#reyescott

“Fancy meeting you here,” Steve says as the bartender hands him his drink. Casey breathes deeply, closing his eyes in an attempt to calm the uneasiness in his gut. He turns to Steve briefly, raising his eyebrows in the smallest acknowledgement of his presence he can muster before turning back to his drink, head downturned and elbows firmly planted on the surface in front of him.

Steve takes a sip of his drink, his face contorting for a second as he processes its strong taste, something akin to dry mustard. Forcing himself to swallow the drink, he clears his throat, “You know, the first time we met here, I was so lost. I had just started to figure out how I could put my past behind me and I had ended up getting a crush on my CO, and I had no clue if you were even into guys, let alone me,” he muses, playing with his tumbler on the bar top in front of him.

Casey scoffs, something akin to a smile playing on his lips, his tongue running along the sharp edges of his teeth, “I thought I was a little more obvious than that.”

Steve flashes a quick smile at Casey, “I hadn’t dated in years. Any gaydar I had fell out of use as soon as,” he pauses abruptly, taking a deep breath to prepare for the end of his sentence, “well, as soon as I bought Robert’s engagement ring.”

Casey instinctively looks up at the mention of Robert, still ready to triage reopened wounds even in his current mood, but finds Steve looking almost entirely put together, save for the look of disgust on his face as he tries to down the rest of his drink.

“Finding out that you had feelings for me too changed my life,” Steve chuckles under his breath a little, casting a quick glance upward, as if he can tell Robert is somewhere laughing at how cheesy that was, “and not in some epic romance movie way, I’m not that kind of guy. But, I finally realized I had a second chance at life. I had my first first kiss in years that night. That’s not something I ever saw happening in my life again after Ferris Fields,” he places his hand on Casey’s neck, gently rubbing his thumb along the side. Casey turns his head to look at him, his eyes wet.

His voice cracking with emotion he’s normally so careful to hide, Casey forces himself to speak, “Steve, I- you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me. One of the only good things that happened to me since I was 16. But,” he pauses, desperate to swallow the tears now welling along his eyelids, “this? Thessia? I can’t…” he trails off, refusing to let his thoughts take form. Refusing to expose Steve to the turmoil in his head.

Steve’s hand trails down to Casey’s back, “I know this is hard. I’ll never know what it feels like to go through what happened down there, but in some ways, Robert was my Thessia. It hurts, and you might think you’ll never recover. But give the wound some time to heal and someday, I know you’ll beat this.”

Casey huffs a breath through his nose, something close to a laugh in sentiment, but drowned out by the overwhelming sense of apathy and hopelessness clinging to him.

Sliding off his stool, Steve steps toward Casey’s, wrapping his arms tightly around him and resting his head on top of his, gently placing a kiss on top of his head, “You are one of the most incredible men I have ever met, Casey. But even incredible people don’t have to do everything alone.”

There’s a few seconds before Casey speaks, trying to curb his teary eyes and runny nose, “On that note, mind helping your drunk boyfriend down the stairs?”

Steve sighed and rolled his eyes quickly before flicking open his omnitool to pay off the tab, “Guess I walked into that one.”

Casey’s lips soften in response, the closest thing to a smile he’s managed all night.

Steve wraps his arm around Casey’s torso, and helps him stand off the stool. Casey puts his arm across Steve’s shoulders and they slowly make their way to the stairs.

//

After somehow managing it down the stairs with only one trip, which garnered what some might call a look of concern from Aria, and a rather stressful skycar ride with a despondent drunk who seemed on the verge of motion sickness the whole way, Steve and Casey are finally in the hall outside the apartment.

“You need me to come in or…” Steve asks, unsure of whether Casey really wants him around at all, especially after his surprise appearance at Purgatory.

Casey shakes his head. They stand in silence for a few seconds, unsure of where to go or what to do. Steve turns to leave, his brow knitting in consternation as he tries to figure out where he stands.

