Foundation of Fear
Ares waved his hand at the bench seat, and Charles sat down, sliding over next to the wall. Ares sat down next to him, effectively trapping him for the time being. He didn't mind, though, he knew he was safe next to Ares. Jasmine sat down opposite of them, turning sideways and throwing her legs up on the seat, back against the wall. She smiled as an asari waitress came over to the table.
"Ramona." The asari grinned, leaning over the table and let out a soft purr of sound. "It's been awhile since I've seen you in here. Your usual?"
"Faline," Jasmine said, giving the asari the same flirty purr. "I've missed you." She chuckled and nodded. "Yes, the usual."
The asari grinned wider before straightening and turning her attention to Ares. "Hmmm. I think I've seen you here with Ramona before, too. I'm sorry, I don't remember your drink, though."
Ares shrugged a shoulder as he dug out his cigarettes. "It's fine. Horosk on the rocks."
Charles bit back a wince; if Ares ordered horosk, he was more pissed than even Charles thought. He offered the asari a smile when she turned his way. "Mount Milgrom, thanks."
"Sure thing, coming right up." She turned, putting a little extra sway to her hips as she walked away.
Jasmine looked at Ares, watching him for a few seconds before taking a deep breath and saying, "I'm sorry. That was impulsive and childish. And calloused. It was meant to be a joke, but it crossed a line."
Ares set a cigarette in his mouth. "It's fine …. Would have been better if you did it to my face instead of behind my back, though," he said as he cupped his lighter to his cigarette.
She seemed to consider it for a second and slowly nodded. "Fair enough. I didn't really think about it. You turned when the thought crossed my mind … it wasn't intentionally not to your face."
Taking a long drag, Ares let out a deep breath of smoke as he mindlessly flipped his lighter opened and closed. "Again, it's fine…."
She scraped her teeth over her lip, nodded, and looked out over the bar. Something told Charles she didn't buy the 'it's fine', but she didn't seem inclined to press the matter. Which was probably a good idea. He was just glad she realized she fucked up and was trying to apologize. Hopefully, it did some good and kept Ares from going overboard with the horosk.
"Ramona?" Charles said after a minute.
She glanced back at him. "Ramona Salazar. Last alias I used here." She tilted her head to the side. "Probably best if you use it while we're here, too."
Charles nodded, pulling his cigarillos from his pocket and stuffed one in his mouth. "Ramona it is, then." He lit his cigarillo, blowing smoke up toward the ceiling.
She watched him for a second and then said, "Actually, do you mind if I steal one?"
"Thought you quit smoking?" He smiled around another drag, but he pushed the pack and lighter toward her.
She smirked. "It feels like a cigarette kind of day." She picked up the pack and shook one out, sticking it between her lips before lighting it and sliding them back over the table to Charles. She flipped over the second ashtray on the table and pulled it over closer to her.
A minute later, Faline returned with their drinks, setting glasses down in front of each of them. She turned her attention to Jasmine. "Do you want me to start a tab for you?"
"Yes, please," Jasmine said, leering a little at the asari.
The waitress turned a little darker blue and smiled. "No problem. Let me know if you need anything else!" She turned and left again, hips swaying.
"She seems to like you," Charles said, smirking and taking a drag.
"Mmm. I thought about taking her home a time or two, but … never got around to it." Jasmine took a drag, letting the smoke seep back out of her nose.
"Why don't you take her now?" He already knew the answer, Ares mentioned that she was serious about someone else, but the last time he tried to touch on the subject of her romantic life, she shut him down. He figured it was worth a shot to try a different approach.
"I'm … not looking for that right now," she said, glancing at him again, something in her eyes telling him not to press the subject.
Nope, she's definitely not going to talk about it.
He took another drag and flicked the ashes in the ashtray in front of Ares. "So … you were on the streets? On Earth?"
"Yeah," she said, shifting in her seat a little, sitting up a little higher against the wall. Her gaze seemed to drift lazily over the crowd, but he had a feeling she paid a lot more attention than she made it seem. "Santa Fe and Corpus Christi mostly."
He hummed, considering it for a moment. "I spent some time in Seattle and Portland when I was … eighteen?"
She turned her attention back to him and took another drag, and for the first time, he saw something hardened in her eyes he hadn't noticed before, but it didn't seem directed at him. "Not the worst places to be if you're on the streets. They've got a lot of good resources for the homeless."
He took a drag and nodded. "Laws are more lax, too." It was probably one of the biggest reasons he'd stuck around the pacific northwest.
