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Moze hadn’t seen Sanctuary III this excited since they’d finally taken down the Calypsos. The spaceship’s halls were buzzing, the usual yellowish light of the ship tinged with red and green glows. She’d even heard Marcus grumbling about how the residents of the ship expected some kind of holiday discounts.
None of these festivities permeated Moze’s room, however. It wasn’t that she didn’t like Mercenaries Day, she’d just never really gotten the point. Vladof had never celebrated, she and her infantry had spent many a Mercenaries Day raiding a small village or getting patched up in incredibly unsanitary infirmaries in the middle of nowhere. Whatever, Moze didn’t like to think about it.
Mostly she just didn’t understand. It’s not like the temperature changed much in space, those stupid gaudy sweaters everyone around her seemed to be wearing served no real purpose. And everyone seemed to be forgetting that they’d have to take those silly decorations down a day later. She didn’t see the point, but she supposed it didn’t really matter. Moze could just stay in her room, sharpening her knife atop criminally thin blankets and ignore all the ridiculous celebrations until December 26th came and she could get back on the-
“Oy, Lass-” A familiar voice said, accompanied by a knock on the metal door to her quarters. Moze looked up to see Zane poking his head around her door.
“What’s up?” She asked, cocking an eyebrow and placing her knife on the bed, completely recognizing how unsafe that was and yet not doing anything about it.
“You mind helpin’ us out there? Moxxi asked us to put up the decorations and FL4K’s worried we won’t get it done in time. They’re… weirdly really into this.” Moze made a noise somewhere in between a groan and a sigh.
“Sorry dude, I’m kind of… uh, busy.” She said, not looking Zane in the eye.
“Oh really, what are yeh doin’ then?”
“I’m- um… Knife.” Zane barked out a laugh.
“Real convincing there, Moserah.”
“I told you not to call me that.” Moze said, bristling as her cheeks turned a shade pinker.
“I’ll leave you to it,” Zane said as Moze flopped back down onto her bed. “Shame though, “ he said, waggling his eyebrows “Amara was real excited for you to come.”
Moze sat up faster than she would like to admit.
“Oh, did that perk you up?” He said, leaning on the doorway.
“No, I just-” she murmured, looking away “Can do this later”
“I take it you’ll be joining us?” Zane said, the smirk audible in his thick accent. Moze grumbled, getting out of her bed as Zane laughed, using the reflective surface of her Echo as a mirror and checking how she looked for no reason. No reason at all.
Moze had never considered the ceilings of Sanctuary III particularly high. Granted, she’d never tried to hang obnoxiously bright red and green ornaments from one of the many pipes descending from above her, but either way: she’d never noticed how damn tall they were- or how damn short she was. Either way, this ship was a bitch to decorate.
People were starting to stare. Moze had been struggling with this stupid sparkly orb for well over 5 minutes, and the little grunts she made while jumping up and down in a futile attempt to reach the pipe certainly weren’t helping.
“Stupid mother of fu-” Moze cursed, jumping one last time, trying to grab onto the pipe for just long enough to hang the ornament, but-
CLANG
The sound of Moze’s helmet hitting the pipe resounded throughout Sanctuary III. The heads that weren’t already turned towards her did, and the gunner felt her cheeks growing hot alongside the throbbing pain of her head.
“Shit…” she murmured, scrunching her eyes shut and rubbing the dent in her helmet with a wince. That was- or already had, she supposed- left a mark.
“Need some help?” A smooth voice Moze knew all too well rang out in front of her. Moze opened her eyes to see Amara leaning down to her, tattoo covered arm outstretched.
“Amara!” Moze yelped, scooting backwards. Amara laughed softly as Moze’s cheeks grew brighter and brighter shades of red by the second “Umm… Pretend you didn’t see that. Please.”
“Your secret’s safe with me.” Amara said as Moze took her hand, standing up, “What happened?”
“I was- uhh- ornament- pipe- I’m sorry I- couldn’t reach.” Moze fumbled trying to find the right words. Amara looked down at her, a warm smile spreading across your features.
“Here, let me help you with that.”
“Huh-” Moze cut herself off with a yelp as she felt herself being lifted off the ground, Amara’s strong, tattoo covered hands clutching her waist as she hoisted the gunner up into the air.
“Amara, what’s-?” Moze said, a hint of panic dripping into her voice. She’d never expected to be so… up close and personal with those arms.
“Well? Put the ornament up. Or don’t. I can do this all day.” Amara breathed into her ear. Moze’s face flushed as she quickly but sloppily hung the ornament from the pipe. Amara put her down gently with a soft grunt.
“That wasn’t so hard, was it?” Amara said with a smile.
