Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"Long day?"

It took him a moment to register that Veronica was speaking to him, and he nodded when he finally processed her question. "Like a week too long," he muttered, shutting the door to his quarters. "Haven't slept in six days." He'd be on the floor right now if not for Spartan bones holding him upright, but even augmented humans could only handle so much.

She hummed in sympathy, getting up from where she sat at his bunk to reach for him. He realised she must have been waiting for him to return from the debrief with Palmer and Osiris, and a smile tugged at his mouth. "At least you're back now," she said quietly, confirming his suspicions and wrapping her arms around him. Her head found a comfortable spot on his chest, and he felt the tension in her body slowly ease out of her now that he was back from what should have been a twenty-four mission.

"Sounds like you were worried." He pulled her close, breathing in the smell of her hair.

"Only because it's you," she replied, and he heard the grin in her voice. "And because you smell like you're actually dead." She made a show of sniffing at him, poking at his worn-in Spartan underskin.

He frowned and tugged her arms loose from around his waist, wrinkling his nose. "Sorry. Armour's supposed to self-clean, but…."

Veronica waved him off and pushed him towards the entrance of the bathroom Osiris shared. "Go wash up," she instructed, tone gentle. "I'll be here."

Only by the grace of god did he manage to follow her orders without keeling over in the stall, standing under the spray for only as long as he needed. A hot shower after a week-long mission was certainly nice, but curling up into bed with Veronica was even nicer.

He shuffled back into his quarters five minutes later, dressed in fresh, off-duty sleepwear. Veronica was still sitting on his bunk, where she said she'd be, frowning at her comm's holoscreen and muttering under her breath.

"What're you working on?" Buck shifted her over to slip under the thin blanket wrapped tightly around his mattress, shivering. Spartan Town was always too damn cold, and the exhaustion and wet hair weren't helping him much, either.

"We'll both go to prison if I tell you," she replied offhandedly, but didn't bother to angle her screen away from his line of sight. "But without going into specifics, I'm writing a long email to someone I don't want to about a report I don't remember writing."

"Sounds fun." He nudged her to move again so he could stretch out his legs, sighing in relief that he was finally on a soft, horizontal surface. "C'mere," he whined and pawed at her waist when she continued to frown at her top-secret email instead of crawling into bed beside him. She held up a finger and then tapped at her keyboard, indicating that he needed to wait.

Suppressing what would have been a grumpy sigh, he watched her type to help him stay awake, grinning every time she huffed and jabbed at the backspace to rewrite her thoughts in what he figured was probably more polite language. He'd never known her to cheap out on scathing rebuttals. The rhythmic dance of her hands across the holographic keypad was soothing to watch, though, and he found himself dozing despite his desire to stay awake until she came to bed.

At some point she sighed and shut off her comm, rubbing at her eyes. "I'll just… finish it tomorrow," she murmured. He blinked, coming out of his state of semi-consciousness, and immediately pulled her down beside him when he realised she was done with work. She laughed at his insistence but complied, only pulling away to place her comm on the bedside table and shake out her ponytail. Then she burrowed under the blanket and snuggled up next to him. "You're really warm," she hummed, pressing a kiss to his collarbone.

"I'm frozen, actually," he complained, searching for solace in the crook of her neck. She shifted up on the pillow to pull his head in to rest on her shoulder, and wrapped her arm around his back to bring him in closer. "You're warm. And smell nice."

She laughed and rubbed at his back, settling against him. His bunk was larger than regular Marine beds to accommodate his Spartan size, and it was just wide enough to snugly fit in an extra normal-sized person. He wrapped his free arm around her waist and anchored her firmly to the bed, though he doubted she wanted to leave. She looked almost as tired as he felt, which was saying something.

"How long you on Infinity for again?" he murmured, already half asleep.

"Few more days," she replied, idly playing with his still-damp hair. "Maybe a week, depending on how demanding Osman is."

"Mmm," he hummed, leaning into the stroke of her fingers and closing his eyes. "I vote a week."

The smile in her voice was evident again, and it was the last thing he heard before falling asleep. "I'll let her know."

