Storm found Lucy early the next morning in the Tower Hangars, talking to Amanda and preparing her ship.
"Morning." he said pleasantly. She looked at him and offered a half smile. "Mind if I put my stuff on board?"
"Sure." She responded. "There's a bunk on the right that you can have, and storage is underneath. The journey will take a few hours, so get comfortable." With that, she shut the door and made her way to her own bunk.
"Dinkle, set path for Venus." she murmured to her Ghost as she made herself comfortable with a book.
"Dinkle? You called your Ghost... Dinkle..." The Titan said quietly from his bunk, an almost mocking tone in his voice.
"Do you have a problem with that? Lucy dropped her book into her lap and glared at him.
"No, not at all." A smirk tugged at the corners of his mouth. She was cute when she was mad. Oh, the fun he was going to have.
The hours passed, and the Titan lay on his side, staring absentmindedly at the Hunter, deep in thought. Though he had a tough exterior, he was a kind hearted soul that loved to help others. There was something intriguing about this Hunter. Her brown hair hung haphazardly around her face, her piercing blue eyes deep inside her book. Her face was small and round, almost delicate, but she had a ruggedness about her that he couldn't help but admire. When he thought about it, it was quite odd to see Guardians in plain clothes. She wore a plain grey crew cut tshirt paired with black skinny jeans that highlighted her shapely figure. For a human so small, she clearly carried a lot of emotional baggage, and the only way for her to deal with it was to shut everyone and everything out. If only there was a way to break through that barrier, he pondered.
His thoughts were shattered as the ship screeched to a halt, and the Hunter quietly leapt to her feet. She opened the back end of the ship, exposing an almost wardrobe-like room. She caught him staring.
"What? I'm not going to sit in my armour for hours." She muttered as she shut the door behind her. Moments later, she emerged, hopping around on one foot, struggling to get her boot on the other. She steadied herself on the side of her bunk and finished lacing it, before grabbing her guns and opening the door.
"Here goes nothing, I guess."
The duo approached the Citadel quietly, picking off a stray Vex or two on the way. There were a bunch of Taken collected at the entrance they needed to get through. The Titan was ready to charge, but Lucy extended her arm in front of him.
"Here." she threw something at the ground, and they both turned invisible.
The Titan shook his head, and the two walked quietly past.
Having made their way up through the gravity lift with no problems, the duo came upon a jumping puzzle.
"Damn Vex. I hate these stupid things." She muttered, slinging her pulse rifle onto her back.
The Titan made the jumps easily, and waited for her on the other side. She leapt from rock to rock, taking her time. Her foot slipped on the final jump, and she almost lost her footing. Instinctively, the Titan grabbed at her, catching her by the arm and pulling her to her feet.
"I had it under control." She muttered, dusting herself off, thankful that her helmet hid her flaming red cheeks. "Should have brought my other boots."
"You know what they say about Hunters..." Lucy could hear the cheeky grin on her comrade's face.
"Yeah, we have knives." She responded, half jokingly. "Let's go."
The two crawled along the edges,until they reached a higher platform.
"Give me a boost." The Hunter whispered, leaning against the wall beside the Titan.
"What?"
"Boost me!" an annoyed tone crept up in her voice. "If I start jumping around, how long do you think we're going to stay undetected?"
The Titan grunted in response, and crouched down. She set her foot on his shoulder and hoisted herself up. She then leaned over the side, offering her hand to him.
"Don't worry. I got it." He murmured and climbed up without an issue.
"Forgot you were a freaking giant."
"I'm not, you're just a..." his sentence was cut off by an elbow to the ribs.
"Shut up. Echo at 12 o'clock." she whispered and dropped to her belly. After a few seconds she rolled over and looked at him.
"Where is your sniper rifle?"
"I didn't bring one, I brought my shotgun instead."
"You brought a shotgun to a recon mission?" this time she sounded completely exasperated. She sighed and looked down her sights again.
"Dinkle, did you manage to get the data we need?"
"Yes, Lucy. Feeding it back to the Tower as we speak."
"Thank you. Let's get out of here before one of these damn things smells us."
They jumped down off the platform, and began to make their way back. Just as they rounded the final corner, they bumped head first into a Taken Phalanx.
The enemy immediately began to charge his shield, and Lucy froze. She had been caught off guard, and now suddenly her mind had gone blank...
Reality faded in that split second and all she could see was her fireteam. The ambush. The yelling, the screaming, the swarms of enemies all around... She couldn't help them...
"Lucy!" The Titan yelled, but his voice sounded distant.
The next thing she knew, she was being slammed to the ground, but not by the Phalanx.
No, it was Storm, who had tackled her out of the way of the shield blast. The weight of him near crushed her, but damn, was she thankful. She caught his gaze through his helmet, and saw the fear in his eyes.
The Titan leapt to his feet and grabbed onto her hand, yanking her up.
"Run." he kept a tight grip on her hand, and the two sprinted between enemies into a tiny building nearby. They took refuge inside behind a large wall.
Lucy leaned back and slid down the wall, burying her head in her hands, propping herself up with her elbows on her knees.
"What the hell was that?" The Titan growled, yanking his helmet off and glaring at her.
"I... I'm sorry..." she stammered, hot, stinging tears pricking at her eyes. She shook her head violently, trying to ward them off. She was still gasping for breath, and her helmet was suffocating her. She tried to take it off, but her hands were shaking so badly that she couldn't loosen the clasp.
The Titan softened. "Here." he sat in front of her and lifted her chin up. Once he'd unfastened it, he carefully pulled it off her head.
She sucked the fresh air into her lungs greedily.
"Deep breaths." he set her helmet down beside her. "We're totally fine." After a few long moments, she had composed herself. He was still sitting in front of her, hand rested on hers, watching her intently. She looked at him with woeful eyes.
"I'm sorry. I don't know what happened."
"Don't worry about it. We're okay, we just need to get out of here and get home." He reached up and pushed a stray lock of hair from her face.
She flinched a little, not expecting his sudden affection, and he looked immediately apologetic. He awkwardly passed her helmet back to her.
"There's a bunch of enemies camped at this door." Lucy commented, peeking around the corner. "Got a grenade?"
The Titan nodded.
"On my count. 3...2...1..."
A vortex and fusion grenade flew from the doorway, wiping out the three Phalanx blocking their path. They made a bolt for the door, and as they ran through a taken Hobgoblin appeared. Startled, Lucy shadestepped clear, but the Titan was left defenseless.
Without hesitation, the Titan whipped out his shotgun and blasted the Hobgoblin into nonexistence. He turned to look at her.
"Told you it'd come in useful." she heard that telltale smile in his voice again, and couldn't help but smile herself.