE STILL IN ONE PIECE”, but Cayde didn’t have time to respond. He had a deadline.
He bolted up to the rooftops and across the tower’s main courtyard to avoid foot traffic, much to Zavala’s annoyed protests and Shaxx’s bewildered shouts. The ruckus clearly preceded him as he ducked into the bazar; Osiris’ glare with a single eyebrow raised was particularly piercing. Ikora mirrored the Warlock Vanguard’s expression perfectly, but she didn’t have the mask to hide her smirk.
Cayde dodged out of Tevis’ grasping hands and mentally thanked Shiro for stopping the void-attuned hunter from tethering him to the spot. He would have to thank his fellow exo properly once his mission was complete. For now he continued to scramble his way across the tower in hot pursuit of his goal.
Finally, the open door frame to his destination was in sight. If only the person standing in it would get out of the damn way. Always the same human, the one with blonde swept back hair, a perfectly unbroken nose, broad shoulders and an enormous ego. Currently he was wearing minimal armor and a cocky smile directed at the person inside the office, as if they were in on some joke only they could understand. It made something purple in Cayde’s core grow spiky.
This feeling, it was new and gross. It made Cayde feel like a piece of shit. It only made itself known when this new guy — Griffen Dickwad or something — showed up to the tower three weeks ago. He was a newbie, but he got the hang of things pretty damn fast. More guardians is always a good thing, Cayde had thought at first. That didn’t stop the covetous little creature in his skull from rearing its ugly head though, especially not when Griffen made his infatuation with a particular Vanguard known.
With an (admittedly louder than necessary) clearing of his mechanical throat, Cayde announced his presence to the human roadblock. He was sure the chaos behind him that was just dying down was enough, but it still satiated his jealousy to see the human’s expression shift away from its previous mirth into contempt.
The blonde opened his mouth to say something, but before he could the senior hunter was pushing past him and catching the door with his heel, closing it behind him with a snap. Then, he slammed the thick stack of paperwork for all the bounties he’d completed on Andal’s desk and stared so hard it was as if he was reaching into the Vanguard's very soul.
Andal slowly looked from Cayde’s eyes to the papers under the exo’s fingers and back, blinking rapidly. The room went deathly quiet.
Andal’s lips pursed for a moment before he finally broke eye contact. “Thanks” he said, eyebrows pinched slightly as he kicked his chair back on two legs.
“Sure. Anytime.” Cayde answered non-chalantly, and turned to leave.
Andal choked on the air Cayde so desperately wanted to be sharing, scrambling to grab for the exo’s arm. “Wai- wait, stars above Cayde, how many bounties is this??”
“27. You should know, you gave them to me.”
Traveler help him, Andal Brask was beautiful. The dark bags under his eyes did nothing to diminish their hazel color. His hair was tousled and his mouth formed that adorable little frown that he only did when he was worried about Cayde. No one else, only me, his mind readily supplied, and he had to stomp down that thought.
“Wh- twenty… 27?! When did I give you… did you do all these today??”
“Mmmmhmm” Cayde readjusted from awkwardly leaning over the desk to side-sitting on the corner closest to the other man, angling away from him. He grimaced internally at how tight Andal’s grip on his wrist remained, but kept up his facade of disinterest as best he could.
Or at least, until the worry on his fiance’s face became genuine panic. They were both aware that the Vanguard office left little time for sleep, and Andal had mentioned in passing that he wasn’t sure that the missions he was handing out in his dreams were as fictional as he thought, what with the system’s horizons expanding every day. He’d meant it as a joke, but they’d both known sleep deprivation was a very real threat. If Andal was genuinely losing track of something as foundational as bounties, what else was he forgetting?
All the tension flooded from the exo in one fluid motion as he turned to fully face his partner. “Hey, it’s okay. I kept asking for more bounties as I finished them. I had a productive day, that’s all. Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.”
The deathgrip on his blue steel forearm lightened as Andal realized Cayde wasn’t going anywhere. He didn’t seem convinced, but his brow wasn’t quite as closely drawn together and his breath slowed to a more reasonable tempo.
“Right. Yeah, guess I did give you a lot. Why in the world would you do 27 bounties in one day? And what was with… that?” he asked with a glance past him to the door, then yanked his gaze back up to his eyes.
And fuck. This is where he had to explain himself. In his original plan he dramatically walked out and left the consequences of his actions for future Cayde. Now he IS future Cayde, and he’s looking down the barrel of the gun that is his own jealousy.
“How many bounties does that bring me to this season?”
He saw the moment realization hit Andal, the way the question settled and clicked into place in the beautiful, overactive brain he loved so much. Andal had his answer. He probably would’ve had it the moment Cayde waltzed in bristling with spite had he not been so exhausted.
“Hey, don’t worry about that. You know that I don’t do public leaderboards.”
“Does he still have more than me?”
Cayde hated how his voice sounded, laced with bitterness. It wasn’t for Andal, that he knew, and he didn’t want it to be for one of his fellow guardians, but who else would it be directed at then?
Andal sighed, using his free hand to grab a small ledger from beside Cayde’s armor-clad thigh. He flipped to the tabbed page and pointed to the table keeping track of current bounty scores. For the first time in years Cayde wasn’t in first, consistently falling just short behind him for the entire season. It should’ve been impressive for a kindergaurdian, but it just pissed him off more.
“See?” Andal released Cayde’s forearm to properly entwine their fingers. “Griffen turned in 8 today, you’re well and beyond him now. You’re not losing your winning streak anytime soon.”
Cayde grimaced. “It’s not about that.”
Of course he knew. Cayde tilted his neck to lean their foreheads together, forcing himself to look at the man below him as he admitted “I’m worried you’ll think he’s better than me and… I don’t know, leave. It sounds stupid out loud.”
Andal hummed. “It is a little stupid yeah.”
Cayde squawked, pulling away just a little to see the adoration written so plainly on the Vanguard’s face. “I mean, it’s understandable! You can see where I’m coming from, right? He’s hot, he’s new to the tower, he’s human-”
A caulused hand moved to his metal jaw, effectively silencing the exo. “I love you. I chose you, remember? I promise, no upstart guardian with a hero crush is ever gonna change that.” He placed a kiss to the tip of the horn protruding from exo’s forehead. “Least of all that tool,” he added with a laugh.
