Chapter 7: A Set of Daily and Rather Less Daily Interactions


Ginny's shop had seen substantially better days. Since the robbery the night before, the shattered glass had been cleared up and the shop had been made somewhat presentable once more; nonetheless, money was missing, merchandise was destroyed and the property was damaged, things which couldn't be simply covered up or glossed over. Still, the stoic American continued to run the business in as normal a manner as possible.

A frequent customer had just arrived: Leyo Orosam, a massive brown scaled sangheili and joint tenant of Joanna's house. Though he was a difficult individual to miss, Ginny had not yet noticed his presence, instead attending to various other, nondescript shoppers. Leyo walked along the squeaky cream floors, passing various food-filled aisles and noting the recent appearance of gun shot holes in some of the shelves. Bright white light shone over his long black fabric coat as he perused the shelves for something to satisfy his grocery needs.

Despite the quiet and sedate atmosphere of the shop, there seemed to be a certain tensity to the air. Something was circulating around the store that pulled the sangheilian taut, and drew his expression into one of thoughtful contemplation. Perhaps it was the sharp holes that punctuated the shelving, echoing the boom of a shot gun that initially precipitated them into existence. Perhaps it was the shadow of the unwelcome intruders that had entered the night before, continuing to linger along the path that said intruders crept down. But, in all honesty, the true source of tension had to be the people.

Surrounding Leyo were human beings, milling around the shop, weighing up items, grabbing them and buying them, all as normal. However, when they caught sight of Leyo, their prejudices were activated. They saw not another fellow shopper there to purchase food for himself and his mate, but a large, black clad potential threat. Reports seen on the news of sangheilian terrorists stirring up trouble around the city had produced an image for people to fear and treat with caution, and unfortunately for the large alien he personified this image.

Consequently, he attracted stares of distrust and wariness from all those around him. The sangheili knew exactly why people were regarding him in this way, so he just reverted his expression to its emptiest, gauntest poker face, and feigned ignorance to the negative vibes.

In this way, he gathered a few supplies and carried them to the counter. The queue was no longer present and Ginny had her back turned to the imposing figure. "Ginny?" questioned his deep voice.

The stout woman turned in a sweep towards him and jumped slightly when she took in his appearance.

This, in turn, caused Leyo himself to recoil slightly in response; though, his neutral expression endured.

"Oh, sorry Leyo." Ginny ran a hand through her hair. "It's just, those bastards who robbed the place came in wearing something like that." The woman extended an oscillating finger in the general direction of Leyo's chest. "I suppose I've been ready to whack out Mother Teresa all day."

"Mother Teresa?" the sangheilian's deep, sonorous voice proposed a second question.

"My 12 gauge." elaborated the woman.

"Oh." Leyo paused in thought for a moment, paralysed by the abnormal style of name that the woman applied to her firearm. Not what I'd name a gun but... to each their own.

Ginny seemed to find very little amusing or outside of the norm about her choice of name, so did not honour the pause for long. "What can I do you for anyway."

"Biscuits, sweets and tea." The walking colossus lay all three before the woman.

"Hmm." Ginny quirked the right side of her mouth into a sort of dismissive, thinking expression. "Joanna sent you didn't she?"

"Well," Leyo's head lowered in dejection "she told me off last night for eating everything sugary back home, so I figured the only way I can cheat death when she comes back today is if I replace everything I ate."

The shop owner's expression transfigured into one of approval and warmth. "You two really do adore each other." a statement rather than a question.

I would suppose that, if sangheili were capable of blushing, the alien's cheeks, or anatomical equivalent, would be lit up like a prisoner under a search light. "Yes." was his simple affirmation, accompanied by a similar blank stare to before, which had become just slightly more distant.

"Take this stuff back home Leyo, on the house, and tell Joanna I'm sorry I was too busy nailing muggers to serve her."

"Thank you, Ginny."

"No problem, you guys have been bringing me business for years." The American packed the food items into a bag and passed it to him. "Now, beat it before I decide to charge you."

The alien killing machine pulled a sangheilian smile, took his groceries in one hand and strode out of the store's automatic door, stylish trench coat clinging to his muscular form.


The passing of a short period of time saw Leyo sitting idly on the couch of his living room, still clad in his dark coat, contentedly snacking on biscuits in silence. He sometimes did this in anticipation of Joanna arriving home.

