4A brown-haired man sat a table, looking at the misty drink in his hand, swirling it as he watched the thin ice clink as it bounced from side to side. His teammates were all at his table, with Maya on one side and Gaige on the other, the last two remaining men resided on the other side of the worn down booth. They were all celebrating, their recent victory: beating the Destroyer of Worlds- which turns out is a giant worm.
The small drunken man high-fived the girl on his receiving end: Gaige. Probably the youngest vault hunter- only being 18- that has ever existed, as far as they know, at least.
"...And then el puto decided to shoot lasers at us!" The drunken midget retold with a big, toothy, dumb smile and a uproarious laugher that filled the small bar, "Like, what do you think that would do? Kill us!?"
He slammed his hand on the beaten table, still laughing as he did so, everyone else joining in. Well, everyone but Axton. He just feels so empty, like everything is done, they got the most powerful weapons- all pearlecent- and they are the most powerful group in the world at the moment! They even beat the Destroyer of Worlds!
Ahh, well, He thought, Might as well enjoy the night.
He threw his head back as he downed his drink, finishing it in 2 gulps, his whole team cheering him on. They've obviously had way too much.
After drink was emptied, he slammed the drink onto the table, shaking the table and causing even more rowdy cheers from the table, causing all the patrons to look their direction, glaring at the frat-like heroes.
Oh, boy.
Axton was wasted. Like, extremely wasted. He stopped seeing in double a long time ago and replaced it with seeing triple, a side effect not even he knew about.
Pretty much everyone had left, Sal left because he wanted to drink somewhere with more people, the psycho left because, well, just because, and the siren left because she didn't want to have a hangover in the morning.
So it was only Axton and Gaige.
None of them spoke: one because they were too drunk, and other one because they didn't know what to say.
"Hey-hic-, Doll." Axton turned groggily towards the girl next to him, "Imma go home, I'm pretty sure I might die if I drink anymore." He slammed his head on the table, going to sleep.
Gaige winced as she could already see the impending headache he was bout to have. She gazed at Axton's sleeping face, somehow, it had a goofy smile on it. He looked completely devoid of tension; just completely indifferent to Pandora right now.
"Seriously?" Gaige looked around the room for a certain hourglass-shaped woman, and upon see her dancing behind the bar, she waved for her to come over.
The bartender, upon seeing her one of her favorite vault hunters, gave a sweet smile before opening the side of the bar to start walking towards her.
"What's happening, sugar." She said with a smooth voice, that they were all pretty much used to, as she strolled up, swaying her hips as she did so.
As she came close enough to peer over the booth wall, she noticed that the fearless woman-killer was out cold. As she giggled, she traced a finger on Axton's cheek, an act that made many girls that were watching's eye twitch. Even made some walking up to him eagerly, stop dead in their tracks, and turn around.
"Yup; out cold." Her eyes were still fixated on the male, a genuine smile on her face, "What about it."
"Well, can't you take him home?" She questioned as she took a swig of her weak drink, still wincing as the burning liquid ran down her throat.
"Oh, Sugar, I would love to do that, and I mean, really love to do it." She said as she chuckled sultry, "But I can't: I still have customers to tend to." She threw her thumb over to the new drinkers at the bar, most of them being the ones that were just rejected their chance of being with the famous soldier.
"But you can." She gave her a knowing grin.
Gaige groaned as a quest popped up on her H.U.D.
"The fact you know I can't resist anymore irritates the crap out of me." She deadpanned as she sent a glare at the voluptuous woman.
"Don't worry, Darling. You're 18 right? I can pay you back." She winked as she suggested so many things Gaige would disagree with.
"Nah, I don't want the thousandth in line." She simply stated as she finished the remaining liquid, placing down some money as she stood up next to Axton and slinged his arm over her shoulder, grabbing him by the stomach and marched out, kickining the front doors open.
Nighttime in a place like this was awful, but still had a rugged charm. The cold wind slaps you in the face harder than a weak pearlescent would, the smell was a prudent one that you would be forced to get used to as days went by: it was a mix of Rakkale, burnt carboard, and smoke. At least the sky was still beautiful. Silver lining.
