"You came to Sloane Kelly before me?" If Reyes was offended, it didn't keep his lips from her throat.

"Business before pleasure," Sara reminded him.

"Can't I be both?"

It had been nearly a day and Peebee still hadn't resurfaced. Sara reassured herself that if her friend could defend herself all alone on a pre-terraformed Eos, it was reasonable to believe she was fine. Well. Physically fine, at any rate. It had freed Sara of any responsibility so that as Pathfinder, she could reach out and plan a course of action. And reach out, she did.

"Both?" she laughed. "I can barely handle you as one." For somebody embarrassed over his lack of a shower at Sara's unannounced arrival, Reyes felt good. Skin soft and smooth to the touch in that tiny, little room.

"I don't believe that."

"Because I'm lying." The warmth of his breath at her neck sent shivers spiraling down her spine. She instinctively pulled him closer and pressed her lips against his temple. "Of course I had to see Sloane. She's the defacto ruler, here and gets cranky when I ignore her. Besides," Sara smirked down at him, "it bought time for whatever woman you've been seeing while I've been offworld to sneak out the back door."

Reyes only grinned right back at her. "Who says it was a woman?"

"You've got me there." And he did. Leaning forward, Reyes dropped her on her back, his hands trailing after the path his mouth blazed from her shoulder, to her collarbone, to her sternum.

"How was our friend, Sloane?" he murmured into her belly.

"As charming as ever." Sara laid there a moment, taking it all in, before she brought a knee up and squirmed away. "Wait. Are we talking or something else? You know I can't talk when- I can't do both!"

That made him laugh. "Okay, okay." With a kiss to her hip, Reyes climbed back up the bed to meet her face to face, the mirth never leaving his gold flecked eyes. "We can talk. We'll talk first."

"Okay." Sara paused. "You're staring."

"Yes, because you're lying naked in my bed. I'm not sure what else you expect me to do."

It was, quite admittedly, hard to remember what they were talking about when he was making her laugh (among other things,) his smile warm and indulgent in the dim light.

"Do you not know how amazing you look right now?" Reyes exclaimed as her mouth found his. "Talking! This isn't talking."

"You're distracting," Sara said, tracing the planes of his chest with her hand.

"I'm distracting!" he chuckled to himself, before sighing. "I've missed you, Sara. But, Sloane. You were talking about Sloane."

"Yeah," she snorted and flopped back on the mattress. "I don't get her. She knows I'm trying to help, right?"

"She does know how to hold a grudge," he agreed. "Why? What did you say to her?"

"That I wanted to activate Kadara's monoliths and locate its vault," Sara said. "All of them are out in the Badlands, so she laughed in my face. She wanted to know where my crew is and why I arrived on a shuttle."

Reyes cocked his head to one side as he considered it. "As disagreeable as Sloane can be, she's not a stupid woman," he said finally. "A Nexus Pathfinder showing up without her crew is suspicious."

"Please," she groaned. "You know me, you know Sloane. You know what Sloane thinks of me! The Nexus could literally pick any other available person to infiltrate the Outcasts and it would be a better choice than me."

"Did you tell her what you told me?" he asked.

"That my second thought she ought to be first?" Sara shook her head. "No. Can't imagine what Sloane Kelly would do with that information. No, I said I needed a break. I saw too much death and bad decisions and had to take some time to wrap my head around it."

Reyes was laughing. "You saw too much death, so you came to Kadara?"

"That's what Sloane said too," Sara replied dryly. "Should have just told her I needed to get laid, but I didn't want you to get put in her crosshairs."

"You were trying to protect me?" He cupped her face in his hand and kissed her eyelids. "You should have name dropped me. See what would happen."

"Reyes," Sara giggled into his mouth. "I can't keep coming here to get laid if she tosses you in a cell or worse."

"Nah!" He chuckled, his hand falling from her cheek to her shoulder and then brushing the length of her arm. His grin faded as his eyes followed his fingers traveling down her arm to pause at her wrist. She'd always been pale, but her recent time in space and aboard ships only added to that pallor. Next to Reyes and his warm sun kissed cheeks, Sara was practically a ghost. He didn't appear to mind. "With how she regards you?" he continued. "It might make her think I'm harmless. Cuddly."

Sara got the sense with how his gaze lingered on the curve of her hip, Reyes's desire for conversation was waning. Admittedly, she'd never been one for chitchat, either. Sara draped an arm around his shoulder and pulled herself flush against him. "You can stop talking now..."

