A/N: Hey guys, happy Mercenary Day. I hope Marcus left everyone what they wanted this year. Anyway, I just wanted to take a second to thank everyone who left feedback or favourited/followed so far. I appreciate it.

The following chapter is kind of long compared to the other two but rest assured I'm not just going to keep making each chapter longer than the last until the final one is bigger than the first three combined or anything like that. Chapter four will be comparatively shorter. Also, things might be moving a little slowly right now but believe me when I say they are about to pop off in a big way.

Now, let's see what these two losers are up to.

"Well, this is me!" Janey said cheerfully as she all but dragged Athena by the hand to her door.

Concordia was far vaster than the gladiator had assumed on her previous visits. She had walked the streets and even the rooftops of the old Dahl spaceport city but she hadn't realised how far it stretched downward into the moon's surface before now. The lower levels were mostly storage areas and old living quarters for Dahl soldiers before the corporation had packed up and left, now converted into basic apartments for those who had moved in since then. It had probably all looked very uniform back in the day but now the underground halls were covered in graffiti as well as various wanted posters and advertisements. The door to Janey's home was easy to spot. Her name was scrawled across it in brightly coloured paint accompanied by several stick figures and the phrase "PICKLE WOZ ERE!" written with a different colour for each letter like a loud, cockney rainbow. Somewhat more interesting than a nameplate Athena thought.

The blonde woman let go of Athena's hand to open the door, her fingers slipping away from the gladiator's grasp and leaving her surprised by how much she immediately missed Janey's touch. She pulled the glove she had removed back onto her hand and tried her best to compose herself.

It frustrated her. She was a warrior, not some blushing schoolgirl. This kind of behaviour was unacceptable. Athena may not have turned out quite the way Atlas had wanted but the doctrine they had spent decades hammering into her head was still there in the back of her mind. She had broken free of them without losing her life in the process but she carried those decades spent as an Atlas assassin wherever she went like an angry superior officer barking in her ear, always there to quickly and sternly remind her she had no business inviting any amount of softness into her life. It wasn't the Atlas way.

Sometimes Athena had to wonder just how "free" she really was.

Her previous employers had always claimed the long list of horrific things they had subjected the assassins to since abducting them as children had eliminated all traces of weakness from them. Any capability to feel love, affection or anything else they thought might distract them from the kill had been forcibly and thoroughly removed. They told her they had killed something inside of her. A useless, troublesome thing they assured her she was better off without and, in over twenty years of doing their dirty work for them, Athena had encountered no reason to doubt that. The Atlas logic was that finding a little girl and forcing her to kill her own parents before dragging her away into a life of unrelenting hardship would empty her out. Leave her hollow enough for them to replace whatever she used to be with what they needed her to be. The instructors had never liked anything more than a blank canvas to work with.

Well, that was the idea at least. If the incident with Athena's sister that led to her turning on Atlas had taught the gladiator anything it was that the process apparently hadn't quite worked as well as it should have on her. She was supposed to be completely barren of all emotions except the bloodlust and desire for victory expected of an Atlas operative, but the first time Janey had expressed an interest in her that part of herself she thought long dead had begun to stir again. It was the smallest sign of life. Barely there, but it was more than enough to catch Athena completely off her guard and make her heart beat faster. She had tried to ignore it at the time. Her mission on Elpis was too important to have the grinning, blonde scrap dealer popping up in her head every few minutes but she quickly found it wasn't quite as simple as that.

Normally when someone showed an attraction to Athena it was a simple matter. She told them she wasn't interested, perhaps broke something if they refused to get the message, and that was the end of it but, as Janey continued to pursue her Athena had found herself unwilling to offer any kind of discouragement. In fact, she had felt inexplicably drawn to the blonde taking any excuse she could to visit her whenever Athena's team of vault hunters passed through Concordia, usually under the guise of needing to use the grinder machine or asking a question she didn't really need the answer to. One particularly embarrassing moment was when she went to see Janey at her store in one of her spare moments but, when the girl had asked her if she needed something, Athena had panicked and ended up throwing three of her best guns into the grinder rather than simply tell Janey she wanted to see her.