"What'd you do to get by?" she asked with a smirk.
He glanced at Ares for a second before shrugging. "Mostly just stole shit." No way was he going to tell the chick the list of charges the police could've brought against him included prostitution, grand theft auto, armed robbery, assault with a deadly weapon, drug trafficking, kidnapping, and forgery. Or the fact, thanks to his recent activity, he could add multiple accounts of murder to the list.
She nodded, taking another drag, seeming to take his watered down confession in stride.
"What about you?" he asked.
She let out a long breath. "Stole shit. Robbed people." Jerking her shoulder, she added, "Stupid shit I regret." She picked up her drink, something dark and murky, and took a heavy swallow before setting the glass back down on a napkin. Something about it seemed to amuse her; she grinned and touched the napkin. Turning her attention back to Charles, a somber expression wiped away her smile. "Ended up running with the wrong people, got into some trouble … got addicted to red sand."
"Damn," he said, taking in the flood of personal information she gave him. He'd never had any real issue with drugs, managed to either avoid using them or just was lucky enough not to get hooked on the few things he did try.
"Yeah." She glanced down at the ashtray, seeming lost in her thoughts for a moment. Clearing her throat, she glanced back up, gaze shifting between Ares and Charles. "I've managed to stay clean since I was seventeen, almost eighteen, though."
"Congrats," Charles said, taking a drag. "It's not something I had to deal with, but I've seen what it can do to people. I know leaving that shit behind couldn't have been easy."
"Definitely wasn't easy." She shook her head, gaze flicking back to Ares before drifting around the bar again.
Ares set his nearly empty glass down on the table before taking a drag. "You two are such downers. I thought we'd be here celebrating our time at the arena and here we are telling sob stories."
Jasmine huffed, taking a drink from her glass. She glanced at Charles. "You did pretty good."
Shaking his head, he smirked. "I really didn't."
"Yeah, you did." She grinned and took a drag. "First time with moving targets, yeah?"
"Yeah," he said and nodded, flicking his ashes.
"So take the compliment." She winked at him.
He chuckled, lifting his glass up and tipping it toward her a bit. "Thanks."
"And you didn't get yourself shot much, so consider it a good target practice." Ares flicked ash in the ashtray before taking another drink from his glass, finishing it off.
The asari brought another glass over, whisking the empty one away without a word before disappearing again.
Charles grinned at Ares, perking up at his praise. "Yeah?"
Ares hummed and nodded, taking a drink from his new glass. "Did you take down your scores before we left?"
Biting the inside of his lip, Charles shook his head. "I didn't think to. The thing records them, though, doesn't it?"
"Yeah, but you don't show up on the scoreboard unless you get a top score." She took a drag, blowing the smoke upward. "But, if you go back, you can check them when you login."
"We'll go back," Ares said, rumbling as he took a drag. "We'll just check then."
Charles smiled, dropping a hand below the table to settle on Ares' thigh. "Good. It was fun."
Ares' gaze flicked to Charles as he made a considering hum before nodding once. "Good. When I'm on the station, we'll go there instead of the range."
"Awesome." Charles took a drink, leaning in a little closer to Ares' side. "I'll still go to the range when you're not home, though."
Ares nodded, taking a deep drag. "Good. I had expected you to."
Charles huffed and smirked, his thumb brushing back and forth across Ares' leg a few times. "Of course you did."
"What range do you go to?" Jasmine asked, glancing at Ares.
"Eliat Arms Supplier," Ares said, blowing out smoke before taking a drink from his glass. "I know the owners."
Humming, she nodded. "I've been in there once or twice for supplies when I wasn't able to go to my usual spot."
"Where's your usual spot?" Charles asked automatically.
"I can't answer that." She took a heavy drink from her glass.
"Oh … okay." He shrugged and took a drink from his own.
Ares hummed and glanced toward Jasmine, holding his glass to his mouth a moment before taking a drink. "They keep quiet, and I had a job that involved working around them."
"Huh." She nodded, taking a drag and flicking her ashes. "They seemed like good people."
Charles shrugged. "They've been nice to me so far, even when I go in there without him."
"Good," Ares said, nodding as he stamped out his cigarette and pulled out a fresh one, picking up his lighter from the table to light it. "I figured they would remain professional about it."
Charles nodded. "Definitely, polite and helpful." He certainly didn't have any reason to complain; they didn't ask a lot of questions and mostly stayed out of his way, offering the occasional tip to improve his shooting.
