Saren/Nihlus (Kryterius) - The apprenticeship for the infamous Spectre is taking it's toll on Nihlus. But it isn't the dangerous missions that has him lying awake at night, twisting and turning. Oneshot set in "Nihlus the Survivalist" universe (Part 01). Masskink prompt. Theme music: Super Psycho Love by Simon Curtis.
Original Promt: . ?thread=38301559#t38301559
"So I was listening to super psycho love by simon curtis. Somehow I ended up thinking about saren and nihlus while listening to it, so I would like something with the those two turians inspired by that song.
Smut is very much welcome but other than what's written above anything goes."
If some scenes seem similar to 11_Gadget_27's work it's because I share those headcanons. And if you haven't checked out that library yet, you really should.
.-oOo-.
I wasn't like this. When I looked in the mirror I hardly recognized the turian looking back at me. The markings were the same. The white stripes going down from my fringe and ending sharply at my chin were as familiar to me as anything could be. But the normally energetic green eyes had lost some of the hidden glint. The mischief waiting just under the surface wasn't there anymore. The bags under them were new too. My dark scales had lost some of the luster that signaled a healthy turian. The tone had dulled and they felt coarse and dry under my fingers when I rubbed them over my face to wash off the tiredness that seemed to linger there.
Most people didn't seem to notice my change in attitude either, or maybe they did, but didn't dare to comment on it. The advantages of my occupation I guessed. I didn't really have any friends. Against my own best attempts at keeping my temperament in check it had a tendency to flare out, lash out on things and wreck havoc. It had almost cost fifty civilians their lives not a week past. It still haunted me, how I almost became the reason why their families would never see them again. But that wasn't what kept me up at night, twisting and turning in my bed.
How had I let myself become like this? But I knew the answer. The answer was a name.
Saren Arterius.
.-oOo-.
It had started a good while after my apprenticeship with the seasoned Spectre. I knew him by now. We had lived together on his ship breaching the two year mark. I respected him, trusted him, sometimes feared him. He was everything I wanted to be and then some. The job as his trainee was just as hard as I'd had imagined. Maybe more. He put an enormous amount of pressure on me, expected me to live up to a certain level. But I knew he would never ask something of me that he didn't ask of himself, and if he could do it, I could do it, I just had to try hard enough.
Our friendship, if you could call it that, hadn't come easy. Saren had strict rules and he expected me to follow them to the letter. When I didn't he forced them on me, which didn't go very well with the kind of person that I was. Taken from the turian military because I couldn't follow orders, wouldn't follow orders, when there were better solutions, had branded me as something of a rebel. He couldn't expect I'd just fall in line and be his little puppet, a mini Saren, but he did, and he got his will through in the end. Just as he did in most things.
We had been on a random world, of which in line I had lost count, in some forgotten village. When I look back on it I can't even remember what we were doing there, what our mission was. It all pales in the memory of Saren shoving me into one of the shadows between two of the houses. It was in the middle of the night, the sun had set a few hours ago. Not that we had seen it much at all during the past few days. It had rained and rained and rained non stop, day and night and the usually hard stomped mud acting as the village roads now reached up ankle deep. I remember the smell of filthy water and slippery earth surrounding us.
We were both panting hard from a run, made more difficult from the loose ground. The tight place we were standing forced our hard armored bodies together. Made them clink and scape against each other as we tried to catch out breaths. His exhaled air had wafted over my face, warm and with a special kind of smell I had come to think of as Saren's own. Metallic and spicy, but round and not harsh. Not the kind of smell that bit your nose and made you want to withdraw. But the kind that lured you in and left you wanting more.
I wasn't sure when or how it had happened, but as we stood there in the silence, a tension had crept up on us. He was watching me, those intense blue eyes almost glowing in the dark. I knew this tension. I wasn't unaware of sexual attraction or how it worked. I'd had my share of tail. But I hadn't expected it to manifest while standing pressed against my sometimes cruel mentor.
That was what took me off guard I think. What lowered my defenses and let me slip into that moment. His eyes going over my face as if he was looking for something, his eyebrows creased slightly in a question. The breath heavy in his mouth. His smell...
My eyes drifted from his, down over his skin and somehow they kept going back to his mouth. I couldn't help myself, not that I tried that hard. His presence was overwhelming and the heat from his breath was on my skin and he was looking at me like that. Something hungry waiting to be let loose. Then a muffled rumble started in his chest and I thought I was going to loose any semblance of self control. Our mouths were so close the slightest head twist would push our lips together.