Whatever kind of spark Janey's advances had caused in Athena it was all uncharted territory for the gladiator but, however worrying it was, however much that voice in her head told her she wasn't and never would be built for this, she felt a strange compulsion to see where it might go.

Apparently the first step in doing that was making a fool of herself. When Athena had taken the hand Janey had offered her back in the bar she had been unprepared for how pleasant it felt. All she had been able to think about when Janey let go was how the taller girl's hand might feel in hers without the glove and the curiosity had gotten the better of her. She hadn't even thought to come up with a believable reason why she reached out and took the scrap dealers hand again. Athena winced as a powerful cringe ran through her body at the fresh memory. So drunk she couldn't walk straight after one bottle of Rakk Ale? She really couldn't think of anything better than that?

"Um…Athena?"

The gladiator immediately snapped out of her introspective daydream at the sound of Janey's voice. It seemed she had finally gotten the door open but was positioned halfway inside it with a somewhat sheepish look on her face.

"Could you wait here for just a sec? I uh…I just remembered I need to clean up a little! I wasn't really expecting guests. Just…just wait here for literally ten seconds, I'll be right back."

The blonde hurriedly retreated inside the door closing it behind her but barely a second passed before it opened again and Janey's head popped out.

"Don't go anywhere, okay?"

The door closed again leaving Athena alone in the hallway. Out of habit she glanced left and right in search of suspicious movement but her attention was quickly drawn back to Janey's colourful door by the sounds of frantic scrambling inside.

The posters. How could she have forgotten about the bloody Moxxi posters?

Janey sprinted around her apartment like a tork gone mad, rapidly tearing any picture of the busty bar owner she could find off her walls. She had pulled together quite the collection over the course of her brief crush on the older woman so it took a bit longer than she thought to completely strip her home of Moxxi's visage. Again, it surprised Janey just how immediately she was able to completely cast her fondness for Moxxi aside the second Athena appeared in her life. It might have made her feel kind of fickle but even she knew Moxxi had never seen her as anything other than a pain and a nuisance. The closest thing Janey had to a sensible, realistic part of her mind had always told her nothing would ever happen with the painted businesswoman but she had an inherent charm about her she couldn't turn off even if she tried. Also, boobs.

Regardless, the unrequited attraction she had had for Moxxi already paled in comparison to her growing feelings for the armoured woman outside her door.

She quickly finished removing every poster from her home before stuffing the crumpled pile of tattooed breasts and puckered lips into the back of her wardrobe and taking one last look around to make sure she got everything then rushing back to the door. Having half-expected Athena to have gotten bored and left she was pleased to see she was still standing where she had left her albeit looking slightly confused.

"Everything okay in there?" the gladiator asked tilting her head slightly to try and see past Janey.

"Yeah! Of course!" Janey replied a little more enthusiastically than she had meant to. "Just ah...I didn't want you seeing my gross underwear all over the place is all."

She laughed. Mostly as a way to defuse the situation's awkwardness but also out of disbelief that that was seriously the first excuse she could think of. She found it funny that she would rather Athena think her a slob who tossed her unmentionables just wherever than know she had a thing for the woman she had apparently been feuding with lately. The last thing she wanted after managing to get Athena to agree to spend the night was for her to feel uncomfortable.

"Wouldn't want to scare you away or anything". Janey hadn't planned for the sentence to come out quite as sultry and flirtatious as it did but there it was. Athena seemed somewhat taken aback for a moment before she shook her head and grinned. The junk dealer liked to think she saw a slight seductive glint in the gladiator's eye but wishful thinking had always been Janey's thing.

"A month ago I was sleeping in an abandoned skag den." Athena said, shrugging. "Whatever laundry situation you have in there, I'm certain we can deal with it."

"What's a skag? Some kind of terrible, Pandoran beastie?" Janey asked. She had always been kind of intrigued by Pandora but all she ever seemed to hear about it was how many horrible ways to die there were down there.

"You…could say that?" Athena replied with uncertainty "More of a pest really. Pandora has far more dangerous creatures."

"Well, fortunately my apartment does not. Come on in." the blonde junk seller said gesturing into her home.