Ares grunted around his cigarette. "Good to know there are some people out there who can keep their mouths shut."
Jasmine's brow twitched a little but she didn't say anything. She killed off her glass and glanced over, catching the waitress' eye. Setting the empty glass down on the edge of the table, she took another drag from the cigarillo. "I noticed you doing some … gymnastics shit or something in the arena a few times. What's that about?"
Charles laughed, draining his glass and sliding it over to the edge of the table next to hers. "It's not gymnastics. It's Parkour."
"Parkour?" She arched an eyebrow.
"Yeah … I don't really know how to explain it. I guess you just look at where you want to be, look at what's available to help you get there. You sort of … trace a path in your mind and go, using your momentum to get you from one place to the next. I picked it up in Seattle." He shrugged and took a drag from his cigarillo. "I can show you sometime if you want?"
She smiled before turning her lips down at the edges and nodding. "Alright."
"Don't know of many places on the Citadel you two can practice." Ares downed the rest of his glass, putting his cigarette in his mouth as he set the glass at the end of the table. "Maybe the lower Wards."
Charles hummed and said, "So long as we don't piss anyone off enough to call C-Sec, anywhere works, really, that's the beauty of it."
Jasmine chuckled. "If they do call C-Sec on us, I'm pretty sure I can talk us out of trouble."
Ares shrugged, taking a heavy drag from his cigarette. "If you want to attract the attention. I'll stay home while you two do that."
Charles grinned, happy Ares called it 'home' again. "We don't have to do it somewhere you think we'll attract attention." He bumped his shoulder against Ares. "I want you there with us."
"Why?" Ares lifted a brow plate as he looked at Charles. "My body doesn't move the same way yours does. I can't do the same things you'll be teaching her."
Huffing, Charles rolled his eyes. "Uhhhh, because you're mine, and I don't always get to see you …." He glanced at Jasmine and grinned. "And because she's a scary assassin lady who I barely know."
Jasmine let out a bark of laughter, raising a finger to quiet him as Faline brought over fresh drinks.
Ares hummed his thanks to the waitress as he picked up his glass and took a drink. "So let me get this straight," he said when the waitress left again, "you want me to go and watch while you two practice techniques I can't do just so you have moral support? What's in it for me?"
Charles grinned and asked, "What do you want to be in it for you?"
"To not have to sit there and do nothing while you both practice techniques I can't physically do," Ares deadpanned as he took another drink. "I could find hundreds of things more entertaining than watching you two flop on the floor like fish."
Jasmine laughed again, the sound light and airy. "Don't worry, Charles." She took a drink and sat the glass down. "I have no reason to hurt you, and a damned good reason not to."
Subvocals low, Ares flicked his mandibles a few times and looked at Charles. "If you really want me to go, I will," he said, tone serious.
Charles shook his head a little, the words 'carry you' echoing through his head again. "Nah, it's alright. If you really don't want to go, I'm sure I can manage."
Dropping it though it seemed clear he still had more to say, Ares hummed and took a drag from his cigarette, going quiet as he let the smoke filter out around his mandibles.
Face turning serious, she took the last drag from her cigarillo and glanced at Ares as she put it out. "He'll be safe with me, I promise."
Ares nodded his head once as he took a drink from his glass. "Good. Just giving him the choice if he really wanted it."
She smiled and picked up her glass, taking a deep swallow. "Indeed," she said, smirking and winking at Ares.
He merely rumbled as he fell silent otherwise, taking time to smoke his cigarette and watch the smoke drift in the air above them.
Jasmine watched the asari dancers on the bar, seeming lost in thought for a few minutes before looking at Ares and Charles, throwing a credit chit on the table. "I want to dance," she said.
Before either of them could respond, she slid out of the booth, a little wobbly, but righted herself. She moved over to the bar and climbed up onto a bar stool. The dancer on the bar next to her grinned and held a hand out to her, helping her up to the bar. She wrapped her arms over the asari's shoulders and started dancing provocatively, swaying to the music.
Charles looked at Ares and raised an eyebrow. "She seriously just did that?"
"Looks like it," Ares said, watching her as he flicked ash into the ashtray.
Pursing his lips a little in thought, Charles turned his attention back to the two women dancing, tilting his head as he checked out their curves. "She's kind of funny drunk."
"She's reckless." Ares hummed and took a drink from his glass, shifting his attention to scanning the bar.
