I don't own the Mass Effect.
Second Verse
My omni-tool began to blare with an incoming call, the tiny speaker belting out a hideously annoying song that assaulted my ear drums. Each note sent a spike of pain through my skull, oaths in at least five languages rasping their way out of my dry throat as I flailed at the nightstand next to my bed. Several moments of increasingly frantic effort followed, each of which drew more pain and cursing. After maybe ten seconds, something grabbed my other hand and shoved it in front of my face.
The omni-tool was cheerfully blinking at me from around my wrist, and was very much not on the nightstand. And the fingers that held my forearm in a steel grip were very, very blue. Trying not to think about either fact, I flicked a finger for audio-only, and all but snarled at the thing.
"Scales. I'm going to fucking strangle you with your own intestines."
"Awww, the poor little ape is hungover." Trena all but cooed in the same voice she normally reserved for Ethy. "Who's a tired asshole this morning?"
I forced my first vicious reply down and settled for glaring at the tiny computer as if she could see it. "Fucking grow up and tell me what you want."
There was a low snort. "You see where Sederis ended up last night? She didn't come back from her binge run."
I waited for her to continue, but when she didn't I let out a low growl. "And I care why? She can take care of her bloody self."
"Because you and I were at the same fucking restaurant she was at, and I figured you might have seen whoever the fuck it was she decided to fuck."
"You were fucking there too. Behind the bar even." I muttered darkly. "Why didn't you?"
There was a brief pause. "I was distracted."
It took me a few moments of thoughts before I let out an annoyed groan. "Ghai was behind the bar too, wasn't she?"
Trena elected to ignore the question entirely. "Sederis was annoying you about something ape, you sure you didn't see where she went?"
"No." I retorted shortly. "Now I'm going back to sleep."
"Ape, don't you fucking-" My finger stabbed the button, and blissful silence fell. At least until the stupid thing started to ring again. This time I brought up the full menu, winced at the brightness of the holographic display, and stabbed the ignore-all command.
Letting the omni-tool flick off again, I let the person in bed with me maneuver my arm around, lowering it to the bed before her head dropped onto my shoulder.
"That was the single most hideous ringtone I've ever heard." Jona Sederis muttered flatly, her breath warm on my skin.
I grunted, absently noting that neither of us was dressed.
Again.
And I could barely remember much of fucking anything.
Again.
...shit but my life sucked sometimes. "Annoying, isn't it?"
"Yes." The Warlord sounded as if she was contemplating how much pain she should put me in for waking her up in such a fashion. "For what reason did you not disable that device last night?"
"I wasn't expecting to be accosted in the middle of the night." I pointed out. "And you didn't exactly give me a chance to do so after you arrived."
"I didn't?" The irritation bled into understandable, and very relieving, confusion. At least I wasn't the only one who couldn't remember much of the night before.
My lungs let out a long exhale. "You don't remember?"
"Obviously." And as quickly as it had gone, it was back. A finger slid slowly up my stomach and onto my chest. In any other situation it might have been sensual, but I didn't need to look down to know that flickers of light would be trailing the motion before she tapped my sternum once.
I briefly considered asking if it was really so hard for to ask politely, before another throb of pain in my skull reminded me that I needed water. And preferably to survive the next couple of minutes. "My memory is a bit hazy. I know Voya and I left the bar around midnight. Pretty sure I dropped her off at the Blades' compound then came home. I've got a vivid image of you showing up when I was unlocking the door, then..."
"I assaulted you?" She suggested through an alcohol scented yawn.
I grunted quietly, shifting the arm she was all but laying on so that it ran down her back. My hand began absently trailing its fingertips across her side, feeling the odd texture of Asari skin. "You tackled me through the doorway. I threw you off and had time to close it before you grabbed me again. After that... whole lot of nothing."
The finger rose, then fell against the bone in the center of my chest again. "Are you quite sure about that?"
"Unfortunately." I yawned the word out.