Reyes obliged.

Afterward, urge slaked and mind clear, Sara was slow to untangle her legs and left her fingers laced in Reyes's. Reyes for his part, wore his smirk brazenly over a job well done. He brought his hand still gripped in hers up to his mouth and kissed her knuckles.

"Now I definitely need that shower," he said, but made no move to stand and even closed his eyes.

"Yeah," Sara laughed softly and when he continued not to budge, "Hey. Would you want to come with me to the monoliths? I could show you how they light up."

That got him to open his eyes. "You'd want me there?"

"Of course," she said. "I mean it's not as exciting as being shot at by Roekaar or dressing up in your finest for a Sloane Kelly fete, but..."

"It is something I've never done before," he murmured. "And I can't say that often. Let's do it. I can show you the nice, neighborhood cannibals to avoid out there if nothing else."

"Oh, the cannibals are just a nasty Nexus rumor to keep more people from defecting."

Reyes snorted. "Sure they are."

"No way!" She rolled over, straddling him, her loose hair falling down in a canopy around their faces. "Are you serious?"

"When have I ever lied to you?" He smiled like a man fully aware of how attractive he was.

"When have you ever-?" Sara's eyebrow shot right up. "Really?"

"About anything important!" Reyes exclaimed, wrapping his arms around the small of her back. "Cannibals are pretty significant!"

"Wow," she drawled as she let her forehead rest against his. "Okay, fine. I'll calm down the Remnant so they don't shoot you and you can keep me away from whatever cabal of cannibals there is out there."

"Or," Reyes said, kissing the corner of her mouth, "we could just stay in my room a little bit longer?"

The laughter shook her body so that she fell back down against his bare chest. "You're awful!"

"Yes," Reyes agreed. "But if anyone on this planet's going to eat you, I promise it's not going to be those fucking cannibals."

They did make their way out of Reyes's room. Eventually. Sara's omni tool lit up with messages from both Peebee and Avitus, and Reyes had his own calls to make. So, Reyes excused himself while she bemoaned being stranded with only a single pair of underpants. At least she could get a shower in before returning her used clothing to her body, and jokes aside, they both did actually need to eat.

Once Sara had a semblance of herself, again, she and Reyes found Peebee at the bar in Tartarus.

"You okay?" Sara started cautiously.

"I'm sure I will be in a decade or so," her friend replied. Peebee didn't smell like alcohol and looked like she must have found a bed somewhere at some point. Sara decided it was best not to ask.

"Avitus sends his love," Sara told her.

Peebee snorted. "Whatever that means."

"It means Avitus is good," Sara said. "He's got my back over any Nexus bureaucrat."

"Well. That's just a sign of good taste," Peebee murmured, her gaze shifting to Reyes. She flashed him a smile.

He met her grin for grin, all brilliant white teeth. "I won't argue that."

"So, what's the plan, then?" Peebee asked.

"Kadara's monoliths," Sara said. "It should be simple enough even in the Badlands, because we have a shuttle and now we have a pilot." She glanced over at Reyes, who was doing a poor job of pretending he didn't enjoy the attention.

Having a pilot planetside was convenient. That he was intuitively familiar with the Badlands was even better and the fact that he was Reyes Vidal just sealed the deal on it being an incredibly fun romp. From the air, they covered enough area in such a short amount of time that they successfully activated two of the three monoliths in a single day.

It may have also had to do with Drack not being there to obstinately attempt to drive the nomad through a mountain instead of simply steering around it, but Sara wanted to attribute it to the company.

They'd be fine, Drack and the others. He and Vetra were scrappy; they've already survived so much before Sara stumbled into their lives. She never did get a chance to check in with Jaal, though.

With one more monolith to go, Sara slipped out of Reyes's dwelling in the morning to pay Sloane Kelly a final visit. As she walked through the doorway and into Sloane's chamber, Sara greeted Kaetus with a broad grin that left him groaning. The turian was so unthreatened by her, not only did he allow the human Pathfinder to breeze past him unchecked, but he literally left the two women alone while he did rounds.

"What do you want?" Sloane said when it became evident ignoring Sara wouldn't encourage her to leave.

"I was hoping to reach an agreement with you," Sara told her. "You must have seen what I'm up to in the Badlands."