Charles thought about it for a moment, not really seeing her as the truly reckless type. "I wonder why she's being reckless?"
Ares let out the odd buzz Charles only heard from him a couple of times before. He flicked his mandible but didn't look at Charles. "Stay here with her, then act like you're escorting your drunk friend off the bar and keeping her from embarrassing herself. Don't bring too much attention to yourselves. Understand?"
Charles tensed a little but made a point to not look around even though he was deathly curious to know what caused the shift in Ares. "Okay."
Ares thrummed and nodded once before lifting his glass to Jasmine in cheers before downing it. He slammed the empty glass on the table and stood, speaking loud enough to be heard by more than just Charles. "I gotta take a piss," he said before shuffling out of the booth and toward the restrooms.
Charles waited long enough to finish off his cigarillo before plastering a smile on his face and standing up. He made his way over to the bar, glancing up at Jasmine. "Ramona?"
Reaching over, he tugged on her pants when she didn't look at him right away. "Ramona?"
A sloppy smile on her face, she glanced down. "Dance with me!" She held her hand out to him.
He chuckled and shook his head. "I think we should get you home. Why don't you come on down?"
"Do I have to?" she asked with a huff and a pout.
The asari dancer looked at Charles and smiled. "She wants to stay, let her stay."
Charles fought the urge to tell her to mind her own goddamn business. "She's got to be up early in the morning." He turned his attention back to Jasmine. "Remember?"
Jasmine let out a heavy sigh and rolled her eyes. "Yeah …." Squatting down, she put her hands on his shoulders. "Help me down."
He reached up, wrapping his hands around her waist and pulled her down from the bar, holding her upright as she swayed once on the ground.
Grinning up at him, she reached up and tapped her index finger against his nose. "Take me home, handsome."
He laughed despite the nerves screaming in the back of his head, telling him something was very, very wrong. Leading her toward the door, he thought she seemed far more drunk than she was a few minutes before getting up on the bar. She put quite a bit of her weight on him, swaying with each step like she might teeter over. Shaking his head, Charles led her out of Chora's Den and over to the taxi stand, wondering where exactly Ares went.
"He'll find us," she said, her voice soft. "Don't worry."
He glanced down at her, realizing her eyes looked crystal clear when he met her gaze. "You know what's going on?" he asked, voice low as he called the cab.
"Yeah," she said, shifting her weight off of him but still appearing to lean against him just as much. "But it's not for me to say."
The cab came and they climbed inside. She told him to stop by a liquor store, saying Ares was going to need it. He didn't like the sound of it, but he did as she suggested. He really wished she'd just tell him what the fuck was going on.
When they stopped, she went in with him and told him to get whatever he and Ares wanted, so he picked out a couple of bottles of horosk and a bottle of Mount Milgrom. Meeting her at the checkout, he noticed she'd grabbed herself a bottle of rum before paying for everything. They got back in the cab and took it to Charles' and Ares' apartment. She followed him upstairs and looked away while he accessed his code for the apartment, though he figured she could probably get in easily if she wanted to either way.
Opening the door, he stepped inside. "Ares?"
Charles immediately knew something was wrong when he saw Ares pacing the short distance from the front of the balcony doors to the end of the couch, mandibles twitching and an odd clicking coming from him. Jasmine cracked open one of the bottles of horosk and made her way over to Ares, holding it out as he paced by her. He stopped just long enough to take the bottle before taking a deep drink and continuing.
"Why was he there? Why? Of all the places …." He stopped before her, mandibles flicking constantly. "Did you know he'd be there? Is he still following you?"
She sucked in a deep breath, clenching her hands into fists, and Ares started pacing again, clearly agitated. "I haven't been on the Citadel since I was shot, Ares. I haven't seen him since I've been back. He's a fucking cop, and we were in his jurisdiction. Fuck if I know why he was there. Maybe he was called in for something. Or maybe he wanted to blow off some steam, get wasted, and fuck an asari."
"No," Ares said, growling softly as he shook his head, stopping only to take a big drink. "No, he can't go there. That's not a place for C-Sec …. Is he stupid? What the fuck is he thinking?" He flicked his mandibles before taking another drink and putting his free hand to his forehead. "He isn't supposed to be there …."
Snorting, the sound derisive, she turned away from him, making her way over to the breakfast bar. "Yeah, well, I'll be sure to tell him that the next time I talk to him, if I ever talk to him again." She sat down on a stool, back against the bar, and opened the bottle of rum, taking a heavy swallow.
