Chapter Text
There was only one thing Sasha missed from home. Or so she had told Rhys, anyway.
The two of them had been seated on the roof of the car, looking out at the stars in relative silence, when Sasha had broken it with a bitter laugh.
“Stupid moon,” she grumbled, “Kind of pretty for a soul-sucking corporate hellscape, though. I guess I haven’t really looked at it much. Living in a city in a cave doesnt give you much of a view.”
Rhys chuckled a little and cleared his throat.
“Yeah, well,” he said, somewhat hoarsely, “You don’t, you know, dump half a trillion dollars to build an ugly building, right?” He glanced over at her and hazarded a smile, not sure if his little joke would go over well or piss her off, but when their eyes met he could see that she was grinning, too.
“I guess not,” Sasha said with a sigh, “God, what scumbags. I bet you can’t wait to get back up there, though, huh? Get your cushy job back and go back to printing business cards for fun or whatever.”
“I’m actually, uh...I’m doing all right down here, really,” Rhys said, shooting her another uncertain half smile and getting an even wider one from her in response, “And I mean...I’m pretty sure that ship has sailed, with the cushy job and everything, and, wow, that’s the first time I’ve actually acknowledged it out loud, but...I dunno. I’m okay.”
“Wow,” Sasha said, raising her eyebrows in surprise for a moment but quickly returning to a more neutral expression, “I wasn’t expecting to hear that from you. Are you sure, though? I mean, you have that friend there still, right? She might help you get things figured out so you could come back, once this vault key makes us enough money to pay for what you lost.” Rhys shrugged.
“Maybe,” he said nonchalantly as he leaned backwards onto the roof, until he was lying on his back with his hands folded across his stomach, “I guess we’ll see. Hey, what about you? Is there anything you miss from back home?” He glanced over to smile at Sasha again, but his expression fell when he saw that her brow was furrowed and she wasn't smiling back this time, and he immediately regrets asking.
“Nah,” she said, just as he had been about to open his mouth to apologize, “Not really. The place was a shit hole, and the only person I care about from there is here with me. I really do miss my pots and pans, though, actually. I had a really nice set.”
Rhys would remember that. Sure, he knew it had been a deflection, but it still stayed on his mind for the next few days. It had been a nice set of cookware, he’d thought so himself when he’d seen it in Felix’s truck, and if Sasha had cared enough to get such good cooking supplies with what little she and Fiona were scraping together back at home it must have meant something to her. That was why, when the others had stopped to get some sleep and do some maintenance on the car, Rhys had quietly slipped away, only letting Loader Bot and Athena know where he was headed. Athena had grunted what Rhys had chosen to interpret as an acknowledgement and left him to it, but Loader Bot had insisted on accompanying him, on the grounds that he was not equipped with proper weaponry and that his tiny human legs would not get him where he wanted to go as fast as a rocket. Agreeing, Rhys had climbed up on Loader Bot’s shoulders, and the two of them set off together.
The pair was flying through the snowy night, now, and Rhys realizes regretfully that the fact that they had entered a much colder climate was going to make flying at such high speeds somewhat unpleasant. Every inch of exposed skin stings with the cold wind whipping at him, and it only takes a few minutes of flight for his eyes and nose to start dripping.
“My - sweetest - friend. Where - am - I - taking - you?” Loader Bot asks, and Rhys realizes with a jolt that he hadn’t even told loader bot where he wanted to go.
“O-oh...geeze, sorry LB, I saw like, a salvage yard or...scrap yard or...well, landfill, more likely, a few miles that way,” Rhys yells against the wind, pointing, “I just want to look around there for a few minutes, I shouldn’t be long.”
“Acknowledged. Rerouting,” Loader Bot says, before taking such a sharp turn that Rhys is nearly thrown off.
“You’re going to the dump?” says a voice that definitely wasn’t Loader Bot’s, and Rhys grimaces before looking over to see Handsome Jack perched on Loader Bot’s opposite shoulder, leaning back with his legs crossed nonchalantly and unaffected by gravity or momentum or the wind, “Jesus, I hope you aren’t gonna make a regular thing out of this. Blood and guts, I can handle, no problem, but wading through half eaten fish and gross creepy busted-up cat piss stained teddy bears and smelling all that rotting garbage, especially rotting Pandoran garbage, is just -- I know I’m a hologram, whatever, but I’ve got a weak stomach for that kind of thing, so unless you want to find out if Doctor Namakama took the time and effort to give me some kind of barfing function, which I sure as hell don’t, for a lot of reason, number one being -”
“Oh my god, will you shut up?” Rhys groans, thwacking himself in the temples several times, “You don’t even have a sense of smell.”
“Why - would - you - say - that?” Loader Bot says, with genuine hurt in his voice, “I - didn’t - choose - to - go - through - life - without - a - nose.” They were near enough to the gate surrounding the junkyard now for him to land, and when he does he drops Rhys rather unceremoniously and crosses his arms.
“No no no, buddy, not you, I’m sorry,” Rhys groans, gesturing placatingly with his hands, “I was just talking to...uhh…”
“Oh - right,” Loader Bot says, perking up again, “I - forgot - you - were - having - some - personal - problems. No - worries. I - will - wait - here - and - watch - you - from - a - distance. But - not - in - a - creepy - way.” He gives Rhys a thumbs up, which Rhys returns weakly before heading in through the gate.