A/N: murder mystery pt. 2, ft the combat scene i've been planning out since i played it in game, and reyes realizing there's some Feelings getting mixed in with his business arrangements
Three and a half minutes until the Roekaar returned.
Plenty of time.
Despite not having quite enough evidence to actually act against the Roekaar for the murders that had been plaguing Kadara, Reyes had been monitoring them and — with the help of both the Collective and some outside contacts — he'd tracked down both the leader of the local group and the base they primarily worked out of. He'd had agents case out the location for a few weeks, managing to come up with a somewhat reliable schedule of patrols and meetings. At the moment, Reyes was taking advantage of that intel to be undetected at the base, affixing explosives to a few key points at the entrance.
Not enough to collapse anything, but enough to injure — or at the very least, disorient — anyone walking through when they went off.
He had to hope that Ryder had enough sense to be discreet when she arrived, and not come barging through into the base with the same bravado with which she made most of her entrances; not that he expected her to actually be discreet, hence why he'd sent the navpoint immediately once she'd gathered adequate proof to placate the Resistance. She should've already arrived, which would've given Reyes enough time to explain his plan.
But Ryder was running late, and there was just over a minute left before the Roekaar arrived.
Throwing up a silent curse as he attached the final explosive, Reyes scanned the area, hoping to find some sort of cover where he'd be out of sight. Most of what he found required moving deeper into the base — not a good idea — until his gaze landed on a stalagmite-shielded outcropping that was nearly flush with the door. Perfect. It would give him a clear view of the rest of the base, and would allow him to easily slip away in case things got too heated.
Forty seconds.
Just as Reyes had folded himself into the shadows, he heard the whirring of mechanisms that preceded the opening of a door. He waited, detonator in one hand and rifle in the other, but then the door clicked open and loud, unabashed laughter filled the cave.
"Fuck you, Vetra. You were hanging on to every goddamn word." Ryder.
"I asked if there was something going on." Vetra Nyx — Reyes knew her voice. "I didn't ask for a full recap."
"I enjoyed it. You paint quite a picture, Sophie." A third voice — female, light, with the same sort of casual irreverence he'd come to expect from Ryder. As the group stepped into view, Reyes saw the voice belonged to an asari. "By the by, where is Loverboy?"
Reyes pressed his lips together into a thin frown at the nickname; that gave him a whole new outlook on the conversation. Although, he couldn't quite suppress the satisfaction he felt at knowing that Ryder had, apparently, immediately felt the need to spill all the details of their morning together.
Because, of course, he definitely hadn't done almost the same thing with Keema and spent a good twenty minutes making sure she knew that he was beginning to change his mind on the Pathfinder. "More than an investment," he'd called her — Ryder was the real deal, she'd stick around to help him with plenty of Kadara's problems and she was proud of the work they were doing. Reyes knew that he was playing some part in drawing Ryder to Kadara, but most of her attention was fixed on removing Sloane and improving the lives of everyone living on Kadara. Ryder had the sort of idealistic optimism that had driven so many people to Andromeda — himself included, he supposed — but without any of the hesitance or delicacy that had stunted the Nexus thus far.
With as entranced in his own thoughts that Reyes was, he nearly missed the door sliding open a second time; a group of angara — the Roekaar whose return he'd been so carefully tracking — burst into the cave, quickly surrounding Ryder and her squad. They went back and forth for a minute — threats from the Roekaar, casual deflections from Ryder followed up by not-quite-threats — but Reyes wasn't listening, his attention now turned to the problem of his explosives.
He'd been planning to catch the Roekaar unaware, then come in with Ryder to clean up whatever was left; now, however, he had to take into consideration the fact that Ryder was surrounded, and in such close proximity to the leader — Farah, if he caught her name correctly — that to do any real damage, he'd be hitting Ryder as well.
The answer came when reinforcements began to make their way up from further in the base; it was strange to think of more adversaries as a good thing, but now the explosives could actually serve a purpose. As Reyes waited for them to move up close enough, he caught a flash of blue out of the corner of his eye. The air around Ryder shimmered almost imperceptibly, her armor beginning to take on the faint glow of biotics. She snarled out something, voice too low for Reyes to catch, but the Roekaar leader responded by pulling out a knife.
It was almost instinctive, catching the glint of the knife in the scope of his rifle and pulling the trigger to send a bullet right through the leader's palm.
The angara cried out in pain, dropping the knife and clutching her hand to her chest as she called out orders to open fire. Ryder, at least, had the good sense to use the distraction to her advantage, darting behind a pair of heavy shipping crates that would serve as viable cover. Once she was no longer exposed, Ryder began searching the back of the base; when her gaze landed on Reyes, she gave an exaggerated shrug and called out, "What the fuck?"
Scrambling to get out of the open, Reyes jumped down from the overhang and darted forward to join Ryder behind the crates. She yelled something at him that sounded suspiciously like you're late, but the deafening crack of a sniper rifle drowned out her words. He took a step forward, standing closer than was strictly necessary, and promised, "You'll thank me in a minute." With a wide grin, Reyes dashed to the side, kneeling down behind a thick cluster of stalagmites that gave him a clear view of the rest of the base's interior. "Can you push them back?" he called out over the gunfire. "With your biotics? Can you get them closer to that ledge?"
