I do not own the characters, setting, nor items used in this story. Nor do I claim to. They belong to Gearbox and whomever else created them. They have been used in good faith, with good intentions, with hopefully evident love and without permission.

This story is a work of fiction. Any similarities to actual people and/or events is purely coincidental. Any comments, derogatory remarks or offensive comments are not intended to be, if a character is saying it, it is being said by that character, and should not be taken personally. Any social message or real world allegory is likely not intended, I'm not that clever. But if you find one you liked, feel free to give me credit anyway.

Warning:

This story contains depictions of violence and gore, language, disturbing images and the usual grievous grammatical errors, if any of these things are offensive to you, proceed at your own risk.

Chapter 1

Fe'iae

Resort Beach

"You really need to learn how to let go and relax." Gaige said with a sigh somewhere between amused and exasperated, but leaning more towards exasperated.

"I am relaxing," came the terse reply that didn't sound very much like someone sitting on a beach in paradise. "There's nothing to do but relax."

Gaige sighed at the slightly bitter tone in the other girl's voice. She couldn't blame her, after all, it was Gaige who was stopping them from doing anything. It wasn't that she didn't want them to have fun, she did, desperately. It was just with the cost of things on the beach planet, she couldn't help but worry about their finances.

The truth was that her bank account wasn't all that healthy at the moment. It wasn't that she was hurting, but it was thinner than she liked. So, she found herself worrying about the future, what were they going to do next? How much money would they need? Where were they going to get it from?

She supposed it was a sign that she was growing up, which was a bitter thought.

The worst part of all of that was that they were supposed to be on vacation. They were supposed to be relaxing on the beach and unwinding after a painful number of months, but the constant thoughts about the future were stressing Gaige out, which meant that she wasn't gaining any benefit from the vacation, which made her worry about the money she felt she was wasting, causing her to stress out even more.

She knew that she needed to just let it go, but she couldn't.

She looked over at the other girl, sitting on a towel hidden under an umbrella and thought back, it had been just over a month and a half since Gaige had confessed on Galia, changing their relationship from being just friends to, well, Gaige didn't know. Nothing seemed to have changed. Sure, she told people she was dating and she did hug Artemis more than once a month now, but other than that, things were pretty much the same. She supposed it didn't help that they had a rather odd relationship before then, living together, sharing a bed and all that, so she didn't know what she'd been expecting, but some part of her was comforted that things had just stayed the same.

Of course, not everything had stayed the same, she'd had to tell her dad what was up and that conversation had turned out to be more awkward to go into then it had been once it happened.

Her dad had nodded and said "Oh, well, good for you, I guess."

"That's it?" She'd replied. She'd expected more, some kind of reaction, like him being happy for her or shouting that Artemis wasn't good enough. Something more than the noncommittal reply she got.

"Well, I mean, I'm happy for you and all, but..."

"But what? You don't think she's good enough for me?"

"Of course not, but don't take that too hard, I don't think anyone's good enough for you." He sighed and held up his hand, forestalling her reply "I am happy for you. Really. It's just that, well, are you sure? I mean, you said it yourself, she's got issues and, well, so do you. So, are you sure of what you're doing?"

Gaige had wanted to snap back that of course she was, but he'd brought up some rather valid points, so she took a breath and replied "We're taking things slow, just to make sure that we're not screwing things up. So, yeah, I think we are, or at least I hope we're sure."

"Well, as long as you've thought this over, I'll do what I can to support you. But you're telling your mom that she's not having grand-kids."

"She wasn't getting them anyway," Gaige snapped.

"You say that now, but give it a few more years," he said sagely.

"Doubt it, I've never liked kids, remember? Besides, I already have one." She watched her dad's face change as he sputtered and tried to ask more. She gave him a few seconds to freak out before adding with a smile "What else would I call Deathtrap?"

"Oh. You were talking about him. Thank god. Don't do that, you nearly gave me a heart-attack," he snapped back at her, causing her to laugh.

Other people she'd told had reacted a lot more positively.

A.I. ngel for example had been surprised, not that they were starting to go out, but because she'd thought they were already, which led Gaige to wonder later why she'd wanted to sleep with them, but decided not to ask.

They'd gone to pick her up after they'd finished on Galia, on their way to Jaka, which had turned out to be a mistake.

Like Gaige had promised, they had gone there to find Artemis a set of Honeystuck Wibbler wings, but that had turned out easier said than done and had taken them nearly a month to accomplish, during which time Gaige had grown restless.

