"So, uh, new eye," Sasha commented as she caught up to him

"Yeah! Yeah, and-"

"New arm, too," she said conversationally, leaning over to look at it across his chest.

Rhys chuckled nervously. "Yeah, it, uh- I guess you could say I'm a self-made man now!"

"Wait, you made- " Sasha started, but Fi came busting in, because of course she had to.

"Hey googly eyes, come on, you gotta go help Vaughn."


Trying to clear his throat of the huge lump in it, Rhys tentatively stepped closer to the disheveled caravan.

"Uhhh, Sash? You there?" Oh god what if it was Fiona, she would kill him right there for daring to seek out her sister.

But when the door swung open Rhys actually had good luck, for a change. Sasha smiled at him and stepped out into the night air.

"Hey! What's up?" she asked, walking towards him. He moved closer too, but he must have been distracted because they ended up a bit more in each other's personal space than he would be cool with for anyone else.

"I, uh, brought you some…" He had to look at his hands to remember what he'd brought. "Fruit. Aaand I tried to bring you soup but I tripped on a rock, and then this eyeball came flying out," he tried not to gag, and failed, "so that, uh… that didn't work out so great."

Chuckling, she took a dragonfruit from his hand and had a bite. "Thanks! Come on, I could use your help. And you can tell me about your fancy-pants new cybernetics."

Soon he found himself laying on the ground, his hand casting light on a pipe she was tinkering with. He'd been recounting the events after they'd split on Helios, and as the story progressed she started to glance over at him more and more often.

"So he was getting all, you know, Handsome Jack-y-" Rhys said, waving his hands. Without looking, Sasha reached out and grabbed his wrist. Pulling his hand back into place, she kept working. Holy shit, she was touching him.

It occurred to her that he'd stopped talking. Looking at him quizzically, Sasha found him gaping at her. She froze too, unsure if this was him being weird, him getting hijacked, or if he was actually looking at a skag behind her or something. Then she tracked his eyes down to his wrist, which she was still holding. Oh. Quickly releasing him, she busied herself with the fuel line again.

"S-so, um… where was I?" he stammered.

"You'd just survived the landing and found Handsome Jack."

"O-oh, oh yeah, thanks. So, um, he was posturing, as usual, and…"

As soon as he said he picked up the shard of glass, a weight fell in the pit of her stomach. Putting down her tools, she scooted out from under the caravan to the description of him impaling and cutting off his own arm. She sat in front of him as he explained, with an air of his typical nonchalance covering his tenseness, how he tore out all his cybernetics. They both almost gagged at the eye thing.

Wow. She'd grudgingly admitted a while ago that he could, on occasion, end up doing brave things. But this… this took resolve. No matter how badly he wanted Jack gone, cutting out his eye implant was… hardcore.

"Rhys… that's really impressive," she interjected quietly, when he paused for breath. He immediately locked up and stared at her, wide-eyed.

"Wh-what is?"

"Getting rid of Jack." Sasha shuddered. "Ripping off your own arm, cutting out your-"

"Yeah!" he interrupted, turning a little pale, "yeah, it, uh, it wasn't a blast, let me tell you."

Sasha stretched over and rested a hand on his wrist. "You're really brave," she said softly. That appeared to break his mind. His eyes wide, he opened and closed his mouth a few times before finally squeaking, "Well, uh, thank you, I, um, really appreciate that."

Smirking, she echoed, "I appreciate you appreciating it."

As soon as he finished his story, he asked her how life had gone for her in the intervening time. She slid back under the caravan, pulling his hand with her for the light. She talked about how they'd looked for him, how Fi had gone all Vault-Huntery and she'd followed, but it never felt entirely right. How Hollow Point felt even less like home now, how she didn't know what she wanted to do with her life, but it wasn't the part-time mechanic work with Janey and it wasn't Vault Hunting.

By this point she'd finished her inspections, so they'd climbed up to the burnt-up roof and sat together in the warm night breeze.

"I… just don't know what I'm gonna do, after all this. I'll probably stick with Fi. I like excitement, but not… this " she gestured at the valley with a sweep of her hand, "much."

"You'll do great at whatever you end up doing," Rhys said, his upfront sincerity surprising her. He seemed to honestly believe it. She wasn't used to anyone but Fi talking like that, and even she only did so occasionally.

"But, uh, hey," he continued, leaning back on his hands and looking at her with an expression that was probably meant to be cool, "if you're ever looking for a job, there's always a spot for you at Atlas."

Laughing, she leaned back too. Their hands were so close that all she'd have to do was stretch out her thumb… but that would make him freeze up again, and she was enjoying having an actual conversation with him.