Realizing the only thing that would get Ares so worked up was family and remembering his cousin was in C-Sec, Charles quickly put two and two together. Time to stow his shit. He took a deep breath and put himself in Ares' path, reaching for him as he paced closer. "Hey … it's alright, you're wearing your prosthetics, so even if he did see you, he wouldn't know …."
Ares let out a soft trill as his shoulders sagged. "Yeah …. And why would he think I'm alive? What good would that do?"
Wrapping his arms around Ares, Charles kept his voice low, soothing, and said, "He wouldn't. It's alright. We know he works in that area now, so, you'll just find another bar you like, yeah?"
Ares hummed before shaking his head. "No. No …. No, he can't go to Chora's. It's just not a place for an off-duty officer." He stepped back and grabbed Charles' shoulder with his free hand, giving him a soft shake. "Doesn't he have any idea what kind of people go there? People like me!"
Charles covered Ares' hand with his, holding Ares' gaze. "Ares … we can't keep him from going to Chora's … not without him knowing who you are and why you don't want him to go."
Ares groaned, turning from Charles and putting a hand to his head. "Fuck …. Fuck …. This isn't supposed to happen."
"Hey," Charles said softly. "What do you need? What do you want to do?" He'd do whatever Ares wanted, back his play, no matter what it was.
Quiet for a long time, breathing heavily as he rumbled in his throat, Ares just held his head in his hand. He didn't move, standing in the middle of the room with his shoulders slumped and the bottle of horosk hanging limply in his hand.
Hesitantly, Charles moved closer to him again and rested his hand on Ares' back. "Whatever you need, just tell me. I'll do whatever I can, Ares."
"I need a minute," Ares said without moving, seemingly forcing himself to calm his breathing.
Charles nodded, dropping his hand. "Yeah … okay." He glanced at Jasmine. "Come out on the balcony with me?"
"Sure." She stood up, seeming to give Ares a wide berth as she made her way after Charles to the balcony.
He opened the door, closing it mostly behind them once they stepped outside, leaving it open just enough where he could hear Ares if he called. Sucking in a deep breath, he let it out in a heavy rush, pulling out his cigarillos. He lit one for himself and offered the pack to Jasmine. She didn't seem to debate for very long before tugging one from the pack and taking the lighter when he offered it to her. She lit the cigarillo and handed the lighter back, leaning over the balcony and taking a heavy drink from the rum.
"Is this why you got on the bar?" he asked after a few moments of silence.
"Yep." She took a drag and blew it back out. "Figured if he was looking at me, he wouldn't be looking at Ares."
"Thanks," he said, leaning against the balcony, too. Even if it hadn't been enough to completely divert a disaster with Ares, he knew it'd be far worse if Garrus actually saw Ares.
She turned her head to look over at him. After just watching him for a few seconds, she nodded. "No problem."
A couple of minutes passed and Charles thought he heard the shower start. He glanced back through the door, finding Ares gone from the living room. Eezo scratched at the balcony door, so he slid it opened a little further, letting the dog come outside.
"For what it's worth …" she said, pausing to take a drag and look back at him, "... even if he doesn't say it, I can tell you mean the world to him."
He smiled, knowing it probably looked a little sad. "Yeah … I know."
She hummed, looking back out over the Citadel. "I don't think he lets many people in like that, you must be pretty damn special."
"I could say the same about you," he said with a snort.
Taking a deep drag, she shook her head. "Honestly?" She took another drag and let it out slowly. "When it comes down to it, I think he more tolerates me than likes me. But … it works for us. In our profession, it's even harder to trust another assassin. He took a chance on me, though, and he's helped me out quite a bit. More than what he probably even realizes." She chuckled. "He doesn't get me, though. And I keep pissing him off, so I guess we'll just have to see how things wind up between us in the long haul. Either way, I trust him not to betray anything I've told him, and I'll keep his secrets, too."
He smoked in silence for a minute, considering her words. "I don't think he always gets me, either."
"I bet he feels the same way," she said after taking a long drag.
"Why do you say that?" he asked, turning to lean his hip against the railing and watch her.
She glanced at him, arching an eyebrow. "How could you?"
Furrowing his brow, anger started creeping in around the edges. He opened his mouth, about to say something, maybe to tell her to go fuck herself, but she chuckled and shook her head.