She'd originally gone with, joining in on the hunt to try and keep Artemis company, not to mention keeping an eye on A.I. ngel, but as the days ticked past, she grew more and more tired of it. She knew that she'd promised, but deep down, she'd thought that they would find one of them in one of the first nests and that would be it. But it turned out that other colored wings were actually super rare, meaning they didn't find any until their thirtieth nest and even then, it had been a red wing one.

Eventually Gaige had decided to stay back in town as Artemis headed back out, trying another direction. She'd taken Deathtrap with, on Gaige's insistence, and left Gaige to try and figure something out to keep herself occupied.

It didn't take her long to wind up helping out at the foundry, to many of the workers' delight.

Brandibarry had repeatedly told the workers off and even put a few on notice for their behavior, trying to get them to leave the girls alone, but they all seemed to be too excited at the prospect of having their hero around to seem to care.

Eventually Gaige had warned them off, telling them that as flattered as she was by their attention, she had a girlfriend and the other girl was under the protection of not just her, but friends of Wainwrights, which seemed to calm them down a bit. She still got a number of invites to go drinking which she declined. It was in those moments that she was glad to have A.I. ngel along since she needed someone to rely on, she wished it had been Artemis, but she was making do with what she had and more than anything, she didn't want to disappoint her when she got back.

It wasn't easy staying behind, even with the work and A.I. ngel for company, she found herself missing the other two. She wanted nothing more than to go after them, to join them on their hunt, so much so that when they returned after almost a week, she nearly went with them. In the end it was Deathtrap that talked her out of it, reminding her that if she went, A.I. ngel would also need to go, so she reluctantly stayed behind.

Eventually Artemis returned with the wings she needed. For a while Gaige had been starting to worry about her depopulating the planet of the Honeystuck Wibbler, but it turned out that Artemis had snuck close to each nest and observed them for a while, long enough to determine that it didn't contain the color she was looking for, or for that matter any other color she wanted. If it did, she would wait till the Wibbler she wanted went out and followed it, taking care to kill it far enough away from the nest to allow her to harvest it without getting attacked by the rest of the nest.

But in the end, she came back with not only the purple wings she'd been after, but a rather extensive color set. Additionally, she'd also taken out two threats that had been terrorizing the area, a rather large Fire Emperor Diomos that had been burning the forest and a Great Plumed Thunder Wing that had grown into a monstrous creature, both of which had rewarded her well with their bounties.

That combined with the money that Gaige had made working on fixing up the factory had been enough that Gaige had felt comfortable going on a small, but well needed vacation, or at least it had until they'd got back to the casino and Artemis gave away a good portion of her savings.

In a move that Gaige was still trying to figure out, when they'd gotten back to the casino Artemis had asked Moxxi if she had been serious about them investing in the place and when she said she was, Artemis had gone on to question what that would entail. After a bit of back and forth, she'd decided to invest some of her money into the place.

Gaige had wanted to stop her, to ask her what she was thinking, but it was ultimately Artemis's choice. It was her money after all, and when Gaige had asked her about it later, she'd responded that she thought it would be a good way to plan for the future.

The genuine level of confusion that she had when Gaige had asked her made Gaige feel like she'd done something wrong, enough so that she'd ended up calling her dad about it. While he'd agreed with Gaige that it wasn't the best place to be investing money, he had pointed out that it was better to invest in the house rather than play the games, as well as point out that it was Artemis's money to do what she wanted with. Plus, he'd pointed out, it wasn't like she'd invested all of her money, so they were still able to survive, but if Gaige wanted to break things off with Artemis, he'd be glad to support her, which had nearly got him hung up on if he hadn't quickly yelled that he was joking and apologized.

Still, Artemis spending half of her money had made Gaige rethink the entire vacation thing, but Artemis had convinced her to do it, which had surprised Gaige. She'd been sure that the other girl would jump on any chance to call off the beach trip, but instead she'd insisted that they go. It wasn't that she herself actually wanted to, but more that she wanted Gaige to be happy, that after everything she'd been through, she deserved some time off, which had made Gaige warm inside.

Then Artemis had spoiled it by adding that she'd promised that they'd go, so she still thought they should. Still, Gaige couldn't bring herself to hold it against her, so she'd agreed to the trip.

Gaige had started by finding the right planet, eventually deciding on one that she'd been to before for a wedding. It had been surprisingly reasonably priced for the quality of the views, so she'd figured that it would be as good a place as any.

After deciding on their destination, she'd turned to the next factor, preparing. She'd long ago learned that it wasn't wise to try and find things on a resort planet, they'd all be insanely overpriced so she made a list of what she thought she'd need and went over it with the other two.

