Victus is in his early twenties in this fic. For anyone who's unfamiliar with my style of writing turians, phrases in italics are said in subvocals.
"Come on, Adrien, she just needs a place to crash for a bit. She won't stay very long."
Victus glared down at the gold-plated female, focusing on her deep brown, pleading eyes, and hissed back, "No. The flat's already crowded between me, you, and Ryx. We don't need anybody else cramming themselves in here."
The 2-bedroom flat had originally been shared by Victus and his long-time squadmate and friend, Terryx Actaeon. In recent months, though, Ryx had found his match in Nephele, and she'd moved in with them almost immediately. Since then, she'd become the little golden thorn in Victus' side, making a habit of nagging at him as well as her mate.
Her newest demand involved a friend of hers, Scylla, whose apartment complex was being renovated. Neph had offered her a place to stay until the remodeling was done. However, that entailed that Scylla would be occupying the couch... or temporarily kicking Victus out of his bed. And, of course, Neph suggested the latter.
"You'd really turn down a nice girl who's having a hard time of things?" Neph pouted.
"Yes," Victus deadpanned.
Heartless. Neph frowned at him and turned to her gray-plated mate, who was playing spectator on the couch behind them. "Ryx, help me out, here..."
Ryx reclined back on the couch, drawing his arms up and clashing his hands on the back of his head. His dark blue eyes twinkled. "Well, you have my vote."
Neph smirked back at Victus. "We outnumber you." Victory
"This isn't a democracy," Victus snapped. "Last I checked, it was my name on the lease."
"We pay half the rent!" Neph defended. "We have just as much say as you. Why must you make this difficult? Scyl would only be here for a week or two."
"Plus she's a looker," Ryx said absently.
"No," Victus argued, not even looking at his friend.
"And," Ryx added, "she can cook." Victus turned slowly, mandibles tight against his face. "Think about it. When's the last time we ate something other than take-out or military rations, huh?"
Neph sent a cool glance his way, as well, and muttered, "There's an insult to my cooking skills in there somewhere, I can feel it." In addition, she buzzed, Watch it.
Ryx avoided eye-contact, letting out a whistle, and kept talking to Victus. "Just let her stay for a while. You know Neph's gonna hound you until you do."
"I've grown quite resiliant to her hounding," Victus growled.
"Maybe," Neph sighed, "but you won't exactly have much choice in the matter."
Victus' eyes snapped back to her. "What?" Almost immediately following his exclamation, a loud rapping sounded at the front of the flat. His glare widened to a look of disbelief. "You already told her to come." As a trilled aside, Tell me you're joking.
"I did," Neph said, examining her talons and giving a challenging hum.
"Dammit, Neph!" Victus hissed, stomping to the front door. He had every intention of telling Neph's friend to turn around and march herself to a hotel. When he threw the door open, however, he was momentarily taken aback. The woman was less than a head shorter than him, a rare feat for a female, and her plates were an odd slate blue with icy white tips. Her green colony paint swept up from her chin and under her eyes, accentuating her olive green irises.
She blinked up at him, shifting the bags in each of her hands. "You must be... Adrien?"
"Yes," he replied, sounding almost winded. A threatening growl, residual noise from his anger towards Neph, resonated in his throat.
The female, Scylla, quirked a browplate. "Didn't... didn't Nephele tell you I was coming?"
Victus muttered, "She mentioned it about five miuntes ago, yes."
Scylla gasped, her sleek mandibles flaring in embarrassment. "Spirits, I'm so sorry! She said it was okay, so I thought she had spoken with you about it." She glanced back at the street, where a transport was parked. "So... I'll just... Is there a hotel anywhere near here?"
Victus glanced back at Neph, who was giving him a look that screamed, Don't make me beg. He looked back at Scylla, who was shooting a worried look at the transport. He assumed it was pay-per-minute, and their flat was far enough out that it would take at least half an hour to get to any decent hotels.
With a defeated sigh, he swept out past Scylla, headed for the transport, and called back, "Go on in."
She gave a surprised chirp, barely peeping out a "thank you," and shimmied into the house, setting her bags down by the couch. She shot an angry frown at Neph and hissed, "I can't believe you!"
"We knew he'd give in one way or another," Ryx muttered form the couch.
Scylla gave him a swift kick to the knee and he double over with a throaty hiss. "I'm staying here uninvited. Do you know how terrible I feel right now?" How could you embarrass me like that?
Neph scoffed, waving a hand to signal a change in subject. "Well, what do you think?"
"About what?" Scylla spat.
Neph leaned closer to her, cupping a hand over her mouth. "Didn't I tell you he was gorgeous?"