Chapter Text

The comparatively cooler night air hadn't quite cooled the sun-warmed sand yet, which squished comfortably beneath her bare feet as she walked. There was music thrumming in the distance behind her, radiating from the club located on the east side of the resort, but it was only a pleasant hum by the time it reached their place. It was a calm night; quiet and peaceful and far away from other people, just as they'd wanted.

Her trip to their tiki hut had only been to collect more beer, which Eddie had erroneously understocked in the cooler they'd dragged with them to the beachfront. She easily followed her footsteps back to their spot, which was tucked away behind a clustering of thick bush and palm trees—private and secluded enough that they could talk freely—or take some clothes off—without a threat of being interrupted.

Veronica grinned as she realised her thoughts had shifted into reality. She returned to their spread out blanket to find Eddie wearing little more than moonlight, splayed out on his stomach and playing with something he'd found in the sand.

"That's a good look for you," she said by way of greeting.

Instead of his usual response to flinch at her sudden, silent appearance, he merely looked up at her, lids heavy and face content. This leave had definitely been a good idea. "Wassat?"

She laughed and sat down, dropping the re-filled cooler down beside them and popping open the top to fish out another beer. "I said," she repeated, twisting open the cap and taking a sip. "That's a good look for you."

He grinned. "Thought you'd like it. It's too hot to wear clothes, anyway." His hand reached into the cooler without looking, his attention turning back to whatever he was holding.

"What'd you find?"

"A little painted rock," he replied, holding it up for her to see while he uncapped his own beer. "It's cute."

She took it from him and held it to the moonlight, squinting at the design. The pattern echoed a Moroccan style almost, with a carefully intricate filigree swirling on the stone. The edges of the design had been rubbed smoothed by the waves, and the surface of the rock was still warm from his hand. It could have chipped off from a building wall, or thick stoneware, or even a piece of tile, but wherever it'd come from, it had been in the sea for a while. A few barnacles even covered the back of it, further disrupting the design.

"A nice souvenir." She handed it back to him and he tossed it towards his clothing, swivelling his attention to her. He set down his beer to pull her towards him, and she was careful not to spill any of her own while he dragged her over. "You're impatient," she observed, but it was far from a complaint. Veronica stretched her legs out beside his, poking at his tanned ankles with her sandy toes. He was already getting tan lines, and they'd only been on Sundown for a few days.

"Just can't believe the war's over and we're actually doing this." He flipped over onto his back and tugged her closer, so she was lying down next to him. "Feels like I'll wake up at any moment and realise this is a dream." His arm tightened on her shoulder.

She sunk her bottle into the sand and looked up at the sky with him, smiling to herself. "I can't either, really. Probably won't for a few years still."

"The shore leave and the partying will help," he assured her, grinning. Neither of them had really stopped smiling since they got here, and damned if she felt like she wasn't about to float away now that the universe was no longer resting on her shoulders.

"I'll have to get used to that, too," she said, laughing. "It's weird having so much time off."

"I think we'll manage." He looked back up at the stars, sighing in contentment. She tried to suppress the bubble of excitement that pressed against her ribs at his use of the word we, before realising that she didn't have to shove Eddie away anymore.

Veronica bit her lip and pressed her face into his bicep, hiding the goofy grin that spread across her face. "I'm game to try, at least," she whispered to him. "The whole resort is basically one big party house, so it should be fairly easy."

Buck nodded. "Good," he said, feigning seriousness. "We'll start at oh-seven hundred tomorrow morning."

She snorted. "That's way too early."

He frowned down at her, mock-disapproving. "There are forms of partying that don't require clothes, you know. Or getting out of bed."

Veronica sat up to look at him, pretending to think it over. "That's a good point. We'll start tomorrow, then." She reached behind her to unclasp the hook of her swim suit, tossing it in the direction of his clothes. "For now, though, we'll relax."

"Relaxing from relaxing?" His grin widened when she slipped off her bottoms and rolled over to her, meeting her mouth for an uncoordinated kiss that was no less sincere for its clumsiness. "I really like the sound of that."

Further conversation was interrupted as they focused on making out instead. It was nice—really nice. She couldn't remember the last time she just kissed someone, without it being a rushed prelude to sex, not even as a teenager. She certainly felt like one now, though, and she supposed it was better late than never.

