Penoraya T'mivus - Raya
Collab with HexIt was easy to see that the Batarian was sizing everyone up, searching for any weaknesses no matter how small as they could all be exploited and cause damage. How did she know he was doing this? It was what she would do and was in fact doing. She wasn't one to relax and let her guard down even when everything seemed safe, her gun might be lowered but she didn't need a gun to kill.
When Jek realized that Nik just wanted to talk business he pretty much blew it off and went on to say he wasn't dressed for the occasion. Raya cocked her head slightly to the left as she looked his shirtless form over again. She knew he saw her looking as having four eyes made Batarians notorious for picking up slight body movements.
He likes to impress, can't wait to see what he plans on wearing. She thought as she watched Jek leave while leaving them with the jelly. Now that was unexpected, a damn jelly? She had seen the species before and thought them as rather annoying, though they made the funniest squishing sound when you stomped on them. She took note of Nik's expression before they started to follow the jellyfish, he was just as surprised as the rest of them, or her at least.
The jelly, (Raya really didn't care about the damn jellyfish's name as she didn't particularly like the species, they were hard to read) lead them through a maze of allies and streets that was all rather confusing. That was when they came to a part of Jek's territory that suddenly came to life. There was people everywhere, all going about their business and not paying much attention to the team who were covered in blood. But then this was Omega, seeing people covered in blood was a common occurrence and she was sure that the people could careless unless it was theirs or someone they loved.
The bar/club was full (which was rather annoying to her) but the dark under currents of the beat and how ran through her body was oddly calming. Sometimes she wondered why she wasn't an Ardat-Yakshi, she acted like one. The jelly lead the team to an elevator that seemed to only have one use, to take them to see the master of this territory.
Finally! She thought as she was growing tired of the crowds and the constant chatter.
Once in Jek's office she took note of the Batarians clothing, he truly did like to impress. He was someone that she would give the time of day to and maybe a little more. When Jek lead them to an area to sit, she sat but only on the edge of her seat and she refused a drink. She wasn't about to relax not even here, even though she Jek wasn't going to kill them (yet anyway) as he need them. When Nik and Jek started talking Raya zoned out, she knew she would be filling in later.
Raya was laying on the bed in the room that Jek
graciously provided. It was small but it was enough for her as she didn't need a lot. She was no longer wearing her armour, instead she was wearing a black tank top that clung to her female form and a pair of human military pants that hung from her hips and her combat boots. She had gone to a bar earlier, but she wasn't exactly in the mood to dance or drink. Though she had hoped that the drinks would make her feel better and loosen her up, but they had the opposite effect on her. So here she was laying in bed waiting for morning.
As she watched the ceiling she could suddenly hear Nik talking. She sat up slowly and swung her legs over the edge of the bed and looked over at the opposite wall. She wondered who Nik could possibly be talking to, as far as she knew he had no one over there with him. As she listened to his voice she could hear that he was getting upset. That was when she heard a crash, without thinking she got up and went over to Nik's room and knocked on the door.
"Nik?" She asked through the door before opening it. First thing she noticed was the blood on the floor from the bathroom (which she also noticed the had a lot of glass on the floor) to the bed. She could see the Drell pulling glass from his hand. She walked into the room and shut the door behind her.
You okay?" She asked even though she could see that he wasn't.
Nik didn't look up when Raya entered the room seemingly a world away from his own physical self. The medical kit was thrown open haphazardly upon the bed casting about metal instruments that shone like stars in the sky when the light from the window hit them just right about as well as bandages, packets of medical gel and whatever else was stuffed inside of it. He currently had a tweezer like clamp in his uninjured hand was forcibly ripping the glass out of the hand. It was nothing pretty and he wasn't moving with a precision that somebody like Daro would have it was brutish but effective to a point. After ripping out a sizable chunk he reached haphazardly for a bottle of antiseptic that cap already torn off as he had repeated the process numerous times at this point, some of the liquid having spilt out by a shaking hand dotting the sheet with dark spots. He grabbed the bottle and dumped more of the contents onto his hand cursing as it hit the wounds and flushed them clean, the rest flowing off of the hand and onto the floor mixing with the blood diluting it to a light soupy red that swirled about as more liquid hit it. It was at this point that he finally seemed to notice Raya standing there with a quick upturn of his head.