Athena hesitated for a second before somewhat awkwardly moving forward past Janey into the apartment.

"…thank you." The gladiator murmured as she moved past.

Janey couldn't help but grin widely. "Weapons at the door, please!" she added before closing the door behind them.

One sizable pile of weapons by the door later the two had moved into the apartment's front room. Athena glanced around taking in her surroundings. For something apparently converted from an old soldier's quarters, and a Dahl soldier at that, the black marketeer had managed to make it very homely. In the centre of the room were a sofa and two chairs, none of them belonging to the same set. A few other mismatched pieces of furniture stood against the walls, probably gradually collected spoils from Janey's scavenging career. Decorations hung from the walls, a carved wooden mask, old Mercenary Day lights and an idyllic painting of blue skies and green grass. A planet far from here.

Janey spun around in the centre of the room and spread out her arms. "So, this is where I sleep when I'm not passing out at my desk! What do you think?"

"It's nice." Athena replied. "I didn't think old Dahl quarters would be so…roomy."

"I know, right? It turns out running a business that provides most of the bits and pieces that keep the city running ended up nabbing me an old officer's place. There's a few of them down here. I think maybe this was a general's place or something before Dahl took off. It's got a kitchen and a bathroom and everything! Oh, speaking of which…"

Janey raised her finger and pointed it a door to Athena's left.

"…bathroom is through there. If you want to go check out the shower I'll get started on some dinner. Sound good?"

Athena glanced at the bathroom door. Everything about Athena's demeanour radiated awkwardness. The woman looked about as far out of her comfort zone as one could be but, if that comfort zone was out in the wastes searching for scraps to eat and an oxygenated shed to sleep in while scavs shot at her then Janey was all too happy to offer the gladiator an alternative. Athena looked back to Janey and gave her a small, tired smile.

"I…yeah. Okay. That…does sound good."

She turned and began to move towards the bathroom door when Janey remembered something.

"Oh! Hang on a second!"

She ran over to a nearby set of drawers and pulled out a few folded, grey bits of clothing before walking back over and thrusting them into Athena's hands.

"Let me take your clothes first!"

Athena's eyes went very round and her lips parted as if about to say something but were interrupted by the sound of Janey facepalming, her hand slapping loudly against her forehead and then just resting there as she frowned beneath it.

"Obviously…" She said with no small amount of embarrassment, pinching the bridge of her nose as her eyes clenched shut "…what I meant by that was I'll put them in the wash while you're in there and you can wear those until they're done."

Again, Athena opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted.

"Anyway! You go ahead, take as long as you need. Just leave your armour and stuff outside the door and I'll get it cleaned up for tomorrow. I'm gonna go get some food ready. I'll be through here in the kitchen if you need me. Okay? Okay."

Janey quickly hurried off through the doorway behind her and around a corner before Athena could respond. Probably just as well. Coherent sentences seemed to abandon the gladiator whenever Janey was involved, replaced by more of the um'ing and ah'ing she seemed to be becoming fluent at since meeting the blonde. She looked to the small pile of clothes in her hands and pondered when the last time she had been given anything to wear that wasn't Atlas-approved was. "Never" was probably the answer there, or at least far too long ago for her to recall.

This evening had already been abundant with things the gladiator had never experienced before but, for some reason, this one was hitting her harder than most. She closed her eyes and gripped the clothes tighter, just taking a second to silently appreciate the gesture and commit the moment to memory. If nothing else came of this, if Athena left tomorrow morning and never saw Janey again, she wanted to at least remember this. The unfamiliar, somewhat overwhelming feeling of someone actually caring about her.

Idiot.

Foolish child.

Weakling.

The barking voice of her old Atlas instructor in her head let her know in no uncertain terms how it felt about the sentiment. It urged her to throw the soft clothes in her hands down and stride proudly back out into the world of blood and battle in which she belonged. She glanced at the door that led back out in the Concordia hallway behind her. She could be out of that door and probably out of Concordia altogether before Janey came back. The thought was there. It would likely be better for everyone if she left.

And yet there she was, still standing in the middle of Janey's front room holding the girl's pyjamas in her hands.

She shoved the temptation from her mind before turning and walking through the bathroom door, closing it behind her.