There was a pause in her threatening taps as my yawn caused one of her own. "In what way?"
The shoulder beneath her head rolled in a shrug. "If you're actually going to kill me this time, I'd rather remember the reason."
Sederis went still, then something like a breathy laugh made her... everything move against my side. It lasted a few moments before there was a long, low groan as her head fell back to my shoulder. "Athame's ass. Bloody mixed drinks."
I grunted something in support of that statement as a low throb ran through my own skull. "Trena again."
"Gears." The nickname was a dark mutter. "Why didn't I kill her after the last time?"
"You consider her your third daughter?" I offered, shifting my head a bit to get more comfortable. The hand on her waist shifted as well, pulling her warmth a bit closer. "Though the goddess alone knows why."
The finger on my chest tapped my sternum once. "Human, why are you holding me?"
I considered my words for a few moments before electing to go with the truth. "I enjoy doing so?"
Another threatening tap followed. "Cease."
"Will you kill me if I don't?" I asked, though I was reasonably sure that I knew the answer. The dark flickers of biotic light beginning to surround her forearm more or less making her opinion clear.
"Guess." She murmured, her voice low and dangerous.
Sighing, I relaxed my limb to let her go before allowing my eyes drift closed. My tired brain was trying to analyze the cost-benefit ratio of staying right where I was in comparison to actually getting up and finding water and medication when Sederis made the decision for me. Shifting slightly so that she was no longer resting half-on me, she rapped her entire first against my chest.
"Human, get up. Water and food." There was a short pause. "And where is your shower?"
"That door." I waved my right arm in its direction.
She grunted, but didn't move. Probably because I had yet to either. After maybe a minute of waiting she let out an annoyed growl. "Are you getting up or not?"
"I'm in the process of standing as we speak." I replied easily, not bothering to so much as open my eyes.
There was a brief, somehow incredulous pause. "Which part of this process involves not so much as moving, human?"
"The contemplative part."
"Which part are you contemplating? How long it will take me to kill you, or how much pain you'll be in during that timeframe?"
I contemplated that pair of questions for a few breaths, then sighed and half-heaved myself into a sitting position. It wasn't exactly pleasant; my body felt the need to inform me of everywhere that it hurt. The hangover itself wasn't too bad, the headache severe but not the worst I'd suffered through, and the room was at least darkened enough that it wasn't bothering me.
And for once my stomach wasn't a churning mess either.
Instead the main issue was practically everything else. My back felt like it had two massive knots in it, and my arms were little more than sore rags. Just to add a bit more misery, my neck was stiff enough that it felt like she'd tried to break it at one point during the night. Which was entirely possible. Athame's ass, it was more probable than possible really.
Turning away from her with a wince, I glanced at the floor before reaching down and grabbing the pants I'd worn last night. At least I'd had the sense to bring them back in the bedroom with me, even with everything else that had probably been going on.
Pulling them on, I managed to stand without tipping over, or groaning overmuch. Taking that as a victory, I turned and glanced to where Sederis was still very much burrowed under the blankets, with just her head sticking out as she openly eyed me.
"How much damage?" I asked with a sigh.
Blue lips curled into a smirk so wicked that not even a Vorcha could have pulled it off. "Enough."
Letting out a tired exhale, I could only shake my head and shuffle out of the bedroom. Padding barefoot down the short hallway, I bypassed the guest room that was now my personal workshop before emerging into the far too brightly lit living area. Muttering a curse, I waved my omni-tool to get the windows to polarize enough that the sunlight became little more than a dim glow.
When I managed to get my eyes open again, I tried not to wince. My living room wasn't quite demolished but it wasn't in good shape either. The short table had been shoved into a corner, and half of the couch's pillows had been thrown onto the ground. The second-hand reclining chair was on its side, and was mostly covered in Sederis's clothes from the day before... clothes that looked like they'd been soaked in the rum from the bottle that was resting on the floor, thankfully unbroken, but obviously empty.
