A/N So many short chapters, I know, I'll try to make them longer. Please review, I need motivation. Hope you're enjoying this.
Chapter 3Rhade led Vivian through the halls of the Andromeda. Harper was babbling on about different little technical things about the Andromeda. Vivian looked bored and confused, but was trying to hide it.
Rhade was really beginning to enjoy being around Vivian, she had a lot of confidence and wasn't afraid to say what's on her mind without being mean. It had been a while since Rhade felt this way about a girl. Sure, there were plenty of girls that were more than willing to be with him, but he didn't feel attracted to any of them. The only problem was, Harper also seemed to have feelings for her, although he has feelings for just about every girl in the system. But there was another problem, what would Dylan think about Rhade bringing a girl on the ship. No doubt he would be angry, but maybe he would let her stay if Rhade gave him some sob story about how she had no place to go. Rhade shuttered at the thought. He would let Harper do the sob story; he was better at those kind of things.
Rhade felt his gaze drifting over to Vivian. Keep hold of yourself Rhade, he told himself.
"Rhade, are you OK?" Vivian asked. He had stopped outside Dylan's quarters but wasn't going in.
"Yeah, I was just thinking about how we are going to get Dylan to agree to let you stay here."
"Wow, you make him sound like a real hard-ass," she said. Rhade just smiled and opened the door. Inside Dylan was sitting at his desk looking at a flexi. He looked up at them, looking somewhat surprised.
"Rhade, Harper, I didn't expect to see you here. And who's this?"
"This," Harper said, "is the beautiful, charming, and temporarily homeless, Vivian."
"Hmm, homeless. Let me guess, you want her to stay here."
"Well, yeah."
"I won't get in your way," Vivian said, "and it won't be for long. Harper told me you were letting him and his friend Doyle stay here. And Rhade said he was planning on asking you if he could stay here too."
"Did he?" Dylan said, looking at Rhade with raised eyebrows.
"Andromeda has ample living quarters, lots of space to spare, my old quarters are here, and besides, you do have the best coffee," Rhade said smiling. It brought back old memories, being on the Andromeda; he remembered how when he first came on the Andromeda Dylan had told him about the good coffee.
Dylan seemed to remember too, because he noticeably softened his expression and smiled. He sat there thinking for a minute, looking around from Vivian, to Rhade, to Harper. Then he said, "Ok, she can stay, on one condition." Rhade raised his eyebrows. "You two have to help me fix up the Andromeda and find a way to get out of here."
"Sounds reasonable," Rhade said. He wasn't quite sure if he wanted to be tied down to helping Dylan, but the Andromeda did have nice quarters, and it might be nice to be around some friendly faces.
"Good," Dylan said cheerfully, "it'll be like we're a crew again."
At this Harper's eyes widened. "Hey, I never agreed to that!" Rhade rolled his eyes. He wasn't so crazy about the thought of being a crew again either. But at least he would have food, a nice place to sleep, and not to mention a hot girl staying there with him. As much as he hated to admit it, he was hoping him and Vivian would get a lot closer while living on the Andromeda. Although, he was pretty sure that Harper had similar ideas by the way he was looking at Vivian. This made him a little uncomfortable, so he said, "Umm, Vivian. I'll show you to your new room." So, they left Harper and Dylan standing there while he took Vivian to where he hoped they could be alone.
As they were walking down the halls, Vivian started asking questions. "So, you used to be a crew member on this ship?"
"Yeah," Rhade said, "a long time ago."
"Well, what happened?"
"It's complicated. I didn't exactly leave the crew, I was more, torn away from them. We were, umm, fighting on this place called Arkology. We were all split up, then we were tesseracted here, but all at different times." He chose not to tell her about Louisa.
"I don't understand."
"Like I said it's complicated."
By now they were getting close to the room Rhade had chosen for Vivian. It was big, had it's own kitchen, and a shower, which he knew from his experiences on Seefra, was a good thing to have. Unfortunately, it wasn't much use since they were trying to conserve water, but he'd let her take at least one shower.
"Here it is," he said, "home sweet home." He opened the door. Vivian walked in and immediately jumped on the bed.
"I haven't slept in a comfortable bed in ages!" she said. Rhade laughed.
"Just wait till you see my favorite part," he said. Rhade walked into the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of nameless bottle of alcohol and two glasses. "Personal bar right here in your very own room, I knew there was a reason I wanted to come back here," He poured them both a glass. "Think of this as a sort of house warming party." They clinked glasses and both took a drink.
"I'm glad you're going to be staying here with me, Telemachus."
Rhade winced. "How'd you know my first name?"
"Harper told me when you weren't looking, he said you hated being called that," she said smiling.
"Well, somehow it sounds better when you say it." Rhade was beginning to lean in to kiss her when Harper opened the door and came in.
"Am I, interrupting anything," Harper said, knowing he was.
"No," Vivian said, "we were just having a house warming party."
"Ooh, mind if I join," Harper said pouring himself a drink. He sat down on the opposite side of Vivian. Rhade glared at him, Harper just smirked, knowing he had made Rhade mad, and very happy about it.