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It was a good day, all in all. As good as a day could be in the blistering heat and certain death that blanketed all of Pandora. Any day that you survived was classed as a good day, really, but it was more than that. It was Tina on Mordecai’s shoulders, crowing proudly as she waved a bloody buzz axe wildly. It was Mordecai holding her steady with one hand, the other tenderly interlocking his fingers with Brick’s. It was Brick laughing heartily, wrapping an arm around Vaughn’s broad shoulders, just the right amount of firm so as to stop him from looking back to the explosions and screaming. Tina paused her victory cries for a split second to point her buzz axe at Vaughn. “See, my man? I told you slaughterhouses was fun!”
Vaughn smiled up at her. “Yeah, I totally see what you mean! Sorry I wasn’t more help. I’m more the, uh… Observing type.”
She shrugged “Das’ okay!”, Mordecai flinching slightly as her buzz axe missed his ear by an inch. “Careful, niñita.” he scolded, though there was no real bite to it.
“Sorry, Mordy-mom.” Tina petted his head apologetically before turning her attention back to the shorter man. “Soooo what type are you then? Cuuuz.. You gotta fight somehow. Or you gon’ die.”
“I’m… I’m a leader. Like, uh.. Like Roland.”
Tina was silent for a moment. Vaughn noticed Brick glancing at her, almost holding his breath. She then smiled sweetly, sadly. “Yeah. I can see dat. But Roland kicked some serious ass! Das’ what I wanna see from you, boo.”
Vaughn breathed out quietly, glad he hadn’t upset the kid. “I can kick ass too. Just not a weapons guy. I’m actually- I’m working on some gadgets. A wrist-mounted rocket launcher. Y’know, it’s whatev-”
“Whoa, Whoa, WHOA. You said rockets? Hhhoh. You gotta let me test it when you’re done! I demand it!”
Vaughn laughed at that, an eyes-closed wide-smiled tired sort of laugh that still sounded like pure joy. “Alright, alright. Just don’t aim it at me, cool?”
“Cool beans!”
The group walked in silence for the next few yards as over the horizon, Sanctuary II came into sight. Brick took his arm off of Vaughn to stretch, and let out an obnoxious yawn. “Man, kickin’ ass and takin’ name really takes it out of ya, huh?” He grinned and turned his head to Mordecai. Mordecai had a small smile on his face. “I feel fine. Maybe you’re just getting old.” he replied.
Brick nudged him with a small bark of a laugh. “Ay! You’re probably sleepin’ under your mask, that’s what it is.”
Vaughn and Tina glanced at each other, both trying to stifle their laughter. Mordy exhaled. “I wish. Alright, I guess me and the big guy are gonna hit the bricks.” He delicately removed Tina from his shoulders and placed her on the ground. He then stalked off with a two-finger salute.
“This was fun, amigo. Let’s do it again some time.” He called out over his shoulder.
Brick nudged Vaughn, Vaughn stumbling to regain his balance from the force. “He likes you!” the man announced cheerfully, clapping Vaughn on the back so hard he felt winded. Vaughn let a grin spread across his face as he turned to face Brick. “You really think so? I thought he hated me.”
“Nah, it’s just hard to get a read on him if ya don’t know him well. But me? I know him. And I know he’s glad to have you with us. We both are.” His tone softened. Vaughn didn’t break eye contact, trying to process the kind words and form his own reply. Tina interrupted anyway. “So what we doin’ next, huh? Huh? Ooh! I know! Let’s throw grenades in the air and try to dodge ‘em when they come back down!”
Brick put a hand on her head and looked at her, “It’s time for bed, Tina.”
“What? Noooo! You said it was gonna be all day!”
“And it was, sweetie. Now it’s night time. We get to rest.”
“I don’t wanna rest! I wanna explode things! You promised!”
Brick glanced at Vaughn helplessly. Vaughn slowly took a knee and met Tina’s gaze.
“Hey, Tina? Brick wants to go to sleep, but I don’t. If you still wanna stay up, I’ll stay up with you. We can have fun together, right?”
Tina eyed him warily. Vaughn decided to push it further.
“You ever heard of camping? They used to do a more glamorous version back at Hyperion, but it’s supposed to involve, uh… Fire. And marshmallows. And songs.”