Casey lurches forward, his hand finding Steve’s shoulder. Steve turns around slowly and finds himself enveloped in a hug. A deep hug that smells of smoke and gun oil and salarian whiskey. “Thanks,” Casey mumbles. There’s a lot said in that single word. For saving him just as much as he had saved Steve. For getting the good tequila in. For managing to love the mess of a man Casey Shepard so deeply believes himself to be. For being there. For showing up in some godforsaken bar on the Presidium when he least wanted it. For everything.

Scott jumped a little, dropping the spoon into the sauce before leaning back into Gil’s embrace, “Ryder family recipe spag bol with meatballs. Straight from the recipe book.”

Gil’s smile grew, “I love your family.”

Scott hummed with laughter, “Just wait until we can get my mom out of cryo, then you’ll get them cooked by the expert… What are you doing home so early? I wasn’t expecting you for another hour or so.”

“Got all of my errands done quicker than I thought,” he told him, “And besides, I couldn’t wait to get home to you.” Scott turned himself in Gil’s arms, leaning down a little to kiss him. Gil kissed him back for a moment before pulling away slightly, taking hold of Scott’s hands, “Can you slip away from dinner for a few minutes? I’ve got a surprise for you.”

“Sure,” Scott gave a nod, “Sauce needs time to cook anyway. What sort of surprise? If it’s like the surprise from this morning, we’ll have to be quick; Dian’s due to wake up from his nap soon.”

Gil smirked as he led him into the living room and sitting him on a couch, “Maybe later after our troublesome son has bedded down for the night, but for now I’ve got an even better surprise.”

“Better?” Scott’s eyebrows rose, disturbing the line of flour on his forehead a little, “That’s a big statement to live up to.”

“Just stay there, and close your eyes,” Gil instructed, starting to back out of the room slowly, watching as Scott suspiciously closed his eyes, “Do you remember your sister mentioning that a load of second wave biologists on the Hyperion had started working on bringing animal DNA out of cryo?”

“I remember. Our cousin Toni is a zoologist, she was quite excited,” Scott said.

Gil picked up the box from the entryway and made his way back in, “Well, their work has come along really well as it turns out.”

“Does that mean there’s going to be real steak in Andromeda?” Scott grinned.

“Better,” Gil insisted, putting the box at his feet, “Open it.”

Scott opened his eyes with a frown, glancing down at the box. He went to open it, but there was a shuffle of movement from inside, and his head snapped up to look at Gil, a smile playing on his lips as he started to figure it out, “What’s in here?”

“Just open it,” Gil grinned.

With slower and more suspicious movements than before, Scott flipped open the flaps keeping the contents hidden and he couldn’t hold back the tears that immediately welled up in his eyes when he looked inside.

Rolling around in the bottom of the box was a puppy; golden fur, big brown eyes and a wriggly body. With shaking hands, Scott reached down and scooped the pup up into his arms, cradling him close to his chest, pressing a face into his soft fur.

“Is he…?” he dared a glance up at Gil.

“He’s all yours. First litter of puppies in Andromeda,” Gil told him, coming to sit beside him, “Do you like him?”

Tears of joy ran down Scott’s face, “I love him. I love him so much… and I love you. Thank you so much. I can’t tell you how much this means to me.”

“Scott, if we lived in the Milky Way I have no doubt that you would have adopted ten dogs by now because I can’t say no to your damn puppy dog eyes, as soon as I heard that they were starting to breed animals again I had our names down for the first litter. Wanted it to be a surprise. Had to drop your sister’s name a few times to get on the list, but it was worth it. Anything’s worth it to see you smile.”

Scott leaned across and caught his lips in a kiss. Gil wiped away his tears before scratching the pup behind his ear.

“You’ve still got to name him,” Gil reminded him.

Scott was quiet for a moment as he looked at his dog, a look of real contemplation in his eyes. Gil watched him curiously, raising an eyebrow as a smile spread across Scott’s face.

“Mozzarella.”

“Mozzarella? First dog in Andromeda and you’re calling him Mozzarella?”

Scott nodded, shifting the pup in his arms so that he could press a kiss to his nose, “Yeah. He’s definitely a Mozzarella.”