The nozzles embedded in the pillars of the decontamination checkpoint hissed ominously for less than a second before a fine, clear spray began to emit out of them in a misty jet, soaking me in sterility. I closed my eyes as I stood in the threshold between the hallway of the hospital and Nya's room, rotating around and around to the commands of the automated checkpoint to make sure that my entire body would be scoured clear of any germs that were clinging onto me. I winced slightly as I felt the chemicals attack my skin where it had been sliced open just half an hour prior, a hot and fizzing sensation now erupting upon the fresh cuts especially where blood still plastered onto me.
The ride back to Huerta had been a quiet affair, borne mostly as a result from the beating that I had just endured. There was no one else accompanying me, so it was not like I had an excuse to speak out loud, but I was in a melancholy nonetheless, my mouth pursed in a straight line. I had lots to ponder over since that little scrap near the C-Sec station. The revelation of Tavre/Sievra as a more direct antagonist, the weird and rubbery effects of the mind meld, the brutal clash between the quarian guards.
I had no shortage of topics to consider, that was for sure.
But why, oh why could I not get an average day in my life for once?
Upon departing the empty alleyway, I confess that I had been a little lax in cleaning up after myself, mostly because I wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible. I had left the lone quarian body where it had fallen back near the station, the alien's own knife still embedded in his chest, surrounded in a pool of blood. His cohort had fallen hundreds of stories off the platform, so I believe it was safe to assume that he was dead as well. Sievra had run off without a trace, presumably back to Eyzn, which made me wish that I had had the foresight to place a tracker on her person so that she would lead me straight to the man himself before the scuffle had occurred. Goddamn, I was an idiot.
Maybe Eyzn would take me a little more seriously now that I was starting to push back. Of course, he would never admit his inferiority to my face, even if I managed to clasp my hands over his throat. The bastard would take pride in his refusal to budge up until the very end, I figured.
Since I had naught left to do on my little sojourn away from Nya, I had decided to go back to her hospital room to rest and clean myself up. I had glanced at my chronometer on the skycar back over and discovered, to my surprise, that the entire affair had taken an hour exactly – turns out I still could make good on my promises. Now, fancy that.
The decontamination checkpoint pinged in satisfaction and the doors opened to let me through. Sighing wistfully, I exited the cramped interior in relief.
But then I gave an abrupt start.
The first thing that I noticed upon entering the room was that Nya was no longer lounging in her bathtub, the spot that I had left her in previously. I had assumed that she would have wanted to stay in the water for as long as possible, so I had a brief moment of panic when my brain registered her absence in that area before my tracking eyes located Nya less than a second later, who was oddly positioned in a different part of the room than I had initially been expecting.
Next to her bed, her hospital gown thrown over her once more, Nya was oriented in a rather longing manner, her gaze fixated at the window that allowed a picturesque view onto the Presidium below. Warm light streamed in through the smoky, patterned glass, brightening up the room. Nya's face looked like it was aglow, her mouth lit up with a bright smile.
But there was something else about this that astonished me.
Nya was standing up.
"I'll be damned," I could only say.
In some way, I realized that this was impossible. There was no way that Nya should have had the strength in her legs to remain standing for any period of time. Not just a few hours ago she could not even hobble anywhere without my help!
Yet, as much of a contradiction as it was, I could not deny what I was looking at with my own eyes. I was spinning so many theories in my head as to how this was possible in the first place: her paralysis had only been temporary, the therapy had been more effective than anticipated, Nya had secretly injected high-octane drugs into her system while I wasn't looking—
On wobbling legs, a sign of her uneasiness, Nya slowly turned to face me, a smug glimmer nearly invisible in the corner of her eye – a sly declaration that she had smashed one of her goals way ahead of schedule and that she was reveling in anticipation of my reaction.
"I did it," she proclaimed proudly. "It's a little more difficult than it looks, but—" Nya abruptly paled as she took in my haggard appearance. "Um… Sam?"
"Yeah?" I responded breathlessly, still too surprised to fully realize what Nya was referring to yet. "My god, this is incredible," I quickly lost that other train of thought as I marveled over Nya's achievement, so very proud of her determination.
Nya was not ready to shift the conversation back to her just yet. She stumbled against the bed, more evidence of muscle atrophy, and had to throw out a hand for support. At the same time she gave a withering sigh and lifted an arm in resignation as she lifted herself up as she continued to hobble over to me. "Are you going to explain why you look like you've just gone through a paper shredder? I thought you said you were only going out for a bit."
Incredulous, I caught sight of my reflection in a nearby mirror and thought to myself that Nya had to really be tampering down her reactions because I looked like hammered shit right about now. My jacket and arms were all cut up – blood had streamed all the way down my arms to drip off my fingers – more blood was caked upon my forehead from a nasty gash near my hairline, and there was a new bruise on my forehead garnered when one of the quarians had decided to head-butt me. It was not like I had broken any bones or lost any limbs, but I still looked like a complete fright.
"Things got… a little out of hand," I pathetically explained as I tenderly felt my jaw in affirmation. Remembering my intrinsic goal in being here, I began to take off my jacket at the same time I kicked off my shoes.
Nya watched me hop over to the shower in the midst of shimmying out of my pants, struggling not to look too disappointed. She's always hated seeing me hurt, not that I could blame her for that. No one likes to see their spouse in such a state, even when this sort of lifestyle was getting to be the norm.
So much for being the ideal nuclear family.
"Things got out of hand," Nya repeated slowly before she shook her head, still listing onto the raised bed. "Damn it, Sam…"
"Nya, I'm begging you," I wrung my hands together anxiously, which must have looked very weird seeing as I was now only clad in my boxers and socks by now. "Stop worrying. I don't want you to be all hung up on this. I know I look like crap right now because I just got through a rough period, but I'm here right now – I'm fine, I'm still alive. I've still got all the same bits and pieces I had when I left. Please… just relax, okay?"
"A rough period?" Nya choked out as she looked at me, but it was not into my eyes. Instead she was gazing all over my torso, noting the wide assortment of scars that I had garnered while I had been in Eyzn's care. Raised lines ran across my chest, over my arms, and the white gash upon the side of my neck shone the most sinisterly. Add to the fact that part of my arms and chest were coated in blood from the previous fight, and it was indeed starting to look like I was not taking this all too seriously. Perhaps I was frightening Nya with my glib attitude in the wake of contradictory evidence: my wounds.
"Rougher than expected, but no more of this," I urged as I walked towards her. "No more talking about me. I honestly look worse than I feel." I placed my hands upon her shoulders, against the crinkly fabric of the gown that she wore. I then realized my mistake as I lifted one of my hands away as I had left a bloody handprint upon the gown itself. "Err…" I mumbled, "Well, maybe I'm not at my best, I'll give you that. I certainly wasn't trying to look like this, if that was what you were thinking."
"I shudder to think how I'd react if this was your intention," Nya responded as she looked at her ruined gown with some bemusement.
"Knowing you, quite oddly."
"Perish the thought and get yourself cleaned up. You're bleeding all over the room. Do I even want to know what happened?"
"Oh, and is there really the possibility that you don't want to know?" I shot back with some discernible acid in my tone as I finally shed the last of my clothes (Nya only gave a slight reaction at this – it was nothing she had not seen before, anyway) and I quickly stepped into the shower. "I had an interesting encounter with your friend, Tavre. She was in a rather inhospitable mood, shall we say. That, and she also keeps poor company."
The shower was a glorified tube, to be blunt. It was a cramped contraption with all the usual accoutrements that one would expect to find in any shower, such as two dials to adjust the temperature and a shelf, except that this was apparently built to only fit one person, which meant that there was hardly any room to move around or stretch out as befitting a normal-sized person. I nearly banged my head on the ceiling of the damn thing and I'm not that tall of a guy.