An explosion was heard from deep inside the jungle and then hurried footsteps slipped and slid through the village.
Both of us were brought back to the now with a start. An old turian curse slipped over my mentor's lips before he looked at me again.
"We need to move," he said.
I just nodded and followed orders.
.-oOo-.
That was how it had started. Ever since, the memory kept creeping back into the forefront of my mind and it just didn't seem like I could shake it. What had really happened down there on the forgotten jungle planet? Was it something I should pursue? Was it even something I wanted to pursue?
Saren on his part acted as if though nothing had happened. Two years of living with the man in close quarters and I still couldn't read him any better than the first day I stepped on board. He was too perfect to show any kind of emotions on a good day, so why would he now?
I studied him where he sat opposite me at the small dinner table. The room was silent except for the low and familiar thrum of the engine. We were slowly heading back to the Citadel to report our success on the mission to the Council. We had a day or so of FTL flight there. Maybe I shouldn't ask? Maybe he'd rather forget it? Why would he not say anything if he felt like talking about it. It wasn't as if he was a shy, young cadet. He never had a problem voicing his opinions on anything before now.
But I couldn't help it when my eyes kept traveling to his face. To the pale skin and the blue eyes. My mind kept calling up the smell of his breath and how close his lips had been to mine. I shook myself where I sat and got up to put away the dishes. Get a grip, I told myself, you're acting like some lovestruck pup who's just grown out his fringe.
"I'll be in the cargo-hold," I told him and headed down the stairs. I needed to clear my head.
It took me a while to get to sleep that night, still wound up after a hard workout and when I woke up the next day we had already set dock at our destination. The ship was silent when I walked out into the kitchen to get some breakfast. Saren was obviously already ashore.
I had duties that went beyond shooting things. I spent the day stocking up on supplies for our next traverse out into space. When that was done I decided to have a drink and work on my mission report. It didn't go very well, writing had never come easy for me, and it was late when I finally headed back to the ship. I hadn't heard from Saren all day, but that wasn't unusual. We were both responsible grownups and we had done this routine of him talking to the council while I took care of provisions for a long time now.
When the airlock shut behind me I was almost ran over by a turian woman. I veered out of the way just before she collided into my chest.
"Oh, sorry." She grinned up at me and her dark scales glinted in the low light of the bridge.
"No problem," I answered and blinked confused down at her. Who was she and what was she doing on Saren's ship?
"I'm Tisha," she said when she saw my befuddled look. "A... friend of Saren's." She threw a glance over her shoulder. "You must be Nihlus Kryik." Her yellow painted mandibles flared out in another smile.
"Yes." I shook my head to clear it.
"Tish, you forgot..." Saren's voice halted when he turned around the corner from the mess and saw me. "Nihlus, you're back late." There was an ease in how he just leaned on his shoulder on the wall and crossed his arms in front of his naked chest. He only wore a pair of pants. Pants that were hastily fastened.
I blinked in confusion again. My mind was drawing a blank. Maybe I was gaping, I wasn't sure. I shouldn't be surprised. I knew about my mentor's sexual habits, how he had a bed partner at every shore. But I was tired, maybe a little drunk and the memory of his lips so close to mine was still fresh.
Tisha turned and walked over to the pale turian. She grabbed something from his hands. In my dumb struck state of mind I didn't register what. Maybe that was for the best. She stepped up beside me and palmed the lock to the decontamination chamber.
"See you around," she said and with a graceful swing of her hips she disappeared behind closed doors.
I walked past my mentor while I tried to clear my head, trusting my body to be able to walk on its own.
"She's something, that woman," Saren said as I passed him. He was still staring at the place where she had disappeared. There was a satisfied tone to his voice, like he enjoyed that I had walked in on his affair. Like she was a price he could boast with. I bet she felt the same way about him.
"Looked fine enough." I wasn't totally aware of what I was saying. My mouth just formed whatever words that tried to come out. It's face neighbor had just picked up the smell of sex on Saren. It lay in a cloud around him, thick and sweet and it made my heart thump extra hard. He must just have left the bed. Was the sheaths still warm? I forced my legs to keep walking and not stop and sniff him. "I'll be heading for a shower." His responding grunt of acknowledgment was distracted enough for me to understand that he was still wrapped up in dark and slender arms.
Heavy armor hit the floor and the dark clatter accompanied me until the shower hit my scales. It was so warm it stung, but it felt good, brought my mind off the throbbing in my chest. Steam soon started to rise and I felt my muscles relax. I let myself lean onto the wall, resting my forehead onto the cold tile.
