"Alright, stop right there. I know exactly where this is going."

"Yeah, to the good part!"

Scott's open mouth snapped shut and he settled for a flat look that said it all. Every time Sara began to speak, his eyebrow would twitch just a smidge higher, his glare intensifying until it pushed past maddening to comical.

"He was very charming," Sara said finally with a cough.

"I'll bet," Scott deadpanned. "Charmed the pants off you, huh?"

"He would've charmed yours off, too," she muttered beneath her breath.

"Really?" That broke his sour gaze and he chuckled. "Reyes Vidal doesn't exactly strike me as my type."

Sara studied her knees and shrugged. "You sure? I thought every Tom, Dick and Harry was your type..."

"Hey, hey, hey!" Her brother's giggle veered from nervous to genuine. "Slut that I am, Tom, Dick and Harry are more your realm of expertise."

"What?" Sara frowned. "Wait..."

"I mean, if you said every Tiffany, Beth and Diane, sure. I don't know what it is about 'Beth.' If the name is really that popular, or I just have a thing, but I can think of four Beths and I'm not even trying..."

"Okay, I know I've had sex with a Harry sure, and maybe a Tom..?" Her frown deepened as she thought in earnest. "I think his name was Tom? Might've been a Tim. I never had a Dick, though."

She'd realized what she said when her brother practically fell over himself, cackling. She supposed she deserved that for walking into it.

"That is unequivocally false, Sara!" Scott exclaimed between gasping peals of laughter.

"You know what? I'm just going to keep on going and you can't stop me," she decided. "I know it's important. You're just going to have to listen and figure out how for yourself."

With its resident bartender occupied at Sloane Kelly's fete, Kralla's was locked up, silent as a grave. There was a strange, innocent rush of adrenaline as Reyes led her out to the back by the employee entrance and began to scale the scaffolding to the roof. Sara grabbed the weathered ladder and ignored how it creaked as she climbed.

"I should have brought my gear," she called after him. "This would be way easier with a jetpack."

"Because that's subtle," he snorted.

"When have I ever been subtle?"

"A good thing that, because otherwise, I'd be much too shy to speak to you."

"Oh yeah, you're a real introvert." Everything about this, from the climbing to the bottle of booze, reminded her of being a kid, sneaking in (and out) of school property after hours. Once he and his Mount Milgrom were safely up, Reyes offered a hand to steady her as Sara hopped from the last rung of ladder and onto the roof.

At first glance, it was just a flat concrete rooftop. There was a crack in one corner and a discolored shadow of a stain encircling it that she decided to believe was only from rainwater leaking through to the bar below. But it was quiet, deserted and one of the higher points overlooking the port removed from any sickly glow of street lights. In the blackness of the night sky, they were two nameless, unimportant silhouettes and ducked behind the darkened sign for Kralla's, they disappeared even further.

Reyes sat down on the edge of the roof, letting his legs dangle off the side. "Gorgeous, isn't it?" He pointed with the bottle at the winking lights below before opening it and taking a swig. "I sometimes forget."

"It all looks so normal," Sara murmured joining him. "Like we're still in the Milky Way."

"You're a long way from the Citadel, Pathfinder." He passed her the bottle.

She grunted and brought it to her lips. "And you're even farther from Earth."

Reyes cocked his head toward her and grinned, a flash of white teeth in the darkness. "Did my accent give me away?"

"Just a little bit."

"Here I was hoping it was my swagger. It was how I knew you were an Alliance Military brat."

"Oh yeah?" She handed him the bottle back. "And I just figured my dad's reputation preceded me. You think I've got swagger?"

"A certain heaviness to your step, sure..."

"That's called clumsiness, Mr. Vidal."

"But I was also correct in you being Alliance military, was I not, Madam Pathfinder?" Reyes leaned closer, only stopping to drink. He tilted the lip of the bottle toward her and she grasped a hand around its neck.

"It was a way to pay for school and pretend to uphold the family name." Sara shrugged and began to nurse the whiskey. "Always reserve, no action. It was never anything like guarding Arcturus Station like my brother did." She shot a glance from the corner of her eyes. "Certainly not as exciting as being a shuttle pilot."

"So you did notice my swagger!" He shifted back onto his elbows and chuckled. "Or was I really so intriguing to necessitate a background check?"

She threw her hands up and nearly dropped the bottle. "Hey, I did no such thing! I saw you and I liked what I saw! But, I had a... concerned associate who felt it prudent to do some digging."

"Uh huh." Reyes reclaimed the whiskey for himself. "And did this 'associate' dig up anything good on me? I'd love to hear it."

"I told him the next time he did any digging to make sure it was a six foot hole for himself," she replied. "But I think that's part of why he got so shitty, the only thing he had to throw around was your call-sign."

"Anubis." He nodded.

"I can see why you weren't too keen on 'Shena' when you were used to being called that," Sara said.