They eventually settled back down onto the blanket, a little out of breath and more than a little tipsy as they curled up close together. Veronica looked up at the night sky with Eddie, for the first time in almost forty years, was not on fire.

Chapter Text

"I don't want you to go." The words are a mumble against her hair, almost inaudible, but it's late into the night and his whisper is enough to break up the silence.

Her hand finds his hair, threads her fingers through it, and uses it as leverage to pull herself tight into his body. "I don't want to go either."

Buck's arm wraps around her, squeezing hard enough to make breathing a chore, but she can't find the strength to pull even a centimetre away from him. "It's not fair," he says, and presses a kiss to her ear. "You've only been here for a day."

"You can blame the insurrectionists and the Covenant loyalists for that," she responds, rubbing her fingers over his scalp in the way he liked. "They're the only reason I'm so busy." Well, the only reason she's cleared to discuss. Still, they kept her well employed.

Goosebumps flare across his neck at her touch. "I'll go shoot them all. Then you can stay here. Isn't that what they built Spartans for, anyhow?"

"If only it were that simple."

Buck grumbles something about things being easier back in the good old days during the war and shifts them so that he's on his back, giving her a great angle to curl into his side. Her head settles on his shoulder, and her leg twines up around his knees. It's been months since they've seen each other, and now she has to leave again.

"Is it safe, at least?" he asks her. The worried edge of his voice is ragged, worn down from months of already wondering if she was okay. She'd be distraught at the tone if she hadn't been doing the exact same thing.

"Not really," she says, wincing at the silence that followed. "Nothing out of the ordinary, though. Just your run-of-the-mill intelligence gathering." She pats his chest. "I'll be fine. Lonely," she continues, looking up at him. "But fine."

Ed ducks down to give her a quick kiss—far too fleeting, though a lot of their interactions felt that way these days. "Okay," he murmurs, satisfied with the only answer she could really give him. His fingers trace unknown patterns on her back, relaxing enough that Veronica has to resist the urge to snuggle up to him and fall asleep. She'd be damned if she wasted any of their time together napping.

"Wish I could go with you," he says, sighing.

"It's been years since we did field work together," she muses. She'd never go so far as to call them "the good old days" as Buck had, but the war had been nothing if not politically simpler than any of their current post-Covenant relations. Blasting out of helljumper pods and saving the day did have a certain charm to it that she misses from time to time, anyway.

"I'll be there when you need me to be," he tells her, more serious than he usually is. "Locke's even offered to let me go with you."

She sits up at that. "Really?" Not all that surprising, given the rapport Ed and Locke had built up the past several months they've worked together, but still. That is a dangerously tempting proposal.

Buck grins at her. "Yeah. Told me some time away with you could do me good. Guess that means I've been mopier than I thought."

Veronica can't help smiling back. "Your psyche reports have been a little more grim than usual."

A thick brow creeps up his forehead. "You read my reports?"

"Oh, all of them," she says with a grin, settling back down on his shoulder. "Semper Vigilans, remember?"

"How romantic," he mutters, but she can hear the smile in his voice.

"Mine aren't that much rosier, so don't worry. Your stalker spook girlfriend is just as grumpy during deployment as you are."

"That does worry me. You grumpy is nuclear-fallout levels of bad."

He earns a poke in the ribs for that, resulting in an intense tussle that ends up with her pinned underneath him. She lost the fight, but the new position is more than enough to take the sting out of the loss.

Buck pulls her in for a kiss, this one far less brief than the last, and he's more than a little breathless when he settles on his elbows to look down at her. "Sure you don't need... a big Spartan bodyguard? I've gotten pretty good at tiptoeing around in Mjolnir."

"I somehow doubt that," she replies, earning a grin. "But as much as I'd love to have you around, you wouldn't fit in half the places I need to be."

"I'm flexible," he responds, moving to kiss her neck. His breath blows over her skin, making it very difficult to concentrate on him talking. "Sure I could squeeze in somewhere."

"I don't know if… we're having the same conversations now," she breathes, sighing at the press of his mouth at her pulse, which jumps at the contact.

"I'm talking about cloak-and-dagger Section One operations, Captain Dare," he assures her, turning attention to the divot where her collarbone parted. "What are you talking about?"

She decides then that it's in both of their best interests to halt the discussion in order to attend to far more important matters, and if Buck realises he never got a response, he doesn't complain.