Momentarily, a click sounded at the front door, indicating that the electronic lock had been disengaged. In addition, an abrupt scraping sound was produced, followed by a mechanical grinding, indicating that the older lock had likewise been opened. Joanna burst in and announced loudly "I'm pissed off! Get the fuck over here before I throw you to the ground and kick you in the head repeatedly until you die!" Her eyes glowed dangerously and her hands were clenched into fists slightly away from her sides, a stance of activity and readiness to pounce.

In a few seconds, Leyo appeared from behind the cream wall separating the front room from the sitting room. He slowly trod towards her stating "A simple 'Honey I'm home can I have a hug?' would suffice."

The huge sangheili stopped in front of the woman, his sedate expression meeting her aggressive one as her eyes narrowed. "If you were honey I'd eat you, the fact that I'm home is self-evident and why I'd want to hug your scaly arse is beyond me."

The staring contest between the two persisted for several moments when, in an instant, Joanna loosened up, warmth overtook her features and a broad, lopsided smirk expressed itself. "Now bring your scaly arse here so I can hug it." She stepped forward as Leyo did the same, his features having similarly relaxed. The pair then shared a deep embrace, Leyo's massive bulk encompassing the significantly smaller woman. Joanna tucked her head against the sangheili's chest and squeezed him as hard as she could, given that this compressive force was very light against the densely built alien. He, on the other hand, returned a lighter force, simultaneously bending down and laying the base of his head against the woman's own.

They continued to hold each other and shifted their balance backwards, forwards, left and right in a slow and absentminded dance, until all possible tensions that had fraught them had evanesced, at least for the time being. Eventually, the two stepped apart.

"Thanks Leyo." Joanna muttered quietly.

"Always a pleasure." he responded with a quirk of the mandibles.

After locking eyes for a few more moments, both individuals slowly made their way through the portal to the next room. It was open plan, with one half composing a kitchen and separated from the other half, a sitting room, by three room length wooden stairs. The soothing yellow-orange rays from the house's adjustable lights fell dimly across two brown, cloth textured sofas which lay on either side of the wooden coffee table.

Leyo set down on the furthest couch, placing his large legs over the end and leaning back against the arm rest of the opposite side, while Joanna kicked off her boots and jumped backwards onto the other sofa, landing in a similar position; although, of course, she lacked the vertical capability to extend across both arm rests.

The human of the couple sighted a bowl of cookies on the table between them. "You replenished our stocks?"

The sangheili of the couple had his head faced upward as he responded "Yes. Ginny gave me them for free."

Joanna's eyes then readjusted to focus on her partner and she squinted. "Are you two having sex?"

Leyo, quite used to such outlandish questions, continued his distant upwards stare and replied "Not yet darling."

"Hmm." The woman raised an eyebrow "You better not let me catch you if you do. Remember what I told you?"

"If you find me with another woman you'll kill us both and blame the fact that we were discovered the next day crucified in a public place on terrorists." Leyo returned without missing a beat. It was clear these words had been synthesised into his mandibles' muscle memory.

"So long as you remember."

"Of course. Now, " the alien turned to the home's other resident "how was your day?"

"I got fined in contempt."

"By who?"

"Who do you think?"

There was a pause. Leyo looked upwards once more.

"I don't know. It could be practically anyone who's met you." He returned his sight line to Joanna's.

She simply poker faced at him before stating "Dick.", precipitating a smirk into formation on his features. "Well, while I was in a meeting about those attacks-"

"How'd that go by the way, I got called out so I couldn't attend."

"Fine, the missing sangheili have been recruited into a terrorist group we're calling Ebony Terror Cell. They're responsible for the shit that's been going on."

Leyo frowned at that. "That doesn't sound fine." he stated in his deep and resonant voice.

Joanna simply stared into the ceiling and tilted her head to the side, straight black hair splaying out behind her. "I suppose not. Anyway, a man, or should I say, tit," she embossed that word with a particular amount of emphasis "came over to me and told me that I was being called away to talk to Internal Investigations about all that shit."

"I assume you told him to fuck off."

The woman pulled her mouth into an upside down U shape and nodded her head. "In a few more words than that, but yeah. So, later on, he came back and told me that the message the meeting would have given me is that I'm no longer being investigated, but would be receiving a fine for flunking the fucking fing."

"That sentence came so close to being inoffensive..." Leyo paused in thought for a moment. "Is this young man still alive?"

"I didn't check after I was done with him. If he is though, he'll need a change in pants."

This evoked a smile from the extra terrestrial. However, the expression was temporal, for something soon weighed down on him and pushed his temperament into a state of brooding.

