CHAPTER SIX
SAFEHOUSE – YHITA
The life of a mercenary is made of close calls and near death experiences, but sometimes we are not that lucky. You should make peace with it as quickly as possible.
It was what Stakar had told her, all those years ago, after she had witnessed one of theirs die on a job. At first, both shock and grief had been too strong to overcome, but with time his words had become an universal truth that applied to herself as well. Normally, it was rare for her to stick around long enough for the gunfire to start, she'd always had a pretty good idea of what pain was, especially on the field when there was no immediate way of relieving it.
So, when she opened her eyes and felt nothing but numbness, her first reaction was to think she was dead; but then she caught her reflection on the glass dome over her, and her senses quietly awoken with her. The sound of an ECG caught her ear.
Uh, not dead then.
Slowly, she moved her head around, trying to get a glimpse of her body while she tested if all her appendices worked properly. Everything responded as expected, and she noticed that she had been stripped out of her gown, her modesties barely covered by some sort of thermal bandaging. Her eyes ranked up and down her own body, searching for further injuries, but stopped in the middle of her abdomen where, in stark contrast with her violet complexion, stood out a small, dark scar, in the same exact spot where Yondu's arrow had pierced through her.
In all honesty, she was kind of surprised that she had woken up at all after that.
Her attention turned outside her med-bed when she heard a chair scraping on the floor on her left. Eyien didn't know how to feel when her eyes focused on the figure standing there, still wearing the same clothes she had last seen him in, only covered in blood.
Her blood, she suspected.
Yondu looked like death, with dark blue-purplish circles under his eyes, his shoulders bent in such defeat that for a moment she had to doubt it was really him…
Was he feeling guilty for what had happened? Was that why he hadn't changed out of those soiled clothes yet?
She must have been unconscious for more than just a couple hours, judging by the cauterized wound and the way her body was feeling, and yet he was still wearing them.
Had he watched over her for the whole time=
The mere thought did something to her insides, something she didn't appreciate, especially when the ECG caught up with the slight acceleration in her heart beat, alerting the mercenary's attention.
Yondu perked up immediately at the increase rhythm of the machine, his eyes quickly following the sound towards the bed. His pupils widened when he saw her awake, and Yin smiled meekly in reply, still a little tense. He walked up to her bed without a second thought, his fingers already tapping on the console to lift the containment glass.
For a moment, while the glass lifted itself out of the way, neither of them said anything.
"How 'ya feelin?" Yondu asked then, breaking the awkwardness after their silence.
Eyien grimaced slightly, unsure on how to defuse the lingering uneasiness on her end.
"You know, like someone almost whistled me death" she joked lamely, regretting it immediately when she noticed the shadow fall over his eyes. She cursed to herself while she hurried to raise her hands in defense, waving them as if to swipe away the utterly failed attempt at comic relief.
"I'm kidding! I'm fine, see?" she said, pointing to where the scar now rested just above her bellybutton.
"Ya nearly died, lassie…" Yondu sighed, one hand going to rub the back of his neck, desperately trying to ease out some of the stress that had accumulated in the last twelve hours.
"Yeah, I know… But it was an accident, right?" she asked, pausing just slightly as her own self doubt crept up on her.
It had been just an accident, it had to have been.
Yondu had seemed completely out of it when she had approached him; she had probably startled him, that's why she had ended with an arrow through her…
"It wasn't supposed t'happen…" he breathed out, sounding more defeated than anything.
It wasn't exactly what she had expected to hear, but the guilt reflected in his eyes and demeanor was enough for her to believe his words.
"You seemed pretty spaced out when I called out to you, almost as if you weren't there at all" Yin pointed out, remembering just how he was clutching on to the book, as if that tiny object made out of paper was his only lifeline.
"That's 'cause I wasn't. I-" he cut himself off, clearly unwilling to share with her what exactly had happened to him in those five fatal minutes. Before Eyien could enquire further, though, the door opened rather hastily; Yondu took a step back from the bed, making her conscious of just how close he had gotten during their conversation. Her stomach churned uncomfortably when she realized that, despite the sidestep, he was still close enough for her to reach out and touch him, if she wanted to.
"Captain, we have a problem. Xander said that one of Eyien's associates has just arrived, what should we do?" Kraglin informed Yondu before he was even fully inside the room. And while Yin was pleased to see him in one piece, his words held more interest to her than his presence.
"Fey is here?" she asked, trying – and failing – to contain her enthusiasm and apprehension at the news.
"Hey, you're up!" he replied, momentarily ignoring her question in his relief to see her awake and very much alive.
"More or less, but you were-" she tried to say, not managing to finish her sentence as a third figure appeared at the door, unceremoniously shoving xir way inside.
"Yin!" Fey shouted before xe had even spotted her on the far side of the room. When xe finally caught sight of her, xir face went from deadly worried, to extremely relieved, to painstakingly pissed in rather quick succession, and she winced slightly when she saw xe zero in on Yondu.
