CHAPTER SEVEN
SPACE – UNKNOWN LOCATION – Yondu's Mothership
Having Eyien on board of the ship not as a prisoner, but as an equal partner, turned out to be rather...unexpected. Now that she had decided Yondu was ok in her book, she had literally expanded everywhere on the mother-ship, and not only because she practically had all their systems in the palm of her hand. She was everywhere at any given time, it was almost impossible not to run in on her. To Yin uttermost amusement, the crew had taken way more than she would have anticipated to work out that she was not, in fact, omnipresent, but that she was screwing with them with a simple holo projector software. It was her way to claim the space as her own, she bad told to a disgruntled Yondu when he had confronted her about it. Every time the two of them interacted, Kraglin had to suppress the cheeky smile that always made its way on his lips if he was in the room; the same way Fey tended to only scowl in plain view if Yin was nowhere in sight.
And so, no one was really surprised when the loud speakers of the ship were casually hacked one day, blasting out music that none of them seem to really understand. It was all high pitched sounds mixed with low rich ones, slow tempos intertwining with quick, jumping ones; there were no words, only music, which surprised everyone a bit, used as they had been to Peter's music.
Kraglin and Fey were working in one of the hangars when the music started to diffuse, slow and gentle at first, and the mercenary immediately guessed who was behind the sudden change in atmosphere, even before his companion sighed next to him.
"How many times has she overridden your consoles already?" Fey huffed, cleaning xir hands on a piece of cloth.
Kraglin chuckled good-naturedly.
"Probably too many times to remember them all. At least she has the decency to make it known when she's doing it, so I won't be surprised the next time I go and check on them" he replied, accepting the cloth when xe passed it to him. "It could be worse, though, so I'm not complaining" he went on, offering xe a smile.
"You shouldn't let her do it so freely, she'll end up stealing the ship under your noses" Fey warned him with a pointed look, clearly implying that xe had seen her do so before.
"Speaking from experience?" He teased the astran.
Fey seemed distracted for a moment, xir head clearly somewhere else for a split second before xe shook it.
"How do you think I met her?" xe asked rhetorically, snorting at the memory.
Suddenly, the music cut off completely, and the sound of a scuffle replaced the slow-quick tempo of the song. The sounds were muffled, but when she spoke up, Eyien's voice rang out clear as day.
Fuck me, this is way harder than I thought! she said in between heavy, labored breaths.
The both of them exchanged a half confused half worried look, but turned back to their work without a second thought; until Yondu's voice followed.
You still haven't seen anything, lassie he was replying to her, his breath stiller than hers, but still audibly fatigued.
There was a pause, and then a mischievous chuckle.
Mmh, are you gonna show me? Yin voice purred over the loudspeakers.
On his side, Fey groaned loudly.
"I'm doing my best not to misunderstand, I swear" Kraglin laughed, already imaging his captain flustered demeanor. It was difficult to catch if one didn't know how or where to look for it, but to him it was clear as day that Eyien's flirting did affect him.
"I just want to forget everything I heard" Fey said, a resigned look in xir eyes. Xe had the face of someone who was regretting a lot of things. That overheard conversation was probably at the top of xir list.
Void be praised, a surprised 'whoops' rang in the air, and the music resumed immediately after.
"Mmh, are you gonna show me?" she purred, bending forward to invade his personal space. In doing so, her eyes fell on the console resting on the crates behind him, noticing the flashing blue light on the screen that read loudspeakers.
"Whoops" she said out loud, hurrying past him to switch back the setting. She had probably pushed a button on accident while they were sparring, meaning the hole ship had just listened in on the whole thing.
"What have you done now?" Yondu asked, moving aside to let her tinker with the console, an eyebrow raised in suspicion as he watched her.
Yin turned back with a sheepish smile on her full lips, a look that only meant mischief.
"Nothing to worry about, of course" she chirped, moving the small computer away from them on another cluster of crates far from them, just to be sure they couldn't press any other key by mistake.
Yondu was clearly unconvinced, but as long as alarms weren't blaring ship-wide, he supposed he didn't have too much to worry about.
"Fine. Then let's go one more time from the top" he said, taking up position and falling back in a defensive stance.
They had been sparring for the better part of two hours now, where Yondu had decided to test Yin's skill in hand to hand combat, explaining that he wanted to make sure she knew how to defend herself with her body before he went on and tried to teach her how to use her arrow. Yin hadn't replied to that, preferring to let him believe that she had no knowledge whatsoever in hand to hand, and she had gloated for five minutes straight when she had downed him the first time, to his utter confusion. The expression painted on his face had been downright priceless, right up until the point where he had swiped his feet at her, sending her with her ass on the floor as well.