Joanna noticed this and turned her body to the side, propping up her torso on her elbow. "What's wrong?"

Leyo gave a deep sigh to this question. He shifted his legs from off of the arm rest and reoriented himself so that one hand was on one leg and the opposite elbow was on the other, its adjoined hand rubbing his forehead. After a moment, he spoke "It frustrates me that one group of sangheili should be so selfish as to create tension between our races, so that the environment is unwelcome for the rest of us."

The woman was listening intently, and her features had scrunched up with concern. "What's prompted you to say that?" she asked in an abrasively accented but concernedly intoned voice.

The sangheili took in a voluminous breath before beginning. "Since the attacks, there has been a shift in atmosphere. Whenever I step outside the sangheili diplomatic buildings now it is as though I am walking into a mist of suspicion and ill will." He leaned backwards against the couch and interlaced his hands behind his head. "It is reminiscent of the political conditions of this planet when I first came here so many years ago, after the war." He moved one of his hands out in gesture. "Things had improved since... then a bunch of my people decided they wanted to fuck things up."

Joanna had heard a sufficient amount. She pushed herself up and stepped over the small table separating them. Lowering her knees to the area of sofa between the sangheili's legs, she shuffled towards him, leant forward with her head and kissed him on the neck. "Leyo..." she said, engaging his colourless eyes with her incandescent purple ones. "We'll annihilate these fuckers, together." she stated assuredly, nodding her head up and down in an affirming manner. "I know people are arseholes, but... eventually things will return to how they were."

They remained this way for a few moments. Leyo moved his arms forwards and tentatively held the back of Joanna's head. She moved her arms upwards to do the same. They both leaned in to leave their foreheads in contact with each other. Closing their eyes, the mutual appreciation they had for one another's presence was acknowledged by both.


Little Steve strode confidently down the hallway. Following behind him was a very large, very bald, very violent looking man. They reached a door. Baldy stepped in front of Steve and opened it, allowing the shorter man to pass through before entering after him. He closed the door and laid one hand over the other below his stomach, noticeably blocking the only entrance to the room.

The place was small and lit only by a weak LED, giving it a sterile, slightly unwelcoming feel. Its contents consisted of a small metal table and two matching chairs on either side of it. In the furthest chair sat a brown moustached caucasian man.

"Alright David." Steve announced to the man.

"Steve." he nodded his head.

"Is the walking tank necessary?" Little Steve probed, pointing a thumb back at the individual in question.

"You know what it is like these days. Everyone seems out to get everyone else. I cannot be too careful." David spoke in a cultured English accent.

"Fair enough on you mate." Steve stated before sitting down, crossing his legs and leaning back.

"Hmm. So, what is it you require?"

"Well, as you know there's a new player on the scene, a fuck-off ugly alien player."

The man released a slight laugh. "Yes."

"I was figurin' that you could find out where they're doing their business, their deals, their sales, and maybe share that info with me."

David frowned, his moustache wrinkling. "That's a significant ask."

Steve tilted his head, the shadows on his face shifting in the light. "Which's accompanied by a significant payment."

"How much?"

The shorter man quirked an eyebrow before brandishing a wrist computer. He keyed in a command to its small display. Following suit, a beep sounded from David's own wrist mounted device, prompting him to inspect it. Whatever he saw evoked a look of bemusement and a "Jesus Christ!" from him. After the initial shock, he turned to Steve with a renewed interest in their conversation. "You must be very concerned with the activities of these individuals."

"You might be inclined to say that," Steve tapped two fingers against the table repeatedly "and I expect the highest fuckin' priority to be placed on this job."

"Understood Steve."

"I need to know exact meeting places, specific dates, specific times and other involved parties."

"Of course." David's repeated affirmatives reflected how seriously he was taking the job, now that money was metaphorically on the table.

"As usual, half now, half when I get the information, and it plays out. Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Alright David. 'Til next time."

"Until next time." the better spoken of the two raised his index and ring finger to his head in a form of salute.

Little Steve stood, stepping over to the door, which was still entirely obscured by the bulk of David's bodyguard. The leviathan looked down at Steve, which obviously meant his chin was incredibly close to his chest indeed. The man who now looked even smaller than normal raised his hand, palm down "Hey, Goliath, would you very much mind moving aside before I throw a fucking rock at your head."

Although evidently displeased, the man acquiesced.

"Cheers mate." were the last words uttered before Steve pulled the door closed behind him, a quiet thump coming alongside the motion.