Scylla drew back, letting out a startled trill. "That is not even relevant! I didn't come here for you to play matchmaker, Neph!" The subject was dropped when they heard Victus clamoring back into the flat, his arms loaded down with Scylla's bags. When he neared the doorway, one bag scraped the frame, and Scylla let out a shriek. "Please, be careful with-"
He bumped the bag into the doorframe, and she was cut off by a loud POP. Victus froze as something ripped through the bag and whizzed past his face. Scylla was instantly beside him, tearing the bag away.
"No, no, no," she chanted, shuffling through the bag and pulling out a pistol with very matte paint.
"Is... is that a gun?" Victus snapped, with a chitter of disbelief.
"Shit!" Scylla cursed. "You dented the casing!"
"Why is there a goddamn gun," he repeated, "loose in your bag?"
"I work for Elanus Risk Control R&D," she barked. "And you dented my Predator prototype!"
"If it dents that easily," Victus hissed, "then it's completely useless."
"It's a prototype!" she shrieked. Fragile!
"Does it not have a safety?" Victus roared. "Because it nearly shot me in the face!"
"Oh, the rounds are made of plastic, you big, fringeless-"
"Plastic or not, it was still point blank!"
"Quit whining! Some soldier you are!" Weak!
"Oh, that's brilliant, coming from a civilian. You get through basic honest, or did you have to do some special research and development on your CO's pistol to make it out?"
As they argued, Neph and Ryx exchanged impish grins, clapping their hands together in a "high-three" gesture. Neph plopped down beside her mate, watching the show. She chirped, "I give it... three weeks, tops."
"I give it two," Ryx muttered.
"Maybe," Neph hummed. "Oh. Oh, look at her go."
"Did she just chase him outside with a toy gun?"
"Yes, yes she did," Neph chortled. "Oh, this is perfect!"
"I change my mind," Ryx said. "I give it a week."
It didn't take long for Scylla to settle in, and it took an even shorter time for her to take over the kitchen, not for cooking purposes (seeing as how Ryx had implied her culinary prowess) but for her work. Blueprints for the proposed Predator pistol were stretched out on the small dinette table, and various plastic parts and metal bits were strewn in the accompanying chairs.
By nightfall, Scylla had completely migrated to the kitchen and was obsessing over the details in the design. She remained awake, long after Neph and Ryx retired to their room, and was even up when Victus decided to turn in. He passed the kitchen and paused, watching her work as he rubbed a throbbing bruise on his neck where she'd shot him with that damn prototype gun.
Sensing him in the doorway, she turned toward him. "Something wrong?" Her eyes darted from his neck back up to his eyes. "Sorry. I didn't actually mean to hit skin. My aim isn't exactly spot on."
"So you did sleep your way through basic?" Victus muttered, stalking into the kitchen for a cup of water.
"No," Scylla growled, "I was just stationed in intel. I had entry-level training with handguns, but I've let my skills slide. Now, I need to know the mechanics of a gun, not how to use it."
"One should go hand-in-hand with the other," Victus grumbled, procuring a glass and filling it from the tap. "Hand me any rifle, no matter the model, and I could tear it apart and throw it back together in under a minute. And then, I could pick it up and gun down anything in my way."
"But could you improve the design of the weapon?" Scylla asked. "Because that's what they pay me to do."
"If a gun works, it works," Victus said, taking a drink. He pulled the glass away with a pleased sigh and wiping his mouth. "If there's a flaw, account for it and compensate. If you aren't skilled enough to work around that, then you shouldn't be holding the gun."
Scylla shook her head and talked around him. "I'm trying to work around heat emission."
"What's wrong with heat sinks?" Victus said, finding a space on the counter top that was mostly clear and leaning back against it.
"You have to carry them," Scylla said. "And, you have the added time it takes to eject it and replace it. I'm testing a design that would allow the gun to self-regulate. Once a certain heat level has been reached, there is a short cool-down period."
"I could probably switch out heat sinks faster than a gun could cool itself down," Victus barked, letting out a haughty laugh.
"If I can get the cool-down sequence to function correctly," Scylla said, "it would only take ten seconds for the gun to be usable again."
"Ten?" Victus hummed. "I could definitely beat that." Easily.
"With some modification, I could cut it down to five."
"Five is closer, but I'm still faster."
"I'd like to see that," she challenged. She pointed towards a window.
"Now?" Victus spat. Terrible timing.
"Why not?" she retorted.
"It's the middle of the night, for one," Victus deadpanned.
"S'wrong, soldier?" Scylla taunted. "Need a flashlight to see what you're doing?"
"You do realize I'll have to fire a weapon to properly demonstrate, right?" he asked. "You can't just fire shots in a residential area."
"Residential how?" Scylla returned. "You live out in the country. Your nearest neighbor is probably at least a mile away." She crossed her arms defiantly. "I think you just don't want me to call your bluff."
