Love and War

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"I swear to even the Asari goddess that when I get out of here, that lizard Kandros will wish I was an exile for what I'm gonna do to him!" Quinn Talos raged as she was unceremoniously shoved into a holding cell on the operations deck. The dark haired woman paced for time, thinking it was would all be straightened out once Tann got wind of what Kandros had done. She should have known better. As far as she believed, human's still weren't exactly favourites of the other alien species. On earth Quinn had an excellent service record within the Alliance, just as most members of her family did, but she had wanted more. She wanted to explore, to see things no human ever had, which was why she signed up for a place on the Andromeda Initiative. The only problem was, she wasn't the pathfinder, and her superiors didn't believe in security personal leaving the Nexus. As well as she performed her job, the call sign 'Cutie', thanks to her unfortunate initials, meant she wasn't exactly taken seriously. Quinn was slumped on the floor with her back against the wall now, glaring at the Turian guard outside the forcefield. She had fought her hardest for the safety of everyone on the Nexus, and this was her reward; being called a traitor and about to be dumped on some godforsaken planet with the rest of the exile scum. All because Kandros feared losing what little power he had to her. The asshole can keep it, she thought bitterly.

"I say a lot of things under the impression I'm always right." Kandros told Maggie with a teasing smile. "I told you I like your cooking just last week." He added with a chuckle.

"Clearly you've never met a human before." Quinn replied. "But... If you think I shoudl try to kick your ass... that means you did peek!" She added rather triumphantly.

Maggie crossed her arms over her chest and her full lips formed a pout as she turned her head. "Well then you can get Morda to cook for you from now on." She muttered.

Though Tyros was looking at the monitor in front of him, there was no denying the smile that played across his thin lips.

"Where's the adventure in that?" Kandros asked as he waited for the med bay door to open. It was all he could do to resist that adorable pout. Any other time, and it would have been his undoing.

"Silence is awfully guilty, you know." Quinn mused, though too had turned away to look out the tiny window of the equally tiny escape pod.

"I told you no doctors." Maggie reminded him as he sat her down on the bed. Never in her life had she argued woth anyone. She'd always done exactly what she was told and given in to everything. This was not like her. Even the pout was out of place. 

"Yes well. Kett and all that. Right?" Tyros said softly. "We aren't known for honesty."

"And I chose to ignore you." Kandros replied simply. "Princess, you just got up and left before you were ready. Maggie, I don't think you realise just how sick you were this time."

"Didn't you say you were different?" Quinn asked, still looking out the window.

"The last thing i remember is my sister telling me to get away from her and never come back." Maggie said, pulling her knees up to her chest. 

"Actually the Archon said that and it makes me feel bad about myself." Tyros said, pretending to pout.

"You needn't worry about her any more." Kandros breathed. Word had already spread; Quinn Talos was a traitor and had escaped with the kett prisoner. "Don't spare her a thought, she is the bad seed, not you."

"Why would you even want..." Before Quinn could finish, their escape pod hit the outer atmosphere and she was tossed against Tyros, the pod lurched again and she was thrown away once more and back into her seat. The young human was rubbing her head where it had struck the window she had been looking out of only moments before.

Maggie was silent as the asari doctor began to check her over. It wasn't until the woman jabbed her with a needle that she reacted at all. She shoved her aside, using much more force than a tiny human like herself should have been able to. 

Tyros watched the fire as it passed the window. For a moment a memory passed through him. A death...his Or someone else...a crash?

Kandros was quick to try and cover for Maggie, knowing she wouldn't understand herself right then what was happening. "If that's all, I'd like for her tog et some rest." He informed the asari doctor. "This station needs to regain the control it once had, and I can't do that with my team spread so thin."

"Tyros?" It was unusual for Quinn to address her companion by name, it was usually simply 'kett', or quite often 'asshole'. She was still rubbing at her head as she watched him. "It's just turbulence."

The doctor gave him a strange look Nd shook her head, making a note to talk this over with the others on the team. "We should really keep her till shes eaten something." She said firmly.