"Can I what with my biotics?"
"Push them!"
Ryder was still giving him the same what the fuck look of confusion she'd had since first seeing him; it was the asari who answered, her voice coming clearly over their commlink — which, up to that point, Reyes hadn't even thought to use. "I've gotcha covered." A moment later, there was a burst of violet at the far end of the base that tapered down into a writhing mass of biotic energy and pulled several of the angara towards it.
"Peebee, you're a genius—"
Ryder's words were cut off as Reyes activated the detonator, and the blast from his carefully placed explosives sent a wave of heat rolling back towards them. The angara caught in the biotic field were all thrown back, and several other angara up on one of the far ledges were knocked off their feet. "You're welcome," Reyes said — over comms, this time — and leaned out between the stalagmites to take a few shots at the remaining Roekaar.
He was lining up another shot on one of the recovered snipers when he caught a blur of motion at the edge of his scope. As he pulled back, Reyes glanced to his left to find a grenade that had landed just a few feet from his cover. With a grimace, he prepared to dive towards his right, to where Vetra was kneeling behind a single shipping crate. Before he could move, a flash of purple sparked in front of him and the grenade was sent scattering away; Ryder appeared next to him in the same moment, hand outstretched and creating a biotic barrier that was just large enough to shield both of them as they knelt down.
The sounds of battle were strangely dulled from the other side of the barrier, and before Reyes could really react to the entire situation there was another flash and the muted bang of the grenade. Ryder gave him a silent wink, then collapsed the barrier and rolled back to take cover again.
So she was decent in combat, and cocky as hell.
Reyes turned his attention back to the remaining angara, and between himself and Ryder's crew the Roekaar were taken care of rather quickly. When they finished with the last sniper — thanks to Ryder, whose well-placed biotics had sent the angara floating helplessly into the air, in the perfect position for Vetra to line up a shot — Reyes stood, slowly, groaning and rolling his shoulders. "Not quite according to plan," he commented lightly, joining Ryder over towards the entrance, "but we've done a good thing for Kadara Port."
"Where the hell were you?" Ryder asked, her tone less accusatory now than it had been a few minutes before.
"Waiting for you. You're the one who was late, by the way." Reyes motioned back to the blast marks and scorched ground. "I was setting up a surprise for our angaran friends, which actually worked surprisingly well."
"The explosives," Vetra guessed, browplates shifting into an expression that almost looked appreciative. "Nice work."
Reyes gave a pointed glance back towards Ryder before turning to Vetra. "Thank you. Good to see someone appreciates my initiative."
The asari joined them, tossing one arm casually over Ryder's shoulders and planting her other hand on her hip. "Oh, I think Sophie appreciates your initiative — among other things," she assured him with a barely concealed smirk.
"I know." With a wink in Ryder's direction, Reyes strode past the group towards the entrance of the base; as the door slid open, he turned on his heel and took a few steps backwards. "If you feel like stopping by Tartarus later, drinks are on me." He turned back, and just barely caught Ryder's response before the door closed again.
"Doubt it, but I'll be there."
Ryder had seemed completely sober when she stopped by Reyes' room in Tartarus a few days later, spending the first few minutes leaning up against the doorway and matching each of his quips and comments with one of her own; but then she'd dropped down into his lap, hands already tugging at his jacket as she pulled him into a rough kiss, and Reyes could taste the whiskey on her lips.
"You've started drinking without me," he accused, mock hurt coloring his voice. One hand rested on Ryder's thigh and the other settled at her waist, holding her as she pressed her forehead against his. "Am I really such bad company?"
"Don't try to be charming," she shot back. "I've got ten minutes and SAM says Lexi's threatening to leave without me."
"Leave?" Reyes echoed, as if it had ever been in question; Ryder was better than this, better than an unnoteworthy smuggler and a port full of criminals, and it wasn't like either of them had ever entertained the idea that she'd stay long. But, faced with the end of two weeks spent with Ryder — two weeks filled with drinking and dancing and sex and the occasional business arrangement — Reyes found himself oddly opposed to the notion.
Kheema had used some ridiculous angaran expression to describe how hopeless he was; Reyes hadn't believed her, not then, because it was about business.
Wasn't it?
Maybe. But it was also very much about Ryder — about Sophie — about the comfortable weight of her as she rested against him, about the whiskey she'd been drinking and the way her hair always smelled a bit like strawberries, about that spark of idealism when she talked about the Initiative. As content as Reyes was to continue to be lost in his thoughts, Ryder was kissing him again, her hands sliding beneath his shirt as she caught his lower lip in her teeth.
"Back to the Nexus," she breathed, pulling away just enough to speak. "Figured I'd leave you with something to remember me by."
"I assure you, you aren't someone who's easy to forget."
"What'd I say about trying to be charming?"