"I heard you were defeated." On the pillow, Carol turns her head, not wanting to meet Yon Rogg's probing gaze. The usual bright city lights of Xandar are diminished by greying skies, the silver spines of sky scrapers are turned practically invisible against the pale weather. Winter grips the planet in an unforgiving icy fist. Huffing out a breath, Carol chews the inside of her bottom lip.
"Defeated. That's a nice word for it." She prefers looking at the greying skies instead of him, her words escape her for communicating something of that calibre and nature.
Yon sits in a metal chair next to her hospital bed, she'd been asleep when he had originally come in. She should really ask him how long he had been there for, but somehow she manages to realise it doesn't really matter.
She's surprised he hadn't gone through her medical chart, unless he had already and he's just waiting for her to relay the information herself. She wouldn't put it past him. She turns her head on the pillow, watching his face try and quash any emotional reaction.
"So, what are you doing on Xandar?" She changes the subject and she watches him watching her knowing she's changed the subject on purpose. He doesn't frown. He doesn't even smirk.
Maybe he does know what's in the medical chart.
"Figured there weren't a great deal of places to go. But I know of Kree weapon schematics. Layouts of bases, and troop formations. Such information would be useful in the right hands. Or in this case the wrong ones." Yon does a slight nod and she's wondering if it's for her benefit or his.
"That's treason." she half smirks.
"Not when you're not loyal to the opposing side anymore." There's a depth to his expression that she can't quite read but she's too exhausted to figure it out.
"Mm." She narrows her eyes at him, but says nothing. "That uniform suits you." And it did, black material cut in a polo shirt design with the six pointed Xandarian star over the heart. Not exactly a far cry from what she was used to seeing him wear. "Are you part of Nova?"
"Just. Teaching self defence for the new recruits. There's some skills that can be transferred no matter where you go. No matter what side you're on." And he was right, of course.
Carol smiles warmly. "That's nice. Really. I couldn't imagine you doing anything else." She wouldn't have thought they would give him a starfighter right off the cuff. Xandar are a nobel race but they're not stupid. No one in their right mind would give a dishonored Kree the means to obliterate their landscape from above in no seconds flat. "How long have you been here for?"
"Thirteen months, give or take." Yon rubs the back of his neck and grimances. There's something about that statement that's a little off. Kree or no Kree, zooming through the ranks of the Nova Corps usually takes a year from most Xandarians at least.
"Wow. Are you kidding me? That's fast." She says, half grinning, trying to probe without is being obvious.
"Mm. I had help." Leaving it there, Yon avoids her gaze and shifts his attention to looking at the bleak skies.
…..
It's at that moment when there's a rap at the door and Carol's heart swells a little at the sight of Nova Prime and she quickly invites her in.
She'd quickly taken Carol under her wing the minute they met and Carol had originally had the inkling the older woman respected Carol for being another female soldier in a man's world. Or she saw her something as a replacement/surrogate daughter. Not having any of her own.
Or maybe she simply enjoyed the company, that was also a possibility.
"Rael, hey, what brings you here?" Rael comes over and hugs Carol tightly. She smelt of flowers.
"Can't I stop by and see how you're doing?" Nova smiles warmly, pulling away before she drops the amile in seconds sensing Yon in the folding chair. "Ah, you have a friend."
Friend. Carol smirks inwardly. Whatever Carol and Yon were to each other couldn't be defined as easily and naively with the word 'friend.'
"Don't worry about him, he's harmless." Yon makes a face but says nothing, instead, embarking on a five second staring match with Carol. Which, in turn, she enjoys and wins with a smirk. "You can say anything in front of him."
Rael turns her attention back to Carol. "You can stay as long as you wish on Xandar. It's our honour to keep you. Whatever you want, feel free to ask. You'll be given as many credits as you need to make you comfortable and you can stay here indefinitely if that's what you wish."
Nova brushes hair from Carol's face, her hands feel warm and soft like soft leather against her skin. Carol has to look away and swallows down a jagged sob. Sure, she was famous across the galaxy at this point. But being showered with love and compassion and whole planets and peoples giving her the royal treatment still wasn't something she was used to. "Thank you, Rael, really."
"We'll catch the monster that did this, Carol." There's a gravity to Nova's voice which Carol both respects and enjoys. And in that one minute, she understands why she's the lead of Nova and not some spotty faced boy hungering for a promotion; commanding though soft, compassionate but unyielding. Nova moves away after a few minutes and she looks at Yon with a mix of confusion and detest but Carol lets it slide, watching her exit the room, leaving Carol feeling a little brighter than before.
