Riddick watched as Sage strolled down the hall beside him. Her face was cold and hard, but her eyes were bright. After much playfulness and jibes at dinner combined with hard liquor he's was feeling better than he had since Kira's death. He had felt as though something had shattered inside him, and that tiny shards of glass had begun slicing into him slowly every time he remembered the feel of her cold skin on his forehead and the lifelessness of her pretty face. He had begun to feel sluggish; as though every time he moved the glass cut him deeper. No matter how he ignored the pain it was still there.
"Are you with me Riddick?" Sage asked suddenly dragging him back to reality.
"Yeah, what?" he rumbled.
"We're at the end of the hall. Now where's my room?" she asked in a distantly amused voice.
"Right there," he said nodding towards the room beside his. She looked at him closely as thought trying to find something before she raised her left hand. He noticed how well muscled her forearm was. He clasped his hand around hers and pulled her so that they were chest to chest not failing to notice how every curve of her chest and stomach fit into his. He wrapped one arm around her shoulder and they stood completely rigid in front of each other while Riddick peered at the wall above her head and Sage stared at his throat.
"Goodnight," he rumbled starting the old ritual that they'd had so many years ago.
"Sleep light," she replied in her dark voice.
"Don't get shived tonight," he finished before letting his hands fall and stepping away from her. She smirked slightly and went to her room.
Sage closed the door quietly and scanned the dark room as she let her scenes take over. She could smell the scent of the maids that had made up the room and see every nook and cranny of the room. She sighed as she melded with the darkness and glided through the sitting room to the bed. She sat down and kicked off her boots before sinking back into the soft mattress. It was heavenly after sleeping on the cold stone, or wooden slabs for most of her life. She sighed as she allowed herself to fade into her element hiding her completely.
She opened her eyes and stared into the darkness amazed that she'd found Riddick again. The odds had been so small that only an elemental had the patience to calculate them. But she was an Elemental and no matter how she tried to fight it she always was calculating the odds to everything whether she wanted to or not. It was useful though, combined with her honed scenes and sharp mind it had kept her alive in all the slams, allowed her to be predator not pray.
Like Riddick, except he was a born predator. For the moment he'd been thrown into her cell when she was 7 she'd know it. The way he'd quickly rolled to his feet and planted a shiv at her throat had screamed animal, but fortunately she'd been just as fast to have one at his gut. After that they'd become quick friend. They watched each other's back and trusted no one else. They'd never been more than five paces from each other unless forced to, just incase some idiot tried to jump one of them.
In fact she was sure that if she hadn't been in the shower with the other girls when the guards had come to take her to the 'big boy's' slam, as they put it, that Riddick probably would have had to come with her for shiving them for touching her. She'd never admit it but she was happy when they only taken her. She'd hoped that Riddick would leave and have a normal life in three years. She smiled coldly at the fact that she'd know the odds where slim yet hope had still clouded it enough that when she'd thought about Riddick all these years she'd seen his outside in the sun with his baby blues laughing not as the fierce predator that he'd evolved into, and without the sorrow that now touched his eyes and face. He'd edited his retelling of his past and had left out whatever was troubling him now.
Sage was also was pissed that the people around him just let him steep in his pain. They shied away and would rather let him fall inward than risk disturbing him. Scales would gently prod Riddick trying to get him moving but Vaako would stop him with a look. Lord Vaako, now that was an interesting problem. He was loyal no doubt but weak. Sage had yet to discover the source of it yet, but she was sure that his wife had something to in it. The woman had hid behind kind questions and soft eyes but Sage saw the way her eyes would linger a moment to long and darken. Sage would have to watch her, but first she had to return Riddick to full force. It was wrong to see her friend depressed.