#fiording

UXO is something that I'd been working on; just needed an excuse, and some well-matched prompts, to put my elbow into it and crank it out (pun intended, eheheh).

So glad I signed up for this exchange--it was really a pleasure to be a part of something like this. The deadline and the support helped me to produce something I am really proud of.

No response.

“I bet it’s clean. Wouldn’t be if you were out here. It’s shabla dusty as fuck. You know what? We should get Procurement to make sand colored katarn next. I look like an old knick-knack on your grandma’s shelf.”

Silence. Even throwing in a phrase he’d picked up who-knows-where didn’t prompt a reply. “If I were there, I’d take it off for you. In front of Maze and all the rest of them.”

A sharp intake of breath snapped in his ears. Fi shivered, at his own mental image as much as the response. “Those funny criss-cross holsters though, I’d have to get those off first--how long does it take you to strip down?”

“Be quiet.”

“How long?”

An impatient sigh.

“I bet I’m faster. Katarn is less finicky, I heard. Made for meat eaters.”

“Shut your mouth, Fi. This isn’t--”

...

He didn’t like it at all, feeling like he had cracks. Feeling like Fi could see through them.

Why did Fi look at him and smile? Maybe it was just because of the kama joke, the di’kut—

but nobody really looked at Null-11 and smiled. They grimaced; they showed teeth. Sometimes they smirked nervously while avoiding his eyes, but not a genuine, open smile like that—like he was more than Kal’buir’s tightly-tethered favorite pet.

Ordo’s discomfort swelled from multiple locations. Time to end this.

“I'll contact Maze and we can pull a replacement from another squad,” he said, tightly.

“You know there’s no-one to spare,” argued Fi. “Maze wouldn’t let you, anyway. I’m going.”

Ordo snorted. Maze could try to stop him, and see how it went.