Groaning, I let my feet carry me over to the kitchen, deciding that the odds of my surviving telling Sederis that her clothes were ruined would greatly increase if I had food and drink for her. And probably medication, I thought I still had some from the last time Trena had been hiding her hangover from Ghai here.
Finding the tiny bottle of pills didn't take long, and I set it aside along with a tall glass of water. I'd already downed a cold glass of the liquid, and was working slowly through a second as I assembled a Batarian style breakfast, when I heard footsteps. Pausing in the process of pulling slices of bread out of the small heating unit, I glanced up with a frown as Sederis emerged from the hallway.
She wasn't wearing anything, something that I couldn't help but notice that she was very, very good at. Of course her darkening expression at the sight of her expensive Eclipse dress uniform soaked in alcohol was more than enough to kill any lustful thoughts I might have had. That furious look shifted to me, and I wordlessly held up the painkillers and the water.
The Warlord narrowed her eyes, but grunted and padded into the kitchen. Taking them both, I left her to it while I finished assembling the cold cuts and bread.
Handing her the plate once it was ready, I focused on eating small amounts of my own breakfast and downing more water. For her part, Sederis accepted the meal with a slight glance before heading over to sit at my kitchen table. A deft twist ripped the bottle of drugs open, and she wasted little time in downing several before moving onto her food.
I half watched her eat with a mildly bemused air. Not that I hadn't seen her eat something before, though the fact that she was naked did let it a novel air. It was more... it was sometimes hard to remember that Jona Sederis was a person who needed to do things like eat and shower. Typically when I thought about her, which I preferred to avoid doing, it was in the context of her position, her power.
More of a thing than a sapient being… almost like a weapon of mass destruction that just happened to walk around and talk really.
"Human." Sederis growled around a mouthful of food. "You are staring at me like I'm an exotic beast in a zoo."
I snorted quietly. "No, I'm staring at you like I have no idea what to do at this point."
"In order to remain alive, you mean."
"Well," I shrugged a shoulder, eating a small piece of bread to buy myself time to think. "Partly. I think it's more the fact that we had sex last night, and are now eating breakfast together, and that kind of situation usually calls for conversation."
She gave me a flat stare as she sipped from her glass, "Do I look like the kind of person who requires conversation?"
"Fair point." I allowed, resuming my eating. And my attempts to not notice things about the Asari's body. That was made more difficult than it otherwise would have been because I was constantly reminded that, even though I'd slept with her twice now, I didn't have any memories of doing so. And part of me, the suicidal part that didn't care about things like the fucking warlord glaring at me, liked to wonder about things. Like what she'd look like beneath me as her eyes rolled to black.
Letting out a heavy exhale, I reached up and pinched the bridge of my nose as I closed my eyes and tried to banish those thoughts.
"Human." The word was little more than a dangerous rumble from her throat. "What are you thinking about?"
"Nothing." I said firmly, trying very much to self-bleach my brain. "Noth-"
With my eyes closed, I had absolutely no warning before the biotic strike hurled me upwards and backwards to slam me into my cabinets. Hitting the wood hurt like a fucking bitch.
Dropping the five feet to floor hurt even more.
Groaning in pain, I curled into a ball and tried not to whimper pathetically as my kitchen swam in and out of focus around me. Things got a little clearer when a tiny kick to one shoulder shoved me onto my back, and a pale blue foot settled onto my throat as Sederis glared down at me.
"Do not lie to me, Cieran Kean." Her voice was as warm as frozen nitrogen, and there was no amusment in her eyes. "Ever."
I managed to croak something affirmative sounding out around the limb choking me to death. Lips pressed together as she regarded me with something like her customary amused disdain, and then she spun around and strode out of my kitchen, leaving me to try and recover my wits.
So yeah, a very long delay on this story, mostly because writing Sederis is actually incredibly difficult for me when she's in this kind of situation.
Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."
Thanks, Kat