She hopped down the stairs leading to the bar, one at a time, an action that stirred Axton awake.
"Hmm? Gaige? Why do I feel like-hic- crap. Did you drug me?" He laughed groggily at his own joke.
"Trust me. If I wanted to poison you, you'd know."
"Good to know, but where are we going? Hic." He raised a hand up to his mouth as he muffled a burp.
"Your apartment." She said casually as she eyed the dirty cracked street filled with newspaper clippings.
"I knew it. One day, I'd get lucky enough to convince you to come back to my room." The soldier lazily cocked his head at her with his boyish smirk that has since become his trademarked look. One that would instantly calm down someone with fried nerves. Yeah, it was that strong.
Gaige softly hit the side of his stomach with her right arm, "You idiot; if you weren't feeling like crap, I would've killed the crap out of you." She could feel a rolling burn began to rush up to his face. A feeling she was getting used to lately.
"Aww, you care about me?" His small drunken laugher between every word was breaking Gaige's mental wall. "Me too, Gaige." Gaige's eyes began to lit up, a small smile forming on her face. Her heart began to beat fast and loud, she was silently praying that he wouldn't be able to hear it. She would probably die if he found out how happy that made her.
"Actually, no: I feel more than just "Care"." Axton stated with a slur in his voice.
Gaige's face began to feel on fire, her heart felt like a jackhammer by how fast it was going. She sightly bit the insides of her mouth, wondering if he was going to say what she was thinking.
"I, iin fact, love myself!" He laughed hysterically, as if he had said the best joke ever. But Gaige wasn't really feeling like laughing. Her smile was replaced with a thin line that showed indifference to her whole situation again, her eyes no longer had that shine to them, and her heart was returning to its normal pace.
"Assh*le." She whispered under her breath as she took a sharp turn to the right and stopped promptly at the door labeled, 128, and underneath displayed a name tag in a rustic gold color, one that contrasted like day and night with the brown, beaten door that was it's base.
"Gimme your keys." She commanded silently as to not wake up any neighbors that happened to sleep with one eye open, with their gun under their pillow.
The drunken man grunted as he took his free hand and looked in his right pocket, which was across his body, and being that he was drunk, it took a while for his to find his keys.
After much scrambling, he took out a small bronze key with the number 128 engraved onto it with rough fingers.
She took the keys and jammed it into the keyhole, promptly turning it as she pushed it open with her left hand.
Gaige had never been into another person's apartment, nonetheless a boys', so she opened the door carefully, not quite sure what to expect.
What if it's messy?
What if it smells?
What if it's too small?
What if he left something embarrassing lying out?
As all these "What if"'s ran through her head, she held her breath in anticipation as she opened the door, and to her surprise, she wasn't hit with a bomb of all odors when she did. She peered inside the room, stepping in onto the hard wood floor and after a little search of the walls, she turned on the light switch located next to the key-holder by the door.
As the dim lights flickered on, she could finally see the room. It wasn't too big, nor too small. In the famous words of Goldilocks, "It was just right." There was a small Tv on the left side of the room, with a coffee table sitting 2 feet way from it and a brown, surprisingly new-looking couch siting comfortably near the coffee table, facing the tv. His bed was found in the center, the backboard pressed up against the wall with two black night stands located besides it. His bed was a darker shade of blue with white stripes running along it, and with pearly white pillows to match.
The kitchen was located off to the far right corner, separating itself from the rest of the room with long, brown table with a black tablecloth resting comfortably on top, acting as a "wall" of sorts. The worn refrigerator was on the sitting snug in the middle of a row of counters with appliances on each one.
"Nice apartment, Ax; mine looks like a tornado had just gone through it."
"Ha!" He giggled uncontrollably, a small hiccup abruptly ending it as his head slightly jolted.
She went to stand in front of the drunk man, his eyes were having trouble staying focused on her as they always began to doze off, "Ok." She put her hands behind her back and crossed her legs, putting one behind the other.
"I'm going to leave, so don't throw up in your sleep alright? That'd be really bad."
Axton nodded slowly as he began to slowly lean back.