Chapter Text

The grass tickled her face whenever she moved, and if she stared straight up at the Atrium's false ceiling, she could swear they were lounging in a park somewhere, and not on the deck of a naval vessel. Veronica even thought she saw a small bird fly overhead, and the soft forest ambience playing on the speakers made it seem all the more convincing.

"They need to install parks like these on every ship," she mused, her fingers searching through the grass for Buck's hand. She felt the warmth of his palm soon enough, and she closed her eyes with a contented smile.

"I know. If you ignore all the MAC guns and Spartans hanging around, it almost feels like a normal night out."

Veronica chuckled. "Well, it's convincing enough for me. We even got dressed up and went to dinner." She'd changed back into her regs when they'd gotten back on Infinity from the nearby tourist orbital station, but she could happily ignore that for now.

"The wine was pretty nice, too," he said, and she heard the grin in his voice.

"Now we just need a beautiful chalet in the mountains of Desdoron," she said, intent on keeping up the fog of fantasy the night and the wine had wrapped them in. "And it'd be perfect."

That quieted him for a moment. "Huh."

She opened her eyes and looked over at him. "Why are you 'huh'ing me?"

He shrugged. "Always figured you for a condo-on-Mars kinda girl. Not that I'm opposed to chalets."

"No, I'm too old for city life." She rolled over and pressed her cheek to his shoulder, their faces close together. "I don't need the crowds or the smog."

"And you can be as loud as you want on the top of a mountain."

"That hadn't really been a factor in my choice," she said, tapping her fingers along his chest.

He raised a brow at that. "You're kinda bad at lying for a spook."

She rolled her eyes but didn't bother to correct him. It wasn't like he was wrong. "Anyway; a chalet in the mountains, and maybe a dog. We'd have a lift that would take us down to the market and you'd make us breakfast every morning."

Buck's arm wrapped around her shoulders and grinned down at her, happy to play along. "And we'd name the dog Romeo."

Her face scrunched up in confusion. "You really want a daily reminder of Romeo walking around our hypothetical house?"

"Dogs smell and hump everything they see," he argued. "I can't think of a better name."

Veronica laughed, the sound pealing through the trees. "Okay. A dog named Romeo."

"And fresh waffles for breakfast." She felt his face press into her hair, his mouth moving softly over her head as he spoke. "Why Desdoron, though? It's a little touristy for proper peace and quiet, don't you think? Unless you wanted to move really far up the mountains. Suppose I could get used to thin air."

Veronica patted his chest. "It was the first place you said you loved me," she said quietly. "Feels like good luck to settle down there."

Buck froze at her words. It was one of those rare times where she couldn't read his expression, and just as she was about to pull back to ask if something was wrong, he flipped over on his elbows and pressed his mouth to hers. She grinned and happily sank into the kiss, threading her fingers through his hair.

"I still love you, and I'll tell you that anywhere you want to hear it," he mumbled against her lips, and it felt just as good to hear it now as it had the first time. She kissed him again, pulling him closer, and she would have been happy to stay there forever had he not pushed back on his elbows.

"I hope that means you don't suddenly want to set up a tent and live here now though," he said, but the big smile on his face ruined the serious tone of his voice. "Maybe we should take a few days and I can declare my love to you on a beach somewhere to convince you otherwise."

"I'll definitely hold you to that. But no, I'll settle for Desdoron."

"You're easy to please." He kissed her again before she could reply, and she quickly decided words weren't really all that important at the moment.

She pushed their little makeout session to the line of what was appropriate in an open park, and Buck was flushed and out of breath when they separated. "Wanna head back to Spartan Town?" he breathed, ducking down for one extra kiss. "It's not a chalet, but I can string up some twinkle lights around the door if that helps."

"Actually, my quarters are closer."

"You're a smart woman." He took her hand and pulled them both up to their feet, making an exaggerated show of wiping the grass off of his legs. She grabbed his hand back and lead him back to the running trail, in search of the nearest exit.

"I even smuggled in an extra bottle of wine," she added, glancing over her shoulder at him.

Eddie made a sound halfway between a laugh and a groan, and Veronica hurried them both toward the door.

Chapter Text

97. "You're so cute when you pout like that."