Well, at least the water was hot. I gave a soft yowl as it felt like all of the still-weeping cuts on my skin were all producing this boiling effect once the water came into contact with them, angry stings attacking me all at once. Dried blood quickly melted off of me in red rivulets and the searing sensation soon faded to a smolder. Eventually, the effect was so muted that I could ignore it easily as I concentrated on cleaning myself off while Nya stood outside, waiting for me.
"Wait…" Nya called over the hissing of water. "What does Tavre have to do with this? Were you talking to her while you were gone?"
"Yeah, about that," I said as I stuck my head out past the curtain of the shower, my hair dripping wet. "Your friend Tavre's a real bitch, did you know that?"
Nya blinked, dumbstruck. "I'm… sorry?" she stammered.
"Actually, she's not called 'Tavre' at all. She's been lying to you the entire time. Apparently her real name is 'Sievra' and she works for Eyzn."
"That… that can't be. I don't believe it."
"Look, Nya, I have no reason to lie to you and I know that it's not hard to imagine that I always looked at 'Tavre' rather dubiously, but it makes perfect sense. She was the only one outside of our close circle of friends to know exactly where our apartment was, so when Eyzn and Vahl showed up there in their separate occasions without having much difficulty finding us, I figured that your asari friend might have been an inside source."
"Keelah," Nya wiped her forehead, already beginning to see the threads of the conspiracy connect. "Of course. I thought she was just trying to be nice to me. I… I actually thought that she was a friend." Horrified, she stared off into space. "How far does Eyzn's influence go?"
"Hopefully not farther than what we've already uncovered," I groused as I flipped the shower off. Taking a moment to air dry, I finally stepped out of the tube and wrapped a towel around my waist after dabbing my body with it. "He's been very comprehensive with his revenge, unfortunately. Eyzn's acquired an eclectic group, all things considered, a four person squad including himself. Sievra was just one of those four. Vahl was another member before she died. The prime, Geth, is the last one. All very clever in their own ways. Skilled, too. When Sievra realized that she had been found out, she dropped the act entirely and tried to attack me, along with her guards. I had a little tussle, and as you can see, I didn't exactly come out of it scot-free."
I headed over to the couch and sat down heavily upon it. I was only going to take a minute to appreciate this stress-free moment before I was going to start fixing up my body, but Nya was ahead of me on that front. Heavily limping but walking all the same, she had collected a few small packages in her arms from the nearby cabinet – bandages and medi-gel from the looks of it – and she sat down with some difficulty next to me, as evidenced by the groan she elicited from the effort, but this laser-focused drive was returning back to her stare, an intensity that I only knew came out when Nya was incredibly fixated on one thing.
"Is she dead?" Nya asked as she began unwrapping a tube of medi-gel. "Tavre – I mean, Sievra?"
I shook my head as I reclined a bit on the couch. "She ran before I could stop her. Her guards did all this damage on her behalf."
"Lies upon lies, all for months," Nya scowled as she squeezed a dollop of medi-gel onto a finger. "Eyzn, Sievra, the prime, and Vahl. The four conspirators – now three remain. They all need to die."
"One thing at a time, Nya. We still need to find out where they are—fuck!"
I yelped in surprise right at the moment when Nya had unexpectedly pressed the globule of medi-gel into one of the knife cuts upon my tricep. My fingers clenched into a fist instantaneously. This was so much worse than the shower – the burning here was now amplified, like it had been positioned through a magnifying lens. Bubbles felt like they were forming on my skin and popping. I growled through a clenched jaw, certain that my veins were popping out the sides of my neck.
The medi-gel was knitting my torn flesh back together before my eyes. A miraculous substance, the miracle element that we took for granted nowadays. The cut no longer wept fresh blood, yet the stinging persisted but that sort of pain would evaporate within an hour. No scab was left behind but the affected area on the skin was raised and reddened, like a bad sunburn. I would unquestionably receive a scar from the wound, but at least the medi-gel would help skip the worst parts of the healing process.
It still hurt like hell, though.
"Stop whining," Nya chided unsympathetically as she dutifully finished wiping off the last of the medi-gel off her finger onto me. "This can't possibly hurt any more than the moment when you received these cuts."
"On the contrary," I retorted as Nya began to rip swaths of bandages off of a roll, "I was pumped so full of adrenaline back then that I barely felt myself getting hurt."
As I was saying this, I popped the caps off of several bottles of pills that I then proceed to pop down my throat dry. These included a strong anti-inflammatory medication, a mild painkiller, and, in a spur-of-the-moment decision, an antihistamine.
Nya firmly stuck a square of gauze to the cut at my tricep before she wrapped a bandage around my arm. "You can certainly be a little quieter while I try to help you out, at least. You sound like I'm sawing off your arm or something."
"Yes, ma'am," I said sarcastically, but I set my jaw and let Nya work.
Nya's dexterous fingers limberly doled out appropriate amounts of medi-gel and bandages to all the cuts, scrapes, and bruises that had yet to be attended to – the wounds that I had most recently acquired. Every time that I tried to apply my own care to myself, Nya would slap my hands away, determined to do the honors. She sadly scraped her gaze over my torso, noting that my body was now heavily marred by all of the scars that I had accumulated at Eyzn's hands. Thin white lines crisscrossed my skin and Nya was probably imagining the amount of agony that I had gone through while her step-brother was carving me up with the blade of his knife.
"So many…" Nya murmured as she pressed her warm palm flat on my chest, near a cluster of scars. "They're all new."
"Hopefully I won't have to add any more to this collection," I sighed.
Nya's limpid eyes stared dolefully at me. "Is that something that you're willing to promise?"
"I wish I could, but you know I can't. I have no idea what's in store for the both of us. I would just be lying if I said otherwise."
"Sam, if you can't take care of yourself—,"
"Nya," I gripped her hand, preventing her from smearing medi-gel upon a bruise on my wrist, "from what's happened to us, I am not confident in saying that I won't ever be getting hurt again. I just can't say it. I'm not trying to worry you, but this," I gestured to my torso, "is what happened to me at the hands of a maniac. This is what we're facing. The cuts, broken bones, ruptured organs… of course I never want to go through this again but how can you expect me to promise that this isn't a possible outcome that could very well happen to the two of us?"
"It will just drive me crazy otherwise," Nya admitted as she wiped her hands on a nearby towel. "I guess I just need to hear it from you, whether it's real or not."
"But I can't in good conscience say that to you. This is me being completely honest with you – something that I explicitly promised to do with you. Besides, being hurt is not the biggest thing on my mind right now. I have other things driving me crazy as well."
"…Such as?" Nya asked after some hesitation.
Yes, Sam, such as?
I fumbled for a few seconds before giving a limp shrug. "Well… us, for instance. That's what's driving me crazy most of all." I turned to face Nya, completely concentrated. "It's just that… things have been going so fast for us that I'm having trouble determining what's real anymore. Like… just today… when we kissed… I'm still fumbling around like I'm drunk. Nya… was that real?"
I studied Nya's face anxiously, waiting to see if she was going to hide a tic that would cause the bottom of my stomach to drop out again. Would that serve to lift me out of this fantasy that I thought I was perceiving? But in spite of my fears, that never came. She never took her eyes off of me. Never whispered a word to the contrary. Instead, she shyly bit her bottom lip and tilted her head in a curious fashion, keeping silent this whole time.
Then she slowly nudged her head towards me and gave me a light kiss on my lips.
It was quick – it lasted a whole lot shorter than our previous kiss, yet it said just as much in that amount of time. My breath stolen from me, I could only sit on the couch, transfixed, as Nya broke away from me as she moved to stand on her still shaking legs. I had no idea what she was about to do, so it came as a surprise to me, as in I was hit right out of left field, when Nya reached down to the hem of her gown and, in one fluid motion, pulled the entire covering over the top of her head and discarded it behind her, leaving the crinkly fabric crumpled upon the ground.
