ETA 5/19/13 Notes: Thanks to Aqua Lion for everything I've borrowed, like I told her writing fanfic off her characterization of VF Hunk, because it's my favorite. :D Also thank you to SnyperLady for the beta.
One
Hunk Garrett is cold. Sceadu is in its winter season: short days, long nights, always holding the promise of snow. He leans against a stone wall of a building, under a sign that says Borogove. The Borogove is a strip joint. Hunk would never have chosen it for the meet point. At least he didn't have to go inside, because there is no way that is happening. The establishment was chosen because of its large yellow neon flashing sign, and its location in the heart of Sceadu City.
His spot is near the entrance to the back alley, where he has no choice but to watch the Borogove's entertainment walking in and out. The girls and guys all pass by him flashing wide open smiles, perhaps thinking he's waiting for one of them. Hoping he may want to pay for more than the tease show inside.
It's the last thing on Hunk's mind. The truth is with each smile Hunk becomes more uneasy. There is a weight on his shoulders. Because he, Hunk Garrett, is in charge of an undercover operation. He is stuck waiting at a strip joint because he's waiting for his partner on the assignment. But with every smile thrown his way by the strippers, he thinks, Lance should be the guy standing here.. This is vital mission. Or Pidge, he thinks. Sure Pidge would hate this meet location as much as Hunk - albeit for different reasons, but... "Yeah, Pidge," Hunk mutters out loud to himself.
Pidge would be able to blend into the crowds of Sceadu, become one of them. It would be second nature for Pidge, blending into the dark shadows of Sceadu. To lurk there unseen, yet seeing everything. Hunk has even seen a few young men that remind him of his best buddy. Boys with harsh eyes and a determined bend to their shoulders. Pidge's natural mistrust would make it easy for him to find his way to the answers they seek.
"Yeah, Pidge or Lance," he mutters again. Lance can read people better than anyone Hunk knows. His instincts are rarely wrong. Lance would be the better choice to be here, for dealing with possible suspects, for knowing who is lying and who may being truthful. Another woman gives him a wide, teasing smile and Hunk hugs his chest tight as he thinks about it... Yes, the investigation would be smoother in Lance's hands.
He doesn't blend, he stands out, all the unwanted smiles he keeps getting from the strippers is proof. He looks welcoming because he doesn't doubt people - until they prove he shouldn't. At first he always ends up giving them his trust...
He flinches as he's given another smile... Yeah, he trusts, no matter how hard he tries to tell himself to be wary. He never sees that they aren't worth his time until they burn him to his bones.
Hunk huffs out a laugh, it's not funny. He's nervous. This mission is more than important, it could change everything for the Voltron Force. It could bring them all back together. And he's waiting for a stranger. Even though Lance trusts her, she's a stranger. He fidgets against the wall, feeling far out of his comfort zone, as he elicits yet another toothy grin. To try to escape the smiles he looks down to the dirty street under his feet. He takes a deep breath, trying to calm himself, because so much is relying on him. He is here to find proof of Wade's deception to the Garrison. Wade's hand in what happened with the Lions. The man responsible for putting Keith out there alone on the run searching for Black. Hunk has no choice but to try to trust her.
He can't let the team down. He can't fail, so he squares his shoulders and looks back up to scan the crowd, looking for her. Nervous is one thing he tells himself, but giving into panic isn't an option, yet he remains hugging his own chest... It's that his partner in this situation is an unknown variable - variable he sounds like Pidge, a small chuckle escapes despite the panic.
But the panic rises again, it's more than that... it is that she is an unknown female variable, and Hunk hates that that matters. He has do this so he decides to focus on what he knows about her, to calm himself down.
Her name is Farla Oshara. Her den codename is Flower Lady. She is known to the Voltron Force due to giving Lance seeds that were central to the cure of a mortal illness that Lotor inflicted on the people of Arus, including the Princess. Lotor had razed Farla's planet of the powerful ancient flower, the Lyrose that was Lyra's main source of... everything. She risked her life to save the last seeds during the attack, yet gave them to Lance, so he could save Allura and Arus.