To her surprise Artemis told her that she already had a swimsuit, she hadn't been sure that the other girl even could swim, not that she'd doubted her, but she'd never seen her show any interest in it, not to mention the fact that she had a pair of cybernetics, which Gaige knew from experience could royally screw with her buoyancy.

But then she'd seen what the other girl had considered to be acceptable swimwear and had demanded that they go shopping, after all she wasn't about to be seen in public with someone wearing a wetsuit.

Artemis had just looked at her confused as they entered the store, so Gaige had told her not to worry, she would help her choose a new suit. Artemis had narrowed her eyes and fixed her with a flat look for a solid few seconds that seemed to stretch on to minutes for Gaige. In the end she'd accepted Gaige's offer with one caveat, that her suit had to have at least twice the amount of fabric as Gaige's.

Gaige's initial reaction had been to swear. Followed by debating getting the other girl a suit covered in ruffles, since the extra cloth should still count, but she immediately dismissed the idea, feeling that it violated the nature of the agreement, not to mention felt like cheating, so she'd went out and tried to find something that flattered the other girl as well as looked like she would wear it.

It took her the better part of an hour to find something acceptable, but in the end they'd both been happy with the result. Still, Artemis had bought a second suit, one that was more traditional.

Gaige had just been forced to shake her head, but she had understood the other girl's logic. If she was going to wear a new suit for Gaige's sake, she'd also want one that was more practical, not that the one that Gaige had chosen wasn't functional, it was just a bit showier then what the other girl was used to.

So they found themselves sitting on the beach on the second full day of their weeklong vacation.

Gaige looked over at Artemis sitting on a blanket in the shade of an umbrella and sighed, the other girl didn't seem to be stressed about anything at the moment, with the possible exception of the sun. She didn't seem to be relaxed in the traditional sense and most people on the beach who did notice her tended to give her an odd look, but someone who knew her as well as Gaige did could see that she was trying. The main impediment she was facing was her inability to wear her shield and armament with her current swimsuit, a tasteful purple and black affair that accentuated her slim physique.

Gaige wasn't used to seeing the other girl dressed like that, it wasn't just the fact that Gaige could get a good look at her cybernetics, it was that Artemis was exposing enough of her scars that it couldn't help but make Gaige aware of how much the other girl had been through. She'd tried to keep that in mind while looking for the girl's suit and had managed to cover a number of them, but the rest of them made her look like she'd led one hell of a hard life. Or maybe that was just what Gaige was thinking, sitting around looking at all the people walking past, with their unblemished skin that looked like it had never been near a gunfight, or any of the other hazards that had hit the girls over the years.

Gaige herself couldn't get used to sitting around in her own bikini, black with a stylized skull very similar to her trademark one on one breast. She wanted to do something, to go swimming, play in the sand, surf, something, anything. She knew that there was no reason for her to be reluctant to leave the other girl and go do something herself, not just because she knew that Artemis could handle herself and because Deathtrap was floating nearby, which she'd been surprised didn't violate any of the beach's rules, but because she felt that it wouldn't be the right thing to do, dragging the other girl out here only to abandon her. Besides, she wanted to do something with her.

So, she tried again "You wanna do something?"

"We are doing something. We're relaxing. Didn't you just tell me that I needed to relax? So that's what I'm trying to do."

"I meant something different."

"Why, are you bored?"

"No," Gaige lied. She felt bad about it, but she didn't want to admit that she was already bored. Besides, it wasn't that she was entirely bored, it was just that she was tired of doing nothing but sitting around, watching the waves. Not that there was anything wrong with that, it was just that after a few hours, she was through with it.

She couldn't figure out why Artemis wasn't bored out of her mind, it was bad enough for Gaige who was at least soaking up the sun's rays, but for the other girl, who was doing nothing but sitting in the shade, it should've been excruciating.

She knew that the other girl had more patients than her, but still, Gaige couldn't figure out why she wasn't going out of her mind with boredom and begging them to do something. She wondered if it was that Artemis didn't want to seem ungrateful or disturb Gaige's relaxation so she was just willing to sit there and do nothing. Gaige hoped it wasn't that, but after spending that much time with her, she didn't put it past her. In fact, it seemed more likely than not, so Gaige steeled her resolve and pressed forward.

"I just figured that, well, as long as we were here, we should do something. Other than sitting around I mean."

"Ah."