She was wearing nothing underneath.
Of course I was staring up at her like a moron, my jaw half hanging open. There was this stunned silence that had permeated the both of us, a kind of fog that we were unable to shake off together. It was not like that seeing Nya naked was something new to me – hell, I had seen her in such a state frequently over the past few days alone, but not when she was in this kind of mood. She was determined, her mind set, and that made her elegant. She glowed like this, limber and softly toned with muscle. Her curves were supple, giving her that definitive female shape. Nya stared at me with desire, already beginning to pant, and I realized that I too was starting to feel a reaction begin to stir within me and my skin felt prickly, like I had been exposed to a static charge.
I could not muster a word to say in my paralysis as I was hopelessly ogling Nya as she stood over me, not that she would give me time to speak. Quickly, she knelt back down and gently pushed my shoulders down on the couch as she moved to straddle me. My towel fell open and Nya groaned longingly as she saw me. She positioned herself over me and my hands naturally came up to her bare sides. Nya gasped as she felt my desirous touch upon her skin and she immediately bent down to kiss me a whole lot more intensely.
Our lips met again and this time there was a vibrant energy that passed between the two of us, the wonder of relief. There was barely any delicacy, just lust. Grand, infectious, overwhelming lust. Our mouths were open as we hungrily dueled tongues, the familiar taste of my wife flooding back to my brain in a choking heat. Her body was now nearly lying entirely flat against me – I could feel her stomach quivering against mine and her nipples rubbing anxiously upon my chest. My arms rose up to slowly wrap around Nya's back, drawing her even closer, wanting more of her warm presence.
With a start, Nya suddenly halted the kiss, a string of drool briefly trailing from our mouths. She began to stammer, her eyes racing everywhere, as a hand rose to her mouth in shock.
"I'm… I'm so sorry, Sam," she blabbered. "I… I should have asked you before I did anything. Do…" she took a deep breath, "…do you want this?"
She still had the wherewithal to think selflessly. I guess that notion had never truly been stamped out of her.
It was hard not to love that.
My hands cupped Nya's cheeks lovingly, a smile cracking my face. "More than anything," I told her.
Reassured, Nya spluttered a nervous laugh before she was taken again by a fervor and she dropped back down to kiss me once more. Her breasts were mashed against my body and my hands slid up and down her back, from her shoulder blades down to her bottom. Nya's own hands were pulling my head up toward her, as if she was trying to assimilate me into her body. Her skin was ablaze with a furious heat, and I could feel all her muscles trembling as her excitement shifted into overdrive, completely consumed and obsessed with her desires.
Nya instinctively began to grind her hips against me, already taken by the need to have me inside her. We did not satisfy that urge just yet, as we were both utterly concentrated on our savage kissing, our lips sliding over each other in a torrid frenzy.
It was madness. Pure, blind madness. There was no rhythm to our kisses – we simply acted on the basest glimmer of a thought, completely beholden to the whims of the chemicals saturating our brains. We craved the contact, the fury, the lust. It was incredible – love indescribable. Nya was now so overwhelmed as our warm bodies pressed against each other and she had to stop kissing my lips lest she fall into a hormone-addled coma. To satiate herself, she groaned intensely as she began licking and kissing at the long scar upon my neck, a gesture of peace and calm to dissuade the reminders of pain that the sight of my wounds brought. Her hands kneaded at other scars upon my chest and Nya was soon plying them with kisses as well while I lounged on the couch, murmuring in content from the attention that she was giving me.
Nya soon moved back to licking at my neck while her hands were tugging at the hair on my head. Her hot tongue, wet and gentle, traced the lines of scars there, retreading paths that steel had previously torn open. My blood had sprayed into the air back then, but now it was pumping furiously in my body, my heart powerfully giving me a kick as I found myself losing track of time with my naked wife atop me.
Soon, I felt Nya's hand reach down right about the moment when she had to force herself to stop kissing me, even for a few seconds. I shifted my hips to meet her fingers and I gave a shudder as I felt her warm hand encircle me. Nya then guided me into position as she shifted to angle herself correctly. There was this radiating fire wafting from the both of us, and I soon felt a slickness as I slowly pushed up while Nya carefully lowered herself down.
We both moaned as we each felt the other through our connection.
Eager to proceed, Nya immediately started to move upon me, but she went slowly, deliberately. Very eager to draw out her pleasure. My hands naturally gravitated toward her hips after briefly cupping her slim waist, holding her against me. She was already wet, completely aroused. Her mouth opened as she start to rasp, a slight choking sound as she struggled not to become overwhelmed with sensation.
I just smiled, overjoyed to see Nya so happy. Her fingers dug into the skin of my chest and my hands similarly rose to cup her soft breasts. That elicited a cry from Nya as my thumbs brushed her nipples, her body being assaulted from several sensitive areas at once. Even now, she was losing the slow tempo she had set in the beginning. It had been too much, too fast for her. Her body violently thrashed once, twice, and finally a third time as she croaked out in the middle of an orgasm. She started to drool. Her flat belly puffed out in shallow breaths before slowing to a satisfied speed after a few seconds.
Nya sagged, nearly listless, the strength to remain on top sapped from her. I could still feel her hips desperately nudging, still wanting to continue. I was still possessed with the same need, so I let a little bit of strength rise up to reside within my body, shifting the impetus of guidance over into my court. Nya sensed this change and a gleaming smile beckoned.
"Yes!" she uttered hoarsely.
Gripping her back carefully, I pushed off on a leg and kept my hips as stable as possible as I slowly rotated to bring Nya lying upon her back on the couch. Now, I was the one on top and I wasted no time in keeping up the pace that Nya had originally set and I soon was struggling to maintain my composure as I repeatedly thrusted myself deeply and slowly into her body.
Nya's head was thrown back, her eyes closed, as she cried out in pleasure. She was in a world of delight, so indescribably happy as she felt me within her. Her hands grabbed at my sides while my own arms were ramrod straight, my own hands sunken into the cushions on either side of Nya's head. The pink of my skin melded against the cool gray of Nya's, a clash of disparate colors so apparent, yet so insignificant at the same time.
Peach mixed with ash.
Human bonded with quarian.
Alien mating with alien.
Who the fuck cares?
I amplified my intensity, savoring my wife's moans as she detected my mutual desire. If anything, her body seemed to heat up even more.
"Oh…" she could only say. "Oh… Sam… yes…"
Now it was my turn to dip down for a kiss. Nya breathlessly responded, her content murmurs mashed against the inside of my mouth as our lips rejoined. We moved as one, felt as one, loved as one. It was like we had become a singularity inside this very room. As our tongues touched each other, a new realm of sensation opened up to us as if a light had abruptly began to shine upon our nude forms.
All of these emotions, having previously been locked away, rushed out of me in a flood. The past had been forgotten, all the bad parts at least. Petty fights and insensitive words were to be discarded. None of that mattered anymore. What truly did matter was right before my eyes: the woman that I had never stopped loving.
I wanted her and I knew she wanted me. Even simply knowing you are wanted and loved is enough fuel to make the brightest fire burn.
Nya's watery eyes shone joyfully. Even I had to take a second to wipe my own eyes free. Nya caught this movement and gave a trembling laugh, realizing that we were both completely taken with the other in that point in time. Our similarly bruised and bandaged bodies continued to move together, all caught up in our lovemaking.