Holding up a hand as if to stave off his rebuttal, Jasmine licked her lips and took a deep breath. "I don't mean it like that. I just mean … the things we know … the things we're trained to do, it permeates every aspect of our lives." Gaze intense, she turned a little more toward him. "We begin to see everyone we come across as a potential target, assessing how best to kill them with a single glance. We never go anywhere without being alert for threats. Our weapons are always within reach. We have to hide behind aliases and disguises so much that sometimes we start to forget who we really are."
She rubbed her fingers over her brow, gaze softening and said, "All of our relationships—those of us who allow ourselves to have relationships—are built on a foundation of fear. Fear that one day, someone will go after the people we love in retribution for a life we took." She shook her head. "And so much more I can't even begin to explain … add that to the shit he went through—I don't know what he's told you, and that's fine, I don't need to know—but it was bad. It'd fuck anyone up, make them harder for anyone else to understand them."
Charles swallowed, the things she said weighing heavy on him, skewing his view of Ares a bit. He took a deep breath. "I … I want to get him."
She gave him a soft smile and offered him the bottle of rum in her hand. "He knows. And it sounds like he's letting you get him as much as he can."
"I fucked up." He hesitated, not sure why he felt the urge to tell her anything. Taking the bottle from her, he brought it to his lips and guzzled a few swallows. "We got in a bad fight a while back, and I said some fucked up shit. I thought I'd lost him."
"He's here now." She took a drag, turning her attention back out over the balcony.
Taking a deep breath, he rubbed a hand over his face before raking it through his hair. "Yeah … I'm just terrified I'll get something wrong again."
"Listen," she said, turning to lean against the railing with her hip, facing him. "You can't do that to yourself. You can't do that to him. If you're spending every moment the two of you have together walking around on eggshells because you're worried about upsetting him, you're doing the both of you an injustice. Be true to yourself, be the person he fell for—because honey, he carved your fucking name into his arm, so he's definitely fallen for you—and things will find a way to work out."
He scoffed, picking at the butt of his cigarillo. "Maybe."
"No maybe. Definitely." She grinned, reaching out and gently shoving him. "Don't you remember I'm always right?"
He laughed, taking a drag and pushed her back. "You shot him in the ass. Pretty sure that wasn't the 'right' thing to do."
She huffed. "It was a joke. Jokes aren't right or wrong." Flicking her wrist, she waved her hand dismissively. "Besides, he pulled a gun on me yesterday."
"Can you really blame him?" he asked, smirking.
"Nope." She shook her head, taking another drag before blowing it out slowly. "I probably would've done the exact same thing if the roles were reversed, but it doesn't mean it didn't feel like a slap in the face."
Humming, he took a long drag from his cigarillo before putting it out. "You didn't know we were together?"
"No, all I knew is he'd met you once, months ago." She finished off her cigarillo and put it out in the ashtray, too. "Which is another thing that makes me say he must really care about you. He didn't want me to know. He wanted to protect you."
He hummed again, reaching over for the bottle and took a heavy drink when she gave it to him. "Makes sense."
She snorted. "Of course it does." Squatting down, she picked up Eezo and held the dog against her chest.
Charles noticed Ares coming into the living room, prosthetics removed, and in a pair of pants with his cigarettes and lighter in his hand. He didn't acknowledge the two of them on the balcony as he grabbed the bottle of horosk, sat on the couch, and lit a cigarette, taking a heavy drag. Jasmine glanced over her shoulder, looking through the glass at Ares. Charles pulled the door opened the rest of the way and stepped back inside, and she followed him. He moved to the couch and sat down next to Ares, squeezing his knee, a little shocked at how cold the turian felt.
She remained standing and shoved her hands in her back pockets. "Ares, should I head out, or do you want me to stick around for a while longer? Have a few more drinks?"
Ares blew out a deep breath of smoke. "How long did you clear up with Ray?"
She shrugged. "I told him I'd see him tomorrow. He expects I'll be hungover so he won't be knocking at the door at four in the damn morning."
Ares' huff sounded humorless as he nodded once. "You can stick around. Can't say if the couch is comfortable to sleep on, but you're free to it."
She blinked twice, a slow smile spreading over her face. "Thanks. Let's see how much I end up drinking. If I'm drunk enough that I can't get home, I won't care what the couch is like."
Humming, he took a deep drag from his cigarette. "Good. You can sleep with the dog, too. She usually whines outside the door every night."
That's because I let her in when you're not here.
She chuckled. "I don't mind. She can be my teddy bear for the night."