This was the day I decided that yes, I did want to go after it. After Saren. The sharp feeling deep inside told me that I wasn't okay with him seeking out another partner. I wasn't okay with how her arms had recently wrapped themselves around his body. How her fingers had caressed and squeezed his skin. How similar to mine her dark scales had been.
My fingers had trailed down my abdomen as droplets of water sprayed away from my mouth when I breathed deeply. I closed my eyes and focused on the feeling against my soft waist. Let them slip further and further until they were teasing the edges of my lower plates. A shiver ran up through my spine, it felt great.
I'd always had my pick of partners. The image that came with being a rebel from the outer colonies had always drawn companions for me. Even more so after I became a Spectre candidate. But I hadn't had time, or energy, to entertain someone in a long time. Saren didn't mess around in his training and all my free time, what sparingly little I had, was spent at sharpening skills just to keep up. Maybe that was why I had reacted so strongly down on that planet. I wasn't sure I actually liked the pale turian. He wasn't exactly likeable. I respected him, sure. His ways, his discipline, his skill. I trusted him, day in and day out, with my life. But I couldn't exactly say I liked the guy. It was probably only pent up sexual frustration. Maybe it was good nothing had happened back there. I probably would have made a fool out of myself anyway.
It didn't take long for the blue color to make itself known. I drew a breath of relief and relaxed even more onto the wall. Rested on the elbow currently not occupied while closing my fingers around it. I softly caressed upwards, my mind drifting. Had Saren made any sound while he sunk into her? I guessed she was a screamer. But him I wasn't so sure about. He was so controlled all the time. What kind of sounds would I have heard if I had arrived a few minutes earlier? Had that rock hard mask of his slipped? Had he lost himself in the act?
I hissed through clenched teeth and rubbed down a bit harder. The thought of my mentor letting go of his control and drawing oh so glorious pleasure from the partner beneath him made me throb in my hand. His cold, calculating eyes would light up just as they did during a good fight. When his thermal clips were almost out and he was surrounded, five to one. He would look down with need in his eyes and claim what was his. Only it wasn't a slender turian woman that lay there looking back up at him.
I wondered what it would feel like when he entered me. How his face would look as he felt me squeeze around him. A keening noise escaped my throat and echoed over the walls in the small confinement. The sound of the water spatter had become a distant buzz in my ears and I could almost smell him on me. The scent of sex so recent in my mind. I wanted to bring him in here. To show him how much I wanted him. Wished him to grab me and stroke me as my fingers did this second.
A shock went through my body. It made my muscles tense and cramp as I felt myself pulse. I bit down on the growl that wanted out as the wall in front of me was splattered with my fluids. The white was quickly washed away by the water still pouring down on me, and disappeared down the drain.
I took a few shaky breaths, trying to get the oxygen back into my blood stream. It was definitely good that nothing had happened back on the planet. I promised myself that when I finally succeeded in sleeping with the older man I would do my best to hold out for more than five minutes.
.-oOo-.
I studied him the following weeks. Saren wasn't the type you simply walked up to and asked if he wanted to fuck you. I needed to learn how he worked. What got him riled up, what he liked, who he liked. What he looked for in a partner. I had a head start in that department. It was impossible to not notice things now when I looked for them, as we spent every day together on his small ship. Turned out I needed that advantage. The pale turian wasn't one to divulge much of himself.
During this time we stayed mostly in space, going from planet to planet. We were trying to bust a drug cartel in the terminus systems. Generally the Council wouldn't care what happened outside their borders. But this time the illegal substances produced and spread through this group made their way into civilized space. Saren figured we should simply behead the snake. He was simple like that, straightforward. It gave me a good opportunity to train my infiltration skills if nothing else.
"A prey who knows he is hunted will run and hide," my mentor said one time. "Better if we sneak up on him so he doesn't have the chance."
So we did. Tracked the man system after system. Always under one disguise or another. Unfortunately Saren's face was too known, and in any case his pale hide made him to easy to pick out of a crowd. Good when you wanted to stomp in and wreak havoc and spread fear. Less good when you wanted to keep a low profile. So it fell on me to have the first hand dealings with our sources and the target's henchmen. I took some pride in the fact that my picky teacher thought me good enough for the duty. Didn't mean I had to like the run down places these people kept to.
"It really stinks down here," I muttered and pulled the collar of the poncho I was wearing higher up around my neck. "Freezing too."
