[h3]Serena and Hazan, overlooking Hangar bays, day 2 of shore leave.[/h3]


Hazan sighed, a drink in his hand as he stared off into the nothingness of the Nexus hangar bay. The last two weeks had been hard but fair, as he’d expected for a military outfit like APEX. Nothing too difficult but it really broke him back into the old rigorum of the military life. He rested on the guard rails and took a sip of the triple-distilled turian brandy that sat in the glass in his talons. He thought back to the times when he was still on Palaven, undergoing the same type of training, working with his platoon in the Navy. It just...didn’t feel the same though. Out here, six centuries away from home, away from the people he knew. His family was still here, as was his former crew, but it just didn’t feel the same.

Serena walked up on Haze, eyebrow raised in mild amusement as she caught him drinking by himself, staring off in the distance. He did always like to be at least a little melancholy from time to time. 

She sauntered up, sitting herself down unceremoniously next to him. [color=hotpink]”You know, the last time I found you drinking alone and staring off into the distance, I had to convince you that a bed was a better place than a rickety chair to go to sleep in, and that was after a failed mission. This mission went off without a hitch, so why the ‘by my lonesome’ drinking game? I’m sure there are plenty of people in the Vortex Lounge for you to drink with, and we can call Dex anytime. If she hasn’t already shacked up with someone for Shore leave.”[/color]

The turian raised an eye ridge at Serena’s sudden appearance, not like it surprised him. Somehow she always knew how to find him, even when he’d gone to extreme lengths to hide himself back on Omega to follow up on his very last job there. He nodded briefly in greeting to her as took another sip of his cold drink.

[color=lightblue]”I dunno. Feels more...comfortable this way, I guess.”[/color]

[color=hotpink]”Comfortable? Are you getting melancholy on me again Haze? Do I have to go on another exciting adventure like the time I saved you from the thugs about to mug you by tricking them into thinking I’m lost in Omega and getting your attention?”[/color] Serena nudged him lightly with her elbow, smirking at him. [color=hotpink]”I can you know. Just run off and I’ll do it again.”[/color]

[color=lightblue]”Oh Serena, please no. I don’t think the Chosen would just mug me for credits.”[/color]

[color=hotpink]”You’re right, I may have to improvise this time. Pretend to have a piece of Remtech or something, you know to [i]really[/i] get their attention. Then, while I have cleverly and selflessly distracted them and saved your life, you can shoot them in the back! And owe me [i]another[/i] chess game.”[/color] She grinned at him. [color=hotpink]”That’s right, I haven’t forgotten.”[/color]

Hazan chuckled and smiled a little. [color=lightblue]”Right, like the time you ‘pretended’ to get lost on Omega, eh? I can still remember that look on your face when you stumbled onto me. I had a plan to get the jump on the muggers anyway, I just got surprised. And are we still on that chess thing? It’s been six hundred years, surely I can catch a break, Serena.”[/color]

[color=hotpink]”Yep. One hundred percent  an act. I knew exactly where I was and what I was doing, and was in no way confused or lost in the hateful maze that is Omega alleyways.”[/color] Serena deadpanned, before snorting. [color=hotpink]”Of course we’re still on it. You [i]cheated[/i] to get out of it last time, and then bailed on my conversations on the Borealis every time I brought it up!”[/color] Her eyes rolled to the heavens. [color=hotpink]”And we always had a plan. But the Riggers luck with plans was generally ‘its gone to shit, time to improvise!’”[/color]

[color=lightblue]”Hey, last time I had to drag you screaming from the wreck of a shuttle while two battleraged krogan were destroying an entire mercenary base trying to find us. All while Tanya was screaming in my ear to get the hell to her shuttle while we still could. And the base was on fire. I think I deserved that for pulling your ass out of the flaming debris.”[/color] Hazan chuckled a little and took another sip of his brandy.

Serena held up a finger, counting out her points. [color=hotpink]”Okay, for one, you were leaving BARAT behind and pulling me by my shoulder with shrapnel in it. My screaming was justified. For two, it is not [i]my[/i] fault that the guy we thought was dead wasn’t, that he then warned the krogan brothers that we had infiltrated their base and stolen their data right when we were about to leave peacefully without a hitch, and that I had to fly because in the ensuing chaos we got in literally  the only shuttle without either an autopilot or any of our pilots. And! And! I got pretty far before slamming through that wall.”[/color] Her protests were filled with mock indignity, interrupted by laughing laughing. 