Our lips slowly separated from our last kiss, our wet skin peeling from the other at a torturously lethargic pace. I felt my breath catch as my nostrils flared, bringing to me Nya's musky scent. It was a dark scent, cloying and humid. It stuck to the back of my throat as a raw taste began to inhabit my tongue, dredged up purely in my imagination. Her excitement lingered in my mouth and I felt myself quiver inside her. Had I the notion to say a few words to her, that moment had come and gone, for I was quickly overcome with a furious craving, my mind having melted into a puddle from the touch of this quarian.
Very delicately, I wrapped my hands around Nya's lower back as I began to lift myself up, taking her with me. Soon, the two of us were both upright and I adjusted myself on the couch so that I was now oriented in a sitting position, with my feet now flat on the floor. Nya was still facing me and I was still inside her. Her legs had now wrapped around my lower torso, just a couple inches above my hips. The sides of her knees squeezed my lower ribcage tenderly and we both gave grunts as we adjusted to this new position, finding the angle to be very pleasurable.
Very soon, we started to escalate our pace as we became entwined in the other's warm skin. Whereas before we had been going slowly and passionately, we were starting to get a little more daring in our antics. Nya was moaning loudly as she bounced up and down on my lap and I was stifling my own groans by burrowing my head between her breasts, my tongue darting out and tenderly caressing her flesh.
Nya gave a short cry and suddenly grabbed my head so that we might come back together for a furious kiss. We started to double our efforts, enjoying the sounds that we were making together. Our lips were sliding over the other, our tongues were constantly seeking stimulation, and we were vying for control the more that we grappled for domination in our kissing.
Drool coated our chins and saliva specked our necks from our desire. We gave no more thought to our actions anymore. This was just crazed, animal lust. Completely unfocused. Purely reactionary. The best kind of high one could imagine, better than any shot of whisky, toke of a blunt, or any consumption of Vicodin, Percocet, hydrocodone, Ritalin, Adderall, Diazepam, OxyContin, Valium, or Xanax all at once. A complete hormonal deluge that had driven us to sexual insanity.
And what a joyous insanity it was.
Sometimes it felt good to be crazy.
I could feel Nya's belly press up against mine as she took deep, heaving breaths. Her breasts were still squashed against my chest and our bodies were completely coated with sweat, turning the both of us slick. Our hips continued to push against each other, sending ripples of bliss echoing throughout our bodies. After half a minute, Nya's fingers were desperately digging into my back, and her breaths were beginning to quicken. She opened her mouth and rested her teeth upon my shoulder but did not bite down.
"I…" she tried to say, "I…"
Nya soon gave up trying to speak for she quickly lost her inhibitions once more. While she was nibbling on my shoulder, I too was occupying myself in multiple ways by lightly making a trail across her neck with my tongue. I could feel the veins in her throat throbbing, her esophagus quivering with joy. Her skin was burning hot to the touch and I buried my head in the crook of her neck.
Awed by this attention, Nya started to erupt in peals of astonished laughter, a kind of joy that could only be described as hysteria. Her voice was breathy, coming in rasps, and I felt a powerful urge start to unravel at this wordless declaration of happiness.
Clutching me tightly, Nya took all of two seconds to appraise my face lovingly before she forcefully kissed me for the final time. Our lips remained locked, our moans crashing together. Simultaneously hugging, caressing, and kissing each other, we gasped as our sweaty, naked bodies writhed as one in a sensuous dance. Nya's muffled cries began to escalate, coming in quick bursts… higher… higher… and higher.
Until finally…
Her lower body gave a fierce clench upon me. The rest of her felt like it was melting in my arms as every muscle loosened at once. Nya mewled quietly and fell limp against me as her eyes momentarily rolled into the back of her head.
I collapsed in a fitful heap after that, my own end having come soon after Nya's.
The two of us were still upright but listless, leaning upon the other, breathing hard in ragged gasps. We remained like this for a couple minutes, just calming down and allowing our heart rates to drop a couple of notches. Eventually, I leaned back upon the couch, finally separating from Nya, but she was there alongside me and she fell atop my body as I laid myself on the couch.
I fidgeted in place, frowning for a bit, as I began to perceive for the first time the itchy fabric of the couch as it seemed to scratch my back.
"This isn't a very comfortable couch," I grumbled out loud as I continued to adjust myself until I managed to find a place where I was bothered the least by the fabric.
"Complain, complain," Nya mocked as she reached over me to grab a bottle of water atop the counter. She quickly unscrewed the lid and guzzled about half its contents, smacking her lips in contentment, before offering the bottle to me. I took it gratefully and drained the last of the water after chugging it in four long gulps. Water was ubiquitous to all species – one didn't need to distinguish between levo or dextro versions as anyone could drink it freely without complaints. I lobbed the empty bottle over to a trash can now that we were done with it – I missed of course, but that was hardly worth griping over.
I then dropped a blanket down from where it hung upon the back of the couch so that it would cover our lower torsos. We were now naked from the waist up and still breathing hard, sweat clinging to our bodies. Exhausted, Nya laid her head gently upon my chest as she nudged her body further into me, creating an enormous zone of warmth that kept me from feeling a chill in this dry room. Her elongated six toes nudged my feet, causing me to look down at her to find her smiling up at me – a very simple, smitten smile.
"So," I began as my arm wrapped around her back to hold her close against me, fully cognizant of how precious and fragile her life was, "what's going to happen to us now?"
"Now?" Nya yawned as she tiptoed her fingers up my chest. "I think… that things are going to get less lonely for us in the future."
"Is that a fact?"
"A guarantee," Nya emphasized as she slid forward to provide a light peck upon my lips. "Unless… you feel different about that."
In response, I softly planted my hand upon Nya's cheek, handling her as delicately as one would to fine china. She murmured contently and gingerly kissed my thumb and palm, reveling in the deliberate attentiveness of my actions.
"You really think, after what we just did, that I could walk away from this so easily?" I chuckled. "My god, woman. That just doesn't happen out of nowhere, you know."
"I was just asking to make sure," Nya pouted, her cheeks faintly growing red.
"Look, Nya," I said as I readjusted my position. "I know that I've been a moron lately. I've admitted as much until I've been blue in the face. But I would have to be the biggest moron in the galaxy to turn my back on all the progress we've made in the last few days. Can you understand where I'm coming from? I could never feel differently about wanting to be with you."
Nya didn't answer immediately but instead shook her head, showing teeth in a grin. "You are such a dope," she chided longingly. She kissed my hand again and felt the bones of my palm tenderly. "Way too many fingers in humans," she murmured in abstract thought.
"Not this again," I groaned as I fell back upon the bed.
Nya wiggled her eyebrows suggestively, indicating her mirth she got from teasing me.
Feeling a brief spike of annoyance, I reached down and grabbed Nya's sides, making her squeal from being tickled, before pulling her towards me so that we could lie down together, face to face. I caressed her face longingly, studying her milky eyes with awe. Our fingers knotted together and our bodies squirmed ever so closer against one another.
"Maybe soon," I said, "we'll be able to do this again, only on a soft mattress and with fluffy blankets instead of on a crappy couch. But it's not just for this that I want us to be whole again. I miss what we were and I'd like to get a glimpse of that once more. If that's what you want as well then I will be completely dedicated to that goal, one hundred percent. And that," I gave Nya a peck of my own, "is my guarantee."
I'd like to think that Nya was going to respond to my saccharine promise with something just as meaningful (and corny) due to her rapidly broadening grin, when life decided to throw a wrench into our impromptu plans. It started when the chime to the door suddenly sounded, causing the both of us to jolt on the couch and look towards the doorway. Right away, the decontamination checkpoint was beginning to fill with a medicated sour mist, obscuring the people just a barrier away from entering.
We apparently had visitors.
"Aw, shit," I sighed as I fell into a languid position. "I knew I should have asked Sagan not to allow anyone in."
"Sam!" a horrified Nya whispered as she realized what was about to happen and how the people would react once they saw her. "I'm… I'm naked!"