"I didn't pick that name, either." There was no humor in the way Reyes said it. "I signed up with the Alliance for a future. To keep myself out of jail, mostly. I was a good pilot and willing, so I landed a lot of the less than glamorous assignments. Transported a lot of dead and wounded."

"But that's noble."

"And quite the reputation builder when most of the company you keep are corpses." He coughed a nervous laugh.

Sara shook her head. "If you're trying to convince me you were a sad, lonely, little boy, you're going to have to try harder. I've seen Zia."

Reyes's laugh warmed at that. "You're mad about Zia?"

"Reyes. She shot me."

"Twice!" He sat up, holding out two fingers for emphasis. "Seriously, I wasn't joking when I said this place was dangerous. I care that you're Pathfinder, but people like Zia are too shortsighted to see the bigger implications."

"I keep waiting for the day I can solve things over drinks," she grumbled. "I hate waking up and wondering who's going to shoot at me, next."

"Well, I promise shooting you was not part of my plan tonight," Reyes snorted. He took a long pull of whiskey and handed it back to her.

"And what exactly is your plan tonight, if I may ask?" She wasn't sure why a giggle was necessary, but it also occurred to her that it was difficult to gauge the number of shots consumed when drinking directly from an opaque bottle of spirits.

"This." He waved a hand at the dim night sky and slowly creeping dawn. "Told you it was gorgeous."

"Yeah. I think the company helps, too." Sara inched closer on the ledge until she was shoulder to shoulder with him.

"That's true." He helped himself to the bottle she was holding and stared out at the horizon colored pink by the rising sun. "Is Andromeda everything you'd hoped it would be?"

"Every day's an adventure, right?" She started to laugh again, but something stopped her. It seemed wrong, somehow, to be so glib in the quiet of a new day. "No. Not really," Sara admitted. "Everyone I talk to sounds like they came here for a reason, good or bad... but me? I don't know. Mom died and now I'm here. I don't know what I'm doing and I'm not even sure why I came in the first place. Not to be Pathfinder, certainly. Not like this."

"I don't envy that responsibility," he agreed.

"What about you?" she asked. "Why'd you come here, Reyes?"

Reyes let the bottle fall in between his knees, and was quiet for a long time as he continued to watch the sunrise. "To be someone."

Sara reached forward and when he automatically offered the whiskey, she set it down on the roof and took his hand instead. "You're someone to me."

With a fluttering blink of lashes, he turned his head from the sunrise to gaze at her. Whatever playfulness from earlier in the evening was gone, replaced with a genuine smile. "I'm starting to think that kiss was more than just a distraction." Reyes cupped her face in his hand as he bent forward to kiss her. It lacked the heat and intensity of Sara's earlier move, but there was a sweetness and softness that was entirely unexpected.

Nose to nose, she relaxed her forehead against his, the corners of her mouth curling up. "I mean... when have I ever been subtle, right?"

He breathed a throaty little chuckle as he stroked her cheek with a thumb. "Got to admit, it was a little refreshing."

"Nice to be wanted, huh?"

"Very nice." Reyes highlighted that fact by kissing her bottom lip.

The gentleness was as perplexing as it was welcomed. Sara leaned forward to reciprocate as he tangled his fingers in her hair. She urged him backwards until his hands fell away from her body and he was resting on his elbows. Not breaking from his mouth, she slung her leg over to straddle his lap, and bumped the bottle with her hip, sending it teetering loudly on the edge of the roof.

Reyes hooked his arm around the small of her back. "Careful or you're going to fall off the roof."

"That would be embarrassing." She toyed with his jacket zipper, before grinning down at him. "Is there someplace else we could go?"

"I don't know..." His mouth blazed a trail from her shoulder to her collarbone, stopping in the hollow of her neck. "Maybe I like you too much."

"That is so not fair."

Reyes laughed a hot breath against her skin, setting all the hairs along the back of Sara's neck erect. "Is it ever?" He took her wrist in his hand and brought it to his mouth. As he pressed his lips against the pulse point he caught her eyes and arched a thick brow. The omni tool on her forearm had lit up and was flashing alerts for several messages. "Looks like you're wanted elsewhere, Pathfinder."

It was Cora. Of course it was Cora.

Sara pushed herself upright, feeling between her thighs the obvious effect she had over Reyes with every shifting movement of her hips. She looked at her omni tool blinking red and gnawed on her lip. Not fair at all. "SAM?" Sara sighed. "Shut down all logs and communications for the next... three hours? Three hours. My authorization."

The light on the omni tool stayed red just long enough for her to catch Reyes's nonplussed expression, all wide eyes and open mouthed smile. "You sure about this?"

"I'm the Pathfinder," she said, trying to keep her voice from hitching as his fingers slipped past the thin cotton of her t-shirt. "What are they going to do? Leave without me?"

Reyes shook his head at her, his breathing heavy and damp in her ear. "I have a place. Not far from here."

"Promise?"

"Promise."