Victus stared her down, his mandibles twitching in annoyance. He quickly moved away from the counter and whisked into the living area. In moments, Scylla could hear the sound of rummaging followed by the metallic click of a heat sink being shoved into place. Victus returned, carrying a scuffed assault rifle, and moved toward the door at the back of the kitchen that led onto the lawn.
"Well, let's get this over with," he grumbled, throwing the door open. I'll prove you wrong.
Scylla followed with a grin, staying on the patio and hanging close to the flat while he moved into the yard. He was wearing lounge pants and a loose-fitting shirt, was barefoot, and was absolutely not the image that came to mind when one thought of "soldier." But, he moved fluidly, falling into stance with his gun pointed at the sky. He pointed to his pants pocket, indicating that a spare heat sink was there. Scylla nodded in realization and he curled his talon against the trigger.
He shot in rapid-fire at the sky, his plates lighting up from the burst of the rifle. After a moment, the rifle creaked in protest and he abandoned the trigger. In one second, the sizzling heat sink popped out. The next second, his taloned hand dove into the pocket. In the third, he swiveled the new heat sink in his palm and jammed it into his rifle. At the start of the fourth, he lowered the rifle and tossed a knowing look back at Scylla, who was was standing at the door, mandibles slack.
In the next moment, a very tired and startled Ryx burst out of the flat, brandishing a pistol. He had it trained on the figure in the yard, but lowered his aim when he realized it was his flatmate. He roared, "What in the fuck are you doing out here?"
"Proving a point," Victus grumbled back, returning to the house.
"I heard gunfire and thought I was in the fucking ground raid again!" Ryx yelled.
"Obviously, you aren't," Victus muttered. "Not enough krogan." He trudged back into the flat, where Neph was hanging timidly by the door separating the kitchen from the living area. "Sorry, Neph."
She sighed and entered the kitchen. "As long as it was you... Spirits, that's a terrible way to be woken up. Don't ever do that again."
Ryx stalked back into the house, dropping his gun on the counter and wordlessly, angrily, and sleepily stomping back to the bedroom. Scylla followed him in, shutting and locking the back door behind herself. She gave Neph an apologetic look, then turned to Victus.
"Looks like I'll have to cut that cooldown time to three seconds."
The first week stretched on without much event. Scylla had little luck improving the design of the Predator enough for it to compare to physical speed, and Victus would make quick boasting remarks if he passed her working in the kitchen.
In the end, the new guest had willingly taken the couch, so Victus didn't have the chance to become territorial over his bedroom. He did, however, find himself having to entertain her when Neph and Ryx went off to do their own thing.
One night at the end of the week, he found himself slinking into the living area, where the blue-plated female was watching a vid, alone.
Victus moved to the end of the couch, motioning toward the cushions in a request to sit. She nodded and he flopped down on the end opposite her. He asked, "Where'd Neph go? Wasn't she in here?"
"She was," Scylla replied, pausing the vid. "Ryx finished a report or something, so she's back in the room." Victus nodded in comprehension. "Didn't you have some paperwork, too?"
"Final report of a mission I went on last month," Victus replied. "It's finished."
"Want to watch?" Scylla asked suddenly, gesturing towards the vid screen. "It just started. I can play it from the beginning."
He sent her an even gaze. "That..." She returned the glance, her eyes warm. "Why not?"
She smiled and restarted the vid.
Victus awoke the next morning to the sound of Ryx hollering through the flat at Neph. His subvocals twanged out haughtily, like he'd just bested an enemy in combat. "Neph, I told you!"
Victus' mind was hazy with sleep and it wasn't until he received a rough shove that he realized what had happened. He shot up, dragging his head away from the soft place it had been nuzzled in to, clicking in near-horror when he fully realized that it was Scylla's stomach. She was stretched out on the couch, her knees pressing into either side of his torso. She shuffled, drawing her legs in and glancing at him nervously.
He'd fallen asleep on the couch with her. Spirits, damn it, he hadn't meant to do that. But that vid was so ridiculous, specifically written for female interests. In one scene, a female character had flat-out subdued a would-be lover by scratching at his mandibles. Victus had proclaimed how absurd the notion was that a man would fall to his knees at such a gesture, and, naturally, Scylla had taken that as a challenge.
She'd tried it out on him, for experimental purposes only, of course. The motions had been clumsy, almost rough, and Victus had thought he would prove her wrong. But then, the motions of her talontips against his mandibles had slowed, softened, and he found himself becoming more and more tired. She'd set a sort of rhythm, and it had seemed that she was pulling him closer. Before he'd even properly realized what had happened, he was nose down against her belly and she was lightly scratching up the side of his face, along the edge of his crest, down the back of his head.