Not five minutes had she been in her newly set-up office when there was a knock at the door. She frowned from under her desk, her hand wedged beneath the wobbly leg. Veronica poked her head up. "Come in."

The door swished open and Buck stepped in, a hand clapped to his chest and a very abused flower clutched in his palm. He was already grinning, and raised a brow when he saw her peering at him over the lip of her desk. "Need help?"

She opened her mouth to assure him that she had it under control, but by the time she registered what he was saying, his free hand was raising the desk up a few feet off the ground, and his other arm swooped over the desk to catch anything from falling off its tilted surface.

" —I'm good," she said finally, brushing hair out of her face. "But thanks."

"Anything for you."

She smiled to herself while she adjusted the wobbly foot, which was admittedly easier now that Eddie had it raised halfway into the air.

"So what have you done to that poor flower?" she asked, squinting at a loose bolt and digging her fingernails under it to tighten it.

"It is—was—a housewarming gift, but there was an incident."

"An incident."

"It got caught in a door," he lamented, frowning down at the wilted petals. "But I already got yelled at by the groundskeeper in the Atrium for picking it, and I didn't want to risk sneaking back in to grab another."

"Too much for a Spartan to handle?" she teased, smiling up at him.

"She knows how to use the business end of a shovel, I'll tell you that much."

Veronica laughed and rose to her feet after testing the loose foot and finding it properly set in its slot. "Well, it's still nice you went to all that trouble."

He set the desk back down and stepped towards her, holding out the crunched flower. It was pretty despite the abuse, with golden petals and long thistled leaves.

"I hope you'll accept damaged goods," he said, handing it to her. "The colour reminded me of your hair."

Her face hurt from smiling so wide, and she took its crooked stalk delicately into her fingers. "I think I'll manage." She tilted her face upwards and Buck bent down to close the distance, giving her a well-overdue kiss.

"This is lovely," she whispered into his mouth, breaking away to look down at the flower again. "Thank you."

"Glad you're here," he replied, snaking an arm around her waist. "Think you can sneak in some time to grab lunch? With you around, I finally have an excuse to eat in the officer's mess, and they have much better bread up there."

She patted his chest and sighed. "Unfortunately not. Still need to set myself up here, and then I have a lot of work to do." Buck opened his mouth, likely to offer to help, but she shook her head and cut him off. "The top-secret kind. And I never get much work done with you around, anyway."

His bottom lip stuck out and his brows drew together. She laughed and wrapped her arms around his ribs. "You're cute when you pout like that."

"Cute enough to risk treason and let me sit in here with you?" he asked, his face pressed into her hair.

"Close, but no cigar."

"Never liked cigars much anyhow."

She gave him a squeeze and reluctantly stepped back from him, then waved at him in a shooing motion. "Go on, before I make a really bad decision and let you stay."

He sighed and looked back at the door, his shoulders drooping. "What about supper?" he asked, giving her a hopeful look.

She didn't have the heart or the willpower to say no to him again. Instead she chewed at her lip and did some math. "How about… 1830 hours? That should give me enough time to get some work done."

He gave her a beaming smile. "I'll be waiting impatiently 'til then." He grabbed her close and gave her one last, long kiss before ducking out of her door. Veronica smiled and touched her fingertips to her mouth as she sat down at her now-stable desk, emptying out her pencil holder and carefully place the wilted flower in the thin pot. She wasn't going to get a lot of work done with all the butterflies in her stomach now, but she felt more content than she had in weeks.

Chapter Text

He watched the ceiling fan agitate in the sunlight overhead, doing its best to circulate the humid air in the hotel room. If he laid exactly still, he’d keep cool. Or at least he wouldn’t break out in a sweat.

He felt Veronica’s hand brush his on the bed. He twitched his fingers and glanced over at her. She seemed to be doing the same as him, her eyes closed in contentment. Buck made a mental note that they’d have to go swimming later. If they ever got out of bed, anyway.

He grinned at that and laughed to himself. Veronica peeked at him from beneath her eyelashes. “What?”

“Haven’t—” He sighed. “Haven’t done this much hip throwing since I was a kid.”

“A kid,” she repeated, frowning.

