#be gentle...

By the time that Locus makes it safely down from the tower after the ending scene of Season 13, he’s pretty badly beaten up and broken after all of the events of the explosion of their crashing ship (from which he had very little protection). Forcing himself to exert more movement and activity after all of that likely only made it worse. Felix, on the other hand, despite being more protected from the ship’s crashing, was obviously rekt thoroughly by the two point-blank grenades and, you know. Falling over the edge of whatever they all were and plummeting through the clouds to his supposed death.

When Locus (aware that his camo is malfunctioning and hardly working/flickering in and out) spots Felix, it takes him a long while to decide whether or not he should approach or leave him be. After all, he was confident in his decision to betray the other, as he’d been used by him for so long and refused to let it continue for any longer. The small chance that Felix was alive meant that he was still a threat, and Locus really didn’t need any more trouble in his current state. Despite every sense of logic pointing in the other direction, Locus was oddly drawn to investigate Felix’s state. Perhaps there was a part of him that was eager to see if Felix was really gone- for good. (Though he’d likely not realize it until it was too late, never knowing whether or not Felix had really died on impact or stayed there rotting to death probably would have haunted him. …Slightly.)

When Felix sees that- of all people, Locus is heading towards him, it’s only natural for him to believe that the other had come only to finish him off- after all, when had Locus ever changed motive or abandoned a directive? (Ha). Felix is clearly in worse shape than Locus, with a few broken bones, ample bruising, and lots of likely future scars. The post that this au refers to claims that Felix’s first words after finding Locus are “don’t ever leave me again,” but I actually kind of took the au in a different direction. By all means, Felix 100% feels this way, but he’s too overcome with anger to voice it. Instead of breaking down, I like to think he goes off the other end, and just lashes out wildly at Locus despite his incredible Inability to do so (he’s really only making a pathetic fool of himself at this point), just likely injuring himself further. Locus, despite tempted to finish everything here and move on with a life he doesn’t deserve, refuses to fight back and (after a lot of bickering and angsty, tension filled conversation) they agree to try and survive rather than stay at each other’s throats until one of them (probably Felix) drops dead.

By no means does this mean they’ve come to any sort of truce. Felix is still beyond livid at Locus for hurting him in a way that no one else could, and Locus (of course, it’s more complicated) still can’t decide why there’s an eager part of him that wants to help Felix and make some sort of amends, because he’s confident in the notion that he could and would survive without Felix if he was forced to. A lot goes unsaid as they enter a thick forest-y region in hopes of finding shelter of some sort (there are a lot of conversations that go something like “Do you need help walking?” “Fuck off.”). And, as Felix refuses help, sooner or later Locus ends up having to haul Felix’s unconscious ass to a safer place where they can start up some kind of camp.

From this point, it’s a lot of brooding and tense silence as they kind of try to patch themselves up with the limit resources they have and a single low-power healing unit (It’s Locus’, but he gives it to Felix because those broken ribs are going to take a while). It’s kind of a ‘survival in the woods’ deal for a while, and as the days pass they talk a little bit more and become ever so slightly more personable with each other (but obviously avoid the huge elephant in the room). There are occasional nights where they have respective nightmares (<- something I could go into). Maybe some comforting is involved, maybe some, (cuddling), maybe some soft reassuring words (you decide). There’s a pretty long while before the topic eventually comes up- it’s surprising how good they are at dancing around the subject.

(Angst Warning.) One night, Felix asks Locus why he’s bothering to help him. The conversation is pretty mild and tame at first, with a little bit of mild flattery, (“because we can do better. You deserve a second chance.”) but, of course, things get out of hand (“no, I fucking don’t- people like me don’t get second chances. By all means, you should go, leave me behind, again-” “You’re not understanding-” “Oh, I understand plenty. I needed you and you left me for dead- We were partners–”), as Felix starts to make offhanded accusations as his growing frustration is slowly unwound. Locus tries his best to control his own temper, but Felix snaps and is yelling at him and has already thrown a punch or two and is straight up being the insulting jackass he always has been– Locus absolutely loses it. He shuts Felix up (with the whole, Felix pinned against the wall and Locus’ arm is pushed against his throat to shut him up and make him “listen for once in his goddamn life”) and it’s pretty intense. Locus is pretty sure he’s hurting Felix in the midst of his lashing out and he knows he’s making things worse but he can’t help himself as everything comes spilling out, about how he hates that he was only ever a pawn to Felix, that he trusted Felix and was manipulated and abused as a result, and it’s made the last several years of his life a lie, and how he was the one betrayed rather than Felix, and that after their work on Earth together, he thought they were partners with a mutual trust but now he’s not sure if any kind of trust will ever be possible between them (He almost regrets saying that all he wants is Isaac back, but Isaac is dead and he wants Felix to be too), and how everything inside of him wants him to leave Felix to rot, because he should want nothing to do with Felix after all of this but he can’t and he doesn’t know why- he doesn’t want to feel this way, and he’s pretty sure his face feels wet  but he blinks and suddenly there’s a reasonable distance between them and Felix is on the ground gasping for air. Felix is… shell shocked, to say the least, unaware that any of this had been going on his Locus’ (“broken fucking”) head.

Felix wants to get the hell out of their camp, because he’s actually pretty sure Locus is about to strangle kill him. Locus promptly turns and tells (yells at) him to leave after realizing what he’d done and said. Felix is gone in a heartbeat.

The next day, Locus goes out to look for Felix because Felix really shouldn’t be alone since he’s still broken in a lot of places and injured. Of course, when Locus finds Felix, some local chorus guards have spotted him and were holding him at gunpoint. Locus of course comes in and saves the day, shatters all of the guards' kneecaps, and they go back to camp to fix up Felix because of course he’s managed to injure himself even more (partly Locus’ fault). They have a gentler heart to heart and make temporary amends, and start to plan out a way to get the HELL off of chorus.

Their getaway plan is decided as they plan to sneak on and steel a pelican from the nearby base that those guards had come from for escape (after Felix steals and puts on the armor belonging to one of the dead guards from earlier), and after the complexities of that are out of the way, they stop at a couple of space stations on their way back to Earth. There’s a lot of fluff during the ride back, with each respectively stealing glances at the other and sparse pillow talk and the occasional smile. Things finally are starting to heal between them and it’s wonderful- a kind of peace has started to settle and they can both kind of feel it. (Of course, there are still the impending nerves about how the hell they’ll get away from wherever they land on Earth, but… that can wait. They might as well enjoy the ride.)

After the complications of landing on Earth at a UNSC base and managing to trick the local security, they hijack a car and make way for the nearest city, where (after a long drawn out conversation about what they’re supposed to do on Earth, for God’s sake after all of the “shit we’ve been through”) they’ve settled on deciding to bounty hunt again.

It’s another huge topic of debate between them is on whether or not to contact Siris (in hopes that he’s still alive and on Earth- they’re both way too nervous about the status of their old friend). Seeing as though Siris could potentially help them find a life more easily on Earth/settle easier, they decide to indeed try and get in contact with him. When they finally decide to call, Siris answers (thank god) but is actually quite livid that, after all of these years, and knowing that they had been up to some bad/evil stuff (though not sure exactly what), they’d have the audacity to call him and ask for his help.