An awkward silence looms, so Carol shifts in bed to roll over to her side.
She lifts Yon's hand to her side and links their fingers together. "You've read my medical report didn't you?"
"I did."
Carol lets out a well deserved sigh. "So you know what Immortus did to me?"
"Mm-mm." Yon tightens his grip.
She laughs humorlessly and her eyes prick with unshed tears. "How aren't you tearing apart half of the hospital?"
"Believe me, it's getting more and more difficult not to." Her chest and face hurts from holding her breath as she half smiles, she sits up and tugs on Yon's hand to come over and cuddle. He does.
"I've fucking missed you." She sniffles against him. He's warm and heavy and large and he feels like home.
Yon clears his throat. "I've missed you every day." He says sternly and she believes it, enjoying his closeness. Reducing six years of being in each other company all day, every day to zero time at all messed her up for half a year at best. "Listen, I know Nova's given you money, but I wanted to know if you'd like somewhere else to stay? Somewhere that isn't a hospital."
Carol's heart swells again and she snuggles into him a little bit more. "Mm, I would love that."
It's a fifteen minute walk from the hospital to Yon's apartment. He'd been given one in the centre of the city so it wouldn't take long to get to work and back every day. He'd stuffed her suit into a bag, not wanting her to draw any unneeded attention and they'd gone to find his new home. Carol had thrown his coat over her hospital gown and left without so much of a fuss.
His apartment is clinical, the walls and general decor were shades of white and beige, interspersed with the odd arrangement of foliage and furniture which looked like it was there more out of necessity rather than comfort. The dining table slash workbench was littered with any and every type of firearm going and a few pieces of technology. The blinds were already drawn which blocked out the harsh, gloomy skies.
Yon's since moved into the bedroom and starts taking a blanket off the bed. Carol sighs heavily, glaring incredulously. "I'm not taking your bed, Yon. We can both share a bed without it being...you know." Carol shrugs.
He stops. "I'm surprised you'd want to share a bed with me after…." Yon hesitates, but says nothing.
She's silent for a few moments, frowning. "If you wanted to hurt me you'd use your fists. Not your….body to do it with." She sits on the edge of the bed and looks away from him, picking a hole in the hem of the gown. "Could I have something to sleep in? Didn't exactly pack a bag."
Yon nods and goes through the nearest drawer, finds a shirt which he says is old, but she somehow has trouble believing that considering the state of the other room.
…..
Carol wakes up, for the first time in a while in something which wasn't a hospital bed. As ramshackled as Yon's existence on Xandar was. She couldn't deny he had a comfy bed. Carol rolls over to find him already awake and a lot closer than he was the night before. "Mmm, what time is it?" Carol yawns and tries to make out the clock behind Yon's shoulder.
Yon doesn't move and says simply, "sometime around midday."
Trying not to yawn, she wonders. "Why aren't you at work?"
"I took the day off." He says, cooly.
"You didn't need to do that." Carol stretches, then curls her body up once more.
"No, but I wanted to."
A beat passes and she lowers her gaze. "Don't look at me like that."
"Like what?"
Carol sucks her lip. "Like I'm made of glass."
Yon makes a noise in the back of his throat and rolls over onto his side. "Surely, I'm the last person who would look at you like that?"
"Hm." Carol snuggles more under the quilt and says nothing, avoiding him.
Yon sits up and clears his throat, breaking the awkward tension in the room. "Now, as enjoyable as you borrowing my clothes can be, I'm off for supplies and I thought I'd best get you some clothes. Somehow I don't think you'll fit into anymore of my clothes." The bed wobbles as he starts to get up. "Is there anything you want?"
There was a question. Carol frowns. "Not really, though you really should use my card to buy things with. Especially if you're buying them for me."
Yon starts to dress out of sight. "Mm, if you insist." She rolls over to give him some privacy, at least.
Carol decides it would be rude if she was still in bed when he came back. Not that she should care about that sort of thing but she was a guest, and she wasn't going to treat his hospitality like shit, she gets up a few minutes after he leaves, hearing his footsteps and the door shut.
She moves into the living area, wearing the quilt as a makeshift cape and shoving a gun off the couch larger than both her thighs combined. Easily, she curls up, watching a galactic space news channel.
Yon comes back not a couple hours later, covered in snow, a bag under his arm and something wrapped which looks fresh but doesn't really smell it as far as she was concerned. By this time, she's laid on the sofa with her head propped up on one of her arms. "Hey." He calls and she does her best to smile back.
