At the HQ, a laid-back Zer0 and grime-covered Salvador observed an ecstatic Mordecai caress and smooch his lost and found rifle. It went on for an awkward 15 seconds before the dreadlocked vault-hunter placed the weapon in the bank like a newborn son to a cradle and pivoted on his heels.

"I appreciate this, guys. Even if I did-"
"-Leave the damned thing in your stupid birdnest?" Salvador piped in with a large grin, Zer0 elbowing him to hush but displaying a :D face on his visor anyways. The 4-fingered guy still found the whole situation leading up to this quite amusing, and with two against one, Mordecai just dropped his sense of gratefulness for the duo overall at that moment.

"Would you two SCREW OFF? PLEASE?" his voice cracked and turned sour, crossing his arms and his face going dark in embarrassment.

"Oooh, got your gun back, NOT EVEN GONNA THANK US?!" Salvador burst into laughter and Zer0 mimicked Mordecai's disappointed crossed arms with a 8) face.

"OKAY. OKAY. THANK YOU. JEEZ." he tried waving them off. "JUST-" his speech was broken up and overwhelmed with the gunzerker's snorting and bellowing laughter, dragging the assassin along with him out of the room. The laughs echoed for a few seconds before a door shut, muting the whole HQ and leaving the Hunter baffled.
"God-damn..." he'd scoff silently.

The silence seemed to press onward until the familiar entry of two other vault hunters vibrated the flooring below, a soaked psycho and siren entering the cramped building.
Maya instructed the towering slaughterhouse of a man for a couple of minutes and soon enough they were covered in towels and the laundry machines drummed their odd song. The siren sported a regular tank and fresh cargo pants while Krieg- well- since he sorta lacked any variation in clothing, he just slapped on a new pair of pants from the Quick Change. The only huge difference was the removal of his arm bandages, wrist armour and harness around his shoulders.
Back on their respective couch covered in towels of all covers, the siren had an unused cloth between both her hands, trying to get at Krieg's face in a struggle. He absolutely HATED having his face touched or even the thought of taking off his filthy mask. Growls erupted from him and he flailed, rolling from the couch to get away from the gal.
I think you're forgetting who's trying to do this, dude, his inner voice bluntly bit at his skull. "No fiLTHY FACE FOR GLISTENING GLASS HANDS!" Krieg shouted, aiming a fist at his temples and knocking himself against the couch's feet. He stared up at Maya as she glared down in concern, grinning awkwardly.

"Might wanna stop before you do something...dangerous," Maya calmly coerced, tapping the downed psycho with her foot and urging him to sit on the couch again. He did as she demanded, planting his rear on the cushion beside her in a grump. He was afraid to admit that he agreed with his head, knowing Maya was a really good friend of his and HIGHLY doubted her trust becoming sour any time soon. Keeping this in mind, he closed his eyes and swayed his head to face her, unbuckling the mask.

"I know, I know," Maya muttered as Krieg's hand slowly pulled his dirt-ridden covering from his face. Without even getting a glance at the man's hidden features her cloth smushed into his face, leaving a wet imprint on the other side.

"You're not a big fan of others seeing. I know."
Comically she wrecklessly rubbed and smushed Krieg's face to bits with the dirtying cloth and he made a various combo of grunts and snarls as she did so. Holding back his irritance he dug his fingers into the couch with a deathgrip, making sure those fists don't end up in someone's face. Eventually she tugged back and flapped the dirtied cloth around, saying, "Alright- all set. I'm sorry Krieg."
It's always okay, siren, his inner voice piped in.
The dazed psycho grunted; he ran his hand down Maya's hair and pushed on her face gently until he had his mask buckled tightly to his head again, removing his hand from her facials to see a look of pure distaste and amusement. It was hard for her to get mad at him now. She knew that any gesture like that was for his comfort and not to intend any hurt.

"You all good?" she'd ask quietly, throwing the cloth elsewhere and hitting an unaware Mordecai creaking down the stairs. The hunter stopped in his tracks and chucked the dirt-caked rag off of his face and belted back upstairs with shivers of disgust.

Krieg just did as he always did when asked a question- stare indirectly at the asker for a few seconds before reacting. He gave a singular nod and found his eye lurking over the tattoos again. Distracted. Thinking. He furrowed his brow and leant forward- an idea slowly grew inside of him. Something he wanted and just realized for himself.

"Dude?-"

The same calloused hands jerked forward and brought her tattooed arm close to his face again. She just sighed and let him look over it before she realized he was trying to lead her out of the HQ, yanking at her limb as he got up. Her eyes widened; that could only mean one thing. He had an idea. Oh God. Hoping for the best she skittered outside with the psycho as fast as he dragged her, being taken down the streets of Sanctuary for a long bit until stopping. Looking about, Krieg had stopped with her in an empty alley, near the teleport booth. The afternoon sun seemed to beat down on the duo- almost too coincidental. Is this what he planned?