Fay had never been a violent person by nature, but they were like family to each other, and when a member of the family got hurt, all bets were off.
"Hey Fey, fancy meeting you here" she chirped cheerily, attempting to channel his growing ire away from the man at her side.
The result was pretty much immediate, considering that they had known each other for decades and she knew exactly just how to push xir buttons. Fey's attention switched immediately towards were she was lamely half-sitting, half-lying on the bed, xir golden eyes fuming.
"Fuck you, Yin! What in Odin's name were you thinking! Didn't I tell you that staying with these fucking Ravagers was going to get you killed?! And what did you do? Not only you refused to try and get away, you went to play undercover spy with them, you absolute dipshit!"
Ouch.
Swears plus asgardian references were a really bad sing coming from xe, especially when mixed together.
"Calm down, will you? I'm fine" she said, trying to both defuse and minimize the situations. It was really difficult for her to watch xe get so riled up over her, and the last thing she wanted was to make a scene in front of the two mercenaries.
"Fine?! You died on me! How do you think I felt when you flat-lined, uh? And good thing I kept that monitoring software, otherwise you probably wouldn't have even told me you had been injured!"xe added, making it painfully clear that xe was beyond enraged with her nonsense and recklessness.
The worst part, was that xe was right, and they both knew it.
And so, as the rightful coward she was, she did the only other thing she knew how to do best to avoid confrontation: she deflected.
"You are still running that software?" she asked, her voice picking up octaves as it went in her attempt to sound indignant.
"I'll keep running that program up until the day you die, Eyien Vlitch, and don't think I don't know what you are trying to do. I'm putting my foot down, you are coming back with me; end of discussion. We'll go back to the safe house, and we'll focus on finding who rattled you out to the Nova Corps, and that's it" xe said sternly, sounding more like a mother than a partner in crimes. But that was the price to pay when it came to family, or so she imagined.
"She's not going anywhere with you, boy; we made a deal" Yondu said, jumping in the conversation at probably the worst of times.
Fey, in return, glared at him with the intensity of thousand suns, taking a step forward for the first time since xe had burst through the door.
"You made a deal with a professional liar and con-artist, what does that say to you, Yondu Udonta? Do you really believe she'd willingly give herself over to the man that ruined her life? You-"
"That's enough Fey" Eyien's voice rang out with authority, efficiently silencing her partner.
"Yin-" xe tried to protest, but she held up a hand to block any objections. With not as much effort as she would have anticipated, she pushed herself off of the bed, sitting up straight.
The wonders of modern medicine.
"I know you're trying to protect me, Fey, but I think I've made my decision. I'm gonna stay on Yondu's ship and go meet Stakar; it's time for me to get some closure, or else my ghosts will haunt me for the rest of my days" she heard herself say with a conviction she was not sure she was feeling entirely; but her words held the truth, she knew. Almost dying had shown her that she had far more regrets than she would have liked, and one of those was the fact that she had never put her dead completely to rest.
"You can't be serious" Fey breathed out, worry once again taking over xir features "It's basically suicide and you know it!" xe shouted.
Eyien grimaced slightly at xir words, well aware that what xe was arguing was a real possibility; Stakar hadn't taken her defection lightly, and the least she could expect from him were some painful repercussions. But she wouldn't just go into meeting him completely unprepared, no, she was going to be ready for a fight, if necessary. She had never truly confronted him about what had happened, and her sudden trip to the other world had made her realize that she needed answers; and what better way to get them than going directly to the source?
"Maybe so. But I'm set, and I'll see this through" she repeated sternly, the conviction settling even more strongly inside her, like molten lava finally solidifying deep in her core.
Fey stared at her for a moment longer, xir eyes boring in her skull as xe tried to decide what to make of the situation. In the end, xe sighed in defeat, xir whole body deflating with one breath.
"Fine, but if you truly are set on this fool's errand, then I'm coming with you" xe said, arms crossing over xir chest to affirm the finality of xir statement.
Yin didn't say anything, knowing it was practically useless to dissuade xe from tagging along, but she ultimately wasn't the one that could make the decision.
"Hold it, boy! You're not going anywhere near my ship!" Yondu, predictably, protested Fey self-imposed presence on the mission – and ship.
He was the one to decide who could board his ship, no one else!
"I'll ignore the blatant disrespect for my pronouns, Yondu Udonta, but let me tell you something: one way or another, I'm boarding that derelict ship of yours" Fey declared, a smug little grin stuck on xir lips as he delivered xir witty lines. Eyien had to hide the snort that escaped her at that, pleased to see just how uncomfortable those words had made the oh-so-confident mercenary captain.
Yondu looked ready to bolt, clearly at a loss on how to respond to such statement. He turned towards the woman next to him, and Yin just shrugged in response.
