Chapter Text
Scott was seated at his desk, reading the latest reports from Prodromos. There was a concerning report about some missing scientists that he was going to follow up on, when SAM alerted him to a new message.
‘Scott, you have a message from Keema Dohrgun,’
Scott tilted his head, a little confused. He hadn’t known that she had his frequency. ‘Thanks SAM,’
Leaning back in his chair, Scott ran fingers through his already dishevelled hair and stretched out the kink in his neck. He’d been sitting for hours going through all the reports from the outposts, trying to find ways he could help them. Hunching forward for so long had left him with an ache in his shoulders and he was feeling the beginnings of a tension headache.
Deciding he was due a break, he reached for his cup of coffee, taking a fortifying sip before returning his attention to the screen. Leaning forward, he opened the message on his terminal, unsure why she would be the one contacting him instead of Reyes.
It was a short message with an image attachment.
’Enjoy ;)’
What?
Taking a sip of his coffee he opened the attachment.
And promptly choked.
It took him a moment to get his coughing under control before he could look back at the screen.
Damn.
It was a photo of Reyes.
He was standing in front of a shuttle, back mostly to Keema, because no one else could have taken this, his right side turned toward her. He held a rag that he was clearly using to wipe grease off of his hands. He was also stripped to the waist, skin a little shiny indicating that it was a hot day. The edge of a tattoo curled proudly on his upper arm. Scott’s eyes lovingly traced the curves of his back, wishing his fingers could follow those same curves.
He allowed himself a few minutes to just stare, taking in how relaxed his lover seemed in that moment. He pulled out a heavily encrypted datapad that he’d been using to store some of his more delicate correspondence and transferred the file across for safekeeping.
Tapping out his response to Keema, Scott smiled feeling much more relaxed than he did ten minutes ago.
’Almost choked to death on my coffee. Would have been worth it,’
—x—x—x—
Scott stamped his feet, trying to dislodge any stubborn ice clinging to his armour. Walking the rest of the way up the ramp to the Tempest, he pondered the progress they were making on the icy planet. They were returning from activating the vault, after a short detour to take in the view. Kadara may have been his favourite planet for a fairly compelling reason, but Voeld was edging in to a close second.
Walking though the ship, trying not to drip everywhere, Scott stowed away his weapons and armour and made his way to his quarters, ready to sleep for the night. Tomorrow, they were going to investigate the Kett facility and he’d need to be well rested for that.
Getting ready for bed, his thoughts were interrupted by SAM.
‘Scott, you have another message from Keema Dohrgun,’
There was moment were he debated leaving it for tomorrow, but if it was anything like her last message then it would be a nice finish to his day. They’d been on Voeld for a just over a week so far, and Scott was eager to be getting back to Kadara. He and Reyes had a discussion to have, after all.
Tugging on his sleepwear, wandered over to the terminal at the desk to check the rest of his messages. Most were just messages of thanks from people he’d assisted. It never failed to blindside him a little when people reached out to him like that. He wasn’t used to working in a publicly acknowledged role. His Alliance work had been so classified even his family didn’t know what he did. Just that he was a ‘Recon Specialist’, which didn’t even cover a third of the kind of missions he ran.
Shaking himself a little, Scott moved along to Keema’s message.
'War face,’
Scott was as confused by this message as he was by the last one. Hoping the attached image would give him some much needed context, he tapped to open the attachment.
Holy fuck.
It was a picture of Reyes, of course.
He had no idea how Keema managed to take this one, as Reyes was looking almost directly at the camera. The expression on his face was, well, intense, didn’t do it justice. If Scott had to put an emotion to it then barely contained anger came pretty close. He didn’t have the crazed look in his eyes that Scott associated with rage. Just narrowed eyes, a tension across his brown and a clenched jaw. He was leaning forward, hands on the table between them, like he was leaning toward Scott.
He looked lethal.
And Scott loved it.
He shifted in his seat, pants suddenly too tight, pulse racing, and his mouth gone dry.
It probably said something unflattering about him that his lover’s murder face got him hot under the collar, but Scott couldn't bring himself to care.
He typed out a quick response to Keema, resigning himself to a bit of a later night than he'd expected.
‘I’d pity whoever caused that face but, damn.’
—x—x—x—
Scott was on the bridge, coordinating their departure when the next message arrived. Reyes had messaged him several days ago to say that things were as stable as they could be in Port, so it was safe to return. Scott had waited a few extra days to make sure the new outpost, they were calling it Taerve Uni, was settled enough to safely leave.
They’d been on Voeld much longer than the original estimate of three weeks. It had instead taken almost five weeks for the Pathfinder to be ready to leave. The vault was active and the skies clear, the temperature already improving and the ice just beginning to thin. The Kett facility had been taken care of, totally cleared out and powered down. The ancient A.I. in the underground city had been packed off to Aya, against its wishes, but honestly, he didn’t want it anywhere near SAM. And finally, an outpost had been set up with the permission and support of the local Angara.
It had been a whirlwind few weeks and, despite the unbelievable views from everywhere he'd been, he was well and truly ready to be on his way.
He’d set up his omnitool to ping whenever a message came through from either Reyes or Keema. He didn't want to miss any while he was careening around in the Nomad.
Giving Kallo and Suvi their heading, Scott left the bridge in their capable hands, sliding down the ladder outside to his quarters.
He settled in front of the terminal, eager to see what Keema had sent him today. Today's message tugged at something inside him.
‘He’s missing you,’
Not long now, Reyes.
He tapped open the attached photo, smiling wistfully at what he saw.
Reyes was leaning against a window, one of the kind he’d only seen in port, with the horizontal bars. His body was turned toward Keema, but his face was turned away towards the view outside. The sunset threw the outline of the bars across his face, leaving part of it in shadow. Only his eyes and mouth were clearly visible. He had his arms crossed, an actual glass of what was likely whiskey clutched loosely in his fingers. He seemed to be lost in thought.
Scott smiled at how artful his lover looked, posing in the sunset like that. He looked like an advert for some kind of high class alcohol that might have run on the Citadel back in the Milky Way.
Wouldn’t be long now before he could see him, touch him again. His body gave a shiver of anticipation.
‘Hey SAM, what’s our ETA for Kadara?’
‘Approximately four hours, Scott,’
‘Thanks SAM,’
Tapping out a response, Scott let himself feel all the excitement he’d been pushing aside to better focus on his Pathfinding duties.
‘Not long now.’