Kalara nearly snickered. This was perfect. The audio feed from the console was a direct linkup so only he could hear it. Kalara checked the time again, and thought to herself 'Three more minutes.'
She had volunteered to stay late just to spring this particular prank on him. The minutes crawled by, and Kalara was pretending to be going over the information on her own console, but was really watching his.
There was no warning. Suddenly Cayde's screen went from a bright white background with rows and rows of writing to a spooky near-black background with a positively demonic face that leapt at the screen with a guttural roar.
"WRAAAH!"
"Nyaaah!" Cayde let out a startled cry and leapt back from the console. Kalara had to cover her mouth to muffle her laughter.
"what the Hell!?"
She leaned on the table. She couldn't hold it in.
"Hm-hm-hm-hm." she had to cough to cover it, shoulders shaking, grinning from ear to ear. When the Exo looked back at his console, the video had dissapeared, and the sceen displayed the same writing as before.
Ikora looked over worriedly. "Something wrong, Cayde?"
"Uhh.." He gingerly reached out and tapped it. Nothing. "Nope, I'm fine. Heh. Just a little glitch." He thought twice. "On the console." He gave Kalara a look, who was still grinning like a Chesire cat.
He shook his head at her. After a minute the Hunter leaned over and whispered "You think your pranks are funny, don't you?"
Kalara flicked a glance at him. "Mm-hmm." she typed a little more "And you just keep falling for 'em." That made him pause. She wasn't the first Hunter who had a thing for pranks. Or so he suspected. Her next words confirmed it. "And I just love a good prank."
"be careful what you wish for."
Kalara actually stopped typing and looked straight at him. was that a challenge? After a moment, she went back to typing. there were a thousand things she could say to that, but she just hoped if Cayde did decide to get her back it would be something harmless.
Finally, she asked "Is that a challenge?"
His smirk answered for him. "You wouldn't be the first person to try to play a prank on me, you know."
More typing, then "Other rookies?"
and a long silence. It stretched on and Kalara suddenly realised it *wasn't* a rookie who had. "No way, really?"
Another long silence, then Kalara lowered her voice and hesitantly whispered "Andal?"
Her guess had been right. Cayde all but froze. Memories that had been pushed away came flooding back. Memories of a friend, a mentor. Not pushed away for what they were, but for how those memories had ended. But, better to remember the good than the bad, right?
The Exo flicked a glance at her. Should he tell her? He figured she could keep a secret. She *had* found his journal and kept that a secret. Well, it was in the speaker's library. So she technically "borrowed" it. Permanently.
Kalara waited, wondering if she had gone too far. She thought 'I shouldn't have pried like that.' and was about to apologise when the Hunter looked back over at her, a smile forming. Then he nodded and started to tell the story.
"He used to stand here, right on this spot, he'd come up with these wild stories. He'd say "You know, Cayde, I've been examining the evidence, and personally I've come to think it's you. You're Rasputin, legendary Warmind, defender of Earth. And I wish you'd remember that so you could reclaim your full power and save us all."
kalara's jaw dropped open. In the background, Ikora chuckled quietly. Zavala rolled his eyes.
"You can see how that'd be embarassing, especially when he'd say it right in front of Zavala, who allready thought I was wasting my time scrounging for engrams. You know how he gets."
the two ignored a glance from said Awoken.
Kalara chuckled. "wow. I mean WOW. That had to be super-embarassing."
"Yeah." Cayde continued. "So then I'd just say "Well, Andal, might be onto something there, but if I'm honest with you I think coordinating our defense throughout the solar system sounds exhausting, so I'd best leave it to you."
Kalara laughed. "Wow. He *really* got you." she shook her head.
Another smile, then "Yeah. So if you want pranks, you'd better be prepared for what you're stepping into." She could allready see that glint of mischief creeping into his gaze.
She thought for a second, then took a more confident stance. "Okay, but if we're gonna do this, I want some ground rules. One, nothing dangerous. Two, nothing humiliating or crude, and no damaging of anyone's property. Deal?"
Ikora inserted "What are you two up to now?"
both heads swiveled and Kalara beat him to it "Nothing." she got a skeptical look and Cayde put in "nothing, really." The look didn't waver, but the Warlock returned her focus to her book.
Cayde gave the impression of a grin before offering a hand. "Deal."
Kalara shook it, grinning. "watch your back."
"Oh, I will you're the one who should be worried."
"Hah. dream on."
And Kalara saved her files, closed her monitor, and walked out for the night.