Tina looked more interested with every word. Brick smiled encouragingly at her. She looked thoughtful for a minute, pondering, then hugged Vaughn with a force that knocked him onto his back. “Yes! Let’s do the fire thing first! Then the marshmallow thing! No, the marshmallow thing first! No, wait!”
Vaughn cut her off as he stood back up and dusted himself off.
“The fire and marshmallows happen at the same time.”
Tina stared at him, eyes and mouth widening before-
“YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”
Vaughn winced and fought the urge to cover his ears as Brick simply laughed again and ruffled Tina’s hair. “Keep it down, sweetie, you know mom needs his beauty sleep. So do I, actually.” He stretched again, looking at Vaughn. “You gonna be okay, lil’ slab?”
“I’ll be fine, Brick. See you in the morning, buddy.” He patted the larger man’s arm and watched him turn and jog in the same direction as Mordecai. He looked at Tina. Tina looked at him and stretched her arms out, making grabby motions. He tilted his head in confusion. “Uh..?”
“Let me get on them shoulders! Princess Tina doesn’t feel like walking!” she announced. Vaughn squatted until she could safely hop onto his shoulders, and brought his hands up to steady her. He slowly stood up, a surge of pride rippling through him as he found this was easier than he'd thought. His body was growing stronger with each day, after all.
He took a tentative step forward and oh, oh, that was less easy. He swayed back and forth although walking a tightrope, Tina clinging to him tighter.
“Uhhh, what’s goin’ on down there? You’re walkin’ like a dying bullymong. Get some gross motor skills, yo! Who taught your ass how to walk?”
Vaughn laughed, stumbling less as he concentrated. “My mom, I guess.”
“Yeah? Well, ya mom sucked at it!”
“She’s not walking anymore, I suppose. Hard to walk when you’re dead!” He let out a forced laugh, the silence from the little girl very noticeable in the dark desert. He grimaced, cursing himself for darkening things when he was just trying to give her a fun day out like she’d been promised. He made his way over to what looked like a good campsite, just on the edges of Sanctuary II. Tina’s voice came again, just as upbeat as it was a moment ago. “Who’s your favourite vault hunter? And you can’t say Brick or Mordy, they’re MINE!”
“Uhh, My favourite vault hunter? Hm. That’s a good question, Tina. I think… I’d have to go with either Athena or Fiona.”
Tina shifted until her face was across from his, upside down. He stopped in his tracks, startled. “Who dat? Not the pretty wifey one, the other one. Who dat, who dat, who dat?”
“Fiona? C’mon, I know I’ve talked about her. The Pandoran hustler? The con artist? The… Coolest person I’ve ever met? Other than Rhys.”
“Ohh, Fiona! She a vault hunter now? Damn.”
“Last I heard. Haven’t… Haven’t heard for a while.” They reached the improvised camp site, large chunks of metal debris littered around with a loose tire in the middle. Vaughn gently picked Tina up and lifted her to the ground, as he’d seen Mordecai do.
“Go ahead and sit on one of the metal thingies, I just gotta find something to make a fire with.”
Tina scampered over and hopped upon a half-buried chunk of metal and broken glass. He opened his mouth to tell her to watch out for the glass, and paused. He recognised this chunk of metal. Peering through the broken glass he saw dials and switches and a big red button. His stomach churned and he felt the blood drain from his face.
It was an escape pod from Helios.
Tina waved her hands in front of his face. “Uh, hellooo? Mister Vaughnington? Still waiting on that fiiiire!”
He blinked and forced a smile, pausing for another small second before turning to go and find something they could use. He walked slowly, stiffly, his head swimming with fog as he kept bending down to pick up sticks. He was on autopilot, unable to think straight. He’d already forgotten why he needed these sticks. He stopped again, screwing his eyes shut and pressing a hand to his head, as though he could physically press the memory into his brain. A hand tugged on the hem of his pants, and he looked blearily down to see Tina. He hadn’t even heard her approach.
Without a word, the small girl took the small bundle of sticks from him and padded over to place them inside the tire. She then moved back over to him and took his hand, guiding him slowly and gently over until he stood above a smooth piece of metal. “Sit.” She finally spoke, quiet but firm. He obeyed, and she got on her tiptoes to pat his head. “Good boy!” she praised, bouncing back over to the fire and pulling a match out from a pocket of her dress. His head was clearing, and he blinked as he came back into his own body, just in time to hear the whoosh and crackle of Tina starting a fire. He looked over at her, knowing this definitely wasn’t her first fire by far, but wanting to ensure she was safe anyway. She seemed unharmed, even standing right by the tire as the flames licked out further with each second. She moved to sit back on top of the pod but then seemed to change her mind, as she instead bounced over and sat beside him.