It felt like forever since she had shed her armour. It was pretty much a second skin by this point but it had seen far better days. Her old assassin suit had fallen into disrepair without Atlas resources to maintain it. Athena had tried her best to keep it from falling apart entirely but what she could do was limited and what was left looked ragged at best. She removed her one remaining pauldron and her dented chestplate followed by her gauntlet and then her boots. With all of the metal parts of her suit removed she took off her hood and scarf, her gloves and then the swiftsuit she wore under her armour leaving her standing in the middle of the bathroom in her plain, military underwear. She glanced sideways at the mirror on the wall. Her extensive collection of scars had grown since she had taken up mercenary work, the most recent being an angry red gash in her right shoulder she had obtained from her team's fight with the guardian of Eleseer. She had already treated it with an insta-health but it would likely still leave behind a nasty mark once fully healed. Her body was toned but thinner than was probably healthy. Meals often didn't come easy in her line of work. When she got a job she would eat. If not? Well, that was why she had ended up taking Jack's offer to begin with.

She slipped out of her underwear and added them to the mound of armour and carefully folded clothing she had assembled before sliding it out of the bathroom door as her bubbly, blonde host had instructed. Athena couldn't shake the feeling of vulnerability being without both her armour and weapons but Janey was right, her suit had been in need of cleaning for a while now but being a wandering mercenary meant opportunities to attend to her laundry were exceedingly rare. She stepped into the shower and hit the activation switch releasing a sigh as she felt her muscles instantly begin to relax under the torrent of hot water. She ran her fingers through her hair attempting wash the lunar dust out of it before wrapping her arms around herself and rubbing her shoulders just trying to relieve some of the tension she was feeling.

Athena liked to think she was a practical woman. She had never been one to waste time with denial. She liked Janey Springs. She liked her in a confusing way she was utterly unfamiliar with. Admitting that to herself in private was easy but she knew admitting it to the grinning blonde bundle of cute outside would be a great many times more difficult. She didn't even know where to start with something like this. Most people learned how to deal with it at some point in their early life but Athena hadn't had that luxury.

She leaned forward against the shower wall letting her wet hair fall over her face and the water flow down her back while she desperately attempted to pull herself together. She needed to stay in control. Control over her own life was all she had left. No home, no family, no money but her mind was her own. That was what she told herself on the nights she slept in the cold dirt with an empty stomach but right now all of that mental discipline of hers barely counted for anything.

Hiding in the shower until she figured out what to do was tempting but, not only did she realise Janey's hot water was probably finite, but it would be cowardly. Athena knew she was a lot of things but never a coward. She hadn't become the Crimson Lance's top operative by hiding from her enemies but this time there was no enemy. Athena had been raised to deal with problems by stabbing them. Her life rarely presented her with situations in which that solution wasn't an option. Combat was easy. Simple. This was something she just wasn't equipped to deal with.

She looked into the palm of her hand remembering the feeling of Janey's fingers against hers and suddenly, inexplicably, every bit of the frustration building up inside her simply fell away. Her muscles relaxed and her mind calmed.

She wasn't prepared for this, but she had never run from anything in her life and she wasn't about to start now.

When Athena was finished she stepped out of the shower and used a towel to dry herself. Once she had dried her hair she pulled the towel away from her head and looked in the mirror. The vigorous towel-drying she had given it had caused her short, black hair to wildly stick out in practically every direction. She had never really cared much about her appearance or how other people perceived her but now she felt oddly self-conscious.

She picked one of the garments off the small pile Janey had given her and unfolded it holding it out in front of her. She grimaced slightly as she instantly noticed a small problem with them she felt like she should have spotted sooner.

"Well, that's…unfortunate."

She glanced at herself in the mirror once more before shrugging and pulling the top over her head.

"Let me take your clothes."

"That's great. Good job, Springs."

Janey pulled the switch on her washing machine and stepped back as it buzzed into life. She had placed the metal parts of Athena's suit in a separate machine she used to clean the filth off of the pieces of junk she brought back with her whenever she ventured out into the wastes. Satisfied the job was done she walked back into the kitchen to check on dinner. She was just piling the grilled rathyd she had prepared onto a plate and seasoning it when she heard the door to the bathroom open.