"Really? I hadn't noticed."
"Sam!"
"Nya, I can't solve the world's problems," I shrugged sarcastically. "I think you're just going to have to… well, cover up as best you can. Unless you think you can get your suit back on in the next ten seconds?"
"No, no, no, no, no, no!" Nya was uttering to herself in a panic. She was all aflutter, caught up in deciding what to do as her mind pulled her in a dozen different directions at once. In the end, with time running out on the clock, the best course of action that she deemed was to pull the blanket all the way up and to bury her head against me so that she would not be able to look at the people coming in.
Resigned to my fate, I simply stayed where I was, already somewhat amused as to how this was going to play out.
In moments, the decontamination chamber dinged, indicating that it was safe for our guests to enter now that they had been sterilized satisfactorily, and Rie and Chandler lumbered awkwardly through the narrow doorway, brushing their clothes free of any chemical traces, not noticing us just yet.
"Hey guys," Rie said absentmindedly as she continued to attend to herself, "thought that you would maybe want to see—whoa!"
Quick spurts of gibberish emitted from Rie's throat as she finally looked up and saw the two of us lying down on the couch together in our states of undress. The blanket was thrown over us so that no one could see anything, but it was still pretty clear as to what the connotations of being caught in such a position would entail. That, and the sweat still clinging to my forehead was painfully apparent.
"Oh, good god," Chandler similarly uttered as he tried to look away in embarrassment, humming to himself as a method of self-distraction.
"Hey guys!" I gave a cheerful wave in a faux tone of jubilation. "You going to make yourselves comfortable?"
Nya punched me in the ribs, hard. "Don't you dare, you bastard!" she sharply uttered, trying not to smile but only from the shock of being completely embarrassed.
"Ummmm…" Rie blanked for a while before she shook herself back to the present. "I think that… we might have come at a wrong time. It wasn't like we had anything important to talk about anyway."
"You think?" I repeated in amusement. I then nudged Nya, fully knowing that I was going to pay for my actions. "Don't be rude. Say hi to our friends."
"I'm going to kill you!" Nya mumbled into my shoulder in between disbelieving peals of laughter.
Rie awkwardly gave a wave for Nya as she and Chandler started edging back to the door. "So…" she said, "…I guess this really does mean that you guys are back to normal, huh?"
"Yes it does," I admitted without a second of hesitation before I started waving my hand to usher them out, now sensing that Nya was starting to actually be annoyed with me. "Now, please get out of our room."
"Still, I'm very happy that the two of you—,"
"I said get the hell out of our room!" I said a little louder as I lightly lobbed a tissue box somewhat in Rie's direction. It harmlessly bounced off the wall and Rie took that as her cue to shut up and leave, but not without shooting the both of us a wry smirk before she turned and left through the door.
I was nearly about to settle back down when all of a sudden, now that there was no one else in the room anymore, Nya rose from where she was and began pummeling my chest with quick, jabbing blows, fighting hard to keep her incredulous grin locked away.
"Hey, ow! Ow! Ow!" I yelped with laughs of my own. "I'm still healing, woman!"
"You stupid, stupid, stupid idiot! Stupid man!" Nya emphasized each time she hit me, but her blows were nowhere near hard enough to actually hurt me – she was playing up her anger just to get her point across. "You think you can get away with embarrassing me that easily?"
"At the cost of my health?!" I continued to chortle as I threw up my arms to defend myself, but Nya would have none of it as she was now darting her hands in and out of my defenses to smack me wherever she could lay her hands on me.
"I technically died, mister, so don't you hang your own woes over me!"
I then caught her wrists in mid-air and she struggled lightly, both trying to break away and already capitulated at her situation. She gave me a long, exasperated look before I raised my head up to give her a gentle kiss. She did not even resist at all after that. I just couldn't help myself; I was very turned on by her playful aggressiveness.
Perhaps this sort of effect was exactly what Nya had in mind when she had begun to attack me in her halfhearted manner. But whether she intended it to play out this way or not, she was not resisting at the overall outcome. Nor did she resist when I flipped her on the couch, throwing the blanket off of us, so that I was on top of her so that I could press myself against her limber frame while our kisses kept intensifying. If anything, she was responding just as strongly, her eyes now closed shut in bliss while her hips started to push up towards me.
"You up for another go at things?" Nya arced an eyebrow playfully, her faux anger forgotten.
I briefly looked down at my waist to confirm. "I might need a few more minutes to get things started, but no matter. I know of other ways to occupy my time."
With a manic grin, I kissed Nya on the cheek before I started to squirm my way down her body, my lips and tongue making a wet trail starting from her neck down to her breasts, over her belly and cute navel, to finally between her legs. I kissed her strong thighs to tease her, noting that she was already glistening with arousal – temptation for me to keep going, I see. Nya writhed on the couch, impatient, her lips parted in a longing gasp as I inched my head down so slowly that she was starting to ache in need.
"Don't worry," I smiled up at Nya, my breath tickling her skin. "I'll be gentle."
"You always are," Nya sighed as her hands began to ruffle my hair.
Soon she was starting to undulate as I lovingly attended to her, keeping things going at a slow and steady pace. Her stomach was heaving in arousal and her toes were helplessly curling from the wonderful treatment I was giving her.
However, Nya gave a frown just for a moment as she briefly adjusted herself in a better position. "You're right. This couch is uncomfortable."
Such distractions were quickly forgotten as she cried out in pleasure, her thighs tightening around my head.
It would not behoove me to say that the rest of the day as well as most of the next would play out in a languid fashion. If I were to mention that Nya and I had every intention of making things as uncomplicated and as easygoing as possible, then that would technically be the truth of the matter. 'Technically' being the key word.
Reality wound up playing out much, much differently.
Whatever notions that Nya or I might have had with regards to how we should approach our relationship from this point forward, it was summarily derailed by what I would describe as a convenient as well as an astonishing symmetry between our basest desires. More like carnal desires, actually. It turned out we were too weak-willed to cram these instincts down for logic and reason to take over, so what happened was that the primal sides of our brains completely controlled us for quite an inordinate amount of time.
Well… we weren't exactly complaining about the hows and whys of what we were doing. Nope, we were definitely enjoying ourselves, the sick deviants that we were.
Apparently, after being separated from each other for almost an entire year and that we had not had sex with each other in that amount of time, it should have been fairly obvious that we were itching to make up for lost time. One ten-minute quickie was not going to satiate things whatsoever – we had to be more devoted than that. So, we continued to show 'devotion' to each other with the nagging expectation that we would get this rampant lust out of system most likely within the next hour or so.
But an hour passed and we were still grabbing at the other in a haze.
Then another hour flew by with the same result.
And another.
And another.
Then we took a nap…
…only to wake up after a couple hours and to resume the action where we left off. Absolute insanity.
I was only partially regretting my decision to take sildenafil somewhere in the middle of our lovemaking so that my sexual libido could be sustained for longer than usual. I guess my mindset was that Nya would be the one to wear out first and that I would at least be there to meet her level of intensity the entire time. But Nya never seemed to tire and my libido was not decreasing. Not that I wanted it to decrease, but I was sort of locked into having sex with my wife for hours and hours on end.
At least until one of us could go no further. Little did I know that the both of us were too determined to give up so easily.
There were worse fates to be tied to.
The overall point was that we simply spent a frankly irrational amount of time having sex, showcasing our physical love the best way we could. Whether we envisioned this to be an official apology for our treatment of each other in the past, or that we were simply killing time by banging our brains out, or that we genuinely enjoyed pleasuring the other this way, the real conclusions were a bit muddled on that front.