Farla's own people, however, were spun into crisis. In one day their King was found to be corrupt and murdered. And shortly after Lance reseeded the planet, Zarkon returned to Lyra. He enslaved the small planet during the time they were trying to rebuild with the few flowers that survived the razing, and the crop born from Lance's reseeding. Zarkon wanted the flowers, or rather power within it.
Zarkon, by enslaving the people of Lyra to farm the pollen for his ill use turned out to actually aid Lyra in the long run. Once the Lyran people were rescued they had a viable amount of flowers to give them a head start on rebuilding the way of life the Lyrans treasure. But for a long time, Farla and her people were on their own. The Voltron Force had been unable to protect Lyra from the Drules, until they finally stopped Lotor in his quest to destroy Arus and rule of the Denubian Galaxy. Hunk knew from Lance, that Farla had fought against the enslavement from the inside. Fighting to maintain her people's traditions, her people's spiritual being. She fought to protect the flowers, the center of their spiritual and economic lives.
Hunk finds her background impressive, but also sad. He's heard so many stories of natives fighting to keep their traditions, their sense of self. To not allow the Drules to kill their individual spirits, and make them mindless slaves. The flower lady's story isn't unique to the world post the Zarkonian wars. However, Hunk always finds those with the fighting spirit impressive. It's not easy.
But impressed with her history or not, this woman, this lady with flower knowledge has never been off her own planet. She's never been undercover before - like him. Which is bad enough, but she's also a stranger. Hell she's a stranger to Lance as well, the two of them only meeting twice in person since their first meeting on the battlefield. Lance knows her more from computer vidcom's and emails. Hunk has poked his nose into a few of their vidcom conversations, giving a friendly wave, trying to embarrass Lance while he's talking with the pretty face on the screen.
But he doesn't know the pretty face, and it's making him nervous. Nervous is the word, he rolls his eyes at himself, how many times has he thought he is nervous in the span of ten minutes. Nervously waiting for the flower lady to walk by him, drop the pink Lyrose - to prove its her - and join him on this assignment. He reminds himself she's qualified for the job. That Lance trusts her, and that she has unique knowledge that is vital to them being able to pull off their assignment.
The wind picks up and flies through him, bringing more cold, he tightens his arms against it. His eyes on the parade of people walking on the walkways of the busy inner city. It's a parade of dark colors and heads bent down against the wind. All of them start to blend together for him, a blur of drab colors and half-seen faces. He looks for a spot of pink, but wonders if he'll even be able to notice such a soft color in this landscape. His hand fingers the picture of her Lance handed him, but he doesn't pull it out. He knows her face. It's the only thing he knows. He knows the basics of her physical traits. Five four, brown hair, brown eyes; Farla could be any of the women walking past him as he stands in front of the Borogove.
He checks the time, frowns she's late, but not late enough for him to start to worry. He'll give it another fifteen minutes then he'll start to worry about what could be keeping her. She could have gotten lost and had to backtrack, her flight onto Sceadu could have been late - Lyran transports aren't known for being timely; in fact, because of Lyra's magnetic pull their transports are slower than most, the mechanics to counter the magnetic pull held the engines back. Briefly wonders if she'll be culture-shocked - should he be worried? Lyra's a planet of villages rather than industrial cities it is a big difference.
Eyes on the crowded streets, the throng of people passing him by, Hunk fidgets more, shuffles his feet, and his shoulders rubbing against the rough stone of the building he's leaning against. Ten minutes late is nothing, anything could be holding her up. No reason to think she's freaking out about the city, and has plenty reason to think her flight was simply late. He shakes his head, he's letting his mind get away from him, imaging a wide-eyed girl overwhelmed by the city.
It is about him. It is not her at all. He's the one out of his comfort zone. Sure he can handle the crowds, the clutter of Sceadu City, but he's about to do something he's never done before. It's normal to be wary, he tells himself.