Sloane looked neither surprised or impressed. "You must think you're quite the sight, speeding around the Badlands, making a commotion."

"I've been activating the monoliths." Whatever bluster Sara may have felt upon entering was beginning to deflate.

"Sure you weren't joyriding with some two-bit asshole?" the Outcast leader asked. "I still have pockets of kett out there and Roekaar stragglers-"

"And cannibals, yeah, I heard."

"What?" Sloane scoffed. "Who in the fuck told you we had cannibals?"

Sara decided she would ignore that. "When the last monolith is activated, they will all light a path to the planet's vault."

"I'm not sure what you're expecting, Nexus. A medal?" Sloane rubbed at the back of her shorn scalp. "You need to stay out of Kadara's business, Pathfinder. This isn't your turf."

"Once I locate the vault, I can activate it to terraform the planet." Sara shifted her weight to one foot. "That's a good thing."

"It's a good thing for Kadara, yeah." Sloane stared her down with those maddening, mismatched eyes. "What's in it for you?"

"A terraformed planet increases the success of an outpost," Sara said. "The Initiative needs outposts. It needs you and quite frankly, you need us too."

"No, you need us and that's that," Sloane replied. "The Outcasts are doing fine on Kadara, terraformed or not. But tell you what- You activate that vault. Let's see what it does. Then maybe we'll talk."

"Maybe?" Sara could hear her voice raising indignantly. "You don't have the numbers, we don't have the numbers, the angara don't have the numbers and you're going to threaten war when the kett are still-"

"We're done here," Sloane Kelly decreed. "Terraform the planet and I'll grant you another audience. Dismissed."

Reyes met Sara as she left. With how casually he leaned against the display in the makeshift market, he could have easily been perusing generator parts and not just waiting for her.

"There you are!" he greeted her, like it was all happenstance.

"Here I am," Sara agreed, closing the distance between them. "How'd you know I'd be here?"

Reyes stood up from the merchant's table and wrapped his arms around her waist. "Just a guess," he said. "If you weren't with me, where else would you be? Kralla's isn't open yet."

"You were serious about seeing what people would say, huh?" She raised a brow at him and glanced to his arms around her before following suit.

"Of course," Reyes scoffed softly. "What kind of weight would my words have if they didn't extend beyond the bedroom?"

Sara certainly hadn't anticipated this degree of complexity so early in the morning, so she took her time to consider it. "None, I guess."

"Are you hungry?" he asked. "Your friend said you'd be fine and we should eat without you, but I said we should wait-"

"No, you didn't."

He laughed. "No, I didn't. But I did save you some."

"Thanks."

"Don't thank me yet," Reyes told her. "We've got a big day ahead of us- the last monolith! After that, a gravity well and a Remnant vault. That's exciting!"

Sara shook her head. "No we don't. There's been a change of plans."

"Change of plans?" He frowned. "What do you mean?"

"There's no point in activating the vault," as soon as she said it aloud, she realized how it must sound to a denizen of Kadara. Reyes's embrace slackened and Sara coughed. "Sloane thinks she can make demands without giving an inch. If I activate the vault, the Initiative has no leverage, no incentive for Kadara to work with us. New plan is we activate the last monolith, let the entire Badlands light up and burn a path to the vault and then do nothing until Sloane plays ball."

Reyes was quiet a long while, taking her in with his eyes until it grew so uncomfortable Sara had to look away. She supposed all things eventually came to an end, and if they were going to part, it was probably better after a couple days of glorious sex and before they'd truly gotten to know and detest one another. "I don't know," Sara said finally, floundering beneath his gaze. "Maybe I should have reached out to the Collective. I just thought if I could reach an agreement with the powers already established-"

Reyes surprised her. He gripped both sides of her face in his hands and kissed her square on the mouth. "I knew you were beautiful," he told her, gifting her a broad grin. "But clever, too? People underestimate you. They see a pretty face, they don't understand how smart you are. That's brilliant! You are brilliant. You've backed her into a corner, she'll have to do something."

Sara blinked. "Really?"

"Really." Christ, but that smile was gorgeous. It shone with pride and he kissed her again as if to impress upon that fact.

"I hope so," she said slowly. "Because what I don't need is a civil war on my hands."

"I don't think that will happen." He gave her cheek an affectionate stroke with his thumb. "We're all reasonable, here. Come on, let's get you some breakfast, there's a monolith waiting."