Five years ago, before they had opened the vault, before Lilith and Roland became an item, and before much of anything had happened, the hunter had gotten drunk while the siren became tipsy. With a bottle of rakk ale in one hand and a bar dart in the other, Mordecai had taunted the siren's aim. "You throw like a little girl."
"Oh, I'm all woman," she'd been sassy, if not steady, "too bad you're not man enough to find out."
Not seven minutes later, after a few more inebriated jabs quickly deteriorated into drunken flirting, Mordecai had his tongue in Lilith's mouth. Within ten minutes the pair had rented a room. Five minutes after that, the hunter was in her pants and remained there until morning had sobered both of them.
The incident had been isolated and mostly insignificant. For the better part of their relations, before and after that alcoholic night together, Lilith had been nothing more then a companion in Mordecai's eyes. A teammate and, depending on the day, a friend. They'd gotten off Marcus's rundown bus together, taken down skags, crimson lance soldiers and the vault monster as if these were things bros did on the weekends. Mordecai recalled how the siren's body had begun to flow with even more contentment and confidence when she and Roland hooked up. Remember a not so far passed day when he'd hesitantly explain to Lilith that Bloodwing was a girl. (A fact he'd only realized when she'd laid an egg.)And now, Mordecai was fighting very hard to ignore how his mind kept reliving that isolated, mostly insignificant incident before much of anything had happened.
With a dissatisfied grunt the hunter uncorked a fresh bottle of rakk ale. He was brooding, which meant he hadn't had enough to drink. In one shot Mordecaidowned a third of glass container and would have managed more, that is if the drink hadn't been yanked from his hand.
"That's enough ass-hat," Lilith phased into existence in front of the hunter with a cloud of light. Her hands snatched at the rakk ale and tossed the unfinished bottle off Mordeci's Tundra tower (a movement he would have considered graceful if not for the fact that that was his last bottle). "I'm not here to watch you get drunk."
"As honored as I am to see you and all-" The hunter grumbled, holding back a hiss of frustration. The last thing he needed was an unannounced visit from Lilith. Not when both his mind and chest were numb with something more than alcohol. "-I don't really want you here. Besides, last I checked, Sanctuary needs you running it."
"The city isn't going to implode if I leave for an hour and you've been avoiding your echo device. Mind telling me why that is?"
"You couldn't have sent one of the vault hunters to ask?" The hunter inquired as he rolled his eyes.
"Answer the question or do I have to get siren on your ass?"
Heaving a sigh Mordecai messaged a tense shoulder, hoping gesture would grant him a moment to think before Lilith pulled a elemental weapon on him. What was he suppose to say? Seeing you so messed up the other day had been hot? Not exactly wise words to direct at a siren, or any woman really. As he braved a glance at her face, her tight jaw and narrowed eyes told him Lilith's patience was running dangerously thin.
"It's should be about ready to pop." The hunted settled on a half truth. He nodded past Lilith, towards Bloodwing's unhatched egg, which was swaddled in a cooler adapted for incubation. "I want to be here when it happens."
At fist it looked as if Lilith would accept his excuse. Her hard features eased, the impatience relaxed from her muscles. Then a spark flashed across her sharp features, hell coming back to her face with a vengeance. Her eyes aflame.
"You want to be here when it happens. Sure, I'll believe that. What I won't believe is that you'll be getting yourself wasted at the time. So let's try this again old man, and if I think you're lying to me, I'll phase you into the warrior's lava pit without a second thought."
Mordecai considered for a moment to try to convince the siren that his aloofness wasn't important, that what had caused him to keep his distance from Sanctuary, and from her, for so long was of minor value. Yet, the growing fire in Lilith's eyes told Mordecai that he'd already wasted away what little tolerance she'd arrived with.
"If I tell you-" the hunter started warily "-you're going to do something unholy to me with those siren powers of yours and then I'll be forced to shoot a few rounds in your direction and then nothing will be pretty if the two of us try to kill each other. So, forgive an old man for being hesitant." Growling, the hunter swaggered to his feet in a feeble hope that his greater stature might, for once, dishearten Lilith. However, she was swift to reply with her posture and tone unmoved.
"You know," Lilith took a turn at rolling her eyes "if you don't talk to me, that's probably what's going to happen regardless."
"How about this? Come back with some booze, then we'll talk. If I'm going to tell you what's been eating at me, I'd like to be so hammered I won't remember it. Besides, I'm an even better shot drunk and knowing your temper, I might need that advantage to defend myself."
"We'll talk now, then you can get yourself drunk." Lilith snapped, crossing her arms and swaying her hips in annoyance. And while he knew the posture was meant to be intimidating (which in a way it was), the hunter had to school himself against admiring how her tattered shirt constricted where her arms folded below her breasts, and bunching below her waist to expose a delightfully tattooed hip.
"Lily-"
"You know I once melted a guy just because he grabbed me the wrong way."
"Fine!" Mordecai managed to hold back a groan as he struggled to keep his thoughts from taking the siren's last sentence and running down the wrong road with it. "You really want to know that badly I'll tell you! I haven't been answering echos cause I've been to busy thinking."
"Thinking?" Lilith repeated, looking unsatisfied.
"About you and what happened after Tina's bunker game."
"Is that i-"
"I've also been thinking about that night we had all those years back; about how if things might have played out differently, you know, it could have been you and me instead of you and Roland." Though he wasn't the most colorful man when it came to words, Mordecai could still see his meaning was getting across.
Lilith's mouth slightly parting in a 'I'm thinking' sort of way. Her features briefly knitting before realization crept onto her face, "Fuck me."
"What?"
"Just- never mind." The siren waved a limp hand as the opposite went to kneed her forehead once, twice, thrice, before she spoke again. "You- you've really been avoiding me because- you've got a crush on me?"
"I wouldn't phrase it quite like that, but sure. Close enough."
Like the calm that came before badland dust storms, a few eerily still seconds passed between them, only to be broken by Lilith's laughter.
"What are you snorting at?" Mordecai couldn't stop the retort even though his brain knew that his snappy nature could only make this awkward situation worse. Luckily for him, the hunter's tone was overlooked as Lilith continued to chuckle.
"Any other guy with desires for a siren would be blowing stuff up to get her attention. But not you old man! You've been going out of your way to hide from the siren you've got a thing for!"
"Would it make you feel better it I blew stuff up? 'Cause if it means you won't phase shift me into a lava pit, I'll blow a badass varkid's head clean-off from here."
As her laughter finally calmed down the serious tone returned to Lilith's voice, "Listen, Mordecai, you can't just go AWOL because you just realized I'm hot."
"Yeah, well... sorry if I thought disappearing for a few weeks was preferable to you catching me gawking."
"As long as you don't do something stupid, like rebuild the Cult of the Firehawk, I couldn't give a shit about what goes on inside your head, as long as it stays there. What I'm more concerned about right now is if you're going to keep pulling this avoiding-your-echo-device bull! Can I count on an answer the next time I call?"
Mordecai knew he couldn't avoid Lilith for the rest of his life. There was no point in throwing what relationship they had away because he wasn't the most skilled with emotions. Neither did he want to see an end to his involvement with the siren. She was a fierce ally and pretty damn trustworthy compared to the majority of Pandora's population. Even if she never once looked at him like she had that one almost insignificant night, having Lilith's back was better then not having her at all.
"You know, I wasn't lying about Blood's egg. Give me till it hatches. I'm not making any promises, but I should have some sense back in my skull in a few days time. "
Contrary to popular belief I have not given up on my stories. Just had life to worry about for a while (also my beta took her time in getting my most recent chapters edited) anyways enjoy and please review!