There was probably no spot in the hospital room that went untouched in our wild throes. The couch, the bed, even the shower was subject to our passionate intercourse. The shower was the most interesting spot because it was barely big enough to fit one person alone, so it was kind of awkward yet intoxicating as we had to position ourselves in a standing pose to be most comfortable, all while the spray of the shower was raining down upon us, turning our bodies slippery as we slid against each other in frenzied thrusts, our lips locked together the entire time. But since our venue was cramped to begin with, I actually got elbowed in the head a couple of times on accident, knocking me silly and resulting in the both of us cracking up for a minute or two in helpless hysterics.
The levity was good. It helped dispel this otherwise serious atmosphere that had been building ever since we had woken this morning. Nya was behaving more and more like her old self: cheerful and intense, supportive and unyielding.
But there was still a fleeting notion tugging at the back of my mind, one that I could not shake. Even when I was holding Nya close to me as we slept for a bit, keeping her protected and safe against my body, I could not help but feel a bit of trepidation, like this entire day was merely a dream and that I would wake any second now.
Yet I did not seem to wake. The day kept going on and on. Sensation lingered upon me in burning waves, in prickling dewdrops. This energy that I had… it could not be the byproduct of even my most lucid imaginings. Maybe this was really happening, no matter how crazy my life felt now.
Eventually, we finally did tire after one last session on Nya's bed the next morning. I still felt no signs that I would be roused from this wonderful trip, making me believe that I was solidly soaked into this humid reality along with the love that radiated off of my wife. We laid next to each other, atop the sheets, as we fought to catch our breath. The sex had been incredible, blindingly so. We had proceeded at different speeds to switch things up before it got too stale. Our hands and mouths had been everywhere on our bodies, leaving no area of skin untouched.
Our exertions had taken their toll on the both of us. Nya was a drooling, quivering mess next to me while I was numb below the waist and the receptor of a massive headache. Our bodies throbbed with a slow agony, but we were grateful for this pain. It helped remind us that we were alive.
Next to me, in the corner of my eye, I saw a mass of gray skin tremble. Nya groaned as she shut her eyes and clasped her hands to her temples. "Ugh," she could only muster.
"You said it," I similarly mumbled.
"Oww," she continued to moan. "Ow, my head. I know I haven't been drinking lately but if I did I would swear that I was drunk or that this is the worst hangover I've ever had."
"Post-coital hangover. That's a thing."
"Is it?" Nya raised her head, incredulous. "Or are you just making that up?"
"Nope, totally real. It's the level of exertion that causes the headache, you see, partly because we're dehydrated or that our neck and facial muscles have been contracting so much—"
"You're cute when you explain this stuff to me," Nya giggled. She then turned her body so that she was partly laying atop me, a glow definitely enveloping her as a warm smile was etched on her face. She began teasing the hairs on my face and I basked in her touch, especially of her heat as her smooth skin became all the more apparent to my senses.
But Nya seemed to sense something, perhaps it was a sort of aura I was giving off, because I quickly felt her stiffen against me. I cracked an eye open to find her staring at me with concern.
"What's wrong?" Nya asked before I could say a word.
Momentarily caught off guard, all I could do was shrug. "I don't know," I mumbled. "It's just that… yesterday was wonderful. A day that I could probably not have believed was possible. But there's just been something… it sounds kind of stupid… but…"
"Tell me," Nya tenderly nudged my shoulder.
"I just… are you wondering that we might be going too fast?"
Nya blinked. "What do you mean?" the quarian asked.
"I mean that after all that we've done and said, even after the sex, I'm kind of struggling to catch up. So many moments… so little time for me to just process everything. Just a week ago, if you recall, you despised me. Now here we are, all seemingly back to normal. Is that healthy for us to flip-flop like that so quickly?"
Nya breathed a soft curse as she began looking over me, off into space near the window pane. "Damn it. I probably shouldn't have jumped you like that yesterday, then. This wasn't what I intended. The last thing I ever wanted to do was confuse you, Sam."
"No, no!" I protested as I hugged Nya closer. "Please don't apologize for that. I wanted that just as much as you did. I'm not confused because of you, Nya. I just want to make sure if everything is really okay between us and that… and that this isn't just some fling."
"Sam…" Nya sighed as she propped herself up on an elbow, a bemused expression on her face. "If this was really a fling, one would think that I kind of put a whole lot more effort into such a thing than necessary. If I really felt so little about you, I would not have bothered to draw out yesterday evening beyond fifteen minutes at most. I kept going because I cared, because that was what I wanted to do with you."
"So it's really that easy for you? You honestly don't have any reservations?"
"None that I can think of," Nya shrugged after taking a moment to ponder. "Just dispel the notion that I don't want to go any further with this, because it's not true. I want you to stay with me. I want," she took a breath, "you to come back with me. Move back in, you know. Back into our apartment. Because…" she simpered, "…in case you haven't noticed, I'm kind of fond of you."
Maybe it really was the simplest thing to imagine. I reacted to the request with a brimming chuckle, the lights of the room beginning to take on a washed out color. The smile refused to be suppressed and I arched my back in a stretch dredged up from the relief that was aching to be free of my bones.
To have my future set in stone once more. It was better than I ever could have hoped for.
"Never refuse a request from a lady," I smirked as I settled into Nya's embrace.
Four hours later - Nya
Nya was absolutely besotted.
She lay back alone on the bed, her husband having temporarily left to run an important errand, giving her the entire room to herself. She had her hospital gown back on again, rather begrudgingly though, but she was positioned so that the artificial light of the Presidium was streaming in through the blinds, warming her skin and making her prickle with sensation.
What a feeling it was to be out of her suit like this, she mused to herself. Such a torturous dry spell, now finally upheaved in a deluge of emotion and desire to be expressed in the most intimate of physical ways. She still ached all over, but Nya would not trade this feeling for anything else in the galaxy right now.
She was in love again, madly so.
Nya was replaying the entirety of the events from yesterday evening to this morning in her mind, a big, dumb smile permanently etched on her face. There was much to glean from that period that had been very enjoyable, but not just on the purely physical level. There had been this gigantic release of emotional tension that had occurred back then, causing the overbearing fog that had clouded her mind to begin to dissipate, enabling her to see clearly.
So… Nya thought as she reclined upon the bed, kind of like a… mental orgasm? It sounded dumb in her head – she sure as hell was not going to ask Sam if that was a thing. He would probably just laugh and she would get embarrassed, but she did know that she would have ample opportunities to exact her revenge sooner or later on him if he did make the poor decision to have a laugh at her expense.
She still was not going to mention this line of thought, though.
Despite all that, there was a subtle inclination in the back of Nya's head that was clamoring for more stimulation from her husband. Amazingly, she still did not feel satiated. Nya was astonished that her sexual instincts had not been lessened at all since this morning. Either her libido had gone completely through the roof or maybe she still had not yet reached the level of satisfaction that required her full attention.
Nya ground her back teeth. She was just going to have to stuff this feeling down.
She knew that she should not feel like her desires had gone unrequited. After all, she and Sam had probably acted out three weeks' worth of their normal rate of intimacy in a span of about eight hours. More than enough to tire out most living beings. And they had not exactly kept their style all that simple throughout that timeframe – they had actively gone out of their way to switch things up before one of them tired of a certain position, or if they wanted to try something new with their partner by doling out pleasure in a one-way exchange like oral sex, for example. Definitely nothing to complain about in terms of how intense their passion had gotten.
It was just that, Nya noted sadly, she had been so foolish to push this person away, all because he had been gallant to a fault. She would have understood if Sam had wanted to treat her with a little more indifference, but she was actually surprised when she discovered that Sam was just as eager to pick up things where they had left off. He was not delusional, that man, just… relieved. Relieved that no more misunderstandings stood between them and that they could finally make progress without devolving into anger.
Keelah, Nya thought, I'm going to be apologizing to that man for the next decade because of what I had said to him before.