"Hey yourself. What the hell is that?" Carol says, wanting to barf.
Yon takes the wrapping off of the mystery object and holds it aloft, like a proud fisherman. "Xandarian snail. Always wanted to try one, never had the means to until now." He then sniffs it with relish making Carol almost gag.
"Ew," Carol winces. "It looks nasty."
Yon hands her a bag of clothes. "There's a few different types in there. I didn't want to stay too long, the shop assistant wanted to know why I was buying women's clothes."
"I dunno. Could see you in a dress." She hums over her shoulder as she walks past him, Carol opens the bag in the bedroom, there's three t-shirts, white, black and navy, and three pairs of lounge pants that should be easily mistaken for sports wear in shades of Xandarian grey. She pulls on a pair right there and then, finding Yon still fascinated by his snail when she comes back into the room, "hey, you have a good eye, they fit snug. Thank you." She sits back on the couch and resumes watching TV.
He comes over and sits next to her with a mouthful of snail, she makes room for him, though leans against him, and crowds his space, her legs toasty and warm under the quilt. She scowls, hears him noisily chewing the snail. "Hey, I was thinking, when you feel up to it..." Carol moves back and craned her neck to glare at him again, accusing him silently of treating her differently than before. "You could come, teach the recruits with me, or spar, either is fine, really." He gulps, swallowing his snail.
Settling herself against him again, she smiles to herself, not exactly in the mood to show him how deeply he affects her, just yet. "Aw, like old times, eh? I'd like that. Will Nova let me?" She asks inquizitive.
"Mm, I should imagine so. I mean, Nova loves you. any chance she could get to train the future of Nova would be more than welcome, I'm guessing."
She thinks about that for a minute. "I noticed some hostility between you and Nova when you were in the room yesterday. Did you and she..." She grins, peering up at him, with a waggle of her eyebrows.
Again, Yon sighs resolute. "Are you suggesting I somehow slept with the head of the Nova Corps to solidify my rank in the Nova Corps forces?" his gaze is hard and penetrating, though has absolutely no effect on her.
"Yup." She says, her grin still locked in place.
Yon turns away with a loud tut, "For one, no. It isn't that dramatic a story, though it is rather a long one."
She sits up a little straighter. "I'm a good listener. You know I am." She lowers her voice a little, not wanting to scare him away like a wild hare.
He lowers his gaze, and she wonders at what he's seeing. "After you...sent me back to Hala, they were less than impressed with my progress. They wanted me to disable you or capture you at best." She grits her teeth at his use of 'disable', though remains silent. "And I failed. I was punished. I'd failed three times too many as far as they were concerned." Yon huffs. "I was exiled for such a grotesque failure, in my despair, I went to Contraxia, drank too much, fought too much, slept too little, ended up making a name for myself and not in a good way. Nova were keeping peace at time, they ended up arresting me for...well...a few many things, Rael recognised my uniform, ran blood tests to see if I had stolen it or if I was in fact a drunken Kree on the wrong side of Hala," he sighs, "She offered me a job with the Nova Corps to work off my sentence, I've been here ever since."
"Did they treat you alright?" she worries.
"As far as jail cells go, it was one of the comfiest, I ended up spending less time there that I originally-"
"I mean the Kree. Hala? Carol prods. She feels sick when he doesn't say anything, "C'mon, get up." Carol jumps up, quilt falling away, she puts her hand out to invite him off the sofa. "Let's go, fight. I know you wanna."
Yon-Rogg blinks. "Right now?"
"Sure. Gym will be empty right now, right? No classes?" It was mid afternoon and freezing, no self respecting Xandaran would want to go, and throw their weight around in those conditions. Unless they had something to prove. Or wanted to throw around their old teammate.
Yon cocks his head, a lazy smile forming on his face.
….
Xandar's is high tech enough, they warm up easily, commenting on how it's actually day light for once and a sensible hour for once for them to spar. "No powers, right?" She asks with a smirk.
"No powers." Yon answers. She delivers a liver hook to his right, followed by a sharp low kick, she steps to the left with a quick double step to avoid a dodge or counter punch by Yon.
"How's the new recruits?" Her left leg catches him off guard when he raises his fists to strike her, she gathers his wrists in her right hand and swipes her leg under both of his, leaving him sprawled on the blue, tatty gym mat. She turns her back on him, and he rugby tackles her to the floor, mouth smushed against the gym floor.