He goes back to scanning the crowd rushing past him, eyes alert for the pink of the flower, searching for her face. His hand goes back into his pocket, thinking about glancing at the photograph but all he does is toy with its edges. He's always had a good memory for faces, this is one of the times it will come in handy. He can see her face, how it looked on the vidcom screen during her and Lances conversations; he knows the shape of her jaw, the height of her cheekbones. Remembering that is better than a flat photograph, the recall of how her mouth moves, and how she holds her chin. Eventually she'll have to get to him, she knows the plan, the meet location, and where they are heading.
Another five minutes pass, Hunk gets more tempting smiles that make him grit his teeth, it's a break from the chattering due to the cold. He keeps his focus on keeping an eye out for her. The sun is setting, clouds are coming in on the wind that keeps whipping through him. All of it adds to his sense of her lateness. He's busy chanting silently to himself that it's not time to worry...but he is worrying.
Hunk's about to use the voltcom on his right wrist to try to double check if her flight from Lyra was delayed when he spots her. She's wrapped in a black pea coat, like most of the people of Sceadu around him. She has a hood up over her face but the pink flower she has in her right hand is the tell-tale sign that informs him that this is Farla Oshara, his partner in arms, for the duration of the assignment. They briefly make eye contact, she smiles, one that is out of place on this shadowy world, it makes him grin. Her simple smile of hello is refreshing after all the seductive smiles he's been doing his best to ignore. Hunk feels a huge sense of relief at the sight of her. They've met up, no more waiting, now the doing of being undercover will begin and in the doing, hopefully he'll stop feeling out as if it shouldn't be him.
~~.~~
Hunk Garrett has a good face.
That is the first thing Farla thinks when she sees him. That and the fact she's thankful she knew it was him waiting for her under the Borogove's neon sign. Hunk's dressed to be unrecognizable, because anyone realizing a member of the Voltron Force is in Sceadu City would endanger their undercover operation. She doesn't know his cover story for being here, but he must have a good one for him to be able to slip out of Wade's grasp. She told her friends she was going to Dradin to a Herbalist Convention - someday she hopes she can attend it in reality. It goes on every year, always been one of her dreams if she ever traveled off of Lyra. But this trip to Sceadu is more important, this is to help the Voltron Force, people she's always felt indebted to, so a chance to help them, to pay them back for all they've done for Lyra... It's the least she could do.
So, here she is on another planet, for the first time in her life, on a crowded walkway, head down and against the wind. She has to keep putting her hood back over her head, trying for some protection against the cold. The cold, is why she was late, her so-called cool weather jacket was not made for real winter. Her home world is tropical, and she lives in one of the hotter regions. But freezing to death is not on her to do list, so she found what looked like a consignment shop and found a coat. She is still cold but she doesn't feel like the icy wind is trying to freeze-pop her. She's enjoying the cold; the air smells different, she thinks as she walks on, one step behind Hunk who is leading them to the place they'll be staying.
What she knows is that the owner of the Borogove, is an ally of the Voltron Force, and he is putting them up in a small apartment over a bar he also owns in Sceadu City, called The Mimsy. She's terrified, her heart is loud pounding in her ears. She's on a different planet, a place very different from her home, and she's about to go undercover. To help the Voltron Force in an attempt to gain proof that Herbert Wade isn't a Space Marshall with good intentions for the Alliance of Planets and the Garrison of soldiers that protect their interests.
It's so important, if they succeed it would change so much, for the better. There is always some unrest in the universe, Voltron would be needed, by making Voltron itself the enemy, in her opinion Wade has put people at risk, has caused harm. It blows her mind to know he's secreted away Black Lion and caused Keith Kogane to go on the run. Keith is out there alone, with only long distance back up from his teammates, searching for his Lion, searching for a reason why. They're her heroes, though Lance she thinks of as a friend despite the fact they rarely see each other. He asked her if she could help out because of her ability in Herbalism and her anger at the occult uses for her planet's flowers. They need her expertise, in hopes of finding proof Wade has betrayed the Alliance. That is huge, she thinks over and over to the beat of her heart.
"There it is," Hunk says, using his head to point toward another yellow neon sign, this time it reads the Mimsy.
Farla nods because she can't speak, not at the moment. With every step she makes, the more real the situation feels. She is scared, and thinks she would be an idiot not to face the fear she's feeling. So she follows Hunk, with each step saying to herself that she can do this.