Crossing over to the bag she'd sat on the breakfast bar, she carried it back over and put it on the table. She grabbed the chair tucked into the corner and dragged it over closer, sitting down opposite of Ares and Charles. Opening the bag, she handed Charles the Mount Milgrom he picked out for himself and sat back with her bottle of rum. Eezo nosed against her, and she patted her lap, letting the dog jump up there.
Ares took a deep drink from his bottle, and then he stopped Charles from opening the bottle of whiskey. "That shit won't get you drunk," Ares said, nudging him with the bottle of horosk. "Try this. Drink something worthwhile."
Charles raised an eyebrow, doubtful. The Mount Milgrom was more than sufficient to get him drunk, and the volus at the liquor store last time made it seem like horosk was a really bad idea for a human. But, he didn't want to disappoint Ares, so he accepted the bottle and took a tentative drink. It instantly lit his mouth on fire, and he nearly choked and spit it out all over the place. He managed to make himself swallow it down before coughing, face screwing up.
Ares chuckled softly but purred before setting his bottle down long enough to open Charles' Mount Milgrom and hand it back to him. Charles coughed again, hand against his chest as he sucked in a deep breath, barely catching sight of Jasmine smirking at him through bleary eyes.
He took the bottle from Ares and sucked in a deep breath. "Holy shit, how do you drink that shit like water?"
Ares actually seemed to think about it before he rumbled and shrugged. Lifting his bottle to his mouth, he took a heavy drink before chasing it with a drag from his cigarette.
She chuckled, taking a deep drink from her rum, running her fingers through Eezo's fur. "Probably tastes different to him."
Snorting, Ares looked at Charles. "What did it taste like to you?"
Charles huffed. "Lava." He dug out his cigarillos and lit one.
Ares hummed and took a drink before turning to Jasmine. "I don't think there's too big a difference in tastes. Horosk tastes like gun oil that burns your tongue, so I guess 'lava' would be apt."
"Can't say I know what gun oil tastes like, but I know what it smells like, and that doesn't smell like gun oil." She scrunched up her face. "It smells like … shit stronger than everclear. It burns my nostrils from here."
Charles huffed. "'Burns your tongue' is inadequate. Try … sears off every taste bud in your mouth and causes blisters." He grumbled. "I can't even taste my cigarillo."
Ares snorted around his own cigarette. "'S no worse than ryncol, only without the stomach cramps."
"Never tried ryncol, don't want to try ryncol." Charles grabbed the bottle from Ares and took another devastatingly painful, long drink, wincing as he forced himself to swallow it and handed it back to Ares. "Yep," he said, short of breath, "that shit's terrible."
Jasmine laughed loud enough to startle Eezo, and the dog jumped down from her lap.
Rumbling, Ares shrugged and lifted the bottle to his mouth. "More for me, then."
Just the two drinks, on top of what he already had at the bar, had Charles' head swimming. "Nope. You want me to drink that shit, I'll drink that shit."
"Why? You're going to kill yourself, or go blind." She chuckled.
"Or worse," Ares said, holding the bottle away from Charles as he downed a big gulp, "puke it up and waste it."
Letting out a little groan, Charles thought it sounded like some shit his father would say about alcohol. "Fine. I'll drink this, then. And puke it up and waste it."
"Better not," she said, giving him a stern look. "That's a major no-no."
Ares hummed and set his cigarette in his mouth to free his hand before he plucked the Mount Milgrom from Charles' hand. Bringing it to his mouth, he took a drink and hummed at the taste. "Yeah, this doesn't help so much for my head as horosk does." He handed it back to Charles and washed the taste away with horosk.
"Your head's hurting?" Frowning, Charles took a drink of the whiskey.
Ares hummed in affirmative around a drag from his cigarette, blowing it out as he flicked his mandibles. He was more than a little drunk by the look in his eyes as he reached up and tapped the back of his head. "Implant is bad. I get migraines."
Confused, Charles scrunched up his face. "Implant?"
Jasmine hummed. "You haven't noticed the scar?"
He looked at her like she was insane. "He's kinda covered in them."
She snorted. "Fair enough."
Rumbling, Ares stuck the cigarette in his mouth and shifted on the couch, turning his back toward Charles. "Here," he mumbled, tapping the base of his skull. "See it?"
Charles reached up and traced his fingers over the scar Ares pointed out. "You're a biotic?"
Ares made a drawn out, groaning buzz. "Not a good one. I just get headaches from the fucking dampener."