"As good as they can be, they're no Kree military." Yon holds his hand out to silently asking to help her up, as he huffed out a breath. The clinical room had more than several pieces of gym equipment along the left wall and was full of holo treadmills and power walking machines. There was a small recess at the end which was where she found the mats. There were also two, adjustable benches and two walls of racks full of free weights. There were also rowing machines and other pieces of kit to do a whole, entire circuit with. Through the double doors next to the recess lead them to the boxing ring – or to be more specific a clear space on the floor where the Nova personnel fought each other for fun or for trades.
She half grins, "Mm, someone's half prejudice, right? Good jab they have a Kree soldier teaching them," Watching her stand up again, moving fast so she would be caught off guard just like she had done with him. He started at her, from kneeling position before quickly getting to his feet then standing and diving for her waist, knocking her off her feet within minutes.
He had her pinned underneath him, much to her dislike, arm up her back, much to her displeasure. She squirmed underneath his weight as her small hand pushed on his chest to get him off her.
She grimaces at her position. He moves his weight onto his knees so half his body was resting on his floor instead of her. He wouldn't want to crush her.
"I wanna hear you say it. I want to say I've won." He tensed his body, anticipating her reaction. Never in a blue moon would she expect to feel uncomfortable fighting with him like this.
She swears she starts to sweat, "can you get off me now, please? This is really weird."
The last person who would have been this close to her would have been. Oh. He feels uneasy for a quick second. So he moves off her. He clears his throat,
"They wouldn't last a day in the starforce recruits. It's all I can do to beat them into shape."
Catching him in mid-movement, she caught the hem of his t-shirt in her hands and pulled down so they were eye-to-eye with one another. Expecting a witty, dirty comment about his fighting skills or something completely different, he was rendered speechless when she head-butted him. "Like what you did with me, right?" She purrs.
Hitting him square on the forehead, she knocks him to the ground and mimicked his own earlier actions, squatting over him in a semi horse pose, without her thighs so much as touching his. "I think we can call this a tie, right?" She says with a smirk.
"You were a terrible student." He sighs.
….
Carol wakes sharpy, her chest heaving with every gasping breath, her lungs tight and fists clenched.
Felling something touch her elbow and she whirls round in an instant to obliterate it, her fists glowing. She gasps, finding Yon, exhausted and concerned in equal measure. She had woken him in her distress. Her heart sinks.
She closes her eyes, her face still tight from sleep. He wraps his fingers around her forearm, searching blindly in the darkness, his fingers find her fist and he unfurls it. "nightmare?" he says, low and rough.
She nods. Yon sits up, pulling her against him, and she allows him, his large hands against the sides of her ribs and his chest against hers. She drinks in the sensation of his heartbeat, rhythmic, strong. "Just breathe," and she does. Comforted by the heaviness of his hands against her lungs, expanding and contradicting with every breath. She didn't realise just how heavy her breathing actually was until he mentioned it.
"This okay?" She nods against him, hair brushing his chin and neck. He raises his hands to her biceps and wraps her arms around him, lowering them both back down easily, somehow in the dark of the room, it was more intimate, less probing. A conversation between friends instead of a shrink evaluation."What was it about?" He softly asks.
"Immortus." She says simply, head resting more or less on his shoulder, her back was essentially in his armpit, it shouldn't have been comfortable in the slightest. But it was.
"Did he ever hit you?" He wonders.
Probably wondering what she was doing in the hospital. "No, more interested in doing the other to me than beating me to a pulp." Carol sighs, despondent, and resists tracing his ribcage. A firm wall of warmth underneath her.
"It's just...I'm having trouble...thinking." She heard the smack of his lips as he tries to work around a set of words, with just the right amount of tact so she wouldn't incinerate him in bed. Not like she would.
"How did he manage to take me down? Hmm?" She smiles sadly. She rolls her shoulders into him, more or less spooning now, cheek against his heart.
She feels the rumble of his voice in his chest, the softness of his skin as he crooks his head to peer down at her, lips against her hairline, practically nuzzling. "I figured you'd tell me when you were ready enough."
"Mm." She blinks, slowly, regulating her breathing still, "he hypnotized me. He didn't punch me, didn't throw me around, he didn't use your kit of expertise." She loops her free arm through one of his. "He was an asshole. So don't get any funny ideas." Carol laughs, knowing neither of them found it funny. "I came to Nova afterwards, and she knew I wasn't myself. Let me stay until I felt better."
"And are you?" he asks.
"Getting there," and she almost smiles.