From there, they had kept at it with a steady rhythm, more focused on building up a routine than in trying to overpower each other.
Yin stretched her neck left and right before she fell back on a defensive stance; they circled each other for a moment, then she lunged forward.
High punch, block, side kick, jump, left swipe, block, block, low kick, block, the sweat beading on Yondu's naked chest, block, missed – fuck, right punch, left punch, deflect, side kick, the taunt muscles of his arms as he prepared to swipe at her on her left, block, right punch, high kick, the vein popping on the side of his neck as he blocked her kick, punch, missed again, punch, punch, side kick, the way his tongue darted out to lick the sweat off of his upper lip, missed, missed, blocked a punch, completely missed the low kick sweeping at her feet.
She fell flat on the sparring mats under her, ass first and back second, a muffled thump covering her fell as dust lightly diffused in the air all over her in a transparent cloud.
Eyien blinked a couple times, mildly confused, until Yondu's face appeared in front of her eyes. He was standing over her, and she had to fight the urge to let her eyes trail up his legs all the way to his owns.
"I believe this one's mine" he proclaimed, breath still uneven despite the smugness radiating off of him.
"You just got lucky" she huffed, sprawling all over the mats, her chest heaving with fatigue as she tried to work her adrenaline down to an acceptable level again.
"Maybe, or maybe I'm just that good" he said, shrugging a she rested his hands on his hips in a very cocky pose.
"Ah! Was that humor? Am I rubbing off on you?" she asked, quite a bit suggestively, as she pushed up on her forearms, shoving her breasts forward a bit. She wiggled her perfectly shaped brows at him, teasing him without the need to say anything at all.
Yondu just shook his head, grunting noncommittally, and bent down to offer her his hand to stand back up. Yin hesitated for the briefest of seconds. Since coming back on the Mothership there had been a lot of either casual or deliberate touches between them; a hand on the arm to catch each other attention, a fleeting touch on the back to steer the other in the right direction…
She wasn't uncomfortable with this new development, she was a very physical kind of person, loved to touch and be touched, didn't shy away from physical contac; but with Yondu it made her conscious that something had shifted in their relationship.
She paused no longer than a heartbeat before accepting his hand, pushing herself off the ground with maybe too much force. Yondu pulled her up at the same time as she pushed, and Yin yelped in surprise when she found herself in his arms in the most predictable cliché ever.
Her first reaction took her by surprise, making her uncomfortably aware of Yondu's body against hers, the hard muscles under her hands, the heat radiating from him…
It took her a handful of seconds to scold her features in a neutral teasing mask, hopefully successfully hiding her dumbfound reaction. Her body relaxed quickly, her hands unclenching and lazily spreading over his pectorals where they had landed. Her eyes trailed up his torso to his face, and she smiled cheekily once they found his looking back down at her with an unreadable expression that didn't deter her in the least.
"Well, if you wanted me to rub off on you, you just had to ask" she said, a suggestive smile pulling her full lips in a wide grin.
Yondu's muscles twitched under fingers, but the man gave no acknowledgement to her words. He simply scowled and proceeded to step back from her.
Yin watched her hands fall back to her sides with a bit of disappointment; he knew she wasn't being serious, right? She hoped he did. She was only being a tease with him, flirting left and right when she got the opportunity, but only because he had never told her off. And, even though she wouldn't have complained if something came out of it, she wasn't either expecting or offering anything. She was having fun, and only because Yondu had never seemed uncomfortable with her doing so.
Things can change, she thought pragmatically.
Yes, that was true. If this was how it was going to be, she just had to accept it and move on, look for entertainment in something else. She would not impose on other what wasn't welcomed.
"Well, thanks for the spar, I really needed it. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to take a shower. Least someone gotta smell better than the ship, am I right?" she joked lightly, throwing a small innocent wink his way before she recovered her portable console and strode out.
As he watched Eyien's back disappear out of the bay, Yondu let go of a sigh he didn't even know was holding, relief and guilt filling him in equal parts as he let himself fall on one of the crates.
On one hand he was glad the whole awkward mishap was over, one the other he was feeling bad for making her feel bad. Her relentless flirting and shameless attitude were not unwanted nor offending, he actually found her ways refreshing, a definite change of pace from the violence and general rowdiness of his Clan.
