An Unlikely Friendship

Gaige sat tinkering at her work bench, working on one of her latest ideas and occasionally glancing at her rough sketches or blue prints. She could hear Deathtrap behind her, whirring gently and waiting to assist her however she needed. Gaige reached up and wiped some sweat from her forehead with her head and straightened her back, only then realizing how long she must have been bent over her work from the stiff reply to her stretch

Just then a crash from the far end of her workshop caught her attention. Deathtrap's whirring increased; readying himself for the possibility of an attack then dropped his defense mode when they both noticed that the sound of the crash came from Krieg. He eyed to shelves he had bumped into aggressively, mumbling to himself then moved away from it towards Gaige and Deathtrap when it seemed to no longer pose a threat to him.

Gaige smiled at him brightly, "Hey Krieg! Whatcha doing?" He moved towards her as quietly as he could and didn't answer her question.

Gaige expected this from him. Krieg was not one to socialize with the rest of the Vault Hunters and seemed to unnerve the majority of them as well, with the exception of herself, Zer0 and Tannis. But Gaige saw him as just part of the group and treated him like she would anyone else. Well…with some exceptions. Sometimes he decided that he wanted to take some of her tools hostage to make new weapons for himself and Gaige could never find it in her heart to unleash her full anger on the psycho at finding some of her beloved tools mutilated in a fashion that only Krieg could accomplish. So, she would normally just scold him much like she would have a scolded a child.

Krieg finished making his way over to a spare bench close to one of the walls and sat down, never really looking at Gaige or Deathtrap. Gaige cocked her head at him, watching. "Did Dr. Insane try and get ahold of you again?"

Krieg nodded slightly, still not looking at her, instead choosing to eye one of her sharper tools up on the wall.

Gaige laughed and shook her head gently. Tannis had been trying to get ahold of Krieg for tests ever since the Vault Hunters had returned to Sanctuary after dealing with Handsome Jack. And no matter how much Krieg ran away from or yelled at Tannis, she refused to leave him alone.

"It's in the name of science!" Tannis would yell before pursuing Krieg again after Lilith or Mordecai would try to get her to stop bothering the psycho. But the promise of seeing what exactly Hyperion had done to him was just too important in Tannis's warped mind.

So Krieg had started finding hiding place to flee to when that happened. Sometimes, he would hide in Zer0's training center and watch Zer0 practice with his sword quietly. But his favorite seemed to be Gaige's workshop with its mechanical whirs and shiny tools. He particularly liked it when Gaige used her welding torch. There were even a couple times when she had fired it up that Krieg had actually smiled and let out a deranged laugh once she took it to the metal. Otherwise, he would sit quietly, talking to himself, and watch Giage and Deathtrap go about their business.

That was their friendship. Krieg would watch her work and, occasionally, try to kidnap her tools or give her opinions in his twisted way (normally the more deranged the look on his face was the more he liked what she was doing). But most afternoons, they would do something special. They would load up their guns, grab a vehicle from the Catch-A-Ride and hunt down bandits and whatever other low lifes Pandora had to offer in a free-for-all bloody killing spree. An activity that Gaige knew could always put Krieg in a good mood.

With that thought in her head, Gaige looked once more from her work and grinned at Krieg. "Hey, Krieg." She paused in her own anticipation, "How about we go hunt down some bandits?"

Krieg looked at her; demented joy glinted in his eyes, and hopped up from his seat ready to go.

"Alright!" Gaige cheered pumping her mechanical fist in the air. "Let's go kill us some bandits!"

Here was my attempt at a look into the kind of friendship that Gaige and Krieg would have. I know the ending is a little rough but you can expect a rewrite in the future. I always welcome feedback! Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :)