Alright, alright! Let's see what we've got here.
This is another writing exercise fic, something I wrote to keep writing as my other projects stalled (See A Touch of Obsession for another example). It started out as a one shot musing on Zavala's name, and spiralled out from there. It's also my first try at a same sex pairing, so I hope it's a decent read.
Currently, it only covers the Red War arc, but if inspiration comes, I might think to write more beyond that.
Two things to remember, going in:
I haven't played Destiny 1 (I only got into Destiny when Destiny 2 showed up on Playstation Plus), so any and all information from that era has been looked up from wiki pages and youtube vids. I apologise in advance for any and all inaccuracies this creates.
I've edited some of the more game-centric elements out, and made guesses on exactly how long the Red War went on for. While I appreciate and encourage constructive criticism, please don't point these out.
Alright, that's all from me. Updates will be every Friday until finished. Word count is just over 11,000, so prepare for short chapters.
ONE
It's not normally a shipwright's business to be nosey.
Keep your head down, do the work and go home happy. It's what she tells every one of her work crews, especially the more gossip hungry ones. No sense in concerning yourself with the affairs of Guardians when Sparrows need calibrating and NLS Drives need repair.
Sometimes though, she's a bit of hypocrite. Sometimes, little snippets of conversation travel across the hanger, and pique her interest more than a current project.
The good ones involve Guardians. The best ones involve the Vanguard.
Today, it involves both.
"She calls you what now?"
The three stop, Zavala, Ikora Rey and Cayde-6. Conversation halted, inspection forgotten.
Zavala stares, mouth still open, mid rant. Ikora hides a small smile. Cayde grins like an idiot, in that way that only the Exo can.
"Girl's Name." The warlock breaks first. "She calls him Girl's Name. "
She shouldn't laugh, shouldn't grin. She hides such things behind an oil-stained hand.
Cayde tries too. He's failing gleefully.
"So, like, a girl's name, or several girls' names or... "
She thinks she knows the answer. Ikora doesn't disappoint.
"No, no. Just...Just Girl's Name."
She tries. She tries really hard. She fails, a snicker escaping between her fingers.
Zavala rolls his eyes, even as Cayde lets his laughter fly.
"It is as unprofessional as it is demeaning. That she would call me such things behind my back is one thing, but to say it to my face, every meeting, and over open channels during Strike operations..."
Ikora smiles. Patiently, like a mother humouring a stubborn child. "It is term of endearment, clearly. Her way of showing she likes you."
"Yeah! What she said." Cayde nods vigorously, trying to shake the grin off his face. "Besides, There's guys in the War Cult that call you much worse..."
Zavala fixes the Exo a glare. The mechanical grin widens with ever withering second.
"...than Girl's Name."
A tired sigh from the Awoken. A patient shake of the head from the Warlock. And the Exo laughs at his victory.
She stares at the three of them, memories not matching up with new information.
"We're talkin' about Giddeon, right? Sarah Giddeon? Hunter, about yay big?" her hand goes up, levelling out a half head above her own blonde locks. "Saladin's Little Wolf or somethin'?" She looks to Cayde." Didn't she help you borrow Eris' ship last year?"
Blue optics glance away, shifty under annoyed Vanguard looks. "I can neither confirm nor deny that that is a thing that happened."
"I've got an 'test flight' on my work schedule that can."
"It is the same, " Zavala intrudes before Cayde can, "but just because she is one of our best, does not excuse her actions."
"And yet, you allow her to continue."
"I allow nothing!" Ikora doesn't wither under his glare. "I ask her to stop, and she continues. I reprimand her, and she continues. I send her to Cayde to be disciplined..." the glare turns on the Exo, the voice a growl, "and he...encourages it."
A whistle passes through the hanger's relative silence, convincing no one of its sincerity.
The shipwright shakes her head. "I don't get it. How's a guy like Saladin put up with her? The guys got a stick so far up his ass he's spitting splinters."
"Perhaps there's is a different relationship." Cayde shudders and gags behind the Warlock. "A teacher and student, perhaps, or warriors who have found each other's respect on the battlefield."
"Or... You know..." The Exo shrugs, "maybe she just doesn't call him Girl's Name-"
"There is nothing feminine about my name!" Awoken eyes glow and bug out, skin pulsing with patterns of light. "It is a name I chose for myself! A symbol of my rebirth! Forged for a new beginning! And I can tell you, each and every one of you, that the name Zavala is not a girl's name!"
...
...
...
"Tess knows a Vala, don't she?"
"You know, I think she does? Dark haired gal, right? Always got some kind of get rich quick scam going on?"
Glowing eyes glower at the shipwright and Hunter that wear matching grins, but Zavala is the bigger man. He strides past without another word, nodding only to those who have the sense to get out of his way.
Ikora follows on behind at her own pace, a smile sent the shipwright's way, somewhere between amused and exasperated.
Cayde just gives her a wink and a rough shove to the shoulder she thinks is supposed to be endearing. He then tries to run for the nearest starship, only to turn mid-run when he catches Ikora's look, a thousand excuses on mechanical lips.
She watches them go, her mind still processing new information.
She doesn't know Sarah Gideon all that well. A couple of missions bring scant contact, but mostly the Hunter is seen from afar as she crosses the hanger in need of her ship for some mission on Mars or Venus or wherever.
Always with the mask, always with the hood up, always followed by her Ghost, as all Guardians are.
Nothing to make her seem like just another Guardian.
Except she's not just another Guardian, is she? The last of the Iron Lords took a shine to her, with that whole SIVA thing. Then there was that stuff out near Saturn, with the Hive and the Taken King...
Not bad for a Guardian found not so long ago in the snow drifts of the Cosmodrome.
Even Zavala, for all the moping, called her one of the best. And you didn't end a Hive God without people knowing your name.
Not that it's a shipwright's business, knowing the mind of a Guardian. Not when engines need repairs and sparrows need new coats of paint. She's not even sure why she turned her head. She might be great, and she might've come from nowhere, making the fact she's great a bit more interesting, but Sarah Gideon is still just another Guardian. One of thousands.
It's not normally a shipwright's business to be nosey. As fun as this moment has been, she puts Sarah Giddeon to the back of her mind and gets back to work.