He huffed out his own displeasure, took one of the bottles resting on the ground, and chugged down its contents in one go.
Yes, he didn't mind her flirting, but sometimes it was overpowering for him. He was not used to be on the other hand of so many attentions , had never truly experienced something like that since-
Another sigh.
And now, thanks to his ineptitude, he had put a wall between them. It didn't take a genius to see how her mannerism had changed once he stepped away from her; he had felt overwhelmed by her scent, the softness of her curves under his hands, the way her fingers has splayed on his chest…too much too fast.
Fuck.
He had to work that frustration out of his system, otherwise their collaboration was going to become painfully tense.
He cracked his fingers absentmindedly, his eyes landing on the mats at his feet.
There always was one thing that made him feel better no matter what.
Yin had barely exited the showers when she caught the noise.
It was a deep, low rumbling that had nothing to do with the engines of the ships, and the more she listened to it, the closer and louder it seemed to get. A slight panic started to crawl its way up her spine, quickening her steps up the stairs and towards the more populated areas.
Suddenly, a cheer erupted out of nothing, and she almost jumped out of her skin.
"BRAWLBRAWLBRAWLBRAWL!"
She stopped in the middle of an hallway, eyes open wide and ears stretched to make out the words.
"BRAWL BRAWL BRAWL BRAWL!"
She frowned.
Brawl?
What the hell was going on?
Her frown turned in a face of pure shock as she witnessed an unholy number of Ravagers coming running from the end of the corridor, directly towards her.
Her brain registered the information and acted on its own, yanking her off her feet and towards the nearest wall, where she tried to make herself as flat as possible to avoid being trumped over by the indistinct mass of rowdy mercenaries charging by.
Their chant of BRAWL grew louder and louder until it became deafening, and then it passed, losing itself in the bowels of the ship as the men ran somewhere.
"The fuck?" she whispered in confusion, looking back at where the group had disappeared behind a corner. No alarms were blaring, meaning they weren't in any immediate danger, but by the sound of it, someone somewhere had – obviously – started a brawl. She shrugged in her clean clothes, not really interested in assisting to two bulky men fisting each other in order to prove who was the most macho between them, and she resumed her walk to her room near the bridge. She had made the switch upon returning, and now she was sharing a bigger – and cleaner – room with Fey, who had proceeded in cleaning it very meticulously until xe could see xir own reflex in the walls.
The door swooshed open as she moved near it, and her friend looked up from xir bed, xir head bent sideways, as if xe was surprised to see her.
"Uh. I wasn't expecting you yet" xe said, matter-of-factly, as she entered.
"Why? I don't have anywhere to be. I think" she replied, pausing for a moment to make sure she hadn't forgotten any previous engagement. She didn't remember making any promises.
"Did you really miss the mass of thugs running around chanting for a brawl?" xe asked, raising a golden brow in her direction, as if not believing her.
"I almost got ran over, it was kind of difficult to miss them. But I thought someone had just started a fight somewhere" she said, now unsure of her supposition.
Was something bigger going on? She supposed it could be, they were on a Ravager ship, after all.
"Seems like your Captain has decided that this place needs a bit of entertainment. He called for the Brawl" xe elaborated, managing only to make her frown deepen.
"Kraglin said that it's something they usually do when Yondu gets stressed; he calls the brawl and beats up some people and everyone's happy again" xe went on, shrugging as if to scroll off the mere notion from xir shoulders.
Yin stiffened for a split second.
Only when he's stressed, she thought a bit bitterly, replaying their earlier interaction. Was this because of her? Of how she had behaved with him in the past weeks?
Fey watched her scowl for a bit, red eyes downcast on the floor.
"Did something happen?" xe inquired, lowering xir head to try and catch the glare she was directing to the floor.
"No"
She paused.
Xe sighed.
"Do you want to go and see?" xe asked, already knowing the answer xe was about to get.
"Yes" Yin said, looking back up with a shameless smile on her face. Leave it to her to always deflect with such cheekiness!
Fey took a long, deep breath to prepare xirself. When xe exhaled, xe was ready. If she wanted to go and be surrounded by filthy, sweaty mercenaries kicking the shit out of each other, than xe would accompany her.
"They are in the hangar bay" xe offered, already on xir feet and walking to the door.
They made their way back down, and the cheers and chants, mixed with an impressive number of colorful insults and slurs, became nearer and louder as they got closer. Finally, when they reached the bay, they were greeted by an open circle of people, at the center of which Yondu was pounding some unknown dude. They stopped just at the edge of the opening, Fey leaning over the doors with xir shoulders, while Yin stood straight, eyes already lost in the fight.
She was looking with a certain rapture, once again admiring the fluidity with which Yondu moved. The other mercenary had yet to land a hit on him; whenever he got closer, Yondu seemed to flow away, evading with the same fluency as water slipping through fingers, and then hitting with the agility and force of a solar wind. She kept drinking in every detail, not flinching from the scene even when they started to draw blood; the challenger went down after a well placed kick right on his teeth, falling on the mats unconscious.
"C'mon! Who's next?" Yondu shouted to the room as two other guys recovered the one that had gone down. A low murmur went through the entire crowd before someone else rose up to the challenge.
"Taserface will challenge you!" a Starkan man with a long beard and typical subcutaneous marks bellowed, stepping out of the mass and into the empty circle.
On her left, Fey didn't bother hiding xir snort.
"Who the hell told him it was a good name to pick? Taserface, ah!" xe laughed, clearly entertained by the mercenary's choice of name. Xe giggled to xirself for a while, and Yin ultimately turned back towards the fight, more interested to see how Yondu would fare against an adversary bigger than himself.
The Captain only smirked as his underling moved closer, fists pounding on his still armored chest.
Yondu was still shirtless, still only wearing the tight body suite he had used while working out together, but he seemed fairly unconcerned with it, instead cracking his neck left and right, falling back on his heels, ready to either lunge or evade.
Taserface – and ok, it was funny – bellowed again to pump himself up, and then straight up charged at his boss, ending up hugging air when Yondu ducked under and moved to the side, promptly kicking him in the ass and sending him face first into the mat. The whole room roared up in laughter, a thing that apparently Taserface – how could it get funnier the more she thought about it? – did not appreciate; not by a long shot if the blood-shot glare on his face was anything to go by. He was up on his feet quickly enough, already lunging again at where Yondu stood, a shit eating grin stretching his lips in a predatory look that made her tingle all over. This time he didn't evade the attack, choosing instead to meet it head first, blocking the bigger man almost effortlessly with his whole body. As he pushed him back, he charged up his momentum by putting his weight on his legs, and then, when he was free to do so, kicked him right in the stomach. Taserface – it should be illegal to have such a name, she was barely keeping a straight face by now – took the hit with as much grace as one could expect, grunting with both pain and effort as he struggled to remain up. His Captain though didn't seem to be in the mood to be a honest sparring partner, and before the starkan had fully managed to absorb the blow, Yondu slapped him in the ear, effectively making the other lose his balance. As Taserface – don't laugh! – wobbled on his feet, Yondu went in for the metaphorical kill, delivering one hell of a sucker punch right on his nose.
The man fell on his ass as the one before him had done, if not unconscious as well, surely at least concussed.
Silence fell for half a second on the whole bay, but then Yondu raised his arms victoriously, and the crowd boomed out in cheers and whistles and acclamations.
"Now that was something" Fey chuckled, pushing off from the door and going to stand next to her. Xe, she noted with some level of incredulousness, was clapping along with the others.
"Ah, I'm glad that this bunch of unwashed thugs could be of some entertainment" she said, huffing out a laugh to xir reaction to the fight. "For a person who's not keen on violence you sure had some fun" she said, bumping jokingly on xir shoulder.
"And how could I not? Your Captain has some hilarious individuals on his crew!" xe replied, still grinning as they watched Taserface – it was really too much – get dragged somewhere.
This time, Yin had to point out to xe that Yondu was not her Captain, in whichever sense xe was meaning it.
Fey gave her a long and pointed look.
"Yes, whatever helps you sl-" xe was cut off by a device pinging somewhere in xir jacket.
When xe took the small pad out and proceeded to scan whatever information had popped up, Yin watched as xir face slowly drained of its brightness, leaving behind a pale gold.
"What is that?" she asked hurriedly, already imaging the worst scenarios she could.
Xe glanced up and down from her face to xir pad a couple times before xir eyes settled on hers.
"I had a sentinel program run a check of all our systems, just to see if there had been a breach we had not caught. Turns out, there is more than just a breach, there is a fucking hangar door in there. Hundreds of data lost, stolen most likely, all leaked to one single spot…" xe said, trailing off on the most important bit of the whole deal. Yin watched him with anxious eyes as xe worked on something, then wished she xe hadn't when xe turned it to show her.
Looking back at her with the same old smug face, was the last person she had expected to see.