At the very least, she had more than enough mental imagery to keep her occupied while Sam was off doing… whatever it was that he was doing. It was surprisingly easy to reminisce about those tender moments when Sam had been very close to her while they had been tangled in a naked heap and sweating. She still remembered the naughty words that he had whispered into her ear, which had caused tingles to emit all across her skin and for her heart to flutter wildly as her limbs had melted into jelly.
The simultaneous nature of seemingly sharing a body and mind while making love was simply addicting to Nya. It was pretty much hopeless, but Nya could not help herself.
She was just too damn happy.
Her attention was then drawn to the doorway as it began hissing in response to a person having entered the decontamination chamber.
Lo and behold, just the man she had been thinking about.
Sam
I can certainly attest that it was so nice to enter a room and to see Nya have on a sincere expression as she looked in my direction. It was just relieving to know that I no longer had anything to fear with her in my presence anymore. Things had changed, but they had changed all the way back to normalcy.
Just the way I wanted it to be.
I returned the smile but I'll admit that a bit of frost resulted in me having a somewhat melancholy look that Nya definitely noticed, as her grin faltered a bit as well.
"Good to see that you're up," I said as I approached where she was lying in bed. "Not feeling crappy, are you?"
"Better than I was yesterday," Nya said. "Took some anti-inflammatory meds just to keep the swelling down. I'm still feeling the effects of my temporary 'death.'"
"I can imagine it not being all that comfortable."
"Just a little bit," Nya chuckled before she appraised me thoughtfully. "You look like you have something on your mind, Sam."
"I wear it that plainly?"
"Quite plainly, actually."
I chewed my lower lip, unsure of how I wanted to handle this initially but I figured that it was probably best to say it straight out, damn the consequences. "You don't miss anything, do you? There is something on my mind, Nya, and I wanted to discuss it with you right away—"
"Please, no more self-loathing," she groaned.
I gave a start at being interrupted. "Wait, what? No, of course not. What I was going to say, before you interjected—" Nya gave me a face at that, "—that your father is waiting out in the hall."
Nya said up straight on the bed as if she had been prodded with a red-hot poker. Her face turned ashen and she instinctively clutched her hospital robe closer to her body. "Iroa?" she uttered in horror. "No… no. Get him out of here. I don't want to talk to that bastard!"
"Wait, wait, wait," I urged as I leaned forward to gently grasp Nya's wrist. "Hold on a second. Before you go making declarations, just listen to me for a bit."
"Why is he here?!" Nya hissed as she started to thrash against me in defiance. "I told him not to come near me, not since Rannoch!"
"That's the thing, Nya. I invited him here."
It was hard to tell if Nya was more disappointed in me or more shocked at being in such close proximity to her father. Her mouth twisted into different shapes as she tried to think of something to say, her brain failing to justify this last piece of information that I had just doled onto her.
"What," Nya began flatly, "mad purpose would you have for bringing that man over? How could you possibly look him in the eye and do this?!"
I pressed a finger into Nya's shoulder as a way to calm her down through the firm contact. "Because I owe him, Nya. I never did explain myself fully to you on that front. I only escaped Eyzn because of Iroa. He's pretty much the only reason I managed to come back at all."
Nya's mouth closed shut and she looked at me in a totally different light. I could tell that the gears were cantankerously cranking away in her head, spinning wildly as her initial expectations were all disintegrating with the revelation of this new logic.
"But… but I thought…" Nya tried, "…I thought that Sagan was the one who got you out."
I shook my head. "Sagan helped, but that was only because the entire plan was Iroa's idea from the start. He deliberately sought Sagan out and they came up with the plan to rescue me."
"I still don't understand why he would do such a thing like that. I… I don't know how he could have changed."
I gave Nya's hand a squeeze. "Isn't it obvious?" I asked her.
Nya, confused, shook her head almost timidly.
I nodded my head sagely. "It's because he did it for you. He finally realized how he could make his daughter happy, I guess, and that was by returning me to you when I could not do such a thing myself. He could have left me to rot, yet he did the exact opposite." Nya seemed to be processing this information still and I gave a quick glance back toward the doorway. "Look, Nya, I brought Iroa here because I felt that he deserved one last chance with you. He really did go above and beyond to make sure that I got out from Eyzn's clutches alive. If you really don't want to talk with him, just say the word and I'll send him away. He's not going to come in this room until you give your permission, he knows that. With that in mind, do you still want him to leave?"
It was painstakingly obvious that Nya was toying with the idea of spurning Iroa, to leave him in the dust, but at her very core, Nya was not that cruel. Her moral center was very much aligned with the desire to do good and the galactic sense of karma was urging its logical path upon her very cortex. She considered the bedsheets, then the window, and finally me before she took a deep breath and gave a slow blink.
"All right," she sighed. "He can come in. But—," she pointed a finger, "he's not going to look at me like this."
To emphasize that point, she grabbed at the curtain partition and swung it forward, causing her to be hidden away from view as the partition traveled on the overhead railing and surrounded the bed. I could still get a faint outline of her face through the thin fabric, but it was obscured enough that any average outsider would have no idea what they would be looking at.
It would be pointless to try and bargain with her further. At least she let herself be somewhat amicable to the idea of talking to her father. Hell, besides using the curtain to hide herself from Iroa, she had pretty much agreed to this encounter entirely.
I crossed my fingers and hoped this wouldn't end awkwardly.
Sagan, who was still standing guard outside, would receive a message from me indicating for him to let Iroa in. In fifteen seconds the decontamination cycle was doing its work as I now saw hints of golden fabric peek through the glossy barrier as Iroa was complying with the commanded protocols. I awaited him with my arms folded in front of me, with just the tiniest bit of trepidation holding close to my psyche.
"Sam," Iroa began as he stuck out his hand for me to shake once he walked into the room, which I took, surprised he remembered the custom, "I'm glad to see that you're doing much better than I saw you last. I hope you don't have any hard feelings about me shooting you, huh?"
The elder man was looking spryer since I had last seen him. No longer quite the pathetic shell of a quarian, there seemed to be a spring in Iroa's step as he entered the room. Even the soft wheat colors of his suit seemed to be a little more vibrant, his eyes gleaming beyond the yellow barrier of his visor.
"Just slight scarring, no big deal," I smirked as I tapped the area on my stomach where the practice round had slammed into me. "Wish you could have given me prior notice but I kind of understand the need for all the secrecy."
"Well, it got the reaction we needed, huh? Eyzn actually thought you had died and that geth of yours did quite well to spirit you back and get you back on your feet. But we can discuss that later. I understand that things have been… a little tense since you got back home?"
"Ah, yeah," I rubbed the back of my head sheepishly. I didn't know if Iroa knew about Nya nearly dying or not, so I decided to skirt around that subject without directly lying to him. "We had a few close calls, but things are somewhat stable right now. We've… uh, things are definitely better between us now, Nya and I. I'd say that she's doing just fine."
"Is she here?"
I pointed to the cordoned off bed. "Right over there."
Iroa dipped his head in acknowledgement as he tentatively edged closer and closer to where Nya lay. I pulled over a chair for him to sit in, which he graciously accepted. The cloth that separated him and Nya's bed was still preventing him from looking directly at her and he was shifting in his seat nervously as a result.
For some reason, Iroa was now a little choked up for words, perhaps fearful at the fact that he could speak to his daughter once more. This had been the first opportunity in years and it looked like he was wracking his brain in order to find a course of dialogue that would not immediately piss Nya off. Their history together had been brief, but to describe it as anything less than fractious was doing it a disservice.
I took a seat on the couch opposite Iroa, staying quiet while waiting for the man to begin to speak. This meeting had been his initial idea, so it was on him to start it.