Evertthing seemed to be going fine, until his stomach began to make noises. His eyes were suddenly wide awake, jolting open, frighting the girl. He stood up and tried to run into the next room to the left of the tv, where Gaige assumed the bathroom would be. But, as his luck is horrible- proven by his gambling- he didn't make it, and he threw up on his wooden floor, getting some on his clothes in the process.
All the while this was happening, Gaige looked away, using her ears to block to noise. She had this thing where she'd become sick after seeing someone else get sick, and she didn't feel like throwing up in Axton's room.
After Gaige began to feel heavy thumps coming from behind her, she looked around to see a even more exhausted looking Axton walk by her and fall cross-style on the bed, facing upwards. After a few seconds of landing, he promptly fell into a deep slumber, still wearing the vomit-covered outfit.
"Oh, geez." Gaige facepalmed her forehead, which was already heating up, as she realized she would have to undress the man,
She walked up to the unconscious body, gazing over it.
Am I really going to do this?
Yes, and you're going to love it.
No I'm not!
Well, whatever. Either way, his clothes are coming off.
Gaiged signed as she leaned over his body, hoping to God that she didn't fall down right now, and began to unzip his brown jacket. Luckily, he didn't have his ammo bags on his body, so this would be a little easier.
After it was open, she gazed at the body under her. It was almost as if she was intimately undressing her lover.
No! She internally yelled as she vigorously shook her head, Can't be thinking like this!
Ignoring how much her head was spinning and how incredibly shaky her knees were getting, she took ahold of Axton's arm, then she immediately stopped, something else getting her attention as she ran her hands over his covered muscles.
Certaintly, all those work out sessions weren't for nothing: his arms were ripped!
Drip drip
Gaige parted her moist lips, running one of her fingers over it. They were wet, was she seriously drooling?
She looked down, noticing two drops of a darker shade of grey on his shirt. Yup, she was drooling.
Aughh, when did I get so perverted. Just undress him, and get out.
She nodded in agreement as she quickly slipped both arms out of the sleeves, and moved onto the much harder part, his pants.
She took in deep breaths, trying to slow down her heart and make her head feel like it wasn't in a dryer. After no luck, she decided to try her best at ignoring it.
She lowered herself over his pants, eyeing its small button holding it all together with anxious eyes. She wiped some sweat off her forehead as she took a delicate finger and took a hold of his button, undoing it ever so slowly, stopping everytime he seemed to move.
Pop
The little button had come off. This caused her to retreat as she put her hands on her shaky knees. Her face was so red it could very well be possible all her blood was all diverted to that area. She was sweating so much she could fill buckets, and not only that, but her stomach was feeling as though a whole pack of skags were running around in there, bumping on the walls as they did so. She reminded herself to check with Doctor Mercy tomorrow, she was almost 99% she was sick with some unknown disease or something.
She took deep breaths, slowing down her irregular, rapid one, and turned around once more to take his pants off.
She stood over him once more and placed her shaky fingers over his zipper, trying her hardest to forget what was under it, and pulled down quickly. After, she pulled from the pockets, as to not be forced to touch his skin, because she was sure she wouldn't be able to handle it.
Once the pants were off, she stood up straight again, looked up exhausted as she let out a long breath.
God, that was the hardest thing I had to do, and I've almost died too many times to count...
She looked over her shoulder at Axton's unconscious body, noticing a small outline of something under his black boxers. She jolted her head away, sighing as she cursed Axton for making her feel like this.
She sighed, sitting down on the brown wood as she realized that his clothes were still on the bed.
She groaned as she forced her exhausted body up, walking over to his bed again, ignoring the distracting body of her comrade as she swiped the clothes, being careful as to not get puke on her hands. She looked around the small apartment, hoping that she would find some washing room so she wouldn't have to go outside. Usually, she wouldn't mind, but since it was a night of celebration, she left deathtrap and her weapons back at her apartment, a whole block away from Axtons', she didn't feel like getting mugged today.
After a quick search, she saw a door that was connected to the kitchen. She walked gently on the floor, watching her steps as she didn't want to wake the man.
As she walked, she had time to think. Time to think about Pandora, guns, robots, and finally, Axton. Just the very thought of his name made her heart slightly race and breath hitch.