[color=hotpink]”In all seriousness, how have you been since those days Haze? I mean, aside from sleeping for six hundred years, and then having this general shitshow to deal with. After Omega you needed some space so I didn’t really keep up in contact. What’d you get up to without my wisdom to guide you?”[/color] She smiled, eyes twinkling goodnaturedly. 

[color=lightblue]”Well… I became a glorified security guard for a few years. I got back in touch with my family on the Citadel and went back to work for my dad. After that, well...a lot of paperwork and mostly doing desk work until I found the Initiative.”[/color]

[color=hotpink]”Better than me. I ended up being a travelling mechanic, going from either desperate colonists who had no money to pay me or desperately annoying collectors who had too much money to pay me but found reasons to skim off. ‘Oh you scratched it.’ ‘Oh now it makes a noise.’ ‘Oh you fixed my precious antique but now it works like it's supposed to and not how I was told so obviously you broke it.’”[/color] She shook her head. [color=hotpink]”I was seriously contemplating resigning up with the Alliance when I found the Initiative.”[/color]

[color=hotpink]”I am glad that you got back in touch with your family Haze. They really missed you while you were on the [i]Borealis[/i] and you needed to see them again. I do trust you turned your newly found chess skills on them and established yourself as a master turian chess player?”[/color]

[color=lightblue]”What? No, I mean- most of my family were too busy trying to keep the business afloat rather than play chess with me. We, uh… The market for private security in those times was pretty bad. Eden Prime had gotten attacked earlier that year and...it just didn’t sit well in my gut to stay there. The Initiative was my idea for our family to maybe find somewhere else safer to live, that needed the expertise of a bunch of security specialists like me and my mother and father and sister.”[/color] Hazan sighed and swirled the brandy in his glass before taking another sip. [color=lightblue]”They’re...still in cryo. My dad and I were woken first for the riots and unrest, but after that he volunteered to go back into cryo to soften the supply crunch the Nexus had before the human ark got here. I’ve been alone ever since, not until now with APEX and you guys around.”[/color]

[color=hotpink]”I see I’m still the only one who sees the virtues of playing chess as much as possible.”[/color] Serena sighed dramatically, before focusing on Haze again. [color=hotpink]”Hey.”[/color] She said putting an arm around his shoulders, or as much as she could given the height difference.  [color=hotpink]”We’re gonna keep them safe. We’re gonna make the planets Ryder fixes safe. And then we’re gonna wake your family up and you’re gonna introduce me to them and then [i]I[/i] can establish myself as a master turian chess player.”[/color] She grinned at him, squeezing his shoulder.

[color=hotpink]”We’re the shield of the Initiative, Haze. And we’re not gonna break.”[/color]

At the squeeze to his shoulder, Serena could feel Hazan shudder, almost like she was putting cracks into his emotional dam. He suppressed a rather long sigh of sadness and tightened the grip on his glass, collecting his thoughts before he gave her a reply. [color=lightblue]”Thanks, Serena. I just wish it felt that way in the minute, y’know?”[/color]

[color=hotpink]”That’s because you’re focusing on all that needs to be done, rather than what [i]has[/i] been done. We’ve got a Pathfinder. Eos is viable. We have allies in this cluster who are willing to help us. We’ve struck back against the Kett and won. Everything is on the up. We’ll tackle the other problems one at a time, and get them done, because we’re not gonna accept anything less.”[/color] She smiled encouragingly, before it dropped a bit. She was worried about that shudder. [color=hotpink]”I know you can probably recite this by heart, since I said it all the damn time to everyone on the [i]Borealis[/i], but you know you can talk to me about anything right? I’m always gonna be here for you. You’re family.”[/color]

[color=lightblue]”I- we’re-...family…”[/color]

The turian winced a little at the words, but they did make sense; the [i]Borealis[/i] crew had been his friends...his family for several years. He hadn’t connected with them the same way he’d been with his former friends in the Navy or his actual family, but the team had heart. Hazan suppressed the urge to bawl his eyes out and instead wrapped an arm around Serena’s slender shoulders and returned the squeeze.

[color=lightblue]”Thanks...thanks for everything then, Serena. Suddenly it feels like life on the Nexus is going to be worth it after all.”[/color]