"What, me become corporate scum?"

"Hey! I'm not corporate scum anymore!" He'd said it with levity in his tone, but she could tell her words had stung a little. Tearing her eyes away from the starry sky, she studied his face for a second.

"No," she agreed, "you're not." A pause. Her hand moved up to adjust her goggles, slung around her neck again. "Thanks. I'll… yeah, that might be nice one day."

He was smiling, small and true. A genuine display of happiness. It looked good on him.

They sat together in silence for a while, listening to the distant baying of skags and intermittent bursts of gunfire.

"S-soooo, how's, uh, Hollow Point?" he stammered. Sasha looked over at him suspiciously.

"I already told you. How hard did you say you hit your head?"

"N-no, I mean, the uh, people, how are they all-... Did you, uh, stay in touch with-"

"'How's August'," she filled in flatly. Seriously? Was this really an issue right now? It should be pretty obvious to Mr. People Person here that August was not a thing.

"How's August," he admitted in defeat. "It's just, Fiona said you rescued him on Helios, and I figured maybe, he and you, uh, I dunno…" Rhys trailed off into a mumble, suddenly fascinated by lights on the horizon, as far from her as he could look.

Oh, yeah, that. That had been supremely dumb. It'd been a stupid instinct. They had been together for a while, after all, and he had just saved them from guards and from being left behind. But still…

"He's still an asshole, as far as I can tell. I don't talk to him," she replied, as nonchalantly as she could. She could see Rhys watching her, but she kept her eyes on the sky. Her fingers brushed against the lenses of her goggles.

"...Yeah, he is," Rhys agreed warily.

This idiot was so oblivious sometimes. Finally she looked at him, to find him still staring at her.

"I'm… really glad you're here. And- alive, too," she said, leaning a little bit closer to him.

Rhys released a breathy chuckle. "Thanks. I'm really glad too. I, uh… I really missed you."

"Yeah, it wasn't the same without you getting us in trouble all the time," she teased.

"Hey, it wasn't always my fault!"

"Mostly you," she said, smirking.

"Fiona got us in trouble too sometimes," he said, a little sulkily, "And I got us out of almost every trouble I got us in."

"With help," she added.

He muttered to himself for a moment before allowing, "Alright, with help."

God, it felt so… right , sitting here with him. She'd only ever felt this relaxed around her family. Rhys knew her, really knew her, like she'd never allowed anyone else to know. He liked her, too. The real her. And… he was a good guy. Sure, he'd been corporate scum, but even then he must have been pretty decent to have such a strong friendship with Vaughn. She still remembered Rhys, pinned down in a gun battle on a planet he hated, refusing an offer to return to Helios because it endangered his friend. That was when she had first become willing to accept the possibility of entertaining the thought of allowing her minute crush on him to be a thing.

Now she was totally cool with having a huge crush on him. It only took a little lean to rest her cheek on his shoulder. "It's been one hell of an adventure, huh?"

His muscles were taut, his whole body stiffly stuck in place. After what was several moments of peaceful contemplation for her, and probably ten eons of careful thought and analysis for him, his arm shifted up to wrap across her back. His hand landed right above her scar.

"Yeah. I'm… I'm really glad you tried to embezzle me out of ten million." Rhys said that with actual sincerity, the dork.

Readjusting her position slightly, she replied, "Hey, you embezzled first."

"Yeah," he said dreamily, "I guess I did."

Sasha thought about just how much she should say. Then she figured, screw it, she might not be alive by this time tomorrow. "I'm really glad you tried to steal our caravan."

"To be fair, we thought you were gonna kill us," he commented, which was a fair point, "... I'm glad too," he added, softly.

They sat together for a few minutes, enjoying the relative peace and quiet. Then, of course , they heard Fiona's voice from further down the ridge: "Sash! Are you up there?"

"Yeah," Sasha yelled back, probably deafening Rhys in one ear. Sighing, she got to her feet and held out a hand to him.

"Come on, we should get some sleep."

Back in the caravan, she caught his arm before he could grab the door handle.

"Hey, Rhys… tomorrow's gonna be pretty busy, so, uh…" Shit, this had seemed like a way better idea in her head.

Before she could wimp out or make things worse by talking, she yanked on his arm. Popping up on tiptoe, she caught his stumble towards her and quickly pressed a kiss to his cheek.

"Good luck kiss," she said tersely.

"Thanks," he said, his voice constricted, "you too."

Thank god the darkness hid their blushes. Fiona was suspicious enough as it was.