Gaige ground her teeth at the non-committal response. Even after all this time spent trying to get the other girl to come around, she still couldn't get a better response out of her, which frustrated Gaige no end. She took a deep breath and looked out over the sparkling turquoise ocean, at the swimmers frolicking in the surf, the couples floating lazily further out, at the people surfing even further out, allowing the large kites they were attached to drag them along, all of which looked like fun, but for some reason she couldn't seem to get Artemis to go along with any of it.

Letting out the sigh she'd been trying to hold, she kept pushing forward. "So, other than sitting around, what do you wanna do? I mean, we could try that surfing thing."

"Renting that stuff costs a bit of money, doesn't it?"

"Surprised that you care about the cost."

"You complained about it when we arrived is all."

Gaige winced. She had made a bit of a fuss when they'd arrived about the cost of things, not just because they were overpriced, as she'd expected, but because she was worrying about their finances. Still, this was supposed to be a vacation, so they should do something.

"All right. Yes, I did mention the price. But what about going swimming? We could do that."

"If you wanna, go ahead. You don't need my permission to go."

"That's not what I meant." Gaige snapped. Taking a deep breath, she tried to steady herself. In the last month, she'd gotten better about her temper and shortness with being sober, but there were still times that she could barely contain herself and this was turning out to be one of them.

Letting her breath out, she tried continuing "I know that, I just wanted to do something with you."

"Oh, I thought we were."

"We are. I meant something else. I wanted to do something else with you."

"Oh, uh, what?"

"I don't know, I was hoping you wanted to do something."

"Uh, alright. I'll, uh, I'll think about it."

Gaige nearly groaned in frustration. She'd been the one that had wanted the vacation and now she was making Artemis miserable by badgering her. She'd hoped that the other girl had wanted to do something specific, but instead, she'd taken it as some kind of mandate to figure something out, which would only stress her out, something that Gaige hadn't intended.

"Ah, forget it," Gaige said a bit harsher than she'd intended and stood up "I'm gonna look around, see if anything jumps out at me."

"Oh, OK, I'll...be here."

Gaige ignored the look Deathtrap was shooting her and walked away, feeling the scorching hot sand even through her sandals. She focused on the heat, it at least was something to distract her from the anger she was feeling at herself.

She knew that she should turn around, explain things to Artemis, apologize for being short with her and for lying. Tell her the truth, that she was bored, that she wanted to do something, together. That she just wanted them to make happy memories on their first vacation as a couple, but she couldn't figure out how to get the words out, so she'd done what she always did anymore, flee.

If this had been a gun battle or an engineering problem, she would've dove in with gusto, but these interpersonal things she couldn't face. She didn't know why. It wasn't that she was a coward, or at least that's what she kept telling herself. The truth was that she didn't know. She wished she did. She wished that she knew what was wrong and what to do about it, but she was so scared of making things worse, or driving Artemis away, that she couldn't seem to confront her about anything and she knew that she was just making things worse.

As she walked along the beach, she suddenly became aware of a presence next to her and turned, hoping that it was Artemis coming to spend time with her, but was disappointed to find a buff dude about her age smirking at her.

"Hey, here alone?" he asked, tanned face splitting open in what she was sure he thought was a charming smile, gleaming white teeth sparkling like the sea.

Gaige sighed. This wasn't the first time she'd been hit on since arriving, and this guy certainly wasn't the worst she'd had to deal with. But some part of her wondered at the sudden influx of would-be suitors. She'd heard tell before that once someone was, as she'd heard it put, off the market, they'd suddenly find themselves inundated with offers, as if the simple fact that they weren't available anymore suddenly made them seem more attractive.

She'd never experienced it for herself, but she was starting to wonder as she turned slightly to the man and answered "Sorry. I'm with someone."

"You mean your friend over there? Why don't the two of you come join us? The more the merrier, right?"

"No thanks. My girlfriend's kinda not into that kind of thing, neither am I for that matter. Not to mention my robot doesn't approve of this kind of thing," she said, nodding to Deathtrap floating next to the umbrella, staring their way.

"Oh, uh, s-sorry." The guy managed, the smile vanishing off his face leaving him looking a bit feeble before he hustled away.

This had been happening a lot to Gaige since they'd arrived. Thankfully most of them took the hint and left as soon as she said no. Some of them didn't though, like this guy, until Gaige either told them she was taken or pointed out her robot bodyguard. A few persisted past that, seeming to think it was either hot that she had a girlfriend, or thought she was bluffing to get rid of them. Those ones had required Deathtrap to stop Gaige from getting rid of them. The truth was that Gaige was trying to do it for their own benefit, since she'd seen Artemis reaching for the pistol she had hidden, something that Gaige had thought was overkill and a bit troubling even as she was envious of the fact the other girl was armed.