She hummed, taking a drink. "Don't feel bad, I noticed it for the first time last night. He's tall, and with a cowl, it's hard to notice."
Shifting to sit back comfortably, Ares waved his hand. "Doesn't really matter anyways. Got the dampener to hide it, and it won't do me any good now getting rid of it. No point in finding the scar."
Jasmine shrugged. "It doesn't matter to me one way or the other, but I get it, turians have … issues with biotics."
Ares scoffed and looked at Charles. "Fucking hate them. Being a biotic is like a death sentence. And I didn't even have enough exposure to have a possibility of controlling it so, fuck it, I got a dampener."
"Why do turians hate biotics?" Charles raised an eyebrow.
Taking a drag, Ares hummed. "It goes against the concept of merit. You earn your place through hard work, but all of a sudden you have this uncontrollable force? Biotics can't be placed with regular soldiers because they aren't equal in ability. When we were still learning about what biotics could do, when the Cabal concept was thought up, the usage of biotics was usually for underhanded shit. It created a stigma of turians that were just gifted randomly with an ability that wasn't provided equally among the species that also tended to be sent to do the Hierarchy's dirty work." He shrugged and took a drink from his bottle. "It's all bullshit, but I didn't want to put up with it so I got the implant as soon as I tested positive."
Charles thought it was incredibly stupid and fucked up all at once. Biotics were an advantage, and he thought with a group of people as militant as turians, they'd like having advantages. Biotics could be controlled, it just took training, just like any other weapon. He took a drink from his bottle. "Will it help if I rub your head?"
Ares rumbled, flicking a mandible at him, but shook his head. "It's a deep pain. The horosk and smokes help."
Pouting a little, Charles leaned over and kissed Ares' mandible. "I'm sorry."
Jasmine sat forward, putting the bottle of rum down on the table and stood up. "Chances are, he'd be dealing with migraines either way. L2 amps are known to cause migraines, on top of a shitload of other potential problems."
She took off her jacket, draping it over the back of the chair before removing her pistol holster. Setting it down on the chair, she untucked her shirt and reached beneath. The sound of velcro filled the air, and a moment later she pulled out the long, black strip of material she'd used to sheath her throwing knives. Charles didn't realize she carried so many of them, it looked like she had at least eight, and he raised an eyebrow. Picking up the pistol, she sat back down in the chair, folding the strap before setting them both on the table, pistol on top of the knives.
"You can shove the shit on the table around to make room for your stuff," Ares said with a rumble, flicking ashes from his cigarette into the ashtray. "The dog is less likely to get a hold of it that way."
She shrugged, leaning back over to push a datapad and the ashtray over a bit before sliding them a little further up onto the table, but not far, keeping them within her easy reach. She lifted one of her feet up on the opposite knee and unzipped her boot before pulling it off. She did the same to the other and tucked them under the edge of the table. Then, seeming to think better of it, she raised an eyebrow and asked. "Is she going to eat my boots?"
Charles chuckled. "She doesn't chew on much anymore. Ares just enjoys acting like she's a huge pain in the ass." He shrugged. "But … you may want to put them in the hall closet, just in case."
Snorting, she got up and carried her boots down the hall, tossing them into the closet before coming back and sitting down again. Picking up the bottle of rum, she turned sideways, wedging her back against one arm of the chair before draping a leg over the other.
"Break that chair and you're buying him a new one," Ares said, voice light and more bored than threatening. "He gets mad when you break things."
She huffed. "I'm pretty sure you just called me fat, but I'm drunk enough not to care." She rolled her head to the side to look at them. "And why wouldn't he get mad if shit's getting broken? I would."
Charles snorted. "At least I wouldn't think you did it on purpose."
Ares scoffed, taking a drink. "I didn't do anything on purpose."
"Uh huh." Charles took a heavy drink and kicked his shoes off.
Jasmine raised an eyebrow. "What'd he break?"
"He shot my vidscreen," Charles said, pointing at the new one. "But he replaced it with a better one."
"And that was supposed to be an accident?" Jasmine scoffed.
"I didn't break it if it was already broken, which it was." Ares shrugged and stamped out his cigarette, fetching his pack to light a new one. "The bullet isn't what broke it in the first place."
"It worked just fine when I left for work." Charles rolled his eyes but smiled, shifting on the couch to lean in against Ares who still felt a little cold to the touch.
Raising an eyebrow, she said, "So … the vidscreen broke, and you decided to shoot it because …?"
"I was pissed off," Ares said around his cigarette before taking a drag.