"It's funny how one's perspective changes in loneliness," Iroa initially rasped as he toyed with his fingers, taking quick glances towards the covered bed. "One has time to… to do a bit of introspection. Reflections on the past… you know, that sort of thing. If nothing else, I think that it did me some good. Gave me time to mentally cleanse myself. I could only rely on myself to keep me entertained instead of having to subject to the sycophantic cravings of others not all that concerned about my well-being."
"If you're trying to come up with an excuse for why you behaved the way you did all that time ago," Nya's voice sourly scythed through the curtain, "then I don't want to hear it."
The look in Iroa's eyes was akin to those of a wounded puppy's and I actually started to feel kind of bad for the man, despite myself.
"I don't think that I'll ever be able to excuse my actions, Nyareth," Iroa sighed. "I know what I did to you and Sam was… wrong. Completely wrong. I did not handle myself as a father should and I have accepted that my punishment is fair. However, do you believe that I can never be redeemed? I don't ask for you to look upon me as your parent, but that I can at least ease the guilt that I have been carrying for all these years."
"And I'm the one that can help you with your pain?" Nya snorted, her shadowy outline shifting a bit. "So you've taken all the responsibility for you own actions, is that what you're trying to have me believe? I know what you've done for Sam, Iroa, but don't you think that I might see this as just a tactic to win me back over? You're cleverer than you lead others to believe, Iroa. I know how conniving you really are. Would you really stoop so low in such a transparent way to gain my trust?"
Iroa helplessly glanced back toward me, as if he was expecting me to lend him a friendly word or two of assistance. I just shrugged. Iroa was going to have to figure this one out on his own. Nya was the one he needed to convince, not me.
"I saved Sam," Iroa stated carefully, "not because I expected to be rewarded with your presence, Nyareth. I did it because… because I realized that there was no other course of action that I found to be right. I saw how happy the two of you were back on Rannoch. You were just so… devoted… and I had been shamefully blind to that aspect. For months I had been asking myself why I had failed at being a good father, until Eyzn told me of his new involvement in your life. I saw how Eyzn was trying to keep you apart with hatred and suddenly, it all clicked for me. I had been in Eyzn's position once, trying to control people out of fear and anger, and it had only made things worse. I knew then that it was my duty as a father to make sure that my daughter and my stepson – my real stepson – were safe and sound back together, free of scrutiny and sadism. I did it because I wanted to do the right thing, not because I wanted recognition for my actions."
Nya did not immediately respond to that and Iroa kept going after taking a much needed breath.
"I… am fully aware… that you're probably disappointed in me. I can't blame you for that or even say that you're wrong. It's like I said: I've already accepted that there's no excuse for my behavior—"
With a raking of metal clasps upon a steel bar, the curtain surrounding Nya's bed was suddenly whisked away, sending a wall of artificial sunlight streaming into the room, revealing the infuriated and unmasked face of my wife as she beheld her father with bared teeth.
"Disappointed?" Nya repeated in a hushed tone as her father jerked backward in astonishment. "Disappointed? I cannot fathom why you would choose a word so insignificant to how I really feel, Iroa! Tell me, do I look disappointed at all to you?!"
Iroa seemed to be at a loss for words since his eyes were unable to be torn away from looking upon his daughter's face. Nya had chosen her moment well. Iroa had been thoroughly caught off guard with this revelation for this was the first time he had seen Nya without a mask on and her expression was one twisted by anger. Iroa would know, by this point, that he truly reaped the consequences of his actions now that he could see its effects for himself.
"I let you down, Nyareth – Nya, I mean," Iroa said after gaining his wits back, but he was unable to look away from the face of his daughter, completely awed. "I admit it and will continue to admit it every time you should ask."
"That's true," Nya spat. "You really have let me down during every single imaginable moment in my life."
Iroa drooped his head, saddened. "Every single moment?"
Nya was about to respond scathingly but she halted as she realized what Iroa was referring to and set her jaw, flushed.
"All right… maybe not every moment."
"Nya, please," Iroa desperately wrung his hands. "I cannot profess my guilt any more. I've been an idiot, a fool, a complete dotard. If you don't believe that there will be any way that you'll ever forgive me, then tell me! I'll leave peacefully, never to see you again. I just can't abide being tormented by you, not knowing for sure what's real or not."
By this point, Nya and I were getting increasingly uncomfortable at Iroa's begging. This was starkly different from the time that we had first met this man back on Rannoch – this was genuine remorse that could not be emphasized further lest it fall into parody. I shifted on the couch, nervous as to the decision that Nya would have to make soon.
If it were up to me, I probably would have pardoned Iroa, but this was a choice that was not up to me to be the final voice on. Nya had that honor and I had no say in the matter. The man was not my father and I was already biased on how I had come to my decision, but I readied myself for the worst and tried to adopt Nya's mindset for why she would turn him away, if it came to that.
Oh, but how she really wanted to be done with him. It was easy to tell, she was cautiously looking in all directions, uncertain of herself. This would be an opportunity she would never have again – the chance to finally send Iroa away once and for all. She owed him nothing, despite what Iroa had done for me. She was most likely entertaining the notion of spitting in his face and having him vanish for good, unmoved by his sincerity. It would be a conclusion that I could sympathize with… but may not agree with.
Yet, she still was keeping silent. The old Nya would have been chomping at the bit to rid herself of her father. What was going on in her head right now?
Iroa then abruptly stood from his chair and gave her a respectful nod as he turned to the door to leave. "I'll leave you be, then," he said, certain of the outcome. "Sam," he then said to me in way of parting.
"Iroa," I similarly replied.
The quarian took only three steps before a tender word from Nya was spoken from behind him.
"Wait."
Her father halted in place before slowly turning back around apprehendingly. Nya was still glancing down at her bedsheets, her hands limp upon her lap, shoulders rising up and down with her heavy breathing.
"I don't know if I can ever completely forgive you," Nya said as she finally raised her head up, determination and consternation mixed in her expression, a slight grimace tugging at the corner of her mouth, "but that doesn't mean that I'm not willing to give you a chance."
Iroa processed this information for a beat, slowly nodding as he ran through the implications in his head. He gave a very miniscule bounce in his knees, probably the most vivid expression of joy that I had ever seen come from the man. Then again, I would not have been all too surprised had he just dropped to his knees and began to thank his ancestors in ragged bellows for bestowing this opportunity unto him, or some kooky crap like that. Thankfully, his subtle reaction was all the more impressive, not to mention gratifying to witness.
"One chance is all I need, Nya," Iroa responded gratefully, his throat sounding clogged with emotion. "Thank you. I promise that I won't let you down again."
"I hope that's true," Nya said wistfully.
"Still, I'll let you be. I don't want to intrude any longer than I have to. Besides, you're probably still tired from your healing."
Nya and I shared a quick look at that, each of us wondering if we were going to emit in a fit of giggles at such an opportune moment. Fortunately, we were adults so we managed to keep our immature thoughts to ourselves, but damned if we weren't thinking of raunchy memories right off the bat.
As Iroa was about to step back into the decontamination chamber to leave, he gave one last look to Nya. "I'm not sure if you were aware of it or not, but… you look so much like your mother. She would have been proud to see you now. I'm certain of it."
The air had cleared once Iroa had gone, but there was still the drowning roar left behind in his wake of the troubling silence that had fallen over us.
Wounds in our hearts clotted as my dusted mind was spared one out of many burdens weighing upon it.
Still, it felt like I was being weighed down.
A/N: I know that many of you have been clamoring for a little more light-heartedness in this story, so hopefully this begins to make up for all of the dreary moments that I had you endure. Don't get too complacent though, because soon we'll be right back into the mix.
Playlist:
Loving: "Main Theme" by Craig Armstrong from the film In Time
Iroa and Nya Reconcile: "The Last Man" by Clint Mansell from the film The Fountain