And however many hours later, there he was, getting jeered at like he was a kid caught pants-down with his CO in basic or something.
Victus bolted off the couch as Neph entered the room, her eyes alight and teasing.
"Something wrong, Adrien?" she chirped as he whisked past her and flew down the hallway to his bedroom. She laughed as he slammed the door. "Well, then..."
"I think I won that bet," Ryx insisted as he strutted into the kitchen.
"Bet?" Scylla peeped. "What bet?"
"Sorry, Scyl," Neph said. "We're conspiring against you."
"Trying to play matchmaker?" Scylla hissed.
"Not exactly," Neph defended. "Just... shoving you in that general direction."
"Neph, I don't need a shove! We aren't little kids anymore, and I'm not just going to follow your example and settle down like you and Ryx!" Mind your our business!
"You don't have to," Neph argued, sitting beside her. "You've been so caught up in work that you've started closing yourself off. I thought if you could just connect to somebody-"
Scylla stood abruptly, knocking a pillow from the couch. "I said I don't need your help. I'm by myself because I want to be."
"Uh huh," Ryx muttered, gesturing down the hall. "Just like he is, I'm sure. How many depressant shots you go through in a month? Cause if it's anything like him-"
Scylla shrieked, "That's none of your business!"
"Scyl, that's not healthy," Neph mumbled sympathetically.
"I can't believe you," Scylla growled. "I have one set of parents, I don't need another." She shoved past Ryx into the kitchen. "I'm not staying here if you're just going to try to run my life."
"Scyl, that's not..." Neph sputtered. "Just give it a chance! No one made you sleep together last ni-"
"Shut up!" she screeched from the kitchen. "I'm packing up after work today and leaving!"
Scylla returned to the flat, most of the wind taken from her sails. She dropped a bag of gun parts by the door and trudged through the dark living room toward the kitchen. In trying to tweak her blueprints, she'd lost track of time and stayed long after hours. By the time she caught a transport and reached the flat, everyone seemed to have retired to their bedrooms.
She sighed and entered the kitchen, pausing when she noticed Victus standing on the patio. She quietly moved to the back door and crept outside. Victus barely looked over his shoulder at her. "What was that about leaving?"
"May have changed my mind," Scylla said weakly. "But, I'll still go if things are going to be... awkward."
"I'm being deployed in three days," he said with a shrug.
"Oh," she sighed. "Well, I guess I won't be going anywhere, then."
"No reason to," he agreed.
She stood for a moment, letting the silence soak in. When he didn't say anything else, she turned back into the flat, gripping the door frame. She chewed on a thought for a moment, then decided to speak. "For what it's worth, I haven't slept that well in a long time."
She waited for a response, her head drooping meekly when she received none. Conceding, she stepped into the flat, freezing when a quiet admission followed. "I haven't either."
She whirled, facing Victus, but he kept his back to her. "So what, then?" What do we do now?
"I don't know," he admitted.
"Well," she said, "not that it matters. You're leaving in a matter of days and I'll be gone when my place is remodeled."
She stayed put, gauging his reaction as best she could from the angle. She barely caught the amused flare of his mandibles. "Short tour, I could be back in a month."
"Repairs will be done in less than two weeks," she said flatly.
"They could take longer than expected," his voice held a tone that read sabotage.
"Maybe if someone were to break in and trash the place," Scylla said. Offhandedly, she continued, "Or, someone could just invite me to his room and give me some incentive to stay longer."
That caught his attention, and he spun around with an unreadable expression, his subvocals locked down so as not to give away his thoughts. "That would be bold of someone."
She quirked a browplate at him. "No bolder than staying last night."
"That wasn't actually intentional," he muttered.
"Oh," she peeped. An awkward silence fell, and she suddenly laughed. "You're actually pretty bad at this, you know?"
"I might be a little out of my element," he muttered, moving closer.
"And that is?" she wondered, laying a hand against his chest.
"Battle, chaos," he answered. "I'm usually the one who keeps it together. I'm not sure what to do with an opponent who matches me stride-for-stride." Equal.
"I'm your opponent now?" she chirped, curling her talons into his shirt.
"Relationships aren't my area of expertise," he said, "but if Ryx and Neph are any indication, then yes, you are." Constant fight for control.
"Hmm, good point," she chimed. "So, what'll it be?" Will you be my opponent?
"Well," he hummed, "I suppose I have three days to convince you to stay."
Scylla smiled, nuzzling his chest before he led her back in to the flat.
So, this was going to be a oneshot, but I decided to break it up. There should only be one other part after this!
Oh, and the Latin:
From what I understand, "vae victo" means "he who is conquered." It's the singular, masculine form of "vae victis" meaning "the conquered ones."