Summary: Saren/Nihlus - "Isn't that a little childish, Nihlus?" "Come on, it's romantic." Standalone set in the "Nihlus the Survivalist" universe (Part 04). Drabble. Complete.
.-oOo-.
Nihlus mostly tried not to breathe too deeply when he unclasped his helmet and let it dangle in one hand. The fight had been long and bloody, his armor was speckled with different colours of blood and... Various... Other liquids he rather not analyse too closely. The order to take out this particular base of troublemakers had been a long time coming. They had tried to reason with the group of fanatics, but in the end they had been considered too big a risk to be left alive. The underground location of their base had made it impossible to bomb the place from orbit, and they were too heavily defended to warrant the casualties the military would have taken had they tried to send in an assault team. And thus it had fallen on Nihlus lot to take them out.
He agreed with the council's decision, this particular group of people were too dangerous to be left uncontrolled. That didn't mean he much liked the slaughter he just had gone through. Hunting down and killing every living being he could get his hands on in cold blood had never been his cup of tea. That was, at least one of, the reason he had brought...
"Kryik, come in," Saren's voice cut over the com link.
"Here," Nihlus answered automatically.
"All clear in the southern sector.
"Yeah, nothing breathing over here either," he confirmed. "Do a last sweep on your way up top. I'll meet you by the entrance."
"Arterius out."
Luckily there were nothing left to kill, and he tried to keep from counting all the bodies he passed on his way up to the surface. Saren was already waiting for him by the big metal doors.
"Everything went fine?" he asked with his mandibles drawn in high. You could hardly extinguish the normally white colour of his armor.
"Once we got in there was hardly a fair fight," Nihlus muttered as he opened the door out to the fresh air. It hit his nose in a push of damp air, the last few raindrops still falling slowly down to the ground.
"I don't know why you wanted me on this mission, Kryik," Saren said and followed him.
Nihlus sighed and started heading for their ship.
"You know why," he retorted. Saren must know how he felt about these kinds of jobs.
"You could have handled it on your own," the older man insisted.
Nihlus just sighed again, a bit more bitterly this time, but didn't answer. Yeah, and gone insane, he thought, stepping closer to his old mentor as they walked. As always the man's aura had a stabilising effect on him. The practical and detached way he looked on every assignment, the logical way he thought that Nihlus had never really been able to adapt. He cared to much sometimes and he knew it, a flaw in some cases, a plus in others. Today it ha had been a flaw and he needed his old friend's presence.
As they walked a rainbow appeared in the still humid sky. It sparkled with colour against the gray background. In a moment of sentimentality Nihlus grabbed the three fingered hand next to him.
The owner froze and stopped in his tracks. He didn't say anything, just gave the younger turian a skeptic look with his cold blue eyes.
"What?" Nihlus was immediately on the defensive. "I can't hold your hand?"
Saren's eyes flashed to the rainbow and then back to the turian in front of him.
"Isn't this a little childish?" he asked, his voice sarcastic.
Nihlus didn't let himself become intimidated, he had as known Saren too long for that.
"Don't you think it's pretty?" he asked instead, capturing both of the pale turian's hands in both of his.
Saren only glared in answer, his brow one single deep scowl.
"Come on," Nihlus cooed. "It's romantic."
A scoff was the only thing that had time to leave the bitter, old Spectre's lips before they got caught in a long kiss. He could feel how the man tried to protest before Nihlus pressed firmer into the act, a soft sigh escaping a white nose as he relaxed again.
When they parted it took Saren a second before he could gather his composure again. It made a victorious spark spread inside Nihlus's chest. Few things ever caught the old man off-balance, and that he had the power to do so with his lips alone had a very special kind of fire start in his belly.
Saren scowled at him one last time before he turned to continue the trek back to the ship, this time with brown fingers intertwined in his.