She didn't get it, maybe it was the beach that got everyone like that, but she hadn't been hit on that much, ever, and she was sure that the same could be said for Artemis. Which had been part of the reason that she'd wanted them to do something, if they were out in the water or playing together, she felt that the number of guys that were hitting on them would go down. But mostly it had been because she was bored.

Shaking her head, she continued down the beach, feeling a bit more reluctant to get out of Deathtrap's protective range. Still, she had decided to look for something to do and she was determined to do so, so she kept walking, even though the sand wasn't all that fun to walk in, which was something that she'd forgotten about the beach.

That, and how the sand seemed to get everywhere.

Trudging ahead she wove her way around a family trying to set up on the beach, the mother desperately trying to keep the kids from running off into the sea, at least until she'd slathered them with sunscreen, reminding Gaige of the amount that Artemis had used, and at that level of SPF? She'd never get a tan like that. When Gaige had pointed that out, she'd merely replied "That's the point." Before reiterating the fact that she didn't tan all that well, she merely burned.

It wasn't like Gaige didn't get it, she was a redhead, so burning was what she tended to do in the sun. Still, that didn't prevent her from toning down the sunscreen to try and let just a little through so that she'd wind up with a nice healthy glow, but she supposed that they each were doing what they wanted and as long as neither of them got burned, or complained about it if they did, it should all be good.

She made her way back up the beach, figuring that if she observed the area from a better vantage, she might be able to spot something that looked fun. It didn't hurt that she was able to make her way under the shade of the local trees, tall strange looking things with large fronds that provided ample shade to anyone beneath.

Looking out over the beach, she could see a number of people doing all kinds of activities, from burying each other to making castles, but none of them looked fun, though she supposed she could ask Artemis if she wanted to try one. Other than that, there were a fair number of swimmers and other water related activities, which wasn't surprising, it was a beach after all. About the only other thing she could see was a volleyball game going on a ways down, but she knew that Artemis had no interest in sports and Gaige still harbored a vague sense of dislike of the game from her time on Pandora.

Shaking her head, she turned away from the sea and looked back at the rest of the island.

A lone mountain rose behind the main resort, splitting in two near the top. Around its base were smaller hills and deep valleys, all covered in thick forests, despite the resort village at its base, or maybe because of it, she supposed. It wouldn't look like a tropical getaway if there were only buildings from mountain to beach.

In fact, the only buildings that could be seen were the resort itself and the surrounding bungalows. Each building was well built, able to withstand the occasional storm that swept through the area, but had been built to look almost tribal, something she couldn't entirely figure out, but that did seem popular with the crowds.

The only other thing she'd seen was a rather well-hidden fence to keep the wildlife back. She'd missed it until Artemis had pointed it out, before doing her usual thing of going through the wildlife that would've inhabited the area.

She'd been surprised that the resort hadn't used the Ramaloo for its mascot, especially since they practically looked like one already, with their thick reddish fur, large eyes surrounded by white rings and black tipped ears, they looked like a living plush toy. It was only after Gaige learned that they could grow taller than her that she stopped wanting to find one to pet.

Instead, the island seemed to have chosen the Carcinus as their mascot, and Gaige had to agree with what Artemis had bluntly stated when they'd first seen one, no amount of work could make one look cute.

They were large crustaceans, the normal variety grew to be nearly three feet tall, with multi-segmented bodies trailing back from their head to a wide flat tail. Under the overhanging chitin plates, they had around ten legs that they scuttled around on. They had large eyes near the top of their face, and their mouths were hidden behind six mandibles that fit tightly into them. But the most dangerous part of them were their two large pincers, each one nearly as wide as Deathtrap and strong enough to punch through the hull of a boat and crush concrete.

The only good thing about them was that when they were steamed with butter, they were rather tasty.

There were other varieties, most of them having the uppermost segment of the body being significantly larger and some even losing the tail, but they were rarer and considered a delicacy.

It was a cartoon version of one of the regular ones that Gaige found herself looking at. It was by no means cute and she had no idea why they were using it as a mascot, but she'd seen it everywhere, from the maps to T-shirts, on the signs, using its claw to point the way, all the way to a shop selling stuffed ones, but she still found them to be incredibly ugly, though she supposed that it might have something to do with her dislike of insects. Not that she'd mistake one for an insect, but they were large and had an abnormal number of legs.

She ignored the Carcinus and focused on the announcement underneath, a smile spreading across her face. She'd found something for them to do.