We were in some forsaken town on some forgotten backwater planet in the outer rim. The air was almost turning my fingers to ice and rain kept drizzling down from a bleak sky. Forcing it's way slowly through the fabric.
"Shut up and pay attention," my mentor's voice said through the communicator I had tucked in my ear. He sounded particularly grumpy today. I frowned. What did he have to be grumpy about? He was warm and dry up on the ship currently orbiting this horrible rock. "Have you spotted him yet?"
I was meeting one of his sources. He had told us he had information on our target's current location.
"Not yet," I murmured and turned another corner to yet another grey street. The pollution lay thick in the air and I tried not to breath too deeply.
I didn't know what this guy looked like. I only knew he would wear a brown cap and green jacket. Deciding my best chances to spot him was to stay put in case we went around each other I sat down on a bench on the side of the street. It stood in a place that had once been a green area but had long since grown over due to lack of upkeep. The grass stood high and water ran off the yellowed blades and onto my pants as I walked over to the bench. Great...
The minutes ticked by.
"You sure you gave him the right place and time?" I wondered.
"Of course I did," Saren grumbled on the other end. "Have some patience."
I had to suppress a laugh. The man wasn't exactly known for his patience. I could tell he was growing tired of this varren and pyjak game we were playing.
"Oh, I'm not the one who is loosing his mind due to frustration right now." I grinned for myself. I might not have dared to say such a thing to his face. But being far away enough for him to not directly hurt me helped.
There was only a tense silence in my earpiece.
"Maybe I could help with that," I suggested. My second vocal cord played and told him just how I could assist him.
I had been laying down flirty remarks for weeks now. So far he hadn't reciprocated, or even seemed to care. This was the boldest one yet so I couldn't wait to hear his response.
"Just keep your eyes peeled," he said with an even voice.
I held in a gruff in displeasure. Either I had totally misread the situation on the jungle planet or... Was he even interested? He had seemed like it, hadn't he?
But I didn't have time to mole it over. A person in a green long coat and a brown cap walked towards me and sat down on the bench beside me.
"I thought I was meeting Arterius," a soft voice said.
I glanced at my bench partner and noticed the blue and purples of an asari. For some reason I hadn't expected meeting one on this backwater planet.
"The Spectre is busy at the moment," I answered. "He sends his greetings though."
In my ear the turian in question huffed.
"Too bad," the asari mused. "I would have liked to meet the man. You hear so many things."
"They're all true," I laughed. "All the way down to how he eats children for breakfast."
Purple lips shifted in an amused smirk.
"You know him well?" she asked.
"Not as much as I'd like." I directed a few hinting harmonics towards my mentor on the other end. She wouldn't hear them, and I wasn't about to divulge my real relationship with the Spectre. "I was told you had some information?"
"Yeah." The asari stood up. "Follow me."
I got to my feet, giving her a scrutinizing look.
"Why?" I asked.
"The information is on a disk. I hid it. I wasn't about to be found with it on me." Without waiting for me to answer she turned around and started walking along the street.
I followed her, but kept a slight distance. This had perked my suspicion. It wasn't the ordinary routine for an info drop. Either she was more paranoid than she looked, or something else was afoot.
The informant turned a corner. It led into a back alley. I hesitated. Not that I was any more safe out on the street. I doubted anyone here would lift a finger to help his fellow man. But I still felt too exposed suddenly, more so without the familiar feel of my armor surrounding me.
"Where are we..." I was interrupted by a few shadows moving out to block my path.
"Nihlus?" Saren's voice sounded tentative in my ear. He could tell something had gone wrong.
One of the shadows moved towards me. It was a large Elcor.
"Superior: I heard you knew Saren Arterius?" the big gray creature said in the Elcor's usual drawling tone of voice.
"Nihlus, get out of there right now!" My teacher growled.
"Knew is a strong word." I tried not to flinch when I sensed people come up from behind me. A Spectre didn't flinch. Instead I stretched my back and started to calculate my odds of escaping the gathering. It didn't look good. At the very least the Batarian and the Drell behind the big guy had guns. There were no reason to think the people behind me didn't. I was armed, of course I was. But without shields or armor I wouldn't even have a chance to reach for it before I was shot.
"Snarly: Whatever. We're taking you in."
I had hardly heard the end of the Elcor's sentence until I felt something sharp poke my back. An electrical current went through my body making my muscles spasm. The pavement hurt as I slammed into it face first and the small communicator in my ears screeched from the overload.
The last thought going through my mind before darkness overwhelmed me was that Saren would never have gotten himself captured. I wondered how mad he was going to be if I ever saw him again.