”Yeah... Yeah... I’m fine. Just got into a fight with a mirror and it seemed the mirror and I pulled a draw.” He explained obviously a lie but not too much so that it was a total stretch of the imagination. He wasn't about to tell anybody that he had just had a verbal joust with his own self guilt taking form as his dead brother. No, that wasn't something you did. It sounded crazy even in his own head. But now she was her and Nik had a feeling that Daro and Haze who at least respected Nik’s privacy’s to one degree or another if he told Raya to bugger off it would get him nowhere pretty quickly.
”Can you hold this for a second? I kind of need two hands for this and I’ve already made quite the mess already.” Nik asked as he shook the bottle of antiseptic in his non injured hand. It was’nt quite a polite asking for help and yet it wasn't an order. No, instead it had the direct connotation of well if you're staying anyway you might as well be of some use.
It was obvious that Nik was in his own little world as he focused on pulling glass from his hand. She watched as moved with unskilled hands, she could see the slight tremor in them. He was in pain not so much physical but more mental pain. She didn't know too much about her leader, but she knew pain when she saw it. She on occasion got the same drawn away look, that was mostly when she thought of her family. If that was the case for him then she wouldn't ask, no one likes reliving the past. Though she knew that was harder for Drell species, seeing that their memories could be so strong that they seem real. She wouldn't wish that on anyone.
"You don't say?" She said coolly though there was a hint of amusement in her voice. Crossing her arms she walked further into the room so that she was standing directly in front of Nik. When he asked her to hold the antiseptic bottle, she could tell that he knew that she wasn't going to leave so he was going to make her do something. Rolling her eyes and sighing she knelt in front of him and gently took his hurt hand and the tweezers and began to pull out the shards of glass. She was gentle and worked steadily, in fact this was probably the most gentle that the Drell has ever seen her be.
She didn't look up at him the entire time she pulled out the glass, or when she took the antiseptic and cleaned up wounds.
"Can you give me some medi-gel..... please?" She nearly whispered as she looked up slightly at him.
The Drell looked at the Asari in a sort of peculiar fashion as she knelt down and continued his process of removing the glass from his hand taking the clamp from his hand and began to work albit with much more grace and refinement than Nik had been using on his own. This scene contradicted every mental image and idea of Raya that for as long as Nik had known her had been inside of his head. She was a warrior goddess, a killer, a living embodiment of Kalahira’s grace. And yet here she was moving with the same gentle and concentrated precision that once could expect from the likes of Daro not from Raya or not from the Raya Nik at least thought he knew. Hands that he’d seen easily strangle a man to death were making small gestures and flicks dragging out tiny slivers of translated material stained with blood. Then she asked for the medi-gel and even added please after it. [i]Please[i], no, no this couldn't be Raya, Raya didn't say please with anything, it was more give me that thing before I cave your head in.
”...Oh Sure” Nik voiced almost on autopilot as his brain tried to work its way around the scene in front of him still. His uninjured hand reached for one of the packets of medi-gel feeling that cool temperature emanating through the package. He placed it into her outstretched hand without making much of a sound. And for a split moment through the pain and the memoires racing through his hand things became calm for a moment in his head if only for a moment before they turned back to the norm. Like the sort of faint afterglow from a dying ember that just happened to touch him just at the right time.
”So.....” Nik tried to speak, he tried to say anything really but he was at for the first time in awhile a loss of words He couldn't place his words upon it maybe it was the combination of his eidetic memory still in sort of overdrive, maybe it was because of his conversation with his past incarnate and maybe it was this unprecedented kindness that one did not expect to find in the dark corners of Omega. But he still couldn't quite find the words he was looking for as his mind still floated about in the somewhere between here and there. He just hoped somewhere in his head that he sounded a lot less awkward right now then he did in his head.
The smallest of smiles touched her lips when she caught the look that the Drell was giving her. He was confused and she couldn't blame him, it's not easy she wasnt an angel. In fact she was also confused by her gentleness and her use of the word Please. She simply drummed it up to having a hard and busy day, though that was a vast understatement.
When he gave her the medi-gel she quickly applied it to his hand, grabbed some gauze and gently wrapped the hand up. She was just about finished when Nik drew out the word
so. Raya paused for a moment before looking up, she could see that he was lost. Not just for words but within his mind as well, or was she just projecting herself onto him? She looked down at the dressing and tied the gauze, probably a little tighter than she should so she fixed quickly before standing.