“Well. It wasn’t with another person then,” he clarified. “I just meant, like—when you’re thirteen and just figured out what jerking off is.”

She snorted and then laughed, grabbing his hand. “Yeah, okay.”

“I mean it. And it was a chore then, too, when you’d get hard whenever there was a firm breeze, you know?” He grinned. “Ah, I guess you don’t. But it was annoying. Doing it on purpose with somebody else is a lot better.” He squeezed her fingers.

Veronica was silent a moment, then cleared her throat. “I do know, actually. It was annoying.”

She sounded shy, a bit hesitant. He wasn’t sure if it was the heat or the post-sex fog his brain was in, but he was a bit slow on the uptake. “Oh,” Buck hummed, then realised. “Oh!”

He sat up on the bed. Veronica was giving him a measured look. “I didn’t, uh—I didn’t even… that’s fine, though. That’s great, I mean,” he added, seeing her raised brow. “That’s cool. You look great.”

She rolled her eyes, but there was a smile on her face. She sat up too, turning around so that her back was to him. “I’m so glad to hear that,” she tossed over her shoulder, her voice wry. She quickly finger-combed through her hair, then stood up to find a brush.

Foot in mouth, he scooted to the edge of the bed and grabbed for her arm. “Wait, hold on. Wrong thing—wrong thing to say. Maybe. Maybe?” He pulled her closer, encouraged when she tossed her arms over his shoulders and smiled down at him.

“You’re good,” she replied and kissed his nose.

“When did you, know that you were, you know—” He gestured vaguely in front of himself.

“I was, you know—” She mirrored her hand waving, and he felt his face flush. “At Luna OCS. Which worked for me. Active deployments while starting estrogen wouldn’t be fun. But I was cleared by medical by the time I graduated, so it worked out well with the War, all things considered. I just have an implant now,” she added, twisting her right arm. There was a fine, lateral cut on her tricep. “Less hassle.”

He nodded. “Cool. That’s cool.”

There was a beat of silence. Veronica was still smiling at him. “Any other questions?”

“No, uh—” He frowned. “No. I’m good. That’s great, really. You can’t even tell. Ah, don’t—nevermind,” he muttered when he saw her smile dip a little. “Don’t listen to me.” He pulled her in close and pressed his face to her collarbone. “You’re full of surprises. Good surprises.”

“You have no idea,” she said into his hair. With the amount of floundering he’d already done, he decided not to pursue her enigmatic statement.

“Back to my original point,” he said instead. “Was that I haven’t come this much since high school, and it wasn’t anywhere near this fun or, ah, enlightening.” She laughed again, which made his shoulders unknot.

“It’s okay.” She hiked her knees up and knelt over him on the bed, sitting down on his thighs. “High school was a dark and weird time I’d rather forget.” Her thumb came up and ran along his bottom lip. “This is also much better for me.”

“Glad to hear it.” She kissed him then, something he was eternally grateful for since that meant he no longer had to talk.

Veronica shuffled closer onto his lap and he felt her grin against his mouth. “Firm breeze again?”

“No.” He rolled back onto the bed and made sure to pull her with him. “Just a gorgeous gal.”

She snickered at that and he felt his chest swell. Her face was a lovely pink when she pulled back to look at him, and he resolved himself to keep her blushing as much as he could for the rest of the week.

Chapter Text

To Buck’s surprise, and perhaps to her’s, she’d ended up back in his room the next night, too. The first night had been easy; no talk, all walk. It had been the same tonight, except now they didn’t have the excuse of being exhausted from twenty-four hours straight of fighting through the streets of New Mombasa. So instead of passing out beside him into blissful oblivion, they laid there thinking instead.

“Though you didn’t want to do this,” he said at one point. He sounded confused, a bit hurt maybe. “Not with me, anyway.”

Veronica didn’t reply right away. She didn’t want to, really. She just wanted to lie quietly, not think, and fall asleep by Eddie. But his plain honesty, so endearing, was unavoidable, and she knew he deserved an explanation.

“I still don’t know if it’s a good idea,” she finally murmured, but she grabbed his hand when she said it. “I don’t know, Buck.”

“I need to, though.”

“I know.”

She sighed and looked up at the ceiling. ONI had managed to take over the nicest wing of the Quito Space Tether, but even then their quarters were still fairly cramped. Big enough for two, though, if they squeezed together a little.