He could still hear the screams in his head. The shouts of males and females alike fighting to save their ship. There were gunshots and screams. But where was he? What was he doing?

"Maggie doesn't like hospital food." Kandros told the doctor thinly. "Trust me, you wont get her to eat a bite."

"Tyros?" Quinn breathed his name again, this time leaning in closer to him. She knew that far off look, not that any one had stuck around to see her go through the same thing. "Tyros... Are you with me?" She asked, even daring to reach out and touch his face lightly.

"And there are endurance tests to run." The doctor kept speaking as well. "Go on then, commander. She'll be fine here with us." It was clear she wasn't paying any attention to him. 

"Huh?" The kett turned his green eyes to look at her and frowned. "Oh...yes...sorry...i was lost...in my thoughts." He answered, his eyes locked on hers.

"And I'm really a hanar." Kandros growled, scooping Maggie up once more. "You're done here." He informed the doctor. "She's breathing, and that's good enough for me."

"Thought's about what?" Quinn asked, not seeming to realise her hand lingered against his cheek. "Being anywhere but here? I can't say I blame you, it's a shit hand we've been dealt."

"You're kidding, right?" The doctor said, following Kandros as he marched out of the med bay with an oddly silent Maggie. "Director Tann will hear about this!"

"Yeah but...now that I'm not alone..." he smiled at her. "It's not so bad." He wanted to lean closer, his body was telling him to but he didn't. He imagined shed have broken half his face if he had.

"Good!" Kandros snapped childishly. "You go right ahead and tell him, i'll be with Maggie ensuring she eats something, a task you people can't manage!"

"I think alone is exactly what we are." Quinn corrected sadly. "The initiative think I'm a traitor, and your people want you back, that leaves few places we can hide."

"Tiran..." It wasn't until they were halfway to the commons that Maggie gently admonished him. "They were trying to help. It's not their fault I was being a brat." When he didn't answer she tapped his nose. "Are you...all right? You look tired and grouchy."

"Kadara is as good a place as any. There is a low kett presence there. Which is why i was hiding there in the first place." Tyros explained. "We can find a distant outpost until you have answered everything I need to know."

"How long do you think you were sleeping for?" Kandros asked, balancing Maggie in his arms as he tried to unlock the door to his quarters with his omni tool.

"You do realise I was a soldier, right?" Quinn asked. "We're not trained to give answers, you would do better to kidnap a new pet human."

"Kandros..." Maggie was grasping his shoulders, trying to hold on more from shock than anything else. "It's the middle of the day...people are looking at us..." She hissed in his ear, remembering he'd told her never to come to his apartment when others could see her.

"You'll do fine." Tyros said cheerfully, returning to the job of landing the escape pod. "Not to frighten you but I don't remember training to fly. I just seem to know how..." again he drifted off, his memory taking him back to the ship. He didn't see the others because he'd been trying to keep their ship from crashing into another one.

"Maggie... Your sister caused more trouble than you realise, I don't think anyone is going to care much what we're doing." Kandros assured his lover gently. Once they were inside he laid her on his bed, then locked the door once more. "Now, tell what you would like to eat, more than anything in the world right now." He wasn't entirely sure what Maggie could even eat now, given she was a mixture of turian and human DNA.

It was as Tyros drifted back into his memories that Quinn had to elbow him out the way and try and take the controls. As it happened, they were too close to the ground now for her to save their landing entirely, which made for somewhat of a rough touch down.

Maggie chewed on her bottom lip in thought. No one had ever asked or cared what she would like to eat. It had always been her going out of her way for others. In fact she rarely ever ate in front of Kandros.  "Waffles with chocolate chips in them." She admitted softly. "I haven't had those since I was a kid!"

Tyros snapped back in the present only when he was in a tangle of limbs and lying beneath Quinn. He struggled not to put his hands on her hips and in the end he lost. She felt lovely. There was something about her...

"Waffles... chocolate chips..." Kandros seemed to be typing something into the terminal at his desk as she spoke. "Right, and to drink?" If Maggie looked over, she would see her lover was searching the nexus database for a recipe to make the things she was asking for.

