#rydenko

The batarian fires again; the second shot connecting with his barriers.  The hissing snap as the shot meets and is swallowed by the shields pops and crackles loudly in Scott’s ears.  

Guess he told you, huh?

“Shut up, Sara!”  He shouts it, frustrated and more than just a little irritated with himself because he knows better, he really does!  It’s just been… a hot minute since he was in active combat, that’s all.  All right, any combat, technically speaking.  Anger getting the best of him in the moment, he pulls dark energy to him with enough speed to leave a normal person dizzy and starts running straight ahead toward the bastard.  With a shout, a flick of his wrist, and a release of the appropriate mnemonic, he arrives in front of the batarian, jumps into the air as he forms a second mnemonic, and lands with a solid punch of biotic energy to the ground, sending out an explosive wave of energy.  In the half second before the batarian is tossed backwards where his back connects solidly with the wall, it’s impossible to miss the stunned look in its four eyes. Scott finds it amusing, if not more than a little bit disturbing.  When the body crumples to the ground, he steps over and takes aim at its head with his assault rifle, shooting once into the back of his head.  

Pulse check – just to make sure.

That’ll learn ‘im, Scotty.  

He can picture Sara’s smirk to perfection.  Dammit!  Some things don’t ever change.

Turning around, Scott searches for his next target. The scan he and Kaidan did from outside the room indicated four targets before they entered.  He’s taken down this one plus one other, and he’d seen Kaidan take one down.  Speaking of…

His gaze connects with the commander’s about a hundred fifty feet away from him.  “You okay?” Kaidan asks.

Scott huffs, shrugging just a little too casually while a smirk curls across his lips as he saunters in his companion’s direction. “What can I say?  He was a lousy shot.”  Something about the commander inspires him, gives him a bit more confidence in himself, boosts his self-esteem to previously unattainable levels, and yet, leaves an inexplicable but gentle ache in his chest when their eyes meet.

Kaidan’s dark eyes flare a little as he chuckles; Scott notices.  “That so?”

The response sets loose a thousand butterflies in Scott’s belly.  Or, maybe it’s simply the way his voice drops an octave, warming him from head to toe but centering mostly in his chest, the way a glass of good whiskey does.  “Mmhmm.”

Scott isn’t even a third of the way over when movement out of the corner of his eye, plus the way Kaidan’s head turns sharply in the same direction alerts him to the danger.  Scott reacts without conscious thought, simply grabbing at the dark energy, wrapping it around him, and flicking the mnemonic off his hand in haste as he launches forward the rest of the way.  This time, instead of preparing a second biotic attack, he moves both hands out in front of him with one singular purpose in mind; get Kaidan out of the line of fire.  

Time slows around him and, as fanciful as it sounds, he swears he sees the shot flying right next to him; side-by-side, a race to see who gets there first.  Scott has never really been good at racing before, but this is one he intends to win.

Just before he connects with Kaidan, he dials back his momentum, slowing as he prepares to connect.  Thankfully, his fellow biotic hasn’t had a chance to re-activate his barrier, instead taking his own shot in the direction of the enemy. Barring any last fraction-of-a-second changes, this end result shouldn’t be that bad, all things considered.

Hah!  You always say that!

Go aWAY, Sara!

The collision is jarring, to say the least. Yet as they connect, Scott slides his arms around the other man, enveloping him and twisting their bodies as they fall to minimize the damage.  Colliding at speed, even one that is slower than a full speed Charge, can still hurt if he isn’t careful.  They land with a thud, half on Scott’s right side and half on his back.  He grunts in pain and hears the breath knocked out of Kaidan.  The momentum sends them rolling across the floor together, until they come to a stop another twenty feet away, Scott now fully on top of Kaidan.  It also cannot stop their foreheads from bumping… or their lips brushing together and lingering for just a moment.

Sucking in a deep, quick breath, Scott pushes himself up, eyes wide as he stares down at Kaidan.  Okay, so… yeah, this is what he wants, but this isn’t exactly the scenario he had in mind when playing it out inside his head.  And just because he wants it doesn’t mean… “Um, I can explain…?”

Kaidan says nothing, only staring in Scott’s eyes briefly before drifting slightly lower.

Scott blinks, breath catching at the implication. In the same moment, he notices Kaidan hasn’t let go of him just yet… and his eyes remain locked on Scott’s lips.   He blinks a second time, and has difficulty swallowing.  And still, Kaidan’s gaze doesn’t leave his lips.  