Veronica rolled onto an elbow to face him. He was staring up at the ceiling too, and his eyes flicked to her when she moved. The same guarded look he’d given her ever since Castellaneta was there now. It made her feel a thousand years old. “Don’t get me wrong, I want to,” she said. “I just don’t know if it’s a good idea.”

He absorbed her words for a moment. “The world’s ending, Veronica. Everything is a bad idea.”

“Not if we can help it.”

“Sure,” he conceded. “But that’s not always in our control.”

“Well that’s why ONI hired me,” she joked, but it fell flat. There was a pause of awkward silence, and then she shook her head. “I don’t know. We just keep managing to crash into each other.”

“But something’s changed,” he said. He sat up and leaned against the wall, the blankets bunching around his waist. He gestured in between them, and the ghost of a grin appeared. “We didn’t do this after Sargasso.”

“I wanted to,” she replied, smiling. “You sure can be a piss-off when you want to be, but….”

“Coulda fooled me.”

“I couldn’t afford to. Or thought I couldn’t.” She ran a hand through her hair. “Like you said. The world’s ending. When we met—my dad had just died, I’d lost a lot of people. Falling for someone with the highest hazard pay bracket in the UNSC seemed like a horrible idea.”

“I was just talking about sleeping together,” he said, the grin now in full swing. “Never said anything about love.”

“I didn’t say the L word. Don’t say it.” She shoved a hand at his chest, but there was no power behind it.

He grabbed it and squeezed her fingers. “No L word,” he promised.

“Good.” She sat on the bed to face him properly. The cool air of the room hit her shoulders, but this was important. “I do care about you, Ed. And you seem to make a wonderful habit of staying alive.”

“Doesn’t always seem so wonderful. Lost a lot of people, too.”

“I know.” She leaned forward and kissed him. Just soft, quick, enough to take the sting out of his words for a little while.

“So what’s this, then? Us?” He looked down at her hand. “Because I care about you something fierce, Veronica.” There was a hitch in his words, but they’d said no L word already. She felt her throat constrict.

When she didn’t reply, he sighed and continued. “But I don’t want to keep doing this. Not knowing where we stand. I know we can’t, just—you know, deployment orders and all that. It won’t be normal or anything, I just… wanna know. So I can adjust.”

“Yeah.” She looked down at their hands with him, resting in his lap twined together. “I can’t give you any long-term promises.”

“I know that.”

“But I can tell you,” she continued. “That I want to spend however long we have here with you, and that whenever we happen to run into each other next, it’ll be on good terms. More than good,” she added, smiling at him. “I want to do this. Even if it’s a bad idea. Your charm is working.”

He grinned right back at her. “That’s all I need.”

“Then come here,” she said, pulling him forward. “We’ve got hours yet.”

Chapter Text

“Outpost” was probably too generous a label for their destination. The small satellite station could house exactly twelve people, and it served exclusively as a beacon to send and receive updates from the field.

Veronica closed the door to one of several sound-proof cubicles and sat down in the well-worn chair. A generous stranger had left behind a baggy of nicotine gummies on the table, with TAKE ONE CHILL OUT written on a note in front of it.

She popped two in her mouth and watched her comm connect to the ONI satellite. The ecosystem was sparse this far out from the Inner Colonies, but the network didn’t look too busy at the moment. The screen of her tablet showed her a readout of the logs it was auto-sending back to homebase. She sat back in her chair and chewed, the pungent flavour of the gummies bursting in her mouth.

Veronica also pulled out her personal comm and let it connect. She had no expectation of privacy here, but she’d long gotten over that.

Most of the messages that popped up on there were from Buck, which made her smile but wasn’t at all surprising. She downloaded his video messages, saving those to watch for a rainy day while she scrolled through some of his texts.

A lot were day-to-day updates, things she always loved reading. Bets he had going with Locke, card games he lost, commentary on the few pages of the murder mystery novel they’d been trying to read through together so they had something normal to talk about. But the last few made her frown.

>call me when you can. I can’t sleep, I hope you’re ok

>I love you so much

>I know you know this already but please take care of yourself

That had been six days ago. She checked her watch. Her and her crew had the next few hours here at least. Hopefully enough time to load through a call.