"You find the shower okay?" She called into the front room while she was grabbing a couple of beers from the fridge. "Sometimes it just needs a good kick to get it going".

"It was fine." was the simple answer she received from through the doorway.

"Bonzer! Make yourself at home in there. I'll be through with your grand banquet in just a sec."

Janey opened the two beers and put them along with the plate onto a metal tray. She briefly considered digging around to see if she had a romantic candle anywhere but decided against it. Picking up the tray she began to walk through into the front room but stopped dead in the doorway, not prepared for the sight that awaited her.

Athena was about 5'2. Not the tallest lady. Janey on the other hand was a full six feet and never before had the height gap between the two women been more obvious than right now.

The sleeves and legs of the pyjamas Janey had loaned Athena were far too long for the gladiator's comparatively short limbs with the tips of her toes and fingers barely poking out of the ends. Athena had also tied her hair back into a tiny ponytail that worked way too well for her.

Janey knew keeping her attraction to the gladiator in check would be difficult from the moment she had invited her home but this was something else entirely.

"Ahah…s-sorry, I toootally didn't think about our size difference there. My bad. Wow, those little heels on your boots really do wonders don't they."

Shut up. Shut up. Stop calling her short. Shut up.

Fortunately Athena's attention had been far too fixed on the tray Janey was carrying since she entered the room to really acknowledge her comment. The blonde had no idea how long it had been since the gladiator had last eaten but the look in her eyes was similar to that of a puppy trying to deal with someone dangling a steak in front of its face. Janey quickly took the opportunity for a change of subject.

"Anyway, I made these! Nothing fancy but this stuff and old Dahl ration packs are basically what I live off these days."

She set the tray down on the overturned crate that served as her coffee table and grabbed one of the beers seating herself on a chair opposite Athena. She picked up a piece of rathyd and was about to bite into when she noticed Athena was just sitting there staring at the plate. Janey thought back to that moment in the bar when she had wondered how little kindness Athena must have received in her life to look so shocked at Janey's offer of shelter for the night. If that was really the case she could kind of understand the trouble the gladiator might be having right now. If Janey had to do a little work to help her along then she was fine with that.

"Athena?"

The gladiator's eyes immediately snapped up from the mound of food to look at her. Janey reached over and offered the piece in her hand.

"Here. Try some. I'm not the best cook but it's hard to go wrong with grilled rathyd."

Athena hesitated for a moment before all but snatching the piece of meat from Janey's hand and sinking her teeth into it, the woman's hunger getting the better of her. After barely chewing her first mouthful she swallowed and finished the rest of the piece in two more huge bites. She quickly realised she had lost control and chewed the last bite more thoroughly looking more than a little embarrassed. Janey smiled and slid the tray a few inches across the crate in Athena's direction.

"Come on, dig in! I can't finish this whole thing by myself."

She smiled at her guest who was clearly still uncomfortable with somebody doing something nice for her without expecting anything in return but, thankfully, her empty stomach spoke louder than her insecurities.

"Thank you…" she muttered as she reached for a second piece.

Over the next few minutes Janey deliberately ate very little wanting to leave the majority of the shared meal to Athena. She had eaten that day. That week even. She wasn't sure Athena could say the same. She looked worryingly spindly. When the gladiator had eaten so fast she began to choke Janey had quickly passed her the second beer to wash it down with and when they were done with the meal she cleared the tray away. After just setting it down somewhere in the kitchen to deal with later she returned to the front room and sat down on the sofa next to Athena.

"Now, I don't know how highly you rate dumb late-night ECHOnet shows but tonight the latest episode of my favourite got released so for the next half hour leave your brain at the door and behold the majesty that is Big Pete's Scrapyard Laboratory!"

Athena shrugged. "My ECHO device is military issue. Recordings and communication only. Atlas didn't allow civilian broadcasts. "

"That is…" Janey replied glaring sideways at Athena "…all kinds of tragic. Remind me before you leave and I'll tweak your gear a little bit. Get you some of this quality entertainment. The least one can hope for after a day of getting shot at is being able to watch a bunch of idiots almost blow themselves up trying to make a motorcycle out of a toilet after all". A brief laugh escaped Athena's lips and Janey thought it might just be the prettiest sound she had ever heard.