"I recommend no hitting any more mirrors, it doesn't end well for either side." She said with sarcasm plane in her voice.
Standing there for a moment she felt a little weird, as it was like something fluttering in her stomach and it wasn't the drinks she had earlier.
"You want to go get a drink? See how the others are doing? Maybe get a few strippers?" She asked with a small nervous smile. Why was she nervous? For goddess sake she was psychotic killer, why and what was she nervous about?
"It's probably the best way to get our...... your mind off of things...... I can get one of the strippers come back here later and help you relax. I'm rather good at getting them to do that." She said hoping he didn't pick up on the "our" part when she talked about getting his mind off stuff.
”Duly noted no more getting into duels of honor with mirrors.” Nik replied with some of his own characteristic bite back into his voice. His own mind finally being able to let go of the memories and slowly force his way back into the present.
Though moments later it was the Drell’s turn again to look upon the Asari with an expression that fell somewhere between bemusement and almost comedic value far cry of what it was a few moments ago. Had Raya just offered to drink and seduce strippers with him for the purposes of stress relief? He was fairly certain that she had and was there a we in their somewhere. The very idea of it was something of an amusing thought to the Drell. Nik was by most accounts not much of a people person sure in his time he had “learning experiences” with the fairer sex it was something that was unavoidable but they always only lasted one night and usually Nik ended regretting it and smelling of a mixture of things obscene and of the stench of regret. And for most of those occurrences it was for work, to be able to infiltrate an enemy gang or the like nothing had ever really been for his own accords and reasons.
”Well I’m going to have to decline on the Strippers Raya. In my current state I think it would be counter productive. But for the sake of alcohol, I think I may have the both of us covered.” With that he rose from the bed and walked over to his small pile of stuff clustered about the armor and shuffled about pulling out a bottle. It was an old vintage of hard Asari Liquor that Amaandis had bestowed upon him by proxy through Jek as a sort of “housewarming gift” strong stuff they say during First Contact Turians would use the stuff as a disinfected when they ran out of medical supplies. Unopened and almost a hundred years old the stuff was a very pricy market item and another symbol of Jek’s wealth. It was his way of showing off not that Nik in this situation wouldn't mind using it.
”In almost every race in the galaxy they all share the common idea of sharing a drink with their friends and those close to them as a sort of bonding both physical and mentally. So I figure if it is good enough for the rest of those fucks it might as well be good enough for us.” Nik explained slowly regaining his showman’s flourish as he mentally worked himself out of his funk and with a flourish and a quick pulse of biotic energy the wax seal and cork was forced out in one swift motion landing somewhere in the far corner of the room. He walked back to the bed with the bottle in his bandaged hand and his free hand grabbing one of Raya’s arms gently and dragging her along to sit next to him as she seemed very uncomfortable standing about. Nik took a swig from the bottle feeling the burning liquid tunnel its way through his body as he handed the bottle over to her as in their current accommodations they had no cups of any sort.
"Well you're no fun, you don't have to do anything with strippers, they dance and whatever else you want them to do and all you have to say is that their tits look nice." Raya said coolly though there was amusement plane in her voice. She watched as the Drell got off the bed and went digging through his things. It didn't take long to find what he was looking for as it wasn't like he had a lot of stuff. Indeed none of them had many things, it seemed that was in the job description. But that was fine with her as she never had more than what was on her back.
Raya smirked as Nik made his little speech, he was always making a little speech and thing was everyone listened when he did. He should of been a politician, he would of be great at that. But life had a way of dealing out shitty cards to those that least deserved it. Though she was glad to see the Drell becoming his old self again. She was suddenly pulled out of her thinking when Nik gently grabbed her arm and pulled towards the bed. The only time anyone pulled her towards a bed was when they wished to sleep with her. But this was a welcomed change and one that brought a smile to her face.
"I haven't seen this brew in forever!" She said as she admired the bottle once Nik handed it to her. She brought the bottle to her lips and took a swig. The warmth it brought was second to none, and the few memories it brought were good (not great but better than most she had). She handed the bottle back to Nik, with a small smile on her lips. In truth this was the most she smiled in a very long time.