>Hey, she typed back, just got these. You okay? Can you chat now?

She waited for that to go through, checking on her work tablet in the meantime. They wouldn’t be able to leave until the brass had time to process her updates and send her the next plan of action. And she wasn’t in any hurry to start working again until she heard from Ed anyway.

Veronica was reaching for her third gummy when Buck finally responded. Which, considering the connection lag and load times, he’d probably replied instantly.

>oh god V

>can I call?

>yeah, but sig might be a bit laggy, sorry. just audio for now

>no prob

It took nearly ten minutes to load through, but his voice finally came through.

“Veronica?”

She smiled. “Hey Ed—”

“God it’s so good to hear—hold on.” It sounded like he was moving, and she could hear noise in the background, though she couldn’t make it out. “In chow right now, sorry. Tried to cram in a meal before I connected.”

“What’s on the menu?” She lifted her feet up on the table and crossed them, leaning back further into the seat.

“Chili, in air quotes.”

“Ooooh, tasty.”

“They switched over the spice pallet. Probably for budget reasons. It’s gross now. Gross-er.” The background chatter cut out as a door closed and Buck let out a breath. She heard bed springs creak as he sat down. “Okay. Hi.”

“Hey,” she replied, wrapping her arms around herself. “Sorry it took so long.”

“It’s okay. I’m glad you called.” Another deep breath. “God, I’m so glad you called.”

“You okay?”

“Been stir-crazy. Hard to sleep. We’re all just—”

“ONI network,” she cautioned him. “Keep it vague.”

“Right. We’re a bit cooped up at the moment. Easy to get bored.”

“That’s dangerous for you.”

“Yeah.”

His tone was resigned, not amused. She frowned. “Tell me what’s going on, Ed.”

He sighed. “I dunno really. Been out of sorts the past few weeks.”

When he didn’t elaborate, she bit her lip. “I’m sorry it’s been so hard to talk. But it’s been for boring reasons, not—” She fiddled with one of the gummy wrappers. “Well, it’s not been that dangerous.”

“That’s good.”

“You don’t sound okay.” She paused. “This about… you-know-who?”

“Ugh. No. That’s—that bullshit’s for another day, when I don’t have anything else to worry about.”

“What are you worried about?”

“Lots of bad dreams. It’s stupid, I know it is—” He cut out for a moment, sighing. Static filled the comm, and she waited for the connection to shore up again. “I hadn’t heard from you in a week, and we’ve just been sitting here, and I’ve been worrying, and it’s not—I’m fine, really, I just—”

“You can be worried, it’s okay.”

“I know.”

She smiled even though he couldn’t see it. She hoped he could hear it. “Just spit out whatever you’re talking around. I’ll pick up all the bits.”

“You always do.” A nervous laugh, then another sigh. He sounded old. “Just been having bad dreams. About you.”

“You wanna talk about them?”

“I dunno.”

“I got the time.”

“I’ll start blubbering if I do.”

She laughed. “That’s okay.”

“You got a lot on your plate, I don’t want to—I mean I got other people to talk to, and I do, I—”

“Buck.”

“No,” he said, sounding resolute. “Tell me some good stuff. I don’t wanna focus on bad stuff that’s not even true.”

Veronica settled deep into the chair. “Hmm, okay. Good stuff.” She tapped her lip. “Non-classified, non-identifiable good stuff.”

“You read any more of Blood Feud?”

“No, sorry. Been too busy to think, let alone read.”

“Well,” he said slowly, for dramatic effect. “All I’m gonna say is that your theory about the Butler was right—”

She slapped her palm onto the desk. “It’s always the Butler! It’s so obvious. I don’t know who writes this nonsense.”

“Well you were half-right,” he amended. She heard more bed springs and figured he’d laid down. She settled deeper into the chair. If she closed her eyes, ignored the static, and set her comm next to her shoulder, it was almost like they were in the same room. “He didn’t kill Amelia, but—do you remember that scene in the beginning where they found that button in her pocket at the crime scene?”

“Yes! Holy shit!”

He laughed. “Do you want me to tell you what happens?”

She popped another gummy into her mouth. “I have no clue when I’ll be able to read again, so yes. Spill everything.”