She picked up a nearby remote pointing it in the direction of the display unit she had attached to the wall and pressing a button. The screen turned on and a loud, energetic female voice immediately erupted from the speakers.

"A cybernetic limb! I could program all of DT's digistruct data into one robotic arm, and use that to summon DT at any time, any place! So I figure, what the heck, and I slice off the rest of my arm with a particle saw!"

Janey quickly hit another button and the voice stopped.

"Agh! Sorry, it must be playing what I was watching last. Some ECHOcast about this Eden-5 girl building a robot for her science fair or something. Seemed kind of cool. Anyway! Let's get to it."

Janey hit the button again and the show began. Over the next thirty minutes or so Janey was happy to notice Athena's tense posture relax considerably. It seemed like she was beginning to feel more comfortable in Janey's presence.

The show was just starting to come to an end when Janey felt something against her shoulder. Turning to her left she saw that Athena had completely fallen asleep, her head coming to rest on the junk dealers shoulder. Janey should have known. Athena had been fighting to stay awake all night and it seemed she had finally reached her limit. Janey had no idea how long she had been awake for but clearly too long to be healthy.

The temptation to simply stay there and fall asleep beside Athena was a powerful one but she resisted. Worming her way out from under Athena's head she gently lay the slumbering gladiator down across the sofa on her side and retrieved a blanket she carefully draped over her. When she had made sure her guest was comfortable she sat on the sofa beside her, taking just a moment to look at her. All of the tension in Athena's face and body had just evaporated and, for the first time since Janey had met her, she looked at peace.

The blonde girl forced herself to get up and leave the gladiator's side but as she was doing so she heard sleepy mumbling from behind her.

"Janey?"

She turned around. Athena's eyes were still closed and she hadn't moved. It seemed she was barely awake.

"Yeah?" Janey replied.

"You are…also very beautiful…"

"What?"

"Earlier…you called me beautiful…I wanted to…return the compliment…you are…as well…"

Janey opened her mouth to try and respond but suddenly found herself completely without words. The exhausted woman on the sofa was able to mumble out just one more thing before drifting back off into sleep.

"Too beautiful…for this place…"

Janey smiled. She couldn't not. Allowing herself to follow her feelings, just for a moment, she sat back down onto the sofa beside Athena and leant over to lightly press her lips to the slumbering gladiator's cheek lingering just a little bit longer than she had promised herself she would. When she raised her head again she was surprised to see Athena's eyes open again and look up at her. She said nothing simply staring up into Janey's eyes with an expression the junk dealer was unable to read, but there was an intensity in the gladiator's gaze that made the blonde suddenly feel very flustered.

Every single fibre of Janey's being urged her to give in. To simply lean down one more time only this time to catch Athena's lips instead but she didn't. She couldn't. Wishful thinking aside, she felt like there was a mutual attraction between them but, if there was a chance pushing the gladiator too far too fast would cause her to freak out and run then Janey couldn't risk it. Not if a little patience might make all the difference. Instead she smiled down at her and reached up to brush a lock of hair that had escaped Athena's ponytail back behind her ear. It was an intimate gesture but it was all she could do to resist her compulsions. She gently stroked her thumb across Athena's cheek hoping it was enough to communicate even a fraction of what she was feeling right now.

"Good night, Athena." she said softly. "I'll see you tomorrow. Don't…go running off before I wake up or anything, okay?"

Athena paused but didn't break eye contact for even a second.

"…I won't."

"Good. Sweet dreams, yeah?"

With a lot of effort Janey pulled her hand away from Athena's cheek and rose from the sofa again. Once she was in her own room with the door closed she sat on her bed and buried her face in her hands. Athena was leaving tomorrow. Possibly forever. Janey couldn't afford to fall for her as hard as she was and yet she couldn't help herself. She flopped down onto her back and stared up at the ceiling sighing and closing her eyes as she muttered quietly to the empty room.

"You sure know how to pick 'em, Springs…"