She nudged him gently. “You feelin’ okay now? Cuz you did NOT look good a second ago. Thought you saw a ghost! I was gonna be all like, GET THE HELL OUTTA HERE SPIRIT!”
Vaughn laughed softly, a little drained from his small episode but unable to deny Tina’s infectious energy. “I’m cool, I’m cool. Just uh… Memories, y’know? They’re a double edged sword.”
Tina nodded sagely. She looked over at the pod again, seeming to have connected the dots. “Was yo’ momma on Helios?” She spoke, toying with her dress as though nervous to ask. He glanced at her and squinted, thinking. “Uh.. No. No, she died before I even started working at Hyperion. It was when I was at college.”
“Did ya get to see her? Y’know, before…?”
“No. No, I… I didn’t even know. I got a phone call during a lecture, I stepped out to take it and some.. Some nurse on Athenas tells me she just passed away.” His voice shook slightly, but he coughed in an attempt to mask it.
Tina continued. “Do you miss her? I miss mine. I-I bet yours would be… Real proud. You cool, dawg.” slipping back into her unique style of talking halfway through, she stretched her legs out and looked at her feet. Vaughn’s mouth twitched bitterly. “Yeah, I miss her. And-And thank you, but... I don’t think she’d be proud.”
He met Tina’s eye and she looked baffled. “WHAT? Why the hell not? You out here kickin’ ass daily! Unless- Ooooh, das it. She wanted you to work at Hyperion forever, huh? She wanted you to be an accountant!”
“She wanted me to be a girl.” The words left his mouth before he even registered them. He felt tears well in his eyes and clenched his hands, looking up into the night sky and willing them not to spill onto his cheeks. He saw Tina nod slowly out of the corner of his eye. “Ah… Sorry, boo. Forgot about dat for a hot sec. All respect to yo dead momma, but screw her! You da man.”
Vaughn reached over and wrapped his arm around her. “Thanks, sweetie. It’s just… I mean, you get it, right? You lose someone you love and you kinda… Feel like you owe them. Feel like you have to live the way they’d want you to, right?”
Tina began fiddling with the hem of her dress again. Looking closely, Vaughn spotted that her own eyes were teary. He frowned and said “Hey. You’re living exactly how Roland would want you to. He’d be so damn proud if he were here, he wouldn’t know what to do with himself.”
Tina giggled tearfully and hopped over to hug him tight. He felt her cry against his chest and finally broke, hugging her back and shaking as he let himself cry too. He didn’t know how long they sat like that, holding each other as though the world would collapse if they let go, crying as though neither of them had cried in their life. Could have been minutes, or hours. The sky was tinged pink when they pulled apart, and the fire was still lit but had died down a little.
Vaughn gently wiped the tears from Tina’s face and she wrinkled her nose in disgust, moving away. “Ewww! Ain’t you never heard of soap?”
He laughed, loud and obnoxious, standing up to go and poke at the fire with a thin shard of metal. “Says you, little miss. You smell like gunpowder.”
“Yo’ momma smells like gunpowder!”
He tilted his head, still smiling. “Eh, some kinda powder, definitely. Runs in the family, right?” he kicked an empty can of Joy Puke as he spoke, flinching back from the fire as it fully ignited once more. Tina frowned at him, folding her arms. “Man, you gots to lay off that crap! If Mordy-mom isn’t allowed to drink no more, you don’t get to either!”
He nodded and moved back over to sit beside her. “I know. I’ve been trying, but… Not hard enough. It’s just so nice to not have to think for a while.”
“You wanna not think for a while?” She stood up so that she was taller than him. “Where’s them marshmallows?! Think about that!”
“Oh! He laughed awkwardly and stood, moving over to another pile of debris. Opening the door of a battered and dirty laundry machine, he triumphantly pulled out a big bag of marshmallows. “See? All taken care of. I’ve been meaning to camp here for a while, but I guess I was kinda… Waiting for Rhys or Fiona or Sasha to call me back. It’d be nice to have the ol’ team back together again.”
Tina snatched the bag from him “No! No thinkin’ about anythin’ but these juicy mallows in yo mouth! You said we need the fire for somethin’?”
“Yeah, uh…” Vaughn looked around his immediate area and picked up two sturdy looking sticks. “Follow my lead.” he opened the bag of marshmallows and skewered one on the end of his stick, then held it daintily above the fire. Tina copied him and stared directly at the fire for a few seconds. “Boo. I was expectin’ more ‘splosions.”
“Trust me, it’s worth it. Just don’t burn your marshmallow, that’s the tricky part. Here.” He slowly rotated his stick “You gotta keep turning it so it gets evenly cooked.”
Tina rolled her eyes but obeyed. They sat in silence for a few minutes, Tina twitching and drumming her legs on the ground. He looked at her in concern, finally pulling his stick away from the fire and blowing on the marshmallow to cool it a little. Tina copied him, but simply took a big bite instead of blowing on it. Her eyes lit up instantly and she looked over at him gesturing passionately. “Yo! Dis crap’s tasty as hell, man! Aw man, why did no one tell me about this stuff?”
Vaughn smiled and shook his head affectionately, taking a bite of his own marshmallow. Tina watched him and covered her mouth, giggling maniacally. He furrowed his brows and swallowed “What? What’re you laughing at?”
“It’s all over yo’ beard! You look so stupid!” She laughed until she fell off the seat. Vaughn began to laugh too, catching his reflection in the metal when he went to pick her back up. She swiped up at his legs and he fell to the ground too, still laughing. She pointed at him and took a few gasping breaths. “You got- HAH- You got sand all up in yo’ beard now too!”
He snorted, clutching his stomach and laughing harder at the mental image. She kicked sand over at him, making him sputter as some got in his mouth. “Oh, that’s it!” He picked up a handful of sand and dumped it on her hair. “Oooh, you boutta get it now, BOY!” she yelled, sitting on his chest and slapping limply at his face. He laughed and squirmed, hands held up above his head “Alright, alright, I surrender! Just- S-Stop, it tickles!”
“Das RIGHT. I’m da boss round here, don’t you FORGET IT.” she said, cheering up into the sky as she lay back down beside Vaughn. Vaughn peered over at her and then looked up at the sky, as it was slowly swallowed by pink. “You think you’d ever wanna be the boss of the Crimson Raiders? Maybe after Lilith? I think you’d be good at that.”
Tina made a small ‘mmm’ noise, tossing her head back and forth as though weighing her options. “Maybe. Who knows. Maybe you will.”
Vaughn blinked slowly. “Me? I basically just met all of you. I don’t think anyone would want me to lead them. Plus, I couldn’t even make the Children of Helios work.”
“See, that wasn’t on you, boo. No offense to those dumb butts, but they were dumb butts. You wanna be da boss, you need a group of people as badass as you! And that’s us, boo!”
Vaughn didn’t dare tear his eyes away from the sky. He looked at the space where he knew Helios would have been.
“What if I get you hurt?”
Tina clicked her tongue. “What if ya don’t?”
“I just- I don’t know if I can ever-”
“Hey.” he felt her take his hand, squeezing it tight. “It’s a leap of faith, boo. That’s all. Ya gotta take risks around here. Sometimes people get hurt. Sometimes people die. That’s life down here. But you already know that. You been through that. And you still here. And that’s what makes a leader, ya know?” she paused for a second and sighed. “Don’t go tell nobody I said this, cuuuz I WILL eat yo’ brains, but you remind me of Roland sometimes.”
Vaughn froze. He knew what a huge compliment that was, especially coming from Tina. She continued “Y’know, cuz you all soft and nice but when it comes down to it you can do what needs to be done. Whatever saves the most people, even if you can’t save ‘em all. That’s you.”
She closed her eyes, breathing out slowly. “Night-night, Vaughn.”
He stared at her, eyes welling with tears as he processed just how much the words she had spoken meant to both of them. He sniffed a little and laid his head back down, closing his eyes.
“Night-night, Tina.”
They both woke up in their own beds, faces clean of any marshmallow fluff or sand. Mordecai and Brick denied everything, but the damp washcloth sticking out of Mordecai’s pocket rather took away from their arguments. On their way out for another explosive mission, Brick clapped Vaughn’s shoulder, softer than the previous day. “Welcome to the family, slab.” He grinned.