Axton caused... peculiar feelings in Gaige. The earliest time she could recall feeling something towards Axton was when she had found him at the crash.
She was on her way to Pandora, the planet that housed millions of vaults, if the rumors were true. So she stowed away on a rocketship that was going to Pandora, an act that she had done many times before to go to a fro planets. But nothing could've prepared her for the landing. It was a like a rough ride, she was launched around, slamming on the cargo of the very little amount of passengers, debri flying everywhere. Apparently, as she later found out, a group of bandits had shot down the rocket, thinking they could steal the cargo and sell it on the market.
Anyways, Gaige wandered alone through the icelands of the planet, when she hear an explosion: it was a train. She quickly ran towards the train's cargo hold, where she hoped to find some weapons and such, but instead, she found a man: Axton.
She smiled fondly at the memory. She still couldn't believe she tried to kill him, and even though she did, he still trusted her.
Who woulda thunk it: the first person she meets on a planet notoriously known for its bloodshed is the nicest, kindest, most charming man she's come to known and love.
That's when her mind wandered to love.
Where she grew up, learning about love was pointless to her. You needed to be on the run most of the time so why would she? But, when everyone would sleep, she would love to read. Mostly it was math books or science books, but on the offchance that she was bored, which was most of the time, she would read romantic novels, and in each one, the main protagonist, the one that falls in love, always had the same symptoms. Thinking of them all night, not getting sleep, whenever they thought about them, their heart would begin to race and their face would flush red, or accelerated breathing. All of them were the same, and once she learned this, she would always apply it to herself. A little test, if you will, to see if she was in love.
At first, she thought she was in love with Hammerlock, a man with the greatest mustache she'd ever seen, but now, she doesn't even know if that was true.
She sighed as she turned the knob to the door, feeling relieved as it was, indeed, a washing room.
She walked over to the metallic box, opening the lid as she was done checking it out. She loved machinery after all and her hand proved that.
She dumped the dirty clothes in with a soft, dull thunk, swiftly grabbing what she thought was soap and poured it in until she felt it was just right.
After the setup was done, she tinkered with the settings: setting it on low and pressed the start button, watching with a tired smile as the little box came to life as it bounced around.
She walked out, gently closing the door behind her, and walked softly towards the couch, past the snoring man which got her thinking: did she love Axton?
It was a thought that always lingered in the farthest part of her mind, and it has been growing overtime, growing bigger and stronger everytime he laughed, stared at her, and risked his life for her. Just last night, when they fought the destroyer, he sacrificed both of his sentries, something he's always said he loves more than anything else, just for her. He had no idea how happy that made her, and she didnt want him to know.
She decided to run the small test on herself, as she was just now realizing how fast her heart was beating.
Accelerated breathing? Check.
Heated cheeks? Check.
Thinking about them all night? Nope.
Rapid heartbeats? ...Check.
3/4... She's never gone that high before, even with Hammerlock, her supposed love, she only got 2.
She sighed as she vaulted over the back of couch, falling comfortable onto the lush cushions. She spread her body out, effectively stretching with a small groan as she did so. She was exhausted. She moved a pillow behind her as she stared at the tan ceiling, that sheltered the residence, her mind somehow drowning itself with thoughts about Axton. And no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't stop the dam from breaking.
It seemed like her mind was just releasing all the pent up thoughts about how he looked, how he talked, how his smile made her heart skip a beat. All of the thoughts she's maybe thought up during battle but was too blinded by fear of rejection to even think of finishing the thought process.
It was too much for her to handle as a rolling heat spread thoughtful her body, landing on her face. She rolled over to her side, trying to find a comfortable position, but it just wouldn't work. So she went with what worked best:
Just roll with it.
It was 6:40 in the morning, everyone was beginning to get ready for the day as the young hero laid on the couch, her eyes bloodshot as she stared up at the smooth, tan ceiling with a hand running through her now messy hair.
Thinking about them all night? Check.
Author Notes: Wasn't that just lovely? Now, this may be my biased mind talking, but this was pretty damn epic. I might make a follow up if you guys really want it. Either way, hope you enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed writing!
Edits: Pretty much everything.