“Oh, to hell with it,” Scott mutters, ignoring nerves and diving back down, this time with purpose, and fusing their lips together.  

If anything, Kaidan’s arms slide further around him.  Scott accepts that as tacit approval to continue and deepens the kiss, savoring it, reveling in it.  His world tilts somewhat awkwardly, but no less dramatically, as they roll over and when the kiss breaks in the next moment, Scott is left looking up at Kaidan as he gasps for air.  

A smug smirk toys at Kaidan’s lips.  “I’m still waiting.”

“Waiting?”  Scott struggles to recall what he could possibly be waiting for.

With a soft chuckle, Kaidan runs a finger down the length of Scott’s nose, tapping it once on the tip.  “I believe you said you could explain?”

Mouth hanging open, Scott nods.  A strangled sound escapes as memories of the attack flash before his eyes in a rush.  He bolts upright, or at least attempts to – it’s rather difficult to sit up when the commander is lying across him, and damned if Scott can think of a better reason to remain where he is at the moment – and looks in the direction the shot had fired from.  Their last batarian opponent lies face down on the floor in a growing pool of blood, motionless.  “H-how…?”

Kaidan glances over his shoulder in that direction. “I knew he was there and took the shot.”

“But, what about the shot aimed at you?”

Lifting himself off of Scott, Kaidan sits cross legged on the floor next to him for a moment, a field of dark energy slowly enveloping him.  “I had my barrier field up.  You?”

“I…”  He has his shields, of course, but they lose their effect for a short time when his biotics are active.  For the most part, Scott accepts it as a fair trade, but Kaidan’s simple question is a reminder of his father’s arguments against him opting for the Vanguard class and his shoulders sag as he shakes his head and glances away.  “Kind of pointless if I’m zipping all over the battlefield. Guess you didn’t need me after all.”

A firm grasp on his chin pulls him back until their eyes meet again.  “I never said that.”  There’s an insistence in Kaidan’s voice that confuses Scott for a moment, but then he forgets about it as Kaidan leans in and initiates a kiss this time; firm yet gentle, more exploratory than lustful.  The kind of kiss that most definitely can lead to other things. Kaidan rises to his feet when the kiss breaks off and offers Scott a hand up.  

The kind of things we don’t have time for right now, Scott realizes, accepting the assistance.  Ah, well. Not meant to be, I guess.  

As he lands on his feet, practically eye to eye with the commander once more, Scott catches a glimpse of Kaidan’s left shoulder. Narrowing his focus onto the area, he sucks in a sharp breath, recognizing what the groove through the metal armor, just deep enough to crease, really means.  Without thinking, he lifts his hand and runs a finger over it.  To the naked eye, it isn’t deep at all, doesn’t even technically ruin the armor, but it does tell Scott one thing and that leaves him chilled to the bone.  His eyes drift back to meet Kaidan’s as the blood drains from his face.  “You…”

Kaidan hesitates already half inside the vehicle and tosses a look of suspicion in Scott’s direction.  Scott struggles to bite back a laugh and a grin, and somehow manages to maintain an innocent look before climbing inside after him.  

Once secured and while mentally going over Vetra’s directions, Scott turns the Nomad out in the direction of Sulphur Springs.  Their destination isn’t far, and once they arrive it’s just a matter of maneuvering the vehicle up the right ridge until they reach the top.  He isn’t used to approaching from this direction, thus the necessity of Vetra’s directions, but Kaidan, thankfully, remains silent throughout the trip allowing him to focus.  Scott is nervous enough.  Handling a bunch of questions on top of that would be too much.

Finally, he pulls to a stop and takes a moment to stare out the virtual windows.  It’s difficult to see much with the darkness out there, but really, he’s only buying himself a minute or two to settle.  

Nothing’s gonna happen if you don’t move, he reminds himself and reaches for his safety harness, tossing it aside as he announces, “Well, we’re here!”  

Kaidan gives him a raised eyebrow, but is still silent.  No comment, no question.  Scott isn’t sure what to make of that, and cannot help it when his nerves kick into even higher gear.  Somehow, even though he stumbles his way to the hatch, he maintains his balance. After opening the door, he grabs the pack from behind the seat and slips outside to wait.  With the sun fully set and the skies overhead well on their way to full darkness, he finds unexpected reassurance in the sight.  

A sound behind him pulls him back, and he turns to find Kaidan standing behind him.  “Right,” he huffs softly, forcing a smile that he hopes looks genuine.  “Over this way.”