Quinn was somewhat dazed, not accustomed to taking such a rough landing without the protection of her armour. For a moment she simply lay there, her head resting on Tyros's shoulder until she groaned softly. "Why is it... I always end up with the wrong kid of bruises when you're around?" She asked, able to laugh even in this situation.

"Tiran...it's okay. We are in the middle of a food shortage right now. They aren't going to have things like that. I'll settle for nutrient paste." Maggie said gently, getting up to place her hands over his.

"And there I thought you liked a little pain." Tyros purred. "Perhaps I was wrong about you." He teased, patting her bottom.

"You shouldn't have to." Kandros breathed, looking genuinely upset he couldn't give Maggie what she wanted. "I want you to be happy, silly human."

Quinn was staring down at Tyros, unable to explain why she hadn't punched him for what he just did. She was just as equally perplexed by the butterflies in her stomach. "If you value your hands, you'll get them off my ass." She finally breathed, but seemed to be making little effort to remove herself from his personal space.

"You should rest. We can do happy later." Maggie said with a soft laugh. "Right now I'm thinking a shower and coffee will do nicely." She pressed a kiss to his nose and grinned feeling better than she ever had. 

"I'm good." Tyros breathed, wondering why his insides seemed to be on fire. This was new. He was almost  wanting to beg her for something but he wasn't sure what.

Kandros almost seemed afraid. He was afraid this was too good to be true. Afraid that Maggie would hate him once she found out the truth of what he had done. But most of all, he was afraid he wasn't even awake, this was all a lovely dream that would seen sink into a nightmare. "Alright, compromise." He agreed at last. "Shower, but no coffee."

Quinn definitely felt it too, but she also couldn't shake the stigma that she and Tyros were supposed to be enemies. All she had known since arriving in Andromeda was misery at the hands of his people. And yet, here they were, both outcast and alone if not for the other. After what seemed like forever she finally manager to peel herself away, busying herself with trying to force open the escape pod door. The problem was, Quinn still had a bounty on her head here in Kadara port.

"First you tease me with my favorite food and then you take away my coffee? Seriously? I'm going to punish You, Tiran Kandros." Maggie purred.

Tyros took his gun and fired it into the door, narrowly missing Quinn. It slid open with a loud hiss and he turned away, mutterimg at the controls.

Kandros closed his eyes when he heard that delicious purr in Maggie's voice. Full of promise and for the first time she actually had a future and a life that wasn't ruled by her sister. "Girl, if you're not careful... I may yet take away the sleep too." He breathed with a grin.

Quinn glanced back over her shoulder at Tyros with a frown; he hadn't exactly missed. The young woman now had a slice in her thigh where the shot had grazed her and she didn't know if it was intentional or not. With a huff she limped out of the pod and into the not exactly fresh air of the planet.

Kandros kept his promise when Maggie hopped out of his lap and promptly removed her clothing to head toward the shower. It wasn't until much later that evening that the two of them feel into a deep sleep in one another's arms. Unfortunately for Kandros, his sleep was to be short lived. The pathfinder had discovered something strange and wanted advice.

"I think I would like to live in a beach like world." Tyros said from behind her. "I dream of the ocean when I sleep. Do you dream, Quinn?"

Kandros was woken by the incessant noise coming from his omni tool. He silently cursed whoever it was, then peeled himself carefully away from Maggie, the last thing he wanted to do was wake her. He disappeared into the bathroom, again wanting to avoid any noise that may wake his lover.

"I try not to." Quinn whispered. The young woman's dreams only brought memories she would rather forget. "I was born in space, I've never had a home planet." She confessed.

The pathfinder had a million questions about the kett and then a rather random one about a rare vid she was looking for. Then she sent over the thing he'd asked her to look for. An old copy of Fleet and Flotilla. 
Maggie stayed asleep throughout the conversation, one slender calf poking out from the sheets.

"I can't remember if I did or not. I don't even know where the kett homework is." Tyros confessed. "Does that mean there's something wrong with me?"