They walk inside the door, both of them stopping short to stare at the crowd. A mixture of humanoids and other aliens, raucous loud metal music, and a lot of smoke. The smoke makes her eyes sting and her throat constrict into a cough and next to her Hunk grins.
"Awesome music."
"It's loud," Farla says.
"That is what makes it awesome," Hunk says, still grinning. "Our landlord is in the back," he adds his mouth going serious.
She nods again and follows Hunk through the crowd which naturally parts for the broad shouldered six foot six man. They easily make their way to the bar, then toward a door that says Manager. Hunk knocks on it: knock, knock, pause, knock-knock, and Farla realizes she is holding her breath.
The door opens and a large insectoid man is standing in front of them, two of his four hands reach out to grab both her's and Hunk's hands which he shakes in a very amiable manner.
"Yes, yes, it is nice to meet another member of the Voltron Force," he says. "I am Manset and ready to help out anyway I can... Commander Kogane saved my life - one too many times if I am being honest...which I rarely am."
"Uh, yeah, that's what Keith does," Hunk says.
Still shaking her hand, Manset goes on. "And you are, I'm afraid I only know your codename, Flower Lady, I hear you are our occult expert?" Manset raises his two left eyebrows.
Farla blushes and shakes her head. "Farla, Farla Oshara, and, uh, I wouldn't really say expert, I know my herbalism, though, I...I have a hobby of studying the occult."
"Lady Farla it is then...now you two must have had a long trip, and it's freezing out there judging by Farla's frozen hand. I will show you your room and then bring you up some warm food...then we can discuss what brings you two to my bar."
Farla wants to argue, but she is freezing and resting up for a bit does sound good. Her duffle bag is heavy on her shoulder, she glances at Hunk because he's the one in charge here.
"Food. I won't turn it down, but I would..." Hunk pauses, his tone serious. "But as soon as we can, we gotta discuss...stuff."
"Yes, yes," Manset smiles and leads them down a hall and up two flights of stairs. "This suite is currently empty, due to the Mimsy's central location to the places you two will need to go, I thought it best suited for your local den."
Farla's eyes go wide, it's nicely decorated, warm but it's small, not really a suite at all. One room, two doors, and one is open to show it's the bathroom. She can't help but feel odd about sharing such close quarters with a stranger. She feels eyes on her and looks to Hunk, she meets his green-gray gaze and gathers from his expression the feeling is mutual. Manset's voice startles her.
"What would you two like to eat...the chef is making bouilabaisse, roast Ebbian Rabbit, and thousand alarm chili. I recommend them all, I only hire the best..."
Hunk snorts, "I'll see if the chili is worthy of being called thousand alarm. I am undefeated in Chili bake offs."
"You cook?" she asks.
"I dabble," Hunk shrugs but she thinks she sees a glint in his eyes.
"Ah yes... Commander Keith he mentioned more than once how the food we were eating did not stand up to the touch of his friend Hunk - but we were eating scraps not fit for a dog..." Farla notices Hunk wince at this information. "You will have to cook your chili for me, Sergeant Hunk. I am curious now...and it looks as Lady Farla is as well."
"Call me Hunk, please."
"You can call me Farla," she says in unison with Hunk as he gives similar permission. "And you're right, Manset. I am curious about this award winning chili, but for now I'll have the Ebbian Rabbit."
Manset chuckles at them both and then nods a goodbye and steps out the door. "Chili and rabbit it is for our esteemed guests..."
"No, no..." Hunk yells after him. "Not esteemed just normal guests..."
Manset looks back and gives a curt nod. "I wouldn't dream of putting your lives at risk... but all guests at The Mimsy are esteemed and treated as such. I have reputation to protect." He gives them a large grin right before closing the door.
With the click of door closing, Farla finds herself alone with Hunk for the first time. Well, she's was alone with him on the walk to The Mimsy, but crowds were all around them, it wasn't a time to study her new partner, to start to get to know him... as someone beyond his name, beyond his job.
It is time to meet Hunk Garrett.