The spot he wants is less than a hundred feet away, still part of the relatively level mesa-like outcropping.  Scott pulls a blanket out of the pack and lays it out on the ground, then takes a seat and pats the space next to him.  Kaidan doesn’t hesitate, but it’s impossible to miss the skepticism in his expression.  “Just… thought it might be nice to get away and relax for a little while,” Scott explains. “You okay with that?”

Settling next to him, Kaidan replies, “If I wasn’t, I wouldn’t have let you drag me all the way out here.”

Scott chuckles.  “Fair enough.”

“So, what are we here for?”  

A soft snicker escapes before Scott can stop it.  “You make it sound like Kandros is locking us up or something,” he jokes.  “Don’t like the out of doors?”

“I’m not saying that.”  There is a hint of darkness in his cheeks, and for just a second, Scott wonders if he’s embarrassed him.  “It’s just… Guess it’s been a while since I took a moment to just sit and relax.”  He rubs his hand over the back of his neck.  “And I do like the out of doors,” he adds, glancing over at Scott.  “My Dad and I used to go camping up in the mountains near our home when I was a kid.”

“Sounds like fun,” Scott muses.  Reclining back until his arms rest on the ground, he stares up at the starry sky.  “I never got the chance to do stuff like that.  Sara and I grew up on the Citadel.  By the time Mom and Dad moved back to Earth, we were on our own and enlisting with the Alliance.”  He sighs. “They look so different than back home.”

Kaidan nods as he leans back to mimic Scott’s stance.  “Andromeda is definitely… different, I’ll give it that much.”

“You think?” Scott can’t help but tease.  “What gave it away?  The bone-armored alien race bent on our destruction?  Or, the dark energy cloud that wants to kill us and every single planet we wanted to colonize?  My bet’s on the alien race, in case you’re wondering.”

Kaidan huffs and bumps his shoulder into Scott’s, but a laugh quickly follows.  “You are so irreverent.”

Scott’s reply is just as quick and, at least he thinks, witty.  “I think you mean irrelevant.”

There is a long moment of silence in which Kaidan shifts just enough to face him.  Scott stares up at the sky, unwilling to face him just yet.  What he expects is a dressing-down for his self-deprecating sense of humor.  What he receives, however, is nothing less than perfection as Kaidan leans over, slides his hand behind Scott’s head until his fingers thread through his hair, and pulls him in for a very thorough, very intense meeting of their lips.  A kiss of which Scott hasn’t experienced in over six hundred years.  Heat and fire burn through him leaving him numb, and he cannot stop a soft whimper of delight as it escapes his lips.

When Kaidan breaks the contact sometime later – Scott’s brain is so scrambled he can’t even make a guess at how much time has passed, in all honesty – he pulls back only enough so they can get a clear look at one another.  As usual, Kaidan’s face is neutral, not quite expressionless but difficult to fathom.  Scott, well…  He is well aware of his downfalls, and has no doubt the man can read him perfectly in the moment.  Greedily sucking in air, he prepares for the chastisement…

… and instead, finds himself absolutely stunned.  “Never irrelevant,” Kaidan insists, his voice at least an octave lower than his usual rumbly, gravely, incredibly sexy tone.

Scott blinks and has to swallow twice before he rasps out, “O-okay…”

Kaidan lies back on the blanket, tugging Scott to him.  It never crosses Scott’s mind to refuse as he ends up lying next to him, Kaidan’s arm wrapped around him.  It’s strange, yet not at the same time.  The only other time they’ve ever laid this close to one another on purpose was back in the Milky Way.  Scott thought it a fluke then, a one-time thing that never stood an ice cube’s chance in hell of surviving.  But after arriving in Andromeda and discovering Kaidan made the journey as well, Scott hoped they might be able to rekindle what they once had.

It seems like they have.  It’s a dream come true, to be sure, but also sobering at the same time. So, of course, Scott falls back to his usual snarky side to find his way through the moment.  “Soooo, irreverent, is it?”

Kaidan laughs, his chest moving up and down and Scott’s head following the motion as he lies there.  “Why do I get the feeling that’s going to haunt me from now on?”

Reaching over with his hand, Scott laces his fingers through Kaidan’s other hand and pulls it up to lie on his chest.  Kaidan doesn’t pull away.  “Oh, I don’t know…  Maybe because you know me?”  He tilts his head up, smirk in place, and meets his gaze with a twinkle of delight in his.