Apparently. Before Maya could even react to any of this, he grabbed her arm again and held it up like a trophy, her wrist hanging limp. The sun beamed right down on her skin and seemed to illuminate her tattoos a bit. When she looked up to the towering guy, his golden iris was dead locked on the phenomena that was her blue markings. She became helpless at that point- WHAT IS GOING ON WITH YOU? She just wanted an answer from the guy other than 'he thinks they're pretty' and molesting them with his eyes. She sensed another motive coming from him, and wanted to know.
She was going to find out.
His other hand searched around his pants oddly until he caught a grip of something small. Clutching it between his fingers he gently pulled it forth from one of his pockets: one of the blue flowers.

This surprised the blue mistress. Furrowing her brow she remained silent; she felt like if she spoke, she would be interfering with the man's experiment. As long as it wasn't something awfully questionable or creepy, she felt this whole thing was fine.

Krieg tore his gaze from her arm briefly, looking her in the eye with some sort of plea. His opposite arm lifted the flower and levelled it beside Maya's arm, and form there she formed some sort of clarity. She slowly nodded, putting the pieces together. She knew that if he tried speaking and conveying his idea, it'd come out as a nonsensical rant about violent things without any intention to the original subject.

The flower was the exact same blue as her tattoos.

Krieg shook her arm a tad, as if trying to say 'wait'. Getting her attention on the flower, his grip on her arm loosened as his fist crumpled the vibrant flora between his fingers. The pulped blue material lay mushed in his palm, letting go of Maya's arm to dip a few fingers in it. Using his other hand he seemed to take most of the blue stuff and smear it on his own arm, messily and eagerly until the material ran out. A weird mess of blue scribbles decorated his wrist and he even got some on his torso trying to wipe off the rest.

Maya's head let out a DING of realization, and finally spoke, beholding the psycho's partly blue arm as he held it out next to hers.

"You... wow, that's actually pretty clever," she'd comment timidly. She looked him in the face and it seemed like he faltered a tad, as if her gaze was powerful enough to push the behemoth over. He seemed unsure but eager to do what he intended to.

Maya managed a slow nod, but that didn't seem to cut it. Krieg started to fidget and try and gesture out what he wanted to do, tracing unfollowable patterns up his partly blue arm and poke a finger at Maya's tattooed shoulder. With a soft-hearted chuckle, she dragged his hand away and put a hand on his chest to calm him.

"I get it. It's okay."

The slumping giant loosened his tense poise and let out a sharp exhale, silently grateful that he firstly didn't ruin the whole moment, and secondly got her to understand.

Huh. That worked. satisfied, Maya lifted her hand from the hulking psycho's chest, curling her index finger for him to follow. He seemed to garble out a bunch of noises that sounded like a mix of nervous snorts and lighthearted laughter before keeping up with the siren, beating her to the teleport booth to get the duo back to Hayter's Folly.

I know JUST what to do... she thought to herself as they materialized outside of Sandman's Outlook once again. She knew he was interested in her markings- anyone who knows of her siren blood had that natural intrigue. Krieg though... he was different, somehow. He felt them and begged for- something similar. That... that would be creepy in any other character spectrum, but with Krieg's partially childish and primal demeanour, she felt flattered. He was curious. Timid. A tad embarrassed. Wanting to be like her in some way.
THAT was the difference. It wasn't- creepy. She guessed there was some sort of inner mechanism (that he mysteriously calls the 'little man' sometimes) guiding him to be an inner sweetheart from time to time.

The thought train was halted when Krieg fully recovered from teleport, noisily hoisting up the woman by her shoulders and hopping down from the deck into the clear spring water. She gave a slight yelp at the sudden action and started to laugh, being gently set down into the water that was at knee height. The more cave-like area ahead were where the flowers bloomed.

Krieg felt the siren's hand on his shoulder as her melodic voice rang out. "Wait here- be right back! Put on some shorts or-something!" Her feet took her quickly into the more shaded parts of the springs and left Krieg to wrestle with his thoughts in the clear, warm pool.
i...Tough luck. We don't even have anything else other than these old pair of pants./i The voice spoke truth in Krieg's head. He shrugged and slumped, just standing where he was awaiting his pretty lady to return.
Unless... Hmm. Willing to get risky, tough guy? His head jerked up at that thought. He loved risks, but he wasn't too sure about what he had in mind. He groaned a low, guttural noise of concern.

"I'll be like- 10 minutes or so!" Maya's voice echoed out from the shade ahead. "Just- occupy yourself for now! I'll try and be quick."

Perfect. Alright, listen up. Krieg's brow arched in irritation from his inner voice talking so much, but in a time like this it sounded pretty important to him.


[CONTINUE]