"Xe's very stubborn" she replied lamely.
He was about to say something when a knock at the door caught everyone's attention. All their eyes followed the noise, finding Xander standing casually at the entrance of the room.
"I don't want to hurry anyone, but I just got wind that the authorities have caught up with your presence at the auction; you might want to leave the planet sooner rather than later" he said coolly, his calm voice a stark contrast with the content of his words.
Fey was the first one to get alarmed.
"Shit. Do you think you can get out of here?" xe asked, immediately fussing over her as always.
"I'm fine. Just get me some clothes and we can get out of here" she replied, hopping down the med-bed to demonstrate that she was able to stand on her feet.
Her knees buckled only slightly, but before her body could even think of falling, she felt more than saw Yondu's hand going to support her around the waist, successfully keeping her up.
"Go ready the ship for departure" he said towards Kraglin, who just simply nodded and scurried out of the room quickly.
"I'll put together your stuff in the meanwhile. Fey, if you would, her clothes are in the other room" Xander offered, motioning towards the adjacent room with a gesture of his hand.
Fey simply threw a suspicious glance at xir partner before he, too, walked out. The other astran man nodded once and then followed his fellow out.
Left alone, Eyien suddenly felt all the self awareness of being covered in nothing more than a glorified mix of bandages, especially since she could feel the heat from where Yondu's hand was resting on her hip.
Don'tblushdon'tblushdon'tblushdon'tblush!
She had to force her heart not to go on a rollercoaster, the last thing she wanted was to blush like a teenager! She had spent more than a decade amongst mercenaries, she wasn't shy, but then why was it that just a simple touch could make her so flustered?
She opened her mouth to say something, anything to get out of that situation, but Yondu anticipated her.
"I s'pose ya're vouching for…. xe?" he asked, eyes moving from the door to her, looking down at his side. His hand twitched almost imperceptibly when he realized just how close she had ended up to him when he had reach out to her, but he made no move of letting go.
"Yes, Fey's family, xe won't give you trouble – she managed to say, then paused for a brief second – Well, not too much trouble. Xe's the most talented engineer I've ever met, I'm sure xe'll turn out to be rather helpful" she said, smiling meekly as she did. She wasn't sure how thing where going to work out with Fey on beard Yondu's ship, but she surely wasn't going to complain.
" 'Aight, if you say so"
Silence seemed to follow them everywhere when they weren't arguing or exchanging barbs, especially since Yin had started to trust him a bit more. If she couldn't recur to her infinite repertoire of deflecting material, she felt stranded.
She wasn't exactly sure when Yondu had moved out of the 'untrustworthy mercenary' category in her head, but she sure felt a lot more comfortable around him now, especially since he was still wearing those fucking bloody clothes. It said a lot on his character, and though she wasn't exactly going to lay her life at his feet and swear loyalty, she knew she had misjudged him.
Was it terribly weird that she was considering giving him chance right after he had almost killed by accident? It probably was.
Then again, she had definitely found herself in much odd situations in her life.
"I was thinking-" she started, taking a side step to face him better, but her words died in her throat as the movement dragged his hand from her hip to the small of her back, tracing half her back in a heated line. She shuddered at the tingling feeling that spread all over, but the universe saw fit to save her from further embarrassment when Fey overly announced xir return.
"I've got your clothes and weapon!" xe proclaimed loud enough for the both them to hear xe before xe could enter and interrupt whatever was going on inside.
At the mention of her weapon, Yin seemed to come back to her senses, quickly stepping out of Yondu's reach and towards where Fey was just entering.
"You got my arrow?" she asked, anxiously acknowledging that she hadn't even preoccupied to ask if they had not lost it somewhere. Maybe she should have a bit more presence of head when it came to the weapon, but the fact that it remained useless to her made her forget about it all together. Her mother and sister would be disappointed, no doubt.
Suddenly, while Fey looked mildly surprised at the little secrecy she seemed to have kept with the mercenary regarding the arrow, an idea struck her.
She spun around a bit too fast, bright red eyes founding their exact corresponding on Yondu's confused features.
"Will you help me with it? You're the only other person I've ever met that was able to master the Yaka Arrow" she asked, hope building inside her with every breath.
He was her only hope to ever come around to understand the weapon and successfully use it, after all. And if she was going to face off against Stakar, she clearly needed every edge she could get.
Yondu mulled her request over for a bit longer than she was comfortable with, draining her expectations one second at a time. Finally, a wicked grin split his lips, and she got a good look of his sharp teeth as he smiled cheekily at her. He crossed his arms, muscles bulging under the tight fit of the suit he was still wearing, head cocked to one side in a clearly self-satisfactory pose.
"I thought you'd never ask, lassie" he replied, all his swagger and confidence back in his voice at last, seemingly erasing whatever self-inflicted shame that had overtaken him during the night.