#jaalios

“Pathfinder’s on a hunt.”

It was a message passed from person to person–from Cora to Liam with a smile, from Liam to Vetra with a confused tone that asked what he meant even as he was the one who said it, from Vetra to Jaal with a laugh and a flutter in her subvocals that said, this is your fault, isn’t it?

“Ah, excellent, he found it,” Jaal said, trying valiantly to hold back his own laugh.

“He’ll find you soon enough,” Vetra sighed. “I’ll leave you to it.” With a whoosh of a closing door, she left Jaal to wait.

He didn’t have to wait long.

The door slid open again to reveal a breathless Pathfinder, bleached hair messy, accusing finger pointed right at Jaal. “You!”

Jaal couldn’t help his grin. “Yes, Ryder?”

“So it was you!” Helios started into the room at a run, his fist hitting Jaal’s chest with no real force behind it.

“What was me, Ryder?”

“That–sappy note! Left on my bed when I was giving my sister her first tour of the Tempest! You knew I was bringing Eos around!”

“Did you appreciate it, dearest?”

As Jaal expected, the endearment threw Helios completely off. “I–I–well, yeah! But–”

“Then what is the problem?” Jaal asked, still feigning innocence even as his grin bloomed on his face again and a flush bloomed at the tops of Helios’s cheeks.

“You knew damn well she was going to tease me about it until I dropped her off on Hyperion again.”

“Did she?” Jaal asked.

“Every time she could get in a joke about it, she did,” Helios muttered. Jaal could tell Helios was faking his affront now, even as he struggled to keep up a frown. “I never want to hear another joke about first contact ever again.”

Helios’s scowl couldn’t stand up in the face of Jaal’s laugh. “Excellent!” he crowed. “Cora owes Liam and me ten credits each!”

“You bet on it?” Helios demanded, even though he couldn’t even pretend to be angry. “On whether my sister would make fun of me for dating you?”

“No. It was on whether she would make the first contact joke.”

“Jaal,” Helios whined, leaning forward against his boyfriend and gently pummeling him with his fists, even as Jaal wrapped his arms around Helios’s shoulders.

“Ah, my darling,” Jaal chuckled. “I do love you.”

“I love you too,” Helios mumbled, hiding his smile in Jaal’s rofjinn.

The noise was getting louder as the Pathfinder and his team drew closer to the marketplace. “Is that music?” Liam wondered aloud. “It’s certainly got a beat.”

Jaal’s face brightened, and he hurried ahead as Helios called ineffectually, “Jaal, wait!”

Helios caught up to Jaal as he began to push through a crowd of angara. “Jaal, what’s going on?”

“Celebration!” Jaal said joyously, taking Helios’s hand and pulling him along. “Come!”

They emerged in the center of a circle cleared between the angara, where a few danced to the pounding drums and harmonizing voices. The song made little sense to Helios, but if he listened past the translator--it was beautiful.

“Dance with me!” Jaal invited, tugging on Helios’s hand, tilting his head in the direction of the open space. The gathered angara had spotted the two of them and were crowing, “Pathfinder!” “Jaal!” “Ryder!” Jaal grinned at Helios. “Come, Helios. They’re celebrating our victory.” He pulled Helios toward the circle.