“No, um- not at all.” Moze replied a nervous grin on her face, “I’m gonna- uh.. I’m gonna lay down… Head hurts.”
“I’ll come with you” Amara said kindly, “Keep you company.”
“Nope! Nope that’s okay!” Moze said, nervousness evident in her voice. “I’ll be back in a bit- uhh.. Have- um- have fun!”
Moze walked back to her room as quickly as she could, avoiding the stares of Sanctuary’s other passengers. She shut the door behind her, leaning back against it as she slid down it, sitting on the cold floor of her quarters.
What exactly had just happened?
Moze was… feeling better? Debatably? In all honesty she could have stayed in her bed, staring at the cold metal ceiling for a few more hours, be it from actual pain or simple embarrassment. But something about the distant chatter she could hear through her door and the soft, cheery music that echoed throughout the ship’s halls made her want to leave her room for some reason .
She would have ran right back into her room after a few seconds had Zane not called her over, FL4K standing beside him.
“Aye, Moze!” He yelled across the room to her, clearly already drunk “Get over here!”
Moze walked over sheepishly, still a little embarrassed after her… incident a few hours beforehand.
“I heard what happened,” Zane said, causing Moze to nearly choke on her own spit.
“What?” Moze gasped, regaining her bearings, “Amara said my secret was-”
“Relax,” Zane said, grabbing a flask from his pocket and pouring it’s contents into a glass of eggnog. “This one told me.” He nudged FL4K.
“Apologies. You were very loud”
“Whatever, just… forget about it. You know that eggnog’s already spiked, right?” Moze said, redirecting the conversation as best she could.
“Oh, I’m well aware.”
Moze looked around, taking in the party around her. There were little bits of tinsel scattered all around the large room, and the Digby Vermouth cover of some classic Mercenaries Day song that echoed all around them was weirdly pleasant.
But had there always been this many couples aboard Sanctuary?
Brick and Mordecai were dancing together, tender and soft despite Brick’s stature. Rhys and some girl in a hat were sharing a glass of eggnog, her head resting on his metal shoulder. Even Moxxi had someone with her, leaning down onto her bar to talk to Timothy. Moze swore she saw them exchange a chaste kiss before she looked away. She’d never been much of a PDA person.
“I’m gonna grab some food,” She said quietly, ducking away from FL4K and Zane and heading towards a table of sloppily decorated but charming cookies.
They tasted fine, the icing was a little thick but she-
“Hey,” That same familiar voice from earlier said from behind her. Moze whipped around to see Amara in a cute green top, showing off her tattoos.
“Uh- Hi,” Moze said, swallowing her cookie with a gulp. Thank god she did, she wasn’t sure if she could handle embarrassing herself in front of her teammate again, “You guys did a nice job with the- uh- decorations.” Amara chuckled softly.
“Thanks,” She said, smiling, “How long have you been here?”
“Oh, I just got here,” Moze said sheepishly.
“How’s your head?”
“Um… Good? I might actually go back inside soon,” Moze said, not meeting Amara’s gaze “This isn’t really my scene,”
“That’s a shame,” Amara said, genuinely sounding a little sad “I like having you here to talk to.” Moze felt her face turning bright red. Oh shit.
“O-oh, well if you want, I can-” She stopped herself when she heard a mischievous giggle behind her. She whipped around to see Zane and FL4K hunched together, holding a sprig of… oh fuck above her and Amara’s heads.
“Zane, you fucking-” Moze yelped as she tried to grab it from him.
“Nope! It’s mistletoe, you know the rules.” Zane said, shit eating grin on his face.
“Ugh, Zane!” She cried, still trying to get her hands on the little leaves.
“What, you afraid of kissing me?” Amara said raising her eyebrows with a smile.
“No! I’m not afraid of- that’s stupid. Wait! Not that you’re stupid, I’m-”
The silence was palpable. Even the music had stopped. Oh no.
Moze looked away from their little debacle. All eyes were on them. If she thought her face was red before, it must have been glowing now.
“Oh.. um…”
“We don’t have to if you don’t want,” Amara said, looking down at Moze warmly.
“No, I do… I just…” Moze said, tripping over her words as she looked into Amara’s eyes.
Fuck it.
Moze leaned up on her tiptoes, eyes scrunched shut and face bright red as she planted a kiss on Amara’s lips. Amara leaned into it, running a hand through Moze’s short hair and laughing softly into the kiss. Moze swore she could hear Zane whooping and clapping behind them. The rest of the guests seemed to join in, as cheesy as it was, cheering the two women on.
When the kiss broke, all Moze could do was look up into Amara’s eyes.
“That was… really nice”
“That it was.”